2009 Knit FO parade

Well, I managed to knit way more than I thought I did. There are a couple "Finished Objects" that I did not include b/c even though they are blocked, they arent right in some way or the other so I need to rip them out an re-start. Earlier tonight I was looking at all my stuff that I had "unpacked" or rather, taken out of my suitcases, and I was thinking of all the things I wanted to do instead of putting my stuff away. Some people like to organize and clean. I am not one of those people. I like to procrastinate. What I really wanted to do was get out a ball of yarn, wind it up, and start a project for myself. Instead, I spent nearly 2 hours making a photo collage of my finished knitted 2009 objects. Sigh, there has to be a better way to make collages than photoshop. Or I need to learn the tricks to do it quicker.

So that knitting tally is: 1 ball of yarn dyed and 20 objects: 1 baby bib, 1 pr baby booties, 1 pair wrist warmers, 2 pairs socks, 4 adult hats, 1 baby hat, 2 beer cozies, 2 stoles, 1 shawlette, 2 blankets, 3 coasters, 1 bunny toy.

Sorta FO

I keep meaning to post about my moving adventures, and I just never get around to it. Soon, I promise. Maybe. But anyway, here is a finished sock. It's not exactly a proper FO as it is only one sock of the pair, however it is my third sock ever, so I'm excited. Even more excited that it actually fits! Even better.
The pattern is Jaywalker by Grumperina and details of course are on my Ravelry page.

weekend away

After a hellish homestretch, my thesis was printed and submitted on Friday morning. I am so beyond relieved that it is done. Then I packed and took the train down to southern Maryland to visit Amanda and Jason.


I knit them a beer cozy as a thanks for having me over for the weekend. Do you recognize this yarn? (: It's ChOrG! My Kool-Aid hand dyed! I love this yarn. It's so soft and smooshy. It's very pretty all knit up.


On Friday night the three of us went out to dinner, Amanda got her 3rd tattoo (some stars on her wrist), and then we went back to the restaurant (next door to the tattoo parlor) and had celebratory drinks.










On Saturday Amanda and I went to Maryland Sheep and Wool. It was dreary, chilly, and pouring rain when we got there which was a giant bummer. But luckily around noon the skies cleared and it got sunny. I didnt get any pictures of the yarn because the festival was jam packed. I could barely get in some of the stalls to look at the goods!!
Sadly I did not find yarn for specific projects, or a shawl pin that I liked, but I did get some beautiful yarn. I tired to take pictures of it, but it was so bleak today that I couldnt get good ones.






Here are some sheeps for you to enjoy. I didnt see a whole lot of alpacas. There were some bunnies too but all the little kids were crowding around them so, no pictures.













After the festival Amanda, Jason and I went out for yummy Thai food. Here is the appetizer platter - it's a party on a plate! Notice the random party explosion coming out of the shrimp thingy. It was very nom nom.

















Today brought more rainy, depressing weather so Amanda and I decided to spend some quality time crafting. Here is Sydney claiming the ironing board as his own while Amanda quilts. I sewed up a new WIP bag.










For the WIP bag, I used this tutorial that I had used before..... But... either we read it wrong the first time or Amanda and I were doing something wrong today, b/c the pattern as written didnt work. The 21 inches of the big rectangle doesnt fit all the way around the 6x6 inch bottom square. Both Amanda and I tried. I ended up having to cut the bottom squares down to 5.5 x 5.5 inches.

It's a beautiful bag though. Muchas gracias to Amanda who let me dig through her fabric stash for this!










And here is the inside fabric.


It's definatly not fabric I would normally buy for myself, but when I saw it today I really liked it. I dont know what's up with me and red lately. But whatevs, I'll run with it.











Here it is next to the first bag I made. I think my sewing today was not the best quality, but I think non-crafters would have a hard time finding fault with it. I really like that it's taller. Now I just need a cord to cinch it up. I thought I had a light blue shoelace but I dont, it's purple. So I might knit a brown I-cord.


All-in-all, a lovely weekend! And as soon as the sun comes back I will post some pictures of the crazy awesome yarn I bought at MDSW!

I also finished one shawl, and made serious progress on the never ending stole of grey. But the damn thing still isnt close to being done and I have 4 days! Yikes! - I gotta run now and go knit some more!

summary through pictures

Just a quick post. Some knit FO's I havent posted. And some pictures from this weekend's trip to visit Amanda and Jason in the greater DC metro area. We went into DC on Sat. In other news I think I'm going to frog the woodland shawl I've got and restart on larger needles. SIGH.





Biggest moth I've ever seen - it was as big as my hand!


This butterfly loved Amanda's camera strap

Cherry Blossoms in DC

FO: Brim hat redux

So last year I attempted to free form a seed stitch brim hat for myself. And true to my status quo of free forming hats, it didnt fit me. However, instead of being way too small, it was way too big. I ended up gifting it to my brother this past christmas (and of course, forgot to get pictures) so it wasnt a total waste, but still, i was sans hat. Then a pattern came out in Magknits that was nearly exactly what I wanted, and I knew I must try it.



Project name: Possibly Hip??
Pattern: Reasonably Hip by Elizabeth Cobbe, free on magknits.com
Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca, charcoal gray
Needles: US size 5 metal circs and same size bamboo dpns








Pattern adjustments: Lots.
The gauge in the pattern was 3.75 st/inch (15 sts = 4" in seed st) but I was using a different yarn and my gauge was 5 st / inch in seed st. So I cast on 81 sts instead of 63. This means I had to re-work the short rows for the hat and the brim.
My hat short rows were as follows:
Row 1: K 45, w&t . . . . . Row 2: K 46, w&t
Row 3: K 47, w&t . . . . . Row 4: K 49, w&t
Row 5: K 53, w&t . . . . . Row 6: K 55, w&t
Row 7: K 57, w&t . . . . . Row 8: K 59, w&t
Row 9: K 61, w&t . . . . . Row 10: K 65
Row 11: K 67, w&t . . . . . Row 12: seed st for 72 sts, w&t
Row 13: seed st for 77 sts, w&t
End of short rows.
Then I knit for 6 inches measured from the front of the hat where there were no short rows.
I followed the pattern for the decreases, just added an extra round before the pattern starts.

For the brim of the hat I cast on 40 sts instead of 34.
Short rows I changed as follows:
Top visor
Row 1: work 2x2 rib for 30 sts, w&t
Row 2: work 2x2 rib for 20 sts, w&t
Row 3: 24 sts . . . . . . Row 4: 28 sts
Row 5: 31 sts . . . . . . Row 6: 34 sts
Row 7: 35 sts . . . . . . Row 8: 36 sts
Row 9: 37 sts . . . . . . Row 10: 38 sts
Row 11: 39 sts . . . . . . Row 12: 40 sts
End short rows. Continue 2x2 rib over all sts for 4 more rounds.
Bottom visor:
Pick up and knit center 20 sts from front edge of visor.
Row 1 (ws): p20, cast on 10 sts
Row 2 (rs): k30, cast on 10 sts, should have 40 sts
Row 3: p30, w&t . . . . . Row 4: k24, w&t
Row 5: p28, w&t . . . . . Row 6: k31, w&t
Row 7: p34 . . . . . . . Row 8: k35
Row 9: p36 . . . . . . . Row 10: k37
Row 11: p38 . . . . . . . Row 12: k39
Row 13: p40
end of short rows. continue in stockinette over all sts for 4 more rows.


















Notes: the pattern never explicitly states where to join the hat and begin to work in the round. i found out the hard way that you are supposed to join immediately and do the short rows in the round (otherwise it makes no sense).
Also, having 6 inches of hat measured from the front edge is a bit long for my taste and you'll notice in the pictures that i'm rolling the back brim of the hat. I'm ok with that, it gives it a unique look but in the future I wouldnt make brimmed hats so long b/c then you have to pull them down so far on your face you cant see a damn thing. Other than that, i'm pretty happy with the pattern and the result.

