Crochet – Ms Lindz – My little corner of the internet

Completed Projects, Crochet, Current Projects, Spinning

NYAN!! and Other Things

Posted on January 24, 2012 by mslindz

Ever have one of those days where you feel like there’s a lot you want to share, but aren’t sure where to start? I’m feeling like that as I try to write this blog post today! I’ve been busy organizing my stash, figuring out what projects to work on, knitting, crocheting, and spinning. How about I start with an FO?

I hadn’t mentioned it here as a WIP at all because I wanted it to be a surprise. I knew I couldn’t upload photos to Flickr or Ravelry as I knew the recipient would see! It was hard to keep it a secret and I kept wanting to share it. Now I finally can!

I started this scarf back in December, hoping to get it done as a Christmas present, but it didn’t end up getting finished. January hit and I started working on other things, then decided to finish it up just in time to be a birthday gift. I made this for Jen, aka piddleloop on Ravelry and part of the Piddleloop Sewing Team. A while back she saw the Amigurumi Pop Tart Cat Scarf pattern and went crazy for it. I knew I had to make this for her since she said she can’t really crochet. This has to be one of most fun things I’ve made!

Jen and the Nyan Cat Scarf
Photo from Jen

Pattern: Amigurumi Pop Tart Cat Scarf by Mevlinn Gusick (My Ravelry project page.)
Started: December 4, 2011
Completed: January 16, 2012
Yarn: I Love This Yarn, Caron Simply Soft, and Vanna’s Choice Solids (see Ravelry page for details on colors)
Hook: 4.5 mm and 5.0 mm (H)
Notes: Added a few extra stitches to make the scarf a bit longer. Added a mouth, nose, and cheeks. Followed the rest of the pattern as written.

Nyan Cat Scarf

Before I mailed it off to Jen, Matt was nice enough to let me take some photos of him wearing it. I think this one was my favorite of the bunch, though this one was a close second!

Tasty Nyan Cat!

This year I wanted to get back to spinning and hoped to get in at least an hour a week with my spinning wheel. Recently, my friend Karen learned to spin, which really motivated me to finish what I had on the wheel and do some spinning for the current SSK KAL. The top one is from Stitches ‘n Rows. It’s Falkland in the colorway Silver Age Joker. It was great to spin and I LOVE the colors. It ended up being heavy fingering weight, though I haven’t figured out the yardage on it yet. I’m planning to knit a pair of fingerless gloves with it.

Handspun!

The bottom one is from Gale’s Art. I bought this a few years ago when I went to MDSW. It’s merino in the Crayon Box colorway. I tried to get a worsted weight with it, but ended up bulky. I’m currently knitting up a Tony the Toy-Box Monster for the SSK KAL #3, which features Rebecca Danger patterns. Since I don’t have enough for the entire monster because the yarn ended up bulkier then I planned, I’ll be using some stash yarn in a chocolate brown color for the arms and legs.

Last night I realized that there was quite a bit of yarn, mostly acrylics, that I didn’t have in my Ravelry stash. I thought I had at least most, if not all, of it in my stash at the beginning of the year. I realized I needed to go through and double check everything yesterday when I noticed a non-acrylic yarn missing from my Ravelry stash that I knew was there. This added quite a bit of yardage to my total – roughly 8,000 yards! Last night I took the time to photograph it all and today I made stash entries for everything. I’ll have to adjust it just a bit later on because not all of them are full skeins. It sure does feel good to have EVERYTHING on there now, though, and have a solid total on everything.

In an effort to use up some of my stash, especially the acrylics I purchased for various home things (blanket, pillows, etc), I started a Moderne Log Cabin blanket using the colors below.

Moderne Log Cabin

I’ve been wanting a knitted blanket for myself for a long time, but couldn’t bring myself to commit to it. I attempted to make a rippled afghan using the blue and pink from the photo above, but just got tired of it. Crocheting doesn’t allow me to watch TV while doing it because I have to look at my work constantly, so I frogged it. Since I can watch TV or read while knitting, I thought this would make a good TV/movie project since it’s all garter stitch. I’m about a 1/3 through the first big square right now and will mostly work on it while TV or movie watching, so it’s more of a long term project. I will admit it’s a bit addicting to knit garter stitch and I find myself wanting to work on it quit a bit. I think the bright colors I’m using are giving me motivation to finish it because I really want the finished blanket!

