I was too lazy to take photos for this post. The only thing interesting is the center motif anyway - which I did finish this weekend. I finished off chart 1, motored through chart 2, and got halfway through chart 3. Clearly, I didn't do much other than knit this weekend.
I did make another visit to With Yarn in Front, since I'd been told they were getting in more yarn this week, and I totally only meant to look but - well, you know how that goes. I left with 4 skeins of Jojoland Melody in a colorway made of purlples and blues and reds that were so me that I could not possibly pass them up. I plan to use them for a Wrapped in Comfort shawl, though I'm not sure which one. I really like Michelle's shawl, it's my favorite in the book, but the drape is part of what I love about it so I'm thinking it might be better to do it in a different yarn. I will have to spend some time with the book before I decide.
I'm working on this stole with absolute determination, though. I've worked on it almost exlusively. Last night after I went upstairs to go to bed, I did work on a garter stitch scarf because I was tired and troubled and needed to be soothed, but other than that, I'm so longing for this shawl to be complete that I really haven't worked on much else.
I need to turn the heel on my sock in progress, and I have to work the toe for my socks for soldiers socks, so even my thoughtless projects are stalled for the moment. I have to find the pattern for the soldier socks because I'm pretty sure the instructions for the toe are somehow different from the instructions I usually use, and I think I followed the pattern instructions on the first sock, so I should do that on this one as well. I just have to get the pattern and the sock in the same place for five minutes to figure it out, and then I will be able to (finally) finish off that pair and start on the next one (which will, mercifully, not be black nor quite so large as this pair).
I have to look up the eye of partridge heel instructions I used on the first sock of my pair so that I can do that heel. I'm pretty sure I can figure out what I did, but I'd like to look back just to make sure.
To be honest, I'm kind of ready to be done with all those projects. Not that I don't love them, but a) I haven't finished anyting for a while and I need a finishing fix b) so many other things have come up that I want to try!
One thing I fear - I may be so addicted to lace knitting after this stole that I kind of don't want to knit anything else. I could start a hat or something but really, I just want to knit more lace! This can't happen! I have plans for many other non-lace things! What about those projects? I want those things!
...but I really want to knit lace.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
50% and a new LYS
First things first - I give you, exactly 1/2 of Scheherazade, which is pretty much the maximum I can accurately photograph anyway:
I had a really difficult time with the edging at first, not becuase it's hard (it's not), but just because I had this feeling that I was knitting out into space - it was bizarrely scary to knit out away from the main body of the stole. I had to redo the first row more times than was really reasonable. I cast on 24 stitches, counted, found I had only 23, cast on one more, counted again, and then purled back with more difficulty than I anticipated (I had forgotten how much more difficult the first couple of rows are because there is no weight to hold the stitches on the needle taut). Then, I started on the first chart row, got to the end, and discovered I had done something wrong, because I had too many stitches left over. I unpicked, recounted, and found that I had 23. Perplexed, I picked back, cast on one more stitch, did the whole thing again, and still had stitches left over. Really confused, I picked back again, counted stitches again, and again found that I had 23.
More confused than ever, I re-cast on that 24th stitch AGAIN, but this time as I purled back I actually thought about it and realized that having one stitch too few did not explain why I kept having too many stitches when I got to the end of the charted row. Then I realized that my eyes had just glazed past the s in the first box of the charted row. I was supposed to slip the first stitch, and that was why I had too many. I still don't know how I kept getting 23 stitches, but when I followed the directions properly, I got to the end of the row and everything was fine. After that, I really had no trouble.
When I completed the last row of the stole body, I rearranged my stitch markers so that I had one every 14 stitches, rather than every 10. I did this because the edging repeat is 14 rows (28, actually, but you only bind off a body stitch on the wrong side rows). That way I knew that if I got to the marker and I was not on the last repeat row, I had done something wrong. I didn't have any problems with this, but having the marker there did help me figure out which row I was on a couple of times when something distracted me and I forgot whether I had already moved my marker magnet or not.
