Knitting – Page 12 – Hopefully Creative

Those Slippers

So, ever bought a knitting book, found a fabulous pair of knitted house slippers in them and proceeded to knit them up and make them hideous in the process? I have. See the wonderful example below for the gorgeousness I managed to ruin completely. The book is called ‘Breien’ written by Jaroslava Dovcova, and I bought it for approx. 4 euros at the Action.

The reason they are now hideous is because I chose the worst shade of old people beige to knit them with. After I’d finished the first, I decided that the as done in the example was much nicer, so I decided to purchase some fluorescent green. The plan was to frog the first one and knit it again, but I’ve decided I’m lazy.

I’m so lazy that I haven’t actually weaved in the ends and have still worn them plenty of times. There are some redeeming qualities of this project though; 1. they are warm, 2. they are easy to knit (it’s a one-nighter) and 3. they match my new second-hand grandma chair perfectly!

Here is the finished product. You can see the threads still dangling inside them. I will wear them until they fall apart because I failed to finish them properly. I might then finish them properly, who knows..

Changes, Again and Socks

Changes, not the things I like most in my life. Some happened, I needed to deal with them. I did, mostly.

Now, you may think that something bad happened, but that was not the case. On the first of May 2014 I started my new job at my old University. This involved a move and the leaving behind of my old life, both living at my parents and when I used to live here before. It’s difficult for me to come to terms with the fact that I’m not a student here anymore. I’m in some ways further removed from the school than when I was attending it, and in other ways closer than ever before. New stuff scares me and I’ve been busy adjusting to my new life.

While I may not have been active at my own blog so much, I have been making some things. I made a bird to put on a key chain, but I have since given away said key chain without taking a picture, so that was stupid.
One of my friends and coworkers (friend first) had her birthday and I decided, the day before that I wanted to knit her a recordersockthing. She had her recorder in a regular sock and I decided it could use an update.

Not long before I had bought a book on knitting and had knit slippers (next time, my dears, next time). I also remembered that there was a pouch for glasses with a cat on it in the book. I was supposed to be taking care of her cat for a week when she was on holiday so I thought it appropriate to knit the cat.

The pattern stated that I was supposed to sort of weave in thread over the knitted base to form the cat picture. I decided to completely ignore that and learn myself some colour work. So I did, and I think it turned out quite well! I was going to make it a spitting image of their cat, but knitting it took a bit longer than anticipated so I didn’t have time to add the tiger stripes. This is the front and back:

The insides are on the left. On the right you see a close up of the little cat button I’d scored at some point in my life and was precisely big enough for the hole I’d made and it had another cat. Double win, right? *cough*

Honestly, I think it’s not bad for a night’s work. I do hope that non of you own the same book, because I’m worse than a pre-schooler at counting and managed to lose an entire.. column? A vertical row, so my cat is a little different from the original, but it still looks like a cat. In my eyes at least. Now we’ll see how it’ll hold up to real life…

Also, hang on for next time when I’ll show the fantastic ‘8 squares slippers’ I’ve made from that same knitting book.

More Grey, Now a Francis

The reason why I’ve not been sewing as much, is that I’ve been knitting. I’ve been knitting a top down raglan sweater from a pattern with cables and a cowl. The weirdest thing is that I didn’t even lose interest for that long. I finished it within the season! One month and a half it took me to knit myself a pullover (more details on ravelry here). I’m so proud! It’s knit fully in the round. It’s actually quite warm also, with contrasting cuffs (seed stitch). I’m a little afraid of washing it, so I hope it doesn’t shrink massively. Here it is:

The ends are all finished with seed stitch, so that’s the cuffs, hem and cowl. My collar is a bit different from the pattern, probably because I didn’t switch to smaller needles. I still like the way it looks though. In contrast to the pattern I attached the bottom edge (not the hem) of the seed stitch band to the neck opening at the front, and partly at the back. The pattern stated to mattress stitch (?) the hem of the seed stitch bit to the neck.

Lastly, I chose to do some cables on the front. This was mainly because I’d be bored out of my brain with just knitting stockinette for forever after. I cabled using 4 stitches in all cables, but the centre one was split down the middle to form larger v’s and the side ones are mirrored to each other.

I hope to get a lot of wear out of this sweater. I’m wearing it while writing this and I’m quite warm and toasty, which is wonderful in wintertime.

Hat!

Or, according to the pattern, Vintage Allure Beret. Meet my latest finished (important note, I have many more unfinished) knitting project.

It’s a free pattern that can be found here. It’s a beret that features 8 cables and it is knit in the round using mostly purl stitches. I really liked knitting it, since it’s a fairly fast project you can see it coming to completion. I also really liked the colour red that I used. I think I’ll probably make it again, but then I’ll purl the decreases instead of knitting them, so they hopefully blend in a bit more, I now have 16 ridges. You can look at my project on Ravelry here. Also, this is the hat when it’s flat.

I’ve worn it already and it is really nice. I used to pins to keep it connected to my head (hard winds that day) and it held up perfectly. I also think the red and my hair are a nice combination. Now, I’ll continue with my sweater, that will hopefully be finished this winter…

MMM ’13 8-14

So, second week! I managed to wear something me made or refashioned each day. Admittedly, Sunday was uninspired and Tuesday pretty much the same as Monday but I did put effort in, that counts right. I was actually planning on wearing more skirts and dresses.. However, the weather is decidedly uncooperative. It’s raining all the time, and I think I hate wet tights even more than wet pants, so pants it is.

8: Me made jacket, not blogged. High heels, so sitting mostly, I love the hat though.

