Right Now

On the road: Me
In the car door cup holder: Noro Silk Garden
On the needles: comfort shawl

Hey Girl

Hey, girl. I do have knitting to show you, but the weather and other circumstances have not cooperated with helping me get good pics. That'll have to wait.

I just wanted to quickly share something one of my friends posted on Facebook. Those of you who were fans of the Handmade Ryan Gosling tumblr will be pleased to learn that Gosling likes knitting in real life! Access Hollywood has the scoop!

Inspired By

Inspired by Claire at Say Yes to Hoboken to make a tassel necklace:

Most of the time, my Pinterest pins are for future inspiration, but every once in awhile, something comes along that says "make me now!" So I did.

The directions were very clear, and I was easily able to get all of the supplies at Michael's. I used DMC floss E317, from the Precious Metal Effects line. I do have a tip for you if you are having a hard time placing the knots just where you want.

Tie a knot around a large needle.

You can then move the needle up and down the length of your string till you get it to the position you want. Then gently withdraw the needle as you tighten the knot.

After putting on the beads on either side, I put both pieces of string through 2 final beads. The last bead stays in a fixed position, but the other one can side up and down to adjust the length of the necklace.

Inspired By

Inspired by Sarah to make a scarf hanger:

You've probably already seen this idea all over Pinterest. It was appealing to me because it's so modular. I love to sort clothing and accessories by color so that they're easier to find, and I loved the fact that you could add a shower curtain ring anywhere on the hanger without having to shift other things around. As soon as I saw it about a year ago, I put my scarves onto shower curtain rings and put them on a hanger.

The problem, though, was that no matter how hard I tried to keep things evenly distributed, the rings would slip and slide all over, and all the weight would eventually shift to one side, causing the hanger to be lopsided. If you know me at all, you'd know this would irk me! It was actually a little better when there were more scarves on the hanger, but still...

In re-organizing my closet this week, I decided I'd search for other solutions. I love the idea of installing towel bars to hang the scarves, but I didn't have a good space that would work. I looked at various scarf organizers online and then made a trip to the Container Store to evaluate all the ones they had. With some of the commercially available scarf organizers, it was hard to get out one scarf without disturbing the others, or else there was a lot of overlap and things got bulky. Plus, none of them were modular. So I had another look at the hanger + shower curtain ring idea. I tried a wooden hanger, and it was less slippery, but the rings would still slide around. Plus, it wouldn't match the rest of my plastic white hangers, LOL! I didn't want to glue the rings down or put them in fixed positions because then I'd lose some flexibility. So I cut up some foam shelf liner and hot glued it around my hanger. I had the shelf liner on hand already, but I'm sure that felt, fleece, or some other non-slippery fabric would work well.

Now everything stays neat without slipping around, even when there are very few things on the hanger.

I like this so much that I'm hanging my belts this way too. I just orient the ring so that the prong points up and leave it open so that it's easier to get the belt on and off.

Right Now

On the needles: Honey Cowl
On me: Lanesplitter skirt
On the nails: Santa Fe by RBL, and my first Konad stamp (M7) on the ring finger

Inspired By

Inspired by Print Workshop by Christine Schmidt, via Janet, to do a little stamping:

I took an existing stamp and covered up the wood mounting block with tape to protect it. Then, I just wrapped some leftover cotton yarn (you know I've got plenty of that on hand!) around the block. This is stamped using a regular ink pad onto some paper that's going into my journal.

I love this book! There are so many projects in it that I want to make. (The project in this video is not in the book, and the template is not on the website anymore. However, it's good to watch her technique. You'll be able to preview some of the other projects in the book at the end of the video.)

PRINT WORKSHOP by Christine Schmidt from Yellow Owl Workshop on Vimeo.

Inspired By

Inspired by Butter with a Side of Bread to make pumpkin pretzels:

I love chocolate-covered pretzels (salty + sweet), and these were so cute! I used green Mike & Ikes instead of the original M&Ms.

