Woes of the Dementor Knucks; Or, Why it isn't recommended to wait a year* before starting the second glove

Last fall, the boyfriend, his DD, and myself attended the fiber festival that is held annually at the Hunterdon County 4H fair. After a day of petting tons of adorable - and aromatic - farm animals and molesting all the fiber and yarn out on display and for sale, I managed to score some beautiful hanks of yarn to throw into my stash. In addition to purchasing stash yarn, I also procured some great Harry Potter themed yarn from Shelby B's Designs for a pair of knucks that the boyfriend requested.



I'm obsessed with being warm. I'm either cold or too hot at any given point of the day and, thus, usually layer myself in clothing and warm-making garments in the cooler months of the year. I made myself a pair of knucks a long time ago, the pair pictured above. I love them - I wear them fall through spring every year. Seeing as I wear them quite frequently throughout the year, the boyfriend got to see them a lot - once he even tried them on, though I begged him to be careful as he has gigantic hands. After deciding that my knucks were just so awesome and convenient, he asked me to make him a pair, too.

While we were at the fiber festival last year, we kept an eye out for yarn in a color that he liked - he was hoping for brown, black or grey. Ultimately, we decided upon the Dementor colorway by Shelby B, a mix of black, gray and purple (which he decided was fitting as purple is my favorite color and, therefore, would remind him of me everytime he wore them).

I got started on winding the hank into a workable yarn ball when we got home that evening, and shortly set to the task of starting his knucks. I had it all figured out, I thought I was being so clever. Seeing as I'm a full-time college student who often takes far too many courses than necessary each semester, my free-time during school is at a minimum. So, I decided that I would make all of the fingers for both knucks first and take extensive notes in order to produce an exact matching glove should I be interrupted by life. Well, my cleverness did not pay off nearly as well as I had thought. Waiting as long as I did to start number 2 after finishing the first one - somewhere like 9 months - proved to be a detriment to the gloves.

Even though my counting was exact both times, I managed to create two different gloves...one has 68 stitches at the cuff, the other is missing 4. One cuff is tighter than the other at the opening (due to this shortage of stitches).

I have been wrestling with undoing the cuff and starting that part again (I can easily increase stitches on the cuff a couple of times in order to create a better match). But then I find myself thinking 'why stop there? why not just rip all the way back to the thumb attachment, count your stitches, then match that the the number of stitches on glove number 1...you have all the rows down pat, just need stitches fixed now.' The perfectionist in me.

The boyfriend insists that he loves them. And that he won't complain a single bit about how tight the one cuff is compared to the other one. Then I think to myself, 'Well, then, you can always just make him another pair, you know. You have brown yarn, now. He likes brown. You could also stripe it with black. He likes black and brown. But this was really nice yarn that you used, it wasn't cheap. Maybe you should just fix the first pair and then make him a pair out of the cheaper stuff later?'

So now I'm cleaning the house in order to keep myself occupied and not think about the knucks for a day. I've been working on them a lot this past week. I've already had to rip back a couple of times - once because I was being stupid and totally messed up the thumb gusset and once because I got antsy and started the 2X2 rib for the cuff early. And that's not to mention all of the times that I had started the crab stitch edging, decided it looked like ass and ripped it back only to start again (that'd be five).

This wasn't the only project to be muffed up in a ridiculous way - the mukluks that I made for my cousin, those too were a victim of poor time management. I started them right around the same time I started the boyfriend's knucks. I made one and then....a whole lot of nothing happened until 9 months later. Following my pattern notes was impossible because I lost them (crap!) and had to just fudge the second slipper. This time, while crafting slipper number 2, I took notes. Extensive notes. After I finished slipper two and realized that it only matched slipper number one in the toe area (the heel and body looked incredibly different), I decided that I was going to redo the first slipper - after all, I only had pattern notes for slipper number 2. Rip, rip, rip. I ripped that puppy all the way back to the first row of the heel gusset. Since this was crochet, it wasn't that difficult of a feat to rip so much of a project out and redo it - knitting tends to be way fussier when I do this. I then found myself with a fairly good pair.

This is probably why I am so tempted to just rip out the cuff from the gloves. I can insert my needles into a straight stockinette row, rip back to that point and try it again....I could insert my needle into the row just above the thumb join and start that again, too....I could also just relax about it, finish the damn gloves, block them and give them to him, already. Poor guy has been waiting almost a year for them.


*so I didn't wait quite a year but, really, "nine months" doesn't read as well as "a year"

This Is Neat

This is neat because.....I have a pair! :D All those old knitting needles my gramma gave me, there was a pair of these mixed in there.

Actually, I think about 90% of the kneedles and hooks I got are from the Hero brand.

But having an advertisement to go along with my vintage needles = epic awesomeness

Yea....

I just realized, I have lots of projects on here that need photos. I'm hoping that we have at least a semi-decent weekend weather wise (meaning sunny, no rain, no wetness) cause I have plans to take pictures of the FOs that I've said "I'll have pictures soon" in the postings.

So that means, hopefully, this weekend I'll be able to put up pictures for:
-The Fugly Granny
-Mukluk style Slippers
-Jammer hat

And, I'll have to take pictures of the following FOs which have yet to debut on here:
-"I Wanna Be A Ninja" Cowl
-"Busty's Hopelessly Long" Skinny Scarf

Also, we have another tentative Stitch N Bitch planned for Thursday. My desire is to bring my camera so that I can take pictures of anyone while knitting. So far it's just going to be Wolfe, Bone and myself. Small, but intimate :)

New Logo...Almost Finished

So I've made another banner for the top of this page.