After I took pictures I unpinned it and put it away. It seemed like tempting fate to try unpicking the cast-on just then. I have never worked with a provisional cast-on before so I decided it would be best to do it while well rested and not on a knitting high.
A new LYS has opened up right near the SO's appartment (so conveeeeeniant! I told him that the next time he puts his foot in his mouth to skip the flower shop and just pop into the yarn store). It's called With Yarn in Front and I don't think it has a website yet. It took me several tries to get there during open hours but I was very pleased. It's clean, organized, not too crowded (though this may change as they get more stock in - still, I really like the openness. I can't stand the crammed feeling of most yarn shops, where I can't turn around without fear of upsetting something), and the owner is very enthusiastic and helpful (almost too much so, but it is their first week or so, so I forgive). She proudly showed me what the shop had, including some milk yarn (so soft!) and corn yarn (feels like cotton). The prices were really nice, too.
The SO gamely went along with me and when I selected a skein of Jojoland Harmony laceweight (880 yards for 8 bucks - keep in mind, though, that it is actually finer than regular lace yarn, which I did not consider - even so, I think it's a good deal), he bought it for me! He is so sweet. I was intrigued by the color changes. I think I am going to try it out on the Knitspot pattern Elm Row. The colorway I got is called Harvest:
and I really wanted a fall-type pattern, but nothing too complicated that would be obscured with the colors. A leaf motif seems perfect. I'm really excited to see how it works up; it was all I could do not to ditch Scheherezade and cast on! However, it will take a little more thought than that, I think, because the yarn is finer weight than the pattern calls for, so I will have to (gasp) swatch and figure out how many pattern repeats I need to add to get a nice width. Then I'll just keep going until I run out. I have a feeling this may result in a short scarf, but if so, I'll live. In this weight it's definately an accent scarf rather than a warm scarf anyway. The suggested yarn is any laceweight that is about 400 yards per 50 grams. Harmony is 880 for 50 grams. It'll be a learning experience for me for sure - I am a little scared of ending up with a really oddly proportioned strip of knitting, but I am going to forge ahead and see what happens.
But, first things first - the other half of Scheherazade!
I had a really difficult time with the edging at first, not becuase it's hard (it's not), but just because I had this feeling that I was knitting out into space - it was bizarrely scary to knit out away from the main body of the stole. I had to redo the first row more times than was really reasonable. I cast on 24 stitches, counted, found I had only 23, cast on one more, counted again, and then purled back with more difficulty than I anticipated (I had forgotten how much more difficult the first couple of rows are because there is no weight to hold the stitches on the needle taut). Then, I started on the first chart row, got to the end, and discovered I had done something wrong, because I had too many stitches left over. I unpicked, recounted, and found that I had 23. Perplexed, I picked back, cast on one more stitch, did the whole thing again, and still had stitches left over. Really confused, I picked back again, counted stitches again, and again found that I had 23.
More confused than ever, I re-cast on that 24th stitch AGAIN, but this time as I purled back I actually thought about it and realized that having one stitch too few did not explain why I kept having too many stitches when I got to the end of the charted row. Then I realized that my eyes had just glazed past the s in the first box of the charted row. I was supposed to slip the first stitch, and that was why I had too many. I still don't know how I kept getting 23 stitches, but when I followed the directions properly, I got to the end of the row and everything was fine. After that, I really had no trouble.
When I completed the last row of the stole body, I rearranged my stitch markers so that I had one every 14 stitches, rather than every 10. I did this because the edging repeat is 14 rows (28, actually, but you only bind off a body stitch on the wrong side rows). That way I knew that if I got to the marker and I was not on the last repeat row, I had done something wrong. I didn't have any problems with this, but having the marker there did help me figure out which row I was on a couple of times when something distracted me and I forgot whether I had already moved my marker magnet or not.
After I took pictures I unpinned it and put it away. It seemed like tempting fate to try unpicking the cast-on just then. I have never worked with a provisional cast-on before so I decided it would be best to do it while well rested and not on a knitting high.
A new LYS has opened up right near the SO's appartment (so conveeeeeniant! I told him that the next time he puts his foot in his mouth to skip the flower shop and just pop into the yarn store). It's called With Yarn in Front and I don't think it has a website yet. It took me several tries to get there during open hours but I was very pleased. It's clean, organized, not too crowded (though this may change as they get more stock in - still, I really like the openness. I can't stand the crammed feeling of most yarn shops, where I can't turn around without fear of upsetting something), and the owner is very enthusiastic and helpful (almost too much so, but it is their first week or so, so I forgive). She proudly showed me what the shop had, including some milk yarn (so soft!) and corn yarn (feels like cotton). The prices were really nice, too.
The SO gamely went along with me and when I selected a skein of Jojoland Harmony laceweight (880 yards for 8 bucks - keep in mind, though, that it is actually finer than regular lace yarn, which I did not consider - even so, I think it's a good deal), he bought it for me! He is so sweet. I was intrigued by the color changes. I think I am going to try it out on the Knitspot pattern Elm Row. The colorway I got is called Harvest:
and I really wanted a fall-type pattern, but nothing too complicated that would be obscured with the colors. A leaf motif seems perfect. I'm really excited to see how it works up; it was all I could do not to ditch Scheherezade and cast on! However, it will take a little more thought than that, I think, because the yarn is finer weight than the pattern calls for, so I will have to (gasp) swatch and figure out how many pattern repeats I need to add to get a nice width. Then I'll just keep going until I run out. I have a feeling this may result in a short scarf, but if so, I'll live. In this weight it's definately an accent scarf rather than a warm scarf anyway. The suggested yarn is any laceweight that is about 400 yards per 50 grams. Harmony is 880 for 50 grams. It'll be a learning experience for me for sure - I am a little scared of ending up with a really oddly proportioned strip of knitting, but I am going to forge ahead and see what happens.
But, first things first - the other half of Scheherazade!
Monday, June 16, 2008
Incentive
So I have struck a deal with the SO, that if I can lose 15 pounds, he will buy me a set of blocking wires as a reward, and if I lose 25, I get a blocking board. That is so the motivation I needed. ^_^ (for the record, he is not making me lose weight, I want to do that, but somehow weight loss in and of itself was not enough reward, so when I joked about reward-based motivation, he offered, and I am totally taking him up on it)
I finished Chart 5 this weekend, and I felt very accomplished to have gotten it done so quickly! I only did one row on chart 6, though. Sunday just turned out to be too busy for complicated knitting, so I cast on a scarf based on the Rustic Scarf in Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I say "based on" because I cast on the length of the scarf, but I used 175 stitches (171 seemed like such an odd number) and I am only using 2 colors, and alternating them every two rows so that I can just switch without having a trillion ends to weave in. Because, I have discovered, I loathe stripes, because I loathe both the counting of rows and the weaving of ends. I have also discovered that I am incapable of randomly striping things. Anyway, so there will be vertical black and green stripes. This scarf is for a friend who asked for one while the weather was cold. I made no promises, however, so I do not feel guilty for waiting. Well, I feel a little guilty, but not much. I'd have had it done sooner except that I was kind of on scarf overload and I couldn't settle on a pattern that wouldn't make me want to kill myself.
The yarn is Lamb's Pride bulky, and I have two concerns about it - one, it sheds, and two, it felts. I have decided to mitigate the second problem by offering lifetime maintenance. He can bring it back to me when it needs washing, and I shall wash it for him. The first problem, however, I'm a little worried about, and I don't know how to do anything about it. I am covered in fuzz when I work on this scarf.
But, I have been in need of a large, easy project, and this fits the bill nicely. I do not feel guilty about starting it since it is a gift.
I am finding that I have this problem with socks, that the easy parts do not go on for long enough, and I don't have enough needles to pull a Harlot and just cast on a new pair whenever I get to a part that is too hard for the moment's knitting. I am also considering going down a needle size for my socks. Right now I use a US 2, and while I do get guage - my socks are too big. I don't think I can cast on fewer stitches because then it won't go around my leg, so I am thinking that I can switch down a needle size and get a tighter fabric that will hold on to my foot a little better. I am a little annoyed that it has taken me three pairs of socks to come up with this solution.
I'm also annoyed with my color choices in socks to date. For one thing, my poetic soul is a complete sucker for a whimsical name/concept. I am a sucker for Yarn Market's impressionist yarns, for example. Only as I was two thirds of the way through my second Starry Night sock did I actually think to myself, "You know, I hate this yellow, and I always thought that was a pretty unattractive painting." The first pair of socks I made, with the Irises yarn, I refer to as "my clown barf socks."
The current pair in the Snowscapes yarn I actually like pretty well, but next up I have a skein of Casbah in Peacock and I am already wondering what on earth I was thinking (actually, I know what I was thinking, which was that the color I wanted was sold out and I picked another on the spur of the moment). I like most of the colors, but the gold part just freaks me right out. I'm planning on using Pink Lemon's Caledonian Mist pattern, because I think the little scallopy things could pass for the eyes on peacock feathers. Clearly, I need to stop making my pattern & yarn selections based on the whole poetic soul thing, and start opening my freaking eyes.
Now, I might be wrong, and once I get the Casbah knit up, I might really like it. But, either way - I'm going to try to be a little more careful in my color choices from now on, so that I do not feel like I am displaying my bad taste every time I knit a sock in public!
I finished Chart 5 this weekend, and I felt very accomplished to have gotten it done so quickly! I only did one row on chart 6, though. Sunday just turned out to be too busy for complicated knitting, so I cast on a scarf based on the Rustic Scarf in Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I say "based on" because I cast on the length of the scarf, but I used 175 stitches (171 seemed like such an odd number) and I am only using 2 colors, and alternating them every two rows so that I can just switch without having a trillion ends to weave in. Because, I have discovered, I loathe stripes, because I loathe both the counting of rows and the weaving of ends. I have also discovered that I am incapable of randomly striping things. Anyway, so there will be vertical black and green stripes. This scarf is for a friend who asked for one while the weather was cold. I made no promises, however, so I do not feel guilty for waiting. Well, I feel a little guilty, but not much. I'd have had it done sooner except that I was kind of on scarf overload and I couldn't settle on a pattern that wouldn't make me want to kill myself.
The yarn is Lamb's Pride bulky, and I have two concerns about it - one, it sheds, and two, it felts. I have decided to mitigate the second problem by offering lifetime maintenance. He can bring it back to me when it needs washing, and I shall wash it for him. The first problem, however, I'm a little worried about, and I don't know how to do anything about it. I am covered in fuzz when I work on this scarf.
But, I have been in need of a large, easy project, and this fits the bill nicely. I do not feel guilty about starting it since it is a gift.
I am finding that I have this problem with socks, that the easy parts do not go on for long enough, and I don't have enough needles to pull a Harlot and just cast on a new pair whenever I get to a part that is too hard for the moment's knitting. I am also considering going down a needle size for my socks. Right now I use a US 2, and while I do get guage - my socks are too big. I don't think I can cast on fewer stitches because then it won't go around my leg, so I am thinking that I can switch down a needle size and get a tighter fabric that will hold on to my foot a little better. I am a little annoyed that it has taken me three pairs of socks to come up with this solution.
I'm also annoyed with my color choices in socks to date. For one thing, my poetic soul is a complete sucker for a whimsical name/concept. I am a sucker for Yarn Market's impressionist yarns, for example. Only as I was two thirds of the way through my second Starry Night sock did I actually think to myself, "You know, I hate this yellow, and I always thought that was a pretty unattractive painting." The first pair of socks I made, with the Irises yarn, I refer to as "my clown barf socks."
The current pair in the Snowscapes yarn I actually like pretty well, but next up I have a skein of Casbah in Peacock and I am already wondering what on earth I was thinking (actually, I know what I was thinking, which was that the color I wanted was sold out and I picked another on the spur of the moment). I like most of the colors, but the gold part just freaks me right out. I'm planning on using Pink Lemon's Caledonian Mist pattern, because I think the little scallopy things could pass for the eyes on peacock feathers. Clearly, I need to stop making my pattern & yarn selections based on the whole poetic soul thing, and start opening my freaking eyes.
Now, I might be wrong, and once I get the Casbah knit up, I might really like it. But, either way - I'm going to try to be a little more careful in my color choices from now on, so that I do not feel like I am displaying my bad taste every time I knit a sock in public!
Monday, June 9, 2008
Chugging along
I made huge progress on Scheherazade this weekend. I finished chart 3 and got through half of chart 4. I'm actually a little paranoid, because I haven't been giving my whole attention. I've found that I can read an e-book and work on the shawl at the same time. I did have one mess-up yesterday where I accidentally shifted the pattern ten stitches to one side - oops - but I caught it on the next row and tinked back to fix it. I have stitch markers set at every 10 stitches, and there is always at least one group of 10 that is nothing but knitting straight across, and of course all the wrong side rows are all purl. I am making sure to keep lifelines, though, just in case.
Chart 4 is the last chart with paisleys, and I am ready for a break from those. I don't know why they should bother me so much - it is sequences of decreases and yarnovers like everything else. I think it is just looking at the chart. I am tired of looking at paisleys. Charts 2, 3, and 4 (3 and 4 especially) look remarkably similar and it's hard to feel like I'm making progress. The next chart has diamonds. Diamonds will be different.
I am mindful that I will have to face this neverending stretch of paisleys one more time, but I hope I will have had enough of a break to be up for the challenge.
Due to an internet outage at work, I had to save this post and now I can add pictures.
I did, to my sorrow, find I had made a mistake while cruising along in my paisley madness. This is what a right-facing paisley is supposed to look like:
But, there is a problem with this one:
There is a break in the column of yarnovers on the left curve. I knit right past where I was supposed to decrease and yarnover on the left side, despite having gotten the right side yarnover in the correct space. I am a fool.
It's not too late to fix it. I could tink back, or drop a few stitches. But, I don't think I'm going to do that. Tinking back is right out. I'm not doing it. I'm really tempted to drop the stitches, but the thing is I'm not sure I could get it back and then I really would go bonkers. This is a tiny mistake when viewed in the context of the whole stole. The SO stared and stared at it when I told him there was something wrong with it but only after several incorrect guesses, a good look at the correct one, and another incorrect guess or two, did he finally hit on the correct answer. It will, of course be a little more obvious when blocked, but only another knitter would look close enough to notice, and I have a contingency plan should that happen. I will explain that this was my first shawl and that I was both overconfident, having made it so far, and seeing paisleys in my sleep, and that, after all, one mistake is not so bad and truly, in the end, I'm happy with it. Then I will wait until she is not looking, knock her over the head and hide the body somewhere clever.
I went to Capital Yarns yesterday, which I hadn't been to since they overhauled and updated their stock. I did feel like there was kind of a lot of novelty yarn, but they had some treasures too - Alpaca with a Twist and Baby Ull, for starters. Some nice mohair boucle and some great little gadgets. And I can't really complain too much about the novelty yarn, since that is what I was there to buy.
The SO's mom is an avid crafter but not really a knitter, but she stopped by a LYS near where she works out of curiosity. She bought me a Tilli Thomas bag kit, but not Tilli Thomas yarns to go with it - which is fine, I really like what she got, she bought me some Berroco Glace in a really nice color, and something called Souffle - but the problem is, she didn't get me enough! When I looked at the yarn requirements, I am way short. Unfortunately, I went to CY on a whim and didn't actually go home and check what I was short for. I was thinking I only needed another skein of Knit One Crochet too Souffle, and while I didn't find exactly the same thing, I found something that I thought would work just as well. Unforutnately I got home and found I was short of BOTH yarns - there was even less Glace than Souffle! Curses, foiled again!
The best solution would be to go back to the LYS that she went to and see if they have more of what I have (preferably in the same dye lot but in a purse I'm not picky - if they are different, it will just be a little more artistic - but I am not sure I remember what store it was (okay, some google detective work and I'm pretty sure it was Aylan's Woolgatherers). Maybe I can call them and see if they have more in stock. I can also go back and exchange it, I think, although that particular shop is a little difficult for me to get to. Ah well - I'll think of something.
