Katy Ereira.

2KCBWDAY4 - Whatever happened to your ___?

Write about the fate of a past knitting project. Whether it be something that you crocheted or knitted for yourself or to give to another person. An item that lives with you or something which you sent off to charity.

After a lot of deliberation I have decided to write about the fate of three items I gave to others; an amigurumi bunny, a dragon named Tony, and a knit calorimetry.

Ami Bunny

One of the very first things I ever crocheted, and the first amigurumi I attempted was a red bunny. I didn’t think it was any good so I quickly stitched a face onto it and tossed it to my parents’ dog, Sheba. Sheba adored it. She’s a German shepherd and a very playful one at that—most of her toys don’t survive more than ten minutes. She will tear squeakers out of squeak toys and tear stuffing out of stuffed toys. The bunny never got scratched to shreds and in fact was frequently taken out for walks. Unfortunately one walk, the bunny was left behind. He now lives in the woods—dirty, but still in tact. Photo courtesy of my mother who trekked outside to find it yesterday evening.

Tony the Dragon

I got more and more adventurous with my amigurumi and took a request to make a purple and red dragon from my friend, Helen. It took me months to make. He doesn’t have any eyes because the eyes I had ordered didn’t arrive in time for me to affix them, and Helen would’ve rather had him sooner and without eyes than have had to wait even longer! She named him Tony. A few years later, Tony lives on top of a guitar named Cream—he likes Cream. ;) For those interested, I used the baby snow dragoncrochet pattern by Marjorie Jones.

Calorimetry

Remember the lovely Australian swap partner that I mentioned in the last entry? One of the items I sent her was a knit calorimetry. A calorimetry, if you’ve never heard of it, is a scientific term for something to do with heat, but besides that, it’s also a cross between a hat and a headband. Big enough to keep you warm, but you can still wear your hair up! She apparently became rather attached to it and I believe wore it all through winter that year. I don’t know if she still wears it, but at least it got some good use at the time! This was a blurry action shot she took back then. Want one? There’s a pattern for a calorimetry at Knitty.

2KCBWDAY3 - Tidy Mind, Tidy Stitches

How do you keep your yarn wrangling organised? It seems like an easy to answer question at first, but in fact organisation exists on many levels.

My Stash

I rent an unfurnished house. Nevertheless, there is a desk on the landing. Originally I wanted it removed so that I could use the space for something else, but the landlord was reluctant due to the fact that it is nailed to the walls. I relented and let it stay, and decided to turn it into a crafting desk. It has a bookcase attached to it, which is where I have stored all of my yarn - in rainbow formation. I also use it for craft books, fabric, haberdashery, and have my sewing machine on the desk itself. I’m not photographing the whole desk, though - it’s currently a mess!

My weakness when it comes to organising my stash is that I lose yarn labels. I have kept a lot of them, but I don’t know which label goes with which yarn. I’m trying harder these days to keep things altogether, but you should know that probably more than half of the yarns here don’t have associated labels. Oops.

Hooks and Needles

A while ago (actually a few years now, isn’t it?) I had the pleasure of swapping with a crafter from Australia. She made me this really great needle roll and matching stitch markers (right), and I’ve been using them ever since. This isn’t my entire collection of needles given that some are in use in other projects—including a pair of giant needles being used by my housemate for learning purposes!

I don’t really have any interesting needles or hooks - they are all pretty standard metal or plastic, plus one bamboo crochet hook also given to me by my lovely swap partner. I am however quite amused by the 1mm (yes, 1mm!) crochet hook for very tiny crochet. I’ve used it with embroidery floss on numerous occasions.

WIP Wednesday - Rainbow Mitts

Firstly I want to apologise for the influx of posts on knitting and crochet that has suddenly plagued my blog. If you enjoy this sort of thing, great! If not, sorry—normal blog emptiness will resume next week. ;)

This is WIP Wednesday, a follow-on from the FO Friday I once participated in. The object is to show off what you’re currently working on, and here’s my WIP:

It is a pair of rainbow mittens, following the accidental girly mitts pattern by CraftyLis. They are being knit using King Cole Mirage yarn (shade 872) which was given to me by my parents for my last birthday. I started knitting on Sunday evening and they will be done by tonight I should hope! It looks complicated, but the pattern is actually really simple to do, and I’m really happy with the way they are looking so far.

