Crochet Time

Well, I went from knitting to crochet. I couldn't handle not working with yarn. Okay, so it's probably doing NOTHING good for my hand, but I don't care anymore. Pain... It's just one more thing that will hurt. Whatever.

I have decided what I don't like about crochet.
1) There aren't as many good patterns.
2) Most of the patterns are "clunky." Almost representative of the old "Grandma Squares" that are out there in abundance.

Yeah. Those are the 2 main things I don't like. I love lightweight, filmy things. That's why I mainly knit lace. I adore that delicate look. Crochet just can't quite capture that as well. It's because each "bar" in it is created by making chains. There's no easy way to get the hole that's necessary in lace when it comes to crochet. So, enter the "clunky" look. Don't get me wrong. There are designers out there that manage to pull it off, but they're few and far between and rarely do they come up with something I want to make.

So, if I can handle the pain, I'm going to switch back to knitting. To heck with it. I was good for about 6 weeks and there was almost no change in my hand's ability to get better. Stupid hand. So, spoink on it. I'll finish up Nerd Wars with crochet and then maybe take some time off since the next Nerd Wars tournament won't start until February. We'll see though.

I'll admit it. When that pain flares up, it HURTS. It takes a lot for me to stop doing what I love, and I was good for about a month. That's saying something for the level of pain. Doctors tend to notice pain levels when it hinders your ability to handle day-to-day tasks, and I'll admit it. Knitting is a very important part of my day. Okay. And doing dishes and folding laundry wasn't going well either.... But that's just normal, boring stuff. ;-)

Gack! I'll get there. Until then, I'll do my best to enjoy learning a new craft and being able to expand my creative outlets. In the end, it's all good.

And the pity party continues

So, here we are, mid-December and my hand is STILL messed up. Some of that is my fault. I'll admit that. The first and second braces just didn't fit right! The first was too small and the second was too... I don't know. All I do know is they were messing up my wrist since it wasn't allowed to move. Add in the fact I have narrow hands but long fingers, and NOTHING was meshing. It was a mess. I wasn't wearing it as often as I should have been because of the crappy fit.

I also started to go completely insane, so taught myself how to crochet. hehehe I learned how to hold the hook with minimal pressure needed from my thumb. I'll admit I still prefer knitting, but it's fun having another craft I can fiddle with.

I started occupational therapy and ... yeah. I'm wearing a different brace now that allows the rest of my hand more movement while keeping the "important" part of my thumb stationary. Only the first round of ultrasound therapy revealed something scary. On two parts of my thumb, I kept getting "zings" of pain. It felt like someone kept sneaking up on me and shocking me. At that point, my therapist got a little worried and started to go easier on my hand. Turns out those "zings" usually mean a tear in a tendon. *big sigh* So, we ended the session early with a little gentle hand massage and orders to wear my brace all the time. A day later, I took my brace off to do my exercises and noticed something HORRIBLE! The top of my thumb was veering off to the left. I haven't the slightest idea how that happened or what it even means.

I did trip and fall on that Monday. My son thought it would be amusing to crouch down by my feet and I didn't know he was there. I bet you he won't do THAT again. However, that was the only thing that happened out of the ordinary that week.

I have since returned to my doctor, reported the fall and the results of the ultrasound therapy and showed him my thumb. Of course, I got send right in for x-rays to find out what happened. Unfortunately, Radiology was busy that day. It's cold and flu season, so little kidlets were in there for chest x-rays and well... We do live on a military base. There were quite a few soldiers in there for training accidents. The radiologist hadn't gotten around to reading my x-rays by the time business ended. So, I'm still waiting for results. It's possible I 1) broke my knuckle as it's swollen or I 2) tore right through one of my tendons and only 1 is controlling my thumb now. All I do know is my thumb is still messed up and it hurts even more now. If a tendon did give way, I'm in trouble.... It means surgery and enforced rest for it until it heals. If that's the case, everyone will want to stay FAR away from me because I will go completely INSANE!

For now, I'm working on learning to live without my right hand as much as possible. It's so hard. I have to keep fighting the fatalistic thinking of "Well, it's already screwed up, so who cares if I...." It's not pretty. Usually the pain of that stupid thinking chases me right back in to my brace. That's the only time the pain subsides to some extent. I just hope I can find out the results of the x-rays before long. With my luck, they will show nothing and everyone will be confused. I DO know that the original problem is fixed. I am no longer showing signs of De Quervain's syndrome. So the question is, "what now?"

Feeling Sorry for Myself

Well, it's official. I can hurt myself with any craft I do. Though, oddly enough, I quilted for 7 years without any problems. I guess that one is varied enough that it's harder to give oneself a repetitive motion injury. Too bad knitting isn't the same way. It's also too bad I wasn't smart enough to take more breaks while I was knitting.

I'm now "on profile" as they say in the military. That just means I'm injured and I've been limited on what I'm allowed to do until I'm better. In this case, I inflamed the tendons in my right thumb. Isn't that stupid? However, if anyone could do it, it would be me. I'm now wearing this snazzy brace that's keeping my right thumb and wrist stationary. Whee haw... I think it's going to drive me nuts. I'm supposed to keep it on for about a week in the hopes it will allow those tendons to return to normal.

