Tag - Knitting

I haven’t done a lot of knitting since I hurt my thumb.  It is mostly better, but it likes to act up now and then.  But before that, I made these little owl puffs.

Oh, the cute!!

They took less than two hours to knit, stuff and put on the eyes.  The instructions said to embroider the beaks but after about 5 tries, I gave up and used felt.  Because really, ain’t nobody got time for that.  And how much do you love me for saying that? The yarn is I Love This Cotton (from Hobby Lobby) in Spring Ombre and pink. I gave one owl to Pumpkin Girl and the other I sent to a friend.  The pattern if free on Ravelry here: Owl Puffs!

These little guys are everything that makes a good summer project -  FREE pattern, quick, easy, cute results.  And the yarn was cheap but soft.  Doesn’t get better than that!  Mad owl making skillz, I has them. (Loving me again, aren’t you?)

I have a knitting injury. A knitting.injury. Do you know how much talent that takes, injuring myself while just sitting there, all cozy in my jammies, hardly moving at all?

No, I did not poke myself in the eye.

I have trigger finger. Or at least that’s what the google tells me.

At first I thought it was a repetitive motion injury from knitting my watermelon socks non-stop and then moving on to a new pair of socks. I gave my poor hand a rest for a few days and then picked up the socks again. This pair is cabled which I have been working without the use of a cable needle. Non-knitters, stick with me here! Knitting cables without using a cable needle requires pinching the stitches at the critical moment when they want to unravel on you. I’ve used this technique before with success and without pain. But that was with thicker yarn which is easy to hold on to. Sock yarn is much thinner and I think I was pinching quite hard so it wouldn’t escape.

So there I was, all cozy in my jammies, knitting and pinching, when I realized that it was the pinching that was causing the pain. All the rest of the knitting was fine. So I got out a cable needle and the pain was significantly less.

I have broken my leg skiing. I have broken my wrist playing soccer. And now I have injured my thumb knitting.

Don’t envy me my glamorous life.

I’m having my own personal sock of the month club, a la the Yarn Harlot. My goal is to match all the sock yarn in my stash with a pattern that I either already own or is available for free. Spend no money, knit more socks.

First up, watermelon self-patterning yarn.

This is the project that had me searching high and low for a particular skein of yarn and in the process realizing I have major stash issues. Yarn stash, people, yarn.

I bought this yarn about 6 or 7 years ago and starting making a scarf. But I didn’t like the way it was turning out, so I frogged the whole thing and put the yarn away. I really liked the yarn so I wanted the perfect project. For some reason I thought I only had one skein and there aren’t a whole lot of things you can do with 175 yards of sock yarn.

So I searched and searched for the perfect pattern and then I found it! Eureka! It’s the Dayflower Cowl for sock weight yarn. And here was the best part – the way the pattern is written, you can make it longer or shorter or taller, however you want. So my plan was to make into a sort of long, skinny infinity scarf.

And off to find the yarn. When it finally emerged from the depths of The Stash (yarn!!), turns out I actually had 2 skeins. Yay, me!

Now, before I show you my cowl, I have to admit that I made a mistake. I knit fairly loosely, so I always, no matter what, go down a needle size. Even when gauge doesn’t matter, I just go down a size. I should have used a US7, but my 7s are in another project and my 8s are my favorite needle. My 8s are a very nice, slippery Inox circular. And thinking gauge doesn’t matter, I jumped at the chance to use them.

So I ran out of yarn. Yeah, oops. And this being lace, there was no way I was tinking back 4 rows of over 200 stitches, making sure to catch every yarn over and K3tog. I found leftover sock yarn that matched one of colors in the cowl. I finished off the last row and a half, plus the binding.

So here she is, I call her Springtime in the Rockies, because the colors remind me all the flowers in bloom once Spring finally makes an appearance. The yarn that started this all is Koigu Painter’s Palette Premium Merino, in color way P207. The pattern, Dayflower, is free and is both written and charted. (It is the 5th pattern down on that link.) It comes in 3 lengths. I doubled the smallest length and did 4 pattern repeats. Finished size is just under 29 inches long and 8 inches high.

I set about photographing and cataloging my yarn stash. It is clear I have issues. If it is limited edition, hard to get or unique, I need to have it. Obviously, I’m compensating for something that is lacking in my life. Feel free to browse my blog archives and analyze me and let me know! In the meantime, let’s take a look at just my sock yarn, shall we…

Oooo, pretty! What do we have here? I have numbered each hank, cake or ball and under each picture is a list of each one.

1. Mystery yarn. I have no idea what this is, weight, color, brand or anything. Sigh…
2. Knit Picks Imagination, Unicorn
3. Fleece Artist Merino, Seafoam
4. Fleece Artist Merino, Wildflower
5. Neighborhood Studio Sock, Randle Circle
6. Left-overs from completed socks
7. Abbi Grasso self-striping sock yarn, Watermelon
8. Abbi Grasso self-striping sock yarn, Kiwi fruit
9. Knit Picks Imagination, Munchkin
10. Knit Picks Stroll, Royalty Tonal
11. Knit Picks Stroll, Deep Waters Tonal
12. Knit Picks Imagination, Mermaid Lagoon (2)
Why yes, at this point I do have enough for my own personal sock of the month club!
13. Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, Feb ’10 Limited Edition, Love Potion (2)
14. Lorna’s Laces Lion and Lamb, Love Potion (4)
15. Knit Picks Stroll, Blue Violet Tonal
16. Knit Picks Stroll, Blue Yonder Tonal
17. Sunshine Yarns Sock, Butterbeer
18. Sunshine Yarns Sock, Pumpkin
19. Knit Picks Imagination, Damsel (2)
20. Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, self striping green(2)
21. Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, self striping pink (2)
22. Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, Autumn Leaves(2)
23. Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, June ’08 Limited Edition, Blueberry Snowcone (2)

