Industrial Percussion
My son, Sam, attends Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, where he's studying to become a computer animator. This was his final for his Sound in Animation and Video class. I think that he did an excellent job. His friend, Zack, is shown in most of the video, but Sam is the handsome lad who is drinking coffee.
Enjoy!
Darling knitted creatures!
These animals are so much fun to knit! The patterns are very well written and easy to follow. They are written for knitting on double points, but with a little figuring, you could easily knit them with two circulars, or with the Magic Loop. They don’t use much yarn, so they are excellent for using up those bits and pieces in your stash.
Since they are small, they make excellent travel projects. Personally, I think that they make the perfect coffee shop knitting project - they are small, so you don't have to carry a big old bag, they are very oddly shaped, so you get interesting stares, and should someone gather up the gumption to come over and ask what you are knitting - well, nothing stops 'em dead like this response, "oh, I'm knitting a two headed alien..." heh.
Since they are small, they make excellent travel projects. Personally, I think that they make the perfect coffee shop knitting project - they are small, so you don't have to carry a big old bag, they are very oddly shaped, so you get interesting stares, and should someone gather up the gumption to come over and ask what you are knitting - well, nothing stops 'em dead like this response, "oh, I'm knitting a two headed alien..." heh.
I especially admire the shaping on these darling creatures. For instance, look at T Rex from the side
– see how she has a nice straight back, and a round, poochy belly? That’s not due to manipulation of the stuffing, that’s due to cleverly placed decreases. The patterns are written so that the animals really have personality, and from there, it’s easy to personalize.
I think that it would be lots of fun to needle felt designs onto the completed animal. Let your imagination soar! Flowers? Initials? Team-Jersey numbers?
These patterns would be suitable for many levels of knitting ability. While they would not be suitable as one’s very first knitting project, they would be a great way for a beginner to advance his or her knitting skills. Each pattern set features detailed instructions for the various abbreviations used in the pattern, and you can visit the designer’s web site for written AND video demonstration of any techniques that you might not know how to do. The online tutorials are very clear and well presented.
Another interesting point is that many of the techniques used in these patterns come straight out of sock knitting. For example, T Rex has a perfect sock-heel head. Triceratops has a short-row head. If you are interested in sock knitting, then these patterns would be a fun way for you to learn the various techniques.
Please note that I knitted these animals with very different gauges. If they were all knitted with the same yarn and the same needles, they’d all be just about the same size. In other words, if I had knitted the horse with the same yarn and the same needles as for T Rex,
they’d be the same size, believe it or not! Now, just imagine a menagerie of Tiny Dinosaurs, Safari Creatures and Aliens! How much fun!
T Rex – knitted with one strand of Lamb’s Pride (wool and mohair), and one strand of Broadway (acrylic, mohair, poly, metallic, nylon) held together, on size US 10 dpns, at a gauge of about 2 ½ stitches per inch. Her eyes are made of Cascade 220, tripled and french knotted, with a french knot of black Wildefoote sock yarn for the pupil. She’s a big ole gal who measures approximately 26 inches from her sharp teeth to the tip of her pointy tail. I assembled her according to the pattern with no modifications, other than her head ornament. Since she has no ears, being a dinosaur and all, her head seemed oddly bare. She needed a hat.
She stands (sits?) about 11 inches tall, and isn’t she beautiful?
Triceratops – knitted with two colors of Cascade Jewel (wool), a thick and thin yarn, and two colors of stashbusting sparkley yarn.
I call him "Lamont," because I worked on him on our drives back and forth to Denver, to watch Grace perform as part of her stint at the Lamont School of Music (see my post of July 2).
It was great fun to blend the colors, especially since I wasn’t sure how it would all come together until he was all sewn up. I knitted him on size US 7 dpns at a gauge of approximately ...ummm… let’s just call it a variable gauge, due to the thick and thin nature of the yarn. Knitted at this gauge, he stands about 5 inches tall, and is about 17 inches long.
I assembled him a little askew in order to give him something of an inquisitive air.
In order to sort of sculpt him into shape, I assembled him by using dpns to prop up his neck and head in order to hold him in position while I figured out the proper angle with which to attach his tail. It gives him personality, I think.
she is the darling of the bunch with her little diminutive self. She was knitted out of Fino, a laceweight Alpaca yarn, on US 00 dpns, at a gauge of approximately 10 stitches per inch. Her mane and hooves were made out of a little bit of Wildefoote sock yarn.
