Bad decisions and more socks

Posted on May 29, 2019 by MissCarlotta

So the Finished project I am featuring today took me nearly a year to complete and not a single bit of it was the fault of the pattern. So let’s just jump in to how I made some poor decisions that still ended up looking amazing!

I found this amazing flame orange tonal yarn with gold sparkle thread in it at the yarn stores sales bin (yes, I am still thrifty). There were two skeins; one perfectly presentable and one more of a loose almost tangle. It was color saturation love. Check this out:

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Inspired by the gold I decided the ideal choice was finding some solid gold colored beads. I looked high and low and there were lots of options in semi-transparent golden beads and I bought some but still…. this needed the solid gold bling and I went online and found some metal seed beads and based on the listed hole dimension I thought they were roughly a 6/0 bead. They were not. They were more like an 8/0 bead and that made putting them on a heavier than fingering weight yarn was a significant challenge… as in get out your beading pliers and pull your wired yarn loop through the hole at times challenging. So when I found I’d made a mistake in a beaded row… the project spent some time in the WIP pile to think about what it had done. I mean really?!

On the plus side when I did go back to restart my project I had apparently forgotten that before I put it in time out, I’d apparently pulled back the bad row and so I didn’t have to do that when I restarted. YAY!

But wait! There is more. Beads are sold by weight and so what I thought was a reasonable quantity based on my prior experience buying glass seed beads turned out to be about 3+ times as many as I actually needed, and so in eyeballing the bind off options… I liked the bubbled version and figured I had enough beads I might as well bead my bubbled bind off. Of course I forgot all about how long picot style bind offs actually take and so by the end of day one binding off I was rather far more ready to be done than actually done! So without further ado… here’s some beauty shots of my version of Bubbles and Baubles which based on the color I called Pele’s Bauble.

And yes.. I did say there were more socks. Which is the round three from Sock Madness pair (yes I was out but I finished these before Round Four pattern showed up so its a win in my book) and my between rounds Günter from the Op-Art socks book. I’m now at pair 5 of the 19 patterns completed.

Sock it to me!

Posted on May 30, 2017 by MissCarlotta

Ok so first up I am updating this from a jury selection room on my phone… But seeing as I couldn’t bring my knitting with me, what better time to blog about it?

Firstly, I have managed to squeak in my finish of the latest Sock Madness round just yesterday with a pair of Mosaic socks. (Again with a twist cuff) These are a second pair for Ben already this year.

The round before was a lovely twisted stitches and beads. And I managed to get both of the dark Ludwigs complete as well as one test knit in orange.

This brings my current sock total to 9.5 pairs! 10 has been my prior years maximum, do it’s looking like a good year for socks.

In other news I am about 75%ish of the way through my Glocinella lace, which seems to be the 500+ stitches per round, no longer get full thing spread out on the needle for photos point.

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But at least I have my sewing table and machine set up again do perhaps some quilting updates next time?

A Bouquet of Tiny Flowers

Posted on July 17, 2015 by MissCarlotta

The big day is getting closer and closer, and thankfully this morning I get to tick the little box that says “knitted DIY projects finished”

In addition to my shawl which I posted earlier, I knit some favors (to be revealed later) and my hairdresser said I could do just about anything (pins/combs/veil) so… I made some flowers for my hair. Here’s the flowers I have ordered for my bouquet,

: Rhudbeckia

: Roses

: Lisianthus

Which I used as inspiration for making my flower hair combs

I wrote up some of the pattern details for each flower on my Ravelry project page where you can see each flower solo. (Please note that those directions are very rough) To finish off my combs (6 red, 5 yellow, 5 violet) I left long tails to tie them onto the combs and then used a small dab of hot glue to set the knots and secure the flowers to the comb.

The backside with long yarn tails

Glue has hardened and my tails are trimmed.

The most difficult parts of this project was finding plain combs (~~Joanns~~, ~~Sally Beauty Supply~~, Michaels had them but in the bridal supplies which wasn’t where I was looking) figuring out where I’d put my hot glue gun, and getting a photo that was fairly true to color.

