Today's free patterns

http://imaginarywardrobe.blogspot.com/search/label/my%20pattern

Craft Stylish paper hand mask

knit bokaclava

armed robbery for the whole family

Update - knitting and crocheting in October

First some halloweeny things I've been doing lately.
Maple leaf socks by Jeanie Townsend get to be in the picture because of the colors.
The bag is actually a trick-or-treat bag from Lion Brand, but I think it works as a Halloween hand bag too :-) I made the handles with 6 st icord. I want to felt it again, because it isn't thick enough.
The doll is Scara Lee by Sally George. It has been on my to-do list for years now, so it's about time it gets done. I gave her red hair instead of suggested white or grey. My hubby says she has my chin LOL

Spider scarf.

a soulie... a little totem where one's soul can rest when awaken abruptly... It was supposed to look like barbapapa, so pear it was...

Here's my projects... the plastic bags are my new project bags and they work perfectly. Just the right size to hold a little bigger project, see through, easy to move and stand by themselves.
In the basket left is the free crochet afghan.
In the low basket front is the acrylic yarn needed for Krystal's daisy squares; cotton for dishcloths; black alpacka for wrist warmers and pink wool for breast cancer awareness socks

My CPH

Latvian mittens

I have been studying Latvian Mittens by Lizbeth Upitis.

Now, I admire the folk women and their imagination very much, but some of the color combinations they have used in these mittens are... well... the nicest way to describe these ladies' sense of color is... not to describe it at all.

It looks like they have chosen their colors from the give away for free bin from the cheapest yarn store in town, you know the one with acrylic yarns from 70's and 80's - a disgusting combination of puke greens and browns with shocking bright aniline lilacs, pinks and yellows... In a mitten otherwise very pretty they manage to push in one or two threads of fugly spoiling the whole impression... like for example, on a black mitten decorated with red and green flowers and leaves, they add dirty yellow and green stripes and pink (YES, PINK!!!) and grey edge... Or they knit a mitten in black and white - and add brown. And these are not colors straight from sheep either, it's pure white, pure black and pure brown... Brrr. Or the ugly old rose/lavender purple with sheep black and beige. Add a little lemon yellow and apple green and a dash och sheep white, and you have a mitten not even your mother would wear. Or on black peagreen, raspberry pink and mauve.

I start to understand why the Finns don't have this kind of sock and mitten knitting history, though we do have a very nice sock and mitten knitting history of our own. (and here I paused, because my eyes fell on an especially awful pair of mittens on the cover of the book... wine, dirty and pale Neapolitan yellow and apple green... Yikes. Interestingly just the next pair could be Finnish or Estonian... mainly blue and white with pretty white, red, gray and black border. On the other side of the ugly mitten is another ugly mitten: on black dirty greenish yellow and bright green. Above it is a pretty blue-grey and white with black and dark red used to accentuate the pattern. Very pretty.)

Sure, it is quite possible that the color have changed during the time, and that the people knitting the mittens didn't have anything else but just the ugly colors - these Latvian mittens are all very nicely done. Then there are some wonderful color combinations I would never have thought but that look just amazing... like Payne's gray, golden brown and wine or red, purple and yellow with just a dash of apple green.

The worst part of this, I think, is that I know people who think these color combinations are wonderful. I had a class mate who made everything in this kind of combinations... And the people producing the hard acrylics still make them in the worst colors of 70's and 80's and there are people who keep buying them and combining them. "Doesn't this pink make this baby poop (pea mush) green, beige, bright orange and brown look absolutely adorable?" No, it doesn't. NOTHING can make those colors look adorable. Not even a Latvian mitten.



Today's free links: Amigurumi List and Crafty Crow

Kun ei yhtään huvita...

No joo... on sukkakuu ja sukat puikoilla ja useat suunniteltu.
Ompelin tänään projektipusseja - korvaan paperipusseja läpinäkyvästä muovista ommelluilla pusseilla, jotka seisoo tanakasti omin avuin, läpi näkyy ja pitää sisällään hyvin pitkätkin puikot ja sukkalangat, tekeleen ja ohjeen ihan nätisti. Mitä vaan ettei tarvitse neuloa.
Neulon niitä tiskirättejä...