She’s approximately 3 inches tall, and she has a marble in her abdomen to help keep her from falling over. She is made from the Zebra pattern in the Safari Friends collection.
Just imagine how much fun it would be to knit an Appaloosa, or a Clydesdale? How about a paint or a Palomino? What fun it would be to needle-felt a little saddle or make a bridle out of ribbon? The mind boggles.
In order to sort of sculpt him into shape, I assembled him by using dpns to prop up his neck and head in order to hold him in position while I figured out the proper angle with which to attach his tail. It gives him personality, I think.
she is the darling of the bunch with her little diminutive self. She was knitted out of Fino, a laceweight Alpaca yarn, on US 00 dpns, at a gauge of approximately 10 stitches per inch. Her mane and hooves were made out of a little bit of Wildefoote sock yarn.
She’s approximately 3 inches tall, and she has a marble in her abdomen to help keep her from falling over. She is made from the Zebra pattern in the Safari Friends collection.
Just imagine how much fun it would be to knit an Appaloosa, or a Clydesdale? How about a paint or a Palomino? What fun it would be to needle-felt a little saddle or make a bridle out of ribbon? The mind boggles.
Gamma the Two Headed Alien – knitted with acrylic out of my stash, on size US 7 dpns, at a gauge of about 6 stitches per inch.
He and She measures about 9 inches tall. I loved knitting the eyeballs. After I attached the eyes to the heads, my daughter insisted that I leave the strings hanging, instead of hiding them. I agree with her – it gives a cute moustachey look.
Gamma is from the Take Me To Your Leader collection.
I think that most of these Alien models would be able to wear doll clothes. Imagine Gamma in a little vest? I know that my girls would have dressed Gamma, were he and she knitted about 10 years ago!
He and She measures about 9 inches tall. I loved knitting the eyeballs. After I attached the eyes to the heads, my daughter insisted that I leave the strings hanging, instead of hiding them. I agree with her – it gives a cute moustachey look.
Gamma is from the Take Me To Your Leader collection.
I think that most of these Alien models would be able to wear doll clothes. Imagine Gamma in a little vest? I know that my girls would have dressed Gamma, were he and she knitted about 10 years ago!
She is knitted with one strand of variegated mohair and one strand of Peruvian Tweed Alpaca held together, on size US 3 dpns, at a gauge of approximately 4 stitches per inch. She sits about 7 inches tall. This elephant, with no legs, would make an adorable baby toy, too. I moussed her ears to to encourage them to stay “outstretched – mousse works great with animal fibers.
Isn't this just the cutest thing you have ever seen?
These creatures are so much fun to make. Give them stripes – give them sparkles – sew on decorations – needle felt onto the completed animal - Let your imagination soar!
Screw Spinning
A few weeks ago, I had the good fortune to spend the day helping my friends Allie and Phil at their annual Alpaca Shearing Day.
As the alpacas are shorn, their fleeces are sorted into bags - the main fleece, the neck, and the trash. In slow times, I'd poke around in the trash barrel and oooohhhh and ahhhhhh at what was being thrown away! I wanted to spin that stuff so badly! Allie and Phil have such gorgeous alpacas that their refuse is stunning, lol. So, being the rude person that I am and all, I poked around in the storage room, hoping to find something that I could use as a spindle, because I just couldn't stand looking at that lovely fiber and not spinning it. I'm sure that you understand.
Voila! I found this long screw. Excellent! Actually, it spun very nicely. My friend, Peggy, snapped the photo, above, using a flash - the screw is actually spinning, and I am actually making yarn. WOOT. The only problem is this - I'd spin a length,
and then wind on, and I put a hitch, then spun another length. Then, I'd have to pick out the previous hitch, wind on, and put in another hitch. This was a royal PITA with the screw because of how the yarn would bury itself in the threads.
Back into the storage room.
Sorry Phil.... you were really busy.... I should have asked.....
Anyway, I found a bite block, which was a stick about an inch in diameter and about 6 inches long, and covered in Alpaca Puke (ICK), and I thought that I'd try this.
It worked very well. After a while, I gave up picking out the previous hitch, and would just wind on top of it, thinking that I'd deal with the problem later.
