Category Archives: Finished Items 2009

A Cozy Mug

Posted by on January 19, 2010 2 comments

Another quick post on a christmas present.

Coffee Jacket

This is the Mug and French Press Jacket by MK Carroll knit for my Mom. I had a couple false starts with this as I found the increase rate for the bottom much to fast and it caused the circle to ripple. I eliminated one “increase wedge” out of it and it then laid flat. However the only mugs I could find were narrow at the base with flared out sides so as the pattern was written it was too big for the base. I only increased until I could do one less repeat of the cable pattern. 

Because the sides do angle down so much the jacket works a little better when the closure loop is secured over the handle instead of through it. It keeps it from slipping off. Otherwise I’d recommend using a more flat sidded mug if you have one. Overall though it’s a very pretty pattern. I love the way it looks. 

Pattern: Mug and French Press Jacket (Ravelry link) by Diane Serviss of MK Carroll
Yarn: Cascade Yarns 220 Wool
Needles: US size 6 (4 mm)
Mods: Worked 1 less increase section on base, overall smaller by one less cable repeat.

Chunky Newsboy Hat 2

Posted by on January 8, 2010 1 comment

Now that all the holidays are over I’m finally getting back into the regular swing of things. That also means I can post Christmas gift knitting!

Chunky Newsboy Hat #2

I made another version of the Chunky Newsboy Hat pattern for my friend. It’s such a cute quick knit. To change it up a little I did a few columns of twisted stitches to create sections. It’s rather subtle and doesn’t show well in the photographs but was simple to add. I think if I make another I might add some 1×1 cables.
I also lengthened the brim widthwise as my last one came out a little narrower than a traditional brim. Although I think I was also knitting really tight for it as well.
My other mod was to again use the knit/purl variation of the long tail cast-on as I detailed in that post.

Rockin' the Ukulele

Here’s a shot of my lovely friend wearing it on Christmas (and rocking out on a ukulele!) :)

[Who now has an awesome photography blog, check it out! tmuir-artofobservation.blogspot.com]

Pattern: Chunky Newsboy Cap (Ravelry link) by Diane Serviss of Earthly Fae
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick, Light Medium Blue #106
Needles: US size 13 (9 mm) and US size 8 (5 mm)
Mods: Twisted stitch every 8 sts, brim 4 sts longer, cast-on in knit/purl long-tail method

And just for fun, Aejaz playing in the exceedingly rare Dallas Christmas Eve snow we got (first in 80 years).

Aejaz, chasing snow pebbles - Click to see enlargement, including tongue sticking out

He’d dive into the snow and chase the scattering balls of it and eat them. We laughed like crazy.

Beginning to look a lot like

Posted by on December 7, 2009 6 comments

A friend was having a Housewarming/Christmas party so I picked up this bottle of wine as part of a gift. The bottle looked a little bare though so I whipped up this cute hat and scarf set for him. :)

Snuggly wine

A fun quick pattern and great use of leftover yarn. The pattern is Chilled Wine Garb (rav link), also available here.
The yarn was leftover Red Heart Ltd. Sport Solid in Cherry Red and Paddy Green. The scarf is just straight stockinette stitch and rolls itself into a nice tube. I simply carried the alternating colors up the side, weaving them to the edge as I went. A clever small pom-pom tutorial using straight needles was given by the pattern designer as well.

And what was the theme of this party? Ugly/Tacky Christmas Sweaters! Haha. Mr. PieKnits and I had fun looking through all the over-decorated sweaters of yore at the thrift stores trying to find the most obnoxious ones. The one I’m sporting he found, it has lots of bells, bows and baubles all over it (and shoulder pads, wow). I kept thinking how much I looked like my grade school teachers! It was quite hilarious though and I plan to re-donate the cloths and consider it part of my Xmas charity.

I can barely look at this, school teacher flashbacks - ahh!

I also knit the little santa hat although I’m debating what to do with it. I was going to felt it but ran out of time so just wore it as-is and was thinking of just keeping it that way. But now I may rip it and reknit it in a slightly different shape to felt it. Hmmmm…

New Pattern – Dose, Felted Pillbox

Posted by on October 23, 2009 5 comments

There is hardly a more fabulous accessory than a vintage style hat.

Dose Felted Pillbox Cocktail Hat

Nothing transforms an outfit like a great hat can. I think they’re such fun pieces which is probably why I can’t seem to stop making them. This pillbox hat is not full size, so it’s more a type of cocktail hat that sits tilted on the head.

Embellishments- so much fun!

