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I wanted to make something quick and on large needles, so I made a hood/hat-type-contraption. It’s delightful.
Pattern: Made up as I went. Might do a pattern, but I’d have to knit up another one to work out the kinks.
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted, a full skein (like, a foot left over) in Noviembre
Needles: US 10/6mm
I started out wanting to make Riverbanks from Knitty, but I only had the one skein of yarn, so yardage would have been tight. I also didn’t want the lace, which would have been easy enough to take out. I figured I might as well just make things up as I went.
I’m pretty pleased with it. The Malabrigo is incredibly soft and warm. I tell you, all the things they say about the magical softness of Malabrigo are completely true. I wish I could afford to knit with it all the time. But I can’t. Sad face.
Anyway, the hood. It came out pretty well for a prototype. And yes, I could rip it out and reknit it to fix the problems I’m about to talk about, but I don’t want to, so there. Anyway, problems. There are some, owing to the made-up nature of the pattern. The hood part is a little too long and I would prefer the cowl part to start sooner. There’s a weird bulge in the back unless I tip my head forward, but that’s due to some short rows. I put some in at the beginning and then didn’t need them, so I balanced them out with more short rows and yeah. The hood is also a little pointy, but I’m not sure how to get around that short of starting in the corner like a beanie.
I will definitely be making at least one more out of something equally lovely. Maybe I’ll use the skein of Lorna’s Laces I’ve been hoarding (I got it in a swap). Or something else lovely.
In life/fandom news: I am working full time now. It’s exactly as awful as people make it seem, although I’m lucky to be working in a fairly quiet office (for the time being anyway). I’ve been watching a lot of the cooking show Good Eats since I found it on YouTube. I used to watch a lot of Food Network and I always loved this show–it’s about cooking, but it’s also about science. Why cooking things different ways works, why components of food cook the way they do. Very interesting. And great recipes too–I’ve made a couple. I’m also reading The New Rebellion, a Star Wars novel. I’m still making my way through the Expanded Universe, occasionally ploddingly. Joe and I are still reading I, Jedi, although that’s going pretty slowly. Maybe we’ll get back into that this evening.
I finished the long-term fingering weight sweater! It was a saga. Sometimes it was a slog. But it’s finished and I LOVE IT.
Pattern: Made up as I went using the contiguous sleeve method
Yarn: Recycled J Crew merino and about half a ball of Red Heart Sashay in Jive
Needles: US 2/2.75 mm
You guys. This sweater. The placement of the ruffles and where you’d think it would be pinned (along the top in the middle) make my hips look ENORMOUS. I am already distinctly pear-shaped thanks to years of sitting and slow boob-growth, but it this sweater? HIPS BABY. I don’t even care because the ruffles are so damn fun and I adore the low, wide neckline. LOVE. And it’s great that I love it because it certainly took me long enough to knit for a short-sleeved sweater.
Let me tell you about the construction. I used a top-down contiguous for the sleeves, both as a test of the method and because I wanted set-in sleeves. I knit down the shoulders, increased for the fronts, and knit merrily along til I got to the ruffles. After trying several joining methods, I ended up purling the yarn in and then I sat down to look at my creation. Only to see that the sweater did not even remotely fit around me. There was like a five-inch gap between the fronts that was not going to close. So I picked up some stitches, cast on 25 more for the front, and knit along, decreasing one of the picked up stitches at the end/beginning of every row until I had a panel that made the sweater actually fit. And then repeated along the other side, obviously.
I actually really like how the front panels came out. They drape really well and provide a large area for me to pin. I actually ended up sewing a twisted cord loop and button to the fronts just under the bust for a fastener after I took these photos, but on the off chance I wanted to pin the top of the neckline together for serious hippage, I could. I mostly wear my sweaters pinned just under the bust, so that’s where I put the clasp.
It’s a fun sweater. If I don’t wear the right clothes under it, I look hella pregnant, but it’s definitely a fun sweater.
