It's the other yarn craft....

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So, I've been looking at this wonderful yarn I got from Knitivity. Trying to figure out what I'm going to do with 550 yards of fingering weight 100% wool yarn. A shawl? Nope, already am knitting ignoring one of those. Then I'm thinking a round afghan, like the Hemlock Ring from brooklyntweed. I know three things right from the get-go:

1. I hate starting a project in the round with an eight stitch CO. Really hate it.
2. Eventually I'd have to buy big enough circulars.
3. It would take forever plus two months to make it. I'm already knitting ignoring enough projects like that.
   

So, I decided I'd take a doily pattern and crochet it instead. After three false starts with very poorly written patterns I couldn't remember how to read, I found this Pineapple Doily. My plan is to do the elongated one, but as the centers are identical, we'll see how big it is when I get there. If it's wide enough, it could be a small afghan type of thing, maybe to throw over one's legs. Of if it's not, it could be a wrap or stole. I don't know how it well end up as I'm going where this crocheter has never gone before!
Crocheting is sooooooooooo much faster than knitting. Once you get going and can remember how to read a pattern anyway. So this is how much I did yesterday. I put my reading glasses in the pic for scale. I like crocheting in the round as it gives a definite front and back to the finished piece. If one knows how to read crocheting. For the uninitiated, it's reversible just like crocheting in rows.

I've crocheted most of my life. I think I was about 8 or so when my mother taught me. I remember crocheting during "down time" in elementary school. I would make big fluffy doilies out of crochet thread. The nuns were so impressed. Me being me, wasn't. I always figured "If I can do it, it must not be too hard." My mother wasn't either. Then again, in front or me she's never been impressed with anything I've done. I do remember my older sister blowing up at me cuz she was so sick and tired of my mother bragging about how wonderful I was. News to me!

I pretty much stopped crocheting once I learned to knit. I do love knitting alot and I'd believed my mother when I was young that knitting was too complicated for anyone to learn how to do. (The fact that hundreds of thousands of women-and men-have been knitting for centuries didn't hold water in the face of my mother's proclamation.) I did teach myself to knit then, but I was knitting through the back loop (Combination Knitting was unknown at that time) so had great difficulty figuring out how to purl. I gave up, thinking my mother was right. Learning to knit (and purl) a few years ago was a great accomplishment for me. Learning to do something I spent most of my life believing I could never do rates high on the list of "Things To Do In This Lifetime," better known as the "Bucket List".

I worked a little on Presto Chango, too, yesterday. Very little.

Today's plan is to finish up the Art School Sock #1, work on Presto Chango and finish up the main sweater body. That's the plan....

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Okay, has anyone else noticed how screwy the weather has been in the last couple of months? Knitting Iris has!

Hey, for those that have wanted to try dyeing with Kool-Aid, Ray at Knitivity has a kit for you! Superwash Merino sock yarn with several colors of KA to facilitate your creativity. Instructions included!

And more Mittnz! Not mine, of course, but more! Don't be deceived thinking we're anywhere near our goal. We still could use your help! Just eight pair of hand warmer thingies puts you in the running for great prizes!

And check out these thread/yarn cutters at Robyn's Nest. For those that hesitate to take a scissors on the plane or just don't want the toddler playing with the scissors!

For the crocheters, here's a neat bag. Although I have a crocheted mesh bag, I'm not real happy with how easily small stuff can slip through the mesh. This one, although it doesn't stretch as much, keeps everything in!