Oh! I gave Matt’s brother his hat and I think he liked it. 🙂

What are you working on this week? I feel like I still want to start ALL THE THINGS lately, but refraining until I get other things finished first so that I don’t get overwhelmed with WIPs. Tough when I see so many beautiful projects from everyone! I did finish the Wussypillows beret, but haven’t blocked it, so no photos of that yet. Of course there are other WIPs I’m working on, though I don’t have photos of them right now, so I’ll share them next time.

Happy crafting! 🙂

Crochet, Current Projects

Long Term WIPs

Posted on July 29, 2011 by mslindz

I feel like I have a lot more WIPs then I usually do. I currently have 7 things on the needles and will be starting another project Monday (Westknits Mystery KAL!). SEVEN WIPs! I usually like to keep it to 4 or less, but… well… I’ve been a joiner of things lately and it’s keeping my WIP count higher then usual.

Three of my WIPs are more like long term projects. Things that I work on occasionally, but don’t really get the majority of my knitting/crocheting time.

The first is Matt’s Scarf, which I started in 2009. I should take a better picture of it, but as a 1×1 ribbed scarf with two colors, it’s not really that interesting to see the progress as it gets longer! It has seen quite a bit of progress, though, and it’s a great project to work on while TV or movie watching when I don’t want to pay much attention to my project.

The second of my long term projects is the High Seas Shawl. I love how this is coming along, but with patterning on both right and wrong side rows, it’s a little slow going and it doesn’t make the best social or TV knitting. Right now it’s been set aside for other projects.

High Seas Shawl

The third of my long term projects is the Spring Ripples Scarf. About two weeks ago now, I had to rip out all the progress I’d made because the gauge had changed from when I started to where I was. It was really obvious that even blocking wouldn’t save it. Ripped it all out, started over, and now I’ve worked back to where I was plus a little more. I like it better with the looser gauge I’m getting now then when I first started it.

Spring Ripples Scarf

I think of short term projects as things that keep my attention that I want to work on it constantly. Long term projects are things that mindless (plain sock, a scarf) or something complicated that takes a lot of brain power. I enjoy knitting these types of long term projects, but usually they aren’t holding my attention so much that I only want to work on it the way the short term projects do. I usually keep at least one long term project on the needles and it’s often something I consider mindless that doesn’t require me to look at it much. Those kind of projects also make for great social knitting or crocheting and since I often find myself knitting in public with non-knitters, these are great to have.

Do you have long term and short term projects that you work on? What sort of things are short and long term projects for you?

I’ll have the rest of my WIPs to show next time! 🙂

Completed Projects, Crochet

Almost August and a July FO

Posted on July 28, 2011 by mslindz

My how July has flown by! I can’t believe it’s been nearly a month since I last blogged. I had the best of intentions (as always), but I’ve been a bit lazy about photographing my WIPs and FOs and without pictures, I end up not blogging. The heat we’ve been having hasn’t helped much, either. The last thing I want to do when I get home is put on a handspun wool cowl and take pictures in the house on the 2nd floor which is all too often about the same temperature as outside. Heck, that makes me not want to even TAKE pictures most of the time. Sadly, that 2nd floor room with lots of light and white space is the best room to take photographs of yarn, WIPs and FOs. The 1st floor, with it’s lack of ceiling and natural lighting, makes good pictures difficult, so I end up not doing it. Definitely doesn’t help that Matt has been working a different schedule then usual (four 10 hour days vs five 8 hour days). Since he’s been working later, 2-3 times a week I’m going directly to the gym after work and getting home around the same time as he does. Time just seems scarce lately!

Anyhow… I have still been knitting, crocheting, and a little bit of spinning despite my lack of blogging about it.

Let’s see. Tour de Fleece is over and I ended up barely participating. I did get some spinning done in the early days of the tour, but I haven’t photographed what I’ve been spinning to share that with you (totally forgot to!). A few days in, the fiber prep and spinning started bothering my wrists and shoulders, so I set it aside and sadly didn’t really get back to it before I realized the tour was over! To be honest, I was having a hard time getting into it this year for some reason. Probably because of other things I’ve been working on that have been holding my interest more. Ah well. There’s always next year! 😉

Since I last updated, I finished my Granny Square cowl. I did end up getting 24 squares from the yarn and ran out of yarn while crocheting the squares together. Thankfully I had some other handspun in a similar color to use to finish crocheting everything together. I like how it turned out! It’s going to be squishy and warm to wear this winter.

