CircleVK Mosaic Cross

Welcome to the viewing of Katiebeans's first commissioned piece, the CircleVK Mosaic Cross. After seeing my owl table, my aunt requested a green and maroon cross for her ranch in Texas. The ranch is pretty country-home in decor so I wanted the cross to look rustic.

I ordered a hideous teal colored cross with a wooden dove glued on the front off of ebay. I pried the dove off, chiseling away at the hot glue that was attractively visible around the edges of the dove. $10 well spent. Then I created a design on a paper outline with pre-cut stone mosaic pieces from an art supply store. I applied pre-mixed grout to the cross and pressed on the stone pieces.

I am happy with the result, but the grout is a little too white to feel rustic to me.

I Feel Electric Pink Lumberjack Hat

As I post this post, I am wearing the Electric Pink Lumberjack Hat. Inspired by the fur lumberjack hats walking around this NYC (see right), I, Katiebeans, figured I could make something similar with a little more funk.

The Electric Pink started out as hdc in rounds with increases. The back and earflaps are dc in turns with 2 rows of grey in sc for the faux fur trim. The faux fur front flap is actually a "fur" stitch made using sc around a knitting needle. While I don't normally condone crochet hooks mingling with knitting needles, I was down with the result.

What do you think? Urban Lumberjack? Did I capture the style? The streets may not be ready for the funk yet, but you better believe my apartment is.

Jazz Sleeves (with Thumb Hole)

Katiebeans made these simple sleeves with thumb holes, which are great for fall days. They are the same width throughout. Katiebeans used dc with turns for the ribbed look with a stitched seem and 2 rounds sc on either end. Super easy!

Candy Gossamer Beret

For this slouchy beret, Katiebeans used a pattern for beginners that is very similar to the pattern she first learned years ago to make blankets. Essentially, this beret is continuous rounds of 3 dc in 2 ch sps. After it reached size, Katiebeans did rounds with intermittent dc2tog and sc2tog, finishing with several rounds of sc.
Katiebeans used 2 skeins of alpaca yarn. When she shops for yarn she likes to call it, "alopecia," which makes her look really hip and yarn-savvy in front of the KnitNY employees.

Mossy Beret

Yay, Mossy Beret!


Katiebeans used a fellow blogger's pattern to make this beret out of super chunky yarn. She used a biggo 8MM hook. The pattern, unfortunately, had some mistakes. Katiebeans followed it to a T (for the first time ever with a pattern), but found that the author must have meant 2 ch sp instead of 2dc, which seemed logical. Using this correction, Katiebeans's design came out as planned. However, since she already contacted this blogger about her sweater design, Katiebeans doesn't want to seem like a stalker by contacting her again about her mistakes.

Raspberry Beret

Instead of making IronMartin buy her an expensive beret at Urban Outfitters, Katiebeans made her own using leftover yarn from a blanket she made. Katiebeans started this beret as a beanie, but added extra stitches and tapered at the end. She also switched colors at the band, using a tighter, cheaper yarn so it would grip better on the back of her head. Plus the different colors make it look cooler. This guy is called the raspberry beret.

When Katiebeans sleeps on the blanket, it's like her head disappears.

Iron Martin Beanie

This is a crocheted beanie hat for a guy. Katiebeans used a halfdouble stitch and finished with two rows of a single stitch. Katiebeans does not know much about crocheting, but was able to make this hat following a simple pattern in a children's crochet book. She used 6MM gauge hook. It keeps IronMartin's head warm when he stands next to graffitted walls. The hat is soft and stretchy and IronMartin likes that it is seemless. Since receiving this, Iron Martin has had three + comments from his friends about where he got his beanie. Greedy IronMartin says he must have 2 hats for every one hat Katiebeans makes for his friends. :)