A bounty of blue – 1

July 19, 2008 in Crochet | Tags: , , | 20 comments

A year ago, a friend of ours was returning from Russia and made the mistake of asking whether I’d like something from there. Well obviously, I asked for yarn. After seeking advice online, I asked for cotton and wool yarn in sweater quantities. He more than delivered on his assignment. Since then I’ve tried to do several things with the cotton yarn, but unfortunately, it is not a glossy kind and my usual demon of Garment-Fear® kept me from actually using the yarn for its stated purpose.

A few weeks ago, however, someone on one of my mailing lists sent a link for a new free pattern at NaturallyCaron.com which looked innocuous enough, but was quietly screaming my name!!! I hastened to add it to my Ravelry queue and found it had me so mesmerised that I was upset there was no photo to represent it. Well, there was no answer for it but to make it myself. The world had to know the pattern existed.

Here it is, the Chakra bag.

Chakra bag

And since you’d like to know, here are the details.

Yarn: Kamteks Khlopok from Russia (Khlopok = cotton), about one-and-a-half skeins. (Each skein had 250m yarn).

Hook: Size 3.00mm

Pattern: Chakra Bag from NaturallyCaron.com (and here’s the Ravelry pattern page, and my project page).

Time: 3 days from start to finish. Seriously quick.

Size: 11″ x 7″ x 2″

Extra #1 As I said, it was screaming to me :p

#2 I love the textured stitch, and the pattern it forms. The shape of the finished bag is also interesting, only my poor finishing makes it not stand out. Next time, I will not take any shortcuts, but I shall sew a proper lining (the story of my experiences with lining a bag will follow later).

#3 The said lining is cut from a length of Vietnamese silk my father brought back for me in December 2006. I still have enough left to line another bag perhaps. I was hoarding it for something special, but decided enough was enough. Here’s a glimpse of the inside (not much more, because my finishing is really sad).

Chakra bag

#4 There is a slight error in the strap instructions, which have you start off with Ch 10 and then begin the first row with Ch 2 and hdc (US) across to give 8hdc, but obviously, either you ch 8 to begin, or you omit the ch 2 at the beginning of Row 1.

#5 I drastically shortened the length of the strap because I know it would stretch anyway. I took it out into the wilds of Bangalore last weekend, and I’m gratified to report the stretching was minimal (or not noticeable enough for discomfort at any rate). Perhaps it was because of the rigidity given by the reverse sc edging. On the other hand, the width of the strap and the cotton yarn made it one of the most comfortable bag handles I’ve ever misused. I was carrying my camera, my cell phone, the iPod, extra camera batteries, a packet of wet tissues (which despite being touted as containing aloe vera and having no alcohol still left my face dry), pen, address book, small diary, wallet and sundry other necessities for a weekend away.

However, next time, I’d prefer to make the strap width wise rather than lengthwise, because I read on one of the Ravelry forums (fora?) that that would reduce the stretching. Which seems logical enough, wouldn’t you say? It would also have the added (and much required) benefit of making it easier to sew the edges to the sides, because we could then do one joining stitch in each stitch of the strap. Row-wise, I can *never* pick up the same number of stitches on both sides of something, so this one has lopsided er, sides. Also, the strap has an odd slant, which puzzles me. Perhaps the nature of the hdc makes it bias?

#6 The pattern would have you use needle and yarn to sew the pieces together, but I relied on my trusty hook instead, and have no complaints. I also loved the definition given to the edges by the reverse sc.

#7 My poor bag has no fastening yet. I’ve been saved by the overlapping flap, but I need to find (a) a good fastening (b) a purselet for small things inside. I tried looking for magnetic buttons in Bangalore, but the fellow, despite me talking to him in Telugu which he knew, would have me buy a packet of 100 magnetic buttons for Rs 1,200. That would see me giving out magnetic buttons as hostess gifts for the rest of my active life.

#8 The original yarn appears to have a sheen, which mine doesn’t but that’s ok. Hey!!!!! That reminds me of the sparkly stuff I picked up in B’lore. It’s meant for a bag anyway, so why not use it with this pattern? Huh, huh? Brilliant! Cindy, isn’t that a brilliant idea?

