Yummy Stripes

Some day, advice these will be knee socks. Some day. It is a pretty pattern, information pills though.

Let’s start with a collage of finished projects:

Finished Projects 2009

From left to right: The Angora and recycled denim hoodie that I carded and spun. The cotton cardigan I made for Brian. (I will photograph it on him as soon as I sew the buttons on…which will happen as soon as I find where I put them). The shawl I knit for myself from the most gorgeous hand dyed I picked up at an alpaca show. There were 12 different kinds of yarn. I love this shawl a lot!

Here’s a few more projects I finished in 2009.

Kate's Mobius Hat

Kate needed a tinfoil hat to get rid of the alien thoughts! So I knit her one with math involved! The band is a mobius strip!

Scarf for my daughter Jennifer

Closeup of Jen's scarf

Scarf I made for my beloved Badger

My buddy Allison took me to a great little yarn shop in Davison. She saw some yarn she really liked and I wanted to learn how to make socks! A match was born.

Socks for Allison!

I created a nice ribbed pattern with a raised stitch.

I’ll tell the story of what I was avoiding finishing after I show the avoidance project! I saw a beautiful woman last winter wearing a Cossacks style hat (a cap with a very wide fur cuff style brim). Around the same time, viagra 60mg a friend of mine created a knit hat in a similar style. I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted, so I made up my own pattern and was extraordinarily pleased with the result. I used a nice soft Moda Dea washable wool for the cap and put in a spiraled star pattern of decreases. Then I used 3 skeins of Moda Dea Chichi for the fur, which has a lovely shaggy fur texture.

Then I picked up a nice cream color wool to make one of these hats for my friend Allison, but while waiting for the outrageous pink Tiara fur from Moda Dea, I picked up some Lion Brand Fun Fur in Chocolate and made one for my Physical Therapist (minor knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus).

When I got the Moda Dea Tiara in, I quickly knit up the third hat. I had enough of the Paton’s wool and the Moda Dea Tiara to make a pair of cuffed fingerless gloves for Allison. Yeah, that’s her showing me how much she loves the set!

It made a perfect Valentine’s Day gift!

Ok…so what was I avoiding?

Back in December I started on a hoodie from the wonderful angora/denim blend I spun up. I got as far as the pocket and realized I didn’t like several things. I was following the pattern in Son of Stitch & Bitch for the Hackey Sack Hoodie. Her method for the increases on the raglan sleeve inset and the increases for the pocket just looked sloppy. I learned a little while ago about twisting the picked up stitch to get rid of holes in increases and I prefer that seamless look. The increase on the pocket was very raggedy as well. Being that this was designed for a man, the crossover neckline was bulky and high. I prefer a lower v-neck neckline, personally. And the hood was really bulky and didn’t lay nice. So, despite being over half done, it got frogged.

Upon rebuilding it, I decided to redesign all the elements I didn’t like into things I wanted. I could not be happier with the results so far. I’m at the same place I was when I frogged it the first time. I wish I had taken before and after photos…but I have taken after photos to show. Clicking on the picture will take you to a larger version if you want more detail.

This is what it looks like in it’s current state:

This is the new rolled V-neck neckline. It’s hard to see, so I took the liberty of darkening the bottom layer in photoshop.

This is the smooth raglan seam at the right front shoulder.

This is the pocket. Instead of a simple increase at the edges, I wanted something that would lay flat and not roll, so I did two knit stitches, 1 perl, 1 knit and then the increase. It turned out really nice and lays just like I wanted it to.

I still need to decide on how I want to do the edge ribbing, because K2 P2 just won’t cut it any more. I want to vent the sides a bit as well for a nicer fit. I will also flair the sleeves just a touch to make it more feminine and match the ribbing to the bottom. It’s become all about the little details to me when I create a garment. It doesn’t matter if no one else notices, it’s purely for personal satisfaction.

I have a couple of things now that I’ve spun from fiber and knit into a finished product. Brian points out that I knit like I cook, I can’t follow instructions without adding my own personal touch. Just as it should be *grins*

Closeup of Colorblast Pullover

Once I chose the pattern, medicine it knit up quickly.  That is, global burden of disease until I decided I didn’t like the way it was laying based on the original pattern.  So it got frogged again and started over.  I finished it all except the edging on the sleeves when I put it aside for a month because there were some parts I still wasn’t satisfied with, but I knew how it should look in my head.  After about 5 weeks, it hit me on one of my early morning “why the hell am I awake” moments.  I finished the edges and added some crochet lace along the neck, arms, and bottom and it turned out like my mental image.  I love this sweater quite a bit.