Guessing I would say that each flower takes less than a yard and the red and gold were yarns already in my stash in fingering and lace weights.

Hollywood Socks: Fixing it in Post Production

Posted on June 13, 2015 by MissCarlotta

Ok, so you may recall that I made a nice set of beaded socks for Sock Madness that were a bit too long in the foot for me. Well during Sock Madness there are specific rules per pattern to help ensure that at least everyone knits a standard requirement. For me, that meant my sock feet were too big. So technically they were finished, but then I needed to re-finish to make them wearable.

Mad About the Gals original finish

I did realize that my socks were going to be too long so I did put a stitch marker at more appropriate measured row for starting my toes and did not weave in my yarn tails, just tucked the toe yarn inside the sock. So the first step was to un-kitchener the toe.

Here you can see my marker for the earlier toe transition point and I’ve unworked the kitchener stitches.

Since I have quite a bit to frog back, I decided to just pull back like one would frog the entire item, but by keeping a handle on how fast and far I was pulling, be able to re-pick up my live stitches at or around the row I’d marked.

: Here is one sock where I’ve pulled all the green yarn from the toe. I will continue to pull back to my marker.

: After you get to the row, pick up each stitch on your needles again. If you knit tightly, you may want to use a smaller needle to pick them up. Be careful not to miss any loops.

Once you have your stitches picked up again, you just use your directions to re-knit them to the correct length. Here’s a photo of the first sock re-completed stacked on top of the other sock in the original finish so you can see the foot length difference.

Sorry about the lighting… I was working on these while taking a drive to Oregon.

After you have finished the first, then you work the second just the same.

It was a beautiful day for a drive. I still have some green toes, but not as much and the socks fit.. which was the most important part.

In semi-related news. I also finished my second Woodruff Sock, which is my first colorwork sock. They are a bit roomy, but not too big I think if I were to knit them all over again I’d probably go down a needle size, but we shall see after the first real wear and block. Here’s some beauty shots.

This is why we Block

Posted on April 26, 2015 by MissCarlotta

I’ve discussed blocking previously, and while he example was fine… I think this one is a better illustration. (Featuring my planned wedding shawl)

This is after knitting before blocking:

Its a nice crescent shawl with a bit of a ruffle/flutter texture

And this is after blocking:

So very much more lacey and airy

Yes, that’s the same tabletop in both photos. Yes, I do sometimes fail with photography (hello lens shadow I see you!).

This pattern has 2688 beads and I knit it up on my salal dyed yarn. And since I’m rather pleased with it… here’s a ton more pictures.

The January 1000

Posted on February 3, 2015 by MissCarlotta

Believe it or not… I knit 1000 yards in January. (Yeah I know, I hardly believed it myself) The whole month I was in “I’m never going to finish all the things I want to get done this year” for a mindset which may have helped but then again was a bit stressful at times.

So let’s see… first we made socks that I’m putting firmly in the category of “will wear for benefit of the TSA.” This is a silly idea of mine that since we have to take off shoes most often to travel, and since the TSA officers then get to see a myriad of socks, I shall wear socks as if it were a sock contest. Previously this was novelty holiday socks, but now I have these beauties checking in for the first 200+ yards:

No officer, a clown did not puke on my feet.

That pattern probably would look a bit better in a less variegated color, but it was a nice simple repeat suitable for taking in the car or when concentration isn’t as needed. Which means it offset my lace and beads shawl project.

2nd bead project!

Golden beads on russet

This project has a nice soft drape

A nice shallow cresent

The pattern itself was only available for a very short time called Dance With Dragons. I used about half of my Secret Santa yarn, so I shall need to find another project for the remainder, but overall I am loving how it came out.

Next up… it was the January Cold Sheep challenge… find the oldest yarn in your stash and knit it up. Technically I’ve other yarn that was in my stash for longer, but due to the time of year and the plans for it, I went with actually probably the oldest yarn. A vintage Dazzleaire from the era of when it was “new” that may even predate my own existence.

