Crochenit, crochenot

Well, I bought a crochenit book from Annie's Attic yesterday (an e-download - it's just too tempting!). It looks, at first glance, to be a variant of Tunisian - but there are lots of interesting shell stitches and suchlike shown at http://www.crochenit.com/. Oh yes, and the AA book just calls for a crochenit hook - no mention of size. I panicked somewhat. Turns out it's a special 8mm double-ended hook in yellow plastic, with point protectors, only on sale in America. One is hopefully winging its way to me now. I had hoped I could buy one more cheaply over here, but KCGtrading had only 7mm and 11mm, and Ebay drew a blank. Although the KCG site mentions the crochenit hook, there's no price against it, so I presume they've stopped stocking them due to lack of demand.

There are tons of garment/homeware patterns for sale at the crochenit site, and a library of pictures of crochenit stitches. However, it doesn't look as if they just do a book with the stitches in, which is a shame. I'm not entirely sure I'm ready to commit a large chunk of cash to buy lots of patterns I'll never use, just to get the stitch definitions. If I was nit-picking, I'd say calling something "fancy stitch" or "lovely stitch" also isn't very helpful - those names do not indicate what they might look like, without a photograph. But it's a minor quibble. And anyroad, I'm stuck until the special hook turns up, which may be a week or two hence.

CraftyMandy has become a fan of Twitter - it's kinda like the Facebook status thing, all on its own. Can't decide if it's a complete waste of the internets, or actually quite intriguing. I CBA to go on Facebook half the time as it is - unless I can e-mail my status to something, I probably won't use it. I certainly wouldn't text it - it's 12p a go ya know for us pay-as-you-go cheapskates!

Slip, stitch and away...

Been working on some 20st swatches of slip stitch crochet. So far I have done F, B, BiF (my fave - looks like stocking stitch sideways!), FB. I need to have a go at some other combinations now, such as 1x1 and moss stitch. It's not as easy as it might sound - the stitches have very little height, and I'm struggling to differentiate one from another. Have a look at David Burchall's blog, "My Yarnified Life", if you are interested in this technique. It's funny - knitting has all the kudos, and most of the media - and yet, when it comes right down to it, it's two stitches, knit and purl. Sure, there are subsets - lace knitting, cables, intarsia etc - but they all share common stitch constructions. Not so with crochet: you have endless ways to modify the base stitches (extended, crossed, sideways, shells and bobbles etc), and there is at least one completely different kind of crochet in tunisian crochet - a kind of halfway house 'twixt crochet and knitting. I say at least one, because there is also crochenit - a little-known technique using double-ended hooks. I've got a book on the way about it. Yes, I guess you could knit double-ended with a DPN and two colours, but what would that get you (apart from the skill of knitting backwards)? The knitting would still look the same.

Been doing a bit of housekeeping re Blogger keywords (labels) and Flickr tags. A lot of these blog posts are e-mailed, and there's no facility for adding tags as there is in Livejournal, so any tagging has to be done after the fact. I usually forget! As for Flickr? I need to print off a standardised list of tags, and stick to them - there's no drop-down choice, so it gets out of hand. I had about seven different ways of identifying knitting done on the Silver Reed, and a similar amount for the Brothers, too.

I was never one for staying organised. The spirit is willing, but the mind forgets.

Passap sock

Passap sock
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

Photograph is dark. It is always dark at home, midweek. Went very quickly, excepting the part when I carefully rehung for the second half of the rib, and forgot to pick-up the yarn, and promptly stripped the whole thing off the machine. There were some curse words, but I got it back on, with the help of some hot toast and marmalade!

I must make the second one, now. I wonder if it'd cope with that blobby Regia stuff that the SK840 choked on?

Test knit: Easy Passap Sock

100_2527
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

Made this on Sunday night - I made a proper sock yarn one last night, but the photo didn't come out for some reason. This is a really easy, toe-up pattern, and the ingenious ribbing is made in two halves.

