Another Fabulous Emi Harrington Pattern

Hello all. Posting another FO from the Emi Harrington, Hectanooga repertoire. This time it is a pattern you can customized to your size: vest, tank top, corselette, etc. that you can fashion and embellish any way you want. It's her etsy pattern #467 in her etsy shop. I am currently working on her pattern that is a shrug/cardi that is crocheted in a mesh pattern that you can fasten at the neck with a button or brooch. It like a little jacket you can make with long or short sleeves. I would think it would look fabulous in mohair!

After that, she has a long, knee length crochet cape with is quite. That I want to work on in wool. I shouldn't be giving you spoilers. I will post when they are finished.

Until next time, happy knitting and crochet!

Fast and Easy Crochet Shawls

Hello all. I still have some UFO's in my knitting and crochet basket undone. I guess I needed a short, "instant gratification" project to jump start me to work on them. And that it did. The weather is finally getting cooler at night, cooler during the day but far from being autumn in this area. We've had some rains which had helped. So the other day I went to my downloads of patterns that I have collected in my ravelry library and chose one that looked like I could do it in about 2 days. It was the Semifreddo Shawlette by Mary Beth Temple. A very quick shawl: a crescent shape shawl consisting of double crochets and ch 5 loops that are connected by the top row of ch 5 loops for a few rows and then repeat the double crochet pattern several rows and then repeat the ch 5 loop rows. I used some fingering 50/50 wool/acrylic yarn that was brown/tan/taupe/white variegated yarn that was in my stash that was leftover from another project. It was finished off with picots around the crescent edge but I went all the way around. I might just make several more as a stash buster and make one longer than required rather than according to original instruction. Here is a pic of one and I will post another laid flat on a flat surface where you can see the detail better.
Until next time, happy fiber fun!

Working hard finishing up various UFO's (why do we fiber artist always start something new when we aren't finished with the project at hand?) before I can post them. I am currently working on a crochet skirt, a knitted top and another crochet lacy top. One is dependent whether I have enough yarn of one color to finish the other. That would help. Plus I'm anxious to start spinning. Bought a load of merino top to spin but it is a tad too hot to spin where I live at the moment. Can't even touch wool in the hot weather.

Shall be back with photos when one (or more) are finished.

Happy fiber fun!

Shoes made from fiber

I always liked espadrilles, how they were made, what went into them in the making. A very long time ago I had some authentic espadrilles as well as ones made with cloth uppers sew together and whip stitched to the soles. The soles of those espadrilles were always of some kind of rope or twine, twisted around and around the insole of the foot and some kind of rubber substance was smeared into the spaces between the twine.

These "espadrilles" are courtesy of Emi Harrington. She has an Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Hectanooga. Her ravelry store: http://www.ravelry.com/stores/emi-harrington-designs has over 300 patterns that are simple even for the beginning crocheter and knitter. She also has a Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Hectanooga1/videos where she has many videos that, even just watching her, you can do a project and have it done in no time. She is very through in those videos, the longest video of any of them is about 9 minutes, most are about 6 minutes. It's because she edits her videos and doesn't waste time talking like most Youtube tutorial videos and  she cuts to the chase.

I found her crochet "espadrilles". The tan and white ones were done in one evening. Although with putting on the "soles" which she shows you how to make with flip flops, she uses yarn to sew them on. I'm sure that is for demonstration purposes only. For durability, I used an awl and poked holes all the way around the sole and use nylon fishing line and whip stitched it with a heavy darning needle around both the espadrilles and the sandals in brown and black. I am half way done with my "hippie" sandals done in 2 strands of solid and multicolored yarn held together. This time I did not sew the soles on but used a hot glue gun and attached the insole to the flip flop sole and used a button for the ankle strap. A hot glue gun is very durable and flexible and saves you from all that stitching. So durable is a hot glue gun's glue that I once used it in an emergency to fix a broken part of a spindle of a chair and it lasted for years! A little tweaking here and there and they will be done. :-)

Below are my pics of the espadrilles and the black sandals. The hippie sandals will be added in the next post.

Happy knitting and crocheting! Do visit Emi's site and watch her videos. :-) She is a very creative woman.

ETA: Finally finished with the hippie sandals. They have to be hippie sandals because they are multicolored. :-)
These are heavily modified versions of Emi's sandals pictured below and on her site. Come this winter, I plan to make to make some woolen, closed toe style of shoe. Really enjoy making the shoes!

Hello and welcome to my blog, knitty and knots. It is a blog concerning my fiber art endeavors: knitting, crocheting and spinning.

I've been knitting since my mid teens and then took a hiatus, (albeit a LONG hiatus) and then started again 3 years ago. While that time passed, I took up crochet, something I just couldn't then because they didn't have charts. Charts have made crochet SO much simpler and easier to follow that those dratted written patterns.

I have done Nordic colorwork jumpers, Norwegian as well as the Icelandic colorwork types. I also like to deviate from the pattern when ever I find unnecessary, repetitive or confusing instructions.

It's my dream to go to Iceland someday and purchase that wonderful Icelandic lopi wool, particularly the pencil roving type of yarn than comes in wheels.

Jumper knitted in Garnstudio - DROPS I Love You #4 alpaca wool worsted weight yarn. Pattern is from a 1983 Paton's Canada booklet of Nordic knits.