WIP Wonderland Redux

We all live in a WIP filled world

I'm assuming that you are like me, so here goes the list scratching off from before. Can't scratch off completed items without a list, now can I?

WIP Mania Begins

1. Daughter's wedding shawl a.k.a The Beast: Cobweb lace yarn and complicated pattern necessitates 2 & 3 on the list. Must complete by 10/14. This is non-negotiable as I want to keep my daughter on good terms with me. Undisputed #1.   The Beast was consigned to the Frog pond, as the wedding was cancelled. I didn't think she'd want it after that.
2. Red afghan: large Beast relief project. 20% done. One more pattern repeat has been added. If I can only bring myself to complete the remaining 8, I'd free a large portion of space in my knitting basket.
3. Lolly Fant : small Beast relief project.1 ⅞ arm, a tail, and a dress to go. Complete and cute as a button.
4. my socks: oldest travel project I have. It's so old it dates back to when I couldn't knit without a pattern in front of me. Half a sock leg to go. Molly ate it.
5. husbands socks: youngest travel project. ⅞  a sock leg to go. Once I find it. Found it. Frogged with pleasure. Long story.
6. heirloom baby sweater: My oldest knitting WIP, about 40% done. I'll tell you the story when I start work on it again.   Molly ate this one too.
7. feather & fan scarf : old travel project. 30% done.  Completed. Yahoo!
8. blue dishcloth: needs a couple of rows frogged so I can correctly reestablish the pattern stitch. A DUH! mistake that needs fixin'. ⅔ done.  Molly has gone on an all fiber diet.
9. japanese waves shawl: old lace project. barely started when DD announced her impending nuptials. Consigned to the Frog pond, and yarn is now repurposed in a Virus shawl. That I have to find so I can put it in my purse as a carry along project.
10. big ol' sun & moon needlepoint: my dinosaur of WIPs. Older than dirt, and my go to for what I call idiot-work. It's what I do when I can't think & can't count but need something to do with my hands. It's paint by number with yarn. Do I really need to be in a hurry to finish this one? Yes, the canvas is so old (2008) that the design is starting to wear off. And you want a matted, framed FO out of it. Completed, matted, framed, and hanging in dear daughter's kitchen.

New WIP Mania list

So here goes my new list from my old. I can't find my socks, or the blue dishcloth, or  where the heirloom baby sweater is. Oy! Maybe the cat ate them. Yea, that's the ticket. Bad Mollycat. (smirk) 1 and 2 vie for top spot, the rest are on a rotating basis. Lets see how far I get this year...

1. Red afghan: large Beast relief project. 30% done. One more pattern repeat has been added. If I can only bring myself to complete the remaining 8, I'd free a large portion of space in my knitting basket.
2. Pi Shawl for my grandmother. Talk about long distance knitting!
3. BSJ #5. Dear daughter's best gal pal is expecting in January and baby things are just too much fun to knit.
4. BSJ #6. To be knit in bulky super wash wool for my almost toddler grandson. It must fit to keep warm.
5. Round Ripple Baby Blanket,  (crocheted) also for DD's best gal pal. Besides I have the yarn on it's way. It will fit nicely in my basket. Once the red afghan is done, that is.
6. Virus Shawl. Repurposed the Tosh Tart lace yarn from Japanese Waves for this. Scrumpdillyishous.
7. Sophies Universe (crocheted mandala blanket). All scrapghan, and full of the most ginormous. Texture. Ever.
8. Granny ripple throw that will go to a friend of the family when complete.
9. Two Vanora doilies. Not one, but two. I'm a glutton for punishment. One in size 10 cotton, one in size 20 cotton. Grace Fearon is a marvel.
10. Summer Splendor doily, also in size 20 thread. Double glutton for punishment. I'm a crochet masochist.
11. Two quilts: one baby (just needs binding) and one bed sized (requires me to mop the kitchen floor to sandwich it up).
12. Oriental Crane needlepoint. Idiot work from 2008. Had to buy the used yarn kit on eBay just for the chart, the design is almost worn off of the canvas.

Jeez Louise. Do I even know what I'm doing anymore?

Crochet Compulsion

Let's start at the beginning of the compulsion. I learned to crochet while I was pregnant with my daughter 28 years ago. Patterns were fairly easy to come by, and of necessity being very thrifty in those days I bought most of my crochet booklets, thread, and yarn from the Thrift Store.

Fast forward another 8 years, and I had accumulated quite the collection of Magic Crochets and 10¢ booklets from the 40s and 50s, as thread crochet is much much less expensive than anything done in yarn, and much more portable. After my stroke, those beauties were relegated to a storage shed to rot. I've shed many a tear over that lost collection.

