Gotta Make ... » Knit & Crochet

My new shawl, Eventide

site admin — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:28:36 +0000

Look, it’s NOT a journal page! Ever since I got a Ravelry account, I forget to post my knitting stuff here. I thought I’d show this off, though, since I don’t have a new journal page but I do have a new shawl. I call mine Eventide but the pattern is called Daybreak. These are not my usual colors for clothing, but I couldn’t resist them. The orangey pinky one is called Archangel and I think the dark one is Cordovan. They are Malabrigo sock yarn and oh so yummy. If you have a Ravelry account, you can see my other knitting projects there. My username is Gottamake. I’ve got a cozy green cardi blocking now so I’ll have pics of that soon. I’ve actually got lots of things finished since my last knitting post here. Maybe I’ll remember to post some more soon, just to break up the journal page posts a bit, LOL.

Hey Teach and February Lady Sweater

site admin — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:27:28 +0000

Since most of my art and craft stuff is packed away while we try to sell the house, I just haven’t had anything to post lately. I did, however, keep my knitting needles unpacked, and I have a couple of FOs. This is the February Lady Sweater. Very easy, and easy to modify, too. I used sport weight yarn instead of the worsted called for and changed the raglan decrease rate to something that fit my puny shoulders better. That eliminated the bulge that some are getting under the arms.

And this is Hey Teach! Not so easy, because you have to figure out how to adjust the lace pattern on your own, where you do the underarm shaping. The armscye feels a little snug to me and I hate to be uncomfortable so at some point I’ll probably take the sleeves out and add a row or two and put them back in. Unless I’m too lazy.

A new FO: Chunky Blue Liesl

site admin — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:14:42 +0000

This was a really quick knit. Fun, too. I wouldn’t buy this yarn (Katia Florida) again, though. The yarn was brand new but one ball had strange brown stains and another had a huge knot about 2yds in that had to be cut out. I do plan to use this pattern again, though. I want to make a longer one, with elbow length sleeves, in a lighter weight yarn. You can find the pattern here or if you are a Ravelry member it is here. If you’re a knitter and you’re not a Ravelry member, then what are you waiting for? Ysolda designs such cute patterns. I hope to make her Coraline soon.

Where’s the pics?

site admin — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:46:21 +0000

Yep, I realize that most of my photos on here are now missing. I had a bit of a gallery catastrophe and haven’t had a chance to do anything about it. I’ll get the gallery back up as soon as I can, but the old thumbnails and links will likely remain broken. *sigh* You’ll still be able to find any of the pics by going straight to the gallery and digging around, but not until I get it reinstalled. Sorry!

FO: Newsworthy Cap

site admin — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 16:56:22 +0000

I finished a couple of knitting projects in the last few days. This is a newsboy type cap that I came up with myself. I’ll try to find time to write up the pattern before I forget it, because I might want to make more. Clicking the thumbnail takes you to a larger photo in my gallery. I’ve also got a pic of me wearing it on its Ravelry page, but I hate pics of myself so I won’t repeat that one here. It looks better on the lampshade, LOL. But I do think it is a really cute hat. I also finished a Calorimetry which I’ve added to Ravelry but haven’t gotten added to my blog photo album yet. I hate that I have to use Flickr for Ravelry photos and I hope they change that soon. I don’t like to have to upload everything in two different places.

Tangled Yoke Cardigan FO

site admin — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 16:46:20 +0000

Finished Tangled Yoke and wore it Sunday. I’m very happy with it! This pic was taken Friday and since it was a bad hair/makeup/body day you only get the back view, LOL. That is the prettiest part though, with the cable going around the shoulders.

I’ve started the Minimalist Cardigan from the same IK issue. I’m using a sport weight so not getting gauge and it will require some tinkering. Also, I won’t be doing the ribbing at the bottom. Moss stitch doesn’t curl and I don’t want the sweater drawn in there. I’ve just started straight in with the moss stitch. I’m also knitting fronts and back together, so no side seams to fool with later. And I’m doubling the width of the stockinetter front bands so I can fold them in half, so they will be doubled. That way, there won’t be any curling under there. I think that might have bugged me.

Ravelry!

site admin — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 16:10:25 +0000

It’s official, I’m in! Looks very useful, from what I’ve seen so far. The only thing I don’t like is that I have to upload photos to Flickr to be able to show anything, and I really don’t like having to use Flickr. The rest is nice, though. It’s fun to be able to so easily look up projects you are interested in to see how other’s are turning out. You can find me there as gottamake, of course.

I’m making good progress on the Tangled Yoke cardigan. I’m knitting it top down and am now on the bottom ribbing, so I just have that, the button band, and the sleeves to go. I temporarily stalled on the red sweater (which I think I’ll call Red Twist) while waiting for a shorter needle to complete the sleeves. It came over the weekend, so I need to get back to that.

Celtic Vest from Fleece Artist

site admin — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 17:08:27 +0000

I need to get a better photo, but I wanted to go ahead and show it. I love, love, love the hand-dyed Scotian Silk yarn this kit came with. Sounds expensive, but it only takes one hank, so it really isn’t bad. The camera can’t catch the subtle sheen and the wonderful softness of it. I wasn’t too sure how this vest was going to turn out. I tried it on before blocking and it fit very close, though it was so stretchy that it didn’t feel tight, and it was very short. Barely to my waistband. The instructions said you would gain 2″ in blocking and they were correct. It was no problem at all to stretch to that much for blocking and I probably could have stretched it even longer. The whole character of the stitch pattern changed after blocking. It was like a mini-miracle! It was no longer bulky and ribbed looking, and clingy, and it gained a very nice drape. If you knit this, don’t skip the blocking! I modded it a bit to narrow the shoulders and make the overlap part continue on down to a narrower finished edge. I’m not flat-chested like the model and didn’t want to be pinning it shut in an awkward spot.

Click this one to see a closeup of the yarn and the clasp. The clasp is a hair ornament I bought at the local Renaissance Faire. I had intended to get a cloak clasp or shawl pin, but she had sold out of those and I thought this would work just as well.

Tangled Yoke

site admin — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 16:43:23 +0000

Here’s my progress on the Tangled Yoke Cardigan. Instead of starting from the bottom up, I started at the yoke area with a provisional cast on. Later, I’ll pick up there and knit down so I can adjust it to fit. I need a different size for the top and bottom and none of the sizes listed were quite right. I thought this might be a good solution and Eunny assures me it should work. Let’s hope I can pull it off! The blue line is a lifeline I put in because I am also trying to make the fron neck fall just a bit lower and since I didn’t bother to calculate it, it’s kind of a hit or miss thing. The lifeline will let me easily frog back if I need to.

Barbara Walker is a genius.

site admin — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 18:46:47 +0000

Last night, I followed her instructions (in Knitting from the Top) for seamless set-in sleeves from the top down. Click the thumbnail to see how this is working out. I think it’s wonderful! The sleeve gets distributed perfectly evenly into the armscye with no puckering and the best part is I don’t have to sew it in! Being able to try it on for length as I knit down is also a plus, since I have long arms. I need to get a shorter needle before I continue on down the sleeve, but I’m very happy with this technique. Also, you can’t really tell from teh photo, but there are no shoulder seams!

Here’s a closeup of the cables at the bottom of the sweater. I gradually added increases between the cables to make this part flare out over my hips.