You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘FO’ tag.
Pattern: It’s a toe-up sock. My own. Short row heel because they’re awesome and smooth.
Yarn: Cascade Fixation, less than a skein if you can believe it.
Needles: US 3/3.25 mm metal dpns from a garage sale like, eons ago.
So sock knitting is pretty cool. I only ever wear ankle socks, so they knit up reasonably quickly. I haven’t knit many socks and I’ve yet to actually use fingering weight yarn, but socks are awesome. These socks… These socks are amazing. A, they cost me about three dollars to make, which for sock knitting is basically free. And they knit up HELLA FAST. DK weight yarn knits up really quickly. Oh, and they’re so squishy and comfy and amazing. And I love them.
So basically, I’ll be knitting socks now.
I’ll still mostly be knitting sweaters because I love knitting sweaters, but socks will also happen. I’ve got like, four more balls of Fixation that will probably become socks (at least one in a lace pattern), and there will be leftovers, which will be made into little, like half socks that you wear with ballet flats. Yeah.
So I’ve just today cast on for Foliage out of some Lion Wool not because I need more hats but because I need MOAR LACE. Or something. Next up on the knitting agenda is Owls, I think (modified into a cardigan), since I got my order from WEBS today, or most of it anyway. I ordered two skeins of Cascade Eco Wool (one in grey and one in coffee) and four balls of Valley Yarns Northampton in a lovely purple that will probably become a lovely cardigan, possibly the ubiquitous DROPS jacket or possibly Girl Friday from the latest issue of Knitty.
Foliage first, though. Then Owls. Then probably some more hats when Owls gets too big to take to class. Stash busting should… probably happen.Though really, once I use up the Eco Wool, there will be lots more room in my stash. But I don’t plan on buying anymore yarn for a while. Stash busting! It’s happening! Or something.
FO’s, that is. One I finished rather a while ago, and the other is something I whipped up during a movie because my current project was too complicated for movie knitting.
Pattern: None, just a chart of a design I made up.
Yarn: Random scraps of acrylic yarn
Needles: US 8/5 mm I think
This was a present for my friend Sarah, whose birthday was in early June. I spent a week frantically knitting it and sent it off to her in time for her birthday, but I forgot to snap a picture. Fortunately, she is my roommate at school this year, so I snapped one for Ravelry and for the blog.
Pattern: Calorimetry
Yarn: My handspun!
Needles: US 8/5mm straights
Mods: Cast on 88, did far fewer row 5 repeats
My first FO with my handspun!
This pattern is perfect for just a little bit of yarn, which is exactly what I had. I actually have a fair amount of yarn left over, though I’m not sure what to do with it. Perhaps it can be a stripe on a crazy handspun hat. The barber-poling of the colors looks great, but kind of obscures the ribbing. I don’t really care though; it still looks awesome. And I made it! From wool to yarn to dyed yarn to FO. : ) I will definitely be getting a lot of wear out of it come winter because it’ll add a bright splash of color to my winter wardrobe and so I can brag that I made both the Calorimetry and the yarn itself. WIN.
Coming soon to a blog near you: Inchies. Beatles things (part of which is SO FUCKIN’ COOL I can’t stand it), and more knitting. I started an awesome cardigan and scrapped a project I’d been working on for a few days (it just wasn’t working out). Stay tuned!
Pattern: My own, based on the idea for Soft Mit-Gloves. I wanted to make them but didn’t have/want to knit with sport weight yarn, so I improvised based on my tried and true mitten method.
Yarn: Lion Wool, almost certainly less than a skein.
Needles: US 6/4 mm nickle plated dpns.
I’d been thinking for a while about what to make my friend Jon for his birthday, and after much browsing on Ravelry, I found the Cigarette gloves mentioned above and knew they would be perfect. A while back, I made Jon some fingerless mitts for him to wear at the shooting range to keep his hands warm in the cold Pennsylvania winters. I thought a nice pair of wool mittens would do the trick nicely. This way, his index finger is free to pull the trigger, and the other fingers stay nice and warm, nestled in the mitten side. The left one is just a regular mitten cause you don’t need individual fingers on that hand.
Increasingly, I’m finding that worsted weight is a little too thick and awkward for mittens and gloves. I think these will work just fine, but in the future, I think I may have to reduce the weight of yarn I use for this sort of thing, or at least use yarn with more drape. A tighter gauge might also help, much as I dislike knitting at tight gauges.
Coming soon: inchies. More Beatles. Post Secret. Other knitting things. Stay tuned!
Pattern: Studio Shorts available on Ravelry here.
