Last of the UFOs

This is the last thing from the UFO list (that I can show you now):



It's a little throw rug I'm making with some yarn I hate just to get rid of it. Aunt Lydia's Rug Yarn in icky green colors. It's a ripple/garter pattern from the stitch a day calendar. I don't know where I'm going to use it when I'm done. It's all a mystery.

We're leaving on a mini vacation this afternoon. 5 hours in the car = lots done on Kai's blankie. It's the only project I'm taking with me, but I'm planning on swinging through a yarn shop while we're there and picking up something delicious. I'm thinking some yummy dk weight something or other to make wrist warmers. I just got Teach Yourself Visually: Knitting Design from a swap, so I'm going to use that to figure out a pattern, me thinks. I know this violates the rules of the UFO knitathon, but I claim a vacation exemption!

So, much love to you all. Enjoy your weekend!

More from the UFO list.

Here's a pre-knitathon shot of the iPod cozies:



The pattern is from The Cool Girl's Guide to Knitting. Sort of. It's a really basic pattern that I saw while going through the book, so when I actually got the yarn (Sockatta) and got to work on them, I just cast on enough to be wide enough, knit until it was long enough, decreased for the flap, and bound off. As you can see, I knit quite a few of them. The smaller one is a pared down version for Adam's Nano. Since this shot was taken, they have all be seamed, but they are just sitting around on the "to be lined" pile until sometime next week when I dust off the sewing machine and get to work.

Lining, my old nemesis...

Another UFO sighting

Before I begin, I've been pimping my swap pretty heavily around the ole intarwebs, so if you're here for that, scroll on down and you'll find it.

For those of you who are here for my crafty ramblings, let me begin:

First of all, until I picked up the needles last night, I hadn't knit for 2 days, so I don't have tons to report. I did manage to finish the other side of the cabled bag tonight. But, since I can't show it, instead, I'll share another UFO shot.

This is Abby's blankie:



I ordered the yarn from Webs a few months before Christmas. I was actually ordering yarn for the sweaters I was making the girls for Christmas, but when you order from Webs, you HAVE to check out their close-out and Grandpa's Garage Sale sections. I mean, hello bargains. So, the first time I placed the order, these cones were $3 each. $3!! So I added one on to my order. Now, I THOUGHT I was getting a worsted weight, thick/thin cotton like one I'd ordered from them before and subsequently used to make a blankie for Kai. But when it arrived, it was more like a thick/thin laceweight. So, when I came up short on yarn for the girls' sweaters, I ordered a second cone ($3!!) and am using it doubled to make the blankie for Abby. I picked a denser stitch pattern than the one I used on Kai's, and between the thinness of the yarn and the stitch pattern, it's very slow going. The photo above is at least a solid week of work, which, if it was knit would be impressive. But crocheted? Draaaaaaging. I'm used to my crochet projects being much zippier than this one has been. I had some pipe-dream going that I'd have this thing done in time for Christmas, but you can see that didn't happen. The new goal is for their birthday party in October. I have a feeling that it will be my project for the next knitathon.

Swap ahead! Beware!

I spent yesterday morning going through box after box of things in our storage locker trying to find a missing library book. No luck on the book, but I pulled out all my vintage patterns and went through them all and have quite a few I'd like to destash.

My terms and conditions:

1. The dollar amounts are what I think is a fair trade value, not what I'd like to be paid. If you want my stuff and don't have anything I want in trade, I'll gladly take gift certificates or you can order things for me. I don't know why, but trading seems so much better than taking cash. I'm not completely anal about the trade amounts, but I would like the trade items to be within a dollar or two of each other so no one feels ookie about the trade.

2. Since these are all books, I'll be shipping via media mail with delivery confirmation.

3. I prefer to ship to the US only, but if you are in a different country and simply MUST have something, I'll most likely swap. My only condition is that if I'm sending you 5 pounds of books and you're ordering something online for me or sending me a pound of yarn that would make the shipping totals dramatically different, that you increase the swap value a bit to make things fair.

4. I will only swap for items from smoke-free homes. If you are a smoker or live with one and want something, please order something off my wish list in exchange.

