I love super-nerd-enabling knitters

As you can see, this is a screenshot from Mario Bros. mapped into knit stitches and made into a vest for her gamer husband. Read the blog post for more views and a discussion of how the knitter custom-dyed the lime green because she couldn't find exactly the right color!

This same designer, The Happy Seamstress Pattern Co., previously posted a free pattern for a baby outfit she made for some Legend of Zelda-loving parents, so her nerd-enabling cred is fully "vested."
 

Insanely cute

I think I've found the next thing I want to make - Berroco's Baffin, a knitted down jacket for a baby. With down-stuffed channels to complete the effect!


 

Newest gloves for Adam

Adam and I thought of these cool gloves and were very excited about trying to market them worldwide and make "a million dollars" until we found they have (a) already been patented and (b) already been marketed by the dude who started Cool Hunting. So, the visions of riches blew away like the fog. However, Adam retains his very cool, very personally customized set of Pro Tips (the name we coined):



What you can't see here, the interesting part (so, sorry 'bout the incomplete info right now, I'll take more pics later), is that the tips of the index finger and thumb can be tipped off backward so you can use your naked fingertips for things like interacting with your phone or with your wallet.

What you CAN see here is that the left glove is once again customized to Adam's hand, with its unique configuration.

I'll post the pattern here for free in a couple days, for anybody who would like to make these themselves.
 

Free Dallas Cowboys "pattern"

As you may recall, I made this potholder for my friend Jimmy.



It occurred to me that there may be other Dallas fans out there who would like to use this pattern to make their own fan swag of whatever ilk. (No judgments.) So here is the grid:



This is the pixilated image I used to make the potholder. If you would like to use this for your own Dallas Cowboys related items, please feel free!

I made this in Photoshop. I got a couple images online, one of a helmet and one of the Cowboys team name, and put them together in one image. Then I converted it to use indexed color mode, with flattened layers. (Palette: Master Perceptual; Colors: 3; Forced: None; Diffusion: 100%; Preserve Exact Colors checked.)

Then I went in and touched up various areas by hand using the brush. Then I changed the image size considerably (from about 550x550 pixels to about 165x165). Then I overlaid the grid. THEN I took a screen capture of that to give the impression of pixilation, which gives you the grid for knitting against.

This is only approximate and my actual steps were slightly different; I'm not being coy but I'm trying to simplify. In fact, the pixilation was much grainier than what I'm describing; after I knitted a swatch, I knew my potholder would only be about 45 stitches across, which was a lot less than 165 across! and I had to do some hand drawing and tweaking. Even then, my original swatch was done with size 11 needles, and I ended up using size 7's to compress the gauge, and even THEN it was way too big, but finally after I felted it down from there, it was a good potholder size with a reasonably recognizable image. There was a lot of eyeballing and seat-of-the-pantsing with this. But it was an interesting experiment.

Ravelry link
 

First FO of 2010

Here is the potholder I made for a friend in the rooms who is a big Cowboys fan.

I just realized I forgot to measure the thing before I felted it! Here it is in its prefelted state, about 9" tall and maybe 10" across.



I put the knitted piece in a zippered pillowcase, and washed that with a pair of jeans and a shirt or two that were in the dirty clothes basket anyway. I rolled back the washing machine (extended its wash cycle) twice for a total of about 18 mins in the washer.

After felting it in the washing machine (I didn't know whether the blue would run, and I'm damn glad it didn't, cause I'd of been PISSED) here is the finished product:



It's definitely smaller, about 7.5" square. The cool thing is the curling at top and bottom is largely flattened out. It curls a little, but it's not out of control. I LOVE felting! It's SO COOL to pause the washing machine, pull out the object being felted, and see how much progress it's made in the six or seven minutes it's been washing.

I pushed and pulled it into shape and I now have it on a mesh screen on top of a tall vase, under the ceiling fan, to facilitate drying. I doubt it'll dry before tomorrow, but I hope it might, so I can bring it to my friend. I hope he likes it. Frankly, I think it's a little, uh, furry, which is because of how the various fiber in the yarn does or does not stick together in the felting process. That's normal, but I'm thinking of trying to shave off some of that, because I think it's kind of stupid looking. I wonder if Adam has some kind of beard trimmer, and whether that would work?

Ravelry link
 

The year in FOs (finished objects)

This is the collection of items I knitted this year. This set doesn't include the baby sweater I made for our friends Cory and Michele's baby Kai, because I forgot to take a picture before sending it, and apparently it's still too big for the baby so they can't take a pic for me either! The list also does not include a should-have-been-lovely item that I ripped out after several false starts. Also, technically, the top left item, which is most recent in the list, isn't technically finished because the ends aren't woven in. Who cares? I'm including it anyway. This is not being graded.

