Author: emilyWools

https://www.emilywools.com

babies on the brain.

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i found out my boyfriend’s cousin is having a baby girl! the shower is in mid-september. i really wanted to make something for the baby rather than buying. So i hunted on ravelry for some cute patterns. i finally decided to make the duck slippers, so i cast on and quickly realized this pattern was waaaay out of my league. i couldn’t get past row 3, and i became very frustrated. so i abandoned duck feet, and decided to make the booties (rav) that i have seen several times, but i have never had a need to make them.

i think they are adorable. i hope they don’t look too much like the baltimore ravens. i had the purple alpaca in my stash from the free Classic Elite Yarns mini skein giveaway, and it was the perfect amount for these. 
so in the vein of little ones, i found a really cute lamb pattern. i found some white fuzzy yarn in my stash, and for the legs/head, i used some leftover alpaca that is the most lovely blue. i think am too attached to him to give it away….
i think im going to make a baby blanket to go with the booties. we’ll see what happens! im going to the beach on wednesday so i hope i have lots of time for knitting and thinking of ideas.
currently listening: nick drake, pink moon

wouldn’t it be nice?

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endpaper mitts: in progress—- only ½ a repeat left on chart a.
brioche hat: on hold—- decreasing is extremely confusing/tricky
mitred blanket: semi-in-progress—- halfway through the blocks construction, but nervous that the finished blanket wont be big enough, wall hanging?
shadow sweater: mneh—- i tried picking this up again the other day, with not much success.

in other crafting notes, i made a pocket t from a plain v-neck t shirt and some old fabric i had in my stash. i like how it turned out!!

hoping to jump back into all of these so i have some beach knitting to do at the end of the month!!

currently listening: pet sounds, the beach boys

brioche, unravelled.

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after some more frogging, i caved and got some circular needles for my brioche hat. im just about ready to start decreasing. i have made one visible mistake so far, but i could not figure out how to go back and fix it… so many yo’s and overlaps and two colors. it was slow going for a few rows but i mostly fixed it. i dont like to post mistakes but oh well… here it is (i think ill try to “fix” it when i have it off the needles, by faking in the blue stitch with a regular needle and yarn):

ive read several people on ravelry have experienced trouble with the decreases. i cast on 62 stitches for the hat to begin with, so now i have an awkward number of stitches to decrease. i think i will split it 15-15-15-17. we’ll see!!

brioche hat.

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im making purl bee’s brioche hat. i think ive started it and ripped it out at least 4 times, which i almost never do. the brioche stitch is soooooo confusing, with all the bark and burp rows (WHAT!?!). i looked for youtube tutorials but they all were very confusing, and since i was doing the maddeningly specific “two color brioche stitch in the round,” it was difficult to find the video tutorial i needed. i did find one tutorial that showed continental style knitting in the round but it was so slow moving and the narrator knits in a really foreign way to me, so it made no sense.

i finally found a website dedicated to brioche stitch and i familiarized myself with all the different types and what the stitch is actually doing. i had actually found this site earlier, but i didnt click around on it, so when i came back and realized this site has an insane amount of info, i mentally kicked myself for not realizing sooner and learned my way around the brioche state of mind.

salvation came to me in this newsprint cowl (rav link). this is seriously the exact same cowl pattern as the purl bee. whoever made this pattern, THANK YOU SO MUCH because its the only two color brioche pattern i’ve found that makes sense to me. its so simple, why do other patterns have to muck up the directions so much????! but ANYWAY!!! im several rows in and she’s looking mighty pretty. im glad i found a use for this traded handspun white yarn– its sooo soft! and i also had this teal blue cascade 220 sitting around, and the combo is just so perfect! yay!

despite all of this, i love these little triumphs i work myself through.

my first lace shawl!

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i did it!!!! i finished my first shawl! its not perfect, but i cannot believe how good it looks. i furiously worked through the last of the edging on saturday, and then i bound off the top using the russian bind off, which is perfectly stretchy (but not TOOOO stretchy). when i finished it, i laid it out on the couch and i was pretty mneh about it– the top of it wasn’t straight, and you couldn’t really see the edging points at all.

so i blocked it! i soaked it in lukewarm water with wool wash for 20 minutes, and then gently squeezed it, and pinned it out. it took A LOT of pins to get every single edging point, but it was so worth it. As I impatiently waited for it to dry, i kept visiting it, which was a little silly. When i finally removed the pins and put it on, i was sooooo giddy! im so happy with it, and i love the color. i definitely feel a sense of accomplishment.

almost an aestlight.

