First Fiber Festival

This last weekend was my first fiber festival and I was so excited. Thankfully I sort of forgot about it the week going up to it or there is no way I would have been able to sit still at work. I forced my self to set a price limit of what I was allowed to spend and only brought cash. Thankfully my mom and grandma came with me or I would not have been able to eat.

There was so much cool stuff at the festival, I have tons of new ideas. There was one booth that had felted vests (with zippers), these reminded me of performance fleece (ooh its fine, sorry if you had finally forgotten this commercial). I really want a good felting project to try and a hat or bag didn't sound appealing to me as I would never use either. Of course either would work well as a gift but do I really want my first felting project to be a gift? What if it doesn't turn out and then I don't have time to go and buy something because I finally crammed in the last of the knitting one day before I'm to give said gift? The next thing at the same booth was felted Christmas ornaments, I particularly like the dove. (if you look really hard at the picture you can see them) (looking at the book I think she was with Brenway Fibers 895 East Kneeland Road, Mio, MI 48647, 517.848.2012)

The next memorable booth was the linen people. The linen woman was very gun-ho about her fiber of choice. She started telling me what the whole 12/1 or 8/1 meant and I told her that I had done my research the day before and was considering using 8/4 or 8/5 for my first linen project to get my feet wet and decide if I really wanted to invest in linen. This is when she almost attacked me for wanting to use plied linen and how that would ruin it and I was so stupid for wanting to do such a thing. At this point she asked me what size loom I was using and figured out that I wasn't going to weave it but knit it. She got a tad bit less angry at me but then was completely uninterested in speaking to me.

I have never seen this much wool all in one place. I thought for sure I would finally add some wool to my stash. I was leaning toward a wool silk blend or some kool-aid dyed wool from the Minnesota people. I really wish now that I had gotten the Minnesota people's business card. The 'grape' still smelled like the kool-aid it was dyed with! I almost bought it right on the spot but I had promised my self that I would look at everything there before deciding on my one purchase (since I set myself a $40 limit). (looking back in the book I think they were Rach-Al-Paca but I'm having a problem opening their website)

Another group actually brought their Lamas and where shearing them right there too. See one lama with all of its hair and one with out and there is the pile of hair waiting to become yarn.

There was also tons of roving (it this the proper term for all fiber not yarned up? Or is it just for wool?) that I was soooooooo tempted to start spinning. I successfully resisted this year. However I now what to grow cotton in my backyard once I own a house. There was this cotton lady and she took us through the whole process of growing cotton and how it looks (the cotton flowers are lots of different pretty colors) and she even had a few samples of cotton still in the seed. Once I grow my own cotton I will become a spinner.

The yarn purchase that I made was a fiber that I had never herd of before and simply could not live without. CORN!!! I defiantly prefer fiber to be the plant variety and not the animal variety. I do not know why, but I do. I love my soy yarn, desperately want to get linen and am thinking about bamboo after the soy is all knit up. All of my other yarn that is of the natural varieties cotton (and I have a lot of cotton and am planning on getting more soon) Now I have my corn and to get it I very quickly stepped aside the thought officially owning wool (something most would call a requirement to call yourself a knitter).

Their yarn is so cool and I'm going to use it as my next project and am now rushing to finish the hoodie (only the sewing left). I have already picked out a pattern but am not sure if I will have enough to finish, I really should get a measuring thing or a ball winder (note how I don't even know the proper term for either of these things let along have one). I'm thinking that these guys did much better than they were expecting and didn't have any skines wound up left by the time I got to their booth around noon. They where selling what is ~3 skines and a slightly discounted rate. They did have some skines and some people were requesting it wound up in skines before purchase but I was happy with my big loop. (not knowing how much of a problem this would cause for later)

I picked out a gray silvery color that is not actually gray at all. It is a blend of many grayish pinks purples and blues. I normally hate variegated yarns for the same reason that I don't knit with multiple colors in one project. But this color combination really spoke to me.

