Tag: Knoontime Knitting

  • Stash Sunday

    Stash Sunday

    I am working on the Emerald Keep scarf for the Keepsake Tour, which of course means that I instantly want to play with something from my stash. Doesn\’t that always happen?

    So here\’s what\’s on my desk right now, that\’s not the Keepsake scarf:

    Top left is my character binder for the novels currently in progress, (Sealed by Duty and Sapphire Dream, in case you\’re curious).  Under that is my Franklin Planner.  On its side is some pretty Caron Simply Soft Paints yarn, which I bought when I bought the yarn for the Emerald Keep scarf but am not using in it.

    Which begs the question, what shall I make with it?  ~rubs hands together~

    Next is my keys.  This is important.  Hard to get into the house without them.

    Don\’t ask me how I know that.  I don\’t want to talk about it.

    Moving right along, we come to the Caron ball band for the light green yarn in the Emerald Keep scarf.  The glue failed and it fell off, so I brought it in here to make sure I have it up on Ravelry before I discard it.

    The grey is for a possible pair of Quill\’s Socks, which were featured in Emerald Fire and remarked upon by every editor who worked on it as well as several fans.  Yes, Teeka finished the socks, yes, Quill liked them, and yes, I\’ll feature a pattern for them when the website redesign goes live – and I might even make a pair of them to give away at some point.  Though, in all honesty, I probably won\’t have time to make them for this Keepsake Tour.

    Next is the yarn I bought to make Rachel a pair of fingerless mitts she can use in the hot climate of the Nevada desert.  I\’ll use some kind of lace pattern on them, probably but right now I\’m just sketching with it.

    I realized I caught the edge of my little post-it note with Rule #11 from NCIS:  \”When the job is done, walk away.\”

    On the right of my desk, I have two needlework kits that I\’m looking forward to starting.  One is a ladybug which is in honor of the fictiious Ladybug Bed and Breakfast.  The other is a lovely peacock I bought while visiting Rachel last month – I adore peacocks.

    What\’s in your stash?

  • Work In Progress Wednesday

    Work In Progress Wednesday

    Attempt the First

    It\’s Wednesday.  I figured I\’d share what I\’ve been crafting around with.

    My first item to share is the Emerald Keep Scarf, which will be a giveaway in the forthcoming Keepsake Tour starting March 8th, to celebrate the release of Book 2 in the Persis Chronicles, Emerald Keep.

    It didn\’t work.

    I mean, yeah, it\’s fabric, and it\’s knitted.  But that\’s about it. For one thing, the stitch said WS (wrong side) for both pieces, but either I misread it or it\’s a typo because clearly, it\’s incorrect – the edge stitches clearly are backward from the main lace stitches.

    Attempt the First, Backside

    This is a view where you can see the edge stitches are right-side up, while the lace is wrong side.

    Grr.

    Attempt the Second, Front and Frustration Both Start with F.
    So does my favorite swear word.
    Jus\’ sayin\’.

    Started over.

    And… I don\’t like my idea of the border.  You can\’t really see it well in this shot, but the edges pull in too much and make it look sloppy.  The reason I wanted a border to begin with is that this stitch has quite a bit of bias curl; however, the edging I picked (mistake-stitch rib) isn\’t working.

    I think either I\’ll throw an extra yarn over in to create a sort of gutter, or eliminate the edges entirely.

    Mancooking.
    Why move stuff outta the way when you can stand over it?

    I mentioned to a friend that we made candles last weekend and realized I neglected to take photos.  I planned to take pics of the cold pots, but we have to cook in our kitchen so they had to come off the stove.

    And, apparently, my kid thinks it\’s no big deal to stand over them rather than move them out of the way.  He\’s cooking a very lovely taco salad at the moment, (well, cooking the sausage that will go in the taco salad).  Yum.

    Soap! Curing!

    Our batch of soap that we made a couple weeks ago is curing very well.  It\’s a lovely creamy ivory color now.  We cut it this weekend to allow each of the bars exposure to air, so they can continue the curing process.

    In case you\’re wondering, curing is letting the chemical reaction between the fat and lye to finish.

    This is raw soap and not milled soap, so it\’s not made in a mold.  You can use it as is, once it\’s cured, or mill it again and then pour it into pretty molds for a nice appearance.

    Candles, Dipped 2015

    I only made a half-dozen this year so far; I may fire up the pots once more before I put everything away.  I like the way these came out; they are nice and uniform.  They\’re also really long, which is my favorite (I have four different heights I can make).

    Basket-o-Candles, Bad Lighting.

    This isn\’t a very good shot, but it\’s of my candle stock.  I\’ll see if I can get a better one for you one of these days – but for now, it\’s off to eat dinnah.

