The Decorator Crab

Drive-by blogging

So little time right now.  So. Little. Time.  Trying to finish a Ph.D. in science and make the transition into future projects that will keep the research momentum going is completely exhausting. And completely inconducive to blogging, and crafting in general, actually.  I give you all that I've got.

18 blocks. 

Also, remember this? 

This UFO has been languishing in the pile since August, but the urge to finish it has struck. It must be the seeming endlessness of the hexagon blanket that is giving me the craving to finish something.  If only I can find the time...

Multitasking is the new black

Not much progress on this:
because I have been doing this:

this:

and this:


Sorry for the dark photos - it's been wet and rainy around here lately (and I love it!).

The hex blanket has "grown" to 13 hexagons. I have missed working on it, despite how much fun I've been having with the drop spindle.

I have produced my first three mini-skeins of yarn! They are far from perfect, but I am learning and getting better with every hour at the spindle. Our instructor left us with two more drop spindles and nine samples of various fibers.  They include silk, soy silk, cashmere, alpaca, corridale, merino/silk blend, merino/tencel blend, Rambouillet/angora blend, and Merino a la Margaret Stove.  That ought to keep me busy!

On Saturday I painted and organized the craft room.  Do not adjust your monitor - I did use a bright color! My craft room is decorated with Mexican Folk Art (Dia de los Muertos, Oaxacan figurines, nichos, etc.), so I took license to get a little Fiesta with the color.  I'm sure it's not to all of your tastes, but I think it's really fun and it makes me smile when I go in there.  I still need to hang my peg board and my storage box, but I'm almost finished with the room.  I'll consider it "Mission Accomplished."

My husband is home after being out of town for a week, so I am going to leave it at that.  More soon.

In which she peeks her head out from behind the boxes

Greetings all, from the glorious state of Oregon!  We are still settling into the new house, but the dust has cleared and I have a few moments to get back to the ol' blog.  Anyone still out there?!

Blog-worthy creative progress is minimal, which is another reason that I haven't been back to the blog since we've been here.

The Hexagon Blanket has an embarrassing, measly 8 (8!!) blocks so far.  I started and then abandoned the first set of blocks, so my actual progress doesn't fairly reflect the amount of time that I've put into the blanket. So it goes here at Chez Crabby!!  Onward!

In between crocheting hexagons, I was drawn back to the needles by a simple project with gorgeous yarn - the Noro Scarf.  I found some Silk Garden Lite while we were at the coast last weekend, and I cast on that same night.  I'm doing seed stitch instead of K1P1 ribbing, and I love how the texture and colors are coming together.  The striping isn't as crisp as in Jared's version, but I'm digging it just the same.  I grabbed the last three balls of SGL that the store had, and will likely need a fourth ball.  I'll cross that bridge...yadayada.

And that's all the progress that I have to show for a month of absence. It's a sad state of affairs indeed. Sorry friends - my creative mojo sucks lately.   I'll post some photos of the new house once we get some decent color on the walls and the rest of the furniture arrives (squee!!). 

Johnny says, "I like sitting in the sun at the front door! Also, is that door really purple?"  Yes. Yes it is. Welcome home, pup.

A little short on content

Well.  All of the yarn is here, and I think that I have a final color palette for the blanket.  Many thanks to everyone who left comments on the last post!! 

The major changes in the organization of the color groups are:

1. Instead of the same three "dark brown" skeins, I now have three different dark browns.

2. The "tans" got a bit lighter, and I removed a color that I really didn't like.

3. I added a very light purple, and removed the darkest one.

4. I added a fun, aqua-green, and removed a dark green.

5. I added a bright blue, and removed a navy blue.

I was really motivated to lighten up the color palette a little bit. I got some good advice about not getting too many dark colors next to each other, so I'll be careful about that as I continue to make hexagons. I still haven't decided about the yellow - I may throw it in a few times just for fun.  Or maybe not.

I've made six hexagons so far, but I used some of the colors that I've now eliminated.  I also bought a 3.5mm hook that I am going to switch to, so I'll have to start over.  Sad, but for the best in the long run.

Here are the colors all together:

Here are the colors that didn't make the final cut:

It's funny how it all worked out.  I really like some colors that I ultimately rejected, and I dislike some of the colors that are still included.  I'm still an apprehensive color mixer, but I'm trying to go with the flow on this one and have some fun. 

We are moving from Washington to Oregon next Tuesday, so my spare time will be limited in the next couple of weeks.  I apologize in advance for what will likely be some spotty posting and lack of visible progress.  Rest assured though - I am super stoked on this project and will be highly motivated to get to it as often as I can!  Just bear with me for a little while...

