First of the Season!

 Now that the weather is cool and blustery, my desire to knit has boiled back up into my bones. I finished this hat over the weekend, and I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out.

I was inspired by Alex Tinsley's "A Most Bespeckled Hat". Though there are some key differences in the finished products. Hers uses a much thicker yarn, while mine was made out of some yard sale purchased sock weight stuff Paul's Mom gave me for my b-day.

Here's what I learned!

1. Ribbing is your friend- If you compare Ms. Tinsley's hat to mine, you'll see that hers has a has slouchier, less fitted look, while mine is a bit beanie-ish. The main difference is hers has a longer ribbed cuff that lets the hat get all loosey goosey. I will keep this in mind for further slouchy endeavors.

2. You've got more yarn than you think- I probably could have made this hat quite a bit bigger/slouchier, but I was paranoid about running out of yarn before I could finish (what with it being a ball of unlabeled stuff). I ended up with quite a significant surplus of the blue yarn, because I was so worried about running out. Now I'm not sure what I'll do with the odd amount of waste. Oh well!

3. Polka dots are fun! - This was an easy bit of colorwork that really came out looking cool. It was a great refresher on knitting in two colors after a long haitus. I would also recommend it as a good way to try two colors as a beginner.

PS: When I first saw this picture I couldn't believe that's what I look like now. I guess I've sort of lost track of how long my hair has gotten! And I'm not planning on cutting it till the winter is over! I'll be like Rapunzel in no time, I'm sure (minus it glowing when I sing, I guess.)

Here's to the coming season of many projects!

Team Zissou!

At the request of my dear friend, I recently knit a Toque inspired by Wes Anderson's 2004 film "The Life Aquatic".

Now all she needs is a speedo, diving equipment, a ship, and a shark to hold a grudge against.



Pattern is here

Love-Crafts

I made this kinda sorta cute and cuddly stuffed C'thulu for Paul. It was supposed to be a Valentines gift but it took me longer than I thought it would!

As I've mentioned before, there weren't too many good knit C'thulu patterns on the internet. So I decided to sort of make it up as I went, loosely basing parts on bits from other patterns and experimenting. Even though I'm not 100% thrilled with the shape of it, I'm still pleased with it as the first pattern I devised largely by myself.

He's a pocket sized Arkham Horror!

Fiddlehead!

I made this "Maner" headscarf quite a while ago, but I never got around to putting up pictures. It's more than just a headband, but not quite a hat. It's perfect for not-so-great hair days when you just want to rein in your 'do.

If you're making one for yourself, you should know that this guy starts off being incredibly tight, and it takes a few wears to get it all stretched out.

The yarn I used was Lorna's Laces Shepard Worsted Yarn in Fiddlehead. I love this yarn, the colors are so pretty! And the name reminds me of my grandmother's favorite spring plant, the fiddlehead fern. I have another project I'm doing with it that will be done soon, so stay tuned!

The Little Things

This weekend I discovered a really really awesome website for knitters. One of the most annoying parts of knitting is having leftover yarn when you finish a project. If you knit long enough, your yarn stash gets inundated with these random lengths of fibrous ghosts from projects past. Think there's nothing to do with the extra? You're so stupid! There is!


This website catalogs hundreds of projects to do with your scraps of waste yarn, organized by length used.

I used the leftover yarn from my big foofy cowl to make this cute little stuffed whale.


As the pattern mentions, this little guy is meant to be a cat toy. I wasn't planning on letting Roosevelt play with it, but she managed to find it and rough it up all on her own. I guess it's pretty irresistible for kittehs, what with the floppy tail and being the same size of her ideal prey and all. I'll let her have it, I guess.

Awww...She loves it!

Winter Blues Cowl

When the weather outside, quite frankly, sucks, something warm and cozy is a most important remedy. A big soft cowl works well in lieu of a fireside or soft flannel sheets. Once I put this guy on, I never want to take it off!

The bulk of this piece was made during the mega storm that paralyzed us last week. Now that it's temporarily sunny and warm (40 is warm, right?), it seems slightly unseasonable. I'm not so sure we're out of the woods with this damnable weather though, so it may yet get some use.

The yarn I used for this was Rowan Big Wool. This was the second time I've really consciously chosen to use a more high-end, superior quality yarn, and I have to say it really does make a noticeable difference. It was also kind of awesome to use a big thick wool that knit up quick after my last project. It took me a month to make the "Bad Oyster" using sock yarn, while this, like I said, only took a coupla days.

I based the pattern on the one available here. The stitch I used is the American Moss Stitch:

Rows 1 and 2: k1, p1
Rows 3 and 4: p1, k1

And repeat!

