The Latch Hook Elk - Master Post

The Latch Hook Elk Wall Hanging Starter - September 8, 2012
The Latch Hook Elk - Part 1 - September 15, 2012
The Latch Hook Elk - Part 2 - September 21, 2012
The Latch Hook Elk - Part 3 - October 9, 2012
The Latch Hook Elk - Part 4 - October 14, 2012
The Latch Hook Elk - Part 5 - October 30, 2012
The Latch Hook Elk - Part 6 - November 3, 2012
The Latch Hook Elk - Part 7 - November 7, 2012
The Latch Hook Elk - Part 8 - November 14, 2012
The Latch Hook Elk - Part 9 - November 18, 2012
The Latch Hook Elk - Part 10 - November 27, 2012
The Latch Hook Elk - Part 11 - December 7, 2012
The Latch Hook Elk - Part 12 - December 31, 2012

The Latch Hook Elk - Part 12

Done!

The W&M Hat - Master Post

The W&M Hat - Part 1 - November 9, 2012
The W&M Hat - Part 2 - November 23, 2012
The W&M Hat - Part 3 - December 2, 2012
The W&M Hat - Part 4 - December 7, 2012
The W&M Hat - Part 5 - December 12, 2012
The W&M Hat - Part 6 - December 17, 2012

Go Tribe!

The Red Scarf - Part 2

Part 1 Here

The Red Scarf is finished, as expected. I had only about 16 more rows to do from where I left off previously. 

 It's really amazing how much knitting you can do while watching TV. I got through the entire first season of Leverage knitting this piece.

Yep, I'm happy with this one.

The Red Scarf - Part 1

My newest project - The Red Scarf! I'm using Lion Brand Homespun yarn, bulky, Color #375, Candy Apple. For being 98% Acrylic and 2% Polyester, it is surprisingly soft and smooth. Smooth being a relative term, because the yarn itself is wavy. I'm working on size 13 needles with what my book Knitbook: The Basics and Beyond calls Knotted Moss. It involves alternating rows of purls, knit front and back, purl two together, and knits. It's a surprisingly easy pattern as long as you make sure to keep track of where you are in the pattern.

Not that messing up shows at all. I'm sure I've messed up somewhere but it all looks the same so it doesn't matter to me. The wavy yarn helps disguise any mistakes as well. 

Strangely, I'm almost done although it barely measures three feet. I wanted this to be a short piece and I have only a little bit left to do. 

The W&M Hat - Part 6

Done! I've finished the W&M hat.

I decreased down to 10 stitches and then bound off, two at a time. I used the leftover string to crochet around the ridge and then pulled through.

The top:

The side:

The inside:

My hat:

That was a fun experiment. I learned decreases and knitting on circular needles and I made something that I've actually worn. Well worth doing!

The W&M Hat - Part 5

I'm down to only 20 or so stitches left. It's been getting really hard to continue knitting - I probably should have done this part on double-pointed needles, but it would have been a pain to switch and the DPN I have are a size larger.

I should have this thing done by the end of the semester and then I can wear it!

The Latch Hook Elk - Part 11

Latching is done! (According to the instructions)

After a long semester, I have completed all 112 rows of my latch hook project! The only thing left to do is the rug binding - folding back the canvas backing and stitching that in place. I might even add one more row of blue to the top. I have enough yarn to do it and I think it would look good.

I don't think I'm going to do another one of these anytime soon. I had forgotten how much the canvas can mess up the skin on my hands. Still, I'm glad I could finally finish off this kit.

The W&M Hat - Part 4

My hat is starting to look like a hat instead of a tube! The decreases are pretty noticeable though.

The W&M Hat - Part 3

Unsurprisingly, getting stuck on a train is a good way to get a lot of knitting done. I doubled my progress on this hat in one day.

Now that I'm at 40 rows, it's time to start decreasing the number of stitches in each row. I don't know what the pattern is for that so I need a friend to explain it to me first. With any luck, I should be able to get this done by the end of the year.

Anniversary and a new project idea

Yesterday was the first anniversary of this blog! This is actually the official 100th post. (I miscounted on Tuesday because the 'total post' count including the one unpublished draft I have).

With the weather turning cold, I thought it would be good to knit yet another scarf. But wait! I actually plan to wear this one. I want to use this chunky  homespun red yarn - it will knit up quickly and it feels good against my skin.

