snugglekitty

My crafty groove this month is afghans.

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Pictures will be forthcoming.

I continue to work on a shawl for syprina.

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I have to say, this third yarn is really making the piece. It looks like I bought a kit in a store. "Make yourself this beautiful shawl in cool colors for just $79.99!" It also is validating my earlier hook size choice - the other yarns could have used a bigger hook, but not this third one, it would have been too loose. I think I'm about halfway done with the shawl at this point, and hopefully I can present it ceremonially to syprina in a few weeks.

Tomorrow afternoon is my appointment to see a woman about a shawl. Hopefully I can get a good determination as to whether I should try to fix the (other, complicated) shawl, or just plain start over.

Monday, I had suggested a quiet crafty day for myself and mrpet.

I had intended to do a swatch for a lace shawl project. I did, in fact, do that swatch, and what it led me to understand was that the project was wrongheaded. An alpaca silk blend will not suit for lace. Yup. You learn something new every day. I haven't yet decided what I will do with that yarn, now - that was the purpose I had bought it for. I still want to use it, since it's so soft. We'll see what develops. I wish I hadn't given someone two balls of it, thus reducing my stash from around a thousand yards, perfect for a shawl, to only 800.

So, then I was considering swatching again. I have some orchid cotton/tencel that I had been trying and failing to make a shawl out of, a few years back, which I was considering using to make a camisole/boyshort set. And I thought, "You know, the lace definition on this really looks wonderful - maybe I can get past my previous problem." And I did so (although perhaps not in the exact manner that the pattern creator advised). And I moved on. I am totally going to have this shawl, even though the stitch "purl two together from behind" is probably always going to be a pain in the ass (and is NOT as kinky as it sounds). Finishing a project I had gotten stuck on! I never knew it would be possible.

And now I'm thinking about, possibly, ordering some NEW YARN to make a lingerie set with. Yes - very dramatic and exciting, as I almost never buy new yarn these days. I'm into the idea of making boyshorts and a cami rather than a bra, so I might change the pattern a bit, or pick out a different top and make it with the same stitch pattern.

It's really neat to be wanting to knit again.

I read Wendy Knits: My Never-Ending Adventures In Yarn by Wendy Johnson. Wendy is the creator of my favorite-ever sock pattern, and I thought I'd enjoy her book. I was right! It almost made me want to read her blog, but boy, does that woman post. Maybe if I had a corporate job. Heh.

I liked the essays in this book. The patterns, except for the sock pattern which I already had, were mostly for sweaters. One thing I liked about them was they didn't assume the people wearing them would be a size 0.

Another thing that struck me about the book was a comment the author made about how it's really hard to knit lace with cotton, because cotton is slippery. Hey! That makes a lot of sense. So, I'm going to have to come up with a different pattern to use for the cotton-tencel I bought to make myself a shawl with. I could still use it, but I think I might try to do it with crochet - I don't have a problem crocheting with cotton. I would give the book four stars, but don't recommend it as a book for beginners to knitting. It's way more fun when you've already had most of the problems she describes happen to you.

This book inspired me to pick up my knitting again. More specifically, it inspired me to FINISH THE VEST that I have been working on for 7j for the past few months. That's right, kids, it's done! Sorry, you'll have to wait on pictures, but she's happy with it, and so am I.

Now I am a person who has Made a Sweater. That's cool. :)

Here are some things I learned:

- A new project takes at least twice as long as you think it will.
- Making a mini version for my bear was a great idea. I learned two things just from that, though - you should make the mini using the same yarn that the large project will be out of, and anything that is a problem with the mini will be a problem with the large project too. You shouldn't just assume that it will make sense when you get there. My problem was with the neckline. I eventually resolved it but it took quite a while.
- I used the yarn from a sweater I had frogged from Goodwill (just for the purpose of making this vest). I thought that turning a very large cabled sweater into a small vest would mean that a ton of yarn was left over. I was right, but it used more than I thought. So that's good to know.
- It helps a lot to have patient and understanding recipients for one's knitted gifts.
- Yes, they really really mean it that you should block before you start finishing. I'm so glad the pattern I used kind of hit you over the head repeatedly with that clue bat, because otherwise I wouldn't have listened, and it really did make a difference.

It was a pretty manageable project. I'd like to make some more vests and sweaters, and I hope also that my skills will continue to improve over time. I swear, I picked up the stitches for the neckband AT LEAST five times, and maybe it was closer to ten.

So, I am making 7j a vest for her birthday. Since this is my first vest, I thought that I would start by making the same pattern for my teddy bear. I thought that this would give me good experience with the techniques I would be using, as well as being a good crash-course in vest pattern alteration, without requiring as much work to do over, if doing over proved necessary. The pattern is written for a large-ish man, which 7j is not. Obviously, neither is my bear. *grin*

It went pretty well. I would recommend this approach for anyone else nervous about making a new project for the first time. I think that I have gotten most of my anxiety out of the way. And now, this is what I know you've all been waiting for.

( Ursa Minor, in her natural habitat, wearing her winter vest )

I also recently finished a sampler scarf for ayalanya but I am still waiting for her to take a picture of it. And, I did take a picture of my matching hat and scarf set, but now I can't find it.

In other upcoming projects, I am also planning to make myself some mittens to go with the hat and scarf, as well as a shawl for myself from some lovely yarn redjo got me for my birthday a while back.

So, I have been doing a little experiment with modular knitting. I read the book Modular Knits which turned out to be very cool. I had made plans to try making a shawl out of an old sweater. The sweater was a variegated rose, with thick and thin yarn, bulky weight. Very nice. From the minute I saw it, I knew I had to have it. I wanted to try a new technique with it, so I decided would do modular knitting. (What is that? How does it work? Basically, you make a bunch of pieces that are the same size and shape and then connect them in order to make whatever it is you want to make.) The cool thing about this is that it's very flexible. You can make major alterations to the project right up to the point where you connect the pieces.

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I knitted up most of the frogged sweater this way, and discovered that I just didn't have enough to make a shawl. However, I do need a new scarf to go with my new (to me) winter coat. When I laid the triangles in a scarf configuration, rather than a shawl configuration, there were plenty to go around.

Today I went out and bought yet another sweater to frog, to use as a contrasting yarn. I will use it to sew the pieces of my scarf together, and to make a fringe. I'm hoping that I have enough rose yarn to make myself a matching hat. If I don't, I will at least use it as a contrasting yarn on a hat and mitten set with the brown yarn. We'll see what happens.

Recently, I've been having difficulty getting going with knitting projects. I'm not sure why. I'll do a gauge swatch, make some pattern alterations, get everything planned out... and then not make the project.

However, on Friday, I finally got started with something new. I am making this hat for my darling sister. She had fallen in love with some yarn that I frogged from a raspberry sweater I got at Goodwill. It's mostly wool, with some angora. So I offered to make her something, and she said she wanted a hat.
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My other recent crafty project was to alter a nightshirt I got for myself. It was going great until I lost the second remnant I was sewing the collar with. *sigh* At this point, I think I'm going to give it to mrpet to finish fixing.

I posted this on the now-defunct crochet community earlier this year. I thought I would re-post it, so that I would not lose it, and all of you would get to still have it.

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I just finished the lap blanket I have been crocheting for the past few weeks. This post shows the process of its creation. The finished blanket is at the bottom of the post.

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Yay! Now, I need to work on the Chicken Viking hat for Princess N, finish some socks for 7j, and start a pair of wristwarmers for myself.

As I'm sure many of you are already aware, socks are my recent knitting obsession. They're fun, interesting, and portable. Here are some recent sock endeavors.

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