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(insert high kick)
Anyway, yes I’ve been doing some knitting, as I mentioned. I started a small project to have on me and I finished it up in just a couple of days.
Pattern: I made them up as I went. The second is better fitting that the first. They’re toe up and a short row heel.
Yarn: The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga! left over from a batch of WWFY knitting.
Needles: US 1, the same sock needles I use for all socks.
Like I said, the second one fits way better than the first, which is a touch too long and a touch too wide–I accidentally did too many toe increases. I’m pretty happy with the fit, though I did have to sew the ends of the back of the heel to the border on the foot so they’d be tight enough.
I’m not really sure how to remedy that without the sewing. I wanted to do a flap/gusset heel but I also was feeling iffy about the stripes (I had very little of the green to work with, so that’s why they don’t match) and I like toe up socks, so I just did them that way. I think this sort of sock is a great way to use up sock yarn scraps (and in fact, I’m planning another pair from the remainder of the Manly Aran socks) as well as being very functional–I wear open topped flats a lot and my commercially knit socks for them are wearing a bit thin. Plus I only have like, three pairs anyway.
Since finishing these, I’ve started working on a shorter version off my Leah vest to work out the shaping (and cause I wanted a shorter one). I’m using Reynold’s Tiara, a rayon/silk blend I’ve had in my stash basically since I learned to crochet (I got it at a yard sale). Glad to have a purpose for it (or some of it at least). But more on that later.
So I finished knitting the second pair of Manly Arans which means I can MAIL THESE SUCKERS OFF AND KNIT FOR ME ME ME ME!!!!!! (Okay, I have some OWS stuff, but it’s little things.)
Ahem. I’m pleased, in case you couldn’t tell.
Pattern: Manly Aran Socks by Wendy Johnson
Yarn: Cascade Heritage Paints
Needles: US 1, 40″ (for magic loop)
Mods: None.
They are more or less exactly like the other pair. I knit the cuff as long as I thought I could (turns out I was a little off and I have a tiny bit left over). They are too big on my feet (obviously), but they are DONE DONE DONE. They just have to be mailed off.
I have since cast on for a pair of sockettes (socks for wearing inside flats) and see it as a marker of self control that I haven’t cast on approximately a billion things.
It’s finals week! Boo! I had two finals today and I have one on Wednesday and two on Thursday, plus a final paper due on Thursday. Basically, this week is full of the suck. The finals I had today were Women in Opera and What is Time?, the latter of which is relevant to this blog.
Basically, the final was to create a project that was interactive/could be experienced in some way and explored the concepts of time we discussed in the class (the class being exactly what it says on the tin). Being the knitterly sort, I chose to involve knitting in my project. I knit a hat, photographed it along the way, and strung the photos together into a stop-motion video. This is the hat I made:
Pattern: Aaron’s Hat
Yarn: Paton’s Rumor
Needles: US 8/5 mm
I steamed the hat as it came out a little short (and Rumor is mostly acrylic with a touch of alpaca). It turned out pretty well and will either go into the gift pile or warm my head next winter. One of those. Rumor, incidentally, is a metric fuckton softer than the similar blend Bernat Alpaca blend, which is scratchy and full of guard hairs. Rumor is nice and soft, though it did shed everywhere.
Sorry for the quality of the photos in the video; I had to take a lot of them. Here is my finished product:
The numbers:
I took a photo after every dpn (4 per round)
The hat has 36 rounds.
That’s 144 photos total (plus extras when the photos were blurry or my camera strap got in the way)
Under normal circumstances, this hat would have taken one hour to knit.
Knitting and photographing took approximately five hours.
It’s all condensed into just over one minute.
It was a huge pain in the ass, but I’m pretty pleased with how it came out (even though the pictures are crap). I think it was fairly well received.
Also, in case you were wondering, the music was composed by wonderful boyfriend, who would like me to mention that he threw it together in a couple of minutes cause he’s great (okay, that last part was me).
I know what you’re thinking. “I didn’t know Brinn was spinning anything. Does she even do that any more?” I know. It appears that yes, I do in fact do that anymore. And the reason I didn’t mention it was because there was no time. On Saturday afternoon I spent some time by myself and decided I wanted to do some spinning. And not the thin solid colored singles I have on my smallest spindle. No. Big singles. To make big yarn. Or at least biggish yarn.
