Granny Squares

As promised, I've finally made my foray into crochet. A few weeks ago, I ordered some crochet hooks online, but they're coming from the other side of the world, and it's still going to be a bit. In the meantime, I'm supposed to crochet the edging for my sister's boyfriend's Packers Hat (which I still haven't done) and I need crochet hooks.

Luckily, I was able to borrow some from a friend of mine, and a little while ago, while I meant to be looking up videos on how to crochet an edging onto a hat, I wound of thinking of all the leftover yarn I had. I know I'm already doing a scrap blanket, but before most anything gets to the scrap blanket, it's been having a date with my crochet hooks.

I've just been making a couple of sizes in (what I'm guessing) is the basic granny square. I'm using VerPink Knits pattern. (All they use are single crochet, chain, slip stitch, and double crochet) They are super easy and super gratifying because they do work up so fast, so it's easy to sit down and make a granny square or two. I'm pretty much brand new to crochet, and it wasn't too long before I had crocheted myself a whole pile of these things.

I'm also crocheting these to be a blanket, and at first I made the medium sized purple and orange squares. I thought I'd make all the squares for the blanket that size, and then just seam them together. Then I got into my leftovers from the mittens I made. I worked the blue variegated yarn up to be the same size as the purple and orange squares and still had a fair bit leftover. I thought about finishing it off as the same size and just making up another one, but I wasn't sure if it would make it, and that's when I had the idea to make up a couple of different sizes to give the blanket some more variety. All of the squares will be the same pattern, but they'll be in different colors and a choice of four sizes.

Basically the way I figured the sizes is the (medium) purple, orange, and white squares are the basic square that everything is based off of. I did five rounds from the center on those which means they're a total of 11 across. For the smallest size which right now is only represented by the little purple square, I only knitted two rounds from the center which makes them five across or half the width of the basic square.For the large square, I knitted eight rounds from the center so they're seventeen across or half again the length of the basic square. For the giant square, I knitted eleven rounds from the center so it's 23 across or twice the length of the basic square. I know you may be scratching your head at that math right now, but when I counted across I counted the center hole so there's always an extra square, if you will. At first that had me stumped, but then I realized I didn't have to just seam the squares together, I could crochet them together! That extra length there will give me the space to use some kind of crochet edging. I'm thinking double crochet for a unity of theme with the squares, but I'm not sure yet mostly because I don't know if that's even possible or what the best stitch is because I don't know that much about crochet.

The order the squares are set up in now is by no means the final pattern. They do have space between them to leave room for the connective crochet. So far, I'm loving the granny squares because they are so easy and quick, but I feel a little guilty that this is the only crochet I've attempted, and I've had my friend's crochet hooks held hostage for a while. Still, it's not as if I'm not making anything with them.

Happy crocheting!

Progress on the Scrap Blanket

I've had some ends of yarn sitting around for a while now just waiting to be put into the scrap blanket, and Saturday night I finally started on it. I put the white in today which was the last of the bits I had, so it's going to be a while before I have anything else to add.

Despite all odds, I really do think the blanket it looking good. As you may remember, I had started the blanket with a stripe pattern and no edging, but I didn't really like that so I ripped it all out. I restarted the blanket with 180 stitches. The bottom is (and the top will be) 6 rows of garter stitch, and there are 5 stitches of garter stitch on each side. Now instead of stripes of knit and purl, I've switched to squares; what I think is called the basket weave pattern.

A row of finished squares and another row of partially finished squares.

I still can't get over how completely not horrible the blanket looks. I'm surprised to find myself loving it, which is a great relief. When I started it, I figured having another blanket around wouldn't hurt, but I wasn't expecting to really want to drag it out for company unless it was really needed. I thought I'd use it myself when I was sitting around the house in pajamas all day, but that was about it. So here I am excited to work on it and have more of it finished, and I couldn't be more pleased.

Happy knitting!

Finished Blue Leaf Headband

Sorry I've been so MIA recently. I just started working, and yesterday was my first day off in a week. Fortunately, I'm going to be off until next Thursday, so that gives me some time to catch up on my knitting!

I did finish the blue leaf headband for boyfriend's mom a little while ago, I just haven't had time to post about it.

I'm really satisfied with how it turned out. It still rolls a little bit because of the border, but with a little wear, I think it'll sort itself out. It was my first time using a selvage edge, and I don't really notice a difference between that and a normal edge. Everything I've read tells me that it stabilizes the edge and helps to keep it from curling, and I guess the knit stitches that have the edge aren't curling, but that isn't stopping the purl row right next to them from doing so anyway. I mean, I guess it doesn't hurt to have it.

I used the option in the pattern which allowed for a button hole, and the thing that kept the headband from being really and truly finished was me slacking and just not sewing on the button because it's kind of a pain. I finally did it, and I think the colors are nice together.

That's another Christmas present in the complete pile! I really hope she likes it.

Happy knitting!

Progress/ Problems on Dad's Scarf

I've made a good bit of progress on my dad's scarf. It's about a third of the way done, maybe just over, and it's a ribbed stitch scarf.

I was kind of expecting the scarf to want to roll, so the edges are garter stitch to try and prevent that. But I guess that's not enough, because as you can see above, it is still really convinced that it wants to roll. I'm thinking of picking up stitches across the bottom and knitting a garter stitch border there, too, but I'm a little afraid that will make it look goofy, and that it just won't help that much.

But since the bottom is doing that anyway, it probably won't hurt.

I also chose the rib stitch because I kind of thought that it would want to roll less that a plain old stockinette. Maybe it's that the ribs are so big (4x4 on US 10 needles) that's really allowing it to roll, or maybe it's just the ribbing, but it is rolling, and I'm pretty disappointed.

It's a little hard to tell here, but these are three of the ribs obscuring the other two with the garter stitch borders.

Since it is acrylic, blocking is going to be a bit of a trial, although I just may try steaming it, and hope I don't destroy it.

Any suggestions on how to unroll this scarf would be much appreciated!

Happy knitting!

Grandma's and Sister's Finished Mittens

I've never made mittens before, but this year I made 3 pairs which just seemed like a million, especially as I started in on the fourth fifth and sixth mittens. But I finally finished all of them, and I could not be more glad because it means I can be done with mittens for a while.

I finished my grandma's mittens a few days ago, and they've been sitting around waiting for me to post about them. I think they turned out great. They're the same size, and it's a good snug, but not tight, fit. 

They're such a pretty green, I know my grandma will love them. Green is her favorite color. And it will be the third knitted project I give to her that I made with her needles that she gave to me.

Then there are my sister's mittens. When I asked her what she wanted after it became apparent that the scarf was not going to work out, I was hoping she'd want gloves or fingerless mittens or a headband or a cowl or something else that I hadn't made. No. She wanted mittens.

Well, they're finally finished, and while the yarn looks great and the fit it great, there is one little problem: because I foolishly counted rounds and didn't measure or even compare sizes while I was making the mittens, the second mitten is a little longer than the first.

Maybe you can't really tell, and my sister did want it to be a little longer when I had her try on the first mitten, but I'll always know that they aren't quite right.

Still, all told, I think my mitten knitting was an overall success with my grandma's being the best. The others are fine, but both other pairs do contain some live and learn experiences.

 Happy knitting!

Irish Socks

I finally decided to try and tackle a pair of socks. I've always just been so intimidated; they seem so complicated. But I still had some of the yarn from boyfriend's series of Irish garments, and I couldn't think of anything else to make him with the amount I had left, so socks.

Now I know worsted yarn isn't exactly ideal for yarn, but it's really just a practice pair, and it's what I had on hand. I wanted to do magic loop socks, but the smallest circular needle I have is US 6 and 29 in. While I didn't really feel comfortable doing two at once, I was determined to do toe-up magic loop socks. So I hit Ravelry where I found a toe-up magic loop sock pattern!

I had to learn a new cast-on for the socks. The pattern said to use the Turkish cast-on, but for whatever reason when I searched it, I ended up with Judy's magic cast on. I'm not sure if they're the samw thing or not because I never did look up a Turkish cast-on video after I watched Judy's magic cast-on. Now, that doesn't mean I understood the cast-on right away. I didn't. I think I re-started the first sock, oh, twenty times. Sometimes I messed up the cast on, or messed up the increases or got confused or just wasn't satisfied with the way it was looking. Even so (and maybe because), I still somehow ended up one stitch short on one of my needles, and I didn't notice until I was starting the heel, so that's just that. I added an extra stitch while I was doing the heel increases, and thought I had it fixed, only to somehow decrease back down to one stitch too few again on the same needle. So I don't know. Then boyfriend said he wanted the cuff to be rib stitch, so I did a few rows of that, and gave it to him to try on one last time.

It may sound like I have a finished sock. Well, that's not exactly true. You see, when I gave him this sock to try on, we realized a couple of things, the first being that I don't understand socks. The socks was actually too big. Boyfriend was very kind and said he would just use them as boot socks, but I take pride in my work, and I wanted it to be what he wanted and not something he settled for. And of course I messed up the heel. As I said, the sock was too big, so when I was doing the increases for the heel gusset, I didn't increase as much as I should have for the size of the sock because it would have been just one more part of the sock that was much too big. I didn't think anything of it (again, no understanding of socks) but as many of you can probably imagine, it was a big problem. The heel was crazy uneven and weird looking, and then I had made a mess of the ribbing I was doing for the cuff. All told, it was not a successful first attempt at socks.

However, I pushed the hours of work and what seemed like millions of attempt at restarting already to the back of my mind and frogged the whole sock. And made the whole socks again.

This time, I cast on 10 stitches per needle because boyfriend has wider feet, and only increased to 44 instead of 48. As I knitted the body of the sock, boyfriend said the fit was much better, and I could see it was, and i had increased to the appropriate amount on each needle. For the Fleegle heel, I actually followed the instruction and increased to the correct amount and decreased to 40 to really make the cuff fit. The cuff on this one is still a little loose on boyfriend, but the rest of the sock fits so well that it doesn't matter.

I've even started on the second sock!

I'm a little disappointed because I wanted to have the heel also be white, but I really just couldn't figure a way to do it, so I left it be and now I'm over half way to having knitted my first pair of socks!

Happy knitting!

Cabled Stocking Cap

I don't know if it's just that I live with boyfriend or what, but he has gotten more completed knitting projects out of me than anyone else before ever. And he has three in the works yet! One, of course, is the grey belt, one hasn't been revealed yet because I'm having struggles with it and may give up on it yet, and one is this cabled stocking cap.

It's another thing for boyfriend's larp. His unit is called the Navy, so I've been making him naval things. The other week just before Halloween I sewed him up a pretty nice blue vest with gold buttons, a watch chain, shoulder epaulets, the whole deal. And now he wants a hat. Think of the hat Mr. Smee wears in the animated Peter Pan. he's got it in his mind that his whole unit is going to wear these uniforms, and I'm going to make him. Which mean he gets the sample pieces.

The biggest problem with him wanting a cabled hat is that I'm not very good at cables. A few years ago I tried to make myself a cabled scarf, and I ended up ripping it apart over and over again because the cables always had big weird holes in the middle and looked just terrible. And I know, I know, practice makes perfect, but i have avoided them like the plague ever since. And now they're what he requested specifically. Not with the correct words, mind you, but they are what he requested. But I went on to Ravelry and looked around with him until we found a cabled hat pattern that he likes.

So I haven't started the cables yet. I finished the brim, a one by one rib which was none to fun, but actually kind of better than the two by two ribs I've been working for the millions of mittens I'm making and have made. And there are a couple of real-ish reasons why I haven't started the hate body yet: 1) the pattern is only written out with a chart, and I've never worked off of a chart before. I mean, I know how, I just haven't. 2) My printer's out of ink, so I have to go to the print lab on campus (I live in a college town) to print out the chart because I don't really want to copy it down by hand the way I have been doing with patterns lately and I don't really just want to sit in front of the computer and knit it. 3) I have to make some alterations to the pattern because the pattern is for a normal sized hat and not a stocking hat, and I'm not totally sure how it's going to work out. 4) I'm still totally freaked out by cables. And I didn't pay close enough attention to the pattern already because I thought the whole brim was just one by one rib, but no. Some of the cables were supposed to start in it. Oh well. He's just going to have to live without that.

I will say those bamboo circular needles I got a few weeks ago are certainly getting some mileage pretty quickly. This is the third hat I've started on them. I (really really) need to get some US 9 double pointed needles so I can stop doing the magic loop on these needles that really aren't long enough for it, but that is not a financial priority right now. And who knows. Maybe today I'll be brave enough to start the cables.

Happy knitting!

Another Finished Packer's Hat

After I finished knitting the other Packers hat and cut all of the yarn to make the braids and edging (which I have yet to deal with) I still had a ton of the Team Spirit yarn left over. I wasn't sure what to do with it because I don't even like the Packers (I like the Lions) so I didn't want to buy more and knit more Packers things, but there wasn't enough for a scarf left, I was not going to make another pair of mittens, and I didn't really want to make a headband. That pretty much just left making another hat.

Well, I sat down a few days ago and cast on the hat that I decided would go to boyfriend's dad who also likes the Packers and started on it. I wanted to get through the first green band because I was doing a rib stitch for that to keep in more secure. (The pattern I improvised was to cast on 90 sts on those US 9 circular needles and rib until the first progression of green finished. Then I knitted for five inches which worked out to be just over five stripes. Then it was round 1- K8, k2tog, round 2 and all even rounds- k even, round 3- k7, k2tog, etc. Eventaully I switched to the magic loop again, which sucked less this time on the 16 inch needles, until the last round where you k2tog all the way around and then thread the tail through the remaining sts, weave in the ends and done.)

I was just sitting on the couch knitting and watching tv and all of a sudden I was at the decreasing rounds. Once I get to the decreases, I don't like to stop lest I get confused and muss it up, so I just finished it. Because I now have these circular needles, I didn't have to seam up the back at all, so all that was left was o weave in the ends, and I'd produced a hat in an afternoon. I made this 10 sts bigger than my gut told me to because boyfriend assured me that his dad has a big melon head and would need the space. (Melon head is my family's word for many of the guys because they all have huge bald heads like melons) I'm pleased with this hat, and I hope boyfriend's parents like the things I'm making for them!

Happy knitting!

Blue Leaf Headband

'Tis the season, and I've been trying to figure out what to knit everyone for Christmas. Some of them I have covered like the box-stitch scarf for my mom, and some I have projects that are in the works like my sister's mittens. However, every time I dare to think, "Okay, I at least know what I'm going to make for everyone," I realize I've forgotten someone. This time I remembered boyfriend's mom.

It's not that I never thought about her. A few months ago I had boyfriend ask her if she'd prefer a hat or headband, and she said headband. But the other day I was looking at my yarn stash, thinking of what I'm using/ going to use for what, and I was looking at this almost cerulean yarn and thinking how nice it would look for boyfriend's mom's headband. Boyfriend's mom's headband! I'd forgotten. 

I hit Ravelry looking for something I wanted to make. I found this Blue Leaf Headband by Adrienne Krey. I love it. The pattern is so cute, and not at all difficult. It gave me some good practice increasing (although this pattern had slight differences from the normal make 1) as well as more experience with knit 2 together (k2tog), slip slip knit (ssk), and yarn over or yarn forward (yo or yf).

The more I knit up the pattern, the more I like it. It is easy to work and remember, so I'm not staring at my pattern constantly the way I've had to with other lace patterns. The one thing I don't really understand about the pattern, is that in it there was a note that recommended slipping the first stitch of each row (slip 1) to create a selvage edge. I don't really understand selvage edges and why I would use one, for example, in this pattern. 

All told, this headband is coming along beautifully and as quickly as Krey promised!

Happy knitting!

Changes to the Scrap Blanket

I finally pulled apart my blanket so I could use the green for boyfriend's last Irish project: socks. Then I couldn't decide if I maybe ought to try to find something else for the purple yarn before I put it in there, so I just started with the leftover black from my slippers.

I only cast on 180 stitches this time because it seemed excessively long when I pulled it off  the needles. This time I also decided to do a garter stitch boarder so it wouldn't roll. After the black I put in the rest of the self-striping since I haven't finished the hat I'm making with it yet, but I do have all the yarn I need for them. That got me up to four rows or the garter stitch boarder.

I was originally going to have 4 rows at the top and 3 stitches on each side, but then I thought that maybe I'll do five on each side and instead of doing ribs, I'll do boxes. I think that could be nice, However, I don't have anymore yarn to add to the blanket just yet, so I can wait on that decision until later.

Happy knitting!