Slip Sliding Away

Hello:
For my October SKA (Sock Knitters Anonymous) socks and the first part of my HPKCHC Order of the Phoenix Mission (or B.R.O.O.M.), I am knitting a mirrored pair of socks with a slip stitch mosaic pattern.

I am using the green and orange yarn that I dyed this summer with the Eastside Stitchers.  This yarn started out as a bare sock blank from Knit Pick.

I used green and yellow food colors to dye it.

I needed a good contrasting color to bring out the slip stitch pattern, and since I am knitting from stash, I am also using some  Berocco Comfort Sock in navy. 

The challenge states that the socks must be a mirror of each other.  So, I have started each sock with a different color.

It got interesting when I started knitting the slip stitch chart.

I really love how the two different color yarns set each other off.

These socks call for a "Peasant Heel."  This has me knit in some waste yarn on one side of the socks.  The waste yarn will be taken out when the socks are finished, the stitches picked up, and the heels knit.  I am past that part now and am knitting down the feet.  The soles are striped and the mosaic pattern continues on the instep.  I am really loving knitting these.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet while slipping.

Arithmancy OWL

Hello:

I have been working on my Arithmancy OWL.   This month you can turn in 50% of your finished owl for points.  Although hooking the squares together is not a part of my proposal, I wanted to have a finished afghan when I am finished.  For me, this means, hooking together as I go.  Otherwise I will be overwhelmed wish the finishing.  Much better to do it as-I-go.

Here is what the afghan looks like when it is behaving like an afghan.

Hoping to hear some good news from our friend, GwenS before too long. She is in labor as I write.

Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with 2 rows finished.

A Quick Photo of the Raccoon In My Yard

Not the greatest photo, but this guy was actually shy.  He/she came in at about 8 am but backed up when I went out on the deck to get the photo.  Usually they don't care at all if we are on the deck.  They act like the yard is theirs.

No Fiber Friday For Me

Hello:

At 7:00 this morning the sun rose over the Cascades through just a bit of clouds.  One hour later, the clouds had lowered a bit, but were still just above the lake.

I was working on one of two 6 in. squares I needed to finish for my Arithmancy OWL Afghan for HPKCHC.  My goal for the OWL is twelve 12 in. afghan squares and ten 6 in squares.  The whole afghan will be 20 12 in. squares and the ten 6 in. squares.  I planned to make the other eight squares for classes.  To get the points for making the 50% mark, I need to turn in six of the 12 in. squares and five of the 6 in. by the end of this month.  For my own sake, to finish the afghan by the end of November (my goal), I need to have twelve of the 12 in. squares and six of the 6 in. finished AND all those squares hooked together.

I really need to crank out the squares this month.  So, I was working on number 4 of the small squares and getting ready to head out to Crossroads for Fiber Friday, when my phone rang.  It was one of the schools where I am trying to get some substitute teaching work.  Was it possible for me to come THIS morning and teach 3 periods of Math?  Well, heck!  um... It's FIBER FRIDAY? Does no one respect the need to get together with your stitch buddies for some serious stitching time?

I said, "Yes," of course, put away my hook, and drove out to substitute teach.  I had fun, the kids were great.  When I got home, I finished the two small squares I need for the 50% mark.

One of the fun things for this afghan is that I am trying to make all new squares, not reuse even my favorite squares from the last two years of the BAMCAL group on Ravelry.  

I am making the squares for September, October and November for the afghan.  But that won't be enough squares, so I get to look at the past years of the group from before I joined it for more squares.  And I have already designed one new square (though I haven't written up the pattern, yet).  This is especially true for the small squares, as the BAMCAL group chooses two 12 in. squares each month but only one 6 in. square.

Today I made squares from the 2011BAMCAL.  The first is called SmoothFox Flower Button Granny 6x6. 

This is a very simple square.  I like how the pattern gives the feel of a granny square, but is more filled in,.  I especially like how the the first two rounds look.

Usually, the first round is almost solid double crochets.  This square has a granny first round, and the second round is the solid round.

The other square I hooked today is Antique Pearls Square by Pricilla Hewitt.  She uses a series of triple crochets (trc) and single crochets (sc) but working on the wrong side of the square. 

