Polgara Knits

Last night I finished knitting the first balloon bag (the sparkly blue one). Woot!  I still need to stitch the strap to the bag, and of course do the felting part, but woot! It’s a great start to my belated holiday knitting!

Now it’s Sunday afternoon, and I started the second bag–this one in brick red and tan (Cascade 220) with a tag novelty yarn to carry along–while watching the Patriots game.  (Three minutes left in the third, and it’s not going so well for my boys.)  I’m so glad I organized everything on Friday.  On my way out the door this morning, I didn’t have to make any decisions, I just grabbed a pre-packaged ziploc, complete with all three yarns, the pattern, needles and stitch markers. Hopefully I’ll zip through them all just as quickly.

I’d post a picture of the shiny blue bag, but since it’s a Christmas present for an as-yet undetermined recipient, I’m afraid pics will have to wait.  Instead, here’s a shot of a Little Coco I made last year with Cascade 220 that I’ve only just gotten around to photographing:

I’m becoming a bit obsessed with Ravelry.  This weekend I spent hours photographing yarn and entering their stats into my stash database–and still didn’t get to all of it! There’s so much yarn I forgot I had, or forgot the colors, or how much of it there was (30 balls of angora that I totally forgot about!).  I love how easy it is to see what projects others have done with the yarn that I have, and I’m inspired to do so much…so much that it’s actually kind of paralyzing, with the too!many!choices! aspect. Despite the paralysis, however, I got a lot accomplished this weekend, in addition to the photographing of yarn.

For instance, I started and completed my first ever project done completely with the evil double pointed needles–the ghost from September’s Creative Knitting Magazine. I was watching Saturday night’s game (woo!Sox!) and felt like doing something Halloween-y, so I picked up the nearest magazine–CKM–and voila! There was a ghost pattern right there on page 40! I spent half the game (plus an extra hour after the game) wrestling with the dpns until the ghost was finished (except for the finishing stuff–the closing and stuffing of his head, weaving of ends, and embroidering–ugh–of his face), and I came away being a little less scared of dpns.  They’re still not so easy when you get down to four stitches per needle, but when you’re dealing with 15 stitches each, it’s not so bad. The ghost (and leaving it in Gracie’s crib yesterday) was probably the highlight of my weekend.

Also, after browsing the Granny Squares group on Ravelry, I became inspired to try granny squares, and have so far made….I think eight (they are at home, and I am not) out of Plymouth Encore, with the intention of stitching them together for a granny square scarf.  They’re fun and easy to make, but I’m really not looking forward to weaving in all those ends!  Three colors each square makes for a lot of ends. Blech. I have no pictures yet, but will hopefully post some soon.

ION, I still haven’t given the silk/alpaca gift to my friend, so still no photos of that, but I haven’t forgotten.  Also, there’s a nifty sale going on at my favorite LYS, Handmade, A Needlework Studio–I am broke this month, still, so no sale for me, but if you’re in the general vicinity of Burbank, CA, you might want to take a peek inside.

I’m watching the Red Sox game–bottom of the 8th, the Sox are up by three, but it’s not over yet, and anything can happen.  I’m very tense at the moment.  I’ve got my candles lit (some Catholic habits die hard, even for the non-believers), my Varitek game shirt on, and my heart is hovering somewhere around my stomach.  Gah!

While watching the game earlier, I was working on a hat from Vogue Knitting on the Go: Crocheted Hats, which I purchased yesterday at Barnes and Noble (along with Amigurumi! Super Happy Crochet Cute by Elisabeth A. Doherty).  The had did not end well, since I don’t know anyone with a head the size of, say, Hagrid’s.  Sad, really, as the colors (the orange/pink/yellow/red Red Heart I mentioned in an earlier post) work up so brilliantly beautiful.  It was supposed to be the Aviator Helmet from page 75, but it looks more like an unfelted Market Basket from Knitty.com.  (I might link all these things later, but I’m too distracted right now.) (Go Varitek!)

I’m very much into crocheted hats right now.  They work up fast, and require no dpns or seaming, like knitted hats. I did two hats last week, completely off the cuff with no pattern, and they turned out fine–one’s a little on the bigger side, but not half-giant big.  This meshy pattern from the book?  Ugh.  In my inexperienced (crochet-wise) opinion, it’s got errors (I couldn’t find an errata sheet on it anywhere), and I think my attempt to figure out the errors might’ve led to the supersizing.  Ah well, at least now I have something to wash so I can decide if the yarn is even worth frogging for another use.

(Ouch.  I hate it when the other team makes me feel sorry for them.)

I need pictures of these crocheted wonders, I know.

(Wow, they’re walking a rookie just to load the bases.  Desperate.)

Hold on, lemme see what I can do about those pictures…

(Woooo! Pedroia!)

 Pictures are downloading.

(Yooooooouuuuuuuk!)

Ok, now the pics are uploading to Flickr.  Whew.  Did you see that inning?  Scary.  In a good way, if you’re a Red Sox fan.  Not so much for the Indians fans.

Oh, I also bought the magazine Knitting, from the UK.  In my opinion, so not worth the nine bucks.  If it were a book, I’d return it. It was a disappointment, as I love knitting magazines and always look forward to them, but they’ve gotten so expensive I have to be picky about what I buy–I won’t be buying that one again.

Wooooooooooooooooooooo! Red Sox! Wooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Aw, the poor Indians.  I hate when they show all the devastated players.

Pictures.  Must focus. Ok, here we go.
Hat the First:

A little big, but not too bad.

Hat the Second:

The crown is a little bigger than the first hat but the brim is snugger, so it fits better. Yes, it’s the same yarn, and the same general “pattern”–I was on a plane, and just made another when I finished the first.

Scary Aviation cap:

Tragic, really–I adore the colors so much! I didn’t even bother to finish it up with the braiding and the flap-ties.  What’s the point?

Ok, that’s all I got for today.  Now I need to do a celebratory “Yay! Pennant!” dance in my living room.

I know it’s cliche to apologize for not updating, but so what–I’m so sorry for the long delay between posts.  I have lots of excuses–excessive heat, craziness at work, travel (I’m in Boston right now), but really, iffen I had time to update my LJ, I had time to update this blog, so, my apologies.

Sadly,  I’m not working on anything all that fabulous, just a diagonal nubbly red scarf for the Red Scarf Project.  With the excessive heat we had over Labor Day (I lost power for 16 very hot hours!), I was not motivated to plan anything elaborate, so I just picked up a ziploc already loaded with pre-wound red yarn, and started a scarf.*  And no, it’s still not finished.  My time lately has been spent on stressful work stuff, visiting my friend’s daughter at the hospital, and preparing for this trip I’m currently on–a mix of business and pleasure, starting with a wedding on Cape Cod (see pic–me, the bride, and my sister the bridesmaid), followed by two days of vegging (i.e. today and tomorrow), then a Flash conference in Boston, followed by more personal stuff over the weekend.  Busy busy busy!

I do, however, have some FPO-ish pictures.  First, the shell shawl:

I realize this picture actually sucks–I need to take some on an actual person, preferably in daylight–but it’ll do for now (plus the other two in the flick group–click on the image to open the flickr window).

Next, remember the log cabin blanket I did for Grace that I forgot to photograph in a finished state before delivering it to the mom?  Well, here it is in action, protecting Miss Grace from the chills of the PICU:

You can only see half the blanket, but you get the idea. I’m particularly fond of the green sc border, which matches the green used in her brother’s blanket.

And finally, a link–today’s Two Lumps is adorable and on-topic (I had no idea Ebenezer and Snooch’s mom was a knitter!).

*And now that I’ve read yesterday’s blog entry for the Red Scarf Project, I suspect this scarf may not be “special” enough to match the criteria.  Oh well, I can always find someone who needs a scarf.

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?

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. 

I may be the lamest single gal ever for spending a Friday night practicing my crochet, but regardless, I sit here at my computer wearing my first ever crocheted beanie!  Woot!  Like my first ever knitted beanie, it’s a bit on the snug side, but who cares, it only took me two and a half hours to make!  (Very unlike my knitted hat.)  Oh, and note the ugly–purple with red and white stripes (stash yarn that’s been taking up space).  It’ll probably go to charity at some point, probably one that clothes 10-year-old heads, but for now, it’s My First Ever Crocheted Beanie. 

I swiped the batteries from my old, deceased A300.

This is a picture of the two hats. The pen is there for scale. They both fit rather nicely over my middle three fingers, which reminds me of Mr. Hand from South Park, which is probably not a good association for itty bitty baby hats, but there ya go. [Pattern here.]

This will be Noah’s blanket when it’s finished. I’m using the light pink from Grace’s hat for the accent color, and I’ll be using the light green for Grace’s accent color. [Pattern here.]

The past week was a very expensive one for yarn. You see, on Tuesday one of my dearest friends went into early labor–three months early.  The darlingest little twins ever were born that night, but at only a pound and a half each, they were far too tiny for the crib blankets I was already working on for them, so of course I had to go out and buy new yarn for softer, smaller blankets and hats.

$95 later, I stepped out of Unwind with four balls of RY Classic Yarns Cashsoft DK (10% cashmere!) in pinks and greens; four skeins of Cascade’s Luna in red, yellow, green and purple; three skeins of Tahki’s Cotton Classic in green, blue and aqua; and a new set of size six Clovers.  Damn, but that adds up fast!

So far I’ve made two hats (one came out smaller than the other, despite casting on six extra stitches for it and following the row directions verbatim-wtf?), and half of a 15-in sq. blanket, all from the Cashsoft.  I’d post pictures, but my batteries ran out as I was photographing them, so it’ll have to wait.  I suspect I’ll be needing more Cashsoft to finish the blankets and to make a larger replacement hat.  Figures, it being the most expensive of the three yarns.

I finished the blanket yesterday–my first crocheted project!  As you can see, it doesn’t lie quite as flat as it should; I had difficulty figuring out how many stitches to pick up along the edges, so it’s….oddly shaped, I guess.  Hopefully washing it will even it out a little, but if not, I’m not too worried–it’s a baby blanket, and babies are notoriously forgiving about such details.  Which is good, because I’m sure you’ve noticed the white isn’t pure white, it’s a baby blend with pink and blue mixed in.  This is what happens when I try to use stash yarn only.  But at least the Plymouth Encore is machine washable, which I think is key for any baby gift.  Alpaca may be the most wonderful fiber in the whole wide world, and would make marvelous heirloom quality items, but what mother of an infant has time to handwash anything?  It would sit in a box or drawer somewhere, lovely to look at, but never actually used.  Hopefully this blanket will be used and abused until there’s nothing left but string (which hopefully won’t happen until well after the baby has grown out of it).

In other news, I had a brain fart, and forgot that this purse was supposed to be finished by a deadline–today, to be exact.  Yeah, that didn’t happen.  The knitting part was done long ago, but it needs to be stitched along the bottom and felted.  It’s the felting part that’s been holding things up, since I don’t have my own washing machine, and the water in the machines in my building’s laundry room isn’t hot enough to do the job properly.  I also haven’t tracked down the appropriate accessorizing hardware.  It was supposed to be finished today, because it’s a gift for my friend who took her black belt test yesterday (krav maga).  I suck.  I may show her a picture of the soon-to-be-a-purse, but I doubt it.  I’ll just have to surprise her with it later–hopefully sooner than her next birthday, though.

Also, this picture doesn’t do the colors justice–the red is much deeper and less bright than it appears here. Sadly, I can’t get the colors to be true to life with this camera. Makes me miss my old Powershot A300 sometimes.