Lee Does Stuff

Twitter Mystery Knit-a-long!

It’s a bit of an experiment, and you know how I love experimentation, so I am super duper excited to let you know that this Friday begins my twitter mystery knit-a-long! 1 line of the pattern tweeted each day, from @leethalMKAL, April 20th – June 26th (at 11am west coast time each day). It’s a neck accessory, and the first 65 rows of the knit-a-long are the first segment – at the end of the KAL, you’ll be shown a few different options for how to continue on and finish your piece. At that point, the whole pattern will be released as a free pdf.

To join, you can either follow along on twitter, or just read the rows from the twitter page if you don’t have an account, or I’ll also be posting rows weekly, each Friday, in the ravelry group. So, the second friday, April 27th, I’ll start a week 1 thread in the forums with the first week’s worth of pattern lines, and so on each Friday… you can just follow along on ravelry weekly if the 1-row-a-day thing doesn’t appeal to you 😉

If you are a twitter user, use #LMKAL when talking about the KAL to fully participate with the community. On ravelry, post your project and feel free to show off in-progress photos as you work – for up until you have enough knit to show, I’ve put some different versions of an image for you to download your favorite and use as your rav project photo, at the bottom of the KAL webpage.

You can find details about yarn, techniques, etc on the KAL webpage, and also on the rav pattern page and rav group KAL thread… basically, gauge isn’t important, but worsted weight or heavier yarn is recommended, in a solid color with good stitch definition.

This isn’t exactly a normal leethal pattern. I thought of the twitter mystery KAL idea awhile ago, and sat on it, trying to figure out what kind of pattern might be a good fit. I decided I should really go for maximizing the row a day thing by designing something with all unique rows (so there won’t be any days of “Row Z: repeat row x” type tweets). So I took another design concept that had been floating around in my future design idea list, and transformed the construction base into a lace design, all unique rows.

The mystery KAL part is 2 sections – section 1, rows 1-28, may feel very un-leethal to followers of my patterns. But then section 2 will mix things up a bunch and some different construction elements will be brought into your work… hope that’s not spoilery, but if you feel a little bored during those first 28 rows, I want you know section 2 is coming….

You can make the whole piece in one yarn, or change yarns/colors throughout at section changes – it’s probably the best idea to just work the whole mystery KAL part in one yarn, and then at the end you’ll know what’s going on, and you’ll be shown your different options for the rest of the piece. Then, you can decide whether to change yarns and plan the rest out according to what options you decide on. Hope that makes sense.

Oh and, since this KAL is a mere 1 row each day, you should still have plenty of knitting time in your days to join the Remixed KAL as well! That one has prizes involved! Just sayin’… So, I hope to see you around on twitter and/or ravelry, knitting along… Yay!

Remixed pattern #5: Slanted & Enchanted

First things first… As of last week, all Remixed patterns are now for sale individually, so if you’re not into the whole collection or making recycled yarn you can now grab just what you want! Of course, $20 for all 8 patterns is still the best deal ($2.50 per pattern) but now you have the option… Also, all the patterns and the full collection are now available to local yarn store customers through LYSs participating in Ravelry’s in-store sales program, so if you work for a shop or would like to buy through your favorite shop, there’s that option now, so that’s cool.

So now, what happened was that I put out this Slanted & Enchanted design back during the crazy hectic holiday season – it went live on December 1st – and I guess I’d meant to blog about it as soon as possible but things were a bit too busy and I somehow forgot to blog it… When I realized, I was partway through my second sample, which I planned to add to the pattern when it was finished, so I decided to just wait to blog it until that was done…

So now that time has come and here’s Slanted & Enchanted!

The top 2 photos are my original sample, and the one above on the right is that new sample I recently finished. The scarf is designed to use up yarn leftovers of all lengths, even down to around a foot long.

The size of the scarf can be whatever you want, but one end will always be twice the width of the other end. My main sample (below) is 57 inches / 145 cm long (not including fringe), and 4.75 inches / 12 cm wide on the narrow end, 9.5 inches / 24 cm on the wide end. It’s knit lengthwise, so you can either just cast-on until you think it seems like a good length, or make a gauge swatch and determine the number of stitches you need for the exact length you want… and then just work until you like the width.

