Completely immersed in crafting and meeeting other knitters who were churning along on their projects as well.
There were spinners there as well.
It was really relaxing. Really, really relaxing.
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Monday, January 31, 2011
Sticks and String, a knitting retreat
Spent the entire weekend at a knitting retreat.
Completely immersed in crafting and meeeting other knitters who were churning along on their projects as well.
There were spinners there as well.
It was really relaxing. Really, really relaxing.
Completely immersed in crafting and meeeting other knitters who were churning along on their projects as well.
There were spinners there as well.
It was really relaxing. Really, really relaxing.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Progress
Its been a full month, and in order to meet my goal, The numbers tell me I need to make between 8 to 9 hats a month.
How many do I have done?
33 (decided not to count the chemo hat I made for the hospial)
That means that I hit 33 percent of my goal in less than one-tenth the time I have given myself to do it.
Huh
I would almost question upping the goal number, but the truth is that I am highly unlikely to be able to sustain this effort. The main accomplishment was yesterday when I competed in a 24 hour hat challenge on www.ravelry.com. Everyone who competed had the same 24 hours in which to create as many hats as they could. I wasn't even close to the top competiter (whom I think completed 27 adult hats, I might be third on my own team, even). But I am still very pleased with my final count of 20 adult hats completed in 24 hours. And I am even more pleased that I did as much as I did, yet managed to not cause a flare-up of my carpel tunnel issues. And that's saying something. Lol
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Wednesday, December 29, 2010
100 hats for charity
They asked for some bathrobes and bath soap... easy.
I mentioned being a knitter, and having a handful of hats ready made and that if they were interested, that I could make a few more. They were more than a little interested, they were happy to hear it and said that they would be happy with any hats I could donate. I pulled out the six I had finished during a challenge this laast summer, and figured that I could probably make another five or six hats in the ten days left before I dropped the donation off.
And off I charged, making hats. I ended up making a total of 12 new hats. They house 34 women at any given time... so while I was thrilled with actually dropping off 18 hats, I was a little sad that it wasn't enough to provide each person a hat.
In the meantime, I found out that my boss's church drops off hats for the homeless by going directly to the camps and bridges where they actually stay. So a few more hats were knit to add to their supply.
Got me thinking, this did.
I will admit that after making 12 hats in ten days... then a handful more... I wasn't interested in knitting hats every single day... but I was enjoying the process. Armed with a pattern that doesn't get old, bulky yarn and big needles that work fast... I could probably knit enough hats this year to give a ton to the homeless... 40 for the shelter, and 20 for the camps and bridges.
60 hats, well that's only 5 a month. I can totally do that before December next year.
It's between terms at my knitting role playing game, so I have to wait to work on most of my other projects. So, what the heck, I've got nothing better to do... I'll make my first five hats now (this was before Christmas). Umm.... I now have hat number 11 on the needles. Huh. It is still three more days before the game starts again.... huh.
Five hats a month isn't going to be enough. I am now shooting for 100 hats total... eight or nine a month will be a little more challenging than five. And its a nice round number. Besides being already at 10% only a few weeks after making the challenge to myself? Well, I am all set to go now.
I figured I could raise this blog from the ashes and use it to chronicle the process, post photos, etc.
Note that some of the colors (one might call ugly) were specifically chosen for the camps. They chose to wear colors that will help camoflague them. Bright colors will be better received at the shelters.
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Saturday, March 13, 2010
Inartsia Star War Charts --- chart patterns
When making my son's Star Wars blanket I found a LOT of great and really useful patterns online. Since I appreciated the value they offered, I decided that I could do the same.
These patterns are available free for use - as long as it's personal use, and/or for donations to charity. They aren not being made available for use in earning money either by being for sale or for making items to be sold. Contact me if you have any questions or concerns via the Blogger contact link.
I've adopted the Excel Charts into graphics so that fewer people will have issues with usage. To save locally, click on each chart you wish to use - which should open in a new window/tab in a larger size. Then right-click on each image to save to your computer.
I adapted each chart by adding rows above/below and left/right so that they all ended up with 34 stitches across and 42 rows tall. These worked well in addition to some other Charts I found online.
