Model Knitting

I actually get paid to knit stuff. (If it's slow, we're encouraged to do "store knitting", which is cool, because KNITTING.)

I got to knit and felt a Lucy Bag [Rav link]:

Before

After

And I made this little guy during the April 1st Saturday Happening. BUNNY!


I got to knit The Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief [Rav Link] with some leftover Island Yarn Rivulet:


I reblocked a sweater I made last year so it would be the size it's supposed to be (yay, reblocking!)


Ironing boards: not just for ironing!

I'm currently working on a cowl using some *really* cool yarn we'll be carrying in the fall. More on that then....

Stop Sock Bag - Felted!

So, I needed practice felting something. I also just (this week) ran across my Stop Sock bag, which I needed to line, since the needles kept falling out of the bag - right through the fabric. "Or," I thought , "I could felt it..."

So I did.

Before
After

It also happens to fit perfectly over a 24oz screw-top hole-for-straw-in-lid tumbler that I wasn't otherwise using... so that' a part of it now:


While the colowork did lead to bleed-through where the pattern isn't, the yarn itself (Paton's Classic Wool) actually didn't bleed at all. So, total win on that front! I really like the way it turned out.

Plein Air Tote, started

New Project: This is what I started for class - the Plein Air Tote from a 2010 Interweave mag.


First side finished.
This thing is a YARN HOG. The first two balls of yarn are gone completely, used up in the creation of the aforementioned first side and getting about 3/5 of the way through the first (of three) sides of the bag.


That's the end of the third and fourth balls there - I'm REALLY glad I got six balls of yarn now! The whole thing is going to clock in around 1,350 yards of yarn (which STILL puts me over the "600 yards for a class project", since yardage only counts once for held-double projects).


Front and back finished
I'm hoping to finish the knitting-of-the-three-sides today and tommorrow, so that I can start planning the sewing of the inside. Here's what I have planned:


I need to get some gray canvas this weekend (and then I can finish my Slytherin Crest bag, as well). It looks like I'll need one big (metal) zipper, then two medium (plastic) zippers and two small zippers, a ton of heavy-duty gray thread, and, assuming a 48" fabric width, three yards of canvas and a yard of parachute material (to line between the canvas and the knitting to make the insides waterproof).

Hopefully next week will have pictures of the Finished Thing, since it's due on Thursday!!

Flat-bottomed single-skein bag

For my final class, I had to come up with something I could make quickly. I settled on a bag; the problem was figuring out what I could make quickly, and I hit on the idea of the smallest number of sides possible: four. Then, there was making it practical - I like having my small balls of yarn in bags so they stay clean and don't roll all over the floor where my husband large human-cat can chase them. But none of the bags I have are small enough for just one ball AND have a solid enough bottom to sit flat. So I made one.


See, it's basically a pyramid (the “pattern”, such as it is, is on the Project Page) with one side of the top halfway unseamed, with a tie. The tie lets you shrink the opening as the yarn-ball shrinks, so it can’t escape.


But see? It's perfect for one ball of sock yarn!

January Wrap-Up

Time for the January Wrap-Up! Woohoo!! I did actually get a lot finished in January. According to the list, in fact, I finished 9 things!



1. Detention - Holy Hand Grenade of Albuquerque, turned in post #166, accepted post #265, January 1

2. Defense Against the Dark Arts - Trick Hat (Hat Trick #1), turned in post 14, marked complete post 61, January 1

3. OWL - Defense Against the Dark Arts, Option 2 - Tree Skirt Invisibility Cloak, submitted post 409, pre-approved post 580, approved post 865, January 1

4. BROOM - Department: Central Command, Mission: #12 Grimmauld Place - Radience Shawl, submitted post 94, approved post 108, January 3
5. Arithmancy - Honeycomb Hat (Hat Trick #2), turned in post #137, accepted post #176, January 6

6. Muggle Studies - Lobster Trap Scarf, turned in post 319, marked complete 366, January 17

7. Potions - Ruffly Boa, turned in post 524, marked complete post #542, January 17

8. Challenge Quidditch #1 - Time Capsule Cozy, turned in post #1031, January 18

9. Care of Magical Creatures - Slytherin Broomstick, turned in (jointly with PeterRabbitFan) post 392, marked complete post 511, January 20

