Yarn Talks

And sometimes it tells you it really just wants to be a scarf!

I have had this Bernat "Denim Style" yarn for a long time. I wanted to make a light summer top, because brown is a neutral, right? Every attempt I haven't liked. It just feels too heavy crocheted and I didn't feel like knitting it. And the brown doesn't seem to match what I have. And, after swatching, I wasn't feel confident about how much yarn I had.

Not having anything else lined up, and just getting plain fed up, I decided to go with a scarf, even though this has cotton (if I remember correctly).  I just did a simple double crochet. To be honest, I can't even remember if I stitched the ends together to make it an infinity scarf.  I was ticked off when I went down stairs later and found more of the yarn. Oh well, it'll make another scarf, I guess.

Yarn In: 1642gr
Yarn Out: 109gr + 2195gr=2304gr
Balance: 662gr more USED than bought
Costs:   $40.73/200 days = $0.20per day

Test Project

I got an inquiry one night asking if I could make a onesie from a t shirt. I haven't made baby clothes, and at first I was skeptical. I started googling and came across some patterns. Like you find so often, they were of varying quality. One pattern didn't have the crossover shoulders but used the t-shirt neck. One pattern had legs. One pattern you had to import the pictures of the pattern into a word processing program and print them. One didn't have sleeves. Most patterns were too big for what the woman was inquiring about. I ended up using the pattern pieces from HERE and instructions from everywhere.

 The front piece cut out. Isn't it cute just like this? My son had a pile of clothes he was giving away so I found this t-shirt in that pile. It's a little thicker/less stretchy than the onesies I remember, but this was just a test.

I wasn't sure how to finish the crotch. Most of the patterns didn't really show it. Some folded the inside piece to make a hem, but I couldn't figure out how to make the ends of the binding look nice against that. I also didn't want the snaps to go through the binding. I used some interfacing on the inside to beef up the area with the snaps. Of course, none of my snaps looked good and were perhaps a little big. I think doing a band instead of binding would also work. I think the sleeves are a bit stiff. There's not much stretch in this shirt, and I wanted to use the actual hems so they couldn't be much shorter. Babies are flexible, I know. I do like the using the neck band from the t-shirt. That worked well!

This was pretty much a quick and easy project. Unless you have a cheap source for t-shirts though, there's no profit. I was looking at Value Village and the men's shirts were around $9.99. How much would someone pay for a onesie?

Owl Cocoon

Sometimes I get an order and I immediately groan. Usually it's for something trendy and crocheted. Such was this order. I had tried this "crocodile stitch" twice before. The first time was when these bootees were all the rage. I just could not get the instructions. Not much defeats me, but that did. So I've had this crankiness towards this stitch ever since. Then, last winter, these gloves were all the rage. So I gave it another go, and this time figured it out. I didn't actually end up making anything though. It really is a neat stitch, but not really all that fast for crochet, and it EATS yarn.

So then I got an inquiry from a previous client, about an owl cocoon. It wasn't urgent (she sent me the message in early January and the baby was due late May, and she wanted more like a 3 month size). I had seen requests for these in the Handmade groups I'm in, but the thought of all that crocodile stitch...and the eyes, and the embroidery....my first thought was "no way".  But I knew that the spring/summer is a slow period and I really shouldn't turn down any orders I'm capable of doing.


The first key to making this economical (ie--have some profit), is using yarn I already have. I had NO idea how much yarn I would need. I really didn't seem to have much for boyish colours, unless I wanted to do actual stripes. No thanks. I was looking around my "yarn store", and caught a glimpse of this large, messy ball of James Brett Marble Chunky. I had picked it up because a) I love this yarn, and b) I had previously made a blanket and it really wasn't big enough so I wanted to re-work it. I figured an actual order comes before a "some day" project.

I got swatching. The first thing I knew was that I wanted the scales/feathers to be only on the front. Why make a baby lay on those? The stitch is created by making a row of V stitch double crochets, then creating the feathers on the posts of the V stitch. So on the back of the row, I did plain double crochets, not the V stitches. Then, when I came around with the feather row, I worked the back in single crochet. The feathers plumped up the row below so I couldn't just slip stitch across. And I find it hard to work the next row into slip stitches. I might have even done hdc.
I gradually increased the width as I went up.
I might have adjusted the pattern to be 3DC, 1 HDC, 2 SC, 1 HDC, 3 DC. I remember swatching different combos to see if I could get a better point on the feathers. I might be able to zoom in on the photos to take another look.

The end result is adorable. There were a couple places in the yarn where I cut out the pale beige sections. I ended up needed to rip back some of that blanket I had planned to enlarge. Looking at the photos, I could have made it a row or two smaller, and a newborn size would fit with one ball. Since I had cracked open the blanket, I decided to add a hat. Some of the inspiration photos she sent included a hat, but she didn't mention it in her messages. So I created my own.

The fun thing with this cocoon...if you tuck the "head" part in, you can wear it like a Marge Simpson wig!! I had tried it on when I was about half way up and the kids were really fearful that I was actually creating a hat....

Yarn In: 1642gr
Yarn Out: 293gr + 1902gr= 2195gr
Balance: 553gr more USED than bought
Costs:   $40.73/171 days = $0.24per day

Teddy!

I always say how much I love knitting these large bears (and how much I love knitting the small bears!). But I really DO mean it! I absolutely love knitting these bears, especially after refining the pattern to be knit in the round. I also don't do the knitted nose like in the original pattern (by Jean Greenhowe). The yarn is Paton's "Divine" which is perfect for the bears, but sadly, they discontinued it. I don't know why!

