lulubeans

FO: a skirt for a flower fairy

    natasha has been asking for a "flower fairy skirt, you know, so that i can be a rose, or a lilac" for a month or so now.   (the flower fairy bug has hit big here, and there was some serious fairy envy going on when we saw these pictures from daria, official queen of the kid party, at least in my book.)
 

    last week i had a long, long, long all day work meeting, plus a longish car ride to and fro- perfect opportunity to knit a fairy skirt. 

    the yarn is knitpick's shine in crocus, natasha's pick.  i used 3.5 balls on US #8 circs. 
i wish i could get in the habit of writing stuff down as i go, but i come to you patternless. 
i can sort of tell you what i did though.  i used a log cabin blanket that i have been picking up and putting down for a few months now as a swatch of sorts- same size needles, same weight yarn.  not too scientific, but i wrapped the blanket around natasha's belly and figured out the number of stitches i wanted to cast on going from there.  3 x 1 ribbing for an inch or so, evenly spaced yarn overs for the eventual i-cord draw string, a teeny bit more ribbing, and then lots of stockinette-ing, all the while increasing every ten rounds or so by doing m1s every 15 stitches.  finish of with one repeat of pearl-barred scallop (from the first walker treasury), weave in ends, and ta-da!  a happy fairy!  (oh yeah, there was some i-cord making in there too, but that was kind of forgettable.)

a perfect skirt for backyard spell casting and for the kind of secret adventures that require a well packed hello kitty backpack.

natasha reports that the yarn feels "great!" on her belly, which is good news, because she is such a picky pants.

hunting around the web for another version of that pearl-barred scallop i found this pretty scarf. i then, wow, this blog stitch pattern geek's treasure trove. it's an awesome resource. i am always checking out the walker treasuries from my library, to the point where i often find my own paper scraps and notes tucked in the pages, months in between borrows. some day i will own my own copies, but for now i'm often looking for  resources online, and this one looks very, very excellent.

Fo: cabled cowl

I have to say that I truly admire people who are able to take graceful self-portraits.  I have a hard enough time getting most of my head in the frame.  You can see what I mean in these pictures of a handspun cabled cowl I knit.  I tried taking pictures of me wearing it on two separate occasions.
It's kind of embarrassing.
But enough self-deprecation. 
Onto the knitting!  Here's the cowl scrunched down:

 

And here's the cowl pulled up for days when it's too cold to breathe. 

 

 

The yarn you see here is from Moustache Rides Yarn and it is super fun stuff.  Melissa + I did a yarn trade some time ago, and I had knit myself a really basic hat, but it was not what the yarn really wanted to be.  I felt like it was really asking to be a neck warmer instead.  The cowl itself is really kind of an Irish Hiking Cowl; I improvised but it's pretty much the same deal, cable-wise, but with a little more purling in between the cables.  If you have a skein of handspun lying around and aren't sure quite what to do with it,  I highly suggest the quick gratification of a cowl!

  (And hey!  The good news is that I think we are firmly planted in cowl-scrunched-down weather, finally.  Today I even have a window open.  It's a teeeny bit chilly, but damn, that fresh air is some really, really good stuff.  )

happy easter

If that's your thing.
Personally,  I really like bunnies.  And candy. 
I feel lucky to have a small person in the house who shares these exact same affinities. 
And I love that she still believes in the Easter Bunny, and that he knit her this version of "his baby:"

 

I was kind of proud of this silly little bunny, and yet, I'm a-okay with letting this Easter Bunny guy take all the credit this year. 

FO: cotton washcloth

Natasha has made friends with a girl whose mother has an apparent (and tragic!) allergy to wool.  Hence, I give you rectangle o' cotton in seed stitch:   

 

Busy hands during playdates are a must for me!  I will probably buy a fancy bar of soap and give this to my mom as part of a birthday "stocking" type dealie. 

Speaking of soap, Carrie sent me a bar of soap from here when we swapped fiber.  It was amazing stuff!  I haven't been able to find any locally, which is a bummer, because I'd feel awfully silly paying shipping to get more.  I'd even be up for a yarn-for-soap swap if it's something that anyone out there can find locally.  It's that good!

FO: Little Improvised Socks

I made some socks last week.

Specifically, I made some socks for very, very tiny feet.

My handpainted yarn, 36 stitch cast on, knit top down, some cables thrown in for good measure. I went on total guesswork when it came to size, and was a little bit wowed when I held them up to my daughter's newborn footprints. They look a small in the photo, but they are an exact match. Kind of eerie! Of course, these are not for any hypothetical fruit of my loins, and I'm crossing my fingers that these will work for the recipient's feet, at least for his or her first week or so!

