FO Friday: Poppin' a Wheelie

Hallelujah!  I have been connected to the world wide web once more!  And who is to blame?  Squirrels.  Squirrels nibbling the cables outside.  Squirrels.

Anyway, moving swiftly on.  Remember, way back when, all those weeks ago, when I learned how to spin on my Ashford Traveller?  I spun and I spun, and then I plied, and was amazed at how much yarn you can end up with compared to what I could get from my drop spindle.  Just shy of 200 grams in two large and one small hank.  Here's the breakdown of weight and yardage:

• 95 grams, 86 yards
• 87 grams, 97 yards
• 14 grams, 12 yards

There's a mix of colors, fibers, and techniques in there, between the supplies from the class and the gatherings of fluff that I had in my stash.  A little bit of very colorful silk, various long-staple wools, some natural and some not-so-naturally orange, purple, and...you get the idea.  I added them to my single ply at random, taking whatever roving I had on hand and switching it up at intervals to mix it up.  We did a simple two-ply, so the randomness twisted together just as randomly again.

Here are my fabulous photo shoot shots:

I kind of love it.  But then, it's hard not to love your own handspun, isn't it?  I found a pattern for a chunky little monster/toy in one of the knitting magazines I bought on my UK trip, so some of this might work for that.  Although, I also kind of feel like it's so pretty, I want to wear it, which makes me lean towards Syrinx Shells from my blogging friend Alicia at Woolen Diversions.

So this is kind of a finished object that will then become a WIP, and then an FO again.  Hurrah for learning new crafts!  And again hallelujah for thwarting the mischievous gnawings of squirrels.

FO Friday: Twist of Triumph

Let me just take a moment to say: Hurrah Germany!  They weren't my first choice for World Cup champions, but it is the land where at least two great things were born: Wollmeise yarn, and me!  I kid, I kid.  But did you know,  both Wollmeise and I come from the same town?  Pfaffenhofen.  Of course, the yarn store wasn't there when I was there, and being three years old when we left, I probably wouldn't have had much use for yarn, but still.  Just one more reason to want to visit my birthplace again.

So anyway, I was rooting for Germany in Sunday's match.  And I enjoyed it all the more because I wasn't having to rush to finish my Twist of Death.  Despite losing two days of knitting to lack of yarn, I was able to finish up the sleeves on Friday.  The finishing was a team effort, which means that my mother was kind enough to sew the sleeves in for me.  What can I say, she's awesome like that.  I did complete the weaving in of the ends, the blocking, and the modeling, though.  Of course, Mom did take the photos.  So, um, still a team effort.  We took the photos pre-blocking to make sure that I could post them before the end of the tournament, so there's not as much rolling at the edges now.

I love how many ways there are to wear this:

Style #1: Open front

Style #2: Wrapped front

Style #3: Open back

Speaking of team efforts, I'm going to give a shoutout to one of Mom's FOs this Friday as well, because I played a vital role in it.  Behold, from my handspun yarn:

Came this Looping Goal Winkle:

I had totally forgotten that the yarn I spun ended up being fingering weight, so she had plenty of yarn for this shawl.  There was a little bit of unevenness between the hanks, but nothing you can really notice.  And I love the way the colors worked up:

I'm not doing the Tour de Fleece this year, and I missed out on a recent wheel spinning course at an LYS last week, but this definitely makes me want to spin some more.

In the meantime, though, I have more WIPs that need to turn into FOs.

FO Friday: Peeps and Pops

This week's two FOs are very different projects.  The first was yet another swap handmade, a relatively simple pattern in basic black but a luxurious fiber content.  The second was a spur-of-the-moment cast on for myself with lace and a rainbow of colors.

First, Bow Peep's Black Sheep:

I already have plans to make another one of these for myself, because it's such a clever knit.  It's so simple, just knits and purls with some increases and decreases to create the shape of a beautifully tied bow.  Then you just block it flat.

I actually think that tying the bow each time you wear it would be more challenging than knitting it, but then again I've always found that challenging, along with most of the other aspects of gift wrapping.  The yarn was a perfect compromise between wanting the soft halo but not wanting mohair.  And as a bonus it didn't require me to knit double.

And then, the colorful sugar rush that is 198 Licks of the Lollipop:

This knit up so fast!  Partly because it's a wee little shawlette, but also because it was just so much fun to watch the colors coming and going.  Although this was cast on to sooth the panic of having cast off the bow and never wanting to go more than a few hours without something on the needles, I had been planning on making this for some time, so it also feels good to cross something off of my list.

As I say, it is very wee, so I'll have to see how easily it stays put around my neck.  My preferred method of wearing triangle shawls is with the tip in front and the other points wrapped around my neck all the way.  After blocking this makes it all the way around, but without much to spare.  I might use some kind of pin, or sew a button onto the two end points that can fasten into any of the yarnovers.

How do you wear shawls?  Have you finished up anything recently?  You can find more FO Fridays floating all around the interwebz.

FO Friday: Fully en-Gauge-d

It's Friday yet again!  It always seems so far away on Monday, but then before I know it I'm serving up baked goods and eating Indian food on Wednesday, and from there it's a countdown to how many meetings I have until the weekend.  Today I just have just one in the afternoon separating me from the Friday evening ritual of frozen yogurt and grocery shopping.

Another Friday ritual that I don't always get to enjoy is posting about a finished project.  This week, it's my quick cowl, Pretty Pink Plaits:

Ever since I first saw the yarn and buttons at Gauge, they just went so well together I had to make something to show them off.  It didn't hurt that the buttons were half off, and I'm a sucker for bright colors, especially pink.

All in all, I'm happy with how this turned out.  The bamboo is so soft, it's perfect for keeping warm in the office without roasting once I step outside into the warm Spring weather.  The buttons and yarn are so complementary that it might be easier to see the buttons in a close-up:

You'll notice that the three buttons are in a triangle when worn but a row when not.  I didn't knit any dedicated buttonholes into the cowl, instead I'm using the holes created by the cables.  At first I lined up the first 'row' of holes with the buttons straight up and down, but because of the floppiness of the bamboo and the cables, I prefer playing around with it.  In the above picture, the top button goes into the top-second cable hole, the middle button is in the middle-second cable hole, and then the bottom button is in the top-first cable.  Does that makes sense?  The technical documenter in me feels like I should draw you a diagram:

I guess that's how you know it's not really the weekend quite yet.

But once it is, I get to meet a Ravelry friend from Canada who is in town for a wedding.  I love meeting other knitters that I know already.  My mom and I have when-we-win-the-lottery plans of going on a world tour to meet all of the fabulous friends we've never gotten the chance to swap stitches with in person.  For now, though, we'll take a fortuitous weekend and an opportunity to take them to Kerbey Lane Cafe tomorrow for pancakes and the just-released Tomato Menu.  Yum!

Do you have any fun plans for the weekend?  For more FO Friday posts, go to Tami's Amis.

FO Friday: It's a great Friday

As I teased on Wednesday, I have two projects to share with you today.  Good Friday?  Pshaw, it's a great Friday!

First, let's take a look at my Affection-ite.  With as many stitches as there were in those last few rows, it's not surprising that it ended up so long.  It took four large squares to block it, and taking pictures of it that capture the entire length is a little tough.  I draped it around the Wildflower Center:

I'm not sure why Color Affection seemed so daunting to me before I started knitting it.  I had already tried every technique in it at least once: knit lots of shawls, done stripes, and short rows.  Maybe it was the sheer popularity of it, like each knitter that had completed it before me would somehow make it take longer.  But it was actually a pretty easy knit.  My mom may hate garter stitch, but I love it.  This is definitely not going to be my last Color Affection.

Now, my cardigan, that project definitely took as long as I thought it would!  But I think it was worth it, because I sure do like wearing it:

Especially in the wildflowers, because the buttons are so appropriate:

The buttons are a little fiddly, so I haven't been undoing them when I take the cardigan off, I've been taking it off more like a sweater  But other than that, it's been very easy to wear, so far with three different outfits, so the color was definitely a good, versatile choice.  And the beading adds a little something extra to the ruffles.

