You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘FO’ tag.
It’s still hot! I’m going to the Outerbanks with my boyfriend and his family this week! So posting will be limited from tomorrow through next Saturday or Sunday (plus I don’t know how much knitting I’ll be doing on the beach). Anyway, I made this hat. Because if you suck at colorwork, you should TOTALLY ADD CABLES to the mix.
Pattern: Colorful Cables Hat, from Stitch N Bitch Superstar Knitting
Yarn: Columbia-Minerva worsted wool and some red recycled merino
Needles: US 5 KP Options circ
Mods: None. I was thisclose to cutting out a pattern repeat but the decreases are short and I didn’t have to.
So despite the difficulty that knitting this hat was (I am not very experienced with colorwork), I’m super proud of it and it looks awesome. Yay. Can’t wait for cooler weather so I can wear it and not die of heat stroke.
Here is the obligatory inside-out photo so you can see my lovely floats:
Anyway, I’m off to the beach for the week! Be good while I’m gone!
In case you’re living in some remote corner of the world and haven’t heard everyone in the US bitching about it, it has been HOT this week. I don’t actually go outside and we have air conditioning, so it figures that on the hottest days of the year, I knit knee-high wool socks and a stranded hat. Both of which I finished, but this post is about the socks, which I will love more in the winter.
Pattern: They are toe up socks. Do you need a pattern? Gusset/flap heel, wedge toe.
Yarn: Jo Ann Sensations Dolcetto, three skeins in light blue. The colorway reminds me of clouds and the sky, hence, Cloud Cover.
Needles: US 2 and 5 KP options circs
So the yarn held out long enough for these to go just over the knee, which is all kinds of awesome. They will be perfect for under skirts in the winter (not that I’ll probably be working somewhere where that sort of dress is acceptable, but there are weekends!) and they’re pretty comfortable. I can also fold down the cuffs for actual knee socks:
I don’t have especially high hopes for the longevity of the heels/toes of these socks as the yarn is a cotton/wool/nylon blend single (well, fake single; it’s like a fuzzy chained something or other) and the toes are not knitted especially tightly. I figure I won’t wear them that often and I can always darn them if they develop holes, but they should be alright for the time being. I can’t for winter to roll around again so I can wear my socks (and so this damn heat wave will end!)
Sooooo here is a finished object, the Leah vest I finished the other day.
Pattern: Leah. Still working on it.
Yarn: Feza Yarns Zarone, about 1.5 skeins.
Needles: US 6
Mods: Ugh.
So this came out too big again for some reason or other, probably gauge. Cause you know I don’t swatch, ever. I ended up sewing some darts in the side and down the back and it fits pretty well now, even if there are pretty obvious seam lines. I don’t care about the ones on the sides cause my arms are usually in the way, but the one in the back (which, no, you can’t see) could be neater.
Anyway, I managed to get a finished object I’m mostly pleased with. And slowly I’m working out the kinks in the pattern with the help of some dedicated testers. Hopefully it should be available… ever. Sometime. Eventually.
I also finished my thigh high socks (pics of those tomorrow maybe) and started a colorwork hat. With cables. Because I suck at colorwork, so OF COURSE we should add cables to the mix. Fearless knitter, that’s me.
Okay, yes, it’s been nothing but FO’s lately (I have a lot of time). In my defense, this one took about an hour of knitting time.
Pattern: Ruched Eye Sleep Mask
Yarn: Malabrigo in Pearl Ten, about ten grams.
Needles: US 6/4 mm
Mods: None.
A. This was super easy and quick to knit up.
B. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmalabrigo.
C. It’s very useful in blocking out light and much softer than the sewn ones I’ve made (and then lost).
In conclusion: Malabrigo is great.
Also, here’s a WIP photo for you:
It’s another version of Leah vest so I can get this damn pattern out in the world. If you’re interested in test knitting, especially larger sizes, pleeeeeease let me know.
Sooo my posts as of late have been mostly Finished Objects posts. But I have lots of time on my hands, so I do a lot of knitting. I kept meaning to write a WIP post for this sweater but then I finished other things, so I just posted about those instead. Anyway, I finished this top.
Pattern: Delphine from Interweave Knits Spring 2009
Yarn: Recycled 70/30 cotton/wool
Needles: US 4/3.75 KP options circ
Mods: Added a repeat or two to get a size between S and M, left out the split in the center front, and did the armhole picots in crochet.
So I’m pretty thrilled with this top. The fit is wonderful, it’s super cute and girly and will be perfect with skirts and over dresses. I love the ribbon and the neckline and the cap sleeves and the shaping and OH it is so cute.
The yarn I used, recycled from a short sleeved Old Navy tunic pullover, turned out to be perfect for this project. I didn’t swatch (I never do) and my gauge ended up being slightly bigger than the pattern, meaning the mods I made for fit worked out perfectly. Had I gotten gauge, it would have been a tic too small. The length is also exactly right, which is exciting since I have a long torso and most sweaters and written to be too short. But this one is just right!
This sweater is my seventh for the year, which means I am back on track for completing 12 for the year. I’m not sure that I will knit that many, but I do have the yarn and plans for at least six more sweaters. Not sure what I’ll start next (maybe more socks). I currently have a pair of thick hopefully thigh-high socks (I’m about mid-calf in them for a moment). But more on the socks later.
So last night between marathoning SG1 and flexing my fingers from intense knitting, I whipped up a quick skirt.
It started life as a large, light-weight men’s button-down. I chopped off the bottom under the sleeves, hemmed, gathered, and sewed in some elastic.
