It's all squares this week...

June has been a slow yarn month for me and I don't know that this coming week will be much different.  

It's been a good month - doing good things (for myself and others).  Some new things have presented themselves.   Some things I've written about, some I've not.  While I know part of the reason I've lagged in interest in working with yarn is due to busyness, I also know I've lost some steam for some reason.   But then I've also been reading more and that kind of interferes with holding a hook and yarn.  😉  Hopefully this lag I'm in will change, or I'll figure it out and recalibrate.  At the moment, I'm feeling a bit rudderless.  It's weird.

All that said, though, earlier this week I managed to get all those crazy ends woven in on my BAMCAL square.  It's not going to require a hard blocking, so softly steaming this Flying Colors square is going to suffice for now (maybe forever):

Not my favorite square (because of my color choices and placements),

 but it will make a decent contribution to a larger blanket someday.

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Even though I haven't crocheted much this month, my knitting needles have continually had a dishcloth on them.  While it seems pretty uninspiring to report, over the course of the last three weeks I turned this (and some other odds and ends):

Into this:

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Now, if you're like me, when making dishcloths, you end up with lots of little odds and ends of cotton yarn left over.  Sometimes those odds and ends are too small to do much with, but I got to looking at some bags of these leftover bits of cotton yarn and I wondered how it would work to splice some of the yarns together into "magic balls" and make more cloths from them.

Playing it safe, I pulled together two different, but coordinating variegated yarns and did a braided join. 

Here's a picture that shows what that braided join looks like:

Basically, you take two ends of two different yarns, loop them around each other, split each into two sections (doesn't matter how many plies are in a section).  Then braid each side (the three sections of the braid will be the two split sections from one strand of yarn, and one whole strand of yarn).   Do this braiding on both sides of where you looped the yarns together and then wind it into one ball.  Then just keep adding different yarns and colors to a ball until it's the size you want.  Those stringy ends can get snipped off once you've knit or crocheted your item together (I made a little knot of those stringy ends before snipping, but I doubt it's necessary).  

If you want the braided section to more completely blend in, do this braiding at a section in each yarn where the color is as similar as possible.

Anyway...  I knitted up my magic ball and this is what I got:

Kind of cool, I think.  Definitely fun to watch it grow as I knit.  It would probably be even more fun if I combined more disparate colors into one "magic ball".   😀

Oh my goodness...  after posting I decided to look to see how others might do a braided join.  I found this video!  I like her method even better than what I came up with.  

While some may think the braiding isn't worth the effort, to me it was a small thing I could do while my mind was on something else, or my ears were tuned into something completely unrelated to what I was doing with my hands.  And when the item is finished there are no ends to weave in!  Magic!  😃

I'm starting to pull together other scraps of yarn to do this with (and regretting all that I've thrown away over the years).  I suspect variegated or a combination of solids and variegated will work the best with this.  I look forward to finding out.  

And that, dear reader, is all I've got!

2019 Yarn Stash-Down progress:  47.06/100 skeins!

More small things...

Some things I'm working on...

Marsha Leftycrafter recently shared with me the DW David Waltrip Dishcloth pattern and after a few rows I fell in serious like!  I especially like how this stitch pattern plays with variegated yarns:

Thankfully, the pattern has been archived here.   I have way too much variegated kitchen cotton yarn I bought that looked pretty in a ball, but worked up is sometimes less than I hoped for.  This stitch pattern hasn't disappointed me yet when using a short-segment-variegated yarn.    The pattern is quick. It's easy.  It's fun!

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I also made a little progress on a Fairly Islelish Cardigan (baby sweater):

I'm heading into making the yoke where I will introduce another shade of gray in the stripe pattern (or another color).  I'm open to suggestions on a contrast color.  I want this to be suitable for a boy (though I'm having second thoughts about how well this pattern truly suits a boy - more on that when I'm finished).  And I am going to finish this.  I think.

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And I started this:

But... as okay as that looks, I'm fairly unimpressed.  I think I'm going to rip it out as soon as I finish writing, and start this pattern.  The yarn I'm using is pretty nondescript so I'm thinking I need to make something fun with it.  

