Monday, February 6, 2012

Let there be Pictures

I've been knitting - really I have. I'm just not good at getting pictures taken. Here's a boat load of pics that I took tonight - lousy lighting but I figure better lousy lighting than nothing.

Even though this winter has been pretty warm in Minnesota you can always use another pair of slippers. So, I took the leftover yarn (Woolease) from one of my sweaters, doubled it up and started knitting a toe. Not wanting it to be a very boring heavy sock I added a moss stitch diamond at the toe and for the cuff I did moss stitch instead of rib. This has a plain short row heel and I'm very happy with it. I'm thinking I'll be even more happy when I actually finished the 2nd slipper.


I love to have some washcloths hanging around the finished box because they make great hostess presents. I started making soap last summer so one of the washcloths with a couple bars of my soap works out well for a present. The left cloth is the diagonal cloth that everyone seems to have a pattern for. The right one is called Petal dishcloth by Hazel Schrock. I love this pattern. It's easy to knit but has something to keep you interested as you watch the petals grow.


December I decided this year I would be sure to make a fancy hat every month for charity. I'll still make plenty of "plain" hats to give away but I wanted to push the bar and be sure to make a special one that I hope will end up making someone who has little feel a bit more special. This pattern is Regina by Carina Spencer. The band starts with an i-cord that is joined to create a loop and ends by creating a fan. Fun knit!


Back in 2009 I started a mitered sock yarn project. It ended up being named "It's not an Afghan". This week I (mostly) finished it. That is - if it is going to be a shawl. If this is the case I want to make some half squares for the edge to smooth out the points. But - I've been thinking. I still have a ton of sock yarn and this may end up being an afghan after all. I'm thinking I could make 3 more of these and seam them all together so the 4 points meet in the middle. Only question now is - how crazy am I?


In December I showed you pictures of the yarn I dyed with my friend Sarah. 2 of the 50 gm hanks have become a shawl. The grape hank and the grape/blue raspberry hank. This pic is terrible because it still needs to be blocked. I wanted a simple design because of the blotching of the colors but didn't want something too plain. Once I get this blocked I'll get around to writing up the pattern.


Last but not least is a vest. It's a slightly shorter vest than I usually make - obviously still needs blocking but I wanted to get a picture up just to let you see I've been knitting more than my previous blog posts would indicate. I loved this pattern. It's Iris from the Berroco team. Still needs buttons.


The bottom has cables in the lace and once it's blocked - it will be awesome.


OK. That's it for now. Time to get back to knitting. Maybe even some blocking.

Oh- I've signed up for a couple classes at Yarnover this April. One of them is Making the next Monkey with Amy Singer. It's a class on how to present your designs for magazines, etc. I know she's not going to take one look at my designs and grab them all saying she can't imagine how she survived all these years without my creations but - I do believe I will get some really good tips and learn what it takes to present my designs to their best.

With the idea of some day sending my designs into magazines I have several item I've knit that very few have ever seen.Some of them have been written up and tested but I know magazines don't want your designs shown until they publish it. Makes it tough when you want to show off your stuff!

2 comments:

Jen said...

That's a lot of knitting! I'm especially impressed that you're making "fancy" hats for charity -- okay, maybe impressed isn't the right word? Inspired! It's very kind of you.

Sarah said...

Wow-I love the dyed yarn shawl. That really turned out good. I need to do something with the yarn I have. And dye the rest of it. Very pretty.