Annis – The Beginning

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Heather

I’m knitting a shawl. In fact, I’m knitting a bright pink shawl. A bit out of the norm for me, eh?

The shawl is Annis, from Kitty Spring+Summer 2010. The yarn is “cotton flake” laceweight I was given as a gift for knitting some socks. (I bet you knew socks would figure in this somehow.)

So far I’ve done three rows. Three rows of 363 stitches. If this were a pair of socks, I would have actually knit 17 rows.

Annis - three rows in

All of those things hanging off my needles are stitch markers, marking the 29 pattern repeats. It jingles when I move it. 😉

There are three rows in this pattern with nupps, which are sort of like pretty bobbles. However, they are kind of a pain to do, especially when you aren’t using needles with really pointy tips. (I’m using my Denise Interchangeables, which have moderately pointy tips.) I’m thinking about replacing them with some clear beads, which will have the added benefits of giving the shawl just a bit more weight and a little bit of sparkle.

In other knitting news, I’ve almost finished the Liesl for my mom. All that is left is to bind it off… and fix the button band.  Somehow I managed mess up the garter stitch pattern a couple of times, so I have a spot a few rows down that looks like this (the oval shows where there should be a ridge):

Oops, no garter stitch here

It isn’t much of a problem, really. I just need to drop down those three stitches about ten rows and do everything back up properly. It will take me less than a half an hour, and some quiet time to concentrate.

The problem comes in  here:

Oh dear, is that the top of the sweater?

This mistake is a little further up the sweater. See that edge? That’s the neckline, where I started… I’m going to have to think really hard about whether or not I want to drop stitches down that far. I could do it, but it would be a lot of work, and if I messed it up I would be in serious trouble.

What would you do?

 

 

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Eyes! Eyes!

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Heather

One of my endless goals to get myself organized. I’ve been working on sorting out my stash, putting yarn in drawers and bins according to some weird logic that makes sense to me when I do it but not later. I’ve also tried to sort out all the ones and twos of types of specialty fibres I have for stitching into some sort of coherent system. Somehow I’ve actually managed to catalogue all of this on the computer, using Ravelry for my knitting and crochet supplies (yarns, needles/hooks, and patterns/magazines/books), and Google docs for my stitching stuff (fibres and beads). (I’ll get to  my cross stitch charts and magazines one day, really.)

One thing that has fallen through the cracks is my eyes for my amigurumi. But, thanks to a little plastic container from the dollar store, they are nicely organized and ready for my next creation.

A container o' eyes

I have a few more than I intended to have. You see, PlanetJune is moving to South Africa, and she is closing down the eyes and accessories part of her shop for the next little while. And, seeing as I have a bunch of monster and amigurumi projects planned, I wanted to make sure I had every size I might need, since I don’t know how big things may turn out.

Look! A close-up of my most used size of eyes.

So, I placed an order and put it away in my new box. And then, a few days later, I opened up one of my sort-of-organized drawers of yarn, moved a few things, and found a bunch of eyes I had forgotten I ordered. So now I have more eyes than I know what to do with. Looks like the little man may be getting a bunch of toys this year, whether or not he really wants them… 😉

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March Socks – Part 2.5

Posted on March 27, 2011 by Heather

Oh noes, more socks. I know, it isn’t very exciting for my readers who don’t knit. But, I love to knit socks (they are small, portable, and fairly quick), and I enjoy sharing what I make in the hopes that it inspires you. Maybe you will see my lovely stripey socks and decide you need to stitch something with stripes. Who knows!

Anyway, I finished up my LoveSocks on Friday night. The yarn is Panda Cotton in Crystal Pink and Roses colourways.

LoveSocks (not for me)

Aren’t they cute?

LoveSocks Heels

And look at the hearts on the heelflap. I’m so tempted to make a pair for myself.

The 0.5 part of this post comes in with one sock of the simple short socks I’ve been working on:

Simple short sock

The yarn is Berroco Comfort Baby, which is the same as Berroco Comfort Sock, but in baby colour. I like how the yarn has worked up. However, I don’t like the Dutch heel in this sock.

Simple short sock Dutch heel

I find it too boxy. These are for my mom though (do I knit socks for myself anymore?), and I hope she will find it comfortable.

I’m not sure what my socks for April will be. I have another pair of commissioned socks (for the lady in Texas this time; I love her, so I don’t mind), but they should go quickly. After that, maybe a pair of Leyburn socks for myself.

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12 Days with Gold

Posted on March 26, 2011 by Heather

In my last post I expressed some, uh, trepidation with regards to using the Anchor metallic that came in the Twelve Days of Christmas kit. But, I’m a big girl, so I got out my needle and gave it a try:

Twelve Days with a touch of gold

The verdict is a little mixed. First, because the pattern calls for only one stand, I’m actually finding it very smooth to stitch with. In fact, it feels more like PTB than DMC metallic. On the other hand, because I am only working with one strand, I’m not sure I like the coverage.

