Finishing the day with Cold Stone and 'birthday cake remix' - perfect!
« March 2007 | Main | May 2007 »
19 posts from April 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Works in progress and yarn
I've started on some projects and gotten yarn for other ones. I had the beginning of the week off, so I spent more time on all of it this week anyhow :)
Some of the things in my last project post are definitely in the works now.
I'm working on a shawl for my mom from this kit. I went ahead and ordered it with needles because I didn't have any 10.5's. They sent me interesting novelty needles! Also, this was the first time taking a hank and turning it into a ball.
I'm a little further than that now, but I'm still not quite envisioning how it's going to look when I drop the stitches!
My ever-constant project of knitting squares for my afghan is still in full storm, although when I'm working on other things, I tend to slow down on this. You might be excited to see where it's at so far, with 46 of the planned 96 done at this point:
I got an order of Sock yarn from Little Knits, where they had some clearance yarn and I thought it would be a good way to practice on some colors I wasn't absolutely in love with.
That's Panda Cotton in Strawberries and Lime, and Regia Crazy Colors, and Skacel Trampoline in "Spring in Candyland". Those are all going to turn into socks. (There's actually 2 of each of those, the second picture is where the other skeins were when I took the first pic.) The third is some mercerized cotton (Crystal Palace Breeze), and I'm thinking a softer washcloth would be nice out of that pretty color.
I started in on the Skacel because the size 2 needles worked well with it and I already had those. There is a slightly blurry moblog picture of my progress here in Sock on. As of the end of yesterday, I'm actually much further, almost done with the foot and getting ready to go onto the toe of the first sock.
I'm also working on finding the perfect pattern to go with the yarn I ordered from The Loopy Ewe - the beautiful Lorna's Laces in Iris Garden.
And then just on Monday night, my order from KnitPicks came with yarn and needles, but that will have to wait for another day to be photographed. :)
I started in on the Skacel because the size 2 needles worked well with it and I already had those. There is a slightly blurry moblog picture of my progress here in Sock on. As of the end of yesterday, I'm actually much further, almost done with the foot and getting ready to go onto the toe of the first sock.
I'm also working on finding the perfect pattern to go with the yarn I ordered from The Loopy Ewe - the beautiful Lorna's Laces in Iris Garden.
And then just on Monday night, my order from KnitPicks came with yarn and needles, but that will have to wait for another day to be photographed. :)
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Dishcloth/potholder set
Last summer, we got a nice set of bowls for my sister-in-law Sarah that match her dishes (Pfaltzgraff's Delicious) and then didn't have a good chance to give it to her until now. Some white and red knitted things seemed like a nice match!
I had some mis-guesses this time, where I guessed on what I wanted to do and then changed my mind or needed to adjust for what I had. That was okay, it wasn't hard to switch things out :)
Striped Potholder
Started: April 4, then again that next week
Finished: around April 16
Pattern: Potholder from the Lion Brand site
Using: Lion Cotton in Poppy Red and White, size 7 needles
I had leftover white (from Megan's dishclothes, and mine, too) and a bit of red (from Mom's potholders), and thought I'd be able to get a bit more from the store if I ran out. I started out using more red, and realized when Joann's didn't have any more red in stock, I ripped it and started again using less red throughout.
I did a red cast on for a nice stripe - Sarah's dishes have a red ring on some of them - and then a bunch of white. Then I integrated one strand of red for a few rows (instead of one of the whites), and then two strands of red, and back to one. That made for a nice center.
9-square Dishcloth
Started: around April 15, then again April 17
Finished: April 18
Pattern: initially, started with this pattern. Then switched to the Mason-Dixon 9-patch pattern
Using: Lion Cotton in Poppy Red and White, size 7 needles
I was starting out fine with my so-far-normal-pattern (made 3 this way so far). I was thinking I remembered how to do it without looking :) And I didn't notice until I was half done that I hadn't done two stitches before the eyelet, and it looked odd to me once I realized. No worries, I just ripped it out!
So then I was off looking for another pattern, I wanted something a little more interesting. I found the Mason-Dixon pattern and loved it. Because I didn't have a varigated yarn I liked for the project per the pattern, so I did stripes myself with the red and white.
I worked on this at the knit-in, and the little girls who come were very amused when I had the first 6 squares done - middle and 4 whites around, and then one of the miters - it was shaped like a fish!
This was the first time I'd worked with miters, and it was a delightful technique to learn, very useful.
I had fun putting together a tag for each of them with a title and "love-productions" on it :) That's been my signature for making paper-crafts for a long time, which is why my domain is love-productions.com! The potholder and dishcloth also made wonderful packing for between the bowls in the gift!
Baby gifts!
