Yarn, Yarn, and also Yarn

New yarns :D I have them!

So for today, I’ll add the Christmas gifts I got from my brother :D

I got yarns 8D three of them, or rather two types of yarns.

Yet again…

I have bought two more craft books :p

• あみぐるみcollection Volume 7 : another amigurumi book.  I especially like the Kappaxile’s armed with toothpick wepons :D and the alligator.
• てあみのクローゼット-カーディガン&ジャケット (Let’s Knit series) : A knit book of cardigans and jackets.  I’m in love with the raglan cardigan on page 20

In another update, I wanted to crochet something in my かわいいレース編み (Let’s Knit series はじめてかんたんできちゃった!) book.  I was thinking either a cup/glass/mug cover or a cozy for my Japanese tea mug.  I have some garish orange yarn previously purchased at what was formerly a San Diego Daiso, but I didn’t have any hooks so I had to go out and buy my teeny tiny hooks.  For some reason the JoAnn’s near me don’t carry hooks small hooks.  They did have a .90mm one that I bought (!!!)  I was thinking I could try to finish up a tablecloth into my dotage and ultimately die by stabbing my eyes with it and bleeding to death.

I ended up buying two hooks at what was formerly a San Diego Daiso and two at my LYS.
and completely unrelated, but kinda not, are these things that I found hanging around my room.

          

Picked a Pattern!

Technically my mom did :p  And the winner(‘s) is(are):

Falling Leaves Wrap by Dory Brown for my Godmother, because it’s a large lace pattern and because I fear teh lace D: I have a backup pattern, which is the Eva’s Shawl by milobo.  Judging from some of the comments and looking at the time it takes for people to complete, I don’t think I’ll have a problem.  I also really want to do the lace one, just to get the “OMG LACE!!!  I made it!!! and I LIVED!!!” moment out of the way.

Mom picked out her own pattern, which relieves me because she’s such a picky person to please :p  I don’t really mind making her things, but I don’t really want to spend a couple months making something when she probably won’t want to wear it.  Long Open Shawl by Bernat Design Studio is the winner for the Mommeh, and since she picked out her own shawl I think pick out a nice color for it all by myself :D

I still love Doris Chan's Chrysanthemum Tea Shawl, I might just make it to lay on the back of my reading chair, or a kind of table cloth for the kitchen table :3

Evangeline Review

The Pattern:

Just in case you forgot, I used Evangeline (fingerless gloves) by designer Michelle Szeghalmi-Shirley.

I actually really liked the way this written.  Considering the fact that my knitting skills are near to none, that I’ve only been reading actual patterns since August of last year, and that these are my first freakin’ cables (yey!), these were pretty clear.  I do have to admit that if there were a mistake, I probably wouldn’t have caught it anyway :p.

The one thing I got kind of caught up in was the pages, I would have liked the cast-on instructions to be on page two, then the stitch instructions, but that’s about it.  It just got a little confusing for me when I had to look at the cable pattern after casting on, which I admittedly had to do a number of times with all the frogging I did on this project.

For someone well versed in reading patterns, and in knowing their own knitting, this pattern will be beyond easy.  For someone just starting out with cables, its a great pattern to learn how cables work out.

Other linky-pooh’s:  The Sweet Sheep Ravelry Downloads (more patterns), The Sweet Sheep (website, yummeh yarns!), and The Sweet Sheep Blog (its a blog genius!)

The Yarn:

Again, just in case you weren’t paying attention I used Naturally Caron Country in Deep Taupe.

I love the color of this yarn, its a little weird, like its going through an identity crisis.  I actually first bought it to make fingerless gloves for a friend, she said she wanted something with green yarn.

When I bought it (@ JoAnn’s) I could have sworn it was a muted mossy green color, so I thought “Oooh, purty green for some gloves”, paid for it and took it out and they had a grayish color, at the time I thought it was just the light, so went on home with my yarn, looked at them again and thought it had a purplish color.

