beachknitter's Friends

(Terraform Hat seamed at the back for a nice pointed top.)
oday is the last day to buy the hat patterns at a discounted price on Midnightsky Fibers. The hat patterns are yummy and delightful...but being rewritten! You will get the current copies of the patterns now, and the spiffy verion in a little bit once they are...well. Spiffy. But only available for a few more hours! Patterns available here.

Hats are designed to be used with a bulky or super bulky weight handspun yarn.
They knit up quickly, great for last minute gifts!
( more of the patterns included: )

FO: Geek Potholders!
I needed a low-cost gag gift for a friend who is a huge fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Star Trek, so I found a pattern for a potholder with the Starfleet insignia. Then I found a pattern for the gothic B of the Buffy logo, so I combined that with the potholder pattern and made a second one.

( Pictures and links under the cut )

Current Mood: accomplished

Baroness Beret and Lacey Flutter Scarf
For my Gran I knitted the Baroness Beret ravelry link in cascades Venzia worsted weight yarn. ( 70% merino wool and 30% glorious silk) The yarn was really nice to work with, slippery and a bit splitty but gorgeous non the less. It blocked like a dream. I knit this up in about 3 days and added an extra inch of ribbing to the brim because i found the brim in the knitted prototype was too small for my gran to wear comfortably. Lots of pics under the cuts.

( Baroness Beret under the cut )

I also Knitted The Flutter Scarf Ravelry link( 5 Dollar knitting pattern) Using Malabrigo Lace in Bobby Blue. The malabrigo is great to knit with, really soft but is a bitch to tink back because it seems to have a habit of sticking to itself. This also blocked really well , and it's the first scarf I've ever blocked so yay me. The Scarf itself was fantastic to knit up and it was the first time I'd done a provisional cast on and knitted from the middle of a project to the end. I was almost put off by this, but I did it anyway because it was just too pretty not too. The resulting scarf is very, very delicate and light something My gran will enjoy :) I may do this one again with a heavier wool for myself :)

( Flutter Scarf under the cut )

All in All I loved both of these projects and will be doing them again :)

4 days 'till Christmas
Because I'm geeky like that, I knitted myself a Christmas hat. The pictures were taken on November 11th when my friends Sam and Niels and I invaded Disneyland Paris' Christmas season, I just didn't get 'round to posting them before now X_x

( Read more... )

Current Mood: creative
Current Music: Ben 10 on CartoonNetwork in the background

Question on Norah Gaughan pattern - Phyllo Yoked Pullover chart
It might be a semi-long shot, but has anyone out there made Norah Gaughan's Phyllo Yoked Pullover from the book Knitting Nature? (Ravelry link, link to blog entry found on Google) If you have, can I ask for help with interpreting the pattern chart?

I posted on the Norah Gaughan forum and on the pattern page asking this question, but am hoping that someone here might see the question and be able to help. It's with the chart, which I can't reproduce, but hopefully someone who's made this before will be familiar with it.

My problems are with Round 11, aka "the first k3tog round".

Round 11 on the chart, as I can best interpret it, says:
1) (In a color that means do this once only, on the first repeat): Yo, K3tog
2) K8, yo, k3tog, repeat till end.

If the k3tog is meant to apply ALL repeats, then if I followed the chart as written, I would need to finish the round with another yo, k3tog right next to / on top of the yo, k3tog I began the round with. That can’t possibly be right – it definitely looks strange.

Should I just end the round with k8, and then keep on knitting as if to start the next round of plain knitting?

It certainly seems so, as this leaves me with a 10-st repeat all the way around (and the next pattern row of the sweater is a 10-st repeat). Doing a final yo, k3tog would be a 1-st decrease and only leave me with 9 st on the repeat where the rounds join. (This would be easier to figure out if I hadn’t had to keep moving my beginning-of-round marker. I don’t know where it actually is anymore!) But that is not what the chart says.

I am not sure I should trust my instincts here, as I have googled and searched for errata and found none. Hundreds of other knitters didn't seem to have any problem with the chart!

Any help would be appreciated - I have already tinked back 2x and my yarn is getting shreddy :( Thanks!

double knitting - edges?
Hey knitters,

First off, thank you all for your suggestions about making stockinette-looking earflaps lie flat! I've decided to try double knitting. I've been playing around with it for a few days and I like it, but I'd like to make the edges of it one color. I searched around a bit and the only thing I came up with was to start each row with "simple double knitting" (k1, s1) in the color I want the edge to be. Okay, using just the one color at the edge makes sense. But what about the ends of the rows - should I do the last two stitches in just the one color as well? And what's this s1 thing - I've just been knitting and purling, not slipping any stitches. Should I be?

So basically my question is: If you wanted to make a double knit project with the edges all one color, how would you do it?

Thanks so much!

Joanns yarn question
Perhaps a stupidly simple question - I just found out that my dad wants a cowl like I made last year for him, only this time in brown. I don't have to have it done until New Year's, but I don't think that I'll have time to do what I did last year - buy "bare" superwash wool yarn from KnitPicks and dye it, then knit it up. I really like the way "Bare" holds up, though, and the fact that it is washable.

The nearest LYS I know about is about 40 minutes away, so that won't work right now. I do have a Joanns ETC nearby - does anyone know of any comparable washable wool brands at Joanns that will hold up? I'm worried I'll buy some brand I've never used and it will pill like crazy when washed.

One method of weaving in ends.
I was weaving in ends and thought I would take some pictures of my favorite way to do it, and share.

Once I have woven through the backs of several stitches with a blunt needle, I like to separate the yarn into segments of 1-2 plies, and weave the remainder in with a sharp needle, splitting through stitches as I go. This really locks the tail down, and I usually can't figure out where the ends are.

