CrafTBQ

Cast on last night for my next project. It’s a new scarf made out of suri merino and it is ZOMG so soft you could DIE.  I’m actually pondering trying to design a top out of it (yes, design, because I do NOTHING the simple way) because dear god it’d be like being hugged by a kitten.

I also proudly jotted down details into my knitting journal, so that now I am no longer relying on slips of paper to remind me what stitches I’m doing, where I left off, and what needle size I’m using. 

Pics of the scarf in progress will come at some point in the future, but since we’re in the world of knitting meta I thought I’d toss up a pic of my knitting bag and survival gear:

The bag I got for free thanks to my boss. He got it at a dental convention.  It’s actually a great bag for knitting. There’s a place on the side for pens (for my knitting journal!), a zippered front pocket for all my notions, and plenty of room inside to hold books, yarn, and a few WIPs. (Typically I do one at a time.)  Inside at any given time we have this:

That’s the knitting journal, Stitch n Bitch (which I keep handy because I’m constantly refreshing my memory on how to do stuff, like purl), my Denises (ZOMG love, LOVE), row counter, cable needle, gauge ruler (which I didn’t know how to work properly for far too long), point protectors for regular needles, stitch markers, stitch holder, tapestry needles, and a crochet hook (F, I believe) for picking up dropped stitches.

Add in the pen in the side pocket and with these tools I can TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!!

Or knit. Knitting’s more relaxing, granted.

Got some crochet done today. Two rows of double crochet, per the instructions in Happy Hooker. This was a big one for me (no pun intended on the stitch size) because being able to see where the turning chain ends and my stitches begin on double (and triple) crochet was a big problem for me the last time I tried this. That’s how I ended up with a shawl that was supposed to be a lap blanket. (But notice how quickly I adapt! Sometimes my perfectionism does dial down enough to allow me to simply swap the label on something and pretend I meant to do that the whole time. Ahem.)

I’m doing better with it now. Not 100% confident yet but I think I’m getting it. I’m still at 19 stitches so that’s the key thing.

Now here’s how sad I am: I only realized today that part of the reason why I probably had problems with the turning chain and all the last time was probably influenced by me not doing the crochet correctly. You’d think that would be intuitive to figure out, and yet you would be wrong, wrong, wrong.

I maintain comfort in knowing that Deb Stoller made the same mistake when she tried doing crochet again. I’ve probably said this a billion times but her intro in Happy Hooker could basically be my story of trying to teach myself crochet the first time. The upside is that I still have the booklet I used to teach myself (because I throw nothing out EVER) and now that I’ve read HH and compared it to the booklet, I can sort-of see how the booklet was saying the same thing, but it didn’t make that 100% clear. It’s like Deb says: they show you A and they show you C, and somehow assume you’ll fill in B on your own.

Now that I’ve got B, I am slowly getting to that “Aha!” moment. Which is nice. I’m looking forward to when I’ve got enough under my belt that I can try out some of the patterns (here’s hoping increasing and decreasing doesn’t prove to be my undoing). Compared to knitting I like how there’s only one “live” stitch at a time, so if you drop something and/or screw up you haven’t necessarily ruined an entire section of your garment. There’s also the speed factor of being able to cover a lot of cloth ground with a single stitch.

The downside is that I can tell my wrist doesn’t like it. I remember from last time I was able to get around this by wearing a brace, but one of the other things I like about crochet so far is that the setup to start is pretty easy-breezy. Pick hook and project up, and go. (As opposed to knitting where there’s some aspect of getting the needles ready to go that adds a couple of steps - yes, sometimes I am just that lazy. You’re surprised?)

(Sidebar: As I type this there is a Mac asleep in my lap, currently using my arm for a pillow. All together now: Awwwwww.)

Anyhoo, point being that needing to use a brace adds a fiddly step to the process that’s disappointing. Esp because, laziness aside, sometimes I like to work on stuff while I’m visiting with family and left alone for random moments to amuse myself, so having crochet with a half second of “Pick up stuff, hook hook hook, put it down” would be far more practical than the extra steps of knitting. Throw the brace into the system and we’ve lost that.

