Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts

Saturday, October 16, 2010

It never comes out the way you think...

Well, I wonder why??? Because I never have the yarn that's in the pattern, or not enough, or because I refuse to follow instructions??? Or a little bit of everything?

I am reading Adrienne Martini's Sweater Quest right now, and one of the questions she poses is how much a knitter can alter a pattern before it's not that pattern any more...

Okay, enough musing... Remember the 14 skeins of Berroco Cliche, color Krispie Treat and the DROPS Design "1-1 long jumper in moss stitch" on Ravelry? Well, here is what became of them:












And the two skeins of Vinca # 803 (a green-blue marbled hue) for the standard toe-up socks turned into this:




Since there is still plenty of yarn left over, I thought I would start another pair exactly the same way. This way, since the colorway is rather different between the two skeins, I thought I could match them up between the four different footsies. But again, I can't even follow my own instructions, so the second pair is coming out a bit different. I am making the toe part longer, so they are not quite as open and will hopefully stay on the foot a little better. Stay tuned...

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Mayfest, time to work in the garden

Okay, so I missed my April post. Just barely, though. It was a busy month. Hubby and I have been doing all kinds of projects around the house (repaired kitchen drawers and added pull-out trays to most of the lower cabinets, changed some lighting fixtures and fans, etc.) and garden (got a compost pile and rain-collection containers, installed an herb garden, started working on a drainage ditch in the front yard--using the excavated soil to turn the sand box, which we no longer need, into a vegetable garden patch, repot some plants, etc.). As you can see, we were quite busy. Well, okay, so my husband did most of it. But, hey, I had to supervise, right?!









Anyway, I did knit, too! No really! I have been working on this really cool vest/shawl.

The original inspiration as

96-13 Loosely knitted top in Puddel.

I found the pattern on Ravelry. But it is available for free at the above link. However, I completely changed the yarn from the original pattern . Instead of the suggested

DROPS Puddel from Garnstudio
400-450-500 g colour no 07, medium grey,

I used Julia's Vinca (sock yarn), color 810 (some kind of purple/plum and blue). The color between skeins varies a lot, but, hey, it's inexpensive. I like it so far; but since the yarn is rather thin, it takes a while.

It's really quite an easy design:


I
Instead of stocking stitch, as the pattern suggests, I used the pattern stitch called "Crocus Buds" from the stitch library in "Now you're knitting - super how-to handbook and design treasure."

Row 1 of Pattern: K1, *YO, K2* Repeat from * across needle.
Row 2 of Pattern: *P4, with left needle bring the third st on right needle over the first 2 sts and off the needle (P3SO). *P3, with left needle bring the third st on right needs over the first 2 sts and off the needle. Repeat from * across.
Row 3 of Pattern: *K2, YO. Repeat from * to last stitch, K1.

Row 4 of Pattern: P3SO, repeat to the last st, P1.

It took me a little while to figure out the pattern (I am still not very good at following instructions), but eventually I got it right. I really like the pattern. It makes for a very light vest. However, it's not the kind of pattern that is easily done without looking, so it's harder to knit while doing something else like watching TV, or on the bus without getting nauseous from looking down all the time. Also, as I progress, it's a bit bulky to take along...



So I needed another project for my commute to work. And what easier project than socks, right?! I had bought a whole bunch of different sock (and other) yarns on eBay. So I started a pair of plain ol' toe-up socks with Opal, color NEON, 1931. Each skein I bought came with a small skein of accent color, which I am using for the toes and heels.

Since I like to knit both pairs of socks simultaneously, I decided that I really don't like 100 g skeins. I always seem to get into a big mess with I start the skein from both ends :).

Saturday, January 30, 2010

More Ladybugs! Just in time for Spring and Valentine's Day

Since I am just working away on that pair of socks I started and don't really have any new projects going on, I thought I would share some more LADYBUG patterns I found lately. Maybe somebody will be inspired for Valentine's Day.

Here is an absolutely adorable ladybug cardigan for a little girl on Petite Purls:





















Another cardigan:

Little Bug Cardigan by Laurel Young

published on her blog Strings and Rings

 

  

  

 



And if you want to knit something even smaller.
How about these Ladybird Shoes by Zoë Mellor.




The pattern is in her
spiral-bound book
50 Baby Bootees to Knit
on Amazon.com.













Next I have a really cute ladybug scene with flower:

 

The pattern is from

Susanne Fågelberg

and available on Ravelry. 
She also sells the patterns to her creations on Etsy under: Tilda and Filur.




Another cute ladybug also sold on Etsy:

  

This one is also crocheted and then felted.

  

Adorable, isn't it?!

 

copyright © Vicky Lewis




And crawling right along:


copyright © paparazzimama



crafty-shanna is kindly sharing her patterns, including this one, on her LiFEJOURNAL Thanks for sharing!



Okay, so the next one is not technically a ladybug pattern. These car seat belt covers just have the cutest ladybug buttons. The "Carseat Shoulder Strap Covers" pattern by Sylvia Schuchardt is available for free on her website hook candy.

















.


Back to real ladybug patterns. Here is a cute blanket:

Ladybug Afghan and Pillow PA273 by Maggie Weldon





How about a ladybug coaster?



Found on Ravelry. 


Available on 













A cute little hat and bootee combo:

"Ladybugs Bring Good Luck" Beanie and Booties





 


  
 
Found on Ravelry, does not seem to have a website, but gives her email address.



Last one for today. Also technically not a ladybug pattern but it's called

 

"Ladybug" by Jennifer Lippman-Bruno

I am going to include it, because it's just too cute!!! 
 
Is that a doll or a baby?
Precious!!!!
I don't know what I like more, the hat or the baby!!!

Available on knowknits.





Hope you enjoyed our little trip down ladybug lane...

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Totally Unrelated to Knitting

Well, sort of...

I was looking at my friend Mary's Knitting on the Cam blog and found this:


What we have here is the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish.

(I am not going to underline the ones I have read in school, I will just bold all the ones I have read. There should be another category for all the books I have on piles on my nightstand, that I want to read, but haven't gotten to yet.)

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West

The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno (and Purgatory and Paradise)
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers


Wow, maybe I should knit less and read more...