Kim's Crochet Blog

Christmas has come and gone with a touch of handmade gifts of all varieties. Knitted and crocheted gifts included:

• Valley Yarns purple mobius cowl for my SIL- knit
• Wavy scarf for my MIL- knit
• Mushroom fingerless mitts for my nephew- knit
• Gold fingerless mitts for a friend- crochet
• Gold headband for the same friend- crochet
• White sparkley unicorn for my niece- crochet
• Tunisian diamonds scarf for a friend- tunisian crochet

There were several adventures along the way of most some of the projects.  Starting with the Valley Yarn mobius, that one I knitted twice!  It was a revisit of the mobius pattern I’ve previously made for myself.  I am completely in love with this cowl and during the fall and winter I’m nearly always wearing it.  I wear it out with my coat and inside to take some of the bite out of the air.   I find that it is so versatile for indoor/outdoor wear.  Since I can wear it double or single around my neck I also get two levels of warmth without looking silly wearing a scarf inside.  I had a couple skeins of Valley Yarns Berkshire Bulky made of wool and alpaca left over from my purple sweater project.  From the couple times I’ve worn the finished sweater I’ve discovered the yarn is fantastically warm!  My SIL works from home and her studio can be pretty darn cold so I thought that a snuggly cowl would probably fit the bill nicely.  After knitting it the first time I cast off too tight and it wouldn’t go around my head to wear it doubled.  I recast it with about 10 to 15 more stitches than it called for and also made sure to cast off nice a loosely.  That worked out nicely.

The fingerless mitts for my nephew were the next installment in his collection of knitted/crocheted Super Mario themed gifts from me (starting with the Super Mario Blanket that started this blog!).  I had never knit gloves before so I knew it would have a bit of a learning curve.  I thought I could easily turn the fingerless mitt pattern found at Vickie Howell’s blog into mittens, but after finishing off the top of the mittens and having added the mushrooms to each mitt I realized I don’t know the slightest thing about knitting a thumb!  I decided to just crochet a thumb but it was a bit obvious I didn’t really know what I was doing.  Since it is winter there are several drives in the area for scarves, gloves and hats so I just donated them.  Second try I decided to just stick with the pattern with only one minor adjustment of shortening the wrist portion.  This project was my first time using a duplicate stitch method to create an image on a knitted fabric.  My nephew loved them!

The other Christmas projects went off without a hitch for the most part.  The Wavy scarf was a project that came about when I had one of those extreme itches to knit or crochet something, anything.   I had the project added to my queue at Rav for nearly a year and decided it was high time to cast on.  I went to Joann’s with this project in mind and purchased 2 yarns, Lion Brand Tweed Stripes, only to get home and realize I needed 3 yarns!  Luckily I had a random skein of purple acrylic, Loops & Threads Impeccable, I had purchased previously that was nearly the same weight.  I hadn’t gotten my Knit Picks interchangable needle set yet which was a problem when I discovered that I didn’t have the right size needles.  I was determined to start this project regardless.  The needles were one size smaller than they should have been and unless you’re a knitter you probably can’t tell.  It’s a fun pattern and you get the hang of it quickly.  Some nice variegated yarns are perfect for it or just 3 different colors to really emphasize the waving.

I’m currently on bed rest to avoid some issues in my pregnancy.  The baby is doing great at 4 pounds which is right on target for where I am in the pregnancy.  I’ve had several issues with episodes of strong Braxton Hicks contractions, which are like practice contractions.  I’ve had a couple trips to labor and delivery to have my contractions monitored.  After my first visit to the hospital for dehydration while having a cold I’ve seriously upped my water intake from maybe a cup or two all the way to eight to fourteen cups a day.  One of my bed rest issues is low amniotic fluid so I’m now going to try and drink even more water!  I used to hate drinking water and now I feel odd when I don’t have a glass in reach.  Another upset in what was an easy pregnancy was a diagnosis of gestational diabetes.  I’ve been monitoring my blood glucose level 4 times a day for 2 weeks now and it seems like the diagnosis isn’t one I need to be too concerned about.  I’m managing it very, very well with diet and can’t wait to talk with the nutritionist this upcoming Wednesday.  Thanks to my mom and several friends my GD diet has been easy to make and keeps me full.  I’ve also been tracking all my meals using a website called Babyfit.com so my nutritionist will get a very detailed report of the diet I’ve created for myself.  Hopefully only a couple tweaks are necessary.  One perk of bed rest is the opportunity to update my blog (oh so long overdue) and knitting and crocheting more stuff!  I’m currently done with 3 projects and am on the hunt for new ones.

