One great thing about weaving is how quickly one can go through yarn! I’ve had skeins upon skeins of cotton yarn that I bought on sale. With a giant ball of Sugar and Cream Hombre, I made a seven foot long table runner last year.
During the Christmas break, I started making some placemats with two heddles. I made lots of mistakes but I’m getting better. Here are the first two placemats. The selvedges gradually got better and at the end, I was pretty proud of my hems!
I cut those first mats off the loom and retied the ends to get the tension more even. I have enough warp left on the loom for two more placemats.
In the mean time, I ended up with a huge pile of loom waste. Here’s just a small fraction of what I actually had.
Not wanting to throw away all those scraps of yarn, knotted them together and so that I could make something useful out of them.
I knitted a 9 ” by 9″ square with all the knots and ends on one side. Then I folded the square in half and sewed up the three open sides with all the knots and ends on the inside. The result is a well padded pot holder!
I was so inspired by Abigail’s FO mosaic I wanted to have my own. So here it is , 37 objects fiinished in 2009.
Everything, except the two cardigans, were started in 2009. I started Breezy Cables (top row ) back in 2006 using some beautiful yarn that I bought from Harrisville, NH during our cross-country drive. I knitted it in a KAL with Jenny to keep me motivated so that I can finish it and wear it to Stitches West 2007. I ended-up knitting a sample Millicent sock for Cookie and ran out of time. With a little encouragement in the beginning of Summer 2009, from Margit, I finished the cardigan by the end of Summer.
That left the the Fall to finish a couple of Cardigan for Arwen sweaters that Margit and I started in our two-person but infrequent KAL in 2007. Now that Breezy Cables was done, the plan was to work on Arwen once a week at lunchtime and again at BobaKnit so that they will be done by Halloween, allowing us to greet trick or treaters in our elfin garb. Margit finished hers a few days ahead of schedule and I finished mine on Halloween.
As long as I can remember, I’ve always want to weave. I made a scarf(lower right), a table runner(lower left), and a placemat(center right) with my rigid heddle loom. Last year, I read everything I can about weaving. The vocabulary, the equipment, the yarn was all foreign to me. After a year of reading books and several issues of Handwoven I can read a draft and can read through an article without looking up a word. Maybe 2010 is the year I get into weaving with a 4 harness loom! Or, I can spend a little more time exploring the intricacies of rigid heddle weaving.
The pattern is easy to memorize and is perfect for the short color changes in the yarn. The club really makes sock knitting fun!
US 1½ / 2.5 mm
Yarn:Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock – Lightweight -Pepe La Plume
Size: small
I started them on June 12 and finished August 7. It took me awhile to finish them because I was working on several projects at the same time. In fact, I haven’t even touched the July socks yet and I think they are getting ready to ship the September kit! My goal is to get all six pairs done by the end the year.
Here’s a picture I took of the whole kit, right after I got it back in May.
I’ve finished my March ‘09 BMFA Sock Club socks! I love everything about this kit. The dyer notes, the pattern, the yarn and the little knick-knacks that they usually send along to entertain us.
This time, the sock is Rogue Roses, designed by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the Yarn Harlot herself. The main design feature of this sock are the little roses that swirl around the leg and down to the toes. In my haste to get things going, I made the roses by picking up the top part of the stitch rather than poking the needle all the way through the fabric and picking up the yarn on the inside of the sock. I didn’t realize my error until I was half way through with the second sock, when I saw a You-Tube video on how it should be done. From a distance, it is hard to tell the difference but the correct roses look a little neater. I finished the rest of the sock with the roses done the way it was intended to be done… hence these socks are Rogue-”ish” Roses.
I made them in size small and gave them to my niece, also named Stephanie, for her birthday. Here she is modeling them.
These socks were fun to knit and making those roses are very addictive. The fabric is not very stretchy so be sure to measure the circumference of your foot before deciding on which size to knit. They were a little snug going on over the heel but fit perfectly once they were on.
Jerry’s new chemo cap fits him perfectly. Here he is, with Regina, playing with their grandson at the OVCC Easter Luncheon. The hat was knit by Jenny using the A Family Affair pattern from Knit One Below. Her adaptation using two solid color yarns created an intriguing yet manly design for an Easter cap!
It took me awhile to figure how this “Knit One Below” technique works. I had to rip this hat out 3 times before I got the hang of it. I am not like PWW, who is an expert & can whip out a project in no time. I never follow the pattern exactly because my gauge is always different from what was stated in the pattern and I did not use five colors of yarn. I hope it fits.
I made this hat for a relative who is going thru chemo for breast cancer using the tweed stitch.
Pattern: multiple of 4 (using a circular needle) I knit tight so I CO 88 sts with a size 9 needle. I did a ribbing for about 1 1/2″ then continue with the following:
Tweed Stitch Hat
Round 1: *K1, yfwd,sl 1 purlwise, ybk; repeat from * to end of rd. Round 2: Knit [if using straight needle, purl this row] Round 3: *Yfwd, sl 1 purlwise, ybk, k1; repeat from * to end of rd. Round 4: Knit [purl if using straight needles]
Repeat these four rounds til desired length (about 5-6″). Decrease on the knit rd, work even the next round. Continue to decrease til there are 8 or 10 stitches left, cut yarn & pull thru remaining sts to secure tightly.
Last December I made my grandson a Turn A Square hat but every time it was placed on his head, he would rip it right off. A few days ago, for some unknown reason, he decided that it is now OK to wear a hat.
Here he is at the zoo with his hat to keep his sweet head warm!
Looking a black alligator (or is it crocodile?)
Looking for the next exhibit
Something to keep in mind: Knitting hats for a toddler can be a risky proposition. They may or may not ever be worn. But if they ever do wear them, it makes it all worthwhile! Sigh…
Now that the weather is getting a little cooler… even in sunny southern California, I made some socks for Emmett from some leftover Fiberfiend corn yarn( from which I am making a pair of Velma socks) . The pattern is a modified version of SpinalCat’s Rudy sock. The yarn is made from the corn husk, the part of the corn that usually goes to waste.