So there they are!  A quicker-than-I-thought shawl and a not-so-quick cardigan.  One for a swap and one for me.  How about you?  Are you doing anything fun for Easter?  I know I don't usually respond to comments, because I generally assume that people won't realize whether I've replied or not, but I promise I read all of the comments and I love hearing what you think!

FO Friday: Totally whelmed

It almost feels like cheating to have another FO so soon.  But then I remember that I've had this on needles for over a year.  So it's not exactly a 'quick win', something we always think we've identified at work at the start of the year, then discover that we're still working on it come summer and realize that there is no problem so small that the solution cannot be discussed in a few more meetings.

Before my meeting days, '10 Things I Hate About You' was one of my favorite movies.  It was my first introduction to my alma mater, Sarah Lawrence College, and is chock-full of quotable quotes.  So when Schmutzerella Yarns dyed a yarn inspired by the movie, I was all in.  Along with the yarn, she sent everyone who ordered a skein a little button with the word 'whelmed', as in:

"I know you can be overwhelmed, and I know you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?"

"I think you can in Europe."

Indeed.  I have that button pinned to one of my early chunky knit hats.

She based the colorway on the scene where Kat and Patrick go paint balling, so the bare yarn looks splattered with primary colors.  I love these kinds of crazy variegated yarns, but I'm always struggling with patterns for them.  Nothing too lacy, because you won't see all of that hard work.  But nothing too plain and boring.

I think my Up for Anything Cami has turned out to be one of the perfect examples of a pattern that handles color while still holding its own:

It kind of looks like I've been rolling around the paint ball field, right?  Incidentally, these photos also show off my relatively new hair cut.  Right after my birthday I told my stylist that I wanted something short but still kind of ponytail-able, and she got it just right with this asymmetrical cut.  We also bonded over having both run the marathon, who knew?

Anyway, I might block the body of the cami just a bit, but I really like it as it is.  I'll almost certainly wear it with a tank top underneath, for modesty and warmth.  For the most part, this was a simple knit.  I had a little trouble finishing the top, you can find some info in my project notes about that.  Basically, I used another knitter's modification but needed to do some rewriting in order to make them something I could follow.  I've already told you, I like things to be spelled out explicitly, otherwise I cannot be trusted to know that I should do it.

So, now that my cami is done, it's official: I'm ready for spring!  And I mean real spring, not a day or two of nice weather and then a sudden chill and then back again.  Fully-sprung spring.  Full of whelming weather.

FO Friday: Sock-cess!

Now I have conquered not only hills, but heels, and my first pair of socks is complete.  I finished them earlier this week, but I didn't have a chance to do a photo shoot with their inspiring shoes until today.  And even then, it was a fun game of angles to take pictures of my own feet.  Smile, toes!

I knit these while watching the Winter Olympics and before and after running my marathon, and I took them with me to Phoenix.  So even before I walked a step in them, they were well-travelled.  Now that they are really socks...Oh, the places we'll go.  I can't wait to wear them to the Yellow Rose Fiber Fiesta to show the fiber artist how her hand-dyed yarn turned out.

I don't know what else to say about these socks.  They were pretty easy to figure out, I think the hardest part to figure out was the swatching and sizing.  My biggest fear was that I would make them and then find that the cast on was too tight to get onto my foot or some other variation of the sock being too small.  But no, they slip on easily.  If anything, they could possibly be a tiny bit more snug around the foot, but that aren't too big.  Even the dreaded heel made sense, especially with Alicia's fantastic instructions.  I like to be molly-coddled as a knitter reading a pattern, and she gives me all the explicit direction I need.

FO Friday: Projects universally acknowledged

It may not seem like it, but I really am cutting back on my swapping in favor of more 'selfish' knits.  Having said that, here are some FOs from a recently completed swap themed around Jane Austen.

First, a pair of fingerless mitts from the first volume of the Jane Austen Knits magazine from Interweave.  I call them Sense & Swapping Mitts:

I love the subtle color shift of the yarn.  The lace pattern isn't the easiest to 'see' while you are knitting, which for a paranoid knitter like me can be troubling, but in the end I was happy with how light and delicate these turned out to be.

And with some of the extra yarn, I used instructions from another volume of Jane Austen Knits to make some matching Dorset buttons:

Once I got the hang of it, making them was really fun.  Is there a more specific verb than 'make' when it comes to buttons?  Haberdashed?  Whatever it is, I'd like to do some more of it, to have buttons that perfect match my knitwear.

Here's another fun verb: decoupage.  I decoupaged the cover of a hardback copy of Sense & Sensibility:

I sourced the scraps of paper from what I cut out while turning the book into a secret hiding place:

With Mod Podge and an Exacto knife, this is relatively easy, if a little tedious, to do.  It does feel a little bit wrong to destroy an Austen novel, but I don't think she would mind for these special circumstances.

Here's what I think I'm most proud of.  I'm calling it the Wibbly Wobbly Cosy Wosy:

It's for my spoilee's Kindle Fire, with a cameo-esque silhouette of the Tenth Doctor.  Colorwork and a made the chart myself.  I'm not a Time Lord, but this made me feel like a Knit Lord.  My calculations and swatching didn't take into account a change in gauge while doing colorwork, though, so it initially ended up a bit bigger than I intended.  My mom lined it with some sweatshirt material, so it's smaller on the inside.  Ironic, yes?

I cast on this morning for my Sochi Socki, and so far so good.  Between those and my cardigan, hopefully I'll be able to show you more FOs in the coming weeks.  For more this week, go to Tami's Amis.

FO Friday: A bowlful of cereal and some cartoons

I'm still waiting for the time when I think to myself, 'Yup, I'm an adult.'  Well, first of all, I probably shouldn't be starting any sentences with 'yup' as an adult.  But I also don't think it's really a state of mind that I'll ever accept for myself.  As mature and downright boring as I can often be, there's also a strong streak of childlike whimsy that runs through everything I do.  And that most definitely includes these two FOs.

First, the much-anticipated shawl, which I knit one and a half times due to an asymmetrical pattern error:

These are the shots from the pretty nature staging, but here's the less artistic inspiration which is the project's namesake:

I love how bright the rainbow colors are on this shawl, and also how the flecks of white kind of remind me of the frosted effect of the sugary cereal.  I'm relieved that this is finally done, because the colorway really does make me smile, even though having to redo half of it didn't.

Next up, if we have cereal, then we might as well watch some cartoons.  But here's one you might not have seen before:

Krtek the mole is a beloved children's character around the world, translated into dozens of languages.  But he is originally Czech, and I grew up with a few Krtek storybooks, so he's near and dear to my heart.  I was perusing the favorite patterns of my spoilee for a new, long-term, swap when I saw this, so I immediately wanted to try it.  And here it is, modeled by Krtek himself:

The pattern is for a scarf, but I shortened it to a cowl to make it a very quick knit.  Another alteration I made was that when I was turning the short rows for the texture I wrapped, which gives more of a cobblestone effect than the original.  However, it also eliminates the de facto buttonholes that unwrapped short rows created, so I also made an i-cord and sewed that onto the edge.  I love the buttons, I think they match perfectly.

Are you more of an adult or a child when you craft?  For more FOs this Friday, go to Tami's Amis.

FO Friday: FO-la-la-la-la, la la la la

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas!  I think I can confidently say that mine was a successful one.  Mountains were skied, busy airports were traversed, traditional potato salad was assembled, and most of the present-crafting deadlines were met.

Which brings me to finally getting to reveal some of the projects I've been working on recently that made their way under the Christmas tree.  Now that they have been unwrapped, I can share them with you.  First, I made a scarf to match the beanie I knit for my grandfather last year:

I used the same kind of yarn (except I didn't hold it double the way I did for the hat) and the same sort of almost-rib pattern.  I really like the stitch, it's very simple, all you do is make sure you have an multiple of four plus one as your number of stitches (I had 33) and then K2, P2 to the end of every row, knitting the last stitch.  It makes for a very pick up and knit project, and I like the texture of the end result.

And for my grandmother, a pillow:

I snapped up the fabric with the adorable fox cuddling on a sofa seat during the Shop Hop earlier this year.  The orange with tiny white polka dots was a fat quarter I picked up at Jo-Ann Fabric.  With the help of my much-more-accomplished-sewer mom this was a really easy entrée into the sewing world for me.

