Monday, 19 January 2009

8 months later...

... I *finally* finished the '3 hour sweater' that I started in May! I knit it too small, had to rip stitches out backwards, and overall, it was a messy project. But now that it's done, doesn't it look nice?


3 Hour Sweater by Vintage
Berroco Ultra Alpaca

I think it's safe to say that I will never knit this pattern again from the bottom up. The original was ridiculously short and looked like a 10 year old's sweater. I had to extend the bottom by about 4 inches. There was a lot of seaming involved, and it just made me dislike this project (which is why it sat around for a long time). Maybe I'll start finishing my other WIPS... but that's probably just wishful thinking.

Sunday, 11 January 2009

Happy New Year!

Hi,
So I'm about 10 days behind on my New Years post, but I've been busy! I'd like to thank everyone for their kind words about my Habs mittens! I've gotten a lot of good responses off of Ravelry and my pattern has been queued several times. The friend that I made the mitts for told me that he has been stopped by random people on the street, commenting on his mitts and asking where he 'bought' them. I definately got a knitting ego boost after hearing that :P I'm thinking I'll have to start a mini-hockey series of mittens, so stay tuned!

I got some awesome gifts for christmas-- my boyfriend bought me a spinning wheel! It's a Louet s17. I've never used a spinning wheel before, but I managed to figure it out, and ended up with this:


The colours are okay, but its a little too pastelly/Easter egg coloured for me. And I have no idea what pattern would work with this... It's also a little uneven with thicks & thins throughout it, but I think that practice will help! It was Handmaiden Merino roving (50g), and I got around 56 yards of a two-ply worsted weight yarn out of it.

I also bought myself an SLR camera! I've just started learning how to play with it, and I have to read up on how to edit photos better. I'm hoping now that I have a nice camera, I'll actually use it and blog more often too!

Here's the camera (and a small project):

"Turn A Square" by Brooklyntweed
220 Cascade and Noro Silk Garden
For my boyfriend
Ravelry link

Thanks for reading!
~knittypie


Monday, 22 December 2008

Montreal Habs Mittens

I wanted to post AFTER Christmas, on the off-chance that the people that I knitted for read this... but I was just so excited about this latest pattern that I couldn't wait! I knitted up some Montreal Canadiens mittens for a friend:


I got a lot of positive responses from Ravelry, so I decided to write up the pattern on how I made the C:

You will need: Red, blue, and white yarn, size 3.00 crochet hook, sewing needle

If you have your own favourite basic mittens pattern, you can follow those, and just include the coloured stripes in the appropriate places (wrist and palm). The only thing that really matters for the "C" pattern is the gauge, because the “C” involves a certain number of stitches.

My gauge for these mittens was approximately 22 st for 4’’, and I used size 4 needles. The yarn I chose was Patons Classic Wool Merino (approx. 170 yds of red, and 50 yds of white), and Cascade 220 (approx. 80 yds of blue). I made this as a size large men’s mitt (finished length was around 8.5’’, minus length of the cuff), and I lined them with fleece to make them extra warm. I worked 2 rows in a K2P2 ribbing for the blue, then 3 rows of K2P2 in white, then switched to the red until the striping for the "C" pattern.

Montreal Canadiens “C” chart:

You can either:

- carry the red yarn through your stripe and try the colourwork, but it might be tricky and really ugly in the back because the red yarn has to travel across several stitches

or

- Do a duplicate stitch overtop of your blue stripe (this is what I recommend). If you need a tutorial on how to do a duplicate stitch, please refer to a Duplicate Stitch- How-To .


Tips:

-if you DO decide to do the duplicate stitch method, I would recommend finishing the stripe, but don’t close the top of the mitten until you’ve stitched on the entire C pattern (its easier, trust me).

-The crochet edge might seem a little tricky at first and you might want to practice it on a scrap square (or search the internet for instructions on how-to)

Instructions:

1. Complete the stripes on your mitt like the chart says (3 rows of white, 7 rows of blue, and 3 rows of white).

2. Start the chart by cutting a length of red yarn (you will need enough for all the red C stitches). Follow the pattern for the duplicate stitch of the C:



3. Once you are done the C, cut a long length of white to do the H in the middle. You should cut a long amount of white yarn, because you will use this to do a crochet stitch around the C after (to neaten it up).

4. Take your size 3.00 crochet hook (or something similar in size) and crochet around the edge of the C. Be careful not to cover up too much red (but don’t leave gaps between the C and the blue stripe).


