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So… I made another OWS claim recently. I claimed Faux_Valentine for some monster-themed goodies and a wisty surprise. For the monsters, I made another monster chunk:
out of Sugar and Cream and Serendipity Tweed. I also made an iPod cozy:
out of Wool-Ease and some nylon Fun Fur I had around. Cute, right? I like him. I decided at the last minute to make one more plush, so I knit up this:
out of some “Sullivans Crinkle”. I don’t even know. Glitzy/furry stuff from Big Lots. I love his big teeth though. : )
The wisty surprise I made was based on this bracelet from her wist:
And here’s my version:
I used a zipper from the ones that hngoodlett sent me and I bought some lace trim at Hancock Fabrics. There’s also some felt on the back. I didn’t have a jewelry clasp, so I used ribbon. I really like how it came out. : )
Welcome to Raglan month (well, April apparently was) and NaKniSweMoDo number six!
Pattern: Featherweight, mostly for the cast on number and divisions.
Yarn: Regia Silk sock yarn, two skeins in a lovely pale blue
Needles: US 5/3.75 mm
Mods: Clearly, shorter body and shorter sleeves and thicker yarn.
Okay, it looks a little funny on Elizabeth because her wide shoulders and tiny tiny waist make her distinctly apple shaped, but my proportions are more balanced, so it looks a lot better on me. I like it a lot, I have worn it a couple times already. I usually wear it open, like the first picture, though I often pin the bottom closed with a bobby pin or something. It’s a great layer over tanks and tubes (I’m awkwardly uncomfortable in tube tops even though I have a ton of them). The only problem is that the back section is a little too wide, and if I use this pattern again, I’ll cast on fewer stitches for the back section. I certainly don’t intend to knit Featherweight in lace weight again (oh god), but I could maybe use another little shrug like this ones. It’s totally casual–throw on and go–and that’s great.
Also: the yarn. It gets a bad rap on Ravelry for being pilly, and I wouldn’t make it into socks because of that, but as a shrug, this yarn is wonderful. It was such a joy to work with cause it’s SO SOFT. Plus, Regia is a pretty great company. So yes. Yarn love here.
Just a shortish post today: I finished a pair of socks the other day, and I thought I’d show them off:
Pattern: None, it’s a toe up sock with a 3×1 rib on the foot and leg.
Yarn: Universal Yarns Ditto in Purple Cascades, which I bought for like $2 at Tuesday Morning
Needle: US 1
They fit mostly alright. I used the garter stitch heel again, which seems to help with traction so they don’t slide off my feet so much. I would like the cuff to be a little taller and I have plenty of yarn left, but I wasn’t sure where to stop the first sock. I need to get a proper scale so I can just divide the yarn and knit until I run out. **shrug** Oh well. I can probably knit some half socks with the left overs (to wear with flats).
Currently, I am working on various swap things and a commission that I’ll show you when it’s finished. : )
The pattern for my summer cardi reknit, Seafoam, is available for purchase through Ravelry!
Seafoam Cardigan: US $4.50
Yarn:
3 (4, 4, 5, 5, 6) skeins Cascade Sierra (or approx. 600 (650, 725, 850, 950, 1075) yards worsted weight cotton or cotton blend)
Needles
US 6/4mm 32” Circular Needle
Notions
4 stitch markers
Waste yarn
Tapestry needle
Optional: button, clasp, or ribbon
Gauge:
4 sts/5.5 rows per inch stockinette
Sizes:
Bust size 31” (36”, 41” 46”, 51”, 56”, 61”)
Finished measurements:
31.5” (36.5”, 41.5” 46.5”, 51.5”, 56.5”, 61.5”)
Bring the fortune and life of a past finished project up to the present. Document the current state and use of an object you have knitted or crocheted, whether it is the hat your sister wears to school almost every day, or a pair of socks you wore until they were full of hole. Or maybe that jumper that your dad just didn’t like that much…
Note: This is actually yesterday’s topic (and yesterday’s is today) cause I accidentally mixed them up. Go with it.)
So, long-time readers of my blog may remember (vaguely, in the back of their minds) this sweater:
I started knitting it over a year ago (February 17 to be exact). I did finish the knitting (had to buy an extra ball of yarn, but, you know) but I left it in the car when I returned to school from Spring Break, so I couldn’t sew on the buttons. Then I lost it. And then I found it again! But I never gave it a proper FO post, so that’s what it’s getting today (but the pics are on Elizabeth (who you haven’t seen in a while!) cause it’s like, 85 out today and it’s a cabled sweater in acrylic).
