Crocheted socks?

To my crafting buddies: help me figure out what to do with this yarn!

I bought 430 yards of merino silk yarn from my blogging friend Picnicknits. Picture is here (shamelessly swiped from her etsy site). It's lovely and soft, and I want to make something really nice with it.

As you know, I don't knit any more. I'm thinking crocheted socks or fingerless mitts.

Since I wear skirts 99% of the time, I'd pretty much only be wearing the socks around the house. This is fine, I guess, but then the yarn doesn't get out to see the world, which seems sad. Also, is 430 yards enough for socks for size 10 feet? (I have da monster-sized feet. But I don't fall over much, so I guess they keep me balanced!)

I could make mitts, but I'm developing quite a collection of mitts. I also don't want to have yarn left over since I won't know what to do with like 100 left-over yards, and mitts will probably leave me with excess.

I never wear scarves, and I have about 15 shawls.

So, um... what should I make? :)

Alpaca and silk, oh my!

The crafters in the crowd are already drooling, I'm sure. :)

Made from Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca and Silk yarn, these mitts are warm.

The pattern comes from the Crochet Liberation Front's book (which I recently bought electronically and love). They were incredibly easy to make, and they have a nice shape to the wrist that I haven't seen done in any other mitts and yet it was easy as well.

I'm amused by the fact that the pattern is called Joanna Fingerless Mitt, because one of the agents currently looking at Raoul is named Joanna. A good sign? Perhaps.

I will make her as many mitts as she wants if she signs me. :)

Ravelry types, the pattern has a page there, of course.

I have developed something of a bad addiction to fingerless mitts. That's not bad, is it? I mean, I could quit whenever I wanted.

I think.

Crocheter? Get this book!

The Crochet Liberation Front on Ravelry released its first book of crochet patterns and articles a while back, but for me shipping was too high to Canada (not their fault - just how the publisher was charging).

But now it's available as an eBook! $9.99 gets you a ton of gorgeous patterns and what from my first glance look like great articles.

Visit http://www.lulu.com/content/5930745 to pick up your copy.

Ravelry types who are also designers, they are putting together a second book! Search CLF in the Groups area to find their headquarters and have your pattern or article included.

Excuse me. I am off to read. :)

Feet of blue fur, hands of yarn vomit

This is ridiculous but I can't stop myself... I just took a picture (actually, Mr. W took it - have I mentioned he's a patient one??) of my favourite slipper. I'm chatting on twitter with someone who wanted cow slippers. Well, sure, but why, when you could have...

Please note the glittery blue toenails. :)

To 'match', I have my fingerless mitts. I have, in the past, commented that I didn't get the whole fingerless mitts thing. It's my FINGERS that get cold, not the rest of my hand. I was politely informed that keeping the rest of the hand warm also helps with the fingers. I tried, and lo, it was correct. So now I have two finished pairs, and several more in progress. The first is made with Patons Rumor, a yarn now discontinued for what I can see were valid reasons. It IS soft, but it started to look scruffy the first time I wore the mitts. Nonetheless, they are... vibrant.


I can't imagine making something bigger out of this yarn, but for mitts it's a nice kick of colour. (I think it looks like a LiteBrite factory blew up. :)

When I write, I nearly always wear a shawl made of white Moda Dea Dream. It's so soft, cozy without being overheating, and now it's just part of the routine. I had some left over, though, so I made...


They are a touch too big but so soft, and they're soothing somehow while I type. When I start the next book's first draft, I'll have to see if I can actually write on paper with them on, but they do work well with the computer. A few times they got TOO warm, and then I just pushed them down and made wrist cuffs (with a weird lump where the thumb holes were).

I'm obsessed with fingerless mitts. (My name is Heather, and I'm an addict.) The good news is that they're a) faster and b) take less yarn than my previous obsession, shawls. :)

Back to blog decluttering. (It's either that or declutter the house, and frankly, this is easier!)

Heather

I am knot a knitter

(I crack myself up. :)

But I'm really not. I have spent this year trying to knit. I did in fact manage to teach myself, and can knit/purl/cast on/bind off. But you know what?

I hate doin' it.

I really do. I don't like having a needle in both hands, I don't like all the loops on the needles, I don't like the "oh, geez, the stitches nearly fell off" moments... I am not a knitter. I am a crocheter.

So why am I so determined to put time I don't enjoy into knitting a sweater I almost certainly won't wear? I think it's because I feel like I started it and I should finish it.

Well, I'm finishing it right now. I will be frogging the sweater of doom and turning it into a nice crocheted sweater instead. Something by Doris Chan, I'm sure, for those of you who'll know what that means.

Without getting ridiculously over-philosophical, this is the same kind of thing I struggle with in my writing. The lighter tone is a hard sell these days, but it's what I have. It's how I talk, how I email, how I write. And I love it. So I need to do that, and not worry about what other people think about how it sounds. Or how I make my sweaters.

Heather

A finished crochet project!

I have been testing a crochet cardigan pattern by the very talented milobo. Hers is done in a smooth sleek yarn and looks very classy.

Mine's in Moda Dea Dream, a furry yarn, and has yeti-like qualities. But I love it!



I greyed out the picture a bit so the sweater would show up more. Mr. W made me laugh and then took the picture, which is why I look like such a weirdo. (This time, anyhow. There's always an excuse for why I look like such a weirdo. :)

I need a good closure for it. At the moment, it's pinned closed with a split ring stitch marker. :)

Mr. W took another picture of me, and this one I actually like! I put it in as my profile picture here. For those who care about such things, I'm hiding behind a Seraphina Shawl made from Sirdar Blur. :)

Pizza is ready, so I must go and eat it. It's hard work being on vacation... I've read two novels in the last two days. :)

May 15, 2008: Crazy scheduling woman

There are probably rocket launches that aren't scheduled as tightly as I made today's plan. I launched my rocket, let me tell you. (That sounds dirtier than I'd intended.)

Raoul's outline is indeed done. The characters are itching to be written, but Seven needs to get out into the world first, so tomorrow I'll finish up some of what I've been learning in the emotions course (which is better and better with each passing lecture, incidentally) and get ready to go full-blast on Seven on Monday. (Yes, it's a holiday. No, I ain't takin' no holiday. My boss is a slave-driver. :)

As well, I cleaned out the linen closet (scoring 15 items to donate to charity - explain why two people need ten towels??), sent off my Computing Unplugged article, washed the floors, dusted, spent an hour applying the emotions course to Seven and another half hour on the next lecture... I am a beast. A tired beast. :)

Writing Project: Raoul's planning - last day, baby!
Time Planned: 2 hours
Time Spent: 2 hours
Favourite Part: How badly I want to start writing it. :)

Exercise: 40 minutes elliptical (scheduled to be 45 but I was going to be too late for breakfast!)
One Fun Thing I Did Today: I'm about to sit and relax and crochet for an hour. Heaven!

April 28, 2008: Narrowing in

Raoul's story is not as focused as it needs to be. Oddly, the male character's story is much more focused than the female's, which is unfortunate because the female is the point of view character (and no, I don't want to do it the other way around, or flip their story lines).

The female (Tess) is searching for meaning and purpose in her life. Which, while great, doesn't lend itself well to a "find the grail" or "heal an injury" kind of goal. But I'm still looking, and it's coming together.

I had a dentist appointment this afternoon so only scheduled 2 hours on Raoul. The rest of the afternoon, after the dentist (of course) was 45 minutes late, I spent doing various odds and ends. I'm always pleased with myself when I make a schedule I can actually stick to - I feel SO much more productive as a result!

Writing Project: Raoul's outline
Time Planned: 2 hours
Time Spent: 2 hours
Favourite Part: saying to myself, "You can't just write *this bunch of words* and have a summary sentence," and looking at it and thinking, "Hmm. Maybe you can!"

Exercise: 30 minutes elliptical, 30 minutes weights
One Fun Thing I Did Today: updated my Ravelry account (if you're a crafter, go to www.ravelry.com NOW and sign up, then friend SapphireNinja) to show the craft stuff I've finished recently.

Here's me in my newest sweater, crocheted from this pattern. I wasn't ready when Wes took the picture, but it's actually kind of a neat pose!

April 25, 2008: Branch out, baby!

I spent the better part of the day at a crafting show. Yarn galore, and lots of other things that (thankfully) I'm not into. I am now the proud owner of:

a) lace-weight wool (basically, thick thread) in a gorgeous mix of purples, blues, and greens. Just like my wrist tattoo, basically, only in yarn. This will be a shawl one day. Pattern not yet decided, but oh, the fun I'll have trying to pick one! :)





b) a small skein of recycled silk. This is apparently spun from snippets of sari fabric, and it's stunningly beautiful. Mine is similar to the blue shade but with more purples and greens. Absolutely no clue what it'll become, but it refused to stay at the show and insisted on coming home with me. Cannot argue with yarn!





c) 16 balls of Bernat Black Lites, a beautiful black yarn. Mine is like the picture but with blue strands through it. It was $0.97 a ball and I sort of went crazy. I also bought a pattern book for $0.97 and this yarn will become a knit cardigan once the first cardigan is finished. Sometime in 2098, I'm thinking.


d) Five balls of Bernat Haven in a soft green. This is going to be a snuggly little wrap.



Why am I posting all of this? Besides the fact that yarn is purty? Because I have developed an unfortunate tendency to stick to the patterns in crafting, especially crocheting. I don't seem to just pick up a hook and some yarn and just play. And just playing is probably the best thing I can do, at least sometimes.

I need to play with the books too... some of my favourite scenes in my own writing are the ones where I just thought, "Okay, this is weird but let's try it out"... and being just a bit off-kilter made the scene amazingly interesting. Now that writing is my career, it's tougher to do that, and it's also probably more necessary. So I will do more of it with the yarn as well, and perhaps it will carry over into the writing. And if not, at least I'll have a neat shawl or something to wear. :)

Writing Project: none - considering today a 'weekend day' because of the craft show
Time Planned: zilch
Time Spent: exactly as planned
Favourite Part: driving along to/from the show and having bits and pieces of the book form themselves in my head - 'weekends' don't really exist when a book's trying to figure itself out!

Exercise: 45 minutes elliptical - which is great, except it was SUPPOSED to be 30 minutes and 30 minutes of weights, but I forgot and just did the elliptical. Oh well.
One Fun Thing I Did Today: petted some seriously gorgeously soft yarns, and got to see some yarns 'in person' I've only ever seen on the Internet