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backpost dishcloth

DSC_8218.JPG
This is the latest dishcloth I've made, in different angles so the light reflects the texture. I sent this one away for my dishcloth pal, and of course forgot to post the photo. The photo just doesn't capture all the details as I see it in person. I really enjoyed this one, and it whipped up really quick! There are some fancy dishcloths I've crocheted, but frogged them as I really couldn't imagine anyone using them to wash anything with. I found this stitch in the perpetual crochet calendar, 365 Stitches.

My Little Shopping Spree!

For Christmas, I was given a $ Gift Card from one of my little munchkins (that's what I call the little ones I take care of - when I was little, our babysitter called us that and I really liked it so it stuck).  It was for www.chapters.indigo.ca which sells books online.  I couldn't decide on what books to select, so I hadn't used it... until now!  After reading various blogs, and going through the suggestions on my comments and emails, I have finally made up my mind and went on a little shopping spree!  Plus, they had a few books on sale on top of already good prices, and I ordered enough items to qualify for free shipping!  Did I tell you how much I love getting things in the mail?  By next week, I will have forgotten some of what I ordered, and will be delightfully surprised when they arrive in the mail!

What did I order?
1. Hip Knits!: 65 Easy Projects From Hot Designers
This one should be good for me - it says "Easy"
2. 2-at-a-time Socks: The Secret Of Knitting Two At Once On A Circular Needle
This one was on my secret pal's blog from the dishcloth swap.  I can't wait to try it out!
3. Knitting Rules!: The Yarn Harlot Unravels the Mysteries of Swatching, Stashing, Ribbing and Rolling
This one looked good for beginners
4. Friday Night Knitting Club
This one I heard about on a podcast from Lion Brand Yarn.  The author made this novel sound so intriguing!
5. The Little Abc Coloring Book 
this one's for my little boy

Thinking of knitting this bag...

I got this pattern from knittingdaily.com
It's in the easy category, and I love how there is a needle incorporated in the pattern! Although I have to wonder wether it might fall out or not? Haven't decided what color yarn to use; I'll have to check my stash and see if there is anything not saved for a project.

Here is the website I got it from, hope the link works.

Huge Sale at Michaels!

I don't know if their sales are the same in the US as in Canada, but for the next 2 weeks there are quite a few types of yarn on sale.  I went there Saturday and couldn't believe the stuff I got! I  stumbled on something cute for the something T category for the Scavenger Hunt Swap.  I now have all my Scavenger Hunt items ready to go!  I purchased my shipping boxes at the postal store, have little gift bags for the items to go in.  I had so much fun with the Dishcloth swap and Scavenger Hunt Swap, that I ended up mistakenly purchasing items for both swaps in the Scavenger Hunt categories... something local, something funny, something hard, something round, etc.  I realized that I didn't need all those categories for the dishcloth swap, and had a little laugh at myself. 

When I was at the store, I was looking for some double pointed needles for the mitten pattern my upstream spoilee emailed to my secret email addy.  I would love to make a pair of mittens.  Another customer at the store pointed out that since I am a beginner, I should start with something simpler, like a scarf or a hat.  

While I was there, I picked up one of those Nifty Knitters for my boys to use.  They've been showing a lot of interest in my yarn stash.  My 11 year old made a few crochet chains the other day, and now wants to learn more.  So I showed him how to use the Nifty Knitter, and within minutes he made a few rows.  Then he cast off, and called it a blue and white snake.  Very cute.  I'm not sure if it's possible to purl on a nifty knitter, but there are lots of possibilities for him to try.  My husband would like the boys to make a sweater for our new stuffed animal, El Toro of Love (Valentine's gift from Hallmark).  The kids like having accessories for their stuffed animals.

Ravelry, Here I Come!

Guess what?  I just got my email invitation to join Ravelry!!!  Whoo Hoo!!! I am so excited!

Tonight I will be touring Ravelry, and finishing my Moose dishcloth that I'm making for my Winter Doldrums secret pal.  I had to frog the last 10 rows;  I couldn't figure out why it was turning out so funny until I had a friend take a look at it.  She said I had been doing my purls backwards somehow.  I think I was wrapping the yarn around the needle the wrong way when purling.  I was knitting while watching a movie last night, and I must have become distracted and goofed up.  We had a good laugh over it. :)

To Knit a Sweater

I found this pattern of a lovely sweater that I think I would like to try to knit.  I realized when looking at the pattern that there are some things I still need to learn before I make a sweater.  I'm curious how others tackled their first knit object that was bigger than a dishcloth?  Learn to knit book?  Class?  Friend?  Knit Along group? I would love to be able to knit a sweater before sweater season is over.  I may have to crochet one just to get it done - I'm much faster with the hook.  There are so many more gorgeous patterns out there for sweaters to knit than to crochet.  Which a real motivator for me to learn knitting.

