Bat Pillow with Chart

I created a bat pillow as a Christmas pressie for my friend Karen.

Generated by Flickr Album Maker

I have been meaning to post the chart for the bat pillow for a while. It is actually the item I have the most favorites for on Ravelry. *grin*

Here is the chart for the pillow:

PDF

http://akasha.onmyweigh.com/data/moon-bat-chart.pdf

JPG

Generated by Flickr Album Maker

The original chart was created with Knitpro. It is a terrific free tool that allows you to chart patterns for knitting as well as other needle crafts.

http://www.microrevolt.org/knitPro/

The original graphic was a Gorey drawing. However, I reduced the amount of detail involved as I didn't think it translated well to the knitting. I figured if there was too much detail it would be confusing what it was.

Despite reducing the image to white & black and removing a lot of line work in the drawing, Knitpro created a lot of greys in the pattern. So I have changed those squares to either black or white.

I used a combination of intarsia and fair isle for the colorwork. I found it made more sense to use fair isle for the white stitches that form the edge of the moon and the beginning of the bat wings.

I start at the bottom, adding the white intarsia piece. Then as the bat wing came along I used two sections of black at each side. So basically until you get to the bat's feet, you have a black section, white, then black with small white bobbins for the fair isle bits of the moon's edges.

When I came to the bat's feet, I added another bobbin of yarn. I worked that bobbin to form the bat's body. The feet were fair isle while the body was intarsia. When the body became intarsia, I needed to make a small white bobbin for the area between the left wing and the body.

If you look at the layout, you can see the point where it becomes nearly black with just the slivers of white at the edges. The edges continue to be fair isle.

When you are at the head area, it is very similar to the body in reverse.

I hope this makes some sense. Honestly, the chart is probably more than enough for a lot of folks. This was only my second intarsia project and my first using fair isle. So I suspect if I could do it, most anyone can!

I did reference the videos on knittinghelp.com for these techniques. I went really wrong with my first intarsia project because I wasn't paying attention to the technique as closely as I should have. Though when I watched the video, it clicked for me. So I suspect that will help others as well.

If you have any questions about this, please feel free to leave a reply or email me. I will try and respond.

Bat Pillow Complete

Just wanted to share the pic of the completed bat pillow:



I think it came out okay. I should have used a much finer gauge of yarn for it. But other than that, I like it. Turns out the image is actually a Gorey drawing. Makes it all the more fun.

I need to tweak the pattern and then share it.

NOTHING on My Needles! *gasp*

Currently I have NOTHING on my needles! *gulp*

On Ravelry, I am saying that the pillow is only 95% done. But it is cast off. So not on my needles! I just haven't actually sewn it to fabric & stuffed it yet. I *have* to finish that this weekend. I need to get it mailed off to her.

Rushing Rivulets Socks in Undertow Bamboo Yarn

Cast on:

Saturday, Dec. 1st

Finished:

Monday, December 31st

Pattern:

Stitch Pattern -

Rushing Rivulet

by Cat Bordhi

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/rushing-rivulet-riverbed-architecture

Basic Sock Recipe -

Basic Sock Pattern from The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns

by Ann Budd

http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/1931499047/

Yarn:

Sarah's Yarns 100% Bamboo

http://www.sarahsyarns.com/SY100PctBamboo.html

Used about 100 grams (I dyed 150 grams and have about 54 gms left)

That should be around 285 yards (260.6m)

Needles:

Knitpicks Option & Harmony US 1 1/2 / 2.5 mm circulars

Done 2 socks on 2 circs

I am really thrilled with the Xmas socks I did for my sister-in-law Jennifer. I suspect she will like them. Though I am kinda nervous about them. My sister-in-law Tee sent me Jennifer's measurements for the socks she made for her. So I think they will fit.

I stopped the toe about a 1/2" shorter than Jennifer's foot. So they are 7 1/2" in length when Tee told me Jennifer's feet are 8". I thought about redoing it. But I tried them on my feet which are 9 1/4" long and much wider. I *could* wear them. I can pull them on my feet and they have enough give that they would fit. So I am not terribly worried that they won't fit.

I am hoping Jennifer likes them. *crosses fingers*

I did cut out some white cardboard to put inside to show off where the holes were in the pattern. I don't know if that shows off well in the photos.

Definitely click on the image for more detail. I have a much large size on flickr.

2nd Attempted at the Tomten Sweater

There are a few more pics as well:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=int&w=11372712@N04&q=tomten&m=text

Cast on:

Cast On: Monday, Dec. 10th

Finished:

Around Dec. 20-23. Wish I had marked it at the time.

Pattern:

Modular Tomten Jacket from Knitting Without Tears

by Elizabeth Zimmermann

http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0684135051/

Yarn:

TLC Heathers in Teal (though more blue) with Barn Red accents

http://www.coatsandclark.com/Products/Knitting/Medium+Yarns/TLC+Heathers.htm

Used about 1 1/2 of the blue & less than half skein of red

Needles:

Knitpicks Option US 9 / 5.5 mm circular from set

I can't believe I forgot to post these pics. I really meant to while I was on vacation but I forgot. I really don't get online much when I am home. I had to push myself to post about the Trouble with Tomtens. *laugh* It was the mobius sweater! Thanks Tee for helping!!

I also had a bunch of trouble with the zipper. I got one zipper in the city. Great. Double zipper so that it could be zipped at top and bottom. Cut to size. All good.

I tried to adhere it with crazy glue and nearly screwed up the entire sweater!! *sigh* I got it off, had to soak it with nail polish remover to try and get the glue off. Then I washed the sweater to get rid of the terrible smell. The good news is that it is machine wash & dry. *grin*

So I went out to get another zipper. Found one at Wal-Mart after searching several places. Turns out that it was the kind that was sewn closed on the bottom. So why did it say universal zipper?! *pout*

Three was the charm. Got another zipper at a Joanne's. Though the closest Joanne's was a good ways from home. And I was fighting crud. Paul offered to go get it for me, but I knew that wasn't fair to him. So we also got a bit more shopping done before Xmas while we were out. So that was the up side.

Bat Pillow

Cast on:

Not sure honestly. *scratches head* Think around the 17th or 18th, maybe later.

Cast Off:

Around Dec. 29-30. Wish I had marked it at the time.

Can't say finished til I make it into a pillow. Need to add it to fabric & stuff the pillow.

Pattern:

Chart created using KnitPro website -

http://www.microrevolt.org/knitPro/

Image taken from -

http://www.wonder-shirts.com/images/bat_moon.jpg

Basically the pattern was created by tweaking those.

Yarn:

Bernat Softee Chunky in black & white

http://www.bernat.com/product.php?LGC=softeechunky

Nearly all the black and about half the white were used.

Needles:

Knitpicks Option US 9 / 5.5 mm circular from set

The image is an Edward Gorey drawing. I took it and tweaked it a lot to make it solid areas of black & white. Originally, I had some areas to highlight the wings, but I found it wasn't helping with the image. So I changed the bat to solid black. I think it worked out better that way, but honestly, I am not sure.

I want to post the chart here. I meant to bring it into work but I keep forgetting. The KnitPro website outputs to a pdf. However, it had various greys in the image as it doesn't seem able to clearly tell that there were only two colors in the original. So I went over the chart with white out & a black marker to make sure it was good.

I also added lines for each 10 stitches and put stitch markers to make it easier to count off the stitches. I found that helped me to have less of a headache with counting.

The piece is a mix of intarsia and fair isle knitting. I carried the yarn where it was less than 7 stitches, but I did intarsia when it was a larger area. Overall, I think it came out okay. There is definitely a bit at the edges of the moon where it looks raised because I pulled a bit too much. But honestly, it works. It looks almost intentional as it rises up a little.

I would not do a graphic chart with such a thick yarn again. The stitches are too large. But I wanted to get this done for Xmas. I knew it would be kinda late, but not too late if I did it in a bulky yarn.

Problem is that even going down a needle size, the stitches are not tight enough. I should have gone down at least 1 or 2 more to get it tighter. So I will line it with fabric on both the front and back. I had intended on knitting the back as well. But given the front has to be fabric lined, I am not going to bother with knitting the back panel. Lazy I know. *grin*

I hope Karen will enjoy it honestly. I never really know what to get her. She is kinda challenging to buy for in that I can find her a lot of things she would like, but not a lot that will grab her. So I figured she might enjoy this as she likes bats. (Most people know she likes elephants and it has gotten to the point where she has too many.)

Overall, I like the bat. Kinda tempted to do a smaller one for me sometime.