Loop-De-Doo

Winner!

2011-12-24T19:28:00.000-08:00

The Random Number Generator has spoken: Kate, please email me with your email address, you've won the Simply Crochet ebook!

Merry Christmas Eve, all of you - may Santa bring you all the yarn you want!

Natalie Shrug

2011-12-13T07:15:00.000-08:00

Pattern-writing for books is a funny beast. You pitch your idea, and when you're accepted your fingers and brain are a flurry of activity, and then you send off the fruits of your labor to be edited and published.

And then you wait and wait and forget that you even wrote a pattern and wait some more.

But then you get to see this!

My cute little pink shrug has finally come out to play, in Simply Crochet by Robyn Chachula!

Waaaaay back in July of 2010, Robyn approached me, asking for a pattern for a 1950s-inspired shrug. So I shot back a couple of sketches:

and we agreed that the more feminine cap-sleeves and scalloped edging would work best. So the yarn arrived and I got to work.

What, you don't call that work? :) Lucky me, most of the actual crocheting I did on this piece was during a road trip into Washington for a family reunion. I crocheted to keep my mind off of the treacherous drop outside my window on the way up to the viewing area on top of Mount Saint Helens, among other things.

And just like that, I was done!

It worked up pretty quickly, even for striking out in the dark with only a vague idea of what I wanted; and my favorite part is the scalloped edging.

If you like Natalie, or any of the other patterns you've seen in Simply Crochet, leave a comment on this post letting me know what YOU like to do with just one or two balls of yarn, and I'll choose a name at random next week to win a copy of the e-book! Good luck!

Baby Projects

2010-12-24T11:57:00.000-08:00

I am all ready for my cousin's baby shower on Boxing Day! That's quite a feat, as I only started working on her gifts last weekend and I also had to bake four kinds of cookies and make jello salad and roast turkey breasts for sandwiches and host my brother-in-law for the week. (Not that he's high-maintenance, but we've gone out to eat a lot, heh.)

I decided to make:
The Joni Jumper and
Snuggly Socks from Robyn's Baby Blueprint Crochet
Pixie Hat by SweaterBabe
Double Strap Baby Booties by Sylvia Schuchardt

The jumper turned out really well! I used Elsebeth Lavold's Hempathy in what I think is a discontinued color, so it has really nice drape. I used scraps for the bottom edging, and I did make a little motif as the pattern called for but I think it looks super cute without it too, so I left it off.

The socks took a second for me to figure out in the toe (my fingers kept getting in the way and I was distracted by movie-watching, hehe) but they're also adorable. They're in Serenity Sock in 108-10 (Amethyst - purple/grey). I might have to make another pair of these to throw in; they're so fast!

Hats look so boring when they're not on heads. Sorry about that. Yarn was from my stash.

And an old favorite! I made Sylvia's booties for Lydia back in the spring and I love the pattern. These are Heart and Sole, doubled so I could make gauge.

All right, bring on the baby! I'm ready!

Baby Blueprint Crochet!

2010-12-05T11:40:00.000-08:00

I know that my last post was all about Robyn Chachula and her new book, but to celebrate the release of Baby Blueprint Crochet Robyn and I thought a blog tour stop at Loop-de-doo would be fun! So welcome to all Robyn's fans. :)

So, my cousin is having a baby in just a few weeks! Not only is it her first baby, but it's the first great-grandbaby in the family, so everyone is super excited. She's one of those mamas that has everything, which means that handmade gifts are in order! (Not that anyone would expect less of a crocheter, but anyway...)

I have a lot of other projects on my plate right now, but the great thing about baby stuff is that they take almost no time at all! So when I received Robyn's book in the mail on Friday, I decided my cousin should have Blueprint-Crochet-themed gifts for her baby shower, and I started making a mental list of all the projects I'm going to need to make.

First off, socks!

Being born in the winter months, baby Quinn is going to need her little toes to stay warm. The Snuggly Socks are just the thing. And tiny socks are always aww-inducing! And they're super quick to make too.

And then, of course:

I'm not sure if my cousin is planning on cloth diapering little Quinn, but either way, the Greenie Diaper Cover would be a great-looking accessory in the summertime, underneath a little dress...

...One like this, perhaps! I think the Joni Jumper is my favorite project in the book. One of the things I like best about it is that it can be used as a dress while Quinn is still an infant, and when she grows into a toddler she can still wear it as a tunic or vest! Any mama can appreciate being able to use clothes (especially handmade!) for more than one season.

There seem to be a lot of girl babies in my family and friends, but one of the things I love about this book is that there are also a ton of boy patterns to choose from!

It can be hard to find fashionable patterns for little boys, even with great tools like Ravelry, so if all the little ones in your life are of the masculine variety, you are in luck - there are lots of patterns for boys in Baby Blueprint Crochet, and also some unisex patterns that can be easily adaptable for the little guys.

If you have never followed one of Robyn's patterns, definitely pick the book up and give it a once-over. Like its for-grown-ups predecessor Blueprint Crochet, has a little something for every learning style. Those who most easily follow written instructions can take advantage of the clear text, and visual learners can enjoy the stitch and construction diagrams. (Robyn's background as an architectural engineer translates so well into these diagrams!) And if you get stuck on a particular construction detail, being able to switch back and forth between the text and diagrams can be super helpful.

One quick tip, though I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir: make sure you make a gauge swatch! This is especially important for me when I'm working on photography samples for Robyn, because she crochets much more loosely than I do, and I almost always have to go up a couple of hook sizes before I can make gauge.

In short, if you are planning on expanding your family or if everyone around you seems to be getting pregnant, this is an invaluable tool in your baby-shower arsenal, for both adorable clothes and practical items every mama can appreciate! Congratulations to Robyn on another great book! And check back here in the coming weeks as I will post a bit more with the results of my projects for Quinn.

Production Crochet

2010-11-08T20:36:00.000-08:00

I love writing my own patterns; even after designing for a few years I'm still half-surprised at how well some of the pieces turn out. But it's hard work, and my favorite way to take a break from designing is production crochet. I have a relationship with a few designers, though the one I have the most fun working for is Robyn Chachula. She is a design machine and I love being able to be a cog for her sometimes.

I had the good fortune to be able to crochet a couple of projects for the photography for her new book, Baby Blueprint Crochet, last year. It was great fun; baby projects are quick and end up looking adorable. Case in point:

I was able to borrow a set of Denise Interchangeable Crochet Hooks for this project from Robyn as well. Best sales pitch ever! I love Tunisian crochet, but wasn't ever super happy about having to buy so many of those extra-long hooks; plus they tended to hurt my arm from holding the entire project up on the hook for so long. So having a cable is great, and they take up way less room than my jar full of Tunisian hooks!

Baby Blueprint Crochet will be released in just a couple of weeks!

Sangria

2010-08-17T18:48:00.000-07:00

Have you seen the Fall 2010 Interweave Crochet preview? If you did, you'll see my newest cardigan, Sangria!

Photo courtesy of Interweave

IW styled it a bit differently than my imagination - I see it over a cute little sundress with some waist definition to offset the drape of the oversized cardi. It's laceweight so it's got only a touch of warmth for days like today, when it started off hot but has ended in a threat of thunderstorms. I like to sit out on my patio when it starts to get a teensy bit nippy and this would be the perfect thing to throw around my shoulders.

The fronts are meant to overlap enough to be able to hold a shawl pin but hang nicely when the piece is open. The above photo was an in-progress shot for the tech editor but it shows how short sleeves would also be cute.

Buh-bye '09

2010-01-02T23:14:00.001-08:00

From what I've been hearing on Facebook and Twitter, 2009 was not kind to most of my friends. Cory and I didn't dance through it either, but we made do and had some fun. Here are some highlights:

I made Cory some alpaca socks for Valentine's day. (No, he doesn't wear them without pants; yes, he wears them with Birks. What do you want, we live in Oregon!)

I copied an Anthropologie headband for my choir friend Elva.

I was invited to the birth of Oliver in March, and missed it by about 30 seconds! (His mama brought him forth about 15 minutes after arriving at the hospital!)

Our golden retriever Linus joined us on May Day, and then preceded to be adorable and grow like a weed.

We road-tripped up the coast to Astoria, and stopped at (among other places) the Goonies house.

While at the coast (and before, and after) I worked furiously on a Tunisian jacket for Inside Crochet magazine.

We went out for way more walks once we got Linus. This is Marys Peak, the tallest mountain in the coast range. (Later, we spent the 4th of July up there and enjoyed tiny silent fireworks from several cities in the valley.)

Also in July, I found a '70s-era Ashford Traditional spinning wheel, after having played with a local Raveler's wheel.

My pattern, originally (and jokingly) called the Mastitis Robe was released, in Kim Werker's Crocheted Gifts book. (I'd worked on the sample in October '08).

I also finished a stole that had languished, unfinished, for quite awhile.

In August I chopped my hair off.

Linus continued to charm. (We used this photo for our Christmas card!)

My two best friends and I enjoyed a 3-day camping trip in southern Oregon, where we lived in the water most of the time. (I hadn't been swimming in years; it felt so good!)

In late September I was a last-minute pinch-hitter for a friend's madrigal group who lost their soprano. (I was asked to come to the renaissance faire on Thursday, got there Friday afternoon, learned the music that night, and then performed all weekend in borrowed garb.) It was a blast.

I made Linus a big-boy bed.

After the faire, I spent tons of time researching historic costumes and then went over the mountains to Mom's house to sew, for two weekends in October. I was jumping the gun a little, as I hadn't been asked to come back to sing for the madrigal group permanently, but luckily they did invite me into the group in November.

Also in November, my military jacket was published.

I made vegan turkey for Thanksgiving. Mmmm.

I finished Twig in November! It'll be published in January.

The first week of December was not a good week. Our bike rack was stolen off the back of our car, the dog chewed through the wall of his kennel and into my dresser, and we hit a deer which ruined our Christmas plans of going to Disneyland. (We still have the tickets though; they're good for a year; so we'll try again soon!)

It wasn't such a bad year, despite all but losing my job and Cory not being able to find one in his field (he got his degree in December '08 but the recession is keeping people with no experience out of the workforce). We were able to spend a lot of time with family and friends, we enjoyed several weekend trips, and overall had a nice 2009. However, I'm ready for 2010 and I hope it treats all of us well! Happy new year, folks.

Happy Holidays!!

2009-12-24T12:02:00.000-08:00

The husband and the dog and I are at my brother-in-law's house. The dog is asleep in his kennel, the boys are playing computer games, and I'm finishing up some last-minute Christmas gifts (last year I started my gifts on November 1st and this year I started the day before yesterday!) to Christmas music on iTunes. It's a sunny day here but cold - we seem to have brought the frost with us.

Our Christmas tree this year, taken last week.

Tomorrow we will visit grandparents and other family.

Have a peaceful holiday filled with warm fuzzies (of the yarn variety or of the emotional kind)!

Twig!

2009-12-11T17:23:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd pop out from under my Production Crochet rock (I'm doing a couple of projects for Robyn Chachula) and let you take a peek at Twig!

Twig is a horizontal-ribbed cardigan with waist shaping and a vertical waist-ribbing that cinches the waist in a bit visually.

I was able to make the sample in my size, in Malabrigo Silky Merino (in the Redwood colorway) which works up beautifully and feels great as well! These photos don't do it justice; I took them in my bathroom of all places, since the heat lamp is nice and bright and I could only take photos in the evening. As a result, it's a little yellow. But you get the idea, anyway.

Look for it in the new issue of Tension Magazine, due out this month.

Drummer Girl

2009-11-12T15:21:00.000-08:00

Long, long ago I began Tunisian-crocheting a military style jacket.

In the very beginning (last January) it was a heathered purple swatch.

I received yarn in the spring. I was surprised to see bright red yarn - my idea was of a nontraditional feminine military jacket, and the surprise color had me rethink my own vision. (There are good and bad things about being given a color for a project so that it will tie in with the scheme of the publication - I think of it as a happy challenge.)

And then Frankenstein was born. If you're not familiar at all with Tunisian crochet, here are the basics: the stitches are teeny-tiny, and do not stretch; they take up more yarn than traditional crochet, and they also take WAY more time. (They also slant a little, but we won't go there.) I had mentally scheduled myself for a "normal" sweater, which turned out to be only a fraction of the amount of time I really needed.

(And then to top it all off, I had to crochet the sleeves twice. But we won't go there either.)

We happened to take a trip to the coast towards the end of the project, and I was disappointed to miss out on the great view outside the car windows, as I was furiously crocheting. I was lucky enough to be working reduced hours from home at that point, and spent a great deal of time on the couch, also furiously crocheting.

And then, in the middle of June, I finished.

Somewhere along the line, the jacket kind of told me how it wanted to look, and I strayed from my sketch just a bit. I ended up adding button bands towards the end, which brought it a little closer to a band-jacket look, but not horrible. (And if it were heathered purple, it wouldn't look at all like a band jacket!)

Frankenstein wasn't finished with me, though. I sent it off across the pond, and a month later it came back to me, marked as undeliverable. But I fought back, and sent it again, and the nice people at Inside Crochet made it look pretty.

So now it's not Frankenstein anymore, and I'm happy that it turned out so well! I hope people try it - it's definitely the kind of pattern that will try your patience, but mostly just because of the time it takes to finish. I think it's worth the time, though (because most of the fun of crocheting your own clothing is the crocheting)!

