Crochet Diva

Here's the first crochet shrug I've made. I designed it myself based on a shrug Nancy had in the shop that she bought at White House Black Market. Of course I'm never going to make anything white and using tiny yarn...so I just looked at the overall stitch pattern, and the overall construction shape (fold in half and seam) and ran with it!


Here's the beautiful back. I guess it doesn't really go well with the green shirt, now does it?



It's so pretty it makes me smile like a fool.

My first weekend up here in East Lansing this summer I wound up at a yarn shop called Woven Art (it was teaching crochet/knit/and letting people weave as part of be a tourist weekend). I wound up learning how to crochet, and true to form, walked out of the yarn shop with two skeins of Henry's Attic Safari III to make this guy. All it took was some double crochet in a circle. I know I said I'd never knit a poncho...but this one is crochet, thankyouverymuch. As you can see from my face, I am very unhappy about how hot Michigan is!


So of course the next step was to take Woven Art's beginning crochet class. Here are my three samplers from it.


And so of course, this little guy (sampler 3) will so be frogged and used with the rest of my remaining Alpine cotton to make a shrug. Welcome to my shrug kick.

Soon to be frogged...

This is a start on the Phoebe caplet from the Spring05 IK. However, it's slow as heck in knitting and is just trying to look like crochet...so I'm thinking I'll endulge it, frog it, and just crochet it on huge hooks. I'm also considering making it a shrug to be more in season.

Life got cra-zy...

So, I was very sick over Spring Break, and in the ensuing weeks, school became absolutely crazy, leaving me with very little quality knitting time. I did start on some stuff. I think I'm going to have my hands full this summer, with the WIP I have going. No more yarn til grad school!

I found out about a month ago a good friend of mine from long ago is having her first baby. I'm working on the Big Bad Baby Blanket from SNB as a gift for her. I'm using Caron Simply Soft for it.

My progress on Clover has stalled for a while. While I was sick over break, I had some issues that basically boiled down to me needing to loose a lot of weight. My mom pretty much discouraged me from continuing to put so much effort into a sweater that hopefully won't fit me in a year, so I'm sort of at an impasse - do I keep knitting on it (I'm only a few inches into a sleeve), or do I have the self-discipline to say, "I will lose the weight and knit this for myself as a final reward." I'm still debating it, and I figure until I decide what I want to do, forward progress on it isn't really a good idea.

Pictures tomorrow, camera batteries charge tonight!

Spring Break!

With it being Spring Break, you'd think I'd get to knit a lot...but I've been rather sick. I did finish the scarf I've been working on and am almost done with Coronet. I'll have pictures of those, and my yarn shop sale acquisitions, up as soon as I get back to my lovely high-speed on campus access (this 28k dialup is killing me!).

Progress Report

I've spent a lot of time working on my tri-colored scarf, since I'm using a friend's needles. I find that I get burned out on it fairly quickly, however, since having to constantly stop and turn the needles agitates me for garter stitch things. I re-figured out how to knit backwards, but that's still very awkward for me and takes even longer. Grr. Perhaps I will simply perservere til I can knit forward and backwards mad-crazy-fast.

The other UFO calling my name the past few days has been my Shapely Tank. It helps that the clover wrap makes the yarn and needles look HUGE, despite being dk weight on size 6's.

I cast on for my lucky clover wrap tonight. I'm starting with a sleeve, since I like to knit one of those first, in case my guage changes from when I swatched it's not quite as agonizing to rip out. It was VERY slow-going since the first six rows were k1p1 rib, and for me that takes forever (3 hours to cast on and do six rows of 92 stitches each). I think I've done all six rows of ribbing, however, and it's time to transfer to larger needles (from 0's to 1's, time to throw a par-tay!). Hopefully the larger needle and the end of moving the yarn back and forth for every stitch will let it pick up some.

I know this will be a longer-term project, so I'm just going to try to work on it a few days a week while continuing other stuff. I think once I knit one component of it, the rest will get far easier. I may need a couple of instant gratification projects soon, though.

I haven't gone back to Coronet yet this week, despite the fact it's been hanging out in my backpack. I have been very busy in the lab and it's almost this saddened thing, when you realize that by the time you finish it, spring will be here. It might be cold at the end of the month in DC, however, so I ought to at least TRY to finish it soon. I think I just need to knit myself something for the spring as a reward. I like to think someday I'll turn out to be an off-season knitter, but it's moments like this that teach me, no, that won't work.

I also have a second booga bag in process that I haven't touched lately. The I-cord and bottom are done, stitches picked up, and the round begun. I think I'm just saving it for a late-night car trip, since I can knit on it in the dark and mistakes are very easy to fix later (if they're too major to be corrected by the felting).

My list of FO's that I have no picture of:

Yellow Dishcloths for Josh and Abby
Head kerchiefs for Andi & Susan, last summer's WSOP girls
Flip flop covers for the WSOP girls
Bag in Berrocco Denim Silk for Kie's 21st Birthday
Fingerless Mitts I gave Kristie for Christmas
2 Baby hats (Wiley and Hunter)
Straps added to Mara's gloves

A WIP Par-tay!

My intended for my clover lace wrap - Rowan 4 ply cotton in midnight. It's so yummy! I've swatched and I have my needles; I've just been working on other stuff the past few days, hoping to get some wear out of my hat and scarf this winter. I want to start the wrap sometime this week.



This is the balled yarn for my rendition of the Julia scarf I saw in my LYS. This is Cascade 220, and I will have enough leftovers for a hat or two, and that makes me quite happy!


I find it facinating how the bright yarns mellow each other out. I never would have expected it. I've contemplated ripping back and creating a wide striped scarf, but it's growing on me so I think I'll keep it this way.



My coronet from Knitty in Cascade 220. This is my first cabled project and I thought it went rather well. It's a fun carry along project. The kitchner was fun and stress-free thanks to the video on knittinghelp.com!


This is my Shapely Tank in progress. I'm using an acrylic/wool blend found in my LYS's sale bin. Great deal at under $20 and I love the color!

FO on Parade!

My first sweater, which I finished up the other night. I'm still not crazy about how the arms attached, but it looked great on me and wore comfortably, so I can't really complain too much. I used the set-in sleeve pattern from the Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns and worsted merino from handpaintedyarn.com knit at 3 sts/inch. It fits great!


Close-up of sweater arm



This is my favorite FO ever! It's a scarf made with 3 skeins of Plymouth Baby Alpaca DK on size six needles in a reversible stitch pattern. The scarf pattern, from Plymouth, came free with yarn purchase from NeedleNook in Atlanta, GA. It's so soft and yummy! I worked on it constantly for the first week of Christmas break. It's the only "perfect" item I've ever done! :)



The stitch pattern for my favorite scarf. At an hour per ten row repeat, I'm still amazed at how fast I finished it.



These fingerless mitts were knit from a pattern in Weekend Knitting. They're in bulky luxury cashemere from AC Moore (a lovely blend). The yarn was fun to knit with and they knit up fast. The one on top wound up an inch longer than the one on bottom - it was knit over Christmas break while the other during a basketball game. Oops! I wound up frogging the longer one and reknitting it during another Wolfpack game on TV to achieve similar tension.


This felted hat was made out of Cascade 220 using a Fibertrends pattern. I love it but need to felt it just a tad more to make it work out right.



My Zeeby's bag in Cascade 220. I learned how to knit backward on the never-ending gusset, so that was fun. Sometimes I play with the idea of felting this guy because it seems so floppy. I did sub in yarns and I wonder in the Lamb's Pride worsted has more inherent shape as a single ply than the Cascade does.

I'm hoping to get around to adding pictures of all my FOs sometime in the next few weeks. Here's an almost FO - my first booga bag. I finished knitting it in November and felted it in december. This is pre-felting.


And here it is, post-felting.

Today I went to Great Yarns with Emily. In the store they had a sample scarf that was simple but gorgeous - it was five strands of Goddess Yarn's Julia held together and knit in garter stich on size 19s. The play of the colors against each other was fabulous. Since I can't afford a $35 scarf, I picked three of my favorite colors in it. Then I realized that for the same price, I could get the same colors in Cascade 220 and have leftovers to play with. It feels a little different, being 100% wool instead of wool/alpaca/mohair, but I LOVE Cascade passionately so I think it was an awesome deal. I've balled one skein and have two to go.

I also restarted coronet on Friday night, and it's going great. The second booga bag in progress is on the back burner for now. I hit gauge on the Clover wrap using size 1's. Which means I'll need 0's for the ribbing - yikes! But as long as I have $texas in the yarn already, I figure it'll be a good challenge and will look more flattering on me than anything bulky.

Speaking of bulky-ish things, I redid the shoulder seams on the heavy-worsted weight sweater I finished the knitting on last week. Tomorrow night I'm hoping to get up the gusto to at least attach the sleeves, then seam the sides the next day. Why didn't I knit this thing in the round?!?

I caved and am finally starting a blog just for my knitting.

This is just a sign of my long, slow descent into old yarn lady. I may only be 22 right now, but if I'm unmarried by forty, I will probably have a house with several cats and rooms full of yarn. I'm thinking at least one room for wools, another for cottons. Maybe Cascade 220 can have its own room. Novelty yarns get the hall closet. I'm not too fond of them.

Current WIPs:
A set-in sleeve sweater - needs seaming then DONE!
Booga Bag #2 - I-cord done, just a few rows from picking up and starting in the round
Coronet from Knitty - one repeat of the cable done, my first cable ever
Shapely Tank - Six inches in
Clover Wrap from SnB Nation - swatching

I also have yarn ready and at attention for:
Socks
Wristies

And am lusting after:
A cute but light wrap or shrug.