On this side of the Atlantic, I did some more knitting, but in a different category than I'm used to: baby. My step-sister (that is such a weird term, by the way, it still doesn't sound right, although it is much easier to get out than my-dad's-girlfriend's-daughter was) is due to have a baby boy in March, and I confirmed with a few people that making something for her son-to-be was an acceptable Christmas gift.

Then it was a torturous matter to decide what to make for him.  Girls are so much easier, let me tell you.  Pink, cute, fluffy, these are places that my mind naturally goes to.  It's harder for me to navigate the theoretical things a still-theoretical boy might like.  And then you want to make something sort of cute, but still useful, nothing that's going to become the bane of the mother's existence, like anything that requires special care when washing or involves things that might present a choking hazard.

I settled on this pattern from Lion Brand for a sort of blanket-meets-soft-toy bunny.  But because I never make things easy on myself, I decided that I wanted a monkey instead of a bunny.  Partly because of my uneasiness around wanting to make something boy-appropriate, partly because I have more of a personal connection to monkeys.  As a kid, and still to this day, my dad will sometimes quip in Czech, 'Opice jses a opice zustanes', which roughly translates to 'You are a monkey and you'll stay a monkey', and more roughly translates to 'You are silly'.  And the result of my silliness:

Cute, right?  The body is super-simple, and it's amazing how crocheting a pair of ears and a face will transform a blank round shape into a monkey's head.  I even gave him little hairs by strategically placing some of the ends as I was weaving them in.

It feels so good to show something finished instead of just alluding vaguely to progress made on secret projects.  How about you?  Did you finish all of your Christmas crafting in time?  Any IOUs under the tree?

FO Friday: Holiday Cards

I hinted the other week about some crafting that I did while at work.  I love that I work somewhere with a gym/activity center, and I love even more that there are people who work there who want to host holiday crafting time.  I took advantage of it and made these:

Aren't they cute?  They are my first real foray into this kind of sewing, and even though they aren't perfect, I'm proud of them, with their blanket stitching, beading, and French knots again.  They won't be going on my tree however.  I sent them in three holiday cards to some Ravellers.  And because I'm, well, me, these weren't just any cards.  They were chocolate cards.

After the holidays last year, I found these silicon molds for holiday bark and brittle on sale and I have been counting down the days until I could try them out for myself.  All you have to do is melt some chocolate, spread it into the mold, let it harden, then pop them out and cut out the bars.  I started with a layer of white chocolate with red and green sprinkles, then a mix of milk and semisweet chocolate with some dried fruit and nuts.  And it worked!  Yay!

I put each bar in a plastic baggy and attached it to a blank card.  Underneath that, I decoupaged a print out of a photograph I had already taken of that chocolate bar.  So that way they have a chocolate card, but after they eat the chocolate, they still have something to leave on the mantle.

I haven't really sent out any other cards this season, even though I really should.  There's just so much to do this time of year it's hard to organize a mass mailing.  Do you send out cards to a long list of friends and family for the holidays?

For more FOs, go to Tami's Amis.

FO Friday: Cuddly Cowlgirl

This is me finally making good on my promise to show you the cowl I made for a recent swap.  I showed you the wonderful cowl I received a few weeks ago:

Well, this is what I sent off:

I call it the Cuddly Cowlgirl.  It's the Bandana Cowl, a popular free pattern on Ravelry.  It's a very quick but interesting knit, working from the bottom tip of the triangle up.  I would definitely like to make it again for myself.  For my swap partner, I made it in a natural brown and cream alpaca, so it's super soft.  I like that the fabric it made is also relatively loose, so it drapes and even though it's warm, it doesn't end up too hot.

For flair, I added a tassel and cowboy hat charm on the end.  Just to make sure everyone would know that someone from Texas made it, ya'll.  Here's a close-up of the tassel and charm:

I really enjoyed this project, and I'm hoping that the owner is just as pleased.  I know she enjoyed the Gingerbread Pancake Mix from Kerbey Lane Cafe I also sent, which you may remember as the scene of many of my WIP Wednesdays.

For more FOs this Friday, go to Tami's Amis.