A finish! Just now!

Okay, I've backdated this post to yesterday, since it's supposed to be the Friday post, but it's actually 12:58 a.m. on Saturday. I have just finished a project that HAS to be done later today (Saturday) as I'm going to see the recipient. Since scheduling may get truly weird, I needed to have it done *before* attempting to sleep.

So, I stayed up until it was knit, did the finishing, took photos, and will hand it off. But first, I share with you:


As you can hopefully see, it's a Hello Kitty illusion-knit dishcloth. The recipient is TOTALLY into that beribboned feline, even more than I am (and you may remember that scarf I made. So, woohoo, an actual post REALLY INSANELY CLOSE to the time of finishment!! Slowly, I get back into the Blogging Regularly thing...!

Note: Because I gave the original pattern away, I had to recreate it for this dishcloth - but I *cannot* share it, sorry, as I do not own Hello Kitty. (Man, I would have SO MUCH YARN if I was in Sanrio's league, money-wise!)

DOOOOOOOM GOAT!!

First, the Doom Goat Illusion Chart:


Now, the class turn-in for Charms, where Illusion Knitting was an option...

Name: CraftyGryphon
House: Slytherin, Sixth Year
Option: 1 - Illusion Knitting
Project Page: Hearts' Illusion Mitts
Yards: ~105 yds.

Hello, Professors!

I decided to try knitting a pair of illusion mitts. Now, they look like nice matching mitts from most angles, but they don't actually match at all. If viewed at just the right angle, different pictures will appear!


The right mitt has little hearts front and back (very small hearts - possibly too small). The left mitt has Doom Goat, the Snake Pit Mascot, on the back, and a checkerboard on the palm side. The resolution on Doom Goat isn't great - it's supposed to be Doom Goat's head in a stylized flame.

right mitt



left mitt
  
The chart I created for the Doom Goat side is set up for knitting in the round; if you're doing a flat piece, then the stitches on the even-numbered rows would have to be reversed. (purl if it says knit, and vice versa) to make it work correctly.

12 in 12

So, according to Ravelry (which doesn't count cross stitch, quilting, canvas or hardanger, so no, I didn't get The List down super-far, don't worry), I have twelve WIPs. WIPs are things that I actually intend to finish at some point, as opposed to UFOs, which I have finally realized means I will NOT finish them. (The List has both right now; it will be pruned of UFOs for the new year.) Anyway, here are my Ravelry WIPs:


They're presented in order of "happiness" - which should probably also be updated, since by "happiness", my Evenstar should be dead last. (I am loathing knit-on beaded edging and only keeping going because the yarn is soooo fluffy and the beads are soooo pretty and I WANT THAT SHAWL.)

As pictured left to right, top to botttom, the items are as follows:

1. The 2011 Advent Calendar Scarf, Part 1. I started this on December 1 this year, so it hasn't been a WIP for long. Since I'm doing it with MadTosh Merino Light, 91 stitches and 12 days of pattern will actually get me a shawl. This is probably the closest item to being finished. It will be saved for the OWL frenzy that is March.
2. Slytherin Crest Bag. The knitting is done, the blocking is done. I have the hardware, the straps, and the canvas for the lining. I have zippers and more canvas for pockets. I just have to actually (*shudder*) SEW the thing together. February is a short month with a long weekend - I think I'll save this for then.
3. Ancient Runes OWL: Pretty as a Peacock Shawl. I actually have to frog back through the first set of peacock feathers, which is what killed this shawl getting finished in the first place. And (oh, joy!) I don't think there's a lifeline anywhere in the thing. (I have learned better since!) Whereabouts currently unknown; I'll keep this for August, in-between terms, since it's silk and not *super* warm.
4. Swiss Cheese Scarf. A pleasant little mindless something to carry around with everything else. Also to be saved for an end of term - preferably one where I'm traveling - like July.
5. Astronomy OWL: Evenstar Shawl. It's JUST the edging left. The beaded edging. Still, I think I've got a shot at finishing it in a week or two of knitting. Since it's very warm, it needs a winter midterm - either April this year, or hold until December.
6. Pullover WITH FLAMES. About half the flames are done. I just need to rework the neck (I hate the way it looks now) and worry about the sleeves. Except for the WITH FLAMES areas, it's simple stockinette, so it goes fast when I'm actually knitting.
7. The 2010 Advent Calendar Scarf. Whereabouts currently unknown, and I think I only have about seven days done. This one should be a midterm project, too... and I think I just ran out of midterms.
8. EZ 100th Anniversary Pi Hearts Shawl. This is a big shawl; I think I just kicked up to the 560-stitch rows. It's working well, though, and the Neighborhood Fiber Company silk is a pleasure. It's a pretty simple pattern, despite the size of what's left; I think I can do this during regular term.
9. Yarn on Thursdays: Stitch Edition Blanket. I'm going through (or was going through, I enrolled in the HPKCHC) the entire Knitting on the Net Stitch Directory. I got through 19 weeks of my project in 2010/2011, and 67 stitches on the list. For sanity, I think I'll call "finished" for the blanket at stitch 77, which should be two more panels on the blanket, which should make it queen-sized/futon sized. The rest of the stitches will be handled as sampler pillows for the colorwork/mosaic stuff and the rest in a nice little lap-sized throw. But finished for this is the last ten stitches in part II of the list. Should be able to knock this out during term.
10. Dragon Illusion Blanket. OY. I started this a long, long time ago, before I really had a grasp on what either "287 st/row" or "every row in illusion knitting is actually four rows" meant. I'm almost to the halfway point; I'm thinking if I can get five (really 20) rows a month, I might have it done by the end of the year sometime. And 20 rows of this thing is about all I can manage before it gets exiled again.
11. Peacock Feather Beaded Scarf. This isn't just "whereabouts unknown"; it's so small - just a tiny ball of merino and some beads - that I think it may actually have been accidentally thrown out. If I haven't found it by December 2012, it'll officially come off The List and my Rav page as "forever frogged".
12. History of Magic OWL: Peacock Fillet Crochet Tablecloth. I want this thing done. IT FREAKING TAKES FOREVER. It's a tiny hook. It's tiny thread. BUT IT IS SO PRETTY! I think this will be another "work about ten rows, put it down for a month" projects.

So, according to the above, I want to finish the twelve items in the following order, more or less. Any of the larger items (tablecloth, illusion blanket) will get worked on well before the month they're due - heck, all of them might be - so this is just a "hey, if I haven't started finishing this yet, I really should" list :

January - Pullover WITH FLAMES February - Slytherin Crest Bag March - 2011 Advent Calendar Scarf, Part 1 April - Evenstar Shawl (OWL) May - Yarn on Thursdays: Stitch Edition Blanket June - 2010 Advent Calendar Scarf July - Swiss Cheese Scarf August - Pretty as a Peacock Shawl (OWL) September - EZ 100th Anniversary Pi Hearts Shawl October - Peacock Fillet Crochet Tablecloth (OWL) November - Dragon Illusion Blanket December - Peacock Feather Beaded Scarf

Yeah, that should keep me busy this year. Not even counting the upcoming 54 classes, three BROOMs, three OWLs, Quidditch, Challenges, and other events!!

Quidditch #2, and Potions & Muggle Studies classes

So, I had a bit of a turning-stuff-in/finishing frenzy over the last two days.

First up, my Second Quaffle for Quidditch this term was a Deathly Hallows Illusion Dishcloth. I just love illusion stuff, but didn't think I'd be doing any more this year after the Hello Kitty Scarf That Ate 2010. But, for my Snakes, I'll do it. Plus, it turned out pretty cool.

   
Then, for Muggle Studies, here's my turn in post:

Muggles have an absolute fascination with static imagery. Anything (or anyone) can be the subject of one of these images, and they can be found everywhere in the Muggle world. Some are painted, some are photo-graphed, and not a ONE of them moves. (Really, honest! Not at all!) Some of these images even wind up in museums, where lots and lots of Muggles can come and watch the images *not do a single thing*. For example, here is a photo-graph of a sign that caught my fancy:


Snake Sign Photographic Print
(from the Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, Australia)
Now, if it wasn't a Muggle sign in a Muggle in a Muggle museum, the little snake would slither back and forth, hissing at appropriate intervals. But it doesn't. It never, ever looks any different that what you see above! EVER!!

Based on the image above (unmoving though it is), I have crafted this little wrist-cuff. It only took 80 yards (!!) of cotton yarn to make it (roughly 50 of the white, 30 of the red/brown ombre), which is pretty cool, especially since there's more than one strand running behind most of the colorwork.



You can't see the Whole Snake - I forgot to take a photo of it flat - so here is a linkto a tiny moving picture so you can see the whole thing; I could't quite get it to "embed" itself properly, it kept squirming away. (See, proper pictures move!)

Thanks for a fun assignment, Professors! I love my little Snake Cuff, even if my little snake doesn't move!

Now, since Blogger will allow flash videos, here it is embeded.


Last up, a headband for Potions. The idea was to make something with Balanced Colors, so I made a headband cover. And finally found a use for all the bright orange and yellow scratchy acryllic yarn in my house!


