Category: unikatissimas

Design your own Lace with YouKnits

YouKnits_scarf

Links of entry

Did you knit the Lace Knitters Advent Calendar 2010?
And did you like the way the patterns flowed into each other?

I designed and published now a lot of patterns, called YouKnits, that you simply can combine and design your own lace pattern with.

    You can download three files for free:

  • the basic set, which contains eight basic square patterns and all triangles, that you can e.g. use for triangle shawls,
  • the how-to, a detailed instruction on how to combine YouKnits and
  • eine deutsche Kurzanleitung (a short German instruction).

Because it is usually not so easy to imagine how a pattern will look, there is the free YouKnits designer: you compose your pattern, click ‘make PDF’ and get a PDF file that you can save on your harddisk.

    The file contains:

  • an overview picture of your personal YouKnits design,
  • for large patterns a page reference chart (shows which part of the YouKnits distribution chart is printed on which page),
  • the YouKnits distribution chart (shows the order in which YouKnits have to be worked) and
  • a list of all the YouKnits you used in your personal pattern with links to the appropriate ravelry pages.

I think it’s best if you simply go and play around with the YouKnits designer ;-)
By the way, you can find there also a list of frequently asked questions and a Youknits designer description.

Oh, you’ve knitted enough shawls and scarves already?
No problem, I thought about what else to knit with the YouKnits and that’s what I came up with:

Well, that’s a lot, isn’t it? ;-)
By the way, in all examples I included some that only use the basic set :)
You can find the scarf of the picture at the YouKnits lace example shawl and at the moment I’m knitting a vest of this kind.


Links:
unikatissima’s ravelry store

Here at unikatissima:
YouKnits designer
ist of frequently asked questions about the YouKnits designer
Youknits designer description

Fast Food

unikatissima Fast Food
If you have lots to do (crafting, knitting, crocheting, working with polymer clay or the like ;-)), it is great if you quickly get something to eat if you get hungry.
Furthermore it’s good if the food is somewhat healthy.
Rcently I tried something that I want to present now:

Quick Vegetable Soup

    Ingredients:

  • packet soup or the like that is quickly done
    • I had a wild mushroom soup that had to be mixed with 3/4 l cold water, boiled up and then simmer at low heat for five minutes, other quick soups work also, then you must adapt the preparation
  • vegetables
    • I had an onion, a carrot and a zucchini
  • a little bit of oil
    Preparation:

  • Dice the onion and fry softly until translucent.
  • In the meantime dice the other vegetables, too and set aside the different sorts.
    • It is a matter of setting apart the vegetables that only need five minutes on low temperature (zucchini, sweet pepper, broccoli etc) from those that need rather ten minutes (e.g. carrots, aubergins).
  • Fill some of the water that is needed for the packet soup into the onions, add the carrot dices and simmer on low heat for five minutes.
    • You treat thus first the 10-minute-vegetables.
  • Add the rest of the water mixed with the packet soup and the 5-minute-vegetables and let simmer on low heat for another five minutes – done.

The soup was really tasty and eaten faster than I was able to take photos ;-)

And if you use a different ready-to-serve soup every time (tomato soup, glass noodle soup or, if you eat meat, Chinese sweet-and-sour soup and oxtail soup), you have every time a completely different taste with the same recipe ;-)

Toilet Paper Tube as Window Stopper

unikatissima Toilet Paper Tube as Window Stopper
That’s no big deal, but helpful ;-):
To prevent our windows from slamming shut, we latterly fold two toilet paper tubes and squeeze them under the frame.
They have the advantage of not being too rigid and so not break the frame, but they are (although not beautiful) functional ;-))

Blocking Lace

unikatissima Blocking Lace

Links of entry

You can find many hints in internet on how to block knitted lace, I wanted to show you how I did.

 
    You can see the Advent calendar shawl on the picture:

  • I still had two aluminium rods (1) of 5 mm diameter and 2 m length at home, which I threaded through the edge stitches.
  • Then I thoroughly soaked the shawl in water and hang up the upper rod (2).
  • I hang up weights (3) with S-hooks,…
  • …where the weights where little plastic bags with paper tissue packages (4).
 

unikatissima Blocking Lace

    Here the details again:

  • (1) is the lower rod,
  • (2) are the edge stitches where I threaded the rod through,
  • (3) is one of the S-hooks and
  • (4) the weight: the plastic bag with the paper tissue packages.

This way both rods are pulled apart and the shawl is blocked.

