Hats and hats

It never occurred to me that flowers could go in and out of style like clothes or hairstyles, but then I witnessed the rise of the Gerbera daisy.  When my husband casually mentioned that it was his sister Lisa's favorite flower, I thought, "The what daisy?  Did they just invent that?  Can you invent flowers?" and dismissed it.  Then it started cropping up everywhere - at work, on banners, in pots, in bouquets, on the covers of Sarah Dessen novels . . .

And then I remembered the Calla lily.  Three years ago my friend Carlin asked what I thought of Calla lilies, because his girlfriend of the moment liked them, and I said, "What lilies?"   Suddenly they were in all the Easter bouquets and wedding bouquets and on magazines and in knitting patterns and as knitting patterns, and then just as suddenly they faded out.  I thought it had all been rather overblown for a dumb flower, but I've never been very good at trends.  Or at flowers, for that matter.  I haven't had a favorite flower since I discovered tulips in grade school, and when my wedding rolled around and they asked what kind of flowers I wanted I chose irises because just in case we decided that real flowers weren't in the budget, I had a nice origami pattern for irises.

The point being, I made a hat.

I was going to give it to Lisa for her birthday, hence the big pink daisy, but instead of the jaunty little cloche the pattern teased me with, it turned out to be huge and grannyish, and entirely unsuited to a trendy 21 year old.  For a trend-bucking 23 year old, the water's just fine.

The daisy is my own pattern, and one of these days I'll sit down and write it out for the internet's pleasure, just as soon as I remember how I did it.

Lisa did get a scarf that I made from The Happy Hooker; the One Skein Scarf, in the same yarn as the daisy - Knit Picks Swish in Bubblegum, and a cabled newsboy hat from SnB Nation, neither of which did I take any pictures of.  The hat was done holding two strands of wool yarn together, one turquoise and one medium blue, in the hopes that the turquoise would brighten the blue and the blue would mellow the turquoise.  I don't know if it did, but the result was a cute speckled effect anyway.  In retrospect, I wish I had tried blocking it over a plate to see if it would turn out more slouchy, but there isn't much I can do about that now, since it would come across a little odd to ask for the hat back "because I just thought of something that would make it more awesome!"

On that note, here is a whale earbud holder that I made for her two Christmases ago.



It may be the very definition of 'ugly cute.'  I'm not sure that it does Roman Sock's pattern justice, but Lisa liked it.  It was my first Christmas with Ryan's family and I wanted to make something unique for everyone.  Since I didn't know them very well yet, handmade gifts would show that I wanted to put effort and thought into their presents, at least more effort than just giving them cash or gift cards.  Not that I'm knocking gift cards - they make nice gifts, especially for hard-to-buy-for friends and long-distance exchanges.  But for that first Christmas I wanted to make and impression.

For his parents I made this beaded ornament:

I also made the box - hooray for origami, fabric scraps, and glitter!

For Ryan I knitted the rooster hat from Scribblenauts, as we were fawning over the game at the time.  Until that inspiration came to me I had been at a loss as to what to make for him.  The expressions on everyone's faces when he opened it were indescribable and fully worth every stitch.  I cobbled the pattern together from elements from several different sources, and managed to make it all up in under a week - record time!

 Actually, record time goes to the three-day knitting frenzy that produced the Jayne Cobb hat for my friend Alan, seen here with the earflaps tied up out of the way, which is a shame because you miss some of the glory.  Someone told him it looked like a parrot had died on his head, which is the sort of original insult that pleases me.  It means that I have truly created a hat that only a man who isn't afraid of anyone would wear.

It was pure joy to knit and there is nothing to compare to the satisfaction of making a gargantuan pompom, even if it does garner some odd looks when you're making it during a Legal Ethics lecture.

One of these days I'd like to make one for myself.  I think Ryan and I would look pretty cunning in our gigantic crazy hats. . .

Tidying Up

My yarn collection is slowly being untangled and sorted into its new home - a set of plastic drawers from Wal-Mart.

Ryan assures me this will make it so much easier to move.  My response was, "We're moving?"  True, our lease ends this month, but I had assumed we would renew it; the main reason we were planning on looking for a new place was because there isn't really room here for a growing family.  When it turned out that Gabriel wasn't to be, we came back to square one, and that square happens to contain a two-bedroom house with incredibly low rent, a blessing straight from God for a young couple with a lot of stuff and sketchy budgeting skills.

However, my premarital counseling class instructed me to take the passage, "Wives, obey your husbands" seriously, so if this is Ryan's plan, then I will trust it to be God's plan as well.  Whatever the end result, at least my yarn is getting untangled and sorted.

I still have too many projects going at once, but I did finish my mystery yarn hat!  My math and my gauge swatch are laughing at me - despite careful calculations the hat is enormous.  I have a larger-than-average head, but this might have been overkill.  Combined with the strange colorway, the overall impression is that my head exploded.  It has been thus christened The Zombie Hat.

Also finished, the Triangular Shawl, another free Red Heart pattern.  I did most of it on my breaks at work while I was pregnant, and there it stayed until I returned from my maternity leave.  I didn't have the heart to continue it in the same context that I had started it, so I brought it home and finished it on the way to my parents.  I tried to give it to my mom for an early Mother's Day gift, but she decided it was too big for her.  I wore it out for my wedding anniversary last weekend, and it was lovely and warm while allowing me to show off my outfit instead of covering it up with a less elegant coat.  Shawls are wonderful inventions.

I worked several more rounds than the pattern called for because my gauge (surprise!) was off.  Other than that, the only modification I made was using burgundy yarn instead of blue, and omitting the tassel.  A single tassel at the point as the pattern called for put me in mind of a tail, and I am not a raccoon.

Feeling lost

The knitting progresses sporadically and there are as yet no pictures.  I have started half a dozen new projects and neglected the old ones most shamefully.  The only work getting consistent attention is the Red Heart pattern I'm crocheting on my breaks at work, the Scandinavian Snowflake Throw.  It caught my eye because it was free.  As usual my too-tight crochet gauge has resulted in squares that are a few inches too small, even having gone up two needle sizes, so I'm going to do a six-square-by-six-square throw instead of the five-by-five.  How do they get such big squares out of such a tiny hook???  Also, why the smiling model with the tortured eyes?

My capricious approach to projects seems to be the natural behavior of a wanton heart.  I'm beginning to realize that the faith I have professed for so long is wanting, and I don't really know what I believe.  To put it more accurately, I know WHAT I claim to believe, and I do believe it, but I don't really know much about it, and I don't know how to put it into practice.  All of my attempts feel half-hearted.

I believe in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God the Father, Creator of the Universe and Mankind.  I believe that it is appointed to Man to die once and after this the judgement, and only through Christ and baptism in water and fire can we be saved.  I believe that I am repeating this like a good schoolgirl, but when it comes down to it I don't know if my life reflects my belief.  I witnessed to a few people, but I've never been much of a spokesperson on anything.  Everything is so personal to me, and I have a hard time relating it to other people, especially when I'm put on the spot.

I want to know more, I want to get involved, but I don't know where to start.  I want to live a life of faith, and I don't know what that means.

I feel like the whole world is falling apart around me, and I need to stand my ground and overcome, but it would be so much easier to lie down and stop trying.  What does it take to be like David, Esther, Mary, and Paul?

No knitting today, just musings

Ryan's coworker Ryan just inherited his fourth cat.  I haven't met her yet, but her name is Freya, and she just lost a litter of kittens shortly after giving birth to them.  The other Ryan has a ringtone that sounds like a kitten mewling, and my Ryan says that when Ryan got a text message last night, Freya curled up on the armchair and started making the saddest little noises.  My Ryan teared up, and so did I when he told me the story.

Babies shouldn't die.

Yarn Spree Afterglow

As promised, but a little late, we can now recount the blessings of getting out of the house and buying yarn.

My friend Nathan was gracious enough go with me and drive.  He isn't a knitter but he chatted with the yarn store owner, scoped out the cute guy cutting fabric at Jo-Ann's, and bought supplies to make a pocket for his iPad case to hold all of his accessories.  It strikes me as a considerable oversight that the people who designed the case didn't think to include pockets - where else are you supposed to keep your cables, headphones, adapters, etc?  On the other hand, Nathan got to experience that indescribable thrill of having made something useful with his own two hands.  It almost carried him through the disappointment that the local mall's Hot Topic had closed.  Almost.

The yarn store was a cute little shop tucked up just outside of the university campus, and I got to fawn over the fibers and blanch at the prices.  All of my yarn to this point has always been under $6 per skein, the humble offerings of large chain retailers.  Red Heart, Caron, and Lion Brand are the best friends of the non-picky Midwestern knitter on a college student's budget, though the inner circle also admits the college student's girlfriends' mothers who knit, are eager for a knitting companion, and are generous with their sock yarn.  I may as well note at this digression that I'm not longer a college student, just a twenty-something newlywed with a gas-draining commute to a just-decently-over-minimum-wage job.  However, I am genuinely easy-going in my yarn preferences for most projects - I grew up wearing crocheted acrylic hats and cuddling under crocheted acrylic afghans.  My mom only just starting branching out into cotton.

One of these days I will chronicle for you the work of my mother and my dad's mother, but I'm supposed to be talking about a yarn shop today.

I tend to treat yarn shops like a combination petting-zoo/museum; I go to look and feel but I don't take anything home with me except cheap kitsch from the gift shop.  Today I was determined not to leave without sock yarn.  Did you know there are places charging $30 for a skein of sock yarn?  I'm sure they make lovely socks, but I'm looking for something for my husband, who walks and sweats right through SHOES eventually.  I settled on Berroco Sox.

25% nylon, machine washable.  I love my husband, but there is no way that I'm handwashing his socks.  Air-drying is the most I will do.

I also nabbed the new Stitch and Bitch book by Debbie Stoller.  I've acquired the previous four through Christmases and Chanukahs past, but I was too embarrassed to say the title to my in-laws last year when they did their annual wishlists.  Profanity aside, I love these books.  I love the clear directions and the quirky writing, and I love most of the patterns.  I've already earmarked three for future projects, and if my usual habits are anything to go by, that future will be soon, current WIPs be darned.

In the meantime . . .

Hobby Lobby turned out to be a bust, as they had nothing that sang out to me.  I was intrigued by the bamboo blends by Stitch Nation, which looked like it would have a nice drape and was silky soft, but for once in my life I didn't want a bright solid color.

So it was off to Jo-Ann's, where Nathan, major Wheel of Fortune fan that he is, had an amusing meeting with Vanna's Choice.  The first color he looked for?  White, naturally.  He recounted the movie "Goddess of Love" to me while I debated between the various offerings of Wool-Ease.

Final choice:

Forest Green Heather narrowly won out over Oxford Grey, thanks to Nathan's vote.  The choice was validated when Ryan complimented the color entirely unprompted this morning.  If both the gay friend and the husband agree, it's a winner.  The pattern is Miss Marple's Shawl from the same Piecework issue that I referenced in the last post.  It's taken from Weldon's Practical Needlework Shawls in Knitting and Crochet, an English pattern from 1930.  Goaded by the magazine and my love of British mysteries, I checked out Agatha Christie's Sleeping Murder.  Currently Miss Marple is working on a light blue baby jacket and nineteen-year-old case of alleged strangulation.  I picture the baby jacket as Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket, ignoring the fact that it was designed in 1968 while the book was written in the 40's.  On the other hand, Agatha Christie did meet Doctor Who, so who's to say that Miss Marple can't have picked up some future knitting patterns on the sly?  It's what Dumbledore would do.

You're going to notice that these digressions are very commonplace in my writing.  Back to the pattern - it calls for a wool/silk blend on size US 6 needles, but if I know anything about vintage patterns it's that they were designed for people who were much smaller than I am, and if I know anything about wool/silk blends, it's that they are pricey.  Ergo, a nice wool/acrylic blend on size US 10 needles.  I tend to knit tightly, so hopefully the extra-large needles will allow for more drape and softness.  I didn't bother with a gauge swatch, because it's a SHAWL - if it's too big it will be a blanket, if it's too small I will give it to my mom, but I'm guessing around 4 stitches to the inch instead of the prescribed 6.

The funky-looking things hanging off the end of my needle are row counters, believe it or not.

I couldn't find my little Susan Bates dial, and Ben Franklin's won't have more in until next week, so I trolled the Internet for something to use in the meantime.  They work like an abacus, with the teal beads marking the tens column and the orange bead marking the ones.  I also made a third one with green beads - this pattern has 671 rows all told, so I'm going to need a hundreds column as well.  There's a handy tutorial describing how to make them here, though it suggests 12 beads to a counter.  Perhaps the writer is Elvish?  Later I found this neat - and fashionable - design.  It's gorgeous, but I don't have the findings and I prefer something that hangs off of my needle instead of me.  On the other hand, once the shawl reaches a certain width, I'll probably have to take the counters off anyway.  An even simpler counter can be found here, reminiscent of an Irish penal rosary (fascinating backstory on those).  Here's one more design I considered, but ultimately forwent as I don't have plastic-coated wire lying around.