5. Email me at annilita at gmail dot c o m and let me know what you would like and what you have to offer and we'll work it out. :) I like for my trades to be settled on within 2 days, so please try and reply quickly so things aren't left hanging. (I'll be out of town this coming weekend, so keep that in mind if you email me then!)

Scroll down the page and you'll find 2 posts full of pattern books. Below that is my wishlist of items to receive in exchange. Thanks for looking!

Old and Vintage items for Trade

EDITED TO ADD: SEE THE NEWLY UPDATED POST ON APRIL 6TH TO SEE WHAT I STILL HAVE AVAILABLE.

These are all from the 30's to mid-90's.



A Complete Guide to Crochet Stitches (1972) B&W stitch guide. (Very clear photos, even though it's in black and white.) $3

Aunt Lydia's Granny Zoo: 7 animals to crochet in heavy rug yarn (1977) "Granny Zoo" refers to the fact that they are all made from granny squares. Pig, lion, horse, elephant, aligator, giraffe, and turtle. I'd, personally, make them in worsted acrylic or wool instead of the Aunt Lydia rug yarn, but that's just me. $2

Crochet Made Easy (1993) 9 projects and directions for beginners. $1

Learn to Crochet (1968) 11 projects and directions for beginners (including hairpin lace) $1

TAKE ALL 4 for $6.



The Versatile Doily (1980) 23 projects. $2
Crochet: Special designs for Babies, Women, & Home (1977) 40 patterns $2


Safari Friends (1987) 6 LARGE animal patterns $2
Crochet Critters (1977) 6 small, amigarumi-style construction animals $2


2 newspaper inserts from the Phoenix, AZ area. Undated. Either early 40's or 50's (no mention of the war, so I'm guessing they are from before or after.) Mainly just a catalog chock-full of items people could order patterns for. Great for inspiration and history buffs. Each has a free pattern inside, both are crochet patterns, but one has directions for small decorative painting or sewing items, too. $2 for both.


Pineapple Designs: Doilies, tablecloths, bedspreads, runners (1946) $3

Pineapple Pageant (1948) Mainly typical doilies, but several ruffle edge doilies, too. $3

TAKE BOTH FOR $5


Crochet World, October 1983, $2.

Floral Doilies (1950) $3


Crochet Patterns Sept/Oct, 1990 $2

Bedspreads, (1939) $3


The Complete Book of Crochet (1973) 32 projects, hardcover in excellent condition. A lot of lace crochet. With some modifications/updates, the fashions in the book would be in style. $3

Women's Household Crochet, Summer 1985. Some cute patterns, interesting look at pre-internet world (pen pal requests, tips, etc.) Cover coming off a bit. $1




5 Magic Crochet Magazines:
June 1986,
April 2003, December 2003
August 2003, June 2003
Lots and lots and lots of thread crochet. Doilies, bedspreads, table cloths, accessories. Originally $4 each, asking $2 each or take them all for $9.


2 issues of Women's Circle Crochet. Summer 1982, Fall 1985 The cover of the Summer issue is split down the seam and the original owner cut the address label off. $3 for both.


Scandinavian Snow Sets: Caps, mittens, gloves, after-ski boots and slipper socks. (1947) PRISTINE vintage condition. 20+ patterns for baby through adult. Gorgeous patterns for fair isle knitters. $8

Knitting Primer: 50 easy knitting patterns and stitches. Undated, but I'm guessing early 40's. Basically a stitch guide, but has instructions for making your samples into an afghan when you're done. Very good vintage condition, slight damage to cover where price stitcker was. $4


Knit One, Bear Two: for the bear with nothing to wear. (1983) Patterns for teddy bear sweaters. $2
Special Baby Outfits (1992) 4 outfits (bonnet, top, bottom, booties) to knit for baby. Really cute outfits for boys and girls. $3

TAKE BOTH FOR $4.


Reynold's Continental Collection. Undated, guessing mid-60's. (A lot of the female models look like they took a little too much valium before leaving for work.) 23 patterns for men and women. The men styles are all still in, and many of the women's styles are still in, too. The rest would be in style with minor changes to collar choices/color/ect. Lower corner of the cover is torn off. $4.

Shells for Every Occaision to Knit and Crochet. The cover is missing completely, guessing mid-60's. Very basic, classic patterns, almost all still in style. $1 due to cover damage.


