Sunlight for photos, finally!

The weather is nice enough here to take photos outdoors again! I’ve been busy, knitting, dyeing, spinning… you know, me stuff.

First up we have a felted bowl from

One Skein

:

I made the largest size, and it really ended up being too long, so I just folded it over. Simple enough solution. It was waaaay fast and easy to knit. Took me a night to knit, wouldn’t this be a great present? Maybe with ribbon woven into the sides? I used the recommended Lamb’s Pride Bulky. I really like how it turned out, that yarn always felts well. I shaped it over a mixing bowl from Ikea. It is now in my dining room, on my hutch, holding my scented things refill packs (yannow, Febreeze Noticables, Glade Scented Oils…).

Next up:

Yarn of course! It’s superwash sock yarn, dyed in chocolate, seafoam green, and ecru. With the natural white of the yarn showing in, too, because I like it that way. I dye it that way on purpose using the Jelly Jar/Stock Pot method. Works the best for me- no mess, no fuss, just mix dye, put water in the jars and the stock pot, then put already wet yarn in like so:

After about 45 minutes simmering time, the dyebaths are exhausted and a little color creeps up into the white (this was a photo early on). Later, I decided I hated the pink, and dyed that the chocolate color after it had dried. I really like the final results! I am giving half to a swap buddy and saving half for myself.

No I Like It A Lot today…

Long day spent at the doctor and at A Yarn For All Season’s winter yarn sale. So you know that makes me a tired girl! I got a bag of Debbie Bliss Aran Tweed for half off. If you live in New Jersey, PLEASE support them! They have too much yarn and too much is on sale, it’s all for you!!!! *tempt* *tempt*

Sewed and sewed.

I did it! I finished my shirt! It is Simplicity pattern 4407, view D. IGNORE THE BLOTCHY FACE– Percoset is not my friend (I had surgery yesterday, they gave it to me for pain). But yes! I sewed this! I am leaving it as is, with no buttons or buttonholes. It’s like a shirt jacket type thing, for spring days or cold summer nights. I really like it. I made mistakes with crooked lines and you can tell I am kinda a beginner at sewing, but I love the sleeves.

I used some gray calico fabric, on sale at the Rag Shop for like $2.50 a yard. I did take like three weeks to make it, but I wanted to go slow, seeing as how I haven’t seriously sewn in … almost 15 years (I took two semesters of sewing in high school).

I’m just so pleased with it. It’ll look really cute with a white shirt underneath. My “Born to Knit” shirt from Modern Yarn is just what I am wearing today.

Sweater is done!

Yarn: Lamb’s Pride Bulky
Needles: 11s and 10.5s
Time spent: 3 weeks
Pattern: my own

Spring has sprung!

Not that the weather where I live would give me any indication that it has, but I digress.

A spring chick! Made from Kat Knits’s Peeps pattern. This took me about 2 hours to make, and I stuffed it with polyfill. It was really easy, but the numbers I had were off somehow. Whatever, it’s not really hard to figure out. I knit it with some 100% worsted weight wool I had laying around from some years back, on sz 6 needles.

I LIKE IT A LOT

Here we go again! Always, email your links to lelah olender @ gmail (dot) com.

Darren Waterson on NOTCOT. Well. What can I say about this artist? That I want to marry his paintings? NOTCOT is right, they look sci-fi- which I LOVE. I am a sci-fi geek in a girly-girl’s body. Only certain fandoms, though. But I digress. His paintings are so beautiful.

Oh my, isn’t this sweater beautiful?! I really love this yarn. I think it’s Manos — I have a lonely skein of the same colorway. I would KILL for enough of it to make a sweater, but at $15 a pop for on skein of variegated… well. Better off making the yarn myself!

Little oil paintings. Aren’t they precious? Yes. I Live On a Farm has another blog set up to sell them if you read the post on through. And you should. She’s a great writer.

Book review (good one) of a new style of heirloom knitting. Have you discovered Japanese knitting books yet? Can you please look at the beauty? Every book contains beautiful patterns, with expertly done graphic design, so the whole package is just gorgeous. Now that they’re gaining more popularity in the US, people are beginning to translate the knitting terms. Now, my sister is going to Japan in a week for THREE whole months… I am giving her the mission to learn the language of knitting in Japan, so I can baby-translate the patterns.

