Penguin Toy - Finished Object

After months of knitting procrastination, I have finally finished a project! I learned how to do a mattress seam (with the aid of this wonderful video) and I've been seaming like mad. I had a few toys on the go that just needed to be made up, so I'm looking forward to completing them.

First up is a Penguin toy, which is far cuter than I expected. I just keep hugging him. So sweet!

The Amazing I Cord

I have a pair of shorts that go on super loose and then are tied to fasten them. It works fine most of the time but is total bullshit if the cloth tie breaks (which mine did). Without the tie you are left with a pair of shorts that are about ten sizes too big, which are only good for keeping your ankles warm.

I was thinking of what I could use as a replacement tie, and my knitters brain asked: "Would an I cord work?"

I refreshed my memory of I cords with a youtube tutorial and then proceeded to make one for my shorts.

It took two episodes of The Wire to get it to the right length, then I strung it through my shorts and now have a working garment again. Thanks knitting skills!

Ready To Be Sewn Up

I've been working through the patterns in the Knitted Toy Tales book, having totally finished a fish and finished the knitting for a teddy bear and an elephant.

This new pile of finished knitting is going to be a cute little penguin.

Now that I have my giant bag of stuffing, I am going to spend some time this summer putting all these toys together.

Minion Toy - Finished Object

I have gotten into knitting toys lately, and one of my favourite things to do is search through the endless amounts of patterns on Ravelry for something cool to knit. I could spend hours on there just looking...so many patterns, so little time. I found a pattern for a Minion toy, which would make a perfect gift for my Mom (her kids are all grown up - she needs Minions!). The pattern included a photo tutorial, so it was a great project to start and complete pretty quickly.

The pattern can be found here.

For this pattern I had to 'pick up stitches' to make the Minion's overalls, something I had never done before. I found a video that showed me how to do it, and marveled at how amazing the internet is. I love that there are so many teachers out there who are happy to share their knowledge. It is the best!

This was a fun toy to make and Mom just loves it. I'm going to make a two-eyed Minion as well, so this one will have a buddy. So much fun!

Extra Stuffing

I started making some knitted toys earlier this year, then got delayed because I didn't have any stuffing to complete them. There was a bag of it around here somewhere, but after much searching I declared it officially lost.

Thanks to my Mom I am no longer stuffing free. She surprised me on a recent visit with a giant bag of it. I'm not kidding when I say giant, it is GIANT. It weighs 4lbs, and stuffing is pretty light, so that is a lot of stuffing. I will have trouble losing this one. haha!

I put the fish toy I made on the bag to showcase just how much stuffing there is and how many toys I could potentially make with it. I better get knitting!

Toy Workshop

I keep returning to my Knitted Toy Tales pattern book and having so much fun creating cute things. The pieces for the toys are quick knits, so it's easy to get from start to finish on a project.

Since completing my toy fish, I've started working on a teddy bear and an elephant. I have finished all the knitting work for the teddy bear and just need to stuff him and sew him together.

For the elephant toy, I have completed the knitting for the body, the tusks, and two of the legs. Only a few things left to knit and then I can stuff him and sew him together.
 
My delay in finishing these toys is my lack of stuffing. I know I had a bag of it a few years ago, but I've hidden it on myself exceptionally well. We did two thorough searches of the house, and eventually found the tote I was sure it was in, and came up empty. I have accepted that my bag of stuffing is lost and that I have to get a new one, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. So these toys are a work in progress, but I'm looking forward to putting them all together soon.

Knitted Fish Toy - Finished Object

I finished my first knit toy from the Knitted Toy Tales pattern book. I knit this adorable little fish and love having him swimming around the house. This pattern allowed me to learn new skills (intarsia and fair isle) and have a cute finished project in a short period of time.

Once the main body knitting was complete, I did duplicate stitch over the colour mistake in the tail fin (which ended up looking pretty great). Next I stuffed and seamed the body, bringing him to life. I knit and sewed on some fins, and embroidered on his little eyes. I love the way he looks.

Knitting Colourwork - Fair Isle

I'm knitting a toy fish from my Knitted Toy Tales pattern book, and last week I showed you the intarsia colourwork I did for the tail fin. The body of the fish uses the Fair Isle technique, which I was excited to try as well.

My grandma recently gave me some yarn bobbins, and because this pattern only needed a small amount of yarn, I decided to use them for this project.

