May Family Update

It has been a very busy month for us. Jeff is busy finishing up school (grumbling all the way) and we have finally settled into our new place. True I haven't put up all the pictures but other than that we are pretty set.

We made a trip to the Toledo zoo last weekend with our friends the Murphy's to celebrate birthdays. I share the same birthday with Amber and our husbands always use it as an excuse to go do something fun together. They live up in Hicksville and we don't get to hang out very often so it was a real treat to see them. We got to see a lot of cool animals (our friends included) at the zoo. I'm not sure what my favorite part was but Jeff said his is a toss-up between the aquarium and the gardens. I would say the aquarium but it was really crowded and then Mike said "If the zombie apocalypse happened now we'd be screwed." I couldn't help but think he was right and that put me on my guard. If I had to choose what my favorite part of the zoo was I would have to say the sea lions were my favorite. Wait, no, the best part was when we got ice cream cones. Jeff insisted on getting sprinkles on his.

I was able to do a bit of knitting in the car and have finished up a shawl I made to cover the blue paint spot that is on a chair of mine. I also wanted it big enough to snuggle up in. Unfortunately I ran out of yarn and didn't get it as big as I wanted to but it is plenty big enough to cover the blue spot. The pattern is free and you can get it here. I did mess up at some points in the textured section. I'm not sure what went wrong. I guess car knitting has it's risks. Anyway,  Here are a few pics Jeff shot of me modeling it.

Probably the biggest news for us is our little family has grown. After much consideration Jeff and I decided it was time to add another member to our family, so we decided to adopt. As of yesterday we are the proud owners of an 8 year old tabby cat named Brie. I promise I will post pics once she has adjusted to us and isn't hiding under the couch anymore. Please pray that she adjusts well and can come to feel at home with us. (she is friendly and likes to be pet but she is still scared to come out and hang with us). I also have allergies so prayer for me in that department would be appreciated. She really is the sweetest thing and we are happy to have her in our home. Since I work only three days a week I was getting lonely on the weeknights Jeff was at work. Now I have someone to keep me company.

My little brother Andy has found himself a girlfriend and she came up from Pennsylvania to visit now that they are on summer break. She seems to fit pretty well with our family and I'm excited to get to know her better. We had them over for lunch one day during her visit and were able to hike the trail by our house with them. I love sharing this place with others it is so peaceful and refreshing. I am so blessed to live where we do.

We made a trip to the hospital earlier this week. Jeff had most of the signs of appendicitis so we decided to get him checked out. Better to be safe than sorry. So, after 5+ hours in the emergency room, iv and Cat scan we found out that Jeff has a nice healthy appendix. However, he did have some colon trouble and the doc said that fiber and painkillers should help things work out. We are fine other than that though.

That is it pretty much as far as the family goes. I know its a bit disjointed but there has been so much that I just kinda threw everything at you at once. I think now I will go work on some more knitting now...

Oh, I also made another dish scrubbie, this thing is awesome at washing dishes!

My Nook Cover - How to Block Knitting

I recently finished making a cover for my Nook Color and I really love how it turned out!

The pattern is a really fantastic one for learning some new techniques or for brushing up on some old ones :). I got the pattern for free the pattern is good for both a Nook or a Kindle and I think the designer even has a version for an IPad cover you can get the pattern here. The pattern included Judy's magic cast on, knitting in the round, cables, and button holes. Since it is such a small project it is a fantastic starting point for both knitting in the round and cables. Another technique that would be handy to learn for this project is blocking.

Blocking is a process that helps shape your knitting and adds a polished look to the project. It can help you get the final product to look more evenly knit and professional.  It is especially important with lace knitting to bring stitch definition. Take a look at these two pictures of this scarf:

The first pic shows the blocked scarf the second pic was taken before I blocked it. By using the process of blocking you can see that I was able to really show off the lacework of the scarf. For my project however, I needed to block it so that the flap would remain even with the body of the case. Unblocked it had a bit too much curl:

The way you begin blocking is by first soaking your finished product for an hour to get the fibers in the yarn to relax. (this method works for yarns that are machine/hand wash) I sometimes add a gentle cleaner to the water as well:








Once the yarn has had the chance to rest, remove your knitting from the water and gently squeeze dry so that your work isn't sopping. Then place it on a towel. Sometimes if I am blocking a large object like a shawl I will use a few towels. I then roll the towel with knitting on it into a tight ball to remove any additional water from my project. I want my work to be damp but not super duper wet.




