A blast from the past

So, as I was going through a box of clutter in my soon-to-be-lamented craft closet, I ran across an old steno pad with some very interesting notes on it. It is, in fact, the pad where I took the notes for the Silly Monkey, Charlie’s baby sweater, the Abominable Baby Slippers, and many, many other projects from the first days of my designing. There’s one, in particular, that I’ve always meant to write up and share - it’s close to my heart as my very first knitting project ever (barring a square in stockinette to learn the stitches and 1/6 of a basketweave scarf that I bound off and tossed because I detested it so).

As I went to write it up this morning, I realized that I don’t know the amount of yarn I used. I don’t know the gauge. I don’t even know the length I worked it to. As it was a gift, I can’t just go measure it, either. Still, I thought I would put the directions I’ve deciphered up here for anyone who wants them before I go back to the heavy lifting.

Crossed-Stitch Scarf

Materials:

Worsted weight yarn, Main Color (what do you guys think, 200 yards?) plus small amount Contrast Color

Size 8/5.0mm straight knitting needles

Tapestry Needle

Terms:

cross 2 RK = Knit into the front of the second stitch on the left needle, do not drop off. Knit into the front of the first (skipped) stitch on the left needle, and allow the first and second stitch to drop off of the needle together.

patt:

RS: P1, *cross 2 RK, p1. Repeat from * across.

WS: K1, *p2, k1. Repeat from * across.

Directions:

Cast on 28.

Knit all stitches across for 4 rows.

Beginning with a WS row, work in patt. for 6 repetitions (12 rows) ending after a RS row.

Knit across for 4 rows.

Beginning with a WS row, work in patt. for 5 repetitions (10 rows) ending after a RS row.

Knit across for 4 rows.

Beginning with a WS row, work in patt. until total length measures 43″ (OR until total length measures desired length minus the length of the garter-stitch-enclosed section), ending after a RS row.

Knit across for 4 rows.

Beginning with a WS row, work in patt. for 5 repetitions (10 rows) ending after a RS row.

Knit across for 4 rows.

Beginning with a WS row, work in patt. for 6 repetitions (12 rows) ending after a RS row.

Knit across for 4 rows, bind off and weave in ends.

To Finish:

1) With contrasting color, make cross stitches across garter row sections (except for the ones at the very ends) as pictured. (This link should help if you don’t know how. Let me know if it goes dead, ok?)

2) With main color held double on your tapestry needle,  gather the ribs in the section between the cross-stitches as per the diagram.

So there you go! I hope you like it. I’m happy it’s not loitering any more. Speaking of loitering, I’d better quit doing that, myself, and get on the ball. Later!

I promised you some birthday presents

so come and get them!

First we have the pattern for the Spring by the Pacific Hat. I made up a chart for it in addition to the written directions because I’ve been hearing a lot lately about how much people like them.

Next up are some wristwarmers I made in an effort to use up the (mostly full) partial skein of Debbie Mumm Traditions left after my hat and scarf.

Aside from how beautifully the colors flow together (really, the more I use it the more I like this yarn) I really love the gentle flare at the wrist. I’ve long been a fan of bell sleeves. It goes fairly smoothly under a long sleeve, although it does create some bulk in snug-fitting sleeves. See! How pretty!

Unfortunately they only used about half of the yarn I had left.I decided to try and see if I could get an openwork hat out of the fifty-some-odd yards I had left. After a bit of trial and error, I was left with something I think is pretty cute! I absolutely love the drape I’m getting with the larger hooks, by the way. I may never go back, the difference it makes is just astonishing. Anyway - the hat!

I was surprised to see that I had a bit of ribbon in such a nicely coordinating color. (I bought a bag of random ribbon lengths at Joann’s a few months ago. Remember? I never had ribbon when I needed it? Now I do! Or I might. It depends on the project. But this was precisely the right width, as well!) Both of these projects were completed in a matter of hours. Each takes about 55 yards of worsted weight yarn. You might actually be able to get both a hat and a pair of wristwarmers out of a (fairly typical for worsted weight) 110-yard ball of yarn! Which brings me to my next point -

The free patterns are ready for the Cabbage Rose Cap and the Feminine Wristwarmers. I hope you enjoy them, and I’d love to see any that you make.

I’m not sure how much you’re going to see of me for the next week and a half, at least. We’ve only got about a week left in this house, then two weeks in temporary housing before our exodus. I’m going to be honest, here, I’m getting nervous. This is huge. Sometimes I lie in bed and think things like, “What if the movers pack our passports?” and “How many diapers do we need to put in the luggage to get us from Texas to Japan?” and “How will we make it through three major airports with two kids and all of our baggage without causing an international incident?” and “How will we ever get everything done?” In the end, though, I just remind myself that it seems a lot like childbirth: a long, excruciating slide down into pain and screaming mayhem, after which you are exhausted, sore, and more than a little triumphant. At least, I hope we’ll be triumphant. Right now I can’t even find a store that carries winter coats.

Keep an eye on your tv, though. We may make the evening news yet.

Finishing Up

Two projects saw their finish today: first up, the Vestee!

Max is seen here being a tree, which is apparently very serious business. He likes it, though. See?

The shawl collar read a little feminine to me, and I didn’t want to make him a sweater with a hood even if I’d thought I’d have enough yarn (which I might have had…I have a good chunk of the fifth ball left over), so I just picked up stitches and short-rowed some triangular pieces in k1 p1 ribbing to match the cuffs. I’m not 100% happy with how the neckline turned out, but I made this sweater to go with a white shirt and tie on Sundays, and I think it will work just fine for that.

Next up, I made a hat to go with my Tea Scarf!

I used the Pretty Puffs Slouchy Hat pattern by Jessica Suzanne, and I really like it although mine came out a lot bigger than expected. Of course, I used a K hook with my Debbie Mumm Traditions when the pattern specified a J hook for worsted (I already had it out for the scarf). Plus, I had a bandaid on the index finger of my right hand - the finger I control my yarn with - so I was trying not to snag or pull a yarn already hypersensitive to snagging and pulling with a built-in yarn-snagger on the finger I like to slide my yarn along…and I think I just worked it up way too loosely. Here’s one shot of the back before I go, because it’s awesome -

You’re lucky I’m restraining myself. I posted four pictures of this baby in my Ravelry project folder.

It’s the little things

that keep me sane. I ran across a beautiful scarf pattern on Ravelry (where else?) and decided that it was perfect for some yarn that I bought over Thanksgiving when I took a trip to my parent’s house. We were fortunate (or I was pushy) enough to visit the distant Joann’s while I was there, and I was shocked to find that it was a Joann’s Superstore! Ah, the things I never paid attention to as a teenager…

While I was there (buying armfuls of Patons Classic Merino for $3.00 a skein…) I ran across their new line of Debbie Mumm yarn that I’ve heard so much about. My local Joann’s doesn’t carry it, apparently only the larger ones do, but I thought I’d take the opportunity to investigate the buzz-yarn. Debbie Mumm Traditions (the most talked about of the line) has been touted by many as an alternative to Noro Kureyon, for those who like the colors but not the feel (or the price) of the more expensive Japanese wool. It may not seem like much of a price difference, but it really adds up. Kureyon retails for $6.99-8.50 per 110yd ball, while the Traditions sells for $5.99 normally (although Joann.com has it for $5 at the moment!) for 149 yds. That puts the Noro at 6.3 - 7.7 cents a yard, as compared to 3.3 - 4 for the Traditions. Let’s say you’re making a pullover and need 1000 yards (not unlikely); with the regular price for the Traditions you’d pay $41.93 for 7 skeins vs. $69.90 for 10 skeins of the sale price Noro. So you see? Quite an appreciable difference.

Of course, the next question is whether the yarns are even comparable if you take the colors out of the equation. A lot of folks were excited when the yarn came out but disappointed when they started working with it. The problem was not the texture (it’s quite soft, and pleasant to the touch) nor its appearance in person - the colors are just as lovely as advertised and the yarn itself has an appealing, softly-spun look to it - but the structure of the Traditions has left many people frustrated. You see, the yarn looks softly spun because it is. The colored portion is loosely twisted around a solid black core and if not treated with a delicate hand, the black core will protrude, the outer portion will bunch, ‘worming’ occurs, and chaos ensues. Even with those reviews, I bought three balls of it because it was so pretty - plus, I had a theory that it was one of those yarns that was easier to crochet with than to knit.

Working with it I found that I had to use the lightest possible touch to guide the yarn; you can’t even slide it through your fingers between your work and the ball without causing the outer layer to slip down and the yarn to curl. Once I realized that, though, it wasnt very hard to adjust to working that way. The first few times I caused a curl I tried to smooth it out, but I soon figured out that I could just let the bumps come up to my work and they could easily be concealed inside a single stitch (something crocheting has over knitting in this instance - the stitches have more layers and irregularities in the yarn stand out of your work less). My first skein ran out about 3/4 through the scarf’s edging and I decided to match the color repeat when starting the second skein. I pulled out a few yards of yarn to find my place, began crocheting, but after only a few inches along the border I ran into a knot, attached to a completely different part of the repeat (hey, just like Noro)! I grumbled, but fortunately it was the color right before the one I wanted and it wasn’t too difficult to pull out a few more yards, reattach the yarn, and finish the scarf.

Speaking of, the scarf I made was a Tea Scarf, from a lovely and simple free pattern provided by Pixeldiva.

I really like it - there’s something very striking about the way the yarn worked up into this pattern. Something special. I showed it to Greg and he started to say something absently but stopped, looked harder, and said, “You know, that looks really . . . earthy.”

I think so, too. Sort of rustic. Now all I need is a similarly unusual hat pattern to go with it! I’ve still got over a ball and a half of this stuff left, after all, and I’m looking forward to working with it again.

A Very Special Message

This one’s for you, Linda. The Scarlet Macaw Hand Puppet is in testing as of this morning.

I realize that’s a giant picture, but I love the colors of that thing so much. As soon as a few people go over the pattern and make sure it won’t explode on you, it’ll be available to buy over at Inner Child Crochet. That’s this morning’s big announcement. In other news, I finally decided what to make with that Misti Alpaca Chunky I bought at Yarnivore -

It’s a cowl! I can’t get a good picture of this color, either. This one is better, but it’s this deep, midnight blue shot with subtle streaks of iridescent purple. (The colorway is peacock and it shows.) I used the Quickie Cowl pattern by Fawn Pea, on 15s instead of 10 1/2s because that’s what I had on hand. It only took me a few hours from start to finish and it is fabulous. Very warm, too - I was sewing it up on my knees with one hand inside and started to get warm. Of course, that could be because it was unreasonably warm yesterday - the shot of it here with the jacket is totally staged. It was 70 degrees outside…when we woke up…before dawn. I’m not trying to deny that it was gorgeous outside and everything, but I resent being forced to contemplate the use of my air conditioner in January. It’s indecent. (We went without it, purely on moral grounds.) It’s all right, though, because I have been promised that when we get to Japan next month (!) there will be snow.

Anyway, I made the cowl to take a break from Max’s Vestee -

which is really going very well indeed. I just need to sew up the arms (they look sort of seamed in this picture, but they just rolled up) and add the collar. I even tried it on him yesterday, and it’s a little large but in a proportional way, which is exactly what I was shooting for. I’m really excited about this sweater because it looks so darn gorgeous. Now if I can just finish it nicely, we’ll be set!

And now, some knitting

It’s been cold here this week (and I mean actually cold, thankyouverymuch. 19 degree windchills are nothing to sneeze at). We’ve been bizarrely excited about the freezing temperatures, pulling out hats and sweaters and talking to the boys about Japan where there will be snow and not just cold, and trying to prepare for the climactic change we’re going to experience. We’ve still got a lot of things we need - I have no boots, for instance; problematic, as our new home gets about 38 inches of snow in an average January.

Anyway, as I was poking around for a new project to work on, I came across the Swish that I bought a few months ago to make sweaters for Max and Charlie. Since I’ve already made a sweater for Charlie, I decided to start on Max’s. I bought green for him, intending to make Sherwood, but that is just too complicated for me to handle right now. Fortunately, there are lots of great patterns on Knitty, and I decided to make a Vestee. Since the biggest size in the pattern is for 18 months, it did require a little swatching, but it’s really not that bad! The 18 month size was made with sport weight yarn on size 7 needles, and I had worsted weight for his sweater anyway - I’m working it up on 9s and so far I’ve been able to use the directions as written while still getting a large enough sweater (of course, I made it longer between hem and underarm). Well, I also modified it to work it up to the armpits in the round -

but that’s it, really. I’ve never made a raglan before, so hopefully I’ll be able to use the directions without (too many) more mods and I hope I’ll have enough yarn…but I love the garter rib pattern and the yarn is so smooshy and the pattern is so easy - I just love it.

(PS, the yarn is a much nicer green than it looks in that photo - I’d direct you to the Knit Picks site to get a better idea of the color, but their photo of it looks rather washed out, too. I suppose it’s just a difficult color to capture?)

Happy Birthday!

Not to me, though - to my site! That’s right, Inner Child Crochet has been up and running for one year, and we’ll be celebrating its birthday for the entire month. One year is an exciting milestone - to get the party started, I’m offering a new free pattern:

For birthday cake. This pattern will be available free through the month of January only, so get your copy now, and be sure to check back often for sales, specials, and releases all month long!