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Category: Crafts

Craft projects of mine

  • Socks and Monsters

    I’m happy to report some Finished Objects for October. First up are my Whitby Socks, which I started on the way home from knitting camp at the beginning of the month. I had to frog and restart once, as the number of stitches suggested just wasn’t working for me. (I actually went up to 67 from the 51 suggested.) It was an easily memorized pattern and the cables were fun without being bothersome. I also tried out an eye of partridge heel for the first time. The original pattern is from Knitting on the Road and the yarn is the last of my Colinette Jitterbug. I love the colours, but I don’t think I’ll be getting any more. (My Vinnlands are already starting to pill and felt from a single wear.) I knitted these at the same time on 2.75mm needles using the two-circulars method. I’ll be cross-posting these at the Southern Summer of Socks as well. I think a goal of one pair per month is pretty do-able…

    Whitby Socks

    The Monster

    Ghost and Pumpkins

    The other fun things I’ve been making are these toys from Jean Greenhowe’s Jiffyknits. I bought the book a few years ago for the Halloween stuff but somehow never remembered to make them before our party. So far I’ve made two pumpkins, a scary ghost, and Frankenstein’s monster. The patterns themselves are *extremely* simple. It’s literally just garter stitch strips with no shaping whatsoever. (You don’t even have to know how to purl to make these toys.) Construction isn’t quite as fiddly as I feared, though sometimes you have to cut circles of cardboard to reinforce the round shapes. And I’m not sure the whole “knit a boulder and sew Frankenstein’s legs to it to prop him up” worked very well. He’s kinda wobbly. I do love joggle eyes though…

    AND – I’m happy to report that by posting these toys to Ravelry, I’ve now jumped to #4 on the list of people with Halloween projects. (You can see it on the “People” tab.) Next year I’m aiming for #1!

  • Thanks

    Thanks to everybody for all their kind words and commiseration. I feel kinda like I did a few years ago when I had several interviews at Kazaa and then they didn’t hire me. I rated that as my biggest disappointment of 2003. (Of course, they got raided by the copyright police a few months later, which helped to take the sting out.) A lot of people have been telling me today that this is some sort of sign, that I wasn’t meant to be at Google right now, that something better is on the horizon. And much as I’d like to believe that, in the harsh light of day I don’t really think there are any greater forces at work. It just didn’t happen. They didn’t need/want me right now. And that’s disappointing, yeah… but I also find myself being grateful for all the stuff I do have. We are buying an amazing house (I still have to tell you guys that whole story). I’m still working with people I care about in a business I want to succeed. I’ve got a great partner who supports me no matter what. I’m just going to try to remember these things.

    Oh, and I did get a completely unexpected pick-me-up. I was idly trawling the Ravelry forums last night searching for mentions of the shop when i came across the following exchange from about a month ago. (“LYS” means “local yarn store.”)

    palopinto: It makes me sad to see so many people who have had so many bad experiences in their LYS – I just wanted to share the love for my favorite shop.

    I live in Brisbane, and our choices are extremely limited here. I don’t like buying yarn online, unfondled, because I like to feel stuff before I decide if it’s right for me.

    Every time I travel to Sydney, I go to a particular yarn store in the city which has always, ALWAYS been amazing. The selection is great, the ambience is great, the staff are wonderful, and I love it there. They also sell online, which is awesome for needles and the WhatNot(tm) that every knitter needs.

    I was in there yesterday, looking for yarn to make the mitred-squares shawl, and the chick in the shop (who had amazing hair and, strangely enough, was a fellow North American), was so helpful and friendly. She recognised my clappy, we chatted, I purchased, and it was all gold.

    Camee: I think you’re talking Tapestry Craft, and I have a strange feeling the chick in the shop is also on ravelry 😉 . Was she blonde?

    palopinto: You’re right about the store – how great is that place! The girl had brownish hair with pink and lavender-looking foils through it – so awesome 😉

    HOW NICE IS THAT? It’s not often you get to overhear complete strangers saying that A) you’re good at your job and B) your hair looks “amazing.” That cheered me right up! 🙂

  • Craft Rooms

    From Flickr: Craft Rooms. I’ve been thinking about this a lot, now that I’ll have a whole room to organise all my crafty stuff in!

