I’m not making huge progress on anything right now. I’m working on a pair of wrist warmers (from stash …to complete The Challenge). It was supposed to be a quickie project, but I haven’t done much entrelac so the first attempt had to be torn out. I’m knitting these, making ‘em up as I go (and maybe making up how to do entrelac right along with it!). The first one turned out fine, so I’m verifying the pattern as I do the second one. I don’t have any “interim pictures” to put up, but so far so good. I like the way these hug the hand tightly but are still full enough to go over a sweater or shirt sleeve easily.
By the way, I love the photos of Indy ... I wouldn't turn my back on that cat for a second, though!
Well, here’s the finished Coin Lace and Cable Wrap, Project 1 of the Knit a Mile from Stash commitment. I gave it to Andrea. It's cozy warm, and v-e-r-y long ... here she is wearing it, looking a little what ... sassy? haughty? smug?
I have 125 yards left to successfully complete The Challenge. I’m improvising some wrist warmers using partial skeins from my stash. First attempt wasn’t quite right so I tore that out last night. Net accomplishment this week toward completion of that last 125 yards: 0 … but a willingness to give it another go.
Yea, last night I finished the shawl I did as the first part of the Knit a Mile Challenge. This project used up 1635 yards from my stash. I'll post a photo once the blocking is done. In the meantime, l love this video ... it pretty much sums up how it was feeling toward the end of it!
No knitting for me today. I need a break. I'm going to bake bread and maybe give myself a pedicure!
I recently added a zipper to a sweater and people asked how I got it in straight, without having it look all "ruffly."
It's pretty simple. In addition to a sewing machine, your garment and the zipper, you'll need a sheet or two of white tissue paper.
This technique works for all sorts of finicky fabrics ...
Here I'm putting an open-end zipper in the front of a sweater. First, carefully block the sweater, making sure both edges for the zipper are the same length, that they're straight and any stripes or patterns line up left to right.
I generally leave the zipper zipped when I do all this, but if it's easier for you to take the two halves apart, that works, too.
Position the first side of your zipper along the edge of the sweater as shown, and pin it in place. Then lay a sheet of thin tissue paper over it. The tissue paper permits the sewing machine foot to glide over the knitting without pulling at or catching on the yarn. With the tissue side up, carefully stitch through tissue, sweater and zipper, making your row of stitches far enough back from the teeth so the zipper pull will be able to move freely along teeth without any yarn catching in it. It's pretty easy to see what you're doing right through the tissue paper.
Then carefully tear the perforated tissue paper away and remove the pins. Repeat for the second side of the zipper.
Photo by Andrea
That's all there is to it. When you're finished, you'll want to give it a good blocking, of course.
I just grabbed a bit of scrap yarn and tied it to the zipper pull on this sweater, but it's fun to find an interesting bead or bauble to dress it up. I'm keeping my eyes open for just the right thing!
When we first started this blog, I thought, "Gee, wouldn't it be cool if we could post a pattern for pink argyle socks knitted in the round ... I've never seen hand-knitted argyle socks that didn't have a seam up the back." (Well, there might be a reason for that.)
Anyway, off I go! I think, "maybe Fair Isle ... maybe intarsia." I set out to do it Fair Isle. It didn't take long to conclude that I couldn't keep the carried-along yarn loose enough to get the sock over my heel.
To make a long story short, we now have a pattern in our DIY section for pink argyle wrist warmers, modeled here by my niece's son who used them as boxing gloves when he wasn't being annoying with the remote. (Okay, it's important not to take oneself too seriously, right?) But I do (seriously) love how they turned out. It was a fun little challenge so I thought I'd share the pattern. Make 'em, wear 'em, and you're guaranteed to get some comments!
We celebrated "second Christmas" on Sunday since Steph wasn't able to make it home from Boston for "real" Christmas.She's been a busy girl with work and school, but she still had time to complete some pretty fantastic homemade Christmas gifts. I was left slack-jawed when I opened my gift from her. She had made me an amazing pinwheel vest, using a combination of commercial yarn and her own hand-dyed, hand-spun! Andrea commented earlier in this blog that I might have teared up a little. She's right, I'm a wuss about stuff like that. And I know how incredibly many hours she put into that gift. I absolutely love it!
She used a free pattern from Elann as her starting point, then made it into a vest.
I just love it! I wore it yesterday and it made quite an impression on people at work, many of whom are knitters themselves.
We had our after-work knitting group last night and I added a few more inches to the Knit a Mile Project. So I'm up to maybe 325 yards done. It was fun to see what other people were working on, I wish I had taken some pictures. We had a needlepointer there, and a crocheter, in addition to a half-dozen knitters. One of the women brought her 7th grade daughter who does some crocheting already and is now wanting to learn to knit. I love it ...
I started the Knit a Mile Challenge project on Saturday morning and was able to knit up two skeins (109 yards/skein) on Saturday.
Sunday I didn't knit a stritch. I don't know why this yarn has been sitting in my stash so long. It knits up quite prettily, I think. I haven't done cables in a while so I'm enjoying this so far.
I decided on a pattern yesterday and printed it out. This morning I rounded up my yarn and needles. And by 10:00 (11:00 Eastern, the designated start time), I was ready to go. So here's the first progress report. I've completed casting on, and knitting 4 rows of garter stitching.
The yarn is a little different than that specified in the pattern, so I'm making the larger size. I think that will work out just right ... and it has the advantage of giving me almost enough yardage in one project to complete The Challenge.
At Andrea's suggestion, I just joined a Ravelry group called Stash Knit Down 2008, and accepted their January Challenge: Knit a Mile. Rules are:
Starts: January 5th, 11 am Eastern (that's TOMORROW!)(GMT -5 hours)
Ends: February 19th 5 pm Eastern (GMT - 5 hours)
Goal: Knit one mile (1760 yards) using stash yarn
The competition doesn’t start until 11 am Eastern January 5th and ends promptly at 5 pm Eastern February 19th ... you can pick your yarn and pattern before then. Any stash counts that gets used. If you work on a WIP or UFO, it counts. If you spin, it counts. If you start twenty two projects, the yarn you use up counts.
1760 yards. I don't have any WIPs and don't have a pattern in mind. But I DO know what I have in my stash. I might need more than one project to complete a mile ... I'll need to get crackin'!
It's all there. I spent hours going through storage containers of yarn and photographed and catalogued all the yarn in my stash (except handspuns). Whew!
I ended up with 45 catalog-able entries, plus a box of odds and ends of yarn I can't throw away but have less than a full skein of. I feel so righteous!
At the beginning of every year, I get this huge urge to document things, to “get organized.” I don’t exactly make resolutions about it, but I am beset by this organizing thing. It makes me crazy; I don’t really understand it.
So here I am, January 1st. I’ve spent the last two hours updating 2007 spreadsheets. And setting up spreadsheets to keep track of things this year. (I know … boring!)
So … Ravelry? I’m a fairly new member and haven’t had the time to enter much in it yet. But, oh, it’s the tool of the day. The goal, to organize everything knitting- and spinning-related … my books, projects, stash … all of it. I am seriously excited about this!
If a person were a little OC (and I’m not saying I am), Ravelry could bring it to an all new level.
