Felt One, Carry the Rest! - first felting project

My first felted bag! I'm quite pleased with it. I plan on using it as my knitting bag.

I went into Four Ladies yarn shop in August with the goal of making something "cool." I saw the sample bags, and decided to try felting. I started this twice, and pulled it out because I was afraid the bag was going to be too small. When you felt something, it needs to start out HUGE!

METHOD:
The pattern was actually for a different bag, so I played around until I got it the way I wanted it. It's an 80 x 80 base, with 20 rows per stripe, then 15, then 4. The yarn is Cascade 220 in Purple Hyacinth and Azur (2 skeins of each). I LOVE the color combination. Needle size was 10.5 and it was done all in the round.

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?:
Picking up and knitting stitches was a nice way to avoid a seam at the edge of the bottom and sides. This was my first official project done totally in the round. FUN! Of course it took forever. If I didn't mind doing seams, I might think about doing all this on a knitting machine instead of doing it by hand.

I learned how to make I-cord, with a 6-stitch I-cord cut in sections for the straps.

The felting was ... different. I actually ended up with a smaller bag than I really wanted because I sort of forgot to check the washing machine. The wet bag stunk like a wet dog, but when it dried it lost the smell.

I would do this again, maybe for a gift. It was fun! But I think I WOULD do it on the machine.

SOCKS!

What seemed to me to be the single most difficult thing I could ever imagine is now REAL! I made a pair of socks! Yay!! I gave them to Mom as a birthday present. She likes them and thinks they're very warm and cozy.

METHOD:
Done in Lionbrand "Magic Stripes" self-striping washable sock yarn in "Sea Blue." One skein makes 2 socks. This was my first experience with double pointed needles, using #3s.

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?:
Okay so there were a few holes, but I was able to patch those up. One is a teensy bit longer than the other, but not bad. I guess I should either learn to do these on 2 circs, or learn to count the rounds.

Unfinished poncho with fringe

This poncho may never get finished.

All I have to do is add the fringe. But I hate doing fringe, and since I bought cheap yarn, it comes apart, which means I have to Fray-Check each and every strand. I MAY finish this in the nursing home.

METHOD:
The pattern was from LionBrand, for use with their Lion Suede. I saw Hobby Lobby had a chenille/suede yarn the same rough weight that was 50% off, in a brilliant "Island Teal" color, and thought it would work okay. It knits up a little lighter than Suede, and worked okay, except for the edges of the raw yarn falling apart. I got gauge by using #10 needles. I did the caston and bindoff on bigger needles -- 11 I think, to keep the bottom open and loose.

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
The lace is messed up, once again, I think. But the way it hangs, you can't tell. I'm not crazy about the length, but I guess it will look different if and when I ever get the fringe on it.

What is it with patterns that tell you to buy waaaay too much yarn, anyway? My leftover stash is growing larger every month.

Sweater Bag -- my SG1 Bag

Isn't this cute?


I bought this pattern (a whole 99 cents) from LionBrand because I bought one of those "Pound of Love" skeins in baby blue and had no idea what to make with it. I originally envisioned this as being my knitting bag, but I decided to give it to mom to tote her crochet work around in. (Note to Mom: You must actually crochet something once in a while in order to keep this bag!)


So I called it my Stargate SG1 bag, since I've been working on it while we watch old episodes of Stargate on DVD. Therefore, any mistakes in it can safely be blamed upon Richard Dean Anderson.


METHOD:
I got this pattern from LionBrand, and followed the instructions exactly (sorta) with the recommended needle sizes, which I forgot to write down. This used almost the entire ball of "Pound of Love" yarn.

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
The sides and straps didn't match up. Guess I should count rows instead of inches.

Second only to the Boring Shawl, this is the most mind-numbing project I've worked on so far. Nothing but straight stockinette ... as far as the eyes can see ... yawn. And EVERYTHING needed seaming. I spent more time seaming than I did knitting.

I thought about making one of these for me, but I think not. I need something exciting. Like maybe something felted.

Fuzzy Purple Tank Top

Another purple garment, 'cause you just can't have too many. I bought the yarn for this ages ago, and only just got around to making it. I started it, did a few rows, and then put it off for something else. I ended up finishing it yesterday in the car on the way to St. Louis.

METHOD:
This is Moda Dea's "Tutu" yarn, in grape, and using #8 needles instead of the recommended from their free pattern. The pattern stitch is K1P1 ribbing, all throughout, which got a bit messed up at times, but the nature of the confetti ribbons in the yarn hides that.

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
The three-needle bind off! That made seaming the shoulders togther a lot easier. And the seams on this are ugly (I blame the yarn) but they're still SOOOO much better than before.

Shaping on the ribbing, or rather keeping the continuity of it, was hard. I'm not sure how exactly I was supposed to do it. I also learned, after the fact, how to seam ribbing so it looks seamless. This garment has lines up the side where the ribs don't meet, but once again the fuzzy nature of the yarn hides it.

This yarn is a bear to work with! The little fuzzies get caught in everything, and you can't really see your work very well. Still, it's soft and cute, and I MIGHT actually make another one.

One other thing: this is supposed to be form fitting. I need to remember to start making "form fitting" garments to fit a 38-inch bust, not a 40-inch. I guess you never really are as fat as you think you are :)

2020 update: I'm probably just giving this away. It is SO not me. And kind of ugly to boot.

Mom's HomeSpun vest

I'm so proud of this. It's not nearly as hideous as anything else I've done just yet. Mom seemed pleased, although when I gave it to her, it was about 90 degrees outside.

I started this on February 27, and actually manged to finish all of the pieces by April. But it sat in the basket for months because I was afraid of blocking and seaming it. Actually, by the time I got around to doing so, I'd gotten a bit better at seaming and the the process went rather quickly and easily.

It's still a bit of a mess, which better blocking could have helped.

METHOD:
This is from a LionBrand free pattern, using LB HomeSpun and 9 and 10 needles. I found some Swarovski crystal buttons on clearance, and used those to give some bling to an otherwise folksy and chunky look.

This piece used a little over 4 skeins. This piece, for mom, could probably have been a little bigger, but it seems to fit okay and stretches like crazy.

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
1. HomeSpun stripes! In a rather cool way.
2. Not to forget the top buttonhole. I sort of made one for this vest, but I need to remember to actually KNIT one the next time.
3. Sewing the buttons exactly opposite the holes is hard. I need to learn a better way to do this, so the buttons are even. Although I did figure out the buttons had to be sewn off center, in order to close right.

I'm right happy with this one!

Hood with Scarf -- and ties. Huh?

I'm beginning to wonder about LionBrand's patterns. Especially when they don't give you a good view of what the finished product is supposed to look like.

This picture was taken in 2020 because I forgot.

This is a hood with scarf. Neat enough, and wow is it warm and soft! I bought the white yarn for this ages ago, but held off until I could find the color "Ivory" instead of "Champagne." I like the off-white look.

The only thing I don't get is the tie concept. They're down too low to be effective in closing at the throat. Mom wants one of these in blue and black, and I think I'm going to leave the ties off of hers, and just make the scarf longer.


METHOD:
This was made holding two strands of fun fur together. I used White and Ivory. Done on #10 needles, you use a little over 3 balls of each color if you make the ties.

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
To ditch the ties. Oh, and I'm pleased to add I didn't end up with more or less stitches on the needles, and I periodically checked for that! I'd like to think this means I'm getting better.

These might make interesting Christmas presents if I can get the eyelash yarn for $2.50 a skein again. That's about $15 for a hat without ties.

First poncho!

Whee! This is my favorite project so far! It's supposed to be in the style of the Martha Stewart "Coming Home" poncho, but I hate Martha Stewart and all she represents, so we'll just call it the Lace Poncho.

