Fun, but not 100% accurate...

I am a Camel – Consistent and inflexible
“Camel has very little elasticity, and it doesn’t felt easily. The fiber also doesn’t bleach easily, so you’ll normally find it used in yarns whose color either masks or enhances the natural tan shade of the camel fiber.” –The Knitter’s Book of Yarn

Camels are frank and straightforward in their manner. You know what you want and, while you are extremely polite and tactful, you have no difficulty being firm and definite. You are not very flexible or adaptable; you like things to be a certain way.

Funny, I raise camelids (alpacas) so I suppose it is fitting that I came out resembling a camel. I don't agree with the fiber not felting well, total hogwash! I tried washing my first batch and barely agitated it and it came out as a big unsightly mass. It felted too well! LOL. I would say I am straightforward and such, but would not agree with the inflexible part, I also adapt really well to change.

What Fiber are you? Take the quize and find out: Click here.

I finally got around to making myself a blog banner. I had fun drawing it up. It is suppose to be me. Here is a picture of me:



What do you think?


Have a great day!

A homemade Christmas, baby cakes and our family portait day...

Our youngest daughter turned two this past December on the 15th. She is just crazy about babies so I decided to make her a baby cake. The feet were a little large, but overall I think it turned out pretty cute!


Amanda May's 2nd Birthday Cake


The birthday girl blowing out her candles.


Birthday girl with gifts.

This year was more of a homemade Christmas. With the worry for toys not being safe with all of the lead scares in the news, it seemed like the best thing to do. Both my sister and I gave gifts we made. She is more of a needle knitter than I (I prefer my looms). Even her husband knit up some darling headbands for the kids.


Lexi models the hat and mittens my sister made for her.


Paige models her headband from uncle Gary.


My mom shows off her new pair of loom knit gloves.


My brother-in-law Gary, admiring his beer cozy I loom knit for him.


My stepdaughter Lexi is always wanting to borrow my looms, so I got her a set of her own.

We had our family portrait taken this year by a friend of ours. He is a professional wedding photographer (www.bellaphotographyusa.com), but agreed he'd do our family portrait (no easy task, believe me, we had 15 people to get in the photo). We are all waiting on pins and needles to see the proofs. I took this photo while my sister and her husband were getting some individual shots taken:


My hubby getting his tie ironed quick before we got our portraits taken. I guess he should have thought of that before he put it on, huh?


Half of our crew modeling for my camera before the photographer showed up.

Thanks for stopping by!

Are you looming without obligation?

I read a post on one of my yahoo groups the other day about a lady that felt so inadequate because, although she had been looming for awhile, she still plotted along fairly slowly and felt as though she wasn't keeping up with the rest of her looming community. She would get one project done in a week and she kept hearing how so and so got 5 hats, 10 scarves, and 5 pairs of mittens done in one week... Then I read the most hilarious post from another gal saying she felt the same way..so and so made 1,000 sweaters, 50,000 hats, blah, blah, blah. I had to laugh. It was an exaggeration of course, but it was funny none the less! I felt that way too once upon a time. I still do occasionally. Especially since I am working on being a loom knitting pattern designer. I read all these ladies (and some gentlemen's) blogs that are designing and they have accomplished so much and in so little time. I need to give myself a break. I do have six kids after all! It isn't like I don't have anything else to do afterall. But still, if you feel the same way, feel free to snag my Looming without Obligation graphic (or make your own) and then just do what you can. Looming is suppose to be a hobby after all! If it takes you a year to complete your first project (I am exaggerating again, hee, hee, hee), so be it! If you loom like a mad person and get 1,000 sweaters done, 50,000 hats and scarves, so be it! Whatever you are able to do. Don't feel ashamed you loom too much. Don't be ashamed you aren't able to loom as much as the next person. Just loom without obligation because:

- Your loom is not a treadmill
- Your not a machine (hee, hee)
- You are a machine (Isela, anyone???)
- Sometimes less is more
- If you loom when you are inspired, it benifits the whole looming community (Yeah!)
- Your yarn stash is getting too low
- You feel the need to lower your yarnstash quick before someone finds out how truly addicted to yarn you REALLY are!
- You have a busy life besides your hobbies
- Your life IS your hobby (LOL)
- You only loom for a cause
- You only loom for your loved ones
- You only loom for yourself
- Well, just because!

Thanks for stopping by!