Finally, it begins.

I literally shed a few tears when the UPS van drove by the house without stopping again yesterday.  It was just icing on the cake after a rough couple of days in and out of the dentist's chair. But, good news today!  The package from The-Yarnshop-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named arrived from Massa-friggin-chusetts!  YESYESYES!!  I actually ordered just a few more balls from Jimmy Beans Wool yesterday, since I had a coupon for free shipping and the Jaeger Matchmaker & Baby Merino DK are now down to $3.50/ball.  Two brown/tans, a green, a blue, and another "white/creme" are coming.  Don't know if they will make it into the mix, but the "rejects" will be used for something eventually. 

Anyway...now I have a decision to make and I wanted a little feedback from this here blog (that means you, too, lurkers!).  I have two options for my "white/creme" bunch, and the question is:

To Yellow, or Not To Yellow?  We have:

OR

The shade of yellow is not my favorite, and I worry that the color scheme will totally devolve into ROYGBIV if I include yellow.  Is it out of place, or is it my color inhibition (*wink* to Julia!) getting in the way??

The cakes of yarn are the Rowan Pure Wool DK, and though I haven't swatched with it yet, it does feel a tiny bit softer than the Matchmaker.  I'll give you the full report once I actually crochet with it.

So, that's about it.  I put up photos of the individual color groups here.  Feedback on the color groups is always appreciated (ie. ditch that one, find another one, etc.)! 

Enjoy the weekend all.  We will be doing a lot of packing for the upcoming move here at Chez Crabby. Oh joy!

*Sigh*

I swear, I am having the worst kind of luck with shipping lately!  It is so frustrating, and makes for very boring blog material.  I swear - I'm not usually such a pathetic whiner in real life (or am I?!).

Maybe my experience lately is made more acute by the strong contrasts in the two companies that I've ordered yarn from for the Hexagon Blanket. I started out at Jimmy Beans Wool, where I ordered something like 18 balls of Jaeger Matchmaker. I placed the order on a Tuesday, mid-morning.  In the afternoon I got a call from a very nice lady at JBW (regretfully don't remember her name) to let me know that one of the colors that I wanted was out of stock.  While she had me on the phone, she wandered around the shop (or inventory, or whatever) searching for substitute yarns and colors. As she made suggestions, I was on their web site checking out what she was coming up with.  We agreed to try a lime-green shade of Rowan Wool Cotton, which she gave me at no extra cost (it was twice as much as the Jaeger).  She shipped out the box THAT DAY, and it arrived on my doorstep on Thursday.  Fantastic service!  Free shipping, and it was super-fast!  Even their regular shipping charge is only $4!  While some of the colors were not what I expected, and the Wool Cotton isn't going to work out, I accept that risk as a part of ordering yarn online.  There is no substitute for going to the shop and picking it out in person. Anyway, Jimmy Beans Wool = Fantastico!

Since I needed a few more colors and had thoroughly picked over the Jimmy Beans site, I Googled for the Matchmaker and for Rowan Pure Wool DK, which is another good yarn for the project.  I landed at The Knitting Garden, where the Matchmaker was on sale (score!) and the Pure Wool was not (fine - I'll still take it).  I placed an order for 3 balls of Matchmaker and 5 balls of Pure Wool on Monday (but admittedly after hours on the east coast).  I expected to get a notice about the shipment in the next day or two, since it says on the KG home page that "All in stock merchandise shipped within 24 - 48hrs."  On MONDAY (that's four business days later, and all weekend spent wondering) I got an email from The Knitting Garden informing me that two of the three balls of Matchmaker were out of stock, but that the order had shipped via UPS on Friday.  No phone call about possible substitutes. No tracking number for the shipment. I emailed back and courteously asked about a tracking number (since the package was coming all the way from Massachusetts and I wanted to stalk it across the country).  I still haven't heard back, so I guess that the answer is "No tracking number for you!"  I keep hoping that the UPS man will drop off the package, but he rolled on by the house today without so much as letting off of the gas pedal.  Hmphf.  [BTW - one of the colors (865) is still available on the web site - go order it just for fun and tell me what happens!].

Maybe I have become too spoiled by some online companies, but there are certain things that I expect from any good Internet-based company:

1. Tracking information for shipments, whether they are UPS, FedEx, USPS, or ShipYourShit.com.  I want to know where my yarn is, and I want to know NOW.

