My knitting and crochet goal…

Last year I said that I was going to crochet and knit every design from this japanese book:

And while I’m not good at keeping promises or craft goals or any goals in general,  somehow I’m keeping this up. The reason might be that it’s not a serious oath, neither something that fiddles with my everyday life and I don’t feel any pressure from it. Why do I bother with such a small goal? Well, my theory is that if I find what keeps me on completing it, then I might use the same mechanism for every abandoned goal, oath, promise (believe me, they’re so many) that I’ve had in the past and I might make them complete. Could it be that I find this particular goal easy to keep because it gives me pleasure? Could be…

Back to the book. This summer I’ve finished two more patterns from it. One for me and one for a friend. And they’re both made with the lovely Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy yarn in color 023. I love this yarn. First, it’s cool for summer, second, once washed it softens and drapes beautifully, and third, it comes in wonderful deep colors.Plus it looks like it will never be worn out or destroyed…

This time I made the front cover tunic for me. That was an excellent pattern, easy and fast! And you get a look that everyone you meet will compliment (and feel jealous if they can’t make it for themselves).

and look how cute the scalloped edges look:

The next object is one of the two hats of the book and I really believe my version came out cuter.  Here’s my friend modelling the gift:

I added a button to the crochet flower and also a pin on the back so that she can remove it and wear it somewhere else if she wants to.

And now that we’re talking about hats and this book I remembered I have actually knitted the second hat design on this book earlier this year. I made it for a Ravelry Swap prize and it’s already mailed to its new home in northern Europe.

I’ve made many changes to this pattern.  I omitted the visor and knitted ribbing at the end in order to make a simple beret.

I used undyed greek cotton that I dyed red after knitting. I think it came out quite nice and summer-y!

A reminder: all patterns can be found at the japanese book: Easy Knit Wardrode Spring / Summer (ISBN: 4529045234)

 

Monthly Review of Knitting

I know,  I know that one post per month roughly qualifies for blogging. More like: Monthly Review Of Things I Don’t Find Time to Blog As Often As I’d Like To. That’s a big title. Anywayz…

For the last two months my craft room was unreachable. I had no time or will to go in and unclutter the place. Instead I kept adding more things that were annoying me when I found them  at the rest of the house. All my sewing is done at the craft room but the craft-cutting table was full of so much unrelated clutter: hello kitty stuff I received from my friend in Japan, Miwa, a pile of old jeans I meant to recycle, buttons I had neglected to put back into storage, scraps of paper from making a card, glue, scissors, two unopened bags of yarn I compulsively bought during Christmas but never cared to open afterwards and a big bottle of Castor Oil! I was wondering too, like you do, why it was there in the first place, instead of its own place in the soapmaking supplies box. Then I remembered I have used it to oil my sewing machine with it just before abandoning the roomin its fate. I’ve read somewhere that castor oil is the best natural alternative for oiling a number of  machines. I hope it’s true.

Considering the state of my craft room, sewing was out of the question. The type of crafts I could choose was knitting and crochet. Which was good because I got to learn more knitting techniques. I’m getting quite good at it. Although slow. I really can’t undestand how people finish garments in a week.  I need at least a month for a garment and two weeks for a hat. I know practice makes perfect, but does it make faster at the same time?

Knitting project #1 : Scaruffle (ravelry link) with Rowan Kidsilk Haze in Candy Girl colorway

Easy, fast and cheap. Great one skein project for a single ball of Kidsilk Haze

Also great for emergency gift knitting.

Knitting project #2: Simple Beret with Gedifra Serano Novelty yarn.

I don’t like the majority of the novelty yarns. But there are a few, and one of them is Gedifra Serano that I love. Bad luck is they are usually very expensive.

This yarn is divinely soft and moss-like, that’s why I named this beret The Moss Beret. But beware fellow knitter, you can easily loose stitches because sometimes you can’t see what you knit behind the novelty.

That was the first hat I knitted using circular needles. And I had a newbie problem that noone mentions. What do you do when the stitches are decreased so much that the needles are too big for them? huh? i solved my problem with lots of cursing and improvisation. Then I learned about magic loop. I guess I could use DP needles too, but my knitting supplies are limited to a set of Harmony Knit Picks Interchangeable set for now.

Knitting project #3: Turban-like Hat with Katia Miski in Brown

Katia Miski is the favorite yarn of the moment. People underestimate how soft baby llamas can be. Well in this case softer than medium quality alpacas and cashmere. I highly recommend you try and find this yarn.

The pattern is from the japanese Hat Book. Here is the Ravelry link where you’ll find information and discussion about this pattern. All you basically need to know to do it is the brioche stitch.

(the brioche stitch)

And then decifer the instructions from Nihon Vogue which can be found in detail here. It seems harder than it is. Just remember that your final goal is to match the red line with the blue line and everything else will fall into place.

This has become my everyday hat. I even wear it indoors when I am cold. It fits perfectly, it’s not tight around the head, covers the ears and the lower back neck , is hot and and as soft as a kitty! But most of all I think it’s just SO cool.