Knitting at Night

Kaleidoscopic

nobody@vox.com(Angelique) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 07:14:27 -0500

I nearly fell out of my chair when I read this Onion article a little while back about the "Hubble Kaleidoscope":

BALTIMORE—Astronomers analyzing the first images captured by the new Hubble Space Kaleidoscope, which went online Tuesday, announced that they've acquired the first concrete evidence that the universe is in a constant state of total weirdness.

And this morning I wake up to read my daily Cute Overload email update, and they've, for reasons unclear, kaleidoscope'd a brunette poodle using this Very Important App.

And so, I could not resist ... look what it does!

Noro LUV

This is what my apartment looks like inside without the crazy glasses incidentally.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Twiglet hat = FIN

nobody@vox.com(Angelique) — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 20:43:11 -0500

Here it is, a cute hat ...

Twiglet spriglet

The stitch pattern is sort of difficult to see in this pic, so I'll describe. It's knit in the round in stockinette, where every other row you slip the 4th stitch. This creates a ridged effect that is more subtle than ribs, and less springy, too.

I worked the pattern from a picture online--a friend saw the hat and it was no longer for sale. I got pretty darn close, I must say. I hope it fits her son!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Honest-to-goodness WIPs

nobody@vox.com(Angelique) — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 11:24:26 -0500

Tweed raglan

There's lots on the needles these days. After ripping out the pretty red v-neck sweater I'd been working on since New Years or so, I was somewhat reluctant or sheepish or something about starting another sweater. To date, I've only finished a single wearable sweater, but I've come quite close (2...) on all but one of my failed attempts (...out of 3).

I really love Stefanie Japel's sweater-making style, so she's pretty much my inspiration. I'm not using a pattern for this piece, but it's extremely simple. There will be no fancy shaping apart from the raglan increases at the shoulders. I thought about working in some darts in the bust area, but that's a little too advanced for me right now to just wing it.

You'll notice a rich raspberry hank of Cascade 'Pastaza' lying there -- that will be for contrasting neck/arm/waist ribbing. The main yarn being a tweed has lots of little colored flecks, but more subtle are the fine, bright threads of almost fuchsia throughout. It's very pretty even though I'm not generally a pink/magenta-wearing sort of girl.

Vertical eyelet lace

Rust orange is also a bit of a departure for me color wise, but nevertheless I picked up a sweater's worth of Knit Picks' 'Gloss' in Pumpkin back in the spring to make Knitty's "Thermal".

I ended up losing interest in that pattern, so having seen a nice lace cardigan pattern named for the inimitable (try as some might) Katherine Hepburn I decided that was how I'd like to use this yarn.

Here you see the start of my lace swatch. It's called Vertical Eyelet Rows, and it's very easy. I am certainly capable of lace work, but I want to keep it basic for such a large project as this will be my first pattern that will require lots of seaming.

I will have to break down and figure out kitchener stitch it seems. I reeeeaaaallllly hate seaming, but for the look I want it is imperative that I learn. And how can I really call my self a knitter without properly knowing how to sew up seams? Of course, there will be a great many firsts for me on this project: shoulders and tubular cast-on to name a couple--both self-inflicted.

Crunchy baby hat

And to wrap up, I've begun a hat for my friend's 2-year-old son. The design is one she saw on Etsy, and since the seller had no plans to make more of the sold-out hat, my friend asked if I could make it for her.

It just so happened that I had in my stash the very yarn and colorway she wanted--seems fated, no? I love a yarn challenge, so I swatched to find the right stitch pattern (not all that visible in this pic) and the gauge for size 9 needles, sketched the basic arc of the journey, mapped out the decreases and have left the final bits to pure chance and experimentation.

It's such a pretty yarn the Noro 'Kureyon' with its various shades of peacock feathers. And with that I'll say bye-bye!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

And speaking of the yarn arts...

nobody@vox.com(Angelique) — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 09:55:10 -0500

I've had quite the productive couple of weeks. I crocheted a Katamari Damacy hat for a friend who's traveling to a comic books convention in a couple weeks. I studied online pix of other people's interpretations (mainly the Mad Tea Party version) and just sort of winged it. I did lift the crown shaping from the Stitch 'n' Bitch Crochet Happy Hooker book, and even then I had to start over a couple times. I'm a novice with hooks.

