In Process

Since sending off the raven, I haven't done much of anything. 

When I wrote last week's post, the tracking on the raven said it would arrive on Wednesday. Then, on Monday, the tracking updated to arriving on Monday, which it then did do. So, sister-in-law received her birthday present a day early instead of a day late. Woo-hoo!

But before that I managed to finish knitting the ugly slippers on camera. Proof: 

Is the video done? Of course not. 

I still have a couple bits to film. I have sent the good clips (read: I eliminated the bloopers) to my brother for editing. I won't have the opening to do any filming until next weekend, though. 

These slippers aren't entirely finished, though. I usually go around the edge there and add a crochet finishing touch. I thought I'd do a separate video about that. Not really whole video worthy, but I'm out of ideas. 

Which leads to today's question for you all. I know most of you aren't knitters or crocheters, but maybe you have an idea. What should I make next on camera? (My YouTube channel is here, so you can see what I've already done.) I haven't designed anything new in ages, and I have nothing I'm burning to make. 

Oh, and does anyone want a pair of ugly slippers? These fit my feet. (I wear size 10, double wide.) 

A Raven, Kind Of

I hate deadlines. 

That raven that I've been working on is a birthday gift for my sister-in-law. Her birthday is Wednesday. 

She lives in Ohio.

So, if I wanted to get her gift to her before her birthday, I had to get it in the mail. I had hoped to mail it midweek. 

I got the body finished Tuesday. Wednesday I had hoped to get it all assembled. (And I'm already late getting this thing done to get it in the mail midweek.) 

I got the beak attached. I attached the feet to the legs and then the legs to the haunches. I attempted to attach the haunches to the body, but I ran into a bit of trouble. 

So, I detached the legs from the haunches and reattached, this time making sure to orient the feet just so. I went to attach the haunches to the body, and... 

Let me just say it did not go well. 

I tried to do it more than once. I attached, found it wasn't stitching right, and then I ripped it out. Five different times. 

Somehow one of the haunches is larger than the other. I don't know how this happened. I followed the instructions. I made two the same way. 

So, after two different nights over two hours, I gave up. I realized that I probably need to redo the haunches to make sure they are precisely the same size. 

Although, even if they were the same size, they didn't go onto the body well. I couldn't get it so the feet were under the body of the bird. They were at an angle. That's part of the reason why I kept ripping it out. 

If I had another week... 

I don't have another week. 

Then I looked at the bird... I mean, does it really need the feet? 

Ideally, I'd attach the feet. We're out of ideal territory.

I kind of like the birdie without feet. 

So, I'm declaring it done. Without feet. 

Sorry about the pictures. I took them, then packaged up the bird, and then got it into the mail. Otherwise, I'd redo them. 

I packaged everything Friday/Saturday. Got it into the mail on Saturday. Tracking shows it'll show up... Thursday. Sigh. 

Only a day late. Not ideal, but at least it's not nine months after (and counting). 

Now I really should get back to the reluctant sweater which was last Christmas' gift, but likely won't be done by this Christmas. Sigh. 

Winging It

There is a Crochet Procedure that frequently appears in patterns. You start with a round (or an oval) of, like, 12 stitches. Then you increase it by six by crocheting one and then increasing in the next stitch, which consists of crocheting two stitches into the next stitch. 

That pattern (crochet one, increase one, giving you three stitches in the current round where there were two stitches in the previous round) is so common that when I saw it in the raven pattern, I barely read it, and just commenced with the increases. 

The next round consisted of crocheting two and then doing the increase. And the following round was crocheting three and then increasing. Easy. I've done this many, many times before.

So, why could I not get the stupid thing to work this time? 

I mean, I counted carefully. I got twelve stitches in the first round. I did the increase, and somehow I was a stitch off. But I counted, and I had 18 stitches. Okay, then.

But five times I got to the round where I was supposed to have 30, and I was off. By, like, a lot. 

I have no explanation for this. I counted. I worked into each stitch. Of course, I'm working in black, so it's harder to see, but how did I mess it up that badly? 

On Saturday I attempted it again. In better lighting. And still... I ripped it out twice before finally getting to the round of 30 and actually having 30 stitches. Whew. 

(Just in case you were wondering what was blocking me from making progress. For three weeks. Yeah, the wings.) 

Luckily, wing two went much easier once I brute forced my way into getting wing one done. 

Seriously, I have no explanation for why this was so freaking hard. It shouldn't have been.

Deadline's fast approaching, and with the wings done, I could finally start on the main body. 

Alana, see that tail thing at the back (on the right side in the picture)? In round 13, that's where the chain went. And then in the following rounds, you just work over that chain, and it builds out, adding to the body. At least, that's what I think the pattern meant. 

Hopefully that was the last major glitch. I managed to do that whole increase thing on the body with no issues. Why I had trouble with the wings perplexes me. 

Have Feet Now

I had it in my head that the smallish project I started last week would be done by now. Alas, no. I basically did not touch it until Saturday. I added two more pieces to the pile.

Feet...

Alana nailed it in the comments last week. This, when all is said and done, will be a raven. The pattern is here. 

I wasn't very loquacious last week--I didn't want to talk about it. But my world has cooled off, and I can think again, so I'll explain my reasoning. 

Generally, when one does amigurumi, one does the body first, and then makes the little bits that get attached. But, because I was using this as a take along project (and I didn't want to carry stuffing), I decided to do it backwards. 

This has the extra added bonus of when I do actually complete the body, I'll have done the bits and bobs already, so all I'll have to do then is assemble. I don't know if it'll make things easier for me, but maybe. 

Why am I making a raven? It's a birthday present. So, there's a deadline. But as long as it doesn't heat up this week, I should be okay. Fingers crossed. 

A New Beginning

The reluctant sweater is kind of on a break, and I haven't had the time and space to continue the ugly slippers video, so I did what any reasonable person would do. I started a new project. 

No, I'm not going to tell you what it is. As I'm working it backwards (kind of), I'm not expecting anyone to have any idea, either. 

I should be in more of an explain-y mood next week. At which point there should be more to see. Maybe. 

Preliminary Work

 I finished a thing last week.

Well, it's not precisely finished per se. But it's where I want it. 

It has been a while since I added anything to my YouTube channel. I had been toying with working on the reluctant sweater on camera, but I never quite got around to it. However, in the back of my mind, I thought I might want to do a video of the ugly slippers. 

Ugly slippers? 

They are the first things I ever made right after I learned to knit. My first project. Before that, GramMavis (my great-grandmother, the one who taught me to knit) made the family the slippers, gifting them to us to replace the previous pairs that wore out. 

As it's a great beginner project, I thought I'd knit them on camera and add them to my channel. 

As they are slippers, one would need to make two. But, I'm not going to knit two on camera. And, as it's been a while since I knit a pair, I needed to make sure I remembered how. 

I have no idea when I'm going to sit down and film this, but at least now when I do, I'm ready. 

(I like to sew both slippers up at the same time. It's a good way to make sure they look alike. So this one will remain flat until I film knitting the second slipper.) 

I wanted to give you a look at what they look like completed, but I couldn't get a good shot of them sitting on their own. Instead. I took a picture of them on my feet. Not the best, but it gives you a better idea.

Now it's just a matter of figuring out when to do some filming. 

The Next Step

Step 1: Complete oval to desired width of sweater. 

✅ Complete.

Step 2: For back of sweater, continue working the top half of the oval until the color of yarn is the same color as the outer round of the front oval. 

While working the top half, flatten the side of the oval. 

And... That's my next little puzzle. I know the basic formula. As I get to the edge, I work shorter stitches. Each row I'll start further back as the edge becomes flat rather than curvy. But I have to eyeball it, and this is not quite right. 

I have some wiggle room as this part will be in the seam. 

Anyway, the back needs a bit more length while the front is going to have a deeper neckline. I kind of have it worked out in my head, but we'll have to see if the actual physical piece works out the way I planned. 

At least I have now completed the ovals. Now it's just a matter of figuring out how to assemble them. Progress. 

The Reluctant Sweater: 

• Questionable Quality
• Planning and Research
• And It Begins
• Watching the Increases
• Second Sock Syndrome
• The Wavy Second Side
• Which Way Now?
• Vacation Crochet
• Modifications
• Pondering
• Summer Crochet
• Slow Going
• Doing the Math

Doing the Math

I did not do a whole lot of crocheting last week, but I did do a bit of math. Decisions were made. I've decided that side one is the back...

...and it's about an inch away from the oval being complete. That's one more round (maybe two). 

Which means that side two is the front. 

It's not quite as far along as the back, so it's going to need at least two, maybe three or four, more rounds. (Working both sides at the same time was definitely the right call.) 

Yes, both sides are a bit wavy, but not nearly as bad as they could be, and I think they'll flatten out as the sweater is worn. That is, I'm no longer worrying about it. 

So, how am I going to turn both of those ovals into a sweater? I'd attempt to explain, but I doubt it'll make any sense. That's what pictures are for. 

I'd love to say that the ovals will be finished by next week, but I can't say that for sure. Considering the heat and my general slothishness lately, it might not happen. (Then again, it's not really that much more, so it is possible.) 

The Reluctant Sweater: 

• Questionable Quality
• Planning and Research
• And It Begins
• Watching the Increases
• Second Sock Syndrome
• The Wavy Second Side
• Which Way Now?
• Vacation Crochet
• Modifications
• Pondering
• Summer Crochet
• Slow Going

Slow Going

Sorry, no new pictures this week. Just side 1:

and side 2: 

from last week. 

The big problem with doing something like this is that the early rounds make it look like it's building quickly, as each round is short. Now, the rounds take a while, so it doesn't look like much is happening each round. Or rather, each oval. 

But I made some important decisions with regards to how I'm going to make this sweater-shaped. I'd explain, but it won't make much sense in writing, and I don't have visuals yet. 

First it needs to be the width I want. Each round adds about an inch. I'm over halfway done, but it still feels like I'm crawling. 

And, at this time of year my palms and the soles of my feet sweat, so that makes for uncomfortable yarn work. (Although, crochet is way easier than knitting.)

I feel a bit lighter with a plan in place. Now, if the weather would just cool off a bit, I might feel like working on it more.

The Reluctant Sweater: 

• Questionable Quality
• Planning and Research
• And It Begins
• Watching the Increases
• Second Sock Syndrome
• The Wavy Second Side
• Which Way Now?
• Vacation Crochet
• Modifications
• Pondering
• Summer Crochet

Summer Crochet

I'm wilting. 

I have not been dealing with the summer heat all that well. Terribly, in fact. The thing is, it's not truly that hot. So, I don't have much sympathy for myself here. 

(We've been in the upper 80s and lower 90s. Fahrenheit, of course. Mostly 80s. I mean, if we were spending a lot of time in the 90s and getting into the 100s, then I could understand. But this is pretty standard summer here, so why it's bothering me so much is also annoying me.) 

Which is to say that I'm not making loads of progress on the crochet front. Although, considering the time of year and what I'm normally getting accomplished right about now, I'm positively industrious. 

I added a couple rounds to the first side: 

and a few more rounds to the second: 

Right now they're practically the same size (which is why the first side got some more rounds). They're both wavy, but I think a couple rounds of no increases will tame that out of them a bit. I've decided that they're not wavy enough for me to rip them out again. 

I've gotten to the point where I'm just adjusting every round. I lay it flat. Look at it. And decide if it's feeling ruffly. Then it gets an "even round" (no increases). If it feels flat and the round I just did is curling up, then it gets an "increase round" (I increase every X number of stitches--X is one more than the last "increase round" I did). 

I've decided that since this is going to be for a woman, and women have curves, the bit of ruffle is just so that it'll conform to her curves. 

So, that's where I'm at now. It's going to be slow going for a bit. But then I'll hit the point where it's as big as it needs to get, and then things will get interesting. I hope.

I hope things aren't blazing hot where you are. Ah, the joys of summer. 

The Reluctant Sweater: 

• Questionable Quality
• Planning and Research
• And It Begins
• Watching the Increases
• Second Sock Syndrome
• The Wavy Second Side
• Which Way Now?
• Vacation Crochet
• Modifications
• Pondering

Modifications

I'm still in Ohio, visiting family. (I leave tomorrow.) 

