This is my second finished entry in the Ravelympics. It is an earmuff/headband with a hawaiian hibiscus flower duplicate stitched over it.
Pattern: Hawaii A Goth-O Yarn: Naturally Caron-Countryin black and claret Needles: US 8 / 5.0 mm Completed: February 27, 2010
Even rows are all purls. 1. CO 3 sts. Turn. 3. K1, m1, k1, m1, k1. 5 sts. 5. K1, m1, k all but last st, m1, k1. Repeat rows 5 and 6 until at least 25 sts on needles, or desired width. Knit about 70 rows in stockinette, or enough to go around head, minus length of increases. 1. Ssk, k all but last two sts, k2tog. Repeat rows 1 and 2 until 3 sts left. K3tog.
Cut 6 strands, 16" long. Insert three strands around center st, two rows from tip, and braid. Repeat on other end.
Locate center of band and duplicate stitch motif. At least 6 yards are needed for one flower. There is enough space to place three motifs, preferably rotating image.
This is a very simple hat that can be modified for slouchiness and size, and knit up in a weekend. I will try to explain the individual stitches, but I will make more emphasis on the logic behind them. Size mods and glossary are at the end.
Yarn: Rio De La Plata wool solid in Carnation
Weight: Aran / 10 ply (8 wpi)
: 140 yards (128 meters)
: 100 grams (3.53 ounces)
: US 8 / 5.0 mm
1. Cast on 80 stitches in the round on 4 DPNs, 20 sts each. (circular needles can also be used)
2. Knit an inch (10 rows) of 2x2 rib.
3. Start chart, 2 chart repeats per needle.
p2tog all around until you run out of sts and bind off. (8 sts > 4 sts > 2 sts > 1 st).
GLOSSARY: Stitches are counted as they approach the tip of the needle. -->
g
knit
/
purl
j
yo
S
D
fcP
S
G
fcK
\
ssk
|
k2tog (both from leaf)
d
k2tog (including backround purl)
3
k3tog
fcP: front cable purl. First st is held in front, while second st is purled behind it, then k first st. fcK: front cable knit. First st is held in front, while second st is knit behind it, then k first st. ssk: a one st decrease that leaves the first st on top of second st. k2tog: a one st decrease that leaves the second st on top of first st. k3tog: a two st decrease that leaves the second st on top, then the third in the middle, and the first on the bottom. p2tog: purl 2 together.
MODS:
This pattern started off with a three leaf branch from a tree in the last pattern in A Treasury of Knitting Patterns, by Barbara G. Walker. The original pattern had all the leaves the same size (3 increases), which I modified to have 4 and 5 increases on other leaves to make it baggier. If you want a more fitted beanie, skip rows 19-22 in the left leaf, and 29-33 in the center leaf. The same logic can be used to make the hat even baggier.
For smaller sizes, a 10 st repeat can be substituted with the appropriate number of purls, distributed between repeats. Purls can also be added in between repeats to make a bigger hat.
The Ravelympics have started (and the Winter Olympics, for that matter, but I don't have a tv, so I'm quite disconnected) and I have been knitting as if they paid me for it. I put a lot of effort to wait until 9 pm friday to cast on for Skew, mainly because winding up the Wollmeise into a cake took epically long. There are over 500 meters, and my "swift" (aka my roommate) has busted shoulders, so it was quite a site. I've been knitting non stop since I got out of the Wolfman movie (which, btw, STAY AWAY!) wasn't that bad, but was quite far from being good. Especially with that cast!
Saturday was D&D day, and I managed to finish the first foot (50 repeats to get 8.5"). Before that, and most of sunday, I finally watched all 14 episodes of Firefly, and made it to the end of the inner ankle. Now, I know I'm going to lose major Geek Cred for this, but I had never watched more than two full episodes of Firelfy. Actually, I'd tried to watch it with friends "all in order" five separate times, but we never did more than watch the first episode. But I finally watched all of it! And yes, I love Whedon even more.
For those of you who don't know me IRL, Buffy is sacred to me. It came out my senior year of high school, and I refused to have any human interaction while it was on (Ryley can go suck on a socket). I never managed to watch much of Angel while it was on, because it suffered Fox Scheduling Syndrome in Mexico, so I never knew when it was on, but as soon as they came out, I bought the Box Sets and have watched them marathonically a few times. I have also watched Dr. Horrible a few times (a friend gifted it to me for my birthday a year and a half ago) and hold it dear to my heart. Dollhouse took me 6 episodes to get in to it, but once that sixth episode hit, damn, I was a believer. (I also admit I haven't seen the second season, also because I don't have a tv, and the first one was when I was dating a guy who did, and forced him to watch it with me). So after this 13 year love affair with Whedon (I don't count Rosanne because I didn't associate the show with him until a few years ago), no one could have been more disappointed with me and my lack of Firefly watching. But now that I have watched it, I hate myself. I opened up Pandora's box, bit into the apple. Now I know what I was missing, and what I will never have again. Fuck you , Fox.
So yeah, knitting. I'm doing it. I can't believe how much I have progressed on that damned sock, on #1's, none the less! I am kind of disturbed, though. I bought two AddiTurbo circs on friday; 24" and 42". I bought two different lengths because they were the only two available, and was hoping to exchange the long one for a short one once they got them back in stock, since the long one keeps on knotting up. But I flipped the circ around, and I'm noticing that my trailing needle now catches on the edge. This is bad. Does anybody know if this is something that is under warranty? I mean, I've only had them for a weekend... Other than that, they knit like a dream. The yarn just glides on them, and they are nice and pointy, without being sharp. The Wollmeise, on the other hand, has me a bit on the fence. Yes, it's a nice yarn, in gorgeous colors, but the plies don't have much cohesion between them, and it is very easy to split them if you aren't looking at it directly while knitting. I wouldn't be surprised if it's like knitting with embroidery floss.
