Machine Knitting Class and more!

Thursday night I took the first in a 10-class series of Intro. to Machine Knitting. i really thought that my hand knitting experience would come in handy (heehee) but it turns out that machine knitting is NOTHING like hand knitting. Unfortunately. So, I sat down at the drafting table with the big piece of equipment strapped to it, and i was immediately intimidated. By the end of the 3-hour class I had made tons of mistakes and a few small swatches. What I love: how fast it goes when you are doing it right. The evenness of the stitches. What I don't love: casting on, trying to fix dropped stitches, binding off. I keep reminding myself how frustrating it is to learn to knit. I see it on the faces of my students each time I teach them something new. There are women in my class who are there for the 4th, 5th and 6th times. They are still trying to master it. Can I do it? The appeal is this: being able to come up with a sweater design then voila! it pours out of this machine with a few swipes of the carriage. I know there is more to it than that, decreasing and increasing, but I think I get it and with more practice I can really get into it.

All of that said, I want to buy a LK-150 Silver Reed knitting machine. I am looking to borrow one at first, make sure I like it. If any of you know of one floating around out there gathering dust, I would like to talk to you. I promise to be gentle with it and return it in great condition. At the end of the class I am hoping to buy my own machine, but I can't quite commit just yet. Big purchase, you know.


Hand knitting update: I just finished the Hansigurumi Deep Sea Angler Fish. This one was great to knit. I made a few modifications for myself, but the pattern, as always, was a pleasure to work with.

I am not sure what is next to cast on. There is a cute alien toy at ravelry that I might try. I have lots of bright colors in lamb's pride bulky that I can use up.

School is almost finished, 2 weeks to go, and that means my knitting students will be turning in their final sweater sets. I hope to have them all delivered to Stitches from the Heart by the end of next week.

Have a great week and don't forget next Saturday is Knit In Public Day. Go out and knit!

Monsters and a few cute sweaters

I always feel like such an older version of myself when i catch these words coming out of my mouth..."I can't believe it is June already!" and "where has the time gone?" OK, I am starting to come to terms with the fact that time does pass more quickly now that I am no longer a kid. But, really, when did this happen? As a teacher, i am always eager for summer to get here, but I feel like this year it has snuck up on me. I honestly still have Christmas gifts to return. Late last week, I realized that I needed to get my summer project planned. See, each summer I pick something that I am going to learn to do, or repair or make better in my life. One summer, long ago, it was to learn to knit. Two summers ago, Dad and I built the knitting oasis out in the garage. For awhile there, it looked like this summer's project was going to be me building a new fence between our house and our northern neighbor. Dad and I still might get that done too, but I really needed something to DO that would be mine and would be fun.
I googled different types of classes that I am interested in and found a Machine Knitting class at Otis College. Otis is an art school near LAX that has an awesome Continuing Ed. program.
My official summer project is to learn how to use my knitting machine. And I will do it in 10 weeks. 10 classes, 3 hours each, and my utmost determination. Should be enough. If any of you are interested in signing up for this course, it begins this Thursday evening, 7-10 pm. Give Otis a call and you might be able to register over the phone. The teacher has knitting machines for us to borrow and she also sells them at wholesale.

I have some finished projects to post. Here is the Daisy sweater written by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. One of my knitting prodigies, Brittany, knit this for a family friend. This is a pretty cute baby wearing a wonderful sweater. I am sad to see Brittany leave my knitting class, but I am so proud of her accomplishments and her desire to challenge herself when picking out her next project.



Here is an update of the companion cube I posted a few weeks ago. This is Griffin, the kid I knit the cube for. He LOVED it!


This is the Wonderful Wallaby sweater knit in cotton 2-ply (blue and white). I am keeping this sweater for a kid I might have one day. This sweater is what inspired me to become a better knitter. Years ago, when I only had one knitting friend (her name is Marcy) I was always so jealous that she could read patterns and actually make more than scarves. She was working on this sweater (a bigger version for herself) and I was in awe of the front pocket and how she just made it appear out of nowhere! YEars have gone by and I have since been let in on a few of the knitting secrets. The biggest secret so far? Don't be afraid of a pattern. Just try it. If you are afraid, do not ACT like you are afraid. No one will notice.


