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…

Link: Project Calculator: How Much Yarn Will You Need?

Guess who just did a bunch of work so that you wouldn’t have to?

Click the link, read the steps.

The calculators are not crochet or knit specific. It’s all about yarn, baby.

The mail brought me a gift from the Gods, darlings. Seriously.

A 3.5mm stereo plug to dual RCA male adapter.

A small part, cheaply purchased ($5 USD), and now I have the last piece to complete my cassette-to-computer conversion of audio.

That piece connects to a previously purchased ($3-6 USD) male RCA to 3.5mm stereo y-adapter:

Put the male RCA y-adapter, stereo jack side, into the mini-cassette player, plug the male RCA side of it into the female RCA adapter (first image), and then plug the 3.5mm adapter side of the female RCA to the line-in jack of your computer. After that, set your computer audio to allow recording from the line-in, and tell your favorite audio editor to use the line-in as a playback/recording option. From there, it is all VOILA and happiness!

(sound confusing? it’s really not.)

What this means for me is that I can record on my handheld cassette recorder and then transfer it to the computer in order to convert it for the podcast! No more having to wait for people to be asleep. No more restrictions to recording only at the computer. No more delays between episodes because I’ve thrown my back out, or I’m too busy to sit still at the computer long enough. Good news all around.

SO. EXCITING.

Here’s the test clip:

Cassette To Computer Test

…there’s nothing wrong with being a bit of a geek, right?

My new excel spreadsheet, complete with ticky boxes for fiber content(s). Click on the image and you can see it larger and more clearly. Brand, Name, Fiber, Rec’d Hook, Actual Hook, Gauge, Weight of swatch… I’m likely to add more as I come up with, or remember, them. Any suggestions?

All of this–ransacking my binder of swatches and previous notes–reminds me that I have tons of yarn to unload. Some will go to Yarn Swap when I have the chance to gather all the relevant information, and some will be up for sale.

Easy Square Jr by Sharon Hultgren
Originally uploaded by Oh, Cadi.

Say hello to my new crochet tool!

It’s actually for quilting, but the fact that I can count out a 4″x4″ square within this 6″x6″ tool is awesome. I can see through it to count more accurately.

What’s even better is that I’ve managed to lose the clear 12″ ruler I was previously using to measure my swatches and gauge so I won’t feel guilty for using this beauty. I doubt I’ll lose this thing, and if someone steals it, I can use it like a chinese star once I find out who takes it from me!

Also, while I have you here, I’ll admit I am JUST NOW crocheting my 2nd of three swatch for the second class of Art of Crochet’s seminar. It’s nearing ever closer to 2am, and I believe Josi has us starting our 2nd class around 7:30pm CST/8:30pm EST.

Keep that in mind. Visit the Livejournal account of Art of Crochet’s Academy (Art of Crochet) for more information or to participate tonight!

I bought this mannequin head/neck display a couple of days ago via eBay. It’s being shipped to me and is due to arrive this Thursday. That’s exciting, really, because my styrofoam head needs to badly be replaced. Poor thing.

Nothing to report other than that. The pattern for “Pinwheel Beanie” is out with pattern testers, and until I hear back from them and make certain that everything checked out, I have no other news!

I am in the process of looking over some of my sketches to see what I’d like to tackle next.