Five Baht Elephant

my crafty home

Made: Dragon Lady Shawl (and bonus Daybreak)

I love this one. It is so huge and so squishy it is like a blanket wrapped around my neck. If you recall, this is the project made with yarn I dyed myself back in November. It was slow going for awhile – those rows, man, they just got so long. And then I ran out of yarn. Twice. So if you look at mine versus the one on the pattern, mine definitely does not look the same.

We were out the other morning, and I asked my Seester to snap a photo of me and Miles in front of the colorful mural. She noticed that I matched the colors.

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I enjoyed knitting this one. The pattern – Drachenfels – was well written. The yarn -Blue Faced Leicester sport weight – is nice and soft and warm and was a dream to knit. A shawl done up in sport weight yarn comes together pretty quickly. Details are on my Ravelry project page.

…not like a shawl knitted in sock weight yarn. Which brings me to my Daybreak. I started this back in March 2015, worked on it for awhile and then stuffed it away in my craft closet when I got too bored. A Ravelry challenge motivated me to just finish it. Details are on my Ravelry project page.

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UnMade: Socks

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Welp. So much for these! They do not fit well on my foot, so I just ripped out what I’ve got so far and balled it all back up. Which is a shame really. I tried a short row toe, and when I say ‘try’ I mean I tried. Like a million times. I watched video after video to try to figure it out and must have started over half a million times. Except, I really like how the short row toe looks and fits… So I’m gonna have to go back and re-watch how to do it.

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And then Bane thinks my Makers Tote is his new CatBed. I had just cleaned it out too, so he must think it is all for him now….

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Knitting in November

Photo heavy post! (I’ve had some time to go through my photos!)

I started the Tread Hat around Halloween. I am a big fan of the designer, Shannon Cook, and this pattern is in the book Within. My mom was visiting for awhile and she wanted to buy some yarn for a scarf. We went to Fancy Tiger and I picked out this Cormo Worsted by Sincere Sheep.

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Mom had such a good time with us, walking Miles to/from school and then knitting and taking care of Cats during the day.

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While I finished the actual knitting a few weeks ago, I was waiting for the arrival of the faux fur pompom. I stitched it down this morning. Love this hat. This is my first time knitting with Cormo and I really like the yarn. It is stiff yet soft. And I still have like half the skein left.

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Meanwhile, I also spent time taking photos and weighing some of my leftover yarn. I catalogued them into Ravelry’s stash page. yarnstash

I’ve also made some significant progress on my Dragon Lady shawl. This is knitting up nicely, and the BFL yarn is lovely.

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I’m actually using my Caravan Tote as intended – as a knitting project bag!

Adventures in Yarn Dyeing, Part 2

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So, it’s been about a year since I last dyed yarn. Terribly unhappy with the color for the Iridium sweater, I thought I’d overdye it and see what happens. Sweater quantity of yarn is a LOT OF YARN, and I couldn’t just … toss it or give it away.

I was shooting for a navy-ish color, so I just used blue, with a little black mixed in. I weighed the yarn, and then calculated how much dyestock I’d need to get the shade I would want.

I threw the dye in the pot, gave it a quick stir and then dumped the yarn it. That ‘quick stir’ was a mistake. When you pour dyestock into a pot of water, it doesn’t mix. The color kind of suspends there, which can lead to some really great tonal colors, but I was aiming for a more consistent application of color than what I’ve got.

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I also have some Blue Faced Leicester sport weight undyed yarn hanging out in my yarn stash. Drachenfels has been in my knitting queue for almost 2 years, and I bought this yarn to make one. I split the yarn – 70g, 125g and the rest 205g – and dyed it. I was aiming for pink but I added too much blue to the red and now I’ve got this light purple. Happy accident. I like the light purple. The two grays are made from the same dye, just a different ‘depths of shade’ – the light is at 0.5 DOS while the darker… well, I started at 0.75 DOS, but then I poured more dyestock into the pot. I don’t exactly know what DOS I ended up with. Either way, I’m in love with these!

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2016 Ravellenic Games

“Uh, WUT?” You’re probably asking.

