back to the yarn!

October 4, 2013 by 11 Comments

It’s been weird post CAL not having to work to a deadline.  Also weird because I haven’t been crafting much.  The only think I’m working on actively is the bajada shawl/scarf for my friend — she bought the yarn so I want to get it to her ASAP so she can enjoy it.  It’s slow going though; after 3 weeks here’s what I’ve got:

bajada2It will certainly need some blocking before I give it to her, but that’s OK.

As far as crochet goes, I’ve been meaning to get going on a new ripple afghan — baby sized — out of my leftover CAL yarn:

photo 1Yep, I only used half of what I ordered in the CAL.  That’s the great thing about Stylecraft Special DK — I’m always pleasantly surprised that I have so much of it leftover!  Well, as great as it is, I still haven’t started the blanket.  Hopefully soon.  I need the stress relief of crochet.

The stress partially comes from the upcoming move — all the large furniture is being transferred on the 13th, so before that I want to have taken a good number of things already (the wonderful, amazing, fantastic landlord gave us the key waaaaay early).  Before that, though, the new house has to be thoroughly cleaned.  The landlord “cleaned,” but as one of my favorite books says, “no man can clean anything.”  My parents are going to help me clean this Sunday while Chris hacks through the patio jungle here at the apartment with his old chef knife.  On her first trip to the new house, Zero finally discovered that she can smell things outside through the air vents in my car:

photo

She doesn’t like sticking her head out the window — she’s a scaredy cat — so she stood like this, nose glued to the vent, for a very long time.

Looking at lovely yarns I’d like to try using calms me down a bit (so does looking on Pinterest for beautiful and clever decorating ideas).  Check these out.  The first one I’d like to try is called Vinni’s Colours (Nikkim) and was introduced to me via crochetime, and the second one is from Camellia Fiber Company and was introduced to me via one sheepish girl (she’s currently hosting a giveaway for a skein of the stuff, so sign up soon).  I added these beautiful yarns to my ever growing list of things I need to try!  Have you tried them?  What do you think?

Well that’s all for one night — I may try and read some to de-stress, or perhaps I’ll start on that crochet ripple blanket.  Or perhaps I’ll spend my time sitting around wondering what to do until it’s way past time to go to bed, so that I’m nice and exhausted tomorrow for work.  Can you tell I’m a worrier?  I get it from my mom, who got it from her mom.  At least I’ve got a very understanding ear — calling my mom always makes me feel better.  Anyway, thanks for stopping by!  Hope to see you back soon!

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felting in the wash

August 11, 2013 by 18 Comments

I’m no expert on felting, but the general process seems to include agitating your wool (by hand or machine) in warm/hot water.  Easy enough to do on purpose, I suppose, but inconvenient to avoid if you’re in a hurry to thoroughly wash your woolens.  It seems that you can even “felt” acrylic yarn over time, to an extent:

felt2

This is an acrylic blanket (Red Heart, I believe) that was made by my boyfriend Chris’ great-aunt.  It’s a full size blanket made with US single crochet stitches, and I can only imagine how many hours it must have taken her to complete.  It seems that she was very wise in choosing her machine-washable materials and denser type of stitch, for the blanket has held up very well indeed (you’d be very impressed too if you saw how my boyfriend and our dog abuse blankets, and you’d also understand why I generally try to keep my handmade items away from their regular use).  The blanket receives much wear, accompanied by many washes and dries.  It has “felted” a bit over time, as well, which has come in handy.  In the picture you can see the stitch definition pretty well, but if you try to tug on part of a stitch, the yarn doesn’t budge because enough fibers are interlocked.  Our dog’s claws (or Chris’ toes) therefore are extremely unlikely to catch and pull.  It’s perfect, and the chevrons are still in style!

My first ripple blanket, made back in 2011, I’m afraid to say hasn’t seen much use because I’ve been too worried over it’s immediate destruction.  It’s a twin-sized blanket and was made with Berroco Vintage Chunky yarn, which is 40% wool and not exactly cheap.  Inspired by the above blanket’s indestructible-ness, today I decided to try and get my lovely ripple to felt a little bit.  Here’s what happened:

felt3

The stitches did indeed begin to sort of “glue” together, although the navy stripes acquired some of the fibers from the other colors and now look a little rough.  That’s OK though — it’s fixable and the experiment gives me hope that with a couple more washes, I may be able to let go of the fears attached to the use of my treasured blanket!  It would be lovely to see it being enjoyed instead of just sitting in the linen closet.

For comparison, I’ve taken a picture of my most recent ripple, which is also a twin-sized blanket made with Stylecraft Special DK (acrylic).  It has not yet been washed because it, too, has seen almost no use:

felt1

Of all 3 blankets, this one has the best stitch definition.  I’m planning on washing it a bunch of times in a row the next time I have extra change for the laundromat so that hopefully it, too, can be indestructable and worry-free!

Have you had any experiences with felting that have turned to your advantage?  Or have you accidentally felted something against your intent?  If you have any tips or pointers for me on what to do or what to avoid while attempting to further felt my wool and acrylic blankets, please do share!

Thanks so much for stopping by everyone!

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finished just in time

May 7, 2013 by 22 Comments

In my last post I told you that I was making a cowl for a friend visiting from England, but that there were only 3 days in which to make it.  The deadline was met!

cowl1

Yep, I finished it in the car on the way to see her.  It’s not as thick as I would have liked but I simply ran out of time.  Good thing I used the crocheted linen stitch instead of trying to do the knit linen stitch, which would have taken much longer!

cowl5

 

Since the strips of color in the yarn weren’t very long, it looks more like a rainbow camouflage than I had hoped, but it is still very pretty and my friend loved it!

And, since she’s from England, my chef boyfriend Chris decided to do a Southern dinner for her!  We started off with mini crab cakes with jumbo lump crab meat and a dill sauce (no picture for those).  Then we had a low country boil.  Now I should explain a bit about this Southern tradition:  the low country boil is, I believe, unique to the coastal area (aka “low country”) of South Carolina and traditionally includes corn, red potatoes, some kind of sausage, and shrimp.  These ingredients are all boiled together in one pot (often outdoors over a propane burner) with bay leaves or bay seasoning of some sort, strained, and then dumped right onto the PVC coated table cloth.  Well, we did ours inside and didn’t dump everything on the table, but here’s what it looks like (after 6 servings have been taken out):

low country boil

 

It’s a messy meal because the shrimp aren’t peeled yet and you eat everything with your fingers, but it’s very, very tasty!  Chris also made some homemade butter (with some herbs I can’t remember mixed in) for the corn and potatoes.

Then he made dessert: mini apple pie tarts!  But these were no ordinary tarts: the crust was puff pastry, the apple pie mixture was fresh apples, apple sauce, and bourbon, and there were two unusual additions.  A baked cheese cracker was added, along with candied bacon that Chris made his own rub for.  It was AMAZING:

bacon apple tart

 

I must say it looked better in real life — you know, I’m sure, that it’s hard to photograph food.  But it was very delicious and I was so proud of Chris!  Everyone loved all of it!

Hopefully we’ll get to see our visiting friend again before she leaves, but she’s headed to the mountains for a few days with the person she’s staying with, so we’ll see.

Well, that’s all for today.  There’s another post lined up but it can wait until later tonight/tomorrow.  Thanks for stopping by!

 

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a lovely gift

May 3, 2013 by 21 Comments

I graduated yesterday with my MEd in Clinical Counseling!  All of the students are so glad to be done.  My parents got me a nice card, a delicious dinner, and a beautiful original print, framed and ready to hang somewhere special (hopefully my office, whenever I get a job)!  My aunt, who lives in Arkansas, sent a lovely card with some money to buy myself a present, so of course I got yarn!

yarn for catherine

This beautiful lace weight yarn is by Araucania Yarns, which is made in Chile (this specific yarn is called Nuble).  It’s a single ply yarn and each hank is 50g/1.76oz and 240yds/219m.  It’s 75% merino and 25% silk, and it’s colorway #2.  I’ve never worked with silk yarn before, or this brand, for that matter, but it’s so soft and beautiful!  This yarn will [theoretically] be made into a cowl within the next 3 days for a friend visiting from England.  A bit last minute, yes, but hopefully it can be done in time.  The verdict is still out on whether to try to do the lovely linen stitch that I’ve been wanting to try or to try the crocheted version.  I’m leaning heavily towards crochet because it seems very daunting to try and knit a whole cowl with lace weight yarn in 3 days, even if I have nothing else to do!  I’m not too fast at knitting yet and my hands do get tired.  Taking care of hands, in fact, leads to my next purchase:

lotions

I know I’ve shown you the lavender version of these lovely little lotion rounds, but they smell so good that I just had to get more!  They last a long time, too, which is great, and they would make great gifts if you can stand to let them go!

All of these items were purchased today at my local yarn shop (which isn’t really local as it’s 30 minutes away, but that’s the closest one, so it counts).  It feels nice to support their business, even though these products can probably be found online for a cheaper price, and it’s nice not to have to guess on what something will feel like, and then to wait on shipping.

So you can probably guess what my evening’s going to look like: quick hooking, some hot tea, and most likely a nice Jane Austen movie.  Well, I can’t wait to get started, so I guess that’s all for today!  Thanks for stopping by!

PS:  The Bloglovin’ site that I mentioned the other day should probably be explained for those who don’t know what it is (I didn’t).  It’s a site where you can subscribe to ALL the blogs you follow, not just the ones on WordPress.  That means it’s easy to follow blogs from Blogger or anywhere (and if the blog you want to follow isn’t on the list, you can add it immediately).  All of the posts from the blogs you subscribe to will show up in one handy feed that you can peruse at your leisure, and if you’re browsing the web with Google Chrome (which I would recommend for everyone because it’s amazing), Bloglovin’ will add a little icon next to your search bar that will notify you of new blog posts in your feed.  It’s pretty handy!  They also have an app for the iPhone, but I’ve had a few issues with it so far.  Hopefully they’ll fix it soon — I’ll use it all the time!

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charts vs. written out

April 19, 2013 by 15 Comments

Hello everyone!  Sorry it’s been so long — 10 days is a long time not to post (for me, at least).  I’ve been very busy with end-of-school assignments and preparing for the National Counselor Examination for Licensure and Certification, which I take early tomorrow morning.  Job searching has also kept me busy for hours and hours on end, and I haven’t found anything yet, despite sending out over 70 copies of my resume.  Everyone loves my resume but nobody’s hiring, although I am doing a phone interview this Sunday with a private practitioner in the state.  I’d have to move if I got that job, but I don’t care — I just want something counseling related!

Despite all that, I really wanted to make this post, which I’ve been wanting to do for a while.  It’s about reading crochet charts vs. reading a standard written pattern.

bookchart

I really like charts!  Aside from looking cool, I think they’re easier to read (at least once you get the symbols down, but they’re pretty easy).  I can follow along easily and can see what my work is supposed to look like, ensuring that I do it correctly.

bookwritten

Regular written instructions are fine, too.  I’ve been used to all the abbreviations and repetitions for a long time now, so that’s not a problem.  Without a visual representation, however, often times I find myself in the middle of a round looking at the instructions and trying to figure out where I am.  It’s easier for me to get lost.

Those pictures are for the same motif and can be found in the book 201 Crochet Motifs, Blocks, Projects, and Ideas.  I like that the book most of the time provides both chart and written instructions — it’s very handy!

So which do you prefer, and why?  I’m curious to see how many people prefer each one.

I might not post again for a bit — I’ve got LOTS to do between now and Thursday and maybe by then I’ll know if I have a job and need to move.  The possibility of having to move is one reason I was happy to schedule the CAL for June — hopefully I’ll be settled in by that time.

Anyway, wish me luck for my exam tomorrow, and as always, thanks for stopping by!

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