The August

I had an amazing thing happen this morning and it all has to do with my Gossamer scarf. I’ll have to start from the beginning, though. The scarf is coming along. It was going so well, so quickly that… well, I gave myself an RSI. So many lessons to learn. I guess my project wasn’t about the fun of making something anymore, it was more about finally finishing something (big) that I’ve started. I’ve never actually completed something from a crochet pattern before, and this is the one I promised myself would be the first. You know, something to justify all the yarn I pine for and all the daydreaming I do. So, crap, now it’s “go slow” again, and I’m wondering just when this is ever going to get finished. I have about 40 of the motifs left.

Anyway, I started to realize that the speed hooking I’d been doing was just aggravating something that’s been building up in my body for a long time. Stagnating. I don’t get much exercise. I’m not getting any more flexible as time goes on. I sit in the same position every day when my little guy takes his nap. Bad posture—the works. I decided to try yoga again. It’s never really worked for me in the past, but I keep returning to it for some reason. The principle just appeals to me. Everything I’ve read about basic yoga just makes sense for why it should work for me. So, I got up this morning, I did Jala Neti (which I’ve been neglecting). I felt a little better, nothing special. Then I did the first four poses as instructed by The Women’s Book Of Yoga & Health. That was all I could manage, but I felt a little better. Then, as I was eating my breakfast, I realized I COULD BREATHE DEEPLY. I just felt like, oh my god!

It was one of those “Oh, yeah!” moments I’ve always hoped I’d have when doing something new. But the thing is, you don’t always want those moments. The big “Oh, yeah!” comes when you’re so far gone in one direction that the glimpse of the “right” direction is a big stunner. That means I have a long way to go to get back to feeling the right way.

Oh, and as far as the crochet goes, when I first notices the problem with my pinky and wrist I immediately tried to think of something that would pad the little handle on my hook. I’m working with a Susan Bates 2.35 mm hook. So it’s kinda small. I figured I would try to wrap the handle in self gripping sports wrap, to see if that would pad the handle enough and offer a larger surface to grip. It works great! I was very proud of myself for having thought of it. Although, I’m sure I’m not the first to have thought to use the self adhering bandage as a padding. Looks funky, but it helped.

Oh, and the title, if it doesn’t ring a bell with you, is a line from The Princess Bride.

I shouldn’t be writing right now, I should be hooking. My Gossamer Scarf is finally looking like it might actually be a scarf. All these weeks (months?) I’ve been working on it and I finally did the math to find out how much I have left to do, and how long it should take me. Reality hit that I could be working on this thing for months more, and I decided to stop being such a milk toast about crochet and really work to get it done. But one has to take a break every once in awhile, right? So, here’s a really crappy pic of the scarf:

This has been a tough time, we’re busy with preparations for company. Our little guy is turning two, and all but one of the grandparents are going to be visiting (staying with us in our very modest apartment, YIKES!). No, it’ll be fine. But on top of that, Kenneth has had a hiccup in his working life, and it hasn’t been a pleasant one. So, we’re dealing with that, too. I’ll just say we’ve been emotionally busy. Hang in there honey.

Well, that’s about it. I was just feeling guilty for not posting.

Now that my shopping bag is finished, I was itching to figure out what to keep as my knitting WIP. Well, it was going to be a hat for my little guy, but I finished that in one day. I’ve done several crochet hats, but this was my first one to knit, and it was super easy. Here is the hat, and hooray, he likes it!

It’s from this pattern by Judy Gibson.

Anyway, since that’s done, I need a more involving project. I should just work on the fuzzy blue stripe rug that I’ve had going for… months? But I’ve lost my steam on that project. So, I decided to finally order sock yarn and try my hand at a pair of socks. I went back to Knitpicks for my yarn, so sometime in the next week or so it will be time to crack open my sock makin’ book.

I finished this suckah this afternoon.

At first I was going to say that it doesn’t look too pretty, but now I think it turned out looking pretty nifty. As long as it holds my bread, eggs, fruit and what-have-you without complaint, then I shan’t either. I just hope it holds up because I know at some point some poor fool is going to try to shove a gallon of milk in there and we’ll see how well that works.

A note on the red yarn I used. I had a sweater that was given to me as a hand me down.

Well, it never fit right, and I’d had an obsession with trying to find any sweaters that I own that I could recycle the yarn from. This one fit the bill even though I still liked the pattern and look to some degree. But it was all cotton and thus heavy and not very warm. All those factors added up to dismantling. I’d read a good tutorial how to unravel a sweater from Neauveau.com The unraveling has worked out well, except that the sweater was apparently worn on the elbows, so the yarn is frayed in several spots. It still makes a good cotton yarn for utilitarian type things, like my shopping bag! The nice creamy denim flecked yarn was a gift from my brother.

So, we’ll be adding this bag to our group of reusable bags that we take to our local grocery stores Trader Joe’s, Sunflower Farmers Market and on occasion, Whole Foods. We have them hanging on our front door knob so every time we go out the door we can remember to take them down to the car. It really didn’t take that long to start a routine and have it stick as habit. Kenneth said to me awhile back, “You know one of the things I like best about Whole Foods, is that when the cashier asks if I want paper or plastic and I say that I brought my own, they don’t give me a funny look.”

Many, many thanks to my wonderful husband, Kenneth, for this pretty website.

Honey, you are very talented and very generous.

Speaking of finishing things, I’ve been bad, bad, bad about actually finishing the projects I start. That’s pretty normal for me, but I’m trying my hardest to not be that way. So I decided to restrict myself to one crochet and one knit project to keep as my active WIPs (work in progress). I’ve promised to myself to do this since about a week ago, and so far it’s been an easy resolution to keep.

Crochet: Vintage Lace Scarf by Dana Codding

This is my progress so far, I would say about 15 percent in. Obviously I haven’t woven in ends or blocked it yet so it looks pretty scraggly. I was weaving in the ends as I finished attaching each motif, but then when I would go to attach the next motif it was hard to find where best to insert my hook, so phooey. I’ll just have a lot of work to do at the end.

Knit: Shopping Bag from pattern by Judy Gibson

Everyone I saw working on this bag said it was easy, easy, easy. I had a hell of a time at the beginning trying to figure out the rhythm of this stitch. Felt like a complete moron. It was about the third try when I finally got it, but I ended up modifying the pattern a little to help me keep track of where I was. Then yesterday after I took this photo I ran out of yarn, so I had to switch back to the dark red (which wasn’t planned) and then I buggered up the stitch somewhere after that. To heck with it. I’m just going to plow thru and finish it however I can. I’m almost done.