Gettin' busy with the ball winder or Raiders of the Lost Acrylic

So I was making grocery bag "yarn" yesterday and had the ballwinder out. My acrylic stash--or part of it...if I'm being honest there are probably 6-10 skeins of acrylic in the downstairs closet with the "good" yarn--started calling to me to be organized and rescued from moldering away in a bin in the master closet. Most of this stash of yarn I've had for 10 years or so--let's call them "the crochet years"-- back when I was still doing almost all crochet and no knitting:



This is the stash after much time with the ballwinder:



Some lovely UFOs I came across along the way:

My dear friend Rebecca, when she found out she was pregnant with her son (I think he's about 9 now), was into all the latest research about stimulating babies' eyes with black and white and polka dots. I was asked to make a baby blanket with black and white. *twitch* I made two attempts. I tried, Beck, I really tried! See, here's the proof!

I'm thinking about sending these to her so she can make something out of them. Maybe a doll blanket for her daughter. I think either one would make a nice stole; they're just long enough. Anyway, I'm going to send her the guilt and get it out of my house! That poor baby never did get an afghan from me. :(

I was going to make this scrap yarn afghan for a friend and use up all the scraps in my stash. The pattern was going to require I make 803 little squares. Yeah, I got bored. In the "after" shot above there's a Payless Shoe Source bag stuffed with the squares and the yarn for joining. Pictured here are a completed strip of squares and a strip in the process of being joined together.



These are some strips I started when I got tired of the little granny squares:



The only things I completed the first time I tried to learn to knit were dishcloths. This square is the only thing I completed the second time I tried to learn to knit. It was supposed to be just one square of an entire afghan of squares. Yeah, it's still the only square.



I found this square that was supposed to be part of an afghan. I think I'll make the leaves, add a border and sew it to the back of the above knitted square. Instant seasonal pillow cover!



Things I've learned from this endeavor:
1. I have an embarrassing amount of white and off white yarn.
2. I bought THREE balls of acrylic sport weight yarn to make that garter stitch scarf back when I first tried to learn to knit. WTF am I going to do with THREE balls of acrylic sport weight yarn? IN BLACK?? I have sworn off black altogether so this creates a bit of a quandry. If anyone wants some sport weight acrylic black yarn, give me a holler.
3. I actually used to do some pretty good work. I should crochet some more. But not with acrylic.

Little brag

I finished a sweater in LESS than a week! Ok, it wasn't knitted, but I still did it. This is Cupcake from "Stitch n' Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker." Though I've crocheted many, many afghans, I have never found a pattern for a crocheted garment that was the least bit appealing. Until now. There are at least two other sweater patterns in this book that I will probably make at some point. I made the sleeves first--they went SO quickly!--then worked on the back mostly during the car trip to and from the family reunion Saturday, finished up the back and started the front on Sunday, dawdled along on the front Monday and Tuesday, finished up the crocheting of the front and sewing on Wednesday, and completed the finishing touches on Thursday morning. The only alteration I made to the pattern was to take out a couple of inches of the length for two reasons: 1. I'm terribly shortwaisted and didn't want a tunic, and 2. I was using yarn originally purchased for another project and wanted to be sure I had enough to make it. I will never finish that picovoli I started, and ya know, it just really doesn't bother me!

Fun with the ball winder

Since my dad made me my swift, I've been itching for some free time (and empty counter space) to set it up and wind the hanks from knitpicks. First though, here's me in a hat I made for dh, that I SWEAR I got gauge on before starting, followed the pattern measurements no matter how crazy they seemed at the time, and ended up with a hat that won't fit ANYONE's head. Dh tried to suffer with it cuz he knows how hard I worked on it, but eventually he had to break the news to me that it just wasn't going to work. Really, it's absurdly big. Check out this picture of it on me. Note how far up I have it folded, and it still comes to my chin.

So it's being frogged and wound back into a ball. Maybe it will have a new life as hats for two people. Heck, there might be enough yarn in the thing to make matching hats for the whole family! Anyway, here it is after frogging and winding.

On to the yarn from knitpicks. It is Sock Memories in Grandma--lovely name for yarn...not! Anyway, I had tried to wind it after getting my winder and before getting the swift. I don't recommend it. Here's the set up with the swift and winder.

Two of these things are not like the others. Two of these things are kind of the same. Two of these things are lumpy and funny-looking. And now we'll play our game. It's time to play our game. Which two balls were wound using the swift, and which two were wound with much frustration off my hands, the furniture, strung around the house, etc.? I think you know. ;)

The ball winder is really a lot of fun. I can't wait to wind all the loose skeins I have lying around.

UFOs/OTNs

Here are lots of things I've started. Colors may not be true. I toook these photos by the light of this overcast, rainy morning. First we have the Lucy bag I started this morning as a birthday present to myself.
Next up, the baby socks that have been on the needles forever. Yes, I am working on two different socks at one time. At the time I started these, they were going to be for boy/girl twins. Then I got tired of the project so they've been in limbo forever. If I ever get to working on them again, I'll at least have one pair done pretty quickly, but then another whole sock to work on. *sigh*
This will some day be a picovoli. The yarn is Knitpicks Shine in blush. When I cast it on, I had just finished a honeymoon cami also in Shine and I think I was just tired of working with that yarn! I'll get back to this one eventually.
The blasted X-back tank. This stuff would be fine if I just could keep from sticking the blasted needles through it. *twitch* This project may turn into a dress for dd.
And here we have the one sock, destined to be 1/2 of a pair for an undetermined period of time, especially if the carpal tunnel keeps acting up. I'd post the pic of it on my foot, but it makes my ankle look fat, and my ankle is NOT fat, dammit!

I may post some FOs later today to redeem myself cuz I have finished stuff, really, I have!

Other Garden Pictures

I thought it'd be a nice idea to post some pictures that are NOT roses. This first one is the shade garden in front of the living room window. Those are fern leaf bleeding hearts and hosta 'striptease' and primroses mainly. You can't really make out the mini-hostas in this picture. All the way to the right in front of the bush is a heuchera 'amber waves' that greens up no matter what exposure I give it. I'll probably move it again.
This one is technically the roses, but I thought I'd post it for context. We refer to it as the rose garden. It was very hard to fit it all in.

This was supposed to be a perennial garden, but I removed the monarda when it started taking over, voles got my columbines and coreopsis, and the coneflowers just didn't come up this year. The catmint has taken over and is very pretty. The picture doesn't do it justice. Those things sticking up are irises past their prime. I don't know if I got any pics of them when they were blooming. I'll have to look.

This is a shrub rose that came with the house and the orange lilies that also came with the house. I like the lilies, but I've never been a big fan of the rose. It's very thorny. I cut it all the way back this spring when I pruned the roses. It will get quite large if allowed.


This is what's left of the above-mentioned columbines. I managed to get some seed pods off this one the year before the voles got it. I had this white one, a red and white one, and a blue and white one, all this little dwarf size, and I just loved them. Yeah, that's my foot in there to give perspective on how small they are. The little pink flower is a hardy geranium that I thought had died but must have set seed before perishing.

Yet more roses

More roses in no particular order. Most of these I haven't posted previously. Most of the ones I've previously posted are now past their prime. :(
This is the old-fashioned rose on the fence and my little helper who can't stand for me to walk around the yard without her. This rose is a very pale pink and smells just like a rose should smell--not spicy, not citrusy, not sweet, just like a rose.


This one is Showbiz, a floribunda and the only truly red rose I have.

This is JFK, a white hybrid tea and not a great one. The edges of the petals brown before the blooms are even completely open. It is not a favorite and will probably be replaced eventually.

This is supposed to be Climbing Peace, though I don't think it's a true climber. The canes don't even get very long. Queen Elizabeth is taller than this one has ever gotten. Oh well. It's pretty--the picture doesn't do it justice. It's a pretty pale yellow blushed on the edges with pink.

I have posted pics of Pretty Lady's blooms, but this is what the bush looks like in full bloom. It is just covered! I love it!

This is Queen Elizabeth. She looks particularly stately right now with several blooms open. She's about 5 feet tall too.

Three rose posts in one day? Inconceivable!

It's amazing what a very hot, humid Midwestern day will do to roses. If you haven't looked at the other rose posts below go do that now. I took those pictures between 8 and 10 a.m. I took this next group of pictures around 7 p.m. this evening. Some of the roses look quite different.

Ok, remember that pretty lavender rose Sterling Silver at the bottom of my first rose post. (Scroll down; you'll find it.) It was just beginning to think about unfurling it's beauty. This is it after a day in the sun.
This next one is Pretty Lady, most of whose buds were not even really thinking about opening this morning.
Remember that Double Delight bloom with all the red, the center of which was still tightly furled? Here it is this evening. QUITE different.
These next two are Queen Elizabeth, a grandiflora. This first one was nowhere near even beginning to open this morning.
This one completely unfurled was only slightly open, not even as much as the one above. By end of day tomorrow it will be done. :(
I couldn't get any good pictures of my old-fashioned rose on the fence. It's still mostly buds, but the few that were looking like they might open today or tomorrow? Completely spent to the point of dropping petals in less than a day! I am NOT happy. >:( How can I enjoy them when they're done so quickly? :( *sigh*

More roses

Here is the other Golden Celebration. It so far has stayed much bushier than the other so we don't use a trellis with it.
This one is Scentimental, another floribunda.
It has a fairly strong scent, though it's not nearly as strong as Golden Celebration. The flowers can vary greatly. Some seem to be white streaked with red, while others are predominantly red streaked with white. I included closeups to show the variation.


More to come as more of the roses open.

Lots of Rose Pictures

I'm so excited! My roses are starting their first flush of blooms! I feel like a proud mama! This first one is Sunflare, a floribunda.

I love this one. It rarely gets black spot or other rose diseases. It will be covered with these pretty yellow blossoms practically all summer long. It's actually a lot smaller this year than it was last. There was a lot of winter dieback this year, probably because I was lazy and didn't get out the cones last fall. Oops.

Next we have a closeup of Golden Celebration, an Austen rose. It smells heavenly!

And a picture of the whole bush. I have two of these. This one is growing very vertically so we gave it a trellis. The other one has stayed more bushy, though the canes will get pretty long by summer's end.

This is Double Delight. It's showing a lot more red today. Yesterday it showed more white, but the weather has been so hot and humid that I'm sure the colors of blended roses are going to vary greatly. It smells wonderful!

This is Sterling Silver. I thought I was going to lose this one, but it perked up pretty quickly this spring. I had to cut off the winter killed canes all the way to the ground, but it still made it.

Apparently, I can't add more pictures to this entry so I'll have to start another entry for more pics.

Plant pics

My mini-hosta Pandora's Box with a quarter:
And opening up a leaf to show detail:

Crocheted Yoga Mat Bag--Pics and pattern

This is the yoga mat bag I created my very own self. I started yoga classes and didn't have anything in which to carry my mat. Namaste from knitty.com would have taken forfrickingever to make, I don't own SnB Nation and didn't want to buy it for one pattern, and all the other crocheted mat bag patterns I've seen on the net are just, well, kinda ugly. So I pulled some cotton yarn from my stash and set to work on my own. I wanted something more open and airy so it would be pretty and so my mat could breathe. (I don't know if yoga mats need to breathe, but it seemed like a good idea to me.)
Materials:
4 1/2 oz. Sugar n' Cream cotton yarn; color midnight magic
Crochet hook size I
Tapestry needle for weaving in ends

Pattern stitches:
Beginning V-stitch--ch 4, dc in same st as beg ch-4
V-stitch--(dc, ch 1, dc) in indicated stitch

Starting at the base of the bag:
Ch 4, join with slip stitch to form a ring.
Rnd 1: Ch 3 (counts as first dc in this and every round), 7 dc into ring, join with sl st to top of beg ch-3. (8dc)
Rnd 2: Ch 3, dc into same stitch. 2 dc in each dc around. Join. (16 dc)
Rnd 3: Ch 3, 2 dc in next dc, (1 dc in next dc, 2 dc in next dc) around. Join. (24 dc)
Rnd 4: Ch 3, dc in same stitch, 2 dc in each dc around. Join. (48 dc)
Rnd 5: Ch 3, dc in back loops only in each dc around. Join. (48 dc)--turning round. This and the rest of the rounds will form the tube of the bag into which the rolled up mat resides.
Rnd 6: Beg V-st in first st, (skip next 2 dc, V-stitch in next dc) around, join in 3rd ch of beg ch-4. (16 V-sts.)
Rnd 7-33: Sl st into first ch-1 sp, beg V-st, (V-st in next ch-1 sp) around. Join in 3rd ch of beg ch-4.
Rnd 34: Ch 3, (dc in ch-1 sp, dc in next 2 dc) around. Join to top of ch-3. (48 dc)
Rnd 35: Ch 1, sc in same st, sc around. Join. Do not finish off! Continue with strap.

Strap: Ch 70. Avoid twisting chain. Slip stitch to top of beg ch-3 on round 4. Sl st in next 2 dc (the last two dc in round 4--you're working backwards from the beg ch-3--email me if this is confusing). Turn and work 1 dc in each chain stitch back up to the top of the bag. Sl st to round 35 and across the stitches at the top until you are two stitches on the other side of the chain. Turn and work 1 dc on the opposite side of the chain in each stitch back to the base of the bag again. Sl st in an adjacent st on round 4. Finish off and weave in ends.

I was going to try to add photos to illustrate the top and bottom of the strap and show you that, yeah, they're not pretty, but they work, but blogger is not cooperating. I've tried uploading the pics three times and they're not showing up. Oh well.

I added a drawstring to mine. You can just make a chain about 20-24" long and thread it through the dc on round 34. Enjoy!

More FOs!

Since I finished dh's sweater and got the ends woven in, I thought it was time to post pictures of it (and him). Blanket disclaimer: I didn't feel like trying to figure out how to crop, etc. these pictures so just suffer with all the wasted space, ok?
Here he is just looking studly (I think).

And here he is doing Joey's jazz hands. He'll hate me for putting this one on the blog, but I LOVE this picture of him!

This is my mom's Lucy Bag I gave her for Christmas. My first intarsia project and I did it in the round! I made this bag with Paton's Classic Merino. It felted beautifully! I made another Lucy Bag for my some-time-in-the-future SIL out of a gorgeous very dark green Cascade 220, but I didn't get a picture. What was I thinking??

That's it for now. I'll leave you with a picture of my current WIP/Knitting Olympics project:

Olympics start tonight!

I'll be casting on my Knitting Olympics project during the broadcast of the opening ceremonies. I have officially finished dh's sweater so there will be no guilt in starting a new project. Ok, I still have lots of ends to weave in, but I'm done knitting it!

I made the Olympic Team!

The Knitting Olympics, that is. I will be making a shrug to wear with my Easter dress. It will be made of a loverly 50/50 silk and wool blend yarn in a very pretty pink. You can check it out at the Team Sybermoms blog. Scroll down to the entry entitled "Frick's Project." The idea of the Knitting Olympics is to choose something that it would be a challenge for you to finish in the 16 days of the Olympics, cast on during opening ceremonies, and bind off sometime before the closing ceremonies end. As proof that knitters really are taking over the world, there are now more knitters signed up for the Knitting Olympics than athletes competing in the real Olympics. Check it out here: Yarn Harlot's official Knitting Olympics Page

I will need to finish dh's sweater some time in the next 36 hours. I'm on the last few inches of the second sleeve so it shouldn't be a problem if I can just get some time to sit and knit.

Entries to come: Pics of dh's sweater, FO's I forgot to post yesterday, my crocheted yoga mat bag and pattern that I WROTE MYSELF! Yeah, I'm a little proud of myself on that one. Over 20 years of crochet experience, and I finally wrote a pattern. I'll babble more on that when I post the pattern.

Finished objects!!!

Finally posting pictures of some finished objects. Since I still haven't fully figured out how to move things around in these posts these will be in random order.


Large blue Lucy Bag made from Plymouth Galway.


This is the most recently finished object, my Bella Scarf from Knitpicks made with Knitpicks Suri Dream in lilac. I love it and secretly think to myself that everyone who passes me says to themselves, "Wow! What a pretty scarf! I wish I had a scarf like that!"


I made this cell phone sock a while ago. It's from a pattern in one of those kids' learn to knit kits you can get at bookstores. I kind of memorized the pattern while watching my ds play with the Thomas trains at Barnes & Noble then went home and made this with a small amount of Sugar n' Cream leftover from another project. It's ok. It's one of the first things I made. I usually have it looped around so it's hanging on the inside of my bag, then I hook my keys and sunglasses to the cell phone sock's strap which hides under the short strap of the Lucy Bag. Very convenient.


The blue shawl mentioned below in the post about finishing the scarf from hell. I made it with Patons Divine from this pattern. It's pretty big. I'm 5'4" and the point hangs almost to the back of my knees. Here's some detail:

Yeah, I'm a pitiful blogger.

Sorry about that. I just never take the time to do it and usually get frustrated when I try. I can't figure out how to do the links, I can't get my pictures where I want them, etc. Is there a tutorial for this? Later this week when ds is in school and dd is napping, I promise I will try to update with some actual finished objects. Really. No, really!