koreancracker

Back when I was pregnant, I used Red Heart acrylic in the colors of the rainbow to make a granny square blanket. I didn't get very far into the project because as I was putting the squares together with some black yarn it dawned on me. This blanket was absolutely hideous. It literally looked like 1970 came over to my house and puked into my lap. So that project was chunked and since then I've only made two other granny square blanket and deemed it was not for me.



Despite my granny-square-hating-ass I am in complete love with this project. So far I have used 5 hanks of All Things Heather sock yarn. Not too thin, soft and the colors are so cheery! This will be another blanket for Lily, though I was hoping to make it a little bigger for her. Most of the yarn I scored on Ravelry and I haven't had much luck getting more.

I get exactly 15 six inch squares from each 360yd hank. I only have to crochet 20 more blocks until I can assemble them together. The only problem is crocheting is very taxing on my wrists. Apparently, when I crochet my hook and yarn flies everywhere. Instead of moving my fingers I rotate my wrists. I don't know why I do this and can't find another style that is comfortable for me to use. So after a few days of crocheting I have to put the hook down for a week or so.

Which explains why I knit a whole lot more than I crochet. I could knit all day without my arms or shoulders getting tired. It does bother me a little that my blog is more of a knitting site peppered with crochet.

Still working on the Baby Pinwheel blanket. I'm already in the middle of the next color change, so maybe this will be done by the middle of next month. Not sure of the exact stitch count but its at least 600. 600 stitches that take freaking forever to finish. I'm not sure who this will be for, another blanket for Lily?

Pretty Handmaidens!

Pattern: Generic Basketweave
Yarn: Muench Touch Me in 3 Barbie Pink, 2 Lime Green and 2 Lavender
Tools: Knit Picks Harmony in size 8
Modifications: none

This is not my first time working with chenille, but it wasn't until Touch Me that I finally understood. Understood that Holy Cthulu this stuff worms. First off, I'm somewhat of a loose knitter, really should of went down to 7. There is a reason why one half of the scarf slightly overlaps the other. I didn't pull tight enough after a few rows so there are 3 large worms sticking out. Felting didn't fix it either. The ends that I weaved in were completely scalped of their chenille, so if you look closely little white and black strands of wool are visible. Some degrees of softness were lost after felting, too. The surface has a bumpy texture from the ends woven in.

Other than that? OMG, this scarf is so wonderful. I absolutely love it. The brightness of it assaults the eyes, but it only wants to give you candy!

Pattern: Wavy scarf from Handmaiden
Yarn: Handmaiden Silk Cashmere and Silkspun in Melon
Tools: Knit Picks in size 10
Modifications: none

Nothing but wonderful things to say about this whole project. The yarns, the kits and the price. Its always a pleasure to work with cashmere and silk, plus the kit was on sale! I managed to use all that I could, leaving less than a yard behind. This is by far my favorite Melon: butter yellows, soft pinks and very little orange.

According to my counter, 6000 of you had visited my blog. You know what? Your all freakin' awsome. I created my first webpage when I was 14 on Geocities. Wow, remember Geocities? Anyway, it had my recipe for a love perfume involving rose and plum wine (wtf?) and my awesome pre-teen poetry, which was probably about suffering or parents or a combination of both. The entire year it was up I don't think I even had 300 hits. One guy who wrote in my guestbook said that he was looking up pictures of people puking and my site came up and politely asked that I post pictures of myself doing so. The title of it was something like Snow Tiger Princess. Yeah, I don't know either. Apparently I had a thing for inbred animals then.

Wow I digressed there. Thanks for visiting my site and reading my blathering blog. I mean it!

Pattern: Elmira Helmet by Perl Grey
Yarn: Fleece Arist Blue Face Leicester in Stone
Tools: Knit Picks Harmony in size 7 16" circulars
Modifications: Did 2 straps instead of 3.

First of all the yarn was funky to begin with. It looked really, messy? Every two inches the yarn was flat, like it had been squished for a really long time and this was consistent throughout the first half of the hank. The second half it wasn't as obvious. One of the plies looked like it had been slightly teased. It was just very weird.

This hat is huge. Like Herman Munster's head huge. Its so nice and warm with the teeniest tinies itch factor on the forehead. I wore it to the big Woolie Ewe sale and the entire time I was worried that someone was thinking, "By God that woman's hat is huge! Someone didn't do a gauge swatch!" Which I didn't. The hat looks huge on the model even. It comes in one size only, Medium/Large and the pattern instructs to felt if its too big. Once felted the fit is ten times better though I doubt I will ever use this pattern again.



Yeah, the Woolie Ewe sale? Awesome. 50% off everything in the store. I arrived at around 4:40 and the parking lot was almost full. There was about 25 people in front of me and there was a lot of them still showing up. It was actually a nice crowd, I didn't experience any ninja grannys or flying elbows. There was a lot of pardon, excuse me and butt maneuvering.

My budget was only $100 so I didn't make off like a madwoman like the others did. Even now I wonder what the hell was I thinking, I mean 50% off. Everything. Here's to next year, I plan on saving up and going totally batshit crazy.


