Monday, August 28, 2006

I'm almost finished with the back of Joseph's sweater-only about 10 or so rows to go. I'll probably alternate working the sweater, hat and pants so that I can finish them approximately at the same time-it looks like the pants won't take as long since I'm using slightly bigger needles on them and the hat should fit this time (I didn't frog the other one, I'm saving it for a gift next time there's a baby shower somewhere.) I still should have plenty of yarn-I got extra of all three colors.

I made a hotpad/potholder in doubleknit with the teddy bear pattern and it turned out really nice. I don't have a picture of it since it was a gift and I didn't have time to take a picture but I will make another one and get a picture of it. I used two different shades of green to make it and they looked well together. I don't know if I'll use the greens again or two other colors but as soon as I finish Joseph's outfit I'll make another one-I want one anyway. I do need to finish the outfit first before Joseph outgrows it-I think I'm making it big enough that by the time I'm finished it should fit but we all know how fast babies grow.

Once I get the back of the sweater done the rest shouldn't take as long since the back is the biggest piece.

Friday, August 25, 2006

Knittie Madness

I'm trying my hand at this double knitting technique I read about. You use two different colors of yarn and when you're done your work is one color on one side and another color on the other side. If you work a pattern into it-I'll be trying that next, once I get the technique down good- then one side will be an x-ray of the other-dark bg on one side, light bg on the other.

It's a really interesting technique-basically you're just doing a 1x1 rib with two different colors-you cast on double the # of stitches you actually need with one of the colors and then you knit one stitch with one color and purl the next stitch with the other color-always carrying both yarns to the back or front- so you come out with stockinette on both sides. You're basically working on both sides of the piece at the same time. I did some Googling on this technique and I've found different ways of casting it on and I intend to try the other methods later.

If you're making something with more than, say, 50 stitches a circular needle would come in handy to accommodate the larger number of stitches. The result of this is a thick fabric-the thickness depending on the weight of yarn used-and would be useful for potholders, really warm scarves, wraps, baby afghans, lapghans.

I'll keep you updated on my progress, I'm trying a rectangular wrap with two different varigated yarns.

It's been a few hours since I wrote the above-I had to frog it and start over because somewhere I either had two knits or two purls and I didn't feel like looking for them and since it was just the first row I decided to just frog and do-over. I cast on 150 sts, which will give me a 75 stitch wide wrap-not sure how long I'll make it, I'll go to the end of the skeins of yarn and see if it's long enough. I can always get more, it's RHSS and Wal-Mart carries it.

Anyway, one thought of mine is-you definitely need to do this technique with two different colors of yarn or you'll get lost pretty quick over which yarn to use on which stitch-I would recommend either two shades of the same color or two contrasting colors. I'm using a varigated blue and a varigated berrys, they should look neat together.

One last thing-what's up with Blogger? It's slow, timing out, I can't click anything in the toolbar-has Google frelled it up completely?

Well, I posted this at MySpace since when I tried to post it here I couldn't do anything, now it seems to be behaving itself.

More notes: I've found a rythm that lets me go at a pretty steady pace. It still isn't as fast as regular knitting because of juggling two yarns but I expected that. It's not exactly mindless since you have to be careful about which yarn you're supposed to be using. I intend to experiment a bit more after I make this wrap, maybe in a potholder size so I don't have so many stitches to work with but I will finish this wrap-I'm five rows in and I like the way it's looking and the thickness will make it nice and warm. If I use yarn in this thickness it should make good potholders-I wonder if I used cotton yarn if it would make a nice thick scrubbie *ponders*

I'll get to that some other time-after I finish this wrap, Joseph's outfit and some other things.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

I got challenged

In my LJ. I commented in one of my friend's journals and she answered questions and gave me a challenge. She challenged me to make a doll out of materials I had.

This challenge was over a week ago and I had to finish something before I got started.

I'm making an amigurumi type doll, not sure how I'm going to stuff it, dress it or anything else but at least I have an idea of what I'm going to do. I think I'm going to stuff it with beans and make it a bean bag, it won't be very big anyway.

I hope it turns out at least nice looking.

Stay tuned.

I thought I lost it

Well, not my mind-that's been long gone ;)

I had joined a knitting forum months ago when I got back into knitting and when my computer went out that means I lost all my bookmarks.

That's why I'm glad I post nonsens in blogs-I had posted about it here and just kept going back through my archives until I found it.

It's Knitting Forums just in case anyone who's a knitter reads this blog.

They're pretty small, they only have just over 300 members but it's a nice, clean looking board and the administrators are very good at helping when you have a problem.

Been long gone.

I got away from crafting again, I even stopped going to Crochetville and KnittingHelp.

I did finish a baby blanket yesterday for a lady who's just had a baby girl. I don't have a picture yet cause I can't find my camera but as soon as I can I'll post a picture.

I used JoAnn Sensations Rainbow Boucle in berries and it's really pretty and soft. I hope the mama likes it, I'll be giving it to her Sunday.

It's just a simple diagonal crochet square with two rounds of dc for a border.