From the Ravelry Group Page

The Ravellenic Summer Games 2016
Dates: Friday, August 5 – Sunday, August 21

The One Rule To Rule Them All: Challenge yourself by starting and finishing one or more projects during the 2016 Summer Olympics.

What will be a stretch for you? It could be a new technique, that first sweater or pair of socks, something massive, something delicate, or maybe finishing that monster in the closet. The goal of the Ravellenic Games is to support you in expanding your knitting/crocheting horizons.

I’ve mentioned it before, but Ravelry is like the best website for knitting/crocheting. Community driven, visually pleasing and an amazing resource – if you knit you should be on Ravelry. Every Olympics, a group starts up and thousands of people join in to ‘compete’ in different events. I’ve joined a team of knitting redditors called Team Upvotes. But truthfully, there’s no competition and you don’t need to join a team. The goal really is … whatever you want it to be. Though it is fun to participate in something that a whole bunch of people from all around the world are doing at the same time.

I think I’ve been a bit ambitious in my goals for the next two weeks. I’ve entered three “Events”

WIP (Work In Progress) Wrestling: Talia Take Two

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WIP Wrestling: Strokkur  I am seriously still only like 4 rows from completing this.

Strokkur WIP

Sock Put: Another Hermione Every Day Sock

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Sweater Triathlon: Blank Canvas I’ve had this yarn for over a year, with the intent to knit this sweater. The two yarns will be held together to create a pretty unique color. This event is a bit ambitious because, well, it’s a sweater.

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The Broncos win the Super Bowl (and I knitted my first pair of socks)

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Ok, so these two things did NOT happen on the same day, but I’m just now getting around to writing up this post.

I can tick off a laundry list of reasons as to why I haven’t knitted socks in the 6+ years I’ve been knitting.
– why knit them, when you can buy them so cheaply
– toes and heels intimidate me
– I have other things I want to knit

And well, I had a problem where I’d buy sock yarn because it was so pretty. Yet, I didn’t knit socks. I’d end up knitting a shawl, or attempting to knit a shawl with the yarn. *sigh* So I have this stash of sock yarn, and after finishing all those hats over Christmas, I cast on some socks.

The pattern is a free one on Ravelry called the Hermoine Everyday Socks. It was mostly knit stitches with a purl stitch thrown in a few times resulting in a cool texture. I used this greenish hand painted skein that I picked up while in Ohio for Christmas 2014. The toes, heels and cuffs are done up in gray. I like the look of it.

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I’m not sure exactly why I chose to knit them toe-up vs cuff down, but that’s what I did. And to avoid the whole ‘turn the heel’ thing, I found a pattern called the Afterthought Heel. Which I followed and the pattern told me to use a strand of waste yarn as a placeholder for the heel.

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I knitted up both socks and then added the heels at the end.

They look pretty good! They need a good soak, but man, they are pretty comfortable. And luxurious if I’m being honest. And I probably feel that way because of all the hand work that goes into knitting anything. These particular socks are good ‘TV knitting’ and I did spend most of my time watching the playoffs knitting these things.

Made: Barley Hats

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No joke on the amount of knitting I’ve done in the past few months. No. Joke.

I have more finished things to photograph and write up, but I wanted to share these two hats that were sent to my friend along with the Fancy Forest Quilt last week.

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The story behind the hats… So back in the summer, Heather received a hat in one of her prenatal appointments. She asked me to make a matching one for Chad, her husband. I went to my favorite yarn stores, and I even looked at the Big Box Craft Stores, but couldn’t find anything that matched the hat she gave me. Figuring that the intent was matching father/son hats, I made a command decision (ha!) while wandering around Fancy Tiger.

The pattern is the Barley hat by Tin Can Knits which is very well written, even for a free pattern. I was able to make both the adult size and baby size with a skein of Madelinetosh DK in Optic – this nice neutral speckled with some grays and blacks. It is lovely and subtle.