 I love the pile of bear parts before stuffing. New meaning to Build a Bear!  I also have a photo of trying to sew the inner top leg to the body. It's kind of awkward sewing a bear's crotch.

 The face gets sewn last. I felt this one had a bit of a sad look to him.

 Yes, this was back when we had snow, mid-March. I was concerned about having enough brown so I did his paws in black. I was also going to do his belly in black but I was doing it in the round and it's just not that easy to visualize. As it was, I did have enough brown.

 He got a sweet blue boy as he's going to belong to a new baby boy.

I'm not the only one who loves these bears. Someone had to give him a snuggle test. He passed! Then I had to hide him LOL.

The bear weighed 234gr and the bow was 13gr.

Yarn In: 1642gr
Yarn Out: 247gr + 1655gr = 1902gr
Balance: 260gr more USED than bought
Costs:   $40.73/149 days = $0.27per day

Teddy Bear

I got a request for a custom teddy bear hat, that was urgent. Of course, I didn't know just how urgent until after I gave my quote. And then the photographer wasn't able to pick up and use right away anyway. But oh well, it was nice to have a little project to focus on.  I use some "Soft'Hair" that I had bought many years ago for a sweater. That project had been quite a challenge--the lace was worked on both sides of the knitting! I tried to tailor the sweater a bit because it was an oversized '90s pattern. I was nearly done and it got packed up and put away--I don't know why. A move? A pregnancy? Every time I'd see it, I'd think, what was I thinking--a worsted weight mohair sweater in ivory?! It was somewhat itchy and I could not imagine wearing it next to my skin. Then I needed the needles for something...

I agreed to the order before thinking of how to make it. My first thought was the pixie style hat, but I didn't want the point. While laying in bed, I thought maybe I could eliminate the point by short rowing like a sock.  My first attempt was a little too wedge like. I needed more stitches left out of work in the middle.  I don't see an easy way to download the picture from Instagram, so just go check it out

Or give me another minute and here it is:

I like those little ears, but that's not what I was going for this time. Maybe another time.

I love the end result. I can't believe how much it looks like the inspiration photo, though that photo doesn't show the back shaping, so I don't really know. From the front though, it's awesome. 

Is that not awesome? I'd love to make more!


Yarn In:  1542gr
Yarn Out: 27gr + 1264gr = 1291g
Balance: 251gr more bought than used
Costs:  $37.91/54days = $0.70 per day

Messy Bun!

Just before Christmas, a picture of a woman wearing a messy bun hat appeared on Facebook. Overnight, it was a viral hit and everyone wanted one. I posted right away on my page that I could not make any for Christmas, but if anyone was interested, I'd look at it after Christmas. There was still quite a bit of interest.

One woman who had ordered mermaid blankets before Christmas was interested in getting one, in blues and greys. Now, you'd think that would be a common colour combination. The original photo going around was a subdued jewelled multicoloured yarn with what seemed like a slight fuzz/texture. It was likely Red Heart "Unforgettable" or Mary Maxim "Studio" (not enough fuzz) or Mary Maxim "Prism" or LionBrand "Amazing". Of all of these, "Studio" was the only one with a blue grey mix but the picture was tiny, and the yarn didn't seem to have the gentle fuzz.  I couldn't believe that I couldn't find a blue grey mix in a slightly fuzzy worsted weight yarn.

I put my thinking hat on and immediately thought of the dye pot. I just happen to have an abundance of Patons "Lace" in Porcelain. All it was missing was the grey. And thickness. I have black dye and have used it to get grey before. I figured I could wind off the yarn and dye the white sections grey, and maybe some of the blue because the colour changes are long.

I should have thought a bit more. I figured I wanted three strands, but I really should have wound them together instead of separately. Anyway, I did get it dyed and was pleased, although I would have liked shorter colour runs and more grey.

I got going and whoa, was I surprised at how long the sideways "crocheted rib" band took!!  I had some concerns with this hat because the other one I made, I started at the elastic, at the opening. This one, I had to make the band, then pick up stitches and work upwards, then decreases and would I be able to crochet over the elastic going in this direction? My first couple attempts at crocheting over the elastic did not allow it to stretch much.  I realized I had decreased too many stitches because I was trying to get it to lay flat at the elastic. So I increased the number of sts over the elastic and while it now stretched nicely, it sits up a bit. I hope the messy bun covers it.   I did end up with several small balls of the yarn as I had to break it a few times to change colours and get more grey in the band part.

 My regular camera is broken so I was experimenting with our waterproof camera. The original picture was a bit hazy and dull, so I used a "filter" in editing. It's interesting. Having grown up learning on a 35mm SLR, I try to do all the editing "in camera".  I'm not a fan of all the filters and "actions" that modern photographers do. You just can't believe any picture is really what the scene actually was, once you learn how photographers are manipulating photographs in digital editing.

She couldn't come get it right away, so I thought it would be nice to use the leftover yarn to make some simple fingerless gloves. Again, I had to cut the yarn to get better colour changes. It became clear though that I would not have enough. So I went down to 2 strands. By now I had a lot of ends that would need to be woven in. It still wasn't enough. So I THREW THE YARN OUT. Yes.

And then two weeks later found another ball (3 strands) of it in the bottom of my bag.

Hat--63gr. Waste--24gr

Yarn In:  1542gr
Yarn Out:  87gr + 423gr= 510gr
Balance: 1032gr more BOUGHT than used
Costs:$37.91/41 days = $0.92 per day

Custom!

I LOVE getting custom orders for unique items. Usually they start out as a question--"Is it possible to make....".  With over 20 years experience, I have a lot of knowledge to draw on.  Crochet vs Knit? Wool? Machine Knit or Hand Knit? Design? Stitches?

One day I saw a post in our local "HomeMADE" Facebook group. A woman had injured her wrist badly and was going to be in various splints for quite a while. She couldn't find anything to keep her hand warm (and it was quite cold that week!). I immediately sprung on it, knowing that making a mitten in ribbing would be awesome. I thought maybe I could even felt the hand portion, leaving the ribbing unfelted. She wanted purple and grey and the only wool that I had both purple and grey in was Moda Dea's "Washable Wool".  Which most likely wouldn't felt due to it's chained structure. Oh well.

I got to work swatching on the SK155. Then, I couldn't find my copy of Ann Budd's calculations for mittens! So, I went with what I knew from my 20 years experience (lady's mitten, worsted yarn, 20st/4", Cast on 40sts).  I used T3 for the ribbing and T2 for the stockinette. And why did I knit the hand flat when I have a ribber and could have knit it in the round? Ummm. Habit? Well, this is a real "D'oh" moment. Especially since I struggled a bit to get the seaming of the stripes looking good!

After I got part way through the first one I remembered that I had scanned the pattern. Well, I couldn't find the pages with the calculations, but I could find the schematic page so I worked out the rest of the numbers from that.

The second mitt, I cast on 50st instead of 40 and kept the ribbing going up to the top of the thumb separation, and on the thumb, because her thumb was strapped down next to her hand, though there was space between the thumb and the hand. I had trouble increasing in the ribbing for the thumb and it doesn't look all that great along the seam.  The seam on the normal mitten is at the non-thumb side, which means I did all the thumb increasing in the middle of the piece and moved all the stitches (one side only) outwards. I just love this type of thumb gusset. I also kept the right thumb in ribbing to stretch easily over the splint.

The mitten feels a bit loose on me but I do prefer snug mittens. And it's not knit as tightly as I would have liked. But she needed it ASAP!  And, as luck would have it, she couldn't pick up for a few days and the weather turned warm. Hopefully, with it hovering around 0C now, she can make use of them.

Yarn In:  120gr
Yarn Out: 96gr + 327gr = 423gr
Balance: 303gr more USED than in
Costs: $7.91/25 days = $0.32 per day

Simple

Just after Christmas, there was a post in a Facebook group I'm in, for a woman looking for a satin lined, wool slouchy hat. A few people posted they had slouchy hats but no one said anything about the satin lined part. I asked why she wanted satin lining and mentioned some drawbacks (satin doesn't stretch, it might feel cold). She shared a link about how the satin protects the hair fiber from rubbing on the wool fibers and creating damage.

I thought this was interesting. Sock knitters often say that wearing wool socks on carpet will wear them out quickly. Makes sense. We chatted and I sent her some samples of brown wool yarn, and she picked this random skein of "Topsy Wool" that I had. I don't know where it came from, but I think Value Village. I know I could look back on my blog but I don't even know what year LOL. I also had some brown satin.  I did a swatch on the SK155 and got to work. The first attempt wasn't quite right, shape-wise. So I went even simpler with the crown decreasing.

Then I cut some satin to sew into the inner hat, trying to shape the top a bit so it wouldn't be bunchy inside. Somehow, it didn't fit. So I cut another one. It fit better, but I would have still liked it a bit looser in case her head was bigger than average.  I sewed it on using a zig zag stitch on the sewing machine, lining up with the top of the ribbing. I was impressed with how well the wool hid the stitching. I really thought it would look bad!

I like the end result. The ribbed band feels a little loose, but it might just be because the satin feels tight. She says it fits. The wool fluffed up nicely after washing, though it is still a more "rustic" yarn. I'd definitely use it again, especially for mittens.  I used 95gr for the hat, and the skeins are 113gr.  If anyone wants more detail on the pattern, let me know, but basically, I just swatched and worked the numbers :)


Yarn In:  120gr
Yarn Out: 95gr + 232gr = 327gr
Balance: 207gr more USED than in
Costs: $7.91/23 days = $0.34 per day

They Keep Coming

I was really on a roll over Christmas, finishing up things and creating new things. The kids were in school until just before Christmas, so we had pretty much TWO weeks after Christmas to relax. Lots of knitting time!

I had worked on the two "Work Socks" hats and thought a scarf would be cool. I decided to use up the grey worsted weight yarn I had tried to use for the messy bun version of the hat. I set up for a 2x2 rib. For white, I grabbed some Impeccable and for the red...I saw this red sequined yarn in my stash! Adorable. I was going to do only two rows of red but changed it to four. However, I wish there were more sequins showing. I used up every bit of the grey I had. I've had it a long time, it was a Sears yarn. Really. Back in the old days, Sears had it's own yarn!

It doesn't match the hat exactly, but that's okay. Not every one want to be matchy-matchy. They're available separately.

My husband and I had a movie night in for my birthday (we watched The Hangover. It's all I had recorded that he wanted to see. We hadn't seen it and he thought it was awesome. I somewhat agree LOL). I was having a hard time grafting the ends of the scarf. I knew how to do it but I had that problem with the offset. I gave up and just started grafting. Then, 3/4 of the way across, suddenly, one of the knit columns of 2 sts lined up. I didn't know how I did it, but since it could obviously be done, I had to start over. And over. And over. In the end, one side looks pretty good but the other side has a few blips. Steamed it because there was a bit of edge roll, even with the ribbing.

Yarn In:  120gr
Yarn Out: 80gr + 152gr  = 232gr
Balance: 112gr more USED than in
Costs: $7.91/19 days = $0.40 per day

Happy!

How can you NOT be happy with this bright green cowl, with a green glitter strand?!

I was on a roll between New Years and the return to school. My bulky knitting machine, the Singer SK155 was behaving and I was determined to crank out a few things. I had gone into my storage area for something else, and this bright green yarn jumped at me and insisted on being used. I totally hadn't planned on it. I ended up making three scarves on the knitting machine, but I'm not sure now which came first.

Which one of the tuck rib ones I did first, I did have to do some playing around. I think I did a red one first and I'll show it soon.  In the end, I think I chose the same set up I used here.  And in reading that, I see the pattern was in the ribber manual. Life would have been easier if I had remembered any of this (that I had used it previously and that, even better, it was in the manual).  This time, I was putting the needles into/out of hold position by hand...so yeah.  Maybe I should read my own blog?

 I know, this picture shows the hat more than the scarf. It ended up rather short, so it's a single loop.I made sure it would be wider to compensate for the shorter length.  Lots of steam to get it flat and I hope it stays that way.

I just scrolled back in my blog. I'm saddened to see some of the yarns I got rid of (many I gave away, some I sold). I wrote I was thrilled to give away a large ball of "Impeccable" in bright Christmas green. Well, wouldn't you know I used that same colour several times last year for Christmas stockings? This is why I hate getting rid of yarn. You just never know when the perfect project will come along. This green yarn--I bought it in April 2013. Which isn't really all that long ago. But it's still neat to  see how long it had to marinate before being used.

Yarn In:  120gr
Yarn Out: 62gr + 90gr = 152gr
Balance: 32gr more USED than in
Costs: $7.91/18 days = $0.44 per day

Fun!

I still have one item to show for last year's projects (even though I did finish it a few days after News Year's, the intent was to have had it finished last year!), but I also need to get moving on to this year's totals!

After I crocheted the messy bun work sock hat I knew I had to make a real hat in the same design. I bought the yarn before the end of last year, but I don't think I had this done before New Year's. Isn't it fun? The pompom is huge, although Lucy said it should have been randomly speckled the three colours instead of rings/spot. I didn't really know how it would turn out but I didn't want speckled.  It was made with Loops & Thread "Charisma", a total of 90gr.

I also bought this "Knit a Hat" kit from a discount store here (Giant Tiger...better than a dollar store but not huge like Wal Mart). Came with knitting needles (cable), a faux fur pompom and a 120gr ball of "Home Styles"  "Hat knitting Yarn". 100% acrylic. My daughter picked out a light grey though I liked some of the other colours. Some pompoms didn't really match the yarn though. It was $7, so a little high for one ball of yarn, and I don't need more needles, but I like that it has the pompom and I don't have to go searching for one.

Yarn In:  120gr
Yarn Out: 90gr
Balance: 30gr more IN than out
Costs: $7.91/16 days = $0.49 per day

Something Totally Different!

What? Yes, it's a mitten. Yes, I post about mittens nearly every week.

But this time, I did two colours per row instead of stripes! I wanted a thicker fabric, but not the hassle of needing a Fair Isle chart.

My first concern--increasing for the gusset. Keep it in pattern, or....just simple stripes. Then, decreasing for the top. I opted to keep the decrease lines in one colour, though on one side they're brown, on the other side, they're pink.

Then the thumb. I figured the only thing to do is continue the vertical stripes. 

The mittens are nice and dense, especially after washing. They are not, however, bigger than the other mittens which was one other goal. Many kids say the other wool mittens are too small--but I think it's because they're used to the big ski mittens.

The first girl to wear these mittens went digging in the frozen sandbox.  I nearly cried. But she was happy and her hands were warm, so that's what matters!

I didn't have them quite finished for Dec 31, but the intent was there :)  I also bought two more balls of Charisma for another "work sock" hat. I wanted to wait till after Jan 1, but it was on sale for $2.50 a ball!

Yarn In:   200gr + 11 123gr = 11 223gr

Yarn Out: 36gr + 11 062gr =11 098gr
Balance:  125gr more bought than used
Costs:   $5.65 + $501.62=$507.27 /366 days = $1.38/day

Messy Buns!

So, shortly before Christmas, Facebook and the internet got blown up by a photo of a lovely "messy bun" hat in subtle jewel shades. Ponytail hats are nothing new, but this time, the opening was smack dab at the top, for buns and high ponytails. I let people know I would not be taking orders before Christmas but I'd look into it for after Christmas.  One of my Christmas clients wanted one and then asked for a "work sock" style one.

Not a lot to say about this. I used some left over Charisma from the Azel pullovers, and the white is two strands Impeccable, the red is mystery wool. Crochet from the opening downwards, I did use a hair elastic at the start so it could stretch over a bun. Speaking of which...like my wig head's "bun"? LOL. A ball of brown mohair!

I had originally started this in a worsted weight yarn but it just wasn't looking right. After quite a few attempts I ditched that and had this made up almost instantly. Sometimes I love crochet.

Yarn In:    11 123gr

Yarn Out: 67gr + 10 995gr = 11 062
Balance:  61gr more bought than used
Costs:    $501.62 /366 days = $1.37/day

Azel Pullover

This pattern, the Azel Pullover, was all over the internet this past fall. Everyone wanted one. I didn't solicit orders, but I figured if any came my way I'd look into it. Perhaps it could be done on the bulky knitting machine. Then one day, my dad sent me an ad in his local Facebook buy and sell group from a woman looking to get two made--for her daughter and granddaughter. It's a little over two hours to my parents' but I figured I'm there often, or I meet them halfway, that certainly something would work out. I looked into the pattern, looked up the yarn and gave a quote. Well, she actually wanted two lady's small/medium and two girls' 5/7! Okay, no problem. I went to get the suggested yarn. It didn't come in both colours she wanted. So I substituted another one, and had to go all over the store to different displays to get enough in the dyelots for the larger size.

I got home and started swatching on the SK155. I couldn't seem to wrap my head around it, but it appeared that to hand manipulate the ribbing to make it look like the pattern, I'd have to manipulate the ribber stitches. Nope. Not going to happen. I could do it all on the mainbed and convert the stitches every other row, including the edge stitch. Blech. I swatched and swatched and my machine was not happy with this yarn (Loops & Threads "Charisma"). Eventually, I settled on T9* and every other needle. It was still not as loose as the gauge in the pattern. However, I really felt that if it were looser, the fabric would be too loose to do anything for keeping you warm, and would likely stretch a lot (which might be why just about everyone thinks the pattern length for the 5/7 size is too short--the poncho will stretch quite a bit once worn!). So, I had to do some recalculating. And I decided to do just the stockinette portion on the machine, and the bottom and side bands I would handknit. And hey--I could even add in some reflective yarn since I had some that matched!

But I couldn't find the turquoise reflective yarn! I knew I had some. So I went to the store that sells it and they didn't have any in that colour. Went to Wal-mart, who used to sell it, and the whole yarn row was a total mess. Nothing there. Searched online, found a place...turquoise not in stock. Found another place with it in stock so I ordered on line. My timeline was getting pushed back further and further.

The SK155 was not a happy machine. According to my calculations, due to needing every other needle, I couldn't fit the 5/7 size on the mainbed. I would have to do U shaped knitting, which I'd never actually done (I'd done circular, which is a little labour intensive on the SK155). I muddled through the first poncho, not happy with my machine, the yarn (splits!), me, whatever. It should have been an easy knit, but it wasn't.

I don't remember if I did the second size 5/7 or an adult one next, but it went smoothly. When I did the second 5/7, I realized that I could actually get it all on the mainbed, though I would be short two stitches, I think. I didn't care at this point.

The reflective stripes in the band are barely noticeable until light hits it

For the bands, I cast on for the front, forgot the button holes on nearly every one, did two rows plain, two rows reflective (and repeat) then after doing the band, I grafted it to the stockinette piece, leaving the side bands free. I thought I would attach as I go, but it didn't seem to work out. Along the sides, I used the reflective yarn on the edge stitch only. Then I knitted the sides, sewing them on as I went every few inches, then picked up the stitches on the end of the stockinette, and knit the bottom band. For the first 5/7 size, and I think the first adult one, I did the really nice tubular grafting cast off. I don't think it made much difference--stretchiness isn't important there, so I didn't bother for the others.

I shaped the necklines on the front parts. The pattern has it as just a straight slit across the shoulders. This makes the cowl sit very high, and combined with the long length of it, it seems a little overwhelming (many knitters in various groups complained about the cowl being too high).

Some how, the adult grey one ended up a bit wider than the teal. I must of forgotten to take off the number of stitches for the side bands. I don't know. I was not enjoying these anymore.

You can barely see the reflective yarn!

Button shopping. First up, I forgot to take the pattern with me, so I miscalculated how many buttons I needed. I added up 28, but really, I needed 32. And there were not enough buttons for both teal ponchos  to match. When I went to sew them on, I realized my counting error. Luckily, because of the buttons being 3 per card, I went from having a surplus to being short only two. For the two adult sized ponchos, I used one of my metal tags as a button. It doesn't totally work, but it was the best I could do.

The reflective yarn along the edge looks like little beads when the light hits it!

I was then running out of time. I had other orders I was also trying to get finished, and life kept throwing things at me--my stove died, so I lost a few evenings going stove shopping. Sick kid. Things like that. Weekends were busier than expected, I wasn't done them when I met up with my parents halfway, then we had a family Christmas party but I still wasn't done them and we ended up not going because of weather. She wanted to meet the next day, half way between us. I wasn't done! I explained that I wasn't from there (I thought she knew that) and that due to after school activities I couldn't do Monday. So, we met up on Wednesday before Christmas. She's actually from almost 30min past my parents' place, so it was nice she was flexible on meeting me.

After I had started knitting, I went back for more yarn, and I think I did end up needing it for the cowls (couldn't match all the dyelots again!). But I still ended up with a lot of the grey left. The two small ones were 424gr and 411gr each, and the big ones were 657gr and 751gr each, for a grand total of 2243gr. However, I had a lot of yarn left over so this certainly was not a stash buster! I ended up buying  26 balls of the grey and teal, and 5 of the reflective yarns!

