[crochet] Catan Afghan

Heading down to Atlanta on Monday morning for a week long conference. We are T - 10 days away from moving and I'll be out of town for 5. I've got this weekend and next weekend to finish packing. Yikes.

I'm bringing yarn and a crochet hook to make as many hexagons as I can during this trip for an afghan:



Oh yeah, and Dollar's truck is one gigantic paper-weight. It has trouble running when it's (a) raining, and (b) hot out. So... this leaves only cool, dry days that the thing works. I decided to get a new, used car for me and give him my old one. We're both happier with our new rides.

[spinning] Venus Fly Trap

4oz of Merino in the Venus Fly Trap colorway by WoolPig:



This was a very pretty colorway- plum purple, mossy green, lemongrass colors. The only thing I didn't like is that the fiber wasn't fully dyed. When I pulled it open and started stripping it into thinner lengths, there was lots of white in the middle that didn't get any dye. Not a big deal, but it did lighten the overall tone of the finished yarn.

I spun it all onto one bobbin and navajo-plied the single:





I like it. I'm not a super-fan of chain plying but I like the end result of keeping the colors together.

[spinning] Butter Toffee

5oz of Falkland in Butter Toffee colorway by JulieSpins:



Spun into a sport(ish)-weight two-ply:



I haven't counting yardage, but I think there should be enough here for a small shawl.

[misc] Murderface Monday

Well, I had my house-building nervous-breakdown on Friday night and it was cathartic. I was stressing about 20 different things and was spoiling for a fight.

ME: I'm worried about the hardware I picked for the kitchen cabinets. I ordered it online. What if I don't like them? What if they don't look right?

DOLLAR: (reassuring) I'm sure you picked out nice ones.

ME: (accusing) But you didn't even want to SEE what I was getting. What if you hate the knobs? You'll blame ME.

DOLLAR: I'm not going to hate the knobs.

ME: (hysterical) But what if you do?!

DOLLAR: Then I'll deal with it!

And then I started laughing. Because why am I making such a big deal about cabinet knobs and having a fight over it. It was as simple as that. The world isn't going to end of we hate our knobs. I went over and hugged Dollar. Then I started crying like a 5-year-old. He was very supportive (and relieved).

I came to my senses in so many ways. On Friday afternoon, I was fully prepared to spend $900 for 10 custom-made cellular cordless window shades at Penny's. Considering the original shades that I wanted were $2500 for ten, $900 seemed like a good deal. Dollar wasn't on board. My co-worker looked at me like I was crazy. I wasn't telling anyone how much I was going to spend because deep-down I must have known that $900 for 10 window shades is still highway robbery. So I went to Penny's on Saturday and ordered the ready-mades for $430 (for 10). Still expensive to get so many at once but they're cordless cellular, which is all I really wanted. $43 per shade is a good deal that I'm happy to talk about.

[spinning] Fantom Farm

I have just been spinning because I've packed away nearly all of my yarn (seeing all the tubs/bags makes me 'gulp' and resolve to live a more austere life). I only need 4 things to spin- the spinning wheel, fiber, lazy kate, niddy-noddy. I know knitting ONLY requires needles and yarn but... I don't know, it's easier for me to spin, ply, skein, wash.

I pecked away at 5+ oz of wool and mohair from Fantom Farm:



I bought this fiber last October at the 2010 Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival. I love Fantom Farm- they do fun fibers, they have good colors, and their prices are great. Their stuff does have vegetable matter in it, but it's quite minimal and I don't mind picking it out as I go.

The finished skein:





I like it. The yarn is a little scratchy from the mohair, so this yarn might be used for a hat or a lined pair of mittens.

