Surprise Pattern!

I already had the yarn out. The stuffing was right there. And I hadn’t been able - for weeks - to shake the thought: “That would be so easy to do.” When I walked by a shelf this morning and spied a crochet hook just lying there, I couldn’t resist. Please allow me to present -

The Golden Snitch. I’ve written up the pattern and stuck it on my site: you can find it here. I’ve also been working on moving over those last few pesky patterns from my blog, but I’m really tired of doing that right now. So I hope you like the snitch, everybody! Those little suckers are fast.

Weekend Distractions

Since, it appears, I have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to more grown-up projects, I decided to start a fun little project I’ve been eyeing for a while: Puss in Boots from Jean Greenhowe’s Knitted Animals. I think Jean Greenhowe is something of a design genius: look around her site and you’ll see what I mean. Take, for instance, the Topsy-Turvy Cinderella doll, her knitted paint, or the beautiful variety of dolls she’s designed. See what I mean? Genius. So I’ve been meaning to try one of her patterns for a while now. I’m glad I did, too. It’s proving to be really fun and going very quickly. It took a surprisingly short time to go from a stubby, amorphous blob:

to something that was recognizable as an unfinished version of the project I’m making.

I’ve never knit a toy from a pattern before, but you can color me impressed. I predict that it won’t be very long before this little kitty is all finished.

Something to show off

You may remember that before my other blog crashed, I was talking about a crocheting project that I’d finished but hadn’t managed to get a proper picture of. (To be honest, half the delay was because I hadn’t bothered ironing it yet…) After about half an hour of fiddling with the self-timer setting on my shiny new camera, I got a useable photo. It’s a starf! I mean, it’s a scarf, shaped like a shooting star - a shooting starf.

I used Knit Picks Merino Style, and it is just gorgeous. I’ve heard a lot about how pilly merino wool is, but it wears like iron compared to the Main Line I used for my cloche. (At least, so far. I haven’t exactly been tobogganing in it or anything, but it’s not fuzzy yet, which is more than I can say for the Main Line.) I’m pretty sure this is the first project I’ve ever done that was made with nice, new wool, and now I understand what people mean when they say that wool is ’springy.’ That’s the perfect word to describe it. As far as this specific yarn goes, (if you’re looking for a review) Merino Style is very soft. I have no qualms about wrapping it around my neck. The stitch definition is great - I used crocheted ribbing, which can look very flat in the wrong yarn or gauge, and it looks beautiful. This would probably look very nice with a cables. I like the colors: they’re strong and saturated without looking like a box of markers. Would I use it again? Oh my, yes. Lovely, soft, warm, rather inexpensive - I can absolutely foresee myself purchasing this yarn for another project.

Getting back to the starf, I made it short enough that it only goes around the neck once, but wide enough that it scrunches to provide nice, cozy warmth. A loop on the back of the star secures the end, which reappears out from under it like the tail of a shooting star! It’s a simple design, but I really like it. The concept has been loitering in my design file for years. Another one down! Unfortunately, it’s much faster to think of these things than to execute them. I have a feeling I may never get to all of them.

In other news, it’s been raining here. A lot. For a long time. Texas is flooding. And while it does keep the temperature down (a bit) and saves me having to water my grass, I have to wonder what nasty bug or disease or wild animal is going to appear on the scene, that only comes out when you get rain several times a week for a month or two. Any guesses?

Fun with pants

Greg had a pair of BDU pants that were starting to show signs of wear. Since Greg likes his uniforms to be sharp (oh yeah; he irons, he starches, he presses, he creases, he shines, he polishes: sharp, I tell you), frayed corners and small holes made them unserviceable. Rather than just getting rid of them, though, he told me that he had a friend that made shorts out of an old set, and claimed that they were really comfortable. Could I, he asked, do the same for him?

Well, you know me. Can I craft something? Of course! I measured the inseam of a pair of his most favored shorts, then cut off enough leg to have them that length after the hem. A double turn under, zip around each leg with the sewing machine, and done. Well, almost. I also had to replace a button that he had popped off (funny how he was less concerned about a missing button than a frayed corner…still, I suppose the button isn’t really visible, and he’s required to wear a belt anyway…) and tear open the seams holding the pockets closed. BDUs are meant for battle performance, but when they’re worn in an office environment more emphasis is placed on how neat you can make them look than on how functional they are. If you’ve ever had a pair of cargo pants, you know how sloppy those big side pockets can look - Greg had the buttons removed and the flaps and pockets all sewn into place, flat against the pants. But, since no one really cares how sharp their grungy, repurposed cargo shorts look, I knew he would want his pocket space back. I presented his fresh new shorts to him when Greg got home from work. His response?

“Oh, wow! I thought you were just gonna cut the legs off.”

On a quasi-related note, the Honor Guard Coaster has been moved over to Inner Child Crochet! Greg saw me working on it earlier and told me that he still has that coaster on his desk at work, nearly two years after I made it for him. Awww.

Everything is out of whack

I didn’t really blog last week: Greg’s mother and grandmother came to stay with us and we were incredibly busy until they left. That, I am sure, is the reason that I didn’t notice my blog had gone down until my dad sent me an email. I am really not pleased at all with its disappearance: I wrote on that blog for over two years and hadn’t really any intention of moving in the near future. It’s all for the best though, I’m sure: the last time my blog went down I bought a website and I’m very pleased with how that’s developing. I’ve had fun putting this blog together, anyway.

You may have noticed a cheerful blue-and-white button to the right underneath the heading ‘Visit my sites!’ I’ve decided to go ahead and launch a project I’ve been working on for months (with extensive help from my father). It’s called My Crochet Marketplace and it’s intended to be a directory of crochet patterns you can buy on the internet. It’s been really fun assembling the links - I have over 500 so far - but it will take a while before it’s a good, extensive resource. Please go visit and look around - it’s a bit plain at the moment, and I’m still tackling various coding issues, but I really am working on it.

All of this visiting and site-building and blog-exploding (not to mention the various diaper-changes, dish-washing, and food-preparing tasks that I’m still responsible for) has cut quite severely into the crafting time. I’ve made some good progress on Hedera (er, the first one, still), but I’ve only knit on it for a hour or two over the past week and a half.

Which is something that makes me very cranky.

Hello, all

My poor blog appears to have gone kablooey. As I am, at this point, more than able to launch and maintain my own blog, I have decided to move over here, onto my own site. If my old blog ever resurfaces, or I get a reply from the administrator, I will shift as much content as possible over here. If you’re looking for the free patterns that were available on my blog, please be patient: I have all of them on my computer and I’m going to move those that haven’t already been moved over to Inner Child Crochet (which really is where they belong anyway).

Grrr. I just keep thinking that if I’d done this the last time my blog went down (and came back…) I’d have been able to get all of the content off of it…

Anyway, welcome to my new place! Pull up a chair, make yourself comfortable. Hopefully this blog isn’t going anywhere.

Hey Everybody

Just wanted to let you know that blogging will be spare this week due to a family visit.

Working on Stuff

Well, our camera has been replaced! We bought a new, better, faster, shinier camera that we love. Seriously. We love it.

Anyway, the crocheting project I mentioned last time has been completed, but you have to wait until I can get someone else to get a picture of it for me. Sorry. After that, though, I cast on for Hedera:

with my shiny new cakes of Gloss. It’s not good to leave them unworked too long after you wind them, you know. That’s what I hear, anyway. It’s a fun, fairly simple pattern - the lace repeat is only 10 stitches wide and four rows long, which means that even I am starting to memorize it. See?

So pretty. I am a bit concerned about whether it will fit over my heel…but we’ll see, I guess. I didn’t actually swatch, rationalizing that it would take just as much time to make a regular swatch as it would to just try it and then redo if necessary. Remind me of that when I have to frog half a sock. We’ll see if it makes me feel better.

Yarn Shop-ping

The sheepghan is in time-out again for being difficult. (I have to unravel a few rows, I think. Baaaaa. I mean, bah.) Apparently, I frustrate easily. Or maybe it’s just that I have so many other things I can work on that won’t fight with me - and it’s more fun to work with those.

On Saturday Greg and I swung by Yarnivore again. I went with two skeins of my Gloss to avail myself of their ballwinder. Melanie was very nice (again) and showed me how to do it, and I have to say that it is pretty darn cool.

While we were there, we picked out yarn for Greg’s scarf. (Oh yeah, I’m making him a scarf. I started making and planning mittens and socks and sweaters and hats for me and Max and Charlie, and Greg said, “So I don’t get anything?” I asked him what he wanted and he said a scarf.) Greg’s specifications were as follows: Black - or dark - with bits of color. Kind of big - puffy - and pretty plain. I interpreted that to mean a black or gray or navy tweed in worsted or heavier and a basic rectangle. I showed him some pictures and he seemed to agree. I actually found a black wool tweed that seemed to match, but we didn’t buy that. We bought this:

Greg said he liked the little ‘flyaways’ and how soft it was. Awww. If he’d only told me he was looking for a soft, fuzzy scarf that still looked manly and serious, we could have started there. No wonder, though: it’s Plymouth Indecita Alpaca Boucle - 90% Alpaca. Gorgeous.

And in other news: Crocheting.