Uh oh, a new obsession.

Hats!

Oh dear, I think I have a new craze: hats. Tams to be exact. Tams with stranded knitting. Oh my, here we go.

Years and years ago, I went on a Fair Isle tam craze. I made bunches of them, some for me, some for the kids, and all in lovely Shetland wool. Now you have to understand that I look like a complete dork in hats. Except for baseball hats, because they have that great bill, I look like a little old lady. OK, granted that I'm not a young chick, but I look like the 95-year old Mommie. It's grand to look like I'm 95, but not when I'm 66. I don't mind aging, but we don't have to rush it.

So, why the hat lunacy? I love knitting tams. Period. Love it. And I totally forgot just how much I loved it until I whipped out a practice hat in DK yarn. Deary me, now I have to knit hats in DK.
Crochet is moving into second place while I get my hat groove on. Poor crochet. Not to worry, though, I'm doing it at night when the brain is in need of auto-pilot.

More yarns: All Benji, 100% SW merino, 3 ply, over 470 yards of skinny yarndom, and wonderful for shawls, scarves, baby gear.

Tracy and Strawberries & Cream.




Wishing Well and Violet




Maggie

I think I'm back.

Benji Yarn!

It's been a busy summer, what with visiting family in MN, have 2 separate grandchild visits, attempting to run a little business. OK, my attempts at that business were pretty minuscule, but hey, it was very hot, I had to catch up on life after grands' visits, and that's my story.

Friday was The Kid's last day of his visit, and the Hubbo had to go to work, so we hung out all day. I did the never-ending laundry, baked some bread, and finally did some good dyeing. He played endless games on the computer, watched tons of TV, and never did get dressed. In short, it was a wonderful day to hang out.

I dyed up some Benji yarn. Benji is skinny fingering weight yarn, 100% SW merino with over 470 yards of yarny goodness. It looks fluffy and fat. NOT! It's rather skinny, even skinnier than Penny yarn, but when it's all dyed up in the skein, it looks big and poofy. The minute you start knitting with it, it gets back to where it lives as a 3-ply fingering yarn. The yardage gives it a lot of yarn for the buck and it's perfect for shawlettes, scarves, and even socks. There's no nylon in it, so if you destroy your socks, this is not the yarn to use.

So here are some of the yarns I did. More either tomorrow or Wed.

Dream Garden and Deep Spice:




Lazy Day and Got the Blues:




Soft Cranberry:


You want before I post on Etsy? email me at fritzl234 AT yahoo DOT com.

Don't forget to sign up for the Magic Carpet Ride Sock Club. YarnYenta and I are doing a club again. All info is here: http://pennyrosesockclub.blogspot.com

And the end of September is the end of the Tikvah Shawl donation program. You buy the pattern, I donate all profit to NAMI!

Sharon - The first one is based on an embroidery floss thread that I own. The second one has lots going on, but then I overdyed it all with that wonderful reddish brown that I love, and all those colors kind of came together.

One-skein Crochet Scarf

Pinks Ripple Scarf

Sometimes you don't want to do an entire afghan or blankie when you crochet. It takes forever, you need lots of yarn, you like to actually finish a project in less than 6 months. Whatever the reason, one of the nicest ways to play with crochet is to make a one-skein crochet scarf. I make mine with a skein of sock yarn. I use a larger hook than usual so that the scarf drapes and is not a solid piece of work. You can figure out what size hook to use while you are learning the pattern. Easy peasy, and then you too can get "hooked" on crochet scarves.

This scarf is a basic ripple pattern. I wrote it up on a previous post, but now I've included some pics of the dc2tog stitch. Try it out the next time you have a pretty skein and just want to do something different other than socks.





Here are instructions again for how to do this pattern. Once you get the hang of the dc2tog, it's mindlessly easy and pleasant to do.

I'm using this very basic crochet pattern also in my Linus Blankie project, and that's where I've done my photography.

Here's how you do the standard ripple pattern:

1. Chain a multiple of 12 + 3. If you crochet tightly, go up a hook size for that first row.

2. 1 DC into 4th chain from hook.
*1 DC into next of 3 chains, [DC 2tog] twice, 1 DC into each of next 3 chains, 2 DC into each of next 2 chains* Repeat from *, ending last repeat with 2 DC into last ch. Turn.

3. Ch 3, 1 DC into same st. * 1 DC into each of next 3 DC, [DC 2tog]twice, 1 DC into each of next 3 DC, 2 DC into each of next 2 DC*. Repeat from *, ending last repeat with 2 DC into either the ch 3 loop or into the third ch of that loop. Turn.

That's the entire pattern. I have to admit that I do cheat and do that last 2 DC into the chain 3 loop from the previous row. I can't see that it makes any difference, at least in this pattern.

I used a skein of New Bambi with a size 4 hook, and I got a very drapey fabric. You don't want to construct a wall here; you want the thing to be a bit flow-y, so that it will drape around your neck. 3 or 4 repeats of the pattern will do it for a scarf.

Here's the blankie right after I've increased in the top 2 stitches: you just dc in each stitch twice.



Now here's the decrease:










In words: Begin the basic dc stitch, but don't complete it. You will have 2 sts on the hook. Then do another incomplete dc through the next stitch, you'll have 3 loops on the needle. yo, and pull through those 3 loops. Ta da: One stitch made out of 2 stitches. This is so much easier to do than to write. Play around with it, and you'll get it pretty quickly.

I hope that helps. I'm not a natural crocheter; knitting comes so easily to me, but I have to work hard at crochet. Once I get it, though, it's so pleasant to do. I tend to frog a lot until it comes out right, but then I can happily motor along.

Yarn ideas for this very basic ripple pattern: worsted wt. yarn with a large hook will make a chunky scarf. DK will obviously be less bulky. I love fingering or sock yarn because the scarf can be tied or draped or whatever, and since I'm a small person, I don't look ridiculous in it.

Crochet uses up considerably more yarn than knitting, but you can make a scarf out of 350-400 yards easily. I use a size 4 hook because I want drape. If you find that you have a board rather than a lovely piece of fabric, go up a hook size or 2.

If you use variegated yarn, as I'm very fond of, play around with it. Sometimes it is just too much variation for the pattern, other times it takes on a water color feel to it. And if you don't like it, frog it, and make socks. You really can't go wrong here.

More crochet scarf patterns coming up as I go along. And no, I haven't stopped knitting, just this is brainless work, and you know that I like mindless repetition with a bit of interest. The interest in this scarf is that dc2tog: I just love doing it!

Scrabblequeen - I'm glad you can figure it out. Crochet is always a learning experience for me even though I've been doing it a lot longer than knitting.

Field Trips

Masala Dosa!

The Hubbo and I love to do 1 day field trips, and this weekend we did 2 of them. It really felt as if we were on vacation for those days. Friday, we went to Nyack, which is a little town on the Hudson River. We were there a number of years ago and were not impressed. I suspect that we didn't really explore enough, but this time we just loved it. Nice yarn shop (nope, I didn't buy. Like I need yarn!), lots of restaurants, pretty shops, the whole works.

From there we went on to a local Christmas Tree Shop. For those of you unfamiliar with the CTS, it started out as a little shop on Cape Cod, then expanded into a bunch of little shops, and then finally became the mecca for all things inexpensive, seasonal, and necessary for one's happiness. Where else can you find really pretty paper napkins at a cheap price? And stuff. More stuff than you can imagine. Nope, no Christmas trees, but lots of goodies like different plastic laundry baskets, cheapy china, great food bargains. I bought a bunch of napkins in autumn prints, and of course the best ginger cookies around, Anna's Ginger Cookies!

And then we ended up having supper at a dosa house not far from home. Dosas are these marvelous Indian pancakes filled with a spicy potato mixture. They are huge! We loved it so much that we went back on Sunday with DD#1, ate more dosa and then had uttapam. We were in serious Indian pancake heaven.

Part of the fun of the dosa house was the TV program. Bollywood MTV, with Tamil subtitles. As if we can read Tamil. We can't read Sanskrit either. But the music and the dancing were so infectious that it didn't matter.

And then on Saturday, we trained into the city to the Rubin Museum, which features Himalayan art. Wow! And afterward, walked back to Penn Station via 6th Ave, which had a multi-block street fair going on. Such fun.

And as a topper to a grand weekend, the Benster, Little Lili and their dad came out to visit on Sunday, and were joined by DD#1. It was so much fun!

Projects finished and in the works: Sorry, knitters, I'm still in this major crochet mode. I actually finished another crocheted scarf, and of course, promptly began another one. This is a serious sickness without a cure, I'm afraid.

My green crochet scarf. This is the most mindless, delightful fabric, easy and pleasant to do.




Here is the brand-new red scarf. Those neat little vertical ridges are done with post stitches, which I learned how to do. Easy, much easier than the instructions would have you believe.



Yet another ripple scarf.




A bit of progress on my granny ripple blankie.



pendie - I used to think so too, plus the bad old 1970's crochet was really ugly, so I ignored it from high school on. and nobody used doilies, so that was that. Then my sister, the evil enabler, started crocheting a few years ago, and she sort of got me into it.

