Tag Archive | crafts

Duality Hat

As promised, I have knitting to show you after our long day yesterday. Both kids competed in the regional National History Day so we were there from 9 am to 5 pm. The girl is moving on to state and is quite happy, the boy is not moving on but doesn’t mind too much because it means he can stop working on it and stressing out about it! So yes, lots and lots of knitting time but it’s not the Because I Love You Wrap. I did start that shawl, and I’m loving my yarn choice so far. It’s going to be quite lovely. This was knit with size 6 needles, as the pattern recommends. But it was too loosey-goosey for me so I frogged that and started over with 5s, and I like it much better. I learned how to do picots and those are pretty darn nifty. But guys, there’s a trick in this pattern that I didn’t discover until I started knitting. When you start the first garter stitch stripe, you do the first three stitches in the other color and then pick up the stripe color. Well, that left a big stupid hole in my knitting! That irritated me so I frogged back (and frogging picots are interesting) to before the stripe. A bit of investigating showed another Raveler recommending the intarsia technique of twisting the yarns at that point. I’ve never done intarsia but I’ve carried yarns up the side of my knitting; is the twisting the same as that? I’ll do more investigating before going back to knitting this but I’d love any advice you have!

After that rough beginning on Friday, I knew it wasn’t a good travel knitting project, so instead I cast on Karin Michele’s newest pattern, the Duality hat. It’s a classic ribbed beanie but with broken rib for the body, and the decreases are written so well! I love how she managed to carry the broken rib pattern all the way up. Best of all, it’s free through March 7th, so move quick, knitters! I got it almost completely done at the competition, stopped only because I forgot to bring my DPNs with me, so the last six rounds were done at home. I love love love this hat. I used Malabrigo Rios (the recommended yarn) in color Teal Feather, and knit to 8.25″ before decreasing. I think it’s the perfect amount of slouch and I’ll definitely be knitting this pattern again.

Now we have a quiet Sunday at home and I feel brave enough to tackle my shawl again. Wish me luck with my yarn-twisting!

I beat the yarn

Mar4

Guess what I did yesterday?? I untangled yarn. Yes, seriously, that was the bulk of my day. That stupid mess of pink silk took me probably four hours to untangle, and I should have set it aside to do something else but I couldn’t. I’m stubborn enough that I just couldn’t stop, especially when I got close to the end. But hooray hoorah, I prevailed and now have a lovely ball of yarn ready for the right pattern.

I wasn’t ready to cast on with it right away, though. I’d spent too much time with it by that point. So it’s back in the stash, and instead I cast on for a new hat last night. I switched to a quick crochet pattern and it felt so good to have a hook in my hand again. I love being able to go from one to the other, and being able to incorporate both into one project like I did with this hat. These are lazy pics, sorry. The lighting inside wasn’t great and I didn’t want to go outside, but these still show the awesome pattern. This is the Spinning Summer Slouchy Beanie by Tamara Kelly, aka Moogly. It was SO fast to make! My modification was to pick up stitches for a knitted ribbed brim instead of doing a crocheted brim. I love the stretch of ribbing for a hat, and it’s super easy to do.

That’s all I have for today, folks, but I’ll have plenty more on Monday. Tomorrow is competition for National History Day for both my kiddos, so I should have plenty of knitting time while we wait around. Maybe I should cast on for that Because I Love You wrap…

Sparkly Indian Silk Yarn

Mar3

This is why people hire yarn de-tanglers, isn’t it? This is fingering weight silk, a skein my husband brought me from India, and at one point it was neatly caked. Then the puppy happened. Thank goodness Grace didn’t chew on it, just played with it and turned it into this mess. This happened a few months ago and it’s been in time-out ever since. But I spotted it last night and remembered how much I love this yarn and want to use it. I don’t have a current WIP calling my name, so I decided to give it a shot. Let me tell you, I would NOT want to be a yarn de-tangler. This is a big pain in my butt. I’m making progress, though, so I’ll keep going. I’m just stubborn enough to win this battle.

