Crafts For Hobbies: July 2015

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Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Sheepish

The Sheepish pattern is now available for purchase!

A sheep inspired sweater out of this really soft Organic Merino is something that just made sense to me. The yarn.. the buttons.. the concept just went together so perfectly and the finished result is exactly what I had in mind!

Sheepish is worked in one piece from the bottom up. The pockets are knitted into the sweater and secured with stitching on the wrong side of the fabric. The little sheep motifs offer a great introduction to intarsia work.

I think that this design is very versatile. Unlike my other designs, its not specific to a little girl's wardrobe. Sheepish can be worn by a boy as well!

My daughter was very excited about this sweater design in particular. I think it was the pockets that really won her over. She was so very pleased to wear it, and there is nothing more rewarding than that for a mother and knitter.

I'm sure the little one in your life would be happy to have their own sheep sweater as well!

Here is the pattern information for those of you who are interested in knitting this:

SIZE
6 months [12mos, 2 years] (shown in size 2)

FINISHED MEASUREMENTS
Chest: 20 [23, 25] inches

Length: approx 10.5 [13, 15] inches after blocking

MATERIALS
[MC] Sublime Organic Merino Wool dk [100% Organic Merino Wool; 113 yd/105m per 50g skein; color: #113; 4 [5, 5] skeins. Or 420 [460, 500] yards of dk weight wool or wool blend.
[CC1] Cascade Yarns Lana D’Oro [50% Super Fine Alpaca, 50% Wool; 110 yd/101m per 50g skein; color: #1049; 1[1, 1] skein. Or 55 [55, 60] yards of light worsted weight alpaca or alpaca blend.

[CC2] Cascade Yarns “Cloud 9” [50% Merino Wool, 50% Angora; 109 yd/100m per 50g skein; color: #101; 1[1, 1] skein. Or 20 yards of light worsted weight angora or angora blend.

2# 32-inch US #6/4mm circular needles
1# 24-inch US #5/3.75mm circular needle
1 set of US #5/3.75mm double pointed needles

4 pieces of scrap yarn to hold underarm stitches
Stitch holders
Stitch markers
(4 st markers in a contrasting color to mark intarsia sections)
Bobbins wound with CC and CC2 for intarsia work

5 medium to large buttons and matching sewing thread
Tapestry needle

GAUGE
22 sts/32 rows = 4" in Stockinette stitch on size 6 needles

So of course I had to take my daughter to a local farm to feed some "real sheep" while wearing her new sheep sweater.

Of course! :)

I think the sheep liked it.

Pinterest and ADHD Don't Mix!

Your friendly warning, Pinterest should be completely forbidden to those crafters with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Scattered Projects

Like I didn't have enough projects going on (the Koigu Interlocking Scarf, the Mini Mochi Baby Blanket, the Fortissima Socks...and of course, the grave blanket and hexapuff blanket, etc., etc.).

It occurs to me, like a squirrel in the periphery of a dog's vision, that I need another winter accessory for my contest submission photo for the My Mountain US, so I do a quick version of the Shachenmayer bulky cowl shown on the yarn wrap.

It did help the photo submission look a bit more realistic (and those are EVERGREENS in the background).

I considered using this new Winter accessory that I kind of knit up in my off minutes.

Just a narrow garter stitch scarf with leftover wool I had sitting at my TV chair.

But then I see this cool knitted fabric on Pinterest:

And I love how the squares make a circle (kind of like my snowball quilt!). So I go searching for a yarn to swatch this. I find the perfect yarn, but for the life of me, I can't find an unused pair of US 5 needles.

So I went back to working on my Koigu Interlocking Scarf. Sheesh, I'm tired.

August Blog Challenge

Next month, I will attempt to post at least one photo a day to the blog.

Actual blog content will remain around 2 or 3 blog entries a week, but I will post at least one photo each day, even if I have no blog content associated with it.

Can't wait...my Photo-A-Day month will focus primarily on color.

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

The Impatient Knitter

I've always said that knitting doesn't take patience, it takes persistence. I am not a patient person, and despite that, I'm a pretty prolific knitter.

Endless Circular Stockinette

Sometimes I really enjoy mindless, repetitive tasks, like knitting stockinette in the round, and then other times I need to break it up with something different. Even if it's just a change to a different size needle.

On my current raglan top-down project (see below), it even helped to just switch to a sleeve where the rounds are shorter and it requires me to count rows so I know when to decrease. Just that minor change added enough change to make it interesting.

Current Project

I've made a lot of progress on the top-down raglan, although it might not seem like it.

As noted above, I did get kind of bored with the seemingly endless stockinette of the body of the sweater, and I also thought it would be easier to photograph a progress shot of the sweater if I started one of the sleeves.

It also helped that I had two extra circular needles in the size needle I'm using, so I can switch back and forth between body and sleeve. Thank goodness for obsessive purchasing of things like Addi Turbos!

This is also the most accurate color photograph I've been able to capture. I loved one commenters description as "arresting". I think it totally is.

Readers' Comments/Questions

Some readers asked how I would use the reversible edging on the corners of the kid alpaca blanket.

