Mend It--> Mended!

On Monday, I went through my craft box looking for something (I don't remember what) and decided that it needed some serious organizing. Among the various bits of fabric, thread, yarn, needles, hooks, etc., I found some projects that need fixing that have been waiting to be mended for literally five years! The rainbow doily and granny washcloth are recent projects, but the pink doily, gold lame purse, mittens, and skirt all have followed me through several moves in their unfixed state. I set them aside in a mending pile and yesterday I actually mended them all. The "mending" for the doilies was only blocking, but the pink one especially looked like a crumpled up hankie before blocking, so it was useless before.

blocking: pinned and drying

blocked!

purse handle--fixed! you can't even see the stitches in this pic!

blocked--finally! it's so pretty! I wish I'd taken a before shot to show how ugly it was.

T's mittens--fixed!

a close-up of the stitches--invisible from the outside, can't feel them on the inside.

loose gauge granny dishcloth--weaved in the ends. waiting for a crocheted border.

skirt--finally sewed in the zipper by hand.

cute! it looks good with my revamped shoes too!

 It's such a good feeling that they are usable now. :)

My Big A$$ Crochet Hook

hook in progress with small doily and the beginnings of my big-a$$ doily rug

Recently I came upon this wonderful doily rug, and I wanted to make my own version. After scouring the internet for the biggest yarn I could find, I finally settled on cotton piping as the best likely substitute. I got 100 yards of the 1/2" (16/32") kind off Amazon and then turned my sights on finding a giant crochet hook.... But there were NO giant crochet hooks to be found!* However, I did find a few resources on how to make my own. The first website I found gave me the confidence to give it a go, and the second really broke it down step by step.

* It was like 2:30am by this time; plus I'm really bad at searching the internet. Please don't take my word for it and conduct your own search before feeling the need to make your own hook.... unless you just want to! That's totally allowed.

After a trip to Home Depot, I came home with:

•  3/4"x48" rod (cut into four 12" lengths--just ask and they will cut it for you for free)
• 1/2"x48" rod (cut into four 12" lengths)
• 10-piece wood file set
• sandpaper--rough and fine (should've gotten but didn't--oops!)

What I had at home:

• box cutter (NOT the kind with the snappable blades. If you use this kind, PLEASE be careful not to snap the blade while cutting.)
• sandpaper--> emery board (desperate times...)
• soft rag
• oil (olive, canola, mineral, etc.--I used coconut. love that smell!)
• wax paper

First I used the following photo to help me draw a line where I wanted the hooked part to be. I also grabbed my blue 10mm hook (the biggest one I have) as a guide to give me a 3-D image of what I was going for.

cut guide from Serendipity Crochet

I'm not really sure what I'm doing, but with a variety of files and a box cutter, I seem to be making progress. Top to Bottom: Serendipity Crochet tutorial, pencil, cutter, files, hook in progress, blue hook for guide.

I started with the 3/4" rod because I was pretty sure that 1/2" would be too small (which it is). I was kind of chicken to start with the knife, but I needed to get some kind of marks in the wood to control the filing, so I laid the knife on my pencil mark and rocked back and forth to make a shallow, controlled cut in the wood. This was good because it was so shallow that when I changed my mind about the placement of the hook (which happened no less than 3 times), the marks were easily sanded smooth later.

When I was fairly sure about the hook placement, I used the same rocking method to make a deeper cut. Then I got out my files and tried to file away a notch before the hook. I'm sorry I have no idea what files I used when because I was just randomly grabbing them and trying to make it work! I did notice that I only used the smaller, flatter ones with success, so that might be a place to start.

After filing for ages with little results--there was just a smooth indentation, rather than a pronounced notch--I bit the bullet and grabbed for the knife! (I was so scared I put on rubber-coated gardening gloves just in case. Better safe than sorry!) First, I marked with my pencil more or less the shape I wanted to make on the hook using my actual hook as a guide. It made an acute angle with the hook mark when viewed from the side (see photo above). Then the cutting began.

I started shaving from the back of my mark toward the edge of the hook and was amazed at the beautiful curls of wood that came off! It looked just like what I'd seen on tv of someone whittling! Anyway, alternating with files and knife, I continued to shape the notch, being careful around the mark I had made for the hook. I mostly used files around the hook "beak" to keep more control in that most important of parts. The flatter file and the triangular file really helped to continue carving out the notch under the "beak," creating the hook itself.

