Project 38: Traveling Woman

This project was completed in May, 2011.

Traveling Woman is a very popular pattern that's been around a while. The designer re-released the pattern with a host of matching patterns and directions for making the shawl in other sizes and yarn weights. I used the free version to make my own, at long last!





It's a nice little shawlette, and the yarn really makes it. It was also a quick knit, taking me only three days to complete.




Pattern: Traveling Woman by Liz Abinante (the free version; there is also a pay version available)

Yarn: Alina Shea Creations Vines in "dancing in the rain", the club yarn from February 2011.

Needles: US 7 (4.5mm) nickel-plated Knit Picks interchangeables.

Rav Page

Mods: I did 3 repeats of Chart A. it's been a while, so not sure if that's a mod or not....

Project 37: Deathly Hallows Illusion Dishcloth

This project was completed in May, 2011.

This dishcloth was my first try at illusion knitting. Very cool!





Pattern: Deathly Hallows Illusion Cloth by Jenn Bragg

Yarn: Natural color is a Peaches & Creme cone of cotton in Ecru; blue is Lily's Sugar & Cream in cornflower blue. I used 34.4 yards of ecru and 38.4 yards of blue.

Needles: Size 8 (5.0mm) boye aluminum circular needles

Rav Page

Mods: none

Locals, read this! and WIP Wednesday, November 9, 2011

My Tour de Sock....er ... tour.... ends tonight, as Stage 4 is ending in a few hours and this is all I have.



Oh well, I stuck it out as long as I could and that was far longer than I expected! And now I'm a sock knitter!!

But, right now, this sock knitter wants to look at lace.



This is a variant of the very popular pattern Ishbel, where the lace is started first thing instead of having a stockinette triangle. The variant is a free supplement to the actual Ishbel pattern, which needs to be purchased to make the shawl. Also,

Meanwhile, I've finished the first bobbin with half of my purple rain batts I started spinning the other day.



Back in August some areas near where I live were hit very hard by flooding from Hurricane Irene. Here in town we were fine, but some of the lower-lying areas of the city near the river were flooded and the nearby Schoharie Valley had historic flooding, destroying homes, farms, and businesses.

This morning I learned about a not-for-profit corporation called Schoharie Recovery, based right in Schoharie and working to match skills, volunteers, and donations with the people who need help.  This weekend there is a fundraising event for Schoharie Recovery from a local spinning guild in conjunction with the Home for the Holidays weekend.  There's more information over here.

As for me, as soon as I got off the phone with the organizer to say I'll be there Sunday for sure and probably part of Saturday too, I started spinning up this corriedale roving so I can donate it to sell.



Every little bit helps, right? Of course I want to help, but sometimes it's hard to figure out how to help. This time it was easy.  Maybe I can get some holiday shopping done too!

Project 36: Dane Shawl

This project was completed in May, 2011.

Another lovely free pattern on Ravelry! This is called Dane Shawl.





It's supposed to be a shallow triangle, based on traditional Danish heart-shaped shawls.  I blocked mine to more of a triangle and less of a heart shape.



I think every comment about this shawl in person has started with the colors.  It's all in the yarn, Plymouth Zino.  It's a sock yarn, but it's a fingering weight single (just one ply) and it just seemed like it really would work well as a triangular shawl.



Pattern: Dane Shawl by Jane Tanner (free)

Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Zino in color "8", all 436 yards of it

Needles: Size 6 (4.0mm) nickel-plated Knit Picks Options

Rav Page

Mods: I liked the written bind-off but ran out of yarn with about 3 inches to go. So I tinked back a bit and switched to a very loose regular old knit 1, pass old stitch over new stitch, repeat bind-off. I had enough yarn left from that to weave in as the tail, and that was that.

Project 35: The Golden Snitch

This project was completed in May 2011.

In the HPKCHC this term, Quidditch was split into four quaffle matches between houses in May and later hallows or horcruxes in June and July.  The first quaffle match was to make a golden snitch.

Near instant geeky gratification!

Pattern: The Golden Snitch by Melissa Mall (free pattern)

Yarn: Stitch Nation Full o' Sheep in honeycomb and Red Heart Super Saver in soft white, roughly 15 yards total.

Needles: Boye crochet hook, size G (4 mm)

Rav page

Mods: None that I can recall!

Project 34: Lehmus-Huivi

This project was finished in April 2011.

The second leaf shawl component of my Nerd Wars dissertation was the Lehmus-huivi shawl, a pattern that had been translated from the original Finnish.

I'm not sure if this is a pattern modification or a mistake that I corrected, but I kept the three edge stitches on both sides and the band across the top at the bindoff in garter stitch throughout.  I found the chart a little confusing on those points, and garter stitch works!  So that is what I did.  I think it worked.

See?



I gave it sunlight and watered it regularly, and it grew into this!





Pattern: Lehmus-huivi (free pattern available in Finnish and English on the designer's website)

Yarn: Left Coast Yarns Merino/Nylon 80/20 blend in Forbidden Forest, 396 yards of a 400 yard skein



Needles: Size 6 (4.0mm) Knit Picks Options nickle-plated interchangeables

Rav page

Mods: I used fingering weight yarn and larger needles than the pattern indicated for a shawlette. Also, the chart only prints with the Finnish directions, and there is a small error in the chart that is corrected in the English instructions.  If you can get as far as I did in that first swatch, you've got it made.

Project 32 and 33: More Quidditch Hats!

On the last day of the Winter11 HPKCHC term, I finished up two more charity hats for Quidditch.  This time I pulled out all my wool scraps and worked on making scrappy but fabulous hats.

Errrr.  Well.  They look better in person.

This one used up as many blues and purples as I could coordinate together - lots of my little bits and bobs of dyeing practice over the years:



and this one got pinks and earth tones:



To turn them in on time, I was up late and the camera was not cooperating so we got camera phone pictures. But, I managed to make two impressively not ugly in person hats using up roughly 435 yards of yarn that will warm some heads on the other side of the world.

Project 31: Emily Shawl

This project was finished in March 2011.

I love how this shawl came out.  It's an unusual construction, which is how it became part of my Nerd Wars dissertation last spring.  The yarn is a silky, drapey thing that I only regret I do not have more of. It blocked nicely and looks great as a yarn and pattern match.  I almost - almost! - wish I hadn't given it away!






Pattern: Emily Shawl by Mandy Moore, published in Knitscene Winter/Spring 2010

Yarn: Alina Shea Creations Grassy Feet (65% superwash wool, 35% bamboo) in Summer Fun, the June 2010 yarn club offering



Needles:  Size 7 Knit Picks Options nickle-plated interchangeables

Yardage: 324 yards

Rav page

Mods: none

I enlisted the help of then-three-year-old Spike to photograph the back.  He did it well!



Sigh.  I might have to make another one of these.  In addition to being part of my Nerd Wars dissertation, I turned this project in to the HPKCHC for Charms, March 2011.

Project 30: Paul's Saturday Morning Not-Hoodie

This project was completed in March 2011.

I finally finished my first sweater!



Like the first sweater I ever started, lo these many years ago (2005 I believe), this one is for my husband.  We saw its humble beginnings in my Muggle Studies OWL proposal last January.  Despite the name, he did not want the hood. I dove in hoping that I'd figure out how to not have a hood later, and as you all can see - I managed!



I just picked up stitches for the collar/buttonband as I would have around the hood, except there was no hood.  Shockingly, it worked.  And now Paul has a sweater!  And it actually fits!


Pattern: Saturday Morning Hoodie (free pattern from Lion Brand Yarns)

Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky, only 807 yards (I still have 6 skeins and some change left! Incredible!)

Needles: Size 11 and 13 Knit Picks Options nickle-plated interchangeables.

Notions: six recycled plastic buttons purchased at Jo-Ann's Fabrics.

Rav page

Mods: I didn't knit the hood - see text above.

I still look at it and wonder if I really made such a thing.  It looks like real clothes. And I made it.  I'm impressed!

Project 29: Charity Scarf

This project was completed in March 2011.

I finished a third and final scarf for the same charity as the fluffy pink scarf before I boxed up my scarves, leftover kits, and some yarn to donate and sent the box back to California last week.  The short answer as to why I didn't make all the kits is that I found no joy in crafting these scarves for this charity anymore, so I fulfilled my obligations of donating postage to the charity, donated some yarn I thought they might find useful, and returned the scarves and kits I had.

Here's the last one!



Now I can direct my energy to others in need.

Projects 26, 27, and 28: Challenge Hats for Quidditch

These projects were completed in March 2011.


One of the Quidditch challenges back in March was a duel where you set the terms between you and your partner, and my partner and I decided to make as many hats for charity in one day as we could.  She beat me, soundly, but I still made three more hats for charity than I otherwise would have.



The purple hat and the green-purple-blue hat are my own hand-dyed yarn.  The orange hat is from wool I inherited so I don't know what it is.  The pattern is my own (same as this project) but as of yet unpublished.

In total, I estimated 404 yards were used in these three hats.

Project 25: Celeste Shawl

This project was finished in March 2011.