101 Needlework and Knitting Ideas. Feb. 1982, $1


McCall's Needlework & Crafts:
Fall/Winter 1976/1977 $3
Mar/April 1984 $2 (cover torn along crease and a bit across the cover)


Lady's Home Journal Needle & Craft:
Spring/Summer 1976
Spring Summer 1975
$3 each or both for $5


Stitch by Stitch: a step-by-step guide to sewing, knitting, crochet & needlework. (1982) $2
Make It Yourself: The Complete Step-by-step Library of Needlework and Crafts (1975) Pick different colors or yarns and a lot of the patterns are still in style. (feather-covered vest excluded, but could be an interesting coversation piece!) Hardcover, lots of patterns and information $5


Create with Beads (1972) Great beading book. Hardcover. Lots of projects. $3
Working with Wool: A Few Ins and Outs. Undated. Info on sewing with wool fabrics and proper care of wool. $1
The Miniature Book of Napkin Folding. (1990) $1


Hairpin Lace. Undated (70's?) Instructions with pattern for hat and scarf. $1
Country Style, Spring 1987 $1


Baby Afghans 4 to Knit and Crochet (1989) $2
Toys & Puppets to Knit and Crochet (1978) 16 animal and clown patterns. $3


Baby Book: Knit and Crochet in Wool, Cotton, Nylon (1952) Quintessential 50's baby outfits. The cuteness factor is HIGH. TONS of patterns. A previous owner sewed around the binding staples and then secured them with tape. No idea why. $4

Doilies in the Modern Mannor: Ruffled, knitted, irish crochet, hairpin lace (1953) Good vintage condition, some cover wear, but completely intact with clean pages. $3


Spinnovations: Fashions from cradle to crib. (1979) It's baby stuff, so of course most of it is still cute and in style. Babies have it so easy. 24 patterns, knit and crochet. $3
Stoles: knitted, Crocheted, Hairpin Lace (Undated 40's or 50's) Many shawl patterns. Pen squiggle on cover, and cover is starting to split on the crease at the top and bottom, but still intact. Clean pages. $2 due to damage mentioned.


This Is Knitting. FIRST EDITION (1948) Very Good vintage condition, clean pages. Many of the patterns are still in style. Original owner's name written inside cover in pencil. One page is damaged: it stuck to another and a chunk ripped off. None of the text was effected. Other than those few things, the book is in exceptional condition. The following are shots of some of the patterns in the book:




Plus, many, many more. $15

Look further down the page for what I'm looking for in trade, and further up the page for my trade "terms and conditions."

Recent Books and Magazines for Swap

The following are books from mid-90's to the present.



Adorable Crochet for Babies and Toddlers: 22 projects to make for babies from birth to two years. (2002) Originally $19.95, asking $10
I'm not a fan of the project they put on the cover, so the following 4 shots are from the book and show what is inside. There are some really cute items, as you can see:






Blue Ribbon Crochet: Exceptional Designs to Create Your Own Prizewinning Projects. (2004) Was a gift, asking $5
Afghans, doilies, women's and children's sweaters and clothing, housewares, and toys.


The Big Book of Crochet Sweaters (1999) Originally $12.96, asking $5.

Complete Guide to Thread Crochet (1994) Originally $6.50, asking $3.

TAKE BOTH FOR $7.



Knitting Made Easy: Sweaters, Scarves, Baby Items and More (2004) Originally $3.99, asking $2

BH&G Learn to Knit: A beginner's guide to knitting, 23 Perfect Projects. (2005) Originally $3.99, asking $2

TAKE BOTH FOR $3.


Simple Knits for Cherished Babies (2001) Originally $19.95, asking $10.


BH&G Handmade Birthdays: 101 gift, cake & card ideas for ages 1 to 101. (2002) Was a gift, asking $5.


Leaflets on gift baskets and gift wrapping. Sent as an enticement to subscribe to get more. Will give for free to anyone who is doing a swap and wants them. The "post-its" are printed right on the booklets.


March 2006 Crochet!
January 2006 Crochet!
Originally $5.99 each, asking $3 each or $5 for both.


Rock-a-bye Wraps, Book 2, (1995) $2
Crochet 1 Hour Baby Gifts (1994) $2

TAKE BOTH FOR $3

Look further down the page for items I want in trade, and further up the page for my "terms and conditions" for swapping.

