Knit From Recycled Denim

Remember the yarn from recycled denim? Used some of it to knit up this Kindle cozy.  A happy knit.

posted by: cat

Cat Doll

Made a doll.  Made it some clothes.  Filled a page in my April Mini Journal.

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Some Works-in-Progress

Fingerless glove, little finger ready for binding off, thumb gusset at the ready.  A pair of these has been ordered in black arylic yarn.  Working with yarn has been a bigger headache than anticipated.

I don't know how I went from working with large rectangles to these itty-bitty things.  Now I'm looking at everything fabric and wanting to cut a hexagonal piece out to add to my work.  At this stage, a full-size blanket is too ambitious.  Maybe a lap blankie?

posted by: cat

Recycled Denim

A knitted up swatch (unblocked) of the 3-ply denim threads.  The threads were rescued from a pair of old, retired bluejeans, knotted up and hand-plied with a homemade drop spindle.  The spindle itself is from a Tinkertoy set that I simply added a cup hook to.

Here's the swatch of the 6-thread yarn which I spun into one thick ply.  I didn't knot the threads together, which made the project move along much faster.  However, the tendency was for some of the ends to pop up, especially after getting run through the wash.  All-in-all, it's holding up very well.

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Chunky Yarn from Corded Thread

Remember all that craziness with the cord-making?  Here's he result:  chunky yarn!

The top one is actually my first experiment with spinning.  Just twisting up random recycled threads, then turning them into cord.  The bottom one is the 3-thread cord with the green and yellow theme.

Here they are, all knitted up.  Swatches of the knitted cords.  They look really yummy.



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Test Knits and Thread Mixes

 A test knit top for m's amigurumi dolls.  Experimenting with different mixes of yarn and thread, and this top uses a ply each of rust orange and cream.

This is a test swatch of mixed threads.  Thinking of using it for a cardigan or dress.

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Skinny Scarf

Skinny scarf (just 1.5 inches wide) with the Horai stitch by roko.


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Cord Maker with Turk's Head Knot

 Pimped-out cordmaker with a 3-bight turk's head knot, using some jelly string.

Did a blue one with translucent string, but somehow the pictures come out weird.  *shrug*  Oh, well.


posted by: cat

Cord Maker

Repurposing some thread and knitting up chunky yarn for m, but knitting seemingly unending i-cord by hand can get pretty tedious.  I needed something different, and internet gave me the lucet.

I tried out an out an old, cheap fork I had leftover from another project.  It works, except, the cord it makes is too small when I used the repurposed thread.

Then I re-discovered the knitting nancy.  

I managed to make a this small one out of a small branch from the garden (with a convenient hollow core) and some staples. 

Here's a shot with Abe for size comparison.  It makes the approximate size cord, although I need to play around with it more to get the tension the way I want it.

I find that my boredom with making i-cord has gone.  For now.


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Hol-ey Knittting, Batman

Obsessed with holes in knitting.  These are just buttonholes done in the round.  Finished with an i-cord bind-off.

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Dragon Scales

Nothing to add for now, except this sample knit block.  It's Dragon Scales from Walker's Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns.


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Bottles Get Cozy

First completed project of the year: Knitted bottle cozy.  Working on the second one as we speak.

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Knit Swatch

Test piece for the Arans pattern.  Not too stretchy, pretty, but is one of those patterns that can only be appreciated viewed at a certain angle and in a certain light.

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Two Knits and a Weave Experiment

Some small stuff that will end up in my fabric book.  This first one is a teeny knit birdcage.  I wanted to try my hand at doing some grungy-looking knitting, with dropped and uneven stitches.  I may do some crocheting to add definition to its edges.

 Next is the Tulip Bud Edging from "Walker's Treasury of Knitting Patterns," volume 2, but i modified it somewhat.

Last is my WTF-Weaving?!?  project.  I saw some weaving projects done on cardboard looms and I had lots of loose yarn about, so I just had to try it out.  This is just straightforward over-and- under weaving.  Clearly I need to experiment more with this.  And make a bigger loom.

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Pear Pincusion

Wee widdle pear pincushion to hold my sewing needles.  The loop 'stem' is so that I can attach it to the button built into my fabric box. 

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Knitted Belemites

From the murky depths of the primeval underdeep, come THE BELEMITES!  

Yeahh, I wouldn't be ascairt of them either.  They're actually only this size.  And also extinct.

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Busy Busy Busy

Miniature knitted hair, which m requested for her dolls.  The left one is done in 1x1 rib, and the right one is 2x2.  Hmm, I should make a large one for myself, for bad hair days.

Trying out the Shifting Sands pattern from grumperina.com.  Erm, I will blame the bad lighting for the bad knitting.  Might just end up doing the whole thing over.  A most likely probability with most of my knitting adventures.

This was a baby step into the world of cables.  Which: I made my own cable needle for this, yo!  Because, once m pushed me off that "necessity is the mother of innovation" cliff -with the cutting in half of store bought needles- I fell and haven't reached the bottom yet.  *eyes heavy gauge wire with intent*

Then,  to place all those knitting projects in, I made a bucket from the leg of an old pair of jeans.  It has built-in counters at the sides.  (There's another set of numbers on the other side.)  I got the idea when I found the hairclip which I'm using to mark off the numbers.  (That would be the blue thing around the number 4, see?)

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I'm Crocheting! *facepalm*

My test version of the spiny-ball/urchin thing.  It should have more spines on it, and I think I've fudged their arrangement, but, yeah, something like this.  Now I have to do it again, only with variegated yarn, to make the spine tips have a lighter color.  

 * * *

 Meanwhile, I discovered how to make my own knitting nancy.  Similar to those I've seen in toy stores, only not as glamorous.  The ones I saw online were kindergartner-friendly, and made of colored popsicle sticks and cardboard tissue tubes.  I've modified the design a bit to get neater results.  Here it is in action:

This is the result.  Basically, you're making cord.  In this case, it's a centipede.  Or, well, a horned worm.

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Gauntlets, Gloves, Whatever

Knitted gauntlets for the two things. Took me a while because the first attempt was too big. The second attempt was too small. The third one was... not right either.

The fifth attempt, well now, that one came out all right.

Now they won't take them off.

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Two More of These

Knitted two more gadget cozies. The skull design was done in duplicate stitch this time.

Speaking of the design, between intarsia and duplicate stitch, I'd rather muddle through the intarsia. (Refer to the previous gadget cozy done in brown.) The embroidered pattern adds bulk to the work, and didn't end up as neat as I thought it would. Plus, the fabric no longer stretches where it's stitched over.

posted by: cat