Why use foresight when you can kick yourself with hindsight?

The crocheted beaded shawl saga continues. Maybe it's the whole concept of crochet that's unlucky. When Lynne saw that I was using a crochet hook she said I'd turned to the dark side -- maybe the Crochet Gods are trying to tell me something.

Anyway, I've run out of mohair and the "shawl" is only about four feet long. I guess I'll have to use something else to make it a wearable length. I simply REFUSE to frog it again.

One idea I had was to join the two ends and make it a straight-jacket, er, wrap. Then I could put the beaded fringe all along the bottom instead of at the ends of the shawl.

Any ideas?

Once more with feeling

Remember the beautiful mohair shawl that looked like a starlit sky? Well, I've spent the last two days frogging it. You don't know what patience is until you've frogged 22 rows of mohair!

When I wound the mohair on my ball winder, it made two huge balls and I figured it was easily enough for a shawl. I followed the directions in Lily Chin's book and used the crochet hook she prescribed. After I had crocheted about a foot of material, I could see that I was running out of yarn for the first ball. Moreover, the mohair seemed too dense and didn't feel very soft. Unless I wanted to make a glitzy and fairly rigid shawl for a five year old, something had to be done. So I did it ... I ripped it out and started over.

This time I'm using a huge crochet hook and the fabric has a better hand. I still may not have quite enough for the shawl, but I can add something else on the ends as long as the fabric is draping properly. Onward and upward.

A New Start

I finally decided on a project for the beautiful mohair yarn that Lynne brought me from York, England. I'm going to do another beaded shawl but this time going in a totally different color direction. The wool is swirling shades of navy, purple, and blue-grey -- so I ordered #6 glass seed beads from Fire Mountain in what they called a "Peacock" color. The beads came in last week and I started on the shawl last night. I'm really liking it so far. It reminds me of a night sky. Mentally, I've invested it with the name "Dark Star of York," but that sounds a little pretensious for a simple crocheted shawl. Unlike the lilac shawl with white beads, the peacock beads glitter darkly and wink with unexpected color as the fabric moves. More as the project progresses ...

My ipod and I are totally connected at the hip. In fact, I need to get some softer ear buds because my ears are sore. I've discovered that the professors for several colleges podcast their lectures. Amazing! I've been listening to Astromony 161 from O.S.U. professor Richard Pogge. Apparently, he started podcasting so that students could catch up on lectures they missed or review them before tests. However, lots of other people are listening in too. Did I mention how much I love the Internet!!!?

P.S. DISASTER! The Orkin man came by today for his routine spraying and when he came near my desk he knocked over my huge jade plant and spilled ALL THE SEED BEADS. What a MESS! Dirt and leaves from the plant and tiny, tiny beads all over the floor ... At least he helped to pick them up and I refrained from using any colorful language. Argh!

First FO of 2007

I just finished the socks I started for my Dad before Christmas. They're sort of boring man socks, navy blue, but he wouldn't wear them if they were wild looking. The beauty of these socks is in the feel -- they're made out of Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino and they feel heavenly.

Recapping the year

Now that we're well into January, I thought I'd take a look back at the year 2006 -- from a knitting perspective. Strangely, I could only list about four finished items when I thought back. Looking at my blog archives, though, I came up with a total of 10.

Now, that's nothing for Wendy Johnson or Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, but, for me, ten finished items is an accomplishment. So, here they are:

Number 1. The Dachshund Lovers Sweater. This is the sweater I knitted for my Mom's birthday in honor of her little dachshund, Heidi. I've never actually seen her wear it, but at least she knows I love her.

Number 2. Felted Mittens (Red and Green). I count these as one because I did them at the same time. They were really fun and quick to knit and I love the magic of felting. I ran slightly short of yarn for the ribbed cuffs inside the felted mitten body and I was a little annoyed at Knitpicks for that. But they still turned out O.K. I thought they might be good Christmas presents when I made them, but having to substitute some white yarn in the cuffs made me too self-conscious about them to consider them gift material.

Number 3. Felted clogs. This is the Fibertrends pattern for felted clogs. People either love it or hate it. I love it, but it can be a little tricky. These are definite gift material and I hope the recipient -- who has not yet received them -- likes them.

Number 4. Green Knitpicks Self-Patterning Socks. I love these socks. They're comfortable and washable and they match a sweater I like to wear. The only problem with them is, again, there was slightly less yarn in the Knitpicks skein than I expected and I had to finish out the toe on the second pair with another sock yarn.

Number 5. Illusion Scarf "Seeing Red." This is the scarf that I made for the Guild's "Black, White and Red All Over" competition last summer. It's knit in black and white KnitPicks wool and has the word "red" worked into it several times in illusion knitting. This was a really cool and fun project and the Guild awarded me first prize for it. I was so proud!

Number 6. Socks That Rock Socks. These are lovely socks but I think the gauge knits up a little larger than I'm used to and they turned out sort of big. Sloppy me, I didn't swatch it. Still, they're quite wearable and very soft and squishy. Next time I buy expensive sock yarn like Socks That Rock, I'll have to be more careful. Another thing about these socks -- one is paler than the other. As is common with hand dyed yarns, one of the skeins was significantly lighter than the other and it really shows up in the socks.

Number 7. The Shrek II Pillow. I got the idea for this pillow when I ordered some raw Shrek II wool from Elizabeth Ashford. Shrek was part of a group of merino sheep that were lost for about six years in the wilds of New Zealand. When the group was located by helicopter and rounded up, they were sporting six years of unshorn fleece. I ordered a little of the fleece, washed it, combed it, spun it and knitted into this pillow. The Shrek wool is the white. Then I sent a picture of it to Elizabeth Ashford to enter in a competition for making something out of the Shrek II wool. I WON! It was so cool. My pillow is featured in "The Wheel" magazine along with some of my comments about making the pillow. Elizabeth also sent me a pound of her new alpaca blend wool top.

Number 8. White School Socks. I made these for Kate in response to her request for some school socks. I had a really hard time finding any solid bright white sock yarn, either wool or cotton. Finally, I ended up with some KnitPicks sport weight white yarn, knitted them up and she took them with her on her school trip to Washington, D.C. For a long time we thought she only returned with one sock, but the second one finally turned up. Unfortunately, just wearing the socks apparently felted them pretty thoroughly. They look sort of strange now and Kate has never worn them again. When I went by the LYS today, I found two balls of bright white Cascade Fixation and I think I may try again in cotton.

Number 9. KnitPicks Fair Isle Socks. These socks were so fun to knit! They look incredibly difficult but actually you only use two yarns, one solid and one varigated. My sister, Kathryn, made the same socks out of black and jewel tones. Since I usually wear brown shoes, I altered the wool to brown and natural tones. I was afraid as I was knitting them that they wouldn't fit: the fair isle doesn't make a very stretchy sock. However, I was pleasantly surprised and I can wear them.

Number 10. Lily Chin's Beaded Shawl. I made this shawl for the Friendship Spinner's Christmas exchange at the Shakertown Retreat. It's made of lilac Suri Dream yarn, which is Suri alpaca spun around a core of nylon to make a yarn that looks like mohair, but is much softer. The shawl is crocheted and it has over a thousand #6 seed beads worked into it. It was really pretty easy to make, but a little tedious to work all the beads into it. Nancy Reid received the shawl and she really seemed to like it.

So, that's my year in knitting.

Right now my UFOs are:

a. Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino socks for my Dad

b. My Qiviut moebius lace scarf

c. My red oak leaf lace alpaca scarf (which has been languishing for years ....)

d. The second sock out of the handspun wool won in the Shrek competition

e. My "winging it" rare wools handspun vest needs a back.

And today I bought yarn for two more pairs of socks ....

Roc, paper, scissors?

We had a very happy Roc day at the Guild house last Saturday. Traditionally, Roc day or St. Distaff's Day is the day after Epiphany and we celebrate it by having a get together on the Saturday nearest to Epiphany with mini-classes and lunch.

I took two great classes. In the morning I learned a little about kumihimo braiding. The picture doesn't show it very well, but we learned how to make a very complex round braid perfect for purse handles and other things where an I-cord might be used.

Then, in the afternoon, I made needle felted flowers. These can be used for all kinds of embellishments. The first thing that springs to mind, though, is a flower on a felted hat.

In addition to trying out my new crafts, I've been playing with my new Christmas toy. My DH got me an ipod and, although I'm still not a pro at using it, I'm quickly becoming addicted. I've learned how many knitting and spinning podcasts there are and I'm downloading them and listening a LOT. I'm trying to find out which ones I really like and which ones I can pass over. So far, I've found at least three or four that I really want to stay current on. It's sort of like keeping up with the Yarn Harlot. People usually do a podcast once a week or so. Anyway, I've got a new best friend -- my little ipod.

I've been up to my elbows in clay for the past two days trying to help my friend Siena put together a class project for Ally's class at school. It's going to be very interesting and artistic -- at least I hope it will. We're making clay tiles for each of the 58 students in the sophomore class and we're going to ask the students to personalize them with paint. After firing them in the kiln, we're going to hang them on an iron trellis with copper wire and beads. It should be a beautiful (and unique) piece of art when we're done. We've got our fingers crossed anyway that it will sell at the school auction in February.