Knitting – Page 9 – No Idle hands here

Yarn bombing Grand Central Market.

Yarn bombing has gone completely legitimate. What started as some knitters running out in the middle of the night and putting ‘sweaters’ on lamp posts has know gotten the imprimatur of the authorities.

Grand Central market in DTLA has become the hot spot for fancy expensive food, so of course it’s needs a little colorful sprucing up as well. Btw, I’m not a naysayer of the improvements, I’ve enjoyed, Wexler’s Deli, McConnell’s Fine Ice Cream, Valerie. Haven’t stood in line for Eggslut, but have bought fruits, veggies, spices and household goods from the old time vendors.

Yarnbombing Los Angeles, has gone from guerrilla bombing to working hand in hand with the authorities to create yarn centered art. In this case, celebrating downtown with both knitting and crochet.We are in the Laughlin Annex up on Hill St. They do need more seating arrangements, because it’s getting very busy. On the yellow background they have created symbols of downtown, here we have the Metro line.The new Oyster Bar, The fashion and flower districts are represented.The Jewelry district and an overhead view of Disney Hall.City Hall and the toy district.Yarn and crochet side by side.

If you have a chance, go to one of the hippest places in LA, grab some great food and enjoy some yarn art.

Leah

Blue Sweater

Working with large needles is very nice. I finished the sweater very quickly.I knit the buttons onto the button band, only problem was, the little metal shank came out of two of themIt’s a good thing I’m multicraftual. Pulled out my Jewelry pliers and some strong wire and I made a new shank. A little epoxy glue and I’ve saved a button. It’s a little bigger than the original – easier to get the yarn through.I’m glad I didn’t make this out of bulky yarn like the pattern called for, it would have been too bulky on me. Going up a few sizes worked.Yes, there are many knitters who would sew grosgrain ribbon on the back of the button bands. I’m too lazy, I’ll live with the gaps. Some things like sewing 1800 hexagons by hand I’m willing to do, sew grosgrain on sweaters – no.Despite knitting the buttons in, I needed to reinforce them will backing buttons, otherwise they just hang loosely. I found 7 matching buttons in my box, so what if the color is different, we’ll just call it a design element.

Leah

Ask and ye shall receive

I am often told I should sell my work. Usually by people who think that if I sell, it will be priced like the sale racks at Ross and they can pick it up for a song. Every once in a while someone hints that they would love to have something I make. I usually tell them that I make things for myself first, then for people I love and care about, I’m not into making something just because an acquaintance likes my creativity.

And then there is Roberta, she simply comes out and says – you know, that hat would look really good on me, or cool scarf – Christmas is coming. So she made a similar comment about my recent cowl and you know what, I realized that yes – she should have the cowl.Looks great on her right? Now here’s the thing, she makes things herself so she understands the value of hand made items. She doesn’t knit, so it’s not like I could just give her instructions. She does crochet, she also has me come over every year for the last 6 years to show her how to crochet the Easter eggs her mom used to make. I’m an expert on Easter eggs now, I think she is too, but she really enjoys our time together crocheting eggs, so we’ll continue to do so every year.

Also, I mentioned that she makes thingsThis was a gift from a few years ago – this definitely makes Roberta Knitworthy, not to mention a very special friend.

Leah

Sweaters on large needles

I always have some kind of knitting project on the needles. Since the calendar says fall (although the temperature doesn’t yet). I started a sweater, the Dauphine Cardigan.

I no longer buy knitting magazines, I either find the individual pattern online, or through my public library I am able to download a number of magazines on Zinio. This one comes from Knitscene. Between screenshots and conversions to PDF files, I am able to get the pattern into KnitCompanion.

I am trying to use yarn from my stash, I have cascade Greenland, a worsted weight yarn. The pattern calls for bulky yarn. Enter the swatch and a little math.I am able to use the instructions for 2 size larger, I do need to make adjustments in length as well, so far that hasn’t been a problem.

The back knit up beautifully. I am using size 10 needles! Unheard of for me, most of my sweaters are on 6s’ or at most 8s. (the bulky yard did call for 11s, I simply didn’t have the yarn and wasn’t going to buy any)Along with the faster knitting I’m doing some editing of my photos on PicMonkey, a free online editing program. At some point I may upgrade to the paid version, I’m not there yet.

Between really learning how to use my camera and some editing I am trying to improve my photos. In a few months I will probably go back and compare my old photos and see how far I’ve come. Until then, you will be seeing the good and the bad of my learning skills.

Leah

Quick Knit

I bought the wool and downloaded the Inspira Cowl after seeing an example at Knot Another Hat in Hood River OR, this summer.

It sure feels like summer here, still in the 90s, yet I buckled down and knit this quick cowl.It’s like potato chips, can’t stop because I want to see the color combination the next row will bring.It is way to hot for me to try this on myself.Maybe we’ll get winter this year and I can wear this, or else, there is a possibility that this will end up in the gift pile.

