My First Class

As I've said before, most of what I know about knitting I've taught myself.  However, I've wanted to take some classes to see what else is out there.  There is a knitting shop just a few miles from my house that I've been in a couple times that offers classes.  Any other time I've looked into it there hasn't been a class that I wanted to take, or I've missed a class I would be interested in.  Fortunately this wasn't the case recently.

On Saturday I went to a class learning a pattern called Duffers Revisited.  I had to look up what a "duffer" is but found they are slippers.  I would love to make slippers!  The class was three hours long and I was surrounded by other ladies who love to knit.  In the class I learned a new way to cast on creating a seamless knit - awesome. 

When I left class I had one whole duffer complete and had started on the second one which I promptly finished at home.  Now that I know what I'm doing, knitting a pair would probably take me about 3 hours, shorter if making smaller duffers.  The duffers are knit using 100% wool because they are a felted project.

This was my first experience with felting.  Fortunately Husband helped me with the washing machine.  We don't have a "hot" setting on our washer, but my teacher said the felting really comes from the yarn being wet and the agitation of the washer.  Above you can see that the stitches have disappeared as the pieces have felted.

Sweet, right?  These are meant to be Lions' colors for me to wear on Sundays while watching football.  I'd like to find two Lions pins to attach near the top of the opening.  I also need to find something "grippy" for the bottom so I don't end up sliding around all over the house.  I can't wait to make more of these - I purchased yarn in orange and navy for my next pair ;)

Tigers Baseball

When I'm knitting, I'm also watching tv.  Usually I'll be watching a sporting event.  Fall is the best time of year because there are so many sports going on.  I'm really in a pickle today with the Ryder Cup on all day, MSU/OSU on at 3:30 and the Tigers start at 4:05.  Worlds are colliding.

On Thursday the Tigers took over sole possession of the American League Central Division - I bought playoff tickets!  As we all know, October in Michigan is questionable so I needed to whip up my Tiger scarf in preparation of next week's game.  You'll recall a sweet scarf I made for Sister last year during the Tigers' playoff run.  I literally finished this in the car on our ride to watch Verlander tear up the Rangers in game 5 of the ALCS - amazing...

I looked and looked for the right yarn because I wanted my scarf to be orange and blue.  I had no luck, apparently no one wants to supply Tiger orange in yarn form.  However, during one of my wanderings through JoAnn's I stumbled upon "Team Spirit" yarn - genious!  Someone decided that putting orange and navy together in one skein of yarn was a good idea - thank you to that person.

Because of the colors, I knew I didn't need much of a pattern for the scarf so I decided to knit on my rectangular loom.  I purchased two skeins of the yarn and did a quick test run to see if two strands would be sufficient for the scarf - it was not.  I wound up a third ball which was actually 2-ply (for a total of four strands) and was off and knitting.

With colored yarn like this and multiple skeins, it's weird to see an actual pattern develop.  In the picture above you can see everything is orange!  Four strands of yarn were all the same exact color together...cool.

So, here's the finished product.  It only took me a few hours to work on and now I'm ready for playoff baseball - GO TIGERS!

Holiday Accessories

After the beer cozies hit the FB I had a friend comment that I needed to do wine cozies.  Of course I do!  Last year I dressed up the wine bottles with hats and scarves for the winter season.  Here's a peek back on those:

I started to search through some patterns and found one I could not resist.  With Halloween just around the corner, wouldn't you love your wine bottle to wear a costume too?

A GHOST!!!  I love the little ruffles on the end.  These were created by casting on 144 stitches and then knitting together to reduce number of stitches for the rest of the body.  I had some problems getting started.  I managed to use a 16" circular needle for the first few rounds because of the number of stitches before switching to the magic loop method.  After a few rounds I moved to double pointed needles because I felt I would move quicker.  I also went from size 8 to 7 to 8 again with needles!  Oh well, good for a first try and can't wait to make more.

I try to make things for myself every once in a while.  The other day I was wandering through JoAnn's, which can be dangerous, when I happened upon a set of buttons that looked like a snowman's face.  Are you kidding me?!  So I decided I'd make myself a coffee cozy to keep in my purse for those instances when I purchase coffee.  He's amazing...

I also perfected the football laces.  Such a productive day on the couch :)

Beer Cozies

I've got quite a few ideas and project brewing and needed somewhere to start.  I got a Facebook comment about beer cozies, which were already on my list, so I decided to start there.

