Updated To Do list

X: Helmetliner (as shown in button on the sidebar) - knit
X: One pair Olive socks for my sailor- knit
X: One pair super soft socks for Dad's BD in November- knit
X: Green ripple monstrosity thing -crochet
XX: Rainbow triple crochet baby blanket, about 6 inches -crochet
X: Baby blanket for Amy's forethcoming boychild.
X: Dishcloth(s) for Christmas presents.
To do: Aran afghan, exactly half complete - crochet
To do: Socks -knit
To do: Jayne hat

Hey, the list is looking pretty good! The double XX's on the baby ripple don't mean I finished that one, though. It means I've looked at it and saw how little I've done, and noticed there are several major problems with it back on rows 3 and 5. I'm planning on ripping the whole thing out, and perhaps recycling the yarn. Which means I have only one more unfinished blanket! Hooray!

Sort of.

Holidays are fast approaching, and I've assigned myself two more projects. The cheapest and fastest of the two will be a Jayne style hat for a guy I'm supposed to be Secret Santa for. He's a Firefly fan, so he may like it. More importantly, of course, *I* will enjoy making it, and it should be easy cheap and fast. The second is a pair of black socks for my "db."

As predicted, DB has discovered the joy of handknit socks. He actually ASKED for another pair! I'm stoked. Nothing, but nothing, makes me happier than being asked to make something. It's gratifying for me to receive such requests, and I can't adequately describe how content and fullfiling it is for me to create the asked-for item. It is as if I am finally being allowed to show my love for the person. All the feelings of friendship and appreciation that I hold in my heart and can never be fully expressed in words, can be spun out of my hands and handed to the recipient. Like a kind of solid, shaped poetry. A hand-made, warm hug which can be wrapped around a foot or a body.

It is Finished.

Finally. The Great Green Ginormous Monstrosity is finally, after seven months, complete. It signifies the longest I have ever worked on a single project. While Jake's open-work blanket may have been larger, his was made using double and triple crochet, which means each row of stiches added one to two inches to the height. This thing was worked with single crochet, which means each row added about a half an inch.

When it wasn't subtracting inches, that is.

I still feel this blanket is a study in quantum mechanics, or at least some form of new math. When I began, I know I had a foundation chain that measured 120". I realize now that the width shortened because of the chevrons- but it did, at one time, measure at least 100" across. When it was half finished, I measured, and it was at least 90". (See below.) I worried a little, at the time, about that. So I added three inches of border. ADDED. As in, plus. As in, increased. As in, if you add one apple to another apple, you are supposed to have MORE apples than when you started.

When I measured after adding the border, the tape measure told me the width was 86". Eighty-six. Not Ninety-three. Four inches SHORTER than ninety. FIVE inches shorter than when I measured it in the middle of the project.

Now, you may be thinking that somewhere in the blanket, my guage may have changed. You may be thinking, right now, "Keiyla m'girl, it's probably still 91" where you measured the last time, and only 86" at the top. You blew it." How clever (not to mention patronizing) of you to think so! But no, this is not the case. I measured top, several places in the middle, and the bottom. One thing this blanket is, is even. (A fact for which I thank all major and minor dieties capering about in the universe.) What it also is, is too narrow by nearly half a foot.

So I stretched the blanket a little. Ok, a lot. I pulled and pulled, and I promised the goblin in the blanket all sorts of yummy fabric softeners if only it would cough up a few more inches. I told it I'd put the tape measure away, and go for a cup of tea, and when I came back to re-measure, I wouldn't ask any questions if the extra inches miraculously re-appeared. Apparently the deal wasn't sweet enough, because nothing had changed upon my return.

Folks, I have no explanation for all this.

It does, however, seem to fit on a king-sized bed. Close enough.

King Size Measurements

According to the websites I've Googled, a king size mattress requires a comforter 102" wide and 90" long.

I've re-measured Fechak's Monstrosity. Somehow, it's now only 91" wide. I will swear on a stack of Bibles that this thing was at LEAST 100" wide when I started. Now, I know this, not only because I remember measuring it before the hiatus, but also because the pattern I began with (and have subsequently altered) was 42" wide. I did not double this size. No, instead of starting with a foundation chain of 118, or even 240, MY chain was 310. Three chains per inch, you see. Approximately. There is no way my stitches, which I DID test to gauge, thankyouverymuch, shrunk nearly a foot.

Imagine a frustrated blonde blowing her bangs from her eyes.

Ok, well, no way am I ripping this gargantuan behemoth back and starting all over. No way. Huh-uh. Not this little grey duck.

