tomboyknits

Stripes

2010-06-09T16:05:00.000-07:00

I finished a bunch of stripey soakers and board shorts for my shop. Now I'm ready to take a break from stripes, lol.

Here's a newborn set I did for a baby photographer - hopefully she'll get some cute photos with it. Check out her blog post with a baby in one of my soakers (third photo down). AWW.

Juliette Skirty

2010-05-23T12:41:00.000-07:00

I recently finished this Juliette skirty for a Livejournal friend.

I dyed the yarn (Cestari Superfine merino) as well.

I need to work on my photo skills, though.

I'm back!

2010-05-04T21:59:00.000-07:00

I've taken a break for a couple of years to have a baby (he's now 21 months!). In the meantime I've shifted to knitting nothing but baby stuff! I hope to start posting here regularly again. Here are a few things for sale or sold through my Etsy Shop.

Malabrigo newborn soaker set, dyed by me.

Cestari Superfine board shorts, dyed by me.

Teeny Malabrigo newborn soaker.

Malabrigo longies for twins.

Purewool longies, dyed by me.

Malabrigo soakers.

FO: Bee Stripe Knee Socks

2008-01-26T21:28:00.000-08:00

Pattern: Hunca Munca
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Bee Stripe
Needles: US 2/2.75mm

My first socks! Not sure I did the heel right, but they look pretty good from afar.

FO: Cursed Argyle Vest

2008-01-26T07:57:00.000-08:00

Pattern: Leftovers
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton in graphite, drift, tomato, azul
Needles: US 9/5.5mm, US 7/4.5mm

I am surprised at how well this turned out! I mean, I futzed with the sizing, didn't pay close attention to row gauge, kind of just winged it, and assumed that I wouldn't be happy with it because the cotton would lose its shape. But it fits perfectly. It does make me look like a boy, but that really only accentuates what-all I have to begin with... And I'm used to that, so I don't mind.

There are one or two things I would do differently, if I were to do this again. (which I actually might, I'm so impressed with how it turned out)

I would follow the gauge and pattern. My mods turned out all right, but I have a feeling that when I wash this it will be way too small, but that when it stretches out again it will look "holey" and very hand-knit. The pictures don't show it, but it already looks a bit "see-through".
I would do 3-needle bind-off at the tops of the shoulders. I kind of followed the pattern, best I could considering my stitch counts were different, but I didn't really get what was supposed to happen. And I was left with a rather messy and lumpy join at the shoulders, which also carried over to the ribbing. Also, I hate seaming and have little confidence in it my ability to seam securely, and a 3-needle bind-off is just much easier and tidier.
I don't regret doing the argyle at all. I would do stripes next time, just so I wouldn't have to seam as much. There is a nice horror show on the back of woven-in ends just waiting to come loose and unravel my whole sweater.

My notes, pasted from Ravelry:

12/29/07 - Finally cast on for this. I cast on 144 stitches and only used one strand, and plan to use size 9 needles from start to finish. I’m following her first decrease row on the ribbing and then plan to continue the body just matching her gauge and sizing. Which is very adventurous of me.

Ribbing ended up being 4” and left me with 136 stitches. After 1” of stockinette I k2tog and ssk on each side to give me 132 stitches. And then again 2” later for 128 stitches.

I think I should shorten this since the cotton will probably stretch out, so I knit until the piece was 8 inches and then divided front and back. I’m doing the front first to get the 5 inches of argyle out of the way.

Finished the argyle, knit two rows and then followed the pattern’s arm & neck decreases. Hopefully my 1-stitch difference in row gauge won’t mess it up too much.

This pattern has really given my Graphite cotton stash what for. I have called it my cursed gray yarn because my stash of it seems unbustable. But I think I’m going to run out of it on the back, and I’m pretty sure I won’t have enough for the neck and arm ribbing…

Ran out of the graphite and bought another ball. I ended up doing the neck and arm ribbing on size 7 needles.

FO: Buttony Sweater

2008-01-19T15:32:00.000-08:00

Pattern: Buttony
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton in Nut
Needles: US 9/5.5mm

I should have stopped the shoulder increases way sooner. It's too loose in the shoulders and a bit too fitted in the body, and then a little bit short. I doubt I'll ever wear this. There are just too many buttons.

I love knitting with this yarn, but it's just kind of weird for sweaters. And if I had to do over again, I probably wouldn't use this color. I was planning to do some applique (which would have been cool, I swear) and the color was chosen for that, but I've lost my steam a bit.

(nice hair, haha)

Anyway, I'm pasting my notes here for future reference.

Cast on 104 stitches. 15 stitches per sleeve and 34 stitches for the back.

Increase until there are 53 stitches per sleeve, then separate. 2x2 rib on the sleeves for about 6 rows (I forgot to keep track and I always have trouble counting rib rows.) But they look about right. I should have gone down a needle size or two, they are a bit loose.

That left me with 150 stitches, and a pretty baggy body. I knit 2 rows to join the body parts, and then decreased 2 stitches under each armpit. (ssk, then k2tog - I hope that makes them point in the right direction, I always forget). I think I’ll do this every 4 rows…

After 6 of these decrease rows, the front section is fitted enough, but the back could use a few more decreases, so decreasing on the back only every four rows… This means on the 8th buttonhole row, I have 124 stitches.

I think I did one or two increase rows before starting the waistband ribbing, to accommodate my love handles/hips. And then…

I RAN OUT OF YARN WHILE BINDING OFF. :(

But since the sleeves were too loose, I frogged them and reknit them on size 7 needles, which gave me just enough yarn to finish binding off the bottom.

FO: Baby Leggings

2008-01-17T11:19:00.000-08:00

Pattern: Baby Leggings
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Bee Stripe
Needles: US 2/2.75mm

These were my first attempt at making anything with sock yarn and tiny needles. My big meaty fingers were pretty clumsy at first, but soon got the hang of it. Also, magic looping with my Addi Turbo Lace circulars worked out well. Now I'm looking forward to magic looping two socks at once on one circular. And now these go into the drawer to wait for a baby.

FO: Snagglepuss

2008-01-07T14:26:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to work out a good pattern for wristbands/sweatbands/cuffs so I can get all creative on them. I have this new infatuation with buttons (thanks to my Buttony sweater) and I want to sew different colored on a set of these. These are pretty similar to whatever those cuffs are called from Stitch n Bitch, but using bigger needles, bigger yarn, and buttonholes.

They came out a bit big, but I still like them. The next pair will be smaller.

Anyway, they remind me of Snagglepuss.

FO: Calorimetry

2008-01-05T09:51:00.000-08:00

I guess I should post my latest FO, even though it only took me two episodes of Murder, She Wrote to make.

Pattern: Calorimetry
Needles: size 9/5.5mm
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton in pumpkin.

Buttony Buzzkill.

2007-12-29T09:04:00.000-08:00

I am just not sure what to do with this one yet. I ran out of yarn while binding off. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet, except that I may put this project down while I decide, and start on something else. Yeah.

FO: Snivellus

2007-12-16T17:21:00.001-08:00

Pattern: Bulky Baby Asymmetrical Cardigan, size 3-6 mos
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton in Graphite
Needles: size 9/5.5mm
Cast on: 12/13/07
Finished: 12/16/07

I love knitting baby stuff because you're done so fast. This sweater looks to me like something Severus Snape would wear when he was a young boy. Too big and a bit crooked. Therefore I am calling this "Snivellus". I really like how ragged it looks, very orphanesque. And the fact that you don't see near-black baby sweaters that often. The buttons are actually a bit greener in real life, as befitting a future Slytherin...

FO: Argyle Skull Satchel

2007-12-14T21:01:00.000-08:00

Pattern: Satchel with Arrrgyle Socks Graph both modified to fit my needs.
Yarn: Lion Wool in Ebony, Cadet Blue, Lemongrass, Winter White.
Needles: size 10.5/6.5mm
Cast on: 11/3/07
Finished: 12/14/07 (it was done sooner but sat there for a while waiting for me to sew on the strap...)

