Ripping

Here is a glimpse of the vortex cowl i slowly have worked on for the last months. If you look at the authors pattern she uses 4 colors for the stripes. I had tried to get the same effect by using a varigated yarn. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/vortex-cowl/slideshow?fullscreen=1&start=29991217 I was also trying to save money and only got two colors. With christmas etc i put it down for a while. Recently i grabbed it and took it to work for lunch break knitting. The colors weren't working for me. It looks cool but is not the effect i wanted. Plus i probably only had 8-10 inches and it is a long cowl!  I believe i heard something on the knitmore girls podcast like " if you don't like it now, you won't like it in x amount of rows". I realized it was probably true. I didnt like it enough to continue working on it and had started thinking socks might be a better use for the two skeins. 

So. Last night I ripped it! I started with the varigated purple to make a hitchhiker shawlette. Martina Behm is the creater. I also like the Trillian pattern she has.  I hope the colors will look okay. So far (I have only done one pattern repeat) it looks good, but time will tell. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hitchhiker/slideshow?fullscreen=1&start=14067097

Hopefully this links will work (Blogging on my phone) but you can also just google them for pictures. 

Sweater & Socks

Two finished projects!

Baby sweater, I finished it a while back but had to block it and get better photos. It is so cute, I would like to make another one someday. (This photo is after it had been folded for a while).

The buttons are grey.  

Here are the rainbow toddler socks. I know I made mistakes, but the pattern helps hide them. I think one is also a little longer than the other, oops.  I may make another pair, I have a lot of rainbow yarn left. I think in a more solid color or even bigger stripes, it could look really cool. 

We have been busy packing and cleaning our apartment, in two weekends there will be an open house, so everything has to be in tip-top shape. Not a lot of crafting has been happening. 

I have finished another project but it is a surprise so I cannot share it quite yet. 

Sock Re-Do

These are some socks I made years ago. I ran out of yarn so started using the light green/white yarn to make it stretch. The socks were toe up. I found them in my knitting bin at my parents and knew that a moth or somebody else had came and went. I decided to rip them out and since they are bright rainbow, make something for little kids to wear. 

 As I began to rip out the socks I found that the pale green yarn was coming apart, I don't know if it was just eaten or just didn't last well. I only saved a small amount of it that still seemed good. I think it was Tofutsies brand, so it has soysilk in it. I'm trying to decide if I will make socks or mittens from it. Yesterday I wound it into big loops, got it wet and let it hang on a hanger to get some of the kinks out of it. It is pretty much dry today and I will wind it into balls.

 We are moving in the next few months (Not sure where yet...) I am trying to slowly sort things through. The last few weeks I have been cutting 6in squares for a denim quilt. I think I am close to having enough of the same types to start the quilt. When I cut up pants I take off buttons, occasionally zippers (To repair my husbands jeans some day, if needed.) I often cut off the tags (I am interested in them)  and If there are good sized patchs I save them to someday make a sort of crazy quilt hopefully. I saved pairs to remove the pockets so I can get 2 more squares from the fabric underneath. It is tedious but hopefully I can get it done soon and throw out the rest of the pants.

Reversible skirt

I realized today that my friend's birthday was tomorrow. (I think she is turning 10?)

I wondered what I could sew up quickly using the few pieces of fabric I have at home. I looked online at some quick tutorials but nothing really seemed like the right project. Then I saw a reversible skirt tutorial. I did sort of read through the tutorial, but I also just went for it. I used striped fabric from a pair of pajama pants I had made (and only worn a few times), and fabric from one of my friend's skirts they had chopped shorter.  I had to figure out a waistband since I didn't have any wide elastic. (I ended up using a stretchy piece of fabric I had, and also included thin elastic in that so we could make it smaller if needed.) Then I figured out the gathering and which order to sew things so it is truly reversible. I sewed a bias tape binding over the raw edges inside the skirt at the waistband. The way I sewed the waistband to the skirt it is stretchy, but not quite as much as I had hoped. Also the navy skirt on the inside had rough edged seams, so I put just a few inches of stretch lace vertically over the seams just to hide them a bit. The bottom of the skirt is maybe not totally straight, but since the fabrics I was using were from previous projects I was taking advantage of the fact that they were already hemmed. It is nice to use up scraps. 

So, I'm sure I did some of it the hard way, but I am pleased with the result, and my friend plans to wear it tomorrow! I may try to make one for me someday, we'll see,

Red Cowl

This is a reworking of a previous red cowl. It was pilled and I'd gotten to the point where I didn't want to wear it. It had a few cables but was unevenly patterned. So I ripped it, got the yarn wet and let it dry. The yarn was worked double, it is thinner, maybe a sport weight? I had done this pattern for another cowl I made. Barbara I believe is the pattern. It is a fun slip pattern that is easy to learn. I didn't have quite enough yarn so I finished it with the reflective yarn I used for those mitts. It is stIll a little tighter than I like (it may mess up my hair), but I'm sure it will stretch over time. And pill more. The black yarn is bulkier and so it is a little uneven. Anyway here are some photos. Including me... Ha.