2008 March « cosymakes

Archive for March, 2008

if you’re on ravelry

March 31, 2008

check this out.

and i get an advanced copy this week. it’s really happening! i don’t think i really believed it until now.

I also noticed a new description on Amazon and my editor said that this is what the back of the book reads (not will read – reads! yikes):

Cozy knits with an artful twist.
Customizing your handknits is easier than you think! Knit One, Embellish Too includes easy-to-follow patterns for more than 35 warm and comfy scarves, hats and mittens, and shows you how to make them your own with decorative yarn stitching and other simple embellishments. Whether you’re an enthusiastic beginner or a seasoned pro, you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to transform your knitted accessories into one-of-a-kind works of art.

Pick up your knitting needles and:

Create quick, easy projects from a minimal amount of yarn. Plus, learn how to choose the best yarn for your project, or even recycle old sweaters into unique yarns for knitting.
Explore fun ways to personalize your work with artful stitching and the addition of buttons, appliqués and other unique embellishments. If you’re looking for a bigger challenge, helpful guides show you how to try your hand at choosing and combining colors and finding the perfect fit.
Learn all the basics of knitting and embellishing in a comprehensive techniques section right up front, complete with clear illustrations and instructions.

Knit something new and embellish it, too: Open up a world of creative yarns, vibrant colors and inspired embellishments for your knitted accessories.

Posted in book, cosyknitsliterally, knitting | 19 Comments »

brownstone helmet hat

March 31, 2008

ahem. speaking of this.

ingredients:
hand dyed recycled shetland wool seen here, i think it may have been J Crew
white handspun – farm wool from NY from my friend sarah

adult medium/large
seen on the smaller

today i’ve some animal friendly roving dyeing in crockpots in the bathtub – part of my earth day craft fair plan. the other parts of the plan include some turnip shaped hats, small tams, springling mitts, and some spring colored snow bunnies. we’ll see how much i get done. have a good monday!

Posted in cosyknitsliterally, hats, knitting | 3 Comments »

feltable

March 29, 2008

first of all, thanks so much for your opinions on the hat! they were very helpful. i think i may try the border, then if i don’t like it rip it. i’m assuming in doing this that the asymmetry will still be bold enough (blue compared to orange).

one morning this week, i finally decided to try felting the stack of stuff i had piled in the yarn room. so into the washer on hot with a bit of soap went 3 moth eaten cashmere sweaters that a kind woman dropped at my doorstep last week, two fronts to a cardigan (the rest of which was ripped for yarn recycling, but these didn’t work – i also used them to exhaust a dye bath), and one little knitted swatch for my friend peggy (not shown).

overall, it went well. these were the fastest to felt and left lots of blue bits on everything else (witness the cashmere sweaters below). they were easily done in one wash cycle.

the three cashmere sweaters were a bit different. the red one might not have felted at all (superwash cashmere?), the tan one felted up like crazy and i didn’t take it out so it felted more and more, and the black one needed the two wash cycles, as did peggy’s felted sample.

as someone who has never felted before, it was really interesting to watch everything felt at a different rate. so, what do i plan to do with these? i think the cashmere that felted may be cut into pieces to stitch at the forehead sections if people find hats itchy. the blue pocket cardi fronts i’m pondering some sort of wall hanging to hold my circular needles for one of them. the red cashmere sweater? i’m not sure. anyone have a use for it?

Posted in felting, thrifty | 5 Comments »

silouetted helmet hat

March 28, 2008

named by ben. i think this was my knitting project for working on at my last craft fair, then it languished. it is only fitting that it was completed this week, in time for the next craft fair.

ingredients:
my hand dyed recycled sweater wool – blue and brown
my hand dyed thrifted wool – orange

size: adult medium/large
modeled here on the larger

working on this hat filled my deep-seated need to use my artistic brain which felt nearly rusty with all that spinning and designing. it’s funny how the only thing in the business that can really fulfill that is the hat making equivalent of painting for me, cause it’s not like the other things aren’t creative. i guess i’m just a bit conceptual at heart and to see it all come together, that’s what does it for me. i could never be just a dyer, spinner, designer and be happy with it. note to self – don’t go for weeks on end without doing this.

i have a question for you about the hat too – do you all like a asymmetry? or do you think i need to crochet edge the other earflap so they have the same density? the one with the crochet does stick out a bit more than the other. i was thinking subtle… so i’d do it in the orange, or perhaps a slightly lighter orange. that is, if i do it at all. i usually just do asymmetrical embroidery, so asymmetrical hatting is a whole new can of worms!

besides a date night tonight (yay!) when i will not be working, i’m planning to spend the next two weeks preparing for a earth day craft fair – putting my best sustainable foot forward, so to speak. have a great weekend! i’m off to brainstorm ideas of things to sell.

