The last little while hasn't been devoid of crafting, though I've been pretty slow with things. I have some fun DIY stuff that I've been doing, but I can't post it here just yet because they're Christmas gifts that I'm planning to give away.
I do have a couple things that I've been working on gift-wise that I CAN post about here. The first is a Citron that I've just set out to block tonight.
It's made out of Dream in Color Starry, in the colour In Vino Veritas. This was a great subway knit since it doesn't take a whole lot of brain power. I was a little surprised how much bigger it got after blocking.
Another thing I've been working on is improving my crochet skills. I'm currently working on a doggy amigurumi toy pattern called Buffy.
As you can see, I'm not exactly done yet, but I've been having a lot of fun with it. Since it's a toy, I just picked up some acrylic worsted weight at Michaels. Cheap and cheerful. I've finished all the limbs, and am working on the body now.
In other news, I've discovered Pintrest recently, and have been having lots of fun with it. Mostly, I've been using it to keep track of recipes I'd like to try, DIY projects, and some helpful hints for organizing and/or cleaning the house. Very domestic, I know. Still, I've learned a bunch of nice little tricks that have come in handy leading up to the holiday season.
Hope you're all doing well!
Yay, the Modern Quilt Wrap is finished! My lord, was that ever a long and tedious knit. Did you know that each large square took between 1-2 quarters of NFL football to knit? Something like that anyway, I never really timed it exactly (well, if each one takes 1-1.5 hours, and a typical game is maybe 3 hours, that sort of works out). Anyway, it took a long time!
This is the fiddliest yarn I've ever knit with. I can't even tell you how many times I discovered dropped stitches WAY after the fact. It's a good thing that the mohair has so much of a halo that my lame attempts to catch the dropped stitches with extra yarn aren't noticeable at all. I can definitely say that it'll be a little while before I work with Kidsilk Haze again (although I've wanted this Trinket scarf forever). If I ever make noises about wanting to knit an entire sweater with it, smack some sense into me, ok? =)
Now that it's done, I guess the next thing to do is to wear it to death (after I block it, perhaps. It should probably be blocked), to make all the effort worth it! I still love the pretty colours.
(Just a complainy aside: why can't I ever take decent pictures? Do I need something more than a basic point-and-shoot to be able to do that? Maybe I need to learn how to use Photoshop)
The Modern Quilt Wrap is half-finished. Here are blocks 1-36, taken outside in the snow:
The colours are a bit weird probably because it was too bright outside and I don't know how to play with my camera settings very well (or to mess around with editing software -- I'm so lazy!).
The second half is exactly the same as the first. I must admit that the prospect of knitting the entire pattern again is a bit daunting because of all the colour changes and ends to be woven in, but I really want to wear this scarf this winter so I'd better get cracking!
Progress on the Modern Quilt Wrap continues. I love this project, but I wish it didn't take so long to finish each square.
As you may have figured out by now, I am a sucker for pretty colours. I am NOT by any stretch of the imagination an artist or even knowledgeable about colours and how to use them or put them together in a pleasing fashion. I just like to look at them. Someday, I would love to be able to be creative in assembling colours together to create beautiful projects such as this blanket or this quilt or this yarn, but for now I will have to make do with taking what other people have created/designed and appropriating it for my own use. Which brings me to my next knitting project. The Modern Quilt Wrap from Folk Style. When I saw this pattern featured on Knitting Daily, I fell absolutely head over heels. The colours! The drapeyness! The Cracksilk Haze! Now, I've never actually worked with Kidsilk Haze (except as an accent stripe in my ill-fated first sweater that didn't work out and which we will not speak of now), but it has definitely been on my list-of-things-to-try for a long time, I was just waiting for the "right" project (I've also had my eye on this Trinket scarf for a long time, it's just expensive as a kit and also from across the pond (not that that's stopped me before of course), and also I have trouble deciding on colours). At first I thought "9 skeins? Holy crap that's expensive". But then I thought "Hey wait, I don't have to knit Christmas presents for a certain person (or his mother) this year, why not buy MYSELF yarn instead?" And several weeks and several trips to the LYS and several eBay purchases later, all the required yarn had been assembled. Behold!
I've replaced a couple of the colours with ones that I already had in the stash (substituting Pearl for Drab and Candy Girl for Blushes), but I don't think it makes too much of a difference to the final pattern except for making it a bit brighter (brighter is better, yay!). I started knitting the first squares while watching the Red Sox in the ALCS, and it was VERY slow going at first. The yarn is so fine and slippery that it made joining new colours and weaving in ends difficult. And because this project generates so many dangling ends, I decided to weave the yarn in as I went, following this tutorial. Which in turn meant that I had to learn to knit with the yarn in my right hand (I normally knit Continental). Which slowed things down even more. Because there was a learning curve associated with this project, I had to knit the first 4 squares twice. Here's my second attempt, which is actually sort of square like it should be: 
Here are blocks 1-6: 
I've actually knit up to block 9 now, but I don't have a photo (perhaps this weekend when I can get outside with it during daylight hours). Here's how long it's taken me to knit all these squares (Pardonnez the super-crap Photoshopping): 
3 playoff games, 9 blocks. Each "large" block is taking me around 2 hours to knit. There are 36 of these blocks in the wrap. Do the math! This will take me a while to finish (but I want it now! I want to wear it this winter!), but I think it will definitely be worth it in the end. Provided that the mohair around my neck doesn't drive me absolutely batshit crazy. The bra test resulted in a bit of itching, but nothing too horrible. Tolerable, methinks. =)
Okay, so the title of this post is a half lie. It's not the first shawl I've ever made, but it is the first shawl that I made for myself. Yup, this one is going to stay in my wardrobe, and not get given to someone as a gift.
It's the Swallowtail Shawl from the Fall 2006 issue of Interweave. I made a bunch of changes to it though. First of all, instead of using a lace weight yarn, I used a sport weight cotton. In fact, it's Shine Sport from Knit Picks in Turquoise. Secondly, because I ran out of yarn just a touch too early, my shawl has a straight edge instead of a wavy one. I actually wasn't a big fan of the finger-like edging, so I'm not really heartbroken.
Here's a close up of the lace.
You can't really see the little bobbles all that well, but they're there. It's supposed to be like little lily-of-the-valley buds.
All in all, a pretty fun knit.
