Tag Archive | crafts

Marshmallow Cowl Progress

The knit-along has begun!! I couldn’t wait until today so last night I assembled all my tools and prepared to cast on. I hit my first roadblock pretty quickly. I thought I remembered how to do a provisional cast on, but it was coming out wonky. So I pulled out my trusty cast on/bind off reference book and pretty soon I was back on track. I even learned a new way do it: crocheting around the knitting needle, so the stitches are ready to go. Before, I chained and then picked up stitches in the chains. The new way is a lot more efficient.

I confess, I did not read the pattern before selecting it. And when I saw that it was knit flat and seamed, I was disappointed. I LOVE knitting in the round. Not so fond of seaming. But, the pattern was chosen and announced, and I do love the look, so hey, I can seam once in a while.

So, stitches on the needle, time to knit. I hit my second roadblock in the second row of the pattern, when the instructions said to slip one purl wise. Okay, I understand that, except it didn’t specify whether to hold the yarn in front or back, and I’m a new enough knitter that I don’t know which is expected when it’s not specified. I picked to hold the yarn in front and knit away on my huge size 19 needles. I got maybe 10 rows in, and it was looking weird and nothing like the pictures in the pattern, and I was starting to freak out. Had I picked a terrible pattern? Was I a terrible knitter who shouldn’t be in charge of a KAL??

No, of course not. I am a good enough knitter now to step back and assess the situation. First of all, I wasn’t happy with the fabric created with the size 19 needles. Maybe my yarn wasn’t as bulky as the designer’s. I frogged and pulled out my size 15s and started over. It still looked weird. I frogged again and visited Youtube for videos on slipping stitches, and decided to hold the yarn in back. This time, I skipped the provisional cast on and just cast on normally, so I could get a sense of the pattern, and sure enough, the yarn is supposed to be held in back.See?? That’s how it’s supposed to look! I felt much better about myself and about the pattern. I frogged one more time, did the provisional cast on one more time, and started knitting, and this time my progress hasn’t been frogged. Just a note: I did add five stitches to my cast on to account for the smaller needles.Sorry, the lighting is weird in that one, isn’t it? You can see it’s zipping along, and I had to stop myself from doing too much last night, since I said I wouldn’t even cast on until today! Still, it won’t take long to knit up. And I decided I’m going to use Kitchener to graft it together. Partly because I want the practice, and partly because I’m not fond of the seam that the 3-needle bind off leaves. But that’s for another day.

What else have I been working on? I made a quick chunky hat (pattern: Hipster Slouchy Hat) and once I tried it on, I decided I needed to keep this one.

I’ve also been working on my gradient seed stitch cowl. There’s a very slight line where you can see I started knitting with my new purling method, but it doesn’t bother me a bit. This one’s going much more quickly than I remembered. Jack was my photography assistant. He’s very helpful.

There you have it, lots of knitting! Today I’m going to get as much done on my bulky cowl as possible, though I am visiting both my mother and my newest nephew, so I’m not sure how much progress I’ll make. I’ll be sure to share tomorrow!

And if you want to knit along with me and Jenna, the pattern is Marshmallow Fluff and we’re using the hashtag #MarshmallowKAL!

Bulky Cowl Knit-Along

Feb23

Ugh with this day already! It’s 8:40 a.m. and here’s my morning so far: I get up with a stiff neck, make sure kids are awake, warm heating pad. Daughter texts: big project due today not done despite staying up most of the night because she had honor band commitments all weekend, what does she do?? I talk her off the ledge and ask husband to drive her to school so she can get there a few minutes early. I think it’s trash day so I ask son to take dumpsters to curb. He grunts and moans and stomps about. I realize it’s NOT really trash day. Apologize to son. I give son a hug goodbye and somehow manage to knock his glasses off and scratch his eye with my fingernails. He grunts and moans but is relatively receptive to my apologies. Daughter is ready to go, husband is on conference call and needs to check something on computer. I put on shoes and drive daughter to school in my pajamas. The only reason I don’t stop for donuts on the way home is BECAUSE I’m in my pajamas. But finally I was able to have tea, breakfast, and Tylenol, and now I’m catching my breath and enjoying my time with you.

Whew. I already feel better and ready to move on. Shall we? I have something fun to share: I’ve been chatting with Jenna at HardKnitLife and we’ve decided to do a mini Knit-Along! I have a special skein of super bulky yarn, and she has a skein of Malabrigo Rasta (yes, that’s pretty special too) and we’ve decided we’re going to do a cowl knit-along! The (free) pattern we’ve chosen is called Marshmallow Fluff by Sarah Kraly, and it’s wonderfully simple and wonderfully cozy. It should be a fast instant gratification project! Do you want to play along with us?