Illuusio-pöllö... ja ei ole ihan neliskanttinen ja viivat suoria ja aloitus ja päättely samanlevyisiä. Entäs sitten? Tämä on tiskirätti eikä mikään pitsihuivi näyttelyyn. Kuka tiskirättejä pingottaa?

Tässä sitten näkyy se illuusio hyvin - tosi vinosti pitää kuvata. Ja sitten vähän tietokonetaikuutta - tuo ylempi kuva venyteltynä ja viruteltuna neliskanttiseksi - näyttää ihan sulista tehdyltä :-)
So... what did I just say? I have been reading Finnish knitting blogs and don't feel like writing in English. Sorry about that. Basically I'm saying that I have knitted an illusion dishcloth and sewing some project bags to avoid knitting socks and my cardigan which I desperately need. It might be 30 degrees Celsius in Canada but here it's at least 10 degrees less. I think there might be frost in ground during the night.

What Ket did? II

This is some things I have been doing late September, early October.
Owl Sleeping Mask - owls don't have cat eyes...
Boo Bookmark - buu in Finnish ;-)
Morning Glory bedsocks - I just knitted long enough for the purse to become socks, added heel and made them of wool instead of cotton/linen. If you do this, I suggest you make more holes for the string.
Stephanie van der Linden's Binsenkörbchen Socks

I also charted a cute kitty filet crochet - a vintage pattern

I say it's from 20's or 30's and the original is rather damaged. I don't know what it has been... It's too wide to be a bookmark, but it has a really odd shape. Perhaps it was a chair arm cover or bell pull... or meant to be inserted in a blouse. It could also have been the flap and back of a cute little bag. You do what ever you wish with it :-)

The upper part of the chart isn't accurate - I just copied the cat and the general idea - you can add or remove rows to your liking.
You start by crocheting 75 ch and make a dc in the 3rd ch from the hook and in each after that - you should have 72 dc and 1 dc made of 2 ch's. Then you just follow the chart.

You make
- the "black dots" by crocheting a dc in each ch or dc on previous row (one square is 3 dc's)
- the "white dots" by crocheting 2 ch skipping next 2 ch/dc on previous row and making a dc in 3rd
- the "v square" is made by ch 3, skip next 2 ch/dc on previous row, sc in 3rd, ch 3, skip next 2 ch/dc on previous row, 1 dc in next ch/dc.
- the eye is made by making a "v square" and on the next round dc, ch 2, tr in the same dc, tr in the dc "on the other side of the v square", ch 2, dc
- The nose is a bit special. You replace two "black squares" by crocheting 1 dc, increase 3 dc, skip 3 dc from previous row, 1 dc in 4th dc and 1 dc to "finish off" the "black square".
Here's little help on how to increase in filet crochet and here's how to make the "fancy mesh" - "v square"

I came here to post a new entry...

Here's Tip Junkie's Halloween tutorials
The Happenings: 30 days of halloween
Someone created a blog with a Halloween project each week, and I was moderately interested, but I have lost the URL. Well... (It was Roman Sock)

Here's Gothober... it's a bit special. Countdown calender to Halloween. Not crafty.

My sister was talking about the reborn baby dolls...

and eventually I got here: painting your own reborn baby doll
This reminded me of all the OOAK fashion doll remakes and such, and I found Legends by Valkyrie. She has some very nice tutorials and other interesting information on her site, among them link to her tutorial videos at YouTube. Well... one thing led to another and I was thinking of using the ideas and techniques for painting the reborn dolls to painting fashion dolls, and I was thinking of giving it a try. I love these OOAK dolls... and one really doesn't need to be perfect to create something very nice.

Though sometimes... the best efforts can produce something I don't think was the purpose...
From left to right - Raegynh by Dolla Butler, Pocahontas by Mattel - the base doll to both of these remakes, and a repaint by Medusa the Dollmaker...
Now Dolla can do better, and I'm sure this Raegynh is excellently made, but the face and the make-up together add up to a transvestite... named "raisin"? (I'm sorry, Dolla, no offense intented, just my opinion.)
Now, Medusa's remake... WOW! Amazing!

