This morning I finally had the free time in the right light of day to spread out my crochet squares for an update. I really get enthusiasm for this project in waves. I make a huge pile of squares and then I start to lose steam when I think about weaving in all the ends. So I save the squares, weave in all the ends in a marathon talk with my parents on Skype, and then don't want to look at granny squares again for a while. It's been a while since weaving in all those ends, so I might start another crochet spurt soon. My supplies are showing signs of dwindling so I think this should be the perfect project to finish off that gigantic Palette* sampler that my mom gave me for my birthday ages ago.

In other news, Ms. Marigold is a fast one! I just have to cast off at the bottom edge and then do some finishing touches before it is done! Who knows how long that will take though, now that I am going to be pulling out the crochet bag again. Tomorrow is the first holiday of golden week and then next weekend is a glorious four-day weekend with no plans, woo! I'm looking forward to enjoying the nice spring weather, even if it means stretched out on my couch with all the windows open.

*Wow, it looks like all the harsh brights are on clearance and they are really introducing lots of more muted, wearable colors. This is a great yarn, yay!

Posted by Molly at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Thanks to "This Week in Ravelry" I learned that March is National Crochet Month--what better time to get serious about my granny square project! So when I talked to my parents on the phone this Monday (for more than three hours) I wove in all the ends on my crochet squares to-date. I was worried that all the white-bordered squares would be too matchy for the kind of blanket I have in mind now (inspiration from Loobylu's post here) but the more random squares I make and mix in, the better it looks. Now I have the very technical reach-into-a-bag-and-pull-the-next-color-out-without-looking technique going on and it is easy and fun to see what color combos come out. I decided that for the rest of March, I am going to be knitting at least a square a day, hopefully more if time allows, and I'll be weaving in the ends each Sunday so that I am not faced with a huge task at the end of my 150+ square journey.

I am still working on Hanami and Ms. Marigold, but March is a crazily busy month for me and picking up a mindless granny square is really a lot less stressful than dealing with the fit of my sweater or finding my place in a lace pattern. I'm moving two weeks from today, and I am pretty much overwhelmed with the amount of organizing, cleaning and packing that I have to do before then, plus the fact that my weekends are packed full until the big day. I am trying to split it up into smaller tasks that can be completed one by one each night after work, which unfortunately that ends up cutting into my knitting and relaxing time. Last night I started by packing up and organizing my knitting and yarn. Once I pulled out all the bags and stashes from different spots around my apartment and put it all in one place I was pretty surprised at how much yarn I have! But it felt good to get one (fun) thing taken care of and now I can move on to something slightly more unpleasant after work today. It was also great to finally get all my knitting needles organized and together to enter into Ravelry. I know that moving is a blessing in disguise because I am forced to get rid of a lot of stuff and reorganize to make things easier in the long run (it will hopefully make my next move, this July, easier as well). Once I actually get everything into the new place, it is going to be great!

Posted by Molly at 09:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

More granny squares. After making all these project spectrum-y squares I decided I want to go for much more of a random color distribution than a matchy-matchy square deal. I'm going to be making a LOT of squares to make these 12 and the previous 12 (that also are of a matching colorway) blend into the overall scheme of things.

Ms. Marigold! This yarn photographs really shiny with whatever camera I use, although I love the new one on my phone at the moment (used for all the photos in this entry).

I finally learned how to crochet from a pattern thanks to my friend Megan, and I started by making this fish sock-shaped dish scrubbie. It is adorable, and so useful too! Ignore the messy sink.

Posted by Molly at 09:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Pattern: Nabbed from the Easy Ripple Afghan
Yarn: Lots of leftovers that I wanted to use up, plus a few colors (teal, yellow, purple) to brighten it up a bit
Hook size: H/5.0mm
Time to finish: Just under two months, amazing!

This pattern lives up to its name! I cruised to a quick and easy finish on my stripey ripple blanket last week during a cold spell. There has been snow, snow and more snow around here and just when I thought things were warning up, it DUMPED again on Saturday night.* It has been a great winter, and while I know I want things to warm up and get ready for spring, I would be happy spending a few more weekends wrapped up in my cozy blanket on the couch.

I have caught the crochet bug, and I'm even learning how to read patterns now. Knitting will always be number one for me, but crochet is pretty addictive as well. Things are only going up from here!

*Although it is possible that my idea of a dumping has changed just a bit.

Posted by Molly at 11:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This week, I suddenly got the idea in my head that I wanted to start a colorful crocheted blanket with some of the piles of yarn that I have left over from old projects. I have been pretty tired and burned out by the time I get home at night so I wanted something easy. I remembered seeing this pattern at Brainylady (and a million other places a while back), so I decided to give it a try. My first real crochet project! I started by chaining 210 stitches, making it just slightly wider than my couch. It is addictive and going so fast, but of course I realized that none of my leftovers were very colorful so I had to run out last night and stock up on a few more brights. Any guess which one of the above was a late addition? I hope this blanket doesn't take me as long to finish as the last one I made.

I have some guilt about starting this project because I am still working on things for Christmas that haven't been finished yet. Sigh. But who wouldn't love a New Year's gift or another kind of mid-winter surprise instead?

I made two more Noro scarves after deciding to keep the first one for me. Can you even tell where one scarf starts and the other one begins? These have been finished for a while but I am having trouble parting with them. They are 26 stitches across and knit on slightly larger needles, they are perfect for cold-ish weather and not too bulky under a coat.

Next up, a hideously bad shot of my finished endpaper mitts (just to show that I did actually finish both!).

How I love these mitts. I made size small and they are so snug and perfect for my small wrists and hands. Hopefully my friend has small hands like I remembered... or else she can return them. Another gift that is hard to part with, but I take some consolation in the fact that I have lots of extra yarn and should be able to make another pair for myself. As soon as I finish that second gift pair, which is only about 10% done.

That's all I've got for now! I am off to crochet on my mindless blanket and think about how I should be concentrating on the Endpaper Mitts. Life is full of hard decisions, isn't it? I'm not the only person with holiday knitting hanging over my head, am I?

Posted by Molly at 12:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I'm onto a whole new kind of square this week (only temporarily setting the ballbands aside) as my friend Megan took the time to sit down* with me and walk me through a granny square, step by step. I knew the basics of using a crochet hook for my knitting, but every time I had attempted to sit down and teach myself how to read a pattern I have been horribly discouraged. My first square (see above) is a little wonky, but I got the hang of it pretty fast. Now, not only can I make sense of the granny square chart and instructions, but I can make my way through one of these pretty quickly and mindlessly. What more could I ask? I am well on my way to a fun, new granny square scarf.

As I write this, my parents and all sorts of other good stuff are flying over the Pacific and going to be here tonight--a little hard to believe. I have been so busy these past few weeks that yesterday I had the panicked realization that their visit which was "a few weeks away" for so long is actually HERE. NOW. The apartment has been cleaned, the sheets have been washed, and the reservations have been made so now I just need to finish up a few last things before I go to get them tonight. Hopefully I won't be TOO busy playing tour guide to fit in some knitting with all those goodies. Or at least a few more granny squares!!

* Actually, she has a cast and didn't have anywhere else to go--I buttered her up with dinner and then juiced her for the tutorial.

Posted by Molly at 01:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)