Saturday, December 26, 2009

Him Again

He's very a photogenic youngster. He was given up for adoption to the courier (dad of the prospective parent) yesterday, along with his dossier which you can see in the background. It's hard to see the horns, but they're there. I doubt if all the hair will stay in, but most of it should. Remind me how much I don't like making toys the next time want to I start one. Wait, too late! Lookit! At least this one doesn't call for hair. It calls for 13 colors, but never fear, Sue is here! And I suppose these could be considered toys. They were made for an old library school buddy/colleague because she saw me knitting socks at a meeting a couple of years ago. Since then I've been urging her to take up knitting again, but I finally gave in and promised to knit her a pair of socks. Thar they blow. Though you may not need one, here's the pattern: Tiny Socks This hat and these wristwarmers are some more holiday knitting. The pattern for the hat is Le Parisienne Beret by the Sock Pixie aka Caroline Dlugy-Hegwer. I think the hat pattern makes a better beanie than a beret, but your mileage may vary. I do love her hat designs. I've also knit her Jewel Baby hat. She should think about changing her name to Caroline-Dlugy Headwear. The wristwarmers have no pattern. I used 4 repeats of the chevron stitch from the hat and I may have deducted 2 stitches per repeat. I made all the thumb gusset increases at the outside center of the thumb to mimic the chevron. Chevronically, it was better than not doing that, but not much. I tried to knit the cast off ribbing in pattern and it was a bear, but not worth it. I didnt get the shaped edge I wanted. The second hand, I did plain. Characteristically, I haven't finished my last bit of holiday knitting. It's still on the needles.

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Yarniness

I bought this yarn last month at the Sow's Ear in Verona, WI where Sue and I went on a little jaunt. The top is Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool for a pair of socks because I shrunk my old ones. The purple stuff is School House Press Unspun Icelandic. There are 4 rounds of 300 yards. It's about 20-22 stitches per inch. I'm thinking vest, which surprised Sue not at all. The soda was delicious.
This is not her. This is Elizabeth. Look at her beautiful vest. Sue reports that she is happy to have been yarn browsing while the cameras were out.

Sunday, December 06, 2009

That Guy

I made a lot of progress for a while. I had mucho trouble getting the arms positioned correctly. I decided it was time to be satisfied with what I had. I tried a number of things to make the claws and got nowhere, but then John, the crocheter from Saturday morning knitting, figured out how I could do the claws. I read a few online tutorials about how to sew on doll hair. The next thing to do was to trim it. I didn't like it. Then I split each piece of yarn in half. This resulted in a slightly curly, full afro. I suppose that would have been ok, except that the yarn is all falling apart and gets all over and doesn't stop coming off in little piles. That yarn was Cascade 220 superwash. Now I've borrowed some black sock yarn from Lauren from Monday night knitting. That will be thin, but still hold together. When I remove the old hair and add the new, I'll just have the face and horns.

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

I will blog again.

Soon. I swear. Well, I don't swear on my blog, but I promise.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Unsung Knits for an Unsung Man

This is my friend Jerry. He just had a big birthday. Here he is at Lambeau Field modeling knitwear. I'm sure you can guess by the amateurish embroidery that I made this mitt. I made another one, too. Unfortunately that one says, YRREY. I got a little excited when I got to the last letter and forgot I was going backwards. I'm pretty sure he's wearing that one, too. It just didn't show in the picture because maybe he's scratching or something. I believe that thing around his neck is what we used to call a transister radio. I had an avocado green one when I was in 6th grade. They are a precursor to the I-Pod and maybe even the cell phone.

I splurged on the yarn. It's Berroco Blackstone Tweed. It's got a felted quality and I enjoyed working with it. The pattern is Knucks from Knitty. I can't remember what I did, but I tweaked the pattern a little because of gauge and so the palm fits a bit oddly. Maybe it's because it's my first top down pair of gloves. I made the fingers a bit longer. You only need the ends of your fingers to poke out. Well, frankly, I usually only put thumbs in wristwarmers, not fingers. Maybe I'll go even longer next time. It gets cold here, baby!