Experiments

A tangled scarf

This week, I'm working on two different projects, but the progress is so minimal on my second, I'm only showing one here. I'm working out a more substantial diagonal scarf pattern. This is my sample, crocheted with a G hook in Three Irish Girls Glenhaven Cashmerino. The yarn is something I would've never purchased for myself, but I received in a swap and I LOVE it! I've been looking through stashes, trying to find another colorway that I might be able to purchase from someone. No luck yet, but I will keep at it. I had leftover from a previous project, and thought a sample is a good thing to use leftovers for. 

I was not going for the sawtoothed edging

This will definitely be something I share with my sister, as the current scarf I have in this color really gets worn- I'm not a brown girl. It's also definitely a sample scarf. As you can see pictured above, I was having trouble coming up with a way to make the decreasing edge even. Two days ago, I tried another method, which cleaned up my edge immensely. 

The edging has improved.

There are plans to try this again, narrower, with a more "me" yarn. My leftover ball has gotten me far, and I should be finished by Friday, if I work really hard.

Linking up:
Yarn-Along
WIP Wednesday

slow but steady progress

As the end of my student teaching draws near, I get busy with wedding plans and house-cleaning. It should be properly called room-cleaning, but you get the idea. I spent a good few hours in my room on Sunday, sorting through piles and attempting to weed things out. I filled a decent sized bag with clothes and other miscellaneous items to be donated, and filled the wastebasket and had a stack of recycling. It feels good to move things around and out.

Listening to Chronicles of Narnia on audiobook still-- I just finished Prince Caspian and started Voyage of the Dawn Treader over the weekend. Listening gives me time to crochet, and I worked through another skein of Lion Brand Homespun, making my Giant Granny blanket almost half the size of my twin bed. I'm mixing it up, project-wise, though mainly sticking to crochet, as it uses up more yarn (And I knit SO slowly!)

4 skeins of LB Homespun so far

 Sunday evening found me in front of the TV with my mom & sister, watching Once Upon a Time. I've missed so much of that show that I'm not quite sure what's happening, but it's entertaining at least. That was followed by an episode of Sherlock. Both shows gave me plenty of time to sort out a slouchy hat! I've seen a number of different ones on Rav, but I figured that I knew what I wanted so should just make it up.  After frogging several times, I came up with something I liked. And stayed up way too late finishing it. And wore it to school Monday morning, even though it still needed an end woven in. I'm going to test it in a few different yarn weights before thinking about publishing it. (IF I publish it...)

My ears are warm!!

 I feel like I am finally making a dent in my stash, as somehow, my room feels more organized. We'll see if it stays this way.

Knitting Should Not be Slow

I am never ready for Wednesday's Yarn-Along and WIP Wednesday. And by ready, I mean having a project at a point where it can be photographed without someone questioning what it is. Also, compared to my sister, I am miserable at photgraphy. So I never feel like I am sharing some of the amazing stuff that I see people share at Ginny's and Tami's.

What I worked on over the weekend

I had a really good retreat this past weekend, but I still haven't caught up on sleep. I managed to get a lot of crocheting done in between sessions and during the afternoon recreation. And frustrated with how a pattern was working out, I pulled out a sheet of paper and sketched out an idea that I liked. It isn't really earth-shattering or anything, but the women who were watching me were astounded.

The poncho I'm knitting "Boho et Belle" has 20 sections, and I've nearly finished the first. I love the stockinette portion, as the yarn feels lovely and smooth. The only problem is my slow knitting. In order to feel productive, I switch between crafts. Hence the next WIP- more cupcakes.

All the cupcake bottoms are finished, along with a few extras just in case. I have to dig through my stash for pastel colors- these were requested, and I am trying to minimize the yarn I have to buy. Which is why I'm stash-shopping. I have at least 3 pastels that are easily accessible, and maybe 3 more that I know I have somewhere... I'll keep you posted. They'll definitely end up in a FO Friday :)

Thanks for stopping by-- be sure to visit Ginny's and Tami's for more yarny goodness!

