Being Beata

FO time! I finished this baby hoodie on spring break.

Thanks Abby for modeling! As you can tell, it’s still a bit big on her. This is good, since it’ll still fit her next spring.

Some specs:
Pattern: Hooded Baby Cardigan (P630) from Plymouth
Yarn: Oh My! by Plymouth – 7 balls
Needle: Knit Picks Options size 10
Project Ravelry page

Pattern knit entirely as is. I wanted to convert it to be knit in the round, but was too lazy to. The pattern is very easy to make.  It made for really productive SnB knitting, and spring break knitting while traveling in the car.  The only change I made was to kitchener the top of the hood instead of bind off and sew it together. The bind off just seemed a little arbitrary, plus who would want a seam there?

I read on ravelry that the yarn unravels easily from being weaved in, so I (gasp) knotted the ends in after weaving. Let’s hope that withstands the pulling and tugging of a toddler!

I made the buttons from polymer clay. It’s sort of a new hobby of mine. I consider it an extension of my knitting (like the beading – it’s just for stitch markers, really), so it’s not really a new hobby. Can you see them? I rolled the clay on the thickest setting of the pasta machine, cut them out from a 5/8″ template, and textured it with a rubber stamp. Then I painted it with a wash and put gloss coat on it after baking it. I love them!

My floppy dog was also kind enough to model the hoodie for me.

Isn’t he just so darn cute?!?

So I apparently like to forget to blog about spinning.  Here is my latest finished yarn, actually finished a couple of weeks ago.

It’s 253 yds of sport-dk weight super-soft merino (~4 oz).  When I spun the singles, they were as soft as Malabrigo lace.  I think the finished yarn is pretty close in softness too.  I’m totally in love with this Merino. 

I spun it up to make a stag bag (link to pdf pattern), although now it looks like I’m a little short on yardage.  I think I’m going to try it anyway.  If I run out… well, I’ll just have to spin some more.  I guess I better go get more of this roving soon.

I’m currently spinning this to use along with the red merino for the stag bag.

Same super-softness.  I love merino!

A small bit of yarn dyeing activity.  After & before pics:

I did this Sunday in my crock pot using food coloring.  The base yarn is Knit Picks Essential bare, 100g of sock yarn.  I used 16 drops of blue to 7 drops of green (although using much more dye than that – my blue bottle is almost gone!).  I used knitty’s dip-dye method.  It was so easy to do!  I just put the yarn in the crock pot and would occasionally come to pull some out.  No exactly science or anything. 

When it was done, I washed it and it bled a little bit.  It kept bleeding even after 4 washes, so I decided to put it all back in the crockpot with clear water and vinegar and left it overnight to set the color.  It did set the color a bit more, but still not completely.  I’ll just try to remember to wash the socks separately until it stops bleeding.  The bad thing about leaving it overnight was that it starting boiling.  No biggie since the yarn is superwash, but I used maroon yarn to tie the skein, and the maroon bled a little onto the yarn.  Whoops.

I enjoy doing food coloring dyeing a lot more than kool-aid.  The color is more predictable and controllable, and I’m just not a fan of the kool-aid surprise.  It’s almost much less neon colored.  I also really enjoyed reskeining the yarn after dyeing.  I think it looks much better mixed in like that.  I’m quite in love with this dye job.  Who needs $20 hand-dyed sock  yarn when I can dye my own?

More yarn love:

I bought 2 pounds of the Highland Tweeds yarn from WEBS when it was on closeout for like $12 a pound. It comes in cones in spinning oil, so I’ve been skeining and washing it. It’s been through the wash 10 times, but the water is still coming out like this:

I’m going to wash it next with some vinegar. Hopefully, this will set the color and soften the yarn a bit (I heard that vinegar smooths the scales in the wool.. hmm…).

Even though it’s not completely finished being washed, look at the difference in the before and after washing picture! (Before = right, After = left)

I love how it bloomed and takes on a softer texture. I’ll have to swatch it and see how it behaves.

Next goal after washing it all? Dyeing it. I’m not sure I’m a big fan of this yellow color. Maybe I’ll dye it with blue to make a green. Or a purple to make a brownish color.

I finished spinning my orange alpaca a couple of weeks ago. I don’t know how I forgot to blog about it!

It’s 8 oz, 250 yds of super soft 100% baby alpaca. It’s 3-ply and approximately DK to worsted weight (varies by section). There are some bulky spots too, and spots where the plying because a little boucle-ish. For my first yarn, it turned out pretty even.

This is what I’m spinning right now:

4 oz of “Cinnabar” Merino. It’s going to be a 3-ply DK as well (the orange alpaca was actually practice for this). I have another 4 oz of this in the color “Patina” – a beige-ish color. Combined, I’m hoping to make the stag bag in Harry Potter-ish colors (warning: pdf link).

So I joined the jaywalking craze and knit a pair of Jaywalkers for hubby.

