So, please, come join me over at http://katesaid.wordpress.com. The knitting posts won't happen any more often than they did here, I suspect - but there will be a lot more going on as filler in between the important, fiber-enhanced stuff.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Movin' On Up
I've decided to consolidate a bit, and have merged this blog in with my regular one. Why protect the masses from knitting, after all? Must share, and potentially rope in new victims addicts crafters.
So, please, come join me over at http://katesaid.wordpress.com. The knitting posts won't happen any more often than they did here, I suspect - but there will be a lot more going on as filler in between the important, fiber-enhanced stuff.
So, please, come join me over at http://katesaid.wordpress.com. The knitting posts won't happen any more often than they did here, I suspect - but there will be a lot more going on as filler in between the important, fiber-enhanced stuff.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Endless No More
People use the word endless to refer to school lectures, lines at the DMV, the 2-minute wait for pregnancy test results... but honestly, in the case of Willem's sweater, I really thought it was actually going to be endless. Neverending. Incomplete-able. There were just so many cables, and then after the cables there were more cables. And did I mention the cables? And all in unbroken off-white. In size XXL.
Not so long in the larger scheme of things, I suppose; I started at the end of January and it's not quite 7 months later. Took me longer to make my babies, and they were each more than a month early. But I kept wandering off on side projects, finding (okay, seeking) distractions, indulging in some yarn snobbery that made the return to Lion Brand - albeit "100% pure virgin wool containing natural oils," according to their marketing gurus - a bit of a mental adjustment (though, as was quite wisely pointed out to me, it is good stuff. Worth purchasing again. Someday.)... in general, it was an uphill battle.
Then there were the alterations to the pattern. First it was just a lengthening of torso and sleeves. Then a casual mention from Willem that he thought it made more sense for the back to match the front, instead of being beaded rib throughout. (No, he did not use the phrase "beaded rib" - I have trained him well, but not that well.) Then the realization that the front and back, being large unshaped blocks, were going to be adding extra boxiness to an already broad-shouldered frame, and that my husband probably would prefer not to look like a Lego figurine when wearing his new sweater.
Hence the steeking. Oh, it was scary, but it seemed like the most efficient and customizable way to tailor the shoulders to match the sleeve caps I'd added to the original pattern (it's on the Lion Brand website, the "Aran Pullover," if you're registered and inclined to search - but pay attention to the sleeve length, the pattern lists 'em backwards!).
So, I knit and knit and knit, and measured and counted and knit some more, and was grateful for having learned how to cable-knit without a cable needle, and then steeked and seamed, and viola! A sweater fit for a graduate student. Here's hoping for a cold, cold, cold New Hampshire winter.
Not so long in the larger scheme of things, I suppose; I started at the end of January and it's not quite 7 months later. Took me longer to make my babies, and they were each more than a month early. But I kept wandering off on side projects, finding (okay, seeking) distractions, indulging in some yarn snobbery that made the return to Lion Brand - albeit "100% pure virgin wool containing natural oils," according to their marketing gurus - a bit of a mental adjustment (though, as was quite wisely pointed out to me, it is good stuff. Worth purchasing again. Someday.)... in general, it was an uphill battle.
Then there were the alterations to the pattern. First it was just a lengthening of torso and sleeves. Then a casual mention from Willem that he thought it made more sense for the back to match the front, instead of being beaded rib throughout. (No, he did not use the phrase "beaded rib" - I have trained him well, but not that well.) Then the realization that the front and back, being large unshaped blocks, were going to be adding extra boxiness to an already broad-shouldered frame, and that my husband probably would prefer not to look like a Lego figurine when wearing his new sweater.
Hence the steeking. Oh, it was scary, but it seemed like the most efficient and customizable way to tailor the shoulders to match the sleeve caps I'd added to the original pattern (it's on the Lion Brand website, the "Aran Pullover," if you're registered and inclined to search - but pay attention to the sleeve length, the pattern lists 'em backwards!).
So, I knit and knit and knit, and measured and counted and knit some more, and was grateful for having learned how to cable-knit without a cable needle, and then steeked and seamed, and viola! A sweater fit for a graduate student. Here's hoping for a cold, cold, cold New Hampshire winter.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Ein Klein Knit Magik
Apologies for the lame cultural reference, but do you ever get a post title in your head and nothing else will replace it? What, that's just me? Whatever.
I had one of those magical knitting experiences last night, comparable to the Miracle of Emily's Socks. I wanted a summery, quick project to break up the cabling, cabling, cabling of Willem's sweater, and I'd just finished a pair of socks. Here:
Pattern: Flame Wave Socks by Ann Budd, in Interweave's Favorite Sock Patterns
Yarn: Sandnes Garn Mandarin Petit in Red
I'm so-so on them; they're a little loose at the top and a little tight on the bottom for Emily, but Jacob looooooves them, so I may just make new ones for Emily and be content with that.
Anyway. The magic? I wanted to make a simple summery bag out of dishcloth cotton, and I have a couple of large balls of it from a recent chain-store sale. So I picked needles pretty much at random (size 8 US), and cast on until it seemed about long enough (75 stitches), and started working in linen stitch. I wanted something without much elasticity or looseness to provide a sturdy bottom on the bag. I figured, like with any other variegated yarn, I was taking my chances on the specific color arrangement, and expected a random display. Instead, I got:
How cool is that? The vertical stripes were unplanned, and in fact I don't think I could have done it on purpose.
Sometimes it takes very little to make me happy.
I had one of those magical knitting experiences last night, comparable to the Miracle of Emily's Socks. I wanted a summery, quick project to break up the cabling, cabling, cabling of Willem's sweater, and I'd just finished a pair of socks. Here:
Pattern: Flame Wave Socks by Ann Budd, in Interweave's Favorite Sock Patterns
Yarn: Sandnes Garn Mandarin Petit in Red
I'm so-so on them; they're a little loose at the top and a little tight on the bottom for Emily, but Jacob looooooves them, so I may just make new ones for Emily and be content with that.
Anyway. The magic? I wanted to make a simple summery bag out of dishcloth cotton, and I have a couple of large balls of it from a recent chain-store sale. So I picked needles pretty much at random (size 8 US), and cast on until it seemed about long enough (75 stitches), and started working in linen stitch. I wanted something without much elasticity or looseness to provide a sturdy bottom on the bag. I figured, like with any other variegated yarn, I was taking my chances on the specific color arrangement, and expected a random display. Instead, I got:
How cool is that? The vertical stripes were unplanned, and in fact I don't think I could have done it on purpose.
Sometimes it takes very little to make me happy.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Ravelry BAD... and So, So Good.
Oh, boy.
I have spent hours and hours today on Ravelry, because somehow, for once in my life, I was clued into a new trend relatively early in the process and got my invitation last week.
For the uninitiated: it's like a database/blog/forum/messageboard for all things yarn. And it's dangerous if you happen to have the slightest twinge of anality anywhere in your brain. And oh, I do.
So my stash, except for the dishcloth cotton (one must draw a line somewhere... right?), is online, and I've been able to limit myself to posting only the projects that I've been working on since joining the site. For now. Give me time, the rest will go on there. I have finite self-control.
Dangerous, that place is. Seriously.
I have spent hours and hours today on Ravelry, because somehow, for once in my life, I was clued into a new trend relatively early in the process and got my invitation last week.
For the uninitiated: it's like a database/blog/forum/messageboard for all things yarn. And it's dangerous if you happen to have the slightest twinge of anality anywhere in your brain. And oh, I do.
So my stash, except for the dishcloth cotton (one must draw a line somewhere... right?), is online, and I've been able to limit myself to posting only the projects that I've been working on since joining the site. For now. Give me time, the rest will go on there. I have finite self-control.
Dangerous, that place is. Seriously.
Destashing... but Keeping it in the Family
Yesterday, we got pretty new floors in my house - gratuitous floor shots here - and part of the preparation for said onslaught involved emptying the floor of my crafts closet, which is where my yarn lives. So, while it was out, I gave it a critical glare and decided that I was holding onto far too much acrylic that I was just never going to use.
Acrylic has its place, mind you. I'm certain I'll be buying more at some point, because I have children and they have legs and those legs allow them to get dirty. And I really need to throw at least their sweaters, if not the entire children, directly into the washing machine at the end of a busy day. But what I had here was not a collection of sweaters-to-be; it was odds and ends from former projects, some of my own and most of my great-grandmother's, whose stash I inherited in 2005. Bless her heart, but Grandma O loved her some acrylics.