Granny Square Cowl

Pattern: Granny Square Cowl (My Ravelry project page.)
Started: June 27, 2011
Completed: July 9, 2011
Yarn: Handspun, Zarzuela’s Fibers Hand Dyed Corriedale in the “Tour de Fleece” colorway
Hook: H/5.0 mm
Notes: This was inspired by Mary-Heather’s Granny Square Cowl. No real pattern other then granny squares. I crocheted 24 squares total, then randomly placed them together. Pretty easy to do and man are those squares addictive!

Granny Square Cowl (Worn)

Lots of other WIPs on the needles, though I think that will be a whole post or two for another day. I think I’ll be able to make one of those WIPs into an FO before July is out. Here’s hoping!

For those of you that are Westknits fans, you probably already know about the Mystery Shawl KAL he’s doing starting August 1st (Ravelry link), right? I heard about it right after the pattern went up on Ravelry and knew right away that, despite all the other things I’m working on including the one that is more or less deadline knitting, I wanted to join. I had a tough time picking out three colors for the shawl, but I knew I wanted it to be something I had in stash that I could use up. After a lot of pondering, I decided on using this color combo for it.

Westknits Mystery KAL Yarn

This is Yarntini Merino/Nylon Sock in Concord (top), Capirinha (bottom left), and Summer Sunset (bottom right). Not sure what color will be A, B, or C in the pattern yet. I’ll probably decided this weekend when I wind up my yarn or you can suggest which one should be my “main” color (C) in the comments! 🙂 If you’re doing this Mystery KAL, what colors and yarn are you using? Decided on which will be A, B, and C?

All of you suffering through this heatwave, stay cool and drink lots of water! All those that aren’t and are in cooler climates, man am I jealous – can I come stay with you until winter? 😀

Crochet, Current Projects, Spinning

I’ve Been Crocheting, Spinning, and Knitting!

Posted on June 8, 2011 by mslindz

As the days go by, I find that I have less pain in my hands/wrists and can knit a little bit longer each time. I feel like I’m almost back to “normal,” though I am still getting a little pain now and then. I’m still a little slower then is normal for me, but I suppose that will come back in time.

Since I’ve been crocheting, knitting, AND spinning in the last week, I’ve got some progress to share!

The scarf is coming along nicely. I’m enjoying working on it and seeing the colors change. It seems a little slow going because I keep adding or skipping stitches, then realize it a row or two later. Ah well, I’m still enjoying it!

Spring Ripples

For June and July in the Soild Socks group on Ravelry, there is a mystery pattern from Yarnissima. Initially I wasn’t going to join in since I never finish mystery knit-a-longs, but there was this green Wollmeise in my stash that called out to me, so I wound up the skein into two (mostly equal) cakes of yarn and cast on! The pattern can be found on Ravelry here: GUSH – Solid Socks June 2011Mystery Sock. I’ll probably just refer to these as my GUSH socks or mystery socks, since that title is a bit long. 😉

This past weekend, I finished up the toes of both socks. The second clue came out yesterday and I’ve already started working on it.

GUSH Sock

Speaking of socks… I have tried to finish up Maelstrom and my stripey socks. I love the gauge I’m getting on Maelstrom, but it’s a little on the tighter side for Socks That Rock Mediumweight (I’m using US 1.5’s) and it really hurts my hands when I try to work on it. I have been knitting on my stripey socks and they’re moving along, slowly. I think the US 0’s are bothering my hands a little, so I’ve been limiting my time knitting on them. I’m hoping they’ll be done soon, though!

There has been spinning! I finished up the Cheviot I had on the wheel from Zarzuela’s Fibers in the DC Sunrise colorway a while ago, but I haven’t taken pictures of it yet since it still needs to be washed. After I finished that, I started on the Falkland I got from Stitches ‘n Rows in the Silver Age Joker colorway. I put it aside for a bit when my wrists got briefly worse, then the fiber for The Dahlia Cowl SAL/KAL that’s going on in Zarzuela’s Fiber Junkies group on Ravelry arrived.

When I was ready to give spinning a go after my wrists were feeling a bit better, the SAL/KAL had started, so I figured I should get going on it. In two days I had it spun, plied, and washed! That may be the fastest I’ve spun something up in a while. I love how squishy and soft it turned out. If I calculated it right, I ended up with 92 yards, which is a bit short of the 120 yards required for the pattern. I do have a small “leftover” skein that didn’t make it on the first bobbin that I didn’t measure, so I might have around 100 yards total.

Here’s a shot of before and after spinning up the fiber.

