…time for catch-up

Ok, so I HAVE actually been knitting more than I have been showing in the past few months.  It is sometimes difficult to post everything one makes, esp. when one finishes a project and the next project begins calling ever so sweetly and seductively. 

And so I am playing catch up today!  First on my list:

1. Crumpet Beret
Made from Tahki Donegal Tweed that my husband and my father in law surprised me with after a trip to Ligonier, PA (Kathy’s Kreations!)

2. Clapotis
This was made from leftover yarn from my Minimalist Cardigan. I wanted it thinner and scarfier than the pattern called for, so I altered it thusly.

3. Baronness Beret
This I made when TEO & I went to visit our friends Marc & Sara in St. Augustine. I am always in need of a project on any trip and this time brought several options. Ended up making this little number! Of course I made TEO model it for me, and he sweetly obliged!

4. Sideways Cloche
This is the first pattern I have had a chance to do from one of my Christmas present knitting books, Boutique Knits. It was really quick and fun, and a great chance to use up some stash yarn that I had.

 

…my first shawl

Well, readers.  It has happened.  My knitting obsession has finally turned me into a granny. 

 

Proof:  I knitted my first shawl.  I have always thought that shawls were so frumpy and grandmotherly.  When I first picked up knitting needles as a serious knitter, I planned only to represent the cool, young knitters out there.  None of that old world knitting crap.

Alas, I eat my words.  I now like shawls.  Granted, the patterns out there are quite cute and shawls no longer have to be the huuuuge, drapey, mothball-smelling germ-factory that they once were (at least as they once were in MY opinion). 

Plus shawls are pretty flexible.  As my model, Ruby has clearly demonstrated throughout this post, one can wear them as a shawl, or as scarf, or even as a kercheif (which is funnily enough starting to become quite a fashion).

      

The shawl featured is the Arrowhead Shawl from Interweave Knits magazine and also featured in knittingdaily.com.  The pattern was pretty simple and fun.  I think I used berrocco sockease yarn, purchased so generously for my by my mother at the Knit and Stitch Boutique in Cocoa Village, FL.  I also got my first ever skeins of Noro yarn in a really nice off-white colorway.  I’m too intimidated to use it as of 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…

 

…a Harry Potter scarf – 3-ways

Well this post is actually fairly basic for most knitters, but I know that when I set out to make TEO an HP-esque scarf, I had a couple ideas of ways in which to accomplish it.  Here are 3 different ways to do it:

No. 1:  Most Similar to the Movie Scarves

This way is knit in the round, so you are basically making a tube and sewing the ends.  The pattern is specifically from a website that came up in my googling and it helped me loads.  Rather than the traditional Gryffindor maroon and gold, we opted for a less obvious and almost as cool but slightly more wardrobe-adaptible brown and gold.  This way took quite some time, as it was twice as many stitches (being that it was knitted in the round).  It is quite warm and popular in the household.  See it in wear in the “…a-corny hat” post.

No. 2: The 1×1 Rib

For my older brother’s birthday HP scarf, I wanted something a little quicker, so I opted for the K1 P1 rib.  Another bonus of this style - it is not as thick and warm as option No. 1, which is good because Rich lives in Florida and will probably have the opportunity to wear it one week out of the year.  The rib is so tight that at first glance or the untrained eye it looks like a miraculously uncurling stockinette stitch.

 No. 3: The Quick & Easy

 This scarf was knitted also as a birthday present for my friend Colin.  I was in a self-imposed time-crunch with some other projects that were queued up so I planned for a chunky Wool-Ease Thick’n'Quick by Lion Brand.  I did a garter stitch border to hopefully prevent curling from the body that was stockinette.  Alas, it curls some, but Colin doesn’t seem to mind it.  If you do one of your own and don’t want Any Curling, than I would advise a thicker (4-5 stitch or more) garter border.  I however just don’t like that border as it detracts from the smooth stockinette look.  Oh, and Colin is of the Slytherin house.

I included this rather fuzzy picture to show how it has a inclination to curl.

…and I included this picture for my family:  if you cover up the non-squinting side of my face, I look scarily like my father.  I’m not saying HE’S scary-looking, I’m just saying it’s scary how much I look like him in this photo.