And in the yarn porn category:
Blue Moon Fiber Arts yarn… Ohh delicious! The surely is a centerfold spread!!
And more:
Mmmmmmmm candy socks! Hungry now.

This girl is 14?! What?! Awesome. I am in LOVE with her Pirouette sock pattern. I just wish she would sell them on her website, as .pdf downloads. I hate spending money at another retailer, then paying shipping, only to get something I could have printed out myself.

Dungarees dress This is amazing, as Whip Up always likes to find. I mean ferlovessake, it’s a wedding dress!!

Waist cinchers, Japanese-style! Hotness. Here is my version:

I made it a while ago, but never wore it. It would look good over a long shirt. It’s out of 2 skeins of Manos, and I used some Barbara Walker patterns for the cables and the bottom pointy part (I forget which stitch pattern that is really called). Also in there is seed stitch. If I give it a good look-over, I can write up the pattern if there is enough interest (COMMENT, PEOPLE!!!)

Old projects

Well, I have been without the internet and also sick with a cold, so I thought I would blog about my old projects that I have done.

Glampyre’s Bulky Cable Cardigan, out of Brown Sheep’s Lambs Pride Bulky in Sage. Knit in Fall ‘05.

Gary Potter socks in Gryffindor’s house colors for my Dad, Gary. Out of Brown Sheep’s Naturespun. He likes them so much he never wears them. Knit Christmas ‘05.

Socks for Mom, Christmas ‘05. I think these were Regia… or something. Jungle colorway. I know that I remember that.

Clapotis in progress, out of some 50%wool/50% silk Cherry Tree Hill yarn in Green Mountain Madness (not too much green in there, though!!). Now finished. Knit… in… winter ‘05/’06.

Socks knit from Sock Yarn Swap pal. Gifted to Mom, summer ‘06. She loves her socks and wants more more more more…

I LIKE IT A LOT Tuesday

Well, well, well… here it is, Tuesday AGAIN! YAY! Always, send links you like to lelaholender at gmail dot com.

First off, a HUGE congratulations!! to Eunny Jang!. Eunny is an awesome knitter/designer who was a blogger, but now is the new EDITOR of Interweave Knits!! Can you believe it?!?!

Scissorina made this birthday gift for her Mom. I thought it was so touching and cute. I really love the way she did her tree, too.

Tutorial on how to crayon-stain fabric. Can’t you just see yourself doing this?

I really love what Bradyphrenia knits, check out those gorgeous socks!!.

And now, I would like to promote my favorite message board,Craftster. Here is my pick of the week:
Dr. Who and a Dalek Amigurumis. Can you just say, WHAT? OMG!? with me?

Sock monkeys with a twist. I think this one is the best I’ve ever seen.

I want to try to do this! These shoes are really cute.

Yarn I spun

For my lelah.etsy.com shop, I spun this yarn up yesterday:

100% Cormo wool. Cormo is a breed of sheep that is SO. SOFT. They’re big like Merino sheep, but I think Cormo wool is softer. And this yarn is 100% New Jersey based– Elizabeth from Apple Rose Farm raised the sheep, processed the wool, and dyed it. I merely bought it and spun it. If you’re a spinner, check out her cormo- it’s top quality stuff and she is really nice.

This is so cool

**EDIT** WordPress made my pictures look icky in the thumbnails, click for big for a clear photo.

Imagine Wikipedia only for knitting, and you’ve got KnitWiki! Isn’t that neat? Yes. I couldn’t save it for next Tuesday. But I will repost then, too, just in case anyone misses it.

Okay. My feet are always freezing. What is up with that?

And on my own craft front, I have four! WIPs.

First off is a baby hat I am making for the lelah.etsy.com shop, made out of my hand-dyed yarn, in my Cloud colorway. Picot edging! Yey!

Here is my second WIP, my Japelesque jade sweater. Almost to the ribbing!

And a sewing project! Simplicity 4077, view D. See Elizabeth’s here (scroll down). Mine will be out of a really pretty light grey print, almost an understated kimono fabric. But this is calico, because who doesn’t love calico fabric?

And my last one, well, I will post it when I am finished. It’s my quilt school practice piece. I only have to do the shamrock, then I am done. Just in time for me favorite holiday in March, St. Paddy’s Day.