Taos Tank Top

Pattern: Child’s Party Tank Top by Dawn Leeseman
Yarn: Trendsetter Yarns Taos
Needles: Size 8

edited to say: I had interpreted the pattern to have some errors, one of those is when you crochet the borders the numbers do not match up. I figured the crocheted border would have the same stitch count as the knit border.

However, Andrea suggested (and the designer agreed) that in this pattern you must crochet 3 stitches and then slip the 4th stitch, and this is to adjust in the gauge difference of knitting and crochet.

The crochet section well…you can tell it was written by a knitter.

Also, I am not particularly fond of how the shoulder straps were knit and finished off. I really like 3 needle bind off for shoulder straps so I think I would do that a bit differently.

edited to add: I forgot to mention that one of the shoulder straps in the front and the back has one extra row of knitting. I ended up modifying the pattern so that when you join the yarn and the neck edge on the purl side that I only purled across 3 stitches and then bound them off, so that way I ended up with the same rows on each shoulder edge. I don’t really know if this is an error, but honestly I pondered if it was meant to have the extra row or not and then decided to do it how I wanted to.

Overall though the pattern was fine and any experienced knitter and crocheter would be able to knit/crochet this in a few days. I was happy with how it turned out and so was the recipient, Madeleine.

The designer of this pattern is going to be having a book published in July, called “Casual Elegant Knits-Classy Designs for Men and Women.” I look forward to seeing what this designer has done.

Finally, I wanted to point out that I sometimes forget how many people randomly come to my blog. I don’t always have very much time to write a blog post and at times just write off the top of my head, without edit. I suppose what I might have considered an error in a pattern, may just be a difference of perception and style. I did not mean for this to be a negative review towards the designer or design.

The top worked up really fast and Madeleine wears it all the time, which is a winner in my book. I am appreciative of the work it takes to design knitwear and am also thankful for the free patterns that are out on the web.

Tweed Baby Pullover Finished

I finally finished this top down baby pullover. It isn’t for any baby, just something I knit for the store to draw people into my knitting class. I added a few fancy details, such as the beading. It is super cute. I am happy with it. Now I can move onto other projects in progress I haven’t finished.

Yarn: Patons Tweed

Needles: Size 10

Closeup of Beads:

and Collar

Jan update

I have done a small bit of knitting. I just made this scarf with some handspun. It was a fun accomplishment to take some of the yarn I spun from roving and knit it into a scarf. The yarn was actually a lot nicer then I thought. I really didn’t do a bad job and I am happy to have a warm scarf to show for it.

Yarn: Handspun from corriedale roving

Needles: size 9 (brittany wood)

Pattern: CO 22, knit 1×1 for about 6 plus feet.

Here is a little something I was knitting on before Christmas but didn’t finish. I probably will hibernate it until November and then finish it. No sense finishing it now. I am just in the process of sewing on ornaments, then need to stuff it and crochet a bottom for it.

My new class started last week.  I already have made some waves in it.  The class was not allowed a break and after 5 hours, I got the worst headache last Monday.  The teacher told us that class didn’t get a break.  After a phone call to the department division, the counseling off, and then to the dean of teacher’s, I was able to get a break for the class.  It will be announced tomorrow. 

I am unhappy about another thing.  Apparantly Monday labs are due Wednesday, but people who have Wednesday lab time have theirs due the following Monday.  So I get 1 day to work on a lab and they get 4.  I don’t find that fair at all and am going to work on how to get equality for that.

My work scheduled has finally lightened, the money was nice, but I am happy to have a break from cashiering. I really needed the break to get down to studying.  I already have my first test on Wednesday.

Finally, girl scouts is getting interesting.  I am starting up my own troop in March after cookie sales (going on now.)  It is a good thing.

Monkey socks in Oops

I finished my first pair of Monkey socks. They are done in Claudia Co. hand painted yarn in the color way of Oops, which is blue, purple and turquoise and brown/maroon. I made them for a lady in my mother’s club who won a charity auction. She wanted blue and earthy colors, not bright colors. I hope this is a color that she will be happy with. I love them. This was a pretty easy knit.

