Too Much Yarn

I'm hooked

It's probably been over 5 years where I did not knit a single stitch the entire weekend.  And that's what happened!  I was working on the hexagons.  I'm up to 20 now.  But more about that later.

Some of you didn't know that I knew how to crochet.  Actually, my mother taught me how to crochet when I was 9.  I was crocheting doilies and reading patterns.  We don't crochet mittens or scarves or hats as there was no need for them in tropical Malaysia. When I came to North America (when I was 17), that was when I learned to knit.  I had been crocheting on and off, but didn't pick up knitting until 2006 when I saw my friend knitting a scarf.  Later, I knitted bags for felting.  Then, in 2008, I learned to knit socks.  Anyway, once I joined Ravelry and found MCN, I became a knitting snob.  I was embarrassed to admit I crochet - read my profile on Ravelry to show how little I mention crochet.  I felt crochet had been given a bad reputation as for knitting afghans, kitchen towel holders, and toilet paper holders. 

Now with my renew interest in this craft, I went to look for the afghans I've made.  This one I started in college and finished sometime in the last 20 years...  plain single crochet.  Back then, I didn't like to weave in ends either.

By the way, these afghans are all in worsted weight, Acrylic.  Then, I made this blanket.  I can't believe I finished the entire thing.

Yep, you can see the ends as well!  But either they deterioted or I didn't do a good job.  I have no idea how some of the squares have gotten to this condition:

That's not the only square!  Then, I made one of these blankets for my kids.  I think my son's unraveled and we threw it away.  His was blue.  And I loved Homespun then.  When I became a yarn snob, I donated all I have to Chris, who donated to her church. They use those for Prayer Shawls.

This was Homespon and a Chenille yarn.  Then, I made this for my Mother-in-Law for Christmas one year.  yep - don't weave ends in.  When she died a few years ago, I took the blanket back.

Wow!  Perhaps I can tackle sweaters - if I crochet them??  HAHA!

Here is my current Hexagon Blanket Basket.  I throw in a few mini skeins that I've swapped for.  And I opened them as I need the colors.

I'm going to bed soon so I won't be making any more hexagons - I'm up to 20 of them.  This was taken earlier today. 

Needless to say, I didn't get my chores done this weekend, but I did make dinner for my family and neighbors this evening.  And I watched my favorite actor (Kevin Coster) won his first Emmy for Best Actor in a Mini Series in Hatfields and McCoys - while crocheting!

Have a good week.  You know what I'll be doing this week. I hope you are not going to stop reading my blog because I haven't been knitting. HAHA!

AND!  I'm now officially proud to be both a knitter and crocheter!!

A New Hexagon

This week, I read two blog posts that have affected me.  The first one is Yvonne's (Rav:  Redhatknitter) post about Best Way to Clean and Cook Corn. Since then, I have cooked corn the way she described and it was impressive and no mess!

The second one was Laura's (Rav: Cosmicpluto) post, Been Crochetin'.  I can crochet.  I have lots of yarn.. so why can't I start a new blanket?  Well, for one, I already have 3 blankets going.  And I don't need to get new worsted weight yarn.  What about sock yarn?  I picked up a size E Crochet hook (I must have one somewhere, but I need it one RIGHT NOW!).  I started with a prototype hexagon, figuring my interest will end after 1 hexagon. 

Maybe interest will disappear after 2 hexagons?

Issue 1:  Too many ends to weave it.  Issue 2:  Too many hexagons to join together. 

And I haven't forgotten I have another hexagon blanket that I haven't touched for a year... this one...

Back to the crochet one for a sec.. Well, there's a way to join the hexagons as you go!  And there's a way to weave in the ends. So after some experimentatiion,  I managed to weave in the ends as I go with the 3rd hexagon:

And then, I attempted to join in the hexagons as I go.  And before I know it, I was HOOKED! (pun intended!)

I'm actually up to 5 hexagons now as I type - I was downloading Windows - I have to recover Windows on my hard drive last week.  Not everything is up and running yet!  I made the conscious decision to put away the Hexipuff blanket.  Crocheting these are more colorful and faster (bigger hexagons) and it's lighter in weight.  But these hexagons will continue to use only Bugga yarn from the mini skeins I have swapped for.  See the difference in size?

In other news, my loyal yarn shop did the Three Irish Girls preview of the new colors.  The owner has chosen to only carry Beckon Stretch Merino and Glenhaven Cashmerino (Yay!), but at $37 a skein with 370 (or 360 yards), I'll opt to buy Bugga with 415 yards at $32.  The last time I checked, Three Irish Girls carry Glenhaven Cashmerino for $29 a skein.  I took a photo of the new yarn:

I also picked up a new sock yarn book, but I haven't read it yet to tell you if you should pick a copy up or not.

And yes, I finished watching Season 3 of Parenthood... I wonder if I should go back and watch Season 1 and 2...  But I'm not done with my Lintilla Shawl:

I wore socks and shawls to work this week.  I love the weather! 

Well, let me get back to my hexagons!  Have a nice weekend!

Hi!  It's now 4 hours since I posted. Here's the progress of the hexagons. I have to stop and work on my chores!

Boring......

I don't know what's with me.  After the full concentration on the colorwork sock, I seem to have lost interest in knitting any of the socks I've started this month.  Maybe they are just not the right patterns to capture my interest.  Instead, I'm finding it most enjoyable to knit my blanket.  I've added over 20 squares in the past 3 weeks, resulting in these ends to weave in!!

Also, I happened to be watching TV one evening last week and the premiere of Season 4 of Parenthood was on.  I enjoyed the show so much that I was able to find the catchup season in OnDemand that I started watching Season 3. Each episode is about 46 minutes and there are 18 episodes.  AND, the season will be OnDemand until 9/23.  That would be 7 days from now and I have so far watched 6 episodes!  I think I can do it - 12 episodes in 7 days...  But then, when your husband invites friends over to the cabin, it cuts into your episode-catchup time!

Anyway, since I started watching Parenthood, I started working on this shawl, Lintilla, which is a KAL pattern at my local yarn shop.  I started wtih a different yarn I had picked up at the shawl - you have to use yarn from the shop to qualify for prizes... But I  just didn't like the combo of the needle I used and the yarn.  The pattern calls for size 3 needles and fingering weight yarn (Wollmeise).  I was using Fleece Artist Woolie Silk, which is considered as DK weight and size 5 needles, but I still didn't like the fabric it produced. So I dug into the my stash and found a skein of Malabrigo Sock yarn that was all wound up, ready to knit.  And used the same size 5 needles and I really like it.  This is in the Candombe colorway.  Though this shawl is a garter stitch shawl, it's not a boring knit!  10 rows of garter stitch for the entire width and you work the short rows - which takes 10 minutes and then, you're back to the garter for the entire width.  You can work as big as you want - leaving 25% left for the weight of your yarn and  you start the decreases.  The triangular shape will be somewhat asymmetrical though.  I find that these types of shawl are less "grandmotherish" like when I wear them to work.  The Wollmeise is 575 yards and all I have it 440 yards, so this may be shorter and not as wide as I'd like it to be.  But at this time, I think I will make more of these in various weights of yarn and various sizes.

I didn't take any photos in progress of my socks because the progress is pathetic!  But I think I may start the second colorwork sock and frog my Brolly Jolly socks.  The Pillars socks are progressing just a little.

I finally made an order from the Loopy Ewe after a few months of hiatus.  I added to my stash 2 skeins of Alisha Goes Around Richness of Marten yarn (70% merino, 15% Cashmere, 15% silk) in Agave and Dapper:

And a longtime color I've been wanting for my Casbah collection: - Paris!

Our weather has been beautiful, although it's gotten as warm as 80's in the last few days.  We start the day in the 60's.  I've worn socks to work for the first time already!

Well, I'd better start the day by knitting a few rows of my Lintilla before everyone gets up!  Have a nice week!

Oh!! Before I forget!  Alica reminded me that price drop at Cephalopod Yarns for the Bugga was due to the fact that they didn't have Skinny Bugga in stock.  Now that they have dyed up a bunch of Skinny Bugga, the price of Bugga will return to $32 (currently 30) on Monday - tomorrow!!  So if you want to get a skein of Bugga for $30, do it today!

 

A historical milestone

My first colorwork SOCK!  Yes, SOCK for now as you never know if I'll knit the second one!  But if I do, I'll knit it with the reverse colors since I started with 2 full skeins of yarn.  That way, I'll have even amounts of leftovers from both skeins.  This is Fireweeds by the talented Yvette Rose Hiver (rosehiver on Ravelry).

The actual pattern calls for the darker color as the Main Color and the lighter color as the Contrasting Color.  But I wanted the blue (lighter) to pop so I did the opposite.  Turns out, it was quite a challenge to read the chart backwards - darker squares for my lighter color and white squares for my dark.  Also, I messed up with the gusset, it said to start with the dark color.. and I followed along, forgetting for a moment that the "dark" color is actually my "light" color.  Thus, there is a thicker line of brown on the gusset pinstripes section.

I forgot to take a photo of the bottom - it's patterned as well!

I've been asked about the project bag I used.  It's by YarnPop.  Lori has such a good sense of fabrics that I almost want a bag in every fabric she has.  This particular one has been discontinued.  I'm eyeing the Turquoise Giraffe, Red Fleur, and Yellow Dandelions.  In my collection are the Black and White Dandelions and Bright Green Flowers.  When one is transporting a project, the yarns are outside of the bag.  There is just a slight hole by the zipper to keep the yarns away from the zipper.  The zipper is also on a larger scale.  I have yet to snag any yarn on the zipper.

This is the Large size and there is plenty of room for 2 cakes of yarn, a sock project, and your pattern folded up.

I've communicated to Lori before about the yarn outside of the bag.  I suggested a divider (fabric) where the grommets are, but inside the bag, or even tabs with grommets where the yarn goes through.  The only thing with that is that the bag needs to stay open when knitting.  Whereas now, it can be closed up.  So, there are pros and cons...  But I do love the size.

On the stash-front, my Mystery bags from Blue Moon arrived.  This is the Mystery Bag:

This is the Once In A Blue Moon bag (mostly blue - although I've seen bluer ones from the ones that were sent out.  But I think I can even make Color Affection with mine!)

And finally, a mediumweight Rare Gem for the ride from Oregon to Minnesota!

No, I don't know what I'll knit with it... YET.

This is one of the newer colors of Bugga from Verdant Gryphon.  For those of you who also likes Bugga, I've just noticed that Cephalopod Yarns is now pricing their Bugga at $30.  Verdant Gryphon's is priced at $32.  However, Verdant's skein is by yardage, which is 412 yards.  Cephalopod's is by weight, 4 oz, which could be 380 yards, or 430 yards, depending on the humidity that day!  I go for the $2 security, knowing that it will be 412 yards!  This is Queen Alexandra's Birdwing.

Now that I'm done with my colorwork sock, I think I'll pick up this Jolly Brolly socks by Deb Barnhill.  I'm not liking the M1L and M1R.  This is a pattern from the Blue Moon Sock Club - earlier this year...  Instead of using the stripey yarn called Wavelength, I've chosen to use Marmalade Sky.  I am starting to see some pooling, or is it flashing?

I'm really enjoying the cooler weather last week.  I even knitted 5 squares of my blanket this week.  But have yet to touch on the Hexiflats, although I have so much more Bugga mini skeins... 

Have a nice week ...

 

New CastOns for the Start of the Month

I knitted 9 squares for the last 3 days of August, waiting for September so I can cast on new socks.  And here they are.  I have cast on 3, but will just show 2 as the third one is barely started!

This is the Hazel Knits KAL.  I had arranged/introduced Yvette (Rav ID Rosehiver) from Rose Hiver Designs to design a mystery socks for the group.  But I let her and the moderator,  Viki, worked out the details.  It was not a surprise that she had designed a colorwork sock for us.  I decided to use the colors She Sells Shells and Chocolatier.

At this point, I have made 4 mistakes so I'm going to frog back to the knit rows.  The worst part is that I missed a row that is an integral part of the design.   I'm too anal to keep this sock as is... So I'm going to start over with the chocolate knitted rows before the flower design begins.  This is how the finish socks will look like:

Also, I'm proud to say that I'm finally using the project bag I bought from Sock Summit for this colorwork project:  This is a YarnPop Large bag.

The second sock is by Lisa Stichweh.  It's call Pillars.  Though this pattern works better with a solid/semi solid color, I was adamant about using a multicolor yarn.  It's simple and I'm glad to have this project while I want to take a break from reading charts with the colorwork project. I'm using Bugga in Burying Beetle.

I've always knitted 64 stitches with 2.5mm needles and lately, they seem to be too big.  Am I knitting looser as I grow older?  I asked John if he would wear this color and he said yes.  So this pair will be for him.  Otherwise, I would have decreased the size to 60, taking out 2 stitches on each side.

Stay tuned for the 3rd cast on and the corrected colorwork sock.