Painting Exam Room #3 - part 3

I wish I had taken a photo of the mural before I put the table back, but it was 7 o'clock at night and I was too tired to even think about it. This exam table happens to be red, so painting the border the same color was a good choice. As you can see, this childlike theme is very much like an 8 or 10 year old's style of art (I hope), so getting straight lines was not what I wanted to do. When I walk by the room now, I often think of it as a larg quilt with soft fabric borders floating against that white, white wall.





Here we have the lady bug in the opposite corner. It's made of plastic and is about 3 inches around, so it is easy to see. Until I painted the tree branches and leaves, she was just hanging out there all by herself. I hope she feels a little more at home now.



As you can see, there is a lot of stuff in this corner of the room. It really does help to have a lady bug in the corner when the doctor is examining your eyes. We have a "paperless" office. Everything goes into the computer instead of paper charts. It's a nice system for us. No one has to pull files and we don't have to worry about storage. Since the office is rather small, it's kind of necessary. Also, pulling up information about a patient is only a click away and is immediately available.
Well, immmediately available as long as the Server is happy. The Server and I are on good terms most days. Most days. Some days she has me going in circles. Like people, some days are better than others, so I greet her in the morning with a smile, a pat on her plastic monitor and hope that is enough to keep her content.



To complete the helpful image trio, I painted a star on the ceiling over the exam table, so when Dr. K is pushing on soft bellies, there is something overhead to see. It's amazing how much it helps to have a known object overhead instead of just ceiling tiles. I've been a patient being wheeled about on a gurney in a hospital a few times, and nothing is as frightening as looking at the world from that most helpless angle. My eyes were always looking for a comforting symbol, something familiar. Well, yes, what I was looking for was my husband, but he couldn't always go into the O.R. with me. Sigh.



In order to protect my work from sticky hands and kicking feet, we had a large piece of Plexiglas installed over the lower portion of the wall. It extends below the table pad and runs all the way across the painting, so keeping it clean will be easy. There is another piece on the chair wall to protect the flowers. People tend to lean back and rest their head against the wall while sitting down, so that plastic is as high as the highest flower petal.

So far, everybody who has seen this little multicolored zebra has loved his arrival. I do, too.

Three Knitted Hats

Here we go again. A looonng tiiimmme between posts.
sigh.
Work has been busy, with the days extending into night when I do more office book work from home, leaving me too tired of looking at the computer to even think of it as a tool for fun.

Sheesh, this making a living thing gets to be a drag for those of us who love to craft.

Anyway, enough about that! I did do at least a little something each day that kept my need for color fed, if not satisfied. I decided that knitting was the best way to go as I can sit with my feet up, have mindless TV in front of me and often a kitty in my lap, too.

This rolled brim hat is so soft and easy, I just love the colors and even if I don't wear it now, I can pretend I live in Colorado near our oldest son and his family and keep in on my table ready to grab it as I go out the door into 32 degrees.

Since the colors were really lifting my spirit, I added a little fun fur and made another one to mirror it.
Now I need to find a friend to go shopping with so we can wear these hats together.
My husband wore it to bed one night, but I still think he prefers baseball caps.







And, then there were three! Another favorite color combo. I always think of irises or pansies when I use green and purple together.

These were made using Caron Simply Soft Brites! on size 10 needles, two strands. That makes a nice 4 stitches per inch gauge.

Cast on 80 stitches and knit for about 1 3/4 inches.

Change colors and increase by 10 stitiches.

Knit for about 7 1/2 or so inches from the roll (not the bottom of the knitting, the bottom of the roll) and then, decrease on the next knit row.

I decrease the 10 stitches just doing knit two together every 7th stitch.

Purl.
The next row is knit 2, knit 2 together.
Purl.
Then knit 1, knit 2 together.
Purl.
Finish up doing knit 2 together all the way across.
Purl.
Repeat the last decrease row until you have anywhere from 10 to 5 stitches left and tie it up.

Blanket stitch the back seam and add some kind of embellishment to the top.

Then, if you are like me, you can display your colorful handywork on your favorite unused space.


Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s a kitchen table. Since our youngest son moved out, we eat in front of the TV, so this table, as beautiful as it is, and yes, I painted this, too) hardly gets used as much as it should be.

Sigh.

Changing the Hallway

The hallway is the first thing patients see when they come in from the waiting room and I wanted to make it colorful, but had to get something done quickly.

So, the answer is beautifully colored, high gloss doorways.