This is the latest Hansigurumi design to fly off my needles. It is the Loch Ness monster, of course. I LOVE the way her patterns are written. The shaping is perfection. The face is adorable and there is always so much personality in the finished animal.



I finally have completed my version of the flying spaghetti monster. This one is for a student named Chauncey. We made a deal. If he earns an A this semester I will knit him something, my choice. I chose this strange creature and I can't wait to give it to him.

Amigurumi toys!

As you may have noticed, I am obsessed with Amigurumi. It is a Japanese word that literally means "knitted stuffed toy". I am now on Ravelry (add me as a friend! I am "knitting101") and have spent hours looking through all of the awesome patterns out there. I have been buying patterns from "Hansigurumi" on Etsy.com I love her patterns and the shaping is out of this world. Hansi is a fairly new knitter who is definitely making up for lost time. Her creativity and skill amaze me with each new pattern. She currently has 16 patterns on Ravelry, but only a hndful of these are currently being sold on etsy. If you see something you want the pattern for, I suggest emailing her from etsy and she will make it available. I can't wait for her next pattern!

Here are a few things I have been knitting lately.

This is by far the most difficult toy i have knit so far. The Hansigurumi Hermit Crab. The legs are each knit separately, then sewn into the opening of the shell. The face and eyes are done last and sew in on top of the legs. It was sort of a mess the first time I assembled it, so I took the entire thing apart and added pipecleaners to each leg. This allowed me to move the legs into position, so that they lay down correctly.



Next is a jelly. This guy was EASY and so fun. Shaping the bell was beautiful, and the frill around the outside is perfect. I think the next one will have multi-colored tentacles.



This is a teat for me. As a Marine Biologist, of course I have a favorite sea creature. Surprising to most is that my favorite animal is actually a sea slug! They are so beautiful and come in every color of the rainbow, plus their body forms are limitless. Hansi designed this one to be like a "Spanish Dancer" sea slug. I changed the colors to match a lucky baby's new nursery, but the final slug looks pretty close to real life. I love the antennae as well as the external gills that are coming out of the back. Perfect!



I have made Hansi's octopus (last post) so this time I tried her squid. Some of you may remember my giant squid hat from a few years ago, but this little guy is more hand-held toy. I didn't use any pipecleaners, so a baby could play with it and not get poked. More of these will be knit for sure. I used Lamb's Pride bulky ad got a bigger squid. The eyes are great, so exactly what squid look like.



This last toy is an amigurumi but the pattern is not designed by Hansi. This one is from Susan B. Anderson. It is called "Elefante" and I found it for free on ravelry.com A group of my students are also making this one, some are using it as their final project. I chose to do mine in different colors, again for a lucky new baby I have yet to meet. I work with her mom and ned to go meet little Molly soon. I'll take her an elephant.


I have a ton of stuff still to post about, but I want to spread it out to another post. My students are working on their final knitting projects and I will post their work as soon as I get them turned in. Enjoy this 3-day weekend!

Gifts I Have Given

I wanted to post some pics of the cutest kids I know. My cousin Kristyn's daughters got a care package of cupcake hats last week, and their talented mom (who is a professional photographer ) sent me some pics.

This is Chayse, the middle daughter.


Brooklyn is the baby.



Big sister Weslie.



Also, Ellery up in Portland (her mom, Jen, was my college roommate and life-long friend) is seen here modeling the roll neck sweater I knit with hand-dyed yarn. Check out the matching hat. I made the hat for Jen, but Elllery thought it looked better as a set.




I have finished some pretty cool new toys. I'll post pics in a few days.

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Ravelry.com

hey everyone,
I am finally on ravelry.com! I LOVE IT!!!!! I have already spent hours pouring over all of the patterns for toys.

