A blog about my life, knitting, and other stuff.

December 30, 2010

The World's Saddest, Baggiest Tea Cozy



Pattern: Tea Mitten by Elizabeth Kleven
Yarn: Handspun 2-ply Mystery Wool/Mohair
Needles: US4
Notes: Wow, what didn't go wrong with this project? I found the pattern and though it was just right for my teapot. Then I picked the absolute wrong yarn. I just got it in my head to use handspun even though none of my handspun was the right gauge. This yarn was way too large for this pattern. It's also not terribly elastic. I could see right away that it wasn't working out but I was just too lazy to think about how to adjust it. I was very engrossed in a murder mystery and ended up knitting too long before binding off for the spout. I forced my way through and the cozy was enormous. I felted it a tiny bit by hand then ran it in the dryer for a bit. Still huge. And baggy. And sad. My younger son saw it on my teapot this morning and said, "What that?!?" But it keeps my teapot warm so I'm okay.

Gnomes! On My Head!






Pattern: My own inspired by this sweater
Yarn: St-Denis Nordique
Needles: US3 and 4
Notes: I fell in love with the gnome sweater and created this hat to act as a swatch for a sweater of my own. Now that I've done the hat I may have worked the gnomes out of my system. I created my own chart that is 10 stitches wide and fit around my hat 13 times. There are a few rounds with three colors. One of them all three colors are evenly spread out so I knit it holding all three yarns and didn't worry about trapping floats. The others I knit with just two colors and later duplicate stitched the single rogue stitch per repeat with the background color. I also duplicate stitched the eyes. I would start the gnomes sooner if I were to make this again. They are too close to the decreases and the tops of their hats get a bit lost. I would also add some small motif round above and below the gnomes. All in all a very fast and fun project.

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

So I've decided to start a women's lingerie boxing league.



How do you like the gloves?

December 25, 2010

Cable Braided Necklace





Pattern: Cable Braided Necklace by Olga Buraya-Kefelian
Yarn: Wolf Creek Wools Superwash Merino Tencel, leftovers from Ulmus
Needles: US4 Clover Circulars
Notes: I tried this pattern on a lark mostly to try to understand the "braiding." It took no time to knit although I did run out of yarn and had to rip one strip back and then reknit the ends of both strips. Mine have only 15 repeats each. Then I stitched the ends together while weaving in ends and crocheted a button loop. The button is from the depths of my button box. This is a great use for all those little bits of sock yarn we knitters seem to have so much of.

Elwood



Pattern: Ringo & Elwood by Barbara Gregory
Yarn: Louet Gems in Cream and Koigu KPM (brown)
Needles: US1 and 2 dpns
Notes: I was not very happy with my tension of the first mitten. I didn't want to radically change my approach for the second because I still wanted them to match. I continued trapping my floats on every 5th or 6th stitch but worked very hard at keeping the floats relaxed. I'm much happier with the second mitten (on the right in the photo) but it is a bit larger than the first due to a more relaxed tension. You can really see the difference in the facial details. All in all and entertaining and quick knit. Ringo has already been started.

December 23, 2010

Winter Vogue Knitting Preview

It's up. Please discuss.

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

We've probably all been stuck in the same spot before. You're in a chorus of the Rockette's holiday spectacular but you have a scuba class that starts right after your performance. What's a girl to do?



Merry Christmas!

December 21, 2010

Hee Hee

I finished my first Elwood mitten last night at Purlygirls.



He's so cute I couldn't stop giggling over it. There were also a lot of comments about my beaver that had us all giggling. And, yes, we are 12 years old.

As you can see my stranded colorwork isn't all that great. I have a hard time with tension since my left hand is much, much looser than my right. I should have put the white yarn in my left hand instead of the brown. Also I should have trapped every 2-3 stitches instead of 5-6. Also, even though the two yarns are the same gauge, the brown is much more plump which is another challenge to evenness. Let's just call it a learning experience.

December 19, 2010

Orchid Thief





Pattern: Orchid Thief by Ysolda Teague from Brave New Knits
Yarn: 2.5 skeins Koigu KPM won as a door prize
Needles: US6
Notes: There is errata for this pattern. You can get revised versions of charts 3 and 4 from Ysolda but it's still fairly unclear how to knit Row 86. Fortunately a helpful Raveler has spelled it all out. I found the blocking a bit challenging. Other than putting in a billion pins I couldn't get the shape the way I thought it should be.

December 16, 2010

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

This brings new meaning to "crazypants."



But it also reminds me of Arty Smarty-Pants.

December 14, 2010

Elwood Swatching

I am beyond smitten with Elwood & Ringo, an adorable set of mitten patterns in the new Twist Collective. I am trying to make them from stash since they take so little yarn. I have some brown Koigu and am trying to find something to knit with them that's a little more interesting than white.



What do you think? I think the level of contrast is pretty good. But maybe I should just do white?

December 13, 2010

Beads on the Vine



Pattern: Beads on the Vine by Sivia Harding, kit purchased at Earthfaire.com
Needles: US0 Crystal Palace DPNs
Notes: The website wasn't very clear about the color combinations so this is a lot more purple than I was expecting. The pattern is simple but fiddly and takes nearly no time at all. I accidentally wove in my ends before attaching the "dangle" near the clasp. I won't bother adding it.

Interweave Crochet Preview

The preview is up but I'm not really seeing anything that grabs me. I really don't care for the color palette of this issue but that's just me.

December 10, 2010

Tome for the Holidays

For Hanukkah Wes and I got one another terrific books. I received The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Fifth Edition, Completely Updated and Expanded. It is a massive encyclopedia of people involved in all aspect of film. It's not a cover-to-cover read but a pick-up-at-random-flip-to-a-page kind of deal. Opening it for the first time sent me back to my childhood when I would peruse the encyclopedia. Yes, I was a nerd. What of it?

I got Wes 40: A Doonesbury Retrospective. It's an abridged look at 4o years of Doonesbury. It's titanic. It weighs ten pounds.

All this book love reminds me of another great book for gift giving, Lane Smith's It's a Book.

Doubleknit #46

It's up.

December 9, 2010

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

It's the most wonderful time of the year. Moscow Fashion Week!



December 7, 2010

Common Octopus




Pattern: Common Octopus from Amigurumi Knits by Hansi Singh
Yarn: Leftover Cascade 220 and 220 Superwash
Needle: US5 Addi Turbo
Notes: I decided not to use chenille stems to make the legs poseable. Partly because I was worried about the sharps ends poking the gift recipient and partly because I couldn't find the ones I bought for the anglerfish. I also opted for safety eyes instead of embroidering eyes. I always feel like I knit a lovely stuffed animal then ruin it by stitching on the eyes badly. This is way easier. It's a very clever pattern. There is quite a bit of seaming. All those legs need to be stitched up. But it all goes very quickly and it quite entertaining to see the design take shape.

Moebius Cowl



Pattern: Moebius Cowl (.pdf) by Cat Bordhi
Yarn: Brooks Farm Four Play, 1 skein
Needle: US10 Addi Turbo Lace Clicks
Notes: I cast on 160 sts because that's the number of stitches I used for my first moebius and I liked the finished size. This one is so long! I can wrap it three times around my neck. I didn't account for the extra stretch of the lace pattern and this silky yarn. I also didn't have enough yarn to knit the complete lace edging so I just fudged it.

December 6, 2010

Bejeweled


Pendant by Hotcakes Design




Bracelet made by me!

Elijah



Pattern: Elijah by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Cascade 220 (about half a skein)
Needle: US3 Addi Turbos
Notes: This is such a clever knit. Elijah is entirely seamless. You knit the head, pick up for the body, pick up for the arms, legs and ears. And then you're done! Plus he's adorable.

December 5, 2010

Brain Dump

In no particular order.
  1. I finished my Elijah the Elephant. He is super-cute and requires absolutely no finishing which we all know is completely and totally awesome.

  2. I took a Say It on Your Wrist class this week at a local bead shop. It was really fun to learn something new. We used metal stamps to hammer messages onto silver then shaped it into a bracelet. Mine says, "KNIT ON...THROUGH ALL CRISES." (Not enough space for the full quote.) There was some extra time so I also made a pendant that says "FUCK OFF I'M KNITTING." I also finally learned the correct way to close a jump ring.


  3. I drove by a sign last night that read TACOMA ELF STORAGE. Thought it was nicely seasonally appropriate.

  4. This week at the shop we were visited on separate days by designers Cirilia Rose, Anna Hrachovec from Mochimochiland and Twinkie Chan.

  5. I cast on for an octopus from Amigurumi Knits. It will have a lot of finishing which is okay because it is an awesome-looking pattern. It will also hopefully mark the end of my holiday knitting.

  6. I started a Beads on a Vine necklace. Sivia Harding was wearing it when she spoke at the Seattle Knitters Guild this summer and I was smitten. It will be a total fiddly, pain in the ass to knit but the effect is cool. I bought beads to make more and I don't know why. The beads always call out to me.

December 2, 2010

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?



Meet "Treasure Trousers." Because nothing puts you in a holiday mood like rooting around in a dismembered pilgrim's ass for candy.

But what about Christmas, I hear you say. Don't worry. Santa'a torso has been ripped off and his lower half stuffed with yummy treats! Peanut butter cup, anyone?



They are clearly perfect for any occasion. Who needs a whole baby when you can stuff so many toiletries into one that's been torn in two!



Enjoy!