Sweater-Shrug-Shawl-Scarf

 Back in August I saw a call for testers in a Canadian crochet group on FB. These scarf-shrug patterns were suddenly really popular and this was a crochet version. I was really curious how they were made and worn. I've posted about shrugs before but I don't tend to grab them when my arms are cold, I just grab a sweater or cardigan. I was also planning for our upcoming trip to Barcelona and cruise and thought I could make something useful since we'll have anything from 0C to 30C weather! 

The pattern called for LionBrand Pound of Love but we were told we could use anything that got gauge. It would take 2 balls worth, with some leftover. I did not have anything in my stash that I thought would work well though I had some I would like to have a shawl made in. I decided I would actually buy the yarn. It was Labour Day weekend, so I had to wait till the Tuesday to get it. These are some serious balls!

I was dealing with some emotional stress, and not feeling well physically, and it was like I had never crocheted before. It starts out with crochet ribbing, which I know I've done before, but there was some wording in the pattern that confused me. My rows grew, then shrunk.

 I struggled with the stitch as it was similar to a half double decrease but my yarn kept splitting and I couldn't get into a smooth rhythm. I finally got through the first sleeve and headed into the body section.

This part was pretty much a breeze. I did type out the pattern so it was easier for me to read (it was written in columns and I found having to go up and down three rows of instructions for each row a challenge). 

The body part felt like it was taking forever. The pattern states 76" for the Large body, or about 1.8 times your chest. This felt huge for me. A few other testers also felt this was a bit long. I think I ended up at about 72". 

The second sleeve went much faster but wasn't without its own challenges. 

I really liked how I sewed up the seam on the first sleeve.

Invisible on the outside, and nearly invisible on the inside. 

I wasn't as happy with the other sleeve. My foundation chain looked terrible, I probably needed to do one more row on the sleeve too. I ended up with a sort of flap on the inside.

I just whip stitched that little flap down so it would lay smooth. Not a big deal.

It's actually draped loose on my back. I don't think I can wear it like this (and of course, not over this tank top). I need to play with it a bit more.

No scarf tails to get in your lunch or zipped up in your zipper!

I like my sleeves up a bit from my wrists, but I think the pattern designed it for wrist length. There's a big difference in size between my wrist and my upper arm so it doesn't work well pushed up like this.

In the end, although it's pretty cool, it weighs a ton. Okay, it's 550gr. Definitely not packing it for our trip, but I could wear it. I think though I'll just use the other shawl that I made this summer. 

I do like the versatility of this design, though of course, just like the infinity dresses, I can't remember how to do all the styles LOL. 

It's live on Ravelry! https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/diamond-scarf-sweater

Yarn In:  908gr + 1182gr = 2090gr
Yarn Out: 550gr = 2055gr
Balance: 35gr more in than out
Costs: $24.55 + $20 = $44.55

Red, Pink, Purple

 It's been an interesting summer. I'm back to daily supply (substitute teaching) list. Let's leave it at that. 

Another red scarf in the bag. This one is crochet, a worsted weight, 4 rows of Double Crochet, and 2 rows of Double Crochet in the summer fine yarn I've used before (I have a giant cone). As I worked it, the fine yarn sections would contract inwards, and the scarf had this interesting bubble effect. It made it rather narrow though but I didn't know if blocking hard would straighten it out. I stretched and steamed and it seems to be behaving now.  99grams.

I finished the really large shawl I've been working on since mid-March (I think). I don't remember exactly where I found the pattern but it's a drop stitch lace, similar to the shrug I made last summer). You increase on one edge until you get to the width you want, then knit a wide section, then decrease. I wanted a large stole to wrap around me and almost be blanket like. It was really hard to stretch it out on the needles to check the width though. It's two strands of fine coned yarn (Spinrite tent sale?), and the black cone has a sticker indicating it's likely 50% wool, 50% acrylic and made in Spain. For those that understand the numbers, it's a 2/16. The other strand is a white and black plied together, totally unknown fiber. Originally I was going to use just it, but recognized that would take me a long time LOL.

I could have made it a little bit wider, but that straight section felt like it was taking forever! The decrease section got faster and faster, but I decided I didn't want to wind more balls of the yarn together so that I didn't end up winding too much and have a ball left over that I would never use, so I was carrying around two large cones of yarn. In the end, while the shawl is quite long, it's almost too long in the inc/dec sections. So, after washing and blocking I decided to cut off part of the narrowing end. 

