Tuesday, November 04, 2008

I Done Voted!

I guess I can consider myself lucky. I wasn't sure if I was registered in my current precinct or my old one. Thank God it was current--the alternative meant a half hour trip and very long lines in a city!

In my current precinct, voting takes place at a church around the corner. There were two whole people in line ahead of me. Gotta love the burbs of small college towns. I read my ballot three times carefully to make sure it said BARACK. (You know? I just came out as a Democrat.)

I'll admit some disappointment. No Proposition 8 on my ballot. Is that only California or something? Bummer. I was all set to vote whichever way meant I approve of letting everyone marry. Because I think everyone SHOULD have that right, regardless of whatever. Oh well. I'll keep my fingers crossed for those of you affected by its outcome.

After voting, I celebrated by buying yarn. Nothing fancy. ACKrylic. Yes. Please don't hurt me. I couldn't help myself. I saw Damknit's hexagonal lapghan on her blog the other day and had to make it. (Erin, aka Damknit, refers to it as "ugly", but I think it's pretty because the black border gives it the appearance of stained glass).

And get this—it's crocheted! Yes, the blog is becoming Crochety Banter for a little while. I emailed her for the pattern notes (which she kindly provided), and have been brainstorming color schemes ever since. Remember the baby sweater experience? And I still haven't hardly gotten anywhere with that. The grand-nieces will be all grown up by the time I finish. Oh, well. They'll just have to be GREAT grand-niece sweaters. But I digress.

In the spirit of frugality, I ransacked my yarn closet because I knew I had a bunch of close-out Caron Simply Soft in a bunch of purples and raspberries that I bought about 10 years ago. I thought would work, if I had enough. I did. And the colors are glorious. Except. I got three hexes whipped up before I discovered that while the two purples and the light grey I'd chosen were worsted, the pinks were sport. Didn't crochet to the same size and though I could adjust for gauge, I'm all about consistency.

Suckage.

Well, I'm not really that big on the scheme, anyway. Pink and purple. I think I wanted my bedroom painted those colors. In like 1970. Maybe I'll save it for the grand-nieces because they're more likely to see a finished product before they're in junior high.

I set off to the local El Cheapo Yarn Outlet to scour the racks for a reasonable worsted match for the pinks. I found it. But.

I also found THESE colors (in Red Heart Super Saver).

RHSS Fall Ombre Lapghan Swatches

Which lead to my coming up with THIS schematic.

Fall Ombre Lapghan Layout

You can't tell from the swatch, but the Fall Ombre contains all of these colors plus a rich deep green. I was smitten. In the layout above, the weird radial gradient hexes will be the ombre. I have no idea how it will turn out, but since hexes are crocheted "in the round", it should be pretty cool. I'll post pix of the progress.

Thank you, Erin, for the inspiration and pattern help! :-)

That's enough blogging for one day. Now to sit back and crochet hexes and watch election results. Popcorn, anyone?


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Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Cutest Kid's Sweater Ever

Is this not the most adorable little sweater* you've ever seen?



It's CAITLIN from KnitWhits. I saw it today and I absolutely MUST knit this for my grand-nieces. One for each. Different colors.

*Photo borrowed from KnitWhits

Trouble is, which colors? I doubt I'll use the recommended yarn (Gems Sport Weight) because the yarn requirements (three colors, around 900-1200 yards) makes it a bit pricey for something that will be the recipient of barf, boogers and bodily fluids. So that may or may not limit my choices.

I do like Encore, and they make a DK weight, but I'm looking for more color selection than they currently offer. I'm not ready to cast on just yet, so there is time to research my options. Since the sweaters are intended for toddlers, perhaps this occasion calls for the wonders of Ack. That's right. Ack-crylic. Because SimplySoft comes in a lot of nice colors and it's washable.

Because I'm crazy like that, and I have PhotoShop and know how to use it (ha ha), I played with the color options and came up with this:




Row 1, L to R
1-1 original scheme, rose/pink/teal
1-2 original reversed (the rose should match the darker pink in the original)
1-3 rose/pink/green #1
1-4 rose/pink/green #2 (reversed)
Row 2
2-1 baby blues/pink
2-2 baby blues/rose
2-3 lilac/green #1
2-4 lilac/green #2 (reversed)
Row 3 The Xmas Combos!
3-1 red/green/canary
3-2 green/canary/red
3-3 red/greens
3-4 white/red/green
Row 4
4-1 baby blues/pale yellow
4-2 teals/cream
4-3 teals/violet
Row 5
5-1 violet/lilac/red
5-2 teal/gold/red

Keep in mind niece LU is of Chinese descent whereas niece KU is fair, blonde, and blue-eyed. I haven't decided whether I'm going for Xmas sweaters or sweaters in general. If I go Xmas, I'm leaning towards Xmas 3-3 for LU and 3-4 for KU. Otherwise... I'm kind of loving the lilac/green combos 2-3 and 2-4 and reversing them might mean more economical usage of yarn and the whole alike but different theory; OR... for KU (the blonde), either 4-1 or 4-2 but with cream instead of pale yellow (maybe? or is the pale yellow OK? keep it from being too boyish?) and for LU 4-3.

LU looks good in strong colors like red, yellow, purple and black. Somehow I can see 4-3 looking really good on her.

****brief pause****
And... I had another inspiration, checked the color cards again, found that Gems comes in Cherry Red and Shamrock (which might look better than Bright Red and Fern Green) and did these:

For LU:


For KU (blonde):


Then again, they might be too close in color for a harried, hurried Mom to be able to tell the difference when getting the kids dressed in the morning. Maybe I'd (she'd) be better off if I made them drastically different. In which case, I think it'll be...

For LU:


For KU:


Don't you just love it when I think out loud? ;-)

The Truth Emerges
Come to think of it... maybe what this is really all about is that I just really want to make it for myself. Except it doesn't come in big people sizes. *pout*

Anyway, CUTE SWEATER. Love the color change cables and the vest effect. Really, really cute. (I'd make mine longer, though, like suit length so it would be less boxy on me. And I think I'd go with some sort of wine/tan combo, or maybe the lilac/green...)

Maybe like this? (Cloning feature, how I love thee...)




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