Yarnification

A Crochetville elf sent me a package last week, and I’m just now getting the time to transfer pics from the digital camera:

I haven’t decided for sure what to do yet, but I’ve been thinking of making an afghan out of squares and I think those pinks and purples will work in very nicely. Other than that, I’m waiting for inspiriation to strike me—I know I’ll see a pattern and think, “ooh! that would be perfect!” That happens to me a lot that way.

My mom gave me some cash, and I’ve earmarked part of that for yarn, too. The other day I bought some #30 thread (more on that below) and also a little ball of sparkly white #10 thread. I have no idea what I’m going to do with the sparkly thread but it was too pretty to pass up, and I know sooner or later I’ll find the perfect thing to make with it. Other than that, I haven’t spent the yarn money yet. I’m planning a trip to Walmart since the JoAnn’s I went to was cleaned right out of a lot of yarn in the colors I was looking for.

A couple of people have asked me where I got the scarf pattern—I meant to post the link along with the picture, but I was so rushed that night that I just slapped up the picture and left it at that. It’s the Aran sampler scarf from Marlo’s Crochet Corner, and I’m really happy with how it came out. It’s so warm, and I really needed something warm what with how cold it’s been here. (It finally warmed up above freezing today—45°! Hooray!)

I’ve been pretty much at loose ends for projects now that I’ve finished the gifts. I have so many things in mind that I can’t decide what to do! And I want to keep practicing the knitting, too.

I’d started making this pretty Celtic bookmark (PDF file) (my first foray into #30 thread, even), but since there’ll be a thread crochet-along starting at Crochetville soon I’m holding off on that.

So what I have been working on: At home, my socks. I’ve frogged them yet again, and I’m trying the In Your Shoes ankle socks pattern again because I couldn’t seem to get the right size starting chain with the toes-up socks. I could make a starting chain that would make baby socks or one that could make giant socks, but I couldn’t seem to get it right for my size. We’ll see if the cuff-down pattern works out for me; if not, I’ll try the toes-up ones again and keep fiddling with the starting chain length.

And at work, I’ve started working on baby things for charity. I have a few skeins’ worth of Bernat Baby Coordinates in a pretty yellow that was meant to be a baby afghan a while back, but it ended up not working out due to time constraints and the fact that I screwed up the pattern in a huge and painful way. Anyway, yesterday I found where I’d stashed the bag of yarn at work, frogged and wound into balls, and I started making these adorable booties yesterday. I figure on making a bunch of pairs over time in a couple of sizes, some hats, and whatever else I can make out of that yarn; then I’ll get in touch with Touching Little Lives to donate them. I’ve been wanting to do more charity crocheting, and ever since two friends of mine lost their baby a few years ago after he was born very premature (about 25 weeks, which is bad enough, but he was small for how far along she was, too, and he only lived for a few weeks), that’s been the type of charity that appeals to me the most.

I only have a couple of minutes here, but I wanted to put up a picture of this—just finished it tonight:

I finished up the gift basket for my mom, just in time since the box for my family had to be mailed out this morning so we’d be sure of it getting there in time. Here’s how it turned out. (I lined the basket with fabric, and that didn’t photograph well. The colors clash a bit in the photo but fortunately in person they went together just fine.)

And I finished Don’s hat. I ended up not using anybody’s pattern; none of them were working out for me, so I just made it up as I went along based on what I’ve learned from making other hats. I took notes along the way so I’d be able to reproduce it, but I can’t decide if it’s original enough to post the pattern as my own or not. Anyone have any advice on that?

Anyway, here it is:

I think the shawl may well have to wait until Sara’s birthday; there doesn’t seem to be enough time left to finish it. I’d planned on giving it a try, but now we’re having a freakish cold snap. It was 5° (Fahrenheit!) this morning when we left the house, which is definitely not normal for December in this area, and I need a scarf (I know I own a scarf, but damned if I can find the thing), so I’m thinking I’d better finish the one I’ve got half-finished. It should only take another day or two. Course, what’ll probably happen is the temperature will come back up by the time I’ve finished it and I’ll still not have finished the shawl…

Following up on my earlier post today, I actually finished something this evening. It’s not crochet, but it’s finished, which makes me a very happy camper. This is for my dad. I couldn’t fit all of it in the picture because the table I’ve been working on is narrower than the blanket, but you get the idea. The sides are fringed the same way as the ends, but on the side fringe I managed to alternate between the plaid and the solid blue being face up. (For the record, the lovely industrial decor is the stockroom of my store, not my house.) It’s reversible (the top corner is folded over so you can see it), but I think the plaid side looks best.

That’s all for now. I need to get going, just wanted to get this posted before I left (no internet at home).

Sharon from Crochetville asked a question days ago, and I’m sorry for not answering before now! That hat pattern is from a 1978 (I think) edition of Reader’s Digest Complete Guide to Needlework, and the new one doesn’t have the same patterns in it. But you can probably make one from almost any hat in the round pattern—just do the increases according to the pattern, then work even until it’s the length you want, then do more increases for one row and work even until the brim’s curled up the way you want. Also, Vera told me that Fiber Trends has a pretty similar hat pattern. The first Google result I found was this one: Fiber Trends Crusher Hat.

There was a time a couple of weeks ago (ok, for about the past three weeks) when I barely had time to read my comment notification emails, much less answer, since I was so swamped at work, so if anyone else asked me something and I didn’t answer, I apologize!

