Yarnification

I’m posting this partly because having it sitting, marked “save as new”, in my Bloglines account is driving me a little nuts but I don’t want to lose the link, and partly in case it helps anyone else: In Search of the Looser Cast-on. I’ve only ever used the long-tail cast-on, and all this time I thought it was just me that couldn’t manage a nice, pretty, even, not-too-tight cast-on, even though I’ve tried various bits of advice like casting on over two needles (my result: floppy, yet still somehow too tight). I’m going to mess around with some other cast-on methods and see how it goes. I’ve been itching to do some knitting but one of the things that holds me back is that casting on makes me ka-razy.

Hey there. I’m still alive and everything. This summer has been kinda hectic.

I owe some long-overdue emails. I hope to get them written this weekend.

I had been thoroughly uninspired and hadn’t crocheted much of anything in a while, when recently I saw this pattern in the new issue of The AntiCraft: Asphyxiation. Isn’t that just the cutest thing ever?

I just started it all over again. After the first motif I realized this was going to be the one time ever where I used the size hook called for in the pattern and ended up with something much bigger than I was supposed to. This would be okay if I had a giant neck, but I do not so I’ve started over with a smaller hook.

What I learned today:
1) I should generally disrgard the pattern’s instructions about hook size when using #10 thread and just start out with a size 5 steel hook because it will probably come out right for me that way.
2) I should not ever attempt thread crochet so early in the morning that I can’t see straight yet. The results will be scary.