March Already

The Thing Hats have officially been renamed the Thinking Hats by the recipients and their folks! These boys have shirts that say Thing 1 and Thing 1. No number 2 in this family! It warms this knitter's heart to see these hats go to a good home. I love knitting with wool, but have to face up to the fact that Hawaii just isn't the frigid north. I CO on 100 stitches for the larger hat and 95 for the smaller one.

I spun up the Jacob from kbrow. She got this at SAFF from the Perfect Spot Farm . I split the colors out and spun a two ply. The result is Jake the Cat!
 

Pattern: Lion Brand Purrfect Kitty Sock Critter Needles: size 4 Mods: none. More of this pattern could be knit in the round. This cat was so clearly male:) My R2D2 bag is finally out of hibernation and finished. This was one of my Fair Isle practice pieces. I learned that it is important to have matching yarns. The white yars is much finer, softer and fuzzier and it made R2D2 pull in. I really loved the Koigu for the Star Wars letters! The lining was a pain but there are Jayhawks inside. Rock chalk Jayhawk!
 

 Free charts by Sarah Bradberry The cmeknit1's hat has been in my queue forever.

I had a great week off from work President's Day week. Now I'm back and my "assistant" is not a good match. It seems the things that are in his job description are below him. They still need to be done so I either have to micromanage constantly or do it myself. I'm asking myself everyday if it's time to resign and really be retired. I'll go to his supervisor one more time. It's just exhausting and aggravating. The paycheck is nice since it has been a year of big expenses and the timing belt is next. My contract is up in September.

Here is my Lauhala hat. This was a challenge for me. I missed some weavers at the beginning of the brim, but it was too close to the finish and too beat up to take out so my most patient teacher, Mike Nahoopii, helped me finesse the closing of the brim. Don't look to closely, lol. It is nice from a distance and made much nicer looking with the peacock feather headband that my mom loaned me. It deserves a much better hat. I have joined the club and do plan to try one more.

Weaving lauhala is much like knitting. I learned that checking my work as I go along and correcting errors early saves a lot of grief later. Not unlike Tilly here (from A Fine Fleece). I got a big head about memorizing the cables and did two repeats crossing the middle cables over instead of under. I decided to knit on as the error is in the middle of the scarf and the color is so dark it's not noticeable. .
But of course I will point it out to everyone, heh.  I'm enjoying the Rowanspun DK that I've had in my stash a long long time.

 

The Landcaster had been acquiring power tools and rebuilt the firewood box. We became quite concerned about the 3 carpenter bees who kept returning looking for their old home. He built them a home and now two have moved back in. I guess they are pollinators of flowers just like honey bees. I hope they stay in the woodpile and don't drill holes in my eaves.

I almost forgot about my shopping sprees!  I purchased some findings and one of Calvin Orr's jellyfish kits.  I stopped by the Bead Gallery booth (sparkly leather and crystals) and Bella Beads (cool leather with magnetic clasp) for make and takes. 

I also added some spinning books to my library.  A couple more are on the way.  I can't decide what to spin next.

Hats and Cats

Whew!  January has gone by in a flash.  It was a crazy month.  Mom and dad need more of my attention but seem to back at baseline now.  My sister, the Sky Goddess, made a couple of trips home and that really perks them up as she has much energy to shop daily, and cook up some really special treats.  Like the steamed clams.  I wish we could get the live black mussels here, but they are only available frozen and a strange texture.  So, manila clams it is...wine, scallions, garlic and a bit of butter, yum!  She always picks up the family favorites...oxtail soup, haupia, Liliha bakery treats, and this time of year, jai.

On top of that, my garage became a snack for some nasty ground termites so I had to have the ground treated.  The house, being much older then the garage is surrounded by those chemicals that have been banned, so I think they don't like it much.  In addition, I had signed up for a PV system last year, but due to the end of the year rush I had to wait for this year.  So I decided to have the house tented as well.  All that bagging and cleaning is not fun at all, but it did encourage me to throw away a lot of outdated stuff.