Dazzling Yellow Dazzleaire

This yarn joined my stash from another knitters stash. The idea of what to do with it went through several considerations and I really do like the colorway. But when pressed for an idea… I decided to make my very own design Neck Cat.

This dazzling kitty loves to travel.

The essential design idea is a cat themed neck/travel pillow, and I’d say that while its comfortable, and obviously a cat, this fella needs a second go through the design phase. The next iteration I plan to aim for a more curved and less square body shape, with feet that are a part of the main pillow.

Now at this point I was just shy of both February and 1000 yards. I wasn’t yet ready to start another beaded shawl. Another person shared some mosaic knit dish/wash cloths, and I am sitting on a stash of quite a bit of cotton so….I churned out a pair of cloths myself.

Coral and Peach Partners

Technically the photo above is at the one and a half cloth stage, but I thought it was a nice showcase of how you can just swap the two colors around and get a mismatched yet still matched pair. It successfully made two skeins of cotton exit the stash and so now I’m starting another mosaic pattern for another pair.

Mosaic knitting is where you slip one color while working the other color across the design. When you get back to the start of the design, you swap and work the other color while slipping the first color.

Winding my way into 2015

Posted on January 1, 2015 by MissCarlotta

So what kinds of things have I got planned for 2015? Well aside from the painting inside the house projects… I do have some ideas for things more in line with my knit and quilt blog.

First up… a confession. I have a lot of yarn. I knit over 5 miles last year… it was a drop in the proverbial bucket.

Stash Part 1

This is my primary stash. This is my nicer yarn, stuff I really enjoy working with. The left side has a bin full of sock and lace weights, (which overflows into the bags you see on the floor in front when I’m honest and not just cramming them in on top -.-) and a bin full of plant based yarns (cottons and bamboo blends). The right two bins are both worsted weight.

The secondary stash

But wait! There’s more! There is also a box of wool, and another box plus tote of acrylics hanging out in the closet. And that giant skein of cashmere lace in a project bag.

So clearly my first order of business is to do a bit of a stash down. Working on nothing but “Cold Sheep” for the next 3 months, with options to renew. Cold Sheep is where you do not buy new yarn for a set period…. like cold turkey only for knitters.

I’ve actually done a decent job of cataloguing my stash over on Ravelry (in case you want to see the particulars of what’s in the bins) and started to queue projects specifically to my stash. I have not yet found the perfect cardigan for one of the two sweater quantities of yarn, but do expect to see something cardigan with cables in the future. I am going to allow myself to buy notions such as beads and buttons, and patterns. I will get a new skein every month from my Tipsy Sheep yarn club, but technically that was paid for in 2014 so its not really cheating…. right?

I am going to knit up my salal dyed yarn this year, and I’m revisiting a designer who had the misfortune of being my first charted pattern, so I mucked it up pretty well, lets see if I’m ready to tackle a new chart and even more beads this time. I am also planning a shawl for the gorgeous lace that my secret santa included as part of my gift. (You can see my thanks here) and there is still an outstanding Jay bird shawl… all three lace with beads.

Apparently Salal and Knitpicks share colors

Yarn from my Santa!

This Blue, with matching beads and black for my Jay

In addition to the sweater and lace with beads, I also have some socks planned. Starting with some yarn from the last round of yarn club, and proceeding through a pair of hanks in some colorwork socks!

Which brings us to the quilting homefront. I absolutely, positively, beyond a shadow of any doubt, want to do the shop hop by bus again this year. That’s in June. I had so much fun in 2014, I am looking forward to it again. So I am definitely going to need to focus on my progress quilt bin so that I have room. Mario, Chess, and Star Trek are pretty decently along and just need a bit more finishing. Movies and Stars are progressing, but still in the early stages. Tesla and Embroidered Snowmen are not yet begun, although some of the materials have been purchased. That’s a total of seven quilts I am aiming for this year.

