Space Goth

A sort of dark photo, one of the precious few downsides to black yarn. Hopefully the gist (tiny sweater!) is clear; this is a gift for b_zedan (http://www.bzedan.com/), who very thoughtfully gave me the miniature needles to begin with. I'm slightly abashed to call it fan art, but it really is; she does a cute comic called "Space Goth" and this is a replica of a sweater from one of the early pages.

Tiny needles. They hurt my vision so much and yet the results are so imminently worthwhile.

Pelecypoda fingerless gloves 2

Pelecypoda fingerless gloves

Ingredients:
<1 skein Elann.com Sonata color 2608 (or 100% mercerized cotton of your choice)
5 #5 dpns

CO 60 stitches and arrange evenly over 3 needles.
Working in the round, *k7, sl1, k2tog, psso; rep to until end of round.
Next round: *k6, k2tog; rep to end of round.
Knit two rounds. You have 42 stitches total; make certain they are arranged on the needles in multiples of seven.

Proceed with shell pattern:

Shell stitch variation
Round 1: *k1, yo, p1, p3tog, p1, yo, k1; repeat
Rounds 2&3: knit

Work these three reps 7 times.

Thumb

Continue working the shell variation stitch another five times, EXCEPT work last 7 stitches (one repeat of shell) on the third needle in stockinette. Due to the nature of the shell stitch pattern, you will be working a total of nine consecutive knit stitches-- eight on the third needle, one on the first. After working the last set, slip 3 stitches from the third needle onto the first. Now, on your fifth needle and using the lead yarn, m5 stitches in the manner of your choosing. This needle will temporarily dangle between the third and the first needle. Join it between the shell-stitch pattern and the strip of stockinette stitches (both on the third needle) so you will be working in the round. Work five rows. Bind off thumb.

Finishing
With third needle, pick up 6 stitches from inner side of thumb (what used to be the m5 stitches). Continue working body of glove as usual, in shell stitch pattern except for the 6 stitches above the thumb, until the glove reaches a desirable length ending with a knit row. Bind off all stitches and weave in ends. Block lightly if desired; I didn't. The yarn I used is just about endlessly stretchy; one with less give may require more repetitions of the shell stitch, at which point remember to cast on additional multiples of (7+3[the decrease]). Work the second glove the same way. Due to the lazy way I did the thumb gusset, the gloves are completely reversible.

Enjoy.

Pelecypoda fingerless gloves 1

It's been, well... literally since the dawning of my blog since I posted a free pattern. I had great plans to regularly post free patterns, see, but catastrophic events of my own design got in the way.

That wasn't quite meant to be a pun.

This is an effort to buck that trend. Not that it's a particularly elaborate or well-written pattern; these are just gloves I banged together during a movie marathon with a few friends. I did all the counting/rewriting afterwards. The stitch pattern is based off "small shell stitch" which you can find if you google. I've used it before but didn't actually remember how many stitches/rows the stitch is worked across. Still, I like the result. Pelecypoda (members of the shellfish family) are lacy light-weight gloves with subtle points along the bottom border.

Anyone who comes across this pattern is welcome to use it (you know the code: personal usage only, blahblahblah). Hell, if you want, write me and ask me to translate it into a real pattern. I will be obliging.

Pattern to follow, next post.

Phew.

Apparently I'm the freakish one-- my friend has no problems with the sweater. It actually fits her (sort of hung off me). Except for the sleeves, which I shortened by a few inches but evidently should have shorted a few more. Alas.

Now she wants pockets. After I get those done, I should be good to post bragging photos.

Outdone by Mariah

After a long, long haul of it, I bound off the hood for a friend's Christmas present (requested a week before... so I in no way feel guilt about finishing late. This late.) Then I sewed it up.

My god. Mariah has the largest cranium on the planet, at least when she's a siz large. I went back and measured it. No... haven't done anything wrong. At least, not according to a literal interpretation of the relevant parts of the pattern:

Row 3 [RS]: BO 13 sts, k to end.

Row 4 [WS]: BO 13 sts kwise (1 k st rem on right needle after sts bound off), k1, p to last 2 sts, k2, (This row sets the 2 st garter selvedge for the hood).
Row 5 [RS]: K2, sl1, k1, psso, k to last 4 sts, k2tog, k2. 127[161, 169, 171, 194] sts
Row 6: [WS]: Work in patt as set.

...

Next Row [WS]: K2, p41[56, 62, 63, 75], place marker, p to last 2 sts, k2.
Next Row [RS]: K to 1 st before marker, m1, k1, slip marker, k1, m1, k to end.
Next Row [WS]: Work in patt as set.
Work these 2 rows twice more.
Work even until work measures 14 inches from BO edge at front of hood.

Gauge? Same. Stitch count? Same. Length? Same. And yet it sticks out from the back of my head (me being about identical in height to my friend) as if I were a chitinous cast member off Aliens.

I’m rather displeased about all that. By the time I was knitting the hood, the whole sweater was too large to be portable, and my level of business did not converge often enough with my being at home to allow a generous overhead of time in which to work up all those long rows of stockinette. I’m tempted to tuck a few –say, 4- inches over on the inside to make the cowl shallower. Not sure what else to do short of unraveling the hood, decreasing an extra 20 stitches each side, and working it up again.

But damn it! What went wrong?

edit: and seriously, what's gone wrong with these fonts? I've tried to correct it three times and things are still showing up in two different fonts. I surrender.

Mother's Day Gift and Mega-Scarf

I did say I'd post some pictures. The less flashy (less time-intensive) ones first: look right, ladies and gentlemen all, to see the most spectacular... err... slightly saggy pre-felted beauty of a purse for my sainted mum. Offhand, I can't remember the yarn -I wound it up into balls as soon as I got my hands on it- but it was probably Cascade 220. Nice charcoal and a rich taupe. Currently measures about 12"x18"x2". Unfortunately she won't be getting it until my next visit; the familial washing machine is infinitely better suited to felting projects than the one in my building.

And allow me to present the audience with my other non-intensive recently completed project: a hulking giant scarf.


I adore mistake rib. I'd never believed *k2, p2...k2, p1 could look so fucking awesome. And yet it does, and even has the esteemed advantage of being utterly mindless. I did 95% of this scarf on the job (I'm lucky enough that one of my bosses thinks that people knitting is theurapeutic-- to her. So I knit to keep her sane).

The scarf is about 7" by 7 feet; I'd gone through my heap of scarves and realized that I didn't have any imminently practical but obscenely long scarves for thorough winter wrapping. So I remedied that with two skeins of Lionbrand worsted "mink" colored yarn, courtesy of birthday gifts from friends.

The picture's suffering a bit from a bad angle and poor lighting (although the standard for my pictures in general isn't particularly breathtakingly high); frankly, the lighting in my apartment blows and I feel silly taking photographs of scarves outdoors in May. So this will just have to cope, and be glad I cropped my face out of the thing... flourescent lighting is kinder to yarn than pale people.

WIPS

I have a crazy glut of projects that are all coming to a head. Expect waves of photos soon.


This is a fish tail. Seriously.