minor details about making stuff

2008-05-02T15:49:00.002-04:00

dad and i went to the connecticut sheep and wool festival last weekend.

we had a blast!

2008-04-27T11:09:00.002-04:00

i finally have something to talk about! i made a central park hoodie from the top down, and it is completely seamless! i've always admired the central park hoodie pattern from knit scene magazine, but i went back and forth for a long time on whether i would want my own. i am not a big fan of seaming and was pretty sure that the way the cables draw your eye outwards would be unflattering on my broad shoulders. i don't love sweaters that have sleeves tacked on to the edge like that (whatever you call it), and the point at the top of the hood sort of bothers me. but there are so many beautiful versions on ravelry (1248 and counting!) that are inspiring and got me wishing i could make my own.
so i did a bunch of math and unraveled a sweater/skirt set that my unrelated cousin gave me to take apart and winged this sweater - i am so happy that i did!
the yarn i used is a teal wool tweed with red, purple and teal flecks. the colors kind of remind me of michael jackson for some reason, or one of those early nineties nylon track suits. marita couldn't remember what exactly the yarn was, so unfortunately we'll never know, but i'm sure it's been discontinued for at least a decade. despite wrapping to be dk weight, i was getting a worsted gauge with it so i decided to knit the size 36 to compensate for the smaller yarn. i probably could even have knit the smaller size and been fine, it's a little big. i think hoodies are supposed to be that way so it's not a big deal, it's part of what makes it cozy. (i wore it as a sweater set a few times first,) but i think it suits me better as a hoodie.
i did a turkish (figure eight) cast on for the top of the hood, adding some shaping as i knit the top to eliminate the point. i worked my way down the hood to the neckline and increased as i went to end up with the same amount of stitches as the top up sweater. the math for the raglan increases worked out surprisingly well, and amazingly enough the stitches divided by eight perfectly. at the start of the raglan increases and body i also started the body cables and i continued with the front cables that begin at the top of the hood. i pushed the back cables in to the center of the hoodie, because i felt like the sweater needs all four of the cables to be back there. in the front i elimiated the outer side cables because there weren't enough stitches at the top of the sweater to accommodate them. it would have been possible to add more cables as i was increasing raglan stitches, but it really wasn't necessary. (next time?)
i added some waist shaping, decreasing five stitches on each side and the increasing them again over a few inches. i probably didn't need to do this but i find sweaters fit me better with a little shaping. i wanted to eliminate some of the boxiness of the original sweater since the raglan is generally a more fitted sweater.
for pocket guidance, i measured the pockets in my two favorite hooded sweaters. i realized that i could knit mine by increasing through the front and the back loop of eighteen stitches to form a flap. these stitches were put on a holder as i knit down to the ribbing of the body of the sweater, which was about five inches, and then the eighteen pocket stitches from the holder (including the cable) were knit down to the ribbing. as i knit the eighteen stitches, i knit the last stitch of each row together with a stitch in the body of the sweater to tack it down. once the pocket was the same length as the sweater, i then knit the pocket stitches together with the body stitches to incorporate them back into the sweater. after finishing the bottom ribbing i picked up stitches on the side edge of each pocket where my hand goes in to knit a k2, p2 rib to extend each pocket by an inch or so.
my button band is pretty similar to the one in the pattern (but by this time i had stopped looking at the pattern). it's knit 2, purl 2 rib with eight leather buttons from my neighbor katherine's amazing yard sale a few years ago. they are a little small but i think it works.

p.s. check out flickr or ravelry to see what else i've been knitting.

2007-12-30T13:38:00.002-05:00

as 2007 comes to a close i think back to my accomplishments of the past year. clearly i am not much of a blogger, but here is my excuse: i have been doing a lot of knitting this year.
my most exciting knits are definitely all of my new sweaters. this is mostly because i bought the book "fitted knits" by stefanie japel. seven out of sixteen of these sweaters are her designs!

my other favorite thing to knit this year was socks. i pretty much always had a pair of socks tucked into my bag to work on in any spare moment. the great thing about socks is that they're portable. most of these socks are toe up. four of them are even knit with self striping yarn that i dyed myself.

i also knit a bunch of scarves this year. i realized last january that most of my scarves were hot pink (which, of course, i love, but how many hot pink scarves does a girl need?) so this year i diversified my collection a bit. and i'm so glad i did because now that we've moved to a big loft downtown with drafty windows i find myself wearing something around my neck everyday at work.

my smallest group of knits this year was hats. i just was not that interested in knitting hats this year. of the four shown, only the green cabled hat was a regular, everyday hat for me (i'm not counting the hallowig since it was for my halloween costume, and the other two hats were for other people). perhaps 2008 will be a year of hat knitting for me?

there are some other finished knits that aren't shown. i knit some lingerie and a few headbands as well as a pouch and a few other random things that wouldn't fit together in a mosaic. i really hardly crocheted this year at all, which is kind of sad considering how big a part of my life crocheting was in 2006. i have started doing a lot of stained glass lately, and i'm in the process of a few sewing projects as well. i don't know what is in store for us in 2008, but hopefully the year will be full of crafts and crafty get-togethers. happy new year!

2007-09-17T12:17:00.000-04:00

this weekend i figured out how to read and knit at the same time. i'd heard of other people doing it and it seems like an amazing use of time. i'm working on the breton girl sweater from the fall issue of knitscene. being that it is stockinette (and that i'm knitting it in the round) makes it the perfect project for knitting without looking.

it's taking a bit of getting used to, and both my reading and knitting pace are slower when i'm multitasking, but it's satisfying just the same. hopefully this is one of those things that gets better with practice!
the book i'm reading is called no idle hands: the social history of american knitting. i heard about it from cosymakes, (who referenced it in her graduate thesis, which she so graciously shared with me). reading about the history of knitting at the same time as i'm actually knitting is pretty neat!

2007-08-22T18:20:00.000-04:00

the size of the tag "knitting" has surpassed the size of the tag "crochet" in my flickr profile. i think this says something about me, but i'm not exactly sure.

2007-08-02T09:20:00.000-04:00

while my mom is having a summer of lace, i'm having a summer of sweaters and stained glass.

i recently completed my fourth sweater from stefanie japel's book, fitted knits. these sweaters each live up to the name of the boook as flattering and easy to wear. i can see myself making almost all of the projects in this book eventually, but in the meantime i've been working on a green tea sweater from the spring 07 interweave knits.
living by the sea is difficult when you're a couple of packrats. the open spaces of my house and deck are filling up with all sorts of things that wash up on the beach. as the jeweler i tend to come home from a walk with a sack of tiny treasures, while greg usually brings back one inappropriately large object that is either heavy or awkward and makes for an interesting rest-of-the-walk home with it.
my theory is if i'm creative with the things that i collect then i can continue to bring them home.

when i finish it, this window will hang in our dining room where it will gracefully ward off hurricanes much like the ones which created these shards.

2007-07-10T13:28:00.000-04:00

i got my invite to ravelry! so exciting. i don't think i realized when i sign up just how exciting it would be. as my mom put it, it's going to eat up a lot of knitting time to get it all set up. but once it's set up . . . wow.
the stash section has me a little stumped, though, because so much of my yarn is thrifted or recycled. i'm not sure how to categorize that stuff.
i love that once i enter a project i'm working on i can click on the link to other people's finished versions of it. or if i get upset with a sweater and want to reuse the yarn i can see what other knitters have done with that yarn. so exciting!

2007-05-19T15:00:00.000-04:00

i've been tagged! (and to think i thought no one read my blog!)
cosymakes has tagged me, so here are seven random things about me:

1. i love sauce. food is just a vehicle for eating more sauce. i especially love mustard and i put it on almost everything. if it doesn't go with mustard then it probably needs salsa. indian food is my favorite kind to eat because most of it is very sauce-like.
2. i've been playing old timey fiddle for fifteen years (wow, is it really that long?) although my fiddle hasn't come out of it's case very much lately since i started knitting.
3. i sleep under a down comforter, even in the summer. in the winter i sleep under two.
4. i'm hooked on the tv show lost. i'm not into scary things, but started watching it from the beginning with friends from stitch and bitch. i find it fascinating.
5. in college i was a lifeguard at a local beach. i sat out in the sun all day watching the water. at the time i felt like it was a boring thing to do, but that sounds really nice to me right now! i also taught swimming lessons and water aerobics.

it's hard to think of random facts! it took me a long time to come up with these.
i don't know who to tag . . . if you're reading this, i tag you! seriously. comment and let me know that you've been tagged.

EDIT: i just realized that was only five.

two more facts:
6. my favorite holiday is thanksgiving. what could be better than a holiday that revolves around eating? the best part of thanksgiving is getting second helpings of my favorite dishes, mixing them into a pile and eating it with a spoon.
7. i don't get many opportunities to play with other people, but i love scrabble and rummycube. maybe i should have a board game party?

2007-04-21T19:52:00.000-04:00

finished fishnets!

knit with thrifted wool called mona made by spinnerin. it took two 2oz balls.
the pattern came from the love issue of knit.1 magazine, but instead of doing the zig zag lace called for by the pattern i had the stitches spiral up each leg which i think looks way more interesting. i sewed some elastic into the ribbing at the top of these socks so that they're held up just above my knees and i wore them on thursday i had no problem keeping them up.
the basic toe up pattern of these socks inspired me to start knitting all of my socks toe up, which i intend to continue doing from now on.
there are two balls of the white wool from these fishnets left, should i dye more self striping socks?

