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I've been spinning up yarn out of Speedy's fur & Alpaca to keep it together. It's scratchy, to say the least, so my idea of a scarf or hat isn't going to fly. I belong to Ravelry.com & a friend found a 'simple' pony pattern here:http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/libra...
"Simple" in quotes because I just don't get some of the instructions. I guess I'll get on YouTube & see what I can find out. The pony has a few things that are weird.
Casting On in the middle of a project: After knitting the second set of legs, I had to cast on 7 more stitches, then knit across the original set. I don't think the casting on I did was right. I just did some half hitches, which aren't as tight as the normal cast I do that requires 2 strands of yarn when I start.
How does the neck angle? Seems like it should be straight.
Why isn't the butt rounded? Need to figure out how to do that & modify the instructions for it.
I'm knitting it right now with some ugly green yarn that I've had hanging around. I figure I'll get the kinks worked out before I try with the Speedy yarn.
I'm struggling to knit this small pony that I will stuff when done. This is my second attempt with commercial yarn. Somehow I keep screwing up the knit/purl thing. I wind up switching the wrong way. Arrgghh! I think the biggest problem is I'm just not sitting down long enough to really work on it. I'm not good enough to spend 15 minutes here or there knitting.
Haven't you got that horse blanket done yet? The dogs are waiting for their sweaters....
Our dogs can't wear sweaters. We got Lily one & she lost it twice in 2 days, the 2d time for good. They get crawling through the briers, back up & that's all she wrote...
I've tried several times to make the "Rosy Pony" on Ravelry here:http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/libra...
The damn thing keeps coming out looking like a weiner dog. I've changed needle sizes & such, but it just doesn't ever look right.
I'm going to try the "Brown Pony" from this blog:
http://aprildraven.blogspot.com/2011/...
Now I have to learn how to do the crochet stitches, though. I think I know how to do it. Hope I can keep count, though. That's been my toughest chore.
I've got a fair amount of Alpaca 3 ply yarn now. I spun up half a big, black garbage bag! Wow. Lots of hours spinning & carding, but I'm getting pretty good.
That brown horse looks exactly like the horse in the Toy Story movies! I never really liked those. I'm trying to knit my sister a bag for her phone but I just can't find the time to finish the strap!
Well, I'm getting close with the horse. I didn't understand one instruction & looked it up. I don't think I've been using the correct stitch for most of this. Oh well. It's done the same, so not bad. It will be interesting to see how it comes out.
However it comes out the chances are slim you rupture your spleen on it and thats a good thing!
I finished the crocheted pony. Not exactly a match, but I guess not too bad for a first try.https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...
OK, it kind of sucks. I really, really need to study up on those 'simple' stitches some more.
;-)
The whites of the eyes are too big! Other than the insane look the disporportionate eyes give it came out great.Unless of course your horse DOES have eyes like that, in which case, excellent job!
You're right & thank you. I think it might look better if I gave it bigger black pupils & tightened up the sewing job on the eyes. I'm contemplating it. Marg says I can't use buttons for the pupils because a baby might chew them off & she figures some little grandkid will be gnawing on it at some point.I've started another using the correct crochet stitch this time. We'll see how it turns out.
I've started on the stuffed pony out of Speedy yarn. I have 3.5 legs done. It's not very good yarn. I spun it too tight, but any looser & it pulls apart. Very fine line. I FINALLY got around to uploading pics of my second crocheted pony attempt. I'm kind of stuck right now. Marg is sleeping in my recliner in the living room after a bad night. She got tossed by Rascal again yesterday & we spent the evening at the ER since she had a concussion. There are pics of her here, too.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...
Geez... maybe you guys need to ride the knitted ponies and keep the real ones on your bed....Nice job, but the eyes are still insane looking... maybe you could discard whatever plans you're following for the eyes and create your own version, say solid black with a small white triangle as the refelction?
Yeah, they actually look better in real life than in the picture, but I'm still not thrilled with the eyes. Well, they're easily changed. I changed them on the other one, too. Better, still not what I want, though.
The horse is so nice... but the eyes would scare a horse! I was painting a lifesize horse once on the side of a building and had just done the silhouette when the model came by (mounted patrol)... that horse freaked out!
The next time the horse came by it was OK... fast learner!
Horses are so weird. We have blue barrels, 55 gallon drums, that we use for jumps. I put one on its end on the side of the field & Chip almost killed me as we came around a corner & saw it. It had been there all day, but he wasn't used to seeing it while we were riding. It was new, therefore scary, so we had a big shy & stood there staring at it blowing. Then it was OK.
My wife bought me Knit Your Own Dog: Easy-to-Follow Patterns for 25 Pedigree Pooches for Xmas & they sent her 2 copies for some reason, so I have an extra. If anyone wants it, let me know.
A friend on FB posted this crocheted scarf/hood combo. It has cat ears & pocket paws which I'm going to leave off, but otherwise it looks pretty cool. Simple crochet, too.http://www.mooglyblog.com/cuddly-cat-...
I've got a bunch of white yarn, so the first one will be in that, although it's not a favorite color of ours since we have animals. I'm working on the scarf part now.
I finished the scarf/hood combo & it looks pretty good. I made it about as long as my arms, 199 stitches, & put tassels on the end. That is not long enough to wrap the scarf ends around my neck & tie or go down into a coat, though. If I just tie it, it hangs down to my waist. Marg says it doesn't need to wrap around since it covers well enough. The hood part was a bit big on me, probably good for the poofier hair of a girl.I'm giving it to a friend of mine at work. He has 2 girls around 8 & 12 plus a wife. He said he'd get them to model it for me & take pics, so they'll give me feedback. I hope it is something they like because it's very easy & quick to make. It would be a good present for all the girls next Xmas.
I've been working on a baby blanket that seems to be taking forever even with regular stitches, not the fancy ones the original plans called for. I tried them, but the pattern was too irregular with too many stitches I didn't know & some I suspect I was doing incorrectly since I wound up adding stitches occasionally. Here is the main part:
1st row: (RS). K5. P1. *K4. K2tog. K3. yrn. P1. Rep from * to last
5 sts. K5.
2nd row: K6. *P5. K5. Rep from * to last 5 sts. K5.
3rd row: K5. P1. *K4. K2tog. K2. yfwd. K1. P1. Rep from * to last
5 sts. K5.
4th row: As 2nd row.
5th row: K5. P1. *K4. K2tog. K1. yfwd. K2. P1. Rep from * to last
5 sts. K5.
6th row: As 2nd row.
7th row: K5. P1. *K4. K2tog. yfwd. K3. P1. Rep from * to last 5 sts.
K5.
8th row: As 2nd row.
9th row: K5. P1. *yon. K3. Sl1. K1. psso. K4. P1. Rep from * to last
5 sts. K5.
10th row: K10. *P5. K5. Rep from * to last 11 sts. P5. K6.
11th row: K5. *P1. K1. yfwd. K2. Sl1. K1. psso. K4. Rep from * to
last 6 sts. P1. K5.
12th row: As 10th row.
13th row: K5. *P1. K2. yfwd. K1. Sl1. K1. psso. K4. Rep from * to
last 6 sts. P1. K5.
14th row: As 10th row.
15th row: K5. *P1. K3. yfwd. Sl1. K1. psso. K4. Rep from * to last
6 sts. P1. K5.
16th row: As 10th row.
I kept mixing up the yon, yfwd, & yrn. Note to self: Never try so many different new stitches at the same time again.
The original pattern is here:
http://com.yarnspirations.pattern-pdf...
Instead, I'm just doing a regular stitch with a nice multicolor baby yarn & will concentrate on doing the edging. I've never done that before, either. I'm a slow knitter, though. We generally watch one hour TV show during dinner which gives me time to knit one row per night. Sometimes I get in a second, but at this rate the blanket will finish sometime next decade, I think.
I've been working on a scarf with some alpaca yarn I spun up & finally put it down after about 18" because I'm tired of fighting with it. It's got cables running up it, something I wanted to learn how to do, but I'm finding it's a lot of work since I can't seem to memorize the pattern.THE SCARF:
CO 21 stitches. Work 6 rows garter stitch (3 ridges)
row 1: K4, P2, K9, P2, K4
row 2 (and all even rows): K3, P1, K2, P9, K2, P1, K3
row 3: K4, P2, slip 3 stitches to front. K3, then K3 from cable needle. K3, P2, K4.
row 4: K3, P1, K2, P9, K2, P1, K3
row 5: (repeat row 1) - K4, P2, K9, P2, K4
row 6: K3, P1, K2, P9, K2, P1, K3
row 7: K4, P2, K3, slip 3 to back. K3, then K3 from cable needle. P2, K4.
Repeat rows 2-7 until desired length.
Then work rows 1 and 2 one last time.
Finally, finish off with 6 more rows garter stitch, BO, and weave in ends.
I made this yarn bowl 4 years ago out of a hackberry that came down in the north field. The base & bits holder are just some Sugar maple I had around, all stained with my homemade rust stain. The bits holder isn't attached, but I screwed the bowl to the plate. Now I finally have the perfect yarn bowl, handy for both knitting & crocheting. Time is the test. I've tried some of the others I've made, but this has been the best ever!
You knit?! Why would I question that, Jim. You have so many talents. I'm a wanna be knitter and when I look at your instructions my brain just shuts down. My goal is to be able to knit a dish cloth. Simple. However, someone has to start it off for me. Then, as I struggle to knit I think my knitting is wrong - usually after 3 rows and I take it apart.
So, I should come over to your house, plop me in a chair with a beverage, and you can periodically walk by me to see if my rows are even and provide encouragement. Maybe then ...
For now, knitting a small wash cloth is on my list of things to accomplish. :)
I'm not a very good knitter, Linda. I do very simple stuff like scarves & hats. I'm at about the same level crocheting, although I tackled a really ambitious project for that - the Speedy Pony!Speedy was my daughter's pony, the one she used most for Games while in Pony Club. We had him for most of 20 years, but as he approached his mid 30s, it was obvious we were going to lose him soon. Every spring, he shed a LOT as you can see in the picture below. That's just one of several scrapings & he never looked much less furry after we were tired.
I had to mix his fur with a bit of alpaca so it would hang together. It was too slick otherwise. Even so, I had to spin it very tightly & it came out like shedding cactus. No good for the keepsake scarf or hat I wanted to knit, so I figured out how to crochet a stuffed toy instead. His mane provided the mane & tale for the toy.
If you read earlier posts in this topic, you'll see some links to early attempts. I'll warn you, some aren't pretty.
I'm not bad a scarves, so I've knit a dozen or so. I fiddled with different yarns & lots of different sized needles (I just turn them out of scraps in the shop.) but that got boring. I decided to get adventurous & tried a broomstick stitch scarf & quickly found that keeping track of 5 counts of stitches was almost beyond me.
With some trepidation, I moved on to knitting caps in the round. They went pretty well, although I had some awful tapers a couple of times. Still, after a half dozen or so, I got bored & everyone in the family had one, so I looked for something else to do.
Does anyone know of any fairly simple, but practical knitting projects for a tyro to spend his evenings on?