At long last, a WIP Wednesday post

I have some WIPs to show off today. First, the one I started last night. I am so excited about it! It's an Elder Tree Shawl. I'm using Malabrigo Rios in the Jupiter colorway, generously given to me by my mom last year. I have 4 skeins, and I doubt I'll use them all for this project, but I want to make this pretty big so I can wrap myself up in it and be all warm and snuggly. (Yes, I know it's lace and has holes in it. I'm sure it'll still be nice and warm.)

 
I'm using size 9 circs and alternating skeins - I've got 2 different dye lots going on here. My mom isn't a yarnie and doesn't know from dye lots, so she got me 2 skeins from one lot and 2 from another. I could've just used one of the sets of 2 for this shawl, but like I said, I want this to be really big, so I'm alternating and I think it looks great. I don't know if I'll want to use more than 2 skeins for this shawl, but I like having that option.

Speaking of my mom and Malabrigo Rios, I'm crocheting a pair of Basic Fingerless Mittens for her out of Rios in Azules. I've made one and a half so far.

She tried the finished one on and it fits, well, like a glove! ;-) These are turning out great. I love this pattern. It's my 2nd time using it. I plan to make myself a pair eventually. I have a skein of Rios in Bobby Blue waiting for me. Anyway, my mom's apartment can get very cold, so I'm glad to be able to make these for her. May she wear them in good health.

I'm also still working on the Clapotis and on my kimono sweater (which had been in hibernation for a while), but they don't look different enough from the last pics I posted of them to bother putting more pics here!

I finally got some hollow glass beads from Alisha White's Etsy shop. I have sapphire blue and emerald green and I know exactly what I'm going to make with them. I just have to get myself to actually do it!

My New Year's resolution was to learn how to knit hats and socks. I've got some Craftsy classes and a bunch of books. I've ordered some DPNs so I can make the socks the way the class instructor makes them, and I think I have enough interchangeable circular needles to try using 2 or doing magic loop. I do not have the smaller sizes for socks yet, but I already know I get hand and wrist pain from using smaller needles, so I may have to stick to making heavier socks.

That's it from me for now, but I have a bunch of FOs to show off, so watch for a Friday post...

Foot Hats, part II

Let me explain how my crocheted socks got the very silly nickname of "Foot Hats." I think it all started when the socks were at this stage, or maybe before:



They looked like little hats, and my husband and I were putting them on our stuffed animals and such. Finally, I put them on my feet and decided they were "Foot Hats," and couldn't stop laughing about it. Yes, we are that silly. (Or possibly even sillier than that silly.) The socks look a lot less like hats now and a lot more like socks, but the name has stuck!

Finished "Foot Hats" on my feet:



I had a heck of a time with this pattern. The beginning part was very hard, and I wound up frogging quite a few times, but I finally figured out what the pattern meant. (Or at least, I think I did. There's no way to really know, since the photos in the book aren't very clear.) Also, luckily for me, I figured out almost right away that they were coming out too big. I had to start over with a D hook instead of the recommended E.

The body of the sock is a very easy shell pattern, and lots of fun, especially with colorful yarn like the Deborah Norville Serenity Garden yarn that I used. By the time I got to the heel, I was feeling pretty confident. Then I tried making the heel...and felt significantly less confident. I blame this partially on the fact that there are no diagrams or pictures in the booklet of what the heel should look like. Even when I eventually got it right, I was very confused. It comes to a point on either side of the heel, which, to someone like me who's used to manufactured socks, is really weird-looking! Thankfully, the socks fit well. If they were even a little too big, I think the heel would be very awkward.

If you want to try this pattern, make sure you take note of the instructions under heel rows 2-13 where it says "Place stitch marker in ends of rows 13, 11, 9, 7, 5, 3 and in base of row 1 on each side of Heel." I missed this the first time around. The next time, and many times after it, I was completely befuddled by where the markers were supposed to go.

After I figured that out, the heels still proved difficult. You're supposed to single crochet in each of the marked stitches, but as there's no diagram, I didn't really know how to do that and had to sort of wing it. I'm not used to crocheting in stitches that aren't "normal" crochet stitches. I've rarely even crocheted around borders or anything like that. I did get some helpful information from Janet Rehfeldt's Crocheted Socks book, without which I probably wouldn't have felt like I had even the slightest clue of what I was doing.

And now, I'll complain some more about the pattern. ;) For the leg part of the pattern, the first round simply says to "evenly space" a certain number of the aforementioned shell stitches around the foot and heel. To me, this is a cop-out. It says, "Go ahead, you do the math because we didn't want to." Um, there's a good reason I've never written a crochet pattern or done anything in crochet without a pattern written by someone else: I am not a math genius. Sure, I'm pretty good at math, but figuring out how to evenly space those stitches was a challenge. Crocheting these socks was difficult enough without having to do that. I wish the authors had done the calculations for us and maybe even put in some diagrams. The sizes are a straightforward S, M, and L. I'm sure it would've have taken all that much effort for an experienced crochet designer to do that--or at least, nowhere near as much effort as it takes someone like me.

All that said, however, I LOVE my Foot Hats and would consider using this pattern again sometime because the finished product is so beautiful. I just want my fellow crocheters to be warned about the problems I had, so maybe they can get it right in a few less tries than I did.

FO: Textured Socks (aka "Foot Hats")

Last month, I finished my first pair of crocheted socks. (They're not the first pair I've ever tried to make, but they're the first I've finished!) I've been meaning to post about them for a while, so here goes. :) First, a picture of the finished socks:

 

The pattern is called "Textured Socks," and it's from an Annie's Attic publication called Crochet Stocking Feet by crocheted sock experts Janet Rehfeldt and Mary Jane Wood. The publication has 2 pictures of the finished socks, one of which is on the cover in color and too small to really make out the pattern, and the other in black and white and also not very big or easy to determine what the socks should look like. There are no diagrams, only written instructions. Also, no one on Ravelry had made them yet, so I didn't have any pictures to go on. I don't know what on earth made me decide to make these, but I'm glad I did, since I am so happy with the finished socks!

I need to head out to Stitch & Bitch now, but I have much more to say about these socks, so please stay tuned. An explanation of why I've nicknamed these "Foot Hats" will follow.

Ravelry, WsIP

I got my invitation to Ravelry!

*bounce bounce bounce*

Now seems like a good time to stop slacking on the blog front. ;) Sorry I vanished for a while. I have been having health problems, and just haven't felt much like blogging these days. I have been crocheting, though.

Lately, I've made some more baby booties and some scarves that will probably be gifts. Nothing exciting enough for picture-taking. I've started some slightly more ambitious things in the past week or so, though.

I started working on the "Anisette Vest" from Amazing Crochet Lace by Doris Chan. Haven't gotten too far on it just yet, since it takes too much concentration for me to be able to watch TV while I'm doing it. ;P I am making it so I can wear it to my cousin's wedding in late October--I've got an adorable sleeveless black dress that just cries out for something like this. I'm making the vest in Mystical Creation Yarns rayon boucle in Domino, which is a black and white colorway (probably stating the obvious there!). I only have one skein, so I am praying I won't run out of yarn before I'm done!

I've also started up a pair of Fireside Slouch Socks. Don't know who I'm going to give them to yet, but I'm pretty sure they'll be a gift. I plan on making a few pairs to give to some friends and family.

And, last but not least, I've started making a little something for my sweetie. It's a surprise, and I know he checks this blog every once in a while, so I can't say what it is until after I've given it to him for his birthday on 10/19. :D I'm very pleased with the way it's coming out so far, though.

I still haven't finished my first pair of socks. Looks like the Fireside socks may become my first finished pair, instead. I'm not feeling so motivated to finish that first pair--I was never really wild about them. I hope I will do it eventually, though. Even if I don't want them, I'm sure someone will!

I picked up a copy of The Weekend Crafter: Crochet on sale a week or two ago. There's a really cute bag in there that I'd like to make, and a few other projects that look good.

There's a Lion Homespun poncho from an old issue of Crochet Fantasy Magazine that I really want to make for my mom for Chanukah. I have a lot of Homespun Mill Ends, and I don't think the dye lot varies much (if at all) in the yarn I've got that I want to use for it. Also, I may make mittens for my sister's family from one of the patterns on the Lion Brand site, also using Lion Homespun. I have a TON of Homespun! Gotta use it! :)

Sorry I've been away for so long.

Wasn't crocheting much for a while there!

I have now finished the baby blanket for my youngest niece, and given it to her. My sister liked it very much. :) I didn't take a picture once it was done, because I was short on time and camera batteries. It looks just like the previous pictures, though, only now it's a big square. ;)

My socks are almost done!! I pretty much just have the toe and heel left to do on my second sock. I'm going to finish it within the next few days and post a pic of the finished pair. YAY!

I have now won a whole lot of yarn from the Mystical Creation Yarns ebay store. *drooool* I hadn't bought any yarn for a while, and they have some great deals at the moment, so I treated myself. I have no idea where I will put it once it arrives. I think I need to crochet myself a bigger apartment! *giggle*

bookishness

Got 3 crochet books from the library today: "Crocheted Socks: 16 Fun-To-Stitch Patterns" by Janet Rehfeldt and Mary Jane Wood, "Cool Crochet" by Melissa Leapman, and "Easy Beaded Crochet" by Carol Meldrum. I am in big trouble now, because I want to buy all of them. :P I am especially enamored with "Cool Crochet," which I wasn't expecting myself to be. Most of the projects are either Intermediate or Advanced level, and I think I can do Intermediate at this point. They are just lovely. The patterns I would like to make are mostly for sweaters, and a few are for bags. *sighhh* :)

I am going to see how I feel when it comes time to return them all. If I can't live without 'em, I'll buy 'em. I'm a bit short on funds at the moment. Well, not exactly; but I've bought a lot of books lately, so I don't feel that the purchases would be justified!

The other day, I picked up "Amazing Crochet Lace: New Fashions Inspired by Old-Fashioned Lace" by Doris Chan. WOW. Beautiful patterns!

I can't wait to try the "Farpoint Topper" (top left) and "Abydos Vest" (both pics on the right side), among other things. I've even ordered the yarn for the "Farpoint Topper" already (Lion Incredible, purchased via ebay, of course! I got it in Copper Penny; the original was done in the Autumn Leaves colorway).

I also recently got "Crochet from the Heart: Quick Projects for Generous Giving" by Kristin Spurkland, which has a lot of really cute projects in it that promise to be quick to make (the hats are my favorites!). And I got "Stocking feet" from Annie's Attic, by Janet Rehfeldt, which I don't exactly recommend (but please click the link to see my scathing review! Muahahaaa).

Other than that, I am almost done with the cuff of my second sock (6.5" out of 8" finished). It's about frickin' time. ;P Sock progress has been soooo slooowww. I am looking forward to trying some patterns from the "Crocheted Socks" book. Socks seem to be harder on me than other crochet, though, perhaps because I need to concentrate harder due to the smaller hook size? I don't know. I'm only using a G hook, but the way I crochet, that's pretty darn small (yeah, I crochet pretty tightly). Especially with the back-loop-only cuff thing. That's annoying. My next pair of socks will not have this sort of cuff. Haven't decided yet if they'll be made from a book pattern, or an Internet freebie. :)

Sock yarrrrrn!

I now have a decent amount of sock yarn that is not Bernat Sox. :) Whee!

Here it is:



Mmmm...2 different colorways of Cascade Fixation (no actual color names on the labels), and Panda Cotton in "Picnic." I LOVE the Panda Cotton. I just got it yesterday. I stopped by a local fabric store that has yarn, and was very pleasantly surprised to see that they had it in stock! I had never seen it in person before. It's nice. Soft, too! (And expensive. *gulp*) ;)

They also had it in the colorway that I recently purchased from an ebay seller who'd put it on sale, "Chocolate Almonds." I was not disappointed with what I saw! It should be arriving soon.

Also, I don't know if this link will work, but I ordered the Annie's Attic "Stocking Feet" book on ebay. The patterns look really cute.


And no, I still have not finished my first pair of socks! LOL. I finished the cuff of the second sock the other day, only to find that I'd missed a stitch somewhere...it started out wide and got narrower, and looked really bad. D'OH! I tried to frog it, but Bernat Sox doesn't lend itself to frogging, so I had to just start over. That's OK--it'll go quickly once I actually get a chance to sit down for a while with it. :)

My sweetheart and I are going to a music festival today. I am so excited! I haven't been to a music festival in way too long. I am really big on folk festivals. This one's not all folk, but that doesn't bother me at all! The "biggest name" who will be there is Shawn Mullins, but we're mainly going to see Jonatha Brooke and to hear some musicians we've heard of but haven't heard before.

I am halfway considering bringing my sock to work on. Heheh...I doubt I'll get a chance, though. When I am listening to live music, I don't usually want to concentrate on much else!

Oh, also, I made it to KUTI on Tuesday night! There were so many people there I hadn't met before. It was nice to meet all of them, if a little overwhelming. :) At least 3 of us were working on socks, and if I remember correctly, I think 3 of us were working on our first pairs! How cool is that?! The others were knitting, but I won't hold that against them. ;)

Tangled yarn, and missing KUTI

My fiance bought me some incredible Cotton Chenille yarn from Mystical Creation Yarns a while back. As a crochet novice, having never worked with a skein like this before as opposed to a store-bought yarn ball/skein of inexpensive yarn, I totally messed up the ball winding process. Now, I am stuck with a pretty tangled skein of really gorgeous yarn. :(

I ordered a yarn ball winder the other day, so I'll have that soon; but can it help me with a tangled skein of yarn? Can anything? I've spent hours already trying to unwind it; it seems like I unwind about a foot (or maybe a yard, if I'm lucky) of yarn per hour. *sigh* I don't want to just give up, because it was a very special gift and I love the yarn so much. Buying another skein wouldn't be the same. But I can't spend forever trying to untangle it, either!

Any advice?

I've become a pretty solitary crocheter these days. My health problems have gotten somewhat better now that they've been diagnosed and I'm on meds, but that just means that I make it to work for a few hours if I'm lucky. I keep thinking I'll be able to go to KUTI meetings, and then I just don't feel well enough.

Today, I didn't even make it to work...but if I had, I probably would have been too drained and sick afterward to go to the meeting. *sigh* I miss the group. I want to be a part of it again. I am lonely. And crotchety. Wahhh.

I am still working on the baby blanket and the socks. Slow going these days. That's due to a number of things: being extremely tired, having another hobby that takes up a lot of my time, having to spend a lot of time listing things on ebay, and trying to work again. The blanket's within an inch or two of getting to its desired length, though; then I will just have the hood left to make, if I decide I even want to do that. I really like the thickness of it and think it would make a good playmat, so I'm not sure I'm going to bother with the hood. I might do some purple edging, though.

As for the socks, I'm not done with the cuff of my second sock yet. It'll go quickly when I really get down to it, though. I'm just easily distracted these days.

YARRRRRN - acquisitions and, um, de-acquisitions?

I went yarn shopping yesterday. Bought too much, as usual; but oh, was it fun. :)

I finally got my hands on some Lion Chenille (not Thick & Quick, the regular chenille). I am dying to make the vest pictured on the label--so much so, in fact, that I want to make it in all 4 of the colors I bought! *giggle* I will have to see how the first one goes before I really decide to do that, of course. I'm going to start with the red. I don't wear red very often, but this particular shade is so beautiful.

I got many other yarns, too. I bought a good deal of Lion Boucle, which I am now unsure about using because I didn't realize at the time that it was 20% mohair. Argh. I could probably work with it, and probably make something that wouldn't be worn right next to the skin...But I don't think "probably" is good enough. I did find a cute sweater in a back issue of a crochet magazine that I might like to make from it, though. And there's a capelet that uses it as trim that I really like. (I'm not sure I particularly like the capelet, but the trim is awfully pretty!) I guess I won't make a decision about that yarn just yet!

I am considering selling a lot of my Bernat Sox yarn. I am a spoiled brat and don't really want coarse yarn on my footsies. ;D If I sell some on ebay, perhaps I can justify buying something a little nicer. I don't know, though...I've been ebaying a lot, and trying to save that money. I won't sell all of my Sox yarn, of course; I'll probably still want to make some socks out of some of it, since the colors are very pretty. And maybe the socks I am working on now will turn out to be more wearable than I currently think they are.

I'd really love to get some hand-painted sock yarn. Yum.

Oh, I found another sock pattern! It's in the Dec. '06/Jan. '07 issue of Crochet Today! I bought the magazine for a buck at a yarn store a few months back. Well worth it, I'd say.

first finished sock

first finished sock
Originally uploaded by saintlex

WOOHOOOOO! I finished a sock! :) Didn't take all that long, either--I just hadn't been working on it for a while. I'm not totally thrilled with it. The cuff is a little big, and the seam at the toe isn't great (I think maybe I made the sock just a little too long?). But my mom and my fiance think it's pretty, and some nice people on Flickr do, too. ;D

Guess I'll just have to make another one to match!

I don't think these will be the comfiest socks. I realized, in the course of trying these on, that Bernat Sox isn't the most comfortable to wear. I'll wear them anyway, of course. (Proudly!)

I have a TON of Bernat Sox yarn, so I'll use it and like it, dammit. Heheh.

Here's a pic of it on my foot:

Sock progress and blanket progress

I finally picked up my sock again tonight. I am now almost finished with the first one; I just have the heel and a little bit of the toe left to do. I am pleased to report that it seems like it will fit! :) I've been trying it on at all its various stages. If it does fit, let's hope I can make one that matches. Heheh.

I am not overly impressed with the Bernat Sox yarn I've been using. Yeah, I know, it was cheap. It's probably not the best quality stuff in the world. But the center-pull skein keeps getting all tangled up in itself. I can't get the other end of the yarn to stay awaaaaaay from my WIP! Grrr.

I am also still working on the baby blanket. It's getting close to being done. I had no idea it would take this long! Anything for the baby, though. ;) I got to hold her for a while the other day. ♥ ♥ ♥

I confess that I have been terrible at keeping up with others' blogs lately. I've been selling a lot of things on ebay (mostly jewelry-making supplies), and trying to take care of some health problems. I hope to get some good reading time in soon.

Sock help?

I have been working on my first pair of socks. Well, right now, it's just part of one sock. ;) Anyway, I've been trying to work with the pattern for In Your Shoes Ankle Socks from Crochet Me...and I'm having some trouble.

I made the cuff, which looks great. After some deliberation, I managed to sc 2 rounds of 36 stitches each around the cuff, though I was quite confused because it didn't say whether to join the rounds or not (I slip stitched them together; dunno if I was supposed to).

Now, however, it says to "sc across front half of tube." Following the pattern as I have been, I started my rounds of sc at the back seam after slip stitching it together so I wouldn't have to cut the yarn. I thought that was what the author meant...but now, the only way I can think of to crochet 18 sc across the front of the cuff is to cut the yarn and start sc-ing the front part. The pattern doesn't say anything about whether this is what I'm supposed to do or not.

To make matters worse, the author, Pam, appears to be MIA. Her blog link doesn't work, and I haven't found a current one anywhere. I did find someone else who seems to have made socks according to the pattern, so maybe I'll try asking her my questions?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Smiley's Yarns makes me all smiley!!

Remember that load of yarn I ordered from Smiley's Yarns that I posted about just the other day? It's already here! Granted, it didn't have to travel far--they're in Queens, NY--but I am so very impressed. And overjoyed. The Bernat Sox colors are only OK, in my opinion, but it was cheap and now I get to make socks. :)

The Red Heart Symphony yarn is nice and fuzzy and should work well for the capelet I want to make with it.

The Bernat Handicrafter Cotton? YUM. Will have to make some nice things with it. I have some good colors for stripes. Hmmmm.

I have been working on the Spiderweb Cardigan from my last post. It took me a relatively short time to realize that my gauge was actually WAY smaller than what the pattern called for! Frog time. Ribbit. I am going to try using my K hook instead of the H. I even wanted to try my L hook, after what people have said about too-small armholes; but I can't find it! *gasp* I'll just have to see what happens with the K. This pattern is going to be quite the experiment for me. Maybe not the best choice for my first sweater, but I love a challenge. ;)

I am really, really, really BAD.

I just got an e-mail from a friend on the KUTI list about the Smiley's Yarns Manhattan Sale. Well, I don't get into Manhattan much--parking there is horrendously expensive, and train tickets + subway tickets = ouch as well. Add to that the fact that they don't take credit cards at the sale, and that I hate crowds, and it's pretty easy to guess that I won't be there. ;P

However...I decided to check out the yarn sales on the Smiley's Internet Yarn Sale site, seeing as how I had clicked on over to their main site anyway. OOPS!

$56 worth of yarn later, I'm feeling a little silly. And a little guilty. And I GOT LOADS OF YARN AT ABOUT $1.50/SKEIN (including shipping). So I'd say I'm also feeling a lot of happy. *giggle*

They have Bernat Sox yarn on sale for $1/skein, and it's the only cheap non-wool sock yarn I know of. I'd been searching for it for a while, but now it's even more important seeing as how I've joined up with the Summer of Socks 2007 sock-along. ;D (By the way, you should all join up if you haven't already, so I can see what lovely socks you make! I've never made a pair of socks before. I'm so excited.)

Anyway, I got a whole lot of sock yarn, a bunch of Bernat Handicrafter Cotton (I've been wanting to try that out), and enough Red Heart Symphony (a synthetic mohair-like yarn) to try out at least 1 pattern I really like that calls for mohair.

WHEE!

The doctor I'm seeing on Friday had better get me feeling better real soon, so I won't have time to spend quite so much money on yarn. *gulp*