My second sample (below) is much shorter and wider than the first – 36 inches / 91 cm long, 6.75 inches / 17 cm wide on the narrow end, 13.5 inches / 34 cm wide on the wide end. It was knit with all pieces from the same unraveled colorwork sweater, so it’s all the same bulky weight yarn.

Here’s the sweater – I unraveled all but the sleeves (I have a different project planned for the sleeves!)…

…and then divided all the scraps into tiny balls to use them for the scarf:

Yarn weights can vary within this project, since each row is knit with a different yarn, they should just all be around a general weight area – my main sample was all around worsted weight, ranging from sport to chunky but mostly worsted-ish. A close up of the fabric, with each row in a different yarn:

In the chunky sample, I experimented a bit with working 2, 3, or 4 rows of the same color – you can sort of see below how the pattern is different with wider stripes. It would be a whole different look to knit an entire scarf with 2 row or 3 row stripes.

The stitch pattern is super simple, kind of a cross between garter stitch and ribbing, so it’s a pretty beginner-friendly pattern. It’s a little tricky because you have to work on 2 circular needles, but it’s all knit flat and the short rows are easy since there’s no wrapping+turning, just stop and begin a new row.

The slanted shape is made by switching between a full row (all the way across the length) and a short row (stopping anywhere when the yarn runs out) so you should have a bunch of scraps that are long enough to reach across the whole length, and another bunch that are shorter, in all varying lengths. See, it’s really the perfect pattern for using up allllll your leftover bits and pieces!

All yarn ends are tied together to make fringe on both sides, but there is a bunch of weaving in that needs to be done where the short rows end (just a warning)… You could cut the fringe straight across to make it neater, but I like it messy like this:

So that’s the 5th pattern I released for Remixed, and the final of the 8 patterns blogged – see all 8 here (or on ravelry).

Before releasing each for sale individually, besides adding that second scarf sample, I also re-knit this Gentle on My Mind sample bonnet:

The original striped one was way too small, and I decided it would be much better to make it a good size (rather than showing it as a small version) and now I can actually wear it, yay! Love it!

I made another Wild is the Wind as well – not for an official pattern sample, since it does a terrible job at actually showing the design, but just for myself and to use a recycled spun yarn I made for the ebook:

It’s an extra big and slouchy version (details are on the rav page) in a super soft wool/angora blend – the colors are fantastic and am totally in love with this hat, yay!

Now everything is up to date with Remixed, blog-wise, but there’s one last fun thing for Remixers!

Remixed knit-a-long! With prizes! Details are here in the ravelry group, where you can talk about what you’re knitting, ask questions, share progress photos, etc, with all the knitters. Post your projects in ravelry by the end of May to enter to win prizes, yay!

Happy knitting everyone!

My first skirt of the season!

Well the weather is still pretty wintery here in Portland, but I’m excited about the bits of sunshine that happen occasionally in the spring, and I’ve recently been feeling the urge to sew up some new warm weather clothes! Most years I tend to have big plans to make lots of new skirts and dresses, which don’t end up happening… I don’t know how the rest of the year will play out, but at least I’ve made one now!

I’ve been slowly trying to get my studio in order, and the other day I went through a giant pile of reclaimed fabrics, mostly bought by the pound at Trillium, and mostly recycled upholstery fabric samples (and other similar things, donated to Trillium by interior design showrooms)… when I came across this set of three matching canvas rectangles I got inspired to try turning them into something. Not the best skirt-making material, with some serious wrinkles which my iron just wasn’t capable of smoothing out, but I’m still pretty darn happy with the finished result!

The skirt was inspired by the photo of this skirt from Interweave, which I came across on Pinterest last year, but I made mine with no pattern, just improvising and constantly trying it on as I did each step. I just kept resewing the lines of the panels, curving them in more three times until the fit was good; not the most efficient way to do things, but it works for me, hah!

I started out my making a basic 3-panel wraparound skirt out of the three fabric pieces, but I made one side significantly longer than the other side. I put buttons at the two top corners, as I would in a normal wraparound skirt – you can see below the top pearl button, and the arrow points to where the inner button is, holding up the inside corner.

Then, while wearing it, I made the folds and marked all the spots where the buttonholes needed to be, for them to line up – three holes per button – and sewed the buttonholes:

I put it on again, and figured out the best exact placements for each of the three buttons by putting in safety pins where the buttons would go, then sewed them on, ironed some more to really crease those pleats, and tah dah!

My new spring skirt! I wore it out last night, in the cold rain, with thick tights and tall boots… can’t wait till it’s actually spring weather and it makes more sense to wear out!

Oh yeah, one last thing I’m considering doing… I may tack down the pleats in a few spots so they stay in place better. And now that I’ve made this one, I plan to make some more similar ones, in better skirt fabrics. Wraparound skirts are so easy to make, since you don’t need to worry about zippers or anything complicated like that (I am not an experienced sewer – zippers are scary!), and this is a fun twist that only takes a little more time and effort than a basic wraparound design. Yay!

Remixed pattern #8: Either/Or

(edited to remove pricing information that’s no longer true)… Either/Or!

This final pattern is either fingerless mitts or full mittens, all constructed from the thumbs out. Knit modularly – no seaming or sewing at all, also no short rows, and an extra bonus is very little casting-on and no bind-off at all. This design is ideal for striping, as you can see!

There are 3 different versions of the pattern – short fingerless, which is the quickest, uses the least yardage, and is slightly easier than the rest, I think:

Long fingerless, on which the hand and wrist sides are the same length so they can be worn in either direction; the tweed striped ones at the top are this style as well:

And full mittens:

All versions can be made in any weight yarn, and there are 2 different wrist pattern options as well – garter edged and all garter stitch. Lots of variation possibility based on yarn choice as well, of course! These were made from a bulky recycled spun (navajo plied) wool yarn that I made from a recycled striped sweater, made to have long, non-repeating stripes:

Below are a 2×2 row striped sample and a 2×4 row striped sample – all 4 yarns used were recycled. 2 different unraveled tweed sweater worsted weight yarns for the first one; a wooly aran weight yarn in the second one, with stripes of leftover yarn that was used for my striped mask.

This one is also a recycled yarn, around a fingering weight wool, with a few stripes of some Black Trillium sock yarn stuck in the garter stitch stripe section:

And here’s a commercial self-striping yarn sample – Classic Elite Yarns Liberty Wool (you can see more photos and details about each of these samples on the projects pages on ravelry, by the way):

And then there are my handspun mittens, made with this bulky yarn I spun awhile back. Not so obvious with the stripes here, but I sure do love them!!

Like my drum photos? Pete and I had fun with these!

Rocking out!!

So… you wanna see my design process for these? This pattern was a bit of a bitch at first, until I thought up what came to be my construction method… At first, my concept was just to design mitts and/or mittens worked from the thumbs out. After that, I didn’t know what to do… so this was my first prototype:

Lobster claw! After that failed, I tried another mitten, this time with short rows. Both of these ended along the other side, closing the whole thing up with a 3-needle bind-off down the whole side. Totally different methods, similar lobster claw-esque shape result:

I started brainstorming about this design way back when I first started the ebook designs, and all the tries and failures were spread out over time, as it kept getting bumped until it became my last pattern and I had to focus and figure it out. So, after releasing the 7th pattern, that’s just what I did – I spent a couple days straight doing nothing but problem solving on this concept, switching to fingerless attempts, completely re-thinking the whole construction. No more working out to the other side and seaming it up; the idea finally came to me to divide the top and bottom into separate parts and work it all seamlessly… So my 3rd attempt turned out like this:

Semi-success! No more lobster claw! This was finally on the way to my final design, though it was actually much more complex. This generation of prototype was asymmetrical, so there was a separate pattern for left and right hands… The fourth try was similar to the third, but actual less successful:

So after that failure, I rethought the increase pattern completely and came up with a much simpler design, which turned into my fifth prototype, and which was basically my final design! Yay!!

When this was finished I was high-fiving the world like crazy, knowing all that work had paid off because this was exactly what I’d been working toward that whole time! It was like I’d been circling around it, making it much more complicated than it needed to be, but it was the road I had to take to make it where I needed to go. So there you go, my insane design process. To bring it back to my actual pattern, here are a few process shots of the design:

It’s worked in the round until it fits around your hand, then the top of the hand is worked from there, and the wrist comes last. The mitten is grafted closed at the top.

The side sections (hand top and wrist) are joined together with some picked up stitches where they connect, preventing holes on the side:

Now I’ll leave you with a photo of the mitts that I really like… happy knitting!

February photos a day!

