Crocheting

I got quite a bit of crocheting done last month and this past week, mostly during the Olympics.

Finished:

The "Curling Scarf" (because I watched a good bit of curling while I worked on it):


Done in Naturally Caron's Country, a mohair/microdenier acrylic blend, in two shades of purple plus off-white. The pattern is the Stripes and Bars No Weaving Ends scarf from Crochet.about.com. Haven't decided yet if I want to leave the fringe as-is, add more, or weave it in. I blocked it once, but it was a half-baked job and needs to be redone to get rid of the curl at the corners. And of course, now that it's finished, temps are in the 50s and I don't need it.

Then my mom and one of her sisters came to visit, and Auntie wants a hat like El Burrito's. Her breast cancer is back, and has spread all over (jaw, shoulder, etc.) and she wanted a nice soft hat to wear. I used Red Heart Soft in Toast and Paprika (love the names!). I tried something new - I made center-pull balls out of the skeins, then put each ball in one half of a pair of super-cheap knee-high panty hose to keep the outer layers from unwinding (had that issue with the Caron). It worked pretty well, and only cost 50 cents.


I used the earflap hat pattern from the 2008 Pattern-a-Day calendar; it's turning into my go-to earflap hat pattern. Here's the finished hat, modeled by El Burrito:


and by El Burrito's newest pet (El Burrito seems to be on strike as a hat model):

The colors looked really well; the Toast isn't as olive-green as this picture looks on my screen.


Next up: possibly a Scandinavian Hat for me, done in purples; or the Gaelic Bay Afghan in Lion's Fishermen's Wool; or a hat for my mom; or lots of dishcloths to use up this pile of Lily Sugar 'n' Cream that seems to have bred in the closet.

Something for the To-Do list

To do: I need to look at my online inventory at Half.com and Amazon Marketplace, and rethink whether some of the lower-priced books are worth it.

Just sold a paperback at Amazon. Selling price was $3.50, and after Amazon's commission (higher than Half, admittedly), postage, and the mailer, I made a whopping $1.34.

More crocheting

Olympic update: the Scandinavian hat is done (I think*), and I'm 80% done with the scarf. Then I'm starting a hat for an aunt who's having a recurrence of breast cancer. She was admiring El Burrito's earflap hats and wants one of her own, so I'm shooting to have it done by the end of next week. The scarf may be done tonight, depending on how exciting the curling matches are. :)

* I think I finished it before I sent it off. I may have forgotten to seam the inside lining of the hat, but I'll have to wait to find out. Oopsie.

Olympic crocheting

I didn't manage to get organized in time to sign up for any crocheting Olympics, but I have done some.

The Scandinavian Hat #1 is finished. It was my first hat that wasn't worked in rounds, and came out fairly well. I did have issues with the cross-stitching done for decoration, since I had to drop some rows because I couldn't make gauge for love or money. The X design on the brim came out a bit off, since there was a different number of stitches than the pattern needed.

Then I started what will probably be called the Curling Scarf, since that's 95% of what we've watched this Olympics. It's a pattern from Crochet.about.com, done in long rows with fringe (so no weaving-in). I'm using Naturally Caron's Country, a merino/acrylic blend, in two shades of purple, plus a winter white. This is my first shot at treble/triple crochet and spike/long stitches.

Crochet: the Scandinavian Hat(s)

True to form, I started a new crochet project before the last three (ha!) are officially finished. (The tan/brown/rust hat for El Burrito needs a pompom, maybe. The wool blue & purple hat for me needs a pompom and longer strings, and the wool hat Version 1.0 for El Burrito needs a pompom, maybe.)

Last weekend, I started on another hat, this one for my brother's girlfriend/fiance. It's the Scandinavian Hat pattern from Red Heart, which we saw in a Crochet Today magazine ad. I couldn't find the Red Heart Soft yarn at Hobby Lobby, so I ended up with Hobby Lobby's "I Love This Yarn" store brand. The hat is mostly black, which I swore off after doing a scarf for my sister in black and iris Microspun. Turns out most of the problem there was that Microspun is a really loose twist, and splitty as all heck. I Love This Yarn doesn't have that problem. It's easy to work with so far, in spite of using a dark color and having the crappiest indoor lighting ever.

This is the first hat I've done that was seamed instead of worked in the round. My big issue so far is that I could not make the pattern's gauge for anything. I started over three times, ending up with a hook 2 sizes smaller than listed, and still wasn't hitting gauge. So I got a measuring tape and dropped a dozen or so stitches off the foundation chain in order to hit the 22-inch length I needed. I also had to drop a couple of rows out of the pattern, which meant winging it on the decreases at the top. Seems to be working out so far, I'm doing the border right now and will start on the lining when that's done.

After I get Future Sister-in-Law's hat done, I'm doing one for myself. I may need another skein of black, but I'll have plenty of red and tons of white left over.

The other nice thing about HL's I Love This Yarn is that they make the center-pull end so easy to find. Lovely, so I don't have to spend an hour unrolling the skein and rolling it back into a center-pull ball.

Sickness & infection

I spent my day, or most of it, trapped on the couch with a sickly young man. What fun, because he insisted on watching "little boy shows" (i.e. the PBS Kids daytime lineup) and on having me right there with him. I did get some crocheting done, but not much else.

For the morning, we waited for a call-back from the pediatrician's office, then went in for a visit, and stopped at the pharmacy on the way home. Turns out El Burrito has an ear infection with a side order of possible strep, and, oh yeah, have we noticed any ear drainage, because Dr. P wasn't sure, but that ear looked a little moist and the eardrum may have ruptured recently, it's hard to tell, and anyway it's healing already if it did happen.

Which is why I spent the rest of the afternoon pinned to the couch by an unhappy and clingy young man. So much fun. I did get to read a bit (awkwardly, since he was draped over my lap), and after he finally dozed off, did some crocheting (a hat for my brother's girlfriend/fiance) and watched The Good Wife.

I really hope the amoxicillin works fast, because our couch is actually a love seat, and is definitely not suited for an all-day camp-out. Doesn't help that it's old and sags in places, either.

Library stats

For the record: today we have 33 items out (and only 3 of those are El Burrito's) and 3 on hold.