Friends

The first part of the East Meets West bag is finished. The strap and bottom are worked as one piece in the round with a short row section that widens the bottom of the bag. The front & back are worked as one piece in the round and are steeked later. That's what's on my needles now.

( Photos )
KnitFlix

My favourite thing I've knitted this year! ( Mittens )


I also thought I'd share the present I got from "Secret Santa" at work. It's super cute!( Needle holder )

Got a question for you fine folks here...(feel free to skip my verbosity to the last paragraph!)

I've been wanting to make a bag for a while out of recycled silk- not a small purse, but maybe a messenger-type bag, something if decent size that can hold a bit of weight. I know that the silk wouldn't be good for this on its own, I'd need to line the bag (and somehow reinforce the shoulder strap) or ply it with something. I was thinking about making the bag from hemp and then stitching on the silk pieces so that they're more of an outer later than an actual weight-bearing part of the bag, but that seems like a massive pain.

I don't have a sewing machine to stitch a fabric lining, nor do I have enough confidence in my hand-sewing skills to hand-stitch one (if it was just a purse or something, sure, but like I said, I want it to carry some weight- not a bag of rocks, but a couple of books, that sort of thing.

I was just playing around a bit, and I realize that I like the way the silk looks when plied with the twine. I've tried a bit of googling and not really found much on the strength, so I was hoping someone here might have a clue as to whether this would fly or not.

So...in short- will plying recycled silk with hemp twine give me the strength I need to hold up to a couple of books worth of weight? (And I'm talking notebooks/large paperback/maybe the occasional hardback and little things like keys, cell phone, typical stuff that everyone carries around- not massive coffee table books or textbooks.)

For what it's worth, I'll probably be doing this on 11 gauge needles in stockinette.

I decided that to help keep warm I am going to knit myself a shrug. I have two ideas for the neck shaping, but I like them both and can't choose. I am going to put a cheap-paint pic of my ideas at the bottom and would like your input.
They both button where the two sides meet. The shrug is going to end just below my chest area, the sleeves will also be longer, but I got lazy on the pic ^.~

Voting is nice, but I would also like to hear why you voted that way (or if my pics don't make any sense)

( silly paint pic )

Update:
(A) seems to be the fav ^.^ now comes the hard part...picking a color XD
I was thinking of going with a light grey so I can wear it with a ton of stuff and so it will be light enough to show the details I want to add to the sleeves.

A few months back, I found myself with some time on my hands and no active knitting project in progress and no real idea of what I wanted to work on next. While wandering my LYS, I found these skeins of Yoga ribbon that were just gorgeous.

I have worked with Yoga before. My very first knitting project was a garter stitch scarf in the blue-green Yoga. I would kill to pick up more of that but the yarn has been discontinued and is hard to find. The skeins that were at the store were in the golden - brown colors and I decided to do a dropped stitch scarf since I thought it would show off the gorgeous ribbon very well. I made one with all the dropped stitch rows the same length. It wasn't originally intended for a Christmas gift but when it was done, I just knew that it would perfect for my Aunt Sharon. I decided to make another one for myself. This time, I decided to experiment with the pattern and I alternated between short dropped stitch rows and longer dropped stitch rows which I think added some interest. My aunt's scarf is already packed up for Christmas but I finally got around to taking some shots of mine. Hope you like it.

( photos )

My #11 is something I call a Scruffel. It can worn as a shrug or a scarf. Made with 1.5 skeins of Caron Simply Soft. This is an original design but may write up a pattern if people are interested.

This one is actually for a friend and is a little big for me. The one I made for myself (years ago) is much more snug around the shoulders when worn as a shrug.

( What's a Scruffel??? )
Pattern - Scruffel (my own design)
Yarn - Caron Simply Soft
Ravelry Project Page - Here

x-posted to personal livejournal

I finally finished, and I must say, it looks pretty frickin' AWESOME!!!

( Flying Spaghetti Monster accepts all offers... )

Let's see, I made it with Lion Brand Fisherman's wool and some Red Heart something or other for the meatballs.  Used wedding flower crystal inserts for the eyes (I'm not so good with the fimo clay stuff), and TADA!!  I think she'll like it. 

