Saturday, October 20, 2007

Papercrafts

Taking a break from Thermal and knitting needles and replacing them with some paper, scissors and glue, of course. Can't do anything without glue.
I decorated my "old but never really used" spiral notebook with some decoupage paper I got in a magazine. Casamia, I think. Well, actually Le idee di Casamia. It's an Italian home decorating magazine. My Italian sucks, and I only buy it for the freebies inside, such as the mentioned decoupage paper.
I completely forgot how badly I suck at decoupage. Everything came out wrinkly when I applied a coat of varnish over the glued paper pieces. Either I didn't put enough glue, or I out too much. Or I didn't wait long enough for everything to dry.

Like I said, wrinkly:


I also made a bookmark form a magazine ad. Again, wrinkly. No varnish on this one tough. Clearly I have glue issues.



I guess I should go back to my knitting now. The body of the damn sweater is done, I just need to knit the sleeves. Can't seem to find the motivation tough.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Thermal progress and some cozies

After exactly 10 days of knitting in waffle stitch, this is how far I got with my Thermal. I passed the placket point, put the front pieces on hold (thank you, scrap yarn for finding a purpose for yourself), bound off for the armholes and I'm about to start knitting the back. The only problem is that I've just about had it with the damn waffles. The thought of sleeves terrifies me. And I'm not so sure I'll have enough yarn. So far I've used up 4 and a half out of 8 balls. Meaning the sleeves better need only one ball, 1,5 max. Otherwise I'm in trouble, because I'm not so sure I'll be able to find the exact same dyelot of this thing.
Not to make this post all boring and all about Thermal, I present all the iPod cozies I made for my nano. Only 3 away from having one for every day of the week. Shown in the picture in the order they were made. From knitting flat, to knitting in the round, to colorwork (my first) to the one that's supposed to have some sort of closure, but I never get around to finding a button for it.


Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Thermal

Currently working on Thermal. I bought 8 balls of this turquoise wool and had no idea what to do with it. I finally decided on Thermal, mostly because I love the neckline placket on it. I might make mine a bit higher though, it just seems to open for something that is basically a winter garment. Or should I leave it as it is, and wear it with a scarf or something?
Best part of this current project of mine is the fact that I'm working with 100% wool. My first wool. Turquoise is actually the only color, and brand of 100% my LYS carries (well, this and black). Everything else is just some sort of blend. So far I like knitting with this and I'm absolutely loving the fact that I can do a felted join. No weaving!

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Shamrock dishcloth

Still trying to de-stash, even if it means I'm knitting stuff I'll probably never use. Really, I can't seem to grasp the concept of a dishcloth. I tried using one and it's way too slippery. Plus I don't trust its scrubbing abilities. I'm sticking with my Vileda sponge.
But I must confess - dishcloths make great stashbusting projects. And they're quick. I got the pattern for the shamrock cloth here. This used up 30 g of the 50 g skein of cotton I had lying around. Which means I might have to make another cloth. Smaller, of course. Maybe a coaster?

Monday, October 1, 2007

Knitting from my stash

These socks were the result of my attempt to get rid of some leftovers in my yarn stash. I actually don't have a big stash, which is fine, because I wouldn't be able to put in anywhere. What I do have are some odd balls of this and that leftover from my past project. For some reason, almost everything is green.
Anyway, mission 1: Get rid of the dark green/ light green acrylic blend that I used to make my Sheldon with. Mission 1 ended with a pair of Sheldon colored sock, and only a meter of yarn left - effective stashbusting indeed.
I knit the socks on size 4 mm DPN's, took me maybe a week. I combined instructions from Silver's Sock class with the ones I found in a book called "Pletenje" (Knitting). And voila, some nice socks to wear around the house.