Pattern: Woman’s Cardigan from the Fall 2006 Knit Simple
Yarn: Vanna’s Choice (just over 5 balls in Burgundy)
Needles: US 8/5mm
Mods: Lengthened ribbing in the sleeves as well as the sleeves themselves, left off the collar (picked up stitches for a garter neckline), and didn’t add buttons.
I can’t say that I’ve ever actually worn this sweater out, but I do like and it is comfortable. It’s a nice lounging around the house sweater. I mean, it’s nice, and I would wear it out, but I have lots of nicer sweaters. Plus, it’s a little bunchy under the armpits because of my sub-par seaming. But other than that, it fits well enough.
Sadly, this is the end of Knitting and Crochet Blog week! Tomorrow we return to regularly scheduled posts, including a new pattern! Stay tuned!
Where do you like to indulge in your craft? Is your favorite arm chair your little knitting cubby area, or do you prefer to ‘knit in public’? Do you like to crochet in the great outdoors, perhaps, or knit in the bath, or at the pub?
For the past two years (which is really the bulk of my active knitting career, though as I mentioned Monday, I crocheted and knit garter stitch before that), my favorite place to knit has been this chair:
That would be the comfy chair that is located in my boyfriend’s dorm room. Since that is where I spend much of my time (instead of my own dorm room), I spend a lot of time in that chair. I usually knit with my bare or stockinged feet propped up on his bed, my Macbook on my lap, knitting in hand. I am actually coordinated enough to knit quite successfully while browsing the internet (mostly while reading Ravelry–I pause to scroll and click, but I can knit stockinette without looking), so this set up works for me. I love it. I’m comfortable, I have everything I need within reach, and most of the time I have lovely company (see above reference to boyfriend).
Unfortunately, I have a number of breaks from school which require me to return home to Virginia Beach. When I’m home, I’m normally here:
That’s my living room couch (photo taken this past winter break, I believe). I do not prefer to knit there. But it’s the best place in the house, since that’s where the TV is (and I need to have something in the background when I knit–I have trouble just knitting since much of it is mindless).
I have also knitted a variety of other places. I’ve knitted in class, for example. I knit in most of my discussion classes–I get antsy if I’m not doing something with my hands, and knitting is a lot more productive than doodling (as I’m sure you all know). I’ve also knitted in the car. Again, idleness makes me antsy, so I knit if I’m going to be in the car for more than two minutes (though I’ve been known to pull out a wip for the mile-drive to the 7-11 up the street).
I have also knitted in amusement parks. My family is big on Busch Gardens (I go a lot in the summer and until March had a Platinum pass) and Disney World (my grandparents work there now, so we get free tickets, but we’ve been staying at the Disney-owned campground at least once a year since before I was born). I don’t know how familiar you all are with the Magic Kingdom, but I love knitting on the People Mover:
or in line for rides:
Next year (my last year of school!), I’ll be living in a University-owned apartment with two of my girlfriends (but probably spending much of my time in my boyfriend’s, which will be located exactly one floor below mine). I suspect I will do much of my knitting in that same chair, feet up on the bed.
And after that? Who knows.
Is there a skill related to your hobby that you hope to learn one day? maybe you’re a crocheter who’d also like to knit? Maybe you’d like to learn to knit continental, knit backwards, try cables or attempt stranded colourwork.
As I’ve mentioned before, there are few things I couldn’t handle in knitting. I’ve done cables, lace, and colorwork with relative ease. I dabbled briefly in entrelac, though there are too many ends to weave in for my liking. I can knit both continental and English (I think that’s what throwing is called, right?), though I prefer continental because it’s faster. I crochet pretty well because it’s what I learned first, and the first sweater I made was crochet (it was pre-Ravelry and I used Caron Simply Soft, so my knots kept slipping out. I wore it once, maybe). I’ve covered much of the things I would want to cover. I even steeked a sweater and sewed in a zipper. Nerve wracking, yes, but not difficult.
I haven’t done mitered squares, I’ll admit, but there aren’t a lot of patterns that make me want to try it. There’s a pair of socks with mitered squares as the cuffs which look vaguely interesting, but I’ll probably never get around to them. I haven’t tried filet crochet either, and it does look interesting. It’s on my list of things to do maybe. And I keep meaning to remember how to knit backwards for narrow things like sweater shoulders, and I can pick it up alright, but I can never reeeeally do it that easily, and I usually revert to turning again.