I figured I would just have plain garter stitch in the squares that make of the corners of the edging. In fact, if you notice, my original swatch for the edging started off with a square of garter stitch. I think I'll just knit four of those swatches and sew them to the blanket as shown here.

Then next piece of edging will just be sewn to the left side of the garter square in the photo above.

Too Much To Write About!

Often times I stare at a blank blog posting page thinking about what to write about, but today, I have so much I'm overwhelmed! I guess it has been a while since I posted.

Start With...
I guess I'll start with the Men's Rocky Mountain Knitting Retreat.

The weekend before last, 20 guys gathered at the Sunshine Mountain Lodge on Thursday afternoon (actually, due to a cancelled flight, I arrived at about 7:00 pm) to share in the fraternity of knitting. It never ceases to amaze me how magical these retreats can be, and Frank and Brady did an amazing job of organizing this one. They were also overwhelmed by the generosity of fiber vendors who help sponsor these events. Companies like Skacel and The Stitchin' Den were generous enough to even help sponsor a few guys to attend the retreat. Here's a sense of the swag that we had the chance to win.

The lodge was beautiful (Jeff and I actually saw a bear on our drive to the lodge!), the cabins were very comfortable, the food was exceptional and the hosts were delightful.

The guys that are compelled to attend these events are never anything short of amazing. With the one common factor of a love for knitting/crocheting/spinning/weaving (is that one common factor?), the group comes together in a way that I've never seen in any other group gathering. The rest of this blog post are photos of the guys who attended.

Next post will be about a visit we made to the Schacht spindle factory...I'll post soon, so keep your eyes peeled!

Monday, July 27, 2015

Slowly but Surely.....

Guess who came out of its gallon size ziploc bag?

Giselle!

I started this top back in April! And I am just now working on it again. I lost interest for awhile there but the guilt of knowing it's sitting there unfinished drove me into a Giselle-knitting frenzy. So I pulled it out and started working on it again.

I've decided to forgo the long sleeves and leave it cap sleeved the way it is. It will be a better summer top that way and less knitting for me, yay!

To tell the honest truth, I'm not really enjoying this project but I am looking forward to wearing it.

So I must press on.

A Bad Case of The Uglies

Lately... variegated yarns have not treated me kindly.

First there was the "Featherweight Cardigan Fiasco".

The variegated lace weight I chose for that project knitted up to be so ugly that a picture couldn't even be posted of it.

But I had high hopes for this yarn. Lovely, lovely Koigu.

And yes, one is variegated! But I wasn't worried. I had this all planned out.

I bought these two skeins to make my very own

Chevron Scarf. I mean...with two luscious colors of Koigu, how could anything go wrong?

Well my two Koigu beauties morphed into the ugliest scarf ever.

Ever.

I tried to like it. Really I did.

Hmm...Maybe If I turn it around....

Aahh.. it's really quite revolting isn't it?

I think I'll stick with solid colors for awhile.

I know that this doesn't look like much of anything yet, but this is my newest cast on.

Rose Red by Ysolda.

I've been wanting to knit this up for such a long time now, and I am certain that this one will turn out to be quite lovely.

Is Wondering...

...."When did my friend Carol grow up to become such an accomplished designer and author?"

It's Like She Grew Up Overnight!
When Carol started to design and write books, I thought it was dabbling, and while I supported her efforts (especially since her first couple of books were so good), I honestly didn't realize she was going to become the new Alice Starmore, fergodsake.

Her latest chef d'oeuvre looks to be a must-have in my library...

Sock Yarn Studio: Hats, Garments, and Other Projects Designed for Sock Yarn

...so I've gone ahead and pre-ordered it. If it's anything like Knit So Fine or Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn, it's bound to be awesome. Plus, anything with Zauberball on the cover, has GOT to be good (that is Zauberball...right?)

Current Knitting
Before I post the last of the Men's Rocky Mountain Men's Knitting Retreat photos, I thought I'd give you the latest shots of the Milano sock yarn blanket.

You'll note it's actually on a queen size bed, and given how loose the drape of the fabric, it will end up being a perfect fit, width-wise.

Last of the Men's Knitting Retreat Photos (for this retreat!)
I guess I've extended the pleasure of this retreat as far as I can. Hope you've enjoyed them as well

Readers' Comments/Questions
Maureen writes, "I REALLY wish you hadn't used that word in relation to the colour of your sock - it diminishes you - and makes me feel uncomfortable."

I'm assuming you means the word "fucking" with regard to hating pink. It may diminish me in your eyes, but I don't accept in any way that it diminishes me or anything about me. To me, it's just another word, and one that gives some impact to the sentence. Like most of my writing, I take care in how and what I write, so it was used very purposefully. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to provide more clarity to the name of my latest sock project.

Ginny writes, "What ever the shaved head gentleman with glasses has on his needles, inquiring mind want to know. Any more pics of that?"

That's Matthew, and he is by far, one of the most prolific knitters I know. He's working on an afghan in linen stitch, and he has about 15 different colors that he dyed himself. The effect is incredibly beautiful. I actually did take a photo of his blanket, but didn't like the way it turned out, so I deleted it. When I'm back at work I'll try to see if I can find the photo somewhere.