Lace Ornament #2

Another one I made last year and liked:

Here’s a fun way to use up all those little bits of beautiful yarn left over from projects.They look great on the tree or in a bowl and, since you can knit one in an evening, they make great gifts. I’ve knitted over a glass ornament, but a nice plastic or satin ornament would be lovely as well!

In addition to the yarn and ornament, you will need 112 size 8 seed beads and a size 10 (1.15mm) steel hook to place them. This ornament only uses a few grams of yarn. An entire skein would make a lot.

Lace patterns are charted, with construction instructions written out.

This listing is for a pdf file emailed to your email address. If you would prefer an instant download, follow this link to Ravelry.

Please make sure the email address associated with your PayPal account is correct, as that is where I will send your pattern. I check mail at least once every weekday and usually, but not always, on weekends and holidays. As soon as I see your order and payment, I will email you the pattern.

I have done my best to make sure the pattern is error-free. However, I am only human. If you find an error or have a question, please leave a comment and I will be happy to assist you.

Price: $3.50

***Wholesale Inquiries Welcome***

Lace Ornament #1

I made a few of these last year for the HGB Sale. Finally got around to testing the chart and writing up a pattern a few weeks ago. So, here it is:

These ornaments are a great way to use up leftover yarn. In addition to 1-2 grams of yarn, you will need 30 size 8 seed beads and a size 10 (1.15mm) hook to place them, and a standard size round glass or plastic ornament.

Lace patterns are charted, with construction instructions written out.

This listing is for a pdf file emailed to your email address. If you would prefer an instant download, follow this link to Ravelry.

Please make sure the email address associated with your PayPal account is correct, as that is where I will send your pattern. I check mail at least once every weekday and usually, but not always, on weekends and holidays. As soon as I see your order and payment, I will email you the pattern.

I have done my best to make sure the pattern is error-free. However, I am only human. If you find an error or have a question, please leave a comment and I will be happy to assist you.

Price: $3.50

***Wholesale Inquiries Welcome*** 

A Bright Idea

I had a bright idea last night. I had heard of people using bra underwires from old bras for purse handles. I thought it would be neat to try and felt them inside of I-cord. In the washer. With the bag. Yes, I did, and the wires worked themselves out and through the bag, so I pulled out a very odd thing at the end of the cycle. I was able to pull the wires out, but the bag has a very wonky texture in spots. I put the bag back in for a short cycle and the holes went away, but it is still a little oddly shaped with weirs textured spots. Not going in the sale next week, that’s for sure. If it wasn’t for the spot that looks like a man’s nipple, I think I would finish it and try to sell it, but that's a deal-breaker. I’m looking at is a raw material for something else at this point.

 one side

 the other side

I should have taken a picture when I took it out of the washer the first time, but I was too appalled. 


At least I was able to knock another project off my list. Down to 13 projects on the needles, and now I have an empty tote bag...

Anyway, I checked out Rita Buchanan's new video from the guild library a couple of weeks ago and finally had a chance to watch it yesterday. Two dvds of technique and she has a sense of humor too! I'm enthralled. Wish I has time to get the wheel out, and the wool combs. The part where she shows how to use wool combs is the clearest, most reasonable explanation I've seen so far. I bought some used combs a year or two ago and have been putting off trying them, but now I can't wait. Have to, though, at least until I get everything tagged for the sale. Better go!

Dance of the Butterflies

 
Surround yourself with lacy butterflies of all sizes. Version 1 is knitted in Dream in Color Baby, a superwash wool yarn, for a warm scarf.




Version 2 is knitted in Infinity Soy Silk for a dressy, drapey scarf.

Lace patterns are charted, with construction instructions written out.

Patterns sold through the blog are pdf files sent via email, not instant downloads. If you would like to purchase an instant download, visit me on Ravelry. Please make sure the email address associated with your PayPal account is correct, as that is where I will send your pattern. I check mail at least once every weekday and usually, but not always, on weekends and holidays. As soon as I see your order and payment, I will email you the pattern.

I have done my best to make sure the pattern is error-free. However, I am only human. If you find an error or have a question, please leave a comment and I will be happy to assist you.

Price: $7.00

***Wholesale Inquiries Welcome***

and one more...

...but only because I was rooting through everything, looking for things that need to be tagged for the HGB Annual Sale. It was in a tote in the hall bathroom (long story) in a basket with a couple of totes containing just yarn. So, what I feel (almost) sure is the last project on the needles:

15) Heere Be Dragone, cast on several years ago. I knitted 20 or so rows and got distracted.

