crafts Archives | Page 1 of 2

| 1 2 | next ten entries

Sunday, August 10, 2008

knittery help, please?

(To non-knitters, this post will be in a foreign language. Paraphased into English, it reads, "Rachel is in over her head again and has no clue what she's doing. As if that were anything new?" There, now you don't need to try to struggle through it.)

I bought some pretty heathery purple yarn to make a sweater for C. I am pretty much designing this sweater myself (which could be disastrous, but everyone has to try it once and I can always frog it and make something else, right?), and I would like to incorporate this celtic braid (just one repeat of it) down the middle. HOWEVER, I can't make it simple on myself; I want the rest of the sweater to be in stockinette stitch rather than in reverse stockinette. Any ideas as to how I can make this look nice? I'm about six rows in, and what I've done so far is to do reverse stockinette for two stitches on either side of the cable (moving the two stitches so that they stay right close to the cable, if you know what I mean), and it does allow the braid to show nicely, but it also looks a little jaggy. I'm thinking about a few different solutions:

1) add a simpler cable pattern in straight rows down either side of the complicated braid, and do a reverse stockinette background just between the outside cables.

2) increase the number of stitches of reverse stockinette on either side of the braid without adding more cables.

3) leave it as it is for another half-dozen rows or so and see how it looks before I decide.

The thing is, I don't want a curling/bulging edge between the reverse stockinette and the stockinette, and I know from experience that this can happen.

So. Any ideas? please pretty please? Thank you.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

and now for something completely different

Let's talk about knitting, shall we? Because there are no asterisks required for that topic. At least, not today. People who don't care a whit about knitting, you get an official vacation from reading Rachel's blog today. Lucky you!

A while ago I got something like eleven skeins of Lily cotton yarn in kind of a Pepto-Bismol pink (only not quite so shocking) for twenty-five (25) cents per skein on clearance at Michael's. Of course I couldn't pass up the price, but that would be a WHOLE lot of dishcloths, so I decided to make something biggish, and the only person in my immediate connection who can get away with wearing this particular color is C. So. I started out to make this pattern* for her, but as I got nearly done with the back I decided that what C really needs is a cardigan. So I actually modified the pattern. Just like if I was actually a real for-real honest-to-goodness knitter! I am halfwayish done with the fronts now, knitting them both at once (THANK YOU to whoever it was who blogged about that idea -- Kara maybe?) on one 29" circular needle, and all is going swimmingly except that I forgot about the twistiness and also the wonky jagged appearance of the vertical edges of stockinette stitch, and I didn't plan for a pick-up-and-knit buttonhole edging thingamabob, so I am going to have to improvise something to remedy this in the front where the pieces overlap. I am thinking a nice crocheted shell edging. Suggestions? Real knitters, will this work, or should I pull out what I've done and start over? (aiee, my hands!)

*not sure, but you may have to be a member to see the pattern. It's a hooded pullover sweater with a two-hand front pocket.

Monday, November 19, 2007

now why didn't *I* think of that?

Oh, I am so going to shamelessly copy these three unbelievably clever ideas.

• My friend Michael-who's-a-girl is making a jeans quilt. I made a denim quilt a few years ago, but it was nowhere near as nice as hers is going to be. THE LITTLE FRAYED DETAILS SO CUTE MY GOSH. Good thing I've been saving up jeans again.

• And then there's dreams of flying, which is, well, dreamy.

• Behold the Fabric Cubby House. Is she not the coolest mom (sorry, mum) you ever saw? I am seriously going to buy the dining table for our new house with this project in mind.

Friday, June 01, 2007

I knitted again! cables! hat! woo!

So it's June now, and it's ninety degrees out; perfect time to make a wool-blend hat, no?

I REALLY LIKED how this came out, and it was really fun and easy to knit. Y'all, do not be afraid of cables. Cables are so, so much easier than they look. Just google "how to knit cables" and you'll find a million sites (give or take nine hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred or so), with very helpful instructions.

cast-on: May 7th. Finished off: May 29th.

I found this cabled hat pattern somewhere online. I thought it was here, but I swear I didn't have to download a PDF for the pattern. hmm. I made a few minor modifications, but very minor.

(observe the greenness of my hat as I gaze soulfully at... my neighbors' RV.)

materials:

• 1 skein worsted-weight yarn (I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Dark Forest Green).
  
• US size 6 (sorry, don't know the mm size offhand) 16" circular needle, or whatever floats your boat.
  