I found this pattern on Ravelry.com which looked pretty simple and straightforward so I started my first cozy.

My prefered knitting-in-the-round method is the magic loop as opposed to double-pointed needles.  I feel that the pattern holds together better and ends up more circular.  I picked a nice fall yarn I had in the yarn cave for my first attempt.

Pretty sweet, right?!  I needed to knit it a little longer because once I started drinking my delicious beverage I noticed how far down the bottle I usually hold.  An easy adjustment for the next attempt.

Halfway through this first one I got an awesome idea.  I wish I would have had it before I even started, but sometimes the creative juices just don't flow that way.  Target audience for these cozies are beer drinkers, a lot of beer drinkers are male, therefore...

FOOTBALL BEER COZY!!!  Oh man, it still needs a little work, but don't tell me you won't drink your beer out of something this amazing.  A few more things to perfect, but this new project is off to a great start already :)

As I was finishing cozy one I asked Husband to go up to the yarn cave and bring me back the brown yarn.  He was gone for quite sometime, but fortunately returned with the correct skein. 

Husband said, "I guess I didn't realize just how much yarn you have up there..."

WHOOOPS!  Better not ask him to "help" any more or I might get yelled at again ;)

I also signed up for two classes today at the local knitting shop.  Man am I pumped about that!  My first class is next Saturday where I will be learning to knit duffers that will then be felted.  Did you just Google "duffers"?  I did, too.  They are fun little slipper things!  Again, possibilities are endless.  The other class is a couple evenings where I'll be learning to knit socks.  Abilities just keep expanding...

Addition:
Here's another football beer cozy I created.  Much improved, just need to finalize the laces on the next one!

Miss Abigail's Owl

A few months ago I made this fuzzy guy for one of my little friends

Apparently he went over VERY well!  So, I decided to make one for Miss Abigail this weekend as a belated birthday gift.  Plus, I didn't have any other projects in the queue.  The thing about these owls is that they take almost as long to assemble as they do to knit.  I had all kinds of yarn around the house so didn't have to purchase anything new for this one.  Here's a look at all the pieces prior to assembly:

It took a while to decide on the button eyes.  I had several different options but like the way they turned out with the big white ones.  Here's a look as I use pins to start holding things together for sewing:

And finally fully assembled with stuffing!  Isn't she cute?!

Same Song, Different Verse...

The button scarf has been a huge success.  I've made 9 of them so far including one I just completed for myself :)

 

I did make a few alterations to the original pattern.  As you can see, the scarf above has two buttons instead of one.  I played around with it to see if I wanted the buttnos staggered or one on top of the other but Husband convinced me this looked best.  I also decreased the stitch count from 15 to 13.  This allows for a little more length and is not so tight around the neck.  With blocking, I'm still able to widen the scarf with ease.

 

 

I had a little WHOOOPSY with the one above and forgot the button hole in the first few rows.  Not to worry, I added it to the end!  However, as you can see, this means the tail of the scarf falls down the opposite side of your body than all the others I made.  Here are a few other variations:



This last one I opened up a bit more at the neck so the button is a little further down.  Again, it's all about personal preference.  Such a fun project that doesn't take too much time.  Not that I'm wishing for winter, but I'm excited to start wearing my new creation!

Don't be jealous of my awesome nightshirt...

Doggy Accessories

"Kristie, can you make these for my dog, she'd love them in pink!"

I laughed out loud when I saw these...leg warmers for doggies?!  But yes, of course I can make those.  The yarn cave had some leftover sparkly pink yarn to use and I got to work.  Without having the dog in front of me it was hard to tell how many to cast on and how long to knit.  Husband asked me how long they'd take me - just over an hour for the pair.  I cast on 32 and did knit 2, purl 2 for the entire pattern.

I used the magic loop method of knitting in the round and doubled up on the yarn because it was thin.

It's also hard to tell how sparkly the yarn was.  I sent them in the mail last Tuesday and waited eagerly to see if they'd work out.  I finally saw the photo on Facebok yesterday!  Here is my finished product:

SO GLAMOROUS!  I think I could have made them a little larger and longer as these look a little stretched on my furry friend.  However, she looks so happy to be accessorized!  Who would have thought?!

In other news, my buttons came in the mail yesterday - SCORE!  I have three scarves to finish off as I was waiting for big buttons.  I've been off knitting for about a week since being on vacation and having to finish a book.  I'll be back at it tonight while watching baseball AND football on TV...life's rough :)