However I do now own wool yarn despite my prior paragraphs. After all of this me and my mom ran some errands and were next door to the craft store and I needed to get some red fabric for a purse I'm making for my mom so we went in. Well, lets just say that we didn't find any red reminisce but I did find yarn on clearance, and wouldn't you know it but it was wool. I now have two skines of wool that will felt up nicely and enough wool-acrylic blend to make a sweater.

The Yarn

My nephew's hoodie is coming along quite well. I just finished the front about 5 min ago.


Now I had said before that I loved this yarn, now I still do but I am angry at it (or at least was Friday night) The yarn is a baby yarn!! Yes I found baby yarn in grey. It is Sweet Delight Baby in soft licorice. Since my nephew will be 3 I obviously did not what to make this in baby colors but wanted a soft yarn that would not irritate his still soft skin. My husband did not understand this when yelling at me to take the first yarn that what the right color. I can't believe how many different colors this comes in. I will defiantly be buying it again.

Now for why I am angry at the yarn. It knotted very badly and I had to eventually cut it out. I never have to cut knots. I was the worse knot I had ever seen and worked at the damn thing for well over 2 hours before giving up and getting the scissors. Now this knot might very well me my fault (I can only say this in retrospect). I went to see Batman and brought it with me to knit in the theater. (I had never done this before and was very proud of myself, however I did look pretty ridiculous. My husband could only get tickets for the 6 o'clock show so I had to come right after work. Now when I got dressed for work that morning I didn't know that this would happen and didn't have a change of clothes with me. I had worn a dress and since I commute on the train I leave my work souse at work and change into my tennis shoes to go to and from. Well I was wearing a work dress (not a going out dress, very different) and tennis shoes with socks. Did not give a very good name to knitters with my apparel) But anyway I was knitting in the dark for about an hour before the knot appeared. Now since I was knitting in the dark I could not see the knot start for form (I was getting to the end of the skein where the loops tend to over lap and can cause knots) and was therefore not able to de-knot as I went along. So this monstrosity of a knot formed. I spent the next 1 1/2 hours of the movie trying to get this thing out and then about another 30 min once I got home in the light. With the light letting me know just how bad it really was I had to give up.

But as it turns out me not being able to knit for that last 1 1/2 hours was actually a good thing. I had just gotten to the row where I needed to start my decreases. I of course did not measure after the knot incident so I had to rip out all the knitting that I did once I got home (a good inch). Now if I had knitted during the rest of the movie that would have been much more.

My solution to Gauge problems

I always find a pattern and have every intention to bring it with when buying my yarn to make sure I pick something out that will obtain the right gauge. However that never happens or if I do bring it with I end up falling in love with a different yarn that must simply be used for this project. Do I fret, go home to get the pattern, say no to the yarn that is calling my name? No way!! If I'm going to take the trouble to make something hand made I'm going to do it my way (and I'm not going to waste my time or gas to get the pattern b/c more than likely I won't follow the yarn requirements anyway). Here is how I still end up with a garment that fits.

PROBLEMS WITH THE PATTERN GAUGE

The hoodie pattern I'm working on now calls for a gauge of 18 stitches and 24 rows per 4 inches and the yarn that I picked out got me 21 stitches and 27 rows per 4 inches. Now I was using No. 6 needles instead of No. 7 needles in the pattern because I want this sweater to be warm and tightly knit. No. 7 needles would not have gotten me the right gauge anyway so what was the point in using them? Now a solution might have been to double the yarn, but that would have meant that I had to go and buy more of it. Or I could have chosen another yarn, but I had already bought this one (which is totally awesome and I will speak more on latter). I did not what to do any of this so I didn't. To make the pattern work I simply changed my stitch count. I always do this. ALWAYS.

CHANGES TO MAKE MY GAUGE WORK

Unfortunately the method still requires a swatch, however it only requires ONE. I sometimes skip the swatch step and hope that I get the same gauge that is on the yarn label but that only works if you are going to use the same needle size as on the label. Now the simplest way to get my new stitch count is to do the math and see if another size in the pattern will now result in the size you want. For example in the pattern I'm using the largest size if knitted on my new gauge would result in a size close to the middle size. Here's my math:

32" chest in the pattern calls for 72 stitches for the front

72 stitches / 18 stitches per 4 inches * 4" = 16" (which is 1/2 of 32)

72 stitches / 21 stitches per 4 inches * 4" = 13.7" (which would result in a 27.5" chest)

If 27.5" is what you are looking for, say your nephew has (or will have when you finish) a 24" chest then this will work perfectly. Just follow the stitch count and directions for the large size.

