AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

UMA! UMA!

Well, it's not really UMA, but it is also not a UFO. 

In April (Ravelry says the 30th, but I thought it was earlier than that), I borrowed Crochet Me from the library.  Normally I would buy my craft book, because I believe in supporting the designers who make my craft possible.  However, I only really wanted to make the one top.  I wanted to make the Icelandic Turtleneck.  I first saw this top either in the book preview or on Brainylady's blog.  Her's was black, and was a very me choice.  I loved the idea of a simple non-long sleeve turtleneck for the late spring and summer. 

I finished it in 2 weeks.  It was crocheted during the time I had the book out, after I had made all of the scarves for Iolanthe, mostly during the show while I waited for our cue to go back on.

It was done, and then I worked on potholders.  It sat, waiting for me to wear it, because I was looking for a decent tank top (wide straps, not low cut, mid-thigh length) to wear under it.  Well, today I gave up and decided to pull it off my In Progress list and call it a done deal.

I love wearing this.  The Comfort Baby (though admittedly not my favorite color) is soft and easy to wear.  The top was easy to make and lends itself well to a number of variations.  If I make it again I will probably change the yoke to a crochet lace motif and then use the foundation chain thingie to cast on for the rest of the body.  If I make the lace area dense enough, I won't feel like I am putting myself on show.

Other options would be some interesting crocheted colorwork or maybe a trim on the sleeves and hem.  Change it to a crew neck or something more like a scoop neck, add some funky short rows.  I'm sure all of these things are options, even if they aren't all feasible.  Also possible is to just take the general measurements and turn this into a knitted top with a little raglan action.

Completely unrelated: one of these days I will not take finished pictures before work when my hair is still wet.  It's just not the best look and makes me look like a drowned rat.

my happy little potholders!

I got my potholders last week and have barely had time to photograph them much less use them (it's pretty bad when I have blog fodder for at least a week's worth of daily posts and they get spread out of three weeks, because I don't have time to write all of the posts... sad, so sad).

I got these lovely potholders / hotpads:
So pretty!  I want to figure out how the petal one was sewn down and made so well, because that was the pattern I tried and then ripped all of them out!  These are all gorgeous, and I have them hanging up next to my very plain aprons (where I will hopefully remember to use both the potholders and the aprons with greater regularity).

I wish that more of these had little labels on them, so I would know who to thank (other than the organizers, Adrian and Maritza).  They might have put labels on and had them fall off.  I know I was bad and I put my labels in the bag, but I was running out of time and couldn't find a pair of scissors to attach the labels to the potholders themselves.

The only one with a name label was the one from Terri at Purple and Paisley (this is the link to the other hotpads).  Terri had some amazing quilts in progress!  I love the idea of making a quilt, but mixing colors is not my strong suit!  The flower hotpad has seen a fair amount of use, so I really appreciate it!

I can haz FO

About time.  These have been done and mailed more than a week ago, but I haven't bothered to blog about them. 

I signed up for the swap in a fit of something, because I knew (that really should be KNEW) I didn't have the time to do it.  I was in a show, and I was weaving and knitting for it, so it wasn't until the middle of May that I had time to work on these.  First I started making the petal hotpads, but I got very cranky and paranoid about my ability to finish these off properly.  My petals were so thin and wishy-washy that I wasn't sure how to do the finishing in a way that made them look and feel like the originals.  So, I ripped out all of the hotpads I had started and went back to looking at my one stitch book.  Eventually I decided to do a solid thick circle (double crochet) surrounded by stripes and then a little ruffly edge. 

Mostly, I made stuff up, but made sure to make the same stuff up each time I worked it.

I think they look good, but not quite as exciting as the other ones I've seen pictures of.  My crochet skills are a little better than they started out, and I'm more confident about making up a pattern for something basic than I was.  It was fun, even with my confusion about the petal hotpads, and I am looking forward to hopefully receiving some pretty hotpads to live in our new house!

mailing day

Today I get to make a trip to the post office to mail the potholders for the swap (I guess this means I should actually take pictures - maybe I'll remember before work).  I'm lucky that I work near a post office that is open if not 24 hours a day pretty close.  I'd been putting off the mailing part, because I kept forgetting to write little notes on the potholders.  It's not technically required, but it is a much nicer touch.

Currently, I'm using the leftover Tahki Cotton Classic to make a crocheted skirt for myself.  I've never done anything like this, so it is a bit of a learning process and a slow one at that.  I am working from the top down and starting with a drawstring casing, because I'm not looking to make something that is super fitted.  I know I will end up buying more yarn for this, because I am pretty sure I want to knit a solid colored skirt and I definitely don't have enough for that. 

I was hoping to get a bit further along (I've gotten about 2 rows done, so not enough to think I've made real progress), but last night was game 3 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.  I spent a lot more time watching the game than expected, though I did miss some of the game while I was unpacking more china.  I obviously had not been storing most of my kitchen stuff in the actual kitchen, because I have more counter space and cabinet space here but I am not close to putting away all of my kitchen gear into the kitchen.  I'm investigating storage in the basement.  Very exciting to everyone I'm sure.

In gardening news, I ordered grow beds (Norma's recommendation) yesterday and then had a little accident in the farmer's market on the way home.  There was a young man with different seedlings, so I bought a small 6-plant flat of Flamingo Sweet Peppers to start in my garden.  They are sitting outside on the picnic table waiting for their forever home to arrive.  Hopefully my gardening stuff will arrive before Saturday, so I can spend part of the morning learning to garden before working on phase 2 of paint the master bedroom.

tomorrow I run

This morning I nearly finished potholder/hotpad #4 while I went into Boston to pick up my race packet.  It's been a fairly busy day, so I am glad to have a few minutes to rest before heading off to Western Mass to celebrate our friends' graduations (college, law school and dental school).  It's a lot of celebration, so I worked on some truffles this morning to bring along. 

Hopefully I will have a real update tomorrow after I get back from the race!

panic! potholder swap!

Too thin!  Too thin!

I stopped by Windsor Button yesterday in a foggy haze (it was a really tiring day), and showed off a couple of the flower pad centers while paying for another skein of Tahki Cotton Classic and picking up some boxes for the move.  I've been trying to figure out how I was going to sew them together so they didn't look quite so small, and I decided that I would crochet circles to pin them to and do the final row of edging.

Then I got home.  Kind of panicked about how they weren't coming out the way I wanted them to and that if I was going to change my mind that last night was pretty much the last day I was going to have to do it.  My drop date is Tuesday and only because I live in Massachusetts and can expect the package to arrive within 3-5 days.

Instead I have this:

I'm round but double thick!

There is one more color and then some decorate shell stitch (or a different decorative stitch if I come up with something else this morning).  This took me about 1.5 hours last night, but mostly because I crochet a lot slower when I'm watching anime. 

And the next time I want to make the flower pattern? Half doubles at least.  Possibly a thicker yarn, because even my double crochet is a little on the short side.

the crochet potholder swap

Just about a week ago I finally decided on my pattern for the crocheted potholder and hotpad swap.  I wanted something that was a little more 3dimensional, sculptural, if you will, and that wasn't as difficult as some of the flights of fancy that I knew where out there. 

Some 6+ skeins of Tahki Cotton Classic later, I've mostly finished the crochet of the potholders with a mere 8 days till we move and 5 days (max) before I mail them.  No pictures, because I'm writing this up in the oh dark hundred waiting for my body to remember that it can go to sleep thankyouverymuch.

I'm using this pattern.  My petals look really thin, and I figured that these were going to be more for hotpads (umm, like the pattern says - duh), so I have 5 more items to crochet.  Basic circles in the available yarn I have left and one additional skein that I will pick up today when I return two balls of yarn from another crochet project I finished.  Then I will use the basic circles to pin the flowers into place before I sew / crochet the border all the way around. 

But where I am now?  Not bad for having started the crochet in the middle of May!

cro-shay! (butter)

HumanForSale.com - Erin's Wrinkle Success

Normally I wouldn't do a meme, but this one entertained me (today I'm pretty simple minded).  I've spent most of the beginning of this week catching up on sleep after running myself ragged during Prod Week.  Our last run of shows for this Iolanthe start tomorrow, so my brain is still only really good for singing and blocking.  If you are in the Cambridge/Boston area, please come out and see the show!  We have an amazing cast!

When I haven't been thinking about the show, work or cooking, I have been working on the Icelandic Turtleneck from Crochet Me.  My book is due on Saturday, and while I am hoping I can renew it I'm just trying to make as much progress as possible.  The show is surprisingly good for that, because the fairies are in the first 4 numbers and then get to disappear to do fairy activities (mine is apparently crochet, though a number of other fairies do crossword puzzles) until the middle of the Act I finale.  I got partway through the yoke yesterday and then shoved it on my head long enough to make sure that I wasn't horribly off gauge.  This pattern is very good for a new crocheter to give confidence.  It is very easy to count your stitches and make sure that you aren't accidentally losing stitches along the way.  I've been pleasantly surprised each time I had an increase row and ended up with the correct number of stitches. For some reason I find it more difficult to keep track of my crochet patterns even though they are arguably simpler than my knitting patterns.  Just a matter of practice after all.

Tonight is making cookies for the show (refreshment table), crochet and an early bedtime.  Here is to 3 more days of tattoo cover, 80s glam makeup and tripping hither, tripping thither!

the white rabbit

I fell down the rabbit hole yesterday when the copy of Crochet Me I borrowed from the library decided it was buning a hole in my backpack.  So, after work I walked to Windsor Button and picked up the most affordable yarn I could to make the Icelandic Turtleneck (turns out that yarn is Berroco Comfort Baby).  I bought what I needed for the sweater and then 3 skeins of the Tahki Cotton Classic for the potholder swap.  I'm hoping to narrow down what I want to do for the potholder swap in the spaces between shows.

Of course, this means I have started two new projects in as many weeks and will probably start another one in my copious free time this weekend.  I really like how Delphine is coming out, but I didn't bring it with me yesterday and my stitchy fingers went right back to stash land.  Ignoring an imminent move, I'm apparently not bright enough to realize that I need to buy less stuff.  Whoops!

Complaints Time (you might want to just move along)
I'm tired and cranky despite the happiness of the stash, though I know it is a fleeting pain.  My back is covered with makeup I can't quite wash off, which is good for the show because it makes my prep less.  Of course, it makes my back itchy.  Less the tattoo goop and morethat I can't get it all off.  I love doing shows, but the lack of sleep turns me into a muddle-minded mess.  Thank goodness I can sleep in a bit in the morning, so I can regain some perspective!