I did this photo a day project thing for fun in February, over on my Tumblr, so I’ve gathered my favorite shots from the month together in one place over here. A bit belated, but you know, time flies and whatnot… Here are Banzo’s paws held up by Pete’s hand, just how she likes it (weird cat!) for February 3rd: hands. And our trivia answer sheet, along with some whisper sheets, at Monday trivia night for February 20th: handwriting.

For February 2nd: words, I shot my buddy rocking out to some Lionel Ritchie at karaoke night:

Here are a couple food shots for you… an awesomely satisfying burrito from Tecos (on SE Powell) for February 27th: something you ate, and some fabulous mac n cheese from Hedge House for February 6th: dinner:

Around my house, we’ve got a shot of my studio closet (it looks a bit messy, but, sadly, this is the neatest view in my entire studio) for February 12th: inside your closet, and then February 22nd: where you work – because of the current state of aforementioned overwhelmingly messy studio, this sofa in my living room is where most of my work gets done:

Here are shots for February 21st: a fave photo of you, and February 25th: green, which is a salad on a painted table at American Dream pizza:

And lastly, February 13th: blue and February 10th: self portrait, for which my caption read: I blue myself.

If you want to check out all the photos, you can scroll through them on tumblr here. This was fun, so maybe I’ll do another month like this some time in the future – anyone know of any fun photo game project things?

And a quick note to knitters – a main reason I’ve been so absent here is because I’ve been hard at work building the final Remixed pattern, which will be released to Remixers later tonight! The blog post will happen later this week, so for now you can see info on my site here.

Pacific Northwest travels and other stuff and things

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks! I’ve taken several overnight trips for various purposes, to places as exciting as Seattle and as boring as Salem. I went up north to Washington with my buddies Star, Vivian, and Marcia, for the purpose of going to Madrona fiber arts retreat in Tacoma, but I think hanging out in Seattle was the real highlight of the trip!

We spent the night at Marcia’s sister’s fabulous cabin-like house in the Wallingford neighborhood, made dinner and knit and talked around the fire.

Then in the morning we took a walk to the Fremont neighborhood…

…where we ate a delicious breakfast at Silence-Heart-Nest…

…and then stopped by the Theo Chocolate factory store! Free samples of spicy sipping chocolate, oh wow, so good.

We walked back to the house along the water…

…and saw some fun sights.

Then we headed down to Tacoma, to the Hotel Murano for Madrona. We spent some quality time in the marketplace, and then sat and knit by the fire and the horse lamp (and the Chuck Close). Another random trip highlight was stopping at Burgerville on the way up and on the way home – because of the usual goodness of Burgerville, and because of the crazy future touch screen sodapop machine at this location (in Woodland, WA). Raspberry Coke Zero, mmmm.

And then there’s something I can’t fully talk about yet, but… last year, when Star, Vivian, and I went to Black Sheep fiber festival, we brainstormed up a plan for a collaborative project, and then we were all so busy we never got it going. Well, on this recent trip, the spark returned and we’re all really trying to make it happen this year! Here’s us at Black Sheep, filled with new project excitement energy!

So that’s all about that… besides all the mini-trips I’ve been taking, I also spent some fun times showing visitors around Portland recently. We tried to pack as much awesome Portlandyness as possible into one full day, so we did: Genie’s for a late breakfast, Movie Madness, Multnomah Falls (below), Kennedy School, Ground Kontrol, and Hopworks. Playing tourist for a day is fun!

A couple other things I wanted to mention – I was recently a featured crafter on Think Crafts! so that was neat. Even more exciting though, I was interviewed on Stash and Burn podcast! I talked with Nicole for about a half hour, about all kinds of things… Remixed, my other patterns, color, TV spoilers, etc… You can listen to the podcast through iTunes, or stream it directly on the website (the interview starts after about 20 minutes). Yay!

So, the traveling combined with some assorted teaching and other stuff has meant a brief pause on Remixed work, but I did spend all day yesterday working on that eighth pattern, so it’s on its way! Now that I’m feeling more confidant that it’s going to work, I can reveal that it’s a design for your hands – more than that will be shown soon enough, once I have a decent enough prototype to photograph. It’s a tricky pattern concept… I’ve made 4 prototypes so far, and still working out major problems to get the shape right…

I think that’s all for catching up. I actually have another overnight trip planned soon, one which will involve lots of photos! And something I’m trying to find the time to really focus on lately is getting my studio in functioning order (instead of a storage room that I can barely walk through), so I may post some studio stuff in the near future, we’ll see how that goes… Oh yeah, lastly, a quick reminder that you still have almost a week left of my birthday month sale – save 30% on any 3 or more of my patterns!

