Helpful Hint #1 - Selecting a pattern

Thought it might be fun to start putting down all the various tips that have helped me out over the years.


Hint #1 - Selecting a pattern.

I know everyone always tells you to pick out a pattern in relation to your individual skill set; but, honestly, if we all did this we would be knitting and crocheting scarves forever and would never get beyond the "easy/beginner" phase of our development.

My advice is this.  If you see a pattern in a magazine, in a book, or on-line somewhere and you instinctively gasp, "Oh my God!" (or in the words of my favorite coworker, "OH MY FRICKIN' GOD!!!"), then that's the pattern you should work on.  I don't care if the skill-level is "advanced" and the title contains the word "heirloom," it's still the pattern you must do.

Case in point - I've been searching feverishly for ages for a pattern to make my niece an afghan for Christmas.  I searched through the Patons Decor booklet All Seasons Afghans.  The afghan on the cover is a crocheted afghan, done in rows.  It's nice, and I could probably knock it off in my sleep.  HOWEVER, inside the booklet is a knitted afghan called "Autumn Stripes Afghan."  Yes, I took one look and said, "OH MY FRICKIN' GOD!!!"  Granted, it meets all the criteria for "step away slowly":

   a)  It's knitted in worsted weight yarn (Decor), so it's going to take ages to complete.  I'm probably going to still be knitting it on Christmas Eve, screaming, "I'm almost done!  I SWEAR!!!"

   b)  It contains colors I don't presently have in my stash, so I'm going to have to buy more yarn.  Okay, this isn't necessarily a hardship... 

   c)  It's got two-color knitting, which I've never attempted for something flat. 

But, it's GORGEOUS!  I just know my niece is going to love it.

So, this is the pattern I must use!

Baby Tree of Life Throw Done!

Now that the intended recipient has received this, I can post!

This is the Baby Tree of Life Throw, from the Lion Brand site.  It's a miniature version of the adult-sized Tree of Life Throw. 

I used Size 8 needles instead of the recommended Size 7, as I found I got gauge with 8.  I used Lion Brand's Pound of Love in Antique White, which was fine to work with.  I have a lot left over!

After consulting with some mothers, I decided to forgo the loops in the pattern and the eyelets in the border pattern. Instead, I did a cabled border and for the Flower Bed, I ended up going with a tulip pattern I found here:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bloom-6

It’s called “Bloom” by Lindy Meeker. I took the basic tulip design and multiplied it across the blanket.

The cable border came out nicely, but it took me the ages to do.  I sewed it onto the blanket as I went along, to save myself a lot of sewing at the end.  I then connected the ends of the border by kitchener stitch.

The recipient was overjoyed and plans to use it as a carriage/stroller blanket!

Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Walk

http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/Events/General?fr_id=1430&pg=pfind

Now for something completely different:

My sister Bea is participating in the Susan G Komen 3-Day for the Cure 60 mile Breast Cancer Walk. Each participant must raise $2300 dollars in order to be able to actually participate. If each of you go to the Susan G Komen 3-Day for the Cure website, click on “find a participant” and type in Beatrice Whitney-Dean and donate $5-$10 it would be a huge help for such a worthy cause. Then if you could email all in your email address book to do the same we could raise a lot of money to fight this deadly disease.

We all know someone whose life has been touched in some way by breast cancer---it has to stop. The Susan G Komen Foundation raises millions of dollars each year and God willing, maybe this will be the year we find a cure!

Thank you in advance for any help you can give.

Scarf from He**, finally done! Pattern included

I'm happy to report I'm FINALLY done with the scarf I'm fondly referring to as my "Scarf from He**" (see my post "Scarf with Boucle...for my sins..." for further details).
http://wildknitter.blogspot.com/2011/03/scarf-with-bouclefor-my-sins.html


I got around the sticky boucle issue (pun intended) by knitting the boucle yarn together with Caron Simply Soft, which made the boucle slightly easier to deal with.  Needless to say, the Simply Soft palette boasted no "camel" or "beige" color choices, so I decided to go with "Bone."