It's been incredibly hot and I've had the airconditioner running in the house (it is too hot to go without, believe me - over 100 degrees some days) and while the rest of me was crazy hot, my feet kept getting cold. My starry night socks solved the problem. Knitting FTW! Speaking of socks, I finished the plain one that I started on the way to Maryland Sheep and Wool:
I'm sure I must have mentioned that as I finished it while I was on vacation, and the mate is now past the cuff and into the leg. Alone and bored in a hotel room while on travel for work, I decided to do an eye of partridge heel, just because I've never done one.
I'm delighted, it looks so nifty. I appologize for the crappy photos in this post. I don't know what my problem was, except maybe that I was rushing and I was using my 50 mm which really just isn't the best choice for these kinds of things. I had to stand on my tiptoes to get even as much of the stole in the photo as I got. I was disappointed, I'd hoped to show all of what I have so far. Oh well - next time I will take more time and do it properly.
Chart 4 is the last chart with paisleys, and I am ready for a break from those. I don't know why they should bother me so much - it is sequences of decreases and yarnovers like everything else. I think it is just looking at the chart. I am tired of looking at paisleys. Charts 2, 3, and 4 (3 and 4 especially) look remarkably similar and it's hard to feel like I'm making progress. The next chart has diamonds. Diamonds will be different.
I am mindful that I will have to face this neverending stretch of paisleys one more time, but I hope I will have had enough of a break to be up for the challenge.
Due to an internet outage at work, I had to save this post and now I can add pictures.
I did, to my sorrow, find I had made a mistake while cruising along in my paisley madness. This is what a right-facing paisley is supposed to look like:
But, there is a problem with this one:
There is a break in the column of yarnovers on the left curve. I knit right past where I was supposed to decrease and yarnover on the left side, despite having gotten the right side yarnover in the correct space. I am a fool.
It's not too late to fix it. I could tink back, or drop a few stitches. But, I don't think I'm going to do that. Tinking back is right out. I'm not doing it. I'm really tempted to drop the stitches, but the thing is I'm not sure I could get it back and then I really would go bonkers. This is a tiny mistake when viewed in the context of the whole stole. The SO stared and stared at it when I told him there was something wrong with it but only after several incorrect guesses, a good look at the correct one, and another incorrect guess or two, did he finally hit on the correct answer. It will, of course be a little more obvious when blocked, but only another knitter would look close enough to notice, and I have a contingency plan should that happen. I will explain that this was my first shawl and that I was both overconfident, having made it so far, and seeing paisleys in my sleep, and that, after all, one mistake is not so bad and truly, in the end, I'm happy with it. Then I will wait until she is not looking, knock her over the head and hide the body somewhere clever.
I went to Capital Yarns yesterday, which I hadn't been to since they overhauled and updated their stock. I did feel like there was kind of a lot of novelty yarn, but they had some treasures too - Alpaca with a Twist and Baby Ull, for starters. Some nice mohair boucle and some great little gadgets. And I can't really complain too much about the novelty yarn, since that is what I was there to buy.
The SO's mom is an avid crafter but not really a knitter, but she stopped by a LYS near where she works out of curiosity. She bought me a Tilli Thomas bag kit, but not Tilli Thomas yarns to go with it - which is fine, I really like what she got, she bought me some Berroco Glace in a really nice color, and something called Souffle - but the problem is, she didn't get me enough! When I looked at the yarn requirements, I am way short. Unfortunately, I went to CY on a whim and didn't actually go home and check what I was short for. I was thinking I only needed another skein of Knit One Crochet too Souffle, and while I didn't find exactly the same thing, I found something that I thought would work just as well. Unforutnately I got home and found I was short of BOTH yarns - there was even less Glace than Souffle! Curses, foiled again!
The best solution would be to go back to the LYS that she went to and see if they have more of what I have (preferably in the same dye lot but in a purse I'm not picky - if they are different, it will just be a little more artistic - but I am not sure I remember what store it was (okay, some google detective work and I'm pretty sure it was Aylan's Woolgatherers). Maybe I can call them and see if they have more in stock. I can also go back and exchange it, I think, although that particular shop is a little difficult for me to get to. Ah well - I'll think of something.