All this time I've been struggling to make socks on the Sk840 with the P-carriage every. flipping. row. and it's as easy as pie on the E6. D'oh!

Blusa Queen got frogged about 3" last night - I forgot to start neck edge decreases, and I don't fancy cut-and-sew on lacy crochet. Decreasing 1st every row is not easy in a lace pattern!

A few miscellaneous pictures...

A handy tip for anyone who despairs of finding snag-free stitch markers:


"No more snags" hair elastics from Claire's - £1 for 100. Especially ideal for lace work! Thanks to Linda M for the tip. I think she has forgotten she has a blog! :)

Blusa Queen, progress so far:


I'm having great fun with this, although it's a bit stop-start at the moment, because I am getting near to the divides for back and fronts, and I have to keep measuring.

My January challenge, two-colour slipstitch. I made three sleeves before I got a pair (the first one had reversed colours). Now I have the challenge of sewing down the raw ribbing by hand. Possibly not the best way to finish this collar, but I forgot what order to hang the neckline in.


(yeah, I'm hoping to fix that dropped stitch when I get to that point!)

Rear view, with neckline marked in contrast yarn:

Neckline looks a bit large, but toddlers have large heads in proportion to their bodies, so I'm not worrying too much. If you look closely, you can also see the texture of the slipstitch pattern, which would be the right side if I was using only one colour.

Jo gave me a belated christmas present:

I was thinking of making them into jaywalkers, but Julie has had a lot of trouble with the pattern, so now I'm not so sure! Aren't the colours lovely though? Isn't Jo a sweetie?

W gave me two balls of this yarn:

which I am using to crochet some slipstitch samples with. It's an acrylic yarn, that looks like cotton, and is actually made of 6+ strands of yarn loosely twisted together.

Whee!

Blusa Queen motifs joined to lower part in a consistant manner. I should've charted it myself, it would have been far quicker. Romping along on the pine cone pattern now.

And - Oh. My. Word. Spotted somebody getting rid of refurbed sock knitting machines. Must resist!

Aside: overheard one of the senior managers here call something "Ohmygod-awful", and had this amusing mental picture of him dressed as Janice from "Friends".

An avalanche of books

Argh, people keep bringing great craft books to the wednesday club meeting, and I want them all! C brought a copy of "Weldon's Practical Needlework" - a hardback reprint of Victorian craft newsletters: fascinating insight into crafts at that time. There are about 12 volumes, retailing between £20 and £83... and then last night, J brought in two Mary Thomas books - fascinating guides to all things knitting, with the cutest little illustrations alongside the main diagrams. OK, those last two went on the ole amazon wishlist, because they aren't too pricey. But the Weldons?! Whether or not you could actually MAKE any of the projects in the newsletters is a seperate matter. You would have to guess at the yarn, and the terminology had not been standardised at this point. C says people wrote down the patterns as they worked them, and would often change terminology half-way through. I only had chance to quickly leaf through C's copy, but I bet it's a fascinating read.

I don't need any more craft books - they have already overflowed into the bedroom - but I am thinking I could probably do with some decent modular storage in the knitting room anyway. One of those shelving systems made out of simple cubes, perhaps. In fact, there are books in every room except the bathrooms/kitchen/hallway, and that's only because there's no room! Dammit, I want a house with enough room for a library! :D

I managed to join the motifs and the bottom strip of Blusa Queen last night, but it was a complete fudge, and I'm not happy with it. I drew up a diagram of how it ought to work, so will rip out and redo it tonight. The dratted thing is not going to beat me - I can't spot any mistakes in either part, but could not get them to join up consistently. The chart is not drawn correctly (the two halves do not stay lined up as they cross the page).

