Blobs

I am back to civilization and knitting. Sorry for leaving abruptly but I was hiding in Toronto for over a week and since people from whom I was hiding tend to read my blog I had to stop posting for a while.... These people are the reason why I could not show my crocheted project until now.
Here is the last picture of "almost finished" secret project:


And here are all the balls and arms assembled into 2 "blobs":


Same blobs but with the hand-made card:


These are modified Doug and Gordo from Crochet Me book. They do not look much like the original ones (I hope Kim Werker would forgive me for that) - I used a completely different size of yarn and had to improvise with the eyes and "costumes". I wanted them to look more like a girl and a boy, since they were part of the wedding gift for my two wonderful friends.

Don't you wish you slipperS WERE hot like mine?

I finally have a finished project to share with you. Now I have 2 sexy slippers – “woot woot woot” - like my sister would say.


It took me a while to finish the second slipper, probably because I was dreading the knitting of ties. Remember, I made a mistake when knitting the ties of the first slipper and it made my knitting life so much more difficult. I did not want the second slipper look any different so I purposefully knitted the ties in a wrong fashion. But now, all of this is behind and I am enjoying my super-warm Twinkletoes.


There are a couple of mistakes (they are all on the sole so it would not be noticeable), also the second slipper is slightly looser at the back – this is what happens when you wait too long before completing the project.


And what would look nice with these slippers? A pair of matching socks. Here is a beginning of “Cablenet” in Regia #5769. I am very excited to attempt this rather difficult pattern. I would not stress myself with knitting it fast – it would be one of those “knit a bit when feel like it” projects.


Since I am sharing my progress here is how the felted purse looks like:


It is growing pretty fast and I am excited about felting it. By the way, is it me or felting is super popular today? While in Toronto I saw Toronto Outdoors Art Expo and was amazed to see several stands with felted purses. I also noticed felted items in different clothes/accessories stores. I better hurry up to learn this technique if I want to stay “cool”.

Don't you wish your slipper was hot like mine?

Do you remember a little secret project I started a while ago? I think it is time to share some of my progress with you. The little blue swatch turned into a wonderful sexy slipper (I have been a slow knitter recently and the second slipper is still in progress).

For those of you who do not know me or my taste in shoes, here is a picture of the sexiest shoes ever, according to Anna. And yes, I owe a pair exactly like this:

Now you can see why I use the word “sexy” when describing my new slipper. The pattern comes from one of back issues of “Knitty” and it is called: “Twinkletoes”. I slightly modified the original pattern: by mistake, I did not knit the strings same way as described on the pattern. I also did not knit the 1k1p border, since it was making slippers a bit bulky-looking. Because of this modification I am afraid that the back of the Sexy Slipper would slip off my foot (no pun intended). A loop in the back of the shoe that would hold the slipper and the straps would prevent slipping. I will definitely post pictures if this modification will be made.

When my dad saw the Sexy Slipper he asked with terror in his voice whether I was planning on wearing it outside! Sometimes I wonder what others think about me.

The new technique I learned from this patter was a "Lifted Increase/Decrease". Although the pattern provided explanations and instructions I searched some detailed instructions and videos and here are links to the most useful ones:

Wonder How To has links to every possible "How to" video. Here is the one for Lifted Increase/Decrease

Stich Diva Studio has some useful instructions with step-by-step photographs. Here is her version of LI/D. I really like the way she uses yarn of 2 different colors to make explanations easier.

Out with the old ....

As I write this on a grayish summer day my feet are happy. Happy and warm …..They are also pretty, stripped, and soft. Well technically it is not my feet; it is Mr. Socks that are pretty, stripped, and soft. Nine days after the birth of Mr. Sock, Mr. Sock II came to this world on June 19^th at exactly the same time as his older brother 3:18PM. Weird coincidence!!!

I definitely enjoyed knitting socks. Enjoyed so much that my next project would be “Fluke” (click on the link to get the pdf pattern and see where the picture comes from), for my sister, made from the wonderful German “Fortissima Socka” (color #2048).

What would I have done differently? I definitely made first sock too loose. Socks in general should be knit tighter than other garments. Also I had to adjust the first sock (decrease and increase) and be careful when knitting the second one – I wanted the color-pattern to be identical. I would also follow the PDF pattern, because it has calculations, rather then casting on 60 sts without considering the tightness of my knitting and the circumference of my calves – I find that design on the back could benefit from a tighter fit.

While I was working on the second sock I crocheted yet another dishcloth. Now I have a set of 3 and still lots of yarn left – expect more dishcloth pictures in near future.

And finally, here is a sneak preview of my next project. I already have socks and some slippers, to go with, would be nice. I picked up bright blue yarn yesterday and started my knitting.

The color of yarn is much brighter and livelier in real life. It's "Galway" Irish worsted knitting wool in color # 5050 Oh, the pattern … I'll keep it a surprise for now!

Yesterday was an interesting day...

First of all, it’s finally cooling down here in Montreal. We had a huge storm the day before (I missed it working in catacombs): crazy winds, downpour, thunder, and lightning. I think that it was a sign from the Gods marking the birthday of Mr. Sock.

Secondly, I was puzzled by the following question:
Do you identify yourself with

a. Your country of origin
b. Canada

c. Quebec

d. Montreal

I had to think a while about that one and I am still not sure if my answer was final.

I kept thinking and then decided to cast on the little brother of Mr. Sock – there is no better time to think than while casting on. 60 stitches later I was interrupted by a gentleman, who needed help with the printer and the computer (oh yeah, I was knitting at work). After explaining to the gentleman that he is distracting me and will be responsible in case I’ll freeze to death, because the long Canadian winter is coming sooner then he thinks, and that I would like to be warm and comfy throughout those 8 months, and having TWO socks (not just one) is essential for my warmness, I received a rather interesting reply:
“You might be European, because Canadian girls your age do not knit”.
I was SHOCKED, I tried to contradict, but my shock was too strong – CANADIAN GIRLS KNIT!!!. You don’t have to be a Russian babushka (grandmother) to knit. So, Canadian girls, lets get out there and show people that we knit! And this is THE TIME to do it – June 14th is the World Wide Knit In Public Day. Get out there, bring your hooks and needles and show people that we knit.

If you are a Montréaler there will be some knitting at Parc Lafontaine. There more details on MontrealKnit website.

If you are a Torontonian you better be ready. Yarn Harlot is celebrating her birthday on the same day. And she invited this guy. You do not understand why it’s so exciting? Franklin, aka The Panopticon is making a 1000 Knitters project and if you are a knitter you have a chance to be a part of this! I would assume that most of the places are probably booked by now but you still might get in if someone cancels. Read this if you want to know where to call and what to do. If not for my friend’s birthday on Friday I would probably get a ticket to Toronto and enjoy the “happening”.

And if you are anywhere else in the world you should join one of the kip groups. And you still have time to start one, in case your city/country does not have any. Check out the website, get out there, and KNIT/CROCHET!!!

And here are pictures of Mr.Sock that I took last night. Let me tell you, it is VERY difficult to balance on one leg while taking pictures of the back of the other. It stroke earlier today that I could’ve done it sitting down – but hey, I like the challenge. I apologize for bad quality of these pictures and I’ll get someone to take better ones as soon as I can.

The birth.

Today, at 3:18PM, on the hot and humid June day Mr. Sock was born!!! HOORAY!

The mother and the baby are doing fine. The birth was easy, thanks to the instructions for Kitchener stitch from KnittingHelp website.

Thank you everyone for support and help. Pictures of newborn and happy parent are coming up soon. Feel free to send gifts, flowers, and chocolate.

Mr. Sock is almost done.

The knitting part is done; all I have left is to “sew it up”. I can’t wait to buy the tapestry needle, finish the sock, wash it, and see how it looks on my foot. It won’t be the first time I’ll be trying it on, but I think that washing will do it good and will make it even more attractive (by hiding all the irregularities and little “mistakes” in my knitting). All in all it was a lot of fun. I think I’ll be knitting lots of socks. I actually have a next project in mind, as soon as I’ll knit Mr. Sock the second.
I am a bit disappointed that I made couple of mistakes, but I hope that none of them will show. I am also disappointed with the lack of measurements on the pattern (not the pdf one but the one I had in my calendar); I planned to make the sock for Monkey Face (my sister), I even bought yarn with her color preference in mind, but 60 sts gave a diameter way too big for her leg. It’s actually a bit loose on my leg but I hope that washing will tighten it up just a bit. From now on I would make sure to get my dimensions and to use patterns that provide size measurements. By the way, my “mistakes” should be blamed on the lack of measurements: I had to decrease and increase in certain parts of the sock and it makes it looks uneven.

After finishing the sock, I decided to do a bit of crocheting. I got some multicolor cotton yarn on special at Zellers; it matches the orange I used for my dishcloth, so last night I crocheted the second dishcloth, using the same pattern but in different colors. I love this kind of no-brainer projects; since I don’t have to count my stitches every 2 seconds I can enjoy a good movie (last night it was “12” by Nikita Mikhalkov – Russian movie that was nominated for Oscar’s last year) and have a final item done by the end of it. I even managed to weave in the ends – impressive!!!

Let me tell you though, I am getting spoiled with good yarn. After using Regia sock yarn, I am so used to the thread slipping of my needle easily and almost knitting itself. The lower-quality cotton was hard to knit with and left my hands covered with orange fuss. Now I can see why some yarn costs 99c for skein, while other is 5$ for the same amount!

First Steps

It all started after I heard the news that my very good friend (best childhood friend) in Tashkent gave birth to a baby girl. I decided that I have to send a little something for her, preferable hand-made. So I got some yarn and some hooks, and since I've been practicing crocheting for a little bit over a week, I started the baby carpet in extremely psychedelic color scheme (to tell you the truth, colors look rather tame on this photo):

After finishing the carpet, I wanted to continue crocheting, but make something smaller this time. I also wanted it to be useful and simple enough that if I would not get the design correctly I would still be able to use it. So the big winter sweater was out of the question, and I decided to crochet a dish cloth:
It was a fun and easy project and I decided to continue.
Next was this bright yellow purse that I now use to carry my current projects around:

After the blanket it was the biggest project so far. I really like the texture of the finished material and will probably use this stitch for something else in near future.

Finally, this morning I finished my hook case. I got 7 hooks as a Christmas gift and so far they've been stored in the empty chocolate box. Now they have a cozy home. This is how it looks from outside:

And inside it has room for 9 hooks:


The original case had buttons and would roll to "close". I am contemplating the idea of attaching some ribbons to mine, meanwhile I can just fol it in half to close and it actually stays closed!


I really hope that I would be able to find enough time to camp, cook, and crochet/knit. For now, while it is cold and rainy in Montreal, I'll keep knitting and crocheting!

P.S. The colors on the pictures are not as good as they are in real life. I definitely should start taking pictures during the day - daylight makes everything so much prettier!
P.P.S. I will post links and references to places where I got my patterns from very soon.