Category: Knitting

Everything Is Not What It Seems

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You would think I would get better at estimating how long things take, considering I’ve been knitting for over ten years. Seriously, I should be better at this. But I have managed to mess up a straightforward triangular entrelac shawl several times, but I got a beaded one finished in a quarter of that time. You would think the beaded one would’ve been more difficult.

I’ve made so many of these, I went for something a little different on the picture. So here is Dinosaur modeling this one. It is a Starry Stole from Knitpicks, worked in Shadow yarn in the Midnight colorway with silver-lined, clear beads. As I have done on all the others, I added a third full repeat to make it more scarf-length.

I’m finally re-doing the christmas scarf, hopefully to be done with it soon. That one may turn into a bit of a tutorial. It sure has taught me quite a few things.

The Christmas Project Curse

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I swear, there has to be some sort of curse that falls on a project as soon as you decide it needs to be finished on or for Christmas. A project that would normally take a week ends up a taking four, or anything that can possibly go wrong will.

I was reading Cassy’s post about her husband’s sweater she wanted to finish on Christmas and all that had gone wrong and that made me think of all the projects I set out to create for Christmas. One of which is currently resting beside me, still on the needles, because two balls of yarn arrived a week after Christmas. But that’s a story for next week.

This Christmas I had to scrap one project, barely scraped two others together, and gave an IOU on the aforementioned one still on the needles. I only had one present ready a week in advance, and that was because it was one I was supposed to have made last year.

So, perhaps this year I won’t make it a goal to get any specific project done for Christmas. Maybe it’s best to just start projects with a goal to finish eventually, but not a goal to be Christmas presents.

LEGO Movie Emmet Hat

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It’s been a year and the Lego movie is still an obsession in this house. Not that I can remember the last time we actually watched the movie itself, but the characters and “stuff” are still in very high demand. Like this hat:

It’s “Emmet,” the movie’s hero.

Ran into a small bit of trouble with the planning. See, I started with a bottom-up swatch to get the technique for the hat brim, but then I tried to knit the hat top-down. That led to the brim almost pointing straight up. So I had to turn it back around. It was the first time in a long time that I had knit a hat from bottom to top. I usually go top-down so I can make it fit more easily.

The facial features are felt, sewn on with six stranded embroidery floss. I chose to leave off the hair so it can stretch properly and fit for a while. The eager recipient has a big head and a lot of hair.

P.S. – My mom wrote a pretty great flu survival guide for those who live alone. You should probably read that before you get hit with the flu this season.