Tag: crafting

Fits Like a Glove

With all of the dazzling, intricate stitches and patterns that can take shape in any of knit item you can dream up, sometimes the simple cable just has a certain simplistic appeal.

I happen to love making them; So simple, barely any interruption from the regular knit stitch, just a few select strands weaving around and around, dancing for all time. These in particular made me think of the ocean, with modeled blue waves ebbing and flowing toward the beach of my pale, sandy skin.

Alright, enough lame prose from me today.

This is the perfect time of year for arm warmers, as the temperatures begin to finally rise, but are not quite warm enough for t-shirts alone.  I have tons of arm warmers made from old knee socks because I have an inability to throw anything out, but these are really much nicer.  Especially the fact that they won’t fray at the end, and even have snug little thumb holes.

From the March issue of MagKnits, I might suggest these to someone who’s slightly weary of cables.  It’s a great way to practice, since there’s nothing else more complicated going on.  I was slightly confused over which needle size to select, since I didn’t understand the directions on how to make the stitches “ridged,” so I just knit normally on… Oh, what was it?  Maybe #3 DPN?  I don’t even remember anymore.  They came out very small, which worried me at first, but since I’m a small person, they fit just fine.

I was so happy to use this yarn, since it’s probably been hiding at the very bottom of my stash longer than any of the other skeins.  I only wish I could get more, but strangely enough, I got it for free from a library book that my mom was processing (She works at an elementary school library) because she couldn’t include the extras on the shelf.  Heh, don’t they always say that the best things in life are free?

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Of Cabbages and Kings

When I actually buy a book, whether it be for leisure reading or knitting patterns, it is a rare occasion indeed. I like to think of myself as “thrifty,” but truth be told… I suppose can be rather cheap. That’s what makes my purchase of Knitorama by Rachel Mathews even more of a painfully upsetting let-down.

Tell me, what does this look like to you?

Not only is it a terrible picture, but this is supposed to be a cabbage. Sadly, it looks like a horribly swollen Brussels sprout, some sick joke if you ask me. I really hate it. The picture in the book looked so much nicer… and bigger. Oh, and by the way, what on EARTH is a “yrn”?? It’s definitely not a “yarn,” and it doesn’t even list it in the glossary of terms in the back!

I also tried the facial mask as per a request from my aunt, and yielded similar results. I ended up having to make it up along the way, and try to interpret what those instructions could possibly mean.

Maybe I’m just dense. God knows I can be more than just half a bubble off in the intelligence department… Either that, or the author wrote this while under the influence of some illegal substance. It looked like a really awesome book; Quirky, unique, and with a number of patterns I would actually want to make. I had never seen it anywhere else… but now I guess I’ve figured out why.

Hannah (BitterSweet)4 Comments

Spring Flowers

In a desperate attempt to avoid doing my homework until it was far too late, I began looking through all oft he hundreds of links that I’ve horded throughout my months of browsing various patterns.  I wasn’t ready to start anything big, just enough to make time pass until dinner.  It seems like I just can’t sit still and veg in front of the computer, I always need to keep myself occupied… Which is why I almost always have so many projects, I suppose.

Anyway, I decided that was the perfect time to practice crochet.  Browsing through 

Lemony Lemonade by chance, I discovered a sweet little flower-bobby pin that was so simple, it was really more of a formula than a pattern.

I know; You’re  not impressed.  Well for me, this is a big deal!  It’s probably the most complicated crochet I have completed to date, with DC and SC correctly executed and everything!  Not to mention what wonderful gifts a set or two of these could make for my little cousins…  It was so easy to whip this one up, literally a maximum of 15 minutes to go from a strand of yarn to a flowery pin.

Go a head, try it! It’s certainly a fast, timely endeavor to pull off any day of the week, (Not just Sunday, as my lack of photography skills suggest) and it’s even easy enough for a knitter!

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Sweet ‘n Crafty

Okay, I swear this is the last knit cupcake for a while now.  I just couldn’t help it!  Can’t you see that it would make a perfect pin cushion?  And seeing as that is exactly I needed / wanted / just got tired of the old one, it’s obvious that if I didn’t knit myself my a sweet pin cushion, the gods themselves would would drink my blood.  [Don’t question the logic – Just knit!!]

I don’t say this very often about things that I make, but I really love it.  I bought the pins onsale a while back, and they look like perfect little candies on top.  It’s slightly overstuffed so that it can actually hold the pins instead of having them just slide out.  There’s very little that makes me crazier than cleaning up pins I’ve dropped on the floor… Especially since I usual don’t find them until they’re already lodged in my foot.

Part of me wants to keep making these little beauties until I have a baker’s dozen… Or maybe atleast fill my large silicon muffin pan…

…But I’m trying exceedingly hard to restrain that part. 

Hannah (BitterSweet)9 Comments

Clowning Around

Another attempt out of The World of Knit Toys. I like this one a bit better, as it was much less frustrating to shape. It was just knit flat and then stuffed and sewn together, very simple and fairly rewarding.

I didn’t like how they gave it that ugly embroidered mouth, so I left it out, but under-stuffed it a little to give it a little kisser. Oh, and I decided to omit the bottom fin, since it would just get in the way / look funny, or you would just never even see it.

My little cousin absolutely adores the movie Finding Nemo, so I’m thinking that I’ll save it as a birthday or holiday gift for her.

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Hooked!

For the longest time, I was one of those snobby knitters, who refused to accept crochet into the spectrum of yarn-arts, and was absolutely repulsed to discover that a pattern I had just been drooling over, was in fact crochet. Out of no where, it seemed like everywhere I turned, the crochet patterns I found were actually just… lovely. And it only became harder to stay firm in my belief that knitting was the only way to go once I discovered amigurumi.

Don’t misunderstand I love knitting to death and I like to think that it is my soul’s true crafty calling, but even an old dog can learn new tricks, right?! So, instead of ogling more lovely crochet and cursing the craft because I simply can’t follow it, I decided to get off my ass and learn for once and for all.

Unfortunately, this occurred while I was rotting away in that shitty hospital, with no instructions or people to help. I had no clue what the hell I was doing with my little aluminum hook. My Nana came to visit once and showed me a scallop stitch, (Way to scare the crap out of me! I didn’t follow any of it!) but that only left me making what I call “finger hats.” Trying to crochet in a circle, I end up with a curled edge and a half-egg sort of shape, which could have made lovely little finger puppets, I suppose. Nonetheless… that had not been what I was hoping to make. And for a while, it was my end product every single time.

Finally, after a week or two of bullshitting around like that, I realized that needed to actually increase to keep it from curving under. What a novel idea! So here is what I finally made; My very first crocheted piece!

Fried eggs, anyone?

I was completely ecstatic – I had really learned how to crochet on my own! But upon closer look… the stitches don’t look quite right. That’s because… they aren’t really single crochet.

Damn! I think I may have been making slip-stitches all the way around instead!

Thankfully, I was finally able to purchase The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller, so now I can see the error in my.. er, egg. I have never laid eyes on more comprehensive instructions or attractive glossy photos. I want to make every single pattern in that book, despite my nonexistent skill level at crochet. Honestly though, I would have never figured it out at all without this godly piece of writing, and I highly, highly recommend it to every one else out there… Even knitters.

Hannah (BitterSweet)2 Comments