Made to order

My latest project was a custom order. My oldest son asked me if I could make him some pouches for his new wireless game pads and receivers that he uses to play games on his computer (now that he has more free time). Of course I said yes and went right to work on them. At first I thought felted pouches would be nice, but since I was still in the crochet mode from my last endeavor, crocheted pouches won out. Here is the lot of them: These were actually easier to accommodate his specifications size wise. No guess work as there would be with the felting. No pattern, just made them on the fly. The crocheted fabric was perfect, nice and heavy, but not too stretchy and I got to use up some of my acrylic scrap yarn. They are not exactly color coordinated, but they fit his equipment quite well and he's very happy with them. I made two larger ones for the game pads:
and a smaller one for the receivers:
Yesterday was my birthday. I received a most wonderful surprise in the mail... this beautiful hand beaded pendant from my sister who lives in Oregon. She is very talented.
The tiny beads are all hand sewn:
and when the little pocket is opened up you can see that it's lined with light blue satin:
I love it!! I'll cherish it forever. The color is perfect...goes great with my jeans, but yet I'll be able to wear it for more dressier occasions as well! I have a very thoughtful sister.

I really had a nice birthday. Lots of my fellow "Ravellers" sent me Birthday Greetings. That was a surprise and really made my day special. You know who you are...thank you so much :) The other thing that made my day special ...we went out to eat at our favorite Italian restaurant in town and I even got to pick out a cake for my birthday...a Boston Cream Pie, one of my favorite cakes. Yum :)

No other presents to write about. My husband didn't know what to get me, so my gift is on hold for the time being.

School's over for the summer...yay :) Hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far. My next knitting project is something that I've had in mind to do for a long time. You'll have to come back later to see what I'm up to. Happy Knitting everyone :)

Desperate

Yes, I was desperate for some new potholders. My poor old pot holders have seen better days. They just weren't doing their job and my burnt hands were were left with the repercussions of the faulty (thin, threadbare) equipment. Thanks to my trusty old crochet hook and some cotton yarn here is my new stack of potholders and yes, crocheted, not knitted:
I'm a knitter. I LOVE to knit, but I do know how to crochet. I've been crocheting since I was a child. I don't love to crochet, but it is a handy skill to know. There are times when you can't find a better handmade fabric. In this case crochet is perfect for potholders. No more burnt hands for me. The resulting double thick fabric makes a perfect potholder!After reading about Monika's Bosnian Crocheted Hot Pad I was intrigued and had to at least give this new type of crochet a try. I found the book - Donna Kooler's Encyclopedia of Crochet (beautiful book, by the way with everything you need to know about crochet) which contained the directions for the hot pad. Well, Monika, I tried, but quickly gave up. Bosnian crochet is so not for me... too hard on my old hand and arm. Oh, the pain...I felt like I was on the way to having tendinitis again. No way was I going to let that happen again, so I took another pathway... this time plain old ordinary single crochet. I started out with this pattern (Thanks Miss Blonde for the idea) but instead of sewing it up on the diagonal I kept on crocheting until I had a nice big square pocket and then I crocheted the top shut and made a nice loop. The original pattern was too small. I like a big potholder. If you want to give the diagonal potholder a try I would suggest making your chain longer for a bigger potholder. I'm very happy with my version though :)

Have a wonderful weekend....schools almost out for the summer, yay!!

I'll leave you for now with my new signature thanks to Monika.

happy knitting :)

Tips for Textured Painted Knitting

Look at what I just finished...a textured painted dishtowel! I love knitted dishtowels and thought this technique would yield a nice looking towel. I'm very happy with the results, but it does take a long time to knit. Great take along project, because of the easiness of the pattern.

This knitting technique (original pattern) is really different...at least it was for me. I know I had to experiment a little at first, but then once I figured it all out, it was easy. I'm sure others have questions. Patricia and Barbara contacted me with their questions.

Patrica had a whole bunch of questions:

Dear Ms Hakucho,

I teach knitting and we have discovered this pattern through your blog. Here is what has happened to my students:

1. Do you knit the rev st st stitches as they appear on the needle or as the color appears from the working yarn?

2: Do you only do it on the right side and purl every row on the wrong side?

3: What do you do if there are several (like 3 or 4) colors in the yarn? Do you designate what you want to dominate? And pick it as the rev st st?

These are just the top three questions. We spent one whole class debating the options. Which it appears could be several. Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated so we can move along on this project. Maybe just your method? They are wearing me out! LOL

Patricia

This is how I answered her:

Hi Patrica,

I really don't think there is any right or wrong way to do this kind of knitting, but whatever you do, you do have to be consistent.

To answer your questions:
1. I knit as the color appears from the working yarn. I made a cheat sheet to help me keep it straight:
For example: Color A = Rev. Stock {Knit WS } {purl RS}
Color B = Stock {Knit RS} { Purl WS}
2. Basically if you follow the cheat sheet, I think it will work out. You could try doing it on the right side and purl every row on the wrong side ...not sure how it would look, but if you do - just do the same thing every time to develop a pattern. I think I might give it a try...sounds interesting :)
3. I haven't done one with four different colors. The ones I have for example - a light green, dark green and an off white. I decided to designate the light green as white. The other one was dark yellow, light yellow and white. This time I kept all the yellows together. Just designate the colors to A or B before you start and stick to it.

I think it's so cool that you decided to try this in a knitting class...what fun so see all of your results :) I know I enjoyed knitting the three I did with such different results. If it's not too much trouble I would love to see photos of your cloths when finished...perhaps I could write a post about your experiments? Very interesting :)

Good luck and don't hesitate to ask more questions...I'll try my best to answer them.

Deb

(I'm still waiting for her to send me some photos of the finished cloths. She said she'd sent me some...there were so many different versions knitted by her students. I'll be sure and post them and if anyone else wants to send me their photos I'd be happy to post them as well.)

Then Barbara left me this comment:

I love the dishcloths but am confused regarding the pattern. Is it just freeform---knit one color, combine and purl, knit another color?
Thanks for any help. I'd like to try them.
Barbara

Barbara,
Yes, Barbara is is more or less freeform...with the rules you set for yourself. There is no right or wrong way. I hope my answer to Patricia' s questions answers yours? If you still have question please do not hesitate contacting me.

The last thing I have to show you is nothing new. It's just another one of my plastic big bags:
Figured I'd show you what I was up to so you wouldn't think I was slacking off with my knitting. This bag is for my middle son's saxophone teacher. In the past when ever I was knitting my plastic bags while waiting while my boys had their lessons she was always so interested and thought the bags were awesome. She'll be getting this next week when he goes for his last lesson :) I think she'll like it!

Another week and then school vacation begins...I'm happy :) Hope you all have a wonderful weekend with lots of happy knitting or may be something else....I know I'm heading in a new direction. Change is good :)