Gift knits

Posted on 07 April 2011 by Kris

Believe it or not, I managed to knit a few Christmas gifts in 2010. Unfortunately, I’m not completely thrilled with all of them. (Nor with the photos I took of them, but the lighting and timing was far from ideal. Oops. Kris fail.) But… let’s talk about those, shall we?

First off, something for my niece!

Pattern: Elefante by Susan B Anderson
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease in Ice Blue
Needles: US4 Plymouth Bamboo circulars and DPNs

Non-deliberate modification: I didn’t sew the ears on quite the way the pattern called for, because I kind of wasn’t paying attention. Deliberate modification: I made the trunk a little longer, just for kicks.

I actually like this a lot – it’s cute, and it stood up to T’s quality testing (and by quality testing, I mean yanking the heck out of all parts once I had everything sewn together). So it should survive a two-year-old, right? I’m not sure how my niece feels about her little Elefante yet as she was more fascinated by the wrapping on Christmas day, but maybe I’ll find out the next time I see her.

Next, we have something for my mother.

Pattern: Pretty Thing by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Yarn: Plymouth Encore DK in color 217
Needles: US6 Clover bamboo circulars

Yes, I know a mostly acrylic yarn is not a good choice for lacy things. But my mother’s expressed a preference for machine washable yarns more than once, and in my experience she’s also not the most attentive when it comes to sorting out the machine washable clothes from the non. (There’s a reason I started doing my own laundry at a fairly young age!)

I modified this a fair bit since the yarn is thicker than that called for in the pattern. I cast on fewer stitches and cut out quite a few rows in the middle.

Yarn: NaturallyCaron Country in Charcoal
Needles: US5 Clover bamboo circulars and DPNs

Finally, a hat for my father, which is the project I’m least happy with. Partly my own fault, though. I didn’t use a pattern, I just winged it and knit this to fit me, as our heads are the same circumference. However, our heads aren’t actually shaped the same. As my father himself pointed out, his head’s kind of oddly shaped, so, well… oops. Forgot to account for that.

But I actually find this encouraging because he’s never actually given me feedback on (admittedly mostly storebought) gifts before. He’s always been more the type to quietly return something or stash it in the back of his closet. So the fact that he actually told me what to fix for next time makes me think I’m finally on the right track – he wouldn’t bother to give me feedback if he wanted something completely different, right?

So, that’s it for gifts. That’s also almost it for the 2010 FOs – just one more post to make before I finish up last year!

Posted in Knitting | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Of berets and earwarmers

Posted on 05 April 2011 by Kris

I’d given both my cable-and-bobble hat and Odessa hat away sometime ago, as neither really fit me properly. That left me with only one knit hat, the mistake rib one (which, as you know, I’ve since frogged). So I wanted to increase the hat count.

Pattern: Beret Gaufre by Veronik Avery
Yarn: Anzula For Better or Worsted in Deep Sea
Needles: US5/3.75mm Clover bamboo circular needles, US6/4.00mm Clover bamboo circular needles and DPNs

I omitted the i-cord stem but otherwise knit this beret to pattern. And I probably should have blocked this using a larger plate. Oh well, maybe next time I wash it.

It doesn’t completely succeed on the “keeping my head warm” front, but I like it as a fashion accessory, so whatever. I’m actually really pleased with how the striping turned out, too.

I’d never actually knit with Anzula yarns before this (although I had several in my stash) and now I’m kind of kicking myself for waiting for long. Lovely stuff!

Since the beret doesn’t do me much good when my hair’s up, I ended up knitting something else for my ears, which tend to get very cold very fast when it’s windy.

Pattern: Calorimetry by Kathryn Schoendorf
Yarn: Elann Peruvian Wool in Twilight Blue
Needles: US5/3.75mm Clover bamboo circulars

When I say I used the Calorimetry pattern, I mean that I basically stole the basic shaping and tweaked the hell out of the rest. I had to recalculate the numbers to accommodate a different gauge AND a narrower band AND a smaller circumference. I didn’t like the holes, so I did yarnover short rows instead, and I didn’t have any spare buttons floating around, so I just seamed the thing.

I probably could have made it even tighter, but it still works to keep my ears warm. It was a good way to use up the random partial ball I had in my stash, too.

