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Tag: knitting

  • Olivia’s Rainbow Blanket and BSJ

    Rainbow Baby BlanketOlivia’s Rainbow Blanket and BSJ
    Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that the first two projects shown on my knitting round-up below haven’t actually been blogged yet! That’s because I only just finished them yesterday. First up is an actual, honest-to-god CROCHETED item: Olivia’s Rainbow Baby Blanket. This is a project that I basically made up myself. My Mom had sent me 5 balls of “Sugar and Cream” cotton last year and I’d idly started crocheting squares based on this pattern. When my niece was born a couple weeks ago, it inspired me to join them all up into a blanket for her. I did 12 multi-colour squares (rotating the stripes each time so the squares are all different) along with 4 solid squares. I joined them all together with Cream, then crocheted a Cream border all around. Then I did a scalloped border in a different colour on each side. I’m really happy with how it turned out! I was debating on whether to back it with some fleece or flannel, but I think I like it the way it is.

    Rainbow Blanket   Rainbow Blanket   Rainbow Blanket

    Next is yet another Baby Surprise Jacket. I used some Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed that was leftover from my St. Brigid. It came out quite big, but I figure she’ll grow into it. The buttons are made out of coconut. 🙂

    Baby Surprise Jacket   Baby Surprise Jacket

  • Sam Socks

    Sam SocksWhile these turned out great in the end, I always seem to have terrible issues with Cookie A patterns. I bought Sock Innovations last year and this was my first project knitted from it. I discovered pretty quickly that there were major errors in the printed pattern. It completely omits the ribbing at the top of the leg, and it also tells you an incorrect number of leg repeats. (If you plan to knit anything from this book, I highly recommend you check the errata. There’s a LOT of it.)

    I knitted these on two 2.75mm circular needles. I could tell they were going to be tight around the ankle, so I cast on extra stitches so that I’d have a full extra pattern repeat around the leg. I knitted the heel exactly as written and just left the extra pattern repeat on the top of the foot. I usually like to knit my socks two-at-a-time, but that’s basically impossible with this pattern because you are constantly shifting the starting point of each round. So I was forced to knit each leg separately down to the heel, after which I knitted both socks together down towards the toes.

    The wool is a single skein of Yarntini Mint Fizz Stripe that I received in a swap from @dancingman. It was lovely to knit with. The third photo (heel detail) is closest to the actual colours: spring green, aqua, and purplish-grey stripes. I had about 1.5m left over when I finished, which was perfect. I’m very happy with how these turned out! (More details and photos are on Ravelry.)

  • Maile Sweater and Swirl Hat

    Maile Sweater and Swirl Hat
    Hey, I knitted something! It’s been months and months, actually. But last week my friend Kevin’s first child was born, and such a thing demands commemoration. I picked the pattern and the yarn before the birth, assuming that the combination would work for either gender. It helps that the father is Irish. 🙂

    Maile Sweater

    The cardigan is the Maile Sweater. It’s knitted from the bottom up in one piece. I actually knitted it twice: the first time on 3.5mm needle as per the pattern, and the second time on 3.75mm needles. (I thought it looked a little small so I frogged it and started over.) On the first attempt, I followed the pattern exactly including knitting the sleeves flat and joining them with no cast-off stitches. I wasn’t thrilled with it though, and the underarms had a few stitches that looked very stretched. So when I frogged and reknitted, I took the opportunity to experiment. The sleeves were knitted this time in the round via Magic Loop. When I joined them, I set aside 4 live stitches on the body and 4 live stitches on the underarm of the sleeve on waste wool. I later grafted these together (a la Elizabeth Zimmerman). It makes for a very nice finish, and it definitely made those first few rows after joining easier.

    The wool is “Merino Chubby Sock” in Barleygrass by the Knittery. One skein was plenty to knit the jumper, and I had so much left over that I actually made a matching hat. The pattern is the “Swirl Hat” from Sheepy Time Knits. And I still have wool left over! This stuff goes a long way.

    As usual, there are more photos and details over on Ravelry: Maile Sweater / Swirl Hat. Now I just have to wait to get a photo of the baby actually wearing them!

  • Miller’s Hat for Snook

    Miller's HatMiller’s Hat for Snook
    It’s been pretty chilly around here lately, so I finally convinced the Snook to let me knit him a hat. This is tricky business. He doesn’t like things that make his head itchy. He’s hated every woollen beanie I ever put on him. I’d have to get creative. While surfing Ravelry one day, I came across this photo of a guy wearing the unusual Miller’s Hat. Hey, I thought. That looks neat! So I bought the pattern. I decided to go with Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (80% cotton, 20% wool) for the project, despite all the drawbacks. (Cotton isn’t as warm; knitting cables in cotton kills your hands; cotton tends to be a stiffer fabric than wool.) The main selling point was that I knew it definitely wouldn’t make his head “itch.” I ended up having to restart the hat a couple times because I kept stuffing up the herringbone stitch around the band. It’s not hard once you get the hang of it (i.e. read the chart symbols properly), and it looks really cool. I ended up adding quite a few stitches – a whole extra cable repeat’s worth – to make it looser and to compensate for my famously tight tension. I did the whole thing on a 5mm needle, not bothering to change for the cabled bit. I also skipped a couple of the plain rows towards the end, not wanting it to be too slouchy at the top. As for the edging, I just picked up a zillion stitches around the edge, not really caring about the number. (Basically, I winged the whole thing.) It looks… interesting, huh? He likes it. I think he looks like a damn hipster, but it’s unusual and slouchy and keeps his ears warm. That makes us both happy.

