A new sock and hubby saves the day

Posted on March 28, 2007 by Twilight

I’ve started on a new pair of socks using my bamboo birthday yarn.

Bamboo socks

The bamboo yarn is gorgeous and feels great to knit. It tends to spin a bit so occasionally I dangle the sock to let the yarn untwist itself. Indigo is modeling my recently finished toe.

Bamboo socks

Things were going well until I had a knitting crisis. Recently I bought a full set of double pointed needles off ebay. When they arrived I was overjoyed. So many needles! But the points gave me trouble. Some of the needles points were blunt, some barely tapered. This made knitting difficult and slow since I was having trouble putting the needle point into stitch after stitch.

No problem I thought. I’ll just sand the needles to make a finer point. I sanded the needles on the sock I’m working on. After all five needles were done I started knitting again. The yarn caught on the yarn, the sharp points kept pricking my fingers, the points didn’t fit into my stitches easily. I had sanded my needles wrong and made them worse!

That’s when I cried. True, I could have resanded them or even gone to the store and bought another pair. But I had been so happy with my ebay purchase and then for not panicking and trying to fix the problem myself. Mind you I’m on my period and my emotions are running high. I’m a little sensitive right now.

Thebes asked to look at my needles. I showed him my hack job and then a pair of good needles. He took the bad needles and some sandpaper and fixed them for me. I cried again but this time it was happy tears. (Sometimes I’m a wee melodramatic it’s true.) Knitting crisis averted I continued on with my sock.

Here’s a picture of my adorable husband cuddling Prana while they both sleep. It’s one of my favorite pictures of the two of them.

My pookies

Stash Skirt Finished

Posted on March 26, 2007 by Twilight

I’m finished with the Stash Skirt and absolutely love it!

Stash skirt

A close up of the lace and ruffle. I really enjoyed the lace work on this project.

Stash skirt

I used some other blue stash yarn for the drawstring. It’s not an exact match but it’s close enough. I had some blue thread that I used to sew the hem down. This is the first time I’ve ever done a hem like this. I’m really pleased with how it turned out.

Stash skirt

Here’s me squinting at the camera while Thebes takes my pic. It fits so well. Yay!

Stash skirt

A close up of the skirt in action. Truth be told the stockinette just barely covers the panties. I’ll have to wear dark colored panties or flesh colored so they’ll blend in. Whoops! I really thought I had made the stockinette long enough. That just means its extra flirty right? No matter, I love this skirt and will wear it proudly.

Stash skirt

Jubilation!

Posted on March 22, 2007 by Twilight

Stash skirt

That little ball is all I have left after the ruffle. I did it! It was an intense bind off with me knitting tight to conserve as much yarn as possible. I’m so relieved I had enough. This little ball will be saved for repairs. I always save a bit on my bigger projects just in case.

There’s still work to be done-weaving in strands, sewing down the hem, making a drawstring. But it’s finished enough to try on and it fits. I’m ecstatic! This is the first larger piece of knitting I’ve designed and it fits wonderfully. I owe my inspiration to Elizabeth Zimmerman’s battle cry of “Be the boss of your knitting.”

The ruffles turned out beautifully.

Stash skirt

This is crazy knitting!

Posted on March 21, 2007 by Twilight

Stash skirt

For the ruffle I am knitting into the front and back of each stitch. I was increasing so fast I was running out of room on my needles. So I added another pair, and then another, and then another. It feels like I have pointy sticks everywhere in this skirt. A close up:

Stash skirt

Despite this madness the ruffle is turning out. However, tension is high on the bind off. I’m almost out of yarn. I have one needle left of stiches and a tiny tiny little ball of yarn left. Will I make it? I hope so because I’ve already redone the ruffle three times and I don’t want to do it again. I’m so close. If I run out I think I’ll just redo the bind off on smaller needles and hope that does the trick.

Needle Case Tutorial

Posted on March 16, 2007 by Twilight

For my tutorial I like to think of it as a recipe instead of precise instructions. If you make a needle case based on my tute please email me. I’d love to see pictures. Some history of the project can be found at this post.

To make a needle case you’ll need a sheet of plastic canvas and some yarn. At the time I didn’t realize there were different sized plastic canvas. I did use some stash yarn that was thick so the squares would be well filled.

Needle Case Tutorial

My old paper needle holder served as a guide to cutting out the plastic canvas. I cut two pieces instead of one figuring one larger piece wouldn’t close as easily.

Needle case tutorial

Tieing the yarn on I prepared to weave.

Needle case tutorial

Weaving the ends is pretty simple. The only trick is to make sure you weave in the same direction.

Needle case tutorial

The edge consisted of weaving one square. For the middle rows I weaved into two squares.

Needle case tutorial

The longer the yarn the less knots you’ll have to make. When joining a new piece I made the knot at the side.

Needle case tutorial

The completed pieces. While weaving I noticed one side hid the plastic better. I’m not sure why but I suspect it has something to do with yarn tension.

Needle case tutorial

I trimmed the knot tails and sewed them down with matching thread. I’ve circled those areas with yellow. The blue circle is a spot I had to tack down because the yarn got wonky.

Needle case tutorial

I sewed the two pieces together with matching thread and illustrated that below with blue lines. In hindsight I see that I could have left one long edge bare on each piece and then weaved the two pieces together with yarn. But the thread works just as well.

Needle case tutorial

I cut some fabric a little larger than the combined pieces.

Needle case tutorial

Tucking the edges under as I went I handsewed the fabric down to the outer layer. I also sewed a line down the center where the two pieces meet thinking that would “guide” the case to close.

Needle case tutorial

The ties were just a length of yarn knotted on each side. The tail was sewn under the fabric. I’d suggest putting in the ties before sewing down the fabric.

Needle case tutoria

And voila! A completed needle case.

Needle case

Frogging the Lace

Posted on March 13, 2007 by Twilight

The stash skirt was coming along but I wasn’t pleased with how the lace was turning out. The smaller needles worked great for a tight stockinette stich but obsured the lace pattern. Just as I was about to use up the second skein I decided to frog back the lace and start over. I went up a couple of sizes in needles and began the lace anew. And it’s so much better!

Stash skirt

The lace now has a more open feel which is what I was going for.

Stash skirt

I have one skein left. With the bigger needles the knitting’s going so much faster. I hope to finish it up this week.

Needle Case

Posted on March 10, 2007 by Twilight

I finished my needle case and am really happy with the way it turned out. This project was done based on my childhood memory which admittedly wasn’t the best way to do it. But it turned out just like I remember my mom’s needle case. I also got new needles because I’ve had my old ones for years.

Needle case

A front view. I love this yarn!

Needle case

The needle case doesn’t close completely but the needles stay put in the fabric.

Needle case

I took pictures while making this and plan to post a tutorial soon.

My next project is adding some knit trim to some pants that are a bit short. I plan to make the trim in a feather and fan pattern. My test swatch turned out well. It’s an easy pattern to memorize.

Practice feather and fan pattern

Lacework and a Lunar Eclipse

Posted on March 6, 2007 by Twilight

After a long stretch of stockinette I’ve moved into the lace part of my stash skirt. My progress so far:

Stash skirt

Prana attempted chewing on my needles after I took this pic. What a cutie. The lace is simply a yarnover and k2tog over and over. I’m going to keep working in lace until my stash yarn is used up.

I placed the lace over a white sheet of paper in hopes you can see the pattern better.

Stash skirt