Since I began crocheting again, earlier this year, I came to learn that my old favorites are now out of print, and after Katrina when so many lost everything they owned, the Thrift Store had meager pickings.What a joyous chore tracking them down online has become. I've managed to reassemble my old collection and expand it. I've tracked down 85 issues of Magic Crochet on eBay, and have 10 more on the way. ⅔ of of the entire print run will soon be mine. I'm rubbing my hands together in avaricious glee and cackling.

Not to mention my old 10¢ crochet booklets, of which I have 4 binders full to bursting.

And I've discovered Elizabeth Hiddleson, whose 4-A will yield a delightful Fleur de Lis doily when it arrives, perhaps 2.

Now if I can just get my hot little hands on the 1990s issue of Crochet Fantasy that has a toy dragon pattern reminiscent of Puff the Magic Dragon, my collecting days will be over.

Bibbity, Bobble-y, Boo!

Bibbity...

There are those who swear by charted instructions and will not use a pattern that only provides written instructions. Then there are  those who swear they can't follow charted instructions and will only work a pattern with written instructions. Then there is me, and I suspect a larger number of those like me, who are pattern method agnostic and will work a pattern regardless of how it is provided.

That said, there are times when a charted pattern is so much easier. Like now.

Bobble-y...

 I've got Denise Augostine (Owens) Summer Splendor on a hook now. One of several doilies I have on the hook. (Doilies are a peculiar addiction of mine.) Summer Splendor is a beauty consisting of concentric rings of dc bobbles, chain loops, and rounds of dc/basic filet rounds. When I saw the pictures of it on Ravelry, my hook began to sing, and once started progressed nicely through round 21, or so I thought. Take a look at all of the lovelies on Ravelry.

Boo!

While beginning round 22 I noticed that my bobble cluster repeat had changed. In a doily this isn't unusual, especially this close to completion. However, in a pattern this easy it heralded that something was wrong somewhere. So I began frogging, round by round to see where my work went astray. Ripping out rounds and rounds of size 20 thread was painful but instructive. My entire final bobble section was off! Sigh.

To Chart, or Not to Chart...

While it is one of the easiest patterns to work - all simple stitches and short repeats, it made me question whether or not I could still read.  This brings us around full circle to charts or written instructions.

Here's the round that I misread:

Rnd 17: Sl st in ch-1 sp, (beg bobble, ch 2, bobble) in same sp, ch 3, skip next dc and next ch-1 sp, sc in next dc, ch 3, sc in next dc, ch 3, skip next ch-1 sp, * (bobble, ch 2, bobble) in next ch-1 sp, ch 3, skip next dc and next ch1sp, sc in next dc, ch3,sc in next dc, ch3,skip next ch-1sp;rep from* around, join with sl st to top of beg bobble. 

Rnd 17:

Sl st in

ch-1 sp, (beg bobble, ch 2, bobble) in same sp, ch 3, skip

next dc and

next ch-1 sp, sc in next dc, ch 3, sc in next dc, ch 3, skip next

ch-1

sp, * (bobble, ch 2, bobble) in next ch-1 sp, ch 3, skip next dc and

next

ch-1 sp, sc in next dc, ch 3, sc in next dc, ch 3, skip next ch-1

sp; rep from *

around, join with sl steg bobbl

Rnd 17:

Sl st in

ch-1 sp, (beg bobble, ch 2, bobble) in same sp, ch 3, skip

next dc and

next ch-1 sp, sc in next dc, ch 3, sc in next dc, ch 3, skip next

ch-1

sp, * (bobble, ch 2, bobble) in next ch-1 sp, ch 3, skip next dc and

next

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/summer-splendorch-1 sp, sc in next dc, ch 3, sc in next dc, ch 3, skip next ch-1

sp; rep from *

around, join with sl seg bobbl

In all fairness to Ms. Owens, the pattern is correct. When written out, it is unfortunately dense and easy to get lost in. Which is what happened to me.

Here's my chart of the same section. Please forgive my poor art skills and even worse handwriting.

Rounds 16 (bottom) and 17 (top)

 In this instance, one picture is worth a hundred words. Far less dense, and everything I need to know about round 17. Ahhh, clarity, I'd omitted the middle ch3, sc on my first attempt.

I first saw this type of chart in a Russian crochet magazine, Duplet. It's brilliant, showing the previous round and current round as a function of their repeats. This is a fabulous blend of the old (written) and the new (charted). For me, there's no better way to not get lost in a pattern.

Back to round 17...Happy crafting, y'all!

Sewing for a teenager

Much of the past few months has been occupied by my search for the appropriate quilt top for my teenage granddaughter. I queried her dad, and she liked birds, wanting to be an ornithologist (really?) and blue, preferably royal blue.

In this quest, I finally developed some smarts( hard to believe, I know), by testing squares before cutting the entire quilt.

 At first, it would have 8" squares of embroidered birds in a modified Log Cabin pattern.

Now, in this process of testing designs, I learned a couple of things. First, I don't mind stitching the occasional machine embroidered design, but the thought of cranking out enough 8" blocks for a quilt top made me twitch severely enough to require seizure meds.

Next, it was 10" squares of embroidered birds set on point with blue corner triangles. Big blocks means fewer embroidered squares right?

The second thing occurred to me at this stage. She's never once mentioned birds or ornithology to me in any way, shape, or form.

Birds, really? What was that all about? But, she talks of her cats constantly.

Oh ho! Here we go! Something I can work with that she likes. Design 3 was an appliquéd cat head square. Adorable, but too cutesy for the teenage granddaughter. And machine appliquéing hundreds of wee bits of cat faces would be a torture worthy of Dante's 9th level of hell.

I pressed onward, because a Nana is NEVER deterred by setbacks. Design 4 is a pieced cat square. The test sewed up beautifully, and the cats are all different colors. Blue is incorporated in several cats, and I'll likely bind the quilt with a patched binding of blues. It's old enough for her now and later in life, but not too old fashioned.

I knew I'd find the right design for her. The cutting of half of the squares is done, maybe more. I like to break up big cutting jobs so that I have a kitchen table in-between cutting sessions. My family likes it too. Off to the sewing room!

Now what to do with those damnable bird squares? Give me time...

Heeeere's Johnny!

Mic Test, mic test, check one, two, three.

It's been a long and eventful 2 years - goes to show ya, I STILL can't count - 3 years since my last post here. A major illness and recovery took up the first year and a half.  I don't know that I'll ever recoup 2014 and most of 15.  After that  a new grandbaby and reacquiring an old skill have taken the last year and a half. Take a guess what that skill may be? Here's a hint:

 Life is good!

The Walk of Shame? I think not...

T-minus 5.5 lap quilts on 1 Dec? Didja make it? Didja? DIDJA?

Nope, didn't make it by a long shot. But by tomorrow I'll have 3 of the 5.5 completed since 1 Dec. The accomplishment in that is that those quilts got completed in the face of this list of overwhelming odds against getting them done:

Christmas shopping for husband and kids, fabric shopping for my Kringle's lap quilt, food shopping for the family Christmas party, watching a 2 year old, cleaning for the family Christmas party, baking for mail off Christmas gifts and the Christmas party, cooking for the family Christmas party, decorating for Christmas and the Christmas party, watching a 2 year old, hosting the Christmas party, standing in line at the post office to send off gifts, watching a 2 year old, attending an out of town Christmas party while watching the 2 year old, planning Christmas dinner (we're starting a new tradition: Italian on Christmas Day), miscalculating yardages for the 3rd quilt, choosing new fabrics because what I'd chosen is no longer available, watching a 2 year old, dodging husband so I can wrap his presents, dodging 2 year old so I can wrap his presents. Oy! Busy, busy, busy...  Did I mention watching a 2 year old?

I count it an earth shattering accomplishment to have an empty sink for the first time in 10 days. And it's not over yet.

I know I'm not the only one, what's going on in your holiday plans?

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Holy schnikes! It's almost Christmas

I can't be the only crafter who has let Christmas sneak up on them...again.

Can I?

T-minus 5.5 quilts

Think I'll make it?

Trimming visual clutter

I'm still the newbie quilter and with less than perfect vision. Glasses can only correct so much. And my frustration level isn't one of those correctable things. You may be like me in that aspect, so a little help is always a good thing.

What inspired todays post: half triangle squares. Specifically trimming the little buggers up square. Goodnight Avery only has 36 of them, and I'm not complaining about that.  20 2½" and 16 3½" squares to be exact.

Non-quilter FYI: 36 half-triangle squares in a quilt top is only a few, and about as easy as it gets.

UGH! Too many lines!

I love my rotary cutter and mat. I also love quilting rulers. Individually, they outslice sliced bread for awesomeness. BUT, and there is always a but, using them at the same time makes me crosseyed from visual clutter. So much so that I welcomed stopping my first Goodnight Avery quilt to let my phone charge and my eyes rest while I write this post. My phone is my camera, and as they say, seeing is believing.

What got my eyes hurting after trimming only 10 squares today was eyestrain from cutting them to size while keeping them square.

Busy, busy, busy!

The fix came to me in these stages:

Tip 1: Mark the half inch square corner with X's on the diagonal line of the ruler.

I was tired of trying to visually line up x.5" squares on the diagonal. Quilting rulers are marked in ⅛" increments. To put it mildly, that's a lot of tiny squares in a very little space. Following them visually with old, tired, and poor eyes is a recipe for not just for eyestrain but cutting errors. Goodnight Avery only has 36 half triangle squares, but some quilts can have hundreds. I don't know about you, but fabric is too expensive to potentially screw up 100+ of these little, er, suckers in a larger quilt. OUCH, indeed.