Yoda Chart
General Grievous
Darth Maul
Droid
Star Fighter
Crossed Light Sabers
These patterns are available free for use - as long as it's personal use, and/or for donations to charity. They aren not being made available for use in earning money either by being for sale or for making items to be sold. Contact me if you have any questions or concerns via the Blogger contact link.
I've adopted the Excel Charts into graphics so that fewer people will have issues with usage. To save locally, click on each chart you wish to use - which should open in a new window/tab in a larger size. Then right-click on each image to save to your computer.
I adapted each chart by adding rows above/below and left/right so that they all ended up with 34 stitches across and 42 rows tall. These worked well in addition to some other Charts I found online.
Yoda Chart
General Grievous
Darth Maul
Droid
Star Fighter
Crossed Light Sabers
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Finally - info about the blanket
My big project is a Star Wars blanket for my son.
I was given the following requirements:
I used almost every single chart found here
http://www.angelfire.com/space2/swcharts/knit.html
And I adopted a couple of these, plus all the text charts from here
http://www.knitting-and.com/knitting/patterns/charts/starwars.htm
So, I started off thinking that I would make every block a "patterned" block. But when I did the math and realized that there would be 35 blocks to make a blanket the size of a single bed... I figured maybe I didn't want to make that many with patterns. So, about one-third would be plain dark blue, another third would be a varigated blue; and the final third would be patterned. A couple would have the logo "Star Wars"; and original thought was that I would have a second set of blocks in the middle with "May the force be with you". But, then someone - darn them anyway... as it's a great idea; came up with the brilliant idea that I could add those words all the way around the border. What a brilliant idea... so of course, I'm going to do that even though it means its going to take that much longer to finish.
Next step was thinking about connecting the blocks and pulling together a look. I certainly had the option of joining the blocks with the mattress stitch which is virtually invisible, but I got to thinking that I really wanted a border on all the blocks. To figure it out.... I created an Excel spreadsheet. Made 1/3 of the blocks look dark blue; another 1/3 of the blocks look like a speckled blue; and the last 1/3 I used colored letters that were an acronym to represent what the square might be (SS meant space ship, DS meant death start, etc). Since some of the blocks that would be characters needed different backgrounds, i.e., Darth Vador would look best on a white background, but a white R2D2 wouldn't... so I changed the cell color to the color background that I thought would work best. By the time I had about half of the patterned blocks finished I found a light blue that might have worked as a universal background instead - sigh.... but it was a bit too late... so I just used it on some blocks.
So, I tried adding a border on the blocks in Excel and a copy of the same spreadsheet without borders - and I liked the borders better. I used this to experiment with placing and figuring out exactly what I wanted to place where - which when it comes down to putting the blanket together I probably won't stick to. I figure I'll lay it all out on the bed and change my mind a million times before I actually stick them all together... but at least I had a plan and a design that I liked.
And yes, we added a bigger, thicker border around the whole blanket so I can add the words "May the force be with you" all around the edge...
My original plan was that the back of the blanket would be visible - every knit or crochet blanket/afghan that I have ever seen - you see the front and the back. So, using lots of different colored yarns to make a pattern that looks good on the front, requires a lot of effort on the back to try to "hide" and sew in the ends of the yarns when you add or stop the color. I spent probably three times longer working in the ends of the yarns than actually knitting the blocks.... each time. I made a rule for myself that I couldn't start the next block until I weaved in all the ends of the block before -- the key to this rule is that I knew myself well enough to know that I don't really like to weave in ends... and weaving them all in at the end, well, I would reach a point where I wouldn't want to and I would put the whole thing in a pile and ignore it for dozens of years. It probably would never get finished. So, anyway - it wasn't until I was about 90% done with the blocks before I decided that even though I had been extremely careful, the back of the blocks still didn't look very attractive, and that I really, really wanted to hide them. Knitting a second blanket would be the more traditional method of backing this... but a) WAY TOO MUCH WORK and b) it would end up being a really heavy blanket. So, instead, I went shopping online and found the perfect no-fuzz fleece that is super-super-soft... and it's dark blue with stars... perfect for the back of a Star Wars blanket... perfect.