Dahlia Polworth Fiber

Dahlia Polworth Fiber – Spun

I’ve been debating about what I want to cast on for next now that I’ve cleared a few sweaters off the needles. I think I’d like to do a shawl of some sort, but I can’t seem to decide on a pattern! There’s too many ones that I like out there. What shawls are on your list to knit or that you’re currently working on? Or is there something else (that isn’t a sweater) that you’ve got on your “must knit” list? I want to cast something on, but nothing in my queue or stash is really calling to me! What a problem to have! Hahaha 🙂

Completed Projects, Current Projects

Watershed and Scalloped Potholders

Posted on February 4, 2011 by mslindz

Most of this week I’ve been trying to get this post together and it just kept not happening, so it’s FO Friday again! This week I have two finished projects.

The first thing that I finished, which I mentioned on my last blog post, is Watershed. This one has some mods, so there are some long notes below. This is my first sweater for the International Sweater-a-Month Dodecathon in 2011.

Watershed

Pattern: Watershed (My Ravelry project page.)
Started: January 18, 2011
Completed: January 30, 2011
Yarn: Malabrigo in Pearl, 2.5 skeins
Needles: US 8 Addi Turbo Lace circular
Notes: I made changes to the sleeves. I didn’t really care for the original way they were done (a lot of extra ends!). Instead of knitting the 3 sections separately to create the bottom of the armhole, I knit the whole thing for 2.5 additional repeats (per the pattern had I done the separate sections), then instead of casting on for the sleeve stitches per pattern, I provisionally cast on a total of 60 stitches (amount it tells you to cast on, plus the 14 sts I would have picked up on each side had I followed the pattern), then put 10 stitches of the body on waste yarn (per the pattern for the underarm of the sleeve). Because I changed the sleeve construction, I also had to change the decreases. Instead of only decreasing on the right side row, I decreased the sleeve stitches every row (and only the sleeve stitches). I did this with ssk and k2tog on the RS rows, p2tog and p2togtbl on the WS rows. I didn’t like the decrease stitches as purls on the RS rows. This made the final stitch count come out the same as if I had followed the pattern. After completing the body and picking up the sleeves stitches, I did the following: Knit 9 rows, 10 row, decreased 10 sts evenly across. I switched to garter stitch for 3 garter ridges, then did the bind off in purl (rows would be as follows: purl, knit, purl, knit, purl, knit, bind off in purl). If I were to do this again, while I LOVE how it turned out, I’d cast on fewer stitches for the sleeve. Maybe 50 instead of 60. I’d do the math to figure out the size first, but guessing 10-15 less stitches for my size. I’d still do the decreases because otherwise the garter stitch flared out. Of course you could just go down a needle size, but I didn’t think of that until I was finished!

Watershed – Side

Watershed – Back

The second thing I finished was the second Scalloped Potholder. The second one ended up a little bigger then the first, but I used up two skeins of cotton making the two and now I have some new hot pads.

Scalloped Potholders

Pattern: Scalloped Potholders (My Ravelry project page.)
Started: January 24, 2011
Completed: February 1, 2011
Yarn: Lily Sugar’n Cream, one skein Hot Green, one skein Hot Pink
Needles: G/4.25 mm hook and H/5.00 mm hook
Notes: On the first one (green center), I only used the G/4.25 mm hook. On the second one, I used the G/4.25 mm hook for the center, then the H/5.00 mm hook for the shells, sc row and sc’ing them together. I think they worked out a lot better going up a hook from the shells on because it ended up laying a lot more flat. When I make another set, I’ll likely go up another hook size to sc them together (possibly for the sc row after the shells and sc’ing together). The first one really didn’t lay flat at all until I blocked it and even then it wants to curl a bit when you pick it up. I love the colors and they were quick to crochet, so I think I’ll be making more of them in the future. I just wish I had more solid cotton to use!

Since I finished my first sweater of the 12 I plan on knitting this year, I’ve moved on to the next one! I debated on what I wanted to do next, so I picked out a few and swatched. One didn’t work out at all and I knew right away I wasn’t going to get proper gauge, so I quickly gave up on that. The second one was for Watershed, which you see above, and the third one was for Seneca. This one has been in my queue and since Sheri of The Loopy Ewe is doing a Cable Challenge this quarter, I bought Madeleine Tosh DK in Lepidoptra from TLE specifically for the challenge to knit Seneca. After the sweater fail that was Bel Air, I wanted to start on this, but when I had gauge issues that required me to buy another needle size, I ended up going with Watershed instead.

