Owl Hat

Another hat going into the silent auction. This time I used size 8 needles, rather than the listed size 7 (since the last hat I knit with 7s turned into a child-size hat). And the hat turned out quite nicely and fits perfectly with the size 8s. It's supposed to be an owl hat - the cable pattern forms little owls, which I think are actually visible (though I'm not sure if people would pick out the owls without knowing to look for them).

Used Cascade 200 superwash - I had some left over in the Ravenclaw blue color, so that's what it is.

Green Irish Hiking Scarf

I had made an Irish Hiking Scarf for myself (I love it!) and so I decided to make one for the Comitatus silent auction. While gaming, I've been knitting on the scarf (the pattern is easy to follow so I don't have to concentrate very much on it). Well, one of the gamers has been commenting on the scarf and how much she loves it and that she'll definitely be bidding on it in the auction. I know I should probably leave it for the auction, but she really seems to love it. And handknitted pieces are things that I'd really like to go to an appreciative home - I probably spent well over 30 hours on this scarf. And her birthday is tomorrow. I finished the scarf today - perfect timing. So tomorrow at game night, she'll find the scarf all for her without having to worry about losing it to someone in the auction. (I'll just have to make some other projects to make up for this one.) Oh, and this one is made out of Malabrigo as well!

Green Cable Hat

This hat didn't quite turn out as planned. Oh it looks quite lovely and I'm happy with the way it turned out except for one bit - the size. It's a wee bit smaller than I had planned. That's what I get for not doing a test swatch to check my gauge. It should fit a young child quite nicely, though, so I'll be putting it in the Comitatus silent auction. (And the yarn is - you guessed it - Malabrigo!)

Dice Bag

On Thursday nights this semester, I've been playing D&D - a first for me, but I wish I had discovered it earlier because I love playing! I got a set of beautiful dice for my birthday and needed a bag to carry them in. So here it is - made out of a lovely purple Malabrigo, the oh-so-soft wonderful yarn that I love most.

Ravenclaw Scarf

A friend on a forum I frequent showed some pictures of the Harry Potter Festival she went to in honor of the release of the 7th book. She was dressed as a Ravenclaw and had entered a contest for a free wand (nice hand carved wood) and won! She said that her costume was complete except for a scarf. So I decided that I wanted to help her complete her costume (she'll be wearing it for future events) and got to work on a Ravenclaw scarf.

From the tie she was wearing, it looked like the POA-style scarf was the way to go. The Charmed Knits book said to knit it flat in a 1x1 rib. I did start out that way but I just didn't like the way it looked. So I adjusted it to the tube stockinette scarf like the Gryffindor one that I made. Much better! I wasn't too keen on the thin stripes - changing the yarn colors (even wrapping the yarn instead of cutting it) that frequently was just not a lot of fun. But I watched several TV shows and listened to a couple of audiobooks and the scarf is finished! I'll be mailing it off tomorrow (it's a surprise!), and hope that it works with her costume. (ETA: The scarf arrived and she is very happy to have it!)



Details:
Yarn used: Cascade 220 Superwash in Blue (#813) and Grey (#816)
Needles: Size 8 circular (16")
Pattern: from Charmed Knits

Gryffindor Hat

Although I'm still working on the Quidditch sweater, I felt the need to work on a smaller project for a while. Since I had some yarn left over from my Gryffindor scarf, I decided to try a Gryffindor hat to go with it. It was a pretty quick knit and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out:



And since you can't really get a good idea of what it looks like just sitting on a flat surface, here I am wearing it:

Gryffindor Scarf

I'm so excited to have finished this project. I had seen this pattern online, but I had not gotten around to doing it. Then a couple of weeks ago, a new knitting book came out full of Harry Potter patterns (Charmed Knits) and I decided to work on a bunch of Harry Potter projects, starting with a Gryffindor scarf.



The scarf itself was pretty easy to make - it was knit in the round so to get the stockinette look, I just had to knit and knit and knit (no purling or other stitches). That did make it a bit boring to work on at times, but by remembering what I would have at the end, I was able to keep up with it.