First Sock Yarn for the year

The Central Panel of the Chess Quilt

Peach Block Mock Up

Whew! That thinking about all the things I want to work on this year has me already a bit overwhelmed. Good thing they aren’t all due in February! There is just one last thing; I am planning to get some projects ready with no intended recipient. I am considering adding a page of finished objects that will be open for offers. I’m still hashing out the details but I will be sure to post when/if it comes to pass.

How did I do? (Year in Review)

Posted on December 31, 2014 by MissCarlotta

In 2014, I knit at least 9320 yards, that’s over 5 miles of yarn!

The last thing coming off my needles was a Checked Rose Stitch Cowl experiment, finished Dec 30th.

This is a two color stitch worked with the same two yarns, just switching which yarn is the dominant yarn part way through.

Looking at the rest of my Ideas list from January and adding up all the things I’ve done this past year;

I did not knit up my alpaca yarn. I did manage some design work, but thus far I’ve not been happy enough with the results.
I DID make my first gloves, followed by my first fingerless, and first TWO sets of mittens.
I DID tackle my second socks, and the third pair, and even a fourth!
While I didn’t work on the Stellar’s Jay shawl, I did start and finish 6 shawls this year.
Four of the Six Quilts I was planning did get some work done, but I actually did not finish a single quilt. The only Quilting thing I finished were some pillow cases. I am still working on Mario!
I totally tackled brioche stitch too!
I published 2 new patterns and even dyed some yarn using local berries.

So here’s a visual overview. Included you will find one rather fuzzy bear that was the secret gift I mentioned earlier.

This was the surprise gift from last post!

Disappearing Deep Space 9-patch

Fingerless!

Brioche in two colors

Advanced Cables

Colorwork Mittens

First Beads

Experienced Level Pattern

Three pillowcase fronts.

Yarn Swap Success

I still love lace

My first dye attempts!

Stranded Purling

8 QAL Blocks

First half of my auntie shawls (4 of them)

Over 25% done!

Cashmere Lace

I tackled a milestone on the blog front too. There was exactly one day when this site was not visited by anyone, not even a robot. So I want to thank all of you (even the robots) for making me feel so awesome every morning.

So now I be you are wondering what is next. I am going to save all that for a later post in the next few days, as this post is now very long and full of photos already.

Smitten with Mittens and Cables

Posted on November 23, 2014 by MissCarlotta

Last week I spent an extra day in Grand Rapids, MI during their record setting November snowfall. Thankfully by the second day, I’d finished my first Mystery Knit-A-Long project, some Marie Curie Mittens.

Polonium and Radium as portrayed in yarn and beads. The picot edge does lay flatter after blocking.

This was my first Mystery KAL, which I tend to be a little worried that the mystery will turn out to be something I don’t particularly like.. but with cables, beads and science… they certainly had things going for them.

The inside of the thumbs have my initials and are dated.

These were done in Cascade Heritage Sock, and Tipsy Sheep Socktails. Tipsy Sheep has cocktail inspired colorways, and is a local dyer that runs a monthly yarn club. I am 3/4ths the way through this 4 month club cycle and have already signed up for the next round.

I also managed to get through not just one, but BOTH socks of a worsted weight sock pair on this trip. (Though to be perfectly fair, the last sock was finished during the “snow day” at the airport hotel.)

Cable Twist Socks

Which means that while my first pair of socks took nearly forever… I’ve somehow managed to get 3 pair done this year. Apparently the key to overcoming second sock syndrome is interesting yarn and pattern. And magic loop method where its all one big circular needle does help. The simple cable here is actually done without using a cable needle, and because its worsted weight these knit up so much faster.

But wait! There’s more!

I didn’t just make one pair of mittens…. I made two!

Sunshine yellow and brick red flowers, to combat the winter greys and whites.

These were a bit more difficult though, because to scale the pattern to fit, I ended up using my size 0 double pointed needles. Which at times makes you feel like you are wrestling a porcupine. It certainly didn’t help that between the first and second mitt the chair ate one of the 5 needles, so I ended up making the second mitten with just 4 needles. Still haven’t found that needle…

This is how it looks when you are working with your double points….

