You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘FOs – Knitting’ tag.
Ta-da!
Isn’t that the sweetest thing you ever saw? Finished it this morning. I think it must be the fastest I’ve ever knit a baby sweater. Let’s get the specs.
Yarn: Shepherd Cynthia Helene that I won from Nona when she was giving away some of her stash last year. Yummy! 100% pure NZ merino in a gorgeous colour, Ginger. Had 4 skeins (~400 yards) and still have about enough to make a hat I think. The first photo is closest to the richness of the colour.
Needles: Denise #8/5mm and an unknown 4.5mm flexible plastic circular. I magic-looped for the first time, following instructions from this site, and had great fun! If I could lay my hands on thin long circulars, perhaps my dormant sock-knitting will get a boost.
Pattern: The Little Sister Sweater from Boogie here. It’s a seamless raglan, just a little bit of grafting at the armholes.
Time: 2 days?
Size: 21″around the chest, 9.5″from shoulder to bottom, 6″cuffs, 5″ neck opening (with buttons closed). I’m hoping it will fit my friend’s newborn.
Extra: #1 I used the smaller sized circulars for the magic loop, because I didn’t have either DPNs or circulars in the same size. I really enjoyed the magic looping and must try to see if I can do it on the Denises. And maybe some of my metal circulars. None of them is thin enough for socks, though.
#2 The raglan shaping is the neatest I’ve ever done. (Neat as in tidy)
The instructions, however, called for SSP (Slip, slip, purl) and I couldn’t figure out how to do that when I was knitting, not purling all the way round. So I did SSK (slip, slip, knit) instead.
#3 The back has optional short rows to make it higher than the front. I found the instructions confusing, but then I always find short rows instructions confusing. And they’re optional anyway.
#4 I used Kitchener weaving and wasn’t entirely happy with how my work looked, but since it is in the pits (you know!), I didn’t bother too much.
#5 Red buttons because I don’t have any brown ones in my stash. The original pattern is intended for a girl, so the button band was in the wrong place, and my feeble attempts to make a one-row buttonhole totally wiped out any evidence of seed stitch in the band on that side of the opening. Ah well. I do like seed stitch when it comes out nicely, though. If I make this a second time, I shall place the neck marker according to whether it’s a boy or a girl I’m making it for (the odds are high it will be a boy, it usually seems to be). Then I can hide the botching and sew it in place better.
Edited to Add: While I was working on this post (and mistakenly clicked on Publish without having finished), my internet went down and has just come back. Whew. I get so miserable without the web, ya know. It was gratifying to read all the comments, thanks everyone 🙂 I’m trying to find a baby hat pattern which isn’t too feminine to work on with the remaining yarn. Maybe one that uses seed stitch.
I’ve been trying a pattern from a book I have using brioche stitch, and while I like the look of it, I find it is rather big, and when finished will be closer to child-carrying capacity, than housing a baby head. Ahem.
Oh, and the monsoon is here.
Again courtesy Cordelia (it does appear as though half my stash belongs to her, doesn’t it?).
Yarn: Lion Brand Jiffy that Cordelia sent me. In colours Kitty Hawk and Denver, I think. Used up most of both skeins.
Needles: Denise #10 ½/6.5mm circular
Pattern: A truncated version of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Baby Surprise Jacket from The Opinionated Knitter, Knitting Workshop. It’s also available separately at the link above from Schoolhouse Press.
Time: 3 days?
Size: Toddler? 22″ around the chest, 10.5″ from shoulder to bottom, 21″from cuff to cuff.
Extra: #1 Nothing much. Did only two buttons this time. I thought I had a recipient for this, but perhaps I don’t.
———
Having finished Queen Camilla, I am now bookless. Please send good thoughts my way.
———
While on the subject of books, Sara has a contest for her Summer of Giving. She’s giving away a book on felting and a few knitting magazines. Do go over and jump in. And don’t forget to mention I sent you over? What are friends for, after all :)?
——–
Here’s the back: (since you asked so nicely).
Quick, grab those sunshades…If the previous FO was a bit bright, here is something even worse brighter.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you. This is a truncated version of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Baby Surprise Jacket. It’s a great pattern and truly surprising! When I was making it, I thought it would end up like this:
When I finished knitting, it looked like this:
And when sewn up, it looked as in the first photo above. Here’s how the back looks:
Here are the pattern details.
