FO Friday

Today I'm showing off a finished object of a friend's.

My friend Lara (The Whitty Knittress) made this wonderful little horse for my son's 2nd birthday. I was shocked at the speed at which he came to be: she called me to ask what color yarn to use on the June 1st and on the 9th there he was in all his plump pony glory!

This little guy was christened 'Pony' by my very imaginative and creative two year old- the same little boy who named our fish 'Fish'- but when Pony gets in trouble we call him by his full name, Ponyboy.

She used this (free) pattern- I was horrified to learn that this horse pattern is now available for free on Lion Brand, because I bought the entire book Dream Toys for this pattern alone.

Lara and I have entirely different knitting styles now that I think of it. For one thing, she was never afraid to jump in and start something. It took me years and years before I was brave enough to attempt something without a pattern: Lara was designing things from the very beginning- cute little toys like this guy:

Once while making a little toy, she got bored with making limbs and just attached some red yarn sticking out where his arm should be and decided his arm had been chopped off leaving a stream of blood.

She sent me a bone in the mail a few months ago. She didn't use a pattern for it, she just wanted to make a bone and so she did:

It's kind of neat, seeing the different kinds of things we knit. Or like how if I knit the same pattern more than once I kind of go crazy? She's one of those knitters who makes multiples. Like, one right after another multiples. Like, you know those girlfriend market bags? Yeah she's made 5 of them, so far! I swear, if I couldn't poke her and feel flesh I'd think she was a machine. I mentioned earlier how quick she cranked out that pony.... maybe she's a cyborg and I just never knew all these years....

Anyways, I just thought I'd share a few of someone else's finished objects today. Check out lots more with Tamis Amis.

FO Friday: Red Cabled Pullover

The last sweater before summer: warm wool, and svelte cables.

...stitched into reality from a dream...

Yarn: Paton's Classic Wool, 3 Skeins, colorway "Bright Red"
Size: 34" (2" negative ease)
Needles: Size US 6 (4mm)
Pattern: I fell hard in love for this Orange Cabled Pullover from Untangling Knots and worked the magic math until I got something like it. Though she worked hers from the top down, I took the reverse approach.

I truly love love LOVE this sweater. It makes me so happy, and so proud, and yet so... self conscious! Seriously, I have nothing in the closet at all to wear with this sweater, and I am not generally the kind of person who wears cropped sweaters anyway. So you might wonder why I decided to make a sweater that I was pretty sure I would rarely, if ever, wear.

Answer: I am a true process knitter. I wanted to make those cables, and I wanted to see if I could take a picture of a lovely sweater and duplicate it without a pattern. It's really truly not perfect, and I had a lot of trouble getting this finished object but now that it's here? I'm going to go and buy a dress that makes it look AWESOME and wear it all Autumn long! Luckily, I have all summer to find such a dress.

For now I'm going to block it (the shoulders need special attention) and leave it to dry, and you can expect to hear more about this sweater soon. ^_^

(before blocking)

See more finished objects with Tamis Amis.

FO Friday

I have 2 objects today. (No, the shawl isn't one of them)


1) Teddy Bear Baby Sweater

Yarn: Caron One Pound, RHSS accents (100% acrylic)
Needles: size US 10 (6mm)
Size: 4T
Pattern: Improvised.

This project spawned from my realization that I cannot sew set-in sleeves. I decided to knit a pair of toddler sweaters (size 4T) for my son and neice to practice sleeve techniques. One (Teddy Bear Hoodie) will be to practice arms in-the-round with short rows, the second (Shark Hoodie) to practice seaming garments worked flat. Both will be made with acrylic that has been sitting in stash forever.

Pre-wash: it was pretty crunchy before it went through the dryer.
(I haven't worked with acrylic in a long time)

This first sweater was knit in the round up to the armholes. There I separated the front and back, did the armscye, neck and shoulder shaping. I then used mattress stitch on the shoulders, and picked up the sleeves to knit in the round from the top down.
I used a set of videos from Paula Ward on YouTube to figure out how to work the short row sleeves. The video explaining it can be found here, and the actual technique is shown here. I am very glad I learned this technique: I will definitely be using it in the future.

 Here is a close-up of the armhole:

It actually looks surprisingly good, especially when I compare it with a sweater I made last year. In my Cable Car Coat, I made a mistake in the sleeve and ended up trying to knit the sleeves from the top down, but didn't know about short rows at all. So there is quite a bit of armpit pouch, and this technique is a great improvement.

(When I wear this sweater I try to keep my arms to my sides.)

Anyways, this is (almost) the first time I have ever really designed a sweater. I used the following books for help with sizing, decreases, and the math:
1) Sweater Design in Plain English by Maggie Righetti
Found plenty of detail for sizing toddler sweaters here. (No I didn't just measure my son, because these are for next Christmas)
2) Stitch n Bitch Superstar Knitting by Debbie Stoller
Used the chapter "Bringing out the Big Guns" to work out armscye shaping.
3) The Sweater Workshop by Jacqueline Fee
Found necessary information for hood.

