WIPs, FOs and New Yarn! Oh My!

Happy Wednesday! It's been a weird yet successful week on my end, I hope it's been treating you all the same. :) Today I have so much to share with you I don't even know where to start! It's funny because I feel like I have gotten nothing done on the knitting front lately, and yet here I am showing you all the progress I have made. Isn't it funny how life works out that way sometimes?

I guess I should start with my WIPs, since it is WIP Wednesday after all! I have 2 to share this week, the first of which is my mom's wrap. I hate to admit that this poor thing has been getting the shaft lately. I can't figure out why? Maybe it's the fact that it takes so long to finish one section of the 10 row repeat, or that it isn't really a mindless knit? Or that it's just so big I get bogged down? Either way, I thought I was doing pretty good, and then I read the instructions, which say: "Continue in pattern until work measures 84 inches". Ok, not a big deal, shouldn't take that long, right? Out comes my tape measure and about 1 minute later I'm huffing in frustration. FOURTEEN INCHES! Yup, that's all I have done so far.  Safe to say my mom will be getting this still on the needles at Christmas, and maybe even next Christmas as well.

Now that that is out of my system, let me share you the culprits that helped contribute my lousy 14 inch wrap. First up is my other WIP, which is a cowl made from my 50/50 merino and tencel handspun.  I don't expect to have enough yarn to completely finish the pattern (infinitude scarf), nor do I expect it to be super warm, but it will be gorgeous none-the-less, and lately I've been really into decorative scarves anyways. The more the merrier!

And then there's the headband I showed off last week. Well I finally got some super cute buttons and finished it! Safe to say it's my new favorite of all the headbands I have for winter, and will definitely get worn many times as the weather gets colder. The yarn is Plymouth Yarn Encore Worsted, held double and I love how warm it is!

Just when I thought I didn't need more sock yarn, and believe me, I don't, I caved this past weekend and picked up a skein of Berroco Comfort Sock, 50/50 Acrylic and Nylon.  It feels sooo squishy and the color choices were so pretty. I couldn't decide between this one, the orange one, or the more denim blue, but this one ended up winning. And guess what? IT STRIPES! YAY! I will finally have a pair of striped socks when I break down and cast on.

Whew! That was a mouthful. I really hope you all enjoyed reading about my adventures as much as I enjoyed writing about them.  There is something really freeing about letting it all out in a blog.  Have a great week friends!

~Lisa

FO Friday: Headband Hubbabaloo!

You will never believe how hard it was to come up with a catchy title!

Hi everyone, hope you all had a great week! I know I did. Between a painting that is finally going right, some great news regarding my spindle drawings and a painting society show, and just feeling really good about the way my diet is going, this has been one heck of a week! Oh and I finished some projects!

You can probably guess by the name of today's post, I have been crazy busy making headbands lately, and thus I have finished quite a few.

First, I finished up all of the handspun headbands I plan to sell next week at a craft show for Relay. Ten in all, and all are simply gorgeous!

I'm thinking between $15 and $20 for each, is that too high? How much would you pay? Which is your favorite!? I really like them all :)

Next on my list of headbands is the Ribboned Headband I made to match my Berry-boned wrists that I finished back in August. At first I hated this project, because it was curling and tedious and annoying and well yea. But now that it's done, and blocked, I LOVE it. And it keeps my ears super warm!

Excuse the bad lighting, once again my camera hates me!

Finally, I have another one that I started for myself. After finishing up the ones for the sale, I wanted one similar to those for me and decided to stash dive. I cam out with one of 3 skeins of Plymouth Encore Worsted and decided to cast on. I am loving the color, which has flecks of pink and blues in it and how warm I know it will be! I can't wait to get this bad boy done.

Just to humor you guys, I'll share a photo of my painting in progress too, which is in the very rough stages, so ignore the mess :) I am still loving this more than any other I've done this semester, simply because it's in oils!

Happy Friday, and for more FO's, check out Tami's Amis!

~Lisa

WIP (and 1 FO) Wednesday.

Wow, it's Wednesday already? Where did the week go? It always seems like once Wednesday hits the rest just flies by!

I'm excited to share my latest FO with you all today. I've only worn them once but they are already keeping my wrists nice and toasty! Beribboned Wrists by my good blogger friend Alicia Landi. I fell in love with this pattern the instant I saw her publish it and when I died some dk yarn this summer with berries I knew it was the perfect match. To finish them off I had some pretty blue ribbon left over from a needle case my friend Ivy had made me!

Berry-boned Wrists

After completing these this weekend and still having a whole skein plus a little more of the berry yarn, I thought "Why not make a matching headband" and so (after asking for permission) I started my improv Beribboned Headband! It's coming along pretty nicely, but a little tedious with all the stockinette stitch.

