The Decorator Crab

Scanner+Fireworks=Quilt Madness!

Hello knitting fans! Pardon my recess from yarn porn while I dig into fabrics for a moment. Tonight I had a little fun with my new scanner and some fabrics that I had in the stash.  I got the bug to do a little quilting, so I thought that I would map out a block now that I have the tools to do it. Fun! I had to work with the block pattern that I scanned from a book, which is why there are white spaces in between sections - those wouldn't be in the final product. [I didn't have the heart to start from a blank canvas] The mock-up isn't as nice as something you would get with some fancy quilting software, but it's not a bad hack, either!

Here I'm mostly just playing around with packets of fat quarters that I had laying around. [Long-time readers of the blog may remember the last little item that I made with these fabrics...tee hee!]  I wouldn't go so far as to make a complete quilt out of this block, but it might make a fun hot pad for the kitchen. Let's see if I can motivate to actually construct the block! I'll have to teach myself foundation (or paper-) piecing, but all of the web sites say that it's easy. We'll see! Oh, BTW, this is a modified "Snow Crystals" block.

FO: Short Row Hat

Project: Short Row Hat (pdf), by Veronik Avery from Winter 2005 Interweave Knits.
Yarn: Faith in colorway A-50, by AmiAmi, distributed by Ami-Itoya
Needles: Takumi bamboo straights, 7US (4.5mm)
Recipient: Me!
Notes: I am extremely pleased with this hat! I saw the pattern last year and immediately ordered the yarn from Canada. Then I tried knitting the hat and couldn't finish. The short row shaping was too unfamiliar to me, and I couldn't see where the hat was going. I abandoned it, with regret.

At the start of the new year I was looking for a project that I could really get excited about, and thought that I would give the Short Row Hat another go. Lo and behold, it was easy!  I have learned enough about knitting over the course of last year that I sailed right through the pattern. Happy happy!

The pattern itself is genius. Despite the fact that my knitting is making progress, I still can not imagine in my wildest dreams how Veronik designed this thing. I mean I get it, because I knit it, but I just don't see how she "got it" in the first place. Such creativity! 

I wasn't all that excited to be knitting a hat flat, since I find seaming tedious, but it was well worth the effort in the end. A couple of things to note though, about the seaming. This hat is started with a provisional cast on which is then picked up and knit together with the last row of the hat in a three needle bind off. This is actually way better than seaming, but I found that my provisional cast on had left a purl ridge after I bound off. This was probably a problem with how I did the cast on, but I don't have enough experience with it to really know. Unsatisfied and undaunted, I unseamed the bind-off and pulled out the cast on row. This did the trick, and I am pleased with how the seam turned out. Blocking flattened it out nicely.

The yarn is extremely soft, and I found it wonderful to work with. I was afraid that it wouldn't be very strong since it's a single ply yarn, but it held up under plenty of fiddling around with the short rows. One downside to the yarn, and I will keep you posted on this, is potential felting/pilling. The start of the hat was quite fuzzy by the time that I got around to the bind off, and that was just from working on it on the couch for a week or so. No traveling in a purse or anything. The hat also felted very slightly when I blocked it. The instructions say to "block lightly," which probably means to steam it, but there were some wonky stitches that needed a good soak and real blocking. I risked it, and did notice some loss in stitch definition. But not much. Also - I blocked the hat on a balloon blown up to my head circumference (visible in some photos). Why didn't I think of this sooner?!

The colors in the yarn speak for themselves - gorgeous! I was constantly entertained by the color changes as I made each diamond and top section. You need a yarn that makes it's color changes fairly quickly if you want to avoid pooling between sections, as Lori discovered when she used Noro to make the hat. I think it's beautiful either way, and the construction still so novel, so it's up to you to choose a yarn that you like. A solid would be fun, too, but wouldn't show off the design as well.  I had such a grand time with all of the short  rows that I would be tempted to knit this with a solid yarn if I didn't have any other colorways available.

I gave the hat a test run in Canada this past weekend. Despite ridiculous temperatures (negative 9F?  WTF??), my head was warm, soft, and cradled in hand-knit lovin'. This one is a keeper!

Fetching

Project: Fetching, from Knitty
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran
Needles: Size 5US bamboo DPNs
Recipient: TBD
Notes: Well, there isn't much that I can say about these that hasn't been said already. I was waiting for a nice, sunny day to photograph these, and then I remebered that I live in Seattle. So, apologies for the washed-out, flat photo. These were a quick, satisfying knit with one ball of yarn, and I have another ball already dedicated to knitting another pair. I opted-out of the picot coast-off, and will forgo the cable cast-on the next time around. I found it to be a waste of time and [due to my own lack of ability and patience] sloppy looking. The blocking did help the top and bottom edges to curl less significantly. The second wrist warmer of the pair has a special "design element," and I left it in out of sheer laziness and disregard. Beh. I am planning on sending these to a friend in a cold locale, and will keep the next pair for myself (if I ever knit them).

I have two (count 'em TWO!) more FO's to show you, but they will have to wait until we get back from snowboarding in Canada,  Sorry, eh!  Until then, here is a tidbit...

This post brought to you by the In-Laws

Inspired by Laurie's Hairstory series and armed with a new scanner that we got for Christmas, I bring you the first in a random assortment of embarrassing photos of me from the awkward years (which were many).

This gem was recently sent to me by my Mom, who cleaned out her storage space and passed the junk fun on to me. Aren't we lucky! This photo is circa May 1988, which is just before my 11th birthday. It appears that I was pre-braces and post scrunchy-discovery. (Bitchin' side braid!) Apparently I'd also discovered blow driers, but had not yet mastered their use. (Nice blow-over!) My mom only ever sewed on three merit badges, so I have a bunch more in a ziploc baggie somewhere in the garage. Maybe I can combine these with patches from my high school letterman's jacket (a whole other post) in some kind of patchwork homage to the good ol' times. The years when you were rewarded for building "fires" out of red hots, coconut shavings, and pretzel sticks. Ah yes, those were good times.

I have actual knitting content to post, so stay tuned for more from me soon!