• Handicrafts

    Yarn Along

    I am again, after a long hiatus, joining in the yarn along here.

    I have not finished one of my other yarn along projects nor many of my other knitting projects, but once again I started something new. It is a baby blanket for a baby due in June. I don’t know when the shower is (and did not even know there was going to be one when I started), so, to excuse myself, this project needed to be started.

    The pattern is from ravelry here and is free of course. I chose only three, rather than four, colors and added an extra 24 stitches to the width, and it is still going to be narrow, but then I knit rather tight currently.

    The book is Belinda by Maria Edgeworth. As our library’s Maria Edgeworth collection is rather small, I had to obtain it via interlibrary loan, and it came from another state (I find that rather exciting). I have read Castle Rackrent, Ennui, The Absentee, and Ormond. The latter two I have to write reviews (for the Classics Club) on I think, but the former two I read years ago. Ennui is hilarious, the best so far. Castle Rackrent was boring, and I don’t know if I understood everything. Edgeworth was Irish, although I think of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy, and from this rank she drew her subjects in the four I read. I need to pay attention to publication dates better for Belinda is set in London and is about English people and reads more like a Frances Burney novel (the three I read were published 5 to 23 years before Belinda) than like the previous Edgeworth novels I read although not quite so melodramatic as at least Cecilia and Camilla. I am reading the 1801 version I think or an early revision not the seriously revised 1810 version (which I think probably reflected the less decadent [than the Georgian standards] Regency standards and scruples). (I looked up the dates and except for Castle Rackrent the other Edgeworth novels I read were published 8-16 years after Belinda and contemporary to the Austen novels).

    Anyway, enough on literature. Here are photos of the finished shrug:

     

  • Handicrafts

    Crazy Knitting Lady

    I knitted many things over the last fivish months. It makes me feel so accomplished to cram them all into one post . . . so it looks like I have been more industrious than I actually have (I actually am now working on becoming fairly industrious in knitting; this post marks some of the beginning to this strange phenomenon). Ahem.
    I knitted my grandmother three scarves for Christmas . . . that was not my initial intention, but anyway.
    Here are two:

    I call this the lazy, untalented, un-crafty person’s knitting. I made these from packages of lace with pre-formed holes through which I knitted (I think you can also crochet them as with the similar mesh yarn). They each took no more than two hours. I also made an even simpler scarf by finger braiding a chain of mesh yarn which formed a long loop to be looped into an infinity scarf. I prefer this look to the feather boa one . . . if you must cheat and if you must wear this style 😛 (I am terribly afraid that the person for whom I made that scarf did not even see that it was a scarf and even if she did, she did not like it; oh well, the rest of the gift should have been okay . . . and that rest still fulfilled the $15+ requirement for the gift; but grrr, I still feel bad, hence this confession/explanation).

    I copied from sight this pattern for my mom from ravelry since I thought it was stupid to pay $4 for a simple design. It isn’t exact to a perfectionist but the same effect. This is the one for my grandmother.

    My Ravenclaw scarf. Ravelry had plenty of free “patterns” (more like tutorials because they are so simple). I wimped out and bought cheap yarn. I am normally a fiber snob . . . and should remain so because apparently I do not know how to buy decent cheap items. This stuff (Paton Metallic) is AWFUL. Wispy chains filled with black fluff. Fluff, not yarn. I am OCD and frequently felt compelled to pull out said fluff. Lots of it.

    For example:

    Ravenclaw all the way peoples. I am happy to report that I got Ravenclaw in a couple tests (or at least one :/) when I had only seen the fourth movie and that is all I knew of HP . . . Slytherin came next and then Gryffindor and then Hufflepuff. I also got Ravenclaw for Pottermore. Yes, it is official. Also, I love how a version of spell-check has the House names in it; I missed an “f” in Hufflepuff and right-clicked to see if Hufflepuff showed up; it did. Awesome.

    The white beret (Cascade Beret on ravelry, free) I finished in the fall. The first of the berets promised much earlier last year for my sisters when they saw my pink one. I guessed the wrong yarn weight so had to find different patterns. Great big sister. I prefer larger sized berets . . . in theory the size of mine which I wore all of once. Whatevs. The second beret I finished several weeks ago; I like this one (Ume Hat and Gloves on ravelry, free) better in both the pattern and the shape of the hat (the first one didn’t decrease as nicely). I have most of one matching fingerless glove done also.

    This shrug (this pattern) I finished a few weeks ago. It is a magnificently late Christmas gift; but there is worse, I have more Christmas gifts left to knit!

    I have several projects in the works (including that eternal pink sweater) and several in contemplation. I love being able to knit, and I love scrumptious yarn.

  • Handicrafts

    Yarn Along

    I am again participating in the weekly yarn along on this blog.

    I finished the book from last week’s link up, The Elite, but I am still working on the knitted top. I actually have three knitting projects on needles at the moment, so this time I am posting a different one (it is one I have worked on most recently and the one I am closest to finishing).

    Nonfiction, yay for me! I finished Gatto’s book Dumbing Us Down maybe a week or two ago. This book is more in depth. Um, the author seems a bit paranoid regarding government agendas, but then he knows and has read many more government sources than I have. I totally agree with his assessment of the results of public schooling, and as I am a former homeschooled student, a lot of the ideas regarding the negativity of public schooling are not new to me. I am not sure how helpful these books really are; they seem more damaging to a Christian homeschool crowd than otherwise because of the humanism and paranoia. Anyway, the pattern is a fairly simple pattern from Ravelry called Feather and Fan Shrug and it is freeeee!!!!