Truth be told, I never dealt with it. I never got to do enough spinning for it to be much of an issue. We were kind of busy.
I showed this photo to my son, and he exclaimed, "OH! Alpaca poi!"
Silly boy.
Anyway.....
So, take a look at this photo!
(The photo is of such high quality that if you click on the link above, you can enlarge your view numerous times and still have a clear idea of what's going on.)
Look at where his yarn meets his yarn ball - there's a little stick there. *facepalm. Of course. Why didn't I think of that. So simple. It would be such an easy thing to just pin that stick in there and no need for picking-out-of-hitches.
I wonder if his apindle-stick was coated in Alpaca puke? Take a look at the size of that ball of yarn, will ya? I wonder what he's spinning? His fiber looks sort of stringy/hairy. I wonder if this is the end of his supply - or, maybe he has a basket of fiber behind his right leg? I want to know more about this man and his spinning....
If I had poked around in that storage room, just one more time, I bet that I could have found a small nail.
Un Sospiro - Grace Thomas
Number 3 in D flat major - Un Sospiro by Franz Liszt
PianoKnitterGirl is at it again! My daughter, Grace, is currently studying at the Lamont School of Music, Summer Pre-College Academy. She was selected to perform in their Honors Recital, which was held last night, in the Hamilton Recital hall in the Newman Center of the Performing Arts. Oh My Gosh, what a facility! She will perform with her Chamber Ensemble tonight, July 2, in the same location, 7:30 pm, in case anyone is up for an evening of a variety of chamber groups. Join us! I'll be the one who is grinning like an idiot, possibly knitting.
Their final big blowout performance will be held on Saturday at 1:30 in the Gates Hall which is quite a stunning performance hall. Grace will be performing again, with a woodwinds ensemble, I think - not sure. This event will feature an all-school choir, a number of large ensemble groups, and an orchestra. It should be perfectly delightful.
All of these performances are free, and open to the public.
If you know of any high-school-age student, who is serious about music, please direct them to the Lamont Pre College program. Grace attended last year, and again this year. She just loves it, and she has never worked so hard in her entire life. Kids attend from all over the country. They study music from dawn to dusk, and they really grow as musicians. It's worth every penny.
Colonial Spindles?
I really enjoy reading about the history of fiber arts, particularly from a European/North American perspective. I just stumbled across this article, Request for Documentation!, and I found it very interesting. Maybe you'll like it, too.
Of course, I did my "stumbling" on Ravelry. Last week, I found this nugget on Ravelry - The Hearth Library. Oh My. Notice the search function - I typed "spinning" and I got 1127 books. What fun!
Of course, I did my "stumbling" on Ravelry. Last week, I found this nugget on Ravelry - The Hearth Library. Oh My. Notice the search function - I typed "spinning" and I got 1127 books. What fun!
Felted Rocks!
A couple of weeks ago, my daughter, Grace, and I decided to make little purses. We wet-felted some merino onto rocks! It was fun, relatively easy, and the purses came out really cute.
Here are my purses, next to the rocks that I used. Too bad that I didn't include a measuring device - the blue one is approximately 2.5 inches in diameter, and the green one is approximately 3 by 4 inches.
Here is the other side of the purses. The blue one is pretty much the same on both sides - the center bead is a little different, but that's all. The green purse...had a problem. See how the rock is white? Well, so was the wool, and I couldn't tell that the wool was REALLY thin in one little spot. So, I needle felted some colorful yarn over the thin spot. Where the yarns lie side by side, they are hiding the thin spot. Hey, it worked! It might not be terribly attactive, but it worked! The yarn provides strength to a really weak spot.
If I do this again, I'll either use non-white rocks, or I'll cut the neck out of a balloon, and then stretch the balloon over the rock. Then, I don't think I'll end up with thin spots.
So, here's how we did it. We wrapped the rock in saran wrap. Then, we layered thin whispy bits of merino top this way and that, wetting slightly to get it to all hold together - sort of. We dabbed a bar of Ivory bath soap here and there, and gently rubbed to get the wispy ends of the fiber to lie down and behave. The gentle rubbing causes foam to form, and this sort of holds everything together. We added more fiber, and gently rubbed some more. The rubbing was more of a turning and turning - like you would do with a bar of soap when you are washing your hands - that around-and-around motion.
