Tag: knitting

Sidetracked…By Blankets

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Remember how I said I was going to knit an entire sweater over the past two weeks? Well, I didn’t. I did manage to get the back of the sweater fully finished, though:

So that’s something.

I didn’t end up watching much of the competition because NBC requires that you log in to their website through your cable provider to watch the replays of the events. I was trying to watch online because I don’t have a cable provider, so that didn’t work out so well.

I also had something else sneak its way into my work schedule as well – blankets! Two baby blankets to be exact. One out of a fluffy, bulky yarn:

and the other out of a light, lace yarn:

It doesn’t look like it in the picture, but this one if also going to be a square. It is just gathered on the circular needle right now.

The first one was fairly easy to create. I kept the pattern in my head/made it up as I went. Lace, on the other hand, well…

That took a bit more planning – and paper.

I finally managed to puzzle out a good chart. Well, several charts used together:

I am chugging along at it. I’m hoping to be able to have enough of the yarn left over to make matching hats. Lace yarn really does go a long way.

Ever get sidetracked in the middle of a project by a bigger project? What did you do while watching the Olympics this time around?

Two-Eyed Minion

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Most of my minions tend to have only one eye, but by request my second minion hat has two eyes. The requester? requestee? person who made the request had received a one-eyed minion hat and had gotten his grandmother hooked on “Minion Rush” over Hanukkah, so he asked that I make a two-eyed minion hat for her.

I don’t know. For some reason minion-y things don’t look so minion-y with two eyes.

I had the crown of a hat already knit that I was wondering how I would use from re-knitting the first hat. So when he mentioned I should make one for “Grammy”, I was already halfway done. Well, a third of the way done anyway.

Project notes, as always, can be found on the Ravelry project page, but in general I used Knit Picks Comfy worsted weight yarn in Creme Brulee, White, Celestial, and Hawk, along with a miniscule amount of Knit Picks Stroll in Midnight for the pompom. The eyes are basic crochet circles with buttons sewn in the center for pupils.

Coastal Starry

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I made my first starry stole for one of my grandmothers for Christmas. I was hoping to have two done by Christmas time, but like most of my plans to make presents that didn’t pan out.

I bought the Oregon coast colorway of Knit Picks Shadow thinking it would be a much lighter,more neutral color from the picture on the website. I am actually very happy that it turned out darker than I expected. The color is similar to beach sand (hence the Oregon Coast name) with subtle rainbow-esque variations within the colors.

After making the first one, I decided that the rest of these (of which there will be four) should be a little longer than the pattern calls for. I did four repeats of the full chart rather than the three called for in the pattern. That gave it a bit extra length to be wrapped like a scarf:

or to actually be wrapped around the shoulders when worn as a shawl:

Unfortunately, this meant I needed more beads than I ended up with, due to quite a few beads that were unusable for the project. Either the holes were too small or they didn’t even have holes. Whatever the case, I had to improvise. Luckily, by doing both sides at once I was able to put the different beads directly in the center so they are all directly in the back and it won’t be noticeable. Though I did have some gold beads that made it less noticeable, anyway.

I really like the way it came out with the added length, so I am going to do that for the last two as well. Makes it easier to keep it on the shoulders.