Yarn: Knit Picks Comfy in Marlin, about two skeins
Needles: US 7/4.5 mm Knit Picks Options and 16″ circ
Mods: Went up a needle size cause the sevens were closer and I knit fairly tightly. Left out the huge increase row because my thighs are not half the size of my hips and instead increased about five stitches around the back to accommodate my ass. Skipped the short rows in the front. Probably added extra short rows in the back.
These actually went by quite rapidly once I got the right amount of stitches around the hips, and I think I would definitely make these again. It’s so hard to find shorts that fit, and once I got a drawstring in these, the fit is perfect. And they’re sooooo comfortable. I love Knit Picks Comfy. It feels like kittens on my thighs. : ) I think I would decrease right before the ribbing. The ribbing on the waist isn’t really stretchy at all, and I think a smaller circumference would help that.
I’m extremely pleased with these though. The pattern is staying on my queue.
In other knitting new: super secret project is coming right along. Started another secret project (but probably only secret til next week or so since I’ll be giving them to the recipient then). Unfortunately, super secret projects are really all I’m knitting lately.
Fortunately, my partner for one of my swaps has already sent, so I’ll be showing you that by mid-next week ish. I’ve also been working on my inchies, and I’ll be ready to send out soon. Plus there’s a Post Secret swap (which I am thankfully not organizing). I love swapping, and I’m sure readers are fond of them since they provide tons of blog content. Stay tuned!
I finished another spinning project today:
The color is a bit darker than it appears on my (admittedly light) moniter. Sort of a brick red, which is why this colorway is called “In the Clay Pits”. I dyed an ounce of roving with one packet of black cherry and one packet of grape kool aide. I was hoping for a darker, purply color, but I shall have to try that again later with some grape.
I was going to do a two-ply, but the single came out so balanced I just left it as such. I’d say it’s about a fingering/light sport weight with some minor variation. I’m still working on keeping my tension even, but this is certainly a marked improvement. I’m quite happy with it. 🙂 It’s still a little rope-like (I definitely have a problem with over-spinning), but the texture is rather nice nonetheless.
I’m not sure how much I have here though. It’s an ounce, so I would guess there’s around a hundred yards, though I could be mistaken. I think this might make a nice lace cowl though.
In other craft news: I am planning for the Beatles swap and have done most of the inchie backgrounds. I also signed up for another round of Post Secret, so I have to make those secrets. The shorts from last post are almost done, and the scarf I mentioned will just have to wait. Stay tuned!
Pattern: My own! A stockinette triangle with a wave lace pattern and a simple edging. I’d love to share it, but I fudged most of the numbers to make the lace fit, so it would be difficult to write directions.
Yarn: Red Heart Heart and Sole, about a ball and a half in “Spring Stripes”
Needles: US 7/4.5 mm Knit Picks Options circ
(It’s really not wonky, I just arranged it oddly on Elizabeth. It’s not crooked, I promise.)
I LOVE this shawl. It’s light but still warm, perfect for overzealous air conditioning. The colors and bright and lovely. I LOVE how the lace came out. It’s a simple pattern but because of the stripes in the yarn, it makes the colors pop and they don’t obscure the pattern tooooo much. The points didn’t block out as much as I’d hoped, but they’re pointy enough. All in all, the shawl came out almost exactly as I wanted it to.
Here are some more pictures (I really like macro mode):
Currently being crafty: Inchie swap. Soon to be another swap. A cool knitting project. And a super secret project that I won’t be able to talk about in detail until December. Don’t worry though, I’ll have plenty of other things to show you until then. Stay tuned!
So I recently discovered inchies. Inchies, if you don’t know what they are, are little 1″x1″ works of art, usually grouped together. More information on them can be found in a very helpful post on Craftster here. My recent obsession with card making led me to think I’d also like making inchies. I was right:
I love almost all of them, though I do have a couple favorites. I love the one with the starburst as well as the one with the argyle pattern that says “Live big”. I’m also quite fond of the one with the big pink b. : )
I used a variety of materials to make these. Some old books I got in a library sale in Fredericksburg in French, German, and Japanese, a magazine, bits of a newspaper, scrapbook paper, some punches, and stamps that I either bought or carved and stamp pads my mother had around (though I did buy a couple for myself).
It’s safe to say I’m completely hooked on making inchies. I even signed up for an inchies swap: you make a total of 49 inchies and send seven groups of seven to other people. Though I did sign up for the swap before I made these. I’d been meaning to try inchies and I figured the swap would give me the push I needed.
