Eleven Stitches

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?

A Difficult Choice

Over this Thanksgiving holiday, I've been finishing things up.  I got a lot done on Betty.   I steeked the arm holes, and seamed them into the sweater body.

Alas, the sweater is too small.  I tried it on to show a couple of people, and their response is "Well, maybe it could work...", or "It's not really that bad."  But, I know myself when it comes to the sweaters I knit.  If I feel uncomfortable in them before they're finished, I'm likely to never wear them once they're done. So I think I've got a few options, some of which I've ruled out already.

1. I could finish the sweater and try to block it out and wear it.  I don't want to do this.  I don't think it will result in success.

2. I could frog this sweater and re-knit the pattern in a larger size.  I think I'm kind of "done" with this pattern for the moment.  I don't want to knit it again.

3. I could give this sweater to a smaller person, like my mother. My mom tried it on, and it fit her pretty well.  But she seemed pretty uncomfortable when she was wearing it, and she admitted that she would be too nervous to wear it very often because she would be afraid of ruining it.

4. I could frog the sweater and use the yarn to knit a different pattern. I cannot get all of the yarn back from this sweater because it's steeked past the armholes, but that leaves a large part of the body and sleeves that can be salvaged.  I also have about 600 yards of this yarn that's un-knit, so I think there's enough to do something with it.

Are there any other options I'm missing? I've been thinking about it for a couple of days now, and I'm leaning towards option 4, but I'm open to suggestions. I was thinking about option 3, but my mom really didn't seem comfortable with the idea, and I think she was the best candidate to wear the sweater.

I think that the sweater was fitting when I was knitting it.  Perhaps it shrunk some when I blocked it?  Anyway, I'm sad that it didn't work out, and I hope I'll be able to move on soon!

New WIPs

Oh, I had a busy week.  I worked long hours, and even the past two Saturdays!  But I think my classroom is ready for children (the new ones start on Wednesday), and I'm quite satisfied with that.  I haven't been doing much else, but I have gotten in a few rows on my new project every evening.

 

This is Dulce de Leche, in about the same color as the original sweater!  I feel like I don't have very much done, but I'm going to be increasing after the waist soon, which is reasonably far along. I have a feeling this will be a favorite sweater when I finish this!

I also started a new pair of socks, Leyburns,  to knit while I was in Amsterdam.  I made a fair amount of progress while I was there (and on the plane back), but I haven't really worked on them since.

 

David bought this yarn for me while he was in Duluth this summer.  He went to Yarn Harbor on his way to the airport to fly back home.  He got there about 15 minutes before it opened, and asked if he could come in early to get some yarn for his wife before he flew home! They were very nice to him :)

The socks are pooling, but David likes it when yarn pools, so it's fine with me.

 

They're also fun to knit!

Featherweight Progress

Hello, I am back.  The last few weeks I've been immersed in certification to become a Montessori teacher, and that paired with trying to recover from the swine flu has left me swamped.  The good news is that I've completely fallen in love with my newly chosen career path, and I can see myself being a Montessori teacher for a very, very long time. I feel like I'm a different person now, to some degree, after this intensive summer, and I am extremely content.  The bad news is that I haven't blogged, and well, I'm OK with that.

But now it's time to catch up!  Let me show you what I've been knitting.

 

I've finished the body and almost finished the collar.  I decided to do the collar before the sleeves because it's hard to figure out how the sweater fits without the collar.  While knitting the body, I got *very* tired of purling, so I decided to do the edges and collar in garter stitch.  I think it works well with this sweater.

 

I have some quilting and sewing to show you as well, but I'll leave that for another day.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and I'll be back soon.

Ready for Seaming

Thanks for the well wishes and the links to keep me entertained!  I'm feeling much better now, but I'm still quite weak. I've been moving and doing more things around the house each day, and I'm hoping to be able to go to work on Monday.

With all of this required leisure time, I've been completing some crafty tasks.  Betty is all knitted now, and ready for seaming.

I've finished all the hexagons.  I had to get a bigger box to hold all of them.

I've got a plan for how I would like to arrange them, and I might start laying them out tomorrow.  I sure hope I enjoy seaming them together, because there is a lot to do!

Rather than seaming Betty right away, I decided to reward myself and cast on for a new project.  This is going to be the Featherweight cardigan, knit with JaggerSpun Zephyr in a pretty teal.

I'm perhaps halfway done with the yoke.  I LOVE the fabric this is making on size 5 needles, and I'm really looking forward to wearing this sweater!

As my energy levels increase, I'm hoping to get back to my sewing machine as well. In the meantime, I'll be knitting and hand-quilting!

Saturday Night Fever

Well, the 2009 pandemic has reached my home.  I've got influenza, and my doctor thinks it's likely to be swine flu.  My symptoms are only cough and fever, but oh man, I never realized how debilitating a fever can be.  (I don't think I've had a serious fever since I was little.) I'm keeping things under control with some carefully regimented medicine, but my energy level is crazy low.

