Eleven Stitches

Sock Yarn Projects

Now that most of my worsted weight leftovers have been used up, my eye has turned towards my leftover sock yarn.  That yarn can really add up after a while!

I currently have two projects that are chipping away at this particular stash.  First of all, there are socks.

These are the beginnings of Swedish Fish Socks.  I had this color scheme in my head ever since I saw the pattern, and I'm loving it so far. 

But I'm finding that the socks aren't really using up that many scraps, so I have another project that is doing a much better job at it.

I started another afghan!  This one is using individual squares of six rounds each.  I hold the sock yarn doubled so that it's approximately worsted weight.  This does use up the sock yarn quickly, so I put the project temporarily on hold until I'm sure I have enough of the solid colors I need for my socks.  This project is so fun!

So there you have it!  What's your favorite way to use up sock yarn leftovers?

Giant Granny Square Afghan

I finally finished up a project that I started on the first day of 2010. 

This afghan is a giant granny square!  Instead of seaming a bunch of smaller squares together, I just kept going around and around the original square.  I bought a couple of balls of yarn to use in this project, but the majority of the yarn was leftover from other projects.  Well, also there was yarn that I had bought previously and no longer had something that I wanted to make with it. 

I have to admit that before I started this project, I didn't really like afghans.  I didn't like how I always wanted to stick my toes out of the holes when I was was sitting under one.  I don't think I appreciated the way they looked.  But I wanted a project to use up my yarn and I was interested in trying out some crochet.  And now I reallly love the way they look, and I'm trying to resist doing the toe thing.

It was so satisfying to use up all of my odd balls of worsted weight yarn.  And to get something so beautiful out of it!

I kept going around until I felt like it was big enough and until I had used up my longer lengths of yarn.  Then I experimented with an edging until I found something I liked.  I ended up doing two double crochets in each stitch.  It ruffles a little bit, which I like a lot.

I'm so happy with this afghan, and I'm sure it will be so welcome next fall and winter.  In the meantime, it will look pretty on the chair while we enjoy the spring and summer!

The Remaining Events: Also Gold

It was fun to tie crocheting and hand-quilting into the Olympic mix this time around.  Especially since the amount I quilted and crocheted depended on how Team USA did!

My afghan is still in progress, but it is nine rounds bigger now.  It was fun to think about the Olympian while I was crocheting his or her round.

 

I wasn't sure what to do during the hockey game!  Should I get started on the round just in case?  These are long rounds, now!  In the end I was sad for USA, but happy for Canada and happy that I didn't have to crochet any more.

I probably should have made the hand-quilting a little more challenging.  But my country got a record-setting 37 medals, so I did have to join a lot of edges.   Here is where I am with it right now.  Not all of these were joined in the past two weeks.

I might have this quilt hanging around for the next Olympics!

All in all, it was a very satisfying Olympics for me.  They're fun to watch, and I was able to fit in so much crafting as well!  I'm adding this button to the side bar, because I earned it!

 

Crochet!

I had jury duty a few months ago, and I thought it would be a great time to learn how to crochet. Fortunately, there was a lady in the jury room who already knew how to crochet, and she helped me make my first granny square. (I had a hard time realizing that with crochet you sometimes don't look at the stitches you've made, but look at the holes in between the stitches.) I made a couple of tiny granny squares, tried a hexagon or two, and then I went back to knitting after jury duty was over.

And then this group got started on Ravelry, the Giant Granny Crochet Along.  And I felt compelled to join. This looked like a great way to use up some left over bits and balls of yarn. Of course, I was in San Francisco and far away from my stash.  I went over to Imagknit and got some yarn just to get me started.

I only got four balls of yarn, and it doesn't take very long to do the beginning four rounds of a granny square. I decided to swatch.  A lot.

 

I decided that an H hook was the right size.  J was too big (I think I missed I somehow), and G was too small.  After that, I tried out 4 double crochets instead of the standard 3, and it didn't seem to be worth doing.  And then I bought 2 more balls of yarn so that I could add in 2 more rounds on my granny before I went home.

I crocheted almost all day on my first day back home!  And now my giant granny looks something like this.

I'm happy with how many partial skeins I've used up, and I'm planning to really decimate my stash of worsted yarn.

I'm thinking about adding crochet as an event in my Knitting Olympics.  You know, for when my knitting muscles get sore.  

How about you?  Do you crochet?  Does that Ravelry group tempt you, too?