Polgara Knits

Sorry for the hiatus, I was at Comic-Con this weekend in San Diego.  Such a fun time!  Oddly, though, I never saw anyone but myself knitting (or crocheting, for that matter) in the busy hallways of the Convention Center.

I couldn’t bring the log cabin scrap blanket, as it’s getting too big for easy transport, so I grabbed a bag of three balls of Cascade 220 that had already been ziplocked into complementary colors, printed out a copy of the Booga Bag pattern, and threw it all into my suitcase for the trip.

I didn’t get very far on it–I mostly only knit in the car up and down, and a little between sessions while sitting on the floor of the main lobby–but it was nice to be knitting again after crocheting for so long.  I’ll admit I was afraid I’d forget something, but my fingers knew what they were doing as soon as they touched the Addi circs, so much so that I didn’t even have to look down half the time.  (This was important when the carsickness hit on the drive back north.) The color is of course slightly off–the green is more of a kelly than the forest that it looks there.

As for finished projects, I was a bad photographer and forgot to photograph the finished blankets for Grace and Noah before I delivered them to their mother on Friday.  Suffice to say, they’re adorable with their single crochet borders of pink and green (Noah’s border is pink and Grace’s green, so that they match their sib’s colorway).

That’s all I’ve got for needlework/yarn news.  In off-topic news, check out page 75 of this week’s Entertainment Weekly (the one with The Deathly Hallows on the cover) for a cute write-up of my friend Allyson’s first book, Will the Vampire People Please Leave the Lobby?

[Note: HP7 is mentioned in this post, but there are absolutely no spoilers of any kind.]

Is this thing on?  Whew!  I tried posting yesteday, and I kept getting javascript errors that wouldn’t let me into the post field.  Yikes!  Scary!

So, as I was going to post yesterday, here is a picture of the log cabin blanket I’ve been making with “scrap” yarn, except that it stopped being scrap yarn when I started buying skeins just for this blanket.  I was working on it yesterday during my “day of processing”–that is, the day after I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  Some of the blanket’s strips will be getting narrower as I reach the ends of skeins, as happened last night when I reached the end of a blue skein.  Hopefully it’ll all even out in the end.

I haven’t really been working on anything else lately.  I realized yesterday that I miss knitting Booga Bags.  I’d also like to make more of the squares for the Larger than Life bag, but it requires quiet and concentration, which makes it hard to find time to do it.

*sigh*  It’s pathetic, I really should have more to talk about, but really, my head is still trapped in The Deathly Hallows.  So much to contemplate, and revisit, and sort out.  Excellent book, but I’m having a hard time thinking of anything else.

Am I the last person to learn that the V&A Museum’s website has an entire section on knitting?  I suspect yes, considering I found the work of several familiar names (including some of the bloggers on my own blogroll) when I was going through the “share your own work/story” sections.  I’m particularly abashed at not knowing this, considering I’m a web programmer with an art institution in Los Angeles.  D’oh!

Fortunately, one of my own colleagues set me straight this afternoon, and I spent awhile (i.e. probably more time than I should have) going through all the sparkly, shiny pictures and information.  I mean, seriously, check out some of their subsections:

• Knitting Items from the Collections
  Knitted items that have survived hundreds of years–how freaking cool is that?  Just imagine something from your own stash of completed projects surviving that long and being preserved in a museum.
• Share your Knitting
  An excellent tool for sharing your own work and having it displayed on a museum’s website–good idea on their part!
• Your Stories of Learning to Knit
  Another excellent idea from the V&A staff, helping to build community, and creating a living history of today’s knitters.
• Regional Knitting in the British Isles & Ireland
  I admit, I skimmed a lot of this.  History has never been my strong suit (unless it involved battles and tragic dramas where people had names like Perikles and places had names like Peloponnese).
• Knitting Designers
  Blah blah blah, art and color and design.  But, check out Freddie Robins’ website (go read his Q&A to get the URL, I’m not gonna give it away) to see his knitted houses.  Yeah, ok, they’re houses where women have committed murder (odd topic, that), but it made me wonder how hard it would be to craft my own pattern based on my grandparents’ home, where my mother grew up.  Probably too hard, but man, how sweet that would be!
• Knit a Work of Art
  This is a free pattern for one of Freddie Robins’ pieces.
• 1940s Patterns to Knit
  Just what it says–I’m particulary enamored of the lion and the tiger, but then, I’m just a kid at heart anyway.
• Knitting Patterns for Children
  So cute!  Includes the cover of an old-fashioned knitting primer for children, a darling poem from the book, and three patterns for items for a doll.

