Are those dropped stitches intentional?

Cute picture from a vintage Begin To Knit booklet that retailed for 35 cents, on loan from Michaels' mom:

Shawls with prayer involved.

I suppose most of you have heard of prayer shawls before? They are traditional Jewish garments intended to be worn during prayer. However, some people make them for cancer victims and other people who are having health problems. The idea is that the maker of the shawl puts all kinds of good wishes into each stitch for the recipient. Our SNB was lucky enough to have a dear lady from Circle of Love, a prayer shawl ministry, come in and teach all the newbies in our group how to knit and crochet. In exchange, everyone made a shawl to donate to the local kidney dialysis patients. We had a lot of fun and it felt so good to be doing something nice for someone else with our creativity. However, I don't take naturally to generosity. I really, really wanted to keep mine. And while I tried to put good wishes in every stitch, I was watching Family Guy when I was making it...so a little more irreverence than prayer is probably in there.


Here's the shawl I made. I used a pattern from one of my vintage magazines. It's being modeled by the director of volunteer services at my college, Joyce.






This was Heather's first knitting attempt. It's more of a scarf than a shawl, and can also be used as a babushka.







This was also Sarah's first attempt at knitting--this girl learned to knit in TEN MINUTES. She's a prodigy. It took me four attempts over two years!



Last and least: I really, really hope I'm not as tiny as I look in this picture.



And a sweet picture of the neighbors' chickens hanging out in a tree.

An Overabundance Of Yarn

SO last night I walked into Stitchn'Bitch and there was a girl standing there with two of the biggest black garbage bags I've ever seen. You know what they were full of? YARN. They were being donated to us. For whatever purpose we see fit to use it for.
Naturally ,the purpose we saw fit was to spread it out all over the floor and roll in it. So we did. I wish I'd had a camera, but I'm sure you can imagine the sort of meeting this was when I tell you that one of our members stuffed two large skeins up her shirt and danced on the table.

I began to look this gift yarn in the mouth, however, when it came time to leave, and I remembered that I had to take the bus home. Hmm. Well, I'm sure I can handle it! How much can yarn weigh, anywhow? Right?

A lot, especially when some of it is an industrial-sized cone of dyeable cotton.

So I'm dragging these bags in fits and starts across the campus, and I stopped on the way to help raise money for Katrina victims, by paying $3 to smear a plateful of whipped cream all over the face of a fraternity member. As a gesture of thanks for my generosity, the gooey fraternity helped me carry the bags to the bus.

I got on the bus, where the bags took up two seats each. I got off at my stop, which is about half a block away from my apartment. I couldn't lift both bags at once-they were really almost bigger than me. I decided I would drag them along the sidewalk, which worked for about half of the way, when they both developed huge holes (this should really not have surprised me, seeing as they were thin plastic and I was dragging them across gravel. But still.) and suddenly there was yarn all over the moonlit street. It was like Hansel and Gretel used their yarn stash instead of bread crumbs.

As I scuttled around under the streetlamps picking up yarn, I wondered: does this qualify as a dream come true, or a nightmare?

Help! I lost my dream blog!

I was looking at a beautiful blog yesterday. I think it was called Small Birds. The author has two twins. She had just posted this gorgeous array of pictures of her favorite color (blue) found around her house. I have not been able to stop thinking about this blog! AND NOW I CAN'T FIND IT! Does anybody know what I'm talking about, and where to find this lovely thing?

EDIT: Never mind. I just found it. It's called Little Birds. Way to go, brain-thesaurus...http://littlebirds.typepad.com/little_birds/

The picture of her little boy in the pumpkin patch makes me all broody. However, it only makes me broody because I want a little boy to dress in overalls and newsboy hats. Which brings up an interesting issue:

When we have children, is it right to only let them wear things we like? For example, if I were to knit an entire wardobe for my future offspring, and let them have favorite things to wear only within that category, am I being tyrranical? At what age should we begin allowing kids to choose their own clothing? I am a supporter of the idea that you should let your kids wear whatever they like, as long as it's within legal boundaries, and do whatever they please to their hair; I 'll be picking my battles and saving the screaming for when I find pot in their coat pocket, etc.

