Domestic Thursday: Short 'n Sweet 'n Lagered

 

Pattern: Short and Sweet by Angela Best, in Stitch 'n Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker
Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 Cotton, "Musk"  
Hook size: 5 mm

 

Here it is, my Short and Sweet, all finished. I was worried that this bumpy, rustic cotton yarn would create a stiff piece of fabric, and that every time I slipped it over a sundress I would feel like an extra in a Lady Gaga video. But it blocked out nicely, with just enough drape to avoid the dreaded "power shoulders." Sigh. Now I'll have to send that laserdisc player back.

 

Also, my mom found this awesome vintage Mary Maxim pattern. It's got a Cowichan thing going on with that shawl collar, but that diamond pattern, maybe in brightly dyed yarn, would hopefully avoid any accusations of cultural appropriation. Should I knit it? I think I should!

 

And, finally, beer. This is Beau's Lug Tread Lagered Ale. Beau's comes from Vankleek Hill, Ontario, and is noted for doing all sorts of endearing and/or socially-conscious things like getting home brewers to plan beers for Beau's to brew, and partnering with Operation Come Home to bring Beau's to Ottawa-area doors. The difference between ales and lagers is mostly in the yeast. Ales feed at the top, and lagers at the bottom. But lagers are also usually aged at colder temperatures and conditioned for longer. Lug Tread bridges the gap by using ale yeasts, but finishing it off like a lager. It's their figurehead product, and what you're most likely to see in bars and LCBOs. But they also make stranger brews - beers spiced with peppermint and orange peel, beers made in bourbon barrels, and beers that use bog myrtle instead of hops. Lug Tread's taste isn't quite so bizarre as those concoctions. But it's a lovely, bready-tasting ale if you're looking to bring your lite beer-loving friends over to the side of taste and decency.

Domestic Thursday: Dry Edition

This Thursday will be a quickie, since I spent most of the day running around Toronto. Here's proof: I took this photo in RSquared on Queen West this afternoon. Pictured is my growing Short and Sweet cardi. Not pictured are the friendliest baristas I've ever encountered. All of them earned their tip, and here's a tip for you, if you've ever thought of crocheting this cardi: Check the errata. The first set of corrections points out the missing chain 2's in the written instructions, but canny folks could catch that either by looking at the chart or using common sense. The second set of clarifications is truly useful though. In one row a short chain needs to be added, and what to do with this little yarn outgrowth and why it's necessary is mystifying without this explanation. Beer will be back tomorrow. Until then I rest my weary legs and cramping crocheting fingers.

Domestic Whatever: Crochet and Uncrafty Beer

I missed my usual Thursday date for these posts because I was in Toronto, seeing friends, but Friday also ends in "day", so this is close enough for me. I'm still recovering from the holiday knitting, so the needles haven't been touched in a few days except in the most minimal way. You know, stockinette socks with self-patterning yarn. Not even finished, not worth a photograph. So here's what I've been doing with hooks instead:

Short and Sweet from Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker. A little, lacy cotton coverup, the perfect thing for Ontario's current windchill factor. Well, no, but I had this Mission Falls 1824 Cotton hanging around, giving me a guilt complex. It was a discontinued colour, so it was on sale, and since it was a yarn I had always wanted to use I bought 10 balls of the stuff- though the colour confounds. It's not quite terracotta, it's not really desert brown, it's the colour... of impulse purchasing. Or, according to the shade card of the now entirely discontinued yarn, "musk." It's been in my house for years, and after thinking about turning it into a drab utilitarian bag, I settled on this pattern. Not that my wardrobe largely features "musk" in any form, but I think it could find its place over a summer dress.

And this week's beer: Hop City's Barking Squirrel Lager. I found this in the LCBO and wondered what Hop City's deal was- I didn't remember seeing it on the Ontario Craft Brewers site. But it met my current beer requirements ("Anything but another IPA"), so I grabbed a can. Now, with the benefit of Google, I've learned that it's Moosehead's attempt on the craft beer market. The Creemore to its Molson, if you will, or the McCafé to its McDonalds. But I'll give even not-so-crafty beers the benefit of the doubt. Conclusions: not as hoppy as the brewery name and label promise, nor as flavourful overall as one could hope, but a respectable lager. Be wary of all that though, as I'm dealing with some leftover congestion.

When it comes to fake craft beers, I like to see major breweries offering better brews to the masses. But I would rather have them do so openly, rather than taking taps away from real craft breweries,or outshining them with larger marketing budgets. Still, I think good taste will often win out over good label design, which may be why, even two years after its launch, Hop City still has less space on LCBO shelves than Mill Street products.

Domestic Thursday: Juliana Wrap and Some Sweaters

I am now booking Thursdays on this blog to talk about matters domestic. Not politics domestic- check out Rabble.ca for that, I guess. But if you've long felt that the one area Rabble was truly lacking in, between its columns from union leaders and coverage of Occupy Toronto, was knitwear photos, check here once a week. Knitting, baking, sewing, I have a lot of free time and so you can expect a lot of completed projects. Hopefully.
First up, an accidentally "artistic" composition (got a little excited with the image filters there) of my first completed crocheted object, the Juliana Wrap made using two hanks of Montoya Beach Space Dyed linen yarn in Blood Red. The yarn has a really lovely drape post-blocking, though it spewed half of its dye into the water during the process. Below you can see me wearing the scarf. I kind of love the tassels. They're almost tacky. But not quite.
Flouncing around in the scarf keeps me from focusing on other, less-pleasant fibre-related business in my life.
This pile of knitting in need of steeking and finishing for example. Over a year has gone by and I still don't have the courage to cut the yarn.
And this cabled tragedy, a version of Knitty's Beatnik boatneck sweater, doomed as it is to be too small. I can only knit on, hoping some really aggressive blocking can solve the problem.

