Grey Hat

Hats are a good project when I want to relax and not think too much about the knitting. And when they're done I can always save them for the Dulann Project if I haven't got another home for them.

Here's my latest hat. It's done in 1x1 ribbing with more of the grey mystery yarn from Mom, which is approximately DK weight. I think I did this one on US5 needles. I mostly used DPNs, but I also experimented a bit with the magic loop technique.

Learning to Crochet

Turns out, crocheting is good for more than just putting edges on knitted projects and using the hook to pick up dropped stitches. Who knew? AD is showing me how to crochet. I've tried to figure it out from books, but I got frustrated with it. And why do it that way when I have an expert available?

This will be a little wallet-sized bag when it's done, very much like a messenger bag except smaller. So far it's 6 inches wide and 3 1/4 inches tall.

(There's M's cat again, helping. She considers the crochet hook a fine toy and likes batting it around. I'll have to find a way to block her efforts to steal the hook from me when I'm not paying attention. I may even have to resort to putting my project away when I'm not working on it, but I'm saving this as a last resort.)

Stockinette = Pringle's Potato Chip

Alas. No amount of blocking can make this necktie behave. AD knitted this beautiful tie, but it curls. I blocked the hell out of it, but no dice. As soon as we put the tie on her husband's neck, the damn thing curled right up again. She tried steaming it and ironing it after that, but no. We talked about lining it with a stiff fabric, but it would be one exceptionally uncomfortable tie.

Don't know if you can make out the knocked over pins in these pics, but they're courtesy of M's cat. So helpful.







Edited to add:

AD says:

I sprayed the tie with the imitation spray starch "Magic Sizing" and let it dry while pinned flat. Then I carefully wound it up and stuck a couple pins in it. It looks like a sushi roll. I just unwound it and it looks good so I wound it back into the sushi roll and will store it like that until needed.

Yay!

A's Purse Is Finally Done

Poor A has been suffering, purseless, for a few years now. Maybe more. I meant to give this to her for Xmas some time back, but I got stuck on the sewing-it-together part.

I had a guy at work who was going to do the sewing for me in exchange for some knitting, but his sewing machine died. I like to think I passed this project's curse on to him. And since the curse was gone my luck turned around and my sister-in-law, AD, sewed it together for me last Sunday.

AD used dark blue canvas for the lining and she suggested the nifty buttons in the corners. And she used the magnetic clasp and straps I purchased previously. I used a grey mystery yarn Mom sent me for the actual knitting. It's approximately DK weight. The cable pattern is from Viking Patterns For Knitting. The back of the purse is the same as the front.

Sock Darning

Last night I followed the HJS Studio Tutorial and darned the red and orange socks I knitted for K. These socks are made with alpaca wool, which is not at all sturdy but is oh, so comfortable and warm.

She had a hole in the side of one and a worn spot in the side of the other. There was no wear at all in the heels or toes - weird! The darn came out kind of thick just as they described it in the tutorial, and my stitches are a bit wobbly. But I'm happy with it for my first try.

Here are the pics. Check out the wooden darning egg. It's a gift from my sister-in-law, AD. It was her great grandmother's - how cool is that!

Hat! (Friday, February 22, 2008)

Almost forgot about this one - a hat for A. made from dishcloth cotton. I think the hat looks especially cool on her cat. FYI - I used this pattern. Didn't quite manage to follow the pattern, but my version works too.

Retro Computer, a.k.a. Raglan Sweater Wheel

Having a mom who scours thrift stores as a hobby has its advantages. Check out this raglan sweater wheel she sent me:



And here's its package:



It's a retro computer! It's made out of cardboard and its sole purpose is to show how to make sweaters, but it's a computer nonetheless. Makes me think of this: Antikytherea mechanism.

How is it supposed to work? It's made of 3 circles. The big circle is in the middle and two slightly smaller circles surround the big one. The big middle circle has columns of numbers (on both sides) that go in toward the center, and sizes around its edges. (One side is for kid sizes and the other for adults.) The smaller outer circles have cutouts that reveal the appropriate columns of numbers on the middle circle. These outer circles also have instruction text on them, and these instructions line up with the numbers revealed by the cutouts. All of these circles are connected in the center so you can rotate them with respect to each other.

So, you pick a size by lining up the cutouts with that size. The wheel is also color-coded so can easily match the sleeve instructions with the sleeve column, the sweater front with the sweater front column, etc.

One more thing - the wheel says, "Copyright 1969 Bea Freeman, P. O. Box 87, Bryn Mawr, PA. 19010, Pat. Pending." So here's to Bea Freeman, a computer designer of whom I had been unaware until now.

There are other sites that offer pics and descriptions - here are two of them: knittingfool.com and menwhoknit.com.