This was my first try at knitting a pattern with fair isle and it was really quite simple to do. In this technique, the different colours of yarn are carried across the back of your work, even when you aren't knitting with them. For this pattern, I used green and pink yarn to make the fair isle pattern.

Because the yarn is being carried, strands of colour are created at the back of the work. I Googled what the back side of fair isle is supposed to look like, and I think I nailed it.

Working on this toy has been perfect for learning some new knitting skills. Getting acquainted with intarsia and fair isle colourwork has been both challenging and fun. There are lots of possibilities for colourful projects in my future.

My little fish toy is almost complete. Next week I'll show you him all put together!

Knitting Colourwork - Intarsia

I began working a pattern out of my new knitting pattern book: Knitted Toy Tales. I decided to make a toy fish, as it involved some colourwork, which I am not very familiar with. I find small projects great for learning new skills as you can see your results (and learn from your mistakes) quickly.

The tail fin of the fish used a technique called Intarsia. With intarsia, if there are multiple colours to be used throughout a row of knitting, each colour will have its own ball to work from. The fish toy didn't require very much yarn, so I placed my colours on bobbins. I didn't have enough 'real' bobbins for this pattern, so I made my own using some cardboard.

Following the pattern, I started with blue and knit in stockinette stitch until it was time for the colour changes. Because the fish would eventually be folded in half and seamed, the tail went from blue (colour A) to pink (colour B), to blue, to pink, to blue, to pink, to blue, to pink, to blue.

It took me a few rows to get used to having all the bobbins hanging off the work, but it eventually felt comfortable. I also had to make sure I crossed the yarns properly when changing colours, so I didn't leave any holes in the work. Once I learned the process, it actually started to be a lot of fun and I got into a pretty good rhythm of knowing what colour came next.

That rhythm helped me to (almost) notice a mistake in one of the rows of the written pattern. I knew something was wrong, but I couldn't quite figure out what was supposed to be right, and I wasn't 100% confident that I was right in thinking that it was wrong. So I knit it as it was written, thinking that seeing the result would let me know for sure if there was a problem or not. There was.

Once I was sure it was a mistake, I was able to figure out where the pattern went wrong. It is a little out of context, but I will try to illustrate the difference between the written pattern and what I believe should be the correct pattern. For the pattern blue is A and pink is B.

Original     Row 9: [A k2, B skpo, k1, k2tog, k2, A skpo, k1, k2tog, k2] rep to end of row.
Corrected  Row 9: [A k2, B skpo, k1, k2tog, A k2, B skpo, k1, k2tog, A k2] rep to end of row.

The original pattern had all the right knitting, but the wrong colour indicated (the original said to change the colour 3 times, the corrected changes the colour 5 times).

I knitted the mistake into my project, and didn't bother pulling back the rows of intarsia to get it out. I was using this toy to practice skills, so I didn't need it to be perfect. When the knitting was complete, I used duplicate stitch to cover the wrong blues with pink, and the wrong pinks with blue. The mistake is barely noticeable in the finished fish tail.

The main body of the fish uses Fair Isle colourwork, which I'll post about next week.

Pink Baby Blanket - Work in Progress

I have a feeling 2015 is going to involve a lot of knitting. My grandma recently gave me about thirty balls of yarn from her stash, and my friend Bryan's Mom just sent over a knitting pattern book and a bag of yarn to go with it. Fun!

The pattern book Norma sent over is called 'Knitted Toy Tales' by Laura Long. Most of the patterns are for small/medium sized toys that are knitted flat, so I can easily dive into this book and make some cute things. I am pretty excited about it.

She also sent over a bag of yarn that included some pretty pink sparkle baby yarn, and it immediately caught my eye. There were five 50g balls in the bag, and I spent some time searching Ravelry to see how I could use them up.

A baby blanket seemed like the obvious choice, and since many of my friends are having babies, a blanket could become a nice gift for a newborn. I looked through some patterns and found one that used circular knitting needles to complete the blanket. I had the right size and length (32" long!), as the blanket is pretty wide and would not fit on strait needles. This is my first try at knitting with circular needles, and I'm knitting strait on them, so I'm getting used to them pretty easily.

