On Tuesday afternoon, I started working on a chroteded halter for a friend. She actually doesn't know I'm making it, but I saw it and immediately thought of her. That was around when I first learned to chain!

I had some issues with the pattern but I think I got through everything ok, at least from the looks of things. I'm not quite sure how it'll fit my friend, but I can't know that until she has it! My pics aren't great, but hopefully soon I'll have a few on the top on an actual person. My doll is a totally different size, and the person this is for is actually smaller. The shaping of the cups worries me because they seem SOOO BIG considering I made the second to smallest size ranked for a bra size 34B. We shall see!

Now that this project is done, I'm contemplating whether I want to mail it off or not. I may be heading back to the area where my friend lives soon so I could take it with me then. I'm also contemplating making something else for someone up there.

I just started on a sweater jacket type thing for someone else, though. I'm not sure how long that'll take. I still haven't gotted past the shoulders. It's top-down, all one piece. I'm hoping it works out. It's using the same yarn as the halter (hello one pind Caron for $5!!).

Also this weekend, I sent in my form for information on the crochet teaching course. I'm excited, although I'm waiting for an amused response about my putting down a TKGA member number for a crochet course!

It's been nearly a month now since I actually tried to make anything from yarn. The tragedy of discovering that my had was still wrong filled me with disappointment and drained my motivation for continuing on. I've been so worried about starting again with the last little bits of yarn I have remaining only to discover that the gauge isn't getting any smaller. I guess it seems easier to worry than to see what happens. It's prevented me from working on any of the master knitter program at all, which really just means the report since everything else is done.

I had hoped I could get myself in gear to have things shipped out by my birthday, but as it is in 3 days and I am 700 miles from my supplies for at least another 30 hours, I don't see that happening. Soon, though, I will find the strength to try again.

For now, I'm in Maryland, a few weeks too early for the Sheep and Wool Festival. There have been plenty of other things to do, though. One of my favorite parts is that my best friend Kim asked if I could try to teach her some crochet.

We went to the coffee shop yesterday for about an hour with some yarn and hooks, and we went over single, double and triple crochet. She had said she knew how to chain, but never was able to get past that. You wouldn't know it if you looked at her now, though! She picked up the stitches really quickly. 

Today, we had a lovely trip to tea in Annapolis, and on the way back to the house, we stopped at a yarn store. She wanted to find something to play with, and I love touring as many yarn stores as I possibly can when I go out of town. She picked up a lovely dark green and purple mohair which I've never worked with. The lady at the store is not someone I would call knowledgeably and recommended a F crochet hook because the skein said to use size 5 needles for the yarn. I didn't realize at the the time that she was converting needle size to hook size, but it wasn't a very expensive hook. It's not a very easy yarn to learn with form what I can tell, but Kim has started a lovely scarf using triple crochets from what I can see.

I picked up a white speckled yarn that I'm trying to turn into a scarf for my husband. I've never actually made anything for him, but I'm not sure how masculine a crocheted scarf will wind up looking. At least it's something, and after the last month, that's better than nothing for me :)

I finished knitting the hat last night on smaller needles. I used size 8 needles which is what I used for all of the swatches, but my gauge was still off!! This time I got 19 stitches over 4 inches, which is practically the same as I got on size 9 needles!

After I finished the hat, I started re-making Swatch 1. I fought with the stockinette stitch tubular cast on and lost, so I'm just going to do a basic longtail cast on. Boring, I know, but maybe one day I'll figure out the stockinette stitch tubular cast on. I got it to work right, but it just didn't look right for a 2x2 rib.

I just wrote most of the tags for my swatches. I was reading the information for Swatch 15, the choose your own cable pattern swatch, and I realized I messed up on it, too. I wasn't paying attention for starting a row with a cable in it. I just followed the basic cable pattern I was using. I didn't notice before, but starting with a cable does cause some distortion at the beginning of the swatch. I'll be redoing Swatch 15 after I finish Swatch 1.

I haven't even started the report yet. I've been fighting with the hat all week and avoiding the report. I think it's mostly because it's just been soooooo long since I did any kind of report! I know it won't take very long once I get started, but it's a matter of getting started. I've been telling myself I'll do it once I finish the hat, but I have to finish the hat first.

I just  have to keep reminding myself that this isn't a race and I don't have an approaching deadline. There is no time limit on this project, and no matter what, I'll be finished before a year is up anyway. It hasn't even been a month yet. There is no reason to feel down about my progress slowing just a bit. It's better to discover my mistakes myself and have the chance to redo them than to send in a bunch of things that will be sent back to be resubmitted.

Now that all the swatches are done (mostly?), things aren't happening as quickly. I've been working on the hat, once I was FINALLY able to get going.

My interchangable needle set was being a major pain, and the cables were coming out. I finally had to get out the super glue to make it stop. This has been an issue from the get go, and from research, I know that other people have had this problem. I still absolutely adore my Knit Picks interchangable set, though.

So once I was able to cast on and join in the round and get going without the cables coming out and runing everything, I managed to get 4 and a half stripes of roughly 10 rows each done. My gauge is off. I had a feeling it would be the case. I did gauge swatches in the round, which I think are just little trixters. I read where you should do the swatch on circulars but cut the yarn at the end of the row and reattach it at the beginning of the next after you circle it around, which is what I did. But I think I tightened my knitting up to make up for the loose strands which messed things up. I used 8s to make gauge on flat knitting, but the circs said to use 9s. Now I'm gettin 18 sts for 4 ins rather than 20.

I think I'll just rip everything back down to the ribbing which is the first stripe and was made on smaller needles anyway, then start back over on the other stripes with my 8s.

The hat, as I knew it would, will be the longest part of this project. I still have to make my tags and write the report, though. I went by the scrapbook store on Sunday and bought some paper that was very close in color to the blue I used for my color swatch which is also what I'm using for the second color in the hat. The scrapbook store has a huge selection of punch out things you can use, so I made a bunch of large tags with the blue paper. Coordinating makes me happy.

I definietly think I can have everything done and ready to go in another 2 and a half weeks which will be 4 weeks from when I registered. I know there's no time competition to it, but I really think it can all be done by then as a display of my best work on the swatches and other pieces. It's exciting!

Ahha moments are brilliant.

Fortunately I realized my mistake before I was completely finished with the Master Knitter stuff and had sent off my package.

The pictures I posted before of the stockinette stitch tubular cast on are WRONG! I supposed I should have realized this earlier what with no pictures in the book looking like what I made, but I was so sure I followed the directions correctly!

When you switch to the main color, you're supposed to start with a purl row. I did the first row with a knit. I didn't realize this until I started working on it for the hat project. I also realized I had twisted stitches while I was working on the cast onso I don't have corrected pictures. I can say, though, that the cast on should look like the ribbing just disappears over the edge. MUCH better!

Unfortunately, this means I'll be re-knitting Swatch 1 before I send things off and updating my questions related to the swatch.

Ah, well! This experience is to learn, not to finish as fast as humanly possible!