Sew I See!

Thing #1: I'm slowly but surely making progress on Multnomah.  (And I do mean "slowly".)  I'm nearing the end of the garter stitch portion, and then I'll have to decide if I'm following the pattern as written or expanding the garter stitch section.  I think I'm leaning toward following as written. (All my photos turned out blurry today.  Not enough light in the house, and I was too lazy to change lenses, fool with the tripod, or otherwise inconvenience myself in the slightest.  Sorry!) Thing #2: I didn't withstand the Big Secret Project's allure, so I'm working on that, now, too (which is part of the reason why progress on Multnomah is sooo slooow).  I'm having lots of fun with it.  The pattern is super easy to memorize, offers lots of room for playing with color, and is generally just fun to crochet.  (I'll share the pattern once the gift is given-- which won't be until Christmas, I'm afraid-- but it's one you'

I'm still plugging away at the Multnomah shawl, but I'm not yet done with the garter stitch section (i.e. the easy part).  I guess I'm just a slowpoke knitter. Things I've learned during this project, so far: Knitting garter stitch (knitting only-- no purling on either side of your work) may be super easy, but it's still possible to make small mistakes while doing it, and those mistakes can still be irritating to mend.  Fixing a dropped stitch (or three) in garter stitch is much messier than fixing a dropped stitch in stockinette.  And once, I found what must have been a dropped stitch, several rows down, but there was no laddering up near the needles!  (Very mysterious...)  I still don't know what went wrong there, to be honest, but by purposely dropping what I figured should be an adjacent stitch, I was able to see where the first dropped stitch should go and build them both back up to needle-level.  (Whew!) I knit for longer periods of time when I'

After spending quite a bit of craft-time working on (secret) gift items, I'm taking some craft-time to be completely selfish.  ;o) I started by making myself an Amineko Crocheted Cat . When I saw the first one that Pammy Sue made (she's made another one since then), I thought it was an adorable pattern with a lot of room for personality in the way you choose to embroider the facial expression.  (And you can dress them-- either by crocheting clothes or accessories for them or by simply altering the colors you use to make a permanent sweater, pants, etc. for the cat to "wear".  As you can see, I made a rainbowy scarf for my cat using a scrap of South Maid size 10 in the "Mexicana" colorway.) The Amineko Cat pattern didn't look too hard to do, so of course I decided to make it more fiddly by trying the pattern with size 10 thread.  ;o)  There's one person on Ravelry who's made at least a couple in size 10-- but also one in size 80.  I

I know I'm not the only one who gets excited at the sight of crocheted items in movies or TV shows. My poor husband gets to hear all about it.  "Ooh, look!  Crochet!"  Or in the case of this one program that consistently shows the family using the same two or three crochet afghans, "Look!  It's a new afghan!  They have a new afghan !" Now that I'm a novice knitter, you might expect that I'd feel the same way about knitting-- and if there's a particularly stunning example, I might give it a closer look-- but in general, crochet sightings are much more thrilling.  Perhaps it's because crochet is just not nearly as common.  Or maybe I just like crochet more... (Shh.  Don't tell the knitting needles.  I like them, too-- honest.  But I know so much less about knitting... and crochet is so much faster...) Anyway, I was thinking about great crochet (and knitting) in TV and movies, and I decided to make a short list of my favorites for croch

I completed the three knitted rectangles for this pincushion back in October but put off assembling it because I didn’t know how to sew it together perfectly. Well, fast-forward however-many months and I still didn’t know, but I decided to just do it anyway-- any- which -way. For some reason, I had a hard time visualizing how I was supposed to put this thing together. Now that I finally have done it, I’m not sure why I was so confused… (g)  Anyway, it’s done, and I think it looks alright, despite my imperfect construction.  I didn’t sew the bottom, so the separate loops are still not connected to one another. If it turns out that they’re coming apart too much, I’ll go back and stitch the whole thing together. I think I'm going to use mine as a knitting/crocheting doo-dads cushion.  

I finally finished the mesh bag I started crocheting back in August.  I had trouble with the pattern, back then. (Apparently.  I don't remember much about it, but my project notes on Ravelry don't paint a picture of pattern love.)  So by the time I got to the part where I needed to crochet the handles/straps, I  was not in the mood.  I put it aside and let it wait for, oh, seven moths or so. Turns out the handles took hardly any time at all (though I'll never enjoy crocheting into the chain, and the straps do require some of that). Here it is, toting six balls of size 10 crochet thread: And again, this time with three large cans: I felt more confident carrying the thread than those heavy cans, but supposedly the bag can handle it. I don't know when/if I'll ever use this bag, since I'm not likely to use it for grocery shopping.  (I don't do food shopping on a regular, nearly-daily basis, so when I do, I buy lots... and it would be somewhat

I'm going on a finishing spree (applies only to projects I can finish relatively quickly and easily-- not to projects that have substantial amounts of work yet to be done).  It's about time; some of these UFOs have been hanging around for months. - - - - - - - First up was the Celtic Cables Neckwarmer, which technically may not be completely finished, yet, since I'm seriously considering adding a very small, unobtrusive crochet border.  Maybe.  (Oh, and I've yet to weave in the two yarn ends.  I hate weaving ends into knitting even more than into crochet, because I'm not confident about how to do it properly.) I decided from the beginning to omit the buttons (and thus the buttonholes and ribbing) in favor of a shawl pin or stick of some kind, so that made it easier to finish. (g) On the other hand, I ended up knitting seven pattern repeats-- more than usual. Since my neckwarmer will be adjustable (no fixed-in-place buttons and buttonholes), and becau

Don't you hate it when you drop a crochet hook into the crevice between two seat cushions on your couch, hear a ringing, metallic *ding*, go get a flashlight, pop up the seat's footrest, and lie on the floor to look under the couch, only to discover (after repeated searches) that the crochet hook is not there and has evidently fallen through a portal to another dimension? Don't you just hate that?  Especially when you're right in the middle of a project and don't have another hook in the same size?  It's a total downer. The next day, Donald and I had to roll the couch upside down to find the hook, but find it we did.  Somehow, it had managed to fall so that it lodged in there somewhere, and it was impossible to see it without turning the couch almost upside down.  I've dropped hooks into that couch before.  Usually they fall straight through to the floor; this one got creative. Now, you may think that turning a couch upside down was a lot of trouble t