wallpaper For months I've been looking for a thread or yarn for a very special project that needs to be done by the end of April. I wanted it to be lace weight yarn or size 10 crochet thread. I hoped for it to contain no wool or synthetics. It could be a blend and needed to be soft or silky.
I finally found it Friday. A 100% hand painted silk lace weight yarn. It is so close in size and feel to the size 10 bamboo that I believe they would be compatible in a single project.
I made the bookmark shown in the picture with a stitch that reflects the open lattice look I am aiming for for the shawl I intend to make though I think I'll be using a stitch and pattern with more going on than than these chains attached with single crochet stitches. I have another three weeks or so to settle on the stitch and pattern. In fact I won't allow myself to start the project before the row work is done on the baby afghan and that will be at least another 10-14 days.
I am really hoping that I'll have enough left over at the end to make a dozen or so bookmarks out of this. It has such a lovely feel.
Well. Back to work on the bamboo baby afghan now. I've fallen behind another two days because of the trip to Ashland yesterday followed by hours of playing with the new thread and with the set of crochet stitch cards. Though I can put some of the blame on this nasty bug I'm still fighting after two weeks.
This weeks stats: It now measures 24x36 inches tho it is folded in half in the pic so you're seeing only 24x18. I'm aiming for 30x36. So six inches to go. I just finished row 122. So 33 to go. I'm about to start the 13th iteration of the ten row pattern. So three more to go plus the three finishing rows. Since I was about to begin row 109 at this time last week I did only 14 rows which is an average of 2 rows per day. The quota I'd set myself was 4.5 but I backed off a bit this week due partly to this respiratory bug and partly to just needing to add back into my life some of the other things I need or want to do.
After learning my niece hopes to bring the baby down our way in late February I lessened the pressure on myself to have this ready for the mail by mid February which would have meant finishing the row work by February 7th in order to have time to put on the fringe.
It was a challenge to get a picture of it this week and the one I did get didn't turn out so well. The flash reflected in the oven door and didn't reach to both sides so there is significant distortion in the brightness and color which I spent more time than I wanted to trying to fix in my photo ap.
I wasn't able to hang it off the oven door handle this week as it was three inches too wide. So I hung it on my white cane and Ed stood off to the side holding it while I took the pictures.
wallpaper wallpaper My past method of spreading it out on a fleece blanket on the bed for its weekly picture wouldn't work this week. I can't get far enough away to get the whole thing in the shot. And by whole thing I mean folded in half which it is here too as it is hung over the handle on the oven door. Even this won't work next week. At least not without bunching it up as it is already the same width as the oven door.
It is now 36 by 21 inches tho what you see there is 18 by 21. I'll be adding approximately 22 more inches or 4.5 more iterations of the 10 row pattern plus the 3 finishing off rows. I'm just starting row 109. My daily quota is supposed to be 4 rows but today I did 6 which helps make up for a few days I did less than 4.
Here's a close up showing the stitch in more detail:
wallpaper I just learned on Monday that my niece hopes to bring the baby down this way to see his great-grandparents and the rest of the extended family in the area sometime in late February. It is a tentative plan depending on work schedules and weather effects on the roads between Montana and Southern Oregon. But that gives me a date to shoot for and I can put it in the mail if they can't make the trip.
I expect I have 8 to 10 days of work to finish the rows. Then I start on the fringe and I have no idea how to estimate the time for that but I imagine I need to plan on a full week. I have decided to fringe only the two ends where the thread tails are and hid the tails inside the fringe. I won't be fringing the long edges after all so that eliminates over half that project.
Today I hyperfocused on the baby afghan again. Worked six 36 inch rows in pretty much one sitting while watching two movies and three Heroes season 4 episodes. The two movies were Spiderman 2 and Air Bud Golden Receiver. I was hoping to make up for some of the the quota that didn't get done during Bloggiesta this past weekend and the library visit yesterday. I was behind by ten rows. Since the first four rows I did today count for today's quota only, I've made up only two rows.
I think I better lighten up tomorrow though and probably should stop altogether tonight. When I was dishing up my dinner tonight I almost dropped the serving bowl and I was nearly holding my breath all through doing dishes for fear of dropping something breakable. For my thumb and index finger and wrist on my right hand were not dependable and an electric sizzle shot up the inside of my left arm from pinky to armpit every time I raised it above the level of my lowest rib. The uncooperativeness of my right hand was not a surprise but that sizzle in my left arm was quite disconcerting. Apparently holding the growing afghan steady at the right distance is as demanding on the physical structure of the arm as is plying the hook itself.
The afghan is now bulky enough to be be in my way as I work on it which is a problem with no obvious solution. The thread is constantly getting trapped under it or in the folds. I now have 95 36 inch rows. I'm aiming for 155. It is now 36 X 18 inches.
Watch for a picture on Thursday for the end of week 4 progress report.
BTW I learned yesterday that my niece may be bringing the baby this way in late February. So I am highly motivated to have the afghan finished by then. If I can maintain the pace getting the rows done should be no problem. I'm concerned abou the fringe though. There are to be 150 or so per side and I have no idea how long that will take. I was planning to fringe all four sides but am now considering doing only the two sides where the rows begin and end which is where the start and finish thread tails are. I'll decide after I've got most of one side done which will give a better idea of the time involved.
Am officially at the half way mark now. What you see in the pic is folded in half the long way so what is visible is one quarter of the finished afghan which is now approximately fifteen inches wide. The full length is 36 inches.
