The Elephant is Looking Cool and Cozy

Well Knitting was at my place. It was so cool having you guys out. Sorry about all the sirens, there was a lot of action out our way last night. As you can see I've put up picks of all our new creations. I love your choice of model for your scarf Amber, he's so cute. As you can see Kristi's socks came out quite nicely and I'm really loving the color patterns in her cotton work. My shopping bag is now a beach bag (also good for stuffing another knitting project in that I'm currently working on). Oh guys, I really enjoyed Darma and Greg and Aaron would love to see the Jane Seymore episode (he's sorta sweet on her you know). The Wedding Singer was fantastic too, hadn't seen that one in a while. You sort of forget that Adam Sandler can sing and be sweet in his own weird way.

Self Stripeing Fun

Well, it was my first time using a self stripeing yarn (other than your regular varagated of course) and I have to admit it was kinda fun. This is a dice bag for Aaron by the way... it was going to be a tie but I just could'nt get the gauge right. To tell you the truth I think he was sort of happy to be getting the bag instead.
Oh, everybody let me know where they'd like to meet this week.

New Knits

Well we had a wonderful time at Amber's this week. BTW thanks for the trip to Barns & Nobel guys I get out there so rarely. Well, as you can see Kristi's been quite the buzy bee. All the photos this time around are of her projects (minus the lovely scarf that Amber is making). I have to admit the sock in progress does look a bit like a torture device.

A Whole New Blog...

Ok I made a few more changes... lets just call it spring cleaning. I've added a link list now so if anybody has any ideas for links they'd like to see on it please let me know.

Well I finished the shorter fingerless gloves. I'm pretty pleased with them. I found the pattern on the web but I had to mess with it to get it to work. She had a mistake in her chart for the cable and of course I had to tinker with the gadge, but I was happy to know that I've come far enough along in this craft to recognize other peoples mistakes in their patterns and correct them *yeah!* Oh, I also did the thumbs completely differently, and I think the technique could be used to make pockets as well... I'll have to test that out. Oh yes, Cleo costarred with me in this picture. ;)

Spring Knits

Well, we had knitting at my place once again. It was so much fun having you guys out, and thank you so much Kristi for the drinks. I loved all the projects everyone was working on... I'll have to make one of those headbands that Amber is sporting for myself. And at some point I'll have to sit down with Kristi and have her show me how she does that circular spiral baby blanket thingy (looks like a rasta hat while in process -- see pic). Anyway, loved them all and I hope to have you guys out at my place more often. Maybe if it warms up enough we could do our knitting outside. Aaron did say he wanted to get a mosquito magnet -- it could work -- *hope*. Hmmm... or knitting 'round the fire pit, could be interesting... we'd have to watch out for sparks.

Long Cabled Fingerless Gloves

(Can you see the cables?)
I finished the long fingerless gloves. I'm pretty happy about them, I may even do some short ones as well.




The pattern for them is here... in case anyone wants to make some.
knitty.com/ISSUEspring07/PATTdashing.html

Can you tell I've been visiting Knitty a lot lately?

And now we revisit... Mathematical Knitting!

Hello, remember that link I posted way back when about the woman who was crocheting models of hyperbolic space (pretty cool). Well here are a few more links for mathematical knitting and crocheting. They have some really great pics of the models themselves... worth a look in. www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?type=article&article_id=218392811

www.sciencenews.org/articles/20061223/bob10.asp

www.toroidalsnark.net/mathknit.html

The 3rd link has some of the coolest pics (you've got to click on her links and look around), and not just for models of hyperbolic space, there's other types of mathematical knitting there too. I particularly liked the link on orientable surfaces. Check it out.

Enjoy!

Space Invaders

Finished the Space Invaders coat for Archie. I got the idea from this pattern...

www.knitty.com/ISSUEspring07/PATTbmp.html

In case anybody wants the charts. I can't imagine how long it must have taken her to do those socks!

E.Z. Seemless Sweater

Well I finally finished the seemless sweater based on Elizabeth Zimmermann's calculations. It's in green of course (My favorite color though I wear it so rarely in clothes). I had to redo the yoke once as the pattern I originally chose was too big. I'm pretty pleased with it. It does look a bit 60s to me but then that sort of sweater does I think. The major advantage is that it went very quickly compared to other sweaters I've done.

Princess, Glow in the Dark, Cape

Well I finished the cape. She seems to like it, she stood in our dark bathroom and checked it out in the mirror, she even wore it like hair- freaky glow in the dark hair. We had great fun. She wanted to tie it under her arms until I explained that she had to wear it like Superman. She seemed to get it after that. Oh and the pom pons were just perfect, thank you for the suggestion Amber.

First Bite...

Well I had a wonderful time at Amber's last night. We watched love at first bite. Boy did that bring back some memories, it was great fun.