Crocheted Gifts "Interview"

2009-08-10T20:01:00.000-07:00

I wrote about my contribution to Crocheted Gifts a few weeks ago, and now you have a chance to chat with me and some of the other designers on Twitter! Kim Werker is hosting a Crocheted Books Live Twitter Event, under the hashtag #crochetedgifts; on August 25th at 1pm Pacific Time. If you don't follow me on Twitter, now is a good time to do it so I can help you remember to come participate! :) You can find me @megangranholm.

So far, the other participants are:
Julie Holetz, @skamama
Kristin Omdahl, @KristinOmdahl
Annie Modesitt, @modeknit
Christina Marie Potter, @ChristinMPotter
and Kim Werker, @kpwerker, is emceeing.

If you have questions or comments about the book, comment in Kim's blog (I linked to it above) so she can relay it during the event, or feel free to spend some time with us on Twitter. Hope to see you there!

Babymoon Robe!

2009-07-23T14:38:00.000-07:00

Kim Werker's Crocheted Gifts book officially comes out on August 1st, but I hear there are already copies in bookstores! I just added my project to Ravelry and thought I'd share it with you here!

The Babymoon Robe is for new mamas. So many mamas get tons of baby things as gifts, which is great, but it's also nice to give a little something for mom. Crocheted in soft cotton, it's cozy and washable, and easily undone for the whole breastfeeding thing.

Speaking of breastfeeding, for the longest time I couldn't think of a good name for the project. I mean, now that it's named what it's named, I don't know why it wasn't immediately obvious. But for a long time the working name was Mastitis Robe. Which isn't very pretty but was humorous back when I was crocheting as fast as my little fingers could go, trying to finish the sample on time. Sheesh.

If you make this robe, be aware that it's a little bit heavy (not uncomfortably so) and may stretch. To that end, it might be a good idea to reinforce the shoulder stitching. The pattern calls for slip-stitch seaming; a whip stitch may not be strong enough.

The other projects in the book are really nice too. My favorites are Julie Holetz's Sisal Spiral Rug, Lisa Naskrent's Organic Indulgence Washcloths, and Katie Himmelberg's Sea Star Pendant. Take a look at it next time you're at the bookstore!

2009-07-15T16:17:00.000-07:00

Back in January, I finally took the plunge and bought a drop spindle.

The whorl is square, and it's made from birds-eye maple. I spun with it for several months, and loved it - but soon I wanted the ability to spin more than a few feet at a time, and I started lusting after spinning wheels. I looked at Schacht (ack, expensive!), I looked at Louet (too modern-looking), and I looked at Ashford (just right!), and then I started monitoring Craigslist.

I also got in touch with a local woman from Ravelry (hi JaKay!) who invited me to her house to play with her '70s-era Ashford Traditional. I spent two hours there, and fell in lurve.

There were no wheels on Craigslist and I was getting antsy (yes, once I make up my mind I must HAVE IT RIGHT NOW!) and then I remembered that a friend of the family liked to spin and sent her an email to see if I could borrow her wheel for a bit while I saved up some money for one of my own. It turns out she was planning on selling her '70s-era Ashford Traditional! So last week I stopped by picked it up, to borrow for a bit with the intention of buying it.

Isn't she purdy? She needs a little bit of TLC, though:

It's a teensy bit rusty. I need to figure out how to take it apart so I can clean the wood, and get the rust off the metal on the flyer. See where the yarn touches the flyer? There's a little groove in the wood. I think it's been worn into the wood by the wool.

So my shopping list includes some good non-silicone furniture cleaner (or Murphy Oil Soap), linseed oil, beeswax (not sure where to get that though), and some oil with a long thin applicator to fit into the grooves. And steel wool. And hopefully someone who knows how to play with all of it just in case I get lost. :)

The Battle of Waterloo

2009-06-19T08:02:00.000-07:00

I won the battle of Waterloo!

Phew, that took forever. Part of the problem is that the stitches and yarn and hook were so small. (F Tunisian hook, sport weight yarn, Tunisian slip and purl stitches.) Part of the problem is that I mis-measured the sleeves and had to redo them as fast as I possibly could. I started last Friday afternoon, worked in the car and in the hotel during our weekend trip to Astoria, and grew roots on the couch where I sat all week, working all day long. I was hoping I could do them in a day each, which was a laughable wish but I wished it anyway.

So the week ticked by, and I have no recollection of it, except for waking up sore. (Did you know you could get sore from sitting on the couch and crocheting as fast as you can? Of course you did.) And yesterday evening I boxed it all up and emailed the pattern to be tech edited, and got to actually sit and do nothing for a little while! (And of course I felt weird and wanted to start another project.)

I'm awaiting yarn for two new projects now. They will go MUCH faster than the Waterloo, and my husband will be pleased with that. And so will my muscles. (They'd rather be sore after a more cardiovascular workout.)

Spinny

2009-06-05T11:10:00.000-07:00

If you follow my Twitter, you know what I've been up to - making the world's slowest Tunisian jacket! It's pretty though; now that I'm in the home stretch, and SO worth the time it takes to do it. I love making finishing touches to garments: crocheting the trim, placing buttons and buttonbands, being able to lay it out on the blocking board as a garment rather than pieces of fabric. And then comes the brain-overload of pattern grading, so I can send it to Julie, editor extraordinaire.

With finishing, though, comes thinking about the next fun project. Even though I'm waiting for yarn for two more designs, I have been researching spinning wheels while I weave in ends. If I go just on looks, I like the Ashford Traveller best. It's compact and tall, which works well with my living situation (and my height), and it's decently-priced. And it's not overly modern-looking, nor too antique-y, which I like. I've asked in my local Ravelry forum if anyone would be willing to give me a lesson or two, so that if I end up going to Black Sheep Gathering or Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival I can try out the assortment they have and get a better idea of what I like. I have to decide that it's something I want in the first place, but judging by the drop spindle I have nothing to worry about - except a lighter wallet, heh.

Hopefully I'll be able to share better pictures of my project soon. For now, this will have to tide you over. I met some friends in Portland for the Starlight Parade, and as two of us waited in the hot afternoon for the rest of the party to arrive and for the parade to start, we passed the time with yarn.

2009-05-14T15:29:00.000-07:00

I've been Tunisianing away with some pretty Frog Tree Alpaca, for the last few weeks. I am singing the praises of my new Excel sloper, which I've been fiddling with so that all I have to do is put in gauge and my patterns practically write themselves! It's time-consuming in the beginning, but is going to make subsequent patterns much easier and faster.

My current stitch is Tunisian Honeycomb. It makes a great fabric; check it out:

It's just tunisian simple stitch and tunisian purl stitch, back and forth, so that you work a TSS in a TPS and vice versa. Tunisian is such fun, especially in such a soft yarn.

The deadline on this baby is coming up, and I have two more designs in the works; definitely not as proficient as some but I love it all the same!

Inside Crochet

2009-03-17T09:51:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I got a call for submissions to a new publication. I think I was in the thick of Christmas crocheting and didn't think much of it, but then right around New Year's I was chatting with Julie and she asked me if I was going to be submitting anything. I skipped off to the yarn shop and got a skein each of Frog Tree Alpaca and Elsebeth Lavold Bambool, and used some Louet Euroflax from my stash, and whipped up a few swatches to send off.

And I'm so glad I did, because the preview for Inside Crochet is making me salivate! It'll be available in the UK, I believe.

Also, I caved and joined Twitter.

Design Process: Asymmetrical Sweater

2009-03-15T12:53:00.000-07:00

I thought you'd like to see my design process for my latest published design (a few months late, but who's counting). If you didn't know before that I'm still a fledgling designer with a lot to learn, this will definitely help you come to that realization. Still, even though I look back on it with a little embarrassment (I'm way too hard on myself, heh), it was a great learning experience and I came away with tons of things-to-do-differently-next-time.

After my 5:00 Tank was published in the CrochetMe book, I made up quite a few designs and put them together in a sketch book for future submissions. (Actually, I thought maybe I would try writing my own book, but soon realized that I had more to learn before I felt comfortable doing that.) One of the designs in my sketch book was for a zippered sweater.

I am most definitely not a strong draw-er, so I found a croquis figure from Threads Magazine to use as my model.

Next I actually crocheted the sweater myself, in my size. And it was a little bit dreadful.

The neckline was wonky, and too low, and the zipper just made the entire front not lay well at all. Nevertheless, I was glad to have done it that way if only to learn how to set in a zipper, and now I know firsthand why zippers aren't really a good idea in a sweater. (I knew why, really, but sometimes you have to do it to really KNOW why, yanno?)

Nevertheless, I pressed on, sending the submission to Interweave.

I emailed Kim (the editor at the time) to let her know that I had stitched up a prototype, and uploaded a photo of it to Flickr so that she could see. She chatted with me about the neckline and the closure, saying she thought it would look better if it were buttoned rather than zippered, and with a higher neck. The yarn was a go, though, so Silky Wool was sent to me and I started writing the pattern.

Because I'd already written most of the pattern out while I made the prototype, I was confident that it would be super easy to just size the thing, make the neckline and closure changes, and that would be that. But when I sent the first draft to Julie, the tech editor, things slid downhill pretty quickly. My armholes were too small. My math was incorrect. My layout was confusing. I had done this all before (albeit just once, and the construction was quite different), why didn't this come naturally to me? (I think that is always my biggest problem when it comes to being hard on myself. I was always good at schoolwork, I was able to learn quickly and almost always got the hang of a new subject right off the bat. Which helped me feel like I could just jump feet-first into a project without thinking sometimes, and also made it hard to bear when I didn't get the hang of it as fast as I thought I should.) Julie and I exchanged several emails, and then the decision was made that I needed to send a new draft to Julie, so that we could start fresh with edits.

After that it was smooth sailing, for the most part. From the tech editing emails that had gone back and forth, I was able to get a better idea of the pattern layout, and I tweaked some of the math and sizing here and there, and sent back a much nicer second draft. A few minor details were cleaned up, and I finished stitching the small size for photos and sent it to Interweave.

And then it was published, last December. And I frogged the entire prototype and remade it in my size, with a few tweaks for my torso length and different proportions for my hips and such. When I was finished and tried it on... the shoulders were all wrong. They were too wide. And I hadn't tweaked the pattern in the shoulder area; I worked straight from the final draft. Which meant that I'd sized the width of the shoulders along with the width of the bust, which, turns out, is a no-no. (In fact, after that, I read a LiveJournal post from a friend who ranted about that very thing: patterns which don't take into account the fact that shoulders don't widen quite like the rest of one's body from small to XL.) I fixed it for myself, but then noticed that someone on Ravelry had had the same problem happen to them and weren't pleased. So I made sure to comment on the pattern itself to let people know, so that hopefully they can set-in the sleeves in a little different way.

I think the most important thing that I found during this process is that I really needed a sloper. I set out to construct one a few weeks ago, along with a yardage estimator, so that I could have consistent sizing across all of the patterns I publish. I have played with it since, for a rough draft, and I can see it making life much easier. (No more over-sizing shoulders or under-sizing armholes, for one thing!)

I definitely learned a lot from this sweater. Sometimes I need to remind myself that after only three published patterns (in print, anyway, and only two are garments) I am not a seasoned designer. But there's only one way to get there: submit and publish and then learn from each process. So in the end I'm happy with how things turned out, if only to remind myself that I am fallible and but that I can become less so as I go.

Yarn Hop

2009-02-11T11:49:00.001-08:00

Last Saturday, my neighbor and fibery friend Lisa and I embarked on the 1.5-hour drive northward to Portland, Oregon to go to yarn shops. We'd spent a weekend afternoon before that at Coffee Culture (where there is free wifi) studying this neat Google map of Portland-area yarn shops and deciding where we wanted to go. Yarnia was on the top of our list, as neither of us had been there and we were both quite intrigued. We filled in the rest of the list with 6 more shops in the area, so that we had four on the east side of the river and four on the west side, all pretty close-in to the center of town. Complicating things were my evening plans - I had to be back in Corvallis in time to get ready for and then perform in a choir concert. So we left just after 8am.

We arrived at my friend Nicoal's apartment and decided that since the weather had gone from dreary and grey to bright and sunny, we would walk to Yarnia from the apartment. So we abandoned my car, and walked the 15 blocks or so to Yarnia. And arrived there 45 minutes before they opened. Whoops.

As we walked back to the car, we decided to go to plan B: drive down to Yarn Garden and shop there, and then drive back to Yarnia before stopping at Tao of Tea for lunch.

So that's what we did. It was hard to find a parking spot on Hawthorne, but we drove a few blocks away and squeezed in and went to fondle yarn.

Yarn Garden is a great little shop. It has several "rooms" plus a little cafe, and everything is stacked floor-to-ceiling with yarn, on shelves and on islands and on racks and in baskets. Nicoal was looking for some sock yarn to attempt her first pair of knit socks, and I was also looking for something in that weight to crochet a pair for my husband's Valentine's Day gift. I settled on two skeins of Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine in a charcoal color, and as I was checking the dye lots a skein in green whispered that it wanted to come home with me too. So of course I obliged it.

We spent some time in the sunny books and notions room as well, perusing their individual patterns and drooling over a book of motifs; and I found a Sweater Stone to take home and try. And finally, with my arms full (and nobody else's! Hmph!), we high-tailed it back to the car.

Next was Yarnia. I could have easily spent thrice as much time in there, but as we were on a timetable for meeting another friend for lunch, I hurried as best I could. Yarnia is a really neat place: just a small room with a big machine in one corner and shelves of cones of single strands of yarn. Yarnia is a make-your-own yarn shop; which is a little overwhelming for the first little bit as there are dozens of colors and lots of different fiber contents to choose from. I had to kind of walk around for a bit at first, just to see what there was and take it all in, and eventually I settled on my blend: bamboo in a pretty blue, some purple cotton, and a strand of chocolate brown wool. Lisa also chose a blend, of two shades of green with a bright magenta/pinky pop - very pretty, I'm excited to see what she makes with it!

