Still here, still crafting

I have been a bit busier than usual with work lately, but I did finish a pouch and a few scarves recently.

Been exploring the patterns in Knitting New Scarves: 27 Distinctly Modern Designs by Lynne Barr.

In part I'm doing this because I love the 3D patterns in the book and in part to do some stash busting. In particular, I bought yarn to make a sweater and didn't like it's drape in a sweater. It's working for some, but not all, of the scarves in the collection.

Pouch

Here's what it looks like so far:

Portable Project

Since the pouch is colorwork with 3 colors/row in some places, I needed something else as a portable project. So I frogged one of the mulit-colored kilt hose and started Hat Heel. I was going to do a swatch, then realized I may as well just start the sock and make the heel part...it'll get me a swatch in the round, and if the gauge is right, I'm set and if it isn't, I haven't knitted all that much anyway.

Wish I had a ball band for this Tofutsies so I could show the color without dragging out my camera, which isn't going to happen tonight.

Pouch Notes

A few weeks ago I decided I'd make a pouch for the county fair. I wanted a pouch a little bit bigger than the felted pouch I normally carry, and I wanted a pretty design on it.

I wanted a sturdy knit, so I grabbed the Jaggerspun Maine Line merino from my cushion project (inspired by Las Huelgas grave finds and I hadn't put quite enough thought into the pattern, so I was disappointed in it) to knit the pouch.

A 5x0 needle gave me a firm, but not stiff fabric, which is just what I wanted.

The bottom is double-thickness with the outside black and inside red. I started with a 4x4 stitch square and increased in the second and second-to-last stitches on the needle until I had 256 stitches.

And then I started looking for pretty patterns. I was thinking of something from Folk Knitting in Estonia by Nancy Bush, and only 2 patterns I like fit in 256 stitch repeat. A lot of the patterns are 10 or 14 stitches instead, and I didn't feel like trying to figure out how to fit those onto my base and I definitely didn't want to go mucking with the bases now that I had them attached to each other.

After joining the two bottoms, I knit a black and red 2-color yarn-over braid, then a few rows of black, then I started the sheep's eye (Lambasilmakiri on the card was the best picture I could find) pattern with a black background, red circles, and yellow grid.

It is beautiful, but still so short it's rolling up all over the place. I am briefly considering switching the red and yellow in the pattern to make it more vibrant, but this way it's less likely to show dirt. I can always make another in different colors some day or maybe pick one of the other patterns from the book if I end up liking this pouch.

Finishing Seams

I'm finishing seams on an underdress. The dress is lightweight yellow wool gabardine. The thread is dark red crochet cotton. And tonight I tried a new technique...I put the part I'm working on in a hoop. While it requires pins to get everything lined up properly it is much easier on my hands.

Angels we have...

Here are two crocheted angels drying on my kitchen counter. The little one is Small Angel Ornament #1 and the larger one is Tree Top Angel #4 from Leisure Arts Crocheted Snowflakes & Angels designed by Wilma Stash with a copyright date of 1983.

They were worked with a size 3 steel crochet hook in Baroque crochet cotton in Ecru.

Their heads are stuffed with merino top because that's what was at hand.

After I assembled them and sewed in the ends, I dipped their bodies, wings, and halos in warm water, then in starch. I spread a thin layer of starch over their heads so that there won't be color or sheen differences when they dry. I removed the excess starch with my fingers and paper towels before forming them into their angel shapes.

They are supported by cones made of leftover plastic Metro shelf liner stapled and taped together and held in place with bobby pins. I tried to support the larger angel's wings, but couldn't find anything that worked, so in the morning I'll probably have to re-flatten the picots.

I did not have any commercial laundry starch around the house, so I mixed pure corn starch and water together in a saucepan and boiled it until it got gloopy. Then I thinned it to a consistency I could work with. I could've "starched" them with sugar water, but I don't have as much sugar in the house as I have corn starch.

Hopefully they will both dry and harden before the people I made them for skip town for the holidays.

Fingerless Gloves

I made a pair of these for myself and didn't write down the pattern, now I'm going to try to make a set for a friend and write it up as I go.

Materials:
size 1 double-pointed needles
baby ull

Cast-on 72 stitches
K2 P2 for 20 rows

K1, knit into stitch 2 rows below needle, knit into stitch 1 row below next stitch, k1, p2, k2, p2 across
k4, p2, k2, p2 across
k4, p2, k2, p2 across
k2, knit into stitch 2 rows below needle, knit into stitch 1 row below next stitch, k2, p2 across
k2, p2 across
k2, p2 across
k2, p2, knit into stitch 2 rows below needle, knit into stitch 1 row below next stitch, p2, k2, p2 across
k2, p4, k2, p2 across
k2, p4, k2, p2 across

and so forth until there are enough stitches between the initial 2 stitches to go around the thumb.

will need to measure the gauge later.