So, here is the mat I’ve been working on for my dog’s crate. Despite the quickness of knitting, it took FOREVER! Mostly because I just don’t get into rug knitting that much.
Yarn: Old Peaches ‘n Creme double worsted cotton in Newport, held triple.
Needles: size 15 circulars
Pattern: five rows of purling, then knit forever with three stitches of purling on either end (slip the first stitch of every row), end with five rows of purling.
(Source: scitchetknits)
Here is another yarn I spun. I did some of this two weeks ago and some over the weekend. This is more of the Corriedale. I died the top and then spun it. I’m not sure you can tell, but this is two different pink/red colors. One was cherry kool-aid and one was fruit punch. I was still in a plying mood, so together they went. I really like the subtle difference in color between the two. I think this will become a hat for my aunt.
This was spun on my Lendrum Original.
You might recognize this stitch pattern. After making one of the blocks for my charity blanket, I decided it would make a great dishcloth. So, I grabbed some orange Peaches and Creme cotton and made one.
It makes me smile every time I see it on the sink. It is just a happy, lacy dishcloth.
Here is a new project I started last week (because who doesn’t need new projects?). I just got the book Cast On Bind Off because I’m always looking for good bind offs. I just got the 200 Knitted Blocks book back from a friend I was teaching to knit. She moved rather suddenly across the country. :-( While packing, she also gave me most of the yarn she had. One of the yarns was several red and cream balls of Red Heart Soft. I figured it would be good for charity knitting.
I have a very elaborate blanked-made-from-squares project in mind, but when I got these I thought it would be fun to do a simple one first. So, I’m going through and making squares as the mood hits me. I’m focusing on single color squares at the moment, just for ease. They are great easy knitting when I don’t want to think too much. For each square I experiment with a different cast on and bind off. I’m just going to work my way through both books until I have enough squares or run out of yarn, then I’ll stitch them up and send it off.
This is some Corriedale. I spun the blue/gray early last fall and did a sun-tea kool-aid dye on it. It is actually the blue left over after dying a purple I used a while ago. The yellow was spun a couple weeks ago and also sun-tea kool-aid died. Then I plied the suckers. I don’t ply very often, but I was in the mood.
This was spun on my Lendrum Original.
Spinning! This is my experiments with mohair. In this fairly small skein, I used raw mohair and tried different ways of opening it (combing and carding), and different ways of drafting, and different ways of thinking about the fiber. I have no idea what I’m going to do with this experiment, but I’m sure I’ll come up with something.
This was spun on my Lendrum Original.
I’ve got about 5 inches left to do on Willie’s dog mat! I want it finished before I go back to work.
BL Lacertae Scarf: Planning
So, since this post, I’ve been planning my BL Lacertae spectrum scarf for my undergraduate advisor.
My first step was thinking about it. About 20 minutes after my post I was out hiking with the dogs and rolling it over and over in my mind. I figured out the soft circuit part. I’m going to use LEDs of various sizes and colors to represent the field of view of BL Lac from the Foggy Bottom telescope. Since Active Galactic Nuclei have a variable magnitude, I will program a LillyPad to vary the intensity of BL Lac and the variable stars in the FOV. I will have to change the time scales, but the variations will be to scale relative to each other. This part of the design will come much later though.
Next I need to find a spectrum of BL Lac that I liked (its spectrum changes). I found a decent one in this paper.
It is kinda boring, with only 9 lines, but It should still be a good scarf. I’m planning to do a stockinet stitch scarf with emission lines purled on the right side and absorption lines knit on the right side.
Then I needed yarn. I chose KnitPicks’ Palette yarn. It has shipped, so I’ll post pictures of the colors when I get them. I used the above spectrum and a basic visible light spectrum, like this one:
to pick out my colors.
My next steps will be to check my gauge and then assign rows and yarn colors to the BL Lacertae spectrum. Once I’ve got that figured out, I knit away. It should be an extremely easy knit. Just a tube with row color changes. After that (or possibly during that) I’ll begin working on the circuit design.
I’m excited about this project on so many levels.
Here is my second finished crochet project! I now have single crochet down. Okay, I had it down after the first cloth, but I did this one to get a feel for edging. I am definitely going to do something in the round next. I run into counting issues when I turn work and I really don’t like chaining. I did make a much better starting chain on this project.
Here is my mood scarf through March. I’m using one of the project bags I got from Knitter Bag on Esty. I adore her bags. I just need more money so I can buy more.
This is my computer knitting project. It is a mat for my dog’s crate. I’m using Peaches ‘n Creme Double Worsted Cotton in Newport. I started out with a slip stitch edge because I like the look. Unfortunately, I keep forgetting. Oh well, it is a dog mat. ;-)
This is my charity knitting hat. The original posts are here, here, and here.
I really don’t like k1, p1 ribbing. I need to stop putting it into my designs. Since I took this picture, I have finished the first panel already. One month for the ribbing, one week for the same length of stranded knitting. I’ll try to remember to post a progress picture again soon.
Today’s Bread Flavor Experiment
I love trying out new flavor combinations in my breads. Tomorrow night is a friendly poker night, and my friends are the perfect people to experiment on. ;-)
I made graham bread dough this morning and it got two rises in today. Each batch makes two loaves, so the first is a savory one with a butter and herb filling. The herbs are garlic, caraway, and “Italian.” The second is a sweet bread with a cream cheese and cinnamon chip filling (like milk chocolate chips, except cinnamon. They are AWESOME for bread).
I am most excited for the cream cheese and cinnamon one, but also the most apprehensive. I’m just not sure how the cream cheese will do baked into the bread.
This is January for my mood scarf.
In this post, knittingpsycho suggested doing a mood scarf instead of a sky scarf. This is an excellent idea because I live in the desert and the sky is pretty much the same color 300 days a year. So, I rounded up my Nature Spun fingering wait (everything that wasn’t attached to a project) and made little balls for the scarf. I printed out a calendar for the year so I can cross the days off as I knit them. I cast on 31 stitches (I’ll be 31 most of this year), and I’ve been going pretty well ever since. I have to say, this is much easier than journalling. ;-)
Colors don’t necessary stand for a specific mood, it is more of a: “What colors speak to how I feel?”
I am planning to do a crochet edge when it is finished for two reasons. 1) There is so much yarn up the side, that it looks kinda bad. 2) I’m learning to crochet this year and it seems like a good goal.
About me
I wanted a place to post my projects and inspirations. This is it. I'm primarily a knitter and baker, but I also spin, dye, craft, and cook. Find me on Ravelry as scitchet.
