Lee Does Stuff

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.

thank you 2007, you were a good year!

woo look it’s my muchly procrastinated 2007 post! so those photos are all important-in-some-way things i did, places i went, projects i worked on, designs i created, or just images that relate to something special that happened in 2007.

2007 was seriously full of firsts. so i made a list. semi-consecutive order…

i went digital! i still do love my film, but at the beginning of the year i got my first d-slr and didn’t shoot nearly as much film as i planned to (like, hardly any at all really) because digital is just so fun and easy and i love my camera!

i made/self-published/released my first issue of my zine, do stuff! the whole thing was a fantastic experience which i hope to recreate very soon with issue #2. through the zine, i made tons of new online (and real life) friends and contacts and even got to do a reading at the multnomah county library which was awesome!

i started this blog! originally meant to go with the zine, it has become its own thing, and although i am clearly not the best, most frequent blogger, i have had a great time with it and am so happy that people have enjoyed some of my topics, used my tutorials, etc. i love every comment i get (even though i’m terrible about replying to them) and i hope to post many many more fun how-to’s, patterns, and cool stuff in the year to come!

i experienced my first falling snow (yeah, i had never seen falling snow before, i am such a so-cal girl it’s disgusting) in a really hardcore way – by getting caught in a major blizzard (labeled “mess in the west” by the weather channel) on the drive from san francisco to portland in february. spent the night snowed in (in yreka, just before the oregon border), then braved the terrifying weather the next day to escape back down to the bay area, never making it to portland, quite a trip! since moving to pdx i’ve seen falling snow i think 4 times/days this winter, in a much nicer non-scary form, including the beautiful flurry on christmas day!

i tried dyeing yarn, which ended up really changing my life! since i first decided to give it a try in march, after much experimenting, and thanks to the goodwill bins’ abundance of unravelable sweaters, i have now added a whole new level to my little business with my hand-dyed recycled knit kits. i have so much fun dying yarn, and it’s hard to put the yarns up for sale because i just want to keep them all for myself (i love yarn so much!)… also in march, i tried spinning for the first time, with my little drop spindle. didn’t get so super into this like with the dying because the drop spindle isn’t so much fun to use, although i did absolutely love the yarns i made with it. so now 2008 will be the year of spinning, since i just got my first wheel on january 2nd.

i had my first regular freelance photography job – shooting for the district long beach weekly. mostly live music, with a few other assignments once in awhile, it was tons of fun. i have been putting off trying to contact similar weeklies in portland since i’ve been so busy since we moved, but i hope to be able to do the same kind of freelancing up here this year.

i moved to a new state! obviously the biggest, most life-changing event of the year, and my first time moving out of california (unless you count living in england for one summer studying abroad, which i don’t). it has been fabulous so far, no regrets, the only thing i miss is my family. my life would be perfect if they all decided to move up here, hah!

i had my first knit pattern published! it was also the first pattern i ever wrote (like in actual pattern form, not just notebook notes for myself only) so it’s extremely simple and kinda silly, but its being in knitty got my name out there as a knit designer. since then, i’ve been writing a bunch of hat patterns, and working on some other non-hats that will be finished very soon!

i wrote (and shot photos for) my first contribution to one of my absolute favorite magazines (actually, now that i think about it, it’s my #1 favorite magazine!) which was so incredible i still can’t believe it. this is the first i’ve mentioned of this in the blog, because i think i’m not supposed to talk about it, which is why i’m being all cryptic and not telling you what the magazine is. sorry! but, it comes out really soon, so you will definitely be reading all about it here the second it’s released!

