Friday, February 25, 2011

Prosze panstwa, oto mis.../Pablo The Bear

















Here is a little bear I made for my little DD. His name is Pablo (I have no idea why we called him that - he just looked like a Pablo to us) and you can find a free pattern for him on the allaboutyou website.  He's a quick, little project -  he only took me four days of sporadic knitting to make, he's about 7" tall and the most fiddly part was sewing up and assembly. I also decided to make him in stockinette stitch - I wasn't a big fan of the bumpy texture for this specific bear.
The yarn I used is Bernat Mosaic. It comes in several interesting colourways (I used Spectrum), and in this respect it's very much like Noro yarns, but without the cost and the scratchy texture. It is actually quite soft. The only problem I had with it is that at times, the strand of yarn (it is single ply) was so weak, it just broke apart/disintegrated during regular knitting - no excessive tugging or tension, just plain, old knitting. It also tends to pill, but that's the nature of the beast. So, that is that. On to the next project I go.  Have a wonderful day.









...dla mojej coreczki. Nazwalysmy go Pablo (nie wiem dlaczego - jakos tak wygladal na Pablo). Zrobilam go wedlug opisu tutaj (po angielsku). Zajal tylko cztery dni sporadycznego dziergania, ma okolo 18cm wzrostu i najbardziej zmudna czesc roboty stanowilo szycie i konstrukcja.  Wloczka, ktora uzylam, to Bernat Mosaic. Bardzo podobna w charakterze do slawnej Noro Kureyon, ale poniewaz jest z akrylu, kosztuje o wiele mniej i jest o wiele mieksza. Jedyny problem to to, ze miejscami wloczka byla tak slabo skrecona, ze po prostu rozpadla/urwala sie podczas normalnego dziergania (nie bylo tu mowy o jakims napinaniu lub ciagnieciu). Szkoda.
Wszystkim dziekuje za odwiedziny i zycze slicznego dnia.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The neverending dress/Sukienka bez konca


No dobra, jestem z powrotem. Nie pisalam,bo po prostu nie mialam nic do pokazania, a zdrowie i obowiazki wypelnialy mi czas po brzegi. Robotki robily/robia sie w tempie typowo slimaczym, a poza tym nie tknelam ani drutow, ani szydelka, ani igly przez caly grudzien. Z braku czasu, opuscilam sie takze w odwiedzinach Waszych blogow, ale to przynajmiej latwo i przyjemnie nadrobic. Tak wogole to najlepiej bym chciala polozyc sie spac w koncu listopada i obudzic dopiero w styczniu. A kiedys grudzien byl moim ulubionym miesiacem roku... No coz... zycie.
  No wiec skonczylam wreszcie sukienke dla corki. Te Panie, ktore spotykam na Spotkaniach Robotkowych u Iwonki na Facebook'u, juz widzialy ja w tzw. toku.  Tu mala dygresja - bardzo lubie te spotkania i bardzo polecam wszystkim tym, ktorzy jeszcze do naszej grupki nie zawitali. Po prostu, my robotkowiczki (panowie tez mile widziani), spotykamy sie na Internecie, na zywo, i dyskutujemy o wszystkim i o niczym, pracujac w tym samym czasie nad naszymi robotkami. No, u mnie to w zasadzie jest tak, ze wiecej "gadam" i podziwiam Wasze  prace niz dziergam. Nastepne spotkanie odbedzie sie w ten piatek, 18go lutego o godz. 17:30 czasu polskiego. Musze dodac, ze uczestniczki sa rozsiane po calym swiecie, co dodaje swoistego uroku tym spotkaniom. Goraco polecam. Tutaj jest link do blogu Iwonki, jezeli ktos chce zaczerpnac wiecej informacji na ten temat.
     No dobra, sukienka... Wzor (po angielsku) nazywa sie Merry Maiden's Dress i mozna go zakupic tutaj w formie elektronicznej. Myslalam, ze nigdy tego nie skoncze. Zaczelam ja, hen, hen, jeszcze w sierpniu. Robilam tak wlasciwie w kratke, bo raz mi sie podobala, raz nie, raz to sie wogole dziwilam ze takie paskudztwo robie, a potem znowu mi sie podobala. Na poczatku jeszcze jako tako wszystko szlo, ale ze spodnica jest robiona z gory w dol, to oczek tylko przybywalo i przybywalo, a kazdy rzadek wydawal sie bez konca. Na dodatek trzeba bylo sie troche koncentrowac bo to i scieg azurowy i warkocze naraz, wiec o pomylke nietrudno. Oczywiscie w instrukcjach bylo kilka bledow i niejasnosci, wiec i prucia sie nie uniknelo. A na sam koniec odkrylam, ze dziecieciu glowa urosla tak, ze sukienka ledwo przechodzila jej przez glowe, wiec trzeba bylo pruc i poprawic. No, ale corcia kocha swoja nowa sukienke, wiec robota sie oplacila. Co do wloczki, to uzylam tu Berroco Vintage (mieszanka welny, akrylu i nylonu) poniewaz chcialam, zeby mozna ja bylo wyprac w pralce i wsadzic do suszarki. Nie polecam jednak tej wloczki. Nie dosc, ze sie niesamowicie mechaci jeszcze w robocie, to takze rozdwaja sie niemilosiernie i po upraniu rosnie jak na drozdzach. Popatrzcie na dlugosc sukienki - taka mniej wiecej byla kiedy ja robilam. Po upraniu, suknia siegala dziecku do stop, a rekawy byly do kolan. Musialam wlozyc do suszarki i dzieki Bogu obkurczyla sie jako tako. Przynajmniej moge ja latwo wydluzyc jak corcia podrosnie. No, i to na razie by bylo na tyle. Dziekuje za odwiedziny i do 'zobaczenia' w piatek na Facebook'u.
































