Nasu Poochi (茄 ポーチ)

Hubby wanted a combination of adice bag & dice tray but he couldn't find anything that really suited his needs.  So, I decided that I would try to make one for him.  Using my Chiaogoo 4.5mm (US 7) needles and my Caron Plum Perfect yarn, here's how I made it:

Using this pattern as a guide, knit until I had a total of 96 sts for the base of the bag.

Purl 1 row.

Seed Stitch for 4.5cm (2 5/8 inches) (10 rows).

Purl 1 row.

Cat's Eye Lace (from Up, Down, All Around Stitchtionary bt Wndy Bernard) for 6cm (2.5 inches) (12 rows/3 repeats).

P1, K1 for 1 row.

Bind off.

Change to 3.5mm (US4) needles and create a 3 st i-cord for 70cm (27.75 inches) (151 rounds), weave it through the top lace "holes" to cinch the bag, and sew "ends" together to create an infinity loop.

Make another the base bottom and stitch it to the inside the base to provide more structure as the original bottom was not thick enough.

 

And, here's what it looks like:

Thoughts about this project:

Oh my god ... I thought this would be a quick and easy (one (1) day) project but, noooo ... I was sooo wrong!😳😱😖🤦‍♀️ I had to go through three (3!) patterns plus my own iteration of how I thought I could make the base in order to figure out how to make the base of the bag/tray.😳😖🤦‍♀️ My initial "guesstimate" and the first two (2) patterns kept puckering up in the center so it looked more like a boob than a flat bottom!😖😳😱🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️😭😭😭 It took me four (4!) tries before it sunk in that my cast on simply didn't have enough stitches and I needed to cast on more stitches and simply sew up the center hole, rather than cast on with less stitches and not have a hole (because that was what was causing it to pucker up!).😖🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ But, I did figure it out (finally)!😁🎉🥳🙌 After making the base, making up the rest of the bag was easy.🎉🥳🙌 And now, Hubby has a custom dice bag & tray!🎉🥳🙌👍

Ika (烏賊)

I went to the library today and borrowed a book called Knit Wit by Katie Boyette; I was perusing through it and simply fell in love with her Squid pattern and simply HAD TO make it.  With my Chiaogoo US8 (5.0mm) needles and Caron Plum Perfect yarn, here's how it went: In general, I followed the pattern with just a few small tweaks (& corrections to the pattern):

 

For the body, you need to knit 17 rows after the final increase (or else the head will seem way too small); then after the final decrease, I decreased another 6 sts, knit 1 row, decreased another 6 sts, knit 2 rows then increased 12 stitches and knit 1 more row to set up for the leg portion.  

 

For the legs, I pretty much followed the pattern except for the 3rd repeat, it says to KFB but it's suppose to be Ktog and for the first, third and fifth legs, I decreased one more time before binding off and for the second, fourth, and sixth legs, I knit 2 more rows then decrease one more time before binding off. 

 

For the fins, the instructions provided seemed too small for my Ika (烏賊) so, I messed around and here's how I made my fins:

Cast on 6 sts and join in the round.

K2, M1, K2, M1, K2 (8 sts)

Knit 2 rows

K3, M1, K2, M1, K3 (10 sts)

Knit 3 rows

K4, M1, K2, M1, K4 (12 sts)

Knit 3 rows

K5, M1, K2, M1, K5 (14 sts)

Knit 3 rows

K4, K2tog, K2, SSK, K4 (12 sts)

Knit 3 rows

K3, K2tog, K2, SSK, K3 (10 sts)

Knit 3 rows

K2, K2tog, K2, SSK, K2 (8 sts)

Knit 2 rows

K1, K2tog, K2, SSK, K1 (6 sts)

Bind off

For the tentacles, since my Ika (烏賊) was just not quite like the one in the book, I had to modify this as well.  So, I did a 4 st icord instead and doubled the tail portion as follows:

KFB 4x (8 sts)

K

K1, KFB, K4, KFB, K1 (10 sts)

K 4 rows

K1, K2tog, K4, SSK, K1 (8 sts)

K

K1, K2tog, K2, SSK, K1 (6 sts)

K

K1, K2tog, SSK, K1 (4 sts)

K

K2tog, SSK (2 sts)

Bind off.

 

And here's what it looks like finished:

Braided Rug

Remember when I had made a pair of zooris for myself and Hubby?  Well, the rope I used for the frame was simply too hard and over time, the zoori itself was very uncomfortable. 😔😭😖 So, it sinply sat in my closet with the rest of my zoori material until I could figure out a better frame.  Now that I had some free time, I was looking over my zoori stash.  I actually have quite a bit of material.  If memory serves me correctly, I think I had initially envisioned make a pair of zoori for everyone in my family (for both sides).  But seeing that my frame wasn't very comfortable and I haven't been able to find anything comparable, it now seemed like a far fetched idea to make something most of my family wouldn't want to use (heck, even we didn't want to use it!😖🤦‍♀️).  So, I thought: what if I braided a frame "rope"??🤔🤔🤔 And then proceeded to do so.  Once I made 2 frames, I coiled it up into the frame shape and stepped on it.  It was actually quite soft and almost the right feel as the rope I was looking for.😱🥳 Then I mulled over how I wanted to actually weave the body.  Typically, you just use the material to weave but I had found that it just felt too thin.  So, since I was on a braiding kick, I decided that I would also braid a small length to see how that would feel as part of the bottom. Once I had my sample length, I just placed both the frame and the sample length over each other and discovered that it was quite soft and squishy.😳👍 However, I was still mulling over if I really wanted a pair of zoori, especially now that I wasn't working anymore.  Did I really need it??🤔🤔🤔 After some discussion with Hubby (and, having him step on the braids), I suggested that I make a braided rug for under our futons (we have a bunch of blankets under them right now for some additional cushioning) as I thought it would be a better use of the materials and we'd still have something useful out of it.  He said that was a good idea and it'd allow me to learn something new.👍😊

So, I borrowed the only two (2) books I could find at the library (How to Make Braided Rugs by Sally Clarke Carty and The Braided Rug Book by Norma M. Sturges) and started my journey.  Interestingly enough, it seemed very basic and there wasn't much to it (it is afterall, an old handicraft).  I could even be fancy and try to do a pattern. Since I was still figuring out how to make one, I decided that the most challenging thing I'd like to tackle is just making sure the colours were matching enough and that I would be able to actually make the rug.

I took out all of my material, deconstructed our zooris (& washed the matetials), and proceeded to make colour & fabric type piles in the living room.  I sorted everything out by colour & print (I kept all the same print together in the pile). I couldn't decide if I really wanted to mix it all up or if I should just do it the lazy way and just make it light to dark (or vice versa).  Hubs came out to check out the explosion in the living room and suggested that I should make it easy for myself, keep all the same prints/fabrics together and go from light to dark.  So that what I did and here's how it turned out:

All in all, it took me two (2) days to braid everything together so, it wasn't so bad.  It also helped that I wasn't trying to make something super big - just whatever it came out to be using what I had.  I'm happy about how the colours turned out.🥰🥳  While actually braiding it wasn't too hard, there were times it felt like it was never ending (why?! were some of them cut into soooo many short pieces?!!!😱😖😳🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️) as I needed to keep "connecting" some of the fabrics but overall, it wasn't a terrible ordeal. 😥  

However, it took me four (4) days to actually sew it together. It was initially so hard to sew it together! 😱😭😖😵‍💫🤦‍♀️ It didn't help that I was trying to sew it on the floor and used the wrong type of needle to sew it up with for most of the black portion. I finally gave in and used a much larger needle when I finally got to the brown portion so, it got a little easier from there. Since I struggled with the black portion, I actually was so achy and sore from all that intense hand sewing (I was sewing it on the floor), it took me two (2!!😱😭😖😵‍💫🤦‍♀️) days to recuperate before I could even think about getting back to it again. And, even at that, it took me another week or so before buckling down to try again. On the second day, I moved to the table so while it was still slow going, it was much easier to sew; I finished the red & orange colours. On the third day, I finished the tan & blue-green colors but found my thumbs to be very sore as sewing through the knitted polyester material was really tough.😔😖😥 On the fourth day, I powered through the remaining cream, white & blue colours. And, here it is, in its full sewn glory:

As a whole, it seems pretty "cushiony" and hopefully it'll work well under our futons.🤞🙏  If it doesn't pan out (like our zooris 😳🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️), I'll just donate it since maybe someone out there could use a rug.