Koolhaas hats all around!

Well I have been a busy bee ;) Since my last post, I've finished one project and started 3 more!! I am trying to get through my stash, haha, but that is hard to do when I keep adding more to it. But, I did decide to rip out the hat I started for Brent 3 years ago and use that yarn for a hat... one that is actually completed!! YAY! I know there are tons of free patterns out there, but I decided to buy one because it is just too cool to pass up. It's the koolhaas pattern from brooklyntweed.
I was using bigger needles than called for (9 instead of 8) and when I did 5 pattern repeats, it ended up too big/long.



I know Brent has a big head, but it came down below his eyes and he looked like that character from Fat Albert. Normally, I don't "frog" and reknit... too much wasted time and energy. Of course, I don't usually goof up that bad to warrant it. Brent said it was fine (he obviously didn't have to pull it down over his eyes), he was just happy that I had actually completed something for him. But it really bugged me. So, the next day, I frogged down to the 4th repeat and redid the crown. I think this says a lot about how I've grown as a knitter. I did this to preserve the integrity of the work, and I felt confident enough in seeing how the pattern worked that I wasn't afraid of all the loose stitches popping this way and that. I could tell exactly what round of the pattern I had gone down to, but I couldn't get my needle through the stitches without pulling the adjacent ones out. so I took my plastic yarn sewing needle and some of my fuchsia microspun and just grabbed all my stitches. I didn't worry about their direction until I put them back on my needle.



After finishing it for the second time, it is the proper height and fits Brent nicely. I want one for myself, so I'll be using more of my stash to make a burgandy one. But for mine, I am modifying the pattern to make the lattice pattern overlap so it really looks woven.



I am using smaller needles for this one because it is DK weight yarn, so I am hoping it won't be too small, height-wise or tightness!!

Working at my LYS

I am pretty excited because this summer I will be working at Stitch House for a few hours/week. I had been talking with the owner for a while now, about possibly instructing a crochet class, but apparently they haven't had enough people interested. I'm going to be working the shop and offering any "drop-in" lessons for knit or crochet on Saturday afternoons starting July 12. I will definitely be working for about a month, and probably through August. Brent will watch Asher, and I think it will be good for me to have that time away and be doing something for myself. Plus make a little extra cash, if I don't spend it all at the shop!! I have to find out if there is an employee discount ;)

Yesterday I actually worked for about 2 1/2 hours helping one of the other women from the beaded shawl class. She had ripped out all of what she did, so she was starting over. I cast on with my left over yarn and worked along with her to see where she needed help. I think she really understood it after our session, and I felt good about my teaching skills. Of course, it's easier to teach someone who already knows the basics of knit and purl, but I have attempted to teach total beginners too (with varying success).

I then bought some sale yarn, the sublime mohair for my Wisp, which came to almost as much as I will be paid for that tutoring session. See what I mean?!

productivity

I have recently discovered ravelry, which is an amazing site! Thank you to Marissa for recommending it. It's really got me motivated to work on projects, and it's a great resource for finding new projects. I've already marked a bunch of patterns as "favorites" that I may complete someday. I've already started a few.

First, I decided to make the drop stitch "vest" (it's really a sleeveless shirt) from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation. I had my eye on that project from the first time I looked through that book, but never did it. I had some fuchsia microspun yarn from years ago that I never used. The hot pink looked so cool over black in the book, I wanted to do the same thing!



Now, this project is SUPER BORING until the very end. It's 21 (23 for the back) inches of plain stockinette stitch. After a few rows, I ingeniously decided to cast on the back at the same time and worked both front and back together. That way I know they are the same length. I cast on for size small, since I knew it would stretch once the stitches were dropped. (Fast forward-- all I have left to do now is seam the sides, but I am worried it won't stretch enough for my bust. That would be SO sad!) Anyway, here is the fun part in action:



The drop bind off is tricky, but I got the hang of it. I am not sure the pattern directions are correct, because I ended up with 5 instead of 6 stitches on one edge and 7 on the other edge. This happened on the front and the back, so once seamed it will still add up to 12, but it still bothers me just a tad. I also added an extra 2 rows to the neck shaping because my row/inch gauge was off. The microspun had surprisingly great yardage, I only needed a little over 2 skeins. I seamed the shoulders two days ago, but I think I am avoiding seaming the sides for my fear of it not fitting. But maybe I will take the plunge today!

