Floss and Yarn

Welcome to my site! I use this blog to post my progress on the cross stitch and knitting projects that I am working on. You can find out more about me, check out more details about my projects, or check out a random post. You can also subscribe to my RSS Feed to receive updates as I post them. You can also contact me if you have any suggestions, questions, or random thoughts. Have a look around and feel free to come back often.

A couple of weeks ago we spent Spring Break in the Washington, DC area. My wife and kids have never been there before, so it was a new experience for them. We walked for many miles and managed to see the Capitol, the monuments, some of the Smithsonian exhibits, Mount Vernon, and the National Zoo. We even made a quick trip to Philadelphia to see Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and Valley Forge.

It seemed like the wind blew the whole time we were there and we about froze to death. It is amazing how a few years of living in the deserts of the Southwest can make temperatures in the forties and fifties feel intolerably cold. When we arrived home late on Easter Sunday it was a relief to be outside and feel a warm spring breeze and temperatures in the seventies. The kids were exhausted, but glad to have had the opportunity to see so many neat things.

We have spent the last couple of weeks trying to recover from our vacation. This has left little time for anything of a crafty nature. So there isn’t much to show. I have knit half of a sock for my son, who is eager to point out that he is the last child to not have a pair of hand-knit socks. He wanted socks knit in two colors and I had a sudden inspiration to try something a little different. Things are working out so far, but I have this lurking fear that the finished product is going to fall flat, mainly because this is my first foray into knitting my own design. I guess we’ll see what happens.

I should have plenty of knitting time this weekend, so a finished product is really not that far away.

Knitting this second sock of the pair was a breeze for me. I was amazed at how fast I knit each pattern repeat. The regularity with which the decreases occur at each side of the pattern coupled with the movement of the yarn overs across the pattern was almost hypnotic. It seemed that I was finishing pattern repeats almost as soon as I started them. I continue to be intrigued by how the stockinette sections are pulled at different angles with respect to one another. It almost looks like entrelac to me.

How were they received? Very well. My daughter loves them and was happy to let me take a picture of them on her feet.

So I have now knit socks for all but one of my children. I have actually cast on another sock and am working with an idea that I had. I am excited to see how it turns out.

In the last week or so I have been bitten by a knitting bug and I have renewed interest in working on this cardigan. I especially like the lattice cable running up both sides of this piece. While it looks nice, it is kind of a pain to knit because cabling is required on every right-side row and things can feel a little tight at times. With about seven more inches to go, it seems like I will never hit the top. Of course, I would probably be more successful if I concentrated on this sweater only.

I have finally finished working on these stockings and can now forget about them until next December. As I was finishing up the last stocking it felt like I spent as much time weaving in ends as it to to actually crochet all of the pieces. Seeing these stockings complete is satisfying and makes up for all of the time spent on them. I am pretty confident that these will last longer than their predecessors did.

Why two red stockings and two green stockings? Well in my wife’s family the red stockings are for the boys and the green stockings are for the girls. Now we have a complete set for the family. I suspect that I will have to make more in ten years or so when my children start families of their own. Until then I will be content to hold onto the notes that I have made so that I can can actually remember how to make them.

I recently received and invitation to join the Ravelry beta. I really like the site. I especially like seeing other people’s interpretations of projects that I am working on or would like to work on. In fact, browsing the site has given me a terrible case of startitis that I am having a hard time overcoming.

Several years ago, I tried to knit the Blue Start Afghan that is on the cover of Herrschner’s Blue-Ribbon Afghans. I loved that picture and eagerly worked on the afghan. I crocheted all of the 9-square granny blocks. I crocheted the center, attached eight of the blocks to the center, and crocheted the border around the eight blocks. I then joined sixteen squares into groups of two with a wedge and attached them to the my growing afghan. At that point I hit a major roadblock. The instructions for knitting the border around the second ring of blocks made no sense. The demoralizing nature of this event brought all work on the afghan to a halt. I couldn’t figure out where the mistake in the directions was and lost any energy that I had to try to figure things out. The abandoned afghan sat in a box for several years and even made two moves with our family. Finally, last summer I decided to put it out of my misery and threw it away.

