FO: Science Pillow

Back in 2015, I had grand plans to make the Geek Along blanket. It's a bi-monthly blanket square project that you can make throughout the year and each year has a certain theme. Back then, it was Mad Scientists, and it included designs to represent both real and fictional scientists. I started out with the Tesla square, then made the Muppets square, then realized how much I greatly dislike tapestry crochet, lol. It was thick and heavy and annoying to make. I didn't think it would be a very comfy blanket given how stiff the squares turned out. So I completely lost steam on the whole idea, but I had these 2 finished squares just laying around for years waiting to be turned into anything at all. Sometime in there, I got the idea to turn the 2 squares into a pillow. I'm not sure exactly when, but it was at least a few years ago. The squares still sat simply because I never really felt like doing it :/ so lazy. Fast forward to now. My boyfriend's birthday was coming up at the beginning of May. I had a present on the way (which was a big success), but it wasn't going to get to my place while he was visiting before his birthday and I wanted to have something to give him. And suddenly I was struck with genius as to what that could be! The science pillow! He's a science-y guy who likes Tesla a lot, so I knew it would be an entertaining gift at the very least and it would mean this project finally had a purpose to its existence. So I stitched it up!

When I picked these up out of the abyss of random things in my sewing room, they looked like this. They looked like this for 5 years! Craziness.

All I did was lay the two blocks wrong sides together, pick a yarn I liked for the edging, and did a single crochet border all the way around, making it (sc, ch1, sc) at each corner. This seriously took maybe 20 minutes to do which is so sad considering how long these blocks sat. When it was almost enclosed, I stuffed the daylights out of it with playful and continued to finish the edging. My bit of advice with making anything stuffed - stuff the living crap out of it in the beginning because the fluff will compress and be floppy over time otherwise. Now it is a fun and hug-able pillow at last!

The yarn I used around the edge was just the first one I came across in my stash that I thought looked good with the various colors of the blocks. It's Red Heart Super Saver in Gold. The Tesla coil block is made in Loops & Thread Impeccable in Yellow with Premier Everyday Worsted in Aubergine while the Bunsen & Beaker block is made of Red Heart Super Saver in Spring Green and Red Heart With Love in Mango. All of these were stashed acrylic yarns I had on hand for making stuffed animals. 

I will say - I may want to try tapestry crochet again now I've had 5 years to cool off after making these, lol. At the time I found it super tedious, but let's be real - I've made much more tedious things than this over the years, so I should be able to handle it now just fine. It's pretty neat, really. You crochet around the color you are not using and just switch out the colors to make the color work designs. But this does make the fabric itself much thicker since you have 2 strands of yarn in every stitch. 

I think what I disliked so much about it was following such an involved chart. Even with the crazy lace charts I've knitted, they generally have a repeated pattern to them and don't change every single row like these color charts do. So I think that's what put me off back then. I'm willing to give it a try again now though.

And since this was a gift, I had to add my custom tag :) just on principle. Aren't I fancy? So we had dinner and cake with my family a few days before his birthday and I gave him this pillow. It seemed to go over well, lol. 

His REAL present came the day after he left :/ Isn't that always the way? And then another 2 weeks passed before I could see him to give him the main event of his gift. In that 2 week waiting period, I decided to make something else for his gift. I've been making more resin over these months and I realized that my petri disks were the perfect size to act as a fancy stand for his present. I made up a batch and picked this one because I thought it looked like a virus in a petri dish, lol, plus the colors look cool with the colors of the gift. I used drops of silicone oil to make those more clear sections and it turned out really neat, in my opinion.

So here is the full gift :) He let it drop once that he always wanted one of those closed ecosystem orbs but never got one (he's very interested in hydroponics), so I kind of had a cheat code on what to get him. I settled on this Shrimp Bubble because it had better reviews as far as the shrimp living, plus if you do accidentally kill them you can get into the bottle to put new little shrimpies in there. Some other brands are completely enclosed and those apparently have a higher rate of them dying off. For the record there are 4 tiny shrimp swimming around in there. Looks like they were camera shy when I took these.

So I think the combo of the blue petri stand and the yellow sand and the green algae looks really good. I'm glad I was able to not only give him something I knew he wanted but also give it a personal touch. 

