Urban Knitters

Margaret's Donations

2005-11-07T10:44:00.000-06:00

These are the cutest booties on the planet. There are also silk hats, wool scarves and a beautiful fan&feather shawl. Blogger doesn't like the pictures of them, though, so you'll have to come to the Holiday Boutique to see them.

Thank you, Margaret, for the fantastic and greatly appreciated donations!

Urban Knitters First Bi-annual Outing

2005-10-30T14:39:00.000-06:00

The fall folliage and the wineries and the autumnal bite to the air were calling to us. We were outside at Hartford (because, for the first time in months, it was hotter inside than outside) and an idea was born. Let's take the yarn to see the Missouri countryside it all its colorful splendor. And drink some wine.

A lovely time was had by all. We shopped. We knitted. We slid down slides and see-sawed. We talked and laughed like always, but it was just a bit more special in this landscape.

Aren't those colors gorgeous? It just feels so cozy, doesn't it, looking out at...huh? What? Wrong colorful scenery, you say? OK, just a sec...

There, that's better. We got there just before the crowds descended, so we had a prime vantage point. It was truly beautiful, and a perfect day to spend with good friends. We hope to make this a bi-annual thing, so if anyone has ideas for Spring, hold onto them - we'll be making plans when the snow melts.

And me

2005-10-16T22:05:00.000-05:00

Even more contributions

2005-10-16T21:36:00.000-05:00

More magnificant items (details not properly displayed by photo) from Julia

More boutique items

2005-10-16T21:17:00.000-05:00

From our new friend Jen B.

(I tried to use candles to model the hats - an experiment that failed miserably.)

Boutique items continued...

2005-10-16T21:12:00.000-05:00

From Christina, two scarves and the cutest little hat

Boutique Items

2005-10-16T17:16:00.000-05:00

First, I have to apologize. The picture quality on these suck, but I have a little work project I need to finish tonight - I'll try to take better pictures later.

My connection is a little weird, so this will take several posts.

First, from Jenn just yesterday, some fuzzy scarves:

a few finished projects!

2005-10-04T00:42:00.000-05:00

i miss saturday knitting at hartford :(. alas, i need to pay the rent, so a job is a must! too bad i work all day saturday! but it has been great to see christina at kayak's every now and then!

i tried my best to crop my face out of all of the pictures. this way, you will not have to be subjected to the hideousness of early morning ME modeling these projects! i am NOT a morning person!

1) my first attempt at double knitting. it actually turned out well...although it is about 10 sizes too large and i messed up my kitchener stitch! but i do like the effect a lot.

2) a hat that knits up in just a couple of hours! i knit this cable hat for a friend's birthday. her favorite colors happen to be blue and blue. i can't tell you how much i love knitting in the round. no seaming and it looks so much better than hats i've knitted flat (i suck at seaming)!

3) my first pair of mittens! i thought that a mitten knit in the round on DPNs would help prepare me for socks! i was surprised at how easy they are to knit. i sent them and a bag to my cousins, and they requested another pair!

which leads me to...

...the glove in progress! (please forgive the image quality. it was taken on my camera phone.)

4) and finally, TWO completed gloves! these actually started out as mittens. then they turned into fingerless mitts with one of those flap thingies that can be folded back so you can still use your fingers. that didn't turn out as well as i liked, so THEN they turned into a pair of gloves!

i think i'm ready for socks...i'll let you know how it goes!

I <3 Socks

2005-07-28T12:43:00.000-05:00

Big thanks to Ann who took the mystery (and terror) out of sock knitting. I love this sock so much is sits on my desk all day just so I can look at it.

Pinwheel Blanket

2005-07-20T09:06:00.000-05:00

This was very, very easy, but really, really tedious toward the end. I got the pattern here which even has an excell spreadsheet that you can download to calculate the diameter of your blanket based on your gauge and the number of stitches across each section. Cool, huh? It moves pretty quickly in the beginning, but to get mine to 40" across (for a baby blanket) the last row was 500 stitches around. I was pretty happy to be finished. This one is going to Afghans for Afghans.

Meet Mopsy!

2005-06-25T11:23:00.000-05:00

Here's the bunny that I was working on last Saturday. I love projects that only take one day - especially the really soft ones! I named him Mopsy for his tail.

Isn't that cute??? He's made with KnitOneCrochetToo Fleece and stuffed with some fiberfill stuff and a couple chamomile tea bags to make him smell nice. I don't think I'm going to be able to give this one away. Mine!

Just showing off an FO...

2005-06-17T09:18:00.000-05:00

I finished the baby sweater (finally!) It's made of Patons Cotton-Tots that I got at Joann's for 2 bucks a skein. So, you too could have a lovely sweater and hat, sized 6 months, for the bargain price of $4.00. The hat is the one I did in F.P. waiting for "The Tempest" to start. It was the day after national KIP day, but what the heck.

The pretty white cami-thingie

2005-06-03T11:15:00.000-05:00

So...I've been taking inventory of all the crap I own, what with Chris and I preparing for the fellowship in Ann Arbor and realized I have way, way too much yarn I've never got around to using. So I made myself a promise - that I wouldn't buy any new yarn until I'd made several items from existing yarn.

The problem is that I only have small quantities of each yarn. Thus, I decided to make a knitted camisole since I didn't have enough yarn for sleeves. I knit the above with, I believe, just four balls of Debbie Bliss DK Cotton - now discontinued - which I bought for a song at Smiley's yarn last year. (I originally wanted to do a long-sleeved summer sweater but I didn't have enough yarn and couldn't find a close enough match to feel comfortable.)

