Opening Video

Evolution of an improvised scarf

As of late I have been playing around with writing some patterns for scarves and hats. It's an entertaining, if time consuming, hobby. I get an idea, and then I think of multiple variations that I want to try all in one go. This is disastrous for anyone who has trouble visualizing what the finished products will look like. So I make myself try one idea at a time, and there is much frogging of the final results.

Take this little beauty of a scarf:

You can't tell from the picture, but it is 100% complete. It turned out rather nice, if I do say so myself. So what made me rip it all out? First off, it was a bit too short, which is not surprising since I was using one ball of rather old worsted weight yarn, and the scarf was around 12" wide. It would have been more of a task than I was willing to track down more of the yarn. Plus, the feel of the yarn is not so soft and lovely, especially worked that tightly. So I ripped the whole thing out and modified the pattern.

Here are pictures of the modifications:

The feel of the yarn this around having used the larger needles was much nicer. If I was into blocking and making sure the pattern showed just right, I would have been happy with the scarf just like this. But I don't like to fuss too much when it comes to scarves.

This is my solution:

I folded the seed stitch edges together and used a quick whip stitch to seam it up. No blocking necessary, and no fussing when putting the scarf on. The modifications I did on the stitch pattern worked perfectly for this. It's almost as if I had planned this final result, and after doing this project it is something I can plan for in the future if the mood strikes me. 

First Finished Project of 2014

Another year of crafting has begun. I've got some projects that carry over from last year, including the seemingly never-ending blanket that I'm crocheting from scraps of yarn. Scraps may not be the best way to describe the 50 yards of yarn that the pattern calls for to complete two rows. In fact, my solution for not being able to make it across two rows is to just do one row then switch colors, or even to pick up with a slightly different shade in the middle of a row. I'm using loads of colors, so I don't think this will matter much.  This has been on the hook for quite some time, but possibly during this cold snap I'll finish it up. I'm interested to see what the final size will be.

But I've been distracted already. This post was intended to showcase my first finished project of the year. My version of the Good Tidings Organizer has a border to compensate for running out of the black yarn I was using as the background, further exemplifying that you occasionally have to improvise when using leftover materials. In addition to using up some of my extensive stash of partial skeins, this pattern came from the electronic version of Crochet Today! magazine, and now I don't have to feel guilty for buying this when I already had  physical and virtual stacks of patterns. Plus, I learned the name of a technique I've been using to create the backgrounds of my artwork: Thermal Single Crochet.

Some of my crafting goals for the year include knitting along with the Sock Club, making some blankets and cat toys for the animals at Pawsabilities, and using up some of my stash!

Two Socks, 5+ Needles

Knitting two socks at the same time can be time-saving, fun, frustrating, complicated, may as well have knitted them one at a time. Let's just say the first time using a challenging new technique can test anyone's patience, but with a bit of perseverance the finished project brings satisfaction, a sense of accomplishment, or at least relief knowing you are not obligated to do it again.

This was not my first time knitting two socks at once. I've used two circular needles, cuff down more than once. As long as you don't have a pattern that shifts and eventually you have to knit two together at the point where you stop knitting on sock 1 to knit sock 2, then it isn't bad. Yet instead of choosing this method, I picked up the double pointed needles because I heard it was possible to knit two socks simultaneously with this new-to-me technique. 

Unless you want to drive yourself crazy, you'll need two sets of double pointed needles to cast-on. If you are going to be ribbing, I suggest doing the ribbing for each sock before setting up your stitches on one set of needles. Cleverly, I just started knitting as I set up the stitches. This was challenging and didn't save any time. Plus, ribbing both socks took a lot more concentration than just straight stockinette stitch. Whenever you decide to combine, I suggest slip a stitch from sock 1, slip a st from sock 2, and repeat until you are good to go.

Once you get to the stockinette stitch, it is easy if you can knit Continental and American-English style. There is a wonderful rhythm to the knitting. If you can't do both, you'll have to constantly drop one yarn and pick up the other. It is a fantastic project to practice the technique, but it will require concentration, especially if you are using just one color of yarn.

So, what could possibly go wrong? One of the problems I was having at the beginning of the project was the yarn snagging. It meant there were little strands that connected the socks. Now, as long as the strands are not substantial, you can just pull the two socks apart with no real damage done. But if you get a good portion of the strand you'll have to rip out or drop a stitch to correct it. Even worse, you might start knitting sock 2 with the yarn from sock 1 and not realize it, like I did. Just dropping a stitch will only frustrate you; you'll have to rip it out. The good news is that this provides the perfect opportunity to just knit the socks one at a time. Or you could be like me and put the socks back together. Persevere!

The heel was interesting. Turns out purling is not as smooth as the knitting, and since I used a slipped stitch in my heel pattern I found myself trying to correct the slipped stitches when I got to them. When you get to decrease, you have to do the heels separately anyway, so there isn't a need to knit them at the same time.

The toes are the fun part because you get to pull those socks apart and see if you've don't it right. One of my socks was slightly smaller than the other, but not drastic enough to call them different sizes. I knit a bit more snug American-English style. I had suspected this, but now I have proof.

Here are some tips if you'd like to try two socks at once on double pointed needles.

1. Different colors will make it easy to see which yarn belongs to which sock. Use a nice striping yarn and compare a good amount to make sure you won't end up with too much same-color overlap. If you use the same color, always put the yarn for the inside sock on the same side every time, and tuck that yarn inside the project whenever you take a break. Marking the label is a good idea as well.
2. Stockinette stitch was the easiest and fastest for me, so I'd recommending doing the ribbing first and then set up both socks on one set of needles. If you are doing toe-up you'll have to do the toes separately before combining.
3. Consider doing an afterthought heel. Remember to use two bits of scrap yarn, one for each sock.
4. Make sure the yarn you pick doesn't split. One of the biggest problems I had was little strands connecting the socks because the yarn split. Once I had the technique down this did not happen, but I sure wish I had used a less finicky yarn for my first try.

Tunisian Crochet

While I was looking to brush up on my Tunisian crochet skills so as to be prepared to help members of my knit & crochet group as they learn, I stumbled upon a great pattern/tutorial. It is a Tunisian Washcloth Sampler, complete with links to videos showing how to do each stitch. Not only did I get to practice my technique, I got to try some new-to-me stitches. The results are wonderful with an edge of single crochet.

 

Tunisian Washcloth Sampler by Maxine Pike on Ravelry.