The PV system took 3 instead of 2 days to install.  The first gang got rained out the second day and the next crew had a whole different idea of out to get the wiring from the electric box to the panels.  The attic is old and unfinished, and proved quite a challenge.  They did a terrific job and I can't wait to see my electric bill!  I was warned though, that this is the cloudy time of year so not to be disappointed.

I tried some colorwork out for Valentine's Day using the hand dyed maui yarn.  It's a sock weight so I held it double to go with my hand spun.  The roving was hand dyed by Christina Potter on Etsy.  
I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out.  The pattern is mine is except for the top which I found on Ravelry, Gramma K's Fair Isle Tam, by Kathleen Taylor.
 

I signed up to take a Lauhala hat weaving class.  It is every Saturday for 5 hours and I will need every bit!  We started with "pico" or top of the hat.  The project is now on a hat block and I hope to reach the start of the brim soon.

I finished Lady Edith.
Pattern: 

The Lady Edith

by Karrie Steinmetz

The pattern was a RAK from FranceA on Ravelry in memory of Karrie Steinmetz who passed away unexpectedly.  

Yarn:  Handmaiden, Mini Maiden.  A real pleasure to work with. 

Downtown Abbey has been a great series this year, again!  So much drama, and great characters.  Lady Edith herself, can be quite a b*tch.

I named the strange cat Jayne Cobb, the Cunning Cat.
Pattern: The Parlor Cat, by Sara Elizabeth Kellner from Rabbit Hole Knits
Yarn.  Mostly handspun, Candy Corn hand dyed by the Moonlight Baker.
The face is always a challenge.  I tried out the crochet cat eyes from Heart in Flight, using sock yarn.  They are a little bulge y.  I may redo them one of these days. My son says, "That is a very odd cat."

Owen the Owl.
Pattern Big Snowy Owl, by Purl Soho from Purl Bee
Yarn:  My own handspun
This was in my queue for quite a while.  He is much smaller then the pattern due to the smaller needles and yarn gauge.

Thing Hat
Pattern:  Scott Pilgrim Hat (The Original Costume Pattern), by Lulu Bee, from lugirl Ravelry downloads
Yarn:  some very scrumptious Ravelry Red Malabrigo Rios and white Cascade 220 Superwash.
I hope the red does not bleed!

I took my car in for a bargain service, noise and recall and boy what a surprise.  I also found out my care was way overdue for a new timing belt!  I don't know much about timing belts, but after consulting various people, I need a new one!  Dragon Year is not so good for this metal rabbit, but things will look up in the summer.  I'll try to keep a low profile until then. I waxed and oiled Serenity, my Majacraft Rose, and will try to finished up the odds and ends I have before diving in to the new stuff.

I got a great surprise package from the Knitted Brow!   This really made my day.  That is some lovely Jacob in shades of brown to play with as well as some very special gifts for Totoro!  I can't decide how to spin it...try my supported spindel?  On the wheel?  Do I separate the colors?  Fun, fun, fun!

Don't forget the drawing April 1 for knitting related giveaway.  Just leave a comment on January's post. 

Have a great February!

