YarnAlong: With Time Travel

Silas calls this book LlamaLlamaLlama!  We read it a lot.  It goes back to the library on Saturday, and I think it's going to end up under the Christmas tree this year.

I started another Cedar Shakes hat, this time for Ezra.  The Paton's Kroy is considerably thinner than the yarn that I used for Silas' hat, so even though I cast on for the same size (toddler), it's turning out rather smaller and with a slightly open fabric.  I'm debating whether or not to start over with smaller needles and working the child size instead.  The outcome might be the same.  Ezra at 10 months already has a head the circumference of the average child's, an issue we ran into with Silas as well.  There are some baby clothes that we literally cannot get over these babies' mammoth heads, and their little caps fit for about fifteen minutes.

Silas hat, made with a heavy fingering yarn that still had a substantial fabric on the 4's, still fits him two years later.

Assuming this kid IS actually the child in question.  Where did my little chubby-faced baby go?

Two years ago. Never mind where the cheeks went, where did the time go?

Loose ends

I've been in a finishing mood lately, though I would have thought I'd had enough of endings.  There's something to be said for closure, at any rate.

I finished the twined mittens I started back in February.  I need to take a better picture so I can upload it to the pattern page.  The technique was a lot of fun once I got the hang of it.

I made myself a hat:

It's the Star-Crossed Slouchy Beret that's so popular on Ravelry (13000+ projects - so viral I would have avoided it except I saw one in person and fell hard in love).  I had to make some mods to get it to fit my head, mostly just adding stitches and then adjusting for the increases and decreases so the cables still worked.  I love the colors in this yarn (Knit Picks Chroma in Hollyhock).  Purple and grey may be my new grey and pink.

I've also caught up on a few dishcloths.

Zig Zag dishcloth by Faith Schmidt

Simple Lines by Chelsea Berkompas

Orbital Dishcloth by Stacey Winklepleck

And my showstopper:

Petticoat Dishcloth, by Kendra Nitta

This dishcloth is just a little crazy.  You start at the outside edge and cast on 200+ stitches, knit a bit, and then on a separate needle cast on another ridiculous number of stitches and knit a bit and then join the two pieces together, cast on a third piece, knit, join, and finally knit down to the center.  Were I designing this I would have started from the center, worked out, and then picked up the stiches for the second and third ruffles so everything was worked in one piece, but perhaps that isn't as simple or neat as it sounds in my head.

The yarn is Cotlin DK.  I started this thing in April, all that ruffling in light yarn took this long to finally finish.  As long as it took, and as frustrating as it was to try and join so many stitches on a 16" cable without twisting, it was really a lot of fun to knit.  I can't even imagine using it as a dishcloth.  Right now it's sitting on my bathroom counter collecting bobby pins and hair-ties, kind of a fiber-happy take on the those catch-all bathroom trays that I've noticed we're selling in the Domestics dept. recently.

In other news, it's officially footie pajama weather.

Yarn Along

I haven't been reading much for myself lately; when I reach for my Kindle it's usually to play Candy Crush. My attention span when grieving is basically nonexistent. I still read to Silas, though.

Silas will have outgrown the last sweater I made him by this Christmas, so I've started a Sherwood for him. In fact, I've started it about six times now. The irregular rib and the odd charts threw me for several loops, and then I managed to twist the cast-on when I joined. Oy vey. The yarn (Plymouth Yarns Encore) is a wool/acrylic blend similar to Wool-Ease. The book is Harry the Dirty Dog. I wasn't familiar with it before Silas got it for Christmas, but my sister-in-law implied it was a favorite in my husband's family.

This post is linked up with Ginny Sheller's Yarn Along

Weekly (whatever) Dishcloth

In spite of all evidence to the contrary, I am still managing to output some washcloths.  "Weekly" may be a gross misnomer at this point, but they are still trickling in.  It's just that I'm very slow to do things like weaving in ends, taking pictures, blogging . . .


