Pop That Bottle Top for 2012

I know I'm stating the obvious but 2012 is right around the corner! 2011 wasn't such a horrible year, all things considered, but I am so looking forward to 2012. I feel optimistic and bright at the thought of "starting over" for lack of better wording.

Naturally, I have a laundry list of resolutions for the upcoming year. One of these that falls into the crafts category is to:

Choose one pattern from one of the many craft books in my personal library to make each month.

I purposely made it vague. I don't want to feel too confined because I'll be less likely to follow through. I made this resolution because I own an obscene amount of knitting, crocheting, spinning and sewing books that I rarely use. By use I mean actually make items from the patterns offered as opposed to flipping through the pages and saying "Oooooo, pretty!" Plus I may get some inspiration for the blog if I'm actually finishing stuff. If all goes well, I should have 12 new items by year end.

My other craft resolution is to:

Finish or frog (rip out) at least one WIP (work in progress) per month.

That one is pretty self explanatory. I don't know how many WIPs I have but I think at least more than five and less than ten.

I have a few other craft related resolutions that I may get into at a later date. For now, here are some pics of recently finished object for this year in ni particular order. 2011 seems to have been the year of baby sweaters and hand warmers. Have a great one yall and Happy New Year!

I made these for a nice MTA worker that gave me a break when she really didn't have to.

Believe it or not, that there's handspun! I ran out of hanspun yarn as you can probably tell, hence the short sleeves and yellow borders. Thankfully, the shower was in August.


Finally finished this sweater. Wasn't too pleased with how it came out but the mom to be loved it and that's all that matters.

Made this potholder for charity. Its kitchy and I love it!

Made this baby set in record time. I think I found out about the shower on Wednesday and had it done by Saturday in time for the shower.

This hat was en experiment in gradients. I used three strands of sock yarn in two colors to gradually change from one to the other.

Made these for my son's teachers for Christmas.

Pondering Fair Isle

- I think I like looking at fair isle stitches rather than knitting them.

- I realize why most fair isle sweaters are knit in the round and steeked. Purling + Fair Isle = No fun!

- EZ recommends in Knitting Without Tears to put a couple of short rows in the back neck so the collar will sit better. I felt really smart for doing the calcs and executing the short rows all by myself. Then I thought after I knit them, does a baby really need the sweater neck to lay properly? All they do is lay down and sit up anyway right? oh well.


- One must have options when executing a make one to get the effect you want. I tried 3 different ones before I found the one that worked properly.

- Buttonholes? I can barely pay attention to what row I'm on, then to throw a [K2tog, YO] into the mix. Thank goodness for plan B, sew on snaps!

- I found another reason why fair isle is knit in the round. Three words: Weaving. In. Ends.


- I should have done a gauge swatch, but I like living on the edge :-) I still hold the option to eat those words later.

- This is the first time I'm actually looking forward to knitting many rows in stockinette.

Try'in Design'in

I'm not ready to give up on this blog. Even though I neglect the poor thing, I still like to express myself this way every once in a while. I've been up to a lot but I'd rather not be guilty of information overload so I'll just talk about what I'm working on right now.

I have a baby shower to attend pretty soon so I had to think of what I would make for this event. My buddy Maribel from my Barnes & Nobles knitting group has been working on this baby set for her cousin who's due. The set consists of a log cabin baby blanket and the five hour baby sweater all done in shades of purples. I fell in love with her sweater because the increases didn't look like the ones done in the original 5 hour baby sweater. Of course when I looked on Ravelry there were about 80 different versions of this sweater but I narrowed it down to the one Maribel used which is this one (rav link).

I thought this sweater would look great with a fair isle yoke so I decided to try and design one. I'm using all the stitch and row counts from the original pattern but I'm only doing 3 increase rows based on the Elizabeth Zimmerman Percentage System (EPS, they have a group on Rav, go check it out) I'm using 5, 11 and 4 row patterns from Sheila McGregors book Traditional Fair Isle Knitting and Alice Starmore's Fair Isle Knitting book. I have every thing mapped out so all that's left to do is cast on. Hopefully, I'll be able to document the whole process or at least show pics of the FO. Until next time.

