Heading into Charted Waters with my Evening Grosbeak Gamayun Shawl

Posted on August 16, 2013 by MissCarlotta

So a few posts ago, I was talking about my troubles with my Gamayun Bird Shawl and even before that I was posting about the planning of it to have a colorway similar to the Evening Grosbeak female birds we get here, because I find their grey and yellow to be rather lovely.

I am ready to say that I finally finished my shawl!

Normally I post inside, but today was just too nice of a day to not get my bird in the sun!

Normally I post inside pictures, but today was just too nice of a day to not get my bird in the sun!

This was the first charted lace knit project I’ve ever tried. And so I made one kind of major mistake… I read the chart left to right, as I would read a book or a cross stitch chart. But in actuality, knit charts are supposed to be knit right to left, the opposite way. Now I was fortunate in that this is a fairly symmetrical pattern so when I discovered my error as I was about to forge onto chart three… I was able to read stitches and adjust my pattern to turn out and not frog back for the bazzillionth time.

Here’s a bit of an indoor close up:

Mirror, Mirror Gamayun on the Wall

So technically speaking this is a mirror version of the pattern, but I have this rule that if you can look at it with the eyes of someone that didn’t knit it and it and the issue is not noticeable, then you should just chalk it up to the field of “one of a kind” and not a mistake of epic proportions.

This pattern did give me a good opportunity to use life lines (which are a separate contrast yarn you thread through your rows every so often in case you have to frog back some so you don’t drop any of those stitches) which I am certain I will use when I take on the task of fixing the Luscious sweater. (No, its not fixed yet. Be patient… its my second sweater ever and I’m spending quite a bit of time figuring out the best way to fix it with my limited skill.)

Happy Birthday to me~ A Gift made from part of a Tree!

Posted on August 3, 2013 by MissCarlotta

Perhaps you will recall my friends I gave the orange and blue quilts to? (If not see here and here) Well, “Mr. Endless Stairs” enjoys woodworking, and frankly he’s pretty amazing at it. Today he brought me a gift I totally happy danced over.

My very own Quilt Rack:

Happy Dance not shown.

Now I’m having a difficult time deciding where I want to put it… for now its in the family room, with my first ever quilt on it:

PIkmin 3 is out tomorrow fyi! And those aren’t wrinkles.. those are snuggle impressions! (ok, they ARE wrinkles but I couldn’t wait to take pictures!)

And here’s a couple more glamour shots…. I will have a post sometime in the not too distant future where you can see that light blue one in the back better, but that’s for another day… today its all about the wood underneath!

Yes… its overcast here near the Seattle side…. what makes you ask?

And a fine top down view with some new fabrics from the new local quilt shop:

I think the blue one looks like Frank Lloyd Wright stain glass, and the green is more Tiffany style

And while I said it in person, I shall say it again to all and sundry…. Thanks! It really is an amazing gift.

Uh, we had a slight knitting malfunction, but uh… we’re fine….finally updating on the Sweater and Travel knits

Posted on July 10, 2013 by MissCarlotta

So last post I was saying how I was going to probably not finish my Luscious sweater in time… but I will have you know that dedication and several seasons of TV episodes will certainly take you pretty far. I actually finished all the pieces to my sweater, and was starting to assemble on the 13th.

woohoo! Look at how cool it is looking!

I am not a tall person. I come in at just under 5ft 5in. And after assembling the main drape, I tested out the size and it seemed rather long. But ever the optimist… I hoped that it would just be a little long and some of that would be corrected in the rest of the assembly. So I added in the sleeve section and tried it on again. The tail on me would be dragging on the floor.

……*sigh*…….

Could it be that I was just too short? I pinned up the side drape…. and nope… it was just the right length. There is about a foot of difference between the two points. So needless to say… I didn’t take my sweater on vacation. So now I am working on garnering up the internal fortitude and creativity in an effort to try and fix it. As to what went wrong… well I can’t be certain, since I consider myself a more intermediate knitter. This is after all my second sweater. My theory, which is based solely on the errors I have found (first two were confirmed by the company that published the pattern – the remaining errors I have still to submit and figured I would collect them all in one email at the end) is that this sweater was not test knit in the larger sizes, and the issue lies someplace in that particular area. The details of my issues you can read about on this projects Ravelry page.

And so… I did say I was setting it aside while I was traveling and going to work on a shawl, and learn the art of chart reading anyway… right?

About that……. well starting a lace chart project at 3AM at the airport is probably not the wisest idea. I should have learned from the myriad of times I picked up and put down the Branching Out portions of the Family Tree Baby Blanket while on various flights. But no… I cast on and got to the second row of the chart and found I’d already made a mistake someplace. So in Amsterdam I frogged those few rows and cast on again. And I knit the first 14 rows between there and here right after we got back with our jet lag brain.

