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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!
As promised, this post is about knitting. I finished a thing!
(The recipient has larger feet and calves than me so that’s why they look funny on)
Pattern: Wicked Witch Stockings from the Sanguine Gryphon
Yarn: Sanguine Gryphon Bugga!
Needles: US 1/sock needle, long circular for magic loop.
Recipient: WWFY person
Mods: I worked the socks top down cause that seems to make socks go by faster. It has to be a set length when I get past the heel and there’s no, “FUCK IT they are TALL ENOUGH” when I get bored.
Despite the Ravelry page for these socks saying they took me just shy of a month, they really felt like they flew by–I knit the second sock in about a week and seeing as one knee-high sock is similar to a pair of regular socks in knitting amount, that’s an accomplishment.
The stripes and calf decreases really made these socks fly–that and the fact that they’re in stockinette so I could knit them while internetting and whatnot. I’m really pleased I have them off the needles now though. I have two more pairs of socks to knit for another WWFY swap (one that I thought had been cancelled until the yarn–shipped in August–arrived with my parents when they came up to visit over winter break) and then I am FREE FREE FREE to knit for myself.
Seriously, I can’t wait.
So beading… not my strongest craft. I don’t really have the finesse required. But I made things! I made earrings! I made three pairs of earrings!
For the first pair, I followed a tutorial by Mich L in LA
I LOVE how these came out but they’re SO fiddly. The chain kept falling off the pin and the jump ring and there were ISSUES OKAY. Also, if you read through the tut, what Mich says about safety pins is true: THEY ARE SERIOUSLY ULTRA-HARDENED KRYPTONITE. It took a super long time to bend the ends of the pins into loops. SO LONG. It was definitely the longest part of the process.
Still, I think they came out SUPER pretty, and Mich’s tutorial is fantastic. I’ll definitely have to make some more variations on these because they’re both punk and feminine-pretty. So yay!
The next pair of earrings I made were SUPER simple.
Just a couple of jump rings and some leaf-shaped leather cut outs. They’re dangley and pretty and I like ’em.
The last pair is like a combination of the above two:
Simple leather shape on jump rings and some nonsense with a big red craft bead from a garland I bought at a Target after-Christmas sale (I have approximately 2397097837 of these beads) and a smaller bead cause the holes in the read beads are ENORMOUS.
Of the three pairs, I like these the least but I do like the red-on-black color scheme so I imagine they’ll get a decent amount of wear.
Now I seriously need to make some sort of jewelry display as currently, all of my jewelry is in a jumble on either my dresser or table next to my bed. Should probably fix that so I don’t lose my new ones.
I sewed a thing! It’s wonderful.
(Please do excuse the mess in the background.)
It’s a circle skirt I made from some fabric I got in a swap this past summer. It’s breezy and light and not at all appropriate for February, even though I wore it yesterday anyway with a long sleeved t-shirt and long socks (as you can see). It would have been nice with tall boots, but I wore purple mary jane style wedges instead.It’s also super swingy, it being a circle skirt.
I expect to get a lot of wear out of it when the weather warms up. I also intend to make a lot more cause I love wearing this type of skirt (though I’ll have to get some more fabric). The waistband is a little messed up (it’s a little large) cause I cut it a little big and my elastic wasn’t as stretchy as I’d have liked. The hemming took like an hour (partly cause I pressed it first), and I was very pleased when it was finished.
In knitting news, I am still working on those knee socks, but they are flying along. I’m on the eighth stripe of the 16 that make up the leg (and each one gets smaller around). I hope to do some more sewing soon (I want to get to the fabric store to get some tulle cause I want to make a crinoline), but for now, I do enjoy knitting.
Yay, I finished a knitting thing! It’s these blasted red socks I’ve been working on forever.
Plus bonus fishnets! Because I like layering tights.
Pattern: Started out as Twisted, then I gave up and just made twisted rib socks.
Yarn: Sanguine Gryphon Bugga!
Needles: US 1
Mods: None, since they’re just ribbed socks.
So, as I mentioned before, these are for a swap and I do not get to keep them. Which is disappointing, but they’re too big for me anyway as they’re for someone with larger feet than mine. The Bugga is, of course, lovely to knit with as usual, thanks to the delightful cashmere content and the squoosh factor of the plies. Yay.
Like I said, I started out knitting Twisted. That did not work out. I messed up the gusset then could work out how to modify the swoop for what I had and I didn’t want to pull out all of my gusset decreases, so I asked the person the socks are going to if I could finish them out in rib, and she said I could, so I did.
Of course, the twisted rib bit was a pain in the ass to knit. Any stitch pattern knit in the round that has more purls than knits is going to inherently be a pain in the ass. I HATE purling in the round. HATE. Especially when there are some knit stitches too. So these socks sucked to make, but they came out pretty well.
