4 posts tagged “scarf”

Even though it's the end of January, it's never too late to write up my knitting recap from the holidays, right? :)

For Christmas, I planned a variety of knitting projects to go with my gifts.  Since this was something I was going to enjoy, not feel pressure with, I kept thinking of other ideas along the way of things I could gift instead of my knitting if I didn't get it done.  But actually, I ended up making additional knitted gifts because I got done *faster* with most things that I thought.

clapotis modeling 2

Happy Clapotis Scarf.  For a gift for my mother-in-law, I wanted something fairly light because she's in CA, and so a regular warm scarf was not going to be great.  I didn't think I had the time to do a full clapotis wrap, but I found a scarf sized version that looked more usable.  And then for the yarn, I did some research (Knitty Boards, membership required to view) because I wasn't as excited about the chunky look from the scarf pattern, and the Lion and Lamb that the wrap had was nice but not from a yarn store I normally shop at.  I found that Knit Picks had some great colors of their Shimmer, and I was sold, it had beautiful color options and was baby alpaca and silk which seemed like it would be light.  Then I found someone on Ravelry (CaseyK's clapotis) who had used the same yarn and colorway triple stranded, and that looked like a really nice weight, so I went with that.

Actually knitting this was a joy.  I had so much fun figuring out the stitches and anticipating when the next drop happened.  It curled up a bit while knitting, but then blocking it made all the difference in the world, the drop ladders turned out all straight and perfect and much more beautiful than I thought.  I would seriously consider making myself a full Clapotis wrap if I could think of somewhere to wear it.

socks anastasia blocking

Stripey Anastasia Socks.  For my mom.  I thought she might be the only person who would appreciate socks, and plus with our drawing names, I wasn't sure who I would get to have enough time for this project.  I knew that she had slightly smaller feet than me (and in hind sight, I probably still should have made them a little less long), and so that helped for knowing what measurement to use.

I found the yarn before picking a pattern.  When I saw the Felici yarn from Knit Picks when they introduce it, I knew the Firefighter colorway was totally her.  So then I just had to find a pattern that would work okay with this yarn and be a little more interesting than just straight stockingette.  The Anastasia pattern had a spiral that was reversed on the 2nd sock, and that looked like fun to knit (it was). 

I started these when I first got the yarn, but then did them slowly alongside all the other gifts, so it was the last thing finished of my gifts.  They blocked up really nicely, although my k2tog/yo and ssk/yo aren't exactly the same size, so the holes on the 2nd sock are slightly bigger, and that was a little sad.  It's certainly not as noticeable when the socks are on.

armwarmer on

Chocolatty Armwarmers and Scarf.  For Lisa, who works in the family business in an office/warehouse that is cold.  I figured she could use these armwarmers when driving and typing in the cold.  I saw someone on Ravelry (lixolux) a while back that had armwarmers with plaits (braids) instead of the fancy flowery cable from the pattern, and I really liked that.  My Stitchionary comes in handy for that, and I'd used the plaited cable on an afghan square already, so I knew I could do it. And I was more comfortable this time around with doing cabling without a cable needle, which came in handy!

And then instead of looking for the suggested Noro online, I found some people making things out of the new Debbie Mumm yarn, which I could get at Jo-Ann's w/o stressing about finding a real yarn store.  This yarn was not great to knit with, but the finished product was pretty good.  The repeats in colors weren't the same anywhere in the 2nd skein so I had to do a lot of work to make them look the same. 

These were such a fast knit that as I got to the end of my holiday knitting, I decided to make a really skinny scarf to go with them.  I did it in the same rib as the armwarmers, and every once in a while, I put the plait cable in.  I made it nice and long and I enjoyed trying it on for photos :)

ballet warmers close

I love the construction of these.  I've finally gotten very comfortable with short rows, and so this was easy.  I made the ties a little longer, but I still wish I'd gone further, they didn't wrap around twice like ballet slippers very easily.  The stretchy yarn was fun to work with, and they really did strech well.  Of course, this made them look little in the package!  I think I could have made them a little bigger and had them work for longer, but I made the kids size already, so I was scared I was overthinking it.

Then when I was shopping for the Cascade Fixation, I thought I'd also get some yarn and make some stretchy legwarmers to go with.  I used the Fixation held with a variety of other worsted weight yarn (Wool-Ease, the Swish Superwash, and some Knit Picks Twist I picked up on clearance).  They didn't quite come out as strechy as I'd hoped, and it took me a little longer due to wanting to weave in ends as I went but not detatch yarn.  I should have done them on dpns, but I was trying to get a feel for using circular needles on small diameters, so this also took me a lot more adjusting than I wanted.  Overall, I wish I'd made them a little bigger and even maybe just with the fixation instead of stripes.

mittens together

Also, I found patterns with some sort of neat stitch patterns on them, and I liked those, but I was worried about getting his little fingers caught.  So I came up with a slip stitch pattern that looked like it was fair isle instead.  This made for a nice warm and pretty mitten.  I had a hard time with getting the placement of the thumb right and the length of the mitten to actually look like the length of his hand.  It took quite a few tries to get it right, but I really like how it turned out in the end.  The thumb was stripey to keep the bulk of the fabric down, and that looked super cute.

The thing I was most disappointed with was my i-cord.  I still don't feel like my i-cords are very even, and I tried to jazz this one up with alternating the colors, which made for ends to weave in and potentially look funny after some wears.

