project: 3rd St Hat

Well, if all goes well, in about 7 hours, I will be back in Chicago.

Not gonna lie, the only thing I'm really looking forward to in Chicago is Karma. And giving her the puppy sweater I knit for her (that's tomorrow's post; gotta nab some pictures first).

Honestly, it's been an awesome week off. I didn't get all of the projects done that I brought with me, and I still have about 100 pages left in my book, but all the down time and cheese and crackers were a pleasure I know won't be as available to me back home.

About a week before I left for Florida, I finished up my friend Mikey's gift. Yep, it was another hat. Yep, it was knit out of a Malabrigo Merino Worsted yarn (colorway Forest), yep, it was purchased from Loopy Yarns and yep, the pattern was the Dean Street Hat.




I just got a text yesterday from Mikey saying that he loves it and I'm awesome. I named it the "3rd St Hat" because he is currently living in Louisville, and my favorite place to eat in Louisville is the 3rd Ave Cafe. Road trip soon!

I think I'm gonna take a break from hats for the next few projects...maybe.

project: ruffle rock star scarf

Happy birthday, Jesus!

Today, my holiday will consist of a trip to the beach and a movie later tonight (most likely True Grit). Somewhere in between there, I will finish up Karma's dog sweater to bring back home to Chicago tomorrow night. I'm sure she needs it after the loads of snow that's been lending itself to a white Christmas.

Running on this hand dyed yarn theme, I found that I had three skeins of hand dyed cotton, all colored over three years ago. One of the skeins I named Rock Star, and decided to make the Ruffle Scarf out of my Scarf Style book.

The yarn was the Inca Cotton purchased from Dharma Trading Company. I used fiber reactive dyes, with the cold water process, in the colors Fuschia, Cocoa Brown, and Chartreuse. The fiber reactive dyes take to the cotton incredibly well, with a vibrant finish. The Inca Cotton is super soft and did not pill or halo throughout the process.

The scarf was being made for my sister, who is a fellow crafts lady and wears scarfs on a regular basis. I thought it was a clever idea and a chance for me to make a scarf (which I rarely ever make).



Until I realized the other day, after she opened it and said she liked it, I had made her that same scarf pattern three years ago.

Ugh.

Kinda bummed since I was so excited about this scarf being made with hand dyed yarn, and turning out super cute. And, I mean, it did turn out super cute and I was proud of myself for following through with a scarf. And my sister insisted that she loves it and will wear both of them.

I need to get a picture of her wearing it, so you can see how it twists and drapes - so rock star!

In honor of baby Jesus, I made a Christmas/holiday inspired playlist. By far, the last two songs are staples for me at this time of year, and are put on repeat all. day. long.

I encourage you to do the same, and to turn on 24 hours of A Christmas Story on TBS.

Football? What's a football??


playlist: ruffle rock star scarf

"come saturday" - pains of being pure at heart
"artificial snow" - atlas sound
"in the new year" - the walkmen
"all yr songs" - diamond rings
"something to do with my hands" - her space holiday
"soak it up" - houses
"hearts of love" - crocodiles
"gift" - firebird band
"sister winter" - sufjan stevens

project: sexy holiday thongs

This Christmas Eve just got sexy.

I decided to shake things up a bit with the gift giving this year. My Knitting Lingerie Style book has been sitting on my shelf for years, and recently I decided to open it up, and knit two very close friends a thong.

Yes. A hand-knit thong.

I wasn't exactly sure how this was going to work out, but I went to Nina's as a start and picked out some super soft, 100% silk yarn for the first one (note: still searching for the tag with all of the yarn info on it).

thong #1

I just used the Babydoll thong pattern in the book, and made a ton of adjustments along the way. There was no picking up stitches along the edge, but rather using a crochet hook, a basic double crochet was done to finish of the siding. I opted against a 3/4" wide back strap, and took three strands of yarn and braided them to create the strap.

I followed the pattern for the waistband, and the cast on stitches they told me to do for the first friend's waist, and it came out HUGE. Like, four inches too big. So I found my elastic thread, and from the inside ran the thread along the top and bottom part of the waist (cutting the thread at her correct waist length to ease in all the excess). Then I found some sexy black ribbon to weave into the middle eyelet portion of the waistband; the colors turned out to be super hot!

