The Sweater that launched a thousand funks

You might remember the Sea Princess Sweater that I made for the Kiddo. It’s pink…very pink. I was super proud of how it came out. The Kiddo loved it. Even though it was probably a bit too warm out to be wearing a wool sweater, she wore it every chance she could get.

Although it’s a washable wool, it still needed to be handled with care. I washed it a couple times  – with maybe one or 2 other items and in cold.

And then….this

It’s a little hard to see here, but it looks terrible in real life.

It got mixed into a full load of laundry somehow & washed in what was clearly water that was WAY TOO HOT for it. Now I have a weird looking pseudo-felted, cabled sweater. I’m not sure what to do with it. I worked too hard on it to be willing to just throw it away. What I know is that it sent me into a crafting & blogging funk the likes of which I haven’t seen in a couple years. Combine that with working full time and you can imagine how much I’ve gotten done.

BUT about 2 weeks ago I finally started to come out of it. I made a pair of baby pants, I finished the puppy hat of eternity, and I made a lovey blanket (pics & stories to come).

And now I have ideas…so many ideas! I have some really nice yarn that is just screaming to be used. A cowl, socks, washcloths…oh my. Now I just want to MAKE ALL THE THINGS!

On a separate note, what the heck does one do with a pseuo-felted, cabled sweater when it is totally unwearable?

Project use up all the cotton – I haven’t forgotten about you, I promise

Way back in May, I started a cotton de-stash project – Project Use Up All The Cotton. (Side note: I could have sworn it’s been longer than that. May feels like it was a REALLY long time ago.) I’ve had a few detours since starting and haven’t used up nearly as much yarn as I’d hoped by now.

BUT I did make another washcloth this week. I am proud & disappointed in it at the same time.

 

From a looks perspective, it didn’t come out that great…and I know that’s my fault. I made a poor choice in yarn. You’d think I would have learned to make these types of picture patterns in solid colors by now.

On the other hand, for this washcloth pattern, I did 2 things I don’t usually do and for that I am proud. The pattern itself is actually just a chart for the phoenix picture. So I did all the math to figure out exactly how many knits & purls I needed to make the right sized washcloth with a centered picture. Plus (and probably what I’m more pleased about), I read the phoenix pattern straight from the chart. Usually I follow written patterns (you know – knit 2, purl 5, knit 10…etc), but this time I just used the chart ( you can find it at this site).

I do like the chart itself and, now that I’ve figured out the math, I’m thinking that I’ll make this one again…this time in a solid color so you can actually tell what the heck it is you’re looking at.

Don’t be like me

Make sure you check the size of the crochet hook you are about to use long before you use it to make nearly an entire hat without realizing that you’ve selected a size larger than you meant to and now your child-sized hat could fit a grown man (or a woman with a VERY large head).

At an impasse

I’m 160 rows away from finishing my sister’s Christmas present.  However, my yarn will only last for about 2 more rows.  Ordinarily coming to the end of a skein would be no big deal.  You just move on to the next skein and weave in the ends.  Not this time.

I had only 3 skeins.

I thought it would be enough.

But nooooooo.

And guess which yarn is discontinued.

Balls!

I’ve been searching the interwebs with no success.  I’m trying to see if someone on Ravelry will sell or trade with me.  I’m going to hit A.C. Moore & Michael’s on the weekend, but it’s been a long time since I bought the original skeins so I don’t know how much luck I’ll have.

Balls!!

At any rate, here’s a picture of what I have to this point.  I know it’s hard to see, but the cables came out really nice.  If I’m super lucky I’ll be able to finish it and give it to its rightful owner.

Almost done

A little time away gives perspective

I finished the Inca Snowflake hat…mostly.  I was pretty excited when I got my yarn from Knit Picks so that I could finish the hat, but when I got out the hat again to start putting on the edging I was just not happy with the hat at all.  It is SO NOT the fault of the pattern.  But as they say, “don’t blame the toolbox.” 

My beautiful alpaca yarn, which looked so nice while I was making the main part of the hat, started to look really weird once I started the decreases for the top.  It started to stripe and make this weird pattern – a pattern that I could probably never replicate if I tried and is actually kind of cool if that’s what you’re going for, but looks strange and coneheady on a baby hat.

Nevertheless, I started the edging and came to realize that I’m still really bad at crocheting.  So, knowing full well that I was never going to let the kiddo wear the strange conhead hat anyway, I decided that it was a better use of my time to move on to a new project.  I haven’t decided what that project is yet though.  Probably a different hat…she needs at least one handmade hat for the winter.

I told you I have a thing for hats.

See...the main part is pretty, but the top looks strange.