Yet another Christmas gift

For Christmas I made my older sister a bag.  The actual crocheting wasn't too difficult, but it took FOREVER.  I actually began making it this summer.  I didn't expect it to take me so long, but I only had it finished a few days before Christmas.  For the most part I am happy with how it turned out.  I admit, given the amount of time I put into it I had expected it to fold up larger.  Alas.  

The folding part was pretty cool - the bag itself, minus the shoulder strap, was crocheted in a single long piece and then folded to make the bag.  If I had to do it over again I would probably try to find a self-striping cotton yarn - I don't advise making switches between colors.  Or, at least, my OCD tendencies don't like how that turns out much.  

The other problem I had with this, as you can see, are that the lines don't match up perfectly straight.  This was a result, I am sure, of the fact that my stitches probably changed tension over the 6+ months that I worked on this.  So when I sewed it up, they didn't match up as well as I was wanting.  Granted, when there are things in the bag, I am sure that no one but myself will notice.  One of the issues of being a novice and not getting this done in a reasonable amount of time!

Overall it didn't turn out bad.  Sure, there are things I would have wanted to be better and things that I would have changed, but it isn't bad at all.  I am making her a little button loop to go over the top and keep it closed for her - because it wasn't long enough to make the top of the bag narrower it tends to hang open a touch too much.  So, we'll see if that helps it out like I hope that it will.

And so begin the line-up of Christmas gifts!

Now that Christmas is over and I have given out all the gifts that I made, I have things that I can post again!

I made my nephew a hat for Christmas, but I couldn't find a pattern that I really adored.  So, I combined two of them to try to get closer.  I started off with a P1K1 pattern.  The pattern calls for me to continue this for the entire hat.  There are a couple of things I dislike about that.  First, I think K1P1 is crazy annoying for an entire pattern.  I like to be a bit lazier than that!  Second, I am afraid that all of the stretch that that creates might actually become a problem as the hat gets worn and slightly older - stretching out TOO much.  So I plain knit every other round, which ended up twisting the p1k1 more than I had anticipated.  Not bad, just not expected.

This was the finished result!

If you look really closely there is a change in the texture.  That was definitely unexpected, but I think unless you are actually looking for it, or if you know what you are looking at, you wont notice it while it is on my nephew's head.

I also knit a hat for my niece.  It is definitely too big for her currently, though she didn't pull it off immediately, which is a good sign.

I thought the points that this forms at the top were just too cute for words!

I will be posting more soon!

Lacey difficulties

So, this is the baby blanket that I have been working on, on-and-off, for quite a while now.

For my first project that has intentional holes it hasn't gone horribly.  However, I do struggle with keeping the proper number of stitches because it calls for 145, but the pattern V shapes look like their should be 12 in each, plus 6 on each end of the blanket.  So, I often get myself into trouble with that.  Exhibit A of that is here on the second row up, the really wonky section that looks nothing at all like a V shape!  This was pretty early on in the pattern and I still hadn't quite figured out what  I was doing.  I could have ripped it out, but chose not to.

Later, once I had the pattern in my head better, things went quite smoothly, though, as you can see below, there were still some hiccups.  On that row third from the top you can see the bottom of the V pattern is not done correctly.  Once I realized why I was messing up, the 145 stitches vs. 12 per pattern section, I quit from frustration.  I am sure I will get back to it here soon, but does anyone have any suggestions on how to make sense of this in my head?  http://www.redheart.com/free-patterns/precious-baby-blanket is the pattern that I am using.  Am I just missing something that makes this more difficult than it should be?

Magic looping

I am continuing with my magic loop project.  I am making this (and I can make a plug for a fellow blogger) http://100percentmadebyme.blogspot.com/2012/12/ballet-shrug-free-pattern.html.  I am going to have to modify the sleeves some because my wrist is certainly not the same width as my upper arm.  Even with the stretchyness of stockinette, I am quite sure I will need more room, so I will be doing some increases as I get farther along.