Insomnia

Happy July! For some reason, I can't sleep right now even though it's way past my bedtime. I guess I can blame it on a restless mind. I've got like a million insignificant things running through it right now and I can't seem to find the off switch.

While I'm up, lets talk crafts. My crafts have pretty much been as erratic as my thoughts right now. On Monday I knitted, on Tuesday I spun (well actually plied), on Wednesday I quilted and on Thursday I sewed(sp?).

I'm knitting a newborn christening gown requested by one of my coworkers. The pattern is called Floral Trellis and can be found here on ravelry. There's an error in one of the beginning rows but its pretty obvious. All in all, its a good pattern but I just wish I would've read the pattern before I started because the whole thing is knit on a background of purl. Had I known that before hand, I would have knit it from the wrong side on a background of knit. Either way, I'm about 90 percent done.

I plied some ashland bay fiber on my wheel this week to make room for Tour de Fleece. For those who don't know, rules are simple, you spin every day the Tour de France spins. There's a ravelry group with prizes and such. I've joined about three groups already so we'll see how it goes.

I started my first quilt, I think over a year ago. I'll have to check my blog to see when exactly that was. But anyhoo, I got discouraged when it came time to quilt because I suck at it. I decided to pick it up and try again. I watched a lot of you tube videos and I still suck at it, but I'm getting better.

I'm working on sewing project for my cousin right now. She's getting married at the end of this month and wants these cute satin roses to throw birdseed out of when they leave the church, Her mom was supposed to make them but she passed away last year. My aunt loved to sew so I felt so honored when my cousin told me I could have her sewing machine. It took me a while to get the machine calibrated but I finally got it with a little prayer. It also helped that her machine is a Singer which is the same brand as my original machine.

I apologize for the pictureless post, I really do. I'll make it up next time. Now its really past my bedtime so I'm going to try and get some rest. g'night or g'morning, whatever suits your fancy.

A Little Blue and Grey

I just got the urge to blog. I don't have anything profound to say, really. I just happen to glance over at my latest FO looking all purty folded up in my craft corner and thought about posting pictures.

I made this sweater for one of my husbands friends who's girlfriend is expecting. I planned to gift this item at the shower last Saturday but we didn't make it out to Jersey that day.As long as I get it to them before the baby's born, I'm good.

The pattern is called Green zebra baby sweater (rav link) and I used TLC Essentials yarn for this version.

Where's the handbook when you need it?

Am I a bad mom because I'm contemplating buying my eight year old a winter hat and scarf set instead of making one? I feel so guilty because it would take me no time at all to whip him up a simple hat from my stash yarn......but I don't know if I want to.

Are moms even allowed to be selfish?

I wish there was a Knitting Moms Handbook I could reference for situations like these.

I guess I could buy him a cheap hat for now to tide him over until I can make him something. Then I can take my time to make him something fit for a knitters kid, yeah that sounds about right.

What the heck happened to the hat I made him last year? I think knitting goblins took it.

He wants an Amtrak hat. When I asked him what that is he drew me a picture. Its a red hat with the Amtrak logo in blue & green. I'm really not feeling it because the design is too simple for my taste but I can't deny my child. I'll probably duplicate stitch the logo since I have yet to try that technique, yeah that sounds about right.

Being the selfish knitter that I am I worked on a swatch today during my commute which is for a vest I'm designing. I love the simplicity of a simple vest over a crisp collard shirt. The yarn I'm using is super elastic so the vest will be pretty fitted. I'll keep you posted.

Wow, three days in a row. I think that's a new record.

Its magic

I had no idea that all I have to do is mention something on the blog and *poof* I'll get it done. I don't know if it works all the time but I'm glad it did.

After I turned off my computer I sat on my comfy couch and glanced over at my craft corner. I thought to myself "just grab the friggin darning needle and get the darn thing done" and I did.

I closed up the top of my hat and wove in the ends.


Basic formula is that I made a swatch, multiplied the stitch count by like 19 inches, casted on magic loop, two by two ribbing for an inch or so then mistake rib stitch until the length looked right, decrease 8 times evenly spaced every other round. The yarn was spun from Spunky Club by the way.

