knitting

Eggbert the Easter Chick

Eggbert the Easter Chick
Check out my new favorite holiday creation! A nice lady came in the shop the other day looking for wool to duplicate a little knitted chick a friend had given her. I squealed like a girl, especially once I turned the chick over. How cute is that? The lady told me I could copy her handwritten pattern if I wanted. That night I whipped up a prototype and set to altering the pattern (so as not to infringe copyright; I don’t know where the customer’s friend got the pattern in the first place). My version has a slightly rounder head and short rows in the tail to make it flip up. The pattern is currently available for free in the shop, but I’ll reproduce it here for the rest of the world. They’re really quick to make; I’ve done four already. Hooray for stash-busting! Happy knitting…You need:

scraps of 8-ply (worsted weight) yarn
3.75mm needles
cotton ball or other stuffing for head
bodkin or wool needle for sewing up
cardboard for beak
egg, chocolate or real!

Cast on 32 stitches.

Row 1: K1, increase 1, K to end.
Repeat first row until you have 44 stitches on the needle.
Knit four rows plain.

Short row tail:
Row 1: K4, slip next stitch as if to purl, yfwd, move slipped stitch back to left needle. Turn.
Row 2: K4 to end.
Row 3: K3, slip next stitch as if to purl, yfwd, move slipped stitch back to left needle. Turn.
Row 4: K3 to end.
Row 5: Cast off 15 stitches, K to end.

Repeat previous five rows for the other side. You should end with fourteen stitches left in the center of your knitting.

Head:
Knit three rows plain.
Row 4: K1, K2tog, K to last three stitches, K2tog, K1.
Row 5-6: Same as Row 4.
Knit two rows plain.

You should now have eight stitches remaining on your needle. Cut the working wool leaving a footlong tail. Thread the tail onto your sewing needle and run it through the remaining stitches, cinching them tight. Then use the tail to sew up the head, back, and underside of the duck (leaving a hole to insert your egg!). Stuff the head and use some scrap wool to cinch the neck. I used contrasting wool to make knots for the eyes, and the beak is a sewn on piece of cardboard. You can get pretty creative embellishing these things! Have fun…

Geography Cardigan

On Thursday I gave my latest knitting project its first public airing… I present the Geography Cardigan! I got the idea from an old 80’s knitting book Mrs Morris (the shop owner) lent me as a joke. The tackiness of the patterns really needs to be seen to be believed. (The back cover, for instance, features a guy in suspenders and a bow-tie standing next to a woman wearing a sweater… with knitted suspender and bow-tie motifs. Get it? It’s an OPTICAL ILLUSION. Very clever.) Anyway, I was flipping through it and suddenly there he was: Sexy Geography Teacher. He had a Ewan McGregor ‘tache to go with his acid-wash jeans and the grooviest, daggiest cardigan I’d ever seen. I had to make one. After a period of trial and error I settled on Sirdar Nova as the yarn of choice. It’s not 100% wool, but it’s soft and it was the only thing thick enough to get gauge that had a range of bright colors. In terms of technical difficulty, it was my first ever attempt at intarsia and I bungled it a bit. It looks fine from the outside, but I made the mistake of occasionally carrying the wool across the back instead of cutting and starting a new strand (because it was only a gap of a few stitches, and I’m lazy). I’ve since found out that you NEVER MIX INTARSIA AND FAIRISLE, which is what I was doing. Consider yourself warned. Anyhoo, I also had to invent a way to knit the collar on to the garment since the one knitted to the pattern specifications was way, way too small. But it worked out. I’m actually pretty proud of it! I still need to head to Newtown for some appropriate buttons, but it’s definitely one of my more successful projects. And check out the back! (And as the Aussies keep asking, Australia’s on my left elbow. No, I wasn’t clever enough to do the thing where you reorient the whole world to put Australia on top. Sorry.)

Solstice is finished!

A solstice a long time coming…
I am so happy to report that my Jo Sharp “Solstice” sweater is finally finished, nearly two years after I started the damn thing! I ran into difficulty in September (2003) when I started sewing it up and realized that I’d made a complete cock-up of the drop sleeves. I’d cast them off too tightly, which meant that the armhole was rather tight and not nicely drapey like it should be. Unfortunately I only realized that after I’d sewn the sleeves on and woven about 50,000 ends into the seam. Frustrated and annoyed, I packed it in a bag and set it aside to work on happier projects. It languished for over a year. Periodically I’d take it out and pick at the seam, then sigh and put it away. I just couldn’t deal with it, you know? Then last month I had a flash of inspiration: Why not pay somebody to fix it for me? So I took it in to work and gave it to Ann, the lady who runs our knitting clinic. She worked on it all through our holiday and had it ready for me when I got back today. She not only fixed the sleeves (and added a bit more needed length), but she also seamed the sides, knitted the collar, and wove in the remaining 100,000 ends! Of course, as part of the deal I had to put up with a fair bit of griping and criticism from her about my crappy finishing techniques, but hey, I was a beginning knitter, all right? And she did compliment me on my even knitting, which was nice. (Apparently my final measurement was only two centimeters off the 130 specificed in the pattern.) At any rate, it’s finally finished and I can wear it… in about six months when this damn summer heat wave ends. *sigh* But aren’t the colors great? I wanted something big and crazy bold to wear with jeans in winter, and I think this will fit the bill nicely.

