2013

Here is a quick list of everything I got done in the year of 2013

Crochet: 2
~Blanket:
~~~Star Blanket
~Hat
~~~Bridgette Beret

Knit: 12
 ~Blanket:

~~~OpArt
~Hats:
~~~Fisherman's Wool Cap

~~~2x2 Spiral Baby Hat

~~~Curly Twirly Hat

~~~That Hat

~Socks:

~~~HiyaHiya Blossom Lace Socks

~~~Jaywalker Socks

~Scarves:

~~~Sashay
~~~Multi-Directional Holiday Scarf
~~~Brioche Scarf
~~~Simple Neck Scarf
~~~Wibbly Wobbly Cable Scarf

Sewing: 1
 ~Hats:
~~~Animal Hood/Hat

Other's Work: 6
~Crochet:
~~~Huggable Monsters: 6




So excited!

So I went to knitting last night thinking it was going to be a regular night.  I was wrong.  Tom has returned!  He was part of that group before I was, but had to stop coming.  He had perfectly good reasons; he was stuck at work, he was out of town...those kinds of things.  It has been a few years since he was able to come!  I'm so glad he did.  I know some people might be afraid that they have become an outsider to the group after so long.  I'm pretty sure he didn't feel that way, especially since everyone who knew him gave him a hug the minute we spotted him.

Now back to the other part of the blog.  This is the day in year past (I know the expression is 'years past' but this blog isn't that old) I spent this day frantically finishing things.  It's my very last chance to get things done to count for this year.
I'm not sure I'm going to be doing that this time.  I have a plan to have a nice relaxing lunch, do some stuff around the house.  Though after saying that, there is no guarantee that at some point today I won't have a part of my brain realize that this really is the last day of this year.  The last day before things will count for next year.  The last chance to make it look like I wasn't slacking all this year.

Here are some more things I did get finished though.

I've started calling this "That Hat" since it popped in my head.  A few people have been really interested in the pattern and stitch pattern.  If I ever did release it as a pattern I thought it would be really cool to hear someone say:

Person 1: "What are you knitting?"

Person 2: "Oh, just That Hat"

Why, yes, I am easily amused.  Why do you ask?

Here is a closer look at the stitch pattern.  It is a 16 row repeat.  I thought of it after a Mon knit-night a while ago.  I saw someone working on a really cool hat pattern.  I watched her and tried to see what she was doing.  I thought I had it down.  I got home and realized that I only had a vague idea of what she was doing.  I made a swatch with all the combinations she might have been using.  I liked all of them.

This is a cute beret.  That is also my lunch in the background.  I'm odd, I love hummus on my salad.

Here is a top view.  It is a fast crochet, even though parts seem like they take forever.  I had started one of these in orange as a sample for work.  It started showing progress so quickly.

I had to do a bit of digging, but the pattern is Bridgette Beret.  This picture shows the color a bit better.

Where I work has some sort of deal with Lion Brand so that we get free supplies for the 101 classes and get to use their patterns.  Odds are that if I mention a pattern that I'm making a sample of for work but can't find the pattern, it is somewhere on the Lion Brand page.

 

I've also been house-sitting a bird.  "His" name is Mercedes (they aren't sure if it is a boy or girl) and loves to make noise.  I was awoken today by a mini concert.  I'm pretty sure he was going through all the songs and sounds he knows.  I even got to hear a wolf whistle and "pretty birdy".  I got a video the other day of him singing all pretty like.

 

(I've not done this before, I hope it works)

 Something new I just learn is that if you play a sound clip of him singing, he will try to sing back to "himself" from the other room.  Too cute.  Silly Twiddle-bird.

Other people

 The post I made a few weeks ago got me thinking.  There are lots of people out there (tons and tons really) who also make things for charity.  Most of them don't have a blog or anything else to post their creations on, but that doesn't make them any less awesome.  One of the newer people to come to charity knit-day had made a few huggable monsters.  She is unable to come this month, so she passed them on to my Mom (since it's not reliable if I can make it or not) to pass on.

Since I had a chance, I figure I would share them with you.  They are ridiculously cute.

Here is a small gallery showing of Jennifer's work:

It's cold outside!

