Convert Knitting Patterns from Flat to Round

I love knitting in the round. It saves time and there are no purl stitches unless you want something to stand out on purpose. Best of all, if you hate sewing pieces together, then you will love knitting in the round. You really need to master the basics first. And you need to be able to pick up stitches because that's how you add on instead of sewing pieces together with a ladder stitch. 

When you knit in the round, you can add things on similar to crochet construction only better because knitting looks smoother and the stitches are straight so patterns look better. Once you get the hang of it, you won't go back.

I use 5 needles on the body from the leg tops and 4 needles on everything else. I also use a stitch marker to mark the rounds in places and I re-write the pattern from the bottom up, just reversing the increases and decreases. Also, since there is no seam to sew, I take off 2 stitches from each row when I rewrite the pattern. It comes out the same size as the flat pattern. Anything that calls for knit on the purl side, I just reverse and purl on the knit side to make the same pattern. I also use M1A (make one away) to increase in a project this small because it does not add bulk to the knitting especially in places you want to lie flatter, like the bottom of the feet. Unless I'm making clothes, I almost always use M1A but I do use it too on the other side of arm holes for adding stitches back on.

I've taken a flat pattern and converted it to knitting in the round. Without showing you the pattern, I will show you the highlights of how I did it. I love to make little animal dolls but some of my favorite patterns are all done in flat. So I had to convert them to make them more fun for me to want to make. I started with the bottom of the foot. After finishing each foot and stuffing them, I leave them on the needles until I need them. Instead of casting off, I divide my 14 last row stitches on DPNs for each foot into 7 front stitches on one needle and 7 back stitches on another. So each foot has two DPN needles at the top with seven stitches on each. You'll need DPNs with five needles to make it easier. Easy so far, right? The only thing I knitted flat on this bunny was the ears.

Now I want to add the body but the stitches are greater than the 28 stitches total of the legs. So I need 32 stitches for the bottom of the body. I decide to add the four stitches difference by making two stitches each side between the legs. I knit the front seven stitches of the left leg, add two stitches by M1A (x2), knit across seven front stitches of the right leg.  That gives me 16 stitches across the front. 

Then I knit across the back right leg, add two stitches M1A (x2), knit across the left back leg. Now I have 32 stitches total in the round. Then I just place a stitch marker and knit in the round for as many rows as I need to make the body before I start decreasing toward the neck. The pattern will tell me where it was increased when knitted from the top down and that is where I decrease the same number of stitches from the bottom up (and minus 2 stitches on each row still). 

You can pick up stitches for the arm tops on the animal's body and knit down to the hand in the round or just make them separately in the round (minus 2 stitch count) and sew them on with a few stitches. If my head pattern starts in the back of the head instead of at the neck, I just knit the head in the round taking off 1 stitch from each end in the instructions and just attach it to the body when finished. Or you can just do it flat and seam it if you want. It's up to you.

I pick up 5 stitches at the increase point on the side of the body. Then I work (M1A, k1) 5 times to put 10 stitches on the needle. Then I separate the stitches onto 2 needles every other stitch (5 stitches on each needle) to make 10 stitches evenly spaced when I knit them in the round adding stitches if the pattern calls for it. You could do this with 8 stitches divided into 4 on each needle also if you prefer.

Then I just knit them all and divide on three needles around. 3-3-4. And keep knitting the number of rows in the round. It is easier to knit the arms on in the round before you attach the head. You can still do it but the head gets in the way a little. It's just easier before adding the head.

I stuff the arm lightly leaving room at the top so the arm will fold down the body and finish the hand off. Using these guidelines you can convert just about any pattern from flat to knitting in the round. If you love knitting in the round, you won't want to go back to knitting flat and seaming all the pieces together again!

As far as I'm concerned, there are no disadvantages to knitting in the round. You don't need to block the animal bodies and textured sweaters anyway and that is where you will save a lot of time. You can shape the head in the round just as easily IMO. Just stuff it full and shape it before you close the nose end. If you need to manipulate it further you can insert a crochet hook and pull the stuffing into place on the inside.

Testing the fit of the parka on my bunny knitted in the round before he got his nose and ears. It fits! But doesn't he look cute with a face and ears!

You will love knitting in the round. It will save you all kinds of time better spent knitting rather than having to sew it all together later! I would rather be knitting than sewing. 

All of the LCR patterns use a similar boy feet and body pattern and similar girl feet and body patterns so once you convert these two body patterns to knitting in the round, you can make all the LCR patterns from them. You don't have to convert them all!

