Category Archives: FO


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speed demon

I think I’ve just knit the fastest shawl of my life. 

About 2/3 weeks ago, one of my first cousins was diagnosed with stage-2 breast cancer.  (First cousin as in proximity…not as in that I expect to have second, third or more cousins diagnosed with cancers).  As soon as I finished the deadline knitting I had at the time, I knew I wanted to make something special for her, both to let her know she was in my thoughts, and also to (hopefully) be useful.  I ruled out a chemo cap because it will be a few weeks before she starts chemo/radiation, and I don’t know how sensitive her head will be once she loses her hair.  Instead, I decided to knit her a shawl to help keep her warm during the chemo treatments, or just to make her feel pretty and special.

After investigating my stash and doing some browsing on Ravelry, I decided to go with the Summer Lace Shawlette, a free pattern from Interweave Knits and Knitting Daily.  My cousin’s favorite color is red, and while I didn’t have any appropriate red yarn on hand, I did have some deep pink yarn in the appropriate gauge.  The yarn is Tannis Fiber Arts’ sock yarn from one of Robyn’s Robyn’s Nest sock club kits, and the colorway is called E=MC2.  I feel like the pink color works perfectly for a breast cancer shawl (and it’s October too…does that qualify as ironic?)

I cast on Monday, September 29th when I got home from the first night of Rosh Hashana dinners with my family.  (Happy New Year to any Jewish readers, by the way!).  This photo (above) shows the colorway pretty accurately, as well as my total progress by bedtime that night.

And the next photo? 

This is the completed, finished, done shawl, blocking on FRIDAY night.  Friday.  Monday to Friday.  5 days to go from sock yarn to shawl.  I’m stunned.

It was an (obviously) fast knit, easily memorized.  I extended the body section by 8 rows because I had enough yarn and wanted a longer shawl. 

Note: if you decide to make this, and to make it longer than called for, you have to pay attention to how many rows you add.  The final border is worked on a certain number of sts for the lace repeat, and by adding 8 rows (and thus 4 extra stitches on each side) I didn’t have enough to extend the lace section.  That meant that when ready to knit the 8 lace rows along the bottom edge (right before the bottom seed st border), I had to work the border as usual, then knit 4 plain sts in stockinette stitch before starting my lace pattern.  Had I just started the lace at the beginning of the row (after the border) and decided to “wing it”, the lace never would have matched up along the center lace panel that has already been established.  Ask me how I found this out!  As you can see from the photos, it doesn’t look so bad having a little stockinette stitch gap on either end of the lace border.  If it really bothers you, just make sure to add enough rows (1 stitch added at each end on every rs row) to be able to work an extra lace repeat before it would normally start.

Same shawl, same lighting.  I just threw in a light bulb for scale.  I’ll take some better photos when it is good and dry and I can unpin it.


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Hanukah Dreidel Pillow, part 6

The finished pillow! Yay!

After finishing the front, I cast on for the back. The back was worked in 2 overlapping sections so that the pillow could come out easily for laundering/changing of the cover. My original intent was to leave it as is, but once seamed, the center of the back kept gaping, so I added a row of buttons. Had I had more time, and a proper plan in place, I might have sewn down a strip of Velcro instead.
When it came time to join the front to the back I had been planning on working icord but since speed was still a factor (I had to mail it to Mary Maxim before the contest deadline) I chose the easiest and fastest way for me- single crochet. For fun I decided to use white around the blue areas, and blue around the white areas.
And there you have it. One completed Hanukah Dreidel Pillow. Not a contest winner, but makes me proud enough to see it come out of my head and land on my couch.


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Hanukah Dreidel Pillow, part 5

We’re almost there!

The next step was to use more Patons Brilliant, this time in a shiny gold color, to duplicate-stitch the dreidel game letters in the four corners of the pillow.
Another closeup for you!
I know I said this before, but it continued to amaze me how much the finished product looked like my original sketch and computer design. I know it *should* look like what I wanted, but to see such an accurate representation tickled me every time I’d lay them side-by-side.

Almost done now…


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Hanukah Dreidel Pillow, part 4

We’re getting there, folks. Won’t be long now!

Once the white “ridges” were complete, I did the letters on the dreidel itself.
Another closeup. While the white ridges were done using the same yarn as for the background (Patons Shetland Chunky), the lettering was done using Patons Brilliant, a thinner, stiffer, metallic yarn.
Because this was a contest submission we had to use yarns from the contest sponsors, including Patons, Bernat, Diamond and Kertzer.