Since I had made the first, I knew exactly what adjustments needed to be done for the second. Her yarn was purchased at Loopy Yarns, and is a Berroco Seduce yarn in the Dream colorway (all entirely too appropriate for this project).

thong #2

I casted on a smaller number of stitches for the waistband of this second thong, and it turned out to be a better fit where I didn't need to sneak in elastic thread into the waistband. What really surprised me about this yarn is that the color was actually variegated. I didn't know that when purchasing, but it starts off darker on top and then lighter down to...well...you know where.

I'm really happy with how these turned out, and so were the two ladies! A really easy, quick knit that I will definitely make more of.

One of my students was inspired by me knitting lingerie where she decided to knit some for her knitwear final, using the full Babydoll pattern listed in the book. The lace pattern for the top got a little jumbled, but for her first hand-knit garment, it deserved an A!


There is only one song that can combine the fact it is Christmas eve and this project specifically.

Hope Santa is good to you this year!

project: grounded earth tote bags (series 1)

Believe it or not, I actually made a few other things besides knitted projects these past few months. Again, being inspired from my surface design class, I had to make a silk screen to demo for the class at some point during the quarter. So I came up with an organic design (go figure) that has a little day of the dead feel to it.

After making a sample for the class, I decided to whip up a few tote bags for my friends as holiday gifts.

(up close and slightly photoshopped)

I used the paint-on screen printing method (that involves no dark room). The result isn't as precise as some prints can be, but I do like the look of it. The fabric was some dark denim purchased from Vogue Fabrics, and the paint was your basic Jacquard screen ink. I just squashed the yellow in-between the fuschia before I passed it through the screen. I definitely enjoyed the orange glow that came from the color mixing!



In attempt to create a series of these bags, I tried my hand at another screen of a different original design. This screen, however, did not make the cut when I went to rinse off the drawing fluid. I have a feeling that there was leftover screen cleaner on the screen, and that's why the filler didn't stick after it was dry. Lame. I will give it a second go around sometime soon, considering I already have like 3 other blank tote bags waiting at home...

Picture from my friend, Beth, who received one of the tote bags!

project: tiffany's solstice socks

I missed a post yesterday. Damn. I'm blaming me being up too early to watch the lunar eclipse and then spending as much of the day outdoors for the Winter Solstice. It was a beautiful day and ended it by watching the sunset on Siesta Key Beach.

Happy Winter Solstice!

In honor of solstice, I am going to share with you the solstice socks I knitted for my friend Tiffany. There really isn't anything new about these socks, considering it is a pattern I think I have used about 4 other times so far this year. It's just that they were made with love and warmth for my good friend Tiffany.

The pattern is Alison's Ankle Socks, and the yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Multi in Ashburn (purchased, of course, at Loopy Yarns). I finished these socks up sometime in November, and I really like the way the colors striped (unintentionally) around the foot.

(close up of stripe pattern)

The good news is, they fit Tiffany and she loves them! I hope they keep her cozy during these chilly and rainy winter months in Seattle...

There is something incredibly therapeutic to me about knitting socks. I can't really explain it, but I have two other sock projects (full socks, too) that I am just itching to start. And the one set is going to be using yarn that my friend Lee got for me from Finland! So excited.

project: some hand dyed yarn

This past quarter, I was teaching a Surface Design class. This is a class where the students learn how to dye their own fabric, use different fabric manipulations with dye (such as shibori, tie dye), learn how to batik, silk paint, embroider, bead....the list could go on for days. It was a pretty successful class, and the students truly surprised me with their creativity when putting the different manipulations together for their final project.

Teaching this class was a breath of fresh air for me, considering I haven't taught it in over a year. Also, this was a main focus of mine while in grad school: fabric modification. So by having all of this creative energy around me, and also teaching a knitwear class this past quarter as well, I decided to dye some of my own yarn.

The first yarn I dyed was using an indigo dye bath. The dye bath that was mixed was using pre-reduced indigo crystals and color remover. This project definitely got messy and was super smelly, but was a lot of fun. I would dye with indigo all of the time if I could!

The Blues are Still Blue

The yarn is a Malabrigo Rios in Natural, and I did about 2-3 dips into the indio dye. Definitely had to make sure the wool was absorbing the dye with each dip (Note: if you have note dyed with indigo before, it is when the dye comes in contact with oxygen that it turns the deep blue color. The color after the first initial dip is a blue-green, an as it "sits" in the air, it turns blue. The longer it is "sitting" in the air, and the more dips it gets, the darker the blue).

