Wherein I get addicted to crochet

Fun matching hats!

I'm a little bit late with this week's blog, but in all fairness to me it has been a very busy second half of the week. More specifically, Wednesday was very busy, followed by sheer exhaustion on Thursday and a little less sheer exhaustion on Friday.

Wednesday, as I think I have mentioned before, is when my local knitting group gets together. This week I had a little added excitement in going. My housemate Katharina had decided she wanted to learn to crochet this past week, so I sat her down and went over the basics. I got as far as the (British) Treble stitch, and decided to set her to work on granny squares. She wanted to make a baby blanket, so was happy to get going on something that would be more than just going back and forth in a row. I was getting my things ready to take to the group, and she peeks her head in and starts asking me questions about yarn. One thing led to another and she came along with me! So I have gotten someone else hooked on yarncraft and I am very excited about it. I've been told I'm a very good teacher, so I've added teaching knitting and crochet classes to my list of considerations for the future. Once I'm back in America, I'll have a look at what local yarn stores offer and approach them with ideas.

After knitting group on Wednesday, we headed an hour south to the town of Brixham where I auditioned and Kat sat on the panel for Romeo and Juliet. This show is being put on by the South Devon Players, whom I have done shows with in the past, and will be set in the 1860s in Brixham. I went for the role of either Lady Montague or Lady Capulet, and got the former. It will be perfect, because I can sit in rehearsal and craft while the others are going their bits, then when I am needed (she appears 3 times in the show) I can toddle on and do a bit of acting. Best of both worlds.

After such a long day, I was too wiped out to do much but work on the newest project I have started. That's right, something new! I got a message from my friend Kieran, who recently had a baby daughter. He and his wife (also my friend) Krysh were wondering if I would be able to make a second baby blanket for them, and how much it would cost. I gave them a quote, and they gave me the go-ahead. Wednesday, I had a look to see if I could find yarn I wanted at the yarn shop, and found some. I bought it and started right away. I must have worked 4 hours on it Wednesday, and a further few hours Thursday. By late last night, I was getting near the end. I'm going to have to buy some more yarn soon.  I made the first one as a gift for their new baby, so I'm really quite thrilled to be able to make a second. It speaks volumes of what they think of my work and is a huge boost to my confidence. They asked for bold colours this time around; the first time I used pastels. I will make it to 3 feet square and then line it with fleece. I'll be seeing them at the beginning of February, so I have set myself that deadline so I can give it to them in person. I don't think getting it done in time is going to be a problem. I seem to be addicted to crochet at the moment.

Aside from that, I haven't been working on a lot else. I knitted quite a bit last weekend and early this week on my Marco pullover. I'm almost done with the body, and will do the arms and cowl neck during the Olympics. They will be part of my challenge for Ravelry's own version of the games. More on that once it's actually started.

 I did get my final hat washed and blocked for Halos of Hope, and sent those off on Wednesday as well. I'm sending a total of five hats, three of which will fit adults and two which I think will probably be too small. They do take hats for children though, so hopefully they will find heads that need hats. Three, the dark brown hats, are to the same pattern, the Sockhead Hat (Ravelry Link) which I altered to make them less slouchy, and two are simply hats I liked the pattern of.


Next Thursday is a show at Westpoint Arena (a local centre that does a lot of shows) called Crafts4Crafters, and I will be going with a small group. Depending on how tired I am afterward, I will write either that day or the next. There will be a lot of fabric vendors there, so I will be sourcing the fleece backing for the baby blanket. To see what else I get, tune in next week!

A busy week

Last week, I promised I would write more about an exciting plan I have for 2014. I have been thinking for awhile about doing some of my own design work, but putting thought into what I am physically capable of, and how much work design actually takes, I have decided on something a little different. I'm planning to do just a few designs, and sell the results; my first foray into the field is a lace shawl. I have also decided I'm going to do armwarmers, and I got a book on designing sweaters for Christmas, so I'll probably have a go at that at some point as well.

I've already started work on a shawl design, and have notes for another and possibly a third. Lace shawls are something I am confident making, and so far my design work has gone well, if slowly. It's fatiguing work. I've only taken one picture so far, a little sneak preview of what the first few rows look like, which will have to do until I've knit the first shawl and am happy with how it looks. I'm sixty or so rows in now, out of perhaps 200; I plan to knit until I run out of yarn. The first shawl I will keep, and any adjustments I make I will integrate into a second shawl, which I will give to a member of my family. The third will be up for sale. My sister already sells some of her own sewing creations at local craft shows in Columbus, Ohio, and I hope to partner with her.

In addition to my plans, I have been doing a lot of more ordinary work, working on things both for myself and for others. Several knitting podcasts I listen to are participating in a Halos of Hope charity drive called the Podcaster Throwdown, (link to Halos of Hope store) where the various podcasters are competing to see who can donate the most hats. Listeners are encouraged to choose one podcast as their team and donate as many as they wish. I set myself a goal of five hats, some of which I made last year. The last one I finished this past week. It's a simple mock cable pattern called the Caramel Ripple Hat (link goes to my Ravelry project page), which I made out of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran. It's quite small, but will fit a child nicely. I plan to get my hats sent off in the next week.

At the request of my housemate, I made a little holder for her dictaphone. I crocheted it out of green and purple yarn, alternating rows, and am very happy with how it turned out. The green rows are a simple double crochet (American terms) and the purple rows are a crossed double, where I crochet in the second space, then go back and crochet in the first. The top has a picot edge.

I have also started a sweater for her. The pattern she picked is Lundy, made out of some wool she picked up at Aldi - the brand is Kirkton House and it's an aran weight. The sweater is a mix of 1x1 ribbing and cables, an interesting mix of mindless knitting and intricate cablework.




That's not to say I'm not doing anything for myself. After doing five hats for Halos of Hope, I felt like making another for myself. I had recently given one away because it was really too large for me, and I thought I had just enough of the yarn from the first left to make a second if I made it smaller. I got out the pattern and knit the smallest size, and have just finished it tonight. It's a pattern called Everglade and I've made it out of The Natural Dye Studio's Angel DK, which I got some time ago in a club special.  This is unblocked, as I've literally just woven in the ends.

The other project I worked on for myself was a new pair of armwarmers. I seem to have developed a bad habit of taking finished objects I'm bored with and giving them to other people. My housemate is the major recipient of most of my recent generosity - since I've moved in she's gotten a hat that blocked large, and a set of armwarmers that have stretched, besides the dictaphone holder and the sweater that's on the needles. Anyway, I had some homespun yarn that I fancied using, and was planning to make a hat with it. Looking at the yardage, I decided to make the armwarmers with it instead, and was kind of glad I did. My spinning is getting better, but it's still not top notch, and this yarn is a little older than my newest and therefore not as good. It was uneven and would have made a rather rough hat, but it knitted up lovely and thick for armwarmers. The only downside I had was the fact that there wasn't enough. I had the foresight to weigh the ball at the beginning, and then I weighed it about half way through the first armwarmer and found I would be short. I dug through my leftover half balls of yarn and found a skein that complemented the handspun, and which was also a little lighter and not as itchy for the sensitive parts of my wrist and my hands, which didn't really need to warmth I required for my arms. I am exceptionally pleased with how these turned out.

I got asked a question during the week by a friend with Fibromyalgia who knits and crochets. She asked me some strategies  I use to knit and crochet when I am tired or achey. One of her main avenues of questioning was grips on crochet hooks. I gave her a response, but I thought there might be other people out there with the same or similar issues who don't know who to ask, and that a little something here would be good from time to time. Here is my response to her query:

"Bearing in mind I have ME/CFS and not fibro, and therefore more problems with the fatigue end of the scale than the pain, there are a few things I can say. I got some voltarol (diclofenac) gel prescription strength off my GP a few years ago when I went to him with pain in my thumb and elbow. He said it was RSI, gave me the stuff and told me to rest and apply when necessary. It was a huge tube and I hoard it, so I can use it when the pain gets too bad. I find the gel really works, if you can get it. It's also an over the counter medication, I believe.

Another thing that I use a LOT are braces. I have some for my hands, wrists (which make knitting next to impossible, but stabilize my wrists so that they feel better quicker) and an elbow brace that I often use when I crochet and sometimes when I knit. Elbows are one of the places where I get pain first, so I can wrap the brace around the base of my elbow and work fairly happily. All of these were recommended to me by GPs. The elbow brace is just a long strip of different kinds of material that fasten on via velcro. You can apparently get them at any sports store; they are commonly used for tennis elbow therapy. Mine was about £8 and I highly recommend it.

Talking about crochet hooks, I do know of a hook with a soft grip. One of the indie dyers I often buy from does a lot of crochet, and she got onto these ones by Clover called Amour. They’re fairly new out; bearing in mind she sells them on her website for about £6 they’re not cheap, but I’d guess they’re worth checking out. (Please note; I have not used these hooks, but reviews by other people have said they are good.)

A lot of different sources I’ve read recommend using bamboo needles when your hands are sore, as the lightweight factor in the needle works to reduce the grip you need, and also the wood is warmer and kinder to your hands. The only problem I’ve found with bamboo is that it is very grippy, so your projects using them are limited to things you really don’t want sliding off your needles.

In terms of the kind of needle I use, I almost always use circular needles to knit back and forth, and find it holds heavy projects easier than two straights. You aren’t straining your hands to hold something heavy up. This helps ease pressure on sore hands and arms."

If you're a knitter or crocheter reading this, and have not joined Ravelry, I strongly suggest you do. It's free, and has databases full of patterns and yarn; it also has places to keep track of what projects you're working on, what yarn and needles/hooks you own, and all your bought patterns. On top of that, there are forums and groups full of helpful advice and friendly people. I believe it is the best resource for fibre workers out there.

I hope to post once a week, so until then!

2013

It's been a long time since I've written a blog post, and I seem to be a little out of practice. This is my third attempt to write something, and I'm not sure I'm happy with it - but here goes.

The turn of the new year is always a time when we go over what we have done the previous year. I'll do a little of that in this post, and then over the next few days I'll talk about what this year will bring for me. I have exciting plans, and high hopes - probably the reason I'm resurrecting this blog after a year away! 

To start with - what did I do? Well, I did knit, of course. I did a little crochet as well, but not as much as I would have liked. I have trouble with my joints and have to take it easy; working with the hook too much makes my elbows and hands hurt. I also worked on my spinning, and am finally getting to the point where my perfectionist self is happy with the yarn I'm creating. 

The obligatory montages; first, the knitting finished objects: 

A smaller section for the Christmas presents I made this year:

And the crochet FOs:

And finally the spinning FOs. 

2013 was an interesting year for me. I started up amateur dramatics again. I was involved in two shows, one being the epic Les Miserables written as a stage play by the woman who directed it, based on the book. I had four roles, so it was quite a lot of work! I did a little bit of larp, and decided I was going to move back to the States. More on that later. 

My health has not improved any, and maybe even gone a little downhill. I still go to a knitting group, but I don't get out every week anymore. I find working on more demanding projects exhausting, and always have something "mindless" on the needles. However, my craft is one of the few constants in my life, and it is a rare day indeed when I physically can not do some kind of work. I mention this, because it will more than likely come up quite a lot in my blog. Suffering from ME/CFS has certainly changed my life, and talking about the condition is something I do openly and often. 

I'll end this by saying if you have anything you'd like to see me include, please let me know. I've already had a request for a tutorial on beginning knitting. I will probably do one for crochet as well. Thanks for reading! 

The Last Six Months

I can't believe it's been over half a year since I last blogged! I have been keeping myself busy with various knitting projects. Taking up most of my time was the one that I started at the end of July and took me 2 months to complete: a pullover for a friend of mine who had need of a new one. She wanted something long in black, and so I found some cotton that was nice and inexpensive and knit... and knit... and knit. I only charge for materials, and not my time, probably a good thing, since this took forever to make, despite being an easy knit! I based it on Sprout (my Ravelry link) from Knitty (the Ravelry project link), but extended it, didn't do the wraps as written in the pattern, and seamed it all the way down.I shipped it out at the beginning of September to one very happy customer, who then turned around and asked for some extra yarn to fix the seaming which I had obviously not managed to get quite right! Obviously something I need to work on.

After that, I started on Christmas stuff, to make sure I had time to get it all done. I did necklets for the women in my family, and mug hugs for the men. While they were small, they were lots of fun to make, and I got appreciation from all receivers. I made two of each colour necklets; the purple yarn was a Rowan silk cotton I picked up years ago in America, and the blue is Rowan Calmer, which is super soft and stretchy. I loved working with both of these yarns. The men's mug cozies were made from bits of yarn I had left over. It seems to be a great stash buster project as you really don't need a lot of yarn to make one, even making the fancy version (as I did) versus the plain version (which I have made in the past and is all stockinette stitch.)

After I made those, I decided I had time to finish the vest/waistcoat I had been making for Malcolm, who was until recently my father-in-law. I sat down and got it done in time to ship out for Christmas.This is a picture of it with my housemate generously modelling it for me. Malcolm wanted something in green, and I liked the tweed effect the Hayfields Aran yarn gave. It was however very coarse and hard on my hands, which kept cramping when I knit with it. I was pleased with the final outcome however.

Once I was done with my Christmas knitting, I sat down and picked up a shawl which had been on my needles since April 2011, according to Ravelry. This was a mystery KAL shawl I had bought to support the Japanese tsunami disaster relief efforts, and had never gotten around to finishing it. It's a two part shawl, with the first 36 rows done in intricate lace; nupp and cables play a major role in it. Those 36 rows took me forever to do, but once I was done with them it was stockinette with a cable up the middle, which I finished in about a week. The finished product is really amazing.

Interspersed in all that, I decided it was high time that I learned Fair Isle. I was inspired by several designs in the January edition of The Knitter, and looked up a few tutorials. Both recommended that you hold the different yarns with different hands; knit continental with one hand and English with the other. In order to do this, I had to learn Continental knitting, and to learn to knit with my right hand. I sat down and first figured out the intricacies of Continental, which really isn't all that different to how I currently knit, holding my yarn in my left hand. The major difference is that the working needle is the right needle, where I'm used to the working needle being the left. The bigger challenge for me was when it came to doing fair isle itself and trying to knit with my right hand in a fashion that I'm used to doing with my left; I had to go back to basics and ask myself "how to right handers purl?" and such questions. I'm very slow with both techniques, but that's to be expected. However, I have managed one Fair Isle tutorial with a simple project. The green is all Continentally knit, and the red is stranded across the back in the traditional Fair Isle style. This is without washing or blocking to even out stitches, so I'm quite proud of what I managed.

Finally, I learned through Twitter of a contest that Artyarns was holding. They were offering a pattern free for a limited time, a cowl, which you had to knit using any Artyarns yarn before December 30th. I ordered some Supermerino in the Berry colourway (I think it was) and then promptly forgot about it. The yarn arrived Christmas Eve from the States (I got it off Amazon, and wasn't expecting it to arrive from America) and I thought it was a present. I put it under the tree and decided to open it at midnight. Glad I did! I discovered this yarn and immediately remembered the contest. I was having trouble sleeping anyway, so I wound it, cast on, and did about half the cowl in one night. I finished it the next night. A nice quick project, but I did screw up and it became a mobius instead of a nice round circle. However, this doesn't stop it being a warm cowl, so I plan on using it. It is very pink though.

My knitting new year's resolution is to go on a yarn diet. I plan to move back to America in mid-2014, and want to get rid of as much yarn as I can, so I don't have to move it. Granted, I'll still have to move the stuff I make from it, but this way I can get into some of my stash and enjoy it and not think about spending more money on yarn I don't need or really have room for.

Spinning and the Ravelympics

Today's blog is brought to you by spinning. I had kind of left spinning behind since I moved to Exeter, letting the wheel gather dust in the spare room which also stored all the craft supplies. With the rent going up and our need to get a third person in the house, we have moved most everything out of the spare room now, so my wheel has taken pride of place next to the chest of drawers in my bedroom. That, and the fact that my bag of fibre was so full I was having trouble fitting it in the drawer which is now its new home, drew me back into the spinning which I had let lapse.

