The Ravelympics!

So, for those of you that don't know, I'm also a part of a social networking site for knitters and crocheters. They're putting on this "competition" (it's really all more for fun....no prizes or anything...) in the spirit of the Olympics....we're allowed to start our projects when the opening ceremonies begin and are trying to see how many we can finish by the time the 17 days are up! I just signed up for something like 9 projects.....Yikes! I didn't realize it was that many until I counted them! LOL I'm pretty excited about it....I'll be posting them here as I complete them....this is going to be so fun!

In other news, since my last posting, I've finished not only the do-si-do lapghan for my mother-in-law and the snowflake scarf for a good friend, but started and completed the mentioned prayer blanket for a friend that lost her brother in a car accident, a prayer blanket for a son of a friend who is Jewish and in Iraq for the Army, a set of 6 book thongs, and a set of 4 daisy squares for charity! I've also started another 6-point-star for the wife of said Jewish soldier (who also happens to be stationed in Iraq for the Army) and a baby blanket for a fellow Cafemommer. Those two blankets and another granny square blanket are 3 of the projects on my Ravelympics, so I have to find something else to occupy me for the next 4 days....lol The blankets are in the WIPs wrestling category, seeing as how I started them a while ago, but I'm not supposed to continue work on them until the opening ceremonies, per Ravelympics rules. :) I guess I'd better go search my stash for the needed colors to do all the projects for the games! :)

Cleaning Out the Closet

So just in these past few months, I've been crocheting like never before, turning out new projects left and right. And somehow, whenever I felt the urge to begin a new project, ones that I had been working on previously slowly found their way into a black hole. lol But with having moved (and moved overseas, no less) and then being reunited with my yarn stash, I had to take inventory of the yarn I did have. I can't find my yarn here and need to know what to have my sister send to me. And in this adventure of being up to my ears in yarn, I came across multiple projects that I began a lifetime ago....back before I had kids...back before I was married....even some from before I even met the man I married! And I think it's time to finally pull those out and put them to rest, be it by finishing the projects or by frogging them. I really, really, really don't want to have to take any of them apart, but in some cases I don't really have a choice. Like the purple scarf I got about a quarter of the way through. I have absolutely no idea what stitches I used on it! And to figure it out (there are three different stitches), I'd have to take the whole thing apart anyhow!

Then there's The Blanket. I started that one when I learned how to make granny squares when I was only 16! (Previous to that, all I knew how to make was boring back and forth rows of double crochet...lol) It slowly grew big enough to fit my bed, but then my brother got engaged, so it morphed into a wedding gift for the two of them. I never finished it. But I ran out of the yarn (which has been long since discontinued) and my squares (and crocheting) have greatly improved in quality since then, and I don't think I could make squares like that again if I wanted to! Maybe I could just give it to my sons to play with or something...because even if I did take it apart, I don't know what I'd do with the yarn from it! Sad day...

Blessedly, though, there is a project that I not only have enough of the right yarn to finish (same dye lot and all!), but I know exactly where the pattern is! I used a type of granny square to start making a small tote. It was supposed to have been a birthday present about four years ago for a girl I used to baby-sit. Talk about being a long time in coming! LOL But I'm only 15 squares away from finishing the main part of it, then I have to make the lining (which I picked out the material for 4 years ago, as well, and still have!) and the strap for the bag. I can't wait to finally see that one done! LOL

So once I finish the lapghan for my mother-in-law (that very nearly shared the same fate as the other named projects...it just didn't quite make it as far down into the black hole...I started that one last July...), it'll be time to take care of the named UFOs and keep digging for more. I know they're there. It's almost scary in a way to find these half finished projects, and I'll be very relieved once they've met their fates!

Knitting Away

I have a disease. I learned how to knit, and now I’m going overboard! I’m not sure what it could be called….Knit-ersia? No, wait! I do know! It’s called “Addiction”! I am a yarn addict. I learned how to knit less than a week ago, and I’ve already got two knitting works in progress and have two small projects (three, if you count my first knitting attempt, which was nothing more than a little square) done! I did have three of the four projects going at once…oh yeah, plus the new crocheted one I started, so a maximum of four projects going simultaneously…

I started this scarf that I really love the colors to, but started it all super tight and have gradually relaxed my stitches a little bit so that it looks more natural, but now I can’t use it as a gift, because I’m anal like that. It’s not perfect. That means I have to either scrap it (which would majorly suck) or keep it to wear myself….wait a second….make something to keep?! For ME?! I’ve never done that before….

Anyhow, I got close to halfway done with it and then realized I wanted something else to work on when I got bored with that one; enter the Ravenclaw Round Ripple. And if I’m going to make something based on the colors and patterns of the scarves in Harry Potter, well then, why not make a scarf, too? (Yes, I’m a Harry Potter fan, thank you very much…lol) Those scarves were the main reason I wanted to learn how to knit, anyhow. My best friend wanted one, but I couldn’t knit, so I made my own pattern for crocheting her one, but it wasn’t good enough for me. The ones in the movies were knit. The one I made wasn’t. (Yeah, yeah, I know…obsessive compulsive…) Now, as to the reason why I chose to do Ravenclaw as opposed to one of the other houses…mainly comes down to I like those colors best! LOL I’ve done, like 50 gagillion of those online generators that tell you which house you’ll be in, and 50% of the time I’m sorted to Griffyndor, 49% of the time I’m sorted into Ravenclaw, and I’ve been sorted once into Hufflepuff. (I personally think there was just something wrong with that particular generator, though…LOL) And I’ve made so many Griffyndor-themed things, I felt it was time for a change.

Then, I started writing actual “snail mail” letters, as I don’t have Internet at home just now (which drives me bonkers, actually) and needed communication with those back home. Torie and I always send each other sticker covered letters, and as what part of what I was sending her required a large manila envelope, I had to fill the envelope as much as I could…and as we send each other completely random things, I thought I’d make her “proof” that I could knit, (like she would disbelieve me and need proof to begin with…lol) so I made the mini Italian flag. Well, now I’m nearly out of dark navy for the Ravenclaw projects, (almost out of grey too, for that matter, and I still need to get more black so I can finally finish my pink explosion project…) so I “needed” to begin yet another project, right?

The day my friend taught me how to knit, my husband said that he didn’t see what was so cool about it because all you could do was knit stripes. Ha! I tried to explain his crafting ignorance, but I don’t think he got it…so I decided to do something that I’ve been wanting desperately to try, just to show him what cool things can be done with knitting: I made the illusion Hedwig. I wanted to use black and white for the full contrast effect, but, as aforementioned, I’m out of black. So I used grey instead. (Which is part of why I’m now nearly out! LOL) But it looks so cool! I can’t wait to show it to him!

And all this has what I’ve gotten into in this past month. I really want to finish my pink and black round ripple, but need the black, and would have long ago continued on my granny square lapghan, but don’t remember what size hook I was using (and haven’t been able to check, as my Internet time has been severely limited….as in I’m actually typing this up in a Word document right now to copy and paste later…) and I’ve gone a bit more with my static stitch granny square blanket, but I’m using black to border all those, and, well, I’m out of black. But since we’re finally all moved and settled in and I’m back with my stash (it was terrible being separated from it!) I’ve also been reunited with about 50 other incomplete projects to pick back up! LOL Okay, so not really that many. Just seems that way. But now that I’ve posted this blog and have something to connect to all the bunch of new projects that’ll be popping up on Ravelry, I’m off to craft some more!

Killing Time...

So I was supposed to have been going and getting a bunch of stuff done today in OKC, but as C broke out into a nasty rash last night, I didn't want to make the poor little guy suffer through such a long car ride. His rash had disappeared by this morning, but I wanted to keep an eye on it to make sure it didn't make another appearance. So we sat around doing a lot of nothing today. Right about the time I laid C down for his nap, my fingers got itchy. Itchy as in restless. So I picked up a crochet hook and yarn and whipped out a beret. First time ever trying it, really. I think it turned out fairly well. I couldn't try it on because a) my head is 1/2" to 1" larger than "normal" (though it's mostly due to how thick my hair is, and I'm not even exaggerating...) and the finished product was about 1/2" smaller in diameter than it was supposed to be....LOL But here are some pics of it:

And then I tried to get A to model it for me, but he wouldn't keep it on his head long enough or be still enough for me to get the picture! LOL So I used a ball to "model" it instead. LOL:

I think I'm going to make a couple more, but experiment with it a little bit....

And the winner is.....

I was able to easily enough pick the first style of granny square I wanted to use for the friendship blanket. Simple, quick, easy and pretty, all in one. But I wanted the second one I made to be different enough from the first one, and that ruled out every other granny square pattern that I have memorized. LOL So began the search....who knew there were so many different ones out there?! I sure didn't! One night, all I did was sit at my computer and look at online granny square patterns, trying to find "the one." I thought I'd found it....but then there was terminology in there I'd never heard of before, and I didn't feel like fumbling through it. The first one I actually tried turned out pretty cool, but I didn't have near enough yarn to make enough of them, so I scrapped that one. Then I tried another one, but it took waaaaaaaaaay too long to do. Then came try #4. It looked simple enough. And cool. But then it wouldn't end up at 6" no matter how I tried to adjust the pattern. Enter option #5. It wouldn't lay flat for anything.

Then it hit me: I'd just find a cool-looking stitch and make that into a square! Something with a cool effect that makes the color change stand out. I spent another night looking through the few patterns I still have here (and not on their way to Italy...). I found one that was close to what I had in my head. So I googled that particular stitch (I'm an avid google-er! LOL) and found an even better one! It's called "static." And it's "the one!" The winner! Yay for Static! LOL

It Changed Again...

Turns out that now we're only going to be making 2 squares for each person in the friendship blanket group! That's really such a relief...I was freaking out a little bit about making 90-some-odd squares and have them sent out by March 1st! LOL So now I just have to decide which design I want to use for my second block. Who knew there were so many different ways to make granny squares?! I sure didn't! It's been very interesting sifting through the different patterns, trying to pick one that's both easy and fast. I guess I'll get done eventually!

