Fall & Things

It has finally cooled down here. A little. As in, you may need a light jacket before 10 AM, but by noon, you're back in shorts and a short-sleeved tee. Still, we're trying to enjoy the little bit of Fall that we get here. We're not at the point where we get red and orange leaves, but we have a little color...

Enjoying the last of these

And finishing up some plain and simple socks, which do keep my feet warm when the temperature dips to 70 degrees F (that's 21 C for the non-Yanks).

Pattern: Plain stockinette. Cast on 64 stitches and knit, knit, knit your way to a finished pair.
Yarn: Lion Brand Sock-Ease, color Lemon Drop

Needles: US size 1 DPNs (2.25 mm)

I picked up this super-inexpensive sock yarn in Hobby Lobby one day. It's not Lorna's Laces, but I think a spin through the washer and dryer will soften them up some. Still, for the price, it's not bad yarn at all.

This is my first attempt at a short-row heel. I wanted to try it to avoid that heavy pooling of thick stripes that often happens with striped yarn on a square heel. This tutorial helped me immensely, but I still got holes, so I had to do some hocus pocus (weave in extra yarn bits!) to make them disappear. Not ideal, and I hope the next time I try the short row heel, I won't have holes at all, but I'm okay with it. These aren't show socks, after all -- they're just socks that'll bring a spot of color and warmth to these oh-s0-chilly Fall days (yeah, right).

One more "fall" thing...Fall off the horse? Well, you just have to jump back on.

Lifelines. We haz 'em.

Ripple Ripple

I will fake as if I hate this blanket, and then when her back is turned, I shall nom it.

Pattern: Easy Ripple Afghan
Yarn: A lot of Red Heart acrylic. Yes, acrylic!
Hook: I (5.5 mm)

Ooooh, I love it! This was another of those occasions where I wasn't sure about color. Sometimes, I just don't "get" it while I'm up close and personal with it. But when I look at the photos, I think, yeah, this is nice.

As mentioned above, this is a heckuva lot of Red Heart acrylic. I had a lot of it stashed around the house because when I first started knitting, I didn't know much about fibers and such. I soon found out that I hate knitting with acrylic, but I also didn't make much effort to give it to a good home. (Yarn, if I can't have you, no one can have you.)

When is stash yarn no longer stash yarn? Because all of this isn't stash yarn. I bought the light purple and bright yellow after starting the afghan, which I know defeats the purpose of using up stash. Ah well, the leftovers will go toward my ongoing granny squares.

And this bright delight goes into the playroom, where the kids can curl up under it while reading or watching TV. I thought the vibrant colors were perfect for the kids. I suspect it'll get a lot of use this fall and winter, even though it's very warm today. Still, as soon as they saw I was finished with the afghan, they nearly snatched it out of my hands and ran off with it.

Happy weekend, all!

Home Stretch

Blanket: Two, maybe three (?) more stripes of color, ends to weave in and it's done!

Sock: Poor forgotten sock, second of a pair. I'm now on the toe. How much easier can you get than stockinette? I realized sometime into the first sock that I wasn't crazy about these slippery needles that I bought for making sock work go faster. I actually prefer wood (and to some extent, I guess I prefer "slow").

I don't knit for speed, that's for sure. This makes me very much a process knitter. The next time, I'll knit socks on my trusty wooden needles, turtle speed and all.

Since I'm now on the home stretch for these two WIPs, I should have FOs next week. I hope. Don't hold me to that. Whatever you do, don't make me promise. Maybe I'll surprise all of us.

Just Call Me Stupid...And Idiotic...And Dumb

I'm not someone who fears Mondays. I don't wake up Monday mornings filled with dread. Monday is just another day of the week. Or was.

Yesterday had to be one of the worst days ever and it just so happened to be Monday. I'm not going into a lot of detail (suffice it to say that the day SUCKED) about how it started or how it piled on, but it ended with this.

This is not new yarn.

This is old yarn which was previously Girasole in progress. And what lovely progress it was. I loved the pattern, the yarn was wonderful and once you finish the first chart or two, every other row is straight knitting. Lovely!

And then, I miscounted. On 640 stitches. Without a lifeline.

Yes, stupid stupid stupid I actually worked on a lace project of this magnitude without a lifeline. What was I thinking? And I made it all the way to chart E -- if you're not familiar with this project, chart E is near the end. Only chart F and G follow before you get to the border.

Anyway, if it was a simple matter of one missed yarnover, I think I could've lived with my mistake. But this was a matter of the pattern actually shifting over one space. And I knew I couldn't live with that. I don't tink back lace well at all (especially not without a lifeline! stupid stupid stupid) so I painfully frogged the shawl-in-progress, all the while wishing I was bilingual so that I could verbally abuse myself in more than one language.

Today has to be a much better day.

Playing with Color

Blogging again, in technicolor...

I promised I'd tell you about how crocheting came about for me, so here goes. I forget sometimes that my mom taught me to crochet when I was about 6 or 7. It's easy to forget because she doesn't do anything crafty at all now and doesn't have much appreciation for crafting. Which I find sad. Anyway, I remember she taught me how to make a single chain, but I don't think she taught me anything beyond that. Since she's always incredibly busy, I don't recall her crafting anything else from my childhood.

So a few months back, after telling myself that I wanted to learn to crochet and also telling myself that I didn't have time to learn anything new, I said "what the heck?" and just went online and found videos that would help me. I checked out books from the library and because I already had a few crochet hooks and plenty of yarn, I just sat down one day and did it. And it wasn't hard.

It took me a while to get my tension even, and even now, sometimes I realize I'm sitting in an uncomfortable position and have to fix it, but it took me, what, a day to get the hang of it? And now this whole other world has been opened up to me. I wasn't planning to go full steam ahead with crocheting, but then I saw a Spiderman afghan at Ravelry (where else?) and just had to make it for the Dimpled One, who loves Spiderman. (No pictures yet, sorry -- I told you it's been a mess over here and I've been so lazy about taking pictures.)

Okay, I'm about to stop rambling any minute now. So after the Spiderman afghan, I started making the Clapotis of crochet -- the granny square.

Very first granny square I made -- see I didn't even bother to weave in the ends!

These next photos are of some grannies which I'll eventually join together and make into an afghan for the family room sofa. Nothing fancy because all the kids are going to do is toss it on the floor when they're done using it!

Clearly, the burgundy border is the color I'm using to tie everything together. It takes me a long time to decide when I'm using colors and even after I make a decision, I still second guess myself, usually throughout the entire project. I'm not like this in other areas of my life, so I can't figure out why I'm so unsure when I'm doing something that's only a hobby for me. Good thing crafting is not my job!

This is my budding stack. I don't yet know how many of these colorful little squares I'm going to make before I connect them all.

So that's the tale. Knitting is still going on, though, but I want to finish the ripple afghan first. Got to get this WIP list down to a manageable amount.

Cupcake

Pattern: Cupcake, from Stitch 'n Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker
Yarn: Elann Sonata, Color Aegean Sea
Hook size: I (5.5 mm)
Made for: #1 Girl

When I last posted, I completely forgot that I'd finished this crochet project. How embarrassing! This is Cupcake, my first crochet top, which I made for and is modeled by #1 Girl (who looks way too grown-up in these photos -- I'll figure out a way to reverse time as soon as I have an extra minute!). I followed the pattern exactly, except I shortened the body by about one inch. Otherwise, I'm not too confident yet in my crochet-fu to be messing around with pattern instructions.

I let her choose the yarn color and she picked this vibrant blue. I picked out the ribbon. Green is currently her favorite color, so that's what I went with. I started and finished this in August; I think it took me about 2 weeks to complete. I quickly finished the front and back, but took longer on the sleeves.

Oh, the sleeves! They gave me fits. There's errata for the sleeves, but that wasn't the problem. I followed directions, I guess, but the scalloped edgings kept coming out wonkier and wonkier. I started over about five times. I scoured the photos on Ravelry, too, trying to get some close-ups to see if I was even in the ball park. Finally, I just kind of fudged it and did what worked for me.

The cotton yarn was nice to work with. Smooth and non-splitty. I blocked it, but not on the board like I normally do. I just dunked it in some water and gently stretched it out with my hands and hung it over a hanger. That seemed to do the trick of opening it up more.

Even though fall has started, it's still so hot here, that she could probably get away with wearing it for another couple of weeks.

So, next time, I promise, what made me pick up the hook.

Back, in Color!

Ah, let's just skip the explanations and act as if I just blogged here last week. It'll be so much better that way, trust me.

Actually, like so many of my favorite blogs, I've been on a surprise hiatus -- "surprise" because I had every intention of blogging more regularly and then next thing you know, work piles on, Ravelry sucks you into a vortex of lost hours, you start walking more and enjoying the outdoors, kids need thousands of little things for school, youngsters start preschool for the first time (yessssss!) and books beg to be read. And I looked up and it was already September and I had to look back at this blog to see that it had been May when I last updated.

Crochet Ripple Afghan WIP

Before I talk about this colorful piece of work, I have to divulge how my WIPs just started reproducing on their own. I used to try and keep the number of my projects manageable, only because having too many projects on the needles tends to overwhelm me. Well, color me overwhelmed. I lift sofa cushions and find newly hatched WIPs; they're sprouting everywhere like tribbles. I don't even know how many projects I currently have around and I'm too afraid to count.

Now, to add to the problem of underage WIPs just having babies willy-nilly, I learned to crochet since I was last here. Another hobby?

I'll explain more about how it started next time (if you can wait another five months), but I'm making this afghan for the kids' playroom. It used to be our 4th bedroom, but in a recent fit of clearing clutter, we finally moved the boys into one room and now everyone has a nice playroom they can share. I thought a colorful afghan was a nice touch, for when they want to cover up while reading or watching TV.

I have so much more to say, but in an effort to have something to say next time (and I hope it will be soon!), I'm going to cut this off now, catch up on your blogs and try to talk to my WIPs about having safe & protected intercraft. We don't need any more WIPs around here.

Testing...testing...is this thing on?

What do I say?

Tell them you broke all the bones in your hands, making knitting and typing impossible.

But I've been talking to a few of them to let them know I'm doing all right. That won't work.

All right, tell them Idris Elba finally came to his senses, showed up at your house and swept you away to Hollywood, where the two of you have been ensconced in his private residence, feeding each other chocolates by the handful.

Do you really think if that had happened, I wouldn't have made a major announcement on this blog, complete with pictures? Duh.

Tell them you were abducted by aliens.

Oh sure, that will work. The aliens experimented on me, probed parts I didn't know I had and even let me take my laptop into outer space and send messages. Dummy, that won't work! I'll just be honest...

Things were extremely hectic and while they haven't completely calmed down, I figured I should update my blog while I had a spare moment. The other thing was, while I wouldn't say these last few months were rough, there were a few incidents that interfered with my glass-is-half-full philosophy. Yes, the glass was half full...half full of worms.

BUT I'm back and you didn't think I'd come back without an FO to show, did you? (In all the time I've been away, I should have about 10 FOs, but let's just take what we can get, shall we?)

Pattern: Fancy Silk Sock (Rav link) from Knitting Vintage Socks
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, colorway Red
Needles: US size 1

I really love this sock, but next time I knit socks, I will not do the pointed toe.

I did it this time just to see how it would look. Every time I look at this toe, I feel like singing "You're off to see the wizard..." Or getting back to work in Santa's Workshop.

Other than the toe, this is a really pretty pattern which shouldn't have taken so long to finish. Usually, I don't block socks, but to get the cuff points to lie straight, I had to. Otherwise, they sort of flop over (totally adding to the elf-in-socks experience).

Leg detail

So, while I would love to say it won't be months before you hear from me again, I hate to promise anything and not hold up my end of the bargain. I hope this summer allows for more free time -- if it does, I'll definitely be around more, not just here, but reading and commenting at your blogs, too (thanks, Urban.)

'Til next time...Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the yellow-brick road!

Because This is Still a Knitting Blog

Warning: pic heavy post.

My first FO's of the year!

First up, a quartet of dishcloths. I know some knitters think dishcloths are a waste of time, but I don't. They're useful and usually so much nicer than what you can buy in the store. Plus, you can make them in whatever colors you want. These are for my mother-in-law, who needs dishcloths. Her kitchen is forest green, so I made these cloths in colors that would go with the room.

Pattern: Clover Tweed dishcloth

Pattern: Lace Star cloth

Pattern: Ballband dishcloth (Rav link) from Mason-Dixon Knitting

Needles: US size 7 (4.5 mm)

Yarn: Sugar & Cream, in forest green, white, ecru and cream

I had no trouble with the Ballbands or the Clover Tweed, but my hands were aching while working the Lace Star. It's worked on DPNs and circulars and the cotton was just a pain to work with in the round. Still, it makes for a nice lacy pattern that's very different from the other cloths I did.

Next up, the baby sweater.

Pattern: Baby Poonam (Rav link)

Yarn: Modea Dea washable wool

Needles: US size 5 and 7 (3.75 and 4.5 mm)

This project is so overdue, especially when you start planning it when you find out a baby is coming and you don't finish until after the baby is born!

This is for you, Bekka, or rather your little one. I made it in the 6-9 month size, so I hope it fits and gives little Elsa room to grow.

If I knit this sweater again, I'm going to follow Two Cables n' A Frapp's lead and knit seed stitch as the textural stitch on the back and sleeves. That would make it easier to work the stitches when you're doing decreases on the arms -- instead of wondering how to stick to the pattern in the midst of fewer stitches, you can just knit the purls and purl the knits.

Also, the instructions don't tell you to switch to the smaller needle when doing the front button band, so my front button band is slightly wider than the back one, which is annoying. I was just knitting along; I wasn't thinking. I do whatever the instructions tell me. If Weedinator was smart, he'd write in things he wants me to do in the middle of knitting instructions.

I made a note on the pattern to look out for the band issue in the future because chances are, I will knit this baby sweater again for someone else. It's an enjoyable little project that works for either a boy or a girl (I think). I have more to say, but I'll save it for next time since I want to post here more often and frankly, I think this one has gone on long enough. *whew*

What a Difference a Year Makes

People, I have actually been knitting, nearly every day since this year started. Even if it's only 20 minutes, I've reclaimed my joy of knitting. This despite being very busy with work. This time last year, I was smarting over not getting a job I desperately wanted. 2008 just went downhill from there.

This past New Year's Eve, I waited until midnight to kindly escort 2008 out the door ("don't let the doorknob hit ya..."). On January 1, I woke up feeling very hopeful. After all, a new president would soon take over and you could just feel change in the air. Then, a few days ago, I found out I landed a writing gig that will triple my current salary. So far, 2009 has been wonderful in all the ways 2008 sucked eggs.

Next, if you are (a) a sock toe (b) a baby sweater sleeve (c) a plain ole stockinette sock,

I promise I will finish you. Soon. No, really. Soon. I should have some FOs any day now -- I was afflicted with some incredible startitis that makes it hard to finish anything when I'm working on five WIPs at once. Still...it's 2009. Anything's possible.

Did you want to read this Vogue Knitting? Oh, you want me to move?