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my creative space

my creative space

Are you sitting down? My creative space is filled with knitting today. Yes, I said knitting. Can you believe it? It’s been awhile.

Our local guild is making squares for charity blankets again. I took a break from this last year, but the year before I met my goal of 12 squares — one a month. I was hoping to meet that goal again in 2010, but here it is almost May and I’m on my first square! We’ll see how many I get done.

There were some lovely creative spaces last week listed on Kirsty’s blog. Did you check them out? You should!

stash and pattern: More acrylic from my thrifted stash. These skeins must multiply when I’m not looking! The patterns are being chosen by the group. This is the January square listed on the Hanks website.

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twisted rib scarf technique

twisted rib scarf

My poor, patient husband’s Christmas gift is finally finished. It’s a scarf to match his birthday hat, which was knit with a twisted rib in the round. I wanted to do something similar for his scarf, but had trouble matching the look of the hat while knitting flat. Here’s what I came up with:

K1 western style, P1 combination style

The result: every other row has twisted knit stitches.

I’ve been a big fan of Annie Modesitt’s combination knitting method for some time. Honestly, it’s because of the purl stitches. I love them because they are so easy. Blending western knits and combination purls got me pretty close to matching the hat.

combination notes: Annie’s website is a wealth of combination knitting knowledge and it’s how I learned her method. Grumperina has a nice history and videos, as well.

stash: This was knit from my never-ending stash of black Cascade 220. I’d like to make matching gloves or wrist warmers, but I’d be pushing my luck on what my husband might wear.

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a weekend of sweater unraveling

I’ve been thinking about white lately. Not bright white, but ivory, soft white and ecru. I’ve been keeping my eye out at the thrift stores, but all I could seem to find was that yellowish cream. Yuck. I even strolled down the yarn aisles at craft stores, which I haven’t done in a long time. I couldn’t bring myself to buy new. Not when I had so much at home.

Then one day while I was digging around in my stash closet I saw a beautiful, un-felted Gap sweater. It was the perfect color white and so soft: wool, nylon, angora rabbit and cashmere. And it had perfect seams for unraveling (those Gap sweaters always do!)

Friday evening I used a seam ripper to carefully take apart the front, back and sleeves. Saturday evening I unraveled it with the help of my swift and ball winder. This is what I had Sunday morning.

unraveled wool sweater

Don’t you just love how un-knit yarn looks like ramen noodles? Usually I will just work from noodle-y yarn, but I decided to try and get some of the kinks out. I soaked each bundle in cold water for 15-30 minutes.

unraveled wool sweater

After soaking, I hung them up to dry. I put a few wooden blocks in plastic grocery bags to weight the yarn at the bottom.

unraveled wool sweater

Look at what I have now! Isn’t it beautiful? Goodwill is having their 99 cent sale this weekend. I might have to check out the sweater rack.

unraveled wool sweater

thrifty reuse: I bought this sweater at a garage sale for $1. Can you believe it? Here’s my favorite online tutorial for unraveling a sweater for yarn.

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holiday knitting revealed!

So it seems like everyone likes their knitted gifts. I’m so glad! I started last January and made good progress up until summer. I finished up after it got cold again. Everything was in the mail and delivered on time. I think this is a record for me!

handmade christmas knitting

These are wrist warmers from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts: ladies’ version. I made a cowl to match using the same spiral rib pattern. The yarn is Patons SWS, which I really love! Michael’s put this on clearance last year right after Christmas and I bought a ton. I have no idea why they stopped carrying it. The colors are so beautiful.

handmade christmas knitting

These are wrist warmers from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts: men’s version with matching cowl in Patons SWS. My brother-in-law asked me if I realized that these were really “in” right now. I told him I had my finger on the pulse of the latest knitting trends!

handmade christmas knitting

Another set of wrist warmers, but I didn’t have enough to make a circular cowl. I had to knit this one flat and add a button. The purple wool was from my stash, so there was no getting more! Luckily it blocked nicely. The yarn is Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Worsted, the only wool that doesn’t itch its recipient.

handmade christmas knitting

Finally, a new hat for my brother — in Virginia Tech colors, of course — and a matching cowl. The hat is Hot Head from Stitch ‘N Bitch and the cowl is a matching 2×2 rib. The yarn is Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Bulky.

project notes: Everything went as planned with these. Next year I’ll be sewing gifts, instead. Guess I better get started soon!

