I've been expanding my hobbies! For Christmas this past year, my family (after years of not-so-subtle hinting) surprised me with a sewing machine of my very own. The delight I felt pretty quickly morphed into a feeling of distinct intimidation. I hadn't touched a sewing machine since 2002. It had been ELEVEN years. Ho boy...
#blessed
I let it sit on the shelf for a few months and worried that I'd never actually put it to good use. Then, I found the perfect pattern that I could use to test my memory and skill level. The Purl Bee Soho Baby Sunbonnet pattern. Anything baby is going to go fast/ not use up too many resources when you forget that tension is a thing or how to properly insert your bobbin... not that I ever did those things. Those would be STUPID things to not know about.........
Anyway, there was success!
This bonnet brought to you by the Partridge Family
And suddenly, I was back in the game. Local Chicago designer Jen at Grainline Studio had captured the attention of crafters I knew primarily as knitters: my friends Allyson and Katie plus other designers I follow like Ysolda Teague were enthusiastic about her design aesthetic. I decided to give her Scout Tee a try.
Thumbs up for SUCCESS
Aside from not being super on point with my sizing, I was really proud to have produced a cute, wearable garment after only hand-sewing buttons since high school. So, why not keep going?!?
Grainline Studio is doing a sew along for its latest pattern The Adler Shirtdress. Because I need a little extra burst of confidence for a more advanced pattern, I'm pleased to announce a Mini-Sew Along with Allyson of Sweatshop of Love and Holla Knits and Katie of Under the Red Umbrella! On Mondays, you can check out Katie's progress. On Wednesdays, Allyson will allow you to peep her sewing game. On Fridays, I'll have all of the chit-chatting about sewing a baller dress that you can stand. It's going to challenging and it's going to be fun.
All My Fabrics
I'm excited, you're excited, they're excited. Gangway for good times!
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.
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?!
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?
I had a lovely stay-cation over the Christmas/New Year holidays. It's a great time of year to have plenty of time on your hands. Due to various circumstances, I was on my own for the holidays this year. This was my choice and felt a little selfish, but of course the wonderful people in my life came through as usual. Friends from college and former co-workers visited, invited and generally welcomed me with open arms.
How can you have such wonderful people in your life and not know in your heart the 2013 will be the best? To paraphrase friends: 2012 - please see yourself out.
Want to know one way I know this? I got to start a project I'd been wanting to make for a long time, without having to buy any extra yarn! (Prepare your best Jimmy Stewart impression and say "It's a Chrastmas Maricle, Clarence!!")
Remember my Delancey Cardigan? I had a great time knitting it and I liked the process... but I'll just admit it. I made a poor yarn choice and should have shortened it. What I've really made is a nice robe and not so much a cardigan.
Looking at other people's finished Delancey's on Ravelry helped me realized that many people had either size or length issues with their final projects. Then, I came across a super modified, deep v-neck version that I couldn't get out of my head. (You can see it here if you're on Rav!)
What I really loved was her eye for color. I just don't have a clue how to pair colors in a creative way, and she'd done all the work for me. When I sat down two days before Christmas, I realized I had almost all the colors in my house at the very moment! I could be making my very own Modified Delancey RIGHT THEN.
So I started:
And just couldn't stop! Christmas movie marathons really help productivity, admittedly. Thanks for your help, Zuzu's Petals!
Whaddya know about that, Bert?
I also did my best to take some time for Droopy, just so he didn't go more than a few hours without a little recognition. Otherwise he makes this face:
Hey. You. More giant Milkbone treats, plz.
As of the start of today's Bowl Game Bonanza, this is where I am:
Ignore the face and hair, please? Consider it one last Christmas gift to me, kay?
Reminder: you're ignoring the face and focusing on the chevrons!
So, basically, I'M IN LOVE. And I don't really care that it makes me look like a happy chappie in a snappy sarape. Because I love it!
Happy New Year, guys. It's going to be great - just you wait and see.
Writing my little ode to Norwegian knitting the other day made me long to try those boot socks again. I had a bit of professional news that left me in a funk on Thursday, so it was clearly time to start a new project. Cheap thrills are underrated:
And you know what? It really worked. I'm feeling great and the recent cold snap here in Chicago makes me really excited to finish these up and wear the hell out of them. Insert Norwegian Celebratory Phrase Here!
I fell behind a bit on my Holla Knits KAL work, mostly because I was busy magically transforming my home with the power of paint. My "before" photos didn't make the ol' upload this morning, so you'll have to take my word that my dining room was a subtle, light blue. I've had the idea of using a more saturated, royal blue for a while. I love the white trim around my condo's many (drafty) windows, and wanted to pick a color that would make the white pop. After a visit to Home Depot, I decided Song Bird was the way to go. A gallon was purchased. Paint supplies were carried up from storage. This is where I should offer many thanks to my lovely assistant:
Lovely Assistant shows us coat 1 of 2 while covering profanity on tee-shirt
It's always hard to capture the correct color on your point-and-shoot camera early in the morning, but these are pretty true to what I see when I walk in the room.
