There is a phenomenon I’ve discovered while knitting clothes for myself that I simply do not understand.

I am a small person. I’m 5′0″ and usually wear petite clothes. Yet somehow when I measure a shirt while knitting, I realize that I have to make it longer than the pattern calls for, which is odd because you’d think they need to be shorter. And even after lengthening said shirt, it still ends up shorter than it’s supposed to.

Case in point: the Honeymoon Cami.

I’m using Lion Cotton-Ease, which knits at a much larger gauge than the recommended yarn. So my one repeat of the ribbing at the bottom is longer than what the pattern calls for. When it said to knit for 1.5″ before decreasing, I did 2″. When it said 3″ was a good ballpark figure for the strap (which just sounds wrong) I did something more like 7″. I tried it on, and noticed 2 things: 1) My boobs were out to play, and 2) the top was a good 2-3″ too short.

How does this happen?? I just don’t get it. I believe that if I knit a top to the pattern specifications, it should be longer on me than on anyone else, because I’m short. The only other explanation is that I should listen to what Victoria’s Secret has been trying to tell me and accept that my chest is in fact larger than I’ve been lead to believe all these years.

My plan of attack is to finish as planned (one more strap to go) and then attempt to pick up the ribbing at the bottom and do another pattern repeat. I don’t mind layering another tank underneath to keep the girls in check, but there’s just no good way to deal with a belly shirt. Other than…make sure it’s not a belly shirt anymore.

Now that it’s July, I can post my June stashbusting totals, and my July goals.

My original goals for June were to finish my 3 gift projects, and make something for me from my queue.  Didn’t quite get all of that done, but it was still a good month.

As far as project work goes, I finished and gifted the crochet truck to my Ravelry Stash Knit Down partner.  I finished another gift projects, and did some more work on another, though it is still not finished.  And I started a Honeymoon Cami out of lime Cotton-Ease from my queue, and I’ll probably have it done in a week or so.

My stashbusting was improved by swaps and RAKs (The Random Acts of Kindness group on Ravelry).  I swapped 2 skeins of Moda Dea washable Wool, and one ball of green mohair. (Yes it was a swap, and I got more yarn in return, but shh! I still got rid of stuff!)  And I also RAK’ed a ball of Patons Classic Wool Merino in leaf green to a Rav user in California who needed it to finish a pattern (actually a pattern that I have in my queue).  So:

Green Mohair: 500 yds
2 skeins Moda Dea Superwash Wool: 332 yds
1 skein Patons classic wool merino: 223 yds
1.5 skeins Cotton Ease : 516 yds
2 skein Red Heart Sport Solid: 380 yds
Total: 1951 yds

Goals for July:

• Finish the gift crochet project that I’m working on
• Finish my Honeymoon Cami (I’m about halfway done)
• Make at least one more thing from my queue, preferably Cache Couer Bergamo (Rav link) out of some brown Rowan Cotton Wool or Stargazer (Rav link) out of some black Berocco Comfort DK.    I think I’ll probably be able to finish the former and begin the latter
• Maybe get over second sock syndrome and make that other Broadripple sock, but since it won’t be sock weather for a while, that one probably won’t happen right away.

Ok, seriously…I suck. *hangs head in shame*

It wasn’t that long ago that I learned how to knit properly, after 2 years of participating in the craft.  Now, 2 months after the end of a semester of actual regimented crochet practice, I realize that I’ve been doing that wrongly too!

For those of you who don’t know, as a part of my skill acquisition class last semester, I taught myself to crochet. I did it almost every day.  I quantitatively measured my performance by timing how long it took for me to crochet various swatches.  I wanted a qualitative measure as well and, not having many crocheters at my disposal, I took pics and placed them on ravelry.  Every swatch I’d done over 7 weeks, 36 in total.  What I wanted people do to was rate them on a scale from 1 to 7.
One woman, rather than rate my swatches sent me what I would call a rather nasty RavMail message about how crappy my swatches looked, how uneven they were and how it looked like I rushed the job and didn’t even try to do it well.  I was (I think understandably) pissed off that this woman would go out of her way to basically tell me that I sucked, especially because she didn’t even give me anything usable. (And I’m not saying everyone had to love my swatches.  Many kind ravelers supplied constructive criticism, which is ok.  And if I’m trying to prove that I got better as the semester went along, obviously some of my work had to be bad, at least comparatively.