When we were satisfied that we had added enough fiber, we dropped the rock into the toe of a knee high stocking, and sort of twisted the stocking so that the rock was held firmly in the toe of the stocking. Then, we jiggled it with an orbital sander. No sandpaper was attached - we just held the rock up to the rubber pad on the orbital sander. We'd sort of gently rotate the rock while jiggling it, around and around. It worked great!
After making sure that all parts of the rock had been jiggled, we rinsed the rock and took it out of the stocking to test for felting. We'd do this by poking (it should feel firm, and not spongy or cushy) and by pulling (no fibers should be able to pull free from the surface). When we were satisfied with the felting, we rinsed out all of the soap, and then we dunked the rock into a really hot pot of water, and then dunked the rock into a really cold pot of water, and we repeated this a few times. This finished up the felting process, nicely.
Grace and I did the dyeing parts differently. I dyed my rock purses by simply heating them up in a pot of koolaid - Lemon Lime for the green purse, and Berry Blue for the blue purse. I stuck the purse in there, rock and all - I was afraid that if I had cut the rock out, that the cut edges would stretch or something. Grace cut her rock out, and dyed her purse in Rit. Her way worked better, as it dyed the felt through and through. My purses dyed only on the outer surface, which isn't a huge problem, but I think it looks nicer to have the inside dyed, too. Oh, and her edges stayed nice.
After dyeing, we let the bags dry. Mine were still on their rocks, so I hung them in net bags so that all sides could dry.
We cut the rocks out by slicing the felt with an Xacto knife. This was much easier than I had anticipated. I adjusted the opening so as to receive a zipper - I sort of squared the edges of the slit.
We sewed in zippers. The little blue bag has a really old, really soft zipper, and it was very easy to install.
Sorta looks like a Muppet.
This purse is really small, so I had to cut the zipper. First, I made sure that the installation was just how I wanted it, then I whipped the zipper closed. Then, I cut the zipper, and whipped over the edge.
As a finishing touch, I whip stitched the outer edge of the zipper tape to the inside of the bag, just to sort of make it neater on the inside.
This green zipper was so soft, that it followed the curve of the opening without any further work.
However, this pink zipper is rather stiff, so I had to do a little extra work in order to make it lie nicely.
Can you see the whip stitch over the edge? Now, can you see the running stitch just inside of the whip stitch? Now, can you see the small vertical slits cut into the zipper tape? Each running stitch goes over one of the slits. Can you see them? This allowed the zipper to curve nicely.
First, I sewed the zipper into place - I used numerous rounds of whip stitch to hold it into place. Then, I cut and finished the end of the zipper.
Next, I cut the slits into the zipper tape, and then I ran the running stitch, gently pulling the thread to make the zipper curve. Then, I knotted the thread, holding the curve into place. Last, I whipped the edges of the tape into place. I think that it turned out nicely.
I stuffed the purse with net bags (onion bags) and zipped it closed, and then needle felted the yarn onto the outside of the bag.
Next, I cut the slits into the zipper tape, and then I ran the running stitch, gently pulling the thread to make the zipper curve. Then, I knotted the thread, holding the curve into place. Last, I whipped the edges of the tape into place. I think that it turned out nicely.
I stuffed the purse with net bags (onion bags) and zipped it closed, and then needle felted the yarn onto the outside of the bag.
Here is Grace's purse. She added a strap so that she can use it as a shoulder bag. It is so cute!!!
See how hers is dyed inside and out. This looks much nicer. Do you have any idea how hard it is to take a photo of a black hole?
In the photo below, and in the first photo of the black purse - I had to adjust the exposure so that it would show up nicely - in reality, the purse is jet black. These photos seem to show that the purse has a greyish tinge, but no, that's just the exposure. The entire purse is like in the photo above - BLACK!
In the photo below, and in the first photo of the black purse - I had to adjust the exposure so that it would show up nicely - in reality, the purse is jet black. These photos seem to show that the purse has a greyish tinge, but no, that's just the exposure. The entire purse is like in the photo above - BLACK!
Since she was planning to make a proper purse, she made her felt pretty thick so that it would be durable. My purses were to be small, "treasure" bags, and I wanted for mine to be pretty thin.
