a WIP photo

What’s in my knitting bag?
Oh, there’s usually no such thing! My projects are lying around half-frogged (as I stick to trial and error type of knitting). I always forget to photograph them, not even as FOs. Well, not this time!
This time I’m going to knit properly: following a pattern, announcing a WIP and… hopefully showing a FO after some time.
I’ve already started. I also hope to knit on a plane.
Airlines do not mind circular bamboo needles, do they?

Jared the cat

Here’s Jared. He’s currently staying with his dear uncle Bernard.
Jared is difficult to catch for a photo shoot, as his days are full of various activities. I managed to take a picture from above while he was on his way to yoga class.

?-itis

Christmas ornaments in May?
It seemed to be an okay idea for a single sock. Because, you know, I don’t think I can make the second one of anything. But the idea to try knitting a toe-up sock had been haunting me for a while.

I suffer from some unnamed condition : being unable to take pictures at all. As if I can’t remember why, what’s the point. I should probably find the name for it, because it’s chronic. Something-itis, probably. Any ideas?

So this is my 2-step program to get better: make something new (the sock) and take a picture of it to break the spell. Two birds with one stone.

I hope it works, because I’d like to show you Bernard’s nephew in my next post.

A rope basket again: crochet and knitting combined

I already showed you a sturdy rope basket I crocheted.
This time I was going to use the rest of that rope to make another container.

I started with crochet to make the solid bottom of my future basket, working in spirals with single crochet stitches. Then I picked up loops for the knitted part. Well, I must say that knitting with a not-too-flexible rope is not easy.

This photo explanation might be somehow useful, I hope. I can’t stand the idea that my blog is utterly useless :)

Kusudama

Last year I made several kusudamas.
This one is my favorite, I will probably make it once again (with better paper). It’s Cherry Blossom ball by Tomoko Fuse.
As video tutorials are usually too long and boring, I’d like to save the link for a Cherry Blossom diagram.

Yarn planet

Sometimes yarn looks so much better in skeins than in a finished product.
Well, in my case that’s probably due to a poorly chosen pattern.
There was a scarf made with variegated yarn, and it was mostly sitting on a shelf. So I frogged the scarf and tried to crochet what was supposed to be a funky striped beanie. It didn’t work, and after another session of frogging I have this ball.
Maybe I should consider it a finished object.

Bernard’s new business venture

Bernard has ventured into the world of start-ups. He thinks so, anyhow.

I told him that hatching an egg in some sort of an incubator and trying to sell the chicken wouldn’t make it a business incubator (e.g. like those).

He wouldn’t listen to me.

I think I will have to keep him away from my car for now. Just in case he might also look into the idea of a start-up accelerator.

another sign of spring

My son thinks this is the most important sign of spring

A chicken and crocheting with left hand

I was crocheting a chicken, and it occurred to me that the best way to make two symmetrical wings was to create each one with a different hand. Did I tell you that I enjoy coming up with ideas and, especially, reinventing the wheel?

I tried to crochet with my left hand (which is non-dominant). It was… entertaining. I’d highly recommend doing this before you try to teach kids: I understood deeply that nothing in crochet was natural or obvious.
As I am far from ambidextrous, it took me ages to complete teeny-tiny little piece.

I also attempted to write down the pattern, but my newly acquired ability to follow a doily pattern was clearly not enough. I didn’t know the name for the simplest stitch (“single crochet decrease”, after some guessing and googling). And I have yet to find the names for several joining stitches – so boring! I just “invented” them back when I was a kid, never bothered with names. Anyway, there are probably hundreds of crochet chicken patterns, who needs another one, right?

tulip 2.0

This tulip photo is optimistic about spring.
(On with my flower photo challenge)