Jobo Designs

Eastern Canada is hunkering down for another nor-easter... Snow is imminent. 

We're expecting 20 cm of snow over the next 24 hours and some gusty winds up to 80 km/hour so likely by this evening it will be blustery and blizzard-y.  All of the local schools and colleges have preemptively closed for the day, community activities are being cancelled or postponed left and right.  If you listen carefully you can almost hear the children giggle:  "It's a Snow-Day!  Woohoo!"

I agree wholeheartedly!  Being stuck at home for a few days equals  more time to get caught up around the house, and most importantly... more knitting time ;)

I am fortunate enough to be able to work from home when the weather is uncooperative - which is good considering I commute for 2 hours each day!  I started work this morning at 7 am, and will be finished mid afternoon, so I feel like somebody just handed me a few extra hours of free time!  Instead of spending 2 hours on the road today, I am going to use them to catch up on some knitting and fibery projects :)

I have plans to:

- Finally block the 3 pairs of socks that have been sitting completed and are waiting for their final soak

- Spin a few rolag(s) on my latest spindle project (Mystery gift fiber, spun laceweight on an Ashford top-whorl drop spindle)

- Crochet a few more diamond motifs for my Husband's 'Falling Blocks' afghan

- Knit a few rows on the latest socks - Plain Vanilla Stockinette Socks (in Regia Galaxy - Saturn)

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What would YOU do with a few extra hours in your day?

The hunt for fast, efficient, well-received Christmas projects is on!  I tried my best this year to work on homemade gifts for my family members and friends, but seriously folks ? there is only a week left before Christmas! (If you weren?t aware, I?m so sorry to break the news)

After some time spent procrastinating, then panicking, then searching for patterns, I found this:

Divine Hat by Rheatheylia

Originally, I thought I might *knit* some hats or scarves or something for a couple of hard to buy for people on my list.  I generally feel bad about gifting people boring things like gift certificates and chocolates, though I?m not exactly sure why, because I myself love receiving these!  So in efforts to better round out a less-personal gift, I try and throw in something homemade.  Last year, my go-to homemade item was basic fingerless mitts (a-la-Irish-Hiking-Mitts) and they seemed to be reasonably well received? (at least to my face)

I knew that I could probably knit the projects, but where time is running short, I deduced that *crochet* might end up being a more efficient use of my time in this case.  I generally prefer to crochet large projects, like blankets, as opposed to knitting them just because it is so much faster!  For some reason I tend to forget that you can crochet smaller more detailled items too? who knows why.

So I set out on Rav to try and find some ideas for Crocheted Hats? and this is what I came up with.  (Not only me, according to Ravelry records, more than 900 of these have been recorded to date)  The designer, Rheatheylia, must be so proud that this pattern has become such a mainstay ? and I can say, the attention is 100% deserved, this is a really well written pattern, and a fun design to work on!

I really like the little ?shell? pattern that emerges from this straightforward recipe ? made almost entirely of Double-Crochets.  The whole thing works up FAST.  I don?t mean ?get-it-done-in-a-few-days? fast? I mean ?make-the-whole-hat-in-three-hours? Fast!  In particular, Rheatheylia?s row join technique is INGENIUS? you really can?t tell where the rows join in the finished hat! (a relief to me since seamless row joins are something which I have not completely mastered)  The only modification I made was to go down a hook size since I generally crochet pretty loose ? I used 6.0 mm for the main body of the hat and a 5.0mm hook for the ribbing.

For this particular hat, I used a wayward skein of Paton?s Canadiana Wool and used up around 3/4 of the skein (yay for sales at Michael?s last month ? it cost me less than 4$ to make this hat)  Just for kicks, I thought I would start a second hat and see how far I would get with the rest of the ball, and I got to Row 10.  From the estimate, it looks like I will be able to get 3 hats from 2 balls of wool, which is very convenient since I have another ball just sitting at home waiting for me? lol.  I also have a skein of Cream Yarn of the same brand which may find itself also becoming a Divine Hat.

Now I just have to go home and crochet like a crazy person? I think I could reasonably churn out 2-3 more of these for gifts if I really got at it.  Imagine, if the first one only took 3 hours? Now that I don?t have to look at the pattern, things are only going to get faster and faster!

It's been the kind of week where I've been working on lots of things, but not really accomplishing anything huge and fascinating or anything like that.

UFO's are everywhere, new projects are tempting too!  I've been just playing a little with all sorts of things and trying to make a little progress at a time.  I was sick on tuesday and basically layed on the couch all day.  I didn't really even knit.  that's saying something.

My "Not Mary Kate and Ashley" socks are really coming together.  I have sock number one done now except for the toe grafting, which I will try and finish on my lunch break later.  I cast on the second sock last night, and finished the ribbing on the cuff, and then I fell promptly asleep on the couch!  I will try and post some pics of the first sock tomorrow... I should have time to take pics before it gets too dark outside.

I have also been working on mark's afghan a little, but am not enjoying it very much.  It's the second time I've worked this pattern in the last year with the exact same colours.  So the inspiring factor is pretty low on this one, except for the fact that it's a special blanket for my Honey.  If he wasn't as excited about it, I'm sure I would never work on it.  The real thing that's turning me off though isn't so much the repetition factor... I really really hate the yarn!  I've been getting more and more spoiled when it comes to yarn!  I understand that acrylic yarn totally has a place in the knitting world... but after going from fancy yarn back to cheap acrylic (Red Heart!)  I can really feel the squeak of the plastic on my crochet hook.  It feels almost icky!  I've worked with some other acrylics lately that didn't feel so gross... but in particular one colour that I am working in this afghan... sets my teeth on edge the way it feels on the hook.  I'll just have to grit my teeth and get through it.  I've calculated that I can do a diamond motif and tie in the ends in about 15 minutes or less.  If I can just do a few each day, it will be done soon enough.

Nightsongs is also making some progress... and has been sitting politely on the coffee table piled neatly on top of her pattern, staring at me asking for more attention, but I have been a little tired in the evenings, and am afraid to mess her up.  Need to learn how to do Lifelines.

My plan is to take some photos of these projects for you tonight, and have a better post tomorrow.  No-one ever said that ALL knitting was exciting... some knitting is just.... well.... errrr knitting.   It will get me somewhere eventually.

In the interest of gratuitous yarn pictures... some photos of my dyeing session last weekend... to get you through another gray and raining day (or at least it's gray and rainy here.  would rather be home knitting on the sofa than be here at work dying of boredom ) 

This is 100% Merino Top... dyed with Wilton's Icing Colours.  Looks like Bubblegum Icecream - blue and pink.  Hoping it will mix when spun to make a purplish shade.