Knitting with my Grammie

   For my long holiday weekend I have not sat in my big comfy chair in the nice air conditioned house. No, I spent most of Saturday working in the yard and cleaning up the house. House cleaning has played less of part in my day today, but has still been a necessary evil as I am expecting a bit of company tomorrow. I wish I could say that I've been working on beautiful and exciting projects in the minutes I've stolen away for crafting. But, sadly, that wouldn't be true.
   I'm still plugging away at the Magical Waves stole. I'm about a quarter of the way through section four. My deadline for getting it done is a wedding on the 20th of August. So I'm dawdling a little now that I've got the pattern all straightened out. I did wear it to a wedding on the 18th of June even though the fourth section was not attached yet. No one knew the difference except for me.
   In between working on the stole I've been making dish cloths and kitchen towels. They're quick and easy and I can practically do the dish cloths in my sleep. I always think of my Grammie when I make dish cloths and towels. The pattern I use for both is the one my Grammie used. Unfortunately my Gram died before I started knitting, but I have a lovely collection of her hand made dish cloths and towels that she gave me when I got married. I extrapolated the patterns from what she had given me. It's a wonderfully cozy feeling of carrying on a family tradition of making things that are both pretty and useful for ourselves and for others. I get the feeling of still being able to sit and work with my grandmother even though she is no longer with me.
   I hope everyone out there is having a safe and wonderful long weekend!

Movin' on

   I have been absent I admit. But I have a good reason I promise! We have finally finished moving into our new house. We got the last of the boxes sorted and emptied this afternoon. I even have a lovely little nook next to my beloved fluffy chair that my work bag fits into quite nicely.
   That's enough about moving. I wore my Magical Waves stole last weekend even though it wasn't quite finished. I got some rave reviews, and no one had any idea the fits it gave me. I do still have to finish and attach the 4th section. However, I have a couple of months before the next wedding. I think I can manage to get the whole thing done in time. I'm even thinking of casting on a dishcloth just to give myself a break. Unfortunately dishcloths are very exciting to blog about. I'm going to go back to the mystery shawl as soon as we get a bit more settled & I'm not too pooped to think at night.
   The blog should resume a more regular publication schedule now that everything is a bit more settled. Good night all.

Getting Attatched

   I have finished section three of my Magical Waves stole. And as I began to attach it to section one, lo and behold, a new and exciting pattern error! This one is not nearly as bad as the error in section one. The pattern for section three has one too many repeats in it. Just do 29 repeats where the pattern calls for 30 and it should be fine. It is pretty easy to correct for the section one error when joining one and three together. All I did was add a dc to the dtr joins on the joining strip. So the pattern as I have adjusted it would read like this:


Joining Strip
Row 9: Dc in each of next 4 dc; ch 2, yo once insert hook in next free arch of section one yo and pull up a loop; yo and pull through 2 loops on hook, yo 3 times draw up loop through dc join; yo, pull through 2 loops on hook 3 times; yo,  pull through 3 remaining loops; ch 2, turn.

Row 11: Dc in each of next 4 dc; ch 2, yo 3 times pull up loop through same dc join as row 9; yo, pull through 2 loops on hook 3; yo, insert hook in next free arch on section one; yo, pull up a loop; yo, pull through 2 loops; yo, pull through 3 remaining loops.
  Other wise I have just worked the joining strip as written and it is fine. hopefully this will be my last pattern correction masquerading as a blog post. You may be thinking, "What kind of lunatic spends time crocheting and blogging about crocheting a week before they move?" The answer is: this kind of lunatic. I hope where ever you are it's not as hot as it is here!

As Promised

I'm a few days later than I meant to be, but here are the Magical Waves Stole pics that I promised.

 This is section one completed starting section. Right after I landed on a solution to the pattern problem.

 And voi la! Sections one and two complete with filler clusters.

 And here's a close up of the filler clusters.

And so far I haven't had any problems with section three. I'm about half way done with it right now. And I need to get back to work on it, because I need to have it done on about 2 weeks! Hope y'all enjoyed the pics!

Busy Busy Busy

   So, Mother's Day, three days out of town to visit family, hubby out of town for a week. All of these things make finding time to work on projects challenging enough, never mind finding time to blog about it. I'm sure everyone out there will be happy to know that my fix for the pattern error in my shawl has worked wonderfully and you can't tell that there was a pattern error. Unless you ask me about the shawl and I complain about it some more. :-) I am hoping to get some pictures posted this weekend, but I'm not making any promises. I've also embarked upon my first KAL. I'm doing the summer mystery shawl by Wendy Johnson. Anyone who is interested can check it out on her blog here. I also have to warn everyone out there in the blogosphere that the entries will probably remain a bit sporadic for a few more weeks as out little family is moving to a new little house with an enormous yard for the kids. The packing and getting new internet services set up may make posting a little sketchy until the end of June. But I'll do my best! As it is quite late here and I'm getting sleepy, so I shall bit you good night and wish you sweet, fiber crafty dreams.

Shock and Dismay

   So, it would seem that they publishers of Crochet Master Class did not test the patterns before they published the book. There is a major error in the pattern so that part 1 doesn't match up with part 2. I was very disappointed when I discovered this Monday night. After some scowling at the pattern and the work I had already done, I decided how I was going to fix it. I'm about a fifth of the way through the second section now, and I think my fix is going to work out so that the pattern error will only be noticeable to me.
   This is the first pattern that I have ever worked from a book that has had this kind of error in it. I guess I just assumed that all patterns were tested according to the written instructions before they were published. I've learned my lesson. I'll be sure to check Ravelry from now on to see if anyone has run into any errors in a pattern before I launch into it. Fortunately it was a crochet project not a knitting project. I feeling pretty confident fixing things on the fly with crochet. If it had been a knitting pattern I would have been very tempted to cry and rip the whole thing out and start over.
    I have to go for now, as there is a three year old determined to sit on my lap while I try to type. Happy crafting!

Mother's Day

   Honestly motherhood is the primary reason why I don't get nearly as much crafting done as I would like. But that's quite alright. I wouldn't trade may two little guys for all the knitting time in the world! And my wonderful spouse has been out of town for work three of the past four weeks. This has also been somewhat detrimental to blogging and anything else that isn't feeding, cleaning, or entertaining two little boys.
   On to the crafting portion of our program today. I am finished with the first section of my shawl! As soon as I'm done writing here I will be embarking on the second section. I am very much into this project now. I love it! The colors are working out just splendidly! I must gush again about how much a new crochet technique has re-invigorated my love of this craft. This new spark in my long love affair with crochet has not impeded my plans for knitting some stuffed animals for Christmas gifts as soon as the shawl is finished. I will try to get my act together and take some pictures of my shawl in progress this coming week. Happy Mother's Day everyone!