I enjoyed making this bag. Apparently it’s been added to 28 queues on Ravelry, but no one else has begun making it yet. Why not??? Go get your hooks!

Not a test

June 26, 2008 in Crochet | Tags: , , , | 5 comments

Jaishree's Doily #1

This one is #1 in Jaishree‘s doilies. So called because she gave me the thread and the pattern. I only have the pattern, so I’m not sure where it came from. Let me know if you recognise it. It is also in my Ravelry notebook, but that doesn’t have any other information.

I made it with a 1.25mm hook and just over one skein of the local ‘DMC’ cotton, which looked too small, but Jaishree assured me would make a 15″ or so doily. I’ve never seen this thread before but have worked with similar stuff earlier. It has an unmercerised appearance and has a picture of what looks like Shivaji on it, but is mysteriously named “Sultan Supreme”. It is apparently priced at Rs 3.00 and is made by Dass Thread Mills, who are (or have) “Regular users in India” (?!) How economical! A whole doily for just three rupees.

I was attracted by the unusual shape and the fact that it doesn’t require fastening off anywhere to achieve it. Badly blocked as usual. It is about 11.5″ from edge to edge. (not 15″) I had to frog the later rows a bit because I didn’t look at the chart properly (I usually work from my laptop, rather than printing out a copy.

This does not affect my stock inventory of doilies, however, since I gave away my -Along doily (crochet version, I’m keeping the knit one since it was my first knit doily) to a friend who’s been transferred and is leaving for Port Blair.

I have a couple of projects I need to be testing, but cannot get up the desire. Sigh.

Oh, did I tell you, I was away for a week with some girlfriends on a tour of Kerala and ended the trip by staying over at Jaishree’s place and raiding and looting her stash of thread and patterns. That last bit was definitely the highlight. I also stole from her a skein of “Baroque” thread (I suspect they used to supply the original DMC earlier but no longer do so, perhaps), which has 400m of mercerised cotton. I’m really lusting after these and wondering how I never saw any of them before. Jaishree and I are doing a sort of test-along, because my current favourite hook is 1mm, while she uses 1.whatever, and also crochets slightly looser than I do. So we’re making the same pattern with the same thread to see what difference that makes in size. I madly crocheted on the Inter-city express from Trivandrum to Cochin and finished about 15 rows. Need to pick it up again. Sometimes the mojo needs a good kick.

As you would imagine, Jaishree’s place has crochet covering every imaginable surface. She does lovely work.

Unusual ribbing: Riverstone

June 7, 2008 in Knitting | Tags: , , , , | 9 comments

Riverstone sweater

Here’s my Ravelry project page.

Yarn: Generic scratchy acrylic. (Don’t ask me why). It’s about DK weight, and I worked this sweater with two strands held together.

Needles: Size 6.00mm (US 10)

Pattern: Riverstone. It isn’t up yet on Ravelry (but you can see the designer’s Ravelry page for it here). I tested this pattern for Justine. I made the 12 mths size and really enjoyed the unusual construction. I wish I’d used better materials, though. Next time perhaps. Increases and decreases keep your interest going in the yoke area, while the body went pretty fast because I wanted to put on the buttons :p

Time: About ten days, but only because I got into a funk midway thinking I wouldn’t have enough yarn to finish. In the end I had enough to finish, plus a good amount left over.

Size: 20″in the chest x 12″long unstretched. The ribs provide a lot of room for growth, although mine are possibly worked at too dense a gauge.

Extra #1 What is it about baby sweaters? I prefer them to babies, actually :p No feeding/cleaning.

#2 I’m very happy with the buttons, which I bought here in Cochin. I think they are coconut shell or wood.

#3 One more baby sweater and not an infant in sight.

Thank you everyone for the warm messages assuring me I am not boring you to death. I hadn’t meant my last post as a call for reassurance (more like an observation), actually, but you still made my day 🙂 You must really love me 😀

Bliss

May 31, 2008 in Knitting | Tags: , , , | 13 comments

Well, not really (more like a run-of-the-mill show and tell), but this one is a Debbie Bliss pattern, which I had an urge to make and providentially a CAT PAC arrived with some suitable yarn in it. I cast on almost as soon as I opened the package.

Ribbed baby jacket

Here’s my Ravelry project page.

