Spinalcat's Crafty Adventures

Finished Yarns- The Borg and Zombies

2012-01-08T00:14:00.001-06:00

I spun up the singles from my Star Trek SAL batts from A Dyeing Wish several months ago, but I never quite decided how I'd ply them until recently. There were 3 batts- one was black and light gray with red sparkle, one black with red and green sparkle, and one black with red, green, and yellow sparkle. I thought about just using them as singles or maybe chain plying for 3 different but coordinating skeins. Finally I decided just to ply the 3 singles together for a consistently colorful yarn.

My Braaaaiiiins colorway batts from Heavenly Fiber also arrived as 3 batts, but all very similar. I spun up one at a time, splitting the batt lengthwise in strips so each single went from black to gray to light gray/pink. I plied the 3 singles all going in the same direction to get a gradient yarn. I have about 160 yards of worsted-ish yarn. I'm thinking a hat or cowl/scarflet. That may be a little boring, but it needs to be something I can wear a lot and show off that doesn't come in pairs. :)

While I'm talking Etsy shops, I'd like to mention a few others I've fallen in love with. ZooZ jewelry from Greece made my silver bat necklace and is seriously tempting me with the matching earring and the T-Rex design. I recently received some silver and enamel constellation earrings (mine are medium and tiny) from the Montreal-based Mariane Alexandre. They are sold as singles so you can mix and match sizes and colors. I've been a fan of Sunbasilgarden soaps for a long time and loaded up on minty and chocolatey scented soaps just before the holidays. Now she has a ton of adorable Valentine's Day themed soaps (like pink cupcakes!) in her shop.

FO Roundup: Mukluk Slippers, Adipose & Tarn Ugly Rug

2012-01-07T23:38:00.001-06:00

Apparently I have a thing for knitting things for my feet out of Noro Hitsuji. I almost used this colorway for my felted clogs, so I decided to use it for these Mukluk slippers that are quite popular at the shop right now. Most people go for the low tops, but I thought the neon color and high tops had a nifty 80's legwarmer thing going on, especially with the two-piece suede bottoms that make them look like dance shoes. They are slightly ridiculous, but they make me smile and no one outside the house who's not a knitter will probably never see me in them. :) They are really comfortable and warm and will stay on my feet while I sleep, unlike the clogs. The construction is interesting to knit and I love the result, but to be honest the process of knitting chunky yarn on size 7 needles is a little intense. Definitely more of a "little bit every day" project than something to be worked on for hours at a time.

One of my X-mas gifts for Bryan was this knitted Adipose from Doctor Who. The BBC forced the removal of this pattern from the author's blog, but thanks to the wibbly wobbly timey wimey-ness of archive.org, it can be found.

Finally, here's the rug I recently crocheted from tarn (t-shirt yarn). It was fun and incredibly quick. Here's the method I used for cutting the shirts, down to the exact same ruler! I cut my strips about 1" and used an enormous size S (20mm) crochet hook. I called it "ugly" because my color joins suck, I forgot to stagger my increases all the time and it started to get a little hexagon-y, and it looks funny where I fastened it off because I did a spiral instead of rounds. I'm a self-taught knitter, but I'm really a self-taught crocheter. Most of the time, I can't be bothered to go look up the best way to do something when I think I can wing it. We'll be having a tarn making party at the next meeting of the Knitspiration guild. Feel free to contact me if you're an interested local who's not already a member!

Food Post: My Paleo Thanksgiving

2011-12-21T00:51:00.000-06:00

Quick note of explanation- Thanks to the Read it and Weep Podcast and Violet Blue stoking my curiosity, I read Tim Ferriss's 4 Hour Body back in May and started the slow carb diet. I ended up adding in more healthy fats and leaving out beans at most meals after being influenced by a lot of paleo recipe blogs. I've had a ton (well, 33 lbs) of success and would highly recommend it to anybody. I'll probably write a post with more details and resources, but I wanted to get this recipe post out there while it's still the holiday season. I wanted to try a grain free Thanksgiving 1) because it would be interesting and perhaps challenging 2) to keep it low-ish carb (lower than traditional Thanksgiving, anyway) so I could enjoy the leftovers and 3) so I wouldn't feel super sick afterwards. I still do the 4HB style cheat day thing, but I often keep it wheat-free if I don't want to feel like crap all day.