The Cabled Throw

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I finally gave the happy couple their wedding gift: the Sunday cable throw from Jo Sharp’s fourth book, Home. It took me well over a hundred hours to knit, and I used 36.5 balls of Jo Sharp 8-ply wool. I modified the pattern to make it a bit wider and added fringe to both ends to make it a little more “blanket-y”. It’s really pretty and warm. (Unbeknownst to me, it also perfectly matches the beige and red of their living room color scheme.) It’s about six feet long by four feet wide. Here’s a pic of my sister lounging under it along with a detail of the cabling up close:

127 Print Scarf

I’ve been obsessed for weeks with this 127 Print Italian wool that we’ve got at the shop so I finally bought a few balls last weekend and knitted it up into a scarf. Here’s Snookums modelling the finished product. Isn’t it pretty? The colors just come out like that when you knit it. I tried to combat the dreaded stockinette-curl with a border of garter stitch and regular thin garter stitch bands between the color stripes, but the darn thing still has a tendency to roll into a tube. *shrug* I still like it.

Notes: For those wishing to do something similar, I used three balls in total. Casted on 35 stitches on 6mm needles and did a few rows of garter stitch before starting the pattern. I worked out that I there was enough space between color patches to do three rows of stockinette, then four of garter, and then back to stockinette. It only got irregular where I changed balls.

Sweet Mittens

Sweet mittens, eh?
So I finally finished my own pair of Broad Street Mittens with just a few weeks of winter left to spare. As you can see, mine are knitted in navy “argyle” sock wool from Heirloom. I basically followed the pattern as written (with a few exceptions based on the error I mentioned in the previous post). And yeah, I embroidered “DUDE” and “SWEET” on the backs of the mitten flaps in a subtle red wool. Heh. Somehow I doubt many of my fellow commuters are going to get the joke.

Broad Street Mittens

Broad Street Mittens
As the Snook daily complains about how “frickin’ freezin'” it is in the mornings, I decided to knit him these Broad Street Mittens from Knitty to keep him warm. They’re basically fingerless gloves with mitten shells attached to the knuckles. There’s a loop at the top of the mitten that you slip over a button on the cuff to keep them from flapping around. Cool, huh? I used some of the Bendigo sock wool I got at the Craft Fair last month and they turned out pretty nice. It wasn’t nearly as hard to knit gloves as I thought it would be. I churned these out fairly quickly too, despite the small gauge. (I figure it was about 10 hours or so per hand.) Now to knit some for me!

As usual with Knitty patterns, I ran into a couple snags and at least one outright error. Read on for my (voluminous) knitting notes…First off, the pattern tells you that you’ll need two sizes of double-pointed needles but it doesn’t tell you when to use them. I assumed at first that the smaller size was for the cuff but I wanted to be sure before I spent half the day knitting something too small. In desperation I had the Snook read over the pattern to make sure I wasn’t missing anything and he noticed a tiny line indicating that you’re supposed to use the bigger ones on the mitten shell. Fine, but there’s still nothing that says which to use on the glove. Eventually I just went with the smaller (2.75mm) ones. Whatever.

Okay, so that’s when I hit the major problem with the pattern: sizing. I cast on 48 and as I proceeded through the ribbing I realized pretty quickly that this was never going to fit over the Snook’s hand. After ripping back a couple of times, I finally accepted that I was going to be winging this and settled on 60 stitches for the wrist cuff. (I was actually doing them on two circs, so I had 30 on each one.) Then I did a row of *K5 INC 1* to get me up to 72 for the hand. Okay, so far so good.

(Actually, there’s a mistake in the pattern at this point but I didn’t catch it since I was changing the numbers. If you follow the instructions and use 48 for the cuff, you’re supposed to do a row of *K3 INC 1* to get to 60 stitches. Except that math is totally wrong. If you increase every third stitch over 48, you get 64 stitches. Should’ve been *K4 INC 1*. I only discovered this tonight when working my own smaller glove which uses the numbers from the pattern.)

Okay, so everything else stayed the same through the thumb gusset increases and subsequent decreases. I still had 72 stitches on the needles though so I needed to change the width of the fingers. That number happens to divide nicely by four so I made each finger 18 stitches around (9 from the front, 9 from the back, plus whatever extra I had to pick up or cast on). I changed the length of the fingers slightly too. The pinky ended up 13 rounds, the ring finger 14 rounds, and the other two were 18 rounds. (I had the Snook doing constant fittings, so that’s how I came up with these numbers.) The thumb was worked according to the pattern with a couple rows added for length. That was it for the glove, other than weaving in the ends.

