Herringbone Handwarmers

The little garageside office I'm currently blogging from is freezing most of the time. I needed something to keep my hands toasty, but not obstruct finger movement, so I converted Elliphantom's cute herringbone mitts pattern into simple handwarmers.



Pattern: Herringbone mitts by elliphantom, available free on her blog
Yarn: 2 skeins of Koigu, in lilac and brown (lost the tags). I used a bit more than half a skein of the brown, and a third of a skein lilac.
Needles: US 1 dpn's
Mods: I converted the pattern from mittens to fingerless gloves, and cast on 66 sts to make up for the smaller gauge (I added 16 sts to the pattern, which is two of the herringbone repeats).

My crafty goals for the new year are to get better at sewing. I'm pretty happy with the accessories I've made this year, but garments still make me freeze up with fear. The problem is that I have high expectations of craftsmanship, and my enthusiasm starts to crumble as soon as the pieces don't quite match up. So, first, I'm gonna lighten up, because I'm not planning to become a dressmaker at the house of Chanel, and second, I'm gonna learn as much as I can and start off with a (hopefully) easy project. Also, I'd like to use up all the odd balls of yarn I have. Some are leftovers from projects, others just single skeins to 'try out' the yarn, so there will be more hoppelpoppel projects. Once I've got 50% used up, I'll get to reward myself with yarn for a planned project. That should be motivation enough ;-)

High Street Messenger Bag (the craftoholic edition)

What happened?? Wasn't it just the middle of December a few days ago? Well, happy New Year then, I hope you all survived the holidays as well as I did. There was lots of crafting, albeit little blogging, but I'll make it up to you. I've got quite a few fo's to show you, but it's gonna be bit by bit.
On my last trip to Europe I realized that I needed a new purse/bag, one that could hold my camera, maybe a laptop, and all the other stuff I like to drag around, and still have enough room for me to squish in an extra jacket or sweater. Regular purse and tote doesn't work when you're transiting Heathrow, trying to shove the former into the latter because you're allowed only one thing to take onto the plane. Which I'm not really complaining about, it's much easier now getting on and off the plane without everyone wrestling loads of plastic and shopping bags.
I didn't feel up to creating my own pattern, so I used this one by Amy Butler, adding lots of mods to turn it into the bag I need and actually use.
Here's the action shot, taken on a hike around Bodega Bay:

here you can sort of see the inside:

the back:

and one more, just so:


Pattern: parts of High Street Messenger Bag by Amy Butler, plus my own
Fabric: Denim for the exterior, heavy cotton twill for the lining
Changes:
I made the bag twice as wide, it now measures 6" instead of 3".
I eliminated the pocket on the inside flap (I didn't think I'd really use it, besides, it seemed awkward to access), instead, I put a pocket on the outside flap.
Instead of making an exposed the zipper on the outside back of the bag, I opted for a lapped one.
I changed the tool pocket in the inside to my specs (special compartments for lipbalm, phone and iPod) and attached it to the body side (not the opposite side as the pattern states). I also added an adjustable water bottle holder.
Didn't use canvas as an interlining, as my fabric for the bag and lining is already heavy enough. I just ironed medium interfacing onto some parts I wanted to have a little more structure (front and back main panel, outside pockets).
It made no sense to me to have a messenger bag with a strap you can't adjust (if I do ride a bike with this bag, I want it snug against my back!), so I used the hardware from an old bag to make an adjustable strap.
I'm really happy with how this bag turned out, I'm using it all the time.

My Jana tunic (from Rowan Studio 3), hasn't been going quite as well. I've reknit it now for the second time, and I'm still not happy. It just seems so....big. It'll hibernate for a little until I can look at it with semi fresh eyes.

Hoppelpoppel Socks

As leftovers of sockyarn were piling up, I figured I'd have enough to make a whole new pair of socks for bf out of them. They are rather ugly; yet at the same time, I love them for what they are, something useful made from leftovers, like a scrap quilt, or a rag rug. Bf loves them too, the crazier the better, he says.

Pattern: Basic top down 2x2 rib
Needles: US 2
Yarn: mostly Lana Grossa Meilenweit leftovers

soon: sewing fo's.
btw: hoppelpoppel is a dish made from leftovers...so it can be pretty much anything.

Deep-V Sweater

When I first flipped through Erica Knight's Classic Knits I was more impressed by the beautiful styling and photos than the actual projects, they seemed almost too simple. But over the next few months I kept coming back to that book and started to fall in love with the projects in it, especially the Deep-V sweater. I've had a bag of Debbie Bliss' Cathay in my stash, which is the suggested yarn. All that stockinette didn't put me off, I wanted some mindless knitting for a change. Well, that pattern turned out be an absolute joy to knit. Cathay, despite being a bit splitty at first try, is wonderfully soft; it reminded me of melting vanilla ice cream. After a nice steam, any uneven knitting transformed into an even, drapey fabric.


and check out the lovely decreases:

Pattern: Deep-V Sweater, from Classic Knits by Erica Knight, second size
Yarn: 11 balls of Debbie Bliss Cathay
Needles: US 5 (3.75mm)
Mods: I used a tubular cast-on and knit in the round instead of separate pieces. If I were to knit this sweater again however, I'd knit it in pieces and seam it up (yes, me, the I-wanna-turning-everything into-seamless knitter). Why? Because you end up weaving in lose ends within the knitted fabric, and no matter how careful I was, you can see a slight indentation on the other side. When you have such a smooth fabric, seams provide a place to weave in your ends and keep the rest of the fabric looking perfect. Lesson learned. Sometimes, seams are good (argh).
The only thing I would change is to make the sweater a size bigger. It fits great, it's just that when I started, I wanted something more fitted, something I could wear to the office and look professional. Now that I'm freelancing from home, I crave the casual lounge-around look that enticed me to the sweater in the first place. I guess I could always frog it....;-) Yeah, no way!
I see more Classic knits projects in my future, the kelly cardi and maybe the slouchy socks, but right now, there is more stockinette going on, and a little bit of cabling. I'm making the Jana Tunic from Rowan Studio 3. There are no sleeves so this should be a quick knit.

I've added some more details of my mods to Flicca, you can find them here.

Peaches on my head

One of my cousins still has every little piece of craft from her childhood. This is a good thing for me, because between being slightly o/c about getting rid of stuff, having moved a lot and having a bad memory in general, trips back in time to my childhood tend to yield murky pictures. On my recent visit to Germany my brain got a refresher when she brought out a box filled with stuff from our childhood. As kids we loved clubs, and in our years playing together must have formed a dozen or so, all either about animals or TV shows or even hats. Yes, hats. Berets, to be more exact. I had a black one, my cousin's was red, and we were the club of the Basques ( in German, a beret is called a Baskenmuetze). Looking at our manifesto and handdrawn passports, this club seemed to have been a spy club (don't remember who we were spying on), and my code name was Britta (which was my favourite name at the time, stemming I believe from some kid's book about a girl named Britta and her pony, Silver. Oh, the memories, they're coming back..)
So, this is a pretty long intro to be telling you that I still love berets and have been excited about so many of them popping up in blogland. But hey, I usually don't tell you much, so here you go. This is the second Kim Hargreaves kit I made, Peaches, from her 'Summer Breeze' collection. Described as a "slouchy crochet beret" it was anything but on my first attempt, though I can't really fault Kim for that. Everyone's head is a different size, and mine must be huge, since the first version of the beret perched on top like a deflated muffin. Easy to fix, I just ripped back to the increase rows, added two more of those, one more regular and one more decrease row. I'm still not sure if it's ok the way it is, I may wash it and stretch it a little, to get it more relaxed and not so flowery looking.


Pattern: Peaches kit, from Kim Hargreaves' Summer Breeze collection.
Yarn: 2 skeins of Rowan handknit cotton in 'thunder'.
Mods: Added more rows to make the beret bigger.

Monkeys on my feet

In more than one way. I've been back from Europe for awhile, but the travelling hasn't stopped. I've been spending my days hiking around Northern California and just a few days ago bf and I came back from a week-long roadtrip to Pinnacles NM and the deserts of Southern California. My mind is still boggled by all the wildlife we saw - a bobcat upclose, a fox, bats, wild turkeys, a tarantula, weird bugs and tons of birds I can never identify. I'm having a hard time sitting still, and need to get re-aquainted with yarn, fabric and thread. Checking through my bloglines feed was a little daunting at first, but it really kickstarted my desire to pick up the needles again thanks to all the great projects I've seen there.
Anyway, here is a pair of socks, finished right before the big trip, that I forgot to photograph and blog. What with all the pretty monkeys out there, I needed a pair myself. A skein of squishy soft pureknits sockyarn in a barely there creamy pink was the perfect fit.


Pattern: Monkey socks designed by Cookie A., available at Knitty.
Yarn: 1 skein of Pureknits sockyarn in 'alabaster'.
Needles: US 1 bamboo dpn's.
Mods: I knit these toe up. In order to have the pattern face down as it does in the top-down version, I sliced the pattern repeat through the middle and tucked the left part onto the right side of the right part.

Now I'm just one sleeve away from finishing my Deep V-sweater from Erika Knights "Classic Knits", and I've started a pair of socks for bf with this Aloe & Jojoba sockyarn I've had in my tiny stash for ages. It doesn't feel as extra nice and soft as I thought it would, but maybe it'll feel good on bf's feet. I lost the ball band, but I think it's from either Regia or Lana Grossa.

Somewhere on a distant planet...

ok, maybe I‘m not quite that far, though I am currently on another continent, and California does feel like it‘s on a different planet. Call it early midlife crisis or the thirst for something new, a few weeks ago I quit my job and went to Germany to visit family and friends. I just got back from the most northern part of the country and will stay in Bavaria until mid September or so. I brought some knitting, but have yet to pick up the needles. Back in SF, a pile of FO‘s is still waiting to be photographed and blogged about, but for the next few weeks, I‘ll remain silent. When I get back, who knows what‘ll happen? Anything is possible, and that thought is incredibly thrilling.
With love from the seaside,
Steph