After I was happy with the hooked beak part, I set about shaping the head. I used the knife to shave off the edge, so it looked something like this:

shaping the head--front view
(with 10mm blue hook for scale)

shaping the head--side view

Then I used the files to smooth it. (This was the easiest part--it took like 5 minutes tops.) After that I pulled out an emery board, since the USA-CAN women's soccer semi-final was on and there was no way I was missing that to go out and buy sandpaper! The emery board worked surprisingly well, but next time I will definitely buy sandpaper. It isn't quite as smooth as I'd like and the fibers from the cotton piping kind of got stuck in it before I oiled and waxed.

...Which brings us to the next (and last!) steps of oiling and waxing. You can see how the color deepened and it starts to look pretty professional, right?! I used coconut oil because it smells great and I've been obsessed with it lately. After furiously rubbing that in (it's so wrong, but you gotta do what you gotta do), take your wax paper and do the same. The warmer the paper (friction = warmth), the more wax will nicely coat your hook. The wax really smoothed out the last bit of roughness. I still want to go back over with a fine sandpaper, but overall I'm very satisfied. (I better be after all that rubbing!)

And the finished product: TA-DA!

My finished 3/4" crochet hook! clockwise from doily: doily made with 2mm hook, rag with coconut oil, wax paper for finishing, emery board (my mcgyver sandpaper!), 1.75 mm hook, 10mm hook, 3/4" hook (after), 3/4"x12" rod (before); you can also see the cotton piping in the box and in the lower right corner

Please drop me a comment if you have any questions! Happy Hooking! :D

Glorious Notions

There are many great knitting and crochet notions out there, invented by some very creative people. They saw a lack and they filled it with a gadget specifically to aid the creators in need. While I respect and admire these people, I must confess that even more than finding a great amimono* notion, I love to find things that weren’t made for amimono but fit the bill nicely just the same. Or even to see a great notion and then see a similar tool out there that does the same job. My heartfelt thanks to all the tools (and their makers) out there that give me inspiration to find or make things that I would otherwise have to buy.

One such example is a set of knitting clips that you can buy and use in place of pins or basting your work together before seaming. Pins are almost more trouble than they’re worth (so I’ve heard, at least) and basting—well, heck, you might as well just go ahead and sew the darn thing from the get-go. So—voila!—knit clips were born to hold your edges together, making it easy to make that seam seamless. The moment I saw those, I went out and got some binder clips (the big kind that you use to keep a whole stack of papers together) at the 100-yen store. I can buy eight or ten clips for 100 yen versus much more money and inconvenience for the ones specifically for seaming. Plus, I can use them to keep my papers together too.

I know this is short, but I’ll continue to post more amimono gadgets and ideas in later entries.

*One thing I love about Japanese knitting/crochet is the fact that they have one word to describe all yarn/thread pursuits with either hook or needle: amimono. From now on, I’d like to use this word in place of knitting or crochet when I really mean both. Ami (as in amigurumi) means knit/crochet, pulling one loop of something through another, and mono means thing. Easy peasy. Amimono. Now try saying that 10 times fast!

My iPod Has Recovered...

...but I'm not sure if I have. I was truly worried that I'd lost all of the movies and music that my sis (who lives 6,000 miles away) so kindly uploaded before the fam sent it to me for Xmas. (It took her something like 2 days to do!) After reading the iPod 9-1-1 site, I found somewhere that if you press and hold the center (select) and menu buttons for 5-10 seconds, it should shut off. Fortunately for me, it did with all files intact.

I have literally spent all afternoon and evening on the computer. (Don't worry--Tarzan got a new baseball game for his PS2, so we haven't seen much of one another face-to-face for the last couple of days. ;-) ) I finally visited that Ravelry site, which is fabulous in an overwhelming sort of way. It's inspired me to upload pics to Flickr, which I've been able to do quite easily since I organized them all the other day. :-p My Flickr ID is kendoempress if you feel like taking a look over there. It's mostly knitting stuff, though.

I'm still working on the tunic for my niece and also the Snowflake Socks from the Fall 2007 Interweave Knits. They're my first socks and my first real fairisle (2 color knitting), which is probably a bit ambitious, but I love them so much, I just had to have them.

Here is Snowflake Sock #1. I'm praying I don't get SSS (Second Sock Syndrome), but I'll have to finish the first before we find that out!

Here is the Anouk baby tunic in progress and the yarns I picked to inspire and maybe make another out of. I have most of this (the front) done now.

