Crochet Tuesday

No, this isn't going to be another regular feature, it's just a Sunday Knitting post that's neither on Sunday nor about knitting.

I mentioned last time that I was going to crochet some more dishcloths, and now I have. (Please, try to contain your excitement.)

They are imperfect, to be sure, but I think they'll work. I used a free pattern called Nubbie Scrubbies, which is a very easy pattern of alternated triple and single crochet that makes cute little bobbles. I did manage to accidentally make one of them a little smaller by not chaining enough stitches to begin with. Again, I'm pretty sure it will still work.

Working on these hurt my hands, especially my thumb. I don't know if that's because I'm new to crochet and using different muscles, or if it's because of the kitchen cotton. I know that sometimes knitting with this yarn also makes my hands hurt.

This was a fun project to take on the bus to give me something to do with my hands while listening to podcasts. These dishcloths and Serial will probably be forever intertwined in my head.

Sunday Knitting

Back in early 2009 I received a very pretty set of crocheted dish cloths from my friend, which I posted about here. Here they are again, in case you don't want to click through:

It's just about 6 years later and these guys have seen a lot of dishes. They're all starting to get holes in them so I know it's just a matter of time before I need to replace them.

I happen to have a decent amount of cotton yarn hanging about so I decided to knit a simple dishcloth, which I did a couple of months ago. Then I totally stalled before managing to do the crochet border. So a week or so ago I thought, you know what? It's about time I learned to actually crochet. None of this half-assed business of barely managing to do a shitty-looking border on a knitted thing, I'm going to learn to crochet an actual thing.

I finished the border and then made a single-crochet swatch for practice that happens to be the right size for a dish cloth. Here they are together:

Ok, so I inadvertently decreased a few rows into the yellow crocheted one, but I'm pretty sure it will still wash dishes adequately. My plan was to whip up a few so I'd have a whole bunch to show you. But strangely, just as knitted things won't knit themselves, it seems that crocheted things won't crochet themselves either. One of these days I'm hoping to find some simple-but-varied patterns and make some more.

Then I plan to get really good at it, maybe as good as my coworker who whips up all kinds of fun and fantastical things in no time at all and who, one of these days, I fully expect will crochet a working TARDIS on her lunch break. I suppose it's unlikely I will ever approach her talent, but I hope to at least be able to make an afghan or some amigurumi animals.

More Christmas Goodies

On New Year's Eve I exchanged gifts with The Cable Girl, who gave me some fantastic and fun gifts as always, including these colorful crocheted vessels in which to put stuff. Yay!


The tall one is for knitting needles, and the other ones are three nested bowls. Here they are un-nested:


I am a fan of cute things in which I can put crap so the clutter looks less untidy, so these will be very useful! Thanks so much, Cable Girl!

In all of my holiday excitement and New Year's Eve party preparations, I forgot to take pictures of the gifts I made for her, but she has posted them so go take a look. I sewed her a bag, made stitch markers out of polymer clay, and also a couple of polymer clay Christmas ornaments.

What a fun and crafty way to end 2009!

Butterflies

Have I mentioned that I can't crochet to save my life? Well my sister can, and she just mailed me this gorgeous afghan as a belated housewarming gift. It is stunning, no? The multitude of bright colors look great in every obnoxiously-painted room of this wacky house.

I once knit a small baby blanket for somebody, in a simple lace pattern of all one color. It was a fraction of the size of this afghan and it was enough to swear me off afghan-knitting forever. I think if I had the fortitude to make something of this size and complexity, I wouldn't give it to anyone. It would have to be ripped from my cold dead hands, as they say. I'm looking forward to spending my winter hibernating under this afghan with some hot chocolate, my cat, and a few good books.