Spinalcat's Crafty Adventures

Handmade Ornament , originally uploaded by Buxtrosion . Halloween is my favorite holiday because I really can't get enough black cats and bats, but the winter holidays have some charm too. Especially shiny sparkly things with stars. My husband's Aunt Brenda, an avid beader, made this ornament thingie for us. My husband says the stars remind him of Super Mario. I used it as an opportunity to mess around with my new macro lens. 100mm f/2.8! Whoo-hoo!!

Broad Street Mittens , originally uploaded by Buxtrosion . I finished Bryan's Broad Street Mittens just in time for X-más.  I've been corrected- the boyhood Lego sets with the similar color scheme in fact belonged to the 92-93 Space Police II series. The pattern didn't give me as much trouble as I feared.  I wouldn't recommend it to beginners, though, as it's not very detailed about the construction.  I plan on posting some labeled photos to show how the parts all fit together in the final product.   My only real modification was to stop the thumb decreases and thread the tail through the remaining stitches when 10 or 11 stitches were left.  Otherwise, I ended up with a really pointy thumb! The other big clarification is that "K3, INC 1" in the cuff increases means K3, KFB (or whatever you choose), and not K3, M1. I believe I ended up with too many stitches after following the directions for the last round of the mitten flap, but I just did one more decre...

Picture 103 , originally uploaded by Buxtrosion .

Great, now I've got 12 Days of Xmas stuck in my head. All I'm missing is something in threes. (And 12-6.) Despite thinking I wouldn't do holiday knitting this year, I've ended up with quite the pile of FOs. I decided to simplify by making a whole bunch of Ball Band Dishcloths. They're super easy, look nifty, and are cheap. Ravelry details I picked up some Euroflax from Purlescence and whipped up some washcloths. At first I was going to copy some hemp washcloths I saw at Whole Foods. They were loose stockinette with an eyelet border on all 4 sides. I tried recreating that effect with the Euroflax and it just looked like ass. I did a little Ravelry research and found the Eight Linen Washcloths patterns, which proved what Euroflax is capable of with a little coaxing. Being very lazy, I put together my own lace washcloths by picking lace patterns out of the 1st Barbara Walker Treasury that only had a few pattern rows. I ended up with Vine Lace, Crest of t...

This is mostly for the benefit of my family (and for myself to keep track of things). Amazon wishlist can be found by clicking the button over there ------> That includes the camera equipment that is probably what I want the most. Other stuff I'd like to have someday: Hand cards for wool , and for cotton/exotics . I haven't done much fiber prep so far, and I'd really like to learn woolen spinning. It seems a little harder to find commercially prepared rolags than top. More double-drive bobbins for my Traveler. Cute WPI tool and WPI comparison card . The following items can be found here . Hi speed kit for Ashford double drive wheels. Ashford precision lazy kate. Lace flyer kit for Ashford Traveler double drive wheels. Apparently this has been discontinued. The Woolery doesn't have it, but many e-tailers still have it on their sites (not to order online, though). Anyway, it's rather expensive and I'm not sure it's worth it. I can stick with the much...

Ballband dishcloth in Country Side and Sage Green Sugar n' Cream. I've been wanting to knit this pattern for a long time, but never got around to it. Now I've decided to simplify holiday presents this year by making washcloths or dishcloths for just about everyone. And the pattern (from Mason Dixon Knitting) is free online now! I'm using a size 7 needle, which is what usually goes well with worsted weight yarn for me, but the fabric seems a tad loose. I'm thinking that may actually be a good thing? It won't be really hard and scrubby, but I think it would make it better for drying. Ravelry details here .

Pinwheel Blanket from this free pattern . 5.5 skeins of Cascade Luna (100% cotton). I love this yarn! I thought I hated unmercerized cotton, but I just hate cheap unmercerized coton! (The Ballband Dishcloth Pattern is cute enough to compensate, thankfully.) I've been wanting to knit the pinwheel pattern for a long time. It's so fast and easy! This is one of those "duh" patterns that looks so neat but is amazingly simple. I didn't bother with a fancy circular cast on. I just did a regular long tail cast on and joined as usual. I used about 6 rows of seed stitch as a border, and bound off in pattern. It's probably about 33" across. It's going to be a doggie blanket (and a holiday gift) since there aren't any babies in the family. Ravelry details here . Azalea Doily (centerpiece version) from Marianne Kinzel's First Book of Modern Lace Knitting. It looks a lot better on flickr, so please click through. I blocked it a few days ago. L...