Knitting and Crochet Blog Week: Day 4

3KCBWDAY4 A Knitter for All Seasons

As spring is in the air in the northern hemisphere and those in the southern hemisphere start setting their sights for the arrival of winter, a lot of crocheters and knitters find that their crafting changes along with their wardrobe. Have a look through your finished projects and explain the seasonality of your craft to your readers. Do you make warm woollens the whole year through in preparation for the colder months, or do you live somewhere that never feels the chill and so invest your time in beautiful homewares and delicate lace items. How does your local seasonal weather affect your craft?

I live in North Carolina where in general, the winter is much more mild than anything you find in the NE, Midwest, Mountain West, etc. The big thing about the winters in central NC is that they can be wildly different from week to week over the course of the Dec-March time period. Some winters are colder than others. Some weeks don't feel like winter at all and other weeks can have snow and 70 degree weather in the same week.

My FO reflects the variable climate:

-I made one sweater for really cold days: Central Park Hoodie (without the hood) made out of Peace Fleece yarn. It's freakishly warm so it has to be realllly cold to wear it.

-I have a sweater for somewhat cool days: Peasy made with Rowan Felted Tweed DK

-And one for spring/fall: Hey Teach made with Brown Sheep Serendipity Tweed

-My building is a ~5 min from my parking deck so a hat is a must! I usually wear this Snowflake hat

My WIP vary as well:

-I have one project for summer on the needles: Allegoro

-One for spring: Alexandria

-One for fall: Perfect Sweater

-A couple for winter: Dark and Stormy and Vodka Gimlet

I tend to work on projects that match the current season which makes no sense because by the time I finish them it's no longer the appropriate season to wear them! Although the summers here are brutal so I'm not inclined to have a pile of wool on my lap when it's 105 out. . .

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week: Day 3

3KCBWDAY3 Knitting Hero

Your Knitting Or Crochet Hero
Blog about someone in the fibre crafts who truly inspires you. There are not too many guidelines for this, it's really about introducing your readers to someone who they might not know who is an inspiration to you. It might be a family member or friend, a specific designer or writer, indie dyer or another blogger.


I've chosen the designer Kate Davies. She lives in one of my favorite places, Edinburgh, and I was fortunate to take a trip there in 2010:

While she is recovering from a serious stroke, she never ceases to amaze me with her resilience and fortitude. Her blog is always fun to read as she has beautiful photos from her walks and travels around Scotland, as well as interesting topics, such as one about a recent trip to the Donegal Yarn mill or a fascinating post about how women washed and dried their clothes in the nineteenth century.

She has so many beautiful patterns: two of my favorites are Hazelhurst and Boreal. I'd love to make either one but my fair isle skills aren't there yet!

WIP Wednesday: Inspired

Last Thursday evening I attended a lecture at my LQS given by Annie Smith entitled "Help! My Stash is Growing and I Can't Make it Stop!". She showed photos of several of her friends stashes which made me feel quite a bit better about the size of as mine as it paled in comparison. She also brought several of her beautiful quilts. I came away inspired to work on mine and as a result I now have a near finished quilt top! All it needs now are the borders - I wait until the top is assembled before deciding on what fabric to use for the borders.

Over the weekend I sewed all of the X block sections together:

I cut and sewed the strips for the Plain blocks:

I assembled the Plain blocks:

I laid it out and it wasn't love at first sight. It didn't come out quite the way I had envisioned it in my head. Isn't that the way it always is?  It felt like the red and green were "fighting" with each other too much. 

I consulted my mom and a couple of friends and they said it was beautiful and to keep going. At one point I was going to scrap the whole thing! My sister pointed out that my friend would like to have it sooner rather than later and my mom said that quilts that you make for others that aren't in "your" colors tend to feel a bit "off". And my sweet husband said that adding the borders and the quilting will change the look of it too.

So I carried on and last night sewed the blocks into rows then the rows together:

Today I'm off to buy fabric for the borders. I'll try and learn from the lecture and not add too much to my stash :)

Be sure to check our more WIP at: 

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week: Day 2

3KCBWDAY2  Photography Challenge

Photography Challenge Day:
Today challenges you to be creative with your photography, and get yourself in with the chance to win the photography prize. Taking interesting photographs in this instance isn't about flashy cameras or a great deal of technical know-how, it's about setting up a story or scene in a photograph and capturing something imaginative. Your photograph(s) should feature something related to your craft, so that might be either a knitted or crocheted item, yarn, or one of your craft tools. 

Something Old, Something New, 

Something Borrowed, Something Blue

old: my grandmother's handkerchief

new: wedding dress

borrowed: my aunt's garter

blue: Vodka Gimlet*

*Note: I got married on February 18th, 2012 but my actual blue was an earring that belonged to my groom's late mother. I carried it in the small pocket of the garter along with a six pence. I'd hoped to have Vodka Gimlet done in time so I could wear it the morning of the wedding as I was getting ready but I didn't. But as it turned out it was a really warm day :)

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week: Day 1

  3KCBWDAY1  Colour Lovers

Welcome to the Third Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week! This is my first time participating in this spectacular event and I've enjoyed preparing blog entries for it.


Today's Topic: Colour is one of our greatest expressions of ourselves when we choose to knit or crochet, so how do you choose what colours you buy and crochet or knit with. Have a look through your stash and see if there is a predominance of one colour. Do the same with your finished projects - do they match? Do you love a rainbow of bright hues, or more subdued tones. How much attention do you pay to the original colour that a garment is knit in when you see a pattern? Tell readers about your love or confusion over colour.


I looked through my Stash/WIP/FO discovered a lot of soft blues, purples, and pinks:


Stash:
Dream in Color Some Summer Sky and Peace Fleece Latvian Lavender:

WIP:
Vodka Gimlet made with Shepherd's Wool Baby Blue
Dark and Stormy made with Cascade 220 Montmartre
Shawl That Jazz  made with Blue Fiber Arts Blue Moonstone
Alexandria Cardigan made with Fleece Artist Woolie Silk 3 plyRose

F.O.
Bulky Shrug made with Araucania Limari in 502
Peasy made with Rowan Felted Tweed in Duck Egg

I also have some reds and browns:

Stash: 

Peace Fleece Lauren's Coral

WIP: 

Perfect Sweater made with Rowan Felted Tweed Pebble

FO:
Central Park Hoodie made with Peace Fleece Sheplova Mushroom
Hey Teach made with Brown Sheep Serendipity Tweed Nebraska Wheat
V Neck Down Cardigan made with Berroco Ultra Alapaca Cardinal

This was a fun exercise as I realized that I don't have any greens, yellows or neutrals. Something to consider for future projects!

You can find more blogs participating in the Knitting and Crochet Blog Week by googling  3KCBWDAY1. If you have come here as part of the blog week, thank you for visiting.

WIP Wednesday: Momentum

It was hard to get going again on Something Blue after realizing I would have to reknit the entire collar. . .  but the designer was very kind and gave me advice on how to fix it: pick up less stitches and move the short rows up ~ 6 inches. I wasn't up for more ribbing but didn't want to lose the momentum on this thing so decided to knit the sleeve next. It's easy knitting which is a nice change.

I'm participating in Eskimimi's 3rd Annual Knitting & Crochet Blog Week so stayed tuned!

And check out more WIP at Tami's Amis

WIP Wednesday: Collared

You know that feeling you get when you're knitting along that something is not quite right but you just ignore it thinking "well once it's off the needles it will look ok" but then when you are done you think "Man I wished I'd listened to that little voice inside my head". That's what's happened with my Something Blue collar. I kept thinking the bands at the bottom of the sweater looked too narrow and there was an odd wave to the middle. I picked up more stitches than directed (based on advice of a few ravelers but they used different yarn so it's not their fault). I also put more waist shaping in than the pattern called for so I'm not sure if that's part of the reason.

I saw one pattern on rav where the bands were the same width all the way around so I may try that (after picking up the correct number of stitches) or I may move the short rows higher up the front since my waist shaping detail is lower than the pattern called for because I'm long-waisted. I'd appreciate any advice on how to fix it!

But before redoing the collar, I'm going to knit up one sleeve first so that 

a) I get a break from 2 x 2 rib 

b) I won't run out of yarn for the sleeves because I made the collar too wide.

Sorry for the poor photo quality - I finished the bind off late last night so it was dark when I took the photos.

On a positive note: I cut the strips for the "X" block of the triple irish chain quilt and I like how it's coming together:

For more WIP be sure to check out Tami's Amis blog!