Scarf pattern for download

My beaded bias-knit scarf pattern is now available for download here.

Ravelry page can be found here.



Enjoy!

Thrummed mittens - complete!

I finished my last Christmas gift...



I'll clean up the fuzzies before I wrap them, but I'm leaving the ends un-woven-in in case the size needs adjusting.

Aleita shell

I finally settled on a pattern for the 3 balls of Southwest Trading Company Oasis that I bought almost 2 years ago... the Aleita Shell from Interweave Knits.



To prevent pooling, I used all 3 balls of yarn for the stockinette stitch portion of the shell and alternated strands every row. I'm alternating between 2 balls every other row for the ribbed portion. I'm making this on US4 and US5 needles instead of US3 and US6 so that I get the correct gauge. I've heard that this yarn stretches a lot, so I'm making it with more negative ease than I usually do. I made a swatch and found that the yarn does indeed stretch after blocking. I tried it on last night and found that it is a bit small now, hopefully ::crosses fingers:: it will fit perfectly after blocking. I'm also making it 2 inches longer than what's called for in the pattern.

More socks started

Yarn: Crystal Palace Maizy

Needles: Knitpicks US2

Pattern: Modified Knitty universal toe-up pattern

For: my husband

I used a figure 8 cast on for the toe and then increased on both sides every other row a few times. Then, to make the left and right socks different, I started increasing on only one side. So far it looks like this is going to lead to a really good fit.

Thrummed Mittens

I finished the first of a pair of thrummed mittens I'm making for a Christmas gift. This was a SUPER quick knit... I think it took 1.5 movies for me to finish the entire mitten. Only one more mitten to go!

Yarn: Cascade 220

Needles: US4 and US6

Pattern: combination of Yarn Harlot and Hello Yarn patterns

Fiber: Soysilk (grey) and Merino from the Fiber Studio. I used just over an ounce of fiber for one mitten.

Toe up socks completed!

Pattern: Knitty universal toe-up socks

Yarn: Crystal Palace Maizy, 2 skeins

Needles: Knitpicks US2 circular needles

The yarn is much stretchy-er than I thought it would be. They fit perfectly when I first put them on but stretched a LOT during the day. The next pair I make with this yarn will be have more negative ease, especially around the ankle. Not sure how the yarn holds up in the wash since I haven't washed them yet. The yarn is "lay flat to dry", so no dryer for these socks.

FLS - done!

I finished my February Lady Sweater last month. I REALLY like this pattern. I knit the sleeves on US 8 DPNs and the rest of the sweater on US 9 circular needles. The yarn is Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in black cherry. This was my first time doing afterthought buttonholes, they were not too tricky but I found it cumbersome to weave in 4 yarn ends for each buttonhole. The buttons are made from tagua nut (also called vegetable ivory).

It's December already?

Where did the time go? It seems like we just got back from vacation. Which, by the way was fantastic :) We ended up taking two vacations this year, one to Canada and the other to Utah and Idaho.

First up, Canada:



We saw Niagara falls,



and a bunch of the wineries on the Niagara Peninsula. Ice wine is yummy. The best overall winery we visited was Coyote Run, every single wine we tried there was fantastic and really reasonably priced. We brought 5 bottles of wine home in one suitcase.



And then we spent a bunch of time in Toronto, including at the CN tower.



The view from the CN tower was terrifying. For me, anyways. I am more afraid of heights than I realized. The CN tower has the highest elevation glass floor in the world. I could not bring myself to walk on it, even knowing that the glass floor is stronger than the cement floor. I am a chicken.

Next up, Utah:



We visited Timpanogos Cave, which has really amazing crystal formations growing in every which direction.



We went on a great road trip from SLC to Idaho, stopping in Atomic City (bar pictured above) which is pretty much a ghost town now.



We found this great waitress in Blackfoot, ID, which is also the home to the World Potato Museum. Who knew?!?



We also stopped by balanced rock, which is in the middle of nowhere, ID. We found all these great attractions at Roadside America, a really good resource for planning road trips.



We concluded our Idaho road trip by going to the City of Rocks. Also in the middle of nowhere, ID. Seriously. There were only primitive roads coming into the park from one direction. Also, there was a cow in the road. This would be a great place to go rock climbing, it is filled with really bizarre rock formations. Unfortunately we did not come prepared to climb.



We spent an entire day at Arches National Park. It's incredibly beautiful there.



We hiked up to Delicate Arch. It was super windy up there; we had to hold on to our hats the whole time. If the wind was any gustier I think we may have blown away.



Sandstone Arch, my personal favorite picture of the whole trip.



Sandstone formations we saw while on a long hike.



Landscape Arch, pretty famous.



Hole 'n' the Rock. Not so famous. The western US is filled with wacky roadside attractions! We didn't stop at this one, but the minivan in the picture did.

We had such a great summer... it's hard to believe that it's over. Even harder to believe that it was over 2 months ago. Where did the time go?!

I have actually been doing a lot of crafty stuff lately... more posts to come in the near future.

Felted clogs II

Finished!



Yarn: Knitpicks Wool of the Andes

Pattern: Fiber Trends Felted Clogs

Size: Women's medium

Almost half done...

..kinda. I've finished 5 of my 7 Ravelympics projects. Which would be good progress if it was halfway into the Olympics. But it's not. I have 3 days to finish all my Ravelympic projects.

I just started the pair of felted clogs:



And I just finished the Hemlock Ring Blanket!

Hat dash

Another Ravelympics FO! I finished my foliage hat:

'

Slow going

I started knitting this swirly baby hat, only to find out that it takes me f-o-r-e-v-e-r to knit. This is the progress after 6 bus rides (about 4 hours).



I decided to rip back the swirly pattern and just knit in stockinette stitch on US2s. Here's how that looks:



Not nearly as cute, but now there's a chance I'll actually finish the hat before the baby is born. The work above took about 1 hour.

More Baby Dressage

My second completed Ravelympics project:

Jellyfish or blanket?

I've made some more Ravelympics progress...



My Hemlock Ring blanket is one step closer to being done. Now I just have to weave in the ends and block it. I have my doubts as to whether this pile of knitting that resembles a jellyfish can be blocked into more of a blanket shape... I think that's why it took me so long to finish it. It's hard to motivate myself to finish things that are at risk of falling short of my expectations. Had it not been for the Ravelympics this may not have been getting blocked until 2 days before Christmas. (It's a Christmas gift).

A sort of productive day

This is what I did on Sunday.



I accomplished a lot while sitting in the Toronto airport ALL DAY. ALL. DAY. We were supposed to have a 1.5 hour direct flight from Toronto to home, but it was canceled due to mechanical problems. We spent 13 hours in various airports on Sunday, and about 6 hours on airplanes. Airplanes are not my favorite place in the world to be. There are not a lot of options to pass the time. So I knit. And knit some more. And pretty soon I my foliage hat nearly done. I would've finished it but I didn't have the US5 dpns I needed for the ribbing.

Ravelympics progress

I've made some progress on my Ravelympics goals! Check out these cute booties:



They were a super quick knit. I finished them the first day of the Olympics. I used the Saartje's Bootees pattern. More pics to come soon!

2008 Ravelympics

I just set some lofty goals for the 2008 Ravelympics...

• Finish Quant (WIP Wrestling)


• Finish toe-up socks (WIP Wrestling)


• Hemlock ring blanket (WIP Wrestling)


• Baby Surprise Jacket (Baby Dresssage)


• 2 baby hats (Baby Dresssage)


• 3 pairs of baby booties (Baby Dresssage)


• Design 1 baby hat pattern (Designer Discus)


• Design 1 baby bootie pattern (Designer Discus)


• Felted purse (Felted Freestyle)


• Felted Fiber Trends clogs (Felted Freestyle)


• Chapeau Marnier (Hat Dash)


• Foliage hat (Hat Dash)

Published!

Unbeknownst to me, I had a pattern published in the 2008 Knitting Pattern A Day Calendar. My beaded bias knit scarf was the May 31-June 1 page. This was brought to my attention by Raverly user Lynnette, and now my Ravelry profile is linked to the pattern and I've received a copy of the calendar from the publishers. I hope to have some more stuff published (or self published) in the near future... I have some things in the works.

