Yarnification

It turned out I made the first java jacket too big. I didn’t notice for a day or so, but then it got a bit stretched out and kept sliding down the cups I usually get, though there’s another place I sometimes get coffee, and it still fits those cups just fine. So I decided to have another try.

I think I really did put too many rows on the first one—the pattern said about 8 inches before the shaping rows, and I measured my gauge after a few rows into the second one. Sure enough, 8 inches would be 32 rows, and I know I did 34 on the first one (same yarn). When I made the first one I had a coffee cup handy but not a ruler, so I just kept wrapping it around the cup until it looked more or less right.

So here’s the new one. Note how today’s model manages to look stylish and sleek even against a backdrop of grungy cardboard box…

(Oh, and I edited the last entry to mention this cool rock & bead shop I visited over the weekend but forgot to mention when I first put up the entry.)

This weekend a rare thing happened—Don and I were able to take two entire days off from work _and_ had enough cash to go away for a weekend and still have a little spending money for fun stuff. So we went to Pittsburgh since it was only a few hours’ drive and we’d never been there. Don enjoys going to a new city and finding fun stuff (he has an uncanny ability to stare at a map for fifteen minutes and then drive around like he’s lived there for years), and I like going to a new place and finding fun shops and used bookstores to poke around in.

And we really needed a break. We usually work 6-7 days a week, and we only take a couple of days off in a row every couple of months. The longest we’ve been away from the store since we opened it in 2002 was last winter, when we went away for a business-related trip and stayed an extra day—I think we were away for three days total.

Some of the best places we found: Eljay’s Used Books, Townsend Booksellers, a really great coffee shop whose name I can’t remember but which sells frozen coffee in the middle of winter (mmm…frozen mocha coffee…), Pugdog’s Rock and Bead Shop and, last but definitely not least, Pittsburgh Knit & Bead, which is a Really Great Place.

If you’re ever in Pittsburgh, stop in there. The ladies working there were really nice and helpful, and they had so much really great yarn that’s not available anywhere near where I live, and when one of them asked if I needed any help and I explained that I was just looking around for now since there isn’t anything but Walmart and JoAnn’s near me, she told me to go ahead and pet the yarn all I wanted and just let her know if I needed anything.

Then I proceeded to pet all the yarn and had great fun at it. I had a set amount of spending money, so I was able to splurge in a way that I usually can’t/won’t. I got two balls of Plymouth Sockotta in a blue print (FYI, I know nothing about the merchant I linked to there, but it was the only place I could find that had a photo).

I also got one ball of Schachenmayr Brazilia. The color I got doesn’t seem to be available at that link—it’s more blue than any of the ones pictured there. Or maybe it’s just my monitor—it’s sorta close to the mulberry shade but definitely more blue than that photo.

Anyway, I had a great time wandering around in there. So many great yarns. There was one—can’t remember the name of it—that was so soft I couldn’t even believe it.

I know I want to make socks with the first one, but I’m not sure what I want to do with the second one apart from that it would make great fuzzy edgings on any number of things—I didn’t buy enough for a project, but I know I can work it in here and there in small amounts to dress things up a little.

I also spent a little of my discretionary spending budget at JoAnn’s on a ball of Patons Evita (in Costa) which is also just adorable, though I’m not entirely sure yet what I’m going to with this one, either.

I think sometimes I have almost as much fun thinking up things to do with yarn as I do making things.

Finished the java jacket. I decided to go with the homespun trim around the edges after all, but I may make another one if I come across something fuzzy and interesting that’s in my price range. Here it is, as modeled by this morning’s coffee:

You know, I just changed the colors in my little progress bars on the side of the page, and I really think they’re awful. Just too bright to go well with the rest of the page. I think I need to change them again, or at least lose that particular shade of orange. The other two colors might look just fine if I find something else to replace the orange; they’re not so different from what I had before, just a little brighter. (So is the orange, but that didn’t turn out so great.)

I really, really need to get back to that beaded shawl since it’s theoretically going to be a birthday present in just about a month. I keep forgetting to get started back on it, but since I’m on the mesh and beads part, it shouldn’t be hard to finish in time if I just get my ass in gear and start working on it again. I also still need to find the 8mm hair beads the pattern calls for to put around where the tassels attach to the shawl. It says they’re the kind you squeeze together around a section of hair—I haven’t been able to find them anywhere I’ve looked so far. I’m going to try Sally Beauty Supply sometime soon, and if they don’t have them, I may just figure out something else to use.

Sometime last week, Don mentioned that it would be really cool if we had something to curtain off the black wire shelving unit in our bedroom. We talked about me doing a crochet thing, and I haven’t fully decided yet what might look best, but I’m thinking maybe the crazy belt pattern at Crochet Me might adapt nicely to that, with shorter spaces between the crocheted sections maybe. I think it’d look pretty cool.

Anyway, to get a feel for it, I figured I’d just go ahead and make a belt/scarf/thing for myself with that pattern since I think it’s really nifty and have been thinking about it for a while. I’m not very far along yet, maybe four or so of the lengths of yarn, but it’s a fun project and I think it’ll turn out pretty. And I think if I adapt it it’d make some neat curtains for that shelving unit.

I also finished those book thongs I was talking about. (Um, I did mention those, right?) I got all inspired when I saw the ones Donna made. I’m giving them to Sara (my stepdaughter, who I sincerely hope doesn’t know about this blog or it wouldn’t be much of a surprise). Those blue glass beads are fish—since it’s a birthday thing, I figured I’d go with a Pisces theme.

You know, it’s a lot harder than I realized to photograph glass beads, what with my poor photography skills and ancient digital camera and all. It turns out that one of these is poorly lit but gives a better idea of what they look like overall, while the other’s got some glare to it but you can see the beads a lot better. Later on when I’ve got a little more time I might try to get some better lighting and take different pictures to replace these ones:

I officially love book thongs. They’re so fun. My next one will be Donna’s crocheted book thong that just came out in the new issue of Crochet Me.

Earlier while I took my break at work, I also started (and am almost done with) the jazzy java jacket pattern, also from the Crochet Me. I don’t really have any cute novelty yarn, so I’m experimenting with finishing the top and bottom with purple Homespun (the main part is black), but I’m not sure how I like the way that’s turning out. Just doing sc around didn’t look like much, but doing sc, ch, sc is making it a little floopy. I’m going to keep working at it, though. And I’m off to the city this weekend, maybe I’ll come across a ball of marked-down novelty yarn.

Or maybe I’ll use some of that glittery white thread I picked up a while back—not sure how it would work out, but I’m sure I could find a cute edging pattern to use. Then again, white might not be the way to go considering it’s going to be near coffee—specifically, near coffee I’ll be holding before I’ve finished my morning coffee. Maybe that variegated pastel thread I’ve got instead. I’ll come up with something, I’m sure…