I made a boo boo in icarus and I need your help

( pictures and plea under cut )

Hey everyone! Hope your not all melting out there!!

I am desgning myself a sweater for fall. I am toying with a few different concepts (which probably means I will have more than one sweater going at a time) and I am running into a a problem, I can't figure out how to make some really wide bell sleeves. Does anyone have a link to a pattern with them that I could look at?

Thanks all!
Jinxsa

( Sari Silk Mitered Square Pillows )

Specs
Pattern: Not a pattern, exactly. I got the idea from Scarf-O-Matic, but carried out the idea a bit differently. Basically, take four mitered squares, each with a base of 48 stitches, and sew them together
Yarn: Three balls of Recycled Sari Silk from GearThatGives.com
Needles: Addi Turbos, Size 9
Other supplies: Three 14" squares of fabric (pillow backs) and three 14" store bought pillow forms
Notes: My friend gave me the yarn as a gift almost two years ago, and I've been waiting for inspiration for just the right project. It was too scratchy to be a scarf or hat, I don't wear ponchos or shawls and I don't use purses (ruling out 99% of all patterns calling for sari silk). At the same time, I really wanted to use it, since it was a gift, and I felt it would be mean to trade the yarn for something else, given that she picked it out because she thought I would really enjoy it.

Mitered squares go really fast and it is kind of fun to watch them take shape and I love the look of them now that they are done, but working with this yarn was just murder on my hands. The inconsistency in the spinning was a pain – there were places where it was so thin I was worried the yarn would snap, and other places where it was knotted together and hard to pull through the loops. There were a lot of random bits in the yarn - hay, string, a fingernail, lots of dirt (had to wash three times before the water stopped turning muddy), so I didn't want to have to buy more of it in order to finish a project. The yarn sheds like crazy, and I'm sure it won't be long before my couch is covered in silk bits. On the bright side, the yarn softened up considerably in the wash (with just a drizzle of Tide), the dye ran a bit, but washing out the dirt actually made the colors seem more vibrant.

More rambling about pillows (mostly the fabric I used for the back) on my blog.

So I've finally finished weaving in all the ends on my Pilar sweater and now I need to stitch it together and crochet around the edges and stuff. The directions for finishing are as follows:

To Make Up
Join side and sleeve seams reversing for cuff turn back. With wrong side of left front facing and 3.00 mm crochet hook work a row of double crochet (single crochet in the US) around neck edge and along top edge of wrap. Fasten off. Sew a button on underside of right neck edge and make a button loop at neck edge of left front to match. Make a 30cm/12in crochet chain and join center of chain to right side seam at waist level. Make a loop on left front edge to match.

This is my first sweater and so I have a lot of questions. First of all, which method for sewing seams do you recommend? I also don't quite understand what she means by reversing the sleeve seam for the cuff. Do I stitch down the shoulder and then when I get to the turned back part go around and stitch the seam on the other side so it doesn't show when the sleeve is turned back? How do I crochet into the edge of a knitted garment? I understand how to do single crochet when there's a chain to crochet into, but there is no chain on a knit piece of fabric. Are there any online tutorials about this? Do I sew the button on with thread or yarn? How should I make the button loop? Should I crochet a chain for it? I don't understand how the 12 inch crochet chains are supposed to work. How should I secure the center of the chain to the sweater? When I put the sweater on, do I tie them together to hold the poncho-ish part back? Has anyone here made this sweater before? Does anyone have a picture of what you're supposed to do with the crochet chains once you attach them?

I'd like to knit one of the santa hats on the knitting.about.com pattern page but there are no listings for stockists in Australia.

The pattern uses 'Splash' and 'Cotton Chenille' wools.

Would anyone be able to tell me what
ply' those wools are and perhaps I could find something simular here.

Last summer I made the honeymoon cami from knitty, and since then I've only worn it about twice. It all worked out very well and I was pleased with the finished product until I put it on - the v-neck is way too plunging for my taste. I saw it in the drawer the other day and decided that it's time to deal with it finally. Has anyone else had this problem and if so how did you fix it (beyond ripping it out that is)?

I was thinking I could do some sort of fancy crochet edge on the front, but my crochet skills are pretty lacking. Also, I've been searching google for crochet edgings, but I'm not sure that any of the ones I saw would work since the edge would have to make a sharp turn at the middle of the neck. Can anyone please suggest a nice (and wide) edge stitch pattern that would work for a v-neck shirt? (I know that's sort of a crochet question, but it's to fix up a knit object so I hoped it would be appropriate.)

Thanks in advance!

It is too hot, plain fact. In my upstairs apartment, all I have are two fans which only make a difference if you plant yourself directly in front of them. So I decided to come down to the library, where there is air conditioning.

Question: Is it ok to knit in the library? I am not 'reading' any of their material, just using the space and the cool air. Is this wrong?

I bought a skein of Rio de la Plata for a scarf for my boyfriends mother. I can't get it to wind at all. I think it's one strand, but it seems to all be tangled and matted together. It's confusing me a lot, and I don't really want to go back to the store and ask what I did wrong. I'm in there all the time and I think they're sick of me :\.

So, any advice?

ETA:

Okay, I am officially kind of dumb. It turns out that the problem of it being tied and me not being able to work it out was temporary, and went away almost immediately. I now have a half wound ball of yarn. Thanks everybody!

( lookie )
hope you enjoyed :)

I'd like to make Knitty's Katja, but I was planning to do it in Classic Elite Provence instead of (the recommended) 2nd Time Cotton (by Knit One, Crochet Too).  Are there reasons that I wouldn't want to substitute mercerized cotton (100% cotton) for a cotton/acrylic blend in a child's garment? Will it stretch hopelessly, or do something else rendering it unwearable?

For those of you that don't know, Webs is having a summer sale - including Debbie Bliss Merino Dk and Aran for $2.50 a skein(on the main page it says the aran is $3.29 but if you click on it, it says it's $2.50 like the DK). They also have closeouts on Noro Kureyon and Silk Garden...

Current Mood: cheerful

My i-cords are never very pretty. is there a trick to making them more uniform. I'm doing some in cotton for my current project, will blocking them help?

GRRrrrr....
I've been DYING to submit my entry for craftster.org's Monthly crafting challenge, "The Tiny Challenge", but the site has been down for maintenence ALL DAY! ARGH!


Here is what I made:
( A Cat Toy! )

Hello, I am going to buy yarn to make the clover lace wrap in SNBN in a few days to celebrate doing well in my calculus 2 summer class. I want to use Peruvian Baby Silk from elann.com its such a good price for alpaca silk and will make a nice cardigan. My only concern is that the baby silk yarn is 2 st per 4 inches more then the yarn that the gauge of the yarn that the pattern calls for. I am afraid that if I go up a needle size or two then the fabric will be too loose. Dose anyone have any suggestion? Will going up one or two needle sizes effect the density of the fabric that much?