9: High waisted skirt, me made, still love it, and bow tie belt (here). Wasn’t feeling my best that day, so I wanted something bright, that’s where the socks came in.

10: Two! Again! One of the striped shirts and a red skirt and black houndstooth skirt (apparently pre blog but same fabric used here)

11: Blue shirt (here), and I’m wearing a tie over my head. There was a market in my town, I found a mickey mouse tie and got it. I really like it, don’t know if it will ever get worn.

12: Sunday.. I did not feel like getting dressed. So here you see my weekend ‘clothes’, the live in sweater and sweatpants. But especially for me made may.. I found something me made. SOCKS! (here)

13: Time for something refashioned (here). I love those shoes! Red (and purple) and oh so comfortable.

14: Remarkably similar to yesterday. Tied the ties in another way, lower down to create a top effect, added a red spotted hat and an accessory in the form of a sticky letter I found yesterday as a remainder of a comedy show I went to.

More dresses next week! (I hope..)

Update

I’m still knitting, I’ve just turned the heel of the first white sock, and have ‘basted’ together my sweater and am thinking of how to best knit the collar, such that I don’t feel overly exposed and it still looks nice. It fits well, although the sleeves are made for a monkey, and I’m not a monkey. However, if I turn back the ribbing it fits fine (the lazy (wo)man’s solution).

Next to that I’ve been tracing two of my shirts, in order to make them again. Tracing is a cheap way to make a pattern and since you already know how the things fit, it’s easy to change what you want style wise. I’ve even started to figure out how to place the pattern on the bit of stretchy fabric I got a while ago. So I am trying to be productive ‘creatively’, but I find it difficult, to muster up the energy to work after being at school for 8 hours.

For the larp event I am part of I made a pair of enormous pants. I could fit in the one leg, and my friend could fit in the other (it was quite funny). So while I feel fairly useless, I may actually be doing more than I think. Let’s hope I can keep up with doing some work!

Gloves

The office where I now work 9 to 5 on my final thesis, is really quite cold. Especially for my extremities. My hands and feet do not seem to have the ability to heat themselves up out of their own accord. It can be really frustrating, so I’ve found ways to deal with it. Simply put.. Stick another layer on there!

So that’s what I did, I made some gloves to stick over those nasty cold hands. They had to be fingerless in order to be able to type. The original plan was to just make a flat bit rectangle, sew the sides up and leave a hole in the side for the thumb. I did this before and it worked fine. However, while I was busy, I wanted some interest, so I chose a pattern with ridges and flat bits and decided to rib from the wrist onwards. This turned out fine (although you cannot see the pattern that well, lousy light).

When it came to making them up, sewed up the side seams with a hole in the middle and it just felt.. empty? I cast on an additional 14 stitches times 2, knitted in garter for 3 rows and started decreasing the two sides whenever seemed right. I already attached one side to a glove before the thumb-bit was finished, because I needed to see where to decrease exactly. Sewed up the ‘side seam’ (those 3 rows at the beginning) and attached it further to the glove. Wove in the ends, et voilà! a fingerless glove. Five more minutes, and another one was done! Another project finished, I’m on a roll!

I also cast on another sock, now in white, with a seed stitch top, haven’t a clue if that’s going to work.. only one way to find out I guess. Keep knitting!

SockS!

Look at that!

I finished the second sock! And only .. one week after 1 finished the first! Oh I ‘m so proud of myself. I’m currently wearing both of my new makes and am very happy with them. They have only been on my feet for 2 hours, but they haven’t sagged terribly yet, nor have bits come out. They also haven’t been hideously unpleasant to wear. At present I call this a success! Also, it has got me in the mood for more of this easy knitting. It’s a simple project I can easily take with me on the train, 20 minutes still lets me do a couple of rounds and in no time a project is finished.

So here they are in full form. Beware, my legs aren’t really whiter than milk, something with flash and bad for overall colours. Also, it’s really strange to take photos of your feet when you are standing up and bending over (second picture), they have a really weird shape there..

Oh I’m so proud of my achievement, on to the next.. now with some visual interest please!

Sock

I made a sock. It was my second attempt, since with the first attempt I failed to get the gauge correctly. It did fit over my foot, but it was about twice as long when it was not on my foot and therefore I figured that turning the heel might not work very well. So I took some other yarn (the stuff I also used for the cuffs) and created attempt number two. It didn’t take very long to knit it, only 28 stitches in the round so that goes very fast. It’s again blue and very simple, this is the pattern I used (Ravelry).

Now comes the daunting bit, knitting the other one..

Coat cuffs

Although I am supposed to be very busy with school, I have decided that I should not do any work after say 11 or 11:30 at night. It’s just too late and it won’t work. Therefore, I started making the cuffs for my coat yesterday. I knitted some inner cuffs that won’t show on the outside, but should keep my wrists warm and covered, and prevent the wind from flying up my sleeve. They are very simple, just 34 stitches on 20 or so rows, knitted flat and attached together. I used a ‘drunken German cast on’ (using this site) to keep them stretchy, and another stretchy bind off (from this movie) to keep them stretchy on the other side. Not very interesting, but there is progress!

I also unpicked my pockets because I decided I want them somewhere else, since it didn’t feel right before. I also want zippers in them (don’t know how I’m going to do that, but I’ll figure that out later). Hopefully, I will have my coat done by Monday and I can wear it for the remainder of the winter. Hopefully!

Wish me luck on that one (and the mass of homework still to do). Good luck crafting too!

Category: Knitting