Archive for June, 2006
June 29th, 2006
I used to have about 4 sets of needles, roughly. I had bought a pair here and there when I started a new project. I don’t have a whole lot of money so I can only really start new projects when I have the money to buy materials. Don’t feel too bad for me though, I think since I started knitting I haven’t had less than 2 projects going on.
You may be wondering why I say “used to have”. Well, my grandmother found out that I knit. Goodness gracious, she sent a whole heck of a lot of needles of various sizes and types. My mom came over the other day on a work trip, and made a visit to our house. She said that she had brought some stuff from Grammy, and when she walked in she had a rectangular box and a large trashbag. I would say that some stuff is a bit of an understatement.
True to the title of this blog entry, I now have a stash of yarns from my grandmother. I can experiment, and play around with different things without having to worry about frogging when I’m done to save yarn, or using up my precious small amount of not-yet-being-used yarn. What I had before Mom dropped by can certainly not be considered a stash.
She also brought a knitting bag or two, and what I think is called a niddy noddy. I certainly wasn’t expecting all that when I wrote to my knitting grandmother, mentioning that I knit.
In other news…
I’m thinking of buying some more lace weight merino that I made my kerchief with using my monthly knitting-allowance. I want to make more of that kerchief, because I’m wearing mine all the time. I love it, but I want to have some different colors. This will allow me to experiment a bit more with dying. If I make enough I can offer one to a co-worker who inquired about me making one for her.
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June 22nd, 2006
OK so that was the best name I could find (given me by a LibriVox volunteer). As you can see I finally finished my symmetrical kerchief. This one is much better, and I’m loving it. It was a really quick knit, and I want to make several more!
I wrote up a pattern for this to share. I hope it makes sense; I tried to make it as easy to read as possible. If anyone looks it over, feedback would be great.
Kri-Kerchief
I’m going to have a hard time not wearing this all the time. It keeps my hair back which I love, and it’s really easy to put on. Plus there’s a little bit of pride in wearing something that you made, and dyed. I’m really loving the flecks of light that came out accidentally, and I definitely want to do that again on purpose but more pronounced.
Maybe a blue one of these, or even green would look great!!
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June 20th, 2006
I decided to make up my own pattern to use the orange/gold laceweight yarn that I dyed a week or so ago. I wanted a cooler way to hold my hair back than just a bandana, so I decided to knit one. I randomly thought up a lace pattern (YO, K, K2TOG, YO, K2TOG), and knit the piece with two strands instead of one.
It came out pretty cool, but it’s completely asymmetrical. I didn’t realize until I had started knitting it that if I wanted the lace pattern to be the same on both sides, I’d have to mirror it on the second half, rather than doing it exactly the same (SSK, YO, SSK, K, YO).
I’m creating another one with the same yarn (god I hope I have enough!), using the striped pattern. Here you can see the hastily pinned start of the new one.
I kept the asymmetrical look because I thought it might be kind of unique, and I do like it. The only problem is that it makes the shape asymmetrical too, which I kind of hate.
It feels great to get compliments on my knitting, especially when it’s something I created myself. I want to buy some more of this lace weight wool, dye a few different colors, and make some more of these. Maybe I’ll experiment with different patterns.
I also eventually want to write up the pattern for this. Partly so that I don’t forget how I did it, but also to share.
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June 16th, 2006
So I watched a little video over at KnittingHelp.com explaining how to wind a center-pull ball. I’ve tried it and it works, and has been really helpful with a new project. I’m using both ends of the yarn, so I have one ball with one strand coming out the center and the other from the outside.
I obviously can’t claim credit for this tip, but I can take credit for an idea I had elaborating on this method. I was finding it difficult to wind as fast as I wanted with the ball on my thumb. The technique has you wind the ball onto your thumb so you have a nice hole in the center.
While I was winding a ball I thought it might be easier to do using a really thick knitting needle. I think I used like a size 15, but whatever size that matches the circumference of your thumb will work. This way I can wind the ball faster, and have a neater ball. Also, my other fingers don’t get in the way with this method. I don’t have a picture because I was using a borrowed needle that I’ve already returned.
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June 15th, 2006
I’m starting another new project, which I really shouldn’t. I think I have like 6 or 7 projects going right now. I didn’t even know I had that many needles!! I guess the advantage of being poor and unable to buy a lot of new knitting stuff means that I’m limited to the amount of needles I have. Apparently I have enough needles to have a lot of projects on them!
I decided yesterday that it would be cool to knit a kerchief/bandana thing for my hair out of my newly dyed lace weight yarn. I’m going to knit two strands together so that it’s a little thicker, and add a little lace pattern in there. I have no clue what the lace pattern will be, so far I’m on the part that will wrap around my head to tie it on. We’ll see how it comes out.
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June 12th, 2006
Today I went to a local store that has a lot of locally hand-made items. Actually, that’s all you can find there. I found this beautifully soft alpaca yarn, and some alpaca roving that comes from a local farm. Whoo boy the stuff was expensive. I have my eyes on that roving, as I need some more fiber to practice spinning some more. Perhaps once I get my money budgeted out, I can pick up a bag. I am so glad to be living where I do that I can walk to these stores.
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June 10th, 2006
Forget knitting in public, it’s for silly people anyway. I don’t need to show off my pride of this craft!
OK, so I forgot OK? I knew I’d forget though. I’m one of the most absent-minded people, and I know it. I knit in public quite often anyways, does that make up for it?
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June 9th, 2006
I’ve been wanting to dye yarn since I started knitting, so recently with some extra money I had I bought some acid dyes. I only had one cone of lace weight white yarn, so I decided to experiment on that. I wish I had more yarn to experiment on, but I suppose I can wait until I have some more allowance money.
The yarn came out a bit darker than I intended, but I kind of like the orangey gold color. One unfortunate part of the yarn are the much lighter yellow spots where I had the yarn tied to keep it from tangling. either I had it too tight, or shouldn’t have tied it at all. Although, it would have been ridiculously tangled if I had not tied it. This gave me the idea that it would be interesting to do a tie dyed yarn, with short intervals of tightly tied spots. It could look cool.
Now I’m just itching to find a project to start with it. That’s one of the problems with having my albeit small stash. I have a hard time not starting something with them because, for goodness sake that’s what they’re there for! Fortunately for me I don’t have enough needles yet to start projects for all the yarn I have.
While I was dyeing the yarn I was so worried that it would felt, because it’s 100% wool. I followed the instructions pretty closely, and it says the dyes I bought are good for wools. It just seemed to me that 180 degrees was kind of hot for a fibre that has a tendency to felt. Fortunately for me there was no felting, although there was a small amount of sticking together which would probably have become felting with more handling or heat.
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June 4th, 2006
I’m making some cotton dish cloths to send with a wedding gift for a friend (I hope she doesn’t read this blog 
). This is the first time I’ve ever worked with cotton, and I’m finding that I really like it. It isn’t quite as nice to knit with as say, merino wool. It tends to be a bit stiffer and rougher on the hands, especially because I knit a bit tight. However, it does knit up quite nicely and evenly. I like evenness. I also really like the stitch definition in this yarn. I’m excited to make a few for myself with the extra yarn!
I got a blue and a goldish color to send to her. I hope she likes the colors, but if she doesn’t it’s OK. They’ll be used to scrub dishes anyways 
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Entry: Quietly Knitting
Author: Hishandmaid
Time: February 27, 2010, 10:57 am
Comment: Very adorable!
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