Finally on my list of WIP's for the week I have the shawl I started last week as part of Evelyn's Project: Stash KAL. I worked on this the whole way to and from my Grandma's birthday get together last weekend and made significant progress. The plan is to just go until I run out of yarn; hopefully this will be enough to make it a decent size.

Finally Fall Shawl

My mom's wrap is currently going nowhere fast. I worked on it at Knit Night last week and ended up frogging out all I had completed. That lace, as easy as it is, is messing me up. So I'm putting in a life line and hopefully I'll get to it this weekend again!

I've spent quite a bit of time at studio this week so far and it's really paying off. I am very proud of where my painting is going that's for sure :) I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weeks and is as productive as I am!

~Lisa

For more WIP's check out Tami's Amis!

The (almost) Perfect Spindle for Drawing With!

What am I talking about you say? See for yourself.

I have been doing a lot of spindle drawings lately because I am going to have an opportunity to sell them and the headbands with the yarn at a craft show in November. So back in August I did a bit of thinking and realized there had to be an easier way to draw with a spindle besides taping a pencil to the bottom.  And thus this was born!

Like most homemade spindles, I used wooden wheels from Hobby Lobby. Unlike most homemade spindles, the dowel rod is replaced with a charcoal pencil.  Overall, it does the job just like a normal spindle.  However there are a few flaws in this device:

• It actually makes a different type of mark than the ones produced by taping a pencil to the bottom of a normal spindle
• The hole in the wheel was too small for my pencil, so I had to do a bit of carving and hacking at it. If I wanted to go 'pro' on these, I'd find a better thing to use there.
• Since the wheel is small, it doesn't hold much yarn.
• Obviously, the pencil needs sharpening sometimes, thus making it shorter.
• I couldn't quite get the hook to stay it, so it's taped on top.

This really does do the trick for making drawings, I am not going to lie. But I think that I actually prefer the marks made by taping a pencil to the bottom. So for now I am alternating between the two until I have time to think of a better solution.

Anyone ever make a homemade drop spindle? Any pointers??

~Lisa

WIP Wednesday, and opinions needed :)

Is it really Wednesday already? I feel like this week just started!

I had a really hard time deciding what to talk about for today's WIP Wednesday without making it sound like the same old projects again. Yes, I'm still working on the shawl (ready to start lightest stripe), and the top (hasn't gone anywhere since my last post). Today though, I am going to talk about my headbands.

For those of you who did not see my Etsy link on the right, or even if you did, I am knitting black headbands with colorful borders and flowers to sell. They seem to be very popular around the winter time, so why not take the break time I have at work and get a head start on my inventory?

I finally bought a foam head!

I am hoping to have at least 1 a week made so that by the end of the summer I can finish them up and sell them.

In progress, this is 2 hours (four 30 min breaks at work) worth of work, will be done by tomorrow!

Here's where you all come in. I have been knitting them with black wool yarn (Paton's -- a Random Act of Kindness from a fellow Ravelor -- to be exact) and am debating whether to keep doing so or not. Would people be O.K. with acrylic? If I choose acrylic, does it have to be 'luxury' acrylic, or can I get away with something like Simply Soft?  Will it lesson the value of the product?  My thing is that for those allergic to wool, this is a nice option. Plus it's cheaper to buy for me to knit with, and also most of my customer base may not really know the difference anyways. What would you do?

And then there's the borders, made with hand dyed and spun superwash wool/nylon blend yarn. If I did acrylic, for those allergic, would this small amount of wool still irritate the wearer?

I pretty much run out of previously spun and dyed yarn, except for these 2, which I am thinking I will over dye soon. The pink because I already did one band in it. The red/yellow because I think that a different color may sell better. I am thinking of overlaying both with blue, to make the pink a purple color and then the other a purple/green variety? What do you all think?

Obviously, I cannot make up my mind on much of anything. I was debating this all day at work (all 8 hours, really!) and finally decided to ask all of you. I value your opinions so much because you are all such creative knitters and spinners!

One final thought. I don't usually reply to comments on here because I am unsure if you guys read them. If I know you read or look for replies, I will start doing so. What do you all think?

I hope the week is serving you all well! I finally got more stuff moved to my new place. It's starting to look less like an empty room and more like an empty room with boxes!

Don't forget to check out Tami's Amis for more WIP Wednesdays!

~Lisa

Sasha being awesome! Courtesy a photo message from my little sister!

The hunt is on...and a pair of socks too!

Hey all. So I probably will not be doing WIP Wednesday tomorrow, because I don't really have any WIPs to talk about! Yea, that's right, I finished my socks!