But I want to dress my kid in costumes. When should I stop? Will I be able to? I think that will be a big control issue for me. Maybe I should just obtain some Barbie dolls, and leave the progeny-producing to more balanced minds.

But Merino makes me itchy!

You are Merino Wool.
You are very easygoing and sweet. People like to
keep you close because you are so softhearted.
You love to be comfortable and warm from your
head to your toes.


What kind of yarn are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Lucky Cat Pattern!

Look look look what Jussi made!

http://castadrift.blogspot.com/2005/10/fortune-cat-pattern.html


All my works-in-progress are hereby relegated to the Basket of Undead Knitting. It's Lucky Cat Time.

Major Blog Envy

I am so jealous. Everyone's blogs are so light, airy, full of artsy photographs and evdidence of lives well-lived. Mine gets updated once a month now, with hastily taken photos of whatever completed piece I've managed to scramble together on a weekend home. And I'm not funny, either.

I am so busy with schoolwork that my tiny amount of free time is spent having dinner dates with Michael (for whom I have no funkycool blogging codename. Another source of envy).

My Stitchn'Bitch has been renamed the Fredonia Fiber Arts Club due to members of the Student Association being square-shaped. Ah well, the club's the main thing. It's morphing into more responsibility than I'd planned on, though. When all these natural disasters started happening, I hooked up with the Department of Volunteer Services at the college and told them I wanted to use the club to help out, but I have a feeling that it may be difficult to get my members motivated, and I'll end up making all the scarves, headwarmers and fingerless gloves for Pakistan earthquake relief fundraisers myself......and I don't even have time to start the fifteen projects I want to make for Christmas presents, birthday presents, and let's face it, ME.

Do I have to become a teacher? Can't I just become a designer and buy a farm?

I Actually Have A New Pattern.

Look at my homemade applesauce! I picked the apples from wild trees and canned the sauce all by myself. Now that's soul food. I LOVE fall!




My pumpkin is the one ensconced on my lap, with the impressive mustache. Franken-squash there is Michael's.




Okay, I haven't posted in a kajillion years, so to make up for it, I'm going to post the pattern for the new scarf I just made!




It's not exactly original, I found the stitch pattern here:

http://www.nurhanne.com/crochet/stitches2.html





So here's what you do:

Materials:

Bulky Yarn (how many yards? I'm afraid I have no idea, not being the type who measures out how much yarn I'm using. I recycled a sweater for the yarn, it's a pumpkin-colored bulky acrylic/ramie blend.The scarf took up half a small knit sweater. If you were using, say, Lion Brand Homespun, I'd say a skein and a half.)

A J hook.

Make a chain as long as you want your scarf to be, because this scarf is worked horizontally. My chain was about five feet long.

Stitch pattern:

Base row: 1 dc in 2. ch from hook, * miss 3 ch, (3 tr, 1 ch, 3 tr) in next st, miss next 3 sts, 1 dc in next st. repeat from * to end of row, Turn with 3 ch.

1. row: Yoh, insert hook in first tr and draw up thread, yoh and draw though 2 loops, repeat for each of next 2 stitches (= 4 loops on hook), yoh and draw though all 4 loops. * 3 ch, 1 dc by inserting hoook under 1 ch between clusters of prev row, 3 ch, 1 'unfinished tr (as previously) in each of the 3 tr in row below, miss the dc, 1 'unfinished' tr in each of the next 3 tr (= 7 loops on hook), yoh and draw through all 7 loops. Repeat from * to end of row, ending with 1 'unfinished' tr in each of last 2 sts, yoh and draw through all 4 loops, 1 tr in last dc. (In subsequent rows this tr is worked in the top turning ch). Turn with 3 ch.

2. row: 3 tr in the st that 'closes' the 3 tr in row below, * insert hook in ch under the dc from previous row and work 1 dc, ( 3 tr, 1 ch, 3 tr) in st that 'closes' the 6 tr. repeat from * to end of row, ending with 3 tr in the st that 'closes' the 3 tr, 1 tr in in turning ch. Turn with 3 ch.

3. row: * 1 unfinished tr in each of first 3 tr, miss 1 dc, 1 unfinished tr in each of next 3 tr, yoh and draw through all 7 loops, 3 ch, 1 dc by inserting hoook under 1 ch between clusters of prev row, 3 ch. repeat from * to end of row, but finish by working 1 tr in the turning ch. turn with 2 ch.

4. row: * ( 3 tr, 1 ch, 3 tr) in st that 'closes' the 6 tr, 1 dc in dc before next cluster. Repeat from *, but finish with 1 tr in turning ch.

Now, one long side of the scarf is scalloped and one is flat, right? So you want to cut your yarn, reattach it on the beginning corner of the flat side, and work row 4 on the flat side. End off. Do a row of sc on each short end of the scarf, add tassels, and you're done!

Meditations on Round 13

Somebody Anonymous asked for some help on the Buddha pattern. Let's see, round 13 says:

Rnd 13. Now this is the tricky part. Insert hook in Rnd 11 and pull up a loop, sc in same stitch. Continue sc around in Rnd 11. Rnd 12 will be left inside. Join, ch 1.

What you are doing here is making a tuck in his neck so that his head sits on top of his body as if it was sewn on. You've done rows 11 and 12; you are now going BACK to round 11, as if you had never done row 12, and picking up stitches all the way around row 11 to form row 13. Row 12 will now be hidden inside his neck, forming a cute round face. Row 12 is made, then ignored. Row 13 is formed on row 11. Does that help?

Cabled armwarmers, own design.

I've Founded A Stitch 'N Bitch!

I did it! I put in my paperwork at the Student Association, I got a table at my college Activities Night, and EIGHTY people signed up! Six of them were male! I was completely overwhelmed. People would walk by, do a double take at my sign with the giant red ball of yarn on it, and rush squealing over to me, where they gasped,

"Is it okay that I can only knit scarves? Can I still join?"

I must have heard that twenty times; another big one was,

"If I come will you teach me how to -------(insert craft here)?"


Now I've never taught anyone to knit or crochet, but I can give it a shot, and I know there are at least a dozen or so people coming who already know how....the coolest thing is the range of personalities! We have members of the Intervarsity Christian Club, sororities, people with neon hair and piercings, freshman and seniors, every imaginable kind of person....the first guy to sign up apparently does not knit or crochet, but SEWS, and wants to come and sew. Fine with me! I wonder what he sews? All the other guys shuffingly confided that their grandmothers taught them to crochet when they were little. How cute is that?

So this is all very exciting and overwhelming...I think I will have to ask them to bring their own yarn and needles. Duh.

Realistically, they won't all come, what with scheduling conflicts and what not, so it shouldbe pretty manageable. But oh my gosh! EIGHTY people!!!!!

One girl said to me, "I'm not very good..all I make is afghans."

I may never have the courage to attempt an afghan, and she thinks she's not very good!....this is going to be so much fun!

The Truest Friendship

Thank you so much for all the sweet, kind responses about my kitty. You are all dear lovely people. *hug*

I had to post this before I forgot, because it's really funny.

I've had reactions to wool before, hives and stuff, so I thought I'd try tying some Lamb's Pride around my wrist for a few days to see if I got a reaction to it. So I had this piece of pink yarn tied around my wrist, and my boyfriend saw it, and he asked what it was, and I told him I was allergy-testing it. With a totally straight face, he said,

" Oh. I thought maybe your yarn had made you a friendship bracelet, since you two spend so much time together."

