WIP Wednesday

In an effort to increase the regularity with which I update this blog, I'm going to try some day theme type things. So, today's the first WIP Wednesday. (We'll see how long this lasts...)

The chief WIP continues to be the felt/sequin stocking. I'm nearly at the threshold for this project, though--the threshold of how much more I can take. At first, the details and meticulousness of it was nice. But, if I'm not done by the end of this week, I'm going to have to put it aside for a month or so, for the sake of my sanity. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that I could finish it this week. We'll see.

This past weekend I whipped up a little wall-hanging for a friend who is getting married in Africa next month. I used paper-piecing for the letters, and so far I've done a bit of simple machine quilting in the letters. Upon the recommendation of my quilting teacher (hehe), I'm going to do a bit of stipling in the white areas, but this will have to wait a bit--I don't have a darning foot for my machine.

A WIP that's closer to being a FO is a little lace baby sweater I started while we were in Maui. The style is a bit remniscent of EZ's February Baby Sweater, though this sweater was worked from the bottom up. I'm starting to think this sweater might be pre-mie sized. Oh well. I used Noro Kureyon sock yarn, which is so lovely. So maybe it will end up being a lovely sweater for a stuffed bear or something. (Sorry, no pic at this moment).

Finally, though it barely qualifies as a WIP, I have made 2 gauge swatches for the Katarina sweater. A LYS is having a knit-along for this sweater, and I'm excited to participate. I'm using Dream in Color Classy in a lovely black-brown color--I have high hopes that this sweater will turn out to be very wearable; I went against my instincts by picking a neutral color so that I might have a versatile FO. :)

Address Stamp

Disclaimer: This post might not really belong on this blog, but I had to share it anyways.

Now that I'm married and have a house, I decided it was high time I had a custom address stamp, naturally. I started with a simple google search and found lots of examples of standard, customizable (boring) stamps. Then a little lightbulb went off in my head...Etsy!

Who knew there would be so many interesting and cute address stamps?! These are the ones I've favorited so far:















Any thoughts on which one I should choose?

Wedding Craft: Groom's Socks

As part of my gift for Raj, I made him a pair of socks which I gave to him when we had our "first look." He was surprised and enthusiastically put them on right there and wore them the rest of the night.

The pattern was just a basic 64 stitch sock, worked in 2x2 rib, with the rib carried down onto to the top of the foot. The yarn is some KnitPicks Risata that had been chilling in my stash for a few years.

Wedding Craft: Shrug

I made this simple navy blue shrug to wear at my reception. I modified this free pattern from Classic Elite Yarns, Post Wedding Shrug, inspired by this one. The modifications: eliminated the sleeve cuffs; added a crocheted shell edging to the whole thing.

I knit the piece flat, blocked it to my satisfaction, stitched closed a few inches at each end to form the arm holes, then applied the crocheted edging all around. I used KnitPicks Shine Worsted in "sailor" and this project only used 3 or 4 little balls, if I recall correctly, making it quite the little budget-friendly project.

I really love the finished product, though I'm not sure when I'll have use for it again.

Shocking! A stocking!

I don't want to set myself up for failure, but I'm going to give another go at this blog. The wedding is done, and in theory I have more time for crafts and for blogging about crafts. We'll see how it goes...

For the past 3 weeks, I've been hard at work on a felt stocking for Raj. Everyone in my immediate family has one of these beauties, and it was a given that Raj would get one, too. Progress has been a bit slow, even with all these slow nights at work the past few weeks. But I'm starting to feel like I might be on the passing the summit on this project.

I'm hoping to get a few posts up soon about some of the things I made for the wedding. :)

Ack! A post! Hold onto your seat!

Things have been hectic here. Between planning the wedding, finding a house and working this stupid night shift, I've lost a bit of my knitting mojo. But not completely:

This is the blanket I made for Naomi's newest kiddo, Kai, who was born a month ago. I used Takhi Cotton Classic and chose stitch patterns from Barbara Walker's Treasury of Knitting Patterns. The white edging is applied I-cord.

Now back to my current project: packing! We're moving on Saturday into our new townhome in Ballard!

Those green crates are from Frog Box--reusable moving boxes you rent. :)

Look! A blog update!

Oh, hi! It's been a long time. I haven't been knitting very much, and what I have been knitting isn't very interesting yet. Way back when, I thought I would do Knitting Olympics and I cast on for a simple top down raglan sweater, thinking that this would be a realistic challenge for myself. Well, I'm still working on the first sleeve...and by "working" I mean I haven't touched the think in at least a couple weeks. Now that the weather has changed, I'm less motivated to finish. I will eventually, though.

Last month I started my 3rd pair of sock challenge socks...and frogged them an hour later. The yarn I was using (a zauberball) wasn't a good match for the pattern (or for sock knitting in general IMHO). So I'm using the yarn (a luscious green) to make a shawlette...but no pics! Sorry.

Today, in anticipation of my looming vacation (NYC here I come!) I cast on for a new pair of sock challenge socks. I'm working Lindsay in some Koigu KPM that I dyed a few years ago with kool-aid. The resulting color is much less orange than it appears (crappy work lighting!)--more of a coral color with some (odd) purple-ish spots which read more as gray/black/brown on the coral color.

I'm goign to modify the pattern a bit to omit the single rib and instead insert another pattern repeat, in the hope that they'll be slightly larger in circumference. This should be a good purse project for the plane, train and subway rides that are in my near future.