ain't hurtin' nobody

look who joined my photoshoot (5 second video) --  the itsy-bitsy spider! ツ

here are some pictures of the pre-blocked pashmina herringbone scarf.  it's SO pretty in person.  i think blocking will take care of some of the edge curl there, though i see the original has a bit of a curl, so it may be the nature of the stitch.

project notes:  the finished scarf weighs 3.95 ounces, and i have .20 oz. left.  whew!  the last few rounds i weighed my yarn every time i hit that marker.  the last round before binding off i knit using a much smaller needle (size 5) than the whole rest of the scarf (size 11).  i knew i would do a sewn bind-off to match the cast-on edge, and i did not want it to be too saggy and loose.  i had about 1 foot of yarn left over from my sewn bind-off edge!  and i thought i was being overly generous in my length estimate!

here it is doubled around my neck:

here it is with one folded end tucked into the other:

is this what your "seam" looks like?  i think i followed the round transition instructions properly, and i like how it looks, but i haven't found any photos of anyone else's seam. 

 

ETA:  now that i'm DONE, i've noticed that a lot of people solved the edge problem by using a crocheted cast-on and then a typical bind-off.  simple and elegant solution.

the thoroughly modern knitter

i received a kindle for christmas!  what a fun surprise -- i did not expect anything beyond the usual socks and underwear this year.  and guess what the kindle does besides let you read books?  you can transfer pdf's to it and read them!  what kind of pdf might i be talking about?  knitting patterns, of course!  oh how exciting!  and what a savings of paper!

i immediately loaded my advent calendar knitalong pdf (combined, it's 62 pages! think of the paper and just the bulk of carrying all that paper around!), and i'm using the note feature of the kindle to track rows.

i needed a quick gift bag for a bottle of champagne, so loaded that pattern on there as well.  i used this pattern from paton's.  i've used it before, and love how they organize the stripes to be so random and wonderful.  i modified the pattern to use up some lamb's pride bulky yarn in my stash (with one color in worsted weight held double), so cast on 48 stitches and followed pattern C, using a size 9 circular needle.  the wider stripes often called for 6 rounds, but i knit 5 so the bag would not be too tall.  the narrower stripes i knit as written.  it felted down just perfectly, so the top of the champagne bottle is peeking out. 

it's very quick, very easy and really fun to do.  and of course, felting always seems like a miracle to me, and the fabric is quite sturdy enough to support and protect a full bottle of champagne.  and THAT is important! ツ

final flakes

this one is my favorite.  i have it pressed against the side of my black piano, so it IS hanging, supporting itself.  acrylic-girl asked a good question about the firmness or stability of the crocheted snowflakes, using the wool/stainless kidsilk haze combination i wrote about.  i pinned them to the ironing board and steamed them for 10-15 seconds, to define them a bit more and flatten the crochet curl out.  it worked great!  i think if i were going to hang them for any length of time i would hang them from 2 points instead of one, but you definitely do not have to starch them to get them to feature the proper shape.

here are all of ones i've completed:

upper left and upper right were done with a size 3 vs. size E hook (smaller), and they came out much more defined.  i like 'em!

and they're already given away.

fuzzy flakes

a wee bit of crochet for some instant gratification holiday crafting.  the pattern is from paton's, and i crocheted it using a furry yet stable combination of kidsilk haze and the lion brand wool stainless steel yarns.  i used a size E crochet hook.  (ravlink)

a bit closer you can see the slate blue of the stainless wool and the oatmeal color of the mohair.  sorry it's blurry -- the camera did not want to focus on all that mohair.

i'll do the other snowflake today.  when i do another of this one, i will modify the last round by chaining 3 or 4 (instead of the 5 recommended on the pattern) on all of those loopy outside sections so that it tightens up a little.  i will try some with a smaller hook, as well.  these are so quick and easy!  i want to do a million of them -- and the stainless yarn, though not really a christmas color, obviates the need to starch the snowflake.  it could stand to be blocked a bit, just to straighten it out, but i doubt that will happen.  i'll take another picture when i have a few of them hanging festively somewhere, looking deceptively fragile.

and the blue makes the flake look cold, right? ツ

❅

my new toy...

you know how amazon.com gives you free shipping on books if you go over a certain amount? i was ordering some books for my daughter and came up just short. so naturally i needed to buy the barbara walker treasury, seen above. i pored through it, and after my recent experience with päivi's  22 leaves KAL, i wanted to just experiment a little. i found a little lace design, printed out some graph paper and got to work! well, hardly work. but some fun thinking and calculating and figuring.

i thought i'd try a square and just repeat a simple pattern out to make a lace kerchief, in effect. it's really fun, and i can't wait to finish this one so i can start another! i'm using some autumn colorway sock yarn from joann's called sensations bamboo & ewe pattern, a wool/bamboo/nylon blend. the colorway does not allow for much view of the lace, but it's inexpensive and easy to work with. i think i might use a plainer yarn for my next experiment, but it looks very fall-like, and i like it.  if i figure out how to write an elegant chart that someone besides me, myself, and i can understand, i'll write up the pattern and post it on ravelry.  it's just the repeats and exceptions that i don't know how to express on a chart.  but that will be fun to figure out, too!

