Hair, Hats and Hands.

HAIR!!!

I didn't have enough of the white fluffy mystery yarn for Gandalf's hair, so I had to bight the bullet and get a whole skein of it. The good side to this is I found out what it is!

Jiffy! 100% Acrylic. color-fisherman.

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his hair, eyebrows and beard!

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HAT!!!

Here is the yarn that I found for Gandalf's Hat. Mystery yarn once again.

I'm pretty sure that it has wool in it though...

The crown of the Hat. I put a strip of seed st. in because I thought it needed a little visual interest.

Knitting the Brim...Just looking at this hat you would think that it would probably be rather easy, right?

HA, ya that's a joke. 

It was the most aggravating of what I have done so far.

My hands are still sore from this thing. Not to mention that I had to rip out and start over at least 3 times!!

But, good things come to those who wait..Right?

You see that little bit of yarn? that 1/4''?

Ya, that is all that's left of the yarn.

My Dad can tell you that it was rather intense around here when I was binding off...

before blocking.

After blocking.

It's a little wavy-er then I had wanted. But it gives it more character.

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HANDS!!!

I had no idea how I would knit the hands with fingers. So I'm knitting them like mittens.

The finished hand.

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Hands , Hat and Hair all together.

Here's the back, so far.

I love the little yellow patch on his butt...

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I don't have the yarn for his boot's yet, so those are going to have to wait.

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Happy Knitting~

Kacie

Gandalf the Grey.

PROGRESS!

Finally things are starting to come together!

Cascade Yarns, 100% Peruvian highland wool (color) Jet. Really nice yarn. I will use this brand again!

I had this yarn left over form a Christmas gift project last year. I thought it would be perfect for Gandalfs pants.

I made the pants a little short because he will have tall black boots on. So the legs will be about 2'' longer then what is pictured.

It took me an afternoon to knit. Really simple!

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Then I decided that I would use that lovely 'Silky Wool' to make Gandalf a sweater to wear underneath his cloak.

The books never SAY that he wears a sweater. but I thought that since he is in the shape of an old man that travels ALOT, he would need something warm on underneath his cloak. Plus I'm also pulling inspiration from the idea that Tolkien wanted LOTR to be a sort of mythology for England. When I think of old English gentlemen, I always picture them wearing sweaters...why? I really don't know..

So, what type of sweater do I think Gandalf would wear?

Aran, of coures! Well, Aran inspired...

I have never done aran, and I have no patterns for it, so I just kind of winged it...

The pattern is just a simple cable,(p2), 2 wheatear ( that's what one of my books calls it..I don't know if that is really it's name.)side by side,(p2), simple cable.

The back.

Picking up st. for the neck.

Neck completed.

The sleeve's.

the Finished sweater!

I have never really knitted a sweater before, so I'm sure that how I knitted it is all wrong. but for all that it turned out really well! I am VERY happy with how well it all came out :)

It took me about two days to knit this.

there's that skeleton!

this is before I stuffed him.

sewing him up.

I used invisible thread. which, By the way, is some pretty awesome stuff!

that's all for now!

Happy Knitting~

Kacie

A quick note on "pipe cleaners"

Chenille. French word for caterpillar.

I grew up calling them "Pipe cleaners'' so I never understood WHY they are called chenille stems!

then I looked up Chenille in my Dictionary of costume and fashion. Ya, okay I can see the fuzzy caterpillar thing, but it's still ingrained in my head that they are called PIPE CLEANERS!!!! SO from now on I will refer to them as pipe cleaners.

I know that I said that I would only use thread ( of any kind ) for this project ( plus stuffing... )

I forgot to say that I will also be using pipe cleaners. I want the figures to be opposable.

Plus the pipe cleaners give an added stiffness to the "Dolls"

Heres' the skeleton of Gandalf.

There you go, a Quick note on pipe Cleaners.

 happy knitting~

Kacie

Ibuprofen and old lace.

I thought I would share with you the only project that I was able to work on when I was reeeeaaaally sick.

I am half way done already

( don't think that I started this last week and got all this done. I started it last month. )

A lace shawl!

One of My brother's is getting marred in June and I wanted something to cover my shoulders during the reception.

Here's the book that I am using.

Knitted Lace of Estonia. I am doing the Lilac Leaf shawl.

I got it for Christmas. well, my Dad got me a gift card, then I got this book.

I really love this book. I learned a lot about Estonia, and once you get the hang of what your supposed to be doing, it's not that bad!

And this is the yarn that I'm using.

Aracania 100% Mercerized Cotton, color- Lonco solid.

I got two skeins of it. I have already wound the first one. Let me tell you, if you EVER get this yarn have the yarn shop WIND IT FOR YOU!!

It was a nightmare trying to wind this stuff! I would love to meet one of the little old lady's in Chile who wound this stuff, just to see what she was thinking! It took me three days to wined this stuff. I took this skein in to have the yarn shop do it for me :)

having said that. I love working with this yarn. it has great texture. I wasn't sure how it would do with the lace pattern, being Cotton, but it has a lovely silken quality to it.

Now you know what I do when I'm not working on LOTR.

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Happy Knitting!

Kacie

Starting at the top, or the Bottom?

First, I just want to say that I am sorry for not posting last week. I have been battling a rather NASTY cold...

Know, Since that's out of the way.

I have begone one of the heads. I know that I had said that I wanted to start with a Hobbit, But since the yarn was larger, it made the finished head larger (duh..)

So I'm starting with Gandalf instead!

The heads are knitted from the bottom up and the chin is created from working inc's and dec's.

(I had taken pictures of the process, but I had a few issues with the delete button...)

here is the finished head next to the sample.

yesterday I was able to go to the yarn shop to get some yarn!

I love going to yarn shops. It's just so soothing, you're surrounded by warmth and color. When you're in a yarn shop, All is right with the world. The only thing I DON'T like about yarn shops would be the prices..

You'll be looking at the cutest little "baby skein" and you'll nearly keel over when you see the price tag of $25.99(or more). For that itsy-bitsy bit of yarn. Well, at least if I can't BUY it they let me touch it :)

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here is the Skein that I got

Yes, I had taken a picture of the skein before I wound it, but that stupid delete button......

elsebeth lavold, Silky Wool, designers choice.  (ooohh, Designers Choice!! fancy)

it's 45% Wool, 35% Silk, 20% Nylon = 100% lovely feeling!

At first I got it, thinking it would make a great beard ( it does have a great beard "feel" to it..)

Until I researched Gandalf....And I realized that he's beard is white. Not grey...

Oh, well. I am going to use it for his cloak instead.

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But now I have the problem of what am I going to use for his beard?

Last night I looked in my bowl of yarn ( that's another post...) and I found a length of this

It's all that I have left from a project that I did last year, so I really don't know WHAT it is, but it's just perfect for what I want.

 The only problem that I might have is I don't know if I will have enough of it...

I also found some blue that might work for his hat!

Gotta love thoughs bits o' yarn that you think you will never use. When one day you find that they are perfect for what ever you need it for!

Well, thats all I have to say for now. So I'm off to go beard a wizard!

Happy Knit(bearding)ting~

Kacie

 

I know, this isn't a food blog....

well, this has nothing to do with to knitting F.Y.I.

since Monday my dear Mother has been coming down with a rather bad cold and today she was quite ill :(

so, when that happens I become the mommy of the house. I take care of the dog, I make food for my Dad, so on,so on...so tonight at around 4:30 I had NO clue what to fix for dinner. so I looked in the cook books, and I thought "whats better for some one to eat when they have a nasty cold then chicken noodle soup?"

I, being Gluten Free makes this rather an interesting meal to try and fix since I can't eat normal noodles. I got on the Internet and searched for recipes for noodles, and I found one for egg noodles.

so I made up a batch.

the completed soup.

and as quick as that, its all gone!!!

it was so very yummy! from 5:00 Pm. to 6:00pm I had made a completely home made chicken noodle soup (including making the noodles to boiling the chicken!)

like the title says, yes I do know that I didn't start a food blog but this was the first tme I had ever MADE noodles, and I had to share!!!

Happy Cooking AND eating!!~

Kacie

The begining.

I have decided to knit with as much "good" yarn as I can. which means I am going to have to piece-meal this as much as I can. I can't really buy five hanks of yarn at $10 a hank....

I got my first skein on Saturday!

when I was ready to purchase the lady at the counter said(as they always do :) "so, what are you going to make?"..Me; ummm,well *cough**cough*,umm, I'm going to knit characters from The Lord of the Rings..."

she gave me that blank stare that they gave me when a few months back I asked if they had size 8/0 needles. (that's really,really small sized needles, about the size of sewing needles...)

Heres the Skein!

Debbie Bliss Cashmerino aran. mmmmmm. Yummy, isn't it?

I thought I would start with the skin tone yarn first.

It's a bit larger of weight then I really wanted for the facial features, but the smaller stuff was $2 more and I didn't get as much.

I LOVE how this yarn feels though and I can't wait to use it!

I have already started with some of my samples. I don't really want to use my nice yarn for formulating my pattern......

so I used some pld stuff that I had on hand.

Can you see the face?!?!

I used sport weight yarn and size 2 needles. it's just a mock-up, so its not perfect, but it's a start.

I am thinking that I will start with the Hobbits then go to the larger Man size.

I'm thinking that this will be one of thous projects that never really ends. who knows? I might still be knitting Gollums and Dwarves when I'm in my 40's!

that's all for now

Happy Knitting!~

Kacie.

welcome Lord of the Rings/ Knitting junkys!

Hello my friends!
one day I had pure moment of inspiration. My Mother has a large bit of credit also. we where looking at a knitting book and saw a picture of a knitted spider and I said- " MOM! I could knit Shelob!!" (I, being an avid Lord of the rings fan) and she took it one step farther by saying- " well, why don't you knit some of the other characters to?".......
Where would I be without my amazing Mom?
So, I thought; well, if I'm going to knit characters from LOTR I should start a blog to share with people who are also knitters who enjoy the occasional LOTR fest! So here we are!

    I guess you could say I'm a closet fan....

Ha...Ha....

here are a few books that I will be going of for inspiration-

Guide to Tolkien World

A Bestiary

it's amazing! if you ever wanted to know what a Huorn was, or if you want to know where wizerds come from, it tells you!

the Lord of the Rings books!

I am going to go off of the books not the movie. not that I don't love the movies! don't get me wrong. I just want the "dolls" to be as close to the books as I can get them.

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here are some of my criteria for this adventure-

MUST be hand made!!!

the only material that I can us ( other then the stuffing...) must be yarn or thread of some kind.

pieces may be sewn together. I.E. clothing ext..

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well, I think that does it for my first post!

happy knitting!

Kacie