Now my nephew had a 25" chest when I measured him last time I babysat. However that was over a month ago and I fear he has grown, also I'm not giving this to him for several more months until his birthday so I fear that he will grow even more. Now I want this hoodie to be at least 2" lose and I'm going to figure a 2" growth (which might be way to much but I don't really know exactly how fast children grow, just know it is fast) gets me to a 29" chest. I'm now going to use the size increments from the pattern to test out new stitch counts.

The cast on stitch count for the front is 56(64, 72) which takes 8 stitch increments. So I will now see how large 80 stitches will be.

80 stitches / 21 stitches per 4 inches * 4" = 15.25" (which would result in a 30.5" chest)

Now this is a bit on the large side of what I was looking for but he will always grow. I was not willing to chance the 27.5" chest and have him grow out of it before I gave it to him. So this is what I cast on. Now because this pattern has even increments for all of the stitch counts I no longer needed to do much math. I just figured out the increment and got the next one (ok this is still allot of math but adding and subtracting not multiplication and division, ie you might not need a calculator)

Sometimes you run into problems where this will not work, for example using my new total stitch count of 80 I will need to decrease on both sides 22 times (44 stitch decrease) and result with 34 stitches left on the needles. I would not, 80-44=36 not 34. This means that on my last purl row I decreased too (since the decreasing was only on the knitting side). I would suggest reading through the whole pattern first and figuring out your new stitch counts before you start to solve any problems that might arise like this one. Sometimes the solution that makes the most sense would have been to only cast on 78 stitches (which I probably would have done if I had taken my own advice but I didn't) The row count calculations can be figured out on your way, I do the math in my head while knitting and I always (so far) have enough time to finish, knitting several inches takes much more time than even multiplying and dividing.

I love No. 6 needles

I'm now working on a hoodie for my nephew. (it's so weird that I'm an aunt. I still don't feel grown up, nor do I want to be but for some reason I am now or at least am considered to be. When I first met my hubby his sister was pregnant and her baby boy was our ring bearer in our wedding. Not that he actually made it down the aisle, daddy did not go with him since daddy was a groomsman so nephew started yelling and was taken out side so grandpa who was to walk with him had to be the ring bearer.) But anyway my nephew is going to turn 3 this year and so far I have only knitted him a blanket for his first b-day.

THE PATTERN

I found this pattern on raverly. I'm not going to put in the cardinal b/c the hubby will turn it down. Any patterns on anything knit is too girly for any nephew of his to wear. Also, I'm not all that into knitting with colors. I really prefer to make something a solid color, it looks more professional to me. I did however like the accent color along the hemming and am going to use that.

THE GREAT THINGS ABOUT THIS PATTERN

This pattern is really cool like that, it has a hem and an accent turning ridge and the pocket is knitting into the front instead of sewn in later. I've never done any of this stuff and now I'm like, why didn't I do this before? I'm slightly disappointed that the hood isn't picked up along the neckline but it is instead knitted separately and then sewn in. I'm figuring that I will fix this. This might be much more difficult than the other changes I'm making in the pattern since the hood it knitted from the top down (which is why it is knitted separately) so that the hemming can be done in the same way as the other parts of the hoodie.