Leah

Flower sweater done

It’s finished! This is the truer color, not sure why I’m getting different colors in my pictures. These are ‘craft buttons’ from Joanns. They are wood and are dyed. I was concerned that maybe the color would run, so I soaked them in boiling water, there was a little bit of crocking (when the color bleeds out). But I think now they are ok.I steam blocked this with my iron. As you can see I blocked the ribbing on the body of the sweater but left the cuffs alone. One ribbing is blocked it can be unblocked and I want the sleeve ribbing to hug the arm.At first I couldn’t get her to try it on – TOO HOT! Well she’s right about that, then once she put it on she declined to take it off – that means she loves it.How’s that for a modeling pose! I was thrilled with the knitting and the end result and am very happy that this can be knit in many sizes, I will be making more – either for Shira as she grows or for other girls.

Leah

Flower Cardigan

I love knitting friends – we really enable each other’s habit. In this case it’s a friend I haven’t met yet in real life – but one of these days I intend to!

Vivian was working on Flower Cardigan and I had to run to Ravelry and buy the pattern. This is what I cast on as soon as I finished the baby sweater.Starting from the 6 petal flower.

The designer, Ewelina Murach, has created a whole line of patterns based on this flower. As someone who is addicted to Hexagons right now, I can attest that the six sided shape (hexagon) is a wonderful design as a jumping off point.

The sections held by waste yarn will be the sleeves and neckline. The rest is the body of the sweater. This is much more impressive than it looks, I knit this on my 15 flight home from Israel. Luckily, with the help of Ambien I did sleep 7 of those hours, but for most of the rest of the time, I was knitting. The plane was dark for the whole trip, We left at 1 am Israel time and basically chased the night all the way to LA. as we were coming in for landing the sun was rising behind us in the east. Yes, seeing a sunrise in an airplane is pretty spectacular, I was in the middle seat – so to try and get a picture just wasn’t going to work well.

All this to say, I knit this section with a tiny clip on light and I’m proud to say – no mistakes. The flower itself was complete before I boarded the plane, but still working the increases correctly is quite an accomplishment.Home and working on the left front. I can’t stretch the work out because my needle is only so long. This gives an idea of the front. I am knitting this out of Cascade Elysian, a super wash wool and acrylic yarn. I LOVE this yarn. It is wonderful to knit with and the stitch definition is amazing. Oh, this is a sweater for my granddaughter, so of course it has to be machine washable. Love it when I find the perfect yarn for the perfect project. I would be happy to knit myself a sweater out of this yarn – it is that good.

Leah

Travel knitting

I’ve heard people refer to knitting on planes – sky knitting. Well with a 13 hour flight to Israel and a 15 hour flight back (trade winds!) I got a lot of knitting done.This little sweater for baby Westley – done! I blame knitting on an airplane on the fact that this little boy sweater closes like the girls sweater. Yes, I should have reversed the fold for a boy. Once the mistake was made I just left it. I’m sure Westley won’t know or care how his sweater is wrapped.Back viewThis is an easy cute knit. Although, even for babies I find knitting a sweater in sock weight yarn a little tedious. For my grandson, of course it was worth the effort.I wasted no time in casting on a sweater for Shira, the color is off here, it is actually more purple. More information on this sweater in another post.

Leah

Knitting for babies

It is so much fun knitting for babies, the projects are small, the babies don’t move much, so the item doesn’t get destroyed quickly.I bought this pattern on the LA Yarn Crawl, the multi-colored yarn was from my stash, I ordered a coordinating blue.The pattern is easy and well written. Half the sweater is already done.Here I’ve started the left front. I do like the color combination. The pattern actually called for two contrasting, patterned yarns. I’ll be making myself a cowl with that technique, for a baby sweater, I’m preferring the subtlety of a solid.Just to give a little idea of the sweater construction.The only reason for this photo is because I am finally ‘getting’ the use of the camera to create the fade out affect. I found a wonderful You Tube tutorial on my specific camera – so now it’s just practice – practice – practice!

Leah

And it’s done!

With any project, there comes a time where it is done – if you have completed the whole pattern or not.

This is what unblocked lace looks like, not very nice.

I had reached the end of the leaves chart and I was noticing that I was going through the yarn very quickly. Although I have the same yardage the pattern called for, I was working in linen, not lace weight wool. So I cut out the last 6 rows of that chart and moved on to the final border chart.Although I didn’t add the number of stitches called for it felt like I was knitting over 600 stitches in a row. I never bothered to count – it would be too depressing. Putting in 4 rows of the 5 rows of beads also got to be a chore. I simply wasn’t enjoying the knitting anymore.

So I stopped, I just bound it all off and then made the executive decision to not crochet a lacy border.Blocking wires, pins and crazy blocking pad. I know, it’s hard to see the details when using a children’s alphabet mat. I do have nine grey blocks, but rather than buy more of those, I use this set which I already have. It is a little harder because the letters and numbers fall out. So the picture is hard on the eyes, but my intention is to block, not have a pretty picture.Linen after blocking is like cardboard! I need to ‘rough it up’ before actually wearing.I’m glad I didn’t make it any longer, I don’t like my shawls too big.I do like the sparkle of the beads, it did take a lot more time but well worth it.I will probably also wear it like this, bandana style.

Enough lace shawls for a while, I have some smaller projects coming up.

Leah