Sidetracked

Hello! Long time, no blog! It's been a crazy week, I tell you, absolutely crazy.

Let's start off with last Friday - I spent the morning at Wool House. If you haven't heard of Wool House yet, please head over to the Campaign for Wool's website and take a look. In short: massive, glorious exhibition of wool in all it's various guises and forms, from on the hoof to on the wall, or the chair, or the back. I spent two mornings in the last week demonstrating spinning for the visitors to the exhibit, and on Friday I ended up in a video with Allison. So if you have any interest in hearing/seeing me in virtual person, take a look.

Spending two mornings spinning was a fantastic opportunity to get a whack load of sampling done for Porpoise Fur.

I'll share more details on those samples on the PF blog over the next week. And I have a grand post on Wool House planned, with pictures and details and lots of wool goodness for tomorrow. Today, I want to share the cutest face in the world:

Pattern: amigurumi walrus by Aeron Aanstoos
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Top (long since discontinued), 160 yds/4 oz skein in brown, about a third of a skein.
Hook: US G/4.0 mm
Start/finish: 19 Feb - 20 March 2013.
Comments/mods: first off, I'm totally embarrassed that it took me a month (a month!!!) to finish this thing. In real time, I could have been done in a week and a half, which is how long the crocheting took me. Then I faffed about not putting it together for another week, then I pretended that I didn't need to get embroidery floss to do the eyes, etc, etc, etc. Finally last night, while the girls were doing their homework, I took the 4 min to finish the eyes, and this morning I wrapped it up and it's waiting by the front door to go to the post office. #craftyauntiefail


The pattern was absolutely fantastic - clear instructions, lots of pictures to illustrate the assembly, and very easy to follow. This designer has a bunch of other absolutely adorable toy patterns (yes Sarah, including a narwhal!), and I will definitely be doing more of her designs. If nothing else, I need a porpoise...

Baby blankets, as far as the eye can see

Since my secret baby blanket has now touched down in Houston, I can share the vast number of pictures I took before I entrusted it to the vagaries of the mail service.


Pattern: Granny Stripes, by Lucy of Attic24
Yarn: Patons UK 100% Cotton DK, 230 yds/100 gr skein, less then one skein each of white, red, brown, turquoise, green and yellow.
Hook: US G/4.0 mm
Start/finish: 25 January - 7 February 2013
Comments/Modifications: This is my first crochet project bigger then a potholder, so I spent a fair bit of time trolling the web for reasonably straightforward baby blanket patterns. Lucy's blog is chock full of clear tutorials, beautiful photography and so much enthusiasm that I'm a bit surprised I haven't burned my knitting needles in effigy. (OK, maybe not that last bit, but it's a great blog.) Since her tutorial was much more a recipe then a straight pattern, I had to do a bit of swatching and planning of the color sequence.

I ended up working six repeats of the following color sequence - white, yellow, red, green, brown and blue - and then added one more white stripe to make a bit more symmetrical. I also wanted to some kind of border, so I picked up stitches all the way around the edge and worked a border with a stripe of each color in half-double crochet (or double crochet if we want to stay true to the UK terminology). The final blanket was approximately 26 inches wide by 36 inches long.

At each corner I chained stitches to bridge the gap, increasing one stitch at each corner on each subsequent row. I probably could have done more chain stitches, or done increases in the stitches from the previous round - this treatment resulted in corners that don't lie perfectly flat. In fact, the whole border ripples laong the edges, proof positive that my crochet gauge is probably not that consistent yet.

I loved doing this blanket. It was quick, relatively straightforward for this beginning crocheter, and I'm really pleased with the results. As is the impending new mom, which is the most important thing!

I sent it off to Houston along with a Peapod Cardigan I knitted a while back but hadn't found an ideal model for yet.

And the best news? Now that I've finished my second crocheted baby blanket, I'm well into my third.

That was my beginning on Friday night, and now I've got 15 16 stripes done. Total. Crochet. Addiction.

I'm thinking we have a wee bit of a problem here...

This is a knitting blog, right?

Okay, maybe a knitting and spinning blog, for the most part. Sure there's been a diversion or two here and there, but my crafting impulses have largely been consistent over the past almost-six years that I've been mucking about with this blogging thing. So surely what's going on in my world these days is a phase, right? Just like Devil's rolling her eyes so far back in her head that she must be staring at her optical cortex*... I'm not sure there's any other way to explain my sudden, inexplicable obsession with yarn projects of the hooked variety (beyond the fact that I am very entertained that (as a southpaw) I knit right handed, but can only crochet left handed...)

Behold, three African Flower Mandela potholders for the Ravelry 2013 Potholder Swap. They changed the rules this year to require only 3 potholders (instead of the six that I think they required in the past). And I, fresh off of (as-yet-not-completely-blogged) baby blanket success, pulled out my little bits of Tahki Cotton classic and other cotton bits and blindly combined colors as they came.



I do wish I'd had a bit of green to throw in there, but what can you do?** Fronts done in Tahki Cotton Classic, backs done in Patons UK 100% Cotton DK, size G/4.0 mm hook. Done in about four days.

