Knitting? And more FO's...

I can knit! Sort of. Last week at Stitch & Bitch, one of my amazing friends there taught me to knit. Of course, she cast on for me, and all I know how to do so far is the knit stitch. Also, this piece has progressed a little, and now has holes in it where I messed up. Holes! But I will learn how to do this, slowly but surely. I say "slowly" only because I have so many crochet projects to work on right now that the knitting's got to go on the back burner. One project is a top-secret gift, which is almost done. The others are less secret gifts that haven't even been started yet, and one has to be done by the end of the month! Eeps!

Now for the FO's.

I made this Snuggly Scarf for my mother-in-law for her birthday, which was toward the end of last month:



She loves it! I am so happy. It's Lion Brand Homespun in Nouveau, which has a brown base combined with shades of blue, purple, and teal. Very pretty. I picked up another skein so I can eventually make myself one in that colorway!

Also, our Stitch & Bitch group made hats and scarves for veterans for Valentine's Day. I made 2 hats to contribute. Here they are:





And finally, something that's not an FO, but something to laugh at. I started making a baby hat from Lion Brand Velvetspun that I'd had sitting around for a few years. I don't know if the problem was the yarn itself, or the age of the yarn; but wow, this thing was a mess. The pattern didn't really help, either. It's a cute hat with a knot on top, but first you have to make the "cord" to tie into the knot. Hence, this thing:



Some poor purple elephant lost its trunk! ;) This yarn was shedding all over the place, and when I tried to weave in the end so I could tie the "trunk" in a knot, ALL of the fluffiness of the yarn came off and the ends became just thread. Impossible to work with. I gave up, but I had to document it first!

And that's it for now. Have a great weekend!

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.

Basic Fingerless Mittens in Noro Taiyo

I posted here about the fabulous Noro Taiyo yarn I had purchased while visiting a friend in Providence, RI. That was back in 2010. In December of 2011, I finally used it! I made Basic Fingerless Mittens by Julia Vaconsin. Excellent pattern - easy to follow, and the result was beautiful. Only problem I had was not knowing how to join the yarn at the thumb gusset, but I figured it out (and then I did some research and found out how I was actually supposed to do it!). ;) I used about half the skein of Taiyo for these.

Here they are in progress:



Here's the completed first mitten on me:





And here's the finished set.



I had started these as a selfish crochet project, but when I tried to wear them, my hands got itchy from the wool. (I'd been hoping that I wouldn't have a reaction to the Taiyo, since it's got a relatively low percentage of wool, but no such luck.)

Luckily, a friend of mine had a birthday (funny how people do that!), and these were perfect for her. (In my opinion, anyway. I hope she likes them and isn't made itchy by the wool!) She wore them for a while when I gave them to her, and they looked so good with her outfit! I am so happy they went to a good home.

Playing catch-up

Wow, it's been almost a year since I last posted! Oops. Sorry, dear readers. Also, happy Valentine's Day!

I have been doing much with the yarn (and not much with the beads) since my last post. I stopped doing anything with either hobby for a while, actually, until a close friend of mine had a baby last October and I decided to make a sun hat for the baby. That got the creative juices flowing again.



Hat made with Lily Sugar N Cream yarn. Free pattern can be found here.

After that, I made a Bellflower Infinity Scarf. I was loving the way it was turning out as I worked on it, but I am less satisfied with the finished result. I used Red Heart Soft yarn for it, which is acrylic, and I am way too scared to block acrylic (or anything, for that matter, but especially acrylic), so of course I didn't block it. As a result, it is sort of sloppy and bunchy. Also, the part at the end of the pattern where you slip-stitch the ends of the scarf together resulted in an ugly seam. I don't know if that's because I somehow did it wrong, or if it's just supposed to have an ugly seam! Either way, when I wear it, I keep the seam in the back.





More to come very soon.

Working with wire, a little crochet, and maybe a little crochet with wire?

