Celebratory Knitting Pattern

Life is good for PurpleBecca, so I'm going to post the pattern for my dinosaur pattern instead of working on my paper that's due tomorrow!

DINOSAUR! Pattern:

I used 5 size 5 double pointed needles and a somewhat chunky nylon/wool blend

legs-on dpns cast on 6 stitches
-slide stitches to other end of needle, pull yarn around back to knit into first stitch
-Continue knitting i-cord for 6 rows
-Turn and purl across
-Turn and knit across
- Continue in stockingette stitch for a total of 6 rows
-Then push stitches to other end of needle and knit in i-cord fasion as before for 6 rows
-Make two of these

Body- Place the flat parts of the legs next to each other, this will be the belly
-Pick up stitches all along the belly, using one dpn for each side. I was able to pick up 3 in the "front", 6 along each side, and 5 in the back. Any differences will just give your dino its own special personality.
-Knit in the round for 5 rows
- transfer a stitch from each side needle on to the front needle (the one that had 3 stitches)
-Knit across side needle, knit last two stitches together on that needle
-Knit two together, knit 1, knit two together on back needle
-knit two togehter, knit across on other side needle
-Turn and purl across all three needles, but NOT the front
-Turn and knit across side needle, knitting last two stitches together
-slip first stitch on back needle, knit two together, pass sliped stitch over (one stitch left on back)
-Knit two together on other side needle, knit across it
-Turn and purl ( front needle is still left out)
- bind off side and back needles....either by 3 needle bind-off:
=place the two side needles together, with an extra needle (you can use the back one by placing a stitch marker through that last stitch) knit into the first stitches on BOTH needles. Do this again, then pass the first stitch on your right needle over the second. Continue this across, finally knitting and binding off that last stitch that was on the back needle.
-alternatively, you could use any bind off method and then sew up the center


Neck and Head
-Cut yarn
- Knit into five stitches on front needle
-knit as an i-cord (see legs) or on 3 needles in the round
-when neck is sufficiently long, knit in the back and front of every stitch, doubling the number, this will require 3 needles.
- knit around
-Increase stitches to form the "nose" Knit in front and back of stitches closest to the front of the animal.
-Knit around
-Knit two together all around
- knit two together all around
- Cut yarn, and thread end on to a yarn needle, string through all live stitches, drawing the head together.

Finishing:
weave in ends, stuff with poly-fil through the slit left in the belly, sew up belly.
You can also stuff the legs, but I just stuck a marble in each leg so he could stand up.

Que voy a ser, je ne sais pas

I took an undeserved break from thesis research/ stressing out to make this little guy. He's somewhat inspired by the girls over at Bach's Bulletins. Holly's commenting on my blog got me to reading theirs and thinking about what I was like in High School. I was really into drawing funny little creatures, especially winged things. So I thought I would try to knit a dragon. Sadly, he has no wings so right how he's a DINOSAUR!

Sorry, I have a tendency to scream the word dinosaur, which by the way is also the name of our band in Rockband 2. Yes, speaking of undeserved breaks, my boyfriend bought me Rockband 2 yesterday as an early (over a month!) birthday present. It is so much fun, and I am ridiculously excited that there are songs from Bikini Kill, The Silversun Pickups, and Talking Heads.



Is this picture a little too obscene?


The title is from a Manu Chau song that is stuck in my head (Me Gustas Tu)...I can really relate to the combination of spanish and french because I'm always mixing them up myself.

More Leaves

I made these with my green yarn from the last post. the leaves are pretty much knit diamonds, then I strung some beads on the ends to stick 'em together and macramed (is that the correct past tense of macrame?) around the beads. My next plan is to crochet around the whole thing with some black and the purple.

I think that its very appropriate that I'm knitting such planty things because I've returned to my old job making botanical mounts for the University of Texas Herbarium, and my thesis is about plant immunity response. Basically, PLANTS ARE TAKING OVER MY LIFE!!!

Dyed Alpaca

I tried dying the alpaca again with much better results. This time I just used the microwave, which is by far the easiest way to go. Especially because we got a new microwave for Christmas last year that MEANS BUSINESS!! That sucker boils water in no time! Anyways...I think that the colors that resulted are well worth the apartment smelling like vinegar and strawberries for a day or so.

These are the before and after photos. We went from a country blue to a cyanobacteria green and a sort of rusty purple. The green was done by adding some teal and sky blue food coloring to about a cup and a half of vinegar, and enough water to cover the top of the skein (about 3 cups). The purple was created with a package of strawberry Kool-Aide, which is so acidic that it doesn't need the vinegar. The green one is still pretty uneven, it is the same skein I tried to dye green by just using a package of powdered lemonade...I did this in the crock pot, which just never seems to give me good results.

How do these images look? I just stuck the yarn in my scanner. I think that it is the most color-true way to take an image.

Thanks for reading...I totally need to be writing a paper about the Portuguese Empire right now!

Kno Knew Knitting

Life is really getting in the way of my knitting lately....I'm starting my senior thesis this semester, taking two classes and working three jobs! If only I had somehow incorporated knitting into my thesis....If only I had majored in fine arts! OK, enough of the "woe is me!"

So the leafy scarf is doing really well in etsy. It has had more views than the first things I posted! If anyone is interested in the pattern let me know and I will make a post about it here.

I tried to dye up some alpaca that I bought at a flea market. I was blue, so I dyed it with yellow to make it green. This did not turn out how I planned it! Because the fiber is sort of fuzzy and tends to stick to itself, the yellow dye only got into the very outside and inside of the (loosely wound) skein, leaving the inside blue still. I'm trying to think of ways to fix it...smaller skeins....using a squeeze bottle to inject dye into the middle...hmmm.

Thanks for reading!

Leaf scarflet

This is what I made over the weekend. The leaves were the starting point...something I made a long time ago and I had always wanted to do something with them. I think I'll make another like it, out of some alpaca I've had stashed away...for me not for etsy.