Look for me on ravelry as "knitting101". Anyone have any tips on cool stuff to do on the site? Right now I am still navigating.

:)
karyn

Octopus and Companion Cube...what?

Now that the baby shower season has past (see previous posts) I am knitting for myself again. Or so I thought. I set out at the beginning of the week to knit up some super-cute amigurumi octopus. I purchased the pattern on etsy.com and have been trying to find time for them for months now. The time has finally come. I knit up three of them, in various colors, and can't get enough. They are pretty easy to do. Each tentacle takes about 5 minutes, then assembling them and adding the body takes a few hours. This is a one-day project for sure.





I am getting requests for these little guys, but all are spoken for, they will find a place of honor in the knitted aquarium in my classroom. I also have patterns for a small squid, a cuttlefish and a dumbo octopus. Not to worry, all of these will be in the aquarium someday. One of my favorite parts of this pattern has to be the head shaping. I love how organic it looks. Also, I love the way each tentacle curls a bit at the end. I didn't put anything in them, they just naturally do that.

A few months ago, one of my favorite students (he is reading this...hi Griffin!) asked me to knit him something. I said I would if he pulled his grades up in Marine Biology. Well, he did, so I had to follow through. I asked what he wanted, thinking he would like a nice, simple beanie or something like that, but he had a very specific item in mind. A knitted companion cube. Not really knowing what this was, I agreed. Turns out it is one of the most challenging projects to date. 3-color fair isle, knit in the round, with spacers between each side of the cube. So, I knit this strange looking tube. Seen here with the guts showing.



Then, I ran it through the sewing machine a few times, to strengthen the seams and help keep it from unraveling. Then, I CUT IT INTO 6 PIECES. It was pretty tough to do. Cutting something that I spent hours working on. I took my too-sharp Gingher shears and CUT.



Then I spent my Saturday evening seaming the sides together. I cut squares of high density foam and layered them into the knit box.

Once the last piece of foam was settled in, I seamed around the last 4 edges.

The result is a strange not-quite-square "thing" that is exactly what he wanted. I am unclear as to the purpose of this item, Griffin says it is a cube that you carry with you in video games. So I said, oh, like a security blanket when you play? Nope, more like a virtual friend. The cube is actually an image that appears within the game, not in real life. Until now. Now Griffin will be the envy of all of his friends, as he now has his very own, non-virtual knitted companion cube. Enjoy it, and remember that we have a test on Monday.

The Last of the Baby Showers...for now

The last of the baby showers is tomorrow. BUT, another friend at work just announced her pregnancy. Seriously, an epidemic at our school. Here is a picture of the diaper cake for baby Josh. Since we know he is a boy, it was so much easier to come up with stuff to knit. I made him a "j" sweater with roll neck and raglan sleeves. This might be my new favorite sweater. Whips up in a few evenings. Also pictured here, the "guess the birthday" calendar for the shower tomorrow. If you guess closest to actual delivery time, you win a huge gift basket full of fun stuff. This shower has close to 80 people coming, so we decided to skip the typical baby shower games and the gift opening, and treat it more like a BBQ. There will even be a pinata! The weather looks great, so the party should be awesome.



Here is a close up of the "j" sweater. I am gifting it on a bear I bought at an after Easter sale. Love those sales!


The banana rattle has a few new friends. Corn on the cob rattle and eggplant rattle. Don't they all seem really happy to be together? I got the patterns for corn and banana from Kimberly Chapman's website, but I invented the eggplant pattern on my own. It was really fun! Not sure what fruit or veggie I will attempt next. If anyone has any suggestions...
Also, check out the pretty flowers Mike sent me for our 5 year anniversary. So sweet!


This is what is in the wash right now. I was doing a KAL with one of my students, Amanda. We chose an entrelac purse pattern from Felted Handbag Workshop and set to work. The pattern has 6-7 different purses and we each chose a different one. This is my "before" picture. I was hoping the base would be bigger, so I am afraid this might turn into a make up bag or a knitting needle bag. Amanda felted her bag and I will post pics of her finished product next time.


