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 ;-)

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).

Learning Something New

After my frustration with the After Hours shawl, I decided to take a break from knitting for a couple of days. I've finished several more rows in Dragonflies and I think the end is finally in sight. I still have 75 more shells to do (and the dragonfly gusset), but there shouldn't be any problem getting this shipped off to my swap partner by the end of the month. Yippie!

The break from the needles didn't last too long though, and soon enough I was back to working on the Ggester at lunch. This hat is crazy huge, but I don't think it'll be too much of a problem for wearing. It's just a silly hat, so who cares if it's a bit loose. I know I said that I was only going to work on it at lunch, but this morning I just wanted something mindless and soothing to work on so I started and finished the first of the 3 "happy points." Unfortunately I was a bit too mindless while working on it and ended up screwing up the placement of the seam and decreases. The decreases are on the outside instead of the inside of the point which means it's not going to hang how it's supposed to. Also means that if I fix my mistake with the other points then they won't hang naturally from my head. I think I've figured out how to fix it, but I'm really not looking forward to the other 2 points.

The yarn finally came on Thursday for BFF's Seahawks Mitts! I don't remember if I've said this or not, but I decided on Transition Gloves for the pattern and this means I finally have to learn color work. This isn't a traditional Fair Isle pattern, but the same techniques are used for adding color. The ribbing is done only in green on tiny Size 1 needles, then it's time to switch to Size 3 and start adding the blue. So far I think I'm doing ok. My tension was off for the first couple of rows, but I think I've solved that problem by holding the green working yarn in one hand, and the blue in the other. It's really strange getting used to using both hands for adding yarn, but I think I've started to get the hang of it. Finished row 12 last night. Only a bajillion more to go. Oh, and for added fun, I'm doing them 2 at a time on 1 needle. It's how I've done the past sets of gloves and didn't expect any problems. That was before it occurred to me that I have 4 balls of working yarn hanging from my needles. Obviously not the brightest decision I've ever made, but after the first night and a tangled mess, I think I've got a rhythm down to prevent massive tangling. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I can't believe I forgot to post this with last weekend's pictures, but I've started on Swatch #3 - Seed Stitch. It was fun and relaxing for the first couple of rows (and I don't seem to be having any problems with it), but now I find it to be downright boring. I've been avoiding finishing it all week, but I should really get back to it so I can finish it and move on to something more interesting!

In other news, I've signed up for the Hogwarts Super Kit Swap 12 (HSKS12) and received my spoiler and spoilee information tonight! The term actually starts on Monday (I think) and since this is my first round with HSKS I'm super excited to get started. Unlike my usual swaps I know who my upstream contact is and my downstream knows who I am so it looks like I'll be making some new HP friends. This group really seems to focus on getting to know each other and creating really awesome and special swap boxes for the spoilees. This swap is based on book 7 (timing with the new movie) so our theme is horcruxes and instead of being sorted into houses, we were sorted into families. I'm part of Ron's Muddle-Headed Mates. Sounds about right, dontcha think? Instead of my usual Slytherin silver and green, we get new colors too: Maroon and Orange. This scares me more than a little, but it still has potential. Can't wait to see if and what my spoilee does with it!


Day 12, Triangle 2: 21 shells = 2 hours 20 min
Average: 6.6 minutes per shell (this was at Wednesday night craft group)
Day 13, Triangle 2: 12 shells = 60 min
Average: 5 minutes per shell
Total: 231 shells = 18 hours

Lace + Heroes = Bad Idea

After having such great luck yesterday with my After Hours shawl, I spent all day today itching to get back to it. It was just so much fun. Knowing that I reallllllly need to get Dragonflies done by the end of the month, and that I don't actually have to finish After Hours until Christmas, I was a good girl and did a row of Dragonflies while watching Heroes before getting back to the knitted lace. The problem is that I got involved in the plot and I didn't want to stop watching it when I wanted to start working on the lace. Yesterday I discovered that it takes one heck of a lot of concentration to follow the chart and knit with fingering weight yarn on slippery size 11 needles. I had to give up on watching tv or trying to chat with anyone and just focus on the pattern. Once I got into the groove I was able to turn music on, but that's it. Tonight I started out with the music and the knitting, but I sooooooo wanted to know what happened on the show and I thought I was doing good with the pattern reading, so I got cocky and watched the next episode. Big mistake. On the row before I was supposed to put in the next lifeline I totally screwed up. Somehow I'm off by like 2 stitches. It's enough of a difference that it needs to be fixed, but I can't figure out where the problem is. I just stared at it for like half an hour. This is what I get for being distracted by the pretty. How can I be expected to focus on the knitting with Peter and Sylar fighting. I should have just put down the needles. But I didn't. And now I'm paying for it. Arg. I should also know better than to knit at night. Now I'm all craky and sad and stressed and tired and sleeping is going to be an issue. Also having a total "I freaking hate knitting" moment. So wish me luck. In a few seconds I'm going to rip out 9ish rows of lace. Yeah, thats more than 3 hours worth of work. I'm going to have to step away from this for a few days before I kill it. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Maybe I'll put lifelines in every other row now.

