Needles & hooks

Scraps Away

After a few years knitting and crocheting, I’ve got a huge bag of scrap yarn. Originally I got some books on scrap yarn projects but just couldn’t bring myself to make any of them. The projects just don’t suit my tastes. So the scrap bag just grew. And then I read about projects for making caps for premature babies. I made a couple, but the gauge kept changing and they never really looked right and I didn’t have an organization to donate them to. And then I found some organizations that need simpler contributions of knitted or crocheted squares.

Warm Up America collects 7″x9″ knitted and crocheted rectangles to assemble into blankets to donate to various causes. Michael’s stores nationwide collect these squares in the winter time and hold joining parties. Look for signs and donation boxes in their stores right now.

The Afghan Project collects 6″ squares to assemble into blankets for foster children in Massachusetts. You can e-mail them for an address to mail squares to. They have an aversion to stockinette knit, but the square shape means that it’s easier to make granny squares which help use up really small bits of yarn.

Both organizations accept donations of materials and seek volunteers to join squares — a great labor contribution if you can’t actually knit or crochet. They also have suggested patterns on their site to get you started.

The squares are small enough to use up small amounts of yarn. And you can make one here or there between projects or when you only have a small amount of time. I use them as an opportunity to practice new stitches. And I got myself the perpetual calendar of knitting stitches to avoid getting bored making all these squares. I have a special box to store the squares and package them to send off a few times a year.

If you know of other organizations seeking knit and crochet contributions, please let me know!

Comments: 0 — Posted under: Knitting, Almost Random

Zippers Galore

I finally finished the sweater for my husband! As you might remember, the only thing that was stopping me was lack of the perfect zipper. I’d e-mailed Interweave Knits and asked about the zipper used in the sweater on the model and they sent me the address of a trim store in the garment district in New York City.

Last week I was in NYC to see Barenaked Ladies. The day after the show (which was awesome, but I won’t go into that here) I took the train back into the city to find the trim store. It was a small store with a small storefront. But after I pointed out the zipper, they told me to go around the counter to the back of the store. I wandered down some narrow aisles stocked high over my head with zippers of all types. In the very back was where they got made. There was a board with all types of custom pulls in aluminum and brass. My friend K suggested that I get the lightening bolt, but I decided to stick with the one I saw in the magazine photo. Pull selected, I grabbed a long zipper from a box on the wall — aluminum teeth and slate-colored backing. I pointed out my desired pull to one of the clerks and told him my desired length. After running the zipper and new pull through several pieces of heavy machinery, I had the perfect zipper. He gave me a little slip and I went up front to pay. The perfect zipper was less than $3!

So I came home and started working on attaching it. That was a lot of backstitching with embroidery floss. And then I was able to weave together the sides last night. My husband tried it on and while it fit nicely, he reported that it fit funny in the shoulders and neck. So I pulled out some of the crochet stitches supporting the shoulders and added some across the neck to pull it in and that was it. Being finished is somewhat anti-climactic. (sigh)

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I’m growing arms!

I finished up the main section of the body. The rest gets worked together with the sleeves. As I feared, the gauge does increase a bit from the fair isle section. I’m not sure if I want to rip it out and redo it with a smaller needle. I’ll have to measure it. And I can’t lay it out flat because I don’t have a circular needle long enough. I might try the needle change on the sleeves first.

And speaking of the sleeves, I’m back in fair isle land. Normally I work a pair of sleeves together on the same needle, to make sure that each one gets the same number of rows and that the increases happen in concert. But because I only have one ball of yarn of each color in the pattern, I wasn’t sure how I was going to manage pulling from both ends of the ball. It was hard enough just keeping the 5 colors untangled for the body. Then I realized that the color pattern enforces the number of rows in that section. So I’m doing the fair isle section individually for the sleeves and then I’ll start working them together when I get to the solid color section.

In other project news, I think I picked out my next holiday ornament. I’ve been wanting to do something knit but wasn’t sure exactly what. They don’t make many magazines filled with knitted ornaments the way you see for cross-stitch, beads, or even crochet. Then I saw some ornaments in the Land’s End catalog. One item is a set of 3 miniature sweaters on hangers. The other is a set of miniature winter accessories — cap, scarf, and mittens. I like the mini sweater idea and now I’m not sure if I should find a pattern or wing it. Because I don’t have to worry much about shaping for a body, so it might be pretty simple to create my own pattern. I’ve already had some practice on a small scale with the Barbie crochet and I’ve got some good sources for small wool. Hmmm….