The addition of my adorable niece to the family has inspired me to make baby stuff, and it seems like my cousins are having babies right and left, so I'm sure I'll have plenty of recipients. Besides, Tarzan and I will hopefully have our own rugrats someday, so it would be nice to have some practice with what looks cute, what's easy to knit/crochet, etc. I don't think I'll be making another baby blanket anytime soon, though. I knit one for a cousin exactly a year ago, and while it went great, my second attempt has been sitting in knitting purgatory for months now in its knitting bag. The sad thing is I'm at least a third of the way through it!

Grandmother's Baby Blanket

At Christmas 2006, my mom gave me a bag full of old skeins of white acrylic fake mohair that my grandmother used to make baby blankets. It also had a partially done blanket out of a cotton-looking yarn that was off the needles, looking forlorn with its open stitches. I decided to connect to my knitting heritage by figuring out the lace pattern (after all, I'd knit at least one or two small swatches of lace--nothing to it!) and making my own version. This one was supposed to be for my niece (the one that was born last November).

The lace pattern itself was pretty simple--just a basic feather and fan--and it seems that my grandmother either improvised or was following a pattern for a border that was just an exaggeration of the basic pattern. So far so good. I thought I was so good, I didn't even need stitch markers to separate the pattern repeats (there were something like 12!). After about 2 rounds of that, I realized that I should listen to the experienced lace knitters on the internet and who write patterns and use some stitch markers to keep track. (That way, if you make a mistake, you'll see it right away.)

And I did make mistakes. Lots and lots and lots of them. I guess because it's lace, hardly anyone but me or another knitter could tell, but I know they're there. I also made the mistake of taking this to Stitch n Bitch meetings, where of course, I made tons of mistakes because I was talking and not paying attention. So, back to the bag. I thought I had made some mistakes, so I was putting off taking it out again, dreading to have to undo my errors. Then a few weeks ago, I thought, "Come on, better take a look at it before I completely forget how to do it," and I gave it a once-over. It turns out I fixed my mistakes and in frustration THEN put the thing away. It was all ready to be worked on. I felt like such a dummy. Now, instead of glancing at it on my wall (hanging in its bag) with knots of guilt in my stomach, I look at it with thoughts of hope and potential in mind (though it still hasn't left its bag or the wall!). Maybe I'll get it done in time for my own kids... or grandkids.

Non-knitters Beware!

Hello, my lovelies. I was such a good little nerd yesterday and spent the afternoon organizing my photos on my computer. These are photos that haven't been uploaded or anything, mind you, but the point is, they're all labeled nicely, so when I DO want to upload them, I can. Theoretically. This left me just itching to blog something, but alas, I hadn't the time. So this morning, I was even nerdier and took many pictures of finished projects and knitting accoutrements to post on Ravelry when I do someday actually use my account. (Yes, I have an account, but I haven't logged in and used it yet! I must be crazy...) Without further ado, here are some of my latest undertakings.



The Wisp scarf, as yet unblocked, but still getting a lot of use as is.

The stitch pattern will open up if I block it. ::sigh:: I'm so lazy.

It felt like it took forever to knit. I haven't knit a scarf in a loooong time.



Here are some of my favorite knitted items ever. Mrs. Beeton. I decided to do cables instead of a 3x1 rib as the pattern describes. I also did one cuff in a larger needle size, so the dimensions of the two are the same, but the number of repeats and size of cables are different. I thought the smaller one would fit better. Turns out the larger one has been better over time. I knit them out of 100% alpaca, so they don't have much memory. They are so soft and warm and pretty, though!

Unfortunately, not the best picture, but the color is about right and you can see some detail on the cables.

Can you see the difference in size? Oh, well. They both fit well enough. I just can't say how much I love these!

At the local community center where I take Japanese lessons, the volunteer teachers (mostly middle-aged ladies) went ga ga over these. One of them also knits and crochets, so she whipped herself up a pair, and another lady asked her husband to make her some! I thought that was awesome.

And now onto to my most used at home item. My Twinkletoes slippers. I can't believe how warm they are. I wouldn't have lasted the winter without them.

Thank you for your patience if you are a muggle, er, non-knitter. For you, here is a pic to hopefully brighten your day.

Leo on the left and Otokomae (handsome) George on the right (Oto-chan for short). My mother-in-law calls them our homonekos. Neko means cat in Japanese. I think you get it. :) We're so glad they've finally found each other.