moonfrog

I finished my project for the Knit the Classics selection this month, The Woman in White, a while ago, but didn’t want to give away the ending to others who have not finished the reading. So here it is. This is in honor of Walter’s rule that the past is behind and should not be spoken of any longer. Looking to the future is the way to proceed.

The bib is my own pattern, based on a Victorian bib. It is crocheted with basic cotton, so it is basically a lacey dishcloth to hang from Baby’s neck. The booties from the Shell Baby Booties pattern.  I was happy to find some pretty Victorian heart buttons to finish the bib, making it and adjustable-size neck. I enjoyed making this pattern and know just who I will send it to when the time comes.  Looking to the future.
Oh, and hop on over to Knitty.com for the Surprise! patterns.  There are four new patterns. Two are really cute sweaters. I’m done, go ahead and check them out. : )
New surprise patterns at Knitty.com.

The Day of Hearts is approaching, so I knit up a dishcloth for the Fun Knitting Dishcloths KAL. This month’s assignment is to knit a heart-themed cloth. There’s a list of five heart cloths here if you want some more ideas.

The one I chose is not on the list. It is from smariek knits. Scroll down to January 15th for the Heart Lace Cloth pattern. There are also lots of great hat patterns on her blog.

There are directions for two sizes for this cloth. I made the wider one (cast on 39 stitches) with Lily’s Sugar ‘n Cream cotton. It worked up to be seven inches tall and eight and a half inches wide. I like smaller cloths, so this is a perfect size for me.

This was a challenging, but satisfying,  knit for me. I learned a couple new stitches and had to concentrate carefully on the count. The directions are detailed and clear, with lots of explanation, so that helped. I missed a couple points in the directions, so ended up ripping back a few times. I guess it takes me a while to break down and read the directions again! The amazing thing is that I actually could rip back, even in a lace pattern.  I just made sure I found the straight purl row to put back on the needles.
After a few requests for the pattern for my crocheted heart scrubby, I decided it was time to post the details. I actually used a crochet Heart Coaster pattern. I just substituted nylon tulle for the yarn. I think I used a size N hook.
You can get nylon tulle at the fabric store in sheets, but I found it at my local JoAnn’s Fabrics in 6-inch rolls. I just push the cardboard tube out of the middle and cut the roll in half.

It is not fun to knit with tulle — which is really hard on the hands — but the scrubbies are great. Which reminds me, my mom is on her last one, so I need to make her another one soon. That’s all she will use to wash dishes anymore. She likes the flattened ball style, which I take from the Dishcloth Duo pdf file. I do that one with nylon tulle on size 13 knitting needles. I would try a size 15 if I had it.

I guess that’s enough playing around with dishcloths, although I have enough of the pink variegated to make another cloth. And, of course, I cast on another hat…just to see how a certain yarn would work out with a certain pattern. Ah well, that sweater will just have to wait another day.

California is having a cold spell. Our town actually dipped down to 28 degrees! That’s cold in the ocean air. It warmed up enough yesterday for a motorcycle ride up the coast. I took my camera, but forgot the memory card. Sheesh!

I’ve been knitting a fair amount in the evenings. I finished my Knit the Classics project for The Woman in White. It needs a couple buttons. I’ll wait until later in the month to post it, though, as it may be a bit of a spoiler for those who haven’t finished the book yet.

I made some progress on the Matinee Swing Jacket, but not enough to take a picture. I’ve done a few more rows on DH’s socks. I think the stall on those is anxiety over the afterthought heel I hope to use. I’ve never done it before, so I avoid getting there. And, of course, I’ve made another hat. Now how predictable is that?

This is another stretchy chemo cap made with Elann’s Esprit yarn. I alternated the solid purple with a coordinating multicolor. Elann has several color combinations that work together.

The decrease pattern on the top turned out pretty.

I won’t get to knit much for the next week since I will be working, but I’ll sneak some time in here and there.

I also finished another audiobook, Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst. I think I might have found it on eBay, but don’t remember for sure. It had an unusual plot and format. The narrators were reality show contestants, taking you into a somewhat inside view of the workings and their experiences. Two main characters’ story was told in detail.

The author really concentrates on human frailties, sparing few of the characters. There’s nothing sugar-coated about it. Parkhurst did a great job using the characters’ voices to show all the angles a narrator usually tells. An interesting story all around.

I’d recommend it to most readers. There is some talk of homosexuality, male and female, taking a negative view of those who think it is immoral. If that’s offensive, it would be best not to pick this one up.

I’ve been working quite a bit lately, so not as much time for knitting, but I am able to listen to audiobooks some of the time. I hope to have some more things to share next time I make it back to this ol’ blog. In the meantime, have a great week!