Yarn: Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice. Another Red Heart Supersaver clone. Nothing to recommend it especially. I used about a skein and a half for this project.

Needles: Size 4.00mm (US 6) for the ribbed button band and 6.00mm (US 10) for the body of the sweater.

Pattern: Ribbed Baby Jacket by Debbie Bliss. (Ravelry link here). It is also available free here.

Time: Over two weeks. I think I took a while to weave in ends (so what else is new?), but otherwise it is a simple enough knit.

Size: 26″in the chest x 10.5″long

Extra #1 The stockinette does make it curve in at the bottom and cuffs, but I’m letting it be.

#2 Another reckless and pointless knit for me, no babies targetted, but I was compelled to make this one. I don’t know what it is about baby sweaters and me, but they draw me like a moth to the flame. You can learn new techniques without having to spend the rest of your life knitting on something. Also, they have no shaping, usually, and will fit some baby at some point. Now all I have to do is find some babies. (I’m happy to say I gave away my February sweater to my maid, who wanted it for her great-nephew. What use they will find for it in tropical Kerala, I do not know. But it lessens my baby sweater inventory by one).

#3 I’m happiest about the way I picked up stitches for the button band. Rather than picking them up in the last stitch of the exposed rows, I went behind them and picked up the stitches from the inner column. It made for a very neat finish, especially because I had a chain selvage (slip the first stitch of every row knitwise, knit the last stitch). So that was the learning from this thing. I wasn’t very happy about the picking up around the neck (instead of binding off as the pattern advised, I held the stitches on a spare circular). The whole “pick up evenly” thing continues to baffle me and reduce me to scrambling for closure. Otherwise the whole thing is an average project, nothing to write home about.

So why blog about it? Partly because my other projects are test ones which I cannot yet blog about. And partly to squeeze in another post before the end of this month.

I realise my blog has become rather dull and monotonous. Where’s the wit and variety gone, you must be wondering. Perhaps it’s just old age. Or something.

I stopped blogging about books, because I realised no one appears to share my taste in them/find anything new in what I say. And I really don’t feel the need to journal all the books I read. Which pretty much leaves me with only craft to write about. And since I usually don’t like showing works in progress, all you get nowadays are staccato essays following a rigid and predictable structure.

Which makes me grateful for the people who do continue to read. Thank you! I can’t describe the thrill I get out of seeing comments from you. Please continue to visit 🙂

Beads and lace: Melusine

May 20, 2008 in Knitting | Tags: , , , , | 14 comments

Melusine

I’ve never added beads to a knit project before, and definitely not without pre-stringing them. Plus for some reason I really liked this scarf as soon as I saw it, so I volunteered to test the pattern for Wendi when she posted about it on Ravelry. I had a really fun time knitting it. The pattern repeat is about 40 rows long, but the wrong side rows are all purl rows, besides which the scarf is only 29 stitches wide. I’m afraid the photos don’t do it justice, but I tried, my friends, I tried.

Here’s my Ravelry project page.

Yarn: Patons Kroy Sock, just over a 192 yard skein in Chelsea Tweed. I don’t know how, but the other sock yarn I have is also a similar dark colourway. Never seen any of those fancy handpainted/hand-dyed ones. But then always with variegated yarns, I’m often more enamoured of the yarn/thread in the skein rather than in a project worked up. I’d probably croon over the multi-hued sock yarn and then relegate it to the back of my stash, where I can no longer hear its jeers.

Andrea had suggested I could use sock yarns for scarves, and I’d forgotten that I’d indeed done so, for my Boteh (also Patons Kroy, but in a livelier colour). Plus there’s a UFO somewhere in the depths of my cupboards, started with Wildfoote Luxury. So now I can potentially make 3 scarves and free myself from the guilt of trying to make socks and failing miserably. Yay!

Needles: Size 4.00mm (US 6). That was the recommended size, I think.

Pattern: Melusine by Wendi Dunlap. (Ravelry link here).

Time: 6 days or less. I treated myself to one pattern repeat every evening and finished off with 2 and the ends on the final day.

Size: 6″ x 84″

Extra #1 I really enjoyed using a crochet hook to put on the beads while knitting, and not having to worry about stringing all of them beforehand and then getting the yarn all tangled up. Wendi suggested a tutorial found here for the technique.