Bird- Herb Roasted Turkey Breast with Pan Gravy from Rachael Ray
I probably used arrowroot instead of flour to thicken the gravy, but I don't remember. The gravy was different and good and the meat was good for a turkey breast, which is never all that great. When I ran out of turkey after a couple days and I still had leftovers of everything else, I did braised turkey legs which were sooo good! That's what I'll be doing from now on.

Sweet potatoes- Sweet Potato Casserole from Paleo Comfort Foods, page 200. It looks like someone blogged it here. I'm loving this cookbook, but there's no yield listed on any of the recipes and that makes planning annoying. The recipe I used to use (from Cooking Light magazine) had huge quantities of brown sugar in it. This one has no sweeteners (they're called sweet potatoes for a reason, folks) but is just as good.

Brussels sprouts with bacon- from Nom Nom Paleo. I don't do the vinegar.

Cranberry apple sauce from Paleo Comfort Foods, p 188. Holy crap, this was delicious! It made a ton, and I was eating this for days.

Stuffed dates from Primal-Palate.com. This is one for the cheese eaters. Sooo good! Not pictured because we ate all them before meal time.

Pumpkin pie from Nutty Kitchen. I burned the crust, but we still ate the whole thing. The ancient gas oven in our place is super uneven and miscalibrated by a hundred degrees or so. The other tricky thing about it is using honey as a sweetener. It's hard to get it evenly distributed in the filling. A lot of the honey had sunk to the bottom when I went to pour the filling into the pie, and there was more filling than the pie could handle, so a significant proportion of the honey in the recipe never made it into the pie. I didn't think it was that big of a deal, but Bryan thought the pie wasn't sweet enough. Some sugar free ice cream made it all better. I'll be experimenting with some other bars and pies at Christmas & I'll keep you updated!

Stuffing- this one's a bit complicated. I made a batch of the almond bread in Paleo Comfort foods (p 116). Looks like someone blogged that recipe here. I tried some before cutting it up into cubes and it was surprisingly tasty! I made a double batch of hazelnut bread from Healthy Living How To. The stuffing recipe on that site is somewhat similar to what I did, and the stuffed squash looks amazing, but I wanted a more traditional less chunky more casserole-y stuffing. I took 8 cups total of almond and hazelnut bread cubes and plugged it into an amalgamation of a couple of traditional recipes from the intarwebs. It went something like this-

8 cups almond flour and/or hazelnut flour bread cubes
1 pound breakfast sausage
3/4 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 cups chopped celery
1 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
1 tsp sage
chopped apple (I used only a small wedge or two, but will do more next time)
up to 3 cups chicken broth

Preheat oven to 325 F.
Cook sausage and set aside. Sautee onions and celery until tender. Combine sausage, celery, and onions with bread cubes, spices, and apple. I added chicken broth until the mixture held together and transferred it to a large baking dish. Then I added a little bit more until it seemed properly wet. It turned out I added a little too much liquid, but no biggie! I baked covered for about 45 minutes.

FO Roundup: 2nd Woven Scarf, Capucine Hat, Road to China Mitts

2011-12-20T21:21:00.001-06:00

Here's my second woven scarf. This one is Cascade 220 for the warp and Noro Silk Garden for the weft. I think my selvedges are getting a lot better! I double stranded the edge warp threads and that plus a thicker yarn plus practice seems to have helped a lot.

I had my eye on this lovely purple and gold Malabrigo Aquarella for a while, then I stumbled across the Capucine hat pattern shortly after I bought the yarn. Like many things I've been making lately, it's slightly ridiculous but I love it! The original pattern calls for bulky yarn but uses a size 8 needle. I used SpiderWomanKnits' modifications for a more typical size 11 needle as a starting point, but I found a couple of things unclear. This PDF by RosakaKnit has line-by-line instructions (the first page) that match what I did almost exactly. The only other change I made was a chain selvedge at the edges of the garter stitch section.

The other day I was at work when I got a text that the heater at the house was broken, so I came home with a couple skeins of Fiber Company Road to China worsted and whipped up some Maine Morning Mitts.

I'd been wanting to try this yarn for forever! It's extra warm and goes well with my purple Capucine.

FO Roundup: Longhorn Clogs and My First Woven Scarf!

2011-11-23T22:47:00.002-06:00

After I made the Noro clogs for myself, I felt our roommate John (UT MBA) was being left out! I didn't quite finish them in time for his birthday, but it was close. I had a tricky time figuring out how to needle felt the longhorns. I didn't quite trust myself to freehand with unspun fiber or yarn, or even with the kind of template you hold right over the work and sort of fold the loose edges in. I wanted to cut the shapes out from a sheet of felt, but most felt you find in shops is 100% synthetic. Beverly's carried some thick felted wool sheets from Nepal, but not in white. I didn't have much time, so I hand felted my own sheet of Merino felt and cut the appliques from that. John agrees that felted clogs are the best thing ever.