Imagine, if you will, your yarn stash coming and standing in a pile in front of you, with a little bracelet perched on top, and a somehow soulful look.

And the funniest part is that it doesn't seem that unlikely, does it?

Oh, dear.

Hanging out.

Cricket as a pin-up girl.

Jiminy Cricket

I haven't been here in awhile, have I? Mostly because I periodically lose my camera cable, and feel like posting without pictures is cheating. However, I might as well just write down some things to get myself back on track.

First thing: I've been in a crafting block...because my cat died.

I wish I could say that she was old, it was her time, or something..but she wasn't even three yet. I don't even know how she died. I was home for the weekend, cooking dinner with my dad, he went outside to light the grill, came back in slowly and said," Shan....something bad happened. I just found Cricket outside, dead." We think she must have gotten into some rat poison somewhere, because there was no visible reason for her to stop living.
I usually console myself when a pet dies by telling myself, "They had a good life." That's not working this time. Yeah, she had a good life...she loved life like no other pet I ever had. She was playful and excitable and full of adventure. And now she's been cheated of nine years of life she should have had.

And so I didn't feel like crafting for weeks, and to be honest, I still don't....I start things and rip them out, over and over and over. I've never really felt like this before--I'm a very materialistic person, I love objects, yarn, possessions....but now I feel like what's the point? What's the point of things when someone you love can just disappear at any time? When life can be lost, what do objects matter? It's a question I'm still struggling with...and I know it's only going to get worse. I have never had a human being who is close to me pass away yet.

I feel like it's disloyal to try not to think about her, to bury my thoughts and move on just for the sake of being cheerful. But I guess we do what we have to do.

Lazy Person's Entrelac Wrap

I made this wrap in a knitted basket stitch with green Homespun and size 17 needles...I really liked the Lady Eleanor entrelac stole in Scarf Style, but I am far too lazy to attempt it, so I tried this instead. It looks almost, but not quite, completely unlike entrelac. =) I did use the fringe technique from the book, though. It is modeled by my lovely sister Laura, who is also available for any offers Vogue might have.

High School Closure

Before I tell you what I've been making, I have to tell whoever's reading about this. My rare life content.

My roommate Brittany, whom I graduated with, convinced me to go to the Fourth of July carnival in my hometown for the beer tent last night. She said a lot of our classmates would be there. I was scared but she talked me into it, and get this-of the twenty or so of my graduating class that we ran into, only ONE GUY remembered my name, and most of them didn't even remember me AT ALL. I told them that was because I only turned off my invisibility force field after I got to college.

I hated high school, but now I have closure, because all the guys who were mean to me hit on me something fierce, as well as a few of the mean girl's boyfriends. Ah, it was lovely to turn them down. This is shallow, I know. But it felt So, So, Good to have every guy at that carnival fall all over himself when I walked by, when they used to step on me and not even apologize. Plus, the one young lady who made it her personal mission to make me cry every day, because it was funny, was there with her new fiance, (who is possessed of a marvelous redneck accent and has the word BULL tattooed across the back of his head)and she has gained a good 50 pounds due to the birth of her new son. She still has not attended a day of college. However, she seems happy and I really do hope she gets lots of joy out her chosen life path. But I do feel happy and proud that I chose the one that I did, and that she did not break me. I survived!

So! I finished a really pretty knitted stole in a basket stitch and green homespun, a little granny square tank top, and I'm starting the Leaf Lace Sweater as soon as I end off here. Pictures tomorrow. Life is good.

Crocheted Semi-Felted Case for my Camera.

Crocheted Felted Monster Wallets Love Bing Cherries!

And this is my brother's Fat Cat, Alex. Feast your eyes.

This is Salvation army fabric! A giant glittery shirt and some peach scrap fabric..I reaallllly like this one.

This is a halter I made from a tablecloth! I pretty much made it up as I went along.

This pattern was in one of that pile of McCalls Needlecraft magazines I picked up. I could not resist.

