5 posts tagged “yarn”
I did this, and people like it, and I'm doing more, but I need to skip November and December (these take forever to write, I haven't had time to tackle them, and last year is kind of too long ago now). However, I already went through a week or two of November info, so here it is. Knitting patterns only, and it doesn't cover the whole month.
All of this stuff was posted to Knitting Pattern Central in November 2007; then I went through it, weeded out patterns I thought were on the cheesy or incomprehensible side, and wrote descriptions for what was left.
Sweaters
Easy Stripes Knit Jacket: Please ignore the absolutely blinding self-striping yarn (unless you like it, I guess -- it is cheerful) and concentrate on the shape of the jacket. You can make this in any plain wool yarn that knits up at 5.5 stitches per inch at its recommended needle sizes. (Though, keep in mind that the sweater itself is actually knit at 19 stitches per 4 inches; it's the yarn that has a recommended gauge of 22 stitches per 4 inches.)
Fitted Knit Jacket: Knit in a bulky weight yarn, this jacket continues the trend of large, deconstructed collars that were so popular in knitting patterns this past year.
Leaves Jacket: Really more of a cardigan. This pattern, with its leafy, trailing vines, is only available in one size. Unlike some similar freebies, the size is a relatively generous one (about an XL).
Red Summer Top: Light, lacy cables. I am not ordinarily a fan of this kind of square short tunic top, but it has been in fashion this past year.
Saddle Shoulder Pullover: From Unicorn Books. I think almost every man I know owns some version of this sweater. The ribbing on the side helps with the fit.
Seamless Baby Kimono: Available in versions for both regular and bulky yarns! Cute. Australian terms, but in this case that mostly just means metric.
Shawl Collar Short Sleeve Pullover: Something like a vest alternative, a very textured piece that's a bit more refined than the "Red Summer Top" above, though they are similar in shape.
Snowflower Cardie: Cardigan in two possible lengths with Norwegian motifs.
Southwestern Ornament Jacket: Again, more of a cardigan, with colorful panels on a solid ground. Fair Isle and some interesting cables.
White Cable Knit Sweater: A classic and feminine high-necked Aran design.
Headwear
Horseshoe Hat: Cables decrease in size as they climb this classic cap. (Ordinarily, I like to see cables that flow out of ribbing if the two are combined, but I cannot tell if that's the case in this hat without making it... the photos don't show enough.)
Jingle Bell Taos Hat: For babies, kids, and brave or carefree adults. A loose cap made with this stripey yarn becomes a jingling crown when judiciously stitched and embellished.
Oregon Rose Cloche: Picot edging and an interesting embellishment idea make this one extra-cute. Try different colors for spring!
R2-D2 Beanie: Should this be under "Whimsies"? Maybe. It's a beanie that looks like the dome of R2-D2's head, for all your favorite Star Wars fans (and for a very lazy costume, when necessary). Complete with protruding spokes. You need this.
Scarves and Shawls
Criss Cross: Basic scarf with interlaced panels, a motif that's been popular for the last couple of years.
Dragon Scales Shawl: Simple diamond lace. Try this after you've done a lace scarf.
Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks Scarf: "Simple and sweet, like holding hands and feeding ducks." Easy star-stitch scarf in a mottled yarn. Don't knit this one too tightly or use a yarn that's intensely colorful: you wouldn't want to distract from its quiet beauty.
Osiris Scarf: Lovely and intricate cabled scarf with a very high-end look.
Pink Ribbon Hat: Features the "pink ribbon" design related to breast cancer awareness. The designer, Carissa, suggests that you could represent many causes by changing the color. (And I suggest that, if you're adept at stranded knitting, you could change the colors of just the ribbons, or the ribbons and the small cables between the panels, for a two-color look. If not trying it in two colors, you might want to skip the suggestion that you use a rainbow variegated yarn: the cable design will not show up well in a variegated yarn with intense colors.)
Bags
Ballonnett: French for "Little Balloon" (I assume), this is a small, round, drawstring handbag with a ton of vintage charm and many possible uses.
Candy Striper: Glittery, stripey, happy candy-cane goodness, by Vickie Howell. Not just for winter, if you like to wear red and white like I do.
Socks
Pulsations Socks: Lacy ankle socks. The recommended yarn adds a fashionable jolt of color.
Sideways Socks: This design uses self-striping yarn and a provisional cast-on to create stripes that run up and down the leg. After the body has been knit, the sock is grafted into a tube and a toe is added to one end.
