my new knitting needles roll

It has become a necessity. Smurfette#2 (1 year old) often follows me in my craft space and lately explores it too... meaning everything is dragged out of its place and played with. When it comes to my knitting needles, I become (understandably) nervous... you know, pointy metal object and all... I had to hide away everything.

So... ta-daaaa! this is how I thought the whole thing.

This is the closed roll: no points, no needles around to play with.

This is the roll open: plenty of space for my needles.

I made two pockets in different heights to hold needles and smaller accessories. Each pocket is divided in slots, to keep firmly in place everything.

In the top pocket there's space for my needles (obviously ordered by size - big to small), I've even three free slots for future needle shopping...

In the bottom pocket (left to right): circular needle, two points knitting pins, various stitch holders.

I wanted the roll to be functional, but I added a cute fabric detail as simple decoration. I left the borders raw, simply zig-zagged. On the back, the same fabric and the same technique for the two diagonal stripes.

For a 20 minutes project, I'm really satisfied: fast, easy, functional and pretty.

Maybe one for my crochet hooks...?

Mira's cowl

As I said last month, I've been knitting. Yesterday I finally finished the cowl, and I must say I really love how this project turned out.

As the pattern said, I worked it straight, not Moebius: at first I had doubts, but now I can see why you don't want to twist the simple but classy pattern: see the photo below?

I opted for the larger version, the one in which the pattern is repeated three times (the smaller one has only two repetitions): that left me with 180 stitches on a circular needle (love that, no seams...).

Mira didn't give any indication about the length of the cowl, she only said "repeat to desired height". I was at a loss: which length should be better for a cowl? What if I made it too short? or too long?

As always when I'm not sure, I turn to mathematic. The best thing about math is it has answers almost for everything. What comes to mind when thinking about proportions? well, easy! the golden ratio.

So now I had my answer: just divide 180 by the golden ratio (φ=1.62 circa). That gave me 111 (too much for the height), so 180-111=69 rows... mhmm, more like it. Turned out the golden ratio was a good one for this project. Yes, I know, in a twisted way, 'cause I didn't directly used the 111 figure.

I know, that sounds pretty insane.... but, hey! it worked. What do you think?

I've been knitting...

... even if I promised I had to finish all of my sewing UFO. I know, I know... I do not have a single shred of willpower left in me...

I draw some sort of comfort from the fact that the project is coming so well... it's really very simple, a basic one. I saw this cowl on Ravelry and having recently purchased a soft wool stash I decided to give it a try.

I wanted something simple and super speedy and this was a project that perfectly met all the specifications (using the stash included...).

I plan to finish in the next few days, 'cause I usually work during the evening Fox tv shows, and mondays and thursdays are full of nice series...

for the love of knitting

With the end of summer and autumn slowly approaching, I itch to pick up my knitting needles and try something new.

Knitting has been my very first crafty thing, at the age of 6. I always went to my grandma (my father's mom) to spend some time with her in the summer, and she taught me to knit. She wasn't a grand knitter, but she did make garments and she could manage simple projects. She taught me the basics: I learned the rest by myself, with practice.

In almost 30 years I've knitted sweaters, scarfs, gloves, shawls and baby bed covers. One of my latest works is in fact a bed cover which was a gift for my sister's firstborn:

It also has been used for son#2 and now I'm using it for my Smurfette#2.

Knitting is unfortunately a time-consuming crafting, and I can't engage in complex or long projects at the moment, so I resist the itch and neglect my needles a while longer...