ok i think those are all the major life-changing firsts of 2007. some other things worth mentioning: i started contributing to the sampler, yay! i shot my first wedding, which was tons of work, but went really well so i’m totally glad i did it! i ventured into printmaking – not exactly a first since i took a printmaking class in high school – in the form of freezer paper stenciling and carved linoleum block printing, fun! i got involved in the portland crafty scene, getting to spend time hanging out with a couple of my craft world heroes (diane and susan are awesome!) – feel so lucky to get to be living in this city in this time so full of overwhelming creativity! i got to get into ravelry as a beta tester pretty early on, which has really changed my world as a knitter and designer (and now yarn-maker also), and i feel like because of this amazing site i’ll be able to get my designs seen by many more people than i would without it… hooray for ravelry creators jess and casey!!

ok yeah i’ll stop here, lots of rad stuff in 2007. it wasn’t an all-good year, there were definitely low points, like really low, but i feel incredibly lucky that my own life is going so well right now and things are looking great for 2008!

in it to spin it!

oh goodness, i am a terrible blogger. but hey, you get a spinning wheel, you want to spin! so instead of telling you about it, i’ve spun up three skeins so far since i got it on wednesday. well, technically three… but one of them was recycled sweater yarn that i spun onto bobbins, then plied together – like i first talked about doing in this post, but a thousand times easier with the wheel!

oh first, before i show you my yarn, i’ll tell the story of my wheel acquisition. i had been researching a bit, and had decided that i wanted a double treadle wheel, and was kind of planning on either the ashford traveller of the ashford kiwi. i had been told that i should try them out before choosing one, so i went to woodland woolworks and did just that. i decided the traveler felt good, i liked its size and look, so that was the one for me. they were sold out of everything, so i was going to special order it, but had to wait a minute for the saleswoman, which was when i noticed they had a hidden back room with used wheels. they only had three, but the louet s10 called to me, even though it was a single treadle and not one i had been considering. it seemed to be in perfect condition, and it felt so smooth, and i recognized louet as being a brand i hadn’t been considering because the new wheels were out of my price range. so… i grabbed it right then and there, no special ordering, no waiting for the new one to arrive, no finishing the wood or putting it together. i couldn’t believe i was going home with a spinning wheel, ready to spin!

so that’s just what i did, of course! that night i started practicing with the insubordiknit pink wool i got in our holiday swap – ended up spinning the whole thing, and plying it together. it’s extremely bulky, but i think it looks cool!

so then last night i practiced trying to make more even singles, and played around with the idea of self-striping handspun. i dyed the orange and green parts – the wool was gifted by my parents, from spunky eclectic – and the other colors were all in my package-o-fun from insubordiknit. so it’s mostly the orange and green, then a bit of yellow, blue, purple, brown… i think i’m getting better at keeping it more even; my fat parts aren’t as fat or as frequent, and ditto for my super thin parts. i think i do have a problem with over-spinning though. of course, now that i’ve set the twist, it doesn’t curl up on itself anymore, but before you set the twist is it supposed to be that twisty?

i made a flickr set for my wheel spinning, with a few more shots of these yarns, and i plan to upload all my spun yarn photos here. i don’t want this to become a yarn-only blog, so i won’t be posting much more spinning related stuff here, but befriend me on flickr if you want to see my yarns! hopefully tomorrow i’ll have time to write my 2007 post that i’ve been meaning to do all week. i’m loving all the pretty crafty 2007 mosaics, definitely gonna copy that idea!

holiday bragging post (i’m so lucky!)

first before i forget again, i want to mention that i changed my comment options so now you have to register before commenting. i started getting an overwhelming amount of spam comments (like, 50+ per day) and didn’t want to have to sort through them anymore. sorry for the one extra step, i hope it doesn’t deter anyone from commenting…

and now some fun stuff! i was super sad to not get to see my family for xmas, but it turned out to be a pretty rad holiday, despite the lingering sickness. my mom totally went overboard sending me gifts, so i had tons of packages to open, which is always fun, and pete’s parents and uncle came up, so it was all family-y still, and they are awesome, so it was a really fun day. and, the snow!! we heard that it was portland’s first white christmas since 1937! and it just happened to fall on our first year up here – how lucky are we?! that was amazing…

and i am seriously blown away by all the amazing stuff i got. pete got me a beautiful wooden umbrella swift and a ball winder!! so now if you buy yarn from me, i would be more than happy to ball it for you! i’ve been balling yarn just for fun since i set it up…

and i got a pile of awesome books (and a few dvds) from my parents and pete, and a bunch of other fun stuff that i didn’t take pictures of. and i was given money from my grandma towards a spinning wheel, and from pete’s parents towards a new (24mm f/1.8 macro) lens!! wooo! i love my family so much! for reasons other than these material things, of course, but you know, i’m pretty happy about creative gifts. (a spinning wheel and a new lens, what more could a girl ask for?)

oh and also, i did a holiday swap with my favorite spinner, insubordiknit, and got a bunch of pretty dyed wool and these two skeins of gorgeous yarn! i can’t wait till i have some free knitting time!!

ooh and here’s the hat i knit for pete. it’s a modified version of my spiraling stripes hat, but with purl ridge spirals instead of color stripes.

ok and for a pattern update… i didn’t forget that i had planned to get a couple free patterns posted here by now – the sickness and all the last minute holiday stuff took over, i’m so sorry. one of my new year’s resolutions is to be more regular and reliable with my blog. i shouldn’t make pattern promises i can’t keep. and i should post more often. yes.

so right now, i am trying to complete a submission for the spring knitty, which is due on jan.5th. and then i need to put together my samples, due on the 15th (so, mailed out by the 10th). after those are all done, i should be able to get my next free pattern up. so now you know what’s up.

anyone else but you

whoa i’m back! sorry i kind of disappeared from blog world – i got a horrible cold that lasted 2 weeks because i couldn’t rest to get better due to long hours at the day job… blah… but now i’m just about healthy, have 3 days in a row off (!) and plan to get catching up on all the things i had planned to do before xmas. here’s a quick little post, and then after i get through some emails and stuff i’ll be back on the blog.

has anyone seen juno yet? we saw it last night, i liked it a lot. the ending scene felt strangely personal to me, since i recorded this song for pete about 2 and a half years ago. i am not a musician, but i wanted to make a song for pete since i loved his songs to me so much, so i learned this super basic easy guitar riff (is that even the right term? riff? i don’t know what i’m talking about…) and then i wrote most of my own lyrics and used a few of my favorite lines from the original song, and recorded it with my internal laptop mic with garage band, so you can hear my hard drive spinning (loudly at the end). so yeah, it’s very silly, but it makes me smile.

crafty wonderland success and yarrrrrrn

well crafty wonderland went well! thanks again to susan for letting me share her table! i didn’t have tons of stuff, but i wouldn’t have been able to display more than i had anyway, so it worked out well. between the scrap bazaar and yesterday, i am almost sold out of hats! i have one new one that i haven’t posted in my store yet, and then one monster hat and one snake hat.

anyway, i finished the spiraling stripes hat kits super last minute saturday night, and then i sold two of them, plus a pattern set by itself, so it was worth all that rushing stress! the two i sold were my two absolute favorite yarns, and they never got a chance to be posted on my website, so i want to show them off here:

that left one is a wool/alpaca blend, dyed 5 rotating colors, with the red and green on one side and the blue, purple, and orange on the other, so that the stripes will go something like: red, blue, green, purple, red, orange, green, blue, red, purple, green, orange… not necessarily like that, but maybe. i really hope the hat maker shows me her finished hat!!

the right one is lambswool dyed 6 shades of green and blue. that one has the dark green on one side, and the 5 different lighter shades rotating on the other side, so the striping with go dark green, shade 1, dark green, shade 2, dark green, shade 3, etc…. this one sold really early on in the crazy crowd, my first thing to sell! i hope she shows me her hat too!

it’s hard dying yarn to sell, i want to keep it all for myself!!

