Super Secret Xmas Present

Nearly two years in the making! Is this an FO post? Of course not. Do you think I’m actually done with this? No. But I am working on it again. And everyone knows about.

“Remember that Christmas present thing I told you about? Started working on it again. But I can’t tell you about it.”

Can I tease you just a bit?

From Whence It Came

Oh.

 

Oh yeah.

 

Yes!

 

OMG a UFO!

Give me more!

Sorry.

On paper, I’m so close to 2/3 done. In reality…. it’s a bit less than that. Increasing stitch counts and all. But this is the year! It was meant for last Christmas. Now it’s meant for this Christmas. Help me. Help me!

Diagonal Drop Stitch Scarf Pattern (Really)

In its entirety

Alright guys. It’s been a long time coming and I know a lot of people have been visiting the site looking for this and end up being confuzzled for their efforts. This is an actual pattern.

Also note that I only made a demo. I planned on knitting the entire scarf but really didn’t like the yarn and this was way overdue anyways. One day… I think the demo is enough for the visual aid.

This is a basic pattern that most beginning knitters can accomplish. It’s a garter stitch scarf knit on the diagonal that creates two tapered ends.

You’ll need to know how to:

Cast on

Bind off

Knit

Knit two together (k2tog) This is a decrease

Knit in the front and back of one stitch (kfb) This is an increase

Yarn over (YO)

Ready? I decided to try a different yarn this time. So my model will be roughly a bulky weight yarn on US size 13 needles. Use whatever yarn you like and check the ballband for needle size suggestions. Note: I didn’t end up liking this yarn and decided to only knit a demo. Have everything?

Here’s the pattern:

Cast on one stitch.

You’ll notice that each end is a triangle. To make the first one, start here.

Triangle End

Triangle 1 (The Beginning):

Knit in the front and back of your cast on stitch (kfb). You will now have 2 stitches on the needle. This is row 1.

Kfb in both of those stitches. You now have 4 stitches. Row 2.

Kfb the first stitch in every row until you have 7 rows knit. (Rows 1-7).

Row 8: K, *yo 2x, K* *Repeat the directions until the end of the row. These 8 rows make one pattern repeat.

Do one more pattern repeat to create your starting triangle. You’ll have 15 sts on your needle not including the yo’s you put on in the last row. You’re ready to work the body

Pattern Close-Up

Body Pattern:

Row 1: Kfb the first stitch, then knit to the end dropping all your yo’s. Note, on the first stitch increase, if it feels a little tight or you’re worried, just wiggle the stitch a little until you’ve got some slack. It’ll be fine, trust me.

Row 2: K to last 2 st, K2tog

Rows 3, 5, 7: Kfb, k to last 2 st, k2tog

Rows 2 and 6: k

Row 8: K1, *yo 2x, k* to end.

Repeat rows 1-8 until you’re satisfied with the length. Most people will knit a scarf until it’s 4-5 feet long. Make sure the pull your stitches straight after your dropped yo’s so you can see the real length.

Triangle 2 (The End):

This is just the reverse to the first one.

Row 1: K all sts, dropping your yo’s

Row 2: K2tog, knit to last 2 st, k2tog

Rows 3-7: K2tog, knit to end

Row 8: K2tog, *yo 2x, k* repeat to end

Repeat the above rows 1-7 one more time. Once you get down to two stitches on your needle, knit them together and pull your yarn end through the last stitch to bind off. Once you’ve woven in your ends and blocked (if you like), you’re done!

 ****

If you try this pattern and find any mistakes, have suggestions, or just want to show off, let me know! I’m excited to have my first “pattern” up and hope I didn’t screw too many people up the first time around. Or this time.

As a side note, I have a box of craft books and magazines that I’m looking to move out of the apartment. Would anyone be interested in a raffle or drawing or something?

Storm Cowl

Due to a misunderstanding with my stand-in photographer, pictures are pending. Check back tomorrow. Up!

This was such an awesome idea. I’ve been knitting this cowl for probably close to two years. I love the pattern (which I made up) and the way it works so nicely with my yarn (Caron Simply Soft, I’m pretty sure). However, I knew nothing about cowls when I started making this. Case in point.

Death by Cowl

It’s a headband! Or an eyemask maybe. Ear warmer?

This is no good. *sigh* Fortunately, I can rework the pattern after it’s frogged and redo it. This time, I’ll take way better notes too. Such as the pattern and how many rows of novelty yarn I used. I do remember a few bits though and it’ll be enough. Back to the beginning.

I’m really trying to teach myself that I can frog. There’s nothing wrong with saying something better would work or fixing something when I’ve made a mistake. It’s not a race. Frogging is sad, but just a fact of life. Let this be your example.

*

Of course, since I’ve written the above, I’ve lookd at it again. Maybe it can still be salvaged? It’ll be a little tighter than most cowls, but not too bad right? I’ll just have to think about it.

Spring Scarf Update

Yes, I have in fact been knitting. Not a whole lot as you can see, but there is definite knittage going on.

Oh, can’t quite see how much that is? Here, let me fix that.

Yep. 8 inches of pure American slack-ass. You can’t beat something that don’t compete.

Also, to increase the amount of time it will take to get this done, I’ve casted on for a new project! See? I knew you wouldn’t believe it. Really, I think it’s going to be cool. I want an FO by the end of August, so one of these might be it. Who knows…

Saturday’s My New Favorite

Last Saturday was a surprise. It started slow. I rolled out of bed when I felt like it and read for hours while eating. It wasn’t until late afternoon/evening that I ventured out. I stopped for a latte, trying a flavor I hadn’t had in at least a year. The sky was grey with rain and the air was moist and breezy- my favorite kind of day. I was listening to a CD I had just made with some great new songs. Then I headed to Hobby Lobby.

You haven’t heard about any of my new yarn loves because I haven’t had any. I can’t even remember how long it’s been since I was last at a craft store. And I bought yarn! Once back in the car, it hit me: I was having an awesome day. A freaking, whole-heartedly, soul-warmingly GOOD day. It’s been such a bleak time for me, feeling like I’ve completely lost myself and not being able to even accomplish the simplest things. I’ve been lost. Saturday I reclaimed a bit of myself.

I topped off my day with a little exploratory drive and some knitting in front of Jane Austen movies which lead me to a new project. You can’t expect me to work on the same dozen for too long can you? Besides, the only one I could actually find made me want to scream and the only challenging one was MIA. Enter new Hobby Lobby yarn and I am ready to make another shawl. I threw the pattern together and I’m off. Even though I’ve already discovered some problems (miscounts) and discovered that the way I was knitting it was too wide so I effectively rotated the pattern in lieu of frogging. Such is life.

As long as it’s been since I waltzed into a craft store, it’s been nearly as long since I’ve spent any quality time on Ravelry. Oh yeah. Inspiration ho! Knitting is something I look forward to again, even if I only actually knit for 5 minutes and look at it for the other hour. I may not be fast and I may not knit more than two rows a day, but I feel like I may have some FOs this year. Except for this new shawl that reminds me of spring. That might be my FO for spring 2011.

Edit: I’m such a slacker that I couldn’t get this posted last Saturday. Luckily, this one has been much like the last. Only this time, I found my challenging UFO and have knit for hours. Yes, hours. Seriously. I’ve gotten a lot done on it with very few mistakes. Since this is my first real lace piece, I’m quite proud of what I’ve got so far. I think I’m even half-way done!

I’ve promised challenge pictures from last month, and I’ve finally found my camera. They’re coming soon. In the meantime, I’m making good on this month’s challenge and am pushing myself to work more than I have in a good long while. Hopefully, it will pay off as much as I think it will.

I hope everyone is having as good a day as I am. Looking forward to catching up with you guys again soon. Happy Saturday!

2008 Knits

Looking back over a year, I realized just how much I’ve learned. I could hardly knit and purl in the same row, and here I am, knitting and purling away. I learned about drop stitches, cable stitches, using beads, and working with a ton of different yarns. I tried my hand at entrelac, lace, and shaping.