Yarn In:    3100gr +8023gr= 11 123gr

Yarn Out: 2244gr +8752gr= 10 995gr
Balance:  128gr more BOUGHT than used
Costs:   $149.76 + $351.86= $501.62 /366 days = $1.37/day

Fair Isle Stockings

When I first got the inquiry about Fair Isle Christmas stockings, I was thrilled. I knew this was something I could do on my knitting machine and I thought the SK155 would be perfect so I could use a more substantial yarn that would be easier to find. The client liked the idea of a washable wool for a more traditional look, and a plain cuff.  I did some yarn research and thought yarn from www.knitca.com would work. I knew about Cascade 220 Superwash, but assumed it was too expensive for this sort of item. I headed over to Wool on William and discovered that the "white" was very creamy, the yarn seemed kind of thinner than I wanted, and she didn't have enough of any of the colours I was considering. Rowan Superwash Worsted caught my eye as I was about to leave--in colours for the other stockings I  was going to make. I forgot to look for  a blue and a green for these two stockings!

I was able to find the "ivory" (I asked the client if that would be okay, instead of bright white because bright white is exceptionally hard to find in 100% wool) at Knit Kabin, and she did have some blue that was great, but I thought the green might be a bit light. And since I had to go back to Wool on William, I decided to wait on the blue and green (also, the client hadn't sent the money transfer for the deposit yet despite saying she would several times). I went back to WoW and forgot to look at blue and green! So I had to head back to the Knit Kabin and got the two colours there. I had hoped that by doing the two orders in the same yarn, I would prevent having to make trips to several different stores. Four trips! But it's okay because I discovered how great these two stores are!! I ended up with 129 (Apple) for the green and I think 143 (Electric) for the blue.

 

Once I had the ivory I started the design process. I started with Marg Coe's Christmas stocking  . I didn't know if I wanted the fold over cuff because I would be duplicate stitching the names on. The inside would be hidden, but it would be a little more fiddly doing the stitching. And it uses more yarn LOL. Once I got going with planning out the pattern sequence, I looked at the size and realized the original size discussed for the green and burgundy ones was kind of long and I should widen it to balance it out. However, the pattern was written for 60st, and I was using a 12st punchcard. If I added any stitches less than 12, the pattern would not meet at the seam. So I shortened the design a little and loosened the tension to T3. Depsite doing all this paper work and planning, the end result was quite a bit different, as once it was knitted some things just did not work well together.

 This was my first time punching a punch card. To make it more interesting, I was using a 24 st card for a 12st machine, which means you have to punch every other column. I highlighted the empty columns in yellow and marked my different designs in different colours. When using a punch card, the row that is showing in the device is not the row that is being knitted, so you have to be prepared ahead of time, which is why I used different colours, and then used them along the side to show the different patterns.   You can see how the blue section of numbers does not line up with the blue snowflake.  It didn't take me as long as I thought it would to punch the card, but the kids said it was too noisey. However, I assume a 24 st card would take twice as long!

 

The first go round, I knit it as I had punched the card. I was not happy. I casted on with ivory and then remembered I was going to do the ribbing in blue to set it apart from the name banner. So I switched to blue after the circular cast on. I did not like how it went from the banner to the snowflake with no separation. And I really did not like how bunched up the patterns were, especially the section between the snowflakes! I had left one ivory row between the snowflake and the next section and instantly realized that my blue yarn was then on the wrong side for the next row. More tails to weave in.
I decided after the heel to take it off and check it all out. I planned a few more plain rows and tried again, this time determined it was the finished item.  I'm not 100% happy still though. I used two plain rows between each of the elements, but I feel this (obviously) separates them equally, and I wanted the little pattern above and below the zig zag to appear more "attached" to the zig zags. Since I don't want it any shorter, I need to do three plain rows around the snowflakes. Which means the blue yarn is at the wrong edge. Which means keeping my thoughts clear so I can take the carriage off and reset the pattern, etc. It was hard enough to remember to lock the punch card, and turn the cam to stockinette, (and other the other ones, make sure ivory was in feeder 1).

 As much as I loved it, I realized a few things. I wasn't loving the blue cuff. There was an error in the punch card (you can see it in the section below the heel), and the foot was supposed to have decreases to taper it down. I decided to set this one aside and start on the other multicoloured ones, as she had been first with her deposit and should get hers first.

 I got more of the design kinks worked out in the other stockings, including changes to the cuff and name banner. I knit the green one first. The left side is what you see when working at the knitting machine. So it's hard to tell if there's mistakes in the pattern. When I took it off the machine, I instantly saw the error--way up at the top!  OMG.  When I had been knitting these, I kept forgetting to transfer all the stitches to the main bed after the ribbing and several times had kept going with ribbing. I was pleased I had remembered this time, but in my excitement, I forgot the two rows in ivory before the first snowflake.

So yes, I re-knit it. Annoying, but that's the way it goes. I had all the usual troubles too, especially with the blue one, because I was re-using the yarn from the original test stocking and I had to cut the blue between sections. Again, I hand knit the toes. I think next time I will do the heels at T2 since they seem a bit saggy with out the structure of Fair Isle.