#2 I’m wondering if there’s much point in becoming addicted to knitting scarves when (a) I don’t know if I can bear to give them away and (b) whether I know enough people who’d wear them. Would you, Dear Reader? More specifically, would you wear this scarf? (I mean this version, knit by me).

Drewl!

May 16, 2008 in Crochet | Tags: | 3 comments

Drop everything now. Your hooks, needles, thread, yarn, and run over to Drew’s blog. His gorgeous, gorgeous lacy stole is available as a free download now and it’s what I’ve been waiting for. Only, look at Drew’s version first, not the picture on the pattern page. His appears to be made of a lighter, thinner yarn, while the modelled one looks much lumpier thicker, and not as appealing. I don’t know what the story is behind that, but my vote goes to the one on The Crochet Dude’s blog. I’m swatching madly.

It was easy after all

May 9, 2008 in Crochet, Knitting | Tags: , , , , , | 23 comments

Body view

Yes, my dears. That up there, looking so familiar, is the crocheted version of the Baby Surprise Jacket. I did it. The entire credit goes to James G Davis (Pandaman) who worked out a stockinette version, upon which mine is totally based. The stockinette gauge is closer to the sc gauge than garter, so Mr Davis’ version was perfect for this. I don’t know why I didn’t do it this way the first time. All I had to do was use sc for every stitch and decide how I wanted to make my increases and decreases. I chose to increase by doing 2 sc in two stitches (an increase of 2), and my decreases by sc3tog (hook through next stitch, yo, pull loop through 3 times, yo and pull loop through all 4 loops on hook). Next time I might change my increases to 3 sc in one stitch. And use some interesting colours instead of this pale pink.

I don’t know why, but I always seem to gravitate towards the same colours for babies. Sigh. It could also be that these are the only colours there are, so it’s not as if I’m faced with a wide choice, not if I don’t want to produce glow-in-the-dark baby clothes. Which I don’t.

Here are the particulars (here’s my Ravelry page):

Yarn: Standard issue baby acrylic, about 150gm or so.

Hook: Size 5.00mm (US H). I went up a size or two from my first attempt, in order to conquer the obvious gauge problem. I made a conscious effort to make the starting chain loose (mine usually tends to be tight) and was immediately rewarded by a gratifyingly right-angled beginning.

Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Baby Surprise Jacket (link to knitwiki article), aided and abetted by Pandaman’s Stockinette modifications.

Time: I began my first attempt a while ago, as you will remember, and actually started this one a few days ago. Then I got caught up in testing a couple of patterns, doing some work (my job) and distracted by other things, so the project languished a bit. I finally told myself off and picked it up again and resolved not to be distracted this time. The endless rows of sc do begin to pall after a while, which sort of explains why I’d like to do it in a different sort of yarn the next time. And when I grow up, I’d like to try manipulating the gauge for other stitches, starting with dc perhaps. A couple of evenings to finish this normally.

Size: 22″ around.

Extra #1 What can I say? It’s a bit anti-climactic, realising the solution was easy after all, I just had been overthinking things a bit.

#2 I must have counted every stitch on every inc/dec row. I didn’t use markers (because I find stitch markers in crochet to be tedious) and spreading the increases out over 2 stitches made it a bit more tiresome than it needed to be. I don’t know why, when I’d been sc3tog-ing for a decrease, it didn’t occur to me to do 3sc in 1 for an increase! I was fooled by the knitting, where it’s usual to only increase one stitch at a time (unless you’re yo-ing or casting on, and end up with holes). Took me until I was writing down my notes to realise it doesn’t have to be that way, crochet is so much more flexible in that sense.

#3 I added some length to the sleeves after finishing the main part, because they were looking really stubby. I went to the edges and did a few rows of sc on the other side of the starting chain, then decreased stitches twice before ending off.

#4 Not entirely happy with the collar (it could still be added to, but I don’t think I will).

#5 There isn’t a girl baby in sight who’d require warm clothing, but I do have one earlier victim who’s a bit small despite being a year old. She’ll do.

I’m not resting on my laurels, having begun two other projects-one of them is yet again a baby sweater, and the other a dishcloth. And yes, I’ll name them among my FOs. That’s for Sara. If I didn’t count my small projects, I’d have no projects at all.

Back of sleeve

Quick and easy

May 4, 2008 in Knitting | Tags: , , | 3 comments

Waffles for Brunch

Since Ravelry, I am not being strictly chronological with my posts of FOs, or even complete, sometimes. I just blog about whichever project takes my fancy, when I have the time and the inclination. This one happens to be my latest finished thing and I really am proud of it, so here it is.

I caught this on the patterns page at Ravelry (I look through the latest projects added every now and then) and saw it was a free pattern, and was in fact currently running as a KAL, with the designer posting installments on her blog. In browsing through my stash I’d turned up this yarn which I didn’t know what it was when I got it from Celtic Coyote in a Knitty swap many months ago. She didn’t remember either, but then Sara was working on a BSJ with similar yarn some time ago and I discovered it is actually Plymouth Encore Colorspun Worsted, plus I was able to find some colourway names on Yarndex as well. I had 6 half skeins or so, and for this project I used up about 3.5.

(Looking through the photos, I just realised I didn’t take a picture of the back, but seriously, I don’t think it matters. It matches the front up to the armholes, and then it’s mostly similar.)

Here are the particulars (here’s my Ravelry page):

Yarn: Plymouth Encore Colorspun Worsted in several colours and half skeins. It feels a bit dry and rough and I don’t know how it will feel in a colder climate or next to the skin. Perhaps it softens with washing? I liked watching the striping, mostly because the pattern is stockinette-dominated. Besides, each colour runs for a fairly long length. I usually love variegated yarn in the skein and despise it worked up. But this worked for a small diameter project. Having so many different colours also meant I could use different colourways without too much weirdness. (The sleeves don’t fully match, but I can live with that).

Needles: I used about 3-4 US #10 (6.00mm) circulars, and one US #8 (5.00mm). That was because I was too lazy to hunt up a stitch holder for the body. For the sleeves, I did both at the same time from different ends of the same ball, because I wanted them to largely match, which they wouldn’t if I had used two different balls. So that required two circulars at the same time, but not with both on one, if you see what I mean. I used one circular for one sleeve. I could possibly have simplified matters with only one circular to work both, but somehow that didn’t occur to me :-p Luckily I seem to have a surfeit of the 6.00 mm and nearby sizes.

Pattern: Waffles for Brunch by Jean Gifford. Here’s the Ravelry page. I probably might make this again.

Time: Over a week, but that was only because I took a break to (a) edit 15 files and (b) test 6 patterns (5 of which were small thread motifs). I got in on the KAL about halfway, but I was able to finish more or less quite quickly after the last instructions were posted. As I indicated, it’s a quick and easy knit.

Uh-oh. Thunder in the background. Hopefully the electricity won’t go.

Size: 19″at the chest, unstretched, 12″ long. As the designer says, it’ll fit some kid somewhere.

Extra #1 I loved doing this! Even loved the extra effort needed to match the stripes (or at least ensure they weren’t too odd/off). As usual, it a bit of on-the-edge knitting whether I’d have enough yarn (the other two half-skeins are pale pink and yellow, while these ones can still be useful for a boy, right?), but that was okay in the end.

#2 I’m very kicked with myself…I did a tubular cast on for this and even though that is usually recommended for 1×1 ribbing, it was okay for this one. It would be a problem with a more monochromatic yarn, though. I found this tutorial via Ravelry and it made the process very clear. I did try to match it with a tubular cast-off at the end of the sleeves, but couldn’t quite grasp it, besides which it involves grafting, which I’m not very good at. Also, the instructions were again for ribbing, not this 4×2 pattern.

#3 Very happy :-D. I don’t exactly know who is going to be favoured with this, as most of my friends have young boys, but I don’t think this is too girly. Do you?

#4 I really am very happy with how the collar worked out, too. The designer (and/or the pattern) made it easy when it came to picking up stitches (none of the “pick up eleventy stitches evenly around the neck” business). It’s the first time I’ve worked a collar like this and I really am pleased with the outcome.

It’s raining now. I’ll leave you with a picture of the cast-on to admire. (There isn’t a particular reason i’m not replying individually to comments, just plain laziness. I might just go to my inbox and catch up now, so don’t be puzzled by any replies you get to comments you made when you were a good deal younger ;-))

Tubular cast on

Always me too.