Yup. Snip snip along the top of one pattern repeat. Gently pick out the stitches until back at one complete row and then I went back a few more rows to get to the start of the repeat. I casted off in pattern. This makes one long increasing section, a wide section, and a decreasing section that comes to a blunt end. 

It was at 299gr before I chopped the end off, that took off 12 gr. I'm going to keep it as 300gr because it's not like I can re-use that 12gr.

I'm also working on tiny bears for a local charity. I did two in a marled purple. I thought I grabbed the next size needles for the second purple bear but it seems I might have actually grabbed the next size smaller. They're the Bill and Ben Twin Bears from www.craftbit.com. That pattern sucks though, so I re-wrote it. If you'd like a copy, click HERE. There still might be some errors, so just let me know!

Disco Bear on the right. Sometimes they get their own personality. I see I forgot the mouth on the one on the left!

I got a large donation of yarn and the pink chenille and the purple were in it. The charity requests no animal fibers. I could not find a mid brown in my stash that wasn't at least some bit wool, but it was washable....I didn't want to risk it anyway. I don't like this brown but oh well.

Cut little bunny tail and freestyled floppy ears

Disco bear LOL. I don't know what happened when I sewed him together. The lower half looks like the toddler potty dance, the upper half is waving to the teacher to get their attention. 100gr for all the bears.

I bought 6 balls of red worsted yarn from Facebook Marketplace for more red scarves.

That's 1186gr of new yarn that I don't think I'm going to get knit this fall, but I'll be ready to go for next year. I was rooting through my bins and found a few balls of red Astra I had bought when I was making custom Christmas stockings. It's been awhile. Do I dare use it for scarves?

I've also been sewing but I'll save that for another day.  I've been trying to blog this post for a month but Blogger, on this account, has not been working for inserting pictures on my laptop. I can use a different account, and post pictures in the blog I have on that account (Ontteachertracy if you're into music teaching). I was down in the basement doing my morning yoga and thought I'd give the desktop a try. So at least I can post this way. It feels so retro LOL. Stuck in the cold (Air conditioning) basement!

Oh, and I'm test crocheting something and needed to buy yarn for that but I'll save that for another post.

Yarn In:  1182gr
Yarn Out: 1005gr + 500gr = 1505gr
Balance: 323gr more OUT than in
Costs: $20

This is such a falsified total LOL. All those bears were from donated yarn which I didn't count in my Yarn In total LOL.

Little Bit of This, Little Bit of That

 I have been working on a black/charcoal shawl/stole for what feels like forever. I think I started in early March--I think I worked on it at Lucy's Iron Ring ceremony (a really cool Canadian tradition for graduating engineers). 

It kept Rob warm at a "Brass on the Grass" concert in June (our local brass band, The Whitby Brass Band holds outdoor concerts in the summer)

It kept Megan and I very warm during Lucy's extremely cold graduation ceremony, in a big arena on the hottest day of the year. It's been on numerous road trips. It just feels like it's been FOREVER. It's probably wider than I realize, and I wanted to make sure it was long enough to really wrap around me. I've started the decrease section, and I finally feel like it might end!

I also finished (quite a while ago), another shrug that I had worked on during our New Brunswick road trip last year. It was supposed to be the easier of the two that I worked on during that trip, because it's just stockinette. But do I do easy? LOL. Every once in awhile I'd notice I had done a purl row on the knit side. It's knit cuff to cuff, and one arm ended up being quite a bit narrower than the other arm. I unstitched the seam, and added basically a long short row gusset under the arm. I added a ribbed band all the way around, but tried to incorporate shaping but it just didn't work and I think I undid that and just kept it as ribbing. In the end, I haven't worn it much--it's very warm, and even though I wear a lot of turquoise, it just doesn't work. 

It bled a lot when I washed it! Such a pretty colour.

I think this picture was to show the inside, one edge of the short row gusset I added to get more width in the arm. The sleeves are not quite wrist length, and this starts about 3 inches up from the wrist edge. It's a good thing it was a very textured, colourful boucle.

I don't have any shots of it on. Just scroll down a few posts and look at the other shrug. This one is just solid, no lace pattern. It was made with Mystique Mohair Boucle, 12ply, Hand Painted by Jan Gilray. I still have a 100gr skein (and a small ball). The tag says $9.99 but I think I bought it at Value Village. The shrug used 190gr (so somewhere is about a 10gr ball).

My middle kid Lucy and her boyfriend sometimes go to cat sit for his brother, and they wanted to take him some new mice, so I made a few. I couldn't find the pattern I used before...perhaps I should have searched this blog LOL. I don't even remember how many I made, or how much yarn they used...but let's just say 50gr.

And lastly, Megan is going to stay with her boyfriend and his aunt & uncle for 5 days and wanted to take a felted duck for their dog, so that got done last week. A whopping  112gr used up. 

I never really liked the feet in the pattern so I experimented. I tried short rows to make the points, and I tried a sort of chevron inc/dec pattern (like on afghans). Not happy with either, but oh well, I'm sure the dog doesn't care.

I did receive a donation of yarn for making blankets and baby items. I'm not going to count it right now, as I'm not sure how much I will actually keep. I'll get to that soon. 

Yarn In:  0gr
Yarn Out: 653gr + 352gr (this post)=  1005gr
Balance: 1005gr more OUT than in
Costs: $0

A Little Donation

 Since my LTO ended early, I've still been at the school, working as a supply/sub. When I go in, I now have to sign in at the office, and there's usually the same teachers there hanging out (there's air conditioning). The other day, one had a basket of assorted yarn. I asked what for--they were doing weaving for Father's Day. She wasn't all that thrilled with the colours of yarn that were donated. Oh, I said, I have a basement FULL of yarn. I'll bring you some. So I did...

Almost a pound! It was just a quick trip through my baskets that were most accessible. Her class isn't huge too, so I didn't know how much she needed. She was thrilled! I pick more manly colours, and lots of textures.

Yarn In:  0gr
Yarn Out: 217 + 436gr =  653gr
Balance: 653gr more OUT than in
Costs: $0

Red Scarves

 I had intended to knit as many red scarves for World AIDS Day as I could this year. I've contributed in the past, but then I think they weren't collecting during Covid, and then life moved on. I don't have a ton of red yarn, but I do have some, and I do have a giant cone of very fine red yarn.

This one is two different thick, textured yarns; one was a Bernat yarn, like Illusion, or Homespun. 134grams.

I did a brioche, so it's pretty thick and dense. Cozy.

This one is a generic red worsted weight acrylic, knit 4 rows, then 2 stockinette rows of the very thin yarn. Total, 83gr. 

One edge has kind of a pointy effect; the other edge is where the yarns were carried up and is straighter. 

I will be making some more. I think I have enough for a thickish one, maybe with random yarns, and who knows how many with the very thin yarn but I'll machine knit those.

Yarn In:  0gr
Yarn Out: 217gr
Balance: 217gr more OUT than in
Costs: $0

It's May?

 Where did April go?

Oh yes, I set up a Teachers Pay Teachers store. If you don't know what TPT is, think of it like Etsy but for teachers. Teachers make, and sell resources for other teachers--either classroom resources, or teacher resources. I wasn't expecting much, considering the products I made were geared (I thought) for the beginning of the year, but I ended up selling just shy of $90 US. I was hoping for 1/10 of that!

And yes, I have been knitting again! I finished a shrug I started last summer to work on during our road trip. No pictures yet--it's been gloomy a lot and it only matches a few shirts I wear so I just haven't gotten the pictures done.

I knit one red scarf for World AIDS Day, and I started a second, and I have a scarf/stole on the needles as well.

I've also been working quite a bit!

Enough of that, on to today's topic. I get emails from "MDK": Modern Daily Knitting. They send out emails related to their store/patterns/yarns and sometimes I read them. If you remember Franklin Habit--I can't remember where from initially (Ravelry?)--he writes some posts. However today's (?) email caught my eye because I recognized instantly the hat in the thumbnail. 

It's a two layer, reversible hat, exactly like ones I started machine knitting back in...2012? I made a lot of them then, and created a sideways knit version based on an email printout I had from 2006. Machine knitters love doing two sided/reversible items because it means not having to use a ribber, or add ribbing. I honestly do not think I would hand knit this hat--though I did hand knit many sideways knit, garter stitch hats--but they weren't reversible/two layers. 

Everything old is new again, just wait long enough! 

It's March?

 I can't believe it's March. 

I have been knitting--we've had several road trips to the kids' university/colleges, my mom's place, etc. But nothing has gotten finished. 

I had some sort of reaction to a scarf that I made a year (?) ago. It's mainly wool (I think), and I had started using a retinol product, and always made sure to do my neck. I broke out in a rash...weirdly, I had been using the product for a month, and I'd been using the scarf for a couple months, so I don't know what happened. I stopped both, and have now restarted the retinol with no issue. I haven't worn the scarf again. It's a fairly rough wool.

I have been working on brioche mittens to match the hat I made myself, but every time I knit them (in the truck), I get congested. The hat makes my forehead itch. Sigh. I've become very tender in my old age.

Anyway. 

This school year, I was hired as a 0.5 LTO position--mornings only, teaching music from grades 4-8 at the school I accidentally worked full time at last year. In January, I was asked to also work the afternoons, teaching math and science to grade 7/8. The science was no problem, but I can not do math. It was supposed to be a week. They tried to find a teacher to replace another teacher so she could do this job, but there were no applicants. So the teacher that was the afternoon 0.5 LTO (the other half of my position--neither of us could do the whole position), was going to take over, but they had to find someone to take over her English classes. I ended up spending all of January teaching math and science. Often, another teacher would come in to do the math while I covered their class. However, the kids were a challenge to start with, and got worse as the month went on (mainly one class). I had an actual, on the ground, fist fight break out near the end of January. So I said that was it, Jan 31. I'm back to half days, with a few afternoons also supplying. Behaviours have gotten terrible. It's sad. 

Then, just before the long weekend in Feb (like, Feb 15?) I found out the teacher I was replacing, was going to come back early!! WTF?! I had planned the entire year, with projects that build upon what they learned. I was learning digital composition to teach them! The original teacher is more old school--paper and pencil, listening logs to boring songs. She's been on a return to work program, so she's been coming in every other morning for two weeks, but not in the classrooms yet. She'll start that soon, observing, helping with small groups, etc. I told two of the grade 7/8 classes today, and many were almost as upset as me. I was really looking forward to "graduating them" since I've known them for 4 or so years. Other intermediate teachers only know them 2 years; I got to know them earlier because of being a supply teacher. 

I had been thinking of opening a Teachers Pay Teachers store this summer, but I'm going to start early. It sounds like my last day of this position will be March 22. We have a week off after next week. The store will be called Stay Musical. I have started a blog  and can be found on Twitter with the same name as the blog (OntTeacherTracy). On Instagram, I am www.instagram.com/staymusical_ I'm not giving up on this blog, but considering how little I knit, there might not be a lot of posts. It's been an awesome 18 years!

Finished Some Things in the Nick of Time

 I really wanted to finish up some projects for the end of the year. However, I found new projects that created a bad case of startitis. A road trip to my Mom's and a couple late nights though and somethings got finished. 

Woah, using profile mode on my phone makes the glass table look like it's not there! That's kind of freaky.

The hat is Triangles Brioche hat, available for free. I recommend having some brioche experience. I may have made the brim triangles a bit short because I misunderstood the pattern.

I used Noro "Kuryeon" and Peace Fleece, I think 4.5mm needles and I knit the smaller size. It fits perfect, perhaps a teeny tiny bit loose on the forehead but it's okay.

Rob said I needed a pompom because it'll make me look taller. I dug out the pompom maker (from a Klutz kit).

I used both strands together. I stopped midway through the first half, cut the yarn, then started the second half. Wrapped it full, then went back to the first half. I wanted the yarn to blend more, and not create blotches.

When you cut it open, it looks terrible. It's more football shaped and scraggly. Trim it up (somewhat aggressively!). Then swing it around by the long strand so it gets fluffed up. Then steam! Yes! Especially with natural fibers. The steam opens it up and makes it fluffy and dense.

I sewed it on but it was really floppy. I watched some YouTube videos on how to fix this but I wasn't happy with them. Instead I used a button inside and thread the yarn ends through the button so I could pull them tight and knot, and not have the knot work through the knitting. It seems to have worked well. 96 grams.

I finished the hat in the last 1km of the drive to my Mom's (did the pompom at home). So I went to the back up project, the mitts that have been in my purse for months. As I approached the top of the palm, I had a sneaky suspicion that there wouldn't be enough yarn. So, because they fit me, I switched to making them handwarmers, with ribbing. I tapered the pinky side because I have short pinkies. I'm not planning on keeping these though LOL. 58grams.

