Weekend Makeup Bag

Weekend Makeup Bag, originally uploaded by bindakay.

This is part of the Bag Lady Series I'll be teaching this summer along with the Downtown Clutch. These two little bags are perfect summer projects, being that they are quick, light, and frothy. Nothing wool-laden for your lap, and you'll be using them before the week is out. And if you want to learn a quicky lining, the third class in the series will be covering that. I'll have a sewing machine at your disposal and you'll have new purse to use at the end of the day!

Ruched Clutch

Ruched Clutch, originally uploaded by bindakay.

I loved knitting this little bag! Knit from Ella Rae Merino lace with little cables forming the band, I used Addi Lace in a tiny #3. It was a good practice for cabling without the cable needles. The tonal terra cotta color makes it a bag to use all year. And the Bollywood burnished gold ombre printed silk I used for the lining turned out beautifully. This will be a class at Wild Purls this summer, so keep a look out for it, amongst a couple of other little bags to work on in the heat of the summer.

Charlotte's Tuckernuck

CharlotteTuckernuck, originally uploaded by bindakay.

"Tuckernuck" - Such a funny name for a sweater for a beautiful little girl named Charlotte Elizabeth. But I'm sure it will be just perfect for the cool spring and autumn weather she'll be experiencing for the first time in her life.
Congratulations to Eric and Karen.

Hat and Neck Scrunchy

MaddieBrioche, originally uploaded by bindakay.

This project was inspired by my daughter, Maddie - She learned to knit over the holidays, and knit a hat as her first project. Not to be saddled with the mundane, she moved on to another project that caught her eye, not realizing that neither she or her mother (her knitting teacher) knew how to make it. She was determined, and so in turn, I had to be. If she was interested, I wanted to make sure she stayed interested. I didn't want to lose this moment with her.

So she and I started knitting this brioche stitch project - a separate one for each of us. There were a lot of stumbling blocks and a lot of ripping out - for both of us. The Brioche stitch is challenging - starting with the "preparation row", and keeping your concentration focused throughout. Keeping this project two colors encouraged the right stitches on the right rows.

This is my cowl on her, and hers is just about finished.

PhoebePurple

PhoebePurple, originally uploaded by bindakay.

Here is one of my newest projects, Phoebe's Sweater. It is based on a childrens book of the same name and the pattern is in the book. It is the sweetest little coat - and even Jim wished our girls were of the age to wear this. He could really imagine both Maddie and Alice wearing this! Included in the book is a pattern for Phoebe the Mouse and matching coat and dress!
Sizes are 2,4,6 and is very generous, so it would be easy to fit even some bigger sizes.

Perfect soup for a rainy day!

Pork and Green Chile Stew

1 tablespoon olive oil plus extra

1 1/4 # pork tenderloin, 1/4" cubes

1/2 large onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

5 small potatoes, diced

3 small tomatoes, diced

5 or 6 green chiles, roasted, peeled and chopped

4 cups low sodium chicken broth

1 large can green chile enchilada sauce (medium)

2 teaspoons salt

3 large dollops light sour cream

Heat oil in large frying pan. Add onion , garlic and pork and saute until meat is browned. Put mixture in a crockpot. Add a bit more oil to the frying pan and brown potatoes and tomatoes. Add this to the crockpot. Add 1 cup chicken broth to the frying pan and deglaze for 2 - 3 minutes and add this and remaining ingredients to the crockpot, except for sour cream. Cook on low 5- 6 hours. Add the dollops of sour cream and stir well.

Serve with toasted tortilla strips and consume until crockpot is empty!

CorbinSweater

CorbinSweater, originally uploaded by bindakay.

Froggie Sweater for a little guy named Corbin! I knit Tasia's Sweater by Cabin Fever using Katia's Mississippi Tex Cotton/Acrylic.

Botanica Medallion Vest

Medallion and Belt 009, originally uploaded by bindakay.

I absolutely love this! I finished in time for the Wine Festival. It was started last year when the Summer 09 Vogue Knitting came out - this was on the cover for good reason - I fell in love then and still am. It's one of those items that look great casual, and dressed up. It's probably one of the only things I've knit for myself that I really wear.