I learned a lot from this project - mainly, what I will never do again, and what I will not do next time I knit a bag. I absolutely love the way the felted argyle pattern turned out, and may redo it on another bag some day. Perhaps I will gift this one to a non-knitter who won't notice it's many mistakes.

Which are:

Applied i-cord edge... applied to the wrong side on the left and right sides of the flap. A shame, since the properly-applied edge looks so tidy, and the wrong side of it looks so crummy.
Way too wide, not quite tall enough, flap too short, hangs all funny. I knit and felted 6 different swatches and crunched numbers for two days to make what I thought would be the perfect bag, but alas...

Not so much a mistake, but the next bag I make like this will employ D-rings, dog-leash hooks (whatever they're called) and a canvas strap to save me the time and hassle of knitting/felting/blocking/sewing (then, oops! sewing on twisted and having to undo and redo and trim and then sew back on) a frigging strap.

Here is a shot of it in action!

And my Sears Catalog pose.

FO: Vulcan Knucks

2007-12-12T21:56:00.000-08:00

.·:*¨¨*:·. .·:*¨¨*:·I am a geek.·:*¨¨*:·. .·:*¨¨*:·

These bad boys are finally done!! The embroidery is crap, but considering that I just learned how to embroider yesterday by watching an online video, I see it as a great victory that it's decipherable.

Pattern: Knucks
Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed in Avocado
Needles: size 4 dpn, size 3 dpn for cuffs
Cast on: 11/21/07
Finished: 12/12/o7

I am happy that these are done, but not really all that happy with them. They fit pretty well, but the cuff is little saggy. Also, I wish I had used a different yarn. I dunno, I usually love this kind of horrible green, but by the end of the project I wished I had used red or blue, or non-tweed or something. I do have the yarn for the other knucks I was planning to knit, but I think I'll take a break from them. Making all the knuckle cuffs is tedious.

FO: Dobby Hat

2007-12-10T14:22:00.001-08:00

Dobby Hat

2007-12-09T04:29:00.001-08:00

I worked on my Dobby Hat quite a bit yesterday, and it took me a while to realize that I was being pretty half-assed about my decreases. First off, the pattern has a few mistakes in it or parts where it doesn't totally make sense (that could just be me being dense, though). But also I am knitting it in the round so that I don't have to seam it, and I noticed that following the pattern left my decreases heading in the wrong direction. So then I switched them up, and it looked much better. But I decided to rip the whole thing back to where the decreases start, so that it'll look nice and neat. So I made a lot of progress on it yesterday only to rip it back, start over, and get this far.

And also, I decided that, since I want to get into socks, it's time for me to learn an alternative to double pointed needles. I'm starting with Magic Loop. Since I have Denise's needles, that means I can automatically do Magic Loop with size 5 through 15 needles. That doesn't help me with socks, but it'll be less of an investment in the sock-sizes than, say, the two-circulars method. So far, it's super easy and I think I'm hooked.

Please forgive the pic. It was really friggen early.

Tomboy Purse

2007-12-08T05:11:00.000-08:00

I knit up the pieces of this "purse" a week or two ago, and then it was sitting on my nightstand waiting to be blocked. I've never blocked anything before, but I figured it would make life easier when it came time to seam this bad boy together. I blocked it last night and it's dry this morning. I am in awe of the magic of this blocking business! I can see now that a project or two of mine that I hated might have been salvageable if only I had taken the time to block them.

There they are blocking. I'm also still trying to figure out some of this blogging business. I've been on blogger for many years, but have recently switched from pc to mac, internet explorer to safari and then to firefox, photobucket to flickr (since that's required for ravelry) and mspaint to iphoto. It's a bit much and I'm getting frustrated. I recognize and appreciate the many attributes of the new stuff over the old, but it seems like flickr has an issue with iphoto, and blogger has an issue with flickr, and nobody wants to get along right now at 5:30am real quick before I have to go to work.

So yeah.