I'm Crafty

Watershed

fourpeass — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:22:32 +0000

I’m not normally into shrugs or cropped cardigans but something about Amy Swenson’s design really caught my eye. It just looked like the perfect piece to throw over a sun dress or a plain white tank and jeans.

Pattern: Watershed by Amy Swenson

Yarn: Mission 1824 Wool

Notes: My last few projects have been hats, scarves and tiny baby sweaters so it was nice to knit an actual garment for myself. This was a fairly fast but interesting project to work on. The lace charts were easy to memorize and felt intuitive right at the beginning, making it a very portable project. I like that the border is knit along with the body instead of picked up and knit later on. I love interesting construction!

Mission 1824 is just an okay yarn. I chose it mainly for the color and it’s softness – which, made it a joy to knit with. The price is a little steep for the yardage you get and I can already tell this thing is going to pill like crazy. If I were to knit this again, I’d go with a wool/silk blend like Cascade Venezia.

I’m currently working on a little cardigan, Audrey in Unst, in Brooks Farm Solo Silk. This yarn is so beautiful and soft, I love the way it’s knitting up. The pattern is a bit boring to knit but I love the look of it so far:

I hope to update more after the wedding. I’ve been avoiding blogging about it because I want to keep the details a secret so my guests will be surprised. And I really haven’t done much non-wedding related crafting lately.

Photography for Knitters

fourpeass — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:07:18 +0000

This past weekend I took Gale’s “Photography for Knitters” workshop and it was great. I learned a lot especially about exposure, trying different backgrounds and how different photos look after you upload them to your blog. I wanted to upload a few photos untouched to showcase what I learned but as soon as I put them on flickr, they lost a lot of color. We didn’t get the chance to explore this much during the workshop but I noticed it immediately after I uploaded some photos. Check out the photos below:

The photo on the left is completely untouched but the color looks nothing like it did when it came out of my camera. I don’t think I noticed this before because I almost always upload my photos with the intention of editing them later in Picnik. The photo on the right looks almost identical to the original file on my computer but I boosted the color, contrast and over saturated it, like Gale suggested, before uploading it. Needless to say, I ended up editing the rest of the photos in this post.

EDIT 1/26: Now that I’m looking at these photos on my work computer, they look completely different which is a little disappointing. The photos I edited look over saturated but on my macbook they look fine. What do you see?

Up until this point, I hadn’t really considered backgrounds too much when shooting finished knits and yarn, I usually just try to find a good light source (which is also important, of course) and a plain surface. During out first hands on session we played around with different fabrics to create a background for small objects and yarn:

I never think to grab some fabric and throw yarn on top of it. Normally, I use my light box or clear off my kitchen table which, is the whitest surface in my apartment but this is way more interesting. Now I can finally use that fabric that I bought during my sewing phase. I also need to get my hands on my some black velvet:

It was fun to shoot just for the sake of shooting. Getting photos of my finished objects and yarn always stresses me out a bit because I focus on trying to get a good photo instead of having some fun with it. I’m looking forward to putting what I learned to use and getting a bit more creative with my knitting photography.

I took over 300 photos yesterday so I’m going to leave you with just a few that I like.

This is Rebecca’s Peaks Island Hood.

The hood of Becca’s Central Park Hoodie.

Drive by post

fourpeass — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 14:24:03 +0000

Fresh off the wheel:

All Spun Up Falkland, 2 oz. ~98 yards, worsted weight

Three (four?) years in the making

fourpeass — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:28:51 +0000

Three (or four) years ago, Conor said he wanted to learn how to knit. The next day we hopped on the T to Windsor Button, one of my favorite yarn stores in Boston, to buy some yarn and needles. I led Conor to a wall of Cascade 220 – a wonderful beginner yarn and a nice go-to yarn even when you’re way past the beginning stages.

Later that day, we sat down and I taught him the basics. I watched as he knit each stitch slowly and carefully. If he dropped a stitch or made a mistake, he’d pause and ask me to fix it. When I first learned to knit, I wouldn’t stop for anything. I was dropping, twisting and adding new stitches left and right. That explains why my first scarf looks like a mangled baby blanket and Conor’s is perfection.