    Yum.

    What are you making?

  • Yarn

    Yarn

  • Make Something Monday – Bryce Canyon Hat I

    Make Something Monday – Bryce Canyon Hat I

    Bryce Canyon Hat, all done!

    I finished the hat late Sunday night.  I used a sewing needle bind off so that the edge is nice and loose.  It\’s very warm; reflects heat back against my head.

    Top View

    I love the way the top came out with swirls.  One thought I had is to continue the swirls down the body of the hat using decreases after each yarn over.

    Bryce Canyon Hat, Almost There

    Here\’s a shot of the rib stitch.  My next one, I want to do something more interesting on the body of the hat.  The ribbing is boring; I\’d like to try something more fun – maybe even patterned.

    In process, large enough to go on the double-pointed needles.

    It looks like a little bag at this stage.

    Top View, in process

    Here\’s the top before drawing all the stitches up.  A pom pom might look cute here, or even a bauble.

  • Make Something Monday: Craftsy Is My New Favorite Thing

    Make Something Monday: Craftsy Is My New Favorite Thing

    I have discovered the joys of Craftsy, an online school for crafting. They have fiber arts, paper arts, photography, even woodshop. I\’m having a ball!

    The other day, I discovered one of their Halloween kits on sale for 80% off. Wowsers. It was the Halloween Decor Kit.  Not only did it come with supplies, it came with a class on how to make stuff with the supplies.  I decided to give it a shot!

    My completed banner.  Is it Halloween yet?

    We learned layering and creating interest with disconnected patterns of paper.  We used paper tape with a pattern so that everything would be tied together, and I even took a risk and let stuff come together asymmetrically!

    Detail of Banner: The \”S\” and \”P\” panels

    In this one, you can see the polka dotted paper tape that ties the panels together – and, incidentally, reinforces the paper at the holes we punch in to thread the cording through.  I used orange mercerized cotton from a recent weaving project.

    Detail of Banner:  The \”P\” and first \”O\” panels – is that a design off the side?

    I took a creative risk when I made these and actually had parts of the collage jut off the side of the panel.  Dare we take creative risks?

    Detail of Banner:  The second \”O\” panel as well as \”K\” and \”Y\”.

    I became more daring as I progressed through the pieces.  I used a Permanent Glue Stick from Avery for gluing the pieces; it was a very low-stress, clean way to glue things together.

    The completed banner with the mini pieces that will help add interest to the banner.

    I love how all the colors go together and have a common theme!

    All stacked up and ready to be put away, awaiting Halloween next year.  ~sad~

    Okay, now I\’m ready for Halloween to come right now!

    If you haven\’t checked out Craftsy before, you should totally toddle on over there.  They have some really neat classes, even some for free so you can decide if you like the platform.  They have regular sales, too, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled.  And best of all?  You can post pictures of your projects to share with other crafters!

  • Stash Sunday: Introducing Aubergine

    Stash Sunday: Introducing Aubergine

    She has a name now!

    I\’m so excited – I settled on a name, and I\’m nearly done with the scarf!  This picture is a little too heavily slanted toward blue, but you get the idea.  I\’ve decided the name is Aubergine.  I should be done in another day or two.

    This is a fun project because the stitch is much simpler than it looks.  It\’s just a four row repeat, and two of those rows is to Purl across.  What could be easier?  This would be suitable for a beginner, as long as they know how to cast on and bind off, knit, purl, and do yarn overs.

    Pro-tip – keep your yarn untangled by moving the working skein around the waiting yarn on each color change.  Otherwise you\’ll have a wadded up mess before you go five or ten repeats.  No fun.

  • Work-In-Progress Wednesday

    Work-In-Progress Wednesday

    The Beginning

    I received my first commission as Knoontime Knitting!  I am making a scarf for a friend in two colors of purple, Royal Purple and Lavender.  Here is the beginning as it sits on my design pad after the starting swatch.

    The Middle

     Here it is after a bit of knitting.  It knits up quickly.  I am using 30 sts cast on for width.

    Still the Middle

    This is how far I got before I called it a night.

    I\’m looking forward to seeing how this shapes up.

  • Make Something Monday

    Make Something Monday

    What\’s In YOUR Wallet? or Bag?

    Happy Monday, Dear Reader!  I\’ve gotten some of my design mojo back and have been playing with some different knitting designs.  This morning, as I waited for the bus, I checked the Bus Tracker tool.  It said the next bus wouldn\’t be there for 27 minutes.  Aside from making me late for work, that meant I had time to get some knitting done.

    Then, mid-row, what do I see but a bus? Holy crap.  Try stuffing size 10 needles in an already over-stuffed knitting bag and grabbing everything to get onto the bus.

    MONDAY!

