Calorimetry Headscarf

i actually saw the pattern for this headscarf a year ago. I thought it was gorgeous but i just couldn't figure out how it was done. at the time, i hadn't done short rows before and i had no clue how to transfer a pattern from needles to loom. flash forward a year, and one of the ladies on the DALooms list on Yahoo brings it up again. when i went back to look at it again, with a more experienced looming eye, i thought, "ah ha! now i get it!" so i went to work yesterday and made one!
first off, let me say, i wasn't certain it would come out right, so i didn't want to use any of my favorite yarns. recently my friend gave me like 6 or 8 of those Caron One Pound skeins of yarn. that's a lot of yarn! and two of them were in this purply reddish color that i didn't particularly care for. so i wound up a bit on my ball winder (i'll write a little more in another post why i like to do this) and went to work.
now, ya'll know me. i NEVER do a swatch test. never. so, that being said, i wasn't sure if i should use my green or yellow knifty knitter loom. the scarf looks like it calls for a smaller gauge loom, but this was just a test pattern and i wanted it to knit up quick. but then i realized my green loom is still occupied with the baby blanket for my friend (who had her baby a few weeks ago! oh well. at least she got the mittens, bib, and mitts in time!) so i went with the yellow loom, but that would make the scarf too big, so i decided to omit a few pegs. i ended up using 30 pegs of the yellow loom. the pattern calls for a knit 2 purl 2 ribbing, so i marked off the knit pegs with small elastics. then i wrapped a piece of scrap yarn around the middle ten pegs that i wasn't gonna work for the short rows and went to work.
it took me over five hours, but that's only because i was watching TV more than i was knitting. and then i stopped for an hour or so to make dinner for me and my boyfriend. i think if i worked straight through, i could probably finish it in under two hours. i'm not a fast knitter, i'm sure a more experience person could do it in about an hour.

of course, because i didn't swatch, it was too small!!!!!! OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

but it actually came out pretty good! the seam where the short rows are is a little funky. i'm not quite sure why. i'll probably just knit a strap or something to connect the back and add a button. i'm actually starting to like the one i made and i would consider wearing it, but it clashes horribly with my hair. but after making this one, i have ideas of how to make other ones with different stitches and yarns so i can wear them now in the summer. i think for the next one i'm gonna go with e-wraps and purls so the knitting is a little looser and airier and maybe i'll try and all e-wrap one or one with eyelets! maybe next time i'll use one strand of yarn instead of two! the ideas are endless. i'm probably gonna do another one tomorrow. we'll see how that one turns out!

here are the pics! this is the front of it. i didn't weave in the ends yet. there actually isn't that much weaving to do, which is a definate plus for me!!!


here's the back. looks pretty much the same as the front.


and here it is on my head. i had to hold the two back ends together with my hands, but you get the idea of how its suppose to look.

Sore Fingers

looming hurts! when i'm sitting on the couch for hours and hours on end, my butt and back get really sore. I usually lay the loom against my belly or sit it on my thigh and as i turn the loom around as i knit on it, it rubs against me and it makes my belly or thigh sore.

and my fingers! when i loom a lot, my fingers get irritated from rubbing up against the loom for hours. i tend to keep my pinkie finger tucked up under my hand so it's constantly rubbing against the loom as i knit. and the loom pick tends to rest on my middle a lot and that gets irritating after a while. so, whats my solution? electrical tape!!! i've found that electrical tape works the best out of all the tapes. its soft and flexible and it moves with you. i tried duct tape, masking tape, scotch tape. none of them worked. so now, when i know i'm going to put in a few hours of looming, i bust out with the roll of electrical tape. its actually in the little storage cubbies with the rest of my looming supplies!

here are a few pics of how i wrap up my fingers. you can actually see the little roll of electrical tape in the backround!! LOL! as different fingers get sore, i just cut a piece and wrap them up.

My First Blog Award!!!

well, i was awarded my first blog award!