I also realized how little I’ve knit. Yeah, a couple of shawls and some scarves, a few crochet blocks early in the year, but nothing too grand. It’s nice to know I’ve knit at all since it doesn’t seem like it. But it still seems a little puny. Oh well. I’ve knit, crocheted, made soap, weaved (though I never got around to telling you about it). Plus, there’s always 2009, even if I am off to a slow start. Let’s see what I can pull off this year, eh?

Isn’t this cute? I wrote this in February, probably hoping that by saying this I would be able to psych myself up for more knitting. I feel like such a slacker in the knitting department. Truly, I have been excessively busy. Still, it seems like knitting has become such a large part of my life and how people perceive me that that’s one of the first things they ask about. I’m always thinking of it, but just can’t seem to get around to it.

But guess what? I knit last night. Maybe less than a dozen rows, but it’s knitting right? It’s also on an unfinished Christmas present. It’s for the ex-fiance’s grandmother. The project was an experiment that I wanted to try, but it seemed to be taking forever. Well it is taking forever, but I don’t want to give up on it.

Summer is here and I’ve got a lot to catch up on. I need to start getting my life back in order and start doing the things I love again. Can I get a witness! This is work month right? Well, let’s start working!

A Shawl, a Surrender, and Some Hope

Alright, I’ll admit it. I missed a class Monday morning. I just kinda… slept instead. However, I jumped right back on the horse and haven’t missed anything since. There. That’s off my chest.

So let’s talk about another one of my horses. In my last post, I asked for free help from the accountants of the world. Well, I won’t be needing that anymore. I bombed my first test in income tax. Bombed as in Hiroshima. Or so I think at least, because I dropped before I bothered to find out what I made. Effort-wise, I spent more time slogging through tax law and writing papers about tax court than focusing on my major-specific classes. That’s a waste of time and energy in my book. So, I’ll take a lower-level accounting elective over the summer. Summer classes… ugh.

Is everyone ready for some hope? Okay, well my rabbit chewed through my phone and TV cables, so I can’t watch movies and have to be careful with the phone. That’s not the hope part. This is: I’m knitting again. I hadn’t realized how little I’ve knit since the beginning of school or how much that’s stressed me out. I mean, I still haven’t finished Christmas presents. I realize knitting cable covers isn’t exactly tackling my to-do list, but I’m doing something I love again that will protect the sanctity of my film watching, ensuring the goodness of mindless knitting in the future. So there’s that.

And then there’s this: Mom’s Shawl. Yes, the one I finished BEFORE my Christmas deadline. Sometimes I’m not totally slack. I used a simple feather and fan pattern and several colors of I Love This Yarn from Hobby Lobby. I Love This Yarn is much softer than Red Heart but just as cheap. And since I refuse to use Red Heart for anything that goes on or near the body, this is the best basic, cheap acrylic out there. It doesn’t block well though. I’m not sure if it was because I knit with two strands held together and it was too thick, or you just have to douse the hell out of it. Otherwise, I think it worked up pretty nicely and both me and my mom are very happy with it.

Washcloths

I feel like I’ve sucked royally with the updating bit of keeping the blog. Looking over the last few posts, it seems so long ago. Okay, I haven’t actually finished a whole lot, but I have been working. And finally, I finished the damn washcloths. I’ve even moved onto the other projects that really need to get done in less than a month. Imagine that.

And here they all are. All three sets. These small things took me forever. The blues are for my dad and step-mom, the citrus for my sister, and the pinks for my grandmother.

 

I did kind of a sucktastic job seaming up the pink circular one, plus I think I should have done another section so it wouldn’t curl up. The ballband turned out nicely, but I couldn’t figure out how to weave in my ends nicely, so the back looks messed up. The star… well, the color scheme looked good in my head. At least they coordinated. Redo them, you say? Hell, no! They’re done. They have CHARACTER. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

FO: Pink Petals Scarflette

This amazingly simple scarflette is my favorite creation to date. Seriously. My mom gave me this yarn and, while cute, I had no idea what to do with it. You can imagine my amazement when this too-novelty, too-pink yarn turned into a swath of petals before my eyes. I learned my lesson not to judge too harshly until I’ve swatched. Plus, I got to use another button. You know how happy that makes me.