 

But the technique isn’t perfect: I’d have needed rods for the short sides of the shawl, too, that should have been attached to the long rods, but I didn’t have the time.
That’s why the short sides of my Advent calendar shawl are slightly worn out, but it’s not soo bad.

unikatissima Blocking Lace
In a similar way you can do this with a triangle shawl: I threaded the same aluminium rods then above (1) through the holes I’ve knitted at the edge.
Then I added an S-hook with the weight in the last hole to really drag the points down.
I soaked everything in water and placed it on the ground.
The weight of the water drags down the center so that I didn’t need any weight there and it didn’t wear out as much as the rectangular shawl.
By the way, I covered the ground with a plastic cover because I didn’t want to wade through puddles ;-)

 

To see how others block their lace, simply search for blocking knit lace or stricken (spitze OR ajour OR lochmuster) spannen in German (results not so good).


Links:
Google search result for ‘blocking knit lace’
Google search result for ‘stricken (spitze OR ajour OR lochmuster) spannen’

Here at unikatissima:
Advent calendar shawl
Note: After Christmas I will offer it in just one file ;-)

Double Knitted Wristwarmers

unikatissima Double Knitted Wristwarmers

Links of entry

Not long ago I presented the double knitted potholders.
As always it began to work in my head (not to think, thinking is stressful! ;-)) and I wanted absolutely know whether you can double knit in rounds.
You can ;-))

 

unikatissima Double Knitted Wristwarmers
I knitted two wristwarmers for me with a set of double-pointed needles as for socks and here you can see the inside.

 

unikatissima Double Knitted Wristwarmers
Here is the chart I used.
I’m not 100% positive about it because I’m simply knitting too loose and these fine patterns don’t look as good as I’d have wished.
Perhaps it is different for you :)

I knitted the pattern 5x, but of course you must adapt this to your wrists ;-))

 


Links:
Tutorial for double knitting: Free Knitting Patterns – Heart Double Knit Hot Pad

Here at unikatissima:
Double Knitted Potholders

Find Craft and Needlework Books Easier

Links of entry

When I look at Amazon.de for craft and needlework books I mostly get too many results I’m not interested in (try e.g. the search for ‘Mosaik’ ;-)).
Because I simply assume that you have similar problems ;-), I made a page where you can search Amazon.de more systematic.

If you buy books there, you are buying directly at and from Amazon.de, I’m only helping with the search ;-)
Though it’s also a help for me because I can make go on unikatissima with the little commission I get when you buy via unikatissima ;-)

By the way, don’t be surprised: the search page is on a new blog where I will sell patterns in the future.
Up until now you can ‘only’ find free patterns there that you know from here already ;-)

Happy browsing-for-books :))


Links:
unikatissima’s Amazon.de search / unikatissimas Amazon.de Suche
unikatissima’s shop

Amazon.de

Lace Knitters Advent Calendar 2010

unikatissima Lace Knitters Advent Calendar

Links of entry

I realized that I’ve published more than 1000(!) entries already and to celebrate this fact you can get an Advent calendar from me ;-)

Every day you will get a couple of rows to knit in a different pattern and on december 25, 2010 you will have a most beautiful lace shawl :))

By the way: The photo is extra small – it gives you just an idea of what you will knit but (hopefully ;-)) not spoil the surprise.


Links:
Here at unikatissima:
unikatissima’s Lace Knitters Advent Calendar 2010

Advent Calendars

It’s time to think about Advent calendars, therefore I compiled a list:

Older Advent calendars
I presented Advent calendars before.

Origami box Advent calendar
On the picture you can see my Advent calendar that I’m using for a couple of years now. I folded 24 Origami boxes (but I can’t remember where the instruction came from) that I’m filling every year anew.
Addendum: In the comments of the German entry Monika said, that you can get the instruction here.
unikatissima Advent Calendar

Boxes ‘Winter Village’ Advent calendar
In the same way as these picture boxes you can easily make a whole winter village with 24 houses ;-)
Art Attack Advent calendar.jpg

Octagonal Advent calendar
via: Projects gallery advent calendar
That’s no instruction, but I find it a beautiful inspiration.
Two Peas in a Bucket Advent calendar

Story Advent calendar
I don’t have a picture from this: quite a long time ago I selected a story where I knew that the addressee will like it, bought a pocket book with the story and cut the pages from the book.
I put the pages into 24 little packages, so that the addressee could read a part of the story every day.
Admittedly I found it very hard to destroy the book ;-)

Printable Advent calendar
There seem to be a lot of these, if I can believe the results of the Google search for ‘Printable Advent Calendar’ and the results of the Google image search for it ;-)

Another printable Advent calendar
This one simply looked a bit different ;-)
Petit Elefant Advent calendar

