Warm Fuzzies

Unexpected.

Wow.  It's been a long time since I last posted to this site, hasn't it?  I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with life and the twists and turns that come with it - I had intended to take a short break from posting, but before I knew it, 2 years have passed.  2 whole years.  Much has happened in these years (I'm married now!), but a lot has also remained the same.  Peculiar how that happens.  But I missed chronicling my projects here; I missed reading notes from people who happened to drop by; I missed feeling connected to and being inspired by the wonderful online craft community; I missed blogging.  And so, I am back. 

It's finally starting to warm up around here, and little splashes of green are starting to pop up all over the place.  I imagine people are getting out their trowels and shovels to put their hands into the earth, get a little dirty, and grow mighty plants from seeds and sprouts.  I'm very jealous.  I've only taken care of houseplants so far, and I haven't had much luck keeping them thriving for an extended period of time.  Since I was a little girl, I dreamed of growing my own fruits and vegetables in my yard, and sharing them with my friends and family.  Unfortunately, yards are hard to come by in the city, so I'll have to continue dreaming for a while...or make my own play garden.  A radish garden, yum yum.

But something was amiss...radishes kept vanishing, one after the other without a trace.  Suspicious, I spent a full day keeping watch of my garden and found...

Ninjabun!  And what a crafty bun he is.  He moves silently from one garden to the next, blending in to all that surrounds him.  Slowly, slowly, he approaches his target...

Artfully, with a practiced hand, he snuffs the life out of his prey.  (Ninjas are scary that way!)

After completing his task and with his belly full (I could not bear to share the gruesome images of the ferocious attack), Ninjabun vanishes from sight, as if he had never come.

 

I used a fun pattern from Mochimochi.  I made radishes instead of carrots, duplicate-stitched the "ninja suit" around ninjabun's face, and gave him a tail. 

Lacy Skirt with Bows

I've always admired Kat Coyle's patterns for knitted skirts...they are all so stylish, wearable, and altogether lovely.  I had been plotting (yes, plotting) to knit up a skirt all summer...and now that it's fall (I'm just tickled pink with the fact that my knitting projects and seasonal weather never quite match up), I found myself casting on for Ms. Coyle's Lacy Skirt with Bows from Greetings from Knit Cafe.

I substituted Queensland Collection's Kathmandu DK for the recommended Twisted Sisters' Daktari yarn after reading about issues regarding inconsistency in dye saturation that others have experienced with the Daktari yarn.  I also went down a needle size to size 4 and 5 needles, mainly because my 6's seem to have gone where many of my socks go after they're washed in the machine.  I highly recommend the substitution of Kathmandu yarn, which is a blend of merino, cashmere, and silk, for the Daktari.  Kathmandu has a similar texture to slubbed cotton, feels great against bare skin, and has consistent coloring.

Since the colorway I chose is a warm tan with purplish tweedy flecks in it, I decided to accent the warm tones of the skirt with a purple ribbon.  I kind of splurged a little on the ribbon...it's hand-dyed silk in what the artist calls "Stormy Monday."  I purchased and used exactly 3 yards of ribbon and 4 balls of yarn...I didn't even have any yarn or ribbon leftover to use as a drawstring for the top of the skirt.  But I've been wearing it out anyway.

It is a little loose on top, so I'll have to fix the drawstring problem somehow.  I could pray to the knitting gods, cross my fingers, and hope that someone out there has a few extra yards of Kathmandu DK in the same colorway, but I think I may just plunk down the cash for another ball of yarn to knit the i-cord drawstring, and knit a hat or something with the leftover yarn.

Thermal

As soon as I realized that summer would soon draw to a close, I cast on for my first sweater.  After two months of toiling, I finally have a finished Thermal to share with you.

So how did Thermal, knit at such a small gauge, end up on my needles as my first completed sweater?  Well, a while back, I had this great idea...I would learn how to hand-dye my own yarn.  After all, wouldn't it be great to create my own colorways to use for my projects?  Clearly, all that buzz circling around about dyeing yarn with Kool-aid got to my head.  Eager to get myself started, I purchased 5 or 6 skeins of Knitpicks Bare Merino right away.  It was definitely one of those impulse purchases, because I never really got around to actually dyeing the yarn.  It sat around, untouched, for nearly a year.