So I decided, last night, that instead of simply returning my stash, unaltered, into the craft closet, I would pare it down, as ruthlessly as possible. Having two sisters who are relatively new knitters and on budgets that have not yet allowed them to become yarn snobs (though Sarah, the college one, has apparently started sniffing out "real" yarn stores... I think she's right on the brink. Mary, the high school one, is still happy with dishcloth cotton and 100% acrylic, and more power to her)... I had a perfect audience for my discards. I'm sending it all home with Mary next week, and have asked that they donate whatever they don't want to a local women's shelter or substance abuse treatment center, both of which use knitting as a hand-occupying productive addiction to replace the anxieties and stresses of leaving behind a difficult lifestyle.
So, farewell, old friends. Have good, useful lives... out of the closet.
Acrylic has its place, mind you. I'm certain I'll be buying more at some point, because I have children and they have legs and those legs allow them to get dirty. And I really need to throw at least their sweaters, if not the entire children, directly into the washing machine at the end of a busy day. But what I had here was not a collection of sweaters-to-be; it was odds and ends from former projects, some of my own and most of my great-grandmother's, whose stash I inherited in 2005. Bless her heart, but Grandma O loved her some acrylics.
So I decided, last night, that instead of simply returning my stash, unaltered, into the craft closet, I would pare it down, as ruthlessly as possible. Having two sisters who are relatively new knitters and on budgets that have not yet allowed them to become yarn snobs (though Sarah, the college one, has apparently started sniffing out "real" yarn stores... I think she's right on the brink. Mary, the high school one, is still happy with dishcloth cotton and 100% acrylic, and more power to her)... I had a perfect audience for my discards. I'm sending it all home with Mary next week, and have asked that they donate whatever they don't want to a local women's shelter or substance abuse treatment center, both of which use knitting as a hand-occupying productive addiction to replace the anxieties and stresses of leaving behind a difficult lifestyle.
So, farewell, old friends. Have good, useful lives... out of the closet.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Kepler... sort of
Finally! Hooray! A finished project!
Kepler from Fathom Harvill.
Unfortunately, it's not looking, in real life, the way it looked in my head. I substituted yarn, from a wool to an angora-viscose blend... very pretty yarn, but not what the pattern called for.
I think, someday, I'll remake it, as the designer intended. But, for now, it's okay. And I've completed a whole sweater, all by myself.
The full view:
Sleeve/waistband detail:
The ubiquitous headless sweater shot:
Now... off to work on Willem's Aran sweater. I have nothing else to distract myself with, no otherexcuses for putting it off works in progress.
But!
In very exciting news!
My sister Mary turned to me, this evening, and said those magic words that every knitter longs to hear.
"I want you to teach me how to knit."
And so it begins.
Kepler from Fathom Harvill.
Unfortunately, it's not looking, in real life, the way it looked in my head. I substituted yarn, from a wool to an angora-viscose blend... very pretty yarn, but not what the pattern called for.
I think, someday, I'll remake it, as the designer intended. But, for now, it's okay. And I've completed a whole sweater, all by myself.
The full view:
Sleeve/waistband detail:
The ubiquitous headless sweater shot:
Now... off to work on Willem's Aran sweater. I have nothing else to distract myself with, no other
But!
In very exciting news!
My sister Mary turned to me, this evening, and said those magic words that every knitter longs to hear.
"I want you to teach me how to knit."
And so it begins.
Monday, July 9, 2007
No Knitting Here...
...not right now, anyway. Very soon, within a day or two, I hope to be done with my gray Kepler sweater, and then can dive back into Willem's Aran sweater.
But right this second, my husband and children are away in New York for a week, visiting my mother-in-law, and I'm taking advantage of their absence by working like crazy to redo the kitchen. No structural changes, but the walls have been stripped and repainted and lots of details have been changed. Ssssshhhhh... don't tell Willem, okay? I'm looking forward to his reaction... he knows I'm working on something this week, but he doesn't know what.
It has been a project characterized by two important skills: abandoning pointless pride and learning to accept help graciously when it's offered, and accepting minor imperfections in service of getting to the bigger picture.
So, without further ado... my kitchen, before and after.
The shadow boxes on the table will be mounted to the rear wall tomorrow morning. And the other stuff will get put away, but when I'm tired I get jumpy, so I refuse to go into our unlit breezeway until morning.
The fridge is the last big thing on my to-do list; a new one is being delivered on Wednesday and a plumber is coming to make the ice maker make ice on Thursday. Until then, I have my old and suddenly rusty dinosaur... the moisture seal called an unannounced labor strike last week, so even if I wasn't graced with an empty house for a week in order to make it all pretty, we'd have been fridge-shopping. This way I'll have a kitchen worthy of the newcomer.
Not too shabby for three days' work, I think. And within a day or two (I still need to attack the office, but that's just sorting and organizing, no paint involved) I should be back on the needles.
But right this second, my husband and children are away in New York for a week, visiting my mother-in-law, and I'm taking advantage of their absence by working like crazy to redo the kitchen. No structural changes, but the walls have been stripped and repainted and lots of details have been changed. Ssssshhhhh... don't tell Willem, okay? I'm looking forward to his reaction... he knows I'm working on something this week, but he doesn't know what.
It has been a project characterized by two important skills: abandoning pointless pride and learning to accept help graciously when it's offered, and accepting minor imperfections in service of getting to the bigger picture.
So, without further ado... my kitchen, before and after.
The shadow boxes on the table will be mounted to the rear wall tomorrow morning. And the other stuff will get put away, but when I'm tired I get jumpy, so I refuse to go into our unlit breezeway until morning.
The fridge is the last big thing on my to-do list; a new one is being delivered on Wednesday and a plumber is coming to make the ice maker make ice on Thursday. Until then, I have my old and suddenly rusty dinosaur... the moisture seal called an unannounced labor strike last week, so even if I wasn't graced with an empty house for a week in order to make it all pretty, we'd have been fridge-shopping. This way I'll have a kitchen worthy of the newcomer.
Not too shabby for three days' work, I think. And within a day or two (I still need to attack the office, but that's just sorting and organizing, no paint involved) I should be back on the needles.
Monday, June 4, 2007
Look, Ma, No Pattern!
I can't remember where I learned this stitch pattern - it's:
[k2tog, k3, yo, k1, yo, k3, ssk] with a selvedge stitch on each end, so you cast on any multiple of 11 plus 2. But I like it, and the yarn wanted to be in it, so I used the Phildar yarn I bought in France to make a cute little lace sweater... we're going to a 7-year-old's birthday party next week, so Emily is just a temporary model (albeit a cute one!).
I'm pretty proud of the outcome... I enjoy patterns, but successful winging it is just so satisfying!
Details:
Phildar Auteuil yarn, Iris colorway - 3 balls
10mm (US size 15) needles for cast on
3.75mm (US size 5) needles for remainder of project
~16 yards narrow polyester ribbon for edging
3.75mm (US F/5) crochet hook for edging
[k2tog, k3, yo, k1, yo, k3, ssk] with a selvedge stitch on each end, so you cast on any multiple of 11 plus 2. But I like it, and the yarn wanted to be in it, so I used the Phildar yarn I bought in France to make a cute little lace sweater... we're going to a 7-year-old's birthday party next week, so Emily is just a temporary model (albeit a cute one!).
I'm pretty proud of the outcome... I enjoy patterns, but successful winging it is just so satisfying!
Details:
Phildar Auteuil yarn, Iris colorway - 3 balls
10mm (US size 15) needles for cast on
3.75mm (US size 5) needles for remainder of project
~16 yards narrow polyester ribbon for edging
3.75mm (US F/5) crochet hook for edging
Thursday, May 24, 2007
A Project-to-be
I feel like I've been rather sadly neglecting this blog of late. It's not for lack of knitting, though it is for lack of knitting show-off-able projects, and for lack of finishing much.
For instance, in Paris, I finished a pair of simple stockinette socks for my sister Mary, but they were on Lion Brand Microspun (which I have decided I hate), intended as a way to start an in-the-round project with my other, knitting sister, Sarah. They took about two days, and that's with ripping out several times to accommodate feet which apparently grew over the course of each day. I have a photo of a sock-in-progress, but I never did take a picture of the finished product... I'll try to remember next time I see her, but that could be months.
I did finish one yellow sock for myself, and it's neat. I haven't cast on for the second yet. But I carry it in my purse, just waiting for the proper enforced down-time at work or wherever. Emily does have a softball game tonight...
I've started a sweater for a friend's child, out of Phildar yarn (a result of our French yarn shopping), and her birthday is in a week, so with luck I'll have a finished project to show soon.
I went to the WEBS tent sale last weekend, and picked up a handful of single balls to experiment with, including a Noro Transitions and Noro Silver Thaw on good discounts, some funky hand-dyed ribbon yarn, and a bag of Rowan All Seasons Cotton in the grape colorway. It's just exciting to have, even if I don't actually have plans for it yet... I'll have to take a picture soon.
But the big thing on my mind is a project for which I have ideas, photos and a bag of yarn, but not yet a pattern. I'd decided, before we ever left, that my souvenir of France would be the purchase of yarn that I couldn't get (easily) outside of France, to make a sweater to commemorate the trip - a way of combining a shopping trip with a longer-term hobby, you know? And our first day there, we went to the Opera, and I was inspired by the complex mosaic patterns on the floor. So I want to take these:
...and some of this yarn (the off-white is part-cashmere, yum!):
...to make myself a sweater, in the spirit of a Norwegian skiing sweater, with patterning along the waistline and neckline/shoulders and possibly also the cuffs of the sleeves, and a fairly wide off-white stockinette band in the middle. I haven't had the time and focus yet to sit down and map it out, and I want to finish off a few pending projects so I have more mental space for this one. But soon. Soon.
For instance, in Paris, I finished a pair of simple stockinette socks for my sister Mary, but they were on Lion Brand Microspun (which I have decided I hate), intended as a way to start an in-the-round project with my other, knitting sister, Sarah. They took about two days, and that's with ripping out several times to accommodate feet which apparently grew over the course of each day. I have a photo of a sock-in-progress, but I never did take a picture of the finished product... I'll try to remember next time I see her, but that could be months.
I did finish one yellow sock for myself, and it's neat. I haven't cast on for the second yet. But I carry it in my purse, just waiting for the proper enforced down-time at work or wherever. Emily does have a softball game tonight...
I've started a sweater for a friend's child, out of Phildar yarn (a result of our French yarn shopping), and her birthday is in a week, so with luck I'll have a finished project to show soon.
I went to the WEBS tent sale last weekend, and picked up a handful of single balls to experiment with, including a Noro Transitions and Noro Silver Thaw on good discounts, some funky hand-dyed ribbon yarn, and a bag of Rowan All Seasons Cotton in the grape colorway. It's just exciting to have, even if I don't actually have plans for it yet... I'll have to take a picture soon.
But the big thing on my mind is a project for which I have ideas, photos and a bag of yarn, but not yet a pattern. I'd decided, before we ever left, that my souvenir of France would be the purchase of yarn that I couldn't get (easily) outside of France, to make a sweater to commemorate the trip - a way of combining a shopping trip with a longer-term hobby, you know? And our first day there, we went to the Opera, and I was inspired by the complex mosaic patterns on the floor. So I want to take these:
...and some of this yarn (the off-white is part-cashmere, yum!):
...to make myself a sweater, in the spirit of a Norwegian skiing sweater, with patterning along the waistline and neckline/shoulders and possibly also the cuffs of the sleeves, and a fairly wide off-white stockinette band in the middle. I haven't had the time and focus yet to sit down and map it out, and I want to finish off a few pending projects so I have more mental space for this one. But soon. Soon.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Continued Cuteness
Honest and truly, I am still working on adult, non-cute things... but they take so much longer. I still have Willem's neverending fisherman's sweater on the needles, and I've recently cast on these socks in a bright yellow Regia Silk 6-ply for myself (Monday night), and this sweater in Angora Soft, also for me (yesterday). I normally try to limit the active projects, or at least I don't cast on two new projects on consecutive nights, but I needed a break from the Aran sweater and wanted to start a small, non-threatening project to do on the plane to Paris next week (!!), and wanted another one, heavy on plain stockinette stitch, to work on in the car this weekend when we go to New York.
What? Me, addicted? You think picking out my knitting projects long before I start packing my clothes is a sign of addiction?
Yeah, me too.
So, that's what's happening. In the meantime, I have finished off a few things, with a week's hiatus to be deathly ill - strep throat and a GI virus at the same time, how lucky am I? I was literally too sick to knit. But I've recovered, and there was much rejoicing.
Let's see... I finished a walrus for Miss Emma...
Then a moose for my sister Mary, who, if she reads this blog, will see her birthday present a day before she gets it. I can cope with that.
And then my first-ever foray into both making something up and writing down the pattern... a little tube dress with i-cord straps, for Lexi, who spends Monday evenings with us and is as cute as a button but much rounder. I did endless searching for "free knitting pattern toddler sundress" and couldn't find quite what I wanted, but Kerrie's Exotic Tank pattern gave me the basic proportions and then I just converted it to circular needles and changed the edges a bit. Only took about 6 hours, start to finish... not too shabby!
Lexi's Sundress (size 2T):
Materials:
2 skeins Caron Simply Soft, MC=heather, CC=lavender
4.5mm / US 7 circular needle, 24”
Darning needle
Size E/4 crochet hook
Gauge:
5 sts x 4 rows = 1 square inch
Body:
MC co 213, pm and join
k 2 rnds
k2tog, k1 1 rnd ----- 142 sts
CC k 3 rnds
MC k2 tog 1 rnd
MC k 5 rnds
CC k 3 rnds
[MC k 6 rnds; CC k 3 rnds] – repeat until piece measures 17” from first CC rnd
Neck shaping:
Staying in stripe pattern:
Next rnd k 51 sts, BO 20
Next “rnd”: BO 20 – now with 31 sts remaining, working back and forth for remainder of project.
All purl rows, p across.
Next k row: k1, k2tog, k25, ssk, k1
Next k row: k1, k2 tog, k23, ssk, k1
Next k row: k1, k2tog, k7, ssk, k1, BO 1, k1, k2tog, k7, ssk, k1 (22 sts remain, 2 straps of 11 sts each)
Left strap shaping:
[p across
k1, k2tog, k to end.]
Repeat until 4 sts remain in this strap.
Switch to i-cord, CC for length of cord – make strap 12” long, thread darning needle and pull end of yarn through live sts, pull tight and weave in end.
Right strap shaping:
[p across
k to 3 sts from end, ssk, k1]
Repeat until 4 sts remain, then complete as right strap.
Using CC and crochet hook, single-crochet edging along neckline. Weave in ends, and apply to nearest size-2T child.
What? Me, addicted? You think picking out my knitting projects long before I start packing my clothes is a sign of addiction?
Yeah, me too.
So, that's what's happening. In the meantime, I have finished off a few things, with a week's hiatus to be deathly ill - strep throat and a GI virus at the same time, how lucky am I? I was literally too sick to knit. But I've recovered, and there was much rejoicing.
Let's see... I finished a walrus for Miss Emma...
Then a moose for my sister Mary, who, if she reads this blog, will see her birthday present a day before she gets it. I can cope with that.
And then my first-ever foray into both making something up and writing down the pattern... a little tube dress with i-cord straps, for Lexi, who spends Monday evenings with us and is as cute as a button but much rounder. I did endless searching for "free knitting pattern toddler sundress" and couldn't find quite what I wanted, but Kerrie's Exotic Tank pattern gave me the basic proportions and then I just converted it to circular needles and changed the edges a bit. Only took about 6 hours, start to finish... not too shabby!
Lexi's Sundress (size 2T):
Materials:
2 skeins Caron Simply Soft, MC=heather, CC=lavender
4.5mm / US 7 circular needle, 24”
Darning needle
Size E/4 crochet hook
Gauge:
5 sts x 4 rows = 1 square inch
Body:
MC co 213, pm and join
k 2 rnds
k2tog, k1 1 rnd ----- 142 sts
CC k 3 rnds
MC k2 tog 1 rnd
MC k 5 rnds
CC k 3 rnds
[MC k 6 rnds; CC k 3 rnds] – repeat until piece measures 17” from first CC rnd
Neck shaping:
Staying in stripe pattern:
Next rnd k 51 sts, BO 20
Next “rnd”: BO 20 – now with 31 sts remaining, working back and forth for remainder of project.
All purl rows, p across.
Next k row: k1, k2tog, k25, ssk, k1
Next k row: k1, k2 tog, k23, ssk, k1
Next k row: k1, k2tog, k7, ssk, k1, BO 1, k1, k2tog, k7, ssk, k1 (22 sts remain, 2 straps of 11 sts each)
Left strap shaping:
[p across
k1, k2tog, k to end.]
Repeat until 4 sts remain in this strap.
