Phisch's blog

4th of July

2008-07-02T13:18:32Z

IMG_7138
Originally uploaded by Phisch

In honor of Independence Day (and the fact that my right hand/arm is still not up to knitting*), I made a banner with some scrap fabric plus new fabric the kids helped to pick out.

Looks ok here. I really like it. In spite of the fact that the machine was totally misbehaving, it did get done and I kept my cool.

Happy 4th of July!

*I was almost all better when I bought and helped hubby lift and set up a rug for upstairs. This rug is the third (and hopefully) last one in our saga of rugs. The first wasn't working with the vacuum which has since been returned. The second was the no-end-to-shedding-ever rug so it went back. I like this one and I hope that it flattens out soon so we don't have to exchange that one either. But now my right arm needs to relax a while again.

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Bad stitches

2008-05-20T20:15:17Z

Bad stitches
Originally uploaded by Phisch

What do you think is causing this? I can pull the stitches from below so that they lay flat but it would be nice not to have to worry about that.

Sad...it looks sloppy. Those stitches should lay perfectly aligned because I'm using a double needle and everything.

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Gathered Pullover

2008-03-16T02:15:36Z

Gathered Pullover
Originally uploaded by Phisch

This yarn was supposed to be a Central Park Hoodie but I changed my mind and am making Gathered Pullover instead since I wasn't getting the right gauge without the yarn looking to "holey" for a CPH.

I love the this yarn, Elsebeth Lavold Classic Al in color Artic Night (misspelling from label). I might end up using up only 6 of the 11 balls I got so I will have to figure out what to do with the remainder. So far, only almost 3 balls used.

The stockinette is supposed to roll a lot, but this seems to be a lot more than I wanted. I'll have to see if blocking will eliminate some of that or what. If not, I might cut off the cast on row and knit down from there. I like that knitting is the same upside down as right side up :)

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Knitting in the Bible

2008-03-10T20:03:15Z

A post in which I seek, once again, to justify my ~~obsession~~ hobby by quoting the bible.

Nah...someone else put together a nice compendium. Saves me the time. Now on to my next CPH...

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Central Park Hoodie

2008-03-02T20:00:06Z

Central Park Hoodie
Originally uploaded by Phisch

Finished! Voila!

So...E'sa, it fits a little large especially considering this was supposed to be a really fitted sweater. Definitely something to wear next to the fire or over other clothes (I vote for the latter).

It's made per the original, hence no buttons, but could have those added. Maybe wood toggles? If I do add a closure, it would be toggles. I love the length of this sweater. Love it!

I have yarn I ordered as part of my Christmas present from Karen (or was it birthday?) that was intended to become my own dark blue CPH (with toggles). But, man, this thing is warm and it's just acrylic. The yarn I have is alpaca and wool! Maybe I'll make something else with it instead.

All I need to do now is just weave in the last of the threads and it is totally complete. Yay!

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Places That Shouldn't Hire Me

2008-02-23T01:53:36Z

For my own good, that is.

- Yarn store with a good supply of yarns that aren't made of wool (cotton, linen, alpaca, silk) and a dye-your-own-hank set up (is there a LYS with such a thing?)

- A really good fabric shop that carries nice quilter's cottons from designers like Joel Dewberry, Heather Bailey, Amy Butler, Alexander Henry, Denyse Schmidt, Michael Miller

- A store that sells vintage cotton fabrics, wool, linen, vintage hats and shoes and accessories, other vintage natural fabrics

- A used book store with inventory that changes regularly and has lots of kids books and pre-1960s illustrated children's books

- A bakery and/or chocolatier that goes beyond the typical fluffy stuff but not so far that you wonder what they were thinking when they combined such odd ingredients and forgot to try it themselves first before they served it up

- A book store full of of used Christian literature (are there those? or do they mostly get passed along?) especially biographies, which is something I want to get into.

Somewhat OT, but I am curious: besides some kids books on---gasp!---vinyl and a couple of freebies from Chick-fil-a that came in kids meals, I've never listened to audio books. Friends of ours managed to enjoy a long (12+ hr) drive with the accompaniment of a Harry Potter book on CD.

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Capelet and Skirt

2007-08-28T14:25:36Z

IMG_2098-

I can finally post this since the giftee already received it.

This is a capelet and skirt I made for my niece’s birthday this past weekend. Unfortunately, I didn’t ever get a chance to buy ribbon to string through the neck of the capelet and top of skirt.

The capelet pattern is from the Anthropologie-inspired capelet pattern posted at Craftster.org and the skirt is Hey Mickey! from Knitty. They’re both knitted in Lion Brand Cottonease (I love this yarn) in Lime (color picked by J, who said his cousin loves that color). Top in size 8 needles, bottom in size 6 for a sturdier fabric, per pattern instructions. I had to approximate the size for both.

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Ribbed Boat Neck Tank Top

2007-08-07T00:21:15Z

Ribbed Boat Neck Tank Top

Boat neck tank top from Knit.1 magazine knit in the round in Lion Brand Microspun yarn in black with size 4 needles.

Easy to knit since it was ridiculously repetitive. But the bottom was curly when I cast off. I should have mirrored the garter stitch at the top instead or done one row of all knit before casting off. But I’m guessing that this won’t bother me eventually.

Since this is a 2×2 ribbed stitch, it’s really, really stretchy and will probably fit someone a bunch of sizes larger than myself.

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Knitty Coveteousness

2007-05-10T20:12:36Z

I love the concept of this wrap jacket by Ruby: cables and chains wrap jacket.

And this cloche is pretty neat: retro cloche hat. I have just the right amount of leftover yarn, too.

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Sweater for DS1 - Done!!!

2007-03-31T02:58:39Z

March Craft Challenge: completed project! Knitted well over 15 minutes a day for exactly a week. Well, maybe plus a day, but I'm not sure.

About two and a third balls of Caron Simply Soft. The two in "silver" as NM calls the color plus maybe a third of another ball in the black. I could have used a little bit more silver or maybe I should have made the black stripe wider on the body.

Pattern was based on Elizabeth Zimmerman's seamless raglan sweater formula.

The good: it was really quick to work out the formula however I messed up when I did the number of increases after the hem. Instead of 160 stitches for the body, I ended up with 166. That's ok, though because it's not as wide as I thought it might end up.

The bad (but redeemed): it was interesting having to attach the body and sleeves together. The first few rows were wonky for me but they ended up working out. The hoodie could have been longer, too.

The ugly (completely lost): I can't for the life of me figure out how to do the kitchener stitch when the stitches are on the needles! I had to take them off one at a time on each side to finally work it out and even then I got many stitches wrong. Thank you, Lord, for a son who's just plain happy about having a sweater made for him! He's not looking for errors, just looking for excuses to wear his silver and black sweater.

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