Knerd Knitting

Ok, I'll admit it: I'm a nerd. My whole family is nerds. And not in the way that has come to include everything from music enthusiasts to old movie buffs to knitters. Those are geeks. We are nerds. Although you can be both, I'm not sure that I qualify as a geek.

My parents met doing a play together at a Science Fiction Convention. I grew up reading as much fantasy and science fiction books as I could get my hands on. My brother has a collection of Magic the Gathering cards that numbers in the thousands. And my husband spends his spare time making Pathfinder RPG characters for kicks and playing tabletop RPGs over the Internet (although that is a bit of a contradiction, I don't know a better way to describe it).

Now, obviously, I am also a devoted knitter. So it is always a pleasure to combine my knitting with my nerdy heritage.

Sometimes, this involves items to help with nerdy activities, and sometimes they are regular items that are decorated in nerdy ways. For the first type, I made a pair of dice bags a few years ago, mostly knit while doing all-day tabletop RPG marathons.

Two dice bags made in 2011

The basic pattern was extremely simple: make a rolled brim hat with two holes on the brim, then fold the brim over and sew it with a drawstring. (Maybe someday I should write up the pattern) When I made these I had already made a few for my college science fiction club raffle, but I don't have any pictures of those.

The first one in this picture has an intarsia boat on it, and is made out of cotton. I knit this while playing 7th Sea, a pirate themed RPG. Since that game uses exclusively 10-sided dice, that is what I keep in there.

The second one in the picture was made out of mostly wool scrap yarn, and has a duplicate stitch picture of a 20-sided die. It's not the best picture I have ever made, but I was pretty pleased with how it came out, given that I made the pattern myself. That's the bag I keep most of my dice in.

A 20-sided die. You can see the resemblance, at least.

I have also made a few bits of clothing here and there that were decorated in nerdy ways. I have showed you the astronomy hat that I made for my husband, and also I briefly mentioned the Jayne Hat that I made for him, as well.

Jayne Hat

If you didn't know, on the show Firefly (of which my husband is a huge fan), a character named Jayne wore a hat like this for a single episode. It was a bit of joke, because he was such a tough-guy character, but he insisted on wearing this ugly, poorly-designed hat because his mom sent it to him. Anyway, because so few episodes were made, fans tend to focus on the tiniest details, and someone wrote a pattern for it. It made a perfect birthday present. I guess it sort of straddles the line between costume and nerd-themed couture, but my husband wears it all the time.

You may be wondering what brought this topic to mind. Well, although I haven't been writing much, I have been furiously knitting away. One of the projects I finished this past month was a pokemon-themed scarf for my brother.

We used to watch the Pokemon show together growing up, and he played the games and collected the cards (I'm not much of a gamer, though). His girlfriend is also a fan, and her birthday was coming up, so he commissioned a scarf that would be reminiscent of her favorite Pokemon, polywhirl:

Well, I started by making two black and white spirals, adapted from Frankie Brown's Double Ten Stitch blanket. Then I added a blue border. This involved a lot of going back and forth (the "rows" were only 8 stitches, 4 white and 4 black), as well as many short-rows for the corners.

Finishing up the first spiral with a band of blue

The black and the white parts were knitted from random scraps of worsted-weight wool that I have been collecting over the years, mostly for making penguin slipper-socks.

The blue, though, was some of the first yarn I ever got. It is from Columbia-Minerva (a company I don't think even exists anymore) and I got it from my mother. She doesn't knit, but she used to crochet. When I was 8 and started to show an interest in knitting, mom went up into the attic and gave me the blue yarn that she had gotten to make a vest with when she still had time to crochet. I had used most of it over the years, but I finally used up most of the last ball making this scarf. The one problem was that, because it had been sitting wound up in the ball so long under tension, it had snapped in parts, so there was a lot of weaving in ends for this project.

Let that be a lesson: long-term storage should be in the skein, or in a loosely wrapped ball.

After I finished the spirals, I knit a plain old blue garter-stitch scarf (I had a short deadline to finish it) and joined the two sides with kitchener stitch.

Polywhirl scarf. Folded a bit in the middle to make it fit in the photo.

I like how the slightly thicker black and white yarn gave the scarf bulging ends. And it does sort of remind me of polywhirl. I wish I had a picture of the recipient wearing it, but all I have is this shot of it folded up and ready to be sent out:

Scarf folded up and ready to gift

Neck Warmer etc.

Whew! End of July already? Where did the time go?

Mostly into commuting. I am literally spending 3 hours a day on the train and bus.

It has been good for my knitting, because it is nice and portable, but I have been a bit behind on my spinning. It's not easy to carry your lazy Kate around with you! That said, I am pretty close to finishing my fluffy cotton-candy yarn. The three singles are ready to be plied, sitting on my lazy kate; sitting on my bookshelf so they come down from over my shoulder while I spin.

Had to push some books out of the way to put it up there, though.

