Pink stuff. 3-ply, heavy fingering to sport weight, about 350 yds. It's not as soft as I would like, and yet it's fantastic. I am proud of me for this stuff.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Small Update
Other stuff's been happening. Slowly, but happening nonetheless. But the camera died after one picture of yarn (and several of snow - snow day for me, or else you wouldn't get this picture till the weekend), so here it is.
Pink stuff. 3-ply, heavy fingering to sport weight, about 350 yds. It's not as soft as I would like, and yet it's fantastic. I am proud of me for this stuff.
Pink stuff. 3-ply, heavy fingering to sport weight, about 350 yds. It's not as soft as I would like, and yet it's fantastic. I am proud of me for this stuff.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Warm Memories
(Jeez-o-pete, that's a sappy title...)
My math afghan just got home from its first math conference (at least its first since it was completed... I seem to remember a hauling box of brightly colored acrylic down to Boca Raton for the Southeastern conference a few years ago), and I was putting away the blanket that had taken its place in the interim, and I realized that its story needed to be told.
Once upon a time, I went to college. And I learned to crochet, primarily from old books and the free patterns available in the yarn section at the Terre Haute Wal-Mart. Sugar and Cream and Red Heart were what I stashed.
And so when I decided I wanted to make an afghan, I went with a free Lion Brand pattern. This one, actually. I was a poor college student, though, so I didn't use that spendy Homespun stuff, it was Red Heart Super Saver for me. Gauge wasn't even a thing. I used the same hook as the pattern called for, and so pretty early on I figured I would need more motifs to get a nice big blanket. I got as close as I could with the materials available to my sorority colors, and went to work.
These yellow and blue motifs were in my backpack everywhere I went. To class, to choir and drama club rehearsals, to Model UN and sorority meetings. To at least one math conference, maybe two. On the drama club trip to London. They went everywhere. And then I was done with school, and they went home with me to Birmingham. I crocheted these endless hexagons in the evenings after my nice inter-school job. And then there were enough of them.
And I started putting them together. Just FYI, seaming is easier if seams are straight. Even if you're crocheting things together. I put the navy zigzag stripes together and the yellow zigzag stripes together. And then I put the stripes together. It seemed endless.
And again, it ended. I was so proud. I had made an afghan with my own two hands.
Now I look at it, and it's very Michigan-y. It's actually more like my boyfriend's fraternity (Alpha Chi Sigma, a chemistry organization) would want, than anything I had wanted it to be. And I would probably die before I made anything like it today. But it's warm, and washable, and it's mine.
And last night, when I wanted something warm to cover my chilly feet after I got home from knit night in the terrible cold, I was glad I spent that time and energy eight years ago on this ridiculous old thing.
My math afghan just got home from its first math conference (at least its first since it was completed... I seem to remember a hauling box of brightly colored acrylic down to Boca Raton for the Southeastern conference a few years ago), and I was putting away the blanket that had taken its place in the interim, and I realized that its story needed to be told.
Once upon a time, I went to college. And I learned to crochet, primarily from old books and the free patterns available in the yarn section at the Terre Haute Wal-Mart. Sugar and Cream and Red Heart were what I stashed.
And so when I decided I wanted to make an afghan, I went with a free Lion Brand pattern. This one, actually. I was a poor college student, though, so I didn't use that spendy Homespun stuff, it was Red Heart Super Saver for me. Gauge wasn't even a thing. I used the same hook as the pattern called for, and so pretty early on I figured I would need more motifs to get a nice big blanket. I got as close as I could with the materials available to my sorority colors, and went to work.
These yellow and blue motifs were in my backpack everywhere I went. To class, to choir and drama club rehearsals, to Model UN and sorority meetings. To at least one math conference, maybe two. On the drama club trip to London. They went everywhere. And then I was done with school, and they went home with me to Birmingham. I crocheted these endless hexagons in the evenings after my nice inter-school job. And then there were enough of them.
And I started putting them together. Just FYI, seaming is easier if seams are straight. Even if you're crocheting things together. I put the navy zigzag stripes together and the yellow zigzag stripes together. And then I put the stripes together. It seemed endless.
And again, it ended. I was so proud. I had made an afghan with my own two hands.
Now I look at it, and it's very Michigan-y. It's actually more like my boyfriend's fraternity (Alpha Chi Sigma, a chemistry organization) would want, than anything I had wanted it to be. And I would probably die before I made anything like it today. But it's warm, and washable, and it's mine.
And last night, when I wanted something warm to cover my chilly feet after I got home from knit night in the terrible cold, I was glad I spent that time and energy eight years ago on this ridiculous old thing.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Oh fine, I'll post
I feel like I haven't had much to say. I have been knitting since Christmas, but I've also been frogging - or deciding to frog, even if I haven't done it yet, some things. The things I've started aren't really looking like anything yet, and I had something cool in a sock, but I frogged it back to the start of the coolness, to make it more cool. So yeah. Not much to show.
I did take a few hours at the turn of the year to get my stash room a touch more organized. My sock stash had been sharing a bookcase with my fun books, and they were starting to have a hard time coexisting. So in addition to entering my entire sock stash on Ravelry, I moved it to its own place. Here's a book rack that hasn't been used since it lived in my dorm, but it's entirely full of sock yarn:
That's 12.18 miles of sock yarn, and I've managed to not add to it since then.
I've been spinning, too, and while that's still in-progress (I'm working on getting a lightweight three-ply of the same pink-and-purple stuff, and I'm on the second bobbin, barely. I've gotten a new spinner started - my college friend Melinda played with my wheel for a morning and then got her own!
I got 2 pounds of corriedale top with my wheel, and last night I decided I would probably never spin it unless it had some color, so I pulled out the kool-aid and vinegar. Here's 4 oz of roving, drying...
I love the color Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade gives you. I think this needs to be lace. Once the pink-and-purple is done.
I did take a few hours at the turn of the year to get my stash room a touch more organized. My sock stash had been sharing a bookcase with my fun books, and they were starting to have a hard time coexisting. So in addition to entering my entire sock stash on Ravelry, I moved it to its own place. Here's a book rack that hasn't been used since it lived in my dorm, but it's entirely full of sock yarn:
That's 12.18 miles of sock yarn, and I've managed to not add to it since then.
I've been spinning, too, and while that's still in-progress (I'm working on getting a lightweight three-ply of the same pink-and-purple stuff, and I'm on the second bobbin, barely. I've gotten a new spinner started - my college friend Melinda played with my wheel for a morning and then got her own!
I got 2 pounds of corriedale top with my wheel, and last night I decided I would probably never spin it unless it had some color, so I pulled out the kool-aid and vinegar. Here's 4 oz of roving, drying...
I love the color Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade gives you. I think this needs to be lace. Once the pink-and-purple is done.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Mostly for Mandie
My kid brother made us watch this movie twice over our four days in Birmingham. This is the good part. (I managed to sleep through major chunks of it both times.)
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Pictures!
Camnesia again struck the hats from yesterday, but here is today:
The state of the socks as they were wrapped:
My kid brother and his blanket:
And the state of the socks this evening:
The state of the socks as they were wrapped:
My kid brother and his blanket:
And the state of the socks this evening:
Taking a tie and calling it a victory. Oh, and Merry Christmas!
Yesterday, two boys under the age of ten played a mess of football in 70 degree weather wearing new striped wool hats. I win.
On Anne-trelac: Yesterday I woke up and had half a heel flap on the second sock and half of a foot still to knit on the first. This morning, I gave them to my mother with only a toe missing. By this afternoon, she had a complete (and awesome!) new pair of socks. They weren't done by Christmas morning, but they were done before Christmas dinner. I win.
(Again, project monogamy is amazing - why do I not do this more?)
In sad yarny news, something broke somewhere in my brother's afghan and there's a hole that I am now determined to patch before I leave town. Having left all the yarn for his blanket in Indiana (in retrospect, I vastly underestimated my ability to rise to the occasion of Christmas knitting and I will likely need more yarn before the week's out) I will need to hit Michaels tomorrow to fix it.
Merry Christmas to all.
On Anne-trelac: Yesterday I woke up and had half a heel flap on the second sock and half of a foot still to knit on the first. This morning, I gave them to my mother with only a toe missing. By this afternoon, she had a complete (and awesome!) new pair of socks. They weren't done by Christmas morning, but they were done before Christmas dinner. I win.
(Again, project monogamy is amazing - why do I not do this more?)
In sad yarny news, something broke somewhere in my brother's afghan and there's a hole that I am now determined to patch before I leave town. Having left all the yarn for his blanket in Indiana (in retrospect, I vastly underestimated my ability to rise to the occasion of Christmas knitting and I will likely need more yarn before the week's out) I will need to hit Michaels tomorrow to fix it.
Merry Christmas to all.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Whoo hoo!
Yes, my friends, that is a complete, clean, and ready to wrap Christmas present for my kid brother - also known as my finished Ravelympics project. Major help from Mandie and Paige made the seaming happen. They are awesome and I am terribly indebted.
Blue-and-grey striped socks were received by my fabulous mother-in-law last night, who again showed that she totally deserves them, because my in-laws gave me a delicious and exciting assortment of fiber-related reading material. I wanted to cast new things on right away, but I'm still working on other gifts, so I'm going to get back to it.
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