Pattern: Basic Earflap Hat by heyjulie
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Spruce and Rowan Rowanspun 4ply in Jade
Tools: Knit Picks in size 8 16" circulars
Modifications: At the top I decreased til I had 7 stitches left, did one row of knit then bound off to get that pixie tip.

Ravelry recently featured cosymakes for her handspun projects and wow, her hats are the cutest things. She uses simple embroidery and pointy tips to make each one unique. While I didn't get the chance to embroider this one, cause I super awesome suck at it, I did get the pointy tip I so love.

According to Ravelry, I've been working on this project since October! I've got about nine 14 x 14 squares done and its kind of pathetic since six of those I did in the first week and a half. (The picture shows them as being 14 x 15, I realized my mistake soon after and corrected the problem.) I have to frog and redo three other squares that for some reason are waay bigger than 14 inches. That EZ Sew Board in the picture? Got it for my birthday (the biggest size) from Joanns with a 50% coupon. Blocking is so much easier now, no more stacking a bunch of towels together or using beds and searching for that renegade pin.

Now comes the angry part. I woke up one morning to find dog shit right on a square. We don't own a dog. Turns out my little brothers friend had brought one over. When I asked him to clean it up, he threw a hissy fit, grabbed the square off the blocking board with pins flying across the floor and rinsed it in water for about 5 seconds and dropped it back on the board. This is a 17 yr old boy by the way, who still won't eat his vegetables. Anyway, what a bitch. My brother is the only one that can push me over the edge. Think of the most spoiled selfish out of control brat and you've got my brother. In example:

The 2nd day I came home from the hospital with Lily and still quite hurting from the C-section, I get a very, very strong smell of weed in my room. My brother and a bunch of his friends are smoking in his room next door. I tell him to stop and to at least take it outside. I tell him how much it can screw Lily's brain up, he says he's sorry and yet does it three more times. By this point I am furious and just about to call the cops. Where's my mom in all this? Working 12 hour days, 7 days a week. I could go on and on but my left eye might explode just from thinking about how mad he makes me.

Pattern: Long rectangular seed stitch scarf with tufts pulled to one side. Inspired from a similar project on Ravelry.
Yarn: Rowan Big Wool Tuft in Powder Puft, 2.5 balls
Tools: Clover Bamboo straights in size 15

I love this. A girly, pink, sqooshy, scarflette I made for a friend. Its reversible and the buttons I got from Wal-Mart.

I've been so bad. The Woolie Ewe sale was to mark the end all, no more yarn buying for Rina until a long time. Then I saw that Tidal Brook Yarns is having a clearance sale on a bunch of Fleece Artist and Handmaiden yarns. All I can say is I've got some lovely 100% cashmere coming to me.

Pattern: My So Called Scarf
Yarn: Fleece Artist Peter Rabbit in Lily Pond, Knit Picks Bare Merino DK
Tools: Knit Picks Interchangeable in size 11
Modifications: Did a YO instead of knitting into the back of a stitch.

I've had both of these yarns for a really long time and the Peter Rabbit has been through many many patterns. I loved Miss Muffy's scarf and thought I had found the perfect pattern. After contacting her to find out the stitch pattern, turns out the scarf stretched a ton and its all droopy and no doubt very sad.

There should be a new rule of knitting: When in doubt, My So Called Scarf it. It only took me about a week and its so very warm, soft and satiny. While I ate angora fluff for other patterns, this one did a good job of keeping the angora IN.

Still needs to be blocked and fringed, destined for a Christmas gift.

Pattern: I think I winged it. CO 96, 2X2 rib.
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Daffodil and Wheat
Tools:  Susan Bates Silverado Circular Knitting Needles 16'' in size 8

This hat was completely random. The purl ridge, the color work and the decreasing. While its not something that will stop you in your tracks, I love the two colors together. Yarn heads are fun to make as well!


Pattern: CO 10, garter stitch
Yarn: Rowan Big Wool Tuft in Shiver, Frosted Fir, Nightsky
Tools: Clover Bamboo Straights in size 15

Elann.com had this yarn on sale for $2.49 each, which is the cheapest I've seen anywhere. Tried knitting on size 35 needles but I wasn't too fond of the fabric. The yarn is sort of soft and to the super duper sensitive there might be a little itch factor. Its a little on the rough side but I imagine that if they had went with a super fine merino there would of been huge pilling problems.



I turned 23 on the 5th and had a blast at Dave and Busters. That place is so much fun, like an adult's Chuck E. Cheese. With my birthday money I bought a ton of Koigu KPPPM from a destasher on Ravelry. At $8 a hank. Awesome.

I'm going to use two hanks of P530 (coming to me from a trade on Ravelry) and all six of P139 for a Pinwheel blanket. For the rest? I want a Koigu blanket, dammit. Its horrible! This could be so very expensive, so I'm going to just wait it out and snatch the good deals on Ravelry and through trades.

I so understand the whole hubbub about Koigu, now.

Finished the Granny throw early last week, am just about ready to send the Crochetville SP package away! I managed to use up all the Knit Picks Get Away and Vacation except for three balls. Don't know what I'm going to do with those, perhaps some sort of bobble hat for Lily...if I could get her to wear them. I swear, I must have like 20 different hats. As soon as I put one on she takes it off, I put another one on and the cruel cycle (or game) continues.