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On my Amish skein winder, you can see the color distribution better. About that skein winder. I actually like it. I found it on etsy for like $20 and it comes apart and stores very nicely. About that ball winder – I’m not a fan. I bought it with a 50% off coupon at Joann’s and it does an OK job. It seems pretty small, and winding standard hanks (roughly 220 yards in DK) results in a sloppy looking yarn cake. It works well enough, but I’m definitely in the market for a better yarn winder.

Knitting Updates

I’ve been slowly working on these two knitting projects.

My Strokkur (started in January!) – I’m really about 4 rows until I am done knitting. The colorwork portion is complete, and I love it! I’m glad I went with the blue; spring green was my other option.

Strokkur WIP

My Daybreak Shawl. I started this in March, and ugh. It is taking me forever – sock yarn, small needles, large project. There’s a shit ton of stitches and it takes me about 30 minutes to complete two rows. But this is my take along project. It is simple enough to work on in the car, in the waiting room, at sports practices and at the coffee shop.

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Made: Divided Basket and WIP: Strokkur

I’ve been on a crafting kick – guess I’ve gotten my motivation to make things back.

We were in Telluride, CO this past weekend for little get away. JJ, Miles and I needed the time away from work, Denver and life in general. It was awesome. The drive to Telluride from Denver is over 6 hours, so I brought along two knitting projects. The one you see below is my Strokkur that I started back in January. I was having trouble keeping the entire project in my project bag, so when I came back I knew I wanted to make something bigger to hold it.

Divided Basket

The pattern is the Divided Basket by Noodlehead (Anna Graham). I’ve sewn plenty of her tutorial/patterns and they are really well done. Modifications I made to the written pattern were to use Pellon 72 – Peltex and batting to reinforce the exterior pieces. The Peltex and batting really give the basket structure. The sides of the bag do not fold in AT ALL – unlike my other project bags. Stitching all the layers was a bit tricky so I made sure I went slowly and didn’t force the fabric through the machine.

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One side of the basket has two pockets where I keep little knitting notions – stitch markers, scrap yarn, scissors.

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I dug through my fabric box and resurrected some pieces that I’ve had for an embarrassingly long time (i’m talking years here). The exterior is an Echino print that I’m pretty sure is out of production. The dotted fabric used in the lining is so old, I can’t remember where I bought it, let alone who makes it. The divider and trim on the handles are leftover shot cotton from another project.

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Here you can see the colorwork detail of the sweater yoke. Colorwork is fun – both the process and this particular pattern. The yarn is a traditional Icelandic wool – the yarn sticks to each other, so there is a lot of me stopping to untangle the yarn while knitting. The sweater sat in hibernation over most of the summer. This wool is quite warm, and just not particularly fun to knit when it is hot outside. But the cool mountain mornings in Telluride were perfect for hotel room deck knitting. And I’m just about finished with the sweater. I’m really excited to see the final result. More details can be found on my Ravelry project page: Strokkur.

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(cue Bad Cop from the LEGO movie)

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LOOK AT ALL THESE CUTE MINI SKEINS!
Can you tell I’m excited about them? It is because I dyed them myself, using only 5 colors of acid dye.

I took a class a few weeks ago that was all about yarn dyeing. What they are, what you need, how to do hand-paint and how to immersion dye – and how to do this all safely. I left the class with a hand painted skein of dk weight, an immersion/kettle-dyed skein of sock weight yarn, stained fingers and bunch of excitement about dyeing my own yarns.

Hand Dyed Yarn

This is all sock weight yarn I separated into 5 gram mini skeins, winding them up on this contraption called a niddy-noddy* – fun name, right? I set out to experiment with mixing primary colors, playing around with the strength of the dye stock and adding gray or black to mix. I took notes on my color ratios for reference.

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Now, I don’t knit socks. At least not yet, anyway. And these skeins look so pretty all stack up, but I am going to use them. I started making hexipuffs for a Bee Keeper’s Quilt. As my friend Heather commented on Instagram – its when quilting and knitting collide! These little knitted hexi’s are really fun and quick to make. I’m not sure how long it will be before I have enough to stitch together for a lap sized blanket, but that’s what I’m working towards.

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*I made the niddy-noddy using this helpful tutorial – link.

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