Anything Worth Doing is Worth Doing Badly

No, I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't work hard to do things well, that would be absurd. What I mean is that you have to go through the phase where you are bad at something before you can get to the point where you're good at something. Unless you're one of those people who does everything well right from the start. If you're that person you should stop it because no one likes a show-off.

As you can see, I am learning to weave. That is my brand-ie new 15" Schacht Cricket Loom, with which, along with a couple of books on weaving and some yarn, I have begun my new endeavor. I'm weaving away... badly.

Alas, I fear that I have many oddly shaped, unevenly woven rectangles in my foreseeable future. My M.O. is to just wade right in and try it. Take a class? Pfft, whatever, I'll just fiddle with it until I get it. I knit a whole lot of weird looking rectangles when I was learning to knit too. The nice thing about knitting is that you can unravel the weird rectangles and reuse the yarn. You really can't do that with weaving.

The wade right in method generally works for me, or at least it will eventually. Above is the edge of my first piece. That is not how it's supposed to look, therefore, it is an excellent example of weaving badly. Apparently, there's a trick to getting the edges even. I'm going to have to find out what that is.

This is the actual weave of my first piece. This is yet another example of bad weaving. Apparently there is a trick to getting the weave even. I do believe that I will have to find out what that is too.

Fortunately for me the act of weaving is fun so the fact that the finished product isn't perfect is OK because making it was enjoyable. It's a good thing too. It would be awful to make something weird looking and hate the process of making it too. Talk about a lose/lose.

And here it is, my first project, fresh off the loom, in all of its glorious unevenness. I am experiencing the "IKEA Effect" (When you like something you've made, even if it stinks, just because you made it.) So I have worn it anyway. If you see me wearing it and choose to mention that it's uneven prepare for a withering look and subsequent eye-roll coming in your direction.

That isn't all though. Here is my second project:

The weave on this one is evener (that's actually a word, go figure) however the colors are what they are because I ran out of yarn for the warp. I really like the colors so that doesn't matter to me. It is also about ten feet long so I have to wrap it around my neck three times so it doesn't drag on the floor. Apparently there is a trick to estimating the correct yarn requirements and the end length. Yet another thing about which I must find out. I might try felting it to make it shorter... could work.

Here is my newest project:

It's going to be a pillow cover for Lu's bed. I'm at a temporary standstill with this one because I had to order more yarn (see above about estimating yarn requirements taking special note of the part where I mention I haven't a clue how to do it.) This yarn stripes by itself so that is pretty cool-looking! My edges are better and the weave is mostly even. Progress!

Anyway, I will be doing this badly right up to the point when I'm not. I'm guessing two more projects and I will be in the "not bad" stage and probably three more after that until I get to the "good" stage. I'll get there, I typically do for anything I consider worth doing. For the record, learning to play softball and beat-boxing are not worth doing, for me anyway.

I'll show you how that looks when it's done.

See you soon,
H

Google This

I'm not a huge April Fools fan. It's a holiday that I either tend to miss or mark with a "THERE'S A BUG IN YOUR HAIR!!!! Ha ha, April Fools" kind of prank, which is pretty lame. However, I saw this photo on Pinterest where someone had stuck googlie eyes on every single container in the fridge and I thought it was pretty awesome. Opening the fridge door on April 1st and finding all of the contents staring at you? It's pretty hilarious. So this year I decided to googlie-eye (watch me make a verb there) my kid's rooms:

I had fun. Isaac thought it was hilarious because it reminded him of the Christopher Walken googlie-eyed plant skit from SNL. He's been doing his Christopher Walken impression all afternoon, he's very good at it.

It took a minute or two after they went in their rooms before they noticed. That's mostly because I cleaned first and they were distracted by the fact that they could see their floors. It was the old "Where are all my clothes if not on the floor?" feint to throw them off for a moment.

Any-hoo, I thought I share it because it's a cute, non-mean prank. My friend's son switched the sugar for salt this morning and she put it in her coffee... that's a mean prank, messing with someone's morning coffee, don't do that. He should have put googlie-eyes on the mug instead so he wouldn't face being put on the lawn with a "FREE" sign around his neck.

See you soon!
H

Go Swiftly

I finally went ahead and bought a yarn swift and ball winder. I typically use yarn that is DK gauge or bulkier, but I bought lace-weight yarns for my first few weaving projects.

My pile o' lace-weight yarn, four of which are in skeins.

If you're not familiar with the weights of yarns, lace-weight yarn is basically thread... I'm also discovering that I probably shouldn't have picked it for my first weaving projects, but live and learn. The skeins are those twists of yarn on the right which need to be wound before they can be used.

The umbrella swift and ball winder.