Little red shrug..chug chug chug...I might put up the pattern if anybody wants it.

This was a blast to make!

This shawl is made of flower motifs from a granny square 70's magazine. If anyone wants the pattern, I'd be glad to lend it to you!

My Schmeebot rabbit is the sunshine in my life. I haven't been so attached to a toy since the third grade.

Here's that yarn that's up for trade..somebody please take it! =)

Yarn Up for Trade!

Hey everybody!

Sorry no pictures yet, I think my camera cable is lost in my junk pile currently.

I've got a bunch of wool yarn left over from a project that I'd love to trade with someone. I've got 2 skeins Brown Sheep Naturespun in Impasse Yellow (think mustard color), 4 of ditto in Lullaby (light yellow), one skein of Cascade 220 pink and one of ditto in grey. All new unused skeins...I don't want them because I dislike yellow and can't imagine what I will ever make out of them, since wool sometimes gives me hives.
Anybody want 'em? I'll split them up if you only want one or something.

I like yarn (dur),I'd prefer non-acrylic but if you've got something cool I wouldn't mind..I'm also hankering for a cable needle, a stitch holder or two and some double-pointed needles.

Email me at thelibrarian18@yahoo.com.


I made a bunch of cool stuff, I just have to find my cable and post..I made a crocheted shawl from a 70's granny square pattern..it's called Pretty Posies and must be seen to be believed.

I also made a little short-sleeved red knitted shrug that I designed myself.

What else? Gosh, I forget. I know I made a lot of stuff....
I guess it was mostly sewing! Sumemr tops and whatnot.

I ordered the yarn for the Leaf Sweater by Teva Durham. Well, I ordered Lion Brand Shetland Wool, actually, I'm hoping it works okay, but I'm generally good at adjusting for gauge. We'll see!

My First Tagdom!

Keridiana tagged me for a book thingie..

1. Total number of books I own?
I'd say roughly 100. I'd have a library full if I didn't have to be migratory college student and carry my house on my back.

2. The last book I bought?
Well, the last book I actually paid money for was an Anthology of World Folktales at a yard sale...my last new book was Going Postal by Terry Pratchett.

3. The last book I read?
Now, see, that's tricky. I'm usually reading three books at once, especially since I'm taking Survey of American Literature over the summer. So the last book I finished was Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver (very very good), and I'm in the middle of Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses and Midnight's Children. Excellent, but I've never been very good with run-on sentences. Plus I keep mixing the two up.

4. Five books that mean a lot to me?
Small Gods by Terry Pratchett, Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung, American Gods by Neil Gaiman, Lake Wobegon Days by Garrison Keillor, and Brave New World by ALdous Huxley. And everything Dave Barry ever wrote. (Hah! I cheated!)

Should I? No, I shouldn't..should I?

I want to, very badly, so I'm going to....

I got in to Stitch'n'Bitch.

I feel very bad about this. Oh, I'm happy, stunned, mostly incredulous, but it's just that there are SO many incredible people out there who raced to design something WAY COOL, submitted, lived in a state of adrenaline panic for months, and then didn't make it.

I just sent off what I had and forgot about it, utterly convinced I'd never get in.

And then the clouds parted on my inbox and I was, in fact, in. So here I am wanting to shout it to the metaphorical skies of Craftster, and in actuality only telling my MOM. The only other person I know who's spilled the beans is Keridiana at Pink Sheep (CONGRATULATIONS, dear!!!)....anybody else?

I've been looking at the rejected patterns and let me tell you, this book is going to be the Rolling Stone of fibre arts if THESE patterns didn't make the cut. My Gosh.

So now I have to have a sample sent in by June 1. Eeek.