I think somewhere along the line I screwed up the lace pattern, because the eyelets aren't even, but oh well. I love this garment. It's quite warm, for acrylic, and I think it's so pretty. A lighter yarn might have shown off the textured stitches, but I do so love purple. I think the piece looks store-bought. But then, I'm prejudiced.


METHOD:
From the LionBrand pattern; 4 skeins of HomeSpun on #10 needles. Piece was created in 4 triangular sections, then sewed together, which I did NOT enjoy, even though I tried to do it like the instructions said.

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
I really need to learn some proper finishing techniques. But hey, you can't see the mistakes, so as far as I'm concerned, they're not there. :)

(This is now, officially, the largest thing I've knitted. And it didn't take me a lifetime. Afghans aren't looking QUITE so frightening now.)

Got my spindle!

My drop spindle spinning kit came in the mail Friday, and I played with it over the weekend some. Bevin gave me some beautiful wool roving to play with, so I have (right now) a very lumpy length of teal-colored wool yarn. I'm loving it!

The drop spindle isn't hard to use; my problem seems to be the "drafting" of fibers to get a consistent width of yarn. But I'm not worried about it -- I keep hearing people say it just takes practice. The library had several books on spinning, an a video on using a spinning wheel. I don't think I'm in much of a hurry to actual buy one now, though. I kind of like the simplicity of the drop spindle.

I'm taking the whole kit with me to Atlanta (and probably a knitting project or two as well) so I might get something accomplished in the 13 hours on the road.

Tank Top: my first real garment

This turned out not too terribly horrible. I wore it to work today and everyone thought it was pretty. It's a little big. I know I didn't have the gauge right, but I'm also thinking I might have measured my body wrong. But at least it's not too small! My first garment, and it lay around the house in two pieces for two weeks before I got up the courage to actually block it. The blocking went pretty well -- I shaped it exactly how I wanted it, and it looked good, stuck with 100 pins. The only problem was the cat, who seemed to think she had to walk, literally, ALL over the pieces. I had to smooth out cat footyprints three times! Next time I'm going to stick some pins in the towel with their points up. Then maybe she'll get the message. METHOD: Made from Caron's "Jewel Box" yarn on #9 needles, I didn't actually get the gauge right, so I'm making another one in the proper gauge to see how it fits. AND WHAT DID WE LEARN? This fabric is a little too thick, but it still feels okay. I should have put some kind of band at the bottom, because it really wants to curl up. The shoulder parts curl in too, and look more narrow than they should. I think if I make another one, I'll do it in seed stitch, and see how that looks. The chenille got kind of wormy. I'm wondering if I wash it and dry it again if that will help the chenille even out. Finishing this piece, sewing it together, was a NIGHTMARE! I ended up taking out the bound-off stitches in the shoulders to graft them together, which doesn't look too bad. But the side seams are uneven, and I think I really need practice on sewing seams. Or maybe I can just pay someone else to do it! Edited to add -- I wonder if you can just thread the yarn through the edges, in mattress stitch, and then wait until the end to pull the thread tight? Hmm ... that would make everything MUCH easier.

Spin spin spin!

This isn't a knitting entry, but I just decided I absolutely HAVE to learn to spin!

I went to the spin-in at Borders yesterday, and met some new ladies, and some I'd met at the last kint-in, and Chris showed me how to use a drop spindle, and I'm FASCINATED! I could watch them spin on their spinning wheels all day long.

I want a spinning wheel! Wah! But they're expensive. Mayhaps I'll start with the drop spindle...

The most boring shawl ...

I started this in January, but I did stop work on it here and there to do other, less mind-numbing projects.

Why did I want a shawl? I didn't. But silly me thought I should practice on a project that's listed as "easy." Whatever. Figuring out how to pre-cut and measure out the fringe was at least mildly interesting.