Yarn: Bernat Softee Chunky that Cordelia sent me. I was wary of what to do with such lively colours, when Rosi suggested I make a Baby Surprise. See, that’s why I like associating with creative people: they take me out of my uncreative, dull thinking.
Needles: Denise #10 1/2 6.5mm circular
Pattern: A truncated version of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Baby Surprise Jacket from The Opinionated Knitter, Knitting Workshop. It’s also available separately at the link above from Schoolhouse Press.
Time: 3 days?
Size: Toddler? 23″ around the chest, 10″ from shoulder to bottom, 21″from cuff to cuff.
Extra: #1 I’ve already almost finished a second one. This is such fun to make, and with the large gauge yarns I’m using, it works up very fast.
#2 I want to try this in stockinette, crochet and Tunisian crochet.
Sent this off with the Tomten and the Blocks and shells afghan to Hyderabad, where aunty (my friend’s mom) will collect it and take it when she goes to the US.
—————–
In books, I just finished Naked in Death (Eve Dallas murder series) by JD Robb (Nora Roberts). Futuristic police procedural with some er, hot scenes. I read just about anything, so don’t turn up your noses at me!
—————–
Catch-22
I went to my bank today to see if I could apply for a credit card (yes, I don’t have one and have been managing fine, but I need one to make bookings for my UK trip online). They told me I couldn’t get a card because
a. I don’t have an office address
b. I don’t have a credit card!
Dang, but this almost made me cry a third time in public. I’m blaming it on my need for sleep. Don’t want to think it’s anything else. Stoopid procedures. I know exactly what I’ll tell them next time I get a spam call offering to sell me a card.
This will go to the same friend I’m sending the block and shells afghan to. She has a toddler and is expecting another baby boy in July.
As usual, don’t look too closely at the thing. The colour is patchy and the workmanship just passable. Dirty Deets follow.
Specifications:
Yarn: Local small-ball acrylic Santhi from Oswal “Woollen” Mills, 25g x 9
Needles: Denise #7
Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Tomten Jacket from Knitting Without Tears
Time: About a week.
Size: Toddler? 22″ around the chest, 15″ from shoulder to bottom, 10″ hood and 11″ on wrist to armhole.
Extra: #1 Patchy!!!
#2 I wonder if this could be done in stockinette (although of course the point is to avoid the purling)
#3 Rosi helped with a question I had on ridge counts for the hood. Got help from Sue on knitty chat on what to do for the closures. For the loops I did a row of sc around from right bottom corner to the left, adding 10ch loops whenever I encountered a button. Otherwise I followed the pattern to a T (except for a slight misunderstanding at the sleeves, leading to 4 extra ridges each side).
And now for some sad news…I do not have any works in progress (UFOs abound, of course, but they don’t count). Sad but true. I want to try my hand at a version of the Baby Surprise Jacket by Ms Zimmermann, but in pinks and related colours, and there aren’t too many baby girls on the horizon. I need specific victims targets.
My reading currently is Queen Camilla by Sue Townsend. Always surprising. And I don’t have any other books lined up after that. Help!
On the domestic front, the husband has been successfully disposed off has gone off by himself to Cochin. Accommodation is uncertain, so it is also uncertain when I will reach there. For now it’s just me and the other inlaw. I have plans to visit the UK in July, more of which in a different post. I shall leave you with a close-up of the wooden buttons I used.
Thank you everyone for your responses so far on my sappy (soppy? sloppy?) question in my last post. Let me be clear, I am not at all the sort of person to keep it all in, as those who have known me for any length of time will testify. Rather the opposite, frequently latching on to unsuspecting passersby to upchuck all my current troubles. Oops.
But sometimes no one is handy, or you feel you need to give your current recipient a break. Or sometimes it just feels as though things are the same, although troublesome. Then I feel like I need a Scream Room™. Do you have one? Or any personal space where you know you won’t be disturbed (intruded upon)? Let me know.
Meanwhile, here is a bag I rescued from UFO-dom and finished to send off to my Crochetville Notions Swap partner. This picture was taken with my last bookhaul in it. Amazingly, both of us have received our packages intact and promptly. Only, mine has gone to Hyderabad in anticipation of our moving from here. So no pics.
And guess what? The husband’s transfer has been deferred indefinitely for two months. The boss at the other place, who was on leave until a couple of days ago, returned to office and realised he’d lose his deputy if the transfer went through (the husband is too junior to fill that particular position). So they’ve asked for a postponement of the move until they figure out what to do about a deputy. Ha. Suspended animation. It’s nice, have you ever tried it? Anyhow, I present to you, The Frugal Bag.
