August STUFFF - Part 2

And the second half of my STUFFF accomplishments. Blogger wouldn't let me upload all of the images into the same one so I split it 3 and 3. :)

When I completed my Porifera socks (better known as Axel Socks), I noticed something. Where the heel joined the leg, it had left small holes, despite me picking up a stitch or two and knitting them together with an already established stitch. This normally gets rid of said holes. So... I took scrap yarn of the same color and closed the holes.

Finish. This is going to be the one tile I get a lot of (I hope!) because of my stack of WIPs. Rachel is going off to London soon and although she herself is a knitter, I know she's been having trouble making a hat that fits her just right. I'd been wanting to do something for her and knew she needed a hat. So, I made her one!

And frog. I'm pretty much done with this tile but I've already acheived two of them. The pile of WIPs into yarn was my first frog tile, the socks into yarn was the second. None of the WIPs (this time) were complete failures. It was mostly I was either waiting to do the project later or the yarn didn't want to be that specific project.

And with all of that work, I am down to 5 WIPs, 3 for me and 2 presents for family. Both of which are already half done. Once all 5 WIPs are completed, I will probably jump into working on presents. I have 6 more before all are done. And next year I'll only make presents at birthday time so it's a little more spread out.

August STUFFF - Part 1

In HPKCHC-land, it is the time of cleaning and WIPs! On every break month, we have an activity that helps everyone get ready for the coming 3 month term. Last time (April) was Wizard's Chess. This time it's Scrabble, also known as STUFFF.

Swatch

Tidy

Update

Fix

Finish

Frog

Today I was awarded my golden tile set, the set of letter tiles awarded to those who have completed all six! This was what I was waiting for before I blogged about it. And now, pictures of what I've completed.

STUFFF also has swatch-along weeks. First was dyeing but I had an epic fail with the yarn so nothing got dyed. The next week, this week, was crochet. I haven't done anything beyond basics in months so I decided that I would do a swatch of fpdc and bpdc on the idea that instead of knitting my niece's presents, I would crochet them.

Tidying. My desk is my work space for everything. Knitting, school, writing... You name it. At first it was covered with yarn and other things. After I found homes for all the yarn there was much more room for when I needed space to do things. Although, when both laptops are open most of my space disappears.

And the drawer. My desk has a drawer that is just right for keeping my needles/hooks and active WIPs. It was piled high, in part because I hadn't put needles away after I'd completed or frogged a project. So it just needed a little bit of tidying.

Lastly, update. I have no pictures for this but I reorganized and cleared out my queue. Now there is less "I will make this someday" patterns queued and more of "I have plans to make this before the end of the year" patterns queued. But I did keep all my video game character KALs or I'd forget what Rachel and I'd planned.

FO: Haruni

It done, oh god it's done. After months of not working on it, I spent the last week working hard on Haruni. I was a bit unsure I'd get it done before the end of July, but I did. This is good too, because my cousin's bridal shower is on the 6th of August, I think. Before now, the biggest project I've made for someone else was a scarf or a hat. Nothing as big as a shawl. But I'm glad that I could make something that Ashley would like.

Pattern: Haruni

Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in Royalty

Needles: 3.75mm

Notes: I love this shawl, so much. The next one I make will be for me, in green.

Now I'm down to... 10 WIPs. It's slowly going down.

WIP Wednesday: Iris & Haruni

It's WIP Wednesday again! Haruni still isn't done but it's closer. I've also decided to use 30-minute intervals to work on a present for someone else and then something for me. Today's projects are both shawls; Haruni for my cousin and Iris for me. Haruni still looks like a purple blob and will until its blocked so I'm not taking a new picture.

The picture I have of Iris is a bit dark. The yarn is a mixture of green, purple and some blue. It reminds me a bit of Red Heart's Gemstone colorway they discontinued. The shawl is a mystery shawl I had to put down in light of July getting busy/other things to work on. This picture of clue 1.

WIP Wednesday: Haruni

Today is WIP Wednesday! After I got home from spending a wonderful week at my brother's, I realized something. My ideal goal for WIP count is between 3-5. I have twelve. It was worse, actually. I was up to 16 before I finished two things and frogged a few others. This also made me look at all of my WIPs and I was reminded, yet again, that Ashley's shawl isn't done. August will be here before I know it and it won't be done if I don't work on it now.

This yarn is one of my all time favorite yarns from KP. I love tonals and purple is one of my favorite colors. I'm still sad they discontinued this colorway. I haven't yet decided if I'll make myself a shawl exactly like Ashley's but I know one day I'll make myself this same shawl in a green tonal.

Yes, I know the shawl looks like a purple blob. Shawls are nearly impossible to picture as anything but blobs while they are still on the needles.

FO: Moogle!

A long time ago, I found a pattern for a crocheted moogle from Final Fantasy. I didn't know how to crochet at the time so it went into my favorites on Rav and I forgot about it. Sometime during last winter moogles were mentioned and the pattern was brought up. I decided to make a moogle. When I told one my good friend QS about it, she wanted one. I knew I had to make her one since she, in her awesomeness, reintroduced me to KH after years of having it but not playing it.

Pattern: Moogle Doll

Yarn: Red Heart Super Savior in white, dark red, and lavender

Hook: 4mm

Notes: I used the game case for Final Fantasy IX for scale. Also because it's the one QS and I are both playing right now. The moogle's eyes I'm not happy with and I think the nose is a bit fat...

FO: Netbook Sleeve

One thing I've wanted for years has been a netbook. For my 21st birthday, my wonderful father gave me enough money to get one. I knew instantly that I wanted something to protect it when I would put it in a backpack with other stuff. Instead of paying $10-20 for a commercially made protective sleeve from HP, I decided to design my own. The way I designed it makes it easy for it to be a sleeve or a bag.

The prototype is finished and my netbook is in my hands and has been for about a week now. I have thus named it Marly. The only thing I need now is a small cordless computer mouse.

Here's an image of the netbook, fully inside of the sleeve:

Project: Netbook Bag

Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver in Shaded Dusk

Hook: 5mm

Notes: My first crocheted pattern design. It came out well I think.

FO: Porifera & Twilight Socks

Two pairs of socks are complete! I just finished one pair and the other was done about a month ago. I waited to post a picture of them anywhere besides Rav because they were Mom's birthday present. I wanted her to see them first.

Porifera was one of the guiding patterns in my purchase of a booklet titled Twist & Knit. Rachel kept talking about them and other patterns from it until I eventually folded. Porifera will probably be the only ribbed pair of socks I do.

Pattern: Porifera Socks

Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Kettle Dyed in Wine

Needles: 2.25mm

The pattern for mom's socks was originally written for cuff down but because I like doing my socks toe up better, I converted it. And even learned a way to do the slip stitch heel (most common heel I've seen on cuff down socks) on a pair of toe up socks.

Pattern: Twilight

Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll in Paisley Multi

Needles: 2.5mm

WIP Wednesday: Netbook Bag

Today is WIP Wednesday! You know what also happened today? My netbook arrived! I had it sent to my brother's house because mail for my house is weird. I live on a private road so USPS doesn't deliver mail so we can only have a PO box. (Although they sent it FedEx which does come...)

What this means is I need to work on the bag I've started to crochet for carrying and protecting the netbook. I know the exact size to make it because I measured my brother's netbook and got the same model as his.

The entire body of the bag will be a varigated blue. Then the flap at the top and straps will be black. I'd really like dark blue buttons but unfortunately unless I paint them, all my buttons are white. I'll figure out something.

WIP Wednesday: Make Up & Porifera Socks

Today is WIP Wednesday!

I've hardly done any work on my socks in the last week. I had a busy weekend in celebrating my birthday. I was busy having fun and visiting with my brother and friends that I ended up not knitting much. But I did make some progress. Make Up Socks (purple) are through the heel now and Porifera Socks (red) are at the heel. You can see the first one being worked on here:

I have a deadline of finishing both of these pairs of socks by the end of tomorrow. It's not the end of the world if I don't, but I'd be really happy to reach that goal.

Adventures in Dyeing

I've been wanting to try dyeing for the longest time. It only seemed natural to know how to dye my own yarn, especially after I knew how to spin. A few months ago I received a swap package and in it was a skein of bare wool from Knit Picks. At that point, I hadn't gotten around to taking the first step to learning how to dye with Kool Aid. I was always thinking of knitting projects I wanted to do when I had money to spend on Knit Picks. Anyway, my swap person sent me a 100g skein of undyed fingering yarn from Knit Picks.

