I finished!

I can't believe it...I finished with time to spare! Not much time, but some. That last sock seemed to take forever, but it actually went a lot faster than the first one, since I had done the pattern once already. There was only about 16 inches of yarn left from two balls when I finished...that's cutting it a little close! I put them on and took a couple of pictures of them, and here they are!

I had my left foot cocked up and my right foot cocked down trying to see which would show off the diamond pattern best. Neither one does apparently. The socks are busy right now being blocked but I will post more pics later when they're done with their spa treatment.

Right now I'm happy, exhausted, sore, hungry, tired, and need a shower but can't have one for two more weeks....peeyew! I can take sponge baths though. :) So....I am off to let hubby give me one. ;)

Watch where you step

This knitting and crochet Olympics is gonna kill me! On Wednesday I was going to the city to buy more yarn for the baby layette for the crochet Olympics. I was also supposed to buy a new tire for the van to replace the one that I ran flat a couple of months ago (yes, I have been running without a spare tire). I was in the van ready to go when I remembered my crocheting and ran back into the house to get it. On my way out, I slipped on the icy step and fell onto the bottom step. Oh. Wow. The pain. My shoulder felt as if it had been torn apart. I managed to get back in the van and headed to the city, but this time to go to the clinic to get my shoulder checked. Yep, it's broke. I fractured the scapula (shoulderblade). I have to wear a brace that keeps my left arm down by my side. Life lesson learned? Watch where you step and don't be in such a ding-danged hurry!

I did discover that if I free my left hand from its restraining strap, I can still knit. It's been slow going but I've been picking away at my socks over the last couple of days. One tip....knitting with tiny sock yarn from a chart while on Vicoden do not go together! I'm sure there are more little mistakes than I've been able to see but I'm stubborn that way and am determined not to let a little sock beat me (okay, two socks, but one almost done). We'll see if I get done on time.

I finished the layette for the crochet Olympics. Woot!

Yeah, the blanket and the sweater, booties and hat are made out of different yarns. I had to use what I had on hand. Remember, I never made it to the yarn store. I had already bought the yarn for the blanket, Jiffy yarn in a pastel print (can you tell I lost the label?). The blanket is edged with a short-furred Yarn Bee baby yarn. The sweater was crocheted from some worsted weight baby colored yarn that also has the label missing. I had looked at about a million sweater patterns but not one of them was done the way I wanted, so I just started crocheting until a sweater came out of the hook. It looks to be a little on the small size, but I didn't have a baby hanging around to measure. I just hope Amanda's baby isn't a 12-pounder! :) The cap and booties were crocheted from a baby weight Red Heart yarn. Done, Done, Done, and DONE!

As for the socks, one is just about to the heel, but I'm working on the gusset of the other one, so there is still hope there. This picture was taken during the creation of the heel, so you see no gusset yet. I think there should be a ceremony for when a person gets a heel turned without strangling their family for talking to them and making them loose count. There should be a medal too. And a cash prize...a large cash prize! :)


Everything is going as well as can be expected from a hurting, Vicoden-stoned, running-out-of-sock-yarn Hookermama. More progress reports later.

Slow Progress & Crochet Olympics

My Almost Argyle socks for the knitting Olympics are coming along, but very slowly. I think I picked a project that's way over my little pointy knitting head. I'll keep plugging away on them though.

So. Since there are only five days left in the knitting Olympics and there are not enough hours in the day to get my socks done, I have gone and joined the Crochet Olympics. Makes perfect sense, huh? Crochet is something I can do a lot faster than knit, so I've joined up and will be making a baby sweater, afghan, and booties. I may throw a hat in there too to complete the layette...or not, since I haven't totally lost it yet. (Have I?) :)

I couldn't finish the Yarn Bee baby sweater for the simple reason that I somehow lost the sleeves. Don't ask....I still don't know what happened to them. It was kind of a mess of a project anyway, being part knitting and part crochet. Maybe I should just go ahead and make it a sleeveless sweater...with a hood, yah. Oh boy. Why am I so all over the place with knitting and crocheting lately? I need to find one project and stick to it until it is finished. Oh, right....I just did that with the crochet olympics. Guess I'd better get started then! :)

Progress

The Olympics have been going for what...five days now? I'm making slow progress on the socks. This is a harder pattern than it looked when I first started (aren't they all?) and I have to be really careful, because this yarn shows up every mistake. I've had to frog a few rounds because I goofed up and it didn't show for a couple of rounds, until it got out from under the needles.
Here is what I've gotten done so far.