Wee blue crosshairs are larger than they appear in the picture

Tip 2: Trim the squares en pointe.

In combination with tip 1, "standing" the square on a point for cutting lets you easily measure from the inside of the ruler to the outside of it, and make any needed cuts along 2 sides.

Look Ma, just 2 quick cuts!

Tip 3: Use the back of the cutting mat.

Here's where I had my V-8 moment: I noticed that I could see my X's on my ruler more easily on my sewing table because it's solid white and the ruler is clear (DUH!). Turning my mat over and cutting en pointe on the solid green side means I only see the fabric or the solid green through the ruler and no distracting gridlines or angle lines. AHHHH! Now that's easy on the eyes!

Sometimes less is more....

Once I hit on this process trimming up squarely was quick and easy peasy. My knitting hero, Elizabeth Zimmermann, called rediscovered knitting techniques, stitch patterns, and tips such as these unventions.  Therefore I unvented a highly workable process today. Hooray for me!

What about you happy crafters? What have you unvented?

Wait for it... wait for it...

This chilly morning, I toast the completion of the mentalpause project with a cuppa lukewarm joe. This was to be my daughter's high school graduation gift: nice, right? Well, that graduation was in 2008.  Now to wash and block it, then have it matted and framed for her kitchen. Good thing her college graduation gift was a graduation party, yes?

A 7 year wait isn't too long, is it?

I'll admit, I'm a bit slow on the uptake. Having taken 7 years to complete the mentalpause needlepoint, any needlework project advertised as "quickpoint" would be a welcome change of pace. I chose some cute Penguins and started the next color by number with yarn. For some goofy reason I thought Quickpoint would be a basketweave needlepoint project, but it's really cross stitch on a very large mesh (4.5 stitches/inch) with worsted yarn. At least I don't have to count stitches... It's quite sizable (16 inches square) but when you compare stitch counts it's far far less work. There's only a few stitches over 5100 in the whole thing compared to the 28200 plus of mentalpause in only a 14 x 14 space.

Maybe quick point means this one
will only take 3 years to complete?

And I did cut out a quilt after finishing mentalpause and the office-to-sewing room reorganization. Actually I got much farther than cutting it out. Quilting is about to commence so that my favorite West Virginia fan has a Christmas present. Really, that's WVU blue and gold, not LSU purple and gold. LSU Purple is a color not allowed in my household.  The pattern is Donna Robertson's 'Friendship Star' from her book 3 Yard Quilts. I think this one is my favorite pattern in the whole book.

Eek! Excuse my kitchen floor, please?

But I'm still not brave enough to tackle my closets... yet. The closets may hold things that have never seen the light of day. Sticking my hands in there will require the fortitude of a, nay several, steaming cuppas Irish coffee. With whisky, thankyouverymuch. There be beasties in there.

What about you?

Next quilts up:

One each Vicki Bellino's Goodnight Avery's in little boy construction prints and little girl critter prints 

Several Stella Table Mats in Christmas fabrics

In Mentalpause

What was I thinking???? Reorganize the office into a craft room during vacation? Easy peasy? Riiight... It's not hard but it is tiring. Everything takes longer to do in a wrist brace.  Wanting my kitchen table to be junk free as I move sewing machines and sewing supplies (a quilt top isn't junk, but I like eating on a solid surface and clean quilts) means no quilting or sewing until the room is setup.  Just a few more pieces to go... and then I'll cut another quilt top and tackle my closets. UGH! That's for the closets, not the quilt top.

And because I'm not as young as I used to be: I get too tired to think after dragging all that crap around but still want to work on something in the evenings ... my paint by numbers with yarn is almost complete. Another needlepoint is already queued up in the wings for when this beauty is completed.

Next quilts up:

Vicki Bellino's Goodnight Avery in little boy construction prints 

Donna Robertson's Byzantine Door in New Orleans Saints fabrics

I LOVE easy peasy microwave fabric bowls

Yes, I said I love these. They're easy to make, easy to use, and easy to clean. Does anything kitchen related get any better than that?

How often are we disappointed by kitchen gadgets that seem awesome? More often than we'd care to admit, I'd wager.

I've not been this excited about a kitchen item since Crock Pot Liners were introduced. They will always be the #1 of kitchen sexy...

Tired of burning your hands and dipping hot pads into the contents of microwaved bowls? Make an easy peasy microwave fabric bowl!

These lovely little quilted fabric bowls are made with 100% cotton fabric and sewn with 100% cotton thread, quilted with 100% cotton batting. (No poly or metallic anything, please. They'll burn or arc, or both.)

