Wednesday, December 31, 2008

The Tale of The Jammer Hat - Part 2 - Intarsia In The Round Makes Me Dizzy

I decided to do the stars intarsia. In the round. And I've realized that I'm a glutton for punishment. Go me. It's starting off a little wonky looking. But thats because there are so many dangling threads behind it. Which will get resolved once it is knitted and finished. But if it STILL looks wonky. Well.

I'm gunna cheat. I'm gunna go around the edge with a double stitch using the purple yarn just to neaten it up. And fatten the star a little too while I'm at it. Huzzah.

I will prevail. And it will turn out beauteous.

I took a break for a few minutes from working on it to do three rows on my OCD scarf. That's uhm. Not going along as planned. I wanted it done by tonight. I failed. Horribly. But that's really only because I have slight ADD when it comes to knitting and such and get focused on one project and neglect my others. Much like the Fugly granny Blanket. That one is not even close to done. I still have two more skeins of yarn to put into it. UGGGGH. Damn my attention span!


Oh and I should also add that by doing the stars intarsia, I've increased the time for which it would be finished. If I luck out, Bone will be sporting her hat next week.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Future WIPS

Oh and I have another mini project that I'm going to be doing for myself.

Bone has these cool mukluk slippers that are knitted in a wonderful fair isle pattern and they look just ever sooooo comfy. So imagine my surprise when I was in Five Below before the holidays and I saw mukluk sock slippers. *Squee!* I found a pair that was in my size and bought them. Imagine how NOT surprised I was when I came home and put them on only to discover the sock part of them was WAY too tight in the calf. *grumble and groan*. So naturally, I'm going to have to make a new body for them and attach the bottoms. I think I am going to use this lovely ice blue yarn that I have and maybe some black yarn to make a pattern....perhaps I will wet my teeth with a simple fair isle? Or, maybe I'll just figure out some clever crochet design using SC and alternating the colors....I'm not sure just yet but I am looking forward to starting it AFTER I finish Bone's hat hehe.

I also plan to make a plastic bag holder for our kitchen. We had a huge problem with them....we had two drawers stuffed SO FULL of plastic bags that they could not be opened more than an inch so I purged the drawers and stashed the bags under one of our counters. One, maybe two, bags of them (there are three) will be going to my mom's house since she's way more conscious about using her cloth shopping bags than we are. And as a result she has no more plastic bags stashed anywhere which is NG No Good because she uses them to clean the litter box for the two cats. So we're giving her a whole huge mess of plastic bags and keeping some for ourselves. So I figured a bag holder is a good way to prevent the drawers from getting jammed up again. Long as we can find a place for all the excess that may not fit into the bag holder. I wonder how long you can make them before they just get ridiculous and comical?

I think I'll also make my mom one that she can hang near the litter box so that way she'll always have the plastic bags nearby and at the ready instead of having to go dig around her one cabinet for them. She may already have a bag holder, but she doesn't hang it anywhere. But, I'll make it anyways because, well, what else am I going to do after work these days before school starts?? Oh yea, I COULD work on my super secret project of awesomosity......

The Tale Of The Jammer Hat - Part 1 - Knitting When Drinking

As mentioned in an earlier post, while at the WFTDA Nationals this year, my roommate Bone saw knitted hats that had stars on either side to look like jammer helmet pannies. She wanted one but the price didn't justify the product. If they were handmade, then it definitely wouldn't have been a bad price at all, but from the picture I saw of them they didn't look handmade at all. So I told her that I could knit on for her.

After picking out her yarn, I stalled for a little bit before I actually started casting on stitches. We're talking a couple of weeks at best, closer to a month at worst since Nationals was in the beginning of November...heh. So I casted on my stitches and decided on a K3P1 rib for the band. And this is where I hit trouble. I casted on 133 stitches (132+1 so I could knit the last stitch casted on with the first one casted on to alleviate any gap that would form since I am knitting it in the round). I should mention now that I was drinking while I started it (although that could be inferred from the title of this post).

The first few rows are a hot mess. They don't line up at all. The rest of the ribbing is mostly on par with one small exception that is too minuscule for a non-knitter to notice, which is naturally bugging me yet since I've knitted so far away from it I'm not about to rip back. Hell no. Not with all that I've done THIS far.

I solved the wonky stitch problem by making it a double thick brim. I knitted about 10 rows in the rib pattern, then I purled a row and then proceeded to knit 9 more rows in the rib pattern. On the 10th row, I picked up each cast on stitch and knitted (or purled) it with the stitch on my live row. It was slow going but PHEW! Did it ever save me from seaming! I'm not a big fan of seaming when I shouldn't have to, so if I can find a way around it I always do (hence why all my hats are now knit in the round and I've grown extremely fond of scarves with fringe...)

The only problem I see with this method is that now I'm going to want to do it to all the hats I knit from here on out. I prefer it when the brim on a hat is thicker than the rest of the hat, as is usually the case in store bought hats (though plenty of nice ones are double thick all over yum!) So at least I've now started the processes of mastering the method so that way I won't have to rely solely on clever stitches to make it look thicker.

I'm still debating if I want to double stitch the star on or if I want to actually do proper intarsia. I know how to do intarsia (although it has been a year since I've done it so I may be rusty lol), but I like the mindless aspect of just knitting. Which is the point I'm at now with the hat, I just get to knit without really thinking about it until the hat is 8 inches long. I like that. Don't get my wrong, I do enjoy knitting things that take concentration, but meh. But intarsia would make for a much nicer, neater finished product....even though it has a tendency to induce madness in me. (Madness?? THIS IS INTARSIA! heh sorry I could NOT resist). I think I'd just rather do the most efficient method with this hat so I can give Bone the finished product before Winter slips away.

My goal is to give it to her either Wednesday or Thursday. Lofty? You betcha!

So now I'm going to run off to dig out the star patterns that I have and see if I can even remotely attempt to do them properly without losing my mind. Muahahaha.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Recently, on one of the knitting blogs/communities I read, someone posed a question to the members about helping people learn how to knit. She asked what book, pattern, yarn and needles we recommend to people just starting to learn how to knit. Whenever I teach, or help someone learn, how to knit I always recommend they have four things before they start.

-Stitch N Bitch and Knitting For Dummies. When I first started knitting, I had a "kit" from Michaels that described what to do but didn't show you exactly how to do it. I remember there were illustrations, but it wasn't clear at all how I was supposed to make each stitch. After much frustration, I ended up purchasing both of these books and they helped me immensely. I owe my skills completely to them.

-A basic idea for a scarf. I try to steer beginners away from grabbing a pattern their first time out. When you're just starting the best thing to do is focus on learning how to make the stitches. The benefit to a scarf project is two fold: 1) it gives them plenty of room to make errors, even if they never wear the scarf they will have something to work their stitches out on and 2) if they excel at basic knitting, they can always try out new stitches at various points in the scarf or keep it as a WIP to work out various stitches before committing them to a nicer yarn.

-Caron's Simply Soft (or the Simply Soft Thick & Quick Yarn). I prefer beginners buy this above any other type of yarn. It requires a minimal investment, it's easy to work with, it comes in a wide array of colors so they're sure to find a nice, brighter color to work with that they enjoy. And, finally, it's SOFT. I have a sweater made entirely out of Simply Soft and it's one of my favorite sweaters (save for the neckline WHICH I will be fixing soon enough. Can we say steeking?? I'm totally going to redo the neckline into a V neck because the neckline does not thrill me at all)

-I usually then lend them the size 8 needles I learned on so that they can find a similar pair in a store. (I have a ton of needles, so I won't miss one pair). It's hard to describe them, but they're not metal and they aren't quite plastic. They have some sort of coating on them that makes them a little grippier than regular plastic needles, and they're heavier than regular plastic needles, but they aren't metal. I love them. I found them to be the easiest to work with when I started knitting.

The post also got me thinking about all the funny errors people I know have made while learning how to knit. I find them amusing because they are usually the same mistakes I made when I first started.

The most common mistake I've noticed is picking a yarn that is deceptively hard to work with. These yarns, most notably boucle, are soft and lovely when knitted or crocheted but they're not good for beginners since they're designed to mimic a homespun style of yarn on crack. They usually end up causing more trouble than is worth it for beginners. Especially when they pick a deceptive yarn in a dark color. I have run across many deceptive yarns in my time knitting and each time that I find a new one, I always get angry and eventually give up on it.

My biggest nemesis was the daisy yarn that Moda Dea produced. I'm not sure of the name of it, but it was this novelty yarn that, when knitted up, produced 'flowers' due to the design of the yarn. I should also mention that the flowers hedged on this thin, flimsy thread that was twisted around the yarn, which caused the 'flower' originating bumps which, when knitted into a stitch, would create a daisy on the fabric. If you broke that itty bitty thread, you would not get any flowers until you got to a new part of the yarn where the thread was still in tact. I also was not a fan of the fact that it took 3 balls of the yarn to make one hat. Yea. Wasn't thrilled. It wasn't cheap yarn. Quality wise it was, but price wise it wasn't.