It wasn't until a couple days ago where I decided I'd go ahead and do it. Truth is, I was scared of completely messing it up. My really good friend Rachel helped walk me through it and so did a tutorial on Knitty. The first step was to soak the yarn:

While it soaked, I got out my pot and added the water and Tropical Punch Kool Aid. I'm not sure where my brain was but I actually wanted to dye the yarn blue. Somehow I got it in my head that the tropical punch was blue. It was when I poured the packets into the pot that I realized I was wrong. But... I didn't want to waste it and I love the color red too. So I decided to go ahead with the red and to do blue next time (and soon). After the packets were added to the water, I stirred it until they were dissolved, adding no sugar. Then I added yarn.

I heated the yarn to an almost boil and then let it cool until I could manage to touch it. I think that took about 4 hours at the maximum. I'd poured out the original water I soaked the yarn in before adding it to the water/Kool Aid mixture so I could use the same thing it'd soaked in before to wash it gently. When that was done, I got out as much water as I could before hanging it to dry over my shower curtain. This morning it was all dry.

And that's it. That's all it took to dye my first yarn. I can't dye acrylic or I'd try. I have plenty of white sitting around not being used for much because I don't knit with white often. The yarn needs to be made from animal fibers (ie. wool, mohair, alpaca, etc.) It still smells fruity but eventually the smell will go away and its not a bad smell. I haven't decided what to use the yarn for yet, I'm thinking maybe I'll make another Damson so I'll have a red one in addition to my blue one.

WIP Wednesday: Make Up Socks

Today is WIP Wednesday! Over at my home in Ravenclaw Tower on Raverly, we've started posting what we're currently working on every Wednesday. I really like the idea and decided to also post to my blog about what I'm working on every Wednesday.

The project for today is a pair socks for me. They're a beautiful shade of purple and turning out to be a decently quick knit. The pattern is Make-Up Socks from one of my sock books (Joy of Sox).

Of the 5 pairs of socks I've planned to have done by the end of July, I'm nearing halfway there. I have one pair done, another at 50% and this pair is 25%ish.

First Yarn

I'm super excited about this. I finally finished, after a long time (months - probably 4) my first handspun yarn. My friend Del in Canada sent me the roving when she send me some acrylic she was trying to get rid of. About a month ago, maybe more, I finished the actual spinning part of it but had never gotten around to plying until tonight. Now when I have time, probably August I can spin the deep red roving I bought when I bought my spindle.

I have no idea what weight the yarn is, my guess would be sport-dk but it is 120 yards. One wrap around my computer chair is 3 yards even and I have 40 wraps in the skein. The lighter is placed there for scale.

FO: Demyx Fingerless Gloves

I don't really know where May disappeared to. I only ended up completing one knitting project and getting two others halfway or more. For months I'd be nagging my friend Rachel to fix the charts to her gloves she designed so that I could test knit them for her. I'd fallen in love with them the first time I saw them. Well she did... right before I had college exams. :(

Well, exams were over the 4th of May. So I made my gloves and I love them. It's also the first time I did partial fingers. Now nothing is stopping me from making my own gloves this winter.

Pattern: Accompanist's Fingerless Gloves

Yarn: KnitPicks Palette in Blue Note Heather

Needle: 2.75mm

Mods: Knit to pattern. Rae did hers in two colors for the cuff, I did mine in a single color.

The inspiration for these? Demyx from Kingdom Hearts. <3

No more hats!

I'm calling it quits on my goal of 52 hats in a year. Maybe some other year I'll get it done, just not this one. Working on hats has become... a chore. Knitting is never supposed to be a chore. It's not like I'm going to stop making hats for the rest of the year. I'm just... not going to set a goal and make myself reach it. I realized that I needed to rethink what I was doing when I had two hats that were just killing me. The first one kept hurting me hands and the one after that was so utterly boring I wanted to do anything but work on it.

On a happier note, I'm crocheting a shawl! It's coming along pretty quickly and looks great. This one is actually for a friend, but I think I'll end up making another for me.

FO: SKA March Socks!

They're done! SKA (Sock Knitters Anonymous) has a mystery sock KAL every other month. Sometimes I join in, other times I don't. This time I did and I'm so glad I decided to. The socks turned out absolutely beautiful. I don't ever want to take them off.

Pattern: SKA March Mystery Sock

Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Kettle Dyed in Auburn

Needle: 2.25mm

Mods: N/A

Fingerless Mitts!

