UFOs

When is it time to give up and call it a day? How many times do you pull out stitches and start over again? When it enough, enough?

I've been mad at my newest project for about a week now, and since I can't brag about my brilliant and wonderful new creation, I haven't felt like blogging. Funny how that works. When something is going well, I can't wait to tell the whole world about it, but as soon as it gets messy, I'm quiet.

After finishing off my socks, I've now moved onto a new project: a sweater. Well, a bolero, to be exact. This is the most difficult thing I have ever attempted. It's made from granny squares which are attached to one another as the work progresses. I've done granny squares before, so it should be no problem.

A week later, I have two and a half squares almost finished...and I'm seriously thinking about calling it quits. Or at least declaring a formal period of separation. The stitches are very exact and if you are off by just the tiniest bit, everything goes awry. I like to crochet for fun and for stress relief. None of my stress is being relieved, and quite honestly, it's not fun. So now I'm stuck.

I haven't moved on to anything new just yet, because I'm not sure if I've given up all hope on the bolero or if I just need to wait until I'm in a better frame of mind. See, I've been out of sorts for a few days now, and I know it's affecting my judgement. When things don't go as planned in "real life," it is nice to have reliable crafts to fall back on. But when life and crafts both mess up...well, that's where I'm at right now.

At book club the other night, one lady made reference to her stash of "UFOs", i.e. Unfinished Objects, and I thought the term was appropriate. So maybe I'll be adding to my own UFO pile with the 2.5 granny squares that are laying in a forgotten heap, or maybe I'll push through. I really haven't decided yet.

There are other things in my life that are unfinished, but unlike a troublesome sweater, they can't be shut in a bin for all eternity. And even though they are no fun and cause stress, I have to deal with them. I suppose sooner is better than later in this case.

Flowers help.

Dinner

No, I didn't eat yarn for dinner. In fact, this post is rather unrelated to yarn and crafts of that sort. I just wanted to share with someone how wonderful my dinner is. Call it bragging if you wish, since I'm pretty sure that's what it is.

While most of the folks I know are buckling down for a massive snow storm, all we have here is torrential rains. I know, that's what I get for living in the Southern half of the country, but I really love snow and we have had lots this year. That being said, it was the perfect night for soup.

I love soup. It's probably one of my most favorite foods...or at least my favorite food group. What, you don't remember seeing soup on the pyramid? Then your food group pyramid is flawed. Soup definitely belongs near the bottom. Actually, I have had soup for three out of the last four meals. (I wonder what that does to my digestive system?) Anytime it gets cold or rainy or I get sickish or tired, soup is a answer.

Tonight's soup was an experiment. M doesn't like very many veggies, but I know that they are very good for us. (The veggie group is right above the soup group on the pyramid.) So I have been trying to figure out ways to cook with veggies and make it taste good. Thus, soup is crucial. This particular soup was a tortellini minestrone with carrots, onions, zucchini, tomatoes, sausage, and, of course, tortellini. Yum. I think M ended up picking out the zucchini and dodging the tomatoes, but over all the soup was a success, which is a truly wonderful thing, since there is a rather large pot of leftovers sitting on the stove.

Anyways, I know this was off topic and non-crafty, but my soup was so good I just had to share.

Humility

So after the way my post got all off-kilter last night, thanks to the pictures, I decided today I would be smart and load the images first. We'll see if it works. Saturday I was in a craft store with a 50% off coupon, with my 15% teacher discount on top of that...never a safe combination. I've been wanting to try Tunisian crochet for as long as I've known about it, but wasn't sure what that was exactly. Turns out it's kind of a hybrid between crocheting and knitting. The hook you're supposed to use looks like a knitting needle with a crochet hook on the end. It's strange. Thanks to the coupon and discount, I brought home this book, which may or may not be a good thing. The following is my first attempt. Since it was 3 dimensional, more so than most of my projects, I figured I must have done something wrong. It looked a lot like my first crocheted scarf, which was scary looking.

