Wishes…

I started a new job two weeks ago, and even though it is only part time, I’ve had a bit of a time juggling my schedule and keeping things running smoothly at home. Not to mention, I’ve been exhausted afterwards as, I am not used to being on my feet for that long–everything I do, I do on my butt it appears. I read a lot–on my butt, I write a lot–on my butt, I surf the web and code web pages–on my butt, I go to college and do schoolwork–on my butt, I homeschool–mostly on my butt…and I knit/crochet–on my butt. You can see the pattern. My feet are feeling better finally but I have done almost zero knitting/crocheting other than a few stitches on my ripple blanket.

Then Saturday night I thought I’d do something tiny and fun. My friend’s daughter (Sherry’s grand-daughter) was being dedicated on Sunday and I wanted to do something a little different for her. I’d been studying fairy tales a lot for my last major assignment in college last semester, not to mention a life long love of fairy tales–and the idea of people or fairies being invited to christenings or dedications to leave wishes is not a new one (think Sleeping Beauty). So I decided to make her a Wish Bag and put four symbolic wishes in it.

I used the Amulet Pouch pattern from Magknits’ Nov 2005 issue which I had first seen on Dawn’s blog and thought was adorable. I used Koigu KPPM fingering weight yarn with size US2 dpn’s and a small crochet hook for the chained rope. This was a very fun, very quick (one sit-down) project that I will definitely be making again.

As for the wishes, I used a candle for fire, a feather for air, a rock for earth, and a shell for water. I also included a mini version of the poem Shine that I believe everyone should memorize, and children should be made to memorize at a young age to bring up a generation of people who truly shine. It was a lot of fun to put together–Bella is a sweet baby and I wish her a beautiful life well lived.

On the concept of wishes, I was quite impatiently waiting for a Ravelry invite and was able to get a hold of one much to my excitement.  I just started playing around with it yesterday but I’m loving it so far. My current favorite aspect is the needle/hook checklist that allows you to print a small pocket version AND allows you to text from your cell phone if a pattern you are buying needs a certain size needle–it will text back whether you have that size and how many you have. THAT is cool, and very very useful when out yarn shopping. Anyway, a lot of people have done detailed overviews, so I won’t do that, but it looks to be a great online resource/tool. My username is bkellya for those on it.

 

Grass Green

I know that eventually I’ll have to do something other than put up pictures of my ripple blanket, although I guess that is what my main blog is for–still, I just happen to be in love with it right now. I finished the two shades of green since the last photo and next is a really lovely rust and an orange. I love the colors, I love the ripple, I love the ridge at the end of each color.

I also put in a few more rows onto my Bainbridge scarf, but there isn’t enough to photograph as yet. I’m hoping this weekend to organize all my yarn and knit/crochet stash/wips/to do and get some kind of game plan on what I’m doing. Until then, it’s just ripple all the way.

 

Ripple in the day…Ripple at night…

First off, an update shot, although not much progress…well, I say that, but then when I consider that each row is 252 stitches (7 feet)–that means that I’ve done over 300 stitches since the last picture. I’ve finished the purples, the blues, the teals, and now I’m starting on the two green colors. Right now the “real” green seems to clash a bit with the turquoise, but I think once all the colors get it in will flow fine.

The real reason for this post, however, is not to see the extra row and a half that I’ve crocheted–but the crochet hook with light saber qualities:

As you can see from the darker picture, there is plenty of light to stitch by, although I can imagine it would give me a headache in the dark. In dim light, however, it is also helpful to see the holes. I have to say I’ve also found it helpful for getting the lighted tip into the top of the chain for the last two dcs of each row. Anyway, I couldn’t resist it, I’m not too fond of plastic needles, so I’ll like still use my metal hook, but as I’ll be crocheting this blanket for a looooooooooong time to come, I’m sure there will be many times I’ll be happy for a little extra light.

My son, by the way, felt it was a hook worthy of Princess Leah.

 

Almost half-way…

I don’t have too much to share other than another photo of my ripple afghan. I’m hoping after tonight’s last college class I’ll start having more time to knit/crochet. After the turquoise row I’ll be half way through the 12 colors. This photo is a tad bright, but otherwise it is fairly consistent with the colors. I’ll have to time how long it takes to do a row, it’s a nice chunk of time being 7 feet wide, but it’s an enjoyable chunk of time.

I also started the  Bainbridge Scarf (link leads to a .pdf file) using Rowan Wool Cotton in a rich teal color. I don’t have enough to photograph yet, but the mistake rib is easy and relaxing to knit.

 

Moving along now…

I had to iron off a couple issues as I kept having to fudge a stitch at the end of the row–it had to do with where I put the first dc after chaining three. If I put the first dc into the stitch one over from the chain (where it should go, if I remember right), it throws it off, so I’m doing it into the bottom of the chain area and so far so good. I hope to finish off the navy row today and move on to the light blue (the one color I’m not sure of, I’m afraid it’s too light for the rest, but we’ll see). I had to really mess with Photoshop to get anywhere near accurate colors, and this was in good indirect sunlight–I’m not sure why it isn’t photographing well. Anyway, the blue is really a navy. The afghan ended up being a solid foot longer than I had planned–I was aiming for 5 feet wide, but it is a solid 6 feet. I’m not really interested in pulling it out and restarting, and by not interested I mean–it’s not happening, so it’ll either be nice and wide or I’ll make it a vertical stripe afghan and stop when it’s as wide as I want it. Purely whim will decide that down the road.

