Back!

I’ve been MIA for a long time…

School kept me really busy last year.  I was working on studying and bringing up my GPA for med school apps, and I was successful!  However, not much knitting went on.  As for this summer, I have been busier than ever.  I ended up staying in Baltimore to work, study for the MCAT, and work on my research project.  I also have had the goal of being less attached to my  computer and sometimes went several DAYS without even turning it on to check my email.  It was tough, but overall liberating.

Anyways,  I’m back with the goal of one post per week.

As far as knitting/crocheting/crafting goes, I’m currently working on another sheep yoke cardigan.  The main color of this one is a dusky-rose color, so it’ll be really good for a baby girl.  Now all I need to do is find a baby…

 

Yarn Dreams, Packing, and Duvet

Ever dream in a foreign language? Ever dream in yarn? Seriously. If yarn was a language, then I dreamt in it. No, not about it- IN IT.

I actually started designing a pattern while I slept. Yesterday I was going through my craft closet, looking for some remnants of black yarn to finish the sheep on my Sheep Yoke Cardigan, when I came across this bag with three skeins of green yarn and the back of a baby sweater. I had totally forgot about it and I don’t even remember what pattern I was following for the sweater (it had to have been there for at least 3 years). So last night, I dreamt up a design for the yarn. It’s a green sleep sacque, made bottom up, with an elastic at the feet end. I am going to sketch it up and then start working on writing up a proper pattern. Perhaps I will embroider a design on or add some cables…we’ll see what I come up with.

So I am leaving to go back to school in less than a week and I am not allowed to start any new projects. I am the queen of starting projects and either not finishing them or taking months (and in some cases, years) to put on the finishing touches. I have more sweaters and dresses without buttons than I can count, and blankets by the dozen without all the ends woven in. And don’t get me started on projects that I neglect to seam… Here’s one that I made about 4 years ago and I am finally getting around to blocking and seaming it. I think it’s made out of Rowan Cotton and the color is kind of a tomatoey-orange, which, with some pretty, old, metal buttons would make it look vintagey.

Anyways, the next few evenings are going to be spent finishing up some of my old projects, storing them, and packing. I am working on taking less with me (every year I take less and less) so I can make more room for my yarn because my mom won’t ship that and I need to cut back on buying yarn and focus on using up my stash. I planned on cleaning out my craft closet and putting my stash on Ravelry, but I never got around to it…whoops!

The largest and most pressing project is to finish sewing my duvet. With the move to my apartment, I have a full bed instead of the dorm-room standard XL twin. So, all my bed linens and comforter are now useless. After searching and searching for a comforter or duvet that matched the colors of my stuff (purple, blue, and green), I came up empty handed. Most full/queen sized comforters, quilts, and duvets are of more muted hues, not the bright colors they have for college students. So, rather than buy all new stuff to match a new comforter, I decided to make a duvet cover for an extra full sized comforter we have at home. I’m using 2 packages of twin sheets: one striped, one kinda polka-dotted.

Once I figured out how to arrange and sew everything, it was pretty quick and easy. I’m going to write up the pattern and post it here later. Basically, I used a twin flat sheet from each set and then cut the elastic out of one of the fitted sheets and cut it to make almost another flat sheet. Then i sewed them all together and made an envelope kind of thing, but instead of closing it with buttons, I folded back a 10 inch section at the top opening of one side and sewed it, RS together, so once the comforter is inside, I just flip that section right side out and it seals over. It’s hard to explain, but it’s the same concept as those (non-ziploc) sandwich baggies. I found a picture of the sandwich baggies online and labeled it. Imagine that that strip with the red X is not there. The green line indicates where the opening to put the comforter in is. This will make more sense when I write up the pattern.

I haven’t been working on my “mystery project” because I have been focusing on other projects. I’m probably going to end up packing it for Baltimore and I’ll work on it the week before classes start and post more details and pictures.