This wasn’t even why I was in my craft room. I was up there perusing my stash because I’m obsessed with the Because I Love You wrap. I keep seeing them on Instagram (check out #becauseIloveyouwrap) and they’re gorgeous!! People are using fantastic color combos, and I do love stripes. At first my mind was going nuts, thinking of all the gorgeous yarns I wanted to buy for this wrap, but then I came to my senses. I HAVE YARN. I HAVE GORGEOUS YARN. I HAVE GORGEOUS FINGERING WEIGHT YARN. No purchase required! I think I found the perfect match-up, too. Check it out: The pattern recommends picking yarns with a strong contrast, and this fits the bill. I have some solid purple that would work instead of the teal, but it would be much more muted. Plus, I love that both these yarns have some sparkle. (Side note: this teal yarn is the same yarn as the pink. THIS is what got me thinking about the pink.) So now I have a project planned out, and it’s so far out of what I normally do. It’s fingering weight yarn, not bulky. It’s a paid pattern, not free. It’s a large shawl, not a quick hat. But I can’t stop thinking about it and that means it must be knit, no matter how long it takes. Today I will be winding some silk and casting on!

Have you ever had an unusual project that called your name, something out of your comfort zone?

“Please rub my belly, mom!”

Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

Mar2

I got complacent. Grace was being so good the last couple of months, not chewing things up when we were gone. I mean, yeah, she was stealing butcher knives, but whatever, right? Then yesterday I was gone for almost four hours and came home to stuffing on the floor. Now, she’s already destroyed our throw pillows, so at first I had no clue what it was from. Then I realized: we have an upholstered chair in the sitting room. It’s one of her favorite spots because it’s in front of a window, so she drapes herself over the back and watches the world go by. Not anymore, pup! Not anymore. Not after this: Oy. This dog. So yeah, she was in the doghouse (figuratively) for the rest of the day. At least until it was time for me to stretch out on the couch with my blanket. Then both puppies thought it was cuddle time with mom. Fine. They’re warm and snuggly. Fortunately, I did have some good to counteract the bad. The yarn store was indeed open yesterday and I did indeed find some yarn. More than I meant to find, honestly. (That’s always what happens, isn’t it?) Last night I hid in my craft room and wound yarn. It was lovely. Please note: not all of this is new yarn! Some of it was in the stash and I decided it needed to be wound. Mostly to make room for the new yarn. This is the new yarn. Yes, I have plenty of cotton now, in a nice variety of colors. The three on the left are Berroco Weekend, which my LYS has for 35% off. It’s a crispy yet soft cotton/acrylic blend and I’ve made several hats with it in the past. The two on the right are Universal Yarn Cotton Supreme, which is a deliciously soft yarn. I’m hoping to get one adult hat and one baby hat out of each skein. I don’t have patterns picked out yet, so some of today will be spent perusing Ravelry.

And some of it will be spent on my manuscript. I have an idea for a new first chapter, so I’m going to play around with that. A fellow knitter/blogger/writer/reader has generously offered to be an extra set of eyes, so I’d like to get it as ready as possible before that happens. I thought it was, honestly, but then I started doubting myself again. There’s a blog I follow written by a literary agent, and she’s strongly anti-memoir. By that I mean, she seems to believe that unless you’re a celebrity or super funny, your memoir won’t sell (with a few obvious exceptions, and I don’t think I’m Cheryl Strayed either). And I know she has the experience to back that up. So yeah, I’ve got that in the back of my mind. But I’m still going to keep pushing forward. I haven’t hit a roadblock big enough to stop me yet!

Oh yeah, one last thing. Here’s the finished purple hat! Ravelry notes are here if you’re interested.

Until next time, happy Wednesday, friends! Go forth and create stuff!

One hat done, one hat begun

Mar1

Just as I thought, the Oscar Night hat was quick to finish yesterday. I love how it turned out, except it seems a little big. But this head is pretty slippery, plus it doesn’t have any hair to fill out the hat. Why not try it on a person, you say? What a novel idea! Nobody was around when I finished it, and somehow it didn’t occur to me to try it on myself. And right now it’s upstairs and I’m downstairs and it’s not worth it to go fetch it. It will fit someone, I’m sure. And it’s pretty and I had fun making it. You can find the details on the Ravelry page. You might remember I mentioned I was going to babysit my wee nephew yesterday, and I was afraid he’d be very cranky? Well, I did and he wasn’t!! Sure, he had a few fussy moments but overall we had a lovely time. He’s about 8 months old and desperately wants to be more mobile than he is, so he gets frustrated. But he seems to be warming up to me and has a perfectly charming grin.