Color Blast Pullover

Color Blast Pullover

Color Blast Pullover

Cowl & Gloves

I may eventually felt the gloves a little to tighten then up, but boy is this set warm against the cold winds we’ve had.

Gloves

Won’t make excuses for how tired I look. I’m just going with the thought that pale is sexy.

Cowl & Gloves

Back of Cowl

Also…I am VERY geeked about my two Yule presents! The first one I used to take all these wonderful new photos. The other is in the photo below! A jumbo ball winder so that I don’t have to split my plyed skeins!

Jumbo Ball Winder

I spent some time asking her exactly what she wanted and she described in detail a particular sweater; tunic, no cuffs, no high neck, no wool, and some lace.  I found a pattern that night and a nice cotton yarn from Elann.com.  When we went to see his dad a few days later I took the pattern and color chart and she picked out a really nice cranberry yarn.  This was a wonderful followup to the shawl since it was done with much larger needles, thicker yarn, and a pattern that didn’t drive me a little batty

I think this is one of the nicest sweaters I’ve made.  I’m very pleased with the results.

Mom Chaffins' Sweater

For my birthday, eczema Brian took to what he dubbed “Fuzz Fest 2008.”  It was wonderful!  It was very difficult to limit my purchases to fit within my income.  There were SO many wonderful things, web and I decided to only buy fibers that I can’t easily find.  It really is a wonderful event.  So many things to see and touch and pet and dream of owning!

I deliberately got some natural pale color fibers to spin and ply and then hand paint.   I want to do something with black, olive, and violet, and I already have about a pound of natural cream color Babydoll Southdown, so I’m hoping to do some really neat fiber blends to make it strong, pretty, and soft.

Here’s a breakdown of the haul:

From Mielke’s Fiber Arts:

On the left, 8 oz Tencel Top for $12.50  Tencel is a fiber produced from wood fiber (cellulous)  It’s very strong and silkier than silk (the biggest difference between this and silk is that this doesn’t stick to your fingers where they are a little rough)  On the right is 4.3 oz Bombyx Silk Brick for  $13.55

16 oz 70% Merino/30% Tussah Top in the Mckenzie colorway for $36.  I hope the photo shows the colors well.  It’s very silvery with color stripes of black, cyan, bright green, rose, and purple.  It’s super soft.

From Lissabeth Alpacas:

2 lbs 6.3 oz of black Alpaca with Brown tips from an Alpaca named Empire for $57.  This is earmarked to spin with the nearly 22 oz of heathered grey Jacob I got last year from the Mt. Bruce Show.  This will make for a very attractive spotted yarn that I am going to make a cardigan out of for Brian.  He’s more info

never worn this style, but he likes it and I’m thrilled to make something he wants in colors he’s chosen.

12 oz  of creamy Alpaca from an Alpaca named Zen for $24.

From Wool and Water (a shop local to me in Royal Oak!!):

My favorite item from this trip was 2.5 oz of Tussah Silk Lap for $20 in the most exquisite jewel tones from Sapphire to Ruby.  I want to spin this and then ply it with some black alpaca.  Don’t know what I’ll make from it yet, I may just spin it and lay in it!  I really have no idea what the yardage will be, but I have to look to make something that will showcase this fiber.  Perhaps a shawl.  We’ll see.  This is both laps together.

This is the lap unrolled.

I just know that I can’t wait to start working on all of these!

-unfortunately-

I have major project I’ve been working on quite hard that needs to be spun first before I start on the new stuff.  Back in September I posted about some lovely grey angora.  I also had some recycled cotton denim.  When I got my drum carder for Christmas, I immediately set upon blending the angora, cotton, and a bit of sparkly fiber.

I’ve already spun up 6 spools, and the above batts are what I still have left to spin.  I suspect I’ll have 9 more spools from what’s there.

I’ll be making this a 3 ply yarn.  It is deliberately nubbly as I want to make a shaker sweater out of it to match one I have nearly worn out from over loving.

And on this very happy note, I think I’ll go spin!

This is the Color Blast fiber I carded made into skeins.  Can’t have a proper post without a picture!