Week 24
Square Check by Marjorie Dussaud
Peaches & Creme, Hippi

This was what I'm beginning to think of as a very typical Marjorie Dussaud dishcloth - disproportionate garter stitch edging around a needlessly complicated stitch pattern.  They're nice enough, but the repeats are often too large; I hate having to keep referring to the pattern to find my place.  A chart would be incredibly helpful.  I left off one repeat because I got bored of it, and 3x3 seemed like a nice route to go.  I made several mistakes while I was at it.

Week 25
Pinwheel Dishcloth by Allison Griffith
Sugar'n Cream, Red, Hot Green; Peaches & Creme, Ecru, Bright Blue, Bright Pink

This dishcloth was a lot of fun to knit, I loved the swinging rhythm of the short-rows and the resulting drape of the garter stitch.  I hated weaving in the ends.  So many ends.  I'd like to try this one again in a variegated yarn to see the effect (with fewer ends).

Week 26
Angkor Wat by Allyson Dykhuizen
Knit Picks Cotlin, Canary, Surf

This is a typical Allyson Dykhuizen dishcloth pattern; dk weight yarn, applied-icord edging, difficult-to-pronounce name derived from architecture that has nothing to do with the stitch pattern but leads to interesting Wikipedia searches.  I ditched the icord edging after several aborted attempts and went with a (poorly executed) single crochet border instead.  It was so much faster, if not quite as pretty.  I think the icord would have worked better if I had slipped the edge stitches to make them easier to pick up, though it's the first time I've ever seen directions for an icord edge that first required you to pick up stitches all the way around the border instead of picking them up as you go.  The end result is on the small side; I'm thinking it's going to be a baby washcloth instead of a dishcloth after all.

Not enough time in the day

Drive-by Yarn Along post . . .

Good news: finally got around to starting the Star-Crossed Slouchy Hat that I have been desiring to make for ages. (Yarn is Knit Picks Chroma Worsted, Hollyhock)

Bad news: Can't get dpns big enough to get proper gauge.

Good news: I can do math, cast on more stitches, go on my merry way.

Bad news: Didn't figure this all out until well into the hat, had to frog and start over.

Bad news: Stepped on reading kindle, totaled it.

Good news: Kindle Fire working again!

Bad news: Carrying tablet kindle around at work much more nerve-wracking than carrying the reading Kindle, as the former seems more likely to be stolen than the clunky old one.

Good news: Reading "Villette" by Charlotte Bronte

Bad news: Bit dry so far.

Good news: It's Charlotte Bronte, I have no doubt of things getting interesting.

Good news: Took a picture of knitting!

Bad news: Terrible picture.

Weekly Dishcloth, loosely defined

I know I've been afk for a good several weeks; I developed a thrush infection that has made nursing a nightmare, and when the thing you're doing every two or three hours around the clock is excruciatingly painful, it kind of takes over your life.  I seem to have it mostly licked now, though, so I'm getting back to some kind of normal.

I counted, and I'm actually on schedule dishcloth-wise, thanks to the extras that I made for swaps and holidays and whatnot, despite my month-long hiatus.  I'm hoping to crank out a couple more this week ('cause I'm nothing if not full of delusions of productivity).

Week 18-21 (Knit Picks Week 19)

Fishbones, by Marjorie Dussaud
Lily Sugar'n Cream, Daisy Ombre

I love this happy yellow and white colorway.  The dishcloth pattern is easy to memorize and mindless without being too boring.  It made for great knitting in the car.  I don't know how practical the floats will be with use and washing, but I'll let you know.

Week 22

Gingham Dishcloth
Peaches & Creme, Forest Green, Rosemary, Ecru

More tapestry crochet, oy vey, the single crochet . . . I do like how the gingham is translated.  I fell in love with gingham in my tweens, because instead of the Spice Girls and Britney Spears, my idols were Laura Ingalls Wilder and Anne of Green Gables.  I lived a sheltered life, what can I say?

S is for...

Steampunk shawlette, star-shaped stitch markers, and Silver Skates.

I just finished reading the unabridged "Hans Brinker" for the first time, though I've read the pictured Great Illustrated Classic copy many times since my grandmother sent it to me when I was nine, and I have to say . . . I almost prefer the abridged version. It captures the essence of the story and the setting very succinctly by dropping most of the purple prose and cutting long chapters worth of material that, while educational and interesting, almost derails the plot. Imagine if the Hogsmeade visit in The Prisoner of Azkaban consisted of several chapters of the Weasley twins, Cedric Diggory, Neville Longbottom, and Draco Malfoy visiting museums and discussing the culture and history of the Wizarding world. I grant you, that would be amazing, but I think JRR Tolkien did it better by putting that kind of thing in the appendices. On the other hand, if I hadn't read the abridged version first, would the detour into the art, architecture, and history of the Netherlands have been as distracting?

Brass Needles has been doing monthly knit-alongs this year on the Ravelry board, and I absurdly optimistically cast on the Age of Brass and Steam for April's Steampunk Shawlette theme. I'm not going to finish by the end of the month, obviously.

The yarn is Debbie Bliss Rialto DK, one of the victims of the month (carpet beetle?) attack, so there will be many slippery ends to weave in.

The origami lucky star stitch markers are from TheSexyKnitter.

Patterns I love that start with S:

Sally the Eco Fairy - simple knitted doll that would be easy to modify to look like anyone (free!)
Saxon the City - cabled thigh-high stockings
Slipstream - cabled normal length socks (free!)
Southern Skies - circular shawl that uses beads and eyelets to create an accurate star map of the constellations as seen from the Southern hemisphere
Sourwood Mountain - leaf-motif fingerless gloves (free!)
Sylvi - gorgeous cabled coat
Susie Rogers Reading Mitts - (free!)

L is for . . .

Lavender.

Besides being my BFF's favorite color, the first name of a character in Harry Potter, and in Anne of Avonlea, and a wonderful thing to do to Earl Grey tea, lavender has a reputation of repelling moths.

I may have a moth problem. I may have a carpet beetle problem. Whichever, I keep finding skeins of yarn in my stash with broken plies and strands, which is incredibly irritating and disheartening. So I am vacuuming out my closet, bagging all my yarn (hooray for Ziploc!), and booby-trapping the bins with lavender oil-infused soap until I can get some sachets made. I plan to use this pattern from Purl Soho.

Silas is very in favor of this lavender business. He keeps following me into the closet and asking to smell the bars of soap. I oblige him, because it's cute and lavender is supposed to be soothing, and I am in favor of calming my energetic and occasionally high-strung toddler down from time to time.

 I also really like the idea of having lavender-scented yarn for soothing myself during stressful knitting sessions, either when I'm using knitting to try to de-stress or when the knitting is causing me stress.

Patterns I love that start with L:

Lace Leaf Pullover
Laura Star - beautiful vintage doily chart (free!)
Limberlost - fingerless mitts
Lingerie - lace-patterned socks (free!)
Little Spare Time - boys' sweater, definitely plan to make this for Silas soon
Luna Lovegood Scarf (free!)

A is for . . .

Angora

Angora is the deliciously soft fiber spun from bunny fur. It is also the breed of goat from whence cometh cashmere, but I am thinking of bunny fluff today. I've only had one experience working with angora thus far, in a blend called Forest Dew by Lotus yarns. I made mittens.

Bunny-sized mittens.

I made this little bookmark for a Peter Rabbit-themed swap; in one of the stories Mrs. Rabbit is mentioned as bringing in a little money by selling rabbit-wool mittens and muffatees, and while she's hardly an Angora rabbit herself, I immediately thought of angora to keep with the theme.

Mrs Rabbit

Angora Rabbit

 Interestingly enough, cashmere comes from Angora goats (originally from the Kashmir).

Slight resemblance, neh?

Apparently angora had quite a heyday back in the day as the fiber of choice for 'sweater girls,'  Despite my husband's interest, I'm not particularly eager to start knitting myself negative-ease sweaters that shed, no matter how soft the fiber.  However, I have more than enough of Forest Dew left over to make a cowl, so I've earmarked it in my queue for the Yarn Harlot's Pretty Thing.  I like pretty things.