10. Quidditch 1 of 15 - Blue Feza Entrelac Hat for spouse, turned in post 1561, in queue as of January 23, 2009, submitted January 23

11. Transfiguraton - Ashton Shawlette, turned in post 225, marked complete post #303, January 26

... and started, but not finished yet:
12. Quidditch 2 of 15 - Bunny Nugget, in favorites as of October 22, 2009
13. Quidditch 3 of 15 - Bunny Nugget, in favorites as of October 22, 2009
14. Quidditch 4 of 15 - Bunny Nugget, in favorites as of October 22, 2009
15. Quidditch 5 of 15 - Wisp, in queue as of April 14, 2011
16. Quidditch 6 of 15 - Entrelac Hat for me, in queue as of January 23, 2009

Starting off strong

Defense Against the Dark Arts is my theme this term. So, again on January 1, I managed to whip up a little bamboo Trick Hat. It's Crystal Palace's Wee Bamboozle Bag done with an extra long i-cord tie - which, if knotted in a bow, turns the whole thing into a cloche.

Here's the hat part:




Here's the bag part, and, as you can see, the cord is shoulder-bag length. It'll work as a tiny project bag. (Circular needles only, though. DPNs would go right through it, and it needs to be stretchy to be worn as a hat, so I can't really line it!

So, 25 points for Slytherin so far. And I've figured out Quidditch (good for at least another 225), turned in my OWL proposal (Woohoo!), and should have my BROOM proposal in by the end of the week. And, hopefully, a few more classes!!

Finished Project: STOP SOCK Project Bag

So, here's what I did with the chart from yesterday... and then another chart. I think this little project will actually get written up (by the end of the month?) and put up on Rav. It's a small-to-medium project bag, made from wool and using standard color stranding, and *does* need to be lined if you're actually going to have needles in it. (It's also my turn-in project for Herbology this month, but it's still pretty nifty.)


Front



Back
I started from the bottom center, and made the bottom flat, since I'm fond of bags that will actually stay where you put them/stand up on their own.


Bottom
The drawstring space is made by switching needles for back & forth, and doing a turned hem. It worked out REALLY nicely - to the point that I scavenged the drawstring from the dice bag I'd sewn a few Decembers ago so I'd have a good solid cord. That just happens to be a sparkly red.


Anyway, it turned out great, the pattern's not that hard (begginer-intermediate), and someone else might want one, so I'll write it once I have a block of time (and "writing" involves "test knitting again" - hence the "end of the month/next month").

New Term Starts Today! WOOHOO!!

Okay, classes are starting today, and just assume I'm putting my O.W.L. proposal in the INSTANT the thread is opened. Since all that is going on, here's the shots for my final STUFFF tile, turned in Tuesday (thus making me eligible for lovely Golden Tiles of Completness). Here's the before, which you've seen previously. You can see that the Pile of Stuff is spilling onto the Greek Key design in the center of the floor - and afterwards, the center of the floor design is down in the corner - look how far all the things are from it!!


Here is the after. There is, at the back, from the bottom up:

1. Bin of Spinny stuff and spindles.
2. Bin of Cotton yarn.
3. Bin of Acrylic Yarn.
4. Cross stitch stuff, in bags.

Then, in front, is the bin of Wool Yarn, a bag of wool for my "A New Angle" (from Wooly Thoughts) and another bag of cross stitch/sewing stuff. The blue bag on the floor is a bag full of project bags; the brown paper bag on the silver cases contains everything for my proposed Astronomy OWL.

I can find EVERYTHING!!


And this gets me my "T-is-for-Tidy" Tile. Woohooo!! That's the whole set!!


It's pretty cool to actually know WHERE THE YARN IS. I mean, if I'm looking for wool, it's in the wool bin. If I'm looking for puffystuff and a spindle, it's in that bin, and so forth. And I found a set of Glow-in-the-Dark knitting needles... I vaguely remember getting them, I think... Anyway. No, this isn't *any* of the yarn from the craft room, nor the storage unit. This is all the stuff that wasn't in either of those places, and needed to be straightened out. And it's organized, which is putting me ahead of the game by quite a bit!!

