Stitches

May 24, 2011 Peneloping

This weekend was highly productive in the realm of learning new stitches.

For example I learned how to make bobbles:

And nupps:

And the Kitchener stitch.

Seriously, it’s like magic. Where did the seam go? Oh, yeah, it’s INVISIBLE.

I also finally figured out Row 31 (it gave me headaches for a week so it gets capitalized) of Damask, worked up to row 36, realized I’d made a mistake several rows back, ripped out to row 29, and then powered through to row 74. Have I mentioned how much I love this pattern?? She gives you directions in written and charted form, lots of lovely pictures from different angles, and three different shawl sizes. Plus the shawl itself is gorgeous. I still have about 50 rows to go, but considering it’s a bottom-up pattern, I should be done with it by tomorrow or the next day.

Yee!

I also got a library card (can I stop being an old person?) and checked out Twinkle’s Big City Knits by Wenlan Chia. The review online were terrible, but the patterns were so cute and so quick to knit up that I couldn’t resist trying one out. I finished about 80% of the Best Friend Sweater in about five hours. It’s super cute but I can’t decide if I like how huge the bobbles/cables are. I used the biggest yarn they had at Joanns but I might go back and pick up some Lion Brand Thick & Quick because it’s slightly lighter weight.

Sidenote: “Thick & Quick” = terrible nickname.

Stitches

May 24, 2011 peneloping

This weekend was highly productive in the realm of learning new stitches.

For example I learned how to make bobbles:

And nupps:

And the Kitchener stitch.

Seriously, it’s like magic. Where did the seam go? Oh, yeah, it’s INVISIBLE.

Yee!

Sidenote: “Thick & Quick” = terrible nickname.

1 Comment knitting abalone - bestfriend cardigan - damask - knitting - stitches

Happy fun roving times.

May 18, 2011 Peneloping

I have a new project in mind.

About four years ago I saw some lovely belly dancing ladies at a local Renaissance Faire standing around their booths looking glamorous as they spun yarn on what they explained was a drop spindle. I immediately got it into my head that I was going to get myself one of those contraptions and learn to spin and spin all of my own yarn and be awesome. Keep in mind this was before I knew anything more advanced than “knit” and “purl”.

I went online and ordered a (terrible) drop spindle and 100 grams of un-dyed wool roving. I even did some research on dyeing wool with Kool-Aid and found this amazing Knitty article and went out and bought all sorts of colors to try. I was absolutely ecstatic until I realized that the belly dancing ladies had made it look so much easier than it was, and why wouldn’t my spindle stay spinning?!

So anyway, that idea kind of died.

But ever since then I’ve wanted to learn to spin, spin my own yarns, and knit something that I could say was entirely handmade.

So last week I bought a drop spindle from Knitpicks, and yesterday I ordered 500 grams of wool roving. I even picked out the pattern. I thought it was perfect, since I can’t seem to spin evenly. Hee. I think I’m going to go with the Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade flavored Kool-Aid, but less concentrated so it comes out more muted.

And in the meantime, I’ve been having tons of fun with the 100 grams of roving I already had.

I know, it’s totally uneven, but I feel like the little kid at the end of the credits of X-Files episodes. I MADE THIS.

Sidenote: does anyone else have the drop spindle from Knitpicks? I was kind of confused about the complete lack of hook or notch or anything to keep the yarn in place. I ended up stealing the hook from my other drop spindle and sticking it on this one, which sort of seems to work.