More Nerd Wars 2 Projects

Hi again! I've been really busy creating & it's a good thing, because otherwise I'd be thinking too much about the fact that we are getting on a plane in 2 1/2 weeks & flying to Japan! Don't get me wrong, I am very, very excited to be going back & seeing friends & eating wonderful food & just being there. But I also get very, very nervous when anticipating travel (particularly traveling halfway across the world!), so it's been a wonderful thing to be working on my Nerd Wars 2 challenges & not thinking too much about the traveling just yet.

For the "An Adage a Day" challenge (make something that illustrates a saying or adage) I chose the Japanese saying "ひゃくぶんはいっけんにしかず" which is very similar to the English "a picture is worth a thousand words". And to illustrate this adage, I made this pair of thumbless baby mittens using the 2-colour knitting technique (aka Fair Isle Knitting) which I learned from the photos in the book "Fox & Geese & Fences" by Robin Hanson. The yarn is KnitPicks superwash merino DK which I dyed using procion fibre-reactive dyes, plus a bit of pink Swish DK for the bunnies. The pattern is my own design.

For the team spirit aspect, the bunnies represent the character Haninozuka Mitsukuni (Honey Sempai) from Ouran KoKo Hosutobu (Ouran High School Host Club) by Hatori Bisco. As you can see in the picture, this character carries a pink bunny around (even though he is a senior in high school!). I found the bunnies charted for embroidery in a Debbie Bliss book, but worked them as Fair Isle instead.

Then there's this little bag, crocheted with KnitPicks Simply Cotton Sport & a size D/3/3.25mm hook. This was for the Team Spirit challenge "There is No I in Team". The challenge is to make something that expresses your feelings for your particular team/fandom. This one took some thinking... & I learned a lot during the research part of it. I settled on making something for a character in one of my favourite manga (& anime) series, Bleach by Kubo Tite. One of my favourite Bleach characters is the 13 Bantai (squadron) Taichou (captain) Ukitake Jyuushirou.

You can see him, with the white hair, in the pictures behind the bag. Along with being a beautiful & elegant man, he is also very wise & kind. He's an amazing warrior, too (he's a shinigami, a defender of the realm of the souls of the dead) in spite of having had a chronic illness (believed to be tuberculosis) most of his long (1000+ years) life. He's often shown drinking tea (when not in battle) & this led me to think about tea/tea ceremony/tea ceremony accoutrements. As I researched tea ceremony I learned about shifuku, which are fancy bags that hold tea utensils & canisters of tea. I combined the idea of shifuku with a design in Kumiko Sudo's book "Omiyage" for a sewn kusadama (traditional flower ball decoration, often made from origami) bag that is suitable for tea utensils.

I chose the "Granny Pentagon" motif from Heather Lodinsky's "150 Knit & Crochet Motifs" because, when made in the colour combo I chose, it looks like little, 5-petaled sakura blossoms. The white reflects Ukitake's white hair & Taichou Haori (kimono jacket), which is white & lined in the reddish-brown colour at the top of the bag. I really like the way it turned out! I think I'm going to make another one in a slighly different colour scheme for a friend in Japan whose birthday we'll be celebrating while we're there...

I also finished hat number 2 for my dissertation project, shown above modeled by Yoda :)

I'm calling it the "Naruto & his Mom Hat". In chapter 498 of the Naruto manga, we finally meet Naruto's mom (who died not long after he was born). The chapter is entitled "My Mom's Red Hair".  Naruto's hair is yellow, like his dad. This hat combines the yellow & red of their hair & celebrates their reunion- even if it was in Naruto's mind/soul. It was very satisfying to finally learn the back-story of Naruto's parents, who made the ultimate sacrifice so that their son (& everyone in the whole village) could live. I dyed this yarn also, using the KnitPicks superwash merino DK & procion dyes. I crocheted it using an I/9/5.50mm hook & Lion Brand's crochet earflap hat pattern (one of my favourites).

So, thank you Nerd Wars 2! You are providing me with great distraction when I really need it, the opportunity to learn things I might not have otherwise have learned, & a great sense of accomplishment, as 4 out of the 6 June challenges are done!! 

Rainbow Cowl

Another finished rainbow project, hurray! I was inspired by Alice's post "Do You Dare to Wear a Granny Square?" & wanted to make a rainbow version of her granny square cowl. As mentioned in this post, I started it then found I wanted/needed some more colours of the KnitPicks Swish (superwash merino) DK that I was using to make it. The box arrived on Saturday, and after finishing the rainbow bunnies I got right to work on finishing the cowl. I used an I/9/5.50mm hook so the fabric would be drapey.

And I used Alice's Grandala Square instead of a regular granny, extending the square by a few rows so it would be the right size (approx. 7"x7" square). I added a scallop along the edges to tie it all together.

It is the right size, too! It wraps twice around my neck, or once around my neck & up over my head like a hood. So, here's the thing: it's struggling toward Spring here in the NE US, so it's likely that I won't be able to wear my cowl for 6-7 months... (Alice is in New Zealand, so she's gearing up for Winter right now). Unless it really does get down into the 40's by mid-week, as the weather sites have been reporting... Sigh.

You can see why I've been rainbow-addicted during this grey, rainy Spring, can't you?

Well, the rainbow bunnies have found a roost (for now) and are settling-in nicely:

Surrounded by a rubber tree, a Tribble, & the Common Cold, they should feel right at home :) 

Some beginnings...

Well, I've had a lot of ideas lately, & they've added up to starting three different projects, but as my crafting time is divided between these three projects, I have no idea when they'll be done! (Not to mention that there's a new set of Guild Wars over at Ravelry's Ankh-Morpork Knitter's Guild...) So I thought I'd share the works in progress.

At top is my lately-much-used basket of KnitPicks Swish DK superwash wool. I was inspired by Alice's Do You Dare to Wear Granny Square post to start my own granny square cowl. I decided to use her Grandala Square instead of a regular granny, though, extending it a bit to be the right size. (On a side note, my 9th-grader son has been studying geometry in school & decided to work-out the area of the whole Grandala, & then the areas of the circle in the middle & the square on the outside, just for fun. I wish I could do that...) I made green, blue, & purple squares, but have decided to wait on the rest (Alice used 7 squares for her cowl) until an order of additional colours of yarn comes in.

Also in the basket are one completed & one half-finished Bunny Nugget, which I found from following a link on Alice's blog to this blog.

These bunny nuggets are so cute, I just had to start making a rainbow of them for myself!

I did change the pattern, which has you make it on 3 double-pointed needles, bind-off the top of the head, knit the ears separately, then sew them on. I am a relentless fusser, & prefer to knit as much all at once as I can, rather than sew things up. So here's the orange one with the first ear still on the needle. First I made it on 2 circular needles because I prefer this technique (I used size 1 needles because I knit very loosely & this pattern calls for a firm gauge). I basically stopped where she has you bind-off, knit the first 3 stitches of the next round, put them & the last 3 from the other needle on a piece of yarn (you can see it there), do a 3-needle bind-off on the middle stitches, fudge the last bind-off so there are 3 stitches remaining on each needle, then continue around on 6 stitches for 15 rounds. After finishing the first ear, I pick up the 3 on each side on the 2 circular needles, plus one along the bound-off edge (which I knit together with the first stitch in the round) & knit the second ear the same.
Then I added button eyes,embroidered the nose, made the pom-pom tail, stuffed it, & sewed an overcast seam on the bottom. The bunny sits up because of the tail. I think I'll make the eyes with different buttons, so they have some personality :)

The third project is my next pair of lacy socks!

I am very psyched about these. I plugged the Vine Lace pattern from Barbara Walker's 2nd pattern treasury into my basic sock template (mentioned here) & I really like how it's coming out. One thing I'm discovering is how difficult it is to photograph lace knitting. When I got close (to see the pattern) with my flash camera, the flash made the picture washed-out, so I tried to use my iphone camera, but it's kind of dark. I'll keep experimenting, because this lace is so pretty! I'm using KnitPicks Stroll Tonal sock wool in Gypsy (which is on sale right now!) & I just really like it.

So much to do. I'll keep you posted as to my progress :) 

My New Rug!

I'm quite excited, as you can tell by the exclamation point :) My front door rug, a once-lovely rag-rug,  has been in a state beyond disrepair all winter, unable to be washed because it would disintegrate if I did. I have been thinking, in the back of my brain, for some months about the replacement but all I knew was that I wanted to make it myself. Then I had back surgery in January & my mind was on things other than rugs... While talking to my friend Momo some weeks ago (by skype, since she's in Japan :) she showed me the new kitchen mat she'd crocheted from cotton yarn, & it hit me that I could crochet my new rug. Up until now I have knitted them all, log-cabin fashion, in garter stitch with 3 strands of cotton worsted. This sort of rug would be too thick to fit under the front door when it opened, which was another hitch in my rug-ruminating. So it all slowly came together in the weeks following my conversation with Momo (thanks!!). Crochet stitches are thicker by nature than knitted, so I wouldn't need triple strands of yarn to make a sturdy rug. I wanted something absorbent, so cotton was indicated, & machine-washable, since they all get washed regularly. Last week I finally decided to order yarn for it & chose KnitPick's CotoLin sport weight, in 2 shades of red. I estimated I'd need 6 skeins total, 3 of each colour.

photographed against a lighter floor to show contrast...

Our front hallway is floored with tiles that were painted long-ago, & it was painted red when we moved in nearly 18 years ago.  We've had it repainted in a chocolate brown (to better match the woodwork), since we discovered that the layers & paint can't be removed to restore the tiled to their original glory :(
Part of what had been holding me up was the question of colour(s) for the new rug, in light of the dark brown floor. The old rag-rug was basically an indigo colour, which I loved, but it wasn't really distinctive. I thought it would be nice to have the new rug be pretty, & the contrasting colours of red really look nice together. I was just going to granny it, but my research into crochet motifs that make good dish-cloths led me to try using motifs at the centre. I chose motif # 023 from the wonderful book of crochet motifs from Japan, and as I made & attached them I measured it against the old rug, going for the right rectangular shape (I used a size G/6/4.0mm hook, too).  Then, when I had the right centre rectangle size, I just grannied it the rest of the way, finishing (when I was just about out of yarn) with a round of single crochet for stability. My estimate worked well- I have 4 tiny balls of yarn leftover. I soaked it & lay it flat to dry, & it measures ~23"x33".

here it is in front of the door

I really like it!!  It was fun to make, too, with the motifs being technically interesting & then the mindless granny bit soothing. Somehow I feel like I've leveled-up, rug-making-wise. Maybe it's a good thing my kitchen rug is getting scruffy... (hee, hee)

Motif Dish-cloths

The Guild Wars over at Ravelry's Ankh-Morpork Knitter's Guild have gotten me in the mood to make kitcheny things, & also made me aware of the state of the kitcheny things I already have... So when I noticed that a couple of my dish-cloths were getting disreputable I decided to make some new ones. I have always knitted my dish-cloths, so I thought it was time to crochet some. And since I think it's better to make things pretty & colourful while I'm at it, I decided to look through my crochet motif books & find some that would work well as dish-cloths. I was looking for ones that weren't too lacy & had some substance (since you need some cloth in a dish-cloth :), plus they needed to be big enough. I have lots of KnitPicks Simply cotton sport weight yarn in lots of colours, leftover from a project that I just realised I haven't blogged yet! Yikes! Stay tuned...

Anyway, cotton sport-weight yarn, when crocheted, has a similar body to my worsted-weight cotton, knitted dish-cloths, so I decided it would work. The motif at the top is my adaptation of the Royal Square on pg. 94 of The Harmony Guide, crochet stitch motifs. I changed it because I wanted the flower & petals to be in different colours, & the way the motif is presented it's all one row (petals & leaves). It's nearly 9"x9" square & a good size for a dish-cloth, & is now in use :)

This one is your basic granny square, nothing fancy except the colours. Because of the colour sequencing, it ended-up on the smallish side (about 7" square) but I'm going to try it out anyway. It will certainly cheer us up on cloudy days...

I have at least 5 other motifs from the Harmony Guide bookmarked, so I plan to make more. I got side-tracked by a bigger project (soon to be blogged :) so I hope to make a few more dish-cloths from motifs soon. 

Magrat's Amulets Pot-holders/Trivets

Another quick post today. This is my third offering to the Ankh-Morpork Knitter's Guild Guild Wars 2 over at Ravelry. I call them "Magrat's Amulets Pot-holders/Trivets. Magrat is a witch-turned-queen on the Discworld, created by Terry Pratchett. The Guild Wars are a lot of fun & inspirational to boot. My other contibutions to GW2 are here & here. As my son & husband are also reading Pratchett's Discworld books these days, the crafting has become fun for the whole family :)

I was inspired to make these by Alice's Granny Triangle Pot-holders over at Crochet with Raymond. They are continuing to fulfill my need for colour during this cold, rainy Spring we're having. I'm so glad Alice shared this tutorial in her blog!!

Granny Mandala & Tea Cozy

Hello! For some reason I have felt starved for colour lately (perhaps the non-existence of Spring round these parts...) so I finally made a couple projects that I've been wanting to do for a while. Alice over at Crochet with Raymond has some nice tutorials for her own designs, focusing on wonderful, colourful granny designs. I have been salivating over her Spring Explosion Tea Cosy ever since I saw it a couple of months ago, but decided to start small & work up :) First, I had to discover the US equivalent for New Zealand 8-ply wool, which is DK weight. Then, since I usually work in fingering, lace, or worsted weight yarns, I had to order a rainbow of DK weight yarn (I went for KnitPicks' Swish DK superwash wool, dunno why superwash, I ordered it about a month ago...). Then, I had to find my 4.0 mm hook (in a basket of Noro sock wool, go fig...). Then I was ready!

So, of course, I started with one of Alice's Granny Mandalas in Knitpicks Comfy Cotton sport weight with a size F/3.75 mm hook.

I like the chromatic progression of colour up to & including the dark green, but then I just didn't have the right shades to pull it off. It was good practise though, & I'll probably make a smaller one in wool to go under the tea cosy.

For the Granny Tea Cosy I used the DK weight wool & 4.0 mm hook. I adapted Alice's pattern a bit as I went along, making 2-row stripes instead of one-row (gives it a rick-rack look :) and I also did it in the round at the bottom (she fastens it with a button), which fits over my tea pot just fine (this is one of my larger tea pots, too). You can see the knob on top just peeking out here, which is one of the details that sold me on this pattern. I like the chromatic progression of this yarn much better. It just took me an evening to make, so it was a very quick & rewarding project! And colourful!!!