Whimsies
Baby Santa Suit: UK terms. This is terribly kitschy, but also cute, and I can imagine that some people will want one for their wee moppet.
Baked With Love washcloth: A shadow pattern of baking supplies. Make this one in light colors, so the motif will stand out.
Knitted Baby Set: A hat, blanket, and sweater. Hearts and dots and multiple pom-poms, for maximum adorability.
Loom-Knit Snowflakes: Well, why not? You can use these in ornaments, embellishments, jewelry, etc.
Poison Coffee Cozy: Yarr! Don't be stealin' me brew, ya scurvy dog! It's a skull-and-crossbone motif drink cozy knit with a stranded technique. That might mean poison, or it might mean pirates: you decide.
Ribbon of Hope Washcloth: In the same theme as the Pink Ribbon Hat above, this washcloth has a heart-shaped two-color Pink Ribbon motif.
Squiddy: This felted squid is not as small as you might think, but he is kind of cute.
Stewie Griffin Doll: As suggested in one comment, Stewie's dreams of world domination have finally come to fruition as he joins a select group of recognizable cartoon characters rendered into knit amigurumi form. Now, practice your best Sheridan Whiteside voice to go along with him.
I also chose a couple of mitten patterns, but I have no idea where to put them.
http://knitwithkt.blogspot.com:80/2007/11/basic-mens-mittens.html
Lady Moss Mittens: Thrummed mittens are extra-warm.
Oh, dear. So now my fiance, who I have depended on to be the Hauler of Stuff throughout our relationship but particularly since our car accident (he wasn't very injured, and healed quickly), has hurt his back.
Worse, he has no idea how! It's been bothering him mildly on and off for the last week. He drove 90 minutes each way on Thanksgiving Day, sitting in an uncomfortable folding chair most of the day in the interim, then on Saturday and Sunday, he exhibited at a convention where he also sat all day on uncomfortable chairs.
He takes stuff into the con, too, but the thing I can think of that is most likely to have injured him is his Tub O' Original Art For Sale, which is so heavy that I can't even attempt to pick it up without pain. (It's several hundred sheets of bristol board, around 12x15ish.) Don't know, though. There was no moment where he did something and then thought, "I shouldn't have done that."
He has lots of good drugs from the doctor, two days off work, and a heating pad that I lent him after his appointment this morning.
On top of all this, as mentioned in my last psot, my dog has been sick this past week. Not too horribly sick, but she had a bladder infection and a yeasty ear infection. She's still being treated for both. $400 so far; I took responsiblity for half of it. *groan*
I found the missing library book I mentioned in that post. It was right where it should have been, in my stack of library books on the part of the bookshelf that I reserve for them, only I couldn't see it. It was between two larger books. I was looking at the spines, and the book I sought was pushed back a little, so the spines of the larger books met around it! You could only see that it was there by looking at the stack from a different angle.
Button Angst
And now, to the title of the post!
The other night, as a Present To Me, I ordered this purple cashmere v-neck cardigan and the matching tank that you can see in the picture. They were on sale ($60 total), and I like to be warm in the winter. It isn't here yet.
I've heard some bad things about this year's Target cashmere (like, "it's thin and itchy"), so we'll see. Last year's was great. Eucalan wash -- I use the lavender version -- helps soften most protein-fiber clothing, and you can also use a bit of diluted hair conditioner on cashmere to soften it further, as long as you can stand the conditioner being against your skin.
It seems as though the buttons will color-match, but they look whitish in some of the photos, and it's difficult to tell whether they match or not. They might have picked up a flash reflection, or they might just be light-colored buttons.
I love the intaglio/lens/cabochon buttons made by Winky and Dutch, which are a picture under a clear dome set into a metal backing and which the company itself seemingly only sells to merchants. Some time ago a friend's cousin added an entire set of their pin-up girl buttons to a sweater she had de-and-re-constructed for herself.*
It looked really cool, but the buttons themselves are pricey, as buttons go, and not all that easy to find. I'm more likely to buy something in person than to mail order it. For example, somewhere -- still in the mess of boxes from my last move -- indifferently packed by the worst movers ever, and not labelled -- I have W&D barettes, the "Sad Puppy" design in a hair-pin setting, from a shop I used to go to. Their other jewelry is not too difficult to find.
So, I noticed that ReproDepot has been having a sale on the W&D buttons, which they sell at a decent price to begin with, most of them in two sizes. It seems like they might be trying to sell through their remaining stock. The selection has decreased over the last few years; they used to carry many more "sets" than they do, IIRC, and a lot more single-button designs.
The problem is that my sweater, assuming I even want to replace the buttons on it, has five buttons. I don't like either of the Sci-Fi collections enough to buy one; I wanted the Robot or Tourism collection. No robots to be seen, and they only have a few of the Tourism buttons, one of which doesn't really match the others.
I was going to get London/Tokyo/Hollywood/Miami, all of which have blue skies, but the only other one available is Brooklyn Bridge, which doesn't. Pegasus would have been OK as the fifth match, but it was unavailable in the smaller size, about 1/3" or so, that I needed. This is the size for "shirt" buttons. There is a larger size, more like 3/4", which would work for stuff like chunky handknit sweaters. I have at least one or two of each, but not enough to work for this project.
Some searching took me to EQuilter, which has tons of cool stuff and seems to be the only other regular online merchant of these buttons. They have a larger selection (with a few more designs at the "previous page" link), but they only sell them in sets of three -- usually three of the same button, but sometimes three thematically linked buttons -- or in larger sets. They do have the robot set.
They charge, however, much more than ReproDepot does. The buttons I wanted are around $1.50-$2, depending on whether or not there's a sale, at ReproDepot. They break down to over $3 each at EQuilter, probably because they only sell the larger size (it seems). This is a lot more than I want to spend on potentially putting wacky buttons on a sweater (even $1.50 is possibly excessive, but I've wanted to do this for so many years that I was willing to go for it).
End result: I bought six Tokyo buttons from ReproDepot for about $1.50 each. The other one I really liked was London, but I didn't think that mix-and-match would work unless each button was different, which I couldn't manage with ReproDepot's current selection. Since the sweater is purple - if I use it on that - the Tokyo design both seemed like a better match for purple and more appropriate in terms of color scheme. (Purple and sky blue seems more "Japanese" than "British", right?) Obviously, I bought one extra button "just in case."
It being Christmas, and having already bought the sweater set, I had to completely ignore every other thing I want from ReproDepot. (At the last link, it's the Ayumi Uyama felt animal kits: I like the deer, rabbit, dog, and duck, in order of preference. The Minigurumi kits are all pretty adorable, too: they look like designs from a book I have, Mame Wanko, which is all about tiny fabric dogs and their accessories.)
A Mysterious Yarn-Related Project
The other crafty thing I ordered lately was Lang Mille Colori yarn in color number 68, a sort of earthtone mix. Mille Colori is a self-striping wool/acrylic blend. #68 is on color chart 2, at that link, the strip on the far right.
This is for a mystery project for which I wanted a relatively tough self-striping yarn, worsted or bulky, with non-garish colors and thin, rapidly-changing stripes.
I looked at a bunch of Berroco yarns: Keltic (stripe pattern too long and subtle), Jasper (composition made me worried it would pill, didn't see an appropriate color scheme, stripes also too subtle), and Foliage (the only color I liked for the project had been discontinued, plus I was worried that the spin was too loose/uneven -- it seems that Foliage is basically Berroco's version of Kureyon). I nearly chose Keltic's "Argyll" or "Tartan" colors; my friend memorably described most of the other colors as "week-old stale vomit" -- ouch. I considered Noro Kureyon (too uneven) and Big Kureyon (not the right colors for this project), and Rowan Tapestry (DK weight, too drapey).
I found Mille Colori in a weird, serendipitous way... it kept popping up in Google Image Searches, then also popped up when I did a search on "self-striping" and variations of the term at the site where I almost ordered some Keltic.
I hope people like this thing when I'm done with it, because I really have agonized over the yarn. If it goes right, it'll be a free pattern. If not, I will cry real tears of tears: I've been planning it for months, and I'm putting off another project to do it, and as I mentioned a few posts back, my last attempt went really wrong.
* The same girl, who supposedly didn't even particularly like me, gave me this great pair of black Doc Martens oxfords that I wear to this day. They were almost new, but she was moving and wanted to travel light, packing most of the stuff she was taking into her soft guitar case around the instrument itself. The shoes were too weighty and bulky for her to take. I still think of her gratefully every time I wear the things... and last I heard, she was doing OK.
Traveling across West Africa, it's easy to tell when you're coming to a town or city: the spindly brown trees become decorated with plastic bags like Christmas tree tinsel. Caught in shrubs and on fences, the bags clog sewers and water sources. They are ubiquitous; simple plastic bags are handed out with practically every purchase at a market stall or container shop.