Here's some repainted Barbies by Lauren Leigh. Here's dolls by Kedra Manning.
Here's dolls by Aleksandra Bryla.

Here's "the best rerooting tutorial ever!"
how to root eyelashes
1/6 sense tutorials

In my old computer I had some links to how to remold (sculpt) the face by cutting and sculpting with gesso, but it's gone...

Don't take my blog too seriously...

My blog is a picture of a short moment in my life. Mostly I'm quite ok. Sure, I'm depressed and sad, but I can be happy too, laugh and fool around, and I do that every day, so I'm not that sad a person ;-)

Today I'm going to share with you my "Good Witch, Bad Witch" sock pattern. It's really easy. You start as you like, from toes up or cuff down, have the kind of toes or cuff you like best. The sock is going to have 48 stitches with as loose hand as I have or 72 stitches, if you knit tighter with finer yarn. You can also choose any amount of stitches that suits your yarn and hand, and add black/orange color stripes on both sides of the pattern, so that you get the amount of stitches you need. This pattern repeat has 24 stitches, so if you knit socks with 60 stitches, you'll add 6 stitches on both sides of the sock. That way you can also knit knee high socks - you put the increases/decreases in these color stripes and just repeat the witchy pattern as many times as you like. (Click on the chart to see it bigger.)

When you get to the heel, make it the way you like - it would look nice in two-colored brioche...
You can continue with the pattern on the foot too, but leave the brooms out and center the pattern. It will look better that way. Also, make the sole "dotty", like in Norwegian socks. That doesn't really need a pattern... it's R1: *1 MC, 1 CC*, 1 MC, r2: *1 CC, 1 MC*, 1 CC - repeat rounds 1 and 2 as many times as needed.
And, frankly, you can mix the stripes as you like, add other patterns and basically do what ever you want. You could make only cats the whole sock... The cat is 6 stitches wide, so it fits any size socks alone, whether you use 48, 54, 60, 66, 72 or 78 stitches in a sock. It would be lovely to make cat sock with different cat colored scrap yarns...
(Yes, I'm aware that the bats don't look much like bats, but - if you have a better chart for bats, use that in stead.)

I'm sad today... once again...

I started knitting Firestarter socks a day before yesterday. Today I frogged them, because the yarns didn't match as well as I'd hoped. *sigh*
I have ideas - one of the themes for September was Morning Glory - it's a flower, apparently September's flower, pretty. There's some free Morning Glory patterns online, and I had an idea of how to turn those into socks. I knitted the socks for several hours, realized it's not going to work and ripped them too.
I'm really sad that my ideas don't work. I'd need very much an idea that does work, to pick me up. Right now I'm really sad about the fact that I'm poor and cannot buy everything I'd like to and that my hand is so loose that even with 2 mm needles and laceweight yarn I can't make socks with 64 stitches. *sigh*
And I'm also sad that I'm fat and sick, and life is heavy.
I think I'll start a lace shawl that doesn't require any gauge... with lace shawls the looser the hand the bigger and airier the shawl :-D

But - print&pattern is inspiring and Sarah Young is wonderful.

Jewish coasters

This is what I have been doing... anything so that I don't need to actually DO something. Like the dishes. Or the socks. *sigh* Well well...
I was thinking of doing these coasters in crochet... afghan stitch, or colorwork. Would work beautifully in cross stitch too. But one could do them in any way one likes... like knitting color work or use them as base for an afghan - you know, crocheting each "square" in basic granny pattern in these colors (or others if one likes it better that way) and then adding a couple of rows in both ends to get the length/form.
You'll get the picture bigger when clicking on it, and it should be easy to follow the graph. I got the idea from a book, I think it's called "Jewish plastic canvas" or something like that. (I checked it - It's called "Jewish designs for plastic canvas 2") You'll see that the dove, dreidel and shalom hand are almost the same and the wine glass, chanukkiah and chaim heart are heavily influenced, but the pomegranate and tree of life are 100% my own design.

I should be...