I know I’m teasing this out instead of just showing a finished object and being done with it. Sorry to do that, but I can’t show you what I’m actually working on as I am busy swatching for a few submissions I’d like to put out.


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Hanukah Dreidel Pillow, part 3

The next step in the pillow’s progress was to duplicate-stitch the white ridges on the dreidel’s sides.
Here’s another close-up.
One thing that kept amazing me is how much the actual pillow cover was resembling the original design. At this point I didn’t care if anyone else would like it or even want to knit it…I was just happy with how something was coming out of my head and into reality.


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Hanukah Dreidel Pillow, part 2

The next step for the Hanukah Dreidel Pillow was to do the shading on the dreidel itself. I used a dark orange shade and duplicate-stitched over the gold.
In case you were wondering, I deliberately stuck with a white, blue and gold color theme. The Israeli flag’s colors are blue and white, and I felt like the gold was a nice holiday addition. I didn’t want to mix in too many other colors.
Here’s the closeup at this stage. There were one or two spots where I had to go back over a stitch a second time to get good coverage, but you really can’t tell.

More coming soon!


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Hanukah Dreidel Pillow, part 1

A few days ago I received my Hanukah Dreidel Pillow back in the mail. That was the entry I had submitted to the Mary Maxim design contest. Since I didn’t win or place, the rights to the pattern stay with me, which means I can share it with you.

I decided to share a bit of my thoughs and my process on this pattern. I had a really hard time with the design. It wasn’t coming up with an idea- I knew I was entering the “Knit or Crochet – Holiday Craft” section of the contest. I had a TON of ideas that I really, really liked. The problem? I really, really liked them.

See, I didn’t realize until after I’d sent in my entry fee that were I to win or place, Mary Maxim would get the rights to the pattern. That means that if they were honorable, my name would appear somewhere on it as the actual designer…but other than the contest prize, I wouldn’t get anything for the pattern, regardless of how popular it might prove to be.

This made designing tough- I wanted to submit something I was proud of, but at the same time I wanted to keep any “really good” ideas to myself, so if I were ever to knit them, I would get to keep the rights to them.

I knew I wanted to design something Hanukah-related. The majority of the holiday crafts in Mary Maxim are Christmas-themed (which may in part explain why I didn’t place, lol) and I wanted to do something to help celebrate another religion. In the end I had the idea to work up a pillow cover with a dreidel on it.

My first step was to swatch. The navy yarn is Patons Shetland Chunky. (If you remember this post, you’ll remember when I bought all the yarns I had considered using).
Once I had my gauge calculated, I started testing some duplicate stitch and embroidery. I had originally planned on having some lettering on the pillow, and I wasn’t sure which method would have provided better results. The yellow yarn used for the embroidery was more Shetland Chunky, and the red one is Patons Brilliant.

The pillow cover was worked in 3 sections (the front, and the 2 back halfs) that were seamed at the end. Here is a photo of the front in progress. The design for the front had a white background with a navy block in each corner.

Once I had my gauge worked out I was able to properly plan the design. I printed off some knitters graph paper to my specific gauge (I like the template here) and started sketching.

I had an outline done by hand then switched to the computer to chart it out in Excel. I didn’t care if my Excel chart was to scale, because I already knew that my drawing was to scale. (In other words, if my knitter’s graph paper drawing to scale had the corner boxes be 30 sts by 40 rows, then I would color in 30 boxes by 40 boxes in my Excel spreadsheet, etc.)

I didn’t want to complicate my life by having too many dangling ends, so I broke the pattern down into sections. The background (white and navy) and the main dreidel color (gold) were knit using intarsia to have one flat background. Everything else in the image would be done in duplicate stitch.

I forgot to take a photo of the original, plain background, but here you can see it after the first round of duplicate stitch. Just like in cross stitch, where you work a section of one color before switching to another, I did my pattern in layers. Also, knowing how duplicate stitch actually builds up the layers of fabric, I worked in order from the most recessed to the most forwards. So my plan was to start with the background shading, then do the dreidel shading, and last do the letters.

In this image you can see my printed Excel chart and the pillow front with the black shading done around the right and lower edges of the dreidel. (In the chart, the completed shadow sections are highighted in pink, but you can barely see it).