This was a pattern from Frugalhaus.com, but I can’t find it there now. Googling produced a pdf link whose legality I’m not confident of.* Since I forgot to measure this before sending it off in the Crochetville Notions Swap, let’s get the details in an ugly format. The yarn was GUM and unknown (probably RHSS) purple, with Denise 10 1/2 circulars. I started this bag so long ago, I don’t even remember when. Some time last year. Nice and sturdy. For the bottom, instead of using the garter stitch recommended, I used linked dcs (US) (this link shows a linked treble (US) but the principle is the same). Also try this Crochet Me tutorial. The stitch produces fewer holes than simple dc (US).
You could use either of the bag’s sides (inside or out) and in fact the stockinette side looked interesting, like fairisle or something. However, the purl ridges defining the sides weren’t clear enough so I turned it this side out (according to the original pattern). And now the sides of the bag are well-defined. Ugly but functional. That’s me 😀
* ETA: Heather very nicely found me the link to the pattern from archive.org. Thank you, Heather!
Sorry, I didn’t mean to throw a whine-fest and vanish. My internet gave out on me on Wednesday afternoon and was only restored last evening. I had to reprogram my wireless router after a year and that took me some figurative hair-pulling before I managed to hit just the right keys. We changed our internet plan from dead-slow unlimited to promised-fast limited. Let’s see how good that is, and whether having a limit on the downloads will reveal just how much flotsam I accumulate each month.
Thank you everyone for your comments on my last post. Ordinarily I would respond by email to each commenter, but this time since it’s been a while, I’m doing this wholesale. Thank you for all the offers to swap. Let me hasten to add that most of my swaps have been excellent and deeply satisfying (for me). Even the ones on Knitty where people haven’t bothered to comment on the swap satisfaction thread.
Also, I think I might have, even with my comparatively measly stash, reached SABLE (Stash Accumulated Beyond Life Expectancy) status, purely because I often sit on my bed (which is my knitting/working on laptop spot) and just stare bemusedly at the general one-skeined, rainbow-hued, variedly-weighted and grossly-mismatched collection.
If it were all cotton, for example, I might open a store for handmade dishcloths (this might not be such a bright idea, because my aunt whom I bestow my works on thinks they are way too beautiful to be used as intended and instead drapes them on her telephone or in the showcase. There’s a limit to how many surfaces can be draped).
If it were all wool, I could neatly pack a few essentials and get myself admitted to the nearest mental hospital for thinking of wool and this climate in the same breath.
I have such things as two skeins of this yarn, two of this one, assorted Indian fun fur and acrylic, two disparate skeins of “Jiffy” and so on. What could I possible make that would reduce this stash? I do like just possessing these things, but in the interests of space and marital harmony, I’d like to diminish this stash before acquiring any more. As it is, the husband makes snide remarks about my “handiworks”. Mustn’t give him any more fodder.
We are waxing really eloquent once again today, aren’t we (and how often, Mrs S, do you find yourself unable to stop this verbal diarrhoea, he asked kindly as the tape recorder whirred in the background and she lay on the black faux leather couch in the sound-proofed consultant’s office. The brown fan had lashings of dirt, she noticed and worried it would affect her allergies. She’d have to weigh the benefits of the weekly shrink visit against being rattled by sneezes the whole of the next day, she decided.)
I thought I’d show you some bright things today. More dishcloths! In yellow! So here goes.
Click through for more views of the lacy diamonds and the cables. The dishcloths are both from the Monthly Dishcloth Yahoogroup. In my forays into these and other patterns, I have rediscovered Judith Prindle. She used to be active on one of my crochet mailing lists. She now has a collection of free patterns for dishcloths and other things up. Nice stuff.
Here’s something a little bit different.
That, me darlings, is a swatch of Crochet on the Double (or Croknit), with standard issue acrylic and a double-ended hook. I love the drape of this, so different from the can-stand-up-by-itself nature of my other Tunisian trials. I must see if the drapiness will transfer productively to a garment or a slip-on potholder or something. For garments, nothing less than thread will do, I should think.
I have lots more to tell you, but I shall spare you for this post and come back later. The ‘more’ will involve screwdrivers, sewing machines, ugliness, books and cats.
Check out this link for one (my) interpretation of “All this and Heaven too”.
Warning! This post is whiny! Also there is Too Much Information. So the squeamish/fastidious/constructively employed amongst you might want to go away and come back another time.
