I thought this was a nice idea to get the word out about. Basically a group in Brooklyn has gotten together and organized knitters/crocheters/sewers to create warm items for victims of Sandy. Given the nasty turn of weather recently this seems like a great way to contribute to hurricane relief, especially if you would like to do something more personal to help out and are too far away to volunteer. More information available here.
So this is the last of the knitting projects that I had in the backlog. Both fairly simple, last-minute gifts.
First up are a pair of wool handwarmers made for my bike-addicted brother on his July birthday. Because everyone wants wool in the middle of July! Really though, he had requested them very specifically, and he is a long lanky guy so custom clothing is always nice for him.
I made the pattern myself based on several other handwarmers that I’ve made to date, with special attention to accommodating my brother’s size. That’s me modelling above, which is why it looks baggy.
The final project in my knitting backlog was a quick hat made as a Christmas present for a friend. I love knit hats like this, only took a few hours in front of the TV to finish!
So there won’t be any knitting updates in the near future, due to the new Etsy shop sucking up a lot of my free time and a new massive project that I’ve just started up. Last month I came across this stunning project:
I’m a shawl/scarf addict and the pattern didn’t seem too difficult. There was just one thing holding me back…it’s a lace project….that requires incredibly expensive yarn. I’ve never knitted with lace yarn or anything that cost more than $12 a skein.
Then for my birthday I got a yarn store gift certificate. I decided to go for it.
I present Anzula Mermaid in Red Shoe. I’ve never been so nervous to knit something before. A mistake with this yarn is ruining a decent chunk of money.
I discovered another downside to lace:
This is going to take forever! Luckily I have my beautiful KnitPicks needles. I never understood why the needles needed to be so sharp until this project.
To be continued…
My mother requested a blanket for my grandmother. Requirements: not too large, easy to clean.
The result:
I used cartridge belt rib and Simply Soft Caron acrylic yarn. Very basic, but tedious. Blankets take forever.
Hopefully my next blanket is a baby blanket (i.e. very small!)
I’ll be meeting my grandmother-in-law in a few weeks and by request I made a few gifts. I’m told she needs hats so I made a few, the two on the left are pretty basic.
The third is from the pattern Hurricane Hat by sunshineknits. The pattern is really simple but creates an interesting design.
Finally I have round II of Purl Bee’s Daisy Stitch Handwarmers. I have no idea if she will like any of it, but I’m hoping at least one will make the cut. Fingers crossed.
So I get tons of patterns from the purl bee. It feels a bit ridiculous to do so much knitting off one site, but as long as they keep posting great stuff, I’ll keep knitting it. This time, I didn’t choose the pattern for a change –the recipient sent me a link to the pattern and asked me to give it a go. “What colors?” I asked. “Just like the picture.”
Here’s the original picture of the model by the experts at purl soho:
Here’s my more imperfect version made from acrylic worsted yarn that I purchased at Michael’s (a combination of Bernat satin and Caron simply soft):
Not too shabby I think…the gold is much brighter, but I skewed that way when I was picking out yarn because I prefer it. The other major difference is that I added another three stripes to the top and added length to the thumbs for slightly more coverage.
It was a bit of a mess handling the four colors, but they knit up pretty quickly. I’m making another pair now actually, but I’ll be sticking to the original pattern since the thumbs on my version look weird. You can find the pattern (and many others) here.
I received another request for a Calorimetry headband. The yarn is Caron Simply Soft in Autumn Red.
After trying a couple of places and failing miserably, I headed down to Tender Buttons and found this guy:
He’s got a bit of a dead-eye stare, but the recipient and I like foxes enough that he’s still a winner. The color is more true in the second image, my camera is a sad 10 year old point and shoot.
Christmas bonanza this year meant hats for everyone! The women received a version of these slouchy hats.
The pattern is called “All Day Beret,” free from Debbie Stoller. It knits up very quickly without being boring.
I am a big Dr Who nerd. The newest companion to the Doctor is Amy Pond, and she has some great clothes (once they got her out of the nightgown).
I decided I wanted something similar to her scarf and gloves. This is what I came up with:
The scarf is super long, over ten feet. I used a cartridge belt rib since it has nice texture, lies flat, and looks great on both sides. That and I was too lazy to tackle the complicated lace pattern that actually is in Amy’s scarf.
And these are my fingerless gloves! They fit, well, like a glove, since I measured the fit on my hands constantly as I knit. Both done with regular acrylic yarn, nothing special.
After watching me make pair after pair of handwarmers, my husband started asking me for a pair for work. “But I want fingers,” he said. I looked for a few free patterns online, without anything that appealed to me much. So I made up my own pattern as I went…
I had him try them on as I went so they fit snugly. The wrists are a little big so they can be pulled over cuffs.
Koto Embroidery 