finally, i have one last picture of my official french market bag in use -- it's so pretty, so handy, and i can't wait to do another. it's one of my favorite patterns ever.

as always, if you click on a picture, it will pop up much bigger.

i love it!

here is my gaia trapezoid with the bead attached.

this is how i have been wearing it.

here it is spread out a bit, showing off the gaia detail and the lovely noro colors.

i'm sorry about the lousy pictures -- i have 20 minutes to do this so only time for snapshots, not photographs.ッ

a trapezoid

my gaia shawl turned trapezoidal scarf is done. knitting complete, 2 ends to weave in. the only thing left is to determine how to treat the one hanging stitch there at the top. i think i will put a bead on there to finish it off.

look how pretty! i'll take a picture once it's dry and the bead has been placed, but i'm thrilled right now to have another incomplete knit off my hands.

if you're interested in the knitting details, you can look at my ravelry page even if you're not a member.  

i'm felting, i'm felting...

what a world, what a world!
my crazy enormous hat felted down, as you can see, to a reasonable size.

it's still really large, but quite comfortable.  it's not supposed to have that brim, but i like it!  the colors are better than illustrated here -- they're actually quite restrained in an autumnally lovely sort of way.   bad hair days, i presently defy thee!

my official french market bag, in these dark days of me not being in the mood for knitting, benefited by getting its embroidery on.  instead of my customary daisy chain, i back-stitched my decor in order to get a finer level of detail.
here it is pre-felting:

and then post-felting, sitting upside down on the coffee maker with one of those square tupperware containers doing the blocking.  it fits perfectly.

you can still see a great deal of stitch definition.  why did i not felt it more?

1. i did not want it to get smaller, as the handles are pretty short when knit per the pattern
2. size 7 needles are really pretty small, i believe, for felting the lamb's pride.  i think i'd go up to 8's if i were to do it again.  this would help the stitches rub against one another and cancel one another out.  ッ  as it were.
3. the flash makes it look more stitch-defined than it really is. 
4. this one is a reminder for me for the future:  the bind-off sections could easily have a penultimate row of garter, to prevent so much curling.
5. well, i think that's it.

i'll take another picture when the bag is dry and ready for its close-up.  but this wicked witch loves her some paisleys, can you tell?  in my former days of gainful employment, the paisley was my favorite doodle.  before i was able to play solitaire on the computer while listening to a customer complain interminably, multi-colored paisley doodles on a desk pad soothed my bored and anxious brain.  i replicated that notion in yarn here. ッ

somehow i never figured out that all i had to do was click my heels three times...

i cannot believe...

... i knit something this beautiful.  thank you so much, päivi, for the wonderful opportunity and for sharing your talent and your lovely pattern with us.

it's obviously a quick blocking job,  ;-) but i had to squeeze in the blocking between school obligations, errands, etc.

click on the picture to make it much bigger, as usual.

FO

my constant companion since 9/08 and i have parted ways. my version of the multi-directional scarf is now a finished object. returning to that project was really satisfying. it was kind of a meditative sort of knit -- no thinking, and progress was very measurable whenever i worked on it. i had to redo the very last triangle one time in order to get it to match the first one more precisely on the edge.

project summary: size 4 needles, 65 grams of noro sock yarn. i modified the pattern to use seed stitch instead of garter, 33 stitches at the widest edge of the triangles. it ends up being about 6 feet long and about 4 inches wide. now i'll be waiting for next winter to have a chance to wear it!

here it is hanging from my oven. ツ

felted bag for the no fanny pack girl

detail of the prefelted bag -- very cute with the little beads, but i don't know that i'll do that again. i wanted to knit a pocketbook so that a fanny pack for the diabetes supplies was no longer essential. we'll see how it comes out...

yummy horizontal

IMG_2344, originally uploaded by elisecampbell.

look at these wonderful stitches! i finished the monteagle bag from the new mason-dixon knitting book, and loved doing it. it lent itself easily to a few minor changes:
1. cast on using the eliz zimmerman double knit method -- i love how it looks sort of macramé-ish, just like the bag. it was tight for a few rows after i split it, but i'd do it again.
2. used two colors -- i didn't have enough of one, so just changed up as i went along. those remarkable stitches really stand out, i think!
and now i am atwitter(!) at my mention in the mason-dixon blog and the fact that the really talented designer Ann Hahn Buechner (MrsLear on ravelry) commented on it. and let me not forget to mention that Kay Gardiner also commented and faved my monteagle (marché mañana) bag. a brush with knitting celebrity!

finally, if you go look at my bag on ravelry, please ignore the peeling wall and tipping light cover in the first picture. we had a leak in the roof and have yet to complete the repairs -- too busy knitting, i guess! just note my lemon tree out the window -- i miss my neighbor who used to take all the low-hangers :-( , and gumby sitting on the speaker.

OMG how cute is this?!?!?!

this little korknisse (cork elf, i think?) from manne has to be one of the cutest wee xmas knits i have ever seen. and it is really easy and quick. how cute would it be to add a stripe? fluffy white collar/ribbing on hat?

i'm using a dowel instead of cork -- didn't have any lying around.