Crafting

Sweater Finished!

 

Have you visited the other blog I write along with my sisters and cousins?

Perhaps I Should Have Supervised

We started it as a way to share all of our crazy craft projects with each other. We would love to have you along for the ride! You can also find knitting tips, recipes and crafting tips there.

 

 

 Give your medicine cabinet a retro vibe!

 

 

Bumpity Mittens

 Don't you love the name? Nothing describes the texture as well as bumpity! These were such a fun knit. It was a nice in between project after knitting Christmas gifts and before jumping back into knitting my sweater. I am not sure why, but the ultimate comfort knit to me is mittens....... A quick project with a little increasing and decreasing for interest.

 The stitch is really a lot simpler then it looks. Two rows of each color are worked in a rib pattern, slipping the non working yarn color. Which makes it a lot easier to knot then a traditional color pattern because you are only working with one color at a time. Don't you think a tone on tone color scheme would be pretty?

For more details visit my ravelry page.



I now have a list of people to knit mittens for as anyone who sees them wants a pair!

They are even Kerri approved!

 She steels mittens because she know we will chase her, thankfully she is not interested in chewing them up.

Miss Jane's Hat

Here are the promised pictures! I forgot to mention yesterday, you can also see more information about the pattern at Ravelry.

Thank you everyone for all your kind comments!!

Jane Austen Knits Magazine

I am published!! This is so exciting! I have been bursting with excitement, longing to share the news with you, but trying to patiently wait until I could share it properly.

This past January I submitted a project for the Jane Austen Knits summer 2012 and it was accepted!! And finally, finally after much waiting it is here!! The magazine is now in stores and online.
It is so exciting to see one's name in print!

Jane Austen Knits is a knitting magazine with a Jane Austen twist! All the patterns are inspired by either a Jane Austen character or setting. Inside you will find a plethora of wrist warmers, shawls, socks, bags and sweaters.

Look at all the beautiful projects! Interweave always does a wonderful job.

 I few close ups of Miss Jane's Hat.
"In the Regency Era turbans and Greek style headwear were popular and they were very similar to modern slouchy hats. This hat was inspired by two characters-Miss Jane Bennett and Miss Jane Fairfax-as well as Jane Austen herself. All three Janes exhibited grace and elegance wherever they went."

"Miss Jane's hat has a graceful cabled hat band with dainty embroidery and an elegant body gathered into bands of reverse stocking stitch. The hatband is worked flat and sewn together; stitches are then picked up around the top of the hatband and joined for knitting in the round."

Tomorrow-picture of Miss Jane's Hat!

Day 6-7 of Knitting Blog Week

Opps! Fell of the wagon there, didn't I?! Sorry, about that. I did have good intentions.......but they all seemed to leave my head by the time I woke up on Saturday morning! So today I will do a little catching up.

Day 6: Improving Your Skillset

How far down the road to learning your craft do you believe yourself to be? Are you comfortable with what you know or are you always striving to learn new skills and add to your knowledge base?  If you are feeling brave, make a list of some of the skills which you have not yet tried but would like to have a go at, and perhaps even set yourself a deadline of when you'd like to have tried them by.

How about these? Fair Isle Socks by Wendy Johnson

Well now, everyone knows there is always room to learn. I have to say, I would be willing to give any pattern I liked a try. Of course that is not saying I know all there is to know about knitting, I just have the confidence to give it a try!

One thing I would really really like to make some day is a Fair Isle sweater. If I had to say one knitting techique that I don't feel confident about, it is color work (the art of knitting with more then one color). I have my eye on this sweater. Color work still scares me a bit. I think I need to slowly ease into this, maybe try a pair of fair isle socks first.

Day 7: Craft Your Perfect Day

Plan your fantasy day with your craft, It might just take up one hour of your day or be the entire focus of the day, but tell your readers where you'd love to craft, whether you'd craft alone or with friends, knitting or crocheting something simple or spending a day learning new skills.

My current project- The Whisper Cardigan by Hannah Fettig

I decided I would much rather discuss this subject then the orignal one chosen.

So, my Perfect Craft Day? A trip to the yarn shop to choose yarn for a new project. Then rush home to cast on. Since the day is so sunny and nice out (a perfect day, right?) my Mom, sisters and I would sit in the back yard and soak up some sun while knitting. Pull a few weeds if needed. Once we are completly saturated with warmth and brightness, we go inside to sit around and knit some more. Possibly take a small break to look at a few knitting books and discuss future projects. Then once the evening has set in, cozy up with a classic movie musical and knit.

Day 5 of Knitting Blog Week

Day 5 Something A Bit Different

This is an experimental blogging day to try and push your creativity in blogging to the same level that you perhaps push your creativity in the items you create.There are no rules of a topic to blog about but this post should look at a different way to present content on your blog.

I am not sure if this qualifies as something different. But this is my first venture into making videos. And trying to find a place to post it.

New knitters find this is one of the most terrifying and frustrating of problems. Once they get the hang of it though, it is a piece of cake!

Day 4 of Knitting Blog Week

Day 4: A Knitter or Crocheter For All Seasons?

As spring is in the air in the northern hemisphere and those in the southern hemisphere start setting their sights for the arrival of winter, a lot of crocheters and knitters find that their crafting changes along with their wardrobe. Do you make warm woollens the whole year through in preparation for the colder months, or do you live somewhere that never feels the chill and so invest your time in beautiful homewares and delicate lace items. How does your local seasonal weather affect your craft?

Well, living in the northern climes and always being on the cold side, I can't say that I let the seasons effect my knitting. I love sweaters and wear them all year long, with variation in sleeve length. Of course, there are more things to do outside in the summer, more travel, which equals more knitting time! I do love to knit warm woollies; socks, hats, cowls, mittens. In a way just knitting them makes me cosy, thinking how toasty they are going to be in the winter!

 Snowbird Mittens from Vogue Knitting Fall 2008

Day 3 of Knitting Blog Week

Day 3: Your Knitting Or Crochet Hero

Blog about someone in the fibre crafts who truly inspires you. There are not too many guidelines for this, it's really about introducing your readers to someone who they might not know who is an inspiration to you. It might be a family member or friend, a specific designer or writer, indie dyer or another blogger. If you are writing about a knitting designer and you have knitted some of their designs, don't forget to show them off.

Ohhh! There are so many inspiring designers, hard to decide. My current favorite designer would have to be Gudrun Johnston. Her designs have inspired my so much in the past year! I love how they feel classic yet at the same time modern. In the fall I posted about her book The Shetland Trader.

So far I have knit a hat and am working on a shawl from this book. I have also knit her Audrey Sweater, which is not in the book. It was a lovely sweater to make. I love how the sleeves are shaped with short rows. No more sewing in!

 

 

To see what Knitting and Crochet Blog Week is all about, click on the banner below.

3rd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week

Are you up for something new this week? I am going to participate in a blog-a-long! I think that is a word I just made up. And even though the week is already started, I am going to try! Here is how it works. There are a list of subjects, one for each day of the week. A special tag is added to each post, so when googled you will be able to see all blogs participating. For more information click on the banner below.

So here goes!

Day 1: Colour Lovers

Colour is one of our greatest expressions of ourselves when we choose to knit or crochet, so how do you choose what colours you buy and crochet or knit with. Have a look through your stash and see if there is a predominance of one colour.

This one made me laugh. Everyone knows I love Pink! Light pink, dark pink, medium pink, bright pink, rose, even raspberry. My yarn stash is defiantly mono-color. I do try and mix it up a bit with brown, purple, blue and the occasionally black. I makes a great accent to pink. My wardrobe looks pretty much the same way. If you wanted to describe my color scheme with one word- Romantic.

Time is Wasting

Day 2: Photography Challenge Day!

Today challenges you to be creative with your photography, and get yourself in with the chance to win the photography prize. Taking interesting photographs in this instance isn't about flashy cameras or a great deal of technical know-how, it's about setting up a story or scene in a photograph and capturing something imaginative.

I had no clues about this one. I even thought of skipping it. But then inspiration hit! What knitter has not felt the crunch of time? That last minute project, Christmas knitting or a present gone wrong.

Red Cross Knitting

I have been doing a little genealogy with my sister lately. We came across this newspaper article. It made me laugh! Cynthia French is my 4th great grandmother. Dated Aug 3, 1918 in the mist of the first World War.

Official Start of Knitting Season

Monday was the official start of knitting season! It all kicks off with our local yarn store's annual anniversary sale! It is one of don't miss events of the year! We plan for months what we are going to purchase and save up. Not that we really stop knitting at a certain time of the year, it is just the start of the fall and Christmas knitting. :) Of course I ended up with more then was on my list. A new book and yarn to knit one of the projects. The book is "Shetland Trader". I don't generally buy knitting books as I never think the expense justifies using one pattern. But this book I fell in love with! And I like eight out of the ten patterns! Here is a link to the hat I am making.

The weather here has also been perfect for knitting. A little cool with a fall breeze. And the nights are down-right chilly! Perfect for cozing up with a good movie and knitting needles.

Knitted Dishcloths



I love the beige with the aqua. So cool looking.



Here is one of my lastest projects, hot off the needles! Knitted dishcloths! It such a fun simple project. They are so simple to make, but it took me awhile to remember how to make them as I kept over thinking it!

Here are the directions for knitting Simple Dishcloths.

Cast on 3 stitches. Increase in first stitch (I used the knit front and back of stitch increase), knit rest of stitches. Continue knitting back and forth increasing in first stitch until there are 45 stitches. Now decrease second stitch of every row (knit two together). When there are 6 stitches left knit one, decrease twice, knit last stitch. Bind off last 4 stitches.

Sometimes it is nice to knit something mindless. (for watching Doris Day,  reading, traveling)