Cabled Hat

I made my first cabled project!
Pattern: Basic Cable from Stitch and Bitch Nation
Yarn: Vanna's Choice, eggplant
Needles: size 8 16" circulars
I was really excited to try a new technique, and cables turned out to be easier than I thought (after I asked my friend/knitting mentor Pepper for some help).

Vanna's Choice (VC) is a good substitution for the required yarn, Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted. Since I have to get my yarn from Michael's and Hobby Lobby, I couldn't get the required yarn in a timely manner, so I used VC and was happy with the results. Plus, VC is machine washable, which is an added bonus.

The hat is actually a darker shade of purple, but my shitty camera phone couldn't capture the color well. But, I'll probably be getting a new camera for my b-day, so good pictures will come later.

A new niece!

On Sunday, our new niece was born.
Kirin and Adisyn:


We thought she'd be here before Valentine's Day, so the stuff I collected for big sister Adisyn is Valentine's themed--sorry Ryan and Ash, it will be late.

Here's a pic of the hat I made for little Kirin:


I found the graph online, and made up the rest of it. It's sort of big for a newborn, but I figure she'll grow into it. Besides, everyone always gives gifts sized for a newborn and the parents don't have stuff for when the baby's older.

Another hat for Adi

Here's a hat I knit for Adisyn. I used the graph from the "center square" hat on Knitty, and just sort of made up the rest as I went along. The earflaps are a modified version of the devil hat in Stitch and Bitch.

And it's lined in fleece, so it will be extra warm for her. I painstakingly handstitched the fleece in, because the only green thread I had was embroidery thread, so I couldn't use my machine. Next time, I'll definitely use the sewing machine.
This picture shows the color more accurately, and the i-cord and pom-pons: (FYI, it's a pet peeve of mine when people call them "pom-poms"--that is not correct)


As for the argyle scarf, it's becoming a big pain in my ass. I've screwed up several times, and I hope the mistakes aren't that visible. I have nine out of 23 pattern repeats done. I'm not even halfway. :|

I'm a knitting fiend

I knit another hat! This was hard for me, because it was my first project knitting in the round and using double pointed needles. I also learned how to pick up stitches (is that what it's called) and make an i-cord for the straps. I'm very happy with the results, but I think I'm going to weave in some really thin elastic around the head.

I basically used the devil hat pattern in the Stitch and Bitch book, but without the horns. Perhaps I'll make a horned version for one of my Grand County Red Devils friends.

KNITTING!!!

I have been trying to cultivate my knitting skills (or lack thereof) for about three years. Up until last Friday, I had only completed two knitting projects--one garter stitch scarf (the easiest knitting project possible), and one stockingette scarf. But last week, I completed TWO knitting projects!!

First, I made this scarflette, or whatever you call those short scarves. The flowers are crocheted, and it's lined in fleece. It fastens with a snap.


I was trying to make it look like this scarf from Anthropologie:


Then, I decided that I had enough practice, and I was ready to learn something new--decreases. So, I chose a hat pattern from Stitch and Bitch that only involved knitting, purling, and knitting two stitches together.
I decided to make a hat for my niece Adisyn, because I wasn't really happy with the size of the crocheted hats I made for her, and a knit hat would be stretchy and would fit better. Because the pattern is written for three sizes, I made the smallest size and used size 8 needles instead of 10 (I think..). All three of the yarns used were Vanna's Choice, since it's cheap, washable, and I really like the color combo.


I'm now making her a matching scarf.


What's my next project? Maybe this crocheted cornucopia for Caitlin. hahahah.

finished hats

The finished Lattice Hat,

A hat for Ashley and Ryan's niece,

and a hat for Matt's cousin's baby.

Lattice Hat

I'm currently making this hat.

I'm using Vanna's Choice yarn, which makes the hat sort of thick, which will be nice for the winter. The pattern is relatively easy to follow, and once I got the hang of it, I stopped looking at the pattern. I still have quite a bit to go, but here's what I have finished:

Lots of finished projects!

Since I am still unemployed (which makes me bored and poor), everyone is getting homemade Christmas gifts. All of the Aunts/Grandmas are getting aprons and potholders. I've only finished two potholders so far. I've sort of been using the pattern from the Sugar and Cream dishclothes book. I say "sort of" because I lost the pattern and I had to try to re-write it by looking at a potholder I made a year ago. Here's one:

I'm not sure who will get this scarf. I just wanted to use the colors together. It's a shell stitch, and I did it lengthwise. I've been seeing a lot of shell stitch items in stores lately!
I made this hat for Adisyn, but I got carried away and it's really big, so I think I might give it to my cousin Lauren. It's my first attempt at lining a hat, and I think it turned out nice.


It's lined in grey fleece, so it will keep someone's head extra warm.

I made two scarfs using the "Boteh Scarf" pattern in an old issue of Interweave crochet. I made the tan one first, then I liked the pattern so much that I also made a brown one. I'm not sure who these will go to, but I'm tempted to keep one for myself.

I made this hat for Adi because I wanted to try one of the motifs in the new book Caitlin gave me. I thought it looked like a snowflake. The colors are actually lavender and grey, though it looks blue in the picture.

And there are many more projects to come!!

etsy hell

I've been slaving away for the past few days, trying to get my Etsy site up and running. So far, I've photographed all of our finished products, designed the site banner, and downloaded Photoshop (free trial version, boooyah). Then, I discovered that all of my photos are horrible!! It's so discouraging.

Our banner:

Here's a preview of some of the items that will soon be added to the Etsy site. Little C hasn't posted anything yet, so I'll add some of her items for her.

This li'l baby hat seems to be everyone's favorite, but I made it just because I wanted to get rid of some yarn scraps.

Cait made this one.

<-----

I (not so secretly) lust after it and always try to steal it.

Look, a scarf! The bobbles remind me of those candy-dot things.

And another one of Caitlin's designs.

Friday hats

I decided to expand my crochet ability by trying two new techniques.

Here, I tried my hand graphing out a design. It's actually an avocado green with pink hearts, but my camera phone doesn't do it justice.


With this hat, I wanted to create a ribbed effect using front post single crochet. It needs blocked, but I think it turned out alright.

Here's the top of the hat:

*UPDATE* This is the real color of the hat: