smallsmallfaery

Thursday

I'm trying to figure out what to do with my lace rectangle I started in Boston. Now that it's gone colder, it seems awfully impractical as anything but a scarf.

After Nicole and I "debugged" my sewing machine tonight, I came home and made this!

My mom got me an awesome vest. It even has a small pocket in the front that holds sock yarn well!

This is some pretty fabulous research going on at Cornell by Jonathan Kaldor, Doug L. James, and Steve Marschner.

Skim through the paper and you'll see all your favorite stitches. Watch the movie. It's a simulation and it's amazing.

I got a free kit at the Craft: party in Boston, so I got some napkins to try it out.

I got into Somerville on Monday morning at 3:30 AM and then moved into my apartment in Allston in the evening. Boxes I shipped here arrived on Tuesday included bags of yarn and my ball winder. I miss my swift and spent a long time winding, tangling, and untangling my Schaefer Heather:


I used a back of a chair, tried to go slowly, but really, it was a pain in the butt. I don't really want to have my swift sent - what if it breaks? The first swift I ordered from Joann's arrived broken!

Later, I cast on for a single-skein shrug pattern from the LYS tour.
The pattern was free, and in fact, the yarn was something I won in an online contest at Eat.Sleep.Knit. so the whole thing is a free project!

I stopped into a yarn store A Good Yarn in Brookline as they were closing and made a new friend on Ravelry. I'll be heading to the Brighton Knit Brunch on Saturday.


The knitting picture was taken with my mac; the yarn store picture was taken with my phone and I purposely left my camera with Seth (it's his too). I plan on getting a good camera as soon as my first paycheck comes.

It fits!

OMG The Yarn Harlot is holding my first baby sweater! It's a christening of sorts!

I'm on her blog too!

Here is my attempt to use up some sock yarn.


Before. I was going to make matching socks for robogock and myself.

( After. (picture heavy) )

I've been thinking of making a quilt for robogock and gustaf's wedding but I've never quilted before. Yesterday I tried my hand at my first "quilt": a quilted pot holder.



Definitely could use some improvement. I'll probably make another one for practice. If it works out, I'll make a bunch for the holidays. I want to believe that sewing is so much faster than knitting, but it really wasn't for the pot holder, but probably because I was learning.

Also, I'm still working on my friend kris10p's thrummed mittens.



I totally missed her birthday and now I'm scrambling to finish before it becomes warm in Chicago!

I forgot to blog about the finished Odessa.



I ended up finding hook size 10 that fit into my 4 mm beads. This was easier than my bent wire method. I finished it in time for my mom's birthday on February 7th, which was Lunar New Year. I had stopped after the hat was 5 inches rather than 5.5 in and later regretted it after I did all the decreases. Instead of undoing the crown, I picked up stitches along the brim and added another half inch. I think I'd like to make my mom a beret too; she has biggish hair.

Also, I've received some cool homemade presents.

( as always, picture heavy )

I don't want to blog about new projects without giving too much away, so they'll probably only be posted as I finish them.

I got through the knitting crunch and finished some presents.

( and pictures! )

Of course, now I have some projects in progress.

( pictures of those too )

For the Odessa hat, I tried beading by stringing all the beads on first, but pushing the beads along, but the wool broke as I did that. I also wanted to try to the crochet method, but I didn't have a hook small enough to fit into my 4mm beads. So, I made a make-shift hook with wire and it turned out all right.

Stripes...


( Read more... )

I'm (almost) halfway done with my linux illusion scarf. I need to finish off the crown of Tux's head and then continue with simple striping. The pattern includes a linux logo, but I'm going to omit it. If you recognize Tux the penguin, then you'll already know it's linux and the recipient already does. I see him on Friday, so let's see if I can finish by then. I also have to fix the mistake at the top of Tux's feet.

I have never felt the holiday knitting crunch before. (See the Yarn Harlot's blog for an example.) I completed Branching Out on Saturday but didn't think it was long enough.
After calling to locate a skein of the right color, I found one in Bellevue. I didn't really want to go get it and I didn't think I'd have enough time to knit another whole skein, so I called it finished. It can tie nicely at the neck like an ascot or cravat, much like this pattern from Blue Sky Alpacas.

After that, I want to work on the Odessa hat for my mom. I picked up beads today (pictures to follow). It would be nice to finish the hat by the 26th, but we'll see how the scarf goes.

Clearly, I'm not getting much work done if I'm getting this much knitting done.

The shaping seems a bit funny up close, but otherwise, I think it'll be ok.

I started swatching for Fiber Trends felted clogs and I couldn't get the specified gauge: (size 13 needles) 9 st / 4 in unfelted, 12 st / 4 in felted. My results:

unfelted:
size 13 English 12 st / 4 in
size 13 continental 10.5 st / 4 in (20 stitches across)
size 15 continental 9.5 st / 4 in (14 stitches across)


You can imagine my surprise when my first swatch (size 13 English) came out as the same gauge as the felted piece is supposed to be!

felted:
size 13 continental 13.3 st / 4 in
size 15 continental 10.5 st / 4 in



The squares felted very little even after two tries in the washer (warm/cold) in tied a pillow case, washed with other laundry. Afterward, I stuck them under hot water in the sink and rubbed them together and they felted a lot! It looks like my best bet will be either size 15 English because it will be a bit tighter or size 13 continental with less felting. I think I'll go with the size 13s because I bought them specifically for this project. :)

Also, I made Ann hand warmers and she liked them. :)

I think I'm going to rip it out; at least past the heel.

Based on this tutorial on how to make a chalk bag I've made my own.

I started out with a tank top that was too short and a sweater that I felted in the wash.


Here's the bag closed. I bought the elastic and cord stop from Joann's Fabrics.


I tried using metal eyelets as indicated in the tutorial, but I chose fabric that was too thin and they didn't grip well. I sewed around the holes so they would keep their shape.


I took the belt from my old chalk bag and threaded it through loops made from the tank top straps.


I can't wait to go climbing tomorrow!

What started out as
...

turned into


yarn: Caron Simply Soft
pattern: http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-hPoyIeslcqobrefmpVg-?cq=1&p=7
needles: 7 straight
modifications: crochet border on each fish and entire blanket
start: April 2007
finish: October 2007

This is far from perfect, but I'm pleased with it. I should practice more joining techniques because I wasn't satisfied by my first crochet join (not pictured), which is why I ended up adding a crochet border to each fish. However, I crocheted around the fish too tightly instead of following the shape with increases and decreases. As a result, the fish are a little bumpy.

I'm tempted to write up a pattern where one makes strips of fish: start at the head, knit to tail, continue without breaking yarn, start new tail decreasing to head.

Bah, my dyelots match but my socks don't.