As for the other Angora (cashmere), I haven't had a chance yet to experience it, but I hear it's luscious.  The Knitmore Girls are always talking up cashmere.

Some patterns I love that start with A:

Afternoon Break, a fichu (free!)
All the Shades of Truth, a rectangular shawl
Amigurumi Adipose, for Doctor Who fans (free!)
An Aran for Anne, a sweater for fans of Jane Austen's Persuasion
Arkema, beaded and cabled gloves (free!)

Weekly Dishcloth: Two for One Special

I consider myself a knitter who also crochets, though there are times that I find myself feeling more like a crocheter who also knits, because once you start crocheting you get so much done so fast that it can be hard to look back.  It's so fast, so forgiving, so darn easy to work in the ends as you go . . . There's something about knitting that always brings me back to being a knitter, but you won't find me looking down on crochet.  It produces results.

Granny's Rainbow Dishcloth, by Beth Major
Peaches & Creme, Bright Orange, Forest Green, Bright Blue, and Black Currant; Sugar'n Cream, Red and Yellow

It calls itself a dishcloth, and I put a bar of soap in the frame to try and convince myself that it is, but in the end I stuck in the drawer with my coasters and trivets.  It's just a little small.  The pattern calls for seven shades of DK, and it turns out that six shades of worsted will not match its dimensions.  I might have tried going up a hook size or two, but the H was handy and granny squares go so fast that I was done before I had a chance to change my mind.  I was using the yarn I had on hand, but if I had my druthers I'd have gone with a brighter green and a more assertive yellow.

Diagonal Cloth, by Beth Major
Knit Picks Cotlin, Clementine and Canary

This dishcloth . . . meh.  The pattern was meh, the colors were meh, the end result; meh.  It was also a pain in the neck to get square, I ripped back at least twice and for an extremely straightforward dc dishcloth that's ridiculous.  Wasn't really worth the effort, but it does work up fast if you don't make any mistakes.  Meh, it'll clean something.

If nothing else I'm at least pleased to be catching myself up to the Knit Picks 52 in '15 list.  I've cast on the Ice Crystal dishcloth, which should take me just short of forever because I've decided to experiment with double knitting, because I'd rather deal with that insane level of fiddliness instead of the insane level of fiddliness that is trying to work fair-isle flat. Because I'm just insane.  Nothing new there.

Late Weekly Dishcloth: Not for lack of trying

I was so close to getting this one done on time. I was casting off on Saturday evening when I was slammed hard by a random, unprovoked wave of adrenaline of the sort that I haven't had since right before I started pushing to deliver Ezra; I started shivering like I was freezing, and despite flannel sheets, two quilts, and a heated blanket could not get warm. No fever, no other symptoms, but it did lead into a headache that lasted well into the next day, and here I am.

Lydia's Lily Pad, by Joyce Fassbender
Knit Picks Simply Cotton Sport, Golden Heather

It could use a little ironing

It's almost too pretty to use. It was definitely a delight to knit. The start is VERY fiddly, but once you get going it's such a lovely bit of lace, no purling, and the chart made it so much easier to keep my place. Also I found that working on wooden needles with organic cotton put me in a divine summery place, despite the very indifferent March weather we've been having. Golden Heather isn't a color I would have been drawn to myself, and this line of yarn has been discontinued, so I feel very fortunate to have been gifted it. Thank you, stranger on Ravelry!

A Few FO's

I'll be going back to work on Monday.  I'm a little worried by the fact that I'm not more worried about this fact.  I have a vague notion of getting things in order - I've been packaging up lunch-box friendly portions of cut-up veggies, leftovers, and breakfast items that will be easy to eat on the run, I've downloaded extra podcasts for the commute, I'm getting my milk-transporting supplies in order and pumping in between feedings so that I'll have a fresh batch ready and won't have to dip into the emergency stash in the freezer.  I'm looking forward to getting back to work and having a set routine; I tend to be very disorganized and unmotivated if I don't have a schedule to adhere to, but I'm not looking forward to the milk-production grind.  Don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful that I was able to keep up my milk supply for 13 months with Silas and that we never had to resort to supplementing with expensive formula, but it's a big time and energy commitment.  There were also times when I didn't wonder if I was spending as much on batteries for the pump as I would be on formula anyway, but on the other hand it just means that I was spending money on providing healthy, all-natural, ideal food for my son (and losing weight while I was at it), so given the choice, that's certainly where I'd rather my money was going.

At any rate, my blogging time is going to be even more minimal than it is now, so enjoy it while you can!  Here are a couple of things I made in January that were never blogged about:

Outlier, by Laura Aylor

This was a mystery knit-a-long; the designer posted a small set of directions every day, and we didn't find out exactly what it would be until we were finished. It's meant to be somewhere between a cowl and a poncho (and also to be worn by a smaller person, methinks), but what it turns out to be is a great nursing cover.  I've only used it thus a couple of times, and it would be terrible in the summer, but for nursing in public in the winter, it works beautifully, besides being delightfully colorful.  I used Ella Rae Seasons, which is a wool/acrylic chain-plied bulky yarn, very affordable with a very generous yardage, especially for a bulky weight.  I didn't have to think twice about grabbing two skeins (and when the colorway is "Rainbow" you know I'm going to have to buy at least one).

Poppy, by Justine Turner

First of all, the pattern is an absolute joy to knit. Short-rows are my potato chip knitting. It's knit flat, but entirely seamless. It's as cute as a button.

Alas, it is also decidedly feminine.

It's not a beanie, it's a cloche. It isn't as obvious when Ezra is wearing it for now, but I put it on Silas (it is very stretchy), and it is definitely a cloche. If I put it on Ezra so the edge of the button tab is towards his face, you can tell that it's a cloche. I have very pretty babies, so this kind of thing can lead to some confusion. It's not a big deal, but it's annoying. I really wanted it to be a beanie.

The yarn is RHSS Camo, colorway Dress Blues. A very handsome monochromatic variegated yarn, excruciatingly scratchy until it went through the washer and dryer, now it's quite acceptably soft. Definitely planning on making more things with it.

In other news, is there anything more delicious than getting a skein of buttery soft pink bulky yarn in the mail?

It was on sale.

Finished Object Friday: Slytherin Baby Sweater

It really wasn't until I had uploaded the pic to Ravelry that I realized that my favorite color combination is a Hogwarts House color combo as well. How about that; I'm an even bigger geek than even I knew.

I made the 24 month size, but except for the usual raglan bagging under the arms it's an almost perfect fit for a little boy who's otherwise not quite grown into his 18 month clothes.  I think I probably should have made the sleeves and the body longer than the pattern called for, if only so he could wear it for a while longer, but I so wanted this to be done.

I have much more yarn leftover than I thought I would, which is exhilarating. It's so soft and scrumptious. I don't know yet what I'll use it for, but I foresee much Ravelry browsing in my future. 

Yarn Along

Week two of joining the Yarn Along!  There's actually wool content this time!

I started a sweater for Silas today, and we'll see if I can get it done in time for him to open it on Christmas Eve.  It's loosely based on the sweater kit I bought for my mother-in-law two Christmases ago (which was basically a Tulips baby sweater kit, but with the pattern swapped out for Diane Soucy's #214 Baby Pullover, because Beth's Yarn Basket had an example knitted up that was just so darling, and so very Ryan; I like dressing Silas as Ryan - it amuses me no end, and I love to see little boys dressed up as little men [little girls, however, should always be dressed as little girls]).

The yarn, in keeping with the Tulips idea, is Dream in Color Classy.  Instead of going with a kit of several colors, I'm sticking with a more basic two-color stripe pattern, so I bought whole skeins - one each of Shiny Moss green and Grey Tabby grey.  Green and grey is one of my favorite combinations, and Silas gravitated towards the colors as I was going through the Yarn Basket's DiC options.  That's my boy.  I've long been ogling Dream in Color's beautiful tonal yarns, and it turns out that they're not just pretty colorways - it's downright dreamy to work with, too, so soft and smooth and delicious.  It's a little more than I normally spend on two balls of yarn, but the yardage is generous and there's no price to be put on the joy of knitting a little sweater with heavenly yarn.

The book, The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan, was an impulsive pick-up from the library's free discards.  I haven't read the first book, The Lightning Thief, but Sea spends so much time recapping it that I probably will never need to.  The book is a decent piece of light fiction for tweens, but other than some of the fun mythological references, it doesn't really have enough to grab me as an adult.  I feel like it draws too much from Harry Potter, without having JK Rowling's storytelling mastery.  There are a lot of elements that I wish had been handled differently, like the characters' learning disabilities and sense of parental abandonment.  These are great topics for children's literature to deal with, but I don't feel like, "It's cool that I have dyslexia, because it's a sign that I'm a demigod!" or "Your dad's doing the best he can - he's a god with thousands of other children to deal with, too, you know," really address the problems in a way that will help children handle these issues themselves or in their peers.  Give me "A Wrinkle in Time" any day.

Hat time!

I finished the hat I was test knitting, and the pattern is now available - Cedar Shakes hat by Kate Boswick.  I finagled Ryan into taking some pictures with his good camera while I was at work on Sunday.

I'm not an expert on slouchy hat style, but it seems like it came out a little over-long, but Silas isn't complaining, and he got many a compliment on its debut at church.

I really can't express the fullness of the joy I find in dressing my son up like a little hipster.

He just needs some headphones and a little Starbucks cup, don't you think?

The pattern is absolutely mindless knitting - I memorized the repeat after executing it once and it was great TV knitting.  My appreciation for fingering weight projects continues to grow - I really like how it turned out in this yarn, and the self-striping worked really well with the stitch pattern.

I need more sock yarn!

Speaking of socks - I can finally show off my swap projects!  My letter was 'F,' and my swap partner loves shawls, so I was originally going to make her a fichu, or at least I was going to make a shawl pattern that started with F (Frederica, in fact), and call it a fichu, because really - close enough.  But then my partner said, "Please don't send me any shawls, I am making enough of my own," or something to that effect, so I had to reevaluate my choices.  I decided on fingerless gloves, and I had elaborate fair-isle plans with finches and the word 'flight' and so on, when someone asked the group, "What would you really like to receive?" and my partner said, "Socks, but you don't have to!"

Sure, I don't HAVE to . . .

Challenge accepted.

I waffled over many a sock pattern, and had many a false start, before I finally found the February Lady socks, which had the advantage of being the only pattern designed for the kind of tiny feet my partner ostensibly has, based on the measurements she provided.  I don't have small feet, not remotely, and it is difficult for me to scale down my expectations of how big a sock is.  My first attempt was much too tiny, so I ripped back, used larger needles, and I'm praying that they fit.  It is very challenging, not being able to try a sock in progress against the foot in question.  I knit three socks, and finally ended with a matching pair (after ripping back the toe on the second one to make it bigger . . .).

I dyed the yarn myself with Kool-Aid and a crockpot, and I took lots of pictures of that progress and detailed notes of the colors I used, and then Ryan threw my notes away.  In his defense, I wrote them in marker on an old church bulletin, so it probably didn't look very important.  The point is, I have no idea if I'm going to post the pictures now because I can't remember what I was going to say about them.

After I had gotten all my swap stuff together and cast a critical eye over it, I knew it needed something more.  I had been pushing "Ice Queen" up and down my queue for a while, uncertain if I could make it suit my needs, but I finally struck on the inspiration and the right color of yarn that I needed.

I had originally wanted to make it flame-orange with the same mix of red, orange, and yellow beads, for a fiery effect, but alas, there was no orange kidsilk haze to be had.  There was fuschia, but it left me cold.  My swap partner's winter jacket is cherry red, and while fuschia and cherry red probably look fine together, it wouldn't work with the beads.  Cherries, cherries, cherries.  Green stem?

