Snuggling Time!

I have completed Banff and I'm ever-so excited. I actually finished it late last night/early this morning, but was too tired to prance around in it. Plus, by then it was snuggling time with the boy anyways ^_^ I bound it off a little too tightly, and did not realize this until I had alreayd cut the yarn and tied it off. With a little bit of stretching I was able to fix it. It can be a little tight when pulling over my head, depending on the angle, but overall it works. I'll just have to remember to bind off even more loosely on my grandma's sweater.

Speaking of which, I have just begun to cast on for my modified Banff. In my last post, I provided you all with my alterations to the pattern and a link to the original. I did not post the complete pattern, as I rewrote it because I was not sure if that went against any licensing on the pattern. Luckily the original is free, and I don't mind who uses my alterations.

Pictures!

Here is my completed Banff. 

My beautiful new yarn for mini-Banff

I'm in: my futon

Feeling: excited

Listening to: The Murmurs--You Suck

Swatch Bunny

So I was browsing the web today, looking for bulky sweater patterns, and somehow came across this bunny in my search. To be quite honest, I do not know what bunnies have to do with sweaters, but I am glad I found this. I thought it was just so cute, and I took it upon myself to whip one up.

Oh so cute! 
I love bunnies, my whole family does. We currently have and adorable mini lop-earred bunny name Angie. She is the cutest little thing--all peach and fluffy. Before Angie we had Flopsy, a black dwarf lop. She was so sweet and cuddly--like a puppy. We had her six years before she died. After having a bunny-free house for a few years, we realized we couldn't handle being without one, and we bought Angie. The search for her was very long, as dwarf lops (which apparently aren't dwarf lops at all, but holland lops), are not that easy to find. We had to go through a breeder. We actually waited for about 6 months until last April, as we wanted another black bunny. However, we saw Angie and just fell in love. The rest is history.

(Flopsy's pic forthcoming)



Angie ^_^ (she loves sitting on the vent for some reason...)
In memory, of Flopsy, I whipped up a black bunny, using the pattern above. It only took me one evening (a side note to anyone teaching knitting: this is a great project to do with a first-timer's learning swatch!) I actually did my own thing with the ears, as I had not printed the pattern and had already turned off my computer. In the end it all worked out, and I have my own little bunny. I call her Flopsy 2 ^_^




For those interested, here's my ear pattern:
CO 8
rows 1-10: st st
row 11: k2, k2tog, k2tog, k2
row 12: purl
row 13: k1, k2tog, k2tog, k1
row 14: purl
row 15: k2tog, k2tog
row 16: purl
row 17: k2tog
tie off, and continue to follow original pattern
(purl side is the inner ear)

I'm in: Macomb

Feeling: touched

Listening to: Troubled Hubble--Man vs Duck

Playing with Lace Patterns

As I mentioned in my first post, one of my knitting projects was a heat pack cover. This was a special request made by my mom. She is a big fan of those heat packs---the big long rectangular ones with rice, etc inside. She had asked that I knit a cover for hers. Why? I am unsure, but seeing as how she really wanted this, and I had no other knitting projects in queue, I took it up.

Heat pack extravaganza! 
Unfortunately I would have needed her heat pack while I was at school to make this for her, but she was not one to give it up. To fix that problem, I made her one. It's your normal rice-filled heat pack, in a pretty purple material, and I added some lavender inside to make it smell pretty (plus, lavender is supposed to be good for you--it helps you relax, I believe). The heat pack made, I set on to kitting a pretty cover for it. My plan was to make the heat pack purple and then make a green cover for it with a nice flowery pattern in it. I found this lace pattern somewhere online (I do not remember where anymore), and slightly adjusted the spacing. At the time, I did not think to knit in the round, and instead knit it up flat and seamed it. It may have been some extra work, but I did learn the mattress seam out of it ^_^

The pattern:
7 rows: stockinette stitch
Row 1: k3, k2tog, yo, k2, yo, k2tog, k8, k2tog, yo, k2, yo, k2tog, k3
Row 3: k2, k2tog, yo, k4, yo, k2tog, k6, k2tog, yo, k4, yo, k2tog, k2
Row 5: k3, k2tog, yo, k2, yo, k2tog, k8, k2tog, yo, k2, yo, k2tog, k3
Row 7: k11, k2tog, yo, k2, yo, k2tog, k11
Row 9: k10, k2tog, yo, k4, yo, k2tog, k10
Row 11: k11, k2tog, yo, k2, yo, k2tog, k11
*purl between each row as typed above
*repeat rows 1-11 8 times, then do rows 1-5 once more
7 rows: stockinette stitch

I knit the whole thing flat, starting with 24 rows of stockinette stitch before beginning the pattern above (this point marks the first fold). After the pattern above, I continued in stockinette stitch and ended about 7 rows short, leaving a gap for the heat pack to slide into. I then seamed it using a mattress stitch. It is 22" long.