Believe it or not, people actually think the scarf looks all right; so, I figured, why not put out the "pattern," such as it is, for people:

SCARF FROM HE**

Measurements: 6" wide x 62" long, excluding fringe.

Gauge: 2.5 stitches = 1” in garter stitch

Row gauge is not critical.

Materials:

     1 skein each

     Bernat Soft Boucle - Natural (#06703) - A

     Caron Simply Soft - Bone (#9703) - B

     Needles: Size 13 (9 mm) needles

     Hook:  Size N15 (10 mm) crochet hook

Body:
     Using A and B together, cast on 15 stitches, using a knit cast-on.

     Work in garter stitch until the scarf measures 65” long.*

     Bind off.

Border:

     Double up Color B and, using a size N15 (10 mm) crochet hook, crochet into the garter stitch "nub" selvage at the row ends.  Crochet in slip stitch up the scarf and all the way around, making a border.

     Bind off and weave in all ends. 

* The length shortened due to the crochet border step, which is why a length of 65" is knitted, but the finished result is 62".

Yarn Crisis!

Yarn emergency!

I ran out of yarn making The Granny Stripe afghan and need more! Am willing to either pay or trade. These are the colors/dyelots I'd need:

Patons Decor Yarn:

Barn Red - 205809
New Lilac - 199739
Chocolate Taupe - 214851
Rich New Lilac - 211245 09
New Green - 208447
New Teal - 211242 09
Dark New Green - 205117
New Rose - 199741
Rich Periwinkle - 202338 08

The Rich Periwinkle I'll take in any dyelot, seeing as I can't seem to even find it online anywhere other then eBay - has the color been discontinued?

Finished my Heartwarming Scarf!

The finished Heartwarming Scarf for WomenHeart - an organization that advocates for women's heart health, and also distributes scarves to women who have heart disease.

The pattern can be found on the Red Heart site, at:

http://www.redheart.com/free-patterns/heartwarming-knit-scarf

More information about the WomenHeart organization can be found at:

http://www.womenheart.org/

Scarf with Boucle...for my sins...

My dear friend, who was so kind last year as to give me a stitch pattern book I didn't have, met me for dinner the other night.  After a spirited discussion over whether or not her sandwich was really supposed to taste vinegary, she pulled out a bag and dumped it on the table.

"My mother wants you to knit her a scarf. She's willing to pay."

Knitting...scarf...money...needless to say, I was interested. I opened the bag to find boucle yarn. May we pause here to say that of all the yarns I've worked with, boucle has to be the ABSOLUTE WORST. It's one of those yarns I vowed NEVER TO USE AGAIN. It's a nightmare to crochet with, as you can't see the stitches. One of these days, I'll devote an entire blog post to my adventures crocheting the Bernat Easy Pullover (easy, my a**). There was a note from her mother in with the yarn, explaining that she wanted me to also use Caron Simply Soft in a "beige" or "camel," and just "mix" the colors.

Figuring that perhaps the boucle might be easier to knit than crochet, I agreed. Not that I was planning to say no to my dear friend...

Well, as I quickly discovered when I did the gauge swatch, knitting with boucle isn't much better than crocheting with it, as the yarn sort of sticks to itself and the needles - and FORGET about frogging if you screw up. I know you're not supposed to, but I usually pull out the gauge swatch and use the yarn for the project.

Yeah...that wasn't happening here.

I was left with two pathetic little squares. The stockinette square was sort of mangy-looking on one side, and the other side looked like a fuzzy teddy bear someone had put through the washing machine entirely too many times. The garter square didn't look much better.

I frantically called my friend, asking if perhaps her mother might not notice if I just bought the "camel" or "beige" Caron and then another skein of Caron in the same color as the knotted mess from hell in my lap masquerading as workable yarn. I even offered to swallow the cost. "Oh, no!" She exclaimed. "My mother SPECIFICALLY picked out that yarn because she just LOVED it!"

So, this is my current predicament. I'm thinking maybe of either knitting two strands together of each type of yarn in garter stitch, which might be easier; or I might alternate the two yarns by row.

Either way, it isn't going to be pretty...the things I do for my friends...