Tag Archives: bird

Not Knitting

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It’s been hot as… well, something that’s really hot.  It’s been too hot to really think.  And it’s definitely been too hot to knit.

Seattle doesn’t usually get more than a day or two of hot weather in the summer.  (I’m talking actual hot weather, not “Seattle Hot” where it gets to 75 degrees and everyone whines.)  But this year, we’ve had a couple weeks of upper 80s/low 90s, which is real miserable.  No one has air conditioning around here, and in the places that do (like the mall), it’s pretty disappointing.

So I’ve set my big blue sweater aside for the time being.  As lovely as it is, I’m not interested in sitting with a gigantic pile of wool on my lap.  No thank you.

Instead, I went diving into my craft room stash for something a little more seasonally-appropriate to do.

And, boy, did I hit the jackpot!  (Thanks, Past Allison!)

At some point, I must have been on a cross-stitching jag, and I bought three little cross stitch kits.  They’re cute little Christmas-y birds (that are inexplicably postage-themed?).  A goldfinch, a bluebird and a chickadee.I had already started the goldfinch- the “stamp” part was mostly done when I pulled it out the other day.  (I honestly have no memory of working on this cross stitch- I must have started it years ago!)  A couple days of work, and voila!   I’m working on the bluebird now.  I’ve already messed up the head, but I don’t think it’s terribly noticeable, so I decided not to unpick the problematic stitches- he’s just a slightly chubbier-than-normal bluebird.The birds are supposed to be made into little ornaments, but I’m not sure if that’s what I’ll do with them.  Maybe they’ll end up being part of a wall hanging quilt, or sewn into little pillows.

I suppose I should finish them before I go planning next steps.

What do you do when it’s too hot to knit?

Stellar Jay Sweater: Gauge and Math

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It’s here! It’s here! Let’s all ooh and ahh at the beautiful yarn!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERANext step is to whip up a swatch. I have been brainstorming this sweater, and I think that plain stripes are too boring, so I’ve decided to do a little scallop design between each stripe, so I’m going to include that in my swatch, to see how it looks. Two birds. One stone.

I knit up a square of fabric about six inches by six inches. And I’ve worked my scallop pattern both right-side-up and upside down, to see which I like better.

This is the upside-down version, but I think it makes the scallops look a little rectangular.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is the right-side up version, which I like better.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This means that I will need to work my sweater from the bottom up, which is important to know when I start designing my pattern.

I pulled out my gauge meter (you could just use a ruler or tape measure) and measured out my gauge. I got 5 sts per inch and 7 rows per inch in stockinet stitch on size 8 needles.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERASo, now that I know my gauge, and the general design I want to use (bottom up pullover), I do a little math and sketch out my pattern. I’m basing this one on Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Percentage System, to give me the bones of the sweater, but I’m tweaking it a bit to deal with an all-over stripes pattern, instead of only a yoke pattern.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERABelieve it or not, those chicken scratches make sense to me. I usually sketch out my pattern like this (on a drawing), before I start knitting. Then, as I knit up the pattern, I’ll make notes into a notebook or on my computer in more standard knitting lingo. But, for now, this will do nicely for me.

Now I get to go cast on! Woo!