This was a very fun project - and, wow, your hands are never as clean as they are after a wet felting project!!!
(All photos click for big, and click again for even bigger.)
Enjoy!
Knittergirl plays the piano, too!
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Grace and her friend, Rebecca, playing a little Beethoven for you. They are both 17, and are Unsocialized Homeschoolers. Way to go, girls!
They are working under the direction of Veronika Afanassieva, of the Veronika String Quartet.
I know that this post has absolutely nothing to do with knitting, but what can I say - I'm proud of these girlies! Should you want to see more, and you know that you do, then go here - GracefulPiano.
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Grace and her friend, Rebecca, playing a little Beethoven for you. They are both 17, and are Unsocialized Homeschoolers. Way to go, girls!
They are working under the direction of Veronika Afanassieva, of the Veronika String Quartet.
I know that this post has absolutely nothing to do with knitting, but what can I say - I'm proud of these girlies! Should you want to see more, and you know that you do, then go here - GracefulPiano.
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Sam's Doodle
My son, Sam, is quite artistic. He's always been a doodler, and for the past couple of years, his doodles have been of this one particular celtic knot design. Above, you can see one of his first designs, which he drew onto the surface of his desk. Yes, I know that it looks like maybe it's on someone's skin, but no, it's on his desk, lol.
Here it is on his skin. I HATE it when folks draw on themselves - shame on you, Sam! You are going to get ink poisoning!
You can see the basic doodle in this fancier doodle, and you can also see it in the owl -
Sooooo..... I thought that it would be fun to try to knit this doodle!I didn't know too much about cables, and I knew absolutely nothing about charting cables. I threw myself on the mercy of my email pal, Susan, who knows everything there is to know about knitting, and she launched me on the right track.
Many sheets of graph paper later, I had a design to swatch.
This is much harder than it looks! The pink swatch was my first one, and it's... meh.What helped me to get a swatch that I like is to chart only the "pattern" rows. You know, like charting lace, where you chart the "pattern rows" but not the "resting rows." Eureka - I had that little brain storm and then I was able to actually make it work.
When I finally got a swatch that I liked, I trotted on down to the yarn store, and my friend, Joyce, was there and I made her pick out some yarn, heh. It's so nice to have such nice, accomodating friends! Joyce selected this wonderful, heathery, Cascade 220 in the most manly of manly colors - sort of a heathery army green. Perfect!
The way that I solved the problem of the "circles" is to not solve the problem at all. I find that this way is *always* the easiest, lol.In the photo above, you can see that I got to a spot where the two smaller circles would have to cross the large, center circle, in an area where the slope of the upper circle is pretty much vertical. I swatched and swatched and scratched my head and scratched my head, and I never could figure out how I was going to make this work with traditional cable techniques, so I just ended the cable, put it on pins and decided to just sew them together. It works perfectly!!!
Actually, I didn't exactly sew the cables, it's more like I crocheted them. I held some yarn on the inside of the hat, and I fished a loop through one of the knit stitches of the cable. Then, I fished a loop through the other knit stitch of the cable. I found that this side-by-side arrangement is important so that the stitches sit properly.
My first attempt was to just embroider the cables with a chain stitch, and they came out way too flat and ... well... flat. Cables stand up from the knitting - the stitches are sort of at an angle to the plane of the reverse stockinette. Am I overanalyzing? Probably.
Anyway, so I fished the two loops through the last knitted loops of the cable. Then, I fished two more loops through and so on, always fishing the yarn up through from the inside of the hat, until I closed the gap, making sure that I had the over and under crossings correct.
The two little side circles took only two rounds of "fake knitting" while the large central circle took something like 6 or 8.
There's a little problem, though. The reverse stockinette background is visually composed of horizontal lines, right? Well, knitting going horizontal is also composed of horizontal lines... sigh. So, the cables don't pop quite like I'd like for them to, especially at the bottom of the design. However...
Sam loves his hat and recognized his doodle, straight away. YAY!Oh, and yes, Sam's hair has blue streaks. This is what happens when you have long hair - and teenaged sisters. Sam's hair is wet in these pictures - when dry, the blue is MUCH bluer, heh heh heh.
Here is a side view...
And one from the top.
Do you see his hands? Next post - Sam's Mitts! Stay tuned!
