CrafTBQ

Just some links for me. Turning comments off because this is for my benefit plus I’ve been getting hit with a lot of spam.

The Aardvark Project

(email photos to art at zucky dot com)

Hats that avoid the eyebrows

I decided to frog the hat I’ve been working on because I just did not feel confident about the ribbing being strong enough to stay on my, or anyone’s head.

I recast with the same number of stitches but switched to 5s for the ribbing and 6s for the body of the hat.  I’m still not sure it’ll fit on my head but I do believe it’ll fit on someone’s now. 

It’s not quite done yet, but there’s an outside chance I’ll have it done by the end of this weekend.  (And of course by saying so I have guaranteed that will not happen.)

I’ve finished my first BGAL project. Rather, I have my first BGAL project which is finished. It is not the first BGAL project that I started.  I have pictures of it that I will post here and to BGAL once I get them on my computer.

Finally, this week saw the very first SnB in my hometown. I dare not say much for fear I will make it vanish, but suffice it to say that within minutes of meeting we were snarking on the snotty owner of one of the local yarn stores, so I knew I was amongst my people.

I need a new bag.  My weetiny and adorable purse is on its last legs.  It was a good purse in that it held just what I needed it to hold.  But what I also want it to hold is current knitting projects.  This will take some experimentation.

I had a purse once that was certainly big enough, but this thing could’ve carried a small child.  Way too big for every day purse needs.  I’ve since converted it into my crochet bag:

It currently holds all my crochet hooks (except the one I keep in my knitting bag to catch dropped stitches), scissors, practice yarn, tapestry needles, and the totally confusing crochet booklet that steered me so wrong all those years ago. (I THROW NOTHING OUT).

As a crochet bag this works pretty well. The little pockets inside are quite spiffy for putting my tools into, and the roomy inside is plenty of space for yarn and projects and books.

But no way am I hauling something this big around in my daily life. 

So off to buy a new purse I go. No clue if I’ll find something, but think of all the extra knitting I could get in if I’m successful!

ETA: The Girl From Auntie has a great collection of posts about Deb Stoller vs. Sew Fast Sew Easy over the use of “Stitch N Bitch.”  Recommended reading for anyone interested in that whole kerfuffle.

There’s a few things I’d like to do at some point with my knitting:

1.  Illusion knitting now that that post has pointed out design ideas I haven’t thought of (Mmmm… Celtic stuff)
2. A knit-along of some kind. Not sure what, I just like the concept. See also: the woeful lack of SnBs in my area
3. HUGE pipe dream: Start my own SnB.  Which will probably never happen because everyone in this area is way too apathetic. Plus I admittedly don’t have much by way of time or energy to organize one. But oh it’d be nifty.

I finished my scarf tonight. It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve finished something. This is what happens when health issues sap my energy to do anything. Granted side effects from my latest round of meds are doing that a lot too, but at least in the past couple of weeks I’ve been able to turn to knitting as something to relax with.

It’s dark now so I’ll hold off until I’ve got some free daylight time to snap pictures with. I’m pleased with how it turned out though. Tiny bit shorter than I might have ideally liked, but it hangs just fine both if I put it around my neck to be decorative, and if I use it to keep my neck warm.

Next up: another scarf! Boring perhaps, but I need boring right now. If I truly had some brainpower I’d try socks.

I’m on a real kick with knitting blogs lately. Possibly because they’re the closest thing I can get to a stitch n bitch. It probably won’t be long before the sidebar of this blog is so filled up with links you can barely read it. One day I may even get up enough nerve to - gasp! - comment in the blogs I’m reading. Imagine that!

Finally, so this post is not totally without visual interest, I give you the other thing I made today:

I couldn’t eat many of them due to feeling sick, but at least I made ‘em and I’m pleased.

I first learned to knit years ago when my friend Lucifrix was kind enough to sit down and teach me the basics of casting on, knitting, purling, and casting off.

I had a fondness for this because I’d always wanted to learn how to knit. Plus my previous attempt at being crafty with yarn, namely crocheting, had left me feeling confused and unfulfilled. (More on that later.)

Unlike crochet, knitting was precise. I could see where my stitches started and stopped. I did not end up with items that were thicker than they started because I couldn’t tell where the end of the row was.

However, for all that I didn’t quite get knitting. I could go through the motions easily enough, but it did not sing to me. I was unwooed. The needles and yarn were put away, never to be touched again.

Fast forward a couple of years later. I’m at Connexions and everyone and her kid sister has the needles going. I am lost! Berefit! I was not one to make with sticks and string! Woe!

My friends, however, took pity upon me. Verily, they said, thou must buyest Stitch n Bitch, for lo’ it ’tis the way to yarn joy comething in thine morning.

(Granted I may be paraphrasing.)

Stitch n Bitch was bought and from that I learned two things:

1. I actually could learn the language of a craft from a book, which had previously never happened for me
2. Yarn choice affects everything

For you see, part of what had happened was that I, in my newbieness, had picked a practice yarn based on the very strict criteria of “Ooh, pretty!” and not so much with “Oooh, workable!” I’ve since thrown out the yarn so I don’t remember what it was called, but if I had to guess it was probably something like Blue Diamond’s Skein of Petroleum and Sadness.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve got nothing against acrylic as a concept. But I’m reasonably certain that yarn, in general, is supposed to be able to move. Mine? Not so much.

So as I attempted to knit up the practice swatches in SnB, I found myself confronted with a yarn that looked great, and could very possibly survive a nuclear holocaust. Not so good.

Back to the store I went. This time to the LYS, where I purchased yarn based on the far superior criteria of “Oooh, pretty!” and “Oooh, pettable!” Armed now with soft, fluffy, big, and did I mention soft? yarn I created this:

My very first scarf. Note the neatness! Note how even the stitches are! Note how it begins as a scarf and ends as a scarf! This was most exciting.

I had to do more! So I bought some more yarn, this time going back to acrylic so I could have something cheap enough that my perfectionist nature wouldn’t freak out about mistakes. But I shopped smarter and got an acrylic that was actually nice to the touch. Caron’s Simply Soft, worsted weight. Good stuff. Especially since if you’ve got a 40% off coupon for Michael’s which makes it practically free.

Project number two was this:

Which is not, contrary to appearances, a bikini bottom but a kerchief. Still, note those stitches! Note the pretty decreases! (Or increases, I forget how this is made now.) Note how you can’t actually see the couple of stitches I screwed up due to my own fault and not that of a yarn that is harder than diamonds!

This was fun!

I was ready to pounce upon a pattern now. I was also ready for the scary world of dpns and knitting in the round. Thus was created:

The umbilical cord hat. Made here in the same practice yarn, then made again for my brand-new nephew in a light purple because at the time I didn’t know what gender he was going to be, plus I made enough mistakes on this version that I didn’t feel right giving it as a gift.

Sadly I’ve got no pictures of the one that was given, but you get the idea.

From there I was happy. I had sticks! I had string! I could make stuff and like making stuff! Lo’ was a brand-new addiction born!

But not, unfortunately, an addiction that came complete with an undying need to make use of my digital camera. So we shall leap gracefully over the ensuing knitting Dark Ages and instead make ourselves live in the now. Assuming that now is when I start bucking that trend to not use my camera. Ahem.

Welcome to the blog for my crafty things. I’m still learning the ins and outs of how to use this, so apologies in advance for any mistakes.

As a heads-up comments are currently set to be screened because apparently spammers are common. That’s hopefully one of the things I can streamline as I learn more about this.