I've also started a pinwheel blanket and I JUST got yarn to make this lacy wrap: Wisp.




The yarn is Sublime kid mohair, which is 60% kid mohair, 35% nylon, and 5% extra fine merino. I think the nylon content gives it a certain smoothness that I feel when it slips through my fingers from the ball to my needles as I'm working. The mohair isn't too hairy either. I also decided to add some beads. I wasn't sure how I wanted to do this, but I decided on just placing them along the edges above every eyelet. You see there are eyelets along the whole length of the wrap on the border edge, as well as the bottoms. These are the "button holes" so that if you add buttons to one end, you can fasten it anywhere along the wrap. Neat, huh?! I'm not sure how the buttons will work with having the beads there, but I could choose to skip the buttons since I have the beads for embellishment. I just used beads I have, which are plastic (I think) with different iridescent colors kind of like the colors of an oil puddle. There are blues, greens, purples and pinks. I am trying to hand select beads from the bunch that are mostly purple, although a little pink or blue on one side of the bead is ok. I am worried that I will run out of purple ones though, and then it will look silly if I start using blue and green in a lump rather than a random distribution. I'll cross my fingers, or just get more beads if necessary.

Aphrodite shawl

This post is a little back-dated. I finished my shawl on Friday, May 30. I woke up early and didn't even eat breakfast until it was done, which wasn't until about 11 or 11:30. It is amazing, it's everything I hoped it would be and more. I wore it to the opening night of Sex and the City. It was a beautiful night, not cold but a little breezy. I wore a white tank top and jeans and wrapped the shawl with the point on one arm and the ends crossed over the other shoulder. The glass beads are cool when you first put it on, but soon reach body temperature. The merino lace is deceptively warm. I was not cold on the walks to and from the theater, and I was actually too hot while waiting in line to enter the movie! So I picked the shawl up from my arm and slouched it up around my neck loosely like a big cowl scarf. This allowed the air to circulate around and under my arms and I was fine once seated.


I skipped blocking it, because I don't know that it would actually do anything for it. The YO edges seem stretchy enough without blocking, it's not to tight or anything. I liked the bind off the pattern calls for, it was called a twice worked BO, where you p2tog, purl another stitch, BO, then put that stitch back on the left needle and repeat. I also used a needle one size bigger and that was a smart move. The BO edge was not tight at all, and it actually kind of has a wavy frill look sometimes when it hangs loose.

I haven't worn it again because I am afraid of Asher's little fingers getting in those eyelets and pulling the heck out of it. Maybe I will reserve this item for special non-baby-holding occasions :)

Eyelet lace beaded shawl

Last Sunday, I took a workshop at Stitch House to make a knit beaded shawl. The class was only $15, their most affordable class to date. I wasn't sure I wanted to take the class until I went to the shop to see the sample shawl. I instantly decided to sign up for it! It was soft and beautiful. The sample was made with dark purple malabrigo lace yarn, using irridescent beads, like the kind I used on my purple odessa hat. Malabrigo lace was the recommended yarn for the project, so I used water green, which I love. I want to drink it! I might call my shawl Aphrodite, because she was born by springing forth from the sea foam. The beads I chose are clear taupe with an irredescent lining that makes them appear purple, blue or green. I thought they complemented the green yarn nicely, and I liked the contrast better than the green beads that matched the yarn. I also considered light purple (amethyst) beads, but I am happy with my choice.
After several repeats of the eyelet pattern, I know it by heart. I did 4 repeats during the workshop, which was 3 hours long. And I have been working on it as much as I can since then, so almost a week now. I think I could have it done by this weekend, as I am into the 3rd 3rd now. The pattern has 3 sections of beaded eyelet, separated by garter stitch sections. I don't know why I am so incredibly motivated by this project. I hadn't been doing much needle crafting lately, but did start a crochet bag for Bonni. It was going to be her bday/graduation gift, but that occurred last week. I will still give it to her, but... must.finish.shawl. This is also the first time I'm working with lace weight yarn. It was challenging at first to get used to its thin airiness. Somehow, the pattern is still keeping my attention. It's not boring because it kind of alternates between a row I have to pay close attention to and a row I can just knit or purl straight through. I love the yarn and I love the beads and it's just cool to watch the pattern flow into lace. And, my dirty secret thought: maybe I am more motivated because this is a project for myself. I tend to start a lot of gift projects that get set aside and rarely make stuff for myself. Regardless, I love this project and want it to be done so I can wrap the light merino goodness around my shoulders!!

new banner pic

My new banner for this blog is a part of my newest project. No, I haven't finished Jacob's hat, although I am getting there... No, I haven't worked on that vertical cable idea for Brent's scarf. Actually, on that front, I am considering abandoning it yet again. Maybe that makes me a quitter or maybe that DK Peruvian yarn is cursed! I prefer the latter explanation. But I am very excited about my current project, which is with Zitron Turmalin in multi-blues. It was stash yarn that I got on sale at Spark over a year ago, so it's not like I went out and bought anything new ;) I'm trying a baby cardigan by modifying a lionbrand pattern... I'll give more details when it's complete. I hope to have it done for our trip to Cape Cod when Carrie is visiting, but I am afraid I don't have enough of this yarn! Spark doesn't sell it any more, so I may have to order more online. But I am going to plug through and hope that I can make it with the amount I have, even if I have to unravel my gauge swatch!

CrAzY bObBiN tImE

I decided to make Brent's scarf using the same cable pattern as Rudy's scarf, only with vertical stripes. This requires some tedious work, I guess technically it's intarsia method, using separate bobbins of yarn for each stripe. The first couple of rows were rough, I tell ya. This endeavor will take some patience on my part... but hopefully the end product will be wicked cool :)

one down...

Last week I finished Rudy's birthday present. His birthday was Feb. 11, but he said he didn't mind the lateness because it is like his birthday never ends and he likes to keep getting presents.

I made up a simple cable pattern: K2, P2, k6,P2, with a cable on the k6 every 10th row (starting with row 5, so 5, 15, 25, etc); I did 4 repeats and ended with an additional K2 for the edge. I get confused with the terms "right slanting" versus "left slanting," but I changed the direction of the cable when I changed colors, just for a little variety!


I started out with charcoal yarn, Patons Shetland Chunky, but soon realized I wasn't going to have enough for a whole scarf. I had one skein of each of charcoal, black and aran white. These were bought for a different (abandoned) project, so I was trying to make due. I decided to do charcoal at the ends, then white (but less length then the charcoal), then the whole middle black.

(it's hard to tell in the picture the difference between charcoal & black)

Turned out that when I got through the entire skein of black, I only had about 17" of work done (in that color), so had to buy another skein. That is a big part of why the project took so long, because I had to get to A.C. Moore. I used one more skein of black and then did the color changes at the other end, for a total length of 60".

Brent was a bit jealous of how nicely the scarf turned out and Rudy seemed to like it. I like the Shetland Chunky because it's thick and soft (25% wool, 75% acrylic). It's also machine washable (cold, delicate cycle), which always makes life easier. I would make something else using this yarn in the future, but I know I need to use up some of what I have first.


In other news... I finished the hat part of Jacob's football hat. I meant to send this in time for the superbowl, but... ya know. The pattern interested me because of the seed stitch ear flaps, but once I got to plain stockinette in the round, I got bored. I was afraid Jacob's head might grow too big for it, but it will definitely not be too small! I did the number of stitches for the 2 year size because my guage was tighter than called for, and it was only like 8 stitches bigger than the 1 year size. Anyway, I worked on it last week, so now all I have to do is the finishing applique. I have a special touch I plan to add to customize it for the Bentleys that isn't in the pattern!

Sneak peek HERE!

I also decided to rip out the half done scarf for Brent from a year and a half ago. I am going to try to cook up another cabling pattern to use with the Peruvian yarn. We'll see what comes of that!

I [heart] Continental!