Here’s a closeup. The duplicate stitch came out pretty even and had good coverage- that was what I was afraid of most, that the gold would show through. (Luckily, in planing ahead, I knew that other than the letters, I was working darker colors over light).
I learned that I like my duplicate stitch better when I work from top to bottom, either in rows or columns. I’m not as crazy about the result when I tested it from bottom to top. I found that working top-down causes the stitches below the ones completed to close up any gaps, whereas when you work bottom-up you need to pierce the center of the stitch you just did then move away, possibly separating the stitch and allowing the base color to show through.

Coming soon – more on the Hanukah Dreidel Pillow…


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Simple Mug Cozies

Update: see end of post for information about a downloadable pattern pdf

Finally! As promised!

The cozies were first shown on the blog here and here.

I designed this pattern last week as part of my cousin’s fiancé’s bridal shower gift basket.  I wanted a mug cozy that was removable, machine washable and dryable, and didn’t need ties, snaps or hooks.  This is what I came up with. 

The cozies have some stretch to them, but were designed to fit standard mugs.  If you want to make this cozy for a taller mug, you will need to keep knitting the plain section until you have enough clearance for the top of the mug handle.  Likewise, if you want to make it for a wider mug, you will need to add extra stitches.

Unfortunately, I forgot to write down my gauge and the gifts have already been given to the bride (who lives 2 hours away) so I can’t measure them.  However, I don’t feel that this will be a big issue with this pattern.  The nature of the cozy will forgive a slightly too tight or too loose fit.

Directions

CO 30 sts with 5mm needle and join for working in the round, being careful not to twist

K 1 round

P 1 round

K 1 round

P 1 round

Next round: BO 2 sts, k to end of row – 28 sts

You will now be working flat, turning the work at the end of each row.

Row 1: sl 1 st purlwise, p to end of row

Row 2: sl 1 st purlwise, k to end of row

Repeat the last 2 rows until 14 rows have been knit flat.  At the end of the 14th row do not turn.

CO 3 sts then k across the rest of the sts, rejoining the work into the round – 31 sts

P 1 round

K 1 round

P 1 round

BO all sts knitwise

Cut yarn and weave in ends

Update!

This pattern is on Ravelry here.

This pattern is provided for free above, but if you’d prefer an easy-to-print PDF version, I have made it available here for a very small fee. The PDF includes the full instructions, abbreviation definitions, an easy-to-read layout and full color images.

*Updated January 2020


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how it all went together

1 bridal shower + 14 days = 14 knitted and crocheted items. Not bad, huh?

If you’ve been following along then you’ve seen all this, but to recap:

top row- 4 Ballband Dishcloths (Bernat Handicrafter Cotton in White with Red, Rose Pink, Sage Green and Hot Orange)

middle row- Puffalump Limbo Line Facecloth (Bernat Handicrafter Cotton in French Blue), 2 Mug Cozies (Bernat Handicrafter Cotton in Jewels and Delft Blue), and Velvet Oblivion (Lion Brand Chenille Thick ‘n Quick in Wine and Bernat Boa in Raven)

bottom row- 2 Reverse-Bloom Washcloths (Bernat Handicrafter Cotton in Playtime with Hot Orange, and Summer Splash with Banana Yellow), Back Scrubber, Soap Saver Bag and Bath Puff (Bernat Handicrafter Cotton in White and Navy, and Bernat Handicrafter Cotton Holidays Sparkle in White Sparkle), Calorimetry (Bernat Satin in Florals)

Here’s how I put it all together as a coheisive basket. It was a “time” themed shower, and my time was 9:00am. I decided to put together a gift basket with a little package for 9:00am at every day of the week. I wrapped each day’s package seperately, and printed a label with the name of the day, and wrote a little message on the back of each label with a hint at the contents. The bride-to-be’s mother has her own handcrafting business, and the bride-to-be herself always comments on the stuff I make (not on the blog, in person), so I hoped I was safe in assuming that she would appreciate handmade items as a part of her gift.

Monday’s package:

To start the week off on a sweet note- Tim Hortons Hot Chocolate (a favorite in their household) and a mug with a mug cozy).

Tuesday’s package:

To take care of the dishes from the weekend- some dishwashing detergent and matching dishcloths.

Wednesday’s package:

To celebrate making it halfway through the week- French Vanilla Cappuccino from Tim Hortons (another one of their faves- and mine too!) and another mug with a cozy, this one purples (the bride’s favorite color).

Thursday’s package:

How do the dishes multiply so fast? More dishwashing detergent (in purple!) and matching cloths.

Friday’s package:

To remove some of the stress from the week- a facial set. Calorimetry to hold her hair back, exfoliating face scrub and face wash, and a face cloth. (By the way, yes, I know Calorimetry is supposed to be a headwarmer for Wintertime…but I like it as a headband).

Saturday’s package:

A kit to luxuriate in a long shower, get ready for the weekend, and pamper herself. Dove Go Fresh Soap and Body Wash, an exfoliating body wash, the bath puff, back scrubber and soap saver, plus an apothecary sampler kit I got her with an assortment of creams and lotions in a mix of scents.

Sunday’s package:

Hehehe. Sunday’s package is for 9:00am Sunday mornings, when her husband will be home with her…velvet oblivion, a massager and some vanilla-scented massage oil. The 302 Calories edible thong was supposed to go in this package too. ;]

I wrapped each package up in its own colored tissue (the background you see behind each collection of items, above), and when I was finally done wrapping, I had 7 little packages all lined up on the couch.
Ever trying to be practical, Yannick had been at Zellers that morning and picked me up a laundry basket to put it all in.
A quick “9:00am” label for the top (we were asked to mark our gifts with the assigned time) and I was done. At 2:35pm. Not bad for 2 weeks’ worth of work!


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and the rest of the stuff

My fingers are sore! I’ve been knitting like mad all week- here’s how the rest of the projects went down:

Sunday I was able to spend some time knitting while Jakob slept, which gave me a 2 hour block. I worked on the Puffalump Limbo Line facecloth while we watched Fools Gold, which meant we had a weekend of Ray Winstone movies. The movie was cute, but it felt like I was watching a Harlequin Duets book come to life, and when there were about 20 minutes left to go I had no choice but to go upstairs and get ready to leave…and I didn’t ask Yannick to stop it. I could tell where it was going, and it really didn’t change anything having watched it or not.

Sunday night was a lot of fun, my friend Maia was in a play from the Yiddish Theater, and a bunch of us from Jakob’s playgroup bought tickets, grabbed our moms (and some bubbies) and made a night of it. Because the show started at 7 we went for an early dinner at 5. I brought the washcloth in my purse and took advantage of the 15 minute intermission to do a few rows.

I was reminded at dinner that the following day’s playgroup would be celebrating 2 of the little girls’ birthdays…which threw me into a panic. I’d been making cupcakes for each kid, remember? So now, in addition to having one week left to finish all the projects for the bridal shower, I had to squeeze in 2 cupcakes…that night!

I got home from the play around 9:45 and parked myself on the couch to watch tv with Yannick and knit cupcakes. I finished the second one at 12:50am…finally!

I’d kinda screwed up, though. I always alter the pattern, every time I knit it. I don’t like the way the top comes out if you follow the pattern, it is too flat and round for me (does that make sense?) I prefer a top that looks more like a muffin-top, almost bloused over the edges of the base. (I also ALWAYS omit the first row of the pattern, after casting on I jump right into the increases, without a plain row. This is to avoid a pointy center to the base).

This is the first one I made.


It’s lumpy because I don’t put anything in but stuffing, so there is nothing to hold the shape of the base in where I’ve increased for the top. Still…it’s not bad.

This is the second one. See the problem?

It’s an artsy photo- trying to hide the flaws. I was exhausted and too tired to play around, so for this one I followed the pattern as written. It’s basically a tube with a round top. It’s cute- but not like the others I’d given. And also a lot smaller than the one above. And I was supposed to give them to the 2 girls together.
I didn’t have the energy to stay up later and knit a third…so I decided the moms could pick for themselves. (Let’s ignore the fact that I brought them on Monday and forgot to give them to the girls, after all that work and staying up so late!)
In a way I was glad I was still up that late, because no sooner had I changed into my pjs, taken out my contacts and pulled back the sheets to climb into bed- Jakob woke up crying. And I mean CRYING. It took me until 2:30am to rock him back to sleep. I don’t know if he had a bad dream, or if his molars are hurting him, but even in my arms, with a bottle at one point he was still inconsolable.
On Monday I finished the facecloth I’d started over the weekend: the Puffalump Limbo Line (Ravelry link).