But those last four rows took the equivalent stitching of ten to twelve rows to get enough keepers. In spite of having inspected every row before starting a new row, I still found mistakes in the row below the one I was working that required taking out both rows or portions thereof. So many times I lost count. But a minimum of twice on each row and four or five times on the middle white and yellow--rows 75 and 76.
After reaching row 33 at the end of one week I anticipated being on row 99 by today.
Ha. Ha.
I've been dreaming about crocheting. Am beginning to think I could crochet with my eyes closed or even while asleep.
But in my dreams the colors are bright or dark. Especially blues, purples and red. Also black and white. But no pastels.
I think the problem in the last couple days has been my eyes rebelling against the yellow on white and white on yellow because even tho I had to take out portions of the lilac row several times the mistakes were always in the white row beneath it and that white row was above a pale yellow row which was above a white row..
Ed suggests I set it aside for a couple days. Maybe work with some of those bright colors I've been dreaming about and some of the different stitches. Maybe even learn a new stitch. Can't say I'm not tempted.
But I have visions of not finishing it before my grandnephew has graduated from his crib.
Ed took me exploring in a specialty yarn shop today. The Middleford Yarn and Stitcery Shoppe in Medford. Oh the pallet of color in there. And the textures and the variety of fibers singly or in blends of two or more--linen, bamboo, silk, wool, alpaca, cashmere, rayon, nylon, cotton, even milk!! Hand spun, hand painted, hand dyed among the choices. From chunky to lace in size.
Most of it seemed to be imported from somewhere. The one I brought home to experiment with was from Japan. It is a lace weight and a blend of Rayon 60%, Nylon 25%, wool 10% and cashmere 5%.. I am looking for a light weight yarn to make a spring weight shawl for my MIL for her bday in April. I would like to get started on it as soon as the baby afghan is completed so in the meantime I need to decide on the yarn and on the pattern/stitch I'll be using.
After we got home I played with the Noro for over an hour. I tried several things in terms of stitch size and spacing. I took the picture below of the last thing I tired which was groupings of three quadruple stitches. This won't stay in. I just needed to get a feel for what it would be like working with it and for the size of the stitch I might need to get the lacy look I have in mind. There are several stitches in that card set Ed got me for Xmas that might work for the effect I am after. I want something with a lot of open air between clusters of stitches or maybe something like a lattice. Like chicken wire or a chain-link fence.
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This is the spendiest yarn or thread I've worked with at $16 for 450 meters. I need to be sure I love working with it before I start a large project with it. Before I settle on this one though I would like to try a couple different ones.
If I don't go with the Noro for the shawl I'll probably make a scarf with this single skein as I've already decided it won't work for the bookmarks. It isn't uniform enough in size which causes distortions in the stitches that can look arty in a large project but make something as small as a bookmark look lopsided or distorted.
At the end of the second week I'd hoped to double the first week's 33 rows which would have meant reaching the end of row 66 by mid morning today but I only made it to 54. 12 rows short reflects the three days I split my attention with the new shipment from Joanne.com and the 6 or so rows I had to do twice over the week.
It could have been worse. I just did twelve rows in two days. Plus three re-dos so it could have been 15 or 6.5 per day. But that left very little time for anything else and about zapped my eyes.
But still I'm hoping to keep up a better than 5 row per day pace now instead of the 4 because I'm still hoping to finish by early February and that includes the fringe.
Speaking of the fringe. See all the tails hanging off the edge? That would be a nightmare of tail-tucking with a final total of 155 X 2. But after I'd tried tucking the first few after I'd made one complete iteration of the ten row pattern, I didn't like what it did to the appearance and I came up with an alternative. I'm going to incorporate the tails into the fringe pieces, making sure to attach each fringe piece where the two stop and start colors intersect at the beginning and end of each row, using the same two colors--white plus the pastel. I haven't tried it yet tho so I'm hoping it is going to work.
Another point of concern: I just finished--or came so close to finishing I can't get another row our of it--the second white ball of bamboo thread. I got only 13 rows this time instead of the 15 last time. I am hoping this doesn't mean that I've loosened my tension so much that the more recent rows have increased in size over the early rows by so much that even blocking can't square it back up.
Well. Back to work. I haven't even started work since I woke at 9pm and I've usually had a row or two done by 9. I count as a day's work that which is done during my wake period which usually begins in the afternoons but tonight began at 9 because Ed got home from work early and lay down for a nap and slept so hard he didn't wake up for dinner and because I myself had stayed awake until noon today and without him to call me or disturb me with his activity I slept through mostly too though I do remember waking at 6 something and trying to wake him and again at seven when Merlin fell attempting to cross my pillows to get to his window perch and left two long scratches on the inside of my left forearm.
And yet I still went back to sleep. It's been nearly three weeks since Ed went back to day shift but we are both apparently still having difficulty acclimating to it.
wallpaper See why I've taken to call this my cockpit? I feel as though I'm climbing n and out of a fighter jet cockpit whenever I have to get up.
In the forefront there is my netbook on a tray set on a box . Usually my left foot is off the edge of the bed planted on a box that is there so my leg doesn't hang because all kinds of nasty things happen to a leg when it hangs over the edge of something. My right leg then is usually on the other side of the netbook which, if I'm crocheting, usually has a video playing.
To my left as I sit here in my cockpit typing this sits the vinyl case mentioned in yesterday's post that now contains all the newer size 10 thread. It sits atop the printer on my desk which is where the netbook has to go when I'm ready to sleep. At which point the vinyl case full of thread goes under the desk aka TV tray.
Where you see the thread on the bed is approximately where my butt is planted.