So that’s it for my Harry Potter Scarf lesson.  If you are a beginner-knitter looking at this post for guidance, I hope it has been helpful.  It is what I was looking for when I began my search for the Harry Potter Scarf pattern.

 

…her brother happy

Remember that cable scarf from “…a multitude of things?”  I finally got some more pictures from Steven and finally posted them (i’ve been lazy lately)…

 

…But do you think his hands are trying to tell me something?  Well, I listened!  Here is a picture of Steven with the mittens I made for him for Christmas.  I wasn’t sure if his coat was black, brown, or grey so I picked colors that I thought would go with any coat, and still be manly of course!  I forget where I got the pattern though…

Hopefully they keep him pretty toasty in those freezing Ann Arbor temperatures.

 

…scarves aplenty

Well rather than making my post summarizing my recent projects extra super long by including my scarves, I figured I’d make a post just devoted to scarves.  Although I’ve made more, some of those have been gifted so pictured are just a few…

 From left to right: 

• Orange – the first scarf I ever made – while still in high school I think – financed, aided and encouraged by my Aunt Shelley, one of the best knitters I know;
• Grey – a simple 2×2 rib;
• White/green – a Slytherinspired (Slytherin + inspired) for my friend Colin, which I have yet to hand over to him. 

And from top to bottom:

• Brown/gold – my husband’s Gryffindor (no word-meshing here) inspired Harry Potter scarf – love it!;
• Off-white — the scarf that got me back into knitting in college, when I refused to spend 20 dollars on a long skinny Gap scarf and instead marched home to make my own;
•  Navy – a basic seed stitch – I found myself going a little crazy without something to knit on a recent Florida trip, so we ventured to Wal-Mart (ugh…) and bought yarn/ needles.  Both needles broke days later, but the scarf continued!

Anyway, I was having a little too much fun with the camera, so we (me & scarves) had a little photo shoot…

How do you like my scarf presentation?

Sorry guys, that last joke was pretty bad.  Quite uncalled for, in fact.

 

…a charity scarf

My friend Becca, from work, recently invited me to a Christmas cookie exchange.  She asked me if I wanted to make a scarf for a raffle she was having there for The Women’s Club of Allentown.  Of course!  Knitting for charity is something I have never done, and was really excited about.  One problem: it was a few weeks before Christmas and I was swamped with the homemade gifts I had enlisted myself to make.  Unfortunately I did not have time to devote to a beautiful, one of a kind scarf.  I opted for a chunky, quick, garter stitch of grey and pink stranded together, and jazzed it up with pink pom poms at the ends.  The cookie exchange was to be attended by women and girls, and well, females like pink right?  It actually turned out quite charming and was quite a hit.  More so than my cayenne pepper chocolate cookies were, at least.  I think she ended raising about $175 – which is quite a lot for a get-together of about 30 women and tickets of $2 a piece.

 

…a multitude of things

Well back when I started this blog on blogger, I had the devotion to sit and create a handful of blogs and then disappeared like a phantom.  Every time I made a new project, I promised myself to upload a new post… and instead started a new project.  So, this post is devoted to all the things I have made in the past year and a half and was too lazy to load.

This is a sock monkey hat made for my sister in law, Amanda.  I got the pattern from Knitty and it was quite a hit.  Now for her husband…

I made the manly mitts, also from Knitty - I liked them so much that I made a pair for myself!

…and kitty helped!  Next up (but of course these are NOT in chronological order!) is

my first foray into cables and it was in the form of a scarf for my younger brother, Steven.  Hopefully he’ll send me a picture of him wearing it because I bet he’s pretty darn handsome in it!

This was a purse I made a few months ago for my other brother, Richie’s fiance, Maria, for Christmas.  Being that I have been absorbed with knitting for the past 2 years, I am way out of practice with sewing, so in all honesty, it’s ok but certainly not perfect (sorry, Maria!)…  I just wish that I could design knit patterns like I could pattern a purse.

This was my second foray into cables and it was a pillow for my mom.  She loves it, even though there are plenty of things that I would, in retrospect, change.  For one, I would have lined it with red fabric so that those white spots would not peer the gaps in the yarn.  Also I would have made it removeable so that the pillow within could be replaced.  Already the pillow has become flattened like a pancake.  But still, mom loves it!

That’s about it for my summary of 2006-07 projects.  Hopefully the year 2008 will see a more dedicated Kristen makes.