Shawls, Shawls, Shawls!!!

  Back before Social Distancing I adopted two shawls that someone had started.  They looked easy enough to continue, a three segment shawl with a moss stitch edging.

  The way the yarn over increases were done was in a different way than I would have, but that's fine.  I figured out that the person who started these picked up the yarn between stitches on the knit row instead of yarning over.

  I've been trying to figure out how they started it and have some of it figured out, but not all of it.  I'm also curious if there was supposed to be anything interesting along the bottom, since you can see increase counters on the light pink one.

  So far I've not been able to find the pattern online, so I'm wondering if the person was making it up as they went along.  I also found these notes in the bag with the shawls.  There was also a little stitch sampler, but that doesn't match the notes.  I'm wondering if these were notes about what to do at the bottom or if they were for something unrelated.

  Because of how loose of a gauge the pink shawl is currently knit at, I'm thinking of ripping it back and starting it again.  This will also let me get the pattern a lot easier because I can see what is done on each row instead of trying to pick it apart.  I can then reknit it at a slightly tighter gauge, which I think the person who started them was testing since one was done one US 5s and the other on US 6s.

  I'm happy with how this turned out.  It is based on the Textured Shawl Recipe.  Since it's mostly just a general How-To it is designed to be pretty free form.  Though she did it all in one color, so I discovered something interesting along the way.  She has the texture stitch being worked on the right side and that looks fine and all, but I liked it better when I worked it on the wrong side.  I changed colors on a wrong side, then worked two plain rows.  When I got back to a wrong side row I was able to work the increases from the right side into the pattern and just did a slip, purl, yo, slide slipped stitch over both, which follows the pattern expect that I purled instead of knitted the stitch.  I felt it also moved smoother since you slip stitches purl-wise anyway.

  I've been really getting into shawls with fairly simple patterns which helps me to be able to think about other things while working on them, but doesn't lead to very many updates.  I do have a fun hat pattern floating around in my head and I got the extra bit I needed for it.  Stay tuned for that!  My car is also home safe and sound!

What a Week.

  Two weeks my battery died.  I was going to try and take some stuff to The Closet and my car didn't want to start.  Bill gave me a jump but I was too late to make the donation so I then drove to Target to get more wiggly eye rings for the Googly Sploots.  My battery was still dead when I went to leave.  I had to wait 1.5 hours to get a jump from someone from roadside assistance who used to own a VW Rabbit.  I drove around for a while, but it didn't help the battery.  Bill was nice enough to get me a new one.

  On the way home from work last week I got rear-ended on Rt 28.  It was super scary and the guy was a jerk, but I was okay.  He even managed to lock himself out of his car and insisted that he had to sit in mine because it had started raining.  I lent him one of my other umbrellas instead, because I didn't want this strange person in my car.

  I saw on Target's website that they have wiggly eye rings all year in their party favors section.  It took a few tries, but I was finally able to find a pack.  The smaller ones are about 1⅝" x 1¼" x ⅝".  The Target website said the ones they have all year around are 2" by 1.5".  I'm not sure how they are getting that because when I measure them I get 2¼" x 1¾" x 1".  This makes me wonder if the ones I saw online might be the right size.  I just really wish I could order one to be sure.  I went to Party City and Wal*Mart but those were a tiny bit smaller and I didn't like them as much.

  Luckily I have been able to get a bunch from the Target Halloween grab section, so those should last me a while.  It would just be nice to get a pink or a red that would work as well.

  This is what I got for a rental car.  Because of the holiday weekend they were running low on selections.  On my way over there I was bragging that I got picked up by a Jaguar.  After we went through the paperwork they brought me out to make sure the car was acceptable and lead me right back to this one.

  My first question was if they had anything smaller.  This thing feels crazy big compared to my little car.  She said I could call the next day if I wanted to see what they had or if I started to like it I could just hold on to this one.  I'm starting to get used to it, but it has startled me a few times.  It stops the engine when you are at a light, and I think I've taken my foot slightly off the break a few times because it has restarted while we are still stopped.  It might also just turn it back on after a certain amount of time.

  I also found out that my dad is considering one of these, a Jaguar F-Pace, as his next car.  This is handy because he can take a good look at it when we have an event going on on Saturday.  No sales people stopping by to check on you or anything.  So I guess it's a good thing I got this one, even if I'm still not sure they should trust me with such a fancy car.

The New Googly Sploot

  You probably would have thought that I would have gotten tired of this pattern because of how many I had to make while testing the pattern.  I was just so curious how the pattern would work with a more variated yarn.  I actually really like it.  I saw the apology letter on Ravelry, so for now the pattern is still only on Ravelry.  I like how they are working with people to try and make is accessible to everyone again.  I do wish they had just gone back to the old one with the new one being the option, especially since they are working on the newer one and will (hopefully) make some changes.

  I finished the first blanket for the new couches for the basement.  Right now we have them ordered, but they have not shown up yet.  The blanket is about 71" square.  It was supposed to just be the spiral in the inside, but since it wasn't as big as I was hoping, I added the boarder.  I actually really like it and I'm glad I had to add more.  The pattern is Solid Spiral Granny Square, though I'm still me, so I didn't totally follow the pattern.  I did a smaller center area and only put one treble-crochet in the corner in the 3-cluster.

  I have started making something new for my Etsy Shop.  I was watching a video of someone showing off their cute accessories and he had on a set of the googly eyeball rings.

  I have loved those things since I was little, but I never kept one around to wear regularly.  Since I've been trying to mix up my wardrobe I figured I could get some for me to wear with my lolita dresses, or maybe some of the circle skirts I plan to sew.  I showed my friend them and she asked if I got them to wear as is, or to make something out of them.

  I've been following FloppyCatCreations on both Instagram and Etsy.  I have been really loving his Stitch Punks and have been wanting to make something similar of my own.  Right now my sewing machines are still pretty buried, so I haven't been able to make anything.  I also haven't been able to find the time to sketch what I would want mine to be.

  While I was falling asleep the night that I got the rings, the idea for these popped into my head.  I had to pull my phone out and start typing up the pattern before I fell asleep and might have forgotten it.  I've gone through a few different prototypes, but I think I have it down now.  I've mostly been working on Halloween themed ones, but I have some Christmas ones too.

  They are called Googly Sploots.  I'm not the best at thinking of names for things, so I put it out to the internet.  First I asked Krissy and got some ideas, but my other friend, Bri wasn't a big fan of what I came up with from there.  We worked off of my idea for the Googly part and one of Krissy's other ideas and came up with Sploot to show how they look a bit like they are melting or got dropped and splatted a little.

  Now the hard part about them.  I have mostly Halloween colors, but I need more for other holidays.  I was hoping to find some red because that would cover Christmas, Valentine's Day, and the 4th of July.  We have a lot of red holidays.  I found some at both Party City and Wal*Mart.  However, they are a slightly smaller size and while they look fine, I like the slightly larger ones better.  I think it's because the eyes are wider apart.  I can try to see if I could heat and bend the plastic of the band, but I'd also rather not put that much work into that part of them.

  I have a bunch of red, white, and blue yarn set aside to make hats for TAPS, but I'm thinking that I should make a bunch of these as well.  I bet the kids would love them, I know I do.