Crochet in the news

My mom called me today to share that the local paper ran the following article today:

Homeless Pair Knit, Smoke, Find Serenity Outside Union Station

It's really a great article to read about this lady and her daughter, both currently homeless who spend many of their days between stays at local shelters greeting and chatting up local commuters. I glanced at the first few comments on the article and quickly refused to read many more because well, you guessed it, DC area people felt the need to judge just because they are homeless however, a few did point out the positives in what these ladies do.

• They do commissions for locals. People give them yarn, they knit it up and make some extra cash.
• Knitting (and crocheting) are very much stress relievers and nothing is more stressful than being homeless, having practically nothing and not knowing what the next day, or even the current day, holds.
• Many studies have shown that the best way to avoid depression is to force yourself to have positive interactions with people. Isn't that what they're doing? People who are willing to engage in conversation back with them are bound to have a positive influence.

I know businesses need start up money but man do I wish these ladies would know what kind of money they could make selling knit/crocheted items to those busy commuters. People around here are so obsessed with money and "things" that they could sell about anything for twice what it would normally be priced at a craft fair. With both women hoping to apply for disability because they are unable to do other jobs due to health concerns, a craft business would be right up their alley!

In other news for the day, I have to say most of my progress in the past few days has been made on the baby gift that I can't quite share just yet! It's 50% done and I hope to share the pictures of it after the recipient has received it soon :).

Everything else:

• Snowflake Throw: 3 motifs done just yesterday so I'm ahead on that
• Tunisian Tee: I need mucho concentration time so that's a "when the hubby is taking care of the baby" project, no true progress there
• Ropes & Ladders Scarf: Nada
• Knook Leaf Table Runner: Completed my third leaf this morning
• Knook Scarf: Had to start over because I attempted to work on this while taking care of the little one and it didn't quite work. I counted wrong, accidently skipped a wrong stitch, went to drop the stitches to create the open lines on it and ooopss, a giant hole appeared and it was beyond fixable besides a total restart
• Vortex Baby Throw: This is a slow progressing project and by the end of the week I should only have the corners left to complete on the second square
• Convertible Crochet: Not sure I mentioned I was working on this one. I'm doing it in Red Heart Shimmer in Lime. Will post pictures of my motifs tomorrow, it's one of those motifs that you absolutely have to block first in order to get a decent picture.
• Dare I say I'm most likely taking on another cardigan in addition to all of the above? O:) I told you I'm a sucker for CALs and I can't turn down one that I have the yarn for! The Chevron Lace Cardigan

Sorry for lack of pictures this post, I'll make up for it by blogging two days in a row ;) so expect plenty of pictures tomorrow! I'm also going stash diving because I'm curious as to the color combos I have so yes, plenty of pictures to come!

Project set-up time!

So my lack of a blog post the past few days has been due to our crazy busy fall activities that all seemed to bunch into one weekend this year! Friday was our yearly trip to the apple orchard to pick some fresh fruit then to the pumpkin patch to clip a few pumpkins right from the vines! It was the little one's first trip to the orchard/pumpkin patch and although she won't remember it since she's two months old, we had a great time and we've got pictures to prove it!

Now that I've had time to spew off the off-topic items, onto how much crocheting/knitting I actually did get done the past few days. I'll start by saying it was certainly a lot more than I thought I'd get done in 2 days!

As promised, here's my leaves that I knit using the Knook. There are two done and who knows how many to go for the table runner. They knit up insanely quick once you get into the flow of the pattern. I can't wait to felt them all in the end and see how they turn out!

While that size Knook is being taken up by that pattern, one of my other Knooks is currently holding my Open Lines scarf designed by Lisa Gentry whose Ravelry group I'm a part of. She also designed the previously mentioned Vortex design I'm working on. Both these projects are current CALs in the group and it's a blast chatting with those ladies everyday! Here's a peek at the open lines scarf in the works:

Also started up the first few rows of my Tunisian Tee for CrochetMe's CAL that starts this week. No picture yet on that because well...3 long rows of Tunisian crochet in mint green isn't that exciting just yet. I'll give it a week or so to get further for pictures.

Red Heart's CAL for the Dusty Snowflake Throw starts up this week as well and I whipped up a motif tonight for a good start. I have to say, I LOVE the look of this throw but I was definitely not looking forward to weaving in a million ends as usually happens with bigger projects.

Here's a quick peek at my first motif completed, ends all woven in as I went since that was my newest crochet skill I learned. I'll have to share the link for that video when I find it again. Have to say I felt like an idiot when I realized you could conceal these as you went so you weren't doing the boring work of weaving them in at the end of the project!

I always have to start these projects on the weekend when the hubby is around so he can watch the little one while I get over the dreaded "trying to figure out a new pattern and START the project." Plus, it gives me time to see which ones are easiest to work on during the week when it's me and the kiddo.

I also have to finish project "a" of a baby gift and complete project "b" of the same baby gift by next weekend (that's the goal at least) so I'm not sure how much progress will be made on these projects until I get the baby gift finished up but we'll see!

I'm also in two other groups currently picking their next garment CAL which may get me in trouble if I decide to take one of those on as well :-P. Anyone know of any other interesting "alongs" going on? I love checking them out!

Vortexing along, Knook along, you name it

Guess I should start by saying I'd love to respond to comments on here so you don't think I'm ignoring you but apparently Blogger doesn't let me unless I want to post a new comment or I'm just completely missing it and having a "blonde blog moment" :-D. I tried switching to another comment moderation system and it made all current comments not visible anymore so I quickly took that off...ugh the frustrations of setting this thing up!

Anyways, onwards to crochet!

My absence of a post yesterday was due to me being obsessed with my beloved Knook. I successfully Knooked one leaf for my table runner. Several people said it only took them an hour to get one leaf done but somehow it took me a tad longer. I'll attribute that to several things: (a) I was basically reading the directions for the Knook and applying to the the pattern all in one (b) I kept messing up in the beginning.

Eventually you'll get a full leaf picture but that'll have to wait until I complete a second one because although my first one has a leaf shape, I pretty much messed up the increases in the beginning to the pretty little design isn't quite there. Why didn't I rip it out and fix it? Well, I'm making them out of wool to felt, therefore you won't see my stitches and therefore as long as it was remotely shaped like a leaf I was determined to feel accomplished on the project for the day.

Either way, my stitches on the Knook do look quite pretty and I'm pleased with them despite the rough start.

I'm also officially halfway done on my second of four squares for a Vortex baby throw. The full afghan is nine squares but really I don't have time to do nine and four is what I happened to have yarn for in my stash :).

Between yesterday and today, the progress went from this:

all the way to this:

I have to say I forgot how much TLC Cotton Plus is one of my favorites. It's so so soft!

There was also progress on my "mystery baby project" that I can't share here just yet and can't wait to share it when it's finished!

I was hoping for a small bit more progress but unfortunately I had a pattern for fingerless mitts out this morning, worked up the entire thing only to find out that somehow they worked up to fit the hands of a monster, nowhere near my small hands. The results of finding that out? Project frogged, will try again later!

Must make a trip to the craft store tomorrow and I don't know that I'm looking forward to it. I was telling myself to stay away until I used up more of what I had BUT I'm returning my second skein of Starbella because well, I'd rather exchange it for my second skein of Red Heart Soft in white for my snowflake afghan. I also have to see about getting 2 skeins of Red Heart Shimmer in Lime for another project because Herrschners has decided to be annoying.

Placing an order September 18th saying all items in stock, receiving a box missing the above mentioned Red Heart Shimmer had me confused. After visiting the website I found out that color was all of a sudden back ordered until 10/03. No big deal, I can wait, right? Except the next day the site said back ordered until 11/02. Um....that won't really work for what I want to do with the yarn, I sort of need it this month to finish my project in time.

A quick e-mail to Herrschners asking why my order said it was in-stock, I never received it, never was notified it was back ordered or anything solicited the usual customer service response of "We're sorry, sometimes customers don't receive the back order notification." I'll give them credit for responding quickly but certainly they must know that knitters and crocheters have plans and if you mess with them well, we do work with needles and hooks, why would you mess with those plans, right?

Thus, after my long rant, I'm crossing my fingers for 2 skeins of shimmer in lime tomorrow. Only time will tell!

Finish projects, prepare for more!

Managed to finish up my tie front top yesterday. Can't say it's my absolute favorite pattern, I think I'd like it more as a wrap tie rather than tie so I may experiment with this pattern again at some point.

The other disadvantage, this was supposed to be a stashbuster project so how come I have this left :-P

Finished up my shawl as well that I'm doing with one of my groups on Rav. I haven't blocked it yet but here's a small sneak peek!

Ahh...the release you feel when you complete projects! Completing also means there's room for more wips! Started working on a baby gift for a friend. I'll post the finished product at the end of the month as I don't want her to by chance see what it is! For now, this is all you get:

Well aware this particular post is turning into a picture post but eh, we all need one of those once in awhile, right? I was already ecstatic that my Knook was to be delivered tomorrow when I get a knock on the door today annnnddd: 

 

This of course led me to realize that *gasp* I have a Knook Along starting this week and I need to wind my yarn! So that got done too :)

I'm planning on making the leaves in the pattern above not out of cotton but out of wool. Then the plan is to felt them and connect them into an Autumn table runner :). Keyword in that sentence is "plan."

So I have a binder that I put patterns in after I've completed them. I have a folder on my laptop that includes all the knit/crochet patterns I want to do. The downside to the binder is I just seem to slap them in a page protector and close it until it's time to put in another one. I really need to organize it...especially when you spent the summer doing 16 projects and will have another 3-4 done by the end of this month ideally.

How do you store your patterns/projects after you print them and complete them?

A Different Kind of Ruffle Scarf

Anyone know what a good morning nap for an infant does for Mom? Gives her a chance she didn't expect to have to find a new layout for the blog and have time to customize the banner, play with widgets, all kinds of stuff! Yes, it was a long nap!

So A.C. Moore had their entire stock of yarn on sale this past week and I tried my very best to not go to the store. However, once Thursday came around several things came into play that made me give in and make the trip. My eight-week old daughter was not having any nap time for the afternoon which called for a trip in the car and/or stroller somewhere and I had noticed a new interesting yarn in the ad that I was curious to try out. It also doesn't help when you tell your husband you're going to the craft store and he says "buy some yarn :)". I should keep that text for future reference!

So what's the yarn I was dying to try out at least once?

Looks like fairly normal yarn on a skein, right? Not so much!

That's right folks, net yarn! Now I knew this going into the project but I have to admit I opened the skein, separated the netting and short of blurting out W-T-F, I just stared at it...wondering how it was going to turn into this unique scarf.

Suprisingly, once you get the hang of the pattern it was great to crochet with. Honestly it was a constant chain stitch with the occasional looping back to help create volume. It makes for a very fast project and can be completed in a day easily (even with an infant around).

The printed pattern called for two skeins but the designer on Ravelry said it was a quick one skein project and I'd have to agree. I wish I had seen that before my trip to the store, now I have an extra skein ;).

I do have to say it's pretty cool to be the first CROCHETED scarf in Ravelry from this yarn. There's I believe 22 projects with the knit version but the words "knit" and "quick" are not in a sentence together regarding my skills in that area so crochet was the way to go. The advantage to the crochet version is that it hides the wider edge of the yarn that doesn't separate into netting. The general knit pattern I've seen works from the opposite side so the thick border is on the outside whereas this gives more of the light airy feel having all the netting on the outside. Guess you're wondering about the final product, eh?

There's a brief hint of it above. I didn't model it because well...it was rainy and cold here all day so it was a family pajama day and as much as I love my pajamas, they just don't go with this scarf!

On a side, yet somewhat related note, I bought a skein of some "self ruffling" yarn at Sewing & Quilting Expo probably four years ago and I really wish I could remember the name of it and see if it's even made anymore. Anyone else try any unique novelty yarns lately? Normally I steer clear of them because let's face it, there's not much to do with many novelty yarns aside from using them for borders on things it seems.

Now for a completely unrelated side note because it just popped up in my e-mail as I type. My Knook Kit shipped! Another toy to play with! Anyone have one? Want one? I'm anxious to play! I have to say it's interesting that Amazon now says it is out of print...hmm. Wondering if Leisure Arts pulled the plug on Amazon selling them? They're supposedly available at Wal-Marts but I won't go near our Wal-Mart with a ten-foot pole so online ordering was fine for me.

Until tomorrow, keep creating!