I started off by finishing off some plying that I had begun before I broke my arm. I was having trouble with getitng the wheel to "take up" the yarn, resulting in a lot of frustration and no plying happening. I decided to let it sit awhile and I would go back to it, and ended up letting it sit for over two months. I did get it sorted in the end though. The fibre I was plying was merino, part of a pack of six different colours I had purchased back when I started. They were very small (about 20 grams) worth, and I decided that I would spin the seperate colours, then ply them together. I think I did yellow and green, then a couple of purples with a blue, and then a different yellow with a different purple. Or something. Anyway, this particular one was the yellow and purple (which also happen to be the colours of the university I went to.) I plan to make some wristers or something with the yarn, since there's not much of it. It's really very pretty though, don't you think? Now I just need to work out how to use my niddy noddy, which has defied all my attempts at figuring out just which way to wrap the yarn. I fear this may mean taking it to someone who knows about these things, as youtube is just not hacking it.

My current spinning project is a little... bigger. At the same time I bought the merino tops that were spun above, I bought some Corriedale sliver. The colour is called Ice, and it's a lovely shade of grey-blue. I got 300 grams of it because I loved the colour so much! I'm really glad I did too, because Corriedale has fast become my new favourite fibre. While it's not quite as soft as merino, it spins up so easily that all I need to do is sit there and hold it. I'm sure that the fact that it's sliver, which is a thinner preperation of the wool than a top, may be helping, but I'm really loving spinning this stuff. It's also spinning really thinly really easily, meaning that I'm getting a consistent, thin yarn which will be perfect for a shawl. I'm really excited about this, as I didn't think I'd get such consistent shawlweight yarn for awhile longer. Even plied, I think it will be sock weight if not lighter; the singles are certainly laceweight. I may just knit the singles. I'll decide that once I've finished the spinning. You can see the very end of the spun bit hanging over the spindle in this picture. It's only half spun because it's on the end, so that will be tighter when it's done. I'm very pleased with this yarn.

My knitting project are coming along slowly. Very slowly. I'm considering what I want to do for Ravelympics (link requires a Ravelry login) and being amused/horrified by all the to-do going on. If you are unfamiliar with it, there is a news article here. Basically, the US Olympic Comittee insulted knitters (and crocheters) worldwide while trying to get them to change the name because of  Trademark infringement. Last time I checked (media law and ethics class, 2002), trademark can only be affected if there is a profit involved, but I'm going to leave this to heads that actually remember things. Still, disgusted by how they refer to knitters. You'd think officals would have more sense when so many people are involved. It's become a trending event on twitter.And THAT is amusing.

Back in business - and a contest!

After four weeks of not being able to do much of anything thanks to having my left arm in a sling, I am back in business! Already, I have finished a little something that goes around a can my orchid is currently living in; the can is a little wider than the pot for the orchid, so the pot goes in about half way and leaves the other half for water to accumulate so the roots aren't drenched. This is important for orchid cultivation. I used up the last of some yarn I got last year, and then finished with some completely different stuff, just for drama. Ravelled here.

I promised a picture of the hood I made. I took a pattern and modified it, then took some plastic wiring and fed it through the bit that frames the face. It ended up looking very different to how I imagined, but given the circumstances in which I will be using it, I'm not too bothered. Other pictures can be found on the Ravelry project page.

I subscribe to a site that has probably several thousand crochet patterns for free. They send me emails with some of the most popular every day, and there's also the odd contest. Right now, they're running a contest for free yarn. If you would like to enter, the link to the blog is here!

I'm currently working on a baby shrug for a friend, and a stole that I think I might give to my sister. Lots of exciting projects coming up, so watch this space for more!

I recently bought a new cloak for larp. It didn't have a hood, but I bought it at an IC shop, using IC money, so it was essentially free. I decided I would make a hood, and found a pattern on Ravelry. I haven't been able to get a picture yet, as taking pictures of the back of one's own head is difficult.

Not too long after I finished this hood, I fell and fractured my shoulder. I'll be out of commission for awhile, so don't expect to hear from me. Pics to come when I can manage.