Ok, so. Alternatives. A normal King sized mattress is 76 x 84. The extra 2 feet is so that a foot a side will hang over the edge. This bad boy will only have 7 inches per side extra. I've decided this lapse and shortage is acceptable. If our favorite rogue has neglected to inform me of any "special" conditions of his King sized bed- California style, for example- I hereby disavow any responsibily for an ill fit.

As of this writing, the leviathan measures 90 inches wide and 63 inches long. 90" x 60. If this were a throw, it would already be oversized. But no. Only another 30 or so inches to go. Blonde does some mental math. Two-thirds done! Huzzah! The blankie may be done this winter after all.

*late night edit*

Blonde awakens with a start. Edging! A good 3 color edge trim to bring the thing all together will ALSO, miraculously, widen The Monstosity by several inches, depending on how many rows of edging I give it. I'm brilliant!

The Ships Project

The Ships Project sends handmade slippers, hats, neck warmers, and "coolers" to troops stationed overseas and deployed on ships. The items can be sewn, crocheted, or knit. This is perfect for me, as I love to give away my stuff. By all reports, the guys and gals in uniform even love getting these "hugs from Home." It's win-win!

As you may know, however, I have OCD. This means when I embrace a project, I go a little overboard. I embrace it until I get so sick of it I can't stand it anymore. So, what started out as marginal contentment in crocheting a black or camo (oops, pardon me, "cammie!") hat or two out of leftover stash, turned into a household-wide project that consumed all of my spare time for a week or two.

Sorry, Fechak. The blanket is coming. I swear.

The final tally for The Ships Project is 26 hats (23 reversible fleece, one crochet cammie, one crochet black wool, one knit black wool) and 20 pairs of slippers. This involved multiple trips to the fabric store, and a little haggling with the counter ladies for sale prices (which I got, thank you very much Gretchen.)

While machine sewing is not my favorite activity, I am reasonably competent at it (I worked in a sweat shop, back in my "Top Ramen" youth.) What I hate doing, however, is hand stitching. Yet, because I oh-so-thoughtfully chose a pattern that the project leader said was in demand, I discovered I was stuck hand-sewing inch-long holes shut, after pulling each hat inside out. Happily, my mother "volunteered" to help, and that got me out of hand sewing about half of them. Then, like a rat off a sinking ship, she left for a vacation in Hawaii (suuuure it was planned....) which left me to hand sew the other half. I assure you, the closures are not nearly as pretty as hers. However, none of the recipients will know who I am, and this IS free shit, after all, so they can't whine too much, amirite?

By the time the last slipper was hemmed, the last hat was reversed, and the last hole sewn shut, I was pretty sick of sewing. I'm pretty sure I'll be sticking with crochet for a while. (Honest, Fechak!)

More pictures to come when uploading isn't sucking.

WIP: Fechak's Ripple

This Work in Progress is the green and blue monstrosity that has been mentioned elsewhere. It was begun in March of 2006, in this post. It is currently around 40 inches long, and about 120" wide. I began with 25 skeins of Homespun, and I think I'm right about on track with it. Recipient, like every guy I've ever heard of when defining the crochet item in his head, requests "no holes, thick, soft." I think they just mean "no granny squares," but I wasn't taking any chances. It's single crochet, though, the most boring and tedious stitch to use. Each row takes so long, that I'm sure it would interest scientists studying quantum mechanics and the space-time continuum. Every color takes an Age of Men.

I am determined he will receive this before the end of the winter.

THIS winter.

WIP: Aran

This is a photo of my half-complete Aran folded over, and a photo detail of the stitches. I like working on it; I really do. For small amounts of time. It's not boring, because each row, just about, is different. When it's finished, it will be an heirloom. Assuming it gets finished.

The pattern is from Herrschners, Inc, "Fisherman Afghan #3079," and I'm using Lion Brands "Pound of Love" worsted weight in color 99, Antique White. I pray the two pounds I have left will be enough. You see, I started with 5 pounds. Calculating I am halfway through, that would be more than slightly worrisome. However, I recall very disctinctly that I swiped some yarn from a new skein, telling mysel I had too much. What I can't rememebr is how much I used, or where the extra of that skein went.

Cross your fingers for me!

Sailor's Socks- fin

Unbelievably, these are compete. I am extremely proud of them. I am, of course, taking the recipient's word that his feet are 11 inches long. He refused to measure them for me, oddly. Perhaps because he does not have a handy ruler, and the inevitable questions as to why, exactly, he needs a ruler to measure his feet would lead his superiors to doubt the sanity of a, his "girl," and b, his own, for going along with it.

Either way, said recipient is not preceisly overwhelmingly enthused about becoming the owner of a pair of hand-knit, hand painted wool socks. But he will be.

Oh yes, he will be.