When you decide on the blend you like, the shop owner figures out the yards-per-pound and calculates the cost, and then once you decide how much you want (which is difficult when you don't have a project in mind, like in my case) she threads your choices through her machine and winds a cone for you. My first try has yet to completely grow on me; I think it doesn't quite turn out the way that you think it's going to (or maybe that's just me). I like it, I'm just not ENAMORED of it.

And as you can see, it works up a little differently than the way it looks on the cone as well. I think if I were to do it again, I'd put one more strand of brown in order to make the blue not quite as overpowering. It was great fun, though, to dabble in color science. I got a pound, and I think it's telling me it'd like to be paired with another color and become a vest of some sort.

After lunch at Tao of Tea it was just about time to get going back home. But we still had 6 yarn shops left. So plan C was to stop by an unrelated store (Cost Plus) on our way home and save the rest of the yarn shops for another outing, as we both had spent quite enough money that day on yarn. I'm kind of glad we decided that, as I got home just in time to get ready for my concert AND we have plenty of options for our next trip north, which I hope will happen very soon!

And now I'm off to work on Valentine socks again.

Quick Update

2009-01-27T16:31:00.000-08:00

* I'm in the middle of a production crochet project. I love being able to balance writing out my own patterns with following those of others - I see how some really talented designers write their patterns, which helps me to stay current with text styles and sizing, etc.

* Once the production crochet is finished, I'll hopefully have some time before V-day to make my husband a pair of socks. And I am also 1/4 of the way through with my pillow covers for my new couch.

* For those of you who carry Namaste bags (or want to): Hip Mountain Mama is giving away a Zuma at the end of February! Go to her blog to find out how to enter, and when you're done, have a look at the fun stuff she's got in her shop - lots of good environmentally-conscious items.

Like I need a new hobby.

2009-01-22T09:31:00.000-08:00

Just after Christmas, I suddenly REALLY NEEDED TO SPIN. I'd never tried before, so I didn't have any materials, but I quickly remedied that with a visit to the local yarn shop accompanied by a couple of gift cards; where I got a pretty birds-eye maple top whorl drop spindle, made just up the road in Monmouth; and a little bag of black alpaca roving. I spent a bit of time watching YouTube videos of spinners, and read a couple of web pages on the subject, and then tried it myself. I did it for a few minutes here and there, and then over the last weekend while I was at my mom's house watching movies I finished spinning it, and set the twist (hopefully, heh):

The finished product is seriously overspun in many places (and thin as thread sometimes), underspun and thick in other places, and best of all I didn't feel like it needed to be any other way. Usually when I try something new, I expect to be good at it and when I'm not I get frustrated - like keeping a good gauge in knitting without ending up making the stitches so tight that my wrists hurt by the end of the project (which is one of the reasons I'm not all that great at knitting at the moment) or knowing exactly how to do everything right the first time. I just did what I could and as I got further along I had fewer slubs and was able to keep up with the spindle without having to stop and park it between my knees. I got another bit of roving the other day (silvery grey this time) and am excited to try again.

The same evening I was up in the spare room (a.k.a. the stash and Lego room) fixing my sweater shoulders, I spied some gold wire that I didn't know I had. So I sat down for a few minutes and whipped up a ring.

It was super fast and easy, just one row of single crochet, and I love it. Except for the other side, where I joined the ends of the row. I'll have to make another now that I know how.

(You can see my dishwasher-element burn there on my middle finger, too. It left a good scar.)

January...

2009-01-21T09:18:00.000-08:00

... and my toes are numb. I'm glad my fingers aren't, because I've got stuff to do with 'em!

A couple of weeks ago, I finally finished my own modified version of my pattern from the winter '08 Interweave Crochet. Observe:

My main modification to the pattern was to begin in an XL at the bottom (because I am pear-shaped), and then switch to a Large right before the waist. I did run into a problem, though: the shoulders were too wide. (And this after I had a conversation with one of my designer friends about that very thing!) I thought I'd mention it here just in case anyone else has the same problem, with any sweater they make.

See the shoulder on the right there, hanging off the dressform in a very unflattering way. I pinned the other shoulder up so that the seam was where it should have been, to see where I should fix it.

My first plan was to frog the cap of the sleeves and re-crochet them so that the curve was shorter. Then I reattached them, and saw that I still had the same problem. So I removed the sleeves again, and overlapped the top of the cap with the shoulder part of the main body of the sweater. I overlapped three or four stitches. (Hope that makes sense.) I pinned the sleeves on and then sewed them on while the sweater was still on the dress form, to make it easier to see. Even with that small amount of extra bulk at the edges of my shoulders, it lays much much better and I'm pleased with the fit.

Attention, UK Crocheters!

2009-01-07T13:44:00.000-08:00

Yarn Forward Magazine broke the news this morning:

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of the latest magazine in the KAL Media portfolio, Inside Crochet.

Edited by Julie Holetz and Amy O’Neill Houck, the magazine will be launched on 27th March and published bi-monthly.

Pre-orders and subscriptions are available now from the website www.insidecrochet.co.uk.

More details to follow shortly.

I hear that it may also be available to American crocheters; I'm excited to see what Julie and Amy come up with!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T10:14:00.000-08:00

Everybody else likes to post their new year's wishes early, but I thought I'd wait until y'all had a chance for it to sink in first.
Last night my husband and I watched movies until it turned midnight, while I worked on submission swatches. (My goal was to end the old year working on what I wanted to continue with in the new year. Hehe)

I'm really excited about this new year. I foresee a ton of awesome things coming up in the next twelve months. I hope you do too, for your own neck of the woods - this is going to be a great year!

Christmas: Complete

2008-12-26T08:50:00.000-08:00

Phew! That was a marathon of crochet, I tell ya!

I started on Christmas gifts the weekend after Halloween, running to the local Joann Fabrics for the acrylics I needed, and Fiber Nooks & Crannys (It's hard to spell it that way - shouldn't it be Crannies??) for the good stuff. I had ten people to crochet for, and one decoupaging project, and then baking and all the other Christmasy stuff one must do. All this crocheting and I couldn't show anyone until now!

First up is a Tunisian Kitty Pillow, for my cousin. I borrowed Carol Ventura's free kitty chart for the front, and then did vertical stripes of Tss and Tps on the back. (If you go to my Flickr site you can see a detail of the back.)

My auntie got Lara Croft's Troubadour Socks. It used less yarn than I thought, which means I almost have enough left to make a pair for myself! They're really pretty and I loved making them.

My cousin collects clocks, so I free-handed a Tunisian clock for her. Because Tunisian leans a bit to the side, it was an oval clock, but that's OK, it gives it more character. The bells on top are held up by an unfolded paper clip.

Another aunt received a cowl in her favorite jewel colors. She lives in California, so she may not get to use it much, but hopefully she'll enjoy it when her family goes up to the mountains.

My stepdad loved this gift - it's right up his alley. Free-handed toilet paper cozy with poo on top. He made puns about it all day and carried it around. Hehe.

My uncle teaches math classes at the community college, so I thought this might suit his office well - a hyperbolic plane. I believe n=4 in this one.

My cousin asked for boxes for Christmas. After I crocheted them I pressed them really well with a hot iron to kill the fiber, which made them a little less floppy.

I barely got these done in time - at the beginning of last week it got really cold and snowed quite a bit, so we were all having trouble getting around. I still needed to run down to the river to find some smooth rocks for this project, and luckily last Saturday everything melted so I went out in the rain to the edge of the Willamette River and found a half-dozen river rocks to dress up. They're based on a project in Kooky Crochet that I saw on Ravelry; I used my Harmony Guides to find some interesting motifs and then chained around the back/bottom of the rocks to hold the motifs in place.

The other two projects were a hat (which I didn't take a picture of as it was just a plain back-loop-only cap), and a basketweave hat and scarf set (which I posted about below). And I decoupaged a box with shredded dollar bills for my cousin who asked for money for Christmas. That took forever and in the end I completely forgot to take a picture of it! Whoops.

Phew! That was a long (almost-)two months. I have some production crochet on the horizon, I believe, as well as some submissions to a publication or two, so the busyness will not abate, but I kind of like it that way. :)

Cubism

2008-12-13T07:02:00.000-08:00

I'm getting close to finishing my projects for Christmas - I think next time, though, I'll start even earlier than Halloween so I don't panic at all. :)

But the panic has more to do with all my other obligations - I've got to work tomorrow to prepare for an audit on Monday, I have choir rehearsal tonight and Monday and Tuesday and Friday for a Saturday performance, and today I am hosting a party for my husband who just finished his last final and is a graduate now!! Woohoo!

Anyway. I come bearing photos!

My sweater is finally ready to show its face on the web! The Cubist Asymmetrical Sweater is a simple 3/4-sleeve cardigan with waist shaping. My goal was to write a pattern for a sweater that could be worn often, with simple lines and shaping, but with a little twist that made it a bit interesting.

A materials list (as well as materials for all the projects in the magazine) can be found here, and from there (or from my Flickr page) you can see a few additional photos.

I was in the process of making an orange one (go Beavers!) for myself, but then Christmas projects got in the way. So after the holidays I'll be able to show you one made a little larger and in a different color. I may also show you how the first version looked and how the Interweave editor (hi Kim!) and I made it look a little nicer in this version. :)

2008-11-18T08:15:00.001-08:00

I'm making (almost) all my Christmas gifts this year; I decided last month. With the economy on shaky ground (and the lumber industry among the shakiest!), I thought it would be a good idea. And my family is doing something a little different this year, in order to shake off the same old routine we usually do: my mom sent out fifty questions to everybody, and then compiled everyone's answers and sent them back out to everyone so we could get creative with our gifting and so that we could get to know each other a little better. The questions were things like "What's your favorite color? Do you like the beach or the mountains better? What's your favorite food?" etc. The answer to "what's your favorite comfort item" was the one I based my gifts on, for most people, and for others I had to be content with a favorite color.

This weekend I finished a hat and scarf set for one of my cousins. It was a simple basketweave stitch, which gave it some visual interest as well as a lot of extra warmth. As I don't believe he's all that interested in reading crochet blogs (and therefore seeing his Christmas gift too early), I'll post a detail shot here.

Boo!

2008-10-06T18:33:00.000-07:00

I love Halloween. Today I started decorating my little townhouse for it - I don't have a ton of stuff but it feels very festive in here now.

The other day I was up in the spare room, trying to decide if I ought to make another Witcheena, and I spied a skein of Moda Dea Tickertape yarn in a variegated brown that my sister gave me for Christmas a few years ago. I never knew exactly what to do with it - and then I had an epiphany.

So yesterday afternoon I began crocheting. I looked at a few profile pictures of people's heads to figure out where the back of the skull bulged out from the neck. I made the head, shoulders, body and one leg all in one piece, and then went back to add the other leg and arms later. (It was already getting dark and I was too distracted by crocheting him to properly set up the lighting for this shot, sorry!)

He started looking kind of odd once I stuck eyes on him:

(The above picture reminds me of Mr. Burns in "The Springfield Files" where Homer mistakes a drugged Monty for an alien.)

And there he is all clothed in Tickertape! His head took a bit of work, trying to keep the ribbon yarn flat and still cover all the whiteness underneath. I ended up taking a little bit of white thread and tacking the yarn down in places, like the ends of his hands.

The yarn is very soft, so he's a cuddly mummy now.

2008-08-12T21:05:00.000-07:00

I love blocking my designs. I love how it can go from being a pile of stitches sitting on my lap while I work on one corner, to a perfect realization of my original vision. Sometimes it looks even better than my vision. Sometimes it also looks better than my prototype, which is a good good thing.

So my contribution for the winter issue of Interweave Crochet Mag is on the blocking board, and I grinned through the entire pinning process because I'm pleased with myself. I am having a hard time photographing it as it's lying flat, which is a good thing because I can't show you anyway. So you can see it as it was before I blocked it, a pile of stitches on my lap as I worked on one corner, on the bank of the Santiam River during my camping trip a few weekends ago.

Bike Bag: Mistakes and Plan B's.

2008-07-12T17:47:00.001-07:00

Or is that Plans B? Heh.

So. I've been bicycle commuting for the last few weeks, trying to gradually work up from 2 days a week to 5. I found right off that though I have basket-style panniers (they're the size and shape of paper grocery bags) that work really nicely for work clothes and such, it's easy to lose keys and cell phones down in the depths of the panniers. So I thought I'd make myself a felted handlebar bag for my tiny accoutrements. I had a newly-empty oatmeal box, so I built my idea around that - a barrel-shaped bag with a flap across the top, with loops on the back so that I could hang it from my handlebars, and a strap to carry it when it wasn't on the bike. Sounded pretty straight-forward to me, so I fudged it without doing much writing-down of plans (besides making a swatch to see how much the thing would shrink in the wash).

So here it is, all ready for felting: one long rectangle for the main body, two circles for the ends, and a strap. And my dryer balls, which I've been using instead of dryer sheets, for some extra agitation. Into the washer they went, through two cycles, and then I took it out on the patio to sew together onto the oatmeal box.

Problems started around this point. The main piece didn't stay rectangular-ized in the wash; it ended up kind of hourglass-shaped, so I had to force it around the oatmeal box, and then sew the flap as well so that it wasn't an inch shorter on each edge than the width of the bag was once it dried. Luckily, that worked OK, and the next day when it dried I took the oatmeal box out to look at it.