And I'll be damned if I can't figure out how the frick to center it better.

There's still another aspect to the logo that hasn't been completed yet. But soon, my fiends, soon.

ETA 2/24/09: So it occurred to me, while sleeping, how to fix the centering problem. Pick a new layout. duh. I like this layout MUCH better as it not only centers the banner up top, but it also allows me to further customize the graphic elements of the page better than the previous two layouts. I like it.

In a strange turn of events, I've finally finished my Fugly Granny Square blanket. I finished it earlier than intended, because I had 3 more skeins of yarn I wanted to add to it, but I felt that it really was just big enough. blankets of yarn don't need to be HUGE and, besides, it's much easier to drag it around the house with me as it is :D

That's all for now. A quick, short and to the point post.

Mukluk Slippers Pattern *Pictures Coming Soon*

I finally finished my Mukluk slippers. It ended up turning into such a labor of love for me. But I still think that it didn't take me horrendously long considering I started them this weekend. And, as promised, I took highly detailed notes in order to supply a pattern.

REMINDER: This pattern is sized for women's size 10 feet. An easy way to alter the pattern to fit is to consistently try it on as you are crocheting the front of the slipper.

Items Needed:
+2 skeins of Simply Soft yarn (I used black and pale blue, for high contrast since the pair I envy is off white and black)
+Size K or L crochet hook
+Pom-pom maker
+Slipper bottoms
+Scissors
+Needle and thread OR heavy duty fabric glue

Holding two strands of yarn together, chain 2
Make 6 hdc in 1st ch.
join, chain 2 and make 2 hdc in each chain around (12 sts)
Chain 2, 1 hdc in each stitch around
Chain 2, 2 hdc in each stitch around (24 sts)
Chain 2, 1 hdc in each stitch around for 12 rounds (or until front of slipper is long enough for you. You will want to start the heel when the working round reaches the top of your foot where your ankle joins it)
Make 1 hdc in the next 19 sts (you want about 4 or 5 stitches unworked), chain 2, turn
Skip the first stitch, hdc in next and each st and continue working only these 19 stitches in this manner (missing first stitch on each row) for 8 rows. Or until it fits snugly behind your heel
With right sides together, use a slip stitch to seam the back of the heel shut (to avoid attaching new yarn, I slip stitched down one side of the seam and then back up the other side.)
Make 25 hdc sts around opening, join, chain 2.
Work 6 rounds and on next round, 2hdc in first stitch, 1 hdc in each of next 23 stitches. 2 hdc in last stitch of round. (27 sts)
Next round: 1 hdc in each stitch
next round: 2 hdc in first stitch, 1 hdc in each of next 25 stitches, 2 hdc in last stitch. (29 sts)
Switch directions *optional* and Continue working for 7 more rounds.
On following round, 2hdc in first stitch, 1 hdc in each of next 13 sts, 2hdc in next stitch, 1 hdc in next 13 and 2hdc in last stitch. (32sts)
switch directions again and work 4 more rounds
On next round, *1hdc in 2 sts, chain 2 and skip next stitch* repeat to end
On next round, work 1hdc in each stitch and 1hdc in the chain space.
Work one more row, hdc in each stitch
Fasten off and make 2nd slipper.
Weave in all loose ends of yarn.

After both slippers have been made, make an iCord for each slipper using the method found here or any method you prefer. For my iCords, I used one double strand of blue and one double strand of black to make each cord. My cords were roughly 15 to 18 inches long (I didn't measure them). Make sure you leave a long tail at each end of the cords

After the cord has been made, create 4 pom-poms to attach to each end of the iCords (one pom-pom per cord end). In keeping with the blue and black combo, I made my pom-poms multicolored. I made them in three layers and two of them are blue with two black stripes and two of them are black with two blue stripes (basically: first layer blue, 2nd layer black, last layer blue for the blue ones and first layer black, 2nd layer blue and last layer black for the black ones). You can make your pom-poms however you like to match the slippers.

After everything has been made, take the slipper bottoms (Mine came from a pair of mukluk-esque slipper socks) and attach them to the bottom of the slippers. I used Aleene's Platinum Bond fabric glue because I didn't have any large enough hand sewing needles. You can also stitch the bottoms on. I do have plans to do at least a decorative blue stitch in yarn where the slipper and bottom meet, but I haven't yet.

After the slipper has been attached to the bottom, thread the iCord through the openings in the top of the boot, leaving the loose ends hanging out on one side of each slipper. This is a bit harder for me to describe than I thought. If it's confusing, the pictures will help once I get them taken.

Attach the pom-poms to the ends of the iCord, and then tie the cord into a bow.

And that's basically all there is to it.

Again, Pictures coming soon!

New Logo On The Way?

Indeed! I have started working on a new logo for this page and I am super excited about it. I'm not going to divulge all the details just yet but let me just say that I am truly, truly excited to get something else besides that mess up there *points to top of blog*.

I was inspired by a download the other day. Yep, a download. See, I was reading Lifehacker and there was a post about this great open source illustrator-like program called Inkscape so I downloaded it and am giving it a whirl. So far it is working out wonderfully.

I'm also going to use it to create some awesome derby inspired things to sell. I may have to create a secondary CafePress store to sell just those things. I think I'll also be putting the KOTLD logo onto a shirt and such when I'm done with it.

Can't wait until I'm finished with it!

Mukluk Redux

I started working on making my crochet (yep it won) mukluk slippers this weekend. I was uncertain for quite some time about just what pattern I wanted to use, what stitch I'd want to use and what craft as well. I was waffling between knitting a simple fair isle pattern or crocheting in two colors. But it all got decided when I found a pattern on Crafster for Crochet Mary Jane Slippers and liked the simplicity of the pattern, the shape of the foot on the pattern and the fact that it would work up very quickly. It uses two strands of worsted weight yarn (I decided to hold a black and a pale blue strand together which is kind of like cheating to get two colors, but I like it very much) and the pattern calls for a size L hook.

Unfortunately, even with all 82 crochet hooks, I don't seem to have a size L. I checked my Ravelry hook chart, and even though it told me that I did NOT have one, I still dug through all my hooks anyways. So I settled for using a size K hook.

I also altered the pattern a LOT from the original pattern while creating my slipper. Part of the alteration was due to me not paying attention (that happens more than you could imagine) and the other part was due to not wanting a pair of mary jane style slippers but wanting mukluk slippers.

I'm working the first slipper and thusly still working out the pattern for the leg of the slipper, but once I have that all worked out I will be putting up a pattern. The pattern WILL be for a foot size 10 in womens, but it is incredibly easy to alter the pattern to suit if you try the slipper on while making it (which is what I did). I'll give resizing the pattern a go, but will need people to test the pattern, I'm guessing. I'm sure I'll be able to figure it out even if I've never resized a pattern before. But I'm looking forward to finishing them and as soon as I do, I'll throw my pattern up on here and Ravelry.

The Tale Of The Jammer Hat - Part 3 - The End Is Near

I have completely finished knitting Bone's jammer hat. And while putzing around on Ravelry today (after finding the Hard-Hitting Knitters group yay derby & knitting!), I browsed through all the shared patterns and found out that there is, indeed, a jammer hat pattern in Knock Down Knits. I wish I knew that beforehand, because then I wouldn't have had to tweak and alter a chart and figure out the pattern. BUT that's all good because now that I know this, I'm going to buy said book and knit one of THOSE jammer hats.

All that is left is to work in the yarn ends and tighten up some of the stitches around the stars borders. Then it will be complete and ready for wear. Yes, yes, I know I should attempt SOME form of blocking, but I've been working on this since before Christmas. And the anticipation is starting to wear Bone down I think.

I'm not sure what I'm going to make next, however. I may end up doing my super secret project of greatness. Or I may cast on a new sweater (Top Down Raglan style) since I just got a lovely box of yarn from Joann.com the other day. OK it's nothing fancy because I'm a huge fan of acrylic, but I got lots of yarn for projects I have in mind and one of them is a pair of leg warmers (I have black yarn and purple yarn galore to pick from now) and another is a Freddy Krueger style sweater that I just bought yarn for. All I know is that I need something simple to start before the first Highland Park Stitch n' Bitch next Thursday night at Wolfe's apartment.

See, I've offered myself up as a 'teacher' to help those who do not know how to knit learn how to do so. So I want something that will allow me to show them how to make the stitches as well as be easy for them to see while I'm knitting with it. I'm thinking I need to pick up a big, chunky, light colored yarn and make myself a big, chunky scarf of something. I'll have to do that at some point before next Wednesday. I also offered to bring my ridiculously large collection of knitting needles over in case anyone is lacking in supplies.

I'm hoping that things go well with the Stitch n' Bitch because that would be great to have a place to go knit and such. Of course, the Thursday night date would have to change if I want to keep doing it after school starts back up. That is, of course, unless the group meets until 9 or 10 at night, in which case I could easily go there after my Bio lecture. But I'm getting a little ahead of the game here I think.

Well, here's hoping I get less lazy and finish this damn jammer hat this weekend. Huzzah!

Cause I Need More Needles??

OK so when I was first starting to knit, I found a tutorial online for making your own wooden knitting needles. I was ecstatic because all I had were a few cheapo pairs of needles from the craft store and my interchangeable circular kit. I immediately ran out to the various large chain hardware stores in my area and purchased as many wooden dowels as I could find. And yes, I brought my trusted needle gauge along with me to ensure that I had a nice variety of sizes.

The best part about buying the dowels from the big chain hardware stores is that they tend to have ridiculously long dowels, so you can usually get at least two pairs of needles per dowel if you like your needles exquisitely ridiculously long, like I do

Making the needles from dowels turned out to be one of the easiest things ever and I cursed myself for ever buying needles.

When making needles from dowels: First one needs to measure and mark the dowel to the length of needle you want. Everytime I made needles, I measured the entire length and then divided that by four. I then measured along the dowel and marked each spot where it would be cut.

Next, you need to cut the dowel. In situations like this, it helps to have a guy with power tools hanging around, especially if they have a Sawzall. Otherwise, it's helpful to have your own Sawzall, know how to use it, and be confident when using it. I found the easiest way to cut the dowel down was to cut it in half in the middle and then cut each end in half.

Once your needles are cut down to size, you need to then sharpen one end with a pencil sharpener. I had an easier time doing this by first starting the point off with a nice hand sharpener and then quickly running it in an electric sharpener (provided it fits!) to make the point more uniform. One can always correct a wonky point with sanding, tho. But it's harder to get the point just right when making the larger needles.

After sharpening comes the sanding. You start with a higher grit sand paper and then work your way down to really fine sand paper. After sand paper, you need to rub the needle with wax paper. This helps to give it a nice, smooth finish and fills in any little spots on the needle that would otherwise snag the yarn.

After you're done waxing, you can then glue something to the top of the needle (button, piece of sea glass, a little trinket, a bead, or something made out of polymer clay) and be done with the project, or you can paint them and seal them. I painted mine, but when I did I only painted the top halves of them so that the paint wouldn't bunk up my knitting.

See? Extremely easy. My friend Wolfe wants to start up a knitting group, and I think I might propose that project to those who decide they really enjoy knitting. Like, it could be a project we do in lieu of a knitting night. But it will be totally fun anyways :)

But anyway, the dowel needles are by far the easiest and cheapest method for procuring needles when you are a beginning knitter. But I just stumbled upon a tutorial for making needles out of resin. Using straws. And embedding items such as glitter, gold leaf, powdered minerals and yarn in the needles! Holy jeebs! The main post is here and the tutorial is on this page and is the second one down from the top.

What a completely brilliant idea. It is fairly affordable as far as crafts go, too, since one just needs to snag straws from a fast food establishment in order to create the 'mold'. The only things of notable expense are the dremmel and the resin supplies. But how cool are they? I think they are super beautiful and, if given the right amount of care and attention to the steps would produce lovely needles. I'm personally a big fan of the ones she made with yarn embedded into the resin. They look so neat!

EDIT: And to prove that the last thing in the world I need is more knitting needles.....I went to my list of needles on my Ravelry profile today (1/10/09) and counted all the needles. I have, roughly, 138 pairs of knitting needles, which includes circulars, DPNs and straight needles. And a fun bonus: I own about 82 crochet hooks. The reason for so many? My gramma gave me all of her old knitting and crochet supplies when she gave it up for good (due to arthritis and eyesight). Yep, needles and hooks are not a necessity for me at this point, thanks gramma!

Leg Warmers

I need new leg warmers. Yep. Ones that aren't flared as much as a pair I made out of sweatshirt sleeves.

I have leg warmers, though. I have leopard print ones and skully ones. I also have black and white striped ones. But I want some solid colored ones and in lieu of purchasing them I want to make some because I want to have them be just so.

You see, I went roller skating last night at Kendall Park with Bone. It was super fun but super exhausting cause I hadn't been in so damn long. I also ended up puking as a result. Not from the physical activity, mind you, but from the inhaler I used before I started. I don't really have asthma, but I do sometimes get afflicted by sports induced asthma. Yea I know it's ultra stupid that I smoke. Genius that I am. Ha. So my mom gave me a new inhaler, Proventil HFA, and I used it last night.

I'm giving it back to her today because it made me throw up. Or, at least, that's my best guess as to the cause of the puking. I was otherwise fine before we went skating, I didn't eat anything suspect as far as leftovers go, and I didn't eat a lot during the day. But while skating, I was sipping some water to rehydrate myself since I sweat like a fat, hairy man and I started feeling a little icky. I figured it would pass and for the most part it did while we were at the rink. Then we were heading home and we decided to stop for a drink at the Court Tavern since we hadn't been there in ages (not since the zombie crawl), but then I started feeling icky again on the way there and while we were there. We managed to get home just fine before I puked so I was grateful that I was able to do that in the comfort of our bathroom and not out on the street somewhere. I think the inhaler made me feel bad since that is a side effect of it. So my mom's getting her inhaler back.

But yes, while we were skating, I was wearing leg warmers, black and white striped ones. And I want a pair that is similar in shape to them only plain colors. So I can wear them more readily with my skates. One pair of my skates has blue flames on them and the other pair is leopard print.

I think I'm gunna be plotting out a pair soon enough. But not before I'm done with the hat or my mukluk slippers.

My Love Knows No Bound

Can I just say that I fucking LOVE crochet?? Don't get me wrong, knitting is and always will be my main love in the world of crafts followed closely by sewing, but crochet is fucking amazing.

I just made a dog sweater in two days. Now, granted, I'm sure I could have knitted one in an equal amount of time, but with all the alterations I made on the fly while I created this sweater I would have had a lot of frogging to do had I knitted it. That's one of the things that I love about crochet over knitting. Like, with this dog sweater, I followed the pattern for the leg holes and they were just too huge for my FLB. With knitting, I probably could have knitted a couple of little swatches and sewn them in place. Or picked up stitches on one end of the leg hole and then sewn it down once it was all knitted up. But with crochet, I just chained some stitches and crocheted three rows of DC stitches, securing each row with a slip stitch and that was it. Done.

I also love that I have the ability to crochet pieces onto things. Using the dog sweater again as my example, the original pattern called for crocheting the leg bands and then sewing them on. Pfft. No way. I simply chained the required number of stitches and crocheted the leg bands on the sweater, slip stitching at the bottom of each row to attach it on. Ta-da. Again, with knitting that would have been merely a matter of picking up stitches with some DPNs and knitting the band. So that wasn't much simpler than my first love.

