Anna's Spiffy Frozen Earwarmer!

As an extra for GrindHouseHussy19's Frozen Swap

package of chilly goodness I knitted up 

an Anna-esque Spifftastic Earwarmer!

Luckily I happened to have these colors in my stash

as the pattern doesn't call for a whole lot of yarn.

Speaking of the pattern...

It's "Coif" from knitty.com

(Shocking Pink Coif by Megan Reardon)

The pattern has been on knitty since 2003.

It was one of the first things I remember knitting from the site.

I still had the pattern printed out and tucked away in 

the File Cabinet of Doom located in The Crafty Cave.

It's good to be a hoarder....

sometimes.

Here's my inspiration image:

Superman Blanket!

In late winter 2014 a Hero was born.

When blasted across the universe in your own personal

Krypton Ice Pod of Comfort...

You're gonna need a SUPERBLANKIE!

My friends The Bottners had a cute little baby boy this year and

sometimes I can't let that go without geeking it up a bit.

Especially when said Bottners appreciate such things.

(See The Shower Gifts I made for the Bottner Baby)

 

The pattern used was from Ravelry:

Hero Cloth by Amy-lynne Mitchell.

In the pattern, it's supposed to be a dishcloth...

I figured why not knit a few together and the rest went

UP UP and AWAY!

I've found myself not knitting as much as I used to.

I find this sad in a way as knitting was what brought me back 

to my crafting obsession.

I love knitting and how elegant it can be.

It brings me closer to my Grandmother.

Knitting also is pretty impressive when you break it down:

just the simple wrapping of a simple string around two

simple sticks can produce the most amazing things!

This Cowl...Rules!

 When making Teacher's presents for Christmas I 

really wanted to mimic "Ruled Paper" in some way.

I ended up making tote bags (as seen in this post)

which all the teachers loved.

But before I settled on the bags, I first tried to make

Mrs. Wittenberg a ruled scarf!

As Christmas got closer, the more realistic I became about 

finishing the scarf...

So, I casted off and created a cowl for Morgan!

                   

She hasn't seemed to be a big fan of scarves this year, I'm thinking

she's sick of them getting in her way.

I'll always switch back and forth between cowls and scarves.

Sometimes you feel like a nut,

Sometimes you don't.

(earworm)

Not your usual Slythrin Hat!

Here's a hat made for the Potter Swap.

Slytherin was my partner's house, so a hat she'd need for 

those cold weather Quidditch Matches!

The pattern was from Charmed Knits and the yarn was from a sweater I 

unraveled years ago just to see if I could.

I wonder if there's a Slytherin Cheer...

You might be good at Potions

You might be good at runes

But when it comes to Quidditch

We kick you in the BROOM!

Say what?

We kick you in the BROOM!

We can't hear you

Go cry in your COMMON ROOM!

GO SLYTHERIN!

Harry Potter Howler Mitts!

I made these for the Craftster.org Return to Hogwarts Swap: Round 4; my partner: 85%confusion.

Couldn't find a pattern anywhere for them, so I decided to create one of my own. :)

Photo courtesy 85%confusion

Materials

Worsted weight Red

Worsted weight White

size 6 needles: dpn or 29 inch circs or longer if you like magic loop, for working in the round.

CO 36 stitches with Red, "long tail" method for extra stretchyness.

Join for knitting in the round

Rounds 1-10: K2, P2 for 2x2 rib

Rounds 11-20 Knit in the round

Rounds 21-30 Stockinette flat back and forth (Row 21 purl, Row 22 knit and so on)

Join for knitting in the round again

Rounds 31-33 Knit in the round

Here's where the "split" happens for the Howler's "lips"

Knit 18 stitches leaving the other 18 on a length of yarn for picking up later.

(If working in magic loop, just leave remaining 18 stitches on the cable) 

Knit 5 rows stockinette 

Bind Off loosely

Now for the other side of the hand.

Knit the remaining 18 stitches off it's Holder 

Knit 5 rows stockinette

Bind Off loosely

Then we come to the "Teeth"

Go to the "non thumb" side where the flaps start.

