More spice in my life...

I did it!   I finally finished my second Spice of Life Blanket!

I know this isn't a very creative way to take a picture of a large blanket, but I wanted to give as full a view as I could of all the colors I used.   It may look like there are several dozen colors in this blanket, but there are really only thirteen.  I was, at first, striving for a Tuscan color scheme, but perhaps because I'm not sure what really constitutes Tuscan colors (or maybe I just couldn't find the right right shades in the yarns I wanted to use) I decided to just strive for something kind of autumn-ish.

In the end, I don't know that it looks particularly autumn-y or Tuscany, but I love how this blanket turned out.  I think this will look great on our sofa now through the Christmas holidays.

The Spice of Life pattern is well written, and has recently been "translated" into US crochet terms, and Sandra Paul has included some helpful photos to explain some of the stitch patterns.    The multi-part and many-paged pattern may look a bit overwhelming at first glance, but as you read through it, the layout will make sense, I believe.  I think Sandra originally put the pattern out as a Crochet-A-Long, hence the different parts.  And within each part are several sections (each section being a different stitch pattern).  Looking at the pattern that way helps it to make sense if it doesn't make sense at first glance.  It seems like I needed to grasp that and get over it before I felt completely comfortable with the pattern.  Once I did, it was truly a piece of cake.

While I heartily recommend the pattern, I will forewarn you...  some of the rows "pull in" so badly that this thing takes some serious blocking prior to crocheting the edging.  If you want a straight edge, that is.

If I ever make another one of these I will probably eliminate some of the worst of the rows that "pulled in".   The Stacked Grannies (not to be confused with the Grannies) will definitely go and I'll probably use a larger hook on rows like the Big Zipper and Stacked Shells (though I might eliminate the Stacked Shells, too). My favorite rows are the Tulips, the Puffs, and the Waves (all featured above - if you can find them).  Even with eliminating a couple pattern rows I didn't care for much, there is enough interest in the remaining rows, and enjoyable ease in the double crochet rows to keep this an interesting and fast-moving project.

I'll mention that some people compensate for the tendency of some rows to pull in by using larger hooks on those rows.  I'm pretty sure I remember doing this early on with those rows, but frankly... my hooks got separated from my project and by the time I got back to this blanket recently, and got it finished I was pretty positive I had used such a variety of sizes of hooks I was no longer sure what hook size I began with.  At that point, blocking was going to cover a multitude of issues.  So I blocked this baby hard.  And then blocked it again.

And finally I added the edging.   Don't let the curve in the picture above fool you.  The edges are straighter than they appear above.  I just didn't take the time to smooth it all out before snapping the picture.

And now that I've finally finished this project I'm already on to other things!  It's always fun to start new things, isn't it?!?   To see what other Yoppers are up to visit  this week's thread on Ravelry.

A little spice in my life...

I've been getting ready for a garage/yard sale next weekend and with all the purging and pricing involved in that, I haven't done much crocheting lately (or any knitting, for that matter).

I haven't ignored my crocheting completely, though.  I'm enjoying getting back to my second Spice of Life Blanket:

I do love these colors.  They put me in the mind of autumn.

And a blogger last week took a picture of some wonderful vintage pattern books she recently obtained and that reminded me that I had a similar treasure I unearthed a few weeks ago when helping set up for a Friends of the Library booksale.  

All these vintage crochet magazines and pamphlets pictured above, and four really cool knitting books:

I'm a sucker for old pattern books.  While I've earmarked several patterns I think I might try to "modern up" a bit, even if I never actually make anything from these books, the pleasure I get just browsing through them is enormous.  While there is a nostalgia factor, for sure, I also find inspiration in browsing these old books.  I wonder what things inspire a creative mindset in you.

To see what other Yoppers are up to, visit our thread on Ravelry!

With just a little bit of yarn...

It's the weather.  I'm excusing my lack of direction and inclination to work much with yarn on this beautiful weather we're having.  It's been in the 70's for the last half of this week with overnights in the 60's and 50's.  It has me happily gadding about in my free time, not doing anything particularly worth mentioning, except that well, you know... errands need running, groceries need buying, friends sometimes need lunching with...   And I've been enjoying doing all these things in the context of glorious days after several weeks of trying to avoid spending unnecessary time out in the spiteful heat and humidity and rain.

To be clear, though,  I'm not complainin'.   I'm just explainin'.   My heart goes out to those who've experienced hurricanes, tornadoes and floods in recent weeks.  How is it in your corner of the world?