Please excuse my terrible photography skills - I was using my phone.  I really liked the idea of the flame-colored mix of beads on the green, like a forest fire, but the end result was a bit more Christmas-y than I might have preferred.  Festive, though!  I'm not a cowl person myself, but I have to admit that this one was so light and easy to wear and pretty that I might make one for myself . . .  I'll have to get more yarn, though.  The pattern is supposed to take exactly one ball of Rowan's Kidsilk Haze, but I went up a needle size (because it was all I could find), and one ball was exactly enough to leave me screaming with frustration when it ended half a row before the bind-off.  I had to buy a whole 'nother ball of yarn just to finish that row, bind off, and and pick up the provisional cast-on and bind it off, too.  Another entire ball, just for two and half rows.  I don't know what I'm going to do with the rest of it, but obviously it won't be enough for another cowl.  It's such a gorgeous shade of green, I'm eager to use it.

Anyway, that about catches me up.  On my needles right now are the Changement shawlette for the mystery KAL the designer is hosting, and a hat for my mom for Chanukah (coming up way too fast this year, btw).  It's entrelac, a new technique for me.  Can't wait.

One last baby shot to carry you out!

I love autumn, don't you?

Too hot to knit

Not that I'd let it actually stop me, but it has certainly been excruciatingly humid around here of late. It's a change from the rain, but oy vey. Thus, I have tried a new fiber! I picked up a few skeins of Fibranatura Flax at The Sheep's Stockings while visiting my dad in Marshalltown. Lovely little yarn shop, by the way, with a very friendly, helpful owner. The yarn is 100% linen, which turns out to be like knitting with something halfway between cotton and twine, though I've been assured it will soften up beautifully with washing. I'm not too concerned about it, because I'm just making market bags out of so far.

The Monteagle Bag, of Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines. The pattern fully admits to being made up of entirely trippy stitches, and there was much growling, swearing, and frogging in the making of the first one. The second one worked up much more quickly, and for all the craziness I discovered that I'd fairly easily memorized 90% of the directions while making the pink bag. The other 10%, alas, left me frogging. I was baffled by the design choice of seaming the bottom. Seams?! Psh! Even without a working internet connection, my web browser was able to pull up Judy's Magic Cast-on for me, and there were no seams, unless kitchenering the end of the handle to the bag counts, but I consider grafting and seaming to be two different animals. I'd graft over picking up stitches any day of the week.


The bags hold quite a bit.  In trying to get the veil stitches to open up, I must have stuffed at least a dozen cans of various pantry items into the blue bag.  In the end I did have to go through and stretch almost every individual stitch out, but we had Netflix on in the background, so it wasn't too tedious.

The pink bag took almost every last yard of one skein (137 yds), and the turquoise bag took a little less - I have about 13 yds left over. I have no idea what to do with 13 yds of sport-weight linen yarn, but you never know what will pop up.

 I've been working on this baby blanket for Project Linus. It has also led to an awful lot of frogging, tinking, and dropping stitches down a few row and wrestling with a crochet hook. It's a very simple lace pattern, which makes me cocky, which makes me think I don't have to pay attention, which makes me miss YOs or add them where no YO was meant to be. Fortunately I don't have any kind of deadline for this one, especially considering I'm only able to work on it comfortably in places where the air conditioning is mighty cold indeed. There's nothing like acrylic squeaking through your hot, sticky hands on a muggy day to make you contemplate jumping ship to a less tactile hobby.

Crocheting and cotton yarn really are a better combination for this kind of weather. I made a scrubby, whose enormous bobbles please me greatly.

Did I mention that I bought a drop spindle? It spent weeks sitting on the desk with the bag of Romney roving that came with it, while I eyed it with apprehension. Finally I manned up, watched some YouTube videos, and made some really appalling yarn and an absolute mess of the roving. In desperation I flung myself on the mercy of the Ravelry forums, where I was gently instructed that I was doing everything wrong. The step-by-step directions one Raveler gave me led to a much more confident plowing forward and something that looked a bit like yarn instead of one long slub. I was amused that one person's advice, however, was to ditch the drop spindle and get a wheel instead. Okay, Internet spinner! I have $300 lying around here somewhere!

 There will be pictures as soon as I find my camera charger, so, you know, in six months or so.