Remixed pattern #7: Gentle on My Mind

Remixed is nearing completion – this is the second-to-last pattern in the collection! A bonnet or hood style hat, for any gauge, custom fit to any head size:

Gentle on My Mind is started sideways, the top section being worked to your head size (from the bottom of one ear, up over your head to the other ear), with sideways stitches left along the back edge…

…to be knit across, and then the rest worked down, with short rows and decreases making the curved head shape in back. Then a sideways garter stitch edging is knit across the bottom, and braids or i-cords are added (or no tails is also an option, like on the sample above).

After tons of sketching and swatching and thinking, below is the first prototype I knit up, in striping tweeds, and it turned out pretty much exactly how I wanted! That hardly ever happens with something this complex. It was worked at an extra loose gauge, so it’s not super warm, but I love it:

This orange+white stripy one is my favorite for showing off the multi-directional construction, but unfortunately I decided to experiment with making a smaller size, and it didn’t work out so well… It sits back too far on my head, so I doubt I’ll be wearing it much, but oh how I do love the stripes!

One of my favorites of my samples is the last one I made, to try out an oversized version. I paired an extra large sizing (used 20 inches as my starting measurement, instead of the standard 15 inches adult size – all this custom sizing stuff is explained in the pattern) with some extra bulky yarn, making a big, squishy, cozy hood!

It can be pulled forward or pushed back, and tied for extra warmth and/or to pull it up and down as needed. Love it!!

While technically any size can be made in any weight yarn, the specific size/shape does depend a bit on yarn weight. The sample below, in a sport weight, was made in the standard adult size, but the gauge made for a more shallow front part…

…so the whole bonnet sits back further on the head and is more snuggly fitted.

Whereas the bulky recycled spun cotton sample below was also made in the standard size, but the front turned out much deeper, making for a bit more of a hood-type bonnet.

I use and recommend Socktopus’s shadow wrapping method for the short rows in this project, so I included a photo tutorial for that, the way I do it, which is slightly different from the way she explains it. I discovered this technique while designing this hat and it’s totally my new favorite way to work wraps!

I wouldn’t call this pattern hard, but it is a bit complex, so the pdf includes lots of photos of each section and everything you should need to see and know to understand what you’re doing.

Many thanks to my fabulous testers for being so quick that I was able to release this pattern a day earlier than planned! I got some happy positive feedback, which I’ll share with you because I can’t resist… “It was easy to understand, and kept me on my toes… just what I like!” … “You were bang on – the hat was great to knit.” … “Thanks for such a wicked cool hat pattern.” … “This very interesting construction is so addicting”.

I’m super happy with how it turned out, so I was very glad to hear that others like the construction too – I made six samples and never got bored with the pattern! (In fact, I think I may be making more, we’ll see…)

Like all the other patterns, this one will be available alone once all the ebook patterns have been released to pre-orderers. But remember, the current price of $16, for all 8 patterns plus recycled yarn making tutorials, will be raising to $20 once that happens. Just sayin’. Plus, you have about half a month still left in my birthday month sale, so you can save 30% if you add 2 other patterns to your Remixed order! Okay that’s all, happy knitting!

Remixed pattern #6: Freak Out!

It’s here! A custom fit, any-gauge, basic balaclava…

…which can fold up into a warm ribbed hat:

And you may be able to fold it up different ways for different styles of hats:

The other sample I made, my first prototype for figuring out the design specifics, had no negative ease, and I learned that negative ease is very important because this one is waaaay too big!

It sort of fits Pete, but still too baggy for good visibility. Anyway, this one shows a couple different ways of crocheting the hole edges with contrasting yarn for some extra freakiness!

I’d been planning on designing a ski mask pattern for about 5 years now, ever since I joined ravelry in 2007 and started designing. If you’ve been following me for awhile, you may remember my old ravatar that I finally stopped using a couple years ago (the photo below on the left)…

Long ago, before I started writing patterns, I used to sell some things I knit, and I made a few of these stripy masks – the two below and a crazy crocheted one, too. All these masks were semi-inspired by the SUPER creepy masks from the 70’s that you’ve probably seen around the internet at some point… I did a balaclava round up on Threadbanger a few years back, and included a few of those vintage ones there.