The thing I'm realizing about this pattern is that it will not be a quick knit. I'm still getting used to the way circulars work (and how certain stitches slide from the wire to the needle a little less easily than others). The pattern also has a complicated row that helps to form a Feather and Fan pattern, which involves me doing a lot of counting. Also each row has 154 stitches, so a knit row takes me over ten minutes to complete, a complex row takes over fifteen. The final length of the blanket will be 204 rows, so it is going to take me some time to get there. It's also not the kind of pattern that I can zone out to TV or an audiobook, so it will be a small doses kind of project. Even though it'll be months before this turns into a blanket, I think it will be a very satisfying knit once complete.

The first 12 of 204 rows.

Grandma's Yarn Stash

On a recent visit to my Grandma's she gave me a giant bag of yarn. A life long knitter, she told me she hasn't been knitting much lately, and the one project she has on the needles (a blanket) has been on them for over a year. She says she eventually wants to complete the blanket, but after that, she doesn't think she will start many more projects.

Grandma kept her yarn stash is a storage closet and she let me know that some of it had been there "a long time." Because of this, the yarn smelled like a mixture between Grandma's perfume (a good smell), and storage (a kind of stale smell). Anything I knitted from the yarn could be laundered, but I was sure I would get a headache if I knitted with it.

So I did some research and decided to air the yarn out. It would have been a little easier to air them out in the summer (less cold, anyway!) but the air was super fresh and there was a good breeze blowing all through the yarn. I did fall on my ass at one point while I out there (I'm clumsy), but it was totally worth it, and the snow was pretty soft to land in. The yarn stayed outside for about four hours and they smell way better now.

Slippers for Him and Her

The cold weather hit and so did my urge to knit. I'm always knitting dishcloths, but I really get excited for new patterns in the wintertime. John and I both needed new slippers, so I spent far too many hours on Ravelry looking for a free pattern at my skill level. I found one that looked quick and easy and even found a Knit-along on YouTube in case I ran into trouble.

John got a pair made with Super Bulky (#6) chunky yarn, using one strand of yarn.

My slippers were made with Medium (#4) worsted yarn, so I held two strands together. I had leftover yarn from my Harry Potter Gryffindor scarf, so I made myself some Gryffindor slippers.

50 Years Ago Today

Today marks the 50th anniversary of My Grandma Barb's death (Mom's Mom). Grandma Barb died tragically at the hands of a drunk driver, in an accident that also took her sister-in-law and her niece and two nephews. Mom was only 15 at the time.

I can't imagine 50 seconds without my Mom, let alone 50 years, so I wanted to do something to remember Grandma Barb today. A few years ago I wrote a blog post about a hand me down coat that was knit by Grandma Barb, a woman I never knew. I thought it would be appropriate to re-post it today as a tribute to her life.

And in case anyone out there needs reminding: Never drink and drive.

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Getting to Know My Mother's Mother.  Originally posted on April 28, 2010.

A year ago, my parents moved out of the family home they lived in for more than 32 years. During the clean up and move we got rid of literally tonnes of junk and donatables, and discovered some treasures that had been accidentally hidden many years ago. One of the treasures we found turned out to be incredibly important to me: Grandma Barb’s knit sweater.

I didn’t know my Grandma Barb. She was my Mother’s Mother, and she died in a car accident in 1964. It is somewhat awkward to write about because the Grandma I do know, Grandma Sue, has been married to my Granddad for 43 years, so calling her “step” Grandma seems weird to me because she is not my step anything - she’s my Grandma. Finding the knit sweater reminded me that Grandma Barb is my Grandma too, and wearing it gave me a connection to her that I had never really known how to find before.

My parents move was overwhelming in a lot of ways, so when I brought the sweater home last March, I didn’t know how much I would fall in love with it and how much impact it would have on my life. That is why it spent some time on the floor with the countless other things I brought home that day. At least Gary knew it was special right away and showed it the love that only a cat can.

Gary knows a great sweater when she sees one

The story goes that Grandma Barb knit five sweaters in 1960, one for herself, her husband, and each of her three children. They were made from Mary Maxim patterns, each sweater having a particularly Canadiana type theme; my Mom’s sweater had figure skates on it. Adorable. The sweaters were put away for the summer in 1961, stored in garbage bags, which resulted in four of them mistakenly being taken to the dump and lost forever. The only survivor was Grandma Barb’s sweater, the one I have now, and it has amazingly made it all the way to 2010. It is hard for me to wrap my head around it, but this sweater is fifty years old! What a life it has had.