I need to figure out EXACTLY what I can and cannot bring on the airplane in my carry-on for knitting in the airport and on the plane. It’s a short flight from MA (about 75 minutes) but sitting around the airport and waiting for SuperShuttle takes forever, so knitting would help pass the time. Anyone know what I can and cannot bring? The TSA website says that both knitting and crocheting needles are permitted, but I thought I had heard of them not being allowed? Experiences with this anyone? I don’t want to get there and them have them confiscate my knitting! If they did that, they may have a serious security situation to deal with…

 

Peach Cobbler/Crisp and D’s Mouth

D and I made dinner Saturday night (tortellini al’aioli and chicken cutlets) and after feasting, set to work on our practice socks. We bought a box of apple crisp mix and peaches to make peach crisp/cobbler, but were too full and too tired to make it.

Well D has been craving peach crisp/cobbler since we went to the Beehive for Restaurant Week last Thursday night and she ordered the Peach Brown Betty. It looked delicious and was tasty…except they didn’t peel the peach skins. So the warm, melt in your mouth sweetness of baked peaches was rudely displaced by tough skin. It was very disappointing.

But anyways, D got her wisdom teeth out yesterday, so I am baking her some peach cobbler/crisp and hopefully her severely swollen mouth will permit her to eat it. I’ll post some pics when I make it!

Update 8/21/08: It was a huge success! I called D my little even-chubbier-cheeked friend and I don’t think she thought that was funny. She would not permit pictures, sorry.

But- I DO have pictures of the peach cobbler/crisp! Check it out:

 

Everything but the Kitchen Sink

I want to start out by thanking ChoppedTomatoes for picking me for the “I heart your blog” award. You should definately go check out her site. She has a terrific blog with great pictures of everything from her dog to her knitting to her cooking. She also is a green activist and has some information about toxins in the home, which got me all excited because i (finally) got an internship with Silent Spring Institute, which is a non profit organization that does research on the links between the enviroment and health, mainly focusing on women’s health. The work they are doing there is really terrific and i mean terrific in all senses of the word (i.e. terrific…terrifying). Some of the ingredients in common conventional (i.e. not green) household products are scary. Check out their website, which is expanding daily, for more info (I could blog on and on for days about it, but this is a stitching blog, so I will leave it up to you).

Ok, so 8 million things have been going on and my blog has been SEVERLY neglected. I apologize to the Gods of Blog.

So I moved into my new apartment and the former tenant left it FILTHY. I took pictures so my family would see that I wasn’t exaggerating, but they are too disgusting to post. I spent about 4 hours cleaning the bedroom…picking up all the trash on the floor, sweeping the big stuff up, vaccuuming, mopping floors and WALLS (yes, they were that dirty), and cleaning the furniture i bought from the last tenant. Then I hit the bathroom…the bedroom was immaculate in comparision. The tiles in the tub area were actually white, not the light yellow they appeared to be. Several rounds of Comet and Tilex plus a lot of elbow grease returned the tub and tiles to their original white. I know you are all asking how this happened and why i took such a filthy apartment. Well, a friend (E) and I are moving in with a girl who is staying on for a semester past her senior year and her roommates graduated, so we are taking over the lease rather than starting a new one. E and I are living with her until she graduates in December and then we have the place to ourselves. So anyways, when E and I went to see the apartment, my possible bedroom was locked, so I didn’t get to see it in person. But the rest of the apartment was neat and clean and looked fine, so I thought nothing of it…boy, was I wrong. The girl that lived there before me was just a total pig, end of story. Well, it took me into the wee hours of the night to clean my room and bathroom in the ninety degree heat on the 6th floor. The only bit left to give a good cleaning to is the rust stains on the tub under the faucet. I have read about some things to try online but I was wondering if anyone had some suggestions? Especially natural/green methods.

So plenty of knitting has been going on and even some sewing [no crocheting lately ]. I finished up a cream blanket I was making out of Dreambaby DK. I actually started it sometime 2 winters ago when knitting ADD struck and I put it into storage and totally forgot about it until I came across it when cleaning out my crafting closet in MA (note to self: must make smaller satellite crafting closet in MD). It has a seed stitch border and looks like a bunch of squares. I based the design on a yarn sample in Fabric Place for DreamBaby DK. Its so deliciously soft-perfect for a baby!

So I picked it back up and finished it. All that remains to be do is to press it so it’s nice and flat and straight.

I have plenty of yarn left over, so I decided to make a set with a blanket, a sweater, footie pants, and possibly a hat. I made the sweater based on Erika Knight’s Classic Cashmere Sweater. I started a sweater with this pattern about 5 or 6 years ago and never finished. I photocopied the pattern out of a library book and lost it, so I kind of improvised the pattern by using pictures from Ravelry. It turned out quite nicely and just need to be stitched up and blocked.

