Sunday, August 25, 2013

Up and coming skills

When I spend a lot of time on a single project my mind starts to wander.  I will start to think about all the awesome things that I could be knitting.  There are some really cool techniques out there that I haven't tried yet.  So I made up a list of things that I want to learn to do.


This one amazes me.  I remember the first time I saw it in a yarn store.  It blew my mind.  When you look at the item straight on you will only see two coloured stripes, but if you look at it from a different angle a picture appears.  Some people go all out and make really amazing works of art.  Check out Wooly Thoughts for some of the best examples of illusion knitting.





Now, I'm a big fan of colour-work.  It makes everything so much more exciting when you brighten them up a little.  My previous projects have been worked with the Intarsia style, such as the batman wristband or the skullkerchief.  You can do some fantastically intricate knitting with with Fair Isle.  A few of the designers that inspire me are Spillyjane and Tonks.







Amigurumi
Alright, so I know I've talked about learning to crochet before but I am far from an expert.  Amigurumi is a term for crochet toys or stuffed animals.  It amazes me how versatile you can be with a crochet needle.  I have seen beautiful and complex amigurumi.  An amazing nerdy designer is Lucy Ravenscar who crochet a set of star wars toys.  You can find her blog at http://lucyravenscar.blogspot.ca/







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Thursday, August 1, 2013

What's going on

I have been crazy busy for the past few weeks and there have been a lot of changes in my life.  First off, I got a new apartment. My priority for essentially the past month has been packing up the old place and moving into the new one.  We are just starting to decorate, which is awesome because it means most of the boxes are finally gone.

Roller derby has also started to take over my life.  (Like it didn't already).  I skated in my first game, the Halifax Misfits vs Cape Breton's Tar City Rollers!  That was a fantastic evening.  Playing against Cape Breton was tough and I have to say I left that evening bruised, but not broken.






My projects have not been completely put on the back burner.  This place has a desperate need for some dishcloths and, of course, I'm not going to go out and buy some.  You may have already heard me talk about making dishcloths before, but I have some more tricks.
  • As with any project the first step is to figure out sizing.  Which means GAUGE.  I can't stress how important this is!  Mostly because I am notorious for jumping into projects without measuring first.
  • You should always slip the first stitch of each row.  This makes for a nicer edge and is great if you want to pick up the stitch later, like with crochet boarders.  
The dishcloth on the left was made with slipped stitches, the one on the right was not.  You can see the difference it makes.
I had been working on a pair of mittens, but they had to be restarted.  My gauge was slightly off, and slightly off makes a biiiig difference.  So I tore them apart and started over, which is actually pretty exciting.  The first draft of mitts started with a very basic design so that I could get the pattern down.  Almost immediately I had a bunch of ideas on how to spice up the pattern.  Now that I had to restart, I get a chance to put some of those ideas into effect. 





Other then those two projects I have also been working to update my Etsy store.  You may have noticed a few new items have shown up.  There are now listings for the Split Cabled Headband, Button-up hat, and Rainbow Button-up hat.




More on Roller Derby: http://www.halifaxrollerderby.ca/
                                     http://www.rollergirl.ca/rollerskating-info.html
                                     http://www.derbyroster.com/


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