December knits

I have been too busy to post lately, not with arts and crafts unfortunately but with other kinds of work! But I've been destressing at night with knitting. Oddly, I had recently decided that crocheting is more of a natural fit for me in terms of it being really intuitive and less frustrating. But here I am knitting instead! Most of what I have made this autumn and winter have been gifts, so I haven't been posting pictures until the gifts are all distributed. A couple of items, I forgot to photograph before I sent them out, alas. But I have plenty of things I made for myself too!

Above, is a portion of the entrelac scarf I'm making with this Tutorial. I'm using Bernat Mosaic yarn in the "Medusa" colorway. I had some problems with the yarn coming apart when I pulled it too tight, in some of the "in between" colors where black is mixed in with red or yellow. But I was able to rejoin it. Entrelac looks a little intimidating and the word sounds a little ominous, but it really wasn't very hard. As with all knitting things, just paying attention and counting seem to be the most important things.

The scarf is still a work in progress but I made the "Foliage" hat from Knitty as well recently in just about two days. It again required a lot of attention and counting because every row is different than the one before it, except for the ribbing. But it is a pattern, and once you learn to look to see "what part of the leaf am I in now" you can stay on track. I like circular needles. I was afraid of them but now I am not! This comes out a little large, as people had said on Ravelry, but I like a big roomy hat to pull down when it's cold. I could seriously make these ALL DAY in every color but I don't know that I need that many.


Here is a little flapper hat, it is a basic simple crochet stitch -- it's listed as the Amelia hat on ravelry. Very quick and simple to make, except that I started by making a different one -- Claire, I think -- and the pattern just stopped making sense to me at one point. Crochet instructions are easy to follow but it seemed as though it was impossible to repeat the pattern in the stitches the way they were listed so I decided to just go for something quick and easy to use my Manos del Uruguay yarn.

This is finished now, but here is a photo from the WIP phase -- the Drop Stitch Scarf in Bernat Mosaic "Psychedelic" yarn. Absolutely wonderful yarn and a perfect pattern to show it off with. I would make these all day too! I bought five more skeins of Psychedelic yarn on sale because I love it so much, but only one was the same dye lot as this one and there is a noticeable difference -- the yellow in this dye lot is SO BRIGHT. The others are much more muted. I will use them, of course, but for something where super bright yellow is not needed.

I'm still working on my Carnaby skirt, and I have a couple more gifts to make -- plus I still have my afghan squares and crochet flowers waiting for me to make more to finish up those projects. I think I like the fast ones the best. What on earth am i going to do with all these knitted goods?

ArtFire sale extended, new items

I'm extending my 25% off sale at my ArtFire sale through the week, which includes lots of art and a couple of knit/crocheted items. The autumn tree painting you see above, and the crocheted fingerless gloves below, are among the items that are for sale at a considerable discount.
Adorned with a red flower and a little robin. I definitely prefer crocheting, I've decided, after fighting with dropped stitches on a different project this week that was knit...but I will continue to do both. I think everyone who does this stuff has one method that they prefer, so I'd have to say that crocheting appears to be my preference.

I visited Woolbearers in Mount Holly, NJ today and got some beautiful yarn, including this below, a variety called Cornucopia in the color Provence. It made me think of something regal -- like a queen in a palace overlooking a cloudy cliff at the edge of the sea. I have no idea what I'd do with it but I have to have some.

And continuing my fixation on rainbows, some beautiful rainbow yarn...I wish I had an endless supply, everything I owned would be made of it! Another thing I prefer about yarn crafts to sewing, is that you don't need to plug anything in -- you don't need a machine. I hand sewed garments for years, but it was very time consuming, and the end results weren't quite as neat as I'd like them to be. Knitting and crocheting seem to come out very neatly. And you don't have all these little pins falling all over the place too. Oh I still sew, don't worry -- I am going to set up a machine in a permanent spot and use it whenever inspiration strikes me, but the rat-a-tat of the machine is something you can't do in bed at night or in a waiting room. Wouldn't it be interesting if you DID do it in a waiting room though?