Blast from the Past: Time unknown

Rather than repost and old post from my other blog, I figured I would redo it. It wasn't a good post to begin with really.

Back around July '07 I knitted a carrying case for some juggle sticks (aka, devil sticks).

Not having had any real experience w/dpn's I knit the body flat. I used random, overly-fluffy, boring grey yarn from my stash. The intended recipient wanted holes in the body for visual texture, so I did a lot of yo,k2tog patterns at odd intervals that turned out to be barely visible.
All in all, it is a rather unimpressive looking bit of knittery.

Until you consider the execution and design of the piece.

This was an off the top of my head, no known pattern idea. I had to wing the whole thing as I had not even found a pattern to base it off of.

I started by knitting a circular base that would go inside on the bottom to hold the sticks in the case. Again, I knit this flat.
How does one knit a circle via flat knitting? I took my thinnest needles and some crochet thread. I cast on 2 stitches then k1,yo until it was half the size I wanted and then knit a few rows and did a standard bind off. I then took the two corners and crocheted them together and crocheted the new seam down to the center.
Unfortunately I did not take a picture of this piece, but it is in the FO.

Next I took US15 needles and my bulky yarn and cast on more stitches than I figured I would need for the width of the body. I knit a row and then decreased a bit until I got my desired width. Then it was knit each row and make holes to the top. Not too impressive on this part. It was when I got to the top that it was fun.

I realized that I would need a lid for my carry case and I did not want to make it a separate piece, in fact I wanted the top to look like a Carnivorous Plant. When I got my desired length I did some yarn overs to add to the width then started binding off until the middle stitches. These I knit onto a stitch holder then went back and cast off the rest. I cut the yarn and reattached it near my held stitches.

The flaw with this part became obvious when I started sewing the piece closed. Because I put my lid in the middle, the seam was in the "front" rather than hidden in the back. Next time, cast off until the last 4 stitches and knit this as per usual.

Then came the shaping for the lid. I did yarn overs to increase and when I was halfway done I started decreasing via k2tog. Simple, elegant and surprisingly successful. The plant look was done well enough that I began to wish the yarn was green.

The last part I had to make was a handle/strap. A simple I-cord was knit up on dpn's (my first work with those type of needles) and when that was done I decided my next case would be on dpn's rather than flat.

Sewing the piece together was a huge pain. I never want to do that again. I am not good at sewing to begin with and the length of the piece meant I was made very uncomfortable for most of that part.

In the end, it came out rather well.
I would not recommend such a large needle with such a loose, fluffy, yarn. The yarn actually is very relaxed which means my measurements were for nothing as the whole thing stretches and the sticks sit a bit too far down on the inside. Attaching the I-cord brought up the problem of reinforcing the connection point due to the pull of wearing the case.

The best part of the whole thing was that this was being made for a loved one and I wasn't going to get stuck with the ugly first attempt. '-)

Later I will tell you about the second one I made.

New Skills

Yesterday I had my first in person lesson about spinning yarn.

This is another fiber related interest that I can blame on Franklin.

I have to say, it was not as challenging as I thought it would be. My first bit, a single ply at this time, varies in width from worsted weight to oh-my-it-will-snap-at-any-second. I am fine with this as I know people who buy that kind of yarn on purpose.

I got the wool and drop spindle from a nice little Learn to Spin Kit. It includes a DVD which I did watch, but I managed to hold myself back from getting into the fiber until I could attend a group event.

Our local Meetup group, Yarn for Breakfast, made plans for a get together to learn spinning. Queue, the wonderful lady giving the lessons, was brutally honest. She told us how she worked a full day then drove nine hours to pick up her spinning wheel, rather than have it shipped, and then stayed up into the wee hours playing with her new wheel. Her spinning wheel looks like this, but is a single treadle (or pedal). It is compact and folds for easy traveling. I got to pedal it a few times and it was very nice.

For now I will stick to my drop spindle. Goodness knows I can't afford a spinning wheel at this time, but someday... oh yes, someday it will be mine.
Honestly I don't know which wheel I will get, but I do rather like the center style design so far.

When I can, I will post pictures of my 'yarn'. In the meantime, I have much practicing to do.