September 27, 2004

Poncho Progress

I thought I would share about my Winter Poncho again, as it seems a lot larger than when I first photographed it a couple of weeks ago. It is finally resembling something that I might get to wear someday! Problem is that I am getting B-O-R-E-D! Too much plain knitting. I wish I had taken the time to think through a more intricate pattern but I didn't think my novice self could deal with it. I hope I'm not too sick of it when the time comes to wear it! Then again, maybe I'm having the end-of-fiscal-year blues at work, and it's making me see everything through black colored glasses. Maybe next week I'll like it again! Meanwhile, knit, knit, knit...

New Yarn, New Needles, New LYS

The Saturday before last I finally ventured into our new LYS, the Folk Art Studio Cafe, in Bowie, MD. It seems like a hole in the wall from the outside, but I was drawn in immediately.

The interior is done up sort of like an ecclectic, beatnik lounge, complete with an artsy paint job with liberal use of colors, lots of comfy couches, decoupaged wooden furniture, and soft lighting. The aroma of coffee fills the air and my stress literally melted away the longer I was there.

There is not a HUGE inventory of yarns, but small quantities of lots of different exotic and beautiful yarns that I've only ever seen in magazines and never thought I'd ever see them in person.

I fell in love with a purple-y unwound hank of Rio de la Plata yarn that was hanging from the ceiling, and Cathy (Kathy?) offered to put my "must have" hanks on the swift and wind then into balls for me. My daughter Diana was amused by that process. I bought three 100g balls, hoping to make some kind of shawl to keep in my office, which gets chilly in winter. I've never heard of this yarn before, and a quick internet search turned up not too much info, but it is soft and yummy!

I also purchased my first pair of bamboo circs, and they do indeed have a different feel! I've grown quite attached to my Denises, but it's interesting holding something else in my hands.

The Folk Art Studio Cafe, I think, is more about enjoying your craft than being a mega yarn store. I could easily lose entire afternoons there, and can't wait to go back for a spot of tea and a cozy aftrenoon knit!

September 25, 2004

KnitHatsNow!

Just wanted to share about a fabulous knitting list that I co-moderate. It's called Knithatsnow and it's a free listserver and group from Yahoo! The group itself doesn't generate a lot of list mail, but there are fabulous resources available to members from the group site, including an ever-expanding list of links to free and commercial patterns for hats. Check it out!

KnitList Tips Page

Several months ago, I volunteered to be the shepherd of the Knitlist Tips Page, which is full of ideas and helpful hints. It's been a long, drawn out process for me, but hopefully soon you'll see the results! I'm about 2/3 finished with cleaning up the code from the original tips, plus the list moms will be sending lots of new tips my way. Check back soon for an announcement of when the new page goes LIVE!

September 18, 2004

Welcome to my knitting blog! For now, it looks a lot like my current knitting page, but hopefully this site will replace that one altogether! Below are some of the projects I'm working on now or that I've finished in the fairly recent past. Enjoy!

Winter Poncho

Well, I've gotten on the 2004 Poncho Bandwagon, sort of. Most of the ponchos out there that are the rage are very sexy and lacy, and well, mine is... not that! I got some Alafoss Lopi on a huge sale and it sat in the box for weeks while I decided what to do with it.

I started by looking at the poncho pattern at Linda's Craftique. Only I had a different yarn, different needles and a different guage, so I cast on a different number of stitches to start. I also don't have a cable going down the back, since I sit down all the time, but made a spacer panel of stockinette stitch, so that the shape of the mitre would be similar in the front and the back. I also intend to make the poncho longer in front than in the back so that it will be comfortable to wear in my chair. Instead of fringe, I plan to put a ribbed edge along the bottom, in the same color as the neck. This is all in my head for now, so I'll post pictures of my progress!

Genny's Hat

Here's my second attempt at the felted hat from Fiber Trends. I used the same brand of yarn, two strands held together, one lighter tan, and the other a darker shade of brown. I'm not quite happy with the shaping yet, but will keep tugging on it 'til it looks how I want. Luckily it's summer, so Genny won't need it for a bit!

Update September 10, 2004

Well, here's the hat after reshaping. For some reason, I'm still not totally happy with it. I'm wondering if maybe a cabled hatband will give it a more finished look? I don't know. Definitely an improvement, though I'm wondering if I should work on it more.

Update September 11, 2004

Well, insomnia hit last night, and so I started on a cabled hat band for Genny's hat. I think it will dress it up very nicely when it's done... at least I hope so! Wonder what Genny would think?

Plaited Cable Scarf Pattern

Here's one I'm really in love with! I just combined two different stitch patterns to come up with a richly textured scarf. The center panel is a 9-stitch basic plait, and the outer panels are comprised of alternating rows of k3, p3 and k1, p1 over a multiple of six stitches. This was so much fun to make because there was variation with practically every row... and it was easy! I used a not-too-expensive acrylic yarn in a teal color that I had gotten from a bargain bin, but I've already begun selecting wool yarns to make this scarf as Christmas gifts.

On the Needles now: I'm doing a "Round Scarf" from Sally Melville's Knit Stitch, another plaited cable scarf, and the French Market Bag from Knitty.com. People are looking at me oddly, but I've been taking my knitting along to the pool this summer! I find it relaxing, and really--not too hot.

Blue on Blue Hat

I made this hat up as I went along... including a couple of false starts! It took me a few tries to get the sizing right, since the intended recipient wasn't someone that I could take a tape measure to his head! :-)

This hat starts with a simple 2x2 ribbing in light blue, followed by rounds and rounds of stockinette in navy, and a top section in purl rounds with the light blue. My original thought was to make the purl side of the hat the "right" side, but in the end I decided that the knit side looked better.

This week I've started on my second "Elephant Hat" which will be a lovely and super-warm brown tweed for my cousin Genny in Idaho. (She's made us three quilts, which we love dearly, and finally I'm feeling "crafty" enough that I can begin to return the favor!)

It is the hat of my dreams. For the past seven years, I've been dreaming of a felted hat from the Fiber Trends Pattern AC-1. Seven years? Yes, really. It took me that long to get up the guts to try it.

On the advice of the folks from Webs yarn, I used Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted, with two strands held together, one strand Amethyst, and one Charcoal Heather. You can see from the photo at the right why we started calling it the "Elephant Hat" as it was being knit up! (That's me under the hat, honest.)

After it was knitted, the instructions said to close it up in a pillowcase and let it go in a hot washer. After the first cycle, I was scared to death! The hat came out still huge and shaped really awful! I was scared it wouldn't work. But the directions said I might have to wash more than once, and lo and behold, the results at left are what happened after the second washing. Wow! I am amazed that it was really that easy. Now I know why so many knitters are hooked on felting...

This is a hat and scarf I knitted for Diana. the scarf is created with five rows of stockinette stitch followd by two rows of reverse stockinette. The hat was knitted in the round using the Magic Loop Technique, and has the same "ridged" pattern effect as the scarf.

Here's another photo of Diana in the scarf and hat... closeup of the kid, but doesn't really show the scarf and hat too well. I'll figure out how to photograph my projects soon!