KCBW 2015: If I were Yarn

Today we embark upon a journey. A journey with a mystery teacher. Who is she? She hasn't been here long, so not many of us know her. Let this be your opportunity. Today, we start with a simple task, allow our teacher to express herself in her own words. Check in tomorrow to get our "get real" interview with her. But for now, I give the floor over to Mrs. G. 

Catch ya later! The Mystery Student

If I were yarn, what would I be?

easy-care, colorful acrylic? long-lasting and impervious, acrylic has always been a go-to yarn of mine. the vibrancy of the colors is what always draws me back. a rainbow of colors. so much opportunity. but would i really describe myself in that way? the colorful part, maybe. i remember my own high school years-- hippie might describe my style for a time. long colorful skirts, a 'devil may care' attitude. but i am a long way from that place now.

what about wool? the yarn of history. as many varieties as acrylic, easily as many colors. the benefits of its warmth, varying levels of soft and rough. sometimes, you never know when, you have to be careful with your wool. too much agitation and the pattern is lost, the wool felted into a fabric, no longer able to be unravelled. but doesn't that describe me, too? handle with care, or don't. sometimes it doesn't matter. in those terms, in that way, i suppose i am more like wool. just as much variety as acrylic, probably even more. delicate and hardy at the same time. i like that.

Yarn is near and dear to my heart, and though I have to only pick one that I am like, I like all yarn.

Four Day Weekend

I have just totally lucked out with my student teaching placement. Two snow days on either end of my weekend!! This should mean that I am super prepared for the rest of my week at school... But I'm partly prepared, is that enough? I sure hope so.

With all this free time, I've been able to plan for both classes I am teaching this week, 11th grade government and 6th grade Social Studies. I love my 6th graders quite a bit. They still aren't quite teenagers, but they aren't little kids any more either. Because I am able to see the difference in middle school and high school every day I go in, I am most definitely leaning more toward teaching middle school, or at least the lower grades of high school.



But enough about my teaching. I have had some time to knit and crochet this weekend. I started the weekend off strong by finishing my Snowdrop! Friday night, during our weekly viewing of CSI: NY, I reached the end of my yarn. Toward the end, I thought I would never see the end of the yarn. But I did!

Throughout the weekend, I made other attempts to finish some of my long-term projects, and while I did not succeed, I still made headway on them.


in the picture above, you can see the purple-pink of my knitted Citron, my first big lace project that has been on the needles since January 2012. Underneath it is a knitted poncho, in Knit Picks Bare Stroll (Superwash wool & Nylon). The poncho is a commissioned item for a friend, paid for and everything. The pattern, which the recipient picked out, calls for 18 or so "wedges". Over the weekend, I started on the 3rd. Both of these projects need to get out of my room in FO form before I move out in July/August. So I do have a deadline for them, and with the way I've been knitting this weekend, I seriously hope I can have them both done before the end of the school year.

All in all, my four day weekend has been productive. I'm hoping to make more throughout today, but we shall see.

Something Blue

I laugh, because I am more than 8 months away from my wedding, and I nearly have my "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" figured out. (sorry, no yarn today)

Necklaces that my mom requested.

A week or two ago, we were out running errands, and stopped at the bead shop on the way home. It is everything I wish for in a LYS, except it sells beads. Sarah and Vicky remember my name, and always greet me with a pleasant smile and "hello". Their shop is less than 5 minutes away from our house, but both my sister and I have not been beading as much as we did when the shop first opened.

A full view of the neckalces that Mom requested.

Tessa was looking for chain to finish a beading project, and I was looking for anything to spark my interest for bridesmaids' gifts. I knew I wanted to make a piece of jewelry for each of my girls, but the debate was what sort of jewelry, and in what colors. They are wearing blue dresses (if anyone frequents David's Bridal, the color is horizon. And don't get me started on them. It is a relationship of convenience) but have a choice of necklines/styles. Tessa's dress is a floaty one-shoulder, which totally rules out a necklace. But I also knew that Tessa dislikes bracelets. So I thought earrings. But one of my girls doesn't have pierced ears. My sister than decided to tell me that bracelets would be fine...

As we were getting ready to check out, Mom spotted a style of necklace that she really liked (we were shopping for necklace ideas that day too), and that reminded me of a set I had made to wear to another wedding. So it was decided. Swarovski crytsals in a deep blue and clear, on bracelets, made to look like they were just floating. 

