Knitting in a certain yarn...

I got an email from Knit Picks recently, asking if I'd be interested in coming up with a design for a new yarn colorway. Free yarn is free yarn, so naturally, I said yes. The yarn arrived, and it was beautiful. I've converted all my photos to black and white, since the colorway has to stay secret until it's released. I immediately dived in; I had already come up with a design that I thought would work... but it didn't.

The tiny-cables stitch pattern I wanted to use was completely obscured by the color variations. So I frogged it and started over. And frogged it and started over. And frogged it and started over. Finally, I came up with a design I liked; the cables and lace showed up well enough. But when it was about halfway done, it was clear that it was going to be enormous and not fit anyone with a normal-sized head (did I mention it was a hat?)... so I frogged it and started over. Again. I made some more adjustments to the cable pattern, to make it fit into a smaller stitch count, but I forgot to take into consideration that eight-stitch cables pull in much more than four-stitch cables do. Long story short, the hat I was designing to fit me ended up fitting my six-month-old niece almost perfectly.

 She's adorable, and she knows it.

 I like how it turned out, and may make another one, with the intention of having her model for me. But for now, I've abandoned that hat design. A friend of mine suggested that the stitch pattern would look nice in a cowl, which I thought was a great idea. Since a cowl wouldn't have any decreases or increases to worry about, I wouldn't have to figure out how to fit them into the design, as I had with the hat.

Three days later, I had a finished cowl, and almost no leftovers. My friends suggested 10 inches for the width. I was running out of yarn, so I only did 8 inches, which is fine for me, because I have a really short neck.

So I went through all that stress and ripping, to come up with a super-simple cable-and-lace cowl(and a hat idea for another day). And next time I'm asked to "come up with something" for a new yarn, I'll only agree if it's a solid color.

Harmony Preemie Blanket

My Harmony Preemie Blanket pattern is available for purchase! This little blanket is great for using up washable sock yarn leftovers. It's knit in the round, from the center out. It could easily be customized; you could use any weight of yarn, and you could add more repeats of the lace pattern to make it bigger.

The pattern is available on Nimblestix, for $2.00. Feel free to make as many as you like, for gifts or donations, but please do not sell the pattern, or the finished product of it.

Malabrigo Sock Yarn "Velvet Grapes"

Knit Picks Stroll Tonal "Pearlescent"

Miss Babs Yummy Sock Yarn "Chocolate Roses"

Exercise and knitting

Just for fun, I did this yesterday:

I put on the shirt I'd worn in my January 1 "before" photo, and took a new picture and put them side by side. Nice change for only three months of work!

And my friends and I started a new exercise challenge. We're doing the Hundred Pushups Challenge. The goal is to be able to do one hundred consecutive pushups six weeks from now. When I did the initial test, I was able to do 12, so I have a long way to go. Yesterday was day 1...and my chest and ab muscles are incredibly sore today. Today is a rest day, and I'm hoping the soreness wears off by tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to the benefits of this program; it should make a big difference in my arm strength, and I'm hoping it'll firm up the saggy "girls" as I continue losing weight.

In other news...

I've finally settled on a design for the hat I'm making for Knit Picks. The colorway is still a secret, so I've converted the photo to black-and-white. But you can get an idea of how the hat will look. I'm knitting it top-down, and instead of columns of purls between the cables, I'm using columns of lace. The way it kind of swirls out from the center reminds me of a spiral galaxy. So I'm thinking of giving it a name that has something to do with the stars...

Progress picture time!

 Well, March is over, so it's time for progress pics! Without further ado, here are this morning's photos!

I'm down 24 pounds! Getting close to my halfway mark. I can hardly wait to visit my family in Kansas and let them see the new me! I'm still keeping all this a secret from them. I'm planning on going to see them in May sometime, so I've got time to lose another ten-ish pounds before then. They're not going to believe their eyes!

Another T-shirt Upcycle

After the t-shirt upcycle I did in a previous post, I came up with a crazy idea. I wondered if I could combine the technique with the knitting technique of cabling. I had to wait until I could get to the thrift shop to get a junky old t-shirt that I wouldn't mind ruining. The thrift shop near here is only open on Tuesdays, so I went today and found an XL tunic-length t-shirt.

So, if you want to try this out, you'll need: 

→ a t-shirt that is not only too big around, but too long by at least six inches.

→ sharp scissors

→ a measuring tape or ruler

→ three crochet hooks (size 8 or 9 works well)

→ a needle and thread

The most time-consuming part is laying out the t-shirt for the cuts. I wanted my decoration to run up the center of the front of the shirt, so I put the side seams together to find the center, and folded it there. Then I measured 1 1/2 inches away from the fold and marked it, then folded along those marks on both sides of the center. So I had three folds, held together. I used my measuring tape, and cut every 1/2 inch, about 1/2 inch in from the folded edges. The important thing was to not cut all the way through; I wanted a little space between each cut.

When it was unfolded, it looked like this:

Next, I took the three crochet hooks, and started picking up the loops. I did a couple of rows, then stopped...

Then I began switching the columns. And I just realized this picture is wrong; I changed my technique a little after I took it and forgot to take another. Oh well. I'll try to describe what I did...

I took the center hook and reached over to the next loop in one of the side columns, and pulled it through. Then I lifted that hook up and over the one that belonged in that column, so that they switched places. Then I took the hook that had its loop stolen, and use it to pick up the next loop in the center column. The hook on the other side picked up its loop as normal. Then I did the same thing, going the other way: use the center hook to pick up the next loop in the opposite side, lift it up and over the hook that was there, use the hook from that side to pick up the center loop, and used the leftover hook to pick up its own loop. It sounds a little complicated, but if you can braid, you can do it. 

Here's a closeup of how it looked after I'd done all the columns all the way up. 

 I used the needle and thread to secure the last loops at the top. 

And here's how it looks on me!

 As you can see, it's almost too short in the front now; this technique pulls up even more than the original technique did. I need to do something to the neckline; it's almost a v-neck now, but it doesn't lay flat, so I'm going to do something to fix that. I haven't decided yet what I want to do to the sleeves; I might cut them shorter and hem them, or I might leave them as 3/4 length sleeves. It's still winter where I live, and this is a popular sleeve length around here.

A Tiny FO

I'm participating in a service project, making tiny handknit baby blankets to donate to a NICU for micro-preemies and stillborn babies. I was going to use my Evellyn Anne pattern, but then I decided to design something new.

This blanket is 15 inches square, knit with Malabrigo Sock yarn - Velvet Grapes colorway. The pattern (when it's finished) will be called Harmony, after the baby my mother miscarried when I was a little girl. I'm planning on making a whole stack of these to donate, with sock yarn that's leftover from other projects. 

T-shirt Upcycle

I live in t-shirts. I'm a busy mom, and I don't have time for fancy button-down fashion. If it takes special laundering care, or takes extra time to get dressed in it, it's not something I'll wear often. Well, that, and the fact that the nice button-down, tailored stuff that I like doesn't fit so well when you're shaped like an apple.

I'm working on the shape of my body, so now I need to work on the shape of my clothes. Some of my plain, straight-sided t-shirts don't fit right anymore. They're too loose around the belly, but not so loose around the "girls" that I'll just get rid of them. Like the one in the picture below...

So I decided to do something about that, but I didn't want to take the sewing machine to it. I've used a sewing machine to make adjustments to knit fabrics before, and it's usually not pretty. You get funky-looking puckers when you're just trying to get a nice, neat seam. And I'm an experienced seamstress! 

I had seen a neat idea somewhere on Facebook a while back, utilizing scissors and a crochet hook, but couldn't remember where exactly I had seen it, so I decided to make a blog post about it, so I could share the idea with my friends. So this isn't my original idea, but I hope the person who came up with it won't mind my being a copycat.

Anyway, I got out my measuring tape and scissors... and I folded the t-shirt in half, so that the sides (where there might be seams if it were a fitted shirt, which it wasn't) were lined up neatly together. I laid out my measuring tape and snipped the folded edges every half-inch. I cut about half an inch in from the edge.

 So when I unfolded it, the cuts were about an inch long. I pulled a little at the sides to stretch them. And then I got out my crochet hook. I used a US8, but I don't think the size of hook matters all that much.

 Starting at the bottom, I made a crochet chain up the side of the t-shirt...just like picking up a dropped column of stitches in knitting... and then secured the final loop at the top(on the inside) with a needle and thread.

So now I have a t-shirt that's a bit more fitted, and has a fun detail at the sides! The crochet chain produces a very flattering ruched look, too. The whole project, including photos, took about ten minutes. And that was only because I had to go down in the basement to find red thread...

 I think, on the next one, I'll start it all the way at the bottom of the shirt, instead of two inches up, to avoid the little hole I got at the bottom of the chain. And when I lose a bit more around the belly, I might add in two more chains up the front, like darts, and stop them just below the bust.