Imagine my surprise when I found this afghan on Ravelry. I found out that Herrschner’s had an errata sheet for the pattern that was available upon request. I sent an email to their customer service which was answered. So now I have pattern corrections that should fix the problem that I was having. I regret throwing that half-finished afghan away, but I am so excited to think that maybe I could actually make this that I have started it again. I have crocheted the white center and am working towards the first set of blocks.

This is embarrassing because I have a daughter that wants me to finish the afghan that I have been knitting for her for about a year, another daughter that wants me to knit the second sock in a pair that I am knitting for her, and a son who wants me to knit a pair of socks for him. This goes without mentioning all of the other cross stitch and knitting projects that are in various states of incompletion. Maybe one day I will actually be able to complete something.

By the way, if you want to find me on Ravelry, my username is xstitcher.

Here is proof that I am still weaving in ends on these stockings. I have finished the first one. I used the crochet chain for the lacing that I have already made because I didn’t feel like it was worth my time to make another one.

I am much happier with it than with the stocking that it replaces. First of all, I think that it will hold up better. Second, it is crocheted to a tighter gauge and feels more sturdy. Finally, it is also about the same size as the stockings that my wife’s grandmother knit, so it is a better match. Now I only have three more stockings to finish.

I have so many other projects that I want to work on. However, I feel like I need to finish these stockings just to get them out of my hair and also to give me a sense of accomplishment for actually finishing something.

The Christmas stockings have all been assembled and I am working on getting all of the yarn ends sewn in. This has turned out to be a long and painful part of this project. The original stockings that I am replacing have started coming apart because I wasn’t very careful with the yarn ends when I made them. This time I am using a yarn needle to sew each end up and down three times in the nearest double crochet cluster. Then I am sewing three times horizontally in the same cluster, trying to go through the the vertical lines that I have just made.

I hope that this will lock the yarn in place so that it won’t unravel. Hopefully the passage of time will prove me right. A voice in the back of my head tells me that if I were working with wool I wouldn’t have to be quite so meticulous. But this acrylic yarn is just so slippery that it doesn’t take much before I see an end popping out.

I have to work in short bursts before I start to go nuts with the monotony of it all. I have almost finished one stocking and can’t wait until they are all finished so that I don’t have to see Christmas colors for several more months.

My youngest daughter has decided that her favorite colors are purple, pink, and yellow, a combination that my oldest son has dubbed purinkellow. I have decided to knit her an afghan made out of these colors. So here is the first installment of the Purinkellow Afghan.

This afghan is really the Children at Play Afghan that can be found in the Fall 2003 issue of Knitter’s. I have felt driven to knit to the point where one square is completed and now I need to do eleven more and complete the border for it to be finished. This is the first time that I have done modular knitting. It is really quite fun to see things take shape as I knit. It is especially intriguing to see a row of knitting gradually turn into a square or a rectangle. We’ll see how I feel about this technique once I am trying to knit with a big afghan flopping around.

My wife doesn’t particularly care for it and I tend to agree that it is looking a bit garish. But who can account for the tastes of a seven-year-old girl?

It I have finished the legs for the stockings and have also been able to crochet what will be the feet.

When my son saw me making the toes, he asked me if they were granny pentagons.  I guess that is an accurate description.  From there the cylinder that becomes the foot progresses rapidly.  I think that I like crocheting the foot more than crocheting the leg.

These stockings are almost finished.  I just have to sew the legs to the feet, crochet the heels, crochet a reverse single crochet border around the top, and then weave in a few hundred ends.  I’m looking forward to doing everything but weaving in the ends.

I have joined the granny squares into four rings and then I have crocheted the legs down to the point where the heel will be.  All that is left to do on these legs is to crochet four rows that will make up the upper part of the instep.  The legs take the longest time to make, so I am sure that I am well past the halfway point on these stockings.

I feel compelled to finish these stockings.  I crocheted much in the last couple of years and I wonder if the novelty of using a hook instead of a needle is making this a fun thing to do for me.  I also think that the novelty of working assembly-line style also helps.  When these stockings are finished, they will be finished.  I won’t have to face the ordeal of crocheting three more stockings.