The rest of my day was spent making these bracelets, then running out of beads, having to go back to the store (the beads were on sale that day) and finally finishing. I made 4 matching bracelets for the bridesmaids, then my mom said she liked it too, so I made 2 for the moms (his and mine), and one for me. I still have enough beads for something for my 2 flower girls, but I haven't decided what to make yet. And my hand was starting to hurt from using the pliers.

Possible ideas for Flower Girl bracelets

On the second trip to the bead store, I noticed that they sold jewelry boxes, and I knew there was no way Mom had 6 little boxes at home, so I got some of those.

All in all, I think I spent under $10 on this project, mainly because I had the beading wire, all the findings, and the tools on hand. The only thing I purchased were the Swarovski crystals and a package of sterling silver round beads (2 mm) for filler.

Linking up with Tami's Amis for FO Friday-- there should be some yarny goodness!

An Attempt at Holiday Stashdown.

I was a little busy this weekend, and haven't really made any progress on my Holiday Stashdown this week. But given the reason I was busy, I think I'll be excused. I'm engaged! My boyfriend proposed on Saturday, and I've been giddy ever since. 

We're planning on a wedding next summer. So no major planning yet, just focusing on finishing up this semester of school  before anything else. Which is good, because otherwise I would be simply focusing wedding plans. My parents are still a little weird, but Evan and I are taking it really slow, as to hopefully ease them into it.

I'll be back to my regularly scheduled crafting posts hopefully by Friday, if not sooner!
(I promise, there are really yarny things in the works, but my camera and computer have a hard time being in the same place at the same time. I'll make up for it, I promise!!)

What to do?

I have three mostly full skeins of Bernat's Jr. Jacquards yarn in colorway Big Deal Teal. I have no idea what to do with it. Here's what it looks like:

Why do I have it, you may ask. Well, it's story time. Not too long ago, I was optimistic about both my knitting and crocheting skills. When I went grocery shopping with my mom (she shops at a Meijer-it's a Midwest thing) we always browse the general merchandise first. This yarn was clearanced out, and I said sure, pick some up for me. Over a year later, it is gifted to me for my birthday. (At my house, Mom buys us stuff ages in advance, so she never has to worry about birthday/Christmas shopping because she knows she has stuff that we picked out. It's a great system, except when things get lost in her closet, or when we no longer want the thing we picked out.)

See that fingerless glove? Yeah, for some reason I thought it would work in this yarn. It doesn't, at least in my mind. I really like the yarn, but don't know what to do with 3 skeins of it. Crochet totally ruins the point of it, but I am a much faster crocheter. The end point: does anyone have a suggestion for me?

I did find a few knit scarves that could be good. This pattern, or maybe this pattern-- or should I just do something baby-ish?

I really want this out of my stash, but in a good way. I want to make something that someone will appreciate!
Linking up with Tricia's Stash Bash!

Stress is not Fun

Do parents ever realize when they are pushing away their children?

I think mine are totally oblivious to the fact that I am feeling so mutinous right now that if I could, I would pack everything up and just leave. Yes, moving is very complicated, but I feel like I could figure it out after I leave.

The last 2 weeks I have been stressed out to the point of feeling sick to my stomach nearly every day. On top of that, I can't sleep. This is not healthy. It's really not. And I know it.

I was really hoping we could resolve these issues on amicable terms, but right now, its not looking like it. Do they really think that asking me to wait 2 more years is going to result in a better marriage? Because that's what it looks like right now.

I have been with E for nearly 3 years. We've talked about marriage for maybe the last year and a half or so. He's been back from his deployment for nearly 6 months. We both finish school early next summer. We want to get married late next summer. But my parents are stalling on their blessing. We don't want to go ahead without my parents, because that is a terrible way to start married life, but its looking more and more like that is the only solution.

They say that because they had issues early in their married life that they're worried about me and E. They're probably also worried about me ending up like my Aunt T, who has three children and a lying husband. Don't they understand that everyone's different? Everyone has some issues in their marriage. But what matters is how they deal with them.

E and I have talked to several different people whom we respect, and we have several possible alternatives. I'm exploring my options for moving out. Unfortunately, my great Uncle passed away last week, and all the family's dealing with funeral stuff. So I have to wait to explore my options.

Anyway...
Thank you to all of you, my followers, who shared your own stories and offered your support when I posted about this 2 weeks ago. I'm hoping to have some of this sorted out before the school year starts at the end of August. Prayers are appreciated.

Something out of the Ordinary

I normally don't use this blog as a place to talk about my personal life. But I'm really upset and stressed out right now, and I don't know where else to put my emotion.
I'll start with a story to put everything in perspective.

I'm currently going into my 5th year of college.

