I keep my promises — it’s giveaway time! [CLOSED]

October 25, 2013 by 127 Comments

what the winner will receive

A beautiful yarn bowl handmade by my lovely and very talented friend Lauren:

yarn bowlA full skein of KnitPicks Billow (100% Pima cotton) in the shade Ice Lily:

billow bulky pima cotton in ice lilyA full skein of KnitPicks Brava Worsted (100% acrylic) in the shade Mint:

brava worsted acrylic in mintAnd finally a thread/yarn cutter keychain (I have one and have put it on a necklace chain):

thread cutter keychainI have tried both kinds of yarn previously and enjoy working with them very much, particularly with a yarn bowl made by my friend!

giveaway info

The giveaway is open from right now until November 25, 2013, when I will randomly draw the winner.  It is open to anyone, regardless of where in the world you are located.

giveaway rules

To enter in this giveaway, you must do ALL of the following:

  1. Follow this blog (can be via WordPress, e-mail, or Bloglovin’)
  2. Share this post by reblogging it (if you don’t have a blog, you can instead share this post on Twitter or Facebook)
  3. Leave a comment on this post and include the link to your reblogged post (or Tweet or Facebook) [*EDIT: please also tell me how you’re following the blog.  All entrants who have posted previous to 13:30 10/25 are fine.*]

*Keep in mind that your comment might not appear immediately — if you’re not a frequent commenter I will have to approve your comment.  Don’t worry though, you’re entered! 🙂

That’s everything!

good luck!

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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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CAL pattern page is up

September 25, 2013 by 13 Comments

Thanks again to everyone who has watched and participated throughout not your average crochet’s first crochet along!  I have compiled all the posts into one page for your convenience.  To access this page, you can go to the menu bar: tutorials >> crochet tutorials >> patterns >> as-we-go stripey blanket.  You can also click on the button in the sidebar to the right that says “as-we-go stripey blanket free pattern.”  You can also

click here

I hope you have all enjoyed it, and don’t forget to email me pictures when you are done so that I can start that gallery!  Please include your preferred name if you want it to be included with your picture.  Send the largest version you have to davish14 AT winthrop DOT edu   Please do not hesitate to use that e-mail address or to comment here if you see any problems or mistakes in the pattern page, or if you have any questions!

Hopefully you will all stick around now that the CAL is over — I do plan on having a giveaway soon in addition to my regular knitting and crocheting posts!  I’m about to move to another city so it will probably be after that, but I promise it’s coming (and if you remember my last giveaway you’ll know it won’t be a small cheap gift)!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope to see you back soon!

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