And that's his birthday present :) He says he really likes it, so I take that as a win. Yay for making something with those blocks and showing I care about someone in the process, right?!

FO: The 5 Year GAP-tastic Cowl

Anytime I finish a large knitting project, I am left with a little void in my life. Don't get me wrong, I love that accomplished feeling of holding a finished object in my hands and being able to show it to others, but I always am a little nostalgic for that moment when I was back in the middle of that project just knitting away. I suppose it's because I just like the act of knitting so much. I completed my Anaheim Sweater on a Sunday afternoon, leaving me with the awful problem of not having anything to knit that night! I didn't really feel like planning and starting a new project, but I had a sudden flash of memory about this cowl I started back when I first learned to knit 5 years ago (!?!), so I decided to unearth the ufo and see what I could do. This only took me 2 hours to finish :/ But now it's done and I don't have to feel guilty about such an old unfinished project :)

This is the GAP-tastic Cowl by Jen Geigley, a free pattern on Ravelry. I had only been knitting a few weeks and I was looking for beginner friendly but cute projects when I saw a lovely version of this pattern made up in a friend's Ravelry account. I went to the only place close by I knew to get yarn - Walmart - and grabbed the only type of Bulky yarn they had in a color I liked and I got to work, trying to get used to seed stitch in English style knitting. I knitted a few inches, but I was quickly bored with this. Seed stitch in English style is tedious to say the least. A few inches in I realized that I had accidentally switched to rib stitch for over an inch and I was so frustrated that I set it aside. I think I pulled it out once more over the years, but I bored quickly again so I put it back in my original WIP box (a clear tub that contained this cowl, a swatch of yellow acrylic garter stitch I was thinking would be a scarf, and crocheted limbs for a Winnie the Pooh I never finished).

When I picked up the cowl after 5 years, I decided to just keep knitting and not worry about the rib stitch area. This yarn is Lion Brand Homespun in the Waterfall colorway, and while the colors are lovely this was probably the worst yarn to make a textured design with. Homespun is spun in a way that makes it bumpy no matter what, which completely masks the knitted texture of seed stitch. In the photo above I can see the rib stitch section like a big shining beacon, but in reality this will be doubled up around my neck and bunched up to where no one will see anything wrong unless I point it out (which I don't plan to do). I remember I was so bummed 5 years ago when I noticed this mistake - seriously just 1 stitch wrong caused this - but I also remember I didn't know how to fix it. I didn't want to pull out all that work, and in this bumpy yarn I had a very hard time differentiating between what was a knit and what was a purl anyway in my inexperience. Isn't it funny to go back to old projects and see how much we've improved? I had worked on this cowl for weeks and only got a few inches knit only to fast forward to now and finish the whole thing in 2 hours. Crazy. At least I know I'm better now, I guess. Click here to see my post in August of 2012 when I was showing off this project for the first time.

Here's a close up so you can see the details and colors better. See the ribbing? lol I can't look away! I like the fading colors though, and the loft of the yarn will certainly keep me nice and cozy for the 1 or 2 days a year I can wear it in Florida, haha. What was I thinking back then? I had never heard of a cowl except as a neckline on a shirt before I started knitting, so I don't see how I thought I could use one. Ah well, I certainly have something to wear if I vacation anywhere cold.

I only had one skein of this yarn (and I was not about to go buy more), so I just knitted until I ran out of yarn. My cowl is a little narrower than the pattern calls for - mine is 12" deep - but seriously on a piece like this it makes absolutely zero difference. Also my cast on was (unsurprisingly) too tight for this loose gauge, so my cowl is only 60" long instead of 72" like the pattern specifies. You can see that the seed stitch area would definitely stretch longer, but the cast on holds it back. Again, it's a common beginner mistake, and it's not keeping me up at night.