The summer before my sophomore year of college, I went through some tough-ish stuff. Not super intense, but tougher than what I've dealt with most of my (sheltered) life.
There was a guy (isn't there always) who I was quite infatuated with. We had a few classes together during my freshman year, and we talked online a lot. I thought he was interested in dating- we had coffee a few times, even went out for lunch. I mean, we talked about stuff that people talk about when they are dating/engaged/whatever, like how many kids we would think about having, that sort of thing. I never really thought about the fact that we had different Christian beliefs, as I figured at the time that God was enough. Maybe he thought more about it then I did. (I am very openly and proudly Catholic. I believe he was Seventh Day Adventist).

As the school year wound down, I planned a trip to a theme park concert with my friends, and one of them insisted that I invite Brian. He said yes, so it was me, him, my friend and her BF, and 2 more of our girlfriends. So we enjoyed a cool May day at the theme park, even though my friends ditched me so I could spend time with Brian (it really didnt help. and was super obvious. to me at least.) At the concert, which was at the end of the day (approaching nightfall, etc), it was getting colder, and snuggling commenced. He put his arm around my shoulder to keep me warm, and we were holding hands under a blanket. Yes, scandalous, LOL. So I thought that meant something, and so did my 3 friends who were there.

But obviously not, as 2-3 weeks later, he's talking to me about this girl he wants to date who lives in a totally different state. Like all the way across the country different state. I was really floored. Like OMG, where did this come from?!?! He hadn't said anything before, so I was really surprised. I had a few angsty days with one of my close girlfriends, which helped.

Then some of my musical relatives were in town. We planned on having a jam session with some youth group people at my church. I made a whole facebook event and everything (you know, because that was a big deal for a while). I invited Brian, because he mentioned something about teaching himself a bit of the guitar and stuff. It was a couple days after my birthday. (Interjection: a couple days before that, I was hanging out at my friend's house cuz she had a pool. I was riding my bike home, took a really bad spill and nearly needed stitches. I talked to Brian the day after, and told him this huge fabricated story that was ridiculous hilarious, because he believed it. It doesn't have a lot to do with the stream of the story, just a random thought). I was still sore from the bike accident, but was determined to play my guitar at this jam session. My 2 closest friends, A and R, also brought their guitars, and some  friends from church had their violins. (My musical cousins play a bit of both) This thing was supposed to start at 7 or something, and Brian hadn't shown up, so we just started. He came in later, acted all awkward, etc. He didn't stay very long, but talked to me for a little bit. He then gave me a birthday card, containing a Barnes & Noble gift card (In case you didn't know, I'm a huge fan of books). We hugged, and he left. Like totally weird.

Back at my house that evening, I explained the whole weird situation to my cousins, who thought I needed to be done with this guy. My cousin Justin (who is only a year or 2 older than me) decided that he needed to talk to this guy. So getting on my sister's facebook, he chatted with this guy and told him to leave me alone because I couldn't deal with not knowing what Brian wanted out of our relationship. From what I could tell, Brian acted like he didn't know he was leading me on. Either way, he was gone. He sent me this long, eloquent email that I forwarded onto Justin without reading, and I decided that I was going to focus more on school, and deal with guys when I was graduated.

God obviously had a different plan for me. I worked for a week in August at this Christian Summer camp like I had done for the past 3 summers, but I had been asked to serve in a different role (instead of counselor, like I had been before). We had a girl in a wheelchair, Tori, who needed lots of extra help at camp, so I was assigned as one of her personal assistants. Tori is one of the most cheerful children you will ever meet, and I loved working with her. But since there were 2 assistants, and neither of us stayed in a cabin with campers, our evenings after the campers went to bed were mostly our own. I hung out with a handful of other 'less-obligated' staff members (basically ones who were not counselors). I was grateful for several of them, who seemed to be doing the Christian thing and acting like brothers. (At this camp, the staff are to maintain brotherly and sisterly relationships, as to be good examples for the campers.) Or at least, that's what I thought. Except there was this one guy who always talked me. I was so inexperienced with relationships with guys that I didn't really think anything about it. And I was firm in my thoughts that I shouldn't date until I was finished with college.

But when camp was over, I couldn't stop thinking about this guy. I complained about him to A, who was also boyfriend-less at the time. He talked to me online, he called me- all the same things Brian had done. So I was reluctant to commit to anything. Until he asked if he could come and see me. (We lived an hour and a half apart.) I wasn't sure what to make of it, so I said yes.

