I'm a chick with sticks now, not just a hooker

In my continued enjoyment of all things color, I pulled the two bins that make up my yarn stash down from on high to help me decide what to make now that I am learning to knit. I've just had one class so far, but I love it. Once I got past the initial awkwardness, since knitting is so different from crochet, I was able to fly along. Admittedly, I've only learned one stitch, the knit stitch, along with casting on. Too eager to wait for this weekend's class, I found the purl stitch in two different books and have tried to learn that also.

My goal with knitting is to be able to make colorful doll hats and sweaters like those I just featured on my Blythe blog. I'm afraid that will be a long time coming, because that's tiny, skilled work. The two afghans I crocheted above, Hello Kitty and sock monkeys, were not even small work, but took plenty of time not just to finish but to master the stitches and understand the patterns.

But, I love learning new stuff, and I have no predisposition for or against knitting versus crochet as some people do. They are just so totally different. And they produce such different results, some of which I hope to post here some day!

Whipped my WIP; Another Peachy Project Done. Now I'm Feeling Blue.

So the peach afghan I blogged about below did indeed get done this weekend. In fact, I was able to finish the entire trim in about one hour Friday night. Do you ever experience that combination of let-down and relief when finishing a major project? I do. And now what to do with it? Well, I just folded it up to tuck away. I decided it didn't need to be blocked after all, although it could do with some softening.

The afghan is about 36" square and is a riff on a dragonfly pattern afghan from Crochet! magazine, July 2006. Speaking of crochet magazines, I weeded out my enormous collection and have over 30 knitting and crochet magazines for sale on Ebay right now. You can search by seller for hpsgsmith or just click here. They'll be ending Monday night and need to go to some other Happy Hooker or crazed knitter! Is that you?

Without even coming up for air, I started a new work in progress (WIP): yet another baby afghan. This is rather funny because there are no babies in the family or on the horizon (thankfully!) but I love the cute patterns and colors, and the size is right at my tolerance level. That's how the peach afghan went from 20 large squares to nine and finally got completed after three years.

The new project pictured above is from Crochet Today magazine and is a ripple stitch with lavender, blue and lime-y green. It really is such an easy stitch, and I hardly ever do a ripple. This is going quickly already. The edges have crocheted flowers scattered about, so even though it is boy-ish colors, it would be a girly blanket. Or, the flowers could be omitted; we shall see.

The cornflower or periwinkle blue color reminded me of the sweater I made myself with a similar color in Cotton Classic. It was my first blue ribbon in crochet at the local county fair. I was beaming! I also made a bobble or popcorn stitch clutch/makeup bag with zipper, which you can see above. I've never used it! But, I actually did wear the sweater- once, I think.

Snow Flurries? Winter Coat? Get Me to My Yarn Stash Post Haste

It wasn't just the nasty weekend weather or even the turning of the calendar to November that gave me the itch to pick up my sticks, as knitters say. And, actually, I grabbed my hook, but we'll get to that. It was the necessity to buy a winter coat and the color of said coat that made me want to make a scarf to go with it, or accent it actually, since the coat is just so red. It's an unusual shade of red, and although it looks rather fuschia now on my monitor, it is just a deep, jewel-tone red, but not a burgundy or a maroon or a brick. I can say that with some expertise, since I spent the better part of an hour digging through my yarn stash trying to find something to match. I had planned all along to use black but realized all black was going to be no better than the all red coat. So I used TLC Macaroon in a nubby black with cream. That particular yarn has been "stashed" for a few years to go with a stuffed cat pattern. Don't ask. I mixed it with TLC Amore' in red velvet, which has been stashed ever since I made the sock monkey afghan. Ask away.

Both the sock monkey afghan (and baby hat) pattern and the pattern for this one-skein scarf come from Debbie Stoller's The Happy Hooker, a hip, indie-style irreverant pattern book that is most certainly not your grandma's crochet. Besides the double-crochet scarf here with shell trim, you can find beanies, skully sweaters, hats and potholders as well as trendy sweaters, skirts, bags and more. It really is my go-to pattern book, even though I spent another hour or more today thumbing through my crochet books, trying to find something to make. More times than not, I return to the simplicity of double-crochet, and the patterns in Stoller's book, while looking elaborate when done, are mostly quite simple. Without this book, I would have never attempted a sweater, which I in fact attempted, finished, and brought home a blue ribbon for my efforts.

These aren't the greatest pictures, but I just felt like crocheting, and I felt like blogging about it. I've been seeing so many darling knit gifts on etsy where I've even sold a few knit things of late, and in the Vintage Indie Market Guide and on friends' blogs. Knitting or crocheting just make me feel all warm and fuzzy. How about you?