• Same size set of 6" double-pointed needles.
  
• yarn needle.
  

On circular needle, co 96; join without twisting.

work 3" of k2p2 rib. Place stitch marker (you know what I want? Is one of those row-counting stitch markers).

k2 p2 k6 p2 around twice.

work 6"-7" (or to fit) of:
(k2 p2 CB6 p2) around
(k2 p2 k6 p2) around x5

Then start reducing. Somewhere in here you'll want to switch to DPNs.
(k2 p2 k6 p2) around
(k2 p2 [k1 k2tog]x2 p2) around
(k2 p2 CB4 p2) around
(k2 p2 k4 p2) around x3
(k2tog p2 k4 p2) around
(k1 p2 CB4 p2) around
(k1 p2 k4 p2) around
(k1 p2tog k4 p2tog) around
(k1 p1 k4 p1) around
(k1 p1 CB4 p1) around
(k1 p1 k4 p1) around x3
(k1 p1 [k2tog x2] p1) around
(k1 p1 CB2 p1) around
(k1 p1 k2 p1) around
(k1 p1 k2tog p1) around
(k1 p1 k1 p1) around
(k2tog p2tog) around
k2p2 around
k2tog around

Cut yarn, leaving a longish tail. Thread tail (on yarn needle) through eight remaining stitches; remove needles. Pull tight, finish off. Weave in ends (come on, do it now, don't put it off and then end up just tucking the cast-on tail under the brim like someone I know *cough*me*cough* usually does).

Do you see the glaring error where I knit two stitches instead of purling them? I did not notice that until I looked at this picture. Drat. There go my blue-ribbon hopes. :-D

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

IT IS FINISHED

Is it sacrilegious to use that phrase about a knitting project this close to Good Friday?

Nah, not when the knitting project is as monumental as this one, anyway.

(ZOT! That's me getting struck by lightning the next time I go outside.)

OK, on with the picture:

(you can click to see it larger)

It came out bigger than I thought. When I would hold the pieces up to Claire, it seemed as if the thing would be too small. Also, the shoulders are wider than I thought because the neck is more scooped than I thought, so the sleeves are a bit long. It'll fit her as she grows a bit, but it'll be sort of short in the midriff by the time her arms and shoulders are long/wide enough to fit it better.

It was a lot of fun to make, though. The weaving in of all the ends (ugh stripes) actually took longer than sewing the pieces together. And I still need to figure out if and how I need to block it. I mean, it's a cotton sweater; it will be worn and washed, so any blocking I do wouldn't last anyway. Experienced knitters, please help.

I recommend this project (the pattern, without stripes on the body and with simpler stripes on the sleeves, is here, although I resized it for C; the largest size they have is smaller than she is) for beginning knitters, since I am one and I managed it. :) This was a great project to help me learn to increase, join, and "pick up and knit", none of which I had done before (well, I've increased and joined in crochet projects, but... nevermind). Also, the cotton (Lily Sugar N Cream) is really easy to work with, and (especially bought on sale like I found it) cheap enough that you don't worry about wasting a ton of money if things go wrong.

Monday, January 15, 2007

finishing things is fun

When my mother had just finished high school, she got a job with the school district. Part of her job involved cleaning out lockers after everyone left for the summer. (I think I'm remembering this right). In one of the lockers, she found a pincushion made of four multicolored knitted sections sewn together. She has used that pincushion ever since. I don't know what made me think of trying to make one for myself, but a few weeks ago I went looking online and found these instructions. (basically, knit rectangles in specific sizes; sew them into tubes and then turn the tubes in on themselves; tuck the resulting half-height tubes into each other; sew the bottom together). I dug into my scrap yarn and emerged today with this:

pincushion




top




bottom




with pins

It's way bigger than my mom's; you truly could use this for knitting implements, small scissors, etc. I think I'll put it in the craft-fair tote (ha! she says. That's optimistic.) and make some more. The one I make for myself will be a bit smaller, and I'm also going to try using a ribbed stitch instead of garter stitches, casting on the circumference and knitting rows for the height, if that makes any sense at all. Well, it does to me anyway.

Friday, September 02, 2005

county fair

I'm too exhausted to stay up long enough to write a genuine entry about the fair (it's kind of a sad part of growing up, that the fair loses its magic and becomes more about sore feet and expense than anything else) but I just wanted to mention a few highlights:

I went on a crazy ride. Twice. It felt like being fifteen felt, without the angst or the crush on the geeky-but-nice fourteen-year-old boy.

