Wedding Roses Filet Crochet Afghan, pictures available 2+ years later....

So I'm sure a lot of you were puzzling over the "Lauren Knits and Crochets" in this title since there isn't a whole lot about crocheting. Here's some crocheting!! Yay!

Once upon a time in 2007, I briefly mentioned this project, which was a 30th Wedding Anniversary/Christmas Present for my parents. I did (as you might be able to figure out) finish the afghan a few days before Christmas, but since that was in the days before I had a digital camera that didn't require 4 AAA batteries and was a pain to load pictures with, I never photographed it. Even after we bought our digital camera, I just kept forgetting to take pictures or ask my parents to take pictures for me. So when I was writing my 2010 Knitting Resolutions, I added photographing this afghan to the list in hopes that I would inspire myself to go photograph it.

Lo and behold, that day was today! And there was much rejoicing!

Some projects specs before I show the photos:

I got this pattern out of the American School of Needlework's The Great Big Crochet Afghan Book that I bought when it was clearanced at Annie's Attic. In the book, the suggested yarn was Red Heart Super Saver and the suggested hook size was a 4.5 G hook. I started this project by doing only one square to see how it looked and see if I could get a rough idea of how the pattern went before chaining on the amount of stitches that the pattern required to make the afghan. For my "swatch" I used Walmart Mainstays (anyone remember that yarn????) in a beige and a size G Boye hook which I believe was 4.0 instead of 4.5. The pattern worked well with the yarn and color, but the product was a little to scratchy. I also did not have enough skeins of the Mainstays, and Walmart had discontinued Mainstays. After going to look at the other inexpensive acrylics and acrylic blends, I decided on the Caron Simply Soft because I really liked the Autumn Red. My parents have beige couches and an Oriental area rug that has a similar shade of red as the main color in it, so this was a pretty perfect match.

I began working on this in April 2007 with the Caron Simply Soft and a 4.0 Boye hook again, but I just felt like using a hook that small would end up with a very tightly gauged afghan. I switched to a Bates 4.5 G hook, frogged again because it wasn't working out, and then finally decided on a Bates H hook and it worked much better. I finished the first row of panels with the H hook.

I put the project away for the summer months as it is very difficult to work on an afghan when it's upwards of 85 degrees and humid all the time. :) I pulled it back out in fall, and worked on it a little bit at a time, but only got halfway done before December due to being distracted by other projects and shiny things (ha!). In December, I set out to finish the afghan. I also was not sure what to do with the border. So I brought it to my knitting group and asked if anyone had any suggestions as to what I should do. Pretty much we thought that maybe I could extend the natural border, but then I ended up doing nothing at all.

So I finally finished up the last row of panels and then single crocheted one more row at the top.

All done!

2010 Knitting Resolutions

So, I think I've been struck with a bout of insomnia over the past few weeks. It really is starting to suck. However, last night while I was staying up too late for my own good, I came up with a list of ten "2010 knitting resolutions" that I posted on Ravelry in my "about me" section.

I figure this is another good place to post those 'resolutions' so that I can try and hold myself accountable for them. I listed 11, so we shall see how I do by the end of the year.

So here are my 2010 goals (again):

1. Reduce my stash and try not to buy more yarn unless there is a very specific project in mind for said yarn. My budget is really limited right now so that shouldn't be a problem. Also, according to my stash on ravelry, I have 236 stashed yarns. Um, yikes. I can't really imagine that I am going to need more for a while.

2. Knit at least 10 things from my queue since I have been adding stuff to my queue pretty much non stop since I joined Ravelry (in July 2007!) and I haven't knitted many things from my queue. Since the beginning of the year, I have deleted a few items that I either a- won't make, or b- what the heck was I thinking when I queued that anyway?? Of course, then I found more stuff to add....so I'm pretty much back up to 13 pages of queued stuff. Oh well. That should make it that much easier to find 10 things to knit then, right?

3. Learn Magic Loop because I really hate using DPNs and try to avoid using them at any cost. I also really hate switching needles when I am working on a project, for example hats. I also am not sure where some of my normal sized DPNs went and I don't really want to buy more (see limited budget), and also, a few weeks ago I got out my size 9 DPNs and now I'm missing one, thanks to a certain kitty. I am fairly certain this does not happen with Magic Loop.

4. Learn how to make socks (see aforementioned Magic Loop). Another thing with socks is that there are so many fun and cute sock patterns, socks are portable, and also, my feet are cold ALL THE TIME from about November until April. Also, I've already got some sock yarn: some Wonderfalls inspired sock yarn, some Barack Obama inspired sock yarn, and various KnitPicks sock yarn that helped qualify my orders for free shipping. And their Gelato color scheme, because it was super cute, available for a limited time only, and it's named Gelato, for pete's sake.

5. Do a lace project. Lace scarves are pretty sweet. I also have lace yarn, because I bought some before I really understood what yarn weights were....did you know that someone wrote a book called Charmed Knits (as in, Harry Potter)? And there's a pattern in there for an Invisibility Shawl? I want to make that!!

6. Knit a sweater. I love sweaters and I wear them all the time- from about November until April....first on my list is the February Lady Sweater. As luck would have it, February is coming up!

7. Work on a crochet project, in addition to knitting. I like crocheting, I'm just not very good at it. However, on my trip to Loop with the Emilys, you may remember that I bought a crochet hook. I do have a specific project in mind for that. :)

8. Update my knitting blog at least twice a month, or more if possible! In order to update a knitting blog, one must knit. I guess this is kind of a two-part resolution!

9. Knit/crochet a blanket for MYSELF. I've made a blanket for my parents, a blanket for my sister, and various baby blankets for people...and I have a knitted bedspread from a friend, and a crochet afghan from my aunt-in-law, as well as a really ugly, 1970s retro, scratchy-stands-on-its-own-acrylic afghan that is in Andy's trunk that my late Grandma made, which is pretty much the only reason I have it. But I don't have a blanket that I've made for ME. This may be the exception to the "knit from stash" rule, since I really want to make a pink and brown blanket and I don't have any pink and brown stash yarn that is in blanket quantity.

10. If I decide to knit any Christmas gifts, deciding this in October or November isn't usually a good plan. I never knit well under pressure.

11. Finally, and this should be easiest, take pictures of the Wedding Roses Filet Crochet afghan because I made it in 2007 and still have not taken pictures and posted them on Ravelry (even though I have a project page for it). It really was one of my favorite projects to make! This is on my to-do list for this week since my parents are out of town and I'm going to stop and check on their cats. Now, I just need to remember to bring my camera to said cat-sitting trip.- DONE!

Okay, so #11 is kind of a 'cheat' resolution, but I really need to remember to do that!

So hopefully, by December 31, 2010, I will have accomplished at least 6 of my goals, with any luck I will have accomplished all 11!

My latest adventure- the Washington Heights Hat!

Well, as you may remember from my last post, I was looking to make a hat as winter is upon us in full force here in Milwaukee. I had queued up a bunch of hats on Ravelry, but the one that I just kept coming back to was the Sutro Heights Hat. I felt that the simplicity of the pattern would work well with the yarn I had picked out- Lion Brand Wool-Ease in White/Multi (Sparkly!).

I began on the hat, cast on 85 stitches and began the ribbing. The pattern calls for a worsted weight wool yarn, and size 7 needles. Since the Wool-Ease is 80% acrylic, 20% wool, I knew the blocking was not going to be an option after the hat was finished, so I needed to make sure it fit. To be on the safe side, I went up a needle size, and used a 16" size 8 Harmony Wood Fixed Circular from KnitPicks. The ribbing was somewhat tedious, and I guessed when I got to about an inch.

Per the pattern, I knitted four repeats of the pattern, and began to decrease. All was good, until I got to the last two rows, and I realized I really should have used DPNs to decrease since the cable on the 16" is not long enough to fudge any sort of Magic Loop. It was somewhat of a disaster, but stubbornly, I finished off the last two rows, threaded my tapestry needle and finished up the hat.

I tried it on and immediately noticed a problem: It was too big to be considered a "beanie" and too small to be considered "slouchy." Crap. I looked on ravelry and google and found there's not a good way to "shrink" the Wool-Ease. I put on the hat anyway and mulled over what to do. Finally, I decided in the interest of being a slight perfectionist, that my only real option to avoid being annoyed for the rest of the winter was to rip out the hat so that I could remove some of the rows. I decided to rip back to row 3 of the fourth repeat. After I verified that all of the stitches had made it back on the needles, I doubled checked row #3, and skipped ahead to row #9 to begin the decrease. It seemed to be a better "beanie" size this time around, so I kept going. I finished row 15 in the pattern, and switched from my size 8 circular needle to size 7 DPNs to finish off the hat.

Success! I finished up the hat, wove in the ends and it was the perfect beanie size. Hooray! I now have a hat to wear, and it matches all three of my coats.

As for the name. In the pattern, it is noted that Sutro Heights Park is a park in San Francisco and that's what the hat is named after. Since I've never been to San Francisco, and this hat is to battle the cold cold un-ending Milwaukee winter, I thought it might be clever to name my hat after a Milwaukee neighborhood. I vetoed the Hampton Heights Hat, and named it the Franklin Heights Hat, but then decided on the Washington Heights Hat, named after one of my favorite Milwaukee neighborhoods.

And now, here's the required self-portrait of me with the hat.

I enjoyed this pattern a lot, and I may make it again. Probably not for myself, but possibly for a gift or if I really need another hat. Knowing Milwaukee winters- it's a definite possibility. This was also the first time I knitted from a chart, and I thought it was a lot easier than I expected it to be. I have filet crocheted from a chart before, so that helped. I think knitting this hat from a written pattern might have actually been more confusing, but the chart made it simple. Now, to get printer ink so that I can print out the pattern and keep it in my binder, rather than having to follow along on the computer screen....

Now, I'm trying to decide what my next project should be!