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"

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