Looking back, the gap was not really necessary, and it probably would have been easier to knit in the round, binding off and casting back on for 2 simultaneous rows in the back, having only to seam the ends (or if you know how to co and bo as a seam, you could do that...I don't know how though u_u).

    
The lace pattern is called cat's paw, and I found it at Wendy Knits

The individual pieces:


(more pics forthcoming)
And the final assembled result:

(pics forthcoming)

I'm in: Macomb

Feeling: artistic

Listening to: System of a Down--Lonely Day

Lace Gloves are Pretty

This project was either my second or third. I left it out of the last post because it was a bit more detailed and involved. The scarf I actually started two years ago, after I finished the one for my sister. I can't quite remember if I started this scarf or the pink one first, but I definitely finished this one last. Originally this scarf was to be a Christmas present for my grandma 2 years ago. However, I was using much smaller needles and a finer yarn than I previously had, and I made the scarf much wider and longer.

The result: I did not have enough time, nor did I realize how much I would need for this project. Having a whole year until the next Christmas to finish it, I took on a more daunting task.

The saga begins...

I was upset about not having the scarf finished, but it turned out to be a good thing, as my cousin had made a scarf for my grandma. Originally, I was very upset about this, but as time went on I was ok. I realized she used yarn that hid the stitches, and I was proud of myself for using such a finer yarn that would show the detail of my stitches. That night my grandma found out about my scarf project, and the two of us started talking knitting and crocheting--it was pretty sweet. She had taught me to crochet when I was little, and now she was learning knitting just as I was. I was excited to talk to her about my project and show her my work.

My original intent, as suggested by my mom, was to finish the scarf for my grandma's birthday. However, her birthday is in May, so I scratched that idea--not to mention she already knew about the scarf. My next idea was to make a set of gloves to go with it. This way I could still give her the scarf, but the gloves would be an element of surprise for the gift. My first task was finding a pair of pretty, elegant gloves for my small, dainty grandma. I found this charming lace glove pattern online, and set to work. Now this being my first non-scarf project, and really my third project ever, it was a bit of a task (I was also limited in time again, because it took me a while to come to this realization and then find a pattern). It took me two months, and I was almost afraid I would miss my deadline again, but I pulled through. Last Christmas my grandma was the proud recipient of a scarf and glove set. She was so impressed that I had knit it all--especially the gloves (modeled by my sister):





Unfortunately, I didn't think to catch a picture of my grandma with the gloves and scarf, but I was still able to catch her happy face (and Punky's) ^_^

I'm in: Macomb

Feeling: nostalgic

Listening to: Rise Against--Paper Wings

My First Knitting Projects

So the first ever knitting projects I did were, of course, scarves! Each scarf was made for someone in my family over the course of 2 years or so (what can I say, sometimes I get so side-tracked). My first three...

This first scarf was made for my little sister about two years ago. I made it out of that eyelash yarn, you know the kind that is ever-so popular (or was 2 years ago). My sister was pretty into these scarves at the time, so as my first-ever project I took it on. I figured that this way, if I made any mistakes you couldn't tell ^_^ I used a pretty standard pattern that was popular for these scarves, and was pretty proud of my results:

This next scarf was either my second or third project which I finished about a year or so ago (I can't quite remember...I think it may have actually come in as number 3, but was done while I was in the middle of number 2--a two part project). In any event, it was a pretty simple scarf. I don't remember what kind of yarn it was (I think it was a sort of baby afghan yarn, but as you can tell by the pictures it was pretty bulky and fuzzy--my mom also wanted a very soft, cozy scarf and I thought this yarn was perfect:

(pics forthcoming)

This project was my fourth, and I finished it this past winter/spring. It was a request, actually, by my brother. He originally asked for a scarf made out of multi-colored yarn. It sounded to me like he was looking for that self-striping kind, but he said he didn't want stripes. His description was a comparison to this blue multi-toned yarn his friend's sister was knitting with. Having never seen it myself, I was a little lost on what he was looking for. I looked around for some red and black yarn, but didn't find anything I really liked, so I resorted to using red and black yarns knit together. I think the end result was pretty good, and I was able to avoid patterning like my brother wanted. Using two yarns also let me knit a skinnier and shorter scarf that would still be pretty warm during those Chicago winters:

(pics forthcoming)

I'm in: Macomb

Feeling: amused

Listening to: The Shins--Caring is Creepy