A fun fact I just discovered this morning: the pattern was written by someone from one of my LYSs, The Studio Knitting and Needlepoint! It may not be terribly cold around here right now, but Jenna and I are midwest girls and know that we could easily get another blast of winter before spring is here to stay. This will absolutely be for me to wear. Look at this gorgeous yarn, all wound and ready to go: This is Well Hello Big Boy by Vice Yarns. I’ll be using the recommended size 19 needles and will cast on tomorrow (Wednesday). It is knit flat and seamed, so skills needed are provisional cast on and either 3-needle bind off or Kitchener stitch to graft the ends together.

Check out my progress here, on Instagram or Twitter (where I’m also bonnyknits), or on Facebook (bonnyknitsforyou). We’ll be using the hashtag #MarshmallowKAL so be sure to tag your photos so we can see all the Fluffy goodness!

This is my first ever KAL so I’m trying to keep it simple and fun. I’d love to hear from any of you who want to knit with us!

Darkness and Light Cowl

Feb21

I’m steadily plowing through my WIPs. This morning I finished my mom’s rainbow cowl, and I’m delighted with it. If she doesn’t love it, I’ll keep it for sure! I used one strand of Done Roving Frolicking Feet DK in Pot o’ Gold and one strand of Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine in black. The pattern is the Hartwell Scarf by Karin Michele. It was a simple pattern, though I did have a bit of trouble with the last round of the repeating pattern and kept ending up with a slipped stitch where it didn’t look right. Not sure if I was supposed to hold the yarn in back maybe? Anyway, it was a minor thing and not noticeable unless you look for it. And I love the diagonal ridge. I’d definitely make this pattern again.

I’ve also got one more WIP that became a FO today. The girl requested a gray beanie with just a little slouch, so we chose the Violet Waffles hat with gray Preciosa Tonal. It was ready for decreases, so I had her try it on first to make sure it was the right amount of slouch. Once she deemed it acceptable, it got finished off pretty quickly. This is a nifty pattern too, one I want to make for myself. I’ll make it gray if I have enough left, or I have a lovely raspberry color I could use instead.

Finally, another WIP left the list via frogging. I’d started some fingerless gloves in August of last year with some Baah Sonoma Chocolate Cherries yarn. Then they got set aside for gift and craft show knitting. Now I’ve decided I want to use the yarn elsewhere. Since I had less than half of one mitt completed, the frogging was quick and painless. The pattern is lovely, but I wear so little red that I wasn’t sure I’d wear them often enough. I have a few black/gray/white shirts, and what I do see myself wearing is a scarf, one with a lovely lacy pattern of some sort. To that end, I’m even considering frogging this Chocolate Cherries shawelette. It’s an awkward length for me, not quite long enough to wear as a scarf, and it ends up hanging in my closet. I do think it’s beautiful, and I enjoyed knitting it, but again, I think I’d rather use the yarn for something I could wear often.

After all that, I’m left with only TWO WIPs! One is a blanket, so I’m content letting that be a long-term project. The other is a gradient cowl that’s simple seed stitch, so I’ll pull that out for my TV knitting, and I might allow myself to cast on something new. I’m working with another blogger on starting a bulky-cowl Knit-along (more details soon). Anyone else want to play??

Finally, yesterday was the anniversary of the day we got Grace! She’s grown up a lot in the last year, and we sure love having her around. She’s a pain in the butt at times, but she’s OUR pain in the butt!

Lady Violetta Hitchhiker

Feb19

My Hitchhiker #3 is complete, much sooner than I anticipated, and I love it more than anticipated too! Thanks to Sarah from Knitty Nerdy and Natural for inspiring the name, Lady Violetta. I imagine most of you are already familiar with Martina Behm’s pattern, but here’s a link to it anyway just in case. I already can’t wait to make another one. I used Cascade Yarns Heritage 150 Multis of this one, 492 yards of sport weight in this gorgeous green/purple. I made it to 34 teeth this time, a nice length that should be wonderfully versatile when I wear it.

Sorry for the photo-heavy post, but I just couldn’t stop taking pictures. Well, I could, once the cops pulled someone over right in front of my house. Then it got awkward and I went inside. It’s all fun and games until the cops show up. Sigh. Here’s one more to close it out.Happy Friday, friends!