When I remembered yesterday that my niece's baby is due in only a week, I had to abandon the socks for a few days and get busy on the baby stuff. I'm working on a baby hoodie now. I crocheted the body but when I started the sleeves I noticed that this stitch pattern is probably too open for sleeves. I could just imagine little baby fingers getting caught on the way into the sleeves. So I decided to knit the sleeves. I'm not sure if that was a good idea or if I should frog the body and knit the whole thing. I wish I had some readers so I could get another opinion!
Here is the hoodie in progress.

And one of the sleeves.


We also have a new baby at our house.


We've had him for a week and can't come up with a name that we can all agree on. So I decided that since I bought him, I would just go ahead and name him too. I would if I could only think of a name! :) Any ideas?

Back to the knitting/crocheting! :)

Knitting Olympics

Oh my...I may have to change my Blogger name. Yes, it finally happened--I have gone over to the dark side....knitting. Don't gasp and hide your eyes, missy! Our knitting sisters are not the ogres we have made them out to be. They are instead kind, helpful, and loving earth mothers. Well, they let me into their midst, so that should answer any questions you've got about knitters!
The Yarn Harlot

I've joined the knitting Olympics that started yesterday with the lighting of the Olympic fire in Torino. I will knit a pair of socks from a very difficult pattern called "Almost Argyle" that I got at Knit Picks. When I say difficult, I mean relative difficulty for me, as the pattern calls for a twisted Latvian edge and knitting from a chart, both of which I've never done before. Both socks are now on the needles with about an inch done on each one. I've tried to knit socks with the two circular needles method but just ended up with a tangled mess. I did get one pair of socks knit but almost quit after the first sock was finished, so that is the reason for doing both at once.

Oh, my first pair of socks? Here's one of them.


And the socks I'm knitting now. I got the Latvian twisted edge on the first try!
Please excuse the fuzzy picture. I just got a new digital camera (Anniversary gift from hubby!) and haven't figured it all out yet.

Well, it's a beginning anyway. Plus I've still got 15 days to go until the deadline, but I have a feeling I'm going to need every one of them!

Woolgatherers

I finally got fed up with not being able to find any crochet patterns written for felting/fulling, so I created a Yahoo group for people to exchange information, original patterns, links and other knowledge about the craft. If you would like to join, just click below. (I don't know why the link came out screwy...the html looks right.)



alt="Click here to join woolgatherers_crochet">
Click to join woolgatherers_crochet

Little project

My gosh, didn't December fly by? It seems like the older we get the faster time flies, especially when you have a ton of things to get done before Christmas.

I crocheted on Christmas gifts right up until a couple of hours before we left for hubby's parents house on Christmas eve. I think MIL really liked her gift, which was an afghan and matching pillow crocheted from Homespun and Thick & Quick Chenille yarns, both from Lion Brand. I also got the pattern off the Lionbrand website. Crochet striped throw and pillow


You know what my favorite project is out of all the items I've crocheted in the last two months? It's not the matching afghans for Diana and her new hubby.


It's not the fancy purse for my niece that I labored over for days.

It's not even the hoody that I knit from TLC Amore yarn for Shelly, which took four months to make (with cooling-off breaks).


No, it was a little project that was completed just last night. It was inspired by this:

A small gift bag that I've been using to keep my present project in (as long as it isn't too big). I like that it's fairly small (8 x 10 x 4-1/2") but deep enough to fit everything I need inside. If I want to take my current project with me somewhere, I just grab it and go. But the bag was getting worn and torn in a couple of places and I didn't want to risk losing anything, so I crocheted and felted this:
from wool yarn I had dyed and didn't really like how the colors had turned out.
I had been having problems keeping the openings of bags from flaring out when I felted them, but one of my Christmas gifts from Diana helped.

I read in the book that if you are felting something that has an opening, like a purse or tote bag, to baste the opening closed before felting. This helps it keep the shape you originally crocheted without stretching it out. It worked beautifully! And the crocheted bag even had the exact same measurements as the paper bag it was modeled after....a first for me! :)

So that's my favorite Christmas (or near Christmas) project for this year.

Happy New Year everyone!!