Knitty's summer surprise patterns

I want to make this. And I want to make it in the yarn it calls for. Normally I would just substitute it with cotton and call it a day, but I've been wanting to try just this yarn that is used for the pattern.

This weekend I've been knitting Clint's blanket. It knits up fast, but I've run out of yarn. I only by one skein at a time because 1) I don't know how many I need and I certainly don't want any leftover yarn and 2)since it's acrylic I don't have to worry about dye lots.

The blanket is half done by know (more than half done actually if you count the third strip). I've knit 2 of the strips into the blanket. It's hard to explain without photos. I pick up stitches along the strip and knit the area between them in garter stitch (the whole blanket is in garter stitch) and I attached the second strip to the blanket with 3-needle bind off. It worked out perfectly. I was afraid I would have too many or too few stitches left but it matched perfectly. The last stitch was used to fasten the edge of the strip. Now I know that I need one whole skein to knit between the strips (1x100 gr Lion Brand Homespun) so I can safely buy two more skeins. I have to knit the area between the second and the thrid strip and then then edging. You'll see how it will all come together when I'm done.

Now to needle felting

Over on flickr you can see the stuff I knitted for Hrefna and Finnur's babies.

I also have another side project. In the Interweave Felt special issue magazine there was an article on needle felting with cookie cutters. I just had to try it.



There is what I´ve done so far. I like the butterfly the best and the teddy bears aren´t finished yet. It was amazing to see the difference in how the yarn felted. The white is merino and it almost felted just by looking at it while the colored fleece took a lot more stabbing (that's what you do, you stab the wool with the needle).




Here is a google search on needle felting.

It's a fun thing to try, just to try something different.

90° turn

I´m getting hooked on sewing again. What sparked the interest was the book Bend-the-Rules Sewing. By Amy Karol, the woman behind the Angry Chicken blog.

The flickr group of the finished items from the book helped.

I came across some really cool fabric shops, like:

• Superbuzzy
  
• Cia's Palette
  
• Reprodepot Fabrics
  
• Purl Soho Fabrics
  
• Dharma Trading Linen, silk, cotton, hemp. Good basic fabric - meant for dyeing.
  
• Sublime StitchingDoes carry items to embroider, but not a fabric store. Check out the cool embroidery patterns.
  

Too bad I don´t have a sewing machine :( I did put a posting on Freecycle for Athens about a Sewing Machine and one person answered. She will be moving to Athens shortly and I can check out a sewing machine she has. She got it at a yard sale for the casing and she hasn´t tried it yet. If it works I've got myself a free sewing machine.

I hope to be able to do some bags, clothing (mostly for the girls), home decor (pillows). I´ll keep you posted.

Comfy shawl

I finished the shawl I started on Friday. It's huge! It fits across my sofa (two seater).



With Rebecca's comment to the (second to) last post I realized that both this quicky shawl and my nice fancy lace shawls are both inspired by Sigga Sif. Thanks :)

This shawl is featured on the photo for her Panneband pattern in Garnstudio.

The lace shawl was inspired by her Artic Diamond Stole.



I know this photo above it crappy. I could look a little happier and fix the position of the shawl but I decided it's was getting too late to be a perfectionist :þ



You can read all about the project by clicking one of the photos and going to the flickr page. There are two things I love about this pattern. First, that it is knit on 15 mm (US 19) needles so it's fast and it's knit side to side so in the beginning and in the end the knitting goes super fast. At it's longest point it's still only 50 sts. If you ever need instant gratification. This is it!

Finally Ravelry

I finally got my Ravelry invitation. I only signed up in May! I´ve been terribly jelous of people lucky enough to have access to Ravelry. I´m in! Yes. I can´t wait to explore it a little and learn how it works.

I´m sonjar on it if you want to be my Ravelry friend.

Hempster and Ball Holder

Since I blogged last I´ve been sick. Laying in bed for 3 days and no knitting in the meanwhile kind of sick. This sickness has also made me crazy for organizing and creative (or what else can I blame this evening on?). I introduce to you Hempster (a hemp coaster) and Ball Holder (A.K.A. not your average husbands sort of Ball Holder).



Today at WallyWorld (A.K.A. Walmart) I came across a discounted hemp jewelry cord. I thought it was ugly at first but at $2 I started to see it´s true beauty shine through. Ahem...

It's small, only 21 yds (19 m) and limited what I can use it for. First I thought a small bowl, but being a product knitter 90% of the time (except when it comes to shawls) I thought I didn´t really need a small bowl since I wasn´t having problems with small things lying around the house.

