So it's taken me 4 months of knitting on and off between friend drama, a 16 unit semester and working weird hours, but I finished my overly colorful hat! ( Warning: Bright colors behind :D )

It appears I am very out of date. Eldest daughter's boyfriend (late twenties) has requested a pair of gloves and/or hat for Christmas. In my Wisdom (not) I bought a small boatload of superwash wool for making gifts. Today I realized that it wouldn't matter, superwash or not with these here boyfriends, because laundry goes from the washer to the dryer and that's what the care instructions have to be. "Lay flat to dry" is a foreign concept.

So I have 2 colors of acrylic yarn: dark teal and off-white. I am told that the color is less important than any design on them: cables, snowflakes and skulls are right out of the picture, argyle might be okay, maybe anime could be fun.

I am at a total loss. If need be, I'll make plain old PLAIN gloves, but thought maybe y'all could suggest a pattern, or at least a design to spice it up a bit. I know he likes D&D and Avatar (The Last Airbender) but I don't know his interests beyond that.
Maybe a geometric design that is manly?

In my day "manly" was black. Or Steel gray. Period. Cables were okay if you were Irish. (teasing)

ETA: emmacrew to the rescue. I'm gone from here, hard at play...

I Was contentedly knitting away on my lunch when I realized I had dropped a stitch when I had completed the previous cable. I discovered this when I needed to complete the next cable and my stitches were off. One would think after 10 rows this would be discovered. FARGHHHHHHH!

I invoked the power of Lucy. I took a breath and dove in to fixing the cable......without ripping out the rest of the work! I then remembered I had my camera with me, so I started snapping photos of the fix. I dun doo'd it! I am so frikken pleased with myself right now. I trouble shot, I problem solved, I fixed and all is well in whoville. (If only life and/or people were this easy to fix) Go SEE my accomplishment - Eleventybajillion photos under the cut! (moments like these deserve to be recorded in detail)

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( Lookie! )

I made him myself.

I am a nerd. That is all.

Hi everyone! I have two FOs to share today, one a gift and one for me:

( Pembrokeshire Pathways ) ETA: sorry about the double LJ-cuts... somehow LJ screwed up the formatting on the cuts when I posted this. Just click one of the links and it will take you to the (nicely formatted) page with the pictures :-)

It just occurred to me that I have knit a LOT of projects that I have yet to share with all of you! I'll keep the comments brief, and won't waste space with ravelry links. You can search me on there as "shawnooke".
( Knitting abounds... )

I was asked for some advice recently and I wasn't sure what to tell the person, as I'm only an adventurous beginner, myself. Did any of you learn to crochet before learning to knit? Which knitting method do you currently use?

Do you think it'd be easier for a right-handed crocheter (hook in right, yarn in left) to learn continental, so that the yarn would be controlled with the left hand? I'm thinking it'd be less awkward than trying to learn to hold the yarn on the opposite side of what you'd be used to, but I don't know for certain. I'm hoping someone has some experience with this.

Thanks in advance!

My #10 - Textured Tunic with Side Buttons by Stefanie Japel from Fitted Knits
Yarn - Tahki New Tweed
Ravelry Project Page - Hot Pink Textured Tunic
( Pictures )
Subbed the yarn. Ravelry claims this is an aran weight but really it is a little thinner. I kept the needle the same size and prayed it would all be okay sans gauge swatch. Turned out fabulous - nice drape and fairly soft. Have noticed it does stretch a little but should shrink up in the wash.

Other mods: Omitted the split at neckline and at hip. Added waist shaping. Knit the whole thing in the round.

x-posted to personal livejournal

A knit gift for my manatee-obsessed friend.

Pattern: Knit Manatee Pattern by NeedleNoodles
Yarn: Mystery worsted-ish gray yarn
Needles: size 2
Mods: I knit him a little longer than the pattern directed, since the pictures of the FO on the pattern bear a strong resemblance to a balloon with flippers. At round 28, instead of knitting one round of 44 stitches, I knit 4. He is still the shortest, roundest little manatee ever, though!! The real things are pretty round, too, I guess.

Ravelry Project Page is here


( Please sir... do not run your ultra-fast propeller-driven pleasure craft over me. )

Well I THOUGHT I was done with my Christmas knitting until last night when I was reading a thread on the Ravelry knitting community and found the most adorable little pattern for a Christmas tree pattern that looks like a knitter's bag, complete with needles and little balls and skeins of yarn. I had intended on picking up a cake or some sort of goody like that to bring in as a holiday gift for Liz, my knitting teacher, and the other ladies at Keep Me in Stitches, my yarn and bead shop. Its a fairly traditional thing in this store to bring in something yummy to snack on while everyone sits around the table and knits. But once I saw these ornaments, I HAD to do them, especially since they were something I could make with scrap yarn and leftovers. I stayed up insanely late to do it but I made 5 of them in one night (3 of them for the knitting ladies, one for me, and one for mom who requested one when she saw mine) and the hardest part was working the glue gun. (Ouch! Hot wax hurts!) But they came out so cute and I can't wait to give them out!!!