I may need to try a new hold on the hook, but I’m not sure what it would be. Esp since I think the actual twisting movement of hooking itself is what’s causing the problem, and that’s always going to be there.

So, stuff to ponder. I am determined not to give up!

Knitting-wise I’m hoping to cast on for my next scarf today. I’m also putting together a shopping list of yarn from KnitPicks. Their new S&H charge system is evil because it really does encourage you to put more yarn into your order just on the odd chance you might use it later.

For my next order I’m going to throw in some Wool of the Andes (my first time using it) for BGAL. I figure that’s a safe order no matter what because even if I don’t do the crazy insane project I’m currently thinking of for it, I’ll do something with it.

I’m also going to throw in some yarn for these pedicure socks. I wasn’t going to do them originally because on the rare occaisions I get pedicures in cold weather I’m actually fine with the whole cling film/hope it all works out thing. But then I reread the pattern and saw that, once you yank the stripes out of the equation, these are actually pretty good Playskool’s My First Learn To Make A Heel Socks, since you’re using #7 dpns and worsted weight yarn and there’s nothing else that requires much attention to be paid besides the ribbing.

So I figure I’ll do those, even if I never end up using them, and use that to cut my teeth on the general sock concept before I go back to the #3 dpns and sock yarn and sock pattern that has been waiting for me to have enough brainpower to try it.

Of course with me nothing can ever be simple, and I’m also tempted to fancy up the final product by dying my own yarn, but oddly I think KP’s dye your own is more expensive than the pre-dyed, so my Scottish nature - um, I mean frugal side will probably win the battle over my manic insanity.

Throw in the other scarf that I thought of doing and I’ve got a few WIPs on the burner. I’m tempted to be like Byrne and turn my sidebar into a nifty UFO list, but I’m not sure if that would give me a happy sense of accomplishment or a feeling of dread over how much hasn’t been done.

On the other hand, I think we can all admire Byrne’s nifty sidebar UFO list. Ooooo. Ahhhh.

Look! Percentage meters for your knitting. They’re like those meters you can use to show how many words you’ve gotten done for NaNo, only you can use them to keep track of how much you’ve gotten done on a scarf or a sweater.  Cute!

Did not get any knitting done last night.  Did get the yarn rolled up into balls, though, so I’m calling that progress.

I’ve made a blog for BGAL but the kinks are still being ironed out of it. As for example, people need to be able to make accounts in order to post there and so far we’re 2 out of 3 for trying with that.

Hopefully it’ll work out though. It’s got the right color scheme and everything!

So, getting back to everyone’s favorite topic, i.e. me, I thought I’d post on my other progress. With the scarf done the next on the knitting needles shall be another scarf but of a different type. I may start that tonight if I have time and energy.

I’ve also done more practice with crochet. I’m using The Happy Hooker and huzzah for a book that can explain crochet in a language that I can understand. Amazingly enough I still have the scarf I tried making years ago, so one of these days I’ll take a picture of it so you can see the horror of my last attempt to learn on my own.

But now I am much better! Here’s proof:

Look! Wee swatches of single crochet! The one on the left is my first attempt, which got screwed up because I started out with 10 stitches and somehow ended up with 8. But once i hit 8 I stayed at 8, so there was progress.

The second one started at 10 and stayed at 10, so I’m quite proud there. I shall also dare to say that my tension stays fairly even.

Huge steps for yours truly.

I worked up another swatch last night. That one was supposed to be 20 and turned into 19. On the upside I know where I lost the one stitch and just didn’t feel like going back to get it again. I did two rows single crochet just to refresh, then two rows of - erm - half double? I think it’s called?

My plan is to use that swatch to practice the next few sets of stitches in HH, then I’ll move on to actually making something out of crochet.

But tonight is knitting. In theory. We’ll see how that goes.

Looks like enough of us are into the idea of a blue and gold along (herein after referred to as BGAL, because I’m just. that. cool.) that it’s a go! When I have a little brainpower I’ll look into setting up a blog for it.

In the meanwhile what do we think about rules? I’d like something very laid back, so bare minimum I’d say no time limits. I was also thinking that it’d be useful to give everyone lead time. So even if I get the blog set up this weekend we may still want to wait a few weeks before it officially begins so that way people can find patterns, get supplies, etc.

Is there anything else we should think of? Age limits? Craft limits? So far people have suggested knitting, crochet, sewing, and cross stitch. Do we want to limit it to needle arts or is anything okay as long as it’s got the colors?

I’ll probably start throwing together a rough draft FAQ too to help us all get on the same page in these early planning stages.

A few of you nibbled on the knitalong idea, so I did some research to see what our options are.

Option 1: We join an already existing knitalong. Advantages of this include not having to start it ourselves, meeting new people, and not having to start it ourselves. Ahem.

Option 2: Start one ourselves. Disadvantage of this is that, AFAIK, none of us have even joined a knitalong before, let alone started one.

OTOH doing it ourselves means we can make it be whatever we want.

Havocthecat has generously offered to help with the organizing if we started one. If we do I’m gonna say we make it a blue and gold knitalong and, for that matter, not be so hard and fast about the “knit” part. People could crochet, cross stitch, sew - if some form of thread, needles, yarn is involved, it’s all good.

I’d also like to make it open to anybody to join. We could set up a free blog with Word Press so they can worry about the security issues and bandwith. I imagine we’d have to set some ground rules about appropriate posts, projects, and behavior, but otherwise I don’t see why it couldn’t be open to anyone like all the other KALs.

So, uh - how nuts am I? Anyone interested?

ETA for those who don’t know: A knitalong is basically a group of online folks who are all working on the same type of project at the same time, and posting about their progress to a blog. So it’s sort of like an online stitch n bitch, only with a theme. Very often it’s people all working on a single pattern (so they can answer each other’s questions and offer moral support) othertimes it’s folks using the KAL for inspiration on what to make.

So a blue and gold KAL would be one where people could knit (or crochet or whatever) projects that involve the colors blue and gold in some way.

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.

Okay, so I took like a billion pictures of this thing. I was all artsy and put it over the rails on my four-poster bed and had the sun shining through to show off the pretty stitch detail, you name it. I was going to bore you with all the pictures I had!

Turns out only two of them came out worth a damn. Phooey.

But! Pictures! Herein lies the scarf I’ve been working on for the past few weeks. It’s a Herringbone Faggot stitch (…dirty?) knit on #7 needles with two balls of KnitPicks Ambrosia in lavendar. I was originally trying for the Purse Stitch scarf but apparently I purl way too tightly because it was such a pain in the ass to do. So I frogged that before I got more than a few rows in and switched to the HF stitch, which is like the Purse stitch, but you’re working knits all the way. I also added in 4 rows of garter stitch at each end plus 2 knit stitches at the start and end of each row to give it a border.

The end result was 6in x 43in, which was smaller than I thought it would be given that KnitPicks was able to make the Purse Stitch scarf with two balls and include fringe besides. I think what happened, though, is that I cast on four extra stitches for the border and that slowly ate up the yarn.

Still, it’s a fine enough length for warmth or decoration and it knit up like a dream. Here it is stretched out on my bed (sadly without artsy fartsy lighting):

Here it is a bit closer (and still without sunlight shining through, woe!) so you can see the stitch detail:

You may notice two lines running across it. Though they may look like times when I totally screwed up the pattern, you would be wrong to assume so. Those are actually very special lines that I added to the design. I call them the “Hot damn, Colin Firth’s in it!” stitches, and they get made when you try to knit and rewatch Pride and Prejudice at the same time. Don’t ask me how to make them other than to try to knit a Herringbone Faggot while Colin’s in a soaking wet white shirt. Somehow these special stitches just happen. It’s magic.

Oh wife who doth live in Canada? This pattern made me think of you. (NWS)

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.