Feels Like Alpaca!
While I was in New Zealand, my girlfriend picked out some yarn so that I could make her parents some hats for Christmas. Something about making winter gear for a summer holiday seemed odd to me but I wasn’t about to pass up a chance to do some knitting! She picked out Lion Brand’s new Feels Like Alpaca in Denim and Rust.
Flax by tincanknits made using Lion Brand’s Re-Spun in Blush
This yarn is new to me, and I also believe new to Lion Brand. I don’t usually go for Lion Brand yarns, although I can be caught admiring the pretty colors in their Mandala line from time to time. The last time I bought Lion Brand, it was their 100% recycled polyester Re-Spun yarn in Blush. That yarn was super pretty - it had a nice drape, good stitch definition, and appears to have held up pretty well in the (machine) wash over time.
Rust
Denim
The Lion Brand Feels Like Alpaca yarn is another hit! It feels surprisingly close to alpaca! I think it definitely looks like alpaca, and feels very soft. I’m not sure if it’s just because I touch so much yarn, but it does feel synthetic to me. Without the label, I’d assume it was some kind of alpaca blend. With the label, I know that it is 87% acrylic, 7% polyester, and 6% nylon. It’s also machine washable, which is a big plus in my book!
I found this yarn to be a bit slipperier than most synthetic yarns I use, although I found it would catch on the lettering of my DPNs. I used Crystal Palace size 3 (3.25 mm) bamboo needles for the entirety of both of the hats that I made. I found that it was fairly easy to undo stitches, but was a bit prone to being split with a knitting needle while working with it. Despite the yarn being fuzzy I still felt the stitch definition was pretty good - better than most alpaca I’ve worked with. I assume this has something to do with the synthetic nature of the fibers.
Rainbow Indigo Fisherman's Beanie by Janet Stimson made using Lion Brand’s Feels Like Alpaca in Rust
Cengkeh Beanie by Amelia Putri made using Lion Brand’s Feels Like Alpaca in Denim
Would I buy it again? Probably! I really like the feel and look of this yarn, and I do like the Burgundy colorway a lot! The only issue I’m seeing is that the color palette isn’t super varied. Every color is gorgeous, but I would love to see a green, or a brown, or more of a true red or purple. If there was a dark slightly desaturated purple it would already be in the mail on its way to me.
Bonus hat for the girlfriend made using Lion Brand’s Feels Like Alpaca in Rust and Denim
This hat is mostly my own pattern, but uses the colorwork chart from The Easy Ombre Slouch Hat by Paul S Neary
Gunter
You may recognize this penguin as Gunter from the animated tv show Adventure Time. I made this tiny knitted fellow using this Adventure Time Gunter Pattern.
I made him for my friend Scott's birthday. It was my first time knitting a stuffed animal, and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be, even though I don't own double point needles and had to make him on regular needles.
Since I worked him on normal needles, I had to sew up a lot of seams. Luckily, the seams are almost impossible to see on the finished plushy.
I also modified the pattern slightly when I made the feet, and added one row on each toe on accident. I think it worked out fine, and made his toes more distinguishable from each other.Over all, the pattern was surprisingly easy to knit, and I really like the result. Thanks for reading!
Raspberry Hood
I made this hood using the Bobble Hood with Tassels pattern.
It was easy and straightforward to make,but I did have a little trouble with the borders. I somehow messed up the back post single crochet so that it was on the wrong side of the piece, and had to match that when I made the second portion of the edging stitch.
Looking back at the pattern, my hood appears to be a bit smaller than the original, and the bobbles are in slightly different places. I'm not entirely sure what I did to cause this.
I am happy with the hood I ended up with, but I'm not sure it was the one that I was trying to make. I've received a lot of compliments on it, and might make another one. Next time I'll pay closer attention to the pattern to figure out what I did wrong.
Hamburger and Fries
I started working on this sweater exactly two weeks ago, and I'm really proud of how much I've made so far, even if I'm not finished. Eventually, the sweater should be a replica of the Hamburger and Fries sweater that Mabel Pines wears in the television show Gravity Falls.
I used the Laura Sweater pattern and also drew inspiration from this version of the sweater. (The second link is only visible to those with a Ravelry account.) I made the collar 9" instead of 12". I added six rows to the raglan part of the sweater in order to make the armholes fit my arms better.
In the pattern, the body of the sweater is 12" long before the bottom ribbing is worked, but I made mine about 16" long.