Well, in mid-July, I decided to get real with myself...the natural-colored yarn would probably not get dyed any time soon, if at all.  I poked around looking for a pattern that would use up quite a bit of fingering weight yarn...Thermal immediately popped up.  I cast on. 

I wanted my sweater to be more fitted than in the pictures on Knitty, so I went down to size 1 needles for the body, and 0 for the sleeves.  Midway through my project, I got my invite to Ravelry, and happened across this lovely version.  I fell in love with Winnie's mod to shorten the sleeves (and her Thermal's color!).  I ended up knitting 3/4 length sleeves.  I had initially wanted to dye my sweater dark grey, but Winnie's version convinced me to go for more bluish color.  I dumped a touch of black and a glug of blue acid dye into a bucket of hot water, and ended up with a faded blue color.  (Dyeing, by the way, was a piece of cake.  Part of me is kicking myself for not dyeing all the yarn like I had originally intended.  I do have 2 more skeins leftover though, so I'll probably dye those after all, hehe.)

Although I don't have any close-up photos of them, I found the perfect buttons for it.  They're a pearly pale blue color, and they really match the color and texture of the sweater.  So I guess what I'm trying to say is, I love everything about this sweater: the fit, the look, the color, the buttons.  I know I'll be wearing this sweater a lot.

Ruby Red Booties!

I recently attended a baby shower for someone who was expecting a little girl...I've been so busy lately that I completely forgot about posting the gift that I made.  I had seen this wonderful idea (and free pattern!) more than a year ago, and promised myself that I would knit up a pair of glittering red booties for a special baby girl some day.  That day finally came.

I was not able to purchase the Lion Brand Glitterspun yarn called for in the pattern; I used Paton's Brilliant instead, and modified the pattern for the lighter weight of the yarn, using size 3 needles instead of size 7 and adjusting the gauge.  Instead of using buttons, I attached red satin ribbon to the booties and tied them in bows to hold the t-straps in place.  Although I made a couple of minor changes, the booties were still a quick knit, so I found myself with some spare time to work on the presentation of the booties.

I wanted the recipient to be able to display the booties after her daughter outgrows them, so I decided to decorate the box accordingly.  I found the picture for the background online; someone had adjusted a photograph so that the road became golden-colored.  I used Photoshop to adjust the hues and contrast a little more, and also edited out some poles along the side of the road.  I cropped the image so that it would cover the bottom of my box, and then started working on a card.   

The card is pretty much covered up in most of the photographs, so I've uploaded the file I created.  After printing this image, I signed my name in red and glued the card into the box.  Speaking of the box, there couldn't have been a more perfect box for my vision of the booties display.  The box is covered with gold-toned ribbon, and has a see-through window in front...I squealed out loud when I found it in my stash of gift boxes.

Tada!  A Wizard of Oz display for the Ruby Red Booties.  If it wasn't for the fact that I wasn't pregnant, and won't be for at least a few more years, I would most definitely have been unable to overcome the temptation to stash away these booties for the daughter that I might have someday.  But I was able to find it in myself to part with the booties and bring them to the baby shower.  Upon unwrapping my gift and seeing the booties, the look on the mom-to-be's face made my "sacrifice" worth it, many times over.

Saturday Market Bag

I've been so super busy these past couple of weeks that I'm still scratching my head a little, wondering where all that time went.  I was able to finish a couple of (small) projects, but never got around to posting about them.  July's been a month full of guests; my mother and sister came to stay with me for a full two weeks (I miss them already), and another friend is here now, just for the weekend.  I'm expecting two more house guests next weekend.  Busy, busy, busy.  But I am totally enjoying the company, so my crafting will just have to suffer a little.

Environmentally friendly shopping bags have really gained momentum these past months, and I found myself compelled to join the bandwagon.  While I lusted over bags that could fold into its own pocket, like this singlet style shopping bag and this crochet reduction tote bag, I wanted a super-quick project, so the pattern that I finally settled with was the Saturday Market Bag, with Liesl from disdressed's modifications. 

