NiseyKnits

We have only 10 days more till the end of August, and here in the Bay Area, nights have gotten considerably cooler. You know what that means? It's knitting season!! Yes!!!! I can now bust out my bulky and super bulky yarns and knit soft, cushy, super-squeezable, ultra-warm items for Fall and Winter. This year I'm hoping to be ahead of the holiday rush by starting on items for my Etsy Shop. I worked on an oldie but goodie, the Scrunchable Scarf pattern by Susan McConne, while we were on vacation in Hawaii. I knit the scarf in Loops & Threads Cozy Wool (one of my favorite bulky yarns) and added a shell crochet border on one edge to give it a little touch of whimsy. Y'all know I love lots of pictures, so here you go! The scarf is currently available in my Etsy shop here . Have a great week and see y'all next week. PS: I still have headbands and mitts available if you are interested. Please see last week's blog post .

I've been trying, pretty unsuccessfully I might add, to take photos of the Chunky Dean Street Hat (by Nina Machlin Dayton) that I made for my son a few months ago. The little one would just not sit still long enough for me to get a usable shot. I got him in his high chair, and being held by another friend, and the pictures were still not too pretty. Then this morning I remembered that one of my favorite designers, Alana Dakos of Never Not Knitting , seems to take photos of her knitted items lying flat on a white background when she sends out her newsletter. I thought, "My, I could do that with a hat!" So I set off to take photos of my poopoola's hat. I used Shalimar Yarns Missy Bulky (Blueberry colorway) which I picked up from Bobbin's Nest Studio a while ago, and knit the hat on US 10.5 (6.5mm) needles. Now this was before I realized that my gauge when knitting in the round was pretty loose. So the hat came out a little too big, even for the poopoola'...

If someone were to ask me, right now, what my favorite pattern is, I would say it's the Scrunchable Scar f by Susan McConne, hands down. I mean, I've knit enough scarves with this pattern that I have it memorized. Ok I'll tell the truth -  the pattern is so easy that even a new knitter will have it memorized within 10 minutes. But the finished product is so beautiful that you wouldn't believe the pattern is just 3 stitches long. Yes, 3 stitches long. If you clicked through on the pattern name to get to the pattern, you'll find that the pattern was put up in 1996. That was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay before Ravelry was even born. I don't know who listed the pattern on Ravelry, but it has 3558 projects linked to it. And I made 7 of them. :) The most recent one was a gift for our former roomie Geoffrey, who just moved further North to be his wife. Now we all know how cold it can get up North over there, so I offered to finally make him a scarf. (Just as an aside, i...

I finished some projects! Yay! I completed the Merlot Scrunchable Scarf from last week's post, the one for my sister's bf. He visited us briefly this past weekend and he's darling. He even enjoyed playing with my son!! He tried on the scarf and loved it, but I didn't give it to him as I hadn't blocked it yet. It's now blocked and photographed, but I took the photos late in the day so they are pretty bad quality. The model I had lined up for this photo shoot (my sister), decided that she needed to take a nap in the middle of the day, and when she woke up she didn't feel like getting all dolled up for a photo shoot. So I lost the daylight needed for good pictures, and had to pull out my trusty plastic bodyform. One of these days I'll get a beautiful fancy-looking bodyform... For the photos, I tried for some artistic, close-up shots to make up for the bad lighting and my rudimentary photo-taking skills. Here are a few pictures of the Merlot Scarf. I think...

I've been talking for a while now about knitting myself a hat. So when I found a cute hat pattern on the ball band of Loops & Threads Cozy Wool yarn , I was very excited to try it out. Plus, it only required one ball of yarn! Just perfect! I thought I would make myself one in the Merlot colorway to see how easy the pattern was. Then I would make a few more hats for my Etsy shop. Now this yarn is soft and gorgeous. Made of 50% wool and 50% acrylic, this yarn is extremely soft and just wonderful to work with. It has minimal splitting, gives great stitch definition, and is just the perfect chunky yarn for gifts and items for sale. Plus, their color palette is just beautiful. I've knit four items with this yarn so far, including this hat, and I plan to make many more with it. (See the Silver Grey Scarf , Forest Green Scrunchable and Claret Procragratification Scarf. ) So back to the hat story. The pattern calls for a US 11 and a US 13 circular needle, so I got my needles t...

In March this year I made a resolution to post at least once every week on this blog. I have to tell you that it was pretty tough to do at times. Sometimes I had to come up with something the morning off, before heading to work. Other times I used my lunch break to quickly write a post. A few times I had enough material to write 2 blog posts ahead of time and schedule them for the following weeks. I am quite glad that I did this, and that I was able to stick with this resolution. I'm going to do my best to keep it up for next year. I know I don't have a lot of followers, but I am so grateful to those of you who do follow and read this blog, and feel that I should be faithful to you all with my posting. Thank you for reading about my knitting exploits, for participating in my giveaways, for sending in comments, and for being so supportive of me as I work on improving my crafting skills. Here's to you all, the last post of this lovely year 2011. And what could be more fitti...

Last week some lovely people found my shop and ordered a few custom items from me. It's so exciting when I get purchases and orders from people who aren't friends or acquaintances. Don't get me wrong...I LOVE knitting for friends and family. However when someone I don't know orders something from me, there's a true sense of accomplishment and excitement that I feel. A few weeks ago I posted the pattern for the Procragratification Scarf, and listed that scarf on my Etsy Shop. A nice lady saw the scarf and asked for it in the Eggplant Colorway. I just finished it two days ago, blocked it yesterday, and got my sister to model it for some fun pictures. Here they are: I also finally got around to finishing a cream version of the Hurrah Scarf , and took photos of that scarf. And finally, a new forest green scrunchable scarf that will make a great gift for males or females on your list. The yarn is a 50/50 blend of wool and acrylic, and is ...

I am so grateful to all of you who have been reading my blog, leaving comments and being supportive of my small knitting business. Now that the year is winding down, I'm trying to hit some knitting targets and meet some "secret project" deadlines. I finished a few items some weeks ago but didn't get the chance to photograph them and list them till this past weekend. The first is a Grey Unisex Scarf (now available in my Etsy shop ) with a big fat cable running along the side. I've received a lot of complaints from friends that I seem to only knit for women, so this scarf is my first in the "line" I'm working on for my male customers. The second item is the Fig Hurrah , a one color version of the Pompom Scarves (sans the pompoms) that I've been knitting. The color is Fig, and it's as soft and cushy as its cousins, but without the pompoms for those who want something simple and warm. It is also now available in my Etsy Shop .  ...

As almost all knitters will attest to, we always have a million works in progress (WIPs) that we need to finish. I have one that’s about 3 years old. However sometimes you want some mindless knitting that doesn’t require you to count stitches or lean over charts. I wanted to knit something late one night, preferably in bulky yarn, and something that would come out looking chunky and uber-fashionista. I had knit a moebius cowl using the fisherman’s rib a few times, and wondered what it would look like without the twist, and with a few more stitches. So, instead of working on the projects that absolutely must be done by early December, I took a size 13 circular needle and cast on for this scarf. Which is why it’s called the procrastination-instant gratification scarf - progratification scarf. I intended this pattern to be free, but then I got the news that my best friend had given birth to a stillborn baby boy. I would be very grateful if you made a donation in memory of Troy A. ...