Tag Archives: knitting

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KNAVY KNITTING

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Last December I finally sat down and taught myself to knit, with one major goal in sight: to make my own socks. And it happened!

knit navy socks, made by Julianne

I started these socks in May, and finished them in August! But I only worked on them when I was waiting for something else, like at the post office, or on a road trip, or babysitting.

knit navy socks, made by Julianne

I used a vintage Bernat 50/50 wool/nylon blend, and made them up on my #2 Addi Sock Rockets (which I love, duh). I followed Liat Gatt’s tutorial for toe-up socks on magic loop, which was very easy to follow. Although the process took forever and I made a few mistakes, at no point did I actually feel discouraged.

knit navy socks, made by Julianne knit navy socks, made by Julianne

For some reason I started these out on #6 needles, and although the size was fit, there were way too many holes and gaps in the fabric. Duh, right? knit navy socks, made by Julianne

knit navy socks, made by Julianne

The m1r and m1l increases were certainly a pain in the butt, so next I’m exploring other techniques of adding stitches. I’ve enjoyed kfb before, but I’m also intrigued by this method of working yo without a hole.

knit navy socks, made by Julianne

The first time I wore these socks was to watch the man burn at Burning Man. It seemed like an appropriate place to realize such a persistent goal, and my toes were toasty! I’ve actually already finished my second pair, which I will post in a week or so.

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ANEMONE HAT

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Searching through Ravelry one morning, I was instantly smitten by this charmingly eccentric hat: Cat Bordhi’s Anemone. What’s not to love? There’s the elegant twist of the moebius brim, the wonderful bunching of rows of knits and purls, and of course, all those fabulous tendrils springing out from my head like a million brilliant ideas.

yellow anemone hat, made by Julianne

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This picture is quickly becoming my favorite picture of me. We took these pictures at Alcatraz a couple weeks ago. My dad and stepmom were supposed to fly in from Massachusetts but had to cancel at the last minute, so we went on the tour for them.

yellow anemone hat yellow anemone hat

I love the moebius brim! You wind up knitting it from the center row out, so that instead of it growing from top to bottom, the rows are added to the top and bottom. It was a little tricky, but Cat Bordhi’s tutorials were clear to follow.

I have a gorgeous fuchsia yarn that I think would be great for this design, except it’s not superwash (the hat should be washed in a machine to plump up the tendrils). So I wanted my first rendition to follow the directions, which is laughable in retrospect and should have been obvious up front. I know who I am, and someone who follows directions when making something is not my style.

anemone hat, made by Julianne future anemone yarn, made by Julianne

I love the rainbow slub of this chunky yarn, and it matches a scarf I bought in Florence in 2005. The yarn came from Micheal’s, and I believe it was on sale. I kept the sleeve while I was knitting and threw it away without a single thought about blog posting. I do remember that the colorway was “Tempo” and it’s a wool/ploy blend (I think 50/50). However, it’s much thicker than the recommended worsted weight, some sort of chunk, but for some reason I didn’t think that would be a problem, so I got to work on the brim.

mobius attempt, made by Julianne yellow anemone hat, made by Julianne

Sans gauge swatch, my first attempt was way too big. Two guage swatches later, I realized that even the tiniest needles weren’t going to make this yarn worsted weight, and so using US#5 needles I just made the “baby” size. I wound up doing just one series of the tendrils (in each spot in the row) before beginning my increases. It fits perfectly!

yellow anemone hat, made by Julianne

My tendrils seem to curl a little bit, which I think is cute and due to either the uneven thickness of the yarn or unevenness of my twisting. With this yarn at least, I didn’t notice any difference after washing. I’m definitely looking forward to making this hat again with recommended yarn, but first I have two other yarns in my stash that need to be worked up!

I love this hat and wear it whenever its chilly at night in LA. I tend to get a lot of stares when I wear this hat out, which can be disorienting, because they seem to be of the “what the fuck is that hat?” nature. Whatevs.

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KNIT RAINBOW BAG

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I’ve always been enamored of net shopping bags, and now I finally have my own!

knit rainbow bag, made by Julianne

For demonstration purposes, it is filled with yarn. What else?

knit rainbow bag, made by Julianne

The bag is perfect over my shoulder, but if I hold it in my hand with my arm down the bag drags on the ground. I knew the bag would stretch, but I still wanted to be able to fit everything in it. Next time!

knit rainbow bag, made by Julianne knit rainbow bag, made by Julianne

I call this jumbled area “the Mojito vortex” and it’s a fond memory of a new friend (who I met via the Internet, and she lives .6 mi from my house). By the way, that gorgeous yellow flower embroidery came out of the trash in New Orleans. It’s one of my favorite things ever.

This pattern was simple and easy to follow, but I was still able to pick up a couple new skills. This was my first time using m1 increases (for the base of the bag), which are easy but I’m not nuts about the holes they create. For future bags I guess I’ll use a different increase. I also got to bind off together when I joined the handle back onto the bag.

knit rainbow bag, made by Julianne

I love the idea of cutting plastic bags into yarn to make a craftier, stronger plastic bag, but I don’t have that much plastic on hand. Eventually I will go full monty with a big ball of plarn, but in the meantime I used Red Heart acrylic for $3, and I loved seeing the colors change.

knit rainbow bag, made by Julianne

Since this is a good project to use up not-so-fancy yarn, and makes a useful gift, I think I will be making many more of these. I’m so new to knitting, and I don’t want to repeat any patterns, so I might make this bag next, with a tape handle like here. Or maybe I will try i-cord for the first time! Does anyone have recommendations for other bag patterns?

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