Last Christmas my parents were up visiting and as usual I got out my newest pattern books for my mom to look though.  She saw the Celeste Shawl pattern and fell in love.  The picture in the book has the shawl on a hanger and it's hard to tell much about it, but a quick look through projects on Ravelry helped.

Shawls are very popular right now, but this is a shape you don't see all that often.



But it sits nicely on the shoulders,



and floats nicely too.

Yarn: Sliver Moon Farms 65% superwash wool, 35% bamboo fingering weight yarn purchased at Rhinebeck in 2009

Pattern: Celeste Shawl from the book Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders

Needles: US 7 (4.5mm) Knit Picks Options, Nickel-plated tips

Yardage: 543 yards

Rav Page link

Mods:  I left off the beads in the edging.

This project is the finish for my Care of Magical Creatures OWL, which I successfully completed last March.

Project 24: Fluffy Pink Scarf

A while back I discovered a charity called Handmade Especially For You.  They provide handmade scarves for abused women in shelters, originally in California but chapters have sprung up all over.  They also have a lot of donated yarn, so the people who run the charity set up yarn kits for garter stitch scarves already with doubled yarn wound up to match on both ends.  This scarf is from one of their kits.



The organizers want every scarf to have something "fancy" and, having several of these kits, I guess that fancy means furry.  Hey... why not?  Fun fur is fun, after all!

Estimated 120 yards, doubled, so 240 yards of yarn.  Even though these kits are not yarn that I consider mine, I do work with the yarn and so I am counting the yardage as yarn out.  It is going out of the house!

Project 23: Patchwork Square #29

Surprise!  One last square was squeezed into February.

Pattern: Square #29, Alternate Spike SC, from 63 Easy-To-Crochet Pattern Stitches

Yarn: Red Heart Giant, aran

Needles: Size I/5.50mm crochet hook

Yardage:  92.4 yards by weight

Ravelry page (for the whole project)

Mods: none!

Project 22: Four Stitch Markers

I finally get to show off what I did with my new crimping tool!!



Stitch markers.  They are fun to make and I'll be making many more now that I have beading wire and a crimping tool to properly crimp the bottom.  It's so much easier with the right equipment!

Project 21: Dangley Earrings!

Since my beading stuff was already out for the Pink Girl Necklace, I found 1.5 earrings and finished the pair. The second earring only needed to have the .... errr... dangly part..... attached to the hooky part.  As you can tell, I am not an expert.  But I did make them!

Project 20: Snowman Mouth

After the last snowstorm, Spike and my husband were outside playing in the snow.  After a while, Spike came bursting through the front door with a request for, "Eyes and a carrot!"  I pulled an unlikely-looking carrot out of the deepest depths of the fridge and looked around until I found some eyes - bottlecaps.  But the mouth was trickier, so I grabbed a hook and some leftovers and whipped up a solution!



Spike and his snowman.

Yarn: Red Heart yarn, probably classic? worsted weight acrylic in a small skein, held double

Pattern: I made it up!

Hook: size I/5.5mm

Yardage: 7.3 yards by weight

Rav page

Project 19: Patchwork Square #13

Guess what?

It's another square!

Pattern: Square #13, Bushy Stitch, from 63 Easy-To-Crochet Pattern Stitches

Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver, country blue

Needles: Size I/5.50mm crochet hook

Yards:  70.3 yards by weight

Ravelry page (for the whole project)

Mods: none!

Project 18: Patchwork Square #62

Squares.
Best idea ever.

Pattern: Square #62, Basket Weave, from 63 Easy-To-Crochet Pattern Stitches

Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver, soft navy

Needles: Size I/5.50mm crochet hook

Yards:  76.3 yards by weight

Ravelry page (for the whole project)

Mods: none!


This was a nice stitch pattern.  I'd definitely use it again, although it does eat yarn!

Project 17: Pink Girl Necklace

The parts for this little necklace have been knocking around the house for about a year, but I finally got all the pieces together in the same place and made it!

The necklace clasp:



The strands:



Finally, the necklace:



Yarn: DMC Six-strand Embroidery Floss, not sure about the particular shade of light pink but it was from my giant box of floss.  I used two strands of the six.

Pattern: Based on the Infamous Beaded Necklaces Tutorial, by Devon Clement (Rav link)

Needles: tiny little stainless-steel crochet hook.... size 7?  5?  Somewhere in there.  Not too tiny.

Yardage: Hmmmm..... not a whole lot.... maybe 4 yards or so, using only two of the six strands.

Rav page

Mods: I still haven't found the material called for in the tutorial, so found some pink beads that coordinated nicely and used the cotton embroidery floss