I'll admit I'm not in the best of moods right now. I'm fluctuating between depressed, bored, and plain flat irritated. Mind you, I knew I'd end up in this brace. I went to the doctor after the pain in my thumb refused to subside after 3 days even though I stopped knitting. At that point, I knew it was serious and I needed help or I'd cause myself permanent injury. At least I'm not completely stupid there.

Ugh. I knew I shouldn't knit with a heavier weight yarn. My hands have been telling me off and on for the past 2 months to not knit with anything heavier than fingering weight. Though I WILL continue working on my cardigan. I'll just be more careful and take frequent breaks until it's finished. I have too much invested in it already to let it fall by the way side. However, the hats I was planning on knitting might never see the light of day. And I can sell the yarn that was to go into them. I'll wait and see after the brace comes off what's going to happen, but I'm thinking that might be for the best.

*big sigh* Oh, well. Once this is healed, at least I can continue knitting my favorite things, which are lace shawls. ;-) I'll get there eventually. I just need to relax, read a book, watch TV, and time will pass.

I wonder if I could use a Knifty Loom with one hand.....

The New Challenge

If you look over and read my brief little bio, you'll see I'm an Army wife. Well, with that comes difficult times in our lives that usually take the form of deployments. As our country has been at war for a long time, deployments these days usually take the people we love into either Iraq or Afghanistan. Unfortunately, it was our turn. Recently, we waved goodbye to Daddy as he went off to war. He's much loved and will be greatly missed. It is, of course, my job to take care of the kids and keep our home moving smooth while he's away. I pray for his safety every day and hope that he will return to us unharmed. With that in mind, I have to do something to keep myself sane! So, I came up with a challenge for myself, and my friend was crazy enough to join me. ;-)

My challenge is to create 12 lace shawls in a single year. I'll admit that I semi-cheated. :-) I had a shawl I was working on while he was home, but I put the last bind-off stitch in yesterday. It's not even blocked yet. So, I have decided that it counts as 1 of the 12. Hey! I have 3 boys to take care of. It counts. lol

What are the rules of my little challenge? Well, it 'should' be a shawl, though my friend wants to toss in scarves and things of that nature. As there's a shawl I want to do that is rather pretty, but will be a quick knit, we decided that around 400 yards of yarn qualifies. Besides, our list so far is daunting.

On our list is Evenstar, Galadriel's Mirror, Lothlorien Cape, and Crocus. To tell you the truth, if we can get those four finished in a year, we'll be doing good. lol

So, wish me luck! Here's to surviving a deployment and creating beautiful works of art at the same time.

Still Putzing Along

Yeah. My "Slow Going" post is still about right. Add in a lot of baseball and a husband who's currently on a month-long leave and I'm not getting anywhere fast. I'm still in the middle of Clue 3. Clue 4 released today. I have to admit that I'm rather disappointed in this shawl. Renee has done some spectacular shawls in the past, but I'm not sure this is one of them. I'm wondering if her idea to do it as a half-hexagon is playing with her mind or what? Either way, it's boring....

The next clue is a mix of different size 'flowers.' I've already decided to place a bead in the center of each one and call it good. That should make Clue 4 go quick and I might be able to catch up. We'll see though. We have company again for the next 2 weeks, and the kids are getting out of school in a few days. Knitting could be hard to fit in. Oh, well. I'll do my best and see where I end up. :-)

Slow Going

I'll admit that my momentum on the Anniversary Mystery Shawl has slowed down considerably. I have received my yarn for Evenstar. I have beads coming in later this week for it. And I have the needles on hand. I can't even begin to say how much I want to practice the cast on for it. Since it's a circular shawl, it has an interesting cast on. I also have decided to do Renee's next mystery shawl. I have the yarn for it, but not the needles. I know I can get them in 2-3 days after I buy them though. I'll order them this weekend. That mystery doesn't start until June 11 though.

I think I slowed down when clue 3 was released. It's the same pattern as clue 2, so I'm bored. I did manage to get my goal of 6 rows last night though. At some point, I'll have to pick it up today to get my goal again. I only have 2 more pattern rows of beads and I'm free for awhile. Of course, the rows without beads are faster. Only, I don't have the desire to work on it right now. I'm getting bored though, and I don't want to do housework, so I'll probably pick it up as soon as I'm done with this post. How sad is that? lol

Here's a photo of clue 2 finished. I like how the beads are turning out. Since that zigzag pattern is repeated in clue 3, I'll do the beads there, too. This is only one of the three panels. My cable is only 32" long, so that's as much as I could show. From here on out, pictures are going to be interesting to get. The white lines there are my lifelines. I use white crochet thread to keep any color from my lifelines from bleeding into my projects. Though this lifeline is in danger of becoming pink as I know for sure my yarn is bleeding color. I see some washing and rinsing in my future. ;-)

Crochet Hook and Beads

Yesterday, I ran out to the store to go ahead and get a crochet hook and see if I could make it work with my beads on the Anniversary Mystery Shawl. My friend and I went round and round in circles while she argued that it should work and I argued that it wouldn't. Since I was going to Hobby Lobby anyway, I figured it wouldn't be that big of a deal to at least look at a size 14 crochet hook again.

