Stringchronicity

Tag: crochet

  • That’s a fact, Jack.

    That’s a fact, Jack.

    I will admit that the title is due to an offhand comment made at work this evening, and probably has nothing to do with the rest of the post.  Hooray non-sequiteur?

    I spent a goodly sum of the weekend knitting away at the first of the August socks. Once that sock was finished (in an almost record 4 days of futzing around with it when I had a moment), I put it aside and…well…

    It's at about this point I think my neighbours were wondering why the crazy lady was taking pictures of her front walk. Beautiful northern lighting this AM!

     

    I played with some granny squares.

    I’m not addicted.  Honest.  I can stop anytime.

    The thing is, I’ve had a few “can’t focus; clowns will eat me” moments, and playing around with the squares is a fun enough distraction.  I think I mentioned that my eventual goal is to make a keepsake blanket from the sock yarn I have previously enjoyed?  Well, I had to do a little…swatching, for lack of a better term. Some designs had far too many holes, others were too fussy. Finally I came upon the Graphic Granny Afghan by Katherine Eng, and it started faling into place.  I had wanted to do hexagonal Grannies, but wasn’t finding the right pattern until this one came along. I’m not doing colour changes, just continuing on with one colour. I think the blankie will look knifty when I’m done. It’s also a great pattern to use for a possible “real” afghan down the line, if I’m so inclined (with, like “real” yarn like DK or Aran weight.  Yeah, that’s it…)

    And then we go back to the sock for a bit.

    Let me just say that I love socks.  They’re my “thing”. You know, how everyone has something they’re good at?  Mine is socks.  Kinda a “Jack of all socks, Master of none”.  And so I think what I’m going to do is get in-depth with it and put some effort towards building an online Ensocklopedia for those who either are new to the humble sock, or a little bit terrified of trying to knit a cylinder with a bend in the middle. I want to do a detailed sock anatomy, an exploration of toe-up and toe-down techniques, as well as common heel and toe methods.

    This could take awhile. But it looks like fun!  We’ll see how it goes.

  • Just in time for the…uh…weekend…

    Just in time for the…uh…weekend…

    I kept meaning to post about last weekend’s hijinks, but got sidetracked.  I’m now on a rotating shift schedule at work, and it messes with my ability to organize my posts.  Either way, just in time for the new weekend, I bring you my adventures LAST weekend!

    We started off by driving down to the Chain Lakes, which is just outside Nanton in Southern Alberta. It was a beautifully sunny day, so we were struck by just how…deserted the lake seemed to be.  Turns out that it was also a very windy day, so the group of us had to use the jackets we’d brought as possible rain-slickers as wind breakers instead.

    Jamie spent a good part of the day fishing in the lake. He also fell in, but we don’t talk about that.

    We had to work out some kind of wind-break for our little honourary niece.  No matter where her Mummy or Gran put her, the wind was a little too vicious for her.  We finally wound up putting her in the almost-fully-enclosed baby carrier/car seat that locks into her stroller. She did a lot of sleeping, probably partially due to boredom, poor kidlet.

    It was enough to make a few folks go a little crazy…

    Afterwards, we headed back to Jamie & Lhiabelle’s place for tasty beverages and BBQ. Weather in Calgary had gotten a lot less rainy and a whole lot sunnier. Of course, the knitting came out with the sun.

    Highlight of the weekend? Lhiabelle showed me the stranded socks she’s been knitting.  She’s really gotten a bug for it.  She was off socks for awhile and dedicated herself fairly solidly to shawls and shawlettes, but it seems that the sock bug came back with her newfound love of colourwork. She found information online that suggests that knitting inside-out will help even out your floats, and it seems to have done the trick for her.  I’ll have to give it a try.

    Speaking of giving things a try, I noticed that Lhia and I both have copies of “99 Granny Squares to Crochet”.  I admit that I bought mine in a moment of weakness…I’ve never been much for crochet, and I had no idea what I would do with one Granny Square, let alone 99.  Maybe the base of a market bag or some other such nonsense?  At any rate, Lhia was making hers out of crafter’s cotton and suggested I give it a try since they make great dishcloths and trivets.  So that’s what I’ve been plunking away with in the minimal spare time I’ve had this week. Her opinion seems to be that I’m pretty good at knitting, so I should pick crochet up with little problem.  It’s a learning curve, but I think I’ve done pretty well so far with the odd tip or trick from her direction.  Thanks Lhia!

    We’ll see what this weeked has to offer! 🙂