People actually like my things!

Having just crocheted and knitted for my personal fun, I've been formally asked to make something by someone to give as a gift!  As this person is a very close friend, I offered to make it for free.  They weren't having any of it, and so we agreed on cost price.  It's a pretty weird feeling, I only ever set out to learn how to knit and crochet so I could annoy people with handmade gifts!

Ages ago, I had made my friend's daughter a lion (from a pattern) and a giraffe (completely made up as I went along). She's asked me to make the same for her friend who is due to have a baby in the next few weeks and a little cardigan for her own daughter.  The animals will be fine, the cardigan will be a bit more difficult as I can't knit on circular needles yet!  More learning for me :)

I'll keep you all updated on my progress and put up the refined pattern for the giraffe once he's done :)

Ukulele Strap

©The Yarning Darling 2012

I finally finished the ukulele strap for the boy!! It did take a few months, but only because I wanted to do the finishing touches to it whilst I was visiting him.

In terms of the design, it's a moss/seed stitch with a cable knit running down the middle. Since learning the cable knit I really wanted to include it in a project, so when Jim asked me to make him a strap for his ukulele it seemed like a match made in heaven!

I did make it a little too long as I completely underestimated how stretchy it would be! After a bit of improvisation, we managed to find a way of using the ribbon and two buttons I had bought as a means of attaching the strap to the ukulele. 

 We chose a ribbon to pass under the strings around the waist as its thin enough not to disturb the strings and distort the vibrations. The buttons were used to wind the ribbon around to secure it in place.

©The Yarning Darling 2012

The pattern I used for the decorative part of the strap was: (18 stitches in total)
1. KPKP KP K6 PK PKPK (the 'KP' and 'PK' either side add a sort of margin around the cable area)
2. KPKP PK P6 KP PKPK
3. KPKP KP CABLE PK PKPK (cable = slip 3st purl wise onto cable needle, knit next 3st, knit first 3st)
4. KPKP PK P6 KP PKPK
5. KPKP KP K6 PK PKPK
6. KPKP PK P6 KP PKPK

©The Yarning Darling 2012

What you could do is do the cable stitch every other block so it doesn't look so twisty. I just put that pattern up as a bit of a guide.

Anyway, my boy is pretty happy with his ukulele strap, so I'm happy :D

©The Yarning Darling 2012

Musée Mechanique

What does a little museum full of old arcade games have to do with yarn? Well, I'll tell you what - a really old fusball table with players wearing little crocheted jumpers!! Not much else to say on this, I just found it quite funny :)

Crocheting in Alcatraz

I couldn't think of a witty title for the post mainly because I'm still pretty surprised to find out that inmates in Alcatraz used the crochet!

Me and the boy are currently in San Francisco and went on the Alcatraz tour last night. Part of the audio tour described what inmates used to do to pass time and low and behold there was half made blanket, yarn, and a hook in one of the cells! I got pretty excited and had to take a picture or two.

I do think they could have chosen a more manly and scary colour than pink - these men were the worst prisoners in the US prison system, and they chose baby pink as an example?! Oh well!

Domo-nation!

After I made a Domo for my brother, I received a few requests from friends and the boy!  My boy specifically asked for the mouth to be inset and so the challenge began.

I made one of the Domo's normally as according to Nerdigurumi's pattern (Domo on the left). For the second one (right) I sat and thought very hard about how I'd go about making the mouth inset. A little hard to explain, so I'll let the pattern do the explaining.  Seeing as my pattern is just a mangled version of Nerdigurumi's, I'm going to ask her permission first before publishing it on here.

Needless to say, I was pretty pleased with myself when I managed to get a mouth that looked inset! I made a third one and now they're all one happy family! (Well, only for another 30 minutes when I leave for the airport and take one with me to give to Jim).

Signing out for now, it's the Travelling Yarning Darling once again.

PS When I named this post, I started singing "we're all part of a domo-nation" on the style of Janet Jackson's 'Rhythm Nation'.  And it's now stuck in my head as I'm typing this.