More FO Photos!

I have 3 FOs to show off today. My ravlery profile page is slowly being removed of all those photoless entries! :D Of course, I had to decide to catch up just when the weather is turning cold and rainy and cloudy, and the light is absolutely terrible! Typical!



This is my Simone sweater. (pattern: simone by Kristeen Griffin-Grimes, from the book "French Girl Knits". Yarn: Stylecraft Special Aran with Wool, about 500g. Needles: 4.5mm, 5mm, 5.5mm, 6mm) It's no exageration to say that I got the book specifically for this pattern, I just love it! I'm really pleased with the finished object too, except that the sleeves are a bit short (they've been pulled and tugged quite a bit to get the photo). But I figure it won't be too hard to snip above the lace, knit some rows, then graft together again.

I have to stress that I love this jumper!!!! I love the flarey sleeves and the lacey cowl neck, two things that I'm really into right now!





This is my 9 to 5 Shrug, a test crochet for Nicole Carmen. It's taken me absolutely ages to get these photos up, which I feel really bad about :< beats self over head with ball of yarn in penitence The shrug is fantastic, and the pattern is very easy to follow. My gauge was a bit off, which was totally my fault, either my gauge or much more likely, I’m a bit larger than Nicole! So I substituted trebles for doubles, and all was well :) I love this shrug, it's definitely going to get a lot of wear!




And finally, I learned a whole new knitting technique for this one, double knitting!! For the Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet House Cup over on ravelry, this month's arithmancy class task was to make something showing binary. One of the options was to knit something reversible, so double knitting immediately came to mind with that one. This pattern (which is the Double Knit Headband from Knit Hats!) seemed like it had the easiest to follow instructions out of all the ones I had, so I decided to make that. I would normally have made the large size because of my huge head, but I was using thicker yarn, so I made the medium (and I liked the leaf pattern better than the ones given for the large size).

The first row where you put the front and back stitches together on the same needle was quite hard and fiddly, and so was seperating them at the end of the leaf pattern. The actual double knitting didn't go too badly, although my balls of yarn kept getting twisted round each other. I'm sure there's a tutorial somewhere for how to avoid that, but I just untwisted them at the end of each round, and it wasn't too bad. I'd like to try more double knitting, it seems like a really good technique for making these picture, almost intarsia-like, images on a thick warm fabric. And I'm counting this towards my Year of Colour, as it's a colourwork technique! :D

And now after all that, here's funny pictures of Tupac wearing my headband :D He normally hates wearing anything knitted, but he doesn't seem to mind this. Especially if he's being bribed with a treat for posing!

Some Actual FOs!!

It feels like ages since I posted much about knitting here. I have been doing lots of it, I've just been really lazy about taking and posting photos. But now that autumn is officially here, I'm feeling much more motivated. I always feel more lethargic during the summer, and pick up again as soon as the weather turns colder. And now it's time for my picking up, yay!

My ravelry profile page still seems to be full of photoless entries, but I've been catching up a little at a time. Firstly, I got photos of my feather and fan shawlette




Pattern: feather and fan comfort shawl by Sarah Bradberry. This has been waiting for months to get photographed. It's kind of small to wear around the neck, but it is wearable (I was getting a bit fed up with knitting laceweight on 2.5mm needles, and just bound off when I felt like it). It's really good as a headscarf though, I should get some photos of it like that . . .

Next up, my sparkly white snake amigurumi:




Pattern: Ayame The Snake by Mary E. Smith I used a sparkly white boucle that I got off ebay. I actually wanted the black sparkly boucle, but it came with a ball of white as well, but it turned out fabulous for this project! I love this pattern, it goes so quickly, and as you're stuffing it as you go, there's hardly any finishing at all! It's a really good stashbuster, and I totally want to make more. I want stripey ones, and different coloured ones. My house is going to be filled with amigurumi snakes if I'm not careful!

I also got a photo of my Berry Hill fingerless mittens



Pattern: Berry Hill fingerless mittens by Liz Thompson. I love this pattern! It's one of those ones that I got obsessed with as soon as I saw it on the recently added patterns page on ravelry. I "fixed" by BPT jacket, which deserves a whole other post (I cropped it and added ribbing, it's now perfect for me!), and this is what I used the leftover yarn for. The pattern is really well written and easy to follow, and these are now my favourite pair of gloves. I've been wearing them loads because the weather has turned so cold so quickly!