I modified the original pattern to make them toe-up instead of cuff down since I was worried about the amount of yarn that I had. It was good I did that too, because I only had enough yarn to do a 5″ cuff instead of a 6 3/4″ cuff called for by the pattern. I started following this, but then got confused and started following Ann Budd’s tutorial from Summer 2007 Interweave Knits. I also followed this to knit one size up for hubby’s man feet.

I knit them two at a time, so I divided up the ball of yarn into 2 before I started. I tried to match up the color pattern, and it worked out pretty well. The stripes are off by 3 or 4 rows, but it’s not really noticeable.

The ribbing at the top is way too loose. I adjusted the pattern to be bigger according to Sean’s foot measurement. Apparently, his ankles are much skinnier than his foot (could be normal for all people – haven’t paid much attention until now) and so the ribbing part is much too loose. If I did it again, I would have gone down to a 0 or something to do the ribbing part. Or just decreased after the heel turn so that the leg is knit on less stitches than the foot.

Sean loves it. He says they’re the warmest socks he own. !

I started an etsy shop!

For those of you who don’t know, Etsy is a place where people buy and sell handmade goods. I’ve been making stitch markers lately and have been really enjoying them. The big problem is that I don’t need a bijillion stitch markers! So to rationalize my new beading hobby, and to perhaps fund an expansion of my yarn stash, I decided to sell stitch markers online.

These are two I have up right now. Yeah, that makes the store pretty empty, but hopefully I’ll have more time to devote to filling it up after this round of exams and projects coming up.

Anyhow, check it out at http://bdeitrick.etsy.com. Hope you enjoy!

So you might ask, why no update? Well, other than the usual “I’m studying like crazy and don’t have time to knit” answer, I’ve actually been working on a secret project that I’ll have to put up after I send it off. So you’ll just have to wait .

Meanwhile, I’ve been having loads of fun spinning. The orange alpaca yarn is done – I’ll post about it later when it’s dry and ready for pictures and weighing and measuring and all that. I’ve also made some lovely stone spindles with donut beads from Fire Mountain Gems. A friend from the LYS spinning group showed me how to make one, and they’re super easy to do!

They’re all approximately 1 oz. I bent the cup hooks to center the yarn over the middle. It’s very well balanced and spins forever! If I wasn’t so in love with my wheel, I would spin on these non-stop.

I also participated in a handmade spindle exchange on Ravelry. I made a wooden toy spindle and got Sean to paint it for me. Isn’t it super cute?

In return, I got 2 bottom whorl stone spindles and 1 oz of yummy, handdyed, mohair/wool batt.

I haven’t tried spinning on them yet, but it’ll be fun to learn how to use a bottom whorl (I’ve only ever spin on top whorl spindles). The yellow one is a great size as a supported spindle to spin some cotton. Now I just have to sharpen the bottom and find a good ceramic bowl to use it with. Hmm… the possibilities.

A slight divergence for non-knitterly activities.

I received a Rowenta iron for Christmas!

I had never understood why one would pay more than $15 for an iron, but now, I completely do. This was recommended to me by fellow knitter and crafter Lisa. She sews, and therefore irons a lot. While I do not sew, I hope to learn one day. Primarily though, I asked for this for Christmas since I’ll be starting my new job soon (ish) where I have to wear ironed shirts and pants. I really hate ironing. Somehow, I always manage to mess it up. Not with this iron.

First off, it is super hot. No idea exactly how hot it is, but on my white cotton button-up shirt that has not been ironed in literally years, one glide took out all the wrinkles. Not back and forth – just once. The steam is really strong, and I can even force a burst of steam over a particular stubborn area. In fact, when I accidently ironed in a wrinkle on the sleeve, I made it burst some steam, and the wrinkle came right out. Amazing.

Secondly, it heats up super quickly. I plugged it in, and less than 30 seconds later, it was all the way up to the hottest setting. There is even an indicator light that tells you when it’s ready. Sweet.

The water tank is huge. The heat dial is easy to understand. The cord is long and tangle-free. Most models have an auto-shut off feature, but I choose one that doesn’t in case I use it to sew. It even has a vertical steam feature, although I haven’t tested that particular feature yet. I imagine it’ll come in super handy with my knitting some day.

So for those of you who sew, or just who wants a good iron. This one rocks.

This is my only Christmas gift crafting I did this year. I had to wait to give it away before posting, just in case the recipient sees it.

Pattern: Seduction Socks (link to PDF)
Yarn: Reclaimed yarn – 43% Rayon, 39% Nylon, 10% Cotton, 8% Angora.
Needles: 32″ US1.5 (2.5mm)

This was knitted almost exclusively as a travel project for about 2 months. I kept it in my purse and worked on it at weekly SnBs and when bored waiting somewhere. I finished pretty quickly, considering. I did work at home on the heel and toe, since those parts are a little more complicated. I even had to wait on the heel because it was simply impossible doing it 2 at a time on one circular. I ended up order a set of sock dpns from Knit Picks just to tackle heel area. I’m really glad I have it now though.

The socks turned out a little snug, but in a good way. It stretches nicely, but I’m not sure of the yarn’s recoverability. Erin tried it on and it seems to fit her better than me, so yay!