Coming Soon....

More posts ... Finally! Been out of knitting and crocheting due to hand problems for a few years but I've picked it all back up. I hope to give an update once in a while on old projects and new ones... Thanks for checking in if you have been.

Sorry it's been so long...

I've been getting a lot of complaints the past year that nothing has been updated on this blog. I do intend to post quite a bit more but I've had a lot going on.

First off, I should say that I've been getting a mild case of carpal tunnel. Not too bad but, I've got to limit the things that I do with my hands. I work as a reservationist full time so I find myself typing all day long four days a week. On my off days, I like to do gardening. It's my first year owning my own home and, needless to say, the garden space is not already there so, every time I go to plant something, I must dig up grass and roots for hours.

If I do gardening, I must sacrifice my time I'd spend knitting or crocheting. I also enjoy yoga and have had to prohibit myself from doing too much of that. I'd like to knit and crochet more but I'm putting it off until after the yardwork is more tranquil.

If you enjoy gardening blogs, or my ramblings for that matter, go on over to mausoleum.cemeterymoon.info where I do regularly update with posts about my life and the gardens outside. You may find some fun, and you may stumble upon some of my older knitting and crochet projects I had placed over there.

Thanks for taking the time to read this :)

Monstrous Mongoloid Baby Blanket

A dear friend of ours was to have a baby shower out of state from where I live . From teaching myself many different stitches while I was learning I had compiled multiple stacks of squares. Each one unique by a different stitch or style of twisting used. I didn't want all this knitting to go to waste and thought it would be a more thoughtful type of gift. This will be the blanket of my learning stages. Each piece of it taught me something different. It's not perfect, but it wasn't meant to be.

The first step was making enough squares to make up the blanket. The next step would be to map out how to connect them all. Of course when I set them all together, I realized that they didn’t match in the way they pulled or in size. They made different sizes. I didn't realize how much of an inconsistency it would be even though I cast on the same amount of stitches for each one. That led me to the train of thought to dive into learning crochet immediately. I would learn stitches and border each square with them and then resume the mapping of how they would fit together.

The borders were fine and dandy. I learned a new crochet method for each border and, when I had several done, I placed them side by side and realized I did not make the situation any better, they matched up just as poorly as before, although they did look nicer with the new black framing.

At this point I'm thinking I am so glad she's a hippie and loves thrift stores and homemade objects that make statements. I'm thoroughly enjoying putting this together but I am super grateful she'll appreciate it when it is finally finished. I'm resolved to the fact that this blanket is going to take me forever but I’m still determined to listen to this blanket as it yells at me constantly with what to do next.

So this brings me to the point where I noticed the patterns continue to pull different ways. I decided to fix that by crocheting three large strips of solid shell patterns (well, two shell stitches and one mesh background with a spiral) to place evenly between the squares to help keep the flat shape.

What is supposed to be the last step is connecting them all. LoL, I thought it would be fun to freeform them together using all sorts of shells and crochet stitches. Seemed like an easy enough idea. The thing is this blanket keeps growing and growing and growing. It began as a baby blanket, converted to toddler, and now soon it is to graduate to Queen.

Okay, not that large but large enough…It is definitely taking me forever. I hope she understands fully when she finally does get it exactly why it has taken me almost a year and half or more to get it completed.

Enjoy the pictures. If you decide to take something like this on, I wish you the best of luck. I am having fun with it. Definitely not copying anything I’ve ever seen before…

My Mom's Blanket

This was my first fully knit blanket project. I asked her last year what she would like if I were to make something with her in mind. She wanted a small blanket to drape over herself in the Northern winters when she'd sit in the recliner or in front of the computer.
I showed her all the swatches I had done for the baby blanket squares so far and she picked out the one that she though she liked the best. I believe it is called a diagonal ripple stitch.

I followed these instructions:
Cast on 252 stitches
Row 1: *K2tog-K first st again before sliding off • K1*
Row 2: Purl Across
Row 3: *K1 • K2tog-Kfirst again before sliding st off*
Row 4: Purl Across
Very simple, yet very tedious.
This became the project that I determined would help me get a feel for using circular needles. Way too long of a flat piece for normal needles. Against my better judgment that would have come with more knowledge, I chose size 8 needles since I thought they were so versatile. If I had that cast on to do over again, I definitely would have chosen larger needles and possibly double stranded the yarn as I knit each stitch. Too late now, it has become the three year blanket.

Because of how long it takes, it sits on my back burner every so often for a month or two at a time. I just have to take a break from it. I had thought I'd have it done by this winter but it's still not looking good. Not even halfway done. This project taught me not to dive headfirst into something I have no idea about. In addition, I learned not to tell people what I was planning for them because of how long it takes. They get anxious and wonder why they don't have it. Or why you chose not to work on it for a month or longer. Plus it makes me feel pressured that they know about it's coming and I just can't crank it out faster.
I'll post more pictures as I get more done...

Gothic Knitting

I've been knitting and crocheting regularly for over a year, now. There's always something to work on. This post will be a story about how it got started.

The big obsession, at the time, was Doctor Who. I lived with Mistress Pamela in Louisiana then. The two of us would sit in front of Doctor Who for hours as we practiced the knit stitch over and over again. Our goal at that point was to perfect it and complete the ever so flailingly elongated scarf that adorned the lovable two-hearted Time Lord in every episode.

Our needles laid around shortly after that as we became preoccupied with many other things. We had barely learned to do one or two rows without any mistakes. So our needles got lost in the whirlwind of items in our house. Mine did, at least. Then I moved back to Pennsylvania and the memory of needing to learn drifted away with my needles.

Since then, I moved to North Carolina (you'd think I'd have learned my Southern lesson). One day, I found a big book...perhaps it was on a visit back to Pennsylvania, they always had the best thrift stores. It was the Reader's Digest Complete Guide To Needlework. It was so cheap that I had to get it. I was inspired by all the how to information on so many needlework subjects all in one collection.

I bought myself a set of 8 needles (which seemed like the most average size to start with) and some super soft acrylic yarn and went to town. Of course the cast on came first, that was easy. Then I knit across, knit across again, and kept knitting across. I did that until I had a few rows consecutively with no visible mistakes. Then came purling. So I'd purl across one row, then knit the next, then purl the next. I had mastered stockinette. Wow. I had learned a technique!

The book I have went on to go over all sorts of different stitches from there, a miniature encyclopedia of anything. I just kept going on the same starter piece I began everything on. A few rows of each until it looked like I had gotten the hang of each one. Soon I could do ribs and pebbles. It got much more interesting once I learned to do different things within each row to make a pattern.

At work, I found myself on third shift in a call center. There were so few calls that I had time to continue to learn more knitting. Each night I brought my book in and started a new stitch. I began doing them in small squares to practice casting on and binding off different ways as I learned stitches. I decided to save all the squares to compose into a baby blanket for a dear friend of ours. That'll be in a future blog post when I get the time to write more about it.

From there I kept lining up projects for myself. Lots of dishrags and "small" blankets. Each time I picked something out to do, I made sure it was teaching me a new variation of pattern. Doing that taught me how to do just about anything I set my mind to with some needles.

Of course it has to seem immensely appealing since I've got such an irritatingly picky taste. I'm only happy when it's complicated, long winded, and elegant.

But I enjoy and have since branched out into crocheting as well. My favourite is lace work because it reminds me of antiques and Victorian times. I've got hopes of finishing a Victorian tablecloth in the next year and perhaps moving on to bedspreads, curtains and canopies. My work will blanket the world!!!

Too bad I've got tendinitis and the starts of carpal tunnel ;) I do it anyway but I need to take a lot of breaks when I can tear myself away from the many projects.

Stay tuned for much conversation and psycho babble revolved around the craft!

Unpleasant Dreams!

In the Beginning...

...there were old fashioned needles and gothic yarn. This will be a place of all sorts of projects from tablecloths to washcloths to blankets to anything else that strikes my fancy.
I adore things of antique or old fashioned appearance such as tablecloths, curtains, bedspreads and all those famous heirlooms. I haven't made anything that big just yet but I do intend to. It is the reason I have taught myself various needlework.
I started out with knitting until I could call myself a Speed Knitter. I knit washcloths and dishrags and began a blanket.
I then progressed into the art of crochet...plunging until I could call myself a Rabid Crocheter. I crocheted facecloths and doilies and began blankets and a tablecloth.
My main focuses remain on lace and openwork. Anything that looks like your Great Grandmother spent a year on, only darker and more fancy. Hopefully there will be lots of juice on here and I'll have outdone each and every one of your Great Grandmothers!