Finished Object – Framed Sweater

Leave a comment

I finished this sweater two weeks ago, delivered it to the shop a week and a half ago, and am only just now getting around to writing about it. The good news is, if you are looking to make one for Rhinebeck, you’ve still got 2 months. If you are just here for the mathematical details, it’s at the very end.

The front view of a knit sweater with pink and peach color work on the body and sleeves in a pattern of squares filled with “sunbursts” of alternating colors and purple hem, cuffs, and shoulders.

This is the Framed sweater by Andrea Mowry of Drea Renee Knits, her Rhinebeck sweater release this year. I was asked to knit a sample in Malabrigo Rios for The Altered Stitch, my LYS.

The back view of a knit sweater with pink and peach color work on the body and sleeves in a pattern of squares filled with “sunbursts” of alternating colors and purple hem, cuffs, and shoulders.

Unfortunately, for these pictures, my dress form only went small enough to show this at 0” of ease. Seriously, my dress form literally only went down to 34.5 inches around the chest, which was actually lucky that it fit, just doesn’t show it with appropriate ease as called for in the pattern. But I guess if you like your sweaters with no ease, this demonstrates that for you.

Close up of the inside of the neckline of a pink and peach color work sweater with purple details showing the floats and pickup edge.

As cool as the outside looks, I almost love the inside more. Though its resemblance to a Good Humor strawberry shortcake bar often made me hungry while working on it. One tip I will give for this neckline (and really any neckline where you cast off while working shaping/shoulders), use Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-off even though you will be binding off in knit stitches only. Keeps you from having a neckline that doesn’t fit over your head.

A finished knit sweater with pink and peach color work on the body and sleeves in a pattern of squares filled with “sunbursts” of alternating colors and purple hem, cuffs, and shoulders laying flat on a light wooden floor.

Now for the details in one convenient place:

Size made: Size 1, finished chest measurement 34.5 inch circumference

Needles used: US 5 (3.7 mm) for ribbing, US 7 (4.5mm) for body

Color A (hem, cuffs, and shoulders) – 68 grams (approx. 142.8 yards) of Malabrigo Rios in color 282 Leo (less than 1 ball)

Color B (lighter color in body) – 135 grams (approx. 283.5 yards) of Malabrigo Rios in color 695 Peachy (less than 2 balls)

Color C (darker color in body) – 132 grams (approx. 277.2 yards) of Malabrigo Rios in color 057 English Rose (less than 2 balls)

Extra construction notes (in case they help): I used the Tubular cast-on and bind-off suggested in the pattern on the hem, cuffs, and collar, but used Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-off for the part of the neckline that is picked up for the collar. 

If you choose to make this sweater, especially using this yarn, feel free to ask any questions and I will at least try to steer you in the right direction.

Follow me on Instagram and Ko-fi.

Custom Cross Stitch Process

Leave a comment

Today, I’m going to walk you through my process for custom cross stitch orders with the example project I just made for my mother.

A portrait of a woman with black and purple hair, glasses, a teal shirt, and a white necklace standing in front of a tree smiling.

Every portrait starts with a photo. Obviously, the higher the resolution of the photo, the more detail will be in the final piece because it is a lot like pixel art. I also crop the photo to fit best in the 5×7 frame to ensure the most detail as well.

A pixelated version of the previous portrait, cropped close to the woman’s face.

I then generate a pattern for 22-count aida fabric with up to 240 colors using the MacStitch program, and provide a preview PNG for approval. Once the preview is approved, I can start stitching.

An in-progress picture of the portrait being stitched from the middle out with many strands of embroidery thread hanging around the edges.

For a 5×7 picture, there are 16,940 stitches which takes anywhere between 90-100 hours of stitching depending on how many blocks of color there are. More frequent color changes will result in a longer stitching time. This piece in particular took 98 hours and 55 minutes, because I timed it.

The finished portrait wrapped around a mounting board and propped up against a candlestick on a wooden table.

Once the piece is finished, it gets gently handwashed, set on a drying rack to dry for a few days, ironed, and then mounted to a self-adhesive mounting board to be framed. I prefer to deliver the pieces just on the mounting board because it allows you to choose your own frame to match your decor.

And that’s it. The whole process takes about a month, though I have it listed as two just to be on the cautious side with shipping times and such. If you would like to order one for yourself, they are available in my commissions menu on Ko-fi. If you are looking for a different size than the 5×7, message me there and we can discuss what you are looking for.

Follow me on Instagram and Ko-fi.

Finished Object – Amigurumi Batly from Eureeka’s Castle

Leave a comment

A few weeks ago, the dogs were being real beggy long before dinner time. I told the little one he was going to drive me batty, and then my brain got stuck on an idea.

A crocheted blue character with pink batwing shaped ears, black glasses, white fangs, a purple and black shirt, tan pants, and brown shoes sitting in front of a TV

I had to make an Amigurumi version of Batly from Eureeka’s Castle. I am fairly certain this is the first character I’ve created without a pattern. I usually tend to stick to food when I’m making it myself. So I decided to start with the smallest piece and work my way up from there so I wouldn’t get to that piece and then have to work impossibly tiny.

Tiny blue knitted tubes on gray knitting needles

That smallest piece happens to be the finger. After a few failed attempts to create them with a crochet hook, I decided I would just make teeny i-cord niblets my smallest double pointed needles.

Small blue crocheted hands sticking out of black crocheted sleeves

I then attached them with crochet stitches, offsetting the thumbs by a couple rows to give him the correct handshape. I finished the hands off and then worked the sleeve around the wrist and up the arm, creating a bit of a raglan top to the sleeve by ending them in a triangle. I stuffed those sleeves with yarn scraps because they were too narrow to really fill with polyfil.

Two crocheted brown pointed lump shapes

I then made roughly teardrop/ Hershey kiss-shaped shoes about the same size as the hands and stuffed them with scrap yarn as well.

A pair of arms with blue hands sticking out of sleeves and a pair of pants with brown shoes sticking out.

I made his pants bottom up in the same manner, giving them a cuff at the bottom with a row of double crochet stitches and attach gin them at the top. The pants I stuffed with a handful of pipe cleaners that will be important later.

The purple torso now connects the arms and pants

I gave him a proportional torso in purple because the puppet wears a two-tone track jacket, but I wanted to make it a little easier on myself at this point so I just made it a single piece. This part was the first bit I stuffed with polyfil.

The character with a finished head with a slightly open mouth, pink tongue, white fangs, black nose, and slightly buggy eyes

I worked the head from the bottom up. Everything seemed to be going ok up the chin. I made the inset for the mouth and the eyes based on a combination of what would fit the head and the smallest I could go. Things started going south, and ignored it and pressed on. I even made the ears and sewed everything together. But this head was entirely too small.

The body of the character with a pile of facial features next to it on a gray chair

I had to frog the head, and make it bigger. Luckily, I was able to make it to fit both the body and the pieces I had already made. The only piece I had to finish at the very end was the glasses, which I ended up figuring out how to shuttle tat so they would be small enough without completely frustrating me. Then, it was time to test the best part I built into him, considering it’s one of the character’s favorite activities.

Crocheted Batly hanging upside down by his knees from the top of a TV

He hangs upside down, thanks to the pipe cleaners in his legs! I wasn’t entirely sure this was going to work, because he kept getting heavier as I added pieces. But I used enough pipe cleaners that it worked. I am so excited about it that I’ve hung him upside down from one of my shelves instead of sitting him on it.

Follow me on Instagram and Ko-Fi.