The whole thing probably took me about an hour and I only had to sew the elastic in once. AND it’s small enough to fit around my waist and stretchy enough to fit around my hips (though it looks funny down that far). It also looks super cute as a tube top with a ribbon or something tied under the bust. Which I can do because for once, the outside top where the elastic is sewn in actually looks kind of neat instead of horribly messy and terrible.
Pretty sure I got the shirt at a thrift store for under a dollar and I used about a third a pack of elastic which was like $1.50. So hell yeah, diy, $1.50 skirt!
A: I am a huge nerd.
B: I really hate satin stitch.
So the other day I wasn’t in the mood to knit (mostly because the hours and days I’ve been knitting as of late put something of a strain on my metacarpals and thumb) but as you probably know, I’m not content to sit and watch SG1 (which is what I’ve been doing lately) with no craft projects. So I dug out some embroidery. A couple of hours later, I had a finished piece, stitched, ironed and framed:
It’s mostly backstitch and some french knots cause that’s what I know how to do. The lettering is kind of wonky since it’s just stitched in my handwriting (I just wrote the words with a disappearing ink pen and stitched over them). This frame came with a piece of glass, so I had the brilliant idea of wrapping the cloth around the glass and fitting it inside the frame with the cardboard backing instead of using a separate piece of cardboard. It worked quite well if I do say so myself.
The punnerific statement and elephant design is based on a similar embroidery piece I found and pinned onto Pinterest:
I appear to have regained my knit mojo, so I’m back at it, but rest assured, I’ll be doing another punnerific embroidery soon. This one and the “alot” one I made before have very similar frames and style, and I have a couple of similar frames. I’m thinking of doing a set and hanging them together (y’know, when I have a place of my own to hang them in), so if you have any suggestions for further pieces in the same vein, do let me know.
Also, you know I’m gonna embroidery something SG1/Stargate-related when I’m through the series cause I’m totally hooked. Especially on McKay. Ohh, I love McKay. (I watched Stargate: Atlantis first and quickly became enamored of him and squealed ridiculously when I came upon an SG1 ep he’s in.)
I finished my Great Gatsby Dress! It was a super fast knit (I think I finished it in about a a week), and I’m utterly thrilled with the finished object.
Also, I got about a foot of hair chopped off. It’s delightfully short and I donated about 10 inches to locks of love. Anyway, back to the knitting.
(The bottom’s not uneven, I just don’t stand straight and that bulge is the dress underneath, which is empire waisted)
Pattern: Great Gatsby Dress, from the Summer 2009 Interweave Knits
Yarn: Recycled Linen/Cotton blend, navajo plied and dyed with Dylon Dye
Needle: Mostly US 5/3.75 cause I couldn’t find my 6/4mm KP tips
Mods: Um, a lot. My gauge was like, waaay off (cause you know I don’t swatch), so I did as many repeats of the Fern Lace pattern to get the right width and then modified from there. Also, I left off the picot bind off and just did garter edges.
Like I said, I am so utterly delighted with this dress. I’d been searching for the right yarn in thrift shops for a while, knowing I’d have to recycle a large sweater to make the project affordable. It took some doing, but I finally found a lace-weight linen/cotton blend that was large enough. I frogged it, tripling the yarn as I wound it, and dyed it with about 3/4 a packet of Dylan dye. The dye job came out to the color wanted (dark grey) with some variation (but not enough to be obnoxious).
The pattern itself was pretty easy to follow for the most part, and I really like the effect picking up the skirt stitches on the wrong side has. The bodice was a little confusing, but that’s mostly because my stitch counts were way off. I just mirrored the armholes like the back, which I followed more closely to the pattern, and worked the neckline the way I’d make any scoop necked sweater. The effect: SUPER CUTE.
The only issue I have with the dress is that it’s a wee bit short, which means I have to wear something underneath it (I quite like it over this white dress, which is how I had planned to wear it). I could probably get away with just an underskirt as the top part is pretty opaque (though the stitching is pretty loose, so who knows). I was worried the bodice was going to be do tight, but I did some extra bust inscreases on the side, and it fits quite well.
Next on the knitting agenda is a reknit of my Leah vest. I frogged the longer version cause the shaping didn’t sit right and I plan to remake the shorter version so I can finish drafting the pattern and hopefully get it into testing this week. Cheers!
As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, I’m somewhat obsessed with poofy skirts. The 50’s silhouette is my favorite of the fashion decades, so I try to wear clothes that give me that pretty much as often as I can. I’ve made one circle skirt with many more planned, but to really give them poof, you need a crinoline. Which I finally made!
I had an old skirt that had a couple of holes along the upper seam lines but the bottom was fine. It’s a little ratty cause the skirt is made out of the thinnest, cheapest material ever, but it’s very full and poofy. Perfect for lifting up my skirts!
This dress usually lies much flatter without the underskirt.
I’m planning to make at least one more with some tulle I’ve had forever (when I get around to it). In the meantime, I’ll be wearing this one as often as possible, though I think I’ll have to handwash it as it’s quite delicate.
I’m pretty pleased with how this came out, even if I did have to sew the elastic in twice and then overlap it a few times to get it to actually fit. Fun fact: You can usually get away with a lot less elastic than you think you need. Especially this elastic, which I picked up at Joann’s, which is very stretchy.
No pictures of the elastic though cause my stitching is very haphazard and messy. So let’s just pretend it’s neat and pretty. : ) I’ll nearly always be wearing the skirt under other things anyway. To make up for that, here’s a kitty (my cat, whose name is Little Bit):
She’s skittish and aloof, but she’s cute. : )
PS: Happy Independence Day if you’re in the US! (And happy Monday/Pride Week/belated Canada Day for everyone else.)
Stitch, Brinn, Stitch! 