Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Newland Picons WIP


NewlandPicon
Originally uploaded by Crafty Andy
Life continues and the Newland Picons are the next step into the sock world. I bought this Paca Peds HT yarn a while ago and I wanted to make socks with it. Actually I have about 6 to 7 pairs I am going to get done. I end up going back to my DPNs for socks, I really like them specially these DPNs are fantastic for this kind of work. I am hoping to have these done in less than two weeks, now that I know what to expect from the pattern. I am also working on a redesign of one of my patterns by a friend. I will tell you that it is more hard work. I admire her vision and all the work that it takes from the designer and the person redesigning the pattern layout, her name is Kate from http://www.okaykate.com/ . It is not easy, but definitely a lot of fun. It is like a marriage you know, we have to express our thoguhts and come to an agreement in the middle, lol.

TauronHerbivorewipjune

I am working as well on the Herbivore from West Knits.  I am really enjoying this easy pattern that gives you such a complex look of a twisted rib. This guy has a very clever design and I congratulate him on his beautiful wraps and shawls.  I am hoping to purchase the other two shawls/wraps and have some nice warm coverings for the weather here in San Francisco. His Botanical Hat is one of my favorite hats.  If you have not made it yet, you have no idea what a cool hat this is.
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 Working as well on my Aurora Scarf as I am inching along the second repetition of the chart.  I am hoping to make 5 or 7 and then block for pictures and stuff.  My vision for this pattern is very nice and I am hoping that when I block the scarf , that the vision comes to life.  Manipulation of stitches is always fun.  Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Happy Pride Sunday 2010

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We had Brunch with some friends at Catch.  A cafe that we have never been to.  I have to say that I was very pleased with the outcome of the venue. Here I am with Chuck a very nice friend I met some time ago, through his spouse , John , who is in my Monday Nite knit group.  You see John with my partner Michael in the picture below, there was a secret visitor, we can not divulge his presence.
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My partner Michael who I may say is not a very social fellow, was very happy to meet and chat with the guys.  Sometimes he just gets overwhelmed  and then the outing is kind of over, so is not that he is really anti social, but he is not like me which is always a blessing.  It is nice to have variety in life which adds spark to  everyday situations.  He behaved like a gentleman.  From here we departed from our company and went underground toward the Civic Center for the Pride Day Activities and to see vendors and people.  I enjoy the outing as much as I can , because my partner is not a shopping person, and not one to wander around  aimlessly just browsing, I on the other hand can spend a long time just looking around and doing comparison shopping.
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Some of Our State Representatives and Senators and city government were present, openly Gay individuals that work hard for the LGBT community. We had enough, and after having some Shaved Ice we departed the place cooled and ready for the afternoon nap.
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The place was very busy and it was nice to be able to walk without being overwhelmed by the people. All in all it was a great day, thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Agathon Left Front WIP


AgathonLeftFrontWIP (3)
Originally uploaded by Crafty Andy
Actually is the Carlito Cardigan by Matthew Gnany.  I named it The Agathon just to have a BSG themed Item.  It definitely reminds me of Helo, or  Tahmoh Penikett the actor that plays , Helo Agathon.  The pattern may be found here on Ravelry. 

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/carlito-cardigan, which by the way is a free pattern, but I bought before it went for free.

The main reason why I like this Cardigan is that it is a cardigan and in the Area of California where I live a Cardigan is always a good choice. I am using the wool-ease blend of Lionbrand in the mushroom colorway, The other reason that I wanted to do this cardigan is that it looks like a very challenging project that will keep me entertained for hours at a time, and it has lol! This is the left Front of the Cardigan and I am ready to start the front panel for my size. I used a bigger needles, because of the swatch for gauge that I made. Yes I was not going to make this Cardigan without a gauge swatch, it will be insane. Hope you have a wonderful Saturday and Happy Pride Sunday everyone. Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Kobolian Nova Socks


KobolianSocks (3)
Originally uploaded by Crafty Andy
This was such a fun project and Marlowe Crawford has outdone herself again with a pattern that has cables. I modified it a bit to make room for the cables all over the instep, that is how much Iove this pattern. Another Project done and I am ready to get started on another pair of socks, now that I now what to do. This socks are actually made to perfect size. Thanks for stopping by.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The Art of Design


