Knit for Brains 2

Hiatus for Food

2007-09-18T14:46:00.000-07:00

OK, this is primarily a knitting blog, and will remain so, but permit me a small detour to discuss and show pictures of the vegan cooking I've been doing lately. YUM! These recipes are from Vegan With A Vengeance.
The first picture is Spicy Indian Rice and Chickpea/Spinach Curry. Delish!

The second picture is Chipotle and Black Bean Stew with Vegan Cornbread. The cornbread recipe came from the website affiliated with the book: www.theppk.com. These meals rocked! People who know me know that I'm not much of a cook, that I don't usually enjoy it very much and avoid it when possible. But something about these healthy, tasty meals is turning me around. Tonight I'm making an eggplant curry with rice.

Tigger sweater for Claire

2007-09-13T21:36:00.000-07:00

Here's the front of a sweater that Claire and I are knitting together. It's the "Camping Out" pattern from the book "The Yarn Girls' Guide to Knits for Older Kids" using the same yarn pictured in the book, which is incidentally named Tigger and not merely "7052" as the book suggests. Isn't Tigger much better? Me thinks it's going to be adorable! My boyfriend Nigel is walking by in the background. Doubtless he is thinking, "Where's my binary scarf, goddammit?!" *blush* I haven't worked on that pesky scarf in months!

Nine months later!

2007-09-13T21:29:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been so long since I've posted, I could have gestated a human during my absence.

But I didn't.

I've just been moving in with my boyfriend (who incidentally is firing blanks, so no baby!) and selling my house and opening my own private practice and raising my daughter and enjoying life.

And doing very little knitting.

But, I will post what projects I've been up to, knitting and otherwise.

Cabled Hat

2007-01-10T09:37:00.000-08:00

I had a craving to knit cables the other day, so I found a suitable hat pattern at Knitting Pattern Central and started this hat with some leftover Paton's Merino from all my felted bowl projects. I'm not sure if I'll keep it for me or give it as a gift -- this project is more about process than product.

Binary Scarf in Progress!

2007-01-10T09:29:00.000-08:00

I started this Binary Scarf for Nigel. He went gaga over the pattern when he saw it. In fact, he spotted it on boingboing.net before I'd even seen it where it's published (latest issue of knitty, of course!)

It's my first significant intarsia work, so it's slow going and I'm not sure I'll finish it before the cold weather ends this season. The pattern called for Supersaver acrylic, but I just couldn't do that on such a big project (call me a fiber snob, I don't care!) so I'm using 100% wool: Paton's Merino for the black and Cascade 220 for the green.

This project is also my first opportunity to use the interchangeable knitting needle set that Nigel gave me for Christmas (one of many awesome gifts that Nigel gave me, xoxoxo). I'm knitting in the round using two circular needles.

The end of the felted bowl saga

2006-12-29T16:14:00.000-08:00

My family seemed to like the felted bowls I gave as Christmas gifts. Here's some of my family members pretending to mistake the bowls for hats: two sisters on the left, two nieces and a nephew.

My sister's hand!

2006-12-29T16:09:00.000-08:00

Per my sister Michelle's not-so-subtle hint, I knit her a pair of fingerless gloves in black. She loved them! This is her hand.

Manos hat in a jiffy!

2006-12-05T09:11:00.000-08:00

Last night I decided to finally do something with the one skein of multi-colored Manos del Uruguay that I've been hanging onto and admiring for months. Voila! A chunky ribbed hat. I made up the pattern myself as I went along, holding two strands together and using circular size 15 needles. Me likey! But I think it might need a pom-pom!?

MORE felted bowls

2006-12-02T21:57:00.000-08:00

I've decided that the Patons yarn felts up better than the Cascade. See how the red bowl at upper left shrunk more, and the stitches aren't visible? That's the only bowl in this picture knit with Patons. The rest are Cascade 220, and I re-felted them trying to get them to shrink and felt more, to no avail. Maybe I should felt them yet again? I like the color selection with Cascade better than Patons, at least what is easily available to me at local shops. The Cascade is felting tolerably -- the bowls hold their shape and all -- but compared to the Patons, it's leaving me frustrated.

At any rate, I have this pattern memorized! It's from one of my favorite books, One Skein: 30 Quick Projects to Knit and Crochet

Crop-tee for Daisy

2006-11-30T17:28:00.000-08:00

I knit this crop-tee for my niece Daisy's fifth birthday, but I haven't sent it to her yet. Bad auntie! Get this in the mail! She lives in L.A., so I thought a loosely knit cotton crop top would be appropriate. The yarn is Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille in pink multi. The pattern is loosely based on the ballet tee in the book Loop-d-Loop: More than 40 Novel Designs for Knitters

Sock in progress

2006-11-30T17:13:00.000-08:00

This is my first attempt at socks. This project is on hold until my holiday gift knitting is done, plus I got tired of the slooooow progress of knitting on tiny size 2 needles with sock yarn. It's like knitting with toothpicks and dental floss! I like how it's looking, though. It's a pattern from knitty. I can't remember what this yarn is exactly; the colors appealed to me.

Felted Bowl Destroyed By Dog!

2006-11-27T18:06:00.000-08:00

Nigel's dog Bowlie chewed up this freshly felted bowl! Bad dog!