I was so motivated after that that I grabbed my socks and finished them off using EZ's sewn bind off while watching my housewives (don't judge me).


Basic formula is that I magic casted on 8 stitches for the toe (two at a time) and increased until it fit my foot. I was at a barbeque at the time and Bean helped me work out the cable pattern. I used the heel from that Two at at a Time socks book but the toe up one. I knit until I started to run out of yarn and ribbed until I got bored. The yarn is Socks that Rock in the Beryl colorway (I think)

I'm going to go out on a limb and try to challenge myself to blog this whole week (gasp). Lets see if the magic from this blog hasn't faded just yet.

Something New

I'm going to try something new and actually post to my blog...what a novel idea right?

Now that I'm officially an old married lady, I have time to get back into the swing of things. I went through such a crafting drought while working on the wedding but I think my mojos back now.

The last thing I knit was a pair of socks and I only started them because I needed something to keep my hands busy during my commute. They're practically done and have been done for a while but I've just been taking my time binding them off. I'm hoping that blogging about them will get me to just suck it up and get it done. I don't know why I have such an aversion to finishing but I feel drained just thinking about pulling out my darning needle. Its so bad that I started another project rather than finish those socks.

{sigh}

And the bad part of it is that I just finished my current project, a mistake rib hat made out of handspun, this evening on the train. I should bind it off and weave in the ends as soon as I finish this post.....but I won't.

I guess I'm done complaining about myself. I'm not a fan of pictureless posts so here's a pic from the honeymoon. Cross your fingers for yarny posts this week.

glutton for punishment

So I decided to unofficially join Le Tour de Fleece. I know, I know I hate joining stuff but what the hay. You can find more information on Le Tour here but its basically like spinning wool all the days that Le Tour de France cyclist spin. I say unofficially because I haven't joined a group yet. I'm spinning just to use up the stash and get back on track.

I got a head start by spinning on my spindle this past week. It felt good to be back in my element. I hadn't spun for a couple of months and it was nice to get back in the groove of things.

I wanted too spin something glitzy so I went stash diving to find something to fit the bill. I think i bought this fiber at last years Webs tent sale but it is an 8 ounce super batt from Applegate Country Fibers. The contents are wool, mohair, angora and glitz.


My process is to grab a chunk, fan it out a bit, roll it into a rolag, spin it kinda semiwoolen and immediately andean ply the singles. So far I have three mini skeins and i'm working on the fourth.

I have no particular plans for what to spin next. I'll be dusting off my wheel (literally) and putting it to work for the next couple of weeks. Hope you all have a wonderful Independence Day. I'm about to stuff my face with some burgers and dogs....and maybe hop in the sprinklers with my son :-)

This is why I don't join things

It must be the pressure of a deadline that causes my mojo to crap out and my mind to shift into full denial mode. I call myself trying to participate in Ravelympics (Go Team Sit N Knit) but I can no longer stand to knit on my hideous project.

The plan was to spin and knit a pair of mittens. I just recently procured the Magnificent Mittens & Socks book which I absolutely love so I couldn't wait to get started. My project was doomed from the start due to my lack of preparation. I picked the wool to spin from my stash on day one which is something that I should have done prior to starting.The wool is roving that I dyed alongside Erin in Boogey's dyeing workshop that I took at SOAR last year. I didn't write down the type of fiber we dyed but I know its wool. I doubted that I'd have enough for both mittens but I didn't feel like starting over. I spun the yarn worsted and navajo plied it because I wanted the yarn to be pretty smooth. Only problem is that I spun the singles way too tight and plied it even tighter. So I basically made rope. I ended up with 1 and a half ounces each of worsted weight ROPE! I thought it might bloom a bit in the wash but it didn't. I knew the project was doomed but I casted on anyway.

Mittnes are usually knit at a tight gauge so you can imagine the cramps I had in my fingers while trying to cast on and increase with worsted weight, twine-like yarn on a size 4 needle...go ahead and picture it...yup, and I kept on knitting, can you believe it? I knitted all the way until I got to the thumb. I could not find another pair of size 4 needles in my stash and I couldn't wait until I bought some the next day so I knit the thumb in my size 5's. I finished knitting the thumb and joined it to the rest of the mittens. I knit a couple of rows and then I couldn't take it anymore. This mitten is fugly and I life is too short to knit fugly stuff. I'll rip it soon but for now, I am officially throwing in the towel. This is why I don't join stuff!

Dirty Little Secrets

My mojo seems to be in hibernation mode and I'm in one of the rare moods where I actually feel like blogging. Can you believe it? I haven't finished anything crafty in a while so I don't have anything cool to show. I'm spinning some stuff but I'd rather wait until its finished so I can give the full story about the project. So I'm willing to put my business out there for the sake of this blogs.

The start of a new year usually prompts reflection on the past. I'm choosing to start this year off by posting my throwbacks, also known as UFO's. These are the items that I've put in that deep dark corner with the slightest hope of ever finishing them. I'm hoping that by outing myself maybe it might kick start my mojo. In no particular order:

Circle Shrug
I started this this past summer after seeing a fellow Sit n Knitter working on a black one at a meetup. Like most projects it started out great. The yarn is some old Woolworth type lionbrand yarn that someone gave me from their stash. I thought the color would be great as a shrug so I casted on and worked on it exclusively for a good month. I lost steam when I came to the part where I had to increase twenty billion stitches evenly in two by two ribbing. Its been sitting in the corner ever since and I have no idea if I'll ever finish it.

Handspun Socks
I have no idea when I started this sock, 2008 maybe. I know the fiber I spun was from Crown Mountain Farm but other than that, I know nuh-ting. I have no idea how many stitches I casted on, what pattern I'm using or why I decided to change the pattern to a regular rib on the front leg portion while keeping with the instep pattern on the back leg. Then I switched it back. What I was thinking.



I did it not only once, but twice! This yarn was also spun from Crown Mountain Farms fiber but I'm stumped as far as any other info. All I know is that I casted these socks on a while ago, saw that they were coming out way too big and thew them in a corner. I'll probably end up frogging this project and make something completely different.




Handspun Scarf
I had orginaly started a shawl with this handspun yarn made from Spunky roving. I designed the shawl pattern for this contest knitty had a couple of seasons ago. I was about halfway through the shawl when I got distracted and dropped a stitch and that's all she wrote. I got so frustrated that I ripped the whole thing that same day. I felt a little bad afterwards because its not the yarns fault I dropped a stitch. I casted on for a scarf thinking it would help me feel better but it didn't really. I'll probably end up frogging again.


Two-Tone Saddle Shoulder Sweater for The Boy
According to Rav I started this in March of 09. It started out great but I got stumped when it came to the edging. I can't decide if I want to do a hemmed border or a rib, and if I do choose rib then what kind, 2X2, 4X2, argh! I probably need to add a couple of inches anyway because this boy grows like a weed.




Chocolate Hat
I think I started this hat last winter knowing full well that I didn't have enough yarn to finish it. What was I thinking and why haven't I frogged this yet?



Kettle Dyed Scarf
I scored this beautiful wool yarn about 3 (maybe 4) years. Only problem is that I was only able to get one skein of it so I didn't have many options as to what to knit with it. I decided to cast on a sideways scarf and I promptly put it down somewhere and forgot all about it for no reason in particular.


Japanese Jumper
I started this jumper for my fiance's godson who was born in July of last year. This was quite an undertaking being that I am using a pattern from a Japanese knitting book. I know what the character for stitch, row and gauge are and I can follow along most of the schematics so it wasn't too bad. I missed finishing this in time for the shower so I figured I would have plenty of time to finish it. I'm afraid it may be too small for him once I'm finished.


Big Green
Last but not least, I started this sweater in May of 2008. I finished knitting the pieces by July 08. Its been sitting there all this time just waiting for me to seam it. Yeah, I know, I'm lame. I should just go ahead and finish it already.




So those are my dirty little secrets. Maybe I'll finish them, maybe I'll rip them, who knows. I hope you've been thoroughly entertained. Now go forth and knit!

oooo...purty....YARN!

I made a pretty yarn the other day. It's so pretty that it's PURTY. I loves it so much and I have no idea why I'm talking in this manner but I likes it.


The fiber was from my monthly Spunky fix. I was drawn to spin this simply by the colors alone. You may not be able to get the full effect on your monitor and I'm horrible at classifying colors but trust me, the varying hues of blue, brown and green are a-ma-zing.


I started spinning this during the end of summer. When the weathers nice, my spinning buddy Sahara and I like to take out wheels out into the wilds of Harlem. We meet at a local park and just chill and spin. I like to tote my hitchhiker to the park on those days so thats where the fiber started its journey. i took long breaks in between singles but I eventually finished this yarn last week.

I broke the roving into three (somewhat) equal lengths and spun it that way. I don't do many three ply yarns so this was great practice. Especially after all that I learned at SOAR. Speaking of SOAR, I'm going to attempt to give the specs on this yarn as its done in Spin Off (have you seen their latest issue? All I can say is WOW.)

Fiber: 4 ounces of Corriedale - April '09 Spunky Club (Soul Windows)
Preparation: Combed Top
Wheel: Merlin Tree Hitchhiker (singles) / Louet Victoria (plying)
Drafting method: Forward Short Draw
Wheel System: Scotch Tension (both)
Singles ratio: 7:1
Singles direction spun: S
Singles wraps per inch: 30
Plied ratio: 6:1
Plied direction spun: Z
Plied twist per inch: 4
Plied wraps per inch: 12
Total Yardage: 120
Yards per pound: 494.85
Yarn classification: Sport Weight

That was fun wasn't it? I should try this blogging thing more often dontcha think? I'm actually going to gift this yarn to someone. She reaads my blog so it won't be that much of a surprise. Hopefully she'll be able to make something really cool out of it! Til next time kiddies.

Back in Business

This is a small drive by post to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. I recently acquired a netbook in a pre black Friday sale so you should be hearing a lot more from me. In the meantime, you can hop on over to one of my sista-in-crafts' blog for some fiber content. She's super creative and I'm so glad that she decided to finally take the plunge into blogdom! Gobble, Gobble folks!

It took a trip to Oregon to get me out of hibernation

If you haven't guessed, I recently went to spinners heaven, also know as SOAR. For those non fiber heads out there, the acronym stands for Spin Off Autumn Retreat and I was one of the lucky few who received a scholarship (YAY)! It was absolutely surreal but I will try to put into words all that I experienced.

First of all, I screamed and cried when I found out I got the scholarship. Then I freaked out into a bunch of "ohmygodohmygodohmygod"s once I found out who I was rooming with. I had the pleasure of spending the week with cotton spinning diva Stephenie Gaustad. Sadly I didn't get any pictures of her but I felt so honored to be in her presence and yes she did the eyebrow thing a lot. She is a wealth of knowledge and shared her spinning treasures freely. She is just a genuine person that I grew very attached to. I miss our morning chats over a nice cuppa tea already. Between her and Phreadde, I think I've got this cotton spinning thing licked for sure.

I began the week with a three day workshop with Judith MacKenzie Mccuin. Yeah, I know. I'll let that sink in for a minute. The topic was spinning for socks but we got that and so much more. I won't get into everything right now because I just don't have the time but I will share one tidbit. During the week I would run into random SOARers and they would ask "Whats one thing you learned?" My answer was usually this: I learned that functional yarn does not have to be pretty. That means that if I want to spin yarn for a light lofty sweater or a durable sock it does not have to look like mill spun it. For some reason this really changed my way of thinking. Like I feel a load has been lifted.

On Wednesday, I sat down to lunch and guess who was seated a couple of chairs down from me.....Evelyn (Swallowtail Shawl) Clarke! I didn't warn you guys that I would be dropping names like dimes but its so much fun. I couldn't think of anything cool or witty to say when I first recognized her so I just stayed quiet. She did seem quite lovely though.

There was an impromptu spinning contest and I was unwillingly entered into the contest by one of my pushy retreatmates that wouldn't take no for an answer. I came in last but thats OK because I keep telling myself that I had the prettiest yarn of them all.