I have noticed there's a lot of "I should" in my posts... I would, should, could, but I don't. That bothers me.

Never mind. Today's free patterns are from pieKnits :-) Make your little angels some wings for Yule - it's only 3 months away. Or perhaps black wings and cute skull wristlets to match. The patterns that are not free are quite reasonable in price and you can buy them via Paypal.

I have started my next pair of socks. Firestarter... I'm not quite sure, but... it was the recommended pattern for Trifty Knitters Sock Club, so I'm knitting it. Henric will like them anyway. I'll finish off the ugly orange yarn and if it's not enough, I'll continue with Drops' Fabel 543 - the red orange mix. Yikes...

Now I'll go and buy some milk so I'll get my morning tea... it's already 11 and I have been doing all kinds of things to avoid going to the grocery store... *sigh*

Sad and tired - today, again...

Some free patterns:

Debbie Macomber publishes a free pattern every now and then, limited time only.
Vickie Howell has a "free pattern of the month" thingy going on in her blog. Go to "make this" list on the left column of the blog, and you'll find all of them.
Knit on the net is another ezine.
Here's a list of Harry Potter Knitting Patterns... and The Leaky Cauldron's Harry Potter Crafts list

I'm going to bed.

P.S. I hate knitted/crocheted food...

Update

Lovely 2paw left a comment in my blog yesterday and I paid back the visit - and found Lynette Anderson's Noah's Ark embroidery-a-long :-) (BOM = Block Of the Month). I LOVE projects like this... and the bunny square is absolutely lovely :-D

In the picture - my binder with all the hundreds of free sock patterns I have collected from on-line and from different sock groups, KALs and so on; the socks - the yarn is more pink - and the sock journal :-) I whipped that up yesterday evening. So far it is adequate :-D But see how small it is :-)

I think today I'm going to sew some project bags... I'm going to need zippers, the see-through plastic I already have... *hmm*

-----------------------------------------

Knowing how much yarn you have left?

The WPI/YPP correlation index (wraps per inch / yards per pound) is pretty accurate - accurate enough for scrap yarns.

Check the wpi and then weigh the left-over yarn. Let's say you have 2 ounces of 14 wpi yarn. 14 wpi yarn is about 1200-1800 yards per pound, so you have 150-225 yards yarn. Not enough for a pair of socks, but enough for main color of stranded socks.

Here's some helpful sites:
Knitfits: yarn size demystified
some tables about WPI, gauge, names and numbers
Floryknits' yarn comparison chart
names of different thickness of yarn in US, UK, NZ and Australia

I'd so much wanna be in a sock club...

But I can't afford it. :´(

So I think I have my own private sock club :-)

First there will be a very cute sock journal... When I was in the craft school, we had a work book where we wrote all the work hours, yarn/thread we used and all the necessary information... It was really fun to look at those work books later, I remembered everything I had made by the tiny bits of yarn and so... So a sock journal.
I wish I had put all the socks I have ever made into a sock journal... with pattern information, yarn (sample and label, WPI), needles, gauge and time it took to make them...
So - in my own one woman's sock club the first gift is a sock journal. :-)
(Kathryn Ivy's Knitting Journal - very pretty and free (printable)...)

I would like to have a pre-printed booklet, but as I don't have access to bookprinters and so, I have to use my own ability to bind books and create the pages myself and bind them into a booklet myself. Then I will decorate the covers :-)

And as I will be the designer too of this sock club, I think I'll have one page for inspiration and design ideas and so on... A little art journaling :-)

*hmm*

My first pattern will be Mercurial Colorbands by Cat Bordhi. I have never done that, so it will be a new technique for me. I am using some odd woolly kind of yarn I have found - no labels. It's weird pinkish reddish orangish color, quite strong, but my hubby thinks it's nice... He has some curious likings every now and then... and I'm going to knit the colorbands with black, white and bright red. These socks will be very interesting LOL

Then I'm going to add a handful of things in my sock club package... like singlepackaged chocolates and so...

Then I'd really need project bags... those see-through zippered bags big enough for the project and sturdy enough for needles... *sigh* I think I just have to sew them myself too.