    More details and photos over on Ravelry…

  • Absinthe Socks

    Absinthe SocksAbsinthe Socks
    I think I’m finally tired of knitting socks. Each pair is taking me longer and longer to finish. I started these on January 2nd! They’re pretty though, right? These are Absinthe from Knitty, a toe-up swirl of Art Nouveau cables and lace. It’s an absolutely perfect match for the yarn: Knitabulous Merino Sock in “Salwar Kameez” (from her Indian Summer yarn club). It’s the most intense blue-green, from teal to emerald to even kelly green.

    I knitted both socks at the same time on two 2.75mm circular needles. Unfortunately my first attempt at the feet was too small, both in length and diameter. So I frogged them back from the heels all the way to the toes. Then I added in some more increases (eight extra stitches) and lengthened the bit before I started the pattern. That did the trick! When I got to the leg, I finished the five lace repeats and then knitted 2×2 ribbing until I got to the end of the wool. I used Elizabeth Zimmerman’s sewn bind-off to finish. (Details also on Ravelry.)

    Absinthe Socks   Absinthe Socks (Detail)

  • RoseRed’s blanket

    RoseRed has posted photos from her baby shower last weekend, including the knitted blanket that many of us contributed squares to. My own square is in the top row, the white square fourth from the left. I did it in Blackberry Stitch (also known as Trinity Stitch).

  • Weekend Update

    I’m pooped. I’m just so tired these days, and I don’t know why. I’ve been feeling ready for bed by 9pm every night. Is it Daylight Savings making the evenings darker? Is it my Implanon screwing with my moods? I just want to feel peppy and energised again. I want to feel engaged and passionate about my hobbies. Right now I’m going through the motions a little bit. I don’t think I’m depressed or anything; I’m still technically Getting Shit Done. I guess I’m just a little blue, is all.

    I spent most of Friday night getting ready for the Guild meeting on Saturday. In addition to my normal duties as Convenor, I also had to give a presentation on “Joining, Weaving and Splicing” (with help from Tia) and then reprise my “Welcome to the Knitternet” presentation for some guests from the Southern Highlands. It was our biggest meeting yet – 47 people! – yet also one of the smoothest and best. I’m actually really proud of that. That took up most of the day, and after a quick beer with Amy, I headed home to chill out. (The Snook spent all day Saturday at work, as his team is working to meet a major deadline.) So I had dinner, watched some Gossip Girl, and went to bed.

    This morning I got up early for my planned 19km run. (That’s 12 miles!) It took me just over 2.5 hours to complete. It was a hot day, and my biggest problem was staying hydrated on the hills. My foot injury wasn’t an issue at all, which was nice. I feel like I should feel more pumped up about the accomplishment, but really, I just got ‘er done. As soon as I got home, I had to quickly shower before Fiona and JP arrived. The three of us were heading off to a very special baby shower for Rose Red. There were loads of bloggers there: her and her and her and her and many more… We had sausage rolls and nibbles and cake and champagne. We knitted and chatted. We cheered as Jane opened all her pressies. It was fun! Afterwards I came home and pretty much collapsed. I just can’t muster up the energy to DO anything. I want to record a podcast. I want to start a new knitting project. I want to clean the kitchen. I want to plan a trip to the U.S. I just feel a little… stuck. How do I get unstuck?

  • Yarnbombing

    Weirdness! So we stayed at Bells’s house last weekend, and today they got yarnbombed! Coincidence? Or did some “guerilla knitter” try to send me a message? *snort*

  • No ribbons.

    So… the Easter Show. I didn’t win anything. I was a bit of a letdown, though it’s always nice to have your friends yell “YOU WAS ROBBED!” over and over. The Magic Pudding was nicely displayed, and apparently he was a big hit with people passing by. St. Brigid was strung up in a corner rather lifelessly. Many of my friends won ribbons though, and I was very happy for them. (Lots of photos here.) I’m also happy to report that Gary continues his tradition of excellent nude marquetry. So I grumbled about the judges, and I toasted all the Ravelers, and it was on-the-whole an enjoyable evening. Now I just have to figure out how to knit a nude zombie clown giving the middle finger for next year…

  • Stop Motion Knitting

    This beautiful advertisement for natural gas shows a home being covered with knitting as a metaphor for it warming up in the morning.

    I also recommend watching the “making of” video. It looks like they started with everything covered and then slowly unraveled it all, bit by bit. Lovely!