Needles & hooks

Hats Abound

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve finished 3 hats and 2 of them were not what I was going for. First there were the issues last week with the Basket Cap (and even though I re-made it, I’m still only calling it one hat). On Sunday, I finished Odessa. And it’s a little too small. I had gauge, I might have started knitting tighter. I have plenty of yarn, but I’ve decided not to reknit it. I’m going to put hats aside for the time being and focus on some other projects. I’ll probably give Odessa to my little niece.

Here’s Odessa (not modeled, you already got one shot of me making faces):

The third hat came out perfect. Better than perfect, actually. But I can’t say “third time’s the charm” because I actually finished it first.

Introducing The Whirlygig Tulip Hat.

Comments: 0 — Posted under: Whirlygig

Knitting Blog Drinking Game

I’ve been surfing around and certain things crop up again and again, so I thought it would be fun to make this snarky little game. I don’t mean to offend, just to have fun with it. I hope it’s worth a laugh. Believe me, I’m certainly guilty of more than one of the drinking triggers listed below. If you have suggestions, leave a comment. I might include them!

It’s easy to play the game, pour your favorite beverage and sit down at your web browser. Alcoholic beverages are not required, but may make the game more amusing. Go through your list of favorite blogs and read the posts. If you don’t have a list of favorites, use the one in my sidebar to get you started. Or use the Knitting Blogs web ring to find some. Here: this link will take you to a random one. Make sure you have easy access to a toilet, because you’re gonna be drinking a lot.

Take 1 drink whenever a blog:
- Laments a broken needle or other yarn catastrophe.
- Declares that they have joined a knitalong.
- Displays yarn gifts sent or received in any kind of organized exchange (secret pals, sockapalooza, etc).
- Posts photos with photoshop frills that have nothing to do with clarifying the photo (silly borders or photo effects, etc, not arrows pointing out a dropped stitch).
- Declares a blog contest with a yarn prize.
- Declares yarn snobbery (”acrylics suck!”) or reverse yarn snobbery (”acrylics are the best thing ever!”).
- Posts a photo of a finished object that makes your stomach turn (doesn’t count if the blog is You Knit What??).
- Posts a photo of a pet expressing an opinion (an extra drink if the caption is photoshopped into the photo).
- Discusses their latest public knitting (”I was knitting in line at the grocery store….”).
- Discusses work on a secret project they can’t show you.
- Rants about copyright.
- Attempts Kool-Aid dyeing.
- Hosts a de-stashing sale.
- Posts a meme that has nothing to do with knitting.
- Shows negative progress on a project.
- Reviews a magazine.
- Laments having too many projects to work on, starts another anyway.
- Apologizes for how long it’s been since they posted.
- Apologizes that there are no photos for “technical” reasons (dead batteries, missing camera cable, etc.).
- Starts a post with “I really should be doing ____, but I’m blogging instead”.
- Decides to start working on the popular-project-of-the-moment (Clapotis, Jaywalkers, Rogue…).

Take 2 drinks whenever a blog:
- Uses a “racy” word or phrase (like “yarn porn”) and then says something like “(I wonder how many Google hits that will cause)”.
- Displays yarn gifts received independent of an organized exchange.
- Expresses surprise that people read their blog or comment on their projects.
- Describes something new they are attempting.
- Laments the fact that they didn’t swatch for a garment that turned out to disappoint.
- Frogs a finished project.
- Reviews a magazine preview.
- Mentions their blog-aversary or amazement at how long they’ve been blogging or how many posts they have.
- Declares they have to buy new needles because the needles they would have used to start a new project are currently in another WIP.
- Declares frustration with a knitting item or technique and swears they will never use it again (tiny needles, Magic Loop, fun fur, etc).

Take 5 drinks whenever a blog:
- Declares love for a knitting item or technique they had previously sworn off of (tiny needles, Magic Loop, fun fur, etc).
- Shows a photo of a recent stash aquisition that you yourself also just bought (does not count if you are reading your own blog, unless you have played the game so long that you don’t realize you are reading your own blog, in which case, stop playing now).
- Starts hosting a knitalong or organizes an exchange (secret pal, sockapalooza, etc).

Finish your drink whenever a blog:
- Declares they have finished their current project, have nothing on the needles, and don’t know what to do next.
- Declares they’ve stopped blogging altogether. In fact, you have to stop playing the game for the day.

Chug two full glasses whenever a blog:
- Declares they are all out of yarn…

Game ends when:
- You have to pee. Don’t you have a spouse or kids or pets or knitting that needs attention anyway?!

Comments: 121 — Posted under: Almost Random

More Project Runway Knits

Lisa asked me what I thought of the outcome of Project Runway. I was sweet on Nick, and after he left, pulling for Daniel. I was a little surprised by the mistakes he made in his final collection (the awful handles on those purses - use nicer wood than plywood!; the uneven hems that Tim was pointing out; that ridiculous long skirt that made Rebecca trip). However, I think I related most to his designs.

As for Chloe’s win, I was surprised. I couldn’t look at all those clunky satin numbers without thinking that the whole thing looked like a Bridesmaid’s Closet of Horrors. After listening to the judges say they liked the cuts and unusual seams, I took a closer look and agreed. In fact, some of those techniques might translate to knitting in interesting ways. I just wished she’d picked different fabrics.

I think this is the interview that Em is referring to in the comments: Kara talks about her hats. You can order one from her. It’s a great read. More behind the scenes details.

I also found a blogger that worked out a pattern to make a Kara-style hat.

But what I really want, is a pattern to make the fabulous gold crocheted number that Nina Garcia was wearing at the final judging. I couldn’t find any good close-ups. On TV, I could work out the type of stitch that was worked aross the bodice. It looks like a granny square stitch, but it’s not quite. But there’s a nifty floral pattern in the skirt.

Here’s the whole thing (from left: Nina Garcia, Michael Kors, Heidi Klum):

Here’s a closer shot (from left: Nina Garcia, Heidi Klum, Michael Kors, Debra Messing), but it still doesn’t give you the great detail of the bodice:

Comments: 3 — Posted under: Almost Random

I feel frilly coming on…

Just a tiny post to say that my officemate is wearing a dark red/burgundy mohair lace cardigan with a big ruffle all around the edge. And I keep looking at it (she told me to stop staring at her chest!). And petting it. And thinking that maybe I need to buy some mohair….

Comments: 1 — Posted under: Almost Random

Project Runway Knits!

Last night was the finale of Project Runway. One thing that has been mentioned around is that Kara Janx, eliminated in the last show before the 2-part finale had to put on a decoy runway show during Fashion Week. This was because the show where she was eliminated hadn’t aired before the runway show. So the producers gave her the same budget and had her develop the same number of pieces. She got the prestige and exposure of showing, but she didn’t have a chance at the grand prize.

Today I fished around to see what her collection looked like. There is a video at BravoTV.com, but you can only view it with Internet Explorer on a Windows box. I am a Mac devotee, so I couldn’t watch. But I heard good things and a quick Google turned up a page of photos.

Looking through them, I realized that more than half of the outfits have a matching knitted hat. They all seem to use chunky novelty yarns that look kind of fuzzy, almost homespun. Some have earflaps with braided ties, some don’t.

I found some close-ups (right-click on individual images for menu options to see them larger; go to Getty Images for more):

In this set, the colors in the knit hats coordinate well with the rest of the ensemble, and amazingly, don’t look out of place at all:

In this one, there’s a whole knitted cardigan:

Comments: 3 — Posted under: Almost Random

Fostering Creativity

I’ve been a riot of ideas lately and I’ve posted a few things that I’ve worked on. And I know it can sometimes be intimidating to see people develop all kinds of neat stuff and think that you’ll never be able to do that. But really, a fully formed pattern doesn’t usually spring out of my head and off of my needles. Usually there’s a bit of work involved. A lot of experimenting. And so I wanted to talk a little bit about the creative process.

Sometimes I set out to try to make a certain thing. That’s how my Clapotis Cap came about. I knew I wanted to make a matching hat. I wanted to make it look like a mini-Clapotis was wound around my head. But I feared if I made the sections as they are in the shawl pattern, they would be too wide. So I made them a little narrower. And I knit up a prototype. My first one was cute, but the sides were only about 3 inches long. Not nearly long enough. So I made it bigger. Later, when I was faced with making the top, I realized that with careful placing, I could make the decrease swirl look like it was growing out of the ends of some of the diagonals. So I made that happen too.

Othertimes, I just have a general idea and I play around until I find something that works. When I designed the Whirlygig Scarf, I was looking for something that showcased the yarn I needed to use, that would make an interesting scarf. I tried a number of stitch patterns that I’d knit and rip out before trying the chevron pattern I ultimately used. And I completely didn’t expect the knitted item to behave in the twisty way that it did. But I was thrilled.

Sometimes pieces of an idea strike me, but I’m not sure what I want to do with them. In those cases, I record them somewhere. Sometimes I revisit them. I’ve jotted notes in various places, but I was never a good journaler. But then, recently, I wanted to chart out an idea I had and I needed graph paper. And I wished for a graph paper notebook. Most of the time, you can find a quad-ruled notebook, but it’s a fancy Lab Notebook and expensive to boot. So, during my last trip to Staples, I was delighted to find these (a steal at 6 books for $8)

Small enough to fit into a knitting bag. Can be used to take notes, make sketches, draw charts. A pen fits neatly in the spiral. Here’s where I sketched out my ideas for the Whirlygig Hat (coming soon):

And here are a few notes I took during my Entrelac class at Stitches. A few things I noticed about the garments that were passed around. As you can see from my last few posts, I’ve been playing around with Entrelac.

Overall, the important thing is just to try things out. Buy some inexpensive light-colored yarn that you can use to play with ideas. Cast on stitches, try new stitches, rip it out of it doesn’t work. Try to think about why it didn’t work and what you can change about it. And then try again.

Comments: 0 — Posted under: Almost Random, Tech-head

A Happy Ending

With two more balls of yarn and a couple of nights of mad knitting, I finished the re-invented hat and gave it to Marta. Here she is modeling it:

As you can see, I made it longer and started with the points instead of giving it an even edge. A little blocking might have encouraged the points not to curl. I tried to do a crochet edge to prevent it, but that didn’t help much. But I still have the fantastic star finish on top:

It’s a bit loose, so if I were to make it again, I think I might use 8-stitch squares instead of 10-stitch ones. Marta likes it inside out:

I think it has a neat effect that way too. If it were white, it would look like meringue.

Comments: 1 — Posted under: Knitting

Let me tell you all a story…

I wanted to be able to show you this tonight and tell you that I had finished a spontaneous project.

I would have told you about how I’d seen the Danica scarf pattern at Knitty and started thinking about entrelac. And then about how I’d seen this yarn at the local yarn shop and had to buy it and thought it might be good as an entrelac scarf.

Then I would have reminded you that I took an entrelac class at Stitches West and the teacher showed us a hat that I thought was incredible. But that the pattern was by Elizabeth Zimmerman published in an old issue of Wool Gathering. And how I scoured through all her books looking for it and then happened to find the website for Schoolhouse Press, run by her daughter, Meg Swansen, who is gradually making old issues of Wool Gathering available as leaflets called Spun Out. And how I figured out that Spun Out #31 probably had the hat pattern I was thinking of and how I ordered it. And how it arrived on Monday and how I was thrilled that it was the hat I was looking for.

I would have then told you about how, even though I’m working on Mermaid, and Whirlygig, and another hat, and a secret project that no one has guessed yet, I decided that the Stripe yarn and the hat pattern were the perfect pairing and would make a nice snuggly gift for a friend having knee surgery shortly. And how I cast on and knit frantically last night and tonight. And how thrilled I was to finish the 8-pointed star on top about an hour ago.

And how I then tried it on.

So, it falls a little short. Sure, it’s supposed to have a ribbed band at the bottom, but really, in the pattern, it’s supposed to be more of a floppy beret. And somehow, I missed that in my excitement to get to the 8-pointed star.

Clearly, some re-engineering is needed. I think I know how I want to change it. I think it should start differently and I think it should work up a little differently as well. So tomorrow, I’m stopping at the yarn shop to see if I can’t get a couple more balls of the Stripe. If I really focus on it, I think I can finish the redesign in a night or two.

As an aside. This is the first time I’ve worked with a pattern written by Elizabeth Zimmerman. I’ve heard people before say that her patterns are too wordy and are better as stories than instructions for actually knitting something. I have to say, that clearly extends to this pattern. I’m somewhat adventurous in my knitting but approach it with a lot of forethought. I like to work things out in advance and I often find mistakes in patterns, or I aim to tweak things that don’t work out quite the way I was hoping (just look at my work with Mermaid or Clapotis to see that). But I know a lot of knitters are far less cavalier and really rely on concise, step-by-step instructions. You don’t find that with EZ. You have to fill in a lot of gaps yourself.

Anyway, I do get a burnished-gold/orange star for my efforts. And I just keep looking at it on the desk beside me and smiling. Isn’t it pretty?

Comments: 6 — Posted under: Knitting, Musing

Whirlygig Update

Special thanks to Tammy in Seattle who pointed out an error in my Whirlygig Scarf pattern. I had the instructions for a Centered Double Increase reversed. Seems that no matter how often you proof-read and test knit something, you can always overlook something obvious. Anyway, I’ve corrected the pattern. If you’ve printed it out already, please reprint it. And my sincerest apologies to anyone who attempted it and got frustrated.

Comments: 0 — Posted under: Whirlygig