Sunday, September 9, 2007

This post is brought to you by.........

..........The sharing of free knowledge......
When I first began to knit, the internet and knitting blogs were my main source of info, especially in the how to and pattern department. But the more you get to see of this isolated craft world, the more I think it';s really retarded. I mean, it seems now a days, there are so many shitty people who unless they are getting paid, wouldn't help a new knitter even if it starved their pretentious little self. I find this to be really sad since I've never taken a class, and I learned everything I know about knitting (which, to be honest, isn't all that much) from good friends and acquaintences, who never refused to help or teach me. On this note, I wanted to share 2 fun projects, that I made up all myself for the sole purpose of using up leftover feltable wools. The first, is the newest, which I knit in the same amount of time it took to drink 2 beers on the patio last week after work. the second, took about 1 beer longer. here they are:


Matt's felted beer cozy

Cast on loosely 22 sts of any bulky weight on size 13-15 DPN's (lopi, lambs pride, the like...) join in the round, and knit a total of 24 rounds, cast off loosely. Toss it in the wash on hot water, longest wash cycle, and hang out with your open beer to check the fit.


See, wasn't that easy? How about another totally useable drinking item? you got it!...


Matt's Felted flask cozy

This one isn't much harder..... Cast on 4 sts. on size 13-15 straight needles. Knit in garter stitch until there are 8 RIDGES (16 rows worked). With a dpn pick up 1 loop for every ridge 8 times down the edge, 4sts at the cast on edge with another needle, and an additional 8 loops down the other edge. You now have a total of 24 sts. start working in the round, and whenever convenient, even the number of sts up on the needles. Work 24 rounds, and cast off loosely. Felt in the wash just like in the above pattern.

Those 2 were just something I made up screwing around, and I sometimes find I'm happiest knitting when I'm just messing around. I took the plunge last week and cast on shedir on some of the yarn from my last dyeing adventures. (the pale toned stuff from the last post) B loved it, but the yarn is so busy that after one full repeat of the cable pattern, you just couldn't make out all those cables, so I'll just have to work on it out of something else another time. I did however prove to myself that it wasn't going to be such a tough project and I'm looking forward to starting it again. To save time, I grabbed a size 3 24" addi and decided to salvage the cast on and 10 rows of K1P1 ribbing by picking up each stitch and the bar inbetween in hopes that it would behave like a lifeline and I could unravel all the cable rows and just rock a plain stockinette hat from there. It worked perfectly and I didn't miss one stitch! WooHoo! so theres my big accomplishment this week. I don't have much else to report, so enjoy your week, and for christs sakes, share something you know with someone else without being a primadonna. Someone will appreciate it more than you know.......

7 comments:

Dave said...

Very cool! I'll have to remember this for the next time my flask gets hot. Or cold. I usually find that variegated yarn is best just knit plain. I'm not going through a bunch of work knitting in a pattern just to have it disappear. Thanks for sharing your patterns!

Soxophone Player said...

Did your projects shrink as well as felt? I've never understood if, or how, you would calculate shrink in advance, esp with the differences from one yarn to another.

Anonymous said...

Wasn't Micah doing a cozy thing a while back? I'm working on making a beer can cozy with my sock machine. That'll make it extra butch, being done on a machine. *grunt*grunt*grunt*
Oh, and if you're referring to those rude retail people, yeah, they suck. I've run into that mentality that says if you didn't buy the yarn from them, they won't help you. Well, maybe if they helped you, you'd go back and get it from them next time.

Mia said...

OMG what a great idea! (and I love that you measure your progress in beers) :laughing::

I have part of a felted and cut up tote bag left, now I know what to do with it!

And you're right about the mean people.. aren't ya glad you're NOT one??

Anonymous said...

Dude, you've been knitting a ton lately! And why is it I only find out about your new blog from a comment on the CM post of doom?! Grrr... :) Are you going to be headed to the Wool Gathering this weekend?

Unknown said...

Love the cosies! If you bring the cosy to the festival I'll bring the flask :)

Anonymous said...

I was looking for flask cozies on Ravelry and was shocked that there weren't any. I carry my flask around in my purse, and there are always keys and things banging against it which is annoying.