Anyway, where I can wind a skein of bulkier weight yarn into a ball by draping it around my knees or around a chair back, the lace-weight yarn wound up in a gigantic knot both times I tried. I had to throw some away because there was no way I was going to spend hours and hours untangling it.

So that's where the swift, which is that wooden thing that opens like an umbrella (which is why it's actually called an "umbrella swift," go figure) and the little hand-cranked ball winder come in. They make quick, neat work of winding skeins into balls.

You open the skein, drape it around the swift, and adjust the tension...

Thread the yarn through the holder of the ball winder, wrap it once or twice around the center and you're off.

What would have taken me at least an hour took me a few minutes. I happen to think that the old-fashioned implements of fiber-arts are beautiful, plastic ball-winders aside. Umbrella swifts were designed long ago by the Swedes and they can't be made better. No, electric swifts and ball-winders would not be better. In my humble opinion electric-powered tools for fiber arts miss the point and lack the charm. It's a hand-craft for Pete's sake!

There's a perfectly wound ball of yarn, ready to be wound onto a shuttle.

TA-DAH! Winding done! Until I buy more yarn that is.

I'm happy with the purchase and I really can't recommend them highly enough if you process lots of yarn, which I do.

My first weaving project is progressing nicely-ish. It's almost done and it looks... uh... it looks like a first project. More on that soon.

H

Snowglobe Fail & Room Shoes

This past summer we got another dumpster for the purpose of cleaning out our very messy basement. When the dumpster was delivered, I gave what would become the quote of the year for our family. I said:

"IT'S JUST LIKE CHRISTMAS!!!"

Because as far as I'm concerned an empty dumpster to fill with junk is just like Christmas.

So my mom decided to make me a Christmas present, my very own "It's Just Like Christmas" dumpster snowglobe. She went to Martha Stewart to this article for making snowglobes from baby food jars and, with the help of a tiny plastic dumpster, a tiny bottle-brush tree, and the best of intentions, she made this:

Hmmmm..... as you can see, the glue didn't stick...

...and the glitter she used makes the water murky.

So, what did she do when this turned out like this? She thought it was hilarious and wanted me to do one of those "NAILED IT" photos, and then she wanted me to blog about it. So without further adieu, I give you "The Snowglobe Fail!"

Pretty awesome. It's going on my bookshelf :-)

The life lesson here is: View every craft failure is an opportunity for a "Nailed It" photo!

In other non-fail news, I have almost finished my niece's room shoes. You know, the ones that I haven't ever mentioned before right now?

I made these with the Peggy Girl Kimono Shoe pattern from I Think Sew. They are super cute. I have a little more stitching to do and I got some puff-paint to make the soles less slippery. Almost done Tiff! Nearly a month late but hopefully they'll be worth the wait.

I purchased this pattern in all sizes and I have plans to make at least one pair for myself and a pair for Miss Lu. They are pretty easy to make, especially for shoes. Shoes are never easy!

See you soon!
H

(Yes, I'm Back) Ode to a Flooded Basement

(Yes indeed, I'm back, we'll call this "coming full circle." I'll tell you more later, but first, a poem.)

I don't know what you do when your basement floods but I write a poem. Unfortunately my poetic inspiration is limited to Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss. Anyway, without further adieu I give you:

Ode to a Flooded Basement

One warm and misty morn I woke

And much to my surprise,

Upon my morning rounds I saw

The tide’s begun to rise.

“Are you beside the shore?” You ask

“Down beside the Sea?”

“Why no” I answer for alas,

The tide has come to me.

For down upon my basement steps

This morning I did tread,

Where I surveyed the dampened room

Which filled my heart with dread

For long ago a silly man

Whose motives aren’t quite clear,

Believed he should assign himself

The role of engineer.

And looking down upon the pit

Designed for the foundation,

He had the rather clever thought

Which needed exploration.

Sure it was a cellar

But its purpose could be dual,

For where most could see a cellar

He could see a swimming pool!

“I can see it now!” he then exclaimed

And then he made the statement,

“We have only but to drain

The water INTO the basement!

The people who will buy this house

Will surely be delighted

To have a springtime swimming pool

For friends to be invited!”

No one on the job site dared

To offer up dissension,

Because this man was just so pleased

With his clever new invention.

“Everyone will want one!

This is sure to be a hit!

I’ll call it ‘The Cellar Swimming Pool’

I’ll need to patent it.”

And thus it was our house became

The prototype du jour,

As he would install four more drains

Which ended in the floor.

Now every wet and soggy day

As the room begins to flood

We’d like to have him for a swim

And drown the stupid dud.

Well, we don't really want to drown him. Just make him stand there in bare feet for a while.

Happy Hump Day to all! May your basements, if you have them, be dry.

H

Knitting Progress and a Sock Monkey

Hello,

I thought I'd zoom in with some of the progress I've made on my knitting since I last wrote about my projects here. This is an effort to demonstrate that I actually do stuff when I'm not writing on the blog... I do assume that you know that, especially since I haven't been writing that often... I do other things.... OK, right, here are knitting projects in progress:

1. The Cascade Chunky Baby Alpaca Throw which looked like this:

And now looks like this:

Almost exactly the same...

I had knit through two balls of the gray yarn and added a cream stripe and a red stripe when my daughter said "Hey mom, that looks like a sock monkey." It did indeed look like a sock monkey and while I do like sock monkeys, "sock monkey throw" was not the look I was going for... so I frogged it (knitter speak for "unraveled it" because you rip it rip it rip it, get it?) and started again, this time with a version of the Double Seed Stitch Blanket from Purl Bee. I say "a version" because I cast on a bunch of stitches and I didn't do a gauge swatch so I don't know how big it will end up. I also bought a light gray so it will be dark gray, light gray, and cream striped and I'll use the red to teach Lu how to knit.

2. The yellow swing cardi which looked like this:

And now looks like this:

PROGRESS!!! Love it. So fat it's a good pattern and I have no desire to frog it. Bodes well.

3. The swing coat by Debbie Bliss which looked like this:

And now looks like this:

More progress, fun pattern, no desire to frog it, all good.

Then, I added three more knitting projects to the list. One day soon I'll explain my weird relationship with my craft supplies and weeding out, but suffice it to say that my mom knows that when I "weed out" my yarn and fabric it's only a matter of time before I take it all back again. She has that time to use what she wants before I come and collect it, which I did over Christmas (sorry mom) Like is said, weird.

Anyway..

4. The Tea Leaves cardi by Madelinetosh available here.

This is a hugely popular sweater to knit (if you know what's going on in the knitting world) and for good reason too, it's pretty and it's knit from the top down. That's the neck/yolk you see there. It's super-easy to follow and I've seen so many on Ravelry, they come out beautifully! 

5. Shift of Focus from Rain Knitwear available here.

So this yarn is very special. A woman in Vermont hand spun and hand-dyed this for me. It's a merino/tencel blend and it's just GORGEOUS! I saw it at the Montpelier Farmer's Market and I went ga ga over it. It was very expensive (the way handmade things should be) so I'd knit to the end of a skein and get another. Here's the problem though, I love that yarn SO MUCH that I have completely frogged it twice. As in: it was finished and ready to sew together and I unraveled the entire thing...TWICE. I need to have the exact right pattern for it and I've found it with this sweater.

Of course I've had to unravel this one once because I did it wrong. I was looking at it going "I'm not seeing how this is working. Maybe that's because it's top-down with short rows? Maybe if I keep going it will make sense to me? Nah, I was doing it wrong. Now that I'm doing it right I can see it. It's amazing how doing something the right way makes so much more sense.

6. This baby bonnet from Purl Soho's Last Minute Knitted Gifts.

I love this book! I love and have all of Purl's "Last Minute" books. I have knitted this bonnet twice before without incident but this time it's giving me absolute fits! I've frogged the stupid thing six times. It's not a hard pattern either. I keep getting distracted or something, I don't know, all I do know is that I'll be happy when this one is done! Gah! What a pain in the patootie!

Hun is really annoyed when I unravel something. He takes it personally. When I unraveled the Shift of Focus he was like "ARE YOU UNRAVELING THAT AGAIN!!! WHY DO YOU ALWAYS DO THAT!!!!"  Alas, I believe that herein lies the difference between knitters and other species,  we actually find the act of knitting calming and meditative, "I'm at peace when I knit" so to speak. So while we do enjoy finishing projects, the process is also enjoyable so unraveling isn't the worst thing in the world. Besides, yarn is expensive so you want to get it right. Except that dumb bonnet. I really just want to get that thing done.

I have the yarn for four more projects here. I have the patterns all picked out and the gauge swatches all knitted for a couple. I may start all of them at once. I keep very good notes so I know where I am on a given project... Hey, I get bored easily, what can I say?

So i'm off to finish the dumb bonnet, hooray. Hopefully I won't have to frog it again.

See you soon,

H

STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER!!!!

I was in a rut. Feeling really blah. More like blaaaaaaaaaah...... Which seems to happen to me when I spend too much time in front of the computer. Don't get me wrong, I think computers are just fine, but they aren't a substitute for actually doing stuff. Pinning cute ideas on Pinterest, reading fun things on blogs, saying "hi" on Facebook, avoiding Twitter like the plague, are only semi-activities, for me to be happy I have to actually do something.... in the actual real world.... with no (little) help from the computer... 

Because I'm a person with a gazillion ideas and a very short attention span my preference is to go from doing nothing to doing EVERYTHING!!!! Or at least a lot of things all at once. 

That way I don't get bored... I often don't finish anything either but I'm eternally hopeful that I will complete 90% of the projects I start one day. Hope does indeed spring eternal. I thought I'd show you what I'm doing on the off-chance you were curious.

First of all I'm doing three knitting projects:

There they are.

The first is what will be an extremely expensive, absolutely FABULOUS baby alpaca throw for my couch. I should write a post about "How to Knit Something Wicked Expensive without Laying Out a lot of Cash all at Once." Truthfully, I don't really need to write that post because I can just tell you: 1. pick a yarn that is unlikely to be discontinued. 2. By one skein and knit to the end. 3. Go buy another and repeat. 4. Make it striped so the color can be out of stock and you won't lose your momentum.

This is Cascade Yarns Chunky Baby Alpaca. I have no intention of calculating how much the 20-ish skeins I will need will cost. If you make that calculation, don't you dare tell me.

It is the softest, loveliest yarn and the throw will be big enough for Hun to sleep under. It's about 80" long! That is, in fact, 80" crammed on that needle right now.

My next project is a pretty swing cardi made from yarn that I've had for about four years.

Here it is:

That is Peace Fleece Worsted Weight in Chickie Masla. I LOVE that color! and the pattern is from Debbie Bliss Magazine Fall/Winter '09 which is still available here. I probably won't knit the collar but do a crocheted edge instead. Not a huge fan of the collar.

Right now I'm still doing the gauge swatch for this one. The pattern will tell you haw many stitches you should have in four inches. If you get it wrong the sweater could come out any size, from an infant sweater to a cover for a barge, always knit a gauge swatch. That's the gauge swatch on the left there. I was really happy to see that Boye is making rosewood needles now. Brittany used to make them from walnut but they discontinued them. I like the wooden needles if I can get them.

The last knitting project (for the moment) is a swing coat again by Debbie Bliss:

I'm making this one out of Valley Yarns Stockbridge in Periwinkle and that pattern can be found in Debbie Bliss - Design It Knit It  I like a lot of her patterns, particularly the ones that are a little deconstructed and very simply designed. I'm not big on frou frou. 

SO lots of knitting.

I have a bunch of sewing I'm doing too, six or seven tops, or possibly five or six tops and a jacket, we'll see. Here's the fabric:

All but the gray on the lower right are Rowan's Kaffe Fasset Shot Cotton, which is woven with a different color on the warp so they have a little more depth to them. The gray on the bottom right is a much heavier woven that might be better suited to a jacket, we shall see.

These are the patterns I'm using:

You can see what they're called in the picture; you can get Amy Butler's Liverpool here, Lisette's Continental Blouse here, Sew Liberated's Schoolhouse Tunic here, and Wiksten's Tova Blouse here. All but the Liverpool are very straightforward. The Liverpool has lots of button holes so I imagine I will be calling my mother for help before all is said and done. That's if I get that far. Right now I'm trying to overcast the pieces to the first Schoolhouse Tunic I'm making and my machine is not cooperating. It sort of makes me want to smash the machine to little pieces with a hammer but I realize that would be bad.

Here are the cut-out, half overcast pieces to the tunic:

That's the 7th color right there. I'm mostly confident that I will finish this without hammering my sewing machine... mostly.

Finally, I'm baking.

First, I'm baking cookies. This knitting book contains my favorite butter cookie recipe:

The fact that one of my favorite cookie recipes lives in a knitting book is obvious to me. We knitters are cozy, cookie-loving people so why wouldn't you combine cookies and knitting? I'm a master at it. 

I'm also baking bread from this book:

I actually think that my involvement with the bread is under five minutes but I will be doing a post on this and I'll time it. This is an amazing book! I'm just waiting for the right moment to do the photography for the post. That moment is the elusive time when three factors converge - 1. it is daylight, 2. my kitchen is clean. 3. I have the inclination to bake the bread. So far they haven't lined up. I suspect that cleaning my kitchen is the hold-up. That's probably it.

So there you go! I have adequate reasons to close the computer and do something creative and productive. Hun is really happy because he no long has a wife who feels blaaaaaaah so she's boring and depressed and chronically ignores housework. No sir, now he has a wife who is happy and energized and who undoes any housework she might do by covering it with projects in process. Hey, at least I'm happy... and cookies and bread! There's that too.

Are you the one project at a time kind of person or the multi-project crazy person like me?

Happy Hump Day!
H