Quant, take 2

A while back I finished knitting a Quant for a Christmas gift and it looked like I had enough left over for a second Quant. Here it is:



The ball of yarn is decreasing at an alarming rate. I used just slightly over half the yarn on the first Quant, and I had planned on making this one a little smaller anyway, so I'm pretty sure it will be enough. Pretty sure. I knit the i-cord extra long in case it ends up being even shorter than I intended.

Maizy socks, still in progress

I feel like I've been knitting these socks f-o-r-e-v-e-r...



They are getting taller, but the balls of yarn don't seem to be getting much smaller. I'm afraid I might end up with knee-high socks if I knit up all of the yarn. We'll see. I want to finish these by the end of the summer so I can start on some more socks, either a pair of Maizy socks for my husband or a pair of Ziggy socks for me.

Summer time

Summer is in full swing here, hence the lack of posts. I've been alternating between doing a ton of home improvement, gardening and biking, or laying on the couch watching Battlestar Galactica because it is too hot to do anything else, all of which cut into crafting and blogging time. Battlestar Galactica rocks, we are just starting season 2. I highly recommend it.

Although my crafting time has been decreasing lately, I have been working on finishing up a bunch of UFOs... I think I currently have 2 pairs of socks, a scarf, a blanket, a sweater and a pair of mittens on the needles. I am starting to run out of knitting needles. I also have a pile of sewing projects in various stages of incompletion: two Amy Butler patterns, a linen skirt, linen pants, some tshirts, 2 button down shirts and some purses. This weekend I am going to do some sewing.

In other news... a baby is on the way! A cousin is having her first baby, it's due in December. I've already started a Baby Surprise sweater. Surprise, it looks nothing like a sweater!



A couple of folds, seams and buttons and it will look like a sweater.



I'm not very happy with how the bind off looks, I might end up crocheting around the sweater if it doesn't look better after blocking. I suspect this is the first of many baby sweaters, so I will have many opportunities to perfect the bind off on the Baby Surprise Jacket. I knit this with Trekking XXL, I have enough left over to make booties and maybe a hat as well.

Socks in progress

I've been working on another pair of toe-up socks using the Knitty universal toe-up sock pattern, this time with 60 stitches on US2s from Knitpicks. The yarn is Crystal Palace Maizy, which is 82% corn fiber and 18% elastic. I am really liking the elasticity of the yarn, I think it's going to make a very cushy pair of socks. I am not so fond of the fact that the variegation on the socks looks quite a bit different, even though the yarn is from the same dyelot and both socks have the exact same number of stitches. (I counted. Many times.) But I think the differences in variegation will grow on me, just like it did last time.

This is my first pair of socks on the Knitpicks needles, and I have to say they are working quite well. The cable is really flexible and doesn't kink, and the joins of the cable with the needles are pretty smooth. Definitely a good value for the price!

Leaf tshirt

After that last post about the leaf tshirt I tried on the sweater and the short rows did not look right. The short rows were too long (starting directly below the center of the arm holes) and they were too far below the arm holes. So I had added a bunch of fabric below my bust, and wider than my bust, which makes for a really awful looking sweater. Unfortunately this problem did not reveal itself until I had knit a significant amount PAST the short rows. When I tried the shirt on immediately after the short rows it looked great. I guess that to see how the short row shaping is going to look you need to knit an inch or so past the short rows, then try the garment on. Lesson learned.

When I began the short rows I was thinking about them as if they were exactly like darts in a dress shirt. There are some key differences between the pseudo-darts made by short rows and the darts in dress shirts:

1. Darts in dress shirts are there to SUBTRACT FABRIC to make the waist of a shirt smaller than the bust. Short rows are there to ADD FABRIC to make the bust larger.


2. The placement of darts and short rows are different. Darts in dress shirts start a few inches directly under the center of the arm hole (at the side seam) at the bottom of the bust, and they angle up to the center of the bust. The darts in dress shirts are much, much longer than the pseudo-darts made by short rows. The pseudo-darts made by short rows do not angle up, they go straight across the garment. The first stitch of your short rows should start an inch or more in from your armpits and about halfway down the bust.


