DenKnits 4.2 FINISHING

This month we talk about FINISHING!  I'll show you some of my recent finished objects; my favorite bind off; weaving in ends; soaking and blocking your finished items; adding buttons; and what do YOU do with all the finished things?

You can find me on Ravelry and Instagram as denmoma; join the group on Ravelry and Facebook, just search DenKnits; or subscribe to the YouTube channel.  My Etsy store is at etsy.com/shop/DenKnits

More shop updates!

Another four listings have been added today, all neckwear.

One cowl, the Owl Cowl, which is a nice shade of brown. It can also be worn as a ponytail hat.

A purple and orange scarf; it has 'hairs' of purple spiking out amongst the orange suede. Very fun!

Shades of pink in fluffy ruffles makes up another fun scarf. It is long enough to wrap 2-3 times around your neck.

The last listing contains two color choices for the same scarf. Ice, which is light blue, and Sweetheart, which is light pink, are fluffy and warm!

Go to DenKnits on Etsy to see it all.

Busy, busy, busy...

I've managed to finish the two requested items I discussed last time plus one other request!

First up, the brightly colored fingerless mitts with a matching hat:

Next I did the large mittens with a Breast Cancer Awareness ribbon stitched on:

The purple cabled slouchy hat was envied so another one in gray was knit up for another requester:

As far as personal knitting goes, the colorful fingerless mitts were also envied so I made up a second pair for my daughter.  Then I started on a second sweater for myself with some yarn I got for a great deal from DBNY.  At this point, the sweater still needs one sleeve to be finished.  I think the pattern turned out really nice and will be the perfect size once blocked a little.  Can't wait to get back to it and finish it up!  In the meantime I needed something smaller that I could take with me places, so I started up a simple shawl with some fancy yarn.  It is slowly progressing as I don't work on it except when I have free time outside the house.

As if a sweater on the needles wasn't enough, I decided to cast on for my living room afghan!  Ordered Brava yarn from Knit Picks in two shades of green and a brown and when it got here I just had to start...  I knew I wanted to do a zig zag looking pattern, kind of old school but a little Missoni.  I found a pattern on the Lion Brand website that had the stitch pattern to give me the zig zags and then I created my own sequencing of colors to get the Missoni look.  I got to about 8 color changes before I realized that after 4 color changes I had dropped one of the first stitches at a color change (before I'd tied the two ends together) so I had to frog back all that way... I haven't had a chance to get back to that because I got in two more requests this week!

First up was two items, a pair of short fingerless mitts in a gray color and a slouchy hat similar to the gray one above, but in a creamy off white.  It just so happened I had been developing a pattern for a cabled hat with ribs so I was able to perfect that and have it sold already.  I decided to go with a simple twisted stitch rib on the mitts and wrote a pattern for those as I went.  I realized after finishing the second mitt that they should really have a variation for left and right hands so I corrected that in the written pattern and ended up with two pairs!  I'll be able to post the second set in my Etsy shop, so no loss to me :-)  These items are finished and drying as we speak.

My next order is waiting for me to finish this to be cast on... another set of fingerless mitts (these must be really popular!) in black.  They are requested to be short, simple, and with individual fingers.  That will be a first for me, but I've been wanting to try for a long time so I'm looking forward to it.

And with that... I'm off to cast those on!

Hats, mittens, hats, purses, a scarf, and custom order hats

After finishing the striped blues hat (which ended up looking too cute on my daughter), I still had hats on my mind, but I also had the single mitten waiting for it's future to be determined.  I did a test drive in the mitten and decided it was definitely too big and would have to be frogged.  I'm glad I did because I now have a pair of mittens that fit and are snugly warm!

With that off my mind and a half skein of yarn leftover, I decided to knit up a quick ribbed hat.  The Lion Brand Yarn Homespun is so versatile!  I've made hats, scarves, wristers, mittens and wraps out of it and they all look fabulous.

One of my thrift store yarns finds was a large amount of a crazy mix of red, black, and gray.  I had used some for a ski mask style hat for my son so I knew it made great hats.  This one has ribbing around the brim and then knit the rest of the way around.  My crown decreases were done to create a bit of a puff on the hat, so it's not exactly a beanie.

The marbled grays cabled purse was completed without further incident.  It's turned out to be a bigger purse with a handle that will easily fit over the shoulder.  The yarn was not as "stiff" as my previous purse yarn, but it gives it a more hobo bag look.

With one purse finished I was ready to do the next... this one using LBY Wool-Ease Thick and Quick.  This was my first time using this yarn and I loved it!  It was surprisingly soft and it was the thicker, stiffer yarn I was looking for in a purse yarn.  The finished product is a cute cabled handbag, perfect for grabbing only your essentials and going or teens/pre-teens who don't have to carry everything under the sun in their purse!

Since I completed the purses I had in mind, I decided to get back to hats.  I still had some LBY Homespun leftover after the mittens and the hat, but not quite enough for another hat on it's own.  Turns out I had more LBY Homespun in a complementary colorway so I put them together in a striped hat.  I made the crown a little longer for extra head room.

Sitting in my stash for too long, I decided I had to find a good project for the sparkly yarn I'd picked up from DBNY.  It is a medium weight yarn with sequins mixed in.  I really felt something lacy was in order but hadn't found something that caught my eye yet.  Off the cuff I decided to try a ruffle look on the ends.  So I cast on 3-4 times more stitches than I really wanted the scarf to be wide and then did quick decreases down to the right width.  From there I settled on a simple yo, K2tog lace look.  This scarf is still on the needles and starting to curl a bit which I think is giving it another intriguing design element.

The aforementioned scarf is still on the needles and moving slower now that I have some hat orders.  I'd previously knit a versatile cowl/head warmer for her, similar to the one in my Etsy shop.  She wanted to get a few hats to keep her head warm but not get overheated.  After looking at some knit hats online, we collaborated to come up with two ideas to get me started.  The first hat is out of a lovely lavender lace or fingering weight yarn.  It's started with a lace pattern, that gives the edge a scalloped look, and finished with stockinette.  The second hat will be out of the red, black and grey yarn with cables and lace.

Phew... I've done a lot of knitting over the past couple of weeks!  A whooping 10 projects completed, on the needles or almost on the needles :-)  Next up is getting good pics of everything and updating the Etsy shop again!

New Knits

I have decided to start putting all my knitting talk here as opposed to the "Knitting on the Road" blog for just personal things, because I'm no longer "on the Road" for work :-)  So... here is one of my recent personal knits:

 I had two small skeins of shades of purples yarn bought from a lovely Etsy shop, http://www.etsy.com/shop/syrendell.  I had been contemplating what to do with the yarn in shades I loved when I was finally struck with knit-spiration, use both for a striped hat!  It was fairly simple and I really loved the striping technique.  I hadn't done my own striping before and it really kept my interest.  It totally rocks and matches my favorite sweatshirt in a charming way :-)

I also had the opportunity to do a special request recently... a llama ear flap hat!  Wow... it is really hard to figure out how to make yarn look like a llama!  The snout/nose area was the trick part for me... I finally tried a sock heel technique and it worked!  I will post pictures later or on my facebook fan page for sure.

I've gotten a couple of cowls done that need to be photographed for sale on etsy and I'm working on another.  All my recent yarn purchases have been small amounts so cowls work great...  I would like to do more hats though because they are about the same amount of time and there seem to be a lot of cowls going on :-)

Well, back to my cushy white cowl!

Special Requests

I've done a couple special request knits recently and they aren't posted on Etsy.  I'm always open to try something new or even a variation on something already in the shop.  There are also some things that I've done before but just haven't listed in the shop.

My first request was a dishtowel set.  The main component is a hand towel with a flap that can be looped around a fridge or drawer handle and buttoned on.  That was accompanied by two matching dish towels.

Next up was a couple of variations on shop items.  The across the body purse in the shop was knit in a gray yarn, the special request was for the purse to be black.  This actually was perfect because I happened to have the same yarn in charcoal!  The cozy cowl was also wanted, but in red.  I was able to purchase the same yarn in red online and am currently waiting for it to arrive to complete the request.

Special requests are fun to do because it's exactly what the person wants, not just close enough.  Even if it's just a color change, I'm happy to comply!

My First Etsy Sale!

My first Etsy sale was exactly what I thought would sell fastest!  The black cabled purse with handles handmade by my dad was sold in less than a month from posting.  I was able to get it to the buyer in less than a week and she was happy with it based on my feedback.  That is certainly the push one needs to feel it's worthwhile to keep plugging along.  So, today I listed another bag I made.  It's not the same style, but it's a cute little thing in it's own right.

I did have a sale (to my mom) off Etsy as well.  She requested Breast Cancer Awareness dishcloth items as a gift to a fellow survivor, who liked them very much.  Of course, I didn't think of making more "pink" items for the month of October until now, which is likely too late.  Maybe next year...

While I was a bit more busy with "real" work over the past couple weeks, I've been able to keep knitting a bit and hope to have lots more to list real soon.

What's happening?

I've been busy knitting and listing on a fairly regular basis... I have gotten almost all of my finished cloths listed as well as the green cowl.  I still have a cloth trio set to photograph which has proven to be one of my biggest challenges.

Currently on the needles are two projects and both are very close to being complete!  I have another up-cycled item, made from a heavy thermal shirt.  I'm not sure at this point if it will be another long cowl or perhaps just a scarf.  It feels like it will definitely be cozy either way!  My other item is the purse I've been struggling with for a bit.  My first attempt was done up with needles a little too big for the yarn and a pattern that was a little too complicated for the size of the bag.  I simplified the pattern and switched to smaller needles and am loving the result!  I plan to make a strap long enough so the purse can be worn across the chest.  It should be great for holding all your must-haves like a cell phone, wallet, and keys, along with a some other small items such as travel tissues or a pill case.

Let's go on a ride!

The thought of having your own shop is a dream for many.  It used to be a lot of planning, sweat and tears that went in before a shop was opened.  In this age, with all that is at our fingertips, being able to sell items is getting easier and easier.  Does that mean everyone should just jump in and give it a shot?

I attended an Etsy Virtual Lab today and learned a lot, then again, I can learn a lot every time I go into the shop owner area of Etsy.  Anyway, the speaker, CraftyChica, made a comment that has really stuck with me.  I can't quote her exactly, but it was to the effect of, it's hard to actually be perfect and if you are, you might be kind of boring.  I can really relate to this because I get so excited about an opportunity like this that I don't spend as much time researching ahead of time as I probably should.

Sometimes I do feel like the person who just dove in, but deep down I know I have given this thought, research and some trial and error.  There is so much to learn that I don't think I would ever take the big step if I felt I had to be perfect at it.

So, while the result may be a less than perfect start, it is an interesting ride, and we will surely learn something along the way!