It looked like this for quite awhile. White everywhere with a cool black and white floor.










And this is back to last year when we first signed the lease.

The walls were pink and the floor covered in a gray carpeting. The first thing to go was all the pink. I like pink, but it was so very '80's!

Buckets of white paint in a washable egg shell finish covered every inch of the office, making it feel clean and new again.

It's a year later now and I have just got to get more painting done. The walls are looking scuffed and abused and not so very pristine anymore.

sigh.

Painting The Waiting Room - part 4

The rainbow wall. It came out great, even if the colors are upside down.





Every garden needs a dragonfly, and lady bug on a big red flower.









The dragonfly and tulips look oh so childlike and you can see Eva our receptionist and Penney, our nurse in the window where patients sign in. If you look carefully you can see a butterfly painted over a door bell. Kids like to push on it and because of all the paint on it, it rings and rings and rings and then we get a good belly laugh - especially from 2 year olds!

Painting The Waiting Room - part 3

This is the right hand side of the waiting room with the receptionist opening in the wall. I removed the partition, so anyone coming in can feel they will be noticed right away.




It was fun drawing the arc for the rainbow. And coloring it in with many shade of each color was the best part of the project for me. A few weeks later, someone told me that I had the colors upside down.

Seems to me I did a good job of being an 8 year old artist, just like I wanted.




Painting big goofy flowers is something I've always wanted to do, but never had a legal place to do it. Now, with the rent we pay, I don't have any problem at all making marks on any and all walls that we see everyday.

Painting The Waiting Room - part 2

Adam and Eve are forever entwined around the force that started it all. Love. At least that's what I believe. Eden wasn't a trap, it was and is such an incredible place of beauty that it's no wonder Eve just had to find out about it. Curiosity is what leads us out of that which is known and into the unknown. Ask any artist.



My desire for these walls was to paint them in such a way that it would look like a child had used crayons on the bumpy paper teachers give you at school. I found a way to work with cheap "chip" brushes using very little paint to get the effect. In fact, I absolutely had to hold myself back at times, because my grown up me wanted to perfect the images too much. Sometimes it's very hard to go back to the 8 year old mind and body.



Now you can see why I only painted three flowers by the door. All those chairs! I was still working on this and patients had to have somewhere to sit. Sheesh!

The color of the sky is purple indicating night and the unknown, the unseen, the moon making light that helps us to see, but we're not alway sure of the way because so much is still hidden. Like curiosity. It urges forward movement, but makes no promises about the outcome.

Don't you think G-d is surprised everyday?

White Wool Ease - Fun Fetti Hat and Scarf

It's finished! And, I just adore it. It was fun to knit, even using those awkward circular knitting needles. Once it's all on and the yarn is not twisted, it's fun to just be able to knit, knit, knit.



You can see the first Pom Pom I've ever made here in this side view. Cute! Fluffy! A nice balance to the rolled brim!



And now I am making a scarf to go with it. I'm using double strands again, but this time I'm using a pair of short, size 13, straight needles and just knitting every row making a loose, bumpy pattern that with be stretchy and comfy to wear. Both ends will have the Fun Fetti and I plan to make it very long so it can be wound around my neck more than once, or when I wear my long black wool coat the ends will be long too.

It's a shame you can't see the sparkles of the silver that is in this yarn. It makes the hat look like new fallen snow that is sparkling in the sun. I really, really like it. I just bought some more last week, 'cause now that I'm feeling better about those circulars, I can make gifts using it.

Knitting on Circular Needles

I finally did it. I finally got up the courage to try to knit something on circular needles. I haven't tried to knit anything over the past several months, but I have been collecting things knitting related. Books. I just love to look over the possibilites of what a person can do with their hands.

As with any other craft I have tried, I collect all kinds of books on the subject and immerse myself in them, sometimes for months and months at a time before I try even one technique. I guess I learn by reading and then imagine myself doing the technique, eventually just getting the urge to try it out.

I couldn't find 16 inch circular needles in any of the craft shops around here, so I went on the Internet, Googled, "circular needles" and actually bought sizes I thought I could tolerate - nothing smaller than a size 8 for me - with matching double pointed needles, too.

These have sat in a box on my desk for about 3 months. Sigh.

Yesterday, I got a book by Lion Brand Yarns, "Just Hats" and read the one thing I needed to get me going.

Make a swatch. That's my swatch up there. I wrote down how I made it and what I made it with and attached the 3 1/2 x 5 card to it with a pin. Preserved for eternity.

