CogKnition » Finished Objects

Which Came First?

CogKnition — Mon, 31 May 2010 04:24:57 +0000

Pattern: Which Came First?, by Mochimochi Land
Yarn: Plymouth Encore Worsted #0215, Lion Brand Wool-Ease
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 6 (4.0mm)

I’ve often threatened to keep toys I’ve made instead of giving them to the intended recipient. This time I’m doing it. Sorry, Mystery Would-Be Receiver of this existential conundrum, this one really is too cute to give away. I’ll make you something else, I promise.

You’ve all heard me rave about Anna Hrachovec’s patterns before. This little guy is the fifth Mochimochi Land pattern I’ve knit* so far and I don’t plan to stop any time soon! The pattern is wonderful, as usual. The only recommendation I would make is to stuff the toy somewhat firmly. You can pack quite a bit in there and still be able to flip from egg to chick easily.

*Fun fact! This means Anna ties Eunny Jang for the designer I knit the most.

Other entries about Which Came First?:

Knittin’, and Sewin’, and Thinkin’: Crochetin’?

Pocket Protectors

CogKnition — Mon, 31 May 2010 03:08:57 +0000

Pattern: Pocket Protectors, from Knitting Mochimochi by Anna Hrachovec
Yarn: Plymouth Encore Worsted
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 5 (3.75mm) and US 6 (4.0mm)

Behold! Mystery Project #2 is revealed. Anna gave us the go-head to share our project photos.

I cast on for this guy a year ago (which is why the photo is kind of fuzzy—it was taken with my ancient Powershot) and am thrilled to have had a tiny role in the production of Anna’s book.

I’ve made a lot of Mochimochi patterns and I expect to make many more. I am constantly in awe of how clever all her patterns are, and how fun they are to knit. I pre-ordered Knitting Mochimochi as soon as it was listed on Amazon. You can see the Pocket Protector on the back cover.

The bow on Mama Protector is my own invention, and I also turned the baby into a pencil. Alas, I lost the baby shortly after I knit it. He is surely knocking around our apartment somewhere, probably in some strange nook. I expect to find him when we move. In the meantime, Mama Protector is hanging out in my craft closet next to Weeeds.

Other entries about Pocket Protectors:

These Things I’ve Been Knitting

Pillow-y Goodness

CogKnition — Sun, 09 May 2010 04:12:51 +0000

Fabric: The patchwork pillows used cotton scraps raided from carrollb‘s stash. The bigger pillows used a heavyweight cotton bought at Yuzawaya.

Pattern: Winged it, with an assist from The Sewing Bible

My success at piecing inspired me to start (and complete) a project that has been on my to-do list for well over a year: make new cushion covers for the living room.

You guys have seen my futon in the background of many photos on this blog. It has this not-very-attractive, slightly Christmas-meets-faux-Southwestern pattern on it. It clashed with my husband’s not-quite-as-ugly but extremely dilapidated couch that he literally found on the street during his poor grad student days. When we moved in together and did the ritual Merging of the Furniture, we bought matching covers for both to hide the ugly and bring a semblance of coordination into our living room. You see the new futon cover in the background above.

But there were no matching covers for the cushions. So we still had this fun pop of Christmas-meets-faux-Southwestern in the living room that still did not remotely coordinate with my papasan.

“I’ll just make some new cushion covers,” I told my husband. Last March. Six months later, we went to Japan and I bought fabric. “For the cushion covers,” I told my husband.

Seven months later, I actually started.

I did the patchwork for the smaller pillows first, since I was now relatively confident I wouldn’t screw that up horribly.

It became clear (somewhat literally) at this point that I would need some kind of interfacing to keep the ugly cushion pattern from showing through the lightweight cotton. I found some lightweight black fusible interfacing at Joann’s, ironed it on without incident, and then cut out the pieces for the bigger cushions. I was still afraid of installing zippers, see, and planned to put that part off as long as possible.

And this is when The Sewing Bible led me to the light.

Continue reading Pillow-y Goodness (367 words) »

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Tangled Yoke Cardigan

CogKnition — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 23:45:24 +0000

Pattern: Tangled Yoke Cardigan by Eunny Jang, from Interweave Knits Fall 2007
Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed in color 142 “Melody”, 6 skeins
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 5 (3.75mm) and US 4 (3.5mm)

Just in time for summer! It’s unusually chilly today in Houston, so I grabbed the opportunity to wear the finished sweater for the first and last time until December.

