Weekend Wonder #17 - Preview

These little lovelies and some of their cousins will be on sale here in the coming weeks, along with other surprises! More pictures of Blueberries and Cream (above) and Bumble Bee (below) available from my Flickr page.

Weekend Wonder #16 - Let's Call it a Poncho

Blog Readers, let me introduce you to this week's FO and Weekend Wonder - the Desert Poncho [Ravelry] from Kim Werker's "It's a Shawl and a Poncho" pattern in Teach Yourself to Crochet Visually. First of all, let me say this is a lovely and easy pattern I picked for what could have been the wrong two reasons. (1) Because I was frustrated that the yarn wasn't working for the Strapless Corset pattern (I shall not belabor or link to why, but you can search the blog if you want to), and therefore I was desperate for something simple that would use about the same amount of cotton yarn, and (2) because the girl in the picture looks good wearing it, I mean damn good, never mind that she's a gorgeous busty thing and I'm... not. Fortunately, I think it worked out well in spite of my poor reasoning*.

There are more pictures on Flickr (some of the same on Ravelry), including WIP shots and stitch details.

One detail of note: I think that there’s an error in the pattern or the book’s description of the stitch. If you look closely at the pictures in the book, I think 2 dc should be 3 dc. I did it with 2 even though it didn’t look right; I was 75% done by the time I really looked closely at said picture. It still drapes well and I would have run out of yarn if I’d done it with 3 dc, I'm not complaining, but if I were to make another one... Take that for what it’s worth.

I used almost the full six skeins (Bernat's Organic Cotton), alternating four rows of the main color (Hemp) with two of the variegated (Oasis). The leftover yarn I used to lace the shoulder (lace, like you lace a shoe), which you can see in the details on my Flickr stream. I'm wearing it tonight to go to a reading, so if it wears badly, I'll post that right away.

* I say poor reasoning because (1) I normally advocate for thinking things through, especially when desperate(!), and (2) because choosing to do a pattern based on how good it looks with someone else's body type is normally a surefire recipe for disaster.

Weekend Wonder #15 - Even-more-petite Petite Bijoux Bag

You may remember that a while back I made a petite "Petite Bijoux Bag" (from Sensual Crochet) with the last of the mossy green Bernat bamboo blend yarn left over after my semi-successful moebius shrug. Well, I had an even smaller amount of the colorways of the same yarn that I used for the Girl Chicago scarf: Linen and (light blue?).

Meanwhile, the Petite Petite has been serving as an apple cozy - though it's a little taller than necessary for that purpose. It's perfectly cushy for it though! Well, my housemate saw its cushy greenness hanging in the kitchen and gushed about how soft the material was. So, while she was away this last weekend, I made her a bag of her own.


There are two more pictures on Flickr; they better show the stitch definition and colorwork.

I followed the pattern from memory, roughly gauging how much yarn I had left as I went. When I went about as far up as I thought I could go with the white, I switched to the blue (which was a ball smaller in diameter than a silver dollar) for the double crochet row and the tie - which became two ties because I had enough yarn. I then went around once doing a slip stitch in blue just for contrast (and to use the last of it).

I had to modify the last round - the ripple - because I didn't have enough yarn for the stitch called for (and wasn't ripping back!). But I think it turned out great. You can see above that it's a little smaller than my best-yard-sale-find mug (50 cents!). It just fits a medium organic Gala apple, and she loves it. (An easy gift - this took less than two hours.)

Retro Femme in better light

Hello again. I'm afraid this is just a quick note to let you know that there are improved pictures up on Flickr of my FO - the Retro Femme top from Sensual Crochet.

For instance:

I also wanted to narrow down what I said last time about how I wouldn't add the extra rows to the top. My reason is that the stitch used on the upper portion really opens up when you block/wear it. Obviously where you want more or less fabric is going to depend on your body, but for me, more on the lower portion - the shells - would have been better than on the top.

That said, the more I wore it that night and when I took these shots, the more I like it, and the compliments have all been flattering. Now if the temps would fall out of the 90s here, I could wear it!

