Knitiot Me!

In the blog today:
1. WIPs
2. Knitiot Me
3. Life


Works In Progress

I'm still trying to find a cool name for this section that would either reflect the SlowKnitter name, the f1bercat name (my name on Ravelry), or just crafting in general.

In the last update post I forgot to include 1 new project sheet.  I am making a baby kimono for our old baby sitter's new baby.  We met this girl/woman  when we lived in Houston, Texas.  She was in high school way back then.  She was an absolutely wonderful baby sitter for our (then) 3 kids while I got my Master's Degree in Mathematics Education  at the University of Houston, and the Doc, did his residency in Radiology at Baylor College of Medicine at the Texas Medical Center.  We moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, so the Doc could continue on studying Neuro-Radiology at Harvard, and Old Friend Beth followed us there !  (not really following us, but she did come) to attend Boston University.  So we were able to have her sitting expertise and friendship there as well.  She is now living in England, married to a Scot, and has 2 boys and this new baby girl (whose name I can't remember right now).  Congratulations Old Friend!

Knitting

Name of project: Old Friend Beth's Baby Girl's Garter Stitch Baby Kimono

for:  New Baby Girl

Start Date:  December 31, 2012

Completion Date: 

Pattern Used:   Garter Stitch Baby Kimono by Joji Locatelli

Size: 6 month

Yarn:      Name: Palette

                Company: KnitPicks

                Weight: Fingering

                Fiber: 100% wool

                Color(s): Blue Note Heather, Icord in Grizzly Heather

                Purchased from: KnitPicks

                Amount used:  bought 1 ball/skein of each.  Hope it's enough

Needles/Hooks:  US size 1 circular

Notes:  Read ahead on the pattern, and realized that I would need 3 different "balls" for when the pattern splits.  Since I have already started, and don't want to run out anyway, I ordered 2 more balls of the blue heather.  It's relatively cheap.

I am 3 rows away from the first button hole.  The pattern directions say:  make a button hole. LOL! I have never made one before.  Thank goodness I have some good reference books.  I shall probably use The Knitting Answer Book by Margaret Radcliffe

Anyway, here is what it looks like so far:

I'm trying to decide between the 2 buttons, but will probably go with the teddy bears.  Can you tell they are teddy bears?  It seems so huge in a way.  Of course, as a kimono it will fold over the front.  And I am making the 6 month size to be safe.  I checked the Craft Yarn Council's standards page for sizes, and it is looking correct.


Lewk's Red Hot Sweater

This sweater is for a good friend I met playing Aion.  He is in Afghanistan right now, and he tells me it's freezing there.  He wants a red sweater, hence the name.  I have finished the ribbing on the back and the first row of pattern:

There is a story about the yarn in this sweater, but that is for the Knitiot Me section =)

 

Bláthnat

So this is the Mock (Mystery Sock) for the Sock Knitters Anonymous group in Ravelry.  I am double dipping with the Solid Socks group in that the color for January is gray, black, or white, and I am making gray socks.

We have the first 2 clues so far,

the cuff:

and the leg:

The next clue will be released on Saturday night (probably) at 9 pm pst or soon after that. 


Crochet
Luke's Graduation Afghan  & James's University of Arizona Afghan

I have finished the January squares for the 2012 crochet block-a-month cal (crochet a long) on Ravelry.  I am using acrylic yarn, and it is a bit tough to work with after using such gorgeous wool and alpaca yarns lately. The colors are super bright also.  But the afghans will be easy to wash, and that is important I think for college boys.

Luke's is being made in his high school's colors (dark blue, light blue and white), and James's in the U of Arizona's colors (red, white, and blue)

this is the Drop in the Bucket 12" Square, designed by Janie Herrin:

for Luke:

 and for James:

The Pretty Petals - 12" square, designed by Melinda Miller
for Luke:

and for James:

And the 6" for January is 16-Circles Square, by Beatriz Medina

for Luke:

and for James:

Why are there 2 of the 6" 16 Circles Square for Luke?  Read on to the Knitiot Me section, and you will see.

I am alternating the outside color for Luke's squares, and for James's, I am finishing them all with Dark Blue.

Sewing
Don Quixote Variation Costume

I have made this "Bolero Jacket" and shirt in 2 pieces, but not exactly what you would think.  The "jacket" sleeves are actually a part of the shirt.  You (or I) do this when making ballet tunics because the dancer needs lots of movement and the jacket or tunic usually needs to be super tight both so it doesn't get in the dancer's way especially if he is partnering, and so you can show off his body  (after all, you can't see the movement if the costumes are big and bulky).  You don't want the costume to pull at the shoulders, so the sleeves aren't attached to the tunic.

Here is the undershirt and jacket sleeves:

The shirt part is just white cotton muslin and the black is stretch velvet.  After I sewed the shirt, I made a facing of the stretch velvet, then tacked and finally sewed it around the sleeve openings.  This is so that as the "jacket" moves, you won't see any white.