I’ve finished the first cable chart, on to the second skein of yarn, and I’ve finished the waist decreases. I only have a picture of when I was about halfway through the cable chart and it’s a crappy one. Sorry about that! The color is fairly accurate, though.

Seneca

This project has been getting all of my attention since I started it! I’m 2 repeats of the 16 rows stockinette/16 rows textured stitch pattern (for a 32 row repeat) of my Textured Stitch shawl, but I don’t have any new pictures of it. No real progress on Matt’s socks lately, but I do want to get them finished soon, so I’m thinking I may focus on knitting them this weekend.

Speaking of weekend, I hear something called the Superbowl is happening on Sunday. I don’t follow sports at all, but we are planning on going to a party a friend of ours is hosting. I’m possibly more excited about the food that will be there then the game, but that’s because I know nothing about football and can only barely follow what’s going on in the game. 😉 Whatever your plans are, I hope you all have a good weekend!

Current Projects

Scalloped Potholders, Volna, and Socks

Posted on January 31, 2011 by mslindz

Recently, I kept seeing a crochet potholder pattern come up in my friends feed on Ravelry being favorited and queued. There are a number of pretty and colorful ones that people have made and since I had some cotton yarn in my stash, I caved and whipped one up in pink and green. The pattern is Scalloped Potholder by Pracilla Hewitt. This is the first one I made and I’ll consider it finished when I make the second one, using up two full skeins of Lily Sugar’n Cream cotton. At least that’s the plan assuming I can get another one out of what’s left. I don’t think it will be a problem, though.

Scalloped Potholder

I think I’ll use mine more as a hot pad then a potholder, but you can never have too many of either! I thought they’d be a good way to use up some yarn in the stash and make something I can use in the kitchen. The second one will be opposite: green shells, pink for the rest, and crochet the two together with green. On the second one I might try going up a hook size once I hit the scallops so it will lay flat easier. The one above I blocked because it was curled pretty bad and wouldn’t really lay flat. It seems lays mostly flat now. I think my crocheting was just too tight and pulled it in. We’ll see. I’ll play around with it a bit to see if I can’t get it to lay flat. I seem to have trouble with that sometimes when it comes to crochet!

For a few months now I’ve seen Noro lace at various LYS’s. I keep thinking I should pick up a skein, then debate about what I’d do with it and eventually put it back on the shelf. For months, it’s been calling me. Then I saw the perfect pattern: Volna. I had other things going on at the time I posted about it back in November, but recently I picked up a skein at the LYS and cast on last week.

Volna

I haven’t progressed on it much because I’d been focused on knitting Watershed, then I started the Textured Shawl, but I hope to get back to it once I get one of my other WIPs off the needles. Speaking of which, I did finish one of Matt’s Camo Socks a week or so ago and I started the second one. I love nice the yarn feels knit up.

Matt’s Camo Socks

I’d like to focus on this and get it done now that I have Watershed finished. We’ll see. My interest changes all the time on what I want to work on or what interests me! 🙂

Completed Projects, Current Projects

Little Christmas Tree Decorated, Juneberry Woes

Posted on December 27, 2010 by mslindz

Hope everyone’s weekend was good and all the holiday gatherings and things weren’t too stressful. We had a good Christmas. My family came over for a while, we opened gifts, and we had a nice lunch. After that, we went with Matt’s dad and brother to see Tron in IMAX 3D. We both thought it was really good and I was surprised the 3D part of it didn’t bother me at all. I did take some Dramamine right before going (though you’re supposed to take in an hour before), but I think it was less like Avatar was with all the fast movement and in your face 3D scenes. Good weekend over all, I think. 🙂

Over the weekend I put the finishing touches on the little tree I shared last time. Ended up not decorating it much, but I’m pleased with how it turned out!

Little Christmas Tree

Pattern: Wooly Tree Tutorial (My Ravelry project page.)
Started: December 12, 2010
Completed: December 13, 2010
Yarn: Red Heart Soft Yarn in Guacamole, approx 1/3 of a skein
Needles: 4.0 mm (G) hook
Notes: I initially did the leaves every round, but when I realized I was going to run out of yarn and that I read the pattern wrong, I did the leaves every other row . I was going to decorate it with tiny ornaments. I searched and came up empty on tiny ornaments that I liked, so I decided to just put the star I found on top and call it done. Maybe next Christmas I’ll find some tiny ornaments that I like for it!

The sad news part of this weekend and this post has to do with the Juneberry Triangle I’ve been working on non-stop since I started it. I was doing quite well with the edging. Here it is just before I hit the halfway point of the edging.