Conor would work on the scarf every so often, knitting for a half hour then putting it down for a couple days, weeks, months, YEARS!! Three (or four) years later, Conor has a wonderful hand knit scarf:

I’m not sure if this is the first of many knits or the end of trying something new but in my heart, Conor will always be a knitter.

It’s been a great year

fourpeass — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 23:44:25 +0000

1. handspun – merino/tencel, 2. Guernsey, 3. Snapdragon Tam, 4. Toasty, 5. Kiss, 6. Handspun: Merino, 7. Snapdragon Flip Mittens, 8. Vine Yoke Cardi, 9. Engagement Ring, 10. Snap Tam, 11. Vine Yoke, 12. Favorite handspun so far, 13. Snap Flip Mittens, 14. Baby Sophisticate, 15. Simple Yet Effective, 16. Kaari, 17. Merino/Silk Blend All Spun Up, 18. Grande Hat, 19. Spiraluscious, 20. Heart, 21. Afterthought heel socks, 22. Iceland, 23. Maddox, 24. Helena

Next year: marriage, Spain, knitting, spinning and maybe some new hobbies. Weaving, perhaps.

Hello, Internet

fourpeass — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:23:17 +0000

During the first few weeks of being engaged, I bought a wedding planner and started reading every wedding blog I could find. Hello, information overload! I thought wedding planning would be hard and scary but it’s only been two months and most of the important things are done. The wedding is still 11 months away so there’s a few things I can’t do yet but I feel pretty good about everything. I can’t wait till next spring so I can get started on the fun DIY stuff.

Other than wedding planning, I’ve been doing some spinning and knitting. First, spinning:

I bought some very fine Merino fiber from Alafoss when I was in Iceland. I forgot to take a photo of the before but it came in 1 oz strips and was striped with purple, orange and blue. I tried to separate the colors somewhat but it’s still a marled yarn. I thought it would be ugly knit up but I actually love the scarf I made with it:

Next up, a merino/tencel blend from Yarn Chef:

Turned into:

I was able to retain the colors by splitting the braid in half. Now,what to make with it? I only have about 200 yards and was thinking of using white or black yarn to go with it. I may do something like this to showcase the gradual change in color. By the way, tencel is my new favorite thing to spin.

Everyone is having babies which means I get to knit cute baby sweaters like this tiny grandpa cardigan:

Pattern: Baby Sophisticate

Yarn: My Family by Muench Yarns

Needles: US 8

Notes: This is for Conor’s future cousin once removed, little Liam, who is due in December. Doesn’t this look like a sweater for someone named Liam? First, let’s talk about this yarn. I went to the yarn store and asked for a super wash wool or wool blend for a baby sweater but was immediately met with a “We only have acrylic”. I never use acrylic yarn because acrylic = plastic and plastic = gross and not fun to knit with but not this yarn. I reluctantly went over to feel it and was floored. This is the softest synthetic stuff I’ve ever touched and it was great to knit with. I’m still going nowhere near Red Heart but I’ve learned to feel before I judge.

The construction of the sweater is really simple but it was a fun knit. I love the garter stitch edging and the shawl collar. It usually takes me an hour or more to pick out buttons for a sweater but when I saw these leather buttons, I knew.

I need to figure out how to make one of these for myself. More photos below:

This photo shows the true color of the yarn.

It’s been awhile

fourpeass — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:55:33 +0000

So, a lot has happened since I last blogged. I got a new job, went to Iceland, purchased a spinning wheel and most importantly:

Got engaged! He proposed right after I purchased my spinning wheel, in the parking lot of WEBS. It couldn’t have been more perfect.