The Kreativ Blogger Award!!!!

this was awarded to me by Helen, aka "myheartexposed" owner and moderator of the Knifty Knitter Loom Knitting Group on Yahoo. it's a great group and i suggest any loom knitter check it out!

helen said: "I am giving this award to Lilly because I admire the way she is not afraid to share her mistakes, ask for help then celebrate with everyone when she fixes them. Her loom knitting and loom knitting videos are very inspiring, her hair blog is just ace so well written and funny at times too. Caring for an afro is not an easy job to do but Lilly manages to come up with lots of creative ways to do just that, for this reason I feel her hair blog deserved a special mention and the award too."

thank you soooo much helen! this means a lot to me!

The rules of the "KreativBlogger Award" are to list seven things I love and then pass it on to another seven KreativBloggers. so here's my list!!

1. UNICORNS!!!! i'm ga-ga over them! i have two tattoos of unicorns on my forearms and countless figurines, statues, posters, and various wall mounts of them! i bought this $300 Waterford Crystal figurine of a unicorn. too beautiful

2. reading, mostly sci-fi fantasy and romance

3. sleeping. i can knock out 12 hours easy!

4. my locs

5.my sister Tasha, who also my very best friend. and my boyfriend Sean

6. my car, a 2007 toyota yaris liftback in bright red! i always wanted a red car, and i finally got it two years ago, brand new, off the lot with 6 miles on it!!

7. brown and gray. its my favorite colors for clothing, as boring as that sounds!


so, on to my nominations!

1. i'm gonna cheat a bit and nominate my sister. she doesn't have a written blog, but a youtube channel, Goldpurse. she has an afro the size of the sun and she shares tips and trick she uses with her natural hair. and she encourages all the sistas to embrace their natural nappy hair!

2. my friend emily and her Great Expectations blog. emily's blog just underwent a new CUSTOM look! she got me all jealous! and she's been blogging faithfully since she was preagnant with her first child, which i find VERY commendable, since i go for months between posts sometimes!

3. Robin at Rockin' The Loom. Robin is a member of many of the loom groups i frequent and she's also the teacher of the loom knitting newbies classroom. Robin is one of the only people who gave me the courage to attempt cables on a loom thanks to her 26 page tutorial!!! and thats a pretty BIG feat!! LOL!

4.isela phelps aka Purling Sprite. the mother of loom knitting tuturials. we would be lost without you!!!

5.miss kumina and her hair blog. i love her spirit and the fun way she writes! and she's recently ventured out into the youtube world, too!

6.ms. ofoprince and her loc blog over at pizco. she also has a blogger blog, too. she is a wealth of information!!!!

7. and finally, another cheat, to Supreme Dejhan, another youtuber. this woman had shared her journey of the road from meat eater, to vegatarian, to vegan. her vlogs are so personable and i really feel like i'm watching a close friend or family member when i follow her posts.

No Scratch Mitts

so i threw together some no scratch mitts to go with the inside out socks. it wasn't too bad. i only had to frog once when i decided i didn't like the brim. at first i e-wrapped the cuff, cause i wanted it to be fluffier than the body, but it was just too loose! i had gotten as far as the eyelets and the first couple of rows of the body. so i just ripped that out and did the cuff over using the purl stitch. it matches the booties better that way, too. i was going to do a i-cord in the same color as the mitt, but i thought it would blend too much, so i did it in the mint green color i had. i think it came out pretty swell! sorry about the quality of the pics, i had to use my phone again. i keep on forgetting to charge the battery on my camera!

here a pic of the front of one mitt and the back of the other so you can see how the i-cord is woven through


here a pic of both mitts from the front


and here are the mitts with the booties

Bib and bootie set

my friend, who i'm making the brown and green blanket for, well, her baby shower is this Sunday! there's not way i'm gonna have that blanket done in time! so i decided to put together a few small things instead. i really don't have the money right now to but her stuff, on account of being laid off and all!

i still had those yellow inside out booties from before. i'm gonna make a pair on no-scratch mitts to go with it. so i had some cantaloupe colored fleece yarn i got from a friend. i made another pair of booties from that. i decided to try my hand at making a bib, too. i couldn't find any loom patters, so i decided to wing it. but one of the things i discovered in my bib pattern search was that bibs need to be made our of cotton (to absorb moisture) or super washed wool (to repel moisture). i had some wool yarn, but it was the thick, super bulky kind. i doubt she would want a heavy wool bib for her summer baby. but, coincidentally, i had just bought some recycled cotton yard from a woman on Etsy and it just happened to be the same cantaloupe color as the fleece yarn!!!! talk about providence!

this was my first time working with cotton. it was a learning process, let me tell you! i used my fine gauge mini wonderloom. i tried the flat knit stitch. no way. it was way too tight. so then i tried to purl. that was a bit tight too, but it worked. but i ended up flipping the bib over and making the front the knit side. it has a garter stitch boarder. it looks kinda sloppy, but what are you gonna do? here are a few pics of it one the loom.




i sort of made the top up as i went along. of course i didn't take notes, so the sides aren't perfectly symmetrical, but i like it. one one side, i tried to make the ties sorta curve back inwards, but i just ended up making a mess of stitches. not something i think my friend will notice too much, but i see it! oh well. all in all, for my first try, i'm very satisfied.

i might try to squeeze in another hat or two to round it off. we'll see.

here are a couple of pics of the bib and bootie set. i tried different filters on my camera phone to capture the true color.

Blanket Progress

i've been working off and on on the brown and green blanket for my friend. i was working on the brown panel and eye balling the length compared to the green panel. it kept on coming up short. finally, i was just tired of doing the same stitch over and over for days and i decided to start the seaming while the brown panel was still on the loom. turns out, the brown panel was waaaaaaaay longer than the green, like over 40 rows longer!! so i sat for an hour or so and tinked the stitches, but i was getting nowhere. so i decided to just grab a section a couple of inches down and force those stitches back on the loom. i knew i wasn't going to get the right loop back on, but i figured it was worth a try. it was incredibly hard! for starters, the panel is flat knit stitched. so trying to stretch that panel back out to fit on the loops was a B&*$H!!!! pardon my french. and then, as i started to unravel the stitches, i realized that i put the other stitches back on totally lopsided! so i ended up having to unravel a few, and then tink 20, next row unravel a few, tink 19. it took FOREVER!!!! in the end there's a weird looking row and you can clearly see a mistake, but i really don't care anymore! i did it! i actually ended up unraveling too much and i had to knit another 13 rows or so.

the seaming was a bit problematic, but not too bad. first i tried the i-cord seam from the GettinItPegged site, but that was totally not working! it looked nothing like Bethany's work. then i tried to crochet them together. i know almost nothing about crocheting other than how to do a chain, but i figured it would be like doing a chain through two stitches. that was a no go. so i just decided to mattress seam them together. but i think i missed the first stitch cause i didn't do a slipped stitch edge, but its okay. the seam looks very neat, so i'm happy with it.

here are some pics of the blanket so far. here's the width. the sides curl cause its all knit stitched. i'm gonna make the outside panels have a garter stitch boarder.




here's the length



and here's a pic of the seaming


like i said, i'm doing the outer panels in a garter stitch. i'm also doing them on the green loom instead of the blue one. the stitches are a little wider, but thats okay.

A Good Thing? Not Really.

So, I am officially a victim of the economy. I lost my job. I work for a non-profit and they're closing my program and three others. So I have approx 60 days until we close. The only good thing (but not really) is that I'll have tons more time for my looming! I have more than enough yarn to get me through this! I can finally do all those little projects that I put on hold. My plan is to relax and take the whole summer off. And maybe I'll sell some of my stuff on Etsy or Ebay or something like that. My focus would probably be on things for loc wearers, like hats, tams, and more loc jewelry pieces and matching earrings. I'm probably going to take the plunge and buy some more expensive yarns like silk and silk blends, since that's better for your hair. I'll make other things, too. Maybe some skinny scarves or things like that. I also have this pattern for toddler leggins that I've been wanting to do, as well. As long as I get my unemployment checks on time (cause I heard there's a two month hold-up in Massachusetts!) I should have a pleasant summer. I'm not expecting too much on the Etsy front, though. I've heard its hard for many people to make money on it cause it really depends on your marketing skills and how well you market yourself. And I have virtually no skills in that department. I mean, I have my Youtube subscribers. And the 5 or so people who follow my hair blog. That's not much! LOL! I mean, I'm not trying to make my living off of this (although in my heart of hearts, that would be my dream!!!!), just trying to fill the gap from my normal pay to what I'm going to be receiving from unemployment. I don't know. My carpel tunnel could flare up and I might not get anything done. We'll see.