Zubin's Scarf
Secure in the odds that none of these people will ever see this blog (or at least won't before they get their present) I have no problem talking about these gifts. This is a scarf for my friend Zubin. It's mostly green with four shrinking stripes on either end. I used Lion Brand Wool Ease Chunky for it--it's one of my favorite yarns. It's really simple, but thick enough to make it go quickly and it's a nice wool blend that is warm but not itchy. I just straight crocheted it, nothing fancy other than the stripes.
Ross' Scarf: 10am
Ross' Scarf: 5pm
I pwned this one. Lion Brand came out with this new yarn that I used on this one, it's called Hometown I believe, and can currently only be bought at the Lion Brand Studio on 15th street. I'm a believer. It's super bulky, which can be a good or bad thing. They have one other yarn, Wool Ease Thick & Quick, which is about the same weight, but that yarn is really heavy and can be kind of scratchy. This yarn is 100% acrylic and therefore much lighter and softer. I totally love it. This one I crocheted simply back and forth vertically (hence the vertical stripes) and then I went around once with some of the leftover navy blue just to make sure the edges were all neat.
Elle's Scarf
This project is kind of epic. It was actually supposed to be a hat/scarf set but after starting the hat yesterday I realized I didn't have nearly enough yarn. This is one of my favorite yarns (it's a Bernat yarn, 86% bamboo, which sounds weird but it's seriously the softest yarn in the world) and it's kind of pricey. I bought it initially on sale, and was loath to buy more at full price. So I figured I'd take it out and make a scarf instead. I pulled it all out, and used that skein to start the scarf. It was once I got to the second skein that I realized my second problem--they were different dye-lots.
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Something you have to be careful of when buying yarn is the dye-lot. Yarn in the same dye-lot was all done in the same vat, or however it was colored, and therefore it's all guaranteed to be the exact same shade. Not always but sometimes you can tell the difference between dye-lots because one will be lighter or darker. This can be a problem, especially in large projects where you're using a single color, like a sweater or blanket, so when you're buying for a project like that it's strongly encouraged that you make sure all your skeins are the same dye-lot.
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I've never actually had a problem with dye-lots before, but you could really tell. You can even see it in the picture because I used a flash--one skein was much lighter than the other three. I was pretty screwed, so I just did what I read you should--I cut up that one skein and mixed it in with the others, so it doesn't all occur in one spot and looks like a normal variegation within the yarn. In person it doesn't look so bad anymore. And as it turns out I still need to buy another skein to finish it. I need to finish the last row of doubles and a row of singles. Urg. Whatever.
It was actually useful to find out about this dye-lot thing now. I'd bought four skeins of another color of the same yarn, and again one is different. Since I'm going home for the holiday tomorrow, I can get back to the store and exchange them for four all the same lot. That scarf is for an actress friend of mine who's sort of famous (she played Leo McGarry's secretary on the West Wing--NiCole Robinson) and since you never know what might happen I really, REALLY want that one to be flawless. So Elle's will get finished in a snap over the holiday.
Joe's Scarf
This is for my friend Joe. He's really into the whole organic thing, so I picked a 100% organic cotton yarn for him, a sage green with unevenly spaced dark brown stripes. The picture looks a little wonky to me since I have the real one next to me, but you get the general idea. I really liked this yarn, but the color selection kind of sucks--this was the darkest green they have in this one, and I just wish it had been a little darker. But all in all I like it. It's not completely done; I'm going around it with the leftover brown right now (you can kind of see where I started at the top left of the picture) with a round of single crochets just to neaten the edges.
So that's what I've done in the past few days. Nothing horribly exciting, just punching out stuff. I have SO MANY Christmas gifts left to go... Seeing as most of my really good friends don't get handmade gifts anymore since I've honestly run out of ideas for the majority of them, I still make an impressive amount of presents every year. Seriously, I have no idea how they pile up like this. Ugh. At least it keeps me busy. And gives me plenty of time to watch my TV (I finished Season 1 of Lost and started Season 2! Also caught up to Legend Of The Seeker, which is one of my guilty pleasure shows since I'm a huge fan of the books. Not that I have any idea what's going on in the show anymore since it's so far removed from the novels. Still fun.).
Once I finish my driblet of homework left for the weekend and the border on Joe's scarf I'm going to try and punch out another stripe or two on the hat, which is about half done.
The latest photo of the hat, as modeled by my roomie, Jenny
When I realized it was only about half done, I kind of panicked. I've decided to decrease the rows (make it narrower) faster, because otherwise it's going to be beyond "that's-awesome" long and into "now-that's-just-plain-stupid "long. But again, something I'll know for the next time I make one. Because I'm honestly enjoying this project, it's extremely satisfying.
So tah for now. Heading home for the holiday after work tomorrow, but make sure to look for me in the parade on Thanksgiving!! I'll be riding on/walking with a drum float/balloon. The intricacies of my job are still unclear to me, but it'll be awesome regardless. =D
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