I slept with the windows open last night.  November 5, and it was still warm enough to sleep with the windows open.  They stayed open until the rain started coming in.

lace and shadow

November’s been unseasonably warm.  It’s even been too warm to wear the lace scarf I crocheted for the late days of fall, when a chill is in the air, before the biting winter winds come.  How can it be too warm to wear lace?  How can it be too  warm in November to wear a crocheted lace scarf?

more…

Pattern: Foliage by Emilee Mooney (knitty.com = free)
Yarn: Goblin Flower Homespun by Collette at the Lazy Perry Ranch (snatched from Ninniachriel’s stash)
Needles: US7 / 4.5 mm
Modifications: None

Yes, I loved this yarn enough that I snatched the only remaining skein of it in existance from my sister and made myself a hat to go with my mitts and neckie.

more…

Pattern: Slip on Down by Anne Campbell (free)
Yarn: Top -  Brown Sheep Prairie Silks (discontinued) in Krona Coffee held with three strands of Crystal Palace Yarns Kid Merino in Espresso
Brim - Patons Classic Wool Merino in natural held doubled.

Needles: Top - US 11 / 8.0 mm
Brim - US 10½ / 6.5 mm

Modifications: Ran out of yarn before it was long enough, so I added a contrasting fold up brim in k3 p1 ribbing.

more…

Hat Pattern: Stirling Cloche
Source: 101 One Skein Wonders
Yarn: Magic Handspun from Enchanted Knoll Farm.
Needles: 6 mm (US 10)
Modifications: Used the directions for the longer version available on Ravelry.  Felted to fit a 22 inch head.

Clutch Pattern: None
Yarn: Magic Handspun from Enchanted Knoll Farm.
Needles: 6 mm (US 10)
Notes: it’s just a rectangle of seed stitch folded in thirds and felted to be a clutch purse.

more…

Pattern: Old Shale Scarf
Source: Tiennie Knits Old Shale Scarf
Size: 12″ x 72″
Yarn: 1 skein of “Dracula” sock yarn
Needle size: US 7, 4.5 mm
Pattern Modifications: cast on 56 to add one stitch salvage to each end.

This end of project summary is a somewhat overdue as I finished the scarf a week ago.  It was a simple, enjoyable knit, chosen to use up some squishy sock yarn from a sock club. The fun part of sock clubs, from my point of view, is the fact that you get to try yarn in different colors than you’d normally chose.  It forces you to break out of your usual patterns.

Sometimes, though, you’re given a more challenging yarn to use, either because of its color, the pattern of colors in variegated yarns.  Sometimes, though, it’s just that you don’t feel like knitting socks. I like knitting socks, but I’m finding I prefer lace knitting to sock knitting as a generalization.  Plus, I find that I’m pretty picky about the colors I’ll allow my socks to be.  In this case, it was a matter of not wanting socks in this color and not really caring to make another pair of socks.

more…

Finished!

Pattern: Pseudo “Noro Striped Scarf”
Source: Inspired by Noro Striped Scarf
Size: N/A
Yarn: 1 skein Red Heart Super Saver (Worst! Yarn! Ever!) Print in Sugar plum, one skein Lion Brand Yarn Vanna’s Choice in Charcoal Print
Needle size: US 7, 4.5 mm
Pattern Modifications: Four rows of sugar plum, two rows of charcoal.

It’s dead, Jim. I went ahead and tried steam blocking the acrylic to improve the hand of the fabric. It was just too stiff to make a good scarf. I’m reasonably pleased with the results, given both the materials and that this was my first attempt at acrylic murder.

more…

Finished

Pattern: Anne (again, yes I’m a little obsessed)
Source: Download from mk carroll. $5.50 US Dollars and still well worth the price of admission.
Size: N/A
Yarn: Yarn Bee Soft Delights Extremes in EX brown 1 skeins.
Hook size: US H, 5 mm (Worth swatching in an I 5.5 mm or J 6 mm hook)
Pattern Modifications: More repeats of the third motif. I almost used the whole skein.

I finished this last night and the attempt at blocking did help it a bit, at least in person. I wouldn’t call it seriously blocked, or anything like that, but it lays nicely now and should probably be dried flat to keep it that way.

These are not the stitch definition shots you are looking for. Move along. Move along.
It is made of fuzz and only fuzz. I took it outside to try to get good light so some of the detail would show. There is no detail, only fuzz. Plus, the automatic color correction in the camera pulled out all the color because the sun was just too strong.

It looks good hanging on a hook with a jacket.

The camera gods conspired against me. Rosie graciously modeled it for me, but none of the pictures with her wearing it turned out. I only got to snap a few because she got bored and therefore goofy about as quickly as a ten-year-old.

It’s long enough to wear in the fashionable “pulled through” style.
The Rosie one even put it on that way. Too bad the fuzz escaped from the scarf and got all over the picture. If it had turned out, it had the potential of being one of the few good pictures of her around. She gets very stiff in front of the camera and often looks just a little odd because of it. Or she starts goofing off and making strange faces on purpose. It’s a little annoying sometimes. I imagine her mother was very frustrated when chasing her around with a camera.

Next project, a market bag for Aunt Net’s Birthday. I started a pair of arm-warmers for her, but the yarn I was using told me it wanted to be a winter hat instead, so I frogged it and put it away until closer to winter hat season. I’ve had the yarn on hand for the market bag for her for a while now, so it’s a good time to make it up.

