Season's Greetings!

Totoro is knit using Brella (Ravelry's) Chu Totoro pattern. He is going to join some buddies at the Paul Brown Studio where the wonderful Misa works and styles my hair. I'm in dire need of a trim, as I try and grow my hair out a little. It's the last knitting project with a deadline. Enjoy the season's blessings with your family and friends. See you next year!

Knitting Mosaic

For lack of a more clever post, here's a mosaic of some knits. I love the simple cat pattern and slightly fiddlier horse pattern by Linda Dawkins from Mamma4earth. The cats knit up sweetly in left over varigated yarns. I stuffed them with wool.

The hats are the Scott Pilgrim hats. The pattern is similar to the Noro hat. I finally watched the movie and it was quite entertaining and silly. Michael Cera is a great Scott Pilgrim. The watermelon socks with contrast are for my niece. She never reads my blog so it's safe to say. I thought I had blogged about the turquoise hat before. I frogged a cowl and knit another Urban Trekker (from the book Just Hats) since the first one was adopted out.

These catbus pillows were a bright spot in an otherwise maddening retail world. I still haven't recovered from how early the radio started up with the Christmas songs.

Bead Projects

I stopped by Bella Beads for some quick inspirations.

Simple knotted hemp with striped beads and silver shell button. I plan to remake this so it wraps around twice. I love how the ruby zoisite turned out braided with black leather. The last project is my first one with memory wire. It used curved tubes and Swarovski pearls.

Fun fun fun!

Mumblings

After the hat and 3 sock knitting frenzy and an attack of a virus I had a run of knitting and spinning doldrums. I tried some sewing and made a few demented bags which I'm not happy with, practiced using the rolled hemmers and tried a new project, getting pictures on fabric with gel medium. I will not admit to how many hours I've spent surfing Ravelry and Pinterest in search of inspirations. I watched numerous videos on how easy or hard it is to make a rolled hem with my Horizon sewing machine and so far I have not been too successful. I am thinking the fabric has to be a little stiff to make it work and that the endings and beginnings are never going to be "perfect". More practice is needed here. I found numerous videos and tutorials on transferring pictures to fabric. Way back when, I took a picture quilting class. The instructor had us tape pictures to a a paper and we sent it off and had the pictures printed on fabric. I subsequently tried out the various home printing methods, all of which require an inkjet printer. The Landcaster has me networked to a laser printer, but apparently the high heat of a laser printer will not work with the easily available printable fabric. I called around and Kinko's no longer prints on fabric and the other print on flag or canvas fabric and have a $40 dollar minimum. So I tried the gel medium which works with laser printed images. I couldn't get all the paper to come off without removing important parts of the pictures so I've put this craft on the back burner.

A more successful project was Mary's Stilettos. Bob knows I have a lot of beads and Pricebusters had the turkey trussing pins. I wasn't sure what kind of glue to use so I tried E6000 and GS Hypo cement. So far both seem to be holding. The stiletto comes in handy getting the thread when it comes up from the bobbin and holding down seams while sewing.

Frogging and stash organizing were a little more mindless. I keep scanning the net for not only ways to keep the bobbin threads from coming undone in the box and tangling up, but also ways to keep those little balls of left over sock yarn from tangling up and become messy. It could be the Totoros come out at night and play with the yarn, because I don't have cat... I have admired all the Babette's out there and projects of epic proportion using left over sock yarn. All I can say is I'm not worthy...

Shirley from my quilting group does so many crafts. She has found the perfect use for the polyester from the 70's. This stuff never dies and never fades. It was heck to wear as did not breathe. But it made this cool rug. Shirley cut the fabric into 2 inch squares, a feat in itself, then sewed them down to a backing creating a rug that will never die and never fade. This image of JT for those of us who remember will never fade.

Day 2 "color, a photo by acornbud on Flickr.

I also pieced the Island Batik Strip Tease Pack, adding the black blocks. There are many tutorials on this quick piecing method. It's about a 60 inch square so I'm not going to sash or border it, just bind it. I'm looking in to sending it out for quilting.

Tourmaline on the Couch

cable1, a photo by acornbud on Flickr.

Pattern: Socks on a Plane by Laura Linneman from La La's Knits.
Yarn: Socks that Rock, Tourmaline
Needles: Size 3
Mods: CO 48 stitches.
Comments: This is a very nice toe up sock pattern with a very simple cable. The yarn, while scrumptious, made for a very heavy sock, more like a boot or bed sock. The pooling did not match up so I just had to go with the flow.
I used Judy's magic CO and Jeny's stretchy bind off. The socks are a bit big for me as I knit a size six. They still look pretty large.

