7/22/26
My fellow Americans, it's been a long time. First, let me report that I finished my original PetiteKnit Anker's Summer Shirt on or about June 13th. I took a substantial amount of length off the bottom because my torso is short (and yes, my face actually looks like that in real life - I'm very stunning and brave). The look is perfect, I just can't raise my arms in the office (acceptable). I have been washing and wearing this thing for a month now (to TWO different offices!) and it feels great and people are impressed.
I had such a nice time knitting this garment that I immediately ordered better circular needles and six skeins of DROPS Belle in the colorway "Petrol." I like a saturated turquoise to begin with, but I really liked the color name - to me it evokes the rainbow sheen on a gasoline puddle ("gasoline" being the burgerpilled synonym for "petrol"). I didn't realize DROPS isn't sold in the US, so I made my first overseas purchase since the end of the de minimis exemption last year. It was pretty painless! It seems that many international mail systems and couriers have worked out how to handle US import customs by now. The website calculated the duties (less than $2), and I paid directly to the merchant at the time of purchase. I didn't have to assign Power of Attorney to DHL or anything.
For this project I bought two fixed needles, US 6 and 4, both in 24", from the ChiaoGoo "Red Lace" line. The coated steel cables are everything I dreamed they would be. I'm SERIOUSLY eyeing the interchangeable red lace set when I have the money for it.
I experienced a chance meeting my second-to-last week at my previous job: my friend from the building introduced me to another friend, and she asked me to make a crochet hat. I wanted to be friendly, and a hat sounded easy, so I said I would! Little did I know the style of hat my new friend preferred creates a ruffle by tripling the stitch count every row for five rows. The last row of this monstrosity (positive) - ONLY the last row - has something like 4,000 DC. She almost killed me outright, but I can't argue with the results - this hat is SUPER fun.
Several things occurred during this project. I was really stressed out between accepting my new job's offer and giving my old job notice, so it was actually kind of good to have a simple crochet project to mindlessly pour 4-5 hours a night into that week. I also didn't expect to get paid for my labor, but ended up earning a cool $25 USD for my trouble (a lowball, but not by that much, compared to the FOs of this type being sold on Etsy). All that said, I regret to inform you that my Seafarer's Scarf valiantly gave its life to complete the blue rows of this project - I ran out of "I Love This Yarn!" Royal in something like the third or fourth ruffle row. I certainly wasn't going back to Hobby Lobby, and I had already matched the dye lots when I bought the skeins in 2023... the writing was on the wall. Some time this year I hope to cast on the remains of the scarf and finish it again... maybe with my Red Lace 6! Maybe in teal! Time will tell.
It's Art Fight this month, but by next month I hope to return with an update on Summer Shirt #2.
5/18/26
I'm one full set into my "Christmas at Sea" knits for this year! For this Seafarer's Scarf I started with the last of my "Parrot Stripe" and then finished in "Royal." The hat is "Royal" with some little pips of the (s)lime green I used in my big stupid Halloween cardigan of 2022 (not pictured). The (s)lime green is also Hobby Lobby "I Love This Yarn!" solid acrylic, but the actual name of the colorway is lost to time (to me). To make gauge (I hope), I used a size 6 circular needle and cast on 96. I'm aware my head is pretty small compared to the person who's likely to receive this gift. Also, I accidentally read the flat pattern at the end so my hat in the round is Kitchener-stitched closed. The pip pattern is a "Fair Isle-type" design I basically riffed after deciding that I wasn't ready to commit to my grand plan of pixel-dithering color changes this time. Adding the second color makes the fabric a lot bulkier, and I was afraid the hat wouldn't stretch if I had that many teeny tiny floats in it. I have no conscious control over my tension at all - I consider that to be in God's hands.
