Pasture & Sky Hat

Project Name: Pasture & Sky
Pattern Name: Erich's A&F Knockoff Hat
Yarn: Lion Brand Hometown USA in Washington Denim & Lion Brand Thick & Quick in Grass. Hat weighed in at 110 grams so I used 64 yards approximately.
Needle: Us 15 for most of it and then 13 Double points for the bind off
Size: Adult
Love: ♥♥♥♥ Lots of love. It's not my favorite I have made of this pattern (that would be the red/gray/black from earlier this week)

You can find my Ravelry Project Notes HERE.

Another charity hat for the Pine Ridge Reservation. This is #2 and I am looking at my stash so I can cast on another!

This hat I had intended to be shorter, but I ran out of the green yarn on the last three rows! So I improvised and added a final blue stripe and then bound off in the blue. I think the result is pretty good. When you put it on you can raise and lower the brim to cover your ears better if it's needed. I forgot how nice that option is - too many beanies knit lately I think. You just don't get the same ear coverage with the shorter beanie style.

I may have to knit more like this!

More Coffee Please!

 

Well I have just been having a grand old time making up coffee cuffs from left over scraps around my house. The cuff above is made form left over Berocco Borealis yarn that I made my mittens from about a week ago.  And the cuff below is the left over yarn from my Slope hat made from Chloe & Spud Outer.

 

The Borealis cuff I decided to alternate a seed stitch with a stockinette. I like ribbed coffee cuffs because they grab the cup better - but I get tired of the standard ribbed look. I thought this would be a nice change and it worked out well. I will include my pattern notes for this one below and you can also find them on my Pattern notes on Ravelry.

 

The spud cozy is just a simple seed stitch pattern. I used under 11 yards of this yarn on size 17 needles. Cast on 8 stitches and worked seed stitch until I ran out of yarn. I stretched it a bit to get it to fit the mug - but it grips nicely! Simple wip stitch the ends together. Easy as pie! You can find my notes for this on Ravelry as well.

 

Pattern for Coffee Cuff a'la Borealis

 

Size 10 needles.
Cast on 12 stitches.
I did seed stitch with chunks of stockinette to give it a little bit of a ribbed effect without being a traditional rib. The one I made took less than 20 yards (18 meters) of Berocco Borealis yarn.

1. k1,p1 across
2. p1, k1 across
3. k1,p1 across
4. p1, k1 across
5. k1,p1 across
6. p1, k1 across
7. k1,p1 across
8. p1, k1 across
9. knit across 10 purl across
10. knit across
11. purl across

I repeated these 12 rows 3 times. Then I measured against my coffee cup and I was a little short, so I added a row or two more of stockinette, and then added a little more seed stitch until it fit around the mug perfect. Then I bound off and wip stitched it together.

A Cuppa Joe

 

 

 

Our local Target has a Starbucks in it, so after a shopping haul I will occasionally indulge in a nice big cuppa Joe. This last time I pulled out a cozy I knit to wrap around my coffee and it was so icky. You know how stuff gets when it's been in the bottom of your purse too long and even though your pets don't go in your purse somehow (magic?) their hair does go in your purse and will collect on any knit item you carry. So I was a little embarrassed by my hand knit cozy covered in paper scraps and dog hair and decided to make myself some new ones.

 

The Pattern: It is a free pattern on Ravelry called "Woven Cable Coffee Cup Sleeve" by Linda Thach.

The Yarn: I used left over worsted weight Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride 100% wool. I used 21 grams which is about 36 yards (33m) of yarn.

The Needle: I knit this on Size 5 needles, and I used double points. I just thought it would be easier with the cables to have the double points. When I make this again I will do it on straight needles instead of double points, but I will probably keep the dp's handy for the cables and for the provisional cast on.

The results: I really like it. I learned how to do a provisional cast on and then kitchnered the two sides together in the end, although you can cast on anyway you like and then just stitch it together as well. I had never done a cable like this before either, so it was fun to learn a new cable. I almost always hold my stitches the wrong way when I cable, and this was no exception. I had to rip out after a pattern repeat and start over. (Why do I find Front and Back so confusing?) Anyway - now that I have made this once I am eyeing other left over balls of yarn and thinking about how many coffee cozies I could have in a week or two! What else can you make with 40 yards of left overs?

 

My project notes on this can be found on my project page on Ravelry "Pretty Pink Cable Cozy".

 

 

It's Fugly and it's Finished!

I HAVE FINISHED MY FUGLY BLANKET AND I LOVE IT!

