Lee Does Stuff

new variations on the spiraling stripes hats!

so i wanted to try out a few different yarns on a spiraling stripes hat, to see how they knit up, with plans to show an example of how you can turn this kind of hat into a stash-busting scrap hat by striping between multiple yarns. well, the majority of the yarn i used for this hat was a bit bulkier than my normal spiral hat yarns, which caused the hat to be much wider than expected, making it into a slouchy, kind of beret-style hat!

so that experiment led to more! and now i’ve added a new page to the pattern pdf with these variations. i’m posting all the info from the pdf page here, so if you already bought the pattern you’re not missing anything, but if you’d still like to have it all together just let me know and i’ll send you the new version. i also lowered the quality of the pdf a little so i can send it through yahoo (now it’s 8mb instead of 10+) – i can’t see any quality difference when i look at it so i think it’s cool. anyone who makes pdfs out there – what quality do you make them? i’m new to these whole pdf thing…

so here is all the new slouchy modification info, pasted from the pdf:

To make your spiral hat into a slouchy style version instead of fitted, you basically just need to make it wider – so easy! The brimmed versions should stay put just fine, but the no-brim style might need a crochet trim to bring it in around the bottom. Here are some specific ways to make a wider, slouchy hat…

Use fatter yarn. When your gauge goes from around 4.5 stitches/inch to around 4 stitches/inch, this causes a significant width difference in the wedges – around 1 inch wider per wedge. This means you can knit the pattern exactly as it’s written and end up with a slouchy hat if your yarn is on the bulky side. This hat was knit from the clockwise spiraling no-brim pattern, using mostly yarn that got a 4 stitches/inch gauge:

Add more wedges. Just keep knitting wedges until the hat is as slouchy as you want – 2 extra wedges works very well (so 11 wedges total). This hat was knit using the counter-clockwise no-brim pattern, 11 wedges instead of 9, with 2 rows of single crochet around the bottom to bring it in so it stays on a head. It did need to be blocked, which just meant wetting it, squeezing it dry in a towel, and drying it flat as shown in the picture.

Make each wedge a little wider. Add one extra rows 1+2 repeat to each wedge, increasing the overall width of the hat. This hat was knit using the clockwise straight brim pattern, with one extra repeat per wedge, everything else exactly the same. It can still be pulled down over the ears, and the garter stitch brim holds it on in the beret-style, so no extra shaping is needed.

and…. Color Variations:

Instead of using a self-striping yarn, you can give your hat a different look by using 2 or more solid yarns. Use 3 rotating colors and switch between them at the top, between each wedge, for wide spirals. For this method, the clockwise-spiraling styles are recommended. Or make a scrap-busting many-colored hat, each wedge using a different yarn. You’ll need approximately 10 yards of each yarn.

Or use 2 colors and switch every two rows, along the bottom edge of the hat, for a more stripey look.

As shown above, a variegated yarn won’t show the spiral design clearly, but it does make for a cool swirly look.

so that’s the pdf page. a few other notes, things i learned from my experimentation. i recommend going with the clockwise versions for any slouchy style hat you want to make, the shaping just seems to work better. i don’t have an example to show you of that 2 colors striping every 2 rows idea (i’ve tried it, but in hats that i can’t show you yet, secret hats!), but it does look awesome, trust me. i think this striping style looks rad with the counter-clockwise spirals, but it’ll work with any of the designs. if you try any of these ideas, i wanna see!!

oh yeah, one other thing! those braids… when i switch colors at the top between wedges, i cut the yarn around 6 inches, and then when the hat is done i’m left with 18 or more ends. braiding them together like that not only looks cute (i think), but it also means no ends to weave in (none!).

(the pattern pdf is right at the top of my store’s main page for easy access, and of course there are kits too!)

new recycled kit yarns in the shop!

new yarns in the shop!! 7 new kits total. the 4 pictured on the ends are all for spiraling stripes hat kits, and the 2 in the centers are for ninja mitts kits, but of course they can all be purchased alone if that’s what you want. and of course all the pattern pdfs can be bought alone also.

the 3 top yarns are of my new “spun recycled” variety, which means they are multiple recycled yarns spun and plied together. they all include some part angora (details are in the shop descriptions). i am really in love with these yarns – it’s so hard to put them for sale, but i have so much yarn already, i can’t rationalize keeping yarns that are meant for the shop. but maybe a few of them, if they don’t sell within a few weeks, hmm…… yumyumyum yarn…..

spun recycled and more spinning!

i was planning to have a bunch of new knit kits in the shop today, i have the yarns all dyed and pictures taken, but i have been weirdly unmotivated today, blah. part of it is because i’m having issues with my arm hurting, for about two weeks now, and it’s really starting to piss me off. grr. and then i think this motivation problem has to do with having so many plans and projects jumping around in my head and wanting to finish/start all of them and not being able to focus on any one productive thing. or something. so i end up spinning and clicking around blogs and stuff for hours and not updating my site like i should. tomorrow! for reals!

so what i’ve been playing with lately is spinning different recycled yarns together, or yarn(s) with thread(s). i added this new line of yarns to ravelry, and will be adding at least one as a mitt kit yarn (the red one below) for sale tomorrow, and more later this week. i stocked up on tons of threads at my favorite craft thrift store, so the yarns are spun with all recycled materials, woo!

that top one is a mini-skein spun for myself as an experiment – a bunch of recycled scraps that i threw in the dyepot with other yarns, then spun with chunks of roving holding them together, then plied the whole thing with three different threads to hold it all securely. worked out pretty well, but it took a long time, so i don’t know if that whole method would be worth it for kit yarns.

have i mentioned how much i love my wheel? spinning is so much fun. here’s a little montage of yarns i’ve made in the last weekish…

and also, i got new glasses today!!

(that hat in the photo is knit from my “happy” handspun i made awhile back, love it!)

maybe 26 isn’t so bad…

i’m having a pretty great birthday so far! lots of sitting around, relaxing, spinning, knitting, movie/tv watching…. when pete gets home from work around 10:30 he’s gonna take me out for a late dinner and dessert at rimsky’s, yummm. but i can’t decide where i want to go for dinner, since i want it to be small to save plenty of room for desserty goodness, and it needs to be quick since rimsky’s closes at midnight…. any recommendations? somewhere in southeast…

some things that have made me super happy today:

my brother matt’s birthday present to me – flight of the conchords dvd – which we watched late into the night last night. so so SO funny! highly recommended!!

sleeping in and pete bringing me stumptown coffee in bed, such a nice way to start the day.

lots of supersweet birthday comments/emails from family and friends, and happy fun feedback about the rap, yay! thanks everyone!!

spinning a prettytastic skein of yarn, practicing my plying, looking good. and pete gave me two spinning books! a great instructional one, and the beautiful pluckyfluff handspun revolution!

then knitting up the airplane through valentine clouds yarn i won from insubordknit into a great, fat+fluffy neckwarmer. love it!!

and now i have to tell you how hat attack went for me, it was so much fun! so, in this killer hat swap, you get assigned a target, who could live anywhere in the world, to try to “kill” by getting your hat to her/him as quickly as possible, before you receive a hat from your assassin. well, by complete coincidence, my target, kate, lives in my apartment complex, right across the yard! unbelievable right? so it was extra fun for us!

i finished knitting the hat at work yesterday, got home around 5:30, then i wanted to wait to attack until pete got home so he could photograph the event. so, i let her know of her impending death by putting my scary mask with the hat in the window, looking at her window.

then when he got home around 8, i put the mask on, grabbed a comic-ly giant knitting needle, and crept across the yard…

and i killed her! mwa ha ha ha!!

fun times! i’m so glad i did hat attack! if i hadn’t been assigned kate as my target, i probably never would have even known i lived across from a cool knitter! now i’m just waiting for my hat of doom to arrive in the mail and kill me… i hope it’s a good color!

presenting “She’s A Baller” by Avant-Garde Ice Cream!

so ever since pete and i first started dating (which was exactly 3 years ago yesterday, by the way) we’ve talked about making songs together under the name Avant-Garde Ice Cream. don’t ask where the name came from, pete doesn’t even like ice cream, it’s just one of those things… anyway, the years went by and we talked about song ideas but never actually wrote/recorded any. oh, i should mention here, i am not a musician – in this project idea, i write the lyrics (or we write them together) and i do some/most of the vocals, and he does everything else (music writing, composition, playing, recording, producing, all that stuff i know nothing about).

then about a month ago, bored working the day job, i had some sudden inspiration, and i wrote words for a knitting rap. last week, while i was out of town and pete was trying to occupy his alone time productively, he made my lyrics into our first ever AGIC song!! he did an amazing job, considering this is not his genre of expertise (just about the opposite), according to me anyway. the point is to be funny, not brilliant musically, of course. and he did all the vocals for this particular song, because it makes more sense, but in future songs i’ll help with that part.

so here it is, for a limited time only, free for download. i plan to leave it up here for a week, so through next weekend (2/17 to be exact), then probably make it for sale through itunes. so grab it while you can!!

i am thinking about making a “radio edit” (which would mean bleeping out bitches, hos, and shit, i think that’s all) so that yarn stores could play it and not offend any customers. think there might be any interest?

so let me know what you think! hope it makes you laugh lots!!

Craft magazine excitement!

it’s here! Craft:06 on shelves at last! it is an awesome issue, and i still can hardly believe i’m a part of it! that’s right, way back there at the end, you’ll find the “recycle it” column is written by me! woo! i can’t stop using these exclamation points! yeah!

my column will show you how to make a bunch of rockin things from records and album covers (and i tried to throw a bunch of puns in there, yeah!) – including bowls, cd/dvd cases, letter sorters, clocks, and notebooks. fun stuff! and i was so excited to see that they even put one of my photos on the table of contents page!

it really is a fantastic issue, highly recommended for countless reasons. one of which is diane‘s tutorial for otedama (japanese juggling toys) – you can see some of diane’s favorites from the issue on her blog. tons of great projects…

ok i’m exhausted and can’t really think clearly enough to write anymore. i just wanted to get this posted for the release date. i’m having a great time down here with my family – got to spend time with all three of my rad brothers, saw the diving bell and the butterfly with my mom (loved it!), helped my brother matt move from san diego to santa monica, spent quality time with the supersweet kitties and spud, hardly touched a computer for the last week (kind of refreshing, you know)… definitely glad i came. i’ll be back in portland tomorrow night, catching up with blogs and getting back to dying yarn for more kits later this week. for now, sleep!

a week in the oc

man, time flies, i keep meaning to post more often… well… quality over quantity? if i don’t have anything good to say it’s better that i don’t crowd your blog reader with pointless entries? oh well… so… i’m taking a trip down to california to see my family, for a whole week! my first time down since i moved up here in august, i’m excited! there will be lots and lots of knitting, and watching bad tv (can’t wait for lost!) and movies and not working!

this means if you order anything besides a pdf file while i’m gone it won’t be mailed out until probably thursday feb.7th. i will have my laptop with me (of course!) so i will be able to email pdfs, but they might be a little late, maybe. just a warning.

i realized today that it’s right around my one year blogiversary (haha i just typed yarn instead of year, shows where my mind is!) – my actual first post was 1/22, but that one didn’t really count, so i’m counting my 2nd, more substantial post as my actual blog day, which was 2/1. since i’ve gone through so many life changes since then, it feels like it was longer than a year ago when i was struggling with that wordpress code, trying to customize the look, with my limited code knowlegde… those were some frustrating times! sigh, memories…

i also wanted to say that there is one new mitt kit yarn up in the shop, a variegated skein. and i do have one more all dyed and dried, but just haven’t had a chance (or the light) to take photos yet. i figure there’s no rush since i wouldn’t be able to ship it out till next week anyway. that one will be two color striping.

oh yeah, i got my new lens!! that’s what i used for that yarn shot, and many more yarn shots that i haven’t gotten up on flickr yet. i reshot a bunch of the yarns in my shop with better light, so i’ll be trying to get the photos switched over soon. it’s a rad lens! woo!

hey is anyone doing hat attack?? it’s a hat knitting battle thing where you have to try to “kill” your partner by knitting their hat and getting it to them before you receive a hat first, killing you. sounds like fun!! there’s a ravelry group for it, but you don’t have to be a raveler to join! i’m pretty sure the deadline for signing up is feb.6th and it starts when they pattern is revealed on the morning of feb.9th. yay hats!

diy knit kit: ninja mitts!

hey look it’s a non-hat knit kit! woo! make your very own leethal ninja mitts, it’s easy and fun! so, “ninja mitts” are what i’ve been calling my fingerless mitts for years, ever since my old friend roy referred to them as ninja gauntlets. they are different from normal fingerless gloves/mitts because they don’t have any thumb part (like these or these), giving your hands more mobility, and making them a super easy knit. not quite as warm, but great for not freezing weather, and you can leave them on all the time and function just fine. yay!

the pattern is really simple, so i’m selling the pdf by itself for just $1. it’s three pages total – a cover with photo examples, pattern notes, sizing, and some ideas for ways to customize your mitts. this is a great pattern to make your own (with ribbing, cables, stitch pattern experimentation……) – as i say in the notes, “I think of these mitts as kind of a blank canvas – be creative!”

all you need is a set of size us 10 double pointed knitting needles, a tapestry needle, and the yarn. the kits come with enough for one pair, of course, but if you want to use your own, they take about 65 yards. the weight isn’t too important because the gauge isn’t terribly important – i’ve knit these with all different yarns and they always fit fine. but, you know, your yarn should knit up well on size 10’s.

i’ll be selling kits with different kinds of multi-colored hand-dyed yarn, some striping, some variegated. right now i just have two in the store – one will stripe in a repeating pattern, and the other will stripe randomly (like the top left example). at the moment i have a skein of variegated in the dye pot, which will knit up similarly to the bottom left example. i hope to keep adding more yarns over the next week or so…

(ravelry page!)

a bunch of leethal updatey stuff

first of all, i’ve changed my comments settings back to normal. i guess after i switched it to registered users only it got messed up and wouldn’t let anyone comment, lame! it has been switched back for a couple days now, and i’ve gotten several spam comments since then, so i’m assuming that means it’s working again and anyone can comment. so if you wanted to comment on one of my last few posts and it wouldn’t let you, you can now! hehe… i do love comments… and i’m sorry for any annoyance this may have caused you…

and secondly, i’ve edited the mary jane booties pattern, and added a big paragraph (in italics, for easy access) about my sizing stupidity and the changes i made. basically, the original pattern was too big, so i added small(medium,large) options.

hmm what else was a gonna say? oh yeah! excitement! i’ve joined the modern age of knit pattern-making and i’ve made my hat pattern sets into pdfs!! so now if you buy a pattern set by itself, you’ll get the pdf file emailed to you (faster, and paper-saving)! aaand, if you get a hat kit, you can choose the option to get the pdf instead of the paper pattern (again, faster, and paper-saving).

of course, i will still have the paper patterns as an option (the default option) so if the kit is for a gift, it will be in kit form, instead of just yarn and a computer file. kits with pdfs are the same price as with paper patterns, but you get bonus additions! more photos in both hat pdfs, and a whole extra page in the spiraling stripes hat set pdf with all the notes from the blog post.

also added, there is now a “ball it!” option for all my yarn so you can start knitting as soon as you get it! if you don’t want to ball your yarn, i’ll do it for you! of course, you can’t knit with the yarn until you ball it, since it’s in hank form. and i now have a ball winder, so i’ll make a nice, flat-bottomed center-pull ball.

also, i just added 2 new spiraling stripes hat knit kits.

oh yeah, i keep remembering things i wanted to mention… i’ve added myself as a “yarnie” on ravelry, which means my hand-dyed self-striping yarns are official yarns (brand: leethal) on the site. so, if you are on ravelry, and you have a leethal yarn from one of my kits, you can add it to your stash as leethal brand yarn. (right now there are 2 types – the 2-color, and the self-striping)

and a little teaser, very soon (like, tomorrow) i’ll be adding a new kit/pattern to the shop. it’s not a hat! and it’s easy, and cheap… stay tuned!

simple mary jane style booties!

update 12/13/08: hello to everyone stumbling upon this page or linking over from somewhere else! this is the original post for this slippers pattern, but i’ve since redesigned the pattern and made a free pdf download! see the blog post with the full updated pattern here, download the pdf directly here, or check out my patterns page with all of my patterns (including several free ones!). enjoy!!

yay free pattern! ok so this is something i designed almost 2 1/2 years ago, way back before i even knew how to read patterns. it was in the form of a page in my sketchbook with a list of each row like a checklist to work off of. i used this to make about 6 pairs back then, altering each one a little to try to perfect the shape. then i got bored with booties and forgot about it. anyway, i remembered the “pattern” a few days ago, found that old sketchbook, and deciphered the notes into an actual pattern. i changed a few things, and now i’m happy to share the final result with you!

these are super quick and easy to make, a one night in front of the tv kind of project. basic mary jane style slippers, knit flat in garter stitch up to the toe, then knit around on double points. great gift knits, since the sizing is very flexible, nice and stretchy. i made a pair for my mom back when i first designed them (with monkey buttons!)… here are a couple of my original pairs:

these are knit with several strands of yarn, on size 11 needles, making a super thick fabric. on the examples i used 3 strands – one being joann’s sensations angel hair, which is two strands in itself, including the soft fuzzy stuff which makes the booties super soft and warm. this is a great project for using up a bunch of stash yarn. i don’t know exactly what yardage they take, but i’m guessing not more than about 70-80 yards (for both), maybe less. i don’t like to use nice yarns for slippers i’ll be wearing around the house, probably stepping on things and wanting to throw them in the laundry, don’t want to worry about hand washing… so grab any balls you’ve got buried in your stash, find a few strands that’ll look nice together, and use them up!

