The Battle of the Sweater Pattern (And a Blankie): Yarn-Along #6

Yesterday's pity party is over.  I'm feeling pretty okay physically today, so we're focusing on that.  Even though I'm still pretty frustrated overall, I've decided only one day's "Woe is Me" is allowed as I believe in getting those negative emotions out before they sour much more than your mood, but I also want to limit such nonsense.  Done, handled, so time to move on!  We've got too much knitting and crocheting to do before December 25th to be moping about unanswered questions!

Today's post will have two separate projects in it as I'm alternating between them.  One is knit, and one is crochet.  ...there's also a few books...I've been listing to a lot of audiobooks the past few weeks...and reading a ton of manga...

In my defense, I live about an hour and a half south-east of Buffalo.  Yes, the Buffalo that got hammered this week with over FIVE FEET of snow in less than 48 hours.  We got maybe an inch where I live (and even less where I work), but some of my friends closer to Buffalo (as well as my company's northern offices) are totally snowed in.  Regardless, people in my area buckle down and prep whenever Buffalo gets hammered with lake-effect snow as my town is just barely outside Lake Erie's snow belt.  My area can often get hit with whatever wasn't satisfied with burying Buffalo, and a few grocery stores in my area are running out of items as their shipments are tied up (...buried...) in Buffalo.

THE CRAFTS: I am making some serious headway on AB's Moroccan Tile Afghan.  I'm more than halfway done at this point and still loving the pattern.  The colorway is slowly, slowly growing on me.  I'd liken it to a drier wine: it starts out punching you in the face, but you slowly warm up the flavors and the richness of its depths.

Or maybe it's brightness has just blinded me...I really can't tell anymore.

Either way, it's super warm and super soft, so it fits all the requirements my sister-in-law and I had for this project.  Trying to get it done in the next week or two so I can blast out a similar one for AB's baby sister, E.

After my annual crafting/Christmas shopping trip with my mom November 7-9, I have started a very ambitious project for myself: a hand-knit cardigan.  I'm a huge fan of wearing sweaters in colder weather, and I adore cardigans.  The problem I find, though, is that I'm pretty limited at times to what kinds of cardigans I can buy and wear.  I'm sensitive to wool (if I wear it, I itch terribly and sometimes get small patches of hives wherever it touches my skin), so I avoid that at all costs.  I also sweat myself about through if I wear acrylics that are too densely woven.  That leaves cotton at my disposal for my wardrobe in regards to hand-making cardigans.

Because I'm limited to synthetics or cottons, steeking a sweater could be a huge hassle.  Steeking, for those unfamiliar to the term, means you knit a garment in the round, cut your knitting in a predetermined place, then secure your cut edges before knitting off of them.  With wool yarns, the fibers of the yarn itself can often secure a steek beneath a crocheted edging or the picked up knitting.  Cotton and synthetics are not that skilled, however.  Steeks done in garments of such materials have to be machine-secured under at least one row--maybe two--of machine-sewn edges.

Now, I don't know about other knitters, but I am NOT brave enough to try that on a knitted garment I plan to wear to work.  I had resigned myself to not knitting a cardigan anytime soon, until I found Knitty's Shapely Boyfriend pattern on Ravelry.  Top-down construction (meaning no need to sew in sleeves) plus a back-and-forth construction (meaning no steeks to cut), all in a free pattern meant Cherish could NOT resist running for her KnitPicks interchangable cable needles.

The yarn is a cotton yarn I got at Hobby Lobby on sale during my trip.  (I'm telling you, it was destined for me to make this sweater!)  It's greyish-white with flecks of lime and plum throughout it.  I absolutely adore how it's working up in the garment.  I get some of my beloved variegated yarn action in a subtle, easy-to-wear effect.  To tie it all together, I'm doing all ribbing on this pattern in plum yarn of the same brand and weight.  I'm waiting to choose my buttons when the project is done, partially to ensure they'll fit just right and partially as I want to perfectly match them in style to the sweater's finished looks.

For anyone following this sweater on Ravelry, you know it's been...an adventure.  I started it on 6s as I usually have to drop all projects I make down two sizes.  Whelp, I forgot that is when I crochet projects, not knit them.  My knitting gauge in this yarn, to my shock, was pretty darn spot-on to the recommended needles.  I'm off by a row or two in stockinette, but that should be easily compensated for in the pattern.  I err on the side of being a bit short-trunked when I try on clothes, so I figure I can cut down on or add rows of straight stockinette when the pattern calls for such sections to customize the fit to my body.

...I also had to cast on 19 separate times...at least...I quit counting my redos after 19 times of it happening...  After that particular disaster (and having to very, very carefully count my rows to be sure I increased on time, I got smart.  I took a trick I had read in various knitting help blogs about creating safe anchor points.  I split some 4-ply yarn into two pieces of 2-ply and wove that through the last row of stitches before a major pattern change.  That way, I know exactly where I tore back to without counting as those stitches won't unravel until the pink yarn is removed.  When my sweater is done, I simply pull out all the pink parts.  Cheapest insurance I've ever bought!

THE BOOK: As I alluded to in the beginning of this post, Book Country in CherLand has been a bit crazy.  I was on vacation for a few days two weeks ago, so I had a ton of time to read to my little heart's content.  Observe:

• I finished The Help yesterday.  I cannot even explain how much I enjoyed that book--it's definitely one of my all-time favorites!  

• I'm also set to finish Insurgent tonight, the second in the Divergent trilogy.  That book I like less than the first but am still enjoying it.  I'll start its sequel, Allegiant, right afterwards...hoping that book is better.

• I hope to start listening to Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult tonight.  She's one of my all-time favorite authors, so this, I hope, should be a good time.  I really enjoyed its prequel novella, so hopefully it lives up to my expectations.  **NOTE** I'm actually listening to The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood, another favorite author, instead.  I misread my emails: I'm on a hold list for Leaving Time but got The Year of the Flood.

• OH!  I've also read most of the manga Fruits Basket (has 20-something volumes to it) over the past few weeks/months.  It's a favorite of mine that I've never read completely.  Luckily for me, the library where I tutor has a complete collection!  I'm about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through all of the volumes, which makes me quite happy!

Check out the other Yarn Along pages!

Yarn Along #5: Christmas Crafting Begins!

Well, many days late is better than never!  Our week was crazy busy, but not for any bad reasons!  (Woot, woot!)  I was able to spend some time with my one younger brother and his wife and dog on Tuesday, drinking coffee and shooting the breeze with my little sister-in-love.  I was, however, able to get some reading done, as well as some crocheting!

I should also note that at my workplace, I have started a crafting class for my students on a "As-You-Want" basis.  Those who want to learn to knit or crochet can come to a set room over Friday's lunch with whatever supplies they have or just their curiosity.  If they have projects they want to share, they can.  If they need lessons, I and other students instruct.  Regardless, they are met with openness and joy for crafting.  Many of my students were asking for stress relievers, so I'm hoping this proves to be an enjoyable one for them.  If they hate crafting, they can opt out; they can also come and go as they need/want.

After blasting out the minion, I decided to switch to a simple blanket project, one I need done by Christmas for one of my sweet, little nieces.  All I'm going to say about the colors is this: they were directly requested by a 5-year-old girl.  Enough said.

THE CRAFT: This week's craft is a Moroccan Tile Afghan for my oldest niece, AB.  When I saw this pattern, it screamed AB.  I filed it away in my Ravely queue for her, sure she'd want one eventually.  I was right, and she had a few very specific requests, which I will quote directly as, honestly, it was too darn cute to paraphrase:

AB: Aunt Cherish! If E is getting her own blankie, I should get one too! That's fair, right?
Cherish: I didn't know you wanted a blankie, but if you want one, I'll totally make you one for Christmas. What colors do you want?
AB: It has to be pink and purple and blue and shiny and squishy and soft and mine, Cherish!  You can make that, right?
Cherish: *winks*  I'm pretty sure that doable, sweetie.

Using that delightful conversation and what I know of her tastes, I picked 6 colors that would fit her bill in Caron's Simply Soft yarn, which was deemed by my mother-in-law and aunt-in-law as "Absolutely, 100% AB."  Hence the insanely bright blanket you're seeing up there.  I've yet to add in much of the pale pink and any of the lavender/lilac shades that I picked, though the lilac should happen sometime tonight if I keep making good progress.  The pattern called for 30 rows of each color, but I elected to do two sets of 16.  If I have enough yarn and want to, I may extend it out to three sets of 16.  The picture above is of about 51-52 rows of the pattern out of ~193 total rows.  Since that picture was taken, I'm up to about 55-56 rows.

