Time Out

Posted on August 6, 2014 by cpeezers

I’ve been working on the beautiful Rock Island.

It all seemed to be going so well. I finished knitting the mile long strip over the weekend. I had my assistant help me take a picture of the strip. He bravely balanced on the porch railing so we could demonstrate the strip’s length.

I thought I was ready to begin the next part of the shawl. I was very excited.

Not so fast.

At one end of every row, there is a yarnover. After I finished the strip, I began picking up stitches by picking up each yarnover. I was moving merrily along when all of a sudden there were no nice yarnovers to pick up. Inexplicably, my yarnovers were all of a sudden at the wrong end of the row. For about 30 rows. The other end had a nice scalloped edge, except for these 30 rows, where it was a straight yarnover edge.

Good grief. Then I also didn’t have enough stitches to pick up. Also inexplicably. It might have had something to do with where I messed up those approximately 30 rows.

So I had to rip it back. Davey is smiling cheerfully as he demonstrates my drastically reduced strip. I am not feeling quite as cheerful about the situation, but I enjoy his optimistic smile.

I don’t have the gumption to continue on it right now. I learned a great term from a knitting friend – Time out.

I will try again soon.

Wyatt for Davey

Posted on July 30, 2014 by cpeezers

I’ve started a sweater for Davey.

I’ve never made him a sweater. I started a couple, but one was absolutely huge, and the other had 8 million cables that were starting to drive me crazy.

I take that back. I did knit him a really sweet little hoodie when he was about a year old. I made this right after I started knitting again.

This time I am going to knit a Brooklyn Tweed pattern. It’s called Wyatt, and I am knitting it with Ella rae superwash wool.

Davey helped me choose the pattern. There are not an incredible number of patterns to choose from for little boys. Most have some design element that is just a little much, or they have intarsia knit animals which Davey won’t go for. Luckily, there are several nice patterns in the new Brooklyn Tweed for Kids collection, and Davey seemed to really like this one.

Since I am knitting a sweater for a growing little boy, I really needed to knit a swatch. I don’t know why I always fuss and act like a swatch is such a big deal. It’s so not a big deal.

I knit a swatch in the main pattern stitch which is double moss stitch. I really like this stitch. It knit up really quickly, and then I washed it and dried it. Creating a finished swatch makes me feel like a real knitter.

Trying to count the stitches in this swatch was a challenge. The dark blue was really tough, and my eyes are not the greatest. The fact that it was this double moss stitch did not make things any easier. I went outside into the bright sunshine so I could see what I was doing. I had the swatch laid out on the grass so I could really see. People driving by probably wondered what the heck that person was doing kneeling and looking intently at the ground.

My swatch was just about right on though. I had gone down a needle size knowing that I am a fairly loose knitter. It’s still a little loose, but it should work out fine.

I really enjoy Brooklyn Tweed patterns. They are written so clearly. This sweater has a “tubular cast on”. I may have done this before, but I don’t remember it, so I will be headed to youtube to figure it out.

Hopefully this sweater will result in something that little Davey will enjoy wearing!

A Sweater for Lila

Posted on July 21, 2014 by cpeezers

About a year ago I started a sweater for my niece. It was a simple pattern called Daisy Chain, and what I really liked about it were the embroidered daisies on the front of the sweater. I knitted about 2/3 of the sweater in Cascade Sport. I was enjoying the yarn, the pattern, and I was looking forward to the embroidery part.

Then I set it down and I guess forgot about it for over a year. Why do I do this? I picked it back up a couple of weeks ago and decided I should finish it. I couldn’t believe how far I had gotten on it and then had just set it aside.

I finished up the knitting, and then it was time for the embroidery. When will I learn? I always love the idea of embroidering on knitting more than I actually like doing it. I really want to bring two things that I like to do together, but I just never like fiddling with embroidery on soft knitted fabric. I started the embroidery, but I didn’t like the way it was looking so I took it out. Then I fiddled with it a little more, and I decided I really liked it without any embroidery at all.

It’s a simple design, and I had just known this color would be pretty on my niece.

I just happen to have a picture of her modeling it.

This is Lila’s grin these days when she’s asked to smile for the camera. I love it. It is impossible not to smile when I see it. I just want to knit for her 24 hours a day!

And finally, I have too much fun trying to get interesting pictures. They don’t always quite work out the way I hope.

Rock Island Begins

Posted on July 17, 2014 by cpeezers

I am a great admirer of Brooklyn Tweed and Jared Flood’s patterns. My favorite one of his patterns that I knitted was Girasole.

His patterns are clearly written and easy for me to follow. I’d actually love to knit Girasole again one of these days.

There is another Jared Flood pattern that I’ve dreamed about knitting for almost three years. It’s called Rock Island.

For a long time, I was kinda scared to start it because the pattern looked too difficult for me. Instead of purling on the wrong side rows as is done in many lace patterns, there is lace written for both sides. This really intimidated me.

After three years of looking at the pattern, I finally decided I was ready for it.

I never in a million years would have thought that this pattern would begin with an 8 row repeat that I would have to do 71 times. I am knitting a strip which about 14 stitches wide.

The first row on each right side is a yarnover, and these are the stitches I will be picking up to start the main body of the shawl.

71 repeats. It seems like I have been working on this for 100 years already, and I am only on repeat 21. Actually they do go fairly quickly once I get rolling.

I didn’t do myself any favors with my needle choice. If I had any sense, I would have chosen some nice Stiletto tip needles such as these. Aren’t they beautiful? These must go on my wish list.

The yarn is laceweight and a little slippery, and I am using bamboo needles which don’t have a very sharp tip. I could switch needles but I’d probably mess up my gauge. I could start over, but I just don’t want to since it has taken me 100 years to get this far.

I have adjusted to these needles and it’s going pretty smoothly so I think I will just stick with them.

I have never knitted a pattern with this kind of construction before. I wonder what will come next? (You’d think I might read ahead, but I don’t want any spoilers!)

A little knitting: Sinkmates!

Posted on July 13, 2014 by cpeezers

I learned about a fun pattern for dishcloths a couple of weeks ago. (Thanks Ann!) I don’t usually make dishcloths too often because I get kind of bored with them, and I am not crazy about knitting with the dishcloth cotton.

Well, this pattern inspired me. It’s called Sinkmates on ravelry.The designer, Lorilee Beltman, is selling the pattern for $2.00. She has donated all the proceeds from the pattern to Special Olympics and has raised $2,500 so far. That’s a lot of patterns!

They are a lot of fun to knit. You begin with an i-cord. It goes very quickly. Then you pick up stitches with the main color. Next you follow the pattern to create the remainder of the dishcloth which eventually decreases down to 5 stitches. I love patterns that decrease and decrease to the finish.

The only thing that I didn’t like was picking up the stitches from the i-cord. This was difficult and hard on my hands. Finally after I was almost done with the 3rd one, it occurred to me that I should knit the i-cord with a larger needle. So I did. I knit the i-cord with size 8 needles and then picked up with size 7 needles. This worked awesomely. No more hand pain or frustration.

I like to take pictures of things from goofy angles hoping I will get a cool result. I didn’t get there this time.

These go very quickly and they are great to knit while traveling or while sitting in front of the tv in the evening. I also love that she created this cool pattern and then has donated the proceeds to a great cause as well!

Some knitting and exploding garbanzo beans

Posted on July 2, 2014 by cpeezers

It’s summer, and I am knitting again! It’s nice to have time to knit. I am determined to whittle down my stash this summer. I started with a baby blanket. I have had some Lion’s Brand Baby’s Choice for awhile that I needed to use up. I started it on another baby blanket awhile back, but I wasn’t liking the yarn in that pattern much. So I began again.

I began twice actually. I first wanted to make a blanket in the Concentric Squares Baby Blanket pattern. It’s a really neat pattern, but I soon realized that I was using up all my yarn and I was not even 1/3 of the way done. I was going to have to buy more yarn to finish it. A lot more. I don’t know what was going on. When I took it off the needles to frog it, I realized that it was at least a twin-size wide. It was on the way to being enormous. I didn’t want to make a ginormous baby blanket which required me to buy more yarn. That was defeating the purpose.

I went looking again, and I found another pattern that I liked a lot. It’s called Sweet Phoebe. I really like this simple pattern. It has such a pretty lace edging.

The yarn is a bulky cotton/acrylic blend. It’s a little shreddy, and it was hard to weave in the ends nicely, but I love how soft and squishy it is.

The above photo shows me that I need to work on my knitting versus purling tension. I have no idea how I can do that, but I can definitely see the difference between the knit and purled rows here!

This pattern would be a great introduction to lace. The lace is just around the edges and it’s a very short repeat. Then you settle into the stockinette for most of the blanket. It knit up fast with the bulky yarn, and I almost used all the yarn up. I had less than a skein left. Perfect!

And now to totally change subjects. Yesterday I wanted to make a really good new salad. So I googled “best salads ever”. I found this one: Chopped Salad with Bacon and Garbanzo beans. It turned out great! I made a couple of modifications. It called for garbanzo beans and butter beans. I thought that would be a little too much “beanage” so I went with just garbanzo. I’ve always been a little unsure about eating garbanzos (except pureed in hummus), but I’d never fried them in coconut oil before. They are really good. I quickly learned though that I might need protective eye gear the next time I made them. They started exploding on me! Doubtless, I am doing something wrong. Too high of heat maybe? It caught me off guard though. I am actually making the salad again tonight, so I will try to figure out how to avoid the exploding garbanzo beans. I left the garlic and shallot out too. I wasn’t in a garlicky/shalloty mood, but I am sure they’d be good in there.

Now I am off to make homemade bread. We made a salt dough topographic map today (I will post about that soon), and it got David hungry for bread. I have another good recipe for easy bread too. Really easy to make and so good!

The Imposter (a little knitting)

Posted on June 20, 2014 by cpeezers

It’s been about a year since I went on my last visit to Fancy Tiger Crafts. This was my favorite yarn shop in Denver so I wanted to get some yarn and a project to have as a fun memory of the shop.

I chose a pattern written by a Fancy Tiger designer and some Fancy Tiger Romney Yarn. It’s a USA raised, milled and hand-dyed yarn. It’s a sturdy yarn. They describe it as rustic. To me, this is yarn-speak for scratchy. It is a little scratchy, but I soaked it in Eucalan and that did soften it up somewhat. It will feel great in the cold winters we have here. Not that I am in any hurry for it to get cold so that I can test that theory out.

I tried to get some pictures of the shawl. This one is ok. My lovely little garden serves as the background.

Despite its “rustic” feel, this yarn was really nice to work with.

It’s a really well written pattern too.

Hey where did he come from? One of my nicknames for Buster is “my little friend”. He’s always with me. He was watching me try to take a decent picture of my shawl.

The pattern is really a variation on a basketweave pattern (the woven look is part of the “imposter”).

The other part of the “imposter” is the scalloped edge. It looks like it is a crocheted scalloped edge, but it’s knitted. A crocheted edging would have gone more quickly than this edging, but I loved doing this edging. There were yarn overs at edge of each right side row. After I bound off, I went back and picked up stitches on these yarn overs. I then knitted a row with increases and then just knit a second row. Here is where it got interesting for me.

I had to knit into that yarn over two rows below. Knitting into a row other than the one I am currently on is one of those things that makes me feel like a “real knitter”. So I had to do this 4 times with each yarn over. It ended up with 425 stitches to be bound off, but I love how it ended up!

This would be a nice pattern for a comfort or prayer shawl although I’d use a softer yarn.

Knitting Flowers + Wires!

Posted on March 24, 2014 by cpeezers

In the last week, I have become fascinated with knitting flowers. I have a pinterest board devoted to knitted flower patterns: Knitted Flowers

Here is what first inspired me:

I am fascinated by that giant bouquet of knitted flowers!

So I also bought a knitted flower pattern book this weekend. Well actually, I got two of them, but I really like this one: Noni Designs Noni Flowers. She is very detailed and has included 40 flower patterns. Her results are so realistic looking. My results? Well I need practice. One of the best things I have learned from this book so far though is how to wire the petals.

I love the stockinette look on flowers, but stockinette likes to curl. So when I first finished this flower it looked like this:

It looks like a starfish doesn’t it? I also filled in the center with french knots. (I am a work in progress as a knitter of flowers.) But then the Noni book describes how to wire the flowers. It’s amazing! She recommends using beading wire. I need to make a trip to Yakima for some supplies, but in the meantime, the Dollar Tree had floral wire, which I think works just fine.

This picture is so darn blurry, but I think you can see the wire running around the edge of the flower.

I just threaded about a 12 inch piece of wire. I run it under those purl bumps on the wrong side. Once you have the wire running through the first few stitches, it will want to kink up on you when you go to thread the next few stitches around. She suggested having the wire form a U to the right side of the work. This works pretty well. I need more practice with it and still have had to work out a few kinks (literally!).

But I really like the end result!

Now I can bend the petals and shape them as I wish.

I made the stem with floral wire and tape (again thanks to Dollar Tree).

I have tried knitting an i-cord and threading a piece of wire through it for the stems also. That works ok, but the yarn is so soft, it is hard for that wire to not come poking through. I may work on that some more, so I can mix some knitted stems in as well.

So this is a lot of fun! I have made an Arum Lily, some hyacinth, a few more flat petal flowers, and today I made a rose. I need to make some more of the rounded “puffy” looking flowers. They are kind of fiddly though, so I am looking for a pattern I really like.

Plus! What a great way to use up my leftover sock yarn!

Knitting and a Jedi

Posted on March 23, 2014 by cpeezers

It is Spring Break and we are planning some serious relaxing. I am looking forward to some serious knitting time as well.

I just finished a sweater for my sweet little one year old niece.

This is from an Ella Rae book that I bought at my LYS. The yarn is Ella Rae also. It’s called Cozy Soft and is an acrylic/wool blend. It was really soft and nice to work with. The pattern was great too. It had a fun stitch pattern which kept it interesting to work on. I hope little Lila likes it!

A couple of months ago, I made a chicken sweater for a friend. I can now scratch that off my list of things that I had never made before. (I don’t know why I took an upside down picture of the sweater.)

I even crocheted a few little flowers for decoration for the little chicken.

I made this for a friend in Colorado who then gave it to a friend who has chickens. Look what my friend sent me in return!

She is a painter and she painted this for me! I felt so lucky to receive them! She does beautiful work. I love that we traded our work although I think I need to make her something else now because I just love these.

This weekend we are going to go to Comic Con. David and Davey are getting pretty excited. Davey has already picked out his Comic Con attire.

My serious determined Jedi (or the kid who really did not want his picture taken).

Some Knitting: Art Implements

Posted on March 1, 2014 by cpeezers

I’m taking a Literacy class this quarter and one of the requirements is to build a text set. I chose Art and Creativity for my theme, and I am working on a paper and a display to go with it. It occurred to me that there might be a knitting opportunity in here as well. I started looking around for patterns, and I found a few that I have now knitted up.

I found a pattern for a tube of paint and one for a paint brush. These were quick very fun patterns to make. Here are links to the patterns: Paint Tube, and Paint Brush. They are on the same website, and there’s another pattern there for a pencil as well.

I made these with some leftover bulky Brown Sheep yarn.

I actually stuffed the paint brush with a pencil. It gives it some nice heft. There’s no context here for size, but it is just about actual sized. Using the bulky weight yarn really worked nicely as well.

I also made a colored pencil. This was actually supposed to be a bookmark, but I ended up adjusting the pattern a little (I made it smaller) and using finer yarn. My pencil is a little rough looking at the end. I could say that I did this to make it look more realistic, but unfortunately, that’s not true. I do like the effect though.

I almost forgot one of my favorite parts. The tube of paint has “retractable paint”. I knit an icord and you can pull it out of the tube and then push it back in! The pattern also gives the option of leaving the bottom open and putting in a snap so that you could easily pull the cord from the bottom.

When I finished these, Davey said I needed a palette as well to complete the set. I thought this was a great idea, and so I looked around for a pattern, but I couldn’t find one. I could not quite wrap my brain around designing it. Well, I was kind of getting it figured out, but it was taking away a lot of time that I need to finish actually writing the text set as opposed to embellishing it. So maybe I will try that another time.

I preferred the paintbrush and tube patterns, and I’d like to try the pencil pattern from that same website. The colored pencil pattern is very nice too but it would work better for its original purpose of being a nice flat bookmark.

I guess I better get back to actually doing the writing part of this project!

Cpeezers

Family, School and Yarn

Category Archives: Knitting