If you poke around Flickr, you'll also get a little preview of some other things I've been working on, including WIP shots of the shawl/poncho. I may very well run out of yarn before it gets long enough to circle my wide shoulders, so it may end up being a "variation" on the pattern. :) We'll have to see! It's gotten too big to bring in my bag with my books most class days, so today I'm carrying yarn for coasters - great bus stop projects.

Have a good week!

Weekend Wonder #14 - Retro Femme

The Retro Femme top? What's that you say? I thought it was in the "maybe frog" pile and now it's an FO and Weekend Wonder?

Indeed my friends, it's true. The Retro Femme top from Sensual Crochet was on my frownie list because it turned out snugger than I expected once I closed the front (is worked top-down), but I decided to let it sit and see if it fit better if I lost some weight by the end of the year. We recently had a cold snap here in Tucson and I had my husband send me some winter clothes, including this WIP. I tried it on again - being ten pounds lighter than I was when I finished in May/June-ish. Lo and behold, it fits much better. It's still more snug than intended, but I decided to cut the yarn, weave in the ends, and wear it anyway.

First, the pics! (There are stitch detail and rear shots on Flickr.)


Lesson #1 - Swatch all stitches and/or try on more often. I wasn't aware that this was too snug until I reached the bottom because I didn't try it on again after doing the empire waist. I could have backed up a couple rows and added a few stitches to a top round if I'd realized sooner.
Lesson #2 - If you're doing this pattern and you are a tall woman like me and you're concerned about the uppermost section being too short, don't be. If you're bustier than me, maybe it'll be a problem, but I added two rows to the top and wish I hadn't. It would look more balanced - more like the book's pretty pictures! :) - if I hadn't.

This is done with Bernat's alpaca blend, which I enjoyed working. I wore it dancing - just like you see here - last week and it was really well received.

Weekend Wonder #13 - Bag in My Bag

Bag in My Bag
Originally uploaded by notensionknits

After 5 p.m. on a Friday is the weekend, right?

I made this little bag because I just switched to a different school bag. It's larger than the one I was using before, which had become a must, but it doesn't have as many pockets. So, I used the last of this neat Landscape yarn to make a little bag for my emergency supplies, i.e. Tylenol, Tums, Aleve, a couple band-aids, a granola bar, eye drops, and a travel-sized deodorant! It fits in my bag neatly though I didn't have enough yarn to make the flap or tie as long as I would have liked.

The basic construction comes from the Tube Bag design in Uncommon Crochet. I love that book and recommend it highly. The "paper bag" style bottom is much neater than just crocheting a rectangle base. The stitch is linked doubles in the round - I used linked because I didn't want to have to felt it but I did want a tight fabric.

More pictures on Flickr.

And please, post comments or send emails about my blood donation question a couple posts ago! I'm curious still about why people do or don't donate.

Weekend Wonder #12 - Number Nine Beanie

Number Nine Beanie
Originally uploaded by notensionknits

My most recent FO and a Weekend Wonder to boot!

I started with the instructions for the beanie in Teach Yourself Crochet and the blue yarn left over from my Swedish flag. I love this color - and it's a soft acrylic wool blend.

I say "started with" because the FO is substantially varied from that pattern - basically everything except the top (which is just a disc) is different. I worked the crown differently and worked the sides in pike stitch (ESC, ch - subsequent rows' ESC go in the ch space). I think it turned out really well - there's a picture of me wearing it on Flickr - but it won't be cold enough here to need it until... January maybe?

Let me know if you might like a pattern for this. It's been a while since I wrote one and this was an easy cap - a good beginner project, too. I'm going to tweak the next one I make a bit to tuck in the brim for snugness...

Oh, I almost forgot! It's named for the busline I crocheted it on! I'm the girl crocheting on the #9 in Tucson - currently on a shawl I'll hopefully share soon.