Juneberry – Edging

It was looking like I’d have enough yarn, but I knew I might be cutting it close. I got to this point when I realized the fate of my shawl.

Juneberry – Uh oh…

Yep. Ran out of yarn. I have 8 rows left to finish the shawl and I have run out of yarn. 😦 No way am I going to rip out all that edging to rip back a row or two from the last rows before the edging to have enough yarn to finish it, though I will admit the thought did cross my mind. I really don’t want to buy a whole new skein of yarn just for the few yards I need to finish this shawl. (The yarn I’m using is Great Northern Yarns 70% Mink/30% Cashmere DK in Natural.)

In hopes that I don’t have to go that route, I’ve posted on Ravelry a few places and PM’d a few folks with partial skeins listed in their stash to see if someone would be able to help me out. I did get someone who may have some left after finishing a project and another who will check when they get home tonight, so I’m hopeful that I’ll get the little bit I need to finish this project. I was really hoping I’d be able to finish this before 2011, but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards. Ah well. That’s what happens when you know you’re going to be cutting it close!

Since this won’t be in my “FO’s of 2010” after all, I’ll be working on getting my project recap for 2010 done sometime this week and hopefully posted before the end of the year. While I wait on a resolution to finishing Juneberry, I’ll be working along on my pink and purple striped sock.

To those that are snowed in today, stay safe and don’t go out if you don’t have to! To those only wishing they had a snow day from work (like me, but only a little since I wouldn’t be looking forward to the digging out after), hope your Monday’s been a good one. 🙂

Completed Projects, Cooking, Current Projects, Sewing

OppAtt Socks, Little Christmas Tree, and Juneberry

Posted on December 20, 2010 by mslindz

It’s a week from Christmas and this year I have zero “must finish this by December 25th” things on my needles. It’s kind of nice, though it’s a little sad, too. I didn’t knit anyone a thing for Christmas. Last year, I knit things for 3 family members, but this year nothing really jumped out as me as things I should knit for so-and-so. I didn’t feel stressed about last year’s gift knitting since I started pretty early, so it wasn’t even that holding me back. I looked and looked at patterns. Thought about what those I’m giving gifts to might like from me (handknit or otherwise). The one thing I really kept coming back to is this: I don’t get asked for handknits from people I would knit for. That makes it hard to think of things they might like that I could knit and they’re all a bit difficult to buy gifts for (I realize I’m hard to buy gifts for, too). Ultimately I concluded that store-bought gifts would be what I would be giving this year.

So… that means I’ve been knitting merrily away on some things for myself since I last posted! I even finished two things.

First thing I finished was the Opposites Attract Mystery KAL Socks. Didn’t take me long to finish the socks after I finished the commissioned knits I did.

Side note about that: everything worked out well. I think it was a misunderstanding on my part about price or maybe I misheard what was said, but regardless, things turned out well. I have been thanked repeatedly and was told many times over that they knew they were getting a huge discount and the items are “worth hundreds!” I feel a bit bad for complaining and getting worked up about it. I’m just relieved that it all worked out well in the end and wasn’t as uncomfortable as I thought it might be.

Anyhow, back to the socks! I like how they turned out and I’m very pleased with the fit. I don’t often do mystery sock KALs and usually end up frogging them. This one kept my interest and as the design came out one clue at a time, I continued to like the pattern and kept on knitting.

Opposites Attract Mystery KAL Socks

Pattern: OppAtt Mystery KAL for Barking Dog Yarns by Jeannie Cartmel (My Ravelry project page.)
Started: November 3, 2010
Completed: December 12, 2010
Yarn: Barking Dog Opposites Attract, colorway George & Gracie, one skein
Needles: US 1 (2.25 mm) Knit Picks circular
Notes: No modifications to the pattern, knit as written for the 72 stitch sock.

Opposites Attract Mystery KAL Socks – Front

Opposites Attract Mystery KAL Socks – Back

The other item I finished was a little crocheted Christmas tree. It was pretty simple to do, though it did take some fiddling to get the leaves how I liked them due to me misreading part of the tutorial. Took just a little more then a day to finish. I still need to add ornaments to it, so I’m not calling it completely finished yet. Once I add ornaments, I’ll do an FO post for it. The tutorial for it can be found here.

Little Christmas Tree

A few posts ago, I mentioned wanting to crochet the Boteh Scarf. After finishing the Opposite Attract socks, I immediately started this, then lost a bit of interest when the I found the tree pattern above. It’s a pretty easy pattern and the first scarf I’ve ever attempted crocheting. It’s even helping me get the hang of crochet charts a bit. Not completely, but it is at least making some sense for a change. The yarn I’m using is Bigmouth Yarns Buxom Sock in “You’re Turning Violet, Violet!”

