Jabbering On

I had the worst time coming up for a title for today's post. I had to resort to pulling out the dictionary and reading through all the Js. And this is the best I could come up with. Sigh.

I didn't get a whole lot of anything really done done. I continued to play with the seven (and a half) years cardi. Border time...

It's hard to see in that image. I'm about halfway around adding a double crochet border. It'll make more sense on this image...

The right side has the border, the left side does not. I don't know if I like it. It needs something, but do I want to jazz it up a bit, or do I want the knit stitch (that I struggled with for years) to take center stage? I'm not sure.

And I also finished a couple more masks. First, I decided I wanted one in pink...

And then I just need a plain black one. (I have another black one, but I made a mistake on it, so I needed one made right.) 

So, progress of a sort. Perhaps next week I'll get a bit more done. (Don't count on it.)

Dread Plague Face Coverings

Why am I making myself some more masks? 

1. I'm getting bored with the ones I have.
2. I cut out some fabric ages ago, and it's high time I got to finishing them up.
3. My district just opened to in person instruction (right before spring break), so I am going to have need of them.
4. I don't want to do another "I didn't make much progress on my seven (and a half) year cardi" post.

I only got those two knitted up. I have two more blanket stitched and just waiting for the knitting part...

And I think I finally got the dimensions right on the fabric. These fit so much better than the ones I made last year...

Although, we'll see how much better they feel after I've had them on all day... 

Wow, the freckles on my forehead really popped out on that one. 

I make no promises as to what I'll have completed by next week's post. I'm on spring break, so ideally I'll have more time for my projects, but who knows? 

Old Projects

Last week I blogged about making a color choice for the Exasperation Hat (and you all gave me some good color suggestions. Thank you). 

Turns out, I wasn't feeling the hat. Instead of pulling out the black (or the olive green) and starting the beanie, I pulled out an old project. 

I started this back in *checks Ravelry* October of 2013. Which means I've had it on the needles longer than my six-year afghan. [I'd show pictures of the afghan or link to a blog post, but it predates the blog, and it's kind of buried in the closet at the moment, so getting it out for a picture would be awkward (read: not in the mood to bother today).] 

Ultimately, it's going to be a sweater. A cardigan. It's been a bit of a challenge. I had issues with the gauge swatch. Four years later, I again had issues with the pattern. And then there's the issue of me setting the thing down for a year or more at a time when I work on other projects. 

It's a complicated stitch pattern (that took me years to finally get the hang of--yet, I still make mistakes). It's also a very long repeat. Plus, each row is *goes and counts* 342 stitches long.

So, perhaps you won't be surprised to learn that I've only worked eight rows this week. It grows, but slowly.

Will I finish it this time? Not likely. Will I finish it ever? I intend to. 

The other thing I did this past week was to cut out some more fabric for masks. Because I'm getting bored with the ones I have. (Not that I go anywhere. Well, I do go to the store.) And they're kind of fun to make. 

Adding the knitting along the sides for the ear elastics is the fun part of it. I'll get to that. Eventually.

And I'll eventually get to the Exasperation Beanie. Probably.

How many masks do you own? 

Nothing New

I, once again, find myself between projects. So, I've been making more masks. . .

The fabric for this one is from a shirt I ordered that I didn't like. The fit was weird, and the style just didn't flatter me. Because I got it on sale, I couldn't return it, so instead I cut it into pieces and the first piece became this mask. 

I'm considering writing up the pattern. But I don't know if anyone is truly interested. I found the instructions for a crochet version from Crafting on the Fly, and I just modified them to work for knit. 

***

The tank top I crocheted for my niece. . .

. . .successfully made it halfway across the country (maybe a bit more than halfway), and niece gave me permission to show you how it fits on her. 

It looks like she got to wear it at least once this year. Success.

A Knit Fabric Mask

About a month ago, I knit myself a face mask...

I'm not terribly fond of it, but it does the job. (We're required to wear masks if we want to go to the grocery store.)

But, I knew I could do better. So, I went to Pinterest again. I was specifically looking for sewing pattern templates that I could try to duplicate in knitting.

I found something better.

Someone had come up with a way to take some fabric and attach crochet ties to it--all without doing any sewing.

(I mean, I can sew. I have a sewing machine. But it's such a hassle to set the whole thing up to make one mask. And my sewing skills aren't up to making a bunch of masks for others.)

Upon perusing the instructions (which are here, if you're interested) and watching the video, I realized that the trick was blanket stitch. I have seen this done to add knitting or crochet to fabric before (and, in fact, you can just use thread for the blanket stitch and attach the yarn through that). Which meant that I could knit this as easily as crocheting it.

So, I dug out my fabric stash, heated up the iron, and pinned it as per the instructions. Then, instead of following the procedure in the post, I knit up a couple rows on each side, and then I knit a couple I-cords that I tacked down to the knit sides.

Alas, when I tried it on, it's a little tight...

...but that's fixable. I just need to make the ties a bit longer. Although, it fits so snugly that I might be overthinking this. Whatever. It works.

I'm considering doing another, but this time I'll cut the fabric 9 inches by 16 inches as this felt a bit small. Although, looking at the picture, I might just be feeling like this is small because my other one is so much bigger...

I have a couple other projects I could be working on, so we'll see what I end up doing. At least now I feel like I can competently make a mask, unlike what I had going before.

Edited to add: The evening after writing this post, I decided to make the ear ties about an inch longer. In the disassembling, I managed to destroy all the knitting, so I had to do the whole thing over. This only took about an evening, and the look hasn't changed at all. But, that inch on either side was just enough to ease the fit, so now I'm quite happy with this mask.