So, when I started planning Remixed, and I wanted to include many different kinds of accessory designs, I finally came back around to my plan of turning those improvised masks into a pattern! Freak Out! is actually constructed totally differently than those old masks I made, but you know, same concept.

This mask is made from the top down, measuring your gauge as you go to calculate your stitch count number (same as Wild is the Wind and Buttonhead), with eye and mouth holes placed by trying it on as you go, to get the perfect fit. (If you’re gift knitting, the pattern includes sizing notes to get a good fit for the recipient.) The ribbed neck is made long enough to fold up into a hat, and the crochet edges are added last.

The crochet edging can be made contrasting and extreme for a major design feature, or subtle, like in the stripy mask below. The pattern is pretty beginner-friendly, as it’s mostly just stockinette, increases, and ribbing, and the simple crochet. There are photo tutorials for the crochet, instructions for all techniques, and process photos throughout.

The stripy one was knit in a recycled spun yarn – I unraveled a striped sweater, kept all the different colored yarn pieces tied together as they were in the sweater, then I spun the yarn, and plied it with thread:

As always, this Remixed pattern is currently available to ebook pre-orderers (on ravelry here), until the full book is finished and released, at which point it will be for sale alone. This is the sixth, of eight total patterns! But wait, there’s a new piece of Remixed news…

I’ve decided to raise the price of Remixed when it’s finished. Pre-orders will continue to be $16, but the price will go up to $20 when it’s done, or when all 8 patterns are released. This is my first big ebook project, and I kind of underestimated the bulk of the collection… $20 still makes for an average cost of $2.50 per pattern, and that’s not even taking into account the yarn-making tutorials, so I think this raise is more than fair. So, pre-order now while you can get it at the low price! 😉

As for “when it’s done”… that’s unknown for now… I’d hoped for by the end of February, but these last few patterns are eating up more time than expected. (I’m having some issues with Gentle on My Mind and am about to start knitting a sixth sample to work out the kinks!) So, at this point, that seventh pattern is scheduled to be released on February 14th, if all goes well, and the eighth pattern will hopefully be a couple weeks after that, though that pattern isn’t exactly coming along quickly either.

Quality is the most important thing, right? My biggest concern is my being completely happy with the final patterns that I release, even if that means more waiting time, I think it’s worth it. That’s the biggest benefit of staying independent – full control over the quality of my work. So then, I expect finishing the ebook, with the tutorials and layout design, plus tech editing and everything else, to take the release date to the end of March at the soonest. But, if you pre-order, then you’ll already have all 8 patterns while you wait for the complete book, so I hope waiting won’t be too hard… Thank you for your patience!

Pattern sale for all of February!!

I’m turning thirty this month, you guys! To, um, celebrate (?), I’m having a sale on all my knitting patterns for the whole month!

Buy any 3 or more of my patterns at the same time, through my website (including quick knits ebooks) or through ravelry, and enter the coupon code “thirty” in the cart to get 30% off the whole order!

This includes Remixed ebook pre-orders as well! (Be sure you add all the patterns to your cart before checking out, so that when you enter the coupon code, it shows the sale price there in the cart.)

Oh yeah, something un-related to this, but related to the month of February… I just saw this photo-a-day challenge thing through tumblr today, and decided to give it a shot (hah, shot, get it? oh yeah!). I’ll be posting the photos on my tumblr each day, probably, or maybe sometimes on instagram, we’ll see… anyway, could be fun!

That’s really all I have to say for this post… but I’ll be posting again very soon since the sixth Remixed pattern is about to be released (it may even already be up as you’re reading this!).

Any suggestions for things I should try to do during this last week-ish of being in my 20’s?!

Pendleton scrap blanket (and matching pillow)!

Awhile back, Susan blogged about a blanket she made with scraps from the Pendleton Woolen Mill Store, I thought it was fabulous, and Pete completely fell in love with it. He’s been a bit Pendleton obsessed since he started getting really into men’s fashion a couple years ago… So we started taking trips over to the store and grabbing good looking scraps whenever we found them. And then when the holiday season started, I took a couple secret trips by myself and gathered enough material for a giant blanket gift!

