Needlework Tuesday - Two more completed projects!

Needlework Tuesday is an occasional post detailing my needlework and/or crafting projects.

Look at me completing projects!!! I have two to report on this week, both from the Mary Maxim's Knit Club of the Month.

The first is the Triangle Knit, which gave me so much trouble awhile back. I finally finished it, even though I ran into another small problem near the end. I won't go into the details, but it had me close to tears. However, I figured out a quick fix and it's done:

My husband didn't notice that the wrap wasn't straight before he took the photo. However, this way you can see the nice straight middle line. ;)

The other project I completed this week was the sock yarn hat/fingerless mitt combo. When I first started out with this project, I made the decision upfront to start each hat at the beginning of a new ball of yarn, hoping that the striping would be consistent.  All was going well, until I hit a factory-made knot/join in the ball of yarn on the second hat. When I first encountered it I was livid.  I knew immediately that the striping would be screwed up. I was so careful to plan it out only to be foiled by the manufacturing process. That combined with the problem with the wrap above was enough to wreck my mood for the entire week.

Anyway, it's done and in the long run no one is going to notice (probably), but me. Here's one of the hats finished, but not tucked into each other:

If you start in the middle and follow the pattern left and right simultaneously, you'll see where it diverges. Oh well, "best laid plans...".  Here are two "versions" of the reversible hat:

Ironically, I kind of prefer the one on the right.  It's technically the second that diverges from the consistent striping.  Go figure.

I also finished the other fingerless mitt. Here's a shot of the two of them together:

I probably could have made them identical by starting them at the same point in the yarn, but I wasn't sure I was going to have enough yarn to do that properly. (See what happened with the hat). My one complaint about the pattern is that it doesn't cover enough of my thumb:

If I'm energetic this coming week or month, I might pick up some stitches around the end of the thumb and do a few rows just to make it a little longer. (Another pattern I have for fingerless mitts does this.) However, there's no way to match the pattern, so it'll always look like an add on or afterthought.  I'm going to think about it some more before going through the trouble.

This week I was also working on my poncho. Here's what I have so far:

The colour is a off in this photo and I'm not loving it (more about this next week), but the pattern is really easy to decipher and follow.  I'll probably continue to work on it this week.

Needlework Tuesday is hosted by Heather over at Books and Quilts.    If you'd done any crafting this week that you'd like to share with others, please head over to Heather's blog and use the Mr. Linky to link up your post, so others can enjoy your creations. 

Needlework Tuesday - Knitting...again.

Needlework Tuesday is an occasional post detailing my needlework and/or crafting projects.

This week, I worked on a Spring Wreath from the Mary Maxim's Knit Club of the Month.  It showed up sometime last year, but I wasn't too excited about it. It's not my style at all and certainly isn't a project I would have chosen for myself. However, since it contained at least one new technique, finger knitting, I figured I'd give it a try.

The finger knitting was really fun to do.  I used that technique to make the cord to wrap the wreath.  I should have taken photos in progress, but since the yarn was actually on my fingers, I couldn't pick up the camera to take a shot.  There might be a few spots where the Styrofoam peeks through, but a straight pin or two can fix that quickly.   The flowers and leaves were really quick to knit.  About five minutes apiece for the flowers; less than that for the leaves.

All in all, it turned out pretty much as pictured.  I like the whole project a bit more now that it's done, but I still don't know if I'm going to hang it up in my home. The good thing is that in the assembly, glue was optional. I went with just straight pins, so that when I get sick of it, I can disassemble it and use the yarn for something else.  If it does grow on me, then disassembling it might be the best way to clean the different materials.

I also worked on the burgundy Triangle Knit Wrap that was giving me so many problems when I first started. It's still going really well. The rows are quite long now because there are 4 additional stitches every second row.  It takes awhile to get one row knitted, but so far I'm pleased with my progress. I don't have a photo this week...maybe in the next week or two.

I also did a little work on the sock yarn hat/fingerless mitt combo. I had deemed the hat a "finished" piece.  However, I decided to make the hat doubly thick (and reversible) for those cold southern Manitoba winters. I could have made the second hat a separate piece and sewn the two together. However, the pattern suggested that I pick up stitches around the bottom of the first hat and start the second one from there. Since I hadn't attempted anything like this before, I figured it was something new to try. Here's what it looks like so far:

I've marked the end of the first hat with a aqua stitch marker.  So, everything above the marker is the new hat; everything below is the old hat.  It's kind of weird, right? I'll provide more photos of how it's all going to work once I'm into it more.