Those size 14 hooks are tiny! You look at them funny and they will probably bend. The one I ended up buying is made by Yarnology. Probably some random brand Hobby Lobby is carrying currently. It's also only 0.75mm. Told ya it was tiny.

I have learned that, with a little practice, it will work with size 11/0 seed beads and I can now get those beads on the yarn easier. It does take a two-handed approach, but it's still infinitely faster than the wire/bead method that I don't mind.

As far as I can tell, these little size 14 hooks work best with single ply thread. In order to get it to work with a 2-ply lace yarn, I use my left hand to tighten the yarn over the hook to make it small enough for single ply, and use my thumbnail on my right hand to push the bead down over the hook and yarn. Once I got the hang of it, it went fast. I managed to finish a beaded row in about half the time as with the wire/bead method. Needless to say, I'm thrilled and it was worth the $2.50 price tag on the new crochet hook. My friend did tell me, "I told you so," but she earned it. lol Okay, and I'll admit it. It's so much faster that I don't mind her being right. I'm glad that she was. :-D

Anniversary Mystery Shawl 2011

On May 7, 2011, I began a mystery shawl done by Ravelry user Goddess Knits. Her name is actually Renee and she's a lot of fun and help while a rather large group of us move along these clues.

I decided to do this one for several reasons. First off, I looked through her other mystery shawls and they were gorgeous! Second, ... Well, there is no second. I love lace shawls and that's what she mainly does. I have enough projects in my queue and favorites list to choke a small horse, but since when will that stop a crafter from starting something new? Okay, it helped that it was a free pattern. I noticed that some of her other mysteries aren't free. Of course, the final projects all appear to be worth the $6 she charges to join up.

The stats on this shawl that we were given when it started was that it would be a half-hexagon, take around 1200 yards of lace weight yarn, use size 4 or 5 needles, and beads were optional. Not much to go on at the beginning, huh?

I elected to order Jaggerspun Zephyr yarn. It's a lace weight, 50% wool 50% silk yarn that's so soft and silky. It's the first time I've ever used it, so I wasn't sure what to expect. All I know is that the pictures on WEBS can't even do these yarns justice. Apparently, when they're photographed, the silk picks up the flash and lightens the color to some extent. I chose to use Claret, which appears almost pink on their website. In reality, it's a rich cranberry color. I love it!

I am using US4 circular needles with a 32" cable, which has me a little worried. We're adding 6 stitches every other row and it's getting big, fast. I might end up having to order needles with a longer cable. lol That's okay though. I love these large lace shawls and I'm sure I'd get plenty of use out of them.

Oh! I also decided to put beads in my knitting for the first time. Unfortunately, I live in an area where I can't get the correct size beads easily. The nearest bead shop is about an hour away and I don't know if it's even worth the drive. I have Evenstar on my list and it will take up to 3,000 beads. I might take the trip down one day and see what they have. For this mystery, I learned that size 11/0 seed beads do fit on lace weight yarn. Imagine that. Unfortunately, you can't use the easier method of using a crochet hook to put the beads on the stitches. I'm having to use nylon beading thread to pull it off. It takes more time, but I'm liking the look so far.

The second clue posted Saturday. I had a rather slow start as I seemed to have lost my knitting mojo this weekend. Starting Thursday night, I've had nothing but problems with anything I'm knitting. That continued up through Saturday evening. I made decent progress on it last night, so I'm hoping everything's okay again.

I'm hoping to run to Hobby Lobby today to look for thin beading wire. I think that might make it easier to get the beads on the stitches.

As I toodle along through this shawl, there are 5 clues, I will probably blog about my progress. Hopefully, that will clear up all of my notes in Ravelry. :-D I'm going to use the tag AMS2011. Look for a list of them over to the right. That way, you can read all posts relating directly to this shawl, even if I switch mid-project.

I will conclude this post with a picture of the finished shawl at the end of clue 1.

Blocking Procrastination

Ah, yes. Blocking. The important final step in so many knitted projects, especially lace. My friend keeps telling me, "Until it's blocked, it's not finished."

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. She has 1 kid. I have 3. She has a kitty who doesn't mess with her knitting. I have 2 that will catnap whatever I have and run away with it, destroying it in the process. She can use her living room floor to block. I have to use a room I can block off from both kids and cats. Considering that's the kids' playroom, I don't block very often. It's hard to convince the kids to clean it up (read "impossible") and I look in there and walk right back out again. She says, "Use your bed." I say, "I'm a little worried as it's a Sleep Number. What if I puncture the air bladder with the T-pins?"

Yeah, okay. I can come up with any number of excuses not to block. However, I did get a lot of fun things for Mother's Day. Basically, I order what I want and call it my gift. lol This year, I got some yarn, a ball winder (I love it!!), and blocking wires. I have also decided to go ahead and use my bed for my blocking board. I'm pretty sure, now, that the T-pins can't reach the air bladders. We took advantage of Sleep Number's major sale and got one of their premium beds for the same price as the one we were looking at and it has a much thicker top mattress than the other one did. I don't exactly push the T-pins all the way down anyway.

So, I have two shawls waiting for blocking and another one quickly racing towards finished stages. I'm still knitting it, but I'm almost to the stockinette stage that forms the end of the pattern. It's done using short rows, so this should be interesting. I'll probably start blocking... tomorrow. :-D Today, I'm way too tired to mess with it. Though, if I get up from my nap early enough, I might set something up. Both shawls awaiting blocking are heavier than normal lace weight. I can't quite remember the yarn weights, but DK weight is coming to mind. The newest shawl approaching "finish" is fingering weight. I'd hate to have a wet bed when I go to bed tonight.

Well, I guess I'm going to head off to see how it will work to use my bed. We'll see if it's to take a nap or block. ;-)

I'm Insane - Epic Fail

OMG! I am completely and totally insane. Here's the story. It's a slightly interesting one.

For months, my husband and I have been planning on going to his battalion ball. It's to be held later this week. I thought it would be fun to wear a lace shawl to the ball, so I managed to finish Vernal Equinox in time and was happy. Unfortunately, in all of that time, I never did pull out the dress I was planning on wearing. When I finally did get it out, I learned something horrible. One of the straps of the dress was falling apart. As it's a velvet dress, that's not a good thing. Careful study revealed that the velvet itself was pulling away from its backing. Eep! Changing the design of the dress itself by having that section removed was not an option. It fit me perfectly as it was, and losing a 1/2 inch of the strap would make it so I couldn't get it on anymore. *sigh*

So, I waited until this weekend, and then went dress shopping. My plan was to get another black dress and call it good. After going through the mall, I discovered that the formal dresses had basically been wiped out. I didn't have much choice in dresses. Luckily, I found one that I rather liked and bought it. Got it on sale, too. Yay! Unfortunately.... The design of the dress, and the color, does not lend itself well to Vernal Equinox. In showing it to my friend, she told me, "Yeah, you're right. It needs a stole. I bet you can make one in time."

*insert insanity here*

I'm honestly taking her up on it. One of my yarns matches the dress beautifully. I came across a pattern on Ravelry called Dancing Cranes Stole that appears to be pretty and yet simple enough to complete quickly. I am now on a race against time to see if I can pull this off. I honestly don't know if I can do it. She thinks I can. I'll keep working on it as long as I can to see where I end up. I hope I can do it. I'd love to have something to wrap around my arms when we go. The dress I ended up with is sort of outside of my comfort level. Having a wrap would make me feel better. :-)

So, I'll end this blog entry and go grab another cup of coffee. I have a stole I need to be knitting.

Update: While working the next row, I discovered I was off by one, and in an attempt to fix it, I made it all worse. I can't say that I'm sad that I don't have the time to do it. I'd like to have a stole to take with me, but not having that stress looming over my head any more is nice. :-) Besides, I might be able to come up with something else. Something that requires sewing, which is so much faster. :-D I'll figure it out.

Last Minute Gifts

Whew! I have my work cut out for me during the month of May. Since my husband is set to deploy in June, that might be a good thing. It will keep me busy and not thinking about that near as much. Deployment is never fun or easy.

For some unknown reason, I decided to knit my sons' teachers scarves for their end of the year gifts. My kids get out of school June 2. Uh, right. LOL And are they easy, whip them out in no time scarves? Of course not! They're LACE scarves. I adore lace and I think every woman deserves something completely frivolous and beautiful that has no purpose. :-D One of my sons' teachers is male, so obviously a lace scarf won't work for him. So, I'm going to bake cookies a day or two before school is over and send him some of those instead.

Enter the scarves. I'm going to do this beautiful pattern I found on Ravelry. It's called Traveling Roses. Also, I found someone on Ravelry selling two skeins of the same colored yarn, so I won't have to decide which teacher gets which color. That makes it so much easier! Okay, and I'll admit it. I'm looking forward to using 100% alpaca yarn. I'm hoping I'm not allergic to it as I've never worked with it before. I'm allergic to angora and sensitive to wool, so it's an honest worry.

I'm currently working on a shawl called Falling Water. It is so pretty. Though, I'll admit that the stockinette rows are putting me to sleep. Luckily, I only have 13 more rows of that left before I start the lace pattern. I'm going to get this finished before I start the scarves. I had an unfortunate set back on this pattern recently. I dropped a stitch or something part way through and ended up having to rip out all of the stitches. I'd started it on size 6 needles even though the pattern calls for size 7. So, when I had to rip it all out, I was able to switch over to my new size 7 needles. Last night, I finally caught up to where I was when I noticed the mistake.

I also have plans to make a pair of socks for my mom for Mother's Day. I was working on those, but discovered that I'd dropped a bunch of stitches along the way. *sigh* Apparently it was "drop a stitch" week for me last week. Needless to say, it set me back quite a bit on my projects. I'll get those restarted soon. And then there is the Anniversary Shawl knit along that I'm starting in May.

See? I said I was getting in over my head here. I have no clue how I'll get all of this finished in time, but the lace shawl I'm doing in May is probably the one that will suffer the most. I'll just be sure to get the pattern saved and work on it as I can. My first priority will be the socks and the two scarves.

For right now, I'm exhausted. So, I'm going to cheat a little bit and go take a nap so that I can knit my little heart out all afternoon long. I'm hoping to get Falling Water finished ASAP so I can get it blocked and start on the socks. Whee! The joys of getting in over my head.

The Needle War

Well, it's not really much of a war, but it is a contest of sorts. I've been trying out various high quality needles and attempting to decide which brand I want a full interchangeable set of. Of course, most of my knitting has been done on Boye and Susan Bates to date. Those are the two brands I could get my hands on easily at Hobby Lobby. However, I recently splurged and bought a total of 4 circulars. One is an Addi Turbo, another an Addi Turbo Lace, and two are Hiya Hiya circulars. When working with regular yarn, the Addi Turbo is a dream. I love my Addi Turbo Lace needles for working on delicate lace. Enter the Hiya Hiya needles. I received those in the mail yesterday, so they're still in the testing phase.

I'm currently using the size 7 Hiya Hiya circulars on a lace type shawl that uses DK weight yarn. I'm using the Spa yarn by Caron. I'm saving the size 4 circulars for use on an upcoming lace shawl that will be done using MadelineTosh lace yarn. I'll start that shawl on May 7.

So far, I have to admit that I like the Addi needles better. In a way, I'm sort of sad by that. Why you might ask? Well, it all boils down to cost. The Hiya Hiya needles cost about half of what the Addi's do. My guess is it's because they are made in China while the Addi's are made in Germany. The joins on the Hiya Hiya's are smoother. I'll give them that. However, the points on the Addi lace needles are sharper and I like that. The Hiya Hiya's are stainless steel versus Addi Lace's brass. Though the interchangeables are nickle-plated brass.

I'm a little worried about that nickle-plating. You see, I have high acidic sweat. Isn't that funny? I think it is. I've worn off most of the letters on several keyboards over the years. I've also worn off the silver-plating on my favorite thimble where my finger rests on the inside. So, I have no doubt that I will wear off that nickle-plating on those needles over time. The nice thing about the Hiya Hiyas is that I wouldn't wear off any plating since they're just stainless steel. Unfortunately, those points are a big selling point for me. They slip under the yarn effortlessly and make knitting more enjoyable.

Until I can afford the price tag on the Addi Turbo Lace interchangeable needles, my current needle collection will work fine. While I like the Hiya Hiya needles just fine, I do believe I will end up going with the Addi Turbo Lace needles. However, it's nice knowing that there are choices out there for everyone.

I should have known I'd go with the needles with the sharpest point. I always do. In cross stitch, I went with the sharps even though tapestry needles would have worked just fine. In quilting, I always preferred the thinnest and sharpest needles I could find. So yes. It goes to reason that I would pick the same sharp points in knitting. I suppose I'll set my knitting budget aside for a few paychecks until I can get them. Maybe for my birthday. :-)

Hand Dyes

Way back when, I used to hand dye fabrics. You see, I'm also a quilter and what quilter doesn't love unique fabric? Unfortunately, I sold all of our fabric dyes last year or I probably would have tried something.

I used to do a 6-step color progression with our fabrics. Oh, people loved buying those because most other dyers only did 5-step color progressions. Our 6th step was unique. Unique is good. However, that 6th step also made it more "natural" and the steps between colors were smaller. If I still had those dyes, I would get myself some pure white, all natural fiber yarn and try to put that 6-step color progression into a single skein of yarn. What would it do? What would it look like? Could it be done?

In my opinion, this is dangerous talk. Why? Because I might be tempted to buy dyes again solely to try it out. That could be an expensive proposition. What if it didn't work out? And what colors would I try anyway? Though, I think I could get away with just a small amount of dye and soda ash. Ut oh. Ssshh. This is crazy talk. Too bad I know where I can get a starter dye kit for a reasonable amount of money... I might have to try it just to be difficult.

Final Shawl Photos

There it is! That took around a month to do and I can't even begin to convey how proud of it I am. I'm going to wear it to a ball on May 5th, so I'm glad it's finished. Heck, I'm amazed it's finished at all. lol

My friend and I are going to do a mystery shawl knit along on Ravelry but it doesn't start until May 7th. We're filling our time with small projects to clean out our yarn boxes. Every yarn we use clears the way to buy new yarn! That's exciting. :-D

I'm currently working on The Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief. It's nothing thrilling, but it's using up a ball of my DK weight yarn. When I ordered some Araucania Ruca recently, the company didn't match the colors worth a darn. So, instead of using it together like I'd hoped, I had to split it out into two projects. This little kerchief is turning out to be quick to make and will use almost a full ball. Hurray! It's sort of funny. My friend isn't liking how the colors are pooling. Me? I'm just glad I'm using a ball of yarn. lol


This particular yarn is interesting. They're hand dyed in Chile and this yarn is made out of 100% sugar cane. Isn't that neat? It's very soft and so silky. It's fun to touch and a joy to have next to the skin. Unfortunately, the hanks are a nightmare to wind into balls, and it splits as you work with it. You have to keep your eye on that. Even though it's an awesome feeling yarn, I don't believe I'll buy any more. I still have 2 more balls to use up. I'll get there eventually.

One thing I've learned is that, while I like variegated yarns, they don't work well in a lot of projects. If you want to do fancy stitch patterns, you need the yarn to be "dull" so as not to distract you from it. I'm finding that a good tone-on-tone hand dyed yarn is better. Too bad they're more expensive and can be hard to find. Oh, well. I'll keep my eyes open and buy some as I find it. :-)

Shawl is DONE!!

I totally win! I do, I do, I do. This shawl was 1.5 months in the making and I'm so proud of it. My very first lace project. Whoo hoo!!


It's currently up in my sons' playroom being blocked. They are, of course, banned from that room until the shawl is dry and I've picked everything up. Blocking took around 3 hours and I can't even begin to tell you how many pins I have in it. A lot, that's for sure. I am using those colored puzzle mats that you can buy for kids. Walmart had them for $5 for a set, so I bought two of them. I noticed a lot of people on Ravelry use them, so figured they would work for me. :-)

I'm in the process of deciding my next project. Unfortunately, I'm in a quandary. Turns out I don't have size 7 circulars and I seem to need those for every single shawl that's on my list. How the heck did that happen? I don't get it. I do have two unfinished projects I can be working on. They're just a tad bit anti-climatic after the lace shawl. lol Might as well though. I'm set up to do a knit along starting May 7th. I guess I shouldn't let myself get too bogged down with another major project before that starts. I'll get it figured out.

Almost Finished!!

Oh, this is about to be an exciting day. Maybe not until a little (a lot) later, but hey! I'll take it. My Vernal Equinox Shawl is within 8 rows of being finished. I believe the only thing that will keep me from finishing it today is if I run out of yarn. I have decided that if that happens, I will order more of the same yarn and finish up. It will be such a small section that a color change shouldn't be too noticeable. Considering the yarn is hand painted, it will be different if I get more. However, it might not be a problem at all. I'm putting off an order for new yarn until I know for sure if I'll have enough.

This is VERY exciting. It's the largest knit project I've ever finished. It also has the distinction of being my first shawl, my first project in true lace, and the most beautiful thing I've knit to date. I can't wait to see it finished and off my needles. I will definitely take a picture of it this evening once it's off, even though it will still need to be blocked. I have work to do to get the room ready for it to be blocked, though. I'm going to be "stealing" my sons' playroom for a few days to get it done. They have the only room I can keep the cats out of and, when cleaned up, has enough floor space.

See, I have these two cats. I've had to chase Mr. Shadow through the house before while he's running away with a ball of yarn and any project attached to it at the time. Then there's Ms. Echo. She's always stealing the finished projects to play with. I've caught her with a wool scarf and she keeps sneaking off with my son's socks. Needless to say, if any of that happened to this shawl, it would be destroyed. So, I have been over protective of it from day one. :-)

It's time to pick up the needles and begin the final steps to seeing this shawl finished. I hope I can stay still long enough to pull it off. I'm getting rather excited. :-D

Minor Setback

So, here I was, happily knitting along on my Vernal Equinox shawl when all of a sudden, I realized I was missing a stitch. In looking at the pattern, it had been missing for awhile. Dang. As my friend said about this section, "it's deceptively easy." She was right. See, I think she meant that you get lulled into the simpler pattern and well, make more mistakes. I got lazy in counting my stitches every marker, so I dropped my stitch and didn't realize it for quite some time. I ended up having to pull out 6 rows. That's not too bad, I suppose. It showed me something interesting. As I pulled the rows, I wound it back on the ball. The ball didn't change a whole lot in size between, so that means there's quite a bit more yarn there than I thought. I'm not as concerned as I was before that I'd run out.

This evening, we had a baseball game, so I haven't had much time to knit. I guess I could have worked on it at the field, but well... I can't seem to do stuff like that out in public, so I didn't. Currently, I'm so tired, but I'd love to finish the row I'm on. I think I'm near the end, so I think I can do that and tackle the following purl row. I would like to get back to where I was this morning.

With that, I'm going to go grab a cup of coffee and pull it back out. If I can't concentrate on it, I guess I'll do something I've never done before. Gone to bed with an unfinished row. *gasp*

For the Love of Lace

Ut oh. Am I starting several posts with those two words? Oh, well. I have discovered that I adore lace. It's so pretty and gorgeous and unique and... Okay, and I also love the fine yarns that you use to create the designs. My friend and I both agree that we don't like going above DK weight anymore.

So, I came across a Ravelry user who knits almost nothing but lace. Oh, my. I don't know what she does with all of it, but you can tell she doesn't really care. She has done some stunning work and I'd love to do what she has done.

