POL-IN-ATE... POL-IN-AAAAATE!

The hyper rose has begun its invasion.  This lone flower is just the beginning.  Soon, so very soon, their takeover shall be complete!  

Ok, I need to stop watching so much Dr. Who; I'm getting all melodramatic and assuming things will take over the world...  like the Daleks or Cybermen.  On that note, I highly recommend checking out all the great episodes of Dr. Who available on Netflix streaming.  They certainly have entertained this household lately :)  

In other news, yes, our insane rose bush is back and its first blooms of the season are stronger than ever. More pics to come when they are in full force and once again threatening to take over the world...  and somehow I have managed to combine gardening and sci-fi into one bizarre blog post.  Go me!

WIP Wednesday: So... where did I dissappear to?

Yeah, I've been mia lately....  at least from blogging anyway.  There's been a lot going on with trips to both Maine and the Cape in the past two weeks, but I should be able to get this blog back into shape with all the pictures I took while I was away.  With all the packing and running around I haven't had a ton of time to work on my projects, but I have made some good progress on one in the past two weeks. 

After ripping out all the work I had done on this previously, I have managed to finish the cabled yoke portion and begin the garter stitch neckline of my Brattleboro Cabled Swing Pullover.  Now, there is still a problem of sizing.  What the pattern tells me to do for my size just isn't going to happen.  Everything seems to be way and I mean WAY off!  For the cabled yoke, the pattern calls for 38 repeats of the 16 row pattern.  I did 20 and it more than goes around me.  I made the decision that I was just going to go with whatever number of repeats looked like it would fit.  It might end in tears and ripping this whole things out again, but at the moment I'm willing to be daring and take that risk in my quest to knit a sweater that actually fits me.  Worst case scenario, I end up with the shoulders and neck of a sweater that don't even come lose to fitting me and I pull the whole thing out.  Seriously.... things could be way worse.

So, I'm knitting intrepidly on the garter neck portion.  I'm thinking I should finish that and be able to sew things up by early next week.  At that point I will determine if I should proceed or toss this project into the UGH bin for a second time.



WIP Friday?

So I'm a little behind, lol. I haven't had much time to post recently, but seeing as I am currently stuck at the car dealership and have nothing better to do I thought I could do a post to kill some time.

I have quite a few works in progress right now, but not too much to show for any of them. The image above is a gauge swatch for a sweater I started back in January but thought my gauge was off, so I ripped out all I had completed to swatch and figure out what needles I should REALLY be using. Turns out my gauge was just fine and I can stick with my original needles :/

Someone else making the sweater said they had to cut down on the number of repeats across and it looks like this is what I will have to do as well. Sigh... Oh well, I need to practice knitting cables anyway! So I'm back to square one, but I'm at least sure of my gauge this time.



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Work In Progress Wednesday: Forget-Me-Knot Shawlette

I've been drooling over this cute little shawlette pattern for a few weeks now.... thinking about what yarn I would use, thinking how cute it would look wrapped around my shoulder...  Well, this Friday, after a very unexpected pattern acquirement, I found myself having to make some sort of yarn decision.  I looked through my online stash and determined that I really don't have a lot of selection in the sock yarn department (mostly because I don't really like knitting socks).  Despite the meager selection, I did find a good candidate.  I ended up choosing  my Valley Yarns Franklin Hand Dyed in the colorway Blueberry Cobbler which I bought at WEBS at least a year ago if not longer.  The pattern is called Forget-Me-Knot Shawlette and it was designed by Meghan Jackson.  You can see her other patterns on her website.  I also follow her on Twitter where you can find her as ButterflyKnit.

So, pretty pattern, yarn, and needles in hand, I sat down to cast on.  I managed to get through a few rows before heading to bed Friday night and also had some nice free time to knit during the drive down to CT for a friend's wedding.  Since, I have been able to knit quite a few more rows and am now halfway through the edging for the shawlette.  I'm really surprised at just how quickly the shawlette is knitting up.  I was worried that since the yarn was so small, it would feel like it was taking forever (kind of like knitting socks).  The pattern calls for size #6 needles, which seems to make things move along much faster than anticipated.  Also, the pattern repeats are fairly simple and very easy to memorize therefor this project has been perfect to keep with me and work on at lunch or for a few minutes when I'm waiting somewhere.  Overall, the pattern is great and I highly recommend it.  It would be a good first lace project as well if you want to give lace knitting a try but the concept scares you :) 

My Mystery Project is Complete! The Sarafia Baby Blanket

This blanket project is one I planned for months.  It all started back in December when I found out that my brother in law and his wife were going to have a baby (my first nephew!) this coming June.  After getting thirough the holiday rush I started really thinking about something for the baby back in January.  I looked at numerous patterns on Ravelry and finally decided that I was going to crochet the baby blanket rather than knit it, so I would get some real practice at the craft.   Once I had narrowed that part of things down, it didn't take me too long to decide to make the Sarafia Baby Blanket. 

I love how the pattern is so simple yet beautiful at the same time.  Simplicity was definately key to me being able to finish the project in time.  I wanted something that wouldn't be too difficult for me, since I'm pretty new to crochet, but I did want to challenge myself at the same time.  Most importantly I wanted to make sure to make a blanket that got used... one that could have things spilled on it and be thrown into the washer and dryer like any other thing you might spill on.  Finger crossed.... I think I did it. 



Probably one of my first squares and just about the only thing I posted while working on it.  Keeping this project a secret for two months while I worked on it was just about as hard as doing the actual work!




All the colors I used for the squares.  The yarn I used was Lion Brand Baby Soft, which I have to say is a great yarn.  Each skein has 459 yards and is only about $5.50, which is an insane value. The only issue I came across was that sometimes the yarn was of inconsistent thickness which made some blocks inherently bigger, but I got over that quickly enough. 




The squares are starting to add up!  I had to make 48 in all for the blanket.  Let's just say I could probably still crochet that square by heart :)




After I finished all the squares I had to piece them all together.  I ended up mattress stitching them together so that there wasn't much of a seam between the pieces and the blanket would be very strong when completed.




One row all sewn together.  I grossly underestimated how long this part would take, I will not do the same in the future.



Everything all sewn together, woohoo!





Blocking on our bed... I so didn't even have enough materials to do this.  Must acquire more before next blanket project!



Just opened by mommy to be!



They were even nice enough to pose with the blanket for me.  I have such nice and patient family members don't I? 



Getting Ready to Play in the Dirt

It is officially the time of year that I need to start thinking about what I want to plant in our little garden.  We can't do too much because we don't have a whole heck of a lot of real estate since we currently reside in a first floor apartment however, we are fortunate enough to have two reasonably large planting areas at our disposal.  We don't get a lot of sun, so most of our garden is filled with very forgiving hosta and a rather large, mutant rose bush that will most likely end up taking over the world.  For the past few years, in between the mutant rose and all our other easy going perennials, I have been planting herbs in pots to spruce up our summer culinary options. 

This year I was happy to discover that our oregano, sage, strawberries and chives have all come back.  To supplement this merry band of survivors, I went to Ferjulian's, our local greenhouse, and picked up some dill, rosemary, thyme, another type of oregano, three tomatoes from my mom and two basil plants.  

Sigh.... basil and I do not seem to get along.  I have killed it every year for at least three summers and it's starting to affect my conscience.  So, I'm going to give it another go this year... I think I know what I've been doing wrong.  I think.  Keep your fingers crossed and we'll see how this turns out.  Sadly, I believe my past failure with this herb stems from the fact that the signs of over watering and under watering are the same: things turn yellow.  My basil has always turned yellow.  Then I would panic and water it... so I'm thinking I just drowned the poor things every year :(  My suspicions have be confirmed at least partially by the stake in the pots saying "Loves sun and heat" and "Don't overwater."  We'll see how this goes.  I am diligently water everything except the basil and so far so good.  Hopefully I will get these babies in this ground this week, and won't have to worry about them relying on me quite so much.

Demo Potholder all done!

I actually have a couple more big projects I need to share with you, but... they were both baby shower gifts and therefore a surprise and thus I haven't posted a thing about them until now.  So, in an effort to get my sicky butt to bed early I thought I would start off with the finished demo potholder I started working on last week.

My first Fanciful Flower Potholder came out very well and I am extremely pleased to report that it is the thickest potholder I have ever encountered.  While this may not seem so important, let me point out that the first potholders I ever crocheted were so loosely constructed that inevitably I burn myself whenever I use them.  Granted, they were my first crochet project ever, so my gauge wasn't particularly consistent, but this latest potholder is - by design - at least twice or three times as thick and therefore very effective at protecting your hands!

After making this first one I did go out and get some new pretty cotton in better colors for working on the set I will be making for charity.  So, overall, this is a great free pattern and actually quite easy to follow.  I highly recommend it!  You can find the pattern here.