Halloween Night

So we decided to check out Keith's (Ken's brother) haunted halloween maze. It took them two days to set up and a canned food donation was required for entry. Unfortunately I have no pics because it was dark and they used black lights. They had a mix of live people and automated characters. This year's highlight was the electric chair. What you think is an animatronic prisoner being electrocuted but when the electrocution stops-the character gets up, freaking out just about anyone. It was fun watching people freak out.

Tutorial: Decreasing and finishing

Yay! I finished it! Well....mostly. Even with my excursion to Lewisville to go to Aidaworks (great needlecraft store for those of you in DFW) and the stop at Hobby Lobby, I'm finally ready to finish it!

Decreasing in the middle of a row:

The book says this is good for a gradual decrease

1. Wherever your pattern says to decrease or knit two together, move those stitches onto the next peg TOWARD THE MIDDLE OF THE LOOM. You will now have a gap of empty pegs.



2. Move the other stitches in toward the middle of the loom to fill in your now empty pegs.



3. Wrap and knit as usual. If there are three loops on a peg, knit the bottom two over the top loop so one loop remains.




Binding off

Go get a crochet hook.

1. I have numbered the pegs. You are going to remove 1, 2 and 3 in that order and put them on the crochet hook.



2. You now have three loops on the crochet hook. Put two loops over the third so you have one loop left on the hook.



3. Put the next two stitches (4 and 5 in that order) and the crochet hook. Put two loops over the third so you have one loop left on the hook. Repeat, going in numerical order.



4. Pull the working yarn through the last loop and weave it into the piece.

Finishing the other end

1. The anchor yarn is holding your live stitches. Put three loops on the crochet hook. Pull two loops over so you have one loop left on the hook. Put another two loops on the hook and repeat until you reach the end.

2. Run the yarn tail through the remaining loop and weave in the edge.



Yay! It's finished

Tutorial: Stockinette on the Long Loom

Well, last night I started the Scarflet project (it's from the Loom Knitting Primer, a book I highly recommend). It uses the stockinette stitch for the long loom (a stitch that I'm pretty sure you cannot duplicate on needles). As you can see it's a very tight weave.



For materials, I'm using Bernat Solo "Tomato" which unfortunately is discontinued. I'm using the pink knifty knitter loom.

I've never actually done this stitch before, but, so far, I like it.

How to do the stitch:

Casting on

1. Make a slip knot and put it on the peg.



2. Using a zigzag pattern and skipping every other peg, wind the yarn across the loom as shown. The yarn will not be twisted at all.



3. Turn the corner. You are still going on the outsides of the pegs.



4. Continue going back in the same zigzag manner. You will use all the empty pegs you didn't get the first time.



5. This is IMPORTANT: You need to put a piece of yarn across the pattern you just made. It is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. First, it's going to help when binding off. Second, the last two pegs on the right will not form a proper stitch without it (I know because I didn't use it at first and they didn't work properly and I had to start all over---so SPARE YOURSELF).



6. Wrap the second row just like you did for the cast on row. You will start at the upper left hand peg which is the same one that you have the slip knot on.



7. Knit



8. Repeat wrapping in the same manner. I'll have to put binding off in another post.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! Or for the Lutherans...Happy 492nd Anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation! (BIG party in 2017)

And, this morning I finally fixed Firefox. It was giving me issues, especially with Facebook. Now it zooms along. Yay! Hoping to post pics of the scarflet which is currently in progress.

Baby gifts

I got my third baby gift today :D

My cousin Karen knit me this cute little pink receiving blanket in nice chunky soft yarn.



Also, I am starting a new project today. Thanks to a suggestion from the Knifty Knitter Resource group, I'm going to make a scarflet for my Mom for Christmas. Catch is...she's coming for Thanksgiving so it has to be done by then. Shouldn't be too hard...at least I don't think so.

BTW...there are some great giveaways on these blogs:

http://ourgoldfishbowl.blogspot.com/
http://beckysc.blogspot.com

Loom Knitting Resources

I'm sharing my list of book resources in my collection for loom knitting. All come highly recommended. (all images courtesy of Amazon):

Loom Crafts with Knifty Knitter
looms used:
long looms
flower loom
pom pom and tassel maker
techniques:
tube knitting
panel knitting
ribbed stitch
alternated or interrupted ribbed stitch



Loom Knitting Primer - Isela Phelps
looms used:
long looms
round looms
techniques:
this is the book you need for most of the different stitches that can be done on the looms. it's the best I've found so far





Learn New Stitches on Circle Looms - Anne Bipes
looms used:
round looms
techniques:
garter stitch
loom weaving
popcorn bobble stitch
eyelet stitch
i-cord
seed stitch
checkerboard stitch
diamond lace stitch
shell stitch
chevron stitch


Learn to Knit of Circle Looms - Denise Layman
looms used:
round looms
techniques:
basic knit, purl
tube and flat methods
i-cord
binding off





Knitting Wheel Fashions - Leisure Arts
looms used:
round looms
long looms
techniques:
basic stitches
double knitting on long loom
increasing/decreasing

More Knitting Wheel Fashions - Kathy Norris
looms used:
round looms
long looms
techniques:
basic knit and purl
double knitting on long loom
increasing/decreasing


Then there are some great little brochures that ProvoCraft put out:

Knitting with Knifty Knitter A New Experience in Knitting
looms used:
round looms
projects:
knitted hat
golf club covers
pom poms
dish cloths
flat top hat
scarf
tiny totes for tiny tots
beach towel back pack
large Christmas stocking

Knitting with the Knifty Knitter II A New Experience in Knitting
looms used:
round looms
long looms
projects:
trellis scarf or sash
14" pillow
hats
simple small scarf
metallic shawl
rib knit scarf
fashion scarf
long loom techniques:
basic knitting
rib knitting
fashion stitch

Knitting with Knifty Knitter III
looms used:
long looms
spool loom
techniques:
panel knit
ribbed knit
honeycomb knit
projects:
basic beanie
basic scarves
felted pack
felted bag
felted flowers
off to school afghan
off to school pillow
carnival throw
plastic bag holder
scrubber


Knitting Afghans with Knifty Knitter
looms used:
long looms
techniques:
panel knit
crochet off
ribbed knit
removing double knit from loom
projects:
feathers and fluff
panel quilt
delivery wrap
ribbed knit blanket
sundance blanket
baby afghan
waffle stitch afghan

I'm waiting...

...for Ken to get home from work. Meanwhile, more progress has been made on the stocking as I watched the other 2 episodes of Stargate Universe on Hulu (it's improving slightly but I'm still not sure I'm going to be a steadfast fan, way too serious and not a lot of the light-heartedness that the other two series had).

Anyway, back to the stocking. I've got most of the detail areas done. Moving onto the large areas next. At this rate, it should be ready to go by Christmas. :)

Stargate Universe...

So, I discovered that the first few episodes for Stargate Universe were on Hulu yesterday so being a rather large SG-1 and Atlantis fan, I decided to give it a shot. Decided to keep an open mind about the whole thing since I originally gave up on the Atlantis pilot.

Well, the first thing that comes to mind is from "200" in Season 10 of SG-1. They were going to redo the Wormhole Xtreme concept with younger fresher characters...yeah, I definitely think that's what they're doing here. We've got the young soldier dude (sorry, don't remember their names yet) and the senator's daughter and the geeky Eli. I'm not particularly sure I like the characters. I will say that Eli so far is not suffering from Wesley Crusher syndrome which I think is a good thing. Hopefully they can keep that up. I'll give it another episode...we'll see what happens.

Are We There Yet?

Getting sick of being pregnant. 33 weeks and counting. Also, the whole household has some kind of stomach bug which is not cool. The baby moving makes it worse for me. Happy to report that the stocking is coming along swimmingly.