*Edit - whoops!  Forgot the pattern - Flying Spaghetti Monster @ HistoryWeaver.org

Okay, Christmas eve TOMORROW (we do the whole gift exchanging tomorrow!) and I still am not finished, oopsie. I refuse to blame myself (even if I should have started in August, September, something - I always should!), I blame exams, and all the cute things I need to knit for myself. Hahaha. Anyway, I still have finished a heap of projects - small, cute projects, next year really will be the Year of Sweaters and Shawls (...and Socks and Hats and Mittens).

Yay!

Onto the projects! ( very picture heavy... )

I'm working on a pair of Anemoi mittens (not a Ravelry link), but I'm having a good deal of trouble on the cuffs (partly corrugated ribbing), to the point where I'm considering just going with a solid-colored cuff and then going to colorwork for the rest of the mitten when I don't have to also worry about purling. Colorwork on dpns? I'm fine. Knit/purl combination on dpns? Easy. Combination of colorwork and k/p? Apparently not my forte. Mostly, I'm having tension issues where one dpn meets another, and while I've tried moving the dpns around the work, it still looks messy.

But I refuse to be defeated, particularly when I know it's just 36 rows of 56 stitches each, and I've never been defeated before. I wonder if maybe switching from metal dpns to wood/bamboo dpns, or perhaps to two circs, would help? Since I don't currently possess enough circs or wood dpns in the correct size, I want to make sure that they would be a worthwhile investment. So, for those of you who've done corrugated ribbing, or any sort of stranded colorwork that also involves knitting/purling combinations, could you tell me about your experience, and share any pearls of wisdom?

Many thanks!

So, in a few weeks I'm flying to NYC to see Eddie Izzard at the Garden, and wanted to perhaps see if anyone knows of some really cool yarn stores in Manhattan that I should visit whilst there.  Any ideas?

I recently finished two pairs of Bella's Mittens. They were fun and easy to do. The purple pair went to my Twilight-loving SIL and the white pair went (with permission) to be auctioned off at my daughter's school fundraiser.

I also made a reversible cable scarf. I got the pattern link from here sometime this fall, but despite searching the archives and even Google, I have not been able to find it. If you are the pattern-maker, please comment so I can credit! I sent it to my purple-loving friend in Boston as a Christmas gift.

I also thought I'd show you the knitting-needle holder I made for a friend of mine last spring. Hope that's ok.

( Photos under the cut )

I've been feeling bereft since finishing my knitting; not sure what I feel like making next. *ponders*

I posted an entry about two weeks ago seeking advice on buying decent quality circular needles and was able to buy used Addis which are in the mail but while waiting, I purchased some inexpensive Pryn needles and can't believe how great they are so I thought I'd pass that on.

I'm working on lace, and my speed is way up with the Pryn needles. Meanwhile, I cast on for a scarf I'm knitting in alpaca using a set of old cheap needles and found I can't handle the frustration - I don't know how I've managed using them all this time.

So this isn't all text, here's some progress on the lace ( Woodland Shawl. )

I needed a low-cost gag gift for a friend who is a huge fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Star Trek, so I found a pattern for a potholder with the Starfleet insignia. Then I found a pattern for the gothic B of the Buffy logo, so I combined that with the potholder pattern and made a second one.

( Pictures and links under the cut )

For my Gran I knitted the Baroness Beret ravelry link   in cascades Venzia worsted weight yarn. ( 70% merino wool and 30% glorious silk) The yarn was really nice to work with, slippery and a bit splitty but gorgeous non the less. It blocked like a dream. I knit this up in about 3 days and added an extra inch of ribbing to the brim because i found the brim in the knitted prototype was too small for my gran to wear comfortably. Lots of pics under the cuts.

