October « 2008 « Spacecrafty

October 26, 2008

Cthuhlu wants a hug [jam]

Filed under: Finished Object, crochet — Jam @ 10:38 am

cthulu completed

Originally uploaded by jamjarring.

Cthulhu is a bold little beast. Brash, almost. You can’t see his wings so well in this picture, but they’re pretty neat in a straggly, eldergod kind of way.

Crcoheted using sock yarn and a 1.25mm hook, rather thanthe yarn they suggest. This picture doesn’t show it so well, but the eyes do gleam red at you. Took about a day or two to finish. If I do it again, I’ll probably do the tentacles on a bigger hook so they come out looser.

I do like crochet -I like the movement of it, the nice dense fabric it produces- so I hope to find more things I want to make.

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October 18, 2008

The Daleks of procrastination, I mean, productivity… [Meg]

Filed under: Finished Object, Knitting, Work in Progress — Meg @ 11:06 pm

I am currently at home to the Daleks of procrastination [^TM The Hand-Knitted Pirate] in regards to my MSc. Thesis (Ahaha. Ahaha. AHAHAHAHAohgods), which would explain why my Ravelry queue has been reorganised so that the projects I need to knit soon and that I have the yarn for are at the top, my stash has been sorted so that stuff I have used is marked as such and I have both finished two outstanding works in progress and, uh, started a new one.

Yes, quite.

First up: Finished Objects!

It’s a cardi for my wee cousin, Annabell. It’s the snappily named ‘Design C’ from the Sirdar Baby Bamboo pattern book and is knitted in the Baby bamboo (lovely yarn, btw) in green. I actually started it and finished it a couple months ago but I kept delaying on the sewing up because I am) a lazy and b) I fear sewing up. But, it is amazing what you’ll do with the help of the Daleks of Procrastination and if it is going to fit her, I need to get it to her soon. I opted not do the daisy stitching in the end. [Ravelry]

I’ve had a skein of random variegated cotton lurking in my stash for aaaages, so I cast on yesterday and turned it into a couple of dishcloths. There are actually two but I haven’t bothered photographing the second one as it is pretty much identical. They’re both the basket weave stitch cloths from Star Athena’s Back to School, without the text. I look forward to trying them out. [Ravelry]

Behold! A new WIP:

Because I don’t still have a ton of Hogswatch knitting to do and my Cheshire Cat stole on the needles, I cast on for Alison Hansel’s Leftovers, on the justification that it would shrink my stash a bit and I could do with a knitted vest to wear over my work shirts at the moment. Yes, witness my justification!

It’s going well so far – after a few hiccups vis-a-vis the number of cast on stitches and my inability to count stitches made from doubled yarn accurately – and I am now happily playing with the stripe pattern. I’m mostly winging it. It’ll all be fiiiine! [Ravelry]

I will…write my thesis. Somewhere in all this. Yes. *looks shifty*

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October 15, 2008

Strat sock [Meg]

Filed under: General — Tags: Knitting, socks, wip — Meg @ 10:54 pm

Knitting: Strat socks, originally uploaded by halcyonday.

When I’m not knitting along happily on my Cheshire cat stole, I’m attempting to make a dent in the list of Hogswatch knitting. Last year, my mother got a pair of hand knit socks but my dad had to wait till this year as he failed to give me his foot measurements in a reasonable time.

But now I have them and I’m busy knitting away (mostly on my commute, the bus to work is ideal knitting time, providing I get a seat) on a pair of Rocking Strat’ socks [Ravelry] in The Knittery’s Merino Cashmere sock yarn (which is delightful to knit with!).

The only problem is the size of his feet! I’ve just turned the heel on the first sock [see picture, where it is modelling next to a cup of the nicest hot chocolate I’ve had in awhile! Thick enough to be eaten with a spoon. OM NOM NOM.) but until I did, people kept asking if I was knitting a sweater sleeve! I still have another 9 or so inches to go on the foot and then I must work through the post-sock haze and cast on for the second one, else Dad’ll be getting one sock and an IOU for Hogwatch this year.

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October 9, 2008

Way of Life Stole [jam]

Filed under: Knitting, Work in Progress, complicated — Jam @ 2:59 pm

Way of Life Stole

Originally uploaded by jamjarring.

Current project, a mystery knit along from a pattern by Knitting Delight, currently available for free from the yahoogroup or here for the ravelry. The pattern is nicely charted, clear to read and no mistakes.

It’s knit sideways so casting on is a little harsh. I’m managing to keep up with the clues, just, but that’s going to get more awkward as it gets bigger and not so easy to stick in my bag. There are 17 repeats in a row, so I’m deeply grateful for stitchmarkers that help me tell when I’m going incredibly wrong. Finishing 2 stitches early on a repeat is rarely a good sign.

I also ended up getting some addi lace needles. The regular addi needles were awful to use with this– just too blunt with yarn that fine.

I was having severe problems with muscle-memory on the last few rows of this round. Even with patterns with rows that don’t repeat, there are still certain tendencies– yok2tog on that side, yossk on the other side- and habits of the pattern. Normally, it’s good to get a feel of these, but the last few rows broke the established tendencies and were asymmetric on the repeats , like it’d be yo,k3, yo s1-k2tog-psso on one half, then yossk,k2, yo, 2tog on the other half.

I’m pretty curious what the next section’s going to be like, even if my poor wrists are less than keen on starting it.

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October 7, 2008

Nutkin wristwarmers [jam]

Filed under: Finished Object, Knitting, Patterns — Jam @ 9:52 pm

extrasharp

Originally uploaded by jamjarring.

This image has been severely tweaked in an attempt to make the pattern clearer. It looks fine in real life, but not so much on picture with this yarn. In person, the pattern is more 3D, it’s easier to see the nice bias, the wool is lovely autumnal shades… in photo, it pretty much just looks like a mess.

This picture gives a much better idea of the colour:

These are basically a mod of the Nutkin sock pattern turned into wristwarmers, but adapted in the following ways:

12.5 repeats along the arm, then the thumb (about 10 stitches knit on waste yarn, picked up and worked in the round for the thumb).

For the thumb, I started decreasing until it was a tight fit. I placed it so it travelled across two pattern repeats, which means four stitches (two either side of the thumb) I carried on as purl. The decreases I did to carry on with the way the pattern had set up and then, when it was the right tightness, I did a 1×1 cable stitch to keep up the diagonal.

On the pattern repeats after the thumb, I omitted the YO, doing a purl stitch where it wold be, to keep the pattern tight around the top of the hand. When it had decreased enough, I did the YOs again.

At the top, I did chromosome-crosses (wobbly, and going in the same direction as the pattern)- basically a four stitch repeat:
k1,p1,k1,p1.
c2r (knit stitch crosses in front of the purl),k1,p1
p1,k2,p1
p1,twist 2right (stitch from the left crosses the right), p1
p1,k2,p1,
p1,k1,c2r,p1
p1,k1,p1,k1.

I mirrored all of this (including the nutkin pattern) on the other hand, for the entirely rational reason that if the pattern pointed in the same direction on both warmers, then one would always be on the wrong hand and I wouldn’t know which.

i’ll write up the pattern more clearly and take close-ups if anyone wants to know more.

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