Pattern Tester looking for work!

My family needs some income and I'd love to help pattern designers.

I have been knitting and crocheting for about 5 years. I'm not an expert, but I've yet to find a pattern I was unable to follow with a little extra concentration. I have not yet tried Fair Isle knitting, but I would welcome the challenge.

My stitches are on the tight side, but not horribly so.

I have 30 hours per week with which to knit/crochet.

I am able to digitally photograph projects and post them on the internet for your viewing. I can, of course, email the photos, if that is more convenient for you.

WIP: bathmat (gift)

This will be gifted with the dishcloth set I made.

I couldn't find a bathmat pattern that wasn't in the shape of something silly. I came across an article about the absorbancy, durability, etc of various cotton yarns and stitch patterns. Using the information in this article (namely, the section titled "Stitch Matters"), I decided to use the "Back Loop Stitch Washcloth" pattern as a base for the bathmat.

I decided that I would make six washcloths (three of each color) and join them to make a rectangle.



However, I have run out of the blue yarn. I'm planning to go back to the store ASAP and see if I can get more of the same dye lot. If not, I'm going to use the natural color cotton yarn I have instead of the blue.

EDIT: I've decided to just use the natural color yarn. It's the same brand as the red (the blue is not), I already have one square made, and it will probably be easier to match her bathroom if it's only got one real color in it.

WIP: Cold Shoulders Capelet

I recently purchased the "Happy Hooker" book. This capelet is one of the patterns. It calls for mohair yarn, bun I have been wanting a shawl/stole/shrug/capelet-type thing made from some black fun fur I had in my stash.

It's difficult to crochet with because I can't see the stitches. So, I'm cheating a bit. When I was crocheting into the chain, I only caught one loop. When I crochet into stitches, I am crocheting into the space between the stitches.

WIP: Stroller Afghan (gift)

I found out a friend of mine and his wife are having a baby in October. So, I started this Stroller Afghan. The pattern is out of the "Happy Hooker" book.

I have modified the pattern slightly to fit my yarn supply. The pattern calls for three colors. I'm only using two. To make up for this missing color, I'm crocheting twice as many rows in white as I am in green. This will allow me to use more white yarn than green. The white yarn I have is slightly better quality and I have far more of it.

Current Projects

I'm still working on the the scallop scarf. Last night, it was a bit chilly in the house so I was wearing the scarf and knitting on it at the same time. I was terribly amused. :)

The scallop scarf is 65+ inches long. The pattern said to go to 59 inches, but I was so close to the end of the skein, and longer scarfs are better, I just kept going. Now, to figure out how to "bind off"....

I'm expecting two knitting books and a crochet book in the mail. Ordered them from amazon.com. One is "Stitch and Bitch", one is called something like "When bad things happen to good knitters: an emergency guide", and the other is a crochet book.

I'm planning to start the purple, boucle scarf soon. I started it a couple times last night, but kept making mistakes. With that yarn, it's impossible for me to identify the stitches. So, I think the pattern was too complicated for that type of yarn (since you wouldn't see any of the fancy/interesting stitches).

Instead, I may just do a garter stitch scarf with the boucle. I'm going to try a k2p2, p2k2 before I resort to garter stitch though.

Yesterday, I bought yarn for bathmats and dishcloths. Gonna make a bathmat as a gift (red and denim). And another for us (red and natural). Brian seemed like he wanted to keep some of the dishcloths I made as a gift, so I figured I'd make some dishcloths for us, too.

Progress on Octopus

Most of the body is made. I need to go buy stuffing before I can finish that part.

Six of the tentacles are complete. I need to make two more. I expect to finish them up later today.

Then I need to get the stuffing, finish the body, stuff the tentacles, attach the tentacles, and add some eyes.

Podcasts!

I'm an avid podcast listener. I started by listening to Rachel Maddow and then included NPR. Lately, I've started listening to podcasts about yarn, knitting, and yarn projects. I started with YarnCraft (the Lion Brand podcast) because it was the first one I had heard about.

In one of their episodes, they talked about related podcasts that their listeners had mentioned during a poll they had done. So, that led me to downloading about half a dozen shows.

Yesterday, I listened to the first show or two of each of these while I drove to school, walked to class, and sat around waiting for a class to start. My favorite so far: Stash and Burn.

Stash and Burn is almost a support group for dealing with your stash. It's two woman talking about trips to yarn shows, "yarn crawls" (like a pub-crawl but to yarn shops), the projects they are working on, their UFOs, their destashing efforts, etc. They are very amusing to listen to.

Another I liked was Lime and Violet, but it didn't seem as good as I'd been led to believe it would be. Maybe because it was the first episode. Perhaps it gets better as they get more practice podcasting.

There was another that annoyed me while I was listening, but I've come away with some interesting images in my head. So, I'll have to listen to that one a few more times. What was annoying was that the woman that did most of the speaking had an annoying voice and sounded like a pushy sort of over-friendly type person. While the quiet woman had a voice I could listen to for weeks and not get tired of hearing it.

I'll do an update to my podcast preferences after I've had more time to listen to them.

One thing I've found is that there is brand new slang to learn! Which is exciting for me because I'm such a word lover. My next post will be a dictionary.

Goals and Resolutions

I learned to crochet a couple years ago (Christmas of 2005). My mom taught me. Recently, I've been crocheting a lot and I realised that my crocheting projects are going the same route as all my other craft projects: I start a project, then set it aside and start a new one.

Enter Resolution #1: finish your projects!

That's easier said than done, so I've started this blog in hopes that it helps me see what I've got going and encourages me to finish what is started. How else can I expect to get that feeling of accomplishment? :)

I then started thinking about past projects and found that it was getting hard to remember them all. So, I want to start taking pictures of my completed projects and post them on my website. But I don't have time to update my website as often as I plan to finish projects, so I started this blog to help with:

Resolution #2: keep track of what you've finished!

and

Resolution #3: keep photo records of the progress made on current projects!

I figure Resolution #3 will help keep me motivated to finish something. Seeing a project grow in the weekly pictures should help. When the project is in your lap and it seems like you've been doing the same set of stitches for an eternity, it's difficult to see how much you are accomplishing. Hopefully the weekly photos will help me see my progress and keep me excited about each project.

Soon I will post pics of my past projects.

Current Projects

Crochet:
- baby blanket (started spring of 2007)
- sweater-like poncho (started spring of 2007) I think I need to start over. The yarn is broken even before I've used it....

Cross-stitch:
- a large tiger in a jungle (started in fall of 2001)
- a Chinese Character (started in fall of 2001)

Knit:
- a scarf <-- many errors, should probably start over (started in spring of 2006??)

Why Start This Blog?

Hello, there! :)

FAQ1: Why are you starting this blog?
A: To keep track of the crochet projects I do this year. I want to keep records about what I'm working on, how my progress is. I plan to post pictures of my projects about once a week.

FAQ2: How often will you post?
A: I'd like to post once per day, but with schoolwork and housework interfering, I will probably only get time to post a couple times a week.

FAQ3: Why an online blog and not a notebook or journal?
A: I don't want to carry another item around with me. I currently carry my school bag (with laptop), all the stuff from my purse, a Nalgene bottle of water, and a crochet project. However, I have internet everywhere I go thanks to the laptop and my iPhone. So, it will be easy for me to post online and difficult for me to write in a journal. Also, I have a bad hand that makes it much easier to type than to write.

I guess that's enough for now. I plan to post again tonight with a list of my projects. This means I'll have to dig through my supplies and find them all. I'm sure I've completely forgotten about a few.

Cheers!