( snipped due to a lot of pictures )

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: husband rustling around packing presents to take home

fancyin' up a sweater
Hey

knitting.

For Christmas (I know, I know) I'm knitting my dad a very basic top-down raglan sweater out of Malabrigo worsted. I wanted to add some elbow patches in a contrasting stitch to sort of dress it up a bit, 'cause it's so plain. If you were gonna do this, which stitch would you use for the patches? The rest of the sweater is stockinette.

Thanks!

best m1 method for knit toys
Hey all, first time poster with a question!

What is the best increase method for making knit toys? The pattern I have just says "make 1," and when I use the standard M1 method it leaves this gaping hole that stuffing keeps coming out of! And I'm pulling it pretty tight! Is there a better way of doing this that I'm missing?

Thanks in advance!

Noro Cardigan
I've finished another Christmas present. This time a cardigan, my first. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, although I'm not wild about the collar and how the buttons ended up being placed. But I know the recipient will be happy with it. ( Cardigan )

Current Mood: accomplished

Yarn choice
Do you think it's ok if I use cotton ease yarn instead of a wool/acrylic for this hat?

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/rib-a-roni

I'm assuming it won't be as stretchy - should I increase the size a bit if I do use the cotton??
I'd use acrylic or wool but it's for a little boy going through chemo so I want something really soft for his bald head.

Thanks1

halp! newb question
So I can knit rectangles like no tomorrow, but this is my first venture into a "pattern". It's a kerchief made with Bernat Matrix (bought tons of it at Big Lots for $1 each!). I'm having trouble on it because I don't understand what it wants from me and my Google-fu is failing. comments/questions in bold italics Here are the instructions: Cast on 3 sts 1st row: (RS) knit 2nd row: Inc 1 st in first st. Inc 1 st in next st. K1 3rd row: Inc 1 st in first st. Knit to last 2 sts. Inc 1 st in next st. K1. Rep last row 28 times more. 65 sts I finished this part, but I only have 59 sts... wtf? Next row: (WS) Cast on 30 sts. WTF does this mean? Halp! This is where I'm stuck Knit to end of row. Rep last row once more. 125 sts. Knit 10 rows. Cast off knitwise (WS).what??? TIA!!!

ETA: Holy crap I just got it. I had to visualize WTF they wanted me to do. I got it now :D

Finally have an FO!
So it's taken me 4 months of knitting on and off between friend drama, a 16 unit semester and working weird hours, but I finished my overly colorful hat! ( Warning: Bright colors behind :D )

Current Mood: sleepy

Desperately seeking "manly glove" patterns
It appears I am very out of date. Eldest daughter's boyfriend (late twenties) has requested a pair of gloves and/or hat for Christmas. In my Wisdom (not) I bought a small boatload of superwash wool for making gifts. Today I realized that it wouldn't matter, superwash or not with these here boyfriends, because laundry goes from the washer to the dryer and that's what the care instructions have to be. "Lay flat to dry" is a foreign concept.

So I have 2 colors of acrylic yarn: dark teal and off-white. I am told that the color is less important than any design on them: cables, snowflakes and skulls are right out of the picture, argyle might be okay, maybe anime could be fun.

I am at a total loss. If need be, I'll make plain old PLAIN gloves, but thought maybe y'all could suggest a pattern, or at least a design to spice it up a bit. I know he likes D&D and Avatar (The Last Airbender) but I don't know his interests beyond that.
Maybe a geometric design that is manly?

In my day "manly" was black. Or Steel gray. Period. Cables were okay if you were Irish. (teasing)

ETA: emmacrew to the rescue. I'm gone from here, hard at play...

Success Fixing a Cable
I Was contentedly knitting away on my lunch when I realized I had dropped a stitch when I had completed the previous cable. I discovered this when I needed to complete the next cable and my stitches were off. One would think after 10 rows this would be discovered. FARGHHHHHHH!

I invoked the power of Lucy. I took a breath and dove in to fixing the cable......without ripping out the rest of the work! I then remembered I had my camera with me, so I started snapping photos of the fix. I dun doo'd it! I am so frikken pleased with myself right now. I trouble shot, I problem solved, I fixed and all is well in whoville. (If only life and/or people were this easy to fix) Go SEE my accomplishment - Eleventybajillion photos under the cut! (moments like these deserve to be recorded in detail)

( Read more... )

I Haz a Sackboy!
( Lookie! )

I made him myself.

I am a nerd. That is all.

Current Mood: drained
Current Music: Law and Order SVU

A few FOs (scarf and socks)
Hi everyone! I have two FOs to share today, one a gift and one for me:

( Pembrokeshire Pathways )

( Pembrokeshire Pathways ) ( My So-Called Scarf )

( My So-Called Scarf )

ETA: sorry about the double LJ-cuts... somehow LJ screwed up the formatting on the cuts when I posted this. Just click one of the links and it will take you to the (nicely formatted) page with the pictures :-)

FO update time. Hooray!
It just occurred to me that I have knit a LOT of projects that I have yet to share with all of you! I'll keep the comments brief, and won't waste space with ravelry links. You can search me on there as "shawnooke".

( Knitting abounds... )

( Knitting abounds... )

Current Mood: artistic

Continental for a crocheter?
I was asked for some advice recently and I wasn't sure what to tell the person, as I'm only an adventurous beginner, myself. Did any of you learn to crochet before learning to knit? Which knitting method do you currently use?

Do you think it'd be easier for a right-handed crocheter (hook in right, yarn in left) to learn continental, so that the yarn would be controlled with the left hand? I'm thinking it'd be less awkward than trying to learn to hold the yarn on the opposite side of what you'd be used to, but I don't know for certain. I'm hoping someone has some experience with this.

Thanks in advance!

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