This took me four months to hook up and it was a real learning experience. It was really fun to just grab a ball out of my scrap bin and add it onto the growing blanket. I methodically weighed each scrap and ball on my handy scale and recorded that on note cards to enter onto my project page on Ravelry. My yardage ended up being 2620.1 yards although that is a bit of a guestimate since most of my scraps did not have ball bands, but I think most cotton yarns have similar weights and yardage per gram - so I am pretty comfy with my guestimate. (You can read the list with all the weights and stuff on my project page on Ravelry.)

Sometimes I would try and place colors next to each other - and sometimes I would "need to work with pink" and would just add pink yarn where ever it landed. I started out thinking I would just use up my scrap bin, but I ended up running out pretty quick, so I found myself crocheting wash cloths on my lunch hour and then going home that night and hooking the rest of the ball onto the blanket!

Emma enjoyed me placing a blanket out on the grass for her and she had some nice rolling around on it. Any time I lay out a knitting/crochet project she has to come over and lay down on it. It's funny. I appreciate her being so kind to my knitwear though. She only ran off with one hat and no damage was done. And she's just the cutest little model!

I did a test run for possible future picnic's and the size is really good. I can sit here and have a nosh with Emma no problem. I think my hubby could even squeeze in! Nice! :)

Here's a shot of the denim blue border in single crochet. I think I did 6 rounds but it might just be five. I have a hard time counting rows still and I didn't track this as I went. I just added rows until it told me it was done. The corners have three single crochet into the corner stitch for the turns. I think a darker border would probably look better (in hindsight) but this color is more pet hair forgiving - so I call it a win.

There is also a little bit of pucker from my border - but not enough to really bug me. I suspect going from Extended Single Crochet to Single Crochet may have been part of the problem here - but I like the slightly denser fabric around the edge of the blanket.

I did crochet blocks of color together in areas which left ridges all over the back. I decided they bothered me too much and went back and sewed them all down. Not very pretty - but like I said. LEARNING EXPERIENCE. Also - It's called a fugly blanket - so yeah. No pressure to look pretty.

The size is perfect. I can wrap it around my shoulders and it just reaches my feet. Since it's all scrap cotton I can wash and dry the crap out of it. If I stain it I can bleach it. And it sleeps like a dream. I finished sewing in my last stray end last night and within 30 minutes after I did that I was sound asleep under it in bed. Just love it.

Fugly Update

I thought I would update on my Fugly blanket this week. I spent a couple hours last night weaving in the ends and tacking down the fugly seams I created when I crocheted chunks together. Today I pulled my blanket our and measured it and took a few pictures. It's currently 56 inches by 52 inches (142 cm x 132cm). I feel like if I make it too much larger it will hit "blanket" or "afghan" level rather than throw. I wonder if there is a real division in the those or if that is just my feelings? Anyway - I don't want a HUGE blanket. I want a mini blanket for throwing over my shoulders in bed at night or wearing on my lap while I knit. My internal voice told me I was there.

My next challenge is picking out the color I want to edge it in. I THINK I have it figured out now, but honestly I have changed my mind three times this morning already, so.... Yeah.

My only requirement is that it be in my stash. I have a whole bin of cotton - so that's really not an issue I don't think. This whole blanket is an experiment and since I have declared it FUGLY from day one there really is nothing I can do to it to make it worse. That really takes the pressure off.

In other news, my weekly weight in was pretty successful considering how much I consumed over the 4th of July holiday! I gained about half a pound this week and I was pretty happy with that since I was sure it would be much worse.

Another blessing is our heat wave finally broke. We hit 102F (38.88C) yesterday and it was over a week of temperatures like that. Last night we had storms roll in and today we are a bit cooler - so yay for that!

Is anyone doing the Stephen West KAL that starts next Friday? Lord help me - I signed up for it! I don't work with small needles  - like ever - and I am thinking if I am lucky I will be knitting this up on a size 4, but the yarn states size 1-3 needles so I may end up smaller than I think. Uffda. What have I gotten myself into?!?! My other concern is that this KAL will only be halfway over when the Olympic Games starts and I have a project geared up for that as well! So.... Yeah. We will have to see how this goes!

It's Just a Triangle - Shawl

I haven't been sharing my WIPS very much lately. Many of the projects I have been starting are me trying to find something portable I can take to work and do on my lunch hour. This usually means in the morning when I am frantic and tired I am looking at my yarn and at Ravelry and trying to find something FAST FAST FAST. And a girl can only knit or crochet so many wash clothes before she burns out on them.