WIP

Here is the work in progress (and why I love no. 6 needles):




I had been using no. 3 needles and fine yarn for so long that I forgot a project could go quickly. (ok I'm exaggerating but this is why I will never be able to get into knitting socks) I already finished the back in ONLY 3 DAYS!!! (and this is without extra time put in other than my commute)

A green balcony

My grandma got me this really cool patio garden for my birthday a few years back and this is the first year I have been able to use it and I love it. I was worried that nothing would grow since we don't get that much sun. (have a north facing balcony) There is direct sun light from about 5 pm till it gets dark. But this stuff is growing like crazy (plus I kind of put to much stuff in such a small space since I didn't think it would grow all that much) Here was the beginning:

And then it grew into this:

I then added four pots of flowers. I still don't have any flowers on the flowers but I do have flowers on the tomatoes and the cucumbers. The cucumber were a bad idea on a balcony since I found out the are reachers but now I have this:

A baby cucumber!! No tomatoes or green peepers yet but I'm sure they will come. There are a bunch of herbs too that are growing nicely; rosemary, dill, parsley, oregano, and two kinds of basil. The chives are not growing so well, but they seam to have survived the first batch of stalks dying and are still alive.

Attack of the Bird Poo

Now I will start this out with letting you know that this is not my car or my hubby's car. So I am not upset about this but it is definitely freakish and I'm willing to bet that this happened because someone with trained pigeons was angry at someone in my apartment complex. There is no other explanation for the impossible odds of this event.

I pulled into a parking space, not close to any trees mind you, to look and see this:

See how it is on the ground too. At first I figured that it had to of happened somewhere else that was under trees and they simply moved their car and did not get it washed. This theory does not explain it being on the ground too. I really wanted to move my car but my hubby said there is no way that this will happen ever again and to leave it. (that's our tail light on the corner)

Now onto my knitting, I finished the dress last night!! I can't decide if I like it but I really hope it fits or if it doesn't that she doesn't grow into it until next spring. The dress will be no good in the winter with out a heavy layer underneath. I had changed the needle sizes up on because I wanted to make a 1 year size that the pattern only went up to 9 months and I really didn't want to calculate out the new stitch count. This made the fabric more open and airy than the pattern intended.

This pattern came from Erika Knight's Simple Knits for Cherished Babies. (I had this book and was knitting several patterns from it at the time I bought her other one and didn't even realize it until a few days latter when I had both books sitting on top of each other.) I have also made a baby boy outfit from this book and really liked the patterns. The teddy bear was fun to knit too and my first plush knit. Unfortunately I never took any photos of that outfit, but it was really cute.

My only beef with this book and Erika Knight is, What IS Cotton Tape? Is it ribbon, is it basting tape or is it something you can only get in Europe? The cotton tape is in almost ever baby outfit and I can't find it at the craft stores around here or am looking in the wrong area. I gave up and used ribbon (also couldn't find cotton ribbon so had to use the polyester) The outfits turned out fine and this is not really a problem at all, it just is naging me that I can't find it.

Like seated

Today I have final found someone else who wants to make a chair cover too! I wanted to add this pattern to my projects on Raverly and see what other people had started to do and could not believe that no one had started this project yet and it was not even there! The book was there and several of the other patterns were to but not this one. It made me so sad. Anyway, the story of the book.

The story

I was in a bookstore that was going out of business (or maybe not, it has been saying this for about 6 months now) and of course I was looking for some knitting books (and still go there once a month because they are still getting new books and ever thing is 40% off since they are 'going out of buisness'). The only knitting book I found on this particular trip was this. This first several patterns were not my kind of thing and I almost put it down and left but then I got to the Aran Armchair Cover!!!





Why this joy?

I have an Ikea tub chair (as in the pattern) and had always wanted to sew a slip cover for it (one New Years Eve I got black silly string all over it and it stained badly) but my sewing skills are not much up to par. When I saw this I totally freaked, immediately bought the book and then called every one I know (they of course thought I was crazy), ran to a computer and bought a 5.5 lb cone of cotton yarn on ebay. Here is my chair and the cone of yarn.

The yarn

This cone of yarn makes me sooooooooo happy. It is the size of a basketball. I was throwing it around like one when I first got it and my hubby just rolled his eyes. He has slightly gotten used to my happiness over new yarn. The pattern calls for wool to keep to the tradition of aran sweaters but 1) wool is to expensive for me to make something so big and 2) wool is to itchy for me sit on if my skin is to ever touch it. I am worried about the particular cotton substitution because of its gauge. The beauty of the pattern being for my chair is that I wouldn't have to mess with the stitch count. This yarn is fairly thin and I have yet to make a swatch for fear of the results. When I do start to knit this (after my baby marathon and the potholders for Christmas and the dress of joy, more to come on these all) I will post my findings on the yarn gauge and how wonderful this pattern is surly to be.