There aren’t a lot of skills in knitting I lack (besides maybe patience), but there are crafts I wish I had the skills to do. I wish I were a better spinner, for example. I know it takes practice, and I am practicing, but I do wish I spun more consistently. And thinner. I’d like to be able to consistently spin fingering weight for socks.
I also wish I were more artistic in the traditional sense. I’m crafty certainly, and I can whip out a sweater like nobody’s business. But anyone can learn to knit. It’s a technical skill, like learning to walk or ride a bike. Easy peasy. Art though, that’s hard. I’m terrible with color and even worse with lines. I can’t draw to save my life unless I’m copying a picture exactly. I like to make notecards and the like, but I know there’s always a distinctly amateur air because I’m not very artistic.
Then there are things that I can’t imagine take a whole lot of skill but that I don’t have the space/funds/time to learn. Like weaving. I’d love to have a floor loom. I don’t have space or time or the money. I’d also like to learn to make hot or cold process soap (I imagine cold would be safer since I’m kind of a klutz). I’d like to work with resin. I’d like to work with nicer fabrics than I can afford.
Then there are things that I plan to actively learn and get better at. Over the summer, for example, I plan to take up cross stitch. Not in earnest, but there are some things I’d like to make, especially pillows and wall hangings. I love grammar and sarcasm and pretty quotes, and I love to have some of them cross stitched on my bed or the couch or my wall.
At the very least, with all the things I can do or am learning or don’t have the funds for… I’ll keep you guys posted. I love talking about the things I make. It’s nice to have a (relatively) captive audience that never tires of hearing my excited “Look what I made!!”
Write about a knitter whose work (whether because of project choice, photography, styling, scale of projects, stash, etc) you enjoy. If they have an enjoyable blog, you might find it a good opportunity to send a smile their way.
I currently have 153 blogs in my Google Reader account. Not all of them are active, but most of them are, and the majority of them are knitting blogs. Some of them feature sewing now and again or are about knitting peripherally, but most of them are about knitting in some way. My favorites, let me show you them:
Knitting to Stay Sane, by Glenna C (of Viper Pilots fame). She posts 3-4 times per week and is almost always funny, interesting, and engaging. Also, she’s a wonderful designer (have I mentioned my desperate love for the Viper Pilots socks not to mention my deep, longing need to have a pair of Neptune High socks).
The Yarn Harlot, by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. As if I really need to list this. She’s hilarious and witty, and her knitting capers are, at the very least, interesting.
Finny Knits Okay, so many of the posts recently are about gardening, but that’s okay cause guys? She’s SO FUNNY (are we sensing a theme here?). She usually makes me at least chuckle at least once per post.
Juniper Moon Fiber Farm Blog, by Susan Gibbs. Okay, there’s not usually a lot of knitting in this blog. But there’s occasionally yarn. Mostly it’s fantastically adorable pictures of cute sheep, goats, and dogs. Susan runs a fiber CSA on her Cormo sheet/angora goat farm. Her posts are about the ups and downs of the farm life. Also, did I mention there are cute pictures of baby sheep and goats? Cause guys? THERE ARE BABY SHEEP AND GOATS. They’re so cute.
Now it’s y’all’s turn: What are your favorite knitting blogs? I love to find new ones. : )
Blog about a pattern or project which you aspire to. Whether it happens to be because the skills needed are ones which you have not yet acquired, or just because it seems like a huge undertaking of time and dedication, most people feel they still have something to aspire to in their craft. If you don’t feel like you have any left of the mountain of learning yet to climb, say so!
I’ll be honest: Because of my method of learning to knit and following philosophy (mentioned in yesterday’s post), I don’t think there’s much of anything in knitting that I couldn’t do. Cables? Check. Lace? Piece of cake. Colorwork? My tension needs a little work, but mostly something I can do. If I see a pattern I like, I queue it. If I MUST HAVE IT NOW, I start it. Some things need a little more concentration than others, and I have bypassed patterns for being boring or tedious (I’m lookin’ at you, every fingering weight sweater ever), but they’re all pretty doable.
For example, let’s look at these socks:
(Image copyright Glenna C)
They are, of course, Glenna C’s Viper Pilots. And they’re awesome. And they have like, nine different cable patterns going at the same time, PLUS they’re cuff down (I knit socks top-down), PLUS they have a heel flap (I’ve knit exactly one sock with a heel flap. It was in worsted weight acrylic. I don’t want to talk about it).
These are Intense Socks.
I feel many knitters with my level of skill/familiarity with things mentioned above would be much too intimidated to knit these socks. I’m almost too intimidated to knit these socks. But my love of Battlestar Galactica, cables, and socks meant I bought the pattern and some Red Heart Heart and Sole from Jo Ann’s.
