Giant afghan COMPLETE!

I FINALLY finished my Mom’s afghan. Just in time for Mother’s Day. As you can see here, I started this back in July. It was supposed to be a Christmas present, but it just took waaaay too long.

It’s 84″ square and has nearly 3 miles of yarn in it. I just hope Mom likes it and that the dogs don’t chew it up. =(

Pattern
Project on Ravelry

 

Quickie projects

Over the weekend, I whipped up a couple quick projects for a friend, KC.

Last time I hung out with KC, she picked up some Hostess cupcakes and squee’d for joy. She also crochets, so I knew she’d get a kick out of this project.

I totally winged this off the top of my head, so no pattern. It has a cardboard circle on the bottom and is stuffed with polyfil.

Clearly this project is made of win. All she could say after this was “CUPCAKE!!!!!” =D

KC is a medical student and a crafter, so we got to talking about knit and crochet anatomical parts. I mentioned that I’ve made a knit heart for MB (similar to this pattern, but I ended up winging it more off pictures). MB then joked that I “knit replacement parts for those who don’t have them”. (I’ve also knit myself a pancreas, and a gallbladder for a friend who had gallbladder surgery). KC piped up and asked if I could knit her some ovaries because she has Turner syndrome. A lightbulb went off in my head, and I knew just the pattern.

Yup, that’s a womb alright… The fallopian tubes are poseable with wire. I know she and her other medical student friends will enjoy it.

 

Craft update

I’ve been finishing a lot of small projects lately since most of my important projects (afghan for my Mom and sweater for GiR) are now too big to fit on the bus.

First of all, GiR’s mom gave me some yarn she bought at a garage sale. I thought the best thing to do with it was to knit her a wrap for Christmas.

It was such a quick knit with Lion Brand Homespun using #10 1/2 needles. I only had just under 3 skeins, but I think it turned out long enough. I hope she likes it.

Next is my Dishcloth Reloaded from Mason-Dixon Knitting. It took me about 3 tries to start this thing, but I finally finished. I used 6s instead of the 8s called for (my 8s were busy), so it ended up a little stiffer than it should have been. Also, it doesn’t lay completely flat, but for a dishcloth it’s not really that important. Used Peaches ‘n’ Cream in a sort of light green color (greener than in the pic).

Next up is a shrug from Fitted Knits. I used some leftover Red Heart from my stash, and I made it a solid color instead of the two-tone from the book. Also, I didn’t make the shawl collar as big. This was such a quick easy knit (only 1 week of working on the bus) that I’ll probably make a few of these.

Penultimately is a crochet snood I made for use at Ren Faires. However, it fit so well and I love how it holds my hair, I might make a few just to wear normally. I used Caron Simply Soft and a J hook, and added one extra increase round. Plus, this took only 1 day to make!

Finally, is an infinity dress made from some soft stretchy blue fabric. I made one of these before, but it turned out a little too short to wear as a dress. It’s cool, comfortable, and completely reconfigurable. And it only has 1 seam to sew!

Phew! That’s a lot of stuff! There are a couple more things that I haven’t taken pics of yet, but I will save that for another post.

EDIT: I forgot one more thing. A knit chevron washcloth from Mason-Dixon Knitting. It used exactly 2 skeins of KnitPicks Cotlin on #5s. Easy memorizable pattern. Now hopefully I can convince people to actually use the handknits. =P

 

Two steps back, one step forward

I have started working on Christmas (yes, Christmas) presents already. My mom has commissioned an afghan, and I selected this pattern. It was going pretty well until I found that I had somehow inserted an extra scallop like 4 or 5 rows back. Unlike knitting where you can simply drop the offending stitches and re-work them, I had to rip nearly the whole thing back.

The error occurred in the maroon row right below the blue row. I found it when I was half way through the maroon section above the blue row. Ugh. Luckily I was able to quickly catch back up and continue onward with another white section.

I have also started on a zip-up cardigan for GiR, based on Paton’s Urban Aran pullover with modifications similar to Brooklyn Tweed’s.

See? It’s a sweater, right? *sigh* The pattern is written to be seamed, but I modified so that the fronts and back are worked at the same time. I forgot to eliminate the extra seam stitch, so there was a chunk of P4 on the side when it should have been part of a K2 P2 rib. Also, I found out that I had worked too many rows with the smaller needles. I was supposed to switch after 6 rows, but for some reason I thought it was after 2″. While I was trying to create a lifeline of sorts with the larger needles, I tried the sweater on GiR. OMG, waaaay too huge. His chest size indicated I should make a M, but I didn’t believe it, so I cast on for the L. I should have listened to the pattern.

