Tops, Tanks, and Tees KAL wrap-up

It’s done! I finished! The morning of the last day of the KAL I was furiously seaming and weaving in ends on my Liesl tank. You can’t get much more last-minute than that. But that’s totally how I roll — always has been. I suppose I am rather productive in a bit of a time crunch.

And verdict: I love it.

It’s funny, I realized recently that I’m more of a process knitter than a product knitter — meaning that I enjoy the making of something more than the end result so much. Well, at least this has been true of the garments I’ve made for myself so far. But I sometimes wonder whether it’s simply that I’m knitting the wrong size, or with the wrong yarn, or choosing my pattern unwisely. I am still relatively new to this knitting thing (only a couple years in, here), so I probably have lots to learn. Especially about patience. And swatching properly. And choosing appropriate fibre. And blocking. And how to get the proper fit I’m looking for. Sigh. So okay, that is a lot.

But hey, this one worked out pretty well, finished-product-wise. I wore it all day today and it was great!

But back to this KAL thing. Shannon over at luvinthemommyhood posted her big reveal about the prizes to be won for those KALers lucky enough to have their names drawn. And as I mentioned before, I am one of the KAL sponsors! The astitchinlime Etsy shop, where I sell my handmade stitch markers, is donating one set of markers to each of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place KAL winners. So fun, right? I can’t wait to see who wins and which set they each choose!

   

   

Which set would you choose?
(More options for the indecisive at astitchinlime.etsy.com)

Make sure to check out Shannon’s awesome other sponsors to see what loot awaits the lucky three prize winners! I’m so flattered to be listed among the other KAL sponsors, who are delivering some seriously wonderful goods. Truth.

Going postal

My mama friends on Ravelry organized another swap this spring, and I sent a couple of handmade goodies off as a part of my package destined for Emily (and her daughter, M) in Connecticut. Wanna see?

Goodie the first:

A hand-sewn (and more or less improvised) sock project bag with a divider to separate working yarn. Emily knits two socks at a time, like a boss, so needs to keep her two balls of yarn from tangling up. She mentioned she could use something like this, and I figured I could make it happen for her. I loosely based the bag’s construction on the hobo bag I sewed ages ago from Lula Louise’s shoulder bag tutorial, but had to figure out how to incorporate a divider between the two halves. Let me tell you: I am not very spatially adept. This required many inside-out and upside-down steps that hurt my brain. But it basically turned out well! Pretty proud of myself for not accidentally sewing the wrong side of the fabric to the outside. Or to my own hand. (Just kidding. Or am I? I’m pretty tired these days…)

Goodie the second:

My son, A, modeling M’s red ears hat. The hat was hard to part with after this display of cuteness!

A hand-knit baby hat for her daughter, M. The pattern is called All Ears, and is available for free on Ravelry. The hat is very simple and fast to knit, and would make a great baby gift for any expecting/new mama. Or any older baby. Or maybe with some adjustments, any adult. Anyway, I just so happen to have the perfect yarn leftover from a recent project to make another one for A to keep! It’s fate, right? Fate.

I mean come on.

Goodie the third:

A set of small stitch markers, that I (HEADSLAP!) did not get a photo of before sending off!  Whaaaaat? But it’s okay. They kinda looked like this:

Except not. They had blue loops and four had blue beads with the one contrast marker sporting a fuchsia bead. So kind of the inverse colour scheme of this set? You can use your imagination. You will have to! So there.

The rest of the loot:

In the un-hand-made camp, I also sent Emily some tea, lip balm, two books, pacifiers, a silly badge, a baby music CD, some sock yarn, two pairs of BabyLegs legwarmers, and chocolates. Here’s a shot of the stash she took when she opened it:

And here are some pictures of her daughter, M, enjoying her goodies:

Nom nom nom!

And nom some more!

I had so much fun putting her package together and including fun items for both mama and babe. I got so wrapped up in getting it all together that I kept forgetting that I’m also expecting a package someday very soon! I can’t wait to see what my swap partner has cooked up for me. I already feel spoiled just thinking of the mystery goodies coming my way.

Stitch markers, reloaded

Large (Rainbow) stitch markers

Well, I’ve gotten a little stitch-marker-happy these last couple of weeks. I’ve upped my game a bit and invested in some satin cording to make these puppies look a bit more professional than my first set did. It’s been fun refining my technique as I’ve been putting these sets together, and I’m getting faster and more skilled when making them. I also invested in a set of round-nose pliers recently and they’ve helped immensely. Way better than regular needle-nose pliers. Who knew!?

I’ve made most of these while squinting in the dim light over my dining room table after the baby’s asleep for the night. That, or if he’s awake, I’ve poked and prodded at them in a very piecemeal fashion over the course of several hours, hoping my cat won’t try to eat them while I’m distracted with the baby. Multitasking: I has it!

Here’s a gander at the result of my efforts:

Medium (Blue/Green) stitch markers

Medium (Purple/Burgundy) stitch markers

Large (Green/Blue) stitch markers

Large (Rainbow) stitch markers

Medium (Burgundy/Purple) stitch markers

Small (Rainbow) stitch markers

Medium (Yellow/Orange) stitch markers

Small (Orange/Turquoise) stitch markers

Large (Rainbow) stitch markers

So what’s even more fun? Finally, after much wringing of hands, I decided to set up shop and sell these puppies on Etsy! That’s right, astitchinlime has now got a virtual storefront! This is a big step for me and, I’ll admit, it overwhelmed me pretty instantaneously. But I did it, and even if no one buys a single thing from my shop, I really have had fun setting it all up and making (and photographing!) the stitch markers.

I plan on expanding the shop to sell other items sometime in the future, but for now these stitch markers are a small, achievable craft and I can get my head around making several sets. And I feel comfortable selling them since they’re entirely my own creation — I didn’t use a tutorial or pattern to make them (unlike the vast majority of my knitting, for example), so I have no copyright anxiety or morally grey feelings about selling them, and can just enjoy giving it a whirl.

Come check out astitchinlime on Etsy, and let me know what you think!

Flexible knitting stitch markers

I’ve been knitting for over two years now, and have until recently been using little scraps of yarn and string as my stitch markers. I’ve tried to use the fancy stitch markers before, but have found that the rigid metal/plastic rings or loops ended up causing a ladder of loose stitches in my work. I’m a pretty tight knitter, so I really need something flexible to avoid this.

One of the lovely knit night ladies, Amy of Family Feedbag, was making some stitch markers a few weeks back using the typical metal rings. She got me thinking about how I could make my own, and I figured out a scheme to keep them flexible. I bought some cotton cord and some of those little metal clampy things that you usually use for attaching fasteners to necklaces and bracelets. Yes, clampy things. You can tell my jewelry-making experience is vast, right?

I cut a short length of cord, formed a loop, and clamped the ends into the clampy things using needle-nosed pliers. Then I attached some little shell beads that I’ve had in my bead stash for approximately 3 billion years. The beads naturally varied in colour, so I was able to make a set of five markers with one being darker than the rest. This would be useful if, say, one needed to mark the start of a round as well as other key points in the work (e.g., raglan increases).

So voilà! I now have some pretty stitch markers that are sufficiently mushable that they won’t screw up my knitting. Well, they’re an improvement over scrap yarn and string, anyway! Thanks to Amy for the inspiration!