Four Month Baboon

This summer, I attempted to crochet something. It didn't go well. Apparently my hands (and brain!) much prefer knitting. So it was a bit of a struggle, but I finally finished my latest crochet project: a baboon.

Please, you didn't think I'd crochet something reasonable, did you?

I Did Things

Even with last week to work on my sweater, I didn't finish it. Mostly because I did not work on it. Instead, I made a housewarming present.

My parents have officially moved in to their new house. With all the homes they've lived in throughout the years, this is the only one they have actually built. That plus the fact that mom really appreciated the potholder I made her a while back, I decided I'd get some cotton yarn and make kitchen things for them.

Three hundred grams of cotton yarn goes a surprisingly long way.

In three days, I ended up making two potholders (the first time I've crocheted in ages!), two potholder mitts (horrible to make but seriously the most useful kitchen item ever), a scrubby and a dishrag.

All that working with cotton yarn at a tight gauge was not fun but I'm quite pleased with the end product(s). And they were very well received, so yay! Don't think I'll be doing much in cotton for the near future though. Not until the memory of this experience has dulled!

Still Waiting

I am still waiting impatiently for my buttons to arrive. While I'm waiting, I've decided to not start another big project, so I've been burning through some of my old cotton yarns making more kitchen-related things. I've made another dishcloth and a couple of potholders.

It's all very exciting. Okay, maybe not that exciting. But it is something to do while waiting for buttons.

I Made A Pretty

At least, I think it is pretty.

And good news: crocheting doilies? Nowhere near as awkward as crocheting potholders. Huzzah!

And speaking of crochet versus knit (sorta), I attempted to do some knit lace yesterday... It didn't go so well. I'll try it again later with hopefully more success.

Therapeutic Crafting

I think it goes without saying that I've been quite down lately. I've still got Dan's gloves to finish (just the fingers left, though) but I've felt like that project requires a bit too much thought for me to deal with at the moment. So instead, I've fulfilled my need for distracting crafting by doing something simple: magic potholders.

I've done two other magic potholders and they were quite easy but really nifty and delightfully functional. My mom mentioned when she saw mine that she'd like one, so I figured that this need for simple and distracting crafting would be a good opportunity to fulfill that request.

This is the first crochet project I've done since I taught myself to knit. It was kind of strange... the process felt a bit clunkier and not near as smooth as knitting. It was really weird and a bit unsettling. After all, I've crocheted for years (and years). It shouldn't be supplanted in my craft-love by the newcomer of knitting. And yet...

Due to a variety of factors (the need for more mindlessness, a decent stash of cotton yarn, the urge to go back to the smoothness of knitting), I made a second potholder but this time, I knitted it. I didn't have a knit pattern for the magic potholder, but I figured it wouldn't be too hard to make something up as long as I could get the cast on right. I found a cast on for making socks toe-up, did a couple of kfb increases at each end, knit around and around (and around,) then grafted the open end closed.

The yellow with cream stripe is crocheted, the red/beige/cream one is knit

I think next time I will cast on more stitches (maybe 90 instead of 80) to make the potholder closer to 9" at the corners (it's currently 8"), but I really like the results of the knit version. The material is still nice and thick but it's a bit more flexible and supple than the fabric created with crochet. I think that's just the joy of knitted fabric since the hook/needles were the same size and the yarn is the same size and material. Which makes me think that knitting kind of wins all the way around.

I'm not saying that I'm going to eschew crochet. I actually have plans/hopes to use some of the lovely thread I have to make a doily or two and, while there are some nice knitted lace doilies, I haven't really found ones that speak to me as much as some of the available crochet ones out there. But I am kind of thinking that knitting might be on the way to officially becoming my favorite craft style. I just have to get over the feeling that I'm treating crochet like a red-headed step-child.

Crochet-work Orange

I like crocheting. And I like my husband. I suppose it isn't surprising that I like crocheting things for my husband. In the past day or two, I've finished a couple of Dan-requested projects so I thought I'd share them. They've helped me realized that Dan like orange like I like pink.

First up, Dan wanted a doily for his bedside table. He also wanted me to make him something orange and black. So he picked out this pattern and ta-da:

That's Dan's new bedside orange and black doily.

Also, I can't remember if Dan requested a shower scrubbie or if I told him I'd make him one (I think option two) but we settled this (very cute) scrubbie:

This one is actually my second go at converting the pattern to fit his soap bar. The first one was cute but a little too big and, honestly, I had a lot of fun making it so I was just looking for an excuse to make another one and "improve" it.

First fishie (left) and second fish (right) are here:

  

I have a fair amount of the orange and white from the fishies (that yarn was part of the massive savings last weekend) and I have another 15-ish grams of the doily thread, so I imagine I'll be making some more orange goodies in Dan's future.

Go orange!

I Saved SO Much Money!

If you are reading this and are also someone that actually knows me, you might know that I was planning on taking knitting lessons this month. Well, sadly that was cancelled but they didn't tell me why. Now I know: the store is closing.

It's pretty sad because I just discovered the store in the past few months and they are awesome - lots of fun (and yeah, expensive) yarns. But now they are going away. Boo.

Of course, this means going out of business sales. Yesterday I got an email that everything was 50-75% off so I decided to reward myself after a long day of housework (seriously, scrubbing on hands and knees deserves a reward) by going to check out the goodies. Dan, having another comp day, accompanied me.

Dan is an enabler. A big giant dirty enabler.

That's my yarn haul. It's slightly over six pounds. That's right. I bought more yarn than Bitty weighs.

Naturally, if you "saved" that same amount of money buying 100% acrylic yarns, I'm pretty sure you could buy a Sam's worth, if not more. But if it gives you any idea of the truly lovely things I got, most of those are wool. Or wool and cotton. Or wool and alpaca. That pile of gray in the top left corner? Wool, angora and silk. (It normally goes for $20 a skein. I got four.)

Mind you, I have no idea what I'm going to do with most of this stuff. (The orange and off-white wool will be made into a fish scrubby for Dan. The green-ish stuff on the right will be a new mat for Ashes.) But I will say that typically, yarn goes a bit further with knitting than crochet. So even without my yarn store around, I am going to learn to knit because I want to stretch these lovelies as far as I can!

               
  

Is it insane? Yes. But it sure is fun!

Ack! I Made More!

Fortunately, I've about run out of my partial cotton skeins so hopefully I'll soon migrate back to Dan's doily or more potholders or something.

I Can't Stop Making These!

I have a new addiction: crocheting tawashi. I've made seven of these since May and I have no plans on stopping.

The first two I blogged about here but since then, I've made five more. Yes, five!

Here are today's two additions:

And here are three that I made as a set:

I actually made the first one (the smallest one) back in May and have been using it to wash my face. I loved it so much I decided to make one for the shower but it wasn't quite large enough (the medium sized one) so I made a larger one. Which means I have three and I'm not really sure what to do with the middle one. But I love them all and the cotton thread wears so well (much better than the acrylic). I so enjoy these!

   

Slightly less addictive but still enjoyable, crocheted magic potholders. My most current one:

I'm going to overflow my house with crocheted goodies.

Radio Silence Is Broken!

Gah! I've been dying to share this with people because it's been such a massive project and has taken up sooooo much time! But it was a birthday present for my mom and I didn't want to ruin the surprise since I know she visits my blog and Flickr. (Hi Mom!) But now I've finally gotten together with my mom and been able to actually give her the present so there is no more surprise to ruin.

This is what I've been working on since late March:

It's HUGE! Twenty-eight inches from corner to corner and I dread to think of the number of hours involved in making this. (I'd say at least 100, easy, partially due to having to frog rounds after massive mistakes on my part.) But I think it turned out delightful. (And Mom likes it too so even better!)

And considering how much work it was, I'm really surprised that I'm not cursing the idea of ever doing another painted doily again. I'm actually kind of wanting to. (I think this indicates some sort of brain damage, yes?) Mind you, I will never, never use embroidery thread again (too many ends to weave in and separating the strands is such a time killer) but I am contemplating checking out the sewing thread next time I'm at the craft store.

Since I haven't gotten to flood my blog with multiple posts about my progress, instead I'll just flood this post with multiple pictures of my progress.

Ravely goodies are here, if anyone is interested.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.

Squee!

Dan is so cool! Okay, we knew this but I have further evidence to present that shows his awesomeness!

He made me yarn posts!

They are stands to stick my yarn skeins and thread balls on so they don't roll and flop all around while I'm crocheting, getting cat hair on them. (It's a big issue in my needlework.) Anyway, I have seven total - two each of the above sizes, two similar to the larger one pictured but with a taller post and a double posted tall one.

He's so awesome! I can't wait to use them!

(And yes, they are pink! I wanted a weathered wood/white wash style but in pink. I call it pink wash. Yes, I'm a dork. But I don't care! I love them!)

More Mini-Projects

There are so many other, more productive things, I could be doing, yet I keep doing little quck crochet projects. Case in point:

I'm now crocheting scrubbies.

Thr first one ended up pretty small (about 3" across - wrong size hook and my normal tight tension) so I've decided to use it as a face scrubbie. The second one turned out just right (about 5" across - larger hook and more stitches but still normally tight tension)so I'm going to give that a shot as a sponge replacement in the kitchen and see how it goes.

These little things are actually quite fun to make. I'm sure I'll be making a lot more of them. As I put off doing productive work. Sigh.

More Productivity!

Apparently finishing off the boy coasters has spurred on more crochet productivity! I've recently finished up a mini-trivet...

It's about 5"x5.5" so perfect for things that want to make sweat rings on my tablecloth during dinner

...a pot holder (via the Magic Square method, something I wanted to try out)...

It's double thickness and about 6" square and pretty much a delightful little potholder and quick enough to make that I'm sure I'll make more

...and a pincushion.

Because I liked the motif and was tired of digging through one of four little containers to get the right needle or pin

Alright, so it's nothing especially exciting (including the photos, but at least this post made me take better pictures of the projects than what I had taken previously) but I feel quite productive getting them all done and wanted to share.

Yay for little crochet projects!