I wanted color. I pulled out this fiber, 4 oz of corriedale from Lakehouse Loft (on Artfire):
I grabbed my giant spindle.
I spun quickly, not paying attention to thickness or evenness. I just spun, figuring I’d ply it eventually. I spun for hours. I spun for like four hours. Then I took a brief break. Then I spun some more. I spun and spun. I went to bed. I woke up, ate lunch, and spun some more.
And then I plied because I finished the singles in less then two days of more or less continuous spinning. I plied and plied. My shoulder was hurting and my boyfriend was off at a choir concert I didn’t go to (he tells me not to; it’s a class requirement for him anyway, and anyway I am Not a Fan of choir) but I watched several episodes of series E of QI and kept plying.
And then it was plied. I skeined it up, threw it in a bath with a little wool wash, and smacked it on the table a little. Then I hung it over a chair under a vent to dry.
On Monday, I took pictures.
I spun four ounces of yarn to roughly worsted weight in two days. I made a two-ply yarn of about 140 yards in less than 12 hours. On my spindle. On my enormous spindle.
I think that’s quite an accomplishment.
So my partner recieved my Whedon swap package the other day, and I have to say, I am EXTREMELY pleased with what I made. It’s been a while since I’ve done a proper swap cause I’ve been busy, but this swap was just the thing to flex my themed-crafting muscles. Plus I’m totally obsessed with the Whedonverse, so this was perfect!
In addition to the Willow doll I made that I showed you last week, I made two other things, both involving the same craft (plus another one). The first thing I made after Willow was a cross stitch:
Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal! Plus dinosaurs (which I just sort of made up as I went). I used a font generator (I used the Amsterdam font) for the quote pattern, and I have to say, I love the look of this font in cross stitch.
I did some coloring in of the dinos with pastels as I did not want to fill them in with cross stitch (that would take FOREVER) and I didn’t want them to just be white. I think it came out pretty well.
The last thing I made, which took me til Tuesday to figure out and til Wednesday night to finish making (and the swap deadline was Thursday) was a zipper pouch:
With a cross stitched Kaylee from Shindig! I used this pattern for Kaylee and did the same pastel shading for her face cause I didn’t have white girl flesh-colored thread. Though I did pick some up at Michael’s the other day.
The lining is just some polyester muslin-type stuff I pulled out of a thrift store curtain.
I super love how this came out, cause guys? THIS IS LIKE QUILTING. I notoriously lack the patience for quilting because you need like, straight lines and corners and constant pressing. Who has time for that? I’d rather just crochet an afghan. But I managed to piece the front of this pouch together without too much trouble (and I did press everything often). I also actually used my zipper foot to install the zipper which made it approximately a billion times easier to do.
Still working on the giant man socks. I’m almost halfway up the leg. The end is in sight!
So if you read the post about the last purse I sewed, you’ll know I have A Thing for leather messenger bags. Which is to say I love them and my idea leather messenger bag is the unicorn of purses and does not actual exist in the world (much less for a price I’d be willing to pay).
Being the crafty sort, this of course means I have to make it myself. While my ideal purse is soft, supple red leather lined with a funky cotton print and an adjustable strap, the one I finished making yesterday is closer than I’ve gotten yet:
I’m pretty pleased with this one. It’s very sturdy and sits up on its down (as opposed to the last one which just sort of… squished). The pink leather is from a swap claim and I got it with a bunch of other fabric samples. The lining is blue canvas, which I got at a thrift store. Which means the total cost for this purse was like… a dollar. Actually, it’s a little more because I broke like, three sewing machine needles in the process (at a couple of points, I had to sew over three or four layers of thick leather and Leah, my sewing machine (pronounced LEE-uh, like the girl’s name) was Not Having Any of That).
I actually managed to plan ahead in some places, so there are pockets on the sides:
It’s top stitched mostly all around, including the strap (which, despite the messy stitching on the blue side is actually really awesome), which I think looks really good cause I have a desperate love for top stitching.
There is one place where it is not top stitched though.