I am making some good progress on the jammer hat as well. I have about 14 more rows of the star pattern and then 14 more rows of solid black knitting before I start the decreases. Of course, I'll probably wind up having to start my decreases early since I didn't use a pattern at all for this hat aside from a general guideline for the decreasing and a chart for the star. But I'm soldiering my way on through and should hopefully have it finished by Monday night at the absolute latest.

I can't wait till I'm at the same level in crochet, where I can just take yarn and a hook and make something. I'm going to attempt that once I finish the jammer hat, I think, in fixing my mukluk sock slippers. I was going to knit them in the Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks stitch, but I may decide to do them in a star crochet stitch which, really, is the same stitch, just a different craft form. All I know is that I want to do a star stitch/HHFD stitch and alternate each 'star' black and the ice blue yarn. I think that would look so neat. Either that or I want to do some ridiculously easy fair isle pattern. One of my many knitting books has some in it that don't look terribly hard. It has solid striped rows and a couple rows broken up with different colored stitches. So we'll see.

The Tale of The Jammer Hat - Part 2 - Intarsia In The Round Makes Me Dizzy

I decided to do the stars intarsia. In the round. And I've realized that I'm a glutton for punishment. Go me. It's starting off a little wonky looking. But thats because there are so many dangling threads behind it. Which will get resolved once it is knitted and finished. But if it STILL looks wonky. Well.

I'm gunna cheat. I'm gunna go around the edge with a double stitch using the purple yarn just to neaten it up. And fatten the star a little too while I'm at it. Huzzah.

I will prevail. And it will turn out beauteous.

I took a break for a few minutes from working on it to do three rows on my OCD scarf. That's uhm. Not going along as planned. I wanted it done by tonight. I failed. Horribly. But that's really only because I have slight ADD when it comes to knitting and such and get focused on one project and neglect my others. Much like the Fugly granny Blanket. That one is not even close to done. I still have two more skeins of yarn to put into it. UGGGGH. Damn my attention span!


Oh and I should also add that by doing the stars intarsia, I've increased the time for which it would be finished. If I luck out, Bone will be sporting her hat next week.

Future WIPS

Oh and I have another mini project that I'm going to be doing for myself.

Bone has these cool mukluk slippers that are knitted in a wonderful fair isle pattern and they look just ever sooooo comfy. So imagine my surprise when I was in Five Below before the holidays and I saw mukluk sock slippers. *Squee!* I found a pair that was in my size and bought them. Imagine how NOT surprised I was when I came home and put them on only to discover the sock part of them was WAY too tight in the calf. *grumble and groan*. So naturally, I'm going to have to make a new body for them and attach the bottoms. I think I am going to use this lovely ice blue yarn that I have and maybe some black yarn to make a pattern....perhaps I will wet my teeth with a simple fair isle? Or, maybe I'll just figure out some clever crochet design using SC and alternating the colors....I'm not sure just yet but I am looking forward to starting it AFTER I finish Bone's hat hehe.

I also plan to make a plastic bag holder for our kitchen. We had a huge problem with them....we had two drawers stuffed SO FULL of plastic bags that they could not be opened more than an inch so I purged the drawers and stashed the bags under one of our counters. One, maybe two, bags of them (there are three) will be going to my mom's house since she's way more conscious about using her cloth shopping bags than we are. And as a result she has no more plastic bags stashed anywhere which is NG No Good because she uses them to clean the litter box for the two cats. So we're giving her a whole huge mess of plastic bags and keeping some for ourselves. So I figured a bag holder is a good way to prevent the drawers from getting jammed up again. Long as we can find a place for all the excess that may not fit into the bag holder. I wonder how long you can make them before they just get ridiculous and comical?

I think I'll also make my mom one that she can hang near the litter box so that way she'll always have the plastic bags nearby and at the ready instead of having to go dig around her one cabinet for them. She may already have a bag holder, but she doesn't hang it anywhere. But, I'll make it anyways because, well, what else am I going to do after work these days before school starts?? Oh yea, I COULD work on my super secret project of awesomosity......

The Tale Of The Jammer Hat - Part 1 - Knitting When Drinking

As mentioned in an earlier post, while at the WFTDA Nationals this year, my roommate Bone saw knitted hats that had stars on either side to look like jammer helmet pannies. She wanted one but the price didn't justify the product. If they were handmade, then it definitely wouldn't have been a bad price at all, but from the picture I saw of them they didn't look handmade at all. So I told her that I could knit on for her.

After picking out her yarn, I stalled for a little bit before I actually started casting on stitches. We're talking a couple of weeks at best, closer to a month at worst since Nationals was in the beginning of November...heh. So I casted on my stitches and decided on a K3P1 rib for the band. And this is where I hit trouble. I casted on 133 stitches (132+1 so I could knit the last stitch casted on with the first one casted on to alleviate any gap that would form since I am knitting it in the round). I should mention now that I was drinking while I started it (although that could be inferred from the title of this post).

The first few rows are a hot mess. They don't line up at all. The rest of the ribbing is mostly on par with one small exception that is too minuscule for a non-knitter to notice, which is naturally bugging me yet since I've knitted so far away from it I'm not about to rip back. Hell no. Not with all that I've done THIS far.

I solved the wonky stitch problem by making it a double thick brim. I knitted about 10 rows in the rib pattern, then I purled a row and then proceeded to knit 9 more rows in the rib pattern. On the 10th row, I picked up each cast on stitch and knitted (or purled) it with the stitch on my live row. It was slow going but PHEW! Did it ever save me from seaming! I'm not a big fan of seaming when I shouldn't have to, so if I can find a way around it I always do (hence why all my hats are now knit in the round and I've grown extremely fond of scarves with fringe...)

The only problem I see with this method is that now I'm going to want to do it to all the hats I knit from here on out. I prefer it when the brim on a hat is thicker than the rest of the hat, as is usually the case in store bought hats (though plenty of nice ones are double thick all over yum!) So at least I've now started the processes of mastering the method so that way I won't have to rely solely on clever stitches to make it look thicker.

I'm still debating if I want to double stitch the star on or if I want to actually do proper intarsia. I know how to do intarsia (although it has been a year since I've done it so I may be rusty lol), but I like the mindless aspect of just knitting. Which is the point I'm at now with the hat, I just get to knit without really thinking about it until the hat is 8 inches long. I like that. Don't get my wrong, I do enjoy knitting things that take concentration, but meh. But intarsia would make for a much nicer, neater finished product....even though it has a tendency to induce madness in me. (Madness?? THIS IS INTARSIA! heh sorry I could NOT resist). I think I'd just rather do the most efficient method with this hat so I can give Bone the finished product before Winter slips away.

My goal is to give it to her either Wednesday or Thursday. Lofty? You betcha!

So now I'm going to run off to dig out the star patterns that I have and see if I can even remotely attempt to do them properly without losing my mind. Muahahaha.

Recently, on one of the knitting blogs/communities I read, someone posed a question to the members about helping people learn how to knit. She asked what book, pattern, yarn and needles we recommend to people just starting to learn how to knit. Whenever I teach, or help someone learn, how to knit I always recommend they have four things before they start.

-Stitch N Bitch and Knitting For Dummies. When I first started knitting, I had a "kit" from Michaels that described what to do but didn't show you exactly how to do it. I remember there were illustrations, but it wasn't clear at all how I was supposed to make each stitch. After much frustration, I ended up purchasing both of these books and they helped me immensely. I owe my skills completely to them.

-A basic idea for a scarf. I try to steer beginners away from grabbing a pattern their first time out. When you're just starting the best thing to do is focus on learning how to make the stitches. The benefit to a scarf project is two fold: 1) it gives them plenty of room to make errors, even if they never wear the scarf they will have something to work their stitches out on and 2) if they excel at basic knitting, they can always try out new stitches at various points in the scarf or keep it as a WIP to work out various stitches before committing them to a nicer yarn.

-Caron's Simply Soft (or the Simply Soft Thick & Quick Yarn). I prefer beginners buy this above any other type of yarn. It requires a minimal investment, it's easy to work with, it comes in a wide array of colors so they're sure to find a nice, brighter color to work with that they enjoy. And, finally, it's SOFT. I have a sweater made entirely out of Simply Soft and it's one of my favorite sweaters (save for the neckline WHICH I will be fixing soon enough. Can we say steeking?? I'm totally going to redo the neckline into a V neck because the neckline does not thrill me at all)

-I usually then lend them the size 8 needles I learned on so that they can find a similar pair in a store. (I have a ton of needles, so I won't miss one pair). It's hard to describe them, but they're not metal and they aren't quite plastic. They have some sort of coating on them that makes them a little grippier than regular plastic needles, and they're heavier than regular plastic needles, but they aren't metal. I love them. I found them to be the easiest to work with when I started knitting.

The post also got me thinking about all the funny errors people I know have made while learning how to knit. I find them amusing because they are usually the same mistakes I made when I first started.

The most common mistake I've noticed is picking a yarn that is deceptively hard to work with. These yarns, most notably boucle, are soft and lovely when knitted or crocheted but they're not good for beginners since they're designed to mimic a homespun style of yarn on crack. They usually end up causing more trouble than is worth it for beginners. Especially when they pick a deceptive yarn in a dark color. I have run across many deceptive yarns in my time knitting and each time that I find a new one, I always get angry and eventually give up on it.

My biggest nemesis was the daisy yarn that Moda Dea produced. I'm not sure of the name of it, but it was this novelty yarn that, when knitted up, produced 'flowers' due to the design of the yarn. I should also mention that the flowers hedged on this thin, flimsy thread that was twisted around the yarn, which caused the 'flower' originating bumps which, when knitted into a stitch, would create a daisy on the fabric. If you broke that itty bitty thread, you would not get any flowers until you got to a new part of the yarn where the thread was still in tact. I also was not a fan of the fact that it took 3 balls of the yarn to make one hat. Yea. Wasn't thrilled. It wasn't cheap yarn. Quality wise it was, but price wise it wasn't.


Another friend of mine, who wanted to knit, actually wound up buying herself a big, bright skein of inexpensive yarn and needles and set about teaching herself. She got stumped on how to figure out how to determine the width of the scarf she was knitting so she came over to my mom's house to ask me. She had the needle FILLED with stitches, which wouldn't have been too bad had they not been super huge, long needles. Yipes! I then explained to her about gauge and how the wrapper on the yarn helps you determine the gauge (approximately) and showed her how to knit up a gauge swatch.