You can see the checkerboard scarf Amber's working on. I love the muted colors, all in lovely jewel tones. And this is the capelet I've been working on for Savanna. I just finished putting the trim on it today (complete with pom pons as Amber suggested) and it looks great, very girly girl. The glow in the dark beads will be Savanna's favorite I think.

Video Ga Ga...

Here's a very helpful site for figuring out how to increase and decrease. It's got other great videos too. If you can't get the video to start in the window that pops up, click on the direct link to video thingy at the bottom of the window. Gives you a great visual w/spoken instructions too.

www.knittinghelp.com/knitting/basic_techniques/decrease.php

Panta!

Here's a link to the panta pattern that Kristi made (she sent me this in Email -- Thank you Kristi!)

www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=51351.30

And here's one to the most enjoyable and entertaining Domiknitrix web site...

www.domiknitrix.com/

And a link to her tshirts with the cute, kinky logo on them (yes I checked and they're hers - no knockoffs here).

www.spreadshirt.com/shop.php?sid=70857

And of course, the best for last, the wonderful blog that Amber shared with me (thanks much Amber) Crazy Aunt Pearl! You gotta love those cats...

www.crazyauntpurl.com/archives/2005/09/what_are_you_lo.php

Knitting Group... at my place.

Well, we met again, this time at my house. Note the wonderful coverlet that Kristi is wearing. She had just finished it that night and draped it on her shoulders before moving on to the next project. Amber is working on a scarf with this fantastic checkerboard pattern, it's very clever looking, I'll have to try one myself. I'm still woking on my EZ, no seems (well just at the underarms) sweater in green. I'll probably post a pic of it as soon at the sleeves are attached.

Manly Knitting

Welcome Shane, our first man at knitting group. Here he is working on his chainmail (very cool). It's a bit difficult to see on the dark green carpet but it's pretty incredible stuff.

Heart Like a Wheel...

This is Kristi's new spinning wheel, she's still looking for a missing part. Hmmm... I may check for that at howstuffworks.com. It would be cool if we could learn how to spin. :)

A Jacket for Leroy

Hey guys, I just revamped the little coat I was working on for my nephew-to-be Leroy. I finished it with an I cord border, I finally learned how to knit one unto a garment! Then I did a little bobble button for the loop (I learned that from the knitting calander). I think it looks a bit like some of the costumes they have for civilians on Star Trek. Aaron thinks it looks a bit "green" or "hippy". It occured to me that if you could knit an I cord directly unto a garment you should be able to make celtic knots that way too... worth looking into.

Color Weaving, (aka Weaving in Ends)

Well we had another great meeting (to which I did not bring my camera. AAARRRGGGG!) I'm really bumming too because we had some neat stuff going on there. Kristi brought in the wool that her son had dyed for her (and it was lovely), and Amber had started this beautiful new texture in pretty muted tones. Well, no worries. If you have picks send them to me to post, or I can catch up with you later and get some pictures. We also tried some Color Weaving (I'm so thrilled about this one) and I think everybody picked up on it pretty quick. Here's the website I found that shows how to do the knit side for stock knit...

sockpr0n.blogspot.com/2006/10/how-to-weave-in-ends-while-knitting.html

I hope that made a successful link, if not there's always cutting and pasting to the address bar. This site has quite a few picks so it may take a while. I can't seem to find the one that showed how to do it when purling but it was a pain to read anyway so I might just post some picks of how it's done both ways later.

Savanna's "Princess" Hat

Well I've done several projects lately but I keep forgeting to get pictures of them before I give them away (silly me!) But this one I started on the loom just recently. I'd made a nice purple, green, and blue hat for my niece Mickia with a festive fur bottom. Savanna saw it and hinted that it was too big for Mickia's head (Savanna's been told by her mother that her head is fairly big for her age). Later when I gave Mickia the hat, Savanna came right out and asked if she could have it. Poor thing, I've been knitting a lot of things for her soon-to-be little brother Leroy too, and I think she's getting envyous. She told me she'd like me to make her a "pink princess dress". Well I've never knit a dress before and I told her so, but I did manage to start this pink princess hat before her dad picked her up and took her home. It has the festive fur too. I used a bluky pink cotton from a sweater I'd recycled. The hat is nice and thick and should give her room for growth. Oh, if anyone needs knitting graph paper to tool around with and make your own designs this is an excellent site...
www.sweaterscapes.com/grafpap-134.htm
Just print it out and you're good to go.

Knitting Group Meets Again...

Wow, sorry it's taken me awhile to post this. Well, our group met again (one member shy - Kristi wasn't feeling well, Get well soon Kristi, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE... we miss you.)
This is Amber's latest creation made on her knify knitter loom - wonderful slipper socks with fun fur tops. Such a neat idea, and it never occured to me. Yeah! one more use for fun fur!