The fringing was a new technique for me but it wasn't that difficult. Of course I did run into my usual problem with binding off too tightly so that one end was not as wide as the other, which affected the fringe. If you count, you can see that one side has two more pieces of fringe than the other because one side just held more. Oops! I really do need to start binding off using a large needle to see if that will work for me.



So here's the scarf on me. It's the height of summer right now so I won't be needing it any time soon (nor do I want the weather to get colder - I can wait to wear it). Sorry about the photo being dark - I used a mirror so couldn't use a flash.



Next up for a scarf is a Slytherin one for Jarrett. I also plan to make house socks, Quidditch socks, a Quidditch sweater, and smaller scarves to be used as bookmarks. And that's just what I have yarn for - there's plenty more patterns to be found in the book!

Edited August 16, 2010 to add what yarn was used.

Yarn: Cascade 220 Wool in Burgundy (#2413) and Gold (#7827)
Note: The Charmed Knits book has a list of recommended colors for all houses in this yarn, Cascade 220 Superwash, Plymouth Encore, Lang Jawoll Sport, Knit Picks Essential, Jaeger Matchmaker DK, Brown Sheep Nature Spun Worsed, and Jamieson's Double Knitting. So it's well worthwhile to buy the book just to get the color selections already done for you.

Husky Dog

I have a book called World of Knitted Toys, which is what I used when I made the snake for Kyle. Jarrett was really excited to see a husky pattern inside as he loves huskies. So I made it for him and finished this morning - just in time as today is his birthday.

I'm not sure how much he truly looks like a husky, but it's a cute little thing. I'm glad I was able to find blue eyes - Jarrett says that it's not a husky without blue eyes.





I did run into a few problems while I was knitting this. The yarns that I used were two different brands and although they looked like they were the same weight, they knitted up quite differently. My first attempt at the body created a very tiny grey piece and a large white piece which just looked awful together. So I tried again, going up two needles sizes for the grey. It's still a little smaller, but looks much better than the first one. I also couldn't figure out how to get the feet to turn so the legs are just straight down, but I don't think it looks that bad. He doesn't want to stand up, so I did have to fix the front two legs to get him to stand - I'll ask Jarrett if he wants me to do the back legs also or if he's okay like this. Lots of seaming and sewing together - tasks I don't like very much, but he's cute and will make Jarrett happy, so it's worth it.

Yarn used:
Grey - Plymouth Yarn (80% Baby Alpaca; 20% Acrylic)
White - Sensations Beautiful (49% Acrylic; 51% Nylon)

More Small Felted Purses

I think I went crazy with the small felted purse. I've made two more in the past couple of weeks, trying to use up some of my yarn stash.



So here are all four purses that I've finished together.

Bib #2

I've been a bit behind in keeping up with posting what I've been knitting. I finished this second bib about a month ago. Since my brother-in-law and his wife are expecting the baby at the end of July, this means I finished way ahead of schedule. Now I just need to make sure that I mail it to them with plenty of time!

My First Sock!!

Yes, I do mean sock. I've finished the first one of a pair. I should probably wait until finishing the second sock before posting this as a finished project, but I was so excited with how the first one turned out that I had to write about it.

Here's the beginning of the sock, working on the cuff:


And here's where I'm working on the heel:


I couldn't resist trying it on well before it was done:


And here are a few final shots of me wearing the finished sock!

Bib #1

I'm working on a set of bibs for my brother-in-law and his wife, who are expecting their first baby this summer. This is the first bib, in purple. It was a little difficult because I had to create the five petal pieces separately, put them on stitch holders, and then knit them all together. But the challenge was worthwhile because I love the way the bib turned out.



For the other bibs, I have some pink yarn, so I'll do one completely in pink. Then, since the petals are done separately, I'm going to do two more bibs with some variation in the pink and purple (either all the petals and the tie in one color and the body in another or alternating petals in the pink and purple - I haven't completely decided yet).

Pattern: Petal Bib from One Skein
Yarn: Rowan Calmer (75% cotton; 25% acrylic)

Fingerless Mittens

I've been having really cold hands in the apartment, which makes it difficult to read and knit at times, so I decided to make some fingerless mittens. I had one ball of beautiful purple Malabrigo, so I decided it would be perfect and feel really nice against my hands.

Here's a picture of the first mitten in progress:



And here's the finished fingerless mittens. I wore the first one while knitting the second. And I've been wearing both of them most of the day since finishing them. My hands are definitely thanking me!



I learned a new technique with these. For the thumb hole, on one row I bound off four stitches and then on the next I cast back on those four stitches. I've never cast on stitches in the middle of a row before (I had to look up how to do it), but I think it turned out well.

Pattern: The Wave Hand Warmers from One-Skein Wonders edited by Judith Durant
Yarn: Malabrigo (kettle dyed pure merino wool and oh so soft!) in Purple Mystery
Needles: Size 8 double pointed

One Skein Felted Purse - Yellow and Green

Last month I made a little felted purse and fell in love with it. I had to make another one. Since it's knitted with two strands of yarn, I thought I'd try using two different colors. So I checked my stash and grabbed a green and yellow. One again, it came out rather nicely, although the colors aren't ones that I personally love. But that's okay as this is definitely one that I made specifically for the silent auction, so I hope someone else will like it. I also think that if I do another one, I'll try using i-cord for the handle.

Here's the purse before felting.



And then after felting, where the colors have blended in together rather nicely. (Still drying in the picture, hence the reason for the plastic bags you can see poking out of the inside.) Once it is dry, I'm going to add a magnetic button closure to it.



Here are the specs:
Pattern: One-Skein Felted Purse from One-Skein Wonders
Yarn: KnitPicks Wool of the Andes (100% Peruvian Highland Wool) in Forest Green Heather and Daffodil
Needles: Size 11 circular (24"); changed to straight needles for handle

Beanie

Jarrett doesn't have a hat and it's gotten pretty cold here, so I thought I'd try making one for him. I used the same yarn as the yarn in the "Tank Purse" since I have a lot of it still. Well, the hat turned out nicely, but I wasn't thinking ahead about fit, so it's too small for Jarrett. I'll have to do another one in a larger size for him. So I've tried it on myself - I don't really think I'm much of a beanie person, but it does fit me. Perhaps this will be another item for the silent auction in November. (I'm looking down in the picture so I can see the viewing screen on my camera. It's the best picture of the lot that I took, but the only one where I was looking down. *shrug*)



Pattern: The London Beanie
Yarn: KP Swish Superwash (100% Superwash Wool) – Bordeaux
Needles: Size 8 double pointed

Tank Purse

Okay, so I was working on the Tank Girl pattern in the first SNB book, a project I started way back in August. A project that I started before I truly understood the importance of yarn weight, needle size, and test swatches. Why is this important? Because the pattern used a bulky yarn with size 9 needles and I was using worsted and size 8. *sigh* I had gotten to the point of shaping the armholes:




But the whole time I was working on this (the back panel), I was wondering about the width. It seemed a bit narrow. I held it up to myself and noticed that it didn't stretch across my back to the sides unless I pulled on it a lot. Hmm...that would be a problem. I looked at the pattern again and noticed the difference in yarn and needle size. I also noticed a sketch that showed the dimensions of the piece. The width should have been 16-1/4 inches (or something close to that). What was mine? Only 9-1/2 inches!! Eek! No wonder it seemed a bit narrow. *big sigh* What to do? I didn't want to frog it all and start over. I just didn't have the heart. So I decided to make something different out of it.

An easy fold and some seaming and I had myself a purse! I did an i-cord handle (my first time with i-cord, which turned out nicely) and was happy with it:



The part where I had started the armhole shaping became the flap of the purse.



But there was one problem. When I held the purse by the handle, it sagged a LOT. So much so that it made the purse almost useless. So I decided to line it. I found this patterned felt and decided to try it. But I also used plastic canvas underneath to give it stiffness.



