Grandma

When I was a girl, my Grandmother Helen crocheted.  To my untrained eyes, she crocheted like a mad woman, and would suddenly there was this amazing blanket that she made!

One of these blankets was a granny square blanket, it was made with brown squares with colors in the middle.  She passed away 18 years ago this year, and it wasn't until a few years ago that I started wondering where it was and who in the world got their hands on it.

There is a blanket that she made with was basically a granny stripe blanket made in off white and black and orange, and it's in my mom's garage (I'm thinking about mounting a rescue mission to get it here, in my own house...last time I was there I went with one small bag and there wasn't any room to stuff it in).

Anyway, I asked around to see who might have the brown blanket, simply because I wanted to get a look at it to try and replicate it, and no one will admit to remembering the dang thing!  So, I decided instead I'd just make my own, while continuing to try and find at least a color picture of the brown blanket.

Only, I don't want to make a 'regular' granny square blanket, or even a blanket that is just one huge granny square itself.  I got this idea of making a 'quilt' granny square blanket, with different sized granny squares in all sorts of different colors.

Because I have a whole bunch of yarn just sitting in my closet.  And making different sized multi colored squares is fast and easy.  PLUS, I can carry the yarn and the squares around with me in my bag and just work on them while I'm at work or waiting for stuff. As an added bonus, I've already got a bunch of squares that I made before when I was getting ideas for a blanket while sitting in the hospital (for work). So I'm already ahead of the game.  I'm very excited about finishing squares and piecing the whole thing together so I can crochet them all and have a really awesome blanket for my bed.

Oh Spit!

I had read somewhere that when you are having to use another ball of yarn,  instead of cutting off the end of the last ball at an end, you could use spit to sort of felt the ends together.

I thought, "Well, I'll never have to do that!"

Then last night happened.

I am using Lion Brand Homespun yarn to make a present. It calls for three skeins of yarn. I finished the first a while ago, dutifully working it to a row end and continuing on with the new skein.

Last night, I knew I was close to finishing up with the second skein, so I just kept it up until the very end, leaving enough to tie it off when I finish.

Thinking about it this morning, I realized I didn't want to have a knot in the middle of my work and thought I had better try to spit the ends together.

It worked out alright. You get both ends wet with a little spit then put them together and roll them between your palms, checking occasionally to see if you've gotten them felted together by giving a little tug to see if they give. Once they're all felted,  continue on as normal.

It worked out well, though I did it several hours after having brushed my teeth and drinking a cup of coffee- long story short it didn't smell nice.  I'd recommend brushing your teeth or rinsing your mouth out before starting.

Luckily I had planned on laundering the item once I have all the ends taken care of. As of right now, it seems to need very little in the way of blocking, but that can change after a run through the wash. We'll see how it goes.

Bored

I'm at work today. Back on my 12 hour shifts. Except now, I only do three a week. Don't you worry,  though, I still get my 48 hours a week...just spread out over five days instead of four.

So. Things here are boring, as usual. I am working on this monstrosity. The instructions make no sense whatsoever, but I'm following them nonetheless. They state to work in the V-stitch until it is 33
Inches long, then to begin working on the opposite side of the beginning chain until it is 66 inches long (as opposed to working it all in one piece).  I have vowed to do it how it is in the pattern. As of right now it is almost 24 inches long and I am on my second of three skeins of yarn.

Also, I am rereading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Nothing is keeping my attention, though.

I keep going back and forth and in between I am taking random pictures of my work and my painted nails.

I did find something of note, though.  I usually try to just bring whatever hooks or needles I'm planning on using that day, instead of dragging my entire case around. That means no scissors or tape measure.  Scissors are fine, there is a pair here I can use if I need them. The tape measure is harder. Most times I don't even consider pulling out of my sewing box so both of them rarely see the light of day. 

However, since I finished the first skein and started the second, I was beginning to think about how much further I'd have to go before starting on the other side. I don't want it getting lopsided or anything, because it is supposed to be a gift. It is done with 3 skeins of Lion Brand Homespun yarn. I was working on it, and watching a Doctor Who episode (or 12) and happened to notice something interesting on the wrapper of the skein I just finished (I am a wrapper hoarder, and have occasionally found three or four folded together). There are tick marks on the long sides of the wrapper. Upon closer inspecton I found that I could use the wrapper to measure my work, as the tick marks are marked in one inch increments on one side and cm on the opposite side! I was very excited, and found that though my brain was thinking I was about ready to start on the opposite end, the reality was that I was about 10 inches shy.  Good thing I looked closely at that wrapper!

