Merry X'mas

It's christmas day today and the stocking is filled with alot of sweets! Happy holidays!

Christmas stocking

Isn't this looks like a sleeve or some parts of a garment? No. It's a Knitted Fisherman Stocking. I hadn't read carefully and thought it should be knitted in round with thick dpns, and this misunderstanding made me reluctant to start since last year. Knitting thick yarn with thick dpns in round is uneasy for me. When I noticed it could be knit with straight needle back and forth, I flew to the LYS to get materials. Only 10 days for Christmas eve. I'm knitting like crazy this socks tossing all other projects.
The picture on the pattern site is unclear, but the appeared texture is really pretty.

Red gloves

I knitted this Ladies' Gloves with Scalloped Ribs on Two Needles from "Charm" Glove Book 12 c1950 in red Regia yarn. I was just curious about the way knitting in 2 needle. I like the way pattern continues from wrist to finger.

Finished scarves

Chunky slub yarn scarves for me and my son. I used 5 balls for mine and 2 for son's. I've been knitting for many years but NEVER made a scarf in chunky slub yarn until now. I usually prefer lacy pattern in fine weight yarn but my taste is completely different recently.


And another finished one is Mermaid scarf from Knittingdaily site.
I made this crochet lace scarf to use for autumn. As it is very long, i can wrap around my neck twice. Lacy but warm enough for sunny day.

Finished red rib scarf. Feel so glad to be set free from those boring ribbing pattern. I like the crocheted edging on both end. They are just one-row edging but the result looks totally different!

I won't knit any more scarf for this winter because i have already knitted 2 other new scarves which I haven't taken pictures yet (they will be here soon).

So, what's next? Well, my son is requesting to knit a pair of fingerless gloves (not mitten) in black with a skull motif on back. It will be a challenging project for me ...

Progress on red scarf

I've been working on red scarf very patiently without starting any other new knitting project. 3 balls projects looks quite big for sock knitter. I knitted up 2 balls so far and one more to go.

Lavender Lace Socks

This is a Lavender Lace Socks from Vogue Knitting Socks, i wanted to knit for long time. I couldn't find yarn that would not get hard when knitted in the lace pattern until I used this yarn, hand-dyed by Trico. The name for the color is "Sakura (cherry blossom)" with pale pink, blue and purple. I never used such soft and beautiful wool yarn before. Really nice.

red rib scarf

I started a red rib scarf for myself. Ann Budd's knitted Ribbed Scarf with Crochet Edging Pattern. I have tried this pattern with scrap yarn to see how the stitch pattern works last year and gave up for "mostly purl" pattern at that time. It looks like mistake rib and made of " p3 k1" pattern on both side. I think the result must be same if I knit in " k3 p1 " so I changed like this. It is supposed to be used in midwinter. Yarn is Zara of Filatura Di Crosa.

We call them pirates

We call them pirates
http://www.helloyarn.com/wecallthempirates.htm

My 6-year old son has shown interest to fashion and care how he looks recently. His favorite color is now black and the preference seems to go on for coming winter season. As he used to prefer red or orange for long time, his winter items were all in those colors and has no black items yet other than a jumper. So, I got a reason to knit a hat for him and come up with this pattern right away.
The finished hat is just the right size. That means i will have another reason to knit a hat next year ;-)

Raised leaves pincushion

I like this raised leaves pattern so much and wanted to make something small with it for long time. As I needed a pincushion for knitting needle, I thought it is a chance to try this pattern. First, I knitted 4 pieces of triangle shape and sewed them together making square fabric. I chose very fine cotton yarn for this but it wasn't pleasing result. The seam was not tidy. So I chose wool yarn for next try and arranged the pattern to knit in circular to knit in one piece instead. I put old swatches and some failed projects inside.

Even though I knew the pattern with knit and purl stitch combination would make raised effect, I really impressed how the leaves raised such fully. You might think the leaves are sewed on appliques!

Embroidered bag for bead necklace

I made this beads necklace kit this summer and made a matching case. Stitching lace pattern was fun and finished before I know it, but it took about a month to finish. Because i didn't had a piece of fabric that goes with the surface, didn't had ribbon in same color, and felt hard to set up sewing machine.

There is one more bag for another beads necklace just like this waiting to be finished ...
Hope i can show it to you here before long.

Organic slub

Since I saw a nice comfy blanket knitted in ecru slub chunky yarn in a magazine, i firmly decided to make one for myself. It was an end of winter or spring when i saw it, so i missed the chance to find such yarn. Last month, I visited LYS and found very soft slub yarn just perfect for my purpose. It's called "Sonomono" that means "just as is," not colored organic wool, from domestic brand Hamanaka.



I got 5 balls to make a ribbed scarf for me before blanket, cause i want to make sure that it doesn't produce lots of dust on clothes. That what i learned from Abfab throw. If it's all right, i will get some more to make a blanket and scarf for DS - if he agreed.

Crochet motifs

After many tries, i figured out what i'm gonna do with organic cottons. No knitting, cause it tilt even after adding twist, wash and dry with weight. So, I started some crochet projects. Square motifs scarf and blanket or covering in 5 colors-motifs.

I chose one of the square pattern from the project on the front cover of this book.

The original one is made in more thick wool. I'm using very fine cotton yarn and i couldn't believe it is same motif as it looks very different.