From understated to extravagantly embellished, the decorations can endlessly vary the look. Make two from one skein and adorn completely differently!
 
Dose PillBox

The pillbox shape for hats has been around literally thousands of years but was more recently made popular in the mid-20th century. This classic shape is easy to wear and won’t mess up your hair.

The instant download rundown -after payment via Paypal you will be given a link to download the pattern. This link will also be emailed to you and will expire in 120 hours. For any questions about the pattern or whole download process please shoot me an email me at- jen@pieknits.com!

Pattern previewPattern: Dose -  Felted Pillbox Cocktail Hat
Gauge: 12 sts and 16 rows = 4″ in St st before felting
Needle sizes: Size 11 (8 mm): 16″ circular (cir) and set of 4 or 5 double-pointed (dpn)
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool Merino (100% merino wool; 223 yds [204 meters] per 100g): 00226 Black, 1 ball (approx. 1/2 for 1 hat)
Skill level: Beginner-Intermediate (working in the round with small number of sts, short rows, single crochet used)
Price: $3.75
Format: PDF instant download pattern

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Booties

Posted by on October 19, 2009 6 comments

Itty bitty booties

So it seems 6,194 ravelry projects can’t be wrong. The Saartje’s Bootees pattern just churns out awfully cute booties. I knit these Red Heart Ltd. Heart & Sole in Razzle Dazzle. I love finding “non-babyish” colors for baby knits. Personally I think there are too many pastels out there. These are for my new niece who should be arriving sometime today!

I would have liked to share photos of a green and thriving veggie garden this summer, alas it was not meant to be. We had the heat spike up early and long and it really stunted about everything. Wow do I have some ugly tomato plants. I’m finally getting a few from it and hoping the frost will hold off long enough to get one crop out of them. The chili peppers though, the chili peppers went crazy. They’re something you can count on to take the Texas heat and with that in mind I had planted several varieties. This is my recent harvest where I left everything that could possible stay on the plant a bit longer there (this is probably 1/4 of what’s out there). It’s close to 2 lbs! And these aren’t exactly heavy fruits.

Chili peppers galore!

I have Hungarian hot wax, Sweet banana pepper, Serrano, Cayenne, Bell peppers, and a mystery plant that re-sprouted from last year. There’s also a few tomatoes in there (mostly cherry).
So any ideas on what to do with all these?
My go-to has been chili quesadillas (which are awesome with these) but one can only eat so much.

Devra 2.5

Posted by on October 13, 2009 4 comments

My lovely friend Mel, who I designed the first Devra hat for, was definitely one of the most enthusiastic recipients of a hand knit I’ve made. So when she requested another version in a darker color, slouchy style, with a little longer brim to switch up with her other one, I was only too happy to comply!
Thus what I’m dubbing “Devra 2.5″, heh.

Extra slouchy Devra with longer brim

The yarn, Bernat Alpaca Natural Blends, has come out with some new lovely colors and this one is a near black (color: Stone) which I thought lets the cables show through nicely. I did an extra repeat on my slouch version (Devra 2) to make it “extra slouchy” as she has such amazingly thick hair that the original was more “slightly loose” that full bodied. On me it looks close to a dread tam (can’t really see all of it here), which I like just as much actually.

Wire reinforced edge

On the original design I kept the brim short as I think it’s cute but also because while plastic mesh canvas (wonderful cheap stuff) works well as a brim stiffener it isn’t the most shapable material on its own. It can tend to come out rather flat, which is more noticeable on a larger bill. Again I took some inspiration from my dabbling into millinery and wire reinforced the edge. It turned out simple to do. I wish I had done this for all my past hats! Take any gauge wire that’s easy enough to shape and form it to the outside edge of your canvas. Then using a thread and needle whip stitch it into place. Doesn’t have to be perfect, you won’t see it once it’s inside the knitting. Now it’s easy to form into a shape that’s to your liking.

Mini mini top hat

Posted by on October 5, 2009 11 comments

My newest mini hat- and oh how I love it so!

Mini top hat without veil

My last mini top hat I had modified the Miniature Top Hat pattern to be about 3/4 scale but for this one I wanted it even smaller and less tall. I heavily modified the pattern for this and would say its closer to 1/2 the size of the original. And I wanted one in black, because well, black is awesome.

Jaunty lil' top hat

Yep, just give it a shave!

When felting pretty much all yarns produce some surface fuzz on the finished felt, some more than others. A simple trick I use to tidy them up is shaving the fabric. Yep, with just a regular old razor (I keep a cheapie one on hand for this).

