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January 31, 2005
Jake's Sweater
Last time I saw Wendy, we picked up a bunch of yarn from our LOYM (little old yarn man). I found this beautiful sqwooshy brown yarn with little flecks of color that is 70% camel and 30% wool. Unfortunately it is a wee bit scratchy. I settled on a very simple raglan sweater. Somehow, the pattern (which is so bare, it isn't even necessary!) has you knit the neck on AFTER the sweater is completed. This makes absolutely no sense but I didn't really contemplate it until I was picking up stitches (and cursing). Of course the neck came out floppy even though I used smaller needles. I decided to double the collar, fold it over and tack it down inside. It occured to me that by putting a superwash wool inside, lining the collar and sleeves that the kid wouldn't think it was itchy! HAH! I am a frickin genius, I tell ya. I am very happy with how it came out. The best part is that I spent about ten bucks for the yarn and still have enough leftover to do another sweater the same size (but I won't - I will make a smaller one for Seth).
Posted by DebC at 11:19 PM | Comments (1)
January 23, 2005
Vintage Toddler Dress
Quite awhile ago, I volunteered to finish a toddler dress that my neighbor's mother had started before she got Parkinson's (and later died). The dress is about 18 years old and she was knitting without a pattern (gasp!). I took it on as a challenge and boy howdy, was it. The back was several inches wider than the front and although the lace part matched, it was not identical. The armhole shaping had been started but that was it. I had to figure out what the dress was supposed to look like on top and also deal with the fact that the fingering weight acrylic yarn was rolling horribly in stockinette. I looked through a bunch of patterns and got an idea of what I wanted. I procrastinated for months but then once I got started, it was done in about two nights. I learned quite a few things from it. I had never used charts before and that was really nice way to get the design down. Having all boys, I have no experience with girl sizes so I had to use my three year old boy for a model, LOL. Her part of the armholes were floppy so I reinforced the whole arm and neck areas with single crochet. I wasn't totally happy with the result but it was much better. I decided to put a ribbon in the bodice to pull it in, which is actually a good way to make the dress adjustable size-wise. One big lesson I learned is that you should NEVER leave a WIP on steel needles for 18 years. The yarn was slightly discolored and I can tell where the needles were on the finished dress. I gave the dress to my neighbor and she seemed pleased. I think it turned out very cute.
Oh and can we say "ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY MATTRESS STITCH"? Is that not magical? I think the four coolest things I have done in knitting are mattress stitch, kitchener stitch, cabling and deliberately dropping a stitch.
Posted by DebC at 02:53 AM | Comments (4)
January 09, 2005
Good Clean Fun
We have a tradition at my house to do a fun craft (or science) project. Today was the birthday party for my eight year old and we made felted soap. We had a lot of fun. There was lather everywhere - probably the cleanest craft project we have ever done. There were about 12 kids and we did about 13 bars but three of them didn’t come out very well. I think after doing it for an hour, we hit a wall and I couldn’t make the last three felt to save anyone’s life. I had done a test bar several days ago that felted in about 15 minutes. Factoring in kids made it a little messy and much more difficult to get the slippery, soapy fiber to stay on. We started out with the bars in knee highs so the designs would stay in place - very good idea. There are instructions with pictures at the place where I ordered the roving from. Anyway, I wasn’t sure how much fiber I would need, so I ordered two bags of the Felter’s Candy from Mielke’s Farm (scroll down to see an example of the sampler). Now I have 1 2/3 bags left. What to do, what to do. I have to look around for another straight up felting project to do. Up to this point, I have only “fulled” yarn which is based on a knitted item that is then washed all to hell. Real felting starts at the roving stage. I think I like fulling better because you can just stick that in the washer and let the machine do the work.
On the scarf front, I finished my older son’s scarf - three by three ribbing. It is made from mystery market yarn and is amazingly soft and masculine. The scarf for my middle son is also market mystery yarn, although this feels to be at least 100% wool if not wool and camel or mohair mixed. It was this HUUUUGE hank of grey and pink striped yarn that bordered on ugly. Knitting it up though, the striping has disappeared and it is just great! Very soft. This one is also ribbing (three by three) except instead of a purl section, I put in a garter section. This is also a nice manly pattern. As soon as I get this one finished, I am going to make a swatch to test the felting factor. If it felts like I think it will, it will make a great pair of fuzzy feet.
Oh and I have GREAT news! My sister has her own kiln now and is back to making stitch markers. I got Lisa Joy’s sheep in the mail on Friday. My sister is still a bit nervous about selling them but she is working on developing some patterns for round bead markers. You can see a bit of her other beads here.
I thought I would throw in a bonus picture of the LOYM that Wendy and I stalk (look carefully for Wendy in the picture!). We went to the market on Saturday and his table was FULL! I got some really pretty brown camel/wool that has a tiny bit of colored bits here and there - hopefully, it will be a sweater for my middle son. I also got some nearly roving bulky wool for some sort of felted project (what, you buy yarn FOR a pattern?, pshaw, I just buy yarn) and some slightly-ugly-but-not-too-bad sock yarn.
Posted by DebC at 09:39 PM | Comments (1)