Crocheting the Lorenz manifold

Crocheting the Lorenz manifold pdf instructions

I haven't a clue what a Lorenz manifold is and I don't really have any need to crochet one, but I kind of like odd stuff and this definitely qualifies as odd stuff.

Irish Moss Socks

These are a Christmas gift for the Prodigal Son's girlfriend. Simple socks using an Irish Moss stitch.





Pattern:

Round 1: *k1, p1*; repeat to end
Round 2: *p1, k1*; repeat to end
Round 3: *p1, k1*; repeat to end
Round 4: *k1, p1*; repeat to end

More kitten cuteness

All in a bunch and each one being held by the Prodigal Son.

The Winter Knitty is here!

I'll bet you can't guess what my favorite pattern is! Nope, it's not the socks. Give up? Check it out!

I ask you, who could resist?

Early Christmas present

Take a look!

Happy feet

The co-worker I gave the last pair of socks to snapped a shot of her happy feet wearing the socks. I'm seriously thinking of making another pair of socks for her so she and her daughter don't have to fight over the one pair.

Sock envy

~ snerkle ~

The co-worker reported this morning she was able to wear her warm wooly socks for about an hour before her daughter noticed them and immediately took possession of them.

It's nice to know my socks are so well loved.

Crusoe from knitty.com

I finished another pair of socks today. This pair was intended for me but the pattern wound up being so much tighter than I expected that the socks are actually too tight for my comfort. The pattern is Cursoe from knitty.com and they have found a good home with a co-worker who very graciously volunteered to take the socks off my hands.




The co-worker can't wait to get the socks home. The weatherman predicted some really cold overnight temperatures and she's looking forward to the socks keeping her feet nice and toasty.

Did you vote?

Shame on you if you didn't!

Goblin has died

The Prodigal and I were with her as she drew her last few breaths. I've taken her to the vet to be cremated.

Socks for me

Another no name pattern. This one is open with texture. You know me, I like texture.

Round 1: k
Round 2: *k1, k1b*; repeat to end
Round 3: k
Round 4: *k1b, k1*; repeat to end
Round 5: k
Round 6: *k2tog, yo*; repeat to end

k1b = knit in back leg instead of front leg

More stash

Watch out for the snakes!

At last, the snake scale socks from Six Sox Knitalong are done. Don't tell her, but they are for the Best Friend for Christmas along with the scarf. I hope they fit.

Yarn, with occasional kitten

Long drawn out sigh

I'm still working on the socks. I have one completed and the other is about a quarter done. I've just been so exhausted from work the last couple of weeks that I haven't done much of anything when I get home. Or on the weekends either for that matter. Can you believe they actually expect me to, like, work when I'm at the office? I think that's terribly unfair.

Spare me, Obi-Wan

From the category of "Now I've seen everything" . . . The Leia Hat.

The difference between day and night

I decided to take a break from knitting to snap a shot of the socks I'm working on. Out of curiosity, I took one picture with the "Auto" flash . . .


. . . and one with the "Night time" flash . . .


. . . The flash makes the difference between blue and purple which is the color the socks are.

These socks are based on a pattern being worked up on the Six Sox Knitalong group on Yahoo!

Only the second pair I've made this year

I got bored with being bored so I finished the red, purple, and blue socks for the Prodigal Son. He isn't home at the moment otherwise I'd have him modeling them instead of having them laid out on the table. As always, the photos do not do the color justice. The colors are quite delicious.

M&M KAL from LSSK

I have mentioned before joining the LSSK group on Yahoo! and this was a mystery cloth we did last week. It was designed by a list member. This is my first time working with cotton yarn and my tension leaves a lot to be desired. Even knowing what the pattern is, it's really hard to tell. Part is my wonky tension and part is the color, I think. But it was fun to do. The only thing I'd change is the garter stitch edge on each side. Since garter stitch works up at a different tension than stockinette stitch (which is basically what the rest of the cloth is), you tend to wind up with a sort of hourglass effect. I've pretty much switched to using seed stitch as my edging because it works up at the same tension as stockinette and is usually as effective as a garter stitch edge.

As you can see, I still have to work in the ends so it's not completely done yet. (I hate doing in ends and I let that sit until I absolutely have to get it done.)


This time Horus was protecting the poor wash cloth from the nasty camera. I think that shade of blue suits him, don't you?

At long last socks

Sort of. One is done and one is still on the needles, but I'm knitting the first pair, for the Prodigal Son of course, using the superwash merino. This is just a boring, standard sock pattern knit in stockinette stitch but the color is scrumptious, a very nice blend of reds, purples, and just a hint of blues. As you can see, Horus was supervising this photography session as well.

New yarn

OK, so it's not exactly new. I've had it since the 3rd, but with one thing or another, I just haven't had the time or inclination to photograph it till today. The two in back are superwash merino in glow in the dark green and a wonderful purple, and the two in front are lace weight merino in purple and green and blue, pink and purple.


And as a special treat, here's Horus overseeing me taking pictures of the yarn. We all know that nothing happens in this house without the god emperor of the universe being in on it.


As almost always, this yarn comes from kbrece at Kindred Spirits Yarn.

It's done!

I've just finished the scarf (which will be for the Best Friend, but don't tell her that) using the Missy Lace pattern from the LSSK KAL. I felt like knitting today so that's what I worked on. I think it turned out much better than I thought it would look when I first started. I'm not generally a fan of garter stitch.






As you can see from the last picture, I was also enjoying Stargate SG-1 during my knit fest. I'm watching the 5th DVD of the 5th season.

Would you believe . . .

These two skeins of yarn are a very vibrant deep royal purple of very nearly the same shade.


And just to make things interesting, I've placed the two purple skeins next to two blue skeins of yarn. The two blue skeins are very different shades. The leftover skein in the front is pretty much a true blue. The skein in the back has more green to it but it is a really deep vibrant color. Neither one is washed out like the colors in the photo.


And just to keep things interesting, I put the skeins on the end of my coffee table in a patch of sunshine coming through the window in my living room. The purple looks purplish, but all the colors are still washed out.


So then I thought I'd take these little fellows outside to see what shaded daylight would do for the colors. This snap is of them sitting on the hood of the Prodigal's car.


And this is of them sitting on the trunk of my car. Notice how my car doesn't look the green that it actually is.


And lastly, I brought them back in and sat them against a white wall just to see what would happen.


So there you have the saga of the yarn and the camera that can't capture color.

Someone know a good 12 step program?

I need one. I am a full-fledged stashaholic. Seven new additions received this week.


I can't get over how bad the pictures taken with my camera are. It distorts color like nobody's business.

As almost always, this yarn comes from kbrece at Kindred Spirits Yarn.

I have been working on it!

See . . . Five iterations of the lace pattern done.



And as a special treat . . . Horus pointedly ignoring me 'cause I won't let him play with my yarn or my needles.

More stash

The entire back row is superwash merino. The front left is fingering weight and the front right is lace weight. All the yarn is from my favorite supplier, kbrece at Kindred Spirits Yarn.

Just a quick note

The co-worker and her husband loved Abigaile's Afghan. The husband especially liked the colors because he was ready to overdose on pink.

I'm still working on the LSSK lace scarf but rather sporadically. I'm still very much in a reading mood and I seem to have settled on C. J. Cherryh for my author of choice at the moment.

And I've discovered a couple of shows on BBC America that I rather like. As a matter of fact, the first is about to start in about 6 minutes. That would be Waterloo Road. The other is Hex. I'm rather fonder of Waterloo Road than I am of Hex. I missed the very first episode of Hex so I'm a bit lost but that's never really stopped me before.

Anyway, off I go to plug myself into the TV.

LSSK Missy Lace KAL, an experiment

I joined a Yahoo! group the other day and they were just about to begin a knit along. Since I'd finished Abigaile's Afghan sooner than I thought I would, I decided to give the knit along a try. One of the group members designed the pattern and it is for a lace scarf or shawl. There are instructions for making both.

I dug through my stash and didn't have any lace weight yarn that would work with the pattern, so I decided to give it a try with some of the sock weight yarn. I'm using size US 9 needles.

Now, I'm not sure whether it's the camera or my monitor, but the yarn is not blue. It is very obviously purple with just the odd hint of blue here and there. Anyhoo . . . I'm about to start on row 10 of the main pattern.

Abigaile's Afghan, completed but not finished

Abigaile's Afghan, Day 3

One more 'intractable' skein

Acquired from Kreative Kitties Kustom Krafts on eBay.

Abigaile's Afghan, Day 2

Famous last words

Just yesterday I was bemoaning the fact I have been uninspired, craftily speaking, so what do I do today? I begin a baby afghan for a co-worker's baby shower to be held in the middle of June. Here's your first look at Abigaile's Afghan . . .


After the red, there will be two more colors before the colors repeat.

This is a basic ripple afghan. The pattern is three rows of double crochet in whatever wonderful color(s) you have handy followed by one row of single crochet in the highlight color.

I'm using fingering weight/sock yarn with a size G (US) crochet hook. Starting with a 219 stitch chain gets an afghan about 28 - 29 inches in width. Since it's not done yet, I can't tell you how long it will be. Well, that isn't strictly true. I could do the math to figure it out, but this is the weekend and I don't do math.

;D

Busy, sick, and just plain lazy

I'm still pretty much on a reading kick. I can't seem to work up the interest to knit or cross stitch. And this week I've been in agony with an abscessed tooth (for which I'm taking antibiotics) so I haven't really been interested in doing anything.

However, I have increased my stash again . . .


The three on the left are from Kreative Kitties and the three on the right are from kbrece.

Another 'intractable' skein

UPDATE: I got the yarn from J. Knits on eBay.

What do I need . . .

. . . to turn these things into one of these?

Anyone . . . Bueller . . .

I did manage to change the skein on the right



into this ball


all by my lonesome without benefit of handy tools or, well, just another pair of hands. It took a very long time and turned into the Herculean task of unraveling the Gordian Knot (which, unlike Alexander, I did not cleave in twain.)

So I ask, what tools do I need to turn an annoying skein into a much friendlier and more tractable center pull ball?

Still burned out, but . . .

. . . I do have one new skein of yarn to show off. It just amazes me how the pictures I take look nothing like the color the yarn actually is. This one is actually a very deep, sinfully luxurious blue and not the pale blue of this photo.

Happy Easter!

Scarcity

I know I've been a bit scarce of late, but I've been on a reading kick, having burned myself out on crafty things. The white on white cross stitch on the butterfly fairy was driving me mad so I decided to take a few weeks off from that. I was very industriously knitting scarves - as is evidenced by the two samples I posted last month - but I've managed to seriously screw up twice on the very simple scarf I'm working on now so I decided it was break time from knitting for a few weeks as well.

As for the reading, I'm about half done with the third Tawny Man book by Robin Hobb. Not a particular favorite, but it is soothingly mindless.

Falling Leaves Scarf

Begun Sunday, March 5, 2006, and completed Sunday, March 26, 2006. The intended recipient is my former mother-in-law. It will be this year's Christmas gift.

Yarn: Hand painted 100% merino wool in various shades of mauve from Kindred Spirit Yarn, fingering weight, approximately 440 yards

Needles: Size 7 US

Gauge: Don't know, don't care

Size: Don't know, still can't find my measuring tape

Pattern: If I give an instruction that is incomprehensible, post a comment and I'll try to clear things up.

k# - knit specified number of stitches
p# - purl specified number of stitches
sl2tog - slip two stitches simultaneously as if to knit
p2sso - pass the two slipped stitches over
yo - yarn over
ssk - slip two stitches individually as if to knit then knit the two together thru the back loop
k2tog - knit two together

NOTE: The pattern is worked over 10 + 6 stitches (the 10 stitch repeat is worked twice) plus 5 stitches on each end for the garter stitch edges for a total of 36 stitches across. The scarf begins and ends with 10 rows of garter stitch. Listed below are the pattern stitches only. The garter stitch edges are not included.

Row 1: k1, yo, k3, sl2tog, k1, p2sso, k3, yo, k1, yo, k3, sl2tog, k1, p2sso, k3, yo, k1, yo, k3, k2tog

Row 2: p

Row 3: k2, yo, k2, sl2tog, k1, p2sso, k2, yo, k3, yo, k2, sl2tog, k1, p2sso, k2, yo, k3, yo, k2, k2tog

Row 4: p

Row 5: k3, yo, k1, sl2tog, k1, p2sso, k1, yo, k5, yo, k1, sl2tog, k1, p2sso, k1, yo, k5, yo, k1, k2tog

Row 6: p

Row 7: k4, yo, sl2tog, k1, p2sso, yo, k7, yo, sl2tog, k1, p2sso, yo, k7, yo, k2tog

Row 8: p

Row 9: ssk, k3, yo, k1, yo, k3, sl2tog, k1, p2sso, k3, yo, k1, yo, k3, sl2tog, k1, p2sso, k3, yo, k1

Row 10: p

Row 11: ssk, k2, yo, k3, yo, k2, sl2tog, k1, p2sso, k2, yo, k3, yo, k2, sl2tog, k1, p2sso, k2, yo, k2

Row 12: p

Row 13: ssk, k1, yo, k5, yo, k1, sl2tog, k1, p2sso, k1, yo, k5, yo, k1, sl2tog, k1, p2sso, k1, yo, k3

Row 14: p

Row 15: ssk, yo, k7, yo, sl2tog, k1, p2sso, yo, k7, yo, sl2tog, k1, p2sso, yo, k4

Row 16: p

Note: I still have to weave in the ends and block it. The garter stitch rib tends to curl under.