Flowers and Yarn

Since spring didn't seem to be coming anytime soon, and everything around here is a variation of brown or grey, I decided to make my own flowers:

(back left shoulder)

(left side hem)

Full sweater shot (there are a couple of flowers at the right hem also) (yes, that is the chaos that is my room)

I got this beautiful J. Crew cashmere sweater at the Salvation Army a year or so ago, and I didn't realize that it had moth holes in it until I got home. That probably wouldn't have stopped me from buying it, since it is cashmere and it was three dollars, and I figured I could fix it somehow. It sat in the mending pile for a long time, while I bought several packages of beads and designs floated around my head. Then I found a great pattern in the book Craftivity (which I highly recommend--please consider buying it from your local independent bookstore) for embellishing moth-holed sweaters by doing a button hole stitch around them. This is brilliant because it looks cool and prevents the hole from getting any bigger. Since I couldn't seem to understand the stitch the way it was explained in Craftivity I turned to my mom's copy of The Encyclopedia of Stitchery. After I did the button hole stitches, I just freehand stitched the beads on to look like flowers and stems. I just made it up as I went along, but I'm really happy with how it came out.

And this is some yarn that I made. Just like the Harlot, (Susan and I are going to see her at Webs on April 28th! Yay!) this Tuesday was for spinning. It was very random; I got annoyed at this ball of roving that kept rolling out of the bag onto the floor so I spun it up. There is about 60 yards, I have no idea what weight (probably heavy worsted), and I spun it on my drop spindle. I was frustrated when I started because I got out my spinning books and tried to do what they said and my yarn didn't look like theirs. So I just did it my own weird way, wet-blocked it on the niddy noddy, and it came out pretty good. I'm realizing I should just accept that this is the way that I spin and that's okay. However, I do think I'm going to buy Start Spinning sometime in the near future, since I've heard very good things about it.

Knitting? Oh, there has been knitting. There are projects that are very nearly done (a beret in Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca and Silk, the Strawberry Clutch from the Spring 2007 Knitscene), there was a big frog session (a Jaywalker sock that was complete--and I couldn't pull it over my ankle), and there is a toddler sweater in the works. Although it is getting to be that point in the semester when there is a lot of work I should have started earlier (but I am very close to finishing my career in academia, so why change now? And really, it wouldn't change much.) and I just have to knit to keep my head. So either there will be lots of finished things or not many at all. As usual.

Golf and Birdies

"Birdie" is a golf term. If you're really desperate to know what it means click here.
I made these golf club covers for my dad's birthday next weekend. I made him a set of five or six a couple of years ago, in Red Sox and Patriots colors, but he lost a couple of them on the golf course (hey, at least he's using them). These I just made with some scrap yarn I had hanging around.

They knit up really quickly in Lamb's Pride Bulky. The pattern is one I kind of made up, based on my bad experience with the golf club covers from Suss Cousins' Hollywood Knits (I've said it before, I love her designs but I have never knit one of her patterns that I didn't have to change in some way because of gauge or other issues).


Unfortunately, I still feel that my pattern is too close to the original or else I would reprint it for you here. I've been scouring the new wave of men's knitting books that have come out, looking for great guy patterns, and I'm surprised I haven't seen any other golf club covers. As far as I'm concerned, this is one of my most successful guy knitting projects ever (and you don't have to worry about fit!).

Pattern: My own, inspired by the Golf Club Covers from Hollywood Knits
Yarn: Odds and ends of Lamb's Pride Bulky
Source: Probably all from Patternworks
Needles: US Size 10, these ancient aluminum ones I inherited from my mom
Modifications: So many I call it my own pattern



I actually finished the knitting aspect of the Bird Seed Scarf a couple of weeks ago, but several attempts at embroidering the birds on made me very cranky.
It hit me while I was riding the T that I should cut out my sketch of the bird, pin it to the scarf, and stitch around it. So simple, but this was literally the sixth or seventh time I had tried to embroider it. I tried to use the yarn I used for the scarf, but it was picky and stuck to the fabric. I switched to embroidery thread and I really love the effect. I just have to do the other end, and decide whether to do anymore. I kind of like how it looks with just the ends decorated.




I also finished another scarf this week but I forgot to take a picture of it in the craziness that is my Sunday mornings. I only have a few hours to get ready for work and do some chores and knitting, so I never get as much done as I would like. Today was especially bad. I mentioned that I had kind of been in a knitting funk, and I'm not sure that's cleared completely. This morning I felt like The Kid Who Can't Knit (or Sew). The golf club covers knit up pretty quickly but I've been busy and haven't had the time to do the actual knitting, and seaming them up, with all their shaping, is not fun. I finished the second one this morning, finished embroidering the bird you see above, and started a second bird which looked nothing like a bird so it had to be ripped out. Then I tried to work on the Secret of the Stole, but I had to redo the first row of the fourth clue three times. Three times!!! I was almost in tears. I never get like that about knitting.


Anyway, the crankiness continued for awhile (a few too many people cut me off on the way to work) but I had some comfort food for dinner and I've gotten my homework done, so I can look at wool and craft blogs until closing. I also just realized that I have one more row on my second Clessidra and then I can do the heel. Then it's just the foot, which goes very quickly. I only have one class this week, and just one day of my internship, and then it's the holiday--that's something to be grateful for too.