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And lastly...  

Someone's having a birthday this week!   

I'm turning 60 and I'm actually kind of excited about it.  I know... is that weird?  Getting older is sometimes for the birds, but there's something about this milestone birthday that has me kind of eagerly anticipating what's next in life.  

I'm still trying to figure out how to ring this birthday in and it may, in the end, be very low key ('cuz I'm a pretty low key kind of gal), but I'm hoping my birthday this year lives up to the anticipation I'm allowing myself to have for it.  So wish me well in that.

To see what other YOPers are up to 

visit our group on Ravelry.

2019 Yarn Stash-Down progress:  43.86/100 skeins

Small things...

A very short post this week.    I present another small (7-inch) doily from the book, 99 Little Doilies:

 While it holds the distinction of being Doily #1, 
I'm calling it Octagonal Pineapple Doily

Other than that, the only other yarny thing I did this week was discover a new dishcloth pattern:

It's called Blissfull Moss Rib Cloth.   It is a bit blissful of a knitting project - working up super quick (for a knitted cloth).  I like how it forms a ribbed pattern, but I kind of dislike how small it is when finished because it puckers up (like ribbing does).   But then again, I prefer smaller dishcloths (somewhere between 7.5 - 8 inches) so when I finished it, I didn't mind that it was on the small side.  But then I washed it and it puckered up to hardly anything.  I pulled and tugged on it as I folded it, but it looks so very sadly shriveled atop the stack of newly washed dishcloths.  Then again, when it gets wet it stretches out to nearly 8 inches.  So I don't know...  For now I'm a bit ambivalent about my blissful new cloth pattern.

And that, friend, is all I've got.    To see what other YOPers are up to, visit our group on Ravelry.

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All new things...

After finishing a large project and while waiting for two new CALs (Crochet-A-Longs) to begin in April, for the last couple of weeks I've tried to content myself with some simple, small crafts.

First I knit.  And then I knit.  And then I knit some more simple dishcloth patterns.   Here are two cloths made with a pattern called Boxes:

Finally I had knit so much that one of the joints on one of my fingers started to hurt.  I obviously had overdone it, so I gave knitting a break and looked for something else to satisfy my itch to create.   I had recently bought (what I thought was) a complete kit to embroider pillowcases, and I decided to get that out.  Well, imagine my surprise when I opened the package to find stamped pillowcases, but no embroidery floss.   I've since learned that this is pretty standard, so now I know...   and I'm just glad I only paid half price for the "kit" I picked out.   Fortunately, I had some embroidery floss in my crafts stash and I was able to approximate the colors that were suggested in the pattern.   So I got busy embroidering for the first time in years.

I know...  it's super simple - with only four stitches to complete the pattern (running stitch, loop stitch, french knot and satin stitch.  I'm transported back to my young girl days when I first learned to embroider - remembering these simple stitches that probably made up very simple designs. In fact, I probably once upon a time embroidered a simple design pretty much exactly like the one above. Simple seems about right, though. It's soothing and enjoyable.

Inspired by picking embroidery back up, when I was in Jo-Ann's last week with a handful of 50% off coupons I looked through their pillowcase "kits" and chose a more involved pattern to try next.  And then when I was in the embroidery floss aisle I happened to notice that they sold packages of plain pillowcases.  Two to a set.   At half the price of the "kits".  Wow!  Using my 50% off coupons and stamping a picture on the pillowcases myself I could create my own "kit" for significantly less than buying discounted pre-stamped pillowcases.  I felt so clever.  I know... if I was really clever I would just draw a design on a pillowcase to embroider, but I'm not that clever -- yet.   Anyway... for now I am enjoying this.  And getting back to embroidery has been on my YOP list for the last two years.  Yay me!

And then yesterday being April 1st, I was able to begin crocheting along with some folks on Our Happy CAL group on Ravelry.  We are each crocheting our own Round Jacob's Ladder Baby Blanket.

When I first started creating these weird large chain spaces, I didn't know what to think:

I mean, I knew that the blanket was crocheted with all these chain spaces and somehow later something was to be done with those spaces to create the "ladder" design, but I just couldn't quite imagine how this worked.   It felt like a lot of "going on faith" to just continue on, so I went back to the CAL group on Ravelry to see what anyone else had to say.

One of the other participants in the CAL said she was able to "braid up" the loops as she went and that gave me confidence to give it a try.  Following the instructions at the end of the pattern, I braided up the rows I had completed thus far:

One, by one, each loop is pulled through the loop below it...

Until they're all braided up.

Is that cool or what?!?!  I love this.  And it's very easy to do.  Now I can crochet on, confident that in the end all the crazy big chain spaces will work together to make a pretty blanket with "ladders" radiating out like spokes on a wheel to create the intended design.   What fun it will be to watch this blanket grow.

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

A week of starts...

It's been a week of starts.   Early in the week I decided to try making a Lagniappe Shawl and this is just a peeky peek at the beginnings of that:

And then I was inspired, for some reason, to knit a Slip Stitch Striped dishcloth:

Still working on my tension...   :^/   I decided to make another one in red and be all set for Christmas. And hopefully improve my tension issues.

And then late in the week I remembered that I was to host a CAL today in the Our Happy CAL Place on Ravelry.  Fortunately, this week's theme is Quick & Easy.  I thought about several different projects, but when this Christmas Holly Embellishment crossed my computer screen, I decided it fit the bill:

I'm  little embarrassed showing such  a large close-up of this project as the leaves are all wrong. See... when I pieced this together, I didn't realize I had the leaves upside down 'till I finished and compared mine to the original.  In the original, the "vein" running down the center of the leaves is prominent, but it's totally lost in my leaves above.  Ah well...  it was super quick and super easy.  And if you don't look too close, it's kind cute and perfectly acceptable for tying onto a gift package on Christmas day.

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And then yesterday I got the great idea to crochet some more  Linen Stitch Scarves for Christmas gifts. I'm hoping to make three (in different colors), with the first one I started being black and gray with an accent of red:

So that's this past week in crochet!  To see what other Yoppers are up to visit our group on Ravelry.

Yarn fail turned into a success...

Looking through my cotton yarn to make another dishcloth  I knew I was picking a least likely contender for making a pretty cloth, but wow - was I underwhelmed by just how ugly of a cloth this color would make:

It's Lily's Sugar & Cream in the color Earth Ombre in case anyone wants to be sure not to purchase it for the purpose of making a dishcloth.  Bleck.  One good thing I can say for it, though, is that I won't worry about it getting stained.  Not that I'd likely even be able to tell if it's stained...

Looking in my stash and seeing three more skeins I decided I either needed to rehome the stuff, or find something else to make with it quick so I could stop regretting I'd purchased it once upon a time.

When I came upon this pattern I thought it might provide enough openness in the crocheted fabric that the unattractive blend of colors and degree of variegation just wouldn't matter that much.

Once I started, I couldn't crochet fast enough - I wanted this yarn gone.

I had to make two bags before I used most of the offending yarn.  I have to say, while these won't be winning any beauty contests, I like these bags a whole lot more than I like that dishcloth.  And they were easy peasy to make.  After making the first one I really just winged (wung?) the second one.

The pattern makes a fairly small bag as written - though these things stretch.  A lot.  I made mine larger than the pattern (by enlarging the circle base - which was a good choice because I wanted them larger in diameter than the pattern would make), but I think I made them both a bit too long.  It's hard to estimate how much these stretch, so my recommendation is to make them shorter than you may think you actually need them to be.

Grocery day is a ways off, so I just went shopping in my kitchen and can see that these bags hold quite a bit of stuff.

Because they stretch so much, I recommend not putting super heavy items in them, but they will nicely corral bags of chips, some boxes of cereal, a loaf bread, some not-too-heavy produce... Frankly, I think these bags will hold pretty much anything that would fit in them.  The question is, do I want them dragging on the floor as they're hanging over my shoulder?!?

Now to put these babies in my car - where they can await my next shopping trip!  And Yay! for finding success again out of what was appearing to be another yarn fail.

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

Simple pleasures...