My Mother wore the sweater constantly throughout her twenties. She recently showed me some photos of herself, at twenty years old, wearing it out to a winter carnival in Barrie, circa 1968.  Somehow the sweater is still as colourful now as it was then.  My Mother is too, actually.

My Mother and the coat circa 1968

My Mother is a beautiful person - inside and out

Every place my Mother moved, the sweater moved with her. It eventually ended up in the house I grew up in, hidden in plain sight in the coat closet. My sister wore it for a few years in the ‘90s, but returned it when she was finished, and back into the closet it went. I claimed it in March 2009, and began wearing it non-stop when the temperatures got colder in Autumn. I fell head over heals for this sweater, decided it was a coat, and was determined to wear it all winter long, regardless of how cold the temperature got.  I wore a fleece jacket underneath the sweater, providing it with a make-shift lining that every northern Ontario coat needs, and wore it for the entire winter.  I even knit myself a matching winter hat to go with it - I could not leave home without this coat!

I would be the first one to tell you that I don’t know a thing about fashion. I don’t follow trends and I definitely don't know anything about what’s “in”. That is why it completely floored me when every outing I made in the coat led to compliments from, and conversations with, strangers. I started wearing the coat when the world was gearing up for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.  The official Olympic clothes riffed on the Canadiana style, so Grandma Barb’s coat was fashionable. A stranger even told me I was “sooooooo in right now”. For the first time in my life I was fashion-forward, and I just so happened to be using a coat that was fifty years old to do it!

Every time I got a compliment, I would tell the person: “My Grandma made this coat in 1960!” This lead to conversations about legacy at the grocery store, discussions about how awesome knitting is, and being able to share the Grandma I never knew with strangers who fell in love with her coat as much as I had.  Over the winter I got to know Grandma Barb a little better by taking her with me and telling people about her. I also got to tell everyone that I stole the coat from my Mom, which brought her along with me as well.  All this heritage surrounded me, just by wearing and loving a pretty amazing old coat.

Me, Mom, and Grandma Barb, all in one!

The Olympics are over now and Spring is here.  I still don't know anything about fashion, so I don't know if this coat will still be "in" this coming winter.  I'll still be wearing it regardless and if anyone asks, I'll gladly tell them all about my Grandma Barb and the sweater she knit, all those years ago.

Knitting Needle Case

I've been knitting on and off for about 6 years now and in that time I have acquired various knitting needles and supplies. I found an old sewing box in the attic and appropriated it as my knitting box. Up until now there has been no organization of the contents, other than all my knitting tools can be found in the box.

A few months ago I spent about $5 on fabric from the ends bin at Fabricland, for the purpose of creating a knitting needle case. The sewing skills in the family belong to Mom, so I gave her the fabric and she proceeded to make me a fabulous case. She didn't need to measure while making this, she just went in with the basic idea of what it should look like and made it happen. My Mom has awesome skills!

My knitting needles, all bundled up

The majority of my knitting needles

I still have various sizes of double pointed needles and circular needles that need a home, and have tasked mom to make a smaller but equally awesome case for them. The long needle case is my current favourite thing in the world, so I am super excited to have a set of two.

Thanks Mom! You are the best!

Cool Evening Summer Project

I used up all my dishcloth yarn earlier this year, which was a great opportunity to buy more yarn. Mom and I both love these knitted dishcloths, so we each bought a big ball of yarn for me to work. The plan is to spend a lot of evenings watching Blue Jays baseball while knitting us a bunch of them (I can complete one in about 3 hours).

The colour Mom chose is called Swimming Pool (blue), and the one I chose is called Psychedelic (multi-colour). If I did the math right, we will each get 12 dishcloths, 6 of each colour. Fun.

Feast on Scraps

I have been on a dishcloth knitting kick over the past few weeks, and in an effort to use every last bit of yarn left in my stash, I tied all the scraps together to form a multicolour yarn ball. Nine scraps were tied together in total and that was enough to complete a neat looking dishcloth.

Knitting through this dishcloth was fun because I didn't know how the finished piece would look. It was a surprise to see all the colours come together, and I enjoyed watching it unfold.

1st Year Gryffindor Scarf: Finished Object

I remembered that I loved knitting, so in January I picked up my needles and started working on some projects. I finished a winter hat for John and have now finished a scarf for me. And not just any scarf, this is a 1st year Gryffindor scarf that allows me to show off my Harry Potter love in public. I have a long black coat which easily doubles as wizards robes, so I am not kidding around when I wear this scarf.

I recently wore it to my local library, and I planned my visit for when my favourite librarians were working. They are fun and sassy and are sometimes loud in the library, which makes them even more fun. We always find time to chat while I'm checking out books and they often compliment my coats (which are pretty much all hand me downs, but it still feels good). I walked in and they said:

"So what cool coat do you have today?"

"No new coat, but I made myself this Harry Potter scarf."

"On purpose?"

"Yep" and we all laughed.

I had my normal winter hat on and she said:

"Well I'm glad you have just a regular hat on..."

To which I finished: "Because otherwise I'd just be an adult in a Harry Potter outfit?" Pretty much.

We all had big smiles and then discussed how great it is to be fun and weird and to not have to conform to what "others" might think is cool. It is definitely very freeing.

I''m currently doing a re-read of the Harry Potter series and am halfway through book 7. I have taken to wearing my scarf indoors while I'm reading it (or outdoors while listening to the audiobook). Feels festive and good.

Winter Hat For John: Finished Object

Well John has a new winter hat and it only took 3 years for him to get it. It's been extremely cold this winter, so this was a good time for me to complete it.

But you might be wondering why a simple hat pattern took three years to complete. Well, it didn't really - the knitting itself only took about 4 days of dedicated knitting. Unfortunately the motivation to knit it took a lot longer to pin down.

Here is the project as it was three years ago:

After completing the K2P2 ribbing, I got tired of making the hat. I also got distracted from knitting by my life and other projects, and it just sort of stayed on the needles until two weeks ago when I remembered that knitting is the best.

I spent an entire afternoon/evening knitting and knocked out a whole lot of stockinette rows.

I picked up the needles again last Thursday and then was able to do the decreasing rows and seam it on Friday. And done!!

The best part is that the hat actually fits him! I had made myself the same hat (but with a pom pom) and it was too small for him (I have a small head). I made his hat bigger by adding 20 extra stitches when I began the project. I'm a novice knitter, so I didn't really know if that would be enough or too little, but it sounded good. I also did some basic math to make sure the decreases would still work with the extra stitches, and I was pretty sure they would (they did!). Also, John has declined a pom pom for his hat.

Testing Knitting Gauge

A few years ago, my Grandma explained to me all about checking gauge before starting a knitting project. And despite this passed down knowledge about gauge, I never tried it. I just haven't attempted a project where the gauge really mattered to me.

It's freezing cold this winter and I want to knit myself a balaclava. I found a pattern at my skill level and set about to make it. The pattern suggested chunky yarn, so I picked up some chunky yarn. Turns out there are different sizes of chunky, and the pattern calls for "5" (bulky) and I got "6" (super bulky). I wasn't sure if the super bulky yarn would still work on the suggested needle size, so this was an opportunity for me to test the gauge.

First step was to knit a swatch. I didn't time it, but I think it took about an hour to knit. Spending an hour on something I'm going to rip out anyway seems tedious, but if it saves me making a whole project that I have to rip out (because it's too small or too big) it's totally worth it. I didn't cast off my swatch, as I will just pull out the knitting and re-use it for my actually project.

Next I watched this video about checking gauge.



Then I used the "Knit-Chek" tool I bought three years ago but never used. The pattern called for 4 stitches + 5 rows = 1 inch.

Here is how mine measured up:

So it looks like I met gauge, which means I could proceed with these needles and this yarn and my project should turn out the proper size.

The swatch was also helpful for me to get an idea of what the end project will look/feel like. And in this case, I think the yarn is too thick and the knitting is too tight for it to be a comfortable and breathable balaclava. I held the swatch over my nose and mouth, and I am able to breathe through it, but I think I would prefer a little more space between the stitches. So I am going to switch gears and use this yarn for slippers or slipper socks, as I think this yarn would be perfect for them. It feels really warm.

So my first try at testing gauge was a success. I got an idea of the finished project and that helped me decide whether to proceed or not. My balaclava project is on hold, but now I'm super excited to find a slipper pattern!