We've done a few road trips. We've spent some time just hanging out. And I've done a little crochet...

I'm not quite where I was when I ripped it all out, but I'm getting closer. And it's not nearly as ripply. (For comparison, before...)

So, progress. 

(I should probably mention that sister-in-law doesn't entirely recall the conversation we had a year ago when she described what she wanted me to make her, so I've kind of been released from making this whole thing an oval. Before I leave, we're going to measure this against her, and then I might just square things off to make the whole thing simpler. Or not. We'll see how I proceed from here.)

The Reluctant Sweater: 

• Questionable Quality
• Planning and Research
• And It Begins
• Watching the Increases
• Second Sock Syndrome
• The Wavy Second Side
• Which Way Now?
• Vacation Crochet

Vacation Crochet

Last week I made the decision (while writing last Monday's post) to rip out that second side and start over. I got it fully frogged and restarted when it was finally time to leave. And while I did some work on it on the plane, I'm not quite to where it was before I ripped it out. 

(Sorry about the background. I did not pack my off-white fabric that I use for photos.) 

Ta-da! Flat. 

Of course, I ended up ripping it back a bit on the first leg of my flight. And when I arrived. But I've still made some solid progress. 

Now I'm eyeing the first side...

I may rip it back a couple rounds. I'm not sure. I'll see how it goes. 

My sister-in-law is impressed with it thus far. I'm not sure how I'm going to make it sweater-shaped, but that's not at issue at the moment. Getting this oval to lie flat is. But at least I got some good feedback. 

My crochet companions so far have been Shadow...

...who became fascinated with the yarn and leapt on it (and on me). I yelped and jumped. His claws were out, but he didn't scratch me. 

And then there was Delilah...

...who basically just wants attention. 

I haven't gotten pictures of Winter or Calliope (the other cats) or Artemis (the other dog) yet. It's been a timing thing. 

So, sort of progress, but since I'm out of town and not on my usual schedule, I don't know how much I'm actually going to accomplish. But hey, I didn't leave it at home, so it will be more than if I had left the yarn behind. 

The Reluctant Sweater: 

• Questionable Quality
• Planning and Research
• And It Begins
• Watching the Increases
• Second Sock Syndrome
• The Wavy Second Side
• Which Way Now?

Which Way Now?

The wavy second side? Still wavy. 

The first side is heading towards lettuce, too.

And right now both are about the same size. Woo-hoo! 

But now I have a dilemma. Do I rip back the second side in an effort to tame the wave? Or do I wait? 

Normally, I would have ripped this back days ago. But in three days I'm getting on a plane, and I'll see the recipient of the finished sweater (whenever it actually gets finished). And at that time, I can measure it against her. 

Although, I have hours on a plane. With nothing to do. I might just have the time to redo what I rip out... 

I mean, I was trying to make sure the second side followed the increase pattern of the first, but we saw how that came out. I could instead just do what I did for the first, and see how flat it lies as I figure out which increases to do. 

The more I write this out, the more I like this plan. It makes sense. 

My mind is whirling. While I may talk myself out of this, it's more likely that by the time you read this, that second side will be completely frogged, and I'll be working my way back. 

As I'll be travelling, next Monday's post may or may not be up-to-date. (I've written most of the posts for while I'm away. I'll be checking in. But Monday's posts may or may not appear. I haven't decided yet.) 

The Reluctant Sweater: 

• Questionable Quality
• Planning and Research
• And It Begins
• Watching the Increases
• Second Sock Syndrome
• The Wavy Second Side

The Wavy Second Side

Last week I showed the start of the second back/front of the reluctant sweater: 

This week: 

And you will notice the lettuce-ing. I followed the exact same increase pattern that I used for the other front/back, and yet... 

So, do I rip it back? Or do I keep going? 

I'm just going to keep going. Because I figure once washing and doing some blocking, it should be mostly flat. (Maybe not, but I'm going to live in that delusion for a while.) 

I worked a couple more rounds on the first side:

(See how flat that lies? Not quite perfectly flat, but close. Same increases. *shakes head*)

Both are almost the same size:

When I look at these, they remind me of amethyst geodes. That might become the official name of this sweater (although I'm still calling it the reluctant sweater to myself). And yes, this is purple. It may appear blueish on your screen. (There's something about purple, digital photography, and screen settings.) But purple. Just sayin'.

So, more plugging away. That's the plan for now. Hopefully they'll travel. More about that next week. 

The Reluctant Sweater: 

• Questionable Quality
• Planning and Research
• And It Begins
• Watching the Increases
• Second Sock Syndrome

Second Sock Syndrome

I've been working away on SIL's "Christmas" present. (Can you still call it a Christmas present when you didn't even start working on it until five months after said Christmas?) And things are going pretty well:

It's getting a little lettuce-y, but I can rip one round back. If I increase every other round, upping the distance between increases by one every other round rather than every third round (and the in-between rounds having no increases), it'll probably be okay. 

It's getting pretty big. It's about 19 inches across and about 15 inches top to bottom. I'm a little over halfway to my goal. 

And I realized I was getting a bit antsy. 

Have you heard of second sock syndrome? It's a knitting term, but it applies here. It's when a knitter finishes one sock (or mitten or sleeve), and then realizes that they must make another, exactly the same (or with opposite shaping). Deep sigh. 

There are many knitters (and crocheters) who never quite get around to that second sock, hence the syndrome. 

This week I realized I was going to have to make a second oval. I mean, I knew this, of course. One for the front of the sweater, one for the back. And I've been keeping notes as to how I've been increasing because I want to replicate this exactly for my second side. But suddenly it felt like it was going to be a lot of work. 

So, I decided rather than wait, I could start the second side now. 

So, yeah, the variegated yarn started at a different spot in the striping, but I'm good with front and back being different, color-wise. Starting these is easier as each round is so much shorter. I should make good progress for a bit. At least, until this front (or back, not sure which is which yet) gets to be the same size as the other.

I'm not sure if this is just going to make everything take twice as long or if this is genius. 

Well, both have to get done at some point. Why not at the same time?

Progress is happening. And once these are big enough, then I have to figure out how to connect them, how to add sleeves, and how to make this whole thing sweater-shaped. 

Problems for another time. Later. Now, it's oval time.

The Reluctant Sweater: 

• Questionable Quality
• Planning and Research
• And It Begins
• Watching the Increases

Watching the Increases

Where I'm at:

After I saw you last week, I ripped back a bunch of rounds from this: 

And then I redid them with a different increase system. As you can see, the top image lies flat. Which is want I wanted.

I don't know if you can see that the last round of the top image is curling inward. Last night, when I got to about there, I had to rip back a round as it was starting the wavy of the second image. I crocheted that round again but without increases. 

Because I don't have a pattern I'm working off of, I'm just keeping an eye on the piece as I complete each round. If it's starting to ruffle, then I have to rip back. That curl for an even round is okay as it'll flatten in the next round when I do more increases. 

I've made progress. And it's going so much quicker now that I'm not just staring at it wondering how to start. I've even started wondering about how I'm going to make it sweater-shaped eventually. But that's a ways off at the moment. 

For now, my next round will be an increase every sixth stitch. An increase is when I crochet two double crochets into the same stitch. As long as that lies flat, I'll continue the increase system I've been using.

I've been keeping notes as I will have to make another just like this for the front/back (not sure which side this one is going to be when it's all said and done). 

Suddenly I'm not so reluctant about the sweater. 

The Reluctant Sweater: 

• Questionable Quality
• Planning and Research
• And It Begins

And It Begins

I've got good news and bad news. The bad news is I have to rip most of this out: 

The good news? Look at how far I got! I've finally cracked the Reluctant Sweater. 

If you've been following along, you know that I barely got the oval started at all. And this was in April. 

But I did a funny thing this week. I actually sat down and watched the crochet oval video (that I linked to in this post) all the way through. When I found it, I hadn't done more than quickly preview it. It looked like the right shape. Once I took the time to sit down with it, I knew it was what I wanted to try. 

And look how far I got! It's almost perfect. 

The issue? See how that oval doesn't lie quite flat? It kind of lettuces out (not a real crochet term). It means the increases are increasing too fast in the outer rounds. My mistake was listening to the video saying that the increases continued in the same way as the thing gets bigger. 