On a sad note, the Cog's car got shunted last week, and it looks as if it may have been the final blow to what was still a decent car. He's gutted - it's been his baby since new, and is faster and sportier than mine. I wonder if he'll renounce his January temperance tonight? Not sure I'm happy about sharing my car with him, he keeps his full of junk! It means I shall have to start using trains again - oh well, more crafting/reading time I suppose! Not sure what's going to happen yet, I had planned to take my car to Woolfest, but that leaves the Cog without a car for three days... hmm

First the good news... then the bad

The good news - I discovered yesterday that yes, I can buy digital downloads from Annie's Attic (US crafting website) despite being on the wrong side of the pond. Something in the work's security settings means I have to wait until I get home to download, but that's hardly a barrier to my emptying my bank account.

The bad news - I've gotten to the joining row of the Blusa Queen (joining the bottom part to the motifs) and I cannot make the darn thing line up in a consistent manner. The maths just doesn't work out. Or maybe I've not had enough caffeine yet? I may have to tack the thing and then fudge it. Humph.

The water supply is broken in the village this morning, so caffeine may be in short supply soon unless I can learn to eat it instead! :D

We passed two cars buried nose-down over the fields on Leaf Lane this morning - the original road, before the building of the Warwick bypass, does not get gritted apparently.

In progress: Two-colour slip stitch

Two-colour slip stitch
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

After one false start (I got the buttons mixed up on the console), my first two-colour slip stitch garment piece that actually came out as intended! The pale colour is actually school grey, can't get it to photograph properly indoors. The neck on the front will probably be cut-and-sew, so that I can maintain the pattern.

FO: navy lambswool sweater

Picture 014
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

Actually finished this at the end of '08, but only just got around to putting the zip in, which was a nightmare. Looks ok though.

In progress: blusa queen motif

blusa queen motif
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

Quite a few mistakes in the pattern as written.

FO: charity tee in leftover Kauni

kauni2
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

Just love the colours of this. Excuse the messy desk.

In other news, I have started making the Blusa Queen (queen blouse). Yes, I am incorrigible.

Challenge yourself in '09

Originally posted on Ravelry 24th Dec 2008:

"I’ve been watching the KAL garment-a-month thread on the Ravelry Machineknitting group, with interest - I haven’t committed to it myself, because for eight weeks in Jan-Feb-Mar I will be on an evening course that rather eats into my knitting time.

However, I have decided I will force myself to get to know, and get familiar with, some of the gadgets I’ve bought for my machines, and some of the techniques I’ve only tried once. This is partly inspired by dancingbarefoot, who was working her way through different punchcards a while back.

It’s far too easy for me, to stick to stocking stitch, or simple stuff, quick bang-for-buck, because I am very impatient and love projects that are made quickly. I need to force myself out of my comfort zone.

For example, I have the tricofit(?) thing for my Passap, which does intarsia, and I haven’t tried it out yet. I’ve also not really tried out the transfer lock, because I’m a little afraid of bending needles on a machine where I don’t know how to replace needles. I’ve also never really done much with the garter carriage or garter bar. I always had vague plans to make some kind of cute hoodie for my niece, using pile stitch (I envision fluffy pink hearts, she’s 2 and very keen on pink at the moment).

So! that’s gonna be my personal challenge for ‘09. I’ll probably try and tackle one thing a month.

Anybody care to tag along?! :)"

---

Schedule so far:

I came up with this:

Jan: 2 colour slip stitch
Feb: DB jaquard
Mar: garter bar
Apr: pile stitch
May: garter carriage
Jun: passap linker
Jul: passap intarsia
Aug:
Sep: pc10 punchcard maker
Oct:
Nov: passap transfer
Dec:

Starting easy, and working on up! :) I still fancy making a circular yoked sweater, and that circular cardigan from Knitwords (Circle of Life, I think), so that might go in somewhere.

---

Last night I was struggling to focus on anything too complicated. I made some slipstitch samples (see below). I have mislaid my instructions for the colour changer (if there ever were any), and to start with I kept starting the pattern on the RHS, which get you nothing but 2 row, slightly wiggly lines. Once I remembered to start on the LEFT, all was well!


Maze slipstitch 1 - love this one, kinda Aztec


Maze slipstitch 2 - eye-boggle alert!