But let's take a closer look at the thread displayed there:
wallpaper These are all thread bought since late summer out of which I've made zero to two bookmarks. My camera had a low battery so I set this display up to get a single shot I could crop several times for the story(s) I had to tell.
In last night's post I said I was going to start crocheting something from one of the new threads as soon as I was posted. I didn't get posted until after 4am this morning though and almost decided to sleep even though that was two to three hours early for me of late. But I couldn't bear to wait to actually start something with one of the threads that came in the mail yesterday. So i chose the Lizbeth size 20 Bubble Gum and the first and easiest and quickest bookmark pattern--the shell stitch:
wallpaper I had a frustrating time of it, making so many mistakes and having to take out so many stitch and several times whole rows, that I'm sure I stitched the equivalent of 20 rows to get the required 12.
I should have taken that as a sign of severe fatigue and quit.
But the whole time I worked that one I was mentally drooling over the idea of doing a bookmark with the interweave stitch that I learned for the baby afghan and the color combo I wanted to see it in first was black and whit. I'd gotten a black Cebelia size 20 in my previous Joanne.com order and had sent for the snow white Cebelia size 20 in this order especially so I could do two-color bookmarks.
So as I cut the thread on the Bubble Gum bookmark, I decided that I could manage to do three rows before quitting. That would allow me to see the white on the black and the black on the white.
wallpaper So I pulled the two balls out of the small box where I keep all my sizes 20 and 30. But the white one still had its cellophane wrapper on and I tried to hold both balls in my left hand has I peeled it off with my right.
BIG MISTAKE
The black ball slipped and tumbled...
wallpaper Into my water tumbler which sets under my elbow.
Soaked like a sponge in bathwater it was.
I spent the next hour fussing with it. First wringing it out inside a towel until I could get no more drops out. Then trying to find a way to set it over the heat vents without setting it on the floor where Bruiser or Merlin would think it was a toy. Finally sticking it inside one of Ed's dress socks in the toe and hanging the top end off a stack of boxes beside the vent in the kitchen.
There I left it as I headed to bed. And there it stayed until 8pm after Ed and I had eaten. When I first pulled it out of the sock I was encouraged to feel the dry of the outer layers but when I squeezed it I felt the coolness that signifies dampness and when I stuck my finger inside the hole I felt significant dampness in the inside layers.
So I put it back in the sock and tied a not in the sock just above the ball and put it in the dryer on high heat on the moisture cycle set at the top end of the dry side. This cycle is supposed to run until the moisture level reaches the percentage indicated by the setting and I'd set it at the driest setting available. I didn't get to find out if the thing would have come out entirely dry once the dryer stopped because my MIL turned it off as they head for bed which I'd told her to do since the machines are right outside their door and that thing sounded like a tennis ball bouncing on a bass drum.
I left it sit in there another hour until it had a chance to cool down but also because at the time I was busy making an interweave stitch bookmark with cardinal red and dusty rose. I had to make the first two rows twice because of mistakes in count and skipped stitches so I stopped in mid row three to take the pictures, prep them and get posted.
First I checked on the black thread though. And found its center still damp but significantly less so and the dry layers on the outside go deeper. I can't do anything more about it until morning. The heat is off, the dryer too noisy as well would be a hair dryer so I think I'm going to go ahead and work a blank and white interweave bookmark tonight after I finish this one:
wallpaper And after that I need to get back to work on the afghan. If I don't get at least a row done before I sleep I will have skipped two day's work which adds up to eight or nine rows behind schedule. From now on until the afghan's done I will allow myself to start my crochet session with one bookmark using the newer threads but must then make my quota on the afghan before doing anymore on any other project.
Niece's labor was supposed to be induced today but we have not heard any word yet.
Seen on the flap are the variegated Lizbeth size 20 (Bubble Gum: red, pink, aqua) and the size 20 Snow White DMC Cebelia and the silver and gold metallic thread intended for embroidering on wide solid-color ribbon. Yet another bookmark concept.
In the box, standing up against the back wall, are the tubes of 3 Lilac and 3 Buttercup Aunt Lydia's Bamboo. I sent for so many at once because I wanted to be sure I had plenty for the afghan with at least one for the bookmarks. I've never found the Lilac in the stores and the yellow only once and not in the last three months. So I had sent for one Lilac in my last order and had the one yellow I'd found in the store awhile back when I started the afghan.
In the bottom of the box are the cotton or Bamboo all but one size 10.
Top row left corner: True Blue and Crystal Blue of the Knit-Cro-Shen brand.
Top row right corner: Knit-Cro-Shen Pastels. (I'm collecting variegated pastels, hoping to find the one used in that bookmark I found in my Dad's book in 2006. The fertilizer of my current bookmark-making craze)
Middle row left to right: Aunt Lydia's Bamboo Twig (brown), Aunt Lydia's Bamboo Coral, Aunt Lydia's Bamboo Cruise Blue (size 3). Would have gotten in size 10 if they'd had it and now devoutly hope they will soon as it is a shade of Aqua which I'd love to combine with the Coral, Twig, Brown or White. Next in the middle: Aunt Lydia's Aspen Multi (brown, green, cream and blue?), Aunt Lydia's shades of Yellow
Bottom row: Aunt Lydia's Blue Hawaii, Aunt Lydia's River Blue, Aunt Lydia's Dark Royal, Aunt Lydia's Violet.
I've mentioned several times since making that order a bit over a week ago that I was going to have problems finding room for it. I'd hoped to get it all reorganized before the order arrived. Until a couple days ago when I decided I might as well wait and make organizing part of the fun of exploring the new order as it would provide opportunity to put new colors next to older ones to anticipate cool combinations for multicolor patterns.
