Crafty Rantings

I'm Crafty. I Rant. These are Crafty Rantings!

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Secrets

Oh dear... I want so badly to talk about some of the other things I have been working on besides my scarf but I can't... I will ruin a birthday present for later this month and some Christmas presents. So please forgive me if I don't talk about much. One thing I can talk about is that I am going to start a few new projects. Kaylee was talking to me about making a list of things she wants to make to give for Christmas and she has inspired me. After KC tomorrow I will make a list sometime next week. I need to buy some green wool to make a small felted bowl for someone who works in my building. I will look at what there is at the LYS since she's having a sale. It has to be a color I like or would use again for someone else which means definitely NOT mint green. I like forest green or grass green but none of the light stuff. Yuck.

I can say that I have not picked up the baby afghan I started and don't think I will. The roadkill will never be finished. If I wasn't so close to being done, I would rip it out. I cannot begin to explain how much I *HATE* that project. That's not the problem with the baby afghan because I love the pattern but I just can't get motivated. That may be a project for the fall.

I am trying to figure out a tactful way to ask my mother if she will get some old jeans from my nephews and set them aside so that I can make some felted bowls while I'm there. :) All I have to do is buy some wool yarn while I'm there. Maybe I can get some at the local Ben Franklin. I will bring the circular I use and the 4 DDPNs that I use. Those are fast and cute and I would love to be able to make a couple while I'm there. I will take some thread, a hook and pattern and work on at least one doily. But as for knitting, I'd prefer to make bowls because I can get yarn there and leave the products there and not have to haul a lot of stuff with me. Of course at this rate, the alpaca scarf will be going because it won't be done. If it *is* done, by some odd stroke of luck, I may take the cashmere Kaylee gave me with me and if I can make that scarf with one ball of yarn, I will make one in the cashmere. The pattern is so simple! I have two patterns memorized that I can do almost in my sleep - the alpaca scarf and a small felted bowl. I love small projects! Yes... I admit it... I am into the instant gratification. Projects that don't take long. I can consider the scarf one of those because the pattern is 4 rows and I can do 4 anytime and even though it takes a while to finish it, doing 4 rows and seeing the pattern develop in those 4 rows is gratifying.

No pictures yet. I will have to work on something that I can take a picture and share. Until then, just know I'm busy. Hope the weather continues to stay fairly decent. Still, can't wait for it to start to really cool down. Then I can knit ALL the time I'm not working.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

The Alpaca Scarf

I am going to block this to try to get it even. The alpaca is beautiful and nice to work with but it is lacy and soft and stretchy, kinda. Here are the pictures:

You may have to click on the pictures to see the twirly needles and the pattern in the scarf. I find I love it... only problem is you have to live with the mistakes because the passing over of the stitch and yarn overs make it almost impossible to back up. Fair warning. :)

Gotta Share

OK, I have wanted to do this for a while but I have, as usual, put it off. Tonight I took pictures of the two vases I have sitting on a table beside my loveseat in my livingroom. One holds my straight bamboo needles with a couple of extra special items. Sitting in the vase are two needle cases hand-made for me by my wonderful Prez LB. Inside one sits my alpaca needles (look close!) and the other holds my penguin needles. Both of these I purchased from a wonderful talented knitter Tami who sells a bunch of great needles etc. at her website Designsbytami.com and I plan to get more there and eventually fill the vase with Tami needles. :) This is the picture on the left below this rambling. On the right is a picture of my "twisted" needles in a vase with a butterfly. Yes, the pink theme runs rampant. :) Each set is a different color and therefore a different size. I bought only what I would use. These I picked up at Joann's. My first set came from Modesto and the rest I purchased in Chico. Here are the needles:






OK now I have to share something else. My Secret Pal (Kaylee - hi Kaylee!!) sent me some beautiful alpaca yarn in my first package. I had no idea what I wanted to do with it but I wanted it to be something special and something for ME. Brooke kindly pointed me to a very nice pattern for a scarf so I printed it out and the first time I tried it, got very confused. The "yf" is a yarn over (easy enough) but the pattern says to knit 3 stitches then pass the 1st over the other 2. It doesn't say "Oh yeah, once you've passed it over, drop it" but I figured that out for myself. I have a philosophy that if it's handmade, it shouldn't be perfect. Well this scarf is far from perfect but I don't care... it's pretty and soft and I have figured out what I was doing wrong and hopefully won't do it again. The latest round of being off count was due to my own stupidity... I was trying to knit and answer the phones at noon. Bad idea. :) Anyway, I am going to post a picture here of the scarf (being done on size 9 "twirly" needles because I knit tightly so I went up a size). Hope you can see the needles. Then I will try to post up a picture of the pattern up close. Sometimes blogger doesn't like to let me put too many pictures. Cross your fingers. And btw, yes, the large doily under the vases is one I made. It wasn't as hard as it looks but it was time consuming so it's a one-of-a-kind. I have never made another. There is a big one (I call it the doily with wings) which I have made several of and I am thinking if I can get back into crochet this summer while it's supposedly too hot to knit, maybe I can finish the first big doily I have sitting in the thread basket and then try to make another one like the one above (started with motifs, joined and then just worked around) or one with wings. Anyway, I feel kinda bad that I haven't given doilys for a while but this year I think it'll be felted bowls unless I catch doily fever. Right now I am still in the throes of felted fever. :) Anyway, hopefully I can post the scarf pictures. Well apparently blogger won't let me so next post, scarf pictures!