Happy Halloween!

Oh boy! Candy!

Breaker, Pattern and yarn by Louisa Harding

Pattern:  Breaker by Louisa Harding from Louisa Harding #111, Ondine
Yarn:  Ondine, 100% cotton, on sale at Webs! A lovely yarn to work with.  I love the subtle marled look in these colors
Needles:  size 3, 5
Modifications:  To avoid the dreaded seaming as much as possible, I knit all the body welts first then joined to knit the fronts and backs together.  I knit the size 4, but the largest size length, but in the end my sister did not want a cropped top so I lengthened it 2 more inches.  She also wanted long sleeves.  To avoid seaming the sleeves, I CO 43 stitches and knit the contrasting cuff on 5 needles.  Every 8th row, I increased two stitches at the under arm side (K1, MI, then knit to last 1 stitch.  End M1K1) until there were 71 stitches.  At the sleeve cap, I switched to knitting back and forth, so there still was a sleeve cap to sew in.   This screwed up the buttonhole space at the top a bit.  I'm not sure why the neck is stretched on so on the back, perhaps I needed to go up a size?  The bottom line is that the recipient is happy with it and being cotton I suspect it will conform as she wears it. 
Comments:  The knitting was nice and mindless, stockinette and seed stitch...a great TV project. 

I'm so tempted to buy more of this yarn.  But, my stash is full...my stash is full...repeat after me.

A couple of sock projects completed. 
Child size Watermelon socks with leftover yarn (see previous post)

And some Koigu socks, Alternating 2x2 rib, from one of my favorite sock knitting books, Sensational Knitted Socks.  I still love me some Koigu!!

I had a glorious trip to Camano Island. D&M's log cabin is making great progress and is a very charming home-y home in a lush woods. M had a fun itinerary for the 5 of us, starting with the Dale Chihuly Glass Museum at the Seattle Science Center, the Harvest Jubilee around Stanward, a ferry ride to Victoria to see the Butchart Garden, a train ride to Fairhaven, as well as lot's of tasty berries and fun places to eat. We even saw the King Tut exhibit!  The weather was fabulous!Some of my pictures are here.

I took a couple hats on the trip and finished two more and gave them all away!  Yay!  One was a basic black simple slouchy hat by cocoknits of Vanna's Choice and the other was a Taiyo Snail Hat.  I tried pleating the top as the yarn is fragile and it was a challenge to gather up the top without leaving a hole.  Taiyo is nice and soft since it has so much cotton in it. 

I'm trying to get inspired to make a Halloween card, but so far no luck producing something I'm happy with.  I knit a Koigu sock, and have cast on for the second.  Really, though, it's tough to get moving on socks when it is so warm.  I did manage a little bag.  It looks big in the picture but is only 7 inches across the bottom.  I used the Friendship Bag Tutorial from ps i quilt with a few mods to fit the fabric I had. I wanted to try one of the faux sashiko machine techniques.  This is stitch 94 on my Janome Horizon 7700, with embroidery thread in the bobbin and invisible thread in the top.  The stitch length was 3.5.  It didn't look so much like sashiko, but was kind of cute.  This bag would be good for a gift bag, a spinning wheel hook bag (except the Majacraft doesn't use a hook) or a little waste bag for those bits of fluff that happen. 

My dad turned 92 on October 4. The sky goddess came down from Denver and helped us celebrate.  He is not too happy about living so long, but he still enjoys a party! 

Noro Silk Garden Toque

Noro Silk Garden Toque, a photo by acornbud on Flickr.

Inspired by the hat worn by Oskar in the movie Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. His was blue. I used exactly one skein of colorway 47.

I was never able to get a view of the the top of the hat. I have not blocked the hat yet. Note to self to go down a needle size or two to make a firmer fabric.

Movie Ticket Bookmark

I had fun creating this "ticket" for a birthday party using a tutorial by Nikola Lazarevic. The tutorial is here. There is so many tools in Adobe Photoshop that I dont' really know how to use! I laminated them and made them into bookmarks. I'm glad some people still read real books.

I also completed some fingerless mitts to go with Mobcap Hat. There is still enough yarn left for something. Bed socks? I'm a little over cowls for awhile.

And the Hats Keep Coming!

I can't stop knitting hats. This one is Mobcap from the Jane Austen issue of Interweave knits. I harvested the Malabrigo Rios, colorway Candombe, from another project as it just screamed to be a Mobcap.

The textured knit band has a nice stretch to it and the hat fit me as written.