I then place my work onto a completley dry towel. If you have a spare bed you may want to place it on this but a carpeted floor or even puzzle floor foam pieces will work. I then begin marking out the shape of my project with a string of yarn and some stick pins I push the pins into my carpet so that they are secure but I don't go in so deep that I hit the floor. I made a basic outline of my nook and then outlined the shape and length I want my flap to end up as you can see my case needs to be stretched a bit to look a bit more rectangular:

Once I had my outline mapped out I placed my project inside the lines and began pinning it to fit the outline. I started with stretching the fabric to reach each corner and placed a pin at the corners tacking the fabric down.

 I then pinned down the middle of each line and worked my way pinning at the halfway point between each pin until the case was secured to the desired shape.
Since I wanted to be really sure my flap lined up with the rest of the case I pinned it all throughout gently stretching it to sure the pattern lined up with the case.


After that I just let my project dry. This could take a day or more depending on how wet the project is. But once it is dry all you have to do is remove the pins. If your project isn't quite the right shape yet you can repeat the process until it is. There are other methods of blocking and it is important to be aware of your yarn and what kind of manipulation it can take before stretching it with wet blocking. If it is too fragile you may want to research some of the other methods such as steam, or spray blocking. I think that's all I have for now. I'll leave you with some pics of my finished Nook Cover which will protect it from dust and smudges in my purse. Until next time, Happy Knitting :)

The Back Is all cabled

Project Proposal

Project Proposal. I am a member of a knitting group that crafts items as a competition to see which group earns the most points. It's based on the Harry Potter school called Hogwarts. This is a post of my proposal information. I'm excited to make this Mitten Garland for this upcoming Christmas. I got the pattern for free from the knitpicks website this link will take you straight to the pattern. The pattern is for solid color mittens but by looking at some charts I think I will be able to use them with this pattern. It is going to be a challenge since I don't know very much about colorwork. You can see in the picture one of my first attempts and it is going to take me a while to get the tension right with stranded knitting. Here's hoping for the best!

 

Name: christinahwest
House: Gryffindor
Year: Second Year
OWL and option Arithmancy option 1: craft multiples of the same item
Project/Pattern(s): Advent Mittens (Smitten A holiday Garland)
Sequence & Challenge: I plan to craft 24 little mittens in the round completing 8 a month. By the end of the project I hope to be proficient in a variety of color techniques including corrugated ribbing, stranded using charts and stripes. I am new to the world of colorwork so this will be a study in these different techniques. I have already knit a few things with stripes however this will (hopefully) be my first success at stranded color work. There will also be a lot of ends to weave in-which is another thing I am learning.
50% Mark:12 done by June 15
Photos of Supplies and Swatch: I will be using US size 3 needles and I have 6 balls of Knit Picks Palette. The project should only take 3 balls but I have extra yarn just in case.

Update 5/27/11: The project proposal was approved I will have to make 31 mittens instead of just 24 though. 24 just wasn't ambitious enough for an OWL project.  Most of the mittens should include colorwork. I already have 8 knit and need to do 2 more for May if I want to stay on schedule. I took my knitting to the hospital with my husband earlier this week (for details see may family update) and they wouldn't let me bring my scissors into the emergency room. So I have one mitten that has no colorwork at all since I didn't want to hassle with not having scissors to do stripes. Since I will be knitting 7 more mittens than I have use for with the mitten garland I plan on using the rest to garnish Christmas presents or use as tree ornaments. Here is what I have so far:

I think I have a pretty good handle on stripes and they have turned out pretty well. The white and green mittens with vertical stripes on the cuff have corrugated ribbing. This was my first time with this technique and it wasn't too difficult. The mittens with chart work (the intricate patterns) are still a struggle for me though. Still learning tension I guess. Hopefully I will get there soon.

June Update: I have 17 done so i'm a little behind but this is what I have so far: