I may have the summer blahs, and we aren’t even that far into it yet. I haven’t posted in awhile, my apologies. I just haven’t felt much like knitting the past few months. My desire for the fiber arts is picking up again, though, so slowly progress is happening.
Tangerine Smoothie Sweater
You may remember the orange sweater that has languished in the UFOs pile for at least 3 summers:
It’s slightly bigger now, measuring 9 inches in length:
Nine Inches of Tangerine Smoothie
The pattern is a lot of fun, and keeps me interested, in spite of the length of time this project has taken so far. The sweater is being knit in the round (back and front at same time), it is a cardigan, and I need 6 more inches in pattern until I get to the armhole decreases. Here’s a closeup of the pattern:
Tangerine Smoothie closeup
Sorry for the darkness of those photos. There isn’t much natural light coming in today (it’s rainy), and the flash doesn’t seem to help a whole lot. The first photo is closest to the true color representation.
Another Turtle Project
I’ve also been working on a special turtle for my nephew. He will be 3 in September. (Hard to believe I started the tangerine sweater the same year my nephew was born. Yikes.)
His turtle started out, much like his sister’s, to be variations of one color. His sister’s is purple and lavendar. His was going to be royal blue and light blue. Then I got to talking with my brother, his father, as I was almost finished with the turtle body, and he told me that my nephew had become obsessed with Spiderman. It didn’t even dawn on me yet really, and my brother didn’t know I was making a turtle for his son. I was kind of half listening. After I hung up with my brother, I went downstairs and continued working on the turtle. About half an hour later, seriously, it hit me that I could make my nephew’s turtle a Spiderman turtle! I had some red yarn, and as Spiderman is red and blue, that seemed perfect. But how to make the spider on the turtle’s shell?
Spidey beginnings
It honestly took me 3 weeks to figure it out. I got pictures of Spiderman from off the Internet, and studied the spider. I tried knitting the spider, beginning from the pointy butt. I tried crocheting it, even embroidering it right into the shell. I tried different weights of black yarn, hoping one of them would develop into a spider. I was seriously having major problems getting a handle on this spider, and I was getting frustrated.
Then one night it all just clicked. I got one of the yarns I felt would work the best, and picked up a smaller sized needle. This time I started at the head of the spider. Joyfully, Spiderman’s insignia began to emerge:
The insignia emerges
I cannot tell you how excited I was. The body of the spider turned out better than I thought it would (it’s still not perfect, but he’s only going to be 3 — he can tease me about it later!) I began to crochet the spider’s legs using the chain stitch, attaching them only at the body of the spider and, for lack of a better term, his toes.
I thought it best to add the spider before I closed up and stuffed the shell. That way I could hide all the ends inside the shell. Here’s what the shell turned out to look like:
Finished shell
I showed it to some friends on Ravelry, and they were even more excited about it than I was. This was encouraging! They suggested I tack the legs of the spider down a little more, to give it the jagged shape, and also to secure the legs against the rambunctiousness of a toddler. I finished the turtle body, and added the shell, and voila! Here he is so far:
Spidey Turtle
I say so far because I am attempting to make a Spidey mask for him. But we’ll see. It’s proving to be as challenging as the spider.
Next up: Yarn of the Month Club Deluge!