I finished two pairs of fingerless mitts in March. One pair was for me and another was for someone I got to spoil in a swap. My pair was originally for her but with a deadline looming, I stopped working on them in favor of a quicker pair.

Pattern: Serpentine Mitts by Miriam L. Felton

Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Happy Feet in colorway 16

Needle: 2.25mm

Mods: 3" 2x2 ribbing for the cuff, instead of 4"

Pattern: Susie's Reading Mitts by Janelle Masters

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Wool/Cotton

Needle: 3.5mm

Mods: I only did the picot edging for the cuff, instead of also for the knuckles too.

HatHatHat~

March was almost a utter fail month in terms of knitting. I did finished 3 hats and get a pair of socks sort of close to the heels. I also nearly finished two pairs of fingerless mitts. But, this post is about hats:

Bold means Not Pictured; Italics means gift.

1: Eyelet Ridge Hat
2: Windy City Hat
3: Tangled Mom Hat #1
4: Godric’s Hollow Graveyard Hat
5: WeeCorgi Baby Hat
6: The not-girly-manly-MAN!hat
7: The totally-girly-womanly-LADY!Hat
8: Divine Hat

I'm so behind. I wanted to do a hat per week. It is not the beginning of March, it is the beginning of April. So I'm 4 behind. I'm going to try and get at least 5 done this month. I need to do one more a month, if not two, so I can catch up.

(Psst. Justin if you're reading this, I need a picture of your hat!)

FO: Test Knit socks!

I'm so happy. I finished the socks I was test knitting for a friend. They're really comfy and cozy. And a perfect fit! When I'm knitting a pair of socks or such for myself or anyone else, the thing I worry most about is fit. I get frustrated if what I'm knitting doesn't turn out to be a perfect fit. Because then I either have to give what I spent time on to someone else or redo it. This time, it came out right!

Pattern: English Breakfast Tea Socks

Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Kettle Dyed in Ivy

Needle: 2.5mm

Project page

Yarn Packages! :D

Today was a package happy day. One of my friends wanted to know a colorway in Chroma that I'd like, since I'd ordered myself a skein of Midwinter already. I'd ordered yarn from a woman on Rav who was selling skeins of a Knit Picks yarn in a colorway that was now discontinued. Another package I was expecting was coming from the UK. A friend had yarn she was willing to send me and she also send chocolate!! All three of these packages arrived today. So of course I had to take pictures.

Mmm. Yarn from across the ocean, chocolate, and a postcard! No idea what I'll make with it yet.

The skeins of KnitPicks Tonal in Royalty that I'd been expecting. Now I can make my cousin's shawl and not worry about having any left for me! :)

Knit Picks Chroma fingering in Galapagos. 2 skeins is about 800 yards and is enough to make just about any shawl I'd want! I think I already know which one too.

Test Knitting

One of my favorite things to do in the world of knitting is test knit patterns for designers. Sometimes that even means that I get a paid pattern for free. In February, two of my friends came up with patterns that needed to be test knitted. One was a hat like the one Hermione wears in the graveyard scene of Deathly Hallows part 1. The other was a pair of socks.

The socks aren't finished yet. I've only finished the first one tonight. I'm really hoping that now that I've finished one I can speed knit through the other one. That's the way my socks are usually knit - I do the first one and because I want the second one so badly, I speed through it.

Here's the hat I finished a couple weeks ago. As I told the designer, it needs to be a bit longer. I'll probably go back eventually and add some length to the body of the hat.

Monthly Plan: February

Charms: Umbreon Plushie

DADA: Ventus Shawl

Herbology: Irish Breakfast Tea Socks

Potions: Pichu Plushie

Astronomy: Riku Gloves

HoM: Snapdragon Tam

CoMC: Godric’s Hollow Graveyard Hat

Detention: Chroma scarf or Aquitaine Pullover

OWL: Seraphim Shawl - 75%

Quidditch: TangledMom hat

I have no idea how much of this I will actually get done, I'm hoping 6 classes and my OWL to 75% or so. February is a few days shorter so once the classes I've already got on the needles (Ventus, Riku, Godric's Hollow hat) I need to get it to 50% so I know I'll have a chance to finish. The other thing I must finish this month are the socks. They're a test knit for a friend and perfect for St. Patrick's day socks.