I was expecting a lace-weight yarn, but it looks like it is going to be sport-weight. I still don't know how the plied yarn really looks. I am getting a sense, but I am looking forward to seeing it on the niddy-noddy.

Three-plies, on the spindle

I am also working on the beach skirt: it is almost done, and I promise there will be a post all about it when I am finished.

I have a quick update on another project though. Back in November, I made a hat using brioche stitch. I mentioned in my project update that I was starting a matching scarf to use up the yarn. So, did any of you wonder what happened with it? (of course not, I am talking to myself)

Well, I put it in my project bag, then someone cleaned the apartment and stuck the project bag in with my yarn stash. Since that room eats things, I didn't even think of it again until last week.

I was filling out the forms to submit a few projects to the Maryland State Fair again this year. I wanted to submit my brioche hat, but I know that hats are going to be a very crowded contest. So, looking over other categories I could submit to, I noticed that there is one for a hat/scarf set. Perfect! Now, where did I put that scarf...

Anyway, I finished the scarf. But I kind of ran out of yarn. So it is not really a scarf. I'm calling it a neck warmer, and hope the judges won't be too picky about it.

Hat and neck warmer set

The one thing that I wish I did differently, is that if I knew it was going to be a neck warmer, I would have done a provisional cast on, so that I could connect the two ends seamlessly, instead of having a somewhat messy seam.

Neck warmer with seam. Can you spot it?

Anyhow, even if the judges aren't fans, I know the hat is super-duper warm, and I bet the second part of the set will be just as nice when winter hits.

One more view of the warmer:

What a twist!

Wingspan Shawl

Finals done! Whoot!

Surprisingly, I actually got a lot of knitting done, though my spinning has been mostly on hiatus.

The end of the semester means a lot of presentations to sit through (no need for notes), not too mention our trip to Boston (which included an unscheduled 3 hour wait for our plane to arrive). It also helped that the Wingspan scarf was very intuitive, and consisted of nothing but knit stitches.

In other words, I have almost finished the scarf I was working on. I just need to block it, really.

Gradient Wingspan scarf. Not yet blocked.

I like how the gradient worked out, although the light green is a bit neon in my opinion. The short rows were really easy, and I can see why the pattern is so popular.

The edging was done with some black sparkly acrylic yarn that I have had sitting around. I think it was a gift, and I don't know the brand or anything, but I do have a lot of it. I wanted to use regular black yarn, but I didn't have any fingering weight black, and I refuse to buy more yarn for such a small project bit. I think the intended recipient will like it though.

Mystery sparkly black yarn

I like how the yarn looks, and I made a whole series of gloves with it awhile ago. But the plastic sparkles hurt my fingers when I knit with it, and I really prefer natural fibers.

Fingerless gloves from almost a decade ago

Anyhow, not much else to report. Progress on the linen hat continues. I will have some more time now, since the semester finished, so I can hopefully finish everything before the 20th. Sometimes it is nice to work with a deadline.

Presents for the Holidays

Although I don't celebrate Christmas myself, I do have relatives who do. As such, the season is an excellent excuse to give myself a deadline and make some presents. I am working on just two this year.

First, a hat (of course).

I have been working on this project off and on for almost a year, but, since I told my uncle last December that I would send it to him, I figure it would make a good Christmas present.

He is allergic to wool, so I figured that I would use the linen yarn that I bought on a whim a few years ago. I had never worked with linen before, and it is a bit like cotton. However, even more than cotton, it does not stretch. At all.

All mistakes are much more obvious, although I haven't had any problems with muscle pains after knitting it that I have heard can be an issue. It also falls off the needles all of the time (I am knitting the project on double-pointed needles). After trying it, I think that linen is definitely better on the loom, but I also recommend trying it at least once, if only to better appreciate the loveliness of wool.

So, the pattern.

I am making a mosaic pattern, which is a color pattern that uses slipped stitches. The pattern is based loosely on the Amazing Hat by Melanie Hoffman. However, I have added an extra twist, by using three different colors, instead of two.

Amazing Hat

The linen is having an interesting effect with this kind of pattern as well. Wool or acrylic would stretch and make a mostly flat material. But the linen is making an interesting three-dimensional effect.

I hope I can finish this one in time. It doesn't travel well.

The second gift is a simpler pattern, but I spun the yarn on the wheel.

Last post I mentioned the gradient wool-silk blend that I was spinning on my castle wheel. Well, I finished the yarn, although the leather connecting the footman to the treadle broke, so it was finished on the other wheel. It also bled blue dye when I did the wet finish, but it doesn't look like it effected the color that much.

Loving the colors

I am making the Wingspan shawl. So far, the pattern is very easy, and great for knitting in class. This is my first time knitting with an unplied handspun, and I am worried that the fabric will bias. It shouldn't matter with this pattern though.

Still loving the colors

Hope they will both be enjoyed!