If I was stranded in a snowstorm, I would want to be wearing this. You can pull it up and wear it like an awesome warm hood that makes you look like a Jawa.

My Very Own Bad Oyster

This was my big project for January. A "Bad Oyster" scarf; design courtesy of the amazing Alex Tinsley, who writes one of my favorite inspirational crafty blogs, Dull Roar.

Why is it called a Bad Oyster? Because it doesn't have any purls (insert obligatory groan here.)!

This project introduced me to two new knitting skills: Steeking and Blocking. Both were easier than I expected them to be. Steeking is when you don't cast off a section of your knit-in-the-round project, leaving the stitches open. Then, you cut open said unfinished section. This has the duel effect of making this piece lie flat, and creating some very fashionable fringe around the edges.

Blocking is a process you do at the end of the project to work out any imperfections and prevent it from curling. The basic idea is to soak the piece, then pin it down flat. It will supposedly adhere to the shape you make it when it dries. I'm thinking I need to redo this, because my edges are still rollin'. D'oh!

 

But yeah, this is an awesome light-weight and trendy scarf. It's a pretty easy project too, but very time consuming.

A Scarf for Mom

I made my mom this scarf from that pretty purple wool I showed off earlier. It was a Christmas present that I hope will keep her warm through the rest of our long northern winter.

It's kind of hard to see in detail (and the other pictures I took were even worse!), but I made the scarf from  this pattern, courtesy of Knittingonthenet's informative stitch library. It's called the "Little Pyramid" stitch.

It's a deceptively easy stitch, with just 3 variations of knitting and purling to remember. It looks fancy though, so it impresses people even though it's not that hard.

The name of the stitch combined with fleecy yarn just made me think of this song the whole time I was working on it.



Clue me in.

Learn from my mistakes: Hanks.

As a (relatively) new knitter, sometimes you go through projects where you don't really know what the heck you're doing, so you just try and go along and make the best of it. More than once, I've purchased yarn packaged in this manner:

 

This, my friends, is a hank of yarn. When you buy your yarn directly from the spinner (as I did with this pretty purple wool) they usually opt to sell them by the hank, because it's easier for them to polish up and measure their final product packaging it this way. Hanks are also prettier for displays, because they better showcase the texture and subtle qualities of the yarn. If you buy a hank though, it is NOT ready to be used for projects as is. I learned this the hard way on more than one project, and it was a mistake I wasn't willing to make again. If you try to knit a hank as is, you will spend hours and hours attempting to untie the giant knot that your yarn has become. Seriously, it's the worst.

Before you can go to work with a hank of yarn, you have to ball it. There are countless depictions of how to do this in old movies and pictures, usually involving a loved one standing by with yarn stretched over their arms. 

I've seen characters doing this so many times before but never really got what they were doing. Now I know they were saving themselves the headache of dealing with a un-balled hank.

Even if you don't have a cute dutch child on hand to help you with balling, that's ok. You can use 2 handy kitchen chairs to the same effect.  

I actually found this to be a kind of relaxing process, and it helps you get a feel for the materials you'll be working with. I've also read that it's important not to ball your yarn until you're ready to start your project, because balling stretches your yarn out some. Good to know.

The finished product! And here's a complete tutorial. Seriously, this might have been the most important lesson on knitting I ever had.

Nahla's Hat

Nahla is the little baby girl that my good friend is due to have at the end of the year. I made this hat for her from this pattern. I just love how the twin pom poms give a little bald baby the opportunity to have pig tails.

I actually dug this pattern so much that I scaled it up and made one for myself.


Like my other attempts to adjust patterns in the past, this one ended up a little too oversized. But the floppiness of it actually kind of works. I love love love the yarn I used for mine. It's a gorgeous soft alpaca in these very dreamy colors.

This hat actually really reminds me of something that Molly Weasely might make for her kids. It's got a neat bit of whimsy to it that would help you fit in at Diagon Alley, even if you are a Muggle.

In case you were wondering, I still haven't seen the new HP film. But I'm going to (finally) remedy that this week! I have this terrible habit of never seeing the movie I want to see in the theater. I'm determined that Part 1 of Deathly Hallows won't go the same way as "Alice in Wonderland", "Machete" and "Where the Wild Things Are." I will actually see it!

Lacy Cap

Way back in February, when it was still cold outside, my high school friend and fellow blogger Sally asked me to make her a hat like this one.

Almost 5 months later, I have finally finished!

I love the pattern of this lace. It reminds me of buttresses, or ogives! It's one of my most intricate projects yet. I'm pretty proud of how it turned out too!

