Post-Christianing
Dec. 26th, 2016 09:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trickykittyJust kidding. I think it was more of a mad descent into Heathenville, where the weather is mighty warm. I was telling friends and family since Friday that I no longer need to visit Australia to experience a summer Christmas. We hit 80-degrees yesterday, which is a nice spring day by my Texan standards (and most of Australia), but warm enough to get me close to that summer-xmas experience.
I'm working on creating a crochet mesh tube scarf for Dad. He's been asking Mom about finding him a knit scarf for winter. I've looked around, but most actual knit, masculine scarves in one of the colors he has requested is either difficult to find or kind of expensive, so I opted to snag some yarn and make him one myself. I decided on crochet instead of knit because it's easier and faster for me. This particular pattern with the waffle holes and being done in the round looked like it would go pretty quickly, and the double-layer result of the scarf should make it ridiculously warm. It feels wonderful being able to create something for my dad. He's not one to ask for nor really care about receiving gifts in general, so being able to make him something homemade is great.
I started the scarf Friday night while awaiting our friends coming over for a Christmas gift exchange and a birthday party. I spent about an hour or so Saturday working on it in between wrapping Christmas gifts for the boys and showing Ricardo around the Krampusnaucht event happenings in The Secret World. I then worked on it mostly non-stop before and after opening presents with the boys on Sunday, and all that afternoon and evening while watching Doctor Who's Face the Raven, Heaven Sent ("It must be Christmas."), and Hell Bent, just before the showing of The Return of Doctor Mysterio. It's now 5ft long, and by the time I'm finished with the 2nd skein, I should have the 6-ft length I'm going for.
(You hear that? That's the sound of me feeding my addictions. ALL OF THEM: Gaming, Doctoring, Stringworking, oh my!)
As recommended by the pattern instructions, I tried out a new-to-me half double crochet (hdc) foundation stitch. I wasn't really satisfied with how it was looking, so I spent most of the early Friday evening restarting it many times. I finally felt comfortable enough with how the foundation was looking to keep moving forward. I finally connected the ring and worked a couple rows using the continued hdc stitch for the waffle pattern. I wasn't satisfied with the sizing, as the waffle spaces were more like rectangles than squares, and I was going for the square look. I opted to unravel those rows and go with the double crochet (dc) stitch instead.
A while back when I was learning crochet, and specifically doing practice pieces of nothing but dc stitches, I thought I was doing something wrong because I kept getting these stupid holes in my work where I was working a turning chain for the next row. I took to the interwebbers to see if I could find some clue as to what I was doing wrong when I discovered this no turning chain dc trick that eliminates the hole produced by the typical dc turning chain in your work. I was very relieved to know that it wasn't just me that found this odd-shaped hole in my work to be very annoying, distracting, and unprofessional looking.
Anyway, since it's been quite a while, I had to go back and rewatch that video to remember how to do the turning-dc stitch, as I now call it. Then I continued with the dc stitch for the rest of the work. I'm much more satisfied with the waffle squares now.
I had bought 3 skeins of Caron Simply Soft in Charcoal Heather for a total of 600 yards of yarn as recommended by the pattern. At 50% off all yarn through Jan 11 at Jo-Ann (which I'm happy to give them a shout out), each skein was only $2.50. However, changing the primary stitch from the hdc to the dc means by the time I'm finished with the 2nd skein, I should have the 6-ft length I'm going for, so I'll have an extra skein left over, making the official yarn cost of Dad's scarf $5, much better than $45+ that I was coming across in the stores. I'll probably do a non-tube version of this pattern with the third skein to create a second scarf.
I also couldn't resist buying a skein of Caron Jumbo in Dalmation, which in person is actually much darker gray and no white than what's shown in the picture. I originally couldn't decide between a black or gray scarf for dad, which is how I ended up with the charcoal compromise, but the idea of a variegated scarf combining both black and gray sounded irresistible, hence the possibility of one or two more scarves using the Dalmation yarn.
I was well pleased with all the gifts I managed to give, and I was thoroughly surprised with all the gifts received. The biggest and best was a combined gift from Ricardo, Lili, and Fiona, of a Coca-Cola mini fridge to replace the mini fridge that previously died. That alone will make a ton of difference for our household as a whole. Ricardo helped get it in place and then Paco managed to take over swapping the door hinge to the other side for a proper fit in its new home. Tom managed to string a power cord through the recesses of the kitchen to get it up and running the next day when I wasn't looking. Oh, happy, joy, joy.
My second favorite gift has to be the replacement tea kettle Kevin picked out for me. That image doesn't do it's coloring justice. It's a brilliantly deep red that is absolutely gorgeous. I'm going to have to pay attention and keep it clean of the cooking gunk that managed to cover the last two kettles I've had.
Today Mom is bringing Eldest and Little Bit over to do some yardwork at our house. Eldest still owes money to Little Bit from his XBox One purchase back in late summer, in which Little Bit was kind enough to lend him half the money so he could get it sooner rather than later. Little Bit got his XBox One as a Christmas gift from Mom and Dad, since Eldest hadn't saved up enough yet to pay him back so he could get it himself. So now Eldest technically owes that difference to Mom and Dad, while money earned by Little Bit will just go towards his savings for other things.