FO: Fingerless Banjo Mitts

I made these last week for my friend Jen*'s birthday.  They were easy and fast, and gave me some fun cable practice too!

I used about 130 yards of my own bulky handspun merino.  I am a little embarrassed to be showing off my use of the banjo cable which is obviously soooooooo dorky compared to Adrian's complete and absolute ass-kicking excellence.  Nonetheless, I hope to write a pattern for these mitts in the days to come.  For now, the quick how to goes like this:

Cast on 28 stitches and divide on double pointed needles so that needle one has 12 stitches, and needles two + three each have 8.  Rib (I did 2 x 2) for 2 or 3 inches, and then plug in the cable pattern of your choice on needle one.  (You may need to fiddle with the number of stitches at this point depending on what your cable panel requires.)  Or you could skip the cable idea all together and do whatever suits your fancy.  After the first repeat of my cable pattern, I started thumb gussets, and continued with a second repeat of the cable pattern.  I finished with a little more ribbing at the top, and added a bit of cozy in the way of thumb coverage (also 2x 2 ribbing).  And that was that!  I know I already said it, but- easy, quick and fun!

*Jen hosts knitting night for us in her living room week after week after week.  She has many other fabulous qualities too, but for knitting night alone, I believe that she deserves lots of presents on her birthday!

FO: Irish Hiking Scarf

I really love how knitting (or any hand-making, really) can be full of tidy (and sometimes painfully obvious) metaphor.  Take, for example, me and cables.  I have been knitting for going one four years now and had never really given cables all that much thought.  (Well, it's not that I hadn't thought about them, or admired them, I most certainly, almost reverently, had.)  I just kind of guessed that they would be tricky, or at least trickier than what I knew to be easy. (I do like easy.)  But it's funny how some things wind up being so do-able once you actually sit down and do them.   

My Irish Hiking Scarf has taught me these things: that underestimating myself is dumb, especially without even trying first, and that the easiest way through something is through, one row, or even one stitch at a time. 

And that ends my the brief needle/navel gazing.  I hope it wasn't nerve-gratingly poignant. 
Which just leaves me to say this: Look! Squishy! And cozy-rific!

 

Yay!  I am so glad that I tried.

Happy Valentine's Day!

edited to add some specifics:

The yarn I used was a thrift store find.  It's Merino Sheepskin Company's 14 ply in color #16 (Mallard).  I used one skein and US size 9 needles.  My final measurements for the scarf come in shorter and wider than the pattern's measurements, but I haven't blocked mine yet, so I am sure that this will change!

 

Sort of a free pattern: knit pixie hat

I am hesitant to call this a pattern.  it's really more of a recipe.  Besides, there are a lot of patterns out there that are kind of sort of along similar lines.  Just google the term "knit pixie hat" and you will see what I am mean.  (I really love this one, although I fear that photo alone may have caused spontaneous ovulation.  That baby is just way too cute.)

Regardless, in case you are curious about how I made my hat, here's my attempt to share a pattern:

Top Down Knit Pixie Hat

Yarn: Because this hat is knit starting at the top and working your way down to the size you want it to be, things like gauge and yarn weight are fairly open for whatever works best for you.  I used ~110 yards of my own (heavy worsted to bulky weight) Confetti handspun yarn, and this included plenty for a generous tassel. 

Needles: I used US size 10 dpns, and eventually  wished that I could find my circular in that size.  You should use the needle size that will work best for the yarn you are using.  I'll bet that you are more organized than I, and you can find both your circs and your dpns, you fancy pants.  I thought about going down a needle size to make my fabric tighter and the top of my hat stand up straighter, but opted for a needle size that would create more drape in my fabric and a more flopsy kind of hat top. 

My gauge (and yours can differ): 4 sts, 6 rows= 1 inch.

My finished measurements: 11 inches from point (not including the tassel) to brim, and about 17 inches around the brim, big enough for my head, and with a healthy amount of room to grow into for my six year old's.  Remember, there is lots of room for interpretation here; your hat can be as big or as little as you want it to be.

  To get started:  CO 3 stitches and place place each stitch all alone on it's own dpn.  Knit the 3 stitches, joining them in the round.

Round one: Knit

Round two: Increase the first stitch on each needle (I just knit into the front and the back of the stitch) so that you have 6 stitches total, with 2 on each needle.