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Originally uploaded by Crafty Andy
This is the pattern that I am working on to be published soon. I have worked it and reworked it and finally I got help from the Intwined Pattern Studio Software. This software is priced nicely and gives you a lot for the $40 something dollars you pay. I would recommend this software as I am using it myself and find it very nice and friendly to use. It has little glitches, but nothing big , it does not crash and it loves Windows 7. It is a woman's scarf, but by all means make it for your favorite person. It is a woman's scarf, because I had a woman in mind when I designed it and I thought the pattern will appeal to women more than to men, but here I am thinking that I really like the pattern for myself, so no gender discrimination, just a feminine name. it has some cables, a surprise row! and lots of Yarn Overs and WIll keep you updated thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Homespun Merino Pygora


HmspunMerinoPygora (7)
Originally uploaded by Crafty Andy
This is a 3 ply yarn with some extra gold pygora mohair , iti s in my opinion artsy yarn, inspired by Jacey Boggs and Judith McKenzie McCuin. The more I spin the more I realize how much I need to practice and how much fun it can be.







These are more examples of the way this yarn looks and it is very soft despite the fact that the Merino was not naturally black to begin with lol!
I hope you enjoy the way it looks and please feel free to let me know what you think.  This is the Gentle Art of Plying alongside the art of creating Art Yarn.  It was a lovely surprise.


 Thanks for stopping by.

Monday, June 21, 2010

The Art of Plying

I am just a novice when it comes to plying, but I have gotten a lot of inspiration from listening to Fiber Beat, and listening and watching my favorite spinners, Jacey Boggs and Judith McKenzie McCuin. May I suggest that you listen to the podcasts, you will get some inspirational ideas from it. I was gifted a DVD of Judith , “The Gentle Art of Plying” , and I say get it, it is a fantastic dvd that will help you understand plying or at least get you to listen to an experience spinner.  She has other books like The Intentional Spinner: A Holistic Approach to Making Yarn and  Teach Yourself Visually Handspinning (Teach Yourself Visually Consumer) , that I think are worth checking out.

As I go along in my creation of yarn on my wheel, I begin to understand this two ladies and their approach to plying or making yarn.  This approach to plying  or making yarn singles is exactly what I want to accomplish, but let me tell you, it requires practice, lots of practice and have patience.  I think one of the things that I learned from Judith is to pay attention to what I am doing intentionally and unintentional so that I can repeat my mistakes and my designs lol!
This is what my yarn is starting to look like , but it still needs a bit to go and then get set.  I am using some bordeleicester/mohair 50/50 blend, it is a 3ply with some pygora thrown in the mixed for the creation of some art yarn, by the time I looked at the wall clock last nite it was 1 AM, time to hit the rack.  I am hoping to finish my plying today and to get the yarn set and have some pictures for sharing in the next few days.  By the way I try the windows live blogging tool and did not care for it, too many log ins , maybe it will be better with time.  I am still enjoying coming to blogger and blog or like in Flicker blog about something with a picture at a time, as I have said before and using the old cliche "A picture is worth a million words without saying anything. Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

San Mateo Cty Fair,Crochet & Father's Day

All in all today is father's day.  I wish all of you out there in the cyber world and the regular world Happy Father's day.  There are some guys that are greater father's without having the opportunity of having children of their own, I salute you as well. To my two brothers on the earth plane J. Andres , S. Noel and to my brother who just passed away a few weeks ago.  Yep his name was Andres as well he died at an early age of about 55; my father who is  still alive, by the wonders of life, loved his name, but I am not here to talk about him, not much positive to say, if you have read my blog you will understand why.  This Sunday finds me content and waking up from a dream in which I was travelling in a bus that had first class, dishes and everything lol!
This was our area at the San Mateo County Fair.  Lots of people came in and walk by, stopped and talked to us.  Our main purpose was to promote crochet though the Men Who Crochet Chapter of the CGOA, which is the parent organization.
Here we got Mattie standing on the the left of the table, Penny which is sitting down , she is amazing after having a hip replacement done, and Cay who is looking in the bag for something, I forget what it was lol!

Here I was sitting bringing some of my hats for show, my hats are the ones laying flat on the table among other things that I crochet.  I was making a demonstration of Tapestry Crochet and I got so many compliments it was nice.  This was not a good day for me as I left my computer at home in need of  having to re-install the whole system again, and I will be doing that twice again until like today, I am happy with the results.
What a great experience , even as I was not feeling the greatest, my life is just taking such an interesting road, but here I am walking and making that road forward.  I am creating a new pattern and as I was creating, writing it down, lots of people stopped to watch and asked me about my hats.
Tom another of the members of the group was there with us demonstrating crochet as well. Tom is part of my Monday Night Knit group at the Cafe Trieste in San Francisco.

These are some of the Items exhibited at the fair which won prizes, there are two more cases with crochet items there.  I did not enter any of my hats.  You can see here the Crazy Eight Vest by Cay, in the Noro Colorway and a Vest and some sweaters by Peter Franzi aka HookerBear
We had a lot of people that stopped by the table , but only few brave souls that came to learn how to crochet and Cay was so kind as to help them to learn.  Here she is teaching a lady how to make a coaster and by the end of the lesson she made one.
This was my first San Mateo County Fair and it was interesting, I was glad I was inside, there were a lot of people on the grounds.  Cotton Candy, but I lied the fresh cotton candy, not the already made.  It just does not tastes the same. 
The are we were at was full of the most beautiful quilts I have ever seen.  If you lie quilts you would have enjoyed this building we were in.  There were a lot of quilts, not as many as they could have had I bet.  All in all it was a fun experience that I will be happy to volunteer again for.  I was able to take the train all the way down to withing blocks of this fair and that was something I enjoyed.  I hope toi have some more exciting things to show tomorrow, which I have, but not for today. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Father's Day!

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Polwarth Top from Southern Cross Fiber

I got this from my friend Naomi and I could not believe how soft this top actually was.   I will also have to say that the dye job and the preparation of this top allowed me to make this skein in one afternoon. Making yarn n a wheel is comfortable  and it is fast once you get to know the fiber.  Yep you heard it right the first few yards of your spinning is  As I was spinning I realized that this was a very soft fiber, even though it looked very rough to the eye.  The dye  job that they did on this material was fantastic, there were no flaws in the way it looked or felt.   kind of like a get to know you for me.  All in all  this Southern Cross Fibre  is a place that I am going to check out real soon.  This  polwarth wool top  allowed me to give this yarn some character, more than what it already possessed when it arrived as a top to my hands.  So I will say that this is a great place to get some nice fiber if you are looking to spin. 
I was able to get 165 yards and I could have gotten more, but I am a real novice with the wheel. Believe it or not when I washed this yarn and was helping it set the twist, the yarn got softer , it is a piece of heaven.  Thanks Naomi once more.  To my surprise this fiber allowed me to a a Crafty guy and do my thing.  I have some pictures that I will be uploading later on about the San Mateo County Fair and the Participation of the Men Who Crochet  Chapter from the CGOA in it.  Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, June 11, 2010

Life A plate of Cherries, and More


I have been a busy bee and today was no exception.  I wanted to take some pictures around.  One of my favorite past times is taking pictures.  When I came from the gym I saw some bees around and hoped they will be around when I came back to go to the store later in the day and they were.


Along with the bees I was testing one of my filters, the UV filter that is on the front of the camera, protecting it from the surroundings and such.  The camera and the photographer and mother nature took this pictures with not much tweaking.  They are untouched, just cropped.


The city of San Francisco has so much to offer and it's diversity is amazing, I am glad I live here.   Anyway tomorrow is  WWKIP day, I am hoping to spin and maybe knit in public, I hope some of my knitting Friends get together and do something , then invite me of course, lol.

The city has so many small parks and San Franciscans love to lay out in the sun  and do stuff, read, listen to music, or just enjoy the day and the clean air. You can find daddy with the boys playing , or daddy with the dogs playing, mommies, daddies, of many kinds of marriages.  Some boys and girls have two daddies or two mommies, but they definitely have people that love them even if it is not mainstream.   That does not matter much here. Here is daddy with the little one. 

Almost done with the little tour today, there were so many flowers on my way back home and I try to capture some of them, here are some Pansies or it's name in Spanish Pensamientos (thoughts)
So here are the cherries I promised you on the title.  As I was walking home I saw some of these delicious cherries and I got a bit over 225 grams, let's start getting metric, lol. Life sometimes gives us a plate of cherries instead of a bowl, so we have to enjoy what we have while we have it.  Thanks for stopping by.

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

New Earth Head & neck gear



This is what I was up to in the past two days, amazing how quickly you can knit something up.  The neckwarmer on the above picture, is my own pattern that you can find here for sale for $ 4.00 and it is great for a Father Day's gift. Just click on the Buy Now link below. This is the old pattern, the newest version is done with 3 buttons and let's you customize it for many sizes.




It was a challenge to do something from one of your favorite TV series.  Mine was Galactica and since I have been watching the Episode in which they find Earth , this is what  Earth Looked like to them, gray, black and radioactive.  My yarn is not radio active, it is my homespun, is Doctor Phlox , which I made a 4 ply and knitted this baby up in a day, less than a day actually.  The pattern is called the Armando Hat.

Here is my combo for the new Earth of the 13th Tribe.  The neckwarmer is another four ply spun very tight, I also added a 5th ply of kid mohair, because I thought it was too boring.  Before all this, the yarn was overdyed in gray and it has some beautiful hues of the color all around, darl gray you will notice, but gray indeed. Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, June 06, 2010

Mindful Washclothes

Mindful washcloths is  a good pattern to make washcloths. Garter stitch, rice stitch and basketweave.    More than that, I was trying to see the value of cotton chenille by making some of the with cotton chenille  You know or perhaps you don't chenille is the word for caterpillar in french and this yarn looks like it has thousands of little legs, like a butterfly caterpillar.  The yarn is very soft and not easy to crochet or knit with, but in the end I think if I made some towels, this will be a good choice of yarns.  The test will be when they wash.

The first  Washcloth is made of Alpaca Sky Cotton  has endured the washer and the dryer very nicely.
The green chenille above is a hand towel in the guests' bathroom, let's see how it holds when I wash it and dry.  The black I believe will be like a hot pad for a nice Geo Amethyst I have and it will also have to endure the test of washing and drying.

There is more to come this week, but this is it for today.  Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, June 04, 2010

Carlito Cardigan and Blues et reds

The color is richer than the picture, but not that far from it. Hi and welcome to the coloring book of Crafty Andy.  One of the things I enjoy a lot is dye yarn.  I used Jacquard Acid Dyes or 3 colors, Chery Red, Crimson and a dash or drop or two of blue food coloring along side a bit of brown  to deepen the color.  If I was going to repeat the process I would have kept a better record.  Honestly in my opinion you need a chemistry set, because I am dealing with grams and milliliters here.  Dyeing yarn is not something done in a hurry and it becomes an art in itself.  I am very pleased with the color red above, very much so.  I may say is Cylon Red.

The blue is a combination of Sky Blue 3 parts to 1 part Emerald Green  and 5 drops of neon blue food coloring. Vinegar is an essential part of wool dyeing along with heat and lots of patience.  The blues and the reds tend to bleed a lot, this fellow spent about 18 hours in a vinegar dye bath, of those 14 where with direct heat, low mind you and one hour of high heat at the end, before cooling down for two hours or so.


My next knitting project is the Carlito Cardigan, The Agathon Cardigan as I call it.  Don't like the name Carlito has bad memories in it, lol!.  This is a very interesting pattern, but the cables are not unique.  The uniqueness of this pattern comes from the fact that it is done on the bias and that is what is attractive to me. I hope we can chat some more during the weekend as I embark on the project.  I do have some other projects that are crochet, but I am waiting for a yarn  that is coming my way.  The Burgundy Red Crimson is the other yarn I will use for my next Tapestry Crochet Hat, thanks for stopping by.

Thursday, June 03, 2010

Blues and Reds

The blues are here I just wanted to test my new found knowledge with other colors and I got the blues.  This is called Sky Blue and it has some drops of neon blue food coloring, but not that much as far as I am concern.
The other hand dyed yarn is a combination of two colors present, reds and blues, the skein is very big about 8 ounces so it was a lot easier to make a choice of how to hand dyed.  It almost did not fit in the pot. lol.
 
So here it is and once the three skeins are dry, I will be posting a picture of the skein, re skeined as it takes a different color vibrations sort of.  Anyway thanks for stopping by!

Almost two years without blogging August 2020

Life can be a bowl of strawberries when cheries are not available.   It has been almost two years since I have been in this blog.  I have s...