Freezing my buns off with my bestest bud.

I went to two Mets games last week, on Sunday and Tuesday. The first allowed me to reconnect with an old friend and some of his friends, and the second allowed me to introduce Satanski to America’s pastime. The Mets won the first game, which took place on a warm and sunny afternoon, and I had an insanely good time. The Mets lost the second game, which took place on a cold and windy evening, and I had an insanely good time.

Nice selfie, Nic

To show my Mets pride, I made myself a hat. I winged this one, and worked it top-down because apparently I didn’t have enough going on in my life that week. I duplicate-stitched the saddest ever Mets logo on the hat, but cut off all evidence of my attempt at branding off as soon as I got home, because it was just too tragic for words. There is photographic evidence of this, but I’ll have to think long and hard before releasing such an image into the ether of the Internet, where it may return to harm me when I least expect it. I haven’t given up on the logo, though. I’m shall attempt to embroider it the next time, and hopefully that will allow me to walk around wearing my hat with pride.

Now I just have to learn how to embroider.

Planned out the blanket. Discovered I was missing one square. Oops.

I learned to crochet pretty much entirely to knit the Babette blanket, which I find beautiful. I had the pattern in my Ravelry queue for years before I actually started it, and my first attempts at granny squares were enough to make the wee baby Jesus weep. I practiced with acrylic until I got to where I thought I needed to be. I thought that my first squares were pretty good, but once I’d done the two spiral blankets, I realized how wrong I was. Those squares that had looked great to me were uneven, the row changes were sloppy, on the whole it didn’t look like anything I’d ever want anybody else to see. Thankfully, I had only done a few real squares, so I didn’t lose much time by going back and undoing those. I shudder to think of how bad my earlier practice squares must have been.

Piecing together one section

Once I was better at crochet, I got going in earnest, and made the approximately million and three  squares in this blanket (okay 126, but who’s counting)? In between, I did crocheted some hats and skulls (many many skulls), which I think further improved my stitches. Even when I went back to crochet the one square that I was somehow missing, I noticed the change in my stitches’ tension, as compared to my efforts back in October.

I’m now finished with all of the individual blocks in the blanket, but am having the worst time figuring out the final configuration, and how to achieve it. I’m not sure how this is going to pan out, because I haven’t really loved any of the available options for putting together this blanket. Whip stitch is ugly, mattress stitch seems like too much work for not a pretty enough payoff, single crochet looks a little ugly, and I’m reluctantly going with slip stitch, but I have yet to be bowled over by how it looks. Plus, because I’m joining blocks of different sizes, the standard wisdom regarding connecting horizontally and then vertically really don’t apply here.

Another problem is that I clearly need to block my squares (like, ALL of them), and I really don’t want to. This thing may be hibernating until really big Jesus comes back around.

I really like the way that this Purl Bee Babette came out, and I may have to go back to Purl Soho and look at the blanket, which is usually on display in the shop.

I made my first cowl, which was for a Valentine’s Day exchange. It was so cute, and it matched a hat I’d already knit, so I kept it.

I attempted a second cowl, using the same pattern, more for giggles than anything else, since the color was not what my exchange partner wanted. I liked seeing how different the resulting cowl was, due to the bulkier yarn that I used.

The cowl I eventually did give her was something that I finished literally 10 minutes before I got to the exchange (due to the pesky buttons, which always give me trouble). I liked it, although I wished I’d had time to block it first. Since I started it at 11 pm the night before, that really wasn’t in the cards.

I’ve learned how to make stitch markers because why not? It seems that I enjoy picking up new things, without mastering the skills I already sort of knew.

I’m not an expert at this, but it’s a fun endeavor. I used two in my cowl project, and was pleased at how much nicer they looked than those tacky green and orange plastic markers that so often trail in my wake.

I had the hardest time wrapping my brain around this hat. Sure, it came out super adorably (if I do say so myself), but it took me FOREVER to 1) cast it on correctly and 2) correctly memorize the 4 row pattern repeat. Yeah, I’m a little embarrassed about that, too. Still, I’m not terribly upset with the finished product, and have already had a request to make another one, so yay!

Still, I stocked up on sewing supplies this past Monday, and now I’m looking forward to expanding my repertoire.

• I’ve made bibs before (which I just now remembered that I never posted about…bad Nicole!), but those were from a kit. I bought a pattern book of children’s items the other day, and although I think I’ll start with the bib to get myself in practice, I’m really looking forward to trying some of the other types of patterns in the book.
• Before Christmas and the stomach malaise that never ended, I was hoping to make really nice canvas tote bags for my friends. I still have all of those materials, too, so I plan to make those and gift them throughout the year. What’s that you say?? Birthday tote??
• Finally, I’d like to make holders for my crochet hooks and circular knitting needles. I have a handmade crochet hook case, and while it’s lovely and seems well-made, the thing that strikes me is that I could probably, even at my current novice status, make something at least as good. That’s a good feeling, and I may end up making a lot of these for the etsy business that right now lives only in my head.

One can never have enough sewing (or knitting/crocheting!) supplies, so I’m really excited about the Resolved to Sew giveaway over at Very Berry Handmade (home of this awesome chevron blanket that I’ve pinned to my Craftastic board!). The giveaway contains loads of gorgeous things, but I have my eye on the Erin Morris fat quarter bundle. Beside the fact that I love to enter contests of any type, I’d excited by the mere possibility of winning such a lovely looking bunch of fabric!

In the meantime, I’ll try to get my lazy carcass in gear long enough to post the things that I’ve finished recently (including a crochet baby hat that has the MOST ADORABLE SKULL ON IT EVER).

The fabulous Carrie made me this gorgeous beer cozy. Well, she didn’t make it specifically for me, but I did have the good fortune to claim it in the gift exchange. Yay.

She also made the star ornament that was tied on the outside of the bag in which she had placed the beer (also known as a cleverly folded page from Sunday’s Times, a little worse for wear after being toted from NYC to my house.).

How awesome. One gift, many gift ideas!

I crocheted the flower pin to break up the mistake rib pattern. I learned a lot with this sweater: how to do a hood, how to convert a flat pattern to one worked in the round, and that I should have factored in the whole “stitch picking up” thing into my construction of the early part of this sweater. I also learned that I never ever ever want to do toggle button thingies again without somebody else’s meticulously-written instructions to guide me. I did the sweater in one piece until I got to the armpits (see, I’ve learned!), but from then on things weren’t 100% symmetrical. The problem with such a stretchy pattern is that the two sides stretched differently. I’d do a ribbed bottom for 6-8 rows to rein in this pattern’s tendency to spread.

Still, I’m getting better at sweaters, which can only be a good thing.

I think I’ll try to make this sweater again, and incorporate the things I’ve learned and the things that occurred to me after it was too late to do anything about them (i.e. MEASURE everything don’t just eyeball it).

I feel like I’m about ready to do a sweater with steeks (intentional steaks, not the kind that are placed as an afterthought when I’ve goofed).

As with every bag I’ve made, this one is also reversible. On the whole, my seams are getting a little straighter, although for some reason this gray thread liked to bunch up in a way that no other thread I’ve used has (a new problem! This must mean it’s not my fault…right??). I like it, and I think it’s perfect for wine!

I’d planned to open the lovely looking muscato photographed here (the larger of the two bottles), but of course, I didn’t have a corkscrew at home. The best laid plans folks…