Grapevine slipstitch - found this amongst the cards, cool huh?!


Passap slipstitch (single bed). The top half looked a bit smoother before I stretched it (it's some kind of 2ply/3ply cotton).

Yup, another Passap pattern that's been programmed black-for-white. I should probably go through and try all the patterns, and figure out which ones are back to front. So far it seems to affect slipstitch techniques. Mental note - if the tension's too tight on a Passap, stitches will be skipped (rather hard to spot if it's already a slip-stitch pattern). Try not to jam the locks - they are a LOT harder to unjam than Japanese machines!!

I see a toddler's jumper in Maze 1, with a cut and sew neckline, coming soon. A slash neck is too easy!

What? Your name is... what?

I get a bit freaked when complete strangers friend me online, or ask to be added to my friends list on Facebook. The thing about this is, that friend requests don't come with any info, like "Hey, we used to go to school together" or something friendly. If I recognise your photo or your name, no problem - but otherwise, nope, sorry, it won't be reciprocated. Myspace is the worst - change your photo, or update your profile in some way, and I guarantee you'll have at least five complete strangers wanting to be your "friend" within a day or two. Self-promotion, is what it is - presumably the person thinks "I've got no real mates online, so let's just add a few strangers, I'll look a lot more popular". Sad, no?

I have had the odd "stalker" in the past - people who read my blog and instantly assume I'm young, free and single and just waiting for them to show up in Real Life (tm) and sweep me off my feet. Dream on, mister! Mmmm..... I prefer to actually get to know people in Real Life (did someone once call it "Meatspace"?!) before making that kind of judgment. But hey that's just me! Kooky, English and reserved.

Oh, and I'm not a big fan of those emails full of mushy sentiments that then threaten you at the end, if you don't send them to at least 10 people. As if the sender has any way of knowing what I do with stuff. It's a chain letter - perhaps less sinister than in the past - but still a demand for some sort of action. I have better things to do with my time, and I wouldn't dream of cluttering up a friend's inbox. You want a chain to die, send it to me, I'll have no compunction about squashing it.! I will probably read it and delete it. If I'm feeling particularly grumpy, funny e-mails with attachments (videos etc) won't even get read before deletion. Yeah, I can be a miserable git sometimes. So shoot me.

I'd much prefer to receive a personal, chatty email from a friend - but it seems the art of actually communicating, now that it's instant, is dead. I cherish letter from my penpals (who all have email addresses, which I rarely use). Not having a go at anyone in particular, you understand. Just sad that this wonderful medium is not being used to its best potential.

Anyway, back to knitting:

Spent a back-breaking afternoon on Sat, trying to properly inventory coned yarn I uploaded to Ravelry back in 07. Over-exposed photographs (poor colour representation) and everything labelled acrylic - some of the cones have no ID at all. I weighed a lot of stuff and put it on the "for trade" tab. If it doesn't shift within a month, I think I shall be taking it to the college - I'm never going to use most of it, and the "weight of ownership" puts me off buying stuff I might actually use! To that end, I chucked one or two cones that probably had less than a metre on them, and spent a large part of the evenings crocheting some cone ends together - I think it's shaping up to be another charity blanket, or it might get included in the patchwork blanket. The piece ended up about 50cm wide by 75cm long. Who says crochet uses a lot of yarn? That was a bigger piece than I expected to get! Of course, I guess I could ply a lot of it with the new wool winder. Or make lots of garments, as tests, and then sell them, being a process knitter. Hmm.

I've yet to properly weigh my non-trade stash, which is also waaay too big, but I guess I'll do that slowly. In hindsight, it would have made more sense to put it on properly (weighed, tagged etc) in the first place, but never mind. Oh, and I made some left-over Kauni into another charity tee top. It was tempting to make it into a scarf, it's soo pretty, but I have more than enough scarves. If there'd been enough for a waistcoat, I'd've made one.