Shrug Finished

I've been working on many small things since last post but all these were not worth taking photo. Sorry for kept this blog un-updated for such long time.

Here is the finished the shrug. It's very light - only 100 g and a little more. I arranged for rib part with additional length and frill-like cast off.

Organic Cotton Shrug

This is a shrug i mentioned in last post. It's about 60 cm now. The pattern is arranged from Flower Power Shrug ( Interweave knits summer 2005). As i always felt the need for such shrug to cover shoulders and arms at air-conditioned subway, shops or restaurant, It'll be my best companion for going out this summer.

I also made a pretty crocheted flower on the shrug from the pattern i found by fortune, i think it is very easy yet cute. I've already made 3 roses in different yarns although i have no purpose for use. Maybe i'll give them away. It made as a long tape and then rolled. This rolling process is really fun. I always try at least several times for best shape. Here is the link (http://megan.kiwi.gen.nz/StripMethodRose/).

Boiling yarn

Here is another collection of organic cotton yarn. They came from US. Very fine and tightly twisted. The most interesting thing about these yarn is that their color change after wash. As they are grown in the color, the color will not fade after wash but will get more DARK and rich. The note came with yarn says "It will continue to deepen and darken for up to 10 washings.... For the deepest color and color setting, boil the yarn for 20-40 minutes." Wow, boiling the yarn? I made small skeins of each color and boiled for 20 minutes and colors really changed. Amazing.
The boiled yarn is shown on top of its original cone in the above picture. Especially, green one got very deep.

As they are not soft enough for wearing, i will make some lacy edging to add on towel or crochet motif project with the other organic cotton i showed last post, which was very soft and in ecru color.
My needlework theme for coming season will be "Organic cotton yarn."
I have started knitting a shrug with the ecru yarn. I'll show her in next post.

organic cotton

I got some fine organic cotton yarn last week, and very busy with plying them into useful weight. I have to gather at least 8 string to knit with the needle i usually use, around 2 or 3 mm. As it is fine as sewing thread and always twist when it sag, plying all 8 at once is too hard to handle. So i made two 4 ply 25g balls then winded them together into 8ply 50g ball and added twist with drop spindle. I hesitated to use drop spindle as such manual process takes a lot time for me, but i have no way other than it. I first tried knitting with just plied yarn without twist but the knitted fabric was not square at all, tilt 45 degree. I checked if this tilt occurs in other stitch pattern. Garter and rib and moss was OK but i don't like to knit in pattern with those stitch only. So i have to use drop spindle to enjoy stockinette stitches. Of course i tried iron steam but nothing changed.

Although I have normal size spindle, i prefer small one i made before to spin fine thread, and used it for first ball. The thin stick was too hard for my fingers to work with and i looked around for something more thick and smooth surface and find this works quite nicely! This is a needle that was provided at knit out event held in tokyo last autumn. I will make some more balls enough for knitting or crochet or dyeing. Although I like natural ecru color, it must be fun to knit in color, too.

You see the tilt in even small swatch.

The flower behind in first picture is geranium. My son played around our flat with his new bike after we got home, and he came back with it saying "I found this flower fallen on the ground. Put her in a vase." It must fallen for its own weight as it has so many petal for a stem. He has a funny talent - he often finds fallen off flowers on the ground, that is still in bloom. He has found cherry blossom twig with some flower on it after windy day, and also found pretty yellow carnation left on street that seemed someone bought a lot bunch of flower at flower shop but one of them fell out. It might be happen when using bicycle or motorbike.

Summer bag

This is the bag just finished. As the yarn was very thick and hard, it stands by itself on the floor! I had to hold the hook like when you do with a rod to keep tension.

I finished all project in "Andalia" series and i think i enjoyed enough. Above all i proud myself on that i used up all the balls i bought and made what i meant. That's rarely happens. Now I feel i want to back to normal yarn.

Crochet hat and quaker things

Sorry for being lazy at updating this blog.

I've been working pretty hard and progress on needlework is terribly slow. I have many idea to try but i never catch up within my free time. There are some skew in what i wanna do and reality.
During past weeks, i finished a couple of projects in "Andalia" yarn. A hat with flower corsage and a bag with flower corsage. Due to hard yarn, it was difficult to keep the tension. I hoped iron steam will make the surface neat but it worked just a little. I tried the soft wire first time for this hat on last 2 round of brim to keep its shape. I haven't steamed the bag yet so the picture will be in next post.
I got those quaker items recently, Quaker Post pattern and Quaker pinballs booklet. I found both at a online cross stitching shop and i thought both for stitching. But the booklet isn't. It is a pattern for knitting pinballs and applicable for embroidery. You'll knit in 0.8 or 1.0 mm needle with fine thread to make them. I have both and more fine needles but i will use more large one for exercise first.I really like quaker style pattern in cross stitch. Hard to resist...

Bag finished

I finished this small shell stitch bag last week. Crocheting with hard twisted yarn made my shoulders hard and my hands turned red, so I couldn't work long at a time. Very small but just enought to bring wallet, mobile phone, hanky and tissue.

I'm gonna make another works with another types of same yarn, one is doubled yarn and the other is plain one. They are a hat and bag i showed in previous post. I think i should make a hat first.