I'm looking at my little Vernal Equinox shawl and realize that it has taught me much. First off, it has introduced me to the love of lace patterns. Okay, not really. I've always loved the look of lace. But it has taught me that I CAN do it, with a little patience and perseverance. That's all that matters, right? Of course it is. I'm getting ready to pull it back out of my bag that keeps it safe while I'm working on it, and continue working away. I'm so close to finishing it. I'm getting a little paranoid at how quick my yarn ball is shrinking, but I'll keep plugging away. If I run out of yarn first, I'll decide what to do from there. Yeah. Okay. First things first! Do I run out of the pattern first or yarn? Let's go find out. :-)

Hunting for Yarn

Ugh. That's all I can say at this point. You see, I can't wear wool. When I put it on, I get all itchy and I can't take it. Oddly enough, I can work with it just fine. I just can't wear it. Weird, huh? So, that leads me on a very painful hunt every time I want to start a new project I might want to wear.

My current shawl, Vernal Equinox Surprise, is done in 100% merino wool. Why? Well, probably because I couldn't think of a reason to ever wear it. lol So, I'm doing it for a wall hanging. At that moment, every option opened up to me and I could use wool. What's interesting, is that I am now planning on wearing it. Once. To a ball on May 5th. I figure I won't wear it for long and that will work. Then it's going up on the wall for decoration. I know. I'm weird. ;-)

However, I'm now looking at yarns for upcoming shawls with the idea of wearing them. Sheesh. That doesn't leave me with many choices. Well, when it comes to lace weight yarn, I have pretty much 1 choice. That choice is silk. Poor me, right? lol Well, unfortunately, it tends to be expensive and the array of colors isn't that big. You might be thinking, "Why can't you try alpaca or cashmere?" Well, I could. But those are hard to find, too. That and I'll admit I don't like the idea of having a "fuzzy" shawl. Both of those fibers tend to appear fuzzy when knitted. At least the yarn pictures appear that way. Not being near a true yarn shop makes it difficult to know for sure without dropping a pretty penny on them to order through the internet. Keep in mind that I'm a new knitter even if I have been knitting for around 12 years. This is my first foray into fancy yarns and good knitting needles.

The only thing keeping me from going insane in finding yarn at the moment is that the shawl I have picked out next uses a DK weight yarn. That, I have. I have the pattern, the needles, and the yarn. Talk about exciting. lol I'm going to be using a sugar cane yarn. Isn't that crazy? My friend and I recently decided to pick up unusual yarns to try. I hope it works nice. It's beautiful and fun to touch. Very silky.

I suppose that's all for now. If you have any recommendations for a good lace weight non-wool yarn, I'd love to hear them!

Shawl Update

I finished my washcloth/dishcloth/whatever last night and switched to my shawl today. I'll admit it was a struggle to return to the shawl as I'd put it down for such a long time. It was also strange switching from worsted weight cotton to lace weight wool. Talk about a huge difference! It took a little while to hit my stride, but I managed. I hope to work on the shawl from here on out until it's finished. Might take awhile, but I'll get there.

There is this row in Clue 4 that is hard to get right for some unknown reason. It's not a difficult row, but that might be the problem right there. In thinking it's easy, it becomes easy to make a mistake. Of course, it's an important row, so if it's messed up in the wrong spot, it throws the entire thing off. Figures, huh? This particular clue is repeated 4 times. The second time I tackled that row, I messed it up over and over and over again. I think it took me 6 tries to get it right. Gack! I faced that row again tonight for the third time. I'll admit that I was frightened of it. I mean, who wouldn't if you recently had to redo it so many times before? I'm absolutely thrilled that I managed to get it right the first time through. I'm honestly doing a happy dance here. lol All I need to do now is do the purl row, or the "lock in row" as I like to think of them, and slip in a new lifeline. Since it's right, I don't want to risk having to redo it if I make a mistake on the rows further up. Which, knowing me, I will. So, yes. Lifelines are my best buds.

After I get some sleep, I will attempt to remember to post photos of my finished washcloth and where I'm at on my shawl. Unfortunately, I can't spread out the entire shawl anymore. There are now 245 stitches on my 32" cables, so it doesn't quite work. However, I do enjoy seeing the pattern emerging in the section I can spread out. So I will take a photo of that section tomorrow and share it. Maybe you can get a hint of how gorgeous it's going to be finished.

Being half way through Clue 4, I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. There are 3 more clues after this one. I'll admit that there will be around 600 stitches on the needles at the end. At that time, photos will probably have to wait until I'm completely finished and the shawl is being blocked. Oh, what a day that will be. I will have completed my largest and most complex project to date. Yes. I will have to celebrate. :-)

A Nostepinne and a yarn swift

Talk about two crazy words, huh?! I like to joke that "nostepinne" is Scandinavian for "yarn ball winding stick." That's about all it is. However, it makes some great yarn balls!

There it is. Nothing amazing about it. Though, I did have my hubby cut the stick too long. I meant to have him cut it shorter while he was working on the yarn swift, but I forgot. Oops. However, that little notch is to hold the tail of the yarn. You make a little slip knot and slip it there. Then, you start winding. There are a lot of websites out there that teach you how to use them. A simple search will show you if you're interested. That little ball there was my very first yarn ball I wound after my nostepinne was finished. I think it turned out pretty good!

You can find some beautiful ones for sale that have been lathed and are polished and stained. Mine is a simple little dowel that I bought and sanded down. In the end, I used an old fingernail file/buffer on it to get it smooth enough. The yarn ball needs to slide off at the end and I definitely didn't want it snagging any of my more fancy yarns later on. It did well with the test wind.

