Quince & Co. Everly Scarf

Whoa! A rare finished knit!

This is the Everly pattern by Quince & Co. knit in their Finch yarn [color: iceland].

Ok so, first of all, I didn't really know what to call this, because it's kind of like halfway between a scarf and a shawl. Scawl? Sharf? Those are both terrible words.

Second of all, THIS THING TOOK ME FOREVER.

I bought the pattern and yarn spontaneously while on vacation. I also had to buy needles even though I already had the same size at home, which should have been a sign to STOP IT RIGHT THERE. But no, I whipped out my wallet and a sharf was begun.

This was last August.

One of the reasons it took a year [besides long periods where I ignored its existence] is because it is soooo long. Look at this wing span!

Everything was from a most adorable yarn store in Portland, Maine called KnitWits. And [I actually didn't know this until I just now googled for their link] they are the original flagship store for Quince & Co., which is spun and dyed 20 minutes south of Portland. Quince & Co.'s yarn and patterns are all beautiful, and ok now I want to drop everything and go back to Portland.

I am by no means an expert knitter, and this was the most complicated thing I'd attempted. The lacework pattern was not too difficult, and it went great at first. See how pretty?

Then somewhere in the middle all hell broke loose, I lost control of my yarn overs and things got pretty out of whack. Suddenly my yarn over holes were lined up with each other instead of staggered.

But by the end of the lace section things sorted themselves out somehow. Phew. I realize that no one will notice unless they're a knitter, or completely insane, and I am totally happy and fine with it. You live, you practice, you learn! [Also, there's no way I'm redoing this!]

Now I've started a sweater, so check back in a year and maybe [maybe] it'll be finished!

Knitting with Kool-Aid

I finally casted on [or is it cast on??] a new knitting project with my kool-aid dyed yarn. It's a hat pattern I've made a few times now with a nice squishy folded under ribbed edge.

So far the yarn is knitting well. There is some pooling in the colors, it seems mostly in the purple for some reason. If I were to do the same colors again I would put the purple on the end of the skein instead of in the middle, I feel like there's a little too much of it.

But it's neat to see how different it looks as each stitch is added!

Kool-Aid Dyed Yarn Tutorial

When I was a kid, nothing said summer like a tall, strong glass of Kool-Aid.

Grape was always my variety of choice. That intense fake grape flavor with a few ice cubes clinking around in the glass...oh man. Bring on the purple mustache.

But did you know, since Kool-Aid is actually colored with all synthetic dyes, you can use it to [very easily] dye yarn and other natural fibers? You don't even need to add anything to make the dye colorfast, it's acidic enough on its own. It actually dyes so well that it makes me feel strange that I used to drink the stuff. And bonus - it makes your yarn smell like it was marinated in liquid Starbust.

Miss Make + Jonathan Denmark = ...

Remember that knitted microphone I made way back when?

I made it for my friend Jonathan Denmark's music video, and it's just been released online. I can't tell you how cool it is to see it all done. And I mean how often do you see a music video featuring knitting?? I love the detail of the "snip snip" scissor sounds.

Check out the video below and visit his website for more info and music!

Knitted Microphone

Etsy, etsy, etsy. Here's a short break from all my etsy droning. 

My latest little project is a knitted microphone. A microphone is not close to the top of the list of things often knitted. In fact, it's probably not even near the top half. It's probably somewhere between cheeseburgers and grenades, though it's definitely higher than the human digestive tract or poop.

This microphone is for a friend's music video shoot. It was challenging to figure out since I'm not the most experienced knitter (I've been working on my first sock for the last three days and have little more than a cuff) but I think it turned out pretty ok. I ended up sewing it around a real microphone to give it the right shape and heft.

Hmm...knitted Rock Band, anyone?