What I love about making scarves is that they are fairly quick, take one skein of sock yarn, and give a lot of charm for not too much work. Plus they are very portable. I crochet on the train, sometimes in the car, when waiting for the movie to start, in front of the TV, etc, etc, so easy and portability are high on my list.

I'm going to post some of the crochet patterns as I go along. They are all in the public domain, and are so basic that I don't want to charge for them. And here's the best thing: you don't have to commit to making an afghan or blankie!

itsJUSTme - Nah, I think you should buy yarn whenever you wish if you can afford it. I do worry about folks who buy when money is tight because they feel they will never see that yarn again. So that's why my answer: there's always more yarn.

Me, on the other hand, live in yarn craziness. I have so much of it, and can't bear to part with my favorites either. One of these years, I'm going to destash!

Scrabblequeen - Tee hee.

KV - We're lucky that we have 2 places where we can get dosa. Just writing this makes me want one!

Presenting the Magic Carpet Ride Sock Club!

YarnYenta and I are once again collaborating on a sock club, The Magic Carpet Ride!

Yes! A new sock club to begin in Sept, 2010! Shipments in the middle - end of Sept, Oct, and Nov! YarnYenta and I have joined forces to bring you socks and yarns based on Oriental Rugs. She'll do the designs and I'll do the dyeing.

The particulars:

3 months: Sept, Oct, Nov (middle - end of the month).
3 glorious new sock patterns designed by the inimitable YarnYenta!
3 stunning new rug colorways dyed by me.

Yarns? I have a lot to choose from and have not decided yet, but you know that they are all lovely because I wouldn't knit on them if they were not.

Cost? $86 for the, USA and Canada. Everywhere else is $90 (to cover First Class International shipment.)
Payment is done all at once, and not pay-as-you-go. I'll need payment by Sept 10 to make sure that I have enough to dye up the yarn.

Extra goodies? Nope. I don't like them, and don't send them, and anyhow, if it costs me to send them, then I have to add that cost to the club. We are a no-frills club, but we are sending you what counts: wonderful yarns and patterns!

Sign up: Any time from this blog and Etsy which is self-explanatory.

http://fritzl.etsy.com

Payment is done all at once, and not pay-as-you-go. I'll need payment by the end of January to make sure that I have enough time to dye up the yarn.

fritzL234 AT yahoo DOT com

Please join us on our carpet ride. Imagine your feet encased in warm, cushy socks to match some of the most beautiful and unusual rugs of the world. Hold onto the sides because we're about to take off. Kazak, Qum, and Suzanni rugs, here we come!

moiraeknittoo - The sample yarns are sitting here next to me and I like them very much.

itsJUSTme - That's OK. You know my mantra: There's always more yarn.

Molly - That's so nice of you. And you also know my mantra: there's always more yarn.

Want a pattern?

I have to get you die-hard knitters to try a little crochet. You too can be obsessed. After all, why should I be alone in this madness?

I'm assuming that you do know how to crochet. If you don't, find a good book or take a class and learn. It's a totally different skill from knitting. Knitting can easily be graphed; most crochet is done "in the air", kind of like the difference between counted cross stitch and freehand embroidery. Sort of. I'm guessing that you use different parts of the brain to do each one. So look at this as a way to increase your intelligence, or, at the very least, add to your scarf collection.

Here's how you do the standard ripple pattern:

1. Chain a multiple of 12 + 3. If you crochet tightly, go up a hook size for that first row.

2. 1 DC into 4th chain from hook.
*1 DC into next of 3 chains, [DC 2tog] twice, 1 DC into each of next 3 chains, 2 DC into each of next 2 chains* Repeat from *, ending last repeat with 2 DC into last ch. Turn.

3. Ch 3, 1 DC into same st. * 1 DC into each of next 3 DC, [DC 2tog]twice, 1 DC into each of next 3 DC, 2 DC into each of next 2 DC*. Repeat from *, ending last repeat with 2 DC into either the ch 3 loop or into the third ch of that loop. Turn.

That's the entire pattern. I have to admit that I do cheat and do that last 2 DC into the chain 3 loop from the previous row. I can't see that it makes any difference, at least in this pattern.

I used a skein of New Bambi with a size 4 hook, and I got a very drapey fabric. You don't want to construct a wall here; you want the thing to be a bit flow-y, so that it will drape around your neck. 3 or 4 repeats of the pattern will do it for a scarf.



Here's how to do a DC 2tog. This is a crochet decrease, and once you've learned it, you will love it. It's so organic.