Stuff I'd like in return for swap items:

Things I'd like, in order of preference:

600+ yards of lace- or fingering-weight yarn in nartural fiber blends. (Some mohair content is ok, but I'm not looking for epecially fuzzy yarns.) Cherry Tree Hill Laceweight Merino is always cool, but I'd like to try some Lisa Souza and Knit Picks laceweights, too. I'm partial to blues/greys/purples/blacks as well as "burnt" shades of orange, red, and yellow. Natural shades are cool, too.

Bamboo straights in size 5, 7, 10 and up. Clover or Fiddlesticks or another well known brand, whatever.

Other nicer quality yarns. Make me an offer. I'm not really into felting, and I live in Arizona, so while I enjoy working with wool, I'm looking to branch out into other fibers. Cotton, silk, hemp, linen, etc. Those fibers blended with wool or acrylic is fine, too. I'm not a fan of yarns made mainly of man-made fibers. And I will still take wools, they just need to be softy-soft. And I rarely (as in, "have never yet") turn down alpaca, llama, or cashmere.

Books from my Amazon craft wish list.

Books from my regular Amazon wish list.

(If those two links turn up your own wishlists, try logging out of Amazon and click on them again. If that doesn't work, let me know and I'll send you my info so you can search for them on the site.) By all means, feel free to buy used copies of the books, as long as they are in good or better condition. Just be aware that the shipping is applied seperately to each book when you buy used on Amazon. So sometimes it's not a deal. (And you should swap according to the used price if you do buy used, not at the Amazon price.)

Gift cards to Webs (yarn.com). Oh, Webs, how I love thee...

Woe is me. Just move on.

This was a craptastic weekend.

Ok, really, it wasn't all that bad. I just had a trio of sad things happen. And they're the sort of things where you think "wow, if that's all you have to worry about, your life must be pretty dandy." For example, the third shoe to fall was that one of the goldfish died in the night. Now, we expected this. We expect to go through a lot of fish in Kai's year long test to see if she's responsible enough to feed her fish before getting a mammal. Adam was up first and "took care of things" and we told the girls that Elmo went to visit a friend today and daddy is going to bring him home after work. Abby, however, is absolutely heartbroken at the thought that Elmo would leave for a day. She keeps breaking out in sobs and I hold her until it's all ok again and then she goes off to play until she remembers that Elmo went to play with someone else and she starts again. I wasn't sad until I saw how badly Abby's taking it. And she just thinks he's gone for a few hours. Good gracious. I'm glad we didn't try and explain death to her. That would have probably sent her into a coma from the grief.

Anyway, this is a craft blog, no? Time to update:

I spent all of knit club this week fixing the two miscrossed cables. I had my cocoa and my chocolate chip scone and then tackled that sucker and managed to finish and knit two rows before it was time to go. Amanda and I went to Paradise bakery afterward. Mmmm.... cookies...

Last night I finished a repeat and got halfway through the final repeat of the bag. Then I stoped because it was getting late and I ran out of yarn. I need to break out the swift and wind up some more. I have about 2 inches left and I'll be done with the other side. Then I need to sit down and graph out the cables for the straps. I want the strap to be wider at the base and decrease a bit toward the top of the bag and then stay that size until the other side where it will fatten back out to the bottom on the other side. That is the plan. I just need to figure out how that's going to work.

Other than the progress on the cable bag, I got a few more rows done on Kai's blankie. I worked on it after I first discovered the miscrossed cables, because I couldn't fix them just then, what with the children bouncing all over the place and all. (Thank goodness for knit club.) I've reached another pink section, so I know it's growing.

Is my seam showing?

As promised, a shot of my first invisible seem:



(No, you don't need glasses. That's just one heck of a fuzzy shot.)

Can you believe it? There is no possible way you could tell where that sucker is.

Ok, well, the color change gives it away, I 'spose. Ahem.

You have to wait until the lining is in to see a photo of the whole thing. Suffice it to say that it is awesome.

Knit club was good last night. It was just Linda and I, because Debi had a conflict and Amanda's husband is a putz. He's all like, "I need to work for a living," and stuff like that. Psh. Whatever, dude.

