Knitting With Handspun Angora

With all the spinning I’m doing I am finding it hard to spend quality time with my knitting but here is a little progress report on the stuffed knitted bunny I started. Since I am making a bunny I thought what better fiber to use than bunny fiber so I am using the fiber from my own Sable colored German Angora bunny. I no longer have this bunny since I couldn’t bring any of my fiber animals with me when we made our move to Virginia two years ago so I have had this yarn for a long time now and it is actually my first angora spinning ever so it is a little sentimental to me. It has been sitting just waiting for the right project to come along and I thought this one was fitting. I spun this fiber from the fold and is a fingering weight. The pattern calls for a cast on to measure 6” and I thought I had done that but as I kept knitting each row the width began to multiply and maxed out at 12 inches, exactly twice what I thought I started with so I guess the whole thing about bunny’s multiplying is true even when knitting, hee hee hee. No, seriously when I measured my CO stitches they were tight and close together. As I knitted those stitches they became a lot more relaxed and expanded out to their true measurement. I decided to keep the size and just make a larger bunny.


Here is the link to the free pattern I’m working on, since the photo is copyrighted I can’t post it here so you’ll have to go to the link to see what I’m making, it’s really cute!

http://www.heartstringsfiberarts.com/bunny.shtm

Out With the New In With the Old?

That seams kind of backwards doesn't but as I put the Laminaria in the UFO pile for a while I spotted this old beauty and decided to resurrect it. It is the Floral Felted bag pattern by Nicky Epstein.

The only reason It was put there on hold was because we were moving. The bag is finished as far as the knitting and felting goes as you can see but I have made some changes by adding a few beads, and that is what I am working at finishing up. Now if I can find where I put the beads I was using. Then I just have to add handles and it’s done.

One other change I made is a hidden compartment in the bottom (inside) of the bag.

When I felted this it became floppy and this space allows me to slide in something sturdy to stabilize the bottom and keep it flat, I show plastic canvas here because that is what I used during the felting process to keep from felting the space shut. I could also leave this space empty and use it as a floppy bag, so this adds a little versatility I think.

This has been a fun project so far and I’m looking forward to getting it done so I can use it!

The "Hole" Truth

Well, my Laminaria shawl will be going into the time out corner with the rest of the UFO’s for a while. Last night I was moving my lifeline for the next section of the pattern. I checked very carefully to make sure all the stitches were correct before removing the lifeline. But to my surprise, when I was putting the lifeline back in just over this spot, the huge gaping hole you see in the photo formed right before my eyes. This tells me that I must have knit that stitch right into my lifeline so that when I pulled out the lifeline, I also pulled out the stitch. As Homer Simpson would say, DOPE!

If you have been following this project then you know that I have frogged this shawl several times already and once all the way back to the beginning. With out a live line that is what I would have to do again, all the way back to the beginning and I am not willing to go through all that work again just now, so the Laminaria shawl will be laid to rest for an undisclosed period of time.

Maybe I can do some research on how to fix mistakes, can you fix lace mistakes? A girl can dream can’t she?

Laminaria in The Frog Pond

The center of this picture shows a little mistake in the Laminaria Shawl. There are three single stitches smack dab in the middle of 3-1 combinations. This means all the rest of the stitches to the left of the boo boo are in the wrong places. Frogging is a must, Boo Hoo :( My lifeline is 4 rows back.
What I learned? To move my lifeline more often :)

Hemp Market Bag Finished

Here is the completed Bag. I only put one single strap on it instead of the two the pattern called for mostly because I just wanted it done but I really think I like it better with only one strap.

As you can see, this bag hold holds a lot of loot!

This is a picture of the strap before I put it on the bag.

Here is the bag before the strap was put on. It didn't look tall enough to me when I finished the top of the bag but this thing really stretches out when you put stuff in it.

Overall, I like the bag and will probably make another one sometime in the future, but not with the hemp yarn. This project would have been less troublesome with a better yarn that didn't have knots throughout and might have been down right enjoyable.

Change Is Good

The photo above is the re-do of the Laminaria shawl project. It's a bad picture I know but if you can see it, the left and right sides are now symmetrical and I am very happy with the results of the changes I made in the pattern and the needle size change.

In this second photo you can now see how the pattern shows up nicely when stretched out. I love this project and am enjoying it immensely.