There are a few more FOs that require photos being taken, but that's plenty for just now! And here's some pics of my latest WIP




Pattern: Owlmittens by SpillyJane.

I LOVE this pattern! I thought I would manage to resist the whole owl craze thing that's going through the knitting world right now, but it turns out I couldn't after all! I saw this pattern on her blog (link above), and just went nuts over it! The little owls are so cute! It's a good re-introduction to my Year of Colour 2009 (that kind of fell by the wayside over the summer. I don't think that's a good time of year for me to be knitting colourwork. It's too fiddly when I lost concentration like that).

I can't believe I'm knitting something so pretty! I keep looking down at it and marvelling. Colourwork seems like some kind of magic to me, it's just amazing to follow the chart mechanically then look down and see THAT! I want to make another pair already, this time with a white background and black owls. I want to experiment and see how the colours change and how the owls will change. I'm interested to learn more about the way the colours change when they're on top or bottom. But first I'll have to finish these ones! I started them yesterday, and that's how much I did in one evening! I would have done more, but my left hand started to get sore. I remember that happening when I first started doing stranded colourwork at the beginning of the year. It's just because my hand isn't used to that type of motion, but it's very inconvenient having to stop! If it wasn't for that, I think I would have kept going till I finished the whole first mitten, it's very addictive!

Harry Potter Knitting

I found this fab group on ravelry, the Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet House Cup, and it is so much fun! The basic premise is that it's like in the books, you're basically roleplaying that you're at Hogwarts, you get sorted into a house and everything (I'm in Ravenclaw, yay!) Then at the beginning of the month, new classes are posted. The classes are like those in the books, such as Defense Against The Dark Arts etc, and you get given a task along the theme of that class. It's basically a creativity exercise where they give you an idea, and you run with it. Then, when you start and finish your project, you get points for your house, and at the end of the term, hopefully your house will have the most points!

I've had so much fun this month, because it's given me a chance to just let my creativity run free (along Harry Potter themed lines, of course). I participated in 4 of the 6 classes.



This is the first project I created, for the Arithmancy class. The task was to make something that demonstrated the golden ratio. Pentagons do this, with the length of their diagonal being approx 1.6 times the length of the side. So I found a pentagon pattern on ravelry (the Pretty Pentagon Mini-Washcloth by Hallie Madhoun), and started crocheting some to make into a bag. I discovered while doing this that pentagons apparantly do not lie flat when you sew them together, unlike hexagons. That explains why they're not used so often in patterns, at least. And of course, I learned all about the golden ratio, and fibonacci numbers. So it was fun and educational :)



This was my project for Defense Against The Dark Arts. The task was to make something protective. This was protective against the ribbon yarn in my stash (I ripped out a charity shop sweater, not realised that you can't really rip out ribbon yarn without it looking like chewed spaghetti), it's protective for the environment as I won't need plastic bags, and my house is protected from all those plastic bags cluttering it up! The pattern is the Japanese Blossom Handbag by Mimoknits.



This is my version of the Stargate Fair Isle hat by Carol Schoenfelder. This was for Muggle Studies, where we had to make something based on a show that "muggles" would watch on television. I adapted the pattern, basically just used the charts for the zigzags and the stargate address symbols on a basic hat pattern. It's not the prettiest colourwork that I've done, because there's really too much space between some of the strands, but I like it :)




This is my favourite of the projects, I think. It's for the Ancient Runes class, where the task was to knit something monogrammed. I saw the word "runes" though, and went with that. I looked runes up on wikipedia, and found out that medieval runes correspond with the alphabet (more or less), so I picked out my initials, and duplicate stitched them onto a pair of socks knit in ravenclaw coloured yarn. I had to learn how to duplicate stitch for this project, and I absolutely love this technique now! I can totally see much more duplicate stitching in my knitting future! It's almost magical, how you weave the yarn in and out of the stitches, and it looks like the colour has been knitted in :)

This month in the HPKCHC was fun, and it got me back into doing some colourwork, which I'd kind of neglected for a while. The Year of Colour continues!! :D Plus I learned a whole new technique, and a mathmatical theory (I've been boring everyone I know IRL with facts about the golden ratio, and pointing out golden spirals to them!) I totally had to quickly upload my photos today to claim my points though, cos the new classes go up in June. I can't wait to see what they are!!