  

Not too bad, considering I was just going to do one Quaffle (I've done two) and one Class (I've done four)! And yes, I could've gotten three days of blogfodder out of this, but I'd rather just have it out here and worry about knitting more for next week, y'know?

449 Days Ago...

Finished something! The Double-Sided Reverse-Negative Hello Kitty Illusion Scarf is FINISHED! This was my "fun, whimiscal knit to start 2010" - started it on the first of January last year, and finished it on Saturday. That's 449 days, kids. For a scarf. Although there's a perfectly rational reason for a scarf to take a year, two months and twenty-five days to knit - because it was really TWO scarves, and each of them was an illusion scarf. That had to be reverse-negative mirror images of each other. And it worked - here's my proof:


Being several layers of non-breathable acrylic, this scarf is quite heavy - and it's WARM. Which, as it turned out, was necessary - suddenly, it's winter here again!


So, scarf is finished, and it's a "real" item off the list. (And I'm turning it in as my Headmistress' Challenge for this term, too, which was the *real* incentive to finish it up once and for all!)

And here's that turn-in, just because...

Dearest Headmistress, this is CraftyGyrphon, Third Year Slytherin, with her Message to her Earlier Self.

Dear Self of January 1, 2010: **Don't do it.** Yes, you know you want to cast on that "whimsical" little Hello Kitty scarf you found a few years back on Ravelry. Yes, you've got pink and black yarn screaming out to become that scarf. The problem with you, though, is that you have "ideas" to "improve" perfectly good patterns.

I know you. You're going to decide that the Hello Kitty and Flower panels in the original pattern, aren't enough, and you're going to design a Happy Star and Happy heart to go with them. And then, about halfway through (or close to what SHOULD have been the end of the new, extended scarf), you'll decide that Illusion Scarf Backs are ugly, and wouldn't it be so much prettier if you just made a back to the scarf? Which, of course, could look like the front. Except... it would be so much cooler if you flipped the images and reversed the colors.

Here's a photo of all that, four hundred and forty-eight days later.
[Insert first picture from above]
Okay, yes, that does look INCREDIBLY cool when laid out like that. But, Past Self, do you see the problem? DO YOU?? Well, let me help. Here is the scarf, finished, four hundred and forty-NINE days later. (And yes, you did grow out your hair, and yes, you have lost weight.)
[Insert other picture from above]
Now do you see the problem? You've got a nice, heavy pink and black striped scarf. The illusion may be visible, from time to time, on one side or the other. BUT NO ONE SEEING IT FINISHED WILL EVER REALIZE HOW COOL IT IS. Seriously. If you're going to put that sort of effort into something, make sure people can see it, okay?

It's not like you know you're about to find a really cool group of folks running amok in an old castle somewhere in England. (You do, by the way. It's called "Hogwarts." Yes, like that Hogwarts. Never mind that right now.) You're just trying to knit something fun. I get that. Fun is good.

So, instead, how 'bout you cast on that nice Henry VIII Alice Starmore sweater you've been thinking about?

Just consider it.

Seriously

Thanks much,
Your Future Self.

Free Day!

Sunday, I gave myself a Free Knitting Day, and came close to finishing my Hello Kitty Illusion Scarf. (There are going to be pictures in this post, and lots of 'em.) Here are the two sides, so you can see that each square will have a mirror-image reverse-negative on its back, as if I somehow managed to combine illusion knitting and double-knitting. Which, I admit, I'm hoping to fool at least one person into thinking I did (unlikely, but hey, it would be cool...).


And lots of little close-ups (you were warned there'd be photos)...








Here's a movie of it, just because. I really, really like the way it's turning out...


And then, seaming the sides. I decided to crochet (using pink) the sides together from the inside first.


I have one of those seams done, and about half of its corresponding outside seam. Yes, I really, REALLY want the two sides to stay (mostly) flat and lined up - thus, seaming nigh-unto-death.


I'm hoping to finish it up tonight - or at least this week. Yay! That'll be something Off The List (and, incidentally, the thing I'm turning in for this term's Headmistress' Challenge)!!

Another SNAP project

Okay, so, after a week of having the Forget-Me-Not shawl be the carry-around project (and, I should add, NOT getting knitting time at lunch or in the morning, so NOT getting the 6" additional I need for SNAP credit), it's time to switch off. This week's carry-around project is the Reverse-Negative Reversible Illusion Hello Kitty Scarf, or "HIKS" for short. Here are my "before" photos:




As you can see, I've got the first Hello Kitty square done on the "back" of the scarf, and I've started on the Happy Heart block. (The Happy Heart and Happy Star will be available on Ravelry, since they're cute little illusion squares that make me smile. I'm thinking sometime next term, when knitting up a sample block will fit into a class.)