Now I am looking for the perfect pattern to make the footie pants. Erika Knight has the Cashmere Leggings to match the sweater, but I don’t have the pattern and I wasn’t wild about the waistband. It’s easy enough to make the waist banb in an elastic one, but, again, I don’t have the pattern and there are tons out there. I am definately looking for any suggestions that anyone has, especially for free patterns that won’t break my student’s budget.

I totally fell in love with Jennifer Little’s (Looking Glass Knits) Sheep Yoke Baby Cardigan when I was browsing through patterns on Ravelry (click here for the pattern on Ravelry). The pattern is available free on her website or as a Ravelry download. Take a look at it…I dare you NOT to fall in love with it!

The pattern calls for the checkerboard design and the stripes to be made in blue or pink, for a boy or girl, but I went with a light green so it’s unisex. It’s knitted top top and there is minimal seaming to do (yay!).
Here’s the first part of the yoke on my circs:

The design is in a chart that, once you look it over, is really easy to figure out and follow. The white sheep are done in garter stitch for texture, but Jennifer says that they can be made in stockinette if you want. At the end, the sheep’s little legs and ears have to be added.

Here’s a close up of the sheep (sans ears and legs so they look like clouds):

I made it in the smallest size with Sirdar Snuggly DK (using just over a skein of the oatmeal MC and a teensy bit of the other colors…makes it easier to make more!) on size 6 circs. My gauge is always smaller than what is called for, so my sweater is for a baby 3-6 months.

It’s almost done. I blocked the sleeves so I could stitch it together better and I am blocking the front edges to make it easier to pick up and knit for the button bands.

After the button bands I can seam up the sleeves and finish the little sheep. I bought some nice fake wood buttons to sew on that will add to the cardi’s coziness. This was a really fast knit. I did the majority of the body and sleeves in a weekend and a few bus rides to work. I will definately be making it again. I need to find a baby to put it on…. Maybe this will have to be packed away with my other baby favs.

Ok, so now some teasers for my next post (this one is getting too long).

Can you guess what I’m making??

I promise my next post won’t be in 2 months again….

Btw: Please blame my sister for not sending me the pictures of Meghan’s Sweater all done and Ryan’s Pasha all stuffed and the pictures from Fenway. They are on her camera because mine was temporarily MIA, having a sick day, or misplaced. Thank you.

 

Socks! Both Knitting them and the RedSox

So I finally decided to see what all the fuss was about. When I learned how to knit, socks were not on my list of things I was excited to make…The whole thing just sounded so old fashioned and outdated. I mean, who actually wears handknitted socks?

And then Ravelry happened.

(ok, so maybe not quite so dramatic, because I read a few knitting blogs where people were making socks, and I thought they might be kind of cute, but I didn’t really realize the scope of the sock mania until Ravelry)

It seemed like every other thread was about socks and making socks! There are groups dedicated to socks, threads with thousands of responses, over 6,000 patterns to knit/crochet socks (on Ravelry, there are more sock patterns than baby patterns and cardigans), books, specially made yarns, thousands of sock projects, and even a support group for sock-making addicts complete with a 12 step program.

But all of this still did not have me knitting socks. See, I was wary. Countless times I heard, read, and seen that knitting socks was ADDICTIVE. I tend to get hooked on things and wasn’t sure if I was responsible and mature enough to decide that I was ready to try socks.

Then, D, my best friend and ever enabling corruptor (althought she staunchly denies that she had anything to do with any destruction of innocence and purity in any area of my life- read her blog and THEN decide), tells me that she wants to knit socks. D dabbled a bit in knitting several years ago and is still a little terrified of purling, but she is nothing if not ambitious. So I set on quest to find sock knitting tutorials and tips and tricks from connoisseurs (or addicts).

