Needles & hooks

Fun with Other Purples

Look at the pretties…

I guess I should clarify…I made them during Project Runway. However, somehow I knew that the “fashion accessory” was not going to be knitting needles.

Comments: 4 — Posted under: Beading

Knitting on the Sly

A couple of days ago I showed you the beginning of a beaded necklace. I was making it for my best friend, Kathleen’s 33 1/3rd birthday party. I only had 2 weeks notice, so I had to work fast. And, the party was in San Francisco, and I live in Boston. And she visited me for 5 of those days, so I couldn’t do it in front of her. So I worked on it where I could, even in a meeting or two at work! And on Friday, I boarded a plane to visit her.

In theory, it was rather simple: knit in the round, 10 beaded rows, 9 unbeaded rows, and a grafting bind-off. In practice, this is challenging. 400 beads on the thin cord, knitting with 000 needles, a very long grafting tail prone to tangling, trying to manage all of this in confined spaces. On the plane, I managed to finish the principal knitting. And because I had a window seat, I don’t think I bothered the woman next to me too much while grafting.

But the grafting wasn’t a dream. It might have taken longer than the actual knitting. Here’s what I was dealing with (the purple was my provisional cast on), each stitch I was grafting together had a bead on it:

I didn’t manage to dig out my camera on the plane, but I did work on the grafting while perched on a chair and a stool in her office in the library while she was leading an orientation. Note the tools of the trade: knees, small needle, scissors, phone, (iPod was out of the shot):

And as it turned out, I wasn’t able to finish it before the party. So I wrapped it anyway and gave it to her and finished it the next day. Her young cats were interested, but easily pushed away. Here’s the finished item:

And a couple of close-ups:

And finally, Kathleen wearing it:

Now, her party had a record theme. And I have always been the biggest record collector I know. My friends all had tapes. I needed the random access that a record gave me. When I wanted to listen to a song, I wanted it NOW!!! And in high school, I used to have hair down to my butt and sometimes, for kicks, I used to wear a 45rpm around my pony tail. As it so happens, my hair is currently long enough to put into a pony tail, and I still have that 45 I used to wear. But I needed a scrunchie to hold the record in place. An hour with a crochet hook and a ball of novelty yarn gave me this:

Which meant I looked like this for the party:

And in the ultimate in random access, Kathleen’s iPod played her 80s music collection on shuffle all night.

On the flight home, I got buried in Memoirs of a Geisha (the book), so I didn’t knit a stitch. So my Rock and Weave socks are calling to me. And another Rockin’ Sock Club package should be on it’s way shortly.

But something else was waiting for me when I got home today….

I immediately screwed together a needle and closed my eyes. This Addi Addict could actually be fooled. Maybe I’ll try them out on the other thing that was in the box….

Comments: 4 — Posted under: Knitting, Beading, Almost Random, Tools

Warning, This is a Knitting Blog

I know, you think I’ve forgotten how to knit. Well, I haven’t. And here’s proof:

That’s a Swallow Hill beaded necklace with a few modifications. This time I wanted to make a rope length necklace, so I got an extra bag of beads. And I’m working it in the round so I don’t have to worry about the clasp cutting through the nylon cord. Also, that purple thread you see? Provisional cast on. To finish this puppy, I plan to sew the last row to the first row and have a seamless rope. No issues with cast on or cast off being too tight.

Based on my last one, it should be about 30 inches around. However, right now it’s barely filling a 24-inch circular (getting started was really hard, despite casting on with a much larger needle). So keep your fingers crossed for me. If it’s too short, my only option is to frog and redo. And that would SUCK!

Here’s a couple of close-ups:

In other knitting news, I oversee a small knitting group at work. A few of us get together at lunch over other week or so and I teach and advise. Today, I taught one of our summer students to knit. She picked up the slingshot cast on pretty easily but pulled the yarn way too tight. So I cast on for her and knit a few rows to give her something to work from and she tried both English and Continental styles of knitting. She had a lot of trouble managing the yarn and the needles English style. She did much better with Continental. She knit a couple of rows and then had to go, so we sent her off with the needles and the yarn to practice. But she was totally smiling.

Comments: 3 — Posted under: Knitting, Beading

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