Then, of course, everything needed for knitting the socks are included... needles (mine are Addis, my first pair :-) I hate how the brass stinks when the needles warm up... ;-))

Ok, what is happening...

Firstly, I'm sick. :-( Again. Autumn has come and flu season. *sigh* So I sleep most of the time. But when I don't sleep - and one cannot do that all the time, unfortunately - I keep doing things.

I made a net bag, and it looks very nice - filled with yarn ;-) - so I'm knitting more of those.

I started doing the Asphyxiation choker, but my neck is like 5 cm high and 40 cm around, regular bulldog neck, not a swan neck, so chokers look more like dog collars than lacy feminine decorations... So I scrapped the project. *sigh* I was planning on having the pretty collar, nice fingerless gloves and a black lace fan. But - collar doesn't suit me, I can't find a pattern for gloves and I suppose there must be something wrong with the fan plan too... *sigh*

Couple of days ago I finished another Yule present, so I won't be posting it here :-)

Alicia Keys' No One is one of the most meaningless, whiny and boring songs ever made. You don't even need to listen to it, just look at the video, mute, and you'll get it... She looks like she's in desperate need of a toilet... *sigh*

Here's today's free patterns; ME did it!.
Ok... here's more. Winter Gifts For Ladies 1848 "Containing the Newest and Most Fashionable Patterns"
Naughty Needles - yes, naughty. So not for children.
Lacy knitting - hats and mittens/gloves

Phew!

No more dancing with Sir Frog-a-lot! The Aran Twist is danced!


And meet Huugo, the book owl :-) (Or owlet book thong, as it is called in the pattern...)

Here's a couple of other owl bookmarks...
paper owl bookmark
very easy paper owl bookmark
flat crocheted bookmark - owl motif
flat owl book thong

I have to apologize...

I think I made it look as if it was the sock designer's fault that I'm having troubles... it really isn't. The problem is that I'm too lazy to check the gauge and knit with way too thick yarn with my loose hand, and that's why I end up with buckets instead of socks. I'm sorry, sock designer.

Now to other issues. On my morning round I read from Lime and Violet's blog about Monteagle bag - a very interesting net bag to replace the plastic bags we are drowning into - and about Resurrection Fern, a very interesting, nice, beautiful and inspiring blog.

Then there's a Fabergé style egg contest - create an egg and a slideshow/instructable, and you can win great prizes. This lasts 3 1/2 weeks more, so there's plenty of time for you to create the most amazing egg ever. Here's a little inspiration.

Hate it...

I hate it when patterns aren't easily followable. I just finished a doily I had to read from the PICTURE to get, because the pattern wasn't for this specific doily... Now I'm fighting with socks, that are... *sigh*
First, the pattern was written to someone who knits very tight and I don't. So I had to adjust the pattern to my hand.
Then the ribbing... The pattern starts with K2P2 ribbing and then when the cables start, it turns upside down - P2, K2, P2, K6. It should start with K6.
Then comes the twist... "Knit two together, but leave them to left needle and then..." Really complicated and uncomprehensible... to me, that is. It seems to be quite comprehensible to others, who don't seem to have any problems at all with this pattern, and who look at me as if I was an idiot, but - ok, I'm an idiot, but I still don't get it! So I do normal, ordinary, easy 1B1 cables and I'm happy with my twists. This is the way my knitting guide tells me to do twists. And my twists look exactly like the twists in the pattern. So I think that explanation is just another way to confuse stupid little knitters like me.
Now, today I arrived to the heel... and as I had started as a good girl I am, with P2, K2, P2, I had to knit a half round after the ribbing to start twisting, and now I needed to knit a half round to start the heel... you see, the purls are to make nice borders to the top of the foot...
I did that. "knit 2 1/2 inches of heel and pick 18 stitches". Ok... sounds a lot, but, hey, the designer is always right. I tried to count how many rows of the original pattern the heel is - knit in some slipstitch pattern - to find out if it's 1 or 2 needles, but if one is to pick 18 stitches and edge stitches are all knit (yes, KNIT! Not purl, which would create a pretty and easy chain, but knits, which create an interesting twisted edge - at least as I do it) I think it's about the stitches of two needles, so that is what I do. Then I turn the heel with short rows and start gussets and...
You can see the results yourself.