I promptly started sweating. But did I change? No. Instead, I opened the windows and let the 40-degree outside in.

Quick project notes:

Yarn—I loved working with this yarn, and it’s very warm. Highly recommended
Pattern—The pattern is very well written and easy to follow. This is my fifth Eunny pattern and I’ve come to expect nothing less from her.
Finishing—This sweater must be blocked before wearing. There’s a lot of puckering and wrinkling around the cabled yoke when it first comes off the needles. That all evens out after a proper wet-block.
Modifications—I lengthened both the body (and thus the button band) and the sleeves to accomodate my freakishly long torso and arms. I also narrowed the sleeves at the wrist for a more fitted look. Used 8 buttons instead of 9 for the sake of mathematical simplicity.

According to my Ravelry project page, I finished the knitting on this in February. Yes, it takes me a whole month to install a button band. This is why I made puppy eyes at my grandma the last time I had to do it.

Attempt #1
Critical errors:

Buying the wrong width of ribbon, which meant I had to sew two strips together side-by-side.
Buying the wrong kind of ribbon, which meant that it was a nightmare to work with.
Not buying enough ribbon.
Failing to measure. Twice. Actually, thrice. I first produced a button band that was much too short, and then produced two more that weren’t the same length. And then I cut the buttonholes before confirming they actually lined up with the buttons.

There was much cursing. And perhaps some wine.

Continue reading Tangled Yoke Cardigan (135 words) »

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An Olympic Triumph

CogKnition — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:54:52 +0000

I did not cast anything on during the opening ceremony.

I did not knit a stitch on any project for the entire first week of the Olympics.

During the second week, I attempted to reinforce the button bands for the Tangled Yoke Cardigan. The US men’s curling team had more success than I did.

Finally, I cast on a small project.

It’s not a gold-medal contender, but I think it’ll be a crowd-pleaser in our host nation.

Maybe I should have knit a hockey puck instead.

Congrats, Canadians! It was an awesome Olympics.

All Together for Christmas

CogKnition — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 19:37:53 +0000

Pattern: Chinese Zodiac Amigurumi , also available from edafedd
Yarn: Plymouth Encore Worsted, assorted colors, and Lion Brand Wool-Ease, #122 Sienna
Hook: E 3.5mm

This is the first year that I am not spending Christmas in Wisconsin. My in-laws are coming in from Japan tomorrow, so we decided it made sense for us to stay put in Houston and, y’know, clean the house.

This is the second year in a row that Christmas is…different. Last year my parents spent Christmas by themselves in Atlanta, where they were seeking treatment for my dad’s cancer, while my brothers, my husband, and I had Christmas in Wisconsin. Not only was the family not together for Christmas, but we all kind of knew that it would probably be my dad’s last.

And of course, this year is the first one without my dad. And while this Christmas doesn’t have the same dark mood as last, and I am very much looking forward to seeing my in-laws, I still wanted to do something that would let us all be together, if only symbolically.

So I made Chinese Zodiac amigurumi.

The front two are me (monkey) and my husband (rabbit). The back row, from left to right: my dad (horse), my mom (snake), and my two brothers (rat and tiger).

Of course I decided to do this on December 20. Plan ahead for holiday crafting? What’s that? After one solid day of doing almost nothing but crochet, I just had the tiger left to do. And I discovered that the best color I had was…Cheetos Orange. No medium browns, not even a red in the right yarn weight. Just Cheetos Orange.

I tried to make a tiger in Cheetos Orange. It made my eyes hurt. And there are no yarn shops open at midnight on Sunday. So I made a quick trip to Big Box Craft Store for some Wool-Ease after work Monday night (tried the LYS first but it was closed), finished the tiger, dropped everybody into a box and posted it Priority Mail on Tuesday morning.

Miracle of miracles, they arrived in Wisconsin in time for Christmas. I got a call from my mom this morning and it sounds like they’re having a very merry Christmas over there. Though she does not believe me that my husband was born in the Year of the Rabbit. And we’re having a merry Christmas here too. So all is well.