My Lacey Ripley is another Ysolda Ripley hat. The handspun alpaca was handyed by Upstream Alpaca on Etsy. my yarn was a bit thin on a size 10 needle and it's a little snug.

White Kitty hat is based on a the pattern Kitty Hat by fluffyhelen from Craftster. I modified to knit it in the round on size 6 and 10 needles. I used Cascade 128 which made for a nice soft hat. The flower was crochet from left over Madelinetosh Vintage.

Where's Totoro?

Where's Totoro, a photo by acornbud on Flickr.

It's as if the 4th member of the party had fallen off the face of the earth.

A Few FOs

It's been a nice summer here. The Golden Plover have returned, there are some nice trade winds to temper the summer heat, and the neighborhood is blooming. I'm working on stash reduction by knitting small projects. I love me some instant gratification projects! The mix of providers and staff at work is always changing along with the clientele at the military clinic where I work. Knitting keeps me sane:)

Pattern: Katrina Ribbon Cloche by Jennifer Yarn: Bernat organic cotton and Plymouth Jeannee trim. The flower is Irish Rose by Lesley Stanfield from 100 Flowers to Knit & Crochet. I'm not sure where to put it. Maybe it is too fussy anyway. I hope these fit the soon to be one year old twins.

Flower baby Hat was a little modification with a granny type flower on top and single croched brim. The pattern is top down.

Pattern: simple slouchy hat by Julie Weisenberger from cocoknits Yarn: Cascade 128, one skein heather-ed purple Needles: 6 and 10. I CO for the large but knit the small length as I did not want too much slouch. I also tied the points together on the inside. This is a very nice basic hat. I knit rather tightly, or the Cascade 128 is not bulky enough to get gauge for this pattern. Of course that is just conjecture, as I rarely check gauge

I found some cherry buttons from Anthony's Wood Shop on Etsy. They were more rustic then I expected from the description so I sanded them a bit more and waxed them as they were sticking to my yarn. They complete Polwarth Stormy Lace Cowl quite nicely.

Pattern: My own. Slip stitch 3x3 rib with i-cord edges Yarn: Grace Hand Dyed by Louisa Harding Yarns, 3 skeins

I used some large coconut buttons to finish the cowl off. I made 4 stitch buttonholes following the Knitting Help Youtube Video
Really fun socks with KnitPurlGurl's Watermelon self-striping yarn with seeds.

I used her pattern as well for the "DEPA" socks (as the Major Knitter likes to call them)
Happy Knitting!

Red Alert

Tart Tosh Hat
Pattern:  Brambles Beret by Amanda Muscha from Knitty, Deep Fall 2010
Yarn:  Madelinetosh Vintage, colorway Tart.
Needles:  4 and 6
Comments:  I made the medium band and medium length.  With this yarn and needle the had came out a bit large. I think the small band would have fit me better.  The yarn has a nice solid hand the color is awesome.The pattern is well written.  I made on error in purling two together, but the mistake is hidden between the design.

22Aug update: As discussed on the Knitting ParadiseSM - Knitting and Crochet Forum I ran a row of single crochet around the CO row, 2 sc, then skip one around. It’s still a bit loose, but improved.

Summer 2012

Travels My brother in law served 44 years in the military and 13 years as the adjutant general of the state of Washington and retired 31July2012. I had the pleasure of attending some of the festivities in Tacoma. As a brother in law, he is a fine person also beloved by nieces, nephews, pets and pretty much everyone. As a Major General, he has had quite a career and I wish him well as he goes about his next endeavors as a regular citizen.

*skip down to miss the whiny story. I was given the task of carrying the lei from Hawaii to the first party. It did not start off well as the plane was delayed 3 hours and I waited 5 hours before getting off the ground. Wouldn't you know it the one trip I decide not to bring the bulky noise-canceling headphones, I get crying toddler for 5.5 hours. The poor mom. To her credit she did not turn into a shrieking, crazed puddle of womanhood but kept her cool. What a WOMAN! It was after midnight when I hit the ground and pitch black outside. I got to the car rental place (mine closed at 11pm so I was transferred to Alamo) and proceeded to miss my on ramp and drive aimlessly from MacDonald's parking to parking lot trying to navigate with my iPhone. Note to self: Get GPS that talks to you!!! So I finally made it the 20 miles to the wonderful Hotel Murano at 2am and wouldn't you know it there was someone checking out. He took forever and while I was waiting I realized I had lost the leis. I got a sinking feeling and then felt on the verge of hyperventilation. After taking stock I realized I left the bag on the car rental shuttle. Would you believe no one answers any phone calls at the car rental place or airport at 2 am? At 8am I called lost and found. No bag. At noon I drove back to the airport to pick up my sister from Denver. No bag in lost and found:( I spoke to the rental car shuttle driver. Even with his full bus, he took the time to call his supervisor and the bag was found!!! The contents were intact and the pikake had gotten quite fragrant! I was ever so grateful to the Port Authority employees who took care of me!

