Stella's Hat for my aunt

My aunt asked me to make her a black hat. I emailed her some patterns and she picked out "Stella's Hat". The pattern calls for chunky yarn, but I didn't want the hat to be too hot. Instead I bought regular weight yarn, but when when I cast on the hat wasn't nearly big enough. My main problem is that I only have 3 sets of double pointed needles. The recommended size needles (size 7) made the hat too small so I used the next bigger size I have (size 10). They were way too big, and thus the hat is too big too...

I tried it on a couple times while I was making it. I had a feeling it'd be too big, but I didn't know it'd be so huge.

The pattern works on a number of stitches that's a multipication of 8 - so I'll try and cast on 72 stitches (instead of 80) and see if that comes out ok. If not I'll have to go buy needles. I'm thinking size 9 would be useful.

Science and Math geek swap

I spent almost all of November knitting for a Science and Math geek swap. The way it works is, you're set up with a partner and have to make science/math related things for that person. You send out the stuff you made, and someone else sends you stuff. Since people on craftster do all sorts of things, not just knit, it's a good way to get cool stuff you wouldn't know how to make yourself.

Here's the stuff I made:

DNA scarf and hat. I used this pattern for the scarf: http://www.twosheep.com/helix/ and then I sort of stole the idea for the hat from this pattern http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter03/PATTcoronet.html But only the idea, cause the shaping came from the hats my grandma always makes.

Then I made this emission spectrum pillow (my idea, no pattern). It's got the Mercury spectrum on one side....

and the Hydrogen spectrum on the other.

The idea is, when you take hydrogen gas (for example) and you give it energy (most times in the form of electricity), you are making electrons jump from one energy level to another. When they loose that extra energy, the electron falls back to lower energy and emits electromagnetic radiation. Sometimes the radiation is in the visible spectrum (visible light and not UV, infrared, radio waves and so on...), which is what I showed in the pillow. So basically, if you give the right amount of energy to Hydrogen, you can make it emit a photon (a particle of radiation) with the a wavelength that corresponds to red light. The same for the other lines/other colors. Mercury has a lot more lines cause it's got a lot more electrons and a much bigger nucleus. That is the basic of florescent lights. Neon lights are just the same idea, but instead of Hydrogen (which actually gives really pretty pink light) or Mercury (which gives a pretty greenish/blue colored light) it is red/orange. OK, spectroscopy lesson over.

I also knit Saturn, or some other planet with rings.

And Sputnik

They've got wires inside to keep them stiff. I made up the patterns for both of them, but stole the ball pattern from here: http://tiajudy.com/yarnball.htm

The girl I swapped with got my package already. She posted pictures, you can see them here: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=209416.0;all along with photos of other stuff other people made. I didn't the stuff she made me yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

Baby Blanket

About a month and a half ago I spent about a week and a half knitting this baby blanket for my dad's cousin's new (first) baby. I haven't seen her yet, but the blanket made it to my dad's cousin and her husband, and they sent back lots and lots of thank yous.

Anyway, here's the blanket:

With the flash you can see the actual colors

Without flash it looks bluish - weird. My glasses are there to show scale. They were the only thing I had on me (literally)

A close up of the edge. It was a picot bind-off with a row of k2tog yo before it. I never tried either of those, but it came out really nice.

I just really wanted to try the pattern, and when it was done it was so cute I wanted to keep it for myself. I'm thinking of making one for myself. It'll take an endless amount of yarn (that small blanket took 3 skeins of 200 grams each - and it's only about 1 meter in diameter ), but I think grandma won't mind if I slowly clean out her basement :)

Scarf

I finished my unlce's scarf last night. This pattern was so damn boring. It was 8 rows that I just kept having to repeat over and over again. Scarves are like that, I know, but it could have been a little more interesting. I know the yarn isn't the best for the pattern, but you can sorta see it most of the time. Anyway, I just hope my uncle likes it.

The pattern is based on the Tweed Scarf pattern, but I added more stitches (needed to make it wider), and had to change the design a bit,



The actual yarn is a bit darker.
Notice that this photo shows both sides of the scarf. The actual right side is on the left, which leaves the wrong side for the right - lol.


Yeah, I was too lazy to move the plant or the mat.

I finished my sweater!

I finished my "Rogue" from Girl From Auntie. This is my first sweater, so I'm super excited. I can't believe it only took about two months of non-intensive knitting. It wasn't even that hard. I was so scared of the pattern when I printed it out. Those cable charts are so intimidating looking, but it was fine. The pattern couldn't have been clearer. I didn't have any questions going along. The lady at the LYS (not really local since it's near my grandma's house, in a different country) said the pattern had too much written down, but it didn't. It all made perfect sense and the extra descriptions really helped.

