Black Olive Is: In The Loop

Never Gets Old

The "origami-ness" of EZ's Baby Surprise Jacket is so brilliant, I can't take it. Spreading it out into a big floppy mass and folding it up gives me a little thrill every time. I will hunt down anyone who is willing to watch me demonstrate so they too can share in the joy. (I actually put off seaming it so I can show people as many times as possible – THAT's how much I enjoy it.)

Plus, it folds up so nicely. 

Some i-cord ties, a steam and seam and some crochet edging and we should be good to go.

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Notes: This is my fourth time knitting this pattern and I'm already looking forward to the next one. Each time, I try to make it unique to the baby recipient - either through yarn and color choice, edgings or additions. I panic about buttons and babies, so with this one, I chose an i-cord tie.

Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket

Yarn: 1.75 skeins of Claudia Handpainted Scout's Honor

Needles: US Size 2 Addi Turbo Circular

No More Empty Promises

For the past few years I've been on and off with this blog. When I'm on, I'm ON and when I'm off, well...I'm off for a LONG time. The first post after a lengthy absence usually starts with some kind of "I'm back" statement which is then followed by a slew of well-intentioned sentences promising regular updates.

And, as you all know, this has not worked out well. 

Regular posting has seemed unnecessary. Who wants to hear about yet another sock FO? Who cares about my FOURTH Baby Surprise Jacket? Who wants to see pictures of yet ANOTHER stash enhancement? I've been knitting mostly for pleasure and relaxation these past couple of years, so I just ran out of things to say about knitting. 

BUT, lately I've been moving back into more challenging patterns and, my interest in trying a few things I have yet to conquer has been sparked. Also, I'd like to keep a visual record of my knits (regardless of how basic they may be) and I'd like to track my progress and thoughts on new techniques and projects -- so, as a result, I'm feeling the urge to blog again.

I am NOT, however, making any promises. NO MORE EMPTY PROMISES! 

My loose plan is to post when I feel like posting (not because of pressure or obligation) and to stop feeling like I can't talk about anything else in my life -- regardless of whether or not it has to do with knitting. Removing these hangups will most likely result in more posts. Or not. We shall see. 

In the meantime, here is an updated picture of Yogi. He's gained a "little" bit of weight -- despite my portioning out his food. I think it's a "sympathetic weight gain" in response to his human's recent and unfortunate increase in mass. :)

 

 

 

 

Old School Stuffs and "Historic Floods"

As I'm sure most of you know, there was a flood over in these here parts. And not just any flood people, it was a HISTORIC FLOOD (as the local news stations kept calling it over and over, again and again with the HISTORIC FLOOD until it permeated every cell of my being. Just sayin'.).

As a result, Yogi and I are "displaced." We are living in what amounts to an open-air living area until the apartment downstairs has undergone it's complex surgical reconstruction.

In the meantime there has been a lot of disassembling, reassembling, carrying heavy boxes up stairs, organizing trash, dehumidifying, towel washing, yelling obscenities, coming up with plan Bs, picking out tiles and grout colors, buying scrapers and power drills and paint, stubbed toes, FEMA paperwork, yelling (did I mention the yelling?) and general chaos.

BUT, believe it or not, there has also been knitting and crocheting. Oh yes. How else could I deal with such annoyance?

In fact, since the flood – the HISTORIC FLOOD (see above) – I've knit a pair of footlets, a pair of socks, crocheted all the squares for the Sock Monkey Blanket, crocheted up to half of the mammoth Chevron Blanket and started a new pair of socklets (see below).

Notice anything odd?

Somewhere in all the drama that is the garage which currently houses all of my furniture, is my ball winder and swift. Losing patience quickly after an attempt to find them, I gave up and decided to rock it old school and wind an actual ball WITH MY OWN TWO HANDS. I was feeling proud and connected to ages-old Sisterhood of the Knitted Pants until I realized what a MASSIVE PAIN IN THE ASS this was. I just needed to get some socks on the needles and knit, people! Quick, quick! Chop, chop! An hour later, this yarn ball was born.

It's very pretty and Yogi loves sleeping on it, but, um, YEAH...never again (unless I have NO OTHER CHOICE).

