26 Hours 45 Minutes

That's how long it took me to crochet the Dragonflies Shawl. I'm never timing anything ever again. That was such a hassle and I don't think I really wanted to know how long it actually takes. Knowing means that someone should slap me the next time I say I want to make a shawl for a swap. Seriously, how stupid was this decision?!?! The minimum time that's supposed to be spent on the large item is 2 hours. Yeesh. Well, I never claimed to be sane, right?



This is Mom modeling the shawl. After this picture she decided to run around the front yard pretending she had wings. This apple so doesn't fall too far from that tree!

 I'm really thrilled with how it turned out though. Going into this project I knew it was going to be larger than the Scarlett (Multnomah) shawl, and even though I had the finished dimensions staring me in the face on the pattern page, I still wasn't expecting it to be this big. Really came as a surprise when I went to block it. I thought it was pretty while I was working on it, but the way the lace opened up just took my breath away. Unfortunately I didn't think much about the size when I was ordering my blocking mats and now I wish I'd ordered 2 sets. Oh well, I made it work with what I had. This sucker has a wingspan of 60 inches and it's 30 inches long.

During blocking - yes, there are places where the shawl is pinned directly to the bed because I freaking need more puzzle pieces

Hanging out with the Mad Hatter and Captain Jack before blocking

I absolutely love it. Breaks my heart a bit to pack it up and ship it out. It will be winging its way to my swap partner tomorrow in the super awesome treasure chest flat rate box that I spent entirely too much time decorating yesterday when I should have been working on my socks. Since my spoilee has no idea who I am and I'm fairly certain she doesn't read my blog, I'm going to go ahead and give you all a sneak peek of what I just finished packing up. This was for the Pirates swap in the Odd Ducks group on ravelry. Yes, dragonflies are extremely piratey. Just go with me on this one ;-)

Frogging Without a Tantrum

Remember when I said that I was going to make mitts for me because I wanted to reclaim my crafting mojo? That totally didn't happen. Even after the knitting retreat last weekend I'm still in a major funk. My projects don't currently thrill me. There's nothing that I'm just dying to finish. It's a problem :-(

My plan for the knitting retreat was to finish Dragonflies (which I totally did and it's awesome and pictures will be posted eventually) and finish these mitts. I knew that cooler weather was coming, they'd be good to keep me warm at work, and mitts don't take that long so why not? It so didn't work like that. I worked on them all weekend when I wasn't spending time on the computer, swearing at the crappy wifi connection in our condo, or getting tips and practicing spinning.

I finished the ribbing and moved on to the cables. That's when I discovered that I left home without my cable needle. Apparently dark yarn in bad lighting on size 2 needles is not the right time to learn how to cable-without-a-cable-needle. Stitches were dropped, swearing occurred, then I realized I could use one of my interchangeable tips for a cable needle and I was good to go. After a few rows of the pattern, I discovered that I was having major problems with laddering going from needle 1 to needle 2 using magic loop because I broke up the stitches in the wrong place. Deciding that I really don't need to be a perfectionist and I can live with a bit of laddering if the rest of the mitts are awesome, I continued on.

I obviously didn't finish them on the retreat, and I didn't even finish one pattern repeat (needs two before I can even think about increasing for the thumb), but I brought them with me to work and knitting group to keep plugging along. I wasn't paying enough attention at knitting group and ended up crossing two of the cables in the wrong direction. I didn't discover it until three rows later and I wasn't willing to knit back three rows to fix it. Again I tried to tell myself that I don't need to be a perfectionist, and The Doctor would probably appreciate the unique quirkiness of the incorrect cables (I was telling myself anything at that point to be able to keep knitting without too much stress), so it's ok to ignore them and just finish the damn mitts.

The next day at work I planned on working on them at lunch, but I only got one row done because I kept looking at where I screwed up. This was not the quality I was used to, but my hands were freezing at my desk that morning and so I should just finish them, right? That night I just couldn't take it anymore. I reached the point at which I could choose to have a short wrist and start increasing for the thumb, or do another repeat and make them longer. I tried them on and contemplated my options, and then realized that I hated them. The pattern is beautiful, and I love the yarn, but they just don't work together. It wasn't what I wanted. I spent more time drooling over the awesomeness of how the colors played out on the back plain side than the intricate cabling. That's when I knew I needed to frog them (for those that don't know, "frogging" knitting term used when you rip out your work because you "rip-it, rip-it, rip-it"). You all know how much I hate knitting back to fix a mistake, and how ripping out a few rows (like on that lacy shawl I'm supposed to be working on but I'm still grumpy about it and refuse to touch it) makes me cranky, so the idea of frogging a week's worth of work on tiny needles made me want to cry.

But I didn't cry. I pouted a bit, but no tantrums were involved. The only time I swore was when I texted BFF that I was ripping them out and "f*** knitting - pointy ended sticks SUCK." Not the most mature of moments, but believe me that that's pretty good for me when it comes to frogging. By this point it was about 10pm on a Thursday, I knew I needed to go to work in the morning, but I also knew if I didn't fix them and start a new pair right away that I wouldn't ever finish them. I found a new pattern, started watching Boondock Saints on Netflix (because Irish accents and violence always helps), and began ripping them out.

I dug out a pair of size 1 needles (yeah, they're super tiny. 2.25mm) and started over with Koigu Wristers. I was only able to knit about 8 rows by time the movie was done, but I was feeling good about the new ones. The mitts fit so much better than the first pair. I was excited to work on them again at lunch yesterday, and even got them right out when I got home to continue working on them. Now I'm to row 20 of the ribbing and I'm excited to finish this post and get back to working on them. Maybe my crafty mojo is starting to return!!!

Thank you so much for reading this far. I know the entire story could have been taken care of with a simple blurb like "My Tenth Doctor Mitts suck so I ripped them out and started over. I didn't even cry or swear and now I'm working on new ones that are significantly more awesome." But that didn't convey the growth I went through for these. I am and always have been a crafty perfectionist. Just the fact that I didn't give up on them with the laddering problem was an amazing improvement for me. I've never ripped something out and started all over again. Normally I'd fight it to the death to finish it, or cut off the yarn and work on something else. The idea of frogging always seemed painful to me. I'm happy to say that I survived though. Maybe this means I'm growing. Or not.

Getting to know you

Here's the second part of my homework for week 1 of HSKS12. It was a lot of fun getting to know everyone and discovered some amazing projects in the works (I'm talking about you, Genevra Dreamy) and that other people agree that soft and squishy yarn is all that matters!

1. Someone with the same craft as you (either those listed above or another one): Angelina Frysia is a fellow quilter :-)
2. Someone who was born in the same month as you: November babies unite! Gryphon the Great
3. Someone from a different country: Emma Wigworthy is from the UK and is an amazing designer! I'm totally drooling over her seriously cool Slytherin socks
4. A new HSKS Family member: Hey, look - a newbie like me! Delantrophy Griey
5. Someone who has been in 3 or more HSKS swaps: Megaera Black
6. Someone who has a bigger stash than you!: Of course this is just going by the posted rav stash. I still need to finish cataloging my stash. Oy. Rowena Bladvak
7. Someone who both knits and crochets: There's a bunch of bistitual crafters in this group including Genevra Dreamy
8. Someone who has the same favorite color as you: Amethyst Aurag didn't really list a specific favorite color, but she likes bright clear colors like me and that's what counts :-)
9. Someone who has the same favorite season/holiday as you: Bella Shacklebolt gotta love the holidays!
10. Someone who has the same favorite fiber as you: Ambyr Phoenixfyre is a fellow lover of soft and squishy yarn.

You spin me right round, baby

I've hit a bump in the road with my crafting mojo. Hate it when that happens! I finished the triangles of Dragonflies and now it's time for the gusset, but the pattern isn't working like it's supposed to and I'm frustrated. I'm used to this with knitting, but I can figure anything out with crocheting except for this damn gusset. Now I'm in a funk and it seems to have spread to all my other yarny projects. Erg.

The only thing I'm really interested in knitting is the Seahawks Mitts because they're so different. But they take lots of focus and I haven't been in the mood to deal with untangling the yarn. Next time I decide to do 2 colorwork mitts on one needle, please throw something at me. I'm up to row 21 now though. Go me.

My new Knit Picks order arrived today, and with it was the yarn for my Tenth Doctor Mitts - inspired by David Tennant in Doctor Who and using Marge's Mitts pattern. I've decided I need to make something fun for me. In hopes to get excited about a new project and reclaim my crafting mojo, I started them at knitting group tonight but they didn't seem to help improve my mood. Only got 3 rows into them and I'm not sure if I'm going to like the way the cables work up with this busy yarn. I'm feeling pretty underwhelmed by them.

The best thing about group tonight was that I learned how to spin with my drop spindle! Since I bought it a couple months ago, I haven't had much luck. But yewberry came to my rescue tonight and I totally got the hang of it. I love it when the light bulb clicks on. So even though I don't want to deal with knitting or crocheting, I have spinning to look forward to at lunch tomorrow - along with the book I just can't put down (Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich).

Getting to know me

The first week's assignment for HSKS12 is to get to know each other, so this is my "all about me" post. I'll come back and update it over time to keep likes and dislikes current so it can be used for lots of other swaps too. Well, that's the plan anyway, let's see if I can stick to it ;-)

Crafts: Crochet, knit, dyeing yarn, stitch markers, jewelry, quilt, cross stitch, attempting spinning,  lots of other stuff too...
Fibers: Anything soft and squishy especially an undying love for sock yarn and Malabrigo. Hate scratchy yarns. Even Red Heart has a place in my stash - perfect for amigurumi.
Food: Pasta and ice cream. Love chocolate (reeses, snickers), kiwi, lime, vanilla, cookies (oreos), crackers (cheezits, wheat thins, goldfish), cashews
Drinks: Hot chocolate (with peppermint!), Earl Grey tea. Hate coffee that tastes like coffee, but I'm a Starbucks addict when it comes to caramel macchiatos, pumpkin spice lattes, and eggnog lattes.
Colors: Tropical blue and lime green. I love bright happy colors that don't require sunglasses if you want to look directly at them. Love 'em paired with black. This includes bright pink and purple too, orange and yellow only if it's for something non-wearable. Best wearable colors for me have a blue undertone. Not a fan of earth tones, especially olive green and rust.
Hooks and Needles: Love Boye crochet hooks and I probably have enough to last me a lifetime. Love love love my Knit Picks nickel plated interchangeables and can always use more points and cables :-)
Yarn Projects: My go-to are quick projects like amigurumi and fingerless gloves. I've recently discovered a love for shawls and one of these days I'm going to attempt socks. I freaking love cables.
Favorite Season: Fall. Really it's Halloween to Christmas since it covers my fave holidays. Halloween is my fave fun holiday, but it's tied with Christmas because I love the energy and the giving that goes along with it (so not into the religious scene, but I believe in Santa!). My birthday (Nov 12) is a close second (yes birthdays are holidays) and I try to use it as an excuse to travel every year. In third is Thanksgiving for the food and family.
Wish Lists: Amazon, Knit Picks

For the most part I'm an open book. Feel free to ask if there's anything I left out :-)