Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Neck Fail

Well, a partial neck fail at any rate...

THIS beast:

Fail

pattern: Mobius Cowl --you might have to sign up to get at these free patterns, but it's supposed to look like this:



yarn: Patons Classic Wool Roving in "Natural" (well, I think...the yarn was given to me sans labels so I'm not totally sure--there's the possibility this could also be Bernat Roving)
needles: 9mm

I suppose it actually seems vaguely passable in that top photo. But the reality is that "getting my head through it" does not a wearable cowl make.

You know, for all the times that I've mistakenly twisted my stitches while knitting in the round (and subsequently mistakenly knit a moebius) I could not for the life of me get my head around twisting the stitches on purpose.

I must have watched half a dozen youtube tutorials on how to knit a Moebius (as well as read some non video tutorials) --and believe me, the instructions are different everywhere. I mean the instructions on this pattern simply state "twist the stitches" but it's pretty easy to over-think something so simple I'd say. "Twist it all the way around?", "Loop my needle backwards?" etc. I finally just kind of pushed them up a bit and then plunged ahead, but really it's amazing how you find yourself "compensating" for a twisted stitch without even realizing it. I think it is just ingrained in me now to at least TRY not to make a mistake.

Content that I had finally done right it really wasn't until I was casting off that I reflected "wait a minute..." and realized I'd twisted the stitches twice. Ugh (blissfully this was a fast knit at least).

Laid flat it looks more like diaper than a cowl!:



D'OH! Still, as you can tell in the first picture I was able to at least put it on and get a feel for how it would look if I'd managed to do it right. And that was basically enough for me to realize that I won't bother knitting it again. I'm just too short for a cowl this size I'd venture and it totally swallowed me up.

Plus, I have already re-appropriated said yarn for a scarf that I am much happier with (but I have yet to take photos of it so that will have to wait).

I had forgotten all about the satisfying joy of knitting with big yarn and needles...nothing like a chunky knit to make you feel more accomplished.

And speaking of fast knits, I also had one ball of Twinkle soft chunky languishing in the stash. It has seen several incarnations --a couple different hats if memory serves, but I finally just pulled it all apart and whipped up a simple seed stitch cowl.

I knit this ages ago but loathed the colour of it.

pre-dye
yes, a leeetle too bright for me!

But I finally got around to tweaking the colour a bit and am much happier with it now.



I didn't put too much thought into it, but happened to have some Grey dye kicking around the house, so that's what I went with. It was just enough to take the edge off that harsh raspberry.

seed stitch cowl

Love it, though I think it's destined for the gift box...

As I type this I have two MORE cowls in the works.

I loves me a good cowl!

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Oh Hai!

bunneh mit lederhosen

I did the unthinkable and actually knit another toy--

With lederhosen and hat!

lederhosen & hat

Every time I do knit a toy (and believe me it's not often) I am once again instilled with renewed resolve to learn how to crochet. Though I must also point out that has yet to happen...

Because as anyone who's ever knit a toy before likely knows, it's not the knitting, it's all the fiddly embellishing and piecing together after the fact that is so exhausting. The knitting itself seemed to take about two seconds. The stuffing, the embroidering, the sewing...well that's another story.

naked bun

This 'lil bunneh is a pattern from Barbara Prime found here: the well dressed bunny and the lederhosen can be found in a seperate pattern of hers, also here: Clothing Bundle 3.

But regardless of the time spent in the details (the details are always what make it and a necessary evil unfortunately...) this guy is one cutie patootie. And you get a lot for the price of admission--the bunny pattern comes with three outfits you can also knit --but because I was so obsessed with doing the lederhosen I bought the seperate clothing bundle as well. So now I've got a million outfits I can make for my (eventual) army of bunnies and lambies.

I had originally set out to make this for my friend's daughter, but now I'm thinking the lederhosen outfit is probably a bit too fiddly for her (she's two) --the hat doesn't really stay on (it's kind of just "placed" there) and maybe I should just knit up a bunch of girlie clothes to go with him as well and then she can decide if he's a boy or a girl (or maybe I should just do a girl in a dirndle to go with?(gah! decisions decisions...).

Regardless I think the button eyes probably have to go in favour of some embroidered ones (and I suck at embroidery). She's likely too old for me to worry about her swallowing buttons, but better safe than sorry.



If you're wondering, I just used scrap yarn for this project, mostly Patons Classic (which I seem to have a lot of!). More details on Ravelry.