Just hook the white yarn from the bottom of the mitten and pull up a small loop. (Make sure the loop isn’t too small or tight, or else your C will not sit flat). With the stitch on the hook, insert the hook into the C and catch the white yarn on the underside and pull this loop through the first one. Continue around the C.

Your finished white C should look something like this:


5. Finally, cut a long length of blue yarn so you can complete the blue outside of the C. I put the blue crochet edge on the outside of the C only:


Thanks for reading!

If there are any problems please let me know! My name is knittypie on Ravelry

All pictures copyright 2008 Corina Irvine (all rights reserved).

Sunday, 7 December 2008

I'm sorry I neglected my blog-posting!

So I've been busy... clearly I've neglected this blog because I haven't posted since August (sorry)! Well that is going to change. So maybe you're wondering what have I been up to? Well I went on holidays in September, and I was away for work for a month in October. So you can see how it would be hard to make things... but that is all going to change. Sadly, I'm not taking holidays for a while, and I have no plans to leave for a month with work anytime soon.

Lets get to the crafts! I spent a lot of time sewing up some cute little bags for my first-ever craft sale on Nov 29th. It was a good experience, but little disappointing because the sale was *really* slow. The community centre didn't advertise like I thought, and I didn't sell out of my bags (which I thought would happen. Better luck next year? I was thinking of selling the rest of them on etsy, but that requires a lot of setup! Anyways, this is a sample of what they looked like:



I also made some awesome mittens, called "Bird in Hand" mittens (Designed by Kate Gilbert)
(Ravelry Link)





I'll post sometime next week!
~knittypie

Saturday, 2 August 2008

Random skill...

So I took a class last week at make1yarn studio ... What kind of class you ask? Well a hand-spinning class of course! It sounds pretty random, but it's also pretty cool. I purchased a drop spindle from twist of fate a couple of months ago, but I just couldn't get it going. I watched a bunch of you-tube videos (which probably didn't help) and decided that I needed someone to teach me in person. See below for the finished product:


It's 100% merino top, with some purples and blues that spun up beatifully. I got 12 metres out of the fibre that I spun up... and I have no idea what I should make with it, but it looks cool and I can say that I made my own yarn (not that I know anyone that I could actually brag about that to, but hey, it's different!).

I started spinning up some other roving that I purchased when I picked up the drop spindle, so I'll have to post about that when I'm finished.

On the needles right now, I have the "lace ribbon scarf". It's pretty slow to knit up, and I'm not sure about the yarn (Fleece Artist Sea Wool) because it is putting some random colour stripes through the scarf:


Pattern: Lace Ribbon Scarf by Veronik Avery
Yarn: Fleece Artist 'Sea Wool'

Oh, and the one-sided scarf from my last post... it's been frogged and I'm working on re-knitting it on my new Addi lace turbos!


That's it for now, thanks for reading!

~knittypie

Thursday, 17 July 2008

Quick post!

Summers are hard to stay focussed. I've been so busy doing other things (weddings, holidays, socializing, sports), that I've neglected my crafts. I managed to take a couple of photos of some new yarn, and one side of a sock that I've completed...

Pattern: Vinnland. Yarn: KFB superwash sock yarn

Sadly, I cannot bring myself to knit the other side. The foot is ridiculously long and narrow for me, but I 'm (helplessly?) hopeing the yarn will give a little when I block it. I like the pattern, but it's summer time and I just don't want to be knitting heavy winter socks! Ironically, I'm starting the "Lace Ribbon Scarf" by Veronik Avery... I'll post more about that when I take some photos.

Oh, and I mentioned a 'vintage 3-hour' sweater that I started knitting months ago... well it's still not complete! I have to complete the waist and add a button.

Thanks for reading (and sorry I blog so irregularly!)

~knittypie

Friday, 30 May 2008

I almost went crazy doing this

My brother is getting married this Saturday, so of course I offer my crafting skills for his wedding. Once he saw my Panda bag, he had just the plan for me...

My job was to create these lovely gift bags for all the out-of-town guests that are flying in. I was excited to show off my skills to people I barely know, so I went and bought some cotton quilting fabric in the wedding theme colours (black, cream and burgundy).

I almost went insane creating these bags because it was almost 30 degrees (Celsius) outside and I was in a basement working on these bags non-stop. I'm starting to think I could sell this stuff...




In the next couple weeks: I'm going to post photos about a vintage-inspired sweater that I knit!