Next time? An FO called "Bag in my bag" :)

Weekend Wonder #11 - Traveling Crochet

These are the completed flags I am contributing to the Peace Project by Sheena Pennell. If you've never heard of it, I suggest you check it out. For those not familiar, these are the flags of Sweden and Norway.

Sweden, above, was the simpler construction. I did the whole thing in hdc stitches, dropping the yellow yarn to hang behind and carefully carrying the blue across. This was easy - so much easier than I expected that I finished it in the first half of the second (and longest) leg of my flight. I hadn't packed anything else in my carry-on but my journal, so needless to say I got a lot of writing done. Those of you who craft while traveling may be thinking, did you sneak scissors on board? How? Nope, I just left excess yarn and trimmed it away when I wove the ends in. A little wasteful, but not too bad.

Norway, below, was the more difficult. I divided the white yarn and used two skeins of the red, though that proved to be far more than I needed. I worked on this while Mr. Man drove on our recent Labor Day trip and on the flight back, weaving the ends in after I returned. Fortunately, he liked the way it looked so much he "commissioned" an iPod case with this design. (His family is Scandinavian.)


Next time, if I do one of these flags this big or bigger, I'll do it with granny squares or a similar technique in order to make it reversible. Would make a fun afghan project, IMO, and easy to do using the grid in Photoshop of similar software.

Both were done in Encore acrylic/wool blend except for the yellow, which is a Lion Brand wool.

Weekend Wonder #9 & FO: Chicago Scarves

These two scarves were made as wedding gifts, oh, so long ago. (Early May.)
This white and blue is the Girl Chicago, a.k.a. the gift for the bride. It matches a hat I gave her as a bridal shower gift.

I knitted it on the yellow straight KK loom out of Bernat Bamboo in Linen and Ocean. Really soft, very cuddly result, though there are always things I'd do differently. The striping pattern was random at first (though I always did the same thing in one color then the other to use equal amounts of the two yarns), but I eventually found a nice pattern of paired stripes best seen in the top picture that I would use exclusively if I did this again. I say "if" because I'm not really sure I liked bi-color knitting enough to do it again. I just felt like it was tedious, and I wanted to enjoy it more. The finishing touch - for strength, to hide the doubled slip stitches, and for balance - was a row of half double crochets down each side.

Also, you might notice these pictures are darker than the previous ones. I took these in slanting late-afternoon sun rather than nearly noon like the earlier WIP pics.

This second scarf in rust and blue is the Guy Chicago for the groom.

I used linked triple crochet for this scarf, which is what gives it the wavy look. I also inserted a row of linked doubles periodically (approximately every seventh row, but sometimes every fifth, sixth, or eighth, if it looked better) to help the colors snake back and forth. Can you see the chevron pattern that developed? It isn't predictable or overly regular, and that was my goal. (Though, to be honest, I'm not sure I could have made it more regular and gotten it done on time.) :)

You also might be able to tell that there were two skeins of yarn with slightly different coloring. I should have alternated when I found a knot, but I didn't think of it until after the fact. The yarns didn't look that different. That said, I think it still turned out really well and would definitely do it again. I've been thinking about making up a pattern for it, but I may make another one first. It's really simple, but not if you don't know linked stitches. I'd like to see how it looks in a heather or multi-colored yarn. Maybe I'll make my husband one to practice.

In this last shot, you can see the color differences between the first and second skein a little bit more clearly. The top layer has darker, more varied blues, where the bottom has paler blues and shows more variation in the rust/brown color.

Questions? Please ask!

FO: Petite Petite Bijoux Bag

Lovin' Sensual Crochet by Amy Swenson. I know I've already mentioned that, but I'm gonna say it again and again, so be forewarned. :)

The pattern I modified here is the last one in the book, the Petite Bijoux Bag, which, as you probably guessed, I made smaller. I worked on this in faculty senate one night because it was portable, and I think I got halfway up the sides in less than two hours. (We adjourned early that night.) I was looking for a way to use up the last of my Bernat Bamboo, as you might remember from the One-Hour Eye Mask post, and this was perfect.