I got called to dinner before fully exploring the contents of the box but immediately after dinner and dishes I started gather all the thread from all the places it was stored or had strayed and separating into various groups that made sense to me. Today's box of course; all that has been added before today but after my arrival home from Longview in mid August; the afghan stash; the replacements for colors getting low; and the storage drawers as they existed after I finished unpacking in August.
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Thread bought before this order but after my return home in mid August
Some of these were from a previous Joanne.com order but the majority were from various shopping expeditions to the Joanne store, Michael's or WalMart
After this picture was taken, I took out all but the size 10 cotton and the two bamboo and added all the size 10 cotton from today's Joanne.com order, one each of all the bamboo colors--including those from the Joanne box, the original blue and white balls I've had nearly a year and raiding the afghan stash for green, yellow, lilac, and pink, which I can spare since deciding to make the smaller version. So now I can start making bookmarks using these colors singly or together in 2, 3 , 4, 5 and 6 color patterns.
I pulled out the five Sugar n Cream skeins intended for the crewel embroidery on my Mom's cotton knit sweater and put in a separate bag. I'll soon be making up a project bag that includes the sweater itself.
The vinyl case seen in the picture once contained the set of fleece sheets Ed got for Christmas. But between then and now it held the Sugar n Cream and all of the extra bamboo for the afghan. Now it holds all the size 10 cotton and bamboo of which I've made zero to very few bookmarks and so I wish to keep them near me until I've made one each of the single color patterns and at least one for each color in a multicolor pattern whether combined with the colors in the case or in the drawers. So I've stashed that vinyl case under my desk atop the boxes contain office misc. which puts it inches from my left knee as I sit on the bed
I combined all my size 20 and 30 thread--from the drawer the box and the vinyl case--into a shoebox-sized box setting next to my printer inches from my left elbow as I sit on the bed. This is where I've been keeping many of them for several weeks. I often just grab the end of a thread and a size 9 or smaller crochet hook and leaving the ball in the box work a bookmark in 20 to 40 minutes. I've enjoyed this practice so I'm leaving the box there for now and making it the home of all size 20 and 30. I may add my size 50 and 100 white and the two tatting thread balls all from my Mom's stash.
wallpaper Left: the baby afghan project w/one ea of the six colors in the white bag atop the blue bag w/ the rest of the bamboo thread for the afgan--5 white & 1 or 2 of ea pastel
Right: a craft bag temporarily holding the 7 replacement balls for colors running low
BTW I got my four row quota on the afghan before I slept this morning. In spite of having to take out three quarters of the last row I worked and putting it back in. I haven't started working on since waking to find my Joanne.com box ans so probably won't make my 4 to 5 row quota before I need to sleep.
In fact I may just give myself the day off entirely and start crocheting with my new thread as soon as I'm posted. If I have time before I sleep that is as I didn't get started writing this until after 1AM as I didn't get the bed cleared off until 11pm and then I'd misplaced my camera with the pictures on it and spent 40 some minutes looking for it and another half hour processing for posting.
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The two drawers holding the thread I had collected by early August.
On the left is the drawer containing all my size 10 solids as of mid August. When all balls are full this drawer holds four double rows of six with three on the bottom and three on top but when one or more of the balls are at least half gone I can fit a forth one in its row. Which is why you see four in the middle two rows. I probably could have fit another one in the row seen at bottom left as the black and the white (under the black) are well over half gone.
The drawer on the right contains all non size 10 and/or non solid and/or old and/or non-cotton and/or novelty thread and/or remnants. There are many that fit two or more of those criteria, like the size 30 variegated from Ed's grandma's stash--one of the original 8 or 9 partial balls that seeded this obsession nearly two years ago. Some of the old came from my mom's stash--again in various sizes. And some of the old--also in various sizes--were found in a thrift store by my sister.
This drawer had room to spare still before the latest order and even was holding some of the replacement balls. But now, if I were to put in all the thread that fit any of those criteria I could not close the drawer.
There is a third drawer in the chest which currently holds yarn. But it is so overstuffed it is a major hassle to open and close so I'd already been thinking of moving the yarn somewhere else to make room for more crochet thread. I suppose I'll be doing that soon.
The baby afghan for my grand-nephew due day after tomorrow is now 33 rows and measures 36 inches (or 300 stitches) by 6.25 inches. This represents 1 week of fairly dedicated crocheting. I seem to be averaging 4.5 rows per day.
My plan has been to crochet 205 rows for 41 inches. That last inch represents the extra blue row and the two extra rows of white at each end. I added these to the twenty iterations of the ten row pattern for aesthetic effect. I can't explain why but I wanted each end framed with two whites and a blue.
As of yesterday though I am seriously considering making it square at 36 X 36 or 185 rows. That would be two iterations less and thus four days less.
Another option would be to make the rows go the long way on a 36 by 30 inch rectangle which would mean 150 rows and thus 10 days less to finish. This would mean having a chance to get it in the mail by the second week of February. Depending of course on how long it takes to put on the fringe which is to be 5 fringe pieces in every inch on all four sides or one per row and one every other stitch.
But I've already bought all the yarn for the projected 40 inch version at one ball per 15 rows. So the 36X36 would give me one extra white ball and insure I don't need to dip into the second of each of the pastel (umm depending on how much the fringe takes). But I guess that's not really a drawback seeing as before this project I had only acquired one each of blue and white of the bamboo thread. Now I have four more pastels and a fifth on its way in the Joanne.com order due this weekend (coral) and three shades of brown and tan (twig, mushroom, natural). This means I can do variations on each of the six or seven bookmark patterns with each 1, 2, 3...10 color combinations I now have available. Fun!
