craf·te·ra·ti

I recently posted about some camo yarn I had kettle dyed. Well last week I finally finished knitting the hat. It’s for my friend and he told me last night that he loves it and it fits perfectly. That’s good because he had claims of a big head, so I made it and it was huge! I had finished it when I realized was too short, even for me. So I undid the crown shaping and added an inch.

My friend didn’t even know I did they dyeing which I take as a compliment. It’s couture baby! I also did the inside band on smaller needles with a single strand, while the rest of that is on 10.5s using 2 strands of Knit Picks Andrean Silk.

I’ve decided my hats deserve real names. So may I please introduce Luella….

Luella has a ruched band that you can’t see so well in these photos. She’s made of KP’s Wool of the Andes (grey) and Lion Brand Wool Ease (green). She needs a large pompom. Luella is also not that pointy. My model’s head is just not a big as mine.

And here is a closeup of the ruching. I had originally planned to do a few rows of ruching, but it’s a lot of work and I am lazy.

I will write up the pattern…someday.

I thought all those ballband dishcloths from Mason Dixon knitter were pretty cool but I don’t have any use for them. Since I’m always looking for new patterns for hat I decided to adapt it. I don’t have the book but the same pattern is readily available on the internet.

It was an interesting knit. I don’t love the colors. I used Patons Classic Merino in green and one of the new ombre colors. I’m a lazy knitter so I always double up my yarn for hats, but that means the colors didn’t shift as they would in a single strand. If I had to do it again I’d make it with Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky and Bulky Handpainted.

So here is the hat with the superpom

here is a detail shot of the pattern

I have both Vogue Stichionary books and I love them. I bookmarked a few patterns that I’ll be using for future hats.

My friend Amanda’s birthday was this week and I needed to send something off for her so I decided to make her a necklace. She broke her arm a few months ago so I decided to make her an agate necklace. One of the metaphysical properties of agate is healing. I got 2 stands of 4mm beads and on of 8mm beads. I’ve made necklaces before, but after the amazing bead flying incident at fuzzy’s bbq last week I wanted to try out knotting.

The smaller bead section is knotted between every 8 beads. The large bead secion has knots between every 3 beads. I used a bead awl so the knotting was pretty simple to do, but I’m surprised I don’t have a blister on my left index finger. Altogether the necklace is about 49″ long. So it can be single, double or triple wrapped.

I also made up a little pouchette for the necklace. Healing stones made me think of the little crochet bags my mom used to make when I was younger. I used to have a collection of stones I carried in the pouch around my neck. I decided to do a simpler version (my moms had patterns) with #3 pearl cotton. I used a 0 crochet hook and double crochet so it went rather quickly.

I’m sending her the necklace with a wee baggie of sea salt for purification. I hope she likes it.

I’ve been doing mini projects at home lately. I sent some stuff out as a gift so I couldn’t post it, but I think it should have been received by now so…

The turquoise trio..knit and crocheted with knit picks shine sport

click to see big

There’s a little headband with a crocheted flower, some baby ballet slippers, and a cable knit wristband (with a nod to Heidi for the idea). I love the Icord fastener on this. I got that from Knitting Over the Edge. And I made all three while watching a Yankees game.

Now on to Aunt Flo’s Bag…yes that’s another tampon holder. This one is a bit fancier. It’s knit with knit picks shine worsted. The final verision has a shiny black dome button too.

Today I knitted up the uterus from knitty.com. I used blue skys cotton (which is lovely) and size 9 needles. I did my first ever i-cord, which I now loathe. It’s a gift for my friend who is graduating from medical school tomorrow and going to be, as she likes to call it, a vag doctor. That’s obsetrican/gynecologist to us layfolk.

look at lola’a cute little paws at the bottom. awww!

This post might be a little TMI for guys, although I’m sure not many are reading it, but anyway…

 I decided I needed a case for my tampons, which tend to like to float around in my handbag. So I grabbed some size 6 needles and some Sugar & Cream cotton and a short while later I had this

I have a whole box full of buttons and strings that come as spares for sweaters and jackets so I stole one of them for this fastener. I want to make another one with a little fancier yarns and maybe some sexy cables. But for now this’ll do.

When I was on the plane to Utah this weekend I knit a hat for a friend. It was sort of a surprise as I knew he was looking for a light blue hat. I like it so much I might just have to keep it since he never even knew he was getting it! Muhaha!

I think it needs a super pompom.

Friday I decided to knit a hat. I had some thin grey wool that was sort of varigated that I had used to make a poncho for Natalie last year, and it was conveniently wound into 2 balls so I could double strand it. I used a k3p2 rib and whipped the hat up pretty quickly. I added a few rows of some leftover Lamb’s Pride Worsted in lilac.

If I could do it over I would have added the lilac rows further down, but oh well. I think I did a little too much shaping on the top as it’s a little pointed, but at least the hat is long enough. The last few hats I’ve knitted have been too short for my ginormous head.

And then I added a gigantic pompom. Pompoms are like a hat panacea…they just make any hat good. I was clever and broke out a circle cutter to make my templates, now I just have to remember not to through them out. I want to try making some hats that incorporate some of the bits of homespun I have that aren’t long enough to make anything out of.

So I got most of my Christmas stuff done. And thankfully the rest I don’t need to finish until next weekend.

So first up is a skein of hand painted yarn for my sister. It’s Lamb’s Pride worsted that I painted using Washfast dye in Magenta and Black. I am so unscientific when I dye..I pretty much eyeball everything but I love the way this came out. I used the leftover dye to paint some roving as well. Now I need to find time to spin that up!

Next up is a Panta for my other sister. The pattern is on craftster.org somewhere. I used Lamb’s Pride worsted and size 8 needles. I also only did 5 repeats.

Last up is a scarf I made for my Grandma in Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk – Orange. I used 3 skeins. I forget what the stitch is called.