Posts Tagged ‘scarf’

And the lake is damp

February 2nd, 2010 mio

I know this won’t come as a surprise to everyone reading this blog, but Bell sucks. I’ve had the misfortune of being a telephone customer of theirs, as well as a customer of Bell Sympatico. For anyone who pays attention to this sort of thing, my opinion is: don’t use Bell unless under threat of death.

Why? In short:

- they have stolen money out of my bank account (by doing something they *specifically* claimed was impossible) then wouldn’t give it back until I involved my bank

- they’ve cut off my phone service for not paying *someone else’s* bill, and even after it was proven that was the case they still wouldn’t reconnect it, and still wouldn’t even after we proved that it was, in fact, their fault that it was possible at all

- they’ve sold me a service that didn’t exist (which lead to me having to pay the cable company an extra hookup charge since they had to come to my house twice)

- and most recently they failed to fix a connection problem. For two weeks. They claim to have made 6 appointments for techs to check out the problem, but we only saw 2. Each of those techs “fixed” the problem, only to have service go back down within 24 hours. (They also both complained bitterly about working for Bell!)

So, what’s a gal to do during this internet outage? (Did I mention that the internet wasn’t working at work either because of a computer virus? *yanks out hair*) Well, I certainly didn’t plan any part of my wedding! (Whose idea was it to keep our notes about it in a Google document? Oh wait, that was me…)

I crocheted, naturally! I also loom-knit.

You all remember Mom’s sorority’s charity thing with the kids hats and scarves right?

Check it!
DSC03737

The plan is to fill a bin with these. The current count is 23 complete sets (I took this picture before finishing a few of them… all of those hats in front of the pile have matching scarves now, plus there is another set not pictured… and a blue hat I still need to make a matching scarf for…)

I also made quite a few dishcloths. And a crochet-on-the-double hat using Bernat Soft Boucle (that still needs sewing up), and blew through a few more balls of red on the Ladybug blanket. I’m woefully behind on motifs, but expect to see a rush of those soon, as I’m in another motif swap. ^_^

A possible conclusion from all of this might be that having no internet access can be really good for my crafting! Another conclusion might be that having no internet had the potential to drive me so crazy that I needed that many projects to distract myself with just to get through it…

*eye twitch*

Posted in charity, knitting loom Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments »

Too Sexy For My Hat

December 4th, 2009 mio

One of the problems with writing a craft blog is that it becomes hard to keep up the closer you get to Christmas. More time is spent on crafting, and most of those crafts are presents you’d prefer the recipients not discover prematurely.

The other problem, which I suspect affects all types of blog is: computers suck sometimes. :P

I can’t do a whole lot about that last problem, but take a look at these not-Christmas-presents I made using crochet-on-the-double.

A pink and purple hat for Maddie:
DSC03563

Purple side, pink side:
DSC03564DSC03565

One wedge shape (hat consists of 8)
DSC03551

And a matching scarf:
DSC03562

This yellow one is *slightly* bigger and is for Katie:
DSC03553

Side:
DSC03554

Flat dark yellow, flat light yellow:
DSC03556DSC03559

The folks on Craftster seem to think these are pretty good (I’m glad I’m not the only one!), so why not give these as Christmas gifts? Three reasons:

1. I’m not entirely certain they’ll fit, as I’m just figuring out the pattern… and giving items made for testing a pattern you’re writing seems somewhat unthoughtful.

2. I already made them each something else.

3. If they were gifts I wouldn’t let myself blog about them. :P

Come January I’ll be looking for more test subjects, including adults, so stay tuned!

Posted in Experimenting, Pattern Tags: , , , , , , , , 1 Comment »

Thanks, BOB!

November 6th, 2009 mio

Thanks to the washout that was Big On Bloor 2009, I’ve had a head start on Christmas crafting!

Remember this?
yellow rainbow round ripple baby blanket

It’s bigger now:
bigger yellow rainbow round ripple baby blanket
(Colours are a lot closer to real life in the first picture.)