SmileyHangingintheTree_web

SmileyHangingintheTree_web, originally uploaded by bindakay.

Here is my Smiley Hat. He is hangin' around in the bushes. I don't know why.

A Brilliant Colonnade

A colonnade is a characteristic in the buildings of Classical architecture, and consists of a row of vertical columns joined horizontally by an entablature, or a series of bands and moldings that sat above it, resting upon the column capitals. These bands can be highly decorated with relief sculpture.

Often, a classical building consisted of several colonnades, several rows deep. In Classical architecture, the front row or rows is known as the portico, and the surrounding colonnades (around the sides and back) are known as the peristyle.

I always wonder the purpose or thought behind titles. After discovering the true meaning of "colonnade", it's obvious why the designer, Stephen West of Westknits, chose this word to title his popular fall shawl/scarf on knitty.com. The series of columns create a colonnade but there is a horizontal joining each of the columns. These horizontals helped me "see" the pattern more easily, allowing mistakes to be seen and fixed more easily.

This is an easy pattern, but tricky at the same time. The knitter must keep careful track of the yo2 for they come at different places on each row, including before and after the k2tog. I suppose this is just everyday stuff for the average lace knitter, but since I am just a regular knitter, these tricky instructions are new to me.

I decided to offer this class at Wild Purls (in March), 1) because the pattern intrigued me in the different manners it could be worn,(not a granny shawl) 2) I liked that it only used 3 skeins of my favorite yarn, Manos del Uraguay (I could buy my fave without blowing my Christmas gift cards) and 3) that it introduced lace knitting in a way that could be easily knit by an adventurous knitter. And since that's kind of how I feel about my knitting most of the time, I thought there might be others (like in Lost) like me out there, waiting to discover another world on the same knitting island. Wow, I really digressed.

Bulky Gathered Hat

This was knit in 3 hours! Wild Purls just got this new bulky Noro yarn in the shop called Bonbori. Of course, customers are always wanting to know how yarns knit up so I made this up as a shop sample. Noro Bonbori is a bulky yarn - beautiful colors, not as soft as the silk garden yarns but then again, there is no silk in it. It knit up great, no splitting, and it got softer after I blocked it.

I modified my Perfectly Easie Beanie pattern and did some increases in the first Stockinette row, knit a few inches higher than a normal beanie, and then started my decreases. The extra height will make room for the gathered area in the back. With the leftover yarn, I made an I-cord (about 16 - 18” long) and fed it through 4 folds in the back of the top of the hat (if that makes any sense!) I did do a bit of blocking. I shaped and pinned it first, stretching it out at the top of the head to give more slouchy-ness so the gathered folds would have more to work with. I kind of like it!

Cocoon of Cozy

My daughter, Alice, has an obsession for "cozy". Since she was small, she loved being wrapped up in a warm cozy blanket. To this day, she'll tell you how much she misses her yellow blankie with the satin edging. She was three when it was left at a daycare or in a hotel room. We don't know what happened to her blankie, but we know she misses it. I suppose to make up for it, she now has a collection of cozy. Quilts, comforters, fleece, flannel. Sometimes she wears her sweatshirts to bed. When her dad wakes her up in the mornings, he has to search for her under her cocoon of blankets. I knew it wouldn't be long before she begged for a new blankie to take to college in Minneapolis (after all, it's cold there!). She started earlier this year, asking me every time she saw me knitting something new - "Is that my blanket?' "No", I'd have to say, "this is for a class, or the shop." Well, finally, she helped pick out the yarn - it had to be washable and dryable - (another obsession - laundry, can you believe it?), so she chose a chunky acrylic, a James Brett Chunky Marble. I love the Lizard Ridge Quilt pattern, so I started knitting last month. Between work, classes, working out and kids, I snuck in this blanket, and I just finished it tonite! What do you think?

