Preview

Check back tomorrow for the full scoop!

Cabled Inspiration

.

I think that knitted cables must have been originally inspired by tree roots like this.

Bag into Pillow

A few years ago I took a class to learn a knitting technique called entrelac.  It's basically a knitted fabric that looks woven.  The project for the class was this bag.

.

.
Well, the bag has been sitting around since I finished it, because it's not really a very useful bag to me.
.

.

(Sprocket contemplating the bag.)

. 

.

Not long ago it dawned on me that I could use the bag as a pillow cover instead!

. 

.

So I got a pillow form from Michaels, and lo and behold it fits!

. 

.

It's a pretty tight fit, so I opted to sew the cover on rather than use buttons.  I figured that the gaps between the buttons would show the white pillow inside.

. 

.

Voila!  Now my handiwork is useful rather than stuffed away in my craft cupboard awaiting an uncertain fate!

Baby Sweaters

I didn't get all my projects finished up by the end of the year as planned, but I have made some progress.  I've been working on finishing up some baby sweaters.  Now when Baby P gets here, he won't have to be naked!

.

.

This sweater finally has buttons sewn on and the ducks now have beaks, feet and eyes!

.

 

 .

 .

This sweater has buttons.

.

.

.

And I actually made another sweater!  It's all done, except for a button; let's hope that it doesn't take me as long to get a button on this sweater as it did on the others!

Green Shawl

A while back David bought me this gorgeous varegated green yarn.  I knew that I wanted to make it into a shawl or scarf, but I also knew that my usual lacy patterns would get lost in all the color.  So I found a nice simple pattern, aptly named "Simple Thing"

.

.

It's mostly plain stockinette stitch, but near the edge there's a few rows of eyelets.

.

.

It's a bit bigger than my usual scarfs, so I've decided that it's a shawl.  I've been draping it over my shoulders in the evenings when I get a little chilly, while knitting or watching a movie!

Bike Rack Cozies

In St. John's the other day this bike rack caught my eye.

.

.

What are those?

.

.

They appear to be knit bike rack cozies.

. 

.

I think that someone has way to much time on their hands!

Stars and Hearts

A few months ago I went through my stash of yarn.  I got rid of about one third of it, mostly yarn that I had bought a long time ago, that I no longer liked.  There was some acrylic yarn, and a lot of "novelty" yarn.  With the rest of the yarn I tried to match up yarn with a pattern, and put them together in a Ziploc bag so that I could have ready made projects.  This way I would be able to easily use the yarn I already have, and not be as tempted to go out and buy new yarn.  In one of the bags I had a lot of small balls of yarn in the red-orange-yellow family of colors.  Many of these were yarns that I had dyed using kool-aid,  so I didn't have a large quantity of any one color.  I had matched this hodge-podge of yarns up with a hat pattern with a star design and ear flaps.

.

 

.

This design was actually commissioned for the first Harry Potter movie.  Baby Harry was supposed to wear this hat when he was left on his aunt and uncle's doorstep.  However, the night that they filmed that scene was warm, so they ended up not using the hat.  I actually made the smallest size, which was supposed to fit an infant, figuring that I know a couple of people who are pregnant and this would be a great gift to have on hand.  But I didn't really check my gauge, and apparently I used larger yarn than they had in mind . . . so instead it fits me.  I'm not sure where I would wear this hat, so it may go in my gift pile anyway.

.

.

When I was done knitting the hat, which took very little time, there were about a million ends to sew in.  That took forever!  When I was done I still had some yarn left, so I figured that I would save it and make another one someday . . . maybe once I'd forgotten about sewing in all the ends.

.

.

The very next day I cast on a second one.  Oops!  This one worked out better however, because I sewed in the ends as I went along.  I also switched to the heart pattern.  

.

.

Sprocket helped me block them!

Pink Cowl

Last year after I finished taking the PE, I bought this yarn as a reward for all the studying that I had done.  It is a wool silk blend, and since it's so soft and shiny and pretty I was waiting to find the perfect project to use it.

.

.

I thought that this cowl pattern was a perfect fit for my yarn.  Cowls go right against the neck's sensitive skin, and the combination of merino wool and silk is very soft and not a bit itchy.

. 

.

I had only one skein of yarn, which made a cowl a good choice because it doesn't take much yarn.  I used the entire skein.  In fact I ran out of yarn when I still had about 10 stitches to bind off.  Luckily I had a different yarn that is a near match for color, and the bind off isn't easily visible.

. 

Cold Weather

The weather that we've been having makes me want to do this:

.

Autumn Shrug

With the weather turning colder and colder (and with me being kind of a wimp when it comes to cold temperatures), knitting season has definitely begun!  You may remember that I recently finished my blue sweater "Shalom", well now I've made a variation on the "Dream in Color Shrug". 

.

.

