Pattern: Hedera, by Cookie A. for Knitty
Yarn: Lang Jawoll, #88, 2 skeins
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 2 (3mm)

Thanks for the nice comments on the Ombre Blanket! It made its way over to my bed the last couple nights and did a lovely job of keeping me toasty warm. I even woke up with warm feet!

Speaking of feet, I’ve finished my Hederas, which I don’t think I’ve shown on the blog until now. These have officially taken over as my favorite pair of hand-knitted socks.

The Lang Jawoll is lovely, plush and soft. It feels much nicer against the skin than Fortissima Socka, which is kind of rough and doesn’t wear particularly well.

The pattern is pretty standard, easy to memorize and easy to knit.

And the fit! Whereas all the socks I’ve knit so far have been a tad too small, or in the case of the Straight-Laced Socks, too big in the heel and too small in the toe, these are perfect! And they may have converted me to the flap-and-gusset heels. Short-row heels are quick, but they’re limited in terms of being able to adjust the fit. Flap-and-gusset heels really let you customize the fit of your socks, and that’s a plus.

And now I’m faced with the paralyzing fact that I only have one project on the needles. ONE! It’s kind of a scary thought.

Pattern: Ombre Alpaca Blanket, Last-Minute Knitted Gifts
Yarn: Elann Peruvian Highland Wool; #2713 Aubergine and #100 Natural, 8 skeins each; #2124 Oxblood, #2055 Ruby, #1004 Pumpkin, and #7725 Freesia, 10 skeins each
Needles: Addi Turbos, US13 (9mm)

Doesn’t that look so warm and inviting?

I really love the colors, although there’s a certain retro feel to them. My living room has drab brown walls and even drabber grey carpet, so it does a lot to brighten up the room.

The finished blanket is quite a bit larger than I expected. I was aiming for a 4.5 feet by 5.5 feet blanket. What I wound up with is a blanket that’s 6.25 by 6.5 feet.

Obviously I was still in my “gauge swatch, schmauge swatch” phase when I started this project. Normally I wouldn’t check gauge for a blanket anyways, but considering that the pattern calls for sport-weight yarn on US11s instead of worsted on US13s, it would have been a good idea.

Continue reading… »

It turns out that crochet is one of those bizarre domains in which it is actually easier to master hyperbolic concepts than Euclidean concepts. This boggles the math mind.

I still haven’t figured out exactly what I’m doing wrong to get a trapezoid instead of a rectangle, though I’m sure it’s either what StacyZ said or what KathyMarie said, or some combination of the above. But it turns out that crocheting a hyperbolic model doesn’t require me to know how to turn rows, since it can be done in the round. Woo!

This was my completely uninspiring first attempt at crocheting in the round.

I’d actually made a bigger circle, but then decided to frog it because it was so wonky. So wonky that it stopped frogging at this point, tug as I might.

Attempt #2 went a little better, except that it sort of reminds me of something that Proper Young Ladies shouldn’t be crocheting.

Continue reading… »