I s'pose it wasn't all that bad once it dried, though keeping the oatmeal box inside was proving to be kind of difficult logistically - not that it wouldn't stay in, but that it looked kind of funky. Then I figured out why:

It may be difficult to see in the photo, but the right side opens further along the circle end piece than the left side does. (i.e. if you look at the bag from the side, where it looks circular, the opening is at 12:00 on one side, but at 1:00 or 2:00 on the other side.) I have no idea how that happened, and was rather annoyed.

So I ripped it all out - well, all that I could, anyway. I had one big rectangle, two circles and a strap. And I didn't want to throw it away, so I started hatching Plan B.

I think when you crochet on the road less traveled (i.e. making up your own patterns, or just kind of striking out, it's important not to get frustrated when something doesn't work, but try to see how to change it so it'll work in another way. In this case, it was already felted so I couldn't frog it, so I started rethinking the shape of the bag. I cut a strip out of each circle and threw away the rounded D-shapes, and made a messenger bag instead:

Much better. I made an asymmetrical edge on the flap with a leftover orange "tongue" where the oversized snap is, and I "hid" my initials just above it:

It turns out this is much better for my commuting situation after all. Excess weight on the handlebars makes the bike harder to handle, and because of the brake wires and such on the front it would have been difficult to get it on and off quickly and easily. Now, because it's flat, I can put bungee it onto my rear rack and it works out very well!

The only downside to the bag now is that Trout likes to sleep on it. Here it is in the 90s outside, and not much cooler inside, and she slept on the plastic bag of skeins before I started, slept on the unfelted pieces before they went into the washer, and she ignores her kitty bed for the finished bag as well:

Aww.

What? You've been crocheting?

2008-07-12T17:31:00.001-07:00

Oh hi. Just about every time I write a post, now, it feels like I should apologize for not writing sooner. I will now resist the urge and move on to other things.

Since last we spoke, I finished my Interweave project and thought it might be nice to make something from someone else's pattern for a change. I've done lace before, but not very seriously and not very large projects (read: I've done snowflakes and swatches and that's about it), so I thought I'd play with that a little. As a crocheter who doesn't usually feel the need to knit, I am jealous of the way that knit lace looks - it looks much more delicate than the crocheted lace shawls I've seen (which is probably because it is). But I picked up some wool/silk lace weight yarn in Victoria, BC a year and a half ago that's been languishing in my stash waiting for a project, and I found one for it.

I spent a few moments outside on the patio this morning before it got too hot to do anything, and before the sun started shining directly onto the rocking chairs. (The trees are now shielding the patio from the sun, but it's 95 and I don't want to open the door.) I'm really enjoying this project - the lace is so light and compact that I can take it wherever I go, and when I bust it out in line or sitting at the coffee shop it's not like the Interweave project I just did, where it spilled over my already-huge Namaste bag and I got nicely toned arm muscles from lugging it around.

The pattern is from "Crochet Lace" published by Ondori, a Japanese book I ordered from Amazon.jp last year. A lot of the patterns are a little too pseudo-Victorian for me, but I liked muddling through the diagrams and the kanji to find the basic idea of how many foundation chains I needed and all that good stuff. The yarn looks like a kind of greyish green but in person it's brighter. (I think the camera is possessed.)

I don't have much longer to play with lace though - yarn is on its way for another pattern I'm writing for Interweave Crochet mag!

Overalls

2008-06-20T07:31:00.000-07:00

I have been working pretty hard for the last few weeks, which is why you've not heard a peep from me since May. I was approached to crochet 27 swatches for a stitch dictionary, and right after I accepted that I got an email from Interweave letting me know that the submission I'd sent in for a book (the one I thought was rejected) was accepted. So I've been tweaking the pattern and crocheting the piece as well as doing the 27 swatches. At first the deadlines were on the same day, and after panicking a few times thinking I mightn't get them done quickly enough, I got the Interweave contract and the deadline had been extended a couple of weeks. Hallelujah! I finished the swatches and sent them back, and now I just have a few inches left on the Interweave project and ends to weave in and blocking to do (which will be a bear - this is a big piece!) And because they're still secret projects, I have nothing to show for it. So I will show you something else.

At the end of last month I helped my friend have a garage sale. She has a hard time getting rid of things, so for a month or two earlier I'd go up to her house and we'd go through one room at a time and reorganize and get rid of things she didn't need, with the ultimate goal of her selling the house sometime soon. That was probably too many details, but whatever. :) Anyway, a couple of hours in I was wandering around looking at the things she was selling and I saw this hanging with the other clothes:

It looks to be all done in double crochet, using acrylic yarn, with spike stitches for the edging and either a slip stitch or appliqued mushroom on the bib.

My friend couldn't tell me any details about it, but her family is pretty crafty so I'm assuming it was made for her or her brother back in the late 70s.

In non-crochet-related news, I'm in the midst of week three of my Community Sponsored Agriculture box. It's been a great experience so far and I recommend it to anyone who has a local farm that offers it. You know where your veggies are coming from (you can even go visit the farm usually!), they're usually organic, and they taste so much better than the picked-too-early produce at the grocery store. My Flickr page is chronicling the weeks' picks, so to speak. Yum.

Anyway, I have some chemo caps for my sister in law on the horizon, so I'll have something visual to share soon! In the meantime - tell me what you're crocheting this summer!

Improvised Swift

2008-05-30T08:45:00.001-07:00

I was doing a little crocheting on my lunchbreak yesterday, and had to roll a skein into a ball so I could work with it. I don't own a swift or a ballwinder; so I usually untwist the skein and lay it around my knees and wind away. But I realized I could use some office equipment to make a quick swift (heh)!

I ended up doing this with two skeins yesterday. One fit over the back of the chair just right, and one was a little big but the arms kept the skein from falling down too far. I got a good rhythm going - push the chair, wind, push the chair, wind... nice in a pinch! But I think getting a real swift and ballwinder ought to be in my future - I like the nice neat cake that it makes - no rolling around like my hand-wound balls. There's something relaxing though, I think, about winding a ball of yarn by hand. Unless you get to the end of your skein and it falls off your knees and you end up with a mess. :)

Sunday

2008-05-18T12:48:00.000-07:00

Sunday mornings are made for coffee and crocheting. See?

I finally finished my twine privacy panel. I kept letting it sit in the evenings and only worked on it while I was watching Masterpiece Theatre on Sunday nights. So I finally put it up a couple of days ago:

Yesterday I got some new mesh chairs and a table at Target, to replace the blue chairs. I will take more pictures when I have more plants - right now the patio looks kind of devoid of life, except for mostly what you see in the pic - I have a beautyberry, a blueberry and a mint plant; and a jasmine on the other side of the patio.

Today I've spent quite a bit of time outside crocheting swatches for a still-secret book project, and now that the sun is streaming onto the patio I'm inside. The weather is cooler than it has been the past couple of days (right now it's 80), and I'm enjoying the quiet.

A Boring Day in the Life

2008-05-15T09:53:00.000-07:00

My life is pretty boring these days, which is why I haven't been the best blogger in the world. It's one of those catch-22's that Flight of the Conchords mentions on their website - whenever anything interesting happens, I'm so busy that I can't blog about it. But when nothing's going on, I've got all this time to blog but nothing to blog about. But I'm coming out of boring-land to post a boring day-in-the-life, as Everybody Else is Doing It and yes I would also jump off a cliff if you do it first. (And were OK once you landed.) I suppose what one considers boring may be exciting to someone else, but I'm serious. Observe (and I made it extra detailed so it looks like my life is interesting):

5:00am - Wake up to the alarm. I put it on my dresser across the room because if it's within arms length of me while I'm half asleep, I will either press the snooze button (which isn't so bad since the snooze on this clock is only four minutes) or turn it off altogether (which can mean I'll sleep much longer than four minutes). Luckily I have a backup - my husband is usually awake before me, and he'll come wake me up if he knows I'm supposed to be awake. That makes me sound like I'm not a morning person, but I am - once I wake up I'm bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Anyway.

5:01-5:15 - Give myself a second to stand in the middle of the room and rub my eyes and realize that I'm awake. Find my glasses, throw on a t-shirt and pull my hair up in a pony, and follow the cat downstairs. She likes to lead me to her food dish whether or not she needs more - I think she just likes to be petted there - it's her happy spot.

5:15-6:15 - Fish my iPhone out of my purse, plug in headphones, grab an umbrella and go for a walk. My current route-of-choice is a nice uphill battle to the top of Timberhill, and back down. There are some really nice houses up there, and bunnies like to bound out of my path, their little white tails flashing.

6:00-7:00 - S-l-o-w-l-y get ready to work. This includes taking a leisurely shower (unless Cory used up more hot water than usual, then I'll take a leisurely shower until the water runs out and then I have to hurry to finishreallyfast), dry my hair (sort of - it's curly so I kind of run the diffuser through it for five minutes and then let it finish in the air), put on makeup (moisturizer, mascara, sometimes a little spot cover-up - I'm low-maintenance), talk to Cory, agonize over what clothes to wear, curse the fact that there's not enough light near my closet so I have to feel for everything, decide I don't look good in this outfit so I must change to that outfit, put lotion on and sit for a minute to smell it (mmm, lemon verbena), and whatever else sounds like fun with regards to preparation.

7:00-7:30 - Catch up on my email, LiveJournal, Bloglines, Ravelry, etc etc etc. And a little bit of the news. (I don't like watching TV in the mornings, I prefer to read it 'cause it's quieter.) Pet the cat some more, because usually in the mornings she's starved for attention and needs a cuddle. It's hard to surf the web while crocheting, but that's usually what I end up doing.

7:30-8:00 - Throw Cory and his bike in the car, drive to Starbucks. I get a double-tall nonfat cappuccino in my travel mug, he gets a grande coffee with no room in his. Drive to Oregon State Uni, drop Cory off, turn on NPR, dodge college-aged pedestrians and bikers and drivers on the way off campus. Close the windows on the way past the dairy. Open them again. Close the windows on the way down the very dusty gravel road leading to the mill.

8:00-5:00 - Workie workie. I'm an accountant for a little lumber mill, so I do all kinds of things - AP, AR, monthly financial statements, IT, answering phones sometimes, etc. Jack of all trades, I guess. When things are slow, I write boring day-in-the-life posts or read a book. (Currently it's Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin - I'm not planning on getting pregnant anytime soon but I'm super interested in natural birth, and am fascinated by the culture of the people in the '70s (like communes and the social and political upheaval and all that good stuff) and this book covers both of those. ("I felt the baby's head and it was so psychedelic and Holy!") Break for lunch sometime in the middle there, and go home to eat with Cory, who rode his bike home from school.

5:15-9:30 - This can be either the most productive or least productive part of my day. Gotta make dinner, straighten up, do dishes, and lots of crochet. I've got two projects going on right now - writing a pattern for one book and crocheting swatches for another book. While it's a little daunting to have two projects due on the same day, I also like being able to switch between them - sometimes I have to process things while doing something else, even if I'm not consciously thinking about them, in order to solve a problem. Gotta watch Jeopardy, too (sheesh, we're so old) and maybe play a little World of Warcraft with Cory to unwind a little. (I like to put him on "follow" so I can crochet wile we travel through from one quest to the next.) Sometime during the course of the evening Cory announces he's tired, so I follow him up to bed (I like to go to bed at the same time as him if I can). It's much easier to get ready before bed than it is to get ready before work - teeth-brushing and jammie-donning and window-cracking is done in a flash, and I usually watch from bed while Cory plays with Trout on her cat tree - they swipe at each other and meow and that sort of thing. Then it's unwinding in the dark with conversations about what we did during the day and what we have to do tomorrow, and sometimes spooning, and then sleep.

9:30-5:30 - Zzz.

Patio Privacy

2008-04-13T14:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday it got up to about 82 in Corvallis! It was gorgeous, and Cory and I had a nice dinner outside of our local McMenamins pub. It's been so long since any of us around here have been able to be comfortable outside in the evening in short sleeves, and I loved the happy energy everybody seemed to have, biking and walking out in the neighborhood.

Today is a little different - 15 degrees cooler (it's a nice comfortable 67 out now) and the sunshine is pretty weak, but it's there. You just can't see it in pictures.

There's the front of my townhouse. It's in the middle of a row of 3, staggered a little. The overhang over the door is actually Cory's closet upstairs, set off the room. The patio is right off the front walk. (Notice I haven't done much on the patio yet - once the weather stays nice for awhile, I'll start putting some more pots out there and get out the chairs and table.) I like having the patio out front in a way, because I can see the beautyberry and the bird feeder from where I sit in the living room, but I don't like being out there for everybody to see when they walk or drive by. The privacy fence works for the most part, but there's still a big expanse of openness. (Once the beautyberry grows some leaves it will help as well.)

Last year about this time I also had high aspirations for inhabiting my patio in the nice weather, but in order to do so I needed to solve the privacy issue. So I picked up some twine at the hardware store and swatched with it, hoping to make some kind of panel that would hang perpendicular to the front door from the overhang, right where the gutter downspout is in the picture above. I imagined flower motifs and a few other things... and then gave up. Today, the happy weather helped me bring the twine back downstairs for another go.

This twine is hard on my fingers, so I won't be doing much at a time but I do like the way it looks so far. At first I thought since it was so unforgiving I would have to resort to mostly chaining, making a lattice, but I can coax it into a double crochet pretty easily. Unfortunately, I may be a couple of inches too short so I might have to rip it out and make it a bit wider.

Drunk Sailors

2008-04-07T10:04:00.000-07:00

I completely forgot to blog this long ago, but since I set up the pattern page the other night in Ravelry I thought I might as well throw it up here as well.

Here's the official photo for my cat o' nine tails, Dungeon Decor: The Captain's Daughter:

I like the creative photo editing in the Anticraft book, though I'm interested in knowing exactly how much black ink went into my copy - that book is black!

2008-04-06T13:52:00.000-07:00

I wish crochet were exciting. I mean, it is exciting. It's exciting when you finally finish something you've been working on for a long time. It's exciting when you buy some super-yummy yarn from the LYS. It's exciting to start projects (probably more exciting than finally finishing them). It's exciting to send a submission to Interweave Crochet:

But the un-exciting part is how I can't really fill a blog with daily posts, no matter how much I want to. Unless you want to read things like "I did six rows on my sweater today during our break at choir rehearsal." Or "I didn't crochet today because I was too busy vacuuming with my new vacuum." That's not very exciting for y'all (though a new vacuum is exciting for me!). Sorry about that. :)

But yeah, hopefully this orange sweater of death will not actually be the death of me. I've been working on it on and off for a long time, having tons of gauge problems and such, and it feels good to actually send it away. If it doesn't get into IC I have a couple of other places I'm going to try. I may even put it up on Ravelry as a for-sale .pdf - we shall see.

Namaste!

2008-03-11T16:00:00.001-07:00

Usually when my husband asks me what I want for my birthday I hem and haw and can never decide. This year about a month before my birthday (which was March 1, by the way) I started doing some research into knitting bags (or crocheting bags, which is the same difference I suppose). I'd been carrying around my little old Fred Meyer purse along with an old tote bag that had an open top and was canvas so it would tend to get wet if I set it down on the floor of the coffee shop during the rainy season or something. Plus it was annoying carrying two bags around everywhere. I looked at several bags and narrowed my choices down rather quickly.

Shortly after that, I sent Cory a text that went like this:
"Birthday present: Namaste Bag, Everyday style, Dreamweaver Yarns, $70!"

He sent me a text back that went like this:
"OK! Just ordered it!"

That was very efficient. :D

Anyway, the thing came before my birthday and Cory left the big box out in plain sight to taunt me. Big jerk. So I salivated over it for a week at least, and then finally I got to see how much stuff I could fill it with. The answer is a lot. Observe:

There it is on my desk. Also admire the bottom of my Flight of the Conchords poster, which was also a birthday present from Cory.

Now let's see how much stuff I cram in it.

There's what fits in the front pocket that has the cool locky doohickey on it. I even labeled everything on Flickr, for your convenience. I probably don't have to tell you which of those things is my wallet, but I did anyway. For you. I found a little zippered pouch on Etsy this morning in which to put the little stuff, like lipstick and breathmints and such. They tend to get lost even in the little front pocket, and I don't like them getting pulled out with my phone or something. Speaking of that, my phone belongs in that picture, but it was in my hands taking the picture, so you'll just have to imagine it.

There's a shot of the interior of the main compartment of the bag. When you unsnap it (they're magnetic and not really snaps, I suppose), you can open it up so that the walls are straight, which makes it convenient to put on the floor of a coffee shop so you can crochet right out of it. It's got two areas, separated by a zippered pouch that runs the width of the bag. And each side has two small pockets and one large pocket.

Here, I've pulled everything out for you and labeled it thoroughly. See that it fits an entire sweater-in-the-making, though I think if the yarn was much thicker it'd be a snug fit. It holds everything else I need, including too many pencils and lemon verbena hand lotion. I need to get a smaller bottle for that, I think. It's also nice to be able to keep a reusable grocery bag in there, for those days that I go to the grocery store to grab just a few things and I forget to dig the pouch of 'em out of the drawer under the passenger seat in the car.

Cory tends to tease me even a week and a half afterwards that I'm carrying an overnight bag around. He pretends to try to climb into it and such. It is quite a bit bigger than my old purse, which probably could have fit inside this about six times over. I've found it a little difficult to squeeze past people in doorways and such, but I think it's totally worth it to have a slick-looking way to carry my projects around. I do not miss that tote bag at all.

Oh hi.

2008-02-22T15:46:00.000-08:00

I did NOT get a submission approved for the book I sent submissions to. Which turned out OK because I had time to make a scarf for my coworker who admired my scarf when we were out having mojitos a few weeks ago. We took a lunch break together at the local yarn shop and she picked out two skeins of Maizy in the Neptune colorway. We tried a couple of stitch patterns out to see what the yarn wanted to be, and settled on a simple wave stitch which is similar to the zig-zag/ripple stitch but not quite so pointy. Then it took me ages to finish it because I kept getting distracted at home in the evenings. Thank goodness for Masterpiece Theater running Pride & Prejudice - I got most of it done during the miniseries, and stopped crocheting during the show only to sigh at the cute Jane Austin language the two pre-lovebirds were spouting. (Two episodes down and Lizzie is finally realizing she may have been too hasty when she turned down Mr. Darcy's proposal!)

I took that picture on my stick-chewed-by-a-beaver that I found in the log pond behind the office long ago. (You can see the edge of the pond behind the utility pole there on the right - not to be confused with the gigantic puddles in the parking lot.) The stick usually sits on my bookshelves next to my accounting textbook and log scaling code handbook. My coworker came up behind me as I was standing on the porch of the office yesterday morning, laughing at me as I held the stick out at arm's length and leaned back to get as much of it in as I could. I think our parking lot area is pretty on misty mornings - it almost looks like the Oregon coast or something, all fog and moistness.

Crocheted Lamp

2008-02-12T13:34:00.000-08:00

I've been kicking around ideas to make crocheted pendant lamp shades lately (among way too many other things), and swissmiss pointed me towards these gorgeous Minimal Lamps crocheted out of the cotton-covered cord that powers them. These are great! I might have to try making a similar one sometime.

Samurai Baby!

2008-01-31T07:22:00.000-08:00

You know how, during your life, at a certain time EVERYBODY seems to be getting married? Well, now is the time in my life where EVERYBODY seems to be having babies. I know several people who are pregnant, a few who have had their babies, and even more people who are trying for 'em. Even the news is contributing to it - celebrities are getting knocked up left and right. I feel kind of like I'm in the eye of the storm, at the moment.

So because this didn't happen until recently, I never really had the opportunity to make baby clothes. And it's fun! It's another good instant gratification project (where instant is relative - I finished the following projects in 2 days or so, and half the time I spent trying to find a good pattern). My friend Trisha is having a baby boy, due on Leap Day. Her shower is the day after tomorrow, so last weekend I grabbed some Lion Brand Nature's Choice Organic Cotton and some Moda Dea Bamboo Wool and a copy of Julie Holetz' Baby it's Cold Outside. A short time later I ended up with this:

That's a 1-year-old-sized BICO. I figured since he was being born in the spring, he'd be almost a year by the time he'd need a sweater. But I didn't want Trish to have to put everything I gave her into storage for a year, so I made the Lion Brand Elfin Baby Hat in a newborn size as well. It turned out looking sort of like a samurai hat but it's definitely cuter on a wine glass than it is when it's flat.

Now, I shall insert a placeholder for a whine I'm formulating, about how all this rain and snow and sleet we've been having makes for very poor picture-taking. Just ignore the fact that I'm not a very good photographer. :)

Thanks for the nice comments about Rick's helmet, by the way. He's worn it a few times when it's been super cold out. The first time I saw him wearing it, I asked him what he thought and he said "all the guys are making fun of me for it!" I don't blame them, it's really not that attractive, but he wanted utilitarian so that's what he got. So there.

Rick's Helmet Liner

2008-01-24T06:04:00.001-08:00

Rick's Helmet Liner
Originally uploaded by loopdedoo

Every time the temperature goes into the extremes, I feel so bad for the men who work out in the mill at my company. Some of them are out in the weather (which isn't so bad lately - bright sunshine), but even those who are under cover and inside some of the buildings have to suffer through the cold. It's 6am and most of them have started work already, and here it is 20 degrees for the fourth day in a row.

The manager of the planer (where the lumber gets sanded down and sorted into different grades) was complaining of the cold the other day and asked me to make him a warm hat to wear under his hard hat. I found some LB Homespun in my stash and worked him a helmet-style hat, and put some Moda Dea Bamboo Wool around the edges to smooth them out a little (and the difference in gauge means the hat cups the wearer around the ears, keeping the heat in).

Ahhh - instant gratification is so nice after having spent so much time on one project.

Peekie

2008-01-23T06:32:00.000-08:00

I've been quiet lately. It's because I've been busy! And the crappy part about being busy is that I'm not really allowed to post any pictures of my progress. Sorry about that, folks. However, I have permission for this one, so here we go!

This is another of Robyn's patterns, using Mission Falls wool. After the inevitable gauge mishap (we crochet very differently in terms of gauge), and one small annoyance trying to figure out how to piece the sides together (hint for next time: start at the hem), I flew along. I like being able to connect motifs as I go - though it doesn't completely eliminate the weaving-in of ends, I don't much like the look of whip-stitching. I finished this on Sunday evening and it's in a box now, ready to go back to its mommy.

I also had a very forgetful Sunday a couple of weeks ago - I took the cowl along with me to Portland, hoping to get a few stitches in during lunch or coffee or wherever I was going. When I had an opportunity, I pulled it out... and realized I'd left the patten at home. My friend graciously allowed me the use of her wifi, and I grabbed the pattern from my email and copied it down onto a little card, and then my friend and I went to a vegan bakery down the street to have cake for dinner. While we were waiting for the coffee, I pulled the cowl out again - and realized I'd left the card at my friend's house. So there was no crocheting for me that day. Whoops.

Next up I have two small projects while I wait to hear if one of my submissions has made it into the new Interweave book. I'd like to do one of Julie's Baby it's Cold Outside sweaters since it works up quickly, for a baby shower I'm going to in a couple of weeks. And the manager of the planer at the mill asked me for a warm hat with earflaps to wear under his hard hat, since it's been super cold the past couple of days. Those should be easy to knock off in under a week. And it means a trip to the yarn store - yay!

And as if I didn't have enough to do already, I just volunteered for a teensy solo at my choir concert in a couple of weeks. Oops.

Happy Oh-Eight!

2008-01-02T19:49:00.000-08:00

Oh-Seven was good to me. I had two patterns published in books. I did a lot of production crochet. I played with yarn in all sorts of ways and had a great time doing it.

They say that the things you do on New Year's Day will be the things you do the whole year. I prepared two submissions for a new book that I sent off via FedEx today. If that's what I'm in for for the rest of Oh-Eight, life will be grand!

Best wishes to you and yours! Happy January and Happy 2008!

Leaf Lace Scarf

2007-12-15T13:55:00.000-08:00

Christmas gifts are aaaalmost finished. Our plans changed a little last week - we decided to drive from Corvallis, Oregon to Houston, Texas the weekend before Christmas so we can spend it with my husband's family. My Christmas gifts didn't include much gift crocheting, but I thought a lacy, not-too-warm scarf for my mother-in-law would be nice. I don't know her very well so I'm not sure this colorway will suit her taste, but it's so soft that it'd be hard not to forgive that. :)

Though the photo is a bit washed out in the foreground, it's easy to see the stitch pattern. I found it online somewhere - probably Craftster. It's a fun little project once you've memorized the pattern, and it was the perfect little thing to take with me in a coat pocket, to pull out at a slow moment.

So things are hectic here at the moment. I have had choir practice for 2 1/2 hours every day this week but Monday and Wednesday. I have a concert tonight and tomorrow night, and then we have to make sure all our gifts are bought and wrapped, and get everything packed, and arrange a kitty-sitter. So for now the house will stay messy.

In other news, my photogenic feline has lost her voice. She sounds really funny when she talks to us now.

Christmas Stocking Commission

2007-12-02T17:51:00.001-08:00

Years ago, when I was still a fledgling crocheter, I posted in my Livejournal asking friends if they wanted me to crochet them stockings. I got a few bites, including my friend Amanda in Canada. I made a pair of stockings for her and her husband. A couple of weeks ago she emailed me asking if I would make a third stocking for her new baby daughter, so I spent most of our drive to and from Seattle this Thanksgiving weekend crocheting for Chelsea.

...And with a magazine for scale:

I always seem to have more crocheting to do as Christmas approaches, even though I didn't plan on it. I just found out my grandmother will be in town for the holiday, so next on my list is a lacy scarf for her to wear.

Crocheted Bangles!

2007-11-28T19:32:00.001-08:00

As I was surfin' around in blogland, I found adorable knitted swatch bangle bracelets. This was a perfect time to try out a few Tunisian stitches! So I went out to Target and got a couple of ugly bracelets.

I spent a lot of time in the jewelry department, trying to find a bangle that would fit around my hand. Either the bangles Target was selling were tiny, or I have man hands. I hope it's the former. I also got a Christmasy bracelet that had some elastic to see if that might more easily fit over my hand.

I grabbed some Moda Dea Bamboo Wool in dark grey at the craft store and a little Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino left over from my Shrug and went to work. And here's what I came up with:

(I ended up giving Mom the light blue bangle before I could snap a picture of it.)
I'm pleased with how it turned out, though I probably will try going for a lighter yarn next time, and if I can find a slightly less ugly bangle I might try a lacier stitch as well. Overall it was a quick project, and I was happy to learn the Tunisian knit and purl stitches - they look neat!

Felted Oak Leaf Garland

2007-11-10T20:53:00.000-08:00

OK, so this isn't STRICTLY crochet-related, but it's crafty and there is a teensy bit of crochet in it so here it is.

Last month, Craftzine gave me a good idea for Christmas ornaments. Every year, my mom and sister and I make ornaments for our family and friends. For the past couple of years, mine have been crocheted, which is great but also takes quite awhile as I have to make somewhere around 30 of them. Usually I give up and give them just to family so that I only have to make about 10, but I always feel bad about leaving my friends out of my crafty gifting.

So I went to Goodwill sometime at the beginning of October I went to Goodwill and bought myself four sweaters and one sweatervest in fallish colors. (OK, one was blue, but I figured it'd work in the grand scheme I had.) Side note: there weren't many 100% wool sweaters at Goodwill. In fact, I think I cleaned them out. Anyway. I threw them, whole, in the washing machine for two cycles; cut them apart at the seams (since they were mostly felted already I was able to be a bit sloppy with them), and threw the pieces into the washer a couple more times until they were nice and tight. Then I set to cutting them into leaf shapes using three cardboard templates that I borrowed from some website or another.

I have no pictures of the sweaters (which is OK because they were ugly), nor do I have pictures of the pile of sweater pieces. I do, however, have a picture of the finished leaves, plus one cat who sat there from the time I started laying the leaves out until well after I'd finished taking pictures. She likes being in pictures, as evidenced by my previous post.

That picture was taken just before Halloween. It didn't take me three weeks to finish, technically - but after cutting I think 175 leaves in one weekend, my arm hurt so bad I could barely move it for a week. So I had to take a crocheting (and typing and everything else) break for a bit.

While my arm was healing, I went to Franklin Park (the oldest park in Corvallis!) and collected some acorn caps, and then stopped at the craft store to see if they had any felt balls so I didn't have to make my own. 'Cause I'm lazy. The only brownish colored ones also had little sequins and tinsel-y stuff stuck to them, which I wasn't too sure about at first but I think they turned out festive. I used a drill bit and twisted it with my hands to drill little holes in the caps of the acorns, and threaded silver thread through to match the threads in the felt balls. Then I glued the caps to the balls.

Fast-forward to today, when I was getting tired of having a bag full of felted leaves sitting by my feet - I made Christmas ornaments, which look much like the ones at the link up there. I've never finished Christmas ornaments that quickly - it feels good to get them out of the way. But I had a TON of leaves left. (I knew when I bought five sweaters that I would have extras, but this was bordering on ridiculous.) So I made a garland.

I started by grabbing some dark brown afghan yarn and a K hook from my stash and made a chain. I held it up in the doorway between the living room and the kitchen to make sure it was long enough. Then I threaded a needle with some crocheting thread and started sewing leaves onto the chain.

I threaded through the leaf from one edge to the other where the stem met the body of the leaf. Then I stitched through the chain and turned the garland a bit so that the leaves would hide the chain.

There's your crochet content!

And shortly after I finished it (and after I modeled it as a lovely boa for my husband), it went up in the doorway and I threw a few acorns on for good measure. I like it! I might keep it up all year.

Trout likes yarn, too

2007-11-10T20:04:00.000-08:00

I was taking pictures today in the patch of sun in the living room. The light wasn't quite at the right angle for me to take superb pictures, but I wasn't going for superb, as neither my camera nor my skills are superb.

Trout decided to invite herself to my little photography party, probably because I was taking up all the sunshine, so she kept sitting between the light and my subjects and casting a shadow right where it shouldn't be. And then when I put a ball of yarn on the floor, she immediately attacked it.

So I gave up and started taking pictures of her. I was rewarded - I love this picture:

Chomp.

Crochet Me Book Signing

2007-10-28T17:50:00.001-07:00

Crochet Me Book Signing
Originally uploaded by loopdedoo

I had a blast yesterday up in Portland! My friend from fifth grade and I went to a cute little hole-in-the-wall restaurant for brunch (mushroom omelette with goat cheese!), and then I ran up to Yarn Garden to meet Kim. She had taught a class earlier in the morning, which was sold out I heard, and then six women tried desperately to make her move down to Portland while Kim signed books. I got to sign books too - that was odd. I didn't like messing them up, but I suppose it's not messing a book up if it's an autograph. Heh. Anyway, after Kim showed off the patterns in the book (as well as a few from the Interweave Crochet magazine) and answered questions, we spent another couple of hours browsing through the yarn and touching everything. I finally got to see camel yarn in person (I'd only seen it online) and it was so light and soft that I almost bought some, but I wasn't pleased with the limited color choices. So I got two skeins of Jade Sapphire cashmere silk. It was SO hard to decide - I had to keep carrying skeins around the store with me before I settled.

When we'd finally decided on yarn purchases, we skipped over to the other side of town and shopped at Anthropologie, where we found that the lovely Anthropologie people are trying desperately to make the penguin the new owl. (See?)

We also visited Powell's, a must for anyone stopping in Portland for at least a few hours. And then we were famished, so we refueled on extremely healthy burgers, fries, and beer at McMenamins' Blue Moon. We had a good walk and good conversation and lots of good shopping, and I had a great time! Kim said she wanted to get her husband to come down sometime (he's never been to Portland!), and I'd love to go back up to Vancouver now that I know someone who can show me around! We shall meet again I'm sure.

Come see me on Saturday!

2007-10-25T20:40:00.000-07:00

Just a quick reminder - I'll be at the Yarn Garden in Portland the day after tomorrow, most likely during Kim's book signing which starts at 1pm. Come see us!

This week I'm in the process of compliling two months-worth of financials - my deadline is tomorrow afternoon. Crocheting these last few evenings have kept me sane. :)

I think a squee is in order.

2007-10-10T19:17:00.001-07:00

Crochet Me Book
Originally uploaded by loopdedoo

My copy of Crochet Me was waiting for me in the mailbox this morning!! It's gorgeous! I love it! I carried it around with me all day, and didn't want anyone to touch it for fear they'd smudge the pages or get a fingerprint on the cover. Heh.

I have a repetitive stress injury at the moment, from cutting oak leaves out of felted sweaters. 178 4-inch leaves plus one ouchie arm. So I'm taking a break from my right hand for a bit, which means no crocheting. Dangitall.

Oh, and for anyone in the Portland area - I'll be meeting Kim at Yarn Garden on 14th and Hawthorne on the 27th. I've told her I'll be there, anyway - I haven't heard back as she's super busy on her book tour at the moment. But I'll be there, anyway. So come say hi!

Sneak Peek!

2007-09-16T21:46:00.001-07:00

Sneak Peek!
Originally uploaded by loopdedoo

I just finished my second project for Robyn - a cute little vest with Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, so even though it's dark out I ran upstairs to throw it on the dressform and snap a few pics, so this sneak peek is a bit washed out. I'd only worked with sock yarn once, and it was scratchy and uncomfortable, so it was nice to find that not all sock yarns feel that way. This pattern gave me a run for my money, which was great. I can't wait to see it on a real person!

And now I'm ready to finish my orange sweater, finally. I'm finished with production crochet for a bit (meaning, nothing else has landed in my lap) so I get to do my own thing. The pieces of the orange sweater have been on the dressform for a long time and they're ready to gain some sleeves and a zipper!

Workie Workie

2007-08-12T17:19:00.000-07:00

I've been about run off my fingers lately - I'm still trying to finish my book pitch but my swiftness has been severely impaired by the arrival of yarn for two tops that I've been crocheting for other designers.

The first is a contract jacket for O-Wool, fresh off the blocking board. I had to go down quite a few hook sizes in order to hit gauge, so I think the fabric ended up a little stiff, but it's a jacket so it needs a little bit of stiffness I s'pose.

The second is only a few inches long yet, so I deemed it unworthy of a photo, but it's adorable even now. I think Robyn is my favorite designer right now. :)

And then there is my old standby, a book pitch sweater. I work on it here and there to give my eyes a break from dark green. It's already cute even though it's only half done.

I had a good long time to crochet last weekend, in the car from Corvallis to San Francisco, where I visited my grandparents for a couple of days. It was about 16 hours of riding, so I was glad to have brought all three projects; as I twice ran out of yarn and had to set two of them aside until I got home.

Today is oddly cool (just 70!) and cloudy, just in time for the meteor shower. So my photos are flashy. Someday I will have a fancy camera! Until then, you'll just have to imagine stitch definition. It's there; I swear.

2007-07-22T21:39:00.001-07:00

Phew, I've been busy!

I am in the process of getting a book proposal ready for submission. Before I can do that, though, I have two things to do: one is a lattice jacket that I'm making for O-Wool using a pattern by Amy O'Neill Houck and O-Wool Balance, which is organic, and a pretty heathered grey-green. I've had to go down two hook sizes, which is unusual for me - usually I get the gauge just right the first time, even with Robyn's admittedly tight gauge (see the pink sweater below). This one gave me a run for my money though.

The second thing I have to do is make a sweater or two to show the publisher that I really can make fitted garments. So far, my resume isn't all that impressive - lots of accessories and amigurumi and that's about it. Except for the Five o'Clock Tank in the CMe book.

So I've got the back and half of the front of a sweater finished, and once I'm finished with Amy's project I will continue on. It's a pretty orange silk/cotton blend that feels really nice and is warm without being heavy. I will post a peek later, when it comes together a bit more.

I have beefed up my resume a little, though, in the last few weeks: I became a member of CGOA and TNNA. So that will help my networking quite a bit - especially if I can pony up enough cash to make it to any of the shows! I don't know a whole lot of people who crochet or knit personally, so I can see myself wandering aimlessly around the booths without really finding anyone to make friends with ('cause I'm bad at that) but I think it might be fun to take a class or two. We shall see. Nearish-future plans call for a reduction in our income, so who knows?

And now to bed with me. The weather has been excellent here in Oregon for the past week: clouds and some rain and not-so-hot temps, so my fingers haven't been too warm to crochet but I think things are changing tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to it but at least I have AC in the car - maybe I'll just let it idle in the parking lot and crochet in there. :D

The Secret Project is Finished!

2007-06-12T20:44:00.001-07:00

secret.jpg
Originally uploaded by loopdedoo

On the (hour-and-fifteen-minute) drive home from work today (no, I wasn't driving!), I finished the border and wove in the ends in a project I was working for for Robyn. It will trek back to her tomorrow. Robyn told me that SWTC has switched to a different spinning and drying technique, which has made it amazing to work with. The pattern I wrote for the CrochetMe book calls for bamboo as well, and I must have scootched in under the wire when I bought mine, because it was crunchier than this stuff. I'm sorry to see it go!

Beatrix

2007-05-26T07:21:00.001-07:00

Beatrix
Originally uploaded by loopdedoo

A couple of weeks ago I bought a dress form from ebay. I set her up and she looked naked so I put my cowl on her. Eventually I will be using her for some projects which are currently dancing around in my head, but for now she's just striking a pose in the spare room.

Almost done!

2007-05-19T19:10:00.000-07:00

I have been driving to Saginaw, Oregon, three days a week. Or, not driving, but riding most of the time so my coworker can have the mileage reimbursement. This means I actually have time to crochet some of the project for Mom a bit.

I have not crocheted this in the car. I finished it a few weeks ago, and it was folded in my market basket waiting to be blocked. But I was lazy and did not do so until today. I sprayed it down with water and pinned it to my bed with a fan oscillating over it so it'd dry quickly. Which it did. Yay. I unpinned it and it is resting on the bed until the sheets are dry and I can go make the bed (yay weekend laundry).

I have crocheted this in the car, though. Tunisian in the round, sort of. It's a fun little project. This is one face of a pillow that matches the afghan.

After I took the above picture, Trout decided she liked the pillow-face too. She climbed aboard and made herself at home. So I made her into a kitty sandwich:

She stayed there for most of the afternoon.

Busy Busy

2007-05-09T14:32:00.000-07:00

I am crocheting, but the going is slow. I know I don't have a very wide audience, but for the few of you who read this blog, I promise things will step up soon!

Personal, non-crochet-related reasons why I'm not crocheting much ahead:
I am totally run off my feet at work, now. It's a good thing, but it also eats up a lot of time. I live in Philomath and have been driving down to Saginaw (an hour and fifteen minutes away) three days a week. And though I may be talented enough, I don't drive and crochet at the same time (because crocheting at 75mph could be catastrophic) and I have no time during the day to pick up the hook.
This is my last term of school, and I have exponentially more homework this term than I have had in the past year and a half. So some evenings are spent writing essays and doing payroll accounting problems rather than yarning.
This weekend my choir will be performing, which means crunch time is here for learning music: we had rehearsal for 2-and-a-half hours yesterday, and will have the same tomorrow and Friday night; and then Saturday morning we'll probably have another two hours of rehearsal before our evening concert; and then Sunday afternoon is our final concert. The evenings I didn't have to do homework have suddenly become swallowed up by singing.

So those three factors have made crochet life difficult. But I have a book full of designs ready to start having patterns written for them, and my dress form arrived yesterday (more on that later), and pretty soon choir will be over, and then school will be over, and then look out world!

Brolly Covers Outtake

2007-04-29T21:08:00.001-07:00

Brolly Covers
Originally uploaded by loopdedoo.

After I took a couple of more posed photos for the Brolly Covers pattern, I let the girls do what they wanted. Delilah (on the left) made a huge show of slowly and dramatically putting her umbrella on her back. It made for a couple of interesting photos. :)

There will be more content soon, I promise. There was a shake-up at work, and that plus homework (and choir) equals no time for crochet.

Things I'm Working On, Part III

2007-04-02T07:27:00.001-07:00

Afghan
Originally uploaded by loopdedoo.

My mom has been wanting me to make her a lapghan for quite awhile now. We finally got six skeins of yarn that she liked and I started it, but ripped it out after one skein because the pattern she wanted was so dense that it was only going to be 12 inches wide. I started again with this interesting geometric pattern that I didn't think I'd like at first, but it's grown on me.