It's been incredibly hot and I've had the airconditioner running in the house (it is too hot to go without, believe me - over 100 degrees some days) and while the rest of me was crazy hot, my feet kept getting cold. My starry night socks solved the problem. Knitting FTW! Speaking of socks, I finished the plain one that I started on the way to Maryland Sheep and Wool:
I'm sure I must have mentioned that as I finished it while I was on vacation, and the mate is now past the cuff and into the leg. Alone and bored in a hotel room while on travel for work, I decided to do an eye of partridge heel, just because I've never done one.
I'm delighted, it looks so nifty. I appologize for the crappy photos in this post. I don't know what my problem was, except maybe that I was rushing and I was using my 50 mm which really just isn't the best choice for these kinds of things. I had to stand on my tiptoes to get even as much of the stole in the photo as I got. I was disappointed, I'd hoped to show all of what I have so far. Oh well - next time I will take more time and do it properly.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Bad Blogger
Argh!! Twice now I have had something non-knitting craft to blog about, and I have failed utterly, becuase I did not have time to take a picture of the result. I made two cards in the past two weeks, one for my friend who was having a baby shower, and one for another church member who had a wedding shower.
For the baby card, I used:
--a pre-made window card from Michael's, the kind that is made for you to slide a picture into, in white, used vertically (with the fold on the left side)
--olive green staz-on ink (it didn't have to be green, that's just what I had in that color)
--Judikins Color Duster
--EK Success water-based brush pens - I don't think they're made anymore
--Stampin' UP stamp from a set called Summer by the Sea (the same one used in the first card on this tutorial, which you totally should go read
--Stamping UP stamp from a set that I think is called "Blessings" - the quote is "It's the little things that make life Big."
--Dye-based black ink
--colored pencils
I tapped the color duster in the staz-on and swirled it around the outside of the frame. I originally planned to stamp the girl and the sentiment on a separate piece of cardstock and slide it in, but I'm not sure whether I did that in the end or not. I used the EK Success pens to ink the stamp of the girl, and then filled it in with colored pencils. I stamped the sentiment in black above her head. I think I used another stamp on the inside of it but I have now totally forgotten what it was.
For the wedding shower stamp, I used:
--A butterfly stamp that I got at Angela's Happy Stamper
--Black dye-based ink
--Another stamp from the Blessings Set, that said something to the effect of "May the God of Love be your eternal partner in your new life together,"
--A Stampin' Up stamp that is the word "love" in very elongated script
--A white pre-made Michael's card (I was in a hurry), used vertically (with the fold on the left side)
I stamped the butterfly in black ink from the left bottom corner to the right top corner, stamping multiple times before reinking so that I had layered butterflies the whole way up, like a flight. I stamped the elongated "love" just above them, following the diagonal of the butterflies. I stamped the sentiment on a white square, which I then matted on a light pink square, which was the only colored piece of the entire card. I put the matted sentiment in the lower right hand corner of the card. Very minimalist, kind of oriental looking to me. I have to admit, though, I totally ripped the idea off one of the cards we did in the Beginning Stamping class at Angela's, with the diagonal butterfly thing. The class card had the butterflies across the diagonal, and then one stamped onto white and matted, and mounted on top of the diagonal butterflies. I loved that card so much I bought the stamp, even though it wasn't in stock and I had to wait months for it. In the end, I did get it. Mwaha. Love it.