Posted in Knitting | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Books and knits together

Posted on 03 April 2011 by Kris

Sometimes I feel like I have too many hobbies and interests, or at least, not enough time for all of them. And in recent years I’ve always felt that one would suffer in favor of another.

A really good example of this? Reading versus knitting. Reading is my oldest hobby by far, though I’d fallen out of the whole reading-for-fun thing during college. I’d started to get back into it after graduation, but then it fell to the wayside again as my interest in knitting grew. I mean, I only finished 17 books last year, which is really kind of sad for me. If I could read and knit at the same time, this wouldn’t have been a problem.

But… now I can, thanks to my birthday present from T!

It’s so much easier for me to read and knit at the same time now, because I just have to quickly press a button instead of pausing to turn a page. And the e-ink is way easier on the eyes than reading an e-book on my computer monitor.

My only real problem now? I haven’t really found a good place to purchase DRM-free e-books yet – it’s kind of hard for me to tell which ones on the Kindle store are DRM-free and which one are not, unfortunately. At least many books on my to-be-read list are in the public domain, so for now I can just rely on sources like Project Gutenberg.

Those who care about the knitting may be wondering: what’s the project in this picture? Well, it’s a Kindle sleeve, of course!

Posted in Books, Knitting | Tagged | Leave a comment

Longjohns!

Posted on 31 March 2011 by Kris

I get a fair few ideas from my knitting group. I think they get double the credit for this next project – I bought the yarn on a field trip we took to Clever Knits, and Jess’s Longjohns convinced me to make my own.

Pattern: Longjohn Socks by Anne Hanson
Yarn: Pagewood Farms Yukon in Orange Spice
Needles: US0 Inox grey DPNs

One thing you probably never guessed about me is that I love the color orange. Sadly, it is also one of the least flattering on me. So I don’t wear it much. But luckily, you don’t have to worry as much about flattering colors when they’re on your feet!

So obviously, I adore the colors of this yarn, but what about the yarn itself? It’s quite lovely, actually – Pagewood Yukon is enjoyable to work with and should wear really nicely. I have plenty leftover for another small project, which makes me happy because it means I can work with this yarn again!

As for the pattern itself, I had to make shorter cuffs to match my shorter legs, but otherwise I dig it – doesn’t compete with the yarn at all, and yet it’s not totally boring either. (And coming from me, that’s actually fairly high praise. Yes, I know I’m lacking in attention span.) I’ll probably use it again sometime in the future.

Most importantly, I love love love the finished socks – in fact, this may be one of my all-time favorite pairs!

Posted in Knitting | Tagged | Leave a comment

Knitting for Knives Chau

Posted on 29 March 2011 by Kris

Yes, yes, I’m still recapping my 2010, but we’re getting closer to the end of it here! Back on Halloween, some friends and I got together and dressed up as characters from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. I was Knives Chau, as she appears during the fight at the end.

Photo courtesy of .jun. Sadly, I didn’t have a chance to get prop knives to complete my costume. Oh well.

There are actually two knit projects in the photo above. I’ve taken photos of each while wearing a grey tank top, just so they’re a bit easier to see:

I had never actually knit a large stockinette rectangle until this point. And to be honest, this project kind of made me twitchy. But hey, I was going for semi-accuracy here, and if the scarf was going to curl it had to be in stockinette, right?

While mine is skinnier than the one in the movie, the scarf is still a bit more accurate than the “gloves” (for lack of a better word):

Because the movie ones definitely weren’t knit. But I couldn’t find anything close in stores, and I’m kind of inept when it comes to sewing. So, knitting to the rescue! The angles on the back of the hand aren’t quite right, but oh well.

Both projects were knit on US5 Crystal Palace bamboo needles and used Berroco Vintage, in the “Cast Iron” color. The scarf also uses the “Snow Day” color of the same yarn.

In addition to the yarn, the gloves also have some Dritz elastic thread. I just knit the elastic into the ribbing, which may not have been the best way to go about it, but it worked okay for my purposes.

These didn’t take too long to do – I’d finished both within a week. Not too shabby, right?

Posted in Knitting | Tagged , | Leave a comment