When I started knitting it I swore it had a mossy green color again, I worked my gloves for the next couple of weeks not really noticing the color, eventually I IM’ed my friend and by this point I forgot what color she wanted (okay, so it was more then a few weeks xD), she told me green.  I took another look at the yarn and I swear to the Almighty Bob it was a purple color!  Through the course of the day it turned from purple to gray to a green again, which put me in a moment of awe at the weirdness that is this yarn.

I’m pretty sure its the light that gives my yarn its identity crisis because the color changed throughout the day, and its gray in full sunlight.  But since it wasn’t green I was glad I had another ball of green in my basket =D, so the gloves I was making went from being for a friend to being for a Chango (that would be me o_o).

The actually knitting part was a bit of a trial.  It’s a splitty yarn and my repeated frogging’s didn’t seem to help matters.  There were a couple times when I caught the lower loop on the working needle by accident, which made my stitches unnecessarily tight, which made me tense, and I knit tighter when I’m tense, so yeah, hassle.

I really liked the yarn though, and maybe someone who knits at a looser tension will have a better time of it.  Would I knit with this yarn again?  Yes, but probably in a larger needle size, and I definitely want to try crocheting with it (I used my hook a lot, ribbit).

Other linky-pooh’s:  Free Naturally Caron Crochet Projects, Free Naturally Caron Knitting Projects, and the Naturally Caron Blog(geh).

Technorati Tags: knitting,review,patterns,crochet,yarn,joann's,ravelry,knit,needles

Finished Evangeline!

Granted it took me way longer then it should have, but they’re done lol.  It think I started in like March or April, frogged, frogged, frogged, knit, frogged, forgot about=, buried it in under yarn, took out in August, knit, frogged, knit, frogged, frogged, knit, knit, knit, went “oooh, that's not as hard as I’ve been making it!”, knit, frogged, knit, knit, knit, finished, and posted 8D

1. Gloves and Hand, 2. Cabled Fingerless Gloves, 3. Fingerless Gloves, 4. Evangeline Gloves III

Aren’t they purty~  A little fuzzy but that's because I haven’t washed them yet lol, but there they are :3  My first gloves (although fingerless), my first knitted gusset, and my first cables, the one thing that caused me the most problems.  Actually the cables weren't really that bad.  I think I might have overcomplicated things, and they got in the way of the double pointed needles, so Evangeline might not have been the most ideal project for first cables, but they’re cute~

Project Info:

• Yarn Name:  Naturally Caron Country
  • Weight:  Worsted / 10 ply (9 wpi)
  • Fiber:  25% Merino Wool and 75% Microdenier Acrylic
  • Color:  Deep Taupe
• Needles:  Size 6US / 4 meter DPN’s
  • Pattern actually calls for 7’s but I didn’t have any when I started
• Pattern:  Evangeline (off of Ravelry)
  • Designer:  Michelle Szeghalmi-Shirley

Now that I know my way around fingerless gloves the next time should go just a little smoother (just a teeny tiny bit).  And I’ve actually picked out another pattern for my Naturally Caron Spa in Green Sheen (bamboo blend), these will be for a friend, so my first project I’m not going to keep, unless I decide I hate said friend between now and when I finish :D.  Considering how yummy the color is, I might decide to do that lol.

 

I will eventually (next day?  two?  week???) post a review of the Evangeline pattern and the Naturally Caron Country yarn :3.

Cross Postage, I Wants, and I’m Gonna Kick In Your Face You Cheap Bastard!!!

Since this is a craft blog I thought I’d cross post a paragraph or two from my other blog since it’s pertains to the craftyness… ness… *ahem*

… godmother crocheted for me when they brought me home from the hospital as a newborn.  In fact the requisite baby blankie every child has, and makes threadbare, is a baby blankie I now use as a throw (as in blanket, not “Here, catch this ball of cotton!”).  It’s just a simple quilt blanket, the perfect size for a baby born on a  little South Pacific Island, but it’s special enough that my mother put it in storage before I got so attached to it to the point where I would have made it threadbare.  She knew what it would have meant for me to have it when I was older, because she knew what it meant to the person who made it, see my godmother hand stitched every single square.  Something, in a society where we tend to take things like blankets for granted, most people don’t really understand what it means to make something like that by hand.

 

Knitters, crocheters, and sewers have a saying that “I knit/crochet/sew every single stitch with love”, as someone who does all three, and as corny as that that saying is, I understand what it means.  So even though I never grew up knowing what she looked like, or knowing the sound of her voice, I still know who my godmother is.  Because I have her hand stitched baby blanket she made, her hand crocheted baby clothes she made, her hand crocheted “baby’s first x-mas ornament” she made…

Going along those maudlin lines, I never really get why people would prefer store bought baby stuff (blankets, clothes, toys), or just stuff/presents in general, instead of handmade items (items not stuff, hah!).  I hate the fact that people will automatically assume the handmade items (hah!) are cheaper and that store bought stuff is better because they’re expensive.  Or they think the sentiment of “It’s a better presents because I made it with love” is somehow an excuse for “I’m actually a cheap bastard so I made this macaroni elephant instead, that and I have a ungodly urge to kick in your face”.

First of all, in most cases handmade items are in no way cheaper then store bought ones.  Do they have any idea about how much money actually goes into buying those supposedly cheap things?  Good yarn if freakin’ expensive!  So is nice fabric, not to mention the patterns, and the actual thought process that goes into making a handmade quilt, sweater, bag, dress, hat, scarf, hell even doggy doodoo takes some thought to make (and a pooping dog is a perfect complement to those thought).

When someone makes something for someone else they’re usually thinking about that perfect something for that someone (… or something like that…).  My point it that its something individually made just for that person (you ungrateful macaroni elephants!!!).  Plus, tell me if you can find these things in a gift shop: crochet spermies with condom pocket, crochet Sandman Helms (eee do want!), knitted tangible something to worship  (hint: its a monster :D), a Giant Knit Squid Hat, an awesome Nintendo NES Plushie, or um… this thing in all its freaky cuteness!

… Well maybe the Nintendo if and when they get around to it >_>  I’d still prefer the handmade one (so neener neener neener).

Side Notes (Bottom Notes?  So You Actually Read Everything Till The End Notes?

• I’ve been thinking I want Valerie Van Arsdale Shrader’s Sweet Nothings book, things look sweet lol
• I’m hungry for a cupcake
• I have an odd urge to make a macaroni elephant…

No, U!!!

Dear Left Fingerless Glove,

I understand you have a desire to be just like your right handed twin, but its better for you to be an individual. Just because Right Fingerless Glove lasted a month for me to painstakingly knit does not mean you have to give me the same problems. Just because I ended up with five perfectly fine cables on Right by no means makes me some kind of expert on knitting cables. I frogged Right so many times that Right started to fuzz, so many times that it crossed my mind on several occasions to just scrap the entire project! Do you have any idea what would have happened if I had?! DO YOU!!?!

You would have never existed Left! You would have remained a lonely ball of yarn! You would have remained in the bowels of my yarn basket to be forgotten and lost forever. I have frogged you twice thus far, once because you had the audacity to have a messed up cable, and once again because you ignored the fact that without a thumb hole I’d have to chop off my left thumb in order to wear you, and I do NOT want to chop off my left thumb just to wear you. You can get away with a couple frogs but don’t you dare for a Bob-loving second assume I’m going to forget your ungratefulness. I created you and I can un-create you! You don’t want to end up as a large pile of yarn barf, do you? Or be used to create an off colored pile of doggie doggie caca, right? I didn’t think so.

With Love and Understanding,

Your Maker

Started Knitting again :D

Soooo~ It’s been awhile o_o ahem…

KNITTING~ I haven’t knitted in almost two months TT__TT One of the reasons is because my fingerless gloves have been frogged so many times I just got tired of them. Buuuut~ after 2 months I decided I was finally going to finish them :p and I’m halfway done, I already got through with the right hand (minus the thumb gussets) and now I’m starting on the left. These I’m probably going to keep for myself (so selfish :D). They’re made from naturallycaron.com’s Country (Acrylic and Merino Blend) in Deep Taupe.

Yay :D first time doing cables~ I think they actually came out better then I was anticipating. I’m planning on making another pair of fingerless gloves for a friend in naturallycaron.com’s Spa (Acrylic and Bamboo blend) in Green Sheen :3 it has a nice soft green color.

On a side note~ I’ve been trying to wean myself off of shampoo’s with sulfate and conditioners with silicone since I heard its better for curly hairs. So far its working fine~ But since my hair is prone to dryness I’ve been trying to figure out how to retain nice defined curls without having to shell out money for anything expensive (yet :p I’m going to eventually buy a nice curl friendly conditioner). Sooo I’ve been looking at some of the recipes online, on both the Naturally Curly Crafters group on Ravelry and the NaturallyCurly.com site. I’ve just put on some warm honey and extra virgin olive oil and I’m waiting to see how its going to turn out :3 Also I feel like vomiting because I really hate the smell of honey x_x

Umm, I Have no Title...

So I frogged again :D Only it was one of those going overboard type of frogs. I made a mistake a couple of stitches on my last row and, again, I wasn't really paying attention and I frogged way too much XD. It wasn't until after that I realized I didn't really have to do that :/ I kind of like frogging, except until I realized I didn't even have to x_x heh

I think thats what I love most about sewing and knitting and crochet and even art. I start out with absolutly nothing and then go from nothing to frustration and frustration to frustration and frustration to disgust and disgust to indifference and indifference to eyeing it and eyeing it to swearing I'm going to finish it if its the last thing I do and swearing I'm going to finish it to frustration and frustration to finishing it and finishing to withdrawl and withdrawl to thinking I did a pretty good job :D the end.

At least that the usual way I go about completing things, I rarely ever frog an entire project without first finishing it, same thing with books (even if I'm hating it), I HAVE to finish it only so I can just say I finish it. I'm the type of person who will kick myself mentaly if I don't follow throw with something I start, which is probably why I rarely have more then two projects going on at the same time :3 I'm starting to learn that I might stay saner if I do more projects though, and just rotating the projects as I get frustrated/disgusted/indifferent to whatever I'm currently working on.

Also sorry about not blogging on the 16th, was just lazy :p and yesterday I had a really bad migraine, I could barely do anything really, just plurked a bit.

Ribbit...ribbit... *cry*

I have a problem with reading patterns when I'm not paying attention x_x why, oh, why do I knit when I'm preoccupied? I had to frog the rows I already finished because I miscounted my stitches >_> see, see, this is why crochet comes so much easier to me. It's easier for me to fix my mistakes in crochet then it is in knitting :/

Problems with worrying about the fires in SoCal + watching CNN + knitting a pattern I'm super unfamiliar with = OMG WHY!?! STUPID STITCHES!! *insert flailing arms attached to yarn and various curse words here*

... o_o now if you'll excuse me I'll be going back to work...

Because I'm Lazy :<

So I missed a couple of days in my NaBloPoMo quest, the first day I excuse myself because I made a post on my personal blog :p *points to post title* but yesterday I just wasn't feeling so well and totally forgot NaBloPoMo :/ ... and because I'm lazy.

So now onto some of my WIP's. For some reason I tend to start and finish crochet projects more easily. Maybe its because its what I started out with and what comes more naturally to me, but there you have it. It tends to be a lot easier with me to finish, even if its making me grow grumpy-angry-person-beware horns on my head I'm more inclined to finish it, no matter what. It might also be because if I'm having a problem with a pattern its easier for me to fix on the fly then with knitting, I have to think more when I knit and I don't think that's good for my brain :( poor brain. Plus in keeping with this posts theme, because I tend to be lazier with knitting then with crochet.

So its no surprise the that an easy project like the Cozy Doctor's Mask one from Pearl of Civilization is taking me forever and a day to make. It's not that I'm having any real problems with it, its just that I tend to be really lazy and neglectful with my knitting o_o;; I also modified it just a tweak, nothing big (because of my poor brain) just used a different yarn and needles so I had to adjust it since the gauge was off, I'm also doing it with moss stitch :3 because I thought it was prettier lol.

And tada~, will post photos once I start along with the project more. I decided not to use any of the three scarflette pattern I was going to use for my new project :D I'm such a flip flopper. I'm going with this one (ravelry). Only problem is I was too lazy to go back to Jo-Ann's or my LYS to get some size 8 circular needles so I just barely managed with 9" straight needles o_o and I do mean barely.

Why go through all the trouble you ask? Because I'm lazy... :<

Beware my pointy sticks!

So I had some yarn I wanted to use up and decided to make a scarflette (have I mentioned that yet?) and realized some of my needles disappeared in the move (I moved house about a year ago @_@). I was missing size 13 and 9 (US) straight needles which I never really noticed since I mostly crochet. And I remembered Clover supplies were on sale at Jo-Ann's (spree, YAY) so off I went. I decided to buy 7, 8, and 11 (US) straight needles as well as some 8 and 9 (US) DPN's, oh, also some cable needles, after that I had to leave the store as quickly as a could before I spent to much :D. I've come to realize I have to stay away from store's when they have sales lol, I end up spending WAY too much.

I was still missing the size 9 and 13 straights so I though it would be a good chance to check out the new Daily Fiber Yarn Company. I feel bad about not seeing it earlier, its such a nice store! I don't know the names of the two ladies that were there (should have asked huh?), but they were both very friendly and helpfull. I also had my slouchy hat on and compliments will go a long way with me lol, made me feel so proud about my first ever hat :D So I bought my size 9's but they were out of 13's and I decided to by some 13 circulars instead. I wanted to look around more but knew if I did I'd eventually end up spending too much, so I payd for the needles and went straight for the door. Poor me lol, but at least I can fill in more of my needle card :D lol

Now I just have to decide which project to start...

FO to you too o_o;

So I finally finished my creativeyarn puff hat :3

It took me a while but Tada~ I'm still not %100 sure about how it would fit on my head but. I still need to get a hair cut, my hair is just too afro like for test fitting right now XD But I'm happy I'm done~ all those puff stitches ate up the yarn lol so it was super annoying to unravel, redo, check, unravel, redo... well you get the idea... So now I just need to carve out some time to get a haircut, I really want to see how it looks on :D

Onto other news, I decided to add an old scarf I made when I first started knitting. Well not exactly old since I only learned around 4 years ago, but seems so long ago~ All done with one skein, long, and garter stitch, so knitting 101. I'm also adding some photos of the Doctors Mask I've been knitting off and on since like August. I'm using some soft baby acrylic yarn, soft enough to not irritate my face, but acrylic for heavy washing. Why am I making a doctors mask you ask? I have no idea, hooray! I just kind of felt like it lol. Instead of the stockinette stitch I'm using moss stitch, just because I thought it looked nice, and just wanted to try moss stitch.

And onward to another project :D I have some bulky yarn that I had no idea what to do with, so I was thinking of a scarflette, one of these (warning, ravelry requires username/password) uno, dos, or tres.

Baibai~

Why God WHY!?! /melodrama

So I realized my head is abnormally big :D

Rather if you were able to felt my hair into a ball it would be equivalent to an adult sized head, with hair to spare (creepy visual o_o).

I ended up finishing the Hat Numero Two hat and realized how cute it was. So I decided to try it on only to come to terms with the fact that it doesn't fit my head ;_; More then that, it didn't even touch my head, the hat just kind of floated at the back of my head hanging onto my hair. It was literally something like 3 inches away form my scalp and sitting on top of nothing but crazy frizzy hair. Which made me sad ;_; (pity me) and made me realize I really needed to get a haircut :D, I'm thinking of going super super short again :3

So in the meantime, I adding another row of decreasing puffs and starting another project with some bulky yarn I have. I plan on either making some cute fingerless gloves or a scarflette, and I have to decide on knitting or crocheting.