I’m pretty thrilled about the swap, both for making and receiving. I think I’m going to mount them all and frame them to spice up my dorm room. : )
Pattern: My own! This is my first sweater I designed myself! I based it on Lillie, but I didn’t want to do it in pieces and I wanted to make some mods anyway, so I just made it up as I went. It’s top-down, raglan style.
Yarn: Knit Picks Comfy in “Marlin”, fourish skeins
Needles: Knit Picks Options US 8/5 mm circ and some Clover dpn’s
I LOVE this sweater. It doesn’t much resemble my original sketches for the sweater, but I love how it came out. The fit is perfect, I love the angle of the fronts, and the cotton makes it perfect for layering over tanks in fall/spring. Perfect for back to school! I could probably wear it on cool summer nights too… Immediately after I finished it, I put it on over a short red dress I had on, and it looked fantastic, so I’ll definitely have to put it in rotation.
The buttons came from a swap (the Craft my Wish Swap, if you recall), and I used four of I think the five i was given. I think they fit quite well. And the yarn? The YARN. I’m in love with this yarn. It’s kitten-soft thanks to the microfiber acrylic and cool and pretty sturdy thanks to the cotton content. Did I mention it’s soft? Plus the color I used, Marlin, is such a lovely deep blue. And slightly shimmery. Amazing. AND, as a bonus, I only used four of the eight skeins I ordered, so I have enough to make something substantial. WIN. No idea what I’m going to make with the left overs, but I am quite happy to have it in the stash. I would definitely order this yarn again, and I probably will with my next Knit Picks order (whenever that will be).
Also: This marks number 12 in my dodecathon of sweater knitting! Since I finished in July, I may well go ahead and make 24 sweaters this year. Maybe. Right now, I’m in the mood for lace. Complicated lace, after the seemingly endless miles of stockinette in this sweater. And I did just buy some yummy alpaca lace in a lovely maroon color…
Pattern: Razor Cami by Katie Marcus.
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft, probably less than a skein
Needles: US 6/4 mm circ, Knit Picks Options
Modifications: Using light worsted instead of fingering, cast on 120 for 10 pattern repeats (which turned out to be perfect), divided for the armpits them did some garter in the front and bound off the back, and did two twisted chains for each of the straps. I was going to do icord straps, but by the end of this top, I was SO ready to get it off the needles.
So I like this a lot, even though it’s juuust a tad too short. I keep pulling at it. But worn over a tank that’s long enough, I think it’ll be okay. I got reeeeally bored about two inches from finishing this, but I’m glad I pushed myself through it because I’m quite fond of the finished product. It’s made of acrylic, so it’s rather warm, but I think it’ll look cute paired with a long-sleeved shirt for the winter, when I’ll appreciate the warmth.
And for those of you playing at home, this tank makes the cut for sweater number ELEVEN for the dodecathon. Here’s the monthly break down:
January: Corona/Talia
February: Burgandy (Cable Cardi from Knit Simple)
March: Spring Cardi (Hey Teach)/Lime
April: Lime/Superman
May: Climbing Vines
June: Lelah/Tank Top (Tank Girl)
July: Razor Cami
One more to go!
It does, actually. I think this might be my last claim for a while (though not the last post–there’s this one and then what I got from the person that claimed me). I want to do some regular swaps and maybe even organize one. Or perhaps just get started on my Christmas knitting. Anyway.
I claimed lapoli for a cowl and acrylic yarn. Here’s what I came up with for the cowl:
(Modeled by my sister)
Pattern: A Noble Cowl, available as a free Ravelry download
Yarn: Almost a skein and a half of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes (left over from Climbing Vines)
Needles: Knit Picks 16″ US 7/4.5 mm circ.
Modifications: Only cast on 105 (though that was still waaaay too big), only did two repeats of the pattern instead of 2.5.
I think this came out rather nicely, actually. It’s big but still warm and it can always be pinned with a shawl pin or something similar. And in any case, she loved the drape of it. Turns out she hates things that are tight around her neck. Win.
I also sent her a bunch of acrylic yarn that has been marinating in my stash:
Some Red Heart Super Saver, some Vanna’s Choice, and some unlabeled stuff. She said it’s perfect for her charity knitting. So hopefully it’ll keep someone warm and make someone happy–more than it was doing in my stash.
I’m still working on the baby sweater and the cami. They’re sort of slow-going (well, compared with my usual rate of progress), but hopefully I’ll get Colin’s sweater finished by the time his family gets here. It’s getting there. It’s a bottom-up raglan, and I’m almost at the sleeves. Exciting!
Stitch, Brinn, Stitch! 