The yarn says to lay flat to dry, but I didn't. After their bath, although they felt so soft, I could tell that they would need heat to tighten the wool up again. It really grew when wet. There is no way I could have knit it tight enough on the SK155 to account for the growing. Drying in the dryer is a little nerve wracking. I had to check frequently and I was just so paranoid they would shrink too much. Once they were shrunk back to original size, they needed a lot of trimming of the resulting fuzz. I used my nails, and tiny scissors to trim the coloured fuzz so the designs stood out again. After washing, the Fair Isle gauge was 19 1/2st and 21 rows to 4" which is close to the label gauge of 20st/4".  I'm wondering if I can use this yarn on my standard gauge. It felt more like a DK, and I would love to have the versatility of 24 st designs--though I think the stocking should still be around 60st, so that would mean I would have to go up to 72st. Too much work. LOL.

These weighed 120gr each, which is right on track with what the Modern Vintage ones weighed. I have 64gr of green left, which means I used 36gr of contrast and 84gr of ivory. So, really, the Rowan Superwash Worsted is fairly cost effective--more so if making multiples of the same colours. Although I have 64gr of green left and that technically means I used 36gr, in actuality, the stocking probably has a bit less. Could I alter something to get it down to 33gr? LOL. I might as well just start building a stock of this yarn. It'll make nice mittens too. I have quite a bit of the ivory left and I thought it might be nice to dye, but there's more return on time by doing more of these stockings.

Yarn In:    8023gr

Yarn Out:   240gr + 8489gr= 8729gr
Balance:  706gr more USED than bought
Costs:   $351.86 /366 days = $0.96/day

Modern Vintage

I got a request for custom Christmas stockings this fall, the inspiration photo was a simple Fair Isle snowflakes with zigzags. We started working out the details (one blue, one green), and then I got another request for a similar, but more complex Fair Isle design with more colours--three bright greens and three burgundy shades, I think.

I told her I could do it with one green and one burgundy because it would take too long to find a yarn line with that many shades (and both women liked the idea of a superwash wool rather than acrylic). She got her deposit in first, so I started on those first.

My first thought for yarn was http://www.knitca.com/yarn/superwash but when I checked it out at a local store, Wool on William (forever known as WoW now), the colours weren't right, there wasn't enough, etc. I wanted to do both orders with the same yarn so I didn't have to re-work the design. There was some Rowan Superwash Worsted, in a bright green and burgundy that were perfect...but she didn't have any white, or the blue and green for the other order. And....Rowan had been bought by Sirdar and there was currently issues and nothing could be ordered! She suggested I contact Knit Kabin as she also sells Rowan.

I was a little disappointed. I started looking up options. Cascade 220 Superwash comes in an incredible range of colours, but where could I get it local? Both Rowan and Cascade got very mixed reviews on Ravelry. What to do?! I contacted Knit Kabin, and indeed she had the "white" which is a little closer to ivory. She also had some greens and blues (I had forgotten to look for them for the other order). I set up a time and headed out to the countryside at the edge of this megatropolis.

I got 3 balls of the ivory, but I still hadn't gotten the deposit for the blue and green stockings, so that was all.  I had to go back to WoW for the bright green and burgundy. Then, a day or so later, I got the deposit, so I had to go back to Knit Kabin for the blue and green. So much for being able to make fewer trips to the yarn store by making them both in the same yarn!

I started with Marg Coe's Christmas stocking pattern. I used T3 and 62stitches on the SK155.  After swatching, I did go with my own row counts. Originally, these were going to be 20" from cuff to bottom of heel, but that looked way too long on my sample. I mean, some people like long and skinny, but it just wasn't doing it for me. They ended up being about 16"-18". I forgot to measure after washing! I used one of the standard Fair Isle cards that comes with the SK155 (the first 11 rows), and I punched the snowflake, and the thin zig zag band.

I also decided to taper the foot a little, and do the toes hand knit, with decreases, rather than the short row toe, which just didn't seem to lay right. I was disappointed that even though the long floats were only 5 stitches, it  was rather loopy in places inside. I sewed these down. I had to reknit one foot, and tried hooking up the floats as I went, and I would definitely do that again.

When I went to duplicate stitch the names, I realized that Jackson was a smidge too long. I suggested to the client that I don't centre it, but start on the left so the ON would wrap on the right. She asked if the letters could be smaller. I didn't want to do that because really, when duplicate stitching, that's pretty difficult. Only a couple letters could be narrower. Then I started stitching. For some reason, the top/bottom spacing was wrong. I counted rows...I had done 14 rows of ivory on two of them (and planned the letters to be 8sts high) and only 12 rows on the third. I decided the shorter one would be for Jackson, and I did the letters 7sts high so they would have more white around them. By shrinking them a row, the narrower letters looked in proportion now. Whew.

I washed them in the sink with Soak.  After reading the reviews on Ravelry, I was almost in a panic fearing they would bleed. No bleeding!! I rolled them in towels, but it was obvious they would need some help in the dryer. The yarn grew a lot while wet and I knew it would not shrink back down just by air drying. They were very limp, but  much softer.  I put them in the dryer with a towel, on low/gentle, and checked frequently. They "felted". Or is it "fulled". They shrank back to their pre-wash size, approximately, but the yarn bloomed like crazy. They feel much more substantial!

However....the yarn fuzzed. Not pilled, but all the loose fibers netted together giving a slightly hazy look to the pattern. So I sat for an evening, with a sharp pair of little scissors, and trimmed the fuzz from the patterned areas. They're still not as pristine as before the wash, but I never want to hand off an order unwashed, and then have the client wash them and not know what to do when things like this growing and fuzzing happen. Why let them be the surprised ones?