Fill your bowl with whatever you're reheating/cooking/eating, put the bowl of food into the fabric bowl. Toss it all in the microwave or eat - voila! No burnt hands, ma!

I just have to share the love... Link to one of many tutorials to make these great little gadgets below:

http://tamarackshack.blogspot.com/2012/11/microwaveable-fabric-bowl-tutorial.html

I'll quote one of my favorite comics, Bill Engvall: Yes ma'am, you are welcome.

Biomechanics + Wedding Prep + Technology = Life caught me by the short hairs

It's been a little over two months now since I checked in with y'all. Here goes:

To Count or Not to Count Update

I did resolve my inability to count beyond two, however I haven't got much knitting done.  A carpal tunnel diagnosis pretty much put the kibosh on knitting until I can have surgery to fix it. After the wedding, that is.

%$!* Wrist

Which lead to not only no knitting these past two months, but little to no typing. A splinted wrist can only do so much, and no more.  I can type right now because a cortisone injection in my wrist has finally kicked in enough to remove the splint for a very little while. But I did sew a great deal during the blog interregnum for myself, the holidays, my daughter and her wedding, because it's one of the few things I could do with my good hand in a wrist splint. 

Gift for a Friend

First of two Christmas gifts

45" x 45" 9 Patch for grandbaby

45" x 60" Simple Strips quilt for my daughter

Wedding Prep

I never assume others think like I do, but I do assume the world would be a better and more financially solvent place if more people thought like me. But, for the moment, lets assume you do think like me and have no problems with a DIY wedding.

Dear Daughter chose burlap and lace for her decorating scheme. Being an odd combination of Depression Era "If you can make it cheaper than you can buy it, always make it," and a recovering southern belle of the Emily Post variety, nonplussed is a polite way to describe my opinion of burlap at a wedding. That said, it's not my wedding and we all know what is said about opinions. As much as I hate to admit it, I am not exempt from the opinion rule. Mine stink too. But I will give her selection a substantial plus: burlap and lace can be reused in the newlywed's home as part of a shabby chic decor.

Anyway, in discussions of "burlap this," "burlap that, " and "burlap the other," I realized there were substantial pecuniary savings to be had in making some of the burlap decorations for the wedding and reception instead of purchasing everything. Neither Emily Post nor my Depression Era grandparents were opposed to saving money. Nor am I. 

Rule number 1: Preferentially buy everything but the food on clearance where you can. Shop around to do this, and start early.You may love a particular item or look, but if you can get something really close to it on clearance, do it. For fellow cheapskates this is preaching to the choir. For you newbies to getting the best bang for your buck, it works if and only if you do it.

Rule number 2: If it's cheaper to make it than it is to buy it, always make it. Yes, factor in your time to make it against the cost, and start early. Your time matters. For instance, I was going to make the favor bags, until I found a lower cost supplier at which to buy them. The time I'm saving will go towards cooking the food for the reception and making other decorations.

Many bemoan the early Christmas store layouts, but not I. We crafter cheapskates know the number one rule of crafting for Christmas: Start early.  A crafter cannot start early if there is no seasonal merchandise to be had. Enough said.

And there are other benefits to early seasonal displays. In the Christmas section of a national hobby and craft store, I saw adorable burlap bows edged with cheapie lace, perfect for the wedding & reception decorations, save for the cost. $10 each, for cheap lace & burlap, of all things? Cheeky little retailers! 

With a little thought (I made my own bow pattern) and prescient purchasing decisions (yards of burlap bought on sale, yards & yards of lace bought on clearance), my dear daughter now has beautiful bows with nice lace at a material cost of $1 each.   Good for the wedding, reception, Christmas, Thanksgiving...  useful in the future and a gift to carry forward for the new couple. I could make more like this in the same manner, add my time and sell them on etsy for half of what the retailers charge and still make bank.  (Future enterprise for me! )

Burlap Bow (The first of many)

24" x 60" Burlap and Lace Table Runner
(to have a 12" diameter centerpiece)

Burlap and organza wired ribbon floral arrangements for the reception tables can be reused in the home as desired. They're much less expensive than real flowers. See parenthetical ending of previous paragraph.

Guestbook Table arrangement

Consider fancying up the food service at the reception with carefully purchased pieces of white serving plate. The newlyweds can have it for their new home. Give it to them after the honeymoon of course! No pics yet, still in the pick up as I find it stage.

Technology

Other sewing & quilting or wedding projects are either completed or underway, but until I figure out how to get the pics from the new phone to the 'puter they're photos non grata. It'll wait. Not like I don't have anything else to do. 

Are you the make it yourself, if it's cheaper type too? Chime in a comment and let me know...

Back to bow making...