My sister has a beautiful garden and bird feeder drama. I learned the cruel tale of brood parasitism. The valiant mother Junco is feeding her giant baby cowbird. The cowbird is a nomadic bird that never builds it's own nest rather it lays it's eggs in another bird's nest and the baby is raised by it's foster mother, sometimes at the expense of the mother's own babies.






I spent a few glorious days in Seattle. The weather was perfect! I ate at all my favorite places, The Palace, Lola's and Chinooks. I'm still dreaming about that wonderful Coconut Cream Pie! I also got my smoked salmon from Pike's Market and tried the small doughnut place in lieu of Top Pot. Next time I won't miss Top Pot! I tried Volterra in up and coming trendy Ballard neighborhood and Palisades.  the Volterra meal was tasty but pretty heavy.  The crab cake and view at Palisades were awesome! I also squeezed in archery, dog agility training with 16 month old Magic and a picnic in the park.

Knitting The good thing about the long delay in the Honolulu Airport was I nearly finished my scarf. The bad thing is that I completed my only project long before the trip was ended and had nothing to knit on the way back. My friends did humor me by taking me to The Fiber Gallery recommended to my by Marti. I like the size of this shop.  There was a nice selection of patterns, and yarns.  I treated myself to a skein of Madelinetosh sock

The two hats are from WestKnits 3. I made the small Dustland and Bedrock, but they both came out large for me. Guys have big heads, lol. Dustland is left over Beaverslide and the Bedrock is Malabrigo Rios. The scarf is Stormy Sky Lace Cowl by Eaden Yarns from The Stubborn Knitter knit up in handspun polwarth. I'm waiting on some cherry buttons to finish this off. I hope they match.  

Life in General I've been fighting bugs for the last 6 weeks first a cold that turned into bronchitis, then a sorethroat which I hope is finally abating. So I'm laying low, and knitting hats that don't fit anyone and it's too hot to wear and trying to be positive. (not working too well, lol) I'm going to break out the the red Madelinetosh and knit up Brambles and hope that helps. Really...I have lots to be thankful for and life is good!

Call me Your Blueness

My 3 skeins of Beaverslide did not match so I tried over-dyeing them with indigo. I had a kit of pre-reduced indigo so decided to try it out. I like the color, but even after about 5 washings, and a synthrapol rinse the color still comes off on my hands. I'm tempted to throw the yarn into Nuuanu Street to rinse out the excess dye, but the moss and the leptospirosis warnings deter me. Oh well. So of course, my sweater, which had a stripe in front where the yarn did not match also makes my hands blue. I really love the color, but reading up after the fact, I wonder if the stripe will gradually come back as the dye washes out.

It's approaching 90 here, so I won't be needing the sweater any time soon. But when I start wearing it I suppose I could be addressed as Your Blueness.

Final Day Tour de Fleece

Final Day Tour de Fleece, a photo by acornbud on Flickr.

Plied polwarth, fingering weight or so, hot off the bobbin. My time zone is 12 hours from the actual Tour and I'm not sure what the rule is, but I'm counting this in.
I'm looking forward to soaking this to see if it will bloom like my other polwarth.

This was a very enjoyable tour for me. I still don't quite get all the rules of where and what to post and how to win a prize, but the joy is in the spinning.  Perhaps the Tour de France will grow on me, too, although I really don't like seeing the crashes.  The weather was sure glorious this year.

Candy Howl

Pattern: Modified from Lion's Brand Diagonal Eyelet Cowl
Yarn: Araucania Colium Multi, #06, pinks and purples. This is a bulky single ply with 30%silk and 70%wool. It stayed together through a bunch frogging
Needles: size 13
Modifications: I just used the pattern stitch, CO 44 and finished with an i-cord bind-off. The cord is a twisted cord with poms, thread through the second row of holes from the CO edge. The pattern knits with the "bumpy" side out, but I liked the smooth side better. The cord can be gathered and word on the outside or inside.



The Tour de Fleece spinning is coming along. The second half is just going more slowly. I moved my wheel on to the carpet and now there is a funny knock from one of the peddles. I'm spinning on.