WIP: Can you guess?

I'm working on something pretty amazing, and can't WAIT to share finished product photos.

But first, can you guess what it is based on materials?

There is a clue in this picture that should tip off the biggest nerds.

C'mon! Take a guess!

Giants Kouki Cardi Update: Elbow Patches!

My cousin sent a picture of the finished work!

Amazing!!

Moss stitch with the contrast stitching...beautiful!

She also managed to make excellent use of some leftover orange yarn:

Go Sharks!

So proud of our genetic crafting skills, and shared joy of embarrassing our children.

Jute knee patches

Here we go, round two!

Some jute patches - that's more durable, right? They make carpets outta that stuff. 

Potato sack looking, eh. 

Don't worry, I didn't line them with jute! My son's knees are bruised plenty... Here's some soft felt and secret winter touches for your viewing pleasure. 

(Confession: I love inappropriately placed holiday attire. I met a new mommy-friend just a few weeks ago because she was wearing Halloween socks in public - and I was wearing Christmas ones! KISMET.) 

(Kismet doesn't insinuate anything romantic, does it? That would be wrong.) 

(Just checked, phew! We're safe. No romance needed.)

Let's see how long these suckers last. 

Monster Face Pull-over

Another fun project with the kid!

A few weeks ago I saw this on my Tumblr feed:

SAKUN cat sweater with zipper mouth

AMAZING! (Also, I am now in love with Korean fashion blog seoulrhythm. check it out.)

I showed the pictures to the kid and it was a hit. So, naturally, we made our own.

with a few changes...

A few things I learned about doing a project with your kid:

• Plans go out the window I don't know about you, but my kid changes his mind every 5 seconds. I cut out the exact same shape of the cat eyes (in the same color!) only to have him ultimately decide to flip them upside down. He also decided that he wanted a giant brown nose. And then he didn't. Then he decided it was going to be a monster. The choices are endless - and I let him have free reign with creative choices so he feels like it is 'his' project. Ultimately, though, I have to cut it off so that we can actually finish the project. The key is trying to gauge that point correctly.
• It will never be 'perfect' And it shouldn't be! Perfection usually comes at the price of many tears and your kid not getting to be as involved as s/he should be. I have to remind myself to not be worried about the end product - that kind of professionalism is lost on him anyway. 
• Keep it cheap We made this out of scrap fabric, scrap thread, and a pull-over he is on the verge of outgrowing that is no longer a staple of his wardrobe. The only thing I actually bought was the zipper - $1.99 at JoAnn's. Since it's a novelty item and I wasn't sure if it would be successful or worn often, I couldn't afford to put much money (or time) into it. 

We had SO MUCH FUN. I couldn't get it completely finished before bedtime, but we had it all cut and pinned and I promised when he woke up it would be completely sewn. All in all it took just one evening.

And he won't stop wearing it. :)

Another patch!

Since the little man requested a "red square" this time, I had to use felt (only red material on hand). Of course I decided to spiff it up a bit - how's about a race car, guys?

Criteria for car shape: needs wheels. The end.

I stitched this last weekend while some friends were over, and one of them jokingly commented that it would only be a matter of time before this, too, was torn open...which is unfortunately, undoubtedly true. Ah, boys! Good thing I enjoy doing these. :)

Learning From Mistakes with Mods Gone Wrong

Modifications are cool because you can learn from a new pattern while trying to implement changes of your own - kind of like designing with training wheels. That said, it doesn't always work out the way you want it to...

Striping on the collar and cuffs of my Kouki cardi mod, for example.

before and after

I knew getting clean looking stripe was going to be difficult because of the way a purl stitch looks, but I couldn't for the life of my think of how to avoid it. I decided to just knit as the original (non-striping) pattern was written, hoping that inspiration would strike me later.

The pattern called for a k2p2 ribbing on the cuffs and bottom edging. As you see above, the left cuff (k2p2) looks pretty sloppy. The collar however called for a portion of k2p1 ribbing... d'oh! Of COURSE that makes the stripes look so much better! I don't know why I didn't think of hiding the purl stitches this way... So I ripped out the cuffs and redid them with a k2p1 rib - as shown on the right. MUCH nicer.

Let's see that again.

