knitting | Mustard Seed Yarn Lab

Tag: knitting (page 1 of 4)

What I’ve been doing

01.1.16 / Danielle / 1 Comment

Ok, I could take a lot of time making excuses for not posting for so long…but really, who wants to hear my well-crafted excuses that will try to mislead you all from the fact that I’ve been lazy? So let’s just move on. With some recent inspiration from my sister, I’m hoping I’ve got my blogging mojo back.

Although I haven’t been blogging, I have been knitting. A lot. So I’m just going to dive right in and show you some projects I’ve made in the last 2 years…not necessarily in order though.

Above is The Force Awakens hat by Hanna L. How cool is this design?? I’m not even a huge Star Wars fan and I still think I’d wear this hat. I love the colors together too…an R2D2 color theme. I’ve made 2 so far and now I’m starting a third. Then I have two more to go! They’re in high demand. You can find the Ravelry pattern here.

Here is the most popular pattern of the year. It’s the Baa-ble hat. I made 3 of them, 2 in blue and 1 in purple. I fell in love with the cuteness. I might make another for me.

And here we have the Greystone hat by Melissa Thomson that I made for my little sister. The Ravelry pattern can be found here.

Above is Sumner by Wooly Wormhead. This hat looks so cool when it’s actually on a head, but I forgot to get a picture of my friend wearing it. If you’d like to see it on a head, or many heads, you can see it on Ravelry here. This was not an easy hat. It took a long time and was super challenging. But the end product was worth it.

Then we have the Foxy and Wolfie pattern. I made two of these. One was for an Angelman Syndrome auction, the other for the super-cutie seen above.

I made 4 of the bunnies above. The pattern is called Henry’s Bunny by Sara Elizabeth Kellner. Each one took me about 5 hours to make. The first 3 that you see together I made from yarn that I spun myself.

Above is the Emma hat by Jennifer Thomassian. I made it for my friend Jodi. Above her picture it is being modeled by my Emmet. He is my favorite model.

I actually finished a pair of socks! Not this year though. I made these in 2014 for my little sister. I can’t remember which pattern it was, just a plain vanilla ribbed sock pattern. They actually came out too big, and I’m not sure if she’s been able to wear them.

Above…above is what I’ve been actively avoiding. So I’ve been working on this vest for my mom for a LONG time, and I’m so close to being done. She wanted a white vest that looked like the one she made for my Gram, her mom. This was the closest we could find, and it is very close. It’s called Caldwell and the pattern is by Stephen West. I chose to ignore the stripes, as I think they look weird and make the vest harder to match to things you’re wearing. I thought a vest would be easier than making a sweater….no sleeves, ya know? I was wrong. Tons of cabling. And I hate seaming. And there’s 3 pieces to seam together (which I already did) and then there’s this ribbed trim that has to be picked up and knit around the edges. And buttons. And button holes. And I don’t think I have enough yarn left, although I thought I calculated correctly in the beginning. Ugh…I don’t want to think about this one right now.

So there we go. I did it! My first blog post in almost 3 years. I’ve actually knitted more projects that I didn’t take pictures of or have forgotten about, I’m sure. But here’s some of what I’ve been doing. Happy New Year everyone! I’ll have more to say soon….I hope to make this a habit again.

Excitement… in Red

03.16.12 / Danielle / 4 Comments

I’ve been itching to knit another shawl for awhile now, but other projects kept getting in the way. (Projects I was actually getting paid to make, so those totally take priority… and happily.) Have I ever mentioned how much I love knitting shawls? You know,… I don’t wear them. I wish I was one of those fashionable girls who can throw a cute outfit together and wrap a lovely shawl around it all and make it come together. I am not one of those girls. I wear jeans everyday (which I can do because I work from home.) If I’m going somewhere nice, I throw a nice shirt on with my jeans, instead of my usual plain V neck T-shirt. I just can’t be bothered, really. Skirts are too cold in the winter (which lasts about 9 months in the Northeast) and in the summer, I opt for capris instead of skirts (just more practical, and I’m not fond of my stubby legs in shorts). I go to clothing stores and leave with nothing, complaining about how everything in there is so ugly. And when I do see something nice, it usually fits me all wrong or looks too girly or whatever.

