I W O N

I WON. My Crochet by Number Portrait of Davi won the Crocheted Finished Object of the Year (CFOY08) 2008 Grab Bag category. I have moved on to the Grand Prize level. Voting for this level ends on Saturday Jan. 31, 2009 so if you are a member of Ravelry go and vote for me this round !!

http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/crochet-on-ravelry/500249/1-25#10

I have not had this much fun since I received my badges in Girl Scouts [troop 1390 btw 8-D]
My Mom was with Davi yesterday, unfortunately it was at the funeral of her Great Aunt Charlena. She asked how I was doing in the contest. I cannot wait to tell her when she gets home. Aunt Charlena is being flown back to South Carolina for her final home-coming so Davi will be gone for a week or so. Condolences to the entire family.

Hmmm

It's Monday, and it feels like MONDAY. This weekend I finished the book I was reading, and I have maybe enough yarn for one more row on my Magnolia Afghan before it too is finished. Again I had to put it down, the weight was really bothering my wrists and right hand. So close, and yet so far. I should be able to finish off the last skein tonight. Two of my pics are being used in Ravelry on the main pattern pages for the Magnolia Afghan Pattern and the Carol Duvall Short Row hat.

I made the hat for my Sis. The hat had its' debut this weekend and she loves it. She would like one in black now. Of course I am going to make her one - spoiled?!? Just a bit. I am going to make a black one for me too. I am looking forward to getting back to my knitting. The temperatures are back down in the low 30s again, so I am also glad that my afghan can be put into service.

My Forest Canopy shawl came off the blocking boards, I love it. I still don't know what I am going to do with the left over yarn. I plan to frog something. Yep, I am going to frog the bookworm vest. I was never in love with the yarn. I could not find the yarn called for in the pattern and had to find a substitute. I never really liked it. Now Knit Picks has the perfect tweed yarn in black. But Do I Want To Start All Over. Just the thought of casting on 325 some odd stitches again is really turning me off. I think I will just continue with my other projects. Maybe some day I will go back to the Folk Vests book and die to have that vest again - maybe.

I have been told by several chess players that I would be good at the game. Many have offered to teach me and I have flirted with the idea of purchasing one of the electronic versions and teach myself. My little mind meandered down this path again last week. I read the Magic Circle and The Eight by Katherine Neville, and now I have the latest book in the series The Fire. The character Lily Rand has a baby blue Corniche. Okay, that is probably what first interested me in learning chess. Illogically thinking if I were a chess master like Miss Lily maybe I could finally buy that Corniche. So I looked around Amazon and Barnes and Noble at the how-to and instructional chess books again last week. I ended up buying The Chess Machine by Robert Lohr instead. Really, I don't need any more hobbies that will take away more of my crafting time!

So Easily Distracted

I was looking for a copy of the Alice Starmore video I taped. I am preparing to start one of my color stranded projects and I wanted to review the part of the video where she shows how to carry the yarn and keep the work and tension even. I came across some tapes that were unmarked.


What is that you ask. That odd bit of knitting is a hat swatch. One of the tapes was of Carol Duvall's HGTV show and it was an episode on which she knitted a very simple garter stitch hat. I put everything aside and cast on immediately. The shorter section is an attempt on size US 8 needles, which the yarn label suggested. The fabric was a bit tight and the number of cast on stitches would have yielded a child sized hat. So I cast on an additional 10 stitches and went up to a size US 10 needle. Voila!! After a few hours of knitting I have a hat. Actually it is for my Sister, to go with the scarf I made her for Christmas.

Once I was done with that little diversion I finally blocked my finished Forest Canopy Shawl in Wollmeise. I also cast on a Dimple Shale Scarf in my most favorite yarn, Karabella Aurora 8. Super soft yarn with amazing stitch definition. Another digression, but I really want a Dimple Shale Scarf for myself, I need a black scarf, I have a ton of this yarn, and I love it.

I also crocheted 4 of the 6 skeins of Tudor Homespun that came. I have completed the border on all but the bottom section. I will crochet 4 more rows and save the last skein to finish off the border. The Magnolia Afghan is nice and big now, it completely covers the top of my queen sized bed. It is really heavy and my wrists hurt a bit from turning it as I worked the border, which is why I did not finish off the afghan this weekend. I had to switch to knitting for a bit. Glad I found that super easy hat pattern! I will make a black one for me, to go with my new black scarf.

More Lace

I worked on the Tiger Eye and Candle Flame Scarves this weekend. The rows seem so short after completing the Forest Canopy Shawl. The Tiger Eye scarf is now about half as long as I want. The Candle Flame scarf is using more yarn than I expencted so it may end up being a neckwarmer. That is fine, it is so pretty. I did not block my shawl because we are having the carpets cleaned this week. I don't want anyone shuffling my blocking boards around - would'nt want to lose any pins either. I also did a bit of swatching.

I bought Lucy Neatby's Knitting Essentials 1 & 2 DVDs from KnitPicks. I may take a peek at one during lunch time. I am looking forward to watching them both.

Wollmeise Forest Canopy Shawl

I cast off the Forest Canopy Shawl n Hollerstaud'n and it is lovely. I will be blocking it this weekend. On to the next project.

Magazines

This is kind of a cheat to #5 on my restrictions. I did not buy a knitting book, but I bought lots of knitting and crochet magazines. I also pre-ordered the reprint of Alice Starmore's Fair Isle Knitting book, even though I own a copy of the original hardcover book. This cute little 2009 Knitting Diary was the gift included with Simply Knitting from the UK. I stopped calling them "free" gifts because we have to pay $9.99 for the magazine in the US. There are some really great articles and patterns in all of these magazines. Color and/or stranded work is definitely the wave of the future in knitting and crochet. I have already put several stranded and mosaic color work projects in my queue for 2009. The Jade Starmore sweater kit and the three Knit Picks bags are first and foremost on my mind.

In the background I will be working on Heere Be Dragone - I intend to devote 2 years, or however long it takes to complete that shawl. I know it is going to take a very long time to complete because I plan to go very, very slowly. I want to avoid ripping back as much as possible, and I abhore working with lifelines. I plan to use a dark yarn, indigo or black and I bought an Ott Lite to help me see the stitches better. This is an extremely expensive project for me, the original pattern cost $12.00 and I had the charts enlarged at Kinkos for an outrageous sum - I won't even put it in writing, but it was per foot pricing for 10 pages of charts. Then I bought the Ott Lite, luckily it was half price at Barnes & Noble - $20 instead of $39.99. The least expensive component so far is the yarn, which is Zephyr wool silk cones which I bought from Sarah's Yarns before Jaggerspun increased their per cone prices.

The other background projects will be the Mystic Series of shawls: Mystic Waters, Mystic Meadows, Mystic Ice, Mystic Star, Mystic Fire, Mystic Earth by Anna Dalvi aka Knit And Knag. My resting projects will be socks of course. I have lots of sock yarn that needs to be knit up. I had toyed with the idea of selling some of my stash - sheesh, what silliness. I love my stash, I may add to it but I won't be parting with any of it!!!

I will eventually finish my Jacket and Vest projects that are currently in hybernation - they are both mostly stockinette and can be considered resting projects as well.

This is my third post today and I am trying to figure out what order to put them in.

Bigger is Better

10 Skeins of LB Homespun Tudor
K - 10.5 Crochet Hook

I finished the last row of the Lion Brand Homespun Magnolia Afghan in Tudor last night. I was extremely disappointed in the size. I logged right on and ordered another 6 skeins of Tudor yarn. Thankfully Joann.com still has the yarn on sale for $4.49 per skein. It takes one skein to crochet 10 rows on the bottom half of the afghan. I want the bottom portion to be twice a long as it is right now. The original pattern only called for 7 skeins of yarn and I have already used 9 skeins. I intentionally ordered 3 extra skeins because I wanted a longer afghan. But it still is not BIG enough. I like my body and bed both to be covered by the afghan. I will finish using the last skein and 4 of the ones I ordered to complete the body, then use the last 2 skeins for the single crochet border. I hope to get 3 full rounds of border out of 2 skeins. The 2 row border in the original pattern is a little skimpier than I like. I have other homespun in the stash, which I may add as an additional border.

I am going to try to finish and block the Wollmeise Forest Canopy Shawl today. I have satisfied one of my "restrictions". I have knit up all of a yarn colorway and I can buy more yarn, but other than the homespun needed to finish my project I don't plan to buy any. I have the Winter Year of Lace 2008 kit on its way. There are two more Wollmeise sock club kits in my future. I did not join any yarn-pattern kit clubs for 2009. I did join the Mystic Star Mystery Shawl KAL which starts January 26, 2009. I cannot resist those, the shawls are absolutely wonderful. I still need to finish my Mystic Waters shawls. I look forward to knitting the entire Mystic series, but for now I am just making sure I have all of the patterns and access to all of the KAL groups. I also took advantage of Sharon Winsauer's 2/1 pattern sale on etsy. AuroraAlpaca.etsy.com.

Status of My Restrictions

The terms of my restriction - and public declaration should shame me into sticking to it -

(1) no more yarn until I knit up all skeins of a colorway [DONE= TLC Brownberry and Tudor Homespun]

(2) no more patterns until I complete a project using a pattern I have never knit or crocheted before [DONE= Magnolia Afghan and Posh Pooches Doggy Sweater, Miniature sweater, vest, mitten and stocking ornaments] (only exception is downloading the weekly clues for the two Mystery Kals I purchased - see I already own them, so they are not technically new ;P)

(3) no more needles or hooks until I free two circulars, and 2 crochet hooks from works in progress [DONE= finished socks, sweater, scarf and ornaments]

(4) no more books until I read a knitting or crochet book all the way through, AND make the pattern(s) I bought the book for - wow that's a big one for me, I love me some books

(5) no more casting on until I finish all of the WIPS currently in the sidebar of this blog - whew, I am starting to sweat. [Finished two projects from the sidebar, but cheated and casted on the ornaments, doggy sweater and a scarf for my Sister.]

Brrr

It is wet and cold today. I ventured out to Barnes and Noble and Target to make some exchanges and pick up some essentials. I bought lots of Knitting Magazines, got some delicious caramel macchiato and showed real restraint in not strangling any parents or children screaming in the aisles. I am working on my Magnolia afghan and although I promised myself I was going to switch to a lace project today, I cannot put it down. I am on row 19 of 30 of the last section. Then a single crochet border goes around it all and I am done. I am currently using the in progress project to keep my lap warm. I am looking forward to having the whole thing completed and keeping all of me warm. My gas and electric bill is 3 times the usual amount. Sigh.

There is a Tuesday Night knitting group at the B&N now. I have contemplated going but cannot seem to get enthused about it. I did enjoy the Chicks With Sticks group at work, but I never made any progress on my projects. Several times I was the only one to show up. The other consideration is that since I don't drive I would have to impose on my roomie to drop off and pick me up. I will think on it some more.

I just finished listening to the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (translated from Swedish). Very interesting, the hardbound book was on the new arrivals table at B&N, I would have bought it if I had not already picked 6 knitting magazines and an Ott Lite. I spent much more than my store credit and gift card. However, the B Dalton across the street from my office is closing and they are at 40% off. I will take a gamble that they have a copy. It was well read by Simon Vance, but I suffered several interruptions while listening to the audiobook. I would like to read the print copy for myself.