But as I was laying this out for the picture I flashed on an idea. What about a detachable hood? I think it would need to be approximately 7X14 inches folded in half the long way with one side sewn together and several buttons sewn onto the two short sides that could be buttoned onto one of the corners of the blanket. This could serve as a sun shade and extend the usefulness of the smaller blanket for several months.
wallpaper Well this would be at least a five day project so if I decide to do it, I won't wait until it is done to mail the afghan to my niece as it can always be sent along later. She probably wounldn't need it before April anyway.
I just had to pull the third blue row out of the baby afghan for the second time in twelve hours.
This is the kind of thing that tends to make me crazy with frustration, second guessing and self-loathing.
Not to mention project loathing.
To make matters worse I spilled the left over peas while clearing the table tonight and made a mess all over the table, the side of the table cloth, my pant leg and foot, the floor and the chair leg. Who knew pea juice could be so sticky!
My MIL had to come in and clean it up as I'd have likely made a bigger mess of it. Plus I was hopping on one foot trying to clean the other with a paper towel so as not to track it. She's going to have to mop the entire kitchen floor again.
I had to get a shower and put on clean clothes in order to protect the bedding and the afghan as I continued working. I blithely finished the blue row which I'd left off at the call to dinner with about twenty to thirty stitches left or two to three inches. Out of 300 stitches or 36 inches.
Then I inspected the row looking for egregious mistakes. The kind that mess up the pattern or stymie the stitches on the next row. Again I'd made it almost to the far end of the row before finding the error. I'd already heaved that big sigh of relief and almost begun to reach for the scissors to clip the white thread of the row below so I could bring it around to start the next row.
The mistake was very similar to the one I made this morning before I slept--I'd skipped a stitch (which meant nothing to attach the stitch in the next row to once I'd worked it back that far) and had 'fixed' the hitch in the pattern by repeating a double crochet instead of alternating with the triple as required. This morning I'd made the mistake in stitches three thru six. This evening it was stitches fourteen thru seventeen.
Like I said. This is the kind of thing that makes me crazy.
But last night Ed and I watched Chitty Chitty Bang Banb together and the song about roses growing in the ashes of failure spoke to me and later I'd hunted for it on YouTube so I had it handy to refresh my spirit.
And I'm reminded to be grateful that I found the error before I put in the next row. Because I would have found it when I reached that point and then had to take out two rows!!
Like I did twice with the first green row first with white row below it and then with the white row above it. That experience prompted me to inspect each row before starting the next. That takes about three minutes but saves me up to 70 minutes if a mistake is found. For though I have to take out the current row back to the mistake I don't have to take out the portion of the row above that was worked back to the mistake.
The theme of the song, Roses of Success, is that mistakes always teach you something you can build on for the next try. This time I think the lesson is that I need to inspect the current row any time I'm interrupted enough to put the work down. Because I do believe both mistakes in the blue row today occurred as I resumed work after such an interruption.
Roses of Success Lyrics:
Every bursted bubble has a glory! Each abysmal failure makes a point! Every glowing path that goes astray, Shows you how to find a better way. So every time you stumble never grumble. Next time you'll bumble even less! For up from the ashes, up from the ashes, grow the roses of success! Grow the roses! Grow the roses! Grow the roses of success! Oh yes! Grow the roses! Those rosy roses! From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success! (spoken) Yes I know but he wants it to float. It will! For every big mistake you make be grateful! Hear, hear! That mistake you'll never make again! No sir! Every shiny dream that fades and dies, Generates the steam for two more tries! (Oh) There's magic in the wake of a fiasco! Correct! It gives you that chance to second guess! Oh yes! Then up from the ashes, up from the ashes grow the roses of success! Grow the roses! Grow the roses! Grow the roses of success! Grow the roses! Those rosy roses! From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success! Disaster didn't stymie Louis Pasteur! No sir! Edison took years to see the light! Right! Alexander Graham knew failure well; he took a lot of knocks to ring that bell! So when it gets distressing it's a blessing! Onward and upward you must press! Yes, Yes! Till up from the ashes, up from the ashes grow the roses of success. Grow the roses! Grow the roses! Grow the roses! Grow the roses! Grow the roses! Grow the roses! Grow the roses of success! Grow the roses! Grow the roses! Grow the roses! Those rosy roses Those rosy roses Those rosy roses From the ashes of disaster, grow the roses of success! Start the engines! Success! Batten the hatches! Success! Man the shrouds! Lift the anchor! Success!
wallpaper Weaving blessings into a blanket for a grand-nephew, the very definition of serenity.
I am half done with row 21 of 205 which makes it 10% after five days. Not counting the fringe attachment after the rows are complete. This is also the last row of the second iteration of the pattern. 18 more to go.
I made the 5 row quota for the first time yesterday. Just think what I could have done if I hadn't spent two hours hunting for a crochet hook that I'd left exactly where it belonged.
I don't know if I'm going to be able to keep up the pace though as I am missing the other colors and textures terribly already. May have to allow myself to do a bookmark or two every other day or so.
But I am going to try to push as hard as I can until my box of new thread arrives from Joanne.com late this week or early next. If I am still on or ahead of pace then I may allow myself to indulge in a day or three of playing with the new stuff.
So, after all the frustrations of the last several days that prevented me from getting started, I'm pleased to report that I've begun the baby afghan and completed four full rows in the last 24 hours.
Above is a closeup of the two ends of the approximately 36 inch strip showing both front and back. The first two rows went quick at 70 minutes each but they were straight double crochet and I wasn't surprised that the first row to interweave with the row below, alternating triple crochet stitches with double crochet slowed me down considerably. But I was surprised by how much and anxiously hoped throughout that it would be a fluke and later rows would go smoother. That hope was met when the next white row interweaving with the blue went off without a hitch and seemingly quick tho I forgot to time it.
I'm concerned about how long rows will take because I hope to get a reliable estimate of how many hours I need to dedicate to this project and so I can establish a reasonable quota of rows per day in order to finish before March 1.
My intent for the size is approximately 30 inches by approximately 40 inches. Before or after the 2 inch fringe I'll be adding to all four sides.
When I made the starting chain I stopped and measured it after every 100 count and it went over 30 inches by several after 300 chains. Now it measures nearly 18 when folded in half and laying flat which means it is nearly 36 inches.
I started the fifth (yellow) row in order to confirm that there will be five rows to the inch. To get forty then I need 200 rows. But I also need to satisfy my aesthetic sensitivity by insuring that there is a complete iteration of the pattern in those final inches. One iteration involves 10 rows: white--blue--white--yellow--white--lilac--white--pink--white--green. Thus I need 20 interations to make 200 rows. But also to satisfy my aesthetic taste I'm insisting that it ends in blue as it started so I'll add another white and blue and then two whites, the first interwove with the final blue but the last a straight double crochet that is not interwoven which I am thinking will make adding the fringe later easier. So, counting those first and last rows and the white--blue--white added atop the green of the 20th iteration, I'll have 205 rows. Or I could leave off at 19 iterations and have 195 rows plus the fringe.
I am guessing, based on today's experience, that my time per row will average 90 minutes. For 200 rows that adds up to 18000 minutes or 300 hours. Which means 4 to 5 hours per day through the end of February.
The picture below shows the full strip folded in half along with the six spools of bamboo thread inside sandwich bags which was my solution to the problem of the loops of thread slipping off the roll and tangling. The main source of my frustration Sunday, Monday and Tuesday as I posted about preciously. The solution really does seem to be working.
wallpaper If you're wondering what that teeny baby doll seen next to my work is all about. Well those were from my Mom around my birthday in November. They are vinyl I think. She got them for me because she knows I'm really into baby dolls of all sizes and also into all kinds of miniatures. She also thought I might be able to use them as decoration for the bookmarks. I probably will eventually with at least some of the 10 but meanwhile I discovered their usefulness as unravel prevention by putting the loop where I'm leaving off around the baby's waist and pulling it snug. At first I was just slipping it over the head but that was kinda creeping me out.
I just spent most of the last two days getting this snarl out of the blue bamboo thread I'm going to be using for the baby afghan. From 3 Monday afternoon until noon today (with brief interruptions for dinner and tending to laundry) and again from 5 to 9pm this evening. After all of that I'm not going to be able to use the thread I salvaged for the afghan or any gift quality work for that matter. I may use it for practicing new stitches or testin guage with various size hooks. Though there are long stretches of it that look fine in texture and color, there are too many snags, splits, frizzies, and dingy looking sections.
I did follow though on my idea of putting the thread balls in to separate sandwich baggies. The kind with the zip lock. I haven't tested it out in action but it does seem likely to work--to allow the thead freedom to unspool as I wok without falling off in great gobs. It also keeps the spools from rubbing against each other which will minimize friction fraying. I'm anxious to get started now. I'm three days past my intent to begin and three weeks past my hopes for an earlier start.
Oh, I did take time out last night to make another Joanne.com order. I'm so excited. When I told Ed there was another free shipping coupon in my email but for a minimum of $50 order I didn't really expect he'd be able to make it happen for me but he didn't even hesitate.
It's my biggest order yet and I'm getting several new treads. I'm also stocking up on the yellow and lilac for the baby afghan with 3 each because those two colors are hard to get in the store. The lilac is available only online and the yellow has only occasionally been available at the store. If I'd known how to estimate how much it was going to take I might have stocked up on the other colors since the white, blue, green and pink as well as the yellow were also nearly a dollar less than the regular price. The lilac wasn't sale priced and it's regular price is a bit more than the regular price of the other colors.
But I'm just as glad I don't know yet how much I'm going to need as then I'd have felt obligated to make the order about the afghan and I wouldn't be getting all the little treats. Which I will wait until they arrive to talk about as then I can have pictures. Besides I am so about getting started on that afghan NOW!
I got two of the bookmarks I crocheted recently tucked, blocked and dressed last night. They're all dressed up because they do have somewhere to go.
The one at top is the one I experimented with the new Interweave stitch I discussed in last night's post with the bamboo thread I'm intending to use on the baby afghan for my niece. I've decided to send it to her as a congrats gift upon the birth of her son, due January 7. But I'm still debating whether to tell her that I'm making an afghan for the baby based on that thread and pattern. See she will have reason to wonder whether I'll have it finished by the time he starts school because I have yet to finish the needlepoint bible cover I started for her sixteen birthday nearly ten years ago.
Below is one I made for the daughter of a friend. It was supposed to be a Christmas gift.
One of the things I've developed a habit of doing when I know who the bookmark (or any item actually) is for, is to think loving thoughts towards that person as I work, send blessing to them. A kind of meditative prayer state as I work. Hence the 'blessed' in the post title.
