themed yarn & projects

A few other lovely bloggers have posted lately about getting color inspiration for their yarn colorways/combos from books and movies.  There have been a few projects of mine that have patterns based on books/movies (check out my Hermione hat from Harry Potter, my Harry Potter scarves, and my Luna Lovegood scarf, also from Harry Potter; can you tell I love Harry Potter?), but I don’t think I’ve ever bought yarn in a book/movie inspired colorway before.  Until now, that is.  Check out these beautiful Hunger Games themed yarns from Etsy:

District 12 2-Ply Sock Yarn from BrazenStitchery

District 12 2-Ply Sock Yarn from BrazenStitchery

Effie Trinket Nymph Sock Yarn from supernaturalyarns

Effie Trinket Nymph Sock Yarn from supernaturalyarns

I bought both of these very different colorways and am planning on making a reversible hat with them (probably with this knitting pattern from Purl Soho).  It will represent two very different characters in the Hunger Games trilogy (Katniss and Effie) that come from opposing worlds but who are both good people in the end.  To me it symbolizes cooperation, peace, and the triumph of good, etc., etc…

If you haven’t read the Hunger Games books, I highly recommend them.  They get a little bit teenage-girl-y occasionally but definitely NOT in a Twilight saga kind of way.  The story in the Hunger Games books is about a young girl who is strong in the face of overwhelming danger and misery, and about the horrors of war and fighting for what’s right.  It’s dark and horrifying and moving and inspiring all at the same time.  I also really like the movies based on the first two books (the third one comes out next year, I believe), although they seem to downplay the horror/violence and over-stress the romance parts a bit, sort of diluting the general message a bit in my opinion; if you really want the full message, go for the books!  These would probably be good books/movies to allow your teenage kids to read and then discuss with them afterwards.  I say teenage kids because the third book is super-extra twisted (as if the first two aren’t twisted enough), and I’m not sure I’d want my young kids to read that one, if I had any kids.

So anyway, what do you think of the yarn combo above?  Have you ever made projects inspired by books/movies or bought/dyed yarn that has been inspired by them?  If so, what?  I think it’s a really cool concept and makes projects just a little more meaningful when they are attached to stories you enjoy.

I also bought these beautiful stitch markers on Etsy from the writer of the blog ruth plus two:

Glass/bead stitch markers

Glass/bead stitch markers

Well, that’s all for now, I guess.  I’m making some fingerless mitts for a coworker but I’ll share them when I’m finished — it shouldn’t be long.  Thank you so much for stopping by, and happy holidays to you all!  If you are traveling, please stay safe!

done with the move!

Well, mostly.  A couple of boxes are left to unpack, but all in all I’m very satisfied with our new house.  Zero loves it too!  Here she is sitting on the daybed with my CAL blanket:

zero2That’s her “what are you doing?” face.

zero1She loves the yard so much!  I’m so glad she’s finally happy.  We threw away a LOT of stuff so it’s nice and uncluttered and very roomy inside, as well!

Today is the first day I could post because today is our first day having Internet.  I know I’m spoiled because it was very difficult going without it!  I know I must have used a ton of data on my phone…

I was busy knitting and crocheting, too!  I started crocheting a shawl:

frogged(Yep, no sheets on the daybed at the point that was taken, and yep, I love to sit cross-legged/Indian style.)  As you can see I’m unraveling it to knit a scarf — the pattern was so hard for me to follow!  It’s cheche a la sauce and it was originally in French, so perhaps that was part of the problem.  The beginnings and ends of the rows don’t match up!  I must have been missing something but I could not figure it out, and after hours of re-working and re-working it, trying to get the edges correct, I gave up.  I think I’m giving up on that scarf, too, in favor of something that will take up all 3 balls of yarn I got for that project.

My knitting has much more to show for the effort.  I finished the Bajada scarf for my friend.  It took approximately 18 hours total of very focused knitting to complete, and because of that I don’t think I’ll be making another one (after all, I can whip up a crocheted scarf in an hour and a half).  I also had to write out the pattern row by row to keep track of everything and squinting at the small print in the booklet got old real quick.  It was worth it though:

bajada3It totals at 69 inches (175cm) long and 11.5 inches (29cm) tall at its widest point.

bajada4

bajada6As you can see, I need to purchase some blocking wires.  They’re just so expensive for little wires (at least on KnitPicks, where I got everything else for relatively cheap), and I keep meaning to just go to a hardware store and get some wires cut for me.  It just hasn’t happened yet.

bajada5I can’t wait for it to dry so that I can mail it to my friend!  I’ll be back up there in a couple of weeks for the yearly Renaissance Fair but I don’t want her to have to wait that long.  I hope she likes it!