But I love knitting shawls. I’ve only made 4 so far, but each was so much fun, I just couldn’t stop once I started. I gifted 3 of them, and kept one for myself. I wore it once to a wedding, but now it sits at the bottom of a huge Tupperware bin, where no harm can come to it. I’ve been told I should display it somewhere at least, and I’d like to, but it would get dusty or dirty, and eventually need a washing. A washing would mean blocking it all over again and I am NOT going to do that twice.

So, although I have no real reason to keep making shawls, I just can’t help myself. Last night I started the Juneberry Triangle by Jared Flood. I’ve been wanting to make this one for over a year. My sister gave me all the yarn to make it with for Christmas.

This is what it should look like when it’s done:

If mine comes out looking anywhere near this good, I just might have to buy an outfit to go with it.

My Lace and Cable sock is coming along. I guess I’m in a red kind of mood.

Knotty but Nice hat #2

03.6.12 / Danielle / 5 Comments

Hi All! I apologize for the silence, but work went from dead to crazy busy with lots of overtime, then I went away on a ski vacation in VT with my family (they ski, I knit) and now I’m back and work is dead again, for the time being. So I finally have a moment to post.

I knit a hat while I was in VT. While the rest of the family was skiing out in the cold, I was snug as a bug in the condo with a gorgeous view, knitting and reading A Clash of Kings (which I am loving even more than the first book, A Game of Thrones). The hat I made is for my friend Jason, and it’s the Knotty but Nice hat. It’s my second go at it. You may remember my 1st attempt just didn’t work, and my son ended up with a new hat instead. Well, this time it worked for the most part.

I dyed the yarn myself, and it’s actually greener than it shows in the picture. This time I used the correct weight of yarn…worsted instead of bulky….and I went up one needle size for the cabling, as the cabling is very tight and not very stretchy.

My biggest mistake was taking the hat to my friend Maiya’s house for a Knit Night. We got to talking and drinking wine, having a great time….then the next day I pulled out the hat to keep going and noticed something didn’t look right. In fact, something looked very wrong. I realized I had knit about 5 rows of cabling and somehow was very off, and hadn’t noticed it at all that night. I have never ripped out ANYTHING to try and fix before…I tink back, not rip out. Well, let me tell you, I was NOT tinking back 5 rows of cabling. So in VT I decided to start over. I ripped and ripped and took apart half of the cabling and then thought, well, maybe I should just TRY to insert my needle back into this thing. And people, I can’t believe it, but it worked! I managed to rip back to a spot and reinsert my needle throughout the entire hat, and it WORKED!! Yaayyy me!

I’m very happy with the way it turned out but the cabling section is still a little tight, and if I were to do it all over again, I would go up 2 needle sizes for that section. I’ll see Jason on Thursday and give it to him then. He may not like it, and that’s fine, I’ll just keep it myself if he doesn’t. Personally, I love it and wouldn’t mind keeping it, or giving it as a gift. He didn’t give much direction as to what style hat he wanted, and gave me free rein, but I have a feeling he was thinking of something more simple.

And now for some Sugarbush VT pictures. These are my favorite ones:

Mike and Emmet ….my favorite picture from the whole trip.

Mike and Nana skiing with Emmet:

The view from our condo:

Emmet’s favorite part of the trip, the Snow Cat ride up the mountain! Here he is with his cousins, getting ready to go up.

Emmet in the Snow Cat…notice the hat? That’s the Knotty but Nice hat #1.

The view from the top:

Cousins in the loft:

Cousins watching a movie:

Swimming on our last day there:

Sigh…I really like being on vacation.

I’m still working on that gorgeous red pair of socks. And since I have no more commissioned projects lined up, I think I’ll see what I feel like knitting next, along with the hexipuffs (my pile is growing) and the sock. Maybe that shawl I mentioned before. Hmmm…..