Another dishcloth completed

Finished up Girl's Best Friend by Anne Frost this evening at Ravelry's West Houston Meet-Up. I'm really pleased at how it turned out using Susan Bates 5 aluminum needles this time. The diamonds really stand out more. What I found amazing was that I still have lots of cotton yarn left from this skein – and I've already knitted 2 dishcloths from it! Wonders never cease.

I'm still working on my Lion Brand Wool-Ease® shawl. I'm not sure that I really like it but it is a stash-buster. I've also cast on a new dishcloth this evening in Rose Pink Sugar'n Cream cotton yarn. This one is Hummingbird in Flight by RaAnn Clegg. I found it at http://wicketstitch.blogspot.com/. Both my mum and my sister like hummingbirds; maybe one or both of them will receive a new dishcloth with a hummer on it for Christmas . . .

What ever was I thinking . . .

. . . when I started a new shawl Sunday afternoon at the West Side Chain Gang CGOA meeting? And to be crocheting it in Lion Brand WoolEase in navy and green sprinkles? I must be nuts. The temperature has been hovering in the upper 90s for the past week and we're expected to hit or break 100°F tomorrow. The absolute last thing I want to be doing is working in WOOL! (It is really beginning to take shape, though.)

I think, however, that I'm going to finish up the second Girl's Best Friend dishcloth in Sugar'n Cream cotton and start in on some more cotton dishcloths with the skeins I bought last week on sale. I really do not do well in this heat and have a hard time doing anything in wool for more than a row or two at a time because of it. While I'm definitely not a mall rat, I may just go park myself for a few hours at the mall near the ice skating rink. It's bound to be cool right there with all that ice . . .

Check it out!

I got my picture posted in The Heights Life blog (http://theheightslife.com/) representing crocheters at the WWKIP here in Houston! Depending on when you look at the blog, scroll down to Thursday, June 18, 2009, for the entry. That's the in-progress Excellence Doily I finished this last week in the very last picture.

Not much cooking here . . .

It's too darn hot! I downloaded a bunch of free crocheting and knitting patterns off the internet today and tried to figure out what I could make next. Not a clue. Spent some time at my sister's house this afternoon talking and trying to knit some rows on my Girl's Best Friend dishcloth. I think I managed 3 rows. Oh well.

I was so looking forward to fried dumplings at our usual Thursday night Ravelry meeting place, Dunobaby. I got over there around 7:30 p.m. only to find that they were ON VACATION until July 1^st! Oh no! How am I going to get my tapioca fix for the week? Well, there was a note on the door that said we were meeting at Whole Foods in the food court so I went on down there and settled for soup and a mini sandwich. Hmmmph. Healthier, I'm sure, but not as tasty as fried dumplings!

I spent the meetup working on my Pale Poinsettias in the Snow tree skirt in crochet. It's really beginning to come along nicely. That is, except for the two pale pink centers that I discovered that had been crocheted wrong. Instead of four groups of 3 dcs, one of them had three groups of 3 dcs and one group of 2 dcs. The other one had five groups of 3 dcs. LOL! Some days are just like that, aren't they?

Half-used skeins and other ideas

In the middle of everything else I'm doing these days, I decided to cast on another dishcloth: Girl's Best Friend by Anne Frost at http://www.ThisIsSpiffy.com. Now, I know what you're thinking. I've done this dishcloth before. And to make matters worse, I'm doing it in exactly the same cotton yarn, Sugar'n Cream #28 Delft Blue, that I used before. As a matter of fact, it's being done in the same skein as before! This time, however, instead of using size 7 US (4.5mm) needles to knit the worsted weight cotton, I'm using size 5 US (3.75mm) needles so the pattern will show up better. I've just finished Row 18 of 53 rows so that makes me, um, approximately 37% of the way done.

Did I mention that Michael's was having a sale on Sugar'n Cream for $1.00/skein this week? Of course, I ran right in and picked up some. Just in case I run out of cotton yarn. Yeah, right. Like that's going to happen any time soon. Well, it could happen!

Tawashi in my house

So I was playing around on Ravelry last night and found Tawashi Town in the forums. Tawashi are basically little pot scrubbers made out of nylon, acrylic or cotton yarn. But instead of being plain, boring little square or rectangles, they're in all sorts of cute shapes.

Of course, I just had to pull out of the old acrylic yarn stash and start crocheting up a storm with a Boye size G hook and a Susan Bates I9/5.50mm hook!

Just so you won't think I've forgotten about my goal to crochet one project from each of my magazines, I finished Motif F from Magic Crochet's Issue #28, published in December 1983. It's in #10 white cotton thread and crocheted with a Boye USA 6/1.80m aluminum hook.

Moving right along

I've finished another piece of crocheting today. This one is Motif #2 from Magic Crochet's Issue #30, April 1984. I really like the way this one turned out in #10 cotton thread instead of #40. (Plus, it's a lot easier to see in #10!)

In the mail today was a box from Mini City Media. The loot I won on Ebay included

Books:

• American Thread Co. Star Book No. 179 – Doilies Tablecloths Bedspreads Edgings
  
• Coats & Clark's Book No. 102 – Crochet Pineapple Designs
  
• Lily Design Book No. 203 – Popular Crochet: Doilies, Centerpieces, Vanity Sets, Luncheon Sets, Buffet Sets
  
• Lily Design Book No. 204 – Popular Crochet: Doilies, Edgings, Chair Sets
  
• South Maid Book 371 – The Heirloom Baby Collection
  
• Star Book No. 209 – Let's Crochet
  

Magazines:

• Crochet Digest, Vol. 14, No. 1, Spring 1995
  
• Crochet Digest, Vol. 16, No. 4, Winter 1996
  
• Crochet Fun!, No. 5, June/July 1988
  
• Crochet Fun!, No. 11, June/July 1989
  
• Crochet Home, No. 19, Oct/Nov 1990
  
• Crochet Home, No. 27, Feb/March 1992
  
• Crochet Home, No. 51, Feb/March 1996
  
• Shady Lane's Crochet Hookup, No. 3, May/June 1987
  
• Shady Lane's Crochet Hookup, No. 6, Nov-Dec 1987
  
• Quick & Easy Crochet, Vol. 1, No. 5, Sept/Oct 1986
  
• Quick & Easy Crochet, Vol. 3, No. 2, March/April 1988
  
• Quick & Easy Crochet, Vol. 4, No. 2, March/April 1988
  
• Quick & Easy Crochet, Vol. 4, No. 5, Sept/Oct 1988
  
• Quick & Easy Crochet, Vol. 7, No. 1, Jan/Feb 1992
  
• Quick & Easy Crochet, Vol. 7, No. 3, May/June 1992
  
• Quick & Easy Crochet, Vol. 7, No. 5, Sept/Oct 1992
  

Patterns/Leaflets:

• Simplicity Pattern 5766, ©1973, Crochet Fashions
  
• Granny's Hand Crocheted Heirlooms - #124 Socks to Stockings
  
• Take Me Home Creations – Crochet Covers for Ornaments, ©1980
  
• Irish Crochet Jewelry, #7303 – Victorian Choker
  
• Pineapple Crochet Collection #8S006
  
• Sweet Sentiments #8S010
  
• Country Crochet Potholders #8S012
  
• Crochet Collars #87E24
  
• Crochet Collars II #87E25
  
• Crochet Collars III #87E26
  
• Wildflower Crochet #87P38
  

Now, what project shall I do next?

Another Finished Object!

Huzzah! I've finally finished the Excellence doily from Issue #8 of Decorative Crochet, April 1989. It's only taken me 3 months to get this one finished but I think it was worth it. I think if I hadn't had so much going on during this time period I would have finished it earlier. Oh well. It's done now.

So, on to my next project . . .

World-Wide Knit in Public Day

In a word – WOW! What a great meet-up we had here in Houston with around 60 knitters/crocheters in attendance at the Heights Public Library. Now I can put faces with Ravelry IDs and ravatars. Our Thursday night Ravelry group was well represented – and alliejay won a door prize!.

Oh, and the door prizes were fantastic! (Wish I had won one!) [list copied from a post on Ravelry by laKnittinKitten – I don't think she'll mind]

• Great Yarn Company: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock kit; Regia Kaffe Fassett sock kit
  
• Knit Public Houston: Sock It to Me Baby sweater & hat kit
  
• Knitting in the Loop: Noro Silk Garden Chunky & shawl pattern
  
• Mama Llama: 2 skeins 100% bamboo dk & shawl pattern; merino, bamboo & silk & sock pattern
  
• Nancy's Knits: Madil Yarns Super Due Merino laceweight; Family Album of Knits book
  
• WC Mercantile: Flying Wright Farms Panda Sox; Malabrigo Silky Merino; Malabrigo Chunky kettle-dyed merino; Mary's Little Lamb light worsted merino
  