Improving my Skillset 3KCBWDAY6

Improving Your SkillsetHow far down the road to learning your craft do you believe yourself to be? Are you comfortable with what you know or are you always striving to learn new skills and add to your knowledge base? Take a look at a few knitting or crochet books and have a look at some of the skills mentioned in the patterns. Can you start your amigurumi pieces with a magic circle, have you ever tried double knitting, how's your intarsia? If you are feeling brave, make a list of some of the skills which you have not yet tried but would like to have a go at, and perhaps even set yourself a deadline of when you'd like to have tried them by.

I'm going to be honest, I don't often think about what sorts of improvement I would like to make in my yarn crafts. I'd call myself an intermediate crocheter and somewhere between easy and intermediate for my knitting. I haven't reached the sweater milestone yet in either of my crafts, but plan on doing so in the near future.

In knitting, I don't honestly see myself moving beyond intermediate, not for lack of interest, but more because knitting is my second craft. I want to see how far I can go with crochet first. And, being honest (and reading my tags for my blog) I crochet a lot more, and enjoy a lot more. I know there are some things that are easier to make when knitting, but the same goes for crocheting.

Crocheting in the round makes sense to me; I love it. And because I love it, I'm not really keen on learning to knit small circular items. I can make amigurumi, mittens, slipper socks, etc, with crochet.

So now that I've ranted a bit about how I feel, I'll try to actually create a list for today's theme...

If I were to set goals for improving my crafts, here's my list:

• Barbara @ Made in K-town's Beyond the Square motif challenge: to make 100+ designs from Edie Eckman's book. I've already made a few, but I'd like to try more to help me branch out.
• Knitted socks. I will admit, those are hard to replicate in crochet. I will probably only ever make one pair, but I do want to say that I've tried it. 
• Writing patterns- both written and charted- at least one in both crafts. 
• I will make a sweater, or at least 2 sweaters- one knitted and one crocheted. 

I feel like my list could be longer-- maybe I'll look at this prompt next year and consider myself absolutely crazy for my goals. We'll see!

I would love to hear about everyone else's ideas for improving! google 3KCBWDAY6 to see more from KCBW!

Something a Bit Different 3KCBWDAY5

The topic for Day 5 of KCBW is Something Different:

It's back, and this time it has the most amazing of prizes (look for the prize for "most creative post"). This was a massive success last year, and for many it was the highlight of the Blog Week, so this year you are challenged, again, to find a new way of blogging. This is an experimental blogging day to try and push your creativity in blogging to the same level that you perhaps push your creativity in the items you create. There are no rules of a topic to blog about but this post should look at a different way to present content on your blog.

On Wednesday I talked bit about something I was designing. To try something a bit different, I will simply show you the progression of my design through pictures.

And that is how I went from concept to FO in the span of several days!

WIPW: Am I really Designing?

Today I'm linking up with Tami's WIP Wednesday and Ginny's Yarn-Along.

Here is one of my project bags:



Hiding in the back is the MSU ripple that I have been working on-- finally on my second skein of green, so yarn-wise halfway.... But it's looking like I'll be buying at least one or 2 more skeins before this is over. (It's Caron Simply Soft, BTW, totally amazing feeling, especially for an acrylic.)

On top of that is one of my up-cycling projects. I've been trying to clear out some of my recycled yarn so I can get some new stuff in the fall, and this is a product of that. It's either a narrow shawl or a wider scarf, and while I know you can't see the design well, it was something I created myself. See, I've been getting involved with several different groups on Ravelry- the two that are encouraging me the most in the design sense are Crochet Shoulder Wrappers and the 2012 Block-a-Month CAL. I credit the CSW group because they are always looking for new and different patterns, and I'm usually just looking for something that can double as a scarf. And the BAMCAL gets credit for expanding my knowledge of crochet stitches and how they can change the look of an afghan block.

And I'm not reading anything new this week, though since I just finished my winter semester, and the short spring semester doesn't start for a few weeks, I will aim to be on a new book for next week's yarn- along!

Thanks for stopping by today!