I've noticed on my dishcloth that I am knitting that my purls are loose and my knits are tight. Strange or what?  I'll have to work on that this weekend.  That, and I am hoping to finish my sister's rainbow scarf as well as the camo vest I'm half done.  I was hoping on going to the local yarn store, but with this snow I am going no where!  We had lots of fun making snow forts today, though!  Have a great weekend! 

New Question: stitch markers?

Ok, so now I know what frogging is, and I'm sure I will smile every time I use the term. So what's new with me?
I have been searching other people's blogs to find out what knitters and crocheters like to spoil each other with. I keep seeing two things that people seem to love:
1. Crocheters love bamboo hooks. I don't know why; wouldn't you get slivers in your work? I would assume that fine pieces of the fibre would get caught on the bamboo. But I haven't actually seen any at my local yarn store to try. But they sure do look nice on the websites!

2. Knitters really seem to like these fancy stitch markers I keep seeing. The problem is, I can't figure out how they are supposed to be used! I have the standard Lion Brand stitch markers I purchased with my learn to crochet kit, and they all have a little space in them to slide the stitch on and off. Now please be patient, I'm new to knitting, but how on earth would you slide one of those fancy markers?

While I'm at it, I should go get permission for the photo I copied from the string and purls web site. I'll go do that now, before I get into trouble. After that, I will see if I can find a You Tube video of someone loading on their fancy stitch markers. They do look so pretty, don't they?

Frog it?

Ok, I have to ask.  I'm sure I read it before, but have forgotten.  Being so new to knitting, I am unfamiliar with many of the terms.  What does it mean again, when someone frogs their work?  I believe it's when they rip it out and start all over again, but not sure what the letters stand for in frog?

Mission Impossible - The Secret Stash

I had been to my local yarn store, filled a large bag with yarn of all sorts.  I even got some for my secret pal that I thought would be nice.  My undoing came when I did not have the forethought of hiding all this wonderful yarn in a secret place to avoid capture by the little penguin that runs wild in my house (my 4 year old darling son).  Both my boys have a nack for making spider webs out of yarn.  Not small ones, either.  Once I left a ball of yarn out and it only took my preschooler a few minutes to turn it into a web that consumed both the dining area and the living room!  My husband came home and saw it;  he didn't think it was quite as funny as I did.  We gave him some preschool scissors to practise his cutting skills and he took the web down - this part took a considerable amount of time and he was happily occupied all afternoon!  
So, I had left out the large bag containing several skeins of yarn, to start a project the next morning with.  I went to bed thinking they would be fine there by my chair.   The next morning I was greeted by a chair woven in rainbow yarn!  This was the ball of yarn I was using to make my sister's scarf and she had picked out the rainbow yarn for herself.  I had only made a few rows, so I wasn't upset that he had completely unravelled it.  It was too funny to get upset over.    I guess the bright colors were too much for him to resist! I should have taken a picture!  I'm not sure when my little guy got out of bed to make this interesting yarn sculpture, because he was still asleep when I got up.  It reminds me of the elves who make shoes in the middle of the night.  Perhaps sometime I will wake up to a finished product? 

I found a local yarn store!

This weekend I went with a friend to check out a local yarn store that we'd found out about.  We got there not too long before closing time, so we didn't get to browse everything.  I was looking for some yarn that my secret pal would like, but couldn't find it.  It seems to be popular with many bloggers here on both swap sites I've been to, but I have not come across it at any of the stores I have been to yet.  I will have to check online and see who carries it.  I did pick out a few balls of cotton yarn to make a special dishcloth for my secret pal.  Then the store clerk came and told us they were closing, so we had to quickly decide what to get.  I saw a free pattern for a crocheted two-tone vest that I would love to make, so the wonderful lady there helped me pick out the yarn to go with it.  I haven't found this yarn at the other stores I've been to, so I was very happy to add this to my stash!  It was two balls each of Moda Dea's "Tweedle Dee" Thunder and Blackberry.  I forgot to get the buttons;  That's the one thing I am always forgetting!  So I am going to go back again this week and hopefully find some more things I can get for the scavenger hunt, and the dishcloth swap.  I'm also going to read through other people's blogs and see if there are links to online stores that might have more unique things to spoil someone with.  My "something local" category item should be easy since I've found out that two yarn brands have their yarn made nearby.  

Anyways, I had a great time exploring the local yarn store, even though it was a short trip.  

I checked out Ravelry - Wow!

As I'd gotten a few comments that Ravelry is a great source for crochet and knitting, I checked it out.  They were right!  This site looks great! I signed up for an invitation to join, so now I am on the waiting list.  Apparently there are 7517 people ahead of me in line, but they let in betwen 500 and 800 people a day.  I was quite amazed at how vast this site really is.  I took the video tour, and couldn't believe all the different features and tools there were for people to access.  I can see why people like it so much - I have never seen anything like it!

I tried out about 4 other stitches today for a dishcloth pattern, and kept unraveling them.  They looked great, but each new stitch I tried seemed like it would be better on a sweater or a poncho than on a dischloth.  I assume that a dishcloth being used to wash things wouldn't do well with all sorts of fancy holes in it.  I was happy with how well my Soloman's knot turned out, but didn't think it would fair well in a sink of dishes so it all came out again.  I am trying another crochet stitch called fences that are tightly woven together, so I think this one will work out well.

I am also looking for a good beginner pattern for Tunisian Crochet.  I like that it looks almost like knitting, but has the familiar feel of crochet, although slightly altered.

Shells Dishcloth

This is the new stitch I tried out yesterday, called Shells in the Background. I think it might have shown up better if I had used a single color yarn, but it was nice seeing the pattern come together.

Can anyone else actually see the background with the multicolor yarn? Is this piece good enough to give away, or should I frog it? (I keep forgetting what frog means, but I think it's to pull the whole thing apart).

This week's progress

Here's a photo of what I have done so far on the child's pullover that I am crocheting.

Boy's camo pullover

I finally posted a picture! Whoo hoo! I'll get the hang of this yet!
So this photo is the yarn I am using for my current project, which is to make camoflage pullover hoodies for some of the children that I take care of. Once they saw me working on a vest for my son (which he refused to wear), they got all excited and asked, "Can you make me one, too?" and of course, I couldn't say no. So whenever they the yarn out, they ask if it's done. I try to show them the progress, as they were under the impression it would have been finished for the next day. So now when the children arrive, I show them how it's coming along, and they are happy to see progress. I think it makes it more special to them. They keep thinking of things that they would like for me to make them. I have had to learn to not commit to too many things, as much as I would love to spoil them with all sorts of warm and cozy knit & crochet items. But I wouldn't want to have a waiting list a mile long for items that will take me ages to get to. So all I am committing to is who gets to be next. The children are ok with that, and it gives them some time to decide on what sort of thing they really want me to make for them. I finished the back part of the sweater last night. I noticed that the bottom part was way looser than the top of it. I usually make the bottom to tight, so this time I made a consious effort to loosen the stitches on the chain row. Then halfway through the week when I was experiencing all that anxiety, I was working on the middle part of the back side. That's where I notice all the stitches started to get tighter. Wow! I can actually see how stress effects my crocheting! So now the bottom has a little bit of waviness to it as it is a bit more stretchy compared to the rest. I wonder if this will make it look horrible? Or if it will work out? Maybe this is why people do 'blocking'. I haven't actually done blocking, so I don't know. I'll try and post a photo on my next post and see if I can get some opinions on this.

The Scavenger hunt questionnaire

So here are my answers to the questions for the scavenger hunt swap that's on Blogger.

1) Do you knit, crochet or both? How long have you been doing it?

Both. I my sister taught me to do a chain stitch at age 5. We would crochet bracelets with our fingers. Years later, a dear friend of my grandmother's taught me the double crochet stitch. That's the only one I knew, and made blankets with it. I forgot about it for awhile until a friend gave me the most beautiful baby blanket I had ever seen for our baby shower. It's now a treasured keepsake. I was inspired to take up the hook again, and I have made a few simple projects last year. Now I am also learning to knit from a good friend. I knitted my first dishcloth last week, and was told it turned out nicely.

2) What is on your needles/hook right now?
Hook: camoflage sweater for a child.
Needles: sample swatch to practice my stitches on. I only have 2 pairs of needles to start with, so gauge doesn't matter that much at the moment.

3) What is the most frequently used tool in your knitting bag?
My Lion Brand Split Ring Markers

4) What are your 3 favorite yarns (fiber type or brand)? What are your 3 least favorite?
I've only worked with a few yarns so far, but I like those cotton dishcloth yarns, the Bernat soft yarns, and baby blanket yarns. Least favorite would be a yarn that's difficult to work with, like the ones with knots or bunches in them.

5) What is your favorite color?
All shades of blue and purple.

6) If you had a 5 minute shopping spree in your LYS, how would you plan your attack?
LYS - Local Yarn Store? I'd try to grab 4-5 skeins each of yarn I've never tried before, or go for the specialty yarns.

7) What is your favorite FO and why? (post a pic if you have it!)
Sorry, I have no idea what FO is.