                        

The pattern was very easy, and Liesl's modifications made seaming minimal, so I finished my bag in no time at all.  It's wonderful, it keeps stretching, and stretching, and stretching...  There's a bottle of maple syrup, apple cinnamon pancake mix, a box of cereal, a loaf of bread, a package of walnuts, several apples, and a large carton of yogurt (mmm....breakfast!) in the bag, and there is still plenty of room to comfortably carry more.

Since I can wear the bag on my shoulder, it's much easier for me to carry home heavier items than it has been for me using the traditional plastic shopping bags.  And I look *much* more chic coming home with my groceries in this great looking bag.  After unloading all of the groceries from the bag, I can ball it up so that it's no bigger than a ping pong ball.  Then I just toss it in my purse, where it takes up minimal space, and pull it out again on my next grocery shopping excursion.  Cool, huh?  Hehehe.

Anthropologie-Inspired Capelet

I had this Anthropologie-Inspired Capelet pattern bookmarked since forever.  After sitting around twiddling my thumbs for more than a year hoping the capelet would magically knit itself, I finally found an excuse to knit one for myself, and boy, am I glad I did.  Now I'm kicking myself wondering why in the world I didn't make it sooner.

                             

You see, I was invited to an engagement party in Seattle where all guests were asked to wear black and pink.  I have black garments galore...but pink?  Yikes.  I looked through my wardrobe and found 3 pink shirts (one of them was a t-shirt, haha).  Nice for me to wear out on a normal day, but not to a semi-formal party.  I didn't really have the time to go make a special trip to shop for something pink to go with my dress.  I was packing for the trip and in the middle of convincing myself that a pink necklace and earrings would bring enough color into my ensemble to offset the black when it hit me.  That capelet that everyone on Craftster keeps making.  The Anthropolgie-inspired one.  I could knit a pink one.  And theoretically, I could start and finish it on my flight to Seattle.  And so it was decided.

I happened to have just purchased the last two remaining skeins of pale pink Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton yarn during a big sale at a local yarn store the day before, thinking I'd just stash it away for a while (I know, what are the chances of that?  This capelet was meant to happen, hehe).  I immediately retrieved the yarn, shoved it into my carry-on, and printed out the pattern for my in-flight entertainment.

   

I knit in the capelet in the round to minimize seaming.  It was a pretty quick knit; I was able to finish the knitting and weave in nearly all of the ends by the time I arrived in Seattle.  Although my capelet wasn't looking it's finest at the party (I wasn't able to block the capelet before the party, and had completely forgotten to pack a brooch to pin the collar on top), it looked great with my dress.  I couldn't ask for anything more.

Charade

When Sandra posted her pattern for Charade, a herringbone-stitch sock, I knew I had to make a pair for Kyle.  (He had wanted a hand-knit pair of socks for himself after seeing my first pair of socks.) 

I used a beautiful bamboo blend yarn (60% wool, 30% bamboo, 10% nylon) purchased from Ashley on Etsy , in her denim colorway.  I really like the idea of knitting socks with a bamboo yarn, since bamboo is naturally antibacterial and wonderfully soft.  Perfect for socks meant for stinky man-feet.

The only change I made to the pattern was casting on 72 instead of 64 stitches so that the sock would fit a larger foot.  The 2-row repeat for the herringbone pattern was easy to memorize and surprisingly fun to knit.   The second sock practically flew off my needles.

Kyle peeked over my shoulder just now and said, "I have such beautiful feet!"  He's such a big ham sometimes.  What he should have said is "I have such beautiful socks!"  Bah, men.  They never learn, do they? =D

Bunnies from Knitted Squares

My household has no shortage of bunnies, but I couldn't help myself.  Oscar needed friends.

Meet Susie and Moe.  Can you believe that they're made from a knitted square/swatch?  It's true.  Here's how.  While watching a DVD, I knit two little stockinette stitch squares from a mohair-blend yarn that I had purchased quite a while ago for a project that I had dreamed up, but never took the time to actually start.  I enjoyed the mindless knitting; it was perfect for a lazy weekend.



As you can see, Susie and Moe have a penchant for books.  Oscar does, too, but not so much for reading them as chewing them up with his razor-sharp bunny teeth.  But he's only doing what's natural for rabbits, and he's just so darn cute that I can't get mad at him.  It was my fault, anyway, for having books on a shelf low enough for Oscar to reach.  Nice bunny.  Bad human.  Poor The Red Tent.  I liked you.  But I digress.  Back to introducing our new knitted bunny friends.