Things I'm Working On, Part II

2007-03-30T16:37:00.001-07:00

Workspace
Originally uploaded by loopdedoo.

I sit on the edge of the couch off to the right of this photo, facing the neat (and messy) stone table. (What can I say, I need lots of stuff around me so I don't have to get up!)

In the center of the photo is a laptop sleeve, using the linked treble crochet stitch so that when it stretches around my 'puter (there he is at the bottom of the pic!) it won't leave big gaping holes for the rain to come through. I like to take my crocheting and laptop with me to work in that big basket there off to the right, and the laptop has to be lying flat on top, which means it gets wet if it's raining.

Other stuff going on in this photo is a milkglass vase, a bunch of antique hooks in a diner mug, my husband's iPod, some yarn for my mom's afghan, and a wrapper from my new favorite candy bar that I discovered in Victoria, BC over Christmas. Mmmmmm.

Things I'm working on, Part I

2007-03-29T18:47:00.001-07:00

Shrug Reconstruction
Originally uploaded by loopdedoo.

Last spring, my first complicated pattern was published at Crochet Me. It was interesting to see people's reactions - some really liked it, and some didn't. I myself was in both camps - I really like the sleeves and the trim, and wasn't very pleased with the fit.

Next Friday night is my old old friend's wedding reception. (She got married out of state and is coming back to where her family and old friends are so that we can celebrate her marriage too!) I'm attempting to reconstruct the Shrug Off Winter in time to wear it over my spaghetti-strap dress.

Crochet Me!

2007-03-28T11:50:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna be published! I'm gonna be published!

Interweave Press is now previewing the Crochet Me book, which is due out in the fall, and one of my patterns is in it! I have only ever been published online, so seeing myself in print form, something that I can hold in my hands, is going to be amazing!

There are some really talented designers featured in this book, and I'm really proud to be included. I haven't seen any of the designs yet, besides what's on the cover, but judging by the cover it's going to be a book whose patterns I'm going to actually use. (I think out of the several pattern books I own, I've only made one top, and once I was finished with it I never even wore it.)

Jabot

2007-03-03T10:04:00.001-08:00

Jabot
Originally uploaded by loopdedoo.

Today I'm off to spend the afternoon and evening in Eugene at a 50th birthday party for Bruce, an old friend of Dad's. Last time I saw him was in the fall, when a group of us picked apples and made apple cider together; and Bruce sang a few madrigals with his madrigal choir, which performs at renaissance faires. I don't know if Bruce dresses historically accurately, and if he does my birthday gift won't be very useful. It's a jabot, using the Solomon's Knot stitch (partly for speed, partly for the lace effect). If I am ever to make a jabot again, I will use a stitch that isn't quite so holey, as this one has so much space between the stitches that it's hard to tell that there are three layers of ruffles.

Mom's Afghan Swatch

2007-03-02T17:49:00.001-08:00

Momafghanswatch
Originally uploaded by loopdedoo.

Mom's afghan is taking on a life of its own. A few weeks ago, she bought six skeins of Lion Brand Wool-Ease Chunky in their Spice colorway so I could make her a ribbed afghan. I held off for a few weeks because of other projects (finishing a pattern for submission, among other things) and started a few days ago. I came to the end of my first skein, and the strip was only about four inches wide - which meant that after using up all six skeins I would have a 2' x 4' afghan.

So we regrouped, Mom and I, and I flipped through my Harmony Guides and chose a pattern that I wouldn't have looked at twice before. The swatch was fun to crochet because there's a lot of turning involved, making it more interesting. But now that I have a 4-foot strip, it's not so much fun to turn anymore. But I think it's still going to turn out nicely.

In other news, a friend of the family is having a birthday party tomorrow afternoon, and I've got a quick project to do for him. Crochet-related projects keep popping up even though they should know full well that I still have an accounting project due soon.

Ding!

2007-01-27T21:02:00.000-08:00

I was a prolific, if not particularly talented, sketch-er today. I drew a couple of pages-worth of potential crochet pattern designs, and am pretty happy with the results, other than the fact that I can't draw worth a crap. But I'm excited to see what I can come up with - now that I'm finished with the two patterns I've been working with on and off I'm going to like looking at something else for a change.

Stash

2007-01-04T18:14:00.000-08:00

Way back before Thanksgiving, I finally gave in to my organizational spirit and cleaned up the spare room. We had visitors scheduled to spend the night at Thanksgiving, and the way the room was looking at that point, the visitors would have had to sleep in the hall instead. So I got down to business.

I ran over to Target and found a shoe rack and a little cabinet, and put them together and filled 'em up. The cabinet has cross-stitch fabric and my sewing/crafting supplies, and the pretty bits of my stash found a home in the cubbies. Inga is in one spot, too. I've filled all the spaces by now, but this photo was taken when it was brand-spanking-new.

The basket on top is completely full of scrap yarn, and the white vase barely fits my knitting needles and tunisian hooks; the Tupperware boxes to the right of the cabinet are finished projects and (ugly) acrylic yarn, and hanging on the wall is embroidery floss on a rack.

It feels very nice to be organized - I can tell what I have much more easily, and I don't have to worry about unraveling balls of yarn as I dig for things in those deep Tupperware containers.

Beehive Wool

2007-01-04T18:00:00.000-08:00

This Christmas my husband and I had a relaxing 4 days in Victoria, BC. Kim mentioned Beehive Wool Shop as a great place to visit in Victoria, so I didn't waste any time: I went on the day we arrived!

I had a great time. I can't quite say that for Cory, but that's OK. He understands. The store is huge, and had some gorgeous skeins. I picked up one skein, fell in love with it immediately... and then reluctantly put it down as it was $70. Yeesh. I can't justify spending that much for one little skein, especially with no project in mind for it. Boy, was it pretty though. (One of the skeins I picked up was Sea Silk, but I think that one was also too expensive.)

In the end, I spent about $60 and came home with five skeins. The blue skein was fleecy and soft and bulky, which became a hat later that night. Cory picked it out - it was his job to find himself a bit of yarn for a hat, as he'd left his stocking cap at home.

The barely pink skeins are a linen/cotton blend. I have no plans for them yet, but inspiration will come.

The green skeins will become a wrap. I don't have a pattern made up for it yet, but it'll be my own design, as I can't find anything that I like online.

Christmas!

2006-12-17T10:04:00.000-08:00

I have been very lucky this Christmas, on the gifting front. I only had a few gifts to buy and originally had none to make, as my husband Cory and I will be spending the holiday in Victoria BC and we won't be around any family members. But we are going to our friends' house this evening for dinner, and I wanted to make them a few things. Baby Garrett got a store-bought jingly toy, but daddy gets a new hat.

It's made of Cascade 220, which is mostly brown but if you look closely at the yarn it's got lots of pretty colors inside. The blue was a nameless ball from my stash. (I think the rest of it was used in a poncho a few years ago.)

Mommy gets an experiment, basically. I have an acquaintence who sells beaded necklaces for nursing moms to wear so their babies have something to tug on while they're eating. I knew I'd be able to make something similar, so I spent ten or fifteen minutes and came up with one:

So with a bit of wool and a few beads, Christmas gifts are done for this year! Too bad I won't be as lucky next year.

2006-10-08T08:56:00.000-07:00

Witch number two was finished on Friday afternoon (during work - don't tell!) and given to the mill manager shortly thereafter.

This version included knees and elbows so that her new 7-year-old mommy could more easily pose her.

Her hair was diffferent this time too - as she's not going to sit on a couch for the month and then lay in a box for the rest of the year, I wanted her hair to be able to stand up to petting and braiding a little better.

I have a secret project looming, but I'm going to try to squeeze in one more of my own before I start work on it. And I still have ornaments to make. Good thing I started them long ago - even thinking ahead may not have saved me from working on them on December 23rd!

...And your little dog, too!

2006-09-24T10:12:00.000-07:00

I used scraps of yarn to position her eyes and mouth, and then made french knots in those places. It was much easier to see exactly where to put them before I spent the time and effort knotting them.

I attempted three noses. This is the third. I just needed to start at the root rather than at the tip. I used short rows to curve it.

She doesn't look wicked at all. It's probably because she enjoys being able to look straight ahead. Her hair is so heavy that it pulls her head down, which is OK because she's a corner-of-the-couch doll, which means her head will be propped up. But the fence worked very well to pose her.

You can't really tell from the pictures, but she is 37 inches from top to toe.

I already have yarn for my next project, which won't be nearly as involved. And I still have lots of snowmen to make. But school starts tomorrow, so it may be difficult to find time. We shall see.

2006-09-23T18:10:00.000-07:00

All Witcheena needs now is a face.

Her cape is Squares and Ladders stitch. The motifs look a bit like spiders.

She's got a blank green canvas waiting for a hooked nose and maybe an eye or two.

When I was little I had a book (and still do) called The Resident Witch. It was a sort-of beginner's chapter book about Witcheena, who was a witch in training but was struggling between being proud of her witch heritage and wanting to be like a human girl. It's a cute little story.

Witchy

2006-09-17T16:56:00.000-07:00

While at the beach a couple of weeks ago, I saw some stuffed witches at one of the shops at Salishan Lodge. My mom and I thought they were cute, and she asked me to crochet one for her, as the Salishan witches were pretty spendy. Here's the unfinished result:

She's got a mane of hair so heavy that it drags her head down. But she's not going to be standing up and walking around so it's OK.

She's been sitting on the back of the couch for longer than I've wanted her to, because I'm not sure what kind of a witch she is yet. I've decided she's going to be kind of a plain-jane one. I've got some leftover brown wool from one of the diaper bags that will make a good jumper, and the only real color will be her blue-and-red striped tights I think.

Below is my workstation. Maybe someday I'll make one that's not the couch. Good thing Cory has his own chair - I usually cover the entire couch with yarn and notions. Trout usually likes to make a little bed amongst them, which is OK until she stretches out and knocks things on the floor, which happens most of the time. Cute little clutz.

Simple Little Puppy Sweater

2006-09-17T16:47:00.000-07:00

I went to the beach a few weekends ago, and met most of the women in my family. Mom and a couple of aunts and a grandma and a newly-wedded cousin, who with her husband acquired their first baby - a Jack Russell terrier puppy named Emmy. (Tangent: it started being difficult to say Emmy without the R at the beginning, like our dearly departed Remmy.) Emmy wasn't used to the 60-something-degree weather at the beach, which was 20 or 30 degrees cooler than where she lives in Eugene, so we ran to WalMart in the first evening to get yarn to make her a sweater. I've never really been around a little dog, especially one that might need a sweater, and I've never been a fan of those ugly froofy dog sweaters that I see on TV or at Petco, so I'd never had the opportunity or desire to make one.

There she is in her 30-minute puppy sweater. Which is probably as long as she's going to be able to wear it before she grows out of it.

One more felted bag

2006-07-18T21:17:00.000-07:00

The second bag in my pregnant-friends-and-family series is finished. I used Cascade 220, like the green and brown one.

Here it is pre-felted. I didn't put anything in for scale, unfortunately, but it was a bit wider than I am.

Finished. I'm not pleased with the seams, especially the one on the right. Oh well. I do like the shape, and the polka dots look cute.

Soon it'll be mailed to my sister-in-law and her baby boy, who is due in August.

Felted Diaper Bag

2006-06-14T18:34:00.000-07:00

I have three friends who are pregnant. Well, two friends who are pregnant, and one cousin who had her baby last month. And because I was so busy last term, I've been really behind on the felted diaper bags I planned to make for the three of them.

My friend Laura's bag was first, because I was hoping to finish it by her baby shower. That didn't happen, but on the plus side she got to draw me a picture of what she wanted.

I started with a swatch to see how much it would shrink. I stuck it in the washer on hot/cold, threw in a few tennis balls, ran it three times, and...

...then it was smaller. It shrunk 21%. So then I started the actual body of the bag.

And then I frogged it, and tried again. I can't remember how many times I restarted, but trying to do gauge math waiting in the breezeway before Business class at 7:30 in the morning for 5 minutes at a time didn't work very well. Finally when I had a block of time in the evenings I started work.

This was my view during those evenings.

I finally finished crocheting, and laid it out on my pretty desk at work. I've never liked the way pre-felted projects look. They're all misshapen and... I don't know, just big and flimsy. Eww. The spike stitches were purposefully sloppy so that I could get a more casual look. Then I popped it in the washing machine a few times, and...

...all done. Well, I added a button and a snap, and was planning on putting a zipper in but it didn't want a zipper. So there's no zipper.

Green Bag

2006-06-04T00:04:00.000-07:00

Finally, I got around to actually finishing a crochet project. My coworker decided to quit after working at the same place for 12 years, to become a hospice nurse. I told her I'd make her something, and she decided she wanted a lime green bag. She chose the pattern and I used some of the leftover yarn from Inga the Inchworm.

The color is pretty true in this pic, at least on my monitor. I like the shape OK, but I don't like how rounded the ribbon is - I would have liked it if the curve wasn't so sharp. But that's OK.

The lining looks nice in this picture, but the stitches and my skin don't. I don't pretend to be a talented photographer. :)

A little detail I added to the bow at the last minute because I didn't want to go rooting through the front bedroom to find the white thread to sew the bow to the bag. You can also see the monster snap that I used. I wish JoAnn's had those magnetic clasps - those would have been much nicer-looking.

And now I only have to sew a few notions to the felted bag and it'll also be finished. The zipper is daunting though - I've never sewn a zipper before.

Mid-Issue Surprise!

2006-04-25T06:16:00.000-07:00

If you just visit CrochetMe the day the new issue is published, you're missing out! Go back and find my new shrug!

Phew. Three projects in one issue is a lot.

Coming soon: adventures in felting!

Spring Crochet me

2006-03-18T14:45:00.000-08:00

The new Crochet me is up! This issue I have a crocheted button tutorial and an inchworm amigurumi pattern. Also, be on the lookout for a third contribution sometime mid-issue!

Darts

2006-03-05T16:41:00.000-08:00

Today I played with bust darts. I'm not sure if there's a standard way to crochet darts, and when I looked I couldn't find hardly anything that had to do with shaping Tunisian crochet pieces. So I made it up and it was actually pretty easy.

That's the right side of the swatch I made. If you look closely there are a couple of holes at the end of the short rows. The bottom one is bigger because I didn't know what I was doing. The next one up is smaller and the top one is invisible, which is very pleasing. Most of the swatches I've seen with short row shaping, or crocheted "tall row" shaping (double crochet where the dart goes, single crochet everywhere else) have been very noticeably short rows. Tunisian short rows turn out to look pretty nice, at least in this particular stitch.

That's the left side of the swatch. The holes are way less noticeable on this side.

For future reference (and for people who are also trying to figure out Tunisian short rows), here's what I did.

Ch 50
Make 3 rows even in the Tunisian stitch you want
Go forward 14 stitches and return
Go forward 50 stitches
Return 14 stitches and then go forward again to the end of the row
Return 50 stitches

I repeated the last four lines once more to make a decent-sized dart and then did another 3 rows even. The piece curled a lot, of course, but it was pretty easy to see how it worked. The next step is for me to actually make something that I can wear and see how it works actually on a body.

The Home Stretch!

2006-02-26T09:47:00.001-08:00

The tutorial has been turned in. The pattern for this little guy has been turned in:

And I just need to get a few pictures taken of the big project and that can be sent in too.

And I'm already thinking of something for summer! This project will be super easy and will hopefully have a lot of different uses. We shall see. It means I must go shopping for more yarn - nothing in my stash will work. (Oh, darn!)

In other news, I've been waiting and waiting for my local Borders bookstore to call me and tell me they've unpacked the Stitch & Bitch Crochet book from its box in their back room. I reserved it on Thursday, when it was physically in the building but wasn't unpacked. They assured me that it would be unpacked that night. So I called on Friday and they couldn't find it because it wasn't unpacked. They also assured me that they'd call me as soon as it was unpacked. So here I sit, languishing, waiting, weeping... well, I'm sitting right at this second but I'm not languishing. I just think their night crew should work a bit faster!

And now I'm off to prep for my super duper photo shoot so I can get this last CrochetMe project off my desk and onto Kim's and Julie's!

I need a bigger plate!

2006-02-04T16:33:00.000-08:00

Right now I'm working on:

Two designs
One tutorial article
One tutorial section for a website

So the scarf has been put aside for a bit while I struggle with numbers. I also need to figure out how to make darts. I've never darted before.

Sorry about the no pictures thing, but everything is still abstract at the moment and I can't post them even if I had them because they're a big secret!

2006-01-14T11:07:00.000-08:00

With Christmas gifts finished, I finally had time to start a knitted scarf for Cory. On Thursday it was about three-quarters finished. And of course today it's in a ball again. I just can't finish one - it was bothering me too much to be able to finish. Heh. And of course I didn't take a picture of it before I frogged it. (Well, I did, but if you've ever tried to take a picture of the texture of a black scarf... well, you know.)

So I decided to do a quick project for myself and then start on Cory's scarf again, though this time I'll be crocheting it.

It's the Hemp Flowers Necklace from the latest Interweave Crochet. It needs to be ironed.

I've got a design or two in the works, too, which is also kind of fun - I've been looking at runway trends and they're interesting.

Christmas!

2005-12-31T13:21:00.000-08:00

It's funny how preparations for Christmas take so long and then it's over in a day. Oh well.

Starting in October, I made about 20 bird ornaments for family members (homemade ornaments is a tradition), using Marlo's Bird Pattern. I wasn't a fan of the wings, though, so I made my own. And I used thread instead of yarn, which made them just under two inches long.

I think they turned out cute.

And then, since I was so tired of crocheting those little birds with that little hook, and because I was tired of crocheting in general, I took a break of a few days and then made my dad's wife a Christmas present.

It's the Ruffle Scarf from the latest Interweave Knits Crochet magazine. It hangs nicely, though it doesn't spiral that perfectly by itself. She'll get it on Monday, and hopefully she'll like it.

It looks nice as a hat, too.

Knit knit knit

2005-12-24T22:15:00.000-08:00

I learned how to knit and crochet right around the same time. I was in college, and my dorm neighbor Cheyenne knew how to make granny square afghans (and ONLY granny square afghans). I'd go visit her in her dorm room and she'd crochet while we chatted, and I always found myself staring at her hands. It was so neat to see one strand of yarn turning into an entire blanket. So I asked her to teach me how to make my own. My first try ended up being a not-so-flat giant granny square in yellow and light blue Red Heart yarn. Ooh.

We moved our separate ways after my freshman year, and I decided I was going to teach myself the rest of crochet. I made one more afghan of small granny square motifs using the only stitches Cheyenne (and therefore I) knew (sc, dc and ch) and then I started learning the other stitches and how to read patterns. I spent a year in Minnesota, where I crocheted here and there, and then started in earnest again a couple of years ago.

The knitting part I had to learn all by myself. My freshman year in college I bought a book and muddled through the cast on and the knit stitches, and made my mom a scarf, which was excrutiatingly slow and frustrating. I lost a couple of stitches somehow, so the sides weren't even straight. But I blocked it as best I could and gave it to Mom. And put my needles away for a long time.

A couple of years ago I tried again to knit, this time a "magic scarf." It was a tube that was supposed to stretch long like a scarf and wide like a cowl. Only it didn't stretch, it just stayed a big wide tube. I knitted it out of fun fur, too. It was mighty scary.

See?

I put the needles away again. It's hard to practice knitting when you're relatively experienced in crochet and compared to a hook, needles are so s-l-o-w. But the other day I got them out again and started a scarf for my husband. Using this pattern. It's turning out pretty! And I'm starting to get better at it, though it's still not nearly as fast as crocheting.

Hopefully, though, I'm going to be able to think of myself as a knitter as well as a crocheter. There are so many interesting knitting patterns, and I'm intrigued at having to learn different ways to make the same kinds of things that I can make with a hook. And lace looks like fun too. :)

Welcome!

2005-12-24T15:05:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my all-fiber blog! Unlike my main blog (Rivulet @ LJ), this cuts out all the random non-crocheting-or-knitting-related content and focuses on the good stuff. :) I will be cross-posting any crochet-related posts to my LJ, but for those of you who aren't interested in the rest of my life, this is the place to be!

2005-12-17T16:33:00.000-08:00

Well, I had super plans to make enough crocheted bird ornaments for tons of people, but as I sit here on the couch a week from Christmas eve with eleven completed birds (well, mostly completed - I have to sew eyes on a bunch of them) I'm thinking I'll just stick to giving them to my family. Besides, I still have to bake three dozen cookies and a casserole for Christmas day. So harrumph.

Earlier today I Googled "so you want to make a baby" for fun (no, that's not a hint at my near-future plans!) and the first link that came up was for bored.com ("Fun Things to Do When You're Bored")! Hahaha!

As I've been sitting here on my couch, I've been thinking about a good generic coworker gift. I thought maybe I'd crochet hats or something for everybody, but I don't know if I like that idea yet. It's hard to think of something, too, because I have the full spectrum of people in my office: from girly-girl who loves purple and butterflies to man's-man who wears a hard hat all day and likes to get his hands dirty. And one of my coworkers wears hand-knit scarves almost every day so scarves might be out of the question, at least for her.

Hmm hmm hmm. Any suggestions?

2005-12-02T18:53:00.000-08:00

CrochetMe is up! Here's my pattern!

2005-11-06T09:29:00.000-08:00

I love rainy weekends. They're so cozy.

I'm putting the finishing touches on my cowl pattern today. Yesterday I had my aunt take pictures of it, which I'm not allowed to share until the pattern comes out, so you'll all have to wait. Nyah.

I'm trying to decide whether to put my LJ addy in my contact info at the end of the pattern. Really, I'm trying to decide if I'm that interesting (or post enough) that people would want to visit here. Hmm hmm hmm.

Trout is sitting on Cory's lap, staring up at him with her eyes half closed. She loves him so. She never sits on my lap anymore; she climbs up on Cory as soon as he sits down anywhere. It's cute.

OK, breaktime's over.

2005-11-01T13:50:00.000-08:00

So when I asked for volunteers to test my crocheted cowl pattern, I got several eager people, to whom I explained that I wanted the crocheting to be done by the beginning of November so I had time to take their advice and update the pattern in time for the submission deadline. I emailed everybody this morning (one person had already finished hers and emailed me last week) and asked how people were doing. The first email I got back was this one:

Well, I havent gotten started on it yet, don’t have the funds for yarn
and hook quite yet ^^

Im gonna be starting it soon, thank you for the pattern.

Huh? If you volunteer to test a pattern, and the person who wrote the pattern asked you to have it done in a certain time frame, why would you decide to test the pattern on your own time? Jeez.

2005-10-27T18:07:00.000-07:00

Kim from Crochet Me emailed me tonight and told me she wants my cowl pattern in the December/January issue! So I'm finally going to have a pattern published! I'm going to do happy dances in-between yoga poses tonight. :D

2005-10-19T20:38:00.000-07:00

So I finished my cowl.

Now I need to come up with a catchy title. Mine was stupid: Cowl-a-bunga. Nicoal's was much better: Baby, it's Cowled Outside." Have you got anything more clever than that?

2005-10-17T07:18:00.000-07:00

Today I emailed the editor of Crochet Me and talked to her about a pattern submission, which I worked on most of yesterday and am finishing up today hopefully. But I still have to make up a yoga class and I might do that tonight since I remembered this morning; so it might be tomorrow.

2005-08-22T21:05:00.000-07:00

Monday Monday.

Yesterday I started on my hairpin lace cardi-wrap. It's actually working up pretty quickly. I'm having to make myself stop counting each stitch and just measure the completed strip instead.

Posters for the Fall Festival are up downtown now. (Aren't they hideous?) Cory and I went to Starbucks to work on a crossword puzzle and relax a bit. I looked into the requirements to get a booth at it and it's kind of expensive. If they accepted my application, I'd have to pay $95 for a space, buy a tent thingy and a couple of tables and stands, and STILL pay 15% of all my sales. If I knew sales were going to be good enough that I wouldn't lose money, I'd try for it; but I think I'm going to do a Christmas bazaar or two first.

2005-08-20T16:06:00.000-07:00

We got up late and had a quick breakfast and took the dog out and spent two hours at Oil Can Henry's getting the oil changed and the engine flushed and then came here so Cory could work and I could crochet. I then went looking for a hairpin lace loom, and there is apparently one in the whole of Corvallis, and it's too small. Poo. So then I came back here.

We're listening to Barenaked Ladies. I'm crocheting a purse inspired by someone in the crochet community on LJ. I have a skein of purple boucle that's begging to be made into something to be worn in the cooler fall evenings. And I have some teal bamboo yarn that I was planning on making into a tank top, but as it's August and I have a Stitch Diva pattern that would work decently (though it won't be soft, it'll be drapy!) with that yarn.

2005-07-05T23:06:00.000-07:00

Sunday we watched Shaolin Soccer, which we both were pretty entertained by. And I finished my shrug at Avery Park.

There it is on the picnic table. I have no pics of it on yet. It's a little tight in the armpits, and I'm not sure why. I'm not a clothing designer so I'm not surprised it didn't turn out perfectly.

And of course the first thing that happened when I took the shrug out to finish weaving in the ends at this picnic table which was halfway in the river and halfway on the bank was the ball of yarn rolled down the incline of the table and landed in the water. Good thing I didn't need to use it anymore!

Then I played in the river a bit with Remmy, throwing sticks for her and watching her impression of a sprinkler.

I also did a gauge swatch for the new sweater called Stacy that is in Cool Crochet, a new book I picked up a couple of weeks ago.

People have mentioned that the sleeves fall off their shoulders so I plan to add a few rows around the neckline; and I'm also adding about 2 inches to the length. I finished the back panel last night just before bed.

Then on Sunday morning we went to Starbucks and then down to the waterfront to watch the All American Anyone Can Come Fabulous Fantastic Fourth of July Parade. It was mostly a bunch of little kids on trikes with red white and blue streamers, and their parents running after them trying to keep them going the right direction. And this guy:

The American Hero carpet cleaning guy. He was at the Christmas parade too. He's funny.

2005-07-03T09:20:00.000-07:00

I finished my shrug (except for weaving in the last 2 ends) and it looks good. Next time I make one, though, it'll be a bit wider in the back. Next project will be "Stacy" from the Cool Crochet book. I may have Cory take a picture of the shrug but we shall see.

2005-06-28T07:21:00.000-07:00

I finished my shrug on Sunday and then last night I ripped it apart and started a new one. I just didn't like the way it pooched out across the bottom. I should have taken pictures but I was too fast. Anyway, it'll be done shortly.

I also got some yarn for a cap-sleeved sweater that I'll be making next. I thought I was going to start it last night but my shrug was bothering me enough that I just needed to destroy it and start again.

Off to Starbucks and Noah's. I need smoked salmon schmear and some coffee that doesn't taste like dirty water.