Monday, July 25, 2005

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.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

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!

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

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!).

Thursday, March 03, 2005

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).

Sunday, February 27, 2005

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