Slippers

I made these slippers a couple of months ago, to replace Eric's old Phentex slippers.  I made mine with Phentex yarn as well but didn't follow the original pattern (the origirnal slippers are knitted, I chose to crochet mine).

I actually did not follow any pattern at all, I kind of imporivised my way around (for the first time in my short knitting career) ...

Eric seems to like the result.  Now, lets hope they will last for a while.

Makeup Bag

My sister needed a makeup bag so I decided to make her one.  I used a multi-coloured acrylic yarn and Lion Brand's "Perfect Purse" pattern (Ravelry link). 

I had to modify the pattern ever so slightly (dimensions).  I also used two buttons for closure instead of one.

It was a fast and fun project and my sister seems to be happy with the FO.

Pin It

14 days of Valentine ... Day 1

I have been collecting tutorials and inspirational photos for Valentine day on my Valentine Day Pinterest board.Throught the next 14 days I would like to share my favorite ideas with you.  Lets begin with 

Crocheted Valentines

Tiny crochet hears by Julie K

Amigurumi hearts via Instructables

Crochet heart garland @Design*Sponge

Crocheted Valentines @PurlBee

Three-dimensional hearts @Between the Lines

Another heart from Between The Lines

Crochet heart @Little Birdie Secret

Heart pattern @A Foothill Companion

Stay tuned for tomorrow's felted heart tutorials

Blobs

I am back to civilization and knitting. Sorry for leaving abruptly but I was hiding in Toronto for over a week and since people from whom I was hiding tend to read my blog I had to stop posting for a while.... These people are the reason why I could not show my crocheted project until now.
Here is the last picture of "almost finished" secret project:


And here are all the balls and arms assembled into 2 "blobs":


Same blobs but with the hand-made card:


These are modified Doug and Gordo from Crochet Me book. They do not look much like the original ones (I hope Kim Werker would forgive me for that) - I used a completely different size of yarn and had to improvise with the eyes and "costumes". I wanted them to look more like a girl and a boy, since they were part of the wedding gift for my two wonderful friends.

Forgiving

I usually do not stay mad for a long time. I "cool down" relatively fast, do not keep grudges, and tend to forgive (or at least to forget). So even if my arm is still hurting I can not be upset with these cuties for long. And I do not think it is fair, since it was mostly my fault. At the beginning of the evening the table was perfectly clean:

Then one of them "appeared":

Couple (should I say 4?) hours later I made the second one:

I felt very obsessive and continued crocheting. Before I knew I had a third one ready:


And then the fourth one:


Any level-headed crocheter/knitter who has as little practice as me, would stop at that point. But being who I am, I felt obliged to continue and came up with these:


Today I have no one to blame but myself. And as a punishment I would ignore the fact that Mouline Yarns have a great summer sale!

Enough is enough

How do you know that you have been crocheting A LOT (or that you are an itsy-bit obsessive)?


Yeah, these are my hands. I have been crocheting so much that my right hand is sore and I have to wrap it tightly to prevent some irritating movements.
What should be blamed for my injury? These guys, right here:


I know they look cute and innocent but they are the sole reason for my pain!

Mouline Yarns, bonsai, and a new project.

After getting sock yarn at “La Tricoteuse” I was excited about discovering more Montreal’s yarn stores. A fast Google search revealed a list of at least 10 stores spread all over the city, from East End and Plateau to the West Island. The closest ones to my house were “Ariadne” and “Mouline Yarns” located at a walking distance from the Lionel Groulx metro station. I decided to start my explorations with “Mouline Yarns”. The reason was purely materialistic – they were having a big Spring sale and who can pass discounted yarn?

The first thing that surprised me was the amount and the selection of yarn. It seemed like each corner of the store was holding more and more surprises. Loyal to the advertisement, most of yarns were reduced, some to as much as 50% and 60%.

The shelves were stacked with yarns and topped with different garments knitted with the presented yarn selections. Scarves and shawls, socks and mittens, baby sweaters and full-sized adult tops decorated every surface of the store. It is nice to be able not only to see the yarn, but to touch the final item, to know how the colors would look like once the sample is knitted.

Apart from yarns, the store also carries the greatest selection of knitting and crocheting books and magazines – this was the place where I spotted the first North American issue of "Verena" magazine.

I asked the owner (Svetlana, yes she speaks Russian, as well as fluent English and French) about lace-weight yarn and showed her the pattern from “Knit1” magazine. As it turned out “Mouline Yarns” had exactly what I needed: sea silk in different vibrant colors. Unfortunately it was a bit pricey for me and I asked for any acceptable alternatives. Svetlana offered several yarn varieties and explained how many skeins I would need and why one type would be better than another. I chose beautiful Baby Alpaca yarn (from Misti Alpaca) that was very affordable and picked two skeins of a nice "Blue Mist Melange" color (CD 42).

I also picked up a pair of Addi Turbo lace needles that Svetalana recommended. Sensing my “newness” to the whole knitting business not only she explained to me that the yarn had to be rolled into balls before knitting but let me use the yarn winder, patiently showing me how to mount the skein, find and cut the nod, and attach the end to the rolling part.

While rolling the yarn I witnessed numerous customers coming to Svetlana with different questions and she would recommend yarns, explain patterns, or simply give some advice.

I couldn’t not come back to the store again and soon after finishing my socks I came to “benefit” from some yarn specials – but this is a different story.

Mouline Yarn

2657 Notre Dame West (Not far from Lionel Groulx metro station)

The store offers different workshops and lessons. Call (514) 935-4401 to enquire about the summer schedule.

It has absolutely nothing to do with knitting but I wanted to share this picture of one of the goregous Bonsai trees from Montreal's Botanical Garden. If you are in Montreal check out the Japanese Garden and Pavillion of Jardin Botanique.

And finally, here is a colour scheme for my new crocheting project:

I am using 3 different "Bernat" colors: Off white (00002), Boston blue (27201) - part of their "Colonial colors" collection, and Earth Ombre (33048) - part of "Naturals" collection.

Out with the old ....

As I write this on a grayish summer day my feet are happy. Happy and warm …..They are also pretty, stripped, and soft. Well technically it is not my feet; it is Mr. Socks that are pretty, stripped, and soft. Nine days after the birth of Mr. Sock, Mr. Sock II came to this world on June 19^th at exactly the same time as his older brother 3:18PM. Weird coincidence!!!

I definitely enjoyed knitting socks. Enjoyed so much that my next project would be “Fluke” (click on the link to get the pdf pattern and see where the picture comes from), for my sister, made from the wonderful German “Fortissima Socka” (color #2048).

What would I have done differently? I definitely made first sock too loose. Socks in general should be knit tighter than other garments. Also I had to adjust the first sock (decrease and increase) and be careful when knitting the second one – I wanted the color-pattern to be identical. I would also follow the PDF pattern, because it has calculations, rather then casting on 60 sts without considering the tightness of my knitting and the circumference of my calves – I find that design on the back could benefit from a tighter fit.

While I was working on the second sock I crocheted yet another dishcloth. Now I have a set of 3 and still lots of yarn left – expect more dishcloth pictures in near future.

And finally, here is a sneak preview of my next project. I already have socks and some slippers, to go with, would be nice. I picked up bright blue yarn yesterday and started my knitting.

The color of yarn is much brighter and livelier in real life. It's "Galway" Irish worsted knitting wool in color # 5050 Oh, the pattern … I'll keep it a surprise for now!

Mr. Sock is almost done.

The knitting part is done; all I have left is to “sew it up”. I can’t wait to buy the tapestry needle, finish the sock, wash it, and see how it looks on my foot. It won’t be the first time I’ll be trying it on, but I think that washing will do it good and will make it even more attractive (by hiding all the irregularities and little “mistakes” in my knitting). All in all it was a lot of fun. I think I’ll be knitting lots of socks. I actually have a next project in mind, as soon as I’ll knit Mr. Sock the second.
I am a bit disappointed that I made couple of mistakes, but I hope that none of them will show. I am also disappointed with the lack of measurements on the pattern (not the pdf one but the one I had in my calendar); I planned to make the sock for Monkey Face (my sister), I even bought yarn with her color preference in mind, but 60 sts gave a diameter way too big for her leg. It’s actually a bit loose on my leg but I hope that washing will tighten it up just a bit. From now on I would make sure to get my dimensions and to use patterns that provide size measurements. By the way, my “mistakes” should be blamed on the lack of measurements: I had to decrease and increase in certain parts of the sock and it makes it looks uneven.