Switch to i-cord, CC for length of cord – make strap 12” long, thread darning needle and pull end of yarn through live sts, pull tight and weave in end.
Right strap shaping:
[p across
k to 3 sts from end, ssk, k1]
Repeat until 4 sts remain, then complete as right strap.
Using CC and crochet hook, single-crochet edging along neckline. Weave in ends, and apply to nearest size-2T child.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
A Touch of Cute
Lisa had asked, a while ago, for a hat in a certain pattern... and a few weeks ago, I found myself itching for a quick project. Well, to be honest, what I wanted was to finish something - I was hip-deep in the Clapotis and Willem's sweater but I really, really like having completed objects. So, an hour or so later (and a quick, innocent little trip to the local yarn store) and, viola! A hat!
Details:
Pixie Hat pattern, Artful Yarns Serenade in "Chance Are" colorway (about 1/2 skein), #5 needles.
Details:
Pixie Hat pattern, Artful Yarns Serenade in "Chance Are" colorway (about 1/2 skein), #5 needles.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
The Birthday Lion
She requested a stuffed, knitted lion. She helped pick out the colors, but then as far as she knows, I haven't had any more time to work on it...
I hope she likes it!
Details:
Pattern from Kath Dalmeny's World of Knitted Toys. Used Peaches 'n' Creme dishcloth cotton for the body (about one ball of yellow and 1/2 ball of off-white), and about 3/4 a hank of Araucania Pehuen in the Peach/Apricot/Strawberry colorway for the mane. Random scraps for the face and toes, and black glittery fabric paint on the paws.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Finis!
I finished my Clapotis late last night, and of course had to stay up later to block it. I've read of many others not blocking theirs, but the drop-stitch ladders seemed uneven and wonky to me, and blocking relaxed and evened them up quite a bit.
And, yippee, oh am I just the happiest ever, we got more snow today. Normally this would be more than enough of an excuse for me to get all cranky, but it actually wasn't a terrible thing... it gave me a good reason to wear my new creation to work!
Without further ado...
Clapotis in Rowan Tapestry, potpourri colorway on size-7 KnitPicks Options.
Photo courtesy of Emily, age almost-7, my Wednesday-night in-house photographer.
Over the weekend, I needed faster gratification than I was getting from the Clapotis or from Willem's sweater, so I threw together a pair of socks for Jacob's 2-year-old toes. He wore just one sock to bed the first night, so I had to stay up late and finish the second one lest the other foot feel neglected. Somehow I don't have pictures of the socks actually on the little toes... ah, well.
Fraternal Twins, Nate pattern on size-3 bamboo double-pointed needles, with Marks & Katten Clown yarn.
And oh by the way, I did finish the entrelac bag I started the other weekend... it just went into immediate use, so I forgot to take a picture before now. Entrelac front, slip-stitched back and strap, in Southwest Trading Company's Karaoke yarn (LOVE this stuff!) on size-8 straight needles.
Whew. Much finishing, it's a good feeling. Now I really, really need to buckle down and finish Willem's sweater, because I just got a big box of yarn from Webs and I promised Willem I would finish his sweater before I start one for myself. This is a serious sacrifice, and being a non-knitter he totally lacks the proper appreciation.
And, yippee, oh am I just the happiest ever, we got more snow today. Normally this would be more than enough of an excuse for me to get all cranky, but it actually wasn't a terrible thing... it gave me a good reason to wear my new creation to work!
Without further ado...
Clapotis in Rowan Tapestry, potpourri colorway on size-7 KnitPicks Options.
Photo courtesy of Emily, age almost-7, my Wednesday-night in-house photographer.
Over the weekend, I needed faster gratification than I was getting from the Clapotis or from Willem's sweater, so I threw together a pair of socks for Jacob's 2-year-old toes. He wore just one sock to bed the first night, so I had to stay up late and finish the second one lest the other foot feel neglected. Somehow I don't have pictures of the socks actually on the little toes... ah, well.
Fraternal Twins, Nate pattern on size-3 bamboo double-pointed needles, with Marks & Katten Clown yarn.
And oh by the way, I did finish the entrelac bag I started the other weekend... it just went into immediate use, so I forgot to take a picture before now. Entrelac front, slip-stitched back and strap, in Southwest Trading Company's Karaoke yarn (LOVE this stuff!) on size-8 straight needles.
Whew. Much finishing, it's a good feeling. Now I really, really need to buckle down and finish Willem's sweater, because I just got a big box of yarn from Webs and I promised Willem I would finish his sweater before I start one for myself. This is a serious sacrifice, and being a non-knitter he totally lacks the proper appreciation.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Aspirations
Someday, I will make myself a Mr. Rogers sweater. I have photos of it (taken in-person, sort of), and when I get motivated enough, I'll find more.
But I'm not quite ready to design a sweater on my own just yet. I also have ideas for a breastfeeding sweater and kids' pajamas... so much crowded into my little head, I tell you.
Instead, I've been working on Clapotis, a scarf/wrap from knitty.com, in Rowan Tapestry, and so far am liking it (even though my knitting-uneducated husband pronounced the drop-stitch sections to "not look right")...
And I also spent the weekend learning how to knit in the entrelac style... sounds all fancy and requires a fair amount of attention but wasn't too hard. I'm making a little pouch/purse sort of thing, just big enough to carry my wallet, cell phone and keys. I know, I already made one - does anyone really want to question a woman's need for more than one bag?
But I'm not quite ready to design a sweater on my own just yet. I also have ideas for a breastfeeding sweater and kids' pajamas... so much crowded into my little head, I tell you.
Instead, I've been working on Clapotis, a scarf/wrap from knitty.com, in Rowan Tapestry, and so far am liking it (even though my knitting-uneducated husband pronounced the drop-stitch sections to "not look right")...
And I also spent the weekend learning how to knit in the entrelac style... sounds all fancy and requires a fair amount of attention but wasn't too hard. I'm making a little pouch/purse sort of thing, just big enough to carry my wallet, cell phone and keys. I know, I already made one - does anyone really want to question a woman's need for more than one bag?
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Purl THIS!
In other exciting news, aside from socks marking my first foray into the realm of double-pointed needles (DPNs, to the already-initiated), that project was also my first effort at using Continental-style knitting. As I posted in my other blog, I knit weird. Here, I'll copy it here, seems like it belongs here anyway:
Anyway, so, yeah. Apparently it is possible to knit Combination on circular/DPNs, but I wasn't having much luck with it, and thought I might as well learn a new method anyway. Turns out, it's not appreciably harder OR slower than Combination, when knitting. The purling, that was another matter. I was just clumsy and ineffective with it for the longest time (read: 45 minutes or so, until I got tired of it and went online for help). I returned once again to knittinghelp.com for purling wisdom, and scrolled yet farther down to the Norwegian purl. And after watching her little video about 400 times, I finally got the hang of it, and can purl *almost* at a reasonable speed. I can do it almost as fast as I knit if I don't let myself think about it too much, but as soon as I stop and pay attention to what I'm doing I get all tangled up and confused again.
But the moral of the story is, I can now, officially, say that I can knit Combination or Continental with comparable effectiveness. Go, me.
January 4, 2007
I just had an epiphany.
I knit weird.
I was - yes, I understand, by admitting this I am baring a truly geeky and uncool side of my soul; I am at ease with this - watching a show that is so insanely faux-trendy and irritating that it's like having Grandma's gaudy ceramic turkey salt and pepper shakers on the table, where it's so bad that it's actually kind of sweet and comforting, called Knitty Gritty...
...I'll just pause while you fight off the nausea that the cutesiness of the name inevitably incites...
...and I happened to notice, "Hmm. That man is knitting differently than I do." It's subtle, and I had already known that my way - which I believed was the Continental method - looked different than how my sister and a few of my friends knit. They knit in the American method (I know it's the same page as the last one, scroll a little!). I'm a mere beginner - I learned the basics about 3 years ago, and have only really been into it for the past few months, with my first project, a really loud blanket, finished in April 2006 - but I can knit pretty quickly, and without looking at the needles. The purls and the knits just feel different. Shut up, it matters to me.
Anyway, it was interesting to me that I had learned the Continental method, which isn't rare but it's less common than the American method, at least in America (I tend to think there's something about the naming convention that would suggest this to me, but I can't think what). Interesting because I learned from my great-grandmother, whom everyone called Grandma O. You'd have called her Grandma O, too, if you knew her. This is not cute blog-shortening to protect her identity, that's actually what we called her. We're Irish, she had an O' last name... you get the idea.
I miss her so much, and somehow more this year than last, likely because I was in such a deep dark depression this time last year that no one thing stood out as a stronger sadness than the others. (I must have been SUCH fun.) Growing up, I spent two or three weeks every summer with her in the Adirondacks, in this kitschy summer-only trailer neighborhood thing that we all referred to as "Camp." She was 70 years older than me, almost, and being the much-oldest grandchild, I was mostly there with her alone. So we talked some, more her than me, and we just sat together. She gave me a lot of freedom and trust, and taught me how to crochet, and cook without using recipes, and build a decent fire.
I can't put it into words well, other than that I am so unspeakably grateful to have had her in my life, and I ache for my children that they won't know her. How many other 80-year-old women do you know who got kicked out of an Irish bar on St. Patrick's Day, for lecturing the cook on how to properly make Irish stew while her traveling companion - my other great-grandmother, Grandma B - was demonstrating an Irish jig, on the bar? How many other people consider Parcheesi to be a full contact sport? She died in June 2005, just days after our last visit.
But, like I described here, I did not learn how to knit at Camp. Dunno why, just never did. So the fact that I found the time and motivation to learn from her later, in a nursing home, while she was still coherent and herself, is a point of pride for me. And now my only regret is how clueless I was; I didn't even realize there was more than one way to knit, much less that there was anything unusual about the way I was learning. I didn't know I should ask her how she learned that way.
So, back to the present. I was watching my dorky show, and realized that the guest knitter (ah, yes, a new life goal) was doing it differently, and since my laptop was right here all wifi'ed up and ready to go, I went to my favorite knitting website (shut up, it's got videos) to investigate. And it turns out that I don't knit American - I knew this - nor do I knit Continental. Instead I use a rather obscure and unusual method called Combination knitting.
I had no idea that such a thing even existed, much less that I was doing it. HOW did Grandma O learn this way? Who taught her? Why can't I be twelve again, sitting on the porch at Camp, listening to the rain and one of three channels on the TV ("just on for company") and another Grandma O Story?
And, to step out of the maudlin for a moment, how weird is it to learn something like that about yourself? This may not seem like a big deal to those of you who don't knit, but it's a bit like suddenly learning that everyone else holds a pen between different fingers, or ties their shoes up-side-down, or something. I barely even recognized myself in the mirror.
The end result is the same, as far as I can tell, but the process is different. How's that forarmchaircouch philosophy?
Anyway, so, yeah. Apparently it is possible to knit Combination on circular/DPNs, but I wasn't having much luck with it, and thought I might as well learn a new method anyway. Turns out, it's not appreciably harder OR slower than Combination, when knitting. The purling, that was another matter. I was just clumsy and ineffective with it for the longest time (read: 45 minutes or so, until I got tired of it and went online for help). I returned once again to knittinghelp.com for purling wisdom, and scrolled yet farther down to the Norwegian purl. And after watching her little video about 400 times, I finally got the hang of it, and can purl *almost* at a reasonable speed. I can do it almost as fast as I knit if I don't let myself think about it too much, but as soon as I stop and pay attention to what I'm doing I get all tangled up and confused again.
But the moral of the story is, I can now, officially, say that I can knit Combination or Continental with comparable effectiveness. Go, me.
Bags 'n' Socks
...and a scarf, a completed and - if I do say so myself - very nice scarf, too. Here are a few views, including actual modeling by Nisa, herself. It's Firebrunette's Candleflame scarf but in Reynold's Whiskey yarn on size-4 needles.
Mary's bag is done! Hooray! It's not quite what I initially envisioned, but what patternless project ever is? I like the colors and the shape and the plastic-canvas lining gives it some rigidity without being bulky or high-maintenance. I really hope it fits her and her wheelchair as needed... there are plenty of buttons for adjustableness.
Please note the evenness of the top flap - initially, after felting, the edges shrank inwards quite a bit, but Sara the Felting Goddess saved me from inwardly-shrunken edges. A close call, that one.
I also sent a bag for Sarah, one of my adventures in felting that came out a bit smaller than I needed for myself... but it just exactly holds a bag's worth of Hershey Kisses.
...and then I succeeded in making the right sized bag for myself, just something for wallet and keys and cell phone.
And, last but not least, on Friday night, after finally finishing Nisa's scarf and wanting to start something new but not feeling mentally competent for too much of a challenge, I decided to break out the sock yarn and double-pointed needles, and after about 6 hours of knitting (not all at once, but only because I didn't start until 11:30 Friday night and fell asleep while knitting), viola! Socks! And let me just say, these are truly magical, miraculous socks. The pattern I used, here (but without the knit/purl pattern at the top, because I'd never used DPNs before and wanted to keep it simple), had nothing to do with the yarn (Marks & Katten's Clown), plus I altered the pattern to accommodate Emily's almost-7-year-old feet, and the yarn colors have a fairly long pattern - totally by coincidence, it turns out that one Emily-sock is precisely one repeat of the color pattern, and the two socks match *precisely*. This is astounding to me every time I think about it, and my only hope is that there is someone out there who can properly appreciate this miracle, because the ones I live with just don't.
Anyway - look, I can make socks!
Mary's bag is done! Hooray! It's not quite what I initially envisioned, but what patternless project ever is? I like the colors and the shape and the plastic-canvas lining gives it some rigidity without being bulky or high-maintenance. I really hope it fits her and her wheelchair as needed... there are plenty of buttons for adjustableness.
Please note the evenness of the top flap - initially, after felting, the edges shrank inwards quite a bit, but Sara the Felting Goddess saved me from inwardly-shrunken edges. A close call, that one.
I also sent a bag for Sarah, one of my adventures in felting that came out a bit smaller than I needed for myself... but it just exactly holds a bag's worth of Hershey Kisses.
...and then I succeeded in making the right sized bag for myself, just something for wallet and keys and cell phone.
And, last but not least, on Friday night, after finally finishing Nisa's scarf and wanting to start something new but not feeling mentally competent for too much of a challenge, I decided to break out the sock yarn and double-pointed needles, and after about 6 hours of knitting (not all at once, but only because I didn't start until 11:30 Friday night and fell asleep while knitting), viola! Socks! And let me just say, these are truly magical, miraculous socks. The pattern I used, here (but without the knit/purl pattern at the top, because I'd never used DPNs before and wanted to keep it simple), had nothing to do with the yarn (Marks & Katten's Clown), plus I altered the pattern to accommodate Emily's almost-7-year-old feet, and the yarn colors have a fairly long pattern - totally by coincidence, it turns out that one Emily-sock is precisely one repeat of the color pattern, and the two socks match *precisely*. This is astounding to me every time I think about it, and my only hope is that there is someone out there who can properly appreciate this miracle, because the ones I live with just don't.
Anyway - look, I can make socks!
Friday, March 9, 2007
Renegade Yarn Crisis Averted
A few weeks ago, I got a hank (skein? wound-around pile?) of hand-dyed yarn from a friend, and thought, "Oh, since it's just wrapped in a nice circle here, I'll just lay it gently on the floor, clip those little ties off it, and wind it into a ball!"
SIX HOURS LATER I was done untangling the horrible nasty knotty mess, and swore I would never do that to myself again.
So, last week, I picked up more of those loopy hanks of yarn at a close-out sale, and today I decided it was time to get brave and attempt to tame them into balls. And this time I laid the circle-loop-things around the back of an office chair, and viola! No tangles! No mess! A lovely little pile of center-pull balls! Halleluia!
Four down, four more to wind... someday, I may be grown-up enough for these mysterious swifts and winders that I hear about, but for the moment, this works just fine.
What? How does one make center-pull balls? Well, what do you know, I know the answer to that! It's much easier than it looks in writing...
There are good tutorials of different techniques in various places online, I just don't have my camera here to shoot this one.
SIX HOURS LATER I was done untangling the horrible nasty knotty mess, and swore I would never do that to myself again.
So, last week, I picked up more of those loopy hanks of yarn at a close-out sale, and today I decided it was time to get brave and attempt to tame them into balls. And this time I laid the circle-loop-things around the back of an office chair, and viola! No tangles! No mess! A lovely little pile of center-pull balls! Halleluia!
Four down, four more to wind... someday, I may be grown-up enough for these mysterious swifts and winders that I hear about, but for the moment, this works just fine.
What? How does one make center-pull balls? Well, what do you know, I know the answer to that! It's much easier than it looks in writing...
- First, drape the hank of yarn around the back of a chair or something comparatively sturdy and stable to prevent it from declaring civil war and attacking itself.