Scary how that phrase keeps popping up. I feel like I almost always finish what I start, or at least officially give up and frog it, but apparently that's not the case. I did , however, finish #12 on my list last night, the red Morgana fingerless gloves. I did the cuff on Friday night while we were watching Weird US Volume 3. Grafted the cuff and knitted the hand last night during Octopussy (good Bond movie, creepy title). So now I have 7 pairs in various colors to go into the sale on November 1. Yay!

The color is off, it's been cloudy here and I've had to rely on flash. They are a nice clear red, not the pumpkin color you see here. Even though I put this down at the end of the summer, I've knitted so many pairs of these that I didn't need to look at the pattern. I think it's permanently burned into my brain. ;) But I now have a pair to go with each jacket or sweater, and my kids all have a pair, and they keep selling. Not bad for a couple of evenings and one ball of yarn.

About the whole yarn in the bathroom thing...over the summer, our plastic (not fiberglass, but PLASTIC) bathtub started to crack in several places, leaking water to the underside of the tub and out into the room. We hired Robin to remove the tub and see if the subfloor needed to be replaced. Luckily it does not, but we don't have the funds to put a new tub in yet. So there is this large, rectangular space where the tub used to be, sitting there serving no purpose.

At the same time, Milly wound up with 26 totes of yarn from a friend of a friend who decided she's not going to knit anymore. One thing led to another and I wound up bringing 5 totes home. I sorted them and repacked them, putting some of the yarn I already had into the mix, and then I needed somewhere to put them. Well. Unless I want to move around this stack of totes all the time, or have to move it to do laundry, the only sensible place was the bathroom. It's only temporary, but for now it works. There's even room to move them around and look for yarn.

Kevin really misses taking tub baths so we will be getting a new tub soon, but I think I have time to at least begin knitting through some of this yarn. After a bit I'll know which ones I won't ever use and I can weed those out too.

I found another one!

Since yesterday's post, I unearthed two more projects that I'd forgotten about .

13) Anarchist sweater from my friend Stephanie's handspun I cast on about a year ago. I knitted 1-1/2 strips and got distracted.

14)  A knitted handbag of my own devising that only needs to be felted and given a strap. Not sure why I put this one aside, there don't appear to be any problems. Once I get to that point, I'm usually pretty jazzed to see it all done.

And a box of yarn arrived today. I ordered EZ's Green Sweater kit last week, so that will be stirred into the mix soon. I wonder what I'll uncover tomorrow.

Startitis!

I know I already have plenty on the needles, but this past week I've cast on more. Spent the entire weekend (for all practical purposes) knitting an hour or two on this, then doing a fast, easy chore and knitting an hour or two on something else.

Off the top of my head, here's the list:

1) Scheherazade stole, a little more than halfway done but currently buried under
2) Knitted lace ornaments, with the glass balls and the charts from last year and the yarn and everything in a big plastic box.
3) February Lady, knitted to a bit below the armholes
4) Fairies and Flowers is more than halfway done, but I only ever knit one chart repeat at a time.
5) Funny and Fancy from Think Outside the Sox, halfway through the second cuff
6) Noro zigzag scarf I'm knitting off the top of my head. Have about 8 squares, need about 20.
7) Lace Mohair baby blanket I'm knitting for community knitting at Mew Mews. I only knit on it at community knitting, though, so it's slow going.
8) Sojourner in purple! Just got the yarn last week and have about 1-1/2" so far. Did I mention it's purple?
9) Cable Luxe Tunic for Tara. Bought the pattern and yarn at least a year ago, maybe 2. Cast on over the weekend.
10) black Ogre Slippers for Finn. I've made 3 pairs so far. Knitted past the heel of one over the weekend
11) Tara's brown cable vest, a special request. She picked out some cables she likes, actually all of the cables in St Brigid from Aran Knitting, and I did the math and swatched for a vest that would fit tiny her. Almost halfway through the ribbing.
12) red Morgana fingerless mittens that I started over the summer. Made one and haven't touched the bag since.

Well, that's not as bad as I'd feared, actually. A dozen projects, I can live with that! I was thinking there were about 20. It does seem like more when the bags are piled up by my knitting spot in the living room. Seemed like I saw the word "half" a lot, though. Pics tomorrow if all goes well.

Funny and Fancy

Finished the first Funny and Fancy sock yesterday. I don't usually knit socks cuff-down, so I started the toe shaping sooner than I should have. When I tried it on my toes felt all squished. I did have Devi try it on and it fits her like a dream. The staccato has enough silk that she said she would love to wear them. She has a firm dislike of wool socks, so I stopped knitting them for her years ago. We'll see how it goes after she actually wears them for a whole day, but the ooh! I heard as she slipped it on bodes well.

Sweater Quest

I've had it on hold for a while, and yesterday it finally came in. Sweater Quest by Adrienne Martini kept me up way past my bedtime, and kept me from laundry and dishes this morning. Not that housework gets me all excited, but today at least I had a better excuse than usual. Adrienne has a very companionable writing style. It's like sitting and the kitchen table with her and talking about knitting. The book is about her 1 year process of knitting Alice Starmore's Mary Tudor cardigan. Sometime around 1am I snuck out of bed and got my copy of Tudor Roses so I could see what she was describing. Made me want to cast on right then. A Henry VII for my DH? Elizabeth I for myself or one of the girls? Anne of Cleves, maybe?

But it's not just that. The questions she asks are interesting questions, and the process of answering them is like a mini journey inside of the larger journey. Parenting without losing yourself, copyright, creative control, the process of knitting and learning, dealing with a delightful and sometimes frustrating obsession are all there. I hope the second half is as good as the first half was. At this rate I'll be done by morning.

Funny and Fancy

Inspired by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, I decided to do my own self-imposed sock club. I spent much of the past week finding all my sock yarn and interesting patterns to go with them. I have not counted, but I'm confident that there's more than 2 years' worth bagged up on the bookshelf. Shameful amount of sock yarn, I know, but it kind of snuck up on me, 2 balls at a time. You know how it goes.

The first one I picked is Funny and Fancy from Think Outside the Sox. I haven't done much intarsia because I tend to find it irritating, but these sock intrigue me. Starting out with 10 yarn balls tried my patience, but once there were a few rows it was easier to manage all those yarn balls and I could see the payoff.

I knitted the first crossing this afternoon. Could it be love?

Eco Vest

Red Eco Vest

Sometime in July, I lost my mind and decided that the blistering heat would end sooner if I cast on a sweater, so I cast on 3 in 2 weeks. In all fairness one was this vest and one was a baby sweater so I didn't totally lose it.

I finished the Eco Vest from Knitting Green last week. It was a fun knit, even if I did have a scare during the mid-construction blocking. The whole idea of mid-construction blocking is alien to me, but I figured there might be a reason for it so I played along. Anyway, I think the person who entered the measurements into the schematic mixed things up so that a 6-repeat section should be 7.5" across when the gauge specs say 2 repeats should equal 7". It also indicated that the whole piece should be 21" wide. After my initial heart attack I realized that someone put a number in the wrong spot and did the math on my own. I blocked it to 21" across the back, 34.5" wide in total.

The back and part of the fronts are knitted in one piece from the bottom up, then you pick up stitches and knit the fronts/shawl collar in one piece towards the center front. Easy peasy! Both sections have nice, rhythmic stitch patterns that are easy to memorize. This one got knitted in many places, mostly out and about.

With worsted weight and fairly large needles, it looks boxy on the blocking board but nice and curvy on me. I put the button a little higher than pattern says so it looks more like an empire waist. It drapes nicely and I think I'll be wearing it a lot once the weather cools down.

Hexagon Socks

 Hexagon Socks

I decided a while back that I had to try the Hexagon socks in Think Outside the Sox. They are so cool! I should have thought it out a bit more, though, before I decided to change the hexagon size to better fit my narrow feet. The result? One lovely, colorful sock that won't go over my heel. Or the heel of my teenage daughter. Or the heel of my 11 year old son. I'm so bummed!

I know, looking and leaping and all that. Nobody's fault but my own. I was over joyed when the first band of hexes fit around my foot so well, and after I knitted the heel I tried them on and they fit fine, but were going to too short in the toe, but I thought that I could just add a few more rows of knitting before the toe decreases and Bob's your uncle. Never thought about the heel until I tried it on in the yarn shop after I had finished all the hexagons and the cuff and was ready to knit the toe.

Still, it is a lovely sock. I'm not going to knit another one just like it since it doesn't fit anyone, but filled with glass marbles it should stand up on the bookshelf just fine. I'm glad I knitted it. The heel is pure genius, and the knitting was interesting and fun. Not ready to tackle a differently-sized pair right now, but in the future who knows?