oh, if anyone wants anything by xmas – if i get your order within the next day or two i should be able to get it to you by the 25th!
ok now i have to go shopping at mystery stores for no one in particular who reads this blog (wink wink, nudge nudge)…

diy knit kit: spiraling stripes hats

yay, my second hat knit kit! this pattern set includes 6 different patterns – wide straight brim, slanting brim, and no brim, each with spiraling clockwise and counter-clockwise versions. the kits come with 2 stitch markers, so you get everything you need to make one of the hats except for a pair of size us 9 knitting needles and a tapestry needle.

here are what the clockwise and counter-clockwise spirals look like from above:

of course, your results will depend on the way your yarn stripes. i will be selling kits with different types of striping yarn, and i’ll tell you in the descriptions about how the stripes will turn out. if you use the patterns with store-bought yarn, i recommend self-striping yarn with long-ish color sections. (to give you an idea, the example above with the straight brim has 2 yards of each color. so if you want wider stripes on your hat, you’ll need several yards of each color.)

all of my yarn will come to you in hank form. for some info on balling it, you can see my 2-color textured hat kit blog post.

there are a couple things i forgot to mention in the pattern. first, if you want a little topper on your hat like the orange one on the rainbowy hat above, it’s just a short i-cord. when you finish seaming up the back, cut your yarn leaving a long tail (at least a yard). close up the top as instructed, then grab two double pointed needles (a little smaller than size 9 is good) and pick up three stitches evenly around the closed hole. knit those stitches into an i-cord as long as you want, then just tie up the top and weave the end in down the center.

second, i just wanted to mention that stitch markers are optional. it’s easier to explain/write the patterns using stitch markers, but once you knit a few rows, you might find that you’d rather just skip them because you’ll see how the pattern works and can keep track easily enough. the stitch markers i include with the kits are not heavy duty – don’t expect them to last forever. right now i’m using a thin wire, threaded through some beads to look pretty. (don’t let kids get ahold of them, they may come apart and have sharp wire ends!) i might switch to some kind of more recycle-y version in the future.

i also want to mention that you could use the yarn that’s meant for the 2-color textured hat kits for the spiraling stripes patterns. your results will look something like this:

sorry the colors aren’t very contrasty, but you get the idea. if you want to do this, you can purchase the yarn from these kits alone and the spiraling stripes pattern alone (for $4.50). yay! oh and by the way, that’s another example of the no brim hat version.

i would really love feedback on this pattern set! i pretty much print out the patterns as i get the orders, so if i am told something is unclear or something should be added/changed, i can fix it for all future copies. and i would really really love to see your finished hats!!

edit 1/21/08: the pattern set is now available as a pdf! it’s 7 pages, lots of pictures, tons of info.

edit 3/04/08: just posted a new entry about pattern variations to make slouchy styles and some color ideas.

(ravelry page!)

some holiday updatey stuff

oh goodness, so many things going on, so little time to blog… first, i want to tell you i have 5 new 2-color texture hat kits up in my shop. i now give the option to get just the yarn without the pattern – so if you want multiple yarns you aren’t stuck with multiple copies of the same pattern.

there are 2 holiday colored yarns! “mistletoe + berries” is a really nice darkish red and green, not too bright, more natural. and “candy cane” is dyed red with the other half left undyed. and that last yarn pictured is my personal favorite.

yesterday, i was blogged about on the oregonian’s knitting blog! that was exciting!

the scrap bazaar went really super well. i wanted to talk about it more but i’m getting really sleepy, so maybe later when i have photos.

and the most exciting news – i’ll be sharing a table with susan beal at crafty wonderland‘s big holiday sale on sunday!! i was pretty sad when i didn’t get in to the event (portland craft competition is tough!) so when she asked me if i’d want to share hers i couldn’t have been happier!

ok i just can’t write any more, i’m falling asleep here. sorry for the poorly written post, just wanted to get some info out there. hope everyone’s holiday crafting/shopping/etc is going well!!

real quick, then back to work!

here’s my new yarn for tomorrow!

all for the 2-color textured hat kits. of course, i’ll have all the other stuff in my online shop, and zines too! if you’re in pdx, come by scrap and say hi!!