What I like to do is buy either the boy or girl pattern of one animal (depending on if I like the dresses or sweaters better) and just use my other boy/girl feet and body patterns to make both. Really only the heads and sometimes hands will be changeable for different animals. I also sometimes use Mary Jane's Tearoom small bear pattern in the round for the feet and legs because I like the way the shoes look when it's all knitted together. But after converting a boy pattern to knitting in the round, I can make girl shoes and removeable unders to make a girl any time I want with just this one pattern. ENJOY!

Spring Babies Are Coming!

Finally! The baby of our family is ten years old. So, looking forward to being a great-grandma this Spring of a little girl. She's coming soon. But my grand niece is having one sooner and it's a boy! I will be a great-grand aunt before I'm a great-grandma. So my great-niece wanted a golf crib mobile that she saw somewhere for an incredible price tag. For just a few bucks and a few hours time, this is the result. I already had everything except the 1/2" screw eyes and wood block which I got off of Amazon. I got the dowels from the Dollar Tree last week.

I drew the basic shapes out and then made a pattern. I tried to make improvements to the pieces where I could. I made the indent circles on the golf balls large and almost connected. And I decorated the pieces on both sides.

I did not have any navy felt so I had to dye dark blue with some alcohol inks and then when the piece was dry, I heat set it with an iron before cutting out the golf cart. So I will be the first to admit that my hand stitches are not that great but I did get the job done! I never was that good at hand stitching or embroidery. So it definitely looks hand made and not mass produced. That makes it worth it even if it's not perfect. 

I love the tree. I so wanted to put apples on it but it wouldn't go with the minimalist design and color scheme. I had to buy a box of eight blocks because I couldn't find just one block to buy online. I didn't have any screw eyes so I had to buy a box of those too. That's how I end up with so much stuff in my craft room. Nobody can buy just one of anything and I might need those leftovers some day.

I don't know what this is called, a fairway or a green? Maybe just the golf hole. The stitches around the pieces are just done with the blanket stitch, a large needle and twisted embroidery floss. It's really easy to do. I used tacky glue to hold the cutout pieces on each side before sewing them and a dab of glue on the knots before pulling them into the center.

The clouds were pretty easy. I used the blanket stitch around the pieces leaving enough space to stuff in just a little polyester batting. It's the same Polyfil I use for my stuffed dolls. I use the ultra loft so it only takes a bit to puff it out.

The golf bag was easy enough. In fact, there is nothing hard about making this. Even the wood pieces are easy if you have the right drill bit. My son drilled them for me. Four 3/8" wooden dowels cut in 6" lengths and he used a 3/8" drill bit to drill holes into four sides of the 2" wooden block.

HOW TO MAKE A CRIB MOBILE

1) Cut out the pieces in duplicate that you want to use from felt. 

2) Glue the decorative pieces on to each shape with a tacky or fabric glue.

3) Stuff with a little cotton or polyester as you blanket stitch the two edges together for each piece.

4)Use twisted embroidery thread to attach the pieces together and to the wooden frame.

5) Cut four 3/8" dowels into 6" pieces.

6) Drill into four sides of a 2" wooden cube with a 3/8" drill bit of a depth of about 1/4" to 3/8".

7) Glue the dowels into the block with wood glue keeping them straight and let dry. 

8) Stain or paint the wood as desired. Let dry. Add screw eyes to top and bottom.

9) Tie the string strand of felt pieces onto the dowels and the eye screws with a knot and a dab of glue.

10) Add decorative ribbon to the screw eyes if desired and run a string from the top screw eye to hang the mobile over the crib.

The screw eyes were self threading and easy to do. I stained the wood with a watery brown acrylic paint and then a satin finish when it was dry. You could pick any theme, any color paint and felt to cut out simple shapes to make a themed crib mobile. Harry Potter, Toy Story, Hello Kitty, Disney babies, dinosaurs... anything you can imagine or whatever your nursery theme is. Quick and easy decoration!

OH! Happy Christmas!

So in the crafting world this is the time of year to wind up your merry making and try to enjoy the rest of the season. I did find some resources for last minute making and one I wanted to share was the discovery of a site that's been around for a while. It's called SVGCUTS.COM . If you love to paper craft and you have a cutting machine like a Cricut, this is your paper project making heaven.

You could probably still get a small project or two done before Christmas if you wanted like the rocking horse box, which can also be made into an ornament for your tree in any size. Or made into some last minute Christmas cards.

Mary has been making pop-up cards since the early two thousand years and added these around 2014. And she keeps adding more. That's a long time to be in the crafting business so you know she is successful and very creative. I think one of her most popular designs is her Heirloom Christmas tree pattern.

I wanted to make a small tree this year and I ran across this one. Since I couldn't think of a way to make a better one, I bought the pattern. I just love my little tree! But there are so many patterns on her site. Cards, boxes, decorative houses and more. And her Summer themed card projects are stunning.

It's not hard to see how someone could get a lot of great ideas from Mary's site! These were added around 2014, maybe a little before that date. I'm going by the last review posted.

And such cute little projects from purses to gift bags.

I cannot say enough about this site because it just blows me away with all the projects and creativity. It might be enough to get me to dust off my Cricut and get busy. These prices aren't bad if you are looking for an alternative to a previous hobby that might have gotten too expensive for you this past year. One cut file can go a long way. I think it's much more economical than metal dies. And if you want that embossing texture, you can always run a piece through an embossing folder after cutting it out. 

I just had so much fun making my Heirloom Christmas tree project that I want to share my thoughts on it and maybe steer you toward a more affordable hobby for next year, especially if you've got an unused, dusty Cricut sitting in the corner like I do. Valentine's Day is coming next! But at any rate, happy crafting to all my friends!

Decorating Cake Jewelry Boxes

I once took a cake decorating class many years ago but didn't follow through with it because I didn't want to become a cake decorator. And the icing recipe grossed me out. The main ingredient in buttercream frosting is shortening. You would think it would be butter... or cream. I didn't see that one coming and I'm sure most people don't know what's in it. I can't eat icing now without thinking I'm eating a cup of grease... It's not easy to gross me out.

I also didn't want to mix recipes and do all that cooking. All I wanted to do was decorate them. Decorator, not baker.

And I discovered a way to do that years ago with wood patch. Wood patch can be thinned but it has to be painted because it's a yellowish yuk color when it dries. I didn't think at the time that spackling would work because it's too crumbly. It did not look as good as spackling does.

But times have changed and I discovered vinyl spackling. I also add corn starch and acrylic paint to it to get the durability and colors I want. For some reason I just couldn't figure that out years ago. Now I see everyone using spackling to decorate art cakes and I like it.

I discovered at the same time how to make porcelain clay, Kawaii characters and resin clay. It's like a whole new world just opened up and so I put it all together in these little cakes. Perfect for upcoming Christmas time.

I couldn't make money off of these even if I sold them because they are so labor intensive and each step takes a while (8 to 24 hours) to dry. I've been working on these for 2 to 3 weeks now and just got done. I coated all of them with a clear matt coating for protection.

I was asked if I had instruction videos for these and I don't. I don't have time and besides, there are plenty of videos out there for all of the different ways to make each step of these. I will say that piping the icing was nerve wracking for me and I still don't feel like I'm very good at it. I think I could be with a lot of practice but who has time for that? I will tell you that I got all my silicone molds and resin casting material off of Amazon. I already had the cake decorating tip (#21), piping bags, paint and scalloped scissors to make these.

I had to scrape the icing off and do it again on six of the cakes before I got something I liked. I even practiced a lot first so I'd say even if you're not good at doing something, just keep at it until it looks better. Happy decorating!

Casting Material and Resin

I love working with this stuff and it is pretty durable. It will chip and break if you drop it off (or if the cat knocks it off) the table. 😽 But it is so easy to fix too. It's not as durable as cold porcelain clay which is surprising to me. I've dropped my CP clay figures from pretty high up and they just don't break. They are more like plastic because of the glue.

I'm hooked on molds. I love to pour resin/plaster into them. I don't use the name brand Resincrete so I don't call it all by that name since it is all a mix of plaster and casting material. I used Perfect Cast for most of these. It's 5 times stronger than plaster but it will chip if you hit or drop it. I'm loving these trays because they are plain and I get to decorate them with my sculptures and little designs. And they are not just pretty to look at. They are also useful trinket trays for gifts.

I was not into summer/beach theme until summer was over. I'm not a beachy person and I don't live anywhere near the beach or an ocean but I think there is something primal about the sea that appeals to everyone somehow.

I love the sea life but honestly, I've only been in the ocean once and it scared me to death so I won't ever swim in the ocean (or a lake) again. Things come up and nibble on you. Nope. Never again. I'm not that person.

But I can appreciate the beauty of the ocean and its wildlife and try to imitate it in my artwork. I'm finding nail art molds to be very useful. But I will try all materials. I was piping spackling back in the 80's to decorate fake cakes so that idea is nothing new except to this generation I guess.

So I'll continue to work on these for a while and maybe get back to UV resin here and there.

SAFETY WARNING: You need a dust mask when you're working with any fine powder like this but also read the warnings on the products. Even one time without proper protection while working with these materials can affect your lungs, throat, eyes and nose. It can affect your pets and other people too.

If you try UV resin, you must wear protective gear. Get a VOC respirator, wear gloves and you must have ventilation while it's curing. Open a window with a fan, get an resin air purifier or work outdoors if possible. Don't put your health at risk for any hobby or project!

Be safe with this stuff and have fun!

Making Cold Porcelain Clay

MAKING ADJUSTMENTS

Usually this time of year I'm getting ready for the Anna Griffin Create event but I just can't justify it this year. I'm really and truly disappointed with the lesser quality and price hike. I think we have to break up because I'm not in love any more.

But - I have a heart like a soldier so I've moved on to other more cost effective projects like trying cold porcelain clay for the first time and also looking forward to resin and resin powder pours (which are surprisingly affordable) and learning how to make Kawaii characters. I try to stay busy. This stuff is so easy to make. I still love polymer clay but some things need a different type of clay to look right. Here is my first batch of cold porcelain trinkets and they are so cutie patootie I can hardly stand it.

MOVING ON WITH PORCELAIN CLAY

I can't believe I've never tried to make porcelain clay but with the holidays coming, I want to make some pretty things for my favorite people and I've just gotten into Kawaii charms and cute little animal dolls that are too big for polymer clay. 

So I've been wanting to make a few things that are just too big to make with polymer clay and some might require UV resin like trinket dishes, durable key chains, ornaments, etc. Polymer clay is expensive but my clay is a little dried out and probably all of it needs to be reworked with some extender or liquid clay to make it usable again. It is a lot of work and expensive to replace. 

I also discovered resin powder that has plaster mixed with resin so it's really hard and durable. It pours into molds for larger projects like trays, objects and containers.

You just mix with water and pour into silicone molds. I got these tray molds and necklace charm molds from the Dollar Tree! The other tiny molds, heart box and turtles are molds from Amazon.

So I looked up a few porcelain clay recipes and tried a few batches to see what worked and what didn't. My first batch turned out pretty good but the clean up in my only old teflon pan was a nightmare. I cooked it on the stove. You can also cook it in a microwave and use cheap throw away dollar store plastic bowls if you don't want the mess.

So I prefer the microwave method and disposable bowls. Plastic gloves just didn't work for me because the dough is just too sticky and pulled my gloves off. 

After some trial and error, I caught on and this is what I came up with for a good smooth recipe. 

1 C white all purpose glue (school glue is fine)

2 TBSP baby oil

1 TBSP white vinegar

1 tsp glycerin (optional - or coat your hands with hand lotion before kneading)

1 C corn starch

2 TBSP white titanium dioxide (I had a pack left over from soap making) makes the clay white or just use white acrylic paint

mix the first 4 wet ingredients together and then add 1 C corn starch a little at a time and beat it into a smooth paste with a silicone spatula. Add the white titanium powder in too. You can use the microwave (1100 power) to heat it in 30 second intervals, stirring in between until it starts to form a solid mass too thick to stir. This took me about 3 - 4 minutes. After three minutes you might want to switch to 15 second phases because when it goes stiff, it goes pretty quick. 

You want to catch it before it gets too stiff to easily work with. I cooked it until it was the consistency of bread dough and then I turned it out on a plate with corn starch sprinkled on it. I coated my hands with oil and worked more corn starch into it like dough until it was pretty stiff like clay. It will be hot straight out of the micro so wait until it cools off a bit so you don't get burned while you're kneading it.

Then when it cools and looks and feels right, you want to wrap it up in saran wrap tightly and store it in a container with a lid. You can't work with it right away because it has to rest while all the ingredients merge for at least overnight - it's better at 24 hours or more to get really smooth like silk. It will keep at room temperature for up to four months. The vinegar retards mold.

At the right consistency it will give you a non-sticky clay that you can easily work with to make little Kawaii characters, push into molds for baked goods and bows and roll out easily to make some cute charms or keyrings.