From The Craft Room

Archive for the ‘Works in Progress’ Category

Sorry I keep forgetting to post here. Twelve hour work days and wanting to punch co-workers to knock some sense into them makes me brain dead.

Dad and I had a blast at the Stitch ‘N’ Pitch event a couple of weekends ago. I got to sit next to a guy that wanted to actually talk about the game — the WHOLE GAME! Sadly, I didn’t get as much accomplished as I had hoped. I did add several rows to my crochet sunhat and a few rows to my alpaca scarf. I was bummed that there were going to be no “goodie bags” this year (as I didn’t even know about the event to go last year). Fortunately, since it takes Dad so long to get around, we got there really early and I got one of the leftover bags from last year. Yay! We got a copy of the Fall Interweave Knits, a nice purple Rockies cap and free yarn from Knit Knack. If only the darned Rockies would have won. Hrmph.

Well, I don’t know if it will be done by the end of the Summer Kal-Cal, but I’m finally making headway on my Market Bag. I’ll try to remember to snap some progress pics tomorrow and post them. I’ve done about a dozen of the 70 rows of knit stitch I need to do (after finishing the Intarsia arrows) until I reach the top of the bag. Then I need to make the handles, felt it and I’m all done. I looked all over town (even the army surplus store in Arvada) for the slide buckles the pattern calls for. I even was willing to use something similar, but just couldn’t find anything local. I finally ordered some online from a place called Creative Designworks. The site actually sells supplies to make pet collars. Shipping was included and they took Paypal. Hopefully they will arrive soon (at least by the time I get to making the handles).

To help out keeping track of where I am row-wise, I purchased the Clover row counter I’ve been wanting at Hobby Lobby. I’ve been waiting for what seems like weeks for Needlework stuff to be on sale so that I could get it. I splurged on the more expensive one because it has a lock button. One is supposed to wear it around one’s neck, but I put a keyring on it and attached it to the beginning row marker. Hopefully, I’ll remember to add a row as I move the marker (that’s the plan, anyway).

Speaking of Hobby Lobby, they are so stuck in the 20th century. Why in the heck would that company invest in a new cash register system, but still not take advantage of technology that uses the bar codes? Everything is still priced with price tags, all merchandise is rung up one at a time by hand and now they have to pick an appropriate department for each item. Cashiers keep asking which department you got stuff in (if they don’t know). Also, it’s getting old “reminding” the poor cashiers that certain items are on sale. If they would utilize freaking scanners and a computer database, they would have all that information at their fingertips. It’s one of the reasons that their checkout lines get so long. More than once I’ve dumped items at the front and just left rather than dealing with the checkout hassle. Lame.

Speaking of lame, I can’t remember if I already posted this, but the Hobby Lobby on Monaco/Mississippi no longer has a fabric department. What did they do with the extra space when they remodeled? Added more gaudy home decor crap. Like the world needs more of that junk.

OK, I’m super tired and can’t keep my eyes open (now who is lame?). Off to bed.

I didn’t mention earlier that this Noni market bag is intarsia. Now, I watched a video online at KnittingHelp.com on Intarsia multiple times and figured I could easily do this. In practice, not so much. I somehow keep managing to twist my stitches really weird when I change colors.

I also noticed that I picked up a corner stitch in the wrong whole when I picked up the stitches around the bottom. How in the heck did I manage that?

Man, it’s a good thing this this is going to be felted.

I think I’m going to step away for a few hours, run to the store, do some housework and work on my GAA* square. Maybe a little later it will feel like cooperating.

*Great American Afghan

So, I’ve been working on my Noni Green Earth Market Bag that I started about a month ago. It’s not going well (I blame the crappy work schedule).

I’ve redone the bottom three different times. First, I was doing something really funky when I turned the rows and they were impossible to pick up stitches from. Second time things were going well until I had decided I was going to knit a few rows one morning when I got home from a 12-hour shift with only 4 hours sleep the day before and ended up doing the rows backwards and no longer had solid stockinette. Being tired and cranky, instead of just putting it down and taking out the 4 messed up rows when I was fresh, I had a tantrum and frogged it all. *sigh* This third time, I see a blatant error — a stitch that I somehow managed to twist or something in about row 8. I’m doing my best to ignore it (since it’s going to be felted for goodness sakes) and I just picked up the stitches for the sides.

I decided to be clever and use a crochet hook to help me pick the stitches up faster since I’ve already wasted a month getting to this point. Well, I managed to twist every single one and have to untwist on the needle as I knit. Yeah, that is saving me oodles of time. Oh, well…knitting is fun and relaxing…right?

In other sad news, I’m already behind on the Afghan KAL. We’re three weeks in and I’m still on my first square. C’est la vie. At this rate, I ought to finish in about two years. LOL

I got my Ravelry t-shirt I ordered in the mail today. It’s so pretty, but the neck is cut a little tight. We’ll see if it feels better after washing.

Well, I’ve finally have a banner close to what I had in mind for this site. It still needs some tweaking, but it will do for now. I’ll deal with the rest of the design at a later date. Once I get back from vacation next week, I’ll write up a post as to why very little crafting has been going on on my other blog, Domestic Geek, and link it here. Let’s just say that major suckage has been going down lately.

One good thing is I’ve finally knit up the felted clogs I started weeks ago. All that’s left to do is to actually felt them. Huzzah! I may try to squeeze in time to do it tomorrow, but with packing and getting ready to leave for Tennessee early Monday morning, I don’t know if I can. I was really hoping to have them done so that I could take them on the trip, but alas, that was apparently not meant to be. I had also intended to have a crochet sun hat I’m working on completed, but like I said, not a whole lot of crafting lately.

A happy note:
Our travels this week will take us to Indiana. While inquiring on a Ravelry board as to a good area yarn shop to visit, I learned that the Yarn Harlot will be speaking in Indianapolis on Tuesday. Marcus agreed to accompany me and I get a 2nd chance to not only meet her, but perhaps even have photographic evidence, as well. Yay!

The Yarn Harlot was in town last night and I had an amazing time. She was so funny — I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. I’d share the pictures I took last night, but THEY SUCK! Once again my crappy camera decided it was going to be unable to focus. Also, I must’ve accidentally changed a setting, because the pictures are SMALL! I am so done with that thing. I also closed my eyes in the picture I had taken with Stephanie. I really wished I had asked Marcus to borrow his for the evening. I hope she comes back next year after her new book is released and I can try it again. By the next time, I will be making socks!

I made some good progress on my Mistake Rib Scarf I’m working on. I’m into the 2nd skein, so over 50% complete! I tried working on a dishcloth, too, but trying to follow the pattern with so much fun and excitement around me was impossible.

I’m so glad I finally decided to get off my duff and join the knitting world. Of course, Ravelry has been a huge help to entice me to leave my comfort zone and put myself out there.

Today I need to do some housecleaning and some much-needed web work so I can get Domestic Geek back up and finally finish the header I’ve been working on for this blog. I’ll try to sneak in some time on my clogs, though, and read a little bit of Things I Learned From Knitting (Whether I Wanted To or Not) that I got signed last night.