Wednesday, July 10, 2013

My FINALLY Shrug


This is technically my second garment, because the first I made was the shawl back in May for the silent auction. But because this piece is actually for me, I am calling it my FIRST garment ever made! I'm so thrilled. It's like wearing a hug and I may have to progress on to a more shaped cardigan next. 


In other news, I have to figure out how to take better pictures of knitted things like this... 


This is really just a picture of my boobs, haha. 


I wore this piece to church on Sunday and a couple folks asked if I'd made the shrug (which of course made my day). When I told them that I did, I mentioned that it's really easy because all you're doing is knitting a rectangle and then sewing it up. This is what I originally did; I knitted a rectangle and sewed it up at the edges like the pattern says. But the photograph on Lion Brand's website is misleading. (I'm also going to argue that their pictured shrug was blocked.) If you leave the sleeves sewn straight, you get a sort of winged effect. It did not look good. So, I ripped out the sewn edge and folded the corners over while modeling the shrug to make the sleeves as tight as I could. 


I was unable to make them look seamless, but the seams at least sort of hide in your armpits so who's going to notice? I just like knowing that my arms are covered. Now I can finally wear sleeveless dresses to the office without feeling like a skank.

I need to cast on something new. Any suggestions?

Thursday, July 4, 2013

A Sailor's Bracelet

This is an adaptation of Olgajazzy's Cable Braided Necklace. I want another bracelet like the Sailor's Rope bracelets I always wore during high school. They shrink when they get wet, but I don't know if this one will shrink or swell. Cotton yarn is finicky like that sometimes.

Photo from Etsy

Cast on 7 stitches, using size 4 needles. The stitches will be big and fat. 

Row 1: Knit.
Row 2: Purl. 

Continue in Stockinette Stitch for 5  rows, ending on a purl row. 

Row 9: K2, K2tog, YO, K3. 

Row 9 will create a hole in the fabric. Knit 7 rows and repeat Row 9.

Please don't follow this pattern - I apologize. I did not measure how long the strips were when I finished them, but they were twice as long as they needed to be so I improvised a very poor steek job to cut the pieces after weaving them together. I like the finished object but I wish I had measured first.



My friend correctly said that it looks like a scrunchie, but it also looks like a sailor's rope bracelet, which was what I was hoping for. It adds the white to my wardrobe on this Fourth of July: my red Phillies t-shirt (I love Werth forever) and blue skinny jeans. 


Happy Fourth of July!