In the end, I really like these socks! The foot was a butt to work, but it turned out alright in the end. The heel worries me a bit though, because it doesn't seem to want to stay lined up with the heel of my foot always, so I often have to rotate the socks. As for the yarn, Pagewood Farms Yukon, I absolutely adore the color, but the yarn itself seems a bit fuzzy; I'm wondering how this will hold up in a machine/after washing...

(My photo skills, or lack there of, do no justice to the beauty of these socks!)

As for the 'hunt' I referred to in my title, I am currently hunting down a nice worsted yarn to make this shawl for Evelyn's (Project: Stash) KAL. I am leaning towards a blue color, maybe even just getting some more of the yarn I used to make this:

Plymouth Yarn, Jeannee...but there's only 111 yards per skein :/

Blue just naturally looks good on me. I will have to do a bit of hunting at my LYS on Thursday to find the perfect fit (that isn't too expensive....too bad budgets always get in the way...so much for using only stash yarn this year!)

In other news, I knitted this winter headband up yesterday and today (it only took a total of 4 hours!) and it is now for sale in my Etsy shop. I need opinions on the photos though. I don't own a dummy to take a photo of it on, and I don't want to photograph is on a real head either. Do these photo's suffice or should I find a "head" to put it on. I am seriously considering making more, since it utilizes a few things I love: Handspun and Handdyed yarns, bright colors against black, and quick knits. What do you all think?

I am really enjoying my summer figure class right now, and I'm learning so much! I hope that everyone else out there in blog land is enjoying your time spent doing your passions, be it knitting, working, cooking, anything, and is having a good start to the week.

~Lisa

Turing Scraps into Gold

 Let me start by mentioning that I finally finished my Effortless Cardigan. I will post pictures and more details after it is blocked, whenever that is.

Anyways, as you may know, I am trying to only use stash yarn all year and not buy any new yarn at all. (although that may get broken very soon because Berroco just made some new amazing colors of Vintage and I freaked out for at least 5 minutes when I found out). So in my attempts to reduce my stash, I have been working on a few projects with my scrap/lower amount yarns.

The first one was a a headband I knitted up with some handspun.  This is the handspun that I made last semester for my spindle drawings , and I didn't have very much of each color so I couldn't do too much with it. I didn't even have enough to finish the headband, as you can see. There are 3 different yarns in there, a blue/black/green 3 ply, a blue/black 2 ply, and then a green 2 ply.  It's really fun to wear because of it's changes in color and bulkyness, but I wish it would lay flat. I guess I need to find an iron and try steam blocking it.

(This photo does no justice, but I can't get a picture of me wearing it...)

Next up is a pair of socks I started last night. I have a ton of random scraps of Vintage, and after finishing my cardigan I wanted to just get them out of my stash. So I am making random stripe worsted socks from the toe up.  I sat down for 3 hours yesterday and am already at the heel cup. I was going to do them 2 at a time, but my yarn got tangled really fast so I changed my mind. Worsted socks knit up so fast though so they'll still be done in no time. I am really excited for these because I am going to make them super long, basically until I use up all my Vintage!

       

Finally, as many of my fellow knitters can attest to, Red Heart, or any cheap acrylic, is AWFUL to knit with! So then why I am finding myself making tons of little white balls with my extra Red Heart? Well that's a secret for now, but lets just say it has to do with my art!

I have so much on my plate with school right now, I can't even keep it straight. I am really surprised that I have found time to knit (and post about it on here!) but I have noticed that when I spend time knitting it makes me want to do school work more later.  Taking a few hours on a Saturday to knit is a great stress relief and prepares me for Sunday when the homework load hits.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend and is ready for the week to start! I have a very busy one ahead, so I'll be lucky if I get through it unscathed.  Take care!

~Lisa

Holiday Knitting: Quick and Simple.

So as of 5pm tomorrow I will officially be done with the fall semester. Man it has been torture! But on a happy note I have also managed to finish a couple of holiday knitting projects. Unlike last year, no IOU yarn balls will be under the tree! Finished projects will instead take their place. However, my parents have basically said don't get them anything, which is fine by me because I'm a broke college kid anyways AND I never finished my mom's IOU socks from last year (in my defense I got one done, decided I hated the yarn and just never did the other).

So this year I decided to do a bit of something unexpected. Unexpected as in neither my brother or sister will be expecting what I made them. My sister is getting a winter headband made of 100% baby alpaca. If she doesn't like it, than I may just keep it, because I absolutely love how it turned out and how warm it is.



The headband in question is Bamboozled and I recommend it to anyone who wants a winter headband that is different from those basic ones with the flowers.