- Then, clip off the little ties, and find the ends. It doesn't seem to matter which end you use.
- Open one hand - I use my left, because I'm right-handed, but it would really matter - and place about 6" of one end between two fingers. I put it between my ring and pinky fingers.
- Hold your thumb and index finger vertical, and start to wind the rest of the yarn around them in a figure-8 pattern, clockwise around one and then counterclockwise around the other. Pull the yarn over the top of the chair/yarn-holding-device as needed. Keep doing this until you're up to about the top of your thumb - whenever it feels like you've got a bunch of yarn and your hand is starting to feel weird.
- Carefull slip the yarn off your thumb/index finger and hold it around that center part where the yarn crossed for each figure-8, making sure that the 6" end stays on the side it started and doesn't get caught up with the rest of the yarn as you continue to wrap (one of these times, I left too long of a tail at the beginning-end, and wrapped it around my wrist to keep it from getting wound in)..
- Start wrapping the rest of the yarn perpendicularly around that which is already wrapped, as close as you're comfortable getting to the loops that were around the thumb and pinky, trying to distribute the yarn somewhat evenly. It'll start as a flat/cylindrical shape. Enough wrapping and it'll form a sphere.
- When you get to the other end, the end-end, you can tuck it into the already-wrapped yarn to secure it. I prefer to tie a simple slipknot, through which I tie the yarn's label for future reference..
- Resist the urge to grab that beguilingly loose end and puuuuullllllll - trust yourself that you make a nice center-pull ball and if you unravel it you'll just have to ravel it all back up again..
There are good tutorials of different techniques in various places online, I just don't have my camera here to shoot this one.
Monday, March 5, 2007
Sara, Goddess of Felting...
...totally deserves a shout-out and I totally forgot to do so until now. She suggested, in a comment, that a felted object can be loosened if soaked in white vinegar and then washed out and reblocked. I'm not totally 100% convinced it was the vinegar that did it, only because I haven't tried any other methods yet (like just plain water), but she gets credit for raising the idea that a felted object CAN be loosened in some way... thereby doing very nice things for the final, finished product which is my sister's bag.
Which I don't have pictures of yet, in its fully-finished form. Must remember to take some before I mail it off...
Which I don't have pictures of yet, in its fully-finished form. Must remember to take some before I mail it off...
Evidence of Addiction
On Thursday night, I wanted to knit, but by the time I could start something I was so exhausted from the previous few days (work, child with projective vomit, you know... the usual) that I didn't dare work on Willem's sweater or Nisa's scarf, both of which require some minimal level of attention and focus. So instead I decided to throw together a quick hat for Willem, with a matching scarf... and what with him being a math geek and all, it seemed that the only appropriate scarf pattern, when keeping in mind the constraints of "simple" and "quick," would involve the Fibonacci sequence of rows to create the stripe pattern. The hat is a simple pattern off the back of a yarn wrapper, knitted on flat needles in a 2x2 rib and then stitched together. Three days later, viola! Math chic!
It wouldn't have taken three days to knit, but on Friday night we suddenly remembered that Jacob had a birthday party to attend on Saturday, and the weather was crappy so we didn't feel like going out then. So instead I adapted the same hat pattern and a simple flat-knit mitten pattern to make a toddler-sized set. And, of course, I had to use my in-house toddler-sized model to size them, but we don't let him stay up till midnight... so I had to take advantage of his ability to sleep like a rock, and I snuck in his room, accosted him with knitwear, and then took pictures. Just because I could.
I also took awake-pictures the next day, just because I could.
It wouldn't have taken three days to knit, but on Friday night we suddenly remembered that Jacob had a birthday party to attend on Saturday, and the weather was crappy so we didn't feel like going out then. So instead I adapted the same hat pattern and a simple flat-knit mitten pattern to make a toddler-sized set. And, of course, I had to use my in-house toddler-sized model to size them, but we don't let him stay up till midnight... so I had to take advantage of his ability to sleep like a rock, and I snuck in his room, accosted him with knitwear, and then took pictures. Just because I could.
I also took awake-pictures the next day, just because I could.
Monday, February 26, 2007
On the Needles
In an effort to bolster my own confidence, because I'd really like me to just work away on these things instead of finding new projects to start, here's all I have on the needles at the moment:
- Willem's fisherman's sweater.
Someday, I want to make one with much more intricate, braided cables, but I thought that for a first effort I should keep the pattern a bit more manageable on the theory that this way I might actually finish it. I can't remember when I casted on; around the end of January, call it the 30th. So, if it took a month for the front, then I should finish the whole thing by.... May? I hope.
- Nisa's scarf. Started last Sunday, 2/18. I'd guess I'm about 1/6 of the way done, give or take a bit. I plan on just knitting to the end of the yarn, unless that creates a 10-foot-long scarf. I'm following this pattern, but with much finer yarn, so it's on small needles and coming out narrower. Very soft and snuggly... I will give it to her, honest and truly, I will...
The front:
The back:
- And another version of the same scarf, which has sort of stalled, largely because I don't know who I'll give it to and the coloring isn't good for me (I can't get away with olive green, unless the motif I'm going for is Early Jaundice). Maybe if I had a target in mind, I'd get fired up about it.
I love that this pattern has such different appearances on the front and back:
Sunday, February 25, 2007
A Frenzy of Finished Items
Well, or, at least, mostly finished. I found myself getting very antsy and uncomfortable last night - apparently, I can handle three works-in-progress at once, but four is beyond my capacity and makes me itchy. So I finished off a dishcloth for here:
A pair of dishcloths for my father and his girlfriend (eek!) at their new place (eek again!):
And Mary's bag... not entirely finished, true, because I need to get buttons and a zipper for it, but it's moving along. This is the before-felting version:
I'm not 100% thrilled with the felting, only because it made one spot narrow, along the top of the bag, that I would prefer not to have shrunk that way. Not sure how I might possibly have prevented it, though - and once it's in use it shouldn't be too obvious. Anyway, here's the post-felted bag... it's still pretty, though I'm not sure I'll be felting much else in the future. I think I liked the pre-felted fabric better, though admittedly this will be much more practical and use-able.
A pair of dishcloths for my father and his girlfriend (eek!) at their new place (eek again!):
And Mary's bag... not entirely finished, true, because I need to get buttons and a zipper for it, but it's moving along. This is the before-felting version:
I'm not 100% thrilled with the felting, only because it made one spot narrow, along the top of the bag, that I would prefer not to have shrunk that way. Not sure how I might possibly have prevented it, though - and once it's in use it shouldn't be too obvious. Anyway, here's the post-felted bag... it's still pretty, though I'm not sure I'll be felting much else in the future. I think I liked the pre-felted fabric better, though admittedly this will be much more practical and use-able.
Awwwwwwww...
A baby. And oh, yeah, by the way, there's a sweater on her!
I made the sweater based very loosely on some pattern or other - maybe this one - but only used it for the basic length/width measurements. Knitted with a soft 100% acrylic, which is not my favorite but with babies it has to be machine-washable! I wanted something simple, with cables, and baby-appropriate, and this is what I ended up with: (The sweater. Someone else made the baby.)
I also made a simple garter-stitch scarf for the lovely Lisa in Australia, for her February birthday. It's far too warm for her NOW, but with luck she'll get some use out of it while we're all sweating through another New England summer. I used a ribbon yarn and a fine mohair held together, which made a very pretty fabric that is totally unlike either of the component yarns. Isn't yarn great?
I made the sweater based very loosely on some pattern or other - maybe this one - but only used it for the basic length/width measurements. Knitted with a soft 100% acrylic, which is not my favorite but with babies it has to be machine-washable! I wanted something simple, with cables, and baby-appropriate, and this is what I ended up with: (The sweater. Someone else made the baby.)
I also made a simple garter-stitch scarf for the lovely Lisa in Australia, for her February birthday. It's far too warm for her NOW, but with luck she'll get some use out of it while we're all sweating through another New England summer. I used a ribbon yarn and a fine mohair held together, which made a very pretty fabric that is totally unlike either of the component yarns. Isn't yarn great?
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Long-Tail Cast-On Trick
This may seem self-evident, but I didn't figure it out on my own after a few years of a lot of inaccurate casting on...
If you're not great at eying how much yarn you should use for a long-tail cast-on, then, starting an inch or three from the end, wrap the yarn around your needle the requisite number of times. Tie your slip knot after the end of the last wrap, then unwrap it all and cast on. I'm paranoid and give it a few extra inches (because, really, who couldn't use a few extra inches now and then?) but this has been idiot-proof, or at least Kate-proof, since I heard someone else suggest it.
