Loads of News!

Hi all!  Well I’ve been once again pretty silent these past few weeks, but as always with good reason!  First, I got a job (MUCH more about that below!); second, I promptly got sick after the first week of work; and third, we had visitors just as I had gotten over my fever!  I think frequent use of the bus on my way to work and back is what brought down my immune system, and I went for 2 entire days without knitting.  My friends, that is dire.  But good old Trenty took care of me, and even made delicious homemade chicken noodle soup.  As soon as I was feeling better (great timing!) Trent’s sister Amanda and her husband Brad came to visit from Seattle.  We had so much amazing fun, about which (if you are interested) you will be able to read up on TEO’s and my other blog, The Daily Scotch.  Our crazy escapades w/ B & A will be posted soon, so keep checking!

The other news I had mentioned is most exciting and unexpected:  I got a job at the most wonderful knitting shop, K1 Yarns Knitting Boutique.  I get to play with yarn, help people with their projects, and of course knit!  I’ve been working there for about a couple of weeks now, and I am having so much fun that it is easy to forget I get paid for it.  The shop is located in a gorgeous and historical part of town which is chock full of other fun shops and eateries.  Katharine Walker is the owner and she also has her main shop located in Glasgow.  The shop has a great website off of which you can order wool and patterns as well.   Kath features in our shop plenty of beautiful wool – a lot of which is 100% Scottish and some of the wool here is spun and dyed specifically just for our shops!  Kath encourages us to design and pattern using the wool that we have here, so that patrons can see and touch how the wool knits up and what possible things can be done with it.  So far I have designed 3 patterns and I have about 3 more in the works (not to mention many more jumbled in my head and scratched onto my notepad).  The patterns have been selling pretty steadily, which is an amazing feeling.  They are for sale not only in the shop but also on the website, where I even have my own bio page.  You can also find these patterns on Ravelry.  Photos have been taken by the darling and patient husband who is willing to take time away from his books for as many photos as I require.

1. The Baramdah Cowl:  I designed this cowl / snood  so that it can keep the neck super cozy but also be pulled over the head and work as a hood.  The stitch pattern is reminiscent of lattice-work and was quite a joy to knit. Find it here if you’re on Ravelry!

2. Mistake Rib Beanie:  I must admit I’ve had a recent obsession with the mistake rib, ever since I made my first tea cozy.  I used the mistake rib to make this beanie, which features a brim that can be folded down to cover your ears if the weather takes a chillier turn.  Find it here on Ravelry.

 

3.  Mistake Rib Beret:  See, I told you it was an obsession!  I had enough yarn leftover after the beanie that I thought a beret would be fitting.  It knitted up quite quickly, and the back details turned out quite nice. Ravelled here.

Needless to say, I am so ecstatic with how things have been developing!  I really love patterning, and will continue to post my patterns to my KristenMakes blog as they come!  Deepest thanks to all my friends and family (and most of all my husband) for your support and encouragement that this hobby could blossom into more.  I never really believed you, but your faith in me has helped me to get here.

 

…Cabled Bath Mat

Well we are pretty much all settled into our cozy little Edinburgh flat.  It just needs a few personal touches.  It was fully furnished, even with bedding so there wasn’t much that we needed to do, just a few little things to make this place feel like “ours.”  I am usually all about sewing up some big cushy pillows, but for the time being am lacking 2 things: (1) a sewing machine, (2) any vague idea of where to get supplies here in the city, most importantly, batting.  So the pillows will have to wait.  In the meantime, we found ourselves not too enthusiastic about stepping out of the shower onto gross, still wet towels.  Not too happy with the selection of bath mats at the local TK Maxx (you may be familiar with TJ Maxx back in the states, well here it is TKMaxx), I decided to knit one.  I had found a great pattern on Ravelry that called for fabric in lieu of yarn.  The fabric strips make the  bath mat nice and cushy, as well as absorbent, and of course durable!  The pattern is from CocoKnits. 

Well I didn’t have any fabric, and as excited as I am about fabric being available from the department stores here in our mall, I am also without money.  So I improvised.  We found ourselves with 4 queen-sized fitted sheets (between what was provided here at the flat and what we shipped over), when we really only needed three.  I chose a nice red fitted sheet that we had purchased from Target about 3 years ago, so it was ready for a new life.  Following the tutorial that the pattern provided, I set about preparing the sheet.  First I cut the elastic edge and then ripped the corner seams that give it depth.  Left with a flat sheet that was sort of shaped like a ” # ” (for lack of better symbols) I cut of the sides and started making strips from there.  Eventually the whole living room was covered with red thread and red strips.  Trent was very patient.  I connected the strips and the rolled them into a “yarn” ball the size of my cat (boy wouldn’t he have been in heaven!) and proceeded to knit.

 

It took about 3 attempts before I found the right gauge and size that I liked.  I cast on 60 instead of  26 so that it was knitted from the wide end rather than the narrower end.  This made the cable run up and down rather than from side to side, an effect I am very pleased with.  I also knitted the cable off-center because that’s always fun.  I opted out on the fringed ends because I’m just not a fringe girl.  I think it turned out pretty neat!  The pictures are taken with the bath mat situated in the kitchen because the lighting is much better, but really its new home is the bathroom.

     

Plus, it must be said that this is one of the most enjoyable things that your feet may touch!