[misc] Murderface Monday

Well, we really jumped into summer with hot, humid weather. Murderface found a cool, shady patch of grass under my lawn chair:

[spinning] Morph

Spun another 3-ply from this fiber:



Lots of colors going on there. I thought spinning a true 3-ply would look nice. But it made for a kind of crazy-colored yarn:



Some lengths are violet, some lengths are orange, some are brown. And then every mixture of all the colors:



It will be... interesting to see how this knits up. But what I do love about this yarn is how round and bouncy the three ply turned out. It's superfine merino and the singles came out pretty even (I spun all 4 oz nearly at once) and the final spiral, cork-screw look of the yarn is great.



Superfine merino might be at the top of my Favorite Fiber to Spin list!

[house] 30 days to go

The house is nearing completion. We will be moving in 30 days. I've been spending, planning, stressing, packing (rinse and repeat until the point of near-hysteria).

Front of the house:



Back of the house:



Looking down at the house from the hills:



A two-tiered rock wall they've put in at the end of the house (using rocks that they had to smash in order to pour the foundation). Can't wait to see what kind of plants I manage to put in and around here:





Garage floor poured:



Looking into the house from the garage. That's a 2nd fuse box for the house (the other is in the basement). I think there got to be too many fuses in one location, so the contractor put another in the garage- which contains the garage lights, and septic controls and probably the generator if we get one.



Kitchen, ready for countertops:



I might just have to schedule the U-Haul now :)

[misc] Murderface Monday

Keep on dreaming, little buddy:



Cuz we're moving in a month. Hope you like the new place!

[spinning] 3-ply Falkland

A nice big skein of 3-ply falkland wool that I recently spun:



This is a more accurate color:



I do love true three-plies. I just need to figure out which colors/colorways work best as a three ply. This worked well because all the colors ranged from blue to purple to rose. Colors in the name neighborhood on the color wheel.



This is a 5+ oz of worsted weight yarn. Love getting big skeins like this from the extra large bobbins on my Ashford Joy :) Joy Joy Joy Joy!

Oh yeah, before I forget, I picked up the fiber at last November's Green Mountain Fiber Festival at Ellen's 1/2 Pint Farm booth.

[crochet] Colorful Doily

I've bought a couple doily books the feature beautiful, intricate, heirloom-quality doily patterns. But before I tackle any of those, I need to feel more comfortable crocheting. I decided to try a SIMPLE doily pattern that appears to work best with colorful, self-striping sock yarn:



Pattern: Jameson by Berroco

Yarn: Schachenmayr nomotta Regia Design Line Kaffe Fassett. Used nearly all of one 50gr ball. Purchased at Country Woolens in Lebanon, NH.

Hook: 3.5mm (E)

Notes: Fun and pretty fast to make. It's very colorful and helps to hide my crappy joins:



Hasn't been blocked yet. Will probably wash, pin it out and maybe even iron it under a damp towel. I'm not too worried about the seam- I can always put a vase or bowl on the doily and point the seam at the wall where no one will see it.

I have another 50gr ball of this same yarn and might try a similar-but-different doily pattern for it. Not ready for light, solid, crochet cotton yet.

[knitting] Post and Rail Cowl

Here's the cowl I made to go with the Undergrowth hat from yesterday:



The yellows are a good match (considering the yarn is different companies) but the sage green came out a little gray in this cowl, but that's okay. They're close enough.

Pattern: Post and Rail Cowl

Yarn: Plymouth Suri Merino, 1 ball yellow, 1 ball green. Used nearly all of both.

Needles: US 8 (5mm)

Notes: There are a couple errors in this pattern.

1. Pattern says to cast on 106 st and k2p2 for a number of rounds. 106 isn't evenly divisible by 4. Make sure YOUR cast on is evenly divisible by 4.

2. Row 10 of the pattern says: K3, *Slip 1 with yarn in back, K5, repeat from * ending with K2

This is wrong and your vertical lines of slipped stitches will not be centered above/below one another.

Row 10 should read: K2, *Slip 1 with yarn in back, K5, repeat from * ending with K3

Let me try to chart this (you would be reading the chart rows from right to left). This is what you want.

---s-----s-----s-- (row 10) green
------------------ (row 9) yellow
s-----s-----s----- (row 8) green
------------------ (row 7) yellow
s-----s-----s----- (row 6) green
------------------ (row 5) yellow
s-----s-----s----- (row 4) green
------------------ (row 3) yellow
s-----s-----s----- (row 2) green
------------------ (row 1) yellow

As written, you would get:

--s-----s-----s--- (row 10) green
------------------ (row 9) yellow
s-----s-----s----- (row 8) green
------------------ (row 7) yellow
s-----s-----s----- (row 6) green

The slipped stitches for row 10 aren't centered above the slipped stitches of row 8.

Also, guess what? This is pattern is a 6-stitch repeat. Guess what number isn't divisible by 6? 106.

So, make sure your cast on is divisible by both 4 and 6. Unless you want to fudge it a bit and do some increasing or decreasing from the ribbed edges to the main body.



Since I was using worsted-weight yarn, I cast on and worked 120 stitches. If you were to use a chunkier weight of yarn, you might want to cast on something like 108. For dk or fingering weight, maybe try 134. Just use multiples of 12.

[knitting] Undergrowth

Here's a finished picture of the 2nd Undergrowth hat that I made:



I used <1 50gr ball each of Frog Tree Alpaca Sport in yellow and green. Good stash busting project.

[crochet] Safety Cones

Careful! When we have an accident in the house or need to avoid an area, we now use tiny safety cones:



That's a panda I'm making- he still needs arms and legs and ears. I had him safely inside the safety cones.

We've also been putting the cones on the floor- around his food area. And I marked out a clear path to me:



But Murderface wouldn't come.

[murderface] Outdoor sleeping cubby

When Murderface is outside, he has an outdoor sleeping cubby that he likes:



Looks like he's enjoying the sun:

[spinning] Creatively Dyed Yarn Fiber

8oz of 70% wool and 30% seacell from Creatively Dyed Yarn, which I picked up a Rhinebeck last fall...



Spun into a shiny, bulky two-ply.



Love the colors of this. I kind of regret spinning it so thick (wanted to instant gratification). If I had spun this into fingering weight, it would have been gorgeous yarn for a large shawl. But, I can still make a gorgeous hat and mittens.

[spinning] Jasmine Nights

Here's some BFL I picked up at the Into the Whirled booth at Rhinebeck last October:



Spun into a two-ply:



I love brown and blue together. This would make a very nice small project for a man- a nice ribbed cap, perhaps?

[spinning] Clay Pigeons for Lucky

I've been spinning like crazy lately. Here's 4oz of merino from FatCatKnits in the Clay Pigeons colorway:



Spun into ~218 yards of light worsted-weight two-ply:



And a close-up (color is a bit more accurate here):



I've donated this skein via a fund raiser on Ravelry for a cat named Lucky. He was born without eyelids, which isn't common but not completely unheard of. People are raising money for him to get the surgery he needs. If you'd like to read more about him or donate via ChipIn, go to this website. From what I've read about Lucky, he's so super sweet and so cute.

So, I donated my handspun to the raffle and bought some raffle tickets myself. Hopefully we can bring some good luck to Lucky.

[crochet] Penguin

Hidden in the Icy Pillow Caves of Upstairsistan...



A Penguin!



Pattern: Amigurumi Penguin. Free pattern from Lion Brand online, but you need to sign up for a free Lion Brand account to access it.

Yarn: White Encore, Black Wool-Ease, mystery gold yarn from my stash.

Hook: US E

I am loving these adorable little amigurumi. The only downside is that there's a lot of sewing.

I used 9mm black safety eyes for this guy, whereas I used 6mm ones for the lion. I ordered various safety eyes and noses from the shop 6060 on Etsy, so I have lots to make plenty of amigurumi.

[misc] Murderface Monday

What a gorgeous weekend! I set up a folding table and chairs outside yesterday to just sit in the sun and crochet. Murderface was hanging out with me:



He was loving it. He climbed into my knitting bag on the grass, jumped up onto the table to lounge, but sleeping is his favorite thing to do: