I've finally got pictures! To save loading time and bandwidth, I chose not to put the pictures on the page itself, but to include links to them at the bottom of each project description. Because I don't yet know how to make the pictures open in a new window when you click on them, I recommend using the right-click menu and opening them in a new window manually--this will save you the aggravation of opening a picture and waiting for it to load, then coming back here, then opening the next one and so on.
Arches Wrap
This wrap is based on the 'Arches Insertion' pattern in Donna Kooler's Encyclopedia of Crochet. I used Red Heart Soft, Patons Canadiana Boucle, and recycled acrylic chenille from a sweater of mine that got damaged. The center panel of the wrap was done first, then identical shelled edges worked on either side. Finally I added the filet mesh and fringes at the ends to give it a bit more length.
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Swatch and Patch Blanket
I worked these up over the course of a year or so, when I was starting to acquire stitch libraries and pattern magazines. If a stitch looked interesting, I'd grab some odd yarn and try it out. Gradually the idea of joining these to form a blanket grew in my mind. There's a great variety of techniques in here--some entrelac, some lace, some fair isle, some mosaic (I'm particularly proud of the purple and black Persian Check piece on the lower right--this has inspired a sweater that I haven't yet gotten around to knitting up), and some crochet as well. I'd like to start another one, but the one major mistake I made doing this one, I will correct in the next one; I joined the pieces as whim dictated, without washing and blocking them all seperately. Thus the blanket curls and bulges in odd places (note the curling border on the bottom left).
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Pretty Pinwheel Doily
UPDATE! New picture!
From Magic Crochet, #145, August 2003, design #8. The original calls for size 30 cotton, and I'm using a generic 'bedspread weight' polyester thread I picked up on sale. My doily will be much larger than the original, but it's fine with me. Finished!
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Stor Rund Dug Poncho
This is an adaptation of the Stor Rund Dug pattern from Yarn Over. I started the pattern on 96 sts at round 15, knit until round 92, if I remember correctly. Should have written it down. The neckline turned out to be to wide, but I'd planned for that--I sideways-knit a garter stitch band around, on smaller needles, thinking that would tighten it up a bit. It did, but not enough. Finally, I did a row of single crochet around the opening, at a ratio of 2 sc to 3 ridges (sc in ridge, pinch two ridges together and sc through both). This gave me an opening big enough to fit my head through but not so big that it slipped off both my shoulders, like it did before I added the band!
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Fanoedugen Poncho
Another adaptation of a Yarn Over pattern, this one Fanoedugen. Once again, I didn't write down the specifics. I'm bad about that sometimes. It's worked on 10 1/2 needles with a very fine acrylic chainette yarn I got on eBay.
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Three-Color Furry Wrap
Worked in Valeria Di Roma's Cisne, a nylon eyelash, on 10 1/2 needles. Since this picture was taken, I have finished it, but as hard as I tried I couldn't get the whole thing in the frame comfortably. Just imagine the top end symmetrically reattached to the bottom end.
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Gypsy Alita
This is done in Unger Gypsy, a silk/acrylic ribbon I was lucky enough to find on eBay. I hadn't heard of the yarn before, and the seller told me it had been in her stash for years, but she didn't say how many! If I could get more of this yarn anywhere, I would.
The pattern is Alita. I turned it from a circular piece into more of a Faroese silhouette (without shoulder shaping) by cutting out one of the six repeats and working it flat, adding two-stitch garter selvedges on the edges. The edges wave a bit because in some sections of the pattern I allowed the edge to follow the movements of the changing beginning of the round, but sometimes I added stitches on one side while taking them away from the other to compensate for the wandering of the round marker. It's noticeable in the pictures, but fortunately it evens out a bit when the shawl is worn. This was also my first attempt at knitting large-gauge lace (bulky ribbon on size 11 needles) and I'm quite happy with it.
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Granny Hexagons
This is my ultimate whenever-I-feel-like-it project. Because I'm always buying extra yarn for projects and shopping sales, I can quickly accumulate oddballs and scraps, so I decided to make a granny square afghan. But then I
thought, "Squares are so boring!" So I designed these hexagons instead. I combine colors at *nearly* random--my rules are that none of the hexagons can be identical; none of the adjacent hexagons can have the same outer color; and none of the adjacent hexagons can share more than two colors. To further help me distribute the colors evenly, I'm not adding heaxgons row by row from
one end to the other--I'm working from the center out until I reach the width I want (which, of course, I haven't decided yet), then I will lengthen both ends at the same time until I'm finished.
It's also inspiring color schemes for future projects--my favorite hexagon is at the center top, with the purple center and three progressively darker shades of green around it.
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Keyhole Pullover
I bought some Red Heart, even though I usually don't, when I saw this colorway and that it was on clearance. I foresaw some sweater for myself, but had no clear plans. To the magazines!
I found this pattern (#26) in Vogue Knitting, winter 2002. The original is done in Karabella Soft Tweed, which Red Heart is nothing at all like, but the gauge matches close enough for me, in that the stitch gauge is perfect and the row gauge was one row too long over my 4" swatch. But looking at the
measurements, I wanted a longer sweater anyway! I have both the back and front done now, and they seem to be the right size when I hold them up
against me.
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Willow Leaf Scarf
Bernat Aspen Soft in 6903 Renegade (see, I sometimes save labels!). It's a simple willow lace pattern with garter stitch selvedges. The most interesting thing about this project is that I knit it on bamboo needles, and the tips started to turn green! I double checked with some white yarn after I finished--fortunately the color did not come back off the needles onto the yarn.
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Oatmeal Crochet Shawl
Caron So Soft, on size G hook, From Magic Crochet, #145, August 2003, design #16. The original pattern is a diamond-shaped doily composed of hexagonal medallions, which I will use instead to form a giant V-shaped shawl. I mostly started this because I wanted a machine-washable shawl,
which I don't yet have, so I used the softest acrylic I could find.
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The OddBall Shawl
Got the pattern at http://www.knitsnbytes.com/free_patterns/shawl/shawl.html and was immediately inspired to make one of my own. I added the simple lace section in the middle because I love lace and it seemed a shame not to have something distinctive running down the center back. I wasn't careful about the length of the fringe, so I decided to add beads (each chosen to match the yarn as closely as I could, from my massive collection of pony beads, which I use in my hair when I feel like braiding it) and to deliberately make each fringe a different length that its neighbors, rather than trying to camoflauge the short ones.
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Mommes Lysedug
Yet another pattern from Yarn Over. I did this one in Skacel Merino Lace, on #6 needles, which were huge for the yarn. I had hoped it would be large enough to be a shawl, but it's not really, so I used it as a table-topper for a while, since we had one of those cheap little
glass-topped round end tables at the old apartment. Now it waits patiently for somewhere else to be displayed.
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