Ripping out the cuffs was really rough, but luckily I was able to pick out the black from the cream yarn easily enough and knit out from there. I actually wasn't able to rip out and fix the bottom edging because I had already sewn the fleece on, and was tired of ripping out stitches. (More mistakes I learned from...tbc later) Part of learning the hard way, I guess!

Mods Gone Wild! Kouki Cardigan Edition

I'm working on a very lofty interpretation of the fantastic Kouki Piloto Cardigan by Kyoko Nakayoshi of Cotton and Cloud.

Too cute!

Disclaimer:
I'm a huge fan of modifications and taking creative control. HOWEVER, I think it is even more important to honor the designer's original work. I realized after I started this that there are no other projects listed on Ravelry for this pattern... and I am completely embarrassed! I've set aside yarn and am going to knit this as written ASAP. Kyoko Nakayoshi is one of my favorite designers, and I feel so bad to have overlooked this.

But for now, back to the project.

The hobbly-gobbly experiment I mentioned is to create a toddler cardigan that honors the San Francisco Giants and their 2012 World Series win. (Hooray!)

Read up on it!

Mods started as:

• Change color to Giants colors, with style to match a baseball jacket
• Lining the jacket with some Giants fleece

This was a sketch of my original idea:

It took a while to find the right pattern to modify. (I was not up for completely fabricating a design. Why reinvent the wheel? I need all the experience I can get.)
As previously mentioned I'm a sucker for all things Kyoko Nakayoshi, so when I discovered her Kouki pattern it was hard to NOT pick it. She had just published it and I LOVE knitting her designs for the sheer process of it, not just the beautiful outcome.

However, I ran into a few issues with the mods I wanted. Can you tell? Here's the nearly finished product:

I basically got everything I asked for, but had to make a few compromises along the way. (Which involved a lot of re-doing!)

There is still a bit of work to be done, but I'm pretty happy with it. Hopefully will update with more pictures soon!

NaKniSweMo - Day 30: Complete yet Incomplete

Day 30 and miraculously... I finished it!!

Yay! Er...wait a second...

Ok, so it's technically done.

I did finish it...

Mod: Kitchen Floor Mat

So, even though I am in the midst of sweater knitting frenzy I somehow found the time to finish up the kitchen floor mat modification I had been planning.

Well, in this picture, it's a quick steam/iron away from being finished.

[Please pardon all the dark crappy photos that are a direct result of completing the entire project late, late at night between feedings.]

The original mat was poop-brown and a total magnet for dirt, dog hair, and pilling. This didn't really bother me but

Better Yarn, Better Work

The more I look at patterns and create finished pieces, the more I have seen evidenced that it's really much more about the yarn and the color choices than it is about the pattern. The right hue combination can really make something beautiful in a perfectly subtle way. There are definitely good patterns and there are bad patterns, but without the right yarn it's harder to tell the difference between the two. Likewise, a mediocre pattern can become beyond dreamy with a little ingenious use of color.

I know it probably goes without saying and this is the whole theory behind yarn lust and such, but I think perhaps I am getting more serious about it personally - what with the just-opened world of baby girl knit ideas. :)

A few examples of things made amazing by yarn choices:

rililie's Versio by ANKESTRICK

Taylasmum's Milo by Georgie Hallam

If you just look at the pattern you'll see there really aren't any tricks...and a standard, true-to-pattern knit up will yield a nice normal FO. But...! Add a little thought like the knitters did here and... you have a whole new level of intrigue and professionalism.

I also love this berry hat. 

Baby Berry Hat by Michele Sabatier

FO: Knit Sunglasses Holder

First off, let me talk about how hard it was to name this project. A knit sunglasses holder? I mean...it sounds terrible! Awful! Like the itchy cruddy iPod holder/necklaces after-school knitting clubs teach kids to make for their family for Christmas because they are totally lacking in creative energy and resources. Anyway, I promise this project doesn't live up to that disappointment.

So this is something I have had my eye on for ages - ever since I saw a neat craft idea for hanging jewelry. Can't find the original inspirational photo now - dammit. I think it was on Apartment Therapy or something like that... Anyway, it's amazing and I've dreamt of using picture frames for hanging accessories ever since.

For this project I focused on a place to hang sunglasses - as that is a problem in this house - but it can be used for earrings, buttons, etc. (Buttons and brooches are the next item I need to address, in fact.) Interestingly enough, this idea has popped up a few times since then - most notably here (from my favorite inspirational knit-tastic blogger, of all people!) but never quite in the way I envisioned it.