2007-04-21T19:34:00.000-04:00

my airy wrap sweater from fitted knits is finished! i used six balls of a mohair blend that i found at saver's called Melody which was made by a company named Bucilla. i've never heard of Bucilla and i can't find anything about it online except for a few balls for sale on ebay, but the label looks like it probably was made in the 1970's? Luckily the yarn was the correct gauge and I ended up having just enough to make this sweater.
the only modification i made was to end the front wrap parts about ten inches shorter than suggested in the pattern. when i wrap them around myself they stretch. they have already grown enough in length from one day of wearing this sweater for me to see that if i had made them any longer they would be hanging at my knees.
i love this book! i want to knit everything in it. next i am going to work on the short sleeved cardigan with ribbing (but i bought enough yarn to make it long sleeved just in case). i found moda dea cache at ocean state job lot for $1 a ball and despite being sparkly i love the colors (after swatching i chose the blue).
i can't complain that the weather is finally in the seventies but that means it's time to start knitting warm weather garments; this cardigan will probably have to wait until the fall.

2007-04-10T10:08:00.000-04:00

here's what i've been doing for the past month - knitting socks!
these i knit with artyarn from a store in providence that went out of business:

they were knit toe up with size four dpns and i think the purling shows off the colors really well. when i look at them i'm reminded of knitting at home with my mom during a snowstorm while our men were out of town. i love these socks so much that i went back and bought the yarn for another pair of socks:

this grey and green merino was all they had left. i wouldn't have chosen it if there was something brighter there but i quite like the colors. these were knit toe up on size 3 dpns and the pattern is my own but was inspired by a pair of socks i admired on flickr.
after finding all sorts of tutorials online i decided to try dyeing my own self striping socks. the yarn is knitpicks sock yarn and the colors are from cherry, grape and ice blue lemonade kool aid. even though eunny's tutorial suggested knitting a swatch and measuring to create stripes of the perfect thickness, i'm not the measuring kind of girl. i realized that no matter how much i measure, my hank was not going to be longer than the distance from one end of my house to the other. so of course i winged it.

the other socks i'm working on are the fishnet stockings from the spring 07 issue of knit.1 magazine:

the yarn is swiss wool from saver's and i'm using dpns in size 3 and 6. the stitches are supposed to zig zag, but i modified the pattern so that one spirals up my leg to the right and the other spirals up to the left.
i actually started these before any of the finished socks above them (they're what inspired all the other toe up knitting that i've been doing). they would be done if i could just get myself to focus on one project but obviously that's pretty much impossible for me.
oma made these socks for me for easter:

i love them! when i was at her house a couple of weeks ago i was going through her scraps of sock yarn and arranging them into piles of colors that i thought would make good socks. she said that the solid colors should be mixed with the striped ones, but i loved the combination of pink, grey and yellow. she remembered that i liked them and made them for me for easter! and they're way cooler than i could ever have imagined. i'm a lucky girl.

2007-03-05T11:58:00.000-05:00

i've been on a roll with socks. maybe it's hereditary, since my mom and oma both obsessively knit socks too. i never thought i'd be a sock knitter. i denied my ability to knit for a long time. but i have to admit that it was socks that got me knitting in the first place. when i bought the yarn to make greg's socks i thought that i would crochet them. i quickly realized that knitted socks are far superior to crocheted socks and grudgingly had my mother show me how to knit.

his were the first that i finished. i have to admit that they took me a couple of years (it was not a good idea, knowing my short attention span, to have started my first pair on size zero needles!) the socks were patient, though, as they waited on the needles for me to finish hundreds of other projects.
for my second pair i decided to make some knee socks. they'll be perfect under boots or with ballet flats. it's been super cold lately and i had four balls of this stripey regia yarn. the yarn is six ply so they are very warm. my mom helped me with the math required for adjusting my pattern to accommodate the thicker yarn and to decrease below my calf and transition into my normal sock pattern. they were quick and easy, i even brought them along on a short hike on a springy day last weekend. it was a nice change from knitting on size zero needles!

my third sock project was a pair of baby booties to match the sweater i made for a friend's new baby. i sent the sweater at christmas, but she was born in january so i wanted to send along another little "welcome to the world" treat.

the yarn for both the sweater and the booties is an australian superwash wool that was on sale last summer at Sakonnet Purls. i bought up a whole bunch of it because it seems that there will be a lot of opportunities for baby presents in my future. the pattern for the sweater comes from Adorable Crochet for Babies and Toddlers (which is an amazing book. i've made a few things from it and the title isn't kidding, they really are adorable).
this maryjane bootie pattern comes from an old knitting magazine that i thrifted. it was originally printed in the seventies. for some reason the pattern didn't include gauge so i'm not sure how my version fits (i'm assuming mine come out bigger than they're supposed to because i've noticed my knitting is usually bigger than gauge). i love making these booties. i haven't seen them on, but i think they must look very cute on a tot. how could they not?
on deck i have a pair of lacy thigh high stockings for myself.
the pattern is from the love issue of knit.1. they're toe up, which i haven't tried yet so i'm kind of excited about that. i thrifted this yarn a couple of years ago because it looked fancy and i generally have a weakness for cheap wool. the label says it's swiss. i'm thinking that i might dye it a bright color before i start these socks.
i also just ordered some "bare" sock yarn from knitpicks. i would love to try making some self striping sock yarn using one of the tutorials floating around out there. i'll keep you posted!

2007-02-24T12:44:00.000-05:00

last night i said goodbye to a good friend, my best dog pal rupert.
he was fifteen and a half years old and he had a long and happy life. i was twelve when he became a member of our family (which is basically as far back as i can remember). he was like a furry little brother. he will be dearly missed.
a few christmases ago my mother suprised my brother and i each with a special hat knit out of ruperts fur. she had noticed while brushing him that his hair had the perfect crimp for spinning and so she spun it into yarn on her spinning wheel.

my dog hat is very warm and soft.
now that rupert is no longer alive it's extra special.

2007-02-14T22:17:00.000-05:00

happy valentine's day!!!

2007-02-06T22:18:00.000-05:00

i've been really boring lately. it all started with not being able to post about christmas in the interest of keeping secrets (which i'm not usually very good at when it comes to giving presents). but then my blogging slump has continued well into the new year. i could give you a million reasons why i haven't been writing but instead you could see for yourself. for christmas i made each member of my family a christmas stocking (out of felted sweaters and thrifted buttons and trims) and filled it with little things i had made or bought. but after all the "not posting" i was doing on christmas projects it came down to the wire for me to finish them and i didn't even take any pictures to show you.
the highlight of my new year, so far, is my emerald sweater. it's made of lamb's pride bulky that was at sakonnet purls after christmas and i knit it on the new boye interchangable needles that i got from santa (and soon after broke, but more on that in a minute). the sweater knit up quickly, mostly due to the fact that i had a week of vacation that i had to use or lose before 2007. the button i used came out of the small chest of drawers where my nana stored her buttons. i chose a green and black one that's large and plastic. since completing the sweater i've also knit up a matching cable hat.
so far i've been a little disappointed with my new needles. one of them broke and they apparantly don't have the wondeful warranty that you get with the denise needles. both times i called the company to ask them what to do they were incredibly unhelpful. after having used them for only two weeks before i broke the screw off the end of the cable into the needle, i'm going to have to suck it up and buy new number tens and a new cord. poo.
i'm juggling a few projects at the moment. purchasing the reader's digest ultimate sourcebook for knitting and crochet stitches(which everyone who crochets or knits should own, by the way) inspired a scarf. i'm really excited about the wacky color scheme and it's remarkably easy to knit even though it looks sort of intimidating. here's a sneak peek of what it looked like at stitch and bitch a few weeks ago when i had just started it.
one of my new years resolutions was to finish some of the projects that have been hanging around. another one was to stop acquiring yarn. although i've already failed at not buying yarn (part of the reason why i can't stop collecting yarn is that i've been really excited about unraveling white sweaters and dyeing the yarn) i'm chugging along with some of my unfinished objects. i'm really trying to get myself to finish greg's socks. i started them to give him for christmas in 2005 and i've been so spacey about working on them. the first one is finally finished and it fits him perfectly. i'm bringing that and ian's graduation tie (another embarassingly late present!) to new york with me tomorrow in the hopes of finishing something. (you'd think by the amount of projects i'm bringing with me that i was going to be there for longer than four hours, but that is six hours of travel time for knitting!)
despite the run on sentences this blogging thing isn't so bad. i'm going to start doing it again. i promise!

2007-01-22T01:30:00.000-05:00

oh no! my blog is showing up on the blogreader as inactive!

2006-11-20T00:33:00.000-05:00

it's been one of those amazing weekends where i didn't really have to go anywhere. it will be awhile until i have that luxury again.
yesterday i dragged the boy to a church thrift store across the water in tiverton. i like going there every once in awhile becuase they tend to have nice old buttons, trims and craft magazines really really cheap. also, the gang of little old ladies who run it are pretty entertaining. sure enough, we returned home with quite the bounty. mine in the form of art supplies and my fellow shopper with some sweaters, moleskin trousers and cords.
i also visited my neighbor, katherine, who unloaded an enourmous pile of paper on me. most of it is thicker stock which has already been painted bright colors and will provide me with a lifetime of card making stock. i also have some onionskin for wrapping presents and tissue paper. so exciting! it inspired me to start thinking about this year's christmas card. unfortunately my brainstorming mission began with the obligatory linoleum block carving injury and my middle finger still wont stop bleeding.
today was a wonderful lazy sunday and i got to spend the entire day working on christmas projects that i can't post about.
tonight i went to the starbucks in seekonk for "knitting for the needy". yarn and coffee were provided, with which i started a scarf that will be donated to charity. i took it as an opportunity to try out a new crochet stitch out of the german crochet stitch pattern magazine from oma.

