Sunday, January 29, 2006

Wedding Shawl

So, I received the mock-up of my wedding dress last week and I finally decided on a shawl to knit to go with it. I'm going to be making the Peacock Feathers Shawl from Fiddlesticks Knitting in Jagger Spun Zephyr yarn. I ordered myself the pattern and yarn yesterday (my birthday). I also went to Uncommon Threads for their big sale and bought too much yarn, but that's another story.

First you have Ginger Rogers in the dress, dancing with Fred Astaire in the movie Swingtime. Then you have the front and back of my dress mock-up. Last is the shawl. I'm going to knit it in white. I can't wait for the pattern and yarn to get here! I have about 5 1/2 months to go!

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Picovoli

This is the first sweater I ever made. I finished it in September 2005. I used Lion Brand Microspun on size 6 needles. The free pattern is by Grumperina from the August 2005 issue of MagKnits and can be found here.

Better pictures of Experimental Raglan

Here's the third sweater I made, the Experimental Raglan, in better lighting. You can see details about yarn, etc. in this post.

Fairly-Easy Fair-Isle

Here's the second sweater I made, Fairly-Easy Fair-Isle: closed, open, and from the back. This sweater is from Stitch n' Bitch Nation by Debbie Stoller. It's called the Fairly Easy Fair Isle. I chose very different colors and used Crystal Palace Iceland yarn, a bulky icelandic wool which I got at 40% off. I used size 10 1/2 needles. I finished this sweater in October 2005. It is very warm - good for wearing while walking the dogs at night and in the morning.

Saturday, January 21, 2006

WIPs - Cabled Zippered Cardigan, Sandra's Scarf

I've been making some progress on my cabled zippered cardigan back.
Here you can see some pictures of what it should look like when it's done. It's from Debbie Bliss's Cottons for All Seasons. More about the sweater can be seen in my first post here.











Also, I'm slowly making progress on Sandra's farrow rib scarf. More info. here.

Shawl, hat, and scarves for Mom & Dad

First off, you can see I finished the purple and cream shawl for my mom on Wednesday. You can see details about it and Siena sitting on it here.













Then we have some older projects: a scarf for my mom, a scarf for my dad, and a hat for my dad.

Donegal Tweed - washing

For those who are interested, this is the yarn I washed on the bottom of the picture, re-wound into a ball, while the unwashed cone is on the top of the picture. And then there is a close-up of the unwashed yarn on top and the washed yarn on the bottom. It fluffs up a lot, but it's still quite thin after washing.

Felted Slippers! And Crazy Hat!



Here are some finished pictures of Stefan and Viviane in their felted monster slippers! And Stefan in his crazy hat! The pre-felting pictures can be seen here. I hope to get a closer picture of the finished slippers from Stefan one of these days...

Thursday, January 19, 2006

FLAK Swatch #2 and Donegal Tweed, Washed & Dry

Here is my second swatch after washing, blocking, and drying. First is the whole thing, then we have the center cable section, then the braid, and finally the filler stitch. You can see how much softer it looks than before washing, in this post. For some reason I think I like the first filler stitch swatch on size US6 needles (bamboo circs) better than the filler stitch on this swatch, which I used US5 metal circular needles on. Since the stitch guage is the same after blocking, I think I'm going to use the bamboo US6's for the saddles with the washed yarn and see how that looks... Oh, also, I'm making a cardigan for the FLAK and I decided to do a cable with circles instead of a staghorn in the center of the center cable and divide that in half with a zipper. I also transcribed the honeycomb cable pattern (on either side of the braid) incorrectly when I wrote out the whole swatch cable pattern in Excel with a knitting font, so the "honeycombs" are actually tiny s-curves instead of honeycombs at this point. I'll fix that on the real thing...












Here is a picture (and a close-up) of the hank of donegal tweed I unwound from the cone and washed. It's almost dry. You can see it fluffed up a lot after washing. The before washing picture is in this post. I can't wait for it to dry so I can start my saddles!!

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Experimental Sweater Done!!


I finished my first knitted object in 2006! It's my experimental raglan, which you can read more about in this first post.

FLAK - washing swatch, yarn

So, I just washed my second swatch. I also unwound a large hank of the donegal tweed off the cone with the help of my switft and washed that too. Here's a picture of the hank before washing. I will post a picture of it and the second swatch after they dry, probably tomorrow or Friday. Then I will start knitting the sweater, beginning with the saddles, using the washed yarn if it looks good, which I think it will!

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

FLAK Swatches














So, I was disappointed in how thin the Donegal Tweed is, which I'm planning on using for the FLAK. I made my first swatch, the filler stitch swatch, with farrow rib on size 6 needles. I then washed and blocked the swatch (and got guage), and while the yarn did fluff up a lot, it's still a bit wimpy.
Then I made the second swatch, the cable swatch, with size 5 needles. Here are some pictures. I have not yet washed and blocked it. First is the whole swatch, then a close up of the the center cable, then the braid and wave cables, then the farrow rib filler stitch. To learn more about the FLAK, click on the FLAK button in the right sidebar.

Friday, January 06, 2006

Stash - Part 1

I am going to show you my entire yarn stash! If you see something you like, let me know! If you think a certain yarn should become a certain something, let me know! I think my stash is too big right now. Even though I have many projects planned, it will be nice to plan projects for the rest of my yarn.

Here is the first installment...

1) Cottons : Here we have some burgundy and yellow Sugar n' Cream in worsted weight (I also have some blue somewhere) and several blues and greens (left over from turtle and Mr. Stegs), red and orange Cotton Classic in DK weight (I bought this to make stuffed animals).

2) Acrylics: Here we have the Red Heart rainbow left over from Lilla's sweater and the cat toy. Above that we have Lion Brand Micro-Spun in lilac left over from my Picovoli sweater. Above that we have the white Lion Brand Wool-Ease worsted with little sparkles in it (see detail picture) left over from Anika's lace scarf. To the left is some multi-colored chenille left over from a scarf I wove in high-school and some red chenille left over from Viviane's hat.














3) Acrylics - Lion Brand Homespun. This is all Homespun, a bulky acrylic yarn. The Williamsburg blue I bought way too much of for Claire's baby blanket. I need an idea for what to do with the 6 skeins I have left. You can see the color better in the close-up.













The lighter blue yarn at lower right is left over from my fluffy cuff mittens. The pink I don't know why I have. The multi-colored one with purples and oranges is left over from Nhyx-Selene's hat.


4) Acrylics: Bulky! Here we have Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick n' Quick in burgundy, black, red, and green.

The red and some black are left over from dad's scarf. Randall was talking about crocheting a blanket out of the burgundy and black, but I don't think that's enough yarn for a blanket...

5) Acrylics: Fuzzy! Here we have some fuzzy soft worsted weight acrylics.

The green and black are TLC Amore, left over from Stefan's alien illusion scarf and crazy hat. The purple is from Anika.