Saturday, May 23, 2009

My first lace

I finally started a lace project. Two of my good friends from high school are getting married this summer so I wanted to knit them something nice. A lace shale seamed perfect for one of them. The pattern I'm using is from Beyond Wool and calls for argora and linen to be held together.

I found a beautiful sweater at goodwill that was make with a argora blend and this was perfect. Since I wanted it to be more lacy I didn't hold it together with anything and used size 2 US needles instead of 1 Us. I finished the shawl last night (finally this thing took forever) and I'm attempting to block it this weekend. Since I recycled a sweater I'm not sure how much yarn I used. I used both sleeves and half of the front. I'm quite pleased with the recycling of yarns. This project cost me a whole $5, and I have enough left for a nice scarf or something. I'm defiantly going to recycle a lot more.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

One Month Ago

I'm not really a purse kind of person, I don't normally carry one if possible. However I have fallen in love with this brea bag. I wanted to make a purse for a good friend of mine for her birthday. I started out just making a pattern as I go along but it was going to be fairly boring. I only had 4 days to finish so I had picked out some cotton in my stash and held it double and used size 9 needles. I started with just a rectangle bottom and picked up stitches all the way around and got up a good 3" (using a purl row for the corners) My thought was that I could find a sideways cable to finish off the top and add a strap. So I went to raverly and try my luck. Turns out I was not able to find any sideways cable but I did find the brea.

One look at the bag and I wanted to make it. It is gorgeous. My thought was I could maybe make it for next year or Christmas but I got to reading the pattern. Each side only has 29 rows and you only start with 128 stitches. That seamed more than reasonable in my time frame. Then I read what materials you need, yarn held double and size 9 needles. The exact things I had with me. And my yarn even made gauge (or at least close) I measured 14 stitches to 4" in stockinette not seed stitch but still pretty close. I made my mind up right then and there to rip out my lousy excuse of a purse and cast on this puppy.

The first bag took me only 2 days to finish (true one of the days was over the entire span of a baseball game on top of my train ride). I made only two modifications to the first bag (not pictured here, it was pink if you where following along) I did not make three parts to have to sew together. The whole time knitting the first side I was thinking about how to not have to sew the thing (when I wasn't thinking how much I loved this bad) My brilliant idea was to instead of knitting the bottom long part width wise like in the pattern but length wise. I would then instead of casting off this bottom section continue on to the second side and only have one seam to sew. I almost went with this theory when I dawned on me, I didn't have to cast on at all, just needed to pick up stitches along the bottom edge of the first side. This eliminated all need of sewing. That is when I married the bag, it was far beyond love at this point.

The other modification was simple, I used a braid cord as a strap. Of course I needed to make the bag again. My mother-in-laws birthday was coming up and this sounded perfect. This time I only had 6 oz of cotton in the blue and I used about 8-9 oz of cotton on the first bag. I knew I was going to run out and I wanted to use up stash. Also, I though the bag was a bit big (probably not for a normal person but when I do use a purse it is the smallest one I can get away with) so to make this smaller I skipped the first 6 rows and cast on for row 7. I just had enough yarn for both the bag and strap. I used an old found button, key rings for the hardware. I made a lining for this one too. It finishes off the bag quite nicely.

I have now have to make a bag for me. To bad I used up all my cotton that was 6 oz of the same color. Since the pattern isn't written for cotton I might try some other type of fiber but I really like how sturdy the cotton turns out. Maybe I will just go and buy one 3 oz skein.

Monday, May 11, 2009

2 Months Ago

For my birthday I bought myself a ball winder.

I wound these 4 yarn pats in 30 min flat! These have since been knit up into a skirt from Fitted Knits. The matching suit coat will be coming soon but I have to unravel the cardigan the yarn is in the form of now first. Once both are finished I'll post a picture. The skirt is very nice and I added a zipper and elastic hem and everything. The zipper turned out not to be needed, as the elastic allows the skirt to be taken on and off without undoing the zipper. This also means that without the elastic the skirt would not have been kept on so good thing I added it. This occurred because I did not read the errata until I had already started. The pattern used starts on p.123. Yes that's right, I finally check gauge and get it smack on and turns out the gauge listed on the pattern is WRONG. Oh well, I really didn't want the skirt to lay at my waist but at my hips so with the elastic it is perfect. I was actually thinking about starting over to make it for my waist when I checked the errata so it turned out ok.

Next project I was working on is a baby blanket. My husbands best friend is having a baby (very soon now) so of course I had to make her something knitted (the baby) I didn't completely draw from stash for this one. I used up the rest of the sweet pea peach fuzz left over from the last baby blanket, and I bought some soft white baby yarn to use as the carrier yarn. This blanket is much softer than the last one. However the baby yarn is a sport/fingerling weight where the yarn in the last blanket was worsted/aran. I liked the textured of the first blanket better, more substance. This one stretches to much, even if it is crazy soft.
I also used a 'real' pattern for this one, bunny hop blanket. The pattern repeat was getting to me so I cheated and only did 1 and 1/2 repeat along the edges. This made 2 and 1/2 diamonds around the sides and a stockinette middle. This blanket was finished just yesterday when I finally washed it, the shower is next weekend so I really didn't have a choice.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

3 Months Ago

Here are a few things I've been working on.
This was actually a Christmas present, a mistake rib scarf made from Lion Brand Wool. A matching hat was made but never quite finished, I ran out of yarn. I tried to make an inside-out hat, my first ever pattern that I wrote myself but have since found out it is in no way an original (start with 8 stitches increase to total hat and then eventually decrease and fold in half for double thickness) but really only had enough yarn for one hat, not two on top of each other.
And here is the new winter set I made my self. I am constantly loosing my hats and I saw someone downtown (Chicago) one day with a beautiful cabled scarf with an attached hood, and I new I was going to make one. I thought I would have to make up my own pattern but did a quick search on ravelry and actually found the exact pattern for a hoodie scarf that I had in my head (this actually does happen, who would have thunk it) Only made a few adjustments. I changed the cable to a 9-stitch braid and likewise changed all the ribbing to 3x3 to match the cable. Also, I added in some decreases on the hood part to curve off the top. But the best part is I added buttons and button holes to the end of the scarf.
It being very windy in Chicago my scarfs always fly over my shoulder and the only way I can get the end back is to take the whole thing off. The buttons let me wrap it around my face and keep it there. It is also crazy warm, perfect for those negative 30 days. The only bad thing about this scarf is that it is in no way reversible. Next time I would find a reversible cable, open braid maybe.
I made some fingerless mitts to match. Used a basic 2x2 rib pattern and altered it the same way as the hood (added the cable and made 3x3 rib) These are not so perfect for negative 30 days, and I wear my dollar store gloves under them. I'm thinking about making actual mittens to match next winter but will have to rip out these guys to finish, only have enough yarn left to make one mitten I think.

More to come with the other things I've been working on. Also, writing the pattern is a lot harder than I thought it would be. The actual directions and how I did it are all there but still working on the presentation. Now that school is over I might get it done soon (hopefully)