Big Triangle and Little Triangle

For the past few days I have been working on two triangular shawls. The first one I started is knitted in a color called Kenai. It is fingering weight and knitpicks.com brand Gloss . I absolutely love the color... Which is probably why it looks almost completely like the blue I choose for the cardigan. I bought them both on different occasions without even being aware of the fact that they are so close in tone.

The pattern for this shawl is called Haruni and you can find it on knitpicks as well as ravelery. I really like how it came out. I can't wait to see the finished shawl. Unfortunately that is going to be delayed just a little longer since I am almost out of yarn (as you can see by the tiny yarn ball in the picture) and I had to order another skein for the last 6 rows... oh well. Hopefully the yarn is shipped soon and I can finish this project.

I also started knitting this beautiful pattern. I am knitting it in Gloss, lace weight. The color very fittingly is called Dandelion. Since the pattern is calling for a fingering weight yarn I am right now adjusting the amount of stitches. I think I will knit 9x15 instead of the suggested 5x15, which is almost double and should be sufficient to obtain a good size. This one I am actually making for myself. I always wear scarfs or shawls for teaching and in general so I actually own quite a collection by now. And I am always looking for a new addition. This one will be perfect. Again I can't wait to see the finished product. And I may just cast on another ginko shawl in the canopy Tonal Shadow I have in my yarn stash waiting to be used.

Have you ever wondered how to knit a Giant Clam?

At the beginning of January I was asked by Andrew if I can make a giant clam and a box jelly-fish... By the end of the night I had a long long list of underwater creatures that he would like for his 8th Birthday. I got to work right away but lost interest after one or two weeks and went on to other projects. Since the birthday was this Tuesday I had to get moving on finishing the various underwater creatures requested... And I did.

I already blogged about some of the creatures featured in this birthday present like the Nautilus Shells and Blue Sea Star Others just got done last night. Among those is the beautiful red and yellow sunflower starfish, which is a Hansi Singh pattern and featured in her book Amigurumi Knits. I absolutely love the vibrant color combination, the way how the knitting direction of the arms contrasts with the stitch direction of the body, and everything else about this fun and fast (if you don't hibernate it for weeks) project. I was really surprised at the decorative effect the whip stitch gave the bottom of the arms as well.

Another project that hibernated for weeks and got finished Thursday night is the jelly-fish. It is a modification of Hansi Singh's Pattern. The purple tentacles and navy-blue strings are 100% Hansi Singh while the body is a heavily modified version. The whole point was to make the body as "boxy" as possible. I am still not sure if it is square enough but this is what I got. I could make another one that is more box-like but at this point I really don't feel like making another one. Maybe at some point in the future...

Have you ever wondered how to knit a Giant Clam? Well, me neither. And according to my extensive internet pattern search not many people do in general. So I was on my own. To make matters more difficult I had strict requirements for this knit: You have to be able to open and close it. It needed to be as big as possible. There needed to be a pearl in the middle. I started out casting on with two strings of yarn and then separated the loops into two rows (which gave me a nice strong and indestructible joint for the upper and lower shell). Then I knitted a very basic shape in a rib pattern and ended in an i-cord cast off. (I can write up my pattern if you are interested). I picked up some stitches on the inside outer edge of each shell piece and knitted the inside in a great gray. It changes from light to dark gray which gave the inside a really interesting spiral-like pattern. Then I knitted a little ball in white and attached it to the middle of one side. It is not perfect, of course, and I may experiment with shaping the outside shell with short rows... I think I know how this would theoretically work... But I am sure the 8-year old in question will be just fine with this very basic version of a giant clam.

Now all that needs to be done is the wrapping... and we will hopefully have a very happy 8-year-old.

Ice and Knitts...

Snow... ehm Ice Day!!! Which means I don't have to teach today and it also means the lessons I prepared can be used on Friday and I don't need to prepare... Very exciting. And even better it gives me time to knit a few things that have been on someone's birthday wish list. I kind of have to make it up as I go and hopefully I will be more successful than the last few times I tried. We shall see.

On another note, I finally got around to blocking my rainforest scarf. Which is very exciting. I think it came out pretty well. Although I am not sure I will wear it. I have a million green scarfs among others a great big tube scarf from Urban Outfitters. So I don't know I may just give this one away... Not sure.

I also finished my very first cardigan. I really really like it. The pattern was super easy and it was flexible enough to be changed to fit me. I am still really really in love with the color of the yarn. It fits great and looks amazing. I actually wore it for teaching yesterday and it kept me nice and warm on the long drive to Montclair.

Recently, I also got some new yarn that I am very excited about. They are all KnitPicks brand. The beautiful Gloss Bordeaux is going to be a nice little sweater designed by Veera Välimäki called Plain and Simple. Of course the two hanks I got are not going to be enough... So I will just have to order a little more. I still don't know what I am going to do with the rest of the beautiful yarn. But I am sure I will come up with something. So stay tuned. New stuff coming soon.

Teaching Tools and New Yarn

As a language teacher I am always trying to find ways to make students interact with each other and have fun at the same time. One such method is to use a ball that is thrown from student to student. Students then either ask each other a question and elicit an answer or you go around reading something one line, word, letter at a time. I generally like to use the ball, because I don't have to pick people and students will keep track of who had a turn and who did not themselves... so its fun, they interact and I don't have to keep track... Yeah.