In addition to this, David has been out of town since I got sick, so I've been home alone for four days! (He's due back imminently, and I'm already planning what supplies I would like for him to pick up.) I'm so grateful that I have the hobbies I do, or else I might be really sick and crazy!

During my high-energy times, I've been knitting and hand quilting.  I'm almost to the second sleeve cap on Betty.

I've also got a shoebox full of hexagons, organized by color.

But I have to admit, that after four days of this (and lots and lots of CSI variants on TV), I'm getting really bored.  Would you take pity on me and entertain me?  I'll give you three things I find interesting, and I'd love it if you left me a comment with something interesting of your own.

1. This video of an elephant painting a self portrait.  No, I didn't believe either it until I actually watched the video.

2. My friend Chawne has a really irreverent quilt in progress right now.  I find it quite hilarious.

3. My typepad stats are seriously high today.

I think Microsoft's new search engine might be indexing me. Every search that links back to my blog is some simple word like "green", and I can't imagine that this little blog is really going to be very high on the list for that kind of search!

OK, I'm off to rest up after all the energy I used writing this post!  I'd advise you all to be very careful to avoid the swine flue, because it is seriously annoying.  And feel very sorry for anyone you know who might have it.  It's really that bad!

Like Potato Chips

So I've fallen down a new obsessive hole.  Hexagons.

They're hand-pieced onto die-cut pieces of paper. These hexagons are 2 inches per side. When I first started quilting, I had no interest in hand-piecing.  I mean, a machine is so much faster!  But knitting has taught me patience (in many things!), and now I don't care how long it will take to make this quilt because I'm having fun along the way.

And also? They're quite addictive.

Some of you might think that I have a big yarn stash.  I'm not disagreeing with that at all.  But my fabric stash makes my yarn stash look like that ball of twine in everyone's junk drawer. So, my goal is to outfit every one of my 300 paper hexagons with a different fabric from my stash.  I'm not worried.  It will get done.

I think I'm close to the halfway point in cut hexagons (not yet sewn), and I haven't even breached my bookcase of fabric yet.  This is all from stuff lolling around on my sewing tables and floor. Maybe I'll have to order some more hexes and make a bigger quilt.

I'm taking a big stack with me to Rhode Island this weekend for our annual clambake. (I'm also hoping to get some major sleeve progress done on Betty.)  I'll be offline for three days -- my only time all year-- and I'll see you on the other side.  I hope you have a great weekend, holiday or otherwise!

Betty and Distractions

Here is the current status of my Betty Jean McNeil sweater.

I finished knitting the body, and I cut the arm and top neck steeks so I could try it on.  It's currently only seamed with safety pins!  It took me quite a while to get started on the sleeves, but you can see that I have finally gotten a little bit finished.

For some reason, I really was not interested in starting those sleeves, so much so that I knit a sock while I was procrastinating.

This is the first half of a pair of Francies.  I used some delicious Malabrigo sock yarn, and I'm sure the pair will be a favorite once it's completed.

The return of summer (sort of-- it's way too rainy here) has slowed my knitting progress recently.  I've been all about using my sewing machine.  More on that to come!

Knit, Sew, Quilt

That's what my plans were for this long weekend!  How did I do?  Well, let me show you.

I've made a lot of progress on Betty.  I just finished with the armhole shaping, and I'm about finished with the colorwork band.

At the movies (Star Trek!  Such a good movie.), I almost finished up my second Trekking sock.  All I had to do when I got home is knit the toe.

I feel pretty meh about this pair of socks.  I know there are a lot of people who really like Trekking, but I don't think I'm one of them.  I'll see if my feelings change once I start wearing these socks next fall.

In the sewing department, I finished up a dress.

This is Simplicity 4116, an out of print pattern that I really like. This is the second time I've used this pattern, and I really like how nicely it fits and how easy it sews up.

The cantaloupe-colored fabric is pretty simple, and I love the Peter Pan collar.  I added a little bit of topstitching in the hopes the facing won't shift around too much after it's washed.

I made my own bias tape to finish the armholes, and I added pockets to the dress.  I also appliqued on a flower!

And finally, I got started on a new quilt this weekend.  I've admired Chawne's Blue Whimsy quilt so much that I thought I'd try to make something similar.

I've got some bread rising for tonight's meal (and this week's lunches), and I have a few more hours of crafting to fit in before the work week comes.

Re-think

Sometimes, it's a good idea for me to re-think my opinions.  The other night I finished the body of my owls sweater and I was ready to start the sleeves.  This is a seamless sweater, of course, which I think is the most convenient way to knit a sweater.   I was finding the magic loop method very awkward for the sleeves, and I don't have US 10 DPNs.  I was starting to wonder when I could make it to my LYS to pick up a set and then I realized..... I could just knit the sleeves flat and seam them up!

I want this sweater to be short-sleeved, so the sleeves are about 2.5 inches long.  I think I can handle 5 inches of seaming! And yet, I was almost ready to halt my knitting for a day to go buy a set of DPNs that I am unlikely to use very often.  I'm glad I gave this plan a second thought!