yet another baby blanket

Once more I am working on a baby blanket.  I feel like I have spent most of my crochet/knit career working on baby blankets.  At least this one is a challenge in that it is a cable knit baby blanket.  When I snagged the pattern at Michaels (it was one of those freebie ones they hang up in the yarn aisle), I seriously wasn't planning on ever really using it.  A friend had previously taught me to cable knit but I was pretty sure I could never do it on my own.  But I'm now about twenty rows in and while it doesn't look quite like the picture on the pattern, it doesn't look bad.  I did cave and buy actual cable needles.  Must faster than simply placing the stitches on a straight needle like I had been doing.

SAFF (Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair) is coming up next month and a friend and I are planning on heading back up.  Last year I took about $75 in cash and thought that would be plenty of spending money.  Ha!  The bad thing about the fair is that it makes me a yarn snob.  It's hard to go back to the local craft shops to pick up acrylic yarn after you have tasted the pleasures of real wool.  And the spinning wheels?  I'm surprised I wasn't helping my friend try to get one in her trunk.  I think it would be amazing to learn to spin, but I can just see the look on dear hubby's face if I showed up with one.

Since I've been getting hyped on the coffee I've been sipping while typing this, I think I'll go work on more knitting projects now.

The Case of the Gauge Swatch

I was so thrilled to see the Japan-inspired patterns in the latest issue of Crochet Today!. I was even more pleased when the dear hubby said I could order the yarn needs for the "Lantern Pullover". The yarn arrived last weekend, but I had major jitters about starting such a massive project, so it wasn't until Thursday night that I decided to start by working up the gauge swatch.

Normally I crochet rather loosely and several projects have taught me to automatically start with the hook size down from what the pattern calls for. So I picked up the B hook (cringing at its smallness) and worked up the swatch. What should have been 4 x 4 was 4 x 3.5.

Okay.

So I decided to actually use the size C hook that the pattern called for (feeling more than a little surprised). The resulting gauge was 4 x 3.5.

The stupid things are identical. Absolutely identical (well except where you can see I accidentally added a stitch).

At that point, I was getting more than a little frustrated, so I have yet to make a third swatch (my next plan of action is to use a size D hook), but I am seriously perplexed as to why the gauge is identical even though the hook size was different. Did I really crochet that differently in the span of a few minutes? And it definitely doesn't really inspire me and get me exited about doing the whole darn thing when I'm having so much trouble with the gauge swatches! So any words of wisdom would be appreciated. Otherwise, I'm going to just keep plowing on.

she's baaaaack

Yep, so I finally decided to update this blog again. I'm pretty sure I'm going to let my other blog rest in peace though...well, maybe.

So, what has been going on in my yarny life? The baby blanket from hell, that's what. Minus the whole how-does-the-woman-struggling-with-infertility-manage-knitting-baby-blankets angle (that might be a whole post to itself) there is the whole knitting the stupid thing in and of itself. I'm not a fast knitter as I only took up knitting about a year ago, and everything I know is self-taught. But I was pretty confident I could do this. And the pattern is completely super easy. I was even able to successfully rip out stitches when I did mess up (before I have just been restarting the project or ignoring the mess-up). It's just going so sloooow!!! I've tried listening to music and podcast sermons and watching my current fave TV show (Sherlock...just in case you are wondering) and nothing seems to help the time go by. So, what have I done to cope?

Started a new project.

Kind of counter intuitive, I know, but I was getting desperately bored with the baby blanket. So I've started a cute little turtle pillow pet which is kind of like amigurumi on a grander scale. I want to make one for each of my nephews (I have three) and I've already started thinking about how I can mod the pattern to make a unicorn for my youngest niece. So hopefully the baby blanket won't be completely forgotten because it was actually a commission. That is if the person decides to pay me. This time, no money, no product.

suddenly, posting again...

Okay, finally updating after 8 months....

I finally decluttered my stash by giving it away! I sent a box full of yarn up to an old high school friend who teaches in NYC and happens to be in charge of the knitting club at her school. It felt so nice to get rid of yarn that I had no desire to make anything with, plus the added bonus of knowing that it's going to good use.

I'm currently working on a shawl for Reformation Sunday. It will be on October 30th this year. Traditionally, you wear red that day, so I figured I would make a lovely red shawl to wear to church (and then I will have said lovely red shawl to wear all winter because it gets rather nippy in our church during the winter months). I'm about half-way done, so there is actually hope at me finishing it before Oct. 30.

I also have two commissions for berets. I had given one to my co-worker and she went and showed it off to other co-workers and let them know how easy it would be for me to stitch one up if they would like to purchase one. I just hope they turn out nicely; it's one of my biggest fears of giving away something and then it unraveling the first time they try to wash it (especially when I give away baby blankets - so far I've only had two recipients comment on how much they love theirs...and I can't help if all the others are thrown away, in some deep recess of an attic or worse - fell apart within days and they're just too nice to tell me the truth.)

Other than that, I have a ton of projects I want to do and just not enough time to do them all. But isn't that every knitter's dilemma?

yarn overload

My yarn stash is out of control. With a one bedroom apartment, there just isn't much room and I try to keep my yarn contained to one canvas bin. Which is currently overflowing. With more yarn on the way. I've been trying to bust through my scrap yarn granny blanket, but it gets old crocheting in rounds over and over. And I still have a ton of yarn left even though I'm on my tenth square.

I keep getting bombarded with ideas of things I want to make for others, which of course, means buying more yarn. There's the wedding ring blanket for a soon-to-be wed couple that I would love to make, but that's 8 more skeins to buy. Plus I've been commissioned to make a vest (hence the more yarn on the way). That's not to mention the bright, summery blanket I want to make for my husband and myself. I'm seeing bright, dark blue, yellow and white yarn with fresh, just bought light-blue sheets - because really, I have two sets of sheets and I need a change. In my mind, I'm seeing a Better-Homes-and-Gardens-esque scene with bright summer sunshine pouring through clean windows onto my lovely homemade creation - but the sensible side of my brain sees the stacks of skeins piled around the house while I struggle to finish yet another project.

I'm torn between wanting to wait until I use up my surplus and running out an buying a ton more new yarn. Crochet/knitting is definitely a struggle in self-control.

a good idea

Every Christmas I'm surprised at how much I spend not on gifts, but gift bags. Christmas Eve I dropped $25 on wrapping alone, and that was only for one side of the family. Not to mention finding the right size bag for the gift is impossible. I inevitably have several gifts that are too big for medium size bags but too small for the large. And with the whole "go green" movement, I cringe at thinking of spending so much on paper bags that are going to be thrown away and fill up a landfill somewhere.

So, my husband came up with a clever idea. Well, he might not have intentionally come up with the idea; I think he was teasing me about my yarn-addiction. However, he suggested that I knit/crochet bags - they would be reusable and could count as part of the gift.

I'm going to take some of my stash yarn and try to think out some easy bag-like patterns. Even a year away, I'm not sure if I have the discipline to make all of my gift bags for next year. Still, I might make a gift bag or two for a birthday and see how it goes.

attack of the stash

I'm getting desperate to cull down my stash. I'm working on a granny square blanket, trying to use up all the extra yarn I have. So far I've done five complete squares, each 8 rounds, each round a different color, with a size K crochet hook.

And I've only used up one leftover skein.

I haven't made a dent on my stash. And considering I was only going to make a lapghan for church, it looks like this little endeavor is developing into a full-blown project.

Now, in addition to figuring out what I'm going to do with all the excess yarn, I need to figure out what I'm going to do with all the granny squares. Bah!