Yarn Bomb So Good It's Art

I did a yarn bomb a month ago.  I wanted to do something that was fun and in good taste.  Something my little town would enjoy.  I just did it so well people don't know it's a yarn bomb.

I asked my knitting friends to drive by and take a look at it.  They came by for our monthly machine knitting meeting and told me they didn't see it.  I thought how could they not see it.  It's a big round orange and smiling at you.  Finally, one of the gals asked, "I did see a smiling orange.  Did you do that?"  I said, "Yes."  She asked, "Really?!  It looks so official I thought the town put it up."  Then the other gals chimed in it looks so nice we thought it was official too.  We had no idea it was a yarn bomb.  So, my daughter says it's a yarn bomb fail.  I said, "Oh no it's a success if every one thinks it's so nice it belongs there."  My intention was for it to be a work of art all could enjoy and that's what they are doing.

I used Diana Sullivan's baby blanket technique to do the orange.  All other pieces are crocheted.  I used reflective yarn.  It's kind of fun to see it light up at night when the head lights hit it.

Newest Baby in the Neighborhood!

Decided a few years ago if a new baby comes to my stretch of the neighborhood I'm making them a baby blanket.  They've all been neighbors up till now.  The latest baby though is on my route to the gym.  I walk so I get a good look.  New couple moved in and I saw she was pregnant.  I waited till I got to see an actual glimpse of the baby.  Just in case.  Then I began knitting the blanket.  My daughter thought it was strange and that they'd think I was a stalker.  Well, I didn't care.  I wish all stalkers would show up with a handmade blanket and then leave them in peace.  

I do see myself as a kindly old grandmotherly type.  I may be over estimating my appearance even though my age definitely qualifies.  I told my daughter I promised not to snap anyone like a twig with my muscularly toned thighs.  I got the eyeball roll.

Diana Sullivan's Circular baby blanket.

I have to admit I did have a qualm the day I had it all ready to deliver.  My saving grace was I could hang it on their door and they'd find it later.  Wouldn't you know it the very day I'm dropping it off is the only day before or since that their door was open with the screen door.  2 yapping dogs announced my coming and I had to talk to the mom.  I said I just lived down the street.  She said she's seen me walking by every week. So, I wasn't a complete stranger.  I handed her the baby afghan in a gift bag and said I made a little something for the baby.  On a note in the bag I had put my address, so they wouldn't think a complete weirdo had left the gift.  When things started to get a little awkward I announced I had to get to the gym for my 10am class.  Whew!  All true.  All true.  I was suited up and on my way to the gym.

Love the way this blanket turns out.  I'll never get tired of it.

A week later Eileen and baby Lily came by to say thank you for the blanket and gave me a bag of veggies from their garden.  Couldn't have been a better thank you.  Hoping I've made a new friend on the street.

Used Sandee Cherry's roping technique for the edging.  I like the neater look rather than the pie crust edging.

Lil Punkin Hat... well not quite

Using my bulky Toyota KS650 punchcard machine I tried my hand at making the Lil Punkin hat by Baby Jane Knits.  It's a free pattern if you belong to the "Fun with Big Brother" yahoo group. The group is free too.  So, give it a try.  Look for the pattern under files and look for Baby Jane Knits.

I punched the card suggested, but I don't think the card I have is compatible with my Studio machine.  I had a 1X1 punch card and I lined it up and they just didn't quite match in size and shape. Anyhow the card didn't work.  SO, I decided to use the 1X1.  It still made the most fricking adorable pumpkin hat.

The pattern said it was a pretty small hat and gave instructions on how to make it bigger.  I casted on 60 needles and when it came to the slip rib section I knitted 48 rows.  It still made a pretty small hat.

As luck would have it I was babysitting a 5 year old and was waiting for him to come home from school.  I thought he'd be a perfect model, so I could tell what size the hat should be and how to adjust it.  I was prepared if he fell in love with it to let him have it.

I thought I'd have to coax it on him, because he's all boy ruff and tumble, snip and snails and puppy dog tails.  He's still 5 and instantly fell in love with it and wouldn't take it off.  Made me feel good that he loved it as much as I did.  I did find out it is still a little smaller than I'd like, but for just wearing and having fun it was perfect.

Since I was knitting at someone else's home I didn't have all my manuals with me and as it always is I needed to make an i-cord and didn't know how to set my machine.  I knew it needed to slip in one direction, but I so seldom set my machine to slip anything I need the manual.  I did have my computer and all I could find was how to make i-cord on a brother machine.  I needed Studio.  I came across this handy little video that was perfect and saved the day.  I-Cord by Crystal Sutherland.  It is a manual way of making i-cord using knitting machine needles.  Since I only needed to make a small stem on my hat making i-cord in this manner was still faster than using knitting needles.  I hung 3 stitches from the top of my hat and began.  To get my rhythm going I just remember to always wind in a clockwise manner.

Made Another Baby Blanket

Blanket done awaiting the edging.

It's Diana's Swirl Baby Blanket.  I use the videos to jog my memory when making it.  She also has printed instructions on how to make one too.

Blanket done edges lightly steamed.

 I made this on my Toyota KS650 Bulky machine.  Wedges end up being 60 stitches wide.  Then make 10 wedges.

I used Bernat Softee Baby yarn in blue and lilac.

I'm always surprised how easily made it is and how impressive this blanket looks when done.

Left the room to get my camera and look who thought they were the baby?

Knitting For A Premie

I know first hand how wonderful it is to walk into the nursery to check on your premie baby and see them laying in an incubator with a hand knitted cap.  Not some prefab hospital cap.  So, when a girl scout came to our machine knitting group to ask for our help in knitting premie blankets I was excited to help.  She wanted by the beginning of school in August to have made and collected 50 premie blankets.  The goal of my machine knitting group was to have any donations done by our next meeting.  One month no problem right?

Well, as usual life gets in the way.  My teens came home from 3 weeks in Scotland.  Before I could really enjoy having them home 5 days later my daughter has pneumonia.  Off to the doctor for x-rays and an expert opinion, but it was as I thought pneumonia.

As I'm nursing her back to health I'm schedule during that time to have my gallbladder out.  Fortunately, by the time I'm home from the surgery, she's well enough I don't have to worry about her.

On the third day of my recovery my son says I really feel terrible.  I put my hand on his forehead and he's really hot.  "Surgery" mom goes to the background and "my son is really sick" mom comes to the forefront.  I take his temp and it's 103.6F.  Fortunately, my DH had taken an extra day off to take care of me.  Since I couldn't drive I put him on a new case... get our son to the doctor pronto.  I promised to not do anything wild while they were gone and to keep the cell phone close.  2 hours later I get the call that he indeed has pneumonia.

DH comes home and tucks us both into bed with our meds.  Now it's Saturday and it occurs to me that if I'm going to make a premie blanket I need to get it done by Monday night.  Fortunately, Saturday I start feeling considerably better, but don't want to over do it.  Sunday I continued to rest, because come Monday I want to try machine knitting.

I got my Studio 700 Standard machine set up with my yarn and the punch card I wanted to use. After reading through my manual regarding doing tuck I proceed. I decided to do a few rows stop and see how I feel. I felt fine. I went on to knit about 100 rows. At this time I started to feel kind of hot. So, I stopped for a few hours. I was fine. I then knitted about 50 rows at a time until I had 300 done. The tuck stitch looked wonderful. I used punch card 12A as the picture in my manual had used that one and I like the look of it.

I used lots of weight all the way across to keep the tuck stitch working properly.  I did have to keep an eye on the end stitches.  The manual even warned about it saying to pull the 2 end needles out each row.  2 times the end stitches dropped off and I was able to fix them.  Then I started pulling the end needles out each row.  That stopped the dropped end stitches.

I made this using needles 65-0-65.  I did it at T7.  I knitted 300 rows.  Measured 20"wX22"l.  After washing it came out to 19"wX19 1/2"l.

Really looks nice.  Was proud to donate it.  I wish the pictures captured the beautiful yellow color.  It's like fresh butter. 

This is the back of the knitting with tuck though this is considered the front.

This is really the front of the knitting, but being tuck it's considered the back.

Day 6 "25 Days of Diana"

Today I decided to make Diana's adorable Short-Rowed Baby Hat.  Mine came out equally adorable.  It's really good practice for short rowing.  I'll need that talent for my sock DVD when it shows up.  :)

The 10 wedges were easy to do.  Things I had problems with were my yarn mast and making sure the weights got moved.  My yarn mast I think is having tensioning problems on the left side.  It kept tightening up the yarn, getting tangled and generally making me say "What the f*#@" toward the end of the 10 wedges.  Every time I looked up it found a new way to get tangled and intertwined upon itself.  I made it through though and the adorableness of the way the yarn patterned made me very happy.

After I hung the hat to start the hat band I threaded the yarn through the right side of the mast.  No problems with tensioning there.  I'll definitely be looking into what's going on with the left side.