2. I'd really like to be able to log into my account on the company's web page, and track the status of my order.  Has it shipped?  How many balls did I order again?  After I placed my order at KG and waited so many days to hear back, I was really wondering WTF?!

3. If something is out of stock, I expect an email or phone call to see if I would like to purchase something else. That is why I filled in my phone number on the ordering page, right?  Give me an option, any option, when my order won't be fulfilled as expected. What if my order had been useless without those two balls of yarn?  Since KG informed me of the situation AFTER the order had shipped, I couldn't have done anything except ship it back after the fact, probably at my own expense.  Again, WTF?!

Now, I'm not trying to rip the Knitting Garden a new one or anything, but they've got some serious room for improvement.  Who wants to wait almost two weeks for yarn?!  The stuff I got on eBay from Newcastle, UK got here faster than that!  I just want to start crocheting, dammit! 

This whole thing is almost enough to get me into my car, into the Seattle traffic, and down to the multitude of local shops where I could have probably found what I needed.  The horror...the horror...  Okay - End Of Rant.

<<deep breaths>>

On the bright side, the book with the pattern did arrive while we were backpacking this weekend!

YAY!  There is one photo of the blanket inside (wish there were more), and the pattern is neatly and concisely laid out on a single page. I was able to figure out the pattern from the diagram without any problems, but thank god for Alex's tutorial on how to join the hexagons.  That will come in very handy when the rest of my yarn finally gets here. 

I crocheted hexagons in each of my hook sizes (sorry for the night-time photo):

It's amazing the difference that one millimeter can make in the size of a hexagon!  That's 5mm on the left, 4mm on the right. The larger hexagon feels loftier and softer to the touch, but the smaller one was less fiddly to work and the stitches are more even. I think I'll go with the 4mm hook. Still not sure about all of the colors, but I will trust Alex when she says that colors that you don't like won't be noticeable among so many that you do like.  Okay - off to work a few more hexas!

For the love of swatching

When my yarn arrived last week, I was decidedly nonplussed.  The colors were....meh.  The texture was...meh.  The Babette square that I made as a swatch was wonky, and I kept on having problems with splitting between the plies.  I began to worry.  Had I been in such a rush to start this project that I bought yarn that wasn't suited for it?  Had I wasted my yarn budget on crap? 

To be honest, my fear was that my motivation to save a few dollars had backfired, and that I would end up having to order "better" yarn anyway, while not being able to return the yarn that I had bought on sale.  I worried that I had been cheap to a fault.  I decided that what I really needed to do was make a decent double-crochet swatch with the yarn, as well as swatches with a few others.  I ran to some local shops to buy different brands and types of yarn, both less and more expensive than the Jaeger Matchmaker. 

I swatched with Brown Sheep's Lamb's Pride Worsted, Heirloom Easy Care 8-Ply, Louisa Harding Kashmir Aran, and RYC Cashsoft Baby DK. The Lamb's Pride, Easy Care, and Kashmir were chosen because they had a different texture or build than the Matchmaker. The Lamb's Pride (LP) is single-ply (which I love working with for it's simplicity and texture), but it's not superwash (machine washable). For that reason alone I knew that I wouldn't make the blanket out of LP, but I wanted to swatch with it anyway (I'm the boss of me, dammit!). The Easy Care (EC) has a weird (in a good way) "cable spin" that produces its interesting texture, and also makes the plies all nice and stuck-together-like. After my troubles with the Matchmaker, I wanted to try yarns that didn't split as easily. Enter the EC.  I bought the Kashmir for its chain construction, which I also figured would be easier to work with than splitty plies.  It also has cashmere in it, and is super soft and squishy. The Kashmir also fell into the "more expensive" category that I wanted to delve into a little bit.  Also in that category is the Cashsoft, a wonderfully soft yarn with some beautiful colors available.

Here is the lot of the yarn, plus my swatches:

I swatched with one hook size (5mm) for the Lamb's Pride (orange) and Kashmir (green), but used two hook sizes (4 & 5mm) for the Cashsoft (beige), Easy Care (yellow), and Matchmaker (cream). I haven't swatched with the Emu (dark brown) because it just arrived from England today. 

So, what did I think of the yarn selection?  Wow - it was quite a learning experience.  My feeling that the single-ply, chained, and cable-plied yarns would be easy to work with was justified.  They sailed through the hook(s) very easily, except the Lamb's Pride, which kind of got hung up on my wedding rings a little. The Kashmir and Cashsoft both had that cashmere softness that is so tempting. The Easy Care was easy indeed, but the swatch was not as soft as I had hoped, and I also didn't like the texture of the swatch as much as I thought that I would.