Posted in cosyknitsliterally, hats, knitting | 7 Comments »

the last of the scrappy

March 27, 2008

one part blue/green (bfl)
one part muted green (local farm sheep wool – BC)
one part lemony-lime (local farm sheep wool – WA)
and one part yellow (?, but not any of the above options)
makes a tropical kind of yarn.

p.s. looks like we could have our own little bsj knit along with how many of us are thinking about it! :)

Posted in cosyspins, handspun, spinning | 2 Comments »

bsj

March 26, 2008

do you know what i’m talking about when i say that? cheryl’s making one and called it ‘bsj’ the other day when she, rachel and i were spinning and rachel had no idea what was going on. ah internets lingo. if you have no idea, go look here (ravelry) or here (flickr). i’m thinking this yarn may be used for that.

probably not any time soon though… must finish my sweater first.

more spinning of bits and bobs. first, i dug up all of my small quantity reds/pinks, separated them into several sections, and lined them up in the order i was going to spin them. i had in mind that i might make a self-striping yarn and practice my navajo plying. ugh. don’t navajo ply when you have so many different kinds of wool mixed together. it’s asking for trouble. well, that is if you want to sell said yarn :) i also didn’t weigh the wool (it didn’t look like *that* much…) and it turned out to be 3 bobbins full. this is one big skein. how big?

276 yards and 6 7/8 oz big!! it may be destiny. i’ve wanted to try the ‘bsj’ pattern for a while, this would be plenty of yarn, the sweater looks fabulous striped and i think the garter stitch will hide all of the imperfections in my yarn* as well as give me a nice blending when the color shifts are too abrupt.

frankly, i’m not too sad that i can’t sell this one. i think it will be perfect :)

*read: where my yarn completely changes texture and feel and therefore also changes size when being spun. seriously, this skein probably has 4 or 5 completely different sheep breeds represented.

Posted in handspun, knitting, spinning, sweaters | 6 Comments »

my first sweater

March 25, 2008

*sung to the tune of my first lover by gillian welch*

i know i’ve been dropping hints for a while that i’m working on my first sweater. i haven’t blogged because the back of a sweater isn’t all that exciting. now the front left – which is what this picture is of – that’s where it’s at ;) really though, bits and pieces just aren’t that blog worthy, so this is all you get until we almost reach the end.

pattern: drops cardigan that i first fell in love with here, ravelry link here. i’m making the lighter weight.
yarn: tahki tweedy alpaca – from my enabler flo.
size: i’m making the medium. we’ll see how that goes. i put the back up to a sweater i like and it looks fine.

what was your first sweater and how did it turn out (links would be good!)? i must admit to having one languishing from very very early knitting days… a cardigan in lamb’s pride bulky from when i had no idea what i was doing. it needs to be 1) ripped and 2) dyed some color other than carnation pink.

have a great day! it’s sunny and cold here in pgh and i’m planning to get outside for a walk.

Posted in knitting, sweaters | 7 Comments »

i’m in love!

March 24, 2008

but the rule is no buying what you dye for knit one. rats!

besides, they need it more than me. the roving basket is not just sparse, but also mostly red. these two were dyed in crockpots in my bathtub on friday evening. both are merino. i might should dye something for myself some day soon so i won’t be so jealous :)

in the meantime, i’ve been spinning up random bits and bobs of roving. here’s one skein, probably destined for the shop. it’s 2 part bfl, 1 part corriedale and silk. it will start or end with the dark color, transition, then be all light blues and greens.

Posted in community, cosyknitsliterally, cosyspins, dyeing, spinning | 4 Comments »

snow cat hat

March 21, 2008

when you click on the button below and follow through on the payment, a two page automatic download in pdf format will be delivered to your email address.

$5.00

A cute little ribbed hat with pointy ears and snowflake lace panels.

Yarn: Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran, Lamb’s Pride Worsted, Green Mountain Spinnery Mountain Mohair, or any heavy worsted (aran) weight wool in a solid color or tweed. 90 – 150 yd (82-137 m). I like a light color because it shows the snowflakes better.

Needle: Size 8 US (5 mm) 16 in. (40.6 cm) circular needle and one additional needle of the same size or whatever needle is necessary to get gauge.

Gauge: 4.25-4.5 st/in. This varies because the hat is ribbed, causing some stitches to be looser and some tighter.

Sizes: 6-18 mo. 17-18 in. (43-45.7 cm) head (18 mo. – adult small 20-21 in. (50.8-53 cm) head, adult medium/large 22-23 in. (56-58.5 cm) head)

the close-up of a snowflake can be seen here and a smaller sized hat here.

Posted in cosyknitsliterally, hats, knitting, patterns | 7 Comments »

au naturale

March 20, 2008

lately, i’ve been rather enamored with the natural tones of wools. in specific, whitish, oatmealy, and grey colors. very unexpected – i mean, my wedding dress wasn’t even close to white! and i make part of my living dyeing things so that they are no longer white. how could this happen?

i think the progression went like this:
first came this and this. then, lots of work on this. it couldn’t have helped that i have shetland wool on the brain and have all sorts of lovely shades of natural to spin. there are 11 different natural colors of shetland, you know. then last week, i found a squishy soft merino sweater at the thrift store (the squishiest, the softest) so i just had to turn it into this because i *needed* to touch the yarn

so for the new pattern, how could i do anything but this?

the snow cat hat is almost ready to be published. the hat that made the final cut for the photo on the pattern was not white. but truthfully? i wish it was :)

have you found yourself drawn to any strange colors lately? maybe it’s the weather…

Posted in color, cosyknitsliterally, hats, knitting, patterns | 5 Comments »

cosymakes

Archive for March, 2008

if you’re on ravelry

brownstone helmet hat

feltable

silouetted helmet hat

the last of the scrappy

bsj

my first sweater

i’m in love!

snow cat hat

au naturale

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