In Missouri, we had a tennis ball for such occasions. And quite honestly I never liked to use it because obviously you can really hurt someone with it.... Not a good idea even in a college classroom. So for the most part I use a very soft cow... (Yes the animal you would usually see on meadows grazing...). Obviously I do not have any of those things here in NJ. So I just knitted a ball-like thing.

It worked perfectly as we went around the room reading the alphabet... No one got hurt... We do need to practice the throwing... but all in all well worth spending the two hours to knit this. It also used up most of my left-overs from the owl-knit.

I also purchased new yarn today... Very very pretty blue. It is a heather so the color varies just a little throughout which adds some interest. Originally, I was looking for a nice gray. But this color just caught my eye and I had to have it. It is also perfect for my very first cardigan of which I have already completed 7 rows.

You may be asking what happened to all the stuffies I made in the beginning and why I am not working on those anymore... And no worries, there are still stuffies being made, although considerably less. I just finished another ninja. Since he is going to be a birthday present pictures are going to have to wait till March though. But he turned out quite well. I still have not decided on his special weapon though. I am also still working on some underwater themed stuffies for Andrew although I have not been having much luck with the box-jellyfish and giant clam so far.

Rainforest

Yeah... it is done. My first Lace project is all finished and I am in love with my new beautiful scarf. I still need to block it (and figure out how to block a knitted piece first) but I could not be more satisfied with the result.

Admittedly, I don't know how many times I had to open up entire rows again because I forgot a Yarn Over in the pattern row before.. but it was all worth the trouble.
I will definitely post another picture once it is blocked and even more beautiful.
The pattern is available for free on knitpicks. It is called Winter Flame by juliet romeo juliet.

I also still had about 1.25 skeins left after I finished the scarf so I went and started a pair of fingerless gloves. They are done with central cable... Very pretty, if you ask me. I have by now finished the first one and I really like them. I can't belief how easy they were to make.... I guess I always think things are way more complicated than they actually are... go figure. This pattern is available as a free download on ravelry. It is called Humanity by dlotter.

I also started another Ninja... So many birthdays coming up soon that I have quite the list of stuffies to make.... The ninja was just the easiest choice for right now... I guess I will start on the more complicated stuffies this weekend... (Permitting lesson prep does not take up all weekend....)

Finished and in Progress

I finished the starfish from Hansi Singh's Amigurumi Knits The center is knitted a little too tight. So the arms are really sticking out, but it's fine. I like how he came out. I love the changing colors in the yarn (Red Heart Super Saver Brand, Color 0794 Bay Print)

The under-sight was also done in a Red Heard Super Saver yarn which is called Aran Fleck Color 4313.

Right now I am working on Hansi Singh's Sun Star and I am designing a box jellyfish. I also started my very first lace project. Admittedly I am not doing it in a lace yarn but you have to start somewhere, right? And I read that it is better to start with a thicker yarn so I choose Lion Brand Amazing in color 202 or Rainforest. After 4 repeats I am in love with the look of it. Pictures of the finished product coming soon....

Mine and Semi-Mine

A little while after I started knitting and making stuffies I was over at my host parents house for dinner. That night their son Andrew told me about his biggest wish for Christmas. He wanted a stuffed animal Lilo and Stitch Experiment 345. Unfortunately no one makes such Elastico (the name of the experiment). So I had my work cut out for me. At that point I had knitted enough stuffed animals from Knitted Wild Animals so I started experimenting with the forms.

I started with the hands. The first hand I made had fingers but the wrist was all wrong. In order to fix that I made a second one with a modified wrist and thumb pattern. In order to safe me some time I did not give this trial piece fingers though. On the finished stuffie I did a combination. I used the second wrist and thumb and gave it the fingers from the first trial. I modified the fingers in the finished one by knitting them in the round instead of straight with seaming.

Then I worked on the body. This part was fairly easy. I just had to get the placement of the purple dot in the middle right. Again I ended up making two and got it right on the second trial.

Then came the most daunting part. I had to make the head.... As you can see it is not the easy kind of head. It is actually constructed of a total of 11 pieces: the head itself, the white mask, two dark green eye patches, a nose, and three "spikes" on top each made out of two pieces. I found the finished product rather creepy and jokingly called it the creepy alien clown every time I talked to my host parents about him.

Making the arms and legs was fairly easy. I finished him just in time. An hour before I went over to my host parents house on Christmas Eve.

Andrew (the lucky 7-year-old) was very happy about the end-product. And Elastico is well cared for now. He gets to sleep in the bed every night and is kept safe from any harm. He even gets to take refuge in the car when something is happening in the house ;)

Apart from this big pre-Christmas project, I also experimented with the patterns I had in the books. I changed the monkey body from Knitted Wild Animals . My modified version is wearing a jacket and a blue tie. Doing this was sort of confusing at first, because I had only been knitting for a few short weeks and did not really know too much about patterns and how to best modify things and figure out how everything will fit together in the end product etc... but I figured it out. I like Mr. Monkey with the tie. He is very cute and was adopted into our stuffie collection.