Category: craft

May Knitting

~ laura ~ 1 Comment

I started socks, but they were too small so I had to frog and restart. I’ve gotten about 15 rows into the redo so far. I think I am going to rip out my hand-spun arm-warmers and change the pattern I am using and go again. I’ve found one I like better I think.

I’ve also started knitting log cabin squares from my hand-spun with the aim of at some point having enough to make a king sized afghan at some point in the future. I’ll be happy if it’s something I can finish in the next year or two. In the meantime, I’ll just keep knitting squares as I can. Near as I can figure, I’ll need around 48.

But I have finished something! A Snug Habor cat bed for the cat. Though finish is a loose term. The cat took it before I was completely done with it.

It is neither stuffed nor are the ends even woven in, and yet, he doesn’t seem to care. All’s well that ends well!

My First Sweater.

~ laura ~ 2 Comments

Ok, it’s not the first sweater I have knit, it’s true. I’ve done 3 baby sweaters and a kid’s sweater. But this is my first sweater for me! Also, my first adult sized sweater. It’s really quite overdue as a knitterly accomplishment in my opinion, but none of my previous attempts made me happy and so they got ripped or postponed forever.

7900|500

Radiate, done in Cascade 220 Peach, however has been an easy knit and I am fairly satisfied with how it has turned out. It’s not AMAZING! but it fits like I wanted it to and it is what I was seeking. A comfortable wool sweater. It was a really easy knit too.

I am still not happy with the button bands, but I’ve done them twice now, and I’m just going to live with them a while. I think I’ll try to put in a hidden 2 ended zipper though, because I’d prefer a smooth line anyway than just have the buttons all pulling and gaping. It’s not that it won’t fit around me buttoned, it does, but even having gone down several needle sizes, the bands are still just floppy. So I am thinking ribbon reinforcement and hidden zipper will fix it right up. Regardless, I’ll be waiting on that until I have worn it some and can see what I really think.

Other mods were making the sleeves 3/4 bell type sleeves by knitting longer and leaving out the decreases, making the body longer, and adding a line of crochet along the inside collar to help with keeping the neckline from stretching out.

The color is not really correct in these photos due to crappy lighting, but they are what I have for now. And it’s on to the next project! Hopefully it will be finished and posted about in May, as planned. :)

7903|500

YPP Octoscarf KAL Contest Entry: Octocowl

~ laura

actionshot

I am taking a lot of this directly from my entry on the Puzzle Pirates games forums, cause I am lazy and can’t be bothered to retype repeating myself.

My cowl overall was an interpretation I came up with in my head. I had seen the half-octo coffee cup cosy and faved it on Ravelry a few weeks ago though, so when this came up, I knew I would be using it.
I wanted to create something that both met the guidelines of the contest and would be something personal to me and that I would be happy with and willing to wear when it was all over with. I think I achieved that, and am really happy with the end product.
—————————-
The link to the Entrelac guide I used as a jumping off point is HERE.
I cast on 120 stitches did a bit of ribbing, and then set up the blocks to be 5 stitches wide. I knit enough rows to fit the Arch into, and then leveled off, did a bit more ribbing, and cast off. This did use more yarn than I originally intended and I ended up combing the stash and even spinning up some yarn of the right shade to be sure I’d have enough.

The link to the octopus pattern is HERE.
And the Ravelry link for it is HERE.
I added two more legs to him though, because I wanted him to have all 8.

The islands are just little crocheted circles, and the league points are just bad attempts at embroidery over knitting. The eyes and “Ruby” french knots are done with embroidery floss, and the whole thing is lined with a piratey map fabric you can see in the bonus photos link in my photo gallery.
—————————
Additional Images-
My photo gallery of the project is HERE.
It contains all the images I took of/during the project, some of which have no name tag but I knew I didn’t need them to all be entry photos, so it worked out.

The Ravelry link for this project is HERE.
There’s not really any more details of the project there, but it does list all the yarns I used.