And as soon as I’m home for the summer and I don’t have two research papers, a creative writing portfolio, and finals hovering over my head, these babies are goin’ on the needles.
Welcome to day one of Knitting and Crochet Blog week! If you missed it, there is more information about the event here. If you’re a member of Ravelry, there is also more information (and a list of participants!) on the group The Blog Hub. Every day this week, I’ll be writing a post on various aspects of knitting/crocheting. To search for other posts participating, search “knitcoblo1” in Google and similar. That will give you posts about today’s prompt:
How and when did you begin knitting/crocheting? was it a skill passed down through generations of your family, or something you learned from Knitting For Dummies? What or who made you pick up the needles/hook for the first time? Was it the celebrity knitting ‘trend’ or your great aunt Hilda?
When I was ten or eleven, my mother taught me to crochet. I say she taught me, but what I mean is that she showed me how to make a slip knot and how to pull the yarn through the loop to make a chain stitch. She couldn’t remember how to do the rest. Since all you can make with a chain stitch and a pre-teen set on creating is a bunch of shoe laces, she bought me a learn-to-crochet kit from Michael’s for Christmas. She bought my sister a learn-to-knit kit from the same company because although my sister expressed no interest in the craft, you can’t buy a gift for an 11-year-old without getting a similar or equivalent thing for her 9-year-old sister unless you want a screaming fit. It took several weeks to convince my sister that she should let me have her Christmas present, even though, of the two of us, I was the only one even vaguely interested in yarn, but in the end, I was successful.
I borrowed books from the library and taught myself the rest of the crochet stitches. I made myself a big stuffed pig out of stiff, scratchy Red Heart acrylic. I didn’t know how to embroider, so I never gave it eyes. I loved it for a little while, mostly out of pride that I finished crocheting it, but then I cast it off to the foot of my bed, where it got squashed between the foot of the bed and the mattress, with all of the other stuffed animals and blankets I didn’t want anymore but couldn’t get rid of (there’s a surprising amount of room down there).
Shortly after I won the learn-to-knit kit from my sister, I taught myself to cast on, knit, and bind off. I bought all the furry, fuzzy novelty yarn I could get my hands on and made garter stitch scarves for anyone who would take one from me (my best friend still wears the one I gave her for Christmas in tenth grade). It was several years later before I got the hang of the purl stitch and could make anything except big, fuzzy scarves.
When I started college (the August before last; I’m just finishing up my second year this week), I brought with me a collection of odd balls of cheap acrylic, all of the crochet hooks I owned, and several pairs of thick knitting needles. I mostly crocheted, I figured, and I wouldn’t need my entire 30-odd collection of yard sale and thrift store straight needles.
Oh, how wrong I was.
I joined Ravelry on August 27, 2008 (according to my profile page). The sudden access to what seemed like all of the knitting patterns on the Internet with the ability to search (and see thumbnails!) convinced me that A, I needed to learn to purl, and B, my collection of yarn and needles was sorely inadequate.
My first knitting project (with purls!) was the Mrs. Darcy Cardigan. Yes, the one in one size that’s rife with errors and curly curly fronts.
I had some black wool from the thrift store and some 5 mm needles. I did not make a gauge swatch and instead dove right in and tried my best to purl. It did not go so well. I didn’t get the hang of it until about two inches into the stockinette, so the back of the sweater looked like this:
Still, I was too stubborn to frog, so I plugged away at it. The yarn I had for the fronts of the sweater was a mess of short ends, which I tied together and knitted (I didn’t know about moths then but thankfully, none of my other stash has been affected by this stupidity). I finished the sweater, sans sleeves, which I didn’t have enough yarn for. I wore it exactly once. It fit, technically, but it was too short (the pattern, not my fault–it’s written to be quite short), and it didn’t stay put.
My first knitting project was a sweater, and since then, I have not been intimidated by patterns with techniques I don’t know. I dive fearlessly into lace, colorwork, and cables (which I taught myself to knit using a tutorial on my BlackBerry while I walked the mile and a half to the public library). I cast on with abandon, knowing I can conquer any difficult parts of the pattern so long as I try.
Most knitters I know learned to knit (and purl) with dishcloths or scarves or other rectangular items. I believe this makes them more easily intimidated by things like lace or colorwork. I say, dive right in. Knit something because you love it, not because you want to practice.
You can always frog it (or felt it, which is to eventually be the fate of my vest) later.
Stitch, Brinn, Stitch! 