Count down 3 rows and on inside (wrong side) of mitt pick up and knit 36 stitches 

Knit 1 row

Knit 5 rows of 2x2 rib (Same as the wrist cuff)

Bind Off in pattern

Weave in ends and go give that Ronald Weasley the "what for" for stealing a Muggle Car!!!

 
Special Thanks to Melissa for being my hand model!
George Costanza has NOTHIN' on you!

This is the very first pattern I've ever written down and to my knowledge it's original.

Please throw me a message if anything is askew,

I am incredibly open to constructive critisim. 

Calcifer Hat!

Here's the Calcifer Hat I made for my craft swap partner, DaphadillyArt's daughter!

Calcifer is a character from the Miyazaki movie "Howl's Moving Castle"

He's a fun little fireplace fire (voiced by Billy Crystal) and a major plot point.

Keep your eye on him, he's feisty!

The yarn used was 3 strands of worsted weight from my stash in yellow, red, and orange.

The pattern was The Longford Hat on Lionbrand.com.

It calls for Bulky, but I wanted to get a flame flickery look so 3 worsted knit together did the trick.

Calcifer's Eyes are 2 circles of white felt haphazardly stitched on with 

white embroidery thread. I needed to do that stitching loosely to 

accommodate for stretching of the hat when worn. 

Buttons for the pupils sewn on a bit wonky...

Because lets face it, Calcifer is indeed 

A BIT WONKY!

Cptn America Baby Sweater!

For those in the States, I hope everyone had a great 4th of July yesterday!

For those in the international realm, I hope your Thursday was full of AWESOMENESS!!!

So in the spirit of 'Merica; a little Captain America project...

Here's the last installment in my Carla's Spell Your Name Swap Round 10 package!

2nd part of letter "C" for 

Children's Costumed Crime Fighter's Cache!!!

Her son wasn't born yet, but everyone knew something super was going on...

The badge was hooked up out of my super brain.

The knitting pattern used was from the magnificent book: Mason Dixon Knitting.

I used white cotton dishcloth yarn so it will be nice and absorbent for newborn issues! 

(heh heh.)

I even happened to have the most PERFECT button in my stash!

Carla, I hope your baby boy is SUPER IN EVERY WAY!!!

Damn, look at that jawline!

I think what Agent Coulson said could be applied to a lot of areas in my life right now:

"With everything that happening, the things that about to come to light, 

people might just need a little old fashioned."

10th Kingdom "Virginia" Mitts!

The 10th Kingdom.

A miniseries (wiki link) that aired on television in in the year 2000 and haunts me to this very day.

So much so, I watch the DVD I found at The Thrift once a year and was just involved in a craftster swap themed around it.

These are Fingerless Mitts I made for my partner inspired by Virginia's Long Amazing Jacket!

The pattern is "Optimistic Mitts" by Devon Joesting on Ravelry (rav link).

Fun pattern and the possibilities are endless! 

I choose the pattern because of the slight military look to mimic the style of Jacket.

Here's the inspiration!

Navy/Royal Blue with an amazing pop of Hot Pink lining and piping!

I really recommend trying to find this miniseries. I think I feel confident saying if you like the television show  "Once Upon a Time", you will like this. Clever, cute, and John Larroquette.

I repeat....

JOHN LARROQUETTE!!!

PS:

Night Court rules. (tee hee)

Knitted (AS CLOSE AS I CAN GET TO LITTLEST PET SHOP) Pouch

So, the Best Mother In Law Ever!!! asked me to knit up a little * Shaun the Sheep-type pouch * for the awesome Kait (pronouced Kate) next door for christmas.

Kait has a love for The Littlest Petshop she shares with Morgan. I thought that would make a great motif.
But...
(and isn't there always one of those)
there hasn't yet been alot of stitching done for TLP, and not for a lack of searching for inspiration.

So,
I had to improvise.

Her favorite color is PINK!

I lined the bag with some cool fabric given to me from a past swapping partner.

Here's my chart I whipped up for the duplicate stitching.

I found a perler bead pattern pretty close to what I was looking for and made one or two tweaks.

I just looooove graph paper notebooks!