I've been talking about learning to weave for a long time (yay, stashbusting!), and the right time finally came along when Yarnhunter wanted to sell her Knitter's Loom. Here's my first scarf! I need more practice with my selvedges, but I really enjoyed it. It almost feel like it went too quickly and used too little yarn! :P
I still have at least one more scarf's worth of the Regia Hand Dye Effect I used for the weft, and another skein in warm colors. I thought the texture of the yarn would show up a little bit more, but apparently not. I have a lot to learn! I used Cascade 220 Sport for the warp.

FO Roundup: Triana Ruffle Scarf & Noro Felted Clogs

2011-11-11T22:27:00.003-06:00

It only took me a few days to jump on the Triana bandwagon when we started carrying it at Yarndogs this fall. It's one of the more interesting ruffle yarns I've seen, with an almost seaweed-like lacy texture. It also has a great feel and sheen. You use the same sort stabby technique as most other ruffle yarns.
For my scarf, I striped 2 rows of solid black with 2 rows of the multicolor red. I used slightly more than half of each ball of yarn, and it took me about 4 hours. It is maybe a little silly and not so practical, but wearing it makes me laugh. It went great with my devil horns on Halloween.

I was trying to decide which yarn to use for my own pair of felted clogs when we started carrying a new chunky striping Noro yarn called Hitsuji.
I am a big Noro fan and I liked working with the yarn, but I think I would have liked shorter stripes for this project. Not all the colors showed up in each clog. I needle felted bits and pieces of the other colors onto the clogs after felting.
I have used the Fiber Trends suede bottoms for all 3 pairs I have made so far. It's kind of slippery on hard floors without them!

FO: Forest Fiesta Swirl Jacket

2011-10-26T22:45:00.004-05:00

My biggest project of the late summer/fall so far. The book Knit, Swirl! has been a huge hit at Yarndogs since it came out. I knew right away I wanted to knit one but I waited until after Sock Summit to cast on. First, I tried Silk Garden Sock instead of Silk Garden Lite because I was in love with one of the colors. Robin from the shop did this and hers was gorgeous if a bit smaller than expected. It came out like a more typical jacket shape with smaller lapels that couldn't be worn as a hood. I already have 2 jackets with that silhouette, though. I really like the Baja hoodie surfer vibe with the hood. I promised myself this summer I'd take surfing lessons this fall, but moving got in the way of that. I plan on doing it next month, though! I'm already doing pushups to get ready. That's part of a whole 'nother blog post, though!
I swatched and got gauge with the SGS, but when I started the jacket it didn't stripe! Robin's colorway only had about 3 different colors in it, but mine had about 6, so my color runs were much shorter. I set aside the sock yarn (perhaps for Galia from Phatfiber's Madeira pattern) and bought some Silk Garden Lite. Stripes achieved! I'm really glad Noro brought back Silk Garden Lite, but there aren't that many good colors yet. I do like the one I used, but I might like it more without the brown. I always buy extra yarn when I'm dealing with Noro and care even the slightest bit about having the color sequence come out the same every repeat.

Modifications-
Shortened sleeves by 8 stitches either side. This may have been too much of a change, but I'm told they will continue to stretch out. The tutorial on how to cut off the cuffs if the sleeves end up too long spooked me a little. I decided to shorten the sleeves after I tried on Robin's first jacket and measured her sleeves but I forgot she didn't pleat her cuffs.
The pattern will tell you how many stitches per inch on the sleeve so you can make adjustments. It says to space out your changes along the length of the sleeve. I subtracted 1 or 2 stitches from each set of cast ons for the sleeve. You really don't want to change the number of the last set of cast ons, though! This is the number of cuff stitches and should be fixed. If you mess with it, there will be a stair step in the middle of your cuff that will look funny and be hard to seem. Write down whatever changes you make so you can do the same shaping in the bind offs at the end of the sleeve.
Other Tips-
First, check the errata. Even for the 2nd edition. The only mistake in this pattern was in the chart, which I didn't use.
The row gauge on this is pretty hard to get, but really important. Knitting this was a little stressful. First, I was paranoid I might have twisted the CO when I joined it, then I was worried about it coming out big enough because of the row gauge and about the sleeve length. Because of the construction, you can't really try it on as you go. Basically I just went with my swatch and blocked the hell out of the finished sweater.
To get a jacket large enough to wear the collar as a hood, pick one size larger than you might otherwise choose from your measurements. At the beginning of the book, she says all the models fall into the range suggested for a size 1. The pattern info says the model is wearing a size 2 in the photo. I made a size 3. I didn't have any problems with the sleeves being too small. I tried on Robin's size 2 in the sock yarn and the sleeves were extremely tight in the upper arms.

FO: Princess Animal Banner

2011-10-26T12:55:00.000-05:00

Kathy wanted to know if I could take the concept from this little double knit coaster with her logo and turn it into something HUGE to hang outside the shop.

So I did!

And in time for Debbie Stoller's visit next month!
It's a party for the Bust DIY Guide to Life book by Laurie Henzel and Debbie.
Here's the info direct from the Princess herself-

Register now at: http://bustprincessanimalparty.eventbrite.com

Who better to create a Guide for Life than Debbie Stoller, Editor in Chief of BUST magazine and author of the Stitch & Bitch series) and Laurie Henzel, Creative Director of BUST. The book is stacked with the best ideas in DIY, health, beauty, fashion, cooking, finance, and way more. Debbie & Laurie will be signing the book, hobnobbing, and leading us in a project from the book--yup, Sno-Globes. Did we mention there's free booze?

This event is FREE, with purchase of the book ($29.95, but you'll also leave with a custom sno-globe and a belly full o' booze, and that's really priceless, isn't it?).

The deets:

Date: November 3, 2011

Time: 7-8p for book signing

8-10p for book celebration and Sno-Globe Bar with Laurie & Debbie

Location: Princess Animal, 803 Valencia Street

Reserve your spot now. This is a very limited event cause the store is small!

FO: Amiga Cardi

2011-10-16T01:21:00.005-05:00

Early in the summer, Knitspiration Guild had an Amiga knitalong. Here's mine. We talked about how to adjust raglan shaping when necessary for a custom fit. I usually do pretty well with a standard shaping, so I didn't make any modifications in that section other than changing the kfb increases to mirrored M1 increases.
It's a Knitty.com pattern by Mags Kandis. I wasn't super thrilled about it in the beginning, but I made a lot of changes to make it more similar to the Featherweight Cardigan from Knitbot (Hannah Fettig). I mostly set it aside during the build up to Sock Summit and I picked it up again in earnest on the way home.
The thing that bugged me the most about the original was the rolled hem that seemed to ride up really badly in the back in the pattern photos. It was pretty cropped to begin with, too.
I added waist shaping, made it significantly longer, and changed the rolled hem to a 1x1 rib. I added decreases to taper the sleeves more and changed the rolled cuff to 1x1 rib. I need to go back and make the sleeves a couple of inches longer. The way they are right now (right at the elbow), they are exactly the wrong length and the ribbing gets really bunched up when I bend my arm.
Other than that mild adjustment that needs to be made, I love this thing!
The Rowan Panama feels great and I was a little surprised how much I liked working with it. It's a little bit splitty, but not as bad as I expected. I love the colors, too! I talked a couple of other people in the guild into using it too. :)
The Dorset buttons were fun to make and I got to add a little pink to the sweater! My first instinct was to do the whole thing in that color, but I got talked out of it. I had just finished a pink-ish garment. I just had to buy 1 ball of pink for the buttons or some other kind of trim! The 2 colors together ended up perfectly matching this dress I got at Banana Republic.
Oh, I almost forgot about my big fail! I have a tendency to just dismiss certain parts of pattern instructions when I think I have a better way. I thought I'd skip marking the button placement before picking up stitches for the rolled neck edge and just do it when it was time to make the buttonholes. Well, pretty much regardless of the length of your needle, it's not going to lay right with the stitches on a cable. I made my best guess but it ended up being way too low and I had to redo it. I didn't rip all the way back to the buttonholes- I dropped down and picked back up to get rid of one of them and dropped down and made another one higher. That was kind of funky, but it was a loose enough gauge (fingering weight on a size US 8) to have some slack to squeeze in a new buttonhole. Yeah, so I should have just tried it on and marked it when it said I was supposed to.

Modification details-
Changed kfb raglan increases to mirrored m1 increases.
Length from underarm lengthened to 16" from 10".
Waist shaping- decreased 2 stitches each side every 6th round 7 times, knit one inch without shaping, increased 2 stitches each side every 6th round 7 times. (I just realized this is a 6" difference and actually twice the shaping I meant to do, but it works for me!)
Changed rolled hem to 1x1 rib.
Decreased 2 stitches every 8th round 8 times for each sleeve.
Changed rolled sleeve hem to 1x1 rib.

