The YarnTotingBlog

I learned a lot in the process of knitting this potholder and I thank my husband for his encouragement to make use of the opportunity to exercise perseverance after so many false starts because of silly errors that I was tempted to quit. By the end, when I had bound off the last stitch and about to take that final sigh of relief at seeing the end of those picots only to realize at that exact moment that I had so many that it looked all wrong and fixing it meant unraveling all that arduous work, I frogged it without tears or frustration and knit it again. It was so much easier the second time, I might add. In fact, I suppose I have to admit that I benefited from all those false starts for the same reason - all that practice has given me a new level of confidence in my knitting overall.  No longer am I afraid of dropping a stitch. The thought of knitting into a completed piece no longer intimidates me. Color changes? Just tell me where. On top of that I’m getting much better at the knit cast-on, binding off and weaving in yarn tails both while knitting and afterwards.

This isn’t just a potholder. It is a victory in personal growth.

Five to fifteen business days they said. Today marks thirteen business days since the bamboo crochet hooks I ordered off eBay were sent via Canada Post.

Speaking of hooks, I first found out via a link at the Lion Brand Notebook that size 7 crochet hooks are now being used in the removal of varicose veins.

I read through the article but I don’t recall them mentioning if the doctor interviewed had a preference between Boye or Bates.

***Update: The mail was super late today and they came! They came! I’ll blog about when I’ve tested them out.

I did finish off that skein for the bobble baby blanket and this is what I worked on tonight in preparation for my potholders.

As it turns out these squares really are easy and quick to knit. I learned so much from them too besides the basics of the domino knitting technique.

The new things I learned with just these little squares include:

• the knit cast-on - I struggled with making this too tight at first but by the second half of the cast-on for the second square I was getting the hang of it
• what it means to “slip 1 knitwise” (and, consequently, purlwise also)
• the “slip 1, knit 2 together, pass slip stitch over” double decrease
• that purling the last stitch on the end of a row creates the most convenient loops on an edge that has to be knitted into later
• striping! This was the first time I’ve worked with two different colors

I’m very happy about my squares and all that I learned particularly after such a bad day with the bobble blanket. I should probably sleep on my victory and I might just tackle my first potholder tomorrow .. or rather, later today.

Oh, and a side note, my circulars are perfect for these.

A train of thought several nights back right at bed time had me up late starting this project instead of going to sleep. I can’t explain it. I was simply overcome with the desire to crochet bobbles. This pattern is so simple. That is why this kills me. Hours upon hours have gone into this and all I have to show for it is a couple of hours work. First it was my tension. It was pain to crochet and the results were not up to par with what I was seeing elsewhere and definitely not worth all the work. After sleeping on it I decided to try again from the beginning, consciously making every effort to loosen up and I decided to make it smaller. Since then it’s been enjoyable to work on and my bobbles actually bobble. I have not had to wrestle with any stitches and I’m caring about it rather than wanting to forget about it. That’s only half of it though. I seem to have forgotten how to count. We’re not even talking big numbers here. Eleven is the largest but my biggest problem appears to be counting to three. I think I’m concentrating and being careful and yet stitches will fall off, I’ll catch myself doing the wrong stitch or the right stitch wrong, or I’ll lose my tension, get my hand tangled in the yarn or even better, get my entire self tangled in the yarn (don’t ask, especially not how many times). I’ve had to frog and rework this thing so many times I could have been finished by now. I don’t know what my deal is as this is quite a recent thing. Am I not getting enough sleep? Too much stress? Whatever it is, this isn’t helping. I’m staying up working on it instead of getting to bed at a reasonable hour. If I try to go to bed, it’s incomplete existence haunts me and keeps me from sleep. If I can just get to the end of this first skein I will take a break; sleep a little. I’m not touching anything even slightly challenging until whatever my problem is has been taken care of.

Maybe this is simply a providential lesson in tolerance, patience and perseverance. Or possibly priorities (ie. sleep, not crochet).

With projects mounting I think I’m going to get something else knocked out before I knit up the blue. Just today I decided to crochet the Granny Square Skirt out of Leisure Arts Fashion Show Favorites using this cotton so not only will I have to buy more, I will need three more colors which may end up meaning three more kerchiefs as well. Since I’m buying it anyway, I mean, why not? I’m also intending on using it for learning the domino technique from Vivian Høxbro’s Domino Knitting by knitting up a bunch of potholders.

Hmm … I guess I like this stuff. (It’s even in my blog header if anyone hasn’t noticed).

Oh, this was my first project using circulars and I only discovered one problem. Since I’m use to working with my 8 inch bamboo needles, I got into the habit of propping the butt of the right needle against my stomach while I adjust the stitches (I suppose with a longer needle people usually stick it under their arm to do this) but obviously this just doesn’t work with a circular so I had to find a new way to accomplish this. One of the good things I found is that for some unknown reason my knitting looks better. Maybe it was related to my new efforts to loosen my death grip which resulted in my stitches moving quite freely and not requiring me to wrestle with them like usual. Several things I liked about using the circulars was firstly, being able to see my work better rather than it all being scrunched up on the needle after a certain point, being able to slide it onto the cord while I wasn’t working with it and not needing to be at all concerned about stitches sliding off and, I don’t know, they’re just kind of fun to fling around and stuff.

I crocheted this blanket while pregnant with DS originally just to use up left over yarn from my first two crochet projects. It became a baby blanket mostly because the yarn I had happened to be blue and there wasn’t very much of it. I learned only recently that this pattern is called box stitch. It’s the pattern my mother taught me when I first learned to crochet and I never did finish that blanket I started way back then (which coincidently was also blue). For the border I went around it three times in single crochet and then added a block edging. I think it was made with Caron Simply Soft yarn and it’s about a yard square.

I have two more kerchiefs in the works and then I’m done for a bit. At least until I find another color I have to have. They’re just so quick and easy, I can’t help myself.

Oh, I tried something new with this one. When making the cords I weaved the yarn end in as I was binding off so I didn’t have to thread it through a yarn needle and weave in it when I was done. I had never thought of doing that until I saw a lady on YouTube over the weekend demonstrating how she weaves in yarn ends as she crochets. I’ll post that another time. Why didn’t I know about this sooner?!

I have this problem with knitting. It seems that projects always call for needles other than what I have. Not only are there the straight needles but fifteen hundred different sizes and lengths of circular needles. Don’t forget double pointed needles. Well, for the sake of my pocket book I decided some time back that I wasn’t buying straight needles anymore. Instead, I decided to buy circulars and use them for all my flat pieces as well whether I liked it or not. That didn’t solve the problem of all the different lengths when it came to circulars so I actually was simply making do with what I had rather than buying new anything. Then I discovered the Denise Interchangeable Knitting Needles and fell in love, especially with the pink. However, while I was saving for those my MIL passed on to me a 50% off coupon for Michaels but since I couldn’t think of anything I wanted from Michaels that would make savings worth the gas it took to get there and spending the money I was saving for my Denise Interchangeables, it appeared I wasn’t going to get to use it. Saturday rolled around however and I remembered it was the last day for the coupon and why wouldn’t I want to go to Michaels? I already knew Michaels didn’t carry the needles I was saving for but I ran a search on their website anyway and discovered the Boye interchangeable knitting needles. I figured since we were heading out to the park we may as well go to Michaels and take a look.

First thing I noted once there is that they were more expensive than I was expecting but with 50% off I could afford them and they’d be cheaper than the ones I was saving for. Second thing, and the real hangup, they’re aluminum. Denise’s are plastic and I’ve never knit with plastic before but I had grown partial to bamboo for how light it is (which is why I use a size 9 for my kerchiefs: it’s the smallest size I have in bamboo needles) and had been using my aluminum needles for decoration (they looked great standing up in my red vase). I left the store to find DH who had passed up Michaels for the World Market next door and lamented to him, starting with the price since I knew he didn’t care the slightest what they were made out of. He’s pretty good at math though so he’d figured out before I’d finished speaking that 50% off these needles was a lower total than the ones I was saving for and he’d already latched on to the fact that this set of Boyes had more sizes in it. He forced me into it.

Last night I pulled them out to experiment. As it turns out, I really don’t mind aluminum needles when they’re only 4 inches long. Also, I recently had been thinking about how I kind of missed the distinctive click of aluminum needles. They do up tightly and I haven’t had them come loose on me so far. I still have no idea how to knit in the round but my next kerchief is working up well. Actually, the only problem I’ve had so far is when I pick up the one needle in my left hand and begin looking around wondering where the other one is and I really don’t care to admit how often that has happened.

I know there is an overall preference among knitters for the Denise kit so if you’re in the market I guess take their word for it and go with Denise. Personally I recommend spending the extra for the pink kit as not only is it pink but the extra money is donated to breast cancer research. For me though, the price won out. As it turns out however, the money I saved ended up going to help others after all so that made it worth the sacrifice to me.

It’s my second ever knit project (the first was frogged - not for being bad, just for being useless) and my first kerchief, made with Bernat Baby Coordinates in Soft Mauve and size 7 straight aluminum needles. Blue ones. I still have them. Ah, the memories! I was sitting on the couch with the dog beside me getting bopped in the head repeatedly by my left needle as I knit away and being the good sport that she is, she never complained. I still have the rest of of this yarn and I suppose I’ll make something for DD with it eventually.

Orange is one of my favorite colors right now so it had to be the next kerchief I made. For some reason it came out shorter on the long end than the pink one and yet equal from front to back. It’s not a concern, just a puzzling mystery. The purple kerchief I’ve all but finished is the same. Whatever changed, at least I’m consistent now.

Finished April 29th but only took the photo this morning. You know you have issues when you’re feeling too non photogenic to even take a photo of the top of your head.