Working With Multiple Strands

February’s projects are following different themes. The beginning of the month was provisional cast ons. Now it is working with multiple strands. You could even say there is a finishing theme as I have finished two items.

The main reason for using more than one strand in a project is that the project uses a specific weight of yarn and I do not have that yarn in my stash. Or I really want to use certain yarn(s) and doubling them works the best. An example of this is the Odyssey Shawl. I was wanting to use yarn in my stash for something other than socks. I decided these three yarns went together, the pattern was for three colours of a thicker weight yarn. I just held the yarn double and voila a finished shawl and three skeins of yarn used up.

The first project I started this month is a blanket using the skeins from the swap. I frogged the blanket I had made and wanted to get something on the needles PDQ.

  I knew I wanted to make a blanket and I knew I would be adding my own yarn to it but otherwise had no idea. I had abandoned the original project as I would have had to use so much of my own yarn it would take away from what I had received. I chose a pattern from a book I own of squares made up of a centre colour and a plain outer. The pattern called for aran weight, the yarn I have is fingering weight. I started off using the yarn doubled but didn’t proceed with that idea as I would have to make more than one square from each colour I then held four strands together and the squares are a decent size using most of the mini skein. How do I work with four stands? Firstly, I wind a centre pull ball, then I rewind with the outer and inner ends to make a double stranded ball and work with the inner and outer ends of these four strands. I am really pleased with the outcome and am using two different greys from my stash for the outer rows.

 

The other project is a Tunisian crochet pattern that three of us are working on as a MAL (Make Along). The pattern was originally written for DK weight yarn and then a fingering weight option was added, with either option two different colours are required but four skeins total of DK and only two skeins of fingering. I wanted the squidgyness of the thicker yarn but did not have any in stash. I knew I could double fingering weight but what yarn? Thinking about it instead of sleeping one night I remembered yarns I had purchased to go together but the closest they had got was in the storage container. If I used them double I would need four of them. No problem. And I now have the start to a lovely squidgy shawl.

 

Anne of Green Gables

I recently read the graphic novel version of this book. I have not read the original so can not comment on how accurate this version is. I had an idea of the subject matter of this book, had not read it in childhood had a mild interest in what all the fuss was about so when I saw a graphic version decided to go ahead.

The most interesting aspect of this book is that it is extremely well loved, including readers wanting to and actually visiting PEI to get a feel of the setting, and yet the main character is a foster child.

I have a big problem with this adoration as in the USA foster children are not loved. They are looked down upon by society, even though it is not the child’s fault they are in foster care, and let down by the organizations that are supposed to protect them. Mostly, but not exclusively, because they are not considered worthy of resources.

All too often we hear of another case of a child dying or disappearing in foster care because the workers have ignored the warning signs or have not checked on the child for months. But for all the cases that rock the news there are many more cases of abuse and neglect and just plain less than.

Imagine you’ve been looked after by the State without being allowed to make your own decisions and then at age 18 you’re on your own, quite often kicked out of where you are living as foster payments stop. No surprise that a high percentage of former foster children end up living on the streets. Or you’re quite happily living with a family and at the end of the school day your case worker picks you up and takes you to a different home. Your belongings are in a bin liner, half of them missing, you haven’t been allowed to say goodbye to school friends or the other children where you were living. Or the family you are living with want to adopt you but the courts decide you should go back to live with your mother because she has completed a drug rehabilitation program but her new boyfriend abuses you and she soon reverts to her previous behaviors so you are put back into foster care but not with the original loving family because that wouldn’t be good for anybody!

Is it any surprise that children are angry, sullen, unwilling or unable to form relationships. But hey, you continue loving Anne of Green Gables and the feisty orphan.

Starting All The Things (But Not Finishing Them)

At the beginning of the year I had plans for a few cast ons and I did start all those mentioned. Plus I started another project in the middle of the month with the minis I had received in a swap. Alas, I have just one finished item to show for all this effort - the hat - although the gift is nearly finished. The other items were worked on but the gift and the hat received the most attention and I worked a mini skein a day. And I do not have a finished older project although the jacket just needs buttons. (Yes, I am prevaricating on this as my only in person option is Jo-Anns.)

 

 

 

Which brings us to February. And, of course, I started the February hat and I started a pair of socks. Both of these started with provisional cast ons but the hat is now easy ribbing and the sock is not-so-easy circular colour work with decreases on small needles. And I am frogging the mini skein project so now I have to decide what to make with as I do not want the yarn to sit in stash. Other participants in the swap made wraps and scarves. Although these came out very pretty, they are not anything I would wear.