It'll hold my digital camera plus credit cards and ID, keys, and the like. It's only about 5-6" in diameter instead of the 8" (I think?) of the pattern.

The picture's a little gray because of the weather we've been having, but you can see two more pictures on Flickr, where you can also see the wrap (blog, Flickr) that matches it.

Last but not least, I'm working on updating my tags and sidebar... Or I would if I weren't going to sleep. :)

Weekend Wonder #3

Hello again! While this was a really long week for me, I'm happy to say that I've still got a Weekend Wonder for you. This week it's a new pattern, which is available on my design site or on Ravelry. I got in just under the wire to beta test the Ravelry shop feature, so you can find PDFs of my first pattern - Vicki's Mittens - and this new one:

One-Hour Eye Mask

For those of you who are exclusively knitters, I have to say that my first knit pattern may still be a while in coming. From my last post, you know the shrug didn't work out as hoped, though thanks to Lacey for letting me know I'm not alone! I do have a loom pattern to put together... BUT! In the meantime, for anyone with a medium size (K +/- 1 mm) crochet hook, some cushy yarn, and a desire to learn something new, this should be a bit of fun!


I planned this eye-mask to use up the last of some Bernat Bamboo that I had, but it didn't take anywhere near as much as I expected! (I used the leftover leftovers to make a petite petite bijoux bag from Sensual Crochet by Amy Swenson. Pictures soon, because I love it!) But I used the eye mask that night and the next night and ever since. It's light and lovely, and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in trying out Tunisian crochet. My new friend and test crocheter, Silver on Ravelry, had never done Tunisian before and found the instructions easy to follow. I hope you will to, and if you give it a try, do let me know!

More soon!

To Frog or To Fix?

Time for a bit of reader feedback. (Come on lurkers, time to contribute!) :)

I made a shrug on a yellow KK long loom in mock rib stitch (my pics below). I love the way the fabric itself turned out, but the design does not fit the way I wanted. Essentially, I was trying to imitate a design I'd seen on Ravelry - something similar to this crochet shrug at left from http://www.crochet.org/. I wanted something that would go across both my shoulders and my collarbone with nice long sleeves for my super long arms. And I wanted to knit it. There was no shoulder shaping involved, essentially it is just a long panel split down the middle for the neck opening and seamed up the undersides of the sleeves. My original plan had been to do short row shaping and to make the front and back wider than just half the sleeve, but I got lazy about the increases and was fooled by the project while it was on the loom.

What's wrong with it? Some things I can fix and some I can't.
1. The neck opening is wider than I intended, but I've already crocheted it shut a little to reinforce it - I could do more.
2. The arms are too narrow to seam up any higher than just above my elbows, meaning that this won't work for its primary purpose (my office is berry, berry cold in the summer, and I had hoped to have something to slip on over sleeveless tops, but this would leave an unattractive swath of ... my husband gets mad if I call it turkey arms, so I'll just leave it at that.
3. The lack of shaping and the long sleeves mean I can't just seam up the neck opening and wear it across my back - it falls down.

So, in the "Frog it" category is the argument that now that I've seen it finished, I know where I could put short rows for the shoulder shaping and how wide the neck should be and how I would like to make one change to the stitching... Plus, I have nearly a skein of yarn left over to add to the height of the front and back.

In the "Fix it" category, I could crochet gussets into the arms to lengthen the sleeves and even add height using crochet with no frogging required. (That won't get rid of the lack of shaping in the shoulders and puckering that results though.) Also, I need to get to work on a time sensitive project for my husband, and I'm not sure I'll have time to do both before he needs his done, and by then, I'll be home for the summer and packing to move to colder climes where a completely redone shrug will be more appropriate.

I'm still debating, and I promised my husband (who needs a cute knitblog nickname) that I wouldn't rush into frogging it. It was time consuming to make 450 rows of 30+ stitches...
What think ye?

Yikes! Must get back to work!