Our trip to the Easyriders Motorcycle Tour in Sacramento yielded a first place award for our friend. It was quite an honor, and his custom bike deserved it.

My favorite part of the trip was going with our friends to the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in the Capitol park. DH and our friend reminisced about their long tours overseas (each spent two tours there) and we found the names of all the fallen soldiers in our local towns. The memorial has walls of names, like the one in Washington D.C., and I couldn’t believe how many young men died from California alone!

These two men remembered their friends and their experiences solemnly, but with an odd nostalgia. What an overpowering effect that time of their lives has had on them.

On the drive down to the show (seven hours each way!) I had a chance to try out my new headlamp. Awesome! I am over halfway through my next hat. I happily knit in the dark whenever it wasn’t my turn to drive. I also tried out a new Z Light booklight by hooking it to my seatbelt and shining it on my knitting. It worked even better and folds up really small!

Over at MoreHouse Farm there is a new feature. Just click on the button and it takes you to a free pattern each day. If you crochet, Annie’s Attic has a free daily crochet pattern. Every once in a while I find one I actually like. Hope you find some, too!

I haven’t joined any of the stash-busting plans around the knitting blog world, but I have been consciously trying to be more frugal in my knitting habits. I have been checking my stash whenever deciding what to knit next, trying to find something suitable. Yarns that are already in my shelf are also helping guide me to what patterns to choose. My stash is not big enough that I am greatly worried about it, except for one thing — I cannot knit anywhere near as fast as my stash is growing. I’ve taken heed from more experienced knitters who know how enthusiasm leads to excesses.

In spite of my new restraint, I find a need to buy not just more yarn, but more needles, too! I recently joined a new We Call Them Pirates KAL to give me the incentive to knit the We Call Them Pirates hat. (Hereafter referred to as Pirates.) I still fear intarsia (made obvious by my signing up for the “Intarsia Without Fear” class at Stitches West in February) and need to get more practice with it. I also have been wanting to make this hat forever! So I decided to make it for DH.

I have some worsted weight acrylic yarn purchased to make him a non-itchy hat, so I did a nice provisional cast-on and knit the first two rows. Ugh! Gauge is off too much to continue. The needle is size three and I don’t think going smaller will work. The yarn I used is Caron Wintuk, and it even feels heavier than many worsted weights. It is a very firm, solid yarn, but is also soft. No matter. I will cast on again as soon as I find a suitable yarn. The yarn called for in the pattern is wool, and I don’t want to try that again! DH just can’t stand it on his forehead.

I’ve made good progress on my sweater, although I’ve “cheated” a little. In order to finish this by February and also make a few other things that are important, I decided to crochet it.

It’s a nice from-the-stash project using discontinued Cotton Ease that I purchased a while ago to make Something Red. (I still have the red yarn I also purchased first to make Something Red, which I will probably make later.)

I’ve already completed the back, although I may add a band to lengthen it later. I’m enjoying making it, but hope that I like it when it is done. It’s called the Matinee Swing Jacket. You can find the pattern on the Lion Brand Yarn website, but I included a picture here since you have to register to get to the free pattern. Oh, and if you haven’t heard, Lion Brand has come out with a new line of Cotton Ease.

I also cast on for the Esprit Reversible Cap, since Pirates is on hold. I’m going to try it without making it reversible, just using a fold-up brim. I hope it works. It will be my travel knitting as we head out of town for a weekend motorcycle show.

Have a great weekend and I’ll see you on Monday!

Today I am casting on something other than a hat! Really! But right now it is time for the Hat Parade.

With all the busy days of the holidays, I had a hard time getting any knitting done at all, not even the hats I usually make for Caps for a Cure. I had two ready to go and one on the needles, but really wanted more than that. So, I resorted to my old standby: crochet.

Although I avoid the homespun that sits at the bottom of my stash shelf, I pulled it out because of its easy-care and quick-knit benefits. And what do you know! I really like the striped hat that came about. DH says this is his favorite this round.

Before that one, I crocheted a hat with a shell stitch edging out of Paton’s Rumor that I picked up at Michael’s. I really liked the feel and color of this 85% acrylic, 15% alpaca yarn, but the bulky weight is not so much to my liking. It did turn out well and will be very warm and soft. Both of these hats started out with a pattern and veered wildly into just doing what came to mind. That’s one of the joys of crochet for me. I know it well enough to blaze my own trail.
Those went so quickly that I cast on a sixth hat in a pattern I have done before — Mandy’s Pink Squared Hat — which is one of the featured hat patterns for this round of donations. The last time I made it with Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece and it turned out more of a child-sized hat. This time I used Lion Brand Cotton Ease (which is staging a comeback after being discontinued) and it came out just right for an adult. I did skip one repeat of the design, but I am thrilled that I actually exceeded my goal and have one more hat done! I didn’t think I liked this mint green color very much, but really enjoyed it as I knit. It seems I have to see a yarn in action before I really know if I like the resulting fabric.

The Hat-That-Took-Forever was the one on my needles after the holidays. I wanted to try out the yarn and basic rolled-brim pattern that our local Breast Health Project requires. They want hats made in Cascade Fixation, which has some elastic, so they will stay on hairless heads. I felt this yarn’s fabric before, curious if I’d like it for hats, and found it rather rough. I decided I needed to try it out personally, but opted for a cheaper copycat version.
The yarn is Elann’s Esprit, 98.3% cotton and 1.7% elastic –the same proportions as Fixation. The color is Peacock Green, which is a tad dull for its fancy name. Esprit also comes in multicolor, which is what I’ll try next, probably in this pattern. The fabric is much softer and drapes better than I anticipated. I’m still not a fan of the rolled brim, but the hat hugs nicely and will stay on without slipping. It did seem to take forever to knit because the elastic holds it in and makes it smaller. I think it is one I will add to my preferred list for those who might find it a good chemo cap.
Last summer, Elann held a design contest for chemo caps using Esprit yarn. Check out some of the patterns.
I’ve also been trying to fit in my latest audiobook. Finally, I plugged in the earphones, ignored all the activity in our house and finished it. Here’s my review:

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold is one of the best books I have ever read! It is also one of the most emotionally wrenching. Narrated by a 14-year-old girl who has been murdered, the story is heart-breaking and heart-warming in turns. The details draw the reader into each scene and ring true to the various ways we cope with the loss of a loved one. Because of this truth in experience, the reader can allow the author to stretch believing somewhat in the end, moving into events that might prove true in a “perfect world” but stretch the imagination.
As usual, I started reading this while working out at the gym. Whoa! I held back tears as I climbed on the Stepmill, hoping no one saw and thought I was a big exercise wuss. I found reading this story brought back all my past griefs, but also helped move them one more step toward healing and understanding. Even if I don’t believe in the truth of this story, I certainly relate to the emotion.

The story never lapsed into predictability for me. Each new phase brought new insights and unexpected outcomes. It reached the core of my being. One day as I listened while riding on the back of the motorcycle, our friends pulled up beside us laughing and motioning that I had curled over, thinking I had fallen asleep. The truth is that I was concentrating so thoroughly in order to hear each word, that I hadn’t noticed myself curling into a fetal position as the story reached an intensity of emotion. This is not an action-packed drama. It is an emotional journey through loss and love.

Mystery lovers would likely enjoy the quiet yet ominous suspense of following the murderer. The basic story can be considered a coming-of-age story with an odd twist — the physical absence of the main character. The characterization is such that this makes little difference. While this story will not be for everyone, it touched me with its quiet possibilities.

Now I’m off to start on a sweater. You heard it! A sweater. And I want to wear it to Stitches West, so I have until February 20th to finish it. I’ll show you some progress in a couple days!

I got tagged for this meme by Rebecca and Adrienne, but this has taken me a while to finish. After you’ve lived with your weird habits for as long as I have, they just doesn’t seem that weird anymore.

Six “Weird” Things About Me:

“THE RULES: Each player of this game starts with the “6 weird things about you.” People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says “you are tagged” in their comments and tell them to read your blog.”

1. It seems I am not alone in my need to have a wrinkle-free bed. I call it the “Princess & the Pea” syndrome, after the old fairy tale. The worst scenario with the wrinkly bed is when the sheets come untucked. That calls for drastic measures, which include waking the poor sleeping man beside me and re-making the bed before we can both go back to sleep. Fortunately, this happens very rarely and the man is very patient.

2. I also have a great need for symmetry, having things even. I always put on one sock, then the other sock. Never put a shoe on before I even out the socks. I even try to chew evenly on each side of my mouth. When I eat chocolate covered raisins, I try to even out the sizes and divide them in half.

3. I also prefer numbers that are even. Two, four, five. Um, yeah, five. It’s right in the middle between zero and ten, right? Half on one side, half on the other — even. Who says compulsions have to be logical.

4. When I was little, my mom gave me a stuffed frog instead of a teddy bear. I guess that’s why I like frogs so much.

5. In my twenties, I wore dresses exclusively for about ten years. I did everything in them — picked blackberries, hiked, rode my bike, everything. I didn’t own pants. I could live in a good pair of jeans now — and usually do!

6. Okay, that’s enough weirdness. I’m freaking myself out! I’m sure there are other oddities in my nature, but since five is my favorite number, I’ll leave it at that.

Who’s up next? If you haven’t outed your weirdness, consider yourself tagged. I’ll try to show you some new knitting in a couple days.