But in review… it looks like I have a mistake someplace. The first section feather points look all nice and pointy:

Kind of a terrible picture… but you get the idea here.

But when you get into the second section something has gone clearly awry… my feather points look like a pair of dutch-boy pantaloons.

Seriously?! ¬.¬

So its kinda looking like a second frogging. (For those not in the knitting know… its called frogging because you “Rip-it” out.) Which brings us to a new joke I heard while in Amsterdam…. You shouldn’t try to explain puns to kleptomaniacs. They take things literally.

I will see myself out….

Taking Flight: Knitting for the birds and airplanes

Posted on June 4, 2013 by MissCarlotta

So let’s say you find yourself in the enviable position of taking a vacation to foreign lands, and you find yourself facing a 5 hour flight followed by an 8 hour flight. And somewhere down the line of trip planning you decide that a fair portion of that 13+ transit hours could be spent knitting… and then you wonder about if they even allow knitting needles on flights.

Well first let me say that if you live in the US, the TSA has given the knitting needle OK; however, cutting implements are a whole other matter. But when one is planning an international trip, one has to consider the other countries… and that’s where it becomes a little more of a “maybe” situation. You can send your project off in a self addressed envelope if they turn your needles away, but if you’ve just spent a month knitting up half a sweater the idea you might find yourself waiting for the postman for the other half just doesn’t sound like a good time.*

So while I had high hopes when I started of actually wearing my Luscious Sweater on this trip, its time to admit that the project will need to wait until I return.

I did finish up the main drape section!

So now its time to pull out some back up plans. A project that won’t be too big so it only takes a couple balls… yet big enough to keep you occupied for several hours on a plane and during vacation down time. My solution… a shawl or two!

~ And thus we come to the bird portion of our knitting blog. ~

Not that long ago I was thinking to myself that it would be pretty amazing to have some bird colored yarn. The Stellar’s Jay Vibrant Blue and Black, the Kingfisher’s Teal and Rust… or the Female Evening Grosbeak:

Evening Grosbeaks are primarily monogamous, so Fellas if you like it you better put a chirp on it.

I am hoping that this Rock Candy Colorway by Sockease will do the trick.

Oh oh Oh!

And my plan is to make it into a shawl called Gamayun Bird out of it. Since I’m a bit of an optimist in my knitting (hence the unfinished aforementioned sweater) I also bought some other lace yarn for another potential project… but you will have to wait until I cast that on for an update.

The Grosbeak males are a much more vivid yellow.

*All that stuff about the Postman… well let’s be honest, earlier this month we received an envelope with no stamp, no return address, and the wrong zipcode. The vast majority of the time they certainly get it right!

To Boldly Go…into Star Trek Quilts

Posted on May 20, 2013 by MissCarlotta

While I could bore you with the details of how Ben suggested we do the Star Trek Reddit gift exchange, and how I am extremely nervous about gifting strangers handmade gifts because I’m afraid they will be seen as the golden macaroni pencil cup.. I think instead I will just post the silly little Captain’s Log Story I sent with my giftee’s quilt (and of course photos!).

Disappearing 4 patch in Trek, Command Gold, Science Blue and Red Shirt

B Captain’s LogB

Stardate 2264.2

While on our way to check on one of the outlying colonies, Mr. Spock noted the presence of several indicators of intelligent life in an adjoining star system and I’ve decided to check it out.

Stardate 2264.3

The Enterprise has been stopped at the 4^th planet in the System. Mr. Scott assures me that the engines are all online but that “She just won’t go!”

Meanwhile, we have been hailed by a being who says her name is Materialanna, representing the Textilian Homeworld. They are claiming we have caused a rent in their space-time fabric and demanding we sew up a suitable patch.

Spock is concerned about the inconsistency of a species that seems to view space-time as a fabric, and yet has the ability to stop a starship.

I have decided at this point to go along with their quilt patch plan, and if nothing else, that will hopefully give Mr. Scott the time he needs to figure out how to get the Enterprise moving again.

Stardate 2264.6

I assigned Dr. McCoy to the seaming of our patch fabric. He mentioned something about “Doctor Not a Seamstress” and “Hospital Not a Sewing Circle!” but after reminding him he had the most stitching experience of anyone, he agreed to take up the task in one of the storage bays.

Quilt #5 is alive!

Stardate 2266.8

The quilt patch is complete! The Textilians have accepted our patch piece and assure us that it will be sent to the proper place and time. Mr. Scott is reporting full function of the Enterprise. Inexplicably, Mr. Spock has noted that all signs of life in this system have ceased to register on his scope.

And I made one for Ben’s giftee too. He helped with the layout, and even ironed once!

Star Trek Into Darkness! KHAAAAANNNNNNNNN!!!!

6th Quilt…… KHAAAAANNNNNNNNN!!!!

These two babies are already wrapped up and in the mail. Normally I wouldn’t post gift items until they were received, but in this case the giftees do not have any idea who is gifting them so it is all still a mystery. These two are backed with a classic trek fleece which was a first for me and I think they turned out pretty well. I will update with a link here if they post about getting them.

UPDATE: Ben’s Giftee posted about getting her items.

UPDATE #2: After no tracking updates since Tuesday… my giftee got his gift!

Enter the Entrelac Zone (and some Luscious Progress)

Posted on May 10, 2013 by MissCarlotta

I took a face your Fears challenge to learn Entrelac. Which if you are unfamiliar with its a style of knitting that turns out looking like a basket weave texture that you get by picking up and binding off (by knitting combining two stitches into one in pattern) which is unlike counterpanes where you make each unit separate and then assemble. On the whole most patterns seem to stick with smaller blocks and just knit along for texture, but there are a few items that are really unique out there like the Forest Path Stole which combines blocks of lacy texture.

Most people start out with a nice simple scarf… but I am not most people so I went with… the Nyan Cowl.

Click here if you are unfamiliar with Nyan Cat or just want to Nyan today.

Technically I have not finished the Nyan Cowl as I mean to finish the poptart as a nice little pocket for toting around something small, such as your ipod or secret pocket of poptarts or whatever, so that and the finishing touch of affixing the tail to the front need to be done. I am debating if I should write up this guy as a pattern since he is a bit cute if I do say so myself.

Since I wasn’t quite 100% on how seriously I should have actually approached the challenge, I also decided that I’d start a small baby blanket with the still large quantity of baby yarns I have been gifted in my stash so here is the early preview:

Something a bit more traditional than the Nyan

I also have some updates on my Luscious Sweater since my earlier post of just yarn. I have cast on the main section, found a couple of errors in the pattern (detailed in the Rav link) and I am now working my way up and over the shoulder from the V-neck base marker. These photos are earlier than that, but they give an alright impression of how the fabric of the knit is coming together.

Early progress of the “wrong” side showing the edge and the main stitches twined together

Right side up, front bottom edge of the sweater

I am actually on about the 4th ball of the main color (out of 13) and so knitting along there are 3 balls attached to the project (Each edge in the contrast and the main color) to which I am thinking someone needs to invent some stackable snap-together yarn bowls. Think on that just a bit… you get to where you need to twist you just snap them apart, twine them the right way and re-snap them together.

Progress Updates, Future Yarn projects and a little bit more

Posted on April 3, 2013 by MissCarlotta

Firstly let me start out by saying… I have been knitting things since March… just they have been very little things… or not done yet things.

Little things like this cute doily out of crochet thread on needles I never remember the size of because my needle gauge tool only goes to the first 0. (You’d think a single 0 would be enough, but apparently the world is not prepared for negative numbers in needle sizing.):

Pattern is called Auge

This is not your granny’s doily though…. This baby is not soon to be draped over an armchair or under the candy dish. This is your first cup of coffee or glass of water by your bed… because that’s just how big it is.

That’s no doily! That’s a coaster!

I have also been working on my double knit scarf and I’m a bit further along than these photos as I am now nearly done with flake number six.

Side A: Delicate White flakes against a dark green background.

Side B: Powerful Green flakes on a snowy white background

So I think with my current progress I am at least past the hump of the middle of a scarf project.

Now I must confess I have still not gotten any further on my bird needlework project and every time I’m up in the library room with my sewing I remind myself I really ought to finish it up.

But in the mean time…. I did say I was going to make two sweaters this year, one for Ben and one for myself. And I’m only half done with that project… so I took the next step and… couldn’t narrow it down past two designs I really liked. One is called Spoke, and the other is called Luscious. Well I figured the easiest method since they took two different kind of yarns was to browse through my various yarn options and see if I couldn’t have the yarn decide. (Each take a different yarn weight)

Well the yarn decided alright…. it decided I was making two sweaters!

A Future Spoke Sweater!
(and a side of conductive thread for gloves)

Future Luscious. The heathered color on the left is the main body color, with the darker as the trim.

As if that wasn’t enough yarn… I got a nice reminder that I had Jimmy Beans Bucks from some yarn I bought when working on Debora. So I did what any good knitter would and bought a beautiful skein of lace weight yarn.

I am leaning towards the Frozen Leaves Shawl with this, but it means a full charted pattern.

And that brings us to the end of the updates and progress… and you are wondering what exactly I meant by a little bit more. Well…. I was contacted recently by someone that is getting ready to cast on a Debora blanket! And to me… well that’s pretty awesome! If you’ve ever watched Howl’s Moving Castle, then you will know what I mean when I say that’s the “I like your spark!” compliment.

Quilt 4: Endless Stairs Fiery Companion

Posted on March 26, 2013 by MissCarlotta

A while back you may remember I bought a bunch of orange fabric and made some friends a Cracker Quilt.

Cracker Blocks arranged in a 4 color woven pattern.

The Cracker Quilt

Well because I am kind of new to the whole thing and worried about things like running out of fabric or butchering my fabric in some fit of miscutting… I overplan in the fabric department. So for my fourth quilt I didn’t actually have to buy any new fabric at all! I wanted something that would look like a companion piece to the cracker quilt… so I settled on a pattern called Endless Stairs.

And in the tradition of not spoiling the surprise I bring you… the Endless Fiery Stairs Quilt:

Front… with all the stairs!

For the Back… I wanted to do something a bit different. I have been admiring some of the newer quilt designs where the quilter pulls in the design elements or embellishes the backside in a complementary way. I went with a framed chevron pattern.

Echoing the front but done with angles instead of rectangles

I am a believer in trying new things. They won’t always be a success… but not every failing is a failure. For the back piece… I pieced my orange and blue middle stripe first and then realized I hadn’t sewn in the blue triangles between the points. WHOOPS! I did actually manage to pull off piecing those triangles in there.. but it was a lesson in not getting too focused in and to take your time making sure you’ve seen the whole bigger picture.

Here’s an extra detail shot, especially since Ben got the new cards for the nice camera!

And btw… I still have quite a bit of orange left!

The dark orange is actually a combination of 3 different fabrics.

So Meta – Sweater Edition

Posted on March 8, 2013 by MissCarlotta

This post is a bit later than I wanted, but I’m blaming Portland, OR since that’s where I was when I finished this project.

So this year I decided it was time to try some more advanced knittings… things that aren’t flat or simple socks/hats were high on my list. Things like, a sweater for Ben and one for myself. So naturally I went looking for a sweater design for Ben that I felt would be challenging yet within my skill basis and lo and behold…. it was named Ben.

That’s right… I knit a Ben for my Ben so he can be Ben in his Ben. And I took pictures today (using a phone owned by Ben no less):

Yo Dawg! I heard you like Ben!

Now part way through this sweater knitting plan I had heard there was some sort of sweater knitting curse in which a person knitting for their significant other before they are wed would end the relationship before the sweater was done. I unwisely laughed at this with Ben and from that point he kind of approached the whole sweater project with some trepidation… but I’m happy to report, we survived the sweater curse!

So here’s a Ben in a Ben taken on a phone owned by Ben, in front of photos taken by Ben.

The sleeves are a bit long if you dont’ roll the cuffs, but they are symmetrical and it does fit.

So next up… I’m deciding which sweater I want to knit for myself.

Its Curtains for you, January! & January Project bag(s) round up

Posted on January 31, 2013 by MissCarlotta

Ok so first things first….. as I mentioned in my What to expect in 2013 post, I am working on a master bedroom star quilt. What I didn’t mention, was that this was a small part of a redecorating of the master bedroom… I managed to repaint it the aptly named, Restful (seriously… its a green). This month… I tackled the curtains. I was inspired by this fabric:

Nifty birds and branches!

Which I then designed my own…. and used my left over quilt materials for my birds! Which I just finished up today:

And here they are! (Note how restful my walls look! ^.~)

Earlier but better photo of my version.

So I’m pretty pleased with myself about those. They did take a bit more time than I anticipated, but there is quite a bit of detail work in there. So its curtains for my curtains project!

And now for the second bit of the title…..

You know those various tote bags.. the cute ones with bugs that you receive as gifts, and the logo splashed freebies… I have a whole collection of those that I consider my project bags. And its a good thing I have a decent collection…..

So first off… I made my own handbag this month!

Being modeled by my new dress form no less!

The pattern is called Brea. It came together rather quickly and personally I thought was a good use of some of my Chinese Yarn I purchased from Goodwill. (That link is to the label, if you translate it let me know!) I still have a few more balls of the brown, as well as some pale spring green and pale lilac.

I haven’t gotten terribly far on my double knit snowflake scarf project:

Green Side

White side

Double knitting seems rather interesting, but one of those things where you defiantly need to keep your mind on what you are doing, so it does tend to get set aside.

I mostly have this cross stitch done from a kit I picked up ages ago… I just need to tackle the backstitches and the french knots. Its my first project using black aida cloth.

Four cute little Chickadees.

FINALLY…. I said I wanted to tackle a pair of sweaters this year and… not only did I finally pick out and order my yarn for the Ben sweater….

Future sweater in the raw.

I’ve cast on and managed to work bout 12 inches of the back! (This includes the 4 rows I had to pull out and redo last night from the evening before… -.-)

I'm now even further along, but will I finish it before winter finishes?

I’m now even further along, but will I finish it before the end of winter?

(Lastly… if you have been eyeballing any of the remaining stockings… Please note that the coupons have been disabled, but the prices have dropped significantly if you are looking for a sweetheart gift in February!)

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