Tomorrow you will get to see a picture of Sierra’s “pretty” black eye. She was making a village up on her bookshelf while standing on a plastic table and slipped and hit her cheekbone on the toy box. She is okay, just bruised. Nothing like going to school the second week with a black eye. I went and got her some arnica for it. They sell it at Longs, the dissolving tablets and gel.

Askew – Finished

And, I like it.

I did a little bit of manipulations to get this pattern to work for me.

The first thing I did was I unseamed the side seams. I then resewed it to from the bottom up. I stopped the side seam at the garter stitches before the last 10 stockinette stitches on the front. This is actually what it looks like in the original picture. I think that the finishing details might have been off, because the pattern says to seam up to the garter stitch on the strap.

So, when I seamed to the garter stitches before the 10 st, I got a larger armhole, which was perfect. I tried it on and I still wasn’t happy with the straps, but they were better than before.

So, I ripped the straps down. I bound off 9 stitches on the outside edge and picked up 9 stitches on the middle section (the stitches I had previously bound off.) I then knit the straps back up and attached them in the back.

I did attach them towards the center, which I think I might move, because I don’t think they are as comfortable.

I love how it turned out and glad that I gave it some time to fiddle with it. I am wearing this directly against my skin and it isn’t too bad. This is definitely a top I can wear while at the ocean.

Pattern: Knitty Askew

Needles: Size 9

Yarn: Noro Silk Garden color 230 approx 6 balls (I had a little bit leftover.)

So Sorry Silk

I bought some Sari Silk about a year ago off ebay and got a fantastic deal.  When I got it, I was in awe of all of the colors and how beautiful the yarn looked, trying to ignore the terribly musty and icky smell.

I thought it would make a neat clapotis or shawl.  So I casted on for the clapotis.  However, as I was knitting with it, I noticed how dirty it was.  (I have blog posted about this before.)  It took awhile to wind the yarn up into balls, so the thought of winding the balls into a hank and washing them just seemed a waste of my time.

As I would knit with it, my throat would feel scratchy and I would start to think about the possibility of getting some weird illness from dust or dirt from the other side of the world.  Silly, I am sure, but other people handled this yarn and it was dirty.  I would find fingernails and other odd things spun into the yarn.  Gross, but I tried to be open minded.  It is just yarn and these were probably nice people spinning it, but still…

So I put the clapotis down and told myself I will either frog it or one day finish it.

This was over a year ago.

A week ago, I decided that I needed to knit some of my novelty and misc yarns into scarves.  I have a few things I am doing soon where I will need gifts and thought big scarves would be perfect.  I will have to talk about the novelty yarns I used in another blog post.  It is interesting.  But that isn’t what I am posting about today.

I decided to try the Sari Silk yarn again and just make a simple garter stitch/drop stitch scarf.  Again, the yarn was dirty, smelly, and made me squirm.  I knit with size 17 needles and in less than 2 days I had a nice long scarf.  I bound off the scarf and threw it in the washing machine on gentle.

I had read that this yarn softens up real nicely after washing it.   I put it on a long soak.  The washing machine smelled like gasoline.  GASOLINE!  My scarf!!  How crazy is that?  Tony said it smelled like a tire store.  I thought it was gas.  Tony has a bad sense of smell and rarely can smell anything.

After it washed, I looked at it and there was a huge gaping hole.  Not only that, but the yarn some how sealed itself off, so I can’t find the ends.  I have thought of a few ways to fix it, like taking more of that yarn and trying to sew the hole closed.  I don’t know.  That would require me to touch the dirty yarn again.

I suppose I could wind it all into long hanks and wash it…

ps…it is pretty, isn’t it…even with the hole…

Baby Hats

My cousin will be having her baby in a few days…yep, a boy.  I thought a pile of hats would be nice.  I am not done with the blanket I was working on.