Initials Advent calendar
via: Creative Advent Calendars
I find the Advent calendar initials simply wonderful :)
Vincent Caplier Advent calendar

Easy graphic Advent calendar
via: Advent Round-up
Happy Mundane Advent calendar

Envelope Advent calendar
via: Advent Round-up
d Sharp Journal Advent calendar

Paper garland Advent calendar
via: Advent Round-up part deux
mer mag Advent calendar

Coloured window Advent calendar
via: Creative Advent Calendars
The Quince Tree Advent calendar

Photo Advent calendar
The Crafts Dept Advent calendar

Cookies Advent calendar
Of course you can always make a cookies Advent calendar with your favourite cookies receipe ;-)
FamilyFun Advent calendar

Gingerbread Advent calendar
They’re baking here a gingerbread tile and glue on beautifully decorated gingerbread cookies with sugar. Every day you’ll get a gingerbread cookie and on the last day the gingerbread tile.
Gingerbread Fun Advent calendar

Knitted Bag Advent calendar
via: Julkalender 2009 Christmas Calendar by Johanna Wallin
Knit every day a little piece and get a cute bag on Christmas :)
jdw blog-city Advent calendar

Knitted Hats and Mittens Advent calendar
Apron Strings Advent calendar

Knitted Little Hats Advent calendar
The last link on the page is the PDF file (~ 370 KB) with the (German!) instruction.
landlust Advent calendar

Jeans Pocket Advent calendar
via: fun advent calendars (round up)
The link to the original Advent calendar doesn’t work any more, but the photo is inspiration enough ;-)
roadside scholar Advent calendar

Socks Advent calendar
Once I bought 12 pairs of cotton socks that fitted the addressee’s feet ;-), attached them to a cord and filled them.
It looked funny ;-)

Knitting Pattern ‘Corrugated Stockinette’

unikatissima Knitting Pattern Corrugated Stockinette

Links of entry

Recently I knitted something in brioche knitting and thought that it should look good if I’d alternate knit stitches and brioche stitches.
I find that it looks really good ;-))
Because it reminds me of corrugated cardboard I called it ‘Corrugated Stockinette’.

Although I’ve never seen this pattern in internet I’m sure that I’m not the first to devise (discover?!) it ;-)

And that’s what you do:
Knitted in rows:
Cast on an odd number of stitches
1. row: purl across (wrong side)
2. row: * 1 k, 1 dk *, repeat from * to *, end with 1 k
repeat rows 1-2 until reached the desired height

dk (‘deep knit’) means not to knit the stitch of the current row but the stitch of the previous row (enter needle into knit stitch of row below as if to knit, knit), the stitch of the current row disappears.

The fabric curls, it must therefore be blocked.

Knitted in rounds:
Additionally you can knit it easily in rounds, too:
cast on an even number of stitches, mark begin of the round
1. round: knit across
2. round: * 1 k, 1 dk *, repeat from * to *
repeat rows 1-2 until reached the desired height

 

unikatissima Knitting Pattern Corrugated Stockinette
Of course you can knit scarves from this pattern, but also double scarves by knitting in rounds and simply sewing the openings on top and bottom.
I think that the pattern would look fine as well for bags (in rounds, but only sew the bottom ;-)), for wristwarmers (in rounds, but don’t sew anything ;-))), for hats, cardigans, sweaters and actually everything else ;-))

Have much fun with it!


Links:
Entries with the tag ‘Brioche knitting’

Cardboard Heddle Loom

unikatissima Cardboard Heddle Loom

Links of entry

Recently I got to know Travis and he showed us how the weaving really works ;-)
There’s a video where he shows how you can try to weave with a little cardboard, a pencil and a lot of wool – I find this a great idea, surely also great for children’s birthday parties ;-)

Travis weaves ‘real’ fabric – also on his cardboard loom – whereas I’m pulling the weft quite firm and weave a strap.

 

Here my steps:
unikatissima Cardboard Heddle Loom
First I cut the heddle from cardboard (from a cereals packing).
Because the cardboard is rather stiff I didn’t fold it but draw the 10 lines and then cut them with an X-acto knife.
Then I punched the 9 holes.

 

unikatissima Cardboard Heddle Loom
As you can see I used different coloured threads: 2 blue, 2 white, 3 blue, 2 white, 1 blue and back again.
The shuttle is cut – as suggested by Travis ;-) – from cardboard, too.

 

unikatissima Cardboard Heddle Loom
I always pulled the weft very firm.

 

unikatissima Cardboard Heddle Loom
And that’s how my strap looks.
I like it ;-))

 


Links:
Learn How To Weave with Paper Index Cards
Actionweaver