I finally finished the 15 stitch gift ghan for my sister’s wedding present on the day before the wedding; September 2nd!  I even worked on it right in the presence of the happy couple, but since it’s not unusual to see me knitting or crocheting I knew they would think nothing of it.  My sister and I had a good laugh when she figured out that I had been working on it right in front of her eyes.  They really loved the gift and I hope that they’ve had some cool days to try it out.

My goal had been to make it the size of a twin bed at the very least.  I didn’t actually take any measurements after completing it which was a bit silly of me.  It didn’t reach that size, it’s about big enough for one person to use length wise from head to toe.  In the last couple knitting weeks I got quite tired of working on it and so progress slowed.  I still averaged 1 skein a week though so I didn’t let myself slow down too much.  I used 10 full skeins and a very small portion of an 11th skein of Red Heart Collage Tundra.  After so many skeins I still thought the yarn was decent and still liked the color.  I would use Collage again for sure, which is good since I think I have 2 or 3 skeins still floating around.  I’ve used the left over skein to crochet a baby hat and a baby wrap cardigan.  The yarn crochets nicely as well, I love the slow color changes.

The blog has been quiet for a couple reasons, one is that I was just knitting that blanket and nothing else.  Another is I was teaching art at a summer camp which consumes a lot of my time; I was up at 5am, out of the house by 6am and home around 6pm, bedtime at 9pm.  This summer I was even more exhausted than the 2 previous summers.  On July 14th I figured out why I was so much more exhausted; I’m pregnant!  This upcoming Tuesday, the 27th, I will be at 16 weeks.  Baby will be here around mid-March next year.  We are very excited!  Of course, this means time to queue up lots of baby patterns on Ravelry.  I’ve told my Monday night knitting group and they are very excited to get to knit baby items again.  One of the other group members just had her baby in July so baby projects are still fresh in everyone’s memories.  I’ve queued up lots of stuff on Rav for the knitting group to peruse and pick from.  I’ve saved a couple for myself as well.  We don’t know 100% yet what we’re having so I’m waiting to make stuff after our 20 week scan in October when we should be able to find out the sex.

Now that the afghan project is done I’ve just been hovering between projects, filling my time with crocheting Snuggles for the Snuggles Project.  I haven’t found any projects that are begging for me to start them, and those that are require knitting needle sizes I don’t have yet.  I’ve purchased the KnitPicks Harmony interchangeables but am still awaiting their arrival.  Waiting is hard when you know there are projects to work on!

I’ve started a scarf that has been in my Rav queue since November ’10 called the Waving Chevron Scarf.  I had some good coupons for Joann’s and picked a project from my queue to shop for.  Luckily, not all the yarn was on sale so I was able to use my coupon on the skeins I bought.  But as I’ve just said, I don’t have the correct size needles for the yarn I’ve picked.  The yarn calls for 6mm and my closest size is 5mm.  I’m trying it out to see if it’ll work but I can see that it is noticeably too small a size because the 5 or so inches of scarf I’ve knit so far bulge a bit and won’t sit flat.  I’m going to keep work on it t see if maybe it’s just because it’s still too short.  This is my first time working with Lion Brand Tweed Stripes and Michael’s new line called Impeccable.  All three are acrylic yarns.  The LB Tweed is considered a bulky yarn and the Impeccable is a worsted.  So far I like working with them; they slide nicely along my bamboo needles.  The pattern calls for 1, 3 or more yarns to create the desired effect.  I didn’t realize that at the time I purchased the yarns, hence the 2 Tweeds and 1 Impeccable.  I prefer to use 3 of the same brands of yarn just to prevent the headache of having to find yarns of a comparable weight.  Luckily, I had the Impeccable from a previous shopping trip and the color goes with the other two.  The weight is similar enough I think.  I’m just itching to do a more serious project than Snuggles that I couldn’t wait to start so I wasn’t going to slow things down by putting off the project until I had another Tweed that would function as a 3rd color.  I suppose I could have just worked with 1 color skein but that wasn’t going to satisfy me either.  So, as my husband says, it is what it is.  If I change my mind after knitting a couple more inches so be it.

Last week there was a bit of star theme in my crocheting.  I learned two new things via the wonders of YouTube.  I hesitate calling 2 things a theme but keep thinking back to middle school math where I learned I can draw a line with two points.  So here is my line with a star theme.