Since I don´t have any coasters I decided to make one of those. Not long ago I acquired beads that matched the colorway of the hemp perfectly so a beaded coaster was born. The pattern is just made up. I started about 3 times and ended with the simplest start you can think of (4 sc in a circle, increase in each sc in next round, increase in every other sc in next round and every third on the final round). The beads are added last, sl.st., ch1, add bead, ch1, skip one sc and sl.st. in the next.

The coaster looks good from the other side as well. From purchase to product within 4-6 hours. Not too shabby.



The Ball Holder is just a coffee container with a hole in it. But it works wonders. Took about 5 minutes to clean the container and dry and punch the hole in. I might have to sand the hole down a little as not to snag the yarn, but that remains to be seen.

If this is not enough, I also started a shawl and knit quite a bit on it as well (as I was hiding from my children in the bedroom). It helped that it is knit on size 15 (not US, but metric) needles. The yarn is Patons Divine originally bought for a crochet sweater but during swatching I realized I will never be able to crochet with this yarn. To tangly and hard to count. This simple garter stitch shawl is just what I need for it. I´m so glad this yarn found it´s match in a pattern. So the yarn I´m using is not as fancy as the original, it still has 15% mohair,

Marcia Lewandowski

I've been making a great progress on Clint's blanket. It's knitting up a lot faster than I anticipated. To the left you can see a diagram of it's construction. It's quilt- and Mason-Dixon inspired. Cover the world in garter stitch and all that. The way I do it is a little complicated, but less complicated I planned earlier. I knitted three 'scarfs' of red and golden squares. Then I pick up the stitches along the edges (with a 60" needle - 6 mm). It's knit with Lion Brand Homespun.







I don't know if any of you recognize the name in the title of this blog. I'm sure Cassie Toomuchwool does. Marcia Lewandowski wrote the book Folk Mittens and Andean Folk Knits. So where does Marcia Lewandowski come into the picture? Ok, here's what happened.

Yesterday I met Stephanie from the Thursday night knitting club at lunch. We work on the same street. I pass her work on the way to work and right next to her work is the local fried chicken favorite in Athens County. While talking to her I remember that the library had a knitting club the first Saturday of the month. I had know about this but forgotten. So I show up. Bright and early at 9 AM. That's 9 AM Saturday morning. This club is not for the faint-of-heart, lol.

Turns out they had a guest speaker, i.e. Marcia. First we sat around and knitted and then we went into a conference room to listen to Marcia speak. She brought with her all the knitted items from her two books. That was so precious. Last month I rented Folk Mittens at the library and drooled over most of the mittens. The Andean knitted items were very interesting. She has lived in Bolivia and told us a lot of interesting things regarding knitting in S-America. Then after her talk she showed us previews from her next project. A lot of very interesting and very real looking minature hats. Something about a gnome project? I'm not sure exactly what it will be but it looked fantastic. This is one talented lady. She wanted to learn more about the Icelandic Yule lads for her up coming project (this one or another one, I'm not sure). So I'll probably meet up with her again. Being Icelandic sometimes has an advantage :) he he

Random thoughts

• Thursday evening knitting night has become a regular event in my life. Even when things are crazy at work. It's great to meet the knitting gals and they are all very nice, just as any other knitters. Only drawback is that we meet at a yarn store and then you feel quilty if you're knitting with yarn not purchased there! I love to support the local yarn shop and choose it over internet shopping regardless, but it's still a little awkward.
  
  Last Thursday I got discounted yarn there. Both from Dalegarn. One was a yarn I haven't seen before. It is heathered mohair blend. Hopefully the yarn will turn into mittens for the girls for next winter.
  
  
• I've turned to preemie knitting at the moment since friends of mine had premature twins at 26 weeks and sadly only one of them lived. That one is doing great nonetheless. Hurray for him.
  
  
• I tried the Turkish Cast-On method and love it. Love it, Love it, love it. I am however going to rip out what I made (beginning of a sock) and do it over. I wasn't happy about how the toe was turning out. But the cast-on was great. It's so simple and works great with 2 circs, although you can easily switch to dpns after couple of rows.
  
  
• After I finished the shawl I had my head full of sweater ideas. They all had the yarn and the needle size in common (eingirni laceweight 1 ply on 6 mm needles). I did some swatching but I am unable to make up my mind and the idea is still evolving. Plus I have turned to preemie knitting at the moment.