Well, the purse is now stiff and holds up perfectly when you hold the handle. But I think it might be a little too stiff and since I sewed the bottoms together, it is a bit narrow now on the inside. It definitely won't hold my fat wallet. I should have done a separate panel for the bottom. Grr.

Oh, well, I definitely learned a lot while working on this project (which I'm calling Tank Purse since it was originally a tank top pattern), and I hope I can use my lessons to benefit future projects. As for this purse, I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do with it. I used fabric glue to insert the panels, so I'm not sure if I can take them out. I might try to do that and then go buy more felt and try it without the plastic canvas. But I don't know if I can get the glue to unstick.

Original pattern: Tank Girl from SNB - adapted into a purse
Yarn: KP Swish Superwash (100% Superwash Wool) – Bordeaux
Needles: Size 8

Fuzzy Scarf

I belong to a group called Comitatus, which is our organization for students (grad and undergrad) interested in medieval studies. Each February we have a conference and for the past few years, we've had a silent auction in the fall to help fund the conference. I want to donate several knitted items to this year's silent auction and since I have quite a few months for knitting, I should be able to get a lot done. (The first item was the small felted purse that I finished earlier.)

A while back, I had bought two balls of this fuzzy novelty yarn, not really knowing what I'd do with it. It's been sitting in my storage tub, so I finally pulled it out and decided to just make a simple garter knit scarf, letting the fuzziness of the yarn be the attraction for the scarf. I'm glad that I didn't do anything more complicated. The yarn wasn't really that fun to work with. It was scratchy and hard to see the stitches. (When I finished, I forgot about leaving enough yarn for binding off so I had to go back and undo a row - that was horrible because I couldn't get a good feel for where the stitches were.)

But even though my hands feel scratched up now, the scarf has a mostly soft feel to it and looks neat. Since I had only two balls, it's a bit shorter than I would have liked, but we could just market it as a child's scarf or something if necessary.

This picture shows the color better than the one below.



And this picture shows the fuzziness a bit better.



Details:
Yarn: Bernat Boa Nouveau; color: Parrot? (#81305); 100% polyester
Needles: Size 9 straight
Pattern: Garter stitch

Felted Mittens

I found this pattern as a free pattern in Hobby Lobby and decided to try it out. I'm still learning how to use double pointed needles and I had never split anything off before (like you do here for the thumb), so I thought that if I made any mistakes, the felting might be able to cover them up.

So here's the first mitten as I was in progress on it.


And here is the first mitten - finished but before felting. It's definitely much bigger than my hand!


And here is the first mitten after felting. Quite a nice fit on my hand.


I had to wait a little while before working on the second mitten as I did not have enough yarn and had to order another ball. When it arrived, it took me only a couple of days to finish the second mitten. I did have a minor bobble around the thumb - when I picked the stitches back up for it, I got turned around (kinda like I did on the stocking), but I was able to get back on the right track quickly. But that's what the "ring" around the thumb is. I decided not to worry about it since they would be felted and it should disappear (it did). So here's the felted mitten beside the unfelted one (that gives you an idea of the difference in the size).



And now here is both mittens felted and finished and dry. The second one felted a little differently and is slightly more narrow than the first, but it still fits my hand (though it's a bit snug).



And finally, I tried taking a picture of me wearing them. I used my chin to push the button on the camera, so that's one reason why my hands are bent at a weird angle. But the picture came out well enough so you can see what they look like on my hands.



Here's the "technical" info:
Bernat Felted Knit Mittens
Yarn: KP Wool of the Andes (100% Peruvian Highland Wool) – Lake Ice Heather
Needles: Size 8 double pointed

Blocks for Charity Afghan

Over on PaperBackSwap, someone is organizing an afghan for charity, so I decided to try my hand at knitting a block or two. I thought I'd try mixing two colors from my yarn stash and create something a little more than just one-dimensional color.

Well, that didn't work out so well. It looks neat, but it's not the right size. The blocks are supposed to be 7" x 9". Since I was using two strands of yarn, I didn't get a good feel for how many stitches I needed to cast on. So it turned out to be longer than I had planned (I meant that size to be the 7" side). When I measured it before, it was 10" but just now measuring it, it's actually 9" - wow!

That would be well and good except for one thing. I ran out of yarn before I could finish. So it's only 5" on the other side. *sigh* I'll go ahead and send it in case there are any other oddly sized blocks and it actually could get used. Here's the picture (a zig-zag design):



So I tried again. This time I went ahead with the one-color yarn. I used the yarn from Mary's scarf (I still had two balls). I used the same pattern and got the measurements much better (although I did block it to get even more exact). But it's not perfect. It's a little less than 9" on one side and a little more less than 7" on the other. *sigh*



I might try another block with another pattern, but I'm going to go ahead and send these two off tomorrow.

Emily's Scarf

Rainy Day Scarf
Yarn: KP ShineWorsted (60% Pima Cotton/40% Modal) – Blush
Needles: Size 8

I wanted to make a scarf for my friend Emily, but she's allergic to wool. She also lives in Texas so doesn't need anything too heavy. So I decided to try this cotton yarn. I like the way it came out, but the yarn was sometimes a bit annoying to work with (it slid out of my fingers too easily and sometimes fuzz came off all over my hands)

Here's the scarf, wrapped around my neck (mirror shot)

And here's a close-up view of the scarf:

I did have one bit that didn't turn out so wonderfully. I've been really tight while binding off, so I made it a point to bind off loosely this time. It looks like I was a bit too loose as the ends now don't match. One is tight and square and the other points out at the corners (that's the loose bind off). I'm sure I could block the scarf and make it all line up, but I like the scrunched in look that it has right now so don't want to lose that. I guess I'll just send it to Em and let her decide what she wants to do with it.

One Skein Felted Purse - Tulip

I am officially in love with felting projects, and especially this new one that I tried. I got a couple of knitting books with projects that take one skein of yarn - I wanted to use up some of my stash and make some quick projects. This purse looked like a fun little project, plus I want to make a few items to put in the Silent Auction for Comitatus in November (never hurts to start working on them early!), so I thought this project would be perfect to make a little purse to put in the auction.

I used the same pink that I had used for my sister's and niece's clogs since I had two whole balls of yarn left (this project is knitted with two strands and the "one skein" used in the book had a lot more yardage than one of these, so I did end up using almost all of two balls of this yarn, but that's perfectly okay with me).

Here are the specs:
Pattern: One-Skein Felted Purse from One-Skein Wonders
Yarn: KnitPicks Wool of the Andes (100% Peruvian Highland Wool) in Tulip
Needles: Size 11 circular (24"); changed to straight needles for handle
Time taken: 2 days

So here is the purse, finished but before felting. (Yes the handle is supposed to be twisted - it gives it a little more thickness when felted.)



And here's the purse after felting.


It's just a small purse, but I think it's incredibly cute! I've quite fallen in love with it and I think I'm going to have to make a couple more of these. I can use the blue that I have left from my clogs to make one for me. Jarrett asked if I'd make one for his grandmother, so I think I'll do that in the snickerdoodle. Then I have the green left over from Mary's scarf, but with that I think I'll do something a bit different and pair the green with the skein of daffodil that I have (since it's knitted with two strands) and do a two-color effect. And I should have some of the purple left as well. And if I practice with needle felting, I could add some designs to it (like an initial or something of that sort). There are so many possibilities with this one project! One thing I especially like about this purse is that the bottom is knitted flat and then I picked up stitches around the edges and knitted the sides in the round. What does that mean? No seaming!

The purse is drying now (I straighted up the handle from what it's shown like in this picture, so it should dry a lot better), so it should be ready in a couple of days. The book suggests adding a snap closure to it, so I'm going to go look at Hobby Lobby to see what kinds of accessories they have and perhaps pick something up. But the purse is small enough that it might not need any type of closure.