THIS is what I end up ALWAYS with this kind of a heel...

The measure is in cm's, 10 cms is about 4 inches. And that is WAY TOO MUCH FOR A SOCK IN THIS STAGE... *sigh* *sigh* *deepsigh* I SHOULD frog it and start all over again and make the 1 needle heel and end up with a human heel instead of this monstruosity heel for giants... But I have been fighting with these damned socks for days now, and it shouldn't take this long to knit a simple (uhum) pair of socks. It shouldn't! I want my sock knitting points at knitwars!

So I knit bookmarks and try to calm down,
and I knit my horseshoe cardi, and that turns out beautifully :-)

And I suppose I ought to be happy... And I'm not. I so wish I could just take a sock pattern, yarn and needles and follow the pattern and end up with human size socks just as in the pictures that illustrate the patterns... *sigh*

So, I'm going to take another break and knit another bookmark and knit a couple more rows of my cardigan and a couple more rows of the socks (HATEITHATEITHATEIT!!!) and a cute little amigurumi... I have a pattern of a little but ferocious dragon :-) If that doesn't make me forget the socks (HATEITHATEITHATEIT!!!) then nothing will. I might crochet an owl bookmark too. Or make Dobby style bookmark, and take my sock points from that >:->

Procrastinating in the internet... again :-D

This time I started with Mrs. Fife, and Where Is She Now? I think she is fascinating.

From Mrs. Fife's place I got to Crochet Me Blog, and from there to Whedoncraft... I really love Firefly. I read this interview with Heather Hill, and she said: "(The Jayne hat) comes in a cardboard box, packed in straw, with a handwritten note, which is the same as the one that the character Jayne's mom wrote to him in the show." Obviously, in the episode in which Jayne got the rather hideous hat from his mom, it arrived in this manner... My hubby wants one - of course - and I SO would love to be able to get it from Heather... if you want to know why, go and read the open letter for big damn heroes :-)

Another link I had saved was 25 motif challenge and Tatting design challenge... Now, I know how to tat, but... I'm not too fond of it. I like crochet better. And I wonder why is there no 25 motif challenge for crochet or crochet design challenge? Perhaps I should start...
There was this picture of Wendy's collection. Nice, huh? (Look at Wendy's tutorials on the right side column...)

(The inquiring minds want to know what to DO with all that, and the romantic minds answer "just things of bliss :-) You DO nothing special, just love :-)")

Anyway, she had some links, and one of the was to Sarah London and her Hawaiian flower afghan (or should I say Ann's Hawaiian flower lap blanket) or her Celtic crochet afghan... (and, no, the Celtic isn't referring to Celtic people but it's a manner of crocheting loops and then interweaving them to create patterns that remind of those in Book of Kells or other Celtic calligraphy. :-D)

Sarah revealed that she hasn't read one Harry Potter book, and lead me to Micky, who lead me to Monster Crochet, vintage chapeau CAL and Snowflake Mondays

Today's free patterns are from Irene... It's up only through wayback machine, so take what you like, because tomorrow it might not be up there anymore... :-( Which is what happened with Potholder Lady... to my big surprise, disappointment and sadness.

Then I'll throw in another free pattern site... Jimmy Beans Wool free patterns - mostly scarfs, but those are needed too :-)

Oh... and I found out about the Turkish Oya lace, which is in practice colorful lace border - sewn, crocheted, tatted... They usually edge scarves with it.

And I found about J.S.Lewis... a new fantasy writer, sounds a bit like Holly Black, Susan Cooper or Alan Garner...

Today's patterns

here's dozens of knitting stitches - and a great idea of what to do with stitch swatches...

Here's the day's small quickie gifts (or at least gifts... not so quickie or small... ;-))
These aren't bad either, and there's some nice things here. These are OK too.
And here's a couple more that might interest you.
Some "Beginners' knitting patterns"

And here's some silly small thingies at Mochimochi blog...