I learned to knit English style, although I didn't know it at the time. When I was little, it's just the way I learned. When I first read about Continental knitting, I thought it was so weird! Holding the yarn with your left hand!! But when I tried making this double knit hat for my brother, I made myself learn to do both so I could hold both yarns at the same time! It definitely took some getting used to, and I ended up with a slightly different gauge (due to my tension) for one side of the hat than the other side, meaning the inside hat was bigger than the outside hat (but I just worked it out as part of the fold-up brim).

I also learned to purl "wrong" when I was little. This was my mom's doing, because she didn't know it created twisted stitches. I'm still not sure she gets it, after I've showed her a few times recently. But doing only the purl stitches clockwise and knit stitches counter-clockwise (all through front loops), I would create the alternating rows pattern of twisted/not twisted in my stockinette work. I myself didn't even notice this pattern until I was trying to teach a friend of mine to purl. I was showing her while at the same time reading the directions from a knitting book. I noticed the difference in what I was doing versus what was depicted on the page, was momentarily confused, and thought, "Oh well, both ways make a purl stitch!" Later I must have read more about it on the internet or examined my work, or both, and realized what was going on here!

I discovered a cool knitting blog by Grumperina when I was searching for patterns online. She is one awesome knitter, and I believe she is local to me (Cambridge, I think). She's also a grad student, I think studying something neuroscience related, so that is pretty cool as well! Anyway, through her expertise, I discovered combined knitting. Ah-ha! Here's a use for my backwards purling!! But it's only really convenient for continental knitters, and only in straight needle (back and forth) knitting, not knitting in the round (obviously, since stockinette in the round is only knit stitch, no purl).

I was resistant to continental knitting for a while, found it awkward and my hand muscles weren't used to it. However, in more recent times, I have put forth the effort to knit this way because it is fabulous for ribbing! And for seed stitch. Anything that requires switching from knit to purl frequently. And I have come to l-o-v-e it! It's almost like I can't imagine how I didn't knit this way for so long. Sure, sometimes I may have projects that I still use English knitting for, but right now I am enjoying my new skill. Although, I do admit I have not mastered the combined knitting. Since I am ribbing, I am too afraid I'll get confused with the twisting and mess it up. But maybe for a future project, who knows!

Ava hat

I just have to show this off, because it's a project I actually completed (baby things are easier to get done since they are so little!) and Vivi looks so cute in it! This stocking cap pattern was from my Stitch 'N Bitch 2007 page-a-day calendar, and since my friend Gina's daughter is named Vivienne Ava, I thought it was appropriate. I used Rowan Classic Cashsoft Baby DK in pixie and borage.

Here is the completed hat, blocked, but pre-tassel:

Here is cutie pie Vivi (5 months old) modelling:

(good view of the leaf lace pattern, my fave part!!)

She looks a little surprised here:

knitting corner

OK, so I could be knitting right now (a much belated birthday gift for Rudy), but instead, I started a blog about knitting.

Of course Marissa inspired me, in part, to start this blog, but really I want to use this to start to keep track of my projects and maybe... actually... for real... finish a project! Like the scarf or hat I started for Brent over a year ago (that he likes to remind me of resentfully from time to time), or fingerless gloves for my mom (I think she's forgotten I ever started them), or Asher's baby blanket (hey, he's too young to know anyway)!!

But seriously folks... I have a knitting corner. It's in the corner where the arms of the couch and arm chair come together; piles and piles of plastic bags from various yarn & craft stores, filled with WIPs and stash yarn. Or yarn bought for projects never even started or abandoned. (Like 20 or so balls of Sugar 'n Cream.) Brent is not a fan of the knitting supplies, but he deals with the fact that the knitting corner is out of sight. I mean, unless you are sitting in the chair or end of the couch and happen to look over and down. But I digress...

I'm not working, I only have one class, and now that Asher has his exersaucer, I have my hands free to knit. AND CROCHET, let's not forget the beauty of the one-needle craft! I tend to forget how nice it is to crochet when I haven't done it for a while. So anyway, that's what I want to do this year. Knit, crochet, and blog about it. Show off all those future FOs!!

Note to the laymen:
WIP = work in progress
FO = finished object