There was one thing that this woman said, and that was “You’re missing the last stitch on all your swatches.”  I had no idea what she was talking about, I didn’t see any missed stitches and I always counted, and since she didn’t offer any advice, I didn’t really worry about it.

Now I had noticed that my swatches, particularly the triple crochet ones were really uneven and appeared to zigzag back and forth.  I didn’t think it was bad, I kind of liked it actually, but I thought that I’d like to be able to crochet evenly as well.  I’ve been working on  Secret Project #1, which I may as well say is a gift for my boyfriend, because I already told him I was making him something.  One part of the project was just back and forth, even crochet.  I noticed that it looked bumpy on the edge in a few places, but not all edges, so I couldn’t figure out what was going on. I took a closer look at one of those bumps last night and sure enough there was a stitch there.  I had in fact been neglecting the last stitch, and I didn’t even know!

Being an experienced knitter, I know what knitting looks like.  And it’s always been easy enough to tell the difference between knit and crochet.  When I started crocheting, I had trouble learning the “structure” of a crochet stitch, where one ended, where one began, etc.  And as a result, that little bump on the end didn’t look like a stitch.  But last night, it sure did!

I’m really happy that I made this discovery now. Not just for my own edification, but because I’ve joined a Traveling Scarves crochet group, and I’d fell horrible if I contributed a bumpy bit to 13 scarves belonging to other people.

PS - That woman is still nasty.  There are right ways to correct someone, and there are bitchy ways.

God I look pale in that picture from yesterday… Anyway…

I got my package from my Ravelry Stash Knit Down 2008 swap partner today! I got ~800yds of merino green sock yarn, with a pattern for Jaywalkers. I might make something else with the yarn, cause I have another set of skeins that are great for Jaywalkers. But I love this yarn, and I love the color! (Obviously. If you know me…or if you’re even looking at this blog, you know I like bright green!) And I love that it’s sock yarn, but it’s not teeny and thus requiring me to use itsy bitsy needles that hurt my fingers.

The other two skeins are both wool as well. One Lopi and the other a mystery…though they both look like Lopi to me. Don’t know what I’ll do with it yet, but I like it all!

Oh, and those jars are a orange/grapefruit syrup that she made. I don’t have anything to try it with in the house right now, but it looks good

ETA: Oh, and I forgot to add what I sent her, now that she’s gotten it.  I send about 500 yds of dark green Mohair.  One of the oldest items in my stash, back when I bought yarn on Ebay with no bloody idea what I was going to do with it.  Now that I know I’m not trying lace anytime soon, I knew it was time to let it go.  And I actually had 2 balls and only sent her 1, so I still have some to work with.  (Tried and failed to make a tank top out of it once.) Anyway, I also sent her some stitch markers, and two balls of Superwash Wool.  I bought a toy for one of her sons and made a toy truck for the other one.  This is the aforementioned disappointment project. You can decide for yourself:

Yes, it’s a toy truck. I guess it’s not bad.  I liked the idea, and thought it would work well in crochet.  It’s probably not that bad, but it didn’t come out as nicely as I’d hoped. She says that her 2 year old will like it though, so I guess that’s all that matters.

Finally I finished the Mariah hoodie from Knitty that I started I-won’t-even-tell-you-how-long ago. I took out the cables, because all I wanted was a simple cotton hoodie, and surprisingly I couldn’t find any basic hoodie patterns (at least not in a worsted weight). Anyway, here it is! 4ish skeins of Charcoal Lion Brand Cotton-Ease.

Considering that I first learned how to knit correctly while making this project, I think it turned out pretty well. I really like it. There are a few character [read: messed up] parts of it, and somehow the hood came out a bit short, but I spent the last two evenings sewing up the hood and sewing the zipper on, and all in all, I really like it. I’m thinking of knitting pockets for it at some point, but I’ll admit that it’s a long way off and I’m happy to be done with the thing.

Now some of you may be thinking “Marie, you live in North Carolina, and it is roughly 9,000 degrees outside. Even though your hoodie is made of cotton, you probably still will not actually wear it for some time!” Well, my friends, it may be at least 9,001 degrees outside, but inside my office, I’d say it’s more like 65–in general. More like 60 at my desk, because I have the unfortunate luck of sitting in a cube right under the air vent. (A discovery I only recently made.) I’m so proud of this item, I may even wear it to work tomorrow. (Yes, I have a casual office unless clients are in town.)

Right now, I am working on a few crochet projects. I like that I’ve become bicraftual. Especially since I have way too much yarn, and my stash needs to be stopped. I have more options now than I did before.