3. Darts on a dress shirt lay flat and look nice when the shirt is hanging or folded. Short rows do not lay flat and your shirt will look a little wonky when hanging or folded. (See picture below)

I moved the short rows up and in an inch, and the shirt fits a million times better. Yay!

Quant

I just finished my first entrelac project, the Quant from Knitty Winter 2007. It was a really intriguing knit, it took a few repeats for the pattern to emerge. The end section on mine looked so wonky that I did it completely different than what was described in the pattern. It took a few tries to get it right, but the ends are much more symmetrical now. I do have about half a ball of yarn (Manos del Uruguay silk blend) leftover, so I might attempt another Quant later. For now, here are some pics of the finished product:

Evangeline mittens

I finished a pair of Evangeline mittens a few weeks ago, and I'm super happy with them. I made them with some of the leftover Cascade 220 from my Circle Square hat, and even after these two projects I still have a small ball of yarn left. I made them with 5 cable repeats instead of 3 or 9, and I think they are just the right length. I made the thumb hole a little tight, trying to compensate for the overly-loose thumbhole that my fetching mitts have. I also picked up many more stitches around the thumbhole than the pattern called for, which makes the fabric around the thumb less holey and more insulating, like a mitten should be.

Fingerless mittens work great for me on weekday mornings when I'm rushing to the bus stop, knowing that I won't be spending much time outside and that I'll have to dig thru my purse for my bus pass.


I reversed the cables on the mitts, so they are mirror images of each other.

Lily of the Valley

I finished my Lily of the Valley Perdita bracelet just in time for Easter:

Just what everyone needs...

...a furry bowl...



Pattern is from the "One Skein" book. Made with un-labeled single-ply wool yarn from my stash.

Lily of the valley

This is what was soaking in the cup yesterday... a Perdita bracelet. This is the Lily of the Valley version. Lily of the valley are one of my favorite flowers. I love the way they smell. I love that they look so delicate, and yet they are poisonous. Not that I'm especially fond of poisonous things, but it's the poisonous-ness that keeps the wildlife from eating them, and therefore keeps them coming back every year.

Anywho, I made this bracelet with DMC pearl cotton yarn and some glass beads with size US1 needles. It didn't take very long... maybe 3 movies worth of knitting. All that's left is to crochet some button holes and attach buttons. And to wait for the weather to be warm enough to wear a short sleeve shirt so I can show off my new bracelet... there is still at least a foot of snow in our yard so it might be a while :/

Cup-o-yarn

Here's my latest project, soaking and waiting to be blocked...

Felted clogs

These clogs are great! I made them for my husband to replace the plastic-bottomed slippers he's been wearing for a couple of years. These fit way better, will be much warmer, and won't be so noisy. Plastic slippers shuffling around on wood floors is surprisingly noisy.

My husband wears a men size 9 shoe, while the slipper pattern is for a size 11. So these started out pretty big and took a l--o--n--g time to felt down to a size 9 in the washer... I'd estimate over an hour of felting. And strangely, they felted at different rates. Perhaps my gauge was slightly different in them... I don't know. Anyway, all the knitting and hovering over the washing machine and trying on wet squishy slippers paid off - he really likes the slippers. I just have to wait for them to dry, then I'll sew the leather soles on and they'll be ready for use.

I did have to clip a lot of fuzzies off these slippers. For some reason this Cascade 220 didn't felt as smoothly as the stockings. I'm a little worried that these slippers will be a magnet for cat hair, but I'm hoping the leather soles will keep that to a minimum.



I embroidered 'R' and 'L' in the slippers to differentiate Left from Right. It was a little difficult to do, but worth it. I love the detail. I used Cascade 220 for the embroidery, so it will (I assume) eventually felt into the slipper bottoms and be less defined and less readable. By that point though, I think the slippers will have molded to the feet, so the R and L shouldn't be necessary any more.

Bellatrix socks

They're done! I finally wove in all the ends for the socks yesterday. The 1x1 twisted rib at the cuff is super stretchy, and I think I'll use it more often for sock cuffs, but it took f-o-r-e-v-e-r. Next time, though, I will use MUCH larger needles to cast off with. Even though I thought I kept the cast off loose it is not as stretchy as the 1x1 rib. The yarn is itchy... but I think that will be resolved after the first wash. Overall I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out.