While you wouldn't know it from any pictures I've taken, or crochet talk I've been talkin', I am working on my 2nd Spice of Life blanket.  I could probably finish the body in a quick session, but then it would need blocking before I add the border.  Sounds easy enough.  The problem is I've still got enough of a remnant of vertigo in my head that a simple thing like bending over and looking straight down (like I would need to do to pin something to block) is still making me woozy.  Since I'm under no pressure to finish the blanket, I've decided to just take my sweet time finishing crocheting those last fews rows, trusting that one of these day I'll feel totally normal again and I'll get that baby blocked and bordered.

Until then I'm making things that don't require blocking.  :)  Simple things.

Like knitted dishcloths:

Three new cloths in the colors of autumn.  Bring on that autumn weather!

And this Chicken Hotpad:

Is it wrong to be smitten with something that comes off one's own hook?  I may be a little too excited about this cute little hen, but I'm thinking I see more of these in my crochet future.  I've made notes on my project page, so replicating this, or making a whole flock of new and varied ones should be a piece of cake.  I don't know if this will be a gift for someone, or if I'll add it to my potholder collection, but I'm totally lovin' this little chicken.  :)

To see what other Yoppers are up to, visit this week's thread on Ravelry.

Gotta Love Sunflowers...

For some reason I started off this week kind of 'meh' about doing anything with yarn.  Until Saturday, all I had managed to make were a couple of dishcloths (later in this post), but yesterday, a rainy Saturday, I was on you tube - not sure now what I was looking for, but I stumbled across a video tutorial for a Sunflower Hotpad.  I immediately thought it would be a great addition to my new potholder/hotpad collection.   So I went through my stash of yarn and found some workable cotton.  A couple of hours later this is what I had come up with:

I love it!   If I find some orange-y yellow cotton, I may just have to get it and make another one, but for now, this one makes me happy.  I added an extra row of yellow, and because of that it took most of a skein, but the brown and green were just scraps.  And the pattern is so easy.  Looking at the finished pictures in the tutorial I would never have guessed how easy it is.  There is no written pattern, or link searchable on Ravelry, but here is my project page - on the chance that anyone would benefit from the details I've put there.

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Back to the dishcloth knitting, though...   Somewhere around Tuesday I started noodling around with the knitting needles again and in a couple of days I had finished another simple dishcloth.

I feel like this is my best knitting so far.   Of course, all those speckles help hide some unevenness, but I'll take it.  The progress I feel I've gained, that is   :)

And when that one was done I started another Seeded Stripe dishcloth:

Now, my looser stitches don't show so much on this cloth (because there's so much going on), but this cloth gave me a great opportunity to really see how my stitches went from mostly nice and even (the garter stitch stripes) to all loosey goosey (the seed stitch stripes).  You can't see the loosey goosey stitches in the picture (and even in person it doesn't look bad finished), but I knew I was having some problems.   And somehow, even though I could see my stitches loosening up as I was knitting, I had no idea why it was happening.  Googling what causes uneven tension led me to some helpful sites (the most helpful being aknitka.com) that explained to me that my tension problem is probably due to purling looser than I knit.  I practiced some more and sure enough - that was my problem.  The seed stitch rows gave plenty of opportunity to pay attention to tension while switching back and forth between knitting and purling.   I haven't yet achieved correct tension while purling, but knowing what the problem is is a huge help.  Assuming I can conquer this, I feel like this knowledge will move me much further along in my knitting ability and what I may even want to try to make.

I hope it doesn't sound lame, though, to be fairly content just knitting dishcloths for the time being.  I see beautiful shawls, socks and hats and think I should be wanting to make those things, but I'm not overly drawn to try to knit them.  Knitting a dishcloth is about as relaxing and "instant gratification" as it can get for me while still working on basic stuff like tension, and eventually new stitches. And I love using my new knitted dishcloths.  I have some crocheted cloths that I like, but I'm pretty picky about my dishcloths.  They can't be too holey and they can't be too stiff or thick. Finding that perfect combination in a crocheted cloth is tricky.  But a knitted cloth, I'm thinking, pretty much always fits both of those criteria.  So for now I'm just a happy dishcloth knitter.  :^)

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