Fast forward days, months, possibly a year? And I have FINALLY found the time and resources to make this happen. Here's a picture of the finished project:

There is, admittedly, room for improvement (I can see the sagging~ I didn't pull it tight enough around the glass! Bulky yarn made framing this a lot harder than I hoped - I actually cracked the glass.) But overall....I LOVE IT! And now, finally, have a cool place to hang all the sunglasses that end up floating around the house. 

Full notes coming soon !

FO at last!

Though it was the bane of my existence for weeks, I finally finished twinkie yoke jacket #2.

clearly it was a hit

Literally down to the wire, I stayed up late on Friday night and finished the last sleeve in the car on the way to the BBQ...but I did it! Only shitter is I didn't have time to finish the colourwork I intended. My beautiful plum blossoms will have to wait another day to bloom, for now all twinkie M has is some white abstract shaping that I managed to finish before they arrived. Although - that is mostly because it was unexpectedly chilly, and they needed to put the jackets on ASAP. Can't complain! Got to see em in action!

Here's twinkie N rocking the pink and teasing my son.

Ugh, they are too cute. 

Also off my list is the mods I added to this number from last month: 

smushable babies everywhere!

I added some cuffs to the sleeves (so they can be pushed up, and for extra length - her arms were longer than expected) and a flower button and loop to close the front. I thought about adding a little "E" for personalization but the hubs was giving me death stares and I had to just let it go. 

I tried desperately to get a picture of my son modeling the finished project, but no amount of cajoling would get him to come near it. I fear he is becoming to smart for my dress-up desires. So, no updated picture on this....yet. I will ask the momma to send one my way soon.

All in all....a very productive weekend! 

Cool Blogs NEVER STOP

AAaaarg! Why are there so many cool blogs!? I think this is a scary black hole that I have jumped in to. Good thing I have a trail of yarn falling behind  me.

Latest ARRG-inducing blog features these incredible monster pants - not sure what else to say. Just look.

and PLEASE check out KnitHacker, my new invisible best friend that doesn't know I love them yet. Thanks to Andrea using Pinterest for the lead!

Loathed but necessary non-update

This week has been less fruitful than most.

Due to some last minute Lasik surgery, I have had to skip a few days of knitting and in turn have fallen a little behind on all my knitting writings. I should be more upset but xanax seems to take care of that. :D

After a few days of sleeping and cross-eyed walking around the house, I'm back up to speed! Lasik is a strange and magical thing that I'm sure has been discussed enough so I won't bother blogging on the subject. Much like I don't know how my TV works, I am completely content to let it be mysterious, magical, appreciated, and unquestioned.

However, I was finally able to wrap up the cable yoke jacket for twinkie #1 - I'll give you a teaser of the piece and the fabric I'm going to use for a liner. Can't wait!

    

Modification Gone Wrong

Inspired by this amazing post I decided to try to duplicate the project and knit a cowl for a friend.

The more you knit, the more you learn. And apparently one lesson I need to learn repeatedly is to PLAN AHEAD.  *sigh*

Already skirt length and only 2/3rds done :( 

 Of course I totally eschewed the original pattern and eschewed looking at Raquel's notes (damn you hubris!) and now have knit myself into a rocky, hard placed corner.

Not sure if the original knitter ran into the same problem, but this sucker is HUGE. There is NO way it is going to morph into a beautiful cowl! I put in too many elephants, too many pattern repeats, too much of something...and now I can't in good conscious finish the project as I haphazardly planned. Perhaps I am being a bit of a perfectionist, but honestly I see no point in creating crappy knit works. This is where the "cross" comes in....(along with being cross-eyed from so many frogged rows and pattern repeats).

Mesmerizing, though, ain't it?

I suppose the lesson is...I am not a "seat of my pants" kind of knitter. I love, honor, and respect a good pattern. SIGH. Now to try and figure out what what to do with this non-cowl...

Ideas, anyone?

Domo Mittens - Adult size!

Hurrah hurrah! A creation!! Heavily inspired by this pattern but with a Domo puppet twist.

Introducing my very own DOMO MITTENS!

Check out all the info on my Ravelry project page or RIGHT HERE on this site.