I tried for like an hour and a half to sew the strap into this side. The thread kept breaking and I broke a couple of needles and the layers of fabric were too thick… it was a nightmare. And then I gave up and glued that sucker in there.
I used a really strong fabric glue called Fabri-Tack, which is machine washable (not that I would machine wash a leather bag but still) and will basically glue anything to anything forever. I mostly use it for felt because it doesn’t get absorbed like most glues do with felt, but it’s also amazingly strong. I’ve been yanking on the strap where it’s glued into the bag side and it isn’t budging. I suspect I’ll have to re-glue it eventually, but for now, I’ve thrown all my stuff in the bag and it seems to be holding up pretty well.
So: yay, new bag! I am also still working on the gigantic man socks (up to the heel turn!) and I should have some swap stuff soon. I finished and sent my Whedon package (and the one to me has been sent), plus I signed up for another round of Ongoing Wish Swap and made a claim. So yay! Swap!
I finished the vest I started the other day! Like I said, it was a super quick knit. I (by which I mean my boyfriend, Joe) took approximately nine bajillion photos of roughly the same composition. Also, I apparently feel the need to tilt my head to the side in ALL POSED PHOTOS. I tried really hard not to this time, but it still crept in. Enjoy!
Pattern: My own, which I’m currently writing up.
Yarn: Linen/Cotton blend from a thrift store sweater
Needles: US 6/4 mm
So I posted my original sketch of this design on Ravelry, but I thought when I finished the fronts that it wasn’t going to look a whole lot like that. I wasn’t sure how well-defined the points would be after I did the trim, the armholes were looking wonky and I was thinking it was going to turn out to be a u-neck instead of a v-neck.
Actually, it turns out that picking up stitches around the neckline and armholes cures a multitude of knitting sins and instead it turned out pretty much how I envisioned it. Dudes? I LOVE THIS VEST.
There are a couple of issues. It’s a wee bit snug which means the buttons gape a little and the yarn I used is a little itchy thanks to the constant shedding of little cotton bits (which by the way were a HUGE pain in the ass when I was frogging the original sweater). Also, while the arm holes worked out all right on the BACK and I could probably write it up as-is, the decreases for the neckline and armholes for the fronts are… wonky. Well, you saw the picture of the fronts.
Fortunately, I plan to correct these flaws in the pattern by knitting another version of the vest. Hopefully. I want to do a shorter version where the points end just under the bust (kind of like this one, but knitted obviously and a bit shorter). I don’t know that I have the yarn for it currently in-stash, but it’s possible I have a cotton-blend in a sweater I have yet to frog. And then I can just dye it whatever color. Or I suppose I could just knit it in wool.
Incidentally, the reason this design is called Leah (pronounced like the Alderaan (my boyfriend insists that this should be “Alderaanian”; he is a huge Star Wars nerd) princess) is for my friend of the same name, who has a super cute cropped vest like the one described above and a generally great fashion sense. Also, I like her. And apparently I am on a “name designs after my friends” kick.
Anyway, yes. Wonderful vest. Design plans for future. Now back to the man socks. *shakes fist*
Warning: If you are FiberAlchemist, my partner on the Craftster Whedonverse swap, DO NOT READ THIS POST. It contains swap spoilers.
Sooo I held a contest recently, which means we need to have a winner! For the contest, I asked you to look at this picture:
and try to guess what I was making. There weren’t many entries, but there was one that was correct! Mimi of Eskimimi Knits said “Is it a doll or toy with red hair?” And that is the correct answer, so she will be winning a kit to knit some spats! Look for my email so I can send it to you!
But who is this red-headed doll specifically?
Why, it’s Willow Rosenburg!
I am currently participating in a Whedonverse swap on Craftster.org (because such is my love of Joss Whedon and Buffy/Firefly/Dollhouse), and I made this doll as one of the items to include in the package. Specifically, it is Willow from the episode “Doppelgangland” in which Willow’s vamp alter ego from “The Wish” comes to Sunnydale and tries to eat everyone. At one point, Willow and vampire!Willow switch clothes, which means….
I also made vampire!Willow’s clothes for her to wear!