Sorry I've been absent from blog and Twitter land for a while. I've been going a little crazy with some family and work stuff, so my hobbies have had to take a backseat to brainless activities like watching TV when I've had the time, because I just haven't felt up to creating much.

I'm planning to come back with a vengeance as soon as I can, though. ;) I had another wirework class last Sunday with a very talented instructor, and I plan to practice a lot of what I've learned with some copper wire I bought. In all likelihood, I'll eventually be making some copper wirework jewelry to sell, since copper is both pretty and affordable. But I'm getting ahead of myself, as usual. First, I must practice!! I've also taken out several books on wirework from the library, so I've got a ton of different ideas floating around. Just gotta harness them. Wish me luck. :)

I do have a small problem, though: I really, really need a good pair of flush cutters for cutting larger-gauge wire. The only ones I have now are good for cutting 20-gauge and above, and I really want to work with some 16- and 18-gauge. But I can't, for now, because good flush cutters cost money and so do the groceries, and it's not really hard to decide which of those we need more. I may eventually cave and just use the plastic to buy some flush cutters, but it all depends on what I can find.

A pair of earrings from my Etsy shop were just featured in this Etsypreneurs Team Treasury! Yeehaw!! Many other beautiful things are showcased there, as well. Please take a look.

As for the crochet, it hasn't gone anywhere since my last Stitch & Bitch, 2 weeks ago (I couldn't make it to last week's S&B). The next one's tomorrow, though, so I hope I can get some good crocheting done. The shawl I am making is going to be beautiful--the tiny little piece of it that I have made already is--but I do not know when/where I will possibly wear it. I haven't really been a shawl person in the past. Maybe this one will convert me, though...Who knows?!

I'd also really like to try crocheting with wire. I have a specific project in mind: I have a beautiful pendant that I bought from a jewelry artist a few years ago (unfortunately, I don't remember her name or have a way of tracking her down). It's a sterling silver crocheted wire circle with a larger-gauge wire frame, and a few beads toward the middle. I should take a picture of it so you can see what I'm talking about.

I want to learn how to make pendants like that one. I may have to figure out how to make it myself, though, since I haven't found anything like it since I bought it, much less anything like it with a tutorial. I've seen instructions for crocheted wire circle pendants, but none of them have frames, and I don't really like the way they look without frames. I do not know if the artist crocheted the frame onto the pendant (which it looks like she did), or how.

South Bay progress and a 3-day weekend!

I did, indeed, start the South Bay Shawlette. Here's what it looks like after today's Stitch & Bitch:

I would link to the pattern, but the Lion Brand website keeps redirecting me to its sign-in page when I try, and if I link to it in Ravelry, you have to sign in to Ravelry. I think it's silly that you can't even see what the finished shawl looks like without signing in somewhere. At least you can see my version here. ;) (And--hey wait--I guess I did just link to it on both sites. Heheh. You just won't be able to see the pattern and/or finished product unless you're logged in. But you're welcome to click!)

Yes, that is one of my handmade fuchsia butterfly stitch markers marking the middle stitch of the last row. I have one set of those that I've kept for myself. That's right, I only have one set of stitch markers. Period. I will build up more of a collection as I sell more, and can afford to keep some more of what I've made. I do think I will need a set of coffee beans!

By the way, I can make jewelry to go with any of these stitch markers. That's right, you can match your stitch markers! LOL! Seriously, I keep meaning to make coffee bean bead jewelry, but I haven't gotten to it yet. I've seen what some others on Etsy have done with similar beads, but what I'm envisioning is a little different.

I have a 3-day weekend coming up, so I hope I will get to spend some quality time with the yarn and bead stashes! And with my hubby, too. But he's busy working on his dissertation a lot of the time.

I'll be visiting my grandmother tomorrow. Grams has just moved into an independent living facility. Things have been...interesting. I haven't seen her new place for myself yet. I hope it's better than she thinks it is. :-/

If you've made it this far, will you please do me a favor and go to my last post and tell me which yarn you think would make a better Sera Lace Top? Please help! I need some input! :) Thanks in advance!