And as you can see I continue to name my little darlings.
wallpaper Jazzed
Well I've got a lot on my agenda tonight. I'm going to be doing laundry throughout the night while watching 11 episodes of Castle season 2 which was due back at the library today. I'll be crocheting as I watch of course. I'm hoping to start the afghan before I sleep. But I found a huge tangle in the blue bamboo thread when I woke today and I've already spent two hours working at it. One of the drawbacks of working with this lovely thread is that it won't stay on the ball. It keeps falling off in loops as in bunches of loops and if I don't discover it immediately it is liable to tie itself in knots. At least this time it was only with itself and not the five other balls in the bag.
I'm about ready to set this ball aside and break out one of the new ones for the project so I can get started. I have a plan in mind to prevent it from happening again. I am going to stick each individual ball into sandwich baggies so they aren't rubbing on each other.
wallpaper 101 Stitches to Crochet edited by Erika Knight Published by Interweave Press. one of their Harmony Guides
This box of cards featuring 101 crochet stitches was part of my Christmas present from Ed. There is an accordion folded booklet with some basic instructions and visual how-tos for the several basic stitches and their abbreviations which will help me learn to read patterns finally. There is a card with a key to iconic images of stitches and other instruction used in the graphic patterns.
The rest of the cards, measuring 5x6.5 inches, feature one stitch per card with a nice actual size photo of a sample swatch of the stitch on one side and the instructions on the back in both words (with abbreviations) and a graphical pattern to follow for however many rows are needed to complete one iteration of a pattern.
The card I've featured here is of the stitch I chose to use on the baby afghan I'm going to make for my niece in Montana who is due January 7th. I won't get it done in time obviously but I hope to finish by early spring. It isn't a winter afghan anyway. I'm using bamboo thread size 10. I made that bookmark seen there in the middle to practice the stitch and pattern and experiment with hook sizes and so forth.
The stitch is called Interweave and lends itself well to multi-color patterns. I'm going to have fun with it on the bookmarks too. I'm picturing dozens of color combinations that have me mentally drooling as I type.
The pattern you see there in the bookmark is what I'll be doing for the baby afghan. It alternates white with the five pastels: blue, lavender, pink, green, and yellow. In order to get the interesting effect of color on color you must change thread on every row. That bookmark has 23 rows. Which means it had 46 tails to tuck.
I have no idea how many rows the afghan will take but I intend to make it approximately 33X44 inches probably including the 2 inch fringe on all four sides. On the bookmark, when using the size 6 hook which I think I've settled on, I got about 10 stitches to the inch working a row. I got about 4 rows to the inch.
I haven't done the math yet to figure out how many stitches per row and how many rows I'll likely need to do. I'll have to do that in order to know how long to make the starting chain.....
33X10 = 330. 44x4 = 176.
Yikes. How to I keep track once I get past ten chains? I have trouble with that doing the bookmarks that use 11 to 40 odd chain.
Ai Yi Yi.
The bookmark with 13 stitches by 23 rows took me most of a night to work. Of course I was learning the stitch and there was the factor of having to stop and switch threads after every thirteen stitches so I could not build up a rhythm. I guess I'll see how it goes once I start working the 330 stitch rows.
I hope I have it done before the kid starts school!!!!
We; got home from the family Christmas gathering about 9:30 and tho I was exhausted and all I wanted to do was crash on the bed, I couldn't even sit on it until I got it cleared off. It took me two hours and it still isn't done right. Stuff is stuffed in willynilly.
The unmade bed was layered in pillows and blankets, bath towels and clothes, books, wrapping paper and tissue and product packaging and shopping bags and several of my crochet projects and several more loose balls of crochet thread and things I bought for myself while shopping for last minute Christmas gifts this afternoon.
While shopping for my gift for Ed I was also shopping for more crochet thread for two time sensitive projects. One for my Mom's birthday January 3 and the other for my niece's baby due January 7th. Besides four skeins of Sugar N cream yarn for the first and five skeins of bamboo crochet thread for the latter, I picked up two skeins of bamboo and one of cotton for my bookmark projects. I am totally running out of room to store the thread.
Recently I started keeping balls and skeins of thread and yarn in project kits in order to keep some of them out of the overstuffed drawers holding my thread and yarn collection. But now I've run out of room to keep the project bags. And besides it is another bad habit of mine (related I'm sure) to collect projects until I'm so overwhelmed I can't finish any of them.
The project for my Mom is the same one I started a year and a half ago. I was supposed to embroider a sweat pea vine on one of her sweaters that my sister had created several small bleached spots on. I blogged about it several times summer before last. I'd hoped to have it done by her birthday this year (11 and a half months ago) but had gotten discouraged by one issue after another stemming from my not knowing what I was doing. The biggest issue being that embroidery floss does not play well with yarn. The sweater is knit in a cotton sport yarn and I've been trying to find a compatible cotton yarn to work the flowers and vine for over a year now. I had looked at the Sugar N Cream brand before and thought it might work if I could find the solid colors I needed--green and at lest three pastel shades. But all I ever saw were the variegated colors. A couple weeks ago I found the shade of green I needed for the vine. Today I found lavender, rose and aqua.
The bamboo thread I picked up today was to augment what I got in the Joanne.com order last week. At the time I sent for it I thought I had until March so had not ordered enough to complete the baby afghan I had planned for my expecting niece in Montana. I'm still not sure I have enough but by the time I've used half of what I have I will know exactly how much it is likely to take to finish.