A New / Old Hat

Feb18

The other day I was going through our stash of hats/scarves/gloves, and culling things that were too small or missing matches or we never wore, and I found a really awesome hat. I’d made it for my son but he never wore it. I threw it in a Eucalan bath, blocked it, and now it’s ready to wear! The pattern is Odessa, and I knit it in Foxy by Nerd Girl Yarns (color #nofilter). It definitely blocked out bigger; now it’s got the tiniest bit of a slouch to it. I love it. And I love that it could be part of a really bright matched set: The cowl is the Later, Gator! pattern. Now, the question is, do I sell them individually, or as a set??

Color Tipped Scarf

Feb17

As promised, I finished something from my list of lingering WIPs and have a new FO to show off! This is Purl Soho’s Color Tipped Scarf. I started this in November of last year, so it took about three months to make…because of that big boring stretch of gray! Overall it’s very simple and quick to make. I used Berroco Maya, a worsted weight cotton/alpaca blend. It used 2 skeins of gray, and about half a skein each of the teal and purple. I’d love to do another one in some softer, thicker, squishier yarn, maybe some Baby Alpaca Chunky. As it is, the cotton makes this a great crisp, lightweight spring or fall scarf.

Once this was done, I turned to my next WIP: my Hitchhiker! It felt so nice to get that back out, even if it is small needles for me (size 3). I’m still loving the colors and the dense fabric it’s creating. I’ve still got a ways to go, but if I focus on it, I should be wearing it within a week. But I have a distraction from my Hitchhiker. My mail carrier delivered a bit of yarn I ordered last week, a gorgeous super bulky skein of blue/purple/fuchsia from Vice Yarns that I’m itching to cast on: Isn’t that luscious?? Yum yum yum. 85% wool, 15% alpaca. A cowl for me, yes, it will be.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, we’re experiencing some unexpectedly warm weather, and I need to go outside and watch my puppies frolic. Happy knitting!

Frogged Sweater

Feb16

Way back in April 2104, I started knitting a sweater. It was to be a cardigan for me out of some lovely purple variegated cotton. It went well, if very slowly, but then the miles of stockinette bored me to tears. It got relegated to a project bag, then a drawer where it hibernated for a very long time. I thought maybe someday I’d get back to it. I really do want to be the person who wears hand-knit sweaters; I’m just not sure I’m a person who can *make* hand-knit sweaters.

Recently, if you remember, I discovered I’ve been purling wrong ever since I started knitting. Why is this relevant? Because of those miles of stockinette in that cardigan. ALL of it had been done with the wrong purling. So for me to work on it again, not only would I have to conquer my hatred of miles of stockinette, but I would have to deal with the unusual texture of the stitches. I could either do it with my old purling style, which made the knitting rows harder, or I could switch to the new and have two completely different looks on the sweater. Neither were good alternatives in my mind.

On Saturday at the craft show, I was talking about it to my Knitting SIL and she mentioned I could just frog it and make something else with the yarn. It is, after all, truly lovely and soft yarn. Frog it?? Frog the sweater that I spent so much time on?? Was she crazy?

Nope. It made complete sense. I wasn’t enjoying the knitting of the sweater. I would enjoy it less going back to it now with a different method of purling. There simply was no good reason to keep it.

So yesterday I pulled it out of the drawer where it had been hiding for months and months. The colors aren’t good in this photo but you can see the great expanse of stockinette. I’d even already divided for the sleeves. But there was no going back. I pulled out the cord, attached the end of the skein to my ball winder, and started winding. In a very short time, especially compared to how long it took to KNIT all that, the yarn was wound into pretty cakes, ready to become something completely different.What will it be? I’m not sure yet. I have six skeins of it, so the options are wide and varied. For now it will go back in the stash while I ponder.

Surprisingly, I’m not sad. It felt good to let go of a project. I don’t want to feel compelled to knit things because I feel like I “should”. I’m not a sweater knitter, and I’m not a sock knitter, and that’s okay. That’s the wonderful thing about knitters: we can all do different things and appreciate the differences without judging (at least most of us can).

The craft show is over, so the pressure is off for now, and I’m going to enjoy the selfish knitting time. The goal is to work on some older WIPs; here’s hoping some things can cross over onto the Finished Object list!

What a Weekend!

Feb15

There was so much going on this weekend! I’m glad to finally have a quieter day. The kids have a long weekend, thanks to parent/teacher conferences and Washington’s birthday, so they had Friday off. I drove downtown to take the girl to a weekend-long honor band, and that was only a little stressful for my small-city-driver self. The fun bit was that we met a knitter from Vietnam! During our downtime, we hung out at the B&N cafe, and I was knitting a Yoda hat. An older woman came over and asked where she could get needles like mine (I was using my 12″ Addi Turbos). She lives in Vietnam and comes here to visit her son, who attends the local university, so she didn’t know the area well at all. She was really only familiar with Michaels stores, and didn’t seem to understand the concept of local yarn stores (so sad). We chatted a bit as best we could with the language barrier, and it was neat to share the love of knitting. It made me realize that’s really the only time people come up and talk to me, when I’m knitting. It must be a good ice-breaker! Either that or I suffer from RBF (Resting B*#@% Face) when I’m not knitting. We may never know.

Saturday morning was my craft show and it was a whirlwind five hours. I had some family visit me (and buy a couple of things) but I also had several real customers too! I focused on hats for this show, and I think I sold 6 or 7. The Yoda hats were a hit, of course, but so were the black hats. Note to self: make sure to have black hats at every show. My Knitting SIL was up there with me, and we had a grand time knitting and chatting between customers. Really, it went much better than I expected, and it makes me think that focusing on hats might be a good strategy. But…I LOVE cowls! Love making them, love wearing them. Why don’t people buy them? I just don’t know. Still, hats are good. I like hats.

Yesterday was the concert for the girl’s honor band, and though it was a struggle to get the boy awake (forget about happy) by 9 a.m., we managed. The concert was marvelous…and the lunch afterward was marvelous too… Look: the boy has a new hairdo! It was a bold move for him; we love it!And look: the girl has a new smile! She got her top braces off finally and is SO HAPPY!

Then we came home and I took a bunch of photos of my newer hats and updated my Etsy shop. It’s all current now, and I’m going to step back from Yoda hats and work on the rainbow cowl for my mom.

But now I have a question for you fellow sellers of knitted goods: I was invited to do a show in June. It’s a good show, well-advertised and popular, and the booth fee is very reasonable. BUT, that’s the middle of summer. It’s warm here then. How well do knitted things sell during the summer? In my experience, not that well. I can modify my inventory a bit, have more summer-weight hats, baby hats, cotton bags, etc, but I’m not sure I’d have enough for a show. Have any of you done well with summer shows? What advice do you have for me?

I will wait patiently for your replies, as patiently as Jack waits when it’s dinner time. (Sorry the photo is so bad; I had to take it quickly before he moved.) I just love how he sits!

Two More Hats

Feb11

Yesterday I wondered how many hats I could get done before Saturday. The answer is: At least two. Waiting room Yoda hat: To be fair, I only need to knit one ear and then sew the ears on, but still. Another hat added to the pile.

Flute lesson pink sparkle hat: I got about halfway done during lesson and finished last night during American Idol. The pompom was made and attached this morning. This one is an older child size. I kind of want one myself! The yarn is an acrylic blend, Cascade Yarns’ Cherub Aran Sparkle. It’s not fancy but it’s fun, affordable, and washable. I’ve still got some left so I’m thinking I need to do a gray newborn size beanie, simple and classic. That might be today’s project, something easy to work on since the kids have a half day today so they’ll be home early, making all the noise. For now, I’m going to take advantage of the peace and quiet to work on my manuscript a bit.

Before I go, here’s a photo of Grace, since usually Jack is the star of my photos. These furry blankets were Christmas gifts, and Grace is convinced they’re hers.

Oh Yeah, Knitting

Feb10

I’ve been distracted from my knitting the last few days, but I came back to it yesterday. While in a waiting room, I knit up some Yoda ears and completed another Yoda hat. It looks a little long, doesn’t it? Hmm. I used a different hat pattern this time. I might modify it a bit next time. I’ve got another Yoda waiting for one more ear, and then it’ll go into the For Sale pile too. I also finished the pink and gray hat last night. Now I need to make one in the reverse colors, but I don’t know if it’ll happen before Saturday. You may remember, I have a small craft show on Saturday, and I’m focusing on hats for this one. I’m trying to get a good variety of price points, and acrylic kid hats seem to be popular. Anyway, once I finished this one, it was time to get everything tagged and priced. I turned up Adele and got to work. I added 17 hats and 4 cowls to my inventory! With any luck, I’ll come home from the show with a lot fewer. Now, let’s see how many more hats I can knit before Saturday…