8) What are your favorite things to knit/crochet?
I've made dishcloths, a scarf, some hats, and 2 vests. Any project that turns out ok seems to be a favorite for me.
Right now, it's making sweaters for the children I do childcare for. They get so excited when they hear I'm making something for them.

9) Do you collect anything?
slow cooker recipes, new or used patterns to try for either crochet or knitting, short stories, and interesting pens from different places.

10) What are your five favorite things (not necessarily knitting related)?
A beautiful day, a sincere smile, a heartwarming hug, a sweet sound, and the smell of something wonderful cooking for dinner!

11) Are you on Ravelry? What is your ID?
Never heard of it. Should I be?

12) Do you drink tea/coffee/cocoa?
Yes!

13) Favorite Sweets?
chocolate

14) Any allergies?
no

15) Do you have pets? kids?
Pet: one dog, a Sheltie (Shetland Sheepdog) named Levi. He looks just like Lassie, only a bit smaller.

Scavenger Hunt Swap

I just learned about bloggers having swaps between each other. They send themed gift packages together, but as a secret pal to be revealed. The host is in charge of assigning secret pals to each other, sort of like Kris Kringle or Secret Santa during the holidays. I loved doing this with my family as a child. I was surprised at how many of these are going on at once! So I signed on for a second one. This one comes with a questionaire to be completed, to help your secret pal get to know you.

Here is the theme for the knitter's scavenger swap

1) Something local
2) Something round
3) Something green
4) Something related to the letter 'T'
5) Something funny
6) Something hard
7) Spoilers choice (make up a category for your item!)

I submitted my email request for the swap, so I will be checking my email to see if I made it in before the cut off time. There is a limit to how many people can do this swap, so I'll have to wait and see.

It would be fun, I think, to host a swap of some kind. I'm curios as to how much work the host or hostess must put into a project like this to make it run so smoothly.

Questionnaire for Dishcloth Swap

Here are the questions from the crochet swap blog I joined. After registering for a secret email address, we are asked to post the following questions with our answers. I have never joined an online swap group before, so I am pretty thrilled to be part of this. If any of you are wanting to check it out, I have the link listed on my blog. Here is where you can learn about this project, if you are so inclined:
http://dishclothexchange.blogspot.com/

I believe we have until January 18th to register for the swap.


So here are the questions, and my answers:

1. Do you knit, crochet, or do both?
I crochet, although I am still just a novice. I knit a little, as a friend is teaching me how. I am also trying my hand in tunisian and double crochet. I love to learn new techniques.

2. What types of needles do you enjoy using for making dishcloths?
I like the shiny metal crochet hooks that come in different colours and different sizes. I find size I /5.5 to be easy to use. I purchased these as part of a starter kit, so I can't say that I've tried other kinds for comparison.

3. What types of cotton do you enjoy using for making dishcloths? Is there any that you've been wanting to try?
I love using the mulicolor ones for dishcloths, as it gives an interesting look. They work great for some patterns, not so good for others. I have a small amount of single color cotton in my stash, and I like how single color cotton shows the detail of the pattern so nicely. I find the plain color cotton is harder to come by, as it always seems to be sold out when I shop. I love the blue shades, and pastels in any color look lovely.

4. What color(s) are your kitchen and bath decorated in (if any)?
Our cabinets are a natural oak, and the walls are painted 'Maple Sugar'.

5. What are your favorite colors for yarns? Least favorite?
Favorite colors for yarn would be all shades of blue, purple, cranberry, grey, hunter green and almost any shade of green except lime green. Lime green doesn't agree with me. I'm not too fond of orange, unless it's like an autumn orange.

6. Do you like Winter, or do you count the days until it ends?
There are many things I like about winter. I find it to be a very beautiful season, especially when the snowflakes are falling.
When winter starts to drag on and linger, then I start looking forward to spring.

7. What's your favorite way to brighten your day when you're down in the dumps?
Get hugs from my family. Read something funny or watch a romantic comedy.

8. What is your favorite treat to indulge in and when your down in the dumps?
Hot chocolate or french vanilla coffee

9. Do you drink coffee? Tea? Cocoa?
Tea - I enjoy trying new kinds of tea. I find that I like a wide variety of tea.
I only drink coffee as a treat when going out to meet friends for coffee - I used to drink it too much, so that's my way of limiting myself. Hot chocolate is one of my favorite parts of winter!


10. If you could take a vacation starting tomorrow and go anywhere for one week and money were no object, where would you go and what would you do?
I would go to Prince Edward Island and see all the beautiful sites that inspired 'Anne of Green Gables'. I would also see if there were a local spa there to go to for an afternoon. I would so much enjoy a slower pace of life for one week. How wonderful!

11. Do you have any allergies or aversions your pal should be aware of?
None that I am aware of so far.