    WIP

    This is what I\’m making with my size 10 needles.  One of my books has an afghan on the cover that\’s made out of triangles.  I decided to take a twist on that idea and using a base of 35 stitches, make a sampler with leftover yarns and different textures.

    This is a Turkish Stitch done in Lion Brand Homespun.  It\’s a boucle-type of yarn and difficult to see stitch definition; however, I like the less dense look of the fabric.  I find the juxtaposition of the bias pull of the stitch with the decreased edge for the triangle to be an interesting opposition.

    What are you working on?

  • Yarnglee

    Yarnglee

    So, I\’ve been on a major yarn hiatus.  I\’ve been doing calligraphy like a madwoman; I\’m filling notebooks with the stuff (and no, that\’s not a typo; yes, I mean more than one).  Let\’s just say I had to order a second set of practice markers because I used up the ink in the first set.  See what I mean?

    But I\’m feeling the bug again.  I\’m beginning to see that this is part of my normal pattern (which only took me fourteen years to figure out, but let\’s not go there, kthxbi).  I seem to set knitting aside around May or June and pick it up around September or October.

    We celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary this year – yay! – and went down to southern Illinois and St. Louis to poke around.  One of the shops had some lovely Lana de Oro and I had to get some.  I\’m thinking socks.  50% wool, 50% alpaca.  Michael picked heather grey, I picked heather lavender:

    The lavender has bits of other colors in it, more as shading than a true ombre.

    The lighting is weird because I took these outside.  I tried to get a close-up and the camera changed the coloring.  Sigh.  Must.learn.Photoshop.

    Can you tell I\’ve been playing with the grey hank?  ~blush~  But this is the grey with the lavender; I\’m thinking that I\’ll use a small mosaic in the cuff of each sock in the opposite color.

    It\’s really not as pink as it seems in this picture.  But I\’m excited.  I may even use the toe-up technique, though I think I should do the first set with practice yarn first.  We shall see.

  • Friday Funnies

    Friday Funnies

  • A to Z Challenge, Day 12: L Is For Llama

    A to Z Challenge, Day 12: L Is For Llama

    Yum.  Llama fiber.  Soft, warm, and easy to knit.  I prefer alpaca because there\’s a wider range of colors and alpaca are more friendly, but I can\’t deny the gorgeous sheen of the fibers of llama.  Vicuña is a related fiber that\’s quite luxurious but harder to find because the vicuña are very shy and much harder to cultivate than either llama or alpaca.

    Think that alpaca is only the purview of knitters and other textile artists?  The famous designer Loro Piana cornered the market on the stuff in 2010 and last year announced a 60% stake in an alpaca ranch.  I\’ve seen quotes of the alpaca fiber suits of his that go for $20,000 USD.  No, that\’s not a typo.  $20k.  That\’s enough for a down payment on a house.  Yikes.

    Why is the fiber so desirable?  It\’s lighter than wool and warmer.  The natural colors are quite wide and alpaca has the only naturally-occurring black animal fiber – black sheep are actually only black on the tips of the fiber, not at the root.

    I could go on, but I won\’t bore you with fibernautics.  But I will ask you this:

    What\’s your favorite fiber to wear?  Wool? Cotton? Fur?  Microfiber?  
  • A to Z Challenge, Day 11: K Is For Knitting

    A to Z Challenge, Day 11: K Is For Knitting

    You had to see this coming!  OF COURSE K IS FOR KNITTING!  What else could it POSSIBLY be for?  Really now.

    I took my first knitting class in 2000, after a friend at work recommended Sharon Shoji as an excellent instructor.  In my first class, Sharon taught us to knit plain knitting all the way through ribbing.  After an initial struggle with the ribbing, I got the hang of it.  We progressed through textured knitting to cables and lace and from there, I was totally and completely hooked.

    In 2008, I started this blog.  Shortly after, I decided to start Knoontime Knitting, where I focus on the crafts that make me totally bonzo:  knitting, of course, but also needlepoint and embroidery (my first textile art, in fact), weaving, calligraphy, and pysanky.  I love to make things with my hands but didn\’t allow myself to do much of it until I took my classes with Sharon.

    What I have learned informs my writing process as much as my textile arts.  See, it\’s like this:

    1. If you keep going, you\’ll end up with enough knit and purl stitches to make a scarf, or a sweater, or an afghan. 
    2. Dropped stitches don\’t always mean the piece is ruined.  Sometimes you just need to undo a little bit.
    3. Some mistakes make the piece more beautiful and unique.
    4. If you let it, knitting will soothe you the way flowing water does.
    5. Learning new techniques keeps it interesting.  Always be a beginner.  Zen mind, beginner\’s mind.
    What has your hobby taught you about life?