I had planned the next project before I left home, so I was prepared. I had somehow found Hyperbolic Mobius Fidget toy.  Well, isn't that cool. I wish I had my own classroom so I could keep a stash of these. The first one, I did have to start it three times LOL. The third one, I had to rip out after 2" because I had forgotten the increases. Once you figure it out, it's easy! 

The first two, I did this weird yarn for the last round. It has these 2" caterpillars of fluff every 6". Instead of trying to crochet them, I treated them like a bobble (crocheted the start of the fluff with a SC, skip ahead to the end of the fluff, crochet a SC into the same stitch). The last row made it a bit too thick though. I should have not crocheted as many rows before doing that. The third one, I used a plain black for the last row and made tiny bobbles. I figure this way, I can hand it to a student, and say "find the start of the black row" and they can work it through the centre, driving themselves either crazy or calm. Please watch a video of these fidgets in action. While I did finish that last black row today, I'm going to include it in 2023 totals. I just didn't want to get up last night to get the black yarn LOL. 70gr + 31gr 

Alright. Year end totals. 

2023:

Yarn In:  0g
Yarn Out: 255gr + 620gr = 875gr
Balance: 875gr more OUT than in
Costs: $0

2022:

Yarn In: 940gr

Yarn Out:  1264gr 

Difference: 324gr more OUT than in

Costs: $28.78/365 days = $0.08/day

2021:

Yarn In:  3109gr

Yarn Out:  1053gr + 4586gr =  5369gr

Balance: 2530 gr more OUT than in

Cost:   $44.66, 365 days, $0.12/day

2020:

Yarn In:   6477gr
Yarn Out:  11482gr
Balance: 5005gr gr more OUT than in!
Costs:  $140.68/365 days = $0.39 per day

2019                                                                          2018

Yarn In:  2485.5gr                                                  Yarn In: 1501gr

Yarn Out: 3384gr                                                   Yarn Out:  4142 gr
Balance:  898gr more OUT than IN                      Balance: 2641 gr OUT
Costs: $90.24 = $0.25/day                                     Costs: $41.39 = $0.11/day

2017                                                                      2016
Yarn In: 2442gr                                                     Yarn In:  11 223gr
Yarn Out:  4900gr                                                 Yarn Out: 11 260gr
Balance: 2458gr more OUT                                 Balance: 37gr OUT
Costs:   $67.30 = $0.18/day                                  Costs:  $507.27 = $1.39/day

2015                                                                      2014

Yarn In:  9989gr                                                   Yarn In:  10 076gr

Yarn Out:  9272gr                                                Yarn Out:  8061gr
Balance:  717gr more IN                                     Balance:  2015gr more IN
Costs:  $430.10 = $1.18/day                                Costs:  $511.49 = $1.40

2013                                                                     2012
Yarn In: 16 153gr                                                 Yarn In: 21 096
Yarn Out:  16 805gr                                             Yarn Out:  16 849gr
Balance:  625gr more OUT                                  Balance:  4247gr more IN
Costs:  $378.91 = $1.04/day                                 Costs:  524.43 = $1.43/day

I was surprised last year at how little I bought, and knit. Well, this is my first $0 year. I wish I had started keeping track sooner. These 12 years do represent a huge range of life situations. I was doing some custom knitting, some for sale (which rarely sold after I knit it; I gave away a huge lot of items to my MIL to sell/donate at her church's bazaar this past November); I've done a lot of charity knitting. Some years I had lots of money to spend on yarn, some years I didn't. This past year, I could have spent a lot--but I didn't have time to knit! 

Twelve Year Totals and Averages:

Yarn In:  85 491gr

    Average: 7 124gr

Yarn Out:  93 663gr

    Average:  7805gr

Balance: 8172gr more OUT than in

Costs: $2765.25

    Average:  $230.44 or $0.63/day

I wonder what this year will bring. I'm still drawing a lot. I'm working on creating digital resources for work, and potentially to sell. I'm hoping to sew more (I just bought a bunch of fabric to try to use up some fabric LOL). I'm going to keep knitting. The charity I used to donate blankets to has stopped, so I'm not sure what I'll knit. I was going to make some fingerless gloves to go with the hat from this post but really, the yarn is thick and they should be mittens. The fingerless gloves I wear daily are from the end of 2015 and are in sock yarn. I still love them even though they've faded. Heavy worsted weight for fingerless gloves seems a bit wrong. Clunky. I could knit a scarf but I really don't need one. More bears? Gnomes?