Pattern Of The Month: June: Water-Bottle Sling June 27, 2008

Avid fans, this month’s pattern is just made for summer… It’s… It’s… The Water-Bottle Sling from KnitWit, by Amy R. Singer.  So… here it is!

Materials:  Koigu PPPM (100% merino wool; 175yd/160m per 50g); color:PG11X; 2 skeins, (from the yarn shop, any 50g sock yarn can be substituted, so long as it’s 100% wool) 1 set #2/ 2.75 mm double pointed needles, yarn needle, stitch holder, and stitch marker.

Gauge: 32 sts/44 rows = 4″ in St st

Stitch Pattern: Rib Patt: *P3, K6* around

Pattern:

Bottom: CO 7 sts.

Row 1: K

Rows 2-9: Inc 1 st at each end. (23 sts)

Row 10: K.

Row 11: Inc 1 st at each end. (25 sts)

Rows 12-14: K.

Row 15: Inc 1 st at each end. (27 sts)

Rows 16-25: K.

Row 26: Dec 1 st at each end. (25 sts)

Rows 27-29: K.

Row 30: Dec 1 st at each end. (23 sts)

Row 31: K.

Rows 32-39: Dec 1 st at each end. (7 sts)

BO all sts.

Body:

Pick up 81 sts arond outside of circle. Divide sts evenly on needles and work in the rnd even in St st for 2″.

P 1 rnd. K 2 rnds. P 1 rnd. Work even in rib patt untill piece measures 7″ from bottom.

Next rnd: BO 21 sts purlwise, p15 sts, place these sts on holder, BO 21 sts [urlwise, p24.  Cont working these 24 sts only, back and forth, for strap.

Strap: Row 1 (WS): P.

Row 2: K. Cont even in garter st for 4.25″ or make optional pocket as follows:

Optional Pocket:

Rows 1-3: K.

Row 4: K3, *k1, m1* to last 3 sts, k3.

Row 5: K1, sl 1 purlwise WYIB, k1, *sl 1 purlwise WYIF, k1* to last 3 sts, sl 1 purlwise WYIB, k1, sl 1 purlwise. Rep row 5 for 3.75″ from beg of pocket.

Next row: K3, *sl 1 to holder, k1* to last 3 sts, k3

Cont strap (both versions)

Next row: K11, k2tog, k11.

Next row: K9, k2tog, PM, k2tog, k9. Working in garter st, k2tog before the first marker and after the second marker every 4″ 3 times. Cont even in garter st until work measures 32″ from beg of strap.

Finishing

Strap:

Being careful not to twist strap, bring right sides of strap tog and attach to holder sts on WS using 3-needle BO

Pocket

Transfer sts from holder to needle; rejoin yarn on RS and BO all sts purlwise.  Weave in ends.

Book Review Of The Month: June: Chicks With Sticks: Knitwise June 21, 2008

Avid fans, we have come to the end of the Chicks Trilogy.  In the final installment of the high-school saga, the four friends are “staring down the end of high school” and wondering (or at least Scottie is) if this will be the end of their quartet.  The book begins at Movies In The Park, where we learn that Scottie is making a memory quilt… Will the Chicks survive the new principal, venomous quilters, Bella’s search for a seinor service project, Tay’s new joint custody , Amanda’s debutante duty, and Scottie’s college fears?

Personally, I thought this book was pretty good, the best of the Chicks. (exept for a few pages I skipped.  Call me a wimp,  but I will not read that stuff!)  I thought the author tied up the loose ends that confused me in the first and second books.  If you read the first two, you have to read the last one.  I especially liked Scottie’s college woes and her service project, along with the French Fry Bus, Amanda’s designs, and, well, I always just plain enjoyed reading about Tay.  Don’t worry if you’re sick of chick lit, ’cause next moth will be a very different story!  (Pardon my pun! I couldn’t resist.)  Well, I hope you had fun with these books.  I sure did!

TTFN,

Wildwool (a.k.a. Lily)

 

Guess what? June 15, 2008

Guess what?  The other day, somebody used google to find this blog (that’s nothing new), but what was new was that the search term was the name of this site! 

Word Of The Month: June June 14, 2008

Okay, fans, here’s this month’s word: 

Knit*er*obics* 

It means exercising while knitting, of course!

Zen is begun! June 9, 2008

I started my tank top, Zen.  I’m up to the first stripe already!  Wow-you fans really visited alot last month.  Lets try to visit even more this month, shall we?  Not that I’m complaining!

PS: Project Spectrum: May May 28, 2008

Hey, avid fans!  I totally forgot about PS untill I went looking through my old posts…and it turns out I did my PS project for May, which was a green hat for one of my friends, Sarah.  And Serenity (what I decided to name my WIP, see previous post) has three shades of green in it, so I think I’m good.  Tell me YOUR PS tales.  I know you’re out there, because I checked the monthly stats today, and you people made my (online) day, with setting a record for the most veiws since I created this site, in late December 2007.  Thank you!

TTFN,

Lily 

WIP update May 27, 2008

Hey avid fans, I have a new WIP!!!!!  I went to buy the yarn on Saturday, and that’s all I’ve been knitting since.  It’s … a yoga mat bag!  Currently, my mat is languishing in my shower.  (The shower is NOT being used, because the door doesn’t stay shut, so presto, storage space.)  But no more!  I have plans to knit a tank top to go with it when it’s finished, and that pretty much takes care of my summer WIPs.  For those of you who don’t know, WIP means Work In Progress.  I haven’t named this project yet, so I’m open to suggestion.  I’m considering Om, but I might save that for the tank top.  Maybe I could call the bag Serenity?  The pattern is called Serenity Yoga Mat Bag, from Knitwit by Amy R. Singer.  The tank top pattern is from the back of the second Chicks With Sticks book.  (All the Chicks books have patterns included.)

Well, I need to go eat dinner, so…

TTFN!

Wildwool, a.k.a. Lily

Book Review of the Month: Chicks With Sticks: Knit Two Together May 21, 2008

The second installmant in  the Chicks saga is not for the un-boy-crazy.  Unless, like me, you despise the kissy-kissy parts, and are reading this book to find out what happens to our favorite four teenage knitters:  Scottie, Amanda, Bella, and Tay.  That said, you’ll probobly love this book if you are boy-crazy.  Anyway, Knit Two Together is about Scottie’s struggle to get herself a boyfriend, while still keeping her friends and her love of knitting.  She has a really hard time!  Things climax at YarnCon Chicago, a knitting (and mostly girly) festival.  She almost loses her friends, and, strangely enough, it’s the day before Bella’s b-day.  Scottie goes home in the middle of the festival, makes things right with the guy she likes (who lives in the same building), then goes to sleep.  She sleeps the day away, and, after seeing one of her mom’s paintings, she goes to Bella’s sleepover…. Well, I can’t tell you the rest, but I think you’ll like the end.  More later!

TTFN, Wildwool a.k.a. Lily

Word of the Month May 18, 2008

New feature!  Hope you like it.  By the way, I made this word up myself.

Yarn*uh*chi*no =  Yarn (or WIP, or blanket squares) stored in a Starbucks Frappachino cup

I finally finished Grape Juice! May 18, 2008

No, really!  Of course, I’m now working hard on my other projects (most of which I’d forgotten about)  to fill the gap…  Projects like…my scrap blanket!  Oh, yeah, I need some CIY (Craft It Yourself)  advice:  How do you get images onto those iron-on things?