An unexpected visitor...loom knit beer cozies, and a surprise

A few days ago we had an unexpected visitor to our bird feeder right outside our living room window. After a day or two, our "visitor" invited more of his kind on over and we had nearly 10 of them pecking around at the dropped bird seed from above. What a wonderful discovery! I am really enjoying living out in the country having such beautiful wildlife come right to my door....



Our Visitor


I just finished my sister and her husband's Christmas gifts. They were very simple, but it took me awhile because of the color work. Basically, I cast onto my fine gauge loom 45 pegs using the e-wrap cast on method. Second, I Knit one Purled one for 5 rows (a flat panel) in my contrasting color (slipping the end stitches on each turn). On row 6 I changed to my second (or main color) and knit two rows. Then following my graph I created in Excel, I started my color work. I finished up with one row of knit in the contrasting color and four rows of Knit one Purl one. I used the crochet bind off method with a single crochet in between each join. I used the mattress stitch to sew up the sides, and voila, custom beer cozies for the Minnesota Vikings fan. Now they wont get eachother's beer mixed up when they watch the game!





Anyone who is a member of my loom knitting yahoo group Decor Accents, knows I released my loom knit gloves pattern last Friday. Well, the glove pattern I am selling is by far superior to the first glove pattern design I made (my prototype). The first one made it possible for me to design the second version. I had a lot of issues with this pattern I wasn't able to solve. The worst of which was making the fingers larger to fit my hand without making the hand portion too large. When I did figure out a way to make the fingers larger, I got some holes that needed to be fixed. For anyone with slender fingers, or for anyone who doesn't mind mending holes, this pattern is offered here free for personal use. Feel free to share this pattern with a direct link to my blog!


Glove Prototype 1

Crochet cast on 45 stitches clockwise (or left to right on a single sided rake) onto a fg loom with at least 45 pegs.

Finger 1
Row 1: e-wrap and K all stitches across
Row 2: P10 K35
Row 3: e-wrap and K all sitches across
Row 4: P10 K35
Rows 5 & 6: e-wrap and K12 turn and K12 (clockwise). 33 stitches will not be knit on this row.
Row 7: e-wrap and K12 on stitch 13 reach down and grab the ladder from the stitch below with crochet hook, twist and place on 13th peg

(counterclockwise), e-wrap this peg and K bottom two loops over top loop, continue to e-wrap and K across
Row 8: P10 K35 and crochet cast off 12 stitches and single crochet after joining each stitch but do not single crochet after joining the last two

stiches, use the loop from this bindoff to begin row 9 (33 stitches will remain on the loom).
Row 9: Crochet cast on 15 stitches clockwise placing first cast on stitch onto the 33 peg (there will be two loops on this peg)

Finger 2
Row 10: Repeat rows 1 through 5
Row 15 & 16: e-wrap and K14 turn and K14 (clockwise). 31 stitches will not be knit on this row.
Row 17: K14 and on row 15 reach down and grab the ladder from the stitch below with crochet hook, twist and place on 15th peg (counterclockwise),

e-wrap this peg and K bottom two loops over top loop, continue to e-wrap and K across
Row 18: P10 K35
Row 19: Crochet cast off 12 stitches following method described in row 8 with bindoff to begin row 20 (33 stitches will remain on the loom).

Finger 3
Row 20: Crochet cast on 15 stitches using method described in row 9 and repeat rows 1 through 4
Row 24 & 25: e-wrap and K14 turn and K14
Row 26: e-wrap and K14 on stitch 15 reach down and grab the ladder from the stitch below with crochet hook, twist and place on 15th peg

(counterclockwise), e-wrap this peg and K bottom two loops over top loop, continue to e-wrap and K across
Row 27: P10 K35 and crochet cast off 14 following method described in row 8 with bindoff to begin row 28

Finger 4
Row 28: Crochet cast on 13 stitches following method described in row 9.
Row 29: Repeat rows 1 through 4
Row 33 & 34: e-wrap and K20 turn and K20 (clockwise) 25 stitches will not be knit on this row
Row 35: K20 and on row 21 reach down and grab the ladder from the stitch below with crochet hook, twist and place on 15th peg (counterclockwise),

e-wrap this peg and K bottom two loops over top loop, continue to e-wrap and K across
Row 36: P10 K35
Row 37: Crochet cast off 20 stitches following method described in row 8 with bindoff to begin row 38

Thumb
Row 38: Crochet cast on 13 stitches (first stitch placed on last stitch from previous row - there will be two loops on this peg)
Row 39: Repeat rows 1 through 8 two times (16 rows worked). Do not do a crochet cast off until you have worked the 16th row.

Finger 4 (backside)
Row 40: Crochet cast on 21 stitches following method described in row 9.
Row 41: Repeat rows 29 through 36
Row 49: Crochet cast off 12 following method described in row 8 with bindoff to being row 50

Finger 3 (backside)
Row 50: Crochet cast on 15 stitches following method described in row 9
Row 51: Repeat rows 20 through 27

Finger 2 (backside)
Row 56: Crochet cast on 13 stitches following method described in row 9
Row 57: Repeat rows 10 through 18
Row 61: Crochet cast off 14 stitches following method described in row 8

Finger 1 (backside)
Row 62: Crochet cast on 13 stitches following method described in row 9
Row 63: Repeat rows 1 through 7
Row 69: P10 K35
Row 70: Crochet cast off glove from loom.

Finishing:
Sew up each finger and side of glove using the mattress stitch. I also did a version where I slipped the loops created from the crochet cast off onto the loom with right sides of the glove together, then I took the top part of the glove I needed to join and slipped those loops from the crochet bind off onto the loom and knit off. Then I did an additional crochet bind off and whip stitched the tops of the fingers closed. Turn glove rightside out. Make another glove.

© Copyright 2007 Karen Gielen For personal, non-commercial use only. All rights reserved.

Sock it to me!

My Crowning Achievement!

Now you can create a pair of gloves with fingers in half the time it takes to needle knit a pair! Create a pair of these cozy gloves with fingers using your fine gauge round loom with 40 pegs (the fg adult sock loom from Decor Accents was used for this design). These gloves features a thumb gusset that swings both forward and backward making them interchangeable, therefore you will not have a right or left hand glove! I didn't officially time how long it took me to create a pair of these since I took lots of breaks to care for my family, however, I would guesstimate the time at approximately 3 hours for each glove! That's half the time of conventional knitting on DPNs! Once you get the hang of things, your next pair should go even faster still. Sized to fit a medium/large woman's hand, they make a great last minute Christmas gift for the women in your lives! The skill level is intermediate since you will be using some advance seaming techniques. A link for a great video tutorial on this advance seaming technique is provided for advanced beginners to broaden their looming skills! Enjoy!

Must be too many irons in the fire!

Man, oh man. I haven't posted since September 5th! Where exactly does the time go? I must be having fun...Don't they say that time flys when you're having fun? Well, we did have something extra special happen last Friday, September 21st...we got a very special addition to our little herd of alpacas. She is just a doll! She doesn't have a name yet. And no, we HADN'T considered Delilah! She was born bright and early in the pouring rain! So much for alpacas being born between 8 a.m. and 12 noon! Ha, ha! Oh, and so much for them being born on a sunny day! Well, it did clear off and turn into a bright and very warm day until about noon when the wind switched and it turned cold again. I am just happy it got warm shortly after she had her and she was able to dry off and get used to her new legs and surroundings while it was warm out instead of the bitter cold we had the few days before her birth.


Isn't she just the sweetest?

My son turns 7 today! We had his birthday festivities this past weekend. He's still crazy about Pirates and being the Aaaaaaaaartistic being that I am, I just had to create a Pirate party he would never forget. The cake was extra fun to make:


The cake surrounded with lots of loot

I sent the kiddos out to find pieces of eight all over the house, yard, and way out to the woods. My favorite clue was found out in our patch of woods, found hanging from a stake:

Hum, hum alpacas

Have ye any food?

Avast matie! Avast matie! Three bags full

One that isn’t opened

And one we don’t use

And one covered with a lid, which hides ye next clue


The kids had a great time with the water balloon fight despite NOT being able to create two giant pirate ships from cardboard boxes like I had intended. I had the kids walk the plank blind folded (a wooden board stradled across two cement blocks). The best part, I drew sharks with sidewalk chalk circling the plank and even had a shark emerging from the water ready to bite it's next victim. I should have gotten a picture before the kiddos threw water all over it during the water balloon fight. It was VERY cool! Makes me want to draw again!



Now, on a more crafty note. I joined in on the cloth-along going on with my looming dishcloth group over on yahoo. The group unanimously decided to include any type of dishcloths and NOT limit them to loomed ones. Here are my crocheted dishcloth dresses:



I decided to design an alpaca winter hat using the Fair Isle or Standed Color knitting method. I intend on looming my hat. It would make a cute bag too!
© 2007 Karen J. Gielen. All rights reserved. This design is my own creation. I was not able to find a pattern anywhere and had to make my own. Please do not copy, take or distribute without my written consent!

Have a great day!