Lovely Day and old ceramic FO's

hey! its been a lovely day! everything is going my way
i had so much fun today and i'm on fire

I've had the Dresden Dolls song Good Day in my head ever since I left the doctor's office this morning. And that's kinda odd for me, having a good day so early and after a visit to the doctor at that! So I just had to share. But I didnt want to keep posting about life only so I finally got around to photoshopping collages of some of the ceramic Raku FO from the first time I tried Raku.
So why is it such a good day? Well, I wore my brand spankin new coat, North Face Apex Bionic, and it rocks. Then, I found out I've lost 8 lbs since starting Byetta in November and my A1c is as low as its ever been so I'm super stoked. I dont think I've ever heard any of my diabetes dr's say "Wow, way to go, good job!" Resolution 2 is all set (just have to keep it up) and Resolution 1 is well on the way. (even despite my friday night drinking habit, or maybe b/c of it?) And its not even March! Have I mentioned I'm on fire?

Speaking of fire, lets talk about Raku. Raku is sooo much fun. You glaze the pots with special, partly dangerous glazes (heavy metals anyone??). Then you pop them into a kiln, and heat it super hot. I'm pretty sure we were doing ours to Cone 06 which is roughly 1800 F. Then you open the kiln while its still hot, take your pieces out using special tongs - and wearing lots of protective gear - so you dont burn yourself or set on fire. Then you put your piece into a metal bin full of combustibles (wood chips, newspaper) and after they set on fire you put a lid on it. oooh Fire! Then you wait for it all to cool off and then clean all the soot off your stuff.
The pieces below are ok. Not super exciting or good, but they gave me an idea of what its all about.





Here we have a small vase with a green crackly glaze on the outside and a white crackly glaze on the inside. I'm not a fan of the green dripping into the white on the inside, but other than that its pretty neat.














Here we have an example where too many different glazes killed the piece. But the flash of color like an oil spot gave me hope of using the one glaze again and trying for that specific effect.
















I think the glaze came out nice on this one despite it being a dumpy looking object. I like the range of green I can get with varying thickness of glaze.























This one is by far my favourite. The color is better than the pictures depict. Its mustard yellow with black cracks. It reminds me of a lion. And I had some fun constructing this sort of wacky combo of a thrown/hand built object so I'm glad the glaze suits it.








Evening edit: day got even better. Moved up to 10 lb free weights today and they didnt strain the neck. Bergeron is back on skates! AND the Bruins shut out the evil Senators tonight 4-0. Oh what a night!

FO: white snowflake star ornaments

Last year I made ornaments for just about all of my family members (grandparents, aunts/uncles/cousins, etc) using heavy card stock and embossing (one day i'll post some pictures - it was pre-dig camera so I dont have a picture of all of them sadly), it was painstaking work and for some reason I decided to make ornaments again. And I started like 2 weeks before Christmas, stupid me! Sigh. I dont know why I'm such a masochist.

Project Name: white snowflake-star ornaments
Pattern: Snowflake Star by Judy Gibson, free Here
Yarn: J&P Coates Knit-Cro-Sheen Size 10 crochet cotton, white
Needles: US size 2 metal dpns
Pattern adjustments: None. Made 5 pointed stars with 5 repeats.
Notes: Although I am still not a huge fan of the Emily Ocker cast on, I continue to use it. I found this site with pictures to be very helpful in learning the cast on. I also think that it might not be such a bad technique if we didnt have to cast on 12 stitches! I might try 6 and just do one more round of yarn-overs next time just to see what it looks like. Also, the closer I got to Christmas the less time and less yarn I had so I started to make 4 and 3 repeat stars. Which came out quite nicely as well I just dont have pictures of them for comparison. (I do have pictures of the smaller stars in the silver yarn but that's a separate post). I also used Niagara starch I picked up at CVS for less than $2. I pinned the stars out, sprayed on the starch, made sure all parts of the stars were wet, and re-pinned the wet stars with a little more stretch. After about an hour I ironed the back of them to quicken the process so I could get some off the board to pin out more. I found that for the all cotton stars this worked quite well and they kept their shape and once dry in the morning had just the right amount of stiffness. (different story for the ones with silver ribbon running through them)
They also took a long time b/c I had to consciously think about not knitting too tight or binding off too tight or the star looked scrunched and didnt block nicely. So I am considering using larger needles in the future to help this out. It also might make it look "lacier."
Anyway here are some pictures for your enjoyment!