What I found was a terrific, easy to follow sock tutorial from cometosilver.com. I read it over, decided it was simple enough and we would use some cheap acrylic sportweight to practice first. D and I made plans to meet after work to pick out some yarn for our “final draft”. I found Newbury Yarns in Boston on Newbury St between Dartmouth and Exeter (very easy access from Copley Green Line or Back Bay Station, btw). It’s a cute little LYS, tucked in the back of the building- although the sign is small and not that eye-catching. There was a large selection of high-end yarn, many of which were imported. The owner was very helpful (she answered my questions when I asked and let me touch, sniff, and poke at all her yarn…none of that hovering) and the two of us chatted while I waited for D to show. My only disappointment was the lack of a selection for sock yarn. The owner said she was selling out quick but that she had ordered more. Since this was my first visit there, I am not sure if it’s a case of slow restocking on the owner’s part or simply that she ran out and was caught offguard quickly (it happens).

So D finally showed and we poked around at the yarn some more and I decided on going with a 100% merino wool in a baby fingering weight with purples, greens, and blues in it. D spent 20 minutes debating over what color to get while stealing lustful glances at the yarn I had chosen. Finally I convinced her to just get the same color as me since we are both heading back to school for the fall.

I was heading to the RedSox game and went straight from the LYS, so I had my two balls of yarn in my purse. It was thoroughly disrtacting! Well, it started POURING as I was riding the T and i had to walk 20 mins in the rain, trying to sheild my favorite purse with my iPod, cell phones, and new yarn (in other words-some of my most prized possessions) in it. I finally get there and meet my dad, sis, and cousin and we proceed to our seats: FREEAKING MONSTER SEATS!!!!! I was soooo excited! WE had burgers for dinner at the Monster Grill and checked out the amazing view of Fenway. It was still raining, so we were crowded under an overhang. Eventually it was raining so hard we had to go inside and wait it out. The game got delayed, so we hung around inside: the guys drinking beers and my sis and I working on a crossword in the Metro I snagged off the T (i was kicking myself the whole time for not having any knitting on me…I could have gotten half a baby sweater done). It finaly stopped raining around 8 and we headed out to our seats and begin the awesome task of drying off the seats. Napkins and papertowels were futile. But thank god for my innovative mind and the Metro! the newspaper worked like a charm soaking up the water. So we finally get out seats all dried and they start uncovering the feild when there is the boom of thunder and a Fenway employee comes over and asks everyone on the Monster Seats to head inside because of lightening. After much standing around and speculation, the game is postponned until September 13…After classes begin for me and when I am in Baltimore!!! NOOOOOOO!!

If that wasn’t bad enough, we had to trek to the car which was parked 15 or 20 mins away. So not fair!

The only good thing that came out of the cancellation was me starting my practice socks.

Practice Socks- they match my duvet!

 

WOW…2 months (end of semester, finals, apartment!)

Ok, so I’m embarassed that it’s almost been 2 months since my last post, but I have been REALLY busy!  Spring semester was coming to a close and I had stuff to do coming outta the wazoo.  And once my 3 weeks of end of semester papers and exams drew to a close, I had a week of finals.  And once those were over, I had to pack up all my stuff and get it ready to move into my apartment!  So psyched to not have to live in a dorm again and have actual space to move around in.  My new bedroom in the apartment is HUGE and I want to make a corner for my crafts with a work table and some shelves.  Cross your fingers that I can convince my parents to let me take my sewing machine and more of my supplies (yarn, needles, books, etc) when I go back.

 

I’m back home in MA and settling in.  I went to Joann Fabrics this past weekend and spent an hour just browsing around looking at fabrics and yarns.  What is it about craft stores that makes me feel so centered?  I was there to buy some black fabric to line the back of Pasha, because the white stuffing was showing through my stitches and it looked ridiculous.  The lining worked perfectly and you couldn’t even tell it was there.  I finally gave Pasha to Ryan (belated first birthday gift) and he loved him!  He kept snuggling him to his face and playing with his wings and feet.  I am definitely going to have to make more…my friend wants me to make one for her, so I need to get on that. 

