A bowl cover for sour dough

I made a quick bowl cover for my rye sour dough bread. 

My friend taught me how to bake Danish rye bread a while ago, and my husband really likes it. So, I bake it regularly. 

In one of the steps, I have to put the dough on the counter for a day or two with a damp tea towel so that the sour dough can ferment. In my recipe, it specifically says not to let the tea towel touch the dough. I thought if I had a shower cap like tea towel, it will not touch the dough. So, here it is. A very quick make, and I am glad I made it. I used two layers of tea towels, so once I dampen the towels, they stay moist for a long time, too. 

 

Granny square blanket

I experiemented on connecting granny squares using some squares to make a cardigan, and the next was the turn for a blanket I have been preparing for. 

I used various leftover yarn or gifted/donated yarn from friends to make these flower granny squares, so there is no real coherency in them. However, I had more of some yarn than others, so there were some of the same ones, too. 

I had to put them all on the floor and decide which square goes where. This process took a while. I thought I was putting them randomly, but the same ones might show up next to each other, and so on. So, I had to keep on moving them around. 

I searched the great internet web and I found so many different ways to connect the squares. I saw some negative aspects of the connecting method I used for the cardigan, and I decided on using a chain stitch on the right side of the fabric this time. 

This is not a large blanket. I just wanted it to cover the top of the comforter for extra warmth on cold nights below -20 degrees Celsius. (The central heating is functioning over night, too, but my thermostat is set to a lower temperature during the night. Somehow on really cold nights, it still feels chilly.) 

I find making granny squares very relaxing - I would make some bits here and there in between my chores. I had a lot of great yarn given to me by friends. The yarn is almost all wool, alpaca, etc. In other words, very nice, warm yarn. The blanket provides me with that extra warmth over night, and my cat approves of it as well. 

For me, putting them all together was the part that tested my patience. It took me Monday to Friday last week to finish it all, and my hands and wrists were getting a bit sore towards the end of the process. 

In the end, it took me three months to finish the cardigan and the blanket. I hardly sewed anything for myself during those three months. Now it's time to sew myself something. 

Granny square cardigan

I have been working on granny squares since the end of October (Halloween day to be exact). I know I made some mistakes, but I decided to keep the mistakes consistent and enough squares to make a cardigan. 

The front view and the back view are very different, and I kind of like it that way. 

I have learned a lot about what to do and what not to do when I was making all the granny squares. And since most of the yarn was gifts or donations (?) from many of my friends, I really feel the warmth wearing this cardigan. Most of the yarn was real wool or equivalent. There's not much synthetic fibres in this entire thing. Maybe a little bit because some of the yarn had some as sock yarn.

Sandal repair

My husband's sandal broke where you put your toes. This sandal wasn't all that old and the sole was still in a good shape, so I decided to repair it. 

First thing I did was to make a hole where the strap goes in between the big toe and the toe next to it.  

Then, I sewed on a narrow nylon webbing strap that I had at home and threaded through he hole I made. I tied the webbing strap on the back and made a knot. I also decided to use a glue gun to secure it on the sole. 

It seems wearable again, so that's good. This is a pair of Keen sandals. If anyone associated with Keen sees this, please use a durable material for the sandal. It just rubbed and broke off. (I am guessing they are probably hoping that we buy another pair when this breaks, but my tendency is to avoid the brand that made products that broke in a few months of use...) 

100th Granny squares

I keep on making granny squares when I have some breaks from other work. The great thing about these is that I can work on only some parts of them even for five minutes at a time. 

I am happy that I have made 100 of them now. This is about a half way to my goal!