Help!

So, Clapotis II: The Ugly One has been knit up for a couple of weeks now. The last thing left is to make it, you know, less ugly. By overdying. I knitted up a bunch of swatches, bought some more Kool Aid, and fired up the microwave:



Help me choose! We've got lemonade:



Strawberry something-or-another:



Grape:



Tamarind:



Blue Raspberry:



Please weigh in with your pick! I'm at an impasse right now since I can't decide. Bear in mind that this is for Mr. Beagle's 80-ish year old grandmother and that I'll probably mix the Kool Aid solution a little weaker than I did for the swatches.

Getting There

The countdown is truly on: less than seven weeks before we move. The movers have been booked. I have an apartment hunting trip planned. Mr. Beagle's wine collection has already been shipped off for safekeeping in his brother's cellar. This is for real.

Bitty Sleeves

Bitty sleeves for a bitty sweater. For an expecting friend of my mom's. Just starting to pay her back.

Teensy cables. It's going to be a bottom-up raglan cardigan with a hood... I think. I'm not exactly working from a pattern. I'm getting a little hung up as my raglan shaping is running in to my cables. 'Cause I'm being stupid and not knitting from a pattern. Grrr. Bitty sweater and I are going to duke it out tonight during Bones*.

*OMG, Boreanaz is hot nowadays. Fat Angel no more. Also, Emily Deschanel is utterly charming. But, man, Boreanaz is looking good.

iPod Cozy Tutorial

Yesterday I tried improving on my iPod cozy. Did I succeed? No. It came out exactly like the first one. Harumph. I did get some photos, so I put together this tute. Be gentle: it's my first time.

Felt iPod Cozy

You'll need:
-appox. 1/4 yard of felt (I used 100% wool)
-contrasting thread
-6" elastic cord
-1 button
-the pattern, download it here
-freezer paper, trimmed to 2 8 1/2 x 11 sheets (optional)

If you hate pins as much as I do and you are using wool felt, you can print your pattern directly on to freezer paper, otherwise print it on to normal office paper. Cut the pattern out. If you notice that the pattern in the photos does not match the pattern you downloaded, you are very observant. I improved the pattern just for you.



Cut two double thick rectangles out of the felt. They should be bigger than your pattern pieces, since you'll sew the two layers together before cutting them out. (This will give you neater edges that match up perfectly between the layers.)



Now, cut one (and only one) of the back layers like so:



This cut will form the pocket in the back of the cozy for your earbuds. Line the back pattern piece up with the felt so that the longer tab lines up with the cut you just made. Pin or iron the pattern in place. (Only iron the freezer paper to wool felt- I haven't tried it with acrylic felt, but I imagine it does not take well to ironing.)



Sew seam 1 through the pattern and the cut layer of felt only.



Add the second layer of felt for the back and sew seams 2, 3, and 4. If your machine doesn't like felt (like mine), you can add another layer of paper to the back of the whole mess and sew through paper on both sides. Additionally, if you are feeling particularly coordinated, you can slip your elastic into the edges of the tabs and sandwich them while you sewed seams 2 and 3. Or you could do that later. I did it later. But, I am lame.



If you used paper on the back, carefully tear it away:



Stack both pieces of front felt and sew the seams:



Following the pattern, cut your felt out. Admire your work so far:



Again, carefully tear away the paper pattern pieces. Cut your elastic into two 3" pieces and singe the ends so they don't fray. Fold them in half and sew one to each of the tabs on the side that doesn't have the pocket on it. The elastic should stick out about 1" from the ends of the tabs.



Sew the button on to the center of the front, 1 1/4" from the bottom. This is a good time to tie off all of your thread ends and bury them in the felt.



Fit the cozy to your iPod. Place your iPod between the layers and snuggle it in. Mark where you will sew the layers together. (Mine is a 20GB fourth generation and I sewed the seam about 1" from each edge.)



Sew your side seams. Mine are crooked. Try to avoid that.



Slice off the extra felt on the sides. Tie off and bury any thread ends left.