I know how to make a flat crochet circle. You increase every round by the same number. So, if you start with eight stitches, you increase eight stitches for each round, but only eight stitches. 

The video had us increasing every other stitch for every round. That doubles the number of increases every round. So, eight increases becomes 16, becomes 32, becomes 64... 

I ripped that back and started doing the increases the way I know they should be done, but I don't think I ripped back far enough. And I'm wondering if I should do a round even between each increase round. 

Minor irritations. That above oval? That's only a few hours of work. Once I have the increasing formula figured out, it'll be smooth sailing until it's as big as I need it. (That's when other issues will crop up, but I'll worry about those when I get there.) 

I'm thrilled. Now that I know what to do, I can do it. It's the figuring out what to do that flummoxes me. 

The Reluctant Sweater: 

• Questionable Quality
• Planning and Research

Finished the Beanie

I finished it. Saturday.  And promptly gave it to my father, as I had been knitting it at his house. 

It wasn't a birthday present even though he had a birthday last Monday (his 80th). It wasn't for anything, really, other than when he modeled middle nephew's beanie for the blog, I promised him I'd make him one, too. 

And now, I am once again between projects (other than the reluctant sweater which I still haven't managed to start). 

About the beanie: 

• Not the Project I Should Be Working On
• Knitting Another Beanie
• Weekend Knitting
• Inside Out

Planning and Research

Did I touch the yarn last week? That would again be a no.

But, I really need to get going on some sort of project. Hopefully this week won't be as enervating as last week was. 

I did pull out my start: 

And I thought about ripping it back. The turning the circle into an oval didn't quite work out mathematically. It's a simple process where at one end I make the tallest stitch I can, and then I step them down into the shortest stitch. Then I build back up. And repeat for the second side. 

Somehow I ended up a stitch short. 

Of course, since I'm not doing an eye here, I could just start with an oval...

This is the thing that makes designing hard. So many choices. And I'm not sure what I want to do. So, today I'm just looking through some ideas to see what might spark. 

The original eye I found on this video: 

The only issue with this sweater is that this designer then squared off the oval and turned it into a square. The picture my niece found had a sweater that stayed kind of circular. And my sister-in-law wants me to duplicate that shape. 

So, why don't I just duplicate niece's sweater? Sister-in-law is a different size. 

I then ran across this video: 

Which is fun. But, I don't have two colors, and again, she squared things up at the end. 

Or I could just start with an oval: 

But how do I keep the oval going? I did a lot of guesswork on niece's sweater. Oh, here's something that might help (funny what I find when I start looking): 

But I rather like the idea of starting with a circle, elongating it so it becomes an oval, and then keeping the oval going until the piece is as big as I want it. 

So, decisions made. It's amazing how writing it out does help. 

I'll rip back to the circle, and then sit down and get that circle turned into an oval. And keep the oval going. Which was what I had planned in the first place, but I'm having some trouble executing it. 

In case you weren't around two years ago, this is the sweater that I made for my niece: 

And this was the picture she found that she wanted me to duplicate: 

Wish me luck figuring out the oval part.

Inside Out

Since last week, I only added about an inch in length. 

But I'm only working on this on Saturdays. (I really, really need to get going on the reluctant sweater, but I never quite find the time.) However, I had my father try this on, and we're at the point where I get to start decreasing for the crown. Woo-hoo!

Although, once this is done... 

One thing I don't think I've mentioned on the blog is how I like to knit things in the round: inside out. 

I'm not sure why I do this. My very first in-the-round project just naturally ended up inside out, and ever since then, I do it like that. 

In this case it might be a good thing. The floats from the colorwork need to be a little loose, or else the hat is too tight an/or puckers. 

So, as I knit, this is what's on the outside:

I'm rather happy at how even that looks. Of course, it's because I'm holding the purple in my left hand and knitting continental while I'm holding the yellow yarn in my right hand and purling that the English way. Because it's two stitches of one followed by two stitches of the other, doing it two-handed makes it go a whole lot quicker. 

Will I have a finished hat next week? Unlikely. Next weekend... Well, the plans aren't the usual plans, so I might not get much of anything done. Although, that's fine. It's not like this is on deadline.