Tiarasaurus Knits (and gardens)

I've got a scarf that was one of my first knitting projects. It's a simple garter stitch scarf in an Artfibers ribbon yarn called Harlequin. I originally bought 3 spools of it (99 yards/ 50 grams/$11.50) and only used two, since that made the scarf almost long enough. I was originally going to return the unused spool. But after wearing the scarf a few times, I've decided that it's just a bit short. So I think what I will do is pick up stitches on either end of the scarf and add a border of several rows of elongated stitches and yarn overs. Wish me luck. . .

I've been home sick with a bad cold for the last few days, and haven't gotten any knitting done. So here are some photos from my last roll brim hat knitting binge. . .
Ready, Set, Go!

30 minutes

One hour

Two hours

3 hours.

(It'll be done in less than 10 minutes. I just have to switch to dpns to k2tog around until there are five stitches. Then pull the end through the remaining 5 loops and weave in the end.)

For some reason, I just didn't feel like working on the bear hood last night. So I spent a few minutes working on the FSM hat instead.
I've acquired some new yarn for the project, including Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick And Quick in Fisherman to use as the hat base. After swatching, I came up with 11 stitches and 14 rows to 4 inches. And I realized that the pattern I used for the base of the bear hood had a guage of 10 stitches and 14 rows. So I'm going to make that same pattern, only subtracting one from the stitch count in each row. Wish me luck!

Serious progress on the bear hood last night! I got some different yarn to use for the ear fronts and knit both of them. I also knit the second ear back and knit and attached both the ties. All that’s left is to sew the ears on and weave in ends!

The pattern was Russian Winter by Kathy Bateman, in Stitch ‘N Bitch Nation.

For the main color I used two strands held together of Crystal Palace Shag (45% wool, 45% acrylic, and 10% polyamide; 57 yds/50 gr) in color 7194, lot 930518A4. This yarn is to be handwashed and dried flat or dry cleaned.
I followed the directions for the hood exactly as written and used US 10 ½ needles. As suggested in the pattern, I bound off using US 15 needles to make sure it was nice and loose. This project was my first time picking up stitches, and that was a little tricky—I don’t think I’ve developed the right twitch of my wrist to catch the stitches easily just yet.

For the ear backs, I used two strands held together of the main color. I wanted the ears to be just a twitch bigger, so I modified the pattern as follows:
CO 10
P 10
K 10
P 10
K2tog, k6, ssk (8 stitches)
P8
K8
P2tog, p4, p2tog (6 stitches)
K6
P6
K2tog, k2, ssk (4 stitches)
K2tog, K2tog
Bind off and pull end through remaining stitch

For the ear fronts I bought some Sensations Angel Hair (22% wool, 50% acrylic, 28% nylon; 120 yds/100 gr) in color MUL647/Posy, lot#254. (Unfortunately, I was confined to the selection at Joann because my LYS was closed at 8:30pm on a Monday night when I just *had* to get yarn to finish this project.) This yarn feels silky, and just how I wanted to ear linings to feel. However, it is a royal pain to work with, as it is very slippery and splits easily. I certainly wouldn’t have been happy working with it for more than the little bits required to finish the ears. I slightly modified the ear front pattern as follows:
CO 10
P 10
K 10
P 10
K 10
P 10
K2tog, k6, ssk (8 stitches)
P8
K8
P8
K2tog, k4, ssk (6 stitches)
Ssp, P2, P2tog
K2tog, k2tog
P2tog
Pull end through remaining stitch

Bookmark: Glove Dogs http://www.schmeebot.com/nid/604.htm

With little to show in new knitting progress, I'll post some more past FO photos. This hat was my first project on DPNs. Overall, I found knitting with DPNs to be intuitive and not too difficult. The only hard part was keeping things properly oriented in the first few rounds. Also, at one point I turned the project inside out, and couldn't figure out why my purl/knit ridges seemed inverted. But my instructor quickly figured it out and set things right.

While on a long conference call today, I knit two different versions of the chin tie for the fuzzy bear hood. One is 4 stitch I-cord using a single strand of the fuzzy yarn. The other is 3 stitch I-cord using one strand of the fuzzy held with one strand of some brown cashmerino. I think I like both better than the look of a chain of cast on then cast off stitches as called for in the pattern. Now I just have to decide which I like best, rip the other, and make the second tie. I really might finish the hood this weekend!

In the meantime, I'll post some pictures of the "chemo" hats that were among my earliest finished objects. I made two for a good friend who was battling non-Hodgkins lymphoma and another friend who gave her time to be his caretaker. I later made a second pair as offbeat wedding gifts for some friends who now live in Oxford. They were made using a free pattern and Lion Brand Fancy Fur yarn. I knit the first one using the "straight needle hat" instructions. I knit all the others using a 16" circular size US 13 needle, and switching to the two circular needle technique when the decreases for the crown got too small to work on one circ.
My models could have been more accomodating, but then I guess they wouldn't have been quite as funny.
My boyfriend has donned the hat in "stained glass" and the pitbull is looking suave in "jungle print"

I've had the yarn to cast on for my Tubey for weeks now. But somehow I just haven't done it. I suspect that I've got a touch of stage fright, as it's the first sweater I'll ever have attempted. Hopefully I'll get over it this weekend.

In the meantime, I've begun a project that's not even on my gargantuan "to knit" list. It's the Heart Scarf from the Knitty special issue. You can find the pattern on page 7 of this pdf. I'm knitting it in a red chenille. I didn't swatch to check guage. I just started. I'm thinking I will need 14 repeats of the pattern for each half of the scarf, instead of the 10 repeats the pattern calls for. If that's the case, it will end up being 288 rows. I've just finished row 27. So nearly 10% done!

Another thing I'd love to do this weekend is finish off the bear hood. It's so close! All I need to do is make the chin ties, finish knitting ear pieces, and put the pieces together. I don't like how the pink ear pieces look, so I may go in search of a fuzzier yarn for them. Progress photos:

Seems knitting isn't all domestic goodness and goody-two-shoes light. Knit graffiti is here! See this news story in the Houston Press for more info.

I've knit 7 roll-brim hats in total so far. Two of them are already in Maine with my mom. Those two are the brown and lilac colors of the yarn balls on the outside of the circle. Clockwise from the top, the blue/denim color was a gift for our dogwalker and trainer, the greenish one was a birthday for my favorite photographer, the burgundy was a belated birthday gift, the "dark sheeps" is over due to my grandpa as a christmas gift, and the green is overdue to my grandma.

Always a fan of killing multiple avian species with one stone, I decided to teach myself I-cord and practice the new skill by making Noodly Appendages to be used on a FSM hat. I had already watched the I-cord video at www.knittinghelp.com and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it really was as easy as she made it look in the video. I did find that the first few rows looked kind of wonky, with very uneven stitch tension on the "back" stitches compared to the front stitches. But tugging judiciously straightened that out within a few rows. I knit several tubes, in widths of 6, 5, and then 4 stitches.

I wanted to learn yarn overs (YO)for some upcoming projects, but didn't want to experiment with expensive yarn. So I found the world's easiest dishcloth pattern and knit it while sitting around with friends on a Sunday morning. The cloth is knit on the diagonal and uses knit, yarn over, and k2tog stitches. I used size 7 bamboo needles and Sugar 'N Cream cotton yarn. It used less than half a ball of the yarn, thus materials cost is just under a dollar for this item. The pattern is called "Grandmother's Favorite Dishcloth" and can be found here. As you can see from the photo, the finished object isn't quite symmetrical. I think that is because my YO increases in the first half of the pattern are tighter than the k2tog YO k2tog decreases in the second half of the pattern.

I've managed to finish a roll-brim hat a day for each of the last two days. It's definitely time for a new challenge! I've got the pattern memorized, and can complete one in under 3 hours. Photos to be added soon!

After I finished the second hat, it was still early. So I picked up the bear hood that I started back in July. The hood part has been done forever. It just needs ears and ties added. I finished one of the furry back ear halves no problem. The pink front ear half took me forever, and even so, it looks like crap. I think I'll see if I can find a different yarn. I need something fuzzy enough to hide the terribly ragged edges--I'm having tension problems with my purl stitches, and my ssk's are a mess. Eventually, the finished product should look something like this:

This scarf was the first project I truly finished. I cast off and wove in the ends back in June 2005.
Here's a photo of it lying squooshed up on my bed.

