Knitting snub

So I made this. I packed it up all nice and pretty.

It was for the Fella's friends' little creature. I even wrote a card. And yet, I received nary a thank you or even a "this will make a great rag for toilet cleaning." I'll just pretend having a newborn is difficult.

Still too early for Christmas?

What is the epitome of nerdy granola craftiness? I'll tell you. It's buying futures in a sheep.

Yep. I saw this article on community supported fiber today on Design*Sponge and totally wanted in. For an up front fee, you can get a share of local sheep farm's shearing. Who doesn't love this kind of smug philanthropy? WITH YARN!

Commissioning crustacean accessories

To my delight, the lobster pillow was a huge success. So much so, that I've been offered handmade jewelry to make a companion pillow- a crab. Without a pattern, I've begun work on my own. A quick Google of "free clipart crab" led me to several great options.

I printed a few favorites, in hopes to convert the image to a knitting grid. Of course, this required a knitting grid that I clearly lacked. I designed my own in plain-old Excel and printed several slightly un-square graphs.
And then, in the highest kindergarten-level technology I could muster, I taped my crab image to the kitchen window, and then taped my graph paper over it for tracing. I was a bit skeptical, but it worked precisely as planned. So well in fact, that I made two distinct crab graphs to give B a choice.
She chose the more symmetric of the two, which I also preferred. I also took the initiative to dye some yarn. I think my first attempt didn't get warm enough and seems to be rinsing out too much. No pictures yet, but whatever. It's so light that I can easily overdye with just about anything.
I'll have to wait until the yarn dries to see how it looks next to the yarn used for the lobster pillow- I'm hoping it coordinates without clashing or looking like I just didn't match it very well.

...to be continued.

Birthday Crustacean

This gift was a direct response to my dozen+ homemade AMAZING blueberry cookies that I recently received for my birthday. I felt compelled to undertake a total DIY birthday gift for my true love, B.

First I wound little mini skeins of Fisherman’s wool that was hanging around in the basement. I was inspired to DIY all the way (and circumnavigate the closed yarn stores) by dyeing my own yarn. I used my tried and true Kool-Aid/microwave dye-job, purposely going for an uneven slightly kettle-dye-like look.

The pale blue-green took 3 tries to achieve. The first two were waaay to dark, and the final color was actually created by using the leftover dye water after I removed an unsuccessful turquoisey-green attempt (3 ice blue lemonade, 1 lemon-lime). Since the first batch into the water struck most of the green, round two ended up a seafoam-y color that I really liked.

The red-orange was the result of 1 Strawberry Kool-Aid, 1 Mandarina-Tangerine Kool-Aid, 1 Splashers Orange, and in a moment of panic 1 Flavor-Aid Lemonade. I was surprised by how red it was despite all the yellows added in, but the end color was pretty perfect.
Next, I knit a modified free lobster bib pattern (basically just using the chart), by CO 36 (pattern repeat plus 3 sts on each side) and k the first and last stitch on each row (RS and WS). I also omitted the garter st border. I knit 8 rows before starting the pattern and after finishing it.

If I were to knit this again (because seriously, I will probably need another knit lobster pillow…) I would add more sts on each side of the repeat. As you see it’s a stout pillow, and a little wider would cause the image to wrap around a little less in the claws.

Once knit and blocked, I really took a leap of faith and decided to machine sew the knit panel to the fabric backing for the other side of the pillow (since I didn’t really want a knitted back to the pillow). I had no idea if it would stretch or get screwed up- luckily it didn’t. (I had an idea it would work since I’d lined a purse this way a long time ago).I also had to customize the standard pillow-form to suit the odd size, and it totally worked out. I just unstuffed the form (which had a zipper closure), traced my lobster panel onto the pillowcase, sewed the new shape, cut it out and re-stuffed it. It sounds like a lot, but this was actually the easiest part.

Then I just fit the pillow into my custom case and voila. Happy Birthday, B!

Christmas thoughts...

To start, I'm not obsessed, I do not like "It's a Wonderful Life," and I do not have a year round Christmas countdown. But when you are a) broke b) a knitter, logic would suppose that most of your Christmas gifts will be hand made. So as mentioned, I am planning already.

Today I was thinking about my boss and secretary in particular. I started by thinking a simple scarf with a yummy yarn would have to be appreciated by everyone. But that's coming from a person who appreciates a homemade gift. I would hate hate hate for her to feel obligated to wear it to work because of me and then feel ridiculous. So now I'm considering gifts for the home; baskets, grocery bag holder, wine cozy and the like.

I guess I'm saying it's easier to give a bad gift to someone you don't have to see much. Keep that in mind when you get your fun-fur scarf.

Christmas So Soon?

It's almost 90 degrees outside, so naturally I'm reminded that Christmas is only six months, two weeks and two days away. So it's high time I start planning my Christmas to-make list (which creates a delightful yarn "to-buy" list). Inevitably, the list includes the sister, the man I knit for, and the roommate from Pittsburgh. Actually, I think I have two of the three ideas set already. Yay for planning. Double yay for shopping.

And as for me? I think I want books (for all my spare time....)

Knitting book: Knitting Without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmermann
and Knitter's Almanac

Science book: Streptococcus pneumoniae: Molecular Biology and Mechanisms of Disease by Alexander Tomasz

Fun book: When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

Merry Christmas!

Did anyone order a chartreuse blankie?

Just back from a (probably undeserved) vacation with the man I knit for, and I'm feeling very relaxed. I had a chance to work on Clapotis and, mmm, just lovely.



More importantly, Jessica sent me some pictures of other projects I've done for her. I was most excited to add these of her Christmas present from last year. It was a total surprise when she got it, and I'm assured she loves it.



Especially the color.