Help me!

Okay, I need help. Button help. Also buttonhole help, as evidenced by the photo below. I just finished the sample for the Baby Chestnut Hill Gansey Cardigan (which I am thrilled about - can't wait to make one for me - an adult-sized one, that is) and need to pick out buttons. That's where YOU come in. Help me choose which buttons by voting on the choices below.

But first, because you are all my dear understanding friends out there, I will share my shame. I am possibly the worst buttonhole distance estimator on the planet. No matter how scientific or mathematical or non-scientific or organic or holistic an approach I take, this is what I end up with:

Say what? What was I thinking? The second button from the top is where the buttonhole should be, but unfortunately is not. Go ahead and laugh. And this is like the 10 zillionth cardigan I've made, so I really should know better. If anyone has any tried and true methods for buttonhole distance estimation I'd love to hear them. [By the way, my patterns don't direct you to do this - it's just my wonkiness. The patterns say to space 3 buttonholes evenly on the band. I can't even follow my own pattern!!]

Now on to more pleasant subjects. Let's choose a button! Here is CHOICE A:

These are medium-sized goldtone anchor buttons. Classic and one of my all-time favorites.

Here is CHOICE B:

Teeny gold dome buttons. Small and tasteful, but too small?

Here is CHOICE C:

Medium peachy-pink flat buttons. Non-confrontational, but too boring?

Leave your vote in the Comments below! I'll also pick someone at random and email them the Momogus Knits pattern of their choice, just for being helpful!

Yarn Made From Plastic Bottles?!

I came across this yarn in a catalog recently. I try to be super-conscious about reducing plastic in my life - glass storage containers, reusable shopping bags - so I was thrilled to see that recycled plastic bottles were being made into yarn! It will still never biodegrade, but at least it will be sweet baby sweaters or warm hats that might get more use than bottles in a landfill. What a world.

Congrats!

Thank you so much to everyone who participated in the latest Giveaway! Reading everyone's memories of their favorite teachers was awesome! Go read the comments right now! It'll make your day! Thank you, teachers!

And now, without further ado, the winners!

Andrea, whose favorite teacher was Miss Steinmiller, won ES5 Easy Child's Hat and the blue yarn.

Diane, whose favorite teacher was Ms. Jones , won NS4 Child's Cable Hat and the green yarn.

Stephen, whose favorite teacher was Mr. Frank, won ES8 Easy Adult Hat and the black yarn.

And Maureen, whose favorite teacher was Sister Marie, won NS3 Adult Cable Hat and the gold yarn.

Now go forth and knit some great hats! And don't forget you can post any and all of your Momogus Knits project pictures on our Facebook page! Stay tuned for more giveaways in the future!

It's Giveaway Time!

My boy went back to school last week, and I've been a little bit blue. I love having him around during the summer. I also like not having to get up at 6:30 am. But now he's back, and I decided the only thing to do to lift my spirits would be a Back To School Giveaway!

Because all I can focus on right now is little projects, I thought a hat pattern and yarn giveaway would be just right. So here's the deal: I'm giving away TWO children's hat patterns and yarn and TWO adult hat patterns and yarn.

You can choose

ES5 - Easy Children's Hat

OR

NS4 Easy Child's Cable Hat

Your choices with these patterns are 2 balls of beautiful soft machine-washable Mission Falls 1824 Wool in either lovely leaf green or soft cobalt blue (the top row below). These children's patterns are written for ages 2-10 yrs old.


OR if you don't have any young folks to knit for, you can choose one of two adult hat patterns:

ES8 - Easy Adult Hat


OR

NS3 Easy Adult Cable Hat

Your choice of yarn is either classic black or rich harvest gold Mission Falls 1824 Wool (the lower row below).


So, in order to qualify for the giveaway, leave a comment below telling who your favorite teacher was and why. Also let me know which prize you would like - pattern and yarn color. Please include either your full name (so I can contact you on FB) or your email address in your comment (you can do that infoATmomogusknitsDOTcom thing to avoid it getting farmed for spam) [spam farming...that's a weird thought....]; if you don't, I can't get in touch with you to send you your prize!

My favorite teacher was Miss Leopold, my 4th grade teacher at Jenkintown Elementary School. She taught us all of the world capitals (I still remember that Sofia is the capital of Bulgaria!), and told a story about an uncle of hers that stepped on a nail and his mother immediately knocked out his front teeth so he could drink through a straw because he got lockjaw (this made quite an impression on me). She also had us put on "The Taming of the Shrew" for our 4th grade play. It seemed normal at the time, but I can't imagine what an undertaking this was. She was awesome!

As always, my official 10-yr-old arbiter will take time from his busy schedule of Lego-building and grumpily-doing-homework to choose the winners randomly. Good luck!

Welcome New Stores!

A mighty Momogus Knits Patterns welcome to the latest (and particularly geographically diverse) wonderful yarn stores to join the family: The Knitting Cottage in Hagerstown, MD; Dog House Yarns & More in Culpeper, VA; Yarn Envy in Ottawa Lake, MI; Asheville NC Home Crafts in Asheville, NC; Brooklyn Yarn Cafe in Brooklyn, NY; The Knitting Den in South Lyon, MI; Atkinson's Farm Yarns in Vincennes, IN; North Woods Farm & Fiber in Campobello, SC; and Yarn Dance in Bemidgi, MN. I had two cousins who went to college in Bemidgi; when Patty the owner called me I got all excited when she said her store was located in Bemidgi because that name is so evocative in my family. I also might have scared her a little with my crazy excitement.

If you're in the neighborhood of any of these wonderful stores, stop by and buy some delicious yarn and hang out with the friendly folks. We have to support our local yarn stores or they'll all disappear!

And now for something completely different....

(Don't worry, my knitting compadres, this is a non-knitting blip on the radar...)

If there's a crafty bandwagon anywhere around, I'll jump on it! Lately I've been seeing many articles about canning and preserving, and I've been intrigued. I remember years ago my friend Lisa gave me a jar of preserves that a friend of hers had made. When I expressed delight and amazement, Lisa said, "Oh you would like her - she knits and makes furniture and makes her own preserves." This paragon of self-sufficiency has haunted me a little for years.

So yesterday I went to the Oreland Hardware Store and bought this:


Matthew went to the Glenside Farmers Market and bought these:

Now I shall attempt to combine the two into (insert heavenly choir here) homemade peach jam! In my mind, this is the equivalent of saying, "Well, I'll just go ahead and build a nuclear reactor here in my backyard."

Enlist a helper. Peeling peaches (after the hot/cold water dunk) is awesome slimy fun:


Unpeely goodness:


Then chopped up a bit:


I was cooking with gas up until this point, when I checked the recipe and it said to add SEVEN AND A HALF CUPS of sugar!!! Say what?! That is a veritable mountain of sugar! It was every molecule of sugar in my house. It seemed like an awful lot, but I at this point I am fanatically following the recipe to the letter, so we'll see:

Oof. That looks like a lot of sugar....

Anyway, dump the peaches and the SEVEN AND A HALF CUPS of sugar and some lemon juice into a pan and cook it on up:


I am blessedly skipping the steps (like #5-#25) where I juggled piping hot jars and lids and liners and ladles and got half of the jam on the counter/stove/floor/the cats/anything in a 20-foot radius. (Note to self: next purchase - wide mouth funnel). Here are the jars, filled with jam and safely sealed, boiling away in a water bath for 10 minutes:


Drumroll please! Here is the finished product:

Beautiful, ain't it?! I made 4 pints of peach jam. It took about 3 hours from start to finish. It was exhausting, both physically and mentally. I am all for improvising and not throwing a lot of money at a new hobby, but this is one enterprise in which you are rewarded exponentially for having the right equipment. I am definitely going to get that wide mouth funnel and try it again. We can't eat it for another 12 hours, but I will report back.

ETA: The jam was runny, but delicious! Apparently, according to my Ball book I need to let the fruit boil more. Next time...

Be Your Own Yarn Dyer!

I'm back from gorgeous Lake Willoughby, Vermont - sigh! I had a lot of time to think about designs and ideas and promotions and giveaways and all that good stuff. I also found time to visit some amazing yarn stores and add to my "little" stash (ha. ha.)

From Knit or Dye in Brattleboro, I bought some Malabrigo lace yarn. I am so all about laceweight yarn these days - it's crazy, considering how absolutely 100% against it I was just a short while ago. Well, what goes around comes around or something like that.

Anyway, this yarn is a true olive green. And while I love olive green in general, I like it on the more acid-y side. A good violent chartreuse makes me shout with joy. So I decided to see if I could get this yarn more chartreuse and decided to dye it. Follow along with me!

Here's the yarn in its original form:


Untwist the skein (but leave the ties on!! You'll never untangle it if you take the ties out!! Don't ask me how I know!) Now give your yarn a little cold water and vinegar bath (about 30 minutes soaking - 4 parts water to 1 part white vinegar. The vinegar is a mordant to help activate and hold the dye):


Take a break with some Cheerios while the yarn soaks:


Then drain the water out, don some gloves and use a strong solution of Wilton Cake Icing Dye in Yellow (strong = about a tablespoon of dye and a teaspoon of water - a little goes a long way) to paint the yarn. I started out painting it, then just dumped the whole glass of dye over the yarn:


After dyeing you wrap your yarn in some plastic wrap:


Curl it up in "cinnamon bun" style:


And then nuke it in the microwave for 2 minutes. Let it cool for at least 10 minutes out of the microwave (it will be hotter than Hades!), rinse gently (especially important for single plies like this yarn), and then hang on your drying rack of choice, in this case, the baseball pitchback in the backyard:


After a couple of hours sunbathing, the finished product was subtly but noticeably yellowy-er:
Before:

After:

Easy-peasy!

For more detailed instructions on using this method to dye yarn (like how to get stripes in dyed sock yarn and the like) go to Kalamazoo Knits etsy site. They are great ladies!!