I have watched several crochet tutorials by Mikey (aka The Crochet Crowd) and there was one that always stuck around in the back of my mind; a crochet blanket in the shape of a star that can be any size you choose depending entirely on when you stop.  I thought this would make a fantastic Snuggle for The Snuggles Project.  The video titled “How to Crochet a Super Star Baby Afghan” was easy to follow.  I opted to start my beginning ring with a magic ring so I could cinch it really tight and not leave a gap in the middle.  I think it leaves a more finished look for this project.  The star is made up of double crochets so it grows quickly!  I used up a bunch of scrap balls of yarn and contrasted the colors with some black to make them pop.  I finished my star the same day.  It has a great shape and lies flat.  So many crochet stars end up with unpointy points and then look more like flowers than stars.  The pattern has 3 chains in the points allowing for more of a star point shape.  The pattern is also easy to memorize as was proven by the starting of 4 more star Snuggles while subbing the last week!

I haven’t Snuggled in a while and was starting to feel a bit bad about that.  I know it’s a charity and I haven’t promised anything to anyone but I still feel like it is something worth my while.  I love the opportunity it gives me.  I can learn new things, use up scraps of yarn, give my time to cats that do not have their families yet.  It’s a bit odd to think about my Snuggles and wonder where they are now.  Are people enjoying them?  Have they been used well and withstood the use?  Do the cats like them?  Have the cats who have a Snuggle in their shelter cage been adopted?  Did my Snuggle make them seem more adoptable somehow?  The last question is the one I’d really like to have an answer to, but if I never get one I’ll be fine.  As long as I can find a shelter that appreciates and uses the Snuggles I’ll continue making them.  I’ll probably schedule another delivery soon.  I’m pretty sure I have over 12 Snuggles in a bag waiting for me.  Add these 5 stars and it’ll be a nice bounty once again.

The second point in my line is the star stitch.  Back in the fall I downloaded a pattern for fingerless gloves that were made using the star stitch.  I tried following the written directions for the star stitch and got all befuddled.  Needless to say those fingerless gloves were never made.  The star stitch still haunted me.  It’s so delicate and different than other crochet stitches.  So while watching the Super Star Baby Afghan video something in the suggested videos got me thinking about looking up a tutorial on YouTube for that too.  So from the star blanket I moved onto the star stitch.  I used a very scratchy white Red Heart yarn which was terrible to work with in color and texture but the stitch still turned out beautifully.  I chained 24 just as in the tutorial and used a large hook, a J maybe.  This sample turned out the right size for a Warm Up America block.  By pure coincidence I was working on both of my charities!  The YouTube tutorial “Crochet Star Stitch” was made by Teresa from the channel The Art of Crochet and the blog The Art of Crochet by Teresa.  A couple days before I had started a Snuggle that was just going to be a mix of different stitches and I decided to practice a row of star stitch.  It worked out nicely and gave the Snuggle some interesting texture.  The Snuggle was made using Caron Simply soft, a big contrast to the Red Heart I had used the first time.  The Caron has a bit of a sheen to it which highlights the star stitch nicely.  The softness of the yarn also made the stitch itself go much faster and smoother!   All in all I was very happy with it.  I think that alternating the star stitch with a row of single or double in between might be really nice.  The star stitch is made using two rows and the wrong side is a bit different than the right side.  Some proper calculations will be necessary and of course good old counting (who does that? Not me)!

My purple sweater took a break.  I finished all the parts to it but discovered that I had cast off the armpits too early due to a miscalculation.  I’ve knitted 2 small strips that I’m sewing in.  After all the bits are seamed I’ll have to see what I can understand about making a finished collar around the neck.  I’ve had the project laying on the couch and Onyx has attempted to  knead it much to my dismay.  I kept a pillow over it if I wasn’t there, but if I’m on the couch I usually use both throw pillows which means the sweater is left exposed.  I moved it to the coffee table thinking that would work with minimal effort but she still managed to discover it.  Finally my husband was the smart one and put the whole thing into one of the storage ottomans which was what I should have done at the beginning.  Hopefully the sweater has only sustained an unnoticeable bit of pulling of fibers.  I picked it up again yesterday thinking I really should just get it finished.  Maybe tonight.

This evening I was knitting my purple sweater, wearing the finished sleeves to fend off the chill in the evening air, and thinking about the blog.  All week it was on the To Do List and I just never got to it.  A couple times I sat down at the computer to write but nothing came.  Spring is in the air but we still haven’t had consecutive warm days that make it seem like it’s here to stay.  The mornings and evenings can have quite a bite to them still.  So knitting my sweater doesn’t seem completely off base.  If I hurry I can wear it at least once this spring.

The sweater has given me some headaches.  The language is a bit awkward for a ‘first time’ knitter.  I got really stuck here:

When piece measures 33-34-35-36-37-38 cm [13''-13 3/8''-13¾''-14¼''-14½''-15''], cut the thread. Now continue as follows: Beg after the 15-17-20-23-26-29 st from the first MT. Work 14 sts front band – see above – and stockinette st on the next 74-82-94-106-118-130 sts. Now pick up 14 new sts behind the front band = 102-110-122-134-146-158 sts.  [ DROPS Jumper Pattern here ]

Thank goodness for Ravelry as it saved the day.  Between envisioning the knitting, rewriting the directions how I understand them, talking to folks on the forums, and looking at notes made by other people on the same pattern I finally got that part figured out.  One thing I learned is that I may want to rewrite the DROPS pattern so I don’t get lost in it all.  All the different numbers for the sizes and whatnot really, really distract me, to the point where I forget what I was reading about before the list of numbers.  I end up doing a lot of reading aloud to help myself get a grasp of it.  I even act it out a bit.  LOL.  I’ve also been using a notebook and just writing my version down for myself there.  It’s so much easier to follow!  The above section looked a bit more like this:

When piece measures 33cm cut thread.  Continue as follows:

Begin with new thread after 15th st from 1st marker.  Work 14st of front band and stockinette in next 74st.  Pick up 14 new st behind front band.  88+14=102st.  Continue back and forth on needle with 14 front band st on each side.

Now in my notebook I have each direction as a bulleted note so that it’s even faster for me to find where I am.  Sometimes paragraphs and I just don’t get along.

For the sleeves I had to either buy myself some size 11 double pointed needles(also known as DPNs) or learn how to do the magic loop for knitting(which is nothing like the magic loop for crochet!).  I decided I have 2 sets of size 11 needles, 1 with a 32″ cable so the magic loop would do for me.  I went to my favorite knitting learning site, KnittingHelp.com,  and watched the video several times for the magic loop as it was throwing me for a loop!  After knitting about 10cm of the sleeve I decided that it was too large in diameter for me so I pulled it all out.  Then I decided that now I’ve got a handle on the magic loop I should knit BOTH sleeves at the SAME time on the magic loop!  I was feeling pretty proud of myself for deciding the tackle that within 24 hours of learning the magic loop.  This time I refered to Liat’s video YouTube to see how one would do 2 things with the magic loop.  I made my notes with all the new numbers and worked it all out.  I was feeling some math love when everything worked out on paper and again when it worked out on the needles.  The sleeves have a bit of a gap where the magic loop causes tension between the 2 ‘sides’ of the circle but it’ll do.  I’m pretty sure that my sweater will be a ‘lazing-around-the-house’ thing anyway.  If I had a couple more stitches on the sleeves there may have been slightly less tention between the sides.  Doing the two at the same time worked out nicely since I could just do the same thing to each at the same point; if I increased on one I’d do it to the other too, less note taking that way.  I am quite happy and impressed with myself, which is probably why I wore them while working on the sweater back tonight.

After some diliberation I decided to pull out what I had done on the left and right of the sweater front.  I had attempted to understand when to decrease but not with the right results.  I took my new sweater-knitting-confidence and ripped it out to where I first cast off 6 stitches to make the bottom of the arm holes.  This was a bit unnerving as knitting doesn’t behave like crochet; instead of one live loop there are many stitches that can slip out at the slightest wrong move.  I put the sweater on a pillow on my lap to give it an even surface and ripped.  Since the yarn is so bulky it went fine.  Phew!  I don’t think I picked up the stitches correctly though, so one side has twisted stitches.  Oh well, like I said ‘lazy-around-the-house’ thing.  I looked at my notes, rewrote them and have reknitted both sides.  All that’s left now is knitting the back and then the neck.  I’m skipping the hood so I’m sure I’m in for some more headaches, this time of my own doing.  Then it’ll be seaming time, another new thing.

There is more to blog about; Kes’ 2nd ampuversary, my finished plarn tote, and the CT Sheep and Fiber Festival, but I’ll have to put that on this week’s To Do List.

Kes helping keep my place in my notebook.

I’m knitting a sweater, the DROPS 109-1 Jumper with hood, and I require stitch markers. I had one already made from the Mobius cowl project that fit great on the size 11 circular needles but needed more. Monday night at the knitting group a member gave me a set of stitch markers she had made herself using jewelry wire and beads.  The next day I looked closely and saw how to make my own. I overestimated the size of the needles a bit, but loose is better than too tight. I made them using a bright green bead, evidence of my ache for sunny spring weather to start. I’ll definitely try my hand at making stitch markers again, they are a quick project and useful too!

Yesterday I spent the afternoon shopping with a friend.  Among other shops, we visited Christmas Tree shops where I bought 2 square ottomans that are collapsible.  I’ve wanted 2 of these for nearly 3 years and just haven’t gotten around to making the purchase.  After 3 years of scoping out styles and prices I was ready to buy when I saw these at the store.  They cost $14.99 which is a pretty average cost but I hadn’t seen them as collapsible before so that was neat.  I wanted these for storing yarn and maybe a blanket as well as for seating when we have a get together and end up playing games around the coffee table with people sitting on the floor.  They look great and my husband approved although he had been hard to convince before this.  I didn’t even fill one of the ottomans completely so there is some growing room.  My wire basket (garbage can) where I had been storing my yarn in the living room can now be retired to another place in the house and used for its proper purpose.

While transferring my yarn from the wire basket to the ottoman I found several skeins of yarn that needed to be wound into cakes or balls.  I did some spring cleaning and wound 10 cakes.  I should probably crochet some Snuggles again to take care of all the scrap yarn balls/cakes I have and make room for new yarn!  Something else that also takes care of yarn scraps is freeform crochet.  I tried this out the other day with a purple/white/brown variegated yarn, a purple chenille yarn and a fuzzy cream yarn.  I’ve run into some freeform crochet projects while browsing Ravelry and they always appealed to my  style of making art; art is the journey to the end, not the end product itself.  I played around with different stitches and enjoyed how there were no rules or pattern to follow.  Before I knew it I was making plans of what to do in the piece and what rules I would apply.  I look forward to trying it again or maybe adding to what I’ve made.  At the moment the purple thing is about the size of a face.  My husband thinks of it as a mask and if you look at it length-wise the white line I’ve crocheted could be viewed as a nose.  I want it to be bigger but I also feel like it might be done.  Freeform crochet is a change of pace from the usual crochet/knitting pattern following.  I’m sure I’ll dabble in this more.

All of February and most of March has flown by.  I spent about 10 days of February on the couch with what turned out to be a sinus infection.  Those 10 days were then followed by another 5 or so where I still didn’t feel right.  I’m happy to say that it’s all behind me now and practically forgotten.  Time does great things like that.  Something time does that I don’t like as much, is whiz by in a blink.  The last 4 or more weekends my blog has been on my To Do list, but as we can all see it didn’t get done and crossed off.  I’ve been busy crocheting and knitting though!

The Monday before my sinus infection I went to the weekly knitting group with knitting in hand.  I didn’t realize that this was the first time I’ve actually knit at the group until several members pointed it out.  Guess I’ve always crocheted.  My friends Luigi and the Goomba took up many Monday nights.  The project I started that night was a cowl for my sister called the Braidy Cowl.  I found the pattern at Ravelry as usual.  I used cobalt blue Lion Brand Microspun yarn which was so snuggly soft!  The pattern included 16 stitch cables which were a lot of work.  Slipping 8 stitches back onto the needles after knitting the other 8 was always a fight.  Then knitting the first few of the 8 was even more of a fight.  The cowl came out fabulously though, so all worth the fight.  If you’re a knitter who hasn’t tried cabling I suggest trying it out on my favorite project: Warm Up America.  There are instructions for a block with cables about 3/4 of the way down the page.  KnittingHelp.com has wonderful videos to help get a visual example of how to do many things, including cabling.  Here’s a link to the page with videos on cables.  My sister has yet to receive her snuggly cowl.  Hopefully she’ll send me a picture of her wearing it and I can post it here.

I finished a scarf for myself in January or February.  It was another pattern found on Ravelry called the Drop Stitch Scarf.  I used yarn that I bought at Stitches East in November 2010.  It was a nice variegated yarn running  red to deep purple to a nearly black purple.  What drew me to the yarn initially was the squishiness and it kept that quality when it was knit which made me very happy.  I have a nice close up of the pattern with some slight reflecting from the floor.  Enjoy!