Nigel's black hat

2006-11-27T17:59:00.000-08:00

Well, it's too tight for Nigel so I might keep it for myself, and I'll make another one like it in a larger size for him. I used Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, knit on size 8 needles. The textural stitch is from Vogue Knitting Stitchionary Volume One: Knit & Purl: The Ultimate Stitch Dictionary from the Editors of Vogue Knitting Magazine (Vogue Knitting Stitchionary Series). The hat pattern itself I made up as I went along.

More felted bowls!

2006-11-27T17:57:00.000-08:00

The two yarns I use for felting are Cascade 220 and Patons Classic Wool Merino. They're both worsted weight, and I hold two strands together for these bowls, on size 15 needles. Pattern is from One Skein: 30 Quick Projects to Knit and Crochet.

New project

2006-11-15T22:05:00.000-08:00

A new tradition among my knitting friends is for the birthday girl to pick a pattern for something she'd love to knit for herself, and we all pitch in and buy the yarn for her. My friend Kristen picked the slouchy cardigan from the book, Greetings from Knit Café, and knit it up in a sumptuous red wool/silk blend. Gorgeous! Anyway, for my birthday present I picked the lacy skirt from that same book, and here is the yarn I picked out: a multi-colored linen. I won't be able to start the skirt in earnest until I finish knitting all my Christmas gifts, but just having it around is delish!

Finished my mom's afghan!

2006-11-15T21:59:00.000-08:00

This is by far the largest thing I've ever knit! And I've finished it well over a month before Christmas, which is great because now I can turn my attention to knitting felted bowls.

Felted Bowls

2006-10-27T10:21:00.000-07:00

I'm relieved to find out that I can easily knit up a felted bowl in one evening. I'm using the pattern from One Skein: 30 Quick Projects to Knit and Crochet, another book I absolutely adore. Why am I relieved? Because it's almost November, and I have many friends and family members to make gifts for. I'm also going to felt bags for gifts. Here are my first two holiday gift bowls, pre- and post-felting. My felting technique is very simple: I just toss them in the washing machine with soap and hot water.

My favorite gloves

2006-10-20T11:48:00.000-07:00

The weather's getting colder, so the other day I dug out these fingerless gloves that I knit a couple of years ago. They are starting to show their age because I've worn them a lot, because I love them! The pattern is from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, a book I can't recommend highly enough. I've made so many things from this book: kids denim pants, stuffed bunny and elephant, kids scarf, a little purse, baby hats and adult hats.

For these gloves, I used the same yarn used in the book pattern, the name of which escapes me. It's a wool/silk/cashmere blend and very cozy to wear. I like having my fingers free to avoid the clumsiness that often accompanies wearing full gloves.

My Friend Makes Monsters!

2006-10-15T12:04:00.000-07:00

My friend Sharon knits amazing custom monsters, each one based on a sketch drawn by the child who will receive it as a gift. Here's Claire with the devil monster that Sharon knit for her 8th birthday. Sharon rocks!

Josie's sweater

2006-10-14T09:50:00.000-07:00

I finished this sweater in size 2T for Josie's 2nd birthday party today, but the sleeves look way too skinny. The yarn is the same as for Claire's cardigan, and I used a pattern from The Yarn Girls' Guide to Kid Knits: Patterns for Babies and Toddlers. What happened with the sleeves? Boo hoo.

Currently In Progress

2006-10-05T20:36:00.000-07:00

1. Rolled brim hat with Manos wool
2. Lacy socks in multi-color orange, pink, yellow sock yarn on tiny size 1 needles
3. Afghan for my mom (described in earlier post)
4. Hat for Nigel with black Debbie Bliss Aran Cashmerino
5. Many felted bowls for Christmas presents (none started yet, but I have tons of worsted weight merino wool, and they are fast & easy!)
6. Josie's cardigan for her 2nd birthday -- almost done, just sewing together, and I need to pick up stitches to knit the button band, and pick out buttons. It's made with the same yarn that I made Claire's cardigan with (see below) because Claire and Josie are "side twins" -- born on the same day, six years apart.

I'll post pics of each of these projects as I finish them!

My Mom's Christmas Present

2006-10-03T23:57:00.000-07:00

I'm about two-thirds done with this afghan, and although I'm getting tired of it, it's a good piece to pick up in between projects. Once I memorized the repeating six-row pattern it became a very relaxing and repetitive piece of work. The final product will consist of ten balls of Cascade 220: six yellow, two off-white, and two caramel brown. The lacy pattern is more traditional than my usual knitting, but I think it will look lovely in my Mom's house. I don't remember exactly where the pattern is from; I think it was a scarf pattern that I multiplied to the size of an afghan.

A cardigan for Claire!

2006-10-03T23:47:00.000-07:00

I'm proud of this sweater, knit for (and modeled by) my 8-year-old daughter. The pattern is from The Yarn Girls' Guide to Knits for Older Kids: Quick-to-Knit Patterns for Four- to Ten-Year-Olds and it was surprisingly fast and easy. I used the yarn recommended in the pattern, Classic Elite Paintbox. I was mesmerized to see the yarn change color every stitch. Best of all, she loves wearing it!