You might notice that I have some point protectors on the double pointed needles. I had been having trouble with stitches falling off the needles, not only when knitting, but also when storing the piece and moving the piece around. I went to the yarn store to get better (wood/bamboo) needles, however, when I got there, the fabulous staff came up with some other/cheaper options. Since the metal needles I was currently using were almost brand new, they suggested I try the protectors first. They can be used on a variety of needle sizes and are definitely cheaper than new needles. So far, they are working great.

The next project for the Mary Maxim's Knit Club of the Month showed up on Friday.  It's a pair of Fair Isle mitts. I like the look of it, but I'm not sure when I'm going to start. I wish they'd sent me the red yarn as indicated on the project photo, but the black yarn will do. You can't tell by the photo, but the two yarns are carried throughout the whole mitt making it doubly thick. One of the inside photos shows a stripy pattern on the palms. Interesting...

This coming week, I'm going to continue with my two current projects (wrap and hat) and possibly look into other projects I've abandoned along the way or maybe start the mitts???

Needlework Tuesday is hosted by Heather over at Books and Quilts.    If you'd done any crafting this week that you'd like to share with others, please head over to Heather's blog and use the Mr. Linky to link up your post, so others can enjoy your creations.  

Needlework Tuesday - I finished something!!!!

Needlework Tuesday is an occasional post detailing my needlework and/or crafting projects.

I've got quite a few updates this week, so I better get started.

I love starting new projects, but for some reason they don't always get finished. I'm glad to report that that's not the case this week. I finished the pink entrelac baby blanket!! Yay me! I decided to go with the crocheted edge: one row each of single, double, and treble. Here's a close up of the edge:

Here's a shot of the finished blanket:

The border isn't perfect and will probably never lay completely flat unless it's really stretched out. However, I noticed that blanket and border in the project photo are a little wonky as well, so I'm blaming it on the entrelac technique.  It doesn't produce a nice clean edge on which to build a border. I think I did the best I could, especially since I'm still learning to crochet and I didn't have any instructions to follow.

A few weeks ago, I was working on a hat/fingerless mitts combo made out of sock yarn. I finished the hat and one of the mitts. Yay me, again!!!

I still have another hat (one fits inside the other to make is extra warm) and mitt to make, but since the hat is totally wearable as is, I'm counting this an another finish.   More on this later.

Last week, I was fighting with the Triangle Wrap from the Mary Maxim's Knit Club of the Month. I'm happy to report that I started again and it's going much better.

I started using the life line technique suggested by Heather as evidenced by the contrasting threads. For the time being, I left all of them in. However, once I start working on it again, I'll remove all but the current one.  I also looked into using another stitch marker or two to mark the centre section as Kate suggested, but after carefully studying the pattern I realized that there's really only one stitch in the centre and it's already marked.  It confused me at first because there's lots of increasing in this wrap...both on the ends and in the centre.   Thanks for both of these suggestions.

Lastly, Mary Maxim had a sale a couple of weeks back, so I ordered myself a poncho that I was eyeing in the catalogue. I started it, but haven't gotten very far. Here's the project photo and my colour choice (dark blue/green):

I didn't notice the type of yarn in the project until it showed up on my door step. That was extremely silly of me because in the past (many, many, many years ago) I've had allergic reactions to some animal fibres. I don't know if that's still the case because apparently not all allergies are for life. This one is an alpaca blend and I immediately noticed the texture and a slight smell when I opened the package. Not having spent any time around alpacas or llamas or their by-products, I don't know for sure if it's going to bother me. Fingers crossed.

This week, I'm going to take a look at another abandoned project, a spring wreath from Mary Maxim's Knit Club of the Month that showed up sometime last year. It's not my style at all, but since I don't have any plans to use the brightly coloured yarn elsewhere, I'm going to work make the wreath and see if it'll grow on me.  If not, it'll end up in the donation pile.

Needlework Tuesday is hosted by Heather over at Books and Quilts.    If you'd done any crafting this week that you'd like to share with others, please head over to Heather's blog and use the Mr. Linky to link up your post, so others can enjoy your creations.