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I’ve waited years for this….

Sometimes you see a project and you know it would be perfect for a certain person at a certain stage in their lives. Then you have to wait for that stage to arrive. Well, one of those has finally come to pass….

My husband is an avid Simpsons fan. He and J, a friend from grad school, can have whole conversations where they speak nothing but quotes from the show. Well, a few years back I was flipping through a Lion Brand catalog when I saw a star shaped baby bunting. If you watch the show, you know that in the winter, Maggie Simpson (the baby) is always shown in a orange star-shaped snow suit. J didn’t even have a girlfriend at the time, but when I saw this pattern, I knew that someday J would have a child and I would make the Maggie Simpson outfit. So I downloaded the pattern.

Well, last year J got married. And last week he e-mailed us the news of his impending offspring. So now I have to find some orange yarn.

In case you’re curious, this is the current version of it. There are 3 different patterns, 2 crochet in different yarns, and one knit. I’m not yet sure whether I’ll knit or crochet it, I think I ordered just the crochet because I didn’t knit at the time. I’ll have to find them on my hard drive to be sure.

While you’re visiting the patterns I linked to, take a look around. Most of the Lion Brand patterns you can order from the web page and download in PDF format to your hard drive, saving the cost of shipping. I love this because I’m usually brutal on the pattern while I’m working on it, so I can print as many copies as I need. Just beware that some patterns are only available for mailing. I saw one pattern in the catalog and I rushed to the website to download it, but it wasn’t available that way. I didn’t want to pay shipping on a $4.50 pattern, so I e-mailed and asked if they could make it available for download. They said they wouldn’t. So I didn’t order. And now it’s out of stock.

In case you were wondering, I finished the fair isle section of the sweater body earlier this week watching baseball. I’m now in the middle of the solid color section which is just knit and purl stitches and will fly along if I can keep the count right. And then I’ll be back to fair isle on the sleeves. I’m a little concerned about that because the pattern called for one ball for each of the colors in that section and I’m not confident that I have enough of the lt. grey remaining for two sleeves. And I ordered that color from Herrschner’s, so I’m wary of getting a dye lot match.

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All this and cross-stitch too!

Every year I make a new x-mas tree ornament. Actually, I make several, but they are identical. I keep one for my tree and I give one each to my mother and mother-in-law. This year my sister-in-law got married so I’m expanding the tradition and giving one to her.

I’ve made ornaments in a variety of media — beading, cross-stitch, crochet, etc. Whatever strikes my fancy when I start thinking about it. I try to mix it up a bit so that I’m not doing the same media two years in a row. And I’m usually frantically finishing them so that I can pack them in the boxes with gifts that I’m sending off, working on mine last as x-mas bears down. This year I got lucky and picked out the design last year and I actually got started on it well in advance. I might have these done before I’m finished shopping for gifts.

This year’s ornament is cross-stitch. It’s a Mill Hill kit, so it encorporates beads as well. In general I don’t care for kits because of the waste and the difficulty in repeatability, but Mill Hill kits are very easy to repeat. Their beads are coded so I was able to order more of the exact ones. And because I’m making 4, the excess floss will be used (and they also list DMC colors so I can use the right colors if I run out).

This kit is one of the Tiny Treasured Diamonds series — a small diamond square of linen with red, green, and white beads and stitches in a geometric pattern. The finished product will be lightly stuffed and have some beaded fringe at the bottom. So far I’ve completed the stitching on two and have made good headway on #3. I can complete one in an evening of TV, so perhaps once I’ve made some headway on the fair isle, I’ll get back to the ornaments.

Speaking of the fair isle, I’m about halfway through the design on the body and maybe I’ll actually make it to the principal stitching on the body by this weekend. I’m working in 3 colors right now which is near agony in how slow it’s going. And I have to pay far more attention to it as I progress than I normally do, which makes it hard to enjoy watching TV at the same time. I take heart that it’s both the front and back of the body, so I’m making far more progress toward the overall sweater than it feels like.

And I just picked up a new project today because I just learned that a friend of mine is pregnant. I’ve been waiting for this project for a couple of years. But I’ll talk about that later, after I’ve picked out the yarn.