Dignified

All the little nobules I completed over the weekend, and then I stuffed them with polyfill. So now I have the task of attaching the nobules to the hat ahead of me. Not exactly easy -- but not terribly difficult either. I could have tackled it this weekend, but I wanted a break so I unraveled the "Madagascar" v-neck instead because it was too small.

There's a new sweater on the needles, a top-down raglan ... again. I'm determined to get it right. So far I have completed (nearly) four sweaters for all time: #1 utter sparkly disaster, #2 Bad Penny with mods to sleeve/body lengths (wearable, WARM), #3 free-form, top-down cardigan using Noro (too large, frogged), and #4 the easy v-neck raglan using Cascade 220 in the Madagascar colorway (too small, frogged). Swatching and patience are skills/virtues I am slowly accepting as necessary for creating wearable garments.

I hope to have some FO and WIP pix up soon ... that is, if I can find my camera.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

WIP and assorted stash!

nobody@vox.com(Angelique) — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 09:19:44 -0600

Getting off to a questionable start here, though I am no stranger to the once-a-month posting habit. On the bright side, I can never be accused of delivering TMI, right? Maybe, sometimes. Moving on.

More Kureyon

The Kardigan of Kureyon is resting, mellowing, hopefully not slowly air felting. I will stick to my guns by not starting the dismantling until after the 25th at least. Recently I reworked the sleeves on my Bad Penny sweater, bringing the cap sleeves down to half sleeves. Very cute. While knitting I decided that it can't really be called Bad Penny anymore considering I've changed the pattern so much, and there's no copper to be seen. I've settled on "Old Money". Oh, I crack me up. No decent pics yet, but I did acquire another batch of Kureyon for yet another sweater.

Sock in progress

Before getting back on the sleeves, I started my first sock ever. It's not perfect, far from it, though very exciting being that over the past year every sock attempt was a great big disaster. Friends, toe up is the way to go! Of course now I'm sort of stalled at the cuff because the 1x1 ribbing is so tedious. Quitter that I am, I might take it apart and start over so that my wrapped stitches will be perfection. I had hoped I might knit some socks for my sister as a Christmas gift, but I would want them to last. And wouldn't it be a shame to have one iffy sock and one very nice sock when they should be a bonafide pair? Yeah, let's frog that sock.

Chunky handspun

And I mentioned stash, so why not? I've had this chunky handspun wool laying around for a couple months now, and it's that time of year for turning out lightning fast hats. One of my sisters will be the recipient of a chunky hat with ball on top! Hehe.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

To felt or not to felt

nobody@vox.com(Angelique) — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 15:52:08 -0600

Cardigan in Progress

I am at a crossroads. I have never intentionally felted a self-knitted object before. OK I've never even accidentally done it, so I'm a bit wary. I just finished a top-down raglan cardigan with poofy half sleeves made of Noro Kureyon. I didn't follow a pattern apart from conforming to the basic one-piece top-down raglan approach. I spent about a month knitting the sweater, the last few days being intense knitting benders. It was heaven. So I got the buttons on this past weekend after washing and blocking, and when I tried it on the cardigan was a bit large. Like I'm about a size 10 and this sweater is a 12 or 14, which is to say it's roomy in the bust area.

Kureyon Kardigan

Knitters are familiar with Kureyon and it's sometimes subdued, but usually not subtle, striping action. The colorway I bought featured deep red, dark brown, camel, purple, lavender, deep olive and tan. I'm not a striped sweater kind of girl, but I tell you I am in love. So to discover my circus sweater doesn't fit perfectly has me perplexed. I was pretty much resolved to selling the cardigan on Etsy when I went to bed last night. It's super cute, but it takes a special kind of person to appreciate its cuteness I think. Unavoidably I find myself wondering how I might "fix" it. I hate to disturb the seamlessness by cutting up the sides to remove a couple inches; too much brute force for my taste. So I've been mulling over the possibility of felting. Will I lose too much length? Will the fabric be too dense? Do I even want a felted jacket?

My next steps are to present this question to knitting forums I frequent and to knit up a swatch for test felting. And while I haven't got a sense of the community here at VOX yet, if you, dear reader, have any insight into my dilemma, by all means leave a comment. In the meantime, my cardigan continues to be a WIP.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend