hats!

Last Friday was an exciting day over at the Wisdom Arts Club. Two of my students, Eliza and Ruby, finished knitting their hats!


I love all the colors in these hats. They learned how to knit in the round and how to decrease, and how to stick to a project even though it felt like it took forever. Patience! Rewards!


Eliza, did all her funky embellishments as she knit. So, the braids and flowers you see were worked in the first week. She had a story to tell about her design. It's about a magical land.


And, isn't it great how the girls wore such pretty flowery dresses on the same day.
Happy Spring!

All photos were taken by Laura Cooper. Thank you!

flowers

This is the new pattern I'm teaching to the kids to make at the Wisdom Arts Club. At first, they were intimidated, but after thirty minutes or so, they were all getting it. It's interesting how anxious students get when faced with a new challenge. I'm seeing myself in their reactions. Teaching is such a learning process for me.


The combination of red and aqua is making me so happy.



Edited to add that on this day, in 2006, I wrote my first post. It has a photo of Felix running with the wind.

infinity loop done

The mobius, infinity loop, is done!




The lace edging is worked in Colinette Jitterbug. The stripes leading up to it are alternating rows of Noro Kureyon Sock yarn and Jitterbug.


In the center, where the cast on begins, is Lorna's Laces followed by Brown Sheep WIldefoote.

I used a US#3, 40" needle and cast on a bazillion stitches. Originally, I imagined it as a wrap, but it's too long so I've been wearing it doubled as a cowl.
I love it; wear it all the time, and mysteriously, it goes with everything!

P.S. Twist Collective Spring 2009 is live and I have a pattern, the Ardent Jacket, for sale....check it out!

infinity continued

Knitting on the infinity loop stopped for a week or more while I was busy with a deadline....
So, when I picked up the loop I couldn't remember what stitch pattern I had used on the lace edging.

By the way, I did add the aqua/purple saturated Colinette Jitterbug to the mix. Gay said I should, and that's all I needed to go for it. I'm glad I did because for some reason all the reds and purples were depressing me. I might be too sensitive to color but anyway I feel better now that there's aqua in there.

I spent a long time reverse engineering the lace pattern. It's not complicated, but I was tired. Eventually, I figured it out and at that same moment remembered the source pattern book. I consoled myself by telling myself that now, I would never forget the stitch pattern. yeah right. Save Time, Take Notes!

One more confession, when I cast on for this project I did not count my stitches. Crazy? Yes.
Since the stitches go around both ends, knitting the lace edging is taking FOREVER. It literally feels like infinity. I tried to count the stitches but there were too many...

infinity

the mobius mind blower...
can't stop knitting this magical infinity loop...

I needed help with the cast on, so i went to the master: cat bordhi demonstrates the cast on, on YouTube.

Yarns in use, so far: Lorna’s Laces shepherd sock in the Amish color way, Noro Kureyon sock, and brown sheep wildfoote in red and purple...laying in wait is some wild Colinette Jitterbug but I don't know it's got a lot of aqua which might be too much.

dog house

For Christmas, I knit Felix a little dog toy. The pattern is (ravelry link): little black dog by Suvi S. (blog) 50 villabeikkoa (flickr) little black dog
yarn: Noro Kureyon Sock yarn #S188


He LOVES this little pup, and named him Shaggy. Only problem was he kept misplacing Shaggy, so he and his dad made a dog house. They used a cardboard box, glue and paint.




Shaggy's house has a handle for easy carrying. We took him to lunch the other day. Felix is playing a video game with Casey. Casey from Ravelry.


And, here is Shaggy hanging out in the garden at home.

easy socks

This might be my new favorite sock yarn, Regia Design Line by Kaffe Fassett in color # 4259. These socks were so easy to knit and never boring because of the beautiful colors and varied stripes. Another gift is ready for wrapping!

Who fits these?

I like to imagine what kind of creature could fit into this tiny sweater and these long socks.


Felix has wanted a magnifying glass for ages, we found one yesterday at the swap meet. I called him an inspector; he corrected me by saying "NO, I'm a scientist!"


He doesn't like to wear socks, or shoes, but he really wants these pink socks. Sorry, son, these are for some one else. I promise to knit you a pair soon.

a few of the things that I'm working on and looking at...

I took this photo yesterday when the sun was shining. Today we have rain! Coincidentally, today I'm working with an entirely different palette, pale blue gray.

The shocking pink socks are my first pair of toe up socks.
I'm embracing the pool of this yarn but have to say I'm in no hurry to work a knit 2 purl 2 sock in the near future! Except of course for the mate. Darn, the mate!
Other objects in the photo are a magic treasures bag that I'm hoping my little students will make, garter stitch and felted coasters, a birthday invitation, and some vibrant yarns.
Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate the holiday.

knit ring

It’s mid November and 90 degrees outside! With the fan blowing, I knit up some sweater-y rings...just in case my bracelets got lonely.

sock yarn bracelets

These bracelets are worked with scraps of sock yarn. The other bracelets I made were designed to teach the purl stitch to children, but these recent ones are worked in the round and should be a great project to teach knitting in the round on 4 needles. Besides, they are fun to knit and only take a few minutes.... half an hour maybe.

motif mania

I'm in that kind of mood where I could make pins all day, every day!
If you're interested in details there's more on my flickr site.

candy

While my mom cooked dinner last night, I did some laundry and finished knitting the motif. On such a small piece of work, weaving in all the ends really wasn't such a big deal. I decided to toss it into the washing machine and felt it. What the heck.



This morning, Johnny stopped by the house with three lollipops.
Felix already ate all his Halloween candy, so this was a big treat. Oh, and inside each lollipop is a bug!

intarsia motif

The motif is fromIcelandic Knitting Using Rose Patterns by Helene Magnusson.

The colors are inspired by the kids I've been working with at the Wisdom Arts Club.

I don't know if I have the fortitude to knit one of Helene's magnificent sweaters, but the small motif is a lot of fun to play with. We'll see about all those ends and how I'll deal with them. Something tells me I might just sew some fabric to the back of it.
A friend on flickr mentioned wouldn't it be great if the ends wove themselves in during the night. Isn't that a great idea for a knitters fairy tale?

free pattern

I've made the Knit Bracelet pattern available as a free download through ravelry.

If you're not on ravelry and would like a copy of the pattern, leave me a message and please include your email address. Thank you!

knit bracelets

An easy learn to knit project for teaching the purl stitch are these knit bangle bracelets, worked in two colors in reverse stockinet stitch.



Learn to knit class starts this Friday at the Wisdom Arts Club. Details here!

Edited to add, I've made the pattern available as a free download on ravelry. Enjoy!

puppet and shrug

I'm wearing the Alpine Shrug from Rowan 42. It's knit at a smaller gauge than the pattern. I saw Celtic Cast On's shrug on flickr and loved the snug fit. Lately, Felix has been taking photographs. Some of them look really good. I asked him to take a photo of me in the new shrug. Not bad, right?
I'm pretty happy that I have a helper!


The puppy puppet is from JudyKits by Judy Head. I made it for Felix to help get us through these tough first days of school. He has a habit of being mad at me when I pick him up. Instead of running towards me and giving me a big hug, he yells at me! Yesterday, he started in on me and I pulled out the puppet and soon he was laughing and we were making up stories for the puppy to tell us. Felix named the puppet “Vulture”.
I don’t know where that name came from, but he seems very sure of it.




Anyway, I think it’s one of the cutest toys ever! One thing I didn’t take into consideration is that I would have to be a puppeteer, and come up with a Vulture personality. At breakfast this morning, I coaxed Felix into eating by having Vulture tell him how yummy the food was. Felix said, “hm, mom that’s not Vulture’s voice.”

back to school

It's been a busy, and emotional week with the first days of school; rocky for both of us, but after a couple of tearful days, we are now easily saying "see you later".


The night before school, father and son did some serious doodling with brand new markers and notebook. When I think back to my school days, most of what I remember is doodling while dimly listening to the teacher.


To ease the separation anxiety, I knit Felix a little cat toy. He named him Captain America after a friend's darling black cat. I gave him the cat first thing in the morning on his second day. He was so happy; it helped getting him off to school that day.

The pattern for the cat came from Invisible Threads in Knitting by Annemor Sundbo. A knitter's bliss: a project that heals the nerves of two people and uses small left over bits of sock yarn.

yellow bird

Here's my first attempt at a bird toy. I'm pretty happy with her! The next one will have a wider tail and then I want to make some with color work. She's an easy knit for a knitter, but maybe too much for a beginning knitter. I tried a couple of super super easy bird shapes but they didn't please me. One attempt was a finger puppet that I think would work in finer yarn.


The alley cat that protects us from other critters is eyeing us very suspiciously! I tried to get the bird closer to kitty but she wouldn't allow it. Oh well.


And check out these moon jellies that we saw this weekend at the aquarium. Amazing! Ethereal! Mysterious!