Either/Or

Posted on January 10, 2016 by cpeezers

I have had the most fun learning to knit these modular sideways hand warmers. The pattern, called Either/Or, is a great one. It’s by Lee Meredith, and she includes instructions for making short fingerless gloves, long fingerless gloves and mittens. The pattern is very thorough. There is a little bit of calculating in order to keep track of the stitches cast on for when you knit the second glove. This is where I went wrong.

First, I think these gloves are so pretty. I started knitting in the round with the thumb. You have to do lots of increasing, and this was kind of funny to me to try to keep up with.

I didn’t have enough colors so I had to use some yarn markers as well (blue and pink). The markers indicated where I was doing the increases. All the markers overwhelmed me a little at first, but then I realized it was no big thing.

Once I increased to a certain point, I put part of the stitches on markers and then knit the top. When I was done with the top, I came back to the stitches on the bottom and knitted the bottom. Although – these mitts are so fun. They fit so that the top can be the bottom or the bottom can be the top. Either works.

So back to how I went wrong:

I knit the first mitt and then I got distracted by another project. I left these mitts for a week or so. When I returned to the second mitt, I somehow didn’t do my calculations correctly, and I ended up with this:

Two different sized mitts. I am not sure how I did this. I was disappointed though. I’d hoped to give these as a gift, but I will have to make some more. Making more is not a bad thing, but I wish I would have knitted them one after the other. I need to resolve to do better in project finishing. For example, I was looking around at my projects on ravelry today, and I found a sock that I had made in 2010. I realized that the second one still needs to be made.

So now having realized my finishing problems, I realize that I’ve got to get back to these gnome mittens. The first one is almost done. I don’t want the gnome mittens to become another unfinished statistic.

Superheroes vs. Aliens

Posted on January 3, 2016 by cpeezers

We have discovered the fun of stop motion animation.

Meet our cast of characters: SuperDavey, SuperMama and SuperDaddy.

And then there’s the aliens:

Here are the first efforts of beginners having a great time with stop motion animation!

The inspiration for our movie came from my efforts to convince Davey whenever he was staging some elaborate battle with his action figures that he should have them hug to resolve their issues. He always says “Mammmaaaa” and continues his battle. I have said it so often that I don’t think he hears me anymore! So when we were thinking about making our movie, I thought we should bring in that same perspective of love not war. He liked the idea.

The knitting patterns came from Anna Hrachovec of MochiMochi Land. Her patterns are great and fun to knit. She has written several books and has created many art installations with her knits. She is also my stop motion inspiration. She creates beautiful, clever, and fun stop motion videos. She’s definitely worth checking out!

Hats and a Koala

Posted on January 2, 2016 by cpeezers

We have been on Christmas break, and I have been getting the chance to do lots of knitting. It’s been great.

David decided that he needed a new hat. I have a pattern that I have knitted a bunch of times called Boyfriend Hat. It’s a great hat. It’s just a 2 x 3 rib with a fun decrease. I have probably made it at least ten times. It had been awhile since I made it though, and I’d forgotten to make it a little longer for David’s large noggin. So it didn’t quite cover the ears as well as David wanted (it’s darn cold in these parts right now, so I can understand the need for proper ear coverage. I probably should just make him a balaclava).

It’s an ok hat though – we will wear it. I made it with Plymouth Gina, and it was nice yarn to knit with. I liked the colors in the hat as well. I convinced my sweet Davey to model it for me.

It fits him pretty well. The variegated yarn is really nice. I’d happily knit more hats with it.

Since hat number one was not ideal, I began a second hat. I decided on a Jared Flood pattern that I’d not knit before called Turn A Square. This is a great hat, and I think it will be my new “go-to” hat pattern. It’s a lot of fun to knit, and I love how it turned out. I was able to use the same yarn for this hat for the stripes. I had some dark gray yarn for the main color, but I have no memory of what that yarn was. That’s ok though because it was yarn from my stash which is always a good thing.

Jared Flood writes great clear patterns, and I had no trouble following this one.

I got sweet Davey to model for me again. He likes to get silly when I take too many pictures.

These hats both knit up really quickly as well.

So then, I came across the cutest pattern. It’s a Koala cup cozy. I had never knitted a cup cozy before, but I couldn’t resist this one. I made one for a friend, and I liked it so much that I made one for me.

I was able to go to my stash for this yarn too. That’s kind of a perpetual New Year’s Resolution for me: Knit with the yarn I’ve got!

The hat requires duplicate stitch which is always tricky for me to get to look right. For example, the koala pictured above looks like he is a little more dangerous than cute. I like him anyway though. Maybe he is saying, “stay away from my coffee!”

I also had to make pom poms. I am no pom pom expert, so I worry that they will disintegrate at any time. Hopefully not.

Alexandra Davidoff designed this pattern, and she’s got another really cute pattern for a panda cup cozy on her website as well. She actually has several designs that I’d like to knit sometime.

My knitting list of things I want to make is LONG and ever growing.

