Direwolf Sigil House Stark Game of Thrones-inspired Fingerless Gloves!

I knit these with a cute little cabled cuff to spruce 'em up. Selling them over on my Etsy shop!

Washcloths! Armwarmers! Hat!

Head on over to my Etsy Shop Blog to see what I've been up to since November! =D

After I finished my orders, I binged on video games for four days straight, but since then I've felt weird NOT knitting. So here's what I've done since the first week of the month:

Way back in November my mom mentioned that she wanted a hat for her birthday and sent me a few pictures off of Pinterest, and then we didn't speak of it again. I was so excited to make her a matching set of hat and armwarmers, because she still talks about and uses armwarmers I made for her in 2007. Out of acrylic. When I had been knitting for only a few months. I wanted to use higher-quality yarn and show off what I can do!

The hat was quick and easy, and the armwarmers were easy and fun once I figured out that the picot edging wasn't ACTUALLY picot and was creating by hemming! The gloves turned out a bit bigger than I had hoped, which was sort of a given because the pattern called for a lighter weight yarn than I was using. But still. Gorgeous pattern.

Close-up of the picot effect and the simple lace pattern.

I just love this look.

Next, my grandma showed me some knitted handwarmers done for her by a friend and explained that she had chills and pain at night and that she wanted warm armwarmers. She was adorable because she pointed out the ribbing on a pair she had and said it was okay if I didn't "do anything fancy." I mock-scoffed and decided to find a pattern that would do her justice. This is what I came up with:

I used a cutely titled pattern called A Little Twist and made some adjustments. First, I made them longer on both the arm and the hand, and second, I didn't bind off the thumb gusset to leave a hole, but kept the stitches on a separate needle and knit partway up to help keep her thumb warm. Finally, my grandma requested TIGHT gloves, so I only used size 7 needles for the first 6 pattern repeats and then switched to size 5s for the rest.

What was really neat about this yarn (Plymouth Gina) was that the picture shows one entire skein. The yarn knit up two very different gloves from just the one skein! Perfect for my grandma. ^_^

The cabling really is nice. It adds a fancy touch with minimal work, and it breaks up the monotony of ribbing.

And finally! I bought the Spring 2014 issue of Creative Magazine because the scarf on the cover is simply divine, but I'm not monetarily ready for that kind of commitment so I paged through until I found a quick project: a set of three washcloths. What a perfect use for all my random cotton!

Front: Slip-stitch pattern using some KnitPicks yarn and Peaches & Creme. Middle: A really fun washcloth with some fancy yarn I bought from my LYS (can't remember the brand but it's luscious and soft) that has a diagonal pattern, and finally, Peaches & Creme with a cabling, which took the longest and I hated doing it about a quarter of the way through. 

I ended up giving all of them to my mom because she said she loves hand-knit washcloths (no idea!) but I'm currently making another of the front washcloth because they are SO FUN.

So fun. So fancy.

Now I think you're all caught up! Happy knitting!

-Leah

Harley Quinn Fingerless Gloves~

"Weee! Look at the pretties~!"

I decided to modify my design for the Harley fingerless gloves I made a year or two ago. I really like how they turned out! I used size 4 DPNs and these fit me perfectly, so for most other people they'd be a bit bigger. I've decided to sell these awesome geeky gloves in my shop!

The red yarn is a true red, not a dark red. This picture pretty closely captures it:

Pretty sweet, eh?

-Leah

Scott Pilgrim and Harley Quinn?

I finished my Scott Pilgrim scarf and it's super cute. It was really easy to do the ends because the scarf rolls so much, I basically only had to tie the alternating colors together instead of the usual painstaking weave, as the little knots will not come into contact with you.

Knit on size 9 circular, CO 20 stitches, and began knitting around 20-25 rows, but the two yarns I was using had different guages so I eyeballed it. Especially since I was making it for myself, I don't mind it not being perfect.

 

My friend Kiki does a lot of amazing art, and I'm constantly envious of her work. Lately she's been painting various characters from things, and especially from Scott Pilgrim. I really like Knives and thought her character was adorable, but I didn't see Kiki paint one of her! So I requested one with offer of payment, and instead she came up with a great idea: crafty exchange!

I sent her my specs for what I wanted in a Knives portrait (she also made me that icon of me you see in the corner - Chibi Leah!), and she showed me a picture of the kind of gloves she wanted. I took a couple liberties with the image so that I wouldn't be blatantly stealing the original creator's image. 

Kiki sent me a cute diagram with all her measurements, so I followed that as best I could. I used size 3 double-pointed needles, CO 34 stitches, knit about an inch in 1x1 rib, then switched to stockinette. I purled the cast off with white yarn for the ending effect (which I think looks awesome), and knit on thumbs by pulling stitches around the hole. I did pretty good for hating fiddling with fingers! I duplicate stitched the images on, which are supposed to basically resemble cards (Joker, card, Harley, get it?). Even though the Joker card doesn't actually have any of the four symbols in it - you get the idea.

Pretty cute, huh? Can't wait to give em to her!

Lately...

I've been doing lots of small projects - wristwarmers with thinner yarn for Mom and a co-worker, dishcloths... Simple things. I decided to see what the Horde symbol would look like on size 5 needles.



I also have Hufflepuff-style wristwarmer and glove. Yes. One of each. I made the glove and then decided working on those stupid fingers was way too much work. I did a pretty bad job on them out of impatience and frustration. But the wristwarmer looks good. I planned on making the mate with black as the main color, but I don't want them to look too much like bumblebee gloves. I'll probably just leave them partnerless and make Horde wristwarmers for both Dan and myself.






And finally... I bought a book on afghans and am currently making slow-but-nearly-steady progress on Dan's mom's afghan that she was supposed to get for Christmas. I had to scrap my very messy progress on the previous attempt, but I think it's starting to take shape well.

Glove and blanket :)

I forgot to get pictures of the baby blanket I made for Rory and Rhianon's newest addition, Ella, but I have pictures stolen from them to show it a bit. I did garter for the border and stockinette for the middle, although mostly the pictures show the WS.

And I finally decided to give in and post pics of my one glove. It's not looking hot that I'll get the next one finished anytime soon. It turned out great for a first-timer, I think. I managed to drop one stitch and not even realize it until I finished the entire glove. I went inside and stitched it up in there, but it's still noticeable as a fallen stitch. The pointer and middle fingers are a bit tight because I had a lot less stitches to work with than the pattern called for, because I have small wrists and hands. The pinky is way too big, also. But I made it through, and even the thumb looks good. :)




I'm currently working on a secret project that's a christmas gift for my mom, I've completed a couple small things for someone else in my family, and Dan's Slytherin scarf is on hold because I realized that it's nearly a foot wide when it should only be 8" and I'm lamenting frogging it.