The top one is a ribbed hat, I just winged it.  I cast on 48 st on size 8 needles w/ cotton-ease.  It is really stretchy and light.

The one on the right, I also winged.  I cast on 92 st with Rowan Calmer on size 5 needles.  At the top, I did two decreases to get to  90 and then did your normal hat decreasing (K8, K2tog….k7, k2tog…k6, k2tog…etc.)

The one on the left is from this pattern, thought I casted on 8 stitches to get an 8 point star, instead of 7.  It is also with the Rowan Calmer, which I am thinking is a lot like cotton-ease, but a bit stretchier, softer, and slightly thinner.

My Garden & Shedir

Here are the pics!

***Edited to Add…Do you see the first sunflower in the row?  The one on the very far left?  This morning when I went out to the garden, it had fallen over and all of the leaves were limp and sad.  I lightly lifted it out of the soil, only to find half of its roots were eaten.  The culprit?  A Gopher.   Sierra warned me there was a hole in the yard and after a few minutes it was buried.  I suspected it was a gopher, but I didn’t think he could get into my garden.

Sunflowers and corn (and weeds…just ignore those, I do.)

Zucchini (what you can’t see the carrots and bell peppers? They are under the canopy of the zucchini. The bell pepper will be moved soon. Today if I feel up to it.)

Do you see the baby zucchini? Here is a closeup.

My tomatoes are doing great! The one that was wilting has bounced back and has overcome whatever problems it was having. My remedy? Water and sunshine. I even have a baby tomato. I put the cage around them too late, so I couldn’t get it over the large one. I got it over half of it.

Finally, Shedir. I made this hat for a friend. I love the yarn. Like I said before, it was one of the most difficult knits for me, but that is because of my concentration issues. I enjoyed knitting it.

I am considering making a baby Shedir for my cousin’s baby. I was crocheting a blanket, but thanks to Madeleine it is now a ball of mess. (I love that Madeleine loves yarn, but am thinking she just needs to get her own.)

Also, Shedir has given me an idea for a new hat design. It will make me crazy doing it, but I have this inner desire…so I guess I will be going to the crazy house soon and will have a hat to show for it.

The tank I am making myself is going great! I should take an in-progress picture. I am almost up to the bust on the front side. I will give it a proper post tonight or tomorrow.

Dad’s Sweater

I finished it on Saturday night.

I substituted yarns.  I used Patons Classic Merino in Gray, instead of The Tahki Donegal Tweed the pattern suggested.  I also left off the patches.  My dad wanted a sweater that had a collar to cover his neck.  He lives by the ocean where ocean breezes can give you a chill.  Hopefully he won’t mind me putting his picture on my blog.

Pattern:  Patch Man designed by Ann Budd for Knit Scene Magazine, Spring 2007.

Yarn:  Patons Classic Merino in Dark Grey

Needles:  Size 6 and 8 (to get gauge)

My only real pattern tweak (besides yarn substitution) was that I knitted longer on the collar than suggested.  When I first tried to sew it down it puckered in the corners.  I could have blocked it, but really didn’t have the time to block just the collar.  So I decided to just knit about an inch or so longer and it sewed down perfect.

He loves it and I love it.  I am very happy how it turned out!

If I could have changed one thing on it, I might have made it longer.

Prosperous Plum, Finished

For a close up of this picture, click here.

Pattern:  Prosperous Plum Tank

Needles:  Size 5 and then 7 (but wasn’t getting gauge, so switched to size 6 to get gauge.)

Yarn:  LB Cotton-ease – Violet

I loved working with this yarn.  I loved working with this pattern.  Really, this was an really fun and nice project.

I didn’t have any problems with the pattern, except for my own clumsiness…which Andrea pointed that that I couldn’t blame you, because I never posted a picture of the finished straps…so…how would you know I was off?

I got the crab stitch done.  It looks awesome.  My left thumb is happy I am not working on that anymore.