Then I busted out the crochet hook and added a simple border for the hood and ears from the pattern "Perfect Bear Ears" (and yes, they are pretty perfect) to make it extra cute.

I thought about adding some embroidery to the front, maybe a honeypot of a few bees to practice my embroidery. But if I haven't done it yet, I probably won't. So I'm calling this one DONE! Since it was pretty small it only took a week or two to go from concept to completion.

Though my son is modeling this sweater, it is actually for his cousin. His shark hoodie will be coming soon... Once I feel like working with 100% acrylic again.

2) Entrelac Hat
A week or two ago, I signed up for a workshop on Craftsy to learn entrelac. My hat is finally finished, and I am very happy with it.

I'm glad I didn't quit early because the final few decrease rows make a nice starburst pattern.

I used Cascade 220 and size 6 needles. I didn't really pick the colors, I just reached in and found the 3 biggest balls in the partial-ball bag. (I keep almost all my leftovers, and generally end up using them on hats...)
I haven't blocked it yet, and probably never will. I know how much Cascade likes to grow, and this hat is pretty big already.

I know I will do some more experimenting with this technique in the future. It was quite fun, and made a good break from some of my more boring projects. However, my next attempt at entrelac will utilize some self striping yarn to limit the number of ends to weave in.

And for those of you who want to see the reverse side...

Thank you for reading/commenting  ^_^
Check out more FO's at Tamis Amis.

FO Friday

I had meant to have my Mara shawl done by today, but a few other things jumped ahead of it.
Namely, this little girl:

My newest niece, giving my son a total of 9 cousins ^_^

Of course, I had to make her some cute little booties!
Here they are finished:

And modeled by the lovely lady.

Yarn: Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino
Needles: US 1, 2.5mm
Pattern: Saartje's Bootees
Mods: Used provisional cast on to graft bottom seamlessly. Used knitted cast on instead of long-tail for straps, and did the button loops in single crochet. (5 sc)

The pattern was easy to follow and produced a very cute, very quick present. But there were an awful lot of ends to weave in.

That's it for me this week. Check out more exciting FO's at Tamis Amis.

FO Friday: I Heart Aran

(Straight off the needles)

 Pattern: I Heart Aran
Size: 32" (I measure 36")
Needles: US 6 (4mm)
Yarn: Cascade 220 Paints, Colorway "Flower Forest"

I made no modifications to the pattern, but I should have added some length. I reasoned that I could always go back and add length to the ribbing at the bottom. Not that I'm going to do that.

The pattern was well written, though I think I may have mis-read the short rows on the collar, because my collar seems much smaller than the one in the picture.

Random button from stash ^_^
Also I promise that stray black strand is thread and not a terrifying chest hair.

There was also an issue with the number of decreases at top of the sleeve cap, but Tanis was quick to respond to my email and give me the most recent pattern. Other than the Doctor Who incident, that was the only frogging necessary with this project.

There is minimal waist shaping in this sweater, and I really like the way the cables reinforce it. I probably should have tried out the waist shaping I learned about in Amy Herzog's Fit To Flatter class, but I was too lazy to do math. I really just wanted to work a fun design without worrying if it would fit me. (That's why this sweater is a size 32"- it's not for me, and I figured a smaller size would get done faster.)

The cable pattern itself was easy to work. I really appreciated that the written instructions accompanied the chart. I found myself using both, because if I ever got lost it was easier to find my place in the chart but my brain is more wired toward following the written instructions. Then once the heart was dropped at the neck, I almost didn't have to look at the pattern at all: I only had to look to see if I was working an X or an O. Fun and easy cables, and I love the way they look!

One thing I did not like about this pattern was the grafting at the armpit. Instead of binding off a few stitches to begin the armhole, the stitches were held and then grafted at the end. I felt like this just added more ends I had to work away. Plus I put the stitches on waste yarn instead of a stitch holder so the whole thing got pretty messy.

I like how you can SEE how loose my purl rows are!
(This is before I seamed the sleeves and sides)

Okay, so you may have noticed that my set-in sleeves aren't exactly the prettiest things in the world. I worked the seams twice before finally settling on the knowledge that I just can't make beautiful seams at this time of my knitting career. Check out Mauerbluemchen's project on Ravelry: BEAUTIFUL seams. They just look perfect... I watched videos, read tutorials, flipped through books, but I think the fact is I am just going to have to take a class on finishing. Either that or... get some patience. Ya know.