The blue snowflake in the left corner is a crochet one gifted to me (:{















Not so extreme close-up!

FO: Felted bag for sister

Well, it's been a long time since I posted a knitted FO on here, so hurrah, finally here is one. I started this bag ages ago as a mindless knit to knit when I got bored with other projects. As Christmas neared and all it needed was to be felted I thouhgt it would make a good gift for my sister (I also thought it would make a good birthday gift for her back in September, but it was no where near finished then).

Project name: Felted bag for Vickie
Pattern: Sophie free on Magknits
Yarn: cascade 220 in grey (dont have the tag anymore so I dont know the actual color code or dyelot)
Needles: 10.5 metal circs and metal dpns
Pattern adjustments: Used US size 10.5 instead of 10 needles. Also made the bag slightly bigger and the handles slightly longer. I also used the remainder yarn to knit up a rectangle (stockinette bordered by garter) to use as a pocket.
Notes: I felted this one the same as the other Sophie I made but it came out completely different. I felted as follows: put in pillow case and tie off. Run through hot wash cycle w/ dirty jeans and a little detergent, then cold rinse cycle. Run another hot wash/cold rinse with no detergent. Open pillow case and check.
The other Sophie I made I used the color of Cascade indicated in the pattern and it turned out wonderfully. This gray yarn felted much differently, SIGH. It came out much smaller than intended and so the handles ended up being shorter than I wanted. It was also thicker than I wanted. And the rectangle for the cellphone pocket was thick and small too. SO it must have felted faster/easier than the yellow-green and thus 2 cycles was overkill. Once again I'm learning things the hard way -- ALWAYS CHECK the felting after each wash/rinse cycle!



Here is the front of the bag.






















This cute bead is hiding the stitches that show on the outside from attaching a snap closure. Cute though.












Here is a picture of the back. You can faintly make out the cell phone pocket that I sewed on after felting. Not sure if an actual cell phone will fit in this tiny pocket though.

Even though it didnt turn out as I planned it my sister did like it so that's good.

FO: Luna Moth Shawl

ok folks, here it finally is the finished shawl!
It was a wonderful pattern and it only took me a month. Super easy too. The pattern is very intuitive after awhile so its not too difficult for first-timers. The yarn is great as well, wearing it is super nice (though it is a little slippery on bare skin).
I tried for probably 30 minutes to get a good picture of the whole thing, but its just too big! So you'll have to make do with some detail pictures instead.

Here is a picture of me at the wedding from the back.



This is the front, me and my brother's girlfriend Olivia.

















Look, its so big it spans my full size bed!




Pretty details!


I must say, for my first giant lace project it came out very nice. Though the blocking was a beast. I hate blocking. Let us just not go into that......
The rest of the yarny and patterny details are up on Ravelry (username Grateblue2 just in case). (and if you are a knitter and havent heard, join Ravelry!) (details not repeated here b/c I'm a lazy bastard)

Since I've Been Gone 2: FO: Ceramics

Ok, well since I couldn't get these pictures or this post to look anything like I wanted to I'm just going to do it this way.
Pretty annoyed at this point and so I think I'll skip the drawn out commentary. I'll just say that the top 8 pictures are from a soda fire and the bottom 5 are from a reduction kiln. Several of the glazes are the same, they just come out looking different on different stoneware types (I use both brown and white stoneware) and different positions in the kilns also give different effects for the same glaze. I'm not very happy with the results of the soda fire, luckily there is another one at the end of this week so I can redeem myself. I am however, very happy with the glaze results of the reduction kiln. Especially since reduction kilns can be so unpredictable.

FO: Star pendant necklace

Found this awesome bead at Beadworks on Friday, just had to make a necklace out of it! Its black wood with white bone. The rope is black hemp.







Here is a simple hemp knot bracelet I made to match the necklace. I planned something a bit more involved, but I kept cutting off pieces of hemp too short. So I have a bunch of bracelets for anyone w/ 4.5 inch wrists....








Theres the clasp of the necklace. Doesn't it look all professional and stuff? My first go at crimp end clasps. Good stuff.






Yay, finally something for me! And now its time for bed!