This means I don't have a pretty crafty pic to post tonight. The second triangle of Dragonflies looks exactly like the first one, and the current state of After Hours is less than the pic I posted yesterday. Dammit. Seems wrong not to post a picture of something though, so here's a shot of Peter trying to kill Sylar - the scene that started it all. Stupid distracting tv.

Day 11, Triangle 2: 9 shells = 40 min
Average: 4.4 minutes per shell
Total: 198 shells = 14 hours 40 min

Happy Labor Day!

This weekend was a crazy busy one and I should really be thinking about sleep, so this is just going to be a quick post with lots of pictures :-)

On Friday I finished Swatch #2 and got a couple more rows done on the Slytherin Ggester.

Saturday was filled with dyeing 3 skeins of yarn (Buttered Popcorn, Secret Santa, and Clifford), and lots of work on Triangle #2 of Dragonflies.

Sunday I went to the fair and didn't do any craftyness of any sort. I did try deep fried oreos though. Can we say ewwwwwwwwww?

Today was spent recovering from all day at the fair. Made some stitch markers for some upcoming swaps (I love my new design!) and for the After Hours shawl since the TARDIS ones I love so much are just too cumbersome for this lace project. I also got to row 15 on the shawl! Not one problem with it yet. Go me :-D I love that I can finally start to see the design coming together. Btw the red line through the pattern is a lifeline. If I do encounter any problems I can rip back to that row and it'll hold my stitches so I don't have to start the whole thing over again.

Day 10, Triangle 2: 36 shells = 2 hours 35 min
Average: 4.3 minutes per shell
Total: 189 shells = 14 hours

Planning for September

Last week was awesome. I spent lots of time crafting, but I wasn't under any pressure. All I had to do was finish Spock and work on Dragonflies. I finished Spock ahead of schedule and life was good. I even prepared for the upcoming KALs I'm starting this week. My crafting mojo rocked. But September is almost here, which is just that much closer to birthdays and Christmas. I'm going for a completely hand made Christmas, which means I should have started the crafting a couple months ago. Oops. At least I'm thinking of it now instead of in early December like I usually do!

Even though I should be focusing on gifts, I started the Mad Hatters KAL today with my super awesome TioLiRR swap group. For those that don't know, KAL stands for knit-a-long. This time around we're knitting bettymcknit's Ggester (pattern is on sale now for the KAL if you want it at a discount and knit along with us) and since there's a bunch of HP fans in our little group there's at least one person from each house knitting in house colors. I am, of course, knitting mine in green and silver for Slytherin. Yeah! I've decided this is going to be my lunch time knitting project so I'm not eating up my big blocks of crafty time with something silly just for me. I'm already to row 6 of the ribbing!

Wednesday will be the first day for the After Hours Shawl KAL. I'm really excited to start this one because it will be my first attempt at knitting lace and working with beads. Mom really liked the look of it, so this is going to be her Christmas present. I hope to finish it fairly quickly so she still has time to forget about it before December 25th rolls around. The pattern won't be released until Sept 1st, but my yarn and beads are ready to go!

I just put the finishing stitches in on the first triangle of Dragonflies. I'm under my predicted time and hope to keep reducing speed. Didn't take a new picture because I'm lazy, but it doesn't look a whole lot different than it did yesterday. I have a month left until I have to ship it out - lets hope I don't so distracted with the new projects that I forget about it. I'm still really enjoying working on it so I don't see that being a problem... yet.

This afternoon the BFF sprung on me that she'd really like some fingerless gloves in Seahawks colors so now I'm looking up patterns to see what I can throw together for her birthday. I have between now and Oct 19 to figure out and execute colorwork. Eek! Somewhere in there I should also start working on my Knitting Masters program since I received the coursework today and bought my swatch yarn, figure out wtf I'm going to make for Dad for his birthday and/or Christmas (he's the worst person to shop for, even harder to make things for), and start crocheting sparkly snowflakes. The next couple of months are going to be crazy!

Day 9, Triangle 1: 17 shells = 1 hour 10 min
Average: 4.1 minutes per shell
Total: 153 shells = 11 hours 25 min

Super productive weekend

I was totally the queen of multi-tasking this weekend. I woke up on Saturday, decided that I had a bunch of stuff I needed to get done, then jumped right in! On Wednesday I received a bunch of bare yarn and dyed a couple of skeins on Thursday. They were still drying in the shower on Saturday so I decided to add more yarn! 5 skeins kettle dyed!!! I came up with some really cool colors, and discovered that I apparently have something against the color yellow. This is the second major dyeing weekend that I made every color but yellow. Weird! The ones I dyed yesterday are still drying so I hope to have pictures soon, but in the meantime I can show off the ones from Thursday that are finally dry :-)

Bruise - Superwash Worsted

Currently Untitled - Superwash Sock

In between running back and forth to the crock pot, I did a ton of clerical work on ravelry. Updated my queue and did some organization (still need to work on that), added to my stash page, and did some research for upcoming swaps. I even got some more work in with my graphic designer for the labels she's designing for my yarn. Yay!

Today was all about more rav work, lunch and yarn shopping with Valeta (she loved the yarn I dyed and named after her - can't wait to see what she makes with it!), then back home for some actual crafting time. While at Main Street Yarn, I fell in love with a couple skeins of yarn, but due to my current yarn diet I was in pain over the idea of not buying them. Then brilliance struck! It's time to start thinking about xmas presents if I want a handmade xmas, so I was able to justify the purchase. I got the yarn for a KAL I'm starting this week (more on that tomorrow), and 2 skeins of mini mochi for a shawl for a receptionist friend of mine. I love the mochi and it's in colors I'd never use for myself but I'm sure it will be just beautiful on her.

While at Valeta's I was able to finish Buffy's arms and get some more work done on the Dragonflies shawl. I finished up the few rows on Dragonflies when I got home and now all I have is one more row of shells left on the first triangle! I feel like this is going quicker than I expected, though there's still a bunch more work left to do.

Mom was really productive this weekend too and made me a couple of new project bags! A Slytherin one for my Ggester KAL and a special sized Very Hungry Caterpillar one for my dolls so they don't get squished in my other bags. There's also a couple more in the works. She rocks like that!

Inspired by my new awesome bags, I decided to be a good girl and do my swatches for the 2 KALs I'm starting this week. I got to play with the new yarn and my gauge was right on the mark. Can't wait to cast on my hat, but it's going to have to wait for tomorrow. At least I'm all ready to go now! Woo hoo :-D

The other major thing that happened this weekend is that I signed up for the TKGA Hand Knitting Master Level 1 program. It's going to be a ton of work, but I'm really excited! Just waiting for my coursework to arrive now...

Day 8, Triangle 1: 31 shells = 2 hours 5 min
Average: 4.1 minutes per shell
Total: 136 shells = 10 hours 15 min

A Weekend To Dye For

Last weekend I spent the vast majority of Saturday and Sunday dyeing yarn, and this is what I came up with. When I got home from my sailing adventure today I set them all up on my swifts and reskeined them so I wouldn't have big blocks of color in the same spot. I think it really helps show off all the variations of color throughout the skein. I'm so excited! I love the way they came out, and I had such a good time dyeing that I think I'm going to take a shot at selling my dyed yarn. I've discovered that my favorite method for dyeing seems to want to start felting the yarn, so I think from here on out I'm only going to work with superwash so I get the results I'm really looking for. So... without futher ado... picture time!!!

Peppermint Ice Cream - Bulky (137 yards)

Falling Leaves - Worsted (3 skeins at 220 yards each)

Alien Slime - Lace (800 yards)

Purple People Eater - Fingering (440 yards)

Dusk - Fingering (440 yards)

I even got some time in this evening to do some more work on the shawl. I'm pretty tired so I only got one more row done, but my time is finally starting to improve. Yay!

Day 4, Triangle 1: 11 shells = 45 minutes

Average: 4.1 minutes per shell
Total: 66 shells = 5 hours 20 minutes

Friends Don't Let Friends Knit Drunk

Alcohol + pointy objects = not a good idea, especially when yarn is involved. For those that know me, you know that I'm not much of a drinker, and the one time I attempted knitting a dishcloth after one bottle of Mike's hard lemonaid was not a happy evening. Lots of dropped stitches, screwy tension, and swearing. Not a pretty picture. But no one ever says anything about crocheting and drinking...

This weekend I had an adventure on the high seas! Ok, so it was a short sailing trip from the Everett to Hat Island, but it was definitely not an everyday event for me. On Saturday morning several of my coworkers piled into 3 boats and headed towards Hat. At one point I even got to steer the boat. Go me! Good thing I had my pirate shirt on ;-)

Eventually we made our way up to the house, unloaded all the overnight gear and food, then got to relax. We sat around chatting and drinking and life was good. Especially when they made a big bowl of the best slushie ever. Fresh peaches and raspberries in a large mixing bowl with some tonic and a whole bottle of Skyy vodka. My kind of fruity awesomeness. This is definitely in my top 5 favorite drinks! Anyway, once the yummyness was gone, and we continued to sit around chatting, I decided it was time to break out the yarn. Based on past experience one might this this wasn't a particularly bright idea, but that wasn't about to stop me - I was going through yarn withdrawal. I was good and even kept track of my time. Can you believe that I managed to keep to my rate of 5 minutes per shell???

By the time I'd finished 2 rows (19 shells), dinner was ready and I put the yarn away for the rest of the weekend. I had a killer headache anyway and was getting pretty tired. We ate dinner, chatted some more, watched part of the Seahawks game, then it was time for bed. This morning I was pretty much a zombie, but didn't need much brain power to pack up the sleeping bag, eat breakfast, and head home. I was soooooo happy to get home. The weekend was fun, but that's a lot of time to spend with coworkers and I'm not particularly looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. Oh well. When I got home I just crashed. Now that my brain is starting to work a bit better, I did the math on the crocheting (no way was I up to that last night) and got out the shawl to inspect it. I'm very proud of myself - the tension is even, I'm not missing any stitches, and I don't have anything crazy going on like 15 posts in one shell. Yay, I don't have to take anything out!!!

Now it's time to go work on the pointy eared bastard or reskein yarn. It's so good to be home and back to my yarn :-)

Day 3, Triangle 1: 19 shells = 1 hour 35 minutes
Average: 5 minutes per shell
Total: 55 shells = 4 hours 35 minutes

Time For a New Shawl

The doll I've been designing lately has been giving me problems for the past few days (friggin little pointy eared bastard), so I decided it was time for a change of pace. Last night my Knit Picks order arrived full of all kinds of scrumptious yarn such as my Springtime Shadow Tonal lace yarn. I instantly popped it on the new swift (so in love with the new swift!), wound it into a cake, and went off to knitting group.

I spent most of group working and reworking the pointy eared bastard's arms, gave up, and started work on the Dragonfly Shawl. All I had time for was the gauge swatch (which I recently learned is VERY IMPORTANT), and it measured up perfectly! Since I was so stressed last night, it didn't really come out to my liking so I decided to start over today at lunch. With my pattern book sitting out on the table, a coworker came up to check it out then asked a million questions about it - the most interesting one being "how long does it take you to make something like this?" I honestly didn't have a clue. It's been forever since I timed anything I've crafted, so I decided to pay attention this time around. In the following half hour I was able to eat my sandwich and complete 6 shells, so 5 minutes per shell.

When I got back to my desk I decided to quickly do the math. 153 shells per triangle, 2 triangles = 306 shells. 182 shells at 5 minutes each equals 25.5 hours!!! That doesn't even count the panel of dragonflies in the middle. I'm hoping that once I get into a rhythm with the pattern that it isn't going to take me 5 minutes per shell, but I felt like I was moving pretty quickly. So... here's the goal: I'm going to keep track of time worked on this shawl and see if I can do it under 25 hours. Ready? Set.... Go!!!

Day 1, Triangle 1: 28 shells = 2 hours 20 minutes
Average: 5 minutes per shell
Total: 2 hours 20 minutes