POW!
BAM! (Excuse the Diet Coke, I have to actually live in this house, you know)
Still working on that photo arrangement, but I'm trying to use existing holes from shelves that were up in the room's previous incarnation. I've been resisting the urge to buy tons of new art on Etsy by salvaging mediocre stuff I have hanging in other rooms/ laying in closets around the house. I'm really happy with it - I'm going to love surprising myself every time I need to walk to the kitchen for something over the next few weeks.
My knitting life has really gotten heavy duty lately. I'm working on multiple projects (more on those later) and watching the mail for Knit Picks packages. But sometimes, you get infected with a crafting brain worm of sorts. An idea occurs to you and you just can't let it go. For me, it came in the form of The Beekeepers Quilt and the components of that project, known colloquially as "Hexipuffs". For whatever reason, I couldn't stop thinking about this project.
Hexipuff Vase
What drew me to the quilt at first was the idea of using scrap yarn. It turns out, however, that most of my scraps are worsted weight and not sock yarn. Additionally, I didn't necessarily love the color story that you get when you use all your scrap yarn. My taste changes with the wind, so it would look pretty disjointed. Still, I used some sock yarn I received in a Sampler Kit to get things started. I may or may not have woken up at 3 a.m. on Saturday to download the pattern and feverishly put needle to fiber
I started with self-striping sock yarn which led to larger blocks of color per puff. Then I switched over to the color "Atmosphere Multi" which had gentle, smaller stripes which looks lovely in puff form.
I really loved the colors in the Stroll Atmosphere skein and it reminded me of a project I'd seen on Pinterest: The April Sky Scarf. The author of the post tracked the color of the sky each day in a year and knitted a stripe of a scarf to correspond with the weather that day. The colors in stripey Stroll Atmosphere are a perfect stepping off point to an insane idea: a puff for every day's sky here in Chicago. I'm tracking the sky color using a spreadsheet and will slowly acquire the appropriate yarn colors to begin. I grabbed some sparkly white Vanna's Choice from Lion Brand at Michael's yesterday to get started on the 'snow days' we've had so far in January. You can see the result in the top left-hand of the photo.
Please note that this is in no way scientific. I'm an office drone and really only see the sky during my commute or if I run in the mornings. The color listings are based off of archives from weather.com or my overall impression of the sky that day. I'm still loving this project... but that's seven puffs out of 365+. I think the Felici Moonlight colors are charming and might sprinkle them throughout to break up some of the grey months I know we've got coming.
Ok, the title of this post kind of fails. I was thinking "shorty" and trying to make a pun... moving on.
I had an unexpected visit to my hometown in Indiana this past weekend because a family member was in the hospital. She seems to have bounced back pretty quickly and we keep checking in with each other, but this gave me time to get in some serious knitting.
I made her some washcloths, which I didn't take photos of, but they were versions of this:
Warsh Clorth
In progress
I was also working on another project: a shawl for a family member of my boyfriend's. I got it finished during a Downtown Abbey viewing with my mom:
The pattern name is Murcia and the yarn was in a bundle I received for Christmas - Caron Simply Soft in Country Blue. Confession: I messed up the lace repeat at the very end, but I'm trying just to gloss over it.This has not yet been blocked, so it will stretch out a bit and look neater in the end.
I'm gearing up for some major projects and I'm excited to share them. But even more than that - I HAVE NEW YARN ON THE WAY! Oh mailman. I'm so excited for your visit.
I got busy over the holidays. I know you did, too. I was busy knitting, which I know is a surprise for you because I haven't posted for months and months! But I realized that these were gifts for people and showing them all over the internet before Christmas kind of defeated the point. And then all of a sudden, it was December 23rd and I had four projects to go. And then I was wrapping them as I was leaving for Christmas dinner and had No Time to photograph any of them.
And then I was having a beautiful New Years in a Galena, Illinois, a town that was CRYING OUT for a dusting of snow, but instead got some drizzle and looked like the old mining town it actually is:
Quaint-adjacent
But now. I'm back to knitting for fun and general merriment. And I look forward to sharing with you guys, because I love writing, fiber arts and attention. Oh, MAN do I love attention - thank you so much for giving it to me so freely.
As a token of my esteem, have a little "pattern" that I developed while watching every 30 for 30 ESPN documentary with my boyfriend over the holidays.