Susie and Moe have been neighbors since childhood.  Moe's had a crush on Susie since forever, but he was never brave enough to do anything about it.



So Susie did.  Moe realized there was no reason to be shy.  It didn't take long for him to propose.

Susie said yes.  And so many, many more little knitted bunnies are to come.  The end.

*The bunnies are knitted with Lily Chin Greenwich Village on #7 needles, and I used pompoms for their tails.

Leaves of Grass Anklet Socks

I did it.  I joined the millions of sock knitters out there and knit up my very first pair of socks.

When I was hunting around for a pattern that might portray my variegated, handpainted yarn favorably, I happened upon this pattern.  It didn't come with a picture of the finished product, but I decided to go with it anyway after reading the description: "The color choice here directly influenced the sock design - it's a pale green with subtle aqua and purple flecks in it."  Hmmm.  Pale green.  Check.  Aqua.  Double Check. Purple.  Yup.  Who cares if my yarn had aqua and purple segments rather than flecks?  The Leaves of Grass socks sounded perfect.

I have pretty narrow feet (my feet look pretty big in the picture, but I'm actually a size 6, 6.5; like I said, narrow feet), and since I like a tight-fitting sock, I used size 0 needles.  I actually started out with a very long circular needle using the magic loop method.  After all, there had to be a reason for its popularity.  I wasn't thrilled about the technique after completing my first 10 rounds, especially since the looping produced a slight laddering effect.  So I switched to dpn's.  Ahhhhh, much better.  I don't know why double pointed needles have such a bad rap, but I love them.   They're definitely going to be my weapon of choice for future socks.

I followed the pattern exactly: 1x1 rib for the cuff, knit a heel flap, pick up gusset stitches, decrease for a bit, knit a lace instep, and top it all off with kitchener stitch for the toe.  The 8-row repeat of the lace pattern was pretty easy to memorize, so the socks made for a great portable project.  I'm starting to understand why there are so many avid sock knitters out there.  Although I wouldn't say the socks were necessarily a quick knit for me, finishing the pair was very gratifying.  As a girl who's sock drawer is completely filled with either black or white socks (and socks with dancing cows and flying pigs hidden waaaay in the back), having this pair of socks on hand is very refreshing.  I've got to admit that I've only worn them around the house, and haven't yet mustered the courage to wear them outside, but that doesn't diminish my affection for them.  I love them.  They're my lounging socks.

Kyle's hinted that he wants a pair, too.  Except, no lace, he says.  And, um, a solid color.  I'll see what I can do.

Lady Eleanor Shawl

Here's a Lady Eleanor Shawl in all her glory.  I used nearly 6 full skeins of Rowan Tapestry (Antique colorway) on US #10 needles.  I actually finished the knitting and blocking parts a couple weeks ago, but only recently got around to knotting the fringe.

When reading the directions for completing the fringe, I had to look up "overhand knot" because I had no idea how to tie one.  There I was thinking that I was going to learn how to tie a complicated new decorative knot, only to find that "overhand knot" is just a fancy name for a plain vanilla knot.  Drat.  But I did learn a new knitting skill for this project...how to knit backwards.  For entrelac work, you have to pick up stitches and knit one square at a time, so a lot of turning is involved.  Knitting backwards can save you the trouble of all that flipping (which becomes more and more of a chore as Eleanor grows).  I know I definitely saved a lot of time by knitting backwards instead of knitting and turning, then purling and turning (again) every couple of stitches. 

     

Lady Eleanor looks just as good from the back as she does from the front.  In the Scarf Style book, it's suggested that Eleanor can be worn backside-out for a more rustic look.  Cool.  I like reversible/double-sided things...less thinking involved when I dress myself.

 

I'm not so good at draping shawls over myself in a way that even comes close to looking attractive, so I've been doubling the shawl up and wearing it as a scarf (kind of like how it's pictured on the book page in the photo above).  It's extra-warm, like having two scarves for the price of one.  Perfect for the frigid weather that suddenly decided to rear its ugly head.