Viking Balaclava

There are so many neat patterns on the internet, and every once in a while, my brother, Evan, will find a neat one and ask me if I can make it.  Yes, of course I can (as long as it isn't a crochet pattern...)  He sent me a picture of a moustached balaclava, and I found a viking one that I thought was neater, and so did he.  After he agreed to pay for the yarn (yay!) and I got his head measurements, I started the math, and started knitting. (I'll get a picture of him wearing it when I can)
Here's what I used:
Pattern:  Hat and Beard
Yarn: Wool Ease in Ranch Red (he really wanted a bright red!), Cocoa, Grey Heather, and Fisherman
To make the hat pattern into an adult size, I used size 10 dpns and because my brother's head is so big, added an extra round of increases.  Other than that, it was fairly similar to the pattern.  I stopped about 1.5 inches away from the hat edge to change to grey and make the rivet band.  I changed that around a bit, as you can see.  the rest was fairly simple.

I debated adding braids to it, but i'll let my brother decide.

French Press Knits Slippers

After my slipper socks started falling apart, I thought I should make some new ones, but this time I wanted some that were cute, and with the wool i found on sale (yay!), i figured they should be knitted.  In searching for a pattern online, I came across tons of patterns, and none really impressed me until I came across this one from French Press Knits.  I thought they were so cute, but the pattern cost money.  So, now I spend a day debating whether to pay the money and just make good use of it or find another pattern.

Well, of course I bought it, and I made some purple slippers for my Mom because I knew she'd like them.  Then I had enough  yarn leftover from my pair of booties to make a pair of slippers for my Granny, who is always wearing socks or slippers.  They turned out so cute!  And this time, the sides and bottoms are plenty thick enough.  Good thing I bought extra wool yarn so I can make some for myself! Huzzah!

Loop Rug

I got one of those yarn catalogs in the mail from Lion Brand, and saw this Loop Rug in the catalog.  The yarn cost would have been sky-high using the special soft cotton yarn they recommended.  Well, it is a rug, after all, so I decided to use the less expensive alternative, as i usually do anyways.  So I got two cones (one pound each) in white (dye-able or bleach-able if it got dirty) and went with it.  Its a deceptively simple stitch, but looks pretty awesome.  It didn't take me long at all to finish it, all I need to do now is find a good way to give it a non-skid bottom, I'm thinking of using drawer/cabinet liner.

The good thing is, I still have plenty of yarn leftover!

Felted Booties

We have tile floors in my home and so during the winter, we need to wear socks to keep our feet warm. I got a catalog in the mail, and saw some cute socks in it that looked like mary janes and thought they would be so cute, but the pattern wasnt accessible (i.e. not free) so I found the pattern for these on Lion Brand's website, got some yarn and started knitting. When you felt something, the original has to be so big, so the booties were huge as I was making them  The ankle bit doesn't get felted, so its a little strange. I felted them in the washing machine and they turned out great! they actually fit. Next time, i'll double knit the bottoms so that it will be thicker.

As I wore them, I noticed that i'd slip all over the floor.  It was fun...until someone got hurt.  So, i just took some puffy paint and made little spots on the bottom, that took care of the problem!

Knitted Dog Toy

I found myself with extra cotton yarn after a project and tried to think of uses for it. It occurred to me that since it is so washable, it would make a great dog toy, so instead of planning something out, i just went for it, making it up as I went along. I decided to make it in one big piece and just fold it in half to sew it together because I dislike sewing pieces together! I slowly increased it to make arms then decreased for shoulders, and made a little square head, then cast off half the stitches, divided the remaining stitches and made ears. I stuffed it and put a little bell inside, sewed in soem seams to make some "arms," and it was finished! It only took me an afternoon to make it, and my dog now has a lovely toy.

After Augie, my dog, enjoyed the new toy, I made one for my friend's dog, who is pictured. Samus is the one with the blue toy, Augie with the yellow toy. I made some for the dogs in my neighborhood too.

Here's the pattern if you're interested:

you will need one skein of cotton yarn in the desired color (I use Lily & Cream) and size 8 needles.

Gauge: its a dog toy, doesn't matter.

With size 8 needles, CO 21 sts

k 16 rows even

17: K 1, M1, K9, M1, k1, m1, k9, m1, k1

Row 16 and all even rows: Knit

19: k1, m1, k11, m1, k1, m1, k11, m1, k1

21: k1, m1, k13, m1, k1, m1, k13, m1, k1

23: k1, m1, k15, m1, k1, m1, k15, m1, k1

25: k1, m1, k17, m1, k1, m1, k17, m1, k1

27: k1, m1, k19, m1, k1, m1, k19, m1, k1

k 3 rows even

31: k1, k2tog, k17, k2tog, k1, ssk, k17, ssk, k1

33: k1, k2tog, k15, k2tog, k1, ssk, k15, ssk, k1

35: k1, k2tog, k13, k2tog, k1, ssk, k13, ssk, k1

37: k1, k2tog, k11, k2tog, k1, ssk, k11, ssk, k1

39: k1, k2tog, k9, k2tog, k1, ssk, k9, ssk, k1

41: k1, k2tog, k7, k2tog, k1, ssk, k7, ssk, k1

43: k1, k2tog, k5, k2tog, k1, ssk, k5, ssk, k1

k 3 rows even

47: k1, k2tog, k3, k2tog, k1, ssk, k3, ssk, k1

k 10 rows even

58: cast off 7 sts. Divide remaining sts to make ears: (3 sts each ear) for each ear: K 5 rows even, sl 1 st, k2tog, psso.

sew in ends, turning right sides together, sew up top and side seams (be sure to have the ears tucked into the right side!) turn the toy inside out and stuff it, placing a bell in the middle. sew up the bottom. optional: Sew the leg portion in halves, and sew the arms as shown. If you want a taller toy, do the decrease row once every third row instead of every other, its better for bigger dogs.

Twin Windowpane Baby Blankets

One of my friends from high school had twins! She and one of my other friends from high school are married and already have a 4 year old daughter, and their twin daughters were born on my brother's birthday. They found out shortly after I returned home and I found I had nothing to knit because its too warm here. Well lucky me, what an excuse to knit something. I started playing around with some colors and came up with what I call a Windowpane pattern. When I bought the yarn, we didn't know what sex the babies were, so I just got green and yellow and went to town (after all, it takes a while to make two baby blankets). I used size 8 needles and Bernat's Baby Sport in the 10.5 oz size; one in soft yellow and one in mint. I started when I found out, and now they're 7 mos old and i'm just finishing. Well, hopefully it was worth the wait.

I have a problem with how stockinette stitch curls along the edging, so I did a crab stitch border on each of them using cotton yarn for durability.

The windowpane pattern is made by slipping the background stitches and knitting rows in the additional color.

Beaded Ornaments

I started making these ornaments just for gifts, but I got such a positive reaction, my mom suggested I sell them, so I went and bought a bunch more yarn and I'm selling them! I make them in several different colors including Burgundy, Cream, Purple, Gold, White and Green. I only just put them on etsy and ebay. Please check out my shops and see if you'd like to order one, or feel free to email me. They

make great gifts ;)

Eco Friendly Shrug

I like wearing shirts with longer sleeves than usual. Thus, we must find a knitted solution. I went through just about every shrug pattern out there to find one I liked. Soon enough, I figured out that I would have to find one that kind of worked, and figure out how they're made, then make my own pattern. This is the result: I found a pattern that worked pretty well. Go figure, the pattern, like my sense of fashion, is 50 years old: I found the picture and the pattern at www.freevintageknitting.com.
When I went looking for what yarn I was going to use to make it, I came across the Caron Simply Soft Eco in Black. This yarn is soft, mostly acrylic, and is 20% made from recycled plastic bottles! I'm wearing plastic bottles! Now the more I recycle plastic bottles, the more recycled yarn I'll get - its a win-win. Now onto designing my own; I already have it in my head, just need to find the time to make it.

Market bag

I like using the eco-friendly market bag I made a while back and wanted to make another, so I found a new pattern on Knitty, and starting going. The pattern called for hemp yarn, but I didn't want to spend the extra money, so I went with cotton again this time. Wal-mart stopped carrying the Lily n' Cream cotton yarn, so I went with "Peaches n' Cream" (why is there always the abbreviation of "n" in cotton yarn names?). I thought the most appropriate color would be "earthtone." Because the cotton yarn was a bit different in gauge than the hemp, I changed the needle sizes around a bit. I started the cast-on and knitted the bottom using size 8's, and upped it to size 9's to do the netting. The initial cast on was 44 sts, picked up 14 on the sides and ended up with a total of 118.

When I finished, I used a piece of ribbon, just like the pattern told me to and started to use the bag. I started to make one for my friend, Louann. For her bag, I used Lily n' Cream in Taupe Twist, just like she requesteI decided that I wouldn't use the ribbon because of the way it pulled on the bag and the tenuous way you have to sew it on, so I knitted into the side of each and created two straps. Hopefully this will work better, we'll see when Louann gets the bag in the mail!

Intarsia Sweater

I recently bought myself "Not Your Mama's Knitting" and found a very cute intarsia sweater pattern that I thought I would make for myself. I wanted to make changes to it, so I made it a little longer, and obviously picked out the designs I wanted on the front. For my first foray into Intarsia, I think it went pretty well. I had just moved, so I didnt' have a great selection of other colored yarns to use, but I still think its cute. Instead of using the Fisherman's wool the pattern called for, I used woolease in Fisherman so I could wash it easily. Using size 8 needles got me to the same gauge as the pattern, so it worked out remarkably well. It is designed to be seamless, so it was knit in the round, and the sleeves were knit separately and then joined in, and the underarms were grafted in - thank goodness no seams! It only took me a few short weeks, and now I have a soft, sweet little sweater to wear around, too bad its too hot!





Here are the items I used if you are interested:

Matching Hat for Shree

I've been slowly getting rid of stuff and packing up to move, and that includes using up the excess yarn I have around. When I got home from visiting Shree, I realized I might have enough yarn leftover to make a hat similar to the life aquatic hat I had just finished, so I figured I'd try it and see how far I got. Well, it turns out I had plenty leftover, and was able to finish the hat without a problem. I didn't want to add the same stoplight design, but the hat needed some flourish, so after I did the crab stitch around the edge, I figured a little flower would look cute, so I used some extra yarn I had to make pink and purple flowers, and I think it turned out pretty well. I mailed it to Shree, and hopefully she likes it, though I told her she could take the flowers off if she wanted. It was meant to match the scarf I had already made for her.

To make the flowers, just cast on 42 sts,
R1: k
R2: k2, *k1, transfer the stitch to the left needle and pass the next 5 sts over the stitch, then knit the stitch again, k2* repeat from * to end.
R3 & 5: P
R4 & 6: k1, *k2tog to end
R7: break yarn and run tail through remaining sts, and sew up the side of the flower.

Warm up America Afghan

I'm republishing an earlier post after some edits:

I got the idea from my Stitch and Bitch calendar earlier in the year, so I started knitting some squares for an afghan, I also used some random stitches I found in some of my stitch books, so they didn't all turn out uniform. The brown square used the pinecone lace stitch, the blue one is the kitten paw, and the dark green is braided cables. I figure there's enough of a variety that the people who assemble them can pick and choose.I never did get friends to work on the squares with me, but I'm mailing them off anyways, hopefully they'll be warming someone up really soon!


If you're interested in contributing, here's the website: http://www.warmupamerica.com/home.html

Another Life Aquatic hat

As I posted earlier, I made my brother a hat modeled after the hats in the Life Aquatic. He wears his around a lot and one of his buddies, who is a diver himself, got a little jealous, and my brother asked me to make him a hat too, and me being the too-altruistic-for-my-own-good type, I of course did. This one was made with "I love this yarn" on size 8 needles. Luckily I already had the felt and the buttons leftover from Evan's hat. Who knows, maybe I'll get a free diving lesson for making this hat!

DNA Scarf for Evan

I was flipping through my stitchionary, and found a pattern that looked a bit like DNA. I changed it so it looked more like DNA, and made it into a scarf for my brother. He is getting his masters in some biological-type engineering-esque major, last I heard it was Tissue Engineering. He's working near San Fransisco and needed a classy scarf to battle the NorCal fog. I used 1 skein of Hobby Lobby's "I Love this Yarn" in Royal.