Drop Spindlin’

Posted on September 27, 2015 by cpeezers

I am learning to spin! I was at the fair a few weeks ago, and I was looking at all the fiber related things. I noticed that there were going to be several types of fiber classes offered throughout the fair. One of them was learning to use a drop spindle.

I’d tried this once before. My mom taught me, and I have a neat spindle that my dad made me. But I didn’t get too great at it, and I didn’t stick with it then. I decided though that I was ready to try again.

Turns out it is one of my new favorite things to do. I don’t know why exactly. It’s very repetitious, but I really like the feel of spinning the spindle and then working the twist into the fiber. People say that knitting is a meditative soothing kind of activity. I can see that, but I experience that feeling much more with spinning.

So far, I am a beginner who is not too good at it. Once I can actually make beautiful fingering weight yarn, I imagine it will be even more relaxing to me.

This is the fiber I bought from a seller named woolgatherings on etsy.

I also bought a really neat spindle from another etsy seller named Snyder Spindles It is pretty and light and spins so nicely. I love it.

My spinning is not great. There is definite variation in my efforts. Lots of thick and thin and then those lovely slubs of really thick spots.

However, I think the yarn on the right side is a small improvement over the other two hanks, and it is the one I did last. Slowly but surely I am improving.

I finished spinning, winding, plying, washing and drying it this morning, and I was looking forward to knitting it up. I had 4 oz of yarn from which I think I made about 150 yards of pretty bulky yarn.

I found a free pattern on ravelry called “Big Chunky Comfy Hat”. It’s a great simple pattern. I was able to knit the entire hat this afternoon.

I asked Davey to let me take pictures of him modeling it, but he didn’t want to be the subject of pictures. Instead, he offered to take the pictures of me in the hat.

Here’s my favorite:

It makes me laugh. He got much better though.

He finally got tired of me wanting him to try one more, so he decided to put the hat on after all.

It’s just a really simple pattern of p2 knit 1 rib, and then I switched to k2 p1. The decreases are easy and fun too. I wanted it to be simple because I like the way the yarn (inconsistent as I was) spun up.

I think I underestimated how much yarn I actually spun, so I am pretty sure I have enough for another hat! When I was a beginning knitter, I made more hats. I am back to that now as I learn to spin more smoothly.

This drop spindling is a whole lot of fun. I have some BFL fiber from a local sheep too that I’ve started, and it’s wonderful to spin as well. I’ll have to write about that soon!

Fair Knitting Semi-Disaster and a New Project

Posted on September 8, 2015 by cpeezers

Our county fair was this weekend. It’s a lot of fun. We all three enter something so we can get exhibitor passes which allow us to go in and out all weekend. David entered a photograph, Davey an awesome dinosaur Lego sculpture, and I had my knitting.

This year, I entered the sweater I made for Davey.

I have not made many sweaters and I think the assembly can be tricky to pull off. While not perfect by any means, I had thought it went pretty well over all.

So I have to admit that I was a little disappointed to see a red ribbon. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I’d worked so hard on the sweater! I’d hoped for more. It kind of bugged me, and I was looking forward to seeing the critique when I went to pick it up last night. I had a feeling that the problems might be in the finishing, and it turns out I was correct. Although I did not anticipate what I’d done (not done rather).

The critique read: “Finishing ends is just as important as the outside.”

Sure – I couldn’t agree more! As I read that, I thought, “gosh, I must not have trimmed my carefully woven in ends close enough.” So I turned my sweater inside out, and here is what I saw:

Unwoven ends. Not only was one not woven in, it was somehow attached on both sides and needed to be clipped and woven in.

So that was embarrassing. However, I do feel lots better now that I think I understand what the major problem was. When I finished the sweater early in the year, I had some moments of panic because when I blocked it, it had grown exponentially and was humongous. In trying to repair that damage, I must have forgotten to go back and finish the INSIDE!

Ugh. On the bright side, they liked my Wonder Woman Hat.

That’s a mistake I won’t make again. I can already see myself obsessively checking for ends for years to come.

So I’ve started a new project. When I saw my sister a few weeks ago, she was working on an afghan which I really liked. It’s a pattern called “Catch Some Waves“.

It’s going to take awhile to finish, but it’s a great pattern for peaceful knitting. The pattern is easily memorized, but it’s not completely mindless so I don’t get bored knitting it.

I am working from leftover yarns from my stash, and it makes me feel great to know that I will be using some of it up!

A little sweater: my first attempt at intarsia

Posted on August 26, 2015 by cpeezers

I recently finished knitting this:

This was my first attempt at intarsia! I wish I had a little human on which to model it, but I couldn’t quite squeeze it over Davey’s head! It’s a 12- month size, and it’s really a great sweater pattern. I’d highly recommend it for both a first sweater and a first intarsia project. The pattern is from Roo Designs. She has lots of really cute patterns. Puppies, peace signs, penguins – all intarsia.

Here’s the puppy one.

I really like this striped sweater with the skull and crossbones too!