The beaded shawl (for my stepdaughter): Probably not going to happen in time, and I may end up saving it as a birthday present instead since that’s just a couple of months away. Still, it’s going so fast now that I’m in the beading rows that I might just get it finished.

Don’s hats: I hated the finished product I ended up with from Cozy Crochet men’s hat pattern, so started over. I’m now doing a modified version of a hat from Hip to Crochet, the one with the fold-up brim. I modified it to get rid of that nipple-looking bit on top, though, since I know Don would never in a million years wear it like that. I’m doing them in masculine colors, black and dark gray, and I settled on Caron Simply Soft for both of them since it feels so cozy and is more affordable than Wool-Ease. (The pattern calls for sportweight yarn, but I was able to get the gauge right with worsted somehow.)

Hopefully I’ll get the first one done soon because the book is due back at the library. I’m making notes as I go along, so it shouldn’t be any problem making a second one without the pattern in front of me.

My mom’s kitchen gift basket: Pretty close to done. I decided to go with fewer scrubbies, so I’m done with those. The potholders are done and blocked, and I’m almost done with the dishcloths. I’m hoping I have enough time to make the basket for it—the fabric basket pattern from Cozy Crochet is really cute, and I have some fabric (leaf-print calico which I intended to do something with ages ago but never did) that, while not the same blue I’ve been using, matches well enough, especially since it’s another one of the blues that my mom has in her kitchen.

My dad’s fleece blanket: Pretty close to done. I intend to finish it today. I worked on it for a few hours yesterday and got the selvage trimmed off, the pieces lined up, and the fringe cut on three of the four sides. Two sides have half the fringe knotted (I’m doing every other one, then flipping it over at the end to knot the rest from the other side as advised in the directions). The directions are here: No-Sew Fleece Blanket. I’m pretty happy with how it’s turning out.

Of course, I still haven’t actually finished anything except dishcloths, and I didn’t plan to put up photos of them, just the finished basket full of stuff. But I had to post something, right? So here’s a teeny bit of that fleece blanket—I’ll post a photo of the whole thing once I finish it. This is the top—the underside is dark blue to match the one of the blues in the plaid:

It’s been a while, so I thought I’d post something or other, but I still have no pictures because I haven’t actually finished anything. Soon, though, I hope.

I’m making actual progress on the beaded shawl. I finished the interminable starting chain and the even more interminable first row of 499 double crochets (which entailed jotting down what stitch I was on every five stitches and losing count anyway and having numerous ADD moments where I’d start recounting the stitches, lose track, start again, lose track again, lather, rinse, repeat, until I finally hit on the idea of sticking a safety pin in every 25 stitches while I counted), and now I’m into the beading rows and things are moving right along. I only moved the progress bar over there up to 30%, but I might be closer to half done—it’s going that much faster now. All there is at this point is chain stitches, chains around the beads, and the occasional single crochet. And a good thing, too, because I need to crank out a few more things for my mom’s kitchen gift basket in enough time to ship it to her.

Eventually I’ll forget what the beginning of this project was like and start talking about making something similar. At that point, I’ll need someone to smack me upside the head, ok? Well, maybe not. I definitely don’t plan to do something this tiny and time-consuming at the same time as so many other things, all with a holiday deadline, though. Maybe next year I’ll get started earlier. (Yeah. Right.)

I’ve also been making the men’s hat from Cozy Crochet for Don. It’s a gift, so it’s theoretically a surprise, but I knew he wanted hats and he knows perfectly well that I’m making it for him. (Anyway, I don’t think he reads this blog. He already hears plenty about my projects from me on a daily basis.) I’m planning to make two—a black one in acrylic, which I’m probably three quarters through with, and a gray one that I’m planning on making out of Wool-Ease. I’ve been working on it right in front of him, but that doesn’t give much away since it’s just a rectangle right now. I figure I’ll do the finishing in secret so he won’t see the finished product until he unwraps it.

My scarf is on hold at the moment while I work on the hats. It hasn’t been that terribly cold yet, so not too big a deal. I’ll need one by January, but even if I don’t get back to working on it until after the holidays, I can probably finish it up in a couple of nights.

Now I just need to finish something, anything, so I can post pictures! It’s so satisfying to put up finished pictures.

I’m finally getting somewhere on the beaded shawl. Kinda. I’m still at the stage where I’m spending more time moving beads around than actually crocheting, but I’ve gotten through the starting chain and am working back across it. I think once I get through with this part things will start moving much quicker since I’ll be use using the beads and won’t have to move all 966 of them whenever I need more thread. And the part I was dreading, the 501 chain stitches, is done. I have the worst time with long chains; even though I jot down what number I’m on every 25 chains, I’m always sure I lost track at some point, then I count it three times at the end and get three different totals and want to pull my hair out. Now that I’m past that, I think I’m going to be okay.

I might be scrambling to get everything I’ve planned as gifts finished in time, though, especially since the gifts for my parents need to be mailed.

The socks are on hold at the moment since I wanted something bigger to work on in the evenings to give my eyes a rest from the shawl. Since I need a scarf (and don’t feel relaxed enough with knitting yet to use that to get a break from the thread crochet!), I’m making this Aran sampler scarf in a light brown yarn that I wanted to use up. It’s definitely a relief to switch to a great big L hook after using a tiny steel hook for so long, and it’s working up pretty fast—started it the night before last, and I’m close to halfway done with it.

No pics of anything today, though. Maybe in a couple of days I’ll have actually finished one of the things I’m working on!