Once the cowl is doubled up and arranged around the neck none of these details matter. All that matters is that I managed to finish such an old project and that I have something wearable to show for my efforts. This also means I can burn that awful fixed Boye cable needle I bought to make this with too (seriously after 5 years that plastic cord still had the original folds in it from their packaging, ugh). Who am I kidding, I keep everything. It now is in my great grandma's knitting basket with all the other needles I never use :)

This photo was taken under my husband's art direction, lol. I spite of this snarky post, I am really happy about this cowl. I'm happy to have it finished, and I'm thrilled by how much my knitting abilities and know-how have improved since I started. Finishing this got me pretty jazzed about finishing old projects, so I'm hoping to keep the momentum going and finish a few more. I have that box of projects plus a granny square blanket I made 25 squares for, about 15 squares for my Happypotomus, and a Lady Russell Shawl in cashmere that need knitting and crocheting not to mention my drawer filled with very old sewing projects (an apron, at least 3 Frenchy bags, a baby dress, an entire quilt, plus a few dresses for myself). Maybe one day I will deal with all these things, but I'm sure I'll produce more ufos in the meantime :) At least I can mark one off the list.

WIP Wednesday: Attacking the UFOs

This week has been pretty productive on the knitting front. I found myself with no project to work on last Thursday and I knew I might need something to work on Friday night (I drove some of the young singles from my church to a dance in Orlando). I didn't want to drag all my animal making stuff with me, and I knew I wouldn't get far enough into a new project to be able to just work on it with no problems. So I turned to my UFO (unfinished objects) pile. I started this "boob-holder" sweater in August of 2012! It's a free pattern by Stefanie Japel. At the time I had no idea what I was doing and I quickly reached a problem I couldn't diagnose, so I set it aside. I picked it up again last September and got pretty far only to mess it up big time when I had to pull back. I knew I could fix it, but it was one of those problems you have to just sit and mess with for an uninterrupted hour or so and I just didn't ever feel like it, lol. But I needed a large project! So last Thursday I spent about an hour and a half getting it back to workable condition. 

When I fixed this last week, I was at the point where you section off the arm holes and just work on the body and since then I technically managed to finish the knitting :) It's funny to work on something that I distinctly remember I just could wrap my head around at the time only to have absolutely no problem now - to the point that I'm amazed at how quickly this went. And I've already pulled back to change a few other things!

I tried it on a few nights ago when I finished the knitting and discovered ... the waist is way too big. The pattern is written to have no overlap going on under the boobs, just a button to fasten it in the center. As you can see - I'm overlapping it quite a bit there. It's also a touch longer than I want. So, I've decided to pull the whole waist out, lol. I won't go all the way back to where I was last week, but I'm going to pull out about 10 rows. There will still be a good deal of overlapping I will have to do, but I'm going to add an additional button hole to make it more secure when I fasten it. I'm really happy with this project and I completely LOVE these sleeves. Puffy sleeves for the win! I have the sleeves all finished and seamed on the bottom, so literally once I finish the waist it will be done and wearable :) Now that I know more about knitting, I know what a quick and easy project this really is and it makes me want to make another. If only it wasn't in such heavy yarn! Anyone know of a similar pattern in a sock weight? I'm sure I could buckle down and do the math to make it in sock weight, but seriously look how long it took me just to fix a tiny snag, lol, and I hat math so you can imagine how long it would be before I actually do that. One of these days ...

I also realize you can see my absentmindedness in the photo above - I forgot to keep with the garter stitch edge in a few spots. I didn't realize until I was way past that point at the time, and at this point it just isn't in my best interest to pull back that far - one of them is up by my neck! So I will be faking some purl bumps with some extra yarn once I finish the rest.

Last night I just didn't feel like pulling all that knitting out (I know, I'm temperamental, lol) so I grabbed another long time UFO - my Happypotamas! I made a couple of squares and have renewed my love of this pattern's cuteness. Hopefully I become addicted to it soon and can knock out the Lollo Bear pattern too that's been languishing untouched in my collection. I even have all the yarn to make it! You can't rush, I guess.

I'm kind of torn on my feelings about working on so many UFOs. On one hand I'm thrilled - it's a great feeling to finally finish something that's sat so long. On the other hand, my pile of projects I'm in the middle of is dwindling (I only have 3 others in there!) so I won't have anything to just pick up and work on soon. 1st world problems, amiright? So that's what I've been working on this week. Head over to Tami's Amis' Blog to see what others have going on :)