Looking back at the year that was 2012

January *I can't seem to remember much. *I knit some, spun some and practiced free motion quilting with my new Janome Horizon sewing machine doing a Valentine Day table topper.  
February *CME on Kauai with blogless Kathy. There were some fun and inspiring moments...a great sunset at spouting horn, Waimea Canyon and Glass Beach. *Treated myself to some hand-dyed yarn at the only yarn store on Kauai, (it also sells ukuleles). *Finished shibori quilt. *Knit a pair of socks with my handspun. The yarn was an experiment in over-dyeing a yarn, and making a cable yarn with handspun and commercial yarn  
March *My accountant and I had a big shocker, when we discovered I forgot to pay estimated taxes for 2011 and got hit with a huge bill!. Once that mess was cleared up, I just knit more projects trying to use up stash. * Shoulder Cozy x3, pattern by Churchmouse Yarns and Teas. *I also discovered the pleasure of working with Noro yarns that have more cotton, the softness and convenience of Cascade SW and fell in love with Madelinetosh Pashmina. *Love the sideways shawls like Paris Mill! *Finished up Baby Nora's quilt and got that sent off. I stuck to straight line machine quilting.  
April *Finished a very old WIP, a Taro motif Hawaiian quilted pillow all done by hand. After staring at it for so long, it wasn't my favorite, but my mom has it on her couch and every time I see it now, I think it looks great!  
May *NYC!What a interesting city! So much history, so many neat old buildings and so much to do. I met some Internet friends in person and they were so much fun. I also went to New Jersey and had a wonderful meet up with my college roommate and her dog Razzie. New Jersey was in bloom with great pink dogwood flowers. I was surprised at how beautiful it was. But then it is the Garden State.  
June *Made some silver bangles with puka shells. All the rage here right now.  
July *This year I tried to keep up with the stages of the Tour De Fleece. Spun up nearly all the roving I had in stash. Tried a little art yarn, without much luck. *Knit up my Wolles' color changing cotton. I lusted after this yarn on Etsy and got some at SAFF 2011.  
August *My BIL retired so I went up to Tacoma to help the family celebrate.
September *Knit a bunch of hats. I love knitting hats. But, what does one do with all the hats? My favorites were Ripley, Norie, Scot Pilgrim Hat, Fish hat, Mobcap and of course the Noro snail hat. My nephew has a lot of these hats, but how many can one guy wear. Heaven forbid he should stop wearing hats or move to the tropics.  
October *While on Camano Island for a great GF trip, it struck me that if I lived in a condo I would have to pay condo fees as well as a mortgage, and for the condo fee I would have yard service! I decided to pay myself a condo fee and find someone to help me with the yard detailing. The Harvest Festival, Butchart Gardens, and the Chihuly Glass Museum were the high points. *After returning home I went on a frogging spree. * Finished breaker, a cardigan for my sister and 3 pairs of watermelon socks. The self-striping yarn by Abi Grasso is so much fun. *Knit more hats.  
November *Finished up socks with my Tourmaline Socks that Rock, medium weight. Fun yarn and project. It's a sport's weight yarn and I had a hard time deciding on a pattern for this yarn. *Pieced the Island Batik Strip Tease Pack I got in Clinton, NJ and sent it out for quilting. It makes me feel like I cheated. It’s mostly purple. I will keep it for myself.  
December *. Not the best season for me.  I just try to keep up and stay afloat and not eat to many cookies. 

Somewhere in there I went to the Big Island for a day for visit my friend Keokilani. She is an amazing, capable, women who goes about life with so much grace, beauty and gentleness. One of my heroes.

So what's up for 2013? Take it one day at a time. I've committed to a Lauhala Hat making class starting this month, and A Natural dye class in April. I'm signing up for the Senior Citizen quilting class. I'm attacking the various termites living in the house and yard, and getting a photovoltaic system installed. I'm sure there will be knitting, and more TV. Downtown Abbey Lady Edith KAL is coming up very soon! I'll continue to work for now unless they don't need me anymore. I'll have to re certify my ACLS soon. I was going to Madrona, but I was not able to get any classes at all, so decided not to go. Lucky for me because the Lauhala class came up!

I’m also trying to learn to use a supported spindle. The immediate gratification me thinks this is too slow. The spindles are beautiful so perhaps I’m going to be a spindle collector.

 I’m watching more TV and seeing fewer movies in the theater. Homeland, Castle, Dexter, True Blood, The Good Wife, The Big Bang Theory, NCIS, CSI, Bones, Downtown Abbey, Dr. Who. Thor was a cutie and the Avengers was fun. I still have to see the Hobbit Part 1. TV is probably why I knit so much.

Somewhere in there I'm supposed develop great enthusiasm for exercise.

 If you make it through this post and leave a comment before April 1, there will be a drawing for a prize (something for a knitter or crocheter). Please state whether you would like to be included in the drawing.

Happy New Year!

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!