Of course, by this time, I've wound a few hanks of yarn into balls and realize that a yarn swift is a valuable tool to have. It's not used all the time, but anything to help keep the yarn hank organized while you're winding is awesome! Yarn swifts can be expensive critters. The umbrella style can run you up to $100 depending on the quality of materials. Right. We have 3 boys and we're a military family. In other words, the kids eat a lot, grow fast, and suck up a lot of money. lol Also, toss in the 'military' side of things and we're always moving. Umbrella yarn swifts would be too delicate for our way of life. I did some searches and came across a simple, portable yarn swift we could make ourselves. Bonus!

And, there you have it. Only took a trip to Lowe's, $15, and a little time with the ol' wood working tools. I have yet to wind a ball using it though. I'm still feeling the effects of the tension headaches, so I've been trying to take it easy. I did end up making mine out of pine instead of poplar. Might not have been the best choice as the pine is a lot softer wood. However, I loved the color of the wood and the grain patterns. Okay. And I miss Colorado and pine reminds me of my home state. ;-)

The beauty of this yarn swift is it completely comes apart. There are a total of 4 screws in the entire thing and all they do is hold some base feet in place. In our mobile lifestyle, being able to break this down to its smallest parts is a bonus. I'll make a case for it before long, in the way of a pretty cloth bag, to hold and store it while not in use.

In a craft where everything at the end is made by hand, it's neat to use tools I have also made. I love crafts for this very reason. There's just something about it that makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Current projects

According to Ravelry, I have 4 current projects with 2 in hibernation. I love that website. Being able to see where my projects are in one glance is handy. It also makes a great guilt trip because I'm not the only one who can see it. Anyone on Ravelry can see where I'm at. So, I don't like to leave projects unfinished. I need something like that for my quilting!

I have a Chinese Waves dishcloth, a pretty cream-colored tunic, a mobius scarf, and my lace shawl in progress at the moment. My hibernating projects are two pairs of socks. One was put into hibernation because I knit them too small. Doh! I used a size 0 needle instead of the size 2 it called for. Oops. hehehe The other I could technically delete because I was going to make a pair of socks for my son, but the weather warmed up first. Living in Central TX, wool socks have a short-lived season here. I had a bad time with the previous yarn I had picked out for them due to the fact it was yucky yarn. I ordered new, higher quality yarn, but it didn't arrive in time. When it arrived, the weather was warm and I decided to wait until the next time it gets cold to make them. Kids grow so fast, so I knew whatever size I made right now would never fit by the next cold snap.

I prefer to work on my lace shawl. Everything else is sort of a "whenever I feel like it" project. I've been working on the dishcloth recently. I was suffering from some nasty tension headaches caused by tight shoulder muscles. The washcloth pattern is so simple that I figured I could work on it for awhile without causing any problems. I'm only doing them because I had some cheap cotton yarn left over from my previous knitting stint. I figured it would work for fast projects. I came across a pattern for a Swiffer mop cover that I'm hoping to make before long. I do not like the disposable cloths you buy for those, so this will be a nice change, as well as making the Swiffer mop usable again. Oddly enough, if I like it, I will need to pick up some more cotton yarn to make a few more as I'm down to my last two skeins.

My friend and I are doing the lace shawl together. For awhile, we were neck and neck in making it, but I pulled ahead by several rows when some health problems got the best of her. When you're talking 300+ stitch rows, that's a lot of work. My tension headaches are going to allow her to catch up. That and I want to finish my Chinese Waves dishcloth before returning to it. I hope to finish that up today.

Now, since this is a new blog, and I am trying to back track through some information and catch up my non-existent readers, I will do a new entry for my newest toys. Pictures will begin to appear. Isn't that neat? lol Don't mind me. You'll find that I'm a wee bit odd. ;-)

I got bitten

Awhile back, I ran into an old friend via Facebook. When it was all said and done, she'd managed to sucker me back into knitting with her. It started with an innocent pair of socks and escalated from there. We are both members of Ravelry and enjoy keeping track of our projects there. However, it's easy to find new projects to work on and a new interest in knitting was born.

I've known how to knit for about 12 to 13 years, only I never finished much of anything. It was more of a 'stop gap' for me when I was switching from hobby to hobby and I didn't know what to work on yet. It all boiled down to the quality of the yarn. I splurged on some good yarn recently and that was the end of that. I now have some beautiful Addi Turbo and Addi Lace needles. The best needles I've ever owned. Throw in gorgeous yarns made out of exotic fibers, like sugar cane, and I was all over this hobby.

My yarn box is now filled with luscious yarns and good needles. My queue at Ravelry is lovingly filled with projects I'd like to do in the future. I have yarn wish lists on two different yarn sites. I have even finished several projects. This has turned into a full blown hobby and I'm enjoying it.

I decided to start a blog of my knitting because I tend to get wordy in the project notes on Ravelry. Instead of sharing everything there, I figured it was time for a blog. I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to organize this as of yet. I'll get there though. ;-) Then I'll share all of my amazing knitting adventures with anyone who wishes to tag along.