I’ve got several more projects in the works, most for Christmas, some not. I’m hoping to get a real pattern up for the diagonal drop stitch scarf soon since* no one understood that post. If at first you don’t succeed and all. That and I don’t want my mom hounding me.

*Mess of sounds you know you want to say out loud. Do it. Doooo it.

FO: Ms. Poppins

AKA, Mom’s incredibly late birthday present. Well, I’m finally getting around to telling you about it. I started working on the pattern for the Ms. Poppins bag nearly 6 months before her birthday and finished about a month late. Yay me! But I had reasons! She told me to make this for her “when I got good enough” just as I was starting to knit. Well, the whole thing is in stockinette, so I could do that. I was so excited to get started. I bought my first skeins of “fancy” yarn at the first yarn shop I’d ever been to. I also had my first round of sticker shock there too, but that’s to be expected. Then, in the height of my exuberance, I cast on! Mesmerized by pretty, pretty yarn and the feeling of accomplishment at tackling a bag so soon after learning a new craft, I slowly became aware of the honking huge ache in my hands. Dude, this crap was heavy and I was using the only pair of 10.5s I had: two long straight needles. I didn’t know any better. Plus, the thrill of stockinette soon turned to complete, mind-numbing boredom. It was then that love turned to hate and doomed this snappy little bag to a lifetime of backseats and sideways glances. Then I realized that it was going to be late. Crap. In my haste, I bought a pair of circs to ease the pain in my hands and grudgingly knit away.

But! I did get to make my own purse handles! I got excited about the idea of making them and had a plan and everything! That took just over a day and I think they turned out pretty well.

Since I’m such an awesome daughter, not only did I tell my mom that it was going to be late, I also declared I wasn’t going to finish it. I thought it would be better for her to finish it to her own tastes. This was the honest reason though obviously tinged by hatred! and laziness. So happy birthday, mom. Here’s your assemble-your-own-purse kit. Complete with extra yarn so you can finish it yourself, purse handles, a cooler than shit button, and a tin of breath mints. Pattern? Oh, I’ll get that send that to you soon. Really. Only I didn’t and she had to search for it herself.

I promise she loves me. That’s the only reason she hasn’t throttled me yet. And to prove her love, she even wrote me a guest post! So here, in her own words, you can read about the second half of this poor purse’s life.

——–

My #2 daughter surprised me with a package in the mail last week. It was the finished, knitted parts to a bag I had asked her to  make me when I first found out she was learning to knit.

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I was so excited when I saw it! I LOVE IT. I don’t know what yarn she used but it was a perfect choice.* Color and weight. I had wanted something heavy because I’m extremely hard on everything I own- especially handbags and the color– well, I’m a “fall” gal…. any shade, every shade.

(Bag Parts)hahaha sounds like bagpipes! 

So, yesterday I finally finished a crochet project I’d been working on and pulled out all the materials I needed to get started finishing my Ms Poppins bag.

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Luckily, I had some brown, heavy weight fabric in the ole stash bin for my lining. I took my bag measurements, cut out the lining along with a pocket and got to sewing. I had the lining finished in about 10-15 min. THEN, I actually took the time to block the bag piece! When it was ready, I whip stitched the sides together, inserted the lining and hand sewed that down.

She (#2) had given me a bit of extra yarn, so I found my center and crocheted a loop for the beautiful button that she’d included in my package. Then I sewed on the button and handles and WALAA– my finished “surprise” bag. 

I love how it turned out and will use it FOREVER.  The only thing I would change if I got another one for summer use (hint, hint) is that I’d read the online pattern finishing instructions first.  I didn’t follow theirs but who cares! I love my new bag. Thank you so much “Blue”. It’s a wonderful gift and I know how long and hard you worked on it. You must really love me!   Well, DITTO.

* I held together a strand of Lamb’s Pride Wool in Espresso and a strand of Berroco Foliage.

Make sure to check out my mom’s blog full of her own crafty adventures at M’Lady’s Ponderings.