Category: Knitting

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Knitting

Stash Clean Up

Iris Rose

I have been busy again and missed posting last week.  I have a great excuse this time though; I was cleaning out and organizing my stash.

I have no illusions about the size of my stash.  It is huge and almost beyond the capacity of my closet and craft room to hold it all.  I wanted to have access to everything (and who doesn’t) so that I can choose some of the yarn that has been languishing for a while.  To top that off, I foolishly (or not ‘cause it was a steal) bought a stash of coned yarn for machine knitting which is hard to come by.

I any case, I wanted all of my stuff in clear containers for easy viewing and to keep it dust free.  I had solid bins that held everything but who can see through a solid plastic wall?  Every solid bin that I opened was followed with “what the hell is wrong with me?” and a lot of other cussing aimed inward.

I have read about using those shrinking bags with the air sucked out of them for yarn storage and invested in a couple of packs.  They work!  I managed to cut my storage of odd single, double, and triple balls into a workable pile stacked up in the closet.  I then had enough empty clear bins to go to town on all of the rest.  Hand knitting and crocheting yarns in the closet and most coned yarns in my teeny craft room with the machines, I almost feel like I won a huge battle.

Now all I need to do is crochet, knit, or machine knit for several hours of every day for the rest of my life, and it better be a long one, and I will cut my stash in half, haha!

I did find time before the big stash sort to knit up these cute gnomes on my standard bed machine.  I think that I will make a few more and put them around for the holidays.

 

Have a lovely week with little stress and lots of fun.  Thanks for reading and be kind.

Knitting

Finishing

Iris Rose

I have taken a bit of a hiatus from writing this last few months so my posts have been few and far between.  I have reached a point where I am ready to connect again so here goes.

My last post in the middle of September was about unfinished projects.  Well, I did some more tidying and, low and behold, my twenty one unfinished projects turned into thirty four, yes, that is correct, thirty four.  I obviously have too many project bags and hiding places for them when I get bored with a project!

I am happy to say that all except for two are finished.  One of the remaining, a cardigan, will be finished and the last one, that shawl started in January, is going to be frogged.  Maybe.

I finished all of the toys, wait, make that five unfinished projects, (what is wrong with me!), except for a doll, a tiny bear, and a chicken hat.  Here is an example of how something started and hated can be rescued with a little imagination and colour changes.

I made this monster, a free pattern in my Ravelry store, in orange and brown, my least favourite colour combination, a couple of years ago and just could not bring myself to finish it.  Look how a change of colour (the nose) makes such a huge difference to the overall look.  I added neutral fuzzy yarn limbs and I think he or she turned out to be a real cutey.

Moral of the post: don’t be afraid to try something different and you might be surprised how things turn out.  I know that seems simple but sometimes we just have to reach out from our comfort zone and give lime green a whirl.  I have officially been blogging for five years on the 25th; I never thought I had it in me to stick to this for so long.

Thanks for reading and have a lovely crafty and safe week.  Remember to be kind.

Knitting

Baby Blanket 2

Iris Rose

I am back with another baby blanket using the same pattern that I posted on June 28th.

I used a lighter yarn (DK) this time and cast on 144 stitches.   I have a bunch of single skeins from my ebay foray that is so squishy soft.  I had been using it for dolls but with a whole bin full I felt that I could safely borrow some for another use.

The colours are a bit of a mishmash as you can see.  There is something about these colours, great for toys but a blanket, I am not so sure.  Anyway, it is done and although not blocked, looking pretty good even if it is a little bright.  So bright that the colour is too concentrated to take a good photo.  You need your shades for this one!

I have so much of this yarn that I have started another in a new pattern and not quite so eye popping, for my tv knitting.  I have made inroads; the bin is done by about a third, woohoo!

I am still on a yarn fast.  I am determined to work out of stash until it is at least half gone.  Wish me luck and a long life!!!

Thanks for reading and have a lovely week filled with kind thoughts and deeds.

Knitting

Baby Blanket, Pattern Included

Iris Rose

Stash diving, got to love it.  I dove in and came out with a whole bunch of ideas and the yarn to make them without going out or spending money, woohoo!

I knew that I had two Blueberry Cheesecake Caron Cakes that I bought when this yarn first came out.  I am not sure why I bought it but I think it was “oh, that is so pretty that I must have it and why not two?”  I actually remember buying way more than two and that is how my Another Cake Shawl and Latte Scarf came about.

Anyway, back to the blue stuff.  I waffled on this one which is why it sat in my stash for a few years.  I have been clearing up my UFO’s and felt justified in starting something new, something easy, read TV knitting.  This little blanket (70 cm by 83cm, 27.5 by 32.5 inches unblocked) used about one and half cakes.  What am going to do with the left over, I don’t know!

I knew that I didn’t have enough for a big blanket but a baby blanket, maybe.  I used a simple feather and fan pattern with a short repeat, one row of patterning, one row of purl and two rows of knit.  This meant that I only had to concentrate on one row out of four, in other words, perfect.

Me being me, I was determined to knit right through each cake so that I didn’t have many ends to weave in which was a great idea until I looked back after knitting away without inspecting my work and realized that this dark to light colour change was not the prettiest.  I wanted to stop and rip back many, many rows but also just wanted to keep going.  Guess which option won?

I am really not happy with the finished blanket because of the one row and haven’t blocked it yet.  I am going to see if I can use a navy piece (I have some left) and replace the light colour with the dark to fix this glaring, not mistake, but mishandling of the colour change.

If you want to knit a blanket like this one, this is how I made it:

6.5mm or US10.5 circular knitting needle, (knit back and forth) and two markers.

540m or 600 yds of worsted weight yarn all one colour or use up your bits if you don’t mind the ends to weave in.

Cast on 108 stitches; I used a cable cast on.  Knit 10 rows for border.

Row 1: Knit 6 stitches for side border, place marker, K2tog twice, (YO, K1 four times, K2tog four times), repeat to a total of seven times, YO, K1 four times, K2tog twice, place marker, K6 for border.  Each pattern repeat across is twelve stitches.

Row 2: K6, slip marker, P all stitches to next marker, slip marker, K6.

Row 3: knit all stitches, slipping markers as you go.

Row 4: knit all stitches, slipping markers as you go.

Repeat these four rows another 44 times for a total of 45 pattern repeats.  Remove the markers as you go and knit 10 rows.  Cast off loosely.

Easy peasy and very pretty.

If you want a larger or smaller blanket, you need to increase or decrease the cast on by groups of twelve.  Borders can be wider or narrower but I would not go less than three stitches to stop the roll at the edges and six rows at the top and bottom.

I am currently knitting another one with DK weight odd skeins and am using a 5mm or US 8 needle with 144 stitches cast on which I estimate will give me the same size.  I have a bin of this yarn in one skein of each colour, what was I thinking???

Have a lovely week ahead filled with kind thoughts and deeds.  Remember to wear your mask when going out to help oldsters like me stay healthy.

Knitting

New Kids’ Sweaters

Iris Rose

Hi!  It has been a long time since my last post.  Life sort of got in the way of everything else and I had to step back for a bit.  I never stopped crafting and have a bunch of things on the go.  I have been working, mostly, on building up my stock for fall craft sales which may or may not go ahead.  I do enjoy what I am doing so if it is may not it is not a problem.

Mostly working on kids’ sweaters, I have made significant gains in what I have on hand.  I wish that I were a more accomplished photographer and then I could stock my Etsy store.  Stay tuned to that because miracles can happen!  Here are a few of the little, and not so little, sweaters that I have been busy with.

 

 

I had a bunch of fuzzy yarn similar to Caron’s Latte that I have had in stash for a while and wanted to use up.  I used the Latte that I had and remembered this stuff from my ebay binge of a few years ago.  There was only enough for one sweater of each colour but I managed to make a large dent in the stash, yippee!

 

Next time I will show you a little blanket that I knit with Caron Cakes yarn (sensing a trend here?) that I bought and stashed in 2016.  I found an error in colour management about halfway up that I ignored until I got to the end and now I don’t like it.  I am going to attempt to change it without ripping out; wish me luck!

I hope that you have a lovely crafty week and remember to be kind especially in these difficult times and please wear a mask in public to help save those who are not able to fight off disease as easily as you can.