The Northern Loop cowl has been my other knitting project.  I’ve been using KnitPicks’ Billow bulky yarn and it is so wonderful to work with!  So very soft, and what gorgeous colors they have available!  I’ll definitely be repurchasing this.  This could be dangerous…  Here’s a bit of my cowl:

northernloop2I’m loving it!  The only thing that was kinda iffy about the pattern was the provisional cast on, but I looked up a tutorial on YouTube and did it easily with a length of crochet chain:

northernloop1Not as bad as I thought it would be!  Grafting it together at the end might be difficult, but I’ll just look up another tutorial for that later.

Well, that’s all the catch-up I have that I can think of right now.  I’m still editing the site so if you see anything that looks crazy (like the site title overlapping with the menu bar or something), please let me know.  I’m unsure how it will look on tablets or really large screens, but I’m trying to learn to use rem spacing instead of pixels in my CSS coding, so hopefully it won’t be too bad.

Let me know what ya’ll have been up to while I’ve been away!  I’m trying to catch up with everyone’s news!  Thanks for stopping by!

a project for a friend

My friend Tara, for whom I made this hat, met me for lunch the other day at a cafe near the local yarn shop.  She went with me after we ate to just browse through the yarn, and ended up purchasing some yarn and a pattern booklet for me to make her a second item!  The yarn is K’acha from Mirasol Yarn (of merino, alpaca, and silk) in shade 1201:

yarn for tara

What a lovely color for fall!  The yarn is listed on Ravelry as being DK weight but it seems more like a heavy worsted as I’m working.  Anyway, Tara bought 4 skeins to be sure there was enough for the whole project.

The shawl/scarf is called “bajada,” it is knit on size 8 straight needles, and is more crescent shaped than triangle shaped.

I would like a similarly shaped shawl/scarf myself, but I don’t think it’ll be another one of these — this pattern is so hard!  You have to have your eyes glued to the booklet instructions — every row of small print contains a different combination of “stitch pattern A” and “stitch pattern B” so you have to pay careful attention!  In fact, I couldn’t keep track of it all in my head so I wrote out the combinations for each row (as well as reminders to increase every 4th row) on notebook paper and am checking them off as I go.  I think that’s what makes it hard (that and the time it’s taken to get where I am), because the stitches themselves aren’t too crazy.  The weirdest stitch so far has been purling 2 through the back loops.  Here’s what I’ve done:

bajada1

Not very impressive yet, as it’s such a small amount of the finished product, but I’m proud of it nonetheless for all the time and effort it is taking.  When it is blocked the lacy edges will appear more obviously, I assume.  There have been a couple of scary points where I’ve had less stitches after a row than I should, and having to go back to fix it is terrifying — I’m not at all sure that I’m undoing some of the stitches properly!  Looks OK so far, though.

Well, that’s all for today.  Thanks so much for stopping by!

finished: Luna scarf

In less than 24 hours, this scarf was finished.  Again, here’s the pattern.  I used an E hook instead of a G because all I had was some leftover yarn, and it was thinner than what was called for.  It matches my knitted Hermione hat though, so that’s awesome.  My changes did result in it being a tad short, but it’s still totally cute and wearable.

So that’s it!  An easy one-day project that turned out very pretty (and just like the scarf from the movie).

Thanks for stopping by!  Sorry for barraging you with multiple posts all of a sudden — I just like to post them as soon as the project is done. 🙂

new project: Luna scarf

I started another Harry Potter related project today, and I’m already halfway through!  The scarf Luna Lovegood wears in one of the movies has been turned into an easy crochet pattern (click here).  The scarf is different in that it’s worked from the center to the outside edge, and then the yarn is reattached and worked from the center to the other outside edge.  I’ve got the center to one edge now:

As you can see, it’s very lacy, so it’ll be ideal for fall.  Maybe I can finish it tonight, but my hands are starting to ache so I’d better take a break.  I have to go to class soon anyway…  But I hope I have enough yarn.  I’m using leftovers from my two knitted Hermione hats so I’m not exactly sure if it’ll make it.  Don’t want to have to go get another skein just to finish the last row.  I’m using a slightly thinner yarn than called for and a slightly smaller hook, but it’s still amply long and will be plenty wide when I’m done.

That’s all for right now.  Thanks for stopping by!