COM: Cast On Month

How's this for a radical idea? Cast on a new object everyday for a month! (OK, Lets make it a little less overwhelming and make it February where there is only 28 days). Could I do this? Would I take up the dare? I had cyber knitting friends egging me on and I figured I could only try it and see...

I tried (and ultimately failed when life got in the way) and here is the story of my efforts and the lessons I learned along to way to make it easier next time.

Day 1: I cast on a cowl. The Ravelry group instigating the COM is also having a Cowl Along using a pattern designed by one of the group members: IrMom's Cowl. I wasn’t sure about how much I liked the pattern from the original pattern photos (which are in black and hard to see the full glory of the lace) but a few of the projects made from it finally sold me. I liberated the 3 balls of yarn I have from my Mum’s stash a while ago when sourcing yarn for the Granny Wants a Latte Macchiato granny rug. The colour looks pale ice blue is some lights, grey in other but is clearly intended to be grey as the yarn colour is Silver Streak. One pattern repeat completed on the first day.

Day 2: OK. I figured out a way I can cast on a new thing every day but not end up with an enormous number of new WIPs at the end of the month (WIP = Work in Progress). I should make small things that I can cast on and finish in one day. Luckily I had just the project needing love and attention: The Granny wants a Latte Macchiato Granny rug. It takes me about an hour to complete a square for this. Perfect evening TV knitting. So a square in colour combination number 1.

Day 3: I'm also making a strip afghan this year; one new strip per month. Essentially I am knitting all my favourite cable and cable and lace scarves that have caught my eyes recently and sewing them up into a lap blanket for me. (A girl can have too many scarves but I need a rug). This is the beginning of the third strip: the Pretzel Scarf from Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts 2013 using recycled yarn from my local op shop. Again this is one pattern repeat.

Days 4, 5, 6 and 7: Four more squares for the Granny wants a Latte Macchiato granny rug. Colour combinations 2 through 5. I may even get this rug finished sometime soon. (And I'd done a whole week of cast ons! And I finished the cowl I cast on on Day 1 on Day 4 too).

Days 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12: A new project constructed in 6 pieces. I just loved these when I first saw the pattern Artichaut in The Knitter. (Artichaut means artichoke in French). These are my first ever Ravellenics project for Team Tardis. I can see Victorian Clara wearing these. The yarn is a core of wool covered in a silvery acrylic mesh. Despite the glitter, it is smooth and not scratchy. It also knits up incredibly smooth and doesn’t catch or pull.

Day 13 and 14: No new cast ons and in fact no knitting at all. I went to Sydney for a maths conference and flew out really early one morning and arrived home late the next day. In Australia you can't take knitting needles or crochet hooks in hand luggage. They are dangerous prohibited items aparently. We were traveling without checked luggage so no knitting for two days. (I did get to talk knitting to other mathematicians though).

Days 15 and 16: Back home but the cast on mojo was gone. I did pick up my knitting needles with a sigh of relief and knit away on the current work in progress - a strip for my Anyone Got Cable! scarf-ghan.  This is a mock cable and lace pattern - Falling Water.

Day 17: A new cast on courtesy of a long car trip to Geelong to do the first part of the mighty move for the youngest boy to residences at university. The head of the household was a sweetie and did the bulk of the driving. This is my next planned Ravellenics project - the Oyster Shell fingerless mitts using Spatterdash Wristwarmers pattern from Knitty. I got the palm section completed and picked up stitches to do the flap section in feather and fan lace. But I got lost trying to follow the pattern for the first row which includes short row shaping late at night. (And it's really fine needles and yarn. My eyes were protesting).

Days 18 to 28: OK, the wheels have fallen off this cast on mania effort. Oh, I certainly knitted for the rest of February but there were no new cast ons. I mainly worked on my strips for my strip afghan and finished one strip and got a long way through the Pretzel Scarf strip I cast on at the beginning of February.

Why no more cast ons?

1. Work intervened. The end of February was  the start of teaching for 2014 at University and I was doing a lot of new things in University preparation programs and 'O' week classes. So a lot more time and energy eaten away in planning and material production.
2. I hadn't really planned much past the second mitten cast on for Ravellenics So I didn't know what to cast on next.
3. I ran across a knitting needle availability issue. I knew for example, a couple of more patterns I wanted to incorporate into my strip afghan but everything is DK weight on 4mm needles and I was running out as they were all in use.

Things I learned for next time?