I’m very happy with how it came out; I think it will make a great facecloth and has excellent scrubber potential. The yarn is more Bernat Handicrafter Cotton (as have been all the washcloths I’ve shown so far) and I think this one was called French Blue.
Up next was Knitty’s Calorimetry (Ravelry link).
This was a VERY fast knit, and I enjoyed it so much that I want to make one for myself.

I did alter it a bit though- my yarn (Bernat Satin in the Florals colorway) was knitting up much bigger than the pattern, and had I cast on 120 sts like suggested I would have had a headband that was at least 6″ wider than the head circumference…so I only cast on 80 sts, and did my short rows accordingly.

Calorimetry was followed by a Reverse-Bloom Washcloth (Ravelry). Using a 5mm needle meant that there was not enough in one 50g ball of the variegated cotton (Playtime colorway) to finish the washcloth, so once I ran out I switched to the solid Hot Orange I’d used for the Ballband Dishcloth.

Here’s the reverse, for those of you who like that.
And here’s another one, this time in the Summer Splash colorway, with some Banana Yellow for the center (again, all Bernat Handicrafter cotton).
…and the back…
Up next is one of my favorite projects, although I’ve only made it twice, each time I want to keep it for myself!
Can you tell what it is? By the way, yes, it is crochet, not knitting. (That’s why this is the “handmade by jennifer” blog, and not “wicked knits” like it used to be).

It’s a bath puff! As still more of the bridal shower gift, I made the bath puff with a matching back scrubber

The back scrubber came out narrower than I’d remembered from the last time I made it, but it was still cute. The scrubber and puff are from a 5-piece crocheted bath set, a free online pattern. (Ravelry link). I didn’t do the face or wash cloth, and I didn’t make the soap saver bag from that set either…I found it too frilly for the bride-to-be. Instead I did one from another pattern (also a free one online but I misplaced the link). I was told by my cousin (the groom-to-be) that their bathroom is navy, so I made all the pieces predominantly white with navy and white sparkle accents. (Seriously, if you ever have the urge to make yourself a bath puff, make this pattern! It takes only an hour or so and is awesome- I MUST make one for myself!)
Would you believe that I only finished that stuff by Friday night? The bridal shower was Saturday at 2:30pm, and it was already midnight and I couldn’t force my eyes open any longer. I banked on the fact that Saturdays are Yannick’s day with Jakob, and told myself I’d finish (and wrap!) the gift the next morning.
I couldn’t force my eyes open too early, so once I was up and had breakfast, it was already about 10:30 Saturday morning when I sat down to plan out a design for a mug cozy. My first attempt didn’t give me what I later realized I’d wanted (it closed with buttons instead of being seamless) but it did give a “gauge swatch” so I could make my second attempt practically perfect.

I knit the blue one first (Handicrafter in Delft Blue) then the purple one (the Jewels colorway).
The pattern is quick and easy, and I’ll be typing it up when I get a free moment and will post it for free here and in Ravelry.

So now it was 12:30pm Saturday. I had one more gift to knit, and I still hadn’t showered.

I really, really wanted to include Knitty.com’s 302 Calories (Ravelry link) in the gift basket. Really wanted to. But it was not to be.

I had the licorice laces, and I had the 6.5mm needles (instead of chopsticks)…but it just didn’t work. First I had done about 3″ worth when I noticed a hole down below where the licorice had snapped and come open. I started over with fresh licorice and was FINISHED…just “weaving” in the ends…when I found 3 other torn spots.
See in the center there? That’s one, there’s another right below it to the right, another right below it to the left. I gave up. I had enough for the gift basket without it (!) and I just didn’t have the time to spare to go for a third attempt.

I started wrapping the gift, which of course took longer than I’d thought, and had to force myself to go take a break at 2:05 when I remembered I still hadn’t showered or dressed. Luckily the party was only 5 blocks away from my house, and I wasn’t even being picked up until 2:30…so I rushed, showered, got dressed and hurried to keep wrapping.

I made it just in time…but is it any wonder I ended up with a migraine all afternoon? Still, the party was a lot of fun, the bride-to-be is a really sweet girl, and it turned out to be a great day. (It didn’t hurt that my friends from Ottawa were coming in that night and would be coming over for dinner, so I had even more to look forwards to).

Next post- how it all came together…