Current mood: determined

Dates for my diary

If you are anything like me, events creep up on you, and you leave it too late to book things (or you find something else clashes). This year I am hoping to actually plan ahead and get to some events further afield.

The Nottingham Machine Knitting show is on Sunday April 5th at the Harvey Haddon sports hall. I shall be going - if any local MKers reading this want to tag along/share transport they're more than welcome!

I also want to go to Wonderwool Wales (25th - 26th April), Woolfest (26th - 27th June) , and the Knitting and Stitching shows at the NEC (10th - 13th September) and at Ally Pally (8th - 11th October).

WW and WF are far enough away that it might be worth taking the tent. B&Bs can be expensive and fully booked - I'm happy as long as I can put the tent up somewhere. It's a new one, too, so it would be nice to try it out!

There is also Hobbycrafts/Sewing for Pleasure at the NEC (12th - 15th March). There's not always much in the way of yarn at HC, it's mostly (s)crapbooking (!) but the sewing side might be more interesting to me this time around.

Oh, and I want to visit the knitting and crochet museum at Lee Mills again, hopefully with some other KnitWits in tow. And the lace museum.

Motifs-a-go-go

I couldn't resist treating myself to this book just after Christmas - and it's excellent! It's always interesting buying books sight-unseen - is it full of typos? is it well-written? This book is spiral-bound, so you can have it open flat whilst you work, and there are tons of fantastic squares, circles, triangles, hearts, stars etc in here - a lot of which Edie designed herself. Yes, the ubiquitous granny square pops in at #112, but to be honest it's a good basic "staple". The colours really pop, there are some lovely illustrations of ideas for using the motifs (not sure how I feel about a bikini, but that's just me!) and even some charts in the back you can use to construct your own motifs. Not only that, but some interesting methods for invisible joins and fixing ruffled and bowled shapes. No stitch has been left untried, there are popcorns, post stitches, sideways stitches. Definitely worth a look, if you are interested in this sort of thing. Crochet terms are American.

Not affiliated, or anything. Just very chuffed with it!

First night back for the Coventry Knit Wits, and we had three new members. One of them had never knitted before, but by the end of the night she'd done three rows! I chattered my head off and only got two rows knitted, but I don't mind, I love to teach! It teaches me patience!

Apologies if you've visited my blog lately and the right hand bar was unreadable - I somehow managed to put loads of span statements calling for minute text in my recent "completed projects" post and it messed everything up. Thanks to TED over on the Blogger help forums for spotting my mistake - you're a star!

FO: Red cowl neck jumper

Red cowl neck jumper
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

First FO of 2009! Designed with Knitware - had to shorten the sleeves when I realised there was not enough yarn for full length ones. The software has a yarn estimator, and I thought at first I'd 800g. Sleeve ribs hand-knit downwards, cowl neck cast off by hand for a reaaally loose cast off. Knit at T7 on the Brother 260.

Nitpicks? I think I shall select a slightly longer length next time. Boobage makes standard a bit short for my taste.

Knitware pattern is scoop neckline and cowl neck, if any other user is interested. I think I need to get this software pronto! What a stashbuster, esp. for those of us who have accumulated discontinued yarn or yarn of lost origin.

And yes, it really is that loud a red! :)

I fell in love...

..with something impossible.

Isn't it gorgeous, though? Actually, it's not completely impossible (the pattern is in Portugese) - I managed to get a reasonable translation from Babelfish, and there are charts for it. Now, of course, I am eyeing up crochet cotton. This looks suitable:


Heaven forbid I should look into my own stash first, eh?! I spent ages looking for this yesterday:



...because I thought it was a freebie pattern, I misread the link from the Interweave Crochet site. It's still gorgeous, but having read a few comments on Ravelry, I might hang on for now. Sounds as if it's a little tight around the arms.

