Working on Some WIPs

Pattern: Mitered Square - Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver in Pretty in Pink and Burgundy - Needle: US 8

  I can't even remember when I started this project, other than it had to be before 2017.  I wasn't sure what pattern it was, other than I was pretty sure it was a class I would have taught at JoAnn Fabrics.  I thought I had 25 stitches on each side to begin the mitered corners, but when I tried that I ended on the wrong color.  I decided to lean into it and switch which is the longest color every 4 blocks.  It also wasn't until I was most of way done that I figured out it made a smoother edge if I picked up the first stitch of the outside section from the previous cast on instead of casting them all on.

  For this I cast on 48 stitches.  Knit 24, placed a marker, then knit the last 24.  I then knit until 2 stitches before the marker, k2tog, slipped the marker, ask, and then knitted until the end.  On the wrong side rows I just knitted back.  I switched colors every other row.  Once I was down to the last two stitches remaining I removed the stitch marker so I could do one final k2tog before picking up stitches with the right side facing me.  I picked up 23 stitches along the top so I had 24 on my needle.  I replaced the stitch marker, picked up one last stitch on the previous cast on row, then cast on another 23.  With 24 stitches on either side of my stitch marker I knit back to where my other color was waiting.

  When I wanted to change the color of the longest row, I started the square before the change with 25 stitches on each side of the stitch marker.  That will give you one more color change before you get down to only on stitch.

Pattern: Double Basket Stitch

  I vaguely remember this being a square when JoAnn Fabrics and Crafts has a series of knitted and crochet square classes.  At the end of the year, we were going to join the squares to make a blanket, but not enough people signed up for all of the classes.  I liked the pattern and wanted to do something with it.  The pussyhat style was perfect for the square.  I might try making another, but in the round.

Yearly Yarn Tracker:
Yarn In: 14 (9)
Yarn Out: 16 (2)

Total: -2

Doll Hexagon Cardigans

Pattern: Crochet Hexagon Sweater - Yarn: Lion Brand Magic Stripes in 205 Brown Blue Pattern - Hooks: 3 mm and 2 mm(cuffs)

   On Instagram I saw mamakasskrochet fold her hexagon in a different way than they normally are to make a cardigan.  Instead of making an L shape, you make something that looks more like a bridge.  Since I have two of the same doll, I thought it would be fun to make one style of hexagon cardigan for each.

  For the squared hexagon sweater I did a slip stitch join to connect the edges.  For the bat-wing sweater I followed the Join As You Go method posted on YouTube by Hooked by Robin.  I ended the row on the edge of the sleeve so it was easy to single crochet around the edges.  When I was done with the bat-wing sleeved version, it got me wondering if I made a heptagon, could I get the body to look like the squared off version, but still have the dramatic sleeves.

  I know I told Bill that this was going to be The Year of The Doctor, but I meant things like getting check-ups, and getting his elbow looked at.  After I got home from knitting last week he came home from work late.  I found him in the game room with a concerned look on his face.  He asked if we had any regular aspirin and said I might have to take him to the Emergency Room.

  We only had low dosage Aspirin, but we went to the closest ER.  They ran an EKG and ruled out heart attack.  The doctor wanted a CT scan done to rule out a blood clot in his lungs because of the pain in his chest and the elevated heart rate.  They didn't have the machinery to do it, so he got transferred to the hospital that I had gone to when I had the skin infection on my legs.  Because of the elevated heart rate they took him by ambulance.

  I caught up to the ambulance enroute, even though I kept getting caught behind red lights.  The paramedics told me that I would just need to go into the ER as normal and tell them that my husband was dropped off.  They said that after that they would either take me to his room or tell me the room number.

  When I walked in the security guard told me that if he was transferred from another hospital that they would have given me a room number and was confused why I didn't have that information.  Turns out the first hospital didn't even give that information to the ambulance guys either.  After calling a few people he took me back to Bill's room.

  I got greeted with "Hi, Sweetie" from the nurse in his room, it was really cute.  He got wheeled out from the room for the scan and I heard some nurses talking about how someone has brought Old Bay Goldfish for the break room.  The place was super busy, I saw about seven people in beds in the hallway while Bill was getting scanned.

  The scan was clear but the doctor gave him some ketorolac because he still felt the pain in his chest when reclined or laying down.  It was for inflammation but it also seemed to lower his blood pressure and his heart rate was lower than before, but still elevated for him.  We hung out for a bit longer because the doctor wanted him to have a bag of fluids.  I was feeling hungry and the nice nurse found a bunch of crackers for me to eat.  They advised some Advil for the pain, but couldn't figure out why he was feeling the discomfort otherwise.

  In the morning he said still felt it in his chest, but nothing has gotten worse, other than the headache from lack of sleep.  He's feeling much better now.

Yearly Yarn Tracker:
Yarn In: 5 (0)
Yarn Out: 14 (0)

Total: -9

They Are at Least Fun to Look At

Pattern: Party Ruffle Hat - Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver in Adobe and Red Heart Boutique Sashay Multicolor in Tango - Needles: US 8

  I cast on 90 stitches.  Worked 10 rows of ribbing and 6 rows of plain knitting.  I worked 18 stitches with the fashion yarn, then plain for the rest of the row.  On the next row I knit plain until I got to where I left off of the fashion yarn and used it for 18 more stitches.  That caused it to spiral upward and not be too dense on the hat.  I wanted it to ruffle like the scarves, so I skipped one open spot on the top.  When using the ruffle yarn I caught the bar of the ruffle yarn with my right needle before knitting the next stitch.  I made sure to pull the new loop through the opening of the bar.

  If I write out this pattern, I'm probably going to have them cast on a number divisible by 10.  That way the math will be easier when figuring out how many stitches to work with the ruffle yarn per row.  It also will guarantee that the decrease at the top will work out with 5 decreases per row.  I'm also going to have more ribbing and less plain knit rows before the ruffle so what you see peeking out from the bottom of the ruffles is more consistent around the hat.

  How the designing process went with this:

• Use each bar, but don't think it ruffles enough

• Work 18 stitches with ruffle yarn, but then worry that 5 rows aren't enough between ruffle rows

• Try for 9 rows between ruffle rows, but realize that will only work out easily with the current number cast on

• Work 9 stitches with the ruffle per row because 9 and 10 are close enough to each other

• Get to row 11 of the ruffle part before realizing that 10 rows make the ruffles lay too far apart 

• Go back to 18 stitches of ruffle with 5 rows between

• Wonder if skipping a bar on the ruffle yarn caused it ruffle too much but figure that's something to play with on the next one

Pattern: Party Ruffle Hat - Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver in Adobe and Red Heart Boutique Sashay Multicolor in Tango - Needles: US 8

  For this one I didn't skip any bars when working with the ruffle yarn.  I also worked 12 ribbing rows and 2 plain rows before I started using the ruffle yarn.  At the top, the last k2tog row, I wanted to work every stitch with the ruffle yarn.  That didn't happen naturally, so I went around the last row and pulled the stitches through the top of the ruffle yarn once I was done working all of my k2togs.

  One inconvenience I was having with this method was that since I wasn't skipping any, there was nothing to really hold the loops down with.  I ended up with random loops of the ruffle yarn bars on the inside.  That probably won't affect the hat at all, but if I have enough ruffle yarn after this I might try knitting with the bar instead of just slipping it around the stitch.

Pattern: Party Ruffle Hat - Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver in Adobe and Red Heart Boutique Sashay Multicolor in Tango - Needles: US 8

  I wasn't as big of a fan of the every bar technique with the ruffle yarn, so I switched back to the every other version.  It's hard to see in the other picture, but you can see a lot more of the background knitting with the every-bar technique.  Since I didn't have a lot left of the skein I decided to see how it would look of I worked it from the top down.

  It was nice to see that it didn't seem to really make a difference.  I do think that the top of needs to have more bars skipped to keep the ruffle yarn loose and not make a tight top spiral.

  My mom and I did a quick drop off at the Lebanon Springs House Ministry.  Brenda told us that she and Tony are planning on moving to West Virginia with their children by the end of July.  Ideally someone they know will take over the B&B so they can come back and host the soup kitchen events still.  If that happens we can keep bringing things to them, if not we will have to find a new location down this way to bring stuff to.

  While at the cabin we checked some of the footage from the trail cameras.  For quite a while we've seen a deer who has a bad front leg.  She won't put any weight on it.  I'm always glad to see that Limpy is getting by, even through the winter.  I wish I could convince her to become a pet and spoil her, though I know that will never happen.  She's just been through so much and has come out the other end that she deserves some ease in her life.

  At one point during the trip Bill had gotten the fire going and it started to rain.  The fire was well enough established that it only needed some more wood to protect the embers.  I had the idea to get umbrellas so we could still sit next to the fire.  It worked pretty well.

Yearly Yarn Tracker:
Yarn In: 5 (0)
Yarn Out: 14 (1)

Total: -9

Zig-Zag Hats

Pattern - Pennyroyal by Tracey Lambert - Yarn: Dynasty Yarn in Rio in HN-542 (brim/body) and HN-15 (crown) - Needles: US 8

  This yarn was interesting to work with.  In one skein there were places where the colorful thread was wrapped tighter than other places, so you could sometimes accidentally slide it.  I ran into three knots, and a section where there was a massive amount of thread loosely clumped together around the core.  The core was also flatter in some places than others.  The second skein was wrapped evenly and didn't have any knots.  It is really fun to look at, but I don't know if I want to work with it again.

Pattern - Pennyroyal by Tracey Lambert (mostly) - Yarn: Sensations Bellezza Collection Smania in 37635 64 Smania Berry Multi - Needles: US 8

  I saw the pattern Portsmouth Beanie by Jesie Ostermiller on Ravelry.  I liked the vibe it had, but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for.  I had so much fun working the first Pennyroyal that I figured I could work with that.  I changed the ribbing on the bottom to be *k2, p3, k1* to get the knits to work out just right with the pattern.  I also wanted the zig-zag to be thicker, a bit more like the Portsmouth Beanie so I added another row between the two sets of eyelets and decreases.  Since I was adding another two rows to the chart, I didn't work the 4 plain rows the pattern has you do otherwise.  I also worked an additional two rows after the chart was done to make sure it was as tall as intended before I decreased for the crown.  I like the results, but I might try again with a one-by-one rib to see how that looks.

  I got a big bag of scraps from Tammy and I'm not sure how to count that in the Yearly Yarn Tracker.  I could count each small ball, but then my Out number is going to grow quickly too.  I could try weighing some together to equal a full skein, but I'm also lazy.  If I don't end up counting them towards my In number, then I won't count them towards my Out number.

Yearly Yarn Tracker:
Yarn In: 5 (5)
Yarn Out: 13 (1)

Total: -8

Bright Hats!

Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver in 302 Kaleidoscope - Needles: US 8

  I saw Quynn by Woolly Wormhead on Ravelery and wanted to try my hand at making something similar.  While I didn't do too badly, I think their version is much cuter.

Pattern: BUN Hat by Andi OldTrout - Size: 18" - Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver in 302 Kaleidoscope - Needles: US 10

  I saw on a post by lindstitch on Instagram where she showed how to easily make yarn thicker.  Really handy if you don't want to buy new yarn but also don't have the correct weight.  It is pretty much doing a chain ply, like when spinning, and is really smart.  The resulting yarn was too thick for the size 10s I was trying to use, and I ended up not having enough yarn to finish the hat.  For this hat I just doubled up the yarn.

  I feel like the yarn tracker is making me look a lot better than it should be at this point.  It seems that even though people are still bringing their extra yarn to the get-togethers, none of it has really been speaking to me.  There were a few I was tempted by, but after I put it back down to think about it, someone else saw it and loved it.

  It is also worth noting that not all skeins are the same size.  I've had to use two to make a hat from one brand and have used one skein to make a few hats of another.

Yearly Yarn Tracker:
Yarn In: 0 (0)
Yarn Out: 12 (4)

Total: -12

Cat Hats and an Eclipse

Pattern: Textured Cat Hat by me - Yarn: Caron Dawn Sayelle in Lt Fir Green and Caron Sayelle in Night Sky - Needle: US 8

   I had worked through how to make the same stitch pattern as the hat I saw on AliExpress.  However, it doesn't look exactly the same since it looks like they worked it from the top down.  I tried to do it again, but I shifted the color change by a row.  I don't know which style I like more, so I might write-up how to make both.

  I had to use my phone for this one because somehow, all three of the batteries for my big camera were dead.  Where I am we didn't get a full eclipse, but it was a lot of fun to watch anyway.  I still had my eclipse glasses from back in 2017, so I didn't have to worry about trying to find a new pair.

Yearly Yarn Tracker:

Yarn In: 0 (0)
Yarn Out: 8 (2)

Total: -8

IDKHOW the District of Consent

   We went to another IDKHOW concert!  This time it was the usual suspects along with River and Mickey.  It was at a The Atlantis this time and there are things I liked about this one and things I liked about the other one.  The other one had the bathrooms on a separate floor and the show space was bigger, so it wasn't too bad to get to them once you got through the crowd.  Getting to the bathroom at this one was a pain from the mass of bodies if you weren't already near it.  I did like how much closer to the stage everyone got to be.  The Atlantis used reusable plastic cups and had collection bins for them all over the place, that was pretty cool.

  The opener was the Benches.  I don't think I've ever heard of them before, but I did like their music.  I'll keep them in mind if I need someone new to listen to.

  IDKHOW has very recently released a new album.  It definitely has a different vibe from the first and I was curious how the more mellow songs would do in concert.  They are good on CD but are better in person.

  At one point Dallon came down into the audience and asked that no one try and pull his hair or touch him.  When he got back to the stage he asked if the "C" in "DC" stood for consent because everyone had listened to his requests.

  The setlist was a good mix of the old album, new album, and some throwback songs from a previous band he was in.  He even got a little catty over some of his previous bands, but in a very funny and subtle way.

  We actually played adult peekaboo this time before we got the encore.  It was a great show, and it makes sense that they keep selling out where they are playing.