While at Jo-Ann's I also bought this nifty reusable bag.  It is now the new mobile home of all my current craftiness.

Please excuse the glare - I am new to this photography thing.

I started (and restarted) a hat last night, made from some random, strangely patterned yarn that my mom gave me a few years ago:

It came to me without a ball band, so I'm at a loss as to what it is, besides clearly acrylic, and clearly dyed by insane people.  The red, magenta, and pink aren't so bad, but then there are the black and white bars completely out of nowhere.  There's nothing like a hat for showing off crazy, and a hat is a good project when you only have one skein of yarn.  This one I'm basing on the companion hat to Teva Durham's Corrugated Asymmetrical Sweater from Loop-d-Loop, with some math to make it work for worsted-weight yarn instead of bulky.  Teva loves her some bulky yarn (and crazy, but brilliant patterns, worn by tiny pretentious, unsmiling models with bizarre hairstyles).  This is another book of patterns that I adore, despite the crazy, and despite none of them being sized for a plus-sized, busty gal like myself.  I have resigned myself to hats and a doll-sized version of her Lace-Leaf Pullover.

It doesn't fit the doll particularly well, she not being of human proportions, and even with modifications to the neck and back it's almost impossible to get her to into it, but it was mostly to scale - same number of stitches as the human-sized sweater width-wise, done on US 0 needles with worsted-weight yarn.  So it's technically impressive while practically useless, like knitting a sweater for a polar bear.  Sure, it would be cute, but you'll never get close enough to put it on him, and even if you did he'd just go swimming in it anyway.  It was fun to knit, though.

The glove and the bookmark are coming along slowly with all this competition, so there really isn't anything to show, so I'm going to end on a personal note.

Gabriel's pictures came yesterday.

Photos by Natural Expression Photography, as a part of Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

I miss you, and I'm thinking of you all the time.

Launch

Hello, people of the internet.  I know absolutely nothing about blogging.  I just knit, and I own a camera, and I need something to keep myself busy and stave off the PPD while I wait out my maternity leave.  Welcome to my recovery.

Currently on my needles:

Ballybeg Homeworker's Gloves to Knit, by Elizabeth Cobbe, from the September/October 2010 issue of Piecework.  They're based on the kind of gloves that would have been knit for sale by women in Ireland, circa 1930, inspired by the play Dancing at Lughnasa, by Brian Friel.

The yarn is Serenity Sock Weight by Premier Yarns.  The color, for some reason, is called Jasper.  I would have called it Halloween.  Both the magazine and the yarn were given to me by my friend Susan at my son's memorial service.  I don't think she intended me to use this particular yarn for this particular pattern, but I needed to knit, and the gauge was right.  It's a nice wool/bamboo/nylon blend.

This was my first time making a picot edge, and I have to say I'm charmed.  Very elegant, very simple.  It's also my first time working with a fingering weight yarn, but it's progressing faster than I thought.  If not for my attention span I might have a few fingers done already, but my mind tends to wander and then it's off to a different pattern.

Such as:

A Bookmark to Crochet, by Julia Baratta, from the same magazine.  For those unable to read the small print in the picture, it's based on an afghan in the children's book Esperanza Rising, by Pam Munoz Ryan.  I'm using Aunt Lydia's Crochet Cotton, color Mexicana, but the only difference seems to be the name; I'm almost positive that it's made by the same company anyway.  I am also using a size 7 hook instead of 9 - I can't speak for the rest of the crocheters in the world, but it's inevitable that to achieve gauge I have to use a hook at least two sizes larger than the pattern calls for.  I don't have the knack of crocheting loosely.

There's a joke in there about not being a loose hooker, but that would be silly.

I haven't read either of the literary works that inspired these projects, because the tiny library in this tiny town doesn't carry them.  I love my husband dearly, and I understand why we had to move here, but I'm not sure he understands the cruelty of taking a bibliophile away from her beloved WELL-STOCKED library.  Alas.

Another trial of living in this town is that the only place to buy yarn is Ben Franklin's.  I'm still new to the world of internet shopping, and the closest yarn shop is forty-five minutes away.  Tune in tomorrow, when I travel an hour to an actual CITY to discover a new yarn shop, and raid a Hobby Lobby or possibly Jo-Ann's Fabrics for Wool-Ease, because two projects are never enough.