Frogged Project: A Photo Essay of the BUBBLES bubbles Wrap

Here's the BUBBLES Bubbles wrap on Friday...



...I added wine and my newly purchase ball winder...



...and lo and behold - victory!!!



Please note - photos 2 and 3 were actually taken days apart. The results are still soooo satisfying.

I feel so much better that this project has been frogged. I look at that beautiful ball of yarn and I see possibilities - compared to the contempt I used to feel when I looked at the messed up wrap.



No worries - the yarn for the wrap will eventually be used for the BUBBLES bubbles scarf.

Teaching An Old Crocheter New Tricks

I've been crocheting for close to 18 years and knitting for only one so I'm still really new to knitting. Hell, it took me 2 years of trying to actually really understand how to knit. I think it was because I thought I knew what I was supposed to be doing. Knitting is sorta like crocheting - wrapping yarn and making a series of loops. No problem - I got it.

No, Grasshopper. There are differences that must be learned and to which strict attention must be paid.

Case in point - when I was first learning to knit, I didn't pay attention to the whole yarn in front or back of my needles. These mysterious extra stitches kept creeping into my swatch accompanied by random holes. I remember the Queen saying, "You did a yarn over." And I said, "What the hell is a yarn over? How did I do that?"

I finally understood the whole knit and purl thing and I could do yarn overs without a problem. But still, my knitting is slow going, especially when compared to the speed and consistent gauge of my crocheting.

The BUBBLES bubbles wrap tested my patience to its end. Not the most difficult pattern but not a beginner one either. I've knit and frogged and knit and frogged and frogged and swore and knit some more. But alas, it has sat untouched (except to dust around it) on my yarn cabinet since July. I was so frustrated, I had to pick up a hook to regain my sanity.

I did continue to knit but not with the gusto that I started. I did some dishcloths and a hat and then I ventured to knit a baby blanket. I started it in early October - though it feels as though I've been working on it so much longer than that. Without a pattern, I just cast on what looked like enough stitches and tried to make some kind of garter stitch border around my stockinette stitch blanket.

Three months later, it's still not done...though not for lack of trying.

Warning! I'm about to confess some incredible knitting ignorance here. Please, no laughing.

I noticed a few days ago that I had somehow slipped a stitch - or that's what I thought I had done. I tried my best to fix it by pulling up a stitch. But I really didn't know what I was doing. I thought it was because it was like 10 rows down that I couldn't get it. So I tried to just increase a stitch - with a yarn over. Yep - it was the only way I knew to increase a stitch. Needless to say, it didn't work. Not only did the new decorative hole in the fabric look wrong, the stitches and rows leading down to the slipped stitch were too funky looking to continue. I pulled out two of my reference knitting books to investigate how to properly pull up a slipped stitch. Why I didn't do this in the first place is a mystery to me.

I looked at the book. I looked at the blanket.

I looked at the book again. Then I looked at the blanket.

The blanket's issue looked nothing like the book and I couldn't find the loop to pick up and save.

Can you sense the frustration that was building up?


And so, the frogging began...


No worries! I didn't frog the whole thing. Did I think about it? Yes - but I didn't do it. I did have to pull out close to 17 rows and that alone was traumatic enough.

When I frogged row 16, I found out what the real problem was. Somehow, I had only knit into about 15 stitches of a row and stopped. Probably did this during a commute one day. Apparently when I picked it up to begin again, I proceeded to purl those 15 stitches back where I came from. And thus, the cause of my funky looking slipped stitch was found.

I was proud of myself for trouble shooting and frogging to fix the problem. I was proud of myself for getting all my stitches back on the circular needles. I was also proud of myself for reading more in my Maran's Illustrated and Stitch n' Bitch books to learn that there are other ways to increase than a yarn over.

See what you can learn if you just read the instructions??? I guess I should add to my crafty resolutions for 2009 - read and follow the instructions in my knitting instructional books.

Completed Project: Lace Dish Cloth

My first dish cloth - yay! I finished it last week.





During my camping trip last month, I started making Jessie's pot holders. Marian the Librarian's mom, grandma and aunt love to use knitted and crocheted dish towels so when they saw me crocheting, they wanted to know if I could make dish cloths. I said sure, though I hadn't made them before I thought I could figure it out. While they did want round ones, I'm not ready to use the DPNs to make them. So this one, one with a King Charles Brocade, and a plain stockinette stitch are what they will get.

Here are a couple of other photos so you can see the design.

Front


Back


As usual, all the details are on Ravelry. I don't see the sense in spending double the time to post here on the blog everything that is so conveniently listed under my projects in Ravelry. If you're not signed up for a free Ravelry account, what are you waiting for??? It's the most amazing database of everything you need to organize all your projects, find cool new projects, see photos of completed projects, and meet great people. Seriously - go sign up.

Because of the pattern, it's given me hope that I can once again pick up the BUBBLES bubbles wrap (that I haven't touched since July) and try again.

Back to the Familiar

Why so quiet on the blogging front?

To be honest, I've been frustrated with my latest project. The BUBBLES bubble wrap got the best of me - TWICE! After my flub up at the airport, I finally picked up the shawl again over the weekend. How proud I was of myself that I managed to rip out 4 or 5 rows and get all the stitches back on the needle and begin knitting away. My counts worked out - ending with the right amount of stitches. I patted myself on the back; even bragged to the Queen and Mistress of my success.

Then, during my ride to work on Tuesday morning, I got to the same row I had problems with the first time. And there was the problem AGAIN. Same location, same stitch, staring at me and yes, I may have heard some quiet laughter.

WTF???

I was so frustrated. I started ripping out the row then had to stop midway as the train was arriving at the station. While I managed to get what I think is all of the stitches onto the needles to avoid further damage and unraveling, I did not leave the project in good shape. Currently, the project is wadded up against the needles with the excess yarn wrapped around it and it's sitting on a shelf in the craft room.

What's a girl to do to relieve this frustration? (minds out of the gutter, please)

Start a new crocheting project.

Back to a tried and true method of craftiness. Back to the familiar feel of a hook in my hand and the speed and ease as stitches multiply effortlessly. Back to sanity and calmness and ease.

I found some neutral cotton yarn in my stash leftover from the eight pocket two-tone carryall I made. I'm well into making another fat bottom bag. My frustration level has dropped and the calmness has returned.

No worries - I'll go back to wrap at some point. I'm just not sure when. Right now I'm basking in the familiar fuzzy feelings of crochet.

New Project: BUBBLES bubbles Wrap

This project has been alluded to in a previous post, but here are the details (though also available on Ravelry)...

This is a pattern called "BUBBLES bubbles" by Carol H. Rhoades. It can be made into a scarf or a wrap, requiring 1 or 2 skeins of Brooks Farm Acero, respectively. The pattern was purchased at Brooks Farm during this year's MS&W, as well as two skeins of Acero for the wrap. The pattern calls for size 6 needles but I'm using size 7 because that's what I have right now. Bad me - I didn't bother to gauge my stitches. I hope that doesn't affect the final project.

My progress so far - I'm on the third repeat of the bubbles pattern:



And here is a close-up showing what the pattern looks like knitted. You can see why the pattern is called "BUBBLES bubbles". I hope this photo is helpful to other people making the wrap as there is not a photo included with the pattern.



The Mistress and I are both making the wrap so we're knitting together long-distance. I've been a bit distracted lately with another project so my progress overall is slow. I'm hoping to have it completed by the end of July - but that depends on whether or not I get bored with it and/or other projects get in the way.

I'm off on another business trip today. Sadly, no yarn stores are nearby. But do I really need more yarn???