And it is officially the First Finished Christmas Gift of the Year. Let’s have a round of applause!

I also made this, which the always lovely Roopurt is modeling for us:
pink/purple/peach spiral skinny scarf

Here is a close up:
close-up of the skinny scarf

I used a single ball of yarn I found in my stash that was unlabeled. I’m pretty sure it’s Astra but they don’t seem to have this colour anymore (even though it looks like this colour is the featured picture… weird).

To make this kind of scarf, you make a base chain approximately as long as you want the scarf to be, then do 2dc in each chain on the first row, and 1dc in each dc for the following rows.

I wanted to see if the “no base chain” foundation row method would work for this… and it did! It’s a bit complicated to write out, so I’ll save a tutorial on this for another post. If you simply can’t wait for that, do a search for it on Youtube. It’s pretty neat!

Posted in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , No Comments »

I’m not obsessed, just highly focused

October 3rd, 2009 mio

A quick post, just to catch you up.

Here are the hat/scarf sets using the scarves from before:

Two strands of Bernat Soft Boucle:
brown hat and scarf

Orange Patons Melody:
orange hat and scarf

Black Patons Melody:
black hat and scarf

Green and Variegated Patons Melody:
green scarf and variegated hat
(I didn’t realize it when I made the scarf that that was the last of my Apple Green yarn. Luckily I had a variegated that had that green in it!)

Purple Patons Melody:
purple hat and scarf

And some new ones!

Purple and black Patons Melody:
purple and black striped hat and scarf

Red and black Patons Melody:
red and black hat and scarf

And a magenta scarf to match a hat I gave Mom ages ago:
magenta scarf

Whew! What have we learned? Well, when I get on a roll, watch out! ^_^

Posted in charity Tags: , , , , , 2 Comments »

Thinking on my feet

October 2nd, 2009 mio

So, I made this scarf:
pink scarf
using yarn I’d bought off of eBay. It seems to be a discontinued dusty rose colour in Patons Melody.

It was when I went to make the matching hat that I realized I had only been able to get one ball of that colour. This is what I had left after making the scarf:
pink yarn

I don’t have any variegated yarns with this colour in it, so what to do?

Find a colour that goes with it! (Those who know me know that this is not my forte…)
pink yarns
I think I did ok…

Here I am casting on a light pink:
light pink yarn on the knitting loom

Not a bad set, really:
pink hat and scarf

Posted in charity Tags: , , , , , No Comments »

Hey look, a distraction!

September 15th, 2009 mio

So, you may have noticed – because I’ve already blogged about it – that I have a fair amount of yarn.

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:
mixed colours of Patons Melody

Another mixed bin:
mixed bin of Patons Melody

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:
20 balls of black Patons Melody
(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…
yarn bins in my storage locker

Those purple bins? Er… you don’t want to look in those; it’s really not that interesting…
black Patons Melody
Ok, so there’s a whole bin of black… that’s not so bad… right?

The bin under it? *tugging nervously at my collar*
2 bins of black Patons Melody
It’s not even in focus! That doesn’t prove anything.

…

Hey, take a look at my beautiful view!
sunset in Toronto

Posted in charity, yarn Tags: , , , 3 Comments »

Plan B

June 26th, 2009 mio

BOB didn’t go well (stupid rain) but that’s ok, because I had a backup plan!

These blankets are going to charity:
pink stripes Striking round ripple Peach Rainbow Round Ripple purple Fibonacci blanket (in progress)
(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:
Pink Rainbow Round Ripple Yellow Rainbow Round Ripple 3way Tunisian

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

And this one is MINE:
Settlers of Catan blanket

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.

Posted in Afghans, Geeky, charity, swap, yarn Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , No Comments »

“Particularly Talented”

February 17th, 2009 mio

As promised, I’ve been working on something other than baby blankets!

I was eying the stash yesterday. I was thinking that I should probably make some hats and scarves, but wanted to try something new. What would two strands of Bernat Soft Boucle look like, I wondered.