He came and hung out with me for a day. Dinner at my house that night was weird, as a friend of mine from high school was going away to college, and had been invited over to dinner. So most of the attention was off me and E, and on Maggie. When he left that night, I wasn't really sure if we were dating (weird, I know, but I was so inexperienced). We saw each other maybe every other week.

By then, obviously, I knew we were dating. We are both Catholic, share many of the same goals, and seemed like a really good match. My friends really liked him, I really liked him. We went to his military ball in November. He told me he loved me. And I felt the same.

Since then, we've worked at Summer Camp together (the same camp, of course), endured part of a Lenten "fast" to discern the future of our relationship, made it through an eight month deployment nearly unscathed, and have come to the summer between my 4th and 5th years of college.

But my parents are stalling. We have talked about getting married, E and I, for 6 months or more. But my dad will not give his permission until I graduate college. At first, we thought this meant we could get engaged sometime in the coming year, and marry next summer after my graduation. So we've talked, and planned a little bit.

Now my dad thinks we talk to each other too much (twice a day is our norm), and thinks that we need to stop talking about getting married. And he's changed his mind, and apparently I cannot get engaged until after I graduate. All this on top of the fact that I am not allowed to drive down to see E because I was unfortunate enough to get into car accidents twice when driving to his town.

I really want to respect my parents' wishes, but E and I have been dating for nearly 3 years, we are not planning on getting married until after I graduate, and we have been very respectful of them up to this point. I am 22 years old, and have been making most of my own decisions since I graduated high school.

Am I totally missing something, or are my parents just nuts?

Does Frogging Count as Progress?

Today, as I join up with Tami's Amis' WIP Wednesday and Ginny's Yarn-Along, I wonder: I frogged a whole border this weekend- does that mean I made progress on my project?

Story time!

Here you can see how ruffly and wide my border *was*

I'm working the Juliana Wrap for the June CAL at Crochet Shoulder Wrappers, as I mentioned previously. I was all set to finish the wrap for Friday, but that obviously didn't work out. I realized after I was nearly done with the border that I had worked too many stitches into the ch6 spaces at the end of the mesh, making the border REALLY long and quite ruffly. I persevered, convinced that I could finish it....

Until I was getting precariously close to the end of my 4th and last ball of yarn. I frogged back 2 or 3 rows... still not enough. Friday evening, I started working on a second Juliana, trying a different shape for the 1st section, even though I knew I should finish the pink one first. But the rows were still too long.

Saturday night I decided that I was going to run out of yarn. And I really wanted to make the tassels that were included in the Juliana pattern. So I ripped. And ripped. And got 2 balls of yarn out of that border. I took 2 rows of the mesh section out, and started the border section again. As of today, I only have a few rows left, and I haven't started the 4th ball yet.

The border is much smaller here, and the wrap lays flat.

I started working a second Juliana because I was attempting to make it narrower and more crescent shaped.

As you can see above, the first few rows are worked differently, making #2 nearly as long as #1, but quite a bit narrower. The yellow yarn is mostly the first section, with a row or 2 of mesh at the end. I will probably work one or 2 more rows of mesh before starting the border. The yarn, KnitPicks Telemark (I believe it's been discontinued), was a gift from my brother. He bought me 5 skeins, each a different color. I'm hoping that I will be able to finish without adding a 4th color.

That's all I have today! Stay tuned for both of these to be finished within the next week or so!

Finally Finished!

I'm sharing my succss with Tami's Amis Finished Object Friday!
[This is getting shared on Saturday because my home internet has been down since Thursday night, and I wasnt able to get to another source until today]
And I have another story to tell.

This week I finally finished an Eva's Shawl. I say finally because I started an Eva back in Sept/Oct? to wear to a wedding, but it ended up in the frog pile.

The CSW group was hosting an Eva CAL this month, and I jumped right on it, as I really liked the look of the shawl and wanted to give it a second chance.

I started with a lace-weight yarn that I rescued from a pale pink cardigan- silk/angora/wool nylon. It was definitely a messy yarn to work with, due to the angora, but it felt so light and airy, and I *knew* that it would be a great summer shawl, so I persevered. The first few rows were completed with hook size F, but I moved up to H after the rows were established.

The rhythm of the shawl pattern clicked with me this time, and I did not want to put my hook down. I knew I had other projects to finish, but I really wanted this one done. Especially since it was this month's CAL, and I wanted to feel accomplished at the end of the month.

I skipped the "fancy" edging, as I liked the clean lines of the pattern. Tuesday night saw the shawl soaking in my bath tub, in preparation for dyeing and blocking. Did I mention that the yarn was an awful pale pink? Well, it was. It totally wasn't my color at all. And it looked really blah. So I decided to save it. Hence the overnight soak.