I don't have a lace carriage for my Studio 700.  I don't even know if it comes with one.  Something to look into.  I did my picot edge the old fashion way with a transfer tool.  Moving every other stitch to the needle beside it.  The picot edging is so simple and yet looks so nice.

I was so excited to finish this hat tonight seeing how cute it was turning out. I started around 8pm and finished around 11pm. I'm hoping to do it quite a bit faster when I'm not fighting my yarn mast.

Swirl Round Baby Blanket Number 3

And darn it if I didn't forget to do something I decided yesterday would be very important when I share my projects... measure the diameter! Well, I gave it away and don't know if I'll get a measurement of it. Giving it away was even anticlimactic the little 2 year old cousin was at home with her sick mommy. The flu is going through their house. Poor honeys. Any how I decided to pull it out of it's gift bag and show every one at the party any ways. So, I did have fun showing it off.
I made this on my Toyota KS650 bulky machine on a tension of 6. I used Sensations Rainbow Classic in the Bright Multi Rainbow Classic, which I bought at JoAnns. I used about 1 1/2 of the 2 11 ounces skeins I bought. I just loved the color of this yarn and wanted to do something with it. Then it hit me a blanket for a 2 year old girl. This yarn is a bulky 5, but knitted up beautifully on my machine. I find my bulky Toyota to be such and easy machine. It's not fussy with yarns like my standard.

Now my opinion of using a variegated yarn and using just one color... I wasn't terribly fond of it. It didn't quite have the umph that my red and white one has or even the blue and brown one. Oh it's beautiful and loved giving it as a gift, but I think using 2 or three completely different colors on this pattern would show off the swirl better.

I used the 60 needles as Diana says in her video and it took me probably about 4 hours to complete it.

Peppermint Kiss Baby Blanket

Blanket with flash and don't mind the water spot. Iron went crazy with some light steaming.

That's what I'm calling my latest creation. I just love it and don't know if I'll even give it away. I made this using the videos posted by Diana Natters on Youtube. You can find links to the videos on her blog "Diana natters on." This blanket is called Swirl Round Baby Blanket. When I saw a picture of this blanket my immediate thought was peppermint candy. So, I knew my first blanket would be done with red and white.

I'm a pretty novice machine knitter and I found the video easy to follow. I kept it up on the computer and would replay bits to keep me on track. I had a minor problem with joining wedge 9 with wedge 10, but it was just a misunderstanding on my part. With a replay or two I was able to see my mistake and successfully join the wedges.

The pie crust edging was unbelievably easy. I'd never done it before and really enjoyed learning a new technique. I wasn't sure how to end it. I made sure the last "pie crust" piece over lapped the first then I did a latch tool bind off. Doesn't look quite a good as I would have liked, but it looks just fine too. Only I would notice it and maybe an experienced machine knitter if she really looked closely. I might email Diana and see if I did it correctly or if there is another way to do it. Most of all a big thank you goes out to Diana Sullivan for talking the time to film a fun project for us all to enjoy.

blanket no flash

It is real knitting!

Whenever I go into a yarn store I am usually greeted by the staff. They want to know what I'm working on. Then I pipe up with "I machine knit. My sister in law is the real knitter." I refer to my SIL as the real knitter, because she hand knits and makes really nice stuff like beautiful socks. BUT I do knit by hand... I just haven't taught myself to do anything other than scarves with very large knitting needles.... size 19. I tried making a scarf with size 10 needles and it's still in progress. I got so bored with it's slow progress. With size 19 needles I can usually have a really long scarf done in 4 hours.

Last summer though I was introduced to machine knitting. I knew that machine knitting existed, but I thought it was done only in factories. I had no idea that women had their own knitting machines at home. My crafty friend Julia took me to a Machine Knitting Guild meeting and I was intrigued. It looked complicated and the machines looked expensive. My 2nd thought was do I really need to start a new craft?! Then my crafty friend Julia said someone had donated a machine to the guild and she would give it to me. Well that solved one problem. Didn't have to spend money on a machine.

Julia taught me how to clean the machine and replace the sponge bar one afternoon and then the machine went home with me.

She had given me a lesson one afternoon on her machine. She taught me the e-wrap cast-on, how to do a picot edge, how to change yarn colors and how to latch hook cast-off. I did my first project.

I couldn't believe how fast this went. In 4 hours a novice knitted a baby sized blanket. That's when I started thinking it was cheating. But the more I use my machine and learn it's ins and outs the more I'm realizing that I am doing real knitting.