Chain-Mail and knitting what could be a more perfect union.

Chain mail and knitting, what could be a more perfect union.

Gloves can be found on Etsy- purple/green slapjack
                                          Etsy- pink/purple slapjack

Distracting myself with another entrelac project

Wooooo!!!..... this one took about a year to complete but on a number 6 and at ten sts per section, takes 20 rows soooo thats 200 sts per section and there are 13 sections per row and 23 rows of sections. So 299 little rectangles with 200 sts each that clocks in at just shy of 60,000 sts.  Now that is over counting as far as just the inside area since im counting the edge triangles as full rectangles, but, the border had to then be knit and it expands on the 4 corners to keep shape, I dont know what the final cast off was but the cast on for going all the way around was 960.
Thats 20 sts per section edge and with 48 section edges exposed yep thats 960.

Soooo thats my news years finish up, before my master knitter finish up and all those other things...... lol

Octicraft is on the way to being a Master Knitter!

I recently found out about the knitting guild and master knitter program, i knew i had to find out more. The rules and regulations are simple but strict, perfection. Master Knitting Guild

After reading the blogs that showed up in the first few search pages and of course looking over the knitting guild website and ravelry pages, images of all the swatches in the basic level one of the three. I was easily thinking i would complete in in a few hours or a weekend. I have since changed my mind.

After knitting every swatch as a pre warmup something, i blocked and measured realizing ive got a few small things to work on. This is very helpful since they like progress, thats what this program is all about, finding YOUR weak points and pushing yourself to find the answers technique or whatever to being a Master Knitter. Soooo im officially starting and im starting slow, i have plenty of home time with my own office/workroom but again this is about personal improvement with tedium sprinkled all over.

  ONLY THE DETERMINED WILL SURVIVE!!

Anyways, so i started with swatch number one again. The first time i used a sz 6, but in attempt to make this easier on myself answering the questions on each swatch (in comparison to the label suggestions) i used a sz 8. Very quickly i noticed how loose it was between the knit to purl stitches and of course tighter when going from purl to knit. So ... i was going to have to overcome this and it happened to be one of the later questions about the first group of swatches.

Thus the Google search began.....

 I usually click on a bunch of random things to get me going, whatever comes up in the first few pages. Something will point you in the right direction. Common problem and i will just skip the details of the askew thing i knit trying different ways of tightening my rib-work, what finally worked at making a drastic improvement (other than working at getting comfortable with it) was to do a combination of eastern and western knitting.
 http://www.trulymyrtle.com/2012/02/ribbing-east-meets-west.html
Pictures to help!

 cast on-
row 1: knit western, knit western, purl eastern purl western, rep to end of row
row 2: knit western, knit eastern, purl eastern, purl western, rep to end of row
rep row 2 till end of project section.

if you dont top an eastern purl with a ws eastern knit the stitch gets all twisted. its very apparent when its on your needles and your actually going through the motions.

I found this way of doing a 2 x 2 rib very helpful, very fluid and easy to pick up the motions of. Next is the 1x1 rib, i will have to re-examine to see if i need apply the stitch combo to this as well.

Remember, bigger needles show your mistakes and short falls better, use this to show yourself where you can improve or have become lax in.

Knit armor for the lovable barbarian cont. (pattern secrets!)

Since my earlier post of some knit armor prototype i have kept working on how to make it a little more decorative and interesting. Finally this green and purple set was made just for the 13' fashion show of  Knit1oxford.  The scales of course were knit first then knit into the background base, the scales are a mix of a hand dyed wool and a wool and acrylic blend giving them a very interesting look and all are individual. the background is good ol' red heart black. the purple parts were some simply soft acrylic i had lying around, this i cabled and tried out increasing and decreasing the cabling both in size of cabled strands and in the number of strands cabled.

This red one was an earlier one that was made in all acrylic and the scales stood stiffly and nicely. Next time i think i will try all acrylic for the scales.

Woven two color gloves

This pair is done with elclatic knitting. Easy once started, it gives you this bulky snuggy setup. Make a set with a hat or matching leg Warmers and its a lil party already!

Knit Medical Mask Free Pattern

The story all started when i wanted a medical mask type pattern for knitters. I searched and looked and was very suprised to find that no one seems to have provided any kind of pattern for free. So of course i wrote my own and am provideing it for everyone as well as the actual knit thing for sale on PinkNightmareSquad.com . So in case of zombies or other plagues or maybe just a nice fitting mask to wear when you might be cleaning something gross or even in public to avoid talking to strangers, here is the pattern:

cast on 35
(i use the 'star' cast on, it creates the first two rows so you begin on a purl side, i keep this and knit so that the edge does not curl up)
on your 3rd 4th ish purl row (nothing needs to be super exact with this pattern) purl across leaving 9 sts on left hand needle.Turn.
knit across leaving the last 9 again, turn
purl leaving 11 turn
knit leaving 11 turn
purl leaving 13 turn
knit leaving 13 turn
purl leaving 15 turn
knit leaving 15, now knit the rest of the way across and start regular stocking stitch for about 9 to ten rows

on a purl row purl across leaving 5
knit leaving  5 turn
purl leaving 7 turn
knit leaving 7 turn
purl leaving 9 turn
knit leaving 9 turn
purl leaving 11 turn
knit leaving 11, knit across rem sts and purl across the back.

for my pattern i like to use a moss pattern for the next few rows to keep the edge from curling and i think it looks nice but leaving it flat works pretty much just the same. either way:

keep going for about 4 or 5 rows keeping your face size in mind and bind off.

for the ear loops

i pick up three sts on the edge and knit them or i-cord long enough to encircle your ear.

Life changes and words with sages.

So after moving from a bigger bustling city to a horribly small and rather stagnate town, working on getting internet and just getting the situation "Livable" I have found it more than rewarding doing fixer upper jobs from morning till dark (being someone who before didnt even have windows so it was always night time to me).
    We are hoping it will be a very productive place to be and we certainly will have space we never had before, in the next few months Octicraft will go from being solely knit to possibly having a much wider variety of product and the actual knits will be much more custom and impressive. No more random gloves and such. Nature will provide the inspiration and i certainly will have nothing else distracting me from my company other than the trees (and maybe a few tree houses that are just begging to be built. Hopefully pictures of something interesting soon. -princess Octiva.