NEW Spindle! NEW Mitts! NEW Earband! Hooray!
My dear e-pal, Susan, sent me a lovely batch of fiber for Christmas. She dyed it herself! I love the colors! And, look what else -
A beautiful spindle, which she made herself! It's so beautiful, and it spins so nicely - it sort of floats. The nice flat sides mean that I don't need a notch! It's nice and light, just how I like my spindles, and I think that I'm going to use this spindle very often, and...
I'll fight anyone who tries to take it away from me.
Yes, Emma, I know - awful joke.
By the way, yes, it's true, Emma's hair, fingernails and bathrobe are all the same color.
Which makes me want to sing, too, Emma darling.I think that Emma gets extra points for being perfectly willing to stand out in the yard on a frigid morning, posing for pictures, wouldn't you agree? The fact that she was perfectly willing to do completely silly things means that she'll get to have ice cream for breakfast whenever she wants.
Thanks, Emma!
Anyway, back to the project. So, I was thrilled with my Christmas present, and I got to spinning right away, later that Christmas day.
I had in mind a pair of fingerless mitts and an ear band, right from the very start.Susan sent me a nice 4oz bunch of fiber. I split it cross-ways in half, and then I split one of the halves the long way, and I spun each of the three pieces in my favorite way - Tammy Rizzo's Navajo Ply on the Fly method. I'm working on spinning softer, less tightly spun yarn this year, and I was off to a good start with this batch, and then I slowly reverted to my old ways, slowly getting tighter and tighter. Old habits are so hard to break!
My good friend, Joyce, came over on New Year's Eve, and like the wild women that we are, we sat and knitted. I don't think that we even had much to say to each other - we just knitted, and as I recall, Joyce went home by around 10:30 - woot! What a raucous New Year's celebration!!!
She worked on a hat for her daughter, and I played around with some scrap yarn - I had been out shopping with my daughters the week before, and I saw a sweater in a shop with a very interesting stitch pattern, and I wanted to copy this pattern for my mitts. I messed around and messed around, and I never did figure out that stitch pattern. Instead, I discovered this one, and I like it so much better than the one I was trying to duplicate. I love it when this happens.
Does this stitch pattern have a proper name? Surely, someone has knitted it before?It goes like this. Cast on - join in a circle. Knit three rounds. On the fourth round, k1, then stick the point of the right needle into the stitch which is three rounds down and knit the stitch then pull the knitting so that the stitches above it unravel, then k1 and repeat all the way around. Repeat these 4 rows ad infinitim, alternating the rows in which you dip down. That's it. It's really easy, and I love it! It makes a THICK fabric which is highly textured.
I got such a kick out of the fact that the stitch pattern and the striping of the yarn are almost an exact match - each 4 row repeat is in a different color. Well, almost each repeat. Anyway, it was fun watching this happen!
Notice - both mitts start and end in aqua blue. I was so excited that I nearly cried. Nerdy?
It's something like brioche in that what you end up with is so much wider than what you started out with, so careful swatching, and an exceedingly loose cast on is in order. Also, the stitch pattern doesn't show up very well, and the ultimate width of the stitch pattern isn't readily apparent, until 3 or 4 rounds of the pattern has been worked, so swatch for quite a few inches before you make your decisions.
Like I said, I divided the fiber into three parts - the larger part was spun to make the ear band, and the two smaller parts were for the mitts.
I spun one of the smaller parts from one end, and the other of the smaller parts from the other end. so that the striping on each ball of yarn was opposite from the other. I knitted both mitts from the cuff to the fingers and I started knitting from the beginning of the spinning. So, as you can see, the mitts have opposite striping patterns - one of them goes, from the cuff up, blue, gold, pink, purple, and the other one is the opposite. Yes, I am, indeed, this nerdy.They are knitted in the simplest way possible - just a plain tube for a while, then I switched to knitting back and forth for a vertical-slit thumb hole, then back to knitting in the round. I used my favorite mitt cast off - the applied i-cord bind off. It's so durable and non-stretchy so that the finger end of the mitts keeps its shape really nicely.