Part of what I love about magic loop now, given that I have to figure out where and when to put in increases is the fact that I can put the piece onto the long cable and try it on easier, by far, than I ever could with DPNs.  So that part is really nice.  I know I wont lose stitches and I can get the item to fit me exactly how I want it to without having to guess.

I admit, there is a learning curve.  It isn't so much that it is difficult to use magic loop, I just have to remember where I am in the work and where I need to move the active stitches so that I am not just going back and forth over the same side.  Basically I just have to pay attention to what I am doing and where my yarn is coming from.  It is not difficult, I just have to pay attention.  Getting the yarn where I want it after moving my stitches is also a trick that I am still working on.

Overall I like the technique.  I think once I get used to working with it I wont have many long-term difficulties.  As long as I am paying attention to what and where I am knitting it is turning out great so far!

I really enjoy learning new techniques, especially when they work!  I will have to work on thumb gussets more, since they didn't turn out how I wanted.  But this, so far, is going really well for me!  I will get a picture up of this, but it will probably be after the weekend.  Family stuff going on that will keep me super busy!

Hooks and stuff!

So, I currently have on needles or hooks the following projects: house slippers (crochet), a shoulder shrug (crochet), a baby blanket (knit), fingerless gloves (knit), a wine bottle carrier (knit), and a washcloth (crochet). I think that this might be the fewest projects I have had in the works in a while, which is kinda sad.

On the other hand, I like that I can go from one project to another when I get bored or frustrated with one.  I can also go back and forth between knitting and crochet, again for the same reason.  Even within items that are all crochet or all knit they are very different projects, again giving me a lot of variety.

For instance, the house slippers are made using an J sized crochet hook, the teal colored one.  

As you can see it is larger than the hook next to it.  In comparison the shoulder shrug uses an H hook, considerably smaller (the smaller pictured hook in gold).  That means that even though I am making similar movements they are different because the size of the hook dictates the size of the loops and how much movement I have to do to make it all work.  These patterns also use different stitches.  The slippers are using almost exclusively a half double crochet (hdc) whereas the shoulder shrug uses a double crochet (dc).

The different sized hooks make different sized stitches.  The larger, naturally, make larger stitches which can be beneficial for a large item or one where you want larger holes for whatever reason.  Crochet hooks range massively in size.  The finest (which I didn't take a picture of) are used for lace and other very small scale items.  The larger ones are used for clothing items and larger items.

Here you can see the difference in sizes.  These are kind of the "normal" or most commonly used sizes for most people.  The gold one, the "H" hook is probably the most used hook just because it makes stitches that are a nice size for a lot of different projects.  However, they go well beyond this size.

It is hard to see just how much bigger the bottom hook is, but it is significantly larger.  That is an "S" sized hook - I have used it to crochet a border with 4 strands of yarn on a throw blanket.  The other two between the full metal hooks and the S hook are "L" and "M" hooks.  I have used each a few times, sometimes for a starting chain because I tend to chain too tightly (which often is what starts a piece of crochet work)!  

Patterns will almost always indicate which size hook that you should use to achieve the same look as the item in the pattern.  However, depending on each person some people crochet tighter/smaller stitches with the same sized hook than others.  So you have to check your "gauge" which is how many stitches you have per inch.  I tend to have rather tight/small stitches so I often have to use a hook of a slightly larger size to achieve the same desired look.  

When I first started all I purchased was a size "H" hook.  Once I realized that I really liked crocheting I went ahead and bought a basic set which included all of the hooks from sizes "D" to "J".  I got most of the others from thrift stores as single items because it is, naturally  significantly cheaper.  I will show off my knitting needles some other time, almost all of which I purchased exclusively at thrift stores.

In the meantime, hopefully that helps some (like my brother) who doesn't understand it when I say that I used an "S" hook to make big stitches so it went quickly.