January Summary

In January, I knit (or crocheted) a total of 7 things. 3 small bags, 3 hats, and a cozy for my PSP. I also started a scarf out of the skein of Chroma I ordered with my last KP order. I knew I wanted to make a scarf out of it so I got a skein of Choma Worsted in Midwinter. The scarf is about half done. It'll get done soon enough so I can block it and wear it.

6 HPKCHC classes:

Choma scarf:

You'll notice the third bag is missing. I need to do 2 things before I post it, take a better picture and mail it out today to the one it goes to.

Free Pattern: Drawstring PSP Cozy

This pattern is a pattern I came up when I couldn't find many PSP cozies on Raverly. See, I have a few portable game systems and never felt the need to have a cozy for them, until now. My DS and GameboyAdvance both close, keeping the screens protected. The PSP doesn't so it needed a way to keep the screen from getting scratched.

Materials:

2.5mm needles

Fingering weight yarn

Small crochet hook

Stitch marker to mark beginning of round

Using Judy's Magic Cast on, CO 24 sts (48 total) and knit one round.

Start working in 3x1 rib. Continue for the length you want the cozy to be.

Work an eyelet row: (k2tog, yo, k2).

Work in 3x1 rib for another inch or so. BO.

Taking the crochet hook, chain a length of desired drawstring. Weave through eyelet row.

Weave in all ends and enjoy!

It only took me a few hours over a couple evening to knit this up. The pattern can be easily adapted for another weight yarn and would go even quicker. :)

2 of 52 Hats done

Finally got around to taking a picture of my second hat. I almost had a third done but it was way too big for my head and I wanted it for me. Ah well. I have a different one in progress now and will have a fourth one started soon.

Pattern: Point Lobos Hat

Yarn: Unknown Handspun - One ply and wool

Needle: 5mm

Project page

Pattern: Windy City Hat

Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in DK Country blue

Needle: 4.5mm

Project page

Knit Picks Chroma

Knit Pick's new yarn Chroma comes in both fingering and worsted. It is a single ply yarn with 396 yards in a skein of fingering, 198 in a skein of worsted. It's $8.99 per skein.

Ever since Chroma was released, I've been itching to try it out. I probably won't use it for socks since it is single-ply but it would be great for things like scarves, hats, shawls, etc. The colorways I really like are listed below, my favorite one in bold.

Pegasus

Galapagos

Pool Party

Regency

Midwinter

U-Pick

Finished: Cozy & Pouches

So far in January I've finished five things. I'm going to wait and do my finished hats later, when I finally get around to taking a picture of the second one. The first thing I made this month was a self-designed cozy for my PSP that I got for Christmas from my Dad. The second and third were two pouches from the same pattern. I love quick little crochet patterns that can be done in a half an hour or so.

Pattern: N/A

Yarn: Patons Kroy Socks Stripes in Krazy Stripes

Needle: 2.5mm

Project page link

Pattern: One Hundred Yen Pouch

Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver in Burgundy

Hook: 5mm

Project page link

Pattern: One Hundred Yen Pouch

Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver in Lavender

Hook: 4.5mm

Project page link

Monthly Plan: January

January Plan

Flying: Accompanist’s Fingerless Gloves
Herbology: PSP cozy
DADA: Eagle’s Flight
Charms: HP Fair Isle Pouch
HoM: Odessa
Divination: Gretel

Detention: therealkarity’s advent socks

OWL - Charms: Seraphim Shawl

I'm going to try and get as much of this done as I can before the 10th - that's when I go back to school. At some point I'll need to do two hats that aren't on the list so I can end January with four hats complete. Am I crazy? Quite possibly.

2011 Plans

I'm probably out of my mind for doing this, but I've decided to challenge myself to complete certain knitting goals in 2011. Knitting to a deadline helps me much more than just knitting. There are four challenges I decided to do this year. The last one is the biggest and the others can be added into it. The first three are hats, shawls, and socks.

52 Hats - a hat per week in 2011

11 Shawls in 2011 - what it sounds like

12 in 2011 - sock club for me and Sparky

The last one listed, 12 in 2011, is the one I'm using for a sock club Sparky and I decided to do. We want to do a pair of socks a month and it works perfectly for that. Now, the last challenge is 111 projects in 2011. Yes, 111. Which means that everything I do in 2011 will be working towards that goal. Each time I talk about my FOs in 2011, I'll probably include a counter for how many I've done so far.