( Pics Here )

FO: Feather and Fan Scarf!

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For a friend who really liked my shawl but wanted something more substantial. The yarn is great to work with and vegan (I know some people care about that - it's a cotton and birchwood chip blend thing) - Shine Sport from knitpicks. :)

Edit:
I forgot to say, but I am new to ravelry and looking for some friends! :) My name on there is marianasays.

Okay, I’ve been knitting for two weeks and have decided to make a blanket. I’m using two colors right now and have completed my first color change (thanks for all the help with that BTW) and am getting ready to complete my second color change but I have run into a bit of uncertainly. When I count the rows of the first block, not counting the cast on row I get 30 rows (I think), when I count the rows which I have knitted for the second color I count 29. I want to make it even because I am trying to do a checkered pattern. If I take a measuring tape and measure the two blocks I’m out by half a inch on the second color. I am so confused. Help? Should I complete another couple rows to even it out and count the cast on so it will be 31 rows? Or knit out the next half an inch, but could that be explained with stretching of the wool? Opinions? The wool I’m using is Bernat Handicrafter, (which is cotton) and might explain the difference, but both colors is this brand.

Picture under the cut to see if that will help.
( ”clicky” )

I just finished ( this cowl. )

Now the edges are doing this weird curling thing, and I can't tell if it's because of the seed stitch, because the entire thing is too long, or both. I think I'm going to rip back a little to make it shorter, but I can't decide whether to leave the top edge without a border, or redo the seed stitch.

...or maybe blocking will magically solve everything, and I won't have to rip back at all.

Any thoughts?

My love affair with cabled hats continues. I made a Vanilla Twist hat for my mother in law, Pat. I loved how instead of a straight rib on the brim, it has a little cable. And I really thought the swirl pattern on the crown was very pretty. (My only problem is that now that I made it in blue, it doesn't seem like VANILLA Twist is an appropriate name for it anymore. I have been calling it Blueberry Twist in my head, although it is not the right color for that either... Sorry. The weirdest things get stuck in my head sometimes.)

After I made the hat, I improvised a scarf to go along with it.

( Photos Here )

After I completed a pair of socks Sunday morning, I tackled the finishing the Arden Bag (I bought the kit from KnitPicks) that I had been working on. The felting was complete so I started in on cutting it apart and then worked on sewing the pieces together. Because of the thickness of the felting I could not get my Machine to sew the bottom of the bag, that part is hand sewn. The zipper was Machine set, but I decided to embellish with with a bit of chain stitch embroidery.

This is my first go and actual stranded color work. I have done some colorwork with slip stitches, but I really want to test my chops on stranded colorwork. I decided on a felted project because it would hide a multitude of sins. *grin*

While I like the finished product of the bag, there are some things I want to try a bit differently if I try this again. I would like to steek and pick up the sides/top/bottom and use an applied I cord instead of sewing after the fact.

By the end of the day my hands were DONE DONE DONE! I Love the shape of the bag, but there are things about the bag I would like done differently, Because of the thickness of the seems, it does not have as clean a turn as I would like, it might be the costumer in me twitching here. I would also use a less bulky yarn for future projects, that might make a difference when it needs to be sewn together. THAT BEING SAID, it is a great size for a largish project I have all the yarn for my next project stuffed into the bag in the photo.


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More info can be found on my Ravelry Page moirar70

I am proud to say that for the first time since I started crafting my Christmas gifts (or at least a big majority of them) I am enjoying a fairly calm December. I am all done with all of the crafted presents and only have three people left on the Christmas shopping list before I am done with my part of the Christmas prep... (Observant readers will realize that I said my part of Christmas prep, indicating that my husband has a bit of a shopping list of his own to get through but I am trying very hard to keep the control freak part of my nature from stressing over that). Anyway, I am trying to get photos of all the presents I made before I wrap them (and in some cases, ship them across the country) and I thought I would share some of them here.

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I have been busily knitting away at ornaments and christmas gifts and little in between projects so I thought I would share them.
( knitted goods and gifts )

I'm almost finished with my daughters doll, but with two very nosy children around, getting a finished photo will be darn near impossible (though I will try to update when I do - likely after Christmas morning)


( click for doll )

The new Knitty is here! I haven't looked through it yet....

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter09/