The Apprehensive Hooker

After a successful yoga mat bag-making enterprise, I thought it was safe to pick up the hook and crochet again. So I decided to make this scarf:Pattern from Berrocco.

Well, it's good to have dreams. Just trying to make the first medallion lead to a headache and a glimpse into Lovecraft-style madness. Crocheting is hard enough for a knitter, used as we are to linear progressions. But then the fine folks at Berrocco ask me to single crochet INTO yarn I've simply looped around my FINGERS, like it ain't no thing.

Reader, I did it, but I'm not sure I did the right thing. But here's what it looks so far, all 1.5 medallion's worth. Thank God I've got some socks to knit at the same time.

It's Cake to be Square

I started a new project last month. I always had a weird half hour before work. My brain wasn't functional enough to read a book, but it was too functional to keep itself busy with the asinine CTV morning show. When they did a segment on a giant lobster being moved to an aquarium, I knew I needed to do something, before I drowned myself in my morning coffee. So, I started crocheting. I had hoarded all of my scraps of worsted, heavy worsted, and chunky yarn for no reason, and the collection was reaching absurd, Howard Hughesian levels. I needed a project to use them all up, and the logistics of planning a whole knit blanket were just too imposing at the time. My brain was still struggling with the semantics of why the tupperware collection still needed a box. And if it would be meta to put them in one of those big tupperware storage containers. Oh, and the mysterious crust in the fridge of incredible adhesive powers was bothersome as well. So, I turned to that classic, the granny square. With little to no thought, and a couple of segments of the Daily Show, you have another square. And another, and another, until you have a nice little pile. It's also nostalgic to remember which project each yarn came from, or when it was added to my stash.

I'm running out of scraps though, so I might have to go off and finish some projects in order to liberate some yarn. Or else buy more yarn, which won't be any help at all.

I think I have my priorities all mixed up. At least in baked goods, I know it's cupcakes first, now and forever. Just yesterday I mentioned Les Glaceurs, and today on a walk to Atwater Market, I found a place on Notre-Dame that's also in the teeny cake shilling business. This place is called Itsi Bitsi, and the cakes come with their own handy box. I tried the coconut cupcake, a tasty option. They certainly don't skimp on the coconut for garnishing the icing. I don't think it beats the Red Velvet cupcake, but that's just the addictive power of FD&C Red No. 40 talking. However, I don't see any peanut or nut-related cakes on their menu, which might just make it K-friendly. I shall have to find out. Right now, I'm going to call the cupcake race a tie. A delicious, delicious tie.

Om, my brothers.

I've been a very naughty girl lately.

I've even picked up a crochet hook.

I thought I had sworn off hooking ever since the Ugly Hat Debacle of Aught Four. Then I tried to make a yoga mat bag. I started off with good intentions and the Om Yoga Mat Bag pattern from Stitch and Bitch Nation. I did well for a while, but since you're knitting it lengthwise the rows are very long, and I am very capable of screwing up even the simplest lace patterns when the stitch count gets to anything above, oh, 75. So, I frogged and cast on for the Lacy Yoga Bag from the Summer '07 Interweave Knits. I knit one whole pattern repeat, and decided I wanted my bag sometime before April. God, if I wanted to knit lace that badly, I could just go the whole hog and get a Heirloom Knitting pattern. Then I remembered that crochet does at least, and possibly only, two things well. It goes quickly and it's easy to make a 3-D object. Except I couldn't find a yoga mat bag online or in books that I liked. Apparently yogis only knit between their shavasanas. So I cracked open a beer and my copy of the Happy Hooker. This bag is the result.



Pattern: The Lazy Yogini Mat Bag
Yarn: Kertzer Butterfly Super 10
Hook: 5.00 and 4.00 mm
Notes: Seriously, this took me about a night to make. All hail crochet. I started off by making a circle in double crochet just large enough to go around my mat. Then, I single crocheted around without increasing, to create the beginnings of a cylinder. I used fishnet lace for the body because it rather handily uses a multiple of four, just like my circle. Sub whatever crochet patterns fits with the number of crochet stitches of your circle, or can be fudged in. Once it went about 3/4 of the way up my bag, I did about 5 more rows in single crochet, and then bound off. You want to make it a little shorter because it will stretch in this pattern. Chain stitch until you have cord about two feet long. Thread this cord through the last row of fishnet lace before the single crochet border.

Sew on a 2" thick strip of sewn fabric, thick ribbon, or even crochet a strap for the bag. My strap came from Americo Original, and cost an obscene amount of money- I had a momentary lapse in fiscal judgment. Okay, I just didn't want to seem cheap. At first I thought it was just embroidered burlap, but after touching it, I think it's llama, or alpaca, or God knows what else. It also, hilariously, came in a classy little boutique bag that looked like it came from a lingerie store.

Toss your mat in. It may be tight the first few times, but this bag stretches. Cinch the top closed, toss it over your shoulder, and you're ready for some deep meditation, along the lines of "God, I hope I don't fart in class today."