Fiber Follies

Some Finished Objects by FiberFollies

Models: Naked Plaster Torso (by Precious Child); Goose neck lamps; A Duck-shaped Basket, A Cat Scratching Post, & whatever else might have been at hand when needed-including the kitchen table.

Since I am now an actual factual Gran I am entitled to make up cute little things for my grand daughter. Here’s a first, requested by Precious Child ‘way before the birth. The pattern is from Hey Julie. I made the Five-Cable hat and the Ten-Cable hat. The hats are a bit wonky at the band, tending to pop right off the girl’s head. Solution would include using an even smaller needle size for the band and increase the stitches for the hat itself, perhaps by a stitch or two extra between the cables. That would make a more balanced hat shape that may stay put. The yarn is a blend that Precious Child got at Winderwood Farm then spun up on her wheel. I believe it’s a blend of alpaca, angora, and silk, looks like mohair, I don’t really know and she doesn’t remember. It’s dyed by Bob himself so of course the colours are luscious.

Here, an eon or two after starting it, is the Baby Bog Jacket, from the almighty Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitting Around. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out a nice little closure for it, thinking that buttons could be a swallowing/choking hazard and that a nice tie could be a strangling hazard. The the wool fumes cleared long enough to send me running to a yarn cubbie for Dalegarn Baby Ull in near-white. I cranked out two lengths of i-cord then worked them round and tacked them into shape, finally tacking them to the jacket. Voila, a frog. Very fitting on a knitted item!

It took me forever to finish PrestoChango! I hatehatehate making up stuff after all the parts are knitted. So I put it off until I feared that the baby would be too big to wear it. Making up was easier than I expected-except the buttons. For all the times I started stitching them on then removed them and placed them again, they’re still not even. sigh. don’t think Vesper will be too fussed about crooked buttons though. Oh, the buttons were made by Bob at Winderwood Farm. He just outright gave them to me to finish this-and I think they’re perfect-they sparkle!

Bob gave me a few skeins of handsome handspun a few years ago. I kept it tidy, hauled it out to gaze upon from time to time, and never did anything with it. Until winter, when I got sick of being cold. I knitted up a notched neckwarmer in a hurry, which is wonderfully warm. Sorry, no pattern, I just picked up yarn and a circular needle and had at it until the neckwarmer was finished. I then chose to knit a Marsan Watchcap to coordinate with the neckwarmer. Unfortunately the cap didn’t turn out as well, I ought to have used smaller needles. It lacked body and spring so I fulled the nonsense out of it to make a windproof cap that still has a noticeable ribbing. I fulled the neckwarmer a bit too. I love them.

Reversible cabled scarf and a hat to (sort of) match. Laines du Nord Giunco. These were Christmas gifts for The Husband.

Bob, aka Winderwood Farm, made me a batt of a few different wools and some alpaca and maybe a bit of angora too. It was my first batt, I’d only been spinning a week, so the yarn wasn’t nice and consistent. But the colours! Largish needles and lots of YOs and K2TOGs made it into this rather nice airy cowl.

I made this buttoned muffler as a super toasty in-betweener from coat to cap. Rowan Polar, from Precious Child at Christmas ‘05. The pattern is my slightly modified take on the Freestanding Muffler in KnitWit by Amy R. Singer (knitty!) . I made the cowl in January ‘06. It expanded when washed and instead of neatly blocking this, I flung it into the dryer for about 10 minutes. Now slightly felted, it’s very soft, and super warm.

Thought this Fair-Isle scarf would be the end of me. Cast on in January ‘07, finally finished May ‘07. Sore hands, De Quervain’s, pneumonia, bronchitis and general whatever kept me from getting it finished much much sooner. Pity, it’s for Precious’ husband’s birthday, which was in early January. Whoops. But it is rather nice looking. Done up on 3.75mm dpns, using Elspeth Lavold’s Silky Wool. Lovely lovely yarn but next time I do Fair Isle I’m using an Aran weight wool and substantially larger needles.

Down there a bit: Variation of Quaker Rib and a sort of Fake Isle hat. The Quaker Rib is Cascade 220 Superwash Wool and Laines du Nord Giunco. It’s a Frugal Knitting Haus free pattern. I am a slow knitter, but even with the added colours it was finished in just a few hours. The stripey hat is a variety of superwash wools and acrylic.

Below: Tychus from knitty, and a diagonally knit garter scarf to match. Knit in Cascade 220 Superwash wool.

Also Below: Coronet, another knitty pattern. Knit in Plymouth Suri Merino, I knit the band facing outward without the fold. VooDoo Wristwarmers, yet another pattern from Knitty. What can I say? Knitty puts up terrific patterns. The lighter pair is Lion Brand MicroSpun carried along with that fuzzy stuff that everyone bought at Target back in November 2005. Precious Child bought a poo load of it and sent plenty to me. The pastel heathered pinky-purpley pair is an unidentified acrylic yarn from a live swap.

Mammeslydesug was my first doily. I chose to knit this for the Knitting Olympics in February 2006. There are lots of mistakes in it. Still pretty though. And huge. Then a panta, posing on a hat. I’ve made two pantas-they’re a fairly quick and easy knit, and come out looking pretty darn nice.

Branching Out, also from Knitty.

A pink and black Tychus specially requested by Precious Child for her birthday. Oh, yes. My first ever socks. No pattern, just a toe-up with a fudged heel flap-which I later discovered was the way to do heel flaps on toe up socks, and a travelling rib leg. Knee high. Took me six months from start to finish.

A pretty neat pattern, long ago misplaced, for these ollas. I made them up for a SP round so they no longer reside here. Araucania wool, double strand. It’s an unevenly spun wool, and I found while knitting that when one strand was thin so would the other be. They would go thick together too. This made for a weird gapy meshy fabric.  So I fulled the bejabbers out of them, resulting in a pretty solid fabric about a cm thick. They actually held water. I tried. It did take about three days to dry them the first time, and they smelled a bit off so I washed and blocked again, letting them dry overnight, running them in the dryer for a bit, then re-blocking for another night. Perfect. I’d make them again, just because.

If I ever see any more of my long-ago given away FOs I’ll get images. Some were pretty good.