I tore it out, and started over. I will say I like the speed in which a row is finished. While the stitches are not very large themselves, it goes quick. That's always a plus. However, it doesn't really matter how fast or slow the work grows if I have to keep tearing it out and restarting. The one thing I knitted (a cozy for my travel mug) was torn out and restarted too many times to count. Just ask my mom. She thought it was funny until she started a knitting project later on. There is quite a bit of pulling out and trying again, especially if you want your project to look halfway decent. At any rate, this is attempt two.

I think it's an improvement over the first try...there weren't quite so many stitches sticking out every direction, but it's still a far cry from the picture in the book.

Maybe I need to go watch that interactive DVD that was included. It might help.

Chilly

I like blankets. I like to make blankets, I like to buy blankets, I like to pile blankets in a ten foot stack on my bed. Even more, I like to snuggle up in blankets on cold dark (or not so dark) mornings and evenings while drinking a warm beverage and enjoying a good book or a craft project.

I think this love of blankets has grown exponentially over the past three months, since the house we're living in has electric heat, i.e., it's chilly inside. No matter how high we turn the thermostat, it never seems to get above 60. And the only place in the house where it

actually feels like 60 is in the bathroom, when you close all the doors. Closed up

bathrooms are not very conducive to sock making, blog writing, or a great many other things. The second warmest place is the computer room, where all the computers in the house except for yours truly reside, giving it plenty of radiant heat on the freezing days...the sweltering days as well, but since it's January, I'm more concerned with staying warm.

The coldest room is, of course, my craft room. Right now I'

m sitting at my desk wondering how much longer I can stand the temperature before I give in and go snuggle under a blanket and drink my hot mulled cider. My guess is not too mu

ch longer. Besides, my sock is almost finished!

Since my fingers are getting numb and frost bitten in this frigid room, I'll post some pictures while I wait for my extremities to warm up again.

Hot Cider

Reading Chair and blanket

That's all that's left!

A Deep Thought

I can't claim any sort of credit for the following deep thought. It was in the back of my new crochet book, but I liked it, so I'll share it here.

Life and Crochet

Life is an intricate pattern, a myriad of stitches, woven one day at a time. We anxiously begin our design with a chain of good intentions, dreaming of the product yet to evolve. In the beginning we are full of tension, creating needless wasted energy. As we learn to relax, we feel a surprising tranquility needed to acquire the joy for the journey.

Life is wonderful until we hit a snag or a knot along the way. We struggle and fight. Then we realize we must slowly work through problems and sometimes start over. We want to quit, but we pick ourselves up and continue, realizing that mistakes teach us patience, and patience brings about worthwhile satisfaction. Sometimes we forget or refuse to ask for help, and we find ourselves decreasing, when we should be increasing our abilities.

Yes, life is an intricate and sometimes difficult pattern with roadblocks along the way. But we must have faith and belief that when worked with determination and confidence, the end result will be heavenly!

--Judy Drewett

(Borrowed from "Positively Crochet" by Mary Jane Hall)

I really couldn't have said it better myself.

I will never use wool yarn again.

I decided that about 3 months ago when I made a pair of slippers using wool yarn and had so much trouble with it when I had to pull out stitches and restart. It likes to stick together, which is probably why it's so warm, but let me tell you, if you've never experienced the frustration of pulling out stitches whose fibers have become overly friendly and are now all but fused together, it's not something you really want to have to deal with. During this same project, I also decided that I really don't like foundation single crochet (or double or triple or any other kind for that matter). Perhaps the fsc was main reason the wool yarn and I didn't get along.

Oh, I've also learned, more recently, that "Bamboo and Ewe" yarn is just as grabby.

In other words, my sock and I made friends again last night, although I think the relationship is destined to go no where fast. After almost completing the heel, I tried on the sock (again), and much to my dismay, realized that it is much to large. Yes, I've followed the pattern exactly...except I forgot that I'm using a hook that is a size larger, which has thrown off my gauge and has made what should be a perfect fitting sock into one that I think the Abominable Snowman might be able to wear as a hat. It's bad. I have large feet, but even so...

So I'm faced with a choice. Do I finish the enormous sock and just chalk it up to lessons learned? Do I pull out the stitches (which are all sticking together) to a point where the giant sock will become a normal sock again? Or, and this is the solution I'm leaning towards, do I pull out the whole sock and start over again with a new pattern from my new sock book that just came today? I think the new sock plan will win, not just because it's new (though that does give it brownie points), but because the right now my giant sock is rather ugly. And what's the point of socks if they don't look cute?

Tonight will most likely be spent re-winding my yarn and restarting with a different pattern. This new pattern has more picture, and no esc, so maybe I'll like it better. It's worth a try, right?

Or maybe I'll finish off the giant sock and hang over my mantle next Christmas. I bet Santa could fit a lot of loot inside!

I am a very impatient person. I know, shocker, right? That's one reason I like crocheting better than knitting--it's faster. I love to watch my creation take shape quickly. My favorite type of project is one that has fancy patterns, such as fan and cluster stitches...because that generally means there are lots of "skip next three stitches" and the like included in the instructions.

Last week Tuesday I was on-line looking for new crochet patterns, when I came across a couple of books that looked interesting. Being a good wife, I told my husband that there were a couple books I wanted and would he be upset with me if I ordered them. Of course he wasn't, especially since there was a geeky computer gadget that does everything except the laundry that he had been looking at for awhile. We both ordered our respective goodies, and then the waiting began.

Thursday, as in two days later, in the midst of the crazy snow and ice, his device shows up. I was not impressed. I love to get mail, and when I know it's coming, I get antsy. Sure, the billing slip said 3-5 days, but who's counting.

Today, a full week later, I finally got one of my books! It's wonderful. There are several scarf patterns and some adorable purse and hat patterns. The best part is the wide variety of sweaters that are included. But I had to wait a whole entire week, while M only had to wait a couple days. Sometimes life just isn't fair.

This is the book I got. I'm still waiting for the other one.

I bet he loses his gadget-thing first.

Snags

One thing I love about craft projects is that they don't demand anything of you. Yes, you have to spend time and money and sometimes blood and tears, but it's all a choice. If you get totally frustrated with your project, you can walk off, tear out your stitches, or, my favorite solution, throw the whole thing across the room. It doesn't care. If you get really upset, (or your yarn ties itself up into the Super Knot), you can resort to violence and chop it up. When you're feeling more sane and patient, you don't have to explain yourself to the creation or apologize for chucking it against the wall multiple times. A craft project understands.

In other news, the sock project is not going so well. Yes, this is still sock one. I'm beginning to dread sock two. I've finished the toe, the foot, and the gusset (kudos to you if you know what that is!--I didn't until a few days ago. It's kind of like knowing what those things on the end of a shoelace are called. Cool to be able to casually bring up in conversation, but totally useless in everyday life). Now it's time to work the heel. Everything looks great...or it would if my heel stuck out of the side of my foot. No clue what went wrong, because I have followed the pattern exactly, but wrong it has gone. So I'm faced with the task of pulling my stitches out and starting over...but not just yet. At the moment, I'm not in the mood. I'd rather glare at it from a distance and give it the silent treatment awhile longer. No throwing has taken place yet, but like I said, I'm still on sock one.

I'm further along than this at the moment, but this gives you the general idea. That right up there was the easy part, before the esc and the heel. Maybe tonight I'll give it another go, but I really don't see that happening.

Sometime I wish people were like craft projects. Wouldn't it be great to be able to shove someone in the back corner of your closet, underneath the old notebooks and forget about them for awhile? (Oh wait, that's where I shoved my last sewing project...) When they're in the way, you could just pick them up and put them in neat little containers and put them on a shelf or in a drawer. Unfortunately, people are messier than craft projects...even if you are decoupaging or paper-maicheing. (I think I may have made those words up. And I'm also pretty sure they aren't spelled correctly. Sorry.) That may be why I love my yarn so much. If I walk off and leave the sock alone for awhile (an hour, a week, a year), it will be there waiting for me as if I never left it at all, our previous spat forgiven and forgotten.

For now, I think the sock will spend some time in crochet time-out while I work on my next project: Slippers. No heels involved, so this is already looking much more promising.

In the meantime, don't stand between me and the wall...you may get hit with a ball of yarn and a size J crochet hook.

Beginnings

There is something so exciting about walking into a new craft store and taking in the sights and smells that greet you as you enter in the newest Mecca. Actually, I get this rush each time I walk into any craft store, whether it be the first time or the fifty-seven hundredth. I love it. The way the sale items are displayed on racks in the middle of the store, the sections that divide paper crafts from wood working, cloth from floral, and of course, the yarn department.

To be honest, I love all kinds of crafts, and have the odds and ends stored in my recently organized craft room to prove it. But there is something so reassuring about yarn. To begin with, it's pretty. And soft. Even before I do anything with the skein of yarn, it is already a work of art. All that is left for me to do is take it one more step and tun the ball of yarn into something useful...at least something pretending to be useful. And I know that no matter how horribly messy my final project may turn out and how poorly my feeble attempts at a sweater may be, at least the yarn started out looking pretty.

As much as I love just standing in the yarn aisle and admiring the varied hues and patterns, I also love buying yarn. Armed with a new pattern for something that can potentially be my new favorite accessory or a warm snuggly blanket or a super cute baby gift, I comb the racks for the perfect material. I have to consider color and texture and weight and pattern and, sadly, price. Right now I'm infatuated with sock yarn. Why, I'm not sure. Possibly because I am a die hard crochet-er and there are not very many crochet sock patterns (I've looked. I found one that uses sock yarn. ONE. I'm sure there are others out there, but good luck finding them with out digging for hours.) It's the forbidden fruit syndrome. Sure, there is no possible reason I need to buy five skeins of sock yarn, but it's on sale! And it's so pretty!

Of course, after buying the yarn and guiltily sneaking it into the house hoping my dear sweet husband won't care too much that I have bought more yarn yet again, I have to ball it all up. I'm sure there are many of you who know that this step is unneeded and just a waste of time, but to you I say oh well. I like to ball up my yarn. It gives me a chance to get to know my material, to examine the coloring, the texture, and to see if it will be the kind of yarn that likes to snag or shred. Balling the yarn is a very important ritual. Besides, then I know for certain that there won't be any surprise knots or breaks in the middle of my project.

This fascination with sock yarn lasted until about 45 minutes ago, when I decided to start a blog. I'll admit it, I'm avoiding the sock yarn that is so incredibly thin, the hook that is also microscopic and the pattern with it's annoying "extended single crochet". Who's even heard of extended single crochet? Let's just say that while it's not a difficult stitch, it's obnoxious, especially while using my lovely half-price sock yarn. It gave me a hand cramp. So the project is taking a back seat for the moment while I rediscover my love of all things yarn, even sock yarn. It does have a really nifty pink and grey striped pattern, which is the reason I bought it in the first place.

I have a problem with finishing things. I love to start a new project, a new hobby, a new blog, whatever it is, and then I get tired of it and walk off. For example, sitting on the desk next to me is the sock that I am in the middle of crocheting. So far I've been working on it pretty consistently, but the problem with socks and slippers and such is that there are two of them. I can usually make it through the first one with no problem; it's the second that gives me issues. So maybe I'm writing this as a way to remind myself that I need to stop beginning so many new things and maybe stick with something and see it through to the end. Maybe I need to stop buying so much new yarn and finally figure out what to do with the mounds of it that are stacked neatly (for now) on the shelves in my room.

But where's the fun in that?