Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Pondemonium pattern

Is this not the cutest pattern???

More than halfway done with Niece's hat already. It really looks great (but BRIGHT). I'm going to miss the stranded knitting while at family camp. Fortunately, I do not have a dearth of available projects.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Pirate hat number 2!

Finished Nephew's pirate hat last, um, Friday night, sewing down each and every little stitch from the lining directly onto the hat. I realized that this was likely better than my inclination to bind it off and sew it in, as this ensures it'll stretch with the hat. I wove in all the other loose ends except the top ones, realizing that even though the bottom was done, I could still unravel the top and make it shorted if needed.

No need. It's really a perfect size. Huzzah!

I did, in the end, forget to weave in the two ends at the top, so I asked my sister to leave the hat behind (she pointing out that snowy days are far, far away anyway) so I could do that, and maybe I'll get a chance to block it, as well. (It really does look good as is, though.)

"We Call Them Pirates" I
Originally uploaded by RenaissanceWomn

So Friday afternoon, I crocheted a chain of 146 stitches, on which I cast, er, on 144 stitches of the bright Purple from the same yarn as the other. Joined on the Red, and off I went. I'm done with 2 rows of skulls already (2 to go!) and may get it in the mail on time for Niece's birthday (next Monday). I think it looks appropriately hideous, but my sister thought it looked very pretty. (My sister? Admiring knitting? I blame aliens. Or pod people.)

It really is a fun knit, and now I look forward to doing a more traditional Fair Isle design. Maybe a hat again, as they are so danged fast to knit. This is fun.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Eeee!

Added more yarn to my Flickr account. It really does get me excited about my stash! I get to fondle and admire the yarns (and sometimes wish I'd bought more so I could make myself a sweater), and look at all of the photos go up on Flickr. I think I'm more than halfway through.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Finally, photos

Just made my first 'set' in Flickr, of my current WIPs. OK, the most prominent ones. :)

Here you go.

Pirates nearly done

I finished the main knitting on my nephew's We Call Them Pirates last night. It really turned out neat. I hope it's not too big now!

The next step is to take the 144 stitches off of the provisional cast-on and knit them up with a soft liner yarn. Problem: I knit the hat on 3's with KnitPicks Palette. I want to use Rowan Calmer for my liner. It recommends using size 8 needles! That's a lot bigger. I'd also have to do k2 k2tog around to get the right number of stitches to match the circumference. But it's SOOO SOFT. (I bought two balls at my LYS's closing sale, to make another Shedir, which took me one-and-a-smidge balls of Calmer last time. So I have some to spare.)

The other option is to split the yarn and knit with maybe half of it. But would that be worth it for 2.5" of st st?

Pix up soon. It looks so cool. Looking forward to knitting it again. Nephew arrives Thursday night.

Monday, June 04, 2007

Nearly 3 weeks with no update?!?

All right... I guess I haven't had much to update lately.

Working away at the Clapotis (which just enchants me every time I hold it up to view); I think I'm on the 2nd repeat of 6 of the "straight" section. Am toying with the idea of leaving the raveling stitches alone, so I can play with them while I wear the Clapotis.

Nearly done with the Budding Lace on the Swallowtail Shawl, so I'll need to decide soon if I want to do more repeats to make a larger shawl, or to leave the second ball of Misti Alpaca Lace alone and use it for another project, sell it, or give it away.

Finished the felted bowl and it is nice, though hairy (perhaps that's the mohair). Not sure if I posted on this: managed to knit it in circular on two straight needles, inside out! Daisy size 17s (13mm). After contemplating doing a seam, I realized there was another way: I cast on 34 stitches and, joining them in the round(ish), did sl 1 pwise, p1 across. And back. And again and again, only periodically having to fix a mistake (found by reaching up underneath). It made a lovely st st fabric on the inside! I had meant to bind off at the base and pick up stitches with my size 13 dpns (9mm), but feeling to lazy to get up and get them and also relishing a challenge, I dropped & picked up stitches to put two same-side stitches together and periodically did p2tog to decrease, until I had 7 stitches. I pulled the tail through them and voila! a pretty nice little gray bowl.

New project
Mentioned We Call Them Pirates to my niece and nephew on our weekend away, and they were enthusiastic. So I started a hat on 5/30 for my nephew with black as the background but a bright green for the foreground. It is eerie and wonderful! After doing about 17 rows, I tried it on... and found it tight. Checked my gauge, and it was too small: exactly matching KnitPicks' gauge but not OK for Pirates. Unraveled it all, did some math, and re-cast on 144 stitches so I'd get closer to the 21" the pattern predicts. Instead of adding a full repeat of the pattern (32 sts), I repeated the vertical bars twice at the beginning of each of the four repeats (4 more sts, total 16 additional stitches around). Because my row gauge was too small also, I added one more horizontal line and line of pluses at the bottom. I'm already back to where I was and it still looks great. In fact, I'm halfway through the second skull and it's only been 6 days since I started this project. I love quick knits, especially ones that look so cool. The one for my niece will be hideous in red and purple (she will love it).

Pattern: We Call Them Pirates
Yarn: KnitPicks Palette, Green and Black
Needles: Susan Bates Quicksilver in size 3, Silvalume in size 1
Gauge: 7 sts/in, 8 rows/in