Tag Archive | makers making

Mojo, where are you?

I seem to have misplaced my knitting mojo. No, no, don’t fret, it will be okay. I’m not anti-knitting, I’m just finding other things more appealing at the moment. I think partly I got absorbed with the puppy-finding process and then I lost momentum. I didn’t knit *at all* while I watched the Oscars. Four hours of TV time with no knitting. I just watched it. It was kind of weird, but also a little nice. And last night I read a magazine. Cover to cover in one sitting. I haven’t done that in ages either. Maybe I need a break to restore some balance to my life. It can’t be all knitting *all* the time, apparently.

I do have some yarn-stuff going on; my waiting-room knitting still travels with me, and I’m crocheting a hat/boot cuff set for a Poker for Puppies fundraiser.One more boot cuff to make and then I’ll get them shipped off. After that, I might just go up and paw through my stash to see what inspires me. There’s a lot of gorgeous yarn waiting for me. Something’s bound to call my name.

Our new pup Gracie is settling in wonderfully. I truly feel like we won the puppy lottery both times. We had a couple of puddles the first two days but since then nothing. They sleep great together overnight. They were alone yesterday for over two hours and I came home to two happy puppies but no puddles, nothing destroyed. They rough-house and wrestle a lot, and fight over toys, but not in a mean way. Usually they’re just devious, stealing a toy when the other one’s not looking. The two dogs are really starting to bond, and yesterday they even sat together peacefully on the couch.Gracie is a snuggle-puppy lapdog, which I love. It’s just delightful. I’m really enjoying having two dogs. I haven’t been brave enough to walk them by myself yet, since they’re still pretty wild on a walk together, and I can see myself getting all tangled up in leashes. Hopefully it won’t take long. Of course, I’d like to do it in slightly warmer weather! Until then, we might just hang out right here.

Finished Object Friday (times TWO!)

Feb20

Hey hey hey! I have two things to show off today! I was sitting there in the cold yesterday morning, all bundled up in my blanket with my tea, and I realized I needed to make myself a new, warmer hat. The ones I’d made myself didn’t cover my ears, and that’s necessary right now. I’d been borrowing my husband’s hat, but it’s just plain gray ribbing. Boring! Poking through my Ravelry library, I re-discovered the Vermonter hat and knew it was just the thing. Even better, one of the suggested yarns was Berroco Brio, and I just *happened* to have a beautiful single skein just sitting in my stash waiting to be used.

Two hours later, I had a new hat. Seriously. I was catching up on The Mindy Project, and before the fifth episode was over, I was done. That is a fast hat, folks. And as soon as that episode was over, I pulled it on and went out to walk the dog.Now, I modified it just a bit. I used size 13 needles and added an extra repeat of the pattern, so it came out just a tiny bit long, but I don’t care. I even had more than enough yarn leftover for a big pompom. I LOVE it. (I just sang that bit, could you tell?) The *only* thing I would say is that it has stretched a little, so if you make it, use the smaller needles for the brim, ok?Okay, next. Actually this should have come first, because I finished it on Wednesday. It’s my Swirling Spider Cowl and I’m quite delighted with it as well. Plus there’s enough yarn left over to make a cute little matching beanie!Back to yesterday. After I finished my new hat, I decided it was time to cast on for something new. I’ve been in a casting-on fury this week: I’ve started another Honey Cowl and a Rikke hat, but this is something special for me. I got a kit of Knit Picks Palette for Christmas, and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it, since it’s fingering weight and we all know how I feel about that. They’re all shades of purple so my knitting SIL suggested a gradient cowl. BRILLIANT. It just so happened I’d come across Purl Bee’s seed stitch gradient cowl recently. I could hold two strands together and use seed stitch to make a cowl with several shades of purple!!! Knitting doesn’t get much better than that for me.To get the right yardage, I’m using eight colors instead of five, which also meant adjusting the length of each stripe etc. After consulting with my fashion expert (aka 14yo daughter) I decided to do 3 1/4″ of each stripe, and only do one repeat instead of two. I think it will be marvelous. I’m already on the second stripe and it’s so fun. I want to knit on it all day. But I can’t because today is doctor appointment day so I’ll be taking the Rikke hat with me instead. And that’s okay too.

Still no puppy news. This volunteer-run shelter hasn’t contacted me yet and I’m trying really hard to be understanding and patient but it’s hard. This is my dog, I know it. One thing I’ve realized is that if I can hold out for a couple of days, my need for immediate gratification fades. I no longer simply NEED A NEW DOG. I want the right dog, and I’m looking at other shelters and all the other pretty dogs and my heart says, Yes, but wait for that dog. See if he can be yours. So okay. I’ll wait.