I had a similar issue with gauge and such when I knitted my first non-scarf project. I knitted a pair of wrist warmers in purple and black (one was purple with a black stripe and one was black with a purple stripe). I knitted one wrist warmer when I first started, and finished the second one when I had been knitting a while. Obviously, the first warmer ended up being bigger than the second one because I was still making my stitches loose, even though I was following the suggested gauge on the yarn wrapper. Now I live and die by the gauge swatch when making anything wearable beyond basic scarves.

These seem to be the only two that I can think of....but I'm going to blame that on my imminent cold which was been a day in the making and the lack of concentration I possess while I'm sick.

Christmas Time Is Here....

So I've been lax in posting on here, as per usual. Meh. It's not like I haven't been knitting or crocheting though. I have, most definitely!

I crocheted my mom a scarf for Christmas out of Bernat's Baby Boucle (I think it was Bernat) in a rainbow colorway. She asked me for a thick, long scarf that was also fluffy and warm that had purple, green and blue colors in it. This yarn definitely fit the bill, especially since it came in a huge skein and I was able to make her entire scarf from the one skein. Complete with Fringe. To give you an idea of the size of it (because I suck and have no pictures) it is about a foot wide (wider in some places because I'm still VERY green with crocheting), and over 6 feet long. I'd guess it's close to 6 and a half feet long. Without the fringe. She loves it. And I'm glad she does, especially because once I was halfway through it, she had asked me if I was able to find a yarn in the colors she wanted....gray and black. Ugh. I'll probably make her one in gray and black post holidays.

I'm also dutifully working on a stocking for myself since I have no personal stocking. I was offered the use of a spare stocking that Bone has, and that will suffice for now, but I want my OWN stocking. So I'm crocheting one out of this random skein of TLC yarn I had in a dark purple (I think I had gotten it once when it was on sale and I never used it because it just didn't work well with most of my patterns in terms of comfort and softness. I've finished the entire stocking except I'm adding a 'cuff' of Paton's Classic Wool in Ivory at the top of the stocking because, like I said before, I am not good at Crocheting yet and I tend to randomly increase stitches. SO to disguise the fact that the opening of the stocking is obviously smaller than the rest of the stocking....I'm putting a nice, big fold down cuff on top to detract from that. It also gives me plenty of space to stitch my name on :D But am I doing "Ashley" or "Busty" hrrrm. Probably Ashley since I'll use it for quite some time I'm sure.

I'm also in the process of making a jammer knit hat for Bone. When she was at the Northwest Knockdown (WFTDA Nationals), she saw a company selling knit beanies with jammer stars on either side. But they were almost $20. I offered to make her one in black and purple. It'll take a bit longer than I had hoped since she picked this sparkly yarn that I have (which I fear may be itchy once the hat is done...but I can always crochet a liner for it out of my lion brand micro spun yarn which is UBER soft) and it uses size five needles. And apparently I was drunk when I started it (or I should have been) since the first few rows are all wonky on the ribbing, but that's ok because I wanted to give the hat a fold under brim anyways so I'm still working on the ribbing. But once that's done I'll whip the hat out no problem. And to save myself stress I'm going to double stitch the stars onto the hat for her. They too will be sparkly, cause they are made of the same yarn.

Other than that, I have ideas in my head for another project or two. I want to crochet a dog jacket for Bone's Mom's dog Wicket(aka my Furry Lil Boyfriend). He's a Shih Tzu and gets cold easily so we ended up getting him a sweater and rain coat for Xmas but I want to make him another sweater/jacket because the one I got him is blatantly Xmas. And I've heard rumors that this is going to be a very cold winter as it has already proven to be.

I also solemnly swear that while I'm off from school over Christmas/Winter Break (A whole month....kinda.....) I will post more and work on more projects. Afterall, I need to keep warm this winter. brrrr.

Procrastination At It's Finest

While I was supposed to clean my room yesterday (since I've had a bit of a laundry explosion), I didn't actually do it. Big surprise. Instead I sat down and got working on a project for Giant Boy. My plan is to make him a couple of brimmed hats for Xmas. Much like me, he loves those style of hats but can usually complain about the hats that one finds in stores, as can I. You see, we are both giant headed freaks. And while his head may not deviate TOO much from the norm in guys sizes, my head only fits into most guy sizes for hats. I also secretly think that the world would rather we all be tiny headed freaks, but that's merely the notion that runs through my head when I'm frustrated after having tried on a million hats in a store to ensure they fit.

So, anyways, back to the complaints GB has about the brimmed hats from stores. First and foremost, one of his favorite hats shrunk in the wash. It said that it was made out of acrylic yarn and that it was washable. Clearly it was not, because acrylic won't shrink in the wash (and this, friends, is why I make sweaters out of really nice acrylic). And the hat he owns that has a nice large brim pushes into his forehead because of the stabilizing material in the brim. He finds it uncomfortable, but he likes that it keeps the sun out of his eyes more than the tinier brimmed hats.

