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Tag: knitting

  • 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!

  • Vinnland Socks

    Vinnland SocksVinnland Socks
    In order to clear the decks for the Southern Summer of Socks, I took along my half-completed Vinnlands to knitting camp last weekend with the aim of finishing them off. And I did! The pattern is free from The AntiCraft. They’re knitted toe-up utilising a short-row heel and toe (but one that doesn’t involve wrapping!). My weird sizing issues turned out to be not such a big deal; the poochiness at the toe disappears when it’s stretched across my foot. I used one skein of Colinette Jitterbug in “Velvet Olive,” and I’m thrilled to say that I had less than 12 inches left over at the end. (Toe-up socks = ECONOMY, baby!) They’re meant to have a tubular cast-off at the top, but I was drinking too much red wine to bother with such niceties. I just did a regular old ribbed cast-off, and they look fine. Oh, and I used 2.75mm needles to counteract my usual propensity towards overly tight knitting. I wore them in Sunday night’s “Fashion Show” and there was such a response that I ended up teaching an impromptu “socks on circulars” workshop Monday morning!

  • Catching a train…

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    Just waiting for the 2:05 back to Sydney. Geez, it’s hot. It was a great weekend but I think I’m all knitted out.

  • Steeking Workshop

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    I am the Hermione of fairisle knitting today! It’s a little embarrassing. Also: other than one lady’s 10-year-old daughter, I’m the youngest person here. Rock and roll…

  • On the train heading north…

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    We’re all packed up and on our way to Knitters’ Guild Camp! Wish me and Miss Fee luck as we battle the blue-hairs and practice our mad skillz…

  • Baby Yoda Hat

    As part of our barter arrangement for the Baker’s Edge pan, I’m knitting a Yoda Halloween costume for Kristen’s son Alexander. I found a great pattern for a felted Yoda hat along with a crossover Yoda sweater. I finished knitting the hat last week, so it was finally time to felt the sucker. I was a bit nervous… but it worked! Check out the before and after:

    Before felting   After felting

    How cool is that? I blew up a balloon to the size of Alexander’s head, and that’s what the hat is blocking on in the second picture. Now I just need to get some fabric stiffener so I can make the ears stick out properly. And the jumper’s all knitted; all I have to do is sew it up. I can’t wait to see what it looks like on him!

  • Monkey Socks

    Monkey SocksMonkey Socks
    Well, I finally caved to peer pressure* and knitted the damn Monkey Socks. They turned out pretty well! The yarn is the Lang Jawoll Cotton I got at the Craft Show earlier this year. (I forgot to use the matching thread to reinforce the heels and toes. D’OH!) I did them on 2.75mm needles to compensate for being such a tight knitter, and they still only just fit over my ankle. The combination of the lace stitch and the cotton yarn doesn’t make for a very elastic sock, but they’re still quite wearable. The only change I made to the pattern was to adapt them for knitting on two circs (so I could knit both at once).

    * More than 1300 people have already knit this pattern and posted it to Ravelry, and 700 more have it in their queues. I don’t get the popularity. It’s a nice pattern, but 2000 people? That’s NUTS.

  • Koala Tea Cosy

    Koala Tea CosyKoala Tea Cosy
    This little fella didn’t quite make it in time for the Fifties Fair last weekend, which is all the better really because now I get to keep him! He’s awfully cute, isn’t he? (Until you remember that he has a teapot up his bum, at which point it becomes disturbing.) The pattern is free online and purports to be from 1937. That might explain why I had so much difficulty following it. It reads like it’s supposed to have a picture, but since it doesn’t (except for a random illustration) you’re knitting blind most of the time. You also have to do weird things like knit the two body pieces sideways. Anyway, I had to change a few things: 1) The nose. The shape they give is just perplexing and it didn’t look at all like a real koala. So I went with more of an egg shape. 2) The neck. The opening at the top of the cosy is waaaay bigger than the head, so I had to cinch it up a lot. That’s why I knitted him a patriotic scarf to hide the ugly join. 3) There’s an error when you get to the second row of openings on the front. It should be on rows 67-68, not 66-67. Lastly, this makes for a pretty big tea cosy. I had to pad ours with a dishtowel just to get it to fill out his shape. Using 4ply and smaller needles would give you a smaller koala.

    And that is IT for tea cosies for about the NEXT TEN YEARS!

  • Christmas Robin Tea Cosy

    Christmas Robin Tea CosyChristmas Robin Tea Cosy
    Number five is done, folks! This one took less than a day from start to finish. The pattern is free online and I think it’s just about the funniest thing I’ve ever knit. I used scraps of 8ply yarn (held double throughout) on 5.5mm needles. It fits a fairly small teapot, so you’d have to size up the pattern for a bigger pot. The eyes and beak are cut out of felt, and the white pupils are buttons.

  • Christmas Tea Cosy

    Christmas Tea CosyChristmas Tea Cosy
    This is officially Number Four, folks! This pattern is actually called “Delphie” (no idea why) and it’s from Patons Craft Book No. C.18. The book actually belongs to Ma Snook, who purchased it way back in the 1950’s, I believe. I’m still using up oddments of 8ply yarn on 4mm needles. This cosy was mostly knit while watching the TV movie of Pratchett’s Hogfather; hence the Christmas colours.