1. Mix the crochet and knitting - this really helps with needle availability. (Plus you can easily steal the hooks from crochet projects!)
2. Consider small modular pieces that you can cast on and finish in a day. I was on a winner here with the granny squares.
3. Plan a long list of interesting things to cast on. Vary the yarn and needle size needed (and probably sensibly match these to the needles I actually have).
4. Pack up little starter packs consisting of the pattern, yarn and needles for projects so it's easy to just pick and start new things.

Would I do it again?
Hell, yes!  With better pre-planning (See notes above).

Kniting as art: The flat fox

In September 2013, one of my Ravelry groups that I play knitting in cyberspace with, challenged each other to produce a knitted wall hanging over a couple of months. We had a couple of sample patterns to inspire us. We all had a go but overall it stretched a few of us out of our comfort zone. Prolific knitters we certainly are. Creative thinkers outside the square maybe not so much.

But it sparked something in the back of my weird little brain that I think has enormous potential as: (a) a great way to stashbust some yarn, (b) a potential way to do something creative with that stack of swatches many knitters generate, (c) a cool way to sample stitch patterns you love but without having to commit to a full garment and (d) a unique and cheap way to creat original artwork to decorate your walls. I’ve had a number of ideas about how to do this percolating in the back on my mind for quite a while and it seemed like a great opportunity to finally stop thinking and start doing.

This I what I started with: 

My idea all began with this fox square. The pattern for the fox picture comes from Knit Today issue 81 January 2013 and is is from a bag pattern called Urban Fox. I’m pretty sure that this is the pattern that made me buy the magazine originally. One of my eldest daughter’s friends is absolutely obsessed with all things fox and I thought it would make a good present for her. Turns out its going to be part of a piece of urban man cave decor.

So this is to go on the walls of my boy’s man cave to go with the taxidermy stuffed animal heads he is creating. (There are a lot of dismembered moose and deer stuffed toys in my house currently waiting for the woodworkers to finish varnishing their plaques).

Then I decided to frame the fox with a series of strips and squares in the cream/fawn wool of the background used for the fox. I took the opportunity to play with some patterns that have caught my eye (or appeal to the boy).

Strip 1: The leaf pattern used in the free scarf/stole/shawl pattern Physalis by Anna Kuduja. Knitted leaves are such fun to make.

 

Square 2: The Tardis from Bigger on the Inside from Knitty Spring + Summer 2012 by Kate Atherley. (The boy is a missive Doctor who fan).

Square 3: Lace pattern from Friday Night In Jacket by Amanda Jones from Simply Knitting Issue 102. I'm really having a bit of geometric lace phase at the moment.

And here's where the cool bit of the idea for this artwork really comes in. I decided that in order to make this a picture I wasn't going to go the traditional wall hanging route by adding a backing or edging and some sort of hanging rod to the top. I decided to use my knitted fabric to stretch over a purchased canvas.

So then I had to knit two long stocking stitch strips, one for each edge to wrap around the picture frame. I also knitted a small section of stocking stitch onto the top of the Tardis square to make this strip the same length as the others.

Assembly: I bought a pre-stretched canvas frame from our local Warehouse. (Cost $12 for three - they are about 55 cm high by 45 cm wide). I sewed all pieces together to make a large square. I blocked the individual pieces before sewing them together. Steam pressed a few stubborn seams flat. Stretched the knitted piece over the frame. On the long edges it is long enough to wrap right around the frame and tuck under. Enlisted help of the head of the household to staple the piece to the frame around the back using a staple gun. Folded knitted piece carefully at the corners and stitched in place along folds before stapling for extra security. I’d show you the back but it’s messy. Added a string across the frame about 1/3 way down for hanging.

So, I’m proud of this. Proof of concept established. I think this would work great with swatches too. A million ideas dancing in my head (and I still have two more canvases). Stay tuned.

 

(Sorry about the wide variety of colours in these photos. The yarn  I used to make this is the most frustrating wool to photograph even close to its true colour and it depends too on whether I photograph under artificial light or not. It's closest to creamish warm fawn with an undertone of grey).

A Crochet Comedy of Errors

And another pattern finally makes its way off the queue and onto the needles (or hook) in this case.
Why? It was Boxing Day - a day in Australia for shopping (Boxing Day Sales are amazing) and then lazing on the couch watching cricket and yacht racing (the Boxing Day test and the start of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race). I was almost between projects. (I only had about a 10 cm strip of the flat fox picture to finish and my second longitudinal sock. Yes I know I haven't blogged about them yet. I will soon). It’s ranging between hot-ish and plain damn hot here (40 degrees+) and I needed a summer project that wasn’t too hot to work on on 30 degree plus days. Hence crochet for a change. Though it does seem weird making scarves in summer! And finally, The Women’s Weekly group I belong to on Ravelry is holding a 2 month KAL/CAL to make a scarf or a cowl in January and/or February of 2014. OK, so I started in a little early. I think they will forgive me.

This is the pattern I fell in love with from Interweave Crochet, Fall 2012. It's called  Ruffles Scarf and was designed by Shelby Allaho. I admit I bought a crochet pattern magazine on impulse. I'm so much more a knitter than a crocheter (apart from amigurumi). But there are so many patterns in here I'd like to make. Modern crochet garments are so not your grandmother's granny square poncho or 70's crochet bikini anymore. There are even some really cool crochet socks in here.

The yarn for this a blend of 50% wool and 50% acrylic so it's light and not too sweaty to work with. I bought this on impulse from Spotlight at the end of the winter on a massive discount because I really loved the colour.

 

And so I began. On the first day I worked the foundation chain and 13 stitch repeats. I dithered about whether the foundation chain was too tight for a while but decided to leave it as the edge is supposed to curve anyway. Messed up third row of pattern and had to unravel a few times because it didn’t look like the picture! Realized I had skim read the pattern not read it properly. I had to remind myself of American crochet terminology as I grew up using the English crochet terms and that's what I'm most familiar with. I decided that American treble crochet stitch (English double treble) which has two loops around the needle before working the stitch is awkward and I need to use my fingers to move the first stubborn loop over the needle, not just the hook!

End of Day 1

I managed to reach the required 91 rows of pattern after about a week or so. After careful consideration I decided that this was not long enough to wrap comfortably twice around my neck so I added another 30 rows of pattern (121 rows total). I started the side ruffle edging and got about three quarters of the way down one side and ran out of wool. OK, I admit to a small bout of swearing, kicking a few things and throwing the scarf in a corner violently in disgust.

Plan B was an excusion back to Spotlight to try to source more wool. There was none available. I wasn't really surprised though. (One shouldn’t go looking for winter weight wool that you bought on clearance at the end of winter on a 40+ degree day in summer). So I did some quick calculations and decide that if I unraveled that extra 30 rows I may just have enough to do the edging.

So I took a photo for prosperity before the painful ripping out process. The scalloped edging was looking really cool. I needed evidence of the hard work before I pulled it out.

I mistakenly thought the drama was all over. But there was still more to come before I finished it. After unraveling back to 91 rows, I re-began the edging and realised that I had been doing it wrong before by carefully re-reading the instructions and looking at the pattern pictures. I had done a scallop every row and it was supposed to be every second row! No wonder I had ran out of wool!

I worked to the end of one side and realised that I was going to have enough yarn to make it a little longer. So I unraveled the edge yet again and added another 10 rows of pattern (now 101 rows long).
I worked the edging along one long side (for the third time!), around the bottom edge, the other long side and top edge and fastened off. I even still have some yarn left! Then I washed and lightly blocked it and it came up beautifully.

Pattern: Tweed Ruffles by Shelby Allaho.

Hook: 4 mm

Yarn: Moda Vera Tweed, aran/worsted weight yarn

The designer has a dozen suggested ways to wear this scarf pictured on her blog here. And there suggested modifcations to make it a cowl or wristlets.

This is the first crochet object I have made from a pattern (apart from granny squares and amigurumi). A major achievement to start 2014! And I am definitely going to do more crochet garments.

The great sew-up-a-thon!

If you're a long time reader of my blog you may have noted the list of unfinished UFOs on the left hand side of my blog. At the beginning of 2012, I seriously took stock of all the unfinished objects that were hiding in weird places around my house. I dragged them out, dusted them off, photographed them and took note of what still needed doing on them, frogged a few in the process and blogged about them here in these two posts (UFOs and PhDs (a belated New Year's Resolution) and UFOs and PhDs (Take 2)). There were 14 of them at this stage.

It's now the beginning of 2014, and do you know how much attention I have paid these UFOs? That's right. None. They're all still languishing in their bags and baskets and cupboards. So this January whilst I'm on holidays, I'm making a concerted effort at finishing up those projects that essentially just required minimal sewing up and assembly.

I do like knitting toys but sometimes I hate sewing them up!

So drum roll! Here is the parade of  finished toys....

Stuffed Tropical Bird (sewn up and completed 5th January 2014)

My Mum gave my kids a Women's Weekly Book called "Knit a Square: Make a Toy". This is a combined effort from a few people knitting the squares. All the squares were knitted several years ago - it just needed sewing up. (Is anyone getting the impression this is my least favourite part of knitting toys?) This one is for sale or gifting.

Bits of birdy in early assembly stage. And this is where it stalled....

And this is what it is supposed to look like when it is finished.

 And so I forced myself to finish this one first. I swore and cursed and threw a few things while I was doing it, but about three hours later it was done. I'm proud of how it came together. It stands independently really well.  And then it posed for photos.

Raiding the chook's food

The Nativity Camel (Sewn up and completed 9th January 2014)
This is an addition to an existing Jean Greenhowe Christmas Crib set which belongs to the small grandsons of a friend of mine. The Christmas Crib was knitted by an elderly lady in a nursing home. However, one little boy when looking at the three kings, said "Where's their camel? They need a camel!" The original pattern doesn't have a camel so I'm knittied this one from Alan Dart's Noah's Ark instead. I was hoping the scale will work with the Three Kings.

Again partially assembled camel

This one had stalled because of the legs. Camels have weird knees. The legs are assembled by wrapping the knitted piece around a piece of drinking straw and carefully over-sewing whilst not crushing the straw. This was clearly a scary proposition to contemplate and so I put it aside. But this time I gritted my teeth and just got on with it. I stuffed the straw pieces firmly as well to make sure the legs were strong and stable. It only took a couple of hours to finish this in the end. Then the camel went and played in the weedy patch next to the railway lines.

The Christmas Sheep (Completed January 14th 2014)
This sheep is part of my sister’s Christmas Crib. Once again all the bits were here but I had to sew it up. There was probably only about an hour’s work here. Just finish it will you! (I also need to make a few more sheep, one sheep is lonely, 3 is a flock).

Sheep bits

And on January 14th 2014 in 36 degree heat, I sewed up the rest of the sheep. He is now a finished sheep. The kids think he looks evil but I pointed out that it was for their Auntie and they thought that an evil sheep was appropriate to go with her other evil pets.

The Jean Greenhowe Teddy (Completed 15th January 2014)
This was born from a skein of beautiful hand dyed merino I bought at a craft show. I love the wool and he is just the right level of fuzziness and squishy-ness. But I can't get his face right. He is supposed to have knitted nose and no mouth (see pattern picture below). I have done this but then removed it cos it just wasn't right... Also his back seam is off centre (which makes me cranky).

I knitted the nose and finished embroidering the face on 15th January 2013. The nose is knitted in an olive section of some leftover Trendsetter Yarns Tonalita yarn from the Shades of a Scarf project. He’s now a very woebegone looking teddy. Basically you can here him saying "Hug Me!". He is going into the gift box for the next baby gift.

Bear with no nose....

From Jean Greenhowe's Christmas Special, Reindeer and Polar Bear

 

Who could resist this face?

Curating Ravelry: Free Stash Busting Patterns

Well, it's a New Year. May 2014 be all you need it to be. I'm praying for some peace and tranquility for me for this year. Last year was hectic to say the least.

A New Year means taking stock of lots of things. In my case this year it's my knitting goals and aspirations. My first knitting related action of the 2014 (apart from actually knitting) was to join two stash buster groups on Ravelry. My stash is not enormous but I need to make a conscious effort to think about just what's there and try to search out things that I can knit with it before I go and buy more yarn. A lot of what I have in the stash is small bits and pieces of acrylic mainly with a few larger amounts suitable for acessories such as hats and cowls or possibly shawls.

[Now I realise that a lot of you who are reading along with me have already discovered the wonderful online fiber community that is Ravelry. But some of you haven't. My thumbnail sketch of Ravelry for the uninitiated is that it is like Facebook for fibre artists. But it is so much more than that. It's place to join groups of like minded crafters as varied as Harry Potter fanatics who yarncraft, fans of particular knitting magazines, the small but eloquently vocal subset of university level maths professors who knit or simply people who want ideas on how to tame and use an out of control stash.  It has the most comprehensive free pattern database in the known universe (125,374 free patterns as of today (11th January 2014)). You can create pages for your projects, upload photos and share them with people and congratulate each other on your amazing ninja crafting skills. Or you can use it as a tool to manage the stash, Interested? Sign up here: www.ravelry.com]

I thought for 2014, I have a go a curating these 125,000+ free patterns into small bite size digestible chunks for people to use. As it's a year of Stash Busting for me lets start with a  list of patterns for using up little bits of left over yarn using both knitting and crochet. The criteria I used to put this together is that all the patterns be free and readily available on Ravelry (without needing a Ravelry account necessarily to access and download). In most cases they are also patterns that would work with a range of yarn weights. Most of my little bits of stash are DK weight or 5ply. The final criteria was that they had to have that little bit of WOW factor that made me want to make them.

My Favorite Things Infinity Scarf - a recipe for a personalized design your own colour-work cowl by Jill McGee. My version of this became the first cast on object for 2014. So far, I have a steaming tea cup, a row of European style houses, a Tardis and some foxes.

© POF

Owl Key Chain Pattern by Yarn Artists.
Owls are just so cool right now. This pattern is an awesomely detailed photo tutorial on just how to make these little guys.  I'm planning to make a whole heap of these over the next year to use as tags for Christmas presents.

© Yarn Artists

Have lots of quite little bits of yarn? The general advice is knit a muli-coloured stripey scarf. Why not try the Mini Mania Scarf  and Manic Panic Cowl by Sarah Core. These are just a little bit out of the ordinary using linen stitch to create a woven look fabric.

by LadyDanio

by LadyDanio

Most people think of the stash busting granny rug. (I'm doing the crochet version of this idea myself at the moment very slowly (see my blog post Granny wants a Latte Macchiato). However, I really love this knitted take on a traditional log cabin quilt. Learn to knit a log cabin blanket by Staci Perry.

© Staci Perry

Modular knitting is also a great technique for stash busting. Modular knitting is the idea of constructing a knitted garment from smaller shaped pieces of knitting. The shapes chosen are usually geometric such as squares rectangles, hexagons, circles, etc... These can either be seamed together or more traditionally the garment is built from successively knitting small pieces of knitting onto an existing piece. One of the classic modular shapes is the mitered square. And that's the sahpe used in the Modern Quilt Wrap This one comes from Knitting Daily's free ebook  Knitting Accessories: 7 free Patterns for Knitted Accessories. You will need to sign up with an email address to access this.

by FluffyK Flickr

There are literally hundreds of more patterns out there but I thought I keep these lists short. I'll try to post another one every month or so.

So what sort of free patterns do you want to make? Any suggestions for topics for the next lists?

Jo-ann

From little things big things grow

It's been a fairly quiet blogging year probably because it has been a tumultuously surprising working year. At the beginning of February, we received the startling news that our university administration had decided to give our campus away to another university thus forming a new regional university. After the initial shock, it's been a year of negotiation and meetings, moments of frustration and despair and lots of fresh new challenges as well as exciting opportunities.

So when we threw open our doors for Open Day for prospective students this year we still didn't have an official name for the new university. The marketing slogan was 'We're growing a new university to help you grow" branded with both university logos and the accompanying advertisements showed a growing tree. This imagery of leaves and trees has reappeared in subsequent marketing campaigns. When I first saw this hat pattern the colourwork leaves reminded me of this. Our new University now has a name: Federation University Australia. And so I give you the only hat I've made for myself this year: Federation.

Knitting is my meditation; my escape from stressful times. The soothing clink of needles and yarn creating things makes tensions and annoyances unwind into the growing object. So for me, particularly this year, certain objects evoke memories of places, times and situations. But rather than these being unhappy memories, the knitted garment becomes almost like a pair of rose-coloured glasses letting me see the events with distance, perspective and insight. Knitted garments are warm and fuzzy objects in more ways than one. (I'm being particularly weirdly philosophical tonight).

So this hat symbolizes the end of the journey and a new beginning. I chiefly knitted this hat over two days of train journeys, up and back to Melbourne for planning meetings for the new year with my new colleagues. I knit on trains - a lot. It makes a 2 hour journey to Melbourne productive and I can still talk to people. This year, I made a psychological major leap forward and bought my knitting out of the closet so to speak and will now knit on journeys in front of my work colleagues. The guys I work with found the fact that I knit colour-work on four needles in the round whilst having an academic conversation fascinating. (The next secret ambition is to work out a way I can feel comfortable dragging out the knitting at meetings).

Pattern: as the leaves begin to fall by Eliza Jarvi (ifandany designs) (Free pattern)
Needles: 4mm set of 4 jumper length Antique Aero needles
Yarn:  For the leaves: Moda Vera Pure Wool 8 ply yellow green. For the background: upcycled 8 ply (DK) op shop wool, alpaca and, I suspect angora, blend in winter white/cream with small gray and black fibres.

Thanks to the boy for his expert photography skills. He always manages to make me (and the knitting) look good somehow.