Anyway, ON TO HOGWARTS!!!!

Stuff I Started in April

So, I never really posted my March Stuff Finished... and I didn't do a collage, but trust me, seventeen things (12 of them Braided Balls for my failed Arithmancy OWL) came off the list in March. April... April is going to be another story. I finished one thing in April. I had some leftover hunter green acrylic, and knit up what I think will be a totebag handle at some point. But that's it. That's the April finish so far.

There is, however, a bunch of Stuff I Started In April:

Scarf:

It's out of my Dobby's Sunset yarn. I kept waffling back and forth on making the embossed leaf entrelac, but I really like it so far.

Mitts:

On one of the recent trips to Fibre Space, two balls of Mochi Plus came home with me, and they're slowly turning into entrelac mitts. If I find more Mochi Plus in this colorway, I'll add to them... and eventually get a shrug. Or a sweater. It's just that soft and cuddly!

Shawls:

That's StellaLuna out of MadTosh lace in Fathom, and she's about 2/3 of the way finished. The whole "have this shawl finished for Easter" did not, as you can tell, happen. Sigh. But it's going to be really pretty, and I'm getting good a spit-splicing (there was an UNBELIEVABLE tangle somehow in my center-pull ball!)


I got some Patons Lace because I liked the colorway. Turns out it has AMAZINGLY long color runs, so I'm knitting a triangle shawl from the long edge down to the point (an idea I got from StellaLuna). Making up the design as I go, and charting same; will probably put it up (a) when it's finished if (b) it turns out well.

Then, there's the shawl I started the day I got the Color Changing Cotton from Looped Yarn Works. It, too, is about halfway done now, but here it is in an earlier day:





There's also my Slytherin Crest Bag, which will be amazing when it's finally finished. This last week of April was spent cutting up the lining, getting all the pockets Just So, and handstitching everything together. NOT EASY. But worth it... hopefully I'll be able to finish it up tonight and tomorrow, turn it in for April Stitch-Along class, and then use it as my identifyer at MDS&W on the 8th. Anyway, progress pics - Bag:


Knitting done...


...then, the ritual bag wetting...


...then, figuring out how to block this thing. Turns out, a piece of floral foam was the perfect width and depth, and just a wee bit short. But I figured out how to make it work:



Yay! Okay, May can start now.

Transfiguration - First Felted Project Ever!

Okay, I've turned in the six classes required for Second Year Ultimate Quest, but y'all know I'm crazy, right? So, naturally, there had to be MOAR KNITTING. Specifically, I decided to try my hand at felting for Transfiguration. I LOVE the mittens I made for Defense Against the Dark Arts, and wanted Things That Matched to go with them. (I'll be working a scarf & hat into Winter Term classes; there may be a jacket in the works, too, someday.)

I've never felted anything before, mind you. Didn't really see the point. I have, however, made bags before... and getting them so knitting (and kntting needles!) don't fall out... well, that's a challenge. For this, felting might actually be something worth trying, right? So, using the graph from the Flaming Mitts (which I turned into Flame Mittens), I started to knit a bag.


It looks like a sweater....
I made the world's biggest short-row toe to start, which took an entire ball of Debbie Stoller's Full-o-Sheep on size 15 needles - I had to go get more to get a few rows past the "start knitting in the round" point and get the flames started! Then, the flames, then to the black. Then a lot of around and around and around in the black. Then the casting off.


Before - 4' wide, 3.5' tall.
Bigger than a sweater!
Then the terror. Lots of terror - I was going to actively do Something Bad to this lovely, if totally oversized, bag I'd just knitted. Luckily, Cat & Eric of LetsKnit2gether.com have Helpful Hand-Holding Felting Videos (Felting aka the Science Experiment, Pt. 1 and Felting aka The Science Experiment, Pt. 2). Found a lingere bag and some sheets, and ran the washer as hot as it would go. Given that I'd knitted a body-bag sized object, getting it to felt down took a lot longer than I thought it would. And I did some slightly unrecommended things in the process. First off, 20 minutes of hot-hot-hot washing got me this - which was both shorter and wider than I'd expected. For felting, the rule is generally "knit wider than longer", since for normal people, things will shrink in rather than down. Once again, the bizarre way I throw my yarn gave me an opposite result - it shrunk shorter and stayed wider than expected.


2' wide, 1' tall - how strange!
Yeah, it's slightly wonky-looking. So, based on my mother's intuition and several tales of what had happened to sweaters of hers in the early days of her marriage, it went into the DRYER for 20 minutes... and, while still wonky looking when it came out, it was workable. A wee bit of nipping, tucking, stitching and whacking into shape, and it started to resemble the tote-bag I was going for. At this point, it is now 20% of its original size!!!


It's smaller than initially expected, but that's fine - it's still a workable tote-bag size, and the handles I got for it will work even better, since they're for a medium-to-large bag, and this is a nice, solid medium. I used Cat's plastic-bag-over-a-box-and-PULL blocking method, and put the little critter in front of our main heat-vent. By Monday morning, half of it was dry, so I turned it around.


Blocked - roughly 18" tall x 16" wide x 3" deep
Monday night, I put on the handles - and, Ta-Dah! It's an actual totebag! I'm still trying to decide whether or not I'm going to line it; the fabric is pretty darned thick (getting a needle through it to attach the handles? Quite an adventure!)


The inside, unlined
My first felted project, and it came out great!

Finished some things!!

First off, all the new pins are up on Material Whirled!! And there's a "buy one of everything" option (I prompted that). As you may or may not know, I have a little pin addiction. There are also cute buttons, and... SPARKLY ROVING. I'll learn to spin yet!!

Next, I stealth posted another free pattern: my Pineapple Dish Cloth, which I turned in for Herbology on Wednesday (and then backposted the pattern to Tuesday, so it would have a home until I figure out the whole Ravelry/Paypal thingie). Woohoo!!


Then, I finished my little Entrelac was-a-doll-blanket-became-a-Handbag. It came out super-cute, and with the lining & chain strap, it's pretty darned solid. The mega-wonderful fabric store in G'town mall (Exquisite Fabrics, which used to be up on K St) had the chain, the buttons, and the perfect satin cord for the finishing, which, once I started, took about two hours (and only because invisible thread is really hard to see!).



Here is the finished bag:


The lovely Entrelac Handbag

First, I attached the chain to the sides....	... then threaded the two satin cords & tied the ends.
Then the buttons went on.	The inside is knit-side visible (pretty!).
Front	Back

The bag, free in the wild.
I'm going to make another in different colors to double-check materials requirements, etc., and then post a pattern - this time, for sale (since there's a lot of work in this one). It will be the first of a set - I have seven more ideas, and counting!

Now, to the practical stuff: Knitting things I need to do this weekend.

1. Finish frogging my Rogue sweater. Will restart in August;
2. Hit AC Moore to (a) use coupon, (b) spend Bonus Points Certificate and (c) pick up everything I need for the conference I don't already have.
3. Also, get yarn for my TARDIS cowl;
4. Do the rest of the lace swatches on the Monster Yarn Blanket Project;
5. Get through at least Chart D (preferably at least one repeat of Chart E) on my O.W.L. (Girasole);
6. Get to the heel on at least one (preferably both) of my Eclipse Socks;
7. Finish finishing my Charms assignment/seat cushion, so I can turn in my Charms/Potions combo and scare the Ravenclaws;
8. Find the charts for the rest of my Hello Kitty reversible illusion scarf, so I can finish that;
9. Start the little birds for my Dad;
10. Find the little stocking canvas I started. Make color copy so I can see what I'm supposed to stitch under the raised bits;
11. Realize that it may actually happen that I finish almost every project I start this year (possible execption: the Monster Blanket); and
12. KNIT ALL MY HOMEWORK FOR THE CONVENTION!!!!

That should keep me busy.