I knew the kind of cami I wanted but couldn't find an exact match to what I was looking for. So I combined instructions for the Woodstock Cami from (I believe) the Summer 2004 issue of Interweave Knits. Then I used my beloved Knitware Sweaters software to plug in the gage and dimensions and churn out a pattern. Then I adapted it for knitting in the round, adjusted it to add some extra length and voila!

I'm pretty happy with the results. The mercerized cotton is so soft. It's a little wider than I would have liked, but I think I might wash and dry it to shrink it down a bit. It's a lot better than winding up with something too small.

Anyway, that's way more than you probably wanted to know - and I feel I've done my part to keep the blog alive today!

The Dulaan Project

2005-05-21T13:53:00.000-05:00

Today at U.K. we discussed the Dulaan Project that I'm contributing some hand-knit childrens' sweaters for. Here's a link to a blog that has been getting the word out: Mossy Cottage Knits. There are pictures of the people that these contributions are going for that could break your heart. They are in need of lots of items, not just clothing, so you non-knitters should take a look and see what you can do too. It's for a very good cause.

Congratulations to Davina who is officially a graduate student!

Haiku

2005-05-17T09:57:00.000-05:00

I finished my first sweater! Granted, it's a child's size (for the Dulaan Project) but it's still a working garment. I made it from the yarn I got at Knitorious with Christina and November last weekend. My "loophole" went to a very good cause.

Fiona

2005-05-07T14:14:00.000-05:00

Christina is having trouble logging in, like lots of our knitters, so I'm posting this for her.

Fiona, the elongated tank top, is modeled by our lovely Christina. She's making it out of Lavold Cotton Patine in color 12 and hopes to have it finished sometime in 2007.

Yummy

2005-05-07T14:07:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I've never had the falafel at Hartford before. OMG.

Can Cozy - Size 40

2005-05-06T10:18:00.000-05:00

In case anyone missed it - this is Jocelyn's can cozy that she made for a friend. That would be Miller High Life inside - excellent choice. Sorry, pattern not available.

Homespun for Homeless

2005-05-01T15:33:00.000-05:00

I'm still collecting any Homespun leftovers that anyone may have lying around. The seed stitch squares look pretty cool, and should be easy to stitch together quickly. I'm considering doing a quilt pattern with smaller squares included - dunno yet.

2005-03-23T11:25:00.000-06:00

Wow - love being able to look at everyone's projects!! I haven't had much time for knitting, so I've not much new to post... I think everyone knows about the hat I knitted for giant, mondo-headed mutants. Okay, that's not what I set out to knit but that hat just turned out REALLY huge.

On the plus side I've been having some REALLY fun experiments in the dye studio... I'm loving that yarn I got from Julia - all kinds of new experiments... And when she sees/feels the scarf I wove she's going to so want a loom. I used a bleach release technique to subtle pattern the scarf with leaves... it turned out so lovely (if I do say so myself!)

Can't wait to see everyone Saturday!

Wacky Felted Tote

2005-03-21T10:34:00.000-06:00

I made this with some Debbie Bliss Soho. The yarn was a dream to work with. I just made a little square for the bottom, and picked up stitches to make the sides. Of course, I can't just work plain so I tried to make a little waviness to the corners, whch you can sort of see in the picture. I think if I had exaggerated the wavy parts and made it taller I would have been more pleased. As it stands, it carts around my wacky tank project without a problem.

Knit 2 Together

2005-03-14T10:30:00.000-06:00

I saw a knitting exhibit in London. It was a little disappointing to me because I was hoping for something more stitches-based/useful/interesting/attractive, and it was really small and not worth the uphill hike (that I endured because I didn't flip my map another page and see that the Angel station was much closer), but still may be of interest to you. It was very "arty".

Knit 2 Together

A bag overfelted: a cautionary tale

2005-03-08T22:26:00.000-06:00

As I may have mentioned in the Urban Knitters forum on Read Julia, I kind of over-felted the bag I'd mentioned in a previous post. When I first knit it, the thing was just giant, as evidenced here. (Please note the CD included for size reference.):
.

Then I felted it. At eight minutes into the first hot wash, it was felting and shrinking but was still a tad big. So I reset it for another eight minutes, planning to check it in two. Then the phone rang. And the rest is history. Tiny, tiny history, as evidenced here:

Now, the bag that was supposed to let me cart around all my knitting totes is luggage for a toddler. Huh.

My first sweater.

2005-03-04T09:14:00.000-06:00

I've learned several things for and from this sweater, and it's not even done yet. There are cables and intarsia, mainly. There is reading and knitting at the same time (that one was just last night!). And there's the fact that sleeves are very, very boring.

I had this suspicion ahead of time, so I did them before the front (where the cables and intarsia live, so I know it will be fun). Good thing, too, because if I left them for last I know I wouldn't have been nearly so dedicated to getting them done. (If by dedicated you mean making several scarves and bags during the same time frame, that is.) I'd just be left with a partial sweater, and that's no fun.

But last night, at Cairdeas all by my lonesome (cue the tiny violins), I finished the sleeves! I was so excited that I snapped a low quality picture and ran home to tell my boyfriend. Not that he'd be super excited, but I knew he'd be up. Sadly he wasn't home, but I get to share the joy with you guys now!

A poor attempt at photography

2005-03-03T16:15:00.000-06:00

Here's the scarf I finished a couple of weeks ago - my attempt at increasing and decreasing, which is clearly going to need some practice.

I made it to match a jacket I wanted to buy for my (first) trip Chicago next month, but apparently, teal jackets that don't scream "old lady" and come in my size sell out quickly...