1. Abbi Grasso, Ribbon Candy
2. Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, Feb ’12 Limited Edition, New Beginnings
and that concludes the 2nd year of my sock of the month club
3. Sunshine Yarns Sock, Wildflowers
4. Sunshine Yarns Sock, Nargles
5. Sunshine Yarns Sock, Un-Birthday
6. Sunshine Yarns Sock, Shaved Ice
7. Sunshine Yarns Sock, Over The Rainbow
8. Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, Child’s Play

All of these are Knit Picks Felici
1. Minty
2. Sugared Violets
3. Peachy
4. Rainbow

I think all future Knit Picks catalogs need to go straight into the trash, don’t you?

I have a confession to make. I have a yarn stash. I knew I was buying yarn faster than I can knit it, but I didn’t realize just how much I have. Lets just say it is somewhere between an extra skein and ready to open a yarn store.

Before we moved here (going on 4 years ago!), my yarn was neatly stored in two bins in the living room/office. And in a bag in the guest room. And a little in the master bedroom. It never looked like all that much, because I could never see it all at once. It helped me stay in denial.

Then we moved and I got a nice little craft room. I put all my yarn into a plastic chest of drawers thing. Except what couldn’t fit. That’s in a basket, but it’s all crafting yarn, the cheap stuff for scout projects. There’s some in a cabinet in the master bedroom, but that’s for an ongoing project. And a bunch in a bag in my closet. The kitchen cotton is in a box in my room, too. And …yeah. It’s a bit much.

It multiplies like bunnies, yarn does. Especially sock yarn.

I figured this all out a couple of days ago when I finally, after years of searching, found the perfect pattern for some yarn I bought rather impulsively. I went to go get the yarn and I couldn’t find it! I could picture it perfectly in my mind’s eye, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. Not in the plastic drawers, not in the basket or the cabinet or box or bags. I found it with a bunch more yarn I didn’t even know about (bunnies, I tell you!!).

So I’ve put myself on a yarn diet. No more yarn. Knit with what I have, get rid of what I will never use, and not a single purchase for one full year.

Gah!

Stay tuned. Pictures of my glorious stash are forthcoming.

Five years ago I made Bip an alligator scarf.

Time went by and it got caught in his jacket zipper too many times and it developed a hole.  I sat down to mend it only to discover that it was now much too small for Bip.  So once again, what is a mother to do for her alligator-loving boy?  Yep, make him another alligator scarf, this time in the grown up size.

Cuteness!

The kit (pattern and yarn included) is here: Morehouse Farm Alligator Scarf

The pattern alone (emailed as a PDF) is here: Morehouse Farm Critter Knits (it is the 3rd one listed)

It has been a long time since there has been any knitting around here. I miss it. Before Pipsqueak was born I started working on this cabled afghan.

This is the cover photo from Cables Untangled. It is the Sampler Afghan

I had a very sensible plan of finishing a certain amount of panels within a certain amount of time. I was doing well for awhile and then my plans went awry. I really should stop making plans.

But I finished one of each of the six panels and have them seamed together to make one larger panel.

Don’t they look like they’d make a nice, warm blanket? Someday I’ll get back to them. Some day…

I had so much fun knitting Bip’s monster that I bought The Big Book Of Knitted Monsters.  (Clicking on the book link doesn’t help me at all.  I can’t be an Amazon.com affiliate because of the way my state collects taxes.)  Then I joined a Ravelry group for monster addicts, er fans.  Then I joined up with the Traveling Monsters Swap.  The way it works is that all the participants knit a monster small enough to fit in the smallest USPS Priority mail box.  On the designated date – which was Tuesday – we each sent our monster to a predesignated person.   In a couple of days we will each get a new monster in the mail to enjoy for a couple of weeks.  Twice a month we send the monster currently visiting on his or her way and we receive a new monster.  A round robin of monsters.  We have enough participants to keep going for about 10 months.

Here is the monster I knit:

Trixie the Traveling Monster

Isn’t she cute?  She is off to her host family in Kansas and adventures unknown.  We are going to miss her while she’s gone.

I’m all ready to go!

I made this monster for Bip:

I started him 2 years ago when I was newly pregnant with Pipsqueak.  The only problem was that I get this Super Sensitive Smelling Power when I’m pregnant.  I can smell chocolate, through the packaging, while just walking by a display of Easter candy. Sounds cooler than it actually is because smells become so strong that I get nauseated.  Well, this little monster is made out of wool, which has a faint smell.  And when I was pregnant – wow! – I was totally overwhelmed with it.  I tried to carry on, but I just couldn’t.  I put it away, hoping to pick it back up before the end of the year.

One thing I forgot was that the memory of certain smells would still make me nauseated for a while after the baby arrived.  And even the memory of being nauseated doing what I was doing at the time would make me nauseated.  It was a very long time before I could even pick up the project bag containing my half-finished monster.  Then one day last week I saw it, picked up and buried my nose deep in the yarn and breathed in. Nothing but the faintest of wool smell!  No nausea at all.

So I finished up that monster and presented him to Bip.

This  project made me feel particularly good to finish because Bip was a good sport when I told him I could no longer work on it, but I would get back to it as soon as I could.  Nothing like the smile on your child’s face when you fulfill a promise.