We only stayed until about 7:45 and then took off to deal with errands. I resisted the urge to swing through Half Price Books as I usually do because, oh my gosh, I have so many books right now it's out of control. And with the coming rennovations, it's time to cull, not augment. I actually have a swap going on right now if anyone is interested. A lot of it is vintage stuff, some is more recent. I have tons more, but it's all in storage and it was some of the first stuff I packed up, so I won't be able to get at it again until the house is done.

I picked up one of the cabeled bags I'm designing and got back to work on it yesterday. Only I noticed that I'd been twisting two of the cables the wrong way throughout. And I wasn't sure if, after this long, my guage would be consistant anyway, so I just frogged the 18 rows I'd done and started over. By the time I went to bed last night, I had finished a full 24 row repeat. Only then I noticed that I hadn't mirrored the cables properly on either side of the piece and so now, today, I'm going to be dropping stitches and recrossing cables. Oh, heavens. I just had to do this a few weeks ago and now I've made the same mistake again. At least this time I know what I'm doing so hopefully I can redo all 8 crosses in less than an hour. I think I'm being very ambitious, though, considering the fact that our yard is a massive mud puddle and I can't send the kids out to play. In fact, I think trying to knit at all today will be an excercise in futility.

D'oh!

No photos of my FO today! I put the batteries in to charge and then forgot to check to make sure that the charger was plugged in. Clever!

Oh well. I can't really show it anyway, because I like how it turned out and, with some tweaking, I hope to get it accepted for publication somewhere. Anyway, yeah, I got the mohair cravat all worked up and assembled and it's cute! When the knitathon is over, I'm going to test it out in some different yards and tweak the pattern a bit, but for the most part, it works. Yay!

Next step is going to be finishing off the two cabled bags I'm working on. These, too, are projects I'm hoping to pitch somewhere, so, again, no photos. This blog is going to be boring for those photobucket lovers amung you. I need to get them done so I can add them to the to-line pile. They are my last two projects that require lining, so once they are done, I can face up to my sewing-torture fears. I think it'll take 3-4 days for each of them, so I have at least a week of sewing-free days to look forward to.

Looking at the list, though, once I have all assembled items that are just waiting to be lined done, I'll have finished 9 out of my goal of 10 projects. Party! If I get these two cabled bags done, too, that will put me at 11. Joy!

One step closer...

Most of my knitting time yesterday was spent assembling the cable bag. I worked my first successful invisible seams, too. w00t! I couldn't wrap my brain around those hand-drawn directions you see in all the knitting books until 3 days ago when I happened to be flipping through a book to find information on something totally different and I looked and, voila, it clicked. I don't know why, but that's pretty much how it goes with me and the black-and-white how-to diagrams. My brain doesn't process them right until a) someone has shown me how to do them in person or b) I've seen them umpteen times. Anyway, I'm very pleased with how it turned out, and I'll get a photo as soon as the batteries are done charging for the camera.

So, yeah, the cable bag is all assembled now and in the 'to line' pile with all the iPod cozies. I still have 2 bags on my UFO list to get done before I have my Days of Lining Torture.

When I finished assembly last night, I worked more on the mohair cravat. Today, we took the kids to the zoo and I worked some more on Kai's pink and purple blankie while Adam drove. Oooh, I'll show you the pre-knitathon photo of that!



This is a never-ending project. The yarn is available at JoAnns and was sent to me in a care package from my Mom. See that cake of yarn there above the project? All that yarn worked up, plus that cake, is only half of the skein of yarn. It is one massive skein. It's a 100% nylon (I think?) boucle. And, to be honest, I almost donated it on to someone else. I was not in love with the yarn, and in the shipping, a bunch of the outer layers got all yarn-barfy. But Kai LOVES purple and pink, so I thought I'd work it up into a simple, garter-stitch lapghan for her. I cast on ages ago. I'm working it on size 7s and for a while it was my go-to project for mindless knitting. But I got so, so sick of it.

It's. Just. Knit.

And it takes forever to see any progress on it. So, it just sat around for a long while. I pulled it out 2 days ago to work on while homeschooling, because our math lesson consisted of me making a design on the geoboard and then Kai spent 5 or so minutes trying to copy it. I have a tendancy toward impatience and wanting to do things for her, so I worked on it while she took her turn so I'd have something to do in lieu of being a control freak.