We'll see how far I get this week on this, given the OTHER six projects on my SNAP list. (There would be seven, but I still haven't found Project/Item #4, the Beaded Peacock Scarf.)

More sunshine....

Okay, so Monday, I showed you the little crochet Happy Sun I made up. That was for Potions class; the Charms assignment is supposed to show the play of dark against light, and be linked to the Potions project. I love illusion knitting, so I made up a right-way chart based off my little Happy Sun:


I use really thin graph paper, so I can draw a design the "right" way, then flip it over, since my brain really likes the right-to-left chart to be showing what I'm doing on the back of the fabric (and no, I can't do it the other way 'round, I get horribly confused.) Here's the first (possibly only?) side of whatever-this-is-going-to-be (pillow? Chair cushion? OOOOOO!!! CHAIR CUSHION!!!... well, maybe.) I like the fact that the yellow circle shows up well. And yes, this is Illusion Intarsia. You knew I was crazy, but hey, I come up with cool stuff!!


The circle on the striped black and orange field becomes...


... another Happy Sun!!!
I'm really psyched with the way this came out!!

A book cover is sort of like a book, right?

I had a pretty busy weekend. To keep the Tuesday post somewhat book-related, here's the Illusion Book Cover I made for History of Magic. Here's where it was early Sunday morning (on the way to Mother's Day brunch):


... and here's the turn-in post:

I made some protective gauntlets for another class, so I headed to the Chamber of Secrets to explore, straightaway. It's like most other catacombs, with fewer skulls, and about the same amount of damp. I poked around for a bit, and didn't find anything really unexpected until I was on my way out, when, near the main entrance to the Chamber, I found (pushed behind a rock), a second-hand copy of A Beginner's Guide to Transformation.

Well, I might need it next year, but it's awfully scruffy-looking. So, I decided to make it a cover. (No one, really, wants to be caught out with scruffy-looking books if they can help it.) It's striped in my House Colors, and, for the most part, looks like a perfectly normal book cover, if a little loud.


But, hold it at an angle, and something appears... (Please note: doing a color-shifted illusion ANYTHING in one solid piece is a half-price fare to St. Mungo's. I think there may be a HoM O.W.L. in it somewhere!)


It's a "S", of course… or is it a Snake?


Either way, no one will notice my scruffy book inside!

(And, just for people actually reading the blog, eventually there will be a pattern!)

And things are back to normal.

I'm back to the world of Normal Knitting, after the whirlwind of Ravelympics. I pulled out the pink and black yarn, and have started on the negative-image side of the scarf. Everything will be color-reversed and left-right flipped. The idea is that someday down the line, I might be able to fool someone (I'm thinking grand-nieces, maybe) into believing I managed to double-illusion-knit. Well, no, the idea is to make a cool looking scarf, with illusion on both sides, but... hm. Guess I'd better watch the latest Let's Knit2Gether episode this weekend and learn to double knit, first. ANYWAY, here's the first bit of Side 2 of the scarf:


Out in the real world, the snow is starting to melt. Really.


And we saw a fox while waiting for our ride yesterday. My little camera-phone doesn't do its best at distances over ten feet, but I've circled the fox, and if you kinda squint, you can see her....


More knitting tomorrow!

Hello Kitty: the Flower

Just a quick note today - I didn't get a lot of knitting done. Well, I guess I'm strange in counting 130 rows of knitting as "not a lot", but.... anyway, here's the Flower Block of the Hello Kitty Illusion Scarf:


You can sort of see in the upper right a spot where I knitted when I should have purled with the black yarn, but I am SO not going back to fix it. You can still tell there's a flower there, so I'm good.

Better photos of the panels thus far...

Here's photos of the first two panels of my Hello Kitty scarf, which is turning into a bigger project than I'd anticipated. Turns out that I'd like it reversible - which means once I knit the five panels going up this way (Hello Kitty, Smiley Heart, Flower, Smiley Star, Hello Kitty), I'm going to do the same five panels in the same order, with the colors inverted. I'm going to crochet the two scarves back to back and upside-down from each other, so if the correct face is up, there will be an illusion from either end of the scarf.


It's tempting to do the whole thing so it looks like the illusion on the front is the same as on the back of a particular panel - just mirror everything as I swtich the colors - but I also like the illusion-from-either-end possibility. I have a minimum of three more panels before it becomes an issue!


We'll see what I wind up doing!

New Year, New Project!

By finishing The Hat late, late Thursday night, my total is 44 projects finished in 2009, averaging 3.67/month (or, since I didn't do anything at all in two months, an average of 4.4/month in months in which I actually finished projects). As I managed to finish the year under 50 UFOs (finally!), I can start something new!