Weekend Wonder #1

Hello, hello!
The first ever Weekend Wonder is the premiere of (1) a spin-off of this blog and (2) a new crochet pattern. I know, I know - this is No Tension Knits! I promise the shrug will be posted as soon as it's done - which may be tomorrow if I'm a good girl.

Anyway! The new website is http://notensiondesign.wordpress.com/. I created a WordPress blog to have somewhere easy to post static pages (I use wordpress for my academic blog, so it was an easy set-up). All my designs will be posted there, starting with this first one!

Vicki's Mittens

A simple mitten that - if you're slightly faster than me, or better at concentrating - will take just over three hours. (It took me over four including rip backs and design time.) Details at No Tension Design!


The blog itself will only be used for sharing designs and errata, which will also be announced here, so no need to track a new feed if you don't want to. You can also find them on Ravelry, through me or through No Tension Design.

My long term goal is to post my knitting patterns in two formats - loom and needle - but I'll only be able to do that with the help of a needle knitter. I'll try not to get ahead of myself.
And that's the Weekend Wonder!

In other news, I'm plugging along with my grading and using knitting as a reward. Working well so far, but I better get back to it!

My current WIPs and an almost FO

Wow! A crafting post! Imagine! This is what I've been working on recently, though not as much as I'd like.

1. An FO revisited - I ripped the ribbon lining of the Calla Lily strap out and re-felted the bag. A little denser and a little more pilled, I like it better and have been using it for about two weeks without the ribbon sewn back in. I like it and haven't noticed any stretching; so far, so good. I also haven't put my heaviest item - my journal - in it lately.

2. An almost FO - I improvised a camera bag out of some left over Landscapes yarn but I don't have the ribbon to thread through the top to cinch it, so the effect isn't quite complete. Plus, my husband had his camera, so I couldn't take a picture of it with a camera in it. I wrote my first crochet pattern and put all of this up on Ravelry if you want to take a look. (Please do!)

3. A WIP - The shrug I designed hit the 100 row mark tonight - and stopped on the 135 row mark at the end of tonight's faculty senate meeting. :) It's knit sideways on the yellow KK straight loom. The stitch pattern is described here informally for loom and needles. If anyone knows what the "proper" name for this stitch is, I'd love to know. (Sadly, I spotted my first screw up in this piece tonight, but since it's for me, I'm not going to tink it. It was just a purl where there should have been a knit.)

As Rachel said today, click to embiggen. You can see my crochet cast on in both pictures. I was trying a new technique.

For Loom: Cast on an odd number of stitches, R to L (CW). Row 1: Knit off all stitches. Row 2: K, P, to end of row. Repeat Rows 1-2.

For Needles: Cast on an odd number of stitches. Row 1: Knit all stitches. Row 2: P, K, to end of row. Repeat Rows 1-2.

(Note, I don't think that's actually quite right, because the way I loom knit, you only knit the end pegs once, but I'm too tired to translate it perfectly. This would get the body of the stitch right.) :)

FO: Butterfly Moebius a.k.a twisted wrap

Ah, the saga of the moebius by Cat Bordhi (Ravelry). Actually, this was a pretty easy and fun knit, and if I had been paying more attention it would have turned out the right size. Begin at the beginning, right?
When I started the wrap, I had four skeins of this bamboo yarn and wanted to do something wrap-like with it. I'm not a shawl kind of girl, and I thought about designing my own wrap, but I was inspired by this pattern's twists. Bernat Bamboo Natural Blends (Ravelry) fit the bill of what Bordhi called for in her description of good substitutes for her pattern.
Well, I liked the way my double moss stitch swatch came out better than what I had been thinking anyway, so I cast on and went to town. Then I went past town. I may have already mentioned this, but I was knitting in a meeting and couldn't hold it up to size. It ended up being a couple inches too wide for my shoulders, and my choices were to rip back or to start over. I considered both, but I'd only screwed up one pair of stitches! Every time I've ripped back I've messed it up and lost two to three times what I meant to, so I reallllly didn't want to rip back. I could have started over and made it taller given that I had over a skein left, but I decided instead to try crocheting a border around the edge to tighten it up. (Single crochet only alternating between a regular sc and sc two together... I can't remember the notation for that.) That worked like a charm. The FO doesn't drape like Bordhi's does - but it did until I put the edge on (in case you're considering using the yarn for this project). I liked the drape, but not with the ill fit, so this was my improvisation. The result is cuddly, and I like that, too.
If you have any recommendations for a simple project with about 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 skeins of this yarn, let me know. I was thinking a calorimetry, but now that I've knit with it, I think it might be too slippery...
Opinions?