[Removed to protect the er, innocent.]
On a completely different note, here is a view of a dishcloth I finished from the archives of the Monthly Dishcloths group at Yahoogroups. I joined up in January so I could use my lovely (yes, I’m serious) stash of Lion Cotton and Sugar n’ Cream that I got from a very satisfying swap at the Ville. No, I don’t use dishcloths and no, I do not intend doing all the KALs.
The pattern (Smocked Dishcloth) can be found here. Someone over at Flickr thought it looks like an army of spiders marching. Suits me. It’s the reptiles I can’t stand.
I must be peculiar, but I like knitting with cotton. The stitches are firm and well-defined. Perhaps it reflects on how slowly and how little I knit. Because everyone else complains.
Well, sort of. I took some very bad pictures (are there any other kind I can take?) of a cardigan I made for my niece when she was born, as well as a UFO I finished and gave her in my recent trip to Hyderabad. (Yes, I’m back now in Vizag.) First up, we have the cardigan:
And here are the details.
Yarn: Acrylic from the Munirka market in Delhi. Look at my list of yarn stores in India for the exact address. The link is over on my sideboard.
Needles: Who remembers? I made it in 1998! Probably 3.75 or 4.00 mm
Pattern: Fleisher pattern book from the 1960s, it was my mom’s but I have had it now since 1998 (or earlier) since she stopped knitting.
Time: It was a labour of love. I don’t have the faintest idea now how long it took. As usual I didn’t have the time to find nice buttons for it.
Size: Totally forgot to measure it
Extra: #1 What a pathetic set of specifications I’ve given! Might as well not have written anything down. I have better (somewhat) specs for the next project, I promise!
#2 This was in the days when I used to twist my knit stitches (by knitting them through the back leg). I found the mini-cables hard going, I remember.
Next up we have the bag I finished from my mountain of UFOs.
Specs:
Yarn: Mainstays from Walmart (I don’t remember now who sent it to me). Two strands held together.
Needles: I am growing old. But perhaps they were my favourite size, 4.5 mm (or should that be 3.75?)
Pattern: Coats & Clark free pattern (Mine is supposed to be the blue bag)
Time: It was a UFO! The longest part was actually making the handles (strips of hdc) and deciding on and sewing the zip for closure. I’d actually bought the zip ages ago.
Size: 9″ x 9.5″
Extra: #1 I wish I had better options for handles than the tacky round plastic ones (or the tackier odd-shaped steel ones). I should have explored stores in Hyderabad, but what with the auto strike and the absent driver and various other distractions, I didn’t. Thankfully my niece isn’t very discriminating in her taste yet.
#2 The bag isn’t lined either.
#3 If you click through, you’ll find a couple more pictures of the bag in my Flickr photostream.
Right now I have no mojo. I badly want to have something going but have been in a sort of depressed state the past few days. Let’s see.
Next up, I’ll do another post rounding up the books I’ve read between my last book report and now.
I’ve come to Hyderabad and am going to meet some friends. There’s a kid’s birthday party today, so I finally added buttons to the spike stitch cardigan, as well as a bottom and seams to the self-lined purse that was mostly done last year, begun in June! That’s a couple more UFOs down. I’ve promised myself my luggage going back to Vizag will be lighter (got a few more things to make on my list).
Pattern details:
Yarn: Local acrylic, partly from Begum Bazaar in Hyderabad (purple), and partly from Shillong (white).
Hook: Dang. Crystalite orange…5.50 mm
Pattern: Bernat
Time: Not too long, actually, might add up to a couple of days.
Size: 28″ around and 14″ long. I’m hoping it will fit my friend’s toddler.
Extra: #1 The pattern has you make the back and the front pieces separately. I started off that way, but decided to frog and redo the entire body in one piece up to the armholes, then finish the back and fronts individually. That sort of ensured I’d actually finish the thing. I just added the different stitch counts together.
Now the other UFO (this is more of a UFO than the cardigan, really). The self-lined bag had been finished bar the seaming and sewing the button. So naturally I dawdled. Now I want to give this to the same friend with the birthday kid, so I finished it last night. I hope she likes it. It looks a bit homemade…
Pattern details:
Yarn: Unknown acrylic, probably RH or Mainstays, that I got in a recycling contest from Crochet Partners.
Needles: 3.75 mm Pony circulars
Pattern: Lion Brand
Time: Six months? (ouch!)
Size: 6.5″ x 3″ x 10″ Pretty much close to the size in the pattern. Wow!