So on the way home from New Jersey it started to snow.  We were stopped on the I-78 for almost 2 hours while they "cindered the road".  Some people were there for about two and a half hours.  It was too dark to knit, so that made it a lot less fun.  It only took about nine hours to make a 5 hour trip.
Then the next morning I woke-up to this:
 

Everything had a nice layer of ice on it.  Luckily my car had also been snowed on, so it was pretty easy to get it cleared so I could head to work.

A bunch of people have been coming in to get fabric to make rag wreaths.  I decided to give it a try and make a mini one.  Maybe someday I could make a bunch and sell them for donation money.

 

 

This is how it all looks out there this morning.  Some snow on everything.  It is still snowing out there, but it is only the tiny flakes.  I wish it were the big fat ones.  It would be awesome to get a snow-day and just stay at home and drink hot chocolate and knit all day long.

 

I never thought I was going to be one of those people...

I've read about other knitters who forgot to wash the sweater they were going to wear until the last minute so they are stuck trying to get it to dry faster. I told myself to wash the sweater last Sunday, but then I didn't. I told myself to wash it on Tuesday, but again I forgot.
I finally washed it Thursday night. I was pretty sure it was going to be dry the next morning to pack and come with us to New Jersey. Now, still very wet. I wrapped it in a towel and threw it in the car. I was fairly sure it was going to be dry this morning to wear to a wedding.
Nope, we are at the damp stage. First I attacked it with the hair drier, but that didn't let me get anything else done. Now it is on the vent.
Before anyone freaks out, I put the vent on cool.
There is about an hour before we have to leave, so fingers crossed.

I'm famous!

Okay, not technically, but my name and link to this blog is going to be in something in print!
I donated to the Kickstarter for the webcomic Worsted for Wear to get a book printed.  Everyone who donated over a certain amount got a little 'thank you' by having your name put at the end of the book.
Well, I got my digital copy a while ago but forgot to check to see if the 'thank you's were in there.  Turns out, they are!

Tada!  That's me!  Well, that's my old last initial.  I wasn't sure if I should have given them my old one or new one...oh well.  It's still me there!
Now don't get me wrong, while it is super awesome that I'm in there, there are also lots of other awesome people in there.  I think everyone should head over and get their own copy of Yarnvalanche: Worsted for Wear -volume 1 so you too can check out all the other people who either also love knitting/crochet/spinning/yarn stuff or who loves someone who does.

 

Hat is also coming along nicely.  Still no one believes that it will be a hat when it grows up.

I survived!

It wasn't as scary as I was fearing.  The 12 hour day followed by the 11 hour day sure was tough though.  I'm very, very glad I won't be doing that again anytime soon.

I'm more than half-way done with the scarf thing that will become a hat.  I like the idea of it a lot.  Though the stockinet areas are curling really badly, I hope they will block out.  As I've been knitting I've been playing around with the idea of treating the pattern as a base and doing something fun with it.  Instead of large amounts of stockinet I was thinking of adding a lace.  Since I wouldn't want the lace to look odd I had to do a bit of fiddling with it in my head.  You couldn't use a pattern with too many stiches because the gaps in the pattern, where you add or take away four stitches) are near the top and would be noticeable.  While some people might not care, this was not the look I was hoping for.
Most of the time when you are adding more ribbed areas or taking away, you are changing the stockinet area by four.  Though you wouldn't be able to just use a pattern with four stitched across without having two plain ones on the end.  So here is my idea: Use a pattern that is divisible by four stitches, but have one stockinet stich on either side.
For some reason I didn't think it was going to work for a while until I picked up the knitting and just looked at it.  It will work perfectly.  There won't be any awkward stockinet gaps and there won't be this strange band of stockinet on one side.
Here comes the hard part...picking the stich pattern.  I have looked through a bunch and also decided that a lot of them were not what I was looking for.
Here is a list of stitch patterns I have narrowed it down to:

• Elm Grain I like the idea of this one because all the exciting stuff is done on the wrong side
• Star Cluster It has the word star in it and already has the side stitches built in
• Lace Background Seems interesting
• Diagonal Scallop I was thinking of doing a *yo, k2tog* pattern at first and this reminds me of it
• Zigzag Lace 2 This one just looks like a lot of fun

The website I found all of those on is also a very good one.  I am going to have to poke around on it some more.  You can search patterns by stitch count or even use their drop sleeve Gansey sweater pattern maker!  I'm so glad that I got too lazy to look through the tons of books I have for a stitch pattern and checked the internet instead.

Also for anyone who remembered when I was talking about doing writing prompts from the book I bought, don't worry.  I didn't forget about that whole thing!  Since I was given permission to use 32-62 prompts, it got me thinking.  There are 52 weeks in a year, so why don't I do one per week?  That sounded good, then I thought, why not start it on a new year?  This whole blog thing was started on something that was done in a year.  So I hope to start those writing prompts in the (shortly) coming new year.  The fact that I can do up to 62 gives me some wiggle room incase I'm feeling extra writerly.
Now I'm off to go finish the hat.  I can't start the new fancy one until I finish this one (or it will just never get done)

Today was pretty awesome, and here is a list why:

1. One of my old co-workers I really like working with is back.  I just keep telling everyone "Richard is back!!" even if they don't know who he is.  I asked him, he is neutral on being back.
2. It snowed some today!  It didn't stick and was raining half the time, but I still saw snow fall out of the sky.  The act of snowing is my favorite part.
3. I went through the line after work to get some fabric and I was the next in line.
4. Even though it was after 5pm I braved the grocery store the night before Turkey Day (Thanksgiving) and found an empty register line to go into.
5. It stopped snow/raining as I was driving home, so people weren't as crazy on the road.

Okay, so that was only five things...but they seem like pretty big-deal things to me.  One of my good work-friends might also be spending Turkey Day at my parent's house with us.

Here is something some people might find to be odd, but I found it amusing.  I started watching a show on Netflix because I thought the name sounded funny.  One of the main characters has a guy friend who is her best friend.  This guy is also straight, so they refer to him as her gay best friend who is straight.  I realize that I have one of those!

Here is what will someday be a hat.  Oh, you weren't going to guess that it was going to be a hat?  Thought it was some sort of sleeve? Nope, I promise you that it will turn into a hat.  I'm also planning on making another soon after this one with a few fun changes.

Also, expect to see that couch for a bit in the background.  It is starting to get cold in my area and this is the only room upstairs that has a couch and TV.

 

If I don't post again before Thursday: Happy Turkey Day to everyone who celebrates it! (and happy Thursday to those who don't)

Ranty Rant Rant-Rant

There is a pretty picture near the end of the post, so if you don't wish to read the ranting, feel free to scroll on down.

(Rant)
So let me start with the fact that I work retail.  Most of you probably know, but a few might not.  I also work retail in the US.  This means that I get to experience things like Black Friday.
I know a lot of people like Black Friday, where everything is on sale.  I do not.  I don't see the point in it really.  People tend to go crazy and buy a lot of things they don't need.  You can get these and sometimes better deals on the same items between Black Friday and Christmas if you just pay attention to ads.
Another part of Black Friday I don't understand is why stores feel the need to open early.  A lot of the sales will be from 4am-1pm.  I know the lack of sleep might get people to buy more, but is it necessary?  Why couldn't the stores just have the sales at different times?  Or even (like where I work) all day sales.  That way people aren't tired and cranky.  For crying out loud, someone died one year! He was trampled by his fellow shoppers!
That just doesn't seem right to me.
Another thing that gets me is why the store I work at also opens early on Saturday.  It is supposed to be Small Business Saturday.  If you have over 800 stores I don't think you can be counted as a "small business" anymore.  That could just be me though.  I do sometimes have radical ideas.

The best Black Friday and sequential days I've had since being out of school was a few years ago.  I had been laid off from my previous job in Oct.  On Thanksgiving I spent a nice day eating too much food with my family.  The next day (Black Friday for those who aren't in the US and might not know) I slept in and spent the rest of the time with my boyfriend hanging out in our house and eating leftovers my mom send me home with.  It was wonderful.
 (/Rant)


And now to the pretty thing I promised.

This is the scarf I made based on a pattern I saw briefly in a magazine I told myself I wouldn't buy.  It could probably use a shorter title than that.  I've been calling it the Wibbly Wobbly Cable Scarf.  It is based off of Swaying Cables Scarf(Rav. link).  Someone had left a copy of the magazine in the break room at work.  I was flipping through and saw the pattern.  I thought it looked nice, but I didn't like how it looked like it had reverse stockinet stich (mind you, I didn't read the pattern, just saw the pic) on the sides of the cable.  I like my scarves to be completely reversible, with both sides being nice to look at.

Later I saw a few more patterns in the magazine and I did end-up buying it.

It's funny how that works...

Just the other day I was looking at my totals for this year so far and my totals from last year.  I was wondering why they were so different.  Was I running out of steam for this blog?  Was I not as interested in knitting/crochet?  Did I fall into a coma and not notice?
Then it hit me.  Lately I seemed to have only been knitting at knit-night. No wonder I wasn't getting much done.  I was only putting in about 5-6 hours a week to something that takes a lot more for one item.  No wonder everyone around me was moving at a faster pace!
So I've gone back to my old ways.  I've started knitting/crocheting at random times during the week.  Turns out it is still fun, even if you aren't surrounded by other people who are doing the same thing.
I also realize that I don't have to finish something to update the blog.  I can just talk about my day in general and show a picture of a in-progress project.  I've certainly got enough of them!

I did have a bit of a crisis the other night.  I had mostly finished my dish cloth, I finished the fun hats I had planned in my head, so I got to choose something new to take with me. (I know I still have that double-knit scarf to work on, but it's not calling out to me loud enough.)
This is where I ran into troubles.  I had no idea what I wanted to knit.  Let me rephrase that.  I had too many things I wanted to knit, but none of them were standing out to me more than the others.  I had the yarn picked out to start a fun shawl with some color blocking, I had the yarn selected for a striped shawl with ribbing on the edge, I want to make a pair of owl-cabled fingerless mitts, there is a hat pattern floating around in my head, and I had seen a scarf in a magazine I wanted to make my own version of.  What is a girl to do?  So many things want my attention and while I know I want to knit them all eventually, I know I can't all at the same time.
After rushing around the house for a while it hit me.  I had some beautiful, slightly heathered, greeny-blue yarn that would look amazing as that scarf.  I say that it took me so long to realize this was because the yarn was in the basement, so it took a bit for it's calling to reach me.

Here it is!  I'm already on my second skein.  The colors don't looks right in this picture because of the lighting.
I don't think I will need the whole third one I have, so I already have a plan for that (assuming I can find the brown yarn I'm pretty sure I have an extra skein of).  I'm loving how it is going to be completely revisable.  It always seems silly when scarves have a clear right and wrong side.  I don't feel the need for scarves to look identical on both sides, but they should at least both be interesting and fun to look at!

 This is a baby-hat I just kind of made-up.  I did a 2x2 rib for the brim.  Then on the first row of the body of the hat I did a k2tog and then continued my 2v2 rib.  The decrease lets the spiral happen.

 

I thought of this hat when I was at the Hurray for Yarn day at Nature's Yarn a bit ago.  One of the lessons was to make these for your hair.  We were bouncing around other ideas for uses for them and I thought as a fake pony-tail or even pig-tails on a hat.  I plan on making a bigger hat with more twists on it.

That is it for now, time to keep knitting on a not-knit-night night.

Finally some finished items!

 Let me start out by saying that I am sick.  If anything in this post doesn't make sense, I blame the germs.

 

Here it finally is!  I've blocked it for the second time and I feel a lot happier with it.  It is the OpArt by Melissa D.  I didn't use as different of colors as she suggested, but I really liked the combo.  Though it is so big (since you knit from the inside out) I had a lot of fun making it.  I'm thinking of making another sometime.

 

As you can probably tell, I did take out what I started on the plane and tried again.  Instead of trying to use the combination of something in my head and a half-remembered pattern, I used Star Blanket.  I had one of those tiny pattern sheets you can get from various parts of the craft store.

It's acrylic, so I tried blocking it, but it keeps wanting to be rippled.  I'm also not sure why the picture looks a bit glowy, you would have to ask my phone that one.

 



 

This thing!  I really only had to weave in some ends and it was done!  The colors are better portrayed in the second picture.

I also don't know what to call this.  Simple Neck Scarf? Wait...what was that fancy term for things like these...I don't know, but I think it starts with a "C".

 

Anyway, I have a fun new hat design in mind that I have already started work on.  It involves both knitting and crochet!  I might have to start another category on my side-bar.

Say what?

My mom and I were heading to Wed-night SnB after our newest obsession of Ethiopian food.  We were wondering why Champps was so dark, then we saw this:

 

 This is so sad!  I really liked Champps!  I am curious what would cause them to close after being there for so long and being pretty successful.  Well, successful from what I could tell.  They don't let me see the books or anything.

Farewell Wed-night Champps!  I know a bunch of us will miss you.

 

For tonight we went to Noodles and Co.  I like them, but they do not have a good set-up for us.  We took over all the middle tables and three others on the sides.  It will be interesting to see where we end-up next week...

Something small to pass the time.

I wasn't thinking about knitting when I got ready the night before to go to my parent's house before my court trial.  It was nothing big.  I feel like in the end...none of us really won.  Oh well, my lawyer told me that I did a good job, that lots of people kind of wilt when the other judge starts to question them, but that I stayed strong.  I guess I can add that as one of my skills: Can take on lawyers.

 

Well, later that day was Mon knit-night.  I didn't bring anything with me!  After a tasty omelet at Bob Evan's my mom and I went digging through some patterns.  We found a cute dish cloth that she got in an e-mail for free.

 

 

This is it!  It is the Ripple Stitch Dishcloth and is a free pattern.  I had to take off one of the 11 stitch repeats to get it to be closer to the size that it says it should be.  I love how the colors are sectioning themselves off like they are!  It is cute!  I think I am going to add another set of garter-stitch ridges and call it done!

 

What a day!!

The Yarn Cloud was having a giveaway of yarn for charity crafters to use. There were a lot of people there, but a LOT more yarn.  I found a few things that caught my eye.
I think Bill is going to kill me. He already thinks I have too much yarn. Looks like I will just have to knit/crochet faster.  Maybe I will learn how to weave, I've heard that it is fun and eats up yarn.

This was also just the start of my day!  After all this fun my mom and I stopped at the library and got a few books.  It seems I have already read one of the ones that I thought was new, but oh well.

We then headed over to Nature's Yarn for their Hurray for Yarn! day. So much fun.  There was food and fun.  I got a ton of veggies and fruit in the beginning and some fancy pastries in the end.

In the middle I watched and participated in some demos.  I saw the very end of the bobbin-lace class.  Some of the stuff that was made was very pretty.  There was then the Tunisian crochet lesson.  I learned what I was doing wrong when I was picking up my bars.

After that was really exciting.  We learned how to work with silk hankies and caps.  I thought that was so much fun.  It is also the more affordable way to get amazing silk yarn, but a bit more work.  You get to loosen the fibers and then stretch them out to make a loop of yarn.  Then you break the loop and get started.

This is my little sample.  I wound the ends around the right side because I didn't want to waste any of it and those floaty ends are so soft and nice.

I also got a restart on my star blanket a bit ago and worked to the end of my first ball while at Nature's Yarn.  I will post pictures once I've finished absorbing all the fun that happened today.

I don't know why I find these so amusing...

I don't know why, but it always amuses me when hotels give you a mini kitchen area. I feel like it is secretly mini apartment.
As you can tell, I landed all safe and sound.  I also see palm trees, I love palm trees!!

'Cause I'm a'leavin' on a jet plane...

...do know when I'll be back again.  I do, I even know what seat I will be sitting in for it.
I finished the scarf last night and even got all the tales woven in before packing it. Pictures will be posted when I get back home because I forgot that memory card there.

Right now I'm super high in the sky and crocheting. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, but I'm going to keep going and see how it goes.  I'm wondering if I should have started the double skip and 4 cluster corners sooner... Hrm...
The lady next to me was pleasantly surprised that they let me bring my crochet hook on the plane. She said that she knitted but didn't want to bother with making sure everything followed all the rules.
I do wish I had brought a snack though. I did remember a bottle for water, they have some very cool stations to fill them in the airport.

Party!!

One of my friends from Mon knit night is having a birthday party today!  Yay!  I got her a little giraffe to go with her 6ft tall one.  She loved it and I know she was not expecting anything like that.

This is the scarf I'm almost done with for my grandfather in-law.  It is being made with the Lion Brand Wool and Bamboo.  It is so soft and smushy in the Handsome Scarf(Ravelry link) pattern.  You can see the mini cupcake/muffins she made and I have some nice hot chocolate in my cup there.

I'm also getting to go to CA later this coming week.  This is where Bill's grandfather is living.  I'm excited.  I've never been out that way before.  If anyone knows of anything fun to do, let me know.  I will be flying in to San Diego, that will give you a bit more of an idea where I am going in that state.

Now I have to go off and finish the scarf and then plan some plane knitting!

Getting ready for cold weather already.

This is the scarf I said I started instead of finishing some of my other items.  It is done in double knit color work.  The other side looks almost the same, but opposite colors.  Here we are all enjoying some warm potato soup and some salad.

There is something interesting with this scarf.  I knew I wanted to do a color-work double knit scarf, so I went looking for color-work patterns.  I knew it would be easy to convert any two color design to fit my needs.  I found a bunch that were interesting, but this swirl one really stood out.  I didn't know what yarn I wanted to use, but I knew it had to be on the thinner side since the design is a bit wide.  I remembered some yarn that was donated from Nature's Yarn a while ago.  I had been thinking of making a hat out of it at the time, but that never happened.  So I printed the pattern, found some needles I thought might be the right size, grabbed my yarn, and headed to Monday night knitting.  After knitting for a while someone next to me asked me a question: Did you mean for it to be Slytherin colors? (it is really a grey/green, not blue like the picture is trying to tell you)

The I really looked at it.  Slytherin colors...a swirl pattern that looks kinda like snakes...I see what you were doing there Universe!  I found it very amusing.

One thing I didn't find amusing it all the trouble this thing is giving me (though I'm not sure why I'm surprised).  First I started the chart in one direction, then I seemed to have changed my mind and finished the first motif going the other way.  The I thought I was switching the direction of the swirls like I had planned to, but it seems I did not.
*sigh* This scarf will definitely have an end made out of character.  I decided not to rip it out since it is a scarf and there will be plenty of chances to get it right.

Now here's hoping I can pull that off on my own without someone yelling STOP if I start to add more character to this thing.

That's one big baby

Someone asked me if this was being made for a giant baby. It will someday be made into a felted slipper.  It is my first time felting a finished project, so I'm excited.

I also have so many projects that are nearly done.  I can't seem to bring myself to finish them though!  I don't know why.  I just have to block the one baby blanket.  I have to finish the top of the second slipper and felt them.  Those things aren't hard, but yet I've seemed to have started a new scarf instead.
Hopefully I can get them done so I can post about them and then pass them on.

Wait, I thought I did that...

So I had two posts written that I could have sworn I hit publish on.  I come to make a new post and see that they are still just drafts!  Now I feel bad!  I didn't want anyone to think I fell off the face of the Earth, but it seems I made it look that way.
It probably didn't help that I got really busy working on a costume for an anime convention, so I couldn't really check on anything. Though now that the convention has come and gone, I will have some more free time.  I didn't even get to knit or crochet for over two weeks!  How crazy is that?
It feels good to not be so crazy so I can get back to doing a wide variety of things!

It's not what you think it is, I swear!

I'm trying to make-up a pattern. It will grow up to be one of those mini scarves. One of the ones with a hole on one side that the other feeds into.

This is actually the second try at it.  The first time I tried to knit this, everything was wider.  While I liked how wide the garter stitch area was, the part that would go around your neck was the same height as my neck.  I also didn't have enough yarn to finish it that way.

Is that an update I see?

It is indeed an update.  This is a picture of the blanket I am getting close to finishing sitting at Wegmans.

I wish I had more to say, but I don't.  I feel like I've been really busy lately, but I haven't really gotten a lot of things done.  I don't know why I feel this way, but I'm going to continue to try and get as much done as I can while still sleeping, eating, and knitting/crocheting/sewing.

I feel so busy!

I really do feel like I've been crazy busy for the last few weeks, but I also don't feel like I've gotten anything done.  Knitting wise, I have gotten a lot done on a baby blanket, and I finished one sock for a test knit.

It is an argyle knee sock.  I know, how awesome is that?  I will link the pattern once she has it out, but so far it is still a secret.  I had so much fun knitting it.

I don't have any pictures of the baby blanket yet, but I did find a picture of the hat I sewed and donated.

Please ignore the bad lighting.  I took it with my super-old webcam before it died.  I hope someone will love it.  It is super-warm, it just hugs my head a bit too much for my liking.

Good news for me is that Bill is getting home from his work trip on Saturday   He has been in Hawai'i for the past three weeks, I know, he had it hard.  Hopefully he will bring me back something fun and then we can have a nice day together on Sunday.

Transformations

I started some projects a while ago that did not want to be what I wanted them to be.  Anyone who says that knitting/crochet is an inanimate object and don't have opinions and wants has obviously never knit or crocheted.  While getting batter at the craft will help you hold more sway over what it will be, if that yarn doesn't want to be used in that project, it will let you know.

These yarns definitely did that.  While I liked the projects that other people did with these patterns, I did not like what was coming off my needles/hook.  I would even avoid working on them.  This is never a good sign, so I tried again.

I found this stitch pattern while teaching a class.  The "Stitch of the Month" only took about 20 mins to learn, and it was a three hour class.  She wanted to learn how to do a wavy pattern.  This is what I found.  I thought the little sample I made was adorable and would make an awesome scarf.

This was not going to be that scarf.  It was heavy and stiff, it also would have taken more yarn than I had to make it into anything beyond a short table-runner.

Now it is this.  A nice and smooshy Brioche Stitch scarf!  It is very easy to do and although it looks difficult  once you get the motions down it almost becomes mindless knitting.

Some people liked how this crocheted modular scarf was being all wavy and fun.  I didn't mind that very much.  What I did mind was that each triangle kept getting bigger and bigger.  I made sure to follow the directions and everything!  I'm not sure what I did, though someone smarter than me could probably point it out without having to think much.

Instead of worrying about that, I turned it into these Jaywalker Socks(PDF link)....

...and these HiyaHiya Blossom Lace Socks(Ravelry link).  I am going to donate both pairs because there are things I would do differently on both pairs if they were going to be for me.

I'm hoping that none of you think I hate crochet.  I mean, it is true, two crochet items have now turned into knitted items.  I do like crochet, I really do.  My mom is thinking of trying a Baby Surprise Jacket and I think I'm going to do a create-along with her and make the crochet version.  I have the yarn picked out any everything.

Though while I wait for her to get done with some other projects, I had to figure out what I want to work on next.  I was thinking of making a baby blanket, but I don't know if I want a big project again so soon.

'So soon?' you ask?  Well, I consider some socks to be large projects.  They may look small, but everything about them is small.  Small needles, small yarn.  That means that there are a lot of stitches to deal with.  The last pair of socks I did had the same number of stitches around the foot as a sweater I made.

I think I'm going to go sit with my yarn and wait for one to jump out at me and tell me what it wants to be when it grows-up.

New banner!

As you can see, I have a pretty new banner at the top of this page!  I'm excited for it!  It was designed by the lovely Kristin Billings, and she is holding the second sock of a pair I can not seem to finish.  Go to her website and hire her for all of your graphic design needs!

I don't have any finished crafted things to show off currently.  I did donate a hat I sewed, but I don't know what I did with the picture of it!  How silly of me.

Cherry Blossoms!

The scarf and I went on an adventure in DC!

We started by looking for some Toynbee tiles.  We did not have much luck, but we did find this little guy.  We are not sure if he is one of them or not.

Farther down we found the cherry blossoms.  The scarf liked them and thought they made nice company.  It was also cool that we could see the Washington Monument too.

 A little farther down the area we ran into Paddles the Beaver.  Paddles told us a very valuable message.  Unlike some people we saw, we did not pick the blossoms.  The scarf did not mention to Paddles how it had climbed one of the trees earlier.

After we were done having fun in the sun it was time to go to a few museums.  There was an orchid exhibition that I liked a lot.  The scarf thought it was a bit too girly, but did like this one.  It looks a bit like a sitting person, and who knows, they could be knitting.

After a long day we went home and worked on a few rows together.