I never scored like Susan did, with the super cheap precut sample cards, but I got mostly the thick, blanket quality wool pieces, so our double layered wool blanket is thick and heavy and WARM! My blanket ended up costing more like $40-50, with all the by-the-pound thick scraps (as opposed to Susan’s amazing $12 creation, which is more what I was hoping for when I decided to go ahead with the project), and it took several days of work, with my limited sewing experience, but it was so super worth it all! Once of my favorite things I’ve ever made!

Of course, most of you don’t have access to Pendleton wool scraps, but this same basic project can be done with recycled wool clothing (like plaid shirts and skirts) from thrift stores, or with felted sweaters! So, I’ll tell you how I made mine…

I started by cutting all the pieces in blocks to make strips of all different widths. I cleared my living room floor to spread the project out and plan out the blocks as I cut. After I took the above photo, I decided to make it a bit bigger, so I added more blocks to each strip. Then I stacked each strip in order, and lined them up so I’d know how they were meant to be sewn together:

I sewed each pile together into the strips, just as I’d laid them all out before, with a basic straight stitch, right sides facing. As I finished sewing each one, I laid it back out on the floor, to keep everything in order:

Then I ironed all those seams open on the back of each strip:

I used the wool setting, with maximum steam… Here are the seams before and after ironing:

The strips after ironing:

So then I sewed all the strips to each other. Starting at one end, the first to the second, then the second to the third, and so on, until the whole thing was one big piece. Careful to keep the ironed seams flat when sewing over them:

Here’s the whole thing after that step:

The next step, of course, was to iron all those seams, completing the top layer of my blanket:

Then I made my lining layer. I didn’t have any one piece large enough for the lining, but I did set aside a few of the largest scraps to piece together for the back side. Once the top layer was complete and I measured it, I figured out exactly how to put the large pieces together to make a block of exactly the same size… There’s a screenshot of my iPad app where I worked out the measurements, just for fun:

(All those numbers are inches; after it was finished, the final blanket measurements ended up being a bit over 6 feet by a bit over 5 feet.) I sewed those together and ironed the seams, and then I had my lining:

I laid out the lining with the top layer on top, right sides facing…

…got the layers all smoothed out the best I could, and pinned the edges together:

Then I sewed all around the edges, leaving about a foot open to turn it back right-side out.

After sewing, I trimmed some parts where the edges didn’t line up perfectly, and clipped the corners to minimize bulk. Then I turned it right-side out, ironed the edges well, and hand-sewed the part that was left open.

Lastly, I sewed around the whole thing, about 1 1/2 inches in from the edge:

I thought about different options for connecting the layers – tying or quilting or something – but with my lack of experience with this kind of crafting, and with how much I loved the blanket as it was, I didn’t want to risk messing it up. It functions perfectly as is, so I don’t see any reason why the layers need to be attached…

So there it is! Pete’s giant Pendleton blanket! I made it for him, but it happens to be huge enough to keep both of us warm at the same time – I’m sneaky like that!

Some more beauty shots…

It’s hard to tell the thickness and weight of it by the photos, so just trust me, it’s big and heavy! I love it so much!

And then, there’s more! With some of the extra scraps, I made a pillow to match, before I started sewing the blanket, to kind of practice. I wanted to make sure I knew the best way to sew and iron the seams before starting the blanket, so I cut these extra scraps, to fit a cheap Ikea pillow…

…sewed them together…

…ironed the seams…

…and sewed on the two overlapping pieces for the back:

And tah dah! Pillowcase! This project took about a half hour, so I definitely plan on making more of these!

On the pillow:

And the back side:

So that’s everything, except for one last note. Throughout all the steps…

…Banzo had to claim the wool as her new spot. And now, of course, it’s her blanket. I may have made it for Pete, but we all know who it really belongs to!

I’d love to see if anyone uses my process to make a blanket from recycled clothing fabrics! Just be careful if you make one with sweater pieces – the stretchiness will make the seams buckle if you don’t figure out how to best sew them (I know from experience as a self-taught sewer, and have never really figured out the best way to avoid buckling). Sewing with the woven wool was still tricky, as the different scraps had varying amounts of stretchiness. I had to figure out how to hold the 2 pieces with different tensions to make the seams even… But I made it work in the end. Yay!

And just so you know, I’m writing this post curled up on the couch with the blanket over my legs, and the kitty curled up at my feet. We are both very snuggly and warm!