Mattress stitch along the sleeves and sides went well as usual, but it is the shoulder I have trouble with. And I'm sure I'm not the only one! Maybe I could practice with baby sweaters? I wish I had taken a picture of the sleeve cap and shoulder, because the actual cap did have quite a bit of extra fabric to accomadate, and I just did my best.

I'm still not really sure who I made this sweater for. Perhaps after blocking it will grow a bit and I will keep it. I think I made it just for physical evidence, so that one day when I'm better at knitting I can see how far I've come.

This far!

Anywho, thanks for visiting my blog and check out more finished objects with Tamis Amis.

FO Friday

This week I speed-knit a pair of socks for my brother's 26th birthday.

When he blew those out I swear our smoke alarm should have gone off. ^_^

He put them on immediately and claimed, "This is how socks SHOULD feel," and complimented the fit, the color, and my skill. Knit-worthy? Yes. Why else would I have knitted him a sweater for Christmas?

After I finished the socks, I honestly thought I wouldn't knit again for another week or so. (I knit them in 2 days, after all.) But actually I cast on another project immediately, with size 10 needles and chunky yarn. By the next morning I had some wonderful slippers.

Ribbons and Bows

 The (free) pattern is Amy March slippers, by Stephanie Dosen (aka tinyowlknits) and I used some Universal Yarn Deluxe Chunky that I found at Tuesday Morning last year for 1.99 a ball. The yarn's true color is better represented in this picture:

This pattern was actually sort of strange to me because at the end you thread your ribbons through live stitches at the heel and at the top of the foot. But once you tie up the big bow it ends up keeping the slipper on quite well. These will probably be a birthday gift for my niece- her birthday is next month, on Friday the 13th. WooOoOoo 0_o

Anyways check out more FO's with Tamis Amis. 

An Amazing Test of Stamina.

See how they're even all matchy-matchy?

Cast on at 12 pm March 3rd, ends weaved in at 4 pm March 4th. With 2 hours to spare before the birthday bash.
OH
EM
GEE
I won't be knitting socks for a while.
Excuse me while I pop an ibuprofen and bake a cake.

FO Friday

I finished 3 items this week. I already showed Koolhas, so I will only be sharing the other two today.

1) Some Cloudy Day Legwarmers

Drive by baby!!!

with slouch

"where the green grass of morning, soft-sprinkled with dew,

would tickle my toes as I would go running through." (Linda Van Tassel)

Yarn: Berocco Vintage DK
Pattern: Some Cloudy Day
Mods/notes: This is the second pair I have made. I cast on only 54 stitches, and used a regular chain bind off instead of Jeny's surprisingly stretchy bind off because the last pair was too big. These seem to fit very well, so far, but I may still add elastic to the ribbing if they stretch with wear.


2) Holden Shawlette

Pre-blocked

Blocking

Post-blocking ^_^

Yarn: Knit One Crochet Too Crock-O-Dye
Pattern: Holden Shawlette
Mods/notes: Didn't have enough yarn to do 2 repeats plus 6 rows. I stopped at row 30. This was a very fast knit: I cast on February 28th and finished it in the morning of March 1st. I did knit deeeeeeep into the night on the 29th, though. I told myself "This is the only opportunity to knit lace: when the baby is asleep. Must....keep....knitting..." and nearly finished but for 2 rows!

So that's me for this week.
Check out more FO's with Tamis Amis ^_^ omg she finished the sweater !!!

Kool Kid

So maybe I had to force it on his head.

Expression of horror.

Maybe in order to show off the cabling I had to pretend there was something amazing outside.

But danggit, the hat is finished and it fits him great.

I guess after he saw the pictures he decided he liked it because he started putting it on by himself.

And since it is yellow he is actually a fan of it, and was very happy to shout out "Yellow hat!" throughout the whole photo shoot. (The color is the reason I didn't make this hat for myself. The yellow makes me look sort of like a zombie.)

Pattern: Koolhas
Yarn: Artfibers Yurt from my San Francisco trip last year. It's sort of a weird yarn because the strands are littered with little felted beads. But it is very soft, probably because there is a bit of alpaca mixed in, and it shows the texture surprisingly well. The only bad thing is that it smells sort of vinegar-y.
Mods: CO 80 sts, still did 4 repeats before crown shaping.
It's quite stretchy so it should fit him for a while.

FO Friday

A few FO's to share today...

1 and 2: More Crocheted Slippers.

The two pairs basically look identical (the second pair has one extra row) but here they are together just as proof.

Proof doesn't have to be pretty.

These were done with Lion Brand Wool Ease for ease of care. I used up the last of my cutesy La Mode buttons, but I think I might yet make more of these slippers and will want to pick up some more cute buttons the next time I hit up a craft store. I saw some that were shaped like hippos and can't help but notice there is some coordinating purple wool in my stash...