I can thank my LYS, Yarn Folk, for inspiring me to finally try intarsia. I’ve been kind of scared of it. I was afraid that I would have big unsightly holes where I had to join the colors. It wasn’t too hard though. It was not unlike what I do when I switch colors in fair isle – when I catch the old color under the new so that there is a smooth transition.

Ann at Yarn Folk was leading a knit-along for this sweater, and she helped me lots. She taught me to make my little butterflies that I needed to switch back and forth between the colors.

It was a little tricky – the butterflies took me a little while to get used to. I am very skilled at tangling yarn as well. It seems to happen quite naturally for me. So there was a few breaks for untangling along the way.

I am pretty happy with it though! I knitted it with Plymouth Encore which is a great inexpensive wool/acrylic blend. I like working with it.

Here’s the back:

I’d like to try this again sometime, and I’d like to do another Roo Design pattern. Maybe Davey would like the skull and crossbones sweater! It would be a lot of fun to make.

Knitting intarsia is one of those “makes me feel like a real knitter moments”. I definitely want to try it again sometime.

Little houses

Posted on August 6, 2015 by cpeezers

The other day I was getting ready to start on my new scarf – the Rapunzel kit. Not five minutes after I blogged about the cast on for this scarf, I saw a pattern for these:

These cute little house dishcloths! I decided I had to make some right then. So for the last several days, I have been knitting little houses. The pattern is called The Nineteen Hundred House Dishcloth. It was $3.00 for the pattern, and it was $3.00 well spent. It’s one of those very simple patterns with just knitting and purling stitches. Very easy and they go quickly.

I began making the houses with some linen that I had.

I liked the linen, but then I wanted to try them with cotton because I thought the stitches might be more defined. Davey helped me arrange the houses into a picture, and he decided the linen dishcloths should serve as the shed (or barn?). He set them off from the other houses.

What is fun too is that I adjusted the pattern by just omitting some rows so that I could make the houses different heights.

I just spent a few minutes looking around at the designer’s ravelry, and I found a West End apartment house pattern. It looks like great fun too!

I am thinking they will be great housewarming gifts!

Rapunzel and a Cast on

Posted on July 30, 2015 by cpeezers

I am starting a new knitting project today. It’s a craftsy kit I ordered a little while back called Rapunzel Infinity Scarf Kit. It’s knit with Cascade Heritage (fingering weight). Here’s a picture of what it will hopefully look like when I am done!

I just love this. I love the big cable in the middle (Rapunzel’s braid!), and how it is surrounded by lace on either side.

So the pattern begins with a provisional cast on so that I can graft the ends together when I am finished. I have always been a little chicken of provisional cast ons because they never come apart quite the way they are supposed to (likely because I’ve done something wrong). I did a google search though and found a result titled “EASIEST Provisional cast on”. I thought this is the cast on for me!

Sure enough. This is an awesome video. She explains and demonstrates the cast on very clearly. I was able to follow along with no problems, and I now have my stitches cast on and ready to go!

Link to the video! Easiest Provisional Cast On.

Finishing Find: The Little Things

Posted on July 27, 2015 by cpeezers

This may seem like a small thing, but I had to write at least briefly about my find. When I was in Tulsa at Loops, I came upon what I consider to be quite the little treasure: Susan Bates Finishing Needles!

Maybe I am one of the only people who have not seen these before, but I was thrilled to find them. They have an eye that extends the length of the needle!

They are flexible. I was able to squish them as needed.

They are great for shorter pieces of yarn that need to be woven.

I tried them out yesterday to finish off a shawl, and they worked most awesomely.

A great find.

Darn Good Yarn

Posted on July 26, 2015 by cpeezers

I discovered some “Darn Good Yarn” when we were visiting in Arkansas. I found it at my old knitting home Knit Unto Others – where I’d returned to see my knitting friends. Claire (the owner) has always carried and promoted fair trade yarn. One example that I discovered this trip is Darn Good Yarn. This company provides opportunities for local artisans to make yarn by using primarily scraps from sari production (I had no idea how much waste there is involved!).

I chose some silk yarn. It’s called Silk Cloud, and it knit up beautifully. I chose a pattern that I’d purchased when I was visiting Loops in Tulsa. It’s a fun pattern called “Effin’ Scarf”. This is a scarf that is knit with size 13 needles. I loved how it knit up, and I’d make it again, but I have to admit that I am not the biggest fan of knitting fingering weight yarn with size 13 needles. However, I love the almost cobwebby look it creates. Davey likes to ask what it would be like to knit with spider silk (he is lately fascinated by spiderwebs). While this is not cobweb lace, it does have a kinda webby look to it knitted up in this pattern.

I love the combination of colors.

I had a hard time taking good pictures of it or pictures that captured how pretty I think the yarn is.

I am spending time on Ravelry already trying to figure out what I’d like to make next with Darn Good Yarn. I love their mission! There’s a great video on their website which does a great inspiring job of showing what they do. Check it out! : The Story of Darn Good Yarn.

Cpeezers

Family, School and Yarn

Category Archives: Knitting