catching up

I realized today when I was looking for an old pattern, that this blog was a useful way to post pictures of finished projects and for me to track the patterns I used.  so I decided to do a bit of a catch up with some recent and not so recent finished projects.  over the last several years (yes, it's been almost 3 years since I posted).  I've mostly been making non-clothing.  I tend to make the same stuffed animal over and over again.  so I must have made about 10 elijah's, 12 of the mak penguins, and others.  I've also started adapting patterns for my needs.  (all the stuff toys are made with size 7 (4.5 mm) double point needles)

This was my attempt at making a giraffe.  after I got tired of making too many elephants, I moved on (though elijah is still my go to baby gift).  

Pattern: Jellybum giraffe and elijah (March 2013)

Modification: similar to the tiger i made, major modification to make it bigger.  really only used the patter for the head and follow similar idea for the body as the Elijah pattern.  This is basically how I make all my stuff animals now.

Yarn: knitpicks swish DK

my friend M wanted a "funny" colored giraffe, but as I started, it started looking like Dino from the Flintstone's, so I modified the pattern again.  

Modifcations: no ear/horn things, instead of arms, extra short legs on on bottom, and a tail.  since I hate seaming, I love the elijah pattern that lets me attach directly to the previous piece.  (April 2013)

Yarn: loops and threads pale blue and purple.

I went to visit my niece in LA and she was obsessed with the minions.  so I used the left over purple yarn and made her an evil minion from the movie, based on the happy meal toy that I had.  I then attempted a regular on with some lion's brand yarn.  as I told a friend, I was making myself an army.  all  said and done I made about 10 of theses little yellow and blue guys.  (summer - winter 2013)

Pattern: my own

While visiting my brother during the holidays, he asked that I make his family some xmas stockings for next year.  I decided to start early, since I've been know to go through periods of not doing any knitting.  we searched the web for different designs and here's what I came up with.

Pattern: Basic Sock pattern from "the knitter's handy book of patterns" with a CO of 72 (they are pretty big, can fit a DVD easily). 

Design was based on Mini Christmas Stocking by littlecottonrabbits.typepad.co.uk

Again, I liked her design, but wanted real stockings and not mini ones.  (Jan-Feb 2014)

Sometime during 2013, a friend asked if I could make her a coffee cozy, so she can stop using the paper ones that starbucks gives out when she gets her coffee, it was a quick and easy way to use up some yarn. 

Pattern: Leaning Rib Coffee Cozy by Sarah Bulin

Modification: none

This bear was made to use up some old stash and break out the monotony of making coffee cozies.  The same friend that requested the original coffee cozy, asked if i could a make a few more for her.  I decided to use up some yarn from my stash, but after making 3 and not making much of a dent in the stash, I made this bear.   (i had first made this bear in regular colors for my nephew in 2012) 

Pattern: Knit Ruby Bear from the Deborah Norville colection

Modification: again, since I hate seaming, I made the head in the round, and modeled the body after elijah.  

that's it for now...

E

It's been a while

It's not that we haven't been knitting this past, just that we haven't been doing any posting.

This past year, I've made more of the same...

Over the holidays, I made an all cashmere sweater using the Devon pattern, very soft, but less interesting as it was all grey. Over the holidays, I also made several of these little penguins, really fun and easy to make (takes about 3-4 hours).

-E

Pattern: Mak Penguin (on Ravelry)

Modification: just left off the funny eyebrow thingy

Yarn: mix of knitpicks and lions brand (nothing fancy)

Needle: size 3 or 4 double points.

the Tiger kinda

I was looking everywhere for a stuff tiger pattern. I found one on Etsy from Jellybum. But when I got it, I realized it was much smaller than I thought (more of a finger puppet size). So I did lots of ad libbing with the pattern. pretty much making it up as I went a long and using the original pattern and the patterns for the other stuff toys I've made as guides.

it's not too bad, the stripes make it clear that it's a tiger, but the face just isn't right. oh well, best I can do, might try again.