If you were to follow the links, one thing you would find is that there a) isn't a Yoda pattern, and b) isn't a General Grievous pattern. Sigh. The TWO he insists have to be on the blanket. So, I studied and read and figured out that there is a fairly easy way to create a pattern in Excel from a picture. Hmmm.... lots of pictures out there.... I could certainly try. Let me just say, as easy as it is to do this? It does require an artistic eye that I struggle to find within myself. My first Yoda block was made with a picture that was as close as I could find to a full-front face picture.... translating it into a few colors in fairly large weighted yarn in fairly "blocky" shape? Well, lets just say - it was a bit malformed Yoda that I finished with. That block got thrown out and I went back to the drawing board. I just couldn't find a picture that would be "straight-on" and would show both sides of the face as the same size. So.... I went back to my original pattern and "mirrored" one side of the pattern to the other. Knit it up again. This time, it was a bit closer, and at least he wasn't mal-formed, however? He wasn't Yoda either.... it certainly was a green face, but the ears were to big and his face was too small... he looked like a really sick cat....LOL. Third time was the charm though... I went back to the second pattern and made his cheeks fuller, moved his eyes down a bit, and added grey wrinkles to his forehead for more detail. Still not 100% sure he looks like Yoda, but when you put him next to other Star Wars blocks, he's pretty close.
Trying to make a General Grievious was another big challenge. This time I only needed to knit up two of them. One of the issues is that General Grievious being mostly robot has lots of parts and things that frame his face... yet 3 dimensions in fairly large guage just isn't going to happen. So, I cheated a bit - I did his face mask with nothing else around it. It turned out great the first time - BUT for the fact that the block I made was for some reason over an inch wider than every other block in the blanket. sigh.... It seemed "off" when I was knitting it, but instead of paying close attention and fixing it right away, I didn't really check it until I was doing some of the finishing touches pre-sewing them together before I realized that it stunk and needed to be redone.
Another block I had issues with was the light sabers. The patterns in the links had light sabers, however, they were a LOT smaller than what I was looking to make. Again, Excel to the rescue... I drew up a pattern in Excel which was a breeze this time around. I knit it up, but I didn't really like the yarn I had used -- it was a bit "blah" and light sabers glow.... they are NOT blah. So, I bought more yarn and I tried to "duplicate stitch" over the top of the existing stitches with the new brighter yarn. To do a duplicate stitch, you use a darning needle to put basically a second layer of stitches over the top. It makes it a bit thicker, but I figured that it wouldn't be that big a deal since light sabers could be 3 dimensional then. But it looked horrible when it was done. So, then I tried re-knitting them a second time with the newer yarn and STILL didn't like them. So, then I decided that I had to experiment a bit to figure out the right course of action. I took the small pattern again and did four or five light sabers in a small piece of knitting and tried using different yarns and methods for adding the color to the light sabers. I finally settled on two colors and using shiny yarns.... it's still not "perfect" and it still isn't as nice as I would like - but geeze.... creating light sabers in yarn isn't going to be realistic. So, I picked the style I liked the best out of the experiments and did the blocks that way. I should have done them with a fuzzy yarn that had a "halo" but fuzzy light sabers would just be silly. But, I had actually planned to do five different blocks with light sabers.... but since I didn't like the way they turned out, I had to come up with more patterns instead to replace them instead of having five blocks I didn't like.