 

While I was at Joann’s, I saw this really cute kit to make a little 30×36inch quilt with the Disney princesses on it.  My Goddaughter, whose fourth birthday is June 18, loves Disney pricesses, so I bought the kit to make her present.  I was a really good deal, $20 for all the fabric.  I just had to buy the batting and the thread.  I was a little disappointed in the kit though.  I am VERY new to quilting, and I am terrible at cutting the fabric, so I was all excited when I saw the kit with all these pre-cut swatches.  However, the fabric was NOT pre-cut and all the cutting had to be done yourself.  Not to mention how the kit BARELY gave you enough and some of the measurements for the uncut fabric were off.  For the large center panel, the kit said the fabric was 15×10 and needed to be 14.5 x 9.5, so silly me, I just marked and cut off a half of an inch from each side.  Turns out the bloody thing was already 14.5 and the other side was 9.75 instead of 10.  So my panel was too small.  And if you know anything about quilting, measurements are crucial.  So I was already set back by that, but the kit also had this plush fabric that was IMPOSSIBLE to pin…I mean I.M.P.O.S.S.I.B.L.E.  It wouldn’t work with regular pins, so I tried ballpoint pins, but those didn’t work either.  And then I tried paper clips, binder clips, taping it down while I pinned, chip clips, and staples.  The staples worked the best.  The problem was that the fabric was too slippery…but not like satin is slippery…it was almost as if the fabric would…migrate.  I don’t know, it was really frustrating.  The quilt therefore, is far from perfect, but I doubt a 4 year old will notice.

 

I’m job hunting right now, but the economy is bad, so no one is hiring!  And any job opening that comes along doesn’t work out because the company is looking for permanent part time employees, not someone who’s only around for the summer.  I really want to work at Teavana because I love the store and they are hiring, but when I met with the manager she didn’t want to hire me for the summer.  Some bs about training.  When Sharper Image hired me last summer there was the same hesitation, but I went through the training so quickly, they were stunned.  Anyways, it sucks not being able to find a job and I really don’t know what to do with myself during the day.  I have been thinking about making little blankets, like 10×10 size, out of different textured fabrics (note to self: do not use plush fabric from Disney quilt kit) and selling them for babies blankies.  Babies love feeling different textures and my cousins have these blankets called Taggies that are sort of a similar concept.  When my sister was little, she had a blanket with a satin border and she sometimes “borrowed” the tie from my mom’s satin robe when her blanket was lost.  Making the blankets would be easy and quick, it’s just figuring out where and how to sell them.  Maybe I can see if there’s a way to do it through Ravelry. Kind of spread the word and set up something informal.

 

Ok, so project updates: Pasha-he’s done and in Ryan’s hands.  Meghan’s sweater is all done and I gave it to her this past weekend.  It came out really well.  I found this cream blanket I’d been knitting last year in my craft closet at home, and I am working on that again.  It’s nice and relaxing after months of shaping and following patterns.  I also worked on a little sundress for a 6-9 month old, and I have no one to give it to…into the stash it goes! 

 

I am working on stashing all of my yarn on Ravelery, and I cannot believe how much I have!!  Right now I think I am going to try and make some baby sweater I can sell, but I don’t really know how to get myself out there.   

 

This time I will post the pictures I took (Soon!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Update time…

I’ve been so busy the past few weeks!  So much has happened…including RAVELRY!!!! yay!!! I finally got my invite Sunday and I have been exploring and setting things up.

Miss Dashwood Hat:
The picot cast on was clumsy and took FOREVER.  I usually use the long tail cast on method (the one everyone else seems to hate with one needle and your thumb-i love it!), and for picot cast on, you need to use the knit cast on, which I think takes much longer than the long tail method. 

 After several hours of picot cast on, I was up and running and the rest of that hat knit up quite quickly.  The k4togtbl’s were tricky with my needles, so i ended up using a crochet hook to pull the yarn through.  I also made crochet chains for the ties because I didn’t like the cords in the pattern.

As you can see it’s done, it just needs to be stitched together.  Unfortunately I am away at university and all of my piecing supplies at at home!  I have been improvising with some of my bulkier projects (booties, sweaters, hats, etc) and using, I kid you not, a bobby pin (!!) to stitch things together.  For the most part it is working, but I wish I had my yarn needles!

I only used a little more than half of the yarn, so I made another one in the 0-3mos size.  it’s so tiny!!

Overall I am quite pleased with the way that the hat turned out

Pasha the Penguin:
Pasha is almost done!  I just need to give him eyes and stuff him.  He knit up really quickly and I blocked him a few weeks ago.  He’s sooo cute!!  The only problem I have now is the eyes.  I really like using buttons, but this a present for a one year old, so I can’t use buttons because of choking hazards.  I tried embroidering on eyes, but Pasha just didn’t look right.  It’s tricky to get the right placement, too.  For now he’ll remain eyeless.

