Goodbye 2011

Last day to squeeze in one more blog post!  I haven't been around here much this December.  That's because I rather overbooked myself with handmade Christmas.  Then we traveled to GA for the Holiday (lots of fun, despite the cold I brought home with me--boo).  And to top it all off, I got a last minute commission from Knit One Crochet Too for a new pattern they want to debut...next weekend.  Been a little busy--as you can imagine.  At least it's better than being bored, right?

My current test knit project hasn't been released yet (how cool is that) so I can't show it to you just yet--that and I'm not quite finished with it.  Guess how I'm spending my New Year's Eve.  Not that I would want to be anywhere other than parked on my couch with a knitting project and a glass of wine :)

So, here is a crash course of all the handmade gifts I've neglected to show you over the last couple of weeks.  I promise a more in-depth post once I've finished this next test knit.  I am on a deadline ;)

First the knits:

A couple of ornaments for an online ornament exchange, courtesy of Knit Picks and Karolina Eckerdal,both in Palette:

Some gloves for Dad, from Never Knit Your Man a Sweater* in Swish Worsted:

And a scarf for FIL, Cerus Scarf by Hillary Smith Callis:

 

I wasn't planning on making anything for him, but was having a really, really, really hard time coming up with something for him for Christmas.  Turns out he's going to be taking some depositions in northern cities and very specifically wanted a *cardinal red* scarf to go with it.   I thought I wouldn't have time to finish it, but I managed to squeak this one in about 2 days before we left!

The time it took to knit it could have something to do with the pattern--it is lovely and very masculine, but it makes for a very thick fabric and one that doesn't knit up very quickly.  I recommend it highly, but not for projects that you need quickly.  

Also, if you get the chance, give Knit Picks Full Circle a try.  It's made from recycled wool and merino fibers and comes in some really beautiful, vibrant colors.  It is a bit splitty, so it wasn't really the best choice for so thick a fabric, but it's airy, warm, and super soft.  I plan on ordering myself more as a belated Christmas gift to myself :)

And now a bunch of non-knits:

I mentioned in my previous post that I am trying to enhance my sewing skills (up from nil).  I decided to give this quilted oven mitt pattern a try.  I think it came out well!

I made one for each of our mothers and they really seemed to like them!

I also tried this etching tutorial (really, it's amazing what you can find on Pinterest!) to make some personalized wine glasses for friends and family--look how pretty!

It was a little tough to cut those shapes out of masking tape, but totally worth it.  I think that etching cream was one of the best investments I made this season!  Definitely making one of these for me in the future.

Did you get any fun crafty gifts this year?

I hope you all have a very Happy New Year.  Hope 2012 treats you even better than 2011!

Cheers,

-Allie

Oslo Walk Shawl

I did it.  I'm done!  My last day with LOMAF was on Friday and I start my new position in Portland on Wednesday.  Hurray for progress!

I went in for some training last Tuesday and I can already tell how much of an improvement it's going to be!  I am SO excited!

Knitting: This is what remained of that huge cone of lace I bought for my wedding shawl.  That gigantic amount of yarn was enough to make both my wedding shawl and Mel's wedding shawl with enough leftover to make the following, the Oslo Walk Shawl by Susanna IC.  Now my stash entirely consists of yarn bought after May 2011.  Yay for stash-busting!

Pretty, right?  This was probably the fastest shawl I've ever knit.  Not only was it knit on size 7 needles, but crescent shawls are amazingly fast.  Susanna IC has recently published a number of crescent shaped shawls--in Interweave Knits, Twist Collective, and Knitty.  I've also knit her Hawthorne pattern from TC Fall 2010.She has a great variety of difficulties, too.

This particular pattern was pretty easy.  You should be able to read charts and read your own knitting--so you can recognize your place in long, long rows, but it would be a good second lace project for someone.  A great pattern for a quick gift knit.

They are my new favorite shape.  You start at the bottom of the lace edging and then knit the rest of the shawl in short rows.  You knit fewer individual rows, so the pattern is always interesting, and the crescent shape is a lot easier to wear than a triangular shawl.  I will absolutely be knitting more of these in the future. 

Since I already have a pretty scarf in this exact yarn, I'm not sure what exactly I'll do with this shawl.  Probably give it to some lucky lady for Christmas...we'll see.

For next time, I'll have a new cardigan to show you.  It just needs some buttons :)

Cheers,

-Allie

Thundercloud Cowl

Woohoo!  Hundredth post!!  Yeah!!

To celebrate my hundredth broadcast into the interwebz, I have a pretty little cowl to show you today.

The Thundercloud Cowl by Snowden Becker:

 

Cell phone pictures don't really do the yarn color justice.  You can see the beautiful undulating rows of eyelets, though.  Pretty, no?

The color looks more like this one from Knit Picks website "Fairy Tale":

 The yarn is a new line from Knit Picks, Aloft, a mohair/silk blend that is amazingly soft and light and has a lovely subtle sheen to it.  I don't knit in mohair very often, but when I do, I will absolutely come back to Aloft.  Soft, springy and honestly, really fun to work with.  A real delight for the fingers.

I loved the pattern, too.  Snowden Becker really did a great job with the smooth curving lace.  One major drawback is that the pattern wasn't that easy to memorize.  It meant that I didn't get bored with the pattern, since I didn't do as many repeats of it, but I had to keep the chart with me at all times.

My other issue was that the original version, available through Ms. Becker's website or Knit Picks, is a huge, loose cowl that one would have to wear around the shoulders or looped twice around the neck.  That was a little too much for me.  I only knit 4 of t he 8 pattern repeats and I think mine came out to just the right size--loose enough so it doesn't choke me, but close enough to my throat that it will keep me warm.

I think I would knit this again.  It would make a sweet Christmas gift for someone in a cool climate (i.e. not my in-laws).  The whole thing only took me a couple of weeks to knit from start to finish and I wasn't exactly being faithful to the project (I have been known to be a knitting slut...).  It certainly wasn't difficult for someone looking to try mohair or beginner plus lace for the first time.  Give it a try!

For next week, I'm cooking up a bit of a hippie post for you, so be prepared :)

Cheers,

-Allie

A Very Matthews Christmas

I am on the ball this year with Christmas gifts. I have already finished all the gifts for my in-laws this year. I've got a good deal more knitting to do for my Mom, Walker and me, but I've made excellent progress.
For Mary, I made the Smock-a-Ruche Scarf from 101 Designer One Skein Wonders. I used Cascade Eco + Bulky. Not my favorite yarn ever, but it keeps the shape well and I liked the color a lot. I think Mary will, too.For Walker's mom, I made the Twisted Stitch Gauntlets from Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts 2007. I used Karabella Aurora 4, which is a really soft merino in sport weight. Not a terribly easy knit, but enjoyable all the same. I really like that the cuff will go over her coat sleeve and keep her wrists warm.

I asked Walker's mom what the boys would like for Christmas and I was pleased to hear that they wanted the easiest things ever to knit: hats! For Walker's dad, I made the Jacques Cousteau hat (a Ravelry download) in Knitpicks City Tweed DK. Really really soft yarn, but I think there are too many little 'fuzzies' in there. Good for a men's hat, though.

Charles is getting a Seaman's Cap, also a Ravelry download. The yarn I used was Knitpicks' Wool of the Andes, an excellent standby yarn. I got a little creative with the striping because I was running out of the black yarn, but I like the result all the same. It was a little small on Walker's head, so I'm really hoping it'll fit Charles...

I guess we'll see come Christmastime.

For the rest of the family, I am working on a beautiful shawl out of Knitted Lace of Estonia for Mom and just finished the Tilted Duster from Interweave Knits Fall 2007 for Miss Caroline. Once I finish Mom's shawl, I'll do a Wilkes gift edition. I am also working on a matching pair of stocking for the Mister and myself for our first married Christmas. They are based on the Judy's Colors stockings, which are only sold in absurdly expensive kits, so I made a heavily modified version of my own, so ha! I'm done with the cuff portion of Walker's, so I still have a ways to go...

In non-Christmas related news, I'm going to have to frog Venezia. She is just too small and blocking is not what I need. I'm going to have to either start over or move on to something else. Sad :(. After all the Christmas stuff I have a few other projects I want to work on, so redoing the Venezia marathon is not exactly a welcome development right now, but it's such a beautiful pattern that I can't abandon it.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and got to spend some quality time with your families. Good luck with all your Christmas shopping/other holiday endeavors!