Working these two pair of mittens has inspired me to possibly attempt to make some geeky mitts next year. (Think similar to stockings, but with mittens instead) but I think I will want to pick up a magic loop size circular in these smaller sizes before I start making my own. Needle wrestling isn’t really my thing.

And because I know its always a bit interesting to wonder how the inside of stranded color work looks like…. here’s an inside out mitten shot. (Technically these are a Christmas gift, but since I went to see the recipient early, you get the early Christmas update!) One amazing thing about this pattern was that unlike prior mitts, this pattern had one chart for the body of the mitten, with the thumb in the middle area. You got the left or right mitten based on which direction you read the chart!

Mirrored coloration. Overtime these loops will felt together a bit.

Mirrored coloration; loops instead of stitches making the pattern. Overtime these loops will felt together.

Also, for my “guilty I haven’t updated in awhile” pile is one celtic cabled cowl, that was finished in time for Halloween decorations.

Advanced Cables

I learned so many great cable stitches!

One of my last outdoor photos before the heavy rainy season began.

The first time through the cable pattern is slow and full of stumbles and learning, but once you get to the repeating it all starts to come together.

Now if only I can get the rest of my planned projects for this year finished….

Experienced Level, Beads and Knitting with Novelty

Posted on October 1, 2014 by MissCarlotta

Apparently September was just one of those months where you are doing just so many things that finding time to photograph your knitting and update your blog just wasn’t going to happen. If you really must know.. there was spaghetti sauce being made, and rooms being painted, and the buying and selling of cars happening… and yes, through it all there was knitting.

So first up… let’s chat about novelty yarn. Its one of those things that seems to change over time and finds itself marketed to a new knitter or learning to knit knitter, and then as you learn and grow your skill you don’t need fur and ruffles to hide your stitches and suddenly its the bane of your yarn stash. So in my latest round of stash assessment, I was a bit taken aback by the quantity of fur and other bits that “seemed like a good idea at the time” and went on a quest to find something to make with it. And I’m happy to report that the Suzy the Cuddlebunny pattern, is a pretty quick and simple knit that turns out rather well.

Looking for somebunny to snuggle.

I made mine with a flecked fur and an acrylic held double for all the body parts, and just a plain acrylic for the inner ear. The body was deemed “so soft and snuggly” but the test snuggler, so I think, FuzzyWuzzy here will find a good home this holiday season.

Which brings me to the experienced portion of this post. At some point in the learning of a skill you may find yourself confronted with determining your skill level. Are you still a beginner? Comfortable calling yourself Intermediate? What do you feel about “experienced”? Its kind of intimidating, but here’s the deal with knitting… if you can’t figure it out, or you screw it up beyond all hope… you can just frog it back to your source material.

For me, this bit of bravery involved a pair of socks labeled as experienced level. Someone else had posted their finished pair and they were marvelous…. so even though it was only my third pair of feet wearable socks… let’s go for it!

Socks of Grand Experience

This pattern relies on twisted stitches, where you knit into the back loops of the stitches instead of the front of the loop at points. The bottom of the feet is flat stockinette, but the pattern then picks up from the base of the foot and wraps around the heel and up the leg.

Second Sock Syndrome…. it was hard but I managed to overcome it!

So… what’s an “experienced” knitter to do, but finally tackle using beads. So here’s a vary patriotic themed Fabergé shawl for one of my aunts.

Thankfully the autumn rains gave me a photo op break.

I really like how the eyelet section is worked to make the stitches look mirrored from the center spine.

I especially like how the top eyelet section is worked to make the stitches look mirrored from the center spine. Beading is surprisingly less complicated then you would think.

So there you have it… the month of September. Now onto all the holiday knitting… which should include a new pattern revolving around gifting canned goods, some mittens both as gifts and as my first mystery knit-a-long. (yep, I’m finally giving up the “but what if I don’t like it?!” worry on this one.) And more quilting… because I’m falling way behind on my Super Mario QAL project.

PS – I am totally wearing those socks right now!

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