Right Now

On the iPhone: Stylebook App. I was inspired by a friend to catalog my closet, and this app is a great way to do it. I love playing paper dolls with my own wardrobe!

On me: Button Cowl Neck Pullover

On the playlist: Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop

Inspired By

Inspired by Ruth Bleakley on Poppytalk to make some relief prints from styrofoam:

This was a fun and easy craft project, and it helped the kids to better appreciate the Japanese woodblock prints we have.

Even though we're doing our best to avoid styrofoam, some of it still makes its way into our house. We clean it and save it in a bin to be taken to the recycling center when it's full enough. For this project, we raided the "stash." We used acrylic paint and a sponge brush since we don't have a brayer.

Tuesday Tube: My Boyfriend's Back

I'm not ready to make Tuesday Tube a regular feature again, but I came across this and it was too good not to share! Check out Noortje de Keiger's knitted boyfriend. The perfect man!

The Long and Short of It

I was this close to finishing the Swirl Skirt for my 6-year-old daughter, but I had to rip it all the way back. When I knit for myself, I'm constantly trying things on as I go along so that I can make adjustments if necessary. I was not conscientious about having my little girl try on this skirt--partly because I usually knit after the kids have gone to bed--and it ended up being way too short. Since it's knit side to side, there was no way to add enough extra length to it, so I started over.

The good news is that it gave me a chance to try a new technique. The skirt requires short rows, and the first time around, I used the Japanese short row technique. This time, I remembered that I had Pinned something about German short rows (via Julie). This is supposed to give the same result as Japanese short rows, but it is much easier to execute because you don't have to mark any stitches. I love it! Now, I have to say I don't achieve quite as nice of a look as the Japanese version, but the ease of this technique makes up for it.

In case you haven't seen German short rows yet, here are some videos from the always-helpful Roxanne.

Has anyone else tried this? What do you think?

Right Now

On the Needles: Swirl Skirt

On the Nails: OPI Schnapps Out of It

On the DVD: The Help

Right Now

In the sink: Mitini Mitts, soaking in Lacey from my Soakbox kit

On the nails: Rescue Beauty Lounge Poppy

In the queue: Swirl Skirt

It's the Little Things

I'm a fan of cupcakes, tapas, dollhouse furniture, and hotel bottles of shampoo. Making something smaller makes it a bigger draw for me. You'll understand, then, that I could not resist these little bundles of joy!

Isn't it adorable? This is the Denise2Go set (which, strangely, I couldn't find on the Denise website 
is almost hidden on the website).

Inside are 6 sets of needle tips, size 5-10, as well as a crochet hook tip. Genius! Tucked in the back are 2 end buttons, 1 extender, and 3 cords: 14", 16", and 19". Anytime I'm using a needle that's a size 5 or larger, I knit exclusively with my Denise set. This portable version is absolutely perfect for me. I travel a fair bit, and I often bring a new project to work on during the trip. It's just lighter and more convenient than bringing a big heavy project that's nearly done. Because I don't usually swatch, I often change needle sizes as I go along if the size isn't working out. This way, I can conveniently carry all the needles I'm likely to use. Love it!

My second find is a pattern for dainty little fingerless mitts.

It's part of the new collection of patterns from Blue Sky Alpacas for their Royal Petites yarn. Sigh. They had me at "Petites." The yarn is dreamy, and just look at the cute retro styling of the pattern! There's a little folder that holds a picture of adorable alpacas on one side and the pattern on the other side. The mitts go quickly, and I'll have some FOs to share with you soon.

Use It Or Lose It: Stash

I've been keeping track of which of my clothes get worn and which don't. It felt so good to let go of unused clothing that I've decided to apply those same ideas to my stash. That's right. I'm going to clear out most of my yarn! As you can imagine, this was not an easy decision. I love all that yarn...or at least I did when I bought it. When I first plunged into all things knitting, I was a capricious shopper and quickly amassed an assortment of yarns. In time, I became more selective and only bought yarn for specific projects. The problem remained, though, that I could shop more quickly than I could knit. Even though I've used, sold, and given away a lot of it, I still have well over 16 miles of yarn left!