Unlike in the United States--where the same litter is often visible but where waste bins and recycling are common--streets in many West African cities are devoid of garbage bins and there are few street cleaning crews to collect the waste.
This is a really interesting article about women in Burkina Faso who started an initiative to collect and recycle plastic shopping bags. Their goats were eating the bags and dying, so the women, troubled, started collecting and cleaning the bags and turning them into yarn. With the yarn, they make small saleable crafts, like the dolls shown above, as well as bags in various styles. They formed a collective under the Houet Women's Action Group for Economic Reliance, and both sell their crafts within Burkina Faso and to exporters. (Their stuff will be coming to the Hunger Site, if it isn't there already.)
For many of the women working in the collective, craft-making has become the only source of money-making. Many of the women are widows and single mothers who have come together to find ways to support their families in a country where incomes average around $1,200 annually.
Totally worth a look. The dolls in the photo above are crocheted and represent brides. Thanks to what these women are doing, their city is cleaner and more people have work.
OK, so, I wrote this long post about the cabled armwarmers I knitted, and haven't posted it yet because I wanted to add a picture, but I'm having picture problems. It has since occurred to me that I don't have a userpic on this blog. Bad, bad me!
I finished the earwarmer headband, and am working on a pattern. I don't know whether to include a pic, or to make a second headband: the headband that I finished was kind of experimental. I didn't have enough yarn to wash the gauge swatch to see if it would bloom... it did. So, the headband is wider than I'd like, and I had to pull it out half a dozen times to get it to the right length. I'm pleased with the final product, in that I've been wearing it all the time, but if I had it to do again, I would almost certainly make it a little bit narrower... it sticks out at the back of my head.
So I can post a photo, but only with the caveat that nobody else's will look exactly like mine, because the instructions are to produce something slightly different. If I make a second example, I'm not sure which bulky-gauge yarn to work with this time, maybe just Lamb's Pride Bulky. Something variegated would be nicer, more fashion-forward. But these are one-ball stash-killer projects. I have some Berroco Chinchilla I want to use up, but I am afraid it would be way too slippery to work as a headband.
Also, I have been talking about knitting too much lately, because that's what I've mostly been doing. Rest assured, I have other, non-knitting things to talk about. Perhaps tomorrow, even. We can talk about DIY decorating projects, right? Hint hint.
Among other bad girls: Nikol Lohr, of Thrifty Knitter, who wrote the book Naughty Needles. I'm waiting for the library to get it to me - I usually review books that come from the library, and as such, I have to wait until they actually decide to add them to the system, then I have to wait until the book arrives from the reserve list. I could get this particular book any time in the next month, as they didn't have it a few weeks ago and do have it now, and I am next in line for a copy, but the check-out period is three weeks.
I'm sure the review will be generally positive: I liked what I saw in the bookstore, and I particularly appreciated the array of models, all of whom are pretty, but most of whom are also curvy.* I've always liked Nikol's site Disgruntled Housewife, as well as the others she's worked on. At any rate, Naughty Needles has a website, and there are a few extra patterns there... some are even pretty innocent, like a technique-teaching purse pattern, or a pony hat for kids (cute, and way less costumey than the adorable unicorn getup in Vickie Howell's New Knits on the Block.) Nikol also wrote that trippy Katamari Damacy earmuff pattern that ShojoBeat offered for free this winter, & that I went on about at length.
* Lots of knitting books feature models who are very thin or very, very, young. For example, the photos I've seen from Pretty In Punk, an upcoming book, mostly feature garments that won't work on figures that have much in the way of curves: a tiny ruffled tube skirt, a sweater with big horizontal stripes. These are cute, but unflattering for most people. I love Teva Durham's Loop-D-Loop book, but it's another that seems limiting in flatterability (most of the stuff that looks good on boobtastic people like me is not actually offered in boobtastic sizes). It's not fair to say, "These patterns shouldn't exist, because they're only for stick figures!" - some people are that thin, and they need patterns too! But for sure, the patterns won't work for me. The majority of the patterns in Naughty Needles do indeed appear to have been designed for an array of body types.
These are posts from my old blog for the month of December, 2003.
December 22, 2003
as the dog flies
... and she does! My dog is reaching hitherto uncomfortable speeds in our not-very-large living room. I worry about her. She needs sheep to herd or something. Shelties get a little crazy if they don't have a job.
