I've gotten a few things accomplished in the last week or so. I mentioned all the Nerd Wars projects I've gotten done, but there's some other stuff too. I re-felted the second oven mitt. The one I called Cameron's Macaroons since I used it for Nerd Wars in R2. We've been on vacation since Saturday. We went up home to visit with my parents. The first day we got there Jack's eye started bothering him. It got worse over the next few days, so early Tuesday morning we decided to come back to Syracuse, since the cats eye meds are all here. (We plan to keep a little kitty med bag with us from now on.) I do my felting at my parents since Mom has a real washing machine I can control and open during a cycle, so on and so forth. As of Tuesday morning I still hadn't gotten the oven mitt felted more. So I tossed it into the machine with a few towels and proceeded to pack up all our crap to come back. (Read, I started the cycle and let it go without checking on the mitt) It felted a bit more than I had anticipated it would. So I stuffed it tightly with plastic grocery bags in the hope that it wont be too small for my customer. I took pictures with the bags still in it. Its dry now but I haven't removed them yet.
When I tried it on wet it did fit me, so there is some hope.
I've been chugging along at the big white dishcloth order. I did simple Grandmother's Favorite cloths larger than I normally would. I went up to 60 stitches across the diagonal before decreasing. I'm finished with 5 of them. The order is for one of my co-worker's sons. She asked me to do them in white so that if the cloths got bleached it wouldn't matter. I've never cared for white cloths myself, so I though this project was going to be very boring. I have to say though, a pile of white cloths does look pretty snazzy. I think I may do a few in my normal size in case others want some cloths that are bleachable.
I was hoping to have time to have coffee with my grandmother, but alas that didn't work out. The last time I was able to see her, back in July, I gave her two round dishcloths and she mentioned that she was low on dishcloths. I totally forgot to take more with me on this trip, so on Saturday, when we got to Lowville, we made a Walmart run. Among other things, I picked up a skein of Peaches and Cream yarn, so I could make a few cloths for Grandma while I was up there. That's the intro into this observation. I think P&C is getting softer. I picked up Pansy which was a colorway I'd seen in my Walmart only recently. The label says that this particular batch was just made in May of this year, so its newer than some of the P&C I've used and complained about. The color is very bright and dyed evenly throughout the fiber and the yarn itself was actually pretty soft. I've made two cloths from it so far and the yarn didn't shed that much. Either I'm going completely wonko or Spinrite took a hint and actually made some improvements. I'm really hoping its the later since I enjoyed knitting with the yarn. (Realistically it wouldn't matter to me since I enjoyed knitting with it...)
In cooking news, while we were home, we made homemade pizza. Something I haven't done in soo long, I cant remember. I made the dough all by myself! So, today, I'm doing it again, this time with all my ingredients. I proofed my yeast to make sure it still works. It actually does, I have to admit, I was a bit surprised. So, more on that, if the dough rises properly. Mom puts her rising dough on top of the water heater since its a constant source of warmth. It works really well. I don't have a good heat source like that. So I turned on the oven for a bit and put the dough there. The oven is going to lose heat over time though... We did contemplate putting the dough on top of the Xbox and leaving it running while it rises, since a running Xbox generates a decent amount of heat. If the oven thing doesn't work, the Xbox will be plan A next time, which will lead to an interesting blog post about the multiple uses of game consoles ;)
On Monday, after getting my hair cut, one of my cousins was able to come over for a very informal knitting lesson. She really liked the baby booties I gave at the baby shower. She is a beginning knitter and I've been attempting to bring her to the dark side. We didn't have a whole lot of time together so at some point here I've decided to do a photo tutorial on the construction of these booties. They are a great project for anyone, beginner or seasoned veteran knitter. Here's a teaser of a pair I did a while ago:
These have been modified from the original pattern slightly. I made them bigger, since I have a pretty tight gauge and I thought they were a bit small. I'll go through my mods as well.
Now that T5 is over, I want to clean up all the odd ends of projects around here. I have several things that are done, but just need to be finished.
List time:
-Three tea towel toppers; end weaving, buttons
-Bella's Mittens; end weaving, blocking?
-Star Trek Pot Holder; end weaving, edging?
-Several hats; need to find them.... end weaving
-Ever present dishcloths; seaming and end weaving
-Dream Shrug; knitting, blocking, knitting some more...
The Dream Shrug is my only true WIP. I keep stalling since I figure I'll use it for one of the WIP challenges in Nerd Wars, but that isn't working. There is too much to do on it. I need to hunker down and just do it. What I really want to get done this month is Amiga. I didn't find a way to work it into challenges and I really, really want to get it done. I caked the yarn before T5 started, so I really need to get it knit up. (I've heard that keeping yarn caked for a long period of time is bad for the yarn...) So my goal for September is Amiga and some clean up duty. Oh, and another pair of mittens for the mitten campaign. I perused though patterns today and didn't find anything I really liked more than the Warmest Mitten pattern, so I'm going to use that again, with more Amazing. I have a whole skein and the left-overs from the first one. I'm happy to get rid of it. So that's it for now. Keep and eye out for the bootie tutorial. Happy Crafting!
-Q
I've been chugging along at the big white dishcloth order. I did simple Grandmother's Favorite cloths larger than I normally would. I went up to 60 stitches across the diagonal before decreasing. I'm finished with 5 of them. The order is for one of my co-worker's sons. She asked me to do them in white so that if the cloths got bleached it wouldn't matter. I've never cared for white cloths myself, so I though this project was going to be very boring. I have to say though, a pile of white cloths does look pretty snazzy. I think I may do a few in my normal size in case others want some cloths that are bleachable.
I was hoping to have time to have coffee with my grandmother, but alas that didn't work out. The last time I was able to see her, back in July, I gave her two round dishcloths and she mentioned that she was low on dishcloths. I totally forgot to take more with me on this trip, so on Saturday, when we got to Lowville, we made a Walmart run. Among other things, I picked up a skein of Peaches and Cream yarn, so I could make a few cloths for Grandma while I was up there. That's the intro into this observation. I think P&C is getting softer. I picked up Pansy which was a colorway I'd seen in my Walmart only recently. The label says that this particular batch was just made in May of this year, so its newer than some of the P&C I've used and complained about. The color is very bright and dyed evenly throughout the fiber and the yarn itself was actually pretty soft. I've made two cloths from it so far and the yarn didn't shed that much. Either I'm going completely wonko or Spinrite took a hint and actually made some improvements. I'm really hoping its the later since I enjoyed knitting with the yarn. (Realistically it wouldn't matter to me since I enjoyed knitting with it...)
In cooking news, while we were home, we made homemade pizza. Something I haven't done in soo long, I cant remember. I made the dough all by myself! So, today, I'm doing it again, this time with all my ingredients. I proofed my yeast to make sure it still works. It actually does, I have to admit, I was a bit surprised. So, more on that, if the dough rises properly. Mom puts her rising dough on top of the water heater since its a constant source of warmth. It works really well. I don't have a good heat source like that. So I turned on the oven for a bit and put the dough there. The oven is going to lose heat over time though... We did contemplate putting the dough on top of the Xbox and leaving it running while it rises, since a running Xbox generates a decent amount of heat. If the oven thing doesn't work, the Xbox will be plan A next time, which will lead to an interesting blog post about the multiple uses of game consoles ;)
On Monday, after getting my hair cut, one of my cousins was able to come over for a very informal knitting lesson. She really liked the baby booties I gave at the baby shower. She is a beginning knitter and I've been attempting to bring her to the dark side. We didn't have a whole lot of time together so at some point here I've decided to do a photo tutorial on the construction of these booties. They are a great project for anyone, beginner or seasoned veteran knitter. Here's a teaser of a pair I did a while ago:
These have been modified from the original pattern slightly. I made them bigger, since I have a pretty tight gauge and I thought they were a bit small. I'll go through my mods as well.
Now that T5 is over, I want to clean up all the odd ends of projects around here. I have several things that are done, but just need to be finished.
List time:
-Three tea towel toppers; end weaving, buttons
-Bella's Mittens; end weaving, blocking?
-Star Trek Pot Holder; end weaving, edging?
-Several hats; need to find them.... end weaving
-Ever present dishcloths; seaming and end weaving
-Dream Shrug; knitting, blocking, knitting some more...
The Dream Shrug is my only true WIP. I keep stalling since I figure I'll use it for one of the WIP challenges in Nerd Wars, but that isn't working. There is too much to do on it. I need to hunker down and just do it. What I really want to get done this month is Amiga. I didn't find a way to work it into challenges and I really, really want to get it done. I caked the yarn before T5 started, so I really need to get it knit up. (I've heard that keeping yarn caked for a long period of time is bad for the yarn...) So my goal for September is Amiga and some clean up duty. Oh, and another pair of mittens for the mitten campaign. I perused though patterns today and didn't find anything I really liked more than the Warmest Mitten pattern, so I'm going to use that again, with more Amazing. I have a whole skein and the left-overs from the first one. I'm happy to get rid of it. So that's it for now. Keep and eye out for the bootie tutorial. Happy Crafting!
-Q
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