For the mitten shell, I increased the number of stitches to 72 overall (to match the palm of the hand). So that meant I cast on 36 for the ribbing flap. Oh, and I used the larger 3.25mm needles here. Then I picked up 36 across the knuckles and started going around. I was worried at first because no matter how tightly I tugged the working yarn at the DPN joins, it always looked like there were huge ladders and gaps there. It seemed to resolve itself the further I knitted, though. I did the 17 rounds as stated and prepared to start the decreases, but it didn’t look like the shell was going to be long enough. So I modified the decrease pattern slightly. I did the “K to the last two stitches, K2tog”, then knitted a round even. Then I repeated the “K to the last two stitches, K2tog”. Then I added two lines to the pattern: “K6, K2tog. K 5 rounds even.” Followed the pattern all the way down to the last “K2tog on each needle” and realized I still had too many stitches, so I repeated that line again. That left me with the required four stitches for the I-cord. Unfortunately I still think the mitten shell’s a little small. The Snook’s fingers are rather broad and the mitten is a little too pointy, I think. I tried to block it out and was moderately successful. I think it’ll stretch and mold to his hand as he wears them.

One last pattern weirdness: At the end of the directions it says “Stitch the edges of the ribbing flap down along the sides of the hand” but the accompanying photos don’t show this. I wasn’t sure whether to do it, because as it is the flap pulls back nicely and lays flat. If you sew the edges down to the sides, you get a funky stretched bit right there when you pull the shell back. Eventually I decided to try it with some scrap wool and see how it worked. The Snook said he didn’t mind the wonkiness and it seemed to offer a little more insulation, so that’s what we went with. I still think the author could have clarified a bit better.

Self-patterning socks

Finally, another finished object: self-patterning socks for Mom! I used Opal Sockenwolle that I got from Knit-It in Beecroft. As all the previous socks I’ve knitted are too baggy to be worn with shoes, I tried to make this pair a bit smaller and tighter than normal. I can just get them over my chubby feet which hopefully means they’ll be appropriately sized for Mom. The only problem is that I’ve still got a substantial chunk of wool left over… and I’m not sure what to do with it. Maybe wrist warmers?

Another Hogwarts Scarf!

Another Hogwarts Scarf!
As you can see, I’ve just finished an old-school Ravenclaw scarf as a commission for a nice Aussie girl named Kat. (Kat went with the “blue and bronze” color scheme from the book as opposed to the “blue and silver” from the movie.) The Snook was kind enough to model for me (as usual). It was knitted with Cleckheaton Country 8-ply 100% wool. Somehow my gauge was off from the last one I did, which resulted in a slightly skinner yet longer scarf. The dimensions on this one were 6″ wide by 76″ long (not counting fringe). That should keep Kat pretty warm throughout this winter!

Stay tuned for a revamp of my Harry Potter Scarves page with more pictures and descriptions.

My Prisoner of Azkaban costume

Swish and flick!
Well, that was AMAZING. I absolutely loved the film. But more on that in a minute. First, I need to confirm that yes, I did dress in costume. And yes, I was the only one. Not only that, but the theater was probably only 20% full anyway. So I was a big dork. But Snookums thinks I’m cool and I got a few great looks from some kids, so I feel it was a success. Read on to see all the photos of me in my Hogwarts glory.As always, click on the thumbnail to see a bigger version.

First off, here I am in my Hogwarts school uniform. Details: The jumper is the Weasley sweater I made a few months back. The skirt is from portmans, and the socks were from a random stall in Paddy’s Markets.

Here I am demonstrating the proper way to “Swish and flick!” to Snookums. Yes, my wand is actually a 10mm wooden knitting needle.

I decided that schoolgirl braids were appropriate, complete with Gryffindor-colored bows. (You can really see some of the red streaks in my hair in that picture.) I wasn’t sure whether I should wear my glasses or not. They’re definitely more Potter-ish, but I didn’t want any loss of peripheral vision should we have to sit very close in the theater. I went with the glasses, and luckily it didn’t matter.

If you make fun of my chubby tummy, I’ll put the Cruciatus curse on you!

You know what this costume really needs?

Wizarding robes and a Gryffindor scarf! That’s my new scarf based on the Azkaban design. The robes are actually the Snook’s student robes. (He had to wear them every Monday dinner in college.)

Here’s a close-up of my Gryffindor badge. (You’ll recall that I made the badges last week.) I printed the badges on transfer paper and then ironed them on to some plain calico. Then I trimmed them really well and sewed them down on some black felt for stiffness. Then I trimmed the felt and basted it down on the robes.

Here’s my Dumbledore’s Army badge (from Order of the Phoenix). I accidentally placed the badges too high, I think. I didn’t realize that these robes are made to be worn hanging way back, so they could stand to move a few inches lower, possibly.

Woohoo! Bring on the movie! Bring on the cheering crowds!

Crap. The theater was nearly empty. No one! Where are the crowds? Where the throngs of Potter-fans? Am I the only person dedicated enough to take the day off and make my own costume to celebrate this cinematic event? It appears so.

I didn’t even get to hand out any of the way cool business cards I designed!

At least Dr. Amy Jones still loves me.

So I think I might have to go back to one of the weekend showings in order to give this outfit a proper airing. Any of you Sydney people interested in accompanying me? You don’t have to dress up! 🙂