C had an awesome time, LT not so much, because he's too big for the kiddy rides but he's way too, er, cautious (as is his daddy) for the bigger rides, and when you're a kid, rides are The Thing That Matters about the fair, right?

I posted my photography entry results in the photo blog. The crocheted items I entered placed as follows: sweater set that wasn't striped got best of show -- my first best of show EVER in anything, in twenty-five years of entering our county fair; sweater set that was striped took second in that category, and the daisy afghan scored a first. I'm pleased. I'm also done bragging now. Shut up Rachel.

Saturday, August 20, 2005

blocking

These are the crochet pieces I'm entering in the fair. They have to be turned in at the fairgrounds by seven this evening, so I figured today would be a great time to sew the buttons on the sweaters and block everything (that's when you spritz it with water, put it in the shape you want it to naturally fall into, and then let it dry). I thought I'd have another afghan done in time, but that'll have to be next year. Oh well; the entry clerks would think I was an imposter if I didn't show up with at least two or three no-shows. (the daisy afghan under the baby things is also entered).

Monday, April 18, 2005

this is what being laid-up gets me

I guess all I need to get a piecework project actually put together (my least favorite part; has taken literally years on this one) is major surgery. Who knew? And what will I have them take out next? ;)

Saturday, December 25, 2004

the best-laid plans

You know how sometimes you say, "This is so not my day..."? Well, it would seem logically to indicate that there must be such a thing as a day that is one's day, or it wouldn't be worth noting when it wasn't, right? Well, finally it came. Today was my day. It really was. And how fitting that this should happen on my birthday, no?

It started off with presents this morning. Just as we were about to start opening things, my mom called to tell us that she and my dad couldn't be here for Christmas dinner because she had some sort of stomach bug. (As an aside, I am offering up a huge apostrophic apology to my mom, for the fact that My Day hinged on her feeling so miserable. I'm sorry, Mom. But if you HAD to feel miserable, at least some good came of it, right?). So we decided to put off Christmas dinner until tomorrow, to give Mom a chance to feel better, which only involved calling two households, and everyone seemed agreeable to it. So I proceeded to have, for the first time, a birthday that actually felt like a birthday. I have never had the day of my birthday itself be a day when there was the luxury of just doing what I wanted, just because the nature of the day involves a big family dinner and a lot of preparation and stuff. With that gone from the day, we just hung around home doing what we (I) wanted to do. We played a game; we watched a few movies; we went for a walk. It was perfect; if I could have been given a day to spend in any way I chose, it's what I would have chosen. And we still have the fun of the family-and-friends gathering tomorrow afternoon. I'm just (again) sorry that it was my mom's misery that brought it all about. I DO REALLY LOVE MY MOM. I promise.

It's just as well that we didn't try to cook that turkey today anyway, since it is too big for the roaster oven, and I would have been unable to buy a roasting bag without traveling 45 miles to the city, so we'd have had to just make do with the ham by itself, and then the side dishes. (yes, as a matter of fact, a 25-lb turkey and a 13-lb ham for 13 people does make for an enormous quantity of leftovers; why do you ask? There were going to be 19 people, not 21 as we were just confused about the in-laws coming, but our friends' family of 6 is ill.) Tomorrow I'll get a roasting bag on the way to church, and the turkey will be done to a turn by 3:00. YUM.

And here's a C-ism for today, before I sign off with pictures.

We got C a video for Christmas. It had one of those flyers in the packaging, advertising other movies you can buy from the distributor or studio or whatever. C was looking at the flyer, reading the names of the movies, and she laughed out loud and said, "This one's called 'Tomb Sewer'!" We went, whaaat? until T figured out, just before she brought me the flyer to show me, that she meant "Tom Sawyer".

C's hand is really stronger than you might think, when she is using it to cover your mouth to keep you from laughing out loud at her cute little 5-year-old reading mistakes. I just thought I should warn you. Not that I would know from experience or anything...

C with her new dress held up over her nightgown

actually wearing the dress. Whenever I see this dress, until I die, I will be nearly overcome with the desire to speak with a French accent, because I sewed it while listening to A Tale of Two Cities on CD.

LT in his bathrobe. (My back is cramping up just looking at these pictures.) I had some of the space-themed flannel left over from the pajamas I made him last spring, so I used it as accent material on the robe.

crafts Archives | Page 1 of 2

| 1 2 | next ten entries