A Piece of Scrap Yarn
You know that line in a lot of my mitt patterns? The one that says 'set thumb stitches aside on a spare needle or piece of scrap yarn?' Yeah, I'd really sort of suggest you take the piece of spare yarn option. I know that means you have to dig out a bit of extra yarn (hint, don't use the yarn you're knitting with, use a nice thick one of a different color) and a needle, and sometimes that's too much of a pain, but if you can, it's the best choice. Why? Two reasons. First, when you try [...]
Now With Less Drama
Hi pinterest folks, if you're looking for this pattern, it's called Brigand and it's available in Ne'er-Do-Well Knits on ravelry! Yesterday's escapades didn't really show off the work to its best advantage. The picture of Millie--lost over the fence, pitched into the snow--has its charms, but it doesn't do much for the knitting. So, just for clarity, I'll offer here a somewhat more detailed look at the stitches. You'll note that Millie is nowhere near the fence. You may also notice that this is post-rinse (not quite a full on proper blocking, but just a bit of a rinse and [...]
Revenge of the 80s
Do you remember the just slightly slouchy hat with the handspun yarn from the other day? Well, I had some yarn left when I was done with it. To be specific, I had a whole pile of the handspun (the goal of the exercise was to use all the handspun) and just a tiny (no, really, 30 grams tiny) bit of the main yarn. So, after cursing my inability to judge how much yarn a project will take when I first imagine it, I did the natural thing. I divided the main yarn exactly in half (I love my jeweler's [...]
New Pattern, Ameliorate (Plus Coupon)
ameliorate: verb -to make better or more tolerable Every now and then, I hear from someone who says they like my designs...they just wish I put them out more frequently. Now my first response is to be flattered. That's actually a lovely thing to say. My second response is a tiny bit less charming. As of today, I've got 93 designs listed over on Ravelry. The first one came out in March of 2009. That's 93 designs in 44 months, or a bit over 2 a month. That's an average of one every other week, for more than three and [...]
Engineering Sphere
Back when I was a (delusional) engineering student, I had to take my fair share of physics classes. Some might say slightly more than my fair share. One of my professors had an odd and somewhat alarming propensity to set us problems that involved livestock. Cows on ice skates. Sheep in catapults. Horses on pogo sticks. The imagery was actually quite disturbing and rather makes me wonder about his misspent youth. Each of these problems would end with the line, 'for ease of calculation, assume the animal is a sphere.' Now the distinction between a mathematical sphere and an engineering [...]
Reveal
You recall our little trip the other weekend? You recall I mentioned I was knitting as we drove around? But for some mysterious reason I didn't show you the knitting (unusual behavior for a knitting blogger). That's because it was stealth birthday knitting. But the birthday has come and gone, and the knitting has made its way to the intended person, so I can come back and retroactively show it off. These are the mitts I made with the Alisha Goes Around yarn I mentioned the other week. First, proof that I really did take them on the trip. We [...]
Stacks
I feel a tiny bit bad that it's been so long since I've put out a pattern. The last one was Chamfer in what, February? Now to be fair, the e version of The Knitter's Curiosity Cabinet did go live in March, so it's not like you've not got something to keep your needles busy. But still, I'm used to putting out an individual pattern every month or so, and the longer time frame is making me a bit twitchy. But never fear, it's all in the service of a bigger project! After seeing how much fun Knitter's Curiosity Cabinet [...]
Rip-rippity-rip-rip-rip
Every now and then someone asks me how it is that all my knitting comes out so well. After I've stopped laughing, I assure them that it doesn't. Not really at all. An amazing percentage of my knitting comes out exceptionally badly. Probably a higher percentage than of your knitting. Every pattern that gets to the point where you see it has had lots and lots (and lots) of failed prototypes. So, just to reassure those of you who might be feeling that you're the only one whose knitting occasionally looks like a pile of limp spaghetti, allow me to [...]
Trudge
The mitts are done. The cowl...is not. It needs about 6 more rows, maybe 10, which doesn't sound like all that much. But the rows are long, and I am lazy. The combination means it's surprisingly slow going around here. I have a sneaking suspicion I may take these two patterns and a few more and combine them in a little collection of reversible projects. I've been toying with the idea of doing some small sets of patterns (4-6 items) in addition to releasing patterns individually. These seem like a fun place to start.
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