Still, I’m rather pleased they’re done. Now onto some striped knee socks for the same recipient and one last pair of shark mittens. Hurrah!
The above courtesy of my favorite thing on the internet, Teen Girl Squad, episode 12, I think. It’s basically the best thing ever.
So today is Valentine’s Day! Happy Valentine’s Day! Not that I need a special commercialized holiday to celebrate my love for my SO, but I did anyway, in the form of presents! I posted a teaser a couple days ago, and here’s the finished embroidery piece:
It’s stretched around some cardboard, framed, and everything. I think it came out super well and my boyfriend loved it. : ) The quote is from a They Might Be Giants song called “Birdhouse” and it’s completely adorable, and you should listen to it:
CUTE. Here’s a close up of my bird:
I also made Joe a pretty pretty card:
It’s frilly and lacy cause that’s what I like, damn it!
Joe wrote me a jazz ballad for Valentine’s Day, cause he does that, and it’s wonderful and romantic and pretty. It also uses rhythms and melodies from the Valentine’s Teen Girl Squad, which I linked above (and you should have watched already, but I’ll wait while you do so now) and I wish I could share it with you, but I can’t. But know that it’s great. : )
So yes. Happy Valentine’s Day! Go forth and say lovely things to people you love.
I made a thing! Out of fabric! And it’s not a shark!
It’s a new purse!
See, here’s the thing about purses. I love messenger bag-style purses. I love the flap for securing my belongings while easily allowing me to get in and out. I love the cross body strap so it stays in place and doesn’t fall off my shoulder. I love that it is wider than it is tall so I can find stuff relatively easily. I love messenger bags.
The purse I was using before this one is also a messenger style bag. It’s the one I got from the Rainbow Swap on Craftster after I was flaked on and had to have an angel. I adore that bag and I’ve used it for a couple of years–it’s sturdy and I love the side pockets. The problem with that bag is A, it’s just a tick too small and B, it’s a really casual bag so it doesn’t really work for occasions where I have to put on a pretty dress.
I have SCOURED thrift stores and regular stores and online, and it is absolutely impossible to find the exact purse I want as I see in my head. In my mind, it’s about 10″x12″6″, adjustable crossbody strap, flap closure, side pockets and inner pockets, and made of red leather.
That bag does not exist. It doesn’t exist for $20, it doesn’t exist for $200. It does not exist (not that I would pay $200, but still). Enter solution: I make my own damn bag.
I love this one, but it’s still not exactly what I want. This is more formal, but still not right. Still, it was good practice and should I happen upon some cheap red leather (probably in the form of a thrift store skirt or jacket), I’ll be able to make the one I really want.
For now though, this one is super cute and I love it. The outside fabric is an interesting gold/silver (depending on the light) brocade, which I picked up at a thrift store for about $2 for around 3 yards (hell yeah). The lining is two different brown cotton canvases, which I got at the thrift store for about $.50 each (around half a yard of each). I didn’t have enough of either fabric, but they go together well enough that I used both.
I constructed the bag similarly to how I made tote bags, which means that it’s totally reversible and there are no exposed seams anywhere. The whole thing is top stitched (oh how I love top stitching), including the strap, which is a thing I don’t normally do but love how it looks here.
So basically, I’m totally in love with my new bag. Now back to shark mittens.
So it snowed last night, and I participated in a snowball fight and made a snowman. It was dark though, so there aren’t any pictures. We still had class today though, but I made my own snow day and spent the morning finishing up some shark mittens:
That’s three pairs. I still have like four more to make, plus four pairs of socks.
So yeah. Knitting.
A couple of days ago, I finished the hat that matches the Kitty Hawk mitts I made.
Pattern: Kitty Hawk
Yarn: Sanguine Gryphon Bugga! in Oak Timberworm and Oleander Hawk Moth.
Needles: US 2 and US 4.
Mods: None, knit as written
So this hat was a lot of fun to knit. It has a really interested construction, and it goes by REALLY quickly. Each of the panels for the top were done in roughly an hour each (I knit them in class; the front and back took a little longer than the sides). I sort of used mattress stitch to sew everything together, but the top seam looks a lot better than the side seams.
When I finished the hat, I showed it to my boyfriend (as I do, and also because I intend to make the hat for myself eventually), and he wasn’t crazy about the shape or the points at the top. I personally LOVE the shape–it’s so interesting and it’s different from the usual rounded top hat. It’ll definitely stand out in a crowd. I can’t wait til I have a moment to knit for myself. I want to make this hat (in addition to a million other things I want to knit for myself).
Til then, it’s shark mittens and socks for other people.
Stitch, Brinn, Stitch! 