I've been a VERY busy girl

Pidge

Spiral Rib Hat

You thought that I wasn't doing anything because I haven't posted since August? Well I actually have been a VERY busy girl! These five knitting projects are part of a directed independent study which I blog about over at Yarn-On. The details for each of these projects are over there too.





Beaded Eyelet Rib Socks









                       Shades of Grey




Ripple Stitch Socks

Yarn-On

Yarn-On is a side blog I have going about the adventures of a directed study in spinning, dyeing and designing with yarn.

How a Compulsion Starts (my first pair of knit socks)

I traveled to California to visit my family last month and I forgot to claim my laptop computer after putting it through the security checkpoint in Boston. I flew all the way to San Francisco and drove all the way to Santa Clara before I realized that my computer bag was "light". Luckily, it was safe and sound in the hands of the TSA in Boston. I had intended to get caught up on a few web design projects while visiting and now that was not going to happen. I felt like an idiot for losing my laptop and needed a challenging project to occupy my mind so I went to the yarn store! I decided it was time to tackle the challenge of knitting a pair of socks.

I've crocheted a pair of socks (read about the adventure here)but I never intended to knit a pair of socks. Why? There were a couple of reasons. One reason is that I'm a bare foot person. When I'm at home I don't wear anything on my feet and I'll wear sandals until there's three inches of snow on the ground or my toes start to turn blue, whichever comes first. I crocheted a pair of socks for the challenge .... I don't actually wear them!

Another reason was that I didn't like knitting with double pointed needles. It wasn't until I taught myself how to knit in the round with two circular needles that I "got" the whole concept of multiple needle circular knitting. The double pointed needles took a little bit of practice but it became much easier after my success with two circulars. Double pointed needles are much cheaper too and that leaves more money for yarn.

The final reason I've never knit a pair of socks is because I believed the hype about their difficulty. Turning the heel and grafting were techniques I kept hearing knitters struggle with and I felt that my knitting skills weren't up to the task. However, a number of years ago I learned to graft and I figured now was the time to teach myself how to turn a heel. At the very least it would help keep my mind off that forgotten computer.

I found a free pattern for this pair of pedicure socks. How cute! I decided I would make a pair of them for my daughter. I started knitting away and had NO problems following what I later learned was the most basic of sock patterns. I turned my first heel without a hitch and with a great deal of pride! I had almost finished knitting the first sock when I was quietly informed by my daughter that she would never wear them!!!!! It wasn't that she didn't like or appreciate them but 1) she didn't get pedicures and 2)she only wore ankle socks.

What to do? I could continue and finish and try to find someone to give them to (they weren't the right size for me) but now I had "sock fever" and I decided that my first sock was going to be for ME and I was willing to frog everything and start knitting new socks, this time with toes!

I read every sock book in the library and I scoured the internet for sock blogs and forums. I quickly learned that people who knit socks are very passionate about their work and that socks are pretty darn easy to design and knit to your own specifications. I was now completely enthralled!

The three books that helped the most were:
1) Knitting rules! by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.
--This book is mostly a humorous and practical information book about knitting but there is a section that breaks down how to knit a pair of socks without a pattern and this was my inspiration and springboard for giving it a go myself.
2) Getting Started Knitting Socks by Ann Budd.
--My sock bible. The best beginning sock book I found.
3) Socks A La Carte by Jonelle Raffino.
--A fun flip book with lots of different cuff, body, heel and toe patterns.

Sock Notes:

2 balls of Patons® Stretch Sock Yarn - Olive

K3,P1 for cuff and body

K1, slip1 for the heel

Double decrease for the toe

I love knitting socks! All I want to do now is design and knit socks. I want to learn everything there is to know about socks. I am hopelessly addicted and have a serious new compulsion. I am already in the process of hand dyeing yarn and picking out a stitch pattern for the next pair. I may need an intervention. I'm definitely going to have start wearing them.

My Ravelry project page for My First Pair Of Socks.

Kitchen Scrubby

This kitchen scrubby is a great use for scrap pieces of worsted weight cotton yarn and an easy three step process.

