Third World Household

These past two weeks were the weeks to feel like I was living in pioneer times, or a third-world country.  We had five days in a row where it rained nearly continuously, and when it rains our satellite internet goes out completely.  Then our power went out for four hours one morning and I scrambled around trying to save the frozen meat and produce, not knowing how long the outage would last.  Now, for the last three days, our water pressure slowed down to a trickle, and then completely went out yesterday afternoon.  We are reassured by the utility company that there is a "leak in the area" and that a technician will be coming out to check it out sometime today.  Not to fix it... check it out.  Meanwhile I'm washing my hands with water from a jug and the dishes are piling up... again.

So it's natural I start thinking about my zombie apocalypse skill set and how I could support myself when society breaks down.  Honestly, not much will change... except I can't watch through the X-files for the billionth time while I spin yarn or stitch.  We'll have to re-live the episodes verbally, like campfire stories I guess.  "This one time, Mulder was tracking a guy who could stretch and fit himself through impossible openings like a bat.  Only instead of getting caught in your hair, he'd eat your liver..."

So anyway, what I've been doing since my last post... I've accomplished quite a bit, actually.  I *finally* finished a doily I've been working on for a week, and thought I would be done with before the holiday weekend... but wasn't.  Yeah, I procrastinated.  What finally gave me the impetus to finish was the thought that I could work on a few personal projects when I was done.

Ever since I was diagnosed with several allergies, I've been using a special pillow protector and changing the outer pillowcase religiously every week.  I decided that was a good enough excuse to make myself some really pretty embroidered and crochet-embellished pillowcases, and if I find a new item to sell in the Etsy shop, all the better.  This pillowcase was from a cheap stamped kit I found on Amazon, but now that I've found out how drop-dead easy it is to transfer drawings for embroidery (which I will share with you in another post), I'm going to start doing some fancy patterns I've purchased in the past, and then move into embroidering my own art.  Hey, I could have 52 pillowcases and still not use them all in a year, so I think this is a medium I could explore for quite a while.  If I were to break it down, it took me three work-days to finish embroidering that pillowcase.  If I choose to crochet the edging, possibly five days total.  You can add at least a day to that, because my crochet always takes longer than I think it will.

Yesterday, before I started a new embroidery project, I felt it was really important to have a pincushion.  So I started a new embroidery project to make one.  I know right?  I have the embroiderer's equivalent of "cast-on itis".  But it only took me a day to take this cutie out of the book  Doodle Stitching: Embroidery & Beyond: Crewel, Cross Stitch, Sashiko & More and make it real.

My selection of felt was limited, so my green isn't grass green, but after discovering a long-lost stash of DMC floss in the garage amongst the items we moved into storage after Hurricane Katrina a few months ago, I was able to match my floss colors.  I may design my own pincushion later and add a nice big neodymium magnet to the bottom.  And now I have someplace to park my embroidery needle!  Here's hoping the new doggie doesn't decide this is a great chew toy... this little guy chews on aluminum cans when I'm not watching, so I won't put anything past him.

I have two doilies that need to be listed in the shop, but since setting up for decent photography takes a bit of time, I may be waiting until I have a few more items to snap before I put them in.  Plus I got a new light set and I want to clear out my photography corner a bit and run a vacuum over the dead bees that collect there (long story) and it's exhausting just typing that out, much less doing it.  I'll keep you posted.
  

Knitting: Smart and Vintage

Ignore the weird expression.

 

The Red Thermal was finished last week.  I don't know if it was my math, or if the yarn requirements are way off, but I thought I calculated it would need six skeins of yarn, but only needed three.  This may be because of my switch mid-pattern from KP Gloss yarn, to KP Stroll yarn.  The skein sizes are different, although somewhere I was thinking Stroll was 400+ yards per skein, and the pattern calls for 1700+, but the yardage counts on Ravelry say the three skeins were up to the count.  I no longer have the labels, so I'm not sure where my error in thinking is, but hey.  I had enough, and still have enough left over for a pair of gloves and a pair of socks.

 

So I immediately started in on a pair of Smart Gloves by the Rainey Sisters.  They will have "pop-top" index fingers and thumbs so you can use your  smart phone.  Genius idea.  If they don't come out looking like franken-gloves (as so many of my glove attempts do) I may make a pair for my friend Teresa, who was complaining about mittens and phones on Facebook the other day.  These are the cuffs, but they get folded up over the hand so that those buttonholes fit over your thumb for an extra layer of warmth.  I like this seed stitch rib, although it is slow going.  The hand portion will be done in red... leftover from the thermal?  You betcha.

And the reason I have not finished the gloves yet is A) the whole family was sick last week, and I spent two days in a TV-fueled vegetative state.  I know I'm sick when I can watch TV and NOT want to knit.  B) I caught the crocheted doilies bug (totally different sickness) and got started on the booklet "A Year In Doilies: Vol. 1" by Leisure Arts.  What you see above is one partial day's crocheting.  I'd do a motif, go back to knitting, do another motif or round, go back to knitting.  It was nice to have something this complex to work on to take a break from the monotony of the ribbed cuffs.

Knitting and Crochet: Girasole Hanging On

So last week, I'm thinking "Oh, all I have left of the Girasole blanket is a one-inch wide border to knit on... I can finish that in a day or two."  Oh, foolish, foolish knitter.

This is my first attempt at a knitted on lace border.  For those of you not familiar with the process, you knit the lace across the width of it, using the last stitch on the right side of the work (on the left end of the needle, go figure) knitted together with live stitches you've left on another needle, one at a time, to join it to the main body of the shawl or blanket.  Basically, you're using one stitch from the main blanket every other row.

It's been a week, and I'm a little over halfway.

It doesn't help that I find this process so mind-numbingly boring that I keep distracting myself with other things.  Like games on Facebook.  Or crochet projects.  Crochet flies along at warp speed next to this thing.

My good friend Iggystar sent me a crochet book (Crochet So Fine) and enough Aunt Lydia's Crochet cotton to make the Dragonfly Shawl.  I was not getting the process at all.  Here is a quote from my Ravelry project page: 

"A friend bought me the book and enough Aunt Lydia’s crochet thread to make this shawl. Unfortunately, I just wasn’t getting the construction method. I knew I was making the side from the point out, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around the order of making the shells and SCing back across the top of the shell.

The written directions are worded very poorly in this regard.

Finally, I decided to try it in a thicker yarn, because I’m not normally a crochetter and my tension was looking all wonky and wasn’t helping. I’d ripped all the way to the beginning nine times or more.
Using the thicker yarn, and looking over some in-progress pictures here on Ravelry, I finally got it. You start with one shell (fan shape) and SC across. Then build the next row of two shells, then SC back across. Then three shells, etc.

The use of the word “row” in the written instructions is not helpful at all the way they worded it.
Since I only have the one ball of Chroma, but I like the way it’s turning out with the color progression, I shall have to purchase two more balls. Then I think I can tackle the version in crochet cotton."

Here is what the Chroma version is looking like now that I "get" it.

I love it, but this is going to be a warm version.  It's not nearly as slinky and sexy as the mercerized cotton version would be.  But at least crochet flies along, and I'll make all my mistakes on this yarn, which is fuzzy and forgiving, and will show fewer of them.

Knitting and Crochet: Lafayette complete, on to Girasole

The "Lafayette" afghan is finally complete.  Well, technically I have two more single crochet rows around the entire blanket for it to be considered finished, but I'm not doing it in this heat.  I have the yarn, I have the hooks, it's good for now.

I've started in on Jared Flood's "Girasole" shawl/blanket pattern in the blanket sizing.  I'm using the crap-ton of "Hot Rod Heather" sock yarn I bought on sale.  It's DK weight, but the pattern calls for worsted-weight yarn to achieve the blanket proportions needed, so I may have to add an extra pattern repeat or something to make sure I don't end up with a very sturdy doily.  I am well into Chart D and it's only about two feet across, though it's hard to tell while it's scrunched up on a circular needle.  There are only two charts left to go.  I'm contemplating re-repeating the zig-zag of D... I like the feel of it, and it's a pretty simple four-stitch repeat.  I'm just not sure what it would do to the even-ness of the blanket's circular shape.  I'm thinking of putting some kind of increase series between the two sets of zig-zags, but that might just look silly.