Once all the blocks were finished, I need to sew them together. But the nature of the game is that they don't quite lay flat, aren't perfectly square, etc.... so before I try to put them into the blanket, I needed to "block" them. To block knitting - you have to dampen it, pin them to a flat surface and leave them to dry for several days. You can help "square" them up, you can stretch them a bit or straighten them out and you can smooth out some of the puckers that make them not want to lay flat. It won't fix everything (like a square over an inch wider than the others) but it does fix many of the smaller issues. But, I live in a two bedroom apartment with a six year old, a dog, and a cat. There isn't a free surface around that I could use for three days that wouldn't become a cat hair magnet. So, my project went on hold for a while, so I could purchase a blocking board that was portable, able to be leaned against a wall, and affordable. Yep... I went shopping. Guess what? If I could find something that was big enough, portable enough, it wasn't affordable. Affordable wasn't portable or storable or able to be leaned against a wall... hmmm.... so.... I got creative. I decided to make my own. First I needed a) affordable b) rigid and c) size-able stiff boards that d) could be pinned to, e) could tolerate dampness and still be f) light weight. So, I found two foot by four foot 1/4 inch plywood panels. I sanded them and varnished them (to protect against the dampness); then I glued 1/4 inch cork tiles to the front of the boards.... AND then I added to the back of them removable-pin hinges. I didn't really need hinges, but what I wanted to be able to do was join the two boards together edge-to-edge and remove the join easily. By using two sets of hinges, I can join them lengthwise - which would make one board two foot by eight foot; or widthwise - which would make a four foot by four foot board, or leave them individually. Now I had all of my initial requirements.... but there was one more. I needed to be able to have a grid on them that would allow me to pin things out to specific measurements. hmmm.... I did find somewhere where they had a ruler-style fabric but it cost more than all my other pieces together.... so I had decided that I would probably use a sharpie marker to try to draw lines on the cork tiles to grid them out.... but since I can barely make a straight line, I wasn't sure it was a great idea. After I got the cork tiles glued to the board, I realized that I was at risk for having child/puppy/cat damage to the exposed cork AND that it would flake a little off ever-so-slightly, enough to make a mess anyway. So, I decided I really should cover it with a fabric.... went shopping, and sure enough - found some awesome gingham that had one-inch black and white squares. Perfect size to help me pin out and measure things. My biggest issue making these is that whenever I went shopping for items, like the cork or the fabric... I would keep thinking I was making them two by three feet... and would have to make two trips for everything. But, I think they turned out fantastic... and I am finally blocking my blocks which is the last step before sewing them together.
Post-blocking, I plan on using crochet to join all the squares into the final blanket, where I can measure the final measurements as the step to make sure when I make the borders that they'll fit. I'm planning on making them using the afghan hook and a simple afghan stitch. Problem is I'll need miles of it and it'll be plain blue. So, it will be excruciatingly boring. Sigh.... I'm chosing that method for the borders because I'm going to add words to it - and it makes an almost perfect background for cross-stitching; and it will lay flat and not need yet a second form of a border to finish it off. No sense doing two borders for double the work if I don't need to. Then, I get to attach the borders... then I get to back the entire blanket with the fleece. My plan is to whip-stitch the edges together and then do the quilting-style ties at the corner of every block through both layers of material with yarn. We'll see ... but I have really high hopes for this big challenge.
Next come pics and files. I captured some of my preliminary drawings and ideas... my Excel files and the blocks I designed as well as photos of the blocks during blocking. My goal is to be finished by Christmas... which really wasn't very practical at all. So, instead I thought I'd start on it right after Christmas.... during the week I was off of work. ONLY... during that week, I was reading online about Ravelympics, a knitting challenge to start and complete a project during the Olympics. Since I'd started this long before the Olympics... it didn't qualify for the blanket competitioin... HOWEVER, it fit perfectly in the WIPS Dancing event - which is finishing off a work in progress. SO.... that's how this got finished (finally) on the final day of Olympic Competition for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
I was given the following requirements:
- Must be blue
- Must be big
- Must have Yoda
- Must have General Grievous
- Must have light sabers
I used almost every single chart found here
http://www.angelfire.com/space2/swcharts/knit.html
And I adopted a couple of these, plus all the text charts from here
http://www.knitting-and.com/knitting/patterns/charts/starwars.htm
So, I started off thinking that I would make every block a "patterned" block. But when I did the math and realized that there would be 35 blocks to make a blanket the size of a single bed... I figured maybe I didn't want to make that many with patterns. So, about one-third would be plain dark blue, another third would be a varigated blue; and the final third would be patterned. A couple would have the logo "Star Wars"; and original thought was that I would have a second set of blocks in the middle with "May the force be with you". But, then someone - darn them anyway... as it's a great idea; came up with the brilliant idea that I could add those words all the way around the border. What a brilliant idea... so of course, I'm going to do that even though it means its going to take that much longer to finish.
Next step was thinking about connecting the blocks and pulling together a look. I certainly had the option of joining the blocks with the mattress stitch which is virtually invisible, but I got to thinking that I really wanted a border on all the blocks. To figure it out.... I created an Excel spreadsheet. Made 1/3 of the blocks look dark blue; another 1/3 of the blocks look like a speckled blue; and the last 1/3 I used colored letters that were an acronym to represent what the square might be (SS meant space ship, DS meant death start, etc). Since some of the blocks that would be characters needed different backgrounds, i.e., Darth Vador would look best on a white background, but a white R2D2 wouldn't... so I changed the cell color to the color background that I thought would work best. By the time I had about half of the patterned blocks finished I found a light blue that might have worked as a universal background instead - sigh.... but it was a bit too late... so I just used it on some blocks.
