Hello Kitty

This weekend, it seemed to me like the world is awash with Hello Kitty merchandise. I wandered into a Vans shoe store and could not resist buying myself this pair of slip-ons. I'm not a big Hello Kitty fan, but the shoes were just too cute to resist.

The next day, I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and stumbled upon this large collection of Hello Kitty goods. I believe these are marketed as items for outfitting your dorm room. I did not buy anything, but I have to admit that the mini-fridge is cute.

FO: Strafford Tee

This is the Strafford Tee from Knitscene Summer 2012. I used the recommended yarn, Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy, and I really love this yarn. I used it for this top some time ago and that top still gets a lot of wear.

I converted the pattern to knitting in flat pieces, and gave it a standard waist shaping instead of an A-line shape. I made the front lace portion with one less vertical repeat than the back lace section. It's a simple pattern, although the lace took a little bit of concentration in the beginning. It seemed to take me a long time to knit it, but I think I've just been busy.

Klein Bottle Hat

I think I should knit one of these hats. They sort of look like some kind of digestive organ, but they are cute.

A few New Mexico yarn shops

I recently took a vacation to New Mexico, visiting Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos. I had to visit a few yarn shops, of course. In Santa Fe, I checked out a couple of shops. This first one, called Moxie, is a large home accessories, apparel, and gift shop. I wandered in just to look around and stumbled upon a very large yarn section. It was near closing time so I did not browse very long, but they do have quite a selection of name brand and local yarns.

The next shop is Tutto A Mano, which is a very cute little store. They have their own line of hand dyed yarns, but what I liked best was their wall of buttons. Buttons are easy to pack, so of course I had to buy a few.

In Taos, I checked out a shop called, oddly enough, "The Yarn Shop". This is a small shop, and I was greeted by friendly people and 2 small dogs. They have a lot of locally spun and dyed yarn. I avoided buying anything because it would have been too pricey to buy enough yarn to make a sweater. The shop is a part of the John Dunn Shops complex, which has a lot of unique small shops, including a very nice fabric store.

The last fiber place I visited was the Española Valley Fiber Arts Center. This is a non-profit organization that promotes fiber arts in New Mexico and it serves a large regional area. They have a large space, with many weaving looms in the back rooms. They also have retail section that features a lot of local yarns. So, of course I had to buy a little souvenir yarn. I bought two skeins of New Mexico Merino worsted weight yarn from tattersall mills.

I brought only one project for the trip, and I made quite a bit of progress on the back side. It is the Strafford Tee pattern, and I divided it up into front and back for flat knitting.

I leave you with two classic tourist photos of New Mexico -- the plaza in Santa Fe, and the Taos Pueblo.

FO: pullover with top front ruching

This is a basic pullover made from an improvised pattern. The yarn is Rowan Purelife Revive, which is a nice silk/cotton/rayon blend made from recycled fibers. I've always liked these pullovers with ruching around the yoke, One pattern is the Ruched Yoke Tee from Interweave Knits, and another pattern is Molly Ringwald.. However, I don't really like having the gathered stitches all around the yoke. They tend to make the top of the sweater fit too loosely, and all that yarn makes it a bit bulky. Also, for some reason, I never liked the purl stitches used to separate the gathered sections. For some reason, that just gave the sweaters too much of a "home made" look, and I don't even know why I think that. I always wanted to put the gathered area just on the front section, but I couldn't think of what to do for the separation rows until a knitting friend told me about the lateral braid stitch, which has Estonian origins. After that, I was good to go! I really like how the horizontal stitches provide such a sharp dividing line between the gatherings. I did the stitch without doing the increase at the start.

The rest of the sweater is just your basic raglan top-down pullover. I added some short rows to raise the back neckline a bit, and the neckline is finished with a row of single crochet followed by a row of reverse single crochet.

Sewing FOs: more dresses

I've been busying sewing spring and summer dresses. This first one is V8724 and it's the second time I've used the pattern. I liked the first one enough to make another one. This one is also in a cotton interlock knit. I really like these knits because they feel as comfy as wearing sleepwear. These dresses wear like long t-shirts with some shaping. For this second dress, I used bias tape on the neckline and arm openings instead of cutting out facings. I also lengthened the front top section by about 1/2 inch. I'm very happy that I now own something like the bright orange and pink things I see in the stores.

The second dress is McCall's M6554, a pattern from the Fashion Star series. I don't love the show, but I like it enough to watch it. The fabric is an embroidered linen blend that I got last year an JoAnn's. I didn't want to use a tie, so I added some white piping. I sewed the pleat center for the first few inches because I didn't want so much flaring right at my stomach. I also widened the straps by about 1/2 inch towards the arms. The pattern fits well, but it is cut almost too high on the armholes -- it feels like the armholes are too confining.

On the matter of clothing, I'm challenging myself to see if I can refrain from buying any new clothes for six months or so, starting from April. I can knit and sew new clothing, and I can buy used items from consignment, thrift, and used clothing shops -- I just can't buy new stuff. I don't include shoes and accessories in this challenge -- I can only go so far!

FO: Fingerless mittens

The weather is a bit too warm for wool fingerless mittens, but I guess I'll be ready when winter comes. These are very basic fingerless mittens knit with Malabrigo worsted. I did not use a pattern for this. I have figured out the stitch counts that I need for this basic style where you have a ribbed cuff and some sort of simple stitch pattern on the back of the hand. In this case, the pattern is just simple ribbing. I did the ribbing as K tbl and P tbl to make the stitches pop more.