I have plenty of the green and burgundy left--I bought two balls of each, and I have a ball and 27-34gr left of each, so basically, I can knit 4 from one ball of the contrast colours. That's pretty good value. I'm not sure how much white was used as I had the test stocking, then a test in the Fair Isle, and now have part balls. In total, the three weighed 361gr, which is 120.3gr each. That means  I used 22gr of green and 24gr of burgundy, so that means 74gr of white. It would be nice to make single colour ones exactly 100gr, instead of 120gr, but that's kind of boring LOL. I did lose some yarn when I had to re-do sections and didn't want to re-use small amounts of the yarn.

Now to finish the blue and green ones!

Yarn In:    8023gr

Yarn Out:   361gr +8128gr = 8489gr
Balance:  466gr more USED than bought
Costs:   $351.86 /348 days = $1.01/day

Yes, Another Mermaid Blanket!

It's crazy how popular these still are this Christmas! And how everyone wants pink and purple just like the pictures of the ones I've already done. I don't mind too much, but I would love to see this pattern done in other colours now!

After I took this photo, I did steam it, so it grew just a little and relaxed. I love the tail on this one. I wrote it all down, so I think I can stop experimenting now. Which means....I probably wont' get more requests for this blanket LOL. It came in a big lighter than the last one, I think because I didn't add the extra rows at the top--I didn't know just how big the child was, just that they ordered a "small".

Yarn In:    8023gr

Yarn Out:  378gr + 7750gr = 8128gr
Balance:  105gr more USED than bought
Costs:   $351.86 /341 days = $1.03/day

Mermaids!

Mermaid blankets are still popular this winter! And why not?! Warm, cozy, they won't fall off your feet, and you can have fun at the same time. I don't mind making them, but I really wish someone would order different colours. I just finished these two, and have another pink/purple one on the go. I do a little to change it up, but there's not a whole lot I can do when the customer says "I like the one in the picture just the way it is".

 Once I had finished, I wasn't sure if it was long enough, so when I went back to the starting chain to crochet over it, I continued upwards a few rows of pattern.

 I wanted the tail to be a bit bigger this time. I starter with more stitches, but it really didn't end up significantly bigger. I don't like the huge tails. They look cool, but they take a lot more yarn, so they weigh quite a bit which isn't the most practical with little kids. And more yarn=more cost and more time. 399gr

For this one, I did some colour blending instead of just going AA, AB, BB, BC, CC in rows. You can see how I did patches of AB. I like it. It was partly to stretch the AA yarn out more, but in the end, I think I had enough. I was working away on the couch, and I couldn't remember how tall the recipient was, so I kept working cause I didn't want to get up and look up the message. Turns out she's not as tall as I was thinking, LOL, so this is going to be super cozy. 1049gr

Again, I tried to enlarge the tail but it still wasn't much bigger. The shape before they get sewn on is rather bizarre, LOL. I'm always freaked out by it. But it looks great once sewn on.

Yarn In:    8023gr

Yarn Out:  1448gr + 6302gr = 7750gr
Balance:  273gr more BROUGHT IN than used
Costs:   $351.86 /331 days = $1.06/day

Sentiment and Pompoms

I got an email inquiry in the summer from a lovely lady who wanted new stockings for men marrying her daughters, made to match her family's existing stockings. Not the most complex pattern I've done, but still, there were challenges LOL.  The first thing I did was change the pattern to be knit in the round. The original had a very obvious seam, so for these, I did a "faux seam".

 She had written up the original pattern, but my yarn was slightly thicker, so I had to change some of the instructions to make it match. The bows/hangers were interesting to sew on. I figured out the best way on #2, but then, for some reason, it didn't work on the next one. LOL. If I weren't trying to match old stockings, I would have formed the bow and wrapped the middle with yarn, instead of trying to stitch it all down. I was worried the pompoms wouldn't look right since my yarn was thicker and different. I ended up washing the stockings twice because they took too long to dry the first time. The pompoms fluffed up really nicely in the dryer.

My big challenge was trying to make the pompoms the same size as the original. I got out my plastic ring pompom maker and googled for some instructions and tips. I know how to use it, but I always wonder what happens if you use only the biggest ring and fill it entirely full, vs, keeping all the rings together.  I found one blog that showed this type of pompom maker--most of Google was for newer gadgets. I know the instructions are not all that good on the package, but well...don't follow her's either. You MUST fill up the rings.

 It looks pretty ratty and ragged at first!  Trimming fixes all of that.

 Or, just use the smallest rings. One really important tip I have learned over time, is to use a finer yarn as the tie yarn. Something strong. Some people use cotton soaked in hot water, saying it will shrink when it dries. Maybe. By using a finer yarn, you don't get that gap around the equator.  I also like to steam my pompoms. This brings the yarn to life and fills it in really well. This time, I forgot to do that, but the washing machine and dryer did a good job.

Not shown here, but you can see it on my Instagram page, I believe---I am paranoid about spelling names right or phrases, etc. I somehow added an extra R to Merry on one stocking. Thankfully I noticed as I was working on the Y!

Yarn In:    7123gr

Yarn Out:  100gr x4= 400gr + 5902gr =6302gr
Balance:  821gr more BROUGHT IN than used
Costs:   $256.79 /322 days = $0.80/day

I can't find where I wrote down the weight of the stockings. This is an estimate based on other stockings. I think it's a smidge high, but the pompoms and bows do add up!