Knitspiration Dye Day Photos

2011-10-16T00:47:00.002-05:00

How is it October already?? August and September got sucked up finding a new place to live, moving, and getting my business license in the new place (the hardest by far of the 3 cities I've been in up to this point).
Here are the pics from the Knitspiration Guild dye day I hosted in September. It was great fun and I'm happy to say I should be able to host again in the spring. I know there were a fair number of people who couldn't make it this time. Click the photo to see the rest of the Flickr set.

Out of Step Dyeworks at Sock Summit Booth 305!

2011-07-26T00:13:00.004-05:00

You can find me + my yarns, fibers, and patterns + some other great stuff at Sock Summit booth 305 in Portland next weekend!

I will have hard copies of my 2 brand new patterns- the previously-mentioned Vertebral Socks and the Dagon Cowl worked in my Silk Sock. The pattern for the cowl includes both a floppy version and a collar-like tapered version.

As for the "other great stuff," I am super excited to have stitch markers from Decor Noir, project bags from Bad Amy Knits, and Sock Bug project bags from sockdiva!

I'm also going to have undyed versions of most of my yarns. So if you're curious about dyeing or want to get first pick before the fall Knitspiration Guild dye day, come on by and I'll be glad to refer you to dyeing resources.

Dyeworks FOs: Damask Cable Socks, Vertebral Socks

2011-06-15T14:50:00.000-05:00

I've been re-knitting some of my sock (and sock yarn-using) designs in my own yarns for my Sock Summit booth.

This is my Damask Cable Socks pattern in a mostly-solid kettle dyed SW BFL. The BFL base I fell in love with around last December died in a fire (for reals), so this is a new one. It is on the thinner side, but works up nice on US 1.5 needles (which is what I normally use for socks). I might use a US 1 if I were designing something new for it. It has a nice tight twist and makes a great feeling fabric. I love BFL.

I'm knitting up my Zombie Apocalypse Merino/nylon sock yarn (also SW) in my yet-to-be-released Vertebral Socks pattern. You might have seen the prototype I made in Colinette Jitterbug a few months ago.

I'm looking for some help with a sample of my Dianthus Scarf (you don't have to finish the whole scarf before Sock Summit) and possibly Instar Hat.
I could use a fresh Basic Self-Striping Sock in one of my striping MCN colorways. I've worn mine a little too much. The knitting still looks lovely, but I have a knack for getting my socks impossibly dirty.

FO: Colinette Ab Fab Throw

2011-06-10T15:27:00.000-05:00

I made this Ab Fab Throw as a present for Bryan's dad's wedding. Kim happens to have the same thing for red that I do. This is Morello Mash, one of their new colors. I'd link to the Colinette website, but it is just terrible. I saw the new colors in an ad in Yarn Market News and the URL is not findable by using their main site or Googling, so I lost it until a rep emailed it to the shop.
This is something I'd been wanting to knit for years, and it was pretty fun. It actually went a lot quicker than I thought.

FO: Asian Asymmetry Tee

2011-05-25T00:25:00.001-05:00

Asian Asymmetry is a top from Knit Kimono Too. I can't see myself wearing any of the kimono in the book, but there are several very cute tees and tanks! The book comes with a DVD, and I still have no idea what's on it.

This top has fake overlapping fronts. It's really just a v neck with a narrow band of trim sewn on. Bryan thinks it looks very Starfleet. :P
It is absolutely imperative that the top be on a mannequin or human when the neck trim is being pinned into place. It really won't sit right otherwise.

I did some modifications on the body. I worked the first and last stitch in regular rib instead of twisted to make seaming easier. The body was written as an a-line shape, but I changed it to an hourglass shape. I made the body a little bit longer than called for. Some of this was due to a row gauge issue.
The sleeves came out pretty wide, but it isn't really noticeable unless I point it out. I'd rather have them too big than too tight for something to wear to work.

The yarn I used was Crystal Palace Panda Silk DK. It can be a little splitty, but overall I really like it. I bought a full bag of it quite some time ago when it showed up at the shop by mistake (wrong color). I was concerned I might run out of yarn, but it looks like I have a full ball left over.

Watch me Shop: Bagless Edition

2011-05-18T14:36:00.000-05:00

Here are my handmade finds from the last month or so. No more bags this time!
(I do have to confess that I bought one of the new Lantern Moon parachute bags from Yarndogs. I held out for a few days, but it's just so soft and squishable! And so many pockets! I always justify buying new knitting bags when I have a trip coming up.)

Here's my miPattern Saver and magnetic Pattern Keepers from Slipped Stitch Studios. We recently started carrying her line at Yarndogs as well (lots of cute owls, sock monkeys, and sheep prints). This one was a custom request after I saw another product in her Etsy shop made up in this fabric, which is one of my all-time favorites! I got some of it at Natural Expressions bead/quilt shop in Los Gatos last fall. I haven't sewed anything out of it, but I've been using it as a tablecloth at fiber shows.
I love the swift covers in the Slipped Stitch Studios shop. The only reason I haven't bought one is my swift is in almost constant use. They are super cute, though! Maybe Bryan will read this and buy me this classic monster print one.

These are my bad kitty stitch markers from Scarrymerry on Etsy. Her stitch markers are sooo cute! Be prepared to be patient (I think her items may be made to order), but the detail is amazing!
I also love these bat stitch markers, Halloween stitch markers, witch and cat knitting needles, and these otters from her sold items!

I don't use stitch markers all that much, so I went for this ladybug orifice hook when I saw fellow Phat Fiber contributor Yarndemon Designs' ladybug collection. I just personally love ladybugs, but how perfect would this be for someone with a Ladybug spinning wheel?

Here's her ladybug stitch markers, and her alpaca and sheep orifice hooks and WPI tools are so adorable too! Hers is an Artfire shop, no account required for purchasers.

In other news, I found the perfect use for my small Sock Diva ladybug bag- carrying around extra camera batteries, memory cards, and my neoprene lens hood cover!
We went to Hakone gardens in Saratoga, which is small but pretty nice, but I have super high standards after visiting the Fort Worth Botanic Garden years ago.

FO Roundup: Crochet and Spinning Edition

2011-05-10T13:25:00.000-05:00

Here's the absolutely 100% finished photo of my Coquena the Llama!

It took me a while to do all the little finishing touches. The hat I made following the pattern was too big, but it was easy enough to remake it smaller trying it on the llama as I went. The little floppy pom poms/tassles are actually tiny crocheted balls with loop stitch on the outside that you cut afterwards. It's a lot faster than making traditional pom pons, at least the ones you can make with a non-hinged maker.
I've updated my Ravelry project page with estimates of the yardage I actually used since the pattern doesn't give yardages. For many of the colors, I used just a couple of grams or less.

And here is my finished Ella Crochet Scarf. It's a Knitwits pattern or kit. I love her stuff! We carry the kits at Yarndogs, but I wanted to try picking out my own colors to get just reds, pinks, and purples. I got the Tahki Cotton Classic (same yarn as the kits) at Purlescence. It takes so little yarn of each ball in each color (hence the kits) that I will probably make at least one more. I just need to get more green yarn.
Making these little flowers is addictive and the pattern is really easy to memorize after making a few of them! I made the scarf 10 flowers long instead of 8. For some reason, I had to go down 2 hook sizes when making the green part to have it not come out too floppy. My flowers were fine with the recommended size, though.

Here's the 3-ply I made from the Yarn Wench Merino/silk fiber I got at the spinners' swap a couple of Christmases ago. I'm thinking toe-up socks.

In Which I Become a Bag Lady

2011-03-30T13:26:00.001-05:00

In February I used my evil enabling powers to spread the word about the Namaste Bitty Bag.
This month, I've been doing a bit of shopping on Etsy. Tee hee.
First up is a box bag from Bad Amy Knits-

Bad Amy Knits had some fabric from the same collection as the fabric in my beloved bat project bag from The Silver Pumpkin. This doesn't quite capture my excitement. Let's try that again. She has trick or treating black cat fabric that matches my trick or treating bat bag. (She also had fabric that matches another knitting bag I own and fabric that matches a corset I own!)

The box bag is super sturdy. I think there is interfacing between the layers of fabric. It's probably not even necessary to use point protectors on my needles, but I will anyway.

Next up is 2 ladybug bags from Sock Diva-

The adorable little one on the left is the Omiyagi Ladybug size. It's just a little too small for cramming a knitting project in, but it's perfect for keys, ID, and cell phone. The one on the right is the Sock Bug I ordered to match my ladybug. They both have a really nice long shoulder strap.
One teensy little complaint I have is the only one of these bags with a label on the inside is the Silver Pumpkin bat bag. It's super helpful to have the URL or at least the name of the shop readily available when I'm showing off my bags. It also reminds me of the person who made them and makes me smile.