My sister's best friend Desiree just recently had a baby. He came early, and so he was pretty tiny. I thought this might be a good chance to try out some baby knitting ideas. I was surprised to be invited to the shower, I was just going to give them to Megan to pass on when they were done, but she invited me, too. So I needed to learn to make something quick!
modeled by the closest thing in the house to a baby-sized body - Samantha, my American Girl Doll :)
Baby Booties
Started: April 10, 2007
Finished: April 14, 2007
Pattern: Christine's Baby Booties (found linked on Tricotine: Baby Booties)
Using: Bernat Softee Baby in color 02004 Mint, size 2 dpns
The eyelet holes scared me but went very smooth, no problem at all.
And then on the top, I really wanted to finish it off with some of the fuzzy yarn from the hat (below) to tie them together. I started trying to do a few rows at the top this way, and it was just way too bulky. So I ripped back down and retried, doing only the cast off row with the fuzz. This showed much less of the fuzz, but it still had a hint, and it looked much smoother.
For the tie, I experimented a few times. I knew I wanted some fuzzy yarn. I thought about i-cord, but that wasn't going to work with the fuzz well. So I ended up taking 2 strands of the Bernat and 2 strands of the Jiffy, and held the 2 bernats together and did a braid. This worked well and I just trimmed off the ends well and put the braid through the eyelets and did a square knot so it wasn't too girly (a bow was too girly).
Baby Hat
Started: April 10, 2007
Finished: April 13, 2007
Pattern: Roll-brim infant Hat, found because of the mention of this yarn.
Using: Lion Brand Jiffy in Kitty Hawk, a very pale mint, held together with Bernat Softee in Mint, with #5 dpns (from my socks)
I went to the yarn store before looking for a hat pattern. The selection of baby yarn wasn't quite what I wanted, I really wasn't going to go for such baby colors, but the options were limited, and I did like the texture of what I found even though the colors were so light. So after getting home with the yarn, I did some searching and found this pattern that looked do-able. I wanted one that was seamless because I'm not as confident in my seaming skills, and since I did have dpns, it seemed reasonable that I should be able to do a seamless hat.
Because I wanted the hat and booties to match better, I held together a strand of Jiffy with the Bernat. This showed more of the Fuzzy than the silky yarn, but that was just fine, the hints here and there of the Bernat did really make for a nice fabric.
I was worried because the baby was a preemie that the hat would be too big, and by the time his head fit, it'd be too hot. So I reduced the cast on to 48 instead of 60. That meant that decreases were a little different too at the top, but it wasn't hard to adjust on the fly once I got there. I don't think he'll be able to wear it for long, I should have done 52 or 54 instead. It did fit on my doll, who modeled for the pictures, and his head wasn't much bigger than that! And I love how the top of the hat looked, the decreases were so pretty. I didn't plan on putting a pompom on the top, but it was even more so confirmed when I got it done because it was pretty.
Overall, I like how the set turned out. I told Desiree that she was my guinea pig, and I do still feel that way because I think I could improve if I were to work on these again. I liked the patterns a lot, they were nice basics that I think could be easily put to use and enhanced for a variety of gifting purposes!
lego photos up
At the beginning of the month, I moblogged from Brickfest, a big Lego festival. I didn't get a chance to upload my real photos until today :) Here's the collection with all the photos if you are interested:
Some of the highlights that my friends on Vox may like - a series of Lost inspired scenes:
And even one of me :)
Monday, April 23, 2007
Beautiful day
Nice day for a walk to the mall, even mt hood in the distance!
Sunday, April 22, 2007
taking pictures of cupcakes for my banner
On friday night while baking Mac and Cheese for dinner, I decided I needed some cupcakes. I'm not celebrating my birthday with my family until next weekend, and so this would serve as a birthday treat during the week. :) They are just from a mix - Betty Crocker has my favorite cake mixes - in Butter Recipe Yellow with Butter Cream frosting. On a whim, I pulled out the sprinkles, because what makes cupcakes more birthday-ish than sprinkles? These happen to be Easter and Valentine's sprinkle containers, but since I love hearts, and I love springtime, they served more as *my* colors than being easter-y or valentine-y.
I filled up my muffin tin twice and still had a little left over, so I pulled out my mini muffin pans (which I got for Lisa's bridal shower and realized just now I hadn't posted the picture of the cheesecakes! It's up here: Lisa's shower cheesecakes) These are nice bite-sized cupcakes now!
When I saw how pretty these turned out, I knew they were destined to be photographs and turned into a blog banner. I really had fun playing with the macro settings and a variety of different angles.
E says "it's just going to make you hungry every time you look at your blog" but ya know, that's okay :) It makes me feel all festive and excited for the week to come :)
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Ice kabob
Ice cubes on a shishkabob stick in my ginger ale the other night.