( Baroness Beret under the cut )

I also Knitted The Flutter Scarf Ravelry link( 5 Dollar knitting pattern) Using Malabrigo Lace in Bobby Blue. The malabrigo is great to knit with, really soft but is a bitch to tink back because it seems to have a habit of sticking to itself. This also blocked really well , and it's the first scarf I've ever blocked so yay me. The Scarf itself was fantastic to knit up and it was the first time I'd done a provisional cast on and knitted from the middle of a project to the end. I was almost put off by this, but I did it anyway because it was just too pretty not too. The resulting scarf is very, very delicate and light something My gran will enjoy :) I may do this one again with a heavier wool for myself :)

( Flutter Scarf under the cut )

All in All I loved both of these projects and will be doing them again :)

Because I'm geeky like that, I knitted myself a Christmas hat. The pictures were taken on November 11th when my friends Sam and Niels and I invaded Disneyland Paris' Christmas season, I just didn't get 'round to posting them before now X_x

( Read more... )

It might be a semi-long shot, but has anyone out there made Norah Gaughan's Phyllo Yoked Pullover from the book Knitting Nature? (Ravelry link, link to blog entry found on Google) If you have, can I ask for help with interpreting the pattern chart?

I posted on the Norah Gaughan forum and on the pattern page asking this question, but am hoping that someone here might see the question and be able to help. It's with the chart, which I can't reproduce, but hopefully someone who's made this before will be familiar with it.

My problems are with Round 11, aka "the first k3tog round".

Round 11 on the chart, as I can best interpret it, says:
1) (In a color that means do this once only, on the first repeat): Yo, K3tog
2) K8, yo, k3tog, repeat till end.

If the k3tog is meant to apply ALL repeats, then if I followed the chart as written, I would need to finish the round with another yo, k3tog right next to / on top of the yo, k3tog I began the round with. That can’t possibly be right – it definitely looks strange.

Should I just end the round with k8, and then keep on knitting as if to start the next round of plain knitting?

It certainly seems so, as this leaves me with a 10-st repeat all the way around (and the next pattern row of the sweater is a 10-st repeat). Doing a final yo, k3tog would be a 1-st decrease and only leave me with 9 st on the repeat where the rounds join. (This would be easier to figure out if I hadn’t had to keep moving my beginning-of-round marker. I don’t know where it actually is anymore!) But that is not what the chart says.

I am not sure I should trust my instincts here, as I have googled and searched for errata and found none. Hundreds of other knitters didn't seem to have any problem with the chart!

Any help would be appreciated - I have already tinked back 2x and my yarn is getting shreddy :( Thanks!

Hey knitters,

First off, thank you all for your suggestions about making stockinette-looking earflaps lie flat! I've decided to try double knitting. I've been playing around with it for a few days and I like it, but I'd like to make the edges of it one color. I searched around a bit and the only thing I came up with was to start each row with "simple double knitting" (k1, s1) in the color I want the edge to be. Okay, using just the one color at the edge makes sense. But what about the ends of the rows - should I do the last two stitches in just the one color as well? And what's this s1 thing - I've just been knitting and purling, not slipping any stitches. Should I be?

So basically my question is: If you wanted to make a double knit project with the edges all one color, how would you do it?

Thanks so much!

Perhaps a stupidly simple question - I just found out that my dad wants a cowl like I made last year for him, only this time in brown. I don't have to have it done until New Year's, but I don't think that I'll have time to do what I did last year - buy "bare" superwash wool yarn from KnitPicks and dye it, then knit it up. I really like the way "Bare" holds up, though, and the fact that it is washable.

The nearest LYS I know about is about 40 minutes away, so that won't work right now. I do have a Joanns ETC nearby - does anyone know of any comparable washable wool brands at Joanns that will hold up? I'm worried I'll buy some brand I've never used and it will pill like crazy when washed.

I was weaving in ends and thought I would take some pictures of my favorite way to do it, and share.

Once I have woven through the backs of several stitches with a blunt needle, I like to separate the yarn into segments of 1-2 plies, and weave the remainder in with a sharp needle, splitting through stitches as I go. This really locks the tail down, and I usually can't figure out where the ends are.

( snipped due to a lot of pictures )