Current Projects:

In January I started the Spirit of the Southwest shawl by Elann for my mom for her birthday at the end of March. It’s now mid may and I’m still working on it. The lace patterns are kicking my butt. It’s just slow going to make sure my tension is even and the patterns are correct. I’ve gotten good at frogging and picking up a lace pattern from mid go when I notice a mistake. The lace edging consists of 24 short rows knit 90myocarditis serif”>° to the main shawl, pilule picking up 12 stitches from the edge for each peak for a total of 35 peaks. I just hit the half way mark!!

When I realized that I wasn’t going to finish in time for her birthday (sorry, therapist mom), I put it down for a while to give myself a rest. I picked up the color blast mohair/alpaca/wool blend I’ve spent so much time blending and spinning and started my next project. On MUCH larger needles. In about 2 weeks of sporadic work, the front and back were done (I’m using the long sleeve pattern of Stitch Diva’s Sahara) I put that down out of guilt and have committed to finishing the shawl before I do anything else. Hopefully, that will be soon.

I have an angora/cotton/tinsel blend currently on the spinning wheel and the drum carder. I carded about 1/2, then spun most of that, now I need to finish the carding. Still looking for a pattern once I have a count of the yardage.

I am playing with the idea of blending the remaining rovings I have all together in striped segments of alternating colors (pale grey heather, olive green, gloss black, and violet) and making it lace weight and doing a really long shawl for myself. The yellow one I made is nice, but I’d like something with a more complex pattern and styling like the Victorian Lace shawl I made for Heather.

I still have the off white wool to spin to play with for dying. I can do anything I want to with that.

My driving force at the moment is to get as much done as I can so that I can stock up on lovely stuff in August when Brian takes me to the Michigan Fiber Festival for my birthday.

And on that note, Happy Mother’s Day! I need to go knit!

I knit this out of Peruvian wool that is unbelievably soft and yet will hold up to 4 years of wear without issue. I honestly can’t believe wool can be so soft and not itchy.

I started this over Thanksgiving weekend and another 2 evenings of making the sleeves. It was wonderfully fun to do. I can’t wait to put up pictures after Christmas of what it looks like on Ella herself!

I’m very pleased with the blend of colors. It seems a lot of folks make these types of things to use up leftover scraps of yarn. I wanted something that was more planned and the denim to plum to claret came out even prettier than I had hoped!

I love the edging. It’s done with an I-cord stitch, which is really a 4 stitch tube and the points where it meets and joins the body are actually knit together with the stitches of the coat, so these loops will hold up to curious infant fingers without coming loose.

The pattern and yarn are from Elann.com, which is fast becoming my favorite place to shop.

Oh!  And the bear?  My mom made me a pair of them about 20 years ago.  Yeah…hand made.  Ever wonder where I get this talent from?

I didn’t keep track of how long it took to spin the roving for this sweater, so I’m firmly sticking with my One Week Sweater stance here.  In any case, I have new clothes!!

Last Friday night I decided to knit a sweater. I had some yarn I had spun up a while ago that needed a project.

This was one of the first things I spun up and I got it because it felt soft and the color was so pretty, surgeon being made up from several dozen shades of blues, website greens, here and greys. The owner of the shop gave it to me at a great price because she didn’t know what it was (cotton and wool of some sort) and it had been there a while.

Well, I spent most of Friday trying to choose a pattern to try, but everything I liked needed more yardage than I had. I went to bed feeling rather frustrated. Brian insisted I just sleep on it. And sleep on it I did. I kept looking at this pattern from Knitty:

In the morning, I wound it up into balls and grabbed the extra I had from the sweater I just made for him. The guage was the same and I liked the way the two colors worked together. Then I sat (did I mention it was about 6 am on a Saturday? My head was preoccupied with health issues and I needed to stop thinking for a while) and photoshopped a little color into the patter to decide on some striping.

The concept came out a bit like this:

I liked it, so I grabbed my needles and threw myself into a project.

I just finished blocking all the pieces.

I have never finished a sweater this quickly. After it dries tonight, I’ll sew it together and create the simple neck edging. I’m really rather pleased with it at this stage.

If anyone who reads this journal is on Ravelry, I’m there as well as Jvar. Feel free to look me up there. I have additional notes on most of my recent projects there for anyone wanting more knitting detail.

[Place Holder for Finished Sweater – Check back soon]

This project took me a year to complete for a couple of reasons. The first was the dumbest mistake. I knit the second arm on the wrong size needles and had to frog it. Threw me off my game so I threw it to the side for months since the weather was turning to spring. Then I ran out of yarn and had to find the vendor who just -happened- to have more of the roving from the show where I got this batch, which is nothing short of a miracle. While it’s a natural color (not dyed) there was no guarantee that I could color match, but having some from the same show/same batch was exactly a perfect match! These are some thumbnails of the roving turning into the yarn I used taken from previous postings.

I have more of the babydoll southdown wool in white that I want to spin and then dye. I really like this wool a lot. It isn’t scratchy and the springy-ness of the fiber will help keep a garment’s shape like a pro!

Another project that I just finished for a sweet friend who is about to have a baby is a baby blanket that matches the gloves and scarf I made for her last year. I never took pictures of the scarf, but she really loved this silly muppet looking glove.

So, I used the same Lion’s Brand Fun Fur fringe on a blanket with an ultrasoft butter yellow boucle for the rest. I also need to have her get a picture of the cap I made for her baby from the same combination. I made the band from the boucle and the cap from the fun fur. She’s excited about matching when they go out now! (click pic for larger detail)

I have more spinning to do so that I can dive into some more knitting projects. I’m currently knitting up some holiday presents, so everything is in various states of completion.

Blanket adapted from this pattern.
Brian’s Sweater pattern available here.

I got nearly all my roving stash from last year’s Fiber Festival spun. I have about 2 lbs of babydoll southdown left that I want to try my hand at dying, information pills and about 1/2 lb of the alpaca/mohair blend left. Here’s what I have hanging ready to be made into skeins:

And, of course, some close ups:

Teal mystery roving.

Chocolate Babydoll Southdown: (This is the second batch after I spun 2 lbs for Brian’s sweater.  This is slated for a hat/scarf/gloves project.  I love this because it’s a natural chocolate brown!)

Leicester multi-hued yarn:

And here’some roving, rolags, and finished projects!

This is the Romney & Corriedale that I made the hat from.

The shawl was knit from a purchase of alpaca/wool yarn. The black and multi striped bag on the bottom was made from yarn left by Chris when he moved out and left it here too long. I made a hat out of it as well that he got and promptly gave to his wife. Never leave yarn here, folks. It gets made into things! Brian’s sweater parts are in the bottom bin along with some cotton roving.

Today I am making a huge vat of chicken stock so that I can freeze it and to also make a nice Chicken Potato Leek soup tonight for dinner. Tomorrow is the 17th Annual Mt. Bruce Sheep & Wool Festival and a stop at an orchard so that Sunday will be for making and devouring an apple pie and lots of spinning!!

I started by finding some gorgeous, more about bold purple felting wool roving (about a pound of it).

I spun it up and knit a large rectangle with a ribbed border. Then I felted it in the washing machine until it shrunk up to the size I wanted, treatment which was a little wider than the biggest double points I might keep. The final measurements were 24.5″ x 11.5″ I probably shrunk it down by nearly 2.5 inches to a nice tight felt.

The idea was to have a roll that would store and travel nicely. I want to eventually finish the outside with two attractive buttons with loops, but I am waiting until I get a few more of the larger DP needles to see how tight/loose it should be when rolled up.

I went looking through all my lace patterns and found one that worked with just a little modification. It’s a vine and cable mix that allows two areas to encase the needles with makes the whole thing far more stable and secure than a single cable would. I used an acrylic worsted weight yarn which has a wonderful grip to it. The needles don’t slide out at all when held on edge.

What I love best about this carrier is that it holds any size DP needles comfortably. I didn’t have to make adjustments for my size 11 needles or my size 2’s.

This is the finished DP needle case. It was fun to employ a lot of different techniques and styles to make a fun case to protect my DPs and keep them all in one place.

My next toolcase is going to be a similar style, but instead of the cables, I’m going to make a series of pockets to store all of my circular needles in one place. I’m still working on the dimensions for that.

Clicking on most pictures will display a larger picture for detail.

One of my favorite things that I made was a 40″ stuffed snake for Christopher, prosthetic who is 3. He just happens to be about 40″ tall himself. I stuffed this guy pretty full of batting, viagra 100mg so he’s perfect for cuddling, viagra or using as a pillow, which Christopher was happy to demonstrate for me. Little guy was too hyped up on the gift getting that he was moving too fast to photograph.

