WIP: Zephyr Cove begins

I am about halfway to the stripe part.  I have knitted and undone about three times as many rows as have survived. I want it nice and neat!

I am using a new set of size 5 Yarnology acrylic circulars I got at Hobby Lobby for a couple of bucks. The needles are connected by hollow plastic tubing.  It is flexible, but already, the tubing is bent and pinched at the connection to the needle and often snags up as I am moving the stitches down. Otherwise, I like them.  I have used acrylic needles before and they squeaked, but I like the way these handle and they are silent.

WIP: Zephyr Cove Scarf

I thought maybe my knitting days were behind me. My knitting group, which should be celebrating its ten year anniversary, barely meets up anymore. Rather than finishing WIPs, I have been putting most of my free hours towards organising photos and family history. 

But, it is autumn. The needles have been calling. This pattern found me.

This is Romi's Zephyr Cove Scarf.  I decided to make it with the Madelinetosh Pashmina yarn in Jade and Cousteau. Spendy, yes, but the colours are so rich and intense! I determined that if I was ever going to cast on a new project, I'd better splurge to work up some excitement.

 

Let me assure you, these pics do NOT do the colours justice!  

FO: final shots of the teensy sweaters

i've been taking a break from yarning to work on ideas for an upcoming crochet project, but in the meantime, i thought i would post my own photos of the last projects on violet's doll. the folk in the back are long time members of my office knitting group. we've been meeting every wednesday for about 6 years and most of us learned to knit from one of our coworkers. not everyone works on a project every week, but we meet regardless to catch up and chat!
 

note: the doll's dress was sewn by violet's unstoppably craftastic mom, robyn!

FO: teensy sweater #2!

voila!  i feel like this little sweater brought me all the way from beginner knitter to intermediate in one leap and i lurve how it came out.  the doll gets to try it on next week.  hopefully, it will not be too big or too wonky.

FO: nigel, the nautilus

 

finally, nigel is complete!  

he now has over twice as the tentacles, a shorter head, a tighter curl and the additional triangle flap that rests over his eyes, giving him a devious look at certain angles!  this was a very fun and easy project.  the only reason it took so long to complete was a balled up schedule. however, he got my client's squeeze of approval tonight and i am very pleased!

 watch out!  nigel is giving you "the eye"!

WIP: nautie-alien!

still working on this one.

i followed the pattern, however, my "client" has requested a few changes:  a smaller head, a tighter curl, many more tentacles and big eyes on the sides.


if you take a look at the real deal, his suggestions are very good.

he should know!  the nautilus has long been near the top of his "favorite animal" list!

Research Friday: Dopamine

ever get to the end of a row and feel that little "kick" of accomplishment and then, go on to do another row--

--EVEN THOUGH IT IS 1:20 AM ON A WORK NIGHT AND YOU ARE SO TIRED YOU CAN HARDLY FOCUS ANYMORE? yeah. me, too.

it occurred to me that just as some folk love video gaming (and by "loving" it, i mean craving it and unable to stop once they start), i am loving stitch-wrangling.

science says:

"Dopamine is commonly associated with the reward system of the brain, providing feelings of enjoyment and reinforcement to motivate a person proactively to perform certain activities." wikipedia

"A number of studies have revealed that game playing triggers dopamine release in the brain, a finding that makes sense, given the instrumental role that dopamine plays in how the brain handles both reward and exploration." discover magazine

"Pain specialist Monica Baird explains that the action of knitting actually changes brain chemistry, decreasing stress hormones and increasing feel-good serotonin and dopamine." press release log

i wonder if i am "under the influence of crochet" when i look at the wiki entries and think how cute a serotonin and dopamine amigurumi would look?

WIP: colourwork halfway mark

this is coming out really nice! the resulting fabric is pretty thick and stiff, partly because i am a tight knitter and partly because it is acrylic. the inside of the tube is full of floaty stitches right now, but it might be a cute little purse if i line it! :)

First Forays into Stranded Knitting

trying out stranded colourwork by doing continental style knitting with the green yarn and english with the blue! actually, it is not hard at all. i watched eunny's demo and just had at it.

to keep my eye focused on one line of the pattern grid at a time, i cut a skinny window in a 3x5 note card and slide it down as i go . "crimson and clover" is the name of this pattern and i found it in vogue knitting stitchionary 3.

next time, i will try steeking to see how that works. :)

----

also on the needles:

i accidentally cut a hole in some of my yarn while struggling to sew my nautie's head on his shell. argh. i'll need to tear out about 2 inches and re-knit, but i am really quite close to finishing him. (he has lots of tickly tentacles!)

i am also working on an amigurumi version of noah, our parakeet. unfortunately, the pattern i bought offline has not worked out to my satisfaction so far. i will need to tweak it--tweak it good!

i also learned how to do the tubular cast-on required by the fingerless glove pattern i mentioned a few posts ago. i used this video by interweave. i think i will start them tonight!

...

what's on the needles/hook?

on the needles: i am halfway through the nautilus pattern. the colours requested were black for the shell and acid green for his little head and tentacles. working with black was tough at first, and i do wish i had bought that bag of black fiberfill i saw a year ago. i have about 2 inches to go before i switch out to green.

on the hook: i have some squares that i am sampling from the book the crochet stitch bible by betty barnden.




also: i have spent the last couple of days sifting through prospective patterns for my new yarn and am leaning toward knitting fingerless gloves. of course, i love the crazy-intricate ones, but i think i will try a straightforward yarn-showcasing pattern by verabee.

yeah, THAT VERABEE! d'oh! she's one of my favorite illustrators!

using double-pointed needles

pictured above is my fourth (and so far, successful) attempt at taming multiple needles to do my bidding. i have five rows behaving nicely as the knit stitches jump from point to point around the needles. this is a new skill for me and practice for the amigurumi nautilus i mentioned in my last post. i still need to learn how to make the i-cord and practice m1.

thank heaven for youtube how-to videos! here is the double-pointed needle video i watched in order to learn how to do this.

also: i-cord video and m1

so...what to do next...

i checked vogue knitting's stitchionary 2 book out from the library a few days ago and my cable-lust is through the roof! i went through and tagged a few things i would love to attempt as "dishcloth practice". but...one of my fans has quietly pleaded that i return to crocheting amigurumi ASAP. alas, dishcloths and scarves do not impress everyone--even if they have amazing cables.

i would normally jump to fulfill this particular fan's request, however, i still have a sprained wrist from the car accident i mentioned a few posts ago. i have worn a brace on it all week, but it is barely improving. knitting doesn't hurt much, but boy, crocheting snakey-style certainly does.

truth be told, i crochet all wrong. i add this funky wrist twist that no one demonstrating on youtube seems to include and i am certain any of my elder masters would warn me to STOP IT NOW. the constant twisting is simply asking for repetitive motion injury. this might actually be the perfect time to re-learn my stitch motion, since i will be heartily punished with a stab of pain each and every time i fell back to the snakey-style twist.

i have also considered trying knitting amigurumi. there is an awesome little pattern out there i would love to make:

the nautie by beth skwarecki

this pattern demands i learn how to use double-pointed needles and make i-cord, both new skills for me. it may be the perfect "transitional" project while my wrist is recovering. i will consider it...

FO: Washcloth #3

well...the cables came out nice, but that one edge has a lot of mistakes due to overzealous desire to keep purling. i didn't even catch the mistakes until i saw it scanned in.

no perfection award today.

look, ma! cables!

my first cable effort!
this a bit of the cabled neck warmer by tidewaterK.

my other practice piece is this is the easy cabled dishcloth pattern by ginabean (aka dishcloth #3). little front and back cables, switching this way and that. i am trying out different cable needles to see which is easiest. so far, i don't like any of them terribly much. i would like to track down a wooden one and give that a go.

FO: Washcloth #2

improving!
:)

WIP: washcloth 1

a pretty little knitted waffle pattern washcloth. i am at the halfway point. you can see some wiggly-stitchery, but i am getting more confident, bit by bit.

yummy yarn

freshly purchased cotton for washcloths aka knitting practice!
stay tuned for WIPs!

back to the needles

last week, during the recent sleet-fest, i had a little accident in which i managed to bend a tire rim and wrench my right wrist on the steering wheel. unfortunately, i hold my crochet hook in that hand, so i decided to give crochet a rest and revisit the long-abandoned knitting needles.

my friend, mair, suggested to me that as a crocheter, i might enjoy the continental style of knitting where you hold your yarn in your left hand and kind of pick at loops with your right needle. it didn't take too long to learn and i love it!

continental purling, however, is a scrabbly, low-down and dirty affair, where i have abandoned all hope of holding my hands like the pretty pictures and just kind of wrangle the loops over and through like i'm busy hot-wiring a car.

this week i am going to give my knit and purl skills a good stretch of simple practice looking to improve my consistency. at this point, my knit stitches are loose and the purls are tight--but i haven't dropped a stitch in 20 rows and i think that might be my new record.