Stackable Cats

CogKnition — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:36:09 +0000

Pattern: Stackable Cats from Mochimochi Land
Yarn: Plymouth Encore Worsted, #1203, #599, #194, #515, #217, #180; Pittsburgh, #9143
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 6 (4.0mm)

Three stackable cat brothers went frolicking through my in-laws’ house. They ran into cousin Maneki Neko…

…and a proselytizing flying pig.

They spent some time practicing for their Cirque du Soleil audition…

…before retiring to their permanent homes. Calico went to my mother-in-law, Siamese to my aunt-in-law, and Striped Tabby went to my sister-in-law.

This is the third time I’ve knit one of Anna’s patterns and it is once again very clear and produces adorable results. I did make a few modifications when knitting the striped tabby. If you do a straight 2-row alternating stripe as suggested in the pattern, you’ll wind up with one very fat 4-row stripe after picking up stitches to make the rest of the body. So I made the first stripe only one row thick and then resumed alternating 2-row stripes. You still wind up with a 3-row stripe (which you can see at the top of the cat’s head), but I thought that was less noticeable.

In addition, the join will wind up at the front of the cat, so I knit an extra half-round to push it to the back, where the jog would be less prominent. I also finished up the last part of the body—the flap that becomes the bottom of the cat—all in white instead of in stripes.

The cats were declared to be very kawaii by my in-laws. I think so too. And well…

Cobijita Floresita Baby Blanket

CogKnition — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:54:43 +0000

Pattern: Cobijita Floresita by Mia Zamora Johnson
Yarn: Plymouth Encore Worsted, #180, 5 skeins, and #215, 1 skein
Hook: H 5.0mm

All the blanket needs now is a baby to sit in the middle and coo.

I have to say, I officially love crocheting blankets. It is SO FAST. This blanket is about 44″ across and I finished it in about two and a half weeks (including ripping and re-crocheting 1/3 of the petals).

This is a very nice beginning crochet pattern and a very portable project. The instructions are clear and there are lots of photographs to help you figure out how to assemble the blanket.

Although Encore is my favorite yarn for baby gifts because it is machine washable and dryable and comes in so many wonderful colors, I think this pattern would work best with a yarn that has more natural fiber.

The petals are a little cupped when they first come off the hook and need to be blocked flat. The edging around the center also wants to point towards the middle and it needs to be blocked to point towards the outside of the flower. I think I could have managed to block them entirely flat with a natural fiber yarn, but Encore doesn’t block that well and my edging is standing up like a tart crust.

Mmmm tarts.

The “wrong side” of the blanket is neat and tidy, which I appreciate a lot.

Now to wrap it up and give it away!

Other entries about Cobijita Floresita:

Cthulhu

CogKnition — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 05:10:01 +0000

Pattern: Mini Cthulhu , by Cherene Reyes, only available on Ravelry
Yarn: Plymouth Encore Worsted, #451, 1 skein
Hook: E 3.5mm

He gets very angry when someone says he’s cute and trust me, you won’t like him when he’s angry.

The finished toy is just shy of 6 inches tall (which means you should be extra careful around him, because he has a MASSIVE inferiority complex) and uses 8mm plastic safety eyes. It was a quick crochet, taking an afternoon-ish. Other than a brief bit of confusion when working the legs, the pattern was easy to follow. Contrary to the pattern, I chose to stuff the arms and not the wings.

I take no responsibility if you make one and then die a messy death. I gave mine away as a precaution.

Free Pattern! Saturday Night Knitted Purse

CogKnition — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:08:25 +0000

Photo by Randall Smith

Pattern: Saturday Night, by Lauren Abrams and ME!
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, Cavern, 2 skeins
Needles: US 6 (4.0mm) and US 7 (4.5mm) Addi Turbos

Saturday Night, aka Mystery Project #3, is the first result of an ongoing collaboration with Lauren Abrams.

Lauren is the woman behind LaBeana Bags. Her designs are beautiful and she is a joy to work with. The look of the bag is all hers, I’m just the one behind the scenes, translating her art into a knitting pattern. Not that knitting can’t be art, but my role in this project is more of an engineer.

I hope you enjoy the pattern as much as I enjoyed helping to create it.

And yes, Mystery Project #4 in the sidebar is also a Lauren collaboration. I’ll be shipping her the finished sample this afternoon.

