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.
Filed under: crochet, knitting | Tags: knitting, afghans, crochet, doilies, thread
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.
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).
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.
Light & Lacy Afghan
This pattern was from a Mainstays label. Actually, it might have been the label from the yarn I started the Diamond Trellis Afghan with now that I think of it because the label says it came from a skein of “Autumn Red”. Well, that solves a mystery. Anyway, the yarn used was Red Heart’s Super Saver’s 0313 Aran. The yarn was given to me and the pattern is one I’ve worked before but ended up using as a dog blanket which in the course of time was destroyed. The two afghans that I’ve completed this month are projects that I started just for the sake of crocheting and to use up yarn. I was originally intending to knit the red and cream into an afghan to match the throw pillows we were given at our wedding shower but it took me so long to get around to it that the dog ended up destroying those pillows anyway and they went in the trash. (Our dog isn’t destructive, she just likes to “nest”).
Finished Thursday, 04.24.08.
SB300-003 Diamond Trellis (Afghan)
The pattern is from the back of a Red Heart Super Saver No Dye Lot label which also happens to be the yarn I’m using to make it. It’s worsted weight in “0332 Ranch Red“. Or at least, most of it is. I started out with a different brand of No Dye Lot yarn and armed with a sample for color matching I sent DH out to get more one evening. I must have bought the original yarn from a different store and DH came home with what looked like a perfect match from Walmart. It’s close, but it’s not a match. This isn’t an heirloom though so after some contemplation (and already being an hour or so into the new yarn) I decided I didn’t care enough to undo it. Unless you were me or had a terribly sharp eye and were specifically inspecting it, you probably wouldn’t notice anyway.
Finished Saturday, 04.19.08.
