Look over there, something cool!

So I haven't really done anything blogable.  I've thought of ideas on things I will work on when I'm done with the serape, I've even put colorful yarn near me.  I've done a lot of knitting on the serape, I've put 14 whole skeins into it so far.  I even need to do another yarn run for it.
Those things are not things people want to see on a blog of any kind.  So to make-up for that, here is something cool.

One of my friends at Mon knit-night showed it to a bunch of us at one of our yarny-birthday parties a bit ago.  I wish I had thought of it!

Black Forest Cake

Yarn game time!

Here is a fun little yarn game we can play!  As you can see, there are three bits of yarn.  Are the yarn:
A) All the same weight
B) All different weights
C) The left and middle are the same weight
D) The right and middle are the same weight
E) The outer two are the same weight

Timing is everything!

I was asked to come in today to help a lady with her baby blanket.  She had been going along her merry way and had increases on the second to last green section.  Barbara S (not the Barbara I made squares for) tried to help her.  She refused to rip it back to the increase.  Barbara started cutting each row and pulled the crochet back to where it looked mostly even, and then wove the end in.  She only had a few minutes to help this lady, so the lady asked to come back.

Well, Barbara didn't want to continue helping this person if she could help it, so she asked me.  I told her I would, though I was very, very nervous about it.

I went in today hoping I would be able to pull this off.  It also helped that Barbara was working, so if I really needed to I could go running to her in a cold sweat.  I was getting both excited and disappointed as half an hr went by and the lady with the baby blanket didn't show-up.  I was about to go make sure Barbara told her 2pm when she finally got there.  Turns out she had a doctor's appointment that went long.

I looked at the blanket and had a mental freak-out.  The thing was in a shell stitch and I couldn't even really tell where I would have to stop pulling back on each row to make it even and not decrease.  I then causally asked her why she hadn't just ripped it back and re-done that part.  She asked if I thought that would look better.  I told her that it would since the other side was so well done and straight.  She agreed to rip it out!

I ripped out the bit of green section she had started.  I pulled out the multi-colored section.  Then there was only half of the green to go.  To make sure she didn't have any odd bits of yarn sitting around, I took it back to the first row that had been cut.  She thanked me for my help a million times.  She also asked what she owed me for my help.  I told her nothing, but when she didn't seem to think that was fair, I told her that she had to bring the finished baby blanket in for me to see.  She was happy with that.  She also tried to describe how to do the shell stitch she was doing.

The shell is a *2dc, c2, dc* in each chain section of the row below.  It is very cute and snugs together better than most other shell patterns I've seen.

I was talking to Barbara about it after the lady had left.  Barbara was glad that I managed to talk her into ripping and redoing, and she was also glad that when I looked at it, I had no idea how to fix it other than ripping.  I then found out that the lady might have changed her mind about the ripping because it is no longer for a grand-child, but is now going to be for a grand-niece.  Extended deadlines are always nice.

Another thing that happened was that after my internal freak out I thought that the pattern looked familiar.  Like someone in one of my classes had brought something like that in for me to help them figure out how to do the stitch pattern.  Then after we got back through the multi-section I realized that it didn't look similar, it looked the same.  It looked the same because it was the same blanket I helped her with before!  It was at least half a year ago!  It was nice to see it again.

I was going to finish this post of my holiday scarf near things again, and a picture of the color work part of the serape, but the card reader on the front of my computer doesn't seem to want to notice the card when I put it in. It worked before!

Looks like you will just have to imagine.

One thing on hold, another is a go!

The lovely Mr Jag is modeling the holiday scarf that was started last year.  I'm working on it again for two reasons.  I told myself that I wouldn't start the Jaywalker Socks until I was done with the serape.  That way I would have motivation.  The other reason is that I'm at a pause point on the serape.  I don't want to cut any yarn until I check to make sure he likes how it is so far.  That won't happen until Wed.

So to keep myself from going against the first reason is to knit on something else.

True I could just do some activities that aren't yarn related.  I could go Geocaching (but not after dark), I could go for walks (again, not after dark), I could clean something (hahahahaha).  I've done some of those things while I could, but it is a lot more fun to knit while at knit night, or a knitting party.

More like 32-62 Things to Write About...

I got another reply from the lovely Jane from Chronicle Books.  She had some good and bad news.  Bad news was that I could not preform a "Julie & Julia" style remake of the book 642 Things to Write About.  The good news was that she could let me use, free of charge 32-64 of the writing prompts.  While going from 642 to 32-64 is a bit of a bummer, it could also be more fun.  More of a challenge.  I can't just open up  to the next page and start there.  I have a limited number.  I have to go through and pick the best of the best!
Also, like I said before, I have other sources to get more prompts from if I find I really like this plan.

Nothing much new to report in the land of knitting.  I've gotten to where there is now a bit of dark blue along with the black on the serape.  During knit night tonight I worked on the Christmas colored triangle scarf that I started at some point last year.
I do, however, have some nice plans for knitting.  I am going to make a pair of Jaywalker Socks(pdf link) once I am done with the serape.

There are how many ways to cast on and bind off?!?!

My mom found a test knit in a Ravelry group that mentioned using this cast on.  It is really cool!

I really need to try and find this book now...

In other news: The frilly scarf and I went out to lunch with a friend.  I will be trying to teach him how to knit.  This time should go better, the last time we tried was my first time trying to teach someone.  It did not go well.

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Turns out it did go a bit better!  It seems there might be a refresher coarse needed, but I have no problems with that.  I also managed to finish the frilly scarf while we were having coffee.

In more other news: I got one reply back from the publisher.  I had asked if I could use the prompts from 642 Things to Write Journal. She was asking for clarification, so I still don't know if I have the all clear to start or not.  One fun thing was that she said that there are a lot of knitting fans down (over?) at Chronicle Books!  How fun is that?

Hurray, a break!

I know, I know, and no it isn't.  I know I said that I wouldn't start on the frilly scarf until I was done with the serape.  I know I said I was using that yarn to get through the serape.  As you can probably guess from my previous statements, the serape isn't done.

I ran out of yarn....

My mom and I had guessed at 10 skeins for the whole thing.  Well, I am almost half way into number 7 and I'm not half-way done with it.  Another problem is that most places I have checked for more are either sold out or don't carry it.  I'm going to do more hunting tomorrow.

As a reward for getting so much done (I only started it on the 30th of last month) I decided to bust-out the reward yarn.

This is what I have done so far.  As of right now the reds and pinks wants to all try and be on one side.  I'm fine with that.  What I wasn't fine with before was how it was looking.

All the ones I've seen are all puffy and frilly and fun.  Mine wanted to look like a funny-colored spiral.  I tried going into every loop, just made a small and tight spiral.  I then tried every other loop, just made a bigger the floppier spiral, but still no ruffles.  While they might have come later in the project, I didn't want to risk it.

Here is what I did:

I cast on using every other loop and tucked the tail while I was doing that.

The next row I knit using ever other loop, but the row after that I used every loop.

I'm going to knit 4 rows using every other loop and have the 5th be in every loop.  I like how it looks so far.

I also need "good luck" thoughts on finding more yarn for the serape...

It helps to keep me going...

As some of you, who know me in person, know; I am knitting a serape.  Not only that, it is a boring one.  The person I'm making it for works as a dish washer at the restaurant that the Wed night group used to go to.  For a list of reasons, the group doesn't meet there Wed nights anymore.  Some of us go there still on our own, but not en-mass like we used to.
My mom and I still go there and our usual server told us that one of the dish washers has always wanted a hand-knit sweater or serape.  Since I was the only one in the group to have ever made a sweater I was voluntold that I should be the one to knit it.  I tried to suggest a serape to the group to get all the attention off of me, but it didn't work.
At first I thought it wouldn't be too bad, all the serapes I've seen pictures of tend to be nice and colorful and I thought that would be fun to knit.  Turns out he wants it to be black with a bit of dark blue on the area around the head/neck opening.  So now I'm knitting a giant black thing.  It is pretty much a plain blanket with a slit in the middle. Ugh.  I added a seed-stitch boarder around the thing in hopes that I don't have to move instead of admitting that I couldn't finish the thing even if he gave me 5 years to finish it.
Another thing I did to motivate myself was to buy some fun yarn.  I've put it in the bag with all the black yarn so that I see it often.  I've told myself that I'm not allowed to knit with this yarn until I finish the serape.

This is what I got.  I am falling for the trend of these silly scarves.  I planned to make this for charity  so I made sure to get a color scheme I didn't care for.  While I do love purple, I do not care for that green.  I know someone out there will love every inch of it and know that Red Heart choose this color scheme just for them, but that person isn't me.
I also know that these scarves aren't very warm, but that's not always what people need.  If this was taken to a battered womens shelter and it made someone feel pretty and special again, then it totally did its job.

Not something for charity, but something nice

I made this for my mom since it has become a tradition that I knit her an ornament for Christmas.  After the big day I posted pictures of it on my FB page and on Ravelry.  I was asked what the pattern was, and since it was more of a "making it up as I go along" I posted the general thing I did on Ravelry.  Since it is out in the world and not a big secret, I figured I could post it on here too.
Who knows, one of you could find somewhere to donate these to and it would be wonderful for someone.  Or you could just make a bunch and give them to loved ones once the season has come back around.


Simple but Frilly Ornament

80 mm ormanent
Caron Simply Soft yarn
Red Heart Boutique Ribbons yarn
US size 7-8 needles (~4.75 sts per inch with yarn)

Cast on 4 sts.
R1: Kfb around (8 sts)
R2: K8
R3: Kfb around (16 sts)
R4: K16
R5: *kfb, k* around (24 sts)
R6: k24 adding ribbon yarn
R7: *kfb, k2* around  without ribbon yarn (32 sts)
R8: K32 with ribbon yarn

Keep increasing by 8 sts with just the yarn and then knitting a plain row with the ribbon yarn until it almost fits over half your ornament with a tiny bit of stretching (56 sts for one in picture)

Knit one round straight with just the yarn
Knit one round with both yarn and the ribbon

Decrease in a similar manner as the increasing by doing it on a just yarn row and by decreases 8 sts evenly around the circle.
Make sure to slip work onto ornament before opening gets to be too small.

Since I didn't add the ribbon yarn until I had a few rows established there is a bald spot on the bottom of the ornament, I didn't as much because I was working on this the night before and was making it up as I went along. If you care more, you could add the ribbon yarn on row 2, the first plain row.

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I'm also amused by the date, 1/3/13.  Haha, I'm easily amused!  This might happen a lot...