Boteh Scarf

Around the same time that I started the scarf and crochet the tree, Sairy posted about buying yarn for the Juneberry Triangle, which I immediately went to queue and realized I already had! Suddenly I needed to knit it NOW, so I looked through my stash and found that the DK weight mink/cashmere yarn I bought from Great Northern Yarns a while ago had enough yardage and would work for the shawl. Didn’t take long before I had cast on and found myself not working on any other projects.

Juneberry Triangle

Juneberry Triangle – Close

I’m now halfway through chart D, which is the one with bobbles. I rarely pick projects that have bobbles, but I have no real reason for that or aversion to them. Just haven’t really knit many things with them. I was actually surprised to realize there were bobbles in the pattern. I either didn’t pay enough attention to the photos of the shawl or just chose to ignore the fact that they were there. I find them to be a bit fiddly and they usually don’t appeal to me in a pattern. I will say that being able to knit backwards really comes in handy when knitting bobbles. None of that turn, turn, turn stuff, which got on my nerves after the first row with bobbles. I can only do the knit stitch well backwards, but I am very thankful I learned that when I took my first knitting class at Knitter’s Connection a few years ago.

I’m hoping to do a year end wrap up post like I have the last two years with all my FO’s, though I’ll likely wait until after Christmas to do that to see if I can sneak in another FO before the year is out. In preparation, I’ve been browsing through some old posts, looking at the projects I’ve completed this year, and even re-reading the goals I set for myself at the beginning of this year. If I don’t get a chance to post again before Christmas, I hope everyone has a lovely holiday! 🙂

Completed Projects, Current Projects, Spinning

Chicken Clutch, Projects, and Tour de Fleece 2010

Posted on July 2, 2010 by mslindz

It’s been one of those weeks where all week I try to blog, but every time I try, I can’t figure out what to say. Today isn’t much different. I’ve sat and stared wondering how to start out this post or what to say. Since the words don’t seem to be flowing easily, I’ll keep them to a minimum and speak mostly with pictures!

First, I have an FO to share. After my friend Jessy saw this pattern, she said I should make one for her for her birthday, so I did. I’ve decided he’s a free-range chicken, since he’s not all white like the original pattern. 😉

Chicken Clutch

Pattern: Cluck Clutch (My Ravelry project page.)
Started: June 24, 2010
Completed: June 26, 2010
Yarn:Vanna’s Choice, 1.75 skeins in a heathered brown/grey (can’t remember the name of it), bits of red and yellow from stash
Needles: H/5.0mm hook
Notes: It was pretty simple to make and the only thing I didn’t do was add the button.

Chicken Clutch – Open

Yesterday was a Good Mail Day ™. I got 8 oz of Corriedale fiber from Zarzuela’s Fibers in a special Tour de Fleece colorway and she put in a skein of sock yarn for me in a Camo colorway as a thank you for doing the Summer of Socks 2010 group banner and button. Thanks Jessica! 🙂 I also got June’s shipment of the Knitterly Things Sock Club (a four stripe colorway called Summer Hill), which matches the Tour de Fleece fiber quite well.

Good Mail Day!

Speaking of the Tour de Fleece… I plan on participating this year! The Tour de Fleece goes along with the Tour de France. It starts and ends the same day as the Tour de France. You spin every day, either on a wheel or on a spindle, for however long you determine as your goal. For the full details, see the Ravelry group here. I’ll be spinning up that lovely fiber above and hopefully finish the All Spun Up roving I started who knows how long ago. There’s probably 2 or so ounces left to do, so I don’t think it’ll take long. I plan on working that up first, but I’m already anxious to get the TDF colorway started!

I’ve been working on Malestrom and I think I’m up to 6 repeats of the pattern so far.

Malestrom Socks

I was itching to start something new, so I started a pair of KawKawEsque Socks (Ravelry page) Wednesday.

KawKawEsque Socks in MacKnitosh Skye Sock in the Camo Girl colorway.

This weekend is a holiday weekend here in the US and on Sunday we’ll be celebrating the 4th of July (Independence Day), which also means a long weekend for most people I know since they’re getting either Friday or Monday (or both!) off work. We’re having some of our family and friends over to do the traditional grilling out and fireworks thing. Should be fun! I’m looking forward to it. For once there isn’t a ton to do to prepare other then getting food and some light cleaning! Have a good weekend everyone 🙂 Good luck to all the other Tour de Fleece participants out there!

