Girl on the Rocks

I can barter with the best of them October 16, 2006

First of all, a big thanks to Tish at Delightful Designs. We were both very excited to trade some of our etsy goods… I sent some stitch markers and I got this:

A vintage pillow kit! In avocado green! It is going to look so good on my couch- It already does! Check out her shop… I am already eyeing the recycled cashmere yarn…

And let’s just say that on garage sale day in el cerrito $20 will get you everything you want and more.

Click through to see the insanity in detail

i often imagine that special items are always in really high concentrations in the areas that they come from. For example, in my mind, everyone in portland knits with Socks that rock all the time. And they don’t even know that it is special because it is just what they get locally. Coming from Ohio and having only eaten unripe avocados my whole life I discovered that, indeed, everyone in california puts avocados on everything all the time and that they are delicious (but they also put fruit in their salad. weird.) One might imagine that here in the SF bay area everyone runs around with Dansko’s and Timbuk2 bags and that garage sales are busting with them… Well they do and they are. I turned my nose up a to a pair of danskos and turned around to find that abby had secured herself a $5 timbuk2 bag. I made it back to the same sale closer to the end of the day to secure the pictured one for $3. i cannot believe that i didn’t buy it right away!

other highlights include

• 10 cents: the pre-plate tectonics book on earthquakes in California – a geologists delight (wait til you see this one, ingrid!)
• $3: the 70′s Mr. Juiceman Jr. Fresh juice every morning baby – my neighbor’s nightmare.
• $1: Carmen’s set of french onion soup bowls – on the list and found at the first sale we stopped at.
• the giant painting. Bought mostly to teach my fellow garage-salers a lesson about never turning down a $5 bargain. I am kinda already sick of looking at it.
• 50 cents: brent’s box of 70′s recipe cards.
  . I made a flickr group just for them. There are already a few amazing contributions.

Hey – It’s me! October 14, 2006

For the past week, I have been checking my mailbox every day for the first issue of Craft magazine. It’s still not here. In the meantime, I have been reading their blog and entering some of their contests*… And suddenly I am even more excited!

One of my proudest moments (sad but true) was when my felt covered altoids tin was mentioned on the Make blog, and now I have another proud moment. To get a crafty fix I was listening to the CraftyPod Podcast issue 36 about Craft magazine. The senior editor Natalie Zee was interviewed… though she didn’t mention my name, she did mention turning an old altoids tin into a felt-covered mini sewing kit. Hey! That’s me!

*this post is an entry in their contest….Link to the make or craft blogs to be entered in their trick-or-treat contest….

Shop til you drop October 12, 2006

I celebrated Columbus Day in fine fashion, by travelling to the outlet mall to get some clothes. I have no nice clothes and wanted to try and get some a little earlier than the day before I need to wear them – that always results in bad purchases. Myself and two of my friends fille dup the back of a car. success.

But, if you live in the SF bay area (the east bay in particular), the shopping opportunities for this weekend are many.

• First (and my favorite) the El Cerrito City Wide Garage sale. A few years ago I got everythinq that i wanted: French onion soup bowls, a crock pot for yarn dyeing, and a hot air popcorn popper. Follow that link for a particiant map.
• Next up is the Designer Craft Sale in Oakland. Never been, but looks like it should be good.
• Finally, there is also the Pacific Fine Arts Festival in Montclair, Oakland. I don’t really know much about this one either…

Honestly, i will be spending all of my shopping tme in El Cerrito… Let me know how the other ones turn out.

Drip October 10, 2006

I finished a pattern that would make a perfect Christmas gift exchange gift for a co-worker, or even make a few for yourself. Since it was rejected by knitty, i will unleash it onto the world here. What a great way to use up a bit of your leftover sock yarn!

Downloadable pdf

Drip

By Karrie Weaver; karrie at girlontherocks.com

You know how sometimes at work you are pounding down coffee and pretending to get something done, but really you are daydreaming about knitting? This coaster is a way to add a little knitting to your cubicle so you always have a finished object to gaze at. It also makes a cozy home for your coffee or tea mug. Two strands of self-striping sock yarn create a mottled pattern, and the fringe finishes the pattern making it very much like a mini-rug for your mug. Make a single coaster as gift for a co-worker, or use up all your sock yarn scraps and make a set.

SIZE
One size fits most mugs.

FINISHED MEASUREMENTS
4 inches square (without fringe).

MATERIALS
I used leftover sock yarn of unknown origin, but a similar substitute would be:

Lana Grossa Meilenweit Multiringel [80% wool, 20% polyamide; 420m per 100g skein]; each coaster will use less than 100 m.

1 set US #1/2.25mm straight needles

notions required: 1 D/3.25mm Crochet Hook, scissors

GAUGE
This is such a quick project, and useful in so many sizes that it is almost easier to knit a coaster instead of a gauge swatch.
24 sts/48 rows = 4″ in garter stitch

PATTERN NOTES
This pattern uses two strands of sock yarn held together. If you use self-striping sock yarn and would like to preserve the original striping pattern, divide your yarn into two balls and match up the yarns at a color change. For a mottled effect, you can pull one strand from the outside and one strand from the inside of a center-pull ball. This method effectively reverses the striping pattern of one strand.