3. Owl Hat for Vyvyan
I knit my son hats. I think to date I have made him 7 hats. He has worn none of them. Not even the one made out of Cashsoft DK. I specifically fondled EVERY skein of yarn in that shop to find the softest thing I could afford that I could knit up into a hat for his precious little head. I designed the pattern specifically for him and the kid has done nothing but pry it off his head every time I put it on him.
He does have a hat that he wears. It looks like this:

His dad bought it for him at Target and every time we get ready to go for a walk, Vyvyan wanders around the house calling, "Dog hat! Where are you?"
I know. Why mess with a good thing? But the kid loves owls and I love creating. Enter a quick and free crochet pattern and some stash yarn in the exact colorways needed:

I realize he doesn't look very excited about his hat. That's because he's watching an engaging episode of Thomas the Tank Engine at the moment, and something serious is happening. (Something serious is always happening on Sir Topham Hatt's railway. Man should be out of business.) But yeah once he realized that it was an owl hat, he became very interested in my project. Once the eyes and beak were sewn on, minus buttons, he put it on and refused to take it off. I had to wait until he went to sleep to sew the buttons on! The next morning he carried around both hats lovingly, saying "Dog hat. Owl hat." And eventually getting frustrated, presumably because he couldn't wear them both at the same time. But we'll see if he continues to favor the dog hat. It does, after all, have a felt lining...


4. Owl Hat for Me

The disaster did have a happy ending after all. It involved frogging the whole thing, but sometimes I feel like that's good for the soul. Like a phoenix, maybe?

After re-knitting the whole hat and then adding in all the details with duplicate stitch, I felt like I had a right to be proud.

That's right. Them's owls.

 5. Cecil the Computer Monster
I don't know why Cecil languished in the closet as long as he did. (I cast on January 30th) When I pulled his project bag out and dumped him out on my bed, prepared for a long few hours of finishing work, I was startled to see that he was very nearly finished. Except for his legs, he was complete. So less than 10 minutes later, I had an FO.

A bit lumpy, but still lovable.

I think part of the reason Cecil languished is that I wasn't sure why I was making him. I learned no new techniques and the stash yarn I was using took up much less space as 2 skeins than as a huge monster. Plus I had difficulty with the stuffing I used; it kept bunching up and looking bizarre. I think I stuffed him like 8 times before I eventually just gave up and let him be lumpy. But once I remembered I have a nephew turning 7, it all came together, and he'll be a welcome gift come March 10.



That's it for me.


In other news, tomorrow I am headed to Stitches West and I am so excited I think I might pop. Just completely explode. I may have dug out all the change I've been squirreling away in order to buy a few special skeins.


Check out more fabulous finished objects with Tami's Amis.

FO Friday

Oooooh today I have quite a few things to share.

1) The Boring Baby Blanket

 I made a rather important discovery with this project: My closet doesn't know how to knit. Seriously this sat in there for 3 or 4 months and when I took it out it was still the same size!!! Luckily it was on size 11 needles so once I devoted some time to it, it worked up quickly.

Please don't ask why I put a tiny chick in this picture. This blanket is just so boring, I thought I should put a baby toy. But then all I had was this weird wind-up chick.
Also you may notice this blankie is sort of big. That's because I seriously haven't decided if it is going to go to my newest (not born yet) niece, or to the one who is already 2, since she will be wondering why everyone is giving things to this new little person instead of her. At any rate, it is washable yarn and hopefully it will be a well-accepted gift.

2) English Pastry Socks

 I dubbed these "English Pastry Socks" because the yarn came from England in a swap, and the colors are pastel, which is a word I apparently forgot so I always said pastry instead. Which...I guess the alpaca content makes them sort of decadent like pastries? So it's sort of fitting, almost.

Spiraling toes :)

These were done on 0's and I experimented with new toes and heels. I love them! 

3) Granny square Cowl (if you're a regular reader then you already know. sorry.)

What's really funny is that I tried making granny squares something like 7 times in the past, and could never get the hang of them. This time, I tried working from a chart. I have always avoided charts because I find them hard to follow when I knit. Turns out the crochet charts are totally understandable, and I ended up with 8 little grannies all around my neck. It's made with Cascade 220 so it's very cozy and snug.

4) "Valentine's Day Consolation Prize" Slippers

I added the little crocheted hearts (free pattern found here) just for the heck of it. Since they're a Valentine present, after all. I actually have quite a few balls of Patons that have been sitting in the stash collecting dust and I am now contemplating making about a billion of these.

They are fast and super easy. And oh so cute.

I may have already started another pair in black.

What's really cool is that now that I have successfully crocheted slippers (that actually fit my feet!) I think I can move up to crocheting shoes! I already bought the jute cord for the soles and I am super excited.

What yarn diet?

Anyways, that's it for me.
Check out more lovely finished objects at Tamis Amis.