While this whole thing I haven't really accepted yet, (I secretly believe I'm hallucinating...Brown Sheep yarn? In MY mailbox? No, no, silly rabbit, Brown Sheep is for...well..not you.) I DID find a gigantic pile of 70's needlecraft magazines for ten cents each at a yard sale this weekend. I'll try to scan some of the awfullest designs and send them to Stitchy. There's some extemely cool stuff too, and I'd love to trade or lend out anything you'd like...if there's any kind of pattern from 1964-1974 that you're looking for, I probably have it. I even have the one for the knitted face ski masks! You know, the ones that bring the words, "serial killer" instantly to mind?

Schmeebot's Rabbit...

...kicks some serious bunny butt. I just knitted one up with this (Intensely Ugly olive color) wool yarn I got at Salvation Army today, and felted him up, and now he's sitting with me as I type. I think hers is made on dpns, but I managed to sort of knit it straight and do a seam up the back. I love this guy! Pictures tomorrow.

Check the original out:

http://www.schmeebot.com/nid/307.htm

I gots me a bunny

Bunny bunny bunny.

I love Francesca! The shelter told me she's an Angora mix, but it must be some kind of Abnormal Fluff mix...she's hilarious. She looks like a Lhasa Apso dog. She has a "certain 'sod you' independence of mind.." as Terry Pratchett would say. She knows what she wants, and it's lots of play time and not to be in her cage unless she puts herself there. And bring on the spinach, and Don't Brush Me!
She's a handful, but I wanted a puppy and that would be worse. Besides, she's adorable. She runs around me in circles five or six times when she passes me. It must be some rabbit cult practice.
Brushing, though....she has all these mats in her fur, and I want to get them out, but the minute I pull her fur at all she's off. She doesn't like scissors either. So grooming is a gradual process....

In knitting news, I knitted a green rectangle and made a shrug out of it!

EDIT: Pam says she wants to know how to make the shrug, so here's the link to the tutorial...I didn't come up with it, but this lovely lady even drew pictures! I just made the sleeve part of her shrug jacket. Check it!

http://www.crochetville.org/forum/showthread.php?t=6750

Pay no attention to the lint.

It's a green.

Francesca the English Angora. I adopted her from a bunny shelter. Drop spindle, here I come!

My brand new bunny!

So what's all this then?

Green hat: The Professional hat pattern by Emily Nelson, pattern:

http://www.hookmeupcrochet.com/Create/Patterns/professional_hat.htm

I used green Bernat Ultrasoft cotton. Very nifty pattern!

The shawl is for my mom. I'm calling it the art shawl..because I modeled it after the weavings she did in college. I like it a lot, but I do wonder if it's possible to look good while modeling a shawl..so far, no. I used US 17 needles and two colors of worsted weight yarn. Most of it's garter stitch but I did a yo, ktog section here and there. I like big needles..this only took me an evening and a morning.

The snail was inspired by Missa's spiral keychain.

http://www.moonarts.com/blog/free_patterns/pages/keychain-print.htm

It really is a lot better than big ol' chunky ones that leave imprints in your hip.

White lacy hat is based on a disco hat pattern from a library book, but then it sort of wandered off into whatever lacey-type thing I felt like doing. With a flower on it!

I used thin white cotton and a G hook.

The stripey scarf is just a long length of garter stitch but it's my favorite thing I've made in weeks! I am just in love with it!

As for Bobbles...WELL, let me tell YOU....if I hadn't been so excited to see how it turned out, I would have given up halfway through. Knitted bobbles are tricksy business. The only way to make it work is to knit your 5 stitches in one very very loosely. Whew. I'm going to knit some more stockinette, then make him into a pillow and put a stocking full of balsam pine needles in there. Very comforting.


I sound so dull on this blog! I really am an English major, I swear! I just tend to be somnambulistic when I post. And I'm not even sure that's a real word. And you never, ever start sentences with And....but this is a blog about needlework. Not grammar. So Diana Hacker can overlook it, I'm sure.

The Professional hat. With Ruffles.

Eh.

How does one pose in a shawl?

Snail keychain, comfy in pockets!

I Love my knitted stripey. I wear it Everywhere.

Lacy cotton crochet hat.

Here is my Bobbles sheep..

Some Inspiration!

Sorry I haven't got any new pictures up, I use my boy's computer to upload my pictures and I haven't been over there much, what with end of semester workload and all....but here's some ideas I've been pondering for projects that may inspire you too!

Isn't this knitted sheep dishcloth cute? I don't think I'll use it for a dishcloth, since I have some concerns about the sanitariness of cotton cloths, (although they must be the most satisfying projects ever!)but imagine a pillow or bag, or even sweater with this little guy on it! I'm not sure about the technique of knitting bobble stitches, but I imagine a crochet popcorn stitch would work just as well.

http://www.knittingknonsense.com/bobbles_sheep.html



My old school pal and new roommate Brittany wants me to teach her to crochet because-get this- she wants to crochet herself a full-body catsuit. The mind boggles. I'm pretty sure I actually have a pattern like that in one of my old magazines, too....
She's also crazy about these ferociously ugly knee-length lace-up knitted moccasin things I have a pattern for (which I bought at Goodwill just because I couldn't believe what I was seeing). I foresee that my projects may soon be worthy of Stitchy McYarnpants' museum.


I lopped off my hair last night, and I'll admit it, I was surreptitiously trying to look like Amelie Poulain...at least it wasn't Jennifer Aniston or anything. So now, I look good in hats! Unfairly cute, even, if I do say so myself. So expect a bunch of cotton summer beanies to be surfacing soon!

I'm going to see Salman Rushdie speak tomorrow at the University of Buffalo. (!!!!!)Brittany's sister is a student there and she scored us free tickets! How lucky am I!

Just so I remember..

I did nothing but play with yarn yesterday, and I finished Marnie McLean's ribbon choker, a snail keychain based on Missa of Midnight Knitter's, a kerchief, and made some progress on the circle pillow for Brittany. I also started crocheting a jute backpack, which doesn't feel nice but will be very sturdy. I'm thinking of making a bag out of my leaf squares.....I really enjoy doing them, it's so much fun to watch the leaf appear. I'll put up some pictures later on.

Magic Ball Knitalong scarf.

Crocheted strawberry purse.

Salon Capelet from Interweave Crochet...

Easy peasy cardigan...

A lot of hours went into these babies.

So here's what I've been up to:

The black cardigan, (which looks tons better in person! And not nearly as chubby on me! It really looks fantastic!) was the easiest garment to knit you can imagine. I got the pattern from the book Teen Knitting Club, by Wenger, Abrams and Lasher. I highly recommend this book to any beginning knitter. All the projects are classy and nifty and EASY. I finished this cardigan in three days and didn't get confused once. It would look better if I had used better yarn..I used Caron Natura or something like that,100% awful acrylic from the D&K Store, 63 cents a skein, on size 13 needles....I figured since it was my first attempt at knitting a sweater I'd keep it cheap. It actually feels pretty good and I'm very happy with it. I'll be making more.

But not as happy as I am with my Salon Capelet!! I bought the Interweave Knits Crochet magazine from Ebay and this capelet turned out even better than I expected. It also looks a lot better in person..the drape is so beautiful! I used recycled cotton yarn and a G hook, and left off the popcorns....but I love this capelet. Now I just want to find the perfect pin to keep it closed with. It took me roughly eight hours of work.

The strawberry bag is a copy of a knitted one on Craftster, which didn't turn out as nicely as the original, but I still like it. I feel extremely...whimsical. The pattern really isn't a pattern at all...it's just the same as all my other patterns....you know, crochet in the round. Same thing.

The scarf is from a knitalong, the idea is that you tie together all your bits of scrap yarn and make something out of your resulting mutant yarn monster ball. I am very very pleased with mine, except that it curls like a mother, despite my best blocking efforts, so I essentially have a tube scarf. But it's pretty. Very Pretty.

Currently I'm practicing knitting embossed leaf squares, and working on an extremely vintage round knitted pillow for a friend. It's from a booklet I got from Ebay...wait til you see this thing. It doesn't get more 70's than this....

