The Shiz-knit!

Massive Blanket

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 00:43:00 +0000

This is a massive blanket. It's queen sized. Serious face, check it:

I crochetted this with 8 zillion skeins of yarn I binged on during a JoAnn's run. It was madness.

Love it! It's saturated in color, and heavy weight. I made it in about three weeks this August (2013).

Feather & Fan Wrap

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 01:17:00 +0000

I knitted most of this in Bastion during my last mission.

Final AFG project.

Shetland Loop Scarf

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 19:36:00 +0000

Behold: another Shetland shell pattern scarf. I used up bits of yarn from other projects to make a warm and squishy scarf. I knitted my favorite shell pattern and sewed the ends together to make a loop. It's perfect wrapped around two times.

Here we are in our Paris hotel room on our penultimate night before returning to Afghaniland. This scarf has served me well here, and I expect it will continue to do so further east.

Former Tea Party members in Paris:

Artfibers Jumper

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 16:36:00 +0000

Squares Jacket

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 15:28:00 +0000

Comfy jacket of alpaca and left-over stuff. All horrid pics because I'm lazy. Someday when I'm home I'll fix this. I knitted most of this at CP Sola, where I had to hike this in from PB 2. Had I know we were TABing, I would not have brought it. Alas, the lads there were entirely amused by seeing 1) girls and 2) knitting. This cardigan makes me think of the SF guy who shared our accommodation. I spoke with him about his rifle (it was American). A few days after that we left, and he lost one of his feet in in IED.

The cardigan, however, it two squares joined at the back with sleeves knit in. Here you can see the arm pit where I just knitted into the garment and added the sleeves. I've worn this a fair bit, and the right hand hem is fuzzed-out from getting caught on the velcro of my holster. My bad.

In my "pod".

British brekke at CP Sola:

Vitamin D

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 15:04:00 +0000

More bad pics, but I'll address that at a later date. This is my Vitamin D knitted with BMFA Sea Silk in Ramabala, or: blue. Wonderful knit, but the yarn purls. I like it anyway, the drape is amazing.

Shetland Shell Scarf (again)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 15 May 2012 01:26:00 +0000

Knitted mostly in Naher-e Saraj.

Pullover

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 10:20:00 +0000

Sorry for the shit picture. I made this right after the socks, and I liked that lace pattern so much I incorporated it into this as well. No pattern, I just kept knitting (and frogging) until it worked out well enough. I originally intended to cut the front open and make a button up, but to my surprise it fit as knitted. Let me distract you from that crap photo with this photo below of poppy fields in their spring glory.

Granny Square Scarf

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 02:29:00 +0000

It's actually cute, though it is technically made of granny squares.

Crochetted in Bagram, and assembled in Lashkar Gah.

Lace Socks

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:09:00 +0000

I knitted these while out in LKD in December. It was so damn cold in the accommodation that my fingers kept going numb while knitting and I had to take frequent breaks.

I took these pictures while on leave in Paris. I walked so much while wearing them one day that the feet felted. These are pre-felt.

RedFish Yarn

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 18:55:00 +0000

This is 4 ounces of 50/50 silk/merino from RedFish DyeWorks. I got this at Stitches West last fall, and I've been spinning it with my spindles ever since. I used what I call a cheating Navajo-ply method. I take about 6-8 inches of fiber and split it. Spin one half, then spin the other half so that the colors match back on each other when plied. I went through the entire 4 ounces like that and ended up with a lace weight 2-ply that looks like a Navajo 3-ply. I've never seen this else where, so I don't know if it has a proper name. I'll just call it Frances-ply.

Here is my expedient niddy-noddy. Oh, to live in a hotel.

Unemployment Blanket

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 01:55:00 +0000

I got this yarn at Jo-Ann's in early March when I was unemployed. I wanted to make a blanket, but I was broke. This yarn (and the crochet hook) cost 22 bucks.

This is god's own acrylic yarn. I would normally never buy such a thing, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I used almost all of the yarn I bought.

Shawl

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 25 May 2011 01:59:00 +0000

I made a little shoulder cover because it's freezing where I work. They like to have the a/c on so freaking cold that it's colder inside during the summer than during the winter.

This is Knitpicks kid and silk (nice!) with a skein of their alpaca. I love Knitpicks.

Soul Blossoms II

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 02 May 2011 23:28:00 +0000

The epic hand quilting has finished! This is 2 of 3, I will also hand quilt the third one. I quilted square spirals on each square. I free-handed it.

I added ticker tapes here and there.

The back is as neat, or almost as neat (still can't decide) as the front. I made an effort to use every bit of the fabric, and so there are all kinds of little scraps worked in. I love how it looks.

ACU Bags

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 21:34:00 +0000

I also made two urgently needed bags on my epic quilt-cation. I had some heavy cotton fabric from Ikea, and I have 4 ACUs. I got one of my ACU tops and I cut it up and made a computer bag and the purse below.

At first I was really hesitant to cut into my old uniform. I don't know why. But when I was in the Army, I really liked the shoulder pockets because they perfectly fit my iPhone and its bulky charger case. So I took the pocket with my unit patch (yeah, I said "unit"), and built a purse around it (see below), and cut out the back of the ACU to make the front of a perfectly-sized computer bag.

My mom got this amazing sewing machine and I embroidered the camo fabric and the Ikea fabric. How cool! All I had to do was change the threads when the machine told me to.

New purse with perfect phone pocket on the outside.

And a custom epi-pen holder on the inside, also from recycled ACUs. I also recycled the credit card holder from the Kipling bag I used for the last decade.

I like how the little bird peeks out at the front of the purse. So pleased!

Soul Blossoms 1

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 23:15:00 +0000

This is quilt 1 from my epic quilt-making vacation last week. Perhaps ironically, this is actually the third one I made, but the first I finished since the other two will be hand quilted.

This quilt is machine pieced and machine quilted. I added two squares of 4 each ticker tape squares. Once I wash this quilt, they will be puckered and neat-o. They are cut on the bias so they don't unravel.

The overview:

Mobius Scarf

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 01:04:00 +0000

Finished this dog. I began this in August, and it languished once I realized I might not have enough yarn to finish the edging. Then, yesterday I discovered a small left over skein of this very stuff, and finished it last night. The punch line is that I needed not of the other skein; I had plenty to finish the lace edging.

First Jelly Roll

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 23:20:00 +0000

Dare I say it's the first? I'm not sure how much I like working with long strips of fabric instead of fat quarters. Nevertheless, I very much like this little quilt. Below you can see (I hope) how much I quilted this fabric. I did concentric rings radiating out from an off-center position. It's nearly invisible on the front, but it shows better on back:

I wanted some long term projects and machine pieced these in December while visiting San Diego, but here they are all done. I thought I'd make the latest quilt last a bit longer by quilting the hell out of it, but it was done in a week. (2 seasons of Lost, to be specific. The previous quilt took 3 seasons of Lost.)

Below, quilt goodness.

3rd Quilt

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 03:20:00 +0000

I finished a quilt the other day. Since going into suspended animation in March, my craft world has been diminished. Between being locked up and disallowed creativity, or thinking for that matter, and having all most all of my crafty stuff locked away elsewhere, it has been difficult. I began a knitting project, the one shown below this entry, but I've got more edge to trim than yarn, and I just sort of set it aside. I didn't want my first project since returning to be a failure, but I think it might be.

But this quilt pleases me. It's my third, and much bigger than the first two I did. I got 10 fat quarters, and stitched cool rectangles of contrasting fabric to them using my mom's cool sewing machine that does fancy stitches.

Then I hand quilted the whole thing. At first I wanted to do some time-consuming, long-term deal, but once I completed one big rectangle I thought it looked like crap, so I cut it out, and opted for a diagonal with multiple colors and textures of thread.

While more or less parallel, the quilting stitches are at different distances from each other. I really like it. Keep it simple. I finally embroidered the date on a quilt.

Mobius Scarf

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:39:00 +0000

Scarf
Originally uploaded by frances.goodman

Started another project without finishing the last. Shame on me. There's probably a DD form for me to fill out for this incident.

Some Knitting

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:28:00 +0000

Not a finished object, but some knitting anyway. I'm happy to be home for about a month and have access to some real yarn, and not that sub-par Georgia stuff. This is Artfibers Alfabeto in color 7. It's a mohair and silk yarn. I'm making a basic feather and fan shawl, and I'll probably knit it until it's impossibly large. I have a big cone of yarn, probably much more than I need.

Last year I finished this with another cone of the same yarn. I even had a bit left over, and I think this cone I have now is bigger than the one I used to make this sweater.

Tatting

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 01:36:00 +0000

I've been tatting a bit.

Socks

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 12:23:00 +0000

2 skeins of Patons Kroy Socks FX and size 3 needles.

Yarn Diet

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 20:05:00 +0000

There is no yarn in Columbus, GA. What the hell?!?

Out of Time

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 21:36:00 +0000

Here's an unfinished project. This is the Silk/Camel from Stitches West I got last month. I've spun about a thrid of it. But, alas, it will go into a bag and wait until September when I'm back to the life of humans.

Wonderful fiber:

Just so I don't forget: I've been taking a bit at a time, splitting it down the middle, spinning one half, and reversing the colors, spinning the other half, and Peruvian plying, so the colors sort of go together. It's like a sloppy Navajo ply, but it's working.

See you after fat camp.