Work the first part of a DC: just the first yo hook, pull through. So, you will have 2 stitches on the hook. Then, do the same thing with the next stitch, and you will end up with 3 stitches on the hook. Then, yo, and pull through all those stitches. What you are doing here is leaving the first stitch incomplete, and then doing the same thing with the second stitch. By then yo, and pulling through all the stitches on the hook, you turn 2 stitches into one. If this doesn't make sense, let me know, and I'll try to photograph it for you.

Heather x - I'm so glad I rediscovered crochet; it's addictive. My mom taught me how to crochet when I was a kid, and I made doilies. I was so fascinated with them. I still have them somewhere in the linen closet. I should haul them out and have them framed.

Stuff and more stuff!

LONG, LONG post. If you have insomnia, it'll put you right to sleep.

I actually have pictures to share with you. A few lace yarns, and some nice project pics. OK, crummy project pics. Hey, I've been trying to get flickr pics onto Ravelry for the last hour and have not succeeded. So, the brain is fried, and the pics are as they are. I need a real vacation. Maybe retirement. Hmmmm.

Some OOAK lace yarns. These guys were part of the Mystery Shawl 19 possibilities, and I rejected them mostly because I futzed around so much with them that I couldn't duplicate them. Trust me, they are really one of a kind colors. Very nice indeed, but one-offs.

Brown: Now there's a fascinating name. Is it really brown? The yarn ties are truly brown, but look what happened with the lace yarn. So, I'm calling it brown for want of another name. At any rate, it's really pretty, and in my head sort of a mauvy brown, if that makes any sense. It would look great on black, navy, certain grays.




Santa Fe: I have a thing for Santa Fe colors. I adore them and I find that I'm always dyeing them. This one started out as a reddish something or other, and then, ta da, Santa Fe showed up. Can't do it again for the life of me. There's a goldish hint here and there, and sort of an "adobe at sunset" look to it. Wear over navy, gray, brown, whatever you want. Maybe even turquoise, although then you would look truly SantaFe-ish.




Spruce over Gold: Yep, just what it says. I dyed the yarn varying tones of gold, didn't like it, dumped it into a melange of greens left over from something else, and magic happened. This one is really, really pretty. The gold comes through here and there depending on how intense it was to begin with, and then the greens (whatever they were) turned the golds into this fascinating colorway. I can see it worn over everything. The third pic really shows off that gold.





Projects: A bunch of crochet, and a tiny bit of knitting.

Knitting first. Do you remember this yarn and my many, many attempts to do something with it? None of which worked out?



The crochet scarves all looked messy, the colors got in the way of the pattern. So finally, I went back to my favorite sock pattern for variegateds that refuse to work anywhere else, and I like it. Finally. I love this colorway, kept it for myself, and then tried at least 6 different knit and crochet patterns with it. Good old basket weave won out as usual. Talk about a mindless, wonderful pattern that always works!



Crochet mania: I'm still at it, although I'm so enjoying the sock knitting that I might get back to more knitting at some point. Here are 2 scarves that I finished in Minnesota. What I love about these babies is that they are great travel work. You mindlessly motor along on them, they take up no space in your luggage (and I always fly with only carry-on), and you end up with something cozy and toasty for the winter, which may or may not every arrive judging by the never-ending heat around here. How's that for a run-on sentence?

The first one is in a classic ripple stitch. Every crochet book has it in some variation or other, and it makes a great afghan. When you knit it with one yarn only, it becomes so mindless and fun. And remarkably drapey, especially for crochet. This one is done in New Bambi.





This one is hooked in Karen mcn yarn, and is so pleasant to crochet. I tried this pattern in that pink/gold yarn above, and it was a total bust, but in a yarn where the color variations are not striking, it works up very well. Ya gotta know your yarn.






OK, and because I have no other projects to do (!), I was forced to start 2 new blankies. It's a tough place to be, but someone has to do it.

The granny ripple that everyone is enchanted with. Fun, and easy once you do the dreaded first row. After that, you just repeat the same row over and over. My kind of crocheting.



And I had to start an African Flower blankie, too. I put it aside when I returned home, dug it out to photograph it, and now feel compelled to work on it some more. It's very pleasant indeed. I'm thinking that I will crochet the hexagons together with white, a bit chancy since I want to donate it to Project Linus when it's finished. Eh, if a kid gets it dirty, so what. That's why they invented washing machines, and anyhow, it's pretty, and kids in need really do deserve pretty.




Jen - That is only the tip of the iceberg. I have a total of 5 blankets in progress, and countless other stuff, most of which has vanished into my huge plastic tub collection!

Denise Koster - I'll write up the basket weave pattern and post some time this week. Also which grannie pattern do you want. I sell 90% of my patterns, but how can I possibly charge for a brainless basket weave pattern or the grannies? So, give me a day or two, and REMIND me, and I'll post some more patterns.