I made one of these 2 years ago in green following the pattern as written.  This time around I used the same basic pattern for the shrug but used a different lace pattern.  The lace is from Lace & Eyelets from the Harmony Guide series, it's called "Goblet Lace".

. 

.

Stay tuned, I have another sweater that I started last winter that I have only 1 sleeve left to knit!

Body Double

A while back David helped me make a dress maker's form out of duct tape and an old T-shirt.

.

.

Basically, I put on an old T-shirt, got wrapped in duct tape, cut open the back so I could get out, taped it back up and stuffed it.

.

.

I've already used it to help me do some finishing on the "Shalom" sweater that I recently finished.  Above you can see the arm holes were way too big, so I wanted to sew them up some.

.

.

Using the dress-maker's form I was able to see clearly what I was doing to get the arm holes even, and make it pretty hard to see the added seams.

.

.

Sweater complete!  This pattern is called "Shalom" and is knit using "Minnow Merino" yarn that my mom got me for my birthday 2 years ago.  It is wonderfully soft and just the right amount of warm!

Ishbel

I've just finished another triangular lace scarf.  The pattern that I used for this one is called "Ishbel."  The designer is Ysolda Teague. 

.

.

This project started out really well.  The beginning is just stockinette stitch, with the increases to make it triangular.  Then just when I was starting to get bored with the stockinette, the lace part started.

. 

.

I was cruising along with the lace, when I noticed that the ball of yarn I was using was dwindling . . . a little faster than I would have liked.  You see, this yarn was leftover from another project. 

.

David bought (2) 100g skeins me this yarn a few years ago, and I made both of us a pair of socks.  I love when things match, so I was pretty pumped that we would have matching socks!  That is until I accidentally shrunk my pair in the wash.  (Darn you shrinkable wool!)  They weren't completely ruined; they shrunk just enough that they no longer fit me, though.  So I gave them to Melissa because she has smaller feet then I do.

.

So anyway, I had a fairly good sized ball of yarn left over and I thought it would be perfect to make this shawl.  When I started to suspect that I wouldn't have enough yarn, I decided to check using the "Shawl Progress Calculator" on the blog "Rose-Kim Knits" (http://www.rose-kim.com/).  You see, since this is a triangular scarf, each row is several stitches longer than the row before it.  So when you are 50% done with the number of rows, you aren't actually 50% done with the scarf. 

.

According to the Calculator I had 29% percent of the scarf left to do.  When I weighed my scarf and the remaining yarn, I discovered that I only had about 10% of the yarn left!  I took a break from knitting on my scarf to contemplate my options.  I could try to find another skein of the same yarn . . . in the same dye lot . . . not likely.  I could do the edge in a different color . . . but that wouldn't look very good.  So I decided that I had no choice but to take out the whole scarf and find some other use for the yarn.

.

Bummer.

. 

.

The very next day, David comes up to me with a small ball of yarn in his hand.  "Is this more of that yarn that you were looking for?"  he asked. 

.

And indeed it was!  It seems that I have little bits of yarn all over the house!

.

And was it enough yarn?

.

.

It certainly was, with just a few yards to spare!

Déjà vu

This post may look very familiar.  You're probably thinking that you've seen that blue lace scarf before.

.

.

And you'd be right . . . but you'd also be wrong!

.

I used the same "Shetland Triangle" pattern that I used back in February, but I used different yarn.  Still blue but a different brand.  At the yarn shop they seemed pretty different to me, but now that they are knit up they're looking very similar.

.

.

Also new is the blocking method that I used.  Last time I pinned the scarf out on a towel using about 75 sewing pins.  But I recently obtained actual blocking mats and lace blocking wires, so this time I tried them out.  I am a big fan of them!  I slipped a blocking wire through the points of the scalloped edge, and along the straight side, and then used about 20 pins to hold the wires in place.

.

.

I've currently got another lace scarf on the needles, so you'll probably being seeing the blocking equipment again soon!

Knit Lace Scarf

I just finished knitting my blue lace scarf. I've been wanting to try making a triangular lace scarf for a while, but I thought that it would take a long time, and be really difficult.

. .

It turned out to be much easier than I anticipated! I started this scarf about 2 weeks ago, finished knitting on Tuesday, blocked it on Wednesday, and now I'm actually wearing it!

.

.

Here's a picture of the scarf blocking.

.

.

Hooray!

Sock Summit

Last weekend we went to Sock Summit. It was a whole convention just about knitting socks. Lacy and I were going to try to sign up for a class, but all the classes filled up within hours of online registration starting. So we contented ourselves with attending the marketplace, which was full of yarn, knitting needles, and basically any knitting accessory that you can imagine. We both brought our husbands along, to entertain each other and keep track of Mary so that we could focus on the yarn!

.

.

Brianne with a whole-lotta yarn.

.

.

More yarn.

.

.

Lacy, Mary and Brianne.

.

.

David was good-natured enough to pose with yarn.

.

.