I was going to list the Christmas presents I got today but I'm wiped out. I had only three hours of sleep before Ed woke me to get ready for the shopping. I came so close to not going. Ed offered to take me on Sunday instead. That would have been fine for the afghan thread but it would have meant not including my gift to Ed in this weekend's family festivities and that didn't sit well. It has been several years since Ed gave me money to shop for him. Last year he wanted his laptop and the year before it was his MP3 player and though I went with him, he did the shopping and selecting.
This year I got for him. I'd known for months what I wanted to get him too. He had been expressing and interest in getting back into his hobby of bead weaving with seed beads. I got him a beading loom and about ten packages of seed beads covering most of the main colors in the palette. Both brights and pastels. I added a few storage containers since the packages were cellophane and would not hold the beads once opened.hub
He got me another set of headphones to replace the ones he got me for my birthday and which I killed two weeks later on Thanksgiving morning when I let my netbook slide off the bed where it landed on the plug and broke it clean off.
He added to that a USB hub with four ports. I've been complaining about having to unplug the DVD drive or the mouse in order to plug in the printer or camera.
He added to that a crochet stitch guide that is a set of cards in a box instead of a book. 101 stitches to learn.
He put all of that in a cloth 'gift bag' which will serve as another craft bag. It is just like the one he put my headphones in on my birthday only different pattern.
Ed got a set of chocolate brown fleece sheets and a cooling platform for his laptop from his Secret Santa who turned out to be his Sister for whom I had been Secret Santa.. The one I made the shawl for.
I got a set of black Jerzy sheets for the bed, a fleece jacket and a sweater-shirt from my Secret Santa who turned out to be my niece again. The niece who lives locally and is still in high-school. I was her Secret Santa last year.
Ed got 2 pair of jeans from his folks and I got fleece lounge pants and $20 check to spend on thread, beads and ribbon for my bookmarks.
Well. another family gathering begins in twelve hours.....
This is the blue and purple shawl I'm making for my Sister-in-law whose name I drew out of the bowl at the close of last year's family Xmas to-do. Ed's family switched to drawing names for the honor of giving one nice gift to one family member instead of giving two dozen dollar store gifts.
I drew Ed's sister's name and decided to crochet either an afghan or shawl for her. Am also making a coaster set out of crochet thread but I may not get them ready by Friday. I still have to take out twelve rows and put back in eight on one of them--I mistakenly repeated two stripes about half way between the end and the center--and then attach the embroidery floss fringe to all eight ends. That's 33 half inch pieces times 8.
I finally broke down and asked Ed to go pick up another skein of the yarn for the fringe on the shawl. I'd been planning to just take out one row at a time until I had enough fringe pieces. He picked it up this morning before he left for work so I made this my main focus for today hoping to have enough done in order to ease his anxiety over me having it ready to wrap long before we leave for the family to-do on Friday afternoon.
He has reason to be anxious as last year I was crocheting the neck scarf for my niece all night and right up to the hour we left for the to-do in early afternoon. And then trying to put the finishing touches on a bookmark during the fifteen minute car ride and then another half hour hidden away in one of the bedrooms at his brother's house with the family waiting on me for the last five to ten of those minutes.
Attaching the fringe pieces to the shawl today is just the first step. I'm going to be tying some knots similar to macrame and then distressing the ends to make them look fluffy like a long-haired cat's tail. I'd also like to put the same fringe along one long side so that there is fringe hanging down over the hips. But I decided to stop and do the knots and distressing of the two end sections and see where I am time-wise.
I draped the shawl around the office chair at the computer desk in the front room to give as good an impression as possible of what it will look like worn. I was hoping to also get a shot of the back but my camera batteries gave up the ghost after one.
The length reaches from my nose to my toes when held up in front of me before the fringe. When draped around my shoulders the ends reached my wrists and the back edge my waistband. Again, before the fringe. That's why I would still like to put fringe on the one long side so it will cover the hips. But that will mean another 75 or so fringe pieces to attach, knot and distress. Which is about the equivalent of doing two more ends.
Just took my daily LOLcat break. Captioned several myself this week and thought I'd just share a few of those that didn't head an earlier post.
I've been crocheting like mad all week--30 bookmarks from the new thread acquired since Monday. Yeah, I know I said I was supposed to set the new thread aside after Wednesday and return to the work on the Xmas gifts which now consists mostly of tail tucking and fringe applying.
Sigh.
Just did not have the will to resist the siren calls of the 16 new colors and textures.
Well I now have two left to crochet to meet the goal of two of each new thread color and type that joined my rainbow this week. Altho I've only worked single color patterns and am itching to start combining them in the multi-color patterns, I think once I get these last two done I can set aside the new thread and return to the Xmas gift projects with resolve. I have until Friday afternoon to have them ready for our family todo.
This afternoon while making my lunch, the knife sank unexpectedly fast into the over ripe avocado and sliced across the first knuckle of my left index finger.
It was minor as far as knife injuries go. Little more than a paper cut tho it bled enough to need a bandage. But a bandage wrapped around the first knuckle of a finger makes typing a challenge. Forget speed.
Worse than that (tho I'd probably ranked it differently last month during NaNo) is the awkwardness it lends to crocheting what with the very finger that's supposed to control the tension on the thread and dole it out at the proper speed being hampered by the bandage which prevents bending and blocks the sense of touch (I can't feel the thread) and provides a slick surface right where the thread needs to lay on which it slips and slides any which way but the right way.
I can't take the bandage off until I'm sure the rubbing of the thread won't restart the bleeding. Since I'd loose several times as many minutes as I saved in washing the blood out of my work or redoing it entirely I must either accept slow and awkward or set it aside entirely for another pass time. Say reading one of those library books due next week.
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