1) The wash side is made using a J hook and worsted weight cotton yarn. Work three rounds of the basic granny square. Bind off and weave in ends. Instructions for the basic granny square can be found here.

2) The scrubby side is crocheted from netting (the coarse petticoat netting not the soft bridal veil netting) made into a long 1½" continuous strip by *cutting the fabric to within ½" of the edge then making another long cut parallel to the first (going in the opposite direction) to within ½" of the edge --repeat from * until all the fabric wanted is cut. Wind into a ball. Using a K hook, make a chain from the netting strip as long as the granny square plus one chain more. Each row is single crocheted through the back loop only until the netting square measures the same size as the wash square. Bind off and weave in ends.

3) Using the worsted weight cotton single crochet the wash square and the netting square together. Bind off and weave in ends.

That's it! The kitchen scrubby pictured measures 4"x4" but by altering yarn, hook size or the number of rounds for the granny square you can custom size your scrubby.

My Ravelry project page for Kitchen Scrubby.

Bouquet of Booties

This is a project done bb (before blogging) that I wanted to document for uniqueness. It's a baby shower centerpiece of booties folded to form flowers which are secured with floral tape to wire and leaves.

The pattern and idea was in the July 2003 issue of Crochet! Magazine. There are four different cuff patterns and the foot is the same pattern for all the booties. I worked them using Herrschners Afghan and Apparel Yarn which is a 2 ply, 100% acrylic, fingering weight yarn.

There were no problems with the patterns and they were easy to follow. It was my first exposure to the reverse single crochet (also know as the crab stitch)and I am happy to report that I was able to execute the stitch without fuss, although it is not on "my favorites" list. The only difficulty I had was making myself stop crocheting them --I think I made well over a dozen pairs before I managed to apply the brakes!

My Ravelry project page for Bouquet of Booties.

Bunny Blanket Buddy

This darling toy has been knit and in my work basket for THREE YEARS!! Why? Because I have a face phobia. Whenever I make something that entails putting a face on it -- I freeze. I have no sense of proportion or spacing when it comes to placing eyes, noses and mouths and that's in addition to the technical difficulties of embroidering circles on knit or crochet items. *sigh* I always need help from my daughters or my husband to verify that I have a pleasant looking face (eyes placed too close together produce a rather creepy look). A couple of days ago I had a bout of "face confidence" and managed to finish this cute little toy!

Bunny Blanket Buddy is a free pattern from Lion Brand Yarns and available here.

Notes:

I substituted Red Heart Baby Teri for the Lion Brand Velvetspun. Apologies to Lion Brand Yarns for not using their yarn with their pattern but, in my opinion, Velvetspun sucks and it really is an awful choice for a baby toy. The Baby Teri is a much better yarn for this project.

I worked with two strands of the Baby Teri.

I used size 6 needles for the head (instead of the size 8 recommended for the Velvetspun)

Wrap the first stitch of each row tightly when doing the double knitting of the head so that the ends do not gap.

Thanks to my Hubby for designing a face that I liked and one that was easy to embroider.

My Ravelry project page for Bunny Blanket Buddy.

Thousand Ends Lapghan

I love to challenge myself but sometimes I have brain farts and wind up being appallingly stupid. This lapghan was meant to be a nice way to use up scrap yarn. Instead, it was tedious and boring and ended up surpassing the Endless Ends Afghan for the number of ends that needed to be woven in.


The afghan is a combination of yo-yo's and Priscilla Hewitt's flat braid joining. It's cute, I love it and I'm going to keep it for myself but when am I going to learn??

There are 389 yo-yo's (made from scrap yarn)

Joined together with Red Heart Super Saver Aran Fleck using the flat brain join.

The border is a row of three single crochets in each of the unattached loops around the edge.

The afghan measures 44" x 35"

There were 1558 ends. 778 (389*2) for each yo-yo + 778 (389*2) for each flat braid join + 2 ends for the border = 1558.

My Ravelry project page for Thousand Ends Lapghan.

I really can't complain too much about this afghan because it did inspire the design of the adorable Romi-Yo!