Addiction Issues

I consider myself fairly short attention span (hence the 112 WIP's sitting around my knitting knest). However, I seem to be on an odd journey of singular obsession:

Granny Squares.

I have to honestly say that even after making 200 little 4 round granny squares, I don't want to stop. I'm already planning my next one or two or three (Only 100 more to go on current afghan). When I'm not actually working on granny squares (or playing Fallout 3), I'm surfing for other's lovely granny squares and patterns and yarns...

I'm not sure why it's so addictive. They are so incredibly easy to make. They're small so there's a nice sense of accomplishment when I'm done with one. There is definitely a challenge of constantly playing with the color combos.

There's also a sort of old fashioned comfort aspect to them. They're very "homey" and traditional... yet with the right colors, they can be very trendy. Let's face it: Granny Squares Do Rock

Dat's alotta squares... and still going...

Sorry for the krap-tastic photo, but there are too many squares to lug them to a better lit room.

So I have 180 squares done, and while my production level has slowed, I'm still enjoying cranking out the granny squares. I easily will hit my goal of 200 by the end of the weekend.


There's something very appealing about those neat little blocks all piled up. Which is why I think I'm able to work on this almost exclusively. If only there weren't so many ends to weave in...

Now what?

Well, le Tour is over (and I totally enjoyed this years Tour) and I still have 140 granny squares to do (plus seaming and border). I fear that the production might slow down a bit.

Actually, I am surprised at how much I'm still plugging thru these blocks. I have had momentary lapses when I didn't feel like working on them, so I try to work on something else... then end up back on granny squares. (this does not include Fallout 3... at any time I can stop working on granny squares and play Fallout 3).

I know part of the appeal is the constant challenge of color combos. Plus how quickly a square works up (forget that it takes me as long to weave in the ends as it does to crochet a block). Plus the cute little piles of granny squares.

Yesterday, my center pull skeins started tangling a bit (I've used about half of each color skein... weighed to be sure I'll have enough and it looks like I will), so I wound all the colors into balls.


This has two advantages: no tangling or yarn vomits from the center pull skeins as well as I can get a good feel for what colors I'm over/under utilizing.

Okay... back to hookin' I want to try to have 2/3 of the squares done by end of the week.

The Halfway Point

Whew... that's 150 granny squares done. Only 150 more to go. Should be a piece o' cake (hmmmm.... cake....)

Not Quite Halfway

As of this morning, I have 132 granny squares done. I can see the halfway point... but the color combos are becoming a bit of a challenge. I'm also trying very hard to use all the colors equally and that's really tough. Two of the colors are much darker than the others and can easily dominate. I'm finding that I have to really make an effort to use them more often.

I'll also say I'm very concerned about production once the Tour de France is over. I'm not sure how focused I'll be when it's done on Sunday. I wish I had started this afghan the first week... I may have even had it finished in the 3 weeks of the Tour. Okay, maybe not, but I would definitely have gotten a lot more done.

My last skein of white should be here today, so it's now just a matter of staying focused and reaching my daily goals. Let's see how many I can get done while watching the Tour and doing laundry...

Endurance

I was able to get 88 granny squares out of one skein of the white. A fourth skein was ordered so I can get all 300 squares done, plus sewing and a border.

I am now a little concerned about having enough of the colors to complete my goal of 300. However, I won't be ordering more. I'll make the afghan smaller if I have to, but I don't want to have to invest in 8 more skeins.

As of this writing, I'm at 113.5 squares done (I hope to have 120 done by the end of the day). I can really crank out squares while watching the live coverage of the Tour de France. However, I need something else to work on in the afternoon. I'm starting to feel a little saturated with granny squares. Might need to cast on a sweater... just because... heehee.

27%

The granny squares are still sorta fun. I think the constant color combos is what's keeping me interested right now... but I haven't hit 100 squares yet.

I definitely don't have enough white. I ordered 3 skeins, but I'll definitely need 4... for nothing more than seaming and a border. Part of the reason is that there's a huge descrepancy between what the label says and what the product listing online is (label says 395 yds, while the online store's product listing says 468 yds). I'm willing to guess that when Knitting Warehouse first added this yarn to their store, that was the accurate yardage. I'm guessing that Bernat has shorted the yardage over the last few years to keep the price the same? Don't know... I just know I need an other skein of white.


So I'm still enjoying cranking out granny squares... so I'll keep going until I can't stand it anymore. I'm hoping that will be around 300 squares... heehee.

(In full disclosure... I'm willing to bet that I have some of this white somewhere in my stash. This is the yarn I used to make sweaters for our vet's quads. However... since the yardage has changed over time, I'm going to assume that the yarn might be a bit different as well).

It's sooo Cindy

I've been obsessing lately with crochet blocks... 'specially in a lighter weight yarn (all our afghans are done in a traditonal aran/heavy worsted weight). I had been browsing online for affordable cotton yarns to make a pastelly granny blanket and just wasn't finding what I was looking for in the price range that I was willing to spend.

Then Bernat released a bunch of new colors in the Softee Baby line (one of my fave baby yarns). Well, I just had to order some and start a blankie.


Yep, that's just what I wanted!

I'm doing 4 round granny squares. The first three rounds I'm doing randomly from the 8 colors, and the last round is in white. The blocks are coming out 3.5", so I'll need 300 squares. I have 41 done. I'm guessing I'll get tired of doing them somewhere around 100, it'll get tossed aside and will never see the light of day again... cause I've got about 10 such afghans started (several sampler afghans... where each block is different. I can't imagine why I started an afghan that all the blocks are mostly the same.). I will say that if it's like the Babette, the thing that will keep me going is playing with color combos. I can't wait to finish one so I can try an other color combo. However, even after only 41 blocks, I'm struggling at not repeating myself (which will happen, and has).

So I'm riding the wave of excitement with the project right now. The small blocks are nice for summer (tho' this has been the most pleasant July in my memory). I'm setting daily goals for how many I would like to get done, then reward myself with a little Fallout 3.

There are also some knitting projects that I'm working on here and there... but I'll update those later.

Cotton Sampler Pullover (with updates)

Now with updated photos!


Matt's Cotton Sampler Pullover is finished... but needs some more blocking. The cotton and ribbing do not want to play well with each other. I'm going to try one more technique (and dust off the ol' wooly board) so that the 4X4 ribbing sleeves don't pull in... or that 2X2 ribbing at the waist. I also need to "shrink" up the neckband a bit.

Let's do some project stats? eh?

Pattern: Textured Pullover by Cathy Payson (Nashua booklet County Fair)

Yarn: Knitpicks Organic Cotton Worsted

Problems with the pattern: the pattern stitch for the broken rib is incorrect and the pattern stitches are not "centered".

Changes to the pattern: tried to center the pattern stitches (which worked well on all except the top most section). Made the neck opening much smaller and used a 1X1 fold over hemmed neckband.

Overall impressions: well, this is not my favorite sampler pullover pattern. The ribbing is a real hassel to block so that it doesn't suck in (the original pattern also used a 100% cotton). There's a certain laziness about how the pattern is written (not centering the pattern stitches) that didn't thrill me. The yarn is wonderful, even if it does shrink up (it shrunk in just a cold water bath, then laid flat to dry). I wish I could knit something for me in it.

Right now, it doesn't look that great on Matt... mainly because the sleeves are sucking in, so the shoulders look a little funky. Hopefully I can block it so that ribbing lays flat. I'll add a modeled photo as soon as I get it properly blocked.
UPDATE: wooly board blocked, much better (but it did break my wooly board). Modeled photo:


Need to get one more project done before the end of the month.... hmmm, but what???

New Threads...

yep, did a little house cleaning here at the blog... so that my blog matches my main webpage a bit better. I'm debating if I want to go back to FTP so that I can use the same template as my website... but then I remember how breakable that was...

It feels good to get rid of my own coded pages (which were crap) and use a pro template (less breakage and cleaner design... I am NOT a web designer or coder). However, I'm finding the template is a little too clean. There's not a lot of options. It's a true what you see is what you get. I can't seem to add my code any where to the template (including the side bar menus)... so it's a two step click to get to my blog. I don't see how I can change that... but I'm going with my own personal ease of site management to user ease (sorry)...'cause I've got knitting to do!

Speaking of such... Matt's Cotton Samper second sleeve was finished up yesterday. I'm still waiting for it to dry. I ended up adding an extra inch to the neck opening depth (which means I also had to add an inch to the back). The yarn does shrink up... just in a cold water bath and a quick spin in the washer. I might do a little swatch and see if it shrinks any extra in the dryer... as it's taking FOREVER to dry.

So while I'm waiting impatiently for it to dry... I did cast on a wool project yesterday:


Dacapo by Hanne Falkenberg (click on the photo to go to the place where I bought my kit and stole the photo). I love it. I love the colors and the complete cleverness of the design. Then I showed it to Matt and got the "eh, looks like a design that only other knitters would appreciate". I think he doesn't like garter stitch (as he wasn't that impressed with the Cobblestone pullover either. Hmmm. I married a knitting snob. Hrumph).

Well... I think I've spent enough time on the 'puter today... even tho' I still have lots of work to do on my site. I need some knitting time.

Four Inches...

... really shouldn't seem like a lot.

Yet, I've got a bad case of SSS (Second Sleeve Syndrome). All the increases are done on the second sleeve for Matt's Cotton Sampler Pullover...with 4 more inches to go.


So close... yet I'm feeling overwhelmed with those last 4 inches.

I'm also getting really tired of working with the cotton. It simply is much harder to knit than wool. My other project is crochet with a linen/cotton yarn... which also isn't "smooth" (it splits so easily).

So I'm thinking of fall and wool and what can I work on now in wool that wouldn't be horribly warm for mid-summer. This is when I wish I liked to knit socks....

Misc Monday

A lot going on here at Knitting Park. The living room re-do is still underway... and we're currently in a holding pattern with it.


When Keith dropped off the cabinets, we discovered we had a little paint color issue. We basically had painted the walls the same color as the cabinets (which sort of defeats the purpose of spending all that money on beautiful wood if they look the same as the walls!). So we repainted.


Ahhh, much better! This room has interesting color issues. The light changes so much during the day that the color really is different depending on the time of day (or even which corner of the room you are looking at).

Keith (master woodworker) has an other obligation for the next couple of weeks, so the installation is on hold. As you can see, this doesn't bother us at all (Jake and Gena have adapted to the constant furniture movement very well... as long as they have couch access, they seem cool with it all).

The 4th of July weekend is always stressful here, as Jake is scared of the fireworks. We have a couple of neighbors that love to set off illegal fireworks all weekend... plus thanks to where we are located, we hear about 3 different towns professional ones as well). He's hanging in there, but it's hard to spoil him when he's so stressed.

As for actual knitting? Well, it's been a little hit or miss right now. Of course I'm knitting, but not my usual volume. Matt's Cotton Sampler is probably the one thing that is progressing the most consistantly. I'm not quite at the halfway point on the second sleeve. I've blocked the front, so I'll be able to do the neckband while I block the sleeves. Just not focused on much of anything right now... so I'll work here and there on things that strike my fancy as the mood strikes me.