pattern notes:

i use the long tail cast on at the beginning, and the backwards loop cast on (or single cast on) when i add stitches in the middle of the pattern. you can use whatever methods you like – it is suggested in knitty that you use the knitting on method when casting on in the middle of a pattern, which i’ve never tried, but it’s probably better.

when writing out the toe part of the pattern, which is knit on double pointed needles, i wrote it the way i think about it – each needle separate instead the whole round as a row altogether. this is the first pattern i’ve written that uses dpns, so that’s probably a silly way to write it, but it’s what makes sense to me, so hopefully it’ll make sense to you.

everything is the same on the left and right booties except for the strap, so when you get to that part just follow the pattern for whichever side you’re knitting.

the buttons are purely decorative, so there are no buttonholes in the pattern. the straps are sewed over permanently – the slippers are easy to get on and off with the straps. if you wanted to make a functional button closure, it would be easy to make a hole on the end of the strap by binding one stitch off and back on again. or you could attach a loop of yarn on the end afterwards to loop over the button, like i do with my knit bracelets.

as for sizing: my feet are size 9 and they fit great, but they are very stretchy because of the garter stitch bodies, so i think they would fit fine on feet a couple sizes smaller or larger. if you want to adjust, i would suggest adding or subtracting a couple rows in the sections where you knit 6 rows. sorry i don’t have multiple sizes figured out, but i think because of the way these fit and how they stretch, you can just guess and it’ll be ok…

EDIT 1/20/08: ok i was wrong about the sizing. after wearing mine around for a few nights i found that they are a bit too big for my size 9 feet (the heel kept slipping off), so they definitely won’t be fitting smaller feet than mine. i’ve edited the pattern with sizes – small(medium,large) – large being the original pattern. so the other sizes have not been tested or anything. i would so very much appreciate pattern tester volunteers out there (meaning anyone who wants to knit some booties and give me feedback) to let me know what size they knit, how they turned out, and any further suggestions. i am guessing the large would be for size 10+, medium would be around size 7-9, and small would be for smaller than 7, but i don’t know how small they’d fit without the heel slipping. and these are all total estimates, so again, please let me know your results!! thank you!! (end edit)

i will ask this though, if anyone makes these and changes the pattern for different sizing, i would love it if you commented or emailed me (leethalkoala at yahoo dot com) to let me know what you changed exactly. then i could add your input here, and give you credit and many thanks.

you need:
1 pair size us 11 straight needles
1 set (4) size us 11 double pointed needles
a crochet hook
a tapestry needle

pattern:

cast on 16 stitches (leave at least 1 foot tail)
knit 4(6,6) rows
k4, k2tog, k4, k2tog, k4
knit 1 row
k3, k2tog, k4, k2tog, k3
knit 1 row
start strap section:
-LEFT –
cast on 12, knit across (24 stitches)
knit 3 rows
bind off 12, knit to end
knit 1 row
-RIGHT –
knit 1 row
cast on 12, knit across (24 stitches)
knit 3 rows
bind off 12, knit to end
(end strap section)
knit 2(4,6) rows
k1, make 1, k10, make 1, k1
knit 1 row
k1, make 1, k12, make 1, k1
knit all onto dpns – k7 onto 1st needle, k7 onto 2nd needle, k2 onto 3rd needle
cast on 4 (now there are 6 sts on 3rd dpn), join around, and knit 1 round
knit 1 round
(1st needle – k2, k2tog, k3) (2nd needle – k5, k2tog) (3rd needle – knit all)
knit 1(2,3) rounds
(1st needle – k2, k2tog, k2) (2nd needle – k4, k2tog) (3rd needle – knit all)
knit 2 rounds
(1st needle – k2, k2tog, k1) (2nd needle – k3, k2tog) (3rd needle – knit all)
knit 1 round
(1st needle – k1, k3tog) (2nd needle – k2, slip 2 from 3rd needle to 2nd, k3tog, k1) (3rd needle – knit all)
(1st needle – k2tog) (2nd needle – k2tog, k2tog) (3rd needle – k1, k2tog, k1)
cut yarn, thread through all stitches with a crochet hook, pull tight, tie, and weave in ends.
use the cast on tail to sew up the back, and weave in ends.
sew the strap over on the other side with a button, bottlecap, or whatever you want for embellishment.