Shawl is blue, dyebath is red?

 I had some dyeing issues on Wednesday morning. The shawl was pink, the dye was blue (Mixed Berry KA, if you are wondering). After cooking for a bit, I went to check on the shawl. It was a lovely pale blue, but the dyebath was oddly red. I figured that some of the pink had just leeched out or something.



This is an after shot of the dyebath...

 I added a second round of dye, and the dyebath did it again. But the shawl was the color I wanted it, so out into the sunny lawn to dry. I did not severely block this out, as the weight of the yarn helps keep the shape of the shawl.

When my sister got home, I asked if she would get some shots of the shawl in action.

I totally love how this turned out, and I hope I have as much success on my future shawl projects!

Tell Me a Story

I'm linking up with Tami's Amis for today's FO Friday!

Today, my FOs have a story to tell. And it starts with a story from me.

I'll admit it, I love to tell stories. Usually they are just an elaborate telling of a certain activity throughout my day. E often calls me out on it, not because he doesn't like my stories, but because he knows I can be more precise. So I attempt to be precise, but often I still tell a story. Maybe it's because I am a history major, and I know that often times there is more to a simple statement then meets the eye.

Take today for instance. I could just tell you that my FOs for this week are a huge stack of cotton dishcloths that I suddenly decided to make. But honestly, that would be pretty boring. There are several stories behind the excessive amount of dishcloths that I made this week.

The first is a story about me and my mom. I have been crocheting since I was around 12 years old. As a middle schooler, I had a limited scope of the crafting world, and mainly enjoyed making simple square dishcloths for my mom and anyone else important to me. (I also made a handful of simple scarves, but that's beside the point.) As I expanded my knowledge of the crafting world, I knew that there was more to life than dishcloths. But my mom, who shopped regularly without me, could not be 'trusted' to buy yarn in colors and quantities that I needed for whatever project I wanted to complete. So I told her it was safe to buy dishcloth cotton for me, as a skein of it could make one or 2 dishcloths, and it didn't really need to match. And so here I am, nearly 10 years later, with a drawer full of cotton yarn that will never be anything other than dishcloths.You can see this in the picture above- the blue/yellow/purple yarn, the purple/blue/green yarn, and the pink/purple/magenta yarn.
So that is the first FO story from me. I hope it made some sense.

The second story has two parts, and starts with a very kind aunt, Aunt B, who supports my crafting in many ways. (she's the aunt who sells her sweatshirt designs at craft shows, and allows me to piggyback on her booth.) Aunt B often 'gifts' me yarn that she won't use, as she had a friend who passed away a few years ago who left most of her crafting stuff to my aunt. Aunt B is my mom's oldest sister, and she mainly sews now, as machine sewing is easier on her hands. Within the last year, Aunt B passed along to me a half-used cone of cotton yarn. I accepted it graciously, because what craft can refuse free yarn? However, as it sat in my room, waiting to be used, it started to grate on me. Why, you may ask, did it bother me?

Enter part 2- the boyfriend, E. E and I have been together for nearly 3 years now, so I would say he has a huge impact on my life. E is in the military, as I have mentioned before, and quite patriotic. And I am student of history, and have much respect for my country. However, E finds some displays of patriotism to be cheesy. This yarn falls under the umbrella of cheesy patriotic as defined by E. (Note: I am not trying to insult anyone who loves Americana print yarns.) So this half-empty cone of yarn sat and sat and sat, until last week when I went on my dishcloth making craze. I knew that if I was going to be on a creating kick, I should probably use this yarn before I chucked it across my [very small] room.
Pictured above is the empty cone (OK, not all empty, there might have been 8 ft left.) with the third and final dishcloth, made extra cheesy in the shape of a star, using the Americana print yarn. I joking told E the other day that I would send them all over to his house-- he was not entirely keen on the idea.

The third story is short and sweet. I broke my yarn fast, and bought MORE cotton yarn-- again you may ask why... Well, as I may have mentioned on Wednesday, one of my closest friends is getting married next month. Her bridal shower is next week. I wanted my gift to be more personal, so I had to buy more cotton in her kitchen colors, so I could make some dishcloths for her. Of the stack of dishcloths that I have made, 3 of them are currently for her. I plan on adding at least one more, plus a reusable grocery bag.

I hope you enjoyed my little stories to go with my FOs.
I have one final thing to celebrate- I finally wove in all the ends on my 2 lapghans!

Pay it forward handmade anyone?