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hat + mittens finished!

handknit hat and mittens

handknit hat and mittens

handknit hat and mittens

After many attempts, we finally have a set of hat and mittens for the winter season. My daughter loves them, which makes all of the work worth it. I just need to sew name labels in everything for preschool tomorrow and they’ll be ready for action!

project notes: Yarn is Cascade 220, which holds up well after a lot of ripping and re-knitting. Mitten pattern from p2designs.com. No pattern for the hat—I just kind of winged it.

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a gray day filled with brown

It’s one of those cold, autumn days where it feels like snow, but all you get is rain. It’s not a very good day to be taking crafty pictures for the blog, but it’s perfect for cuddling with my daughter and reading lots of books. Our favorite one right now is The Apple Pie That Papa Baked. I love the illustrations, which are done in warm browns, rich blacks and candy apple reds.

Jonathan Bean illustration

I’m also knitting a pair of brown mittens to match her brown hat, which I finished last night. I wound up making a plain stockinette hat with ribbed border, just like the one she’s worn for the past two years. I abandoned the Marsan Watchcap after she complained that the larger size was still too tight. I think she just didn’t like all of the ribbing.

Tomorrow and Wednesday we’ll be out in the cold, wet weather, so today is all about snuggling with some warm tea and milk. I wonder if I can convince my husband to stop on the way home to pick up some apples?

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handmade gift: branching out scarf

branching out scarf

Remember this scarf? It’s finally finished! I gave it to my mom for her birthday and she loves it. It’s my first lace project and I’m very pleased with it.

lace knitting with acrylic yarn

I wanted to knit a lace scarf for my mom, but she can’t wear wool. It took awhile (and a lot of ripping and re-knitting) to find an appropriate acrylic yarn and a pattern that didn’t rely too heavily on blocking. Actually, this blocked better than I thought it would. The leaves opened up nicely.

blocking acrylic yarn

Eventually I’d like to try this pattern with some wool, but I need a little break from all these tiny leaves.

details: Pattern is Branching Out from Knitty. Yarn is Red Heart Luster Sheen. Bow tied with a re-purposed Nordstrom ribbon, which probably came on a gift from my mom.

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my creative space

knitting a marsan watchcap for my daughter

My creative space is filled with knitting today. Actually, re-knitting.

You know how everyone always says gauge is so important? Well, getting your daughter’s head measurement right in the first place is even more important.

Yep, that’s her first hat in the background of the picture. I measured a moving target and came up with 19 inches. Never measure a moving head. After we determined that it wouldn’t fit and my gauge was spot on, I measured her head while standing still. 20 inches.

So, I’m re-knitting and since there is snow in the forecast, I’m bumped this project up to the top of my to-do list.

What’s in your creative space today?

Visit more creative spaces over at Kirsty’s blog.

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Non-knitters: the simplest definition of gauge is how many stitches you knit per inch. Multiply stitches per inch by number of inches to figure out how many stitches you need for something to fit. I multiplied my gauge by too few inches and wound up with a hat that is too small.

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my creative space

linen tea towels and wool knit gloves

Today my creative space is filled with gift making. I’m embroidering, sewing, and knitting and having so much fun! Unfortunately, I can’t show you more until after the gifts have been delivered.

I can tell you that I am making more tea towels and really need to get practicing with that rolled hem foot again. I’d really like to make some more towels and napkins for my family. They don’t need to be fancy, but we should be using them more than we use paper towels and napkins.

Visit more creative spaces over at Kirsty’s blog.