Apparently I Dropped Off the Face of the Earth

     I can't believe I haven't written a blog post since June.  Sorry about that.  In all actuality I have a pretty good excuse.  On July 1st I found out that I'm pregnant!  A few weeks after that I was hit with some pretty terrible morning sickness symptoms and I feel like I fell off the face of the earth for about 2 1/2 months.  I stopped knitting completely mid July and didn't take it back up again 'til the middle of October.  The first trimester can be pretty terrible.  We found out on October 5th that we're having a girl.  I have several projects planned and some yarn set aside or purchased but I haven't actually started anything for the kiddo yet.  So I don't have too many updates.  I also don't have too many pictures, since I've been too tired to really take any.  (Also the weather has been uncooperative for the last weekish.)  

     Right before I started feeling really crappy I finished up Turnstile.  That's the infinity scarf cowl thing I was working on.  It's soft and the perfect length for me to wrap twice.  I don't have pictures yet of that.  I really want to get some good ones since it turned out quite well.  Except for the crazy Kitchener seam I somehow managed to do inside out...  More on that when I have pictures.  I also finished the sweater I was working on for Evelyn.  I wasn't able to make it to the birthday party since I worked that weekend.  So it sat until this part weekend when I wet blocked it four hours before I was giving it to Jess.  I let it dry on a towel in my back seat on the way down to Syracuse, but it was still damp when I gave it to her.  Cue face-palm.  Then of course I didn't get a post-blocking photo either.

Clementina in Vaa

I'm glad I did block it even though I cant show you the difference I assure you there is one.  The sleeves relaxed and hang much more naturally now.  The garter section also relaxed and the whole sweater elongated a bit.  This picture makes it look so squatty.  The Vaa colorway is a darker green in real life.  This picture gives it a yellow tinge.  The button is another from my grandmothers collection.  This pattern is really wonderful and I hope to knit one for my own daughter when she's big enough to wear for a bit.  I'm hoping to see this on Evelyn at some point so I can judge the fit.  I shortened the sleeves just a tad since I was getting low on yarn.  They still looked good proportionately after I blocked the sweater. I love Rios for kid items, its gorgeous and durable.  Vaa is a particularly gorgeous color in my opinion.  I got many oohhs and ahhhs when I handed this off to Jess.
     That particular morning I also blocked my two gifts for Raelynn as well.  Kimberly wasn't able to make it to out little meet up so I had to bring back the hat and mitt set, but now, if the sun ever comes out, I can take post blocking pictures.  Here are the pre-block ones.

Barley

Maize

Blocking didn't really do too much for the mittens and it really just made the hat bigger and looser.  The yarn is Queensland Collection Super Aussie which is a superwash.  Generally that means growth and lots of it when wet blocking.  I counteracted that to a certain extent by breaking out the hair dryer.  (Normally I would have thrown these in the dryer for a few minutes.)  The hair dryer tightened the hat back up to an acceptable level.  Maize and Barley are both free patterns in a set from Tin Can Knits, one of my favorite design groups.  Especially for hats.  The patterns in this set are geared for beginners, but I found the simplicity refreshing.  I think tonal hand-dyed yarn would look better, but Raelynn's favorite color is purple and this is what I had on hand in the worsted superwash category.  It's really an under appreciated yarn in my opinion.  Its very soft and nicely plied.
       Back at the end of June I whipped out another Entrechat in one day.  I haven't gifted this one yet either.

Entrechat in English Rose

This one is the 2 year old size and it didn't even use a whole skein of Rios.  The button is also from grandma's stash.  I haven't blocked this one and I probably wont.  Entrechat always looks good right off the needles.  I will be making another one of these for my daughter.  I love this pattern!  
     It took me a while to get my knitting mojo back even after I started feeling better.  So the first thing I did was crank out a couple of dishcloths.  I did three incarnations of the pattern Petal Dishcloth.  I've made it before and I like it.  It's got a slip stitched edge which I really like for circular cloths and these turn out fairly large.  I only meant to make one, it turned into three.



You can never have too many dishcloths.  I also have a funny feeling I'll be needing lots of them for the kiddo.
     I'm working on a hat now for Evelyn.  She has a big head and the orange one I made is snug on her now.  I think the one I'm making now looks small, but I'll see once I finish it.  I got to see pictures of Kylie in the hat and mitten set I made her, they both fit!  The hat is from last season and has held up well.  I love MadTosh for gifts too.  

     I've acquired more yarn of the past several months but again no pictures of that yet.  I have so many things to catch back up on.  Hopefully I'll get a but caught up before the baby comes, because after that I'm guessing all bets will be off.  
Until Later, Happy Crafting.
-Q 

Dishcloths and Baby Things

     So in the last month I've finished my training and transitioned from day shift to evenings and now onto nights.  It's only been two weeks, but the whole "day walker" thing came back pretty quickly.  I haven't gotten a whole lot of knitting done, but on the upside I can knit at work again!  That has helped with motivation and the therapy at work is a plus too.  So onto my latest projects.

     There were more dishcloths in the off-time between Nerdopolis tournaments.  In no particular order:

Revenge of The Dishrag

This one is interesting and I think I might do another one eventually.  I may change the increases and decreases along the edge.  I like that its got a sort of vintage quality about it. 

Bee Stitch Dishcloth

This whole cloth is bee stitch.  While interesting, this is not one I'll ever do again.  Only because its tedious and I don't particularly like the look the texture imparts.  Just a personal opinion.

Optical Illusion Cloth

This cloth winds up a bit large, but exceptionally awesome!  I really enjoyed the finished product.  Picking up the stitches to start the next wedge was the only crappy part of this one.

Tricolour Dishcloth

This is probably my all time favorite dishcloth pattern, which is why I've made even more in my favorite color combo.  I made these larger too, since at my typical gauge this pattern comes out a tad small.  I cast on 43 stitches for these two cloths.

Baby Sophisticate

I made this with the Mal Rios in Sunset I picked up Memorial Day weekend, last year.  This is one of my most favorite Mal colors.  Its so bright and happy.  I used buttons from my grandmother's button stash.  I attempted to make it a bit larger, but didn't really think it out as much as I could have.  The little boy this is destined for is due in late July so in theory it should fit him this fall once the weather cools off.  The upside of living in the North Country is fall starts here in September.  This has already been gifted and Maria was vary happy with it. 

     I have one more completed project, but I haven't taken pictures yet.  We've been getting lots of rain.  We got one heck of a thunderstorm the night before last with over three inches of rain.  That's one upside of working overnights on the sixth floor.  I had a great view of that storm.  So the short of that story is that there hasn't been good sunlight for pictures as of late.  I'm also making a pair of mittens to go with the hat so I'll just get pictures of them both at the same time.  I want to turn both of them in to Nerdopolis so its motivation to get the mittens done.  I need to do that since there are only a few days left in this round.  Off to do that now. 

Until later.  Happy Crafting!
-Q

Knit Crochet Blog Week Day Seven

Day Seven (Sunday 17th May): Your Time, Your Place. Where and how do you take time out to knit and/or crochet? Maybe you don’t take time out at all and instead have your needles twirling as you try to juggle a multitude of other tasks with no ‘spare’ time to think of. Maybe you enjoy nothing more than to crochet whilst winding down from a yoga session, chatting with some friends in a nearby café.

     My little poll in the sidebar didn't quite work yesterday.  Which is fine since that question was just a joke anyway.  Thank you to everyone who checked out my survey monkey poll.  Alrighty on to todays prompt.   Generally I knit after work.  I get myself settled down on my side of the couch, usually with a TV show going in the background and I craft to my hearts content until I have to go to bed.  If I have tasks to do around the apartment I make sure they're done before I sit down because once I get all situated I don't tend to get back up again.  I do make an attempt to keep what I'm working on organized and out of the way,  but now with our smaller apartments my things have migrated and are taking over the side of the couch... and behind it actually.  Its nice though to have what I need just an arms length away.  I also have to stay on top of keeping it tidy because my side of the couch is right by the hallway back to the bedrooms, so if I don't keep it tidy it'll be a tripping hazard.

Its a mess, I know.  I need to weave in ends on a few things and get them put away properly.  I'm not sure how the pattern laying behind the couch got there, but I need to put that with the other pages and I need to clean out that green bag.  There are several dishcloths and a hat buried in that one.  It works though, so that's something.  The cats have been leaving it alone, which is a huge plus. 

     Well, this week has been fun.  I've enjoyed reading everyone else's responses to these prompts.  Hopefully mine were somewhat interesting.  I've found at least one new blog to follow, yea.  Until later.  Happy Crafting!
-Q

To read other posts like this one, type 6KCBWDAY7 into google and see what comes up. 




     

Knit Crochet Blog Week Day Six

Day Six (Saturday 16th May): Polls Apart. Almost every blogging platform offers a way to easily put together and host a poll, and polls, surveys and questionnaires can be a great way of engaging with your audience and readership. There are times when readers do not feel that they want or have time to think, compose and post an answer or response to a post, but short polls can often be completed with just a few clicks.

I have a fun little one question poll over in the sidebar------>

For some more fun I used Survey Monkey to make a little survey.  Its the first time I've used this resource and the first time I think I've ever made a survey so please be gentle and go take a peek.

SurveyMonkey Link


Thanks for stopping by!  Until later.  Happy Crafting.
-Q

To see what other people have done for this prompt, type 6KCBWDAY6 into google and enjoy!

Knit Crochet Blog Week Day Five

Day Five (Friday 15th May): Something A Bit Different
It’s the annual challenge to blog in a way different to how you normally blog. You may choose to create a podcast, or vlog, create a wordless post, a beautiful infographic or write in verse. You can post on any topic you like, but be sure to post in a style different from your usual blog presentation. There’s not too much guidance for this one simply because the more varied the posts are on this day, the wider the sources of information for other bloggers will be.



The laptop is acting up today.  It thinks its not connected to the internet, but it is and all our other devices are working fine... This is going to be a very abbreviated post.

Loops on a stick 
Ever growing
Stitch by stitch

Brighly colored string
Pulled out farthur
From its coiled ring

Texture and patterns created
Many different stitches
Much time must be slated

Once finished
It'll be useful
For washin' some dishes

That about does it for my creative writting skills, hope you enjoyed.  Now to finish said dishcloth.  Until later.
Happy Crafting!
-Q

To find more posts type 6KCBWDAY5 into google and see what comes up.

Knit Crochet Blog Week Day Four

Day Four (Thursday 14th May): Bags Of Fun. Time to delve into that most treasured collection of tools, notions and oddments as you are asked to spill the contents of your knitting or crochet bag, caddy or other method of organization and put your crafting unmentionables on display.

     I have several bags, bins and totes for all my yarny goodness.  I'll keep this fairly simple and not take pictures of all seven or eight of my huge Rubbermaid totes.  I'll simply explain that I organize my yarn my type or function.  So I have a tote for dishcloth cotton. One tote just for my "real" Pisgah Peaches & Crème yarn and a second for all the other heathen dishcloth cotton.  Currently that second tote is filled with other random things left over from moving.  (I used every available inch of space to cram things into.)  I have one tote for baby yarns.  A couple of my project bags are in that one too.  I have another tote for crappy acrylic yarn that I'm hanging onto for some reason.  I keep my left overs in that tote.  I put them in little zip-lock sandwich bags with the tags so I know what's what.  I have another tote for acrylic yarn I'm keeping for Christmassy things.  I have a huge tote filled with my nice spiffy yarn.  Within in that tote I have the yarn organized by weight.  The bags from Yarn Cupboard are nice plastic see through bags with drawstrings at the top.  I've shopped there enough that I've acquired many of them.  So if I need a yarn in a certain weight I just grab that bag out of the tote and just go through that bag.  It works pretty well.  Right now all my needles and pattern binders are in one of the boxes left over from moving.  I'm still looking for a good place to put that stuff.  Now on to the pretty things.  This is the notion bag I use most often:

Zippered Notion Bag

I got it from Ellen at CrescentOriginals.  I "met" Ellen through Team Stargate Command while playing Nerd Wars.  I have two of her other bags as well.  Out of everything I've bought or made myself Ellen's bags are my favorite.  So here are the contents of my notions bag:

In this bag I have:
-Boye stitch markers.
-Tapestry needles for end weaving.
-A small stitch holder.
-A large beaded stitch marker, made by me.
-An itty bitty crochet hook for beading.
-That little blue thing is a needle guard/stopper.
-Fairy short piece of cotton scrap yarn for holding stitches.  I usually use it for the thumbs on mittens.
-A little baggie of small stitch markers, made by another Team SGC member.  It was part of one of our swaps. 
-The white thing that says "Knitting Makes Me Happy" is a retractable tape measure. 

This in not my only notions pouch.  I have another clear vinyl one that has fairly similar accoutrements.  

I have a few project bags too.  I hope to increase the number here soon.  I recently shared the new one I got with my Mad Geek Tour made by Jessalu:

Star Trek Project Bag

   


Purple Box Style Blue Drawstring Style

The purple one on the left is another Crescent Original.  The blue drawstring on the right is one of mine.  I made a slew of them last year and decided to keep this one for myself. 

Projects inside

I've got Turnstile in the purple project bag, along with some more stitch markers.  (I keep stitch markers in all my project bags.)  I've got uncaked yarn and a beading crochet hook in my blue bag.  This is slated to be a Boo Knits shawl.  My favorite project bag is still packed. 

Batik Project Bag

Its that one in my lap.  Its another Crescent Original.  (I'm wearing Holden and knitting the Lilac Shawl I gave to Judy. ) I've found some more of this fabric so I want to either make a bag myself or ship it off to Ellen so she can make me another one.  I have tried sewing my own box bags, but they're fiddly and tricky to line up nice.  So I think I'd rather stick to making the drawstring bags myself and supporting sewers who have better mad skillz than me by buying their box bags.  

     I have many other larger bags for transporting multiple projects or large amounts of yarn, that sort of thing.  I tend to be a bag hoarder just as much as I'm a yarn hoarder... much to the chagrin of my husband. 

Tune in tomorrow for another topic.  Until later.  Happy Crafting!
-Q 

To read other blog posts from this prompt type 6KCBWDAY4 into Google search and enjoy!    

Knit Crochet Blog Week Day Three

Day Three (Wednesday 13th May): Experimental Photography And Image Handling For Bloggers. Every Year Knitting & Crochet Blog Week tries to feature at least one day where photography takes a key role, because it has been proven many times that what captures reader’s attention for the first few seconds to hopefully hold them long enough to invest the time to read your words is your pictures, and so this topic crops up each year, but every year it yields such different results!


     This is the one I struggle with every year.  I'm pretty simple when it comes to pictures and picture taking.  I do my best to take my pictures in good natural light, in order to capture colors at their truest.  As far as getting all artsy, meh, not so much.  I do like playing with color a bit so here are two skeins of yarn I played around with. 

MadelineTosh DK in Hosta Blue

The yarn label says it all.

     Then there are the fun photo collage makers.  I've used Fotor in the past, but I tend to have uploading issues when I try to put things on the blog.  I just found a new app for the phone called Phototastic Collage.  (Its a Windows app.) 

The last four hats I knit in 2014

Two skeins of dishcloth cotton.

This app would have come in handy for my New Years post...  I could just do that now when I have everyone's attention!

The other three hats from 2014

Three Baby Sweaters in 2014

I'm fairly certain the one collage I was able to post was the 7 shawls I made in 2014 so I won't do that one again.  This app works quite well.  The only downside is that you cant access the pictures on Facebook from inside the app, so make sure you have the pictures you want to use for the collage saved to the phone already.  It's quick though and has many options for backgrounds and layouts.  I'll have to play with this one some more.  
Tune in tomorrow for another topic.  Until later.  
Happy Crafting!
-Q

To check out the other posts from this prompt type 6KCBWDAY3 into google and read what pops up!