done with the move!

October 23, 2013 by 10 Comments

Well, mostly.  A couple of boxes are left to unpack, but all in all I’m very satisfied with our new house.  Zero loves it too!  Here she is sitting on the daybed with my CAL blanket:

zero2That’s her “what are you doing?” face.

zero1She loves the yard so much!  I’m so glad she’s finally happy.  We threw away a LOT of stuff so it’s nice and uncluttered and very roomy inside, as well!

Today is the first day I could post because today is our first day having Internet.  I know I’m spoiled because it was very difficult going without it!  I know I must have used a ton of data on my phone…

I was busy knitting and crocheting, too!  I started crocheting a shawl:

frogged(Yep, no sheets on the daybed at the point that was taken, and yep, I love to sit cross-legged/Indian style.)  As you can see I’m unraveling it to knit a scarf — the pattern was so hard for me to follow!  It’s cheche a la sauce and it was originally in French, so perhaps that was part of the problem.  The beginnings and ends of the rows don’t match up!  I must have been missing something but I could not figure it out, and after hours of re-working and re-working it, trying to get the edges correct, I gave up.  I think I’m giving up on that scarf, too, in favor of something that will take up all 3 balls of yarn I got for that project.

My knitting has much more to show for the effort.  I finished the Bajada scarf for my friend.  It took approximately 18 hours total of very focused knitting to complete, and because of that I don’t think I’ll be making another one (after all, I can whip up a crocheted scarf in an hour and a half).  I also had to write out the pattern row by row to keep track of everything and squinting at the small print in the booklet got old real quick.  It was worth it though:

bajada3It totals at 69 inches (175cm) long and 11.5 inches (29cm) tall at its widest point.

bajada4

bajada6As you can see, I need to purchase some blocking wires.  They’re just so expensive for little wires (at least on KnitPicks, where I got everything else for relatively cheap), and I keep meaning to just go to a hardware store and get some wires cut for me.  It just hasn’t happened yet.

bajada5I can’t wait for it to dry so that I can mail it to my friend!  I’ll be back up there in a couple of weeks for the yearly Renaissance Fair but I don’t want her to have to wait that long.  I hope she likes it!

The Northern Loop cowl has been my other knitting project.  I’ve been using KnitPicks’ Billow bulky yarn and it is so wonderful to work with!  So very soft, and what gorgeous colors they have available!  I’ll definitely be repurchasing this.  This could be dangerous…  Here’s a bit of my cowl:

northernloop2I’m loving it!  The only thing that was kinda iffy about the pattern was the provisional cast on, but I looked up a tutorial on YouTube and did it easily with a length of crochet chain:

northernloop1Not as bad as I thought it would be!  Grafting it together at the end might be difficult, but I’ll just look up another tutorial for that later.

Well, that’s all the catch-up I have that I can think of right now.  I’m still editing the site so if you see anything that looks crazy (like the site title overlapping with the menu bar or something), please let me know.  I’m unsure how it will look on tablets or really large screens, but I’m trying to learn to use rem spacing instead of pixels in my CSS coding, so hopefully it won’t be too bad.

Let me know what ya’ll have been up to while I’ve been away!  I’m trying to catch up with everyone’s news!  Thanks for stopping by!

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yep, it worked; chunky circle scarf #2

October 6, 2013 by 6 Comments

In my last post I talked of how I was stressed, and how I was going to pull out a new crochet project.  Well I did, and it’s done.  It de-stressed me so much I couldn’t put it down.  Let me introduce to you the Chunky Circle Scarf 2:

chunky cowl 2 1It is a lovely, plush cowl (worked flat and seamed) from a free pattern (click here), and it took me about 2 1/4 skeins of KnitPicks Brava Bulky in the shade Tranquil.  I’ve actually already made one, but it was in January of 2012 so it was time for another!

The Tranquil shade appears very vibrant in these photos but you can see that the stitch pattern is very, very close to the Catharine wheel pattern from our recent crochet along:

chunky cowl 2 2So basically if you liked that stitch you can make this easily within a few short hours, and it’s definitely worth the multitudes of yarn it requires — it’s SO plush and kooshy — and the KnitPicks Brava Bulky is incredibly soft for an acrylic yarn.  I’d highly recommend it as it is also very decently priced!  By the way, the cowl is folded in half in the picture above so you see only 1/4 of it’s total size.

Most unfortunately I was planning to sell this cowl, but in the pattern the designer states that she’d prefer that the pattern is used for personal use only.  Well, it’ll make someone a great Christmas present!

chunky cowl 2 3I guess that’s all for today!  I’d better get to bed because tomorrow my parents are coming to help me give my new rented house a thorough cleaning before we start bringing in furniture, and I’ll need my energy!  Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

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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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