I could buy some PTB to substitute. But, I would need five cards of it, and that would add about CAN$15 to the price of the kit. Now, that might not seem like that much, but I’ve already spent money on the kit and on the fabric, and I’d rather not spend any more.

I think I will do a bit more of the border, since it is three stitches wide (gold stitch, red stitch, gold stitch). Maybe I will like it better then.

What do you think?

Oh, and we got a whole pile of snow this week. It feels more like January than March around here. (And my winter jacket was totally ruined early this week, so I’m really feeling the cold.) If you’d like to see some pictures, check out my other blog.

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Day One Done-ish

Posted on March 23, 2011 by Heather

My goodness, this was certainly more of a struggle than it was worth, but day one of The Twelve Days of Christmas is finally finished… well, except for the outside border and a little bit of backstitching.

Day One for Twelve Days of Christmas by Joan Elliott

I’m using the floss from the kit, which is actually quite nice. I’m not sure if it DMC (those are the numbers given), but if it isn’t, it is of comparable quality. The fabric is some 28 count linen from my stash, to replace the adia from the kit. I’m not too happy with the beads in the kit, but I also don’t want to take out all the ones I’ve already put in.

I haven’t done the border because I’m not sure if I want to replace the Anchor metallic in the kit with PTB or something else. I suppose I won’t know until I try to stitch with it. 😉

Now, on to the next day! I’ll probably do day seven next, because that would work best for me given the flow of the chart. And this one should go much more smoothly, now that I have got the whole enlarged chart thing taken care of.

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Reverse Hearts

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Heather

My LoveSocks are coming along really well, especially considering I’m new at this whole instarsia thing. I’ve finished down to the heel flap on the second sock, which is a mirror of the first.

Love Socks - Stranding Problem

Now, you might have noticed a little bit of a problem. In the first sock, I stranded a light colour behind a dark colour. But for this sock, I’m stranding a dark colour behind a light, with predictable results. (I’m holding the sock up to the window to make the stranding problem stand out very clearly. And some of the stitches are uneven because I haven’t woven in the ends yet.)

Now, if there socks were for me, I’d just leave them. I mean, it would be on my foot, at the back. If anyone is looking at it that closely, then they need a kick. But, since these socks are for someone else, I’m going to get her okay before I continue on.

There is a fix for this, thankfully. Instead of stranding the colours at the top, I can do more intarsia. Fun.

I’m also going to come clean with you today: I bought yarn yesterday. A lot. Well, about fourteen balls. You see, I got the book [amazon_link id=”0740792601″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Yummi ‘Gurumi[/amazon_link] from the library, and the husband and I fell in love with the sushi and dim sum pieces. Of course, I was lacking a whole bunch of the colours to make them. 🙁 So, yesterday I headed up to the Mary Maxim boutique store here in Toronto and loaded up. I also picked up some yarn for a couple of other projects, because I figured if I’m going to use my Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card, I might as well use it on more than acrylic.

So, I’ve bought stash, but I’m still in the competition on Ravelry. I just need to not buy yarn between now and the end of the year. And, I also have to destash about the same amount of yardage if I get something as a gift. So, we’ve got, what, nine months left? Ack.

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LoveSock Colourwork

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Heather

The day I posted about not having the yarn for my March socks was the day the yarn arrived. Since it is a fairly simple sock, I’ve already made some good progress.

LoveSock in progress

It is a striped sock with a colourwork heart on the heel flap. The heart is worked using two colourwork techniques: stranded and intarsia. (The whole thing could be done in intarsia, but that would mean more ends to weave in at the end.) I’ve done stranded work before (like my Temple Cats hat), but I’ve never tried intarsia.

Here’s what the back of the sock looks like:

LoveSock colourwork

The top section is the stranded colourwork, where the different colours are carried across the piece and occasionally twisted around each other so the strands are kept close to the work and don’t potentially get caught in fingers and toes.

The botton bit of the heart is intarisa. Here, I have pink on the left, the multicolour yarn in the middle, and another ball of pink for the right. Each time I switch colours, I wrap them around each other to prevent a hole from opening up, and then continue on in the new colour.

I also made use of a simple trick in the stripes of this sock. If you aren’t carefully, you can get a jog in your stripes where you change colours. However, by slipping the first stitch of the second row of a colour, you eliminate the jog. You are just lengthening that one since, and helping to shift things around so your eye doesn’t notice the difference. TechKnitter has a great piece about jogless stripes.

Jogless Stripes in LoveSocks

And here you can see how I carry the yarn inside the sock, rather than cutting it every time I change colours.

Carrying Yarn in LoveSocks

You might recognize the yarn I’m using for these socks. I knit a pair of socks in January for a lady in Sarnia with the same colours. For these socks, I’m using the other two balls of yarn she had to make her another pair of socks. After these, I think I’m done knitting with pink for a little while. 🙂

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