Knitkumpoop

Goat Backpack

2011-09-13T08:56:00.000-07:00

My friend Debi posted this on facebook a few months ago. I think I need to get me a goat backpack.

Sweater for Josie

2009-12-24T21:25:00.001-08:00

Here is a little sweater I designed and knitted for Josie. I didn't write down the pattern as I went along so this one will be a one-off.

It has it's issues, but I did learn a lot while I worked on it. I'm just thrilled I finished it!

Still More Hats

2009-09-30T20:46:00.001-07:00

More Hats

2009-09-30T20:41:00.001-07:00

Back to Makin Hats

2009-08-19T16:59:00.000-07:00

Here are some hats I made to sell at a booth during "Swiss Days" in Heber city, Utah.

They're called "Fully Awesome", "The Hat With a Flower on it", and "Bee Butt".

They were knitted and then wet felted! Hope you like!

Cutest Project Ever!

2009-05-29T22:07:00.000-07:00

Ok really, the sweater is cute but it's the baby that makes it my cutest project ever!

I know it's been a long time since I've put up a post here at knitkumpoop but I have been working on projects. I did have a few moments of knitters block but once I realized my baby nephew's arrival was right around the corner I got right on making this little sweater for him.

It's a wool acrylic blend and the pattern is called a "mock fair isle". It's supposed to mimic fair isle with out having to carry a bunch of yarns across the project. I can't remember who designed the pattern and I'm too lazy right now to go and dig the pattern out. If you really want to know make a comment and I'll find it for you.

It's supposed to be a size 6 months, but I don't think it's going to work for him in 6 months. Oh well, at least I got a picture of him in it.

I can't wait to meet this cute little guy. Seeing him in my sweater has given me a little thrill and I'm half in love with the kid already!

Felted Bag in Pink and Green

2009-03-17T12:26:00.000-07:00

I finished knitting and then felting a bag for the Ravelry Felted Bag Exchange. I found a great pattern in book called "Felt Frenzy". The woman I'm making the bag for said she liked pinks, olive greens, and blacks together.

This was a fun and interesting pattern to work on and I love the ending results. Thanks for looking!

A Short Knitting Break

2009-03-17T12:05:00.000-07:00

I took a break from knitting and worked on some embroidery instead. I bought this pillowcase kit from Michael's about a year ago and worked on it for a little while.

I needed something different from knitting to do so I pulled the embroidery back out and finished one pillow case. I gave it to Erin to put on her bed. Before she did that she took a picture of it that I just found on my camera. I figured why not put it up on Knitkumpoop?

Knitter's Block

2009-02-28T07:10:00.000-08:00

I am suffering from a case of "Knitter's Block" right now. I just finished most of my projects except one but I just don't feel like working on it right now. It's a sweater that I bought a ton of yarn for, but I think I'm not so thrilled with the yarn and that's why I don't want to continue on with it I guess.

Maybe I should look for a new pattern to use the yarn on.

Zumi and Zelda

2009-02-25T17:16:00.001-08:00

Meet Zumi and Zelda, the space alien twins. These are not made by knitting, but by crocheting. The Japanese term for little crocheted toys is "Amigurumi".

I use them in church when I do the singing time with them. It's a lot of fun!

Hats for TC and Beth

2009-02-25T10:38:00.000-08:00

My bro and sis-in-law, TC and Beth, had me make hats for them this past week. I had fun doing it, but more importantly I learned a lot, especially from Beth's hat.

For TC, I made a gray 100% merino wool, wide brimmed hat. It is made with a double thickness of yarn so it should stand up to a lot. It's pretty plain, but that will make it great to wear with just about anything. It looks kind of like a wool pith helmet.

Beth requested a teal colored tam and I had her pick out a pattern from on-line. The first time I knitted the hat I used a merino wool yarn partnered with a novelty eyelash yarn. I, like an idiot, used different size needles than the pattern required and the hat came out HUGE. You can see that it is large on my lovely model Geoff. Eyelash yarn is not my favorite because it has no stretch, or bounce which makes it a little hard on your hands and arms if you work with it for very long.

I was so horrified by the first hat that I made it again with an acrylic boucle yarn that has shades of teal, green, and purple in it. I used the appropriate sized needles and I thought the pattern still came out a little large. If I ever do this pattern again I'll have to use even smaller needles. Boucle is really bouncy so my hands felt great through the whole project.

My mom always says, "In order to learn you have to have waist." I hope that even though some of the patterns didn't go as well I'd hope, TC and Beth can get a little use out of these hats.

The Marty

2009-02-19T19:15:00.001-08:00

The Marty cloche makes it's debut today. I thought it would be much easier to make than it was. It turned out to be kind of tedious.

The problem with Zebra stripes is they are about equally black and white. That means that it doesn't matter what color I choose for the base of the hat, there is going to be a lot of needle felting with the rest of the stripes.

I used black as a base of the hat because that is how Zebras are in real life. Black, with white stripes.

Kevin "Two-bit Tex" Johnston

2009-02-18T16:36:00.001-08:00

This is a picture of Kevin"Two-bit Tex" Johnston. He is a little cowboy that is owned by my brother-in-law, TC. A few weeks ago TC mentioned the movie "Coraline" in an email. I replied telling him that I saw an interview with a lady who knitted a tiny sweater for that movie. In the course of our correspondence he mentioned that he liked miniature things and that he had some tiny cowboys that needed some sweaters.

How, as an obsessed knitter, could I let those little cowboys freeze? I immediately got to work on a maroon and black sweater vest for Kevin. I wanted to go for a "Southwesty" feel but I was worried that Kevin would balk at the use of pastel colors like peach or turquoise. If you know cowboys, you know they like to feel manly and I finally decided that using maroon and black yarn would be the perfect choice. It was tricky but I really enjoyed the challenge of knitting a 1/2 inch sweater vest. This was my first one so you'll have to excuse the less than tailored look of it.

Look at Kevin, he is co confident in his sweater vest that he feels like he can take an Indian (Um...Native American?) and a dinosaur on at the same time. Who knew a sweater vest could make a man feel that way?

The Geoffrey Cloche

2009-02-11T10:12:00.001-08:00

This is my favorite hat so far. Please excuse the no make=up and grumpy look on my face. It is named after Geoffrey the Giraffe from Toys R Us, not my husband Geoff. It was fun putting the print on this one. It wasn't too tedious and I enjoyed trying to make it look realistic.

Apparently Giraffe's spots darken as they age so I thought it would be interesting to put a little darker brown wool in the spots. Thanks for checking it out.

The Tragedy of Zsa Zsa

2009-02-07T12:05:00.001-08:00

Meet Zsa Zsa, she is my latest creation. I had high hopes for her, she was going to be my popular child. Everyone was going to love her and demand one for themselves.

She may look beautiful from this distance but once you get up close you will see she is full of flaws.

First, she was supposed to be for an adult but I went a little nuts and now I have another child sized hat on my hands.

I decided to forge ahead and thus her second flaw has come into existence. Each leopard spot is individually needle felted onto the hat by hand using a black and slightly darker pink wool roving. This means that I take a tuft of wool and mess around with it until I get it to the size I want it to be, then I take a felting needle (or two) and poke it into the hat causing it to become apart of the base of the hat.

It took me a long time and I worked really hard at it. When I finished I took it to the sink and rubbed some hot, soapy water into it to make sure everything would stay in place. It was at that point that a few holes began to reveal themselves. I was a little over zealous with my needle felting which caused the fabric to weaken. It didn't stand a chance against all the scrubbing. I really felt like screaming and throwing a temper tantrum.

There are a few good things that came out of it. First, I learned to be a little more gentle with my needle felting and scrubbing, oh and shrinking. Second, I repaired the holes and now my girls have a really cute hat to share. Third, if someone would like me to make this hat for them it will now be a higher quality product with all my lessons learned.

Thanks for looking.

Child's Tiger Stripe Wool Felted Cloche

2009-02-02T14:47:00.000-08:00

This was a fun project to do. Thanks, Sheila, for giving me the idea.

I handknit a giant, orange, 100% wool hat and then threw it in my washing machine and shrank it down until it was a child-sized cloche (1920's style hat).

I then took wool roving and needle felted, by hand all of the tiger stripes on the hat. It was a fun way to be creative.

I then sewed on a black hat band made out of a soft, suede-like, fabric. After that I sewed on a black polymer clay button that I made myself.

Check out my etsy store at gfrenn.etsy.com if you want to see more pictures.

Now I'm working on an adult size, hot pink, cloche covered in black leopard spots. I'll put those pictures up when I get it done.

Hat for Lisa

2009-01-27T13:48:00.000-08:00

This is a hat commissioned by my neighbor Lisa. Once again it is a handknitted and then wet felted hat. I guess I just love the strength and texture of wool felt.

Lisa asked for brown with an ivory accent. I added a darker brown stripe between the main brown of the hat and the ivory stripe. It's kind of hard to see unless you look closely.

Maggie's Hat

2009-01-27T13:45:00.001-08:00

This is an apple green, pink, and brown striped stocking cap that I made for my friend Maggie. This will be a birthday present for her 8 year old granddaughter.

Maggie chose the colors and I think they turned out pretty fun. I love it when people request funky colors that I wouldn't have even thought to put together.

This hat is also handknitted and then wet felted.

Megen's Hat

2009-01-27T13:38:00.000-08:00

"Mi prima quiere una gorro." or My cousin wants a hat. My friend Felipa taught me a little Spanish yesterday when I was telling her about my latest creation.

It is a 1920's style wool felted cloche that was commissioned by my cousin Megen. I'll give her credit for the colors and style since she chose them.

I really like making this type of hat because I think they are so fun and they are flattering on everyone.

First, I handknit the hat with a wool yarn so I can felt it once I've finished knitting it. The trick to felting is this: You must knit the item you are making about 3 times the size of the finished project. It's fun to see it go from gigantic to normal sized.

Bubble Gum Pink Neckwarmer for E

2009-01-24T17:43:00.000-08:00

This is a fine example of what happens when you are too lazy to knit a guage swatch. This neckwarmer was initially intended for my little sister who lives in a cold place and goes outside a lot.

It ended up being for my daughter E because it turned out smaller than it was supposed to. I used a smaller needle than the pattern called for but I thought I compensated for that when I knitted the pattern. I guess I needed to do more.

Oh well. It looks great on E and she loves it so it all worked out.

This is a nice soft wool and the color is bubble gum pink.

Malabrigo Silky Merino Shawl in Nocturnal

2009-01-23T08:58:00.000-08:00

I was at Tempe Yarn and Fibre a few weeks ago and fell in love with this yarn. It is Silky Merino and the color is called Nocturnal. The name is half the reason I fell in love with it. It is 50% silk and 50% merino wool.

I love this color purple but it is a bold color and takes just the right person to wear it. Also, I only bought 2 skeins and I really should have bought 4 to make it a good size shawl for an adult. I guess Sam is getting a purple shawl!

This yarn is totally gorgeous, luxurious, and feels really good to knit and wear.

Sweater for Geoff

2009-01-22T23:18:00.001-08:00

After almost 17 years of marriage I decided that it was time to knit my husband, Geoff, a sweater.

Now that I had him firmly in my grasp I thought that maybe we could escape the "Boyfriend Sweater" curse*.

This sweater was made from a free pattern I found on-line and then I modified quite a bit. I think it turned out pretty well.

Geoff has been a good hubby and worn it on several occasions already.

*The Boyfriend Sweater Curse: If you knit your boyfriend a sweater the relationship is doomed and will end soon.

Felted Stocking Caps

2009-01-22T23:12:00.000-08:00

Here are some knitted, felted stocking caps that I've had fun with. They are my own silly pattern that is still sitting in my head. Maybe someday I'll write it down somewhere.

The main trick to knitting a piece that you will later felt is this; you must make the piece really big because the felting process shrinks your product down quite a bit.

That's one of the reasons I love to felt things, it's pretty fun to see this gigantic piece of knitting change into something small and strong.

Knitting Has Captivated Me

2009-01-22T22:55:00.000-08:00

Hey there! My name is Kristen J and I'm a knitaholic. Seriously, I am. If you would have told me 10 years ago that I would be this crazy about knitting I would have laughed really hard. Now, if you were tell me that I was no longer allowed to knit I would laugh really hard. But you wouldn't do that to me, right?

I became a knitter as a way to stay sane. I'm a stay-at-home mother of 4 and that is a job that requires a lot of patience. I don't mean motherly patience in the traditional "if you touch your sister one more time I'm gonna..." kind of patience. I mean the "I will now be sitting here in this little chair for the next hour while my daughter/son learns to dance/swim/kick a ball" kind of patience. Or my personal favorite "I will now sit and watch a full episode of Barney" kind of patience.

When I had tied a knot in the end of my patience rope and was hanging on for all I was worth knitting came into my life. I've been working at it on-and-off for about 10 years, mostly on for the last 2-3 and now if you can let me knit I can sit in a chair and wait for hours and hours.

Since I've become a knitting zealot I've learned that most people are really not too interested in listening to me talk about the joys of yarn, or the latest project I'm working on. Some of my dear friends and family have exercised a lot of patience on their part and lovingly listened as I drone on and on and on.

This is where Knitkumpoop comes in: I get to talk about my latest projects, put up some pictures, and if you're interested you can check it out. If not...don't!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!