How was YOUR morning?

May 31, 2007 on 10:37 am | In In Progress | 1 Comment

Today we discover that sometimes, when you think you know what the children are doing - you really don’t. By the way: a box of infant oatmeal flakes spreads a lot farther than the size would suggest. It creates kind of a sawdust effect, too - you know, just in case you’re ever doing a play that needs sawdust and you can’t use it for some reason. Very similar.
We also discover that if, after sweeping up piles of oatmeal, you leave the hungry kids alone in the kitchen ‘just for a minute,’ to try and finish what the oatmeal episode interrupted, the older one will acquire a package of hot dog buns off of the counter and feed himself and his baby brother. Aww. It’s nice to know that if they were street children, Max would take care of Charlie. Sigh.

I’ve been working hard this week, people! Not on any knitting or crocheting, but I’ve been pursuing the previously mentioned (and long-procrastinated) cockeyed-scheme! It’s nearing a point of unveiling. I should be able to show it off soon. But it’s not so great to blog about. Um. Oh yeah, pictures!

I went to Joann’s on Monday for their Memorial Day sale: they had their remnants for 75% off (and once they’re put in the remnants bin, they’re already marked 50% off: so it was more like 87.5% off of the original price). I saw the lovely fabric pictured above - it’s about a yard and a half of lovely thick upholstery/brocade type fabric that usually sells for 40 (!) dollars a yard (!!!). I bought it for $7.50. I picked it up not because I love it (although it’s very pretty) but because I knew Greg would love it. How did I know? Because it’s a variation on the very fabric that makes up our bespread, and our bedroom curtains, and the shower curtain in the master bath (which he picked).
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but Greg and I appear to have a difference of opinion in terms of decorating colors. I like green. And brown. I find them soothing and earthy; comfortable. With Greg (since he doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking about it) he kind of pops all over the place based on what he sees in stores and other people’s houses, but when pressed he invariably says, “What about red?” (This is even funnier because he doesn’t realize he picks red every time.) Now, I read up on random things: color is one of them. They’ve done studies on the way that color impacts mood. I read in one (although I can’t seem to find it right now) that red raises the blood pressure, speeds respiration, and increases the heartrate. Oh, here’s a snippet: “Sitting for long periods of time in a room this color will likely breakdown any peace and harmony you are striving to create in your home.” Hah. Green, on the other hand, “is considered the most restful color for the eye.” Also, “in a …living room, it encourages unwinding but has enough warmth to promote comfort and togetherness. [It] has a calming effect when used as a main color for decorating. It is believed to relieve stress by helping people relax.” That’s more like it! To be fair, Greg is more of an active, adrenaline-charged person, so I can see why red appeals to him. We’re kind of opposites in that. So to make a long story…longer…our living room still has white walls. Brown couches, olive green drapes, and we’re probably going to paint the walls some tan or muted green. (Yes, he did suggest red for the walls.) Greg feels that this is an extremely booooooring color scheme, so I suggested bringing small red elements into the room to ‘balance’ it. Like his ratty burgundy recliner that he swears is the most comfortable chair in the world. Just as an example.
But back to the upholstery! My original intention was to create a cover for our increasingly disreputable-looking ‘computer chair,’ which is actually just one of our old dining chairs, a metal-and-vinyl abomination that is only improved by a cracking, peeling vinyl seat and foam dribbling out. Really, though, I think we’ll just buy a new chair. Yeah. So I’ll probably make some throw pillows for the sofa. It looks really awesome with them, and (as I predicted) Greg loved it.
I also bought a ball of Joann’s Belleza Tesoro in Pink with my 40% off coupon. Hey, I had to buy something with it, and at $6 a ball normally, that stuff is hecka expensive!

A Little Bit of Knitting

May 26, 2007 on 12:08 pm | In In Progress, Finished, Patterns | 4 Comments

Well, the baby afghan is stalled momentarily with charting issues. In the meantime, here’s a little bit of knitting I’ve done. I used most of the Main Line I had left from my cloche (did I mention that this yarn is really pleasant to work with?) - which was about 13 yards - to make a lace headband. I couldn’t find a lace motif that was narrow enough, so I made my own simple design. It’s basically just eyelets: two yarn-overs per row with enough knit stitches to hold them together. See?

I finger blocked it to open them up. As you can perhaps tell, though, I didn’t do a really thorough job. I need to pick up some t-pins my next trip to Joann’s (along with some other things) and do a better job blocking. I’ve never really blocked much, and certainly not lace. It’s cute, though!

Free pattern here!

Crocheting Away

May 22, 2007 on 5:06 pm | In Helping Others, In Progress | 4 Comments

So much to talk about today! Let’s see…where to start…

Well. We moved into a new church ward last fall - after Charlie was born, so I didn’t know this - but apparently it’s the tradition in our current congregation to give an afghan to every new baby who is born. They had someone I’ve only heard referred to as “The Afghan Lady,” who supplied them with baby afghans and lapghans for the elderly and such. Something has apparently happened to The Afghan Lady (I don’t know what). Perhaps she’s moved, perhaps she’s died: they didn’t tell me and I haven’t asked. (:lol: It sounds kind of bad when I say it like that - I just think it hasn’t come up!) However, they found out that I crochet (back when I volunteered to do some humanitarian crafting) and asked if I could help out with the baby afghans. There’s quite a call for them - apparently over the last year there have been 15 babies born into our ward. Wow! They’ve assured me that there will be other people working on them as well.
Anyway, they supply the yarn, and the nice sister in charge of it asked me what I wanted. She told me that The Afghan Lady always used ‘the red heart yarn,’ and would I like that, because it would work up quicker, right? I assured her that it wouldn’t take that much longer to use the baby yarn, which I thought would be nicer - and comes in baby colors, too! So this Sunday she gave me two shopping bags of Bernat Softee Baby in various colors - which I like. Still, I think that I think I need to reassure her on the speed factor, which could explain this:

Click the pic if you’d like to see it closer: please excuse the tangle of yarn balls. I’m not carrying the threads, because I hate to see them peeking through. Yeah, I’ve done all that since Sunday night. Think I can get the first one done by Sunday morning? Perhaps. She said that they don’t have any left in the closet for boys, and there are several women expecting boys (including one of my friends!), so I thought I’d start with ones that can be used for the little guys, but aren’t plain to the point of boring.

In other news, I’ve decided (in a fit of spontaneity) to prepare and submit a design I was waffling about for Interweave Crochet’s - weeeeell, crud. I just looked it up to see which issue I would be submitting for, and I missed the deadline for Spring 2008. (It was yesterday - I thought it was the 28th.) You know what, though, that’s fine. It takes the ‘rush’ out of it. I’m pretty sure by now that they decided against my submission for Winter ‘07 (although I haven’t heard yet). Which is okay, because sometime after I submitted it, I had a little chat with myself about my designs. I’d been trying - or wanting, anyway - to do what everybody else is doing. To make sweaters and shirts and shawls and whatnot. And that’s not really what I do. I mean, I do it, but the designs that I love the most, and that other people think are awesome, are the toys, and stuff like that. And I do them really well. And I like them. You know? So I decided that it was better to do what I do well, that I like to do, that other people like, instead of straining and trying to do something that’s not really me, that other people already do, and do beautifully. I don’t blame them for not publishing my wristwarmers (yeah: I submitted wristwarmers. You never know.) but that’s cool, because this next design I’m going to submit will ROCK!

In other news, I carried a stack of Red Heart Super Saver down the stairs balanced against my chin and it gave me a rash that took 10 minutes to go away. Am I getting too delicate to be cheap anymore? Crud. Crud crud crud.

I’m still gonna work with it.

Cotton, Cotton Everywhere

May 18, 2007 on 11:51 am | In In Progress, Finished | 7 Comments

I just realized that everything I’m making right now is in a cotton/blend yarn. That’s cool. You know, it’s summer. Hot. Sticky. And I like cotton! I know there are people who hate 100% cotton, especially the ‘kitchen cotton’ like Sugar’n Cream or Peaches & Creme (I primarily hear this from knitters. I don’t think that crocheting with it is as ‘hard on the hands,’ whatever that means), but you know what? It’s an all-natural fiber, it’s perfect for hot, sticky weather (where would I find some of that? Let me think…), I think it’s pretty, and I like it. I buy the kitchen cotton because it’s affordable and I like it.

Anyway, on to the projects! I’ve just finished knitting the third ball of Sugar’n Cream into the blue cotton top, bringing my materials cost so far up to $3. Aaah, what’s that? It’s a headless torso!

Oh, wait, that’s me. A camera timer can only help so much: you need to have somewhere to set the camera. As you can see, it fits pretty well (I bet it would fit better without, you know, another shirt under it). It’s interesting: the pooling at the bottom (that’s from before the decreases) almost gives the illusion that there’s a ribbed hem. Not what I was going for, but cool nonetheless. I’m going to continue the ribbing another inch or two - probably two - before I move on to the bust shaping. This is going pretty well so far! Not that I’m doing anything too difficult, but it’s encouraging.

Less encouraging is a crocheting project I’ve been wanting to make for a long time. You see, I have this pattern for a gingham table set (placemats, potholders, coasters, etc) I want to use. I’m a fan of gingham. It’s cheerful, pretty, and summery. The pattern calls for worsted weight yarn, and I decided to make it it cotton for all of the aforementioned reasons plus absorbency and washability. The only problem lay in procuring the appropriate yarn. I refuse to buy as much as I think I need for this project (about a pound in each of three colors) by the 2.5 oz ball. White was easy; I bought a cone. Blue was harder. I needed two coordinating shades of blue, in something larger than the little bitty balls. I couldn’t find any solid blue cones anywhere. I decided to go ahead and buy the balls, only to find that blue was never around, or only a few balls, or…it just never worked out. This February I bought four of the new Super Size balls at Joann’s in Cornflower (sadly, they didn’t have another, coordinating blue). I figured I was halfway there, but alas! I haven’t been able to find something suitable to go with it. Then last week I was at Michael’s and found giant 14 oz skeins of Sugar’n Cream - and there was a blue! I hesitated for a moment - I couldn’t remember the name of the blue I already had, and it looked pretty similar, but also kind of different - I’m sure you’ve done this before. I bought it, figuring that if it was the same color I could take it back.
I got it home, and it was a different color! Yay! (French Blue, if you’re interested.) However…I wasn’t quite sure that they worked together. In some lighting they almost looked like the same color, and in others it just looked…off. I decided to forge ahead and made a potholder (it’s like a swatch, but less annoying!) to see if I liked it.

And I don’t. Ick. So that project is on hold again until I find something that coordinates better with either the Cornflower or the French blue. I’ll try to remember to take my potholder with me next time, for color comparison. I’m not going to frog it - a functional item is a functional item, right? No matter how…oddly coordinated.

One more thing. Remember the Cashcotton I bought this weekend? Well, when I bought it I tried really hard to plan out exactly what I would make with it, and how much I would need for that. I decided to make a shrug of some sort. (Pseudo-clothing items are more fun than accessories!) I remembered my last shrug and thought, okay: I made a heavily cabled shrug from one skein of worsted wool-ease. 197 yards. The cashcotton is DK, so I’ll need more, but 2 skeins (284 yards) should be plenty for something more conservative. Of course, if you followed the link to the shrug, you may have discovered, as I did (several days later) that I used two skeins of wool-ease on the cabled shrug. I mean, it should still work, I’m just irked that my assumptions were off and it won’t go as far as I thought it might. It’s okay, I’m just sort of paddling around trying to decide what to do with it. Anyone have any patterns/ideas/inspirations to toss my way? Thanks.

More Cloche Pics

May 16, 2007 on 9:44 am | In Finished, Patterns | 7 Comments

Because I can.

I really love the way that this design came together; I love the way the texture of the pattern stitch and the plain single crochet add to the illusion that this is a hat with a ribbon wrapped around it, and not just a two-color hat.

Wren liked it better before it had the bow on it. Fortunately, bows are one of those design elements that aren’t integral to the piece, and can therefore be taken or left by the person executing the pattern.

Which brings me to my next point - I wrote the pattern up this morning, and hope to get it in testing today. That means you’ll be able to buy it within the week (assuming all goes well)!

Same-Day Satisfaction

May 15, 2007 on 6:35 pm | In Finished, Yarn Reviews, Patterns | 2 Comments

Remember this yarn?

In a fit of - I’m not sure what - I worked it up yesterday, into the very project I purchased it for. Beat that! What was it, you may ask?

A cloche. I like them. (I like the one I made, too!) It’s crocheted with my own design, using two skeins of Knitpicks Main Line (one in Cocoa, one in Antique Rose).

It’s the first time I’ve actually worked with this yarn, so I thought I’d share my thoughts on it. (You know you’re dying to hear them!)

PROS:

It’s very soft. I really, really, really love how soft it is. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it (and didn’t follow the link above), Main Line is a blend of 75% Pima Cotton and 25% Merino Wool. As you might expect from those proportions, it’s mostly cottony to the touch, with just a bit of woolyness to catch the fingers. I would definitely wear it next to the skin, and it’s warm without being hot or sticky. Main Line is also fairly inexpensive. That’s always a consideration. I really like the color pallete as well, those shades are right up my alley. It was really pleasant to work with. I didn’t find it particularly splitty - in fact, it has six plies! They hold together really well, with a firm twist that gives great stitch definition. I like it, and would definitely consider purchasing it again.

CONS:

Take a look at this:

I swear I did not abuse this while I was working it up. It’s just fuzzed up, already. It’s fuzziest at the crown (where I started) and I have to wonder how well it will hold up. Will it look like I’ve been rubbing it across the carpet after I’ve had it a week? Only time will tell.

Item two: unexpectedly short yardage. Yes, I know, I know it’s on the label. And I also know that cotton is heavier per yard than wool of the same weight (meaning thickness). Therefore, when yarn is sold by weight, a ball of mostly-cotton yarn will contain fewer yards than a ball of wool of the same weight. Still, I didn’t really think about the fact that it only had 82 yards per ball. Another 30 (heck, another 10) yards and I would have been golden: as it was I had to complete several redesigns to accommodate the yarn limitations. I’m still pleased with how it turned out, but be aware that you’re going to need more balls than a more wooly yarn to get the same yardage for your project. Want to see how much of the brown I had left?

Yup. That’s not much, at all. There was more of the pink, plus I totally could have economized on the bow if I found myself running short on it. I think you could make yourself a standard, solid-colored hat out of two balls, but if you want a turned-up brim, you might want three.

Anything else? Nope - this concludes my review of Knitpicks Main Line yarn. Overall, I think like it. I might re-evaluate when we see how much it fuzzes with use.

Lots of ‘New and Exciting’

May 12, 2007 on 11:22 am | In I Want it Bad, Yarn Reviews | 3 Comments

Yesterday I went somewhere new…

and it was exciting!

I took pictures. I couldn’t decide if I felt more like a stealthy ninja-blogger, or a ridiculous yarn-store tourist (it was my first time at a yarn store!). I didn’t ask the other customers what they thought. They had lots of yarns I’d never heard of before, along with many ‘famous’ brands. There was, for instance, a wall in the back full of Manos del Uruguay:

Dang, that’s a lot of big, pretty yarn. Also fun things like Baby Alpaca Grande, Noro, some really lovely Patagonia Nature Cotton, lots of sock yarns, lots of other yarns; silk and alpaca and mohair, oh my! I think. It was a little much to take in all at once. I didn’t even duck into the room with the books, which is ridiculous, since (as you may recall) I have a full-blown case of PAS (pattern-acquisition syndrome) that is only rendered sillier by the fact that I almost never use someone else’s pattern. You know. The whole thing. I just looked: the last time I used a pattern was for Greg’s Christmas gloves. Almost six months ago. Only because I had never done gloves before. Sigh. I should probably invest in some good stitch dictionaries instead.

Anyway! I saw a sample in the ’specialty’ yarn area that reminded me of something the Yarn Harlot did last week:

Actually, it’s the same thing. Same yarn, everything. Look over on the left side of the picture - that red/orange/yellow ball even looks like the same color. At the time, I mentioned it to Melanie (the owner), and used words like “yarn harlot” and “blog” in public conversation and she knew what I was talking about (or, at the very least, pretended to quite gracefully. She said she’s not much of a blog reader. Hello, she owns a yarn store. Would you be on the computer?). It was surreal.

Speaking of Melanie, I asked her if I could get a picture of her for the blog. After a brief pause (I think she was trying to decide whether I was a crazy person) she agreed.

See? She’s very nice, and helpful, and seems to know a lot about the yarns and notions in the shop. (She endorses the Knitpicks Options needles, although of course she can’t sell them - she has good taste, too! I’m in love with my Knitpicks dpns…I’m going to get the Options. Eventually.) On the left there is Sheila the Dressform, Melanie of course is in the middle, and on the right is a selection of yarns dyed by the Yarnivore staff. See that skein just left of the yellow one? 100% Silk, and the color is lovely. A leetle bit out of my preferred price range, though.

I snapped the shot of the storefront while we were leaving, and as I was editing the photo today I noticed something interesting reflected in the window:

See? It’s us! There I am, taking pictures in full-blown blogging dork mode, while Greg looks in the bag and says to himself, “She spent 20 bucks on what?”

Now on to the yarn, of course:

It’s pretty.

I got two balls of Cashcotton DK in Sage, which I think, with care, will produce a shrug. I can do that with 284 yards, right?

Funky Town

May 9, 2007 on 1:07 pm | In Life in General | No Comments

Let’s take a moment, shall we?

I’m in a bit of a funk. I’ve finished the macaw. I haven’t got another project screaming to be made (I know, weird, right?). I’ve had an extraordinarily busy week in terms of things that have nothing to do with crochet. The rest of this week is even more packed. I’ll be back next week, hopefully with something fun at least planned, if not to show. See you then.

We had a BBQ this weekend.

May 7, 2007 on 12:46 pm | In Recipes, Life in General | 4 Comments

Not much yarny to report. I did try some new recipes, though. Good stuff!

1 Pan Fudge Cake
(I’m never buying chocolate cake mix again)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoons vinegar1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In an ungreased 9 x 13 pan (ungreased, I promise), stir together all dry ingredients. Be sure to break up lumps and clumps in this step.
3. Add the liquids and stir just until blended.
4. Bake for 25 minutes.
5. Frost! Be careful, as cake is extremely moist. Mmmm.

Jalapeño Velveeta Dip
(This one is my own concoction! Very good.)
8 oz. cream cheese
8 oz. block Velveeta
3 jalapeño peppers
milk
salsa1. Grill jalapeños (you could probably sauté them if you aren’t doing a barbeque); chop finely. (This way no one gets a mouthful of too much jalapeño!)
2. Chop velveeta and cream cheese into cubes, place in microwave-save bowl (About 1 qt sized?).
3. Microwave for 30 seconds to one minute at a time, stirring between each, until the cheeses begin to melt.
4. Add peppers.
5. Add about 1/4 cup of your favorite salsa. Stir together, heat again.
6. Add a little bit of milk. This part is subjective: you need to add enough milk to make the mixture smooth but not runny or thin. Stir.
7. When mixture is smooth and hot, serve with chips, or whatever!

Greg had some of the dip on a burger instead of cheese (I tried it. It’s very, very good). It’s good and spicy without being painful. The cake got a thumbs-up from everyone who tried it, too. When I had the first piece I said, “Wow. I’m never buying chocolate cake mix again.”

Greg said, “I’m gonna want to have a piece before we start saying crazy things like that.”

Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll be needing to buy chocolate cake mixes again. Here you go, mom. You already make your own frosting, finally a cake that’s as easy as a mix, without one! I don’t make cakes that often, but I’m pretty enthused about it. The place I got the recipe from said it has also been called a ‘Depression Cake,’ because it’s made without eggs, or milk, or butter. It’s pretty cool, and it tastes really awesome. No one around here wants to hear over and over about how awesome the recipe is, though. Sigh.

Monkey Pattern available, and Macaw finished!

May 3, 2007 on 9:49 am | In Finished, Patterns | 7 Comments

For all of those who have been simply quivering in anticipation, you need quiver no longer! You can now buy the pattern for Silly Monkey here!

You know you want it. In other news, I finished my project. It’s a macaw!

You may, perhaps, have guessed that. Did you also, however, guess that it was a hand puppet?

Nothing fancy like Chaco, just a simple hand puppet (thumb and pinky in the wings, other fingers in the head) creatively executed. I like it very much. It’s bright and very cheerful. I also had rather a hard time getting a good picture of it. I’m going to have to get Greg or Wren to help with the pictures for the pattern.