So while everybody was being drowned by the Snowpocalypse this weekend, I was fretting as to what to make with my wonderful new Wollmeis that came in the mail on friday.
The colors are gorgeous! Limone was exactly what I expected, but Terra was a lot truer to the name then the picture I'd seen. Which is good for the yarn, but bad for the shawl I wanted to make with both of them. Oh well, back to the pattern archives!
The yarn is quite thin, as sock yarn is want to be, and very intimidating. I want to make something lacy, and really want to actually design it, but I get lost looking at books and charts and am way too scared to ever commit to anything.
Oh! I managed to reap one of the benefits of having a programmer for a roommate. He fixed my blog! It is now the red I wanted, and wide enough to fit two pictures side by side ^_^
Maybe someday I can get the text justified :/
Pattern:Evergreen, by Kristin LeMoine Yarn: Debbie Bliss Pure Silk in 27009 (lavender) Needles: US 6 / 4.0 mm Completed: January 28, 2010 Notions: five wire wrapped amethyst beads, chained together, to be used as a scarf pin
The main reason Fer and I met up in NYC, was because our other friend, Pili, has been working at Disneyworld this year and came up to see the snow. It's funny that the Snowpocalypse hit this same weekend, but only a few flurries actually made it that far northeast.
So, in my undying NEED to knit people gifts, I played hooky that thursday and knit her a neck scarf triangle thing in about 12 hours, with a total of 6 pattern repeats, and had a whole 6" left over after binding off! And, holy shit, I even blocked it! Which was completely pointless, because it was silk and had no memory. But I felt like a Big Girl ^_^
It was so odd, yet nice to work with the silk, and the pattern was very easy and intuitive, and can be scaled to desired dimensions. I didn't like the 3st garter border, but that can easily be changed for future iterations.
Pattern:calorimetry, minus half the rows Yarn: my handspun Merino in Mustard and Raspberry, purchased at Pennsic 2008, poorly fractal plied, about sport weight Needles: US 8 / 5.0 mm Completed: January 31, 2010 Notions: 2 1" buttons
I met up with my bestest friend from high school this weekend in NYC, and found the NEED to make her something. It was originally going to be made out of a (now I know is absolutely nasty) pink wool yarn I bought, but thought to ask what her favorite color was before making it. She said yellow. Well, I know half of what she owns is pink, and I didn't have any yellow yarn, but I did have roving in mustard and raspberry colors that I had bought a year and a half ago, that should probably get some use out of, so I spun some up.
My original idea was to fractal ply it (your first ply is half of your color A roving, and then half of your color B, and your second ply is the first 1/4 A, then 1/4 B, then 1/8 A, 1/8 B, 1/16 A, 1/16 B... etc. until you are sick of splitting your leftover roving in half), but DEX was my throwaway stat, and must have botched my skill: craft roll, that my two plies were different lengths and the thickness got progressively more consistent (but very much not at first).
I ended up with about 50 yards of yarn, that knit up nice and quick into a Calorimetry. I only did the first 12 rows before turning back, managing to make it about 3" wide. It also works as a neck warmer. And I think that what Fer liked the most was the button I used >.<
I also need to learn how to better instruct my roommate in taking pictures of my FO's, not me.
Pozole is a traditional Mexican soup, commonly consisting of a pig-head and dried red pepper stock. It stains like a mofo, but is ever so good!
***WARNING***
At the bottom of this post I will be including pictures of the pig head. And my crazy friends posing with it.
The recipe itself was quite simple. You simmer 20 chiles for a while, blend them up, and pour into a 5 gal stock pot with a couple of onions and garlic and herbs, and a 15 lb head. Simmer for several hours, remove meat from head, remove fat from meat, and serve meat and stock with hominy, radish slices, minced onion and tostadas.
As with many great soups, it tasted decent on Saturday, but I can't wait for it to sit a couple of days and let the flavor mature!
Now for the adventure. There is always an adventure when I cook.
After a couple of hours of cleaning off the meat, we were finally ready to serve ourselves and eat, when my roommate dropped the can of hominy into a gallon sized bowl of the bright red soup. Did I mention it had 20 dried red peppers blended into it? Does anybody have any clue how potently peppers can dye things? Do you know how much fat is in a pig's head? Yeah, all over the kitchen. And my friend Cassie. It was like Carrie's prom scene. And judging by the look on Cassie's face, we were thisclose to being incinerated. Luckily I managed to clean it off with Dawn soap while she showered. And even though we put a lot of effort into cleaning the kitchen, it is still greasy. That's going to be our project tonight after work >.<
Wilbur.
The perk of working in a chem lab is that I have gloves for devaining the peppers!
After a few hours simmering with the peppers. I think his ear was getting chapped.
Wrestling the head out of the pot was such an ordeal! Bastard was slippery like a wet pig!
Getting down and dirty taking off the meat.
After fondling a pig head for an hour, it kind of loses its mystery, and turns into a fun prop!
Because we needed to take a break from playing D&D.
The first time I have ever been thankful for synthetic fabric!
The next day, all the gelatin in the soup made it very jiggly ^_^
Hello! I am a tremendous geek with a compulsive crafting addiction. I got a MS in Materials Science and Engineering a year ago and still do research on Bitumen Extraction from Tar Sands. I play rollerderby and I constantly fight to find time to craft EVERYTHING!