Completed Projects, Current Projects

Spring Fling Socks, Rippleghan, and Summer of Socks

Posted on June 25, 2010 by mslindz

This week is nearly over and so is June. I can’t believe it, but this coming weekend will mark a year that we’ve been in our house! It just doesn’t feel like we’ve been there that long. Time just seems to fly by so quickly.

Monday I finished up my Spring Fling Socks.

Damsel Socks

Pattern: Toe-Up Socks (My Ravelry project page.)
Started: April 23, 2010
Completed: June 21, 2010
Yarn: Knitterly Things Vesper in Damsel, 1 skein
Needles: Knit Picks Nickel US 1 (2.25mm) DPNs for sock 1 and 40″ circular for sock 2, US 0 DPNs for both cuffs
Notes: Started these on April 23, 2010 as my Spring Fling Socks. Finished the first sock April 25, 2010 and put them aside for a while. Picked them back up and started the second sock on June 1, 2010, then immediately put them aside to work on other projects. After finishing my Diagonal Lace socks, I decided to finish these up. Picked them back up on June 18, 2010 and finished on June 21st. Takes me about a week of just working on a pair of socks to finish them! I still feel so-so about the colorway after knitting them up, but I’m sure they’ll still get some wear in during the winter months.

Damsel Socks – Side

Damsel Socks – Heel

Last weekend I was browsing patterns on Ravelry and came across the Neat Ripple Pattern from Attic 24. I’ve had some acrylic in my stash for a while that I think I bought for a bag that I never made. As soon as I saw the pattern, that yarn came to mind and I knew it had to be made into a blanket. I started it Saturday night. I’ve been working on it mostly while watching TV. Since it’s a blanket, I think of it as a long term, has no deadline project. The colors just make me happy and I know I’ll love it once it’s done. 🙂

Rippleghan

Summer of Socks 2010 has started! The Ravelry group has all the information and chatter about this year’s Summer of Socks. (I designed this year’s group banner and icon! 🙂 ) My initial goal was to finish up a pair of colorwork socks I started last year, but I quickly realized the whole design needed to be re-worked and I haven’t had a chance to do that yet. Then I decided I would knit a pair of Merlot Vine Socks with Dream in Color Smooshy in the Ruby River colorway. I started the toe, got up to the number of stitches needed, then realized it was too big. There wasn’t a way to take out about 8 stitches easily without distorting the chart, so I frogged those. I wanted to use the same yarn I had already wound, so I browsed through the patterns I had and decided on Malestrom Socks.

Malestrom Socks

Yep, another sock that I’m doing Magic Loop on!! I never thought I’d be a fan of this technique, but the more I do it, the more it grows on me. I think the biggest difference is it feels like it goes faster for me then DPNs. I still like DPNs, but Magic Loop makes it so there’s less I have to worry about while I’m on the go since socks are usually my portable, take-it-everywhere-with-me project.

Is there something crafty you thought you wouldn’t like doing, but then gave it a try and decided it wasn’t so bad? What was it and what made you change your mind? I’m always curious about other people’s experience with trying new things they thought they wouldn’t like. I think attitude can make all the difference in giving something new a fair chance. I was definitely reluctant to try Magic Loop when I first did a few years ago. I decided I didn’t like it and moved on. Then, a few months ago, I tried it again, giving it a fair chance and telling myself “Maybe it’s not that bad, maybe you’ll even like it!” Kind of psyched myself up for trying it a second time. I didn’t hate it! I can’t say I really loved it at first, but I did like it enough to try it on another project. Each project made me like it more and now I’d say I like it just as much as using DPNs.

This weekend will be a nice relaxing one for a change. Nothing going on, no plans, just hanging out at home doing whatever we want. I can’t remember the last time we had a completely free weekend with zero plans! We might go to Matt’s mom’s to go swimming sometime this weekend, but nothing is set in stone and is more of a “play it by ear” kind of deal. Anything fun going on for you this weekend?

Try and stay cool out there this weekend! It’s been hot and humid here, so I’ve been staying inside where it’s cool as much as possible. That’s my plan for the weekend, too. 😉

	Peggy (maggyruth on… on NYAN!! and Other Things
	stitchingmystressawa… on Stashing Down and Other G…
	Michelle on Stashing Down and Other G…
	laura on End of 2011, Beginning of…
	laura on All the FO’s