Late last week I also got extremely sick, which seems to happen to me whenever I go out of town now. I can't go on walks for at least a few more days, so I didn't want to start another Christmas at Sea knit, but I knew I would need something to fill the time and that it should be (relatively) simple - I did NOT want to start another hat in the round. So I used some of my black and some of my teal (I'm a big CMYK-head) to make Crochet by Mary Beth's Ball Button Crossbody Bag, of which I am a big fan. This is the only bag I know of where the toggle is a plush ball (delightful). I have a small crochet bag I use around the house and as a "pocket" for when I need to carry things from room to room, but I started to feel like I need a slightly more robust option for carrying a couple of things outside. I think this will be great for going downstairs to the back yard - any situation like that where I need my phone, house keys and maybe a paperback book, but I don't want to bring my entire full-time purse.
On Thursday I bought four skeins of Lion Brand 24/7 cotton which are in the mail - my next thing is going to be (I hope) a knit top I can wear to the office. Anyway, smash the like button.
4/14/26
I finished my waffle stitch baby blanket (I actually finished it on March 26th, but who's counting?)! I used the left-over yarn to make a small triangular shawl as a gift for my friend (as opposed to the baby). The shawl has already been hand-washed in the sink, so I just need to make time to wash the blanket. I don't want to machine wash it before I gift it because the machine is going to make the acrylic yarn fuzzy, but it DOES need to be washed... at least a little of this yarn has been fully dragged through a cup of room-temperature tea by accident (these things happen).
I'm not used to adding borders, so I'm proud of how this border turned out! I'm not 100% sure I worked "to gauge" but I made the waffle section the right length (32"), then added the indicated number of border rows (7). I hate working into the sides of stitches - to distribute the sc evenly, I used the suggested number of stitches (137), counted the number of waffle "squares" I had (42), and divided to find the average number of scs per "square". The answer was between 3 and 4 (3.26), so I knew I would have some squares with 3 and some squares with 4. Three sc per square would have been 126, meaning I would need 11 squares of 4 within my total of 42. I used a spreadsheet to distribute them evenly in the center, then worked from the spreadsheet. Anything can be turned into concrete figures if you're deranged enough!
The triangle shawl pattern is On Butterfly Wings by PurpleIguana. It's a two-row repeat that can be whatever size you want, so it was perfect for using up left-over yarn. I eliminated the ch3 between the sc on the last row to make it to the end and finish with the shortest possible scrap. Three whole skeins down! Thanks, Lion Brand (not sponsored)!
Part 3 of my finished object roundup: I finished the Miniature Wyvern I started at the end of January. Her name is Barb and she's pansexual. Please clap.
I absolutely love Megan Lapp's dragons and I am champing at the bit to start the Small Wyvern. I think I would use 20g wire for the mini wyvern's wings next time, but maybe the 18g wire is OK for the larger size. The mini wyvern pattern images are all in roving, so I'm looking at Loops & Threads Facets, probably in the colorway "Ember" (yellow/brown). I have to spend about a month not spending money and doing the activities I have at home, though.
2/27/26
It's a finished object roundup! I don't know how I'm going to "finish" finish this one, but let the record show I finally completed the design on this cross stitch bookmark I started in 2023.
I also finished my first SCI Seafarer's Scarf of 2026. Somehow I knit extremely loosely, so I've been using US 2 aluminum needles to make gauge. This time I switched to my size 2 bamboo circular needle on the ribbing, so the gauge completely changes part of the way through. The circular needle is much more portable though, and I don't have to worry about dropping one of the needles all the time. I ended up working too tightly to make the hat though, so I'm going to size up a little before I add a Watch Cap. I used the rest of the Red Heart variegated yarn to start another scarf.
2/16/26
My friend is going to have a baby this spring and I finally remembered I said I was going to make her a baby blanket. I assume babies need a lot of blankets so you can swap them out and always have a fresh one. I'm going to use the "Sandman" colorway of Lion Brand Mandala, a 100% acrylic DK I really liked buying in 2018/2019. I'm excited to use it again! Michael's is giving me trouble, but they have the colorway I want on Lion's website. I'm leaning towards a solid border but I haven't decided.
I'm still intending to make an articulated crochet dragon, but I haven't been to Michael's to buy floral wire and (test) safety eyes. I have scoped out where to buy the GOOD safety eyes when it's time to make the real one.