The Sweatshop of Love Blog

My brother Adam is a big child, in the best sense. His favorite Christmas movie is Die Hard. His favorite actor is Sylvester Stalone. Star Wars ranks pretty high on his list of favorite things ever. Thus, his Christmas present.

Ridiculous He Is!

I tried to get one of the cats to pose with him, but I’m pretty sure they’re terrified of him. And for good reason! He looks like a little demon in a robe.

Kind Of Scared You Are!

I had to do a little modifying for the face, so he doesn’t look as much like Yoda as the original pattern called for. The pattern had you knit eyelids and kind of glue the safety eyes to the insides of the eyelid part. I knew that babies would be playing with him, so I didn’t want eyes that would be relatively easy for a child to pull out. So I ended up seaming the eyelids in place, and putting the safety eyes right into the head. I think it still works!

Fully Clothed He Is!

This pattern had like 3150931 parts! From four sections of feet to the belt to the toe nails, he was a pain in the ass to make! But the pattern is spectacular. Really thorough with tons of step by step pictures and clear directions.  I’d recommend you  not need to finish this in a weekend. At some point I blacked out and seamed a sleeve in as the hood. It got ugly. But he’s done and on time!

I can’t wait to knit up one of Phoeny’s other amazing designs. Dobby! Knitting sheep! Harry Hopper!

Pattern: Yodi the Jelly Master by Phoeny

Yarn: Lion Brand Wool Ease in Green, Linen, and Coffee

Needles: Size 6 dpns and straights

Ravelry Project Page

The best part of Renegade Brooklyn in June was meeting the friends from twitter, facebook, blog readers, and the blogs I read that I have never met before. One of these people was Jess from the Lion Brand Yarn twitter account. Despite having over 10,000 twitter followers, she knew who I was and, naturally, we chatted about yarn and knitting. That meeting lead to her asking me to design a couple patterns for the Lion Brand Yarn YarnPlay newsletter, which came out Monday.

Entrelac Beret

First up was an entrelac beret I’ve been wanting to knit forever! Styled here by Lion Brand, it’s more of a winter hat – flopsy, warm, and totally cute.

My Hipster Styling

I took some pictures of it before sending it to Lion Brand and wore it back on my head a little more, making it super flopsy and more of a hipster hat. … whatever that means.

Amazing Yarn!

The main yarn here is Lion Brand Wool Ease Worsted and the contrasting color is Lion Brand Amazing, which I’ve never used before this. It truly lives up to it’s name! It’s verigated, but with S L O W changing colors, so when you are working the entrelac, you’ve got quite a few blocks per color, so it makes the entrelac look even more interesting. I loved it.

Kinda Pretty, Right?

You can see the beautiful Amazing yarn work it’s magic in this shot of the back of the hat. Cool, right?!

Pattern: Lion Brand Yarn (ME!) Entrelac Beret

Yarn: Lion Brand Wool Ease in Indigo and Lion Brand Amazing in Glacier Bay

Needles: 16″ size 9 circular, size 9 DPNs

Ravelry Pattern Page

Striped Stocking Cap

I also came up with a striped crocheted hat pattern to be unisex. Lion Bran styled the stocking cap version of the pattern here on a girl. I think it’s really hard to come up with a pattern that both boys and girls will like and wear, and since I’m not a stocking cap or beanie wearer, I just wrote a simple, fast, fun to crochet pattern.

Beanie Version!

I asked PT to model for me! Here you’ve got the beanie version of the hat pattern. I like a versatile pattern, and my pattern tells you were to stop in the stripe pattern for a beanie sized hat AND a stocking cap hat.

Stocking Cap Version!

And here is the longer, stocking cap hat – long enough for you to flip up. I think it’s a great, simple, versatile pattern you could knit for pretty much anyone!

Stocking Cap and Beanie!

The yarn I used, Lion Brand Tweed Stripes, is really fun! Just like Amazing, Tweed Stripes has a really slow variegation so it looks like each stripe in the hat is a different color, especially with the contrasting color – Wild Fire. It’s squishy and soft and I need a million Chunky Cabled Cowls in this beautiful yarn!