Other pattern news: I’ve made two small corrections to the Amy Scarf pattern (fixed a typo in row 17 of the pattern, and deleted an erroneous knit stitch in the instructions for KRL). Please download a new copy!

Weeeds

CogKnition — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:13:17 +0000

Pattern: Weeeds, by Mochimochi Land
Yarn: Plymouth Encore, #451 and #1202; Pittsburgh, #9143
Needles: US 6 (4.0mm) Addi Turbos

A-ha! The first reveal.

I was one of the test knitters for Weeeds. I love how Anna’s brain works—her style, the awesome techniques she invents (or un-vents) to make her toys, the clever names (wee + weeds = weeeds!)—and it was a treat to get a sneak preview of one of her patterns. This one’s free, so head over to her blog and check it out.

As you can see, I didn’t have a true yellow in my stash, so I had to use an off-white/cream instead.

It’ll probably be a long time before I can reveal another one of the mystery projects, unfortunately. And the Tangled Yoke Cardigan is stuck in a stockinette phase. Perhaps this is a sign I should cast on something new. I kind of have a hankering for some socks. Or maybe some lace. Hmm…

Sleepy Snake & Mischievous Mice

CogKnition — Fri, 22 May 2009 01:07:07 +0000

Pattern: Sleepy Snake & Mischievous Mouse, by Mochimochi Land
Yarn: Plymouth Encore, #450, #451, #515, #1202, and #599
Needles: US 5 (3.75mm) Addi Turbos

A tragedy in four acts.

Act I—Mice Gather ‘Round

Act II—Friend? Or Intruder?

Act III—INTRUDER! RUN AWAAYYYYYYY!

Act IV—Goodbye, Cruel World

The end.

Other entries about Sleepy Snake & Mischievous Mice

Stripy Throw

CogKnition — Sat, 09 May 2009 21:56:47 +0000

Pattern: Simple Crochet by Erika Knight
Yarn: Cascade 220, #8555 black, #4192 pastel pink, 2 skeins each; #7822 dark chocolate brown, #2413 burgundy, #8834 medium rose, 1 skein each
Hook: J 6.0mm

The yarn, she is no longer cursed. It loves being a baby blanket that is about to be shipped off to Afghans for Afghans.

The finished blanket is baby-sized, about 34″ x 46″. I used a different stripe sequence than what’s in the pattern to accommodate the amounts of yarn I had. Stripe sequence after the jump.

Continue reading Stripy Throw (70 words) »

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Pencil Bag

CogKnition — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 19:26:38 +0000

Fabric: Two fat quarters
Pattern: Pencil Bag

When we last left off with the Pencil Bag, I was having issues installing the zipper.

Is it also called frogging if you’re ripping with a seam ripper? Anyways, after lots of that, and re-sewing, I wound up with this:

Acceptably-straight topstitching. Woohoo! I trimmed off the excess at the top and bottom of the zipper, overlocked the edges, and then turned my attention to the binding.

I had started with two fat quarters and so had plenty of fabric left over. I decided to make a single-fold binding out of the lining fabric. After several stages of FAIL:

I had two strips of binding that were the right length. Although the pattern suggests 13″ of binding, I needed nearly 14″ to have enough to fold over the edges.

I tried for a long time to topstitch the binding on, but the corners were too thick to feed easily through my machine. So I used a hand finish instead.

There’s a little puckering, but it’ll do. The other end looks a bit better. Also, note the perils of sewing with flimsy fabric.

I’m supposed to show you the inside too, so:

Ta-da! From this angle it looks like a tissue-paper holder. With a zipper. For a very strange size of tissue paper.

This will probably be my last sewing post for the month. Next week I’ll be heading out to visit my dad, whose health has taken a downturn. For a while we thought he might actually beat this thing against all odds—Tarceva is a wonderful drug—but now things are a bit uncertain.

And after that, my husband and I are moving apartments. I should have a much better workspace in our new place, but I’ll have to pack up the sewing stuff before I go so he can more efficiently clean and pack while I’m away.

