teeny BIG post

I kind of have a slight obsession with miniature, I always fall for things that are teeny replicas of a larger something, like little teacups & tiny tin kitchen sets. I guess I also really love it when something that’s normally small, is blown up to huge proportions, pencils, toothbrushes ..remember the giant swatch wristwatch wall clocks of the 90’s. Swoon.

I’ve been having the urge to play with scale in my knitting as well, I just finished up a teeny version of the nineteen hundred house in #10 cotton thread on 000 needles, it didn’t get as little as I wanted (postage stamp size) but to get it to that size, I think I would’ve had to knit with sewing thread and use straight pins as my needles ..no thanks. Still, it turned out so small & sweet!

Also in trying to keep my motivation charged up on my beekeeper’s quilt, in addition to having a serious longing for cooler temps, I’ve worked out a snowflake honeycomb! Again playing with the normal scale of something as tiny and lovely as a little snowflake, making it big and grand in a pale yellow yarn. Yes I made a yellow snowflake, but not on purpose, it was just the color I was working on next in the quilt when the idea hit!

Would you like to learn how to make a lovely snowflake edging on your honeycombs?

What you need to do:

When you’ve finished your honeycomb puff & you’ve bound off, DON’T CUT YOUR YARN! You will have the last bind off loop remaining on your hook (If you’ve done a knitted bind off, just slip out your needle and insert a crochet hook) I used a 3.5mm hook.

(you could start with an already finished puff too, just join your yarn to a corner and start the snowflake edging)

Now you’re going to start to work a crochet edging around your honeycomb, it’s basically a cluster of 3 picots on the puffs corners & chains on the side edges of the puff, as follows:

Ch3, slst in first ch of ch 3 (picot made)

Ch6, slst in first ch of ch 6 (picot made)

Ch3, slst in first ch of ch 3 (picot made)

Slst in next sc on the body of your honeycomb

This is your first 3 picot snowflake cluster on the corner of your honeycomb puff.

Ch 4, skip next 4 sc on the side edge of your puff, slst in next sc on the side edge.

(this will put you smack dab in the middle on the side of your puff, if your stitches are slightly off, its OK you don’t have to skip exactly 4 just as long as you slst relatively close to the middle on the side of your puff, it will look perfect!)

This is the chain, slst, chain that will get you from one 3 picot cluster corner to the next.

Ch 4, skip next 4 sc on side edge of your puff, slst in next sc (you should be at the corner point of your puff now)

Repeat the 3 picot cluster & chain, slst, chain series, 5 more times around the outside of your honeycomb puff. Join the last ch4 with a slst at the base of your very first picot cluster.

You can attach this into your beekeepers quilt like normal and let the scallops of the flake overlap onto the other honeycombs. OR you can make it an enchanting seasonal ornament/gift topper. Leave it plain or stitch on your favorite chart!

(If you are going to go for the ornament/topper, please make ONE of your ch 6 corner loops, a ch14 so it will create a larger loop perfect for hanging)

I hope you like it, let it snow!

invention exchange

Growing up in Minnesota in the late 80’s you could not help but be an MST3K fan, it basically was a prerequisite. It was based here, the crew were from here and they referenced Minnesota all the time. I was a teen when it first came out & my boyfriend (now husband) was just as big a nerd for it as I was.

We recently had a chance to see the Cinematic Titanic Live show when it came to Minneapolis. It was a Saturday night, the film was Rattlers and it was being recorded for release as one of their live DVD’s. We had a stage side table (right by the recording mics) and I can’t wait to see if I can hear us busting out laughing on the DVD! We were able to meet the cast (all of whom were original to MST3K) after the show. There was laughter, lude jokes, music & magic! ..It was perfect!

I spent yesterday lounging with Jason streaming old episodes of mystery science just like we were 17 again.

NINETEEN HUNDRED HOUSE

I live in a wonderfully terrible turn of the century farmhouse, wonderful for the practical simplicity & old-time charm, terrible for the upkeep and drafts. If you live in an older home you know exactly what I mean.

I don’t think there is a straight wall in my house…rest assured it is solid & strong, but truly built by hand…the only power tools used were people driven. I have spindly winding stairs off the main floor bath that lead down to a limestone basement. I have creepy crawl spaces, where we are finding never-ending surprises. (we actually found somebody’s porno stash in one of the basement walls!)

I have wallpaper from the 30s lining all my closets, when we moved in we found birds eye maple floors under the orange shag dog carpet. Narrow steep stairs & horsehair walls lead you to the bedrooms. To the right a porcelain tub & fixtures in an upstairs bath, tiled in baby blue from the 50s. There is a strange little door in the ceiling in the upstairs hallway that leads to an attic, where you can see roofline changes & additions to my houses silhouette.

I have a porch.

I have storm windows, I have wood siding, My garage has one tiny square window & a square hip roof (pyramid roof)..I love my little garage! I have drafts, I have spiders…BIG spiders. I have giant oak trees that rain acorns and creek in the wind.

You cannot dig in my yard without unearthing something old and rusty or hitting masonry..once we found a No. 6 crock lid by our little shed.

I guess you could say I live in an old time farmhouse in the middle of the city…the city was built around me. 

I do so love my house, I only wish I could pick it up and move it to the middle of nowhere…I’ll just add that to my exhaustive fix-it list, right after MORE OUTLETS! 

Now you can get your own little house blueprints, my NINETEEN HUNDRED HOUSE pdf pattern is available for purchase on Ravelry and Etsy

Wont you roll up your sleeves and get down to business, good old fashion hard work, resulting in a perfectly useful hand built little knit house made sturdy & strong.

A tribute to Housework ..NOPE.. A tribute to a house!