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can

I might actually finish the baby dress by the deadline, Sunday at 3 pm. This weekend did not turn out to be as productive as I had hoped and was in despair Monday morning when I only had about 4 inches of the dress done. This pattern has 11 1/2" until I can start decreasing (the rest goes fairly quickly because to get the puffy thing going you have a row of all k2tog to get you back to actual baby size)


Here is what sucked my time this weekend:



1) I fell asleep in the car on the way to my Grandmas house!! All that sun (and sunburn) from the 4th drained all of my energy and I could not make my self keep on going and I had the whole backseat to my self to stretch out it...


2) Sunday promised a long period of knitting since my husband had a lot of homework to do but instead this is what me and my brother created:

it is a pitching target for my husband made out of PVC pipe. Yes it took all day and no we did not finish it yet. However it was allot of fun, me and my bro don't do that much together any more. My hubby was making fun of us since we are two engineers putting our 'expertise to work'. It was really more like being envious of our skill and gratitude that we made it than making fun. He was really stressed out over school and needed a way to calm down. My brother does not like being a catcher for by hubby, he says 'your no good and are going to kill me'. So my hubby went to target and bought a target but it ended up being the size of a kid. He then got even more upset and that's why my brother steeped in and declared that we were going to make a even better one. The two models turned out to be the same price (give or take 25 cents) but we did look at Sports Authority and the one that matched our size ran for $80 so I would like to think that we saved $40 not broke even.

3) Monday on the train to work and home from work I once again fell asleep after only 2 or 3 rows. The pitching target kept me up fairly late and Mondays I get up early to go to the gym.

But something wonderful saved me and the project at hand yesterday. Not only did I stay awake both ways on the train and got about 3-4 inches done but I went to the SNBWE, stich'n'bitch western suburbs and got in another couple of inches, all the way to 11!!! And then this morning I got to do the first two decrease rows. Only 6 more rows to go until the glorious k2tog row and them I'm home free. At this rate I am indeed going to go to the party with my head held high, and not stay at home and mail my gift in shame.

Happy 4th of July

The 4th is by far one of my fav holidays. This could be because it was the one major holiday that my parents had at their house, but probably not the only reason.

This is what I did in the morning. The party prep was not going to start until 11 so I had 2 hours to kill in the morning before I had to go and buy ice. At first I started working on my knitting but it was not 4th themed and it could not keep my attention once I hear the bagpipe guys starting to warm up for the parade.

The parade for my town starts 1/2 block south of my apartment so I can hear all the the prep stuff from my balcony. It also means that the police block off my street and that if I leave, I can't get back in. I had never run into this problem before but I ran to the store to get the ice to give my hubby some more time to get ready. It was then that I realised there was no real way to get back and pick him up with out going the wrong way out the parking lot. Thankfully the cops did not see me do this (or did not care) people walking down the street definitely gave me looks (not so nice ones).

The party prep did not take all that long and I again picked up my non patriotic knitting and got to work. But this time I was looking down at my pretty nails so it was much more appropriate for the day.

This is the knitting, a pretty pink baby dress for one of my cousin-in-laws baby girl. I hate knitting this dress. It is taking much to long for a baby project. But I know it will look crazy cute when all sewn up because it will do a puffy thing (which is why it is taking so long) I also have a dead line, next Sunday for the baptism party. I'm done with the back and both sleeves hopefully I can finish the front soon.

I'm off to more fireworks at my grandmas. (and a long car ride to work on the dress!)

Here We Go

I'm finally taking the plunge into the blogging world. I always claimed that I would never open one of these things and that they take up way to much of your time. But then I discovered knitting and crafting blogs and my 'ideals' changed. A blog no longer seamed like a waste of time but a was to fuel my knitting obsession.

I LOVE kniting.