Comments: 0 — Posted under: Cross-stitch, Beading

And right on to the next project

I finished my sister’s sweater yesterday. I tried it on and it’s a shade too small for me, but that means it will be perfect for her. The hood came out perfectly. In addition to turning at one end, I altered the finishing trim a bit to make the right-angle hood join more smooth. All in all, I used 12 balls of yarn — more than the pattern called for but far less than I bought!

The remaining yarn for my second knitting project arrived yesterday morning, so I took that as a sign to get started. This one is a sweater for myself. It’s the Fair Isle Cardigan from Better Homes and Garden’s “Knit It” 2002 (I refuse to link them, their site is pop-up city). This is a dark grey waist-length cardigan with light grey and purple fair isle accents around the waist and cuffs and a fur collar. It’s made in Lion Brand’s Wool Ease, a wool/acrylic blend that is very soft. I’m not sure about the fur collar, I’m afraid it will look rather dated in a few years, but I’m not adventurous enough with knitting yet to alter it. I suppose I could always just keep my extra yarn and tear out the fur later on.

I’m about 1/3 of the way through the fair isle design on the body (which is done as one piece) so far. I’ve never done fair isle before, so last night was quite a challenge in learning how to carry the extra colors along the row and twisting them around each other enough to prevent large loops from forming on the back. It really slowed me down! I’ve got secret fears that this will make the gauge way different from the solid color portion of the body. But it does cinch in a bit in the photo, so I’m guessing it will be okay.

I’ve had a bit of trouble with the pattern. First, there is a hem section which eventually gets tacked up underneath. However, the pattern describes making the hem, but not what to do with it later. And then the pattern discusses the fair isle section as if the stitches complete an even number of chart repeats in each row. It doesn’t. Not in any of the sizes. How hard would it be to add a couple of extra stitches to the pattern to make the math work out. Am I the only one that can do math?

There are a few other areas where the pattern is less than clear, but I’m coping. Unfortunately, BH&G’s web site doesn’t have an errata section, nor does the designer have a web site that I could find with Google. FWIW, the designer is Nicky Epstein, the woman who did “Crochet for Barbie” and “Knits for Barbie”. I have the crochet one and I have found similar errors in those patterns, too. Someday I’ll find her address and ask her to take more care with her patterns.

Maybe I’ve been doing cross-stitch for so long that I expect charts will work out. I know cross-stitch affected my satistfaction with bead stores as well but that’s a rant for another time.

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Fastest sweater ever!

I was right about this sweater for my sister, it’s going to be done this weekend. During the week I finished both sleeves and the hood. Last night I assembled the pieces and now all that’s left is the 6 inch trim around the whole thing. That I’m working on today while catching up on some NetFlix (up this afternoon, “John Q”).

I was a little disappointed with the hood as the pattern described so I changed it. They described it somewhat like making the bottom of a baby bootie, sort of an elongated round. But the way they had the end stitches placed, both ends turned out lop-sided. And the base of the hood ended up both rounded and concave when it’s supposed to join to the straight neckline. So instead of continuing around at both ends, I turned at one, leaving that edge flat and straight. The rows now look alternated, but this should match the pattern for the trim which goes around the hood as well. I just hope I joined it the right way so the trim matches up properly.

Earlier this week I mentioned I was working on other projects as well. One of the knitting projects is for my husband. It’s the Echo Lake Cardigan from the Summer 2003 issue of Interweave Knits. I found the exact yarn and color in the magazine, which is a slate grey silk Merino blend. I started this sweater back in June, somewhat as a birthday present. I had the principal knitting finished by mid-August. I’ve joined the shoulders and neck and sleeves, but I have yet to join the sides. Why? Because the sweater needs a zipper. And it’s easier to add the zipper with the sides open. And snob that I am, I don’t like any of the ones I’ve found so far. The zipper in the picture is beautiful. It’s silver colored with a stylish circular pull. And all the zippers I can find have boring pulls. I spent so much money on this beautiful yarn that I can’t bring myself to buy a cheap zipper. So the sweater sits unfinished.

I e-mailed Interweave and asked about the zipper used in the picture. They were very helpful and gave me the name and the store where they purchased it, but warned that the store gets very confused about mail orders. So I have hesitated and continue to try to find something near me. But the good news is that I’m heading to NYC for a day in two weeks and maybe I’ll have some time to find the store. Maybe I’ll get this one finished by x-mas. (I hope so, because my husband watched me making my sister’s sweater the other night and asked when his would be finished!)