In other news, I start my job full-time tomorrow. Tonight, I’m running to the thrift store to get some more office-appropriate skirts and pants (I particularly need some black pencil skirts), as well as probably some sweaters because I am nothing if not impulsive with yarn purchases. There will probably also be some mourning of the loss of my free afternoons. I guess I have to join the realm of real 9-5 (well, 8:15 to 5:15) workers. I will certainly get less Netflix-watching done. That’s probably good for my productivity anyway.
I finished one of the WIPs from my WIP Party post the other day. Unsurprisingly, it was the weaving FO because that craft is hella fast once you get past the warping.
Warp: recycled wool/rayon/cashmere/nylon
Weft: Knit Picks Palette in Huckleberry Heather and Mist, about 2/3 a ball of each
Loom: Vergere, the 24″ LeClerc
Pattern: Clasped weft (obviously)
I am super pleased with how this came out, which means it is MINE instead of going in the hypothetically gift bin where most of the scarves I make hypothetically go. Not that I need another scarf, especially in shades of purple and grey, but, well, y’know. MINE. It’s really soft and light, which makes sense considering I used fingering weight yarn instead of my usual worsted weight.
I tend to look at the pattern from the grey side, and I think it looks like icicles hanging of the side of a house. I posted the WIP picture in a Ravelry weaving group (Warped Weavers), and someone commented that when looking from the purple side, it looks like cathedrals and their steeples. Not that I care much for churches, but the architecture can often be pretty.
As I mentioned last time, I made this to practice clasped weft before I move on to the rain drops shawl. I also want to make one of a cityscape–blocks like buildings instead of triangles or lines. I’m not sure how well that would work in actual execution, so I might have to (gasp!) sample on the little loom.
I’ve already warped up another project on the big loom. Just some dish towels in some cotton/acrylic blends left over from other projects. I think I like the hand of the cotton/acrylic blend slightly better for towels. It tends to be softer and more absorbent (at least in my limited experience). Maybe I need a type of cotton yarn other than kitchen cotton. But that’s another post.
I made another scarf. They’re just so quick!
Warp: wool/rayon/cashmere/nylon blend, recycled
Weft: thick-and-thin wool, recycled
Loom: Vergere
Reed: 5 dpi
Pattern: Tabby
It’s a scarf. It wove up really quickly thanks to the thick yarn. It is another project destined for the gift bin. Or maybe I’ll just slap those suckers up on Etsy. I’ve finally stopped worrying about what I’m going to do with a hundred scarves, so I’ve weaving as many as I like.
I hope you guys appreciate that I took modeled shots of this thing. Because it’s huge. Probably six and a half feet long and 10 inches wide. Big. I might end up keeping this one after all.
I haven’t trimmed the fringe in any of these photos. Sorry.
It appears July is when I made scarves. Just go with it.
Anyone who knows my thrift shop habits knows I am incapable of leaving cashmere sweaters on the rack, especially if they’re cheap. As such, I’ve amassed quite a collection. Mostly even in the same color palette. So I made a blanket:
It is as soft as a cloud and nice and big. There’s no sense of scale in the above picture, but it is the size of my queen bed. Perfect for wrapping myself in in the dead of winter. Or when the AC is too high. Y’know.
(That’s Joe back there, playing the ever obliging boyfriend)
I made some improvements from the last cashmere quilt I made. Instead of overlapping the squares, I put them right sides together and sewed a proper seam. I also used a straight stick instead of a zigzag. This actually seemed to reduce the amount of lettuce edge I got. I also used squares of varying sizes. This was accomplished by doing absolutely no measuring whatsoever. I basically cut the biggest square I could from each sweater piece.
Different sized squares meant I couldn’t really sew them into strips. I ended up doing some kind of wonky log cabin thing, at least until the blanket got wide enough. Then I pretty much just sewed strips the best I could. I sometimes had to get a little creative when I didn’t have any squares that were big enough.
I have a fair amount of leftover bits of cashmere. I might piece together a pair of mittens and a hat. I would make a pillow but I already have way too many pillows. I might offer what’s left when I’m out of things I want to make to the Unravelers group on Ravelry and someone can use it for whatever. And then I will snuggle the hell out of my blanket. SO SOFT.
The parade of FOs continues! I knit a sweater.
Pattern: Betty’s Tee from the Summer 2010 Interweave Knits
Yarn: Recycled cotton/wool/nylon, which I bought solely for the buttons and was pleasently surprised by the fiber content
Needles: US 8/5 mm
Mods: Added two extra body blocks so the top would be long enough and replaced the knit armhole and bottom edging with crochet. Oh, and I added a drawstring around the neck made out of a twisted cord
I’m pretty pleased with this top. I wore it to work the other day over a black and white polka dot dress. Pretty snappy. The bottom edge is a little tight (not because of the crochet but because of my cast on) so it poofs out a little and makes my tummy look bigger than it actually is. If you make this, you should definitely use a super loose cast on. I was worried, judging from the CO number, that it would be too small, but it fits really well everywhere else.
It was a really fun knit. As it is with entrelac, before you have a chance to get bored with the section you’re on, you have to do something different. I knit this in two weeks (exactly according to Ravelry). I wouldn’t necessarily make it again, but I’d definitely like to make another entrelac top.\
For those playing along at home, this is sweater number nine, making me two months ahead of the sweater-a-month challenge. The fingering weight cardigan plods along. I would say that’ll be ten, but let’s be realistic: I’m gonna make at least one more whole sweater before that sucker’s finished.
I wove a scarf. Because DC in July during a heatwave is exactly when you want a wool scarf.
Yarn: Scraps. The weft is a recycled tripled shetland wool. The warp is all manner of things, including Noro Silk Garden and Cascade Eco. Mostly it’s shark mitten left overs
Reed: 5 dpi
Loom: Easy Weaver
A note on the loom before I continue. It’s a Harrisville Easy Weaver and it’s crap for any decent weaving. The pawl and ratchet can take about zero tension before they pop apart. It’s a terrible design, but I guess it works for children who aren’t serious about weaving. It drives me mad, but I do like the small size (need to get an Ashford Sample It). Anyway, in a fit of pique, I emailed Harrisville and complained about the pawl and ratchet design. I mentioned in the email that I’d gotten my loom second hand. I not only heard back from Harrisville saying they had redesigned the pawl a few years back, but they offered to send me a set of replacements. Amazing. I installed them and they’re marginally better (they really need to be much wider and I’m considering replacing them with L brackets), but Harrisville did send them to me for free. So crappy design, but really excellent customer service.
Anyway, more on the scarf.
It’s a scarf. I had a couple of broken warp threads, which was a pain in the ass. It’s something like six feet long. It’s going to the gift box because lord knows I don’t need any more scarves (never mind that I just today warped up the loom for another one).
You guys, I am really bad at blogging. Apparently we’re making this a once a week thing because I can’t be arsed to type anything up more often than that. In my defense, I’ve been kind of busy. I work four whole hours a day! And I have to watch Star Trek and make things I don’t blog about, apparently.
Anyway, I made a hat.
Pattern: Woven
Yarn: Louisa Harding Ianthe, a 50/50 merino/cotton blend. About a ball and a half.
Needles: Like fives or something? I dunno.
Mods: None, knit as written
This hat is for the gift box I totally have. (I do not have a gift box. Per se. It’s more of an idea at this point). I have too many bloody hats but no desire to stop making hats and anyway, it looks weird on my head.
I don’t really rock a beanie very well. Of course, when it’s cold, I don’t much care what I look like, but it’s 90 degrees outside, so… I still don’t care, but I have opinions on the hat at least. So it isn’t for me. I have no idea who it is for since I don’t know a tremendous amount of people and I’m not really the gift-giving type.
The buttons I put on the hat are pretty cool. Here’s a close up:
They are (I believe) Norwegian military buttons. I got them from a yard sale in a big collection of buttons. I have a bunch of various military buttons, but a lot of them are gold colored and I don’t particularly care for them. The insignia are pretty cool though.
In life news: The new job is going really well. Things are pretty slow because of the summer (which is AWESOME) and I wish I was working full time, but I’ll take what I can get. I’d really love to be able to move somewhere that isn’t a basement (or at least an actual basement apartment), but I’m not sure when I’ll be able to afford to do that.
In media consumption news, I’m reading Choices of One with Joe. I’m also reading Scoundrels, another Star Wars novel by Zahn, which takes place shortly after A New Hope and right before Allegiance. I finished watching Deep Space Nine (OMG IT IS THE BEST EVER) and have started Voyager. Y’all, you really have to want to watch Voyager. After the premiere, the first couple of episodes are TERRIBLE. It gets much better (I’m a little more than halfway through season two), but even I have to skip a few of the first ones in the first season. And I have a ridiculously high tolerance for crappy television. After Voyager, I’m going to go back and watch all the Next Gen movies, probably starting with Generations. Maybe I’ll watch the original series. I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do with myself when I’ve watched everything in the Star Trek franchise. Start over with Next Gen again, I guess. Anyway, make things and watch Star Trek. It’s what I do.
I finished a thing! A really big thing. I started it back in May sometime and finished it the other day:
Pattern: Hemlock Ring Blanket
Yarn: Recycled wool from a really big sweater
Needles: US 11/8 mm
Mods: None? I used the crochet bind off though.
OMG you guys. I really enjoyed knitting this and I really love the finished object but JESUS was it a pain in the ass to block. It just barely fits on my bed and the loops kept jumping off the pins. I ended up putting a heavy object in the middle (some barbell weights) and steaming the middle section then stretching, pinning, and steaming each of the arms individually. It took a long time. But it did work out really well.
Queen sized bed, y’all. Seriously.
Because July is exactly the time for heavy wool blankets. And I mean heavy. This thing is over 700g and the yarn is SUPER thick and rustic. Like bits of veg matter rustic. I love it though. It gets cold sometimes in the basement, even in July, and it’s a perfect extra layer over my snuggly cashmere blanket.
In non-blanket related news (specifically science fiction reading), there’s this Kickstarter. It’s for an anthology of time-travel short stories, and it includes stories by Timothy Zahn, Michael Stackpole, and Aaron Allston. Understandably, I’ve pledged about as much of my money as I can, but I need you guys to kick in. If you like science fiction, books, time-travel, or Star Wars novels (ZAHN, STACKPOLE, AND ALLSTON), I need you guys to contribute. There’s like three days left and I want to hit the $20k goal. SECOND VOLUME. NOVELLA BY ZAHN. I need it. NEED. So do me a favor and give them some money. DO IT FOR STACKPOLE, YOU GUYS. Because he is the best.
I made another sweater! It worked up so fast I don’t think I even showed it as a work in progress.
Pattern: Liesl by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Interlacements New Mexico in Summer Fruit
Needles: US 10/6 mm
Mods: None, really. I did garter cuffs instead of the picot hem
It looks a wee bit odd over this dress here, but that’s what I had on and I wasn’t going to change just to photograph a sweater. Good enough. It’s a lovely little sweater, light and airy and perfect for over-air conditioned offices. I didn’t put in any buttons; I have a shawl pin stuck in it here. I’ll probably wear it open mostly, but I might get a big safety pin or a belt for the future. I need to get some shawl pins.
I cast on stitches to make one of the medium sizes because I used a lighter yarn and smaller needles. The neckline still came out super small despite using the wide neck numbers. I had this problem the last time I made this sweater too–either the numbers are weird or I cast on freakishly tightly. Everything seems to lay alright, so I don’t <i>think</i> it’s me, but who knows.
I also made the body of the sweater pretty short. I didn’t want a fully cropped sweater like a shrug, but I think the shorter length works better with dresses. Especially with my freakishly long torso. Maybe the cropped length will shorten my torso and lengthen my legs. That’s the hope, anyway. I’m not too fussed about it though since I’m generally not too concerned with my appearance (I have been known to wear my jammies out and about because that’s how I roll).
This makes my eighth sweater of the year, for those keeping track at home. I’m like two months ahead at this point. But my next sweater (unless I cast on another one, which I very well might) is that fingering weight one and it’s only about an inch past the sleeve separation. I am working on other things though. I’m sure I’ll proceed to cast on nine other things (at the very least) before I finish that sweater. Plus I recently warped up another scarf on the little loom. As you do. Too many crafts, not enough time.
Stitch, Brinn, Stitch! 