I know it’s a little odd to be knitting gloves when there is blossom on the trees outside, but who cares?! I really liked the pattern, and I can’t wait to have rainbows around my arms.

2KCBWDAY2 - Skill + 1UP

The second post in a week of knitting and crochet blogging - hooray!

Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet?

I don’t knit and crochet nearly as much as I want to, I have a plethora of other hobbies to indulge in including Geocaching, sewing, embroidery, studying Japanese and reading. Despite that, yes, I have learnt a new skill in the past year - cable knitting.

The pretty cable patterns always seemed so daunting to recreate myself, and the idea of needing a special kind of needle to do it always put me off trying. As it turns out you don’t really need a special kind of needle - a double pointed needle would do (just be careful the stitches don’t fall off) so as long as you have one of these in an appropriate size you’re good to go.

I was convinced to finally try it after my parents bought me a knitting magazine for my birthday which came with a couple of cable needles and a small guide to cabling. Another thing I’d received from a friend on my birthday was a mug with a little cabled cosy on it - of course I wanted more. So, using my favourite colour of yarn I set to work.

And there you have it!

2KCBWDAY1 - A Tale of Two Yarns

This blog post is part of the second annual knitting and crochet blogging week. I know, I know, I’m a day late in starting, but it was my housemate’s birthday yesterday so I wouldn’t have had time. Anyway…

Part of any fibre enthusiast’s hobby is an appreciation of yarn. Choose two yarns that you have either used, are in your stash or which you yearn after and capture what it is you love or loathe about them.

Yarn #1 - Manos Del Uruguay

I purchased two skeins of this yarn from Loop a couple of years ago whilst in London. I have thus far done nothing more than roll into a ball and briefly play with one of them - I simply haven’t yet found a project worthy of their use. I briefly contemplated arm warmers, and am currently contemplating a hat - if you have any recommendations of (small - 2 skein or less) projects you think would suit this yarn, let me know!

What I love about this yarn:

• It’s my favourite colour.
• It’s hand spun, and you can clearly see where the yarn varies in thickness which produces a strangely textured fabric when knit.
• It’s hand dyed which means there are subtle variations in colour throughout each skein and between different skeins - I think this equates to character!
• The company Manos Del Uruguay employs nearly 1,000 women in 17 rural villages around Uruguay, providing much needed employment opportunities.
• It is pure wool, extremely soft, and the materials come from agriculture in the same communities where the yarn is spun.

Yarn #2 - Mohair

This is more of a gripe about a certain kind of yarn than any specific skein I possess. One of the first yarns I ever tried crocheting with was mohair—a mistake! I originally purchased it after playing with plain white yarn so that I could try something more textured, but as a novice it made the learning process harder than it needed to be. It’s so thin and fluffy that it is extremely difficult to see individual stitches and thus making it difficult to know where to crochet! I imagine that it would be easier to knit with mohair, but I still have two skeins of the stuff lying around in my stash that I haven’t touched since. Recommendations of nice projects to try with mohair appreciated!

FO Friday: Crochet Slouchy Hat

So, here I am, attempting to blog more. Recently I’ve been doing a fair amount of crafting. It’s relaxing and keeps my mind off more depressing things. So I thought I would participate in what’s been doing the rounds amongst craft bloggers for quite some time - FO (Finished Object) Friday.

That is, I’m going to show off something I’ve crafted this week. Yesterday evening (during a World of Warcraft raid…) I started crocheting this slouchy hat (or rasta hat if you prefer!) pattern. About an hour ago, I finished it. I hadn’t crocheted anything in quite a while so I wasn’t really expecting it to turn out very well, and I used a yarn that I didn’t really like - Gedifra Fashion Trend Stripe in the discontinued #4622 (orange and green) colours that I bought on clearance sale years ago.

Without any further ado…

Turns out it actually quite suits me. I think?