Broke all promises of my last post. Am making a small scarf (quickly finished, a tucker scarf with keyhole, just a few inches wide) in Himalaya Silk. Made for my mom but told her it's for my best friend. Also making, about 1/5 done, a pair of mittens of Lana Grossa BINGO, a fat-ish twisted manyply merino; these are being done from the pattern in The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns, in place of the RedLipstick Glittens. Wanted to make the Glittens but I just couldn't get gauge. Also had PROBLEMS with scarf when I got to halfway through making the keyhole and realized I had no idea how to do it properly with the way I was knitting the scarf. So I ran the stitches down the interior of the keyhole, tied them onto a new yarn strand, and knit the held stitches, joining the two rows at the top. Not recommended, but it does serve to reinforce the keyhole a little.
Himalaya Silk is horribly expensive. Not as bad as cashmere or Colinette, but pretty pricey. And, honestly, it's pretty, but it sucks. The twist is way too high and the yarn frequently kinks back onto itself as you knit. It also has more organic inclusions than I've seen in any other yarn, which is inexplicable, except maybe --- dirty factory? Seriously, the waste sari threads are full of dead leaves, grasses, twigs, and the occasional WHOLE SEED POD. The yarn is beautiful, but it sucks to knit. I think it's Patternworks who say something like, "not for those who like even knitting." Well, that's not even the issue. The issue is that you have to stop every two minutes to pick out a damned seed pod.
BINGO, on the other hand, I like. I don't know how it will wash up or wear. The twist seems to unwind a lot when I knit, so I feel like I'm knitting a bundle of untwisted strings, but it springs right back when the stitch is finished, and it hasn't snagged at all so far.
Still haven't posted Koigu KPPPM #628 sock photo; will try to get to that, and the above, soon. DID make it to Wolfe Fiber Arts a few days back, and bought the Lana Grossa BINGO, as well as some Noro yarn for my mom to make the infamous Noro kerchief wrap hat. Thought I was doing a good thing, since it's Shinano (which has silk) instead of Kureyon, but she got cranky over some taupe slubs in the yarn, saying, "It's not jewel-tone! It looks like barf!" Well, actually, it is jewel-tone, with small taupe slubs. And it does NOT look like barf. But there's no accounting for taste. The frustrating thing is that I got it for 30% off (cheaper than Kureyon too) and only got 3 balls in case she didn't like it. Can't decide whether to try to take it back, or try to use it. I really dislike "three balls of yarn swimming in my stash" because they mean only one thing: SCARF KNITTING. (ick.)
when will i EVER get to finish stupid Skylark and do the Rebecca A-line sweater from Gedifra Dandy? I've been so patient!
Oh - I may vanish for a few days at the end of the month. Need to pay my domain host. Won't have the money for a bit. Don't worry if the site goes down for a while; I'll be back.
Merry Christmas if you celebrate it! If not, have a lovely week! :D
December 09, 2003
coughing is no fun
And here we are in December. And this year I made a Christmas Present to myself: I'm not knitting ANYthing for ANYone else. This is why I have a problem finishing things.
I finished my Koigu sock not too long ago, but now I have to make another. Have decided that casting on to DPNs sucks. Much prefer a small circular #2. I used to wonder why other people were occasionally prone to getting twisted up, until I realized, OH, they are trying to cast on with DPNs. Anyway, I will try to post a picture later today; I picked up a cheap digital camera in the last couple of weeks.
I have a terrible cold; in fact, I've spent more of the last month sick than not. Just starting to improve in the last day or so, getting a lot of sleep. Not knitting. Only nominally related to knitting is the fact that I just got my winter boots... black UGG Boots! (You can call me Captain Caveman!) Now, apparently these have gone all fashionable, which I didn't know when I bought them... I bought them because I was sick of shopping for boots and I couldn't find anything I liked in other stores, and the things I liked on the Nordstrom website weren't available in the store. How are these related to knitting? well, they are shearling-lined and all fleecy. The girl who sold them to me said, "And you don't even really need socks!" and I thought, with all the time I have put into knitting winter socks, I'll be damned if I'm not wearing them. I didn't even know these boots were the hot thing right now until after I bought them.
Finally, the Great Stash Redistribution Project is here. You need to go look at it. I'm so enthused that it hurts. I'll be putting in lots of sock and scarf yarn. You have another day to sign up for the first time around but if you don't make it, you can still sign up for the second round.