I'm working on creating a crochet mesh tube scarf for Dad. He's been asking Mom about finding him a knit scarf for winter. I've looked around, but most actual knit, masculine scarves in one of the colors he has requested is either difficult to find or kind of expensive, so I opted to snag some yarn and make him one myself. I decided on crochet instead of knit because it's easier and faster for me. This particular pattern with the waffle holes and being done in the round looked like it would go pretty quickly, and the double-layer result of the scarf should make it ridiculously warm. It feels wonderful being able to create something for my dad. He's not one to ask for nor really care about receiving gifts in general, so being able to make him something homemade is great.
I started the scarf Friday night while awaiting our friends coming over for a Christmas gift exchange and a birthday party. I spent about an hour or so Saturday working on it in between wrapping Christmas gifts for the boys and showing Ricardo around the Krampusnaucht event happenings in The Secret World. I then worked on it mostly non-stop before and after opening presents with the boys on Sunday, and all that afternoon and evening while watching Doctor Who's Face the Raven, Heaven Sent ("It must be Christmas."), and Hell Bent, just before the showing of The Return of Doctor Mysterio. It's now 5ft long, and by the time I'm finished with the 2nd skein, I should have the 6-ft length I'm going for.
(You hear that? That's the sound of me feeding my addictions. ALL OF THEM: Gaming, Doctoring, Stringworking, oh my!)
As recommended by the pattern instructions, I tried out a new-to-me half double crochet (hdc) foundation stitch. I wasn't really satisfied with how it was looking, so I spent most of the early Friday evening restarting it many times. I finally felt comfortable enough with how the foundation was looking to keep moving forward. I finally connected the ring and worked a couple rows using the continued hdc stitch for the waffle pattern. I wasn't satisfied with the sizing, as the waffle spaces were more like rectangles than squares, and I was going for the square look. I opted to unravel those rows and go with the double crochet (dc) stitch instead.
A while back when I was learning crochet, and specifically doing practice pieces of nothing but dc stitches, I thought I was doing something wrong because I kept getting these stupid holes in my work where I was working a turning chain for the next row. I took to the interwebbers to see if I could find some clue as to what I was doing wrong when I discovered this no turning chain dc trick that eliminates the hole produced by the typical dc turning chain in your work. I was very relieved to know that it wasn't just me that found this odd-shaped hole in my work to be very annoying, distracting, and unprofessional looking.
Anyway, since it's been quite a while, I had to go back and rewatch that video to remember how to do the turning-dc stitch, as I now call it. Then I continued with the dc stitch for the rest of the work. I'm much more satisfied with the waffle squares now.
I had bought 3 skeins of Caron Simply Soft in Charcoal Heather for a total of 600 yards of yarn as recommended by the pattern. At 50% off all yarn through Jan 11 at Jo-Ann (which I'm happy to give them a shout out), each skein was only $2.50. However, changing the primary stitch from the hdc to the dc means by the time I'm finished with the 2nd skein, I should have the 6-ft length I'm going for, so I'll have an extra skein left over, making the official yarn cost of Dad's scarf $5, much better than $45+ that I was coming across in the stores. I'll probably do a non-tube version of this pattern with the third skein to create a second scarf.
I also couldn't resist buying a skein of Caron Jumbo in Dalmation, which in person is actually much darker gray and no white than what's shown in the picture. I originally couldn't decide between a black or gray scarf for dad, which is how I ended up with the charcoal compromise, but the idea of a variegated scarf combining both black and gray sounded irresistible, hence the possibility of one or two more scarves using the Dalmation yarn.
I was well pleased with all the gifts I managed to give, and I was thoroughly surprised with all the gifts received. The biggest and best was a combined gift from Ricardo, Lili, and Fiona, of a Coca-Cola mini fridge to replace the mini fridge that previously died. That alone will make a ton of difference for our household as a whole. Ricardo helped get it in place and then Paco managed to take over swapping the door hinge to the other side for a proper fit in its new home. Tom managed to string a power cord through the recesses of the kitchen to get it up and running the next day when I wasn't looking. Oh, happy, joy, joy.
My second favorite gift has to be the replacement tea kettle Kevin picked out for me. That image doesn't do it's coloring justice. It's a brilliantly deep red that is absolutely gorgeous. I'm going to have to pay attention and keep it clean of the cooking gunk that managed to cover the last two kettles I've had.
Today Mom is bringing Eldest and Little Bit over to do some yardwork at our house. Eldest still owes money to Little Bit from his XBox One purchase back in late summer, in which Little Bit was kind enough to lend him half the money so he could get it sooner rather than later. Little Bit got his XBox One as a Christmas gift from Mom and Dad, since Eldest hadn't saved up enough yet to pay him back so he could get it himself. So now Eldest technically owes that difference to Mom and Dad, while money earned by Little Bit will just go towards his savings for other things.