Argyle Vest

~ laura ~ 6 Comments

First, I got a loom! Kromski Harp Rigid Heddle. I’ve named it Cameron. Since my wheel is Ferris, I figured my loom should be Cameron. I suppose the next thing I buy I have to name Simone.

5112|400

And here’s my first weaving project.

5115|400

It’s stalled out however, because I’ve been spending all my crafting efforts on this…..
An Emergency Sweater for young man I did not know was coming into the world. So I’ve had to knit quickly, because as every knitter knows, it’s harder to beat them once they start growing. I knit the 6 months size, but it seems HUGE. Not having a kid, I cannot judge the accuracy of the sweater, or my thoughts on hugeness. I do rather feel that perhaps the yarns aren’t far enough apart in color saturation, though, the colors themselves did a nice contrast, so the colorwork is not crisp and clear, but I still like the finished product just fine.

5117|400

The directions for the sweater call for it to be knit flat, but there was no way I was doing colorwork flat. So I did it in the round and steeked it. This is my first sweater with steeks. It didn’t suck, and cutting the knitting wasn’t that traumatizing or anything. Snip snip snip!

The other modification I made was to make the right shoulder of the sweater be a button closure instead of sewn together. That way it’s easier to get the thing on him. I hear babies can be squirmy, so I figured it would help.

5120|400

I still need to sew the steek bits down and trim them. I’ll take a photo of the innards after I do so for all you freaks who like to look at knitting guts. But in the meantime, here’s one steek done and the other two still needing to be done.

5123|400

Until then, carry on!

Handspun Swell

~ laura ~ 2 Comments

5088|400
Yesterday I knit an entire hat. BAM! My first finished knit of the year. And it only took me two months!
5091|400
It turned out a little on the small side but I love the way it looks enough not to rip it. I’ll just gift it and be happy with it just the same.
5094|400
Details: Knitty’s Swell, done in handspun on sz 5 needles. The yellow/orangey stuff was spun by me, with a cable? ply. Not sure that’s the right term, but you ply two singles together. Then you ply two plies of plied singles to each other. It creates a very mottled, round yarn. The dark purpley stuff was some of the handspun I got back in the HHHH swap. I held it double.
5084|400
The only thing I didn’t just love about how it turned out (Besides how it looks on me, which even shmoo admitted was awful!) was the last little bit of the crown. I feel like the decreases were a little to fast. I even readjusted so there was one extra row of them, but I think next time I’ll adjust so there are two or three extra rows.

FO: Vivid Shawl

~ laura ~ 1 Comment

I finished up my Vivid Shawl finally. It was pretty much my only knitting during vacation just because it was easy to do while watching tv and talking to family. It’s done using my handspun yarns from the fiber I got from Cloverleaf Farms at MSW a few years ago.

It’s the perfect size for a scarf or a small wrap, and I have already given it to a co-worker’s wife to use as easily portable neck wear that can easily be used as a warm cover for breast-feeding this winter.

4995|400
4983|400
4986|400
4989|400
4992|400

And I’ve started socks for shmoo with the yarn he picked out on vacation.

diagonalrib

FO: Clapotis (3)

~ laura ~ 1 Comment

I finally got around to finishing my 3rd Clapotis. Made with Wool in the Woods Golddust in Lottery colors.
I am sorry if you are in love with this yarn just by seeing it, but it’s discontinued and has been for ages. I just knit that slowly.
There’s nothing I can say about this pattern that hasn’t been said so… have some photos instead.

This is how it normally looks, sitting on the back of my chair at work if/when I am not using it.
4839|500

This is a coworker I talked into holding it up for me for a photo, because I was too short. To give you an idea of the length, he’s 6 foot. Can you believe I was going to put another ball of yarn on thing? And still would have if I hadn’t lost it.
4842|500

Flore

~ laura ~ 2 Comments

So while not posting, I have been knitting.
I finally finished up Flore, in the Red Pepper colorway.

4830|400

It’s a fiddly knit. Not overly taxing, but fiddly in the doing and fiddly in the finishing. It is very cute however, and something I’ve wanted to knit since before I knew how to knit at all. As soon as it’s dry, it’s going to go overseas to await a kiddo that is due soon.

The pattern was fine, but I didn’t like yarn. (Takhi Cotton Classic DK I believe) This doesn’t surprise me as I generally don’t like to knit with 100% cottons. I am well pleased with how the hat turned out in the end however, and am considering making a second in a wool or wool blend.

I’ve been spinning too. I ordered some stuff from Paradise Fibers. One of the stuffs I ordered was some of Ashland Bay’s Rainbow Firestar glitz.
You can see below one of the pre rainbow glitz batts on the left and in the middle and on the right you can see Rainbow Firestar. It turned out lovely and more like what I was seeking to match. I’ve already spun it up and plied it as well, but that will have to be another post.

4833|400

I got a new camera strap to help me keep track of it, and it’s lovely. I got it from Phat Straps Etsy shop.

camerastrap

It’s quite cute, sturdy, and I like it. I do think I should make a padded velcro sleeve for the camera itself now though, but I’ll have to see if I can find a good fabric match first.

I also spun up a few other things, but not all are quite skeined up yet, so that will have to wait.

Oh and I made some catnip mice for Bri a few weeks ago. The smallest one is MIA but the medium and large one are pictured below. They have been well loved already, and continue to be played with each day, so I consider them a success.

catnipmice

Let’s Play Pretend

~ laura ~ 4 Comments

Let’s pretend that I haven’t lost my camera battery charger and I have lots of pictures to share… shall we? (Squinch your eyes up really hard.. that always works right?)

Here’s our back deck. We cleaned it up a bit about 2 months ago and I got some herbs and a fern and a flowering plant, and two bird feeders, and then we got a nice little table and two chairs to go with it. And it’s lovely for spinning…. except the two bird feeders… attract a lot of birds, and their eating mess. But still I’ve never been a bird watching type before, so it’s new and different to try and identify the things that come to visit.

And this? This is my recent spinning. I plied the green-blue stuff. I plied the heathery green stuff. And I plied some naturally died red stuff, done by Stephania that I got at MSW last year. Come to think of it, the heathery green was from MSW last year too… and look how lovely and old fashioned Christmasy they look together!

And here’s my green monkey sock, only the one, as I had to stop and work on this baby hat here…. I should be done with it by next week though, which is good as it needs to be mailed across the pond and the baby is due in about 2 months as it is. But it’s a lovely cute hat no?

I also cheated and cast on for some lace. I am using a nice green silk and my US 1 needles, which makes it rather tiny but I think fabric would be too airy if I went any larger, though perhaps I should, I am not so far along I cannot stop and swatch I suppose….

Oh! and I sewed myself a skirt! Ok, not quite. I just refashioned one. I took my most favorite pair of jeans that had finally had an inner thigh blowout they just couldn’t recover from, and made it into an a-line style skirt using a tutorial I found online. It was about 2 or so hours worth of work, and I love it! It’s still super comfortable like my jeans were, and just as casual, but lemme tell you, if you just throw on a Tshirt and flip-flops and head to Home Depot in this skirt instead of the jeans they used to be… well… I can only say the Gardening section fellas were very attentive for some reason. A skirt! Who knew?

Easter Monkey

~ laura ~ 1 Comment

My pair of Monkey socks is done! I actually finished closing up the toe during lunch on Monday. I promptly put them on and wore them the rest of the day. While I would prefer the ankles not to slouch so much, over all they are just fine and I am happy with them. And hey, they match, which means I have completed the goal for this year about making myself a matching pair of socks.

4585|400

Deets: BMF STR in Eggplanted (at least I think that’s the color), US 2 needles, changed toe to a round toe.