After finishing the sock, I decided to do a bit of crocheting. I got some multicolor cotton yarn on special at Zellers; it matches the orange I used for my dishcloth, so last night I crocheted the second dishcloth, using the same pattern but in different colors. I love this kind of no-brainer projects; since I don’t have to count my stitches every 2 seconds I can enjoy a good movie (last night it was “12” by Nikita Mikhalkov – Russian movie that was nominated for Oscar’s last year) and have a final item done by the end of it. I even managed to weave in the ends – impressive!!!

Let me tell you though, I am getting spoiled with good yarn. After using Regia sock yarn, I am so used to the thread slipping of my needle easily and almost knitting itself. The lower-quality cotton was hard to knit with and left my hands covered with orange fuss. Now I can see why some yarn costs 99c for skein, while other is 5$ for the same amount!

I belong!

We all like to feel unique, special, and not like anybody else (in a good way that is). I believe this is why hand made stuff is so expensive, and why people are willing to spend thousands of dollars on houte couture "one-of-a-kind" dress.
Yet, we love being a part of something, feeling that we are not alone, and that we belong....
OK Anna what this pseudo-philosophical stuff has to do with knitting, or did you knit/crochet all night long and are going crazy today?

No no no. I didn't knit anything last night - I had to take care of my sick sister. I crocheted couple of chain stitches while teaching my coworker. And this pseudo-philosophical stuff has to do with the fact that I found this link last night: www.montrealknits.com There are two big knitting groups in Montreal: Montreal Knits and The Montreal Knitting Guild! There are knitting rendez-vouses and stitch-'n-bitch circle almost every day!! There are tons and tons of people like me in this city and I do not feel alone anymore!!!


If only I can overcome my asocial nature and join them...

First yarn shopping experience

I finally made it to one of Montreal’s yarn stores. La Tricoteuse is situated on the corner of St. Hubert and Rachel (779 Rachel East). The store is full of yarn: sock yarn, mohair, beautiful silk, yarn of different colors and textures. I must admit I was slightly overwhelmed when I walked in there (and so was Eric).

After spending good 20 minutes simply looking at all the yarns I decided to approach a nice lady (the owner?) for some help. To tell you the truth, the quantity of the yarn made me forget all the project possibilities I had on my mind and the only thing I remembered was sock yarn for the long-promised socks for my sister. After yet another 20 minutes of admiring all the sock yarn, I finally decided on “Canadian color" (#4746) from Regia. It’s a mix of wool and polyamide. The gentlemen at the cash (husband of the lady?) asked me if it was my first time knitting socks and after my affirmative answer he wished me “good luck” (I am not sure I liked the underlying message in that wish. Is sock-knitting really that difficult???). Oh, I also picked some sock needles for the project.

All in all I was really happy with my first yarn shopping experience. Once the socks are done I will return for some new yarn and I might even take some pictures of the store.

I picked “Reverse Psockology” pattern from “Stitch-and-Bitch” calendar (thank you Es'ka and Jen'ka) for the yarn. It is going pretty well so far, but I am expecting the worse.

Since I am posting the picture of half-finished sock, here is one more of “work-in-progress” projects: the baby scarf (to go with the baby carpet) that I crocheted about a month ago. It is still missing white fringes.

My dad is refusing to call it a scarf. He says that it could be anything! I guess I should hurry up with those fringes.

La Tricoteuse
779 Rachel East (corner of St. Hubert and Rachel, not far from Mont Royal metro station)

Patterns

I finally found the dishcloth pattern on the Coats and Clark website. For some reason mine is not as "fluffy" as the one on the picture. I got some orange and multicolored yarn and will crochet more of those in different color-combinations.

I also managed to take pictures of all the new and old unfinished knitting projects. I'll try to write a coherent blog-post and upload it later tonight. For now, here is a link to wonderful Stephanie Pearl-McPhee who is known in the knitters' world as Yarn Harlot.
Not only she is a knitter (a very fast one), she also has an amazing writing style, and manages to update her blog almost daily as well as write some knitting books. Oh yeah, she is Canadian.

P.S. click on the "button" to get to her blog.

Links

As promised, here are the links to the websites where I got my patterns.

1 - The baby carpet comes from "Instant Expert: Crochet" book.
2 - The pattern for dishcloth was found on the website, but I can't trace back the link. I am pretty sure I have it printed out somewhere and I promise to post the URL as soon as I can.
3 - The purse comes from January 2008 issue of "Crochet today!" magazine.

4 - The pattern for hook case is a modified version of this one. I changed it to a 2-color model and also adjusted the dimensions.