So I made these:
hat and scarf set

And these:
hat and scarf set

(Don’t adjust your monitor, they’re out of focus in person, too.)

I go through phases of charity crafting, and I think the reason for this is because I don’t have any real goals for it. I had been using the “go until the yarn runs out” method, but that’s clearly not going to cut it anymore. So, I came up with a point system. One point each for hats and scarves, and three points per baby blanket. My goal for February is 25 points. Here is a screen shot of the spreadsheet I made:
charity craft tracker spreadsheet screenshot
(of *course* I invented this entire system just so that I could make a colourful spreadsheet!)

On a related note, I discovered today that my obsessive need to buy yarn (especially when it’s on sale) appears to be genetic. I e-mailed my Mom last night to tell her about how well the Soft Boucle was working out and she e-mailed back today saying she’d gone out this morning and bought two more skeins of it, with plans to buy even more (she has coupons!) and as an aside asked if I needed any more baby yarn for the blankets. This explains my yarn stash a bit, I think!

I was working on this at work today:
hat in progress
One of my co-workers asked what I was making, and when I told him it was a hat, he said that I’m always making hats and should make something different for a change. (Maybe I’ll bring in a baby blanket to work on tomorrow.)

That same co-worker tipped me off to this article from The Walrus magazine about CAPTCHAs. It’s a fairly interesting article, I think, but what really got me excited appears in the seventh paragraph.

I’ll wait while you go read it.

Surely you see the error: I CROCHET!!! *shakes a fist*

I’ll forgive them this time, though. The crocheting I was doing while scanning was crochet-on-the-double, and that can look a lot like knitting to the muggles.

Posted in charity, knitting loom Tags: , , , , No Comments »

One down…

February 3rd, 2009 mio

Here’s my update on the minty toothpaste baby blanket:

baby blanket
Almost finished! It just needs a few more rounds for the border.

I really wish I could get an accurate picture of the colour on this blanket. It’s something to see! I’ll try to take the finished picture outside and see if that helps.

I stopped at the store on the way home from work today and picked up some scissors that are not only awesomeness defined, but I think they’ll allow them on the plane in my carry-on, too.

flower safety scissors
“The children are right to laugh, these couldn’t cut butter.”

And the big news:

I finished something last night! I am now the proud owner of a double-thick short scarf. When I got home from work today I thought to myself, “What would be the best background for a totally black scarf picture? If only there was an abundance of whiteness that also represents the function of the item…” Stupid snow.

black scarf

One finished project down, a few hundred left to go…

Posted in Afghans, charity Tags: , , , , , , , , 6 Comments »

Mmmm… Donut… *drool*

December 27th, 2008 mio

Ok, ok, I’ll post some Christmas pictures.

Let’s start with my favourite: a donut pin cushion for Mom.

donut pin cushion

I had a lot of fun making this. I had to measure the pins to make sure they wouldn’t poke all the way through the donut (ow!), then endure questions about what I was making (picture the long brown tube I was crocheting in public), then had lots of fun making the icing (random stitches? Yeah, I can do that).

Mom loved it! (And now my cousin wants one too. It begins! <insert ominous music here>)

This is a hat and scarf set I made for my niece:

hat and scarf set

These were made on the red Knifty Knitter round loom using Patons Melody yarn. She liked it, I think, and she also seemed to like the set of Knifty Knitters and Paton yarn I got her as well. I’ve made her a hat and scarf set for the last few years for Christmas, but I guess now I’m going to have to think of something else for future years!

I’ll post pictures once she comes down from the traditional Christmas sugar high and starts making things on her looms. ^_^

And to round out this post on Christmas crafting, here is an example of the Santa ornaments I made both as gifts and to sell at the annual Christmas Bazaar at Mom’s church:

Santa tree ornament

I got this pattern from Mary Maxim. It came as a kit (and doesn’t seem to be available anymore… a shame), but all it took was buying more eyes and pompoms. They’re fun to make, especially in the summer so as to freak out the muggles.

Posted in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , No Comments »
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