Trellis Scarf (Knitted)

I generally avoid novelty yarns because they seem kinda gaudy to me. But the one thing few crafters can resist is a sale :). I picked up 9 balls of Lion Brand Trellis with the kimono pattern in mind.

I decided to try a big needle scarf while I was at it. It turned out to be a great practice project. Trellis is a ladder ribbon yarn, meaning there are two strands of nylon held together by bits of ribbon. It takes some getting used to. Sometimes the needle goes between the strands or picks up two loops. I liked the size 17 needles - very light. The hardest thing to adjust to was people asking "what kind of needles are THOSE?!"

The scarf made a nice birthday gift. I hope it's long enough. I used my height as a guideline for its length and the recipient is taller.

There was so much yarn left over that I made a cat-sized scarf and left the tails hanging off. Need to get a photo.

WHOOPS

I couldn't make this up if I tried :).

This was back on Valentine's Day. I had completed the back panel of the Glamor tunic and was referring to it while working the front. I set the fabric on the end table, forgetting all the tea candles DH had lit in the living room. Next thing I know, the room's warm ambiance got a bit brighter than usual. I started yelling "FIRE!" and upended my quart-sized water sipper bottle on it. Fortunately, that put it out and nothing else was damaged. I mopped up the water and picked up the burnt cotton. (Good thing it wasn't synthetic!)

As you can see, the fabric was a total loss. It's funny now, but it wasn't at the time. That was weeks of work. I resumed working on it the same night. I'm using a 2700yd cone, so running out of yarn wasn't an issue. The undamaged panel became the back again and this time I took the chance to add markers to save counting rows later. I'm already on the front panel, working neck shaping.

Hat & Booties

Hades has frozen over.

My husband asked me to do a hat & bootie for a baby shower (not mine). He picked out the colors. Pattern is Bernat Cottontots hat & booties and I'm using the brand-name yarn for once. This cotton has an interesting feel. It's almost like a big Q-tip.

This pattern drove me BANANAS. My main complaint is the hat. Are the long-sc's supposed to line up or not? When projects are worked in the round, the joins travel, creating a diagonal seam. I adjusted the pattern to make the rows appear to line up. You can see they aren't exact. A good pattern photo would've been extremely helpful.

The booties are cute, but there were a lot of strings to weave in. Hope that doesn't make them uncomfortable to wear.

Overuse problems

THIS is what can happen when you crochet too much. If you look closely, the pointer finger is so swollen that I can't bend it. It's a bit hard to tell from the picture. Notice how the knuckle looks flat and unwrinkled compared to the other knuckles.

Glamor by Grace

Ah, my first purchased pattern book. Well, technically a bookLET. Finally, a pattern where I wouldn't change a thing. I love the sleeves. (Dear Patons, Please don't sue me. You're too awesome.)

I'm using a cone of blue sport weight cotton from Maggie's. Now I'm a little fuzzy on the actual weight category of "sport." I had to drop to a smaller hook and crochet tightly to match the gauge. I'm happy just to match the gauge, though. It's the weakest area of my ability and I've been wanting to work on that.

This one is going to be a while.

Cool Crochet

A couple of weeks ago, my de-stashing efforts were hindered by a Wal-mart clearance sale. Among other things, I picked up three balls of Bernat Cool Crochet - two in tie dye and one in denim. One ball that small is enough for something small ie. a scarf, a hat. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any patterns I liked. I tried freeforming with the tie dye and didn't come up with anything. I wanted to do something fashionable with this silky, shiny yarn.

Then, I caught the Knitty Gritty show on mixing yarns. You can mix different yarns as long as they have one color in common. To determine needle size, you add up the suggested needle sizes of the suggested yarns. Cool Crochet takes size 5 knitting needles or an F crochet hook. 3.75mm x 3 strands = 11.25mm. That's about size 15-17 knitting needles or a N-P crochet hook.

I tried designing a pair of crocheted wristwarmers. I'm still working out the fit. Since crocheted material doesn't stretch much, they'd have to be just big enough to fit over my hands. I'm trying to stay away from knitting here. I think a little compression would be good support for my hands.

UPDATE 3/14/08: It took me a while to decide what to do with this yarn. I experimented with several ideas (wristwarmers, hat, love knot scarf) and frogged them all. This yarn is a lot bolder than it looks. Its sheen makes it very eye-catching. I wanted to utilize its effect without having it completely overpower all the other colors it would be paired with. So I wound up trying a scarf on size 17 needles (bought for trellis project). A scarf is always a nice accent. Now I just have to figure out what to do with it. If paired with dark colors, it would only look brighter. If paired with more blue, it'd be like "HEY LOOK AT THE BLUE FAIRY!! WANT TO BE A REAL BOY?" (What is it with me and blue anyway?)

Felted Kitty Snuggle

A while back, I noticed my 1 year-old cat Yozhik sometimes slept in his buddy Boris's bed. There were a few fights, which led Yoz to move into the laundry basket. Pet beds are kinda pricey. As Boris is a large cat, we invested in the deluxe small doggy bed - around $30. I decided instead to get Yoz a basket and make the padding myself. I bought a tall maize basket at AC Moore (on sale) for around $4.50. Josie doesn't really need one. She almost always sleeps on my bed.

Yoz has a habit of swiping my fisherman's wool. The skein looks as big as he is, though it only weighs 8oz. As part of my new destashing initiative, I decided to make this my first felt project. The basket measures around 10" x 15". If we assume the snuggle will shrink by 30%, then the width should be 15". I made it 16" just to be safe. The length is variable. I'm just eyeballing it. I added a second skein and am almost finished.

The cats have been supervising this project. They seem to like the wool texture. I can't let them play with it much as there's a choking risk with Boris. Yoz is clearly the biggest fan.It's as if he knows. He gets into the basket and rubs his paw pads on everything. I think he appreciates the height of the sides. If we put the completed basket somewhere out of the way, he can hide and peek over the sides. That's my little wussboy.

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OK, the actual crocheting is done. I've been debating whether I still want to felt this. I tried leaving the blanky out and the only one who showed interest was Boris. I guess we're felting then.