I'm only about halfway done with one sleeve and it's a little tight, but still wearable. If I were to make this sweater again, I would modify it so that the sleeves would start out wider. The torso of the sweater fits perfectly, except for the very bottom edge where I cast off. I used the slip slip knit method, thinking that it would be super stretchy, but it is not. I might go back and redo my cast off row if I can find a stretchier cast off.If anyone has any super stretchy cast off methods, please share them with me!
Pink Cable Knit
I made knit this hat from a pink yarn so bright it looks like it's glowing. It was super difficult to photograph and I apologize for the grainy photos. I made up the pattern as I went along, and although it isn't perfect, I can type up a version of the pattern if anyone wants to make this hat. Let me know if you're interested!Make sure to check out my facebook page if you haven't already!
All Grown Up Slouched Hat
I made this hat using the All Grown Up Striped Slouched Hat pattern. The pattern calls for the hat to be made using an aran yarn, but I used a double knit (a double knit is thinner than an aran). In order to be able to make the hat to fit my head, I only needed to change the length off the hat. I used a 5.5 mm (I) crochet hook and made the small adult size. I crocheted about 6 more rows in the stripe pattern than the pattern asked for.
Devil or Angle?
Why yes, that is a Kylo Ren mask! I made this combination hood and scarf using this scoodie pattern. From my calculations, I thought the scoodie would take about two balls of yarn to make, but it ended up taking six.
Hats for Trade
I am very happy with the pom pom.
Christmas Presents for Relatives
Hats!
Yes! Another Star Wars hat! This one is BB-8, a character from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I used a BB-8 Droid Hat Pattern, and modified the circles to be smaller, and looking at the robot in order to judge where to put them.
A New School Year
Sorry, it's been quite a while since I've last posted. Since then, I have moved to England and started my first year studying costume design and construction at a university level. I've been working very hard in class, and so kept forgetting to post. (oops!)During winter break, I went to Austria with my friend Ruth and stayed with her family. While in Austria, Ruth and I visited her photographer friend, Bildersanatorium, who was kind enough to take photographs of the many pieces I have made since September.
This hat was the second thing I made after moving to England. It's a very simple earflap hat made from double crochet and single crochet, with braided tassels and a pom-pom.
This dress is made from a very nice stretch velvet I picked up from BSP Haberdashery. I felt it, and I just had to take it home with me. I made up the dress pattern as I went along, copying one of my tank tops for the bodice, and gathering two rectangles for the skirt. The dress is so simple that I was able to hand sew the entire dress in one night.
This is my friend Ruth in cosplay as Mavis from Hotel Transylvania. She is modeling a knit hat and a crocheted scarf. The hat is a super simple pattern, I just altered knit and purl stitches until it reached the length I wanted, and then decreased. The scarf is made from the basic tunisian crochet stitch, which ended up making the fabric very thick and warm, but also caused a strange drape. I started making the scarf in red, but switched to black when I ran out of red.
I made this hat for Ruth's dad for Christmas. It's a plain knit hat with a ribbed cuff.
This hat is made for Ruth's mom using the Kitkat Hat Pattern. The pattern was super easy to make, and I love the result!
This is my favorite hat. It was my first time working with cables in a pattern and I love it so much! I used the Traveling Cable Hat Pattern and I found the instructions very easy to follow, although I did get confused while I was making the ribbing and messed up a bit. If you want to see in progress pictures of my hat, please click this link.
This dress is actually a project from spring of last year. It's made from the same pattern as the French Fry Dress out of a soft woven plaid fabric. I did not match the plaid because it is a very small print, and I lined the bodice with the same fabric used in the rest of the dress.I am planning on posting more often this year, and hopefully I'll stick to that promise!
Rainbows and Scarves and Hats (Oh my!)
I've made a lot of stuff in the past few months, so I'm going to try and separate it all into manageable posts.In February, I was comissioned to make a rainbow scarf for my friend Marzena.
I accidentally crocheted the scarf a few feet longer than I had meant to, mostly due to the chain stitch stretching.
It's pretty simple, made only with double crochet, each color being three rows wide. This was probably one of the biggest projects I've crocheted.
Then, one of my other friends asked me to make a rainbow cowl.
The first one I made in February, (pictured above) but it was too small, so I made another one that was longer in March.
I forgot to take pictures of the second one, however. My apologies!More recently, (last week!), my friend Claire, who also knits, asked me to knit a hat!
Claire outlined a pattern for me verbally, saying I should start the hat with 54 stitches, and then decrease by six once it was the desired length.
I forgot Claire's instructions, and instead started the hat with 64 stitches, on needles that were two sizes too big.
Luckily, I knit extremely tightly, so the hat fit just fine!That just about sums up all the rainbow stuff I've made since February. Look out for more posts containing more recent makes!
Uchi-Con
I shared a table with the Mangaka club from our school. They took up most of the table and sold buttons, prints, and commissions. I sold the hats that I had made over the past couple weeks, and I worked on crocheting more items while sitting behind the table.
I completed a total of five hats before the convention, and then I completed another hat at the beginning of the convention, making for a total of six hats up for sale. All of the hats were patterns that I free-handed, meaning I didn't use a pattern and just made to fit my head. Three hats were pokéballs, one had cat ears, one had earflaps and bear ears, and the last one had a brim and a pom-pom at the top.
Our table was pretty busy, and we often had big groups of people around our table. Many people stopped by to complement my work and to buy buttons.
Overall, Uchi-Con was really fun and I loved seeing all of the cosplays and the work that the tables had on display. I would definitely suggest going next year!
The Three Year Scarf
By my calculations, I started knitting this scarf in 2011. I'd wanted a really wide, long scarf that would keep me warm all winter, and I wanted it to be easy to make.
When the scarf reached about four feet, I ran out of yarn, and I looped it around into a cowl. I wasn't completely happy with this and would check every yarn store for another ball of the yarn.I'm not sure where I finally found the correct yarn. I think my Grandma might have given it to me, but I'm not sure. I immediately tore out the line of stitches keeping the cowl in place, and began knitting the rest of the scarf as fast as i could. The official completion date was June 8, 2014.
Overall, I am really happy with this scarf. It's all made with the same stitch, so it'd be really easy to make again (although it did take a long time to make).
It turned out exactly the size I wanted it to be: about 6 feet long and 10.5 inches wide. Although there's about half an inch of difference between the widths on each end, it is my favorite scarf, and I will definitely get a lot of wear out of it as soon as it starts getting cold again.
Winter Gifts! (Part Two)
I apologize for this post being so late, I did not have all the pictures until recently.
For Christmas, my friend Hilary gave me some beautiful red alpaca yarn, which I quickly made into fingerless mittens from this pattern. The pattern was quick and easy to make, and looks beautiful!
In return, I made Hilary a knitted reversible cowl, called the Boomslang, in dark pink and white yarn (modeled by my sister). This cowl worked up fairly quickly for a cowl but still took quite a bit of time. I'd intended to give her the cowl before winter break, but I ran out of time and instead had to give it to her after break.
For my cousin’s birthday on January 13th, I made her a hat! I based it off off of this pattern. I had to heavily modify the pink cupcake shape in order for it to curve properly, and then I ran out of yarn and was unable to make the icing ruffles around the edge, but I'm still pretty happy with how the hat turned out.
Winter Gifts! (Part One)
I made this hat out of a very nice wool blend yarn for my friend Georgia. I modified my "Spark" Slouchy Hat pattern by adding a band and stopping the dome of the hat early so that it would be a closer fit.I'm allergic to wool, but I did not have any difficulties working with the yarn, and the hat worked up fairly quickly. However, when I went to try the hat on, I discovered I was too allergic to wear it. Georgia had no problems with the yarn and was very excited to receive her gift.
This hat I made for my friend Kate, who lives far enough away that I had to mail it to her. I originally wanted this hat to be an earflap hat, but I miscalculated how much grey yarn I had, and ran out very early on. I was able to fix the problem, and made a green brim for the hat instead of earflaps, adding the Hogwarts house name "Slytherin" to the brim in the remaining silver yarn.Over the next few days/weeks I will be uploading pictures of the remaining gifts I have given to my friends, as well as one I received. I will also be taking pictures of older garments that I may not have mentioned before, and posting those.
Halloween Costumes!
I realize it's already November, but I'd still like to share the Halloween costumes that I helped some of my friends with!
Here you can see a picture of Genny dressed as Dirk Strider. As you probably remember, I made the skirt that she's wearing out of a stretch knit, although the applique isn't visible in this picture. I'm dressed as Jake English, another character from the webcomic Homestuck.
This is my friend Noah, who also dressed as Jake English this Halloween. I screenprinted both of our shirts in two colors, copying the design directly from the character's t-shirt.
My friend Laurel wanted to be a Pokemon trainer from x and y, so she asked me to make her this hat. I made the hat based off of a pattern by Pinar Vardar on Ravelry. I had to change the entire base of the hat because I used a very different weight of yarn.
Thank you for reading!
Cupcake Bears!
18" Doll's Earflap Hat
Stuffed Animal Top Hats!