FO: Fingerless Bath Mitt

This was an improvised design I made after practicing my technique while watching NexStitch videos. I definitely recommend them. I learned to crochet from my left-handed mother who admitted to not being able to tell if I was doing it right. These little tutorials were a big help, as was the tutorial from Lion Brand (also available as PDF). (The project is on Ravelry or you can just see more pictures here.)
In knitting news, I'm about 70% done with my wrap - the Butterfly Moebius. One of the classrooms I teach in is Arctic-ly cold. I'm not kidding - the students keep their jackets on and some actually cover their mouths with their scarves during class. I'm hoping the wrap and/or the shrug that's up right after it will help. The shrug is still in the design phase though until I finish the wrap, so I'm also hoping to get the wrap done this week so the shrug will be done before the weather warms. (Though when it does, the classroom just gets colder.)
Non-knitting related post tomorrow!

FO: Calla Lily Bag

Before:

The bag was assembled in a very rectangular way and completely seamed together at this stage. It was looking big, but not so big that I thought it wouldn't felt down to a good size. The proportions weren't quite looking right for the final product, but I'd had to do a couple of fixes already, and without knowing how it would felt, I took the chance.

I washed it in my environmentally-friendly Kenmore for about half an hour, maybe a little longer, and it felted up well. In retrospect, I might have been more patient and let it felt for one more cycle.

And After:

Apologies for the slightly blurry picture. We were trying desperately to catch the last of the light today. I'd love to set up a place inside for good pictures... but I digress.
I lined the bag handle with a strip of pale blue ribbon (see below) to prevent it from stretching out. Note how the outer walls are higher than the inner - this isn't part of the pattern, nor was it intentional on my part. I didn't notice the inner wall was shorter than the outer until I had two done, and until I finished the third, I thought I might be imagining it. I made the fourth (the other outer wall) ten rows longer to try to make them match up better, and felted you can't tell at all.

I already have ideas for how I will do the next one differently - shorter, slightly tapered corners, garter stitch maybe - but I do think this one turned out well. It holds my basics plus some, and I really like the color.

The Calla Lily Bag, adapted for the loom/rake, ladies and gentlemen.

My Too-Big-Mitts, Mouse Pillow and Unoriginal Hat

My first FOs! Only a week later than I promised myself, but there's three! I've included details of all of these on my Ravelry account too.

My first knit project was a scarf that is fairly useful but not really worth mentioning. My second was the mitts - I call them my Too-Big-Mitts - at right. (Pictures of all projects are available at my Flickr account.) These were my own design, so to speak, of a tube on the blue KK loom, knit in the round except for the thumb hole created by knitting back and forth without completing the round, and a simple cast off. They work very well for their purpose, which was that I needed something to pad my wrists and palms at my laptop during NaNoWriMo. My currently in progress paper has more design flair, is more fitted, and only has the yarn doubled on the bottom (palm) side in order to make the back more breathable.


This is a mouse pillow inspired by pieKnits' pattern. It's really just a moss-stitch square seamed on three sides except for the little bit of flair created by the cast on. Last but not least, this is a hat I made in my first attempt to convert something complicated - cables - from an existing pattern - the Yarn Harlot's Unoriginal Hat.

I'm happy with how all of these turned out, but I definitely learned a different lesson from each of them. (Make the thumb hole bigger, be more careful with stitch patterns, and that technique of cabling didn't quite work, for example.) If you've got comments or questions about how I did anything, I'm happy to chat about it. Now to sleep!