Next up for me? I am working on a few more marine biology animals for my knit aquarium. Currently on the needles (my multi-colored wood knit picks dpns) is a blue ringed octopus. Hope to have pics in the next few days.

Went to Stitched From the Heart on Wednesday and dropped off 2 huge shopping bags of scarves, hats and sweaters. The kids are furiously knitting, as their community service hours are due by the end of May. Each student needs 10 hours per year (40 hours total) in order to earn a diploma from our school. I love this service requirement. It teaches the kids the importance of giving back. The kids are so proud when they turn in an item for donation. I am pretty proud of them all as well.

Baby Showers every weekend!

Hey all,
Seems like I am on baby shower overload. There is a baby shower every weekend this month! Yikes! We have a record number of pregnant women at work. So many that the local paper is writing an article about the baby boom at our school.
Last weekend we threw our boss, Amy, a baby shower in Topanga. A beautiful day and a fun crowd. I made a diaper cake and wrapped it in tulle. I love it and was sorta sad to give it up.
With no tulle...


With tulle...


Here we are with the mommies-to-be. Amy and Julie are preggers, Maggie and I threw the party. Baby Fin is the cutest, by far. Julie's party is this saturday. Watch out for more diaper cake and many more knit surprises!




Of course we dined in style. We had homemade quiche, scones, salads and cheese plates.


Tea and lemonade completed the brunch



Little Fin modeling my latest gift, a simple hat made form some hand-dyed yarn I got at the yarn exchange at Farmer's Market SnB.


I have a ton more to blog. So much more that I have knit. I sent a few boxes with knitted gifts to some friends with kids and am awaiting pictures to post.

Up next? I am knitting a corn on the cob and turning it into a rattle. For a shower. This weekend. Gotta go knit!

New Group of Knitters

Spring semester has sprung and I have 35 knitters to show off. 16 are returning (a few for the third time). Here is a group of pictures from class last week.



This first group is affectionately known as the "soccer girls". They are on the team and this year made it pretty far in the playoffs. Way to go, girls! They are all returning knitters, and are currently finishing up cupcake hats.




Here is LaTijera, she is in her 3rd semester of knitting. Here she is working on a cabled beret on dpns. She also has a matching scarf and will do a purse for the set next.




This group is made up of all new knitters. They are learning the basics and working really hard. I am excited to see what fun scarves they design for their next project.




Another few new knitters. Check out their yarn color choices. Very nice. They are all knitting squares for baby blankets that we will donate to Stitches From the Heart.




Remi and Tiffany. They are new to the class and new to knitting. They went out the first day and splurged on supplies like luxury yarn and neat needles.




Here is Sarah and a few more returning knitters. They are making sure she understands the basics...knit and purl. sarah is a fast learner and has already moved onto the scarf design project.




Here is Breanna using the swift to wind a hank of yarn. She has designed the coolest scarf! It is red, yellow and green and will have a peace sign in knits and purls repeated in each color change. I can't wait to see her progress.




Bridget: cupcake hat knitter extraordinaire! She has finished the cupcakes and moved on to a beret in black. The Boho beret by Shanitta. So many of the kids have been knitting it.




Jordan and the girls. He is a returning knitter and loves to knit presents for his girlfriend. So sweet.



I have been knitting a lot lately as well. So many cupcake hats! So many friends having babies! I decided I needed a break from the baby hat and dove into the banana rattle. Naturally.

The banana actually is knit in 2 pieces, and can come completely out of the peel. I stuffed it and added some jingle bells. It is for a friend who is due in June.

I want to thank all of the generous knitters at the WeHo SnB last week who donated 4 huge bags of yarn to my kids. I have been passing out various fun balls of yarn for them to sample. What a sneeky way to get them hooked on knitting! We are corrupting the youth of America. heehee...thanks again!




This is a batch of berry tarts I made a few days back. Blueberry and apples. Delish!