Needless to say, all of these errors added up and resulted in a yarn ball. However, I have learned from my mistakes and cast on for attempt #2 this morning. So far so good.

I was so frustrated with all these rip-backs, that I threw together a neat little mosaic piece that will eventually become a pouch for my sister. I bought the hot pink and orange yarn (her favorite colors), knowing that I could figure something out to make for her. I had always wanted to try out mosaic knitting, so I took the trim from this pattern and winged my way through a rectangle.

The large pink part will be the bottom. I will sew up the sides and add in a hot pink zipper and some lining. As far as the mosaic knitting goes, it was really easy to figure out since I had already made some Ballband dishcloths, which use a similar technique.

 

Projects on a Plane

While on vacation this past weekend, I managed to churn out a few small projects.

Spiral Rib Bag from One Skein, using up some leftover Paton’s Shetland Chunky from my Buttony Sweater (more on that later).

Baby Bolero from One Skein, in green Cotton-Ease. This is for my hypothetical future children. It’s a fun pattern to make, so I figured I’d get this out of the way in plenty of time.

Double-knit is like some sort of bizarre magic. It took me like 3 tries to figure it out, but once I did, it was magic. I have no idea how this even works, but it looks awesome. I used the basic instructions from Knitting Help, but GiR designed the daisy part. =)

Also of note, but not made on a plane, is this crochet mesh bag that I designed myself. I haven’t used it yet, so I hope it’s sturdy enough.

 

I’m a knitting fool

Since I got a TON of knitting and crochet books for my birthday, including One Skein, I decided that I would try out a bunch of little projects. I’ve been pretty slack in posting all my FOs, so this is going to be a gigantic, pic-obese post. =)

Knitty’s Danica, but without the 3rd accent color. Yarn is KnitPick’s dye-your-own, which I dyed using Wilton icing dyes in blue and teal. Then I sewed some blue fleece to the back both to cover up the wrong side and to provide soft warmth. This was my first time doing entrelac and it was a lot of fun.

My very first sweater, using the Minimalist Funnel Neck pattern from MagKnits. Used Caron Simply Soft in violet, just over 1 skein for the 32″ bust size.

Then we have a ballband dishcloth from Mason-Dixon Knitting. Just some scraps of Sugar ‘n Cream I had lying around. I will definitely be making more of these.

My first attempt at felting something. Loosely based on a pattern from One Skein. The yellow part is some Cascade 220 left over from my Clapotis. The blue/green base is leftover from my Danica (pictured above). I hand-felted this in the sink, which I don’t think I will do again. I will definitely use the washing machine next time.

I recently found out that my cousin-in-law is pregnant, so I jumped at the chance to knit up some baby stuff. This is One Skein’s Baby Bolero in Lion Brand Cotton-Ease. I think I have enough of a skein left to make a matching hat, but I’m not sure. I loved working with Cotton-Ease and I’ve already bought more to make another baby sweater. I had to rip-out and re-do the ribbing, but that’s because I didn’t follow the pattern properly. My bad.

The back has an interesting eyelet motif that supposedly protects the wearer. It looked neat, so I left it in.

It’s not knitting, but I also finished my Fat-Bottom Bag from Happy Hooker. I used an H hook instead of an I hook, and the yarn is just some gray acrylic left over from a couple Bubbys. My attempt to sew in a lining was pretty weak, but it’ll work. I may add a crochet blue flower to match the contrast yarn, but I haven’t decided yet. I don’t think I’ll ever actually use the bag; I just wanted to make one. =)

Currently on the needles is the Petal Bib from One Skein (also for the cousin-in-law). I’m also crochet-ing a kitchen mat based on the bath mat from One Skein. Can you tell I <3 that book?

 

First crochet afghan (and a lot of parentheses)

And it’s not even for myself.

My Great Aunt Maxine commissioned me to crochet an afghan that she could give to someone else. The price was right, so I obliged.

It’s pretty simple. Each row was just hdc across (my favorite crochet stitch) and I switched colors every 3 rows. The stripes run lengthwise down the afghan, and I added fringe onto the short sides (essentially the “top” and “bottom” of the afghan). I think it ended up measuring about 70″ tall and 44″ wide, and took about 3 weeks or so to finish (just guessing, I don’t really remember). I liked the colors so much (they match my living room), I think I may make an afghan or a star-shaped blanket for myself.