New Projects:

I found this really great sweater pattern online from Bella Bambina.  It’s called the Kelly Sweater.  It’s a crochet pattern and it’s supper fast and versatile.  I made one in a newborn size and one in 6-9 month size.  I ran out of yarn, so I need to go buy more to finish the sleeves.  There’s lots of room for versatility in this pattern.  I am thinking of buying a light cotton yarn and making a pinafore-style dress by leaving the sleeves off and adding a skirt (check back for updates).

I also made a sweater for Meghan to match a hat I made for her a few months ago.  It’s big enough to fit her next fall/winter/spring.  I am so much faster at crocheting.  It only took me about a weekend to make this sweater.  Knitting this would have taken me at least a week.  The sweater’s all done, it just need a few finishing touches and buttons.  The sweater is a design of my own.

Picot Edging for Miss Dashwood Hat

Meghan’s Sweater, pieced together but no buttons

Miss Dashwood Hat

Close up detail of picot edging

Pasha after blocking

Miss Dashwood Hat

Pasha pieced together, unstuffed

 

Miss Dashwood Hat and Pasha the Penguin

Back from the yarn store and sooo excited to begin my new projects! I found the patterns on Knitty.com.

The first one is a hat for a baby or toddler. I’m going to make for my cousin, Meghan, to wear next fall. It’s called the Miss Dashwood and it’s absolutely adorable. Here’s the picture from the pattern:

It looks perfect for a crisp, sunny New England day in the fall or early spring. Perhaps it’s the pattern name (Miss Dashwood), but it makes me think of Jane Austen and traditional/old-world fashions with a modern twist. The pattern uses Picot cast on, which I have never done before, but looks simple enough. I really like the pale pink color used in the pattern, but my yarn store was all out. I went with a 100% Superwash Merino Wool in Wisteria. The yarn is really soft and was not too expensive ($6.90 for 110 yards).

It was really hard to capture the color of the yarn (as you can see it looks like two totally different colors in each picture), so try and imagine a hybrid between these two colors. It’s like the color of a red wine stain on a table cloth.

My other new project is a stuffed penguin for my other cousin Ryan’s first birthday. The pattern is called Pasha the Penguin.

After Happy Feet, I have been in love with penguins (though not as much as turtles, of course) and when I came across this pattern I immediately bookmarked it for later use. I bought 3 worsted weight yarns to make him:

I have to work tonight, so I will probably start him there (I work as a dispatcher answering phones, so there is plenty of in between time to knit).

I’ll keep you posted!

 

First Post!

Hi! I’m Michelle and I’ve been flirting with the idea of starting a blog about my knitting and crocheting for months now, but I finally broke down and started one. Whenever I search for patterns online, I come across all of these really cool knitting/crocheting/sewing blogs that I keep bookmarking and checking in on. And as I looked at these pages, I kept saying “I want to do this; I want to share my stitching adventures with people”, and, finally, I have decided to!

My friends aren’t stitchers (knitters, crocheters, sewers, quilters, etc), so it’s hard for them to understand the thrill I get going to the yarn store or the sheer ludicrous need to continually add to your yarn stash or just the simple, calming joy that comes when you stitch.

So, on to the actual stitching bit:

Last week I was on Spring Break, which I spent just relaxing and sleeping (not enough money or energy to travel) and KNITTING. I made this adorable baby hat with trucks on it with some yarn left over from a hat I made this winter. I used Berroco Comfort, an inepensive worsted weight nylon/acrylic blend I like to use when making simple baby items and hats. It’s perfect because it’s soft and non-irritating and it’s machine-washable (very important for baby stuff!). It came out really good and the fair isle bit was really easy. The pattern told me to use DPNs, but circular needles will also work. I will definitely be making it again and I plan to experiment with making it larger to fit my 5 year old cousin and possibly changing the trucks into trains. You can find the pattern for free here.

I also knit some booties to match. I used a new free pattern I found online (all my books are at home!) and I fell in love with it! It’s really simple and easy and only requires two needles and one seam. As you knit, you can see the little booty taking shape and it takes about an hour to knit each one.

Heading out to my favorite yarn store to buy some yarn for a few new projects I have picked out. Will update later so you can see a project from start to finish.