Last but not least is this lovely key lime cheesecake soap (yes, soap!) from Sunbasilgarden

Photo by Sunbasilgarden. The gingerbread scent of the "crust" is the predominant note in this soap. It makes my whole bathroom smell nice. Normally, my bathroom smells like wet sheep at best. :) The "crust" layer even has real sugar for a bit of scrubbiness! So cool!

Next I might have to go for some creamsicle soap or zombie cupcake soap!

WIP: Coquena the Llama

2011-03-25T00:13:00.004-05:00

Coquena the Llama has been a pretty epic crochet project.
So far she's gone from this

to this

to this

The pattern has been very easy to follow, even for a not-very-experienced crocheter. I had a little bit of trouble with the hat. It came out too big when I followed the instructions, so I'm going to redo it to a custom size now that I've put the llama's head together. The loop stitch is actually very easy to do, but it eats up a ton of yarn! I'm using Mission Falls 136, a DK weight superwash Merino. My only big complaint about the pattern is it doesn't include yardage estimates. I've posted the amounts I used on Ravelry, but I haven't weighed partial skeins.

Stitches West Wrap-up

2011-02-28T17:03:00.004-06:00

Normally I have a "rule" that I only buy fiber at Stitches West. My fiber stash is pretty big at this point, not to mention all the knitting and designing I should be doing with my own yarn in preparation for Sock Summit! I decided I would buy books this year. In the past, I've missed out on some of the stitch dictionaries I've wanted to buy.

This year I snagged Omas Strickgeheimnisse and Twisted-Stitch Knitting from the Yarn Barn booth on Friday morning. Sunday during the lunch break from my lace designing class with Janel Laidman, I scored the last copy of The Haapsalu Shawl from the Village Spinning and Weaving Booth. I also got Heirloom Knitting there.
I bought some handmade buttons similar to these at the Creatively Dyed booth. I think they are very Klimt-y.

Here's the shawl I started in the lace design class.

I need to keep going at least long enough to see if the way I shoehorned the stitch pattern into the triangle shape is going to look weird or not. If I decide to make the entire shawl, I may go down another needle size. The yarn is some Conjoined Creations Pastimes I got at Purlescence. I rather like it.

All in all, I have a lot more confidence now about my ability to fit stitch patterns into the triangle shape. I hope to come up with something really awesome and scale-y for my Merino/silk sock yarn in the Dagon colorway before Sock Summit.

FO Roundup: Linen Stitch Scarf + Pleiades Scarf

2011-02-24T00:35:00.002-06:00

My startitis at the beginning of the year has started to pay off!
I'm still somewhat afflicted. I've been getting completely obsessed with the idea of starting certain projects.

The Linen Stitch Scarf is a Churchmouse pattern we've started carrying at Yarndogs. After helping a customer pick out colors for her scarf, I decided I had to do one too! This one is going to be a shop sample for a few months, so you can go visit it yourself if you'd like. I knit this in 3 balls of Claudia Fingering. The fuchsia and the red are actually both the Rubies Playing colorway, but hugely different dye lots! The variegated color is Just Plum.

The Pleiades scarf is the February project for the Dream in Color Dream Club. This is a club that operates on the yarn shop level. Shops that sign up for the club get a shipment each month of an exclusive colorway and a pattern. This month, the yarn is Starry.

Those of you who are very astute may have realized both these scarves are knit lengthwise. In fingering weight. For a few miserable days, I had both projects going at the same time. One with 450 stitches and one with almost 600!

I'm kind of obsessed with the dayflower lace pattern seen along the top of the Pleiades scarf. I'd never seen the Dayflower Daydream shawl from a Best of Knitter's Magazine book until I leafed through the book at my recent lace design class with Janel Laidman at Stitches West (more on that later).

I'd also sort of forgotten about the Myrtle Cardigan by Snowden Becker (a super talented knitter/designer from the Austin Meetup Group). I think I will have to do one or both of these. I have 5 skeins of Cascade Alpaca Lace I'd been saving for a Cap Shawl. I'd sort of fallen out of love with that idea after realizing the outer portion of the Cap Shawl has basically the same stitch pattern as the Leaf and Trellis Shawl I've been stalled out on for (gulp!) years. It's really the edging on that shawl that has me stalled out, though. I pulled it out around the holidays and tried to do a few repeats every day, but it didn't last. Maybe I'll give it another shot.

I might knit the Myrtle in my own hand dyed yarn. I think I'd make it a pullover, like this one. A cardigan's easier to just throw on and wear, but I'm wary of fussy buttons and afraid of possible gapping at the front. All of the cardigans I've made so far are worn open or closed with pins or a single button.

FO Roundup: Felted Clogs, Socks, & More!

2011-01-19T18:38:00.003-06:00

I finally felted Bryan's clogs and sewed on the suede soles (made by Fiber Trends, bought at Yarndogs). Protip: if you're making these for a gift, allow up to a week for drying!
The clogs are even more comfy and warm than I imagined! I definitely need a pair for myself.

Here's a both-socks-finished photo of my basic self-striping socks. This is a pattern I give away with purchase of striping yarns, but I've been meaning to put it up for free on Ravelry so I don't have to remember to email it to people!

I also recently finished these lacy socks in Colinette Jitterbug. The pattern is going into testing and editing now, but it still needs a name. Somehow, this is only my first pair of red socks!

And this is my finished swirl ball from the pattern Mary taught at the December guild meeting. I finished it that same night, but forgot to blog about it. The cats have definitely claimed it as theirs. Ziva's sitting next to me on the couch now and she's got it with her.

She did her little dance with it for about 10 minutes before sitting down. Basically she gets on a blanket with a toy in her mouth and "makes biscuits" while purring really loudly. Video below. I really want to know what that behavior *means*, but I'm totally
clueless.

FO: Rainbow Sock Blank Socks

2011-01-19T17:12:00.001-06:00

I worked out a trade with my awesome customer Angelica for a Bond knitting machine. I was curious about using it to produce long-striping yarns where the stripes kind of variegate into each other at the transitions. There's a Sock Blank Artist group on Ravelry with lots of examples of this kind of effect.

Here's the first double-stranded sock blank off the machine. I used 50 stitches and the number 4 plate.
This blog post was super helpful in figuring out how to get started.
What appear to be clips from the original instruction video are on YouTube here.

Here's one side of the blank after dyeing-

And here's the finished socks!

I did these toe-up with a short row heel. Specifically, I used the Sherman heel which uses an encroachment technique instead of wrapped or yarn over short rows. I think it gives the same result as Japanese short rows without using a pin to mark the strand that gets picked up.

Sock blanks aren't going to replace my normal method for dyeing self-striping yarns, but it's an interesting technique with distinctive results. I made one skein of self-striping lace weight from a blank, and I plan on doing more.

Knitting With Silk Hankies Video Tutorial!

2011-01-14T20:48:00.002-06:00

I created this silk flower pin kit for the January Phat Fiber box theme (Chinese New Year) and also taught it at the January meeting of the Knitspiration Guild of Silicon Valley.

The above video shows the process of making yarn from the silk hanky stack with no spinning required, plus the specific increase techniques used in the pattern. There's also a lot of cute cat screen time. They just have to be in the middle of everything! :)
When I tried spinning silk hankies a few years ago, I wasn't the biggest fan. I've been having a great time knitting with them, though! They still stick to your hands (and clothes, and cats) a lot when you're drafting them, but I find the knitting really enjoyable.
I'll be listing more kits in my Etsy shop after I dye some more hankies. If you're a guild member who didn't get to make it to the meeting, contact me for the special guild price.

Pattern Release- Eureka Valley Hat

2010-12-24T17:57:00.002-06:00

I designed this hat to match my Eureka Valley Mitts worked in the worsted weight version of this yarn. Really, it was just an excuse to work with the Chunky Mochi, which had been calling my name from the shelves for several months. It uses 2 balls, and works up in just a few hours. The pattern is available for $5 in my Ravelry pattern store or my Etsy shop.

Free Pattern Release- Snowflakes on Mulberries Hat (worsted weight)

2010-12-24T16:58:00.003-06:00

You may remember my free pattern for Silk Garden Lite, the Snowflakes on Mulberries Hat. Here it is-

Soon after finishing that project, I learned that Silk Garden Lite was being discontinued!
Earlier this fall, I fell in love with this lovely Halloween-y colorway of the worsted weight Silk Garden and I decided to rework the pattern for a heavier gauge. It works up super fast in 1 skein and the 6-fold symmetry of the decreases makes it just a little bit special. I tweaked the decrease rate, so there's no tendency toward looking nipple-y whether the hat is being worn or not. Ravelry pattern page here.