Round three: Knit

Round four: Increase the first stitch on each needle again so that at the end of the round you have 9 stitches total with 3 on each needle.

 

Keep going, knitting and increasing on alternate rounds.  Or, you may want to make every round an increase round if you are using a lighter weight yarn or if you want a shorter, less triangular top.  You can play around with the shaping a lot here. 

 

It took me 44 rounds before my hat looked big enough around for me to stop increasing.   At this point I had 72 stitches on my needles and my hat measured 6 and 3/4 inches from top to bottom at that point.  This is the part of the recipe where you will either need to eyeball (my usual M.O.) or measure your gauge and do the math to figure out what will fit your recipient's noggin.   

Once I guessed that I had increased enough, I knit another 2 and 1/2 inches (15 rounds or so) and then began a knit 3, purl 2 ribbing (to do this I had to reduce 2 stitches.) After an inch and a half or so if ribbing, I bound off 23 stitches, put 12 on a stitch holder,  bound off 23 more, and left the 12 stitches remaining on a dpn. 

The optional earflappery:

  You could certainly bind off all your stitches at this point.  You can always pick up stitches and add some flaps later on if your feelings change.   If your gauge is rather different from mine, you will needle to do a little bit of math to work out how big you want your earflaps to be (mine start out being 3 inches across and are about 3 inches long) and how you want them placed on the hat. 

 

To shape those flaps:

(You may want to reduce on every other row if your gauge is significantly smaller than mine.)

Knit 4 rows in garter stitch.

On your fifth row: K1, sl 1, psso, K to last 3 sts, K2tog, K.

Knit 3 rows, then every fifth row reduce in the same manner as row 5 until you are left with 4 stitches total.  Knit one row of 4 stitches even. Second to last row: K1, K2tog, K1

Last row: K2tog, K1, 2 stitches remain for i-cord ties. 

I-cord for 10 inches or to desired length, bind off, weave in ends, top with tassel or pom-pom if that's your thing, and go, keep someone's head toasty and warm!

 

 

Some other great pixie-pointies patterns free on the web:

Pointy Ribbed Pixie Helmet Hat

Elf Pixie Hat (A lot like my hat, but knit from the rim up.  I like the increased flexibility of a top down pattern.)

The Olive Bobbles Hat

Baby Hat- Pixie Hat to Knit (Eek- that's another painfully cute kid!)

 

Enjoy!

the woodland pixie kind

  I made a hat for my girl yesterday.  She had requested that I construct "the woodland pixie kind of hat" for her and with a request like that, how could I not oblige.  The picture is from yesterday morning's coffee; getting the finished object on the actual pixie and having her stay still or even stillish long enough for a photo has proved to be a challenge that I am just not up for today.  Her one complaint about her hat?  "It only keeps my head warm and toasty."  Sheesh.  It's always something with that one.

Also,  Jen wrote a really nice post about me yesterday on the Modish Guest Blog. Thank you Jen! If you haven't yet, I'm encouraging you to go read the posts that she has been sharing all week featuring local (Portland, Maine) artists. She's been making me feel lovey about where we live, and that is no mean feat this time of year! 

 

FO: little child's sock

Pattern: From Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks, it's the Little Child's Sock.  I don't know about you, but I feel possessed to knit every pattern in this book.  It's a great resource.  Plus, I want a sock drawer like Chawne's when I grow up.

Yarn:  It's Lion Brand.  It's Magic Stripes.  It's not great.  Sure, Lion Brand may be cleaning up its act a bit, but this yarn is lacking in ways that might be hard to detect until you actually start to knit with it.  It's got no soul.  That's the best way I can put.  And yet the colorway makes me happy.  Or more specifically, makes me feel as though I ought to be nestled under the eaves of an Alpine A-frame on a ski resort sometime in the mid-70's, sipping cocoa in front of a bear skin rug and a crackling fire.  Oh yeah.

Needles:  Size US one.  I have been using two mystery aluminum dpns and one circular Addi Turbo for socks. It's a little hodge podge, but it works well for me.

Oops:  I think I did a cable cast one for one sock and a knit cast one for the other, creating a droopy, soft and saggy cuff for one cuff while it's mate is behaving and standing up straight.  No biggie.  I am doing my best to not be bothered by such things.

And thumbs (or toes!) up to: The flat toe! I am a dedicated kitchener devotee, and I didn't think that I would care much for this toe style, but there was something very satisfying about decreasing to 5 stitches, threading through them and getting a perfectly shaped and adorably cute toe!

And that is pretty much that. Hurrah for handknit socks!