February Review

February was another productive knitting month :)

I started the Shetland Shorty shrug at the end of January, and finished it at the beginning of February.
My only project for my Year of Colour was the Sheep and Wool hat, which I haven't got any pics of yet :( Actually, writing this has reminded me, so I'll try to do it soon.
Then I heard about the Vest-uary KAL on the Stash and Burn podcast, so I finally made the Back To School U Neck Vest, which I'd been meaning to for ages, so I'm pleased about that.
I made another Luna Lovegood scarf, which I actually haven't blogged about yet.
Then I made a mohair cabled scarf, which I haven't blogged about yet either. :/
And I finished my Icelandic Turtleneck sweater on the 28th, with both armwarmers. Another thing I need to get pics of.

I need to do more colour knitting, I think. I think with the weather getting warmer through February, I've been less inclined to knit hats and gloves and things like that, and I've been set on knitting garments.

And I need to get more pics of my knitting, and blog about it more regularly. I've been too obsessed with my camera, and Flickr, recently. Ha, that sounds odd. Too obsessed with my camera to take pics of my knitting! :D I'm getting better with my camera though, I understand some of the more technical aspects of photography now,, and I've been having lots of fun experimenting.

I also performed at a hafla with my Isis Wings - no vids unfortunately, but other people took some photos, so I may post some of them soon :)

Hmm, from reading over this post, although I did a lot, I still have a lot to do!

Norwegian Star Hat

Project 2 in the Year Of Colour!!



It's the Norwegian Star Hat by Stephanie Taylor. I chose it because it had a more complicated chart, actually knitting something recognisable as a pattern, but the chart wasn't too big, 16sts by 15 rows, I think, so it was totally manageable.

It knit up so fast! I started yesterday and I would have been finished yesterday except I had to rip back to before the decreases and add 5 more rows in black to make it a bit longer. I have a huge head! :D

I totally love, love, love this hat. I was staring at it in the mirror for ages just marvelling at the fact that I knit that pattern! Those blue stars, I knit them! And even though I had to strand across 5 sts at a time sometimes, my stranding looks pretty regular.



I'm so chuffed. Eventually I had to be told to calm down because I was getting a little manic about what is essentially just a hat :) But I totally love this colourwork thing. I just have to decide what to make next :)

First FO of the Year of Colour!

I finished my Stripey hat!

I love it! I can't quite believe that I managed to complete a project in stranded colourwork! I'm so proud of myself right now :D

I thought it was going to be too small when I cast it off, but I gave it a good steam-blocking, and it fits fine now. I recently discovered the magic of steam-blocking hats, and it's wonderful. I put my hat over a pyrex bowl, and just blast the iron at it. I generally don't put the iron straight on it, unless maybe it just needs an extra flattening, and then only for a second. I did that for the top of this hat, because it was a bit pointy before blocking, and it made it so much nicer. The strands at the back got much neater and straighter too with the steaming.

As an aside, like my new head? :) I blagged it off my Dad when I went to my parents' house at Christmas time. It was just sitting in a corner anyway :D Now it only takes a second to take pics of finished hats, and I don't have to harangue any
one else into taking pics, then not having them turn out the way I would have taken them. Now all I need is a fake leg like Cookie A takes all her sock photos on, and I'll be set!

Back To The Beginning

I had to rip :(

My gauge was too tight, I had a whole extra stitch to the inch. I tried it on, and it did go round my head, but it was very tight, and I don't think it would really have worked. I was trying to convince myself that it would all work out when I blocked it, but then I reminded myself that "it's only knitting" and ripped it all the way back to the beginning to start again.

I suppose it's only to be expected that my gauge would be different as I'm doing something new. Apparently I knit super tight just now, but I'm sure it'll even out in time. In the meantime, I went up to 4.5mm needles, and just started again. It looks much more like the correct size now :) But 4.5mm needles for DK weight yarn just seems insane to me on some level! :D

The knitting also went much faster the second time around. I think I'm getting (!) used to this type of knitting, and I'm still super excited about it. Trying the little band that I had made on also made me excited about the hat when it's finished, I think the colours go together quite well. So, even though I had a sad face at the beginning of this post, I'm not really sad at all.

One thing for anyone else out there trying stranded knitting - if you have to rip back to the start, do it one row at a time! The two yarns get very tangled up if you try to pull out about ten rows then wind it back onto the ball. I would tell you to ask me how I know, but I think you can imagine ;) It was not pretty!!!

Look! I Can Do It!

