Monday, February 25, 2013

NEWT progress

 For this month's NEWT work, I had to finish spinning some merino/BFL/sparkle fibre into 3-ply yarn of 16-20WPI...

145g. 394m.

 and knit Jasmine a top representing unicorns








Used 582m of Bendigo Woollen Mills Classic 12ply, which she hand-dyed with my assistance. There's about 150g left, so enough for a hat, perhaps. It's got a picot hem with a 20-row facing (to cover the back of those unicorns) and the sleeves just have a  purl-row turn and 10-row facing. I'm liking facings at the moment; they're neat. The jumper was knit top down, but I left a little V at the top, and then did a little collar with an icord cast-off that extended down the V. It worked out ok, I think. It was all made up as I went, although I pinched the "horse" pattern from Hestapeysa :) She wanted to wear it all day, but gave it up when it got near to 30 degrees at 10am. hehehe.


My 113 in 2013 goal is up to 16 so far. I whipped up a little one of these

A Milo, size newborn, but with worsted weight. Aguas. Love that color of Malabrigo Rios.


It's going to the unborn baby of a friend of a friend. I'm also making that particular kid another thing or two...

I've been doing some dyeing, which is a relatively quick way to get Points in the HP game, but it's still addictive and fun. Both were for Quidditch, and are BFL fingering weight sock yarn.

Here's one color repeat, to show how it's self-striping.

And a chuck-in-a-pot easy one, too



And this little thing, which began as a "let's all weave cushions" weave-along in the Slytherins' weaving thread on Ravelry, and became a useful padded shield. hehe.










The fabric I made for it ended up being far too long and thin. So I made it into a rectangular cushion with a deep pocket. My sewing machine and I are not yet friends, so this was a frustrating little thing, but the kids have been having fun with it.

And now I'd better get off to bed. Somehow, 1am always manages to sneak up on me, and make me grumpy the next day! hehee  :)




Sunday, February 3, 2013

I survived brain surgery ;)

Yep. And my sanity is still intact.

The brain hat is a simple idea, really. Knit a hat, then knit a heap of icord (I used 12m) and sew it on to look like a brain.

The hat took a day or so (I used worsted weight, though, not fingering) and the icord (once I got Jacki's mill cranked up, took a mere "several hours". (I bought an icord mill, and suggest that if you're thinking about it, get an Embellish Knit, not a Prym. Mine dropped stitches a lot, and was very, very frustrating.)

12 meters is longer than I thought. And pinning it all down in a manner that looks brainey, inch by inch, was time consuming. I made mirrored matching hemispheres, which supposedly looks more brainy, and sewed it down while it was stuffed onto a round cushion.











I back-stitched all the icord down. It wasn't exactly fun, but the inside is funny.


And that's 10 things out of 113 for the first month. Now to get onto some more socks...







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