(That's my personal share for today, graph paper notebooks!)

Winter Scarves

In the Winter Scarf Swap on craftster I had the privilege to knit for Thimbles71.

Signing up for this swap, I kind of always had in mind to do an Infinity Scarf. I'd never knit one before and I really like the way they look.

Thimbles said she didn't have any cowls or infinities, but liked them and wanted to give them a whirl.

So, I made both for her.

 The White Infinity Scarf is done on #13's with a white worsted and chenille knit together.
If memory serves, I did a 1x2 rib pattern for 48 inches or so.
Did a little twist, then joined the 2 ends with a single crochet stitch.

I think this might be my new fave stash buster scarf!

Now for the cowl.

I had noticed on my partner's pinterest hedgehogs were popping up here and there. Inspiration hits!

I had also never done DOUBLE KNITTING before (Oooooo...double knitting...)

This cowl did not start out life as a cowl. 

The plan was to do a scarf and have the hedgehogs go all the way through.

I had gotten 1/2 way through the motif and realized this was going to be WAY to wide.

After consulting with Lisa and Melissa (my crafty guru bouncing ideas off of lady-friends extraordinaire), we 

came up with the cowl. I just picked up the stitches on the sides and did a basket weave pattern to the appropriate length cowl-wise.

Did some button holes for a join and found some really cool black/white buttons at Joanns. They reminded me of Sherlock's Wallpaper.  

(Totally forgot to take pics of those buttons...boo! Bad crafter!)

Here's the other side.

Voila! Double knitting! 

This makes it reversible, but I think the hedgehog looks a bit "sheepish" on this side.

Hmmmm, what else can I double knit?

It's Shaun the Sheep!

All the kids I know (including my husband and me) can't get enough of Shaun the Sheep!
For my niece's birthday everyone had to get some Shaun love...

 

I made the head alone for the 1yr old

 

All the cousins got GOOGLY EYE pouches

(Like Amy Sedaris, I love me some GOOGLIES!)

 

The Willster got Shaun himself

 

Aww he loves him so

Won't you watch you with me?

GET YOUR FINGER OUT OF YOUR MOUTH

AND YOUR HAND OUR OF YOUR SHIRT!!!

 

 

Everything was well received and That Will still loves his Shaun. A big accomplishment there with how often kids change their minds....

 

If you've never seen the glory that is Shaun the Sheep I highly recommend it...you even get to see some fancy red underpants every once in a while.

 



 

 

 

Facebook got me thinking....

Made by me...except the barrel of monkey sock. That was from ThinkGeek.com.

"I'm extra proud to be a knitter today! My feet are freezing and I KNOW when I get home there are handknit cozy wool socks waiting for me... And Earl Grey- him hot!!!"

This was just some random thing I posted to facebook yesterday.
Today I can't stop thinking about it.

I AM proud to be a knitter! I'm also proud I taught myself.

I'm proud of the friendships I've made from knitting/crafting.

I'm proud my kids have an appreciation for handmade things. I've even heard the phrase "Oh we could make that" come from my 5yr daughter's mouth.

I'm proud that I can give things a new life through crafting. (most recent example: Morgan's Halloween costume was an adult size 6 dress altered down to a little girl size 6)

Summing up, I'm proud I can feel proud of myself.

Who knew facebook could do that?

 

 

Oh, and Earl Grey IS hot!

 

Pandorica Opens Scarf!

One of my obsessions is Doctor Who.
Another is Crafty Swaps on craftster.org
Yet another is knitting.

Here's what happily happened when these obsessions collided...

 

I don't think Van Gogh's masterpiece has been attempted in knit form so I had to give it a whirl.

 

The flames are knit with 2 strands of sock yarn in i-cord, then tacked on with a basic sewing thread.

 

I knitted this scarf for Strawberryh in the Surprise Swap on craftster and I didn't want it to go...

But we do what we must and need to as faithful Whovians.

 

The pattern is from The Spiral Staircase Scarf on Ravelry.com rav link and was superfun and quick to make. I'll definately be knitting more of these scarves (not necessarily Doctor-centric) up!!!