And there’s more than that, even–lots of reference materials, bibliographies, links, etc.  If you have a couple of hours to kill, it’s a wonderful site to soak up the history of our chosen craft, and maybe find some inspiration for your next project.

 Victoria & Albert Museum

Finally, a picture!  This is the Willow Block square for the Larger than Life Bag, as seen on pages 76-77 of this spring’s Interweave Crochet.  I finished my rereading of the Harry Potter books on Tuesday, enabling me to finally finish this square (that was started weeks ago) last night.  Squee!  It’s not blocked, and I haven’t even weaved in the ends yet, but it’s just so pretty.  I adore the colors, which really can never be fully captured by my Powershot, and look forward to starting the next square.

It was more complicated than anything I’ve done previously, but it wasn’t hard as long as I gave it my full attention.  Thinking back, I think the center circle was the hardest part, since I still suck pretty hard at joining a round.

ION, I worked on my scrap log cabin blanket yesterday, adding another two full blocks (one in red, one in variegated yumminess).  I have it with me today, so I’ll try to take a picture of it at lunch. 

No updates in a week?? I am a very bad blogger. But truth be told, I’ve barely touched a strand of yarn all week.  Instead, all my free time has been devoted solely to Harry Potter–Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix, and the Half-Blood Prince, to be exact.  As the release date for the seventh and final Harry Potter book draws inexorably nearer, I’ve been frantically trying to finish my re-read of all six of the preceding books.  I really should’ve started way sooner than I did, given how slow a reader I am.  The first two were no problem, since I have them both as audio cds as well as text, so I was able to listen to them whilst crocheting.  Prisoner of Azkaban has always been my favorite, so I zipped through that one, no problem.

But then came Goblet of Fire, one of my least favorite of the series, and impossibly long.  It took me forever to read that one, but I finally finished it last Thursday night, giving me only a week to read the last two, also impossibly long, books, so guess what my weekend consisted of? I felt like a college student trying to cram an entire semester’s worth of knowledge into my head the night before a final.  My sleep has been marred by feverish dreams of racing down dark hallways and trying to placate bickering best friends.  With nearly every spare moment devoted to Harry and friends (I took two breaks–one to see Transformers and the other to see Order of the Phoenix, although that second one doesn’t technically qualify as a break, I guess), all I’ve been able to think about in my non-spare moments is of course Harry and friends.  I’ve been avoiding phone calls and posting boards and yes, this blog, in my efforts to be as ready as I can be for Friday night’s midnight release of possibly the most anticipated book ever.

I’m almost there–only 230 pages to go.  Maybe then I’ll be able to take the two minutes to upload the picture of the pretty crochet square that I promised last week, which of course still isn’t finished.

First up, a sale!
If you’re a subscriber to Knitting Daily, then you’re already aware that Interweave Press is having a “hurt book” sale, selling off damaged books at deeply discounted sales.  I was verra excited about this, as I’ve been barely holding back purchasing 200 Crochet Blocks and I figured this would be the perfect incentive.  Until, that is, I went to the website.

Now, I’m at work, which means I’m on a pretty fast connection–usually.  The Hurt Books website, however, is agonizingly slow.  Like, having a car park right on your foot and the driver can’t hear you so he leaves it there for awhile, slow. Agonizing.  But I stuck it out, ’cause I wanted that book.  Took about 20 minutes, but I finally got the main page, then the “shopping” page, then the specific book page to open.  (Three pages, 20 minutes. Why don’t they just stick a pen in my eye and get it over with?)  I added it to my cart. (Another five minutes.)  Then it was time to check out!  Except….there was no link to my cart.  No “view cart”, no “checkout” button, no nuthin’ to indicate it was even a shopping site.  WTF?!  I had to go back to the homepage (……………..load already!…….) to find a “View Cart” link in the left nav, and when I clicked on it?  A 404.

I gave up.  A half hour to buy a book at 50% off, and no way to checkout?  I’d rather pay Amazon’s price. 

Now granted, it’s entirely possible, even probable, that the site’s problems are due to a higher than usual traffic rate, but in the end, it just wasn’t worth it to me.  But if you want to try it out, I wish you luck, speed, and much patience.

In Crochet News
Last week I was doing my usual blog sweep, and found the coolest bag on L.A. Is My Beat.  It’s called “Larger Than Life,” the pattern for which was included in the spring issue of Interweave Crochet.  It was so beautiful, with so many vibrant colors, I just had to have one! I hit Borders on Independence Day and picked up a copy of the magazine, and I got started on my first square this past Sunday. 

Wow, it’s harder than it looks!  Also, it’s my first square, so I’m still learning the basics, but this square is definitely teaching me lots!  It’s not finished–one more round to go–and I have no pictures yet, but this first one is yellow in the center, green in the middle layer, and purple on the outside–perfect Mardi Gras colors, actually.  I’m verra proud of it so far, and can’t wait to make more, but it requires concentration, which makes it difficult to work on when there are distractions, like conversations and dvds and inquisitive cats.  I’ll try to remember to take a picture tonight.

Also this weekend, I crochet my first flower, from a pattern in The Ultimate Sourcebook of Knitting and Crochet Stitches.  It was easy–boring, really.  I made two, one in yellow, one in purple.  I’ll take pictures of those tonight, too.

And finally, today I brought Grace’s blanket with me to work.  I’ll be weaving in ends and adding a lime-green sc border during lunch, as it’s about time I got both hers and Noah’s blankets finished, washed and delivered to their rightful homes. 

And that’s what’s up with me in the world of yarn.  I haven’t picked up the knitting needles in what seems like ages–crochet is just so much easier and quicker.  Maybe once these projects are complete, I’ll try to knit some booties from a little booklet I got at the grocery store checkout line.

Until then, always remember, you’re only young once, but you can be immature forever!

I’ve been terribly lax in updating this week, for which I’m very sorry.  It’s been a busy week, with both ups and downs, and very little time for yarn work.  The biggest up is that my friend Allyson’s first book, Will the Vampire People Please Leave the Lobby?, became available exclusively at Barnes & Noble stores across the country on Friday, about a week earlier than any of us expected.  Friends from NY to Florida, Iowa to Texas and California, have been reporting back with stories on how they found the book, how they chatted up the store employees to generate bookseller interest, how they took pictures (and posted them) of the book on display, and finally how they felt upon reading the essays nestled within the covers.  It’s been a big weekend for those of us chronicled in this book about how an internet community based around fandom (in this case, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly fandoms) can change a life.  Specifically, it’s about how it changed Allyson’s life, but so much of it describes how it changed many lives, mine included.

And if you’re reading this blog, I’d wager your life has also been changed by online interactions with strangers around the world, and if that’s true, you should stop by your local B&N and look for Will the Vampire People Please Leave the Lobby? by Allyson Beatrice.  Leaf through it, maybe read a page or two (I’d recommend the chapter entitled “The Internet Wants Your Daughters”), and if you like what you see, buy a copy and bring it home.  And as you’re reading it, everytime you come across a mention of Allyson’s friend Paula, you can think to yourself, “Hey, I know her–I read her blog!”

P.S. It’ll be available in all other bookstores as of August 1st!

The bunny is nearly finished. I gave up on the body from katcrochet.com (tell me that doesn’t look like a vase!) and instead used the body from LionBrand’s Best Bunny (pattern #60480A), which worked much better. I was going to use the legs from the Best Bunny, but they were too stout, so those became the arms, and I went back to the Aiko pattern for the legs. So to sum, head, ears and legs are from Aiko, and the body and arms are from Best Bunny.

As this is my first toy, this is also my first time assembling a toy, and gah, did it suck! As you can see, the arms are not even–one is higher than the other.  Blech.  And in my attempt to not make the same mistake with the legs, I made them too close together.  Blech again.  On the bright side, the ears are perfect, IMHO.  On the not bright side, my decreases are too wide and hole-y, so you can see the stuffing around his midsection, which won’t work if I decide to make another in a brighter color.

He’s not finished yet, because, obviously, he’s lacking a face.  I’m askeared of the face, as it requires embroidery, which is so not my strong suit.  Right now, he’s a freak without a face (bonus points if you recognized that reference).  I do have the embroidery thread, so he may have a face soon, if I can figure out how to do it.  I wonder if wikipedia has anything on how to embroider a bunny face?

Ok, so now that I’ve finished the critiquing of my own work, can I just say, “Squeeeeeeeeeeeee! Isn’t he the cutest thing ever?!!”  Hee!