The shape of the coaster is created by a double decrease at the center of every other row where the center three stitches are decreased to one. The clean edge is the result of slipping the first stitch of every row, and purling the last stitch.

PATTERN
Using the long-tail cast on method CO 49 sts.
Row 1: sl 1, k22, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k22, p1. (47 sts)
Row 2 and all even rows: sl 1, knit until 1 st remains, p1.
Row 3: sl 1, k21, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k21, p1. (45 sts)
Row 5: sl 1, k20, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k20, p1. (43 sts)
Row 7: sl 1, k19, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k19, p1. (41 sts)
Row 9: sl 1, k18, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k18, p1. (39 sts)
Row 11: sl 1, k17, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k17, p1. (37 sts)
Row 13: sl 1, k16, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k16, p1. (35 sts)
Row 15: sl 1, k15, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k15, p1. (33 sts)
Row 17: sl 1, k14, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k14, p1. (31 sts)
Row 19: sl 1, k13, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k13, p1. (29 sts)
Row 21: sl 1, k12, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k12, p1. (27 sts)
Row 23: sl 1, k11, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k11, p1. (25 sts)
Row 25: sl 1, k10, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k10, p1. (23 sts)
Row 27: sl 1, k9, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k9, p1. (21 sts)
Row 29: sl 1, k8, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k8, p1. (19 sts)
Row 31: sl 1, k7, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k7, p1. (17 sts)
Row 33: sl 1, k6, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k6, p1. (15 sts)
Row 35: sl 1, k5, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k5, p1. (13 sts)
Row 37: sl 1, k4, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k4, p1. (11 sts)
Row 39: sl 1, k3, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k3, p1. (9 sts)
Row 41: sl 1, k2, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k2, p1. (7 sts)
Row 43: sl 1, k1, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k1, p1. (5 sts)
Row 45: sl 2, k2tog, psso, k1, p1. (3 sts rem)
Row 47: k2tog, psso (1 stitch remains)

Break yarn and pull through the single remaining stitch until tight.

FINISHING
Weave in ends.
Adding fringe: for additional help watch the video here
Each tassel of fringe is made with two strands of yarn, attached to the edge of the coaster with a crochet hook, and trimmed to an even length. Cut approximately 50 strands of yarn, each about 4.5 inches long. Take two strands held together and fold them in half to make a loop. Insert the crochet hook behind the selvage stitches at the end of the row, and then through the loop you have created. Pull the loop through and leave it on the crochet hook (the ends of the yarn should still be in your hand). Continuing to hold the yarn taut, wrap all of it around the crochet hook and pull it through the loop, attaching it to the edge of the coaster. Pull the strands taught. Repeat this along the side of the coaster. When you have placed fringe on two sides of the coaster, use scissors to trim it to an even length.

Fringey

Ever wondered how to add fringe to something? As a supplement to my new pattern, I made a video showing how to crochet fringe onto the edge of a knitted object.

Just a peek October 8, 2006

I finished my project for the whipup competition – the whole thing only took a few hours and I love the result. Since I haven’t decided in which category it will be entered, i am not ready to make a whole post about it, but just tease you with a little snippet

I thought I might answer some of the questions posed for socktoberfest, but was afraid they might be a bit boring so be warned!

(more…)

Projects on my mind October 1, 2006

I don’t know if you have taken a peek at my sidebar lately, but I have joined a couple of casual knit-alongs. The first is Socktoberfest. The rules seem simple – knit some socks in october. Perfect, since i just turned a heel last night.

I am also comfortable enough to declare that I have figured out how to do short-row heels for toe up socks…. EXACTLY the SAME way as for top down socks. Took me long enough to realize they were symmetric so it doesn’t matter what type of sock you use them on.

I also joined the Fall Cable Knit along. i did this because I thought the next thing I would start on would be the ‘Central Park Hoodie’ from the Fall Knitscene magazine.

I know that I swore off hoods after the rogue… they take too much yarn, they make it seem like you should be done with the sweater, but you’re not… But i can’t resist. And now I can;t say for sure that his will be my next sweater project… Problem is, Knitpicks knows I am a sucker. If you have ever bought something from them, they send you almost weekly emails advertising a new pattern or yarn. Being a sucker, I open them. And this time I love the pattern and the yarn. go take a look at Emma. Inticing because it has it all: steeking, knitting in the round ( no purling!), suggested yarn in colors i like, and an awesomely huge collar.

Whoa! I just had an awesome idea – I think this yarn would also work for the central park hoodie!! Ahhhh, a green cabled sweater, and a brownish jacket… wouldn’t that be nice.

Finally, shamelessly, since I have yarn lust and no yarn budget I have to pimp my etsy shop

I’ll give you free First class shipping (priority if you order more than one) on yarn if you comment when you purchase that you read about the yarn on my blog. WAIT for an invoice from me before submitting payment!