Recently in Projects Category

Last week at work, Leslie held a brown bag about game design. At the end of the session, we had to come up with a game for the office. Some folks came up with this game about passing a cupcake. We all agreed that implementing the game would be great. But acquiring a constant supply of fresh cupcakes might prove a bit problematic. Enter the crafter.

I stopped at Michael's this weekend and picked up a bunch of different colored felt. I found a couple of patterns for felted cupcakes online, so I had a sense of what to do. No offense to all the great crafters out there, but I just couldn't bring myself to pay $8.00 for a cupcake pattern. So I winged it.

I originally thought that I'd have pink icing with colored beads as sprinkles. But when it put it all together, it looked really dorky. So I took off the sprinkles and made a little strawberry (with the help of Lit'l Brown Bird's strawberry pattern).

I love the French knots as seeds! So clever. I'm about 65% happy with how it turned out. But folks at work are loving it. Which is what is most important.

Project: Strawberry Cupcake
Started: May 31, 2010
Finished: May 31, 2010

You'll never guess what I did this weekend -- KNIT!

It was so lovely. The house is finally unpacked and put together so we can just live in it, rather than be always working on it. So very nice.

I made lots of progress on Super Sekrit Wedding Project #1. Over 2/3 of the way done now. Sadly I can't really show it to you all until after August 8. I have 3 more Super Sekrit Wedding Projects to do too. So as soon as I finish this one I get to jump right into the next one. It's all good. I finally have the pattern down pat. And the yarn is so lovely to hold.

I did go and buy yarn to make the sweater that's in the photo here. It's the Susie Hoodie from the More Big Girl Knits book.

I'm finding that I really want a jacket that I can wear that isn't as heavy as my red wool coat, but is more dressy than a hoodie or the parka shell. I think this will fit the bill.

I don't get to start working on it until I've finished all the Super Sekrit Projects though. It's so hard though. I have 19 skeins of Knit Pick's Wool of the Andes in black cherry that keep calling to me from the craft room.

I'm a bit intimidated by a project this big. But the majority of the pattern is stockinette, so that should go quick, right? I read through the pattern yesterday and I'm a bit confused as to how the sleeves get attached. It seems there is little in the way of seaming. I'm sure it will make sense once I have part of it in front of me for reference.

I'm working yet another hat project. This one is also a gift, so I will decline to say for whom (if you end up opening this on Kitmas, please, act surprised). I cast it on this weekend (picked up the yarn on Saturday) and started working on it. But while on the plane out to Austin on Sunday I decided that it was too small and would make the next size up.

My fingers are itching to work on it again. I made good progress on it Sunday night (finished up the first skein). It shouldn't take that long to finish. I'm realizing that Erik's cable scarf really tweaked what my expectations for working with cables are. There were so many types of twists and turns in that pattern. And the Gretel hat too had lots of different cables. This one feels so easy in comparison. It reminds me a bit of a pattern that you would find at the Gap or something, and that disappoints me a bit. I don't want anyone to think I bought this.

I am so loving the knitting bags that I put together last month. They were so worth the time. I took a photo of my traveling knitting kit.

I have all the yarn and needles that I will need, a tapestry needle, tape measure (that's the sheep), stitch counter, cable needle, and oh yes, the pattern. The bags are the perfect size to carry all this around in.

Gingerbread Cable Hat
Started: Dec 6
Finished:

Egads it's been awhile since I posted. I wanted to get something up here quick. Photos will be coming soon.

Erik's Celtic cabled scarf is finished! I just need to block it so the cables stand out a bit more. it's a little scrunched together. I ran out of yarn 4 rows before the end of the pattern, but unless you look closely it's hard to tell. Most importantly he's happy with it. Yay!

Tonight is my company's holiday party. When I realized that my trial wedding dress would arrive in time for me to wear it to the party, I had the brilliant (HA!) idea that I could knit a little bolero sweater to go with it. I found an adorable little cable pattern on Knitty.

After all, I spent all of Thanksgiving week in Mexico. I could just sit and knit by the pool all day long. Which I did. And I also knit on the plane. And while hanging out with Erik's dad and step mom. And in bed before I went to sleep. And in the car while doing errands on Sat when we got home. And the thing still wasn't done.

I've spent 14 of the last 24 hours knitting. My hands have the cramps to prove it. But the good news is that the thing is done. It's pinned and blocked on my kitchen counter as I type thing. I didn't get it soaking, I just sprayed it with water so it was lightly damp. I'm hoping it will be dry by the time I get home tonight. I still have to weave in the ends and sew up the seams, but that shouldn't take too long. All of my lengths on it came out spot on, but the width is a lot smaller. I'm hoping that it's just that the cables pull tight. I was able to stretch it out to within a half inch of the specified widths for blocking. I'm hoping that it won't be too small.

Anyway... photos to come soon. I've been too busy knitting to document the process.

There's too much going on right now and not enough of it involving yarn or fabric. There are currently no commitments on the calendar this weekend, so I am planning on spending a lot of time quilting and knitting.

I was able to finish a roll brim hat for Todd on Tuesday night. It's the same as the one I made for Lantzilla, just smaller. Horus was kind enough to model it for me.

Cori came over for Craft Night on Monday. We worked on a darling knitted owl kit she picked up at ImagiKnits. It had a tricky cast on and different way to add a stitch. Looks like it will be fun once she gets going.

I made progress on the Dutch Tiles quilts. The backing fabric arrived from Amsterdam. It's okay, but I don't lovelovelove it. The colors are a bit too faded for my taste. But it matches the front fabric and hey, it is the backing. Not like I have to look at it a lot.

I cut out backing for 3 of the 4 wall hangings, cut out batting for all of them, and basted one wall hanging. I have to get to a quilt shop this weekend and pick up some bobbins for my Viking sewing machine. I think I also need to get a walking foot for it. Will have to go through my stash of sewing machine parts again. I'd rather not use the Singer for the quilting of these if I can help it. It's fine for piecing, but I find it a bit hard to control for quilting.

I also made progress on the Beatrix Potter Patchwork quilt. There are 16 rows of 16 squares and I now have eight two-row units. I have to press the seams and then continue to stitch them together. It's amazing how much easier it is to match points when the seams are pressed in opposite directions. I need to get better at always doing that.

I have more drive to work on the Beatrix Potter quilt than the wall hangings right now. I really need to prioritize Kitmas gifts above all else. I just picked out a pattern for another Kitmas hat and I want to start on that too. It should be pretty easy to whip out.

We also need to start working on the wedding fabric boxes. We need to do the test run to make sure that we want to go the route of fabric boxes. So much to do!

Ever since I got back from Europe, I've been thinking about the Dutch tiles fabric that I picked up in Amsterdam. This weekend I got it out and made four small wall hangings out of it.

There were enough tiles to make two quilts of four tiles each, and two of 16 tiles. I had just enough fabric from the fat quarters to make the boarders around them.

I was amazed at how quick it was to make these, even if I forgot to square the tiles before I sewed the bars to them and had to rip it all out since they were slightly larger than 6-inches. I realized that most of the quilts that I have in production are at least queen bed size. That's big. No wonder it takes me so long to finish one!

I decided that I really should back these wall hangings with the same fabric as the front. So I went to the Den Haan & Wagenmakers site and ordered enough fabric to back all four, as well as the binding. I decided to go with a black print since I was afraid the blue wouldn't quite match.

I hope the fabric arrives soon. I really want to finish these up. I'm just going to stitch in the ditch, so that should be fast too. Yay for small projects and getting done quickly!

I often find that if I'm going to knit while there is something social going on, I tend to do better when it's an ultra-simple pattern (read, just knit stitch). But most of my projects are more complex these days. I've been doing a lot more knitting with cables and lace, and I'm getting better at paying attention to what I'm doing. At Craft Night this month I decided that I would work on Erik's Celtic Cable Scarf. I went in confident that I could talk and pay attention to what I was knitting.

When you look at the photos of the scarf at first they seem fine. But on closer inspection you will see that I have indeed messed up the pattern. The pattern basically goes 4 twists, 2 twists, long straight bit with 1 twist, 4 twists, 2 twists, 3 twists, 2 twists then back to the 4 and repeat. If you look at the bit near the needles, you'll see that I have missed the long part with the single twist.

Gah.

I pointed this out to the ladies at Craft Night and they all thought that I could make it work. "Just do that again and make it part of the pattern!" they said. But that assumes that I can deconstruct and figure out what I did where. Okay, I could certainly DO that, but it would take some time.

Alas I think I'm just going to rip it out. It really isn't that much. And I would prefer to have it right. I guess I should stick with my plain knit stitch sweater the next time the group is over.

Celtic Cable Scarf
Started: March 30, 2008
Completed:

See, this is how I end up with so many projects in the hopper at once. I'm almost 3/4 of the way done with my Hat Series. And what do I want to do? Not finish the 1.25 hats I have left for that. Oh no. I want to start a NEW hat and scarf project. Why? Because it's freakin' cold here in San Francisco right now. And I keep thinking about this lovely Merino wool I have in my stash.

Isn't it pretty? And you should see how it feels. Just lovely. So... I'm thinking of making a scarf and hat set out of it. I have four balls, I hope that would be enough. I think if I don't make the scarf too wide, I should be okay. But I could always go back to Noe Knits and get an extra ball or two. Just for safety sake.

I'm really inspired by the pattern in the Amanda hat that I just finished. I love the weaving effect. I was thinking of doing that for the scarf, with little rows of garter stitch in between. It doesn't look quite as good on the wrong side as it does on the right side, but it's okay.

The issue is that the original pattern I have is for in the round. Not sure how to convert that to a scarf where I'm going back and forth. I was wondering if I could just knit it on circular needles and slide the stitches back and forth. But I don't think that will actually work. I think I need to work the pattern backwards. I'm not sure if that will give me the same effect. I'll have to play with it. Stay tuned.

The hat I'm working on is coming along nicely. This is the photo of where it was on July 29. The photo below is what it looked like as of last night. I'm about to start the decreasing. All of the cables will meet together at the center.

This pattern really isn't difficult. The purl into the front and then back stitch was the most complex, but only because I had never done it before. The hat has a number of cable and twist stitches. They make the knitting much slower, especially the twists. I'm not entirely sure that I see the point for them. I'm not sure that I see how that is effecting the resulting pattern. But I'm sure the designer put those stitches there for a good reason.

I'm guessing that I will be finished with this in another couple of days. There are only 26 rows left. Yay! Then I get to move on to the next hat. I have a series of four that I'm working on.