Tag: holiday gifts

Posted in knitting, painting

1st Cast-on for 2024

Posted on by Laura Kate

Need I mention that this will be another stashbuster? While that’s true, this hat is a also a sort-of swatch for a much more ambitious knit project.

I’m knitting it up from scraps of yarn using a pattern offered by Wool & Pine. The technique is called 1 x 1 colorwork. It is just what it sounds like: Using 2 different strands of yarn per row, knit 1 stitch in color 1, then 1 stitch in color 2. Continue alternating colors to the end of the round. Then it’s up to the knitter on how often to change out colors throughout the project.

Here I am switching out colors once per row. After practicing on the hat, I hope I will be ready to knit the pull-over.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sea-glass-sweater-2

copyright Wood & Pine

Seaglass is the ultimate stash-busting pattern. It came to my attention from fellow blogger The Crafty Yarnster who is working on her own seaglass sweater.

  https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/152202665/posts/5052736941

In other news, five recipients of Christmas handknits expressed satisfaction with their new accessories. The balaclava/mitten combination can be seen here:

After trying it on, the child’s mother ecstatically called out for her own balaclava. It’s that warm! The adult version will be cast-on no. 2 for 2024.

Moving on to watercolors, I have promised my yoga teacher that I would do a watercolor portrait of her two little Havanese dogs. This is the photo she sent.

Irresistibly cute, don’t you think? This will be my first painting of a dog. I think it will be truly fun to do.

So, with these three projects, I believe that my plate for January 2024 is full. Hopefully I can squeeze in some work on December 2023 UFOs. 

Posted in knitting

Cast Off Monday: Parade of Mittens

Posted on by Laura Kate

It didn’t take long for me to work up TWO pair of mittens sized child medium.

Once I got into the rhythm, I completed a mitten in a few hours each evening. The pattern made it easy to match each one to its predecessor. The yarn was soft and bouncy with a good contrast of values.

My mascot mouse approves highly.

And here is the left-over yarn. Just enough to save for future repairs.

It was a good week for busting stash!

Posted in knitting

Cast-On Monday: Time for Mittens

Posted on by Laura Kate

Knitting mittens is like eating tortilla chips with salsa. They go so fast and are so much fun that it’s hard to know when to stop.

When my grandson was a toddler, I think I made four or five mittens in the same yarn. I was operating on the theory that, since they are easily lost, spare mittens would come in handy.

This time around I am using the purple and pink Elision yarn for the third time. That’s extreme stash-busting in my world. The skeins were purchased for Lu’s simple sweater, to complement a hand-painted merino wool skein she had selected.

Earlier this year, I added a pale blue color to make her a balaclava.

Friday Finish: Child Balaclava

That left a full skein of purple and a partial of pink. I am using a basic pattern to get my stitch count and proportions right……

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/zen-little-fingers-and-toes-part-1-mittens

…….. but substituting a different stranded pattern: a favorite from 750 Knitting Stitches published by St. Martin’s Griffin, New York.

Diamonds in the Snow has a 6-stitch repeat. It works perfectly with my cast-on count of 36 stitches. In colors selected, the pattern looks more like Posies in the Meadow.

Now if I can only use up both colors at the same time.

Posted in painting

Watercolor Plus Wednesday

Posted on by Laura Kate

It’s Wednesday, it’s time for a watercolor painting but…….

I had to test out my Christmas gift from Bill.

He’s the kind of guy that loves Christmas gift giving. So this is a BIG box of watercolor pencils. The first thing I had to do was make a swatch.

I spent a lot of time on Christmas afternoon making this swatch. First of all, the pencils weren’t in a usable order, so I had to re-arrange them. There were three steps. 1. Write out the color numbers and names in the same order that they lay in the trays. 2. Scribble each pencil. 3. Liquify each swatch with water to reveal the color.

For my first painting with these pencils, I chose a photograph by Bill of a cardinal.

I love this image, because of the light. He must have taken this one late in the day.

After making a sketch, I laid down an initial watercolor wash. Then I selected about a dozen watercolor pencils which seemed to match all the hues of the bird. I blended these on the sketch then stroked over with water to liquify the pigment. After it dried, I added black details and white highlights with paint.

At that point, it was obvious to me that the background was too pale. I deepened the shades using Payne’s gray and a little burnt sienna.

Side-Lit Cardinal

I’m pretty happy with the result. I think that I will try some floral subjects next.

Posted in knitting

Friday Finish – More Socks

Posted on by Laura Kate

As of today, the completion rate on my sock challenge is 75%. Newly added to the sock pile is a pair I am calling Dots and Dashes.

This is the largest pair of the challenge, with a foot length of 10 1/2 inches. I used 100% natural wool in two colors and a pattern from Berroco called Fairlee. I would rate the skill level for this pattern as intermediate, which matches the rating assigned by the Berroco designer. They are described as slipper socks – I’m assuming that’s due to the fact they are written for dk weight yarn.

Modifications that I made include the two-color pattern on the foot, which came from Barbara Walker’s Treasury of Knitting Patterns. It’s in Chapter Four, Two-Stitch Check, version 1.

The second modification is the bind-off. The pattern calls for a sewn tubular bind-off. That looked like a hassle to me, so I worked Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy bind-off for one-by-one rib instead.

You can find the original Berroco pattern on Ravelry, or visit my post dated October 3rd for the embedded link.

One more to go. I had to order some needles, so I won’t be casting-on the last pair yet. Tune in on Monday to see what goes on my needles next.