The jacket part for this costume is supposed to look like a Bolero, or something a matador might wear.  It is made from a beautiful black and gold brocade, and lined with red cotton.  The girl's tutu will be black and red, so they need to coordinate, but not necessarily be matchy matchy.  I only made the body of the bolero, so it is really a vest, and hopefully, when worn with the undershirt, it looks like a shirt and bolero jacket.

Sorry, Blogger loves to rotate my photos randomly.  We wanted a bit of red on top, so at first I sewed a red tie to the jacket.  I have since taken that off, and instead sewn a bit of red lace around the neckline of the shirt, the same red lace that is featured in the tutu.  Don't have a photo of that yet, but when I get one of Luke modelling the costume, you will see what I did.

Here are the 2 parts of the costume together:

Looks pretty messy on the floor, but better on the dancer =)
Can you see the gold piping?  I am so proud of myself.  I bought some shiny metallic gold bias tape, and sewing it around a string of yarn, I made my own piping.



I still need to make one more tunic, to be worn dancing the Black Swan Pas de Deux from Swan Lake.  This one needs to be black and silver.  It will be worn with the same undershirt, making the costume change quicker and easier, as he will be dancing both pas's in February probably within a few minutes of each other.  I will make it a bit military looking, probably adding silver rope as an accent.  Haven't cut it out yet, but I have a pretty good idea in my head of what I want to do.

Knitiot Me

Do you like the name?  I love hearing how experienced knitters/crocheters went astray in their projects.  As a relatively newcomer, I make huge mistakes all the time.  It is tempting to only blog my successes, but it will be a much more fun read for me (if I ever go back and read these), if I blog the miserable failures.  The trouble is, this week I had so many stupid mistakes, I kept changing what I was going to blog about.  So I chose 2  yarn mishaps.

Luke's Graduation Afghan.  If you look at the photos of the squares I posted, you will see that 3 of them have dark blue, light blue and white for the colors.  If you look at the photo of the 2 6" squares, the cool 16-circles squares, you will see that one of them is dark blue, light blue, white, and yellow.  So I was thinking that because the mascot is the Saints, and they use the fleur de lis emblem a lot, there was gold in the school colors.  I bought a one pound skein of yarn in yellow.  For no reason.

Lewk's Red Hot Sweater.  Tony wants a red sweater.  He is in the army serving in Afghanistan right now.  So I need a warm yarn that is easily washed cause really, he can't be hand washing stuff.  I'm not even sure he could machine wash but dry flat.  So Lion Brand Wool-Ease seemed a good choice.  I checked my local Jo Ann's and the Michael's as well as 2 LYS (local yarn shops) but no one had enough.  I need about 12 skeins, 13 to be safe.  So I bought some on line, for a really good price.  I chose the color Chili which looked red, but a kind of dark red, not too orangy.  O!  the perils of choosing colors online.  It is rust.  Not red.  I swatched it, and it's almost perfect gauge.  But Tony wants red.  I sat and looked at the 13 skeins of rust colored yarn and said to myself, "Tony will love anything I send him.  He is lonely, cold, and in Afghanistan.  Rust or Red.  Really, it won't matter."  Then I did the right thing and bought 13 more skeins of yarn, Wool-Ease again, this time in Barn Red.  If I am going to make Tony a red sweater, for goodness sake, it is going to be RED.

Life

My kids have all gone back to school, and my oldest, D, moved out officially for the first time.  I am home with just Luke, my 16 year old, the Doc, and our 2 cats, Selena (Beena as she is called), and Muffin.  It is so quiet.  Thank goodness I have my friends, my gaming =)  and mostly my crafting.  And actually my writing, too.

During December, I flew out to watch James dance in the Utah Regional Ballet's Nutcracker.  I didn't bring my computer, because we flew out on a Tuesday morning, watched him dance that night, then left at 4 am to drive back to Washington the next day.  I did take some photos from the airplane as we flew East from Seattle to Salt Lake City.  We have the most magnificent Volcano in Washington State, Mount Rainier.  Here are some photos of the mountain from the window of my airplane:

We can see a sliver of this volcano from our house, and a decent view if we walk to the top of our hill.  I am so lucky.  Truly, I live in paradise.


Friday I hope to do another tutorial.  This time of the 16-Circle Square I made for the two afghans.  The directions are a bit confusing, so I asked the designer, Beatriz Medina, if it would be ok to do MY explanation of how to make her cool square, and she said she was flattered that the Block a Month group had used her design, and go ahead with the tutorial.  Don't you love how generous crafters are?  I totally understand the copyright issues.  I am a writer, and it is only fair to be paid for your ideas and work.  Of course, this is a free pattern.  But still, Beatriz Medina, needs to be recognized for her talent, AND generosity in sharing the square with us.

Good night for now.  I have lots of work to do =)  thank goodness it's the fiber kind!

F1bercat (Carol)