This is the same motif used it the beautiful center of the Crocodile Flower Square by Joyce Lewis.
The Crocodile Flower square uses a more concentrated grouping of these bumps.

In the Antique Pearls square, this trc, sc, motif is repeated for the border.

It is just a beautiful square.

I need to make one more big square and get these hooked together for the turn in.  I don't really need to have the squares hooked together, but I WANT to get that done.  So, that is one of my goals for this weekend.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with pearls.

Headless, Heartless, yet, Happy Hippo

Hello:

I wanted to show you the progress I have made on my crochet hippo. The pattern is called, Happypotamus, The Happy Hippo Crochet Pattern. by Heidi Bears.  I am not kidding about the name. That being said, the pattern is a genius of geometric construction.

The whole thing is crocheted geometric shapes:  pentagons, hexagons, octagons, etc.  You hook them together with an as-you-go method.

This is how far I have gotten:
This is a somewhat squashed side view:

I am using all yarn from stash, so the colors are a bit crazy.

You can clearly see septagon (7 sided)some hexagons (6 sided) and some pentagons (5 sided) shapes. 

Here is the Hippo standing up:

I haven't added any stuffing.  He is sturdy enough that he can stand up unstuffed.  He is a good size.  The pattern calls for fingering weight yarn, but I am using worsted weight and a size D crochet hook.

This is the top of the back looking straight down:

And here he is from the front.  You can see his headless state, and well, his heartlessness, too.

I rather like how big he is.

Hope to finish him up this coming week.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with parts of a Hippo.

Eastside Stitchers Talk Crochet

Hello:

Eastside Stitchers met tonight at Crossroads Mall.   The weather has been really cold for the Pacific Northwest in September, and now early October.

There is snow in the Cascades already.

We had the best summer in more than two generations followed by the rainiest September in recorded history.  And, it is cold.

Perfect knitting weather.

Skeinherder and I got to the round table near Half-Price Books and Starbucks just a bit before VanesaPolo showed up.  I'm trying to make some October Stitch Markers as rewards and thank-yous for my Acid Pops Pride in HPKCHC.   I stopped at the Jo-Ann's that is conveniently near where we sit to get some Crochet Thread (size 10) in Black and Orange.  They had the black, but no orange!  What? so near to Halloween? 

I decided to make some little spiders as the stitch markers.  I have finished the cuffs on my October socks and am ready to start the pattern, but these socks are NOT a good social knitting project.  I could have worked on my headless Hippo, or one of the afghan squares, but these require at least 3 skeins of yarn, and are not really that portable, either.  I needed something easy, thus the stitch markers.  I tried a few times to make something small enough to be a stitch marker, that still resembled a spider, and well, VanesaPolo and Skeinherder did not think my attempts looked much like spiders, though Skeinherder took one as an ankle bracelet.

Ha ha ha ha ha, does it look like a spider on her ankle?

Anyway, we did more than just laugh at my spider attempts.

MsWiz brought a sweater she is knitting in Madelinetosh.  Or trying to knit?  Or knit, rip, knit, rip, knit, rip?

I'm not sure she actually made any progress on the sweater, but it was wonderful to have her back at stitch night!

Anerenbe has made some progress on her Linen Stitch scarf.  You can actually see the stitch pattern, now.

Chockelet brought the crochet. 

This is a little place mat she hooked.  Mesmerized by the speed of crochet, Chockelet has embarked on an afghan.  I hope to show you her progress next week.  This week she proved that she can count to over 100 even at Crossroads.

Wajio brought a pair of very cute baby socks.  I wish I had photographed them with something as a reference point so you can really see their size.

VanesaPolo brought the really cool sweater she is knitting. The pattern is Serra by Laura Aylor.  The engineering is really cool.  It is based on a design by Barbara Walker.

Skeinherder is busy with Malabrigo Junkies Stockpile Event.  She is knitting small projects with Malabrigo, since for this month, it's all about finishing projects to be eligible for prizes.  What small project did she bring?  A Streptococcus Chain, of course.  Knit in Malabrigo.  Because even bacteria look better in Malabrigo.