As for my brother, he is getting a bulky scarf. Being a freshman in college, I know that he could probably use something for those walks back in forth. I know he's a guy, but I have seen guys wear scarves. I actually gave a wool one to a friend of mine who swore he would never use it and the very first cold day we had got a text message with a very big thank you. So whoever says scarves are not for guys is completely wrong. Of course part of my reasoning is that I had 2 of the 3 skeins I used for this scarf already in my stash; I got them last year, intending to make hats for presents and never did, so they became the red and blue stripes of this scarf instead. It also gave me a chance to experiment with long circulars and lengthwise scarves, something I've wanted to do for awhile now.



I probably should wait to talk about these until after their given, but it's not like they read this blog and I'm bored and haven't updated for awhile. I hope all is well with the world and everyone has a great holiday!

~Lisa

It's FINALLY Summer!

It's very hard to believe that another school year has past and that I will soon be a JUNIOR (gasp!) in College! Wow. Alot of things have happened this semester, so I'm going to take some time and reflect as well as share my recent creations.

First of all, Relay for Life came and went. I expected so much, so I guess I had high hopes. Sadly, we got rained out and were only able to stay until 10 :( But we still kicked KU's butt on funds!

Second, ART! I went through C.A.R. (Concentration Admissions Review) this semester, hoping to get accepted into the Painting Program, and guess what? I DID! I was so happy when I got the acceptance email! However, I still have this crazy dream of working for Disney, SO I am going to go through C.A.R. again next semester, to try and get into the Digital Arts. This means that if I get in I will be doubling in Painting and Digital Arts, and I will probably be stuck with atleast an extra semester of school But this is what I truely want to do with my life, so I think I can handle it.

As for the summer, well I plan to knit like crazy, mostly dishcloths (Explaination below) but also socks and all the projects I didn't finish over Christmas Break. Also though, I will be in SCOTLAND! Yep, I am taking a study abroad trip with a class for 3 weeks to Scotland! I'm really excited, I've never been outside the USA.

Besides Scotland, I will be working 40 hrs a week all through June, then taking another class when I'm back as well as working, so I don't honestly know how much free time I will have, but it will still be better than normal school.

Ok so here are some of my recent projects:

Multi-directional scarf for my friend Rachel, who turned 21 in February. I just always like making things for my friends if I can! This is a nice heavy scarf made with Deborah Norville yarn.

Headband and Scarf I made for my friend Lynnsey's Birthday. She loves pink and I knew she'd love these! I feel bad because I used "cheap" yarn,but I was on a budget and I knew she wouldn't mind. She loved them btw.

Blue headband I made with leftover yarn from that hat. I LOVE this! I have even had a few people ask me to make them ones also. Maybe if I ever have time I'll set up an Etsy shop and sell them. :)
So I am making dishcloths. Not my favorite project, and I sometimes wish I had more time to make things for me, but it's for a good cause. I plan to be selling these, as well as homemade dish soap and other things, at Farmer's Market to raise some money for Relay for Life next year. Yes, I'm insane. Whatever. I think that the profits are going to be pretty good, because cotton is super cheap and the amount you can make with one ball is nice too. Wish me luck!

Besides all of these, I also have a lacy purple scarf started, a pair of socks with just one done, and I also learned 2-at-a-time socks, so that pair is about half done. I'm really excited to get some time to knit, even with work and summer school, hopefully there will be time! I've also learned how to spin on a drop spindle, but I'm no where near good enough to feel good about it yet. Maybe once I am I can make my own yarn!

Hopefully I'll update this more often as the summer goes, I can't wait for it all to begin!

~Lisa

Amazing blue hat and headband.

So school has started back up and I'm already feeling the pressure I've put upon myself with the crazy schedule of classes I have. It's my own fault, and I am up to the challenge! However, I won't be getting as much knitting done (or atleast that what I keep saying...). But I did manage to make a hat last week and use the scraps for an earwarmer headband.

The photos do this hat no justice, but then again, it's hard to see this without looking close anyways. I made the design from scratch and it has cables and ribbing it's really pretty. It's a bit bulky, which is what led to me making the headband below.

This was made from a pattern I've used before and I had extra yarn from the hat. I love this and I wear it alot. It's really pretty!


So I wish I could say more, but I'm out of ideas. Talk to everyone soon!

~Lisa

Knitted Headband #1

Hey guys (if anyone is actually reading this).
I made an ear-warmer headband last night with some leftover yarn from my ipod arm band. It turned out well for my first attempt at circular knitting, but I am unsure how warm it will be because of the yarn I used. Below are some pics, just ignore the fact that I look like a dork in them.
Pattern found here: http://taras-knits.blogspot.com/2008/03/ear-warmers-versions-1-2.html





See you guys (if anyone is reading this) around.

~Lisa