I know some of you out there prefer hand winding and I admire you, really, I do. But me? THIS girl? I'll endure the jumping spiders and back pain from lifting several heavy bins to rescue that ball winder and swift so I can camp my fat ass down ASAP with a new project. Just sayin'.

I'll have pics of the rest of the stuff I've been working on in the next few days. I just thought I'd log in with my HISTORIC FLOOD update and some pics of old school ball winding at it's finest. :)

The Chevron Classic

What can I say? Seriously, who doesn't have one of these laying around the house somewhere? I don't think anyone can take up crochet and not – EVENTUALLY – make at least ONE chevron blanket. Just sayin'.

All I know is that I personally own three, in garish 70's colors that were all the rage back then (really though, how could brown and mustard ever have been in vogue in ANY era?). Granny kept cranking these babies out all through my youth and, people – THEY. NEVER. DIE. I've washed them, eaten on them, been sick on them, had pets crawl all over them, taken them to college (and you can imagine the scenarios they've lived through there), moved them around to various apartments – and STILL – they live.

What is the allure of the chevron pattern itself? I don't really know. I'm sure there's some primal, instinctual, Joseph Campbell-esque reason why it keeps showing up in odd places, but that's a little too deep for this post.

Instead, let's all look at the pretteee colors and how they add the "modern twist" to an old classic.

Disclaimer:  Just so everyone knows, I've since retired those blankies. I mean, how much wear can they endure? I still pull them out when I'm sick, but only because they remind me of my Granny and – LIKE GIANT BABY – I like to feel close to my Granny when I have the sniffles.

Disclaimer #2: This officially makes it THREE crochet projects on the hook. When I dive in to something new, I DIVE IN, PEOPLE.

Disclaimer #3: The colors are really hard to capture. The brown is a gorgeous deep chocolate and the green is a nice pale lime – not the weird yellow that shows up on screen. The blue is pretty accurate. There you go.

Babies and Monkeys and Bunnies. Oh my.

A long while back, before Woolcott shed this mortal coil, I paid them a visit on one of my yarn crawls. At the time, everyone around me was procreating and part of my yarn crawl mission was finding yarn for about three baby knits. I scratched two off the list, but could not seem to find the right yarn for the "Baby Bunny Jacket" – a very cute little knit from "Vogue Knitting: Baby Knits Two." Woolcott was my last stop on the crawl and also my last hope.  I was desperate and in a rush, so I committed one of the cardinal sins of knitting: I trusted the shop owner's recommendation and, when I got home, I just PLOWED RIGHT AHEAD without knitting a gauge swatch.

Fast forward to about a month ago where I suddenly realize –– as I've finished knitting the front and back –– that (shock!) the gauge is TOTALLY off and I now have an almost-finished jacket that is both too wide and WAY too large for this baby -- who is about to arrive in a few short weeks!

 

 
 Why? Have I learned nothing in the past 8 years of my knitting life? 

The thing is, baby knits go so quickly, that by the time I noticed, it was too late! I decided to go ahead and finish the hood and sleeves and since then, I've finished the ears and i-cords. All that's left is the finishing and an i-cord edging. 

But there was no way I could give this enormous jacket to a newborn right before Spring. The timing is off. Next Fall it'll be too small and right now it's just too big. So, since this jacket never really seemed right for this baby, I started looking for something else and found THIS achingly adorable thing: "L'il Monkey Afghan and Hat" from Debbie Stoller's "Happy Hooker."

I know it's crochet, but baby's mom LOVES sock monkeys (and it's also the perfect project for beginner crochet), so I went ahead and ordered the yarn and am already two monkeys into this thing after just a few hours.

The best part about this project is that it seems like it's quick and the yarn was insanely cheap! It needs to be crocheted in some sort of machine washable yarn and for some reason, crochet plus acrylic equals perfect union.

All kinds of blasphemy right? 

Anyway, I'm saving the jacket for the right baby, and I'm hoping to finish this delicious sock monkey extravaganza in the next week or two, so I can finally visit the little cutie-pie with hand-crafted items in tow.