One Skein Seed Stitch Cowl
Materials:
1 skein Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick
Size 17 Needles (I used Circular, but straight would be preferable)
Gauge:
8 stitch x 9 rows = 4 inches Note: Gauge is not important - use whatever you needles you have on hand)
First row, K2 then P2 to end.
Second row, knit all purls and purl all knits.
Repeat Row 1 and Row 2 until end of skein (approximately 18 inches) leaving yourself enough yarn to seam ends together - (approximately enough yarn to wrap around your work twice). Instead of binding off, seam live stitches to bottom of work. Weave in ends. Steam block if desired.
Final step: Take insanely unflattering photo of yourself in the mirror before walking your dog. Enjoy!
I haven't had a ton of time for knitting, for I have been socializing and RSVPing to showers and attending Christenings. In short, being a person in my late 20's. But now, it's time to return to being a woman in her late 70's and hit those needles HARD. It's almost November and it's time to grow that Present Pile. I've been knitting lots of tiiiiny things for tiny people, so I needed something fast. I cast on this guy Sunday morning and on Sunday night I had a hat. It's in my high school's colors for my brother who is currently a sophomore at said high school (Go Greyhounds!) The pattern can be found here and can be done by anyone. For real, you can do it.
Cool hat, bro
So, now it's back to tedium with BF's Niece's Stripped Jumper Dress:
Almost a skirt
I really want to make this amazing Herribone Cowl featured on The Purl Bee (and I WILL, mind you), but I'm trying to do that thing where I don't have the exact right supplies to make what I need and it's been really messing me up on this particular project. I have started and restarted this particular project 4 times now. I hope I'll have something to show you before I throw my size 15 double pointed needles out the window for not being size 17 cable needles. You know, because it's their fault.
I was really hoping to share my finished Damn Sweater this week, but I'm blocking it and it's taking quite a while to dry. It looks like it won't be fall weather this weekend, so I'm not that upset.
Here it is, drying and waiting for buttons:
Dry, you damn sweater!
This weekend, I'll be hitting the road to visit family and take in a college football game at Indiana University. I'm super excited, especially because my boyfriend has offered to drive part way! That means it's time for a new project! I'll be working on the Nova Dress, a stripped dress for the aforementioned boyfriend's 2 year old niece. So far, this is what I've done:
Oh, Hi El Platform!
Bad photo, but the colors are really rich in person. I love working on it and seeing the stripes grow and grow.
I'll be sure to share my Dispatches from the Heartland. In the meantime, here's a picture I took this past weekend at the Ferris Bueller's Day Off screening at Wrigley Field in an attempt to improve the overall photo quality of this blog!
Let's keep it short and to the point. It's Friday, and we all have things we'd rather be doing.
I stayed up insanely late seaming together parts of That Damn Sweater and there's still a ton of work to do... like, for example... finishing the second sleeve:
Sweater sez hai
I'm hoping blocking this guy out will cover up a few puckers here and there. And don't worry - those pockets ain't done.
Are you familiar with Pinterest? It will ruin change your life. Lots of beautiful ideas and inspirations that you can collect on a virtual pin board and pretend like you're really going to do them in real life because you are insanely wealthy. The Do It Yourself projects, however, seem so reasonable, so cheep and so fun that they have gotten into my brain and I can't let them go. So, you'll get treated to some of these crazier whims here on Knittery, you luck ducks!
The most recent whim was to make yarn out of old teeshirts. It's pretty simple, but be aware, there will be lint EVERYWHERE once you get started. My first attempt ended up as this:
This is crochet and not knitting, just as an FYI. This will only matter to .05% of people, but it's worth noting in case you're curious. It's not much, but I think with a bit of Rit dye, this could turn into a legit rug. If you'll permit me a small rant, there are some things in life I find to be outrageously overpriced and I get very angry every time I have to shell out hard earned money for them. In particular, the following three annoy me the most: 1) breakfast cereal 2) razor blades and 3) floor rugs. Now, I know one of these things is not like the other, but when you have a stubbern, old, sheddy dog who pees in your house if the weather isn't nice, you go through floor rugs and corn flakes at about the same rate. The rugs start smelling like corn chips or old accidents, which means my home and therefore *I* smell like corn chips and old accidents. I'm blessed with a sensitive nose, so I can nip this oder problem in the bud before anyone can judge me too harshly, but I've gone through my fair share of carpets.
Therefore, I am resolved to find a semi-good looking & cheap alternative to the ol' Ikea special. and this might just do it. If I can just get over my fear of dying fabric, this might be a success. Oh, and get my hands on about a zillion more tee shirts.
In closing, I'm back to work on the Reverse Engineer hat. I dropped a bunch of stitches and got a little mad at it, so it need to be put it aside for a while. But we're back on track and should finish it up soon-ish:
Hat's off
Aaaanyways, that's wassup. Enjoy your weekend! I know I will:
