Catching Up with Crochet

I know I have been writing more about my family events and my coping in widowhood, but I do have some craft talk to share…..

I have a friend whom I reconnected with, staying in a convalescent care center for an uncertain amount of time. I was very thrilled to know she was crocheting a lot, making lap robes and blankets, to pass the time. I brought her a big bag of acrylic yarn from my stash. It was like watching a child open up presents on Christamas. She was so excited. What a joy!

How interesting to talk about crocheting with a fellow crafter! She shared with me the wish to relearn making granny squares and learn how to make a ripple crochet stitch. I looked among my many books and found one that had patterns for both.

Describing to her how to make the stitches was rather confusing, so I decided to make a swatch for her to follow. It all came back to me as I crocheted that granny square and then the ripple stitch swatch. I suppose I can make them into scarves or something small so that the sample will not be wasted.

Presently, I am forging ahead on my knit friendship shawl, which is almost long enough to cover the shoulders adequately. When it is done, I will crochet an edging and perhaps add some buttons to close it and block it. The feather and fan pattern will show better when blocked.

I am also knitting on some slippers for my grandkids that will be felted. I’m guessing at the size as they should be. They should be larger so as to shrink when felted.

I seem to be finding more time to knit again. I am beginning to settle in a routine. I can only take so much audio input of screaming little voices of my excited grandchildren, before I have to retreat to my quiet sanctuary, plug in a quiet Christmas CD, curl up in my comfy recliner and knit a few minutes before the grandkids discover my hiding place. Ah…..isn’t grandmotherhood glorious!

Happy Color!

My babies, my Gerber daisies, are doing great! I am relieved that they have made it through the hottest part of the summer. The reds and pinks are blooming like crazy. The yellows have made a slow start but I am seeing some small buds starting to spring up and I’m sure they will bloom in a few days. It seems my “brown thumb” is fading. The plants look very healthy. I am wondering how long their season is? It would be nice if I can keep they blooming all year. They are so beautiful.

I haven’t been blogging much because I’ve been too busy working, knitting and spinning. I have two new projects on my needles. I’ve started to make some Christmas presents, again knitting some fuzzy feet for special people. This time, however, I tried adapting the pattern to do “toe-up”, which means I won’t have to finish the toe. Kitchener stitch is not a favorite, and toe-up means no kitchener. Yea! So far they are coming out OK, I tried to make them a little bigger as to fit a large male foot. It’s not easy to know for sure if they will shrink enough in the felting process, but I am keeping my fingers crossed.

I started organizing my paper patterns in binders……yes, bindersssssss! I had no idea how many I had. I created a database to inventory all my patterns and search where they are located. What a chore! I had no idea I had so many. Too many to actually make them. Still they inspire me.

The other project I started was a sweater I found on Knitty.com called Hey Teach! It looks like it would look great on any body shape. I found some stash cotton I had and cast on. This time I started with the sleeve to determine if it was doable before I knitted several skeins worth of stockinette. It ended up very easy and I can’t wait to get to the pattern again.

Hemlock Knit Along

I’ve been so excited to listen to all the New Years podcasts. One that particularly caught my ear was Ready, Set, Knit, the podcast from Webs owner, Kathy Elkins. She and Pixie, the knitting instructor that conducts all her Knit Alongs, are planning to knit the Hemlock Ring Blanket. Their encouragement has inspired me to look at the different finished Hemlocks on Ravelry. To my surprise there is over 500 finished blankets on Ravelry. Apparently, this pattern is very popular.

At first glance, I didn’t like it because of the feather & fan stitch. I tried to knit a fan scarf once and had to keep ripping it out because I forgot a yarn over or something else. It was so frustrating. I have since learned how to create a yarn over from a previous row, which should make things easier if I find a mistake after the fact.

Looking at all the variety of yarns and the fact that it could be a lap blanket, inspired me to try to make one for my Godmother who has Alzheimer’s in San Diego. This would be a perfect use of my large stash of Acrylic. Acrylic is washable, and would make it easier to launder. I’m not sure it would need constant reblocking. I’m hoping that if I choose a not so stretchy Acrylic, it might at least lay flatter and not need to be reblocked everytime it’s washed. Well, acrylic is a inexpensive experimental yarn. It it comes out good and I’m not too bored with it, I might make another in a better yarn.

I could also substitute this blanket for a table cloth or a coffee table doily if things don’t work out. I chose a Beige Cream colored Walmart Mainstays Worsted Yarn, which in now discontinued. I have lots of this. I estimate it might take 2 or more 8 oz skeins to finish it.

So I cast on with 10.5 double pointed needles. I later switched to bamboo circulars and then in row 31 I changed to a longer Size 11 circular needled. I did make a few mistakes because I didn’t compensate for my particular style of knitting by switching the k2 tog to SSK. Nevertheless, it is hardly noticeable unless you really look hard.

Here’s my progress…..

I’m such a bad girl. I am supposed to be frogging and finishing my UFO’s, but I just couldn’t help myself. I have a need to be in a community project such as a KAL. I just got a head start, that’s all. Why kill my motivation by waiting for it to start? I feel like getting started now, since I have the yarn. I see this as slowly reducing my stash. Yea!

I am slowly trying to finish my Branching out scarf. It will be so nice when finished but it takes all my concentration to knit this lace pattern. I wanted something else I could memorize and knit mindlessly and I hope this Hemlock Ring will do it.

The more I see this pattern, the more I am liking it. It looks complicated, but with the big yarn and needles it doesn’t seem so intimidating. This one will be in one color, but perhaps in the next one, I’ll try changing different colors in wide bands. I used to LOVE, LOVE, LOVE crocheting doilies, until my wrist started hurting. In fact, crocheting a lace table cloth as a wedding present just about did me in. That is why I switched to knitting. It didn’t cause my wrist to move as much.



I'm in Love with knitting Fuzzy Feet. Here are the ones I made for my sister-in-law with the hand dyed wool in baby blue. I also tried making some for my 17 mo grandaughter. I cast on 30 instead of 44 for adults hoping to make them much smaller. I think they still turned out a little big. Next time I'll try casting on perhaps 24 stitches to see if they result in a smaller fit. Stay tuned.....

Felting fun and New Year's Resolutions

I’ve been slightly obsessed with felting Fuzzy Feet and other things. I’ve received so many complements on the slippers I’ve made that are so easy to make. The fuzzy feet pattern from Knitty.com is just like making a sock on Size 10.5 needles. They seem to knit up fast. Where socks knitted on Size 2 needles can frustrate and bore me to no end, these seem the opposite. I can make a pair in about 2-3 days.

Now that Christmas is over, I can again make some things for me. I started some fuzzy feet slippers for me in Red, my favorite color, at this time. Red is so bright and alive and lovely. A very warm and passionate color. After knitting these up I perused some of my felting pattern books. In the book Felted Knits by Beverly Galeskas, I found a pattern for an oven mitt. It calls for Bulky weight yarn. I had some blue and red Patons Classic Wool (worsted weight) left over so I doubled it and knitted up a mitt.

After I put them into the machine to felt, they came out great.

My sister-in-law has been staying with us over the holidays and I asked her if she wanted me to make her some. She wanted a baby blue color. I made a trip to Michaels to get some yarn, but to my dismay, they didn’t have the color I wanted. They did, however, have some off white, so I decided to buy 2 skeins and dye it myself. I used some Createx liquid dye, mixing Blue Marine with Turquiose, in the immersion pot, and came out with the perfect color I wanted.

RESOLUTIONS.........

This year, I am making a commitment to using up my stash and reduce my UFO’s (unfinished objects). My New Years resolution is to either reduce my 20+ UFO’s to half in the next 2008 year. I am either going to finish them or frog them. This will be very hard for me, as I tend to get very sentimental and attached to some. It’s hard to think about all the work one puts into a project, just to rip it all out. I suppose as I’ve gotten older, I am realizing that life is just too short and I need to start “cleaning house” and make my life simpler.

Priority UFO’s to Finish

Walter’s Blue Cardigan
Branching out scarf
Crocheted Mocha Roca
Adult Surprise Jacket

UFO’s to Finish
Started % Completed Name of Project
Apr 06 80% Tropical Acrylic Shrug
Feb 06 60% Blueberry Ice wrap baby sweater
Feb 06 60% Yellow Baby Blanket
Mar 06 90% Crayon colored stripe sweater set
Pre-2000 50% Rasperry Fair Isle Mittens
Pre-2000 99% Robby’s Piano Socks
Jun 05 60% Natural Wool striped scarf
Pre-2000 99% Off White Aran Afghan
Dec 05 40% Knit Picks Multicolored FairIsle Vest
Jun 07 60% Lace Anklet

Think about frogging

Jan 06 40% Red Chenile Capelet
Pre-2000 50% White Cotton Sampler Vest
Pre-2000 80% Mohair Scarf
June 05 50% Black/Multi color Handspun sweater
(I can’t even remember what this looks like??)
Jun 05 25% Philosopher’s Technique Fair Isle Sweater
June 05 75% Cotton Flag sweater (Would probably bleed after the first wash anyway)
June 05 50% Blue Cotton crochet vest
Fall 05 50% Color Fair Isle Wool sock (?) Second sock syndrome
Pre-2000 50% Diamonds Woman’s sweater
Pre-2000 75 % Bulky Vest
July 07 10% Handspun Tencel Dog Paw’s Shawl
Oct 2007 30% Dad’s tofusies socks

Think about giving away to someone who can sew it up together or finish
Pre-2000 80% Baby Granny Square Blanket

Wow! I’ve already reduced the number of projects in half, at least in paper only, the real work will be much more difficult emotionally.

A frogging will I go…..A frogging will I go…Hi Ho the merry-oooh…a frogging will I go. ; D

Fuzzy Feet

I finished the second slipper of the Knitty “Fuzzy Slippers”. Believe it or not I was about 2 yards short of yarn on one skein and had to use a little of the second skein.

Today I felt them in the washer. I put them in a garment bag with a towel. I added some detergent and hot water on a fast cycle. Every 5 minutes I checked the size until it reached the size I wanted. The slippers came out great. It will probably take a few days to dry completely, but they look very promising for the perfect slipper.
I usually don’t like knitting socks but these seemed to knit up fast. I may try to do another pair before Christmas. The next pair, I may try some stripes