2006-11-17T19:47:00.000-05:00

i've finished my mittens for the holiday ornament swap! i didn't manage to mail them today because while i was sitting in my car packaging them up in the post office parking lot i ran out of packing tape. they'll go out tomorrow.

one extra is shown in the picture that didn't go out in the swap, i must have counted wrong. i ended up making fifteen instead of just the nine i'm sending out. one went to my coworker but i'm not sure yet where the extras will go.
these tiny mittens are made out of the scraps of old sweaters that i felted to use for other (secret) christmas projects. two of my fingers fit perfectly inside of each mitten, in case you're wondering how big they are. the buttons are all from my nana's collection, which i still keep in the small boxes of drawers she had them in. they're still organized by color the way that she kept them. i've also supplemented hers with some buttons from a button jar i scored at a local yard sale last spring. since i have my nana's sewing box the hand sewing was done with her needles. all of the lace and trims came out of a huge bag that i found at saver's a couple of months ago. i bought only one of two bags and at the time i wondered what i would do with all of that lace, but now i'm thankful to have purchased it. most of the embroidery floss came from saver's too, but that's a little harder to keep track of. i'm sure all of the thread i used was thrifted (most of it is on wooden spools) but i can't remember where specific thread came from. some of it is coats and clark, which i always get a kick out of using since it used to be made locally in warren, RI.
i'm so excited about these ornaments! it's so fun to finish a christmas project so early. it's quite a relief, actually, since i'm travelling three times between now and december. texas for work, maryland for thanksgiving and chicago for fun.
i can't wait to start getting ornaments in return.
now i really need to get cracking on christmas present crafts.

2006-11-16T11:33:00.000-05:00

most of my current projects are for christmas and posting them will ruin the suprise!
i am participating in the holiday ornament swap which has been so much fun! i'm making tiny mittens out of wool felt from old sweaters, buttons from my nana's button collection and lace trims from saver's.

at stitch and bitch tonight i'll finish sewing the ribbon loops to hang them so i can post a better picture.
i can't wait to get my ornaments in the mail!

2006-10-30T14:28:00.000-05:00

2006-10-10T22:46:00.000-04:00

help, i'm out of yarn!
the sweater i'm making for my mother is missing a sleeve.
i guess this is what i deserve for using vintage yarn from the thrift store to make a sweater. but i swear, it was more than enough when i started!
it's brunswick worsted wool in bright navy. i'm desperate for any amount of this yarn, but one skein would be heavenly. dye lot doesn't seem to matter at this point.
please let me know if you know where i could find some more!

2006-10-10T22:24:00.000-04:00

i've finished some quick projects this past week and started some new ones. my new kick is heart shaped dishcloths. i'm not sure why i started making these, but now i can't stop. they're fast and fun to give away. and a great project for bringing along on boat adventures since there's not a lot of thinking involved. i will post the pattern once i write it down.
my knit.1 cable sweater vest is finished too, but i don't have a good photograph to post yet. i blocked it and the wool is so thick that it's taking forever to dry. the faux cable sweater got me excited about real cables, so i borrowed a cable needle from my mom and tried it out. for a pattern i'm using the border of this hat from knitty. it was exactly the simple braid i wanted, like this scarf in the urban outfitters catalogue. i'm using the leftover recycled yarn from the faux cable sweater vest. i love making cables! i'm almost ready to try making a cable sweater . . .
i also worked on one of the unfinished pairs of socks this weekend. now one out of three is finished! pictures and more details to come.
i started a new baby sweater once i found out that another friend has a baby on the way. this one is being made with washable wool from my local yarn store instead of something more interesting from the thrift store. poor sally is going to have to handwash the last one i made since i wasn't thinking about the inconvenience when i made it with an unwashable thrift store wool. oops.

2006-10-03T21:25:00.000-04:00

my new yoga mat bag is ready for class! it will have to wait a week, though, as i'm going sailing. i'm hoping for a few days of yarn play on the chesapeake. my knit.1 sweater vest, cable knit scarf project, brother's graduation tie and brown sweater are all tagging along. how's that for overpacking?
the green yarn is the lion brand wool ease chunky that was sent accidentally instead of the yarn i was supposed to be making mittens out of for the lion brand "just gifts" book. I paired it with a similar wool/acryllic blend in the stash of yarn that gerd gave me a few weeks ago for the teal straps. The nicest part of the whole bag are the leather buttons, which came from my neighbor's amazing yard sale last spring.

2006-09-28T23:34:00.000-04:00

all of the exciting projects i'm in the middle of have become too big to lug around! i'm working on a yoga mat tote. the green is the random yarn that lion brand sent me instead of what i was supposed to be making mittens out of for the "just gifts" book. the teal yarn was given to me by gerd at harry's birthday party last weekend (in one of three huge bags of yarny goodness she was shedding herself of. now that it is almost finished i wish that i had made it out of wool, it would have been really neat felted. but it was a good way to get rid of some 80% acryllic yarn that i wouldn't make a sweater out of. what's left is to sew the strap onto the bag and attach the leather buttons. this needs to be done by wednesday when i'll need to bring it to class.
yesterday i started knitting this chunky cable vest. i thought it would be a good portable project but i underestimated the extreme bulkyness of the yarn. this sweater is going to end up making me look fat and pregnant due to the heft of the yarn and the unfortunate position of the cable, but i'm enjoying the simplicity of the pattern regardless. it will be cute layered over a grey long sleeved tee shirt with jeans whether or not it's flattering. and it will definitely be warm!
my adult sized baby sweater is coming along. it, too, has gotten way too big to stuff into my bag. the downside to buying a bag of wool at the salvation army is that it's very difficult to buy more when you run out. i'm down to a couple tiny ends of yarn balls and will probably have to take apart a couple rows of the body of the sweater to be able to finish the other sleeve. though mom pointed out you have to be more creative when things don't go as you had planned, which usually makes things more interesting in the long run. when she tried it on on saturday it seemed like a perfect fit, so at least i don't have to worry about that!