Finally, the Matchmaker swatch was...wonderful!!  It turns out that swatching with a Babette square was just a bad idea, and I should have done a double-chain swatch in the first place.  I didn't have trouble with splitting, and the yarn was fine to work with.  Now that the balls have been out of the box and sitting on my craft table for a few days, they have fluffed up and the colors have grown on me.  I will definitely be replacing a few skeins (bluer blues, better light browns and a green), but I am very pleased with the selection as a whole.  The yarn is softer than I had thought at first, and I don't think that it would be worth spending the extra green on an entirely Kashmir or Cashsoft blanket.  I still can't decide if I like the look and feel of the 4mm or 5mm part of the swatch better, but there is time to figure that out later.

I am beyond stoked that my initial impressions of the yarn were wrong, and can not wait to begin crocheting the 100+ hexagons for the blanket.  I'm still waiting (not so patiently now!) for the book with the pattern, and for a few more balls of yarn, to arrive. 

BTW - individual photos of the balls can be found at my Flickr page or my Ravelry Stash page (if you're a beta member).  Photos of the swatches (in all of their unblocked glory) can be found on Flickr.

Just real quicklike...

The yarn is here!  My first impression?  Mixed.  They are not all my favorite color, of course, but the lot of them seem to mix together pretty well. I'm going to have to look at them and photograph them for the next day or two, and then I'll have a more well-informed opinion.  But!  The yarn is here!! 

Due any day from YesAsia.com is the book with the pattern, and before that, the four balls from England.  Yippee!!

Photos and more deets soon....   

On to the next thing...

As the Larger Than Life Bag languishes in the stages of finishing, I am already deep into the planning of my next project, the Hexagon Granny Blanket.  I don't have a photo to insert here, but you can check out my inspiration over at Moonstitches - her hexagon granny is simply amazing.  The pattern was hard to find, but I finally ended up ordering it from Japan two weeks ago.  It is due to ship out in a couple of days.  I am eagerly anticipating its arrival, but once it arrives there remains a language issue.  The pattern is in Japanese, and I am banking on the hope that I can figure it out by using the images and the block chart (for example).  Considering my limited crochet experience, this ought to provide some entertaining blog fodder!

I bit the bullet on the yarn for this project, and splurged (for me) on some superwash merino DK, specifically, Jaeger Matchmaker found on sale at Jimmy Beans Wool.  They have a decent color selection, and you can't beat $5/ball (except on eBay, where they charge shipping and stuff).  I tried my LYS, but they only had one superwash DK yarn, and it was too rich for my blood.  I also ordered a color card for KnitPicks Swish DK, but the colors were totally uninspiring.  [BUT!  If you need any EZ books, go buy them from KP - they are 40% off.  I got three!]

Anyhoo, here are the colors that I ordered:
[Not shown is a set of four balls of dark brown yarn that I ordered from eBay, that are now on their way from England.  I scored four balls of Emu Superwash DK for just over $12, including priority shipping from the UK!] 

The pattern apparently calls for seven colors (from what I can gather from Moonstitches' post about it), but I am going to use the same approach that Moonstitches does by choosing groups of colors for each single color in the pattern.  So, you can see that I have three different greens instead of three balls of the same color green.  I thought that these would be a lot more fun to work with rather than just seven colors, especially given the absolute riot I had with the [relatively] few colors in the LTL Bag.  There won't be as much *pop* in my blanket as in the "original", but I do like the colors that I ended up choosing, and am dying to see them in person.  I also feel like I need to be more adventurous in choosing colors, and this was a good exercise for me. 

It is rare that I spend so much money on yarn (ooooohh - $89 - what a spendthrift!), but I really surprised myself by how much I enjoyed working with the colors in the LTL Bag.  So. Much. Fun!!  I reserve the right to buy a few more balls if I need them for the project, and I won't feel guilty about it!  90 bucks is peanuts for the hours of entertainment that the yarn will provide, let alone the usefulness of the finished blanket. 

I also really really like the modular aspect of the granny square, since it gives you definite starting and stopping points, and progress is easy to see (and even quantify!).  The hexagons are joined together as each one is made, so the finishing boils down to weaving in a kabillion ends.  I'm sure I'll complain about it at some point...

All in all, this project is shaping up to be a lot of fun, and with the yarn and the pattern due to arrive shortly, I am beside myself in expectation.