Pattern: Lion Brand Yarn (ME!) Striped Beanie and Stocking Cap

Yarn: Lion Brand Tweed Stripes in Tundra and Wild Fire

Hook: Size J

Ravelry Pattern Page

I’ve had these on my to crochet list forever.

Mary Jane Slippers

If I knew they’d take me only 4 hours to put together I probably wouldn’t have waited like 10 years to finally make myself a pair!

Cute Slips!

I used Lisa Gutierrez’s Mary Jane Slippers crochet pattern, and it was very straight forward and easy. The pattern itself, however, is all in this blog post, full of step by step pictures, which I’m sure are very helpful if you are a beginner. They are pretty annoying, though, if you want to copy the instructions to your phone so you don’t have to be in front of your computer crocheting. There is a printer friendly version, but it refers to the pictures for some of the instruction, so there is no way around it.

Cute Feet

Never the less, these slippers turned out great! I’ll be wearing the crap out of them once it starts getting chilly, and teaching them this fall! These are fantastic gifts since they are so freaking fast to work up. And throw a couple fabric covered buttons on these bad boys and you’re set to go!

Pattern: Lisa Gutierrez’s Mary Jane Slippers

Yarn: Lion Brand Wool Ease Worsted in Gray and Pink

Hook: Size G

Ravelry Project Page

My mom has been very concerned that she hasn’t had to avert her eyes at her name in the title of a post so far this knitting season. The truth is that she has seen her present already and just not known it was her present!

Granny Bomber Jacket Block Color Option

Look familiar? That is right! It’s my Granny Bomber Jacket, only toned down a little. There is an option in the pattern to use only a block color scheme, not the crazy intarsia granny square look of the sweater pictured on the pattern.

Pretty Twisted Rib Pattern

The twisted rib pattern of the jacket itself is a lot more clear when you use all one color for the body of the sweater. It’s a fun pattern to knit that you memorize quickly, despite having 15 rows. And with the contrasting button bands, cuff, bottom band, and collar, there is enough color going on to make this Granny Bomber Jacket still fun and interesting.

Ohh BUTTONS!

I had a hard time picking out buttons for this sweater. I obviously wanted to use fabric covered buttons, but the fabric options were limited because of the brown/teal yarn combination. A color that goes really well with brown, like red, goes terrible with teal! I ended up using this brown and blue and yellow plaid fabric, and I really like it. It’s the subtle kinda crazy that I like to work with.

My mom helped me a lot with this pattern. I came to her with a vague idea of a granny square sweater, and she helped me with the sizing and collar.

So, Mom, I love you lots and I hope you like this sweater! Look! I’m not even making you knit it for yourself.

Pattern: Granny Bomber Jacket – Block Color Motif, by… ME!

Yarn: Lion Brand Wool Ease in Mink Brown and Patons Classic Wool in Teal

Needles: Size 9 circulars

Ravelry Project Page

Last year I had a big dilemma about blogging my knitted holiday presents. This is a knitting blog and, if I’m good, I will only be knitting holiday presents from here on out. So if I can’t blog about the presents I’m knitting then what will I blog about?

So just to review, I decided that the title of these updates will be, ‘Christmas Present Update: ______’, and then the name of the person who’s present is blogged about in that post. That way it is up to you! You want to know what I’m knitting you? Read it. You want it to be a surprise? Don’t read it.

I would, of course, prefer that all my presents be surprises for everyone, but if you’ve got to look you’ve got to look. I’m a curious lady myself.

Baby Sweater Buffet SNOW SUIT!

First up here is Baby Nolan, my nephew, who I know is not reading this post since he is like 3 months old. His mom, on the other hand, surely is. That girl hates surprises. (Hi Emily!)

Since my computer was dead this weekend I got a lot of knitting done, including a start on Nolan’s present. Baby Sweater Buffet is going to get an upgrade! I’m adding PANTS to the pattern as a pattern add-on so give me a few weeks (or days, depending on how long my computer is out) and I’ll be sending the option out to everyone who bought the pattern.

And these are going to be cute! I’m using Lion Brand Wool Ease so it’s easy to wash, in gray and blue, so he is always looking classy.

So, the first holiday presents are well on their way, though checking through the blog archives I started on September 3rd last year and have many more big projects on the docket this year.

Have you started your holiday knitting yet? Should I be worried that I’m starting 3 weeks later this year?!