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What I’m working on now

I’m working on 4 projects right now: two knitting projects, one cross-stitch project, and one crochet project.

The crochet project is the one that I’m actively working on, so I’ll talk about that today. This one is from the Fall 2003 issue of Family Circle’s Easy Knitting (page 62, “Red Hot”). It’s one of those long duster sweaters that my husband always says makes people look like they’re wearing bathrobes in public. Fortunately, it doesn’t have a belt, which only reinforces the bathrobe vibe.

This one is an x-mas present for my baby sister who is 18 and very trendy. I’m making it in a moss-green color which a slightly muted version of her favorite color. I got the magazine a few months ago when I was home for a family reunion and had already picked this out for her when she flipped through and pointed it out and said “Hey, I’d love this in green”.

The pattern calls for Red Heart Classic yarn, which I find to be rather coarse. I was hoping to find an appropriate color in TLC Luster (which is probably my favorite acrylic yarn), but the color selection was poor at AC Moore and I really wanted to start on the project on Saturday when I was out shopping. So I chose TCL Cotton Plus instead, a cotton/acrylic blend that feels just like cotton. While both are worsted weight yarns, the TLC Cotton is a bit finer than the classic, so I had to play around with gauge swatches a bit. (And I bought a lot of the yarn, because the balls just looked so small. Oh well, I guess I have an excuse to go back to AC Moore).

After about an hour, I decided to make the sweater with a smaller hook and two sizes bigger than I thought would fit her and started off on the chain foundation. But then, gauge swatches aside, the length matched what it was supposed to be. So I had to rip it all out and start over on the small size. The height of the stitches is not quite what it’s supposed to be (my stitches are always shorter than gauge, no matter what I do), but I’ve added extra rows to make it work out.

I caught up on all my NetFlix movies on the weekend so I had a ton of time to work on the sweater. By Monday night, I had finished the main body piece. Last night I finished most of one sleeve and polished it off this morning waiting for my husband to shower so we could go see an apartment. Tonight I expect to finish the second sleeve. Then it’s on to the joining and adding the hood. I’ll probably get it done by this weekend. I don’t think I’ve ever finished a project so quickly! The baby blankets always seemed to take forever.

Comments: 0 — Posted under: Crochet

Hello!

Okay, so introductions are in order.

I’ve been watching other crafter’s blogs and itching to talk about my own projects. But the comments sections seem like the wrong place. And a newsgroup also feels wrong, much less continuity. So now there’s this place.

I do a number of crafts.

I started with counted cross-stitch when I was 13 when I learned it in an after-school program. I’ve created more projects than I can count. Maybe I’ll review them someday. I prefer charts to kits because I don’t waste any materials, and I particulary get annoyed by kits that don’t use standard floss colors — how I can decide to do the chart again if I don’t know what colors to use?!

In 1996 I started beading when my best friend from high school made some earrings from Bead & Button for her bridesmaids. I got that issue and subscribed for several years. But it started getting tedious and I don’t do it so much anymore. But I always finger the new issues at Borders.

Then I taught myself crochet because I wanted to make things with yarn, but I remembered knitting to be impossible when I’d taken a stab at it when I was a kid. Crochet was so appealing because there was only one hook and if you put it down or missed a stitch, it was easy to rip out and recover. So I picked up a small book and taught myself (I love this little booklet too, so I’ll post the title someday). I made oodles of baby blankets and even a Vanna White afghan which is my cat’s favorite resting place on the back of my couch. I also made some wonderful stuffed animals and some baby clothes. But then I yearned for the wealth of neat patterns and flexibility of fabric of knitting….

When I was little (pre-teen?), my grandmother tried to teach me how to knit. I found knitting to be painful — too easy to lose stitches, tension all over the place. And it took so long. I could never remember how to cast off. I have vague memories of a bright orange mesh top made with worsted weight yarn and size 13 needles. Don’t know what happened to that.

But last year I wanted to try knitting again, so I wandered around Michael’s and browsed through the “learn to knit” books and realized that there are two ways to hold yarn — right hand (like grandma taught me) or left hand (like I crochet!). So I bought the book that taught the left hand method and it was an epiphany. I had lots of scrap yarn from crochet that I usually use to make Warm Up America squares and so I practiced knitting them. And it was easy.

Now I have a number of projects underway. I guess I’ll talk about them later.

Comments: 0 — Posted under: Almost Random