CAL: week 14

August 31, 2013 by 4 Comments

Alright everyone, let’s beast out week 14!  Using US terms, last week we ended on row 102:

cal97

row 103-104

With new color, work the star stitch pattern (instructions here).

row 105

With new color, hdc across.

row 106

With new color, dc across.

row 107-109

With new colors, work the granny stripe pattern (instructions here).

row 110

With new color, dc across.  Here’s this week’s rows (sorry about the color/quality — I don’t know what happened this week!):

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And this week I have a picture of the whole thing:

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Hopefully everybody is still enjoying our crochet along!  I’m still enjoying everyone’s pictures on facebook and everything.  It’s really amazing to me that there are so many people participating!

That’s it for today, hope you enjoy!

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finished the hat!

August 28, 2013 by 10 Comments

What a day!  After working a long and hot (95 Fahrenheit) lunch shift out in the sun, all I wanted to do was get clean and cool and relax!  My hands still wanted something to do though, and as a result the knitted hat for my friend Tara is finished!

Hat for Tara 1

 

It turned out great!  The seed stitch was fun and the inside looks just the same so it’s totally reversible.  I added 8 stitches to the recommended cast on number and also went up a needle size from the recommended one (both because the pattern writer knits very loosely and because my friend has lots of lovely thick hair, although the extra stitches turned out to be unnecessary).  The hat can be worn slouchy, like that, or it can be worn with the ribbed section rolled up like this:

Hat for Tara 2

 

It’s still roomy this way and it is big enough to where either way it can cover one’s ears.  I thought about lining it with polar fleece for extra warmth, but I’ve never done that before and don’t want to try it out on a hat I’m planning on gifting (but if anyone has any tips on that, I’d love to hear them so I can try it out on one of my hats sometime!).  I think I’ll be working with my friend on Thursday so hopefully I can give it to her then.

This hat used about 3/4 of my 220 yard ball of Aslan Trends Royal Alpaca, and the free pattern can be found here.

That’s all for today!  Just wanted to share the finished project somewhere (I can’t put it on Instagram yet because Tara and I follow each other and she’d see it)!  Thanks so much for stopping by.  Now I’ll get to work on the CAL installment for this Saturday!

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CAL: week 13

August 24, 2013 by 11 Comments

Week 13 is already upon us!  Are you ready to dive in?  Let’s get started, and remember we’re using US terms!

Last week we finished with row 94:

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row 95

With new color, hdc across.

rows 96-99

With 2 new colors, work the Catharine wheel pattern (click here for original instructions).  Here’s a picture so far:

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row 100

With new color, dc across as instructed in the original Catharine wheel instructions.  You might want to count your stitches here, just to be safe.

row 101

With new color, hdc across.

row 102

With new color, dc across.  Here’s this week’s rows all together:

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Don’t forget to weave in those ends!  For me it really does help make the whole blanket more manageable when I don’t have ends getting tangled everywhere, which is becoming more important as our blankets grow in size.  This week I don’t have a picture of the whole blanket — again I forgot to stop crocheting in time and didn’t remember until I was a couple more rows in, and I can’t give that big of a spoiler away!  😉

Can you believe we’ve done over 100 rows now?  That’s a lot of stitches.  I know that a few of you aren’t too fond of working the Catharine wheels, but I hope that the other fun stitches compensate adequately!

That’s all for this week — thanks for stopping by!

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a hat for a friend

August 23, 2013 by 10 Comments

Today I started knitting a hat.  A couple hours in and I’m still working on the ribbed band because I had to start over — the pattern writer stated that she knits very loosely, and since I knit tightly I had to go back add 8 stitches (even after switching up a needle size).  The hat is for my friend Tara, who is the girl I work with on the food truck most often.  She’s been very kind and patient (not to mention fun and hilarious), and she’s the one who pushed the big boss to hire me in the first place, even knowing that I’ve had very little food service experience.  I like to think that we’ve also become good friends, which means I have TWO close friends that are girls that live within an hour and a half’s drive.  This is exciting for me, even though I’m probably moving soon about an hour down the road in the opposite direction from them both.  Because I have so few friends, the ones I have mean a lot, and so I want to show them that I appreciate their friendship.  Hence knitting the hat for Tara with no particular occasion in mind.

Although it’s averaging a high of about 87 degrees Fahrenheit most days, that’s pretty cool for a South Carolina summer.  Many weather experts agree that this means we’ll be in for a colder winter than normal.  I am grateful for this because last year I barely got to wear any of the items I had knitted/crocheted because anything more than a light scarf was too hot.  The impending cold season, however, will not be so fun for Tara when she has to work on the food truck (or me, if I’m still here then) because the truck doesn’t have heat.  This means when we’re not cooking but just sitting waiting to open between shifts, it will be incredibly cold.  Tara had said that she doesn’t have a warm hat that will stretch down to cover her ears, so I’m making her one out of 100% alpaca yarn that will.  I hope she likes it!

That’s all I’ve got for today.  Thanks for stopping by!

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a hat for Chris

August 14, 2013 by 20 Comments

Chris’ birthday is today!  He’s turning 28 and he says he feels old.  As you know, I don’t have a job, so funds for a present are pretty much nonexistent, but luckily I have a nice yarn stash and could make him something:

spaceinvadershat

It’s a Space Invaders hat!  For those who don’t know, Space Invaders was/is an old arcade video game (probably one of the first ones).  Since Chris loves video games, I figured he’s probably played Space Invaders, and since I found a handy chart by Arne & Carlos here, I figured I could make him that.

To make the hat:  using worsted yarn (Berroco Vintage) and a US6 circular needle, I cast on 96 sts and did some rows of k2 p2 ribbing.  Switching to a US8 circular needle, I used the chart from the free PDF, and did the decreases at the top like this (switching to DPNs when it became necessary):

k10, k2tog.  Knit 1 round.  k9, k2tog.  Knit 1 round.  k8, k2tog.  Knit 1 round…. etc. until I got to the last three decrease rows, where I didn’t do a regular knit row in between them.  When 8 sts were left I cast off and secured the ends!

I hope it fits him — it fits me but might be a little tight for him around the colorwork area — I did the floats without really factoring in stretch.

Also, my sprained foot is feeling much better — I’ve been taking it really easy and I think it’s going to be just fine.  The swelling is almost completely gone, the big bruise has stopped spreading, and I’m walking almost normally again.  Thanks again for all the well-wishes — ya’ll made me smile!

I guess that’s all for today.  Thanks so much for stopping by!

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