I may seem all over the place in this post but its like information overload. You know what I mean? Anyway, I got to hang out with another scholarship recipient Erin. She's my new BFF. She's so giving and creative and I'm so glad that I met her. We had a swilling good time! I had to travel all the way to Oregon to meet Jimbobspins too who lives all the way in Brooklyn (go figure). Hopefully I'll be able to stalk meet up with him at a spinning meetup.

I took four retreat classes on Friday and Saturday. I got to drum card luxury fiber with Abby (I'd like to think that we're BFF"s in my head), mix colors with Deb (I also like to think that we're all on a first name basis like that), dye squishy fiber with Amy (I really wish that I could've had one of my braids dyed pink) and spin long draw with Maggie (What a delight, she even offered us a popcorn glove).

Like a dummy, I didn't whip out my camera as often as I should, but here's the loot that I scored at the market. I got two spindles. The square one is from Spindlewood and its a square red palm whorl with an ebony shaft. My other spindle is a Tom Forrester and it spins like a dream.

Eight ounces of polworth fiber from Rovings in the apple colorway (couldn't.resist.)

Two ounces of a polworth/silk blend from A Verb for Keeping Warm

Two ounces of a baby alpaca/cashmere blend from The Fold

Four ounces of Optim from Chameleon Colorworks

Four ounces of Targhee in the Golden olive colorway from Tactile (Hi Maia!)

Skein of lightweight STR in the Vine Maple colorway

I also purchased some of the SOAR fiber who's proceeds benefit the Susan G. Komen for the Cure and SOAR scholarship fund. It is eight ounces of a BBFL and Tussah Silk mix from Ashalnd Bay.

Once I get my projects from class organized I'll share them in pieces on this blog. My computer is on the fritz right now so I've been using my fiance's macbook which is not as easy for me to navigate. When I get my own laptop I'll be able to post a lot more. I'm sure I'm leaving tons of stuff out but I don't want this post to get too long. I'll catch you guys on the flip side.

A Gallery of Yarns

Here's some of the yarn I've spun in the past month.

Fiber: Merino
Colorway: N/A
Purchased: online somewhere
Ply: 2
Weight: .92 ounces
Yardage: 50 yards
WPI: 12 - Light worsted
Spun on: My Spinning Bunny spindle


Fiber: Wool/Mohair
Colorway: Carnival - hand dyed by me using easter egg dyes
Purchased: Sheep Shed Studio
Ply: 2
Weight: 1.62 ounces
Yardage: 65.44 yards
WPI: 11 - Worsted weight
Spun on: Louet Victoria Wheel


Fiber:Naturally Dyed BFL
Colorway: Dogwood
Purchased: Tactile Fiber Arts via Rhinebeck '08
Ply: 2
Weight: 2.12 ounces
Yardage: 68.33 yards
WPI: 13 - worsted weight
Spun on: Merlin Tree Hitchhiker Wheel


Fiber: Corriedale
Colorway: Green
Purchased: A long time ago on Ebay
Ply: 1
Weight: 1.30 ounces
Yardage: 60 yards
WPI: 15 - Sport weight
Spun on: Louet Victoria Wheel


Fiber: Merino Wool
Colorway: Shades of green (base color dyed by me)
Purchased: Variety of colors in one ounce pieces purchased on Ebay
Ply: 3 - Navajo plied
Weight: 1.84 ounces
Yardage: 48.3 yards
WPI: 8 - Bulky
Spun on: Louet Victoria Wheel


Fiber: Shetland Wool
Colorway: Selfish
Purchased: Spunky Fiber Club
Ply: 2
Weight: 3.96
Yardage: 123.5 yards
WPI: 11 - Heavy worsted weight
Spun on: Merlin Tree Hitchiker Wheel



Fiber: Merino
Colorway: Say a Little Prayer
Purchased: Crown Mountain Farms - Sock Hop
Ply: 2
Weight: 4.30 ounces
Yardage: 131.04 yards
WPI: 11 - worsted weight
Spun on: Merlin Tree Hitchhiker Wheel