dishcloth mania continues

I'm not sure why I'm so into dishcloths right now, but I am. I think it's the practically instant gratification, especially when they are crocheted. In any case, I have finished three more since my last post.

The green and white and blue and white yarns are Lily Sugar n Cream stripes and I really like they way they both turned out in these dishcloths. That spiral cloth on the right is a neat pattern but mine doesn't lay flat, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. It could simply be too tight since I have a G and an I but no H hook, and that's the size suggested by the pattern. These three total to 182 more yards of yarn used which brings my usage total to 530, which means that I am now free to go to Purlescence and get that one ball of sock yarn to make my niece's socks. Whew! I can pick up a size H hook while I'm there.

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making a deal

I have been busy, traveling and knitting and… buying yarn. You saw the yarn I bought in the Netherlands. I then bought some hemp yarn in Philadelphia and Teenuh picked up some Sugar' n cream for me at Michael's because it was dirt cheap (DIRT CHEAP!) and then I had a bag of All Seasons Cotton waiting for me when I got home.

I finished an Ilene Bag, a double flower dishcloth and the socks for my nephew Sven.

So, I'm realizing that I'm drowning in yarn. I keep buying sweater quantities but not finishing sweaters. I made a deal with Kristi, a yarn deal. The deal is that if either one of us buys yarn we have to pay each other $5 per 8oz of sock yarn or fiber or 16oz of sweater yarn. The exception is if we have used up twice what we're buying. I updated my Ravelry stash page tonight. I currently have 19805.7 yards of yarn. I used 90 yards of that to make the dishcloth, so I am counting that towards my next yarn purchase.

Now I'm off to work on my socks so I can get yarn to knit another pair. Wish me luck!

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operation washcloth

I was possessed by the washcloth urge on Sunday, as I often seem to be. I crocheted two of the Practically Hyperbolic Dishcloth while at Boba, and promptly gave them to Anabel for her girls. The wee one was interested in it while I was making it so I thought it might entertain her while Anabel got to knit. That worked for a few minutes. (Ravelry Project Details)

Then yesterday I made a broomstick lace dishcloth. I have the Crochet Broomstick Lace Jacket pattern and I had no idea how to do broomstick lace, so I figured this would be good practice. I was pleasantly surprised by how the colors stacked up in the lace. (Ravelry Project Details)

I have to say, that's a pretty cool technique. I look forward to trying it in the jacket. It's super fast too, of course.

The fourth hyperbolic dishcloth finished that ball of Sugar n Cream and I went eagerly to my Ravelry stash page to delete it and reduce my stash yardage. I hadn't entered it. Don't you hate when that happens?

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road trip knitting

We drove up to Portland this week to visit family. That's 10 hours of Erik driving for me to knit! Well, I drove for a few hours on the way up, but I did get a lot of knitting done. On the way up, I finished my Mingus socks, knit a couple of fish tawashis for the boys and knit part of a dishcloth that ended up being ripped out. On the way back, I made a lot of progress on my Chocolate Tomato.

In other news, the views on the way were amazing. I continue to be astonished by the California landscape.

mt shasta again

Then when were in Portland we drove out to see Multnomah Falls and I learned just how gorgeous Oregon's scenery is as well.

multnomah falls

The kids brought their umbrellas and were hoping to get splashed by the falls.

There are also gorgeous views to be had of the Columbia River Gorge. Of course, the photographs don't do it justice.

columbia river gorge

Then there was the drive home, which involved snow and below freezing temperatures! Talk about crazy.

Nuts!

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cutting fabric, buying yarn

I had to go to JoAnn today to buy fabric for the textiles class I'm helping to teach at Niels' school. I always have to swing down the yarn aisle because I want to see if they are carrying the Lion Brand organic cotton yet. At least, that's what I tell myself. They weren't carrying it, but they did have the new Sugar 'n Cream self-striping yarn. I'm curious to see how it actually stripes up. I plan to make ball band dishcloths from both of the balls I got, perhaps together, perhaps not.

The rest of my free time today was spent cutting fabric, basically. I had to cut out 100 or so 8" squares of quilt cotton, which had to be ironed first. Then I cut out 30 or so pairs of 9" (sort of) of polar fleece for pillows. I hope I don't have to cut any more fabric for a while. That was kind of a lot of work! Look how pretty, though.

squares galore!

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oink

stefan’s pig

I made Stefan a pig for his birthday (Ravelry project details). I wanted to finish it in time for his party which had a loose animal theme, but I wasn't fast enough. He really likes it and Niels, my mother and one of Niels' friends have all requested pigs of their own.

I also made Nada Nother Bunny Buddy last week for my cousin's wife, who is pregnant (Ravelry project details). I'm hoping that it got there on time for the baby shower yesterday, so now I can post it, since she reads this blog.

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a mouse in my house!

I must confess that one of the things I'm really loving about crochet is just how fast the small projects are. Over the weekend, I made a string bag, which my mother was admiring so much that I think I'll make one for her too. Then yesterday and today I made a little mouse which Niels glommed on to. I had intended it to be for Stefan, actually, since I knit a mouse for Niels when I was pregnant. I can just whip up another crocheted one for Stefan though, super fast!

Amigurumi!: Super Happy Crochet Cute

The mouse is from my birthday present from Kristi, Amigurumi, Super Happy Crochet Cute. The Bobaknitters have named the doll on the far right in the photo "Strawberry Slutcake" because you can see her panties in one of her photos. Tsk tsk, Strawberry. I wasn't going to make her anyway. Stefan said, "ooo ooo ah ah!" when he saw the book cover, oh and he made his pig noise which sounds like a snort, so I might be making the pig before the monkey. It does look simpler and I got some eyes from Michael's the other day. They only had one choice, though, so I ordered more online in various sizes. I think the safety eyes will make a difference in the cute factor. Kristi also clued Teenuh in to the fact that I need pink yarn (I guess we had been talking about making pigs earlier) so I have some. All I need really is felt for the little feet. I have a ton of embroidery floss somewhere. I have to find it. I guess I should be relieved that I never found a taker for all my cross stitch supplies that I tried to give away.

Knitted Toys: 25 Fresh & Fabulous Designs

Cookie also gave me a toys book for my birthday: Zoe Mellor's knitted toys. There are a ton of cute patterns in that one too. I might make a "stash snake" one of these days. I also really like the birds in the top left corner of the cover, you make several and hang them on a string with large beads in between. It's really cute

I'm all about the cute these days. Cute and easily finished!

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second crochet project

bath mat dish cloht

I am still working on my Husband Hybrid Sweater and Lotus Blossom Tank, but they aren't making for interesting photos or blog fodder and today I crocheted a dish cloth using the same stitch pattern as the bath mat. I used a partial ball of Sugar n Cream that I inherited from Kristi's stash when she moved away. My kitchen scale says it's 1.75 ounces, so it's almost a whole ball. The cloth ended up being 10 inches square, more or less. I really like it. I tried to use the dish cloth pattern on the ball band from my other ball but I couldn't quite get what they were saying to do. I need a crochet to knitter dictionary or something!

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my first crochet project done

My bath mat is finished. It's quite a bit smaller than the pattern planned because I had 25% less yarn. I'm fine with that, though, it will fit perfect in my downstairs bathroom which has a very small floor. I am tempted to try the crochet dish cloth patterns that are on the ball band of the Sugar n Cream but I need to knit on the Husband Hybrid sweater a bit first.

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