I think today will be a Finishing UnFinished Objects day. Knit wise that is.

I'm a process knitter, the prosses of planning and starting a project is my passion, and often by the time I'm halfway done with something I get a 'been there, done that' attitude, and move on to something else more 'exciting', leaving a mostly finished object, languishing in the bottom my knitting bag.

This summer I've done it quite often, at the moment, on the needles, I have a pair of boot socks for Bill that only need their cuffs, a pair of fair isle mittens for me, that need the tip of one thumb, the tops to a very old pair of fingerless mitts I made for Bill when we first started dating, a doily for the fair next year, and a doily I'm working on as part of a 'crochet along', the shawl I'm designing being my latest obsessesion.

The fact that most of these things are so very close to being done has gotten to me, and I am dedicating today to finishing my UFOs. No shawl for me until the socks and mittens are done!
(The doilies still have quite a ways to go, and I can't do much fine crochet without my fingers hurting, but they will be worked on too, just in smaller chunks.)

Tags: crochet, knitting
Current Mood: accomplished

Bill and I went to the Jefferson County fair last night after he got out of work.

We had a nice time; we wandered around, checked out the bunnies and chickens. Mooed at the cows, said hi to the oddly named "meat" and "dairy" goats (I guess the fair doesn't believe in goat breeds) baah'd at the sheep and said hello to the pigs.

Oh yeah, and we checked out the craft entries, and I got first premium on my doily and second premium on my teddy bear.
(Premium is kind of like 'place' but depending on the quality, there can be more than one first and second etc.)

I'm so excited! My work is so good that they gave me first and second! Awesome!! I mean yeah, it's no grand prize, but that is what next year is for ;)

I'm a little bummed that when I called my parents to let them know they sounded surprised, as if they didn't really expect me to win anything. Monday when we were out together mom asked what I would do if I didn't win.
:: sigh :: thanks for the vote of confidence guys.

The prize money is only about $3.00 but I don't care, it's more about the recognition and the quality of my work
after I pick them up on Sunday I'll post pictures with the ribbons!

Tags: critters, crochet, knitting
Current Mood: ecstatic

I snagged a few lilacs from the bush in our yard today. They are quite strong and lovely smelling, the whole apartment smells of delicious spring. Lilacs are my favorite flowers.

In other springy news, the robin eggs have hatched. We noticed the Robin momma leaving the nest more frequently the other day and today Bill pulled the shrink wrap off the window and opened it a crack while she was gone, as we cannot see directly into the nest, and were unsure of the egg status. Sure enough we could here the little peep, peep of hungry little nestlings. It will be about two more weeks until they are big enough to leave the nest. Hopefully we will be getting a glimpse or two of them as they grow bigger.

I have decided to enter a few things into the Jefferson County Fair this year. My work hours let me out in plenty of time that we will actually get to go, and I've wanted to submit something for judging for quite some time. I have a large oval doily in mind to crochet; I should have plenty of time to finish it if I work for at least an hour after work, and a little more on my days off. The only thing I'm missing is thread, so I'll be picking some up tomorrow while we are out. In the mean time, I've been practicing on a small pineapple doily like the ones I made everybody for Yule.

My only problems now are the fact that the entry rule booklet available online is a tad confusing and riddled with typos and mistakes. I'm not quite clear when my deadline to get items to the fair office is. Well actually, I'm not quite sure when the office is open to accept submissions, and if I can only make them on a specific day/time or if I can do it at any time before the deadline. This may be my only sticking point, because as far as I can tell, the fair office closes every day before I'm even out of work. And while I could go in on my day off, one of the sections referring to my submission category only lists two day as available days and nether is my day off. I'm going to try and remember to call the office at some point before I get too far into this doily, but I can't find their regular non fair office hours anywhere, so I am unsure weather they are actually open, let alone when to call.

Tags: critters, crochet, glamour, knitting, nature
Current Mood: calm

:: hugs the mods, and members of the knitting community ::

I'm so glad you guys are not like other fiberarts mods and members.

*cough* crochet *cough*

Tags: crochet, drama, knitting

This yule I made everybody in my family gift jars filled with the makings of yummy baked goods. I wanted to give more, so I decided to make doilies to cover the lids of each one.

Here is the one I'm putting on my grandmother's jar.

( in variegated purples )

I have two others already made too, one in pink, and one in teal, but I put them on the jars before I remembered to take pictures. I really like the pattern, it's quick and easy, I already have it memorized after only three doilies!

Tags: crochet, holidays
Current Mood: chipper

So I designed myself a 8" crochet square for the afghan square exchange I'm in.
It came out really nice. I don't quite like the big gaps, but I've seen patterns with bigger holes passed around, so I think it'll be ok.

I hope the pattern is written up ok, I like to be able to pass patterns on if somebody likes the item.

( flower square + pattern )

Tags: crochet
Current Mood: creative

A web site that im sure at least chaosdancer will like.

http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/index.html

Downloadable books and magazines,
Oh bliss!

Tags: artsycraftsy, bookworm, crochet, heads up, knitting, tatting
Current Mood: chipper

So along with the Crochet came Thread crochet. You know doilies and lace and stuff. It's not all that hard, just small. Then with my fascination with lace came tatting, which is wicked easy, just had to learn 'cus it's hard to explain.

( so this is what I've been making )

Tags: crochet, holidays, peektures, tatting
Current Mood: cheerful

I find myself impatiently waiting for the afghan to be long enough so I can drape it over my lap while I work and it will keep me warm.

At about a foot a week, it won't take that long.

Tags: crochet

So I'm working on an afghan, loosely copying one that my grandmother made me years and years ago.

I'm working it in hdc instead of sc, mostly because grandma crocheted MUCH looser than I do, and also it's coming out nice and thick and warm.

Unfortunately I underestimated the amount of yarn I would need, so now I need to go to my parent's, and dig the rest of the yarn out and bring it home. Also this means that it is going to be a very heavy afghan. We calculated around 5-6 ponds, BUT it will be warm and super snuggly, which is just what we'll need this winter.

It's going fairly quickly too, I should have it done by Yule if I keep it up at this pace.

One question: why are afghans called afghans?

Tags: crochet, linguaphile
Current Mood: cheerful

So my aunt calls,
She has more yarn from the relative who died.

I figure, well from all I’ve gotten there can’t be much left.

WRONG!!!

So I have BOXES of yarn.
And BOXES of lace thread for crochet
And BOXES and BAGS of knitting and crochet needles.

i went through the knitting needles and grabbed the ones I needed at least one of. But there are tons left. 14", 10" DPN's and circs.
And I’m afraid to try and sort through the crochet hooks. (both normal and lace kind)

Sooo... uhhhh

Anybody need any crochet/knitting supplies?
I’m willing to ship to almost anywhere in the US.
(near by friends get first dibs, but there is A LOT of stuff)

Tags: beyond the veil, crochet, family, knitting
Current Mood: dorky

Went to Michael's to pick up some yarn and scout out the sale.

They didn't have the yarn I wanted for Lindsay's hat, so I had to settle for plain yarn, but I'm looking for an interesting pattern.

I did pick up 3 balls of .99 cent cotton yarn for dishcloths. (I'm giving lots of dishcloths to people who I really don't know what to get/want to get them anything)

I also picked up a how to crochet book with a few hooks (the hooks were cheaper with the book then on their own) because there are a few patterns that I want to try that call for bits to be crocheted.

Tags: crochet, knitting
Current Mood: good