Gift Delivered

Last week I gave the aqua version of War of the Roses to the person I knit it for. She was surprised and loved it.

I didn't look closely at the picture before gifting the shawl that you can't really see the beautiful beads. I really like the pattern an perhaps in the future I will do another.

Good Intentions

Oh well, it is good to know that I am human. The summer has been very busy. I reconnected with my inner spinner.


I am learning to be more relaxed when it comes to accomplishments. For TDF 2011 (Tour de Fleece) my main goal was just to spin and enjoy it. I actually used merino, 50/50 s70ilk/superfine merino, 70/30 alpaca/silk, superwash merino, Australian merino and BFL. With the exception of the Australian merino there is still more of each fiber to spin. I can consistently get singles that will double ply to lace weight/fingering and Navajo ply to fingering/sport weight.

The Australian merino was a beautiful deep red. A friend gave me a piece of the braid she had. So I spun it up and two plied it. I got about 120 yards of lace weight. It had been spun during the last week of TDF at some concerts in the park. I gave it to the wife of the sound man. How difficult could that be you ask. Very is my response. But, it was fun and I look forward to seeing what it becomes.

I finally finished the baby afghan I started last summer. It is waiting to be washed and then taken with the others that are done to a local home for teens who need a little help. I started a new one using a pattern from "A Year of Afghans, Book 3". Hopefully it will go a bit quicker.

Don't ever let on when you are in the hardware store what you are going to use your purchases for. I was going to order the interlocking blocking mats from KnitPicks but I just kept putting it off. Eight months later, the first knit shawl I had finished was still unblocked. A friend loaned me her blocking wires and I still didn't have mats. So on a whim off I went to a big box hardware store. When the nice man asked me what I needed I said I wanted some of the interlocking floor mats. I now own 8 - 2' x 2' - mats. I purchased 2 yards of a 1" gingham (that way you don't need a yard stick) and I was off. Yesterday I put everything together and blocked the first shawl.

This morning the second one got pinned up.

It feels wonderful to finally cross things off the ToDo List. The summer issue of Interweave Crochet has some incredible things and they have found their way on to the project queue.

When I was at the local fabric store for the gingham I found a beautiful piece of that is gold/purple/oriental/Hawaiian. It managed to jump into my basket and now I am off to JoAnns to get a pattern. I realized when I was taking the rubber mats apart that they will make a perfect place to pin and cut out patterns.

Motivation

Sometimes I find it hard to stay motivated on a project. I suppose this is not an uncommon dilemma. I did make 2 stuffed bears that are awaiting a trip to Minnesota and then on to Africa via the Mother Bear Project. I will admit that it was fun letting my imagination go in creating these wonderful bears. I hope that their new parents love them as much as I do.

Part of my motivation issues started with the disappointment that I experienced when the March patterns were released for the Crochet Club 2011. The individual motif or expansion of a working motif was not the problem. The design just didn't seem to flow because of the placement of the individual motifs. I also realized that the stated sizes for each finished motif creates issues for the overall design.

The March patterns introduced two motifs that are to be placed on the outside of two of the corner blocks. The center is bridged by the long wave / beaded section. So the new outer motifs have a finished height of 17 cm. The corner motifs are supposed to be 19 cm and finally the longwave motif is supposed to be 17 cm. I am in such a quandry. My corners were working up smaller than the gauge stated so I went up a hook size (from D (US) to E) to make gauge. Now I am thinking that this was a poor call and I should have just stuck with the original hook. I haven't worked with cotton yarns and so I am not sure how the finished pieces will maintain their shapes after blocking.

I was not the only one having problems with the design. April has brought new patterns and these are much better. I am beginning to decide that I may omit certain parts of the design or at lease modify them so that I will be happy and finish the project.

Progress Report

Things I have learned -- It is hard to count to 2. It is especially hard to count to 2 when you are watching TV. My vacation started out in strange ways. First southern California had a wet storm roll in along with the jet stream dipping down from the north. There was actually snow in the higher elevations in the LA basin -- pretty rare especially in late February. By the time I left for the airport on Saturday morning at 'O' dark thirty the rain had pretty much passed through. The main problem was that the dew point was causing fog on the freeways and the other drivers on the road didn't seem to understand that when it is hard to see you need to slow down. Oh well.

TSA ended up being a nonissue. When I got to Hawaii and started unpacking I discovered that I had both tweezers and nail clippers in my carry on bags. It might have been that both the person in front of me and behind me in the security screening had items that triggered hand searches. Coming home I actually brought my knitting and the pointy lace needles and that caused no issues.

While waiting at the gate I strung the beads on the garnet. I counted twice and there was no mistakes in the number of beads. The blue was a snap, the gold was a snap and the first row of the wine colored beads was also easy. Then I reverted to a mental state of pre-Kindergarten. For the life of me if I crocheted that row once I did it at least 6 times. If the person sitting next to me had been awake I might have gotten up and walked the aisles; but, since he slept from the time we left until the final announcement began telling us we were landing, I had little choice but to just slog through it. I finally got the second row correct and for some reason the final 4 (March Maddness reference not intended) rows of wine beads were done by the adult that knows how to count to 2.

The whole motif was finished before landing and I took a picture. I am not sold on the color. I would like a little more contrast between the bead and the yarn. I have done the second long wave January portion of the motif and the February portion through the 4th row of beading. I think that the beads I chose to substitute for the red beads is too close to the gold beads. So I quit until I get up to the San Gabriel Bead Co later today.

[The original post was at 9:30 a.m. 3/11/11 -- This addendum was added at 4:50 p.m., same day]

I just realized that I frogged the February portion of the second long wave motif before I took a pix. I ended up with a silver lined red bead (yes I know that is the color shipped originally shipped from England.) with an iridescent overlay. The Overlay tones down the red color and now it doesn't clash with the other two colors.

I started the Wave and Chevron motif with the SB 3.12 (D) hook. After the first 2 rows (foundation and first pattern row in garnet) and the silly thing measured 37 cm. Arrrggghhhhh! . . . . . So frog, frog, frog . . . . . . Switched to the Clover D hook and worked the first 5 repeats on the first pattern row and measured and it is just a little over 17 cm. Success!!!!!

Today I am going to look for some worsted weight acrylic at a big box store so I can start a crocheted bear for the Mother Bear Project. http://www.motherbearproject.org/ If you would like to contribute I give this organization a 5 star endorsement.


I have a suitable yarn for the body but I don't really have anything that I like for pants and shirts. I still am not adventurous enough to deviate from the main pattern but I know that once I get more comfortable I will start experimenting.

Wow!

Well, I finished one of the long wave motifs. I ended up using a Susan Bates D hook (3.25mm) that the micrometer measured at 3.12 mm. After each wave pass I measured the width because the pattern - designer states that the design tends to get wider so when this happens you are supposed to down size the hook. Well my motif never grew so the entire piece was sone with the D hook.

Forty eight hours later I picked up the yarn and started motif #2 of the long wave. Crocheting along I decided to double check the width just before starting the third wave. Well what do yo want the silly thing was about 37.5 mm wide from the beginning. Frogging -- frogging -- frogging. Pick up that silly Clover D hook. I just don't know what to tell you.

The parts we crochet next involve beads -- size 6 pony beads. The designer chose turquoise (silver lined), gold (silver lined) and red (silver lined). The red is supposed to be strung on the garnet (841) and the bubbles (724). I could sort of see the red on the pink (bubbles) but no way on the garnet (really sort of a dark dusty rose. Today I went off to my favorite local bead shop, Beads Beads in Tustin. I brought home two tubes of beads. I am undecided which to use but either one will be better than the designer's choice.

I leave on vacation on Saturday morning and this is the project that I am taking. I will have some hooks packed in the suitcase and a self addressed envelope just in case TSA has a problem with the crochet hooks. I take a dental floss container to cut anything I need to cut on the flight so no scissors will be harmed in this endeavor.

Hopefully when I am home I will get pictures of everything and be able to include them here.

Slow Progress

This weeks crocheting is marked by many appearances of that pesky amphibian -- the frog. The chevron motife for the Crochet club is going to disappear once again and the new one is going to use an E hook. If I weren't so stubborn I would just leave well enough alone and say enough to the gauge. However, not knowing how everything is going to fit together I do not have that luxury. Reading posts at Ravelry shows that I am not alone in having the same problems.

The second part of the pattern is due this week so perhaps there will be a better idea about how things fit together. Right now the dimensions are not very helpful in guessing about how things might be going together.

Even the knitting was not immune from the unwelcome critter. Since the project is lace and I am never comfortable just taking the needles out and unraveling it was TINK time. fortunately I only had a row and a half to TINK. Back on track and ready to make some progress.

I brought home 2 needlepoing canvases from the shop last Tuesday. They are supposed to be shop models when finished. Started several years ago and tucked behind a bookcase and forgotten, The first is a JP Needlepoint purse in silver, gray and charcoal gray. If I had started it I would have chosed a different stitch for the background (gray) but since the backgound was 90% completed I am just continuing on in basketweave. I did frog all of the silver because the previous stitchers switched fibers (size 12 and size 8 Kreinik) and the back was a total mess of knots and hanging threads. I toyed with the idea of using a different stitch for the silver but the pattern just gets lost in the shine of the silver. I have restitched everything I frogged in the silver and should make good progress to finishing this week.

The second canvas is a Lee Needlepoint Japanese Kimono -- flying cranes against a red background. This one is not very far along so I will have quite a bit to say about how it looks.

Progress

I finally came out of the funk I was suffering because the first 3 finished sections of the Crochet Club 2011 were not to gauge. Starting with a second corner using a Susan Bates 'D' hook (mfg in Mexico and actually measuring 3.11 mm) the completed corner was spot on gauge. Did another corner and it too was 9 cm x 9 cm. So frogged the 2 sections of ripple (chevron) and the first corner. I am doing the first section of the long wave and it is coming out to gauge as well. The designer says that the pattern tends to grow so that you are supposed to step down the hook size mid way through the pattern. At first I went down to the Clover 2.5 mm hook. The change seemed too tight so I just went down to the Clover 3.0 hook and everything seems to be working.

I really like the long wave section. The pattern is very intuitive once you get through it. I will try to post pictures as soon as I get them off my camera.

Saturday was a regular CIP with fellow crocheters at The Library coffee house in Long Beach. It is so relaxing to meet friends and catch up on everyone's lives. The group ended up being 5 strong. So much fun. Sunday was a spinning kind of day at Jamie and Abraham's loft. I brought some of the wonderful beading/cross stitch magazines from Australia for Abraham to look at. I think Jill Oxen's designs are so stupendous. Abraham's design preferences tends towards the more geometric so some of her designs are much more suited to his tastes than other magazines. Abraham went out for Chinese food in recognition of the Chinese New Year. We had enough food for 20 people not just the 4 who eventually dined.