Catwoman: When In Rome Pillow (For Tim Sale)

Finished!

It has been a very long time since I've posted anything here. I had to cease all knitting for over a year so as to let an injury heal, and there have been other priorities as well. But as one of my favorite times of the year came rolling back around, I was inspired out of knitting hiatus. That time of year, my friends, is comicon. In particular, the Emerald City Comic Convention (ECCC) which occurs in early spring.

Back view of finished pillow.

In 2007, my husband (then boyfriend) and I attended our first ECCC. I had knit on of my favorite artists, the wonderful Tim Sale, a scarf as a gift. It's a knitted version of a panel from a comic he did called Superman: Kryptonite. You can see it here. (With progress posts here, here, here and here.) With the exception of 2009, we've been to ECCC every year since but I had yet to produce a follow-up gift for Tim. I contemplated different project ideas, trying to decide on the right image and the right item to knit that image into. Gauge of yarn, number of required stitches to create the image (without losing too much detail) and the right type of item so that the dimensions of the image would fit. It sounds troublesome and awful but I think I love that part of the knitting process the best. Laying the groundwork and working out the game plan.

Closeup of the stitching on the back and the beading for Selina's jewelry.

Anyway, it would seem 2012 was the year of the follow-up knit gift. May I introduce the Catwoman: When In Rome Pillow for Tim Sale.

Closeup of Selina and the cat.

~Specs~

Pattern:
Made up on the go by me. I used Knitpro to graph out the image.

Yarn:
Louet Gems #1 Super Fine / Fingering Weight 100% Merino Wool (185 yds/169 m/50g)
- 2 skeins of black
- 1 skein each of candy apple red and cream

Needles:
1.5mm addi lace circs

Pros:
Everything. This project came out perfect. I am very, very happy with it.

Cons:
No cons for this project, everything went smoothly and I enjoyed every second of it. This obviously makes me crazy as I don't know anyone else that would enjoy doing intarsia with fingering weight yarn on 1.5mm needles. Yep. Crazy. ;)


Below is a random smashup for photos I took while I was constructing the pillow. There aren't any shots during the knitting because I was being too methodical to take breaks in my knitting to take any, so apologies for that.

This is the original layout I was working from.
It's available as a desktop background on Tim Sale's website.


This is the pillow laid out similar to the original in comparison.

Gift tag - For Tim!


Gift tag - From Venus!

I used my window as a light box to trace the letters before stitching them on.


The template and finished trace.

Tracing finished and ready for hand stitching.

Blocking the knitted piece to size and a view of the reverse.

Pinning on the piping in preparation for the sewing machine.

Piping sewn on knitted side, ready for the rest of the layers to be sewn on!


A Closeup view of the finished piping at the top. (I included a small hanging tab.)


A closeup view of the finished piping at the bottom,
where I used a crisscross finish for the piping.

It was my first time using piping of any kind so I was very happy with the way it turned out.

Friday morning my fella and I headed down to Seattle! During the convention, my turn came around for a fast pass and I was able to give Tim his gift and the pillow has now gone to a happy home. :D

Tim Sale

Illusionist Shawl

The Illusionist Shawl
Pattern by Olga Pobedinskaya

Gorgeous, gorgeous yarn from Alchemy called Haiku. (40% silk/60% mohair) It's the only non-itchy mohair I have ever experienced. This is a sample for Urban Yarns in color 112c - Secret Agent Blue. I didn't realize at the time when I chose the color but it matches a dress I already own! I love it when things work out like that. Now if I only had somewhere to wear the dress....

Go on and be seduced by the delicious yarn, but I will warn you! This pattern is epic in the sense that it takes for freakin' ever. It's 1300yds (4 skeins) of slippery yarn (I knit these on Addi Turbos, do NOT do this. For sanity's sake, please use bamboo or Addi Lace needles!) and at times rows have up to 520sts. I have knit entire sweaters in half the time that this shawl took. The pattern for the Illusionist Shawl can be found in the book Destination Alchemy. You do end up using almost all of the yarn (I had maybe a 5th left from the last skein) but if you wanted you could easily halve the pattern to make a scarf, though I think the size of the shawl makes it more versatile.

Anyway, I LOVE the results, I recommend going with the Haiku and though I love the shawl now I'm never knitting it again. =)

Blooming Superwash Scarf

The Blooming Cotton Scarf Pattern by Eunny Jang

The colors I chose!

So many colors, so much fun! If you're like me and have some trouble with tension when doing color work, try this pattern. Because you're only using one strand per round, you don't have to juggle multiple strands. It's all ingenious slipped stitches. The pattern is easy to remember and it's easy to see where you are in the pattern, thanks to all those colors!

The scarf is knit in the round, then cut and partially unraveled to create the fringe. See Below.

I've decided not to do the full pattern and knit only half the width of the scarf. I've also decided to sew a fabric backing onto the scarf. The back of the scarf has all those wonderful carried strands from the slipped stitches and seem prone to snagging.

Pretty green fabric

More on all this once the scarf is totally finished.

Wavy

Wavy Scarf Pattern from Handmaiden

This was a super easy quick knit. Urban Yarns has tons of this Fleece Artist yarn. The yarn I used was Merino 2/6 with AngelHair(mohair) in the Peacock colorway. The 2 separate skeins are sold together with the idea that you knit with both yarns at the same time. My favorite part was watching the colors change. So pretty.

Spring Cleaning

Tulips from my Fella. =)

Well, it's done. I've got my stuff updated on Ravelry, photos and all. I have ALL of my yarn pulled off of my shelves and I am doing another great re-organization. It feels good to finally be getting around to tidying up. I've wanted to for a while. I think I can thank working at my LYS for that.

The sun is out today and I think spring is finally on it's way here.

Dragging my @ss....

I've had a Ravelry account since October '07. You would think I'd be on it more often than I am, which is never. I've decided to show some more effort. Take photos of my stash etc. And I want to start doing a better job of this old blog too. We'll see though I guess.

Does Anyone Know What This Means?

We all knew this would happen sooner or later....

I bought a loom.

A 36" LeClerc Nilus floor loom to be exact. Something that is $2575.00 new, I got for $350.00. Holy crap!!! The price included a custom handmade bench and a warping board, bobbins, bobbin winder, shuttles etc..... The awesome lady that was keeping an ear to the ground for me was also kind enough to pick it up and drop it off at my place. =) Wonderful people crafters are, I tell ya. Then, my Fella decided to rearrange half of our one-bedroom apartment to accommodate the newest addition to our household. What a lucky girl I am. I have been grinning all day today. =D

Catching Up

Flower Brooch

Flower Brooch on Knitted Pouch

And some pretty knitted lace....

.....to make a classy little scarf.

This is the Juliet Scarf from Louisa Harding's book Knitting Little Luxuries. Originally for a light and fluffy yarn (angora blend), this one was knit with 2 strands of different yarns together for some added weight and density. I used Hand Maiden's Cashemere and Silk and Great Big Sea, both in the Ivory colorway.

The knitted pouch which contains the scarf was a quick pattern that I whipped up that echoes one of the lace motifs from the original pattern. I started at the bottom using the provisional cast-on, added 4 reps of the lace pattern on both sides, made some yarn over holes for the crocheted cord to go through and voila! Little knitted pouch. I just thought a scarf like this should have sometime to protect it when it's put away. So. There we go. This is another one for Sherry. She'll get it tomorrow. =)