Tag Archives: wool

Beer drinking socks

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Is a smoking jacket really meant for smoking? I have no idea, but these socks are made for drinking.

Socks with Pints On

Socks with Pints On

These were originally intended as a Christmas gift for Chris, and as you can likely guess, that didn’t work out so well. I posted here about my knitting fail when I finished the first of this pair. I was not about to rip back, so I decided to make the second sock and call them mine, since the first sock (barely) fit me. The second of the pair is a little looser than the first, as seems to be the way with my colourwork projects. Putting on that first sock kind of freaks me out as I wrench the poor tight thing over my heel.

Socks with Pints On

Socks with Pints On

Anyway, I do intend to make Chris a pair of his own. I made this pair with Stroll by Knitpicks, and I had bumped up the needle size intending them to be big enough for him, but no luck. I instead have ordered Stroll Sport, which is a thicker yarn, and I’ll have to go even bigger with the needles, as well as make some pattern mods. I also plan to just put the pints on the cuff, to allow the sock to be stretchier across the foot/heel, and hopefully, hopefully (note my prayer here to the knitting gods), they’ll fit him. If I ever get around to them. I think I’m good with the colourwork for a while. Maybe it’s time for something a little less risky?

Squishy soft luxuriousness

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No I’m not talking about the puppy, although all those adjectives could be easily used to describe her too. I’m talking here about some gorgeous new yarn that arrived in the mail today, destined to become a birthday gift for a certain Ecoholic.

Off the Hooks handspun merino

Handspun merino by Off the Hooks's Ashley Marcus in Alberta

This handspun merino by Off the Hooks’s Ashley Marcus in Alberta is destined to become a hat, although I haven’t yet got a clue as to a pattern or needle size I’ll use. This yarn is easily categorized as super bulky, so I’ll have to think hard about it and do some more research. I only have a few weeks to figure it out but the yarn will no doubt knit up quickly so I’m sure it will come together. Suggestions are certainly welcome!

Luna - 7.5 wks

Luna

Puppydom is proving to be quite the challenge for all of us. While I’ve done the whole puppy thing before and had dogs all of my life, Chris hasn’t, and Luna is a whole different challenge than puppy Zeus. I got off light with him. Luna requires constant supervision and super-human patience. Chris and I have both flown off the handle at each other a couple of times over the last week or so out of frustration, but I think I’ve found some help that will be useful for all us (thanks Interwebs! You’ve come a long way since I did this last).

First of all, I’ve found a Podcast called Creative Dog Training, which features dozens of episodes that start right from how to pick your puppy to how to start working with him or her from the moment you get home. The fundamentals are laid down in the Respect 101 series, which is exactly where we’re having issues right now. There is a great episode about “puppy biting” that was music to my ears, and I’m sure will be for Chris too, as this is a major area of frustration for him. I’ve already picked up some tips that are in use now (eg. leaving a leash on while she’s roaming about loose, to allow us to a.) catch her more easily when we need to, b.) correct her more effectively when she doesn’t respond to commands or c.) wants to chase a certain very stressed out cat, not to mention many other no-nos. There is really helpful information on teaching the command gentle (which I did with Zeus but with limited effectiveness) and working to teach her to have a “soft mouth” (making high-pitched “ouch” responses to teeth on flesh, for example. Chris has taken this one up with gusto). All in all, it is all important information that will help us lay the ground work towards owning a well-adjusted and extraordinarily well-behaved dog, something we care very deeply about achieving.

The Podcasts are between 10 and 15 minutes on average, quite well edited, and very clear and easy to understand. Accompanying the Podcasts are some online resources, including a web-based class that costs only $10. Unfortunately that seems to be the only “class” they have posted so far. But they do have some trainer blogs, a discussion forum for asking questions, and they seem fairly active. The Podcast for sure is frequently updated. I think it will continue to be a helpful resource for us in this crazy new adventure.

Luna - 7.5 wks

Is it just me or does this have "defiance" written all over it?

Cozy fingers

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Tiffany mittens

Tiffany mittens

I started these mittens back in May, of all months, and finished the right mitten all in one weekend at the cottage. But then I just never got around to knitting the second one, until after Christmas. I wanted a compact knitting project to take with me on our trip to Ottawa (not to mention I wanted to finish them while it was still winter). These are Tiffany, designed by Sabine Riefler for the Winter 2006 issue of Knitty.

It’s kind of been a goal of mine to finish up the various WIPs I have going in the knitting department before starting on anything new this year. While I haven’t exactly stuck to that, I do only have one other project long left unfinished, the Neimen sweater from Knitty Fall 2007. And that project is just not going anywhere. On the needles right now is a new work tote, destined for felting.

Tiffany mittens

Thumb detail

I did these in Cascade 220 wool on 3mm needles. They’re a little snug around the width of my hand, especially in the thumb section, and the cuff is quite long and needs to be tucked deeply up my sleeve. But they are lovely showstoppers. It was one of the first major Fair Isle projects I’ve done, and so they were good practice for learning tension when doing colourwork. They were a little “bumpy” but the blocking sorted that out nicely.

Tiffany mittens

Cuff detail

Now I’m all inspired to do more colourwork mittens, but I think I’ll do ones with shorter cuffs next time, as pretty as these are. I guess I really should address that slow-as-molasses sweater first though.

Completely out of season

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Well I managed to get some knitting done this past weekend, at the cottage, where it got down to MINUS THREE DEGREES on Sunday night. Sheesh. I was freaking out about my tomatoes at home because even Toronto had a risk of frost. Thankfully I was able to reach someone with a key to move my babies indoors.

Tiffany mitten

Tiffany Mitten

I know, I know, what am I doing knitting a mitten in May? Well… when you consider how cold it was this weekend, maybe it wasn’t so inappropriate. So far I have one half of the pair finished and I must say, I’m rather pleased. Perhaps I’ve turned a corner in my disinterest in knitting?

These are Tiffany, from the Winter 2006 Knitty. I’ve had my eye on these since they came out. I’m using Cascade 220 wool for these, all from ‘The Heathers’ series. I haven’t done a lot of Fair Isle knitting before, and I have to keep working on my tension. It’s very easy to pull the colours too tightly as you move between them, resulting in puckering of the fabric. It doesn’t show too much in the photo, and I think with blocking it will reduce it even further, but I’d like to see myself get better at it.

Finally some knitting content

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I don’t know why lately but knitting has been super low on the priority list lately. Maybe its gardening season, maybe its utter exhaustion due to my job. Normally the knitting helps with stress but I’ve been rather disinterested in it lately. I’m sure this will change once we head off to the cottage next weekend. Cottage is always great knitting time. I think I just need to find a project that doesn’t feel like a slog. I have two on the needles (one of which I started last summer) but they’re both seeming rather impossible at the moment. I’m thinking it might be time for socks again (I have a ridiculous amount of stashed sock yarn). I’m not totally sold on the idea though…

Felted tote for Larissa

Felted not-so-tote

After the great success of the felted cloche, I felt like I wanted to play around some more with felting. I bought a bunch of Paton’s Classic Wool for this purpose, and decided to try to make a felted tote, for my friend Larissa’s extra special birthday, of which the year number will remain a well kept secret.

Even something this simple felt like a bit of slog though and I just couldn’t stay interested. I had plenty of time but because I slacked off on it so much I had to finish it in a huge rush to have it ready in time for the big day.

I finished it at 12:30 a.m. on the last evening of free time I could depend on before her birthday, so I had to throw it in the machine right then. Because of that, I couldn’t really keep an eye on it and pull it out before it shrunk too much. As a result it shrunk by as much as 75%, and while it looks terrific, it’s not really a tote anymore. It’s more like a cute handbag.

Felted tote for Larissa

The tote, pre-felting

I’d like to try again and I have more wool to do so, but I think I need to shelve the idea until I’m feeling more motivated. I need to make something small and instantly gratifying, and probably something more for me than anyone (a lot of my knitting has been for gifts and I’m thinking knitting burn out is probably a big part of my problem.

This is the first time in years and years I’ve felt disinterested in knitting. I really do think its because so much of my energy is going into growing things, but its also been a challenging spring, and I think I’m a little off my game so to speak. I miss my big dog for one thing, something terrible, which was expected but I didn’t really know how I’d deal with it. I know, I know, knitting makes everything easier to cope with, and that is normally true for me too. But lately… not so much…

Do you see a pattern emerging here?

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I’ve been knitting up a storm the last couple of weeks, and I think a lot of it has to do with a sudden infatuation with hats. They make for nearly instant gratification projects, since they can be completed in as little as one weekend. I have to thank Michelle for this sudden spurt of hat-making, since it pretty much started with her “another green hat.”

Felted Cloche

Felted cloche

Technically, this hat actually started some time ago, after I saw the film Changeling (I just adore the clothing of the 1920s, even though the style would not flatter my curves one bit). I had a stash of Patons Classic Wool Merino on hand that I was purposefully saving to try out on a felting project. The St. Vincent Cloche by Fawn Pea was the perfect match.

It’s a super simple knit; the only reason it took me a few months was because I had to put it on hold and order more yarn in the peacock blue because I was sure I didn’t have enough (the unfelted version of the hat was huge). In the end I actually only needed a few yards of the new ball – I probably could have gotten away without it.

Felted Cloche

Hat band and slit detail

This was the first time I had tried felting using our front load washing machine. I’d heard that it can take more runs through these types of machines to make it work. I tried the first round on a normal setting with hot water, and the hat only felted a small amount. So the next round I put the washer on the “sanitary” setting, for extra heat, and holy smokes – it almost came out too small! In the end the hat just fits!

There are some creases I need to figure out how to smooth out, and I’m not sure how to fix those. I’m also not certain how I should fasten the hat band to the hat itself, but I think I need to, so that it doesn’t shift all over the place. But overall, as a first felted project in my current machine: it turned out pretty sweet!

Currently on the needles: you guessed it — another hat! Foliage, from Knitty Fall 2007, to be exact!

Feeling human again

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Hello world! Sorry I’ve been away. I would like to tell you I’ve been up to lots of interesting things but the reality is that I’ve been laying in a dark room in agony for the last 48 hours. I caught a cold over the weekend which by Tuesday had me feeling like I was breathing through a tiny straw, my head was so stuffed up. To make matters worse, the congestion in my sinuses sparked one of the worst sinus headaches I’ve had yet, and they have become a common nuisance in the last 6 months or so. This one was so bad in fact, I think my doctor may be on to something in suspecting these are not really sinus headaches at all, but a variant type of migraine. When I finally broke down to leave the house yesterday in search of some heavy duty drugs, it was an utterly surreal and painful experience, with blinding sunlight, the shakes and general visual “wonkiness”.

However, by this morning I felt things had subsided enough that I could go back to work and now that its the end of the day, I’m quite surprised at how much better I feel.

Hat for Larissa

Simple square hat, for Larissa

The benefits of taking a sick day are that its a good time to catch up on some knitting, when I’m not sleeping. Nothing complicated mind you, which is why this lovely little hat was a perfect project to keep the fingers busy while the head is crashing in on itself.

This hat is a kind of reproduction of sorts. My buddy Larissa has the most adorable square hat the she wears in the winter, with cute little tuffty pom poms at the corner. But she has loved it so much that its falling apart, and so I offered to make her a new one.

Hat for Larissa

Side view

Her original hat didn’t have the ribbed band across the bottom but I had to do it so that it wouldn’t curl. And the tassels on this one are a bit bigger than her hat, but she is totally thrilled and loves it.

This was the easiest hat in the world. I cast on 108 st on 4mm needles with Cascade 220 wool, and worked a double strand for the ribbing – about 9 rows. Then I dropped one of the strands and worked the rest of the hat in stockinette until it measured about 7.5 inches from the bottom. For the closure at the top, I moved half (54) of the stitches onto a second needle and then grafted the two sides together with kitchener stitch. Easy peasy and super cute!

For the next recruit

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I’m slowly building an army of baby vikings. The Baby Viking Helmet I made for Super Cal’s first birthday was such a hit I’ve had a few requests (from the pattern Viking Hat by Becky Veverka). This one, which I created using Mission Falls 1824 wool (in #008 Earth, #015 Putty, #013 Curry and #002 Stone), is for my coworker’s godson, and it was an opportunity for me to perfect my horn alterations, and I think I have them down now. Writing out what I did was terribly painful and tells me I’m probably not destined to become a designer of things knitted. If anyone tries this out and runs into trouble or something in the pattern doesn’t jive, please tell me so I can fix it (both here, and on my Ravelry page). I also need a better hat model (i.e. less lumpy) for photography!

Baby Viking Helmet #2

Baby Viking Helmet #2

Baby Viking Helmet #2

Baby Viking Helmet #2, horn detail

Follow hat making instructions in the original pattern by Becky Veverka (I leave out the earflaps as well).

Directions for my version of the horns (make 2):

  • With gold coloured yarn, CO 24 stitches (using long-tail cast on)
  • Row 1: knit
  • Row 2: switch to cream coloured yarn; knit
  • Row 3 to 11: stockinette stitch
  • Row 12: K18, turn, switch yarn to back, slip stitch from right needle on to left, bring yarn to front, slip stitch back to right needle, P12, turn, bring yarn to front, slip 1 st from right needle to left needle, wrap yarn by bringing to the back, slip stitch back to right needle and knit to end of row.
  • Row 13: Purl
  • Repeat rows 12 and 13 twice more.
  • Row 18: K1, SSK, knit to last three stitches, K2tog, K1
  • Row 19: Purl

Continue decreasing in this way until your last 4 stitches. Draw last four stitches together using needle & thread. Sew up the seam using mattress stitch, drawing it up nice and tight to help shape the horn. Stuff the horns and sew onto hat with gold coloured yarn.

For your noggin’

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I’ve managed to whip up a few little FO’s over the last few weeks which I’ve finally gifted so I can post about. One is Calorimetry (how on Earth are you supposed to pronounce that?) from Knitty for my friend Alice. This colourway was just right for her and her amazingly curly reddish hair, which she always has piled up in a gorgeously haphazard updo.

Calorimetry

Calorimetry

The yarn is Twilleys of Stamford Freedom Spirit, in #511. It’s just perfect for fall. I think if I make this for myself though, which I’m considering, I’ll make it narrower. I tried it on and it felt pretty wide, but when Alice gave it a try she looked amazing. Happy B-Day Alice!

Calorimetry

Calorimetry

Next up is a pumpkin hat, from the Kids Fruit Cap pattern series by Ann Norling, which can be customized to make anything from a strawberry to a raspberry to whatever kind of fruit hat you like. This is for my new baby nephew. Hopefully I’ll have a nice shot of him wearing it this fall.

Pumpkin Hat

Pumpkin Hat

I made this using Blue Sky Alpacas Sport Weight yarn which I had left over after making Lovable Teddy. It’s a beautifully luxurious yarn that I’ve fallen totally in love with after making all three of the Lovable Toys.

Zeus Yarn by Vergeknits

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About a week and a half ago I received a treasure in the mail. I’m not yet sure what I’m going to do with it, but its already a very important memory for me.

Zeus yarn

Zeus yarn, a blend of brushings from my Saint Bernard and wool

My big monster dog, Zeus, an 11-year-old Saint Bernard, is certainly enjoying his golden years and I know its unlikely I’ll own a dog quite like him again in my lifetime. I’ve been giving a lot of thought to ways I can preserve my memories of him before he’s gone. It’s true that for all I know he’ll be around for a few more years — he’s certainly surprized us that he’s still here now, but his hips are starting to go slowly and there are periods when I just don’t know if that next stage of his life is right around the corner.

Zeus yarn

Zeus yarn, close up

So, many months ago I got thinking that perhaps it was possible to make yarn out of his brushings. The first time I had ever heard of anyone using dog hair yarn was within my first few months working for a local crafts organization. I thought this was absolutely weird, but facinating. I don’t know much about the history of the use of this fibre in spinning and knitting, but I always thought Zeus’s fur was too short for this purpose, being that he’s a smooth-coat (short-haired) Saint, not the longer-haired variety that most people think of for this breed (there are two kinds, the smooth-coat being the original, and the longer-haired variety coming after they were interbred with Newfoundlanders).

I asked around on Ravelry if anyone knew anyone I could ask about my dog’s fur, and sure enough I was directed to someone local, Julie Verge of Vergeknits, in Baltimore, Ontario, and she has created this treasure for me. I gathered Zeus brushings over a few months and then sent them to her. She blended them with wool from a ram named Marty who belongs to a friend’s sheep herd. And now here it is! With even the cutest, personalized labels!

Taking a load off

Zeus, at the farm, in August

I have 358 metres of it and I’m giving some thought as to what it should become…possibly some kind of wall hanging. I’m going to mull it over for a while. Regardless, it’s already a treasure and it will be something special to remind me of my big sloppy boy long after he is gone. Thanks Julie!