This happens to be my greatest craft related accomplishment in recent times. It is, in fact, the bobble blanket frogged. Yes, I ripped it out. As it turns out I had satiated my craving for crocheting bobbles and I really wasn’t that keen on the blanket. Michaels had this stuff on sale this week so I picked up a couple at the insistence of DH because I really don’t care for the stuff but since I already have this ball, it makes for the cheapest blanket project right now. We’re supposed to be heading out of town this Friday and I needed a simple project to try to work on in the car (I say try because I tend to suffer badly from motion sickness but I’m being optimistic). I’ve picked out a knit pattern for this and will crochet an edge. It’s only going to be small, I’m aiming for 36 inches by 36, and I’m really hoping I don’t have to buy more. The idea was originally to get it out of my stash, not accumulate it.

In case I need a break from it I’m also prepared with patterns and yarn for various washcloths and, of course, pot holders. My intention for the vacation itself, that is, while we’re actually at our destination, is to work on the Tree of Life Afghan.

Now, this all is supposing we do go on vacation this Friday.

I’ve really been enjoying this pattern. I actually made it past the trees and the first divider and into the first set of flowers but about then is when I was reading about selvage and began thinking that I regretted not added it in as others were doing so I set my work aside, pulled out another skein of yarn and started all over. Unfortunately there is a prevailing problem though - I rarely have solid blocks of time for knitting so I have been forced repeatedly to stop in the middle of a row which has resulted in countless mistakes due to the break in concentration and I don’t even know how it’s affected my gauge. It appears I’ll have to pull out what I’ve done this second time around as well since the distractions have caused me to be uncertain if my row count is correct. I’m not crying about it, yet, just sad. Alright, maybe I’m frustrated too but as DH said a week or two back, maybe I can use it as a motivator for becoming more organized in general so that I can make time for myself to knit uninterrupted each day.

I was hesitant to do this when I noticed the pattern was marked as requiring an “Experienced” level of skill but after reading some of the comments over at the Lion Brand Blog I was encouraged to jump in.

Initially I was thinking of knitting this up for my mother and her preference for fall colors dictated my choice. I ended up purchasing yarn from A.C.Moore since they had Wool-Ease for $2.49 - the cheapest I’d found at that point. They didn’t have much of a color selection considering I needed ten skeins and even from those with enough I would need to use two dye lots. I was partial towards the Sienna yet thinking maybe I should go with Sage but since there were only 7 skeins of Sage my decision was made for me. The Sienna was sitting vertically between the Violet and the Sage and it appeared as a gorgeous burnt orange. Taken off by itself however it has appeared as a variety of shades depending on the light it is in and that made me uncertain of whether my mother would care for it although I remain quite fond of it myself, appreciating it’s various personalities. I looked for input from mom but she informed me that whatever color I chose would be perfect which wasn’t reassuring enough for me so I have at this point determined to keep this, my first knitted afghan - in fact, my first ever large knit project - for my own home and make another for mom - maybe this same afghan, maybe another. Also, I found an awesome place online to buy from so I’m extremely excited about future yarn shopping.

Well, I’m not good at knitting gauge swatches but I did give it a go this time and I’ve learned a lot from that will save me a ridiculous amount of time in future (one small lesson being to do it properly the first time to save having to do it again, and again, in an attempt to verify if my half hearted effort has really given accurate feedback). Monday morning I cast on and it has not exactly been smooth sailing but I have not had to completely frog and start over. The worst thing that happened was during the first row of increases I read the first half of the pattern from the right row and the second half from another and didn’t realize it until I was a couple of rows further on. Frogging back and picking up all those stitches again was one thing but even more time consuming was fixing all the loops that were split in the process. Three rows up I was still finding them and having to drop stitches down to that first increase row to correct the split stitch so it didn’t drive me crazy.

Now I guess I’m about half way through the branches (about to start row 38, to be exact) and although it was quite a novelty at first to be doing cables for the first time, I have to say that I’m looking forward to the divider where I will be doing straight knit and purl rows at least for a short while.

OK, I needed a break from the butterfly wings so I whipped these up.

The pink washcloth is a smaller variation of a dishcloth pattern from Knitting Made Easy, a booklet put out by Best Recipes. For the purple I started another dishcloth pattern from that booklet but several rows in realized it wasn’t going to work out because I was making it smaller. Since I didn’t want to frog it and cast on again and inspired by Knits by Rachel (who has some cute designs both free and for sale) I chose a heart and just experimented and until it looked the way I wanted it to.

I’ve noticed that they tend to shrink lengthwise if not left to dry flat which obviously isn’t convenient so I think in future I will knit them “taller” so they shrink to squares.

I decided to knock out this kerchief after all when I became entirely uninspired last Thursday and needed to refresh myself with the simple pleasure of garter stitch.

I tried a couple of new things on this one. I sized up a needle for the bind off which did help to loosen it up like I’ve heard. Fancy that. Then, instead of binding off completely and then making both ties separately, with one loop still on the needle (and switching back to my original size 9) I created the first tie with a knit cast on, binding it back off and weaving in the yarn end to secure it. I attached the second one similarly except of course I had to created the first loop myself. I wove in the first yarn tail as I cast on which anchored the tie in the process and then really secured it with the last yarn tail once it was bound off again. It worked out quite well and I will probably do it this way in future.

Despite slicing my thumb open last Friday I have still been able to knit. Although I don’t need to wear the splint so much now, I still can’t bend it but it has proven more of a challenge to crocheting than to knitting, quite to my surprise. Of course, the fact that I’ve been working on butterfly wings in size 10 thread doesn’t help much.

This week I have plans to conquer this doily. I started it weeks ago with so much enthusiasm and plans for more in different colors. Now I will be happy just to finish this one. All these butterfly wings are not fun. At this point I still have eleven large wings and all twenty small wings left to complete and of course they all still need to be attached both to the bodies and to the doily. There is a certain monotony to a pattern in knitting and crocheting that can be quite relaxing and meditative. This is not that kind of monotony. This is like trudging through knee deep mud barefoot because your shoes and socks were sucked off moments after beginning the hike through the mangroves (recollections of a poorly planned school field trip - you can imagine how impressed the bus driver was on our return).

I have never made anything for my mother so I took the idea to her and she said she’d love an afghan and I found something that should prove quite a satisfying challenge. It will be my first knit blanket and I’m looking forward to starting but I really want to knock out at least this doily first because I just can’t stand having so many WIPs. I’ll post more on the intended afghan once this doily has been defeated.

I learned a lot in the process of knitting this domino knit 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).