Wild Purls SeaWorld

This month I designed our Wild Purls window around a special collection on loan from one of our favorite knitters, Shirley Greene, or Mrs. Greene, science teacher, as my son knows her. She is a pretty special knitter, who combines her passion for teaching with a love of knitting. She was inspired to create an odd assortment of phantasmagorical under-the-sea creatures. Hopefully you'll be able to fantasize that these knitted objects are actually swimming oh-so-gracefully through the waters of Atlantis (or somewhere like that)

Wedding Pillow

I love this pillow! I chose to do this from a advertisement in the latest VogueKnitting for Nicky Epstein's new book Knitting in Tuscany. However, I didn't have the book  - It was only released last week and I needed the pillow for my niece,  Britta's wedding June 5 - so I had to start it a few weeks ago. I'm so pleased with the outcome. The original was felted and I'm thinking I like it much better my way (hmmm . . a big surprise!)

Because it was based on a very small photo, I had to imagine what size it really was, along with materials. After seeing the original, mine is much smaller  - 14" square vs 20" square. I used a DK weight yarn, Dale of Norway Heilo vs a Louet worsted and a size 3 needle vs 11's. Of course, as mentioned above, Nicky's is felted and mine is not.
I'm really gonna miss this little beauty!

I Kept My Promise

I promised "the man" I'd finish his 2007 Christmas sweater by Christmas 2008 and I did it!
Yes, this took me about 18 months to finish, but it was well worth the wait. There were many gauge issues that I learned and hopefully will take with me on the next sweater project. Of course stiches per inch are alway very important, but row gauge can be equally as important, especially for shaping sleeves for a man whose arms are incredibly long.

I want to give a special shout-out to my friend, Joan, the Elizabeth Zimmerman of Billings, MT. If it weren't for her, my sweater would not have been sewn together and Jasper's Noro sweater would still be in the ball bands. Her finishing techniques are best you'll ever see and we are damn lucky to have her.

I'm extremely happy that my recipient loves this sweater and isn't lying about it. He was sick recently and the first thing he did when he came home to recoup was to put his sweater on. As the knitter -of-the-sweater, I was pretty pleased. Hugging him with this sweater on is like wrapping yourself up in the coziest blanket on a very cold day.

A New Head Cover

I've recently been knitting out of a fabulous new book, Boutique Knits by Laura Irwin. So far I've knitted 4 patterns from this book and have loved each one. They all have a vintage look. I'll talk about the Side Slip Cloiche first. My choice for yarn? Ella Rae Shibu in shell pink and I pared this with a single strand of Kid Seta mohair in white. I love this combination - extremely soft, and still texturized. Worked on a size 6 needle, the stitch is not too compact, but still looks firm. The mix of these really gives an aged look to this hat. I suppose it looks similar to the cover photo, but since I haven't seen that in person, I'm going to go out on a limb and say, . . . it's similar, but different.

New Sweater for the Jaz man

I've finished a sweater for Jasper - the kids almost alway say they don't want anything hand-knit, but if you keep your pattern books around long enough, they'll check them out and let you know if they like anything they see. It's better to let them call the shots on patterns and colors. The chances they'll actually wear it is a hundred times higher. Jasper chose the "Hacky Sack Hoodie" It's built like a sweatshirt, and is knit from the top-down. It is easy, easy, easy - that is, unless it didn't fit at the end. (It did) He picked out the yarn and the colors, so he won't have any recourse, but to wear it when it's done. He chose Lamb's Pride Worsted in Roasted Coffee and and a Noro Kureyon yarn # 207. It's taken from the book "Son of a Stitch and Bitch" which seems to be a good book for him. I've also made the "Half-Pipe Hat" for him. In fact, that will be a class in February at Wild Purls. I'll tackle that in a later post.
I added a couple of things that weren't in the pattern; namely a thumb hole, which seems to be a necessity, and ribbing at the pocket and hood/neckline.
For a kid who said "I probably won't be wearing this much, I haven't been able to get it off him to go get it cleaned!

I VOW TO FINISH THIS SWEATER!

Yeah, my husband's heard this before. I know I've said that a million - no - bazillion - times before. But I mean it this time! Yes, I've been working on it for over a year now. Yes, I've put it down and picked it up at least 5 times through out the year.
It's the sleeves. I've reworked the sleeves - oh, I don't know - maybe 3 or 4 times.
I've finally landed on the real problem. Any real knitter would have figured this in on day one, but I never said I was a real knitter. The problem is not the stitch gauge, it's the row gauge. My #5 needle is perfect for stitches per inch, but too tiny for the rows per inch. With this needle, my sleeves are too wide and too short. Common problem, I'm sure, but not for an idiot like this one. I . . . think . . . I've got the problem worked out (on paper and in my head) so pray for the Mister that he'll get his 2007 Christmas present in 2008.

