Crafty Brainwave

Crafty Brainwave http://handmade.loriz.ca/ en Copyright 2008 Sun, 11 May 2008 17:48:20 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss FO: Rambling Rose (follow new RSS feed) posted about my finished Rambling Rose over at my "new" blog location. Please come visit me over at my "new" location. The URL will point to the new location, but RSS feeds need to be updated.

Please update your feeds: Atom feed RSS 1.0 feed]]> http://handmade.loriz.ca/2008/05/fo_rambling_rose_follow_new_rs.html http://handmade.loriz.ca/2008/05/fo_rambling_rose_follow_new_rs.html Sun, 11 May 2008 17:48:20 -0800 Advice: On baby blankets

Rambling Rose teaser I've finished the Rambling Rose. I've yet to take some good FO shots. I have to tell you, I'm sad to say that this sweater, although its getting lots of wear, has issues. More on that later. ************************************ OK, I want to knit a baby blanket and I need some advice. I have 8 skeins of Koigu KPPM (~1300 yards). (a) does it matter if its square or round? (b) how big is a "good" baby blanket? (c) any patterns that I should consider? At this moment, even though the mom suggested a non-eyelet pattern, I'm having a fascination with knitting the Hemlock Ring blanket. (d) is an eyelet pattern a BAD idea? ************************************ Phew, I will be happy to see march go. Although its been a rewarding month, its been an extremely busy month. Next time I sign up for two different conferences, in completely different fields, two weeks apart, please remind me that I'm being over ambitious! Now the conferences are over I can focus on very important things, like knitting baby blankets! ]]> http://handmade.loriz.ca/2008/03/advice_on_baby_blankets.html http://handmade.loriz.ca/2008/03/advice_on_baby_blankets.html Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:51:05 -0800 What makes my day Rangsiwan tagged me with the "make my day" meme that is going around the web. Thank you sweetie! For the past few weeks, while running around doing lots of science, I've given a lot of thought to what bloggers/webfolk make my day. The following list, which is devoid of knit bloggers, does not indicate my joy for seeing my favourite knit blogs have been updated! photo logs / crafty ladies little birds elly beth wikstenmade true nature simple wardrobe (interesting idea!) bits and bobbins {frolic} Andrea Scher Fancy Hunt copenhagen cycle chic (forget so.cal. let's move to europe please!) podcasts/radio shows (if you know VARK, I'm an "A") Stash and Burn, knitting podcast All in the Mind: since listening to Proust was a Neuroscientist program, I have a strong desire to read Proust. Q on CBC Hip Tranquil Chick Ideas: How to think about science ]]> http://handmade.loriz.ca/2008/02/what_makes_my_day.html http://handmade.loriz.ca/2008/02/what_makes_my_day.html Tue, 19 Feb 2008 20:11:08 -0800 Live and learn! (on WiP: Bloom, Rowan 36)

Since my intellectual life has been a little challenging lately, I wanted to knit some stockinette. So over the course of two weeks I knit up Bloom from Rowan 36. Its something that I had wanted to knit for a very long time. Because I'm using a substitute yarn with a slightly different gauge, I had to do some mathematical adjustments to the pattern. The only problem was that I did not include the short row shaping at the shoulders in my calculations. I knit them as if I was knitting with the smaller gauged Felted Tweed. After I finished both pieces, I lovely seamed the garment together, only to find the shoulders stuck out way too much. I'm kicking myself for now catching this, but as I mentioned before, my intellectual life is challenging me at the moment. I thought about fixing the problem with my sewing machine but then I decided that the caps were too high as well as too wide and sewing the caps off would only fix one of those two problems. So, I lovingly unseamed the garment and frogged it. But isn't that life? We learn by doing. Sometimes that means the next time around it will be both easier and better! ]]> http://handmade.loriz.ca/2008/02/life_and_learn_on_wip_bloom_ro.html http://handmade.loriz.ca/2008/02/life_and_learn_on_wip_bloom_ro.html knitting Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:00:57 -0800 WiP: Rambling Rose (IK Winter 2006) this one is for you Julia. First there was the back:

Quickly after I started knitting I worried that this sweater was going to be too small for me. So I whipped it off of the needles, onto some scrap yarn and blocked the sweater. I easily, which out any stretching or pulling, gained 2" on the back. Good. I was going to be able to keep what I had already knit. Then there were some sleeves:

Ladies, do you recognize the fabric in the background?? I did swatch for this project, but I did not block my swatch. Live and learn. Luckily it will work out for this project and I didn't lose any of my work. The yarn that I am using for this project is Elann Tebe Extra Fine Merino. The recommended yarn for this sweater is Koigu Kersti at a gauge of 20 st per 4". Since the pattern was only written in two sizes, 32" and 43" bust, and I'm neither, I decided to fudge a 39-40" bust by knitting the sweater up at a smaller gauge. The Tebe has a recommended gauge of 23 st per 4" on 3.75 mm needles, which is about what I thought I was getting preblocking. I am knitting the 43" size but with a smaller gauge yarn. Onto the yoke:

I had to sew up the side seams (with purlside out!!) before I joined the sleeves to the body. That took me more than one go, as I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my seaming. I love seaming. I find it a welcome challenge to see how neat of a seam I can me. If you're curious, go check out the unblocked seam. Now I'm knitting the yoke. But I'll write more about that another day. There you go, its the first time I've written about a WiP in a while. Its funny, sometimes I don't write about them because I feel like there is nothing to say. However with this particular knit, there is so much to say. Maybe I've been hanging out with Julia too much lately! ;) ]]> http://handmade.loriz.ca/2008/01/wip_rambling_rose_ik_winter_20.html http://handmade.loriz.ca/2008/01/wip_rambling_rose_ik_winter_20.html rambling rose (IK) Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:36:22 -0800 On brickwalls

So my post a few weeks ago (on my dissertation progress) was a bit premature. Although I'm working on "it", the answers are not coming to me as easily as I had expected. The "it" I was referring to in that post had little to do with writing my dissertation and everything to do with taking the analytical technique I've been developing a step further. My manta of late is "If it was easy, it wouldn't be a Ph.D." Each day while I continue to put one foot in front of the other, I keep on thinking of this video by Randy Pausch. Sounds like creative visualization to me. The brick walls are there to teach you how much you want something. Not to keep you out. Wishing you all a great weekend...and a speedy resolution to the writer's strike.... ]]> http://handmade.loriz.ca/2008/01/on_brickwalls.html http://handmade.loriz.ca/2008/01/on_brickwalls.html the ph.d. Fri, 18 Jan 2008 13:24:28 -0800 FO: Icarus

Pattern: Icarus Shawl by Miriam Felton, Interweave Knits Summer 2006 Needles: 3.75 mm Yarn: Elann Baby Lace Merino in Capri Blue. Knit between Dec 5 and Dec 24/07. This Christmas knit was a killer! I thought I was doing myself a favour picking a "easy" shawl pattern. You see, I had originally started knitting the Bee Fields shawl, however I quickly realized that there was no way in hell that I'd finish it in time for Christmas. After a day or two of making minimal progress on the Bee Fields, I switched to a pattern that would have more "quick" knitting in it. Although this shawl provided it for me, the rows were quite long after a while. The recipient, my mother, was quite pleased with the end result. Now she's just trying to figure out how to wear a triangle shawl! Note to self: Think ahead! Do not try knitting two lace shawls as Christmas presents during the month of December!!!]]> http://handmade.loriz.ca/2008/01/fo_icarus.html http://handmade.loriz.ca/2008/01/fo_icarus.html finished knits Wed, 16 Jan 2008 07:56:24 -0800 The idealized monster around the bend

Inside the Hoover Dam, Nov'07 While walking home from the lab today I was trying to think of a knitting analogy to describe where I am with my dissertation research. The closest analogy I came up was is this:
Imagine for the past 18 months you've been writing sweater patterns. Although these sweaters may be great sweaters, they were all in preparation for the "penultimate" sweater. All of the functional sweater patterns that you have written during these 18 months could have been published, but because they aren't the penultimate design the patterns are stored in your bottom drawer to be forgotten. In your mind, you've been building up the skills necessary to write the penultimate sweater pattern. THAT pattern seemed insurmountable. Additionally, in your mind, if you failed at the penultimate sweater pattern, you'd have to start over again, from the absolute beginning.
This past week, I started working on the "penultimate sweater". And you know what? Its not nearly as bad as I had thought it was going to be. Somewhat irrationally, I had worried that this "sweater pattern" just could not be done. My progress over the past few days makes me feel like, some day, ~~the sweater and its pattern~~ my Ph.D. work will get finished. That my friends is freakin' exciting. An added bonus overcoming this hurdle is an immense rush of creativity! Analogies aside, this surge in academic productivity has manifested a few sweater pattern ideas in my head. Before they vanish as quickly as they appeared, I'm trying to make some swatches and take some notes. Who knows, maybe this will finally be the year I stop relying so heavily on knitting patterns?? ***** The comments on my blog are not working entirely correctly right now. Most of the comments are getting filtered into "junk" when they are in fact not junk comments. Therefore I have to sift through my junk comments (about 60/day) to approve the comments from people like you! So if I'm not responding to your comment, its because I am not getting email verification that you made one. Hopefully I'll have this problem taken care of in the next two weeks or so.]]> http://handmade.loriz.ca/2008/01/the_idealized_monster_around_t.html http://handmade.loriz.ca/2008/01/the_idealized_monster_around_t.html the ph.d. Sat, 05 Jan 2008 15:08:14 -0800 a few days of vacation yields 520 yards