The little leather clothes were kind of a huge pain in the ass to sew and they’re rather difficult to get on (so I’m sending Willow already in them). They did come out more or less exactly how I envisioned them though, so that’s awesome.
The doll itself is knit in acrylic yarn (from some estate sale or something) and the red hair is acrylic too, latch hooked in individual strands (which was also a huge PITA, but it came out looking really good).
Willow’s pink sweater is plainer than the one she wears in the episode, but I’m lacking in tiny butterfly appliques and anyway, the fuzzy pinkness is exactly as envisioned, so a score on that one. I used the machine on the leather outfit, but I sewed the skirt by hand (I wasn’t at my machine and I wanted to work on it).
I really hope my partner likes her! I’m really proud of how she came out, and I am sad to send her away. Maybe I’ll make myself another Willow doll with a different outfit from a different episode. : ) I have to finish up another item that’s almost done and then make one more thing, and my swap package will be ready to send. My partner says she should be sending this weekend too. I can’t wait to see what she made me!
Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet (can you crochet cable stitches now where you didn’t even know such things existed last year? Have you recently put a foot in the tiled world of entrelac? Had you even picked up a pair of needles or crochet hook this time last year?
So over the last couple of weeks, I knit these socks:
(sorry this pictures is so bad, IDEK)
Pattern: Manly Aran Socks by Wendy Johnson from Knitted Socks for Everybody
Yarn: Cascade Heritage Paints
Needles: US 1s
Mods: None
Recipient: WWFY swap, presumably to go to a gigantic man. I knit the large size upon request and these are BIG SOCKS. And they TOOK FOREVER. And I have to KNIT ANOTHER PAIR.
So I knit these socks. And they were possibly the most complicated cabling thing I’ve done to date. Lots of twisting, lots of chart-following, lots of complicated little cables. But here’s the thing: I understand how cables work. I know how to get them to turn left and right and over and under. After I figured out how to do a basic open cable, I suddenly got cables. Which means once I’d finished a whole repeat of the cable pattern for these socks (I knit them two at a time like a boss), I pretty much had the pattern memorized. YES.
WHICH MEANS that the socks I mentioned during last years Blog Week (The Viper Pilots of complication and DOOM? TOTALLY DOABLE NO PROBLEMS AT ALL. Cable patterns, top down, heel flap, and all.
LIKE A BOSS.
In the time between finishing those knee socks and starting more WWFY socks, I managed to finish knitting a thing for ME ME ME! They are spats:
Pattern: Spiffy Spats, located further down this post and also ravel-able here
Yarn: Cascade Ecological Wool, about 50g
Needles: US 9/5.5 mm
These spats are great for A. keeping your ankles warm and B. looking awesome while piloting your airship. They are named for my friend Spiffy, who is the most steampunk-eriffic person I know and also likes knitting and ruffles. They come in one size (but the ribbing is quite stretchy) and knit up in just a couple of hours and are SUPER easy to make. They would look awesome in a variety of colors, but I made mine in grey to match things.
You will need:
– About 50g heavy worsted weight/light bulky yarn
– A set of 5.5 mm dpns or a long circular for magic loop
– A stitch marker to mark the beginning of the round
– An iron with a steam setting (trust me on this)
Things you should probably know:
– Knit, purl, increase (kfb), cast on, bind off, knit in the round
Abbreviations:
K: Knit
P: Purl
CO: Cast on
BO: Bind off
KFB: Knit into the front and back of the stitch
SPATS (knit two):
CO 36. Place marker for beginning of round and work in 2×2 rib (knit 2, purl 2) around for each row), slipping the marker as you come to it for 20 rows or until desired length.
Increase row: KFB around.
Continue knitting ruffle: Knit in stockinette (knit every row) for 8 rows or until ruffle reaches desired row.
Work two rows of seed stitch:
row one: k1, p1 around
row two: p1, k1 around
BO in seed stitch.
Finishing: Weave in ends. Block the crap out of the spats (seriously, this step is important to getting them to lie flat). You could wet block too, but unless you were knitting them in mud, steam is sufficient. Sew on cute buttons, rock your spats.
That’s seriously it! I told you they were quick and easy!
Stitch, Brinn, Stitch! 