METHOD:
This was described as a prayer shawl, and everything but the ribbed pattern was left up to you to decide. Since the needles for Jeff' long scarf were still out, I used those, but I think I made it too narrow. I'm hoping I can block it so that it stretches out a little. (It doesn't; I tried.)

This was done in color "Roccocco," which is a gorgeous oatmeal shade, on #11 needles. 

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
1. I'm never doing one of these again.
2. Homespun, even in the same dye lot, varies WILDLY in color! So remember this, and work two balls at a time or something.
3. A homespun yarn shawl really keeps you warm! And the cat seems to like it. If it hadn't taken me forever to finish it, I might think about giving it to her.

Jeff's first gift: a Dr. Who scarf

I kept bugging Jeff to tell me what he wanted me to make for him. (Of course, from the looks of what I've made so far, I'm not surprised he hesitated to ask for anything!) I finally pinned him down to "a scarf, in earth tones." Of course, it couldn't be like any normal scarf -- he wanted a really long one, down to his knees, a la Dr. Who.

Cool.

We settled on a skein of LionBrand HomeSpun in color "olive" and a skein of Bernat Soft Boucle "Earth Shades," which is a lovely blend of chocolate and very dark browns. Each stripe is around 8 inches, although I didn't count the rows, and sometimes one stripe would finish on a right side, while others finished on a wrong side. Oh well. He wears it a lot. I'm proud :)


METHOD:
22 stitches across, on #11 needles. I really just sort of pulled that number out of the air, and as such, the fabric is a tad bit loose, but he says it's warm enough! It certainly drapes well. The colors look good together, especially althernating solid colors and textured ones.

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
How to change yarn colors at the end of 8 inch rows. And to remember to count the number of rows I knit.

Purl bump heart bag

I saw this in the Stitch and Bitch book and thought it was neat, so I tried to make the heart design on practice yarn. At some point during the experiment, I put everything down on the floor to answer the phone, and when I cam back, one of my needles was missing! We tore the house apart and still couldn't find it. I think we might have a tiny black hole in the living room. So anyway, I ripped all that out and started it again.

This time I was so pleased with the result that I decided to make the swatch into a bag or a pilow or something. I made a drawstring closure around the edge and gave it to DH to "remember me" by :)

METHOD:
This was crappy acrylic practice yarn, but the design stands out pretty well. I probably should have framed the purl bump design in more stockinette stitch, so the design itself doesn't draw closed when the bag does.

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
These would make GREAT zill bags! I'm thinking of trying to chart an ankh or scarab or something and make little zill bags for my friends and students.

Edited to add: about a month later we finally found the missing needle. It was in the chair the whole time! I don't see how we missed it -- we practically turned the chair upside down.

Something bigger: Bow Ponchette

I saw this pattern at Michaels and loved the look of it. I knew I just HAD to make one, but I was hesitant to try something that would take more than a day or two to create. I actually started this on Nov. 23 but put it aside for all the scarves and hats of Thanksgiving.

This piece has taken the most time so far to complete, but that's also because I kept making other things along the way. Here's the thing, though. It's pretty, and I've worn it a couple of times already, but I don't really want it. I guess that's going to be an issue with me -- I want to knit the stuff, not actually WEAR it.

METHOD:
This ponchette is made from three skeins of TLC Amore yarn in "Vanilla." The pattern is from the yarn maker, and was one of those in-store free patterns. You knit two strands as one on 10.5 needles. (I did mine on the Needle Master circular needles, with the ends capped off.)

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
I need to learn some proper finishing techniques. The seams on this thing are really ugly, even though they are hidden on the inside of the piece. Still, I know they are there.

This had a much better overall look, even though there are a few places where I didn't pick up both strands and it looks like tiny holes or thin places in the garment, but I'm happy with it.

Too long long scarf

I wanted an extra long scarf, but I think I went just a bit too far on this one. :) It's very warm, I have to admit.

METHOD:
Done in LionBrand Fun Fur, 2 skeins of violet and two of raspberry, on #11 needles, this was going to just be alternating colors, but then I got all creative and decided the end of the scarf should look lilke they were dipped in the other color. So I had to rip out the cast on stitches, and knit backwards, which was interesting.

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
How to pull out the cast on stitches and knit from there. I had some issues, so I ended up frogging back about two inches of work, but I've learned how to fix that for the future. The "dipped" ends didn't come out even. I'm not sure how to figure out how to fix that, but for ripping it all out and cutting the ball of yarn in half. (edited to add: the simplest way to do this would just be to count the rows! And to think, I actually enjoyed math class!)

First gift- for Mona

The easiest thing in the world is to make a scarf for a friend. Especially a self-striping one.

METHOD:
Two balls of Fun Fur in the color "Mexicana" makes a festive enough birthday gift for a bellydancer. Thes are consistently shorter than I want, but they work out okay.

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?:
The perfect $6 gift takes just a few hours to make, and people seem to really enjoy hand-knit gifts!

LAST Hat and Scarf set

METHOD:
This is a hat and scarf set from the LionBrand Boucle pattern in "Snowcone." I like this color, but for some odd reason, the yarn seemed to fuzz up more than usual. I DON'T like the scarf, which curled even though I added the garter stitch edge, and I don't particularly like having the "hole" design. I'd really like to give this set away.

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
I must remember to NOT watch "Gladiator" while knitting. Joachin Phoenix is waaay too distracting. :) Can you see the whole line of incorrect stitching? Probably not, but it's there. Now every time I see this hat I will think of Joachin. Hmm, maybe I won't give this one away...

P.S. Dad came over for Christmas and was admiring my work, and he thought this was just the neatest design -- so I gave the set to him! Mom said he actually wears it! That's the highest compliment I could be given! :)

One hat to match

So I just HAD to make the matching hat to go with the Bernat Boa eyelash scarf.
(This was donated in 2019.)

METHOD:
Bernat Boa "Parrot" on #9 needles.

(edited to add, in January I made another one, out of "Tweety Bird" to match the first scarf I made.)

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
I'm getting a little bored of hats.

I mean, I enjoy making them, but I've found that I'm very rarely wearing them, since I usually wear my hair in a ponytail all winter. So here's my brilliant idea: instead of sewing the seam all the way up, why not leave a little hole, to stick the ponytail through? Probably not an original idea, but a functional one. I don't know how easy this will be to do when knitting in the round, though. But that's a project for another day.

Oh, this one called for an increase by knitting into the back. One more trick in the knitting arsenal!

Really must get back to the ponchette thing.

Thanksgiving Projects 3 and 4: Moving on to Hats

Bored of boucle/fur scarves, I decided to try something different: matching hats.

METHOD:
I downloaded this pattern from the LionBrand yarn site. Each hat is made with one skein of Boucle and one skein of Fun Fur. I used the Lime Blue/Citrus combination and Rose/Fun Fur Prints "Fiji." The green hat was done on #10 needles, but I used #11 on the the pink one.

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
The importance of Gauge in sizing.

The gauge was completely and utterly off on the green hat. It started out okay, I thought, but as I was making it, I began to realize it would NEVER fit me. I also had to add rows to get the length I needed. BUT (and this is the part which I consider pretty clever) I figured out I could MAKE it fit, if I created a triangular panel and sewed it into the hat. Which I did, and that solved the problem. I don't like the Fun Fur Pompon, though. This was amazingly hard on my hands because the knit was so tight I could barely get the needle through! Mental note: RELAX!

The pink hat went much better. I upped the needle size and relaxed the knit. It went quick, but I still had to add a couple of rows to get the depth I wanted. Maybe I just have a really big head?

Oh, and what I learned from making hats was decreasing with KTtog -- knitting two stitches together to decrease.