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.