I find that I now mostly knit projects for which I've just bought yarn. That sequence of getting excited about a project, having the thrill of finding just the right yarn, and then quickly casting on--that's what is most likely going to result in a finished product that I like. I'm also more likely to enjoy the process itself because it's what I'm in the mood to knit, whether it's stockinette in the round or complex lace and cables. I've begun to see my stash as more a source of guilt than of inspiration, and that is not how it should be. Therefore, I'm giving myself one year to use it or lose it. This is not a moratorium on purchasing. But if I haven't cared enough about a yarn in my stash to cast on something with it by 8/31/13, I need to find it a better home.

To start things off, I returned 3 balls of Cascade Kid Seta Noir to my LYS today. This is gorgeous yarn! I picked these up with the intention of making a Color Affection, and I still think they'd be great. But the reality is that I've already made one Color Affection and stalled out on a second. The likelihood that I'll start--let alone finish--a third in a year is slim when I've got lots of other ideas swirling around.

Wish me luck, folks!

Right Now

On the Needles: Mitini Mitts in Royal Petites

On the Nails: gradient mani using Butter London Arful Dodger and RBL Bikini Bottom, topped with a-england Morgan le Fay

On the iPod: Payphone by Maroon 5. I find it funny that my kids sing along even though they don't really know what a payphone is.

Lost in Space

I've been feeling so spacey this past week. Maybe it's all the antihistamines I'm taking to control my allergies. I went to my knitting group a few days ago but didn't bring my project! I grabbed my newly purchased drink and drove back home to retrieve the yarn, but then I forgot my drink in the car when I came back!

Yesterday, my husband saw me working on my daughter's fingerless mitts. Knowing I had already finished one, he asked, "Are you working on the left one now?" Oops! I had completely forgotten that I was, in fact, supposed to be working on the left one, and I had started the thumb gusset in the wrong place. Luckily, I was only 2 rows into it, so it was an easy fix. I'm glad he caught my mistake in time! Two rights don't make it right!

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Yarn and nail polish? Together?!

Well, of course I got one. Now if only they had packaged it with some chocolate too!

Happy Accidents

I finished the Exposed Seam Pullover and am ready to share it with you!

It feels so good to have an FO! Even though I made some mistakes along the way, they worked out in the end.

After making the body, you make the left sleeve. After you divide the sleeve stitches, you're supposed to join them to the front of the body on RS rows and to the back on WS rows. I accidentally put the sleeve on the right side of the body instead of the left, which meant that my joins were reversed. This actually worked out much better, though, because the joins created on the WS rows turned out much neater, and those were the ones that ended up in the front. See the difference?

front

back

I had to jiggle the excess yarn out of the stitches in the back before blocking to get a decent result.

The other thing that happened to me was that I used up every last bit of 8 balls of yarn but hadn't quite finished. I only had 10 sleeve rows left to knit, but I would have had to break into an extra ball. I'm glad I decided to block first. After I did, the shorter sleeve turned out to be the perfect length, so I bound it off and went back to shorten the other sleeve. If I had forged on, they would have both been too long!

put in a lifeline

cut off the cast-on edge and frogged

More pictures and details are on Ravelry.

X Factor

I've been working on Eunny Jang's Exposed Seam Pullover from the first issue of knit.wear. This pattern was one of the reasons I bought the issue, and I'm so surprised that there haven't been any other projects on Ravelry yet!

The body is knit in the round from the bottom up, with slipped stitches forming faux seams. You then cast on at the cuff of one sleeve, and when the sleeve is finished being knit in the round, you separate it out and start knitting in rows. This then becomes the yoke, which is attached to the body as you go along. It's great, except that when you do this, you end up with an even larger-than-average hole at the armhole.

Yuck! Luckily, I remembered TechKnitter's simple solution for this: crossing stitches. The X that's formed helps to take the strain better and maintain stability.

This simple maneuver makes a huge difference! I also used this trick where the yoke stitches were separated to create the neckhole.