Day-Old Art

Here's a few things I haven't posted yet.

My brother-in-law's wife has done a great job of decorating their house. It's done in lots of reds and browns with lots of Spanish influence. I saw this rug on Knitty Gritty one day, and I decided to make it for her:
It's all acrylic, very cushy, and lots of fun to knit up. Apparently one of her purse-dogs peed on it, so I'm not sure what happened to it after that.

Another Knitty Gritty pattern, this time for a pillow with a garter stitch inset panel:

They call it "reverse applique." The technique calls for a panel of stockinette and a smaller panel of garter stitch. You draw your chosen pattern (I picked a women's restroom symbol) onto a piece of tear-away stabilizer. You then attach the stabilizer to the front of the stockinette panel, and place the stockinette panel on top of the garter panel, and sew around the pattern either by using your machine or doing it by hand. I tried my machine.

First of all, two layers of knitting and one of stabilizer are really hard to wedge under the presser foot. Removing the presser foot didn't work, as I then had to hand-feed the fabric. Secondly, the tear-away stabilizer tears while you're sewing it, so it's really tough to keep the whole mess together while you try to work around the pattern. Pinning the stabilizer to the fabric doesn't work, because the pins go right through the damn stabilizer, because guess what? It's designed to tear. Thirdly, my machine kept trying to eat the knitting. Placing another sheet of stabilizer under the whole mess in an attempt to keep the machine from eating the knitting made it even thicker.

I gave up the machine and finished the pattern by hand. Hand-sewing somehow makes the stabilizer tear even more. I would rather have not used the stabilizer at all, but I didn't know how to draw my pattern on without it showing later. Next time (and unfortunately there is going to be a next time - I've already knitted up all the pieces) I will probably draw the pattern onto the back of the garter stitch panel, since it will be hidden later, and just sew around that. The final step is to cut the stockinette panel inside your line of sewing to reveal the garter stitch panel underneath.

In conclusion, either I missed something, or this is a clever idea that does not translate into real life. I tend to believe it's the latter. But I like the pillow, despite how hairy the chick looks. Moving on....

My husband is always hot. (He's good-looking too, but I'm talking about temperature hot.) So when I first started knitting, he begged me to never knit him anything, as he would more than likely spontaneously combust while wearing it. However his feet are ice cold. One day he requested some socks. But these couldn't be just ANY old socks - no, these had to be BAT SOCKS:Side view:Close up:Our house is full of Bat-stuff, so the logo was readily available - I just graphed it out and intarsia-ed it in. That's why it looks kind of pinched. Intarsia in the round probably wasn't the best idea. Don't ask me how I did it, because I can't remember. But he loves them.

I used a basic sock pattern and four colors of Lion Brand Cotton-Ease. I added the ribbing, the stripes and the logo.

Just for kicks, here's the first sock I ever made:

Gauge is important, people.

Mango Moon recycled sari silk yarn is expensive, but it's gorgeous. A girl in my knitting group used hers to knit a cover for a notebook, so I immediately stole her idea:
Thanks Ruth! I garter-stitched a flat panel (which I think actually shows off the beautiful silk better than if I had used stockinette) and E-6000ed it to the front of a free spiral notebook they gave us all at work. I also attached one of those rad little Buddha charms. I then made a little pouch for my nail clippers and ever-present sudafed (shown) to go in my purse.

Okay, last day-old art for today: "Glitter King"Another derby fundraiser oldie. Acrylic and glitter in gel medium, purchased by a friend of mine for his "Bad Art Wall." He will soon be the proud owner of Hasselhoff for two reasons:
1) I feel bad when anyone pays good money for my "art," so I'm giving him two-for-one; and
2) I can't think of a better place for old Hasselhoff than a Bad Art Wall.