Cheap Reads

Just picked these up for 40% off at JoAnn!

Also, got this through a book swap club:

Can't wait to dig in! Has anyone read them? Favorite bits? Comments?

UPDATE 11/19/09 - Finished TFNKC a little while ago and it is a lovely book with lots of fun moments but ultimately VERY SAD! You are warned!

Interweave Loves Me

So, I'm pretty damn excited. I got a message on Ravelry from one of the editors of Interweave Crochet indicating that I have been chosen to be a part of their Reader's Gallery in the next issue. This particular reader's gallery will apparently focus on hats.

For those of you who aren't regular readers - the Reader's Gallery is a collection of something like four to six photos of finished projects made from patterns published in previous issues. I've always been mildly jealous of the people who get featured, but I never thought my stuff was nice enough to submit.

Turns out, I didn't even have to! They contacted me! The nice editor lady - one Toni Rexroat - asked if she could use a photo of my Chullo Hat, which I made last winter. I asked, of course, if I could take some truly nice pictures of the hat to send her so that she wouldn't publish the rather half-handed pics I snapped back when I made the hat. Those pictures were merely for Ravelry and Facebook. THESE pictures will be going in a nationally distributed magazine in all its full-color glossy glory.

This afternoon it turned unexpectedly sunny, and with the trees in our yard turning some pretty rad colors, we whipped out the camera and I posed my yarnie heart out on the back deck. In the best pics my eyes are either downcast or closed entirely, since, of course, to get the good light, the sun needs to be shining right in my eyes.

So, without further ado, here are my submissions, the two best of the lot:

Speed Crochet

So, my birthday was this Saturday. (Pause for cheering.)

Among the various things the boy and I did that day was to visit The Naked Sheep, one of my favorite places in North Portland, which is now, sadly, quite a long way away from where I live. But we had to be in that part of the city for other reasons that morning, and so, knowing that I would get a birthday discount, we headed over. He decided that whatever I wanted to purchase there that day (within reason, of course) would be my birthday present. Isn't he sweet?

I walked away with the Harmony Guide for Cables & Arans (which I've wanted for ages, along with the Lace & Eyelets Guide) and a single skein of blue-and-copper self striping Wisdom Yarns Limerick. I would have gotten more - it's a nice, soft dk merino - but this lonely skein was all there was left in the sale basket, and I just knew I could do something small and lovely with it.

After riffling through and discarding several ideas, most of which got discarded because they contained interesting and beautiful cables which would have been totally lost in the striping, I finally settled on the Clapochet by Crochet Kitten. This crocheted version of the very popular Clapotis Scarf is, like its knitted counterpart, designed to be shawl width, and therefore normally requires something in the neighborhood of 800 yards of fiber. Having only 175 to work with, I narrowed it down a great deal, and only made it about 60" long.

I chose the crochet version over the knitted one, not because I haven't learned how to do drop stitches (how hard can it be to learn?), but for the much more important reason that the crocheted version stripes with the grain of the diagonal, rather than across it, and I much prefer this look. Cross-grain striping, in my humble opinion, distracts the eye and obscures the stitchwork.

The most amazing thing about this project, though, is that - and anyone who has done one-skein projects will understand - I did the entire project in one afternoon, the very afternoon after I bought the yarn, which means this project wins the prize for fastest progression from yarn purchase to project blocking I've ever accomplished. And the weather is just perfect to wear it to work today!

Wrist Warmers Complete

Over the summer, I started a pair of wristwarmers as my very first cable project. I picked up the pretty yellow Naturally Caron that I had gotten as a freebie at my Aran Tunisian class, cast on to some size 7's, and went to town. It only took me a single day, and the cables looked perfect - although truly, my seaming left something to be desired. Satisfied, I showed it off to my boyfriend, took and posted some pictures, and stated that I would make its twin the following day.

That, not surprisingly, never happened.

But, I am proud to say, that as of this past weekend, I now have TWO Irish Hiking Scarf wristwarmers! Woo!

I even worked on them a bit at my Crochet Guild meeting. Shame on me.

Oh, and the seaming on the second one? Fabulous. Which is kind of a shame, because that means now they don't exactly match. :P

Hiatus

So, immediately after my last post, significant time was spent gearing up for PAX. Which rocked, as per expectations. We made lots of new friends, a handful of which even live very close to our new home in Hillsboro.

The night after we returned from PAX, all hell broke loose on the home-buying front. Long story short, we wound up staying temporarily in Gresham, and commuting from there to work (almost an hour each way) until the delayed close date and subsequently even more delayed move date on our new house.

During this entire time, I never found time or peace to knit anything at all except a few rows on the Muppet Scarf. Even now, there is still unpacking to be done, walls to touch up, furniture to be arranged, and a birthday to prepare for - yes, friends, this yarnie is turning 27 two weeks from tomorrow.

To make matters even more exciting (and crazy busy), the boy and I have been engagement ring shopping! *squee*

I was so excited to start my very own yarn-and-hardware blog, and so disappointed with myself recently for not having any reasons to update it. So, even though the most I've done in the past six weeks is get nearly to the end of the first ball of dark orange Sirdar Snowflake, I wanted to share.

To end this post, I'd like to publicly vow to pick up the hooks and needles again in earnest the very moment the last empty box is collapsed and recycled, the last spackle patch is painted over, and the last piece of furniture is in place and put to use.

THERE WILL BE YARN.