Well, after much humming and hawing, and procrastinating, I finally bit the bullet and just started my Stripey hat. And I can do this stranded colour thing!!! It took me 2 hours to do 7 rows, right enough, and my left hand hurt a bit afterwards, but I did it!

Photos! :




I'm using the leftover burgundy yarn from my Mariah sweater, and some unknown black yarn from my stash. It feels like it might be a wool blend. I figured I hand wash most of my knits anyway, so it shouldn't matter if the yarns are slightly different. It took me ages to decide which colour to substitute for the blue and gray of the original pattern. Maybe that's why I was so anxious about knitting with more than one colour, because I'm scared I'll choose a sucky colour combination. Eventually I decided the burgundy would be the blue, and the black would be the gray, so that the hat will have the burgundy at the top, and not be mainly black, which I was tempted to do for the safety factor - black goes with anything, and would look good as the main colour for just about anything as well. But I stepped out of my comfort zone, and chose to use the burgundy as the main one.

I'm not sure if I'm doing it "right" - I just jumped in without watching any videos or anything because I didn't want to confuse myself immediately. My stitches look correct anyway, they're not twisted or anything, and that's more important to me than if I'm doing it "right". I'm using one colour in each hand, holding the left-hand yarn like I would hold my yarn in crochet. My left hand is tenser than in crochet, trying to keep the tension, which is why it hurt a little after the two hours. I just decided to take a break after noticing it hurting, and I'll need to find another knit project to work on in between times doing stranded knitting, I think, at least until my hand gets used to the unfamiliar motion, and stops tensing up so much. I don't want to injure myself! :D

I'm totally excited about stranded knitting, now that I've jumped in and started. I keep looking at patterns (not knitting patterns, just patterns I see around me) and thinking "oh, that could be knit!" And I've got a feeling my rav queue is going to grow even more !

My First Colourwork of 2009!

Well, I've finished the secret project (the knitting part anyway!), so I have permission from myself both to play video games, and to knit something fun where the pattern is all laid out for me. :)

I haven't started it yet (Breath of Fire called me first!) but I'm going to start it later today - Stripey by Torirot. It looks like a good beginner project as the stripes go straight up without moving around, so I think (!) I'll be able to keep track of what I'm doing!

It's ridiculous that I actually feel a little anxious thinking about doing colourwork. I mean, it's only knitting! Even if I totally mess it up, which I probably won't, it can always be ripped back and redone. I think I've just built it up in my head to be something more impossible than it actually is. The silliness of my "fear" is what's driving the Year of Colour. Plus there's all these great patterns out there, and I was holding myself back because I thought I wouldn't be good enough at it. Very silly.

So I'm very excited about making this hat! I suppose I'd better get my butt off of the computer (and away from those time-sucking video games) and actually knit it, eh? :D

Looking Forward To 2009

This year I have a few resolutions about being creative.

2009 is going to be my Year of Colour, I've decided. I'm going to learn how to do proper stranded colourwork, and I'm going to do lots of it :) I think starting with small projects will be best. There's some mitten patterns I want to try, and scarves. I can't go too wrong with those, surely :) Heh, refer me back to this page later in the year, when I'm sure I'll be whining about how hard it is, and how I messed it up!

I want to get good enough to be able to knit a full colourwork sweater. The sweater might not actually get made this year, but my aim is to improve my skills so that I would be able to, if I wanted. That sounds just vague enough to be acheiveable! :)

I also want to do more drawing. I was looking at some of my old pictures last night (yeah, I'm such a party animal!!), and I realised I haven't actually drawn anything for at least a couple of years! I like drawing and I have a ton of art supplies, so I want to draw at least a little this year.

It would be good to improve my sewing.

I want to do more things on my 101in1001 list, but that's kind of already resolved, so it doesn't really count :)

I also want to improve my photography, and to get a new camera. I think I mentioned yesterday that I'm taking a class later in the month about digital photography and photoshop. I don't know yet if I want a digital SLR camera, or just a fancy point and shoot one. I don't really know enough about cameras to know if I would need all the functions on an SLR. I think I'll need to get digital cameras for dummies and swot up!

Oh, nearly forgot! I also plan to get a drop spindle (hopefully next week) and start playing about with making my own yarn! That should be fun and interesting!

But yeah, the main resolution is to knit more (any!) colourwork. I'm a little sick of thinking it's beyond me, so I want to kick colourwork's bottom and learn to do it.

Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2009 is happy, productive, and full of good things for you all!


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