Just so you understand the scope of this sucker, it's a 30 minute drive to the zoo and I got 2 rows knit on the way there and 2 rows knit on the way back. Uuuuuuugh... Thank goodness for this UFO knitathon or I think it would have just languished for ages and eventually been chucked.

Another FO, and progress

I got quite a bit of progress done last night.

First, the unfinished washcloth:



I joined the Monthly Dishcloth group on yahoo groups oh... almost a year ago. And I was really on the bandwagon for a while. They feed you a pattern 5-10 lines at a time, twice a month. The first pattern of the month is usually a seasonal- or holiday-themed knit and purl pattern. The second pattern is usually a bit of lace or some other the technique. I tend to skip the first pattern of the month and take on the second one, because they are nice, bite-sized projects that are just challenging enough to be interesting without being overwhelming. The only issue with this new obsession was that no one in our house uses washcloths, and I prefer sponges to dishrags. So... what to do?

Well, at about the same time, I decided to try my hand at recycling sweaters. One of the first to get butchered was a cotton pull-over from the Gap. This left me with copious amounts of dk-weight cotton. It was very soft, but the unraveling process unplied it. I didn't think reknitting into a sweater was the way to go, but thought instead it would be perfect for the dishcloth projects, and it became my yarn of choice. I used size 4 needles instead of 7 or 8s, and they knit up to about half the size. They are perfect for face-cloths, and my daughters like to use them to wash up after eatting.

But then one day while working on the one above, I lost my place in the pattern and no matter how many times I counted rows, I was coming up in the wrong spot. So, it got set aside. For, oh, 6 months at least.

When I picked it up again yesterday, I realized I'd skipped a few rows and that's why I wasn't able to figure out where I was by row count. So, I frogged back and reknit. In the reknitting, I didn't go back far enough, so there is an elongated row of "leaves" in the finished item, but you know what? It's a face cloth. I'm not going to sweat it. It's off the needles now. Bing, bang, boom.



Obviously, that is unblocked. That's one of the things with using recycled yarn; even though you wash it and weight it to remove the kinks, there are still some left, so anything you knit from it looks really wonky until it's been blocked.

Then I moved on to another project. This one is a cabeled bag that was my Learn to Do Cabels project. I took this class at the same LYS where I learned entrelac and had a similar experience. First of all, the owner wrote up the pattern, and it was both incomplete and unclear. It was a bit like studying French all year and getting to the final exam and finding that it's in Spanish. Yeah, you can sort of figure out what you are reading and are being asked to do, but it takes a lot of extra time and thought. Also, the yarn estimates were way too low and after hitting the half-way mark, I realized I would need to knit the strap one ribbing repeat narrower so it would be long enough. And even now it's not long enough. I'd like it to be long enough to wear as a messenger bag, but I'm afraid it's going to be a longish-strapped tote instead. I couldn't even get more yarn to add to the length, because the yarn was hand-dyed by the owner and it was the last skein of that color. As it is, I got the front and back pieces knit with only about 1 yard of yarn left to sew it all together, so I had to go buy another hank of the green so I could finish it off. This was another class o'frustration for those of us in attendance.



All that said, though, I actually really, really like this bag. I went and got fabric to line it with, oh, AGES ago. And then it sat in its little UFO cubby for months and months and months because of my severe aversion to sewing. But, last night I got it out and steam blocked it and sewed the ends of the strap together.



I had every intention of assembling it in preparation for lining, but I got a little carried away with the steam and it ended up pretty wet, so I had to leave it to dry over night.

Instead, I pulled out the mohair lace scarf to work on.



This is some Skacel mohair that I got from the goodie bag at Stitch and Pitch last year. I wasn't all that thrilled with how it was working up. It had a pretty high yawn-factor. So, I frogged it 2 or 3 times trying different stitch patterns until I found one I liked. And, I can't show you an updated photo, because, well, I REALLY like it and I think I may try to pitch it somewhere. It's being reborn as a cravat instead of a scarf. Also, switching from bamboo to metal needles made the yarn much faster to knit with.

So, yeah, that's all the stuff I got done yesterday afternoon and evening. The kids were very content to play on their own last night, so I had a lot of time with my hands free and was exceptionally productive! w00t!