Sunday, March 25, 2007

2007 Projects Thus Far

Posted by Virtuous at 3/25/2007

Alright here is the run down of all of my finished projects thus far for 2007 WITH PICS!!

*Warning* this is a very long entry! But HEY! I had a lot to say and show you! :o)

Again, be merciful since I do not have a digi cam yet! :op

~Technically this is a Dec 2006 project but I wanted to post the 1 pic I have of the Bobblicious from knitty.com - pattern link: http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter05/PATTbobblicious.html
As I already mentioned this was my 1st project that I ventured out of scarves and was a garment to wear!

I ran into Turtle Girl for the first time at my favorite LYS (Charlotte Yarn http://www.charlotteyarn.com/) and saw her wearing this cute creation! She convinced me that it was easy and showed me how to do the bobbles. My 1st time learning how to increase! *mmhmmm* after almost 2 years of just plain K & P. A SHAME!! *nods head* Hahaha!

Again this will be my 1st love in an actual wearable garement! Since it was my 1st one.
Every time I wear it I get compliments. It is Boho Shrug and I would love to make a close fitted shrug in the future.

This only pic I have is from a work party (hence the streamers) and I was having a bad eye day (hence the glasses!). I just discovered my coworker labeled this pic "She's-So-Good-She-Knitted-The-Plates" LMAO!!!!
Not my best look! I look like a pig in the blanket! ;op. Thankfully I have lost 10lbs since that pic and have 10 more to go!

It took me about 1 week and 1/2 to finish this project, even with me not knitting on it everyday. However, it was the holiday time and I made lots of progress sitting around with fam while on vacation. Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick (exactly per pattern) in the lemongrass color. I only used 5 balls and that was with seaming (pattern says 6), and did russian joins. My 1st time seaming! And I had no idea what I was doing! LOL I am sure it was not "correct" but I went with it! And it endured the washer machine without falling apart! LOL It is mattress seam. Project Cost: About $25 (got lots of the balls with 40% off coupon from Hobby Lobby).

~Loopy Scarf from knitty.com (I affectionately call it “Hip Hop) was worked on this January.

Pattern link: http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter02/PATTloopy.html

When I first saw the project in my LYS I thought I couldn't possibly knit that up - too complicated, but when they explained it to me it was a simple garter and just contrasting to yarns I went for it!
So I saw a beautiful gold mohair to compliment the hip hop with the gold, purple, green, and blue shades! Of course I had to use that one since the deep purple was running thru it!
Here are some pics I took (the true colors really don't show up well on my cell cam, but you get the idea!):
This project was my first time using contrasting yarns and carrying yarn up the side.

Let me just state this up front - I do not knit everyday! *GASPS!* So it took me a week to do this scarf.

I actually wear it like a wrap with a shawl stick/pin to hold it together. Another compliment piece that people wonder how in the world did I knit it!

I used Berroco Color #7240 and Rowan Kidsilk Haze #578. Project cost: About $30. Again, a VERY easy pattern. Just have to get used to knitting with very thin yarn. And I would recommend bamboo needles (even though that was not what I used - hence the recomm).

~Felted Clog Slippers from http://www.fibertrends.com/ was my next project I did in February and purchased the pattern from my LYS (or it can be purchased here: http://www.nakedsheep.com/felclogpat.html).
I had been dying to do those for over a year! I took one look at the pattern and bulked at it!! Of course Remi (shop owner) was very encouraging telling me I could actually do it. See that is all I needed - a little push! After I read the pattern a 1,000 times :o) and highlighted my shoe size (love doing that! haha) I was ready to cast on and go back for them to show me what the heck I was doing!! LOL

Once I got going and completed the first sole it was easy peasy after that! In this project I learned about wrap turn, how to M1, SSK, pick up stitches, the 3 needle bind-off, and whip stitch. So I learned ALOT! That is always my goal when I take on new project; that is to learn something new of course!

I really recommend making a copy of the pattern so you can highlight your shoe size and boy oh boy did I wear that pattern OUT!