And one more thing and then I’ll be done nattering at you. You need to read The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. It’s beautiful and terrible and wonderful and heartbreaking. I’ve read a lot about WWII, both fiction and non-fiction, and this book made it real in a way I haven’t experienced before. I confess, I’m an easy crier, and I get very emotionally invested in my books, so maybe that’s part of it, but still, this is a fantastic book. It’s easily her most ambitious, serious, dramatic, engrossing book. Try it. You won’t be disappointed.

Yarn, Hat, Cowl

Feb18

Don’t you just love getting new yarn? It’s even better when it’s being shipped because who doesn’t love getting mail? There’s the anticipation, the anxious tracking of the package, then finally getting to rip it open and see your new treasure! Ahhh. Love it. I won two skeins of Malabrigo Worsted on eBay recently, two skeins for the price of one, and they arrived yesterday.The brown will be another unisex hat, maybe another Barley! I’m not sure about the green yet. A hat, of course, but what pattern? It might get to be something new and different.

I did finish a hat last night, a nifty Swirl Hat. I have named it the Time Machine Hat, because the rich cobalt color reminds me of TARDIS blue and because the swirl is all timey-wimey wibbly-wobbly. It’s a unisex hat, beanie hat for a big/male head, slight slouch for smaller/female head. This is more HiKoo SimpliWorsted and it’s delicious yarn. Bouncy and soft and warm. I was wearing this last night (like you do whenever you finish something new) and I really think I need to make myself one in bright pink or purple. All I have left on my needles now is another swirly cowl. I’m using my Nerd Girl Yarns Smashing in Secretly Spiders and oh it’s so lovely. Rich, deep pinks and purples and black with a sparkly thread in there too. This will be mine to keep forever and ever.Okay, that’s not really ALL I have on needles right now. I have a cardigan from months and months ago that I don’t know if I’ll ever get back to, and I have a rainbow silk cowl in that’s driving me bonkers. It was marked worsted but there’s no way. It’s a Sport weight at most. Ooh, but I have my Quadratic shawl too! I need to get that back out and finish it before spring comes along. IF spring ever comes along.

No news on the puppy front. I’m still waiting to hear from the shelter about the two puppies, though my husband did come to his senses and decide that two more dogs was too many. Sadly, I will not have to puppy brothers that we can name Fred and George. Sighhhhh. But at this point, I would be happy if we could get even one of them. My fingers are still crossed.

It is bitterly cold here today and the kids finally went back to school after a 5-day weekend, so my plans include a couch, knitting, and catching up on my TV shows. I hope you can have a day equally relaxing!

Have a little Courage

Feb13

Who here is familiar with Courage the Cowardly Dog? I was not, so when my aunt asked me if I could make a Courage hat, I was a little unsure. My first instinct was to check Ravelry for patterns, and I found one, but we weren’t crazy about all of it. My aunt and I shared a few photos back and forth and I said I would do my best to replicate the image of Courage she liked the best. There was a lot of improvisation and modification going on! For fun, I decided to document each step of the process, so non-crafters could see what goes into making a detailed character hat.The basic beanie is the easiest part. It takes maybe an hour, 90 minutes tops.Now it’s time to start adding little bits. Each piece only takes a short time to make, but there’s a lot of them! I start with eyeballs.The black centers of the eyes are simple.A nice brown triangle noseNow some pink half-circles for Courage’s…what are those? Jowls?Brown eyebrowsDarker pink eyelidsBrown ears. They need to be stiff enough to stand up. Now I have all the pieces laid out, and it’s time to weave in all the extra ends and sew it all together. This is the most time-consuming part, since I work hard to make sure the placement is correct and everything is sewn securely. Each piece is sewn on individually.The final product. I may not be familiar with Courage but I sure like my version of him.I think I did a pretty good job of replicating the picture my aunt sent. What do you think? Her friend was pleased, and so was the daughter who ended up stealing the hat!

Guess what? I don’t like cables.

Feb12

Okay, they aren’t terrible. But they weren’t a lot of fun. See, I made a hat yesterday. And it had a cable zig zag, and I’ve avoided learning cables to this point but I really liked this pattern and I thought it would be perfect for my dark blue/black Dream in Color wool. A one-stitch cable? Fine, I can handle that. It was also my first time knitting from a chart, but I could handle that too. And I did! It wasn’t even that hard, but it was awkward and it slowed me down. I like my hat-knitting to zip along along but I kept having to stop and put a stupid stitch on a cable needle. I’m sure it’ll get easier with more practice, and I will try again because the result was really cool. This is the Wanderer Cap from the book Weekend Hats. It’s my first project from that book but I’ve got several others marked. This is a generous size, large enough to fit my big-headed husband, but the brim is snug enough for a woman to wear it as a slouch hat. It used about 155 yards of the Dream in Color, color Peacock Shadow. It was strange because this skein felt a little different than the grey Dream skein, which makes me think they changed it a bit at some point. It still had great stitch definition but it felt a little crisper, almost coarser. But it’s not itchy and it should be nice and warm!

As soon as that hat was done I started on my next one. This will be a tam for St. Patrick’s Day, and I’m loving this yarn. It’s Stonehedge Fiber Mill Shepherd’s Wool Worsted in Lime Green and it’s super soft and squishy.Here’s hoping I can get this done before my craft show on Saturday!

I Fought the Yarn

Feb10

So I was making this hat. It’s an awesome hat. I was using the dark gray Dream in Color Classy yarn left over from the purl ridge cowl I made recently, and … Okay. Wait. I just went back and was looking for the post about this cowl so I could link it and couldn’t find it. How did I not share this cowl?? Well, we’ll just do that first.

A week or so ago, I went to my LYS for one specific skein of yarn and found some amazing yarns in their sale section, including Dream in Color at 50% off. I grabbed two skeins, a blue/black and a gorgeous Grey Tabby. (I won’t lie, I grabbed a few other skeins too.) I loved the grey so much I cast on the next day, and out came this fabulous Present cowl.This was my first time using the Dream yarn, and it’s fantastic. It flows smoothly on the needles and it’s soft but just crisp enough that it has marvelous stitch definition. I’m in love. It’s yarn like this that makes it hard for me to go back to cheaper yarns. So anyway, this cowl used a little over half the skein, leaving me with a tad over 100 yards. I decided that had to be enough for a hat.

After much perusing on Ravelry, I decided on the Thank You Hat by Purl Soho. Everything about it was right: weight, yardage, color. And you can’t go wrong with one of their patterns. I got most of it done yesterday, and then picked it up this morning after I got rid of all the extra people (kids, husband, who needs ’em?). I just had decreases left and my yarn was dwindling. It was time to play Chicken.Faster and faster I knit, eager to get to the end before the yarn was gone. And maybe you more experienced knitters are looking at that photo and laughing because you know what I didn’t but soon would…I had PLENTY of yarn left to finish this hat! I’ve got a good yard left over. And I am so in love with this hat. I want to find every skein of this yarn and buy it all for me. I just love all the subtle variations in the color, the different shades of gray…Oh god. No. Don’t say it. Don’t even think it. Pretend that didn’t happen. Just look at the hat. It’s pretty. So pretty.

My Dilemma is Resolved

Feb9

Thanks for the helpful comments on my troublesome hat post! After sleeping on it, I decided I had to make an effort to re-knit the brim since I love the yarn so much. I frogged and got the stitches back on the needle without too much trouble, then knit a round and decreased six stitches, and knit a new brim with needles two sizes smaller than the body of the hat. And it worked! I don’t love it, but I like it well enough, and I know it’s so much better than it was before. And this experience has taught me how to make pleats (me likey) and how to make hats from the top down (me no likey) so it wasn’t a waste of time. I’ll put it in my stash of things to sell this Saturday at the local craft show, and maybe someone will fall in love with it.

I Have a Dilemma

Feb8

I finished a hat this morning. I loved the pattern and I love the yarn and they go really well together. What’s the problem, you ask? Well. Somehow the brim ended up too big. It’s a little loose on my head, but then again, I have a slightly smaller head. Here, you look and see what you think.This one’s not too bad. I like the pleats. That was a new technique for me, where you slip stitches onto DPNs and then knit them together with stitches on the circ, and keeping hold of three needles was tricky. But I did it and it’s cool. See, those aren’t terrible. It looks okay when you’re wearing it, especially if it found a big-headed owner. But now, look at it by itself:Poor stupid hat. The brim is just big, and I did Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy bind-off which seems to come out a little big and floppy anyway. So now what? I haven’t finished any tails. My choices as I see them: 1) frog the brim, decrease a few stitches, and bind off with a regular bind off. 2) Leave it and hope someone with a big head wants it. 3) The yarn is Tuhu, which is llama, merino and angora, so I could experiment with felting it a little bit.

Help me! What do I do??

FO Friday Part II: Red Valentine Hat

Feb7

Thanks to decongestants, ibuprofen, and fluids, I’m feeling much better than I was this morning. Or maybe it was getting to make this hat that fixed me. Who knows?

Finished Object Friday: Slouchy Hat

Feb6

This will be a short post today. I’m trying really hard not to get the cold that my son passed to my husband, and the sinus headache I have is telling me I’m losing. So I’m grumpy, and it doesn’t help that I have a To Do list that feels a mile long. See? I’m not fit for company right now, so I’ll just share my pretty hat pictures and go away until I can be nicer. Fantastic one-skein hat pattern: Springtime Picholine Hat. Yarn is Cascade 128, and the adult large used every last bit of the skein.