I want to put a small, easy project onto the needles tonight as well, so I think I’ll cast on for this Bainbridge Scarf–it looks easy, quick, and it’s a nice look I could think of a couple people I could make this as a gift for. I have a couple yarns in stash that would work out for this, so I’ll play around and see what I come up with.

 

And it begins…

I finished up the little square (5.5″) that I determined I would finish before I would cast on for the ripple blanket. It’s just a basic basketweave knit pattern with US5 needles started last night and finished up this morning. I’ll be glad to get this mailed off tomorrow and it has certainly made me want to participate in more “send a square” kindof thing. A quick gratification, especially going to a good cause.

That done, early this evening I played around with figuring out how many stitches to chain for the afghan. My stitch repeat is 12 stitches, so I ended up with a 252 stitch chain +3 for the first dc. I used stitch markers every 50 chains to try to end up with an accurate amount and it worked out well, no problems! I finished the second row after I took this picture. While I like the random stripes best, I have a random stripe afghan from my friend, and I don’t have enough colors to really make a good random stripe–so I’m going for a more set color sequence (you can see it at the top of the previous post–although I have added two more) of 12 colors.

 

Ripple-ing

I learned to crochet before I learned to knit around 2 years ago, taught by an old friend who gave me one of her ripple blankets she had made a long time ago (I’ll have to get it out tomorrow and take a picture of it). I’ve tried to resist all the rippling craze around the blogs, mostly because crocheting aggravates my mild carpal tunnel much more than knitting does. I do, however, want an afghan. I made my daughter a chunky ripple blanket a few years ago and enjoyed making it.

I actually did some swatching tonight–the yarn, Red Heart Super Soft (must be able to wash afghans), calls for an I hook, but I’m looking for a more compact look, like the one my friend made, so I went down to an H and that was much more what I was looking for. I was surprised how quickly I popped right back into the swing of it, a little reminder on which stitch to start in after a turn, a refresher on the dc2tog and I was on my way. I’m going to use a ridged double crochet ripple pattern that I picked up from a stitch dictionary–two rows per color, ridges on the color change row.

UNLESS–I’m going to swatch some knitted ripple patterns first…for the sake of the carpal tunnel issues. Although a blanket size row of purling doesn’t inspire me much! Although I did find a feather and fan pattern that would have few all purl rows–I’ll swatch it tomorrow. Whether I knit it or crochet it, it will take me a loooong time, I don’t knit enough to really make large projects into finished objects very often, but that doesn’t seem to stop me from starting them. I did stop my log cabin afghan as it just wasn’t doing it for me, I put the square away in case I ever want to figure out how to make it into a pillow or something. So once I start this, I’ll still have the three long term projects–an afghan, a sweater, and a lace shawl.

Before I do anything other than swatch, I need to finish a little 5×5 square to send in for a blanket for Jennifer. Given I have a major project to finish up for college this weekend, that’s probably about all I’ll manage.

 

Final Wavy Feather Photos

I just wanted to throw a couple more pictures up of the Wavy Feather Wimple (project details in previous post). It’s beautiful, warm, comfortable and doesn’t dangle like a scarf. I will definitely be wearing this.

  

 

Feathered Finish!

I finished my smoke ring tonight (I know it’s called a wimple, but I prefer smoke ring and don’t really plan to wear it on my head). This was a completely enjoyable project from start to finish. I love the pattern–perfect for watching tv, just enough umph to keep it interesting and enough plain rows to keep it simple. I really can’t say enough about it. I think it will fit perfectly with some blocking (which I’ll do tomorrow) and with this cold weather hanging on, I might even get to wear it once or twice. I’d certainly make this pattern again for a gift or something someday–although I really want to try the Flared Lace Smoke Ring!

Pattern: Wavy Feathers Wimple
Yarn: Regia Silk in #10 Brown
Needles: Knitpicks US6, 24″ circulars
Size: Unblocked= Approx. 14.25″ long x 21″ long
Modifications: I added one extra repeat and cast on 110 stitches to make it a bit looser (I’m claustrophobic, don’t want something tight around me neck) and to make it fit comfortably on 24″ circs.
Note: I cast off with US9 needles to make it as stretchy as the cast on–US8 would have probably been fine as it almost seems looser than that the cast on edge, hopefully it will all block out even.

I’ll post blocked out photos when it’s done.

 

More feathers

I don’t have much to report on the knitting front, so why not another picture of the Wavy Feathers Wimple. I’m still really enjoying knitting on this project, it’s got enough variety to keep me enjoying it and yet is simple enough to not have to think too much. Still loving the yarn, as well, it would make lovely socks. I’m at 2.5 repeats out of a total of 3.5 repeats.

In other news, I was able to have a lovely increase to my stash without buying any yarn–thanks to Cassie from Too Much Wool. She had a picture that needed a quote and offered a skein of sock yarn for a winning quote–and Mark Twain won out, and along with him, me. I’ve been trying not to buy any yarn, so this came as a welcome gift. It’s the perfect shade of green (my favorite color) called Loden and I really like Cherry Tree Hill yarn. I’ve wanted to a couple patterned socks that would do best in a more solid color, so this will be perfect. I’ll start digging around my links and see what strikes my fancy.