OK, OK every yarn book on the planet says make a swatch before making a knitted article, the exception being scarves I guess, as most scarves will definitely fit most bodies.

Most of the time, I just didn't get started on a project because I didn't have the same yarn used in the pattern and, this put me off so much, I just let all the patterns I've collected off the Internet and from my books just sit and stare at me. I was afraid.


HOWEVER, this little book gives you the pattern based on your swatch. Not the other way around. I don't have to try to find a way to match the gauge the pattern calls for. I don't have to knit 4 or 5 or more swatches hoping to match the designer's gauge.


This backwards thinking in "Just Hats" sent me forward. I made a swatch using yarn I have, the size 11 circular needles I wanted to use and then measured how many stitches per inch I was making.

3.5. Or, about 14 stitches for a 4 inch swatch. I then calculated for a 20 inch head size because the swatch felt kind of stretchy to me and I figured that with my 22 inch head, it'll probably be OK. If not, I'll give it to my petite sister. Or I'll donate it. Or, I'll hang it on the wall as "art".

Anyway, I stayed up late last night getting the first three rows cast on and knit. All the books say, "be careful not to let the first row twist". Another thing that put me off circular needles. I have a hard enough time just casting on and now I have to worry about watching how the stitches line up on this impossibly small hoop in my hands! Oh, the worry for a Type A, first born, perfectionist type!

I got through this first three rows by following a suggestion made by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka, The Yarn Harlot. She said to knit the first row and second row as if you are using straight needles. Go back and forth. Then, on the third row, join the stitches. By then there is enough yarn knitted to keep the stitches straightened out.

I did it. And it worked. Thank you Stepahnie!

Today, after catching up on insurance EOB's (explanation of benefits) for the office, I gathered myself in my favorite chair and knit, knit, knit!



Doesn't it look good? This is actually the inside of the hat, but you can see how I am really using circular needles, for sure.

And, it's rolling nicely, 'cause that's what I want:
A Roll Brim hat, with no back seam. Don't you think the "Fun Fetti" is a nice touch? The white wool has little streams of silver running throughout, and I just love the way it looks.

The Yarn Harlot also said in "Knitting Rules!" that an easy way to measure the length to knit is to measure from the base of the hand to the tip of the middle finger of the person the hat is being made for. Then do the decreases for the crown.


So, letting the roll roll, I'll have to knit 7 inches more and then I will almost have a hat.

I hope this works!

Blue Homespun Rolled Brim Knit Hat with Flowers

Blue rolled brim knit hat with flowers
Now I am happy with this hat!


I used pink, orange, yellow and green yarn, and a large eyed plastic needle to embroider right over the knitted fabric of the hat. It wasn't as easy to do as I expected. There are holes in knitted work and that makes it difficult to knot the yarns when beginning or ending a new color. I also had to be careful not to make the flowers too tight or dense so that the knit wouldn't be distorted when I put the hat on my head. This hat now has charm! I am looking forward to some trips to Denver to visit family and have an excuse to wear this hat.

Blue Homespun Rolled Brim Hat

Blue Homespun Rolled Brim Hat

Another cute hat! I really like this one. It matches the 7 foot scarf I made that twirls nicely and twicely around my neck and keeps me really, really warm. (Even though at 92 degrees, warm isn't exactly what I am looking for.)
But, cute as this is, I find it a little, well, dull.
The opposite of dull is embellished! What is a new knitters' cheating way to embellish?
Embroidery!
To be continued....

Knit Flower Pattern -

Easy knit flower -

Using one strand of yarn, cast on 150 stitches. For the next and final row, bind off all the stitches.
Here's how - Knit 2 stitches. Pull the first stitch over the second stitch and then off the needle, leaving one stitch. Knit 1 and repeat to the end. After you have bound off all your stitches, you have a long length of yarn. Divide it up so that you have 5 or 6 loops. These are the petals of the flower. Thread a needle, catch the tops of the loops, and pull them together. Secure tightly. This will make a cute and simple flower. Sew the flower to you hat.

Pattern for Fun Fur Rolled Brim Rib Knit Hat -

The Pattern -

First, let me say that I was given this pattern on a torn, faded and photocopied piece of paper by a lady in a yarn shop who sold me too much yarn for this project. (Five balls of yarn when I only needed three... grrrrrr). I have no idea who is the original creator of this beautiful, fun and easy winter hat. If you are out there and want credit, please email me about it. I did not intentionally steal it.

I am sharing the pattern with you because some very nice reader of my blog requested it. I hope you have a lot of fun with it too.

Materials List -

Size 17 knitting needles.
Fun Fur - 2 balls, because you knit with two strands together.
Worsted Weight Yarn - 3 balls, because you knit with three strands together.
I used Plymouth Yarn "Encore" knitting worsted weight 75% Acrylic 25% Wool.

However, the hat I am making now is made up of Caron "Simply Soft", a worsted weight, 4 ply 100% acrylic that is labeled as a #4 weight on the label. I love this yarn! It is very soft, and comes in gorgeous bright colors and is incredibly cheap! Just use something that is or will work like a "chunky" yarn.

Don't worry about gauge too much. If you think the first hat you make is too big for you, decrease the knitting needle size.

This hat is intended for an adult size head. Mine is 22 inches and it fits nicely. Meaning - it's not too tight!!!! Tight hats give me a headache. grrrrr...

Instructions -

Fun Fur -
Cast on 44 stitches with two skeins of the fun fur working as one strand of yarn. Do stockinette stitch, (knit one side, purl the next) for three inches.

Worsted Weight -
Change to three strands of worsted weight yarn, working as one, and knit a rib stitch.
Row 1 - * knit 1, purl 1* repeat across row.
Row 2 - *purl 1, knit 1* repeat across row.
Knit this pattern for 8 inches.
This makes a total of 11 inches for the hat. Lots of coverage for your head and it is very flexible.

Shape crown -
Row 1 - knit 2 tog all the way across. Row 2 - purl 2 tog all the way across. That leaves you with 11 stitches. Easy, huh?

Cut off, leaving a long tail. Thread onto a large eyed needle and weave through all 11 stitches, remove from knitting needle, then go back again.Pull yarns tight and anchor. Sew the back seam.

Because the fun fur is knitted on such large needles, I rolled it up and just took a small stitch to keep it in place at the back.

Done!

This whole project only took me about 5 hours the first time I did it. And, I must say that it is very easy and a fun, fun hat.

Additionally, I added an easy knit flower to the top for an added feminine touch and balance for the furry brim. See the next post for the photo and directions. If I was better at blogging, I would have both in the same post, but I don't know how to put a photo at the end, or even in the middle of one post.
sigh.

Furry Brim Rib Knit Hat

Furry Brim Rib Knit Hat

I just adore this hat! I am new to knitting and let me tell you, it's so much fun to find a pattern that knits up really fast and looks good when you are done. I have since added a knit flower to the crown and the hat now looks balanced.

The story that goes with this is a little bitter. I, as I said, am new to all of this knitting stuff and I have been checking out the few yarn shops nearby. I went to one called "Yarn" and found a dusty store with piles of knitting books heaped in stacks making it difficult to peruse them and a few rather dusty examples of things to make hanging from a peg board on the wall. However, sitting on the counter right next to the cash register was this hat. Oh, how pretty!

There were several ladies in the store at the time, all at least ten years older than me and since I'm in my sixtieth year, that's saying somethin'. Busy, busy, busy they were talking about this and that and the other and I began to feel, well, invisible. I am not the kind of person who walks in and says to no one in particular, "Can you help me?". I usually wait. I just assume that the person who is supposed to respond will start the process when they are ready. I find myself waiting a lot. Is having a patient nature a character flaw in today's world? I don't know. I just know I stand and wait. A lot.

About 940 seconds later, one comes over and asks what I want today. I say, "Do you have the pattern for that hat available?" She says, "Yes, it's around here somewhere." And off she goes digging under a big pile coming back to me with a handwritten, photocopied and slightly ripped piece of paper. "Here it is. Do you want some yarn for that?"

Now, again, I am loathe to ask for something and not give something back, so I say, "Well, how much yarn does it take?" She looks at the paper and tells me that the ribbing pattern calls for knitting with three strands of yarn on size 17 needles. The fur is a two strand process. So, I figure I need a total of 5 balls of yarn. However, the pattern also has notes for the matching scarf and the scarf is knitted with two strands of yarn on size 17 needles. Hmmm... I am on shaky ground here. I don't know if I want to make a scarf to match, because for all I know I won't make such a nice hat to begin with and all of my learning will just be me, putting my time in, but not wearing the product.

I stand there looking blank, but the mental motor is whirring. Finally, I ask, "What kind of yarn do you recommend for this hat?" At that point, her face brightens and she goes to a bag on the floor and pulls out a wool/polyester blend in off white and then finds the white eyelash stuff, too.
"Let's see." she says. "The hat needs three strands and the scarf needs to strands and the eye lash is two strands too. You should get five of the wool blend and two of the eyelash."