It's your average, very basic, scarf. The pattern was on the back of the yarn label and was called "Two-Hour Knit Scarf." (Of course, since it was my first scarf, it probably took me two or three times that long.) It was knit with huge (size 17) plastic needles and one skein of Lion Brand Homespun yarn in color 338 "Nouveau". The entire scarf was knit holding two strands of yarn together, so it's nice and thick.

Here's a flash photo that shows the colors better, along with my ever curious dog (whose eyes aren't really blue). Maybe some day I'll be able to take some better photos of it, my first real FO. But right now it's in Maine with my mom, who has worn it in at least 8 states so far. She says it matches everything. (I think perhaps she is just being nice.)

Mom, if you're reading this, the yarn label says your scarf is machine washable and dryable.

These are the yarns I've been using to make the roll-brim hats I talked about previously. I absolutely love working with them. They're made by Bartlett Yarns in Harmony, Maine. Bartlett makes a line of Fisherman yarns that are lanolin-rich for softness and weather resistance. The lanolin also makes my hands feel wonderful after knitting with them. Go take a gander at the Bartlett web site. It's a cool, very old, small business that will accept raw fleeces from people who own sheep and spin them into yarn. There's also a discussion of spinning methods that I thought was really interesting.

These yarns are spun on the "woolen system" for a traditional homespun appearance, softer twist, and more "bloom" than worsted-spun yarns. Each 4 ounce/80 yard skein retails for $6 and knits to 3 st/in using #10-1/2 needle. (I've used a US size #13 on the hats I've knitted.)

I've worked with these colors. (I'm playing with html, and if you hover your cursor over each photo, the color name should display) I also have a Lilac color and a color I'd call "Army Sheeps" which were not pictured on the website.

I was thinking last night about what my goals are for this blog. Here's what I came up with:
1) Learn html and page formatting. (Eventually learn more complicated things like how to set up data tables and searchable databases.)
2) Begin to create content that I can migrate to tiarasaurus.com when I get the domain hosted, so that it's not just a vacant room.
3) Collect all the various links I find to knitting techniques, patterns, shops, and online retailers in one place, and so that I can access them from any computer (currently they're stored as "favorites" on multiple machines).
4) Have someplace to chronicle my finished knitting pieces, especially since I anticipate that many of them will become gifts.
5) Document my progress as I learn new knitting techniques.

Speaking of techniques, here are things I'd like to know how to do, but currently don't (or think I know how, but haven't actually tried yet):

• YO (I've read how, and it will be covered in class tonight)
• cables (ditto)
• Continental knitting (I'm taking a class next month)
• I-cord (spaghetti monster noodly appendages)
• Provisional cast-on (tubey sweater)
• Applied I-cord edging (samus sweater)
• felting (yorick)
• button holes
• double knitting (for the edging on the Pixie hat)
• trick to keep stripes from jogging in the round
• short row shaping
• socks, and how to "turn a heel"
• gloves, including thumb gussets and reserving stitches for fingers
• entrelac
• lace
• fair isle
• intarsia
• lots more cast on and cast off techniques

It will be fun to review this list next January and see how many things are left!

A sweater I might like someday. Hooded pullover with cabled detail. Pattern costs $6 from girlfromauntie.

When I was visiting my mom in Belfast, Maine for Thanksgiving last year, I stopped by the LYS. They were having a special on some super bulky yarn. Along with the yarn, the shop owner was offering a free pattern for these hats. They're really quick and easy, and before I knew it, I'd knitted 5 of them. The first two were for my mom, in brown and lilac. Then a green one for my grandma and a tweedy color for grandpa. Then a rose colored hat for a friend's birthday. And now I think I'll make just one more, for another birthday. Photos to follow:

The pattern says to cast on 50 stitches, though I cast on 45 for mom's and grandma's. (Women in my family seem to have small heads). I did 48 stitches for my friend. And I've been doing 50 stitches for men's hats. I used a 16" circular #13 needle for the body of the hat, and then switched to size #11 dpns to finish the crown.

Since there are no copyrights or disclaimers on the pattern, I'll go ahead and copy it here:

Yarn/needles: Bulky weight yarn and 16" needles and DPNs to give a guage of approximately 2 1/2 stitches per inch.

