The Crochet Side

The Beast, as I not-so-fondly referred to the Interweave Crochet project, was shipped this past week. The box was massive and, due to costs, is likely not going to arrive until today (Saturday) or this coming Monday.

From online tracking, I know the box of yarn leftovers already made it to the Interweave office in Loveland, CO. Now I’m just crossing my fingers that the actual project makes it there safely and that they don’t promptly e-mail to tell me that it arrived a big ol’ mess. Or, worse, that it’s hideous and they would never accept a submission from me again.

There’s a lot of fear in this world of crochet design, let me tell you. No hiding the fact that I’m terrified someone is going to call or e-mail and it will only be someone saying:

HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA

The rational part of me realizes this is unwarranted. The irrational part of me is looking for a dark corner.

To keep myself from going down that path, let me tell you two lessons I learned during this imposed absence of mine:

1. Never promise to crochet something 10 times larger than the sample you sent in. (Also note the promised 10 times will probably equal 11 times because of 2 below.)

2. Measure, calculate, math, math, math, 4,013 times before you begin. I screwed up my math twice.

The first time I was halfway through the first half of the first side. The second time I was already done with both sides and beginning to seam the blasted thing together. Due to each section of the sides taking 5-6 hours per, there was no way I was going to be able to re-crochet the whole thing in time. So, I told my lip to stop quivering, pulled up my Big Girl Pants, and wrote down where I screwed up. I then padded the pillow to use up the extra space I had to work with.

Here’s a third thing I learned:

3. I dislike large projects. If I can’t finish it within a day or two, I want nothing to do with it.

That could always change in the future, and this may have more to do with having a bunch of merino on my lap in the middle of a Florida summer, but still, lesson learned for the time being.

Having said that, I’m proud of the work I did do. I really hope it arrives safe and sound, and that they’re able to photograph it, highlighting how lovely the finished product can be.

I realize that I’m crochet-crochet-crochet, but I’ve been taking a break since shipping off The Beast. I’ve picked up some circular knitting needles and am just knitting away. I’m not even knitting anything in particular. The freedom is lovely and rewarding, but I can already feel the itch to play with these bad boys…

Some of you may not be aware, but I work for Six Apart. On our Everything TypePad blog, there is a post regarding the 2nd Annual DonorsChoose.org Blogger Challenge. (You can read more about it here.)

To the right of this entry, if you are viewing this directly on the blog, you will see a widget, prompting you to donate to some worthy causes.

First up…

the Crochet Club, which was started by a teacher in South Carolina. She is trying to raise some money for supplies so that her 3rd-5th grade students are able to learn an (awesome!) skill, that will also preoccupy them during their morning wait for school to begin.

That was the only crochet-related cause at DonorsChoose.org, so I decided to bring in some knitting-related ones as well. I am, however, keeping with the teacher’s teaching their students a craft theme.

The other 3 groups are as follows:

Let’s Learn to Knit — an elective class of 6th graders in a high-needs community who need to raise funds for supplies. There has been enthusiasm for such a class, but there is no guarantee that the students’ families will be able to provide supplies.

Baby, It’s Cold Outside — High School students wanting to learn how to knit, then providing the finished objects to their local Ronald McDonald house. Needs funds for supplies.

Warm Head, Warm Heart — Third, Fourth, and Fifth graders are wanting to learn how to knit in order to provide their finished goods to the local homeless shelters.

That’s it! If you’re willing to donate even $2.00 to either, or each, of these groups, please do so. They’ll be able to meet their goals if we all just give what we can.

As incentive, if we can meet the goals for each of the groups, I will create a colorway and hold a giveaway. If we meet the goal for one group, I will create a colorway and dye a single skein of DK-weight yarn and offer it up on this blog for a giveaway. If we meet the goal for two groups, I will create a colorway and dye TWO skeins of DK-weight yarn. If we meet the goal for THREE groups, I will–you get the point.

For every group’s goal we meet, I will dye an equal amount of skeins, and we will have an equal amount of winners. 1 goal, 1 skein, 1 winner. 4 goals, 4 skeins, 4 winners.

Go ahead, donate, and make me proud!