I found a stash of near antique plastic buttons and lucked out that the best ones were yellow, the right size, and even had a slit cut in them to give the snake even more snakiness!

I got a really nifty knit toy book, but the only thing about that patterns that I don’t care for is that every piece is knit flat and sewn. I’m not crazy about unnecessary seams. Truth be told, I like to avoid sewing as much as possible. It’s my least favorite task, right next to making fringe.

So I made a very easy modification to the pattern and used Double Point needles. Because it was stripes, there is a little jog, but as you can see in this picture, it is a far less noticeable thing than a full up seam.

Another fun bit was the tail. I wish I would have started this about 10 rows sooner. I just alternated 2 knit and then 2 pearl rows to give the tail a rattle like shape. The decreases helped to make that even more evident.

Another modification was crocheting a tongue, which I think will hold up a lot longer than the suggested felt. In any case, it was a huge hit.

Without a doubt, these are the most difficult things to photograph since they truly do look like a mop head. Or leftover muppet.

I also made her a matching scarf as a birthday gift. It earned me a big hug.

There’s something totally wonderful about getting paid to knit. But…just as I had vowed to swear off eyelash yarn forever, I got another order. Honestly, this stuff is so difficult to work with because you can’t count stitches or rows, so you have to be very diligent in paying attention to the pattern. Heaven help you if you drop a stitch. If you catch that you did. *rolls eyes* At least I insisted on a new color.

At the Christmas party at Brian’s folks, his mom let me know she’d love a pair in black. *sigh* I will never get away from eyelash yarn.

At least folks seem to love these fun gloves. It takes me an evening a glove, working at an easy pace, and since I combined patterns to get the effects I like, this pattern is now something I can do without grabbing for the instructions.

This is without a doubt my favorite way to knit up the thumbs. I just love the symmetry and the comfort.

I also made a fantastic duck dinner last night. Click on the picture if you’d like the story and the recipe.

Of course, this site the dinner and the gloves came after spending several hours stacking the wood that Brian split yesterday. Who says Sundays are lazy days?

Also, I ran out of steam helping my husband stack wood while he cut down some dead trees, but I wanted to keep an eye on him since they were 75′ trees and he had to carry much of it up hill. So I stayed close and collected a bunch of maple leaves and set about to do a rosebud boquet. I saw a tutorial here and just had to try it out.

Ta Da!

I forgot how much I enjoy knitting with double point needles

I’m actually really rather proud of how consistent I can keep my stitches. The needles are a size 3 US/3.25mm.

I fell in love with elbow length fingerless gloves last winter. I had some jet black alpaca fiber that I spun for these, pharmacy then I went the distance and even knitted them up with cables. I am looking forward to the cold weather just to wear them again. I love the feel of alpaca, seek and these are perfect since I like to wear capes more than coats. Perhaps I should consider making myself some thigh high alpaca socks

This will be perfect to help keep my damaged wrist warm and comfy this winter.

Looking over my recent posts, I realized I didn’t document the 24 oz. of Leicester I got last year. I love the colors, but it’s too scratchy for a sweater. I need to find a good project for it and quit buying pretty colors on itchy fiber.

I have also made firm plans for my birthday weekend to go to the fiber festival at the Allegan County Fairgrounds. Why no, making birthday plans 10 and a half months in advance is not presumptuous! I just have a lot of projects to finish between now and then!

Despite his teasing, I’m spinning some of the softest, springiest, chocolate Babydoll Southdown wool to make a shaker sweater. I have a wonderful snowflake to skull pattern to add to the sleeves to make it slightly work inappropriate, but fun.

The turquoise yarn for this shrug was spun from a Corriedale Top. It’s a silky feeling fiber and I added some long thread furry fun yarn around the collar, bottom, and wrists to make it fun. The colors are a little off here, they furry stuff is carribean blue, purple, olive, and copper.

This is an aptly namee Mixed Berries dyed Romney & Corriedale blend. I love the color, but it’s rather scratchy. I need to find a good project for this.

I had been looking at this lovely large ball of roving at my local fiber shop, Heritage Spinning and Weaving, for ages and finally bought it. She gave me a good deal on it because she didn’t know the fiber and it had been there a long time. There’s enough here for a full sweater.