Cast-on 50 stitches and connect. Work in the round in stockinette for approximately 8 inches.
(switch to dpns whenever necessary during the decreases)
First decrease round: Knit 3 stitches, knit 2 together
Second decrease round: Knit 2 stitches, knit 2 together
Third decrease round: Knit 1 stitch, knit 2 together.
Continue knitting 2 stitches together until 5 are left. Detach yarn and pull through remaining 5 stitches. Sew in end.

Couldn't be simpler!

One of the other elements of wonkiness in my first moebius project is the bind off. It's necessary to bind off very loosely. Otherwise, the flow of your niftily shaped scarf-thing will be constricted.

At the recommendation of the class instructor, I used a purl-two-together bind-off. It's described here: http://www.skeinlane.com/knittingresources/newsletter/knowhow1.htm#Section_7

It's quite simple: Purl two stitches together. Then transfer the single resulting stitch back onto the left needle. Repeat.

With my relatively loose knit moebius scarf-thing, I discovered by way of trial and error (I started off binding off too tight) that I needed a bind off that was almost ridiculously loose. The best way I (finally) found to do this was to let the loop of the transferred purl stitch stretch long enough to allow the finished edge reach the length of the fabric before making each double purl stitch. I feared that would leave giant loopy stitches in the outer edge, but it didn't.

I learned a new knitting technique this weekend: moebius. I had read the introductory chapters to Cat Bordhi's book, a Treasury of Magical Knitting. But the descriptions actually sounded too easy. So I signed up for the Moebius Magic class at Skein Lane (http://www.skeinlane.com/classes/knitting.htm#Section_9) When I went home two hours later, I had cast on and completed several rows of my "scarf thing."

Essentially, moebius is all about the cast on. Once your stitches are on the needle and you're half way around, it's just a matter of circular knitting. But the cast-on is strange. It's so deceptively simple, that the hardest part is keeping track of how many stitches you've already cast on--it goes FAST.

The first row of knitting looks strange. And very loose. So loose, in fact, that I created tons of extra stitches to try and fill in where I thought I'd left "holes". I think I cast on around 110 stitches, but my finished "scarf thing" had nearly 190. oops.

The finished object isn't a treasure. That's due to using variegated acrylic boucle yarn, and also to my glitches in the cast on. But I'm now confident I can do another moebius project. Next time will be with more thought to the design and better selection of fiber.

This is the first/placeholder post in a blog to chronicle my knitting progress. I learned to knit in March 2005 by taking a three class beginning knitting series from Nova Studios in Point Richmond, CA. (http://www.thenovastudio.com/). After knitting two scarves, I moved on to hats. I knit the bonnet of a furry bear ear hood before abandoning it to make my "fraggle hat" to wear to Burning Man 2005 (http://www.burningman.com). I took a class to learn how to knit in the round using double point needles, and in the process made a cotton baby hat. I knit 4 furry "chemo hats", followed by 5 basic roll-brim hats using some chunky wool that was spun in Maine that I found in the LYS near my mom's house in Belfast. [Heavenly Socks / 82 Main St. / Belfast ME / Phone: 207-338-8388] . Now, I'm about to embark on my first sweater projects. And try to stick with my New Year's resolution to not buy any yarn for at least 3 months.

El Cerrito
Skein Lane

Oakland
Article Pract
The Knitting Basket

San Francisco
Artfibers
Atelier Yarns
Greenwich Yarn
Imagiknit
Urban Knitting studios

Maine
Seaport Yarn (Portland)
Halcyon (Bath)
Grace Robinson (Freeport)
Nancy's (Belfast)
Maine Directory

Machine knitting and dying (Berkeley, CA) (next offered March 11, 2006 for part 1 and March 25 for part 2)

Scribble Lace with Rebecca Beal (the nova studio, Point Richmond, CA) Hopefully, this will be offered again soon, since I missed the January session.


Continental Knitting February 12, 2006 (Artfibers, San Francisco, CA)

Intermediate Knitting: Stitches, Cables, and Shaping January 29, 2006 (Nova Studios, Point Richmond, CA)

Magical Moebius January 8, 2006 (Skein Lane, El Cerrito, CA)

Using DPN to Knit A Hat May 12, 2005 (Nova Studios, Point Richmond, CA)


Learn To Knit Series March 17, 24, and 31, 2005 (Nova Studios, Point Richmond, CA)

list online yarn sources here

Bartlett Yarns (Harmony, ME)
Beaverslide Dry Goods (Montana)
Knit Picks
Little Knits (Seattle, WA)
The Knitting Zone (Lacey's Spring, AL)
Spinderellas (Utah)

Crazy Aunt Purl
Knit and Tonic
A Case of Fiber Fever
All Tangled Up: Knitting From Across The Pond
All This By Hand
And She Knits Too
Modeknit / Knitting Heretic
I’m Knitting As Fast As I Can
Clementine’s Shoes
Cosmicpluto Knits (and does other crafty things too)
Dogs Steal Yarn
domiKNITrix: Whip Your Knitting Into Shape
Grumperina
High Energy Knits
Knitasm
Knit One Chic Two
Mason Dixon Knitting
Mind of Winter
Nake-id Knits: Knitting in the Raw
Show Me Your Knits (another dino-knitter)
Subway Knitter
The Divine Ms. Em
Yarn Boy
Yarn Harlot

My Knitalongs
Flying Spaghetti Monster Hat
Tubey

Vicarious Knitalongs
Crossed In Translation

knitty.com Wonderful source for free patterns and how-to articles!

Hello Yarn!

Feather and Fan shawl

Baby Yoda Sweater from Dogs Steal Yarn

Spork felted messenger bag

Judy Jetson sweater

Knitted Squid hat

knitPro will translate digital images into knit, crochet, needlepoint and cross-stitch patterns. Just upload jpeg, gif or png images.. and it will generate the image pattern on a graph sizable for any fiber project

Patterns for Sale sites

http://www.whiteliesdesigns.com/ in Sacramento, CA offers some gorgeous patterns. They range from feminine and frilly to gothy.

http://www.indigirl.com/knit_tracker/#add garment-shaped progress displays

http://unlikelywords.com/html-morsels/ percentage progress bars

http://knitticisms.blogspot.com/2005/04/how-to-those-nifty-progress-bars.html code in CSS used to stretch image according to percent progress

http://www.grsites.com/button/ Button maker

http://knittyboard.com/viewtopic.php?t=19327 customizing your template

http://www.knittyboard.com/viewtopic.php?p=76414#76414 knittyheads webring info

Eventually, I'll add descriptions and my own reviews to this page. I'm also trying Powell's Partner links. If you want to add a book to your own library, these links will take you to Powells, which is just about the most amazing book store anywhere, where you can take advantage of all their regular features and pricing. The added bonus is that I'll get a small kickback, which I assuredly will re-invest in expanding my knitting library and being able to tell you about more knitting books.

Stitch 'N Bitch Nation - Debbie Stoller Add Review text here. Buy it from Powell's Buy it from Amazon

Knit Wit - Amy Singer Add Review text here. . .


Knitorama - Rachael Matthews Add Review text here. . .

Folk Hats - Vicki Square

Mindful Knitting - Tara Jon Manning

Knitting Handbook - edited by Viv Foster

New Knits on the Block - Vickie Howell

Hip To Knit - Judith Swartz

Knitting For Dogs - Kristi Porter

A Treasury of Knitting Patterns - Barbara G. Walker This is the classic collection. . .

Knitting Basics - Betty Barnden

Magazines
cast on - spring 2005, May-July 2005
Knitscene - fall/winter 2005
knit.1 - spring/summer 2005, fall/winter 2005
Knit It! - 2005

Needles
0 -
1 -
2 - 1 pair plastic, 2 pair metal
3 - metal
4 - metal
5 - 1 pair
6 -
7 - plastic
8 - metal
9 -
10 - plastic
10.5 - plastic
11 - plastic
13 - plastic, wood
15 - plastic, rosewood
17 - plastic

DPN
1, 2, 5, 7, 11

Circular
16" - 13
24" - 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 10.5, 13, 15
29" - 5, 7. 10, 10.5, 13, 15
36" - 6, 6, 13
60" - 5, 7, 10, 11

Crochet
D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K