FOs--Crochet!

So, I'm sure I've mentioned a million times that you cannot bring knitting needles onto flights into/from/within Australia, and that I only realized this when David Reidy on Sticks & String mentioned it in passing on one of his podcasts. After briefly mourning the loss of SO MUCH KNITTING TIME, I decided it would be a great opportunity to practice my newly-acquired crochet skills.



1. Pattern: Crocheted Flower Pot Sun Hat

I found this pattern through The Daily Knitter/Crocheter. They send me an email update every so often with links to the stuff on their website. If I had more time on my hands, I would probably make more use of the site, but as it is, I just always check the new free patterns. And since I wanted to make something for my trip, I really loved the idea of a sun hat, you know--I was going to Australia, and it was bound to be sunny, right? Well, I didn't bargain for a) the flight over being so dark the whole time, so that I felt guilty putting my light on, b) having to rely on The Happy Hooker for re-teaching myself everything and c) having to pull out and re-crochet the hat after finishing the whole thing, because my first pass was just too freaking big.



2. Yarn: Rowan basic cotton yarn. The first and only time I spring for Rowan, and it's freaking dischcloth cotton. But I didn't have enough of anything suitable in my stash, and my LYS didn't have any hemp yarn. You can never accuse that store of changing with the times, at ALL. They stock the basics, but if you want something different, you'll have to go somewhere else, by God, and I didn't have time for that, so dishcloth cotton it was. I also thought that cotton would be a good choice for a sun hat that I might have to wash if I was sweating in or something. But I think it is a lot thicker than the hemp yarn the pattern called for, and my crochet skills are really not up for altering patterns at this stage.



3. Modifications: Well, because of the gauge error I ended up cinching the back of the hat with a piece of white ribbon, and I think that will do it ok. You could probably also get away with a brooch of some kind back there, but for now, this will do to make the hat wearable. Now I just have to have an occasion to wear it once the weather warms up again.

Next up, another project I'd taken with me to Australia, failed to make, and couldn't face putting the yarn back into my stash for another unspecified length of time so just whipped out:



1. Pattern: Baby It's Cold Outside sweater

Again, trolling for patterns that I could take with me, I was attracted to this one because it asked for one skein of Lion Brand Homespun yarn, which I just happened to have in my stash from a birthday present from my sister, who doesn't knit and doesn't know how much yarn things take to make, from back when I had just started knitting.

I figured that I would finish the sun hat on the plane over there, and then work on the baby sweater during my down time, and have both finished when we got back. I did finish the hat while I was there (after crocheting the whole thing twice, remember...), but couldn't wear it, because I needed to weave in the ends and find a ribbon for the back, and that had to wait until we got home. And the baby sweater never saw the light of day, except for when I was repacking in the various cities we traveled to. I did finish that in the first week we were back, but only finished the trim on it at the end of last week.

2. Yarn: The sweater did use one skein of Lion Brand Homespun for the 6 month size, which is what I made. It also called for 1-2 oz worsted weight yarn in a contrast color for the edging. I used Bernat Baby something-or-other tripled to make my edging. This was also from my stash, and was the only thing I had that seemed to complement the bright kelly green of the sweater and also the texture of the Homespun. I barely had enough Homespun left to seam the sweater, but it did just work out. I had absolutely nothing left after that though.

3. Modifications: I left slits at the armholes for turning back the ends of the sleeves more easily. The cuffs seemed really tight to me the way they ended up. I also originally wanted to make the cute crocheted buttons in the same yarn as the trim, but I didn't understand the directions too well, and my only try ended up the size of a cherry tomato, and that seemed too big to me, so I just used two buttons from my Grandma's button stash, and it looks fantastic.



I'm pretty happy with how this came out, considering. I won't be entirely embarrassed to give it to my friend at work who is pregnant, but I also realize that it isn't going to last very long. I mean, Homespun doesn't seem to be the toughest of yarns, and the way I seamed it together is pretty dicey anyway, so if the baby gets to wear it a couple of times before it either falls apart or he outgrows it, I'll be happy.

So yay! Crochet skills improving apace! And on the horsey intarsia front, I'm almost up to their eyeballs, which means that I'm 2/3 of the way done! YAHOO!!!

Project Spectrum Feb/March FIRE

I haven't talked about Project Spectrum much, although I have been thinking about it a lot. Especially since half of my February was spent traipsing around the red desert of Australia, which might as well be the element of FIRE in physical form. The way I've ended up interpreting FIRE is more emotional and visceral than in color. First of all were the red colors, the heat and sometime humidity of our visit Down Under. What I didn't realize about the heat, not being used to it--(it was about 35 degrees in NYC when we left) was not only the heat itself, but the sun glare, and the attendant air quality (moist and oppressive in Brisbane, lip-crackingly dry in Yulara) leaves one exhausted. Seriously, after a couple of hours of sun exposure, you will need a long nap to recover.

The other thing about the trip was how I found myself re-evaluating all my life choices. Spanky and I fought about little things, but we had so many experiences that the good definitely outweighed the bad, and I wouldn't have wanted to be there with anyone else. So I would say that my feelings were all FIRE(d) up. I had so many huge experiences in such quick succession that it was hard to process everything.

My list of projects for Feb/March included 1 pair of socks for myself:


I knit one down to the heel, and then stopped (this was before we left) because I forgot what to do next! I need to go over how to turn the heel again, since it's been a while, and I am not really following a pattern at all. I'm just doing short little ankle socks, plain, so that the color really is the focus of the sock. The colors to me are what make this yarn special. They do look like fire, but like the fantasy, Arabian Nights, Harry Potter phoenix kind of fire--bright, glorious, perhaps not really that hot, just colorful and exciting.

I got this yarn as part of the Socks that Rock Sock Club for 2007, and at first I tried the pattern that came with the yarn, but it was a slip stitch pattern, and I found it incredibly fiddly and the results less than satisfactory. While I appreciate all the effort that goes into designing and knitting socks like that, I find myself automatically judging people wearing overly designed hand-knit socks as smug, somehow. And I didn't think I would ever finish the socks if I knit them using that pattern. Mind you, I knit the Lombard Street socks, and I'm in the middle of the Rainy Day socks from MagKnits, so it isn't patterning on the leg or foot that I'm talking about. I just think anything that involves too much fiddliness on needles that small is not for me. I'm not that kind of knitter.

Anyway, I also had two sweaters I wanted to start, both planned from stash yarn, which I had envisioned taking with me to Australia, before I knew about the "no knitting needles" rule on Australian airlines. Whatever, I didn't even have to take off my shoes in security, but knitting needles? Well, they're not allowed. Anyway, I don't think I have quite enough time to tackle either of those sweaters yet, because of a project that just barely qualifies as FIRE.

I give you the Mary Maxim horse sweater, which I've gone on and on about here, but have never shown a picture of. Do you know why? Because all I had done were the arms and the back--plain stockinette in bubble-gum pink. But now, I'm on the front, which is where the going gets a little rougher. Like Grumperina, I too am doing the intarsia...



Here is the full chart, with my pathetic, rather desperate attempts to keep track of where I am. I have the fear that I'm going to royally screw it up by losing track of something and have to rip it all out. I did make one mistake by using the wrong brown (there is brown and DARK brown, and they look exactly the same, except the brown is shiny and the DARK brown is not) on one horse's mane. But I don't think you can tell...



At first, I was making the 6-8 year old size, but then I realized that my neice a) is turning SEVEN, and b) lives in Florida, so probably won't get to wear this until next year anyway, so I ripped it out and am now making the 10 year old size to make sure she gets at least one season out of it before it's too small.

Every time I finish a row, I mark it on my row counter and highlight the finished row. It doesn't matter so much that I'm writing directly on the chart because I can tell you with all certainty that when I get this monster done, I'm never going to make the same thing again. I do like the intarsia, and I think that unlike Grumperina (scroll down to March 10 entry), I have been using the bobbins to great effect. Look how neat this looks:



Sure, there are a lot of strands there, but they're all hanging neatly where they should be. I started out just cutting lengths of yarn for each piece, since I read that is what Nikki Epstein does, but the strands ended up all tangled like Grumperina's picture. The bobbins keep them all straight--the trick is to keep them up against the knitting tight until you need to use that strand. The downside, of course, being that you can't go very fast down the row, but if you're thinking you can do intarsia fast at ALL, you must not care very much about doing a good job. There is too much to worry about to make this a speedy technique. Yet I find it really cool to see the picture forming, and I'm sort of enjoying it, although I really would like to move it along in terms of time. I'd really love to be able to knit at least one of those sweaters before the next element pops up. Perhaps I'll extend fire for just a while, since I ended up with two other FOs to show for my trip that don't fall within the color scheme of Project Spectrum and were not on my list of things to accomplish. But more on that next time...

FO turtleneck shrug

Well, I'm back. It's been four days, and I think I'm still suffering from jetlag. It is definitely worse coming home, partly because you know your vacation is over, and you have to go back to work, so there really isn't any motivation to get up and get going.

I am actually happy to be home. I definitely recommend one extended vacation over several small ones. It puts everything else in perspective.

But on to the FO--I finished this before I left, so that I could use it on the airplane. It was great to have, actually. It's not as heavy as a full sweater, but the sleeves and turtleneck keep you from freezing in the air-conditioning on the plane. I'm going to be eventually using this in the office during the summer for the same purpose.



Pattern: Turtleneck shrug, by Teva Durham, in Scarf Style (I'm not linking to the book, because everyone by this time I'm sure has either knit the thing, or has the book and thinks the TNS is whack and would never knit it...I was one of these until Ravelry [that's a Ravelry link]...)

Yarn: Plymouth Encore, 2 skeins, 75% acrylic, 25% wool, color 1793 200 yds/ball

At first, I was going to use the recommended Rowan Kid Classic, but I wasn't sure how much I would actually wear the TNS, and so opted to go with something washable and more affordable, and save the luxury yarn for a garment or scarf that will actually be a bigger part of my wardrobe. This piece is more of a novelty knit than anything, and although I'll actually use it, it will most likely stay at the office.

Needles: size 8 (7? I don't remember now) dpns/circ. At first, I was using aluminum dpns, but they were really hard to use on the go, as they were so slick they tended to drop out of the knitting. Eventually I found some bamboo dpns I had in the same size, so moved it onto those, and it went a lot faster. I imagine that if I'd had one of those really small circs, it would have been a breeze. Such a giant tube with dpns is really a chore.



Mods: I shortened the arms by 1". If I were going to do it again, I'd try to find a way to bring it down more in the front and back for just a little bit more coverage, and would maybe shorten the shoulder bits. My shoulders are pretty narrow, and I think there is a bit more room there than there should be. But overall, I'm pretty happy with the fit. The arms are exactly the right length, and the turtleneck is a bit loose, which is good, because tight things around my neck tend to make me feel claustrophobic.

Finally, please excuse the hair. I'm growing out this short haircut, and I've finally reached the stage where nothing looks good (plus, I'd just gotten up from a jetlag nap...).