The Annex at Neatly Tangled

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a “big brown” dilemma

December 24, 2023 / / 0 Comments

So I have this granny square throw underway that I refer to as Big Brown. It’s made of RHSS stripes in the colorway Latte and it looks fantastic in 1′ squares with the way it makes the colors pool. It was the first project of any size I took on after I started crocheting again.

I pulled it out last night to work on it and discovered that I have a problem. The hook I’ve been working it with is really too small for my tension and the yarn. I was having trouble hooking the yarn and my wrists were complaining that it was just too tight. The kids are encouraging me to just continue but I don’t think I’m up for the discomfort.

The problem is that I already have a substantial portion of the thing done. Not half, but enough to make me pause rather than just diving in with a bigger hook. And since I only have so much yarn to work with, there are potential problems with reworking squares if needed.

I think the best thing to do is probably to work a full square with the bigger hook and see how it looks and feels before I stress too much about how to handle this. It’s another bump in the crochet road but how boring would it be if it went smoothly?

Little Skinny Scarf

December 23, 2023 / / 0 Comments

(Yarn by Ray from Knitivity.)

Following the sock fail I decided to do something fun with the yarn and set up a cute little scarf. I used my own Rectangle Granny Bookmark base row with a multiple of 4+2 then just played. It turned out to be a great length to just toss around your neck and is very light and warmer than it looks.

I have half the skein left and an idea what to do with it. We’ll see how that goes.

Grain is growing

December 22, 2023 / / 0 Comments

I haven’t worked on her in a couple of days, but it’s going quickly.

You can see in the second picture that I made a blooper, but I think continuing on has straightened it out. I can’t say as I mind too much…I like perfection as much as anyone but I know that I probably won’t get there, at least not yet. So it’s good practice taking it in stride.

getting ahead of myself

December 21, 2023 / / 0 Comments

So…emboldened by my test sock success, I decided to try a sock with fingering weight yarn on 2s…in other words, sock weight yarn on sock needles. It looked like it was all going well, but the whole thing fell apart within 3 rows. Which is fine. But I’ve decided to wait a bit before trying again. The yarn is becoming something else but I don’t have pictures yet…and am still hoping that turns out lol.

Not the greatest picture and definitely not doing the yarn justice, but that was the triumphant first row lol.

I’m struggling with my phone camera. It’s supposed to be good but I haven’t figured out how to make it behave. It’s not something I know much about.

walking and chewing gum

December 19, 2023 / / 0 Comments

I’m finding that right now knitting is a solitary activity for me. Even simple projects take enough concentration that I can make a mess of things pretty quickly if I get too distracted. And sometimes being simple is the problem; I made a pretty elementary mistake today when I started having a conversation partway through a row and lost track of which row I was on. That’s my own fault for not having marked the right side, but I am so accustomed to easily reading my crochet that it didn’t occur to me until just now.

Everything in knitting feels so high-stakes. Ripping back is harder than it is in crochet, and a dropped stitch seems like a disaster. I know these things will get easier but for the time being I’m on the edge of my seat.

It’s pleasurable, though. There’s such a lovely rhythm to it when all is going well, and solving a problem is so satisfying. Colors play together in a different way and even just as a beginner–and I really am a beginner again–I can see the possibilities. Everything I encounter just makes me want to dive deeper. So that’s exactly what I plan to do.

Grain

December 18, 2023 / / 0 Comments

I’ve been knitting a lot lately and my latest project is Grain by tin can knits. I wish I had a better pic, but this is the very start of it:

This is perfect TV knitting now that it’s underway, but it was my very first provisional cast on and first garter tab.

I’m really enjoying the straightforward knitting and I think it’s going to show off the yarn nicely. I’m doing this in Hobbii Horizon. The colorway is Sunup Sky:

I’m looking forward to trying more of their patterns.

a small sock odyssey

December 16, 2023 / / 0 Comments

So I have two new knitters/crocheters in the house and they are fearless. My oldest actually learned to knit by making their first sock. Fearless.

I’ve knit socks in the past but it’s probably been a dozen years. I got so excited over their sock, though, that I decided to relearn it. I grabbed some random worsted and Silver’s Sock Class and dove in.

Not going to lie, it was a bit of a struggle. And the finished product is a little rough, though it looks good in pictures:

I don’t think there’s any hope for the ribbing, it’s Red Heart Super Saver and between the lack of elasticity of the yarn (do not for a minute get me wrong, I *love* RHSS, it’s just better for some things than others) and my lack of skills on DPNs I’m not sure I’m going to do any better the second time. Still, it’s ribbing, it’s in the round, and in that sense it’s a triumph.

It took me a week to get to casting on the second one, but it’s started and I’ll have a pair of house socks soon. I’m actually really excited about this. I didn’t expect to knit another sock like, ever, so my wonky acrylic socks are a huge accomplishment.

Next step: sock weight yarn.

Knit and Crochet

October 28, 2023 / / 0 Comments

I’ve always thought of myself more as a crochet addict (I wrote patterns in it, after all) but looking back through my Ravelry projects shows that I’ve done my fair share of knitting. I was actually surprised at how much.

I had an unfinished scarf that I picked back up (this one) and somehow despite its beautiful simplicity I managed to make a mistake that I could only figure to solve by ripping back a bit. Somehow I managed without everything going everywhere, got it back on the needles, reoriented the stitches and re-knit it. Just this moment I feel it’s fair if I call myself a knitter. Feels a little strange but I’m going with it.

Foundation Single Crochet

October 6, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Of all the techniques I’ve forgotten, I think I miss this one the most. If you’ve never had the pleasure, it makes your starting chain and your first row happen at the same time, which gives an edge that is not so restricted in stretch as a chain. It’s downright flexile, in fact. Here’s a tutorial with several variations from Vashti Braha.

I’m not on the verge of starting anything new, but next time I need a foundation chain this is where I’ll turn.

Temperature…scarf?

October 6, 2023 / / 0 Comments

I’ve been thinking about doing a temperature blanket for a few years now but haven’t been able to wrap my head around the details. I’m 100% certain that I picked up the notion of doing a scarf from somewhere in my wanderings, but it popped into my head as if it were my idea. I think it would be a much more manageable project, though I still feel as if it might wind up suitable for the Fourth Doctor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Doctor) (if you scroll down you can see the scarf in question). As a scarf it’s quite low-risk in time and yarn cost compared to a blanket, so I may just give it a go. And seeing as my birthday is next month and I love having a ton of projects going, I may just make it birthday-to-birthday instead of Jan 1 to Jan 1. I get to go yarn shopping for my birthday that way!

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