Knitwhim Diaries 16: iVlog

FOs

Delicate Crochet Butterfly by Anne Halliday

WIPS

Passione Amorosa By O Rose

Seedling dreams by Amy Beth

Spinning Lorna's Laces Merino

People

ESK

Mandobug Crafts

Penguin Soup

Jeanne

Random Mentions

crochet so fine by Kristin Omdahl

Bramble Shawl

MUSIC BY 

Nick

FO Friday - Hat

Hello all. I promise to get back to the knitting soon, but for now, I finished a hat. It's Crochet.

The pattern is a slouchy beanie and it was very simple, quick, and fun to do.
I knit it using various leftover DK weight from some baby-blanket projects I did last year. The purple bits are peaches N Cream cotton which worked surprisingly well, considering.

I found the puff stitch very relaxing and slouchy hats are extraordinarily forgiving of newbie crochet mistakes ^__^ 

I'm also *practically* done with the Zombie Vixen mitts.... Just 7 rows of ribbing and a thumb remain!

See more FO's at Tami's!

Crochet or Die

Hello all, Today's WIPW post needs a bit of an introduction.
I am a knitter. I've been knitting for a long time and I love knitting. I'm also a dabbler. I can't stand seeing someone do something crafty without at least finding out the basics of how it works. So I've had an on and off again affair with crochet. One of my BFF's Crochets, she's bought me a few crochet books and patterns, and occasionally, due to her influence, I've knit masses of random unrelated granny squares, and once, even a hat.

I want to get better, but unlike with knitting, every time I start a crochet project I have to re-learn all the stitches. And the patterns in the book I have are all knit with difficult types of yarn, like lace weight, or ribbon yarn. So I want to make sure I really have stuff down before I start. Plus it's all charted in that book, and crochet charts still look like black magic to me!


All that being said, I promised myself I would try to knit crochet This Hat after I finished Aaron's socks. (Finished, btw, photos on friday. )

But I wanted to practice the stitches first, which meant granny squares. Last week on WIPW I read about a bunch of crochet projects that other people were doing that inspired my granny square choices.

Yarnknitreadlit got me started with granny square CALS and a cool plaid crochet blanket
Little Bird knits  is doing a weekly granny square pattern. So is
8th Gem
Mixedmartialarts introduced me to this pattern, which I am now obsessed with!


So, to make a long story short. I've been making Granny Squares using leftover sock yarn and a 3.50 MM crochet hook.




I also finished the band for the hat :

The puff stitch is so relaxing I can't put the thing down!

 


For more WIPW posts visit Tami's Blog!

A String Fling

Dear blog,

I was wandering around michaels crafts store yesterday, drooling over all the halloween craft stuff and, more importantly, picking up some extra yarn to finish up my Ravenclaw scarf, when I noticed the bins of Sugar N Cream. I must admit, they caught my eye. Their so small and dainty, and they have the most delightful selection of colors. I was tempted, and even though I knew I had no interest in completing a project with them (I've never liked them much, on a whole ), even though I knew I couldn't commit even to a scarf or a small hat, I bought some. After all, I thought, what's the harm in some innocent fun, right? And then, because I was also eyeing a certain crochet pattern book, Tabby bought that for me as a birthday present, and now, what am I supposed to do with myself?

I'm not actually committing to anything from this book yet - I still have to finish all these lace shawls I'm working on, but there are only three patterns in here that I hate. All the others I can see myself crocheting, and there are one or two that I want to drop everything for and start RIGHT NOW. So in preparation, I'm re-learning the basic stitches. I'm finding the hardest part right now to be keeping my tension the same for each row. ^^;; And of course, I'm getting no end of pleasure from the fact that it's not knitting, and it's not red.

In other news. Only two rows to the end of the main lace chart for the Peacock shawl, after that it's just rows of mostly plain knitting.

FO Triple threat!

Dear blog, The last month sort of went by in a whirlwind. All sorts of crazy stuff going on what with class starting and me moving rooms, and it all boils down to me finishing three epic projects without having the time or the sense to blog about them. So here we go!

FO: Evangeline

Yay! I love this pattern. Easy to knit, fun to wear, who could say no?

Knit with loops & threads impeccable (my current acrylic of choice ) and while ravelry doesn't know what size needles I used, I'm guessing it was probably US7's. Those are the DPNS that get the most use from me! (tho now that I think about it, it could easily have been the US3s, my 2nd most used set... This is why we document things as they happen ppl...)

I knit the first glove during smart start, and found out that one of my teachers also knits! She came to class wearing several different lovely lace scarfs :) She said the pattern looked really similar to Bella's mitts. Guess if you've seen one cable you've seen them all...

FO : Onerva

Mmmmh. I love this scarf! I only wish I had my personal photographer here to take nicer pictures ;)

Knit on US5 circulars in malabrigo laceweight, this thing is the softest dreamiest thing I've ever knit. I was afraid I'd run out of yarn at the end, and so I did a simple stretchy bind off.... It curls and I'm not the biggest fan. But it's not bad enough to ruin the overall awesomeness.

FO : Pretty Puffs Slouch

So I went absolutely crazy one sunday.... No yarn, no projects... no yarn.... Stubornly refusing the 2 socks worth of sock yarn in my drawer.... no yarn. Is there seriously no yarn? That's when I stumbled upon my back-up skien of impeccable worsted. The one I bought *just incase* I ran out while knitting Evangeline. I realized I had failed miserably in all of my previous attempts to crochet anything, and that I had a whole day ahead of me with nothing to do..... And that's how I got this hat. It only took a day to crochet, but it's taken me years to leap off of the granny-square edge.

So yeah. Wow. Loads of FO's. Hoping I'll be able to bring some WIPS to my next post. I'm expecting a Knitpicks order in the mail, and yes, the sock yarn and I are having a dialogue. But that's a story for another day.

Until then

Cheers

Provisionally

Yesterday I started a new project that required a provisional cast-on, which I had no idea how to do. Luckily, the internet is very useful in that department, and I quickly learned two new crochet cast ons; One in which you simply crochet a chain and then pick up stitches through the back loops, and one that involves a kind of contorted use of both crochet hook and knitting needle at the same time, pictured here ;

Despite quickly picking up these techniques in theory it took me an hour to actually successfully start my shawl. Maybe someone out there knows how to fix my problem, but my first provisional stitch was open (had the tail....) and I wasn't sure how to close it/ what to do about it, and so I kept losing it o.0;;

But every-thing's OK now. Despite how fun and exciting small projects like scarves, gloves (and especially) hats, are. They can be a bit wearing after awhile, so I'm really really excited about starting a new lace project ^__^