Other entries about the Pencil Bag:

Project Problems

Boteh Scarf

CogKnition — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 18:16:08 +0000

Pattern: Boteh Scarf by Kathy Merrick, Interweave Crochet Spring 2007
Hook: G 4.0mm
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Solids, Amethyst, 1 skein

This pattern is a beauty. It is so simple, amazingly quick to work up, and yet the result is stunning. It almost feels wrong to only pay $5 for such a great design.

My scarf came out quite a bit wider than what’s given in the pattern—over 6″ at the widest point. I also only did 12 repeats of the pattern instead of 16; the scarf is for my five-foot-tall sister-in-law who would drown in the full length of the scarf. And a good thing too, because it grew quite a bit in the blocking.

I am sorely tempted to make another for myself. I adore Grumperina’s Caribbean blue Boteh and two hanks of this cotton/silk blend in Teal would only cost me $12…tempting, tempting.

Other entries about the Boteh Scarf:

New Year, New Beginning

Amy Cabled Scarf

CogKnition — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:45:48 +0000

Pattern: Amy Scarf, by me, download it now!
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Rialto, color Eggplant, 6 skeins
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 6 (4.0mm)

The scarf was designed for and named after my Maid of Honor, a dear friend of…oh gosh…16 years? Something like that. Forever! She still lives in Wisconsin where we grew up, and a big warm scarf like this is very, very useful.

I wanted the pattern to be graceful, but regal. I spent a lot of time staring at stitch patterns before settling on a traditional Saxon braid for the center panel. I can’t remember exactly where I got it from, but it’s either adapted from Knitting on the Edge or the giant 1970s needlecraft book I stole borrowed indefinitely from my mother. The side panels are from Cables Untangled.

That was back in May. Fast forward six months. I finish the scarf, give it away, and promptly lose the pattern notes.

The good news was that six months of scarf knitting had burned the 32-row repeat into my brain. That was easily reconstructed. A little scribbling, calculating, and swatching generated the rest (slightly improved, too).

The pattern is free to download and knit, but I hope that if you like it, you’ll hit the donate button and send me whatever you think the pattern is worth. As always, if you have questions or find an error, just shoot me an e-mail or leave a comment on the blog and I’ll do my best to help you out.

Happy knitting!

Japanese Knot Bag

CogKnition — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:08:38 +0000

Fabric: Two fat quarters
Pattern: Japanese Knot Bag

Success! The finished bag is about 5″ in diameter and 7″ high, excluding the handles. It’s the perfect size for two cakes of Cascade 220.

I chose a couple of basic cotton prints that I like, but didn’t love. This was so I wouldn’t cry if I royally screwed it up.

Cutting and pinning went smoothly.

And then I successfully wound a bobbin in not-quite-matching thread.

As I started sewing for real, two things happened:

I got so absorbed in it that I forgot to take more progress photos
It seemed…easier…than I remembered

At some point I realized that this was my first time sewing on a machine with modern accoutrements. Quite possibly my first time sewing on a machine not older than me, actually. I don’t know if things like quick-set bobbins and speed control really make that much of a difference in the ease of sewing or if I’m just Older and Wiser, but straight seams came with very little effort. Unlike my previous sewing projects, which all are covered with meandering top-stitching.

I did hit a few snags due to seams that didn’t line up properly, but I made the seam ripper my friend and it all came out ok. It won’t win any construction awards, but it’s presentable on both sides!

Pieced Throw

CogKnition — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 18:04:26 +0000

Pattern: Pieced Throw, from Simple Crochet by Erika Knight
Hook: G 4.0mm
Yarn: Lion Brand Baby Soft Solid in Bluebell, 2 skeins, and Pastel Blue, Pistachio, and Lemon Drop, 1 skein each

The finished measurements are about 42″ square.

I had misgivings about using a Lion Brand yarn (let’s just say it was a lot easier to find a Big Box Craft Store than a good LYS during my Thanksgiving trip), but I’m actually pretty happy with it. It doesn’t replace my most favoritest of wash-and-dry, baby-friendly acrylic blends, Plymouth Encore, but it will definitely do in a pinch.

I made two changes to the pattern that really made the project for me. First, I adapted the colorblock sequence for four colors. This wasn’t totally intentional—I had meant to use a different four-color pattern and bought yarn accordingly but then changed my mind at the last minute. But in retrospect, breaking up one of the 16-row color blocks into a 4-, 8-, 4-row sequence of two colors really adds a lot of visual pop to the project.

The second change was to make a three-row edging instead of the one written into the pattern. A one-row edging just looked and felt dinky and I thought three rows would look more proportional to the rest of the blanket and help stabilize the edge better.

Not to mention this project photo from the book:

That didn’t look like a one-row edging to me.

This project also re-affirmed my belief in blocking. I usually wet-block everything, finding that it makes a huge difference in the finished project while also giving the yarn a much-needed wash. But conventional wisdom says that acrylic doesn’t really block so I wasn’t sure if it would really matter in this case.

It mattered.

I threw the whole thing into a big lingerie bag and then into the wash. When I took it out, I did my usual, somewhat painstaking process of hands-and-knees, pins into the floor, yardsticks and tape measures to square corners. The blanket had been a bit misshapen due to wonky tension when it first came off the hook. But a good blocking evened everything up nicely.

I worship at the altar of blocking and will never doubt again.

P.S. Remember when I said I would be releasing a new pattern this weekend? Not so much! Get this…I lost the pattern notes, which means I have to reconstruct the whole thing from memory. I can do it, but well…maybe next weekend.

Other entries about the Pieced Throw:

Omusubi Obake

CogKnition — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:07:08 +0000

Pattern: Omusubi Obake, from Amigurumi de Yuyuri (Leisurely Amigurumi)
Hook: D 3.0mm
Yarn: Pittsburgh, #9143; Plymouth Encore, #1232 and #217; scraps

An omusubi is a rice ball wrapped with a piece of nori, or dried seaweed; an obake is a kind of ghost or spirit. This little rice ball ghostie appeared last night and started haunting our kitchen.

He seemed pretty at home in our box of curry mixes.

And of course stopped to pay respects to the package of nori.

But eventually he decided to haunt the box of Taiwanese pineapple cakes. I think I will too; I’m hungry!

Bayerische Socks

CogKnition — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:54:23 +0000

Pattern: Bayerische Socks, by Eunny Jang (Part 1, Part 2)
Yarn: Brown Sheep Wildfoote Luxury Sock in Crystal Pink, 2 skeins
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 0 (2mm)

Like Derek Redmond, if he knit. And if he had needed another two months to finish his race.

The Bayerische socks, with their tiny, twisty cables, are done. Eunny’s design is, as usual, impeccable, with twisted ribs flowing gracefully into cables which flow gracefully into the slipped stitches of the heel. The sock is very stretchy and should comfortably accommodate a wide foot. I worked two pattern repeats for the leg to make ankle socks. Four-and-a-half pattern repeats over the length of the foot fit my size 7N feet perfectly.

I will be heading to Japan at the end of this week and plan to check out a yarn shop or two. I imagine the knitter’s-eye view of Japan to be a cross between Mochimochi Land and a candy store. If candy were made of yarn. Stay tuned for my report!

Other entries about the Bayerische Socks:

Wave of Babies Booties, Knitting Pattern Posted

CogKnition — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 05:43:01 +0000

Pattern: My own, download it here!
Yarn: Plymouth Encore, #1203, #599, #208, #515, #9621, #9401, #1202
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 7 (4.5mm)

These are my sanity-restoring baby booties. I’ve had the pattern written up for forever, I just needed to knit more samples. And then I knit the samples, but just needed to take pictures. And then I let the pictures sit, even though all I had to do was plop them into the pattern, convert to pdf, and upload.

Oh, and update the web site. Which is done now, so I’m going to bed. While I sleep, you can download the pattern and knit some booties.

Haruha Scarf

CogKnition — Sun, 04 May 2008 18:21:06 +0000

Pattern: Haruha Scarf
Yarn: Joseph Galler Superfine Prime Alpaca 3-ply, Black, 1 skein
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 7 (4.5mm)

The Haruha scarf had been bound off for months and just needed a good blocking before I could add it to the list of completed projects. The problem is that the only real blocking surface in my apartment is the floor. And while my apartment is carpeted, the padding underneath the carpet is virtually nonexistent and I suspect that I often wind up pushing pins directly into the wood subfloor.

Which: ouch. Blocking lace with straight lines requires an obscene number of pins. I tried, but gave up after pinning out maybe a third of the scarf because my fingers were red and sore.

So at the same time I splurged on yarn at WEBS, I also hit up KnitPicks and grabbed a set of blocking wires.

Much better. I only needed about a dozen pins to block the long edges of the scarf, and a few more to secure the ends.

Pattern commentary and lace porn after the jump.

Continue reading Haruha Scarf (96 words) »

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Frogs on a Holiday

CogKnition — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 02:17:02 +0000

Pattern: Frogs on a Holiday, from Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts: Amigurumi
Hook(!): D 3.0mm
Yarn: Plymouth Encore, #1232, 1 skein, and scraps of #1203

Ladies and gentlemen, my first completed crochet project! It’s a far cry from this. And this.

*takes a bow*

Since this pattern is titled “Frogs on a Holiday,” I thought it only appropriate that I take him out on the town for a little photo shoot.

This book has a very tiny techniques section, so if you’re a beginning crocheter like me, you should have another crochet reference handy. But other than that, the pattern was very easy to follow.

More pictures and commentary after the jump.

Continue reading Frogs on a Holiday (295 words) »

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Anemoi Mittens (Larger)

CogKnition — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 03:52:28 +0000

Pattern: Anemoi Mittens, by Eunny Jang
Yarn: Dalegarn Baby Ull, #0010 and #5545, 1 skein each
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 0 (2mm) and US 1 (2.5mm)

Woohoo!! The larger pair is now done. Three mittens (smallest size) used up one full skein of each color, so I had to dip into extra skeins to finish the final mitten.

Additional Pattern Commentary
In finishing the second pair, I remembered a few more things about the pattern that I didn’t mention last time:

Errata
In the chart for the right hand palm, there is an error in row 57, the last row of the repeated section. The first stitch to the left of the border on the right side of the chart is marked as Main Color, but it should be marked Contrast Color. This should be clear when you examine the left side of the chart and the overall pattern.

Modifications
I made the cuff longer for both pairs of mittens—24 and 25 rows of corrugated rib instead of 18, respectively. I like the longer cuff because it seals against the cold better (plus I have long arms and so my wrists are forever peeking out from under my sleeves), but this isn’t so much extra length that it upsets the proportion of the mitten.

Finishing
I think it’s absolutely necessary to block the mittens the way Eunny recommends in the pattern—palm side up, with the thumbs folded in and pinned to the palm. I am generally a big believer in blocking, but there are a couple of reasons why it’s an especially good idea for the Anemoi Mittens:

The purl stitches are meant to run along the side edges of the mittens, but they are knit with the front and the back. This means that the mittens will be slightly twisted when they first come off the needles but a proper blocking will restore the intended shape.
The thumb gore is actually attached to the palm, not the side. If you look at the palm charts, you’ll see that the border continues down next to the thumb gore. Folding the thumb in when blocking preserves this border and also forms the mitten so it more closely follows the shape of your hand. After all, your thumb is usually bent in slightly, not sticking straight out to the side.

More pictures and commentary after the jump.

Continue reading Anemoi Mittens (Larger) (136 words) »

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Anemoi Mittens (Smaller)

CogKnition — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:39:57 +0000

Pattern: Anemoi Mittens, by Eunny Jang
Yarn: Dalegarn Baby Ull, #0010 and #5545, 1 skein each
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 0 (2mm) and US 1 (2.5mm)

Eunny is a knitting goddess.

There was a terrifying moment after I bound off the third mitten in which I thought that, instead of making a mitten to match one of the two sizes I already had, I had knitted a mitten of an entirely new medium size.

Fortunately, a good blocking matched the intended mates up nicely. Whew! This is the smaller pair meant for my knitting friend with the tiny hands.

If I cast on the fourth mitten tonight, and if I don’t experience more gauge wonkiness, I might have a pair for myself by the time I face Wisconsin’s fifteen-degree (that’s -9.4 degrees for you Celsius people) weather next weekend.

I did find a few minor typos in the pattern. There’s a “ktog” on the top of p. 5 that should be a k2tog, and there should be 8, 9, and 8 stitches on each dpn when you start the thumb. But the pattern as a whole is super easy to follow and the finished product is just gorgeous.

More pictures after the jump.

Continue reading Anemoi Mittens (Smaller) (25 words) »

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Anemoi Mittens (Larger)

Anemoi Mittens (Smaller)