I knitted the ear band with my old standby ear band pattern. Swatch to determine how wide you want it. Provisionally cast on this many stitches, then knit a stockinette tube for about 3 inches. Then, switch to a k2p2 rib-tube for about 2.5 inches, then go back to knitting stockinette. When it gets long enough, kitchener the tube closed and you're done! This makes a nice, thick layer of smooth knit stitches across your ears and a cinched up length of k2p2, which goes under your hair. I love this pattern - it's also nice to have miles of stockinette for those public knitting sessions, such as knitting at the coffee shop - this keeps my hands busy, but I don't have to think about what I'm doing.
This time around, however, I was terribly afraid of running out of yarn, so instead of doing the little "under the hair thing" in a tube of k2p2, I did a sort of a three needle bind off, without the binding off step - - I guess I could call it a "three needle stitch reduction" so that I ended up working a k2p2 single-layer for the under the hair part. It worked - when I was all finished, I had only about 5 yards of yarn left over. This is cutting it way too close for my comfort. *pant* *sweat*
It came out much nicer than I thought that it would. Here's what I did, to the best of my recollection. When you knit a k2p2 tube, and you fold the tube flat, you can arrange it so that the purls of the front layer nestle into the knits on the other side, or the back layer. So, I just knitted or purled these together, one stitch from the front needle and one stitch from the back needle, which reduced my tube to a single, flat layer which required only half the yarn to go one round. I knitted back and forth for about 1.75 inches, and then I wanted to return to a k2p2 tube.
If I recall correctly, this is what I did. I inserted the tip of the needle in between the legs of the stitch below the next-stitch-to-be-worked, and pulled a loop through, then slipped the stitch which should have been worked. Now, I have two knit stitches on my right hand needle - one just added, and one from the previous row, but both are pulled through the same stitch on the row below. I continued across, adding either knits or purls as the situation warranted. When I got to the end of the row, I turned.
On this row, I knitted or purled the stitches which had been slipped on the previous row, and slipped the stitches which had been added. When I got to the end of the row, I turned.
I got out another needle, a dpn of the same diameter, this time working the previously slipped stitches, and slipping the previously worked stitches onto a dpn. Turn.
Now, resume knitting a tube.
It sounds like more trouble than it really was, and it saved probably about 10 yards (or more?) of yarn. It looks really nice, too. In fact, it looks exactly like all of my other ear bands. Funny how that worked out. Maybe I'll do all of them this way?
I really like earbands and mitts. Here in Southern Colorado, our winters are exceedingly mild, and often, it's just not cold enough for a hat. However, I wear my long hair pulled back into a bun, exposing my delicate ears, and an ear band is perfect. Same goes for my hands - my hands often get all sweaty in mittens, but are just right in fingerless mitts. Folks who've never worn them often don't understand how they help at all, since it is your fingers which get cold, not your palms. All I can say is - try them and see for yourself. They work very well, and your fingers are free.
As an aside, my daughters' ballet mistress requested a pair of mitts a few years ago. See, she and her husband studied for their pilot's licenses for their 70th birthdays! WOOT! She thought that mitts like this would be so perfect for flying, as there is lots of wind in the cockpit, but she can't wear gloves because of needing to operate the dials and so forth. Just a couple of weeks ago, they bought a plane of their very own. It's from the 40's, and it's bright yellow. Hey! I just thought of something! I should make new mitts for her, and a pair for her hubby to match their little yellow bird! Good idea!
Back to the program...A little tip - next time you need to replace a lamp shade - pick out this shape. Loosen the thumbscrew at the top, and you've got yourself a really nice swift!
Another aside, have you ever seen such cute wrapping paper? This is what held my spindle and fiber secret until Christmas Day. Yes, I took photos of the wrapping paper, and yes, like I said before, I am that nerdy.
What amuses me is this - my children were so enchanted that I got presents from someone that they never met that they insisted that these be the first presents that I opened. I don't know why this charmed me so, but it did. All three of them watched and waited while I opened these presents, and they oohed and aahed right along with me. It made me so happy!
Thanks soooooo much, Susan. While Emma is the model, these mitts and earbands are keeping ME nice and warm on my daily walks. The fiber made such nice yarn - more boingy than I've experienced thus far. It was a delight to knit. I absolutely adore the colors, and like I said, it spun up to be almost the exact amount needed for this project. I'm using the remaining 5 or so yards for skein ties for my sweater project. And the spindle - the spindle is a complete work of art.
THANKS A MILLION TIMES THANKS!
Hugs!
RST
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