Month: October 2022

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I Just Gotta

I just gotta go yarn shopping. It’s not my fault and I do not intend to go crazy. (Do you like the instant disclaimer I put there? I don’t intend…) For the last few seasons, this has been my most popular hat. I had three balls of it and with some more orders, it is clear that will not be enough.

 

These gloves and sleeves have also become popular and they are made of the same yarn and I have one ball left of that. So I gotta go yarn shopping. I just gotta. Luckily, I also got a nice big order so I don’t feel so bad spending about 25% of it on yarn to stock up and make sure I have it. 

I’m even feeling a little gleeful that HL is on our way to where we’re having dinner so I get to yarn shop and eat out. This is like a dream!

It also helps that this is the week where the yarn is 30% off so the funds will buy me a little more. It doesn’t matter if I don’t use the yarn for orders this season. It’s a very boho print – which I think explains the popularity.

BoHo is a thing right now. If I don’t use it for mitts and sleeves, I am thinking of making that trendy bag which name I can’t think of right now. Japanese Knot Bag. I looked it up. In any case, those of you who are knitters/crocheters know how exciting it is to go to the yarn aisle for something you need! A totally different high from going to just go. Though, there is nothing wrong with that. Just sayin’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Need to Escape

Last train to knitsville project photoI’m feeling the need to escape. Went to a peace circle to speak about violence and it occurred to me the violent people weren’t there. So what good did we do? Of course we did good: we shared differently similar stories. We talked about the actions we could take and we now need a system where we hold ourselves – and each other – accountable.

It was with a group called the Community of Congregations.

I wore my shirt that says, I’d rather be knitting. And I rather wished I was.

When I came home, it was with the idea I would continue doing my work and looking at what’s going on; there’s not much knitting going on here, either. There are four projects represented here and only on is being knitted. But have noticed the progress on the reverse entrelac piece? Nice, huh?

Starting from the left: the black and gold is a Christmas stocking. So is the cream and red. That is a finished object and I will show it to you later. Next, that little bitty thing between the black and gold and the entrelac is a stocking cap order and the only knitted item. Then the entrelac and finally another square for the sample afghan. That is square 6 or 7 of 10. The collective is almost complete.

I have three other hats I need to make. I will be praying over them and every project I have. Praying that wherever that items winds up; whomever it belongs to, that they be people and places of peace, justice, truth and love. And I wish the same for you.

 

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A New Beginning

This is a new beginning for a project that withered on the hook.You remember this from some time back? It hasn’t grown since then. I fell out of love with it and I didn’t want to save the relationship. Still loved the yarn – didn’t love the outcome,

So it just sat there.

 Until I decided to look into doing something new. I thought I would give crochet entrelac a go. Saw it on a YouTube video. It seemed worth a shot. 

It took me two days to learn. Two solid days. I have lost ground on other things because I was obsessed with mastering the techniques. Here are photos of my efforts:
 I was stuck here. I followed the instruction and it looked like what was in the video but didn’t work the same. This is after I commented on the video that I couldn’t make my sample wire. I was just getting a 2 square strip. The designer assured me the way to make it wider is shown in the video and I stayed up til 3 trying to fix.

When I woke up the next morning, the answer was waiting to slap me awake. Of course I had a two square strip, I was using a two square sample. It wasn’t going to get any wider until I added another row. So, watched again, followed the instructions and I got something that looked like sample in the video – see the photo – but left the squares on the left unworked. I went to one of the Facebook groups and found someone who had done it and she told me what the problem was but that still took me another few hours to work it out.

Again, I had to go back to the designer was using a two square sample; I now had a five square sample. I had to repeat what she did on the first square until I got to the last square and then I could do what she did on the last square.

DA-TA!!!!

OK great. Figured it out. But I wasn’t digging the color. One of the ideas behind reversible entrelac is to let the color changes do the work. 

That’s when I remembered the abandoned afghan. 

 

Beautiful huh?

 

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Second Half

Sample afghan squareI’ve started the second half of the sample afghan. I finished the last of the gray squares and did this first square on the way back from Wisconsin where we drove 2 hours to spend 10 minutes buying apples from an orchard. But they are good apples. They were less than $3/pound and I spent abut $15. Lots of apples. Mr. Honey bought some, too.

The square on the hook will be frogged because there are two different textures and I want to use just one. Since the first square is on the blocking board, I will make all the squares the same so the gray squares with their different stitches can be the stars of the show.

I managed to lose a crochet hook. I am pretty sure I put one in my bag because I took the yarn with me to crochet in church. Never did get the chance but I might have taken it out trying to get to something else in my bag. I didn’t find it when I went to look for it. I’m not going to pretend it’s my favorite hook but all hooks are special. It’s like the parable: I will leave my other hooks to run this one down. It’s either in the car or on the pew. I will be at church Wednesday night to see. If it doesn’t turn up before then.

 

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Never Will I Ever

Never will I ever knit this. Well, maybe I would. Jesus could order me to make it. But it will have to be a handwritten note. Every year, this thing shows up on my Facebook feed and some friend (more than one) will think it clever and ask me to make it for them. My answer is always a variant of: No. Hell, no. I would rather stick needles in my eyes, I would rather stick needles in your eyes. and No, but thank you so much for thinking of me.

I’m upset someone even made the one in the photo and messed up knit life for the rest of us. The only thing that matches my frustration is when spring comes, they’ll send me the one with the men in the crocheted shorts; skinny as hell and psoing like Madonna.

This is a rite of passage for serious knitters. Those who know how to knit may not have to go through with it. There is a difference between a knitter and someone who knows how to knit. Big difference – IYKYK. Google Bad Knitting. Look at the images. We suffer for our craft.

Speaking of the craft

I am on square 9 of 20. It is the trinity stitch so I don’t have to look at the instructions. The 4 row repeat is pretty easy to pin down. I have one more square to make with the varigated yarn and then I will move on to make the 10 cream squares. They will all the the same and crocheted instead of knit so it will go faster. Never will I ever complain about that.

I finished with the Ten Commandments digital stickers. They are being prepped to be sold. Somehow doing that led to the creation of the new logo at the top of the home page. It was fun making it and I think adds to the personality. 

 

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Should Have Known Better

They should have known better. They/know I cannot be trusted on my own. We had our first in person knit group a few days ago – though everyone was crocheting. Afterward, on my way home, I bought this:

They should have known better than to leave me to my own devices without as much as a ‘now go straight home and don’t stop for yarn.’

I have to say the Big Twist Hush is a surprise. It is squishy tee shirt soft. 100% polyester. I wanted to get some more if only just to squeeze it. I will eventually get to hitting with it. The only draw back I see is that it doesn’t come in a great variety of colors. I can see a blanket coming from it.  The One Pound skeins will be used for afghans. I have some in mind. the same for the Ombré. It looked so pretty in the store. There’s an afghan there, too. Not just those two skeins but using then with other yarns. 

I didn’t buy more because I have a feeling there might be some more in the domesticated yarn. Considering there was a lot of yarn calling my name, I cam out better than I had any right to expect. But seriously, Imma have to get some stuff off the needles.