WIP Wednesday 11-01-2012

Another Wednesday and more progress to show.

I finished the first segment of the Daffodil Doily and started on the second.

First 2 segments of the Daffodil Doily.

I'm going to have trouble with the photos of this once I get to the 3rd segment as it's already almost as wide as the card table I use to photograph my WIPs on. This doily is going to be quite large.

While waiting for some sausages to cook on Saturday I decided to cast on another scarf.

Angled Scarf

I saw this design somewhere and remembered the description of how to make it but I can't remember where. It's a very basic garter stitch with a make stitch on one end and a k2tog at the other end of every even numbered row. The self striping yarn should add an interesting effect.

While taking a break from the the Daffodils I started another Zoom.

Toddler's Jacket - Zoom by Ellen Gormley

And I added another couple of rows to the Crochenit Cot Blanket.

Crochenit Cot Blanket

I think I also added a couple more rows to the sleeve of my hoodie, but it doesn't look much different to the last photo I took.

That's it for my WIPs this week. Check out Tami's Amis for more WIP Wednesday goodness.

Richard.

PS: I found another selection for you to have a look at. It's called Yarn Along.

Tutorial Tuesday - Tunisian Short Rows Octagonal Dishcloth #2

This is the third and final tutorial in this series.

I found that, with the first octagonal dishcloth, when I finished the last segment the yarn was in the wrong place to just go straight onto the border, so I decided to experiment with doing the short rows in the return pass, and this is what I came up with.

Using 4 ply cotton, I started with 25 chain.

Starting chain.

Then picked up all stitches along the chain.

All stitches picked up.

I then worked the return pass for 1 stitch (yo, pull thru 1 loop, yo, pull thru 2 loops).

One stitch worked back

I then did a tss in the last stitch.

tss in last stitch.

On the next return pass I worked off 2 stitches (yo, pull thru 1 loop, (yo, pull thru 2 loops) twice).

2 stitches worked off

tss in those 2 stitches.

All stitches back on hook

I kept increasing the number of stitches worked off with each row until all had been worked off.

First segment after 10 rows

First segment after all stitches had been worked off.

Then I worked tss in all stitches and started the process again.

tss in all stitches

yo, pull thru 1 loop, yo, pull thru 2 loops

tss in last stitch

yo, pull thru 1 loop, (yo, pull thru 2 loops ) twice

tss in last 2 stitches

And again I continued until all stitches had been worked off.

2nd segment complete and tss in all stitches

I continued in this manner for another 6 segments.

All 8 segments complete

I then slip stitched along the last row. I probably could have joined the last segment to the first at this stage but I wasn't sure how neat a join it would make.

After slip stitch along last row.

The yarn is now in the right place to do the border so I just kept going with a dc (US sc) in t the end of each row, cut the yarn leaving a tail long enough to sew up the seam, sewed up the seam and darned in the ends.

Completed dishcloth

I'm not sure that the joins between the segments or the edge look as nice on this version as they do on the first, but there are less ends to sew in.

There is at least one more version of the short rows that I could do (decreasing the number of stitches worked off in the return pass) but I'll leave it up to others to experiment with that.

As usual, any bouquets, brickbat or other comments would be most welcome.

If there is anything else you think I could show you, just let me know and I'll think about it, although I might wait until I get a better camera for taking close up shots.

Richard.

Laugh and Play

I like having the sermon notes available on-line, it save me having to remember what was said, especially since my notes are often sparse.

Here are the sermon notes from youversion.

Jesus laughed and played

Matthew 11:19, Matthew 19:14 NIV
The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.' But wisdom is proved right by her deeds." Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
Go to Bible Reader »

Laugh and Play

Do you think Jesus was ticklish? What about play – do you think Jesus played? When you picture God in your imagination, is it usually a sombre, stern, serious person who is only interested in the weighty issues of life, death, sin, suffering, pain, and sanctification; or do you ever picture God laughing so hard there are tears running down his cheeks? Jesus said, “For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children.” (Matt. 19:14). What picture does that bring to mind? When and why did our faith become nothing but reserved, solemn, seriousness? Yes life can be hard, faith is important, we are to approach God with reverence. But is reverence really only quiet, all dressed up, order? There has to be more to our faith and reverence then that. When we study the life of Jesus, do you know what we really find? Jesus loved to party! As we head into 2012 lets play more! Let us enjoy doing life with each other and with Jesus. Dinner parties, coffee dates or a barbie in the park... Let's show others that Jesus is the bringer of life!

My Notes

I quite like the picture that our CO painted with  this morning's sermon. People don't usually picture Jesus running around with other children, kicking a ball around and generally having fun, but why wouldn't he? He started off life as a child just like everyone else so there's a good chance that he did just that.

I also liked the picture of God having a laugh when we mess up in silly ways just as parents laugh when their own children do something silly but I know that He is serious when the situation calls for it. One of the things that happened yesterday was that we kinda got lost trying to find the berry farm, we took a wrong turn and had to backtrack, but we got there eventually. It appears that the COs got a little lost also and I'm sure God would have been more than a little amused at our shenanigans.

We should all be like Jesus and party and have fun (responsibly, of course). Worries will take care of themselves when you hand them over to Jesus.

I hope you all enjoy your week and that God blesses you richly.

Richard.

The Week That Was 07-01-2012

The first week of the new year and what a week it has been.

Apart from the usual aqua and gym workouts, that have been somewhat interrupted by the public holidays (the gym shortened it's hours for the Monday public holidays and only ran 2 aqua classes the last couple of weeks), we've still managed to stay quite busy with our craft and we also joined a bowling league.

The bowling on Wednesday night was quite successful considering the amount of time it has been since we last bowled in a league. I managed to bowl a credible 503 3 game series which is slightly higher than my average when I stopped bowling about 16 months ago. Sue was well below her old average but she still has to get used to bowling with 2 new knees (6 months today since the op).

Today we had a church outing to a berry farm, one of these places where you pay to go and pick your own berries, and I ended somewhat sunburnt. Before anybody berates me for not wearing sunscreen I should let you know that it takes me longer to get over the effects of sunscreen (a nasty rash that takes about 3 weeks with heavy duty antihistamine cream to get rid of) than it does to get over sunburn (about a week). I have tried a few different sunscreens but haven't found any yet that don't have this effect. Maybe next time I'll wear long sleeves as it was only my arms that got affected (I was sensible enough to wear a hat). Sue didn't collect any berries as she is allergic but I managed to get a little less than a kilo (a mixture of brambleberries and raspberries) so will be having them with my cherries for desert the next couple of weeks.

After picking berries we took the emergency services trailer to a nice picnic spot and bar-b-cued up some sausages for lunch before heading home for an afternoon snooze. This isn't a misuse of the trailer, we need to keep using it to make sure we need to keep some familiarity with. There would be no point in having it if we didn't know how to use it.

That's it from me.

Richard.

FO Friday 06-01-2011

Having received so many lovely comments for my first WIP Wednesday for the year, I wonder how my first FO Friday for 2012 will be received.

First up is an item that I actually finished a couple of weeks ago but held off putting it up as an FO until after I posted a tutorial on how I made it.

Square Tunisian Short Rows Dishcloth

You can view the tutorial on how I made this here. I have one more to show next week after I do another Tutorial Tuesday.

Of course, that isn't the only thing to show you this week. Astute readers of my WIP Wednesday posts will have noticed that there is another long term project that didn't feature this week, and that's because it's officially finished.

Knitted Scarf

This is from the yarn and pattern that I received from Red Heart as a daily prize winner about 6 months ago (I'm not a very fast knitter). I still have a little bit of the yarn left over and I have no idea what I'm going to do with it as it isn't the sort of yarn I normally get so doesn't match anything I have in my stash but I was kinda sick of knitting this and it's plenty long enough (about 11' I think) so I'm calling it done and moving on to other things.

Since these are officially my first FOs for 2012, I'm wondering if I shouldn't put the pics in a special folder so that I can make a collage of all my finished objects for the end of the year like I've seen on other blogs. Is that a form of stealing (taking other peoples ideas) or is it acceptable since there are so many others doing it?

As usual, check out Tami's Amis for more FO Friday goodness.

Richard.

WIP Wednesday 04-01-2012

My first WIP Wednesday for 2012 and I only have 3 items to show you as I didn't work on the jumper this week and I finished the scarf.

