Saturday, January 20, 2007

Fixing old mistakes




I've been on a little kick in the last few weeks. I've been undoing mistakes from old finished projects and re-doing them for further satisfaction! I was in a bit of denial about the socks I made. I pretended that they fit. .. I crammed one of them on, while the other fit perfectly. I finally just undid the toe, tore back and made it long enough for my toes to stretch out luxuriously! I shortened a scarf that I never wore (and now wear every day). And, now, I have torn back the ribbing on a hat I made years ago. It always sat on my head like a bell. This was before I learned the trick of doing the ribbing on smaller needles so it will hug my ears the way I like it. I'm re-knitting the ribbing so it will stay snug on my ears. I'll wear it more now. It's been fun to revisit old projects that seemed so hard to fix long ago and now seems really easy to fix. It shows how much I've been learning. Yee Hee! My ulitmate fix will be to frog an entire blanket and start over. It was an experiment with yarn that I scored at a thrift store. I didn't really know how to gauge how much I had. I knit the blanket as a giant dishcloth on the diagonal and didn't start decreasing soon enough. I had to bind it off before I reached the point on the other side and now it's a bit like a large cape. I also dropped a few stitches in the first half of it. . . so, I'll just frog back to the dropped stitches (I did some sort of crazy made up catch the stitch and sew it into the knit thing) and finish it properly. That'll be quite the project, but it's always bugged me, so it'll feel good.
Tomorrow is our first stitch 'n bitch of the new year. There seems to be a lot of people planning to come. I always worry that there won't be enough room in my tiny house. . . somehow we always fit. I'm excited to see what folks have on the needles.

In non-knitting crafting: I made Abby a little card table house last spring. My intention was to put her name on it and decorate it with flowers, a window etc. My grandmother made me something similar to this when I was a little girl and I loved it. Of course, I never got as far as decorating it, but Abby LOVES her house.

Now, I'm working on one for my new nephew.

My intention is to put "Ethan's Clubhouse" on the front and then decorate it with sports themed stuff. His room is in the "all stars" theme and I thought this would go really well. The problem is that I can't find any fabrics with large sports balls as the print. I had hoped to just cut a few out and wonder under them onto the house like I've done with his name. I really don't have the energy to make the balls from scratch. . . and I'm running out of steam looking for the fabric that I'm imagining in my mind. So, how do I make it a sports clubhouse without a ton of work? That's really my aim. . . less work, starting now!

Monday, January 15, 2007

Finished Objects



It is so satisfying to finish something! I finally got a chance to use my serger (for the first time!). I SO dig it. I am a detail oriented person, but I'm also not one to do a lot of extra work. It took me five years to try blocking a knit project and my sewing is always a little wonky. . . not so good at cutting fabric in a straight line. The serger took a lot of the fuss out of making a simple baby blanket. It's great! Still not completely square, but still great.
And, I knit a little hat for my nephew! I'm so excited to have a boy to make things for. . . he's just been adopted and is 14 months old. I have yet to meet him, but I certainly don't want to meet him for the first time empty handed.
Woo Hoo. . . feels good to get some things done!

Friday, January 05, 2007

Strange scarf and the frogging nightmare

My very first post on this was about finding a sweater at a thrift store made from noro yarn. I started to frog it a long time ago and got sidetracked with stockings and other things. Well, I pulled it out again last night and spent 1/2 hour trying to detangle the mess. I've given up. I'm going to felt it and do something with the fabric. It won't come undone without either breaking the yarn or me having to undo each and every stitch by hand, pulling the whole ball of yarn through every stitch. I can't figure out why, but it's driving me nuts!

So, with that set aside, I'm moving on to making Abby some slippers, I think. I might also go back to making a market bag that I thought about doing sometime last fall. I do have a new nephew to knit for (he's being adopted and is 14 months), but I have to wait until he's officially part of the family and we can get the size right.

And now, the scarf that I was making with some random yarn from the bottom of my stash. It's in copper drift colorway. I'm not a HUGE fan of it (the scarf. ..not necessarily the yarn, though for a mostly acrylic yarn, it's awfully scratchy!). I'm waiting until someone falls over with enthusiastic love for the scarf and then I will take it off and give it to them.

And this is just part of an experiment as I learn about this new-fangled blogger.

Dream swatch headband


For the love of knitting. . . I'm posting this picture. It's the best one of the headband. It is NOT the best one of me. . . by far. I'm loving the headband. I've forgotten what kind of yarn it is, I'll find the band eventually.