The whole process was loads of fun, and my students thought I was crazy. The rinse was the biggest pain, and I still think there is some dye in the yarn that will come off with use (similar to your jeans). So I clearly cannot make a hat out of the yarn, but will probably make some fingerless gloves, etc.

I was really happy with the variegation of the blue color, and the yarn is just as super soft as when I first purchased it (from Loopy Yarns, of course). I am calling it The Blues are Still Blue (yes, after the Belle & Sebastian lyric).


The second yarn I dyed was a Cascade 220 Wool, using all Fiber Reactive dyes. I normally dye cellulose (plant) fibers with Fiber Reactive dyes, so this was going to be an experiment with me.

The yarn was purchased from Dharma Trading Company, as well as the dyes. The process used is very similar to the process of tie dyeing: soaking the yarn in soda ash, mix the dyes with the water/urea ratio, removing the yarn from the soda ash, laying it out and then adding the dye to various spots on the yarn.


So the colors I used were: Rose Red, Chartreuse, and Navy. This is the result, 12 hours later:

Cape Dory

None of the colors were what I was hoping them to be (the navy is more purple, the chartreuse is more yellow, the red is more hot pink), but it is a very pretty colorway that I am calling Cape Dory (yes, after the Tennis song).

Definitely more yarn to be dyed in 2011! I am very excited about it, and just need to figure out how to a) sell it or b) make thing from it. Suggestions?

project: mark's birthday hat

Here it is: a project finished back at the beginning of November. My friend Mark celebrated a birthday in November, and considering the seasonal change in Seattle at that time of the year, I decided that he needed a new hat.



So I pulled out the good old Dean Street Hat by Nina Dayton pattern, purchased some lovely Malabrigo Worsted yarn (colorway was Autumn Forest) from Loopy Yarns and got to work. I absolutely love this pattern and for a brief moment thought I might be overusing it as a men's hat pattern, but dammit it keeps me happy while knitting and looks so good when complete!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARK!

With hat finished and vegan banana bread baked, I shipped the package to complete it's duty of making a birthday man happy. Thankfully, it worked (and fit). The colorway looked amazing on him as well, as he wears a lot of warm, neutral colors.

project: susan's darkside cowl

Alright folks, I know it's been awhile. Two months awhile. A lot has happened the past two months. I'm not sure where to even begin socially, physically, mentally. All I can say is that, I am in a better place now (Florida, specifically) and now is the time to ground myself, reflect and grow.

One reason I haven't been here since September is due to the fact all of the project I have been working on (and there are many) have been for holiday gifts. And since all of my holiday gifts are finally out, and most of them open, I am allowed to share them.

Let's start with a cowl I made for my friend Susan back at the end of September. Susan is a very close friend of mine who lives in Florida. Since Florida winters don't require heavy wool scarves and hats like Chicago ones, I wanted to make her something light weight but still seasonal. I came across this beautiful Silky Merino yarn by Malabrigo in the colorway of Indiecita. I admit, I am a sucker for any yarn made by Malabrigo. The purchase was made at Loopy Yarns, the local favorite.


The pattern is called Darkside Cowl by Sarah Fama. The yarn for this pattern worked out absolutely perfect. The silk spun with the merino gave the cowl just enough shine and drape to look elegant, yet it is still casual enough to wear day to day. The colors are perfect for day or evening wear as well.


I only used about half of one skein for this project. I originally purchased two, not having the pattern yet and knowing how long the cowl was going to be. I'm considering making one for myself...

Just radiant.

I mentioned earlier how I have been having many moments of reflection, and one of those has been musically. Everyone has been putting out their year in review, top ten lists, so why not me? I went through my itunes and found the songs that have been the most played, and most meaningful to me throughout this year. I couldn't narrow it down to just ten songs, so there are thirteen. Many of the songs have been put on previous playlist, but it feels really good to put them all together in one. Let me know what you think! And please note, these are not in a particular order.


playlist: susan's darkside cowl (aka. my top 13 songs of 2010)

"sentimental x's" - broken social scene
"zebra" - beach house
"drying of the lawns" - tallest man on earth
"desire lines" - deerhunter
"3 umbrellas" - avey tare
"cape dory" - tennis
"jesus" - dom
"while i shovel snow" - the walkmen
"airplanes" - local natives
"'81" - joanna newsom
"carolina" - girls
"sprawl II (mountains beyond mountains)" - arcade fire


The goal is to blog a project a day this week. I am pretty sure I have enough projects for every day this week, it's just going to get a little tricky with the playlists. But I have an idea I might put into fruition...