Cheers,

-Allie

Planning in Full Swing!

Hey Everyone!

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I've been rather preoccupied with wedding planning details, which are coming along very nicely! Just yesterday we ordered the wedding favors and booked flights and a hotel for our honeymoon in Paris! I am so excited about this!

The other reason I haven't posted is because I signed up for a shop on Etsy and was trying to postpone this until I had that all set up, but I still don't have a very strong idea of how to get that going and I have a bunch of things to show you (!), so here's my update.

You might have noticed that I've changed the name of the blog from Unraveled to Bad Cats, Good Knits. This is because I've also signed up for Ravelry, whose blog is also called Unraveled. Bad Cats, Good Knits is what I've decided to call my Etsy shop and I thought it might be a good idea if they matched. My username on both sites is ReineduMonde, so check me out!

Now the knitting!

Firstly, I finally got around to blocking the Forest Park Scarf:
To be honest, I was a little bored with it after the Cleopatra wrap. I kind of regret buying so much of the orange bamboo yarn--not my favorite color. My coworker, Vicki, on the other hand, loves orange, so I passed the scarf on to her. She seems to like it since she was very excited about wearing it yesterday :).

Secondly, I finished the Nautical Baby Sweater:
I'm worried the collar might be a little too tight, so I probably shouldn't sell try to sell the thing (or really any of it because the yarn is acrylic). Other than that, I think it came out nicely.
And a couple of cute hats to finish off the acrylic yarn!
Now that that junk is out of my basket for good, I can concentrate on using quality materials next time so I won't be so ashamed about putting them up for sale. Maybe I'll wait until I have some good products before really opening the Etsy shop and I can stop worrying about that so much!

My latest project has been a sweater commissioned by Vicki from the Sensual Knits book by Olga Buraya- Kefelian, called the Balloon Sleeve Cardigan:
I'm almost done with it now. I've got everything all knit except for the belt, for which I am waiting on the buckle so I can size the width accurately. I've sewn the hems up, the pieces of the body together and set in one of the sleeves. I just need to set in the other sleeve, sew on the collar and the buttons and make that pesky belt. Then Vicki can enjoy her new sweater! :) The pattern calls for a wool-cashmere blend, which was prohibitively expensive, and Vicki wants it to be a summer cardigan, so I picked Knitpicks Comfy Worsted. It's extremely soft and (shocker!) comfortable. Unlike a lot of cotton yarns I've worked with, it doesn't stick to the needles at all. I am very pleased with the way this cardigan is working out and hopefully Vicki will be too!

Lined up after that, I have the Venezia Pullover by Eunny Jang. I've substituted pinks for the yellows, but I'm not entirely sure about the arrangement of the colors yet. I'll have to play around with some swatches before I really get into it. I'll certainly keep you guys posted here, but might be posting on Ravelry more often, so sign up for it! It's got some really cool programs for logging projects and checking out member patterns.

(I owe you a kitty picture in the next post, I promise)

I hope all of you are having a wonderful spring and that your summer will be as fun-filled as mine is promising to be!

Cheers,

-Allie

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!!!

