Sunday Craft Update -- October 9

I'm still knitting socks from my Sock Innovation book by Cookie A. This pattern is called Wanida, and the yarn is Elann's Sock It To Me Panoply.

Sunday Craft Update -- September 26

I'm on a quest to knit all the socks in Cookie A.'s fabulous book, Sock Innovation. The pair above is from the Sunshine pattern in Elann Sock It To Me Shades. They're modelled by Kate, who's not afraid to wear socks with her Birkenstocks.

This pair is from the Vilai pattern and is made from Cascade Heritage yarn. As you can guess, this one involved hours of tedious chart-reading.

Cookie A. has a huge fan club on Ravelry. They claim that knitting her socks is addictive and I'm beginning to understand why.

Sunday Craft Update -- September 4

The last couple of weeks have been devoted to cross-stitch. First, I finished (only 9 months late) the stitching for the 2010 Christmas cross-stitch ornament for my sister-in-law, Jill. I'll post photos after I do the finishing work. I'm looking forward to starting the 2011 ornament but am impatiently awaiting the arrival of some specialty threads in the mail. I also made progress on my Chatelaine Japanese Garden last week.

I finished Mirabilia's Deco Spirits a couple of years ago, but it languished in my needlework basket for a good long time. Now, finally, it is framed and on the wall. I added a close-up of Water, my favourite panel, above. Unfortunately, my photos don't do the piece justice. It is much more sparkly in real life. I guess the torture of working with those Kreinik threads was worth it. Having since discovered Rainbow Gallery Petite Treasure Braid through the Chatelaine designs, I much prefer using that to add the sparkle, though Kreinik has many more colours.

Sunday Craft Update -- August 21

It's done!! The Philosopher's Wool Color Your Own sweater with set-in sleeves is finished. Doing the shaped armholes with steeks wasn’t all that difficult after all. I ended up working the top two inches of the body back and forth to shape the neckline. (I always hated cutting out the neck hole and “wasting” all that yarn and knitting effort.) I also did the top inch of the sleeve caps back and forth, but otherwise, the entire sweater was knit in the round.

I made the armholes roomy enough, so the extra seam allowance doesn’t feel uncomfortable when I wear the sweater. However, the additional bulk prevents the seam from lying completely flat. I may have to do some extra blocking and/or clipping of the seam allowance to make the seam smoother. Otherwise, I’m happy with the finished product and will likely use this procedure again.

What I will not do next time is read the instructions quickly and carelessly. I had to rip out 6 inches of the body because I had decreased too many stitches when shaping the armholes. Often, when I talk to beginner knitters, they are embarrassed to tell me about their "stupid" mistakes. Well, this goes to show that 30 years of knitting experience doesn't protect one from totally idiotic mistakes.

Sunday Craft Update -- August 14

Here, finally, is the fourth and last baby blanket made for Bernat's Project Linus Blanket Drive. I made it with the leftover Bernat Baby Coordinates and Baby Softee yarns from the first three blankets, using one of Bernat's patterns from their extensive collection of free patterns. And here, below, is the stack of blankets that my stitching pal Laura and I made this summer during the Bernat KAL/CAL. (The two on the top are hers.) They've been sent to Bernat and hopefully are on their way to the children who can use them.

Sunday Craft Update -- July 3

I'm working on a very ambitious project: a Philosophers Wool sweater with set-in sleeves. I've done several of these sweaters before but have never tried changing the drop-shoulder style to a set-in-sleeve style. At STITCHES South, Melissa Leapman convinced me that it is indeed possible to do a shaped sleeve cap entirely in the round. (She explains the process in her book, Mastering Color Knitting.) And voila ... here are the sleeves. The shaping is done by binding off a number of stitches at the armhole, casting on a steek over the gap, and then using SSK and K2tog decreases. I knitted the final few rows back-and-forth to shape the very top of the sleeve cap, but otherwise, the entire piece is knitted in the round.



Now, I have to finish the body (the photo at the top shows the progress so far), cut the sleeve and centre steeks, knit the front and neck bands and sew up. I'm hoping that the steeked sleeves won't add too much bulk to the armhole seems, and that I'll have a wearable garment in the end.

Sunday Craft Update -- June 12

I've been spending way too much time with the Harry Potter Knit & Crochet House Cup group on Ravelry, mainly because they've had awesome Quidditch projects this term. For example, there is the Gryffindor bookscarf, shown with The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum, a very good book about the development of forensic science in the early 20th century. The pattern, which uses DMC Perle Cotton #5 and tiny 2mm needles, can be found here.

Then, there is the Hedwig Illusion Dishcloth pattern from Freshisle Fibers. When you look at the dishcloth one way, it's a plain old boring striped dishcloth, but look at it from an angle, and the surprise is revealed!



Finally, I have a complete set of Pocket Potter Puppet Pals, based on the famous Mysterious Ticking Noise video. This pattern is also free from Inner Child Crochet. I really, really hated doing all the fiddly seaming, and I was going to abandon the project after completing Snape. However, Kate begged me to complete the set, and once I adopted an assembly-line approach, it wasn't such a struggle.