FO: 1×1 Ribbed Hat Plus the Pattern

Pattern: My Own
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft (100% Acrylic)
Needles: US7

This was a pretty quick knit. I really want to call it the NJ Partial Continental Hat but, while it’s pretty descriptive, it seems a bit long. I started this while down in NJ with the plan to make it completely with the Continental (pick) Method. I got about 2 inches in and wanted to kill myself and that is bad. At that point I gave up and went to my favored English (throw) Method. Continental was just so annoying and awkward for me. Surprisingly I had a consistent gauge while on Continental, but it hurt my hand A LOT and I just really didn’t like the motion. I will try it again, even if it kills me. Oh, and it’s my second hat for Made by Hand.

And yes, you read the title. A pattern (ooohhh). And a free pattern at that (oooooooohhhhhh). It’s nothing special and you can probably find 20 bazillion other hat patterns like it. I don’t normally write up patterns because if I do something off the top of my head, I don’t keep track of my process. Bad, I know, but true. However, this one I actually remembered to track. Sort of. I have not tested the written pattern but plan on doing so shortly. If you do end up using this, please comment or email (delirium[at]nycap.rr.com) and let me know if you had/have problems (with the pattern, I’m not a doctor) or if it worked out well.

I haven’t decided if I like making patterns or if I think I’m a good enough knitter to do so, but I figured coming up with a free one as a test run, can’t be a wholly bad thing. Well, it could, but it’s a learning experience and you can’t learn if you don’t try (or some other thoughtful saying).

So without further ado, my first pattern is behind the cut.

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FO: Crochet NJ Potholder

Pattern: My own.
Yarn: Sugar & Cream in cream and Butterfly Mercanized Cottom in brown
Needles: k hook

So I had leftover yarn and made a potholder. It’s not perfect (if you look on the right edge, there’s a bit of a bulge. Yes, my potholder has a “package” or a butt, either one). But it’s my first and I like it. I have enough yarn to make a second so at some point it will be made.

I worked on this in one afternoon during our NJ trip. I’m amazed that it worked up so quickly!

Because we weren’t home, I didn’t have an actually potholder to compare to so it’s a bit huge. But huge can be good. Hopefully huge means I won’t burn myself too often. Then again, I am a klutz so who knows.

FO: Chemo Cap

Pattern: Shedir from Knitty’s Breast Cancer Awareness Issue
Yarn: Rowan Calmer
Needles: US8

This hat is my donation to Made By Hand and my gift to my mom.

The rest is behind the cut.

A Post with No Name

I have more yarn than god. Some of you are laughing because you understand. The rest are laughing because god doesn’t have yarn. He/She is all powerful and all knowing. He/She IS yarn. In that case I have more yarn than god is made of. I should have taken pictures as I cleaned out my yarn bin, but I didn’t. I’m not going to do it now.

My yarn bin is a beautiful wooden magazine basket my in-laws bought for the Husband’s birthday one year. He promptly put my yarn inside and it looks very pretty that way. We agreed that I would only buy yarn when there was room in the basket for said yarn. I figured there was no way I would buy more yarn than that. No way! Buying yarn you don’t need was impractical.

Yeah, I think I was naive too.

So I now have a huge plastic storage bin filled completely with yarn and the wooden basket of yarn in my livingroom. The bin wouldn’t be so full if I didn’t receive FREE yarn this weekend. That’s right. Free. Yarn. Go ahead, hate me. I know you want to. Don’t hate me too much. It’s Red Heart. So just hate me a little.

The Husband’s grandfather has a friend. This friend used to knit and crochet. She saw me crochet and gave me all her old yarn. She also decided I needed to have one of the afgans she made so at some point, I’m getting an afgan. A very sweet lady. I also was given my grandmother-in-law’s old needles and crochet hooks. Most are older needles or a style I’ve never seen before, like flexible needles. So all very cool.

I do have a couple finished projects to post and I will get to it shortly. I just need to get a few things done around here first.

Do I look like a hooker?

I returned home from crochet class knowing three stitches. It’s odd to me that a single stitch in crochet entails about 27 steps. You push through a stitch, wrap the yarn again, pull out the first stitch, wrap again, pull through the last two loops on the hook and then, finally, finish it off with a chain stitch. Yeesh! But I kind of liked crochet.

The teacher was very good and having B. try to teach me over the weekend helped immensely. I didn’t fully understand what B. was talking about on Saturday and the class really made it click. I’ve put photos of my swatches under the cut!

This weekend the Husband and I will travel to New Jersey to keep his grandfather company while most of the family is at a function on the other side of the country. I personally, am not fond of Jersey. It’s not because a lot of the Husband’s family is there but more because of how the roads work and the atmosphere. Oy! The atmosphere. Sheesh. I won’t get into more than that because family knows this exists and I don’t want to inadvertently offend anyone. So, moving on.

I’ll be bringing some knitting on the trip so hopefully I’ll make a good amount of progress. At least, I really hope so. I need to get some projects off the list before I add even more. And I think I’ll stop there because I’ll start whining and I’ve done that before and it gets old after a while. So since I’ll be away this weekend, you’ll not get much from me. I KNOW you are so disappointed.