I will say I got tired of making those dang soles by the 2nd slipper because you have to make two of them to layer them for "padding". There are no actually "sole resistants" at the bottom but you can purchase that to sow on to keep from slipping and sliding everywhere! If you have carpet in the majority of your house it really wouldn't matter. But if you have wooden floors then you need to attach those additional soles. I almost busted my butt in the kitchen a many of days! LOL And those slippers carry lots of static since they are 100% wool so watch out! :op

Here are a few shots of what they looked like before I felted them. I just HAD to take pics of my giant shoes!















This was my 1st felted project so I had to figure out how to do all of that. The best advice: use a zipped pillow case!!! There will be excess wool everywhere! Eww! My washer machine has 2 agitation cycles and it really wasn't until I let it go past the 1st one they started shrinking up faster. I also had a pair of blue jeans in there to to help with agitation.

Here is what they look like after they are felted! (been wearing them for about a month and half now so they looking rugged haha!)















Please excuse the ashy ankles! LOL I should be ashamed but I am not! HA!
They fit perfectly!! My own custom made slippers!

It took about 3-4 days for them to completely dry - so be prepared for that as well. I just kept a towel under them and put my feet in them from time to time to squish out any excess water and to have them form to my feet. during the last day I had them standing upright on lotion bottles and when I came home that evening they were all dry! :o)

I LOVE the colors. If there is one thing you should know about me is that I love red and eggplant purple! Especially if they are mixed or paired with chocolate! I call these my valentine slippers! They were ready for me to wear on that day. And I just love wearing them around the house! :o)

I actually purchased my yarn from http://www.nakedsheep.com/ because my LYS did not have the chocolate #87 or red #47 colorways in Lopi.

This project took me about a week to knit up both slippers as well. Felting about 2 hours, but again would have gone faster if I realized the whole 2nd agitation cycle thing. Dry time about 4 days. You must use 100% wool so it can "felt" and the project cost about $30 including pattern.

~Recently (this month) I had been knitting up a lot of Baby Booties because I had a close girlfriend have a little girl and my favorite LYS owner had a baby girl too. So I was trying to figure out what could I knit that would be cute and quick.....quick huh? :op

I decided on the baby booties since I knew I wanted to eventually do socks (will eventually circle back and do a baby hat).

I found a book that had multiple cute baby projects called Knits from the Heart and then again - had to figure out what the heck I was doing!! I went to Wednesday night knit club and Cristi a.k.a. Turtlegirl showed me the basics of knitting booties and from there I just struggled thru it! LOL

My 1st bootie was a HOT mess (curved all to the left haha! and took me forever to make, but I refused to give up. It was my first time working on DPNs (=clumsy) and I had the slick ones at first, but needed to go back to get bamboo. MUCH better. Next time will get shorter ones too.

I also actually discovered I hated the pattern and switched some things up to make it work for me! haha! As Cristi tells me "I AM THE DESIGNER!" - man that is so empowering!! :o)

So I had to knit pretty quickly because the baby was already here and going on 1 month. I wanted to be sure she could at least fit them!! HAHA! Plus, they live in Florida. What was I thinking?!?

I told my girlfriend once she received the surprise package that I don't care if she wears them for 30 seconds! LOL I made her 2 sets. Here is what they looked like (again the colors are no where compared to how they look in person - again no digi cam...yet! But I had to take pics of them before I sent them off to her):













I really like the multi-colored ones! And Remi loved them too! (the other one that had a baby girl)

And of course my girlfriend sent me pics of Elizabeth Grace wearing her personal knitted booties! :o)

I sure wish I could have seen her in the variegated ones. Those are my favorite! But it made me feel all warm and fuzzy when she sent the pics so I know my work wasn't in vain! LOL

I did go up one needle size on this pattern, and used the Tahki cotton yarn that the pattern called for in colors #3939 (purple) and #476 multi/tweedy it cost at total of about $14 for both skeins and I have made 3 full sets of booties already and 1 jacked up one! LOL And could probably squeeze another purple set from what I have left over. So it was a great deal!
The booties are really quick once you know what you are doing! The last pair I made (for Remi) only took me about 4 hours total to finish.
Alright that is it for past projects! Let me move on to what I am doing now!!

 

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