-E

Pattern: see above

Yarn: Knitpicks Swish DK in orange and coal and bare superwash wool DK.
Needle: Size 3 double point.

This was my first time working with self stripping yarn, matching up the pattern required wasting quite a bit of yarn, which was hard to do. I still need to find buttons for it, but otherwise it's one. I liked the little patch detail for the back.

-E

Patter:Devan (from Knitty) no changes

Yarn: 1 Skein each of Austermann Step and Heritage Sock Yarn Charcoal

Needle: 3.0mm double point (set of 4 so I didn't need a stitch holder)

Knitting over the holidays

I was inspired to finally finish the blue pair of Jaywalkers over the holidays, and between that and the news that one of my closest friends is expecting a girl and my brother and SIL is expecting a boy this summer, I started thinking of the things I can make. So here's some of the things I finished in the last couple of weeks.

Pattern: Jaywalker socks by Grumperina (no modificati

on)

Yarn: knitpicks bare fingering weight kool-aid dyed

Needle size 0 double points (yes this is the finished pair I started back in April)

This was a quick knit for my friend who's expecting a baby girl, took a couple of hours. but of course, she forgot it when I saw her this weekend.

Pattern: Spur of the moment baby Hat (aka Ruffled baby Hat) by Little Sesame Knits (no modifications)

Yarn: Berroco Pure Merino DK in Pink

Needles: size 7 double points.

Here's the second stuffed toy pattern (I plan on working my way through them all). I think this one turned out better, not sure if it's the design or if I'm just getting better at it.

Pattern: Elijah by Ysolda Teague

Yarn: Lion's brand wool-ease

Needle: size 3 double points.

the ears on him was difficult to work with, and for some reason the french knot for the eyes worked out better on one than the other and I couldn't fix it. shown here with Sophie.

and finally, here's a pair of baby socks using up some of the kool-aid dyed yarn.

Pattern: Lion's Brand Knit mini Magic socks (didn't bother changing needle sizes)

Yarn: knitpicks bare

needle: size 2 double points.

I also made a baby shrug that was sized down from an adult anthropologie design, but need to find the info before I post, it was from the summer.

that's all for now.

-E

Acid Dying

As E promised, photos were forthcoming. Slowly but surely. Last year on her trek through the midwest, we did some kool-aid dying. The kitchen smelled like fruit punch for a week or two. But the yarn did smell great relatively speaking. So this year, we did some acid dying of sock blanks and tweed sock yarn. First up the tweed yarn...all yarn is from knitpicks. I was going for a nice deep burgundy tweed yarn. E was going for an orange. I think mine, the one shown heating away in the middle photo and the left skein in last photo are the yarn I dyed or at least mixed the powders, succeeded. E's yarn is the one on the right in the last photo...just a paler shade of maroon...apparently we should start with lots of yellow dye and slowly add the red. Or just buy the orange dye would be better.

The second set of yarn pictured, is actually want we did first. Sock blanks. E was inspired by the monet color schemes (pale yellows, blues and greens). I was going for shades of greens, blues and aquas. I'm pretty certain neither of us succeed on this front. I do agree next time I do sock blanks, it should be done outside to minimize the mess...although it can not prevent me from failing to put my gloves on repeatedly and ending up looking like I had smurf hands. we'll see how it knits up.

S

Making a mess with vinager dyeing

I went to visit S last weekend and after a nice day of shopping, we spent Sunday playing with the blanks that S bought earlier this year. Last year we experimented with Kool-Aid dying, this year we got the fancy acid dyes. we played around with painting the sock blanks and also did some stove top dyeing. we weren't that creative with our color choices, but got some fun results. working with the squeeze bottle was tougher than I thought. We're still learning about color combo results, but it was fun, even if it was a bit messy. Next time we should think about doing the sock blank painting outside. I will say that while Kool-Aid has fewer color choices, the end product smells nicer. S has the pictures, she'll put them up soon.
-E