DANIELLE'S HEALING

The photo below is showing how brave my daughter is. That's her on the left with the splint on the right foot, she doesn't like her picture taken so she flung her head around when she noticed my friend's (right), husband with the camera in his hand.

I say brave because she was trying to hop down the hallway on the good foot to the restroom by herself without the splints on her two arms that have not fully healed yet. My friend Kathy on the right ran to her aid. Danielle is healing is nicely and has a wonderful sense of humor about the whole thing.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for her during this trying time.

Problem Child

I have decided on and started my next short term project while still working on the Afghan. The project I chose is a market bag. I purchased this kit while on a trip to Tennessee last year to meet a very special on-line knitting friend. The pattern is from Lanaknits Designs and the kit came with the pattern, 2 skeins of Hemp for Knitting hemp yarn and a cute little project tote to hold it all in for knitting on the go. I have always wanted to knit a market bag and I’ve never worked with hemp before so I thought I would give it try. However now, I wish I hadn’t.

My trouble with this project began when I had to wind the skein into a ball. Normally this process is not a problem but this time it was as the skein kept getting tangled as I was winding it. I had to enlist the help of two of my sons; one held the skein and the other tried unsuccessfully to keep the skein from tangling while I wound the ball. The whole process that should have taken only a few minutes took nearly 30 to complete.

The next sign of trouble appeared while I was casting on the called for 100 stitches. KNOTS! And I’m not talking small knots (see picture below). I took out the CO and cut off the first few knots and CO again. I got about an inch up the bag and more knots began to appear. I did manage to put them on the inside of the bag so they won’t be noticed and kept knitting. By the time I reached 7” on the bag I had a total of 8 knots knit into the bag.

I also had problems with the pattern for the first few inches of the lace part of the pattern till I figured out what the problem was, I didn’t rip it out and do over I just kept going after correcting it. I figured it is just a market bag and no one will really notice anyway right? Anyway the problem was in this section of the pattern (K2tog, yo, rep to last 3 sts; sl1, k2tog, ppso). Well every time I knit the next round I was always coming out one stitch short of finishing the pattern for the next row. So I figured I was in need of a yo before the (sl1). Once I added this, the pattern worked out fine. I wasn’t taking the yo from before (;) and placing it in the instruction after the (;), my mistake I guess.

The second problem with the pattern is the last 3 stitches on the other row of the pattern that sais (yo, p1, yo). This is creating a line of stitches that pops out on the outside of the work and the way the rest of the lace pattern is working up is all flat, so I don’t like that very much.

The pattern also claims that one skein makes one bag so I thought I was going to be able to make two bags from the two skeins that came with the kit but nope! The pattern sais to knit 11” of the lace pattern before starting the top and straps, well….. I am currently only 10” up the lace pattern and just ran out of skein #1. I didn’t cut that much when I removed the knots.

Who knows what other surprises await me on this project I now call my problem child. I think is certain, I will not be making another market bag using this pattern or yarn. I don’t know how many of you have ever worked with hemp but I can tell you that this stuff is hard on the hands. After working a few rows with this stuff and then going to the Afghan project where I’m using an acrylic yarn, it make the acrylic feel like Alpaca!

February Heart Dishcloth

I have one project finished this year whoo hoo! That is amazing considering I only have about 10 minutes a day to spend knitting with all this school work I have. Which by the way I have decided I'm done after this term. It has become to much of a strain on my family and they are more important to me than a peice of paper that sais I know how to take tests. Besides that my yarn stash has started groaning too and I just can't take anymore complaints. So anyway,jumping back off the rabbit trail and back on to this post.

Here is the picture of my finished February dishcloth.




I got the free pattern on Kris's blog




To continue with the last post, the first picture of the afghan progess, according to the pattern, is the right side. However, I see it as reversible which is a good thing for an afghan because no matter which way you lay it, it will alway look good. Now I just have to hope the other panels are reversible as well but I will have to wait till I get to those to figure that out.

I am going to try to keep smaller, faster projects on the needles too so I feel like I'm getting somewhere on my stash recuction efforts. This dishcloth nearly used up all the hot pink I had left so that is one ball of yarn down. I think there is enough left in that pink to make some cat nip toys. Not sure yet if that will be my next project started or not, the jury is still out on that one so you'll have to wait till next post because right now I have to get back to the books. boohoo