 

…Birdie Stockings

I know this post is long overdue, since it features items I made as Christmas presents, but I still have to show them off anyway!  Trent’s sister, Amanda (whom you’ve seen wearing the monkey hat), and her husband brad (seen wearing the manly mitts) live way off in Seattle.  For a very long time, she’s been wanting some Christmas decorations in the knitted form.  We decided to surprise them for Christmas with some pre-stuffed homemade Christmas stockings.  We didn’t want the stockings to look like your standard green, red, and white stockings, but something a little different for them. 

 

I chose a simple knitted pattern from a great book, Holiday Knits. I knitted in the round using magic loop technique (my first time with magic oop), making one in green with a brown birdie, and one in brown with a green birdie. This was my first experience with embroidering on knits, and I found this video  on youtube to be extremely helpful. The embroidery turned out really nicely!

We stuffed them with fun goodies from World Market, and Brad & Amanda loved them.

btw, the mini stockings of ours that are pictured above are for kitties, not kiddies.  No little rugrats yet!

 

…small things for me

                                                             

I think I’ve been focusing so hard in November-December on kitting big, long, extensive projects, that I spent the month of January 2009 intermittently making small fun enjoyables for myself.  I started the batch off with my Bandit Kerchief.  Actually the pattern is Silk Kerchief by Kate Gagnon of Zeitgeist Yarns.

 

When I wear it, I feel like I’m robbing a train and that excites me!  I made it a good deal smaller than most others have made it, mainly because I was making it out of scrap yarn (from the Leia Wig) and ran out. But I actually kind of like the small size of it.

I stole a button from an old Target cardigan that I never wear.  It loops around in the back and fastens quite nicely. 

Of course after that, I had some leftover yarn in the contrast color, the light brown yarn.  So the next day I began small project number 2, my crochet clutch.  I don’t have much experience in crochet, but I really like how you can crochet any shap freely, you are not limited to just rows.  I wanted to feel original (I always follow patterns and almost never improvise) so this one was crocheted in basic rectangle that I sewed up and then added a triangular flap.

I really just wanted to experiment to see what crochet stitches I could remember without having to look up the how-to.  Sadly, that left me with 2 stitches – the single crochet and half double crochet.  The body was in single and I did the flap in half double, added a loop and fastened with a button.  It is a sweet and cozy home for my sunglasses!

Last up is my soap sweater! The pattern is knitted to fit the sweater exactly, and sewn up with the soap inside. It is made with 100% wool so that it felts with repeated use. In the bath or shower you use the three things that help wool felt: water, soap, and friction. The sweater shrinks down as the soap does – ingenious! But of course, this is also inefficient being that it is a one-time-use kind of deal. But I surely don’t mind, it’s such a quick knit anyhow. I can’t wait to make more, and experiment with stripes, cables, seed stitches, etc. By the way, that soap is from Bath & Body Works YEARS ago (it’s been waiting around for me to knit its sweater for that long) so if you happen to find more out there still, let me know. I LOVE this soap…

 

…pillows & blanket

I have a whole slew of posts to come to log all the Christmas presents I have been making but I thought that I should at least start off with the comfy cozy things.  The pillows were made for Chuck and Sue, my husband’s parents. 

 

Sue’s favorite color is purple so I utilized the Endpaper Mitts  pattern by Eunny Jang. 

  

For Chuck’s, I just wanted a size that he could use to nap with comfortably. 

    

Now I guess I didn’t plan these out enough for them to match or even coordinate but I think they don’t mind.

Next up, my mom’s blanket!  She has been waiting for this for months – she gave me the yarn so that I could make a basketweave blanket for her and it ended up being her Christmas present.  It is really comfy and soft.
 

The best part about this blanket (although this may mean nothing to non-knitters) is that I taught myself to knit continental-style, with my left hand. I’ve been meaning to for years but never had a long and uneventful project with which to become accustomed to knitting with the other hand. The blanket came out a litle loose because of it, but the open weave is actually kind of nice.

    

It turns out to be a pretty cozy Christmas, even though there is no need for blankets in Florida, even in winter.

   

 

…Christmas stuff

Last year was our very first winter in PA (we are Floridians) so I spent a lot of time indoors making things. Trent & I love Christmas and, being fairly newlywed, we wanted to start some of our own traditions.  I started w/ stockings.

                                          

I made the green one for Trent, red for me, and striped for the kitties… yes, you have now learned that our kitties are unhealthfully important to us.  Anyhow, I think the stockings turned out alright.

 

We wanted them to be simple and timeless so we wouldn’t outgrow them. And I wanted them BIG, so that we couldn’t outgrow them.   Of course, on Christmas morning, I found stuffed in my stocking a knitting magazine featuring a charming nativity set. The set would have to wait, but I got started right away on a larger version of the nativity set’s angel, and custom-made her as the tree topper.

  

Of course, she’s pictured as a paper towel holder topper because we had gotten rid of the tree by the time she was done. But it’s one holy paper towel holder. Anyway, it took me an entire year to knit through all the figures – not including the animals, which may have to wait till next year.

 

…a slingback chair

We recently had visitors from home, during which my one friend Jenny (pictured on the left) humored my whim to stroll down to the dumpster in our apartment complex, where a ratty and tattered Bud Light slingback chair had caught my eye. When I slowly lowered myself into the chair and realized I hadn’t fallen through, I was also pleased to find that not only was it sturdy, but it rocked too.



I shamefully regret not taking a before picture, but feel free to create your own mental image. Anyway, here’s the after…(…and yes, you’re right, I didn’t “make” the chair, just the sling, gosh!)