Finished

Pattern: Anne
Source: Download from mk carroll. $5.50 US Dollars and still well worth the price of admission.
Size: N/A
Yarn: Bernat Cashmere Natural Blends 1 & 1/2 skeins.
Hook size: US G, 4 mm (I run tighter than most designers gauge, but it’s a scarf, so I just made more motifs.)
Pattern Modifications: Fifty-two repeats of the third motif instead of the forty-two recommended in the pattern.

This was made for my sister, to celebrate how well she’s been doing with her physical therapy after her knee surgery.

Pook wasn’t feeling well, so I modeled it.

We tried a couple of different pictures. Rosie cut off my head, because she’s that way, I guess. The only picture that we got with my face in it had me doing my “model-like look of disdain,” which wasn’t a good look for me, this is what we’re stuck with.

And yes, I did retouch the picture to remove an ugly scratch on my chin. It was taking away from the beauty of my stitch work, so it had to go.

Some stitch detail, as taken by Rosie.

Next time I’ll take my own stitch detail pictures. Rosie doesn’t do anything handcrafted, so she really doesn’t know how to read the motifs to frame the picture. Still, it’s enough to show just how different the motif looks in a solid color rather than a variegated color.

This pattern is still great fun to do and works up quickly. I foresee another Anne or two in the future, because they’re great for gifting.

Pattern: Anne
Source: Download from mk carroll. $5.50 US Dollars and well worth the price of admission.
Size: N/A
Yarn: Aquarium Sereknity Hand Painted Worsted Superwash Merino, 4oz., under a skein, over half a skein.
Hook size: US G, 4 mm (I run tighter than most designers gauge, but it’s a scarf, so I just made more motifs.)
Pattern Modifications: Sixty-one repeats of the third motif instead of the forty-two recommended in the pattern.

I have to admit, since I started knitting, I haven’t had much desire to crochet. This pattern brought back some of my love of crochet. I think it’s a perfect example of why people should be able to do both. I also think it’s a good pattern for a novice crocheter. It’s all done with four of the most basic stitches (US: chain stitch, slip stitch, single crochet, and double crochet. English: chain stitch, single crochet, double crochet, and treble crochet) so you get practice working them all. It works up quickly, so within a few days you have either a nice gift or a little something special for yourself.

Blocking.

I couldn’t wait to share this one and I wanted to block it, because even crochet lace deserves to be blocked, so I took my pictures in my normal blocking spot: On top of the washer and dryer. The designer shows all her examples in solids, but this shows off the beauty of the Aquarium so much better than the socks I made from the other skein, it looks like it was made especially to make this.

It’s about 64 inches long.

Looking at the scarf, you’d think it took forever, but it was mostly done by the time I went to bed last night. I only had to add on nine motif repeats this morning and it was ready to have the ends woven in. Because it’s joined as you go, there were only two ends to weave in at the end. Yay! That’s a design bonus in my book.
(Please pardon the mess in the the background of this picture. Our basement is only semi-finished and the laundry room/work room is in the unfinished part.)

A view of the end.

The design of the scarf is such that both ends look very similar. I love the scalloped edge and all the little flowery picots. I think it’s going to look fabulous against my white denim jacket.

Stitch detail.

This shows just how beautifully the colors blend one into another and it’s very color accurate, at least on my monitor. I imagine that it’s very similar to how the skein looked when Heather from Sereknity.com was actually painting the yarn. Hand dyed yarns look so different between when the artist dyes them, when they reskein them after they dying process, and then when someone actually works with them. It’s like seeing three different yarns. This particular pattern works out perfectly to bring some of the original back.

I love the way it turned out. I loved it so much, I made an LJ icon from one of my photos.

Pattern: Broken Rib Socks
Source: 101 Designer One Skein Wonders
Size: Medium (My feet are, by US sizing, a size 8 and D width.)
Yarn: Aquarium Sereknity Hand Painted Worsted Superwash Merino, 4oz., a tiny bit more than one skein, due to pattern modifications.
Needle size: US 5, 3.75 mm (Next time I think I’d slip down to US 4 dpns, as the yarn is nice and elastic and my feets are not quite so big as I think they are.)
Pattern Modifications: I knit the leg of the sock to 6.5 inches long instead of the six inches the pattern calls for trying to accommodate how much the length would shrink up when I put them on my thick ankles. If I’d knit to the pattern length, I would have been able to get both socks out of one skein of the yarn.

I just finished the second sock so now I have an I now have have an honest to goodness pair of socks. They’re currently soaking in warm, soapy water laced with a cup of vinegar, part “blocking,” part trying to gently rinse out any excess blue dye (see Sock Knittah! and Why Buying From Individual Artisans is beautiful for details. The early rinse didn’t seem to have any signs of the blue dye bleeding out so at this point it looks like all they needed was a good post knitting rinse to wash away the excess dye, just as hoped, so all’s well in the world of sockie goodness.

I tried them on when I got them finished and snapped a few pictures for your sock viewing enjoyment.

Fraternal Twins at the Piano

Looking Down at my Feets

Relaxing with the Cuffs Down: How I’ll probably wear these socks.

At this point, I’m highly satisfied with how these came. The yarn is nice and mooshy, which will make these a comfortable pair of house socks, which is exactly what I wanted. I’m sure there are more socks in the future, despite the insanity of knitting socks, because I really like these socks.