My family, who was visiting this holiday season, was rather curious to see how the spinning wheel worked. On a particular day, when I was feeling a like my family was a little too intense, I needed a release. Since most of my knitting projects were just finished (as presents), I decided to pull out the spinning wheel. I thought something nice and soft was in order. I pulled out 8oz of MadelineTosh Wildflower Alpaca Top that I procured a few months back.

After I had started spinning the alpaca, I couldn't stop. I was compelled to finish it. Half of my family left on New Year's Eve. As soon as I returned from the airport, I sat down at the wheel. By yesterday (New Year's day) I had completed plying it. There are still many places in my spinning where you can see my novice mistakes, however I feel that I've come a long way since the Lendrum came to live with me. It will be hard to part with it, but maybe it was the push I needed for procuring a wheel.]]> http://handmade.loriz.ca/2008/01/a_few_days_of_vacation_yields.html http://handmade.loriz.ca/2008/01/a_few_days_of_vacation_yields.html spinning wheel: lendrum Wed, 02 Jan 2008 19:34:24 -0800 New Year = new leaf.

My "Greytone Rosie", otherwise known as "Rambling Rose" IK W06 Without using the "r" word, I can say that during 2008 I firmly commit to occupy this space with more pictures. ]]> http://handmade.loriz.ca/2008/01/new_year_new_leaf.html http://handmade.loriz.ca/2008/01/new_year_new_leaf.html life Tue, 01 Jan 2008 21:04:30 -0800 Must keep knitting!

Christmas project#2, three weeks ago at Bryce National Park. I don't know if it was poor time management or just being over ambitious but there are only 4 days of knitting left and I'm not done yet. Yesterday, to assess the reality of completion (read: how many more hours of knitting do I have left), I timed how long it was taking to knit a row. At roughly 15 minutes per row and at least 40 more rows to go, I still had a lot of knitting a head of me. That's for the first project. (I made a lot of progress yesterday and now there are roughly 20 rows left). There are two more projects. One big and one small. YIkes! I know what I will be doing for the next 96 hours!! Damn because this peppermint bark was looking like an easy treat to whip up before the big day. Oh and did you see these cute holiday gift tags? So cute! This year we're going to attempt to BBQ the turkey again, however this time we're researching how to do it before blindly diving in. Keep your fingers crossed. Happy holidays. Good luck finishing up all of your holiday knits - if you were silly enough to over commit yourself like me! ]]> http://handmade.loriz.ca/2007/12/must_keep_knitting.html http://handmade.loriz.ca/2007/12/must_keep_knitting.html Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:54:13 -0800 Listy hunky guy at LAX the night before Thanksgiving. We were picking up the in-laws and he was at the next luggage carousel, flying in from Hawaii. He was just as good looking in person. But what was better is that he talked to fans and didn't blow them off. I, however, just hovered in the distance hitting my husband's elbow saying "hey that's the guy from lost". The importance of the moment was lost on my husband! 2) knee deep in holiday knitting, I'm about half-way done knitting a Muir in black lace weight alpaca and half-way done knitting a Koolhaas in deep blue llama. Although the llama won't show the stitch definition as well as some yarns, it will certainly still be a kool hat! Lots more gift knitting to go, but these will be wrapped up in a timely fashion! 3) it is possible to take a road trip and find hotels on one the busiest travel weekends in the US without paying a pretty penny for them. Photos are forthcoming of two Colorado River damns and lakes as well as a few national parks. 4) Las Vegas buffets are bad for the waistline. bye for now! ]]> http://handmade.loriz.ca/2007/11/listy.html http://handmade.loriz.ca/2007/11/listy.html travel Mon, 26 Nov 2007 20:07:36 -0800 Results of this year's sweatshop the fruits of my labor for my husband's hallowe'en costume. This year my husband wanted to be Darth Maul. Between the two of us we were able to create the following:

The gloves, horns and boots were purchased. A light saber was borrowed. The rest was done by us. I used the Wendy Mullin "Sew U" shirt pattern for creating both the inner and outer cloaks. A very useful resource for adding the details to the garment was this detailed website, complete with measurements of the various parts of the outfit. His inner cloak was made of cotton, while the outer cloak was made of 100% wool. The belt was made of vinyl. Although the costume seems intense and it was a lot of sewing, I actually found this one a little easier than last year's. Maybe its because I didn't need to create a pattern for gloves and a mask! Unfortunately, he didn't win "best look alike" at the party yesterday. A fabulously hand crafted "Rainbow Brite" won. It was an amazing handsewn outfit, including the boots. It made the Darth Maul costume look boring! ]]> http://handmade.loriz.ca/2007/11/results_of_this_years_sweatsho.html http://handmade.loriz.ca/2007/11/results_of_this_years_sweatsho.html sewing Thu, 01 Nov 2007 06:58:05 -0800 FO: Drops 103-1, Eskimo Jacket

Pattern: Drops 103-1 (free) from Garnstudio Yarn: Briggs and Little Heritage in Purple. Purchased at LK Yarns in Halifax way back in early 2004. Needles: 5 mm throughout I knit a sweater recently. The knitting mojo is back. If you subscribe to my flickr feed, you may have seen a curly edged unblocked version of this sweater over the weekend. Ms. Flint Knits' version of this FREE pattern sent me searching for some suitable yarn in my stash. When I first downloaded the pattern, I completely missed the fact that the pattern is written in two gaugues. I thought I would have to knit it up as a bulky gauge (meaning that I am too lazy to rework the pattern to a gauge I'd prefer). Then after actually reading the pattern, rather than skimming it, it dawned upon me that I had yarn in my stash that would be appropriate. Well, that's stretching the truth a little.

I had one skein in my stash of the same yarn as this sweater, which I knit back in 2004 and dubbed the MIT sweater. Since moving to California in 2004, I haven't worn the MIT sweater. Not once. Its simply too warm. So the decision to frog the sweater was pretty immediate. Within an hour I had hand-wound the sweater into balls. A "good" knitter would have taken the time to wash the yarn before knitting it up again. You know, to remove the kinks. But I'm a lazy knitter, so I just knit it up without any preparation. When knitting this sweater, although I got gauge when using the on 4.5 mm needles, I knit this sweater entirely on 5 mm needles to prevent my edges from curling. (I now see that on the manufacturer's website it recommends 5mm needs. Hunh, I swore it was 4.5mm!) You can see in in the unblocked version that the edges are still curling. After the sweater was blocked, the edges behaved themselves. Good edges.

I made my standard modifications in the length of the sweater. Both the sleeves and the body were lengthen to accommodate my height.

I love how this sweater really works with my red shoes. One thing that was particularly nebulous about this pattern was the button placement. The instructions just said "make three buttonholes", rather than "make three button holes starting at 15" from CO edge". Deciding on the proper placement of the button holes (for me) was a bit of a crap shoot. Since the garment is asymmetrical, it will pull on the buttons more. Because I'm already thick through the torso, I worried that placing the buttons too high would make me look even thicker. Then I was worried about putting a big red button on top of a prominent anatomical feature (if you know what I mean). In the end though, I think all it worked out rather nicely. ]]> http://handmade.loriz.ca/2007/10/fo_drops_1031_eskimo_jacket.html http://handmade.loriz.ca/2007/10/fo_drops_1031_eskimo_jacket.html sweaters Thu, 25 Oct 2007 11:31:35 -0800 Firestorm! This is my first time experiencing a "firestorm" in Southern California. Luckily last night was the worst of it for us, with a fire less than 20km away. Now the fire has moved southward and the smoke in the is lessening. Its strange to walk outside and see burnt leaves on the sidewalk. My thoughts go out to all of those displaced tonight. http://handmade.loriz.ca/2007/10/firestorm.html http://handmade.loriz.ca/2007/10/firestorm.html Mon, 22 Oct 2007 17:23:22 -0800