If you're not great at eying how much yarn you should use for a long-tail cast-on, then, starting an inch or three from the end, wrap the yarn around your needle the requisite number of times. Tie your slip knot after the end of the last wrap, then unwrap it all and cast on. I'm paranoid and give it a few extra inches (because, really, who couldn't use a few extra inches now and then?) but this has been idiot-proof, or at least Kate-proof, since I heard someone else suggest it.
On the Needles
Note to self: Figure out how to take better pictures. I have a really nice camera, I just can't take consistently good pictures of my projects. Kids, sure. Projects, not so much.
Current projects:
Current projects:
- Mary's messenger bag, not from a pattern. With my favorite yarn ever. Love the colors, love the texture. It's about 90% done, just need to mess around with the straps... it's meant to be worn over her shoulder, but also needs a second strap to allow it to hang on the back of her wheelchair... when we're in PARIS. In May. Yeah, I'm excited. Anyway, I also plan to felt it, which will be a first for me. But it's a bit big, so felting will shrink it - plus felting makes it waterproof-ish, or so I'm told, which is a good quality for a bag to have, if it can arrange to do so.
- An Aran fisherman's sweater for Willem. Off-white wool, very soft. It's not like anything he's ever owned or worn before, so I really hope he likes it... but if nothing else, it's good practice with cables. It's another Lion Brand pattern, but NOT raglan sleeves. Perhaps 20% finished... but it's coming along faster now that I've learned the cabling/stitch pattern, and I plan to do the back in mock ribbing, so that should be faster.
- The Candle Flame scarf from Firebrunette Knitting. The yarn I have is handspun and hand-dyed from exotic New Jersey, somewhat similar to the photo but not exact. I'm planning on changing the pattern a bit, by knitting close to the end and then decreasing, instead of making two halves and joining in the middle... because I don't know exactly how long the yarn is and it was a nightmare to untangle and wrap into a ball (my own fault for not hooking the original hank onto a chair or something to unwind) so I am NOT willing to unroll it all to measure. It's about 40% done.
February 2007
What did I do in January? Well, I started a lot of projects and didn't finish them till February. I feel like I'm missing something, like I made something and forgot to take a picture (this happens far too often), but such is life.
Oh, yes! I remember! I completely frogged - tore apart, to those of you not in the know - two different sweaters, because I screwed up the cables on the first one and the second one streeeeeeeetched out to knee-length before I was half-finished (it was knit hem-to-hem, vertically instead of horizontally). Same exact yarn both times. I frogged it, wrapped it up, and sent it to my sister, in hopes that the yarn hates me but is not cursed in general. We also had a second bathroom put in. So I was busy. I feel better now.
Aside from all that, I got creative - tried different styles of knitting and different materials and generally got all brave and stuff.
First came a bathmat - I bought three yards of white flannel, tore it into roughly 1/2" strips, tied it together, and knitted it on big fat needles. And ended up with this:
Then, with great sneakiness and subterfuge, I got my friend Lisa to send me a photo of her dog, and then used this program to create a knitting chart. It's not perfect, but it gets the idea across, and just in time... Lisa is due with her second baby very soon! I lined the back with off-white flannel, all washable... and put buttons for the eyes, and went properly paranoid to attach those suckers babyproofly firm.
Next came Willem's scarf, inspired by the Skinny Scarf on Knitty Gritty (a show I love with a name I hate) a few weeks ago. I used bulkier wool... he asked for black and purple, he got black and purple. It's knit-slipped on the front and slipped-purled on the back, creating a sort of knit/woven effect. I like it, and plan on stealing it soon.
And, last for today... it's not knitting, but it's still all crafty and crunchy (literally, I suppose, though I didn't check) so I'm posting it anyway... the kids made their Valentine's cards over the weekend. I've always used Valentine's cards and Halloween costumes as my benchmark - if I'm too busy to help make them at home, then I'm too busy, period.
So, here's a photo of Emily's cards (Jacob's are similar, but have his last name and I don't feel like Photoshopping) and the heart-stamps - yes, those are potatoes! (With my $35 Kitchenaid mixer in the background... I love that, too.) Martha Stewart's got nothing on me.
Oh, yes! I remember! I completely frogged - tore apart, to those of you not in the know - two different sweaters, because I screwed up the cables on the first one and the second one streeeeeeeetched out to knee-length before I was half-finished (it was knit hem-to-hem, vertically instead of horizontally). Same exact yarn both times. I frogged it, wrapped it up, and sent it to my sister, in hopes that the yarn hates me but is not cursed in general. We also had a second bathroom put in. So I was busy. I feel better now.
Aside from all that, I got creative - tried different styles of knitting and different materials and generally got all brave and stuff.
First came a bathmat - I bought three yards of white flannel, tore it into roughly 1/2" strips, tied it together, and knitted it on big fat needles. And ended up with this:
Then, with great sneakiness and subterfuge, I got my friend Lisa to send me a photo of her dog, and then used this program to create a knitting chart. It's not perfect, but it gets the idea across, and just in time... Lisa is due with her second baby very soon! I lined the back with off-white flannel, all washable... and put buttons for the eyes, and went properly paranoid to attach those suckers babyproofly firm.
Next came Willem's scarf, inspired by the Skinny Scarf on Knitty Gritty (a show I love with a name I hate) a few weeks ago. I used bulkier wool... he asked for black and purple, he got black and purple. It's knit-slipped on the front and slipped-purled on the back, creating a sort of knit/woven effect. I like it, and plan on stealing it soon.
And, last for today... it's not knitting, but it's still all crafty and crunchy (literally, I suppose, though I didn't check) so I'm posting it anyway... the kids made their Valentine's cards over the weekend. I've always used Valentine's cards and Halloween costumes as my benchmark - if I'm too busy to help make them at home, then I'm too busy, period.
So, here's a photo of Emily's cards (Jacob's are similar, but have his last name and I don't feel like Photoshopping) and the heart-stamps - yes, those are potatoes! (With my $35 Kitchenaid mixer in the background... I love that, too.) Martha Stewart's got nothing on me.
December 2006 - The Snowflake Sweater
Emily specifically asked for a snowflake sweater, so I broke out the old raglan pattern again BUT got fancy with Fair Isle technique - holding two strands of yarn but only knitting with one at a time, to create color patterns. Looking at pictures now, I want to narrow the shoulders down quite a bit... but I'll leave that one alone and start practicing more fitted sleeves in the future. Honest.
November 2006 - Back to the Raglan, and Another Blanket
Seriously, it was a problem, I think. Now that I see them all lined up, one after another... ah, well. They came out cute, anyway.
And a close-up of the snowflake pattern.
My friend Jennifer chose the month before Christmas to have a second baby, which cramped my knitting ability... but I managed to squeeze out a little wool blanket, anyway...
And a close-up of the snowflake pattern.
My friend Jennifer chose the month before Christmas to have a second baby, which cramped my knitting ability... but I managed to squeeze out a little wool blanket, anyway...
September 2006 - Two New Sweater Pattern! Hooray!
Audrey got a new baby sister, AND I finally broke out of my raglan-rut, and tried the Accordian pattern, from Knitty. I love that website. Deeply.
Ava ended up with another Knitty pattern, Anouk. Though, I must admit, while I understand it makes more sense to make baby clothes out of acrylic, it haunts me. It came out nice and soft, and is fully washable... but by this point I was realizing that yarn comes from more places than Walmart. Not a regret, exactly, just a realization that I should try working with some, you know, natural fibers sometime, too...
Ava ended up with another Knitty pattern, Anouk. Though, I must admit, while I understand it makes more sense to make baby clothes out of acrylic, it haunts me. It came out nice and soft, and is fully washable... but by this point I was realizing that yarn comes from more places than Walmart. Not a regret, exactly, just a realization that I should try working with some, you know, natural fibers sometime, too...
August 2006 - Toddler Projects
In August 2006, I met three dear friends in Niagara Falls for a weekend. All of us initially met via a message board based on similar sex lives in 2003... we all have children born in July 2004. They were all accosted with new projects from me; it's just a dangerous thing to spend time around a knitting enthusiast, especially if you have cute children with bodies. That can wear things. Knitted things.
Alena's poncho is from the same basic pattern as below.
Charlotte in another raglan sweater - this time with cables thrown in to change it up a bit.
Daniel got a hooded sweatshirt-style sweater, another Lion Brand pattern. (I'm not linking to the Lion Brand patterns here because you need to register for the site to see them anyway. It's free, but still.)
