Denim Slippers

These are knit in the very first Cascade 220 yarn I bought about...hmm...4 years ago. I've been waiting for a small project as I only had 2 skeins.

Enter these slippers and here you go.

A pretty easy knit I'd say. Why did it take me 2 months...well you know me, other things got in the way. (Funny thing, when I started them, only about under 100 people had knit them...now, over 2,000 of them, possibly more! ) Sometimes the quick knits take me the longest. I love my buttons, faux leather. I do love this style of button and you may see it again sometime on a sweater, if I ever finish one soon!

ETA: Here's the pre-felted picture, huge huh!




Seaming help here! Don't let the seaming scare you!! She has great videos on it. Besides, it's felted, so if you screw it up, who is gonna know! The pieces go pretty quick.

Well, um..I was a wee bit picky on my tab sewing. Yes, I can be a perfectionist at times...what..you didn't know that ;)

They fit pretty good. 3 times through Megan's washer (thank you Megan!) was good overall. Maybe a smidge too short in the toe, but we'll see with wearing. It's nice to have a friend with a top-loading washer :) My dream laundry room will have a top loader, along with my front loader and some shelves, and a bar to hand stuff on outta the dryer, and a...well a girl can dream huh!

French Press Slippers by Melynda Bernardi
US 15 dpn's
Started November 9, 2009
Finished January 25, 2010 well...it took me this week to felt and sew on the tabs ;) Oh, sew the button on the tabs first! Easier that way!

Well, off to do the bills, then I can knit and spin to my heart's delight (unless I take some naps..) Why you ask? Well see here!

Sleety rain, yep, no snow :( but sleety rain...hmmmm


See the road. We haz no sand here...and iffin we do, it's not coming to my area for a few days...
Phew...not on call either :)

S is for...

Sewing, which has been happening a lot around here since last week.

A wee gift for a baby.

Cuddle wrap & little lap blanket. I have made probably 20 or more of these over the last 5 or 6 years. I used my serger for this, but if you can halfway sew on bias tape binding, you can make one too. All the moms that received them, say they are perfect for car seats. I just love the wee Meathead hat too!

My first denim needlecase request. Sorry for the blinding red bias binding though. This is going to be so sturdy as the denim is on the inside as well.



I did sew another different one, but no pics. I seriously doubt I'll ever sew a lot to upload to my Etsy store. For me, custom orders are the way to go. I have way too much knitting and spinning to do, but it's nice to earn a bit of extra cash. (no I'm not begging asking for orders either...just blog fodder ;)

Oh..here's some recycled yarn prOn...

Remember my hat last week. Yeah...blocking over a plate killed it....bad! I should have left well enough alone. Whatever possessed me to do that! It covered my eyes, unfortunately I need them to walk and drive...yeah..stay tuned for the re-incarnation...it's already started...sigh...
Just say NO to blocking hats....good friends don't let good friends block their hats, if you block your hat, you'll have a frog attack...yeah, I'm here all week ;)

Fortnight Beret aka Bella Beret

Why a fortnight? Well it is the One Day Beret pattern, but with all that was going on, it took me 2 weeks :)


You may have seen this colorway here before...



I've had it done for a few days, and had some pictures up, but I wanted to block it and have daylight pictures.

Or in this case, twilight. The blocking over a plate..well yeah, didn't go well. It made it too big and it fell over my eyes. I do need to see you know ;)


So here it is after a soak and a dry, no blocking required.

Here it is in early one morning.

What's that fabulous cowl I've got on? It's my Rockin' Gloria Cowl I knit for the 2008 Ravelympics. I've wanted a matching hat since then and finally I have it.

What is great about this colorway, well you know besides the color, they were dyed about 2 years apart. The cowl was knit from the 2007 RSC last package. The hat was knit with a skein I got sometime in 2009. It's not often something dyed so far apart can match. I love it and glad it's dry so I can wear it again, well only if it gets a bit colder.

One Day Beret by Kirsten Kapur
Socks that Rock Mediumweight - Bella Coola Colorway, doubled
Size US 5 and 6, 40" circulars (magic loop as usual)
Started January 1, 2010 (part of the Blue Moon Cast on Party)
Finished January 12, 2010

This pattern is really great for any size yarn/needle combo. It's knit top down and very customizable. If I wanted it more slouchy I could have knit it longer before the decreases for the ribbing. I was afraid of running out of yarn so I did about 4". Oh...an FYI, um..er.. when it says to knit the increases to 8.5" in diameter, don't think 10" is the same. Yeah, I was rocking on knitting it and ended up having to frog 3" of it...yes it is true...sigh..

I usually magic loop my hats as my hands just can't take using 16" circulars for some reason, causes cramps in them. Guess you won't be seeing me using 9 or 12" ones either ;)

Furry Friends...

Ok, this week it's Belle! She's a 9 year old Black/tan Bloodhound. She's got her papers, but due to her underbite and lack of adult teeth, we got her for a steal! Funny how having not many good teeth haven't stopped her from being 130lbs! Yes, she is on a diet!

Her ultimate favorite place to sleep...

It also doubles as the Christmas tree spot (she is not happy at that time of the year!).... see below for her 2nd favorite spot...

In front of Daddy's chair!

he loves it too as I hear "honey, I don't want to disturb the dog, can you..." um yeah....right...

You know I was sleeping until you started flashing me!


She now has osteoarthritis in her hips (talk about impressing the vet, when I saw her xray I said, "ick..look at her hips! oops, sorry that's your job!") and she is prone to lots of lipoma's (fatty tumors) In fact, this past spring she had a large one removed from under her neck. Her ears are a pain...always needing something in them, well you would too, with huge ears like that! ;) She's going deaf and has cataracts...cripe only 9 yrs old..oh..wait isn't that like 63 or something in people years....

More handspun :)

Finally I can post this! This was a gift for a friend across the pond. After 3 weeks of travel, it finally arrived to her!

I had 2 small bobbins after spinning the fiber. I decided to make it a 2 ply.


I'm pretty happy with it. The first bobbin spun well and the 2nd bobbin I thought had spun well..well..um..found quite a few unspun little gobs....what do you call them? Heh, I'll call them slubs





The pictures aren't the best, I've since made a light box for those nights there is no daylight when I get home ;)



Some of this 2 ply is sooo nice, some of it..well it's ok, I am still learning.

She loved it and I'm sure will knit it into something good.


Blended Domestic and Imported wool 58's grade
Amethyst Colorway
2 ply
15wpi
192yds
I forgot to take a picture before I spun it. Here is the Etsy link. I had a tiny bit leftover on a bobbin, it was this I practiced my navajo ply and spun the yarn you saw last week.

That time sure flew!

Well, the college guy just left today to go back. We had a good visit. Kept him busy with appointments, visiting friends, eating and just hanging out. He was very happy to eat home cooked meals, he doesn't get them often lately. I'm sure he's glad to get back at school, as he's pretty focused and just ready to get on with the next phases of his life.

Presenting the annual family picture we take before he goes back.

Belle likes having her picture taken...hmm..maybe I need to have Bloodhound Thursdays or something ;) Geesh, looks like I'll be the shortest one in the family soon too!

Knitting has been happening, just not finishing yet. Moving back into my studio and reorganizing a bit too. Need to finish my hat tonite, it's a little bit chilly around here lately! Finally!

The post in which....

she may have posted too many pictures???

Can you blame me though? I'm pretty proud of this. I have a loooong way to go, but if you asked me 1 year ago, would I be spinning. I would laugh a long, loud one, and say, nope, not until I retire. Well, retirement isn't happening...not soon enough anyways. ;)


I finished the singles in September, and they rested...and rested...


Until this last weekend. After practicing some Navajo plying with some leftovers and viewing this You-tube tutorial, I said, go for it....



So I did! I had 2 bobbins and plied each one separately on my jumbo flyer. I finished one, then added the second one in so this is one big skein..


Well, maybe I'm fibbing a bit....it's not that large...



When I spun it, I didn't really pay attention to the colors, I wanted them to go wherever. My pre-drafting wasn't the best, I was winging it. When I was plying it, I was trying my best to match the colors, but since the color lengths weren't consistent, it was a bit harder. You can see I was a little bit successful.


Approximately 144yds of dk/light worsted with a wee bit o'chunky in for the heck of it ;)
9 wpi...um..what else did you wanna know ;) I'm new at this handspun recording stuff.

Here you go, the before destruction shot!

Summer Twilight
100g/3.5oz Falkland roving from Amy's Rainbow a birthday gift from Charlotte :)

I really like spinning the Falkland and I really enjoy Navajo plying....very zen..

Next fiber to be spun is some superwash merino, stay tuned...

Trees.....

Felted ones at that

You all said you wanted to see the final outcome and here they are!

The one farthest right (and you can see it closer right below) is knit with Araucania Nature Wool, doubled using US 7's. Pre-felted 9" tall x 7" wide, post-felted 8" tall x 5" wide. This one stands up well.


This one on the left was my favorite to knit. Berroco Ultra Alpaca . This was knit doubled and it's so soft! If I wasn't afraid of it growing so much, I would love a sweater in this. Used US 7's and I did felt it twice, since I was re-felting the other one, figured what could it hurt. This one didn't shrink size wise much at all, but I did lose the stitch defination. Pre-felting it was 6" tall x 5" wide; post-felting it was 4" tall x 4.5" wide. This stands up well.


The largest one is Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Emerald. I used size 9 dpns/circs for it and only a single strand. I used 1 full skein and was a bit afraid as I still had at least 6" left to knit. Whew, I found another skein in the stash. I had bought them a few years ago to knit some felted oven mitts, but never got around to it.

It started out about 19" high x 9.5" wide. Finished size is 16" high x 8" wide. It did have to be felted 2 times. Once in my front loader (where I sadly learned this newer one won't unlock if stopped mid-cycle) and once at Megan's. It stands up pretty good, but I will be getting one of those styrofoam cones to try to get some of the folds out. You can kind of see it on the left of it. I've tried pressing them with no luck.

Buttons, they are sea shell buttons. Got them in a bag, very cheap too.

Pattern is from Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines. It's an easy pattern to knit, heck the large one could turn into a Santa hat if you wanted it too. Normally when felting you want to use at least size US 10+ needles. I think this pattern needed a tighter knit so that upon felting it would stand up on it's own better. I'll make more...I have some yarn saved for them...maybe next fall though ;)

Last FO of 2009

Happy New Year Everyone!

As usual, I finished my December SAM 8 socks about 11:30 pm. I only had a toe to do, but procrastinated all day.


I started sock 1 in March for our Monkey's for March KAL at SAM 8...what month is it now? Lately my goal is to get a few of those unfinished socks done. All I have left for socks is a pair of cuffs and like 4 rows started of another, that will be frogged and restarted. So I'll start off 2010 sock wise a lot better than last year. (no we aren't going to talk about the other Wips are we ;)


Picot cuffs..

Which I don't mind, but after 3 pairs in the last 6 months, a bit tired of them now. The left sock was started in March on 2.75mm circular, a bit loose, but not too bad. I had also knit the entire cuff with the same needles. The right sock I started a week ago, knit only on 2.5mm. Darn, I like how the colors work better on that one....sigh..what a difference .25 can make.



Toe Pic!


So I tried them on to see if I could make the yo's open up a bit and see the pattern.

yeah, not too bad..

The yarn isn't too bad, pretty soft actually. The only beef is some unspun areas, which I noticed more on sock 2. The yarn comes in 2 skeins so maybe it was just that one skein.

The color is pretty good, better on sock 2, no huge pooling of colors either. Just maybe should have picked a different pattern.

Anyhow, glad they are done! Onward to 2010


No purl Mini-Monkey Socks
Pigeonroof Studios Superwash Merino Sock
Loganberry Colorway
2.75mm & 2.5mm circ, Magic Loop
Started March 20, 2009
Finished December 31, 2009

Oh, FYI if anyone wants to join us for SAM 9, come on over!