I think before I decide anything, I may need to put it on another, larger circular needle that will really stretch it out, let me see what it's doing.  I don't want subsequent increase rounds making it look like it's ruffled, or the added zig-zag looking stretched out.  We'll see.

Knitting: Still Working on the Fluffy Stuff

Still working on the Snuggly Afghan, which might turn out to be the Snuggly Bedspread.  Little Monkey Pants recently got new sheets and needs a brighter, cuter bedspread to go with them.

The squares for this thing seem to go really fast, but once I started piecing them together, I wasn't making as much progress as I thought I was.  Good thinking on my part to use the Yellow Crayon yarn that I bought over 20 skeins of when the color was being discontinued.  It's the main color, interspersed with a bright pink and citrus orange.... I love those three colors together, but now I'm wishing I'd added some blues and greens.  And ordered more of the secondary colors.  At the time, I thought two skeins that made 10 squares each would be plenty, but the end result is smaller than I anticipated.

What you see above would make a very large couch cushion.  I'm already on my second skein of pink, so it looks like I'll have to order more.  I'll just have to make a crap-ton of yellow squares while I'm waiting for the additional pink and orange to arrive.

I've also been using up the excess yarn from my Chullo Hat, now finished, by double-stranding it and crocheting the exact same basic granny square.  Since it's in browns, it will make a nice addition to the back of the couch.

I think the reasons I'm on the crochet kick are a) it feels faster b) I NEED to use up some yarn.  Seriously. and c) I picked some really boring stockinette projects for my knitting, and I'm in avoidance.  The granny square is easy enough to memorize (no hauling a book around) yet complex enough that I have to pay attention to what I'm doing.

I'm getting burned out on it though.  I hate to cast on yet another project, but I do have a rather nice Norwegian sweater kit from Knit Picks, and since the temps are dropping to the 40's this weekend, I'm thinking it will be handy soon.

Knitting: Chalupa?

There's a Taco Bell right behind the apartment complex.  I'm a fan, but only because it can be cheap and filling and damned convenient when Mom needs a break from cooking.  Unfortunately the rest of my family is too darned picky, so it's usually just me celebrating a nice sale on Etsy or going for lunch when I'm too hungry.  My favorite is the #6 Chalupa combo in steak or chicken.

What does this have to do with knitting, you ask?  I just finished the Chullo hat kit from Knit Picks in brown.  Naturally, my family doesn't call it by its name... it's now the Chalupa Hat.  Yay.

To say it looks dorky as heck when you're wearing it is an understatement.  It's darn toasty though.  The colorwork causes a lot of floating strands across the back side, so it's as warm as an aran-weight hat despite being made from sock-weight.  There is a crap-ton of yarn left over.  I am not surprised they say you can make an entire second hat from the stuff.  I'm not doing that however... I'm holding two strands together and making old-fashioned granny squares.  I'm always looking for something large to wrap up in, and my shawls... made rather small because of my impatience with knitting them... don't cut it most of the time.  And since I can crank out at least four or five squares per television episode, it's terribly satisfying to use up left over yarn so quickly.

I still haven't progressed much on the Big Red Tights or my Valkyrie cardigan.  My positional vertigo is all but cured, but I haven't picked up knitting much except to finish the hat.  I expect to have at least a partially finished blanket of some sort by next week to show off to you, though.

General: Vertigo and Crochet

For the past two days I've been dealing with dizziness.  Apparently I have something called "Positional Vertigo" and it comes from an ear infection affecting the part of the ear responsible for balance.

To say that intricate, multi-colored knitting is not on my top priority list is an understatement.  If the room started spinning while looking at all those colors...

So part of what I've been doing is trying a very basic crochet square.  In fact, in my Harmony Crochet Motifs book, it's the very first one listed.  It's part of my prep for the Lafayette Afghan, inspired by the one used on True Blood.  Right now I'm using a very soft boucle cotton yarn that's pretty forgiving of errors.  I'm at the point where I can do one entire square in the time it takes my husband to walk to CVS, pick up my prescriptions, and come back.  So, not shabby.  If I had, say, four episodes of True Blood to watch, and the yarn (already on order) I could probably finish half the blanket in the time it takes me to watch them.  Assuming I'm not distracted by flashing fangs and interesting pectorals.

Edited to add... holy crap, Claritin is effing expensive.