I added a selvage stitch to each end and when the scarf was done, went through and made a garter stitch border because the cable pattern tends to roll. When it was all done, I blocked it so it would stay flat, it still doesn't lay completely flat.
I have a PDF of the pattern if you'd like a copy, just email me!

Grape Long Scarf

I saw this yarn in a craft store and just bought it without knowing what to do with it. It was my first winter in Michigan and I thought i'd want a long scarf, so I started knitting and didn't stop until the yarn was gone, and this scarf is the result. I used 1 skein of Homespun, i think in Grape and some large needles. Its about 6 inches wide and 10 feet long. I usually fold it in half and stick the two ends through the loop around my neck and stuff the ends into my coat. If its a really cold day, I can wrap part of the scarf around my head once or twice then around my neck. Its very versatile.
Thank you to Andrew who suffered through the cold for me and took these pictures in the beautiful woods near MSU.

Cowl neck sweater

I started this sweater the summer before I moved to Michigan because I knew I'd need some cool-weather clothes. I also made it before I knew about ease, so the sleeves are a bit longer and the whole thing a bit bigger than I expected, but its quite soft and warm. I found the pattern in Knitted Sweaters for Her, and used Lion Brand Homespun in Wedgewood. I can tell how far I've come as a knitter when I wear this sweater.

"Denim" Newsies hat

This was my second try on the Newsies hat, I wanted a hat that went with my darker clothes, and thought this "denim" yarn would do the trick. It being the second time I made the pattern, I knew where to change the pattern to make it look the way I wanted. You can't see the cables as much with this yarn, so I didn't bother putting any sort of design on the stockinette panels. I again used the pattern from Stitch n Bitch Nation Bernat's denimstyle yarn in Jordache. The brim is made with plastic mesh, and since I happened to have a whole sheet leftover from an embroidery type project from long ago, I went ahead and cut it into brims, so now I seem to have committed myself to making about 5 more. I made one for Genie, one for Louann, and now Andrew and Kara want one, I'm running out fast!

Evan's Steve Zissou hat

This was one of the earlier things I made, its a hat for my little brother, Evan. It was modeled after the hats worn in the Life Aquatic. It was made with Lion Brand Wool-Ease in simple 1x1 rib, and the stoplight is just buttons sewn on black felt sewn onto the hat. Apparently, he likes it, and actually wears it!

Cable Crazy for Genie

Congrats to Genie who moved to Oregon to start grad school! To celebrate the move and the need for warmer clothes, Genie commissioned me to make a set of winter accessories using cables and green wool; I used Lion Brand Wool Ease in Forest Green Heather (which is now discontinued, though I have several skeins left from other projects.
I used my Newsies hat pattern from the Stitch N' Bitch book, but put a diamond stitch on the panels.
Next, I chose a fun Celtic cable pattern and made it into a scarf and put a simple garter stitch edge on it. I used size 9 needles for the main part and size 8 for the edges.
Then, I chose another cable pattern and made some gloves, using size 3 needles for the cuffs and size 4 for the main glove.



I always feel a little like Edward Scissorhands when I knit gloves:

New skill: Twisting cables

Willow's Backpack

I'm moving soon, and so I've been going through my yarn stash to try and make use of it all before I leave, and I came across a few skeins of Lion Jiffy, and so I looked it up on their website to see what I could make. I'd also been looking for something to make for my high school friends' daughter. When she was a baby, I made a baby sweater that she soon grew out of, and I figured this was something that would take longer to grow out of. Plus, its machine wash- and dry-able, and that's helpful when you have kids. I found the free pattern online, and made it with Lion Brand Jiffy in Light Pink in garter stitch, and I added a crab stitch around the opening in a darker pink, along with the button. It turned out to be about 11 inches high. But beware, I couldn't match my gauge to theirs, even changing needles, so I used 10.5 needles and the ratio technique:
I knitted a gauge swatch, and divided how many rows it took me by their rows = row ratio,
divided how many stitches it took me by their stitches = stitch ratio, and then multiplied my ratio by how many stitches or rows they said to do.

New skills learned: I-cord