Now that the month of buying stuff for other people is out of the way, I have the urge to buy lots of stuff for myself. I need to pace myself, though - the car is due a service (got some money saved up for that) and then once that's done, I can indulge (although, might be best left 'til Feb - Jan is a long month, for the money!). I'm thinking of subscribing to Interweave Crochet, and Burda Plus. I shall drop my subs to Sandra and Burda when they finish. Don't get me wrong, I love the designs in Burda, but when only 10% of them go big enough for a curvy figure like mine, it really isn't worth the money.

The Cog is very pleased with his new sweater - he's already wearing it, despite the fact it's awaiting a zip. He's already decided he now wants another jumper, "but with the zip all the way down the front". That'd be a cardigan, then. Heh!

Thomas the cat is very attached to us, me in particular. If I'm in my knitting room, he'll sit in the doorway. He's not too keen on the noise made by the knitting machines, and the electric yarn winder frightens him. He'll forgo sitting by the fire with the Cog - who is, I suspect, napping on the sofa right now, having declared he's "hit a tired spot" - to be snuggled up in the Cog's vacant chair in the office. I only came in here to drink a coffee!

I am now making a scooped cowl necked jumper with the red chunky I picked up at the Knitting and Crochet museum last year. I need to make some serious inroads to my stash, because it's getting out of hand. I plan to ply a lot of the industrial stuff with the new yarn winder.

Back to work tomorrow! Can't decide if I'm relieved or not! The Cog has been a complete grump all week, ('flu and then chronic hives), and has now cut out wheat, alcohol, dairy and caffeine. I did try to explain that this wasn't very scientific, but on the plus side it means I get to finish up all the ice-cream, mince pies and booze! The kitchen has been chaos constantly because of all the cooking, and the dishwasher's been on overdrive (not to mention the heating). Yes, we are having a spell of zero degree weather. So it will be nice to go back to work and let somebody else pay the gas bill! Ha!

Fan lace and short-row lace

Fan lace and short-row lace
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

Trying out fan lace (see http://loopsinstring.blogspot.com/2008/12/fan-lace-tutorial.html) - really cool, would probably look better blocked. Then went on to do short-rowing lace.

Had a fit of the red mist today and went a bit yarn-bonkers in the local Mill Outlet shop - they have a lot of stuff half price, or for silly prices. If you are in the market for fun fur, or that ladder yarn (like Sirdar Firefly), they have some decent stuff on offer!

This, after I was so proud of myself for resisting the charms of (1) the House of Fraser sale (lots of bagged Rowan) and (2) the Birmingham Rag market yarn stall.

Sigh!

FO: Lambswool jumper for Cog

Lambswool jumper for Cog
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

Drying in the bathroom, it just needs a zipper. Felt like cardboard when knitted, but after washing it feels lovely and soft.

Happy New Year!

I've started a machine-knit lambswool sweater for the Cog. He wants raglan shaping and of course it's in a very dark navy, which is hard to see once the sun's gone down. He wants a zip front opening. I have so far made the back and front, and one sleeve. I'm going to sew those bits together, and find out if the sleeve is the right length, before I go any further. It looks too long, and although I'm expecting it to shrink in the wash, expecting to lose 6 inches is probably a bit over-ambitious!

Maybe he has short arms?

Went for a meal with Mum and sis and her family for Mum's birthday. Alas, the only 7 seater table was right in the doorway and it was zero degrees outside, so there was quite a draught. I was quite glad to get home. The pub in question was an olde-worlde place with twisted beams, alas they seem to have had a bit of a makeover involving lots of glass, I'm not entirely sure it's an improvement - the variety of the menu seems to have decreased, too.

Watched Jools Holland's annual Hootenanny and drank cava to bring in the New Year. Managed to finish the last of the chocolate, but there are still mince pies and cheese to be conquered. I have a bad head today. I'm not keen on champagne and fizzy alcoholic drinks - they lose their fizz tooo easily and often don't taste that good, once flat! Slept in 'til gone 11am - well, not entirely true, but I have been making breakfast-in-bed almost every day since the 20th Dec and I insisted that the Cog owed me - so I hung around in bed until he finally woke up! :)

Happy New Year to all my readers!