Where Have I Been?

So, inquiring readers want to know -- how have I been spending my leisure time lately since I clearly have not been blogging? Well, on a whim I signed up to be a volunteer proofreader at Project Gutenberg and the time just flew by. It's actually kind of addicting. That's the project where they are converting old books with expired copyrights into eBooks you can download. So you can read Shakespeare (or some obscure history books) online for free. Worthwhile use of my time? Hmmm.... Well, I think so. Information for the Masses, that's my motto.

I know you're all waiting for the pictures of my finished Lady E. Well, sorry. Still haven't blocked it. I know -- I'm a Slowski.

Instead I finished some Red Sox socks for Uncool Guy. These are the second pair of Red Sox themed socks I've made for him (you can see the first pair in my gallery). Those were on US 0's and took forever. These were on US 4's with worsted weight yarn and were quick, quick, quick. Here are the specs:

Pattern:

My own

Yarn:

Accessories Unlimited Yarn for Sox [80% wool, 20% nylon],
color: Red Mix (just slightly over 1 skein), and Ecru (about 1/4 of a skein?)

Needles:

US 4 circs

Gauge:

5.25 sts and 7.75 rows = 1"

Size:

Sized to fit a man's size 8.5 feet

Comments:

This yarn is a little rough, but I think it will soften up with washing. I bought this yarn a year or two ago because it was the only worsted weight yarn made specifically for socks that I had seen. It certainly makes thick socks (which I've made just in time for spring -- sigh).
I really like this heathery red color. It's much darker in person than it appears in the online picture at WEBS.

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I've also been playing around with crochet some more. I tried making one of the dishcloths at Crochet Pattern Central (thanks for the link, Auntie Amanda). I think it was this one. However, I kept coming out with the wrong nbr of stitches. I decided to take a step back and just try some of the stitch patterns out of the Happy Hooker book where they are described in detail for beginners. I made another dishcloth out of the V-stitch pattern using some more kitchen cotton (no picture). That came out well, so I decided to do another with a finer cotton as a facecloth. Here's a closeup:

V-Stitch Pattern in Crochet

This was made with Mandarin Petit cotton yarn using a F/5 (3.75mm) crochet hook. I really like this yarn for knitted facecloths, but it doesn't seem work as well for crochet. It splits like crazy with crochet (not with knitting) so I had to use a pattern in which you mostly crochet into a space (not a stitch).

I think I now prefer crocheted dishcloths to knitted ones; the crocheted texture provides better "scrubbing action". However, when it comes to facecloths, I prefer a softer knitted texture. Here are some of my favorites that I made using the same cotton yarn. And, because I'm a geek who loves to chart things, I have worked out charts for both of these stitch pattern and have shared them with you below. Enjoy.

Bee Stitch

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Double Brioche Stitch
(aka Double English Brioche or Three Dimensional Honeycomb)

Notes for Double Brioche Stitch:

Start with pattern with an EVEN nbr of stitches, plus 2 edge stitches. Each set of 2 sts (other than the edge sts) will be increased to 3 during the two setup rows.

This stitch pattern does not need to be done with edge stitches, but I think they make the pattern easier to knit, because you don't have to worry about yarn-overs at the beginning/end of a row. Also, I think the edges actually look better with the edge stitches.

When you go to bind off this stitch pattern, just knit together each yarnover with the next stitch (so you end up with as many stitches as you started with).