Experiment

I continue to work on my first red Hallowig and I am also playing around with designing some scarves and hats. Unfortunately, I have no photos to post. Maybe tomorrow!

On Tap

For some knitting fun, I'd thought I'd whip up a couple of Hallowigs as my next project. I'm not really that into Halloween, but I love the wig pattern. I think it would be hilarious to wear around as a hat this winter!

In Full Bloom

Do you know how glad I am that this project is finally done? Hurrah! I had some glitches along the way, but I love the end product. Aside from all the frogging I did, I also had a problem with the shoulders. After I finished all the seaming a few nights ago, I tried the vest on and the shoulders stuck up way too much. I knew what I had to do, but I put it off for a day. I was going to use my sewing machine to take up the extra seam allowance. At some point between ripping and starting over, my gauge had gone wild. I pinned the shoulders and then sewed a new seam halfway from the neckline to the armholes. Then I cut the extra fabric off and zigzagged the edges. It seems to have solved the problem, but it was hard cutting that knit fabric. The pattern had called for three skeins of felted tweed, but I actually needed one more. I wasn't going to add the flowers initially, but I'm glad I did. I backstitched two, instead of three, spiral shapes onto the vest and then crocheted into the stitches. I had some black and green mohair in my stash that coordinated perfectly with the felted tweed. Satisfaction.

Finishing Line

I stayed up late last night to finish the second half of the vest. It feels good to have this project almost done. I will steam block the pieces tonight and then seam up the sides and the shoulders. I am still contemplating whether or not I want the decorative flowers. Maybe just two small ones instead of three. I also started experimenting with some scarves yesterday. I'm using some of that great stuff I got on sale at Lint several weeks back.

Halfway

I finally finished one half of my Bloom vest last night and promptly cast on for the other half. To speed up the process, I will probably steam block the finished pieces like the directions say, instead of pinning them down and blocking them like I had before. I'll be happy when this project is done!

The Table is Set

Here are the placemats I made over the weekend. I also will be making some napkins from the Whirlygig fabric. The gray placemats were fun to make but the random stitching took much longer than I thought it would.

Crocheted Flower Pattern

I tried taking some pictures for this tutorial, but they didn't look very helpful to me. So, for now, here is the pattern minus photos.

Using a size H hook, chain 4. Join the end to the first chain with a slip stitch to form a ring.

Round 1: (single crochet in the ring, chain 3) 6 times. Again, join the last stitch to the first single crochet with a slip stitch.

Round 2: (single crochet, chain 1, 3 double crochets, chain 1, single crochet) in each space created by the chain 3.

Round 3: Now you begin working in the back of the flower you have started creating. (single crochet around the first spoke, then chain 4) 6 times. Join last stitch to first stitch with a slip stitch.

Round 4: (single crochet, chain 1, 5 double crochets, chain 1, single crochet) in each space created by the chain 4.

Round 5: Repeat round 3, but chain 5 instead of 4. Join last stitch to first with a slip stitch and weave in ends.

If you want to add another layer of petals, repeat Round 3, increasing the number of stitches in the chain by one, and Round 4, increasing the double crochets by two.

Caped Crusader

This cape went by super fast once I started to focus on finishing it. The only adaptation I made was lengthening the body of the cape. I think I doubled what was called for in the pattern. I also made a crocheted flower to use as the fastener. I should be shipping this off today!

Starting Over

I slowly started to rework Bloom last night, and then I took a break to make some progress on the Ebony cape. There is this great lacy-like scalloped detail at the bottom hem of the cape. I'm just about done with that. It's turning out well. Back to Bloom: I finished one armhole and I think ripping out and doing the short rows the correct way made a little bit of difference, but probably not enough that I needed to rip. Ack. Oh well. I will rest easy knowing I did it properly!

Bad News

Yesterday was a bad day for knitting. The Rowan pattern book I wanted was in one LYS and I went to buy it after work. I came home with the Big Just Got Bigger book and started browsing through it, realizing that I should have gotten the Ribbon Twist Collection. Before I went back to the store to swap books, I looked at the half of the vest I had finished a few weeks back. I noticed that I had done my short rows incorrectly on the armholes. It made a big enough difference that I decided it would be worth it to rip out the piece I already finished, as well as the other half that was almost done. [sigh] Once the ripping was done, and I had exchanged pattern books, I started in on the Ebony cape. It should go a bit more quickly since it is knit up on 17 needles.

PS The new Rebecca should be here in the US, ready to be distributed. And the exciting news? Did you notice the cover? It's all in English! There's a free poncho pattern here.

No News

Since this last weekend was a holiday, I got Friday and Monday off. I didn't use very much of that time for knitting, though I am so close to being done with Bloom. I did run out of yarn though and had to buy another skein of the felted tweed. Early Friday morning I drove up to Seattle to go to IKEA. I bought lots of fun stuff, including this buffet and bookcase. Even though all the major house projects are done, I still feel like I am working on something house-related all the time.