2006-09-26T11:52:00.000-04:00

mom and i went to the boston knit out. we taught crocheting / knitting for awhile and then wandered around through the tents touching yarn and collecting ideas and information about our respective crafts. i ended up coming home with an issue of knit.1 magazine. although i'm not generally interested in knitting, i'm excited about the sweater vest on the cover of this month's issue - maybe even excited enough to actually try knitting one myself.

so yesterday when i went to the thrift store to see if (by chance) they had any of the blue wool that i'm running out of for mom's adult sized baby sweater. and of course there wasn't any of that. but i did stock up on tapestry wool and find the perfect sweater to unravel for the knit.1 vest! so last night i watched some episodes of the sopranos from netflix and unraveled this enourmous wool sweater. it is my first successful unraveling project, and it was really a lot of fun. i think it is really helpful to rip out a chunky sweater first; it helped me realize how i will do it on smaller sweaters (i have a collection of them waiting to be reused). it's hard to tell from the picture, but these balls of yarn are HUGE - the biggest one is about eight inches in diameter.
so far my gauge swatch is coming out too big, so i might have to raid my mom's knitting needle stash before stitch and bitch on thursday in order to be able to make this in the right size.

i just stumbled upon this plaid felted tote. it's so cute! i love the idea of crocheting and felting plaid. . . as something to think about in the future.
in the meantime i should really finish some of the projects that i've already started - they're really starting to stack up!

2006-09-15T18:52:00.000-04:00

i picked my tiles up from the steelyard this afternoon and arranged them on the floor in the living room when i got home! i can't wait to see what they look like on the wall of my kitchen, but i'm going to have to be patient since they wont be installed any time soon. in the meantime i can dream about how they will look as a backsplash with some of my beach pottery collection mixed in.

2006-09-09T22:59:00.000-04:00

my current project is an adult sized version of the baby sweater i recently completed. i liked the "icelandic" yoke sweater format and figured it couldn't be too hard to make one in a bigger size (it isn't). it's been a great way to use up some of the pretty wool tapestry yarn that i have been finding at the thrift store. the blue wool is also thrifted. i made a minisweater out of it at the beginning of the summer (my first ever finished knitting project!), but since i haven't worn it yet because i'm sick of things that are that short i've been pulling it out for my "grown up baby" sweater. (i'm definitely going to have to come up with a better name than that!)
we sailed to cuttyhunk this weekend and the sweater came along for the ride. crocheting is the perfect boat project. it keeps me occupied enough so that i don't get bored and want to go below and nap. but it isn't so detailed that it might get ruined when we're bouncing around over the waves like you do when you're in a little sailboat. my knees were grateful for the woolly warmth, it was a little chilly in buzzards bay!

2006-09-02T20:00:00.001-04:00

it's the perfect weekend for drinking tea and crocheting wool sweaters. it seems like i spent most of this summer sitting indoors watching rain fall into choppy seas. the weather is supposed to improve by tomorrow, which it'd better since we're planning to sail to cuttyhunk.
i finished a sweater last night, but i'm not sure if i should post a picture of it since i'm hoping to publish the pattern somewhere. it's difficult to be patient because i'm truly excited to show it off. i've since started another sweater, this one an adult sized version of the baby sweater that i recently finished.
there is a new interweave crochet magazine out! i would own it already, but when i called a local yarn store to make sure they had it before driving there, the woman who answered the phone said she "didn't know" and was busy and suggested i call back. which i didn't. if i haven't done any of the projects from my other issues of crochet magazines (except for one and i'm not sure that even counts because i had to make up my own pattern for the part which requires knitting) should i really buy another one? I like to draw my inspiration from the colors and textures of the random skeins and bits of yarn that i find at the thrift store. having to use small amounts of yarn makes for interesting combinations of things that i could never dream up while staring at shelves of new yarn in a yarn store. it's fun to create something from vintage wool which is entirely original.
i do enjoy reading the other odds and ends of information and ads that fill the pages of crochet magazines. hopefully i can make it out of the store without buying any more yarn . . .

2006-08-31T23:04:00.000-04:00

there was no time for crocheting this week - i'm taking an intensive ceramic tile making class at the steelyard. my goal is to create something unique and interesting to cover up the hideous lighthouse mural which currently graces the walls of our kitchen. the shapes of the tiles are taken from a drawing that i did, then cut up, then pasted back together, then tesselated. i can't wait to glaze these pieces and puzzle them together on the wall!