OK, I'm back. I didn't post anything for some time simply because I didn't have anything to show, and I was just too busy with the mundane aspects of life. All of my projects were progressing at snail pace, plus I didn't touch knitting needles or a crochet hook throughout all of December. I wish that I could just go to sleep at the end of November and wake up in January. And to think that December used to be my favourite time of the year... That's life, I guess...
     Anyway, I finally finished the Merry Maiden's Dress for my DD (electronic version of the pattern can be purchased from here). This was the dress that never ends. Well, at least it seemed that way. I started it waaay back in August. Because I had doubts whether I even liked it (sometimes I thought it was ugly and sometimes I thought it was quite lovely), I didn't work on it continuously. Still, it was progressing satisfactorily, until I started on the skirt. Since it is supposed to be worked from top down, the amount of stitches per round kept increasing and increasing, so that each round seemed to be endless. Of course, the fact that this project incorporates lace and cable patterns, slowed the work down, since I had to pay attention to the charts and try not to make too many mistakes. On top of that, I found a couple of errors (at least I think so) in the (already somewhat vague) instructions. And the proverbial cherry on top was that my daughter's head (and the rest of her) has grown in the 3+ months since I tried the neck opening on her (back then, it was actually a bit on the big side), and now I had a hard time putting the dress over her head. So... to the frog pond I went and 'installed' a new and improved neck opening. At least DD loves her dress, so that makes me feel much better. 
    About yarn... I used Berroco Vintage (wool/acrylic/nylon combo) because I wanted the garment to be machine washable and dryable (is there such a word?).  However, I am not impressed with it. Not only is it super splitty and pills while you knit with it, it also grows like crazy after washing. Look at the length of the dress in the photos. This is more or less the length I made originally. However, after a wash, the skirt got so long, it reached my DD's feet, and the sleeves were almost down to her knees. So, I put the dress into the dryer and thankfully, it shrank to where I wanted it. At least I will be able to easily lengthen the dress when my DD grows again.
     So, that's about it. Thank you for visiting my blog. Have a wonderful day/evening.