About a week ago that morning dance translated into me grabbing a ball of pink yarn, a size I(5.5) crochet hook, and watching quick videos on

A) How to start a crochet project with an Adjustable Ring

B)What does DC mean again? Double Crochet? What is that again?

And BOOM I started on "It's just a triangle - Shawl". (A free pattern on Ravelry - very easy and addictive!) After working with the bubble gum pink for a day or two I thought - Wow. This is REALLY pink. huh. I had a bunch of scrap black yarn in a similar weight so I thought I would alternate pink and black. I am now almost out of pink yarn and will soon be finishing this up. I spent some quality time outside yesterday talking to my hubby and working on this in between projects. I got my tomato cages up, cleaned and refilled my Hummingbird feeder and my Finch Feeder, little jobs like that.

The colors are very bold - but I am really enjoying them! Once the black gets boring and eternal I throw some pink in and POP it wakes me up.

This will be great for throwing on my shoulders when I watch TV or when I get up in the morning and have to run outside to see what the dog is barking at. It's all scrap acrylic - so I can just throw it in the washer and dryer when It gets dirty. Easy Peasy.

Hopefully I will have some shots of this all finished up soon!

Crochet Charity Scarf the Second (2012)

I finished my second crochet charity scarf to send off to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. This one used 163 yards of worsted weight acrylic (Bernat Mosaic) and I again did the Extended Single Crochet Stitch. I chained 13 stitches and then worked the extended single crochet until I ran out of yarn.

I carried this in my work bag and just worked on it at my lunch. Very easy and it used up the yarn left over from the scarf I made my co-worker for her birthday. Very win win!

I would like to branch out and practice more kinds of stitches with charity scarves. What a great way to practice, stash bust and do a good deed all in one shot!

Crochet some fugly

Last weekend we had my Mother in Law over to celebrate her 60th birthday. I always like to have a little project to work on while we sit and talk so I grabbed a ball of yarn from my cotton yarn scrap bin and started to do a little crochet. I try to do a little bit every once in awhile just to keep the ability. I am really new at crochet (Made my first washcloth in November last year) and I cannot read instructions yet. I will get there eventually, but for now I just do some simple practice bits.

I knit up the left over yarn from my headband I knit last weekend. This made a pretty nice sized square. Then I thought I would just add to it with different colors and just keep using up yarn practicing.

Add a little chunk of teal and a bigger chunk of navy. So far not too ugly. I was really enjoying how this hooked up and loved that I was burning through some left over scrap cotton. Crochet is really fast and you can really burn through the yarn.

Here it is Friday and suddenly the blanket (because that is what I was going for after the first couple squares added on so quickly) has turned into something a little big fugly. I am going to keep going even though I am pretty icked out by the product. I keep thinking how awesome a cotton blanket would be for the camper, and if it's really fugly then I won't mind throwing it on the ground to sit on at a campsite or what have you. Also - it can go right in the washer and dryer when I am done - so there is that too.

I confess - I had the thought that maybe I should make it into a Dog blanket. Our dog loves her little blankets and curls all the way under a blanket at night. (She has her own bed and own blankets.) So in the back of my mind I have that little thought process. I also have the thought that I can always bleach the crap out of this and mute the colors quite a bit. Some of the cotton yarn is very soft though - so I fear it would destroy that yarn a little.

Anyway, It's been a fun experiment. I wish crochet didn't hurt my wrist and shoulder so much. It's really addictive how fast you get product (It's 27 inches long by 16 inches deep right now) and I could really get into it if it didn't hurt my body so much!

I think my next crochet project will have to be something pretty like the blanket that Knitting Nix is making. I love her happy colors and how NOT ugly her end product is. I have a lot of stash just begging to be used.

Scrappy Draft Blocker

I finally finished my draft blocker for the front door. I started this back in June with left over yarn from my afghan I was knitting on the tread mill. I just added scraps in no order and when the scraps started getting thin I went on the scraps from my next afghan. All yarn is Brown Sheep Bulky and I used about Four skeins worth by the time I finished. I ran it through the washer on Hot twice and then the dryer once. Then I filled it with feline pine cat litter (around 15 pounds worth!) and seamed up the end with a yarn that was close in color. It's pretty perfect.

The pattern can be found http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/60492A.html?r=1 in it's original form. I made mine larger so I could knit it on circular needles and avoid a seam up the back.

I really like it! I got to use a bunch of scrap yarn and it might help keep the heat costs down a fraction - and our house a tiny bit warmer.