I wanted to do a different pattern than the previous ones so I went looking online. I found a variation on the fan stitch but it wanted 21 stitches per row, which was too wide for my taste. I knitted up a swatch with the blue scarf yarn and didn't like how it turned out.

The stitch I plan on using is called the knotted moss stitch - it's a multiple of 4 and has a lot of knitting front and back and purling together. I've never done increases before so I hope I end up with the right number of stitches.

In other news, I apparently knit into the back instead of the front when I knit normally. Who knew?

The Latch Hook Elk - Part 10

100th post! Woohoo!

This was taken at 90 rows - I have exactly 22 more rows left to go. There's only a few more squares of antlers left and then I only have the mountain and the sky left. I've already checked the diagram - the last 6 rows are completely light blue.

The W&M Hat - Part 2

This piece has been coming along nicely. I'm up to 23 rows now.

I started with 90 stitches and after 10 rows decreased to 80 stitches. When I get to 40 rows I will do a lot more decreasing, but for now it's a lot of knit, knit, knit.

The Latch Hook Elk - Part 9

I've gotten to 80 rows, or about 3/4 of the entire wall hanging. That leaves only about 32 more rows.

The ending is actually a bit harder than the beginning, mostly due to the fact that I have to work around the latched part. I don't want the bottom edge to touch the floor and I don't want to kneel on it because that ruins the frayed edges of the bottom. I also don't want to fold it over because that creases the canvas and the yarn.

That pretty much leaves standing up and leaning over, which is not good for my back. I do still have a few more rows to do before it gets to that point.

The Latch Hook Elk - Part 8

I have reached my least favorite part of this project - running out of yarn. This is at about 70 rows. I have completely run out of light gray and dark gray. This wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have more squares to do. This leads to Executive Decisions about which light gray can replaced by another color like white or medium gray and which ones I can keep as light gray.

The reason this is happening at all is because of the yarn is badly manufactured. Specially, the honey, the light grey and the dark gray all untwist at the ends.

This is a honey yarn with frayed ends next to a dark brown yarn with straight ends. The yarn actually untwists as I pull it through. This means I throw out a disproportionate amount of light grays and honeys than I do whites and greens. There was just not enough extra.

I did make Executive Decisions when I got to that part and carefully portioned out the grays. I'm past that part and into the antlers now, so I hope that this problem won't show up again.

At least, I can hope.

The W&M Hat - Part 1

This is my newest project, the W&M Hat. A few of my friends have taken up knitting hats and we've convinced a few other to start scarves. We have a little knitting area in the computer lab - it's really cute.

This is my first time on circular needles and my first time knitting something that wasn't a rectangular piece. I hope it turns out alright.

The Latch Hook Elk - Part 7

Some time to work has gotten me to the halfway mark - about 56 rows. It's time to start on the sky and use up that blue.

I only have two unused bundles left. I hope I run out of green marks on the diagram before I run out of green threads.

The elk body is mostly done, with just a bit of the head and all of the antlers left. I may be able to get this done before December, regardless of Thanksgiving, if I can knock out a few more rows this weekend.

The Latch Hook Elk - Part 6

It's really amazing how much I can do when I can set aside time for it. Saturday's work brought me to about 40 rows, or 1/3 of the entire wall hanging. See all the green on the right? That was the progress I made on Saturday. This puts me definitely ahead of schedule.

Pumpkins!

Happy Halloween!

What better way to spend a hurricane then by carving pumpkins?

This was what my pumpkin looked like on Monday:

I carved out a candle in the middle there but my inexperience nearly cut the pumpkin in two so I didn't bother with the details. Actually, the top made the whole thing unbalanced so I didn't leave it on.

This is what it looked like this morning:

It had already gotten soft in the back and I guess the walls couldn't hold up anymore. It is a sad pumpkin now :(

The little ones were alright! A friend gave me these flickering electric tea lights instead of candles.

 I put one inside my sad pumpkin.

That's my sad pumpkin in the dark.

The little ones didn't turn out so well in the dark.

I'll save the big one until tomorrow but I'll keep the little ones as long as they keep. Despite forgetting that today was Halloween, I still got to have a little holiday.

Happy Halloween everyone!