But the best thing was Leonard wearing the gloves around his neck from the i-cord on Christmas Eve.  Even if he doesn't wear them much, that picture in my head was worth it!

Ravelry project page.

And that's the story of my holiday knitting.  I really enjoyed the projects I did, and certainly am happy I did it all! :)

The week before my sister's wedding, I finally finished my 2nd scarf.  I worked on it alongside a lot of projects towards the end of the year and the beginning of this, so even though it was in process for a long time, it wasn't like it was the only thing I had going on!

What: Scarf #2
Started: mid-November
Finished: January 29, 2007
What for? Me personally!

I'm very happy with it - it's soft, and warm, and perfect colors.  I made it longer than I thought I would - it's like 110+" without the fringe, and 6" of fringe.

yarn

Scarffringe

One of the fun things I did in finishing is making the fringe - I went looking for the right size of cardboard or something for wrapping my fringe on instead of just guessing, and instead I picked up a book.  So Green Eggs and Ham ended up with yarn wrapped around it, and it was the perfect length ;)

The fringe actually has fuzzed up a bit since I've been wearing it, but I really don't mind, it's a nice soft fuzz.

It's been a while since I've made a knitting post (posts tagged "knitting")!

Recap of 2006: Back at the beginning of November, I had the idea to learn to knit so I'd have something to do when we were driving down to California on our trip.  I started with a long scarf, and knew I wanted to keep learning more.

When I was done with that, I quickly cast on for my next scarf, a softer one out of Lion Brand Homespun in Barrington.  I'm using a pattern from The New Knitting Stitch Library which is *p1, k1*, p1 on right side, and k3, *p3, k3* on the wrong side, using 18 stitches (stitch pattern is 6 stitches plus 3).  It's making long stripes, and with the homespun hides all patterns slightly so I wanted something slightly more interesting to try and show it more, and this works well. 

At the beginning of December, I decided I wanted to try and make some potholders for my mom's Christmas present.  3 is always the perfect number in my head, so I set out to make 3 different colored potholders using the Lion Brand pattern.  I originally got Lion Cotton in Poppy Red, Seaspray, and Sagebrush, but then I wasn't sure this was as much my mom as it could be.  So I decided I could make some for my Mother-in-law, too, and the Seaspray and Sagebrush were much more her.  I found some Sugar n Cream in Black and Americana Ombre for my mom and Seashore, great match for my mother-in-law's other colors. 

As I worked on these, my wrists got sore of pulling hard to work with 3 strands held together at all time, and I started trying out continental and that helps, but slowed me down some!

So I finished my mom's a few days before Christmas, and started in on my Mother-in-law's on Christmas morning.  I ended up finishing them once we were at their house, and telling her what I was doing.

Here's the finished sets, all tied up together with a crocheted chain, folded nicely to almost look like a heart in the center!  You can see them in process here, too (photos tagged "potholder")

Scarf 2 in process

Where I'm at now: My scarf in progress is doing VERY well - it's over 60" when I measured it the other day (my first was 99", I'm trying to get to that same goal or somewhere near it.  If I sat down and knitted consistently on it, it would be done, but I'm using it as my fun knitting during TV because I have the pattern so memorized I can do it without thinking!

And then that comes to my newest project.  I really want an afghan.  I have one that's crocheted that a friend made me that is on our couch all the time, but I'd like to make one that I like.  So I figured this would be a good way for me to learn a variety of techniques.  I'm not quite as crazy as to start on Barbara Walker's afghan because 1-I don't like all the old patterns (created in the 70s or 80s) and 2-the squares are much larger than I prefer.   I've been pouring over stitch books like the aforementioned New Knitting Stitch Library, and now the Stitchionary (some of these were on the Lion Brand site to start with, but now I have the real book from the library), and I'm coming up with my own patterns and colors. 

IMG_1833

I'll be using Lion Brand's Wool-ease this time.  So far, I have Forest Green Heather, Mushroom, Woods Print (a varigated color), and Dark Rose Heather.  I hope to get Cranberry, Avacado, Rose Heather, maybe Cocoa, maybe Purple (it's a really barney purple, so that doesn't quite match).  I've got 3 1/2 squares done.  First is Forest Green Heather in Small Diamond Brocade, Second is Mushroom in Purl Ridges, third is Woods Print in Simple Basketweave, and the one in process is Dark Rose Heather in Sugar Cubes.

To make it the size I'd like, I need 96 squares that are 6"x6" (which actually doesn't take too long to make depending on the complexity of the pattern).  I'm seeing this as a long-term project, and will always have something going in the background, I think.

My goals for early 2007 include finishing my scarf and continuing work onh my afghan squares, and purchasing the rest of the yarn for that.

I'd also like to make some things for the favorite kids in my life.  I'm not sure what yet, but at least a simple hat for Baby Leonard, and maybe a scarf for Leah.

Later on in 2007, I think I'd like to try socks.  I'm not sure if I'm good enough to do them yet, but I'd like to try.

As well as the actual knitting, I want to keep reading books about knitting and getting inspired.  Our library has a nice collection and I'm alternating my fiction reading with educational books, and I'll keep doing that until I run out.  I'm also enjoying TiVo-ing Knitty Gritty on it's special run on HGTV (We don't have DIY, where it's really from).  That's very inspiring.  Finally, continue growing my bookmarks and feeds for knitting blogs, wow there are some great people out there on the web who knit!

Oh, and blog more about my knitting, it sure is nice for me to see where I've come from and how I'm growing!