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i picked back up my aestlight (rav) shawl. the birds eye lace is a little messed up on one side, but i’ve already frogged it once, and i decided i was just going to power through it and deal with it later. im now ½ way through the border, so its so very nearly done!!!

i came across a fabulous tutorial for blocking lace that i plan on following: yarn harlot. since this is my first lace project, i figured i should really read up on blocking, since its pretty much the only way to make this thing look presentable when its all finished.

long-awaited updates

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this past weekend i found a resurgence in my desire to knit. ive been really bummed that i haven’t really wanted to in months. you’d think the winter doldrums would be enough, but naturally its the spring weather and its lack of need for knitted things that pumps me up. im not complaining! i have so much beautiful yarn to use.

i have picked back up my mitered crosses blanket, but 5ish squares in, i realized this is going to be a tiny blanket unless i add more squares than the pattern specifies. i think im just going to use up all the yarn i have for it, and then assess the situation then. i really love the noro colorways, they make such unexpected color turns, and they way the mitered middle cross is constructed, random stripings from the yarn pair up. i love it. im flying to san francisco next week, so this will make for great airplane knitting.

ALSO, i finally finished my thrummed mittens. i let them sit for almost a year (sad!!!) with only the second thumb to knit! im not thrilled with how they turned out, i think they are very fuzzy and bulky, but i suppose that’s the nature of the thrum beast.

ANOTHER ALSO, i’m teaming up with a friend to make a footstool. he made the frame from scrap wood, and im going to weave the top from fabric scraps. i started experimenting this weekend, and i think achieving adequate tension is going to be difficult. i think i may need to use twine for the weft, and then the fabric scraps for the weave.

first sweater complete.

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so the joyous day has come! i finally finished my first sweater (rav link). i started it during a tumultuous time in my life, and i brought it with me and knitted in some situations that carry heavy and difficult memories. it felt like i was knitting these feelings into the sweater, so i put it down for a very long time– over a year. at the beginning of march, i told myself i needed to finish this sweater by the end of the month. i made it JUST in time!
when i started this project, i had never done cables, increases, sleeves, or seaming– i was a complete knitting newb. i have learned so much! ravelry is so helpful.. i dont know how many times i consulted the forums about almost every step in the pattern. im really happy i did the icord bindoff.. it looks really smart and professional, albeit very time-consuming. my main disappointment is the stripes. they didnt line up at all.. but i dont think it looks that bad. i ALMOST ran out of yarn.. see how much extra i had:

ahh, my knitting mind feels so at ease. 🙂

catch-up.

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DEEP BREATH. ive been working on many things but christmas and busy-ness intervened.

first bad news:
i crocheted some slippers but the pattern was terrible and they turned out too small and awkward.

the rest is good news:
i completed my first colorwork project: the inga hat. i wanted to make it for my mom for her birthday, but i found out she is not fond of hats. halfway through the project  i realized it was going to be too long (many people have suggested skipping 10ish rows because of this). stubbornly, i didnt listen to these wise souls and found myself most of the way through the hat, but before the decreases. as i came to this long-hat realization and decided to convert the project to a cowl.

the only modifications i made: no decreases and repeated the beginning at the top. i forgot to switch to smaller needles for the border.. which made me really mad but mostly came out when i blocked it.
so next up i have two WIPs to mention: thrummed mittens and the aestlight shawl (rav link). both projects have elements ive never worked with before: wool roving and lacework, respectively. i am almost through the first mitt, and im halfway through the birds-eye lace on the shawl. i am looking forward to finishing both! i see spring-y projects on the horizon…

ooh that ‘garter stitch goodness…’

two hats and withholding.

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(insert witty Arrested Development reference here.)


hello! i know i havent written in awhile but ive been making lots of things but they are surprises for people so i cant discuss them! two of the hats i made have been gifted already, though, so i can share about them:
first up is a trilobite hat made with cascade 220 .

this was a fun, easy pattern to follow. i had never used a chart before in knitting, and its pretty easy– especially if you have the pattern printed out (right now im working on something and i keep forgetting to print it– annoying to have to stay by the computer to read it). it turned out a little snug, but i sent it to my sister for her birthday and she said she likes it.. i haven’t seen it on her yet to verify.
next up is wurm (pdf). this hat turned out a lot bigger than i wanted. i’ve had the ‘hat too small’ problem several times in the past, so i opted to make the largest size for this. it turned out like a rasta hat, which may or may not be a good thing.
the brim was something i haven’t done before: it is double-thick. it was easy, and definitely worth the extra (slight) effort of doing double the knitting and then matching up the fold-over to keep knitting.

i’ve got two more yarn projects in the works, but they are presents for christmas (HOPEFULLY), so i’ll share them after they have been delivered.