Stitch Scarf: Simple Slip Stitch

The latest stitch scarf that I've finished is the Simple Slip Stitch one. That was done by knitting one, slipping one stitch, and then knitting knitting three stitches for the first row, and then purling the second row. I used some leftover black yarn that I had to make (I'm not sure what that yarn is composed of, other than I'm pretty sure it's a synthetic blend of some form). I had some problem blocking this one as well, although not as bad as the Purl Ridges scarf. I think that the problems that I had with this one might be from the fact that the standard stockinette stitch has a tendency to curl at the edges (this scarf is basically a slightly modified form of that stitch; and the curl at the edge is what I could not undo with blocking with this scarf), so I found a suggestion online of how to modify the beginning/end of each row so that the finished product doesn't curl, which I will try out on another project that uses the stockinette stitch or something similar. I haven't started a new scarf yet but I'm hoping to in the next few days. Currently, I'm working on using the magic loop method for making socks (it's so much easier than doing each one individually, even when I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to switch over to double pointed needles for the heels). (Top two photos are of the scarf; the bottom one is of the socks I'm currently working on with the magic loop)

Angelica

 

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(All photographs ©Angelica Ricci and may not be used without permission.)

Stitch Scarf: Purl Ridges

I made this scarf from some yarn that my grandmother had given me. She didn't say what it was made of , and it didn't have a label, but I wish I knew because as nice as the texture and color is, it would not block. As far as I can tell, whatever fiber this yarn is made of will not hold moisture, which is not necessarily a bad thing except when you need it to stay damp to block it. So it still has a pretty strong 'curl' to the center of it. Other than that, it came out well. I'm working on two other projects right now (one, a shawl, I'm almost done with) and I just finished up another stitch scarf (which I still have to block), so I'm hoping to have some of that posted by the end of the month. 

Angelica

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(All photographs ©Angelica Ricci and may not be used without permission.)

Leg Warmers

 Just a simple pair of leg warmers I recently finished. Knit one, purl one rib pattern, done with two strands of yarn. I'm working on a few things right now and I'm also working on posting more things from Instagram on here :)

 

Angelica

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(All photographs ©Angelica Ricci and may not be used without permission.)

Modified Condo Knitting Garter Stripes

I'm going to have to set up an alert on my iPod calendar to remind me when I last did a post, because lately it's Monday, and I blink, and it's Friday. Anyway, this is the second scarf of my Stitch Scarf project. I ended up modifying the original stitch pattern by accident (I think I did this by doing an extra row in one section without realizing it). The original pattern was rows 1-6: knit (with two strands); rows 7 & 9 (RS): knit; rows  8 & 10: purl (with one strand) (repeat rows 1-10). I ended up doing rows 1-7: knit; rows 8 & 10: knit; rows 9 & 11: purl (all with one strand of yarn). I basically ended up with a pattern of of three different stripes instead of two, which hopefully you can see in the photos below (I had taken a picture of the swatch in the book for reference, but I must have deleted it off my phone :/ so I don't have any way to let you compare them at the moment). I have many other things to post so I'll be working on that over the next few weeks (and I'm about halfway done with the third scarf).

 

Angelica

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(All photographs ©Angelica Ricci and may not be used without permission.)

Seed Stitch Scarf

I'm a bit behind on posting the Stitch Scarves (which I posted about here: http://wabisabikomorebi.blogspot.com/2015/04/stitch-scarves.html), considering the fact that I'm starting the third one, so here's the first one. This one is just a simple Seed Stitch scarf. I did it in an interesting Lion Brand yarn called Alpine Wool that I came across. It's 100% wool and is considered a roving yarn. The results were really clean and smooth considering how loosely the yarn was spun.

 

Angelica

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(All photographs ©Angelica Ricci and may not be used without permission.)

Golden Cowl

Towards the end of winter I decided to try and make myself a cowl that I had seen on a blog. Well, it ended up being a bit of a lesson in choosing yarn for a project and why sometimes you just can't modify a pattern and end up with good results, no matter how simple the pattern or the modification. I can still wear it, it just doesn't lay right on my neck. I know that my two major mistakes with this were not casting on the number of stitches that the pattern called for (I was using the long-tail cast on method and I found out that I didn't set aside enough yarn to do all the stitches) because I didn't think that would effect the outcome as much as it did. I also found out that no matter how nice a yarn feels in the store, I think that for any future projects that call for a bulky weight yarn, I'm going to use one that is not so smooth as this one is, because trying to deal with the ends that had to be woven in was very difficult as the yarn did not seem to hold onto the stitches around it so well. I'll probably try to redo this pattern at some point and compare results.

 

Angelica

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(All photographs ©Angelica Ricci and may not be used without permission.)

Stitch Scarves

I've been meaning to write this post for a few weeks now but just didn't get around to it. I've started a project based off of one that I had to do in one of painting classes in college (which you can view some of results of that here: 100 Paintings). Basically, for that project we had to set up a still life and over the course of a set period of time (I can't remember if it was over a long weekend we had or a week), we had to do 100 paintings from it. Now, these paintings were not big (I think most people in my class didn't do anything bigger than the size of a sheet of printing paper), so it was something that was considered difficult but not impossible. I think some of the guidelines were we couldn't rearrange the still life, but we could zoom in and out in our compositions, we could use different colors in the painting then maybe what color the still life actually was, etc. It was an exercise in creativity, to see how much we could get out of that one still life. What I'm doing is I'm going to take stitches from knitting stitch dictionaries, and I'm going to make scarves from each stitch. I'm not limiting myself on what needle size I can do, how wide or long they are, or the weight of the yarn. I'm going to use this as an exercise to see how yarns and stitches work, so I can better understand the construction of big projects and hopefully have better insight on how to edit instructions as I need to.

The first book I'm getting stitches from, courtesy of the local library, which I work at. Remember, if you want a book on knitting, you can always check your library to see if they have it so you can look at it before you buy it. :)

And a late Happy Easter and Passover to those who celebrate :)

Angelica

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(All photographs ©Angelica Ricci and may not be used without permission.)

First Hat of the Season

I finished my first hat of the season. The yarn for it is 100% wool. A very basic design, which was good because this is the first pattern I've used that had a chart, and I had to rip out the first few rounds after the ribbing a few times before I figured out how to read it (I tried looking up how to read charts on the internet, but apparently how they're supposed to be read can vary from pattern to pattern). However, I think sometimes when you have to do that, the next time it's easier for you to remember how to do it the right way :)

Angelica

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(All photographs ©Angelica Ricci and may not be used without permission.)

Green Shawl

I realized the other day that I finished the green shawl that I've been working on for, well, a while :), over a month ago, but I never posted any pictures of it. So....

I still have to block it, so once that's done, I'll post some pictures of the edging at the ends, because that is curled up at the moment.

Angelica

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(All photographs ©Angelica Ricci and may not be used without permission.)

Nine More Inches to Go....

..... Or really less than that, since it's been about three weeks since I measured the shawl. Actually, I probably have about nine rows left before that shawl is finished. Yes, I've been neglecting this blog for a few weeks, mostly due to me starting a new job and trying to get used to a new schedule. But I will be working on this more now that I've gotten used to how this new job is going to be scheduled. I also had an idea for a weekly feature for this blog called "Blogs, Books, and Food", where I will share some recent books and blogs that I've been reading along with some recipes I've tried recently. I didn't want to do something with more general links because I already put those on the Facebook page. I'll probably start that in the next few days. 

Angelica

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(All photographs ©Angelica Ricci and may not be used without permission.)

Project Update

I'm about half-way done with green shawl (it's about forty inches long). I also finally managed to figure out how to crochet. It took looking at about half-a-dozen different "how to" instructions. Does anyone else find that? That when you're trying to figure out how to do something that it takes more than one source (and usually more than one type of source; I kept going between written and picture based instructions)? Anyway, I've just started making a giant granny square since I had some multi-colored yarn in my stash from my grandmother (and I'm not a big fan of multi-colored yarn so I just wanted to use it up), so I'm going to see how big of a granny square I can make with that.

It's about double the size of what it was in the second photo. Hopefully, I'll get both of these finished up soon.

Angelica

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(All photographs ©Angelica Ricci and may not be used without permission.)

Current and Recent Knitting Projects

So, I've been spending the past few weeks figuring how to use blogger and trying to achieve the set up I want. In that time, I finished up my second pair of socks, which are just a basic brown sock with a few inches on ribbing at the top of the cuff:

And these are the first pair of socks that I had done, which give a whole new meaning to the phrase "tube sock":

They're actually quite comfortable, a bit tight after they've been washed and dried but I think that has more to do with my knitting tension then the design of the socks. My grandmother, who taught me how to knit as a child, decided she was going to try out sock knitting, only to discover that she couldn't coordinate double pointed needles with her hands, so I ended up with this pattern (one of those freebies you get at the craft store) and this yarn. Now I've discovered how much I enjoy making them I'm working my way through a booklet of basic sock patterns (the brown socks are from the first pattern in that booklet).

In addition to the socks, I've been working on an eighty inch long green shawl (which I've done about twenty to thirty inches of):

The edging along the long side of it.

The basic overall design.

The edge design along the short side.

What the edge will look like after it's blocked.

(By the way, please excuse the slightly poor quality of the photos; I'm currently straightening something out with my DSLR and used my camera that I have on my Ipod touch.)

I'm still going through all my photos to see what ones I will be posting and, since I got Photoshop Elements for Christmas, editing some photos that I haven't had a chance to work on. So over the next few weeks I'll be posting more photos, ones I've taken and ones of any projects I'm working, and working on the layout for the blog.

Angelica

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(All photographs ©Angelica Ricci and may not be used without permission.)