Something new I tried in January/February is tapestry crochet.  This is crochet with several colors running at once working the current color around the carried colors.  My test pattern was a cat tote bag which I kept simple by using only 2 colors: black and white.  I found the pattern initially at Ravelry and then browsed the site of the pattern creator Carol Ventura at Tapestry Crochet.  She also has a blog to tickle your crochet senses even more and to see how Carol uses tapestry crochet as art.  The tote bag calls for cotton but I opted for Red Heart acrylic so that I could learn and understand what is involved a bit easier, plus it was in my stash.  The instructions for starting the bag were a bit confusing at first but I had Lindsey from Poetry In Yarn next to me at the knitting group that night and she helped clarify it for me.  From my slow start I quickly got the hang of switching colors and quickly felt like an old pro.  The hardest part on the cat pattern was keeping the tail looking like 1 solid color.  If I didn’t switch colors well and keep it tight the second color could be seen easily.  I really enjoyed the pattern and made it into a small project bag.  I’ve used it for my current project to take it to Monday night knitting ever since.  When I first ventured into the world of tapestry crochet I joined the Tapestry Crochet Group at Ravelry.  Carol runs the group and is very involved.  She responded quickly to any questions I posted which was great.

Somewhere in my tapestry crochet travels I found a sample of the special grid for planning your tapestry crochet image.  I created my own sitting cat pattern and then worked it using 2 colors of cotton.  I used cotton to get an idea of how tapestry crochet would look in that material.  It turned into a little bag with one cat on each side.  I can almost put my hand in it.  I’ll have to figure out how to add a zipper and use it as a little change bag or something like that.  It was a lot of fun to design and then execute.  My husband also seemed to enjoy the process.  Using the slanted grid was a bit more awkward than I thought it would be.  After creating your image on the slanted grid it’s best to transfer it to a standard grid so that you don’t get lost in the slanted squares.  At the moment I can’t seem to find the page of the sample grid, ugh.

A surprise package arrived at my door this past Wednesday.  In it was 3 skeins of blue cotton, 3 balls of blue crochet thread, 4 partial skeins of fuzzy acrylics, a cylinder containing 6 crochet hooks, and a drop spindle kit.  All these things belonged to my mom when she was into crochet in the 70s.  She dug up her box of crochet goodies and sent them along to me.  She was subscribed to a crochet club in the Netherlands and still has binders full of projects that she received in the mail.  I’ve been crocheting using the blue thread and the size 1 hook.  I’ve always wanted to try it so this package was a welcome surprise!  I have no idea how to use a drop spindle so I’ll show it off to the knitting group tomorrow where I know there are several spinners.  The kit even came with undyed wool to start off with!

I’ve been keeping myself busy with little projects here and there.  Most recently I tried my hand at knitting baby hats.  I wanted to learn how to knit a flat hat and how to decrease, I figured a baby hat would be a great first start.  I searched for a basic hat pattern on Ravelry.com and found a good one: garter stitch brim and stockinette for the rest.  Then to add to my learning experience I decided to try out some different ways to cast on since until now I had only used the long tail cast on.  I used the fantastic site KnittingHelp.com where Amy explains and demonstrates basic knitting things for English and Continental style knitting with videos.  Another reason I wanted to try this was that I got myself some new bamboo straight needles.

My first try was the white hat using Red Heart Super Saver.  What an awful experience!  Red Heart did not want to move on the bamboo and each stitch was a chore.  For this hat I used the cable cast on.  This ended up rather loose.  I tried the same cast on for next hat, the blue one to the right of the white hat.  Still not happy with it.  I switched to Caron Simply soft for the blue hats, which slides much nicer on the bamboo needles.  The hat has a different shape as I was trying to make it smaller for a preemie size for the Caps For Good cause. The pattern calls for 52 stitches and I reduced it to 45 stitches for the white one.  The second blue one was 42 stitches and then the other 3 (2 complete, one on the needles) were 40 stitches cast on.  On my third hat (2nd row on the left) I realized I was doing something wrong; either knitting or purling incorrectly which was making things difficult.  I went back to KnittingHelp.com and checked out the videos on Continental knitting and then Continental purling.  I thought I might be knitting incorrectly as that was difficult but then I realized that I was knitting into a row that was purled so the purling was incorrect.  I was twisting my stitches.  I finished the rest of the hat knitting and purling correctly.  It took only a couple rows of purling correctly for my hands to develop the muscle memory. For the third, fourth and fifth hats I used the knitting on cast on method.

The fourth hat I messed around with adding some rows of garter stitch into the stockinette stitch.  This was okay until I went for a second round of it while starting to decrease.  Some of my decreases ended up backwards; purled or knit when it should have been the other.  More learning!  The hat that is on the needles I did a garter stitch brim and then a 2×2 rib.  As you can see in the photo I was low on yarn so I also learned how to change colors which turned out to be ridiculously easy!  I’ll get a picture of the other 2 hats I made at a later time.  So the baby hat project taught me how to cast on 2 different ways, how to decrease (k2tog, ssk), how to purl correctly and how to seam the hat together(didn’t talk about this).  Not bad.

