My favourite thing I've knitted this year! ( Mittens )


I also thought I'd share the present I got from "Secret Santa" at work. It's super cute!( Needle holder )

Okay, here are the winners of the BSG Calendar Holiday Giveaway:

nnaylime, nicole_anell and luna1130

Congrats to you three!! Please send me a message via LiveJournal with your mailing address and I'll get your calendars sent off ASAP.

Thank you to everyone who entered the contest -- You all came up with such awesome stuff, it was REALLY TOUGH choosing winners. (BTW, thanks to my friends who helped me decide.) Everyone did a rockin' job - I loved 'em all. :)

Have a great and wonderful holiday, everyone!!!

Did some Etsy browsing this evening. Here are my watercolor picks of the night.

( Artistes. )

Got a question for you fine folks here...(feel free to skip my verbosity to the last paragraph!)

I've been wanting to make a bag for a while out of recycled silk- not a small purse, but maybe a messenger-type bag, something if decent size that can hold a bit of weight. I know that the silk wouldn't be good for this on its own, I'd need to line the bag (and somehow reinforce the shoulder strap) or ply it with something. I was thinking about making the bag from hemp and then stitching on the silk pieces so that they're more of an outer later than an actual weight-bearing part of the bag, but that seems like a massive pain.

I don't have a sewing machine to stitch a fabric lining, nor do I have enough confidence in my hand-sewing skills to hand-stitch one (if it was just a purse or something, sure, but like I said, I want it to carry some weight- not a bag of rocks, but a couple of books, that sort of thing.

I was just playing around a bit, and I realize that I like the way the silk looks when plied with the twine. I've tried a bit of googling and not really found much on the strength, so I was hoping someone here might have a clue as to whether this would fly or not.

So...in short- will plying recycled silk with hemp twine give me the strength I need to hold up to a couple of books worth of weight? (And I'm talking notebooks/large paperback/maybe the occasional hardback and little things like keys, cell phone, typical stuff that everyone carries around- not massive coffee table books or textbooks.)

For what it's worth, I'll probably be doing this on 11 gauge needles in stockinette.

I decided that to help keep warm I am going to knit myself a shrug. I have two ideas for the neck shaping, but I like them both and can't choose. I am going to put a cheap-paint pic of my ideas at the bottom and would like your input.
They both button where the two sides meet. The shrug is going to end just below my chest area, the sleeves will also be longer, but I got lazy on the pic ^.~

Voting is nice, but I would also like to hear why you voted that way (or if my pics don't make any sense)

( silly paint pic )

Update:
(A) seems to be the fav ^.^ now comes the hard part...picking a color XD

A few months back, I found myself with some time on my hands and no active knitting project in progress and no real idea of what I wanted to work on next. While wandering my LYS, I found these skeins of Yoga ribbon that were just gorgeous.

I have worked with Yoga before. My very first knitting project was a garter stitch scarf in the blue-green Yoga. I would kill to pick up more of that but the yarn has been discontinued and is hard to find. The skeins that were at the store were in the golden - brown colors and I decided to do a dropped stitch scarf since I thought it would show off the gorgeous ribbon very well. I made one with all the dropped stitch rows the same length. It wasn't originally intended for a Christmas gift but when it was done, I just knew that it would perfect for my Aunt Sharon. I decided to make another one for myself. This time, I decided to experiment with the pattern and I alternated between short dropped stitch rows and longer dropped stitch rows which I think added some interest. My aunt's scarf is already packed up for Christmas but I finally got around to taking some shots of mine. Hope you like it.

( photos )

My #11 is something I call a Scruffel. It can worn as a shrug or a scarf. Made with 1.5 skeins of Caron Simply Soft. This is an original design but may write up a pattern if people are interested.

This one is actually for a friend and is a little big for me. The one I made for myself (years ago) is much more snug around the shoulders when worn as a shrug.

( What's a Scruffel??? )
Pattern - Scruffel (my own design)
Yarn - Caron Simply Soft
Ravelry Project Page - Here

x-posted to personal livejournal

I finally finished, and I must say, it looks pretty frickin' AWESOME!!!

( Flying Spaghetti Monster accepts all offers... )

Let's see, I made it with Lion Brand Fisherman's wool and some Red Heart something or other for the meatballs.  Used wedding flower crystal inserts for the eyes (I'm not so good with the fimo clay stuff), and TADA!!  I think she'll like it. 

*Edit - whoops!  Forgot the pattern - Flying Spaghetti Monster @ HistoryWeaver.org

Okay, Christmas eve TOMORROW (we do the whole gift exchanging tomorrow!) and I still am not finished, oopsie. I refuse to blame myself (even if I should have started in August, September, something - I always should!), I blame exams, and all the cute things I need to knit for myself. Hahaha. Anyway, I still have finished a heap of projects - small, cute projects, next year really will be the Year of Sweaters and Shawls (...and Socks and Hats and Mittens).

Yay!

Onto the projects! ( very picture heavy... )

I'm working on a pair of Anemoi mittens (not a Ravelry link), but I'm having a good deal of trouble on the cuffs (partly corrugated ribbing), to the point where I'm considering just going with a solid-colored cuff and then going to colorwork for the rest of the mitten when I don't have to also worry about purling. Colorwork on dpns? I'm fine. Knit/purl combination on dpns? Easy. Combination of colorwork and k/p? Apparently not my forte. Mostly, I'm having tension issues where one dpn meets another, and while I've tried moving the dpns around the work, it still looks messy.

But I refuse to be defeated, particularly when I know it's just 36 rows of 56 stitches each, and I've never been defeated before. I wonder if maybe switching from metal dpns to wood/bamboo dpns, or perhaps to two circs, would help? Since I don't currently possess enough circs or wood dpns in the correct size, I want to make sure that they would be a worthwhile investment. So, for those of you who've done corrugated ribbing, or any sort of stranded colorwork that also involves knitting/purling combinations, could you tell me about your experience, and share any pearls of wisdom?

Many thanks!