Knitted Summer Cowl

Believe it or not, I sometimes accumulate more embroidery floss than I can use in my cross-stitch projects. Through flea market purchases and generous donations from family members who are familiar with my embroidery floss habit, I recently ended up with about two dozen skeins of different shades of green. I decided to wind them into a ball--tying the ends together as I went--so I could knit the floss instead of stitching with it. The end result is this lightweight summer cowl, which reminds me of lacy seaweed and fishnets.

To give the knitted fabric an airy feel, I used large needles (size 9). I'm typically a tight knitter, so maintaining a loose gauge was the biggest challenge for me. You can make your scarf or cowl any size you like, but for this one, I began by casting on 55 stitches.

I then just worked in garter stitch, knitting every row. This gave the fabric an interesting texture and kept the edges from curling. When the knitting was about 28" long--and I was almost at the end of my ball of floss--I bound off, sewed the two short edges of the cowl together, and wove in all of the loose threads. (There were many!)

This was such a relaxing projects. After casting on, I didn't have to count or think about changing stitches--just knit, knit, knit! I love the combination of greens--sage, chartreuse, seafoam, spruce--but I would love to make another one in different shades--maybe blues, oranges, browns. Time to start building up my floss stash again!

My Design Featured in "Stitch Parties" eBook

My Summer Party Banner was featured in the Stitch Parties ebook! This fun book also contains twelve other party projects to sew--wearables, accessories, home decor, and decorations. You can order a copy here at the Interweave store.

My Projects Featured in "American Patchwork & Quilting"

My Log and Leaf Sachets are featured in the October 2015 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting magazine! See my projects, as well as other featured projects from this issue, here: www.allpeoplequilt.com/october.

Used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2015 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

Flowery Fabric Pendant

As you probably know if you follow my blog, I'm a bit of a cross-stitch fanatic. But I also love embroidery. To make this pretty pendant, I used a piece of flowery fabric as a guide instead of drawing my own design. I love the way it came out, so I'm probably going to be making a lot more of these.

I started with this small-scale flowery fabric and a pendant setting from the Etsy shop Kailea. I used a fabric marking pen to trace around the frame of the setting so I would know which portion of the design to stitch. 

Then I just popped the fabric in a small embroidery hoop and used three strands of matching floss and backstitch to outline the flowers. I added tiny glass beads to accent the flower centers.

When I was happy with the finished design, I removed the fabric marker lines and mounted it in pendant setting. Small prints definitely work best for this project, so I'll be searching my stash for more fabrics to embroider.