So do you like my stuff? =)

A Wonderful Freebie

This is really great! I'm dead serious, this is a 58-page FREE pdf book of 20 vintage crochet patterns.

http://crochetandknitting.com/craftbooks/vintage.htm

Go check it out! How lucky are we!

Just to clarify..

Those gorgeous free-form creations are NOT mine. I can't believe anyone thought they could be..=) (Although thanks for your faith in me!) I said they were what I WANTED my stuff to look like. I should have been more specific about where they came from, but what I did was make the pictures into links to the creator's page. I thought that would make it apparent but I guess I was too casual...I'm sorry, Marlo! I admire your work so much, I would never try to take credit for it! From now on I will state specifically to click on the picture to go to the creator's page. I feel terrible! What a misunderstanding....

A Random Plan

Free form crochet is amazing. Even though the whole point is to be random and not have a plan, it still takes a lot of artistic sense and practice, I think, because so far I'm disappointed with my shrine attempts. I think the problem may be that I'm only using one weight of yarn. I want it to look like a bunch of jewels scattered together, like this:

I shall attempt it again today! Instead of writing a research report for Adolescent Development! Which is just supposed to teach us how to cite online articles! Which I have done no less than twenty times since the ninth grade! I worked in the college library database, for heaven's sake...sigh.....

Not really. I'll write it. It should be easy since I really, really could do it in my sleep. Like most people, I can tell when I'm being given busywork, and it makes me feel condescended to. I am not crabbier than your average college student. I hope.

I finished the front of Olivia (or should I call it Twelfth Night? Any thoughts?) last night. I'm crocheting it in worsted weight black,in a mesh stitch, so it's not as delicate as I'd like, but I have discovered this about myself: I cannot knit anything that requires me to cast on more than 100 stitches, or crochet anything that I cannot finish within three days. It is simply a limitation I have to accept.

Olivia is essentially going to be a shrug, but the main difference is the scallops at the bottom and lace border it's going to have. It will be a lovely thing. I read that the Trevor Nunn film was set in the 1800's, so that makes it Victorian. Amazing how sexy that clothing is, considering that no one was supposed to know about sex!

I love Ben Kingsley

I saw Twelfth Night, and in addition to being in awe of Ben Kingsley's performance as Feste, I want to look just like Helena Bonham Carter's Olivia. Add that to also wanting to look like Amelie...so I want to make that black lacy thing she's wearing here:


Except add sleeves. And how on earth did they get her hair to form that messy mass on top of her head, with no visible means of support? How??

Lana Grossa

http://www.lanagrossa.com/service/mdm/index.html
This site's free patterns are glorious (the pics are down there). Will I make them? Probably not....maybe...would I love to? Oh yes.

But I need to get started on my mom and sister's birthday presents, because they're both in April. I'm pretty sure they don't read this blog, so I'll tell you what I'm making for them (also so I don't forget). For Laura I'm making a crocheted wall cd holder, from this free pattern here:
http://members.aol.com/cillcrochets/cdwallpock.html

I'm thinking fuzzy white yarn with maybe forget-me-nots embroidered on it. Or bunnies. Or something girly like that. She'll be fifteen (look out, world), but in my head she stopped growing at nine.

I have to find a pattern for a sweater for mom, it has to be hip enough to satisfy me, yet not offend the Mom sensibilities. She's a very conservative dresser, and I'm...well...not.I'm going to check the library for this one. I want it to be a cardigan, preferably slightly fitted, with a lace panel down each side of the front. It will also be fuzzy white. Because that's the only yarn I have enough of, and I have enough of it to make an elephant sweater.

I wish I knew some elephants.

I also added a finished projects gallery button down at the bottom...there's probably some things there I haven't posted. I just sort of threw it together when I was cleaning out my digital camera folder. I know Jimmy the cat and Marlo the Demon Gopher are in there...