Another friend of mine, who wanted to knit, actually wound up buying herself a big, bright skein of inexpensive yarn and needles and set about teaching herself. She got stumped on how to figure out how to determine the width of the scarf she was knitting so she came over to my mom's house to ask me. She had the needle FILLED with stitches, which wouldn't have been too bad had they not been super huge, long needles. Yipes! I then explained to her about gauge and how the wrapper on the yarn helps you determine the gauge (approximately) and showed her how to knit up a gauge swatch.

I had a similar issue with gauge and such when I knitted my first non-scarf project. I knitted a pair of wrist warmers in purple and black (one was purple with a black stripe and one was black with a purple stripe). I knitted one wrist warmer when I first started, and finished the second one when I had been knitting a while. Obviously, the first warmer ended up being bigger than the second one because I was still making my stitches loose, even though I was following the suggested gauge on the yarn wrapper. Now I live and die by the gauge swatch when making anything wearable beyond basic scarves.

These seem to be the only two that I can think of....but I'm going to blame that on my imminent cold which was been a day in the making and the lack of concentration I possess while I'm sick.

Christmas Time Is Here....

So I've been lax in posting on here, as per usual. Meh. It's not like I haven't been knitting or crocheting though. I have, most definitely!

I crocheted my mom a scarf for Christmas out of Bernat's Baby Boucle (I think it was Bernat) in a rainbow colorway. She asked me for a thick, long scarf that was also fluffy and warm that had purple, green and blue colors in it. This yarn definitely fit the bill, especially since it came in a huge skein and I was able to make her entire scarf from the one skein. Complete with Fringe. To give you an idea of the size of it (because I suck and have no pictures) it is about a foot wide (wider in some places because I'm still VERY green with crocheting), and over 6 feet long. I'd guess it's close to 6 and a half feet long. Without the fringe. She loves it. And I'm glad she does, especially because once I was halfway through it, she had asked me if I was able to find a yarn in the colors she wanted....gray and black. Ugh. I'll probably make her one in gray and black post holidays.

I'm also dutifully working on a stocking for myself since I have no personal stocking. I was offered the use of a spare stocking that Bone has, and that will suffice for now, but I want my OWN stocking. So I'm crocheting one out of this random skein of TLC yarn I had in a dark purple (I think I had gotten it once when it was on sale and I never used it because it just didn't work well with most of my patterns in terms of comfort and softness. I've finished the entire stocking except I'm adding a 'cuff' of Paton's Classic Wool in Ivory at the top of the stocking because, like I said before, I am not good at Crocheting yet and I tend to randomly increase stitches. SO to disguise the fact that the opening of the stocking is obviously smaller than the rest of the stocking....I'm putting a nice, big fold down cuff on top to detract from that. It also gives me plenty of space to stitch my name on :D But am I doing "Ashley" or "Busty" hrrrm. Probably Ashley since I'll use it for quite some time I'm sure.

I'm also in the process of making a jammer knit hat for Bone. When she was at the Northwest Knockdown (WFTDA Nationals), she saw a company selling knit beanies with jammer stars on either side. But they were almost $20. I offered to make her one in black and purple. It'll take a bit longer than I had hoped since she picked this sparkly yarn that I have (which I fear may be itchy once the hat is done...but I can always crochet a liner for it out of my lion brand micro spun yarn which is UBER soft) and it uses size five needles. And apparently I was drunk when I started it (or I should have been) since the first few rows are all wonky on the ribbing, but that's ok because I wanted to give the hat a fold under brim anyways so I'm still working on the ribbing. But once that's done I'll whip the hat out no problem. And to save myself stress I'm going to double stitch the stars onto the hat for her. They too will be sparkly, cause they are made of the same yarn.

Other than that, I have ideas in my head for another project or two. I want to crochet a dog jacket for Bone's Mom's dog Wicket(aka my Furry Lil Boyfriend). He's a Shih Tzu and gets cold easily so we ended up getting him a sweater and rain coat for Xmas but I want to make him another sweater/jacket because the one I got him is blatantly Xmas. And I've heard rumors that this is going to be a very cold winter as it has already proven to be.

I also solemnly swear that while I'm off from school over Christmas/Winter Break (A whole month....kinda.....) I will post more and work on more projects. Afterall, I need to keep warm this winter. brrrr.