Posts filed under 'Project Spectrum'
I am really all over the place with my knitting lately! I have a bad case of Startitis. But I was really itching to knit with that Kool-Aide dyed yarn from the previous post. It’s in the Project Spectrum colors of August and September: Purple, brown, and orange (with burgundy accidentally thrown in). So I really want to focus on this project and try to finish it up during September. So anyway, I was working on it this past week and I’m really, really liking the way it’s knitting up! Yay! i’m so happy! My first knitting with my handspun! What the hell is it you ask? Well, it’s the beginnings of a hat. I ran out of yarn and had to finish spinning some up. The hank is drying at the moment and I will continue on when it’s dry. I am just at the point where you start decreasing. I started out making the seed-stitch hat/scarf combo from this month’s issue of Knit Simple (as i mentioned before). But the seed stitch was too much for this yarn. So I frogged and went with plain old stockinette and I like it much better. The pattern also tells you to cast on double the amount of crown stitches and then knit in ribbing for an inch. I didn’t want to do that. I mean, it would be all floppy where the ribbing is! I like my hats kind of snug. So I am basically just doing my own thing, inspired by the hat/scarf combo pattern in Knit Simple.
In the meantime I’m working on this scarf from Victorian Knitting today. It’s kind of a boring knit. So it may take me awhile. I do four rows and have to put it aside. But it’s going to be pretty when it’s done. I love the “color”.
Bunny still doesn’t have a face. I need to spend time on that. The recipient’s birthday has past so I need to finish the bunny up already. Also, Summertime Tunic is done. I just have to frog down my icord a bit so it doesn’t hang down to the floor when it is tied in front. Oh, and I also need to buy a strapless bra. But it’s really cute!
Happy Tuesday!
September 11th, 2007
I promised you a picture of my felted clogs, which I have been wearing constantly (while in the house) for almost two weeks. I LOVE them. I love everything about them. Knitting them was so much fun. It was really cool to see how they would all come together. AND they knit up very, very fast. I had the first one knitted in a day. A mere few hours, really. The felting process was fun, too. I like felting, though. The key with these is to try them on as you are felting them to get the best fit. That means you have to try them on when they are wet, and a little warm (if using hot water to felt). But it’s really worth it because they fit like a dream. They kind of molded to my foot. Like I said, I love them.
The second project that I worked on this week were these footies. As I was rushing out of the house on Tuesday morning I decided that I wanted to knit some footies. I had a knitting date that night so I grabbed some remnants of leftover Lorna’s Laces yarn and decided to try to figure it out later. I was going to try and wing it but I didn’t have to. I found this wonderful little pattern on the Blue Blog. For this project I learned how to do a short row heel and toe and, oh my god, I love it. How much easier can it get? I didn’t have to count anything. I didn’t have to keep track of my rows. And it seemed really quick. Plus, I just love the way it looks. I knitted these little footies up in a couple of days. I will be making more. I will probably make several pairs of these because I love wearing footies.
August 26th, 2007
Hi! I’m back from my vacation. I’m updating on the fun times at Blatherskite if you are intersted (or really boared and need something to do 
). There were some knitting adventures. And that I will update here. I actually found one yarn store. I didn’t seek out yarn stores in any of the towns we camped near because, well, I was in no condition to go shopping, frankly. But when we were staying on the Long Beach Peninsula we stayed in a really nice motel (where I actually got to take a blessed shower!). And guess what? There was a yarn store right in the little town we stayed in! At first I couldn’t find it and I actually drove and walked down the street it was on twice. I had come to the conclusion that it didn’t exist anymore and that I had looked in an old phone book. But then I had the brains to ask the nice sales lady at an awesome used book store that we stopped at and she gave me directions. It was just down closer to the beach and I didn’t venture down far enough down the road to find it! It is the Tapestry Rose yarn shop. A very fine establishment. Very good customer service and it is located right at the beach. Can’t get much better than that! Oh and it is in the same building as a cafe. Perfect! Of course I bought yarn. I bought a ball of Tofutsies. I mean, come on. I had to buy yarn made partly of crab shells while on the beach. Oh, and i bought the Fiber Trends felted clog pattern. I started on them and am, actually, almost finished knitting them, as you can see from the picture. What a fun knit! And they are in orange, 1/3rd of the next two month’s color triads for Project Spectrum 2.0.
Speaking of that, here is another P.S. project I did yesterday. I bought a pound of BFL roving from Paradise Fibers yesterday, undyed. Then I space-dyed 4 ounces of it using my crockpot with Kool-aide. I used two packets of grape, two packets of orange, and then to make brown I used one packet of orange and one packet of purple. The directions call for four jars of color so I mixed one package of purple and one package of red for the fourth jar, hoping to get a deeper shade of purple. Instead, I got burgundy. Here is what it looks like:
Interesting, eh? It will be fun to spin up. I’m contemplating how to do this. I’m not sure if I want long runs of color, but I don’t think I have much of a choice. Well, I will just go for and see what happens. I am going to play some more with this Kool-aid dying, though. It’s addicting!
August 14th, 2007
I’m on vacation this week. I had hoped to go camping someplace fun, like Mount Hood, or something. Anything. But it’s been raining and cold all week. No matter! I’ve been crafting! And it’s been so fun! A week of crafty goodness. So I started the week casting on for Hedera, my first Project Spectrum project for June/July. I am using some leftover black Rowan 4ply cotton. So far I like them. The pattern is, thankfully, easy to memorize. There have been no knitting tantrums so far with this sock. Thank goodness.
My intention was to knit the pair of these this week. But that’s not going to happen. Why? Because of that nice little packet of roving I got in the mail last week I’ve been sucked into the spinning vortex and can’t seem to stop. Help! I love to spin but by do I get obsessed with it when I start. I can’t think about anything else. Anyway, here is what it’s spinning up into:
So pretty. So very pretty. I Andean Plied it and it’s really lovely yarn. It’s still drying but I will take pictures and post them later.
Hope your week is going well
June 6th, 2007
As promised, here is an official “finished” shot of Rusted Root, and the specs.
Pattern: Rusted Root by Zephyrstyle.
Yarn: Southwest Trading Company Bamboo. A bit over two skeins. It’s hard to tell because I started with a leftover skein. I ended up with about half a skein left out of the two and a half that I had to start.
Needles: Size 6 Addi turbos for the body and size 4 Addi Naturas for the ribbing on the edgings.
Started: April 2nd, 2007
Finished: April 16th 2007.
Click here for the blog archive of this project.
I wore this to work on the day that I took these pictures. Got lots of compliments, which was nice. The sweater did stretch out a bit by the end of they day. That tends to happen with silk sweaters, too. The fabric must get kind of heavy or something. It’s not bad, though. It still looked good.
As I mentioned, I loved the bamboo yarn. It is a fantastic alternative to cotton, I think. It was really silky and soft as I was knitting it and the fabric when knitted up has a really nice, light breathable quality to it.
This was my first top-down sweater and I really enjoyed the process. It got a little boring when I got to the body and had to knit stockinette forever, but that’s to be expected. The best part was not having to seam at all! loved that.
All in all, I’m very happy with it
April 22nd, 2007
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