ski bonnet: begin!

September 22, 2012 by 7 Comments

Remember that awesome ski bonnet that I wanted to make?  Well, I’m gonna make it!

I’ll be using 3 skeins of Berroco Vintage in their Dewberry shade, which I had to purchase today, even though I said I couldn’t afford yarn this month.  I swear, this yarn was the cheapest yarn in the store that still felt soft.  I’m gonna just say this is my birthday present to myself.

So I started the pattern, and I was immediately struggling.  I know how to do the magic loop method but I’m still not good at keeping the breaks between the sides tight and even, so that was all over the place.  Maybe I should try it on double points, which I’m more used to, so I don’t have those “wings?”  In row 1 I immediately had to learn two new things, as well: the Left Twist and the Right Twist.  I think I’m doing them right.  (Check out those links for video tutorials on YouTube.)

In the end, my first 6 rows looked so shabby that I frogged it.  I think I’m going to practice with some spare yarn to get the hang of the pattern first before trying it again with my nice magenta yarn.  Anybody have any advice for me?

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finally, something’s done!

September 19, 2012 by 6 Comments

I finally finished my Hermione Hat #2!  You probably don’t remember #1 because it was so long ago, probably before I separated my blogs.  #1 was too short by about 10 rows, because I read the chart wrong throughout and just skipped them.  This one was done properly (although it’s still a little short/snug for my taste, but I’m sure I can block it).

#1 is on the left, #2 on the right. You can tell #2 looks much bigger.

The eyelets were fun, but I’m not sure I like making cables… my stitches get so tight.

I’m so excited to have this done!  I did all of the decreasing top part tonight because I wanted to get it finished.  This will definitely be going on my Christmas trip to England with me.  It might not even get cold enough here in South Carolina this winter for me to wear hats (it didn’t this past winter), so I’m excited for the opportunity to show off my hard work!  I know it’s not the most complicated hat pattern, but for a beginner I’m really proud of how it turned out!

Oh and if you want the pattern for this hat, it’s here.

Thanks for stopping by, that’s all for today!

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yarn journal

August 15, 2012 by 5 Comments

Firstly, I want to say a big thank you to Hannah Ackroyd, who introduced me to this.  Thanks Hannah!

The Kathryn Ivy blog/site  provides free PDF pages for your printable organization needs.  You can make a binder (with dividers, perhaps) to organize your knitting/crocheting projects, your yarn stash, your needle/hook stash, your yarn wish list, your queue, notes, sketch pages, and graph paper of different sizes!  How cool would it be to be so organized, to be able to show off your finished projects with ease, and to be able to express your own yarny creativity all in one place?  Check out this screenshot of the crochet project sheet:

It’s a little small but you can see there’s space for a photo, all your yarn specs, notes, and at the bottom you can tape/paste your yarn label and a little snippet of yarn!  I can just picture a lovely neat binder full of these completed sheets!  So are you interested in making your own project journal?  Then please go to the site with all those lovely pages:

click here.

I do apologize if this is something everybody already knows about — it was new to me and I just had to share!  Thanks again to Hannah for enlightening me.  Now I just need to go out and buy a hole puncher and a nice pretty binder and I’ll be ready to start getting organized!  I’m so excited — it’s like Ravelry in physical form!

As always, thanks for stopping by!  I’ll be on a short vacay in Charleston with my mom starting tomorrow so I might not update for a few days, but I’ve left such a condensed wad of posts that it makes me feel like it somehow all equals out. 🙂

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reviewing yarn

August 14, 2012 by 5 Comments

I’ve begun working on an alphabetical list of yarns I’ve tried or that have been recommended to me by trusted sources (some of which are you lovely commenters).  Here’s the page that has it all so far.  I’ll be adding to this page as I find and try new yarns.  I hope it’s helpful, and as always, thanks for stopping by!

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getting along

July 31, 2012 by 2 Comments

To practice my fair isle technique, I made a hat!  I’m really happy with it.  It only took 2 days to finish, which is even better.

 

 

 

I made it with some spare Berroco Vintage yarn that I just had lying around.  The pattern is my own conglomeration (I used other patterns to make it but nobody else has made this exact hat).  The fair isle pattern can be downloaded here, and the hat pattern itself can be downloaded here.  If you follow the hat pattern and CO 96 sts, the fair isle pattern matches up perfectly.  I’m really happy with it.  Unfortunately my phone camera wouldn’t quite pick up the purple color correctly — it looks almost brown in the first picture — but it is purple, and the background is light blue.

That’s all I’ve got for today, thanks for stopping by!

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