Friendship Blankets Update...

So I thought it was only making one square for each other person in the group......no, we don't have enough people. So we're supposed to make five squares for each other person! That's like a total of something like 95 squares! Yikes! I've finished 20 so far. I wasn't expecting to make that many. My first thought when I heard how many I needed to make was "Shoot! Forget that! I'll just make my own squares and my own blanket!" (And it was funny, because when I told my husband's grandmother about the change in the situation, she said basically the same thing! LOL) But that's really the point of sending them to each other. So that everyone ends up with a decent-sized blanket, but with different squares from all kinds of people from all over...shoot, the world, actually. I was going to say "the country," but I know there are moms on Cafemom from more than just the US. It'll be so interesting to see all the different squares with all the different textures of yarn and everything else.

Hopefully there won't be too much taking my time away from working on all these squares....

There's a lot that goes into being a parent of two toddler boys. Especially when their father is overseas with the military. My younger son is fast approaching the age my older son was the first time he had an ER-worthy injury. (Aidyn was running in our then-apartment that had very tight corners, and ran head on, at full speed, into the corner of a wall and ended up needing 10 stitches in his forehead....before he even turned 18 months old!) Just the other day, in fact, Calen took off running from the kitchen to the living room, from linoleum to carpeting, and the carpet is higher than the linoleum. So in his hurry to run, his foot got caught on the carpeting, and he fell, face first, into a china cabinet. His mouth hit the leg of the (for him) immovable cabinet. (It really is movable, but certainly not for someone his size! LOL) He cut his lip and even his gums were bleeding! Poor little guy. But no swelling, and with the injuries I've seen from Aidyn, I knew better than to be too alarmed. There was a fair amount of blood, but not enough to freak out over. So now I'm just wondering how long it will be before we have our first ER trip with Calen. He's only a month younger than Aidyn was for his first trip....I guess only time will tell....

Friendship Blankets

I'm so super excited for this project I just started! At Cafemom, we started a new group revolving around making blankets as a group. We all make one (or two, if we can't get enough people in the group) square(s), send it to each of the other people in the group, and then use each of the squares we get to make a blanket! I just started mine today, and have decided that I am going to use the colors red, white and blue. I think it's a good color choice for a military wife. :) And I've decided that I'm going to try and make each square different from each other so that each blanket is even more unique! I can't wait to have my finished blanket!

Oh! And to top it all off, I went to a small town Wal-Mart looking for some more pink yarn to work on a current project, and they didn't have it (bummer) but what they did have was expensive yarn on clearance! I bought some specialty yarn that's normally $3 a "skein" (and I put skein in quotes because they're the itty-bitty ones...the ones I normally wouldn't pay that much for so little yarn).....I got for $1 a "skein"!!!! AND on top of that, there were a couple of crochet booklets (with 15-ish patterns in each) for $1 a piece! And if that wasn't enough, there was a whole box full of just free patterns! (You know, the kind that you tear off and take one for free? Yeah, a box full of those "booklets"!) I really hit the goldmine tonight! I am one happy "hooker"! ("Hooker" being a term, in this case, that is synonymous with "crafter," not "whore"! LOL)

Torie's Pants

My mom taught me how to crochet when I was about 12 years old. I never really completed any projects with just a plain old, double crochet stitch, though. It always seemed so monotonous to me, just to do the same simple stitch, forming rows, back and forth...It wasn't until I was about 13 when someone first taught me how to make a granny square. It was in a van in the 2 hour ride to a youth retreat. I thought they were the coolest things ever! But when I got back home from the weekend, I didn't have any yarn or hooks to use to keep doing it, and quickly forgot how. Eventually, my brother got married, and his wife re-taught me how to make them when I was about 17. I ended up making afghans out of granny squares for my closest friends as graduation gifts. Then, one day, as I was sitting in the college dorm rooms, my best friend and dorm-mate had an idea: I could make blankets, but could I make pants? Only Torie could have come up with an idea like that! She may not be creative in the sense of creating things (like with crocheting) with her hands, but has a true artist's vision. (She can draw like nobody's business, too...) If it weren't for her idea, I likely would never have thought to try. I had no pattern to go with, but the pants began to from under my very fingers. I was actually quite surprised and pleased with how well they turned out. It was the first time I'd attempted anything other than afghans, and it was a major success! In fact, about a year later, when she was living in a 1-bedroom apartment on her own and she couldn't afford a high heat bill (which is inevitable with Colorado winters), she would wear the pants. She said it was like wearing an afghan. LOL To this day, the thing I make most often is afghans, as their the easiest and quickest to make, but I've also learned to try new patterns, try to create patterns with my own ideas, and will very soon be expanding my crocheting projects and abilities. All because one day, she walked up to me and said "Hey, do you think you could crochet me some pants?" So Torie....THANK YOU!