Where did the swag bags come from, then? Well!

I’m working from the list of donors on the KAL blog, and doing some educated guess work, so I may not be totally accurate here… if you know better, please tell me, and I’ll fix it! (ETA: fixed the things mentioned in the first comment!)

Let’s start with:

Two balls of my very favouritest yarn, Bernat Satin, from Spinrite!

(My crochet guild is working on arranging a bus trip up to Listowel to see the fine people at Spinrite. I can’t wait! Also, while I’m on the subject, keep your eyes on the top bar of this blog; I’m planning a “yarn” tab)

Next is some superwash merino from Diamond Yarn:

Then there are a couple of sets of knitting needles. The wooden ones are 19mm (!) and are from the Purple Purl, and the 4.5mm needles are from Romni Wools:

A handful of books from Simon and Schuster:

There were also coupons in the bags, from the Purple Purl, Mary Maxim, and Knit-o-Matic

Here is the t-shirt I won:

And the bags it all came in:

(The black one was this year’s bag, the white one was from last year, and it had the t-shirt in it)

Thanks again to the TTC KAL folks, and all of the donors (a full list of which you can see on the TTC KAL blog)

I can not wait until next year! I’ll try to remember to post about it in time for people to sign up and come along (you know, instead of the night before… heh)

Charles: I could really go for a grilled cheese sandwich
Becky: There’s a place two doors down from Lettuce Knit that apparently has great grilled cheese sandwiches
Charles: You know, we really should go to Lettuce Knit!
Becky: Ok, but that’s where I got that skein of $39 yarn…
Charles: I seem to have suddenly developed a cheese allergy…

I was on team Central Purple. We started the day at the Yarn Boutique, near the corner of Bloor and Keele, where I bought this:

As well as some DPN’s. The plan is to make myself a pair of socks… because I’m some kind of crazy person (a crazy person with size 11 feet)! I’m going to try the simplest pattern I can find for my first pair.

Next stop: The Knit Cafe, which sells both yarn AND tasty treats. I had a lovely vegetarian quiche, and bought some lovely malabrigo:

I’m planning to make a hat out of it, but after winding the purple skein into a centre-pull ball, I’ve discovered that I am allergic to it after all. :( The hat will have to be for someone else, I guess. It’s a shame, because it’s just so very soft!

Then we headed to Romni Wools, which, if you look at a map of Toronto, it seems like it’d be easy to travel between the two shops, but due to streetcar re-routing, possibly due to protests, we ended up taking a scenic route down the street!

I found Romni quite overwhelming! It’s huge, and has every natural-fibre yarn you can think of (I assume… I don’t know of very many!). For someone like me, I’d have been better off deciding what I wanted to make and what yarn I’d need for it before heading in.

Still, I bought this:

I’m planning on playing with it to see if it’ll make a nice shawl. If it does, I’m going to go back and get more!

We then took another scenic streetcar ride up to Lettuce Knit where I simply could not resist buying this:

It’s soft, and even more beautiful than this picture would suggest. It is destined to become a scarf, which should be stunning with my black winter coat!

At the end of the shopping spree, most of us headed over to the Rivoli to meet up with the other four teams for merriment and prizes!

I won the “WTF WIP” prize my mitten, which I started when I got on the subway at Kipling Station. This is how much I got done over the course of the day:

Action shot:

The most frequently asked question I got about it all day was: how are you going to do the thumb? I love yarnies!

More in the next post about the amazing free stuff we got! (Look for that post either later today or tomorrow… my blog is being quite flakey today!)

It was full of happiness:

See that yellow-ish yarn peeking through on the left side of the box? I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with that yarn… it was cheap, and I like self-striping yarn, and I got 10 balls of it, just in case. (I also got 10 balls of a pink-and-white striping yarn of the same type).

Then it hit me, when I was almost finished that green-and-cream dishcloth from the last post: this yarn would look fantastic in the swirly-hexagon motif!

So, I started the dishcloth pattern again, but with 30ch to begin (instead of 15 for the dishcloths). I did try 15 sts originally, but I found that each wedge was *almost* a single colour, and that wouldn’t really look nice, in my opinion, so I decided to go big.

Here is the result, pinned out (colours a bit off) :

Here’s a close-up, it’s a bit fuzzy, but the colour is more accurate:

And it’s quite drapey!

(Yarn is Bella DK Tapestry, using a 6mm hook)

This might end up being a Christmas present, too… we’ll see!

(Of *course* that isn’t all of it!)

You know, I really should know better by now: always check the dye lot. Especially on white yarn.

I’ve been busy recreating my Craftster avatar. I got this far before I ran out of white.

When I started up with a new ball, I noticed that it was a vastly different colour of white. Crap.

So I sent an e-mail off to mom asking if she could nip out to Michaels (of which there are THREE near her house) and grab some for me (because there are NONE in Toronto), being careful about the dye lots.

She was able to get 5 balls of white that shared a dye lot, and I desperately hoped that it would be “close” to what I had… though, I wasn’t holding my breath. I figured I could just pull the pieces apart, frog all of the white around the faces, and re-do it all with the same dye lot this time.

Easy enough.

While I was still in Hamilton I re-made that blank space above the faces. When I got home, I compared it to what I had previously done, just to see how close the colours were.

(Click it to see a bigger picture that maybe shows the difference in colour a bit better.)

That new piece is *exactly* the same pattern as the top part of the old one. Same number of stitches, same type of stitch, same brand and type of yarn, same hook. The only difference: dye lot.

Lesson learned.

What am I going to do now? I think that’s obvious: I’m going to change the plan completely, keep the piece exactly as it is now, fit ALL of the words into that top part, and slap a lovely border around it. And then use the new white to make a snowflake afghan. Hrmph.

(P.S. Do you think the faces need noses?)

I’m on a hat-and-scarf-making kick, so it was time to dive into the stash. I’ll tell you more about the actual hats and scarves in another post, but first, let me show you what I found while sorting the stash.

This is my Patons Melody stash, which makes up most of the yarn I’m using to make hats and scarves.

A mixed bin:

Another mixed bin:

I don’t think any of us are surprised about how much yarn this is, I mean, you saw the picture of the car!

Mom and I started out buying this yarn at Michaels, one ball each at a time, using the weekly 40% coupons, sometimes roping Dad and other unsuspecting loved ones into our plan.

Then Herrschners had a sale. I had a coupon for free shipping, and this yarn was on for an amazing price… including tax it worked out to $1.52 per ball (regular price was about $5 +tax per ball at the time, if I remember correctly).

How could we resist, really?

So Mom got some, and I got some (and I convinced some friends they should get some, too), all in one big order.

Anyhow, while sorting the stash, I noticed that I had a lot of black Melody. Two bags of 10, in fact:

(Look at that, they aren’t even opened!)

I think we’ve officially crossed into, “Boy, that’s a LOT of yarn” territory.

What’s that? What about the yarn that didn’t fit in the car? Why, yes, we do have a storage locker here, what’s your point?

Oh, ok, let’s go look. I mean, I did bring the last of the yarn home this past weekend…

Those purple bins? Er… you don’t want to look in those; it’s really not that interesting…

Ok, so there’s a whole bin of black… that’s not so bad… right?

The bin under it? *tugging nervously at my collar*

It’s not even in focus! That doesn’t prove anything.

…

Hey, take a look at my beautiful view!

This is the part of my stash that was being stored at my parents’ house that could fit in my Dad’s car:

Maybe re-read that first sentence a few times. Clearly, your yarnaholic of choice needs more yarn (yes, Charles, this does include you! ^_-).

You might be saying to yourself, “Man, that mio really needs some help!” and I agree. There is still more yarn to be moved!

These blankets are going to charity:

(I should get a better picture of that purple one made at the show before I send it off…)

I’m going to make these three bigger and give them as Christmas gifts:

These are Christmas presents, and I’m keeping them as is:

And this one is MINE:

My current main project is a gift for someone who reads this blog, and I really don’t want to give the surprise away if I can help it, so pictures and updates will be made on Ravelry (where you need an account to see it). Don’t worry, once the Big Day has come and gone, I’ll post all of the gory details. ^_^

Now that BOB is over, I find myself with my own crafting time again, so I’m waffling around trying to decide what to do. I’ve joined a couple of swaps, I still need to make the June square in the CAL, and I’ve been itching to just make my way through my growing collection of motif books and make at least one of everything.

Of course, there’s still Christmas coming, and various birthdays left to think about. I’ve been hoping that Bernat Satin would go on sale for the last several months, but I haven’t seen it. If you do, could you please let me know? I’m planning on buying a LOT of it, not only because I’ll need it for some gifts, but also because it’s my go-to yarn for worsted weight acrylic and I’m starting to run low. It’s soft, works up well, and the colours are pretty nice.

Anticipated projects: at least one more Snowflake afghan, maybe the Hawaiian Flower afghan, more 3-way Tunisian, lots of hats and scarves, some geeky afghans, and of course, Dad’s Christmas present.

My work situation has changed and I suddenly find myself with a good chunk of crochet time. That time can only be spent working on a pattern I know really well, and that doesn’t have any tricky colour changes. The project I’ve been working on lately has recently become too large to do while I do my job, so I need a replacement project. For now, I’m prepping some scarves (doing the base chain and first row at home on several), and I’m thinking of doing some granny squares. Any thoughts on what else might work? Basically, anything I don’t have to look at too much, that can easily be done a couple of stitches at a time.

Finally, check out this Spiral Granny Square I made: click here.

It’s hard to measure because it’s so stretchy, but it’s approximately 28 inches square now. (I know, it doesn’t look very square in that picture. I was surprised too, when I folded it into a triangle and there was almost no overlap)

Here is a better picture of the stitches and colour:

It’s still not an accurate picture of the colour, though. It’s quite beautiful with its earthy tones. I guess it’s another “come see it in person… then buy it!” blanket. ^_-

Here’s a picture of the three balls of yarn I’ve been using for this:

My thought process on the colour choice went something like, “I need something to do on break at work! I need something for work! Ack! Quickly! Quickly!! Hey, here’s some yarn… but does it go together? Well, green and brown are nice together, and blue and green are pretty good… I’ll make a swatch on the subway!”

When I got on the subway I proceeded to “cast on” 76 stitches. That’s one heck of a swatch!

I’m going to have a hard time parting with this one, and I’ve already had two requests for a bigger version. I’m going to have to spend some time scouring the stores for more of this yarn… I have a sneaking suspicion they’re not making it anymore. That would be sad!

In other news, I went to Lettuce Knit for the first time yesterday (I figured it was about time, having lived in Toronto for 2.5 years now…). The store was smaller than I thought it would be (not a bad thing), it was farther away from Spadina than I imagined it would be (not bad, just surprising), and it was less expensive than I feared it would be (hooray!!).

Keep in mind that you’re reading the blog of a die-hard acrylic crocheter: I want to knit some natural fiber socks now.

Please don’t tell my hooks!

I blame the Yarn Harlot for all of this.

First, a little back story:

When I crochet, I can usually stop just about anywhere. If you need me to get up and do something, or if it’s time to go to bed, or back to work, or get off the streetcar, I just go until there is only one loop left on my hook, then I pull on that loop so that it’s quite large. I then put my hook away, my project down, and off I go. It takes seconds! Easy peasy!

Enter: the enablers. The pushers. Also known as my possible-future-sister-in-law (*pokes Charles*), Beth, and one of the crocheters she’s following on Twitter (who I am now following, too), Vashti Braha.

They introduced me to a Tunisian crochet technique involving 3 strands of yarn.

Instructions, in a nut shell:

Tunisian crochet is worked in two steps: drawing up all of the loops, and working all of the loops off. (See this tutorial).

With this 3 strand method, you work the loops on in colour A, then off with colour B. Then work loops for the next row on with colour C, then work them off with colour A.

Repeat. Like I could stop you!

Here is my first attempt:

I used plain, worsted weight yarn (Bernat Satin); scraps left over from various projects (mostly the Catan blanket). When one colour ran out, I replaced it with another plain colour. I had intended on doing a few rows just to see how it worked and what it looked like, and this is what I ended up with.

Literally, my afternoon and evening went thusly: *reach one end* “Ooh! New colour!” *reach the other end* “Ooh! New colour!” over and over again.

The entertainment wouldn’t end!

In my haste to find a project to bring with me to work today, I thought I’d try it with different yarn, you know, too see how it works up.

Here it is in Bernat Soft Boucle, all three strands stripe in two shades of the colour (tan/brown, lt green/dk green, lt blue/dk blue)

That’s right! In my effort to try it with something different I’ve manage to just about do the *exact* opposite of what I did with the first one.

Go me!

The problem? There’s no easy stopping point. I’m using a double-ended hook (because I’m *nuts*) so putting it down when all of the loops have been worked onto the hook isn’t a good idea. I tried that, and lost four loops. And when you get to the end of working them all off, you need to pull a loop of the next colour through the last too loops on the hook, so I’m not too comfortable stopping at that point, either. I’m trying out “working a handful of loops onto the hook” then putting it down. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

So, if you’ve ever turned away from crocheting an afghan because of a short attention span (and yes, I do see the irony in the length of this post given the target audience…) this may be your answer. It’s possible I’m just easily amused, but I find it hard to put this down (just ignore the fact that I’ve got two of these on the go right now. It’s meaningless).

Give it a go! And let me know how it went!