A photo from me and a thought from my neighbor; “Under this lies summer.”

I recently finished reclaiming yarn from an old American Eagle sweater.  I’ve had the sweater since 2002 or so but haven’t worn it since 2005 at least.  I stumbled upon a video on how to reclaim yarn from a knit sweater.  It told me what to look for in the seams and other tips.  I let this stew around in my head for a while and finally decided to do it.  I spent a couple hours picking at the seams to get the whole thing into pieces before starting to frog it.

I had a good time doing this though it is very labor intensive.  The first night I went to bed with sore finger tips from all the picking at the little thread seams.  I should have grabbed a small crochet hook to pull them loose initially but I was just to excited to stop. This sweater is from the later of my college years so it was washed a bit harshly leading to some felting of the yarn.  The sweater was probably not the best candidate for reclaiming yarn from but, hey, I had the desire and the goods so why not?

Since the sweater had felted a bit it would break while unraveling especially at the cables.  Once I got the rhythm of unraveling the sweater I got the hang of not breaking the yarn at its potentially weakest points.  I wound several large balls of it and then decided to look up how to hand-wind a cake.  That lead to some YouTube surfing with some additional learning about things that weren’t pertinent to the topic at hand, but ended up with me hand-winding a cake around a paper towel tube.  By the way, a cake of yarn is short cylinder with a flat top and bottom and can be pulled from the center, versus just a hand-wound ball that is pulled from the outside and tends to roll away, escaping under couches or into other hard to reach places.  After spending about half and hour hand-winding the cake my husband asks if there is another way to do this.   I tell him that there is such thing as a ball winder to which he responds, “Do they sell it on Amazon?”

Two days later I was the proud new owner of a ball winder.  The two of us had a fun time winding cakes from the yarn I had already wound into balls.  After a couple cakes of recycled American Eagle sweater yarn I grabbed a hank of yarn I bought at Stitches East for a scarf.  We wound that and discovered that there is a size limit to the cakes (which seemed pretty obvious afterwards).  We ended up winding a second ball from the other end of the yarn so I wouldn’t have to cut it.  Ah, what fun to have a ball winder.

A charity I’ve been involved with since 2003 or so is Warm Up America.  One can knit or crochet blocks 7 inches by 9 inches to either donate to a group locally who is going to join them or send them into the WUA headquarters.  I got involved with this while working at Michaels Arts & Crafts, first as an instructor and later as the event coordinator.  In ’03 a roommate was the event coordinator who tossed some blocks my way to help with joining an afghan while sitting on our living room floor.  I knew little about crochet and even less about knitting at the time, but I could figure out how to join them using single crochet.  A couple months later I was hired as an instructor and along with teaching kids crafts I was getting a sampling of yarn crafts through Michaels events.  I can remember deciding to by I Taught Myself to Crochet one day after work.  I didn’t really do much with it until a couple years later, but that’s a story for another day.  I supported my friend and coworker by attending all the Michaels events which included WUA Joining Parties.  They were never very popular and that remained true when I was event coordinator at a different Michaels in another state.  I’ve got a couple picture collages from the 2006 and 2007 WUA Joining Parties I hosted as event coordinator below.

If you complete an afghan you can donate it to a group in your community, while if you send your finished blocks into the headquarters they will join it and send it to where it is needed.  As coordinator I found a group in my community to donate it to and when I dropped the afghans off I was introduced to the families that would be taking them home.  This was such a great experience, I enjoyed knowing who was going to benefit from the hours of work by many strangers.

Today my involvement with WUA continues but without the spurring on of working at Michaels.  The knitting group I’m in ordered the Land’s End yarn and together we are working on making 51 blocks.  I’ve made 2 and half so far using the Land’s End yarn.  Since this project came about at the same time I was just learning how to knit, I had to knit the first one.  The yarn is a bit splitty but I came to have a nice love-hate relationship with it.  I crocheted the second and am doing the same with my third.  When we started this I realized that one of the ways I learned new stitches in crochet was to do all the WUA crochet block patterns.  I decided I would do the same for knitting. I’ve made 5 using a Caron One Pound and it has been great practice.  I find that the WUA patterns are an easy way to get familiar with reading patterns, following the patterns and getting a hand on crocheting or knitting.  When I finish with my blocks I can donate them to Michaels, WUA headquarters or just keep plugging to make 49 and join them into an afghan.  Anyone else making WUA blocks?

Another organization related to WUA is Caps for Good.  I’ve only recently learned about this specific group while attending Stitches East.  Caps for Good collects knitted or crochet baby hats to bring to countries in need around the world.  The woman who was running the booth at Stitches East said she’s gone to the communities overseas and participated in the deliveries of the hats.  She said that the mothers really like and appreciate the hats.  While at Stitches East I crocheted 2 hats.  I enjoyed this very much and will probably revisit this charity every now and then; the hats are a very quick project!  There are so many great charity opportunities but I think I’ll keep it to WUA, Caps for Good and the Snuggles Project.

I have a new favorite item to wear: my Mobius cowl.  One of the knitting groups I’m a member of arranged a field trip to the M.C. Escher Exhibit at an area museum which would be followed up with a group knit-a-long of a Mobius cowl.  We all felt it was an appropriate project to do at the Escher Exhibit since he liked to play around with bending perception.  This cowl is inspired by a Mobius strip which was discovered and named after a German mathematician in 1845: August Ferdinand Mobius.  Check out the Wiki on the Mobius strip if you like.  A Mobius strip has only one side and one edge.  I describe it as having the inside outside and the outside inside at the same time.  I shared it with the second grade kids I was subbing for and they were mesmerized.  The whole concept is mind bending in itself, now imagine trying to knit it!

After downloading the pattern (Easy Mobius Cowl by Hayley Waxberg @ Knitomatic.com) I decided for this project I would follow the directions exactly; as in, buy the yarn and knitting needles required.  This involved a pre-field trip field trip to a fancy yarn store I’ve been aching to visit.  There I feasted my eyes on all that is beautiful in a yarn shop- ooh, the colors, the textures!  This was my first purchase of yarn that wasn’t at Michaels, Joanns, or A.C. Moore.  I felt like I was graduating, or at the very least attempting to move up on the yarn hobbyist ladder.  My pre-field trip was to purchase Manos del Uruguay wool yarn in some variegated color for my knitting pleasure and I was successful.  I bought a skein that was a delightful mixture of reds, browns and a hint of purple.  I believe it has some silk in it which gives it a kind of captivating glow.  From here I needed the right size circular needles.  The yarn shop had the right size needles but I knew I could get the same ones at Joann’s with a coupon, which was exactly what I did.  I now have Clover brand size 11 bamboo circular needles.  Knitting Needle Count: 3- 2 circulars, 1 pair straight. The project also called for a stitch marker; working in the round is easier to keep track of with a stitch marker.  I don’t have any stitch markers but figured it’s quite easy to make one using my jewelry making skills.  I grabbed a pretty cat pendant and in less than a minute attached it to a nice size ring.  It was perfect for the knitting needles and looked pretty hanging in the yarn while working.  Nice.

The night before the field trip I decided I should do a test Mobius so I have a feel for it.  One of the knitting group members was offering to teach the group but I know how that can go; one teacher with many students who need 1-on-1 attention= waiting.  I grabbed some blue Caron Simply Soft, the circular needles my SIL gave me, and threw on the YouTube video for the special cast on method: Cat Bordhi’s Mobius Cast On.  It was fun to start and I had I hard time putting the needles down to go to bed.  When it came to casting on the ‘real’ thing I was very glad I had done a practice cast on.  The ‘teacher’ was free to help others and I also took some time to help although I could hardly hold back my excitement of starting mine.

The M.C. Escher Exhibit was mind blowing, quite literally.  When we all sat down to start our project we could hardly focus and we all found we had a headache right between our eyes.  We agreed that this may be more difficult than anticipated.  Sitting in the museum’s little bistro area we opted to eat some lunch before attempting our Mobius cowls.  I had a delightful autumn squash and apple soup with a grilled cheese.  I’ve never had this before and it’s now on my list of things to make!  After filling our stomachs with the tasty lunch menu we cleared our tables and pulled out our yarn and needles.  I quickly recalled how to cast on and then made sure to help others in their casting on.  We were all still feeling that headache between our eyes and mine even blew up into full headache.  Two Advil made quick work of that pain though.  We sat and knit for 2 more hours, chatting and commenting on the effects of the Escher Exhibit.  After the bistro cleaned up around us and closed up shop we decided it was probably best we pack up and call it a day. The next day I finished my new favorite thing to wear totaling about 5 hours of working time which is very reasonable.

A quick update on our friend the Goomba.  I am currently working on round 12.  I have pictures up to round 11 below.  He’s so cute!