So, I tried adding a border on the blocks in Excel and a copy of the same spreadsheet without borders - and I liked the borders better. I used this to experiment with placing and figuring out exactly what I wanted to place where - which when it comes down to putting the blanket together I probably won't stick to. I figure I'll lay it all out on the bed and change my mind a million times before I actually stick them all together... but at least I had a plan and a design that I liked.
And yes, we added a bigger, thicker border around the whole blanket so I can add the words "May the force be with you" all around the edge...
My original plan was that the back of the blanket would be visible - every knit or crochet blanket/afghan that I have ever seen - you see the front and the back. So, using lots of different colored yarns to make a pattern that looks good on the front, requires a lot of effort on the back to try to "hide" and sew in the ends of the yarns when you add or stop the color. I spent probably three times longer working in the ends of the yarns than actually knitting the blocks.... each time. I made a rule for myself that I couldn't start the next block until I weaved in all the ends of the block before -- the key to this rule is that I knew myself well enough to know that I don't really like to weave in ends... and weaving them all in at the end, well, I would reach a point where I wouldn't want to and I would put the whole thing in a pile and ignore it for dozens of years. It probably would never get finished. So, anyway - it wasn't until I was about 90% done with the blocks before I decided that even though I had been extremely careful, the back of the blocks still didn't look very attractive, and that I really, really wanted to hide them. Knitting a second blanket would be the more traditional method of backing this... but a) WAY TOO MUCH WORK and b) it would end up being a really heavy blanket. So, instead, I went shopping online and found the perfect no-fuzz fleece that is super-super-soft... and it's dark blue with stars... perfect for the back of a Star Wars blanket... perfect.
If you were to follow the links, one thing you would find is that there a) isn't a Yoda pattern, and b) isn't a General Grievous pattern. Sigh. The TWO he insists have to be on the blanket. So, I studied and read and figured out that there is a fairly easy way to create a pattern in Excel from a picture. Hmmm.... lots of pictures out there.... I could certainly try. Let me just say, as easy as it is to do this? It does require an artistic eye that I struggle to find within myself. My first Yoda block was made with a picture that was as close as I could find to a full-front face picture.... translating it into a few colors in fairly large weighted yarn in fairly "blocky" shape? Well, lets just say - it was a bit malformed Yoda that I finished with. That block got thrown out and I went back to the drawing board. I just couldn't find a picture that would be "straight-on" and would show both sides of the face as the same size. So.... I went back to my original pattern and "mirrored" one side of the pattern to the other. Knit it up again. This time, it was a bit closer, and at least he wasn't mal-formed, however? He wasn't Yoda either.... it certainly was a green face, but the ears were to big and his face was too small... he looked like a really sick cat....LOL. Third time was the charm though... I went back to the second pattern and made his cheeks fuller, moved his eyes down a bit, and added grey wrinkles to his forehead for more detail. Still not 100% sure he looks like Yoda, but when you put him next to other Star Wars blocks, he's pretty close.
Trying to make a General Grievious was another big challenge. This time I only needed to knit up two of them. One of the issues is that General Grievious being mostly robot has lots of parts and things that frame his face... yet 3 dimensions in fairly large guage just isn't going to happen. So, I cheated a bit - I did his face mask with nothing else around it. It turned out great the first time - BUT for the fact that the block I made was for some reason over an inch wider than every other block in the blanket. sigh.... It seemed "off" when I was knitting it, but instead of paying close attention and fixing it right away, I didn't really check it until I was doing some of the finishing touches pre-sewing them together before I realized that it stunk and needed to be redone.