The pattern is very easy.  You work across color B (making v-stitches: DC CH DC) in the Vs of the color A's previous row.  Securing the active loop of B with a stitch marker (...or a paperclip...), you pick up the active loop of A (still on the right of the project) and work across, going between the Color A Vs and securing both the previous row's space between V stitches and the space between the Color B Vs in your next V-stitch cluster.  When both colors' active loops are secured on the left side, you flip the blanket and repeat.  There are some unique (and optional) stitches to start rows and change colors, but the pattern's original website has links to some great videos that make it very easy to understand and master these stitches.

THE BOOK: I finished Dreams of Joy this past week, the sequel to Shanghai Girls.  I enjoyed it more than the previous book in some ways, yet disliked it more in others.  Not really sure what I thought.  My dislike may have come from one protagonist, Joy, who I often wanted to just slap upside the head a few times over.  Girlfriend's naivety drove me BANANAS.  Seriously, who steals her mother's money, flees to China, then marries a guy she's known like 3 months, all to not understand at first why it all went so totally sour during the famine.  I just: gah!  My teachers in elementary school often told me I had "little tolerance for the perceived stupidity of others";  though I am way better at that nowadays, that little trait of mine came flying out during many of Joy's parts.  I just wanted to slap her and drag her stubborn butt onto the first boat back to LA.

I'm now working through Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison by Piper Kerman.  I'm enjoying the story, though I do have to agree with some critiques stating that the author paints herself with a whitewash-coated-brush through a fair deal of the memoir.  I dunno: I guess I just assume that anyone chronicling a story of their life will instinctively try to paint themselves in a believable-yet-positive light, so I don't notice it as strongly as others.  Still a good read, though!

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Yarn Along #4: Attack of the Minion

I'm not even going to pretend things have calmed down out our way.  It seems like as soon as one mini-crisis ends, another two pop up.  Right now, we're just trying to keep on top of a sick in-law of mine, balance work and our lives, and figure out who tried to steal my identity locally last week.  >_<  Here's praying that next week is calmer!

This time I have A FINISHED PRODUCT!  And a finished book!  That is scary stuff right there!

THE CRAFT: In the past two weeks, I blasted out a little project for a sick little boy.  (I also found our digital camera, so we have half decent pictures!)  It's a little Despicable Me Minion.

*singing* These arms are made for cuddling!

This project was a bit of a comedy of errors for me.  The arms I redid no less than 4 times last night, mostly as I 1) Lost count on the hands, 2) Couldn't find the saved inside loops to start the arms, or 3) I forgot to increase all the way around when starting the arms.  It was, to say the least, an embarrassing sight to behold: a beleaguered, veteran crocheter mad over twelve rounds of yellow yarn done twice.  We could have hired mourners.

Well, at least he gives me two thumbs up!

I also took what I called (at first) The Lazy Route as I chose to only make one eye.  This involved modifying the pattern for both the eye and the goggle rims, both of which turned out to be a bit more complicated than I thought.  For starters, I could not for the life of me close the center of the eye's magic loop without risking a yarn tear.  To compensate, I tried to put black felt on the center to make a pupil like the pattern said.  No dice: it looked funny sitting on top, but sewing it into the center of the eye just didn't pop the way I wanted.

My felt-work for the details also finally improved!

A moment of inspiration hit when I went to get my straight pins to assemble this little guy.  Inside my pin case was a random round, black button I had left over from a Pikachu plushie I crocheted a few years ago.  On a whim, I tried pinning that button into the center of the eye.  It was a perfect fit!  The base of the button fit perfectly into the eye's hole, and the button gave the eye the pop I was looking for.  I'm pretty sure I literally cheered.

Little Minion sees all!

Despite a few moment of wanting to fling this minion across the room in frustration (and a surely amusing scene while I tried to whip-stitch a "pouty lip" onto what looked like a yellow hotdog with an eyeball), it all worked out in the end: he turned out better than I expected and on time to be sent in the care package!  Feel better soon, Brett, and I hope this little guy is a bright spot in your days in the hospital!

THE BOOK: A month later, and I'm still on The 19th Wife.  I did, however, finish another audio book during that time: Shanghai Girls by Lisa See.  The book followed two fictional sisters in China for twenty years of their lives as they fled China, were forced into arranged marriages, raise a daughter, and learned about themselves and their relationships.  The book wonderfully illustrated the relationship siblings have, both the positives and the negatives.  I'm the middle of 5 kids, though my two older siblings are much, much older than me; as a result, I grew up like an oldest child.  I very much related with Pearl's struggles to be the kind of older sister May both wanted and needed, and I also sympathized and mourned for Pearl when she learned how those things can sometimes be total opposites.

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Yarn Along #3: Light At the End of the T-Shirt

Another week without a proper post: hopefully things turn around in that regard.  It's still been crazy around my house.  Dad's home from his hip replacement and healing nicely, and my hubby and I have been fielding help requests and been requesting updates.  Seems like he's feeling way better than he did before surgery, so YAY!

I didn't get to finish the shirt this weekend like I hoped, so you get another week of looking at it! Aren't you guys just so excited?

THE CRAFT: Round #3 of AB's Playground Shirt is upon us, but we're so very, very close to completion.

Current Progress on the Shirt

This is where we stand right now.  Magic Loop is still working well for me for those sleeves, and I'm getting pretty antsy to start the collar.  I'm thinking I'm going to make it that grape-purple like the edging I've done, mostly to break up the rows up on rows of variegation.

Completed Sleeve (...and my rings...)

I'm loving how it finishes off the sleeves, though!  I edged it (and the bottom) in a single crochet; I also used a single crochet bind-off as that's the one I'm most comfortable with.  I like the feel it gives to the sleeves: it reminds me a bit of the hem on the edges of other sleeves.

...I also just like crocheting...a lot...

Bottom Edging: When Not Rolled

Though I still love the edging on the end of the shirt, I'm not completely sold on it.  My big beef with this is how much the bottom rolls from the stockinette, even with the single crochet row.  Now, I know I can do garter stitch rows to help tame this. However, I despise garter row edging for a whole slew of purely-aesthetic reasons, and I didn't think ribbing would look okay with the rest of the shirt.  I also worry how this acrylic yarn will block.  I really fear it's not going to tame that roll near as much as, say, a cotton or a woolen garment blocked would.

I'm considering doing another row of single crochet across the bottom, going in the opposite direction of the first, to see if that stabilizes it; it's also to help match the sleeves, whose purple borders are a row longer due to a brain-fart.  Thoughts?  Should I be this concerned?  Will the rolling be way less noticeable when AB wears it?

THE BOOK: We're also still reading The 19th Wife.  I've only gotten a few more pages into it since I wrote about it last, so I don't have much to offer there.  Though I hate history in general, I'm love Ann Eliza's accounts of her past and how the author intersperses historical documents into his narrative.  I'm really enjoying it more than I thought!

Check out the other Yarn Along pages!

Yarn-Along #2: More Shirt & Two Books!

(Forgive the late post--long week)

Well, this week has proven to be just as crazy as other weeks, with a bit more spice added in for good measure.  My father had a hip replaced yesterday, and I'm second tier on-call for my paternal grandmother's medical alert necklace.  (For those who are unfamiliar with that technology, Grandma wears a necklace around her neck that she can push to reach on-call nurses.  If it's pushed and it's deemed not on accident, a family member is also called.  Dad is first on that line, followed by me [as I, out of the three local grandkids, can get away from work the easiest to help Grandma.])  Long story short, I'm bebopping between home, work, and the hospital where Dad's recovering and praying Grandma (who has dementia and is freaking out over Dad's surgery) doesn't have a spell of some kind.

My dad also had some complications yesterday involving his blood pressure, so I literally forgot to post this at all.  Dad's stable now and improving, which helps, but I hadn't slept worth beans for two solid days.  Last night became "Cherish crashed after dinner and never woke up again until her alarm went off."  Today also has me bearing a killer headache, so please forgive any crazy grammar errors.  I will re-proof this at a later date.

Ended up a bit blurry as I was working out lighting issues in our computer room; this is the best shot I got.

THE CRAFT:  I'm still on the same Playground Shirt for AB, though I've completely finished the body of the shirt and moved to a sleeve!  Behold, dear readers: my first attempt at the Magic Loop technique!  I didn't have DPNs of the right size for the sleeves, but I did have interchangeable circular needles and a tutorial on Magic Loop, so that's what we're doing.  I'm working the first decrease row tonight, so let's see how this works out.

One Sleeve done; blocked to test out borders' rolling issues.

**Later Edit**  Sleeve worked out, clearly: on to sleeve two!

I hate that scrap of yarn's color...at least it's great for scraps!

THE BOOK(S): I'm actually working through two separate books right now.  My current audio book is The Tsarina's Daughter by Carolly Erickson.  It follows a woman named Tanya as she goes through life as a Grand Duchess (aka: princess) of Russia yet becomes a modest, Russian immigrant in her later years.  The elderly Tania (now going by Daria) tells her tale.  And, let me tell you, this is no innocent Russian grandmother telling this tale!  She's got fire in her, this Tania, and the story is hinting towards her doing greater things than just her birth-determined role of marrying a man of noble blood chosen by her father.  I was obsessed with Anastasia briefly as a girl, so this story of her sister is really catching my interest.

The other book I'm reading right now is The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff.  This story is weaving together the tales of a gay son of a convicted-of-murder 19th wife in 21st century Utah and Ann Eliza Young, a 19th wife who broke away from her polygamist cult and her husband.  A friend of mine recommended this book (and lent it to me), and I'm finally getting into the story.  It's a much slower read than some of the other books I've picked up, mostly as I can't exactly knit my shirt and read at the same time...and I've been determined to finish the shirt the past few days.

My First Yarn-Along! Or, A First Glimpse at Cherish's First Shirt

People who first meet me learn two things in (often) quick succession:

1. I obsessively read.
2. I obsessively knit and crochet.

As a result, it was only a matter of time until my blog drew in some of this side to me.  I learned to crochet when I was 17 (...which I just realized was NINE years ago...oy...), and I finally got the hang of knitting about two years ago.  Everywhere I go, I have a knitting or crocheting project on me, my Kindle fire, or a paperback.  I pull one of those out regardless of location, using them to calm my stressed out mind, to pass the time, or just for a change of pace.  I even combine these two loves of mine: I read while crocheting projects that I can do by feel, and I listen to audiobooks for all the others.



In an attempt to capture some of my personality--and to keep my easily distracted crafter-brain focused--I am joining up with Ginny's Yarn-Along!  Due to my inability to look away from my knitting, as well as my scatter-brained personality, you'll see me alternate between ebooks, audiobooks, and physical books, as well as between my projects.  I'm hoping this helps me focus on finishing projects, but we'll just have to wait and see!

(Forgive the terrible camera phone picture--it was the only option I had available today)

THE CRAFT: I am working on Elena Nodel's Playground Shirt for my oldest niece, AB.  I picked this pattern to stretch myself as a knitter.  I figured the challenge of shaping a simple child's garment combined with the ease and comfort of the good ol' stockinette stitch would keep me from growing too frustrated.  So far, it's going well.

My only complaint is that the pattern for the 5T-6T size was off by at least 18 stitches when it came time to transfer the armholes to scrap yarn.  A few glances at other knitters' finished projects and a frantic picture message to a knitter friend cured the problem, after some frightening tearing back.  (And to place over 200 stitches back on my needles and only dropped 6--I call that a success!)

Lessons learned? 1) ALWAYS question the patterns when you think it seems off, and 2) Never knit a row involving stitch transfers or pattern changes when you're exhausted.  I transferred those stitches at 3 am; if I had used my head and waited until the next day, I'd never have had to tear back in the first place. Ah well!  I'm a little bit wiser and more confident for it!

THE BOOK: I'm listening to I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass.  The story follows two sisters, Louisa and Clement, who are so different that (at least to me) they start to seem alike in their entertaining "fumbles" through adulthood and responsibility.  Louisa is an artist bound by her own judgement and strong sense (...most of the time...) of what is sensible.  Clem, on the other hand, is a wildlife enthusiast driven by passion but stuck in her own wildness.  Their adult stories unfold through each woman's stream of consciousness, forcing the story to focus on the the next time each saw their sister and alternating narrators with each part.

I'm finding this tale very engrossing.  Though I want to shake both of these women for doing things I would deem foolish, I love how Glass's characterization of each woman makes them deeply flawed but deeply real, driving you as a reader to continue learning about them so you can discover just what drives both of these women.  Though I would never label either woman as a role model, you can definitely emphasize with their struggles, both the ones forced upon them and the ones that their foolishness forces upon them.