So, tonight, I finally finished Secret Project #2, which was the gift for my Ravelry Stash Knit Down swap partner.  Not knowing any patterns for the thing I wanted to make that I could finish within the time period allotted, I completely improvised the project myself…which seems to have been a mistake.

I’m not happy with the outcome and knowing that it’s going to someone who knows how to craft just makes it that much worse…

I’ll post pictures after she’s gotten it, so you can see for yourself, but I’m not happy with it at all. I tried though, I really did, and it was a cute idea…it just didn’t quite come out the way I’d planned.

After having my progress impeded for a week due to a kitchen knife to the index finger, I’m pretty sure I’m back.  I was luckily able to get some crocheting done, but knitting was definitely out.  I’m still a bit hesitant to knit, but I’m relatively sure I could seam stuff together now.

Unfortunately, everything I’m working on is a gift, and I’m pretty sure those involved will read this, so I will refrain from details regarding my current projects, so

But since it’s the beginning of the month and I’m supposedly attempting to stashbust, I shall post my May totals:

3 skeins of cotton-ease for my hoodie
And 3 skeins of Red Heart Sport for *surprise project #1*
TOTAL: 1070 yards

My stashbusting group on Ravelry has posted their next few challenges for the rest of the summer..and pretty much none of them apply to me, (though the Christmas in July sounds good) so I guess I’ll be doing my own thing, which is fine, because I have plenty of things to do.  But I’m going to take it one month at a time to try to give myself deadlines.  So, June goals:

• Stitch up my Mariah hoodie (hopefully today and/or tomorrow)
• Super-secret projects #1, #2, #3.  So numbered for when I started them, and not when I need to have them done by.  (That order is actually #2, #3, #1)
• Finish the second Broadripple Sock
• Do one project from my Ravelry queue.  Anything really, cause there’s a buttload of stuff up there. I’d be happy with finishing one thing.

I also have a pair of pants that I need to hem, but that doesn’t really count.  I’d like to get that done this week as well.

…and now I should get back to work.

The goddess of needlework is not on my side today.

I finally finished knitting my Mariah today. All that’s left is seaming the hood, and sewing on the zipper…I think “Ooh, great! I’m finally going to finish this thing.”

…and then I promptly slice my finger open with a kitchen knife.  Le sigh.

But, I must say…it looks good!  I thought it was going to be too big, but it’s definitely not.  The hood itself doesn’t go very high…but who actually wears the hood on their hoodie anyway?  I’m excited to have it finished….eventually.

Incidentally, the sweet and sour chicken was also very good.

I haven’t written lately because I’ve been feeling uninspired…I put the hoodie away when I was halfway done with the hood…I don’t know why, so I’m picking it back up tonight.  Just when I was finding my inspiration again I was thwarted.

I was at my parents’ this weekend for my awesome mom’s graduation.  I was working on a crochet project last night when watching a movie with my parents. When I was done, I set it down on the coffee table in front of me.  At the end of the night, I moved it maybe 8 feet to the dining room table.  This morning, as I was packing my carry-on bag for the flight back home, my crochet hook was mysteriously missing!  My parents and I looked everywhere for it! I don’t know how it could have disappeared when it was hardly moved.

At the last minute, I had the genius idea that I’d thrown it in the junk drawer when I was putting the scissors away, but no such luck.  So not only could I not crochet on the plane today, I can’t do it at all because I don’t have any other hooks of that size, and everything is closed on Sunday.  Grrr….

Luckily I don’t need this finished until July.

I didn’t make this, but I have to share it anyway:

It’s a fuzzy pineapple!! Isn’t is cool? My friend Kat made it for me. She crocheted the black covering and cut and sewed the rest. I was quite happy to receive it. And to learn why Kat had called me the other night asking “What is your favorite fruit?” Best homemade button ever.

After buying 3 pairs of shoes the other day (my previous sandals were kind of grungy and not acceptable for officewear), I decided to get rid of some of my clothes. I have far too many. I filled a bag to be taken to goodwill and filled another with clothes I plan to strip down for their fabric. Lining bags and whatnot. I don’t know when I’m going to do all of this, but I really like the idea of reusing the old materials. I’ve been into the “green” movement for a while, but I’ve been getting into it more lately; thinking more about sustainable options where I wouldn’t necessarily have considered them earlier. And using old clothes for material seems like a good option to me, as many others have demonstrated.

Someday when I’m not in grad school…