Yarnification

Finished a thread bookmark yesterday and another one today.

I was sure I did something terribly wrong while I was following this pattern, but once it was blocked it looked like it was supposed to, so maybe I did it right after all.

This one might need some starch. So far I’d gotten away without doing much starching of the thread bookmarks I’ve made, but this one seems to need it. I blocked it, and it looked great for an hour, then started going a little wonky. Or maybe I need to press it a bit—I blocked it with the steamer, not the iron.

I finally finished stringing the beads for the shawl—couldn’t remember if I mentioned that before or not. Can you tell I’m scared to death of starting the shawl and churning out bookmarks instead? There’s no getting around it, though. I have about 3-4 weeks to get this shawl finished and I have no idea how long it’s going to take me, so I’m starting it either tonight or tomorrow.

In other news, I flaked out on the In Your Shoes sock pattern (couldn’t get the gauge right), so I’m trying these toe-up socks instead. Socks are turning out to be harder than I thought, I tell you. I’ve frogged three times since starting this pattern. I eventually decided I must have been making the starting chain too long. Last night I picked it up to have another go at it, but decided I needed something different and picked up the knitting book again instead. I may or may not have figured out how to purl. I thought I was doing ok trying to make a swatch in stockinette stitch since the first few rows looked like the picture in the book, but after that it started looking like garter stitch even though I would swear I was making the purl stitches the same way as I was in the rows that looked right. Go figure. Sooner or later I’ll get it right…

The potholders are blocked now. This was my first time steam-blocking anything—usually if I have to block anything I’ll wet it, pin it, and let it dry, but I figured I’d have a go at it with the Jiffy steamer we have at work. It worked great, though it was a bit awkward until I realized I’d have to shove the pins clear through the cardboard so I could get close enough with the steamer head.

Anyway. They’re much more square now (or rectangular, rather), and since I couldn’t remember if I’d posted a picture of them, I thought I’d put one up now.

Not so much progress on the rest of my good intentions. I’d left my hooks and such (including the replacement needle threader, which I thought I’d brought with me) at home. Don offered to drop by the house and pick them up when he went out to do errands, which was awfully nice of him, but I didn’t get much done while I was minding the register after he came back because my stomach was upset. And who wants to count beads with an upset stomach?

We’ll see if I get a chance to get some more done later.

Last night, in a rare burst of efficiency, I managed to gather up a pile of stuff at home that I’d been meaning to bring to work so I could work on some projects here: blocking board, rust-proof pins, a needle threader (I broke the one I was using before and have been stuck on the bead stringing ever since), my sharp sewing scissors for the fleece blanket project.

Why am I doing all this stuff at work? Partly because we own our own business and I’m here a lot of hours, partly because that fleece blanket will be ever so much easier to work on using the big receiving table here than at home, but primarily because I smoke, so when I make things for other people I don’t work on the project at home or store the supplies there because I don’t want it to smell like smoke.

Today (in between, you know, actually working) this is what I plan to do:
* Block the Polish star potholders
* Finish stringing All Those Beads so I can start crocheting the shawl (I’ve got 600 of 966 strung—let’s just hope I haven’t managed to lose more than about 30 of the package of 1000 by the time I’ve finished). I’ll probably do this while I’m minding the register this afternoon.
* If I finish both of those and still have some free time (i.e. time at the cash register, where I do a lot of sitting on my ass in between customers), keep working on the bookmark I started yesterday for my mother-in-law or stuff for the kitchen basket for my mom. I’m on dishcloths right now. I also still need to finish cutting up the netting for scrubbies, but I’m dreading that because I foolishly unfolded it before I started cutting, which is making that task take forever. Anyway, I can’t do that part at the register because there’s not enough room and there’d be too much mess on the counter.

Maybe back later with a photo of the blocked potholders…

Don and I were in Columbus again yesterday, so of course I had to hit Hobby Lobby. I got a bunch of fleece for a blanket I’m making, some more cotton yarn, some pretty multicolored pastel thread, a couple of thread hooks, and (total self-indulgence here—everything else was supplies for gifts I’m making) some Lion Brand Magic Stripes yarn to make myself some socks.

After we got home last night, I finally finished weaving in the many, many ends on the scrap yarn rug, then stuck it in my backpack to bring in to work to take a picture of it. (Figured it’d be a week at least before I’d have managed to remember to bring the camera home to take a picture there.)

Thanks for all the enouraging comments!

I stuck with it some more, but eventually that first swatch went completely haywire so I frogged it, cast on again, and did one that I think came out much better. I worked for a while at learning to purl, which was a little strange. That’s going to take more practice to get right.

But I’ve set the knitting aside for a while because I need to get back to finishing holiday gifts—I don’t want to be hurrying to get everything done at the last minute.

Anyway, here it is:
Everything looks more or less even on this side, not nearly as many weird-looking stitches as the first swatch.

but on the other side you can see it’s kinda wonky. The cast-on row is sorta loopy, and the bound-off end looks like it’s tighter than it ought to be. I was having a hard time with that, kept ending up having the wrong stitch come off the needle and then had to try to scoop it back up before it unraveled on me.

When I first learned to crochet, I tried to learn to knit, too. It was pretty comical, really. My cast-on row looked like a chimp did it, or maybe a small child with poor manual dexterity. I kept at it over and over again until I had a halfway decent set of cast-on stitches, then I tried to knit into them.

It was a nightmare. I kept sticking the needle straight through the yarn somehow, and for every stitch that sort of came off okay three more would do some weird disappearing thing and unravel on me. I gave it up. Crochet was more straightforward and didn’t require me to coordinate both hands at the same time.

I’ve picked up the knitting needles to have another shot at it maybe once a year since then, always with similar results. I tried a half dozen sets of instructions. I became convinced that I was just incapable of knitting. A week or two ago at JoAnn’s, I picked up a free knitting basics flyer and had another shot at it. No go.

Then I got a copy of Stitch ‘n’ Bitch: The Knitter’s Handbook out of the library, figuring I’d make one last-ditch effort. If this didn’t work, I was giving it up. At least for another year or two, since I’d probably decide again at some point that I _was_ going to learn to knit, dammit.

And it worked, kinda. I figured out how to cast on! I made knit stitches (I think)! Granted, I’ve done four or five rows and I have about four more stitches than I started with, but the number of stitches has stayed the same for the past couple of rows so I think I’ve stopped doing whatever was making this happen.

I think the major difference for me here, apart from the fact that this time around light dawned and I figured out how to cast on correctly, is that I stopped following the advice that I should, as a leftie, use the continental method. I just couldn’t pick up the yarn that way, so I tried the English method instead and things started going a bit more smoothly. The whole time I was working at it last night I kept announcing to Don, “Look! I’m knitting! Kind of!”

I’ve been calling it The Most Pathetic Knit Swatch Ever, though that’s not strictly true considering my last couple of attempts. It’s lumpy and bumpy, and I think I may have made some purl stitches by accident (I don’t actually know how to make purl stitches yet, but there are stitches in there that don’t look right—maybe they’re just screwed-up stitches). But it’s the furthest I’ve ever gotten with knitting, so there’s some hope for me yet. Here it is—no making fun, now! (I’m not entirely sure whether this is the front or the back—it’s the slightly better-looking side.)

In other news, I’ve been making crochet scrubbies, and I’m about to get on with the beaded shawl. I’m also thinking maybe a set of placemats for the kitchen set for my mom if time allows, but I’m not sure if that’ll work out or not.

Working my way towards Crazy Hat Lady-dom:

I didn’t put as much of a brim on this one. Last night I decided I wanted it finished for today, tried it on to see if the brim looked okay, and called it a hat.

This is that Mainstays yarn that Walmart sells (country blue). It was the first time I used it, and it seems to snag a bit easier than other acrylics I’ve used but not so much that it would cause problems for a hat. I probably wouldn’t use it for an afghan, though.

It also worked up a bit small for me. I even went back to check the package to make sure it really says worsted weight—I went up a hook size from what I usually use for this pattern, and it still came out a touch smaller than usual. (It fits, but it’s snugger than the other three I have.)

But—and this is the most important thing—it matches my new blue sweater.

Just a quick entry today. Another one for that basket I’m putting together—there’ll be about four of these (two white scrubbers with blue trim, two blue scrubbers with white trim):

These are really quick to make. Pattern is here: Suzetta’s scrubbie