Before and After shaving felt

You can see the difference it makes! It looks much more like commercial felt now. You can use a sweater shaver as well if you have one. I’ve also been studying millinery and picking up some “hat tricks” from this as well. It’s common to sand the felt down (with sandpaper, same as you do wood). I plan to try this next.

Miniature Top Hat

For the feathers this time I tried out something I picked up in
reading. I wrapped the feather cluster base in wire (millinery tie wire
is what’s professionally used, you could also use thread) to hold them
together. Then I sewed a small metal jump ring behind the lace band and
inserted the feather base through this to help it stay in place better.
The burn flower I made following this nice tutorial.
I had some lining I had cut out of a thrifted skirt I’m converting into an apron bustle that worked perfect for the petal material.

I sew hair clips into the underside of my hats to keep them on. It’s also common to use an elastic band to be worn under the head. Unfortunately for me I have a rather shallow occipital ridge and bands like that always just slide right off, hence the hair clip route.

Mini top hat with detachable veil

I adore the look of birdcage veils but couldn’t decide if I’d want one all the time. I then came up with the idea for a detachable veil, perfect! I used hook & eye closures, the hook being sewn to the gathers in the veil and the eye portion being attached under the lace band. I love both looks!

Top hat with veil attached

Gentleman o’ Fortune Hat

Posted by on September 23, 2009 5 comments

Ahoy ye land lubbers!

Shush you, I know it’s another hat (I can hear youuuu) but as it’s only the first of er, four *cough* felted hats I’ve more or less finished (including a new design!) we’ll just move right along, shall we?

Tricorn hat - click me for large

As I mentioned when I made my mini tricorn hat, I still wanted a full size one. It had been started and lounging around for several months when I finally got the itch to finish it. Can I say LOVE! This is such a ridiculously fun hat, and I had finished it just in time for International Talk Like A Pirate Day! Arrrr! I’m hoping to wear it with the pirate ensemble for a themed Renaissance Festival weekend too.  Also, I’ve taken to wearing it around the house with frightful attempts at pirate speak.

Don't mess wi' me pirate hat!

Followed the pattern as written this time. I made my own cockade using this lovely tutorial and finished it with an awesome pewter skull button. I then stitched on some silver trim, attached the cockade and added a couple ostrich feathers. I’ve found the ostrich feathers located in the floral section at craft stores work great as the base has floral tape wrapped wire which helps in securing it to the hat.

Pirate cockade

Back view

And obligatory pre-felting monstrous size shot. (My dog wandered in while taking this and it totally freaked him out, heh.)

Boo

Everyone needs a little fishnet

Posted by on September 14, 2009 2 comments

The look a little more open weave in person

These mitts were actually finished months ago. They went so quick I completely forgot about blogging them! I truly just winged ‘em.

Casted on, worked from the top down in *Yo, k2tog* in the round until reaching the thumb. Then I split apart at the side to work back and forth until reaching the bottom of the thumb, rejoined in the round and continued until the wrist. Here I worked a few garter stitch rows and bound off. Keeping with simplicity I sewed some mock buttons on each side (instead of actually bothering to make button holes).

Simplest thumb gusset ever - a hole.

I think often these really simple little knits are the ones that actually get used most often. Such as the Quick Plastic Bag Holder, one of the easiest fastest knits I’ve ever done and one that I find the most pleasantly useful.

Crochet, now less evil

Posted by on September 1, 2009 7 comments

Finally, I managed to actually read a crochet pattern. I had managed to make the basic stitches in a program at our Dallas Hand Knitters Guild but that was just making rows of the same kind of stitch. The more confusing part to me is reading the patterns.

With knitting you have to do something to each stitch on the needle in sequential order, even if that’s just slipping them. For crochet, trying to figure out how to skip around all over and work different stitches into different places just lost me. So after reading several tutorials and just sitting down and making several attempts I finally started to figure it out! Yeay! 

My first crochet

I have seen several crochet patterns over the years that made me yearn for the skill. One I had in my queue, figuring I would try it, was the cute simple Crochet Necklace by Creativeyarn. I used the flower pattern here.

Talk about stash using, all that's left!

I used the very last bit of my Peru Naturtex Partners Pakucho Organic Cotton for this. It made me think about this yarn’s “journey”. I originally got it for my first design, Topi. I liked this yarn so much I used it for my Mouse Pad Wrist Pillow as well. It then worked nicely for making cords for my Reniasance/pirate chemise too. Does anyone else have a yarn that continually shows up in their projects?