Knitting for Mom / Caturday XIX

It's been awhile since I posted anything knitting related. I got caught at kind of an impasse, trying to expand my yarn manipulation skills into the realm of crochet. It didn't go so hot...but I'll write more about that another time.

I jumped back into working with two sticks by whipping together this little guy for mothers day. I had tons of leftover sparkly white yarn from christmas projects, so I decided to make a twilight themed teddy bear for Paul's mom. An Eddy Bear, I guess.

It came out looking less cute and more creepy than I was hoping, but he's supposed to be a terrible undead vampire, right?

I stuffed him with catnip, making it not just a twilight themed toy, but a twilight themed cat toy!

Speaking of cat toys, Roosevelt has gotten some pretty good ones lately.

1. This little puff of fake fur.

It makes her think she actually caught a mouse. It makes me think I'm on the starship enterprise.


An uncanny likeness really...I hope it doesn't start multiplying like crazy!

2. This Bee is a laser pointer - it shoots lasers out its mouth!

How scary would that be in real life? VERY.

Super Sunday Hat

I love the yarn I used to make this super floppy, super big beret. It's called "It's a Wrap" - Felty strands of nylon wrapped in wool to give it a handspun texture. I've been looking forward to getting to a better yarn store to get my hands on some real handspun goodies, but the beautiful colors and soft feel of this yarn will tide me over till I get the good stuff.


Remember my last attempt at making a hat for myself? I kind of went the opposite direction with it this time. Instead of making a far too-tight version of things, I inaccurately resized this great pattern and made things a slightly on the mammoth side. It's ok though, I really like the way this guy came out, big and comfy.

It's a Super Sunday Hat because I made it mostly during the Superbowl. I actually surprised myself by whipping this out in two days. Sometimes when I'm working on a project, I get so invested in it that I crank it out at an alarming speed.

The game yesterday, by the by, was pretty amazing. Every touchdown that that Saints scored in that second half was so dramatic and exciting. Even a casual football watcher like myself couldn't help but get sucked in by those amazing plays. Good for you Saints. Make Peyton Manning sorry he ever starred in those horrible commercials with Donald Trump.

Arrow Station Hat

I made this earflap hat for Kevin as a prize for being the first to spot the blackface. I was more than excited to do a Lost-centric project. (Spoilers)

The Arrow station is first seen in season 2 as an abandoned storage bunker. The tail section survivors hide in it after the crash of Oceanic 815. There are big letters that say "Quarantine" on the door. Inside, they find a hollowed out bible with pieces of film in it, and a glass eye.

We later learn that the Arrow was the 2nd Dharma Initiative Station, used to develop and carry out Defensive Strategies against "The Others".

(Spoilers Over)

I got the basic pattern for the earflap hat here. I didn't do this guy in the round though, I did it on straight needles and then seamed it up. Why? Because the 2-color technique that I use doesn't work well in the round.

I looked far and wide for Dharma Initiative logo charts. Other than this really cool double knit scarf I found, there was no evidence of them anywhere. Good thing there are free and awesome knitting chart generators on the Internet! I used this one. You can put in any picture you want, but I would recommend using something with a sharp outline.

I was going to wait and give this to Kevin at the Lost Premiere next month, but I decided I could not wait. It's cold out now and I wanted him to get the most of it. I gave it to him today when Paul and I helped him move into Van Meter.

Visiting Paul's old building was kind of neat. It didn't make me miss the dorm lifestyle though. I'd have a really hard time adapting to that again.

Kevin lives up on the 6th Floor, and his building is at the top of big hill. He's probably the highest up you can be on campus.

Similarity ensued

I realized the other day that the blue and white mice I made bear a striking resemblance to some medical study mice who got popular over the summer.



They are blue because they were treated with "Brilliant Blue G." This compound has been shown to reduce the severity of spinal cord injuries. It has also been used to make your M&M's and Gatorade look pretty. The temporary change in skin color seems to be the only negative side effect.

After being injected with it, the broke backed mice were able to walk again! Yay!

Christmas Cat Scarf

Remember how I wanted to make a kitty scarf for my bro in law? Well, I finally found a chart that didn't remind me of road kill

I slightly modified the pattern, as these kitties used to sit over cross bones. I guess I felt like that piratey stuff is kind of played out... I was very very proud of this, as it is my first ever project with two colors!

Like many of the skills in knitting, colorwork seems a lot harder and more intimidating than it actually is in practice. Though, that's not quite true. I should say that colorwork in the style that I used (Intarsia) is not really as hard as it seems.

I got the basic start of the method from this video, once again supplied by the Judy ("knitter to the stars")



The real challenging method to this style of knitting is that you constantly need to be twisting the yarns in certain ways to avoid forming holes in the work. I found this page to be an indispensable resource.

While I'm really proud of how my colorwork came out, there were some other aspects of this project that I wasn't thrilled with. Firstly, my stockinette totally curled like wallpaper. NO matter what I did, I couldn't stop the scarf from rolling into a tube.

This is my fault mostly. I knit with a lot of tension in my string, as you can see from how the cat face pulls and puckers the stitches around it. I read that this happens sometimes to stockinette when you knit too tightly, but I didn't really restrain myself. I kind of like pulling the string taut and snug around the needle, it's satisfying! I read though that if you do a garter stitch along the edge of your flat projects it helps deter it. Good to know for next time I suppose.

I also kind of feel that the quality of the yarn I used may have encouraged the rolling. Not that Vannas Choice isn't wonderful. But I recently started following the blog Presents Knits, and the girl puts up all these gorgeous pictures of these hand-dyed and homespun yarns that are to die for. It really makes me want to branch out a little, go somewhere with a better yarn selection, and pick out something really beautiful and unique.

The other thing to know about Intarsia colorwork, is that it is not reversible.

I tried to weave the back to reduce the risk of it catching on things, but as you can see, it's still pretty messy back here. That's why I think this style would be better for stuff like socks and hats, where the tangley stuff can be hidden. If I wanted to make this baby reversible, I'd have to master a technique that I would place solidly in the expert knitters only category, double stranded double knitting.



I wonder how long 'til I'm brave enough to try this!

Snowball Mice

I made these little mice to give as Christmas presents to Nevaeh and Grace, who are the young daughters of women who work in my office. I made them from this pattern. I think the reason mine look so different from the very very cute gray mouse the original designer made was because I used larger needles. I think this caused their faces to lose a little definition. It's also kind of a no no in stuffed animal making, because it leads to little holes the stuffing can peak out of. But since these guys are white, you can't really tell.

I made the one on the left second, and it definitely came out 500x better than the first one on the right. I got a better feel for the shape of the mouse, and I also really improved at embroidering eyes. The one on the left also could stand up by itself, the one on the right could not. I guess it goes to show that practice does lead to improvement. Its too bad I had to give one of the girls a buddy who wasn't quite as sharp looking. They kind of remind me of Pinky and the Brain.

My favorite part of making these guys was doing the tails. They're called Icords, and are really handy for all sorts of things; zipper pulls, handles for bags, or even the tail spines on a stegosaurus. They're fun to make, because you get to slide your stitches to one end of the double pointed needle and knit them in the same direction over and over again.

Take it away, Judy!

Fingerless Gloves

My office at the QVCDC is always cold. Auf Deutsch: Sehr Sehr Kalt. It's in a recently remodeled building, made of poured concrete, which is really conductive of the frosty air. Not only that, but the heating system is temperamental, making whether or not we'll reach the 65 degrees the ladies like to keep it humming at a great surprise every day.


I decided to make these fingerless gloves so I could keep my hands warm and type at the same time. The pattern is loosely based on the same mitten pattern I used to make Jenny's mittens over the summer. I just elongated the wrists and didn't close to top. I wish that I had made them a little bit shorter and wider in the hand, as they aren't quite ideal for stretching my fingers across a keyboard, but other than that I am pleased.

Pew Pew!

I made them from alpaca yarn I bought at the Big E in September. It was fun to work with a new material, as I've mostly just knit with cottons and acrylics. This stuff had the tendency to make felted fuzzballs ensconcing the yarn as I ran it through my fingers. It was also kind of prone to knotting. It's nice and soft and warm though, so it was great for these wristwarmers.

I enjoy knitting, especially when my projects are done, but I do find that it's an activity that makes me swear like a sailor. There always seems to be a new way to screw things up, but it's a learning experience.

I was thinking that for my next project, I'd try to whip out a scarf for my bro in law Ryan real quick before Christmas. This kid loves cats. When he was little, he had plans to open up a restaurant with a special room in it where you could go and play with kitties while you waited for your meal. I thought I might put a silhouette of a cat head on it. I haven't done any color work before, so I wanted something simple to start. Something like this maybe:

You know, simple round head, pointy ears. However, my search for cat scarf patterns only turned up horrible scary possibilities:

http://www.stylehive.com/bookmark/etsy-mohair-cheshire-cat-scarf-hand-knit-black-and-purple-stripes-animal-charity-246503


This one, oddly enough, was described as a pattern for cat lovers.
http://www.highcountryknitwear.com/pussycat.shtml

I like that this one has no pretensions to livelihood in a flattened animal.
http://www.fashionfunky.com/2007/09/dead_cat_scarves_to_replace_fu.php