The Knewest Knit

Well, as usual I can't knit just one project, but many, many projects! There have been hats, pillows, mini-bags, a felted bag, socks, and some things only because I loved the yarn. And I know I"m committed to more: mittens, another baby bottle. I'm vowing right now to finish a sweater soon - no firm deadline though - for my husband. But I suppose the project that has taken the most time and thought process is this bag, called the "Lucy Bag". Essentially, it's quite simple and plain really, so I felt inclined to add to it. I thought leaves vining up the handle might look good. I've been quite busy putting together
a new window display for Wild Purls, and had come up with the idea of growing an apple orchard in the window. The apples required their own embellishments so knitted leaves were created. which led me to believe I could also use these leaves for the Lucy Bag. The bag itself is knit from Lamb's Pride Worsted. This yarn is quickly becoming my favorite for felting. It has a touch of mohair, which lends it some fuzzy appeal. The leaves are knitted from some stash yarn, a Rowan Felted Tweed, in green and purple and done on a size 1 needle.. The leaves are a variety of sizes for a somewhat realistic look and were appliqued on both handles.

Lot's of new little projects!

Wow - I haven't touched my blog for over a month  - Lots of things happening - My mom went into the hospital with double pneumonia - she was there for over a week and we weren't really sure what was going on, but she's finally home! She must be doing better cuz she just had to go get her nails done! 

Maddie came home twice! We knew she was coming the first time, but she totally surprised us the second time. Her motive was Alice's 18th birthday - Maddie flew in around midnight, just when Alice and her friends were gathered around the firepit. Jim said he's never seen me look so dumbfounded when Maddie walked into the house. And when Alice realized her sister was home, she lost it and turned into a blubbering idiot! Maddie stayed 5 days - her job and school and  real life in Seattle was calling. We had so much fun.

Knit-wise: I've been knitting up storm - when don't I? 

I needed to get started on class projects - I taught 3 classes this summer - The beanie class was especially good, I guess because it's a beginner class and it teaches a few basic techniques which will be used in many other projects - knitting in the round, decreasing, changing or adding another color, and moving to double points. 

I also taught a beret class, which went much better when we split it into 2 classes, instead of 1  four hour class. We needed to master two important techniques: provisional (or invisible) cast-on, and short rows before moving on to the 3 needle bind-off. The break between the two classes let the students get comfortable with recognizing the wrap and turns of the short rows. This beret is a good learning as well as a creative project, since the size and feel of the hat can vary widely depending on the needle and yarn choice. 

My final class of the summer was the Rusched Pillow class. This was incredibly easy - the pattern is "Penelope's Pillow" from the book "Knitters Stash". The August class went especially good, since the gals taking it were visual people and could see the expansive possiblities. One gal is making the pillow, one is making it into a shawl, and the other an afghan. Mine morphed from a pillow to a scarf back to a pillow, but much different than the first. The front will remain pretty much the same, but different colors and the flipside will take on a totally different vision. I'll be using the same colors but it will be a fair isle pattern. If I get it done, it will be fabulous!

I also knit 3 little bags, two of them are an evening-size bag and one is more wallet sized. The pattern is the "Pleated Denim Bag" out of the Fall 08 Knitscene and a book called "Boutique Knits".  I used totally different yarns in all of them.
The wallet-sized one is out of Pagewood Sock Yarns, one is Ella Rae Shibu, and the other is a mix of Rowan Felted Tweed, Mountain Colors Barefoot and a metallic mohair. I went to the bead store and took a class and constructed a necklace that could be use as a handle for this last one.

Currently I'm working on the "Lucy Bag" for a class this fall, and I'll be teaching the Target Wave Mitten, by Norah Gaugan. I still have to work on Jim's sweater - Eeerrrggg! I feel like I'll never finish that!