CT Sheep & Wool

fourpeass — Mon, 04 May 2009 14:12:52 +0000

I couldn’t make it to Maryland this past weekend because I had to move but I had a great time at CT Sheep and Wool the weekend before. Much tinier than Maryland and Rhinebeck but way less overwhelming. I was able to walk around and see each vendor a couple of times before buying anything. I also got to see some New Haven SnBers! There were sheep, of course:

These guys were running at me and I was a little terrified that they’d run right into me but a sheep dog showed up just in time. I didn’t go crazy with the spending. I brought $100 in cash and spent probably about $98. I bought some nice Cormo cross:

My goal is to spin it up this week because I need to return my rental wheel. I tried out a ton of spinning wheels and ALMOST bought one. Luckily, Conor was there to talk some sense into me. Right now, I’m leaning towards a Lendrum because not only was everyone and their mother spinning on them but I felt the most comfortable with it. I heard such great things about Kromski’s but I didn’t like any of the ones I tried. I need to get my hands on more Ashfords before I decide. In the meantime, I can spin using this:

I thought I had given up on spindles but I had a decent time using this Golding spindle so I bought it. So much better than the crappy $5 one I bought in Maryland last year. Maybe I’ll master the spindle while I’m saving up for a wheel. The spindle is resting on some lovely pink/orange Cormo:

I’m a little sad I missed Maryland but there’s still Rhinebeck and Stitches East (in hartford, whoo!). I came home with a good lot and had a great time. Conor had fun too:

PS. Changing my start date of my 101 in 1001 list to today. This weekend was waaaay to crazy and I forgot all about it.

Oh my gosh…

fourpeass — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:59:22 +0000

You guys. It’s spring! Isn’t it funny how one day you’re grudgingly putting on your winter coat and the next you’re walking around downtown wearing a t-shirt and flip flops? I started riding my bike to work again last Thursday. It was so wonderful, I almost wish we lived farther from my job. We’re moving again, Conor and I, to the East Rock area on May 1st. I am very excited and I’ve already begun mapping different routes to make my bike commute longer in the morning. With some inspiration, I decided to dress up my bicycle a little:

I’ve been wanting a basket since I bought the bike, well over a year ago, but ended buying a rack and attaching a milk crate to it. I was always paranoid things were going to fly out of it though, no matter how many bungees I used to secure things down. The front basket puts my paranoia to rest and it’s visually pleasing especially, with the flowers. I’ve been meaning to blog about my helmet since I bought it last year.

I’ll admit it, I hate helmets. I think they’re dorky and they make my head sweat something fierce in the summer. That being said, I value my brains and my life so, I wear a helmet. I searched the Internet far and wide to find one that I wouldn’t mind wearing and ended up on Nutcase Helmets. I love it. My head still sweats but I feel like a cool dork wearing it as opposed to a dorky dork.

Spinning like a mad woman

fourpeass — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:14:22 +0000

I have been spinning like a mad woman and spending way too much money on fiber! I’m still working on Kaari and hoping to have it done by CT Sheep and Wool on April 25th. I might have to rip back one of the sleeves and re-knit it so if I give spinning a break for a couple of days, I think I’ll have it done. On to some spinning photos:

This batt was free with the wheel I rented from Mocha’s Fiber Connection. I spun a 2 ply yarn that feels like twine. It’s way overspun and I probably won’t ever knit with it but it was good practice.

Next, I bought an Alpaca/Corriedale blend from The Yarn Barn. I’m really not crazy about the color at all but they didn’t have much of a selection and I was dying to spin anything!

The yarn has a cool heathered look to it but it’s not something I normally go for. Anyway, here’s some uneven 2 ply. I think I’ve only used about half of of the roving (I bought a pound!).

So, I finally decided to look at Etsy for some roving and oh boy, there is a ton to choose from. I kind of fell in love with All Spun Up and can’t stop buying from her shop!

Initially, I was hoping to get a decent 2 ply out of this roving to make socks but I couldn’t get a consistently thin single so I decided to leave it as is. It varies between a light fingering weight and a thick lace weight. I have about 300 yards of it and have no clue what I can make with it.

And again, from All Spun Up, a merino/silk blend.

This is definitely my favorite so far. I think it’s mostly sport weight. The WPI varies between 11 – 13. I wish I had more but I only have about 250 yards.

There is a subtle sheen from the silk that you can’t really see in the photo. I’m thinking of knitting up something like this Silk Kerchief and hoping I have enough to get a triangle scarf.

I’m going to have to return the wheel in a few weeks. I have no idea when I’ll be able to afford my own but I’m definitely going to try a bunch out at upcoming sheep and wool festivals. I’m going to Iceland in June so I definitely won’t be purchasing a wheel until after the trip. Maybe I’ll spin more on my drop spindle…maybe not.