April 25, 2008 in Crochet | Tags: , , , | 7 comments

Even as a child I was a jealous and capricious pest. And that hasn’t altered one bit with passing years. So naturally when I saw that some of my friends had got together to make some lovely pineapple soap sachets, I had to make one too. I had this soap from Ruth lying around, but it was round, so I searched for and found a round pattern. Used some scraps of thread and a satin ribbon, and hey presto…Even if it isn’t as pretty as the ones my friends made. Unfortunately that’s a lesson that I never learned, that imitation is possible, but not always successful.

Here you go.

Yellow side Pink side

I am deliberately posting small pictures so you won’t see the wonkiness. Aren’t I clever?

And the specs. My Ravelry page is here.

Thread: Apna Anchor size 20

Hook: Pony handled steel hook 1.00mm. This is fast becoming my favourite thread hook.

Pattern: Round Soap Sachet by Priscilla Hewitt.

Time: A couple of hours. Seriously.

Size: 3″across

Extra #1 Nothing much. I’ve said it all.

This one’s EZ

April 16, 2008 in Knitting | Tags: , , , , | 14 comments

and so was the predictable pun, sorry!

February baby sweater

It is of course, the February Baby Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmermann from her Knitter’s Almanac. I found the book available on an Indian website and so I ordered it. I wasn’t sure I would get it, because some crochet book I ordered on a site once never got to me. The order was simply cancelled, because the book was out of stock. I don’t remember what it was. But after waiting for 6 weeks (and periodically checking the status of my order), I finally got it last Monday. I had to cast on immediately, of course because it was for this pattern I ordered the book in the first place! I had yarn left over from my Waffle Vest. Now that yarn is greyish blue while this pattern is a lace pattern, but I wasn’t too concerned about gender correctness. Nor do I have a target/victim in mind for it.

I was finished knitting by Friday although I must confess I still haven’t sewn on the buttons…they were a present from Cordi (hi, how’s the hibernation?), but did not photograph well. They are small bunnies (pinkish, but again, no gender concerns Chez Fife).

Here are the specs in the time-honoured format.

Yarn: The same acrylic that I used for my Waffle Vest. Regular baby yarn. About sport weight, I should think.

Needles: Unknown silvery circulars in 4mm (US 6). I think Heide gave me these. I really like them and they’re probably my most-used size/pair. The only issue is that the cable tends to curve in on itself, but that is manageable. Perhaps a spot of hot water treatment is called for?

Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmermann’s February Baby Sweater on Two Needles (Ravelry link) from her Knitter’s Almanac (scroll down).

Time: 5 days (I dithered about sewing the seams and did a bad job anyway at the end)

Size: 21″ at the chest, 10.5″ long

Extra #1 I was surprised at the slimness of the book. I suppose I should have expected it from my copy of Knitting Without Tears (an amazing book sale find).

#2 The instructions for the sleeves puzzled me. I was first confused whether to cast on the extra 7 stitches on either side or not, but realised I should. Then when it came to picking up stitches to continue for the body, I confused myself about how to pick them up! I got the cast on stitches twisted, before realising that the extreme ends should be together, therefore you start picking up from the side of the cast on which is closer to the older stitches. Does that make any sense at all? It would probably help if you seamed the sleeves first, or if you did them in the round, thus eliminating the beginning of cast-on/end of cast-on confusion altogether

#3 My finishing as usual is horrendous, although I have improved the area under the armpits somewhat from how it looks in the picture. My picking up stitches for the body under the sleeves was also pretty bad.

#4 The lace pattern was extremely easy to memorise. Perhaps next time I shall actually challenge myself (imagine!) and choose another 7-stitch lace pattern. If there is a next time.

#5 I think this is the most beautiful thing I have ever knit for a baby. (In the intent, if not in the execution).

______

Thank you everyone for the encouragement on my attempts at crochetising the BSJ. I have sent the project into temporary hibernation prior to what I realise must be inevitable ripping. Sigh. A friend is working with me on it and seems to be making better progress. I am wondering if I should perhaps use Pandaman’s stockinette adaptation instead of the original as a base, because the primary problem with the current oeuvre is the row gauge of sc rows versus garter rows. As far as I can understand it, of course. We shall have to see.

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