The day of love is upon us and of course I've made a few little goodies for the occasion:
I made Walker the little 'lovebug' and a few little stuffed hearts for my parents. A couple of them have faces on them, but that's a little hard to see in this photo. You just have to trust me.Our job situation hasn't really had any progress. We have a few prospects, but they're all moving at the speed of a molasses covered turtle. So hopefully I'll have some better news by my next post, but don't hold your breath. But that means that I've had plenty of time to knit!
I had some dk yarn kicking around and wanted to make some yummy gloves out of it, but couldn't find a pattern for dk-weight gloves, so I decided to try to write one. The one I managed to finish fits very well, but the one skein didn't quite cover both gloves, so I'll have to order another one...once I get around to doing that. So for now I have a glove and a half lying around. Once I work the kinks out of this pattern, I might get around to writing it out for various sizes and post it here!
I did manage to finish some other handwarmers, though! With some more leftover Christmas yarn, I did another pattern out of the Selvubotter book, but this one is for little girls. So if you know any cold little girls, let me know.Alternatively, if you know any medium-sized girls (or boys) whose hands are chilly, they might also be in luck. With some leftover white yarn from mom's Scandanavian scarf, I made some cute cabley mittens.So now all of my yarn is gone, except for that last half ball of bamboo yarn, which is turning nicely into the forest park scarf, which I found in the Designer One Skein Wonders book (as well as the cable mittens, actually). I made some modifications, like I made it one repeat wider, so I'll be able to block it between 12-16" wide and I'm not going to use the same edging. I won't put any edging along the sides and at the ends, I'm going to put in Pinapple Lace Edging. I'm about halfway through the body pattern (shown below) and then will put on the edging. I think it will end up being 5 1/2 feet long, but that kind of depends on how long the yarn allows for.After that, though, the knitting basket is empty: no more yarn. I will have to order one more skein of elegance to finish those gloves, but after that, I just don't know. I will try to write that pattern for Christina (once she gets me her measurements!) and then I guess I'll just get a lot of reading done. We'll see!
Here's Jericho, looking very comfy in Walker's lap, to wrap things up!

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

-Allie

Maine!

Yay, we're finally in Maine! We've got everything moved in and put away and you can see some pictures of the apartment here. No jobs yet, but I'm sure we'll find something soon. The temp agency says they're working hard to find us something, anyway. As you can tell, I've gotten quite a bit of knitting done since my last post. So much for posting more often. Sorry :-/

I recently came to the conclusion that the hat I made for myself last fall makes me look like a pinhead. So I tried to make myself a beret and pretty much failed. I think my head's just too fat. Instead, I ended up making this folded brim number, based loosely on Knitty's Coronet hat, but bigger and with a different cable pattern on the brim, which is a little tough to make out in this picture.It's a little bit big, but that means, no more hathead! I'm in love with this yarn, too. If it wasn't so expensive, I'd make everything in Knitpicks' elegance yarn!
I mentioned in the last post that I would be making my mother a scarf to match the gloves I made her for Christmas, well here it is!It's pretty much just a big scarfy tube with part of the glove chart stuck on it and with the ends sewn together. Mom loves it, so it's a success in my book.

Now for the stash-busting. I still had a lot of fingering weight yarn left, but not much in any one color. So I made these little stripey socks in an attempt to kill a couple skeins. I think I'm going to mail these to a friend of mine.Unfortunately, they were unable to kill my remaining fingering weight yarn, so as usual with little scraps of yarn, I made this adorable trio of cat toys. Left to right: Asparagus man, Mr. Stegs, and Morlock.And Mr. Stegs from the side:

Our naughty kitty is so lucky he can benefit from my yarn scraps! Now all of my fingering weight yarn is left, a couple skeins of worsted (future mittens and valentines miscellany), one of dk (future gloves, elegance!), and that remaining ball of bamboo lace. I swear, this time, I'm really going to get back to working on the Seascape Shawl! I mean it!

Sorry, no pictures of kitties in the beret. It's too big for Jericho and Fatty flipped out when I tried to put it on him :( Also, if there was anything in the previous post that you would like, (as in the Alaska Hat, Vespergyle Mittens, washcloth, or cat beret) you're absolutely welcome to them. I have no idea what to do with them and don't really want to just donate them to charity.

Jericho will wrap things up for me with his customary shot of cuteness.

Cheers!

Leftovers

A lot's happened since my last post, both in knitting and in the rest of my life.
Firstly, Christmas happened. Everyone seemed to like their knit gifts very much. Here's a picture of the scarf I made for dad but forgot to photograph before I wrapped it:It looks nice, but the dye turned some of my needles green. :( It was worth it, though, and Christmas joys were more than enough to overshadow this drawback.
Walker came with me to Maine both to meet my extended family and for an interview with a staffing agency in Portland. Both events went very well: my family enjoyed meeting Walker very much and the staffing agency seems very confident that they should be able to find us something good, which brings me to the next major event. We're moving to Portland. Yay!
We've found a great apartment with brand new appliances about 10 minutes north of my parents and we're fairly confident that we've found someone to take our place in Philly, so (barring a major issue) we're leaving next Saturday! I'm so excited! It will be so nice to be in a place that feels safe and familiar and where we have a good chance of getting a job, hurray!
We'll also be in a convenient place for wedding plans, since it'll take place in Maine. We've got major things, like venues, band, and my dress (I'm going to wear my aunt's dress, which I might post once my mother gives me the pictures she took), but it'll be nice to be around to make the details. Oh, I feel happy again :)
So, knitting news: I had a lot of leftovers from Christmas presents and have been trying to use that up, creating the following projects.
Walker finally conceded that he needed a new pair of gloves, so I made him this fairly simple pair to keep his hands warm:These didn't finish off that scarf yarn, though, so I made this cute little beret. I had intended it for Jericho, but he's still too little and it didn't fit him right. Maybe it'll fit my parents' cat instead. He's certainly large enough...Even after this, I still had a little left over, so I combined it with some of the white cotton blend from Caroline's sweater (which she refused to model for a picture, stinker) to make this hat. I combined a basic roll-brim pattern I got online with a fair-isle pattern from a book. The pattern is called 'Alaska,' so that's what I'm calling the hat. It's a little too small for me, though. So if you know anyone with a smallish head who would like this hat, let me know or I'll just hang on to it.The hat finished off the green yarn, but I still had some white cotton left, so I made a little washclothand a cat toy meant to look like a Chinese dumpling. I think there's only a vague resemblance, but Jericho likes it, so I guess it doesn't matter.Now all I have left is the fingering weight yarn from Walker's socks and Mom's gloves. I made Caroline a pair of gloves from the Selbuvotter book, which I also did not get to photograph so you're just going to have to imagine them in their green-and-white moose-y glory.
Since I'm kind of tired of making socks, I may just make a whole bunch of gloves and mittens, saving them for gifts. Or something. I did start on a really cool pattern I found for argyle mittens called Vespergyle.This one came out nicely, but took me forever (by my standards, anyway). I'm making them on size 1 needles, so they gauge is tiny! I'm going to make the other one and then work on projects with the new yarn I got today. After that I might figure out something to do with the rest of the fingering weight pile.
Next projects with the new yarn are going to be a lovely beret in teal knitpicks elegance (70% alpaca 30% silk), which is soooo soft! I can't help petting it!
I've also got some worsted weight wool to make Mom a scarf to match her gloves.
I've noticed that my posts are kind of getting out of control. I'm sorry about that--I'll try to update more in the future, but once I get a steady job, I might have fewer projects to report anyway.
Wish us luck in our big move!

Cheers,

-Allie

Real life is no fun

Hey all,

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I haven't been making much progress with either knitting or life in general and the reason I haven't posted is because I didn't much fancy blaring that my life is still going nowhere, but it's been a long time since my last post, so here it is:

Knitting:

I finished the danica scarfAnd it did not take as long as I thought it would. Could be that I finished it as quickly as I did because I didn't have much else to do with myself. I know I said I wouldn't do entrelac again, but I think it looks pretty cool. I don't think I'll keep it, though. Any takers?

I also had a bunch of that dark purple yarn leftover that I used to make a hat:It's a little tough to see in that picture, but there's a purl row spiral going around the hat. It's a little too big for my head, though, so that's up for grabs as well.

After I finished that hat, I've been trying to bust the stash a little more with that remaining skein of bamboo lace. I checked the gauge on the clapotis wrap and it's a little off, so I'm working on the Seascape Shawl instead. Progress isn't going very quickly, though, since it's a little too similar to the cleopatra wrap and I'm just not very excited about it.

I'm trying to remedy this problem by moving on to another project. I know I said I would work on the Goddess Top next, but sweater season is starting to sneak up on me and I changed my mind to the Blue Mirasol Top and ordered the yarn for it yesterday. Maybe this'll restore my fervor.

Life in General:

So I'm still waiting around for an interview. After 2 months.

I called my most prominent prospect last Tuesday and she asked me for my schedule for this week and the next. I was really hoping that this meant I would get an interview soon, but she hasn't called me back yet. And neither has my other prospect--a friend of my landlady. I'm going to call them both tomorrow and hopefully I'll get some good news.

Right now I'm getting a pathetic number of hours at a local clothing store. Really, if they want me to buy the clothes, maybe they should give me enough hours to pay my bills and then buy clothes. Silly people. I'm trying to stay hopeful, but it's a little difficult when I keep getting put off, week after week. Keeping that little flame of hope alive is tough, but well worth the effort. I refuse to despair about this anymore.
So there's your update. I'll let you know more as things progress, both with the sweater and the job market. Keep your fingers crossed!

Cheers,

-Allie

At Last!

The Cleopatra Wrap is finally finished and blocked! I am extremely pleased with the results and was pleasantly surprised with how well bamboo holds a shape after blocking.
Those points came out rather nicely, don't you think? The finished measurements are 75" x 16", which is a lot more than I thought I would get out of one skein, but it'll make a lovely shawl when/if fall comes to Philly.

I'm not quite sure what I'll do with the other skein of bamboo yarn I bought when I was panicking about the length of this shawl. Maybe I'll turn it into the Clapotis Wrap, which will make a lovely shawl, but will be somewhat less taxing than Cleopatra. Maybe Miss Christina would like it as a transition piece into the lovely world of shawls?

I also took some pictures of me in the seed-cabled cardigan for your viewing pleasure:

(That little black spot is actually a snap, since the pattern didn't allow for any closing device--it's not a bug or anything) And here it is from behind:

A few days ago I came to the conclusion that I no longer liked that wine-colored sweater I made back in December, so rather than waste the yarn, I took the thing apart and turned some of it into the Talia Vest:

I'm not as keen as I thought I would be on the finished product. Perhaps part of it is because I couldn't find any silver-colored buttons and had to settle for white, but it still looks pretty good so I think I'll hang onto it for a while. It looks better from behind, in my opinion:

This vest leaves me with about 300 yards of both this color and the dark purple, so they might be transformed into the Danica Scarf, which, while cool, doesn't entirely suit me, so if you'd like that scarf or want something in those colors but in a different style, speak up. I want to use the contents of my knitting bag (except for that little bit of fingering weight yarn) so that I can order the yarn for the goddess top without feeling bad about it.

Hope you all have a wonderful end of summer!

-Allie

Crunch Time

Wow, so we only have two more weeks left of school. I've got about 42 pages to write by next Thursday for four different projects and a final exam in another class. But at noon next Saturday, I'll be all done with school. At least for now.
My life is beginning to take more shape than it had been before--I'm definitely moving to Philadelphia and I've applied to jobs in a law firm and the Philadelphia Art Museum, hoping to explore the potential for a career in either of those fields. I have only about 150 pages left of Les Miserables, which I plan to finish Wednesday morning. I'm starting to get really excited about graduation and the next chapter of my life. I'd be a little more excited if I had an apartment and a job lined up, but you can't have everything.
Yet through all this, I have found the time to knit, as always. I finished all the graduation gifts I had been planning, but no pictures--it's a surprise! I'll put some up after graduation, though, as I am quite proud of them. I have also managed to finish off that lavender yarn with a lovely reversible cable scarf for my sister:I think she'll like it. The trick is really quite simple: it's just a K1, P1 rib all the way across. It took forever and it's only about 4 1/2 feet long, but the effect is rather neat. Detail below:
I don't think I'll be making another one of those any time soon, but it was an interesting thing to try. So now, apart from about 2 half skeins of red yarn, 1 worsted, one heavy worsted, my stash has been emptied. If anyone wants those half skeins, there's probably enough in each of them to make a hat or something. If you don't want them, I might try to make up a phoenix pattern for Caroline (for which I might need to steal some of Jodi's yellow) with the worsted and...I don't know what with the heavy worsted.
And because I managed to burn my stash down to this meager pile, I allowed myself to refill it a little, with some lovely pine-colored merino, with which I will make the Chapeau Marnier, and some turquoise-colored cotton, with which to make the Seed Cabled Cardigan from the Sensual Knits book. Once those are finished, I promise I will get back to the Cleopatra wrap. I think by that point, I'll have had a sufficient break and be able to make some more headway.

And maybe I'll work on my school projects too =P.

Cheers,
-Allie