Cozy up.



Feel free to email me (rebeccabeagle@gmail.com) or leave a comment if this tute sucks, or if you have any questions.

Not About Knitting

So much knitting to talk about! There's the finished Clapotis (II: The Ugly One)! There's the Endpaper Mitts that I'm bravely starting! There's the wee baby sweater that I'm thoroughly enjoying ('cause damn, those things knit up fast)! But, until I have 1. daylight and 2. time, there are no pictures. No pictures, fun.

Instead I have a picture of this:



Nope, not space monkeys (though, if you get that reference, you're my kind of geek), not even a strange weather phenomena. No, Mr. Sterling Sharpe* (bottom right corner) and I spent most of Saturday going through clothes in prep for The Big Move. Seven bags of clothes (ack, where did they all come from!?!) went to Goodwill and we're a teensy bit closer to being ready to move.

Just so there's some crafty content, here's a little somethin' somethin' I made last weekend:







I'm calling it iPod case v1.0. Next time (I'm pretty sure I'm to lazy for a next time, but who knows), I'll either find thicker felt, or sew the edges before I cut it out, since I was going for a more industrial, less handmade look. All in all, it's working okay, except I'm not digging my earbuds dangling about in my purse. Recipe for disaster. Oh, and I have to remember to lock the iPod, since fastening the elastic around the button invariably depresses the click wheel.

Next time: pictures of yarn-based entities.

*Sterling's contribution to the process was so minimal that he was packed off to Goodwill. That will teach him to whine about being unable to help since he's just, you know, a t-shirt.

2100 Miles or A Tale of Two Scarves

I was a college kid at the University of Wisconsin when I visited my first yarn shop (Coyote Yarns in Madison). I walked out with my first pair of bamboo needles, a couple of balls of Plymouth Baby Alpaca, a simple pattern for a mistake rib scarf and a healthy amount of shock at the prices. The intent was to knit a scarf for my then-boyfriend. It took over a year of off and on knitting, but I eventually finished. Since I married that boyfriend, both he and the scarf are still around:

Five feet of nuzzly baby alpaca goodness.

My second trip to the yarn store toward the end of my stay in Madison, yielded supplies for a scarf for myself. I asked for something to make a chunky scarf. They pointed me toward some Cleckheaton Gusto 10. Chunky it is. I started the scarf. Then I ripped it out. And started it again. And ripped it again. Then Mr. Beagle and I moved from Madison to the Bay Area. The yarn came too.

Once in California, I began knitting in earnest. Every so often I’d pull out the Gusto and knit it for a bit, only to rip it out. Once I even finished a scarf with it, but decided I didn’t like it and, it got frogged. I really thought that Allison’s herringbone scarf pattern was going to do it for me and the Gusto:

But messy edges and frustration with the US 35 needles led to another couple of rounds of ripping. In any case, I now live in Northern California where it doesn’t get really cold, anyhow. Why can’t the Gusto just live indefinitely in my stash?

Well, my life is taking a turn for the different, and I decided that it’s time to finish the scarf. In December, Mr. Beagle will become Prof. Beagle and we’ll return to Madison. The Gusto will come too. As a scarf, at last.

Pattern: None

Begun: 2001?
Finished: 10/10/07
Size: ~6'
Yarn: Cleckheaton Gusto 10, 3 balls
Needles: US17



Straight up seed stitch. The first stitch of each row was slipped either knitwise or purlwise for neat edges. I put a "button hole" in the center since I was afraid it was going to be too short to wrap. It's not to short, but it's nice to have options:



Pros: Love me some chunky seed stitch. Gonna be warm. Moving where we can afford to buy a house.
Cons: The mohair in the Gusto sheds like a mofo. Winter. Humidity.

No Crafty for You

Blech. Very little crafty happening around here. Clapotis II: The Ugly One is off the needles, but swatches are being made for overdye testing. Not all that exciting. Maybe next weekend...

Oh, yeah- getting cable installed tomorrow. So, if I'm never heard from again...