Alena's poncho is from the same basic pattern as below.
Charlotte in another raglan sweater - this time with cables thrown in to change it up a bit.
Daniel got a hooded sweatshirt-style sweater, another Lion Brand pattern. (I'm not linking to the Lion Brand patterns here because you need to register for the site to see them anyway. It's free, but still.)
July 2006 - Mary's Sweater
You may notice a theme, coming up here... more variations on the same raglan-style sweater as Jacob's. I consider it a stick-with-what-you-know theme, which I'm starting to break out of.
June 2006 - Poncho
I actually made a pair of ponchos, but forgot to take a picture of the other one. It's probably in pristine condition still in a bag somewhere, if not discarded, because I didn't think it through... I wanted to send a thank-you gift to a friend in Panama, recognized that it was hot there almost all the time, and thought maybe a poncho in light material would be helpful, just something to throw on when it dips below 70. The first attempt came out FAR too big, so I made two and sent both, thinking mother-and-daughter. It didn't go over so well... ah, well.
This is Emily, modeling a 2T poncho based on this pattern.
This is Emily, modeling a 2T poncho based on this pattern.
April 2006 - Jacob's Sweater
Apologies for the poor photo quality... my camera went on hiatus for a while, and I was reduced to disposible cameras. Then I got a digital video recorder, with the capacity to take still photos if your subject was well-lit and willing to sit still for at least 5 seconds.
Toddlers aren't known for the sitting-still thing.
Anyway, straight out of a Lion Brand Homespun wrapper, right down to the colors - my first effort at following a pattern. I've since made a bunch of these for various toddlers in my life...
Toddlers aren't known for the sitting-still thing.
Anyway, straight out of a Lion Brand Homespun wrapper, right down to the colors - my first effort at following a pattern. I've since made a bunch of these for various toddlers in my life...
March 2006 - The Blanket
People have varying reactions to The Blanket, but they typically fall into one of two camps: they are either delighted by the kitschiness and gawdiness of it all, or they are appalled. Either reaction is fine by me... it's my new comfort object. Who needs a teddy bear, anyway?
My Knitting Story
Because we all need a story, right?
Mine starts way back in the '80s, when I spent part of each summer with my great-grandmother at "Camp" (our family term for a summer place in the Adirondacks) in upstate New York. I was the only great-grandchild for several years, so I got a lot of Grandma O time to myself. She was about 70 years older than me, and we got along just fine. She taught me to crochet, to make soup out of random ingredients when you think there's nothing for dinner, to build a fire, to enjoy a week or three straight with no television. She told stories, and did crafts, and just seemed to have a pretty good life, and I loved her.
In 2002, when my daughter was two and I hadn't done summers with Grandma O in many years, she had the first of a series of TIAs, mini-strokes that slowly robbed her of her ability to drive, move with confidence, and, eventually, live alone. She moved into a nursing home, and I finally had the horrible realization that she wasn't going to live forever. After spending some time thinking about, "What would I regret not doing?" I realized that the big thing was learning to knit. I'd always loved watching her do it, and just somehow never bothered to learn during my summertime visits, and knew I needed to grab my chance while I could.
So I packed up my daughter, Emily, gathered a bag of toys and a big plastic-lined tablecloth, bought a skein of yarn and some needles, any old size, and I headed to New York. I spread the tablecloth out on the floor of the nursing home, set Emily up with her toys (and, later, just to be safe, I also dipped my baby girl in bleach to get rid of whatever germs she may have picked up), sat down with Grandma O and learned to knit and purl. Just the very basics, nothing complicated. Casted on and bound off a few times, and then set to work on a scarf.
For the next several months, I was still a full-time grad student and mom and wife and other causes for insanity and busyness, and I rarely picked up the knitting. Once a month or less, just to make sure I still remembered how to do it. Like falling off a bicycle, only with fewer skinned knees; it came back easily every time... once I'd learned it in the first place.
It started off as a scarf, and then I just kept going - decided to make it part of a blanket instead, and knitted the whole skein into a seven-foot-long strip. Then I decided my next step was to continue practicing just those simple knit/purl stitches, on the theory that it would be easier to branch out into patterns if I waited until I was very comfortable with the basics. So I bought random yarn, based solely on liking individual colors and textures, without a single thought to how the whole thing might look, and I made rectangles. Many many rectangles.
And when the little voice in my head finally spoke loud enough for me to hear it, I had to agree: "YOU HAVE ENOUGH. STOP MAKING RECTANGLES." So I stitched them all together, and the result was a wonderful-horrible blanket, very snuggly and comfortable and clashing like all get-out.
My first sweater attempt was for my son, and I finished it in April 2006. I've done a handful more child-sized sweaters, a couple of adult ones, and somehow over the past year this has moved from an occasional hobby to a full-grown obsession. I don't leave the house without my knitting. I read about it. I dream about it. I figure, sure, it's an obsession, and any obsession can be dangerous - but this one makes pretty things and won't land me in jail (especially because I don't think I'd be allowed knitting needles in jail. I'd go insane!).
I want to show off, I want to have a running display of my knitting, but it doesn't really fit into either of my other blogs - I have a family photos blog, mostly viewed by grandmas and friends, and a more traditional blog characterized by my ramblings and thoughts and rantings and whatever else. So this one is for yarn, and knitting, and all things related.
Mine starts way back in the '80s, when I spent part of each summer with my great-grandmother at "Camp" (our family term for a summer place in the Adirondacks) in upstate New York. I was the only great-grandchild for several years, so I got a lot of Grandma O time to myself. She was about 70 years older than me, and we got along just fine. She taught me to crochet, to make soup out of random ingredients when you think there's nothing for dinner, to build a fire, to enjoy a week or three straight with no television. She told stories, and did crafts, and just seemed to have a pretty good life, and I loved her.
In 2002, when my daughter was two and I hadn't done summers with Grandma O in many years, she had the first of a series of TIAs, mini-strokes that slowly robbed her of her ability to drive, move with confidence, and, eventually, live alone. She moved into a nursing home, and I finally had the horrible realization that she wasn't going to live forever. After spending some time thinking about, "What would I regret not doing?" I realized that the big thing was learning to knit. I'd always loved watching her do it, and just somehow never bothered to learn during my summertime visits, and knew I needed to grab my chance while I could.
So I packed up my daughter, Emily, gathered a bag of toys and a big plastic-lined tablecloth, bought a skein of yarn and some needles, any old size, and I headed to New York. I spread the tablecloth out on the floor of the nursing home, set Emily up with her toys (and, later, just to be safe, I also dipped my baby girl in bleach to get rid of whatever germs she may have picked up), sat down with Grandma O and learned to knit and purl. Just the very basics, nothing complicated. Casted on and bound off a few times, and then set to work on a scarf.
For the next several months, I was still a full-time grad student and mom and wife and other causes for insanity and busyness, and I rarely picked up the knitting. Once a month or less, just to make sure I still remembered how to do it. Like falling off a bicycle, only with fewer skinned knees; it came back easily every time... once I'd learned it in the first place.
It started off as a scarf, and then I just kept going - decided to make it part of a blanket instead, and knitted the whole skein into a seven-foot-long strip. Then I decided my next step was to continue practicing just those simple knit/purl stitches, on the theory that it would be easier to branch out into patterns if I waited until I was very comfortable with the basics. So I bought random yarn, based solely on liking individual colors and textures, without a single thought to how the whole thing might look, and I made rectangles. Many many rectangles.
And when the little voice in my head finally spoke loud enough for me to hear it, I had to agree: "YOU HAVE ENOUGH. STOP MAKING RECTANGLES." So I stitched them all together, and the result was a wonderful-horrible blanket, very snuggly and comfortable and clashing like all get-out.
My first sweater attempt was for my son, and I finished it in April 2006. I've done a handful more child-sized sweaters, a couple of adult ones, and somehow over the past year this has moved from an occasional hobby to a full-grown obsession. I don't leave the house without my knitting. I read about it. I dream about it. I figure, sure, it's an obsession, and any obsession can be dangerous - but this one makes pretty things and won't land me in jail (especially because I don't think I'd be allowed knitting needles in jail. I'd go insane!).
I want to show off, I want to have a running display of my knitting, but it doesn't really fit into either of my other blogs - I have a family photos blog, mostly viewed by grandmas and friends, and a more traditional blog characterized by my ramblings and thoughts and rantings and whatever else. So this one is for yarn, and knitting, and all things related.
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