First up, plenty of progress has been made on the crochenit cot blanket.

Crochenit Cot Blanket

Another change of colour shows that I'm making definite progress.

The Tunisian Crochet Toddler's Jacket is almost finished.

Tunisian Crochet Toddler's Jacket (Zoom by Ellen Gormley)

Just one more circuit of the border then it's time to sew up the arm seams, sew in the thread tails and sew on a button and it's finished. With a bit of luck you might see this one on Friday as well.

Progress on the Daffodil Doily is going well with the first segment almost finished.

Daffodil Doily

This is the reason I'm making so much progress on my other projects, it's just too hard on my eyes (even with eyeball enhancers (spectacles)) working with #40 cotton and a 1mm hook that I can't work  more than an hour at a time on this. Working with a 1mm hook is also hard on the fingers as it's sharp enough to stick in.

It's a good job that the individual stitches don't show up in this photo or you might see all the mistakes I made but didn't correct. I'll just have to try to do better on the next segment.

See you all on Friday for my FOs. In the meantime, checkout Tami's Amis for more WIP Wednesday goodness.

Richard.

Tutorial Tuesday - Tunisian Short Rows Square Dishcloth

As promised last week, here is how to make a square from using the same method that I used to create the octagon in last weeks tutorial. Some might as why I would use short rows to make a square when I could get a square just going straight up but there are advantages to using short rows in this way. The variegated yarn give quite a pleasing pattern and the square doesn't curl. So, with further ado, here's one way how to do it.

First, I start the same way I made the first segment of the octagonal dishcloth.

The first half of one side of the square

Then, instead of doing one stitch and increasing by one stitch each row, I decrease by one stitch each row.

TSS in all except the last stitch

One less stitch in the next row

And again in the next row

Continue in this manner until you have the minimum number of stiches.

One side of the square complete

I know, it looks more like a triangle at this stage and it still curls.

Now it's time to get tricky.I normally repeat the last row before starting to increase again.

TSS in second vertical bar

Just as with the octagonal dishcloth I'm now going to increase the number of stitches by one in each rowby picking up the next vertical bar in the previous segment with each row.

TSS in second vb and in last vb of second last row of previous segment

TSS in next 2 vb and last vb of 3rd last row of previous segment

It's a little harder to do than on the octagonal dishcloth as the angle being created is a bit tighter, but otherwise it is the same process. Just keep going until you have all stitches picked up.

Half of the second side complete

Finish this side by decreasing each row in the same manner that was done on the first side.

Second side complete

It looks like a triangle again and the first side still curls, but that's OK because we'll fix it with the last side.

Make the third side in the same manner as the second. On the fourth side, the first half is the same as the previous 2 sides.

Three sides and half of the fourth complete

But now I'm going to get even trickier. One thing I like to avoid, if I can, is sewing seams, so, with that in mind, I'm going to connect this 4th quarter with the first as I go. To do this I insert the hook through the last stitch on the middle row of the 1st quarter.

The hook is now inserted (pity about the quality of the pic but it's the best I can do with my current camera).

Now I yarn-over, pull through the stitch and the last loop on the hook. This counts the same as the "yo, pull thru 1 loop" I normally do at the beginning of the return pass. I then continue with yo, pull thru 2 loops as normal.

Ready to complete the return pass

TSS across to the second last stitch as on previous quarters, insert hook in the next stitch back on the first quarter.

Hook thru next stitch ready for yo.

Ready to complete return pass

Complete the last quarter by continuing in this manner until all rows are complete.

If this sounds too difficult, you can always complete the last quarter in the same manner as the previous 3 and sew up the seam, I can't see that it would make a great deal of difference.

Last quarter complete, ready to do the border

Border started

As with the octagonal dishcloth, I use a simple dc (US sc) border with the only difference being that I add an extra dc in the end of the first and last rows of each quarter.

Complete dishcloth ready to have loose threads sewn in.

Because the rows are at 90 degrees to each other the quarters each counteract the curl of the other quarters they are joined with making a square that sits flat without blocking.

As previous, all bouquets, brickbats and other comments will be gratefully accepted.

Next week I will show you how I work the short rows in the return pass to make another octagonal dishcloth.

Richard.