Back

This is going to be my last week of what I have come to call, "Work, Light".  Darn.

Next week I'm scheduled to return to 48 hours a week.  And I might be doing even less crochet than I have been lately or before.

We'll see, though.  I mentioned keeping up a new schedule of actually LEAVING the room and she told me I was full of it.  And crazy.

I also learned that my husband will be off of work on my first day back at 12 hour shifts.  That makes total sense though, because that's the usual kind of thing that happens to me.

As far as needlework goes, I am working on a small blanket-I've yet to decide on how long it will be-in crochet.  I am also working on a shawl in crochet and another in knitting.  Both of those are with Lion Brand Homespun, because I am a total glutton for punishment.

I learned something about Homespun-I don't like it!  Oh, don't get me wrong, it's beautiful yarn, I just can't stand working with it in either crochet or knitting.  I suppose it comes from NOT using it at all in anyway, and I'll probably learn to at least like it eventually, but right now, it's not my favorite.  Though I do happen to have 4 skeins of it in the house.

My husband will be working this Saturday, so I'll bust some stuff out while he's gone for those eight or nine hours.  I'll also be testing out a Pinterest pin I found a while ago.  I tried to do it a few months ago, but after I got everything all set up, I found that my carpet shampooer wasn't shampooing anything and was only good for sucking up liquids from the floor.  We have finally replaced it, after years of hoping, and I used the new one to clean up a stain that has plagued my carpet for many, many moons... Saturday, I intend to test out a pin that supposedly replaces the expensive carpet shampoo meant for such machines.  How I am going to do that, since mine takes the 2X kind of cleaner, I have no good idea about, but I wanna do it.  Barring all of that, Walmart sells 2X cleaner for about half as much as the brand name stuff, so I can always go that route!

Liar, Liar

OK, I lied.

I said I wasn't going to buy new yarn, and I went ahead and bought some.  It was damned hard to find, which should have stopped me from getting it, but what the hell.

You know Red Heart Yarns Boutique Yarn?  Well, I found a pattern for a cowl made with Unforgettable in the color Petunia, and I wanted to make it. So I bought the damn yarn.

There, I said it.  Whew!  What a load off!

Anyways, so at work, the old lady is a former knitting instructor.  Therefore, I am doing everything wrong.  Mostly because I do English knitting instead of continental knitting.  So she gets all over me about how much more work I am doing and yada yada.  I tried explaining to her that my hands and my brain just aren't getting it and that I am not at a point where I CAN do it, but she keeps on.

So, I decided no more knitting while she's awake.  Right now, that means no more knitting at work, since she's awake almost the entire time we're together these days.

Now, I am all about crochet.  My Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable project is the Cute and Cozy Ribbed Cowl from Yarn Over Designs.  I made one for my niece Allison's Christmas gift and am almost halfway through this one now.  It crochets very quickly and it's super soft on both sides.  The yarn itself is pretty cool.

Also, I am working up the Garden Plaid Throw from the February 2012 issue of Crochet World Magazine.  The pattern calls for Caron Simply Soft yarn, but at the nursing facility I have been visiting, a whole bunch of the patients there have been carrying around donated crochet blankets, and one that I have been looking at is this pattern, made with acrylic yarn.  And since I'm trying to use up as much yarn in my stash as possible, I thought this would be good.  So I have 4 colors going on that one.  I am considering making another larger one...but as you might know, I still have a ripple blanket that I need to finish before I commit to another super large blanket.  Because my husband has been waiting two years for me to finish the one I'm working on.  BUT, with all the time I'm spending at work, working on that one is difficult and I have to focus on working on it on the weekends.

I hope you all have a great rest of the week and a fantastic weekend!!  And if you'd like, take a look at the Cat's Corner on the Craftsy Blog for a chance to win some swag!!  You'll have to register on Craftsy to be entered, but that's not exactly the a bad thing, right?

Resolution

For a long, long while, I've never made a resolution for the new year.  This one is no different.  I did not make a resolution for the new year.

Until today.

Today...well, actually sometime while I was sleeping last night, I resolved to try and use up more of my stash yarn.  On Ravelry, my stash has about 10 yarns in it.  My closet says different. It looks like a yarn store threw up in there.

So, for my first project of 2013, I've chosen to use up my skein of Lion Brand Homespun in Amethyst.

I have had a hard time trying to either crochet or knit with it. In the last few weeks of the year, I found it in my closet and it was a big ole tangled up mess.  I spent a couple of days (literally) getting it untangled, then balled it up.  It's made a pretty large ball.

The pattern I chose uses size 15 needles!  I love knitting with the larger needles!!  Much more than using the smaller sizes-outside of the size 9 needles for making those cool scarves with the fancy Red Heart Sashay yarn- of which I have made 4 for other people and none for myself (mine has been the same size for about six weeks and that's not even halfway done).

The pattern is called the Runaround Knit Cowl and I got it from Smashed Peas and Carrots.

It looks beautiful in her pictures and with needing the size 15 needles, I'm thinking it might be super easy for me to knit up...Not to mention I'll be off from work starting at 3 PM tomorrow until 9 AM on Wednesday...so I'll have plenty of time to make myself actually sit and work on it.  Yep, I'm out of work for a few days.  Nothing bad, just a change in schedule until mid January, then it'll change just a little bit again, but for the better.

Wish me luck, and Happy New Year!

Finally!

Well, we're finally settling down from the holidays.  It wasn't that hard, though.

See, I was off on Christmas day.  Though I remembered at around 9 am, I didn't pull the ham out of the fridge until after 11 AM.  Upon doing so, I found that, though it had been taken out of the freezer the night before, the ham was still pretty solid.  And David had said he wanted to eat around 3 PM.  Right at the moment when I found that out, the belt on the vacuum broke and David went a little cuckoo.

What did I do?  I ran away.  I got into the car, in my mind saying, "I'll just go to the store and get another damn ham, dammit!" But really, I ran away.  For Christmas.  Usually, it is me that is plugging along no matter what.  For some reason, though, I HAD to leave.  All the stores were closed for the day, or had already closed for the day anyway.  So I drove around town.

I came home, found the belt for the vacuum (kudos to me for buying to dual pack last time!) and we put the ham into a sink full of water.

Many other strange things happened on Christmas, like the garbage disposal just stopped working completely, and after my SIL arrived for the day, I remembered I had made her TWO scarves and one was still in the closet, unfinished. (She got a big kick out of me finishing the dang thing right in front of her after she  unwrapped it (from a bag).)

All in all, it was a great day.  Big part of that was the squealing that issued from my son when he opened his iPod-bonus: I got a hug!

In the interim, the long two days since Christmas, I have been working on a couple of things, for myself.  The last thing I made for myself was a Christmas stocking that's hanging up on the wall.  I'll put a picture of it up as soon as I figure out why my camera wants to shut itself off as soon as I take a picture even though it's got fully charged batteries inside.  Strike that, first, I'll have to find it.

I'll also have to turn off my Elan Smart-Pad.  Again.  Apparently, it stopped working and re-installing the drivers does jack crap.  BUT, all of a sudden, it works again.  Only now, when I go in to make sure it's disabled when I have the mouse plugged in, even after hitting the "Apply" button, it just laughs and leaves itself on.  So typing this up has been a real joy, having to redo entire sentences (mostly out of complete and utter stubbornness) and continually search for where the heck the cursor has ended up is really my bag.

So, for the weekend, my WIPs are:

• Adding buttons to my  knitted Buttoned Cowl, made with Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick & Quick in black
• Finishing Crocheting my Openwork Crocheted Cowl made with Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick & Quick in Claret
• Continue knitting my Hometown Scarf made with Lion Brand Hometown Yarn in Napa Valley Pinot and Los Angeles Tan -California representin', Yo!

I'm so loving right now that my spell check is telling me that Los and Angeles and Pinot are misspelled.  Get with the program, man!

Anyway, that's my plan.  Just need to survive tomorrow at work... which might be easy as we're going out for lunch... that makes me having to move the woman from her chair to the car and back a little bit better.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, whatever you celebrated!  Also, Happy Kwanzaa!