I know, I know, it's not quite supposed to work that way, but really - I didn't start anything new-yet-unfinished since... um... well, the Williamsburg Chase Sampler, and I started that in... well, as near as I can figure, sometime in October. That's a long time to go without a start just-for-fun! So, I started my version of Alana Blewitt's "Hello Kitty Illusion Scarf" (Ravlery link; free Ravelry download). Mine is in black and pink, and I'm going to add a little smiling heart panel and a little smiling star panel of my own design.


Being a cartoonist makes getting stuff like this sketched out easy.
Not that it's a really complex design!
I have one Hello Kitty panel and most of the Smiling Heart panel done. I know you're "not supposed to use" acrylic in illusion knitting, but that's all I've ever done, and it's all worked out fine. Still debating as to whether I should just knit the scarf twice (once from each direction) so each side of the finished article has illusion capacity. Also, note about my charts: it's easier for me to follow the charts right to left, same as I knit, so whatever is charted winds up mirror-imaged on my final product.


Blurry shot of Smiley Heart panel
It'll depend on how "Hello Kitty"d out I get, and how quickly.

Now, I'm still being a good bunny and working on *other* projects, so there should be a couple of finishes in January, just to get the year started off right. Woohoo!!

All the Cool Kids have Photos...

The seamed Rowan Glace Sweater, with Take Three on the button band well underway. This should be finished today, and then on to the Great Sleeve Debate. (Basically, I could do sleeves, easily. But do I *want* to do sleeves?)
[KnitStuff/GlaceSweater2.jpg]

Closeup of the button band. Girl buttons go on the LEFT. My carpool knows this, after calling my driver's friend Lois just after 7 a.m. to go have her look in her closet to see which side the buttons went down. I've never met Lois, but she must be pretty cool to take odd knitting telephone calls from people she doesn't know at seven in the morning on her day off...
[KnitStuff/GlaceSweater2a.jpg]

Turns out a button band picking up every row straight on to the needle doesn't work well. Nor does every other row, even if you knit it on as you go. The rule is, and shall remain, pick up one stitch every nine rows all the way around. Diane Zangl said this clearly in the first pattern of hers I did from Knit'n'Style:
[KnitStuff/fairisle.jpg]
See? The button band works fine, and clearly I knew the rule. But I just *had* to see if there was another/different way. Bad, bad knitter. Stick to what works for the basic stuff, OK?

[KnitStuff/Cup-o-Shawl.jpg]
While progress has momentarily halted on the Lilly of the Valley Shawl, I discovered that a good way of keeping my ball of yarn from running away is to put it in one of the wonderful new shatterproof orange cups my husband got me. Keeps it from getting squished in my totebag, too.

Now, on to the new stuff:
[ljgryphon/KnitStuff/CatSweater1.jpg]
The beginnings of a sweater: two pounds of yarn. In past experience, one pound of yarn, intermixed with some other color, gets me a nice cardigan. Two pounds of yarn might get me two cardigans... or a cardi with matching hat, scarf and, if there's enough left, mittens. Either way, I get to watch my mother freak out again when I cut my steeks, which is always fun. (And she's the one who's all about stitching in the round whenever possible. I don't get why steeking bothers her so, I really don't!) Hm. I don't seem to have a picture of the last Fair Isle sweater I did - steeks and all - and I wear it a LOT. I wonder where it is? Hm. Looks like I'll need a sweater-hunt sometime in September. I'll post a pic when I find it; it came out really well!

This is the first pass at the design for the Cat Sweater. Originally, I was going to do something more like a zen-brushstroke cat on the back, but that was deemed (by me) boooring, and much easier to do if I was duplicate-stitching afterwards. There's no challenge there! Thus, the random pawprints with hidden words. I'll be switching it around so it says "Here Kitty Kitty" vertically down the front ("Here" on the right, "Kitty Kitty" on the left), and see if I like that better. This will be cast on as soon as I'm done with the needles I'm using for the Glace Sweater. Really.
[KnitStuff/CatSweater-Design1.jpg
Copyright CJB 2007

Blast from the Past:
And just for fun, and because all the cool kids have tons of photos in their blogs, here's the Dragon Illusion blanket that didn't get pulled out, since it's much farther along than I'd remembered! If you're not familiar with illusion knitting, here's the thing. Straight on, it's a black-and-cream striped blanket. Viewed from a 45-degree angle, suddenly it's a black dragon on a cream background. This is SO going into knitting shows when it's done, just for the "Ooooooh!"s it'll get!
[KnitStuff/illusiondragon-1.jpg]