Another one at the last step...

I have mostly finished a modified version of the baby surprise jacket.  It turns out that I definitely did not have enough yarn to finish as the pattern tells me to.  I instead skipped the back panel and almost got to the end.  I had to bind-off earlier than I had wanted so the edge is also a bit tight.  My goal before I leave for my vacation is going to be to get buttons on the thing.  I already have the shoulders/arms seamed up and all the ends woven in.
I'm also starting to get worried I'm not bringing enough knitting, or that I will hate what all I brought once I get there.  I so far have just been taking nice deep breaths and trying to ignore the silly feeling.


Not a big update, but I just wanted to let everyone know what was going on.

Baby Blob Sweater

As you can see, I am using one of the pairs of earrings I made as stitch markers.  While they are very pretty markers, they are also really large.

 

I was working on this while at the KCC (Knitters and Crocheters Care) meet-up.  One of my co-workers came in took one look at it and asked "Is that a BSJ?"  I told her it was and it blew the mind of one of the other people there.  She was impressed that this little jacket, which she had never heard of before, was important enough to get its own acronym.  My co-worker then admitted that really it should be the EZ-BSJ and that the shape it makes is very recognizable.

Since there is now a yarn scare on this project (I don't think I have enough and I don't know where to get more easily) I am going to be leaving out the back panel and just make the jacket a bit shorter.

Some good and bad news for the Germany trip.  It looks like I will be able to blog about it on the go (the hubby just gave me his old tablet to use) but I will have to be trying to bounce back and forth between the webpage and the app.  This means that the posts might look a bit funny since the keyboard that used to go with it broke.  I might look into getting a new one, since there is still a bit of time before the trip, but unexpected car costs have already started eating into my trip spending money.  We shall see.

It's the last step that always gets me...

 Though it has been looking like I haven't been working on anything, I really have been.  I got a little crazy with head bands and made three of them over the span of a week.  The two outer ones are knit and the middle was crocheted.

 

The one on the right has a Daisy Stitch pattern, the middle was just a remake of a knitted pattern but done in single crochet, and the one on the left was a yo, k2tog lace I kind of did on the fly.

Here is a picture of the other side of the crochet headband.  I think it is so cool how the colors came out on it.  I had a hard time stopping the middle area.  I just wanted to keep going.

They are all missing something however.  They have all been blocked, which is usually the step that takes me the longest to do.  They are all missing buttons though.  Kind of hard to use a headband with no way to secure it onto your head, am I right?  I have a few other things that just need that one last (and usually) easy step to be finished.  Not sure why this is so hard.

I have been very addicted to making these though.  They are about 1.5" across the hoop part.  I have them listed on Etsy but I am posting here for another reason.  If I get enough followers someday I hope to have sales on items and then just donate money to one charity or another. 

I know these won't keep anyone warm, but I hope they will make someone feel special.  I made them for the TAPS event.  My phone has been getting more and more cranky about taking pictures, so the colors are a bit odd in the picture.

In other news, I am going on a trip in May.  The hubby, some friends, and I are going to Germany.  I am a bit nervous, I've never been anywhere where some form of English wasn't the main language.  I do, at least, have my passport for it.  It is a long(ish) story where my first one never showed-up and then drama ensued.

I have been planning the hardest part of the trip.  What will I bring to work on?  There is a long list of what the things need to have and not have.  Things need to be interesting enough that I have fun working on it, but not so complicated that I need to set aside a good chunk of time to work on it.

Here is what I have come up with so far:

• Body of a pretty simple baby blanket I am half designing in my head.  The outer edge will have lace and lots of stitches, but the main body will be easy to pick-up and put back down.  This will be good while waiting for things or traveling from point A to B.
• A lace shawl for the longer down times.  Not sure how many long down times there will be during the trip, but I know there will be one at the beginning and one at the end.  Though it is only an eight hour plane ride to get there...it is still an eight hour plane ride.  I have the yarn and needles for Skywalker already packet.  I already have a few modifications for it in mind because I might not have enough yarn.
• Probably also the stuff for a pair of some type of fingerless mitts.  They are just fun to make and don't really need a reason to happen.

At some point I need to start figuring out other things I will need...like weather/activity appropriate clothing.  I still have a few weeks for that part.

For now I will be wishing everyone a Happy Easter and finally casting on that baby surprise jacket I have had planned for a while.  First the needles went into hiding, then I put the yarn in some unknown location, but then after finding both of those at the same time the pattern is no where to be seen.  I found the pattern when looking for notes I made about a shawl I wanted to design.  While the notes are still on the missing list, the baby sweater pattern is not.



 

An Extended Single Crochet?

 I was a very busy little person last weekend.  I was watching an episode of Knitting Daily and they mentioned something called the extended single crochet.  I thought it looked kind of interesting but didn't try it then.  While I was at K&CC (short for Knitters and Crocheters Care) I finished one more section of my secret project I found that I could not work on more.  The pattern I was using as a starting point for another part was not in my bag.

I then grabbed a random skein of yarn and decided to see how I liked that extended single crochet.

I was going to make a hat at first, but I didn't feel like counting to see how many stitches and what that was devisable by, so I just made a headband at first.

The working from the top down I started on one hat.  I like how I can just increase until it is the size I pretty much want and work straight down from there.  This was fun, but I knew it would be boring to make more than one of the same size.

So I made a very small preemie hat.  It is so tiny that it is hard to think that babies could have heads that small, but we all do start out as a tiny clump of cells and go from there.

A medium hat was something I felt was needed to round out my baby hat making for the day.  I knew I didn't have enough yarn to make another hat, but I wanted to use it all.

So I made a little headband with a flat "bow" on it.  The bow was pretty easy and I just kind of made it up as I went along. Here it is.

Simple Flat Bow

Chain 7

1. Sc 6 along chain starting from second loop from hook.
2. Sc 6
3. Sc 6
4. Sc 6
5. Sc2tog, sc 2, sc2tog
6. Sc 4
7. Sc2tog x2
8. Sc 2
9. Sc 2 in one sc from row before x2
10. Sc 4
11. Sc 2 in one sc from row before, sc 2, sc 2 in one sc from row before
12. Sc 6
13. Sc 6
14. Sc 6
15. Sc 6 fasten off at end and weave in tails.

99.5% Done

Here is another  is a Honeycomb Cowl(Ravelry Link).  I was hoping to make this long enough to fold over itself and seam the cast-on and bind-off together. However, it is only about 2.5 inches long.

I have left the tail on it for now.  I am going to get a few more opinions before I totally finish it.

There is another one planned after this, but I'm thinking I might take a hat break.  I might also make something completely different, who knows?  I'm awesome like that.

Both Behind and Stuck

I feel like I am behind on everything.  I wanted to get my Etsy shop up, get a good lead on the dishes, watch old stuff on the DVR, and keep this blog up to date.  Well, I have done none of these.  I have an idea what to charge for shipping for Etsy, but no pictures or bubble mailers.  It looks like for every dish I get clean, 2 or 3 more take its place.  The DVR keeps recording and I keep not watching.  As for this blog, I have a whole project that I started and finished without even mentioning wanting to do it.

(Why yes, I did get funny looks from the neighbors taking pictures in the front yard!  It is also difficult to photograph doubled.)

There is it.  It is a Honeycomb Cowl(Ravelry Link).  It took me a bit to get it.  I missed where it said to "slip all stitches with the yarn in back" and I was wondering why it looked so odd.  I might make another cowl with the yarn in front, it was interesting, but not what the picture on the pattern was showing me.

I was hooked. I have already started another one and have a third in mind.  I already have the yarn and everything for the third one.  I want the colors to be a surprise (it will also make it easier in case my idea turns out to be a horrible thing).

I feel like though I am still behind, that I'm starting to claw my way back up.  I know it will take a bit of time, but I am feeling a bit better about everything.

Here is a picture of my project manager coming in from out photo shoot. 

Perfect Time for a Snow Day!

I am a very happy little camper today.  It said it was going to snow a lot, and it did.  Not only do I get to see a ton of snow on the ground again, but I get a snow day from work.  Perfect timing too!  I was supposed to be in super early (for me, 7am is super early) to help with inventory.  Instead I slept until 9:30 and am enjoying the view.  Not sure what all I hope to get done today, but here are some pictures.