Boldly Frivolous Knitting

Ok, it's a pillow, but in its naked-foamness it was so ugly all I could do was stuff it under the bed. Make it go away! It didn't fit into the Zen-ness of my new home.

Well, of course I eventually came to my senses and knit a cover for it, what else would I do? I certainly wouldn't sew something. I picked two colors that would go well with the living room decor, black and tan. I devised a design for making one side black, the other tan, and the strip that joined them a combination of both colors, to pull it all together. The two circles are knit up as the center of Elizabeth Zimmermann's Plain Shawl on page 81 of "Knitters Almanac", each 21" in diameter for my, imagine this, 21" diameter pillow. The connecting strip is one of the cleverest patterns I've ever knit, from Barbara G. Walker's "A Treasury of Knitting Patterns", the Royal Quilting pattern on page 72.

As I knit, I wondered if the ugly foam would show through. I didn't know until all the knitting was done and the pieces completely sewn together. An awful lot of work if the result was...something awful.

Needless to say, I'm quite pleased with the result. I used chunky acrylic yarn (for strength, rather than wool) and size 8 needles.

Be bold and devise a pillow cover of your own, or you can get A Treasury of Knitting Patterns off of my Powell's Bookshelf.

Back in July of 2011 there really was a Sock Summit at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, OR - honest! Knitters and dyers, shepherds and spinners, designers and test knitters all joined to raise more than $5,000 for Médecins Sans Frontières, collect hundreds of knitted items for charity, inspire someone to knit 171 stitches in just three minutes, spin and knit a sock while the freshly-shorn sheep stood there watching, and spontaneously flash dance.

There may never be another Sock Summit but why not create an event of your own? A Sock Hop, or a Hats Off To... event, or a Knitting Talent Show?

I knitted up this adorable teacup and saucer, using the yarn at hand (worsted weight) and the larger size needles. Now I need to wait for smaller needles and sport yarn to start again. But I did find out how easy these things are to knit - super easy.

The whole bit is bigger than I imagined (and the pattern described); and the dark brown looks purple in my picture.

However, while I wait for reinforcements from a yarn shop, I'm dreaming of knitting one of these even BIGGER. Big enough for a toddler or two to sit in. What fun!

Mad Tea Party, anyone?!

Watch out, granddaughters, grandma is making plans...stay tuned for the continuing story of the Fiesta Tea Set: Getting It Right!

Here's the link to the pattern for the Fiesta Tea Set

UPDATE: I've knitted up another cup and saucer with a slightly finer yarn and the smaller needles as required in the pattern, and as you can see, not much difference in the finished size. Good enough, though. I don't want to knit with size 1 needles; I suppose I could almost substitute toothpicks!

I needed a warm wool hat but I wanted one with style. I chose the pattern Cloche Divine by Meghan Jones at Little Nutmeg Productions.

The pattern is simply divine, so cute, classy, and comfortable all rolled into one. I chose a rather drab colored yarn to knit with, a brown with hints of green and purple, because it would go with all of my coats and jackets.

When the hat was completed, I wore it out on a date and then the next day couldn't find it anywhere. I called my date, and he searched his car and it was nowhere to be found. I had a brainstorm - maybe it had fallen out on the ground, as I remembered removing it in the car. There it was, a little damp but no worse for the adventure.

The hat was determined to get away though. The same thing happened again when I journeyed a ways with my housemate and was picked up by another friend at her son's house. I got to the friend's home, and again, no hat. It took me a while to contact my housemate, and sure enough, her son had found my hat on the ground. And then promptly lost it again...

I ended up moving, and now, at my new home, I'm still waiting to be reunited with my hat. I phoned, emailed, whined, got angry, pleaded...to no avail. Her son's house had eaten my hat, or so she said. Finally, the son's girlfriend was moving out and while gathering up her stuff, she found the hat. It needed a washing so she washed it.

According to my ex-housemate, the washing "changed" the hat. Ugh, it must be somewhat felted. But, she assured me, it should still fit me because it fits her.

Does this mean she is trying to keep the hat?

Waiting until I visit her (I do believe she is holding it hostage until I come visit), I'm thinking I should maybe knit myself another, which I wanted to do anyways. Unfortunately, I'll have to knit it with odds and ends of yarn because I've used up my "monthly allotment" for yarn purchases. I have to budget myself to still be able to eat, etc....

So, how would I knit this hat in, say, two colors? I think I'll attempt to knit it with the "bow" short rows in a contrasting color, just for kicks, and maybe make it look as though there's a hatband, too. So this traveling hat may be knit up in some more exciting colors sooner than I planned - yay!

UPDATE: The hat has returned. It is somewhat felted, as I feared. It's fuzzy and no longer fits me well at all. Sigh...this is a sad moment, may we have a minute of silence as we mourn the yarn, time, and energy it took to create this lovely object....

Ok. Moving on, I've already ordered more yarn. I couldn't decide on a color so I chose two. Even that was difficult. I'll put up pictures just as soon as the yarn arrives and I can knit one up. An added bonus is that the hat knits up so quickly.

Yet another UPDATE: I decided I could not wear the hat in its shrunken, felted state so I passed it on to a charity. I've received the yarn I ordered and knit up another, in almost the same color as in the photo. It is drying out after blocking, so I'll photograph it asap. All is well in Hatland.

Final update (until I decide I need another color!) - here is me in my new hat, a lovely bright green just in time for spring!

The knitting term "frogging" is a reference to how a frog says "ribbit". In knitting, we occasionally have to decide to either knit on or rip it out. Voila, "rip it" - or frogging.

Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the knit hat I was gifted with, but suffice it to say the hat was an Andean style hat with earflaps, and it was knit out of some fairly coarse to the touch llama's wool. I have a fairly large head and the hat was too small. A-frogging I went, ending up with about 6 or so small balls of various colored yarns. Now what?

First I turned my balls of yarn into hanks and dampened them, leaving hanks hanging to dry on all the available doorknobs in the house. This took most of the crimp out of the once-knit and therefore kinky yarn.

I wanted a tam sort of hat with just a little slouch to it. After Googling a while, I found this Berry Pi Hat pattern.

I ordered my yarns from the darkest shade to the lightest, and cast on with the darkest. I knit a ribbing of k2p2 for about an inch, then purled one round, then k another inch of ribbing. This makes for a nice hem when the hat is completed. Then I simply knit until each color was used up, or as in the case of the second to the last color, until there was just a tiny bit of knitting left, then I finished with the almost-white color.

Pleased with the result, I now have a simple hat with just a bit of a tam look to it. I did my own variation, knitting up a hem and inserting a piece of 3/4" elastic in it, then sewing up the hem. Otherwise, the hat would be falling down to my nose every time I bent over. (I know, I know, I should stoop, not bend - but I inadvertently bend almost every time before I remember.)

Even though I'm not the cutest model around, I'll add a pic of me in the hat so you can see how a tilt to one side or the other gives the hat much more character.

By The Way: rinsing your finished coarse-yarn project in warm water with some hair conditioner in it, and not rinsing out the conditioner, leaves the garment somewhat softer. Give it a try sometime.