Close up of the sleeve and neck (this is my version of the photo on the girlfromauntie site)


I think my favorite part is the hood. The cables look so fancy but they were all simple.


I used 7 skeins of Galway Highland Heather wool color number 732 (sort of like denim color with pink/purple in it too). I really cut it close with 7 skeins. This is all I had left....

There are only two long strands in that little "ball". The rest are like 8-10 inch pieces that I'm gonna save just in case.

Seaming took me about 4 hours this morning, but I think it looks ok. I was so afraid of having to attach those sleeves, but it wasn't too bad. It looks hand made, but that's ok, it is hand made. I just wish it weren't so hot here. I want to wear it now, but instead I'm still in shorts.

Sweater Sleeves

I finished the sleeves to my sweater today! Tomorrow I get to seam them (they are flat now) and then attatch them to the body of the sweater. Wish me luck. I'm afraid of this part. Grandma said it's not hard to attach sleeves. I hope she's right.

Sweater Body

I finished the body of my sweater today. I even impressed myself. It looks nice. The hood is all cables and it's so nice and snug. I love it.

Next up I have to make the sleeves. I'm afraid of having to put the sleeves on the body, but my seaming has been OK so far. Maybe I'll do alright after all. Also, it looks like this sweater will be done so much sooner than expected. Very cool cause I had a really geeky idea to knit proteins and I want to try that out.

Shoulder Shaping

I'm doing the shoulder shaping on my sweater, so I can finally try it on. So far so good. It actually fits. It's so exciting! The cables on the sides look pretty good. too bad that the part that'll be a little hidden by my arm came out better looking than the more visible part. It's ok though, what I've done so far is good practice for the hood and sleeves.

Started Knitting My First Sweater

I started knitting my sweater. Yay, go me!

The yarn is this 732 (top row). It's bluish purple and very pretty.

Octupus

My octopus:

Clapotis (number 2)

I made another one of those scarf/shawl things (Clapotis)

I like the yarn on this one better. It's all my favorite colors: blue, purple and chevy-turquoise. This is for my aunt who lives in SF. I hope she likes it. I think it's pretty but Mom likes the other one I made better.

Looks like the strike might be ending. It's about bloody time. With school again, I think I'll take a break from knitting. There's nothing I really want to knit at the moment. I do want to make a sweater, but that will have to wait till the summer for sure. I should be concentrating on school anyway.

Clapotis

I finished my scarf/shawl thing. It looks big, but it curls up so that you can wear it like a scarf, and it's nice and cozy.

Here it is on my back:

And here it is outside - the chair was cold. This is pretty much the actual color.

A close up of the stiches:

A closer up:

Yeah, I'm pleased with how it came out. It was a lot of work, but it wasn't hard or anything. It just took a week and a half, with a couple hours of knitting a day.

Penguin

My penguin!

Notice the ruler - that's for scale. lol Not that you can see the ruler - but it's about 10 cm (4 inches) across.
I'm trying to think of something to compare it to. The best I can I can do is say it's about the length of a mouspad.

Look penguin guts :)
This was before he was stuffed.

I just need everyone to notice the wonderful job I did stiching. I'm so proud it came out so neat looking. You should see the hats I've made - they look like crap compared this beautiful seaming.

Paperback Holder

I don't exactly know what to call it, but it holds paperbacks and it's done! lol

The thing is, my reading books keep getting squished in my backpack among all the big heavy chemistry books. For some strange reason I figured that if I had a little knit pouch for them, they wouldn't get so beat up. Looking at it now, I'm not sure it's going to help at all. I'll guess we'll see tomorrow.

I'm still really glad I made it though. It was fun sketching it, and planning it, then knitting it. It's a little hard to see, but it's got honeycomb cables on the side and bottom. Those are always fun to make. Plus, I now know how to make a button hole. :)

I think I'm going to have to switch buttons. Although it's a very pretty button, it's the wrong color.

Running today was ok, except I was tired, so I only ran 8 km (56 min). Yesterday I was also tired, and I was pressed for time, so I only ran 5.5 km 37 min). My running is going to the dogs. I hope I can do a long run next weekend. If that works out then it'll be ok. I don't know what this slum is, but it could possibly be related to the fact that I'm constantly tired and every minute I spend not studying is spent in guilt (ok not every minute, but most).