Anyway, the reason I’m telling you this: I was weak yesterday! I was running early so I decided I needed to stop by the yarn store. Spring is coming, and I want to make lots and lot of cotton hats. Thus, I need more cotton yarn. Green yarn, I decided. A bright, cheerful grass green. I could see the yarn in my mind’s eye and it was beautiful. I pulled into the parking lot…the empty parking lot…in front of the building with dark windows…it was CLOSED. The yarn store is closed on Mondays, darn it all. Well. Saved me some money, didn’t they? Instead I came home and picked out a pretty lavender cotton from the stash and cast on with that. Jack helped.Speaking of Jack: he’s pretty sneaky. Both pups sleep with the girl at night, but they think they want to sleep in my bed. Every night they sneak in when I’m getting ready for bed and jump up and make themselves all cute and comfy so we won’t have the heart to kick them out. (It never works. The husband is stern in this regard.) Last night Jack jumped up and promptly claimed my pillow.“Dis is pillow for me, right?” Ha. Right. (Actually if it weren’t for the husband, I would let him have it. Even though I don’t sleep well with puppies in the bed either. He’s just that cute.)

Okay, sorry, back to the knitting: the hat is going swimmingly, and I have some waiting room time this morning so I should make good progress on it today. I’ll also be driving right by the yarn store again today. And I’m pretty sure they’re open on Tuesdays.

Oscar Night Hat

Feb29

Last night was the Oscars, and of course I was there from the red carpet to the bitter bitter end. No, I’m not commenting on the winners. I really had no preferences. It was just bitter because by then I was so tired but didn’t want to miss any Chris Rock. The upside to a show five hours long (if you count the pre-show) is plenty of knitting time. Our warmer weather made me want a Spring-y project, so I pulled out some Lion Brand Cotton-ease and cast on for a lacy hat. The pattern is Lace Ribbon Slouch Hat and I’m really enjoying it. I love the zig-zag. I did switch the brim from garter stitch to ribbing, because I figure hats always need that stretch, especially one made with cotton. You’d think with that much time it would be done, but I did have to pay a little bit of attention to the lace at times, and I kept getting distracted by the show. Some parts I just had to watch. So I’ve got just one more pattern row and then the decreases. It’ll easily get done today, but not right away. I’m babysitting my newest nephew today for the first time, the one who’s cute but often cranky, and I’m really hoping he treats me well!

I also got my manuscript back from my second reader over the weekend, and she said she really enjoyed reading it. I’m choosing to believe her! But she also gave me some good feedback, so yesterday I dove back in and did a bit more revising. I’m so close to being done with this silly thing! But now I’m wondering if the beginning is too boring. I mean, if someone only asks for five pages, are mine good enough to make them want more? So I’m pondering that, trying to figure out if I can jazz up the first chapter. Still, my goal is to get it submitted to at least one agent by the end of March! yikes scary exciting am I ready for rejection?

Here’s what I found when I got up this morning. Yes, that’s a knife on my couch. Grace is a knife thief. Usually it’s butter knives, because she’s obsessed with butter, but we’ve gotten pretty good at keeping our sharp knives out of her reach. Last night we must have gotten lazy (I was watching the Oscars. I couldn’t leave to wash dishes. Seriously.) so sometime this morning she was probably thrilled to reach the chicken knife. She’s fine. She didn’t have it very long, and I know that because the handle hasn’t been chewed on. She’s grown up a lot but I guess she’ll never lose her love for knives.

Happy Monday, friends. Here’s hoping you don’t find any hidden knives in your house.

Don’t Save Your Yarn

Feb28

The other day I read a blog post on Knitting the Stash that struck me, about knitting our prettiest yarn instead of “saving” it for the perfect pattern. I’m so guilty of that; are you? I have yarns I adore, and sometimes I pick them up, thinking “Oh, I want to use you!” but then I don’t. Because I don’t have the right pattern, because then the yarn will be gone. Well, you know what? That’s okay! Because there’s lots more yarn in the world, yarn that is just as pretty as, if not prettier than, my yarn. And if I don’t like the yarn in that particular pattern, I can frog it and knit it into something else! I don’t want to be a yarn hoarder. I want to be a knitter!

