Blog Hop: Let's Go Colts

It's been a hell of a football season so far and it's only been compounded by the fact that I joined my very first Fantasy league this season. For me personally, it's been going pretty well. My "strategy" of picking Colts past and present plus guys who seemed sound and were still left in the draft has worked out nicely.

But I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, especially after last Sunday's game, that there's only one team for me: the Indianapolis Colts. Luckily, my League is comprised of fellow crafty people who are devoted fans like I am. Today, we're doing a blog hop to celebrate our fandom with crafts of all kinds.

I have friends who are fortunate to go to Colts games on a regular basis and they keep me up to date with the latest in slammin' team gear. Around two seasons ago, I started seeing these amazing gloves with pom poms on the fingertips - and I just couldn't get them out of my head.

Hopefully, you won't be able to either. For this project, you'll need:

1 pair stretch gloves, one size fits all
2 colors of fingering weight yarn (I'm using Knit Picks Palette in White and Celestial)
1 1-inch pom-pom maker
1 pair of sharp scissors
1 tapestry needle

It may seem silly to do a tutorial for a short-cut tool found in any craftstore, but I found the instructions to be kind of difficult to wrap my head around. I spent a few minutes looking at the pom pom maker trying to figure out just what the heck was going on:

Wha?

How does this even?

But here's what I settled on:

Open one side of the pom pom maker, keeping the other side closed for the time being.

Ooooh, got it.

Take the ends of your yarn and wrap them around the the pom maker, like so:

Ready

Steady

Wrap!

Ready, Steady, Wrap would be an amazing public access talk show/ game show about competative gift wrapping. I'd watch! But I digress...

You want to wrap and overlap until the pom maker is pretty full. You can use your own judgement, but the leg should be able to close will still having plenty of yarn to make a fluffy pom pom.

One half completed

Repeat the yarn wrapping on the second side of the pom maker. Close the pom maker and grab your scissors.

Making sure the hinge-side is facing you, start to cut along the middle of the yarn. One of the many bonuses to the store-bought pom pom makers that the scissors can slip into the groove in the middle and keep your cutting steady.

Snip, snip! (sorry my craft scissors are kind of funky, y'all)

Next take about 10-12 inches of one of your colors of yarn:

I chose white because my gloves are white

And get ready to wrap it around the center of the pom by inserting it into the grooves. Note: you can also use thread for this if your yarn isn't super-strong.

Tie a half-knot, wrap the ends around the pom again and tie another knot.

Your pom kind of resembles a confetti-Oreo. Time to remove it an admire your work! Gently pull one of  the sides of the pom maker away from the other to reveal: a pom pom!

TA DA!

Repeat this ten times, one for each finger of the glove. You'll be surprised how addicting pom pom making can get. You'll be done in no time!

Now to make your gloves. Each pom pom should have a pretty significant tail. Thread y our tapestry needle using one of the tails.

With the right side of the gloves facing you, weave your needle in and out of the fingertip-seam of your gloves 2-three times.

Pull your needle through the middle of the pom pom and pull tight. You want the middle of your pom pom to the sitting snugly on the fingertip of your glove. 

Thread your needle through the middle of the pom pom again and wrap it around the base of your pom pom 2-3 times. Tie a knot with the other waste yarn. Trim the excess.

Repeat for each finger and you'll have:

Pom pom gloves! There are so many ways to customize these. Embroider your team name, make more pom poms around your wrists, maybe even try this with mittens - the possibilities for any fan are endless. Best of all, this is simple enough to bang out during the first or second half of any football game you're watching at home.

Unexpected bonus: your dog will FREAK OUT about these. Droopy was mesmerized during assembly. We're a pro pom pom household.

Pom pom hypnosis

Check out the rest of our talented team of craftspeople!

CraftyPod

InLinkz.com

Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner!

The Holla Knits blog tour has come to a close, which means it's time to pick the winner of the Rolling Thunder pattern give-away!

I used the first number randomizer that came up on Google, (which seems to be from a geocities site, but I digress)

So, congratulations to MaryinTN! Send me an e-mail at doogknits@gmail.com to claim your free pattern! Can't wait to see it knit up in your version of two shades of green - my favorite color, incidentally.

Holla Knits Blog Tour & Rolling Thunder Giveaway

It's my favorite time of year. It's fall and, more importantly, it's time for the newest edition of Holla Knits!

I've been a subscriber to Holla Knits since the beginning, so I couldn't be more proud to have my first pattern design, Rolling Thunder, featured in Fall/Winter 2013.

 This southwestern-inspired yolk sweater is the perfect fall knit. It looks great on it's own or even layered over a button down, it's flattering with enough details to make it fun to knit. The stranded colorwork on the shoulders flies by - you can't wait to see the details come together! I can't wait to see the color choices people make when it they cast on.

I used Knit Picks Brava Sport in Sienna and Seashell for my original sample. I like the softness of Knit Pick's acrylic and loved the color options that line offers. The second sample features the absolutely stunning yarn of masi|knits. Their Nantucket colorways highlighted just how versatile this design can be - you can really make it your own!

Sample in Knit Picks Brava Sport

Sample in masi|knits Nantucket colorways

What colors would you use? Leave your answer in the comments for your chance to win a free copy of Rolling Thunder. A winner will be chosen next week.

Be sure to check out the rest of the collection here and follow along with the whole Holla Knits Blog Tour:

Sept 17: The Sweatshop of Love
Sept 18: The Knitting Vortex
Sept 19: Unplanned Peacock
Sept 20: Knit York City

Sept 23: masi|knits
Sept 24: Wooly Wonka Fibers
Sept 25: Moi!
Sept 26: Dyeing to Knit with Yarn Love
Sept 27: Dirty Water Dyeworks

Oct 1: Rohn Strong Designs
Oct 2: Knits in Class
Oct 4: Cosmos and Cashmere

Rolling Thunder is Here!

I've had a big summer. I've been crafting, beaching, traveling, celebrating and generally enjoying life. I've also had the opportunity to publish my very first knitting pattern in one of my favorite knitting publications. Featured in Holla Knits Fall/ Winter 2013, I'm pleased to present the Rolling Thunder sweater!

There will be no discussion or acknowledgement about my skills as a model, but I'm so proud of how this sweater turned out! It's a basic yolk sweater with some fun techniques thrown in for good measure. The shoulder details are actually stranded. The yolk is worked in with a wrap & turn at the shoulder so you're knitting on the Right Side and purling on the Wrong Side. The bottom detail is embroidered and is a great way to break up all that stockinette knitting for the body. I like to jump around to different details when I knit - keeps things interesting!

The sample I'm sportin' was made in Knit Picks Brava Sport, which is 100% acrylic. Some people find acrylic irritating, but Brava is super soft and feels great against the skin. Now that fall is in the air, you better believe I'm wearing this sample all around town. 

You can purchase the pattern here for $6.00. It's a bargain and will pay off the first time someone stops you and asks "where'd you get that sweater?"

Sparkle Motion

Although things have been quiet on the blog, I actually have been knitting. Mostly, I've been focused on gifts, which I can't really blog about in advance because I have 8 readers and I'm preeeeetty sure they'd figure it out.

So here's some odds and ends:

Knit Night inspired me to pick up the ol' crochet hook again and I made some granny squares.

I was also inspired by that episode of Call the Midwife where they all frantically patch together a baby blanket for Chummy while waiting for news from the hospital. You're all watching the show, right?

I've also picked up the Sparkle Yarn again for a new purpose. Originally, this was to be used for a Holla Back Tank, but I won't lie to you, gentle reader. The lace defeated me. The time came when I need to to decrease to make the armholes and I had to rip back four different times. I just couldn't take it anymore. I put it in a drawer and declared the project Dead To Me.

But the yarn is just so... mesmerizing. It deserves to be something. Using a modified version of Jilted from Holla Knits, I'm making a little spring sweater that will hopefully make a good addition to the work uniform.

I've taken my sweet time finishing the body, but you know what else has been dragging it's heals? Summer. So, who cares, right? It's going to have short sleeves, so hopefully I'll have results for you in this century. No promises, though!

OKFine

Sometimes, you look actually notice the ads that show up on that free online dating site you're on and you realize they're super spot-on and kind of sad:

Yeah, ok, fine. Maybe I SHOULD be putting a little more effort into this.

But then again... WHAT is Hamish Macbeth?! Sounds amazing.

FO: Jilted Sweater

This latest finished project is brought to you by RuPaul's Drag Race, Seasons 1& 2 and Valkyrie (that Tom Cruise movie you totally forgot about):

 

 I'm happy with it and forgot how much I missed me some Manilla Luzon, girl.

 

Feeling Jilted

I wanted to share my progress on my Jilted sweater, but I'm not feeling particularly verbose. So I'm just going to share a three-step process with you:

 

Step 1:

Knit and knit and knit forever

Step 2:

Remove marker and drop stitch on the front of the garment. Keep reminding yourself this is part of the design and not to panic while working on the K1P1 ribbing.

 

Step 3:

Whew! It fits! Take a selfie that gives you Double Tricep and Double Hip Mystique.

My Prerogative

Last week, I was really excited about my new project because it involved color. And I still am, I promise! Check the progress:

Bring it on down to Colorville, amiright?

But I forgot that I added some other yarn into my KnitPicks order - some Capretta in a light grey color.

This is the exact opposite of what I was looking forward to - we've had enough grey in our lives lately, after all. but you guys, this yarn... is so squishy soft and so pretty. I just wanted to try it out, honest. Plus, I did this to my nails:

Which was plenty of color to mesmerize me while I cast on a few stitches of this squishy new yarn. Those few stitches just happened to turn themselves into a project - Jilted by Jennifer Dassau featured in Holla Knits:

It's slow going, but the yarn feels so nice, it keeps me motivated. When it gets to be too much, I hop back to the chevrons. We'll see which one wraps up first! Is this a little flighty of me? To bounce wildly back and forth like this? I'll refer you to the following:

Color Wonder

I'm feeling lazy today, but I need to share my latest project. It's making me so happy because it involves color - something that the Chicagoland area has been lacking lately. Blues Brothers? More like Grey Brothers, amiright?!

My life, all day every day

So, the pattern I'm working on is called Chevron Stripe Infinity Scarf by Jill Zielinski. Allyson of Sweatshop of Love and Holla Knits was making one at Knit Night in February and it looked *so* fun. Once again, I swiped her awesome taste in patterns and decided to make one for myself.

I always struggle when it comes to putting colors together. It's just not a talent I have. Luckily, Pinterest exists and I don't have to look far for help in that department. My friend Lily directed me to Design Seeds and my work was done. I liked the color combo from this image in particular:

I would never have thought to put these together and I think this would work well with my dark green coat. Done and done. Knit Picks Palette is great for this project and comes in all known colors ever. The FedEx guy dropped these on my stoop on Friday:

A tower of yarn. Welcome to my dreams

And getting started has been a breeze.

Just trust me, this is going to be great. Even if it isn't - I'm loving the process. And that's what it's all about, right?