Another block I had issues with was the light sabers. The patterns in the links had light sabers, however, they were a LOT smaller than what I was looking to make. Again, Excel to the rescue... I drew up a pattern in Excel which was a breeze this time around. I knit it up, but I didn't really like the yarn I had used -- it was a bit "blah" and light sabers glow.... they are NOT blah. So, I bought more yarn and I tried to "duplicate stitch" over the top of the existing stitches with the new brighter yarn. To do a duplicate stitch, you use a darning needle to put basically a second layer of stitches over the top. It makes it a bit thicker, but I figured that it wouldn't be that big a deal since light sabers could be 3 dimensional then. But it looked horrible when it was done. So, then I tried re-knitting them a second time with the newer yarn and STILL didn't like them. So, then I decided that I had to experiment a bit to figure out the right course of action. I took the small pattern again and did four or five light sabers in a small piece of knitting and tried using different yarns and methods for adding the color to the light sabers. I finally settled on two colors and using shiny yarns.... it's still not "perfect" and it still isn't as nice as I would like - but geeze.... creating light sabers in yarn isn't going to be realistic. So, I picked the style I liked the best out of the experiments and did the blocks that way. I should have done them with a fuzzy yarn that had a "halo" but fuzzy light sabers would just be silly. But, I had actually planned to do five different blocks with light sabers.... but since I didn't like the way they turned out, I had to come up with more patterns instead to replace them instead of having five blocks I didn't like.
Once all the blocks were finished, I need to sew them together. But the nature of the game is that they don't quite lay flat, aren't perfectly square, etc.... so before I try to put them into the blanket, I needed to "block" them. To block knitting - you have to dampen it, pin them to a flat surface and leave them to dry for several days. You can help "square" them up, you can stretch them a bit or straighten them out and you can smooth out some of the puckers that make them not want to lay flat. It won't fix everything (like a square over an inch wider than the others) but it does fix many of the smaller issues. But, I live in a two bedroom apartment with a six year old, a dog, and a cat. There isn't a free surface around that I could use for three days that wouldn't become a cat hair magnet. So, my project went on hold for a while, so I could purchase a blocking board that was portable, able to be leaned against a wall, and affordable. Yep... I went shopping. Guess what? If I could find something that was big enough, portable enough, it wasn't affordable. Affordable wasn't portable or storable or able to be leaned against a wall... hmmm.... so.... I got creative. I decided to make my own. First I needed a) affordable b) rigid and c) size-able stiff boards that d) could be pinned to, e) could tolerate dampness and still be f) light weight. So, I found two foot by four foot 1/4 inch plywood panels. I sanded them and varnished them (to protect against the dampness); then I glued 1/4 inch cork tiles to the front of the boards.... AND then I added to the back of them removable-pin hinges. I didn't really need hinges, but what I wanted to be able to do was join the two boards together edge-to-edge and remove the join easily. By using two sets of hinges, I can join them lengthwise - which would make one board two foot by eight foot; or widthwise - which would make a four foot by four foot board, or leave them individually. Now I had all of my initial requirements.... but there was one more. I needed to be able to have a grid on them that would allow me to pin things out to specific measurements. hmmm.... I did find somewhere where they had a ruler-style fabric but it cost more than all my other pieces together.... so I had decided that I would probably use a sharpie marker to try to draw lines on the cork tiles to grid them out.... but since I can barely make a straight line, I wasn't sure it was a great idea. After I got the cork tiles glued to the board, I realized that I was at risk for having child/puppy/cat damage to the exposed cork AND that it would flake a little off ever-so-slightly, enough to make a mess anyway. So, I decided I really should cover it with a fabric.... went shopping, and sure enough - found some awesome gingham that had one-inch black and white squares. Perfect size to help me pin out and measure things. My biggest issue making these is that whenever I went shopping for items, like the cork or the fabric... I would keep thinking I was making them two by three feet... and would have to make two trips for everything. But, I think they turned out fantastic... and I am finally blocking my blocks which is the last step before sewing them together.
Post-blocking, I plan on using crochet to join all the squares into the final blanket, where I can measure the final measurements as the step to make sure when I make the borders that they'll fit. I'm planning on making them using the afghan hook and a simple afghan stitch. Problem is I'll need miles of it and it'll be plain blue. So, it will be excruciatingly boring. Sigh.... I'm chosing that method for the borders because I'm going to add words to it - and it makes an almost perfect background for cross-stitching; and it will lay flat and not need yet a second form of a border to finish it off. No sense doing two borders for double the work if I don't need to. Then, I get to attach the borders... then I get to back the entire blanket with the fleece. My plan is to whip-stitch the edges together and then do the quilting-style ties at the corner of every block through both layers of material with yarn. We'll see ... but I have really high hopes for this big challenge.
Next come pics and files. I captured some of my preliminary drawings and ideas... my Excel files and the blocks I designed as well as photos of the blocks during blocking. My goal is to be finished by Christmas... which really wasn't very practical at all. So, instead I thought I'd start on it right after Christmas.... during the week I was off of work. ONLY... during that week, I was reading online about Ravelympics, a knitting challenge to start and complete a project during the Olympics. Since I'd started this long before the Olympics... it didn't qualify for the blanket competitioin... HOWEVER, it fit perfectly in the WIPS Dancing event - which is finishing off a work in progress. SO.... that's how this got finished (finally) on the final day of Olympic Competition for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
An absolutely BRILLIANT solution for a problem!
OK, So, still working on projects, still have tons of posts to make (just have to find time).
In the meantime. I donated my time to put up an auction item to raise money for United Way. My item to the auction is a hand-knitted Christmas stocking that the user would select from a selection of patterns... and I would customize to their requirements.
Since I have hand-knit stockings that someone else knit for me (ages ago)... I was thinking about the fact that in the inside of the stocking there are lots of yarn loops (that catch on everything I put into the stocking)... from the multiple colors used to knit up the stocking. So, I had planned to do a technique that can be quite tedious (called inartsia) and can create a lot of loose ends that you have to weave in (which I hate) -- but at least the person who bought my stocking wouldn't have to deal with all the yarn loops.
But... once they selected the pattern they wanted (From Knitting Digest Magazine) - Gift Santa Christmas Stocking (1996)... would you believe that they designed the stocking with an even better solution?
The entire stocking is knit in only three colors Leg & Foot; heel & toe are in contrasting colors. THEN they have you knit up the ornament - Santa with a lap full of presents... completely separately - and then you simply attach it to the front of the stocking... and ergo - completely encase all those loops of threads between the ornament on the stocking and the stocking itself. The inside of the stocking a) has no extra yarn loops and b) no hundreds of cut ends of the yarn to weave in... because they can all be hiding behind the ornamentation.
OMG... I've had a couple of ideas for making scarves with characters on the ends of the scarf and or putting initials on it... but didn't want the reverse side to look funny. I can SO do this for that project as well.
It's like a lightning bolt of creative ideas just based on a simply brilliant solution that the back of the knitted piece that has lots of different colors in it just doesn't look good.
Who knew? I sure didn't even imagine trying something like this.
In the meantime. I donated my time to put up an auction item to raise money for United Way. My item to the auction is a hand-knitted Christmas stocking that the user would select from a selection of patterns... and I would customize to their requirements.
Since I have hand-knit stockings that someone else knit for me (ages ago)... I was thinking about the fact that in the inside of the stocking there are lots of yarn loops (that catch on everything I put into the stocking)... from the multiple colors used to knit up the stocking. So, I had planned to do a technique that can be quite tedious (called inartsia) and can create a lot of loose ends that you have to weave in (which I hate) -- but at least the person who bought my stocking wouldn't have to deal with all the yarn loops.
But... once they selected the pattern they wanted (From Knitting Digest Magazine) - Gift Santa Christmas Stocking (1996)... would you believe that they designed the stocking with an even better solution?
The entire stocking is knit in only three colors Leg & Foot; heel & toe are in contrasting colors. THEN they have you knit up the ornament - Santa with a lap full of presents... completely separately - and then you simply attach it to the front of the stocking... and ergo - completely encase all those loops of threads between the ornament on the stocking and the stocking itself. The inside of the stocking a) has no extra yarn loops and b) no hundreds of cut ends of the yarn to weave in... because they can all be hiding behind the ornamentation.
OMG... I've had a couple of ideas for making scarves with characters on the ends of the scarf and or putting initials on it... but didn't want the reverse side to look funny. I can SO do this for that project as well.
It's like a lightning bolt of creative ideas just based on a simply brilliant solution that the back of the knitted piece that has lots of different colors in it just doesn't look good.
Who knew? I sure didn't even imagine trying something like this.
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