So with that in mind, yesterday I grabbed one of my most treasured skeins, Shepherd Worsted by Lorna’s Laces in the color Pacific Berries. I think I bought this with Mother’s Day yarn money last year, and it sat on the shelf waiting for inspiration to strike. The heck with that. I had a cowl pattern in my queue that I wanted to knit, called Boomerang by MollyGirl Yarn, and it called for worsted/aran weight. Boom, there’s my inspiration. I cast on the 85 stitches with size 9s, decided it would be too snug, frogged, and started over. We had a Captain American movie marathon last night and I got most of it done. This morning I finished the last four rows of ribbing and bound off. And now I have a gorgeous new cowl to wear! (As soon as I block it, that is.) So THANK YOU, Lissy, for giving me the kick in the pants I needed! The yarn was wonderful to knit with, I loved watching the colors emerge, and I know I’ll wear the heck out of this cowl. What about you? Do you hoard your favorite yarns? Do you save things that you should really just use and appreciate?

Craft Supplies

Feb27

Not much knitting to report today, but I wanted to share my fun crafty purchases from the last two days. I had dinner with a friend last night and took advantage of the restaurant’s proximity to Joann. I *had* to: I had coupons! Of course I found stuff either on clearance or on sale, but still. I used one coupon for some size 9 16″ circs, since that was the only size I was lacking. The rest was too good a deal to pass up. Look at these fun booklets that were only $1.97 each! Buttons were 40% off, and I managed to restrain myself to just ONE button! (There was a woman in my way so I didn’t get to browse very well.) I also went through the button stash my mom gave me and there were some fun ones in there. These were my favorites. Today we took the boy out to a new (to us) art supply store downtown. He and my husband are both amazing artists; I’m a wannabe. I have no drawing/painting talent whatsoever, but I desperately want all the art supplies. I typically console myself with pens and notebooks and today was no exception. I have a problem. I freely admit it. It’s an addiction I have no desire to break.

Finished Marshmallow Fluff

Feb26

Today is really a FO Friday: I have my finished Marshmallow Fluff cowl to share! The Yoda hat was done and in the mail by 1, so after that I had nothing to do but knit on the cowl, and I was binding off by dinner time.

The good: it was a great pattern for this yarn. The simple design makes the yarn the star, which was my intention. I love the fit, with it high enough to burrow my face into when the wind blows. It was an easy, fast knit.The bad: it itches!! I have sensitive skin, so really any wool around my neck isn’t great. I can tolerate some with less prickle, but this yarn, as gorgeous as it is, has more prickle than I’m comfortable with. But my brilliant Knitting SIL suggested lining it, and I love the cowl enough that I think it’s a fantastic idea. It will make it even cozier! I want to find some fuchsia fleece, I think.

The ugly: my attempt at Kitchener stitch to graft it together. Let me start by saying this was only my second attempt at Kitchener (but my first turned out A LOT better than this). Also, I didn’t try to alter the process for the purl stitches vs the slipped stitches. I went with purl all the way across. It looks great on the inside, but here’s the right side seam:The rows don’t match up! That bothers me a lot. My knitting SIL said Kitchener is always off by half a stitch, so maybe that’s part of it. I’m not expert enough with grafting to know how much is operator difficulty and how much is expected. Regardless, at this point I wish I had just done the 3-needle bind off the way the pattern instructed, and the way Mulch and More Crafts did with the ridge on the inside. Lesson learned: sometimes the pattern designer really does know best!

Recap: I used Vice Yarns Well Hello Big Boy, which is listed as a super bulky, and I used the whole skein. I knit with size 15 needles. Many thanks to Sarah Kraly for the free pattern, and thanks to Jenna at HardKnitLife for the idea and for playing along…if she’s started knitting yet! 😉

If you’ve decided to make one, I’d love to see your photos and hear your experience with the bind off!

Yoda Interrupts

Feb25

No progress on my Marshmallow Fluff today, sadly. Yesterday was a busy day. I got to visit with my wee nephew, who is often crabby but awfully cute, and I got to visit my mother, who seemed delighted with her rainbow cowl and who also bought one of my other cowls. Then I got an order for a Yoda hat, this time for a 2-year-old. I’m selling these made to order now, and they’d like it quickly, so I needed to get to work. But I also had to drive the girl to flute lesson (45 minutes each way) and of course I had to watch American Idol last night. Here’s what I’ve got so far: I need to get busy. This needs to be shipped out today! So nope, I don’t get to play with the buttons my mom gave me yesterday. Don’t you just want to paw through all of those? I do! But it’ll wait. I’m off to knit Yoda and watch Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. (That show is hilarious. If you like musicals and quirky humor, you need to be watching it. Seriously.)

And if you want to see some Marshmallow Fluff, check out Mulch and More Crafts. She’s going much faster with her cowl than I am, and it looks great!