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So I have finished up a couple of knitted things this week because, like I said, it’s dead week/senior week, so all the soon-to-be graduates are chilling on campus for a week before graduation, partying, sleeping in, and generally laying about. I have been knitting, my boyfriend Joe has been putting together a self-published album of his orchestral/piano compositions (he’s good; I promise) and together we’ve been watching Stargate: Atlantis on Netflix (which is delightful, by the way. We’re about halfway into season two and I LOVE IT).
Anyway, during the many episode of SGA we’ve been watching, I’ve gotten a lot of knitting done. Like the shorter version of my Leah vest.
Pattern: Leah, which I am currently working on writing up.
Yarn: Reynold’s Tiara, three skeins I’ve had as long as I’ve been crocheting (ie, a long damn time), probably from a yard sale or something.
Needles: US 6/4 mm
So guys? I TOTALLY LOVE THIS VEST. I really didn’t think I would care for the cropped version but OMG it is so cute. It looks great over blouses and I think it’ll look good over some dresses and t-shirts too. LOVE LOVE LOVE. The points came out exactly how I wanted (just under the bust) and the neckline is perfect. I originally tried to put in too many buttons/button holes but when I reduced them from five to three, it came out perfectly. Seriously LOVE.
Also the photo shoot was fun. My camera guy (Joe) is great and I love him.
As for the yarn: It was just a bit thinner than I would have liked. Ravelry says worsted, but it’s more like a dk. Anyway, it’s discontinued, so I won’t be recommending it for the pattern (probably I’ll just say a cotton or rayon blend worsted weight). Tiara is rayon and silk and the rayon was very splitty and the silk very pilly. The finished vest is quite pretty, but I wouldn’t recommend this yarn to anyone, especially if it’s been sitting on the bottom of your yarn bin for several years. It is a pretty color though and I did use up just about all of it, so it’s out of my stash.
I believe I mentioned before I was working on a cotton summer hat — I’ve finished that too and will have some details/pictures in the next post. Suffice it to say that it’s awesome and basically the best hat ever. That post will not be tomorrow as tonight is Cinco de Mayo and I will be drinking tequila. Yes.
So I finished a thing for OWS. I actually finished several things but like a dummy forgot to take pictures and this one I haven’t sent off yet (so if you’re Quaggy on Craftster, you should probably not look).
Anyway, I made a totebag, based off of this one on her wists. I tried to copy it at least in spirit, though I’m pretty pleased with what I came up with:
Pattern: I made it up as I went. Might put together a pattern. Might not. It’s pretty simple. Make hexagons. Sew them together. Make handle.
Yarn: Acrylic from an estate sale (which I suspect to be Red Heart Super Saver). The purple multi is Jo Ann Sensations Rainbow Boucle, which I actually bought at Jo Ann’s a few years ago. Cause I’m classy.
Hook: (yep, this is crochet! Gasp!) I/9 5.5 mm. I crochet kind of loosely though.
So I’m pretty pleased with what I’ve got going on here. It was pretty quick to make (I made up a couple of hexagons per day in between other things and crocheted them together as I went). I haven’t made any large-scale crochet projects in a while (and I don’t usually, as I prefer knitting). It was nice to use different hand muscles, though I must admit I overdid it on a couple of days and make my hand sore. : /
I lightly steamed the body of the bag to make it less stiff, but the gauge is tight enough that I don’t think it needs a lining. I didn’t steam the handle because I wanted it to be stiffer/more sturdy, and I think I accomplished that.
I also finished another thing, knitted this time. I made a shorter version of my Leah vest to work out the shaping (and also cause I wanted it). I still have to take proper pictures of it, so I’ll leave that for another post. In the mean time, I’ve cast on for a hat with a nice big brim for shading my face from the sun.
Also, there’s that graduation thing happening on Saturday. You know, no big. : )
(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 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!
Whatever happened to your __________?
Write about the fate of a past knitting project. Whether it be something that you crocheted or knitted for yourself or to give to another person. An item that lives with you or something which you sent off to charity.
There are a lot of different aspects to look at when looking back at a knitting project and it can make for interesting blogging, as much of the time we blog about items recently completed, new and freshly completed. It is not so often that we look back at what has happened to these items after they have been around for a while.
How has one of your past knits lived up to wear. Maybe an item has become lost. Maybe you spent weeks knitting your giant-footed dad a pair of socks in bright pink and green stripes which the then ‘lost’. If you have knit items to donate to a good cause, you could reflect on the was in which you hope that item is still doing good for it’s owner or the cause it was made to support.
Let me tell you a story. It’s a story about a sock. These socks in particular:
They are my only pair of woolen, hand-knit mid-calf high socks. I ADORE THEM. I’m still not crazy about the colors, but they are delightfully warm. Except there was a problem. If you recall the original FO post for these socks, I mentioned one of the legs was too small because I accidentally decreased too many after the heel. I wore the socks a few times; I really had to work to get that one on.
And then disaster struck.
Where I pulled the leg of the sock over my heel stressed the stitches so much that they popped! This was in December, right at the beginning of winter.
I put them in a basket and ignored them for a couple of months.
A couple days ago, when the weather was lovely and I was sick of knitting gigantic man socks, I pulled them out and thought, “Y’know, I might like to wear these socks. I think I’ll reknit the leg.” And so I did.
They fit much better now and I’m very glad I fixed them.
Stitch, Brinn, Stitch! 