I’m Knitting As Fast As I Can

My Symphony V Moebius has gone to live at the shop for a while and I finally remembered to bring my camera with me to Knit Night for a photo shoot.

Not the greatest photo, but you get the idea.  The pairing of the pattern with the Tilli Tomas Symphony yarn is perfect.  Just the right amount of bling from the pre-strung beads.

We bought this pattern and yarn as a kit at TNNA during the Sample It frenzy.  I finished the project I brought with me on the plane to Columbus so I cast on for this wrap in the hotel room.  I actually wound the yarn . . . by hand!  How old school!

Unfortunately, once I got back to Salt Lake the project languished.  I got the itch to make a couple of sweaters so this wrap repeatedly found itself at the bottom of the WIP pile.  And, really, that was a shame because it’s a relaxing project with a lovely result.  Jackie E-S has been designing beautiful, wearable lace projects for many years.  In fact, she was at the forefront of downloadable knitting patterns so designers & knitters should thank her for her foresight and innovation.  Plus, her patterns never disappoint (her Flared Lace Smoke Ring is one of my all-time favorite patterns) and she’s a really nice person.

Although the moebius took nearly 6 months to finish, these felted slippers only took a day—and they only required one skein of Cascade 128.

More details on my Ravelry project page.

No knitting tonight.  I’m off to stuff my face with fried foods.

6 down; 2 to go

Regardless of the fact that she does it every year, I’m always caught off guard when my daughter asks me to knit holiday gifts for her friends at the last minute. Last year, she requested a hat for her BF the evening before she wanted to gift it to him.

Crikey.

Like any idiot great mom would do, I obliged by designing and knitting a hat that evening.

Sadly, word on the street is that the recipient’s mom (my friend and also a knitter) threw the hat in the washing machine over Christmas break and inadvertently felted it. So he only wore it like 2 times.  Ouch.

This year I’m getting a jump on the holiday knitting.

Really.

Interweave recently released a free eBook with 6 felted patterns. One of them was the Dumpling Bag, a pattern I meant to knit when I got the magazine in the fall of 2008. The design is included in the eBook and seeing it again jogged my memory. After consulting with the daughter for confirmation that a high school girl would like the bag, I set to work with some long-stashed yarn that has plenty of bling.

Because I was using a single strand of thinner yarn, I made a few changes to the pattern to make the bags slightly larger. I worked a 4-stitch I-cord (instead of a 3-stitch one) and then increased up to 80 stitches (instead of 60). I decreased in 8 points at the bottom (instead of 6) and worked centered double decreases on the last round to get me down to 16 stitches (instead of 24).

The finished bags are stacking up.

Best of all, no worries if these are inadvertently thrown in the wash!

Several months ago I answered a call for submissions from Interweave Press. A few weeks later, I got an email from Lisa telling me my submission had been chosen for the Holiday Gifts issue. Fun!

The submission was for a small project, but the instructions were fairly complicated and I obsessed with getting them both clear and correct. I knitted and felted the samples and then, because the design incorporated a large bead, began the search for the perfect bead. Before I knew it, the mailing deadline was upon me and I still had no beads. A canvassing of the local beads shops turned up nothing.

Enter my lampworking friend.

I brought the finished pouches to her house one evening and by the next day she had made all the beads I needed. And, talk about a custom job, each was designed specifically to match each pouch.

Just perfect.

The magazine came out a few weeks ago and Interweave made them look lovely and whimsical.

Unfortunately, I don’t get to keep the samples. But my friend made me a few extra beads. I just need to find some time to knit up some more of the pouches.  Got any to spare?