The Spice of Life!

Today marks the end of Week One in the Ravellenics!   And I'm happy to have crossed the finish line in WIPS Wrestling and be able to show a finished Spice of Life Blanket:

The pattern was written for DK weight yarn, but using worsted weight yarn, and making it exactly as the pattern is written (except for adding some rows for length) it measures approximately 54" across and 78" long.  Does that sound crazy?   Written down it sort of does to me, but in reality it's actually pretty perfect for tucking one's self up in.  What can I say?  I like my blankets big.  :)

I've been keeping up practicing knitting, and have 2 more dishcloths to show:

Not perfect, but getting better! 

I really like this pattern and using a stripey yarn makes it even more fun to do. I basically just switched back and forth from garter to seed stitch and back again whenever the color changed.

This may just end up being the year of the knitted dishcloth.  If I master the humble dishcloth, maybe I can move onto something bigger.  But I'm liking using my new knitted dishcloths, so I'm fairly content for the time being knitting away on them.

It's a rainy weekend, with the beginning of the week promising even more rain.  No complaints from me.  The grass is green (not the norm for August in Indiana) and the temps have come down a bit (into the mid-80's.  Maybe high 70's by Monday.)  What a relief that sounds like.

Later today our sons are coming over and we're having a lasagna lupper (that's a late lunch/early supper).  It's a real trip trying to coordinate three adult young men to come to Mom & Dad's house anymore.  I thought they would fawn over the offer of a home cooked meal, but it was like wrangling cattle to get them to agree on a day and time.   I'm still not sure if middle son is going to make it in time for eats.  But these days I take them when I can get them.  :)

And that's a wrap for this YOP Sunday.   To see what other Yoppers are up to, visit our group on Ravelry!

Slowly she goes...

I'm not sure where my time has gone this week, but it's not been into crocheting.  Much.  I did try to catch some of the Democratic Convention, and that is prime crocheting time. :)  Much like last week while trying to take in what I could of the Republican Convention I crocheted happily on both of my Spice of Life Blankets this week.  They are about half way done and I'm hoping to finish one during the Ravellenics which are to begin next Friday.

And I'm knitting another dishcloth.  No pattern, just a border of garter stitching with stockinette in the middle.

I guess there's some improvement overall, but I'm finding I have problems when I rip back to a mistake and start a row over again.  I think there must be a trick to getting the stitches back on the needle in the right direction.  The problem is I can't tell from looking at the stitches what the right direction is.  At the moment this remains a mystery, but I'm going to hope I'm able to figure that out.

On another fun note...  last month I won a drawing in the Red Heart Lovers' Ravelry group for their June CAL.  That month we were to try a new technique or learn a new skill.  I learned how to do tunisian crochet (simple stitch) and I made this Shadow Stitch Pillow.  Each person who participates in the monthly CAL is entered into a drawing for that month, and I happened to be one of the winners.

And a week or so ago I received my prize:

While it was fun to get some new-to-me yarns in the mail, I'm most excited about the Unforgettable yarn in the foreground.   I love this yarn for making scarves and what they sent is a brand new colorway (called Tealberry) and I'm looking forward to seeing how it works up.   I think I'm going to use it to make a linen stitch scarf for the Ravellenics.  :)

To see what other Yoppers are up to visit our thread this week on Ravelry.

Trying my hand at knitting again...

Except for crocheting a few rows on my two Spice of Life blankets, I've only done a little playing with yarn and knitting needles this week.  I've put on my YOP list that I want to challenge myself to learn to knit this year.  To work on something every month.  So this week I began.  Again.

And all I can say is...

Knitting.  is.  haaarrrd.

Actually, after a try at some simple garter stitch and stockinette - which I thought went pretty well (for me):

I decided to try my hand at a garter stitch dishcloth.

After trying out several video tutorials, I decided I really liked this one by Jewberly Emiris.  Her instructions are simple and clear (I think), she gets right to the point, and she's sweet and happy.

Not too bad, I thought, half-way through my first knitted dishcloth attempt.  I see some mistakes and the uneven tension, but I was beginning to think this knitting thing wasn't as hard as I came to believe the last time I tried.

But then I started decreasing and by the time I was done, this had happened:

When I finished I had no idea how it had gotten all pointy.  I was sure I was following the instructions.  Actually, this is when I went looking for another tutorial and I found Jewberly's linked to above.  Watching her video I realized I was putting an extra stitch in every row - where the holes are created.  So while I was decreasing, I wasn't doing it quickly enough.  That's how I got Mr. Pointy Head dishcloth there.  And by the way...it took me 4 or 5 hours to finish that awful thing.   Sigh.

But realizing my mistake and following Jewberly's to-the-point video I set right to work to make a second cloth.   I thought this should be a breeze the second time.  Right?

Well...  on the needles it looked to me to be not too bad, but once I had the thing off the needles, I was like, GEE WILLIKERS!  It's worse!

It's square.  ish.   But wow, is it ever rough?!?  And I had no idea it was this rough as I was knitting it.  I think that troubles me most of all.  That I was happily (mostly) knitting along thinking I was getting this knitting thing.  Only to find this at the end.

There are some places where I see I dropped a stitch, and I can see where the tension is uneven.  But even with those things... I just wasn't expecting this!

Maybe I'm just not cut out for this knitting thing.

I feel like I have the movements pretty well (at least in making a garter stitch pattern).  I made these cloths mostly using continental-style knitting.  Easy and quicker than the English method, I find.

But there's a whole lot of some other stuff  I obviously don't have.  Stuff like even tension (Okay, I get that consistent tension will come with practice).  The ability to recognize when I've dropped or otherwise mangled a stitch.   (When I'm doing it - will this ever happen?)  And patience.  Aaah. That's the big one.    I'm just not sure I have the patience to endure what I may have to endure to get even mediocre at knitting.  I'm not even hoping to become a good knitter at this point.   But I'm not sure it's worth the pain and effort just to strive for 'not pitiful'.

Sigh.

To soothe my weary fingers and wrinkled brow I'm putting the needles down for at least 24 hours and I'm going to crochet me a pretty dishcloth.  That will make my heart light again, I hope.

And just so I don't leave feeling completely defeated, I'm going to post a progress picture of my bright and cheery Spice of Life blanket I'm crocheting.

There now.  That's enough to make me smile again.

To see what other Yoppers are up to, visit our group on Ravelry.