Monday 30 September 2013

The Forest for the Trees

Progress is coming along well on my shawl. It is a lot of fun to crochet and  the pattern is memorized easily.  I will admit I am having a hard time seeing the overall image sometimes though, so lost am I in the individual stitches. It is getting easier to see now that there are more rows, but I still think some of my earlier Dtr stitches could have used some tightening up. I will definitely be blocking this piece once it is done.

Here are a few quick pictures just for the sake of illustration, but the colour looks way off.







I can't wait to see it totally done and blocked, only then will I know for sure how I feel about it!

Saturday 28 September 2013

Birthday Happenings: Knitted Cats and Frogging Cowls

Yesterday was my birthday (I am now 33, or l'âge du Christ, as we call it) and I decided to keep it low-key this year. I received a number of great gifts, including this lovely fig plant given to me by a friend at work:


And the book Knit Your Own Cat: Easy-to-Follow Patterns for 16 Frisky Felines given to me by my boyfriend, which looks totally adorable, and I can't wait to knit little mini Oreo and Sages.

In crochet news, I already scrapped the Ginny Cowl. I finished 3 rows before I decided that I was in no mood to do 86 rows of slip stitches, in BLO no less. Given the yarn's mottled look, it was not fun at all to be poking around trying to find stitches, so if I try it again, I will use a more solid printed yarn, I think. I am really enjoying the knit picks yarn when I am using it, but it was a pain in the ass to frog.

In any case, I have decided to go back to the project this yarn was originally slated for, namely the Sweet Pea Shawl, that I saw in Stitch 'N Bitch: The Happy Hooker. This is a lot more fun so far. It is all a bunch of shells, so it moves quite quickly, and Dtr stitches are something I don't do often, so it's fun.

I haven't begun any socks yet, as I am still not sure about what pattern to use. Do I need a special pattern for circular needles? No I just adapt a 4 needle pattern? If so, how? I think it might be easier for me to talk to someone about this instead of researching it on my own, so I may hit up a knitting store, or see if any of my friends know anything about circular needles.

Finally, I have been using  stitch markers I got in my Knit Picks order the other day, and I LOVE them. I can't believe I have gone on this long without using any; how many headaches and restarted chains would this have saved me?? I really wonder what other tools I'm not using that I should be...

Thursday 26 September 2013

Knit Picks Delivery + Cupcake Continues

I am now on day 3 of my cupcake hat, and am almost done. Both the frosting section and the cake portion are complete, I just need to crochet the cherry, get some mini pom poms for the sprinkles (or felt maybe?) and then assemble it all. This was (and still is) a really fun project. It is almost entirely done in BLO, which creates a really nice ribbed effect.



Of course,  there is nothing to slow my progress like the arrival of new yarn! I had all my projects decided when I bought the yarn, but since then I have become a little overwhelmed I think.

The new yarn:


This is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Superwash in Noble Heather. It is a really beautiful green that I had originally planned to use for a shawl, but I have decided instead to make this cowl. As fun as it would be to try out a cool shell stitch on a shawl, I would really prefer to make something I can wear for now.


Up next is more Wool of the Andes, this time in Bittersweet Heather and Fjord Heather, respectively. Both of these colours are beautiful, but the fjord in particular makes me melt. I want to use these colours for hats, though which pattern I will use is as of yet undecided.


Finally, we have Knit Picks Stroll Tweed in Indigo Heather, and Stroll Fingering in Constellation. These are reserved for socks. I am DYING to try socks, but while I crochet in the round all the time, knitting in the round is still mysterious to me. I would also really like to try circular needles, but all I have are a pair of US 6 4mm ones, so I can either use those or wait to go buy a different pair. Anyway, if you have a beginner sock pattern that would be suitable, please don't be shy! I would love to hear it.

All around, a good day in crafting! :)

Wednesday 25 September 2013

Stash Raider: Cupcake Hat

I figured it was time I got back in the habit of writing regularly, and so why not journal my adventures in compulsive crafting?

I have a bunch of project ideas planned for some nice yarn I ordered online, but I needed something to keep me busy until it gets here.

Last night I began work on the Chocolate Cupcake Hat with Blue Frosting from Twinkie Chan's Crochet Goodies for Fashion Foodies as a way to quick way to use up some of the cheap yarn I have left in my stash.  I'm using some dollar store acrylic yarn that I bought over 10 years ago in a dusty plum colour for the frosting part instead of blue.

So far this is a really fun pattern. It is easy and goes quickly, but has enough variety to keep it interesting. I am about 75% through the frosting portion and am not 100% sure which yarn I will use for the "cake" part of the hat.  If it turns out cute (and I suspect it will) I will probably make another in nicer yarn anyway