2006-08-25T13:21:00.000-04:00

i took a personal day from work today. i haven't taken any time off this summer. my friends from new york are coming up for the weekend. if the weather cooperates, we'll have sailing and wine tasting and other rhode island summer activities.
right now it's raining outside, and that is making me really want to drink tea and crochet instead of cleaning. but i'm being good, sort of. instead of crocheting i'm blogging about crocheting. which is not actually crocheting, but not cleaning the house either.
i decided last night that i need a brown pullover with a low scoop v neck for back to school. it doesn't matter that i don't go to school. it's unfair that once you graduate from college you're no longer allowed to have back to school shopping. because really that's one of the best times of year. so my co-worker and i have decided that our offical work first day of school is monday, september 11th. we're going to wear new outfits and we'll probably take pictures of ourselves. but other than that it will be a normal work day (because it's not like we suddenly want to learn geometry again or anything!) we've been looking forward to back to school for the entire summer. our part time high school student thinks we're crazy, because the last thing she wants in the world is to go back to school in september!
so my back to school project is this sweater. which it will of course be too hot outside to wear, but whatever. that's one of the great things about the first day of school!

2006-08-19T20:01:00.000-04:00

i shocked myself (and my mom) by knitting throughout my entire trip to texas. on my way out the door to go to the airport i shoved one of my unfinished sock projects into my bag and even though i also brought two crochet projects (you can never pack too many projects!) i didn't pick either of them up once.
this strange behaviour provoked me to go through my unfinished projects. maybe if i post them on here i will actually finish a few things before i start some new ones. (although probably not). stay tuned for that. for now i've only posted a picture of ian's graduation necktie, which is one of the things i didn't crochet in dallas.
after a few days in a strange, hot city, i'm happy to be home and hanging out with my yarn stash for a little while. it has some new additions; i stopped at the thrift store earlier today (i'm addicted!) today's bounty was amazing, another large 100g ball of brown wool, four balls of swiss white sock yarn (which i think i will put aside for when i know how to knit lacy kneesocks) and five bags of tapestry wool assorted by color (red/pink/purple, orange/yellow, green, blue, white/brown/black). it will be really great for reinforcing sock heels or using bits and pieces for embroidering onto my sweaters. i'm also thinking it would be neat to mix all of the colors together in one big project, but that idea needs some more thought before i can go at it. plus, there are a million things ahead of that in line to be crocheted!

2006-08-16T00:50:00.000-04:00

i can't tell you yet what i have been working on most recently, but i can show you pictures of some other things that i've been doing. the weather was perfect last weekend. it was sunny but cool (for august in rhode island). i sat on the deck where i played with lily, who i was dogsitting, and darned some of the boy's sweaters. i'm not sure how he gets the huge elbow holes, but i know that he likes them there. and that is why i get great satisfaction out of mending them.
i have already posted what might seem like a million pictures of the icelandic baby sweater, but here is another. it is finially finished, and i mean really finished, like including the buttons finished. marianne found me these little flowers which are perfect. the baby shower is this weekend. it still needs to be put in a box and wrapped in paper and ribbon to be presented.
i also made a hat. i really wanted it to be onion shaped, but it ended up being regular hat shaped but with a large nipple on top. i'm not kidding. i was accused of crocheting a pasty many times in the process of making it.
it's crocheted out of brown worsted wool that my neighbor katherine gave me last summer. she had intended to make a reindeer sweater out of it a long time ago (i have no idea what that is, but i'm sure if i found it in the thrift store i would buy it!) but i'm glad that she didn't ever make said reindeer sweater because i have made a sweater, a skirt, and now this hat out of it (and there are still four huge skeins left!). the brown is striped with some wool that i got from theresa from stitch and bitch. she dyed the wool herself and spun it into this gorgeous yarn.
tomorrow i leave for a short business trip adventure to the lone star state. i'm not packed yet, but even more importantly i haven't figured out my in flight crochet project. so much yarn is waiting to be played with, but nothing is at the point where i know i can spend the next two days working on it. eek!

2006-08-08T21:33:00.000-04:00

short and sweet is finished! it is made out of lily cotton that i found really cheap at building 19. the buttons are from the button collection of someone down the street who had a yard sale. my short and sweet existed as a vest for a short period of time while i contemplated how exactly i wanted it to be. i'm happy with it now as a short sleeved cardigan with mismatched red buttons.
the fun part of crocheting is dreaming about what's next! in the meantime, i'm working on the crocheted necktie that i'm giving ian for his graduation. it was in june, but i'm sure he doesn't care that the present isn't finished yet. despite all of the hours that i have put into it, the tie hasn't come very far. i had an entire day of swatching to figure out how the pattern and colors would work which amounted in very little physical progress, but lots of mental progress.

2006-08-06T11:33:00.000-04:00

lazy sunday crochet to do list:

-photograph short and sweet
-photograph crochetme.com fall submission sweater
-photograph finished baby sweater (complete with buttons!)
-finish writing crochetme.com fall submission pattern
-work on ian's graduation present tie (this will be a good lightweight travelling project to bring to dallas next week!)
-convert sweater pattern from mom's "vintage knits" book into dimmensions which i will instead crochet
-tag and organize the crochet stitch swatches i was making on the bus last week in preperation for the "vintage knits" sweater
-put away some yarn!
-go sailing! (okay, admittedly not related to crocheting but very important on this gorgeous, windy day)

2006-08-04T20:39:00.000-04:00

my "short and sweet" from debbie stoller's "happy hooker" crochet book is finished! well, almost finished. it still needs buttons. yes, i made it longer than the pattern called for and added buttonholes! so it's more like a low v-neck sweater than a bolero because i'm sick of boleros. i haven't taken a picture of it finished yet (or actually sewn on the buttons to be able to take a picture of it finished) but i have been carrying around this movie from netflix for weeks and it seems like a good occasion to pop it in and make myself do the buttons for both the short and sweet and the baby sweater. . .and then if i'm really productive i'll finish writing the pattern for my fall crochet me submission! (hey, it's possible!)
hey, that might just have been my longest run on sentence ever!

2006-07-29T15:17:00.000-04:00

Baby sweater is finished! or at least the crocheting part of baby sweater is finished. I am about to block it right now. and buttons will have to wait until i go through my mother's button stash. my own button stash, though vast, did not turn up six matching buttons that would work.
After blocking this and handwashing my sweater submission for the fall issue of crochet me, swimming at Sakonnet point is definitely in order. it is HOT outside!

2006-07-27T09:15:00.000-04:00

I have so many ideas for projects that i want to start! I really need to finish the baby sweater so that I can get working on other things.
I just found a really interesting website. since i'm always inspired by different uses for crochet, i am tickled by these designs: http://www.siriusspace.com/clothing2.html. Siri crochets chunky lace collars and accents for handmade clothing which definitely strike my fancy.
while browsing crocheted items on flickr last night i came across this image of crocheted trims in the "inspiring images from craft books" group.
they're excitingly vintage and different and would make lovely accents. Then I found an image of empire waisted dresses from a Japanese craft book, and a new idea was born! I want to take some skirts that I don't wear anymore and crochet them into empire waisted nighties. I've been on the prowl for cute little lingerie dresses and what's at the thrift store has been pretty depressing. I can't believe I hadn't thought earlier about creating my own!
Now I am having one of those moments where even though I have three projects in progress (okay, maybe it's more like thirteen) and three projects on deck, I want to start working on my crocheted lingerie immediately.
Speaking of lingerie, This village in poland is known for amazing thread crochet doilies and has recently started branching out into the business of sexy underthings. this site has an amazing gallery of panties, tees and bathing suits crocheted by hand from cotton thread. They are lacy, delitcate and beautiful. (although, what's up with the image of the model in an amazing sexy crocheted lacy outfit with a belly pack? aside from the fact that it is _so_ unsexy, what could she possibly need to carry around while she's wearing her underwear? is she out on the town wearing her skivvies and needs someplace to carry her wallet and keys?) The website is http://koniakow.com/galerie_koni_art.php
How can I find an entire village of little old ladies to start crocheting my ideas?

2006-07-24T09:05:00.000-04:00

yesterday baby sweater and i went to the beach. it was pretty gray out, but the water was warm (for the ocean in july) and the sand was soft. we enjoyed ourselves.
babysweater is about halfway done! a few days of riding the bus to work this week instead of driving will make it go faster, and it seems like the weather is willing to cooperate.
mom got me a nifty gauge to measure the size of knitting needles, crochet hooks, and gauge swatch. i learned that the antique bone hook that i'm using for the baby sweater is actually a size c/2. the pattern calls for an e/4, but i couldn't get anywhere near the gauge with that one. i'm even crocheting too big with the smaller hook i'm using, but i think it's okay.

2006-07-22T13:50:00.000-04:00

my first post!
i have been obsessively crocheting the icelandic baby jacket from the book "adorable crochet for babies and toddlers". i need to have it finished for the 19th of august when i go to the baby shower. baby una is due at the beginning of september. (okay, i admit that i have plenty of time, but why not get it out of the way early?)
i'm really excited about how the colors have turned out. I ripped it out at one point and removed some very un-baby colors, and now i love it. although if it doesn't end up being a girl baby then my sweater will be a little less exciting for everyone.
the white yarn is italian wool from the salvation army; i found a huge bag of it there for six dollars (i've also made the draped bed jacket out of it which i would include a link to if i knew how to do that!) and the pink and blue and green yarns are all tapestry needlepoint yarns from the savers (i can't pass up even small amounts of nice wool for cheap, and being able to use them in this sweater makes me glad that i have them!)
of course i am changing the pattern a little bit, but the format is inspiring me to make my own "icelandic" crocheted yoke sweater next in my own size with one of my new yarn purchases. It seems like it would be a fun pattern to write.
It's pretty seldom that i buy new yarn (as in "from the yarn store" new as opposed to "at the thrift store where it is only new to me" new.) The Yarn Gazebo in Smithfield is going out of business and she's having a 50% off sale. I don't really feel guilty going crazy on yarn there since it is discounted. I have money coming to me for some recent crochet projects and more opportunities await for paid crochet in the future. besides, isn't yarn what money is for?