Extra: #1 Used plastic canvas to line the bottom.
#2 Seaming is horrible, as usual.
#3 In a masochistic mood, I decided to do the I-cord on DPNs as recommended by the pattern, rather than use my trusty knitting knobby. Shudder. Unsurprisingly, it took me ages to reach the target of 20 miles 45″.
In book news (I always go berserk reading when I come here), I bought myself Alexander McCall Smith’s The Sunday Philosophy Club, my first Isabel Dalhousie book. I’ve read his 44 Scotland Street and The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency and liked both. But I’m saving this book up to read on the journey back or in Vizag. Instead, I’ve been reading some books borrowed from the British Council Library.
I read Donna Leon‘s Uniform Justice and found a gem in it about mothers-in-law. Unfortunately, I forgot to jot it down, but it seemed so apt. I find the attitudes of the Italians as described by Leon very similar to Indian attitudes. The way corruption is tolerated, accepted as a fact of life, the view taken of policemen and politicians and the inter-city prejudices. I’ve always liked the Italians for the two-governments-per-year policy they appear to have 😀 They’re fun and goodlooking! And I found Italian easiest to learn of all the foreign languages I’ve learnt. Plus I admire the ancient Romans, too (for their engineering and architecture). No idea why an American writer living in Italy has books in the British Library, though.
I finished Ruth Rendell‘s To Fear a Painted Devil, which is a murder mystery (as opposed to some of the psychological thrillers Rendell has written). Vintage, although not an Inspector Wexford story. Nobody can beat British women writers of mystery. In English, anyway.
Now I’m reading another Leon, Death at La Fenice. It’s taking me somewhat longer to read these books than it used to, because of so many diversions and the crafting and shopping and things in the background (like kids being shouted at, the TV and radio). Ah well. It isn’t a race 🙂
Well, not really, but this here post will have a few of the odd FOs I always have. The first photo up there shows three handtowels I whipped up with some terry yarn I swapped for at the knittyboard. No idea of the content of the yarn, but it has a thread chain with the fuzzy bits hanging off it. If anyone recognises the stuff, please do tell me. ETA: The yarn is the discontinued Lion Brand Polarspun. The blue yarn was less substantial than the pastel multicoloured. I got both yarns as four handrolled centre-pull skeins (rewound by the swapper, I’m thinking, but not in the square format the yarn winder would give, so I’m curious how that was achieved.)
Dirty details:
Yarn: Unknown terry-like yarn, four skeins of each. Lion Brand Polarspun
Needles & hook: 4.5mm Boye circular (I think, it’s silver coloured and Heide sent it to me) and 6.5 mm Boye crochet hook (again, would someone tell me why the crochet hooks are so much heavier than the knitting needles?!!)
Pattern: The single-coloured ones were knit from the long side up, plain stockinette stitch with a 4 row garter stitch border (3 stitch garter border on either side), bound off when I thought they were broad enough. Then I improvised a crochet topper for each, with my favourite flower closing, thus eliminating the need to sew a button. Voila! The patchy one is crochet, since I had less than two skeins of each colour remaining. I think you could call the technique intarsia. No? Also worked from the long side up and totally done by sight (as in, “Isn’t that wide/high enough?”).
Time: About 4 hours each?
Size: Oh dear. About um…whatever. Big enough to be hand towels. I refuse to go measure the things, since it won’t change the course of history whether I do or don’t.
Extra: #1 Intarsia! Intarsia?
#2 Someone please tell me why Boye knitting needles are lighter than Boye crochet hooks!
#3 For me!
Now those things up there are very green. No, not in colour. But I used old dead CDs inside and the yarn is the final remnants of some I won in a Crochet Partners recycling contest. We present the CD Coasters (could be a rock group, right?)!
Yarn: Unknown terry-like yarn, four skeins of each.
Needles & hook: 4.5mm Boye circular (I think, it’s silver coloured and Heide sent it to me) and 6.5 mm Boye crochet hook (again, would someone tell me why the crochet hooks are so much heavier than the knitting needles?!!)
Pattern: From here, here, here and here (darn, I can’t find a link right now and I have to go watch CSI: Miami). For the unseen sides, I just did a strategic decrasing circle. All four went to my mom.
Time: A couple of hours each, maybe??
Size: Just bigger than the CDs.
Extra: #1 Finished off the aran fleck. Thought I’d finished the purple also, but found another half-skein or so. Sigh.
Right. CSI beckons. Must go.
swakrta.com 