The mall was rather quiet; might have been because of the cold rain.  The yarn was warm and soft.  And the company was definitely fun.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with no spiders, but also no germs.

New Month

Hello:
It's a new month so that means new class prompts in the Harry Potter Knitting Crochet House Cup (HPKCHC) Group on Ravelry.

The last few days of each month are always crazy in the House Cup.  I had all 8 classes finished with 3 days to spare, when I got a great idea for a different project for one of the classes I hadn't turned in yet.  For Magical Menagerie (the classes in September were based on shops in Diagon Alley), you could either make something to help care for your magical pet, or make a magical pet.  I had finished 4 hats and a crocheted cowl that I hadn't turned in yet.  I planned to turn them all in, except perhaps one, to Potage's Cauldron Shop.  The prompt there was to choose a cauldron, and craft something that had the cauldron's traits.  My hats and cowl were all easy beginner projects, so fit the Pewter Cauldron.  Then I thought I would turn in 1 hat as a bag for a toad, or some other silly pet thing, to the Magical Menagerie.  But, Saturday night, I got this great idea to hook a hippo.

I bought this great pattern last summer to make a hippo out of crocheted shapes, like pentagons, hexagons, octagons, etc.  It is such a clever bit of geometric engineering, I just had to get the pattern.  I was using worsted weight yarn, though the pattern calls for fingering weight, so my hippo was going to be fairly big.  I just couldn't get it finished on time.  It had to be submitted to a class by midnight, Pacific Time, on Monday, September 30.  Ugh!!  I finished all but the head.  No good photos, though, so I can't show you what it looks like until tomorrow.

It made me a crazy person all day Sunday and Monday, though.  All I did was make these little pentagons, etc.  I mean it.  It was all I did.  We had pizza for dinner.  I could tell the Doc thought I was insane.  And then I didn't finish in time.  But, I still can turn it in for a Quidditch project, thank goodness, because all of that work should count for something!

What did I finish up in those last few days?

I finished my Hidden Hearts Socks by Jeannie Cartmel, in SweetGeorgia Yarns Tough Love Sock in Boysenberry.

I am not sure I like the heels.  They have a short row heel.  That isn't really the problem.  It's the lace that is at the top of the heel.  The heels seem rather short on top, and this puts lace in a place where it will rub inside the heel of the shoe.  I like my heels taller.  There is no pulling on these socks to fix where the heel ends.  The solution would have been to do a few rows of stockinette at the back of the leg before starting the lace pattern.  I think that would have worked.  Or, this heel is not a good heel for this type of pattern.  Anyway, I'm not sure how wearable these socks are, which is too bad, because I think the yarn is beautiful, and I do like the lace pattern.

I mentioned that I had finished a few hats.  The first hat I just improvised as I knit it.  I am trying to stash bust, so I used a bulky weight brown Lions Brand yarn that I had in my stash.  I was going to do a seed stitch and a cable, but I decided that the yarn was too thick for this, so I stuck with a rib alternating with seed stitch sections.

The second hat that I made was a variation on the Turn a Square hat by Jared Flood.  I used some yarn that Colleen generously donated to our group.  She can't use wool yarn in her charity knitting, so when she gets donations that include wool, she often brings the wool to the group.  I snagged a few balls of Cascade 220 in various solid colors, and some unnamed variegated which I think is Berocco.  Instead of having 4 corners for decreases, I had 5 making the shape of the top of my hat into a pentagon.

Another little variation I put into this hat was that I added 5 purls spaced around the hat to divide it into the sections.  I  used the first purl to hide my color changes.

I really like how this hat came out.

The cowl for this class was from a pattern from Interweave Crochet.  I had one skein of sparkly acrylic that was part of a gift exchange last term in HPKCHC.  I had to make the cowl much thinner than the one in the magazine, as I didn't have a big skein.

Three easy and relatively quick projects.  Lots of yards used, so I hope lots of bonus points.

O!  I almost forgot to say that the  best part of finishing up these classes is that I won the drawing in September Solid Socks for the purple Hidden Hearts socks.  I will get a skein of sock yarn by GrittyKnits as my prize.  Yay!  more sock yarn for me.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet as a WINNER!