In other news, I am up to row 91 on chart 2! (Chart 2 goes from row 51 to row 99). I nearly had a complete meltdown Saturday evening, because while picking back something to see if I had in fact made a mistake, I dropped SEVERAL stitches at the end of the row, in an area full of yarnovers and decreases. I nearly had a heart attack. I put in a lifeline at the beginning of Chart 2, but I really didn't want to lose that much work. I started to try and run another lifeline higher up, but I had a really hard time picking the stitches out. I finally gave up on that and, after much deliberation, I got out a pillow, pinned to the two edge stitches out of the way, and took my needle out of the next six stitches, which covered everything I had dropped. I found the dropped stitches and stabbed through them with blocking pins to keep them from falling any further, until I had a chance to assess the damage. Then I picked a row below them where everything was intact and I could clearly identify each stitch, and stabbed blocking pins through those stitches. Then I took the top set of pins out and carefully pulled out each strand until I had the pinned stitches, and a bunch of loose strands above them. I used a crochet hook to work the next row, unpinning and repinning each stitch as I went across, one at a time. Working this way, I was able to get back up to where I had been, and put the correct number of stitches back on the needle. Only time will tell how I did, but it is looking pretty good so far. I am rediculously pleased with myself.
For the baby card, I used:
--a pre-made window card from Michael's, the kind that is made for you to slide a picture into, in white, used vertically (with the fold on the left side)
--olive green staz-on ink (it didn't have to be green, that's just what I had in that color)
--Judikins Color Duster
--EK Success water-based brush pens - I don't think they're made anymore
--Stampin' UP stamp from a set called Summer by the Sea (the same one used in the first card on this tutorial, which you totally should go read
--Stamping UP stamp from a set that I think is called "Blessings" - the quote is "It's the little things that make life Big."
--Dye-based black ink
--colored pencils
I tapped the color duster in the staz-on and swirled it around the outside of the frame. I originally planned to stamp the girl and the sentiment on a separate piece of cardstock and slide it in, but I'm not sure whether I did that in the end or not. I used the EK Success pens to ink the stamp of the girl, and then filled it in with colored pencils. I stamped the sentiment in black above her head. I think I used another stamp on the inside of it but I have now totally forgotten what it was.
For the wedding shower stamp, I used:
--A butterfly stamp that I got at Angela's Happy Stamper
--Black dye-based ink
--Another stamp from the Blessings Set, that said something to the effect of "May the God of Love be your eternal partner in your new life together,"
--A Stampin' Up stamp that is the word "love" in very elongated script
--A white pre-made Michael's card (I was in a hurry), used vertically (with the fold on the left side)
I stamped the butterfly in black ink from the left bottom corner to the right top corner, stamping multiple times before reinking so that I had layered butterflies the whole way up, like a flight. I stamped the elongated "love" just above them, following the diagonal of the butterflies. I stamped the sentiment on a white square, which I then matted on a light pink square, which was the only colored piece of the entire card. I put the matted sentiment in the lower right hand corner of the card. Very minimalist, kind of oriental looking to me. I have to admit, though, I totally ripped the idea off one of the cards we did in the Beginning Stamping class at Angela's, with the diagonal butterfly thing. The class card had the butterflies across the diagonal, and then one stamped onto white and matted, and mounted on top of the diagonal butterflies. I loved that card so much I bought the stamp, even though it wasn't in stock and I had to wait months for it. In the end, I did get it. Mwaha. Love it.
In other news, I am up to row 91 on chart 2! (Chart 2 goes from row 51 to row 99). I nearly had a complete meltdown Saturday evening, because while picking back something to see if I had in fact made a mistake, I dropped SEVERAL stitches at the end of the row, in an area full of yarnovers and decreases. I nearly had a heart attack. I put in a lifeline at the beginning of Chart 2, but I really didn't want to lose that much work. I started to try and run another lifeline higher up, but I had a really hard time picking the stitches out. I finally gave up on that and, after much deliberation, I got out a pillow, pinned to the two edge stitches out of the way, and took my needle out of the next six stitches, which covered everything I had dropped. I found the dropped stitches and stabbed through them with blocking pins to keep them from falling any further, until I had a chance to assess the damage. Then I picked a row below them where everything was intact and I could clearly identify each stitch, and stabbed blocking pins through those stitches. Then I took the top set of pins out and carefully pulled out each strand until I had the pinned stitches, and a bunch of loose strands above them. I used a crochet hook to work the next row, unpinning and repinning each stitch as I went across, one at a time. Working this way, I was able to get back up to where I had been, and put the correct number of stitches back on the needle. Only time will tell how I did, but it is looking pretty good so far. I am rediculously pleased with myself.
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