Girl on the Rocks

Dishcloth cottony January 4, 2008

Filed under: Finished Projects — karrie @ 9:20 pm

The other night I beat down a bit of insomnia with the help of some yarn and a few minutes on Ravelry* I wanted to find something to use up some of the ton of cotton I acquired a while ago since it not suitable for amigurumi sushi as I had originally hoped. I took a look at my queue and immediately cast on for a Pear Apple cozy. About an hour later i had this:

I already used it to take an Asian Pear to work, and it survived my bag without even a single bruise. [My Ravelry project page]

I found a few other projects that I plan to make to help me work through all of the cotton:

Re-usable swiffer cozy
I can’t believe I missed this when it was a whiplash entry… Green Mountain Mama modified the ballband dishcloth pattern to button on to her Swiffer. Since the cotton is machine washable, you don’t need to buy disposable swiffer cloths any more.

Photos from grnmtnmama’s flickr stream

Bath Puff
This one is for the crocheters out there… Instead of a weird plastic-y bath puff, how about a handmade cotton one? And if you choose your colors carefully, it might look a bit like a brain (which i find totally cool)…

Picture courtesy of Pania’s flickr stream

And there is also the old standby - Dishcloths. I like to make boring ones like the ones my mom used to buy in Amish country. But I am willing to try out something a little more exciting like round spirally ones.

Any way you look at it, my cotton stash will be shrinking.

*I’m not sure I ever officially mentioned that I am on Ravelry as girlontherocks (friend me and I’ll friend you back!). I’ve been on since june, but I was so impatient while on the waiting list. I was fully jealous of everyone that would blog about how they just got in. So I secretly vowed to not mention it here. But now since the wait is only a few days long, I’m okay to talk about it.

Only one will survive January 21, 2007

Filed under: Karrie's Current Projects, Socks — karrie @ 1:25 pm

I have completed my first knitting project of 2007.

A beer cozy that I am calling “the Handyman special.” When you know a handy guy that welds a new piece for your ball-winder, you need to repay him somehow. I attempted a dramatic picture in front of sunset behind the golden gate bridge, but it didn’t work at all. This cozy is knit out of dishcloth cotton from our big order and was done on straight needles.

I have two other practically completed projects, but they won’t be around much longer. The first is a prototype for a sock pattern I am working on.

i like the pattern a lot. It has a little bit of yarn-over laciness, a little bit of ribbing, and a little bit of twistiness. unfortunately it is a little too small and needs to be reworked. This time I think I will use a normal weight sock yarn instead of the medium-weight socks that rock (in the color dreidel in case you were wondering). I think my standard 3×1 sock will be perfect for this str, just like the last. So this particular sock will be ripped out momentarily.

The second project destined for destruction: a square for larissa’s square-along using some of my solar dyed sock yarn. This is what it would look like if I was actually blocking it:

It’s an age old tale of knitting woe… I didn’t check my gauge and it is an inch too big. So it is getting ripped out and done again on smaller needles. Don’t know if I will be able to get it done by the deadline, though. Too much other stuff going on.

Edit: Larissa is accepting all squares, so I can send mine after all and I don’t need to rip it out and redo it. hooray!

Tis the season for receiving? December 7, 2006

Filed under: Crafty, Things I like — karrie @ 12:19 pm

I posted this in the things i like category so I can feel free to randomly blather on about cool things I’ve found. Bear with me, you might find something that you like.

Pincushions

I was lucky enough to have Monique send me a package for this month’s pincushion challenge swap.

The pincushion has an elastic strap so it can be worn on my wrist. I love the pink and white matching pins! I put the pincushion to work immediately.

I was trying to not spoil the surprise in case my package has not reached its destination, but I can’t resist. I used the swap as an opportunity to try out an idea that i have had for a while. I put a fluffy top on an altoids tin so pins can go in the top and notions can be stored in the tin. I also added some fishy shrinky pins.

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Hair clips
I hit the SF Craft Mafia sale at Craft Gym last month. Wow were there some good looking goodies there. I got a T-bone steak from Sweetmeats and some hair clips from Sprout Studio. The steak is at its new home, and I am loving the barrettes.

Yarn
Did you know you can get cones of dishcloth cotton yarn from Elmore-Pisgah (Peaches and Cream) for a really great price? Abby found this out and made a big order for all of us. then we divided it up. It is a lot of cotton yarn, and the colors are beautiful.