I love the flower in the middle. Just love it.


And now that these babies are finished and about to be packed off to the States, I can start the next crochet project, for my newly arrived (as of Valentine's Day) nephew.

Because what baby doesn't need an amigurumi walrus to cuddle and drool on?

* Please, please, please don't burst my bubble on this one. I know it's not a phase, it's the next at least eight years of my life, but I'm in denial.
** Answer to rhetorical question: start stashing vast quantities of mercerized cotton, of course.

Selfish knitting, part 2

Because I am insane, I decided that just before Christmas was a good time to start a KAL project for myself. So I joined Ruth's mystery KAL for a pair of gloves. Now I've made several pairs of mittens in my time, and have enjoyed them, so I thought - how bad can a pair of gloves be?

Answer: pretty freakin' bad. Rather, pretty freakin' fiddly. First there was the yarn: Botany Lace (underlined emphasis mine). Then there was the gauge: 9 sts/inch (I don't even knit socks at that gauge). Then there was the pattern: lots and lots (and lots) of twisted stitches.

I managed to get both gloves done to the end of the hand by Christmas time, but my initial plans of having these be a gift was thwarted by lack of fingers. So after New Year's I started in on the fingers.

Holy Fucking Fiddly Batman. To be absolutely fair, my hatred of glove knitting has nothing to do with Ruth or her fabulous pattern. It can be totally blamed on the fact that I am, in the best of times, only slightly more coordinated then an octopus trying to conduct an orchestra. So I sat on my parents' couch, with wooden dpns sticking every which way at dangerous angles, growling at anyone who asked me how it was going. And that was only the first glove!

Thankfully by the time I got to the second glove, I was on my way home (hello airplane knitting!), and it seemed to go a lot smoother. I triumphantly finished the last thumb before touching down at Heathrow. Hooray!

You may be asking why it's taken me two weeks to show them off? Well, it took me a week and a half to weave in the ends one the first glove, another four days to find the project bag with the second glove, and last night to finish weaving in those ends. See? I told you it was fiddly...thankfully the finished project is gorgeous:

I promise - they look much better on, and will look much better once they've been blocked. I admit I couldn't wait to wear them, so they haven't had their spa treatment yet. And given that it was -5C this morning when I left the house, I was glad to have them - they are toasty warm!

Pattern: Butterfingers by Ruth Garcia-Alcantud
Yarn: Araucania Botany Lace, 450 yds/100 grams, about 75% of 1 skein in gorgeous purples
Needles: US 1/2.25 mm dpns/circulars for magic loop
Gauge: 9 sts/12.5 rows per inch
Start/finish: 26 Nov 2012 - 4 Jan 2013
Comments/mods: this is a lovely pattern for a lovely pair of gloves. I just have to be in the right mood to do fingers I guess. That is all.

Now, I'd like to say I'll never knit another pair of gloves again, but I've got another skein of this yarn lying around (in greens and greys - swoon!), and I am finding myself in need of a pair of gloves for running. Maybe a pair with some conductive thread in them...

Travelling Hats are on the road

I am very pleased to announce that, after must consternation and fretting on my part, my new collection of designs is now available. Meet Travelling Hats,

This is a group of five hat patterns, all available seperately, or in a single pdf download. All of the designs are inspired by cities that we've visited in the last three and a half years while we've been in the UK. There's the Delhi Beanie,

the Copenhagen Hat (which can be done in two colors or in a knit-purl textured motif),

the double-thickness, lined-with-alpaca-goodness Boston Toque,

a slouchy, reverse-stockinette cap inspired by the London Eye,

and finally, a lace-knitting-on-every-round beret worked in worsted weight yarn, inspired by the cafes of Paris.

The hats are all sized from baby-adult large (specific measurements are included on the Ravelry pages for each pattern), and are all pretty quick, covering a wide range of difficulties. There really is something for everyone. Most of them use less the 200 yds of yarn (ranging from DK to aran weight), and can be whipped up in a couple of evenings, so they're perfect for last minute holiday gifts.

The Ravelry page for the collection is here, and I'll be adding the patterns to my Patterns for Sale page in the next little while, if you're interested. Individual patterns are $5.00 each, or you can buy the e-book, with all five patterns and additional schematics, for $20.00.

I need to thank my fabulous test knitters, once again from the Ravelry Free Pattern Testers group, who this time around were many and eagle-eyed. In alphabetical order: BrindleviewFarm, catdragon, CatSaysKnit, CrafteeWitch, GiddyCrafter, iammo, JenAus0524, jhandmade, kimkat, KnitterBeth, Kokolat, kyorei, LionesseM, maineknitter1975, MandyzMoon, maperkei, Momto3boys, neddhead, peggylaine, Ravelling, sandyvar, shortbusmom, siro2, SnookiesOz, TosaGirl, yofed and yukachan08.

And I have to thank Alli, and Devil and Boo for their enthusiastic (and not-so) modelling of these babies. Mwah!