• Yarns 2 Ewe: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Super Chunky, Euro Yarns Solstice, Honeypot 100% China silk boucle, Plymouth Bamboo Garden, Honeypot Sari silk, Ironstone Yarns Circus, Honeypot 100% cashmere, Ironstone Yarns Whimsey, OnLine Picnic; Offhand Designs Zelda Tote
  
• Yarntopia: 2 bags Queensland Collection Merino Spray extra fine dk
  
• Others: Koigu Premium Merino; Manos del Uruguay kettle-dyed handspun wool
  

I did, however, come away with the following in the yarn/books/tools swap:

• 2 magazines (Holiday 2007 issue of KnitSimple and March 2008 issue of Creative Knitting)
  
• 4 skeins of Lion Brand Yarn's Chenille Thick & Quick in colorway #149 Gray [DH wants a gray scarf for this winter]
  
• AND a vintage ball of Clarks Big Ball Mercerized Cotton in size 20 ecru! I'm thinking vintage style doily here.
  

Oh, and just what did my busy little hands do while I was helping out at the name tag table? Crocheting on Row 24 of the Excellence doily I've been working off and on since 8 March 2009. Only 2 more rows to go!

NOTE: The next WWKIP has already been scheduled for Saturday, June 19, 2010 – location TBA. Hope to see you there!

Cuddle Bed

While searching patterns on www.Ravelry.com, I found one for a kitten Cuddle Bed today that I liked. This one is from www.crochetkitten.com and is something of a stash buster, using three strands of acrylic yarn at the same time. Since I had previously acquired some more Red Heart Super Saver acrylic in Royal blue and white, I decided it was time to create a Cuddle Bed for the baby kitties at my parents' house. (Pippin has his own bed – TXMamaKitty's bed – which he graciously shares with yours truly and DH!)

Other recent acquisitions of the week are two bags of wonderful quilting fabric and a bag of wool batting, courtesy of fellow Raveler carrollb! Dragging out some of my old quilting magazines I found a couple of likely candidates and have already made the templates for them. You'll just have to wait and be surprised at what they are. I foresee lots of sore fingers in the next few weeks!

Moving slowly today

I don't know it was the weather here today (mid-90s) or this darn Boye crochet hook, but I'm not making a lot of progress on my Lilac Glass Mat. I'm almost finished with Round 10 but I'm too tired to go any further this evening. (You'd think I could press on seeing as there's only 1 more round to go!) I'm definitely going to have to block this doily because of Rounds 8-10 having so many tall stitches (2 and 3 yarnovers) set in fans all the way around. Oh well, maybe tomorrow will see the end of it.

Still another new project

A while back I decided I wanted to make at least one project from each of my magazines. A lofty challenge, to be sure, but it would tend to mollify my DH when I'm buying new mags each month, actually completing these projects. Since I own a copy of Magic Crochet's Issue #1, I figured I'd start there with a new project.

I'm doing project #23, Glass Mats. Instead of the #30 yarn it calls for, I've chosen Red Heart's Luster Sheen in colorway 122 Light Lilac with a Boye plastic/bone? #1 crochet hook from Germany. There are 11 rounds and I'm currently in the middle of Round 8. In size #30 it would end up being 4.5" in diameter; I'm already at 6.0" in diameter. This is a fairly simple doily so I should be able to finish it up tomorrow (it's getting really late here now and I'm tired). Now, if I can just get some pictures taken . . .

A new project!

Right. Just what I need. A new project. Well, while I've been trying to enter all my magazines into a database, I came across a pattern that I've really been wanting to do for a long time – since 1982! It's the Poinsettias in the Snow tree skirt in McCall's Design Ideas No. 9, Christmas Knit and Crochet. While it calls for Brunswick Windrush (is that even made still?), I'm doing mine in Bernat Baby Coordinates: Baby Pink, Mint Green, and White and calling it Pale Poinsettias in the Snow tree skirt. These soft pastels will go perfectly under my white tree with old world glass ornaments and colored lights. Plus, Windrush was a worsted weight acrylic yarn while Baby Coordinates is a #3 light acrylic yarn. I'm using a Susan Bates US G6/4.00mm aluminum hook instead of an I (6.00mm) hook – so the squares wll be much smaller (as is fitting with a 4 foot tall tree). I've completed 48 of the 120 little pink centers of the granny squares as of this posting.

I'm still working on my Cowl and am just about finished with the first skein. It's so pretty and isn't curling up as much as it was earlier on. Tunisian crochet will do that, you know. I just have to decide if I want to use the whole second skein on it or just part of the skein.

A quiet Ravelry night

I was very surprised this evening: only 3 of us showed up for our regular Thursday night Ravelry meeting. (Well, 4 if you count my DH sitting downstairs watching Jerry Maguire on the large-screen TV.) Still, it was very nice and relaxing not to have to try to follow multiple conversations at the same time. I worked on my Tunisian stitch Cowl so I'm almost done with the first skein. Hurrah!

I spent a lot of time today entering magazines into my needlework database. So far I have started spreadsheets for 10 knitting magazines, 14 crochet magazines, 2 general craft/needlework magazines, and 1 spinning magazine. These were just the ones that were close to my desk and easy to get my hands on. There are quite a few more magazines in boxes in my closet. You do understand I'm talking about magazine titles here, not actual issues. Several of my magazine titles have over 300 issues, many of which issues I already own. I'm trying very hard not to pore through each magazine as I enter it into the spreadsheets; that would simply take way too much time right now. Maybe if I just put a few Post-It® stickies on the patterns I think I might like to do . . .

More magazines

I have got to quit going into Barnes & Noble! Every time I go in there I find new issues of needlework magazines that I don't already have. ARRGGH! Today's haul included:

• Yarn Forward, July 2009 #14
  
• Knitter's Magazine, Summer 2009
  
• Interweave Knits, Summer 2009
  

To make it all worse, my last issue of Crochet Today! came in the mail today also. (Of course, I had to go online and re-up for another 2 years.) They have a new publisher, Future US, Inc. starting with this issue. After going through the loss of Decorative Crochet, Magic Crochet and Crochet Fantasy, I don't want another crochet magazine with international symbols to suddenly quit publishing.

Speaking of crochet, the Cowl is coming alone nicely. I'm looking forward to getting it finished soon.

No photos yet

I never got around to taking any photos today because I was out running errands. I did, however, pick up several crochet and knitting magazines at Fiesta: Empezá a Tejer Crochet No. 7, Empezá a Tejer Crochet No. 8, and Dos Agujas Aňo 2 No. 10. There's always something interesting in those Spanish language magazines, whether or not I can understand everything in them. Thank goodness for international symbols! Whatever I don't get through reading the patterns in their original language, I can pick up by reading the symbols.

I also went back to Hobby Lobby and picked up a Boye size J 6.00mm straight afghan hook and a Boye H 5.00mm straight afghan hook. Not having to fight that J hook with a cord has speeded up my rows on the Cowl but it's still pretty slow going. (Oh well. It's the nature of the beast – the Tunisian crochet stitch. ) The Cowl is looking rather pretty in all those autumn-y colors.

Moving Forward

Since I couldn't find any of my afghan hooks in my stash of crochet hooks and knitting needles, I went over to Hobby Lobby and bought a couple of afghan hooks today. They're both by Susan Bates: one is a Size K (10.5mm) straight afghan hook and the other is a Size J (10.00mm) with a cord like a circular knitting needle on it.

I pulled the Cowl out of the frog pond and started work on it in Tunisian Crochet on the Size J afghan hook today. I'm not really happy with the cord on the hook so I switched it out with a Size J double-ended crochet hook I found in my stash. (Funny how that happens!) Somehow the cord makes the hook unwieldy and my hands end up hurting even though I don't crochet tightly. Of course, I have to be careful not to let my work fall off the end of the hook as I'm casting on . . . it is looking nice as I make progress on the cowl.

I'm really a bit irritated about not being able to find my other afghan hooks. I pulled all my hooks and knitting needles out of my three large "pencil" holders and checks to be sure I hadn't overlooked those darn afghan hooks. Nope. Not there. Too bad they're not on sale this week. But, I was able to print off 25% off coupons from Hobby Lobby's website (one per customer per day) that are good until June 6^th. Cool.

I did finally find my camera and tripod today. Hurrah! They were hidden under some papers on my desk. (Wouldn't ya know?) Maybe I'll be able to take some pics tomorrow and post them . . .

I also checked out Michael's yarn department today. The store closest to me was still in the process of putting yarn out so I couldn't see it all. I was hoping there was going to be something exciting but really only found more acrylic yarn. Yeah, Michael's, that's what the world needs: more 100% acrylic yarn. It's not even soft acrylic yarn. If they think they're going to give Red Heart a run for their money in the acrylic race, they're sadly mistaken IMHO. However, I will be interested in seeing the Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool in the various colors once they get it all on the floor.