FO - Bastardized Razor Cami

I finally have pictures for my Razor Cami!

I gave up on my brother, and played with stacks of books, mirrors, and the trusty self timer, if you must know.

Specs:
Yarn: Unknown. Of an acrylic lineage.
Cami was cast on with +12 of the original number the pattern suggests. It was knit until I liked the length. That got thrown onto scrap yarn.
Started a raglan with the other color, added in the pattern when it felt decent. Many graphs and charts were made. It was a party.
After some time, the fronts were connected, the sleeves were put on scrap yarn, and a bit more knitting was done.
The two halves were joined by my own tricky knitting, I knit a few extra rows in the round, and then bound off. This created a somewhat rolled bridge that provides a nice line for the mini-sweater.
Sleeves were finished, knit on DPNs 3 sizes larger because I like the chunky ribbing look. THE END. :D



(It looks pretty awful by itself, doesn't it? :P)

In which Cassie "reinvents" knitting.

In recent Cassie news...

The bastardized Razor Cami was finished two week ago or so. I'm waiting for a spare moment in which I can steal my brother for an impromptu photoshoot.

Icarus is bugging me. Again. We'll put that baby away a bit more while I decide what to do with it.

I'm starting to design my first sweater! It's utilizing the Wheel Web motif from Barbara Walker's third treasury. For my design, I was going to try to reverse the wheel web so that it would work...flipped around. Or whatever. I thought it would be simple. Just read the directions backwards! Knit the last row first, etc.

I can tell you first hand that it does not work. (No duh, right?)


Especially when it should look like this:


Yeah....

stay tuned for more sweater fun! :D

Razor Cami, extremely bastardized

First of all, I got my Ravelry invite two days ago.

I would like my life back, please! I've spent endless time stalking all around the site, and I love it. (I'm ensorceler on the site, if you care to look me up.) I love how the site makes everything so much more organized. I can tell that the queue is going to be my very best friend in time.

Anyhow, here's what's up in my knitting world!
I've had four balls of unidentified yarn in my stash for some time. I'm pretty sure it's all acrylic, but it's very soft,and around a dk weight, I think. Two balls of light green, two of cornflower blue. I've constantly wondered what I should do with them, and an idea popped into my head.

I'm making a bastardized version of the Razor Cami by Katie at Oh My Stars. Basically, I'm using the lace pattern and...that's it. The bottom portion of the mini-sweater that I'm knitting will be the normal Razor Cami. This section will be in green. I'm making a cardigan-style raglan top for it out of the blue, and the pattern will be integrated into that. Once I get the correct stitch count, the sweater will be joined, grafted to the green part, I'll knit-on some ribbing, and voila. A (what I hope will be) quite cute sweater. And it'll use up stash yarn. Yay! :D

Anyhow, the blue portion is a lot larger now, but that provides a good enough inkling of what it looks like, right? :D

Simple Cabled Headband - Pattern

Way back in August I posted a pattern to the knitting LJ community. I came across the knitted good today, and thought that I might throw the pattern up here too.


In the meantime, I'm not doing much in the way of exciting knitting. Still working on Icarus, still working on my continental knitting with the Ugly Afghan.

However, with no further ado: the pattern!
Cassie's Super Simple Cabled Headband


Knit this baby with anything, really.
My crack yarn of choice?
Debbie Bliss - Alpaca Silk
Using the Right-Leaning Plait Cable from Vogue Knitting

CO 19 sts w/ Size 8 US Needles
Row 1 (RS): k3, p2, k9, p2, k3
Row 2+all WS Rows: k3, k the knit sts, p the purl sts, k3
Row 3: k3, p2, 6-st left cable, k3, p2, k3
Row 5: Rep Row 1
Row 7: k3, p2, k3, 6-st right cable, p2, k3
Row 8: Rep Row 2
Rep (Rows 1-8) 15* times
BO all sts, leave tail long
Weave in CO tail, Sew two ends of headband together using the BO tail.

* 15 repetitions of the cable pattern was how many times it took for it to fit my head. It will probably be different for you. Try it on as you go. When you're done, it shouldn't be loose. I would actually keep it on the shorter side if you're debating between making it one repeat longer or not. The yarn will stretch with wear, and the elasticity will keep it on your head.

I am continually disappointed by the fact that schoolwork must come before knitting time. I'm taking some classes this summer that are eating up my knitting, time, unfortunately. Fortunately, however, I'm not taking the 22 units I took last semester, so I've actually got time to breathe now, ya know?

In my latest knitting endeavors, I have taken on the Icarus shawl from last summer's IK. It's a beautiful pattern, and I lovelovelove it. I've wanted to start on it for some time now. I'm using a lovely dark-fog color of grey from Skacel. I think it's called Skacel Merino? It's quite a pretty yarn, with a tiny bit of character in its loosely plied strands, and very affordable. I think I paid something like $13 for 1300 yards?

Anyhow, here's a picture, though it's not nearly as exciting since you've seen an in progress Icarus dozens of times, eh?


I also decided to teach myself to knit Continental, and I have lots of acrylic yarn left over from my younger years of making 40-foot long braids with yarn. I was...easily amused as a kid, perhaps? Anyhow, I decided that I might make an ugly afghan out of all that acrylic, and teach myself new knitting techniques in the meantime. I'm almost done with the eighth block, and I'm starting to get bored. I think I'll break out some block patterns and deviate from the garter stitch for the rest of the squares.


And on a last note, I'm still waiting for my Ravelry invite. Mope. :(

FO - Ravenclaw Kneesocks

These socks were knit because of a need for kick-ass socks for the premiere of the 7th Harry Potter book. I've been collecting and making various parts of a Ravenclaw Prefect costume for some years now, and the socks were the latest addition. I now have socks, a hand-sewed skirt, a tie, a collared button down shirt, a grey sweater, awesome mary jane shoes, a hand-embroidered prefects' badge and Ravenclaw crest, and a wand. YAY.

These socks were knit from some machine-knitting yarn from WEBS. It's 2/6 Donegal Tweed, and I got 1 pound of the yarn on sale for $8. I LOVE the yarn. It's a bit rough, but nothing my feet can't handle. It's got amazing blue tweed effects, too.

Not wanting to purchase another two skeins of yarn for the couple yards I would need for the stripes, I chose to dye the yarn the dark blue and the orangeish-bronze with regular food coloring used in cooking. It turned out well, and the bronze bled a tiny bit, but I think the color is set pretty fast now.

The socks were knit toe up which is awesome, and I referenced Knitty's Universal Sock Formula. Increases for the calf were of my own devising.

And I was so impressed with how easy knitting socks is. I'm definitely going to be knitting more and more of them. They're so fun, and I LOVE wearing my kneesocks around the house, even when it's getting to be in the 90's.

FO - Ram's Horn Jacket

The second I saw the book Knitting Nature by Norah Gaugan in Barnes and Noble, I knew I had to buy it. It has such a plethora of beautiful, amazing, fantastically clever designs. This was my first project from the book, and I have to say that while some parts of the direction were awkwardly worded, I totally loved knitting this.

This was knit from 7 hanks of Cascade 220, and while the color in the photos isn't exactly correct, it's still pretty close. It's a deep mahogany brown, and in the sunlight it shines with a red tinge. But, it also has a tiny bit of yellow in there. Really really pretty. I'm very pleased with my yarn choice. I think the 220 will hold up excellently to wear, and it was a good choice to get a workhorse yarn for my first sweater.

Some alterations I did: I didn't feel like sewing up hems after I was done, so I cast on the back, the fronts, and the two sleeves with provisional cast ons. I knit the required 3 inches, did the purl row, knit the rest of the three inches, and then I put the cast on onto needles. Knit those two rows together, and then proceeded with the rest of the garment. It worked very nicely, and I was happy that it feel so nice when wearing.

I also did change the length of the sleeves, making them extra long, and I added some minimal shaping too, decreasing slightly for the elbow and forearm, before increasing for the upper arm segment. My row gauge was slightly off too, so some of the pieces ended up blocking to a different size than the scheme said, but that was fine, because I planned for all that in advance too. Yay for gauge!

I might be looking for a new clasp, but for now, I am simply using a hair-stick to keep it closed. I rather like how minimal it is, and the stain on the wood matches the yarn color nicely.

Andddddd. I think that's about it! I can't wait to get started on my next Knitting Nature project. The Basalt Tank, probably.