Uncle Leona's Day Camp

Summer is officially over

Yeah, the calendar said it was over on Monday, but there are two sure signs that autumn has arrived around these parts. First of all, my pool is all closed up. Finished it today in 75 degree weather, not a cloud in the sky.

Gotta take advantage of a day off with that kind of weather. Next Wednesday we could see snow for all I know. You may call that pessimism; I prefer to call it realism.

The second true sign of fall is that I finished up the first long-sleeved wool object since last winter ended. The Boku cardigan is done!

Other than the dye issue I mentioned before, this yarn is pretty much a clone of Noro Kureyon for about 2/3 the price. The colors are beautiful, and the shading is spot-on. The sweater does need a good blocking, but I don't plan on wearing it for another month or so, so there's time.

Hear that, Mother Nature??? A MONTH OR SO! No surprises, please.

OK, speaking of snow, I have already been thinking of Christmas stuff. As VP of my knitting guild, I'm in charge of programming. After the fun beading class I took at Stitches, I thought it would be cool to do something along those lines as a fun/educational project for guild. So, I located some lovely soy wool yarn, got a tube of beads, a styrofoam ball, and some hat pins at my local craft store, and started experimenting. Here's the finished prototype:

(please ignore my fingernails...I just finished closing the pool)

Isn't that the cutest! I was chuckling to myself when I glued the bottom assembly in place at how nice it worked out. At our next meeting, everyone should have their little ball jacket knitted up, and we're all going to learn how to graft a piece closed.

Yes, I said "ball jacket." Get your minds out of the gutter. It's Christmas.

Then it's gather the top and bottom and add the garnish, and we'll all have a Merry Christmas! I'll get the pattern written up one of these days and post it in case anyone wants to try it. It is a fun little project you can finish in an evening.

While I was looking for the perfect yarn to make the ornament, I came across kits at one of my LYS for the Alterknits Alternative Cardigan. The shop had the cardigan made up, and it was really cute. The kit, however, was priced at $220. Yeah. Right. So, I found the book at the used area of Amazon.com and purchased it for $3.99. I haven't attacked the cardigan yet, but I did find a project in there that was really cute and easy.

A little craft wire, some leftover beads, and a leather cord makes a really sharp necklace. I have to admit I fudged with the pattern a bit; the instructions call for the squares to be different sizes by changing the number of rows, but not the number of stitches. That didn't appeal to my mathematically inclined mind, so I made the middle one 7 stitches/7 rows, the next ones 6 stitches/6 rows, and the last 5 stitches/5 rows. Much betterer.

When seeking out the supplies for the necklace, I discovered the world of beading. In the past week, I have managed to get the supplies and make the following:

This was a sample hanging at one of our LBS. It appealed to my purple fetish. Very simple to do once you got the hang of doing wrapped loops. I used some leftovers to do these last night:

Guaranteed to get tangled in my stethoscope. Or in some 6-month-old's death grip.

The other item that was completed pretty much gave me all the practice I needed in making wrapped loops:

I love the colors in this piece. I'm not 100% sure that the necklace length is right, but we'll see how things look when I put a turtleneck on for the first time.

That's at least a month away. I hope.

OK, it has been two weeks...I've been busy

Too much going on around Casa de Leona of late. Work, golf, Community Band, knitting guild preparations, and football. And I still have to close the pool.

Yep. Lots going on.

I also discovered a little thing called beading.

More details to come once I take some pictures. I'm not in the mood after that latest Browns debacle.

At this pace, I may need another Stitches in a week

I've been a bit busy with the needles. It's as if I have to use up all of this new stuff or it'll turn back into a pumpkin and four rats at midnight. Thankfully, football season is upon us, so I have plenty of time to sit on the couch and knit away.

Like I need an excuse.

The first finished object was actually from a pattern I got at Stitches Midwest.

Grady...

...meet Grady Jr.:

He's one stylish dude. I used the "Felted Kitty Kat" pattern by CiD Designs with some el cheapo wool and fluff from my local Pat Catan's. It was done in an evening--lots of I-cord made it go pretty fast. I love this thing--he's so adorably goofy! I have a pig pattern, too--I think I have yarn for that in the stash.

As for Grady Jr.'s bling, he's wearing Betsy Hershberg's beaded lariat--the pattern is from a recent Knitter's Magazine, and the kit was purchased at Stitches at Just Our Yarn. The website doesn't show the kit, but it's there, trust me. This thing was not hard to do, but it's overwhelmingly tedious. Here's a close-up:

The tube is over 300 stitches long on size 1's, knitted with 400+ beads. Then, there are wraps of perle cotton and beaded perle cotton that are added on, a wrapped bead is strung on both ends, and beaded fringe is added. Took me the better part of two days at Kelleys Island to finish it, but it's absolutely gorgeous.

Should tangle up nicely with my stethoscope. Or become a really cool chew toy for a 6-month-old I'm standing over. No one said fashion was easy.

I also finished up the knitting and sewing of the Cross Stitch Vest:

I'm still mulling over the closure. You can't see with this lousy photo, but the right front extends across midline to a left front that goes straight down from the side of the neck opening. The pattern shows one button at the top, but I may go with a multiple-button plan. This particular stitch has a ton of stretch, and I think the multi-button closure might stabilize it enough that I don't constantly play with it. I may also do a quick crochet around the armholes to stabilize them as well. Not 100% sure yet, but I don't have any shirt to go under it at the moment, so there is plenty of time.

Memo to self...need to scope out L.L. Bean for a long-sleeved t-shirt.

Of course there are new things on the needles as well. In an additional stash reduction attempt, I'm making a tie-front cardigan from Plymouth Boku that I got on sale when one of our LYS's went out of business last year:

It's Plymouth's answer to Noro Kureyon, and it's pretty close, except the dye is coming off in my hands. One good bath after it's done should fix that, but it still is annoying. After a few hours knitting, I look like I should sign up for Blue Man Group.

Or at least Blue Hand Group. (Ba dum dum! She's here all week, folks. Try the veal.)

I finished up a pair of long-languishing socks this week to give some Stitches sock yarn a go. Here's the first inch:

Take a look at the free ends of the yarn. Look a bit odd? A bit crimped? Look again:

How cool is that? The product is called Flat Feet from a company called Conjoined Creations. You buy the pre-knit pieces, then directly knit the socks by unraveling the flat. One of our LYS has them on order, and apparently you can also buy blank flats to dye yourself. Very, very cool. -Seemed like a natural thing for me to buy, by the way, given what I have:

Ew. Maybe I should have warned you to hide the children.