First down & 10

The first of my comfortable summer blouses is complete. After the pattern pieces fiasco, I wrote the pattern maker to let them know about the missing pieces, and they graciously offered to replace the pattern. Thank you Simplicity!!! But not wanting to wait for it to arrive by mail to make my blouse, I bought another copy and made the blouse. I love it so much that I'll use the replacement to make the dress!

The blouse from Simplicity 2660 is one of those that you wouldn't look at once, much less twice on the hanger. But as soon as you put it on and see how flattering the fit is, it becomes your new favorite and a keeper!

It's a hawaiian shirt that I made for a party, but I'll be making more of these!

 Next quilt top: Simple Strips, a free pattern from AllPeopleQuilt.com

One of THOSE Months

Knit one, frog two, leads to a knitting hiatus

When you knit, frogging is inevitable. The beast took 4 rows forward, and 10 rows back. I can't stand to look at her right now because she is my penultimate reminder that I CAN'T COUNT my knitting past 2, by two's. Really, it is that bad.

Because I can't seem to count beyond 2, all knitting is on hold. My knitting confidence is so shaken that I can't even care right now that Lolly is nekkid.  'Tis bad, which means it's time for a break.

Measure twice, cut once 

My grandmother taught me to sew, and as a child I wrought stitched havoc for her on 2 of her 3 of her sewing machines. Well I was young, probably too young to be trusted to use such machinery, even under her bird-dog eye.  

Happily, after successfully using an inexpensive portable sewing machine of my own over the years, I no longer wrought stitched havoc on anyone. I could and did sew, rather well, if I don't say so myself.  That made my grandmother so happy that I inherited her third sewing machine. 

So having nothing to do but practice my housework avoidance skills, I'm revisiting sewing. Finding comfort and busy hands again in making patchwork baby quilts, something I've never done before, is a boon to my bruised confidence. Pictures to come...

Comfortable summer clothing for myself is also on my sewing to do list, perhaps a hawaiian shirt or two for Husband ( they're his new fancy, and he rarely takes a fancy to anything ) once I learn how to use my buttonhole foot. Don't know if I can still turn nice buttonholes by hand like I used to.

Anyway...

I have insufficient quilt batting to start another baby quilt. So I started trimming up the pattern pieces for a blouse and pants set, only to learn that a whole sheet of pattern pieces that I need for my outfit is missing. This is the first time I've ever had this happen, and I've been buying patterns since 1983.

Anyone who has pulled a new set of bed linens out of their little plastic zippered bag has some idea of what unfolding a pattern is like. You remove the sheets and start unrolling, not knowing if the pillowcases are really in there until you finish unrolling the neat little cake of sheets and shake them.  And no matter how hard you try, you can't refold the sheets small enough to put back in their neat little zippered plastic bag. Fun times, eh?

It's pretty much the same with clothes patterns. Only the pattern pieces are printed on half twin sheet sized pieces of super thin tissue paper, that are folded in on themselves more tightly than a katana and if you shake them out like sheets  to see if all are there you'll tear them to shreds. BUT, just like the sheets, you can't refold the patterns afterwards. So I typically write up a list of the pieces I need and cut as I unpeel the individual sheets of tissue from each other. 

Where this is going is that I can't just refold the pattern and return it. I have to buy another. 

Sigh, no clothes making for a little while.  Not confidence boosting but neither is it enough to shake what little I've gained from the quilts in the past few days. Now I have to go get another pattern... yes, it's been one of THOSE months...

Lolly waits for clothes

I wanted to share her before now, but burning my fingertips while cooking put the kibosh on both typing and knitting.

Lolly now has 2 arms, 2 legs, and a tail. All stuffed and sewed where they belong. There's not much odder looking than an elephant in panties and Mary Janes, but she did come out cute.

Her dress is now in progress, when that's done I can scratch off the first completed knitted WIP from my list.

More WIP elimination updates

And the Beast is up to 105 rows of 228, I think it is.

Having only an inch-ish knitted up, I'm thinking about frogging the Japanese Waves shawl.  I'm considering casting on Grace Akhrem's Crashing Waves shawl as replacement for Japanese Waves in the queue. A beautiful, simple knit and I don't need a pattern until the lace edging. It doesn't get much more simple than that.

Paved with good intentions, or round washcloth mania

I got turned onto the Lacy Picot Swirl washcloth on the KnittingHelp forum, and it's as addictive as the Almost Lost Washcloth. As if I need another to go project...

Living in a WIP wonderland

This Spring incited a cleaning frenzy in me, the likes of which I last experienced while nesting in preparation for the birth of my now 24 year old child. Yes, crazy cleaning... I can't help but wonder how much storage space, and ease of mind, I could free up if I finished my WIPs. They really need to go live somewhere else so that I can go on to new projects with a clean conscience and, more importantly, have space for new yarns. My best friend can stop snickering right now over the notion that I can have a clean conscience. Right. Now.

I have home-based projects, travel projects, and always an idiot project. Home based projects have the following in common: They are large, or complicated, or charted, or have beaucoup pieces and therefore can't travel well. Conversely, my travel projects are all small, uncomplicated, and either stockinette or an easily memorized & recalled pattern stitch. Idiot projects require very little attention, very little thinking, or very little of both.

WIP Mania Begins

I'm a compulsive list maker so here goes. Can't scratch off completed items without a list... The only one in the correct place order is #1. The order of importance of the rest is TBD:

1. Daughter's wedding shawl a.k.a The Beast: Cobweb lace yarn and complicated pattern necessitates 2 & 3 on the list. Must complete by 10/14. This is non-negotiable as I want to keep my daughter on good terms with me. Undisputed #1. 
2. Red afghan: large Beast relief project. 20% done.
3. Lolly Fant : small Beast relief project.1 ⅞ arm, a tail, and a dress to go.
4. my socks: oldest travel project I have. It's so old it dates back to when I couldn't knit without a pattern in front of me. Half a sock leg to go.
5. husbands socks: youngest travel project. ⅞  a sock leg to go. Once I find it.
6. heirloom baby sweater: My oldest knitting WIP, about 40% done. I'll tell you the story when I start work on it again.
7. feather & fan scarf : old travel project. 30% done.
8. blue dishcloth: needs a couple of rows frogged so I can correctly reestablish the pattern stitch. A DUH! mistake that needs fixin'. ⅔ done.
9. japanese waves shawl: old lace project. barely started when DD announced her impending nuptials.
10. big ol' sun & moon needlepoint: my dinosaur of WIPs. Older than dirt, and my go to for what I call idiot-work. It's what I do when I can't think & can't count but need something to do with my hands. It's paint by number with yarn. Do I really need to be in a hurry to finish this one? Yes, the canvas is so old (2008) that the design is starting to wear off. And you want a matted, framed FO out of it.

I think that's all, though I may find more when I go in search of husband's other sock. My idol and knitting goddess, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, would likely find my list of WIPs laughably short. But, in my itty bitty house, they and their materiel take up floor & storage space. Speaking of storage, it's time to put away the 4 bags of DK...

Working off a large collection of WIPs, is like working off large debt. You set a schedule, then as WIPs complete, you reallocate the knitting time until they're all done. The Beast will take until October to finish, unless the knitting gods take pity on me (unlikely). She gets at least 2 rows a day until completed, more as I and my fingers can stand it. Lolly is almost done, so she'll be first up as front for Beast relief. I've decided that my socks will be the first of the travel projects slated for completion ASAP (travel not included). And my poor needlepoint will be front from time to time.

Even better than the upcoming batch of FOs is that I get to stop cleaning to work on them. Really, can I please stop cleaning now??

Spuds is spuds

I'm such a spud today. Not that this is different from any other day. But I am more aware of my spud-dom than usual. Somehow I made progress on Lolly despite my resemblance to Ms. Potato Head. What should have taken 5 minutes took me all afternoon.

Why all of this self-recrimination? My spud self gave Lolly black shoes, and I sewed the little buggers up this afternoon.

Mattress stitching black worsted knit up on size 4 needles gets me nominated for queen knitting spud of the year. And a monumental case of eye strain. I fear the award for being crowned queen will be speedy and incapicitating blindness as soon as the winning vote is cast.

Grouse, whine, kvetch

Other than finding those hard to see bars in the shoe stitches (What WAS I thinking? Black shoes??) the gauge made my fingers ache unbelievably. In worsted, Lolly knit up at 5.25 sts/inch on those size 4s o'mine. For me that's a dense fabric. The given pattern gauge is 6 sts/inch so I don't know why I'm complaining. I got the look I want and a toy sized just right for a little one to love on, or to sit on the shelf and look absolutely adorable.

Do what you have to do, knit how you have to do it, to get the look you want or need. That's all that matters. How you go about knitting is such an "I say po-tay-toe, you say po-tah-toe" enterprise. But in the long run, spuds is spuds, y'all.

And as a friend of mine says, I like taters.

Lolly's Yarn Debacle Continues

The DK arrived today and yep, the DK is about the size of Caron's Simply Soft.

Sigh.

I've decided to keep all 4 bags. Skooshy yarn will always, ALWAYS, have a home with me.

Can't use this for elephant clothes.  Time to go digging through sock yarn so Lolly is not permanently en déshabillé. 

She remains partially knitted/assembled because lucky me  found the knitting equivalent of Lay's Potato Chips.  Oy!

Betcha can't make just one. 

I know I can't. It's all Julie Tarsha's fault.  I found her Almost Lost Washcloth on Ravelry, and it was all downhill from there. Sweet little short rows make up the most fun you can have with garter stitch in public. Slowpoke me has managed to crank out 3 in as many evenings (maybe 3 hours each cloth). I only have photos of the last two. When your 20-something daughter looks at something knitted and says "Ma, that's neat," and takes it as soon as its offered, you know you have a hit on your hands.

I happen to like the "spotted" cotton yarns for this cloth instead of variegated where the color striping can pool in wonky ways because of the short rows. But that's me. YMMV.

The recipe doesn't give much direction on finishing. If you're a new knitter: I finished knitting  on the CO 4 row of the 14th point, then grafted those 14 live stitches to the 14 cast on stitches.

You're killing me, Smalls...

And I actually worked on the Beast this afternoon without ripping anything out. Shhhhh, don't say it loud. She's on row 103. Yes, she really exists, and no I haven't started smoking again. I've though about it, but I haven't done it.

Talk about a love-hate relationship... start, stop, start over, frog, quit smoking, *knit more, feed the frog again. Repeat from * for a few months, and you get it.

What was I thinking???

A most excellent question.

Yes, I'm old fashioned. I confess that I believe little girls should look like little girls. Not like tomboys and certainly not dressed like Miley Cyrus. Neon is for orange traffic cones and side of the road safety striping, not clothing. Black is for mourning, not babies. But I digress.

So when I set out to make Lolly, I had a couple of inspired ideas. Namely, Lolly would be dressed like Buffy from Family Affair, wearing a short dress, black Mary Janes, white anklet socks, and white ruffled rumba panties. (Of course Lolly will have more than one dress! She's a southern girl.) These flashes of brilliance required advance planning in the form of a black worsted yarn purchase and scrounging through my stashed yarn oddments for white yarn.

Needless to say, Lolly now has a body with white panties (ruffles to be crocheted on after the tail is attached), and she has black shoes and white socks. Oy! Mattress stitching the heels of these shoes is going to be one sticky wicket, but so far so good. So why am I questioning my judgment?

The other Sticky Yarn Wicket or, 

Why I need to avoid online yarn stores, or 

Which DK do I need?

My point to ponder over chocolate or wine will be whether or not I will return the beaucoup skeins of 4 colors of clearance DK I bought just because the colors work for the clothes for Lolly and her eventual beau. Extra yarn is never a bad thing... but I'm not sure if this is too much of a good thing.

I found this toy  pattern on Ravelry and it was love at first sight. Then I looked at the recommended yarn; No suggested yarn, but the suggested yarn weight is DK. So I order my 3.2 lb. box o' squishilicious yarn goodness in worsted weight yarn. Enough to make critters and clothes for each. Took me awhile to figure out that DK yarn in the UK is virtually the same as worsted yarn in the US, but hey, I can learn... or so I think.

Then, I buy the pattern, and see 4 ply yarn is needed for the clothing. What is this 4 ply of which you speak? Hmm, it looks smaller than DK... so I promptly look it up. And botch my yarn comparisons. Easy enough to do when DK yarn is one size in the UK, and another in the US. Having only one limping brain cell doesn't help much either.

 4 ply = fingering (or close enough for government math)

Continuing my warped logic:

4 ply is next size smaller than DK

I'm using worsted for Lolly so I need the next smaller size down: US DK!

I have no US weighted DK yarn, and OMG I need 4 colors between 2 animals.  Whatever will I do????

Further continuing the insanity, I'm so pleased with figuring that out that I reward myself with a little yarn shopping. 

Hmmm, Little Knits has the perfect super wash wool DK yarns on clearance! I only need small amounts for the clothes and I don't want to get stuck with teensy bits of a yarn weight that I'll never be able to use because I have no matching DK weight yarn in stash. So I get the brilliant idea to order 4 bags - 1 of each needed color - so that I'll be able to make something out of the leftover yarn oddments. Full bags of the DK are even more heavily discounted by percentage than the individual skeins. Yes, someone at Little Knits saw me coming...

Now, just you wait, this will be the worsted equivalent DK when it gets here... And I'll wind up making Lolly's dress out of some sock yarn I have on hand... No more yarn shopping for you!

What WAS I thinking???

Roll Tide meets Ole Miss

Ms. Lolly Fant is now in the house.  Well her head is. The rest of her is in progress.

I cast on Julie Williams adorable little Girl elephant in a fronds frock. And let me tell you, once you see the sample knit by Ms. Williams on the Ravelry pattern page, you'll agree that this toy is more Southern than sweet tea and mimosas in the Grove. When completed, the wee beastie looks like the Alabama mascot dressed in her sleeveless A-line frock for Sorority Rush week at Ole Miss.

You can tell I'm jonesing for some SEC football... only about 16 more weeks to go.