What I did manage to start and finish this week are these cute little Apple Coasters:

And this simple autumn-ish doily kind-of-a-thing:

Both of these projects were short CAL's on Ravelry.  And both were made with just a bit of yarn. One of the apple coasters will sit on my computer desk this autumn.  And the doily kind-of-a-thing will hopefully find something to rest under.  A plant maybe.  Or maybe I'll just put it out with this little kitty creamer.  :)  The kitty creamer is an antique that I believe at one time was my grandmother's.  It's from the 1940's I'm guessing from what I can find online.   And the yellow formica counter top is only a couple decades younger than the kitty creamer.  Yep, that's my kitchen counter.  My sad old   stylishly vintage yellow kitchen counter.  ;^)

~~~~~

On the knitting front...  I have decided not to post pictures of every single dishcloth I make, but I will report that I knitted two more simple ones this week.  One had some mistakes I tried to turn into design elements - I accidentally knitted a row on the purling side and for some reason thought purling on the knitted side later in the cloth would give me two nice" ridges", but all I really got was one nice ridge and one loosey-goosey sloppy row of purling.

Oooh, okay...  Here's a picture:

Of course, I figured out several rows after I did that loose purl row that I should have just knitted on the purl side again - and I'd have a nice tight ridge like the first one.  It was a head slapping moment, and I consider that a good thing.  That means I'm learning!

The second cloth, I'm happy to report is a work of art.  In a kindergarten knitting class, that is.  I'm getting the tension tighter on my purling.  I still don't know how anyone manages to have such perfect enough tension that they nonchalantly make lovely large items like shawls and blankets, but I'm contenting myself with seeing some slight (and somewhat consistent) improvement in this area in my humble washcloths.

On that note I want to thank you, reader, for indulging me and encouraging me in these weekly posts about my knitting progress.  I truly hope to look back on this time as a quaint and innocent period of my knitting life.  Innocent of what magnificent creations I eventually may be capable of.  :)   Wow. Where did that come from?  A week ago I was a happy humble dishcloth knitter.  This week I'm aspiring to magnificence.  =^/

~~~~~

This week (hopefully) I will get back to my second Spice of Life blanket.  Making two at a time seemed like such a good idea when I started these in July, but having laid one aside in order to finish the other during the Ravellenics I find that I've become a bit apathetic about finishing the laid-aside one.  But finish it I will.  I trust that just picking it back up again will overcome the inertia I'm experiencing at the moment.  This is such an enjoyable pattern to crochet and I actually like these colors better than the colors in the one I finished already, so really... I imagine it will fly off my hook once I get going on it again.

Here is the last progress picture I took of it (back in July):

I've crocheted a good number of rows beyond this point and I'm sure I'm about halfway finished, so really... I should be able to knock this out in a couple of weeks.  And that's so good, as I have ideas brewing.  I may have to start them before my Spice is finished if the yarn I'm waiting on arrives, but that isn't likely to happen for a few days at least.   My main goal is to accomplish something on this Spice this next week.  And probably knit another dishcloth.  ;^)

To see what other Yoppers are yopping about, visit our thread this week on Ravelry!

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!

The games have begun...

In Rio, as well as in the homes of Raveler's around the world!  

Before starting some smaller projects, I wanted to get my Spice of Life Blanket to a stage where finishing it over the next two weeks was feasible.  

I'm feeling good about the progress made and I'm happy to say it's nearly finished.  Just a few more rows of double crochet and then the edging!  I'm hoping to finish it in another couple of days. though maybe that's a bit optimistic. I have a feeling crocheting a border up and down the length of this thing will take some significant time, but hopefully next Sunday I can post a finished picture.

There are also a number of small projects I hope to finish during the Ravellenics.   There's a linen stitch scarf and a knitted dishcloth, and a pair of fingerless mits I hope to make.  And I'm going to try to finish a little doily I started last April.  There are a few other things queued up onto my Ravelry projects page I may get around to, but I'm also well aware that I've probably planned far more items than I'll likely actually finish before August 21st.  We'll see what happens over the next two weeks while the Olympic games are going on in Rio!  Who knows.  I may come up with entirely different projects in that time.

To see what other Yoppers are up to, visit this week's thread on Ravelry.   To open any of the links on this page a (free) Ravelry membership is required.  If you're not part of Ravelry, come see what it's all about!

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.