As it is a screen capture from Ravelry, the order is from most recent backwards. If you are on Ravelry, please feel free to look me up - kewpiedoll99.

Top row, from left:

1. Socks for Adam


2. Sweater with built-in mitts for my niece Julianne


3. Socks for me, using silk & wool yarn from A Verb For Keeping Warm and a very useful (and free!) pattern from Wendy Knits


4. Orange sweater originally for me, given to my lovely coworker Shannon J. instead; Alpaka Tunic by Deborah Newton in the Fall Interweave Knits


5. Lap robe made of silk and wool from Blue Moon Fiber Arts


6. Pillow for my sister as a thank-you gift for being my bridesmaid

Second row:

1. Socks for me, using a pattern from Knitspot


2. Scarf for me, using hand-dyed silk lace yarn from Sundara Yarns


3. Cashmere cap for Caitlyn, Tom and Renee's firstborn


4. Cap for my pal Beth V. as a thank-you gift for being my bridesmaid, made from silk & cashmere yarn


5. Socks for my mentor and role model, the great and wise Nora Y.


6. Mitts for my sister-in-law, Ange, as a thank-you gift for helping plan my wedding, using a pattern from Knitspot

Third row:

1. Socks for Adam


2. Cashmere hat for my sister-in-law, Tracy, as a thank-you gift for being my bridesmaid, in a pattern I made up to look like a hat from the TV show Bones


3. Neck warmer for my mother as a wedding thank-you gift, using a pattern from Knitspot, knit from yak and silk yarn that I spun myself


4. Cashmere & angora hat that got lost almost as soon as I finished working in the ends :(


5. Angora hat for my sister-in-law, Tammy, as a thank-you gift for being my bridesmaid


6. Cashmere neck warmer for my pal Dana as a thank-you gift for being my matron of honor, using a pattern from Knitspot.

I also did a decent amount of spinning, but don't have pictures to show of that work. I sold some of that yarn on Etsy, and through friends (thanks, Pete!), and I do have pics up on Flickr of some of my yarn still available for sale. I'm still interested in selling my yarn, but I want to find another venue. I found Etsy disappointing: It's such a huge marketplace, I felt like a tiny invisible ant. It seemed really hard to get found by people there. So I have let my store listings expire and am not certain I plan to re-list them; it feels like a waste of money and time (because it's not exactly a cake walk to go through all the steps in listing items).

In the upcoming year, one of the things I'd like to do is work through my stash. I have a ton of sock yarn, among lots of other stuff, and if I want to I can knit all year without buying any more yarn. Having said that, I'm sure I will buy more yarn, but I am beginning, at least, to feel like everybody else who has a stash, that I "should" use what I own before buying more. I also have a ton of spinning fiber that I can also work through before buying more. That includes up to a pound of fiber, or maybe more, that I dyed myself, and it's pretty nice stuff, Cormo and superwash Merino and BFL.

One thing I realized suddenly while drooling over some listings on Sundara Yarns was that what I really love doing is looking at the gorgeous colorways. I don't even get as much joy from owning it as I do from looking at the photographs! The same is true of other indie dyers whose work I like so much. Don't get me wrong, their wares are fabulous. I have their stores' RSS feeds in my blog reader, and I love to check in on what they are listing in their stores, but I actually don't HAVE to buy the stuff as urgently as I thought. I really felt almost this need to acquire some of the lovely fiber when I looked at the pictures, but I took a few deep breaths and the feeling did pass. (Almost like a nicotine fit.) So I'm holding steady here with what I currently own, mostly, reserving the option of course for special situations like the orange sweater from senior year in college that I have gotten a hankering lately to replace.

I wish everybody joy in their creative pursuits, whatever they may be, in this coming year. Whether you are a DM, a knitter, a spinner, a designer, an amateur chef, or a software developer, may you have all the pleasure and satisfaction there is to be found in solving new challenges, developing new skills, and doing what you love.
 

Merry New Yeah!

Haa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!

* * * * *
I'm making a potholder for a friend who requested it - I'm not sure how he got me to agree to it, but he really wanted something with the Dallas Cowboys' logo on it. So I've knitted a swatch and am now washing it to felt it to see how it shrinks down so I can figure out where to put the logo and where all the colors go. <eyeroll> Ah well, it will make him happy and it's pretty easy to do.