I finally finished that darn felted bag that I started ages ago. I have to show you a sideways pictures because I can’t get the computer to save the rotated version (No matter how I point my camera, WordPress always shows the picture sideways. At least it normally lets me change the orientation, but today it likes it sideways. This bag is cursed. And sideways.)
The important thing – the really important thing, and I can’t stress this enough – is that it is finished.
At long last, I can reveal some projects that I made as gifts.
First up – a scarf and hat combination that I made for my sister:
The scarf was incredibly fun to make – I bought the orange yarn, but otherwise used yarns that I had remaining from other projects. The stitch is stockinette, with the occasional garter thrown in. This meant I also wanted to block it because the edges really, really wanted to curl in and make the scarf a tube. It was a little trickier finding space than usual because it’s so long. But, there’s always a solution, and this one was a small runner rug with towel thrown over it:
Almost literally in this case…
This little alpaca is my second attempt at needle felting, and I think it went pretty well. This took a little longer than my sheep, but was still a nice project for someone with a short project-attention span (like me). I really, really enjoyed making this, in fact. The only thing that was a little frustrating was getting the wool to cover his feet. I think that this is something that I will just have to get better at with practice. Lots and lots of practice.
Good thing these are small, or I would already be worrying about how they would all fit in my house. Though, in this case I already have a new home in mind for this little fellow …
My son and I wanted to give something to his pre-school teacher as a thank you to all she’s done for him over the last year and a half. So, he picked out the yarn, and I knitted her a (surprise, surprise!) ruffle scarf.
As always, even with repeated projects, there is a lesson for me – this one is that when your yarn runs out while you are halfway into binding off (binding off!)Â a busy, ruffly project, you can actually bind off the stitches without the extra yarn. Meaning, out of desperation, I simply stopped using the working yarn, and just took the stitches straight from the right needle onto the left, then bound them off in the usual way. Redbeard could not tell where I had started this foul (er, I mean, inventive) deed, and so I think that it worked out okay, in a desperate-times-desperate-measures sort of way.
Here’s the final scarf:
I thought I had just about wrapped up my Christmas knitting plans (not the actual projects, mind you, just the plans), when I came across this pattern for a hat. A hurricane hat. I always try to get my (wonderful and joking) step-grandfather something quirky for Christmas, and this was too good to resist. (For next year I’m thinking of this.)
Why? Well, when Irene hit Vermont earlier in the year, my mom and I had to pause and consider the sheer weirdness of talking about hurricane damage to places where she lived. Truly all that was normal in the world had been turned upside down when her Florida-dwelling daughter was sympathetically listening to the list of (thankfully largely minor!) damage in Vermont.
So, I couldn’t resist making my step-grandfather a hurricane hat, to commemorate this strange, strange year. And help keep is head warm. Here it is!
I had fun knitting these two mini-scarves for the twin daughters of a friend of mine, who have some beloved stuffed cats that would love them.
In order to make them as to scale as possible, I used sock yarn. And in order to make them similar, yet different, I knitted one vertically and one horizontally. I am fascinated by how different the same yarn can look, depending on the row lengths.
Our local brewery (Swamp Head), released this year’s Saison du Swamp today. In addition to having it on tap and in bottles, they also had a number of special beers:
They also had some nice BBQ from Chunky T’s. I hadn’t heard of them until recently, but they had nice pulled pork sandwiches and mac&cheese.
Sorry, I couldn’t resist. That was a friend of mine’s response to this, my first attempt at needle felting:
This took about an hour or so from start to finish, which included fussing around with the armature (read: pipe cleaner stolen from my children’s craft supplies) and a few false starts figuring out how much wool I needed for each stage of building up the body. Oh, and endlessly poking the legs to get all trace of the armature hidden.
Toward the end, I couldn’t help but feel a little like I was making some sort of demented voodoo doll, and that somewhere there was a poor little sheep thinking it had suddenly developed arthritis and migraines all at the same time.
I just finished the manly-button scarf! I’m not sure that I did the cast-on part correctly (in fact, I’m certain that I did not do it the way that I was instructed to), but even still I am shocked at how easy it actually was in the end. After some poking around online, I went with this set of instructions, and all went smoothly, almost.
My mother once told me that she would gladly do whatever was necessary to not have to parallel park, even if that meant walking five miles in the snow up hill both ways. I never quite understood this until yesterday, when I realized that I feel the exact same way about casting on. I know exactly one way to cast on (long-tail). And, I’m really, really happy with this cast-on. I will go to great lengths (ha ha) to use this cast on, even when asked to cast on 100+ stitches.
Looking at how to do the “required” cable cast on for this particular button hole has not changed my mind. I spent a fair amount of time saying “oh, no no no” as I watched the instructions unfold. Then, I spent way too long trying to figure out how to use a long-tail cast on. In the end, defeated, I sort of flailed around with the needles in a way that is sort of like a cable cast on – I didn’t make a slip knot, but just took the next stitch, knitted into it, then pulled that stitch onto the left needle, knit into it, slipped it back on, etc. I don’t think it would work for very many stitches, but it worked for the 4 that I needed!
I don’t have a good picture of the button hole itself, but I’m pretty happy with it. Here’s a picture of the final scarf, folded up and ready to wrap!
But this one is fiber related, so that’s okay, right?
Last weekend I went to a local artisan’s festival here in town, and our local Waldorf-inspired school had a table filled with fantastic and fantastical things. I ended up buying a couple of lovely magical wands for the daughters of friends of mine (coincidentally made by another friend of mine, though I didn’t know that at the time). But, the thing that really caught my attention was the population of felted gnomes. Unspeakably cute and cuddly, I handled them way more than is decent. Yet, in the end, I could not quite bring myself to buy one. Something in my heart made me understand that I wanted – needed – to make my own, although I didn’t have the faintest clue how they were put together (fairy dust and love?).
If you aren’t familiar with this type of felted project, let me direct your attention to Felting Dreams (an etsy store), which has wonderful examples.
How I love the internet. Within 48 hours, I now know that what I want to learn how to do is called needle felting, and I have identified two books and about five websites that look promising. Oh, and I ordered a set of felting needles and a felting pad. Because what do I need? Another hobby. (And my very own felt gnome!)