  • Sock Yarn for Sale

    Thanks to the ever-fabulous kylie gusset, five skeins of the Knittery’s “Warm Pinks” Merino Cashmere sock yarn are winging their way to me from Melbourne. Not only is this a lovely yarn, but $5 from each skein is being donated towards breast cancer research. Two of the skeins are already claimed (by me and Hannah) but the other three are up for grabs if anyone’s interested. Because kylie got them at a discount for her bulk order and consolidated one Sydney shipment to me to save postage, each skein is $24.00 (lower than what you’d get on your own). Let me know if you’re interested!

  • Ravelry and Privacy

    There’s a major sh*tfight going on in the Ravelry forums today, and I’ve been watching with interest. It’s about privacy and the expectations people have when they join a social site. The owners basically announced that (as many of us hoped) once the site is out of beta, anyone will be able to visit the site and view your projects, stash, etc. You’ll still have to join in order to get your own Notebook, leave comments, send messages, or post in the forums. Fair enough. (This is exactly how Metafilter works.) The outcry is coming from folks who’ve contributed to groups and forums that they’d rather not be associated with their username (such as atheists, gays, etc.). I don’t get this. Who on the Internet still doesn’t know that you NEVER post anything in the expectation it will be private? It boggles the mind. And I don’t get their insistence that making the site password-protected will matter. Once they open sign-ups, anybody that wants to can join and “stalk” you that way. So what’s the point? *sigh* I’m just glad that Cassidy and Jess aren’t turning Ravelry into livejournal or Facebook. Down with closed communities!

  • Knitty Halloween Surprise

    The Knitty Halloween Surprise is up. I’m going to have nightmares.

  • Baby Surprise Jacket

    I’ve been slacking off on the first week of the Southern Summer of Socks, mostly because of all the babies y’all keep having! As previously mentioned, my cousin Tony and his wife Molly just welcomed their daughter, Bailey, into the world. As this is the first GIRL I’ve had the opportunity to knit for, I jumped at the chance to pull out my pink yarn. I was gifted some glorious hot pink Manos del Uruguay Cotton Stria by my Secret Pal last June, and I decided it was just begging to become a Baby Surprise Jacket. I had just enough to squeak it out. I also found the most perfect big pink button in my button box:

    Baby Surprise Jacket Baby Surprise Jacket Baby Surprise Jacket

    It’s all ready to send off, along with some pink Tim Tams!

  • Yarn with EYEBALLS

    Yarn… with EYEBALLS. That is no doubt the coolest, creepiest knitting yarn I’ve ever seen. I’m getting in the Halloween mood! (Link courtesy of Jen.)

  • Knitted Skull Tights

    Knitted Skull Tights. Oh man, imagine if I entered those in the Easter Show next year! HA!

  • Baby Yoda Costume

    It’s finished! I’ve got everything ready to send off to Alexander this week. After felting the hat last week, I then soaked the ears in watered-down PVA glue and propped them up on newspaper to dry. They took a lot longer than I expected (nearly four days), but they look great. I sorta pinched and pulled them to make them a little more curly and Yoda-looking. The pattern is here. I knitted it out of Naturally Alpine 14ply on big needles, and I had plenty left over from a single hank. I’m just making a bit of i-cord now to tie under his chin if necessary.

    Felted Baby Yoda Hat

    Baby Yoda Sweater

    Baby Yoda Socks

    The second piece of the costume is the Baby Yoda Sweater, which I knitted on 4mm needles out of some completely random yarn from my stash. (The two sleeves are actually different yarns, but they’re so close you can’t tell. I figure Yoda probably wove his himself, so any variation is probably a good thing.) There’s an i-cord tie on the inside as well as the outside.

    And the socks are just the pièce de résistance, aren’t they? I started knitting just plain socks out of the leftover wool, thinking Alexander would need something to keep his feet warm, when the Snook pondered aloud, “You know what you should do? Put three toes on the end!” BRILLIANT. So there’s no pattern here; I just made them up as I went.

    I can’t wait til Kristen posts a picture of him wearing it!