Day 151 and Crosses

I was checking out the book "Knitting Wrapsody" by Kristin Omdahl and while I didn't have time to make one of the very loevly projects in the book, I did spot a stitch pattern that I wanted to practice on. It's used on the front of the infinity wrap and gives an effect not terribly dissimilar to broomstick lace in crochet.

In the end, I wish I had time enough to do a few more repeats, but it's summer now and it's too hot for a wide scarf anyway XD

Day 150 and Sky Diving

Would it be wrong to admit that I picked blue for this scarf just so I could give it the above title? Well if it's wrong, I don't want to be right.

I wanted to go a little punk, but it's so thick and fluffy, I'm not sure I pulled it off. It was still good practice on making drop stitches stop dropping where you want them to. I'm sure there are a bunch of ways to make it happen, but the way I do it is as follows.

• I knit normally until I come to the place where I want my dropped stitch to end.
  
• I do a M1 (make one) stitch using the bar in the stitches below followed by a k2tog.
  
• I knit normally until I have the length of the drop stitch I want.
• I drop the stitch and continue knitting normally

So far, the drop always is exactly as long as I want it to be. I do notice that the fabric gets significantly wider when using such very large stitches as I've been using. I'll have to keep that in mind next time around.

Day 149 and Color Wheel

I don't do much color work and I've been working on rectifying it! Right now, I'm still not very secure in my abilities, but I thought maybe this would be a logical early entry.

Primary colors red, yellow, and blue are supposed to be able to combine to create a nearly complete color spectrum. I held the yarn double for each of the solid portions and held one yarn of each color for the mottled areas. A thinner yarn would have given a better effect, but I work with what I've got. The very thick fabric wasn't much for draping so I chose to keep it short and snug. 2 worsted weight yarns held together make for a very warm mouth, chin and nose covering for a cold outing. This scarf... uh... cowl? hmmm... muffler? Well anyway, this wearable color wheel will be keeping someone's face very warm come winter time. :)

I do happen to notice that the blue are red make the most convincing purple and the red yellow make the least convincing orange. I might have to do some research into ratios of color when held together.

Day 148 and the Chain of Love

I was tooling around online and trying to find a nice little heart motif that didn't have those rather annoying eye holes from the shell that is always used for the heart bump.

"Nuts to this!" says I! "I'm sure I could come up with my own tiny heart that better suits me!"
So I did! I really need to make a video of this because the heart bumps just don't seem to translate very well, but here's my best shot at it.

Any size crochet hook with a matching weight yarn can be used. (American abbrev.)

Row 1: Chain 2. 1 SC into the second chain from hook. Turn. (1 stitch)
Row 2: Chain 3. 4 DC all into the SC. Turn. (5 stitches)
Row 3: Chain 3. DC once into every stitch across (including the very first!). DC twice into the top chain of the previous row. (7 stitches)
Row 4: Chain 2. Yarn over, pull up a loop in the second stitch, Yarn over, pull up a loop from the third stitch (5 loops on hook), Yarn over and pull through all 5 loops. Chain 2, slip stitch in the next stitch. 1 heart bump complete. Chain 2, yarn over, pull up a loop in the next stitch, yarn over, pull up a look in the next stitch, (5 loops on hook), yarn over and pull through all 5 loops. Chain 2, slip stitch in the top of the chain from the previous row. Give these bumps a little tug to round out the shape.

Repeat these 4 rows as many times as you want to create a chain of these hearts. The hearts will always face the same direction because the row repeat is an even number. It makes a cute scarf, but as a motif, I'm already thinking about where else it would be cute such as the border of a baby blanket or as a pretty wreath for the front door.

Day 147 and the Bow

This was so fast and so easy and when worn I was blown away with how much prettier it ended up than in my imagination. It's nothing but rectangles so even a complete beginner can make this Bow Cowl.

1 ball Caron Simply Soft
size 15 needles
Tapestry needle

Cast on 20.
Row 1: K1, P1 to the end of the row.
Row 2: P1, K1 to the end of the row.
When you've knitted 22 inches worth, bind off and sew to the beginning seam. You might also choose to graft this part.

Cast on 10.
Every row: K1, P1 to the end of the row.
When you've knitted 10 inches worth, bind off and sew to the beginning seam trapping the first bit of fabric inside the loop. Again, you might also choose to graft this part.

Arrange the fabric so the seams are hidden and enjoy! :D If you scale this down a tiny bit it would also make a very lovely headband earwarmer.

Day 146 and the Furkerchief

If the Boy scouts of America were a little more fabulous and a little less outdoorsy, I think this would be the kerchief that they would wear :D.

SO easy and a great way to use up some of that wicked boa yarn that every knitter has grabbed or been gifted at some point after the love has faded.

Furkercheif
1 ball bernat Boa
Size 15 needles
tapestry needle

Yarn is held double throughout
Gauge is not important, but the resulting fabric should not be delicate or flimsy.
Around 3 stitches per inch.

Cast on 4 stitches leaving a 12 inch tail.

(Increase section)
Odd numbered rows: Knit
Even numbered rows: Knit into the front and back of the first stitch, Knit across the remainder of the row.
Complete these 2 rows until you have 12 stitches.

(Even section)
Knit every row. Do this until your piece measures 15 inches from the cast on edge.

(Decrease section)
Pay attention to the way your fabric is angled at the beginning section. Make sure that the straight edge is on your right and the angled edge is on your left when you begin decreasing.
Odd numbered rows: Knit to the last 2 stitches, K2tog
Even numbered rows: Knit
Complete these 2 rows until only 4 stitches remain. Bind off leaving a 12 inch tail.

(Ties)
From the remaining yarn cut 4- 24 inch strands. Thread 2 strands through each point of the fabric and center them. Using the cast on and bind off tails and the new strands, make a braid 8 inches long. Tie a knot and cut the excess.

Day 145 and Gamer

Have you ever heard of Game Knitting? Well, have you ever heard of a drinking game? Okkay, combine the idea of a drinking game and knitting and you have game knitting. There's no drinking actually involved.

Basically, you set up a tv show or a radio show or a movie that has a lot of predictable behaviors. And you decide which of those behaviors are going to trigger a game knitting action. For this scarf, I picked out the Harry Potter movie series. My triggers were any time anyone said "Harry, Harry Potter, Mr. Potter" etc, every time the word "muggle" was said, and every time a wand was used to cast a spell. I cast on 40 stitches and worked in 2 by 2 ribbing at my normal pace. When one of these triggers happened on screen, I made a 7 stitch nupp into whatever the next knit stitch was. I ended up with a very knobby knotty cowl with quite a lot of character! Since I was watching Harry Potter, I was strongly reminded of the "wooly hats and scarves" that Hermione made during the fourth book.