So I got to thinking about making him hats for Xmas out of acrylic yarns. I knew that I would make him the Sam Hat, probably in black simply soft. And I found a new crochet brimmed hat pattern recently on Ravelry *please note you can only view that page if you have a membership*. I liked it immediately. It's a flat top conductor style hat with a nice big brim. I liked it for many reasons. First, it's crochet so it will work up quickly. Second, it's made out of a worsted weight acrylic so it's safe for washing machine trips. Third, you hold two strands of yarn together to make it so it's nice and sturdy which means you don't need anything extra for the brim after you have made it. The shaping on the brim coupled with the stiffness of the double stranded worsted weight yarn (woo that's a mouthful!) make it hold its shape easily.

So yesterday, when I was supposed to be cleaning my room, I was making a hat for Giant Boy. It took me all afternoon and evening to finish it. But it is done. Honestly, I wanted to try the pattern out before I make him a really nice one for Xmas in a solid color. Oh yes, I forgot to mention, I used a Caron Jumbo Print skein of yarn in mixed greens. I'd say I maybe used half of the yarn because I adjusted the pattern a little for giant headed freaks. I made the sides a little longer before starting the brim and I made the brim a little longer too. After I had "finished" the pattern directions, I also made the sides and back a little bit longer at GB's request. Which is great because now I have a great pattern with extra guidelines to follow for one of his Xmas presents.

What I've come to realize, however, over the last hour that I've been awake this morning is that I have failed to create myself one thing in the years that I've been a crafter of many types. I don't have an Xmas stocking.

Now, I do have one at my mom's house which she hangs on the mantel for me every year. It's kind of lame and it's from when I was a kid. It's Ernie from Sesame Street. Wait no, it's not lame, I <3 Ernie. Lame isn't the right word.....beat up beyond recognition is. I used to have a Scooby Doo one too, but lord knows where that one disappeared to. But that's all besides the point. My mom has an Xmas stocking for me, but I don't have one!

Now I'm on a mission. I need to make myself an Xmas stocking. I'm going to crochet one, I think, because I could make a really neat stocking that way. I'm definitely NOT going to be knitting myself the stockings I knit for my friend last year. They're cute but such a pain in the ass. I've already got a good notion of what I want in my head.


*EDIT* In case anyone is wondering, Giant Boy (GB) is my friend's 14 year old son.
I'll also have pictures of the hat later

And One More For Good Measure.....

I was walking around Target earlier today, in search of a birthday present for my 2 year old niece (my sister had her birthday party today). I stopped short when I reached the "accessories" section where they have jewelry, belts, hand bags and the like and gawked at the scarves for a bit.

I'm not one who could ever bring myself to purchase knit items in a store. Now that I know how to knit and crochet, I find it much more satisfying to run out to the craft store or LYS and pick up some yarn (provided I don't have anything that I'm looking for in my stash) to whip up a project as I deem necessary.

A lot of the stuff that I've been seeing has had a very homemade look to it, too. Which kind of frustrates me. 90% of the scarves and hats I had growing up I remember as being made by my grandmother. I also remember some hideous sweater vest with a goose on it....but I digress. Why are they trying to sell stuff that merely looks hand or home made?

Is it just me or is it far less enjoyable to wrap a scarf around your neck that you just purchased at a store? Isn't it far greater to wrap a scarf around your neck that you just spent weeks knitting until it was just right, blocking to the perfect shape so the edges don't curl and then getting to wrap it around your neck to stave off the cold winds? Sure, it's not as instant as plunking down ten or so dollars on a fancy store bought scarf, but sometimes the better things are totally worth the wait and effort.

So I Clearly Lack Time Management Skills

At least in the department of THIS blog, anyways.

I haven't been doing terribly much knitting or crocheting lately. I've been so wrapped up in school and work. Any free time that I have is devoted to homework or sleeping. Or driving to and from work and school.

I decided to sit down and start work on some new projects and an old project tonight because, well, the weather is getting colder and we had a fire going and it seemed like a perfect time to drape the fugly Granny square blanket across my lap and get to work on finishing it. It won't be finished until for a while yet though. I have one more skein of black soft boucle and then a red soft boucle and a skein of red Jiffy to throw into it before it is finally complete.

I also decided to start myself on a new scarf. I really don't have many scarves and I felt like putting some of the fun hand spun yarn that was gifted to me into that project (sadly, a lot of the gifted yarn was re-gifted and donated to charity when I moved back in june). So I decided to make myself what I am dubbing the OCD scarf. I'm not sure why, but I had my age in mind when I picked the yarn from my bin. I picked two hand spun purple yarns and a hand spun blue. In my mind, these screamed out the number 26. So I cast on 26 stitches and am going to (hopefully) wind up with a scarf that has stripes that are 26 rows thick and repeat 26 times. I say hopefully because I'm not 100% on how much yardage is in each ball I have. I'm not going completely batshit OCD with this, though, I have no prayer of trying to make it 26 inches long so I'm not even going to try that. I could, if I wanted to sit down and gauge it and work out the calculations but Busty + math ≠ friends.

I've also started plotting out a few xmas gifts that I can whip up for people. This year I am NOT NOT NOT making gifts for everyone. I am merely going to make gifts for a few people. Easy gifts that won't result in me sitting in a pile of yarn pulling my hair out in frustration.

I'm going to make a brimmed hat for the Giant Boy (Bone's son) and either a hat and scarf set for Bone or a little messenger bag, I'm not sure yet. But either way, it's gunna end up with a bone motif on it.