Now, I am new to this, but I am thinking, "Isn't that a lot of yarn for just a hat and maybe a scarf that I won't make?" Of course, by this time I am in hunger mode. I really want the information on that scrappy looking piece of paper 'cause I really want to make that hat. It never even dawns on me to question her thinking about how much yarn I really need. I feel like an idiot. Just like I feel when going into an automobile showroom and asking to see a certain car, I know that the salesman is going to push and push and push for the most bucks for the car and then will add the guarantees and extra warrantees and service contracts. I know it's going to be a horrid experiece, but I have to go through it to get what I want.

As you have surmised, I am not very Zen.

And I really want (there's that not Zen thing again) the instructions on that flimsy, torn, yellowed piece of paper.

So, I say, "OK" and off we go to the register with the seven balls of yarn, the to-be-cherished piece of paper and my credit card. Five minutes later, and $43.28 dollars poorer, I am out the door with a purple plastic bag holding my new stuff.

When I get home, I immediately rewrite the scrawl, cutting it down to neat lines, spellchecking it and saving it onto my PC, onto a CD and even onto my Zip disc. This piece of paper has now taken on the importance of an ancient scroll and is locked down forever. I print it out.

Five hours later, using size 17 needles, I am the breathlessly proud parent of one fuzzy brim rib knit wool/polyester/fun fur trim hat. I put it on. It is 92 degrees outside. I look ridiculous in this hat. My dark brown hair peaks out from beneath the rolled brim and my glasses poke out beyond the fuzzies. But, I am happy. I put it on the gold painted head and leave it on my kitchen counter to look at during the day.

Not very Zen, but hey, I figure I'm here, I might as well jump in and enjoy all the stuff I'm creating around me. And, I mean that literally.

Anybody else read "TheSeth Material" by Jane Roberts or see the movie/DVD, "What the Bleep Do We Know?"

PS - I have enough yarn left over to make at least 8 more hats. Anybody want one???

Knitting Needle Fold and Roll Bag - FREE PATTERN!

Knit Needle fold and roll bag

Of course, if you make a new quilted tote bag to put all your new knitting stuff into, you must have one of these to go along with it. I made it a couple of weeks ago and took notes as I went along. I am posting the pattern on my website -
http://www.tallit-embroidery.com/DownloadFreeStuff.html
It will be in a PDF format. I'm really glad I made this thing. My knitting needles were poking holes in various plastic bags and becoming lost. I hate losing things. I guess it is in my nature to take care of what I have and I just love to make the job pretty! I hope you like making this version of a roll up bag. It would be good for paint brushes and chop sticks, too!

Knit Needle Fold& Roll Bag

Knit Needle rolled bag

And this is what it looks like when you close it, roll it and tie it up. Pretty! Doesn't it look great with my new quilted knitting tote?

Knitting Bag for Dilettantes

Knitting Bag

Here is the knitting bag I made. Perfect for every dilettante. It even has a gorgeous quilted purple satin lining so my new yarns won't scratch themselves up while I am tugging on them to make another hat. My 7th grade Home Ec teacher would be proud. It occurred to me however, as I was falling asleep last night, that I put the handles on wrong. Aren't most totes made with the handles attached to the same side? Think about it. If you open it up to put something in, if the handles are attached side by side, there is no obstruction. But putting the handles on the way I did, there is the possibility that the tote won't open wide enough to put an elephant foot into it because the handles will get in the way.
sigh.
That's what happens when you just make stuff up with your scissors and pins. Where was my head and what was I thinking?
Fortunately, the other mistake I made is that the handles are extra long. So, that elephant is not out of luck.

First Knitted Hat

First Knit Hat

I think I got a bug. And, I got it bad! I knit this funny furry hat when we went to visit my granddaughter in Denver in January. It made sense then. It was cold outside. However, it is not making any sense now. As the following posts will show, I am still learning how to knit (badly for now) and am stuck on hats.
Where does this stuff come from? Why can't I just forget about learning new stuff and just keep on developing more fully what I already know?
I think Mr. Spock said it well when V'ger's nature was being questioned, and the answer is; "Curiosity Mr. Decker. Insatiable curiosity."
I think I am destined to stay at the dilettane level forever. Maybe my inner self is just a skate bug. You know, the kind that skate on top of lake water?