From the Yarn Basket: My First (Completed) Sweater

I have two obstacles as a knitter that make it very difficult to undertake large projects. The first is my typical yarn-buying style. Apparently I use up all of my abilities to plan efficiently and be organized while I am at work, because I procure yarn in a hodge-podge and mostly unproductive manner. When I see a skein of yarn that I love at a shop, I feel a compulsion to buy it whether or not it will suit any foreseeable knitting plans. Random skeins of various colors, textures, and weights could only result in crazy-quilt-type projects that no sane person would ever want to leave the house with. Deciding to make something requiring more than one skein would thus take advanced planning and a special shopping trip for the perfect yarn, which is not my M.O.

The second obstacle is my knitting project commitment issues. I'm sure any other knitter out there has felt it before. You want to start that large project, but the "what ifs" plague you. What if you pour hours into the project and then realize that the pattern is poorly written? What if you get bored partway through and never finish it? What if you manage to finish it and it doesn't fit? There is a knitting superstition that you should never make a sweater for your boyfriend because it will kill your relationship (when it doesn't fit and/or he doesn't like it as much as you want him to). Your emotions are invested in a project once you have put so much time and energy into it. I honestly think that a traumatic large-knitting-project-making experience, even if it is just for myself, would be enough to put me off knitting at least temporarily.  

Because of these reasons, I very rarely take on large projects. I pick away at little projects: a pair of gloves here, a hat there, a scarf every now and then. Once in a blue moon (or when I am putting off writing my thesis) I will make something big. I even tried making a sweater once, but my poor yarn buying habits (and poor planning) resulted in my realization over 3/4 of the way through that I did not have enough of the same yarn to finish. With tears in my eyes and a beer in my hand, I ripped the whole thing back apart. (See what I mean? Traumatic!)

Fortunately, the best kind of peer pressure arrived in the form of Emily, my good friend and fellow knitter. We decided that we would both make the same sweater, using each other's progress as motivation to keep going. It wasn't a race (although if it were, she beat me by a mile), but we kept each other updated as we worked on them. 

It took some time for me to get started, since I needed to clear the hurdle of finding the right yarn. I made a trip to WM Trimmings on Capel Street, where I knew I could find a nice selection of *cough*acrylic*coughcough* yarn. Yep, I decided to go with acrylic for this project, not only because it is much much cheaper (an important feature for a yarn you plan to buy so much of), but also because I fully intended to wear the finished project. Wools might be nicer, but acrylics are much more utilitarian--you can machine-wash them. The yarn I chose was James C. Brett Marble Chunky MC35, which is a mixture of reds, purples, browns and greys. 

It took almost two months to finish it, with most of my progress made on the weekends. It was five separate pieces (back, two front sides, and two sleeves) that I assembled at the very end. I'm very happy with how it turned out. It fits, it looks like the picture in the pattern, and I actually think that I will wear it...but probably not much until winter because chunky yarn makes for a toasty warm sweater. Nevertheless, I debuted the sweater at a local pub while watching Wimbledon and drinking a pint of my favorite Irish pale ale. 

Sara's First Sweater - From the Front

Sara's First Sweater - From the Back

I'm not sure when I will take on another project of this scale, but I'm definitely feeling less timid about it. Maybe the next one I make will be for Cory. After all, the superstition only applies to boyfriends, not husbands, right?

From the Yarn Basket, Holiday Edition: Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

With the days growing shorter and the nights growing colder, Cory and I couldn't wait for our first Dublin Christmas to arrive. Our traditions in Iowa included over-zealous decorating of our home and the baking of loads of Christmas treats. Although we have been fully able to find a plethora of Christmas treats, both familiar and new, it has been difficult to recreate our usual Christmas environs. Sadly, all of our decorating fare was left in boxes across the Atlantic Ocean, and we were left with very little to bring Christmas cheer to our humble apartment. Furthermore, despite our high northern latitude in Ireland, we stay fairly mild and green through the winter. Christmas was windy and rainy rather than snowy and white. 

Crocheting to the rescue! As you might imagine, there is absolutely no shortage of holiday-themed knitting and crocheting patterns to be found on the interwebs, so all I needed to do was choose one. I had been doing quite a bit of knitting in the last few months, which made me crave a little bit of crochet-hook action. This led me to choose the ideal decoration: snowflakes! 

After much consideration, making snowflakes to hang in the window was the perfect decorating solution, and it would serve two important purposes. First, I don't think there is a better way to exercise my crochet muscles--it's possible, but much more difficult to make (roughly) circular-shaped objects with knitting needles, making snowflakes are a great use of crochet. Crocheted snowflakes are small and quick to make, involving some lacy techniques that are fun and interesting to use. Second, it would bring us some pseudo-Midwestern-U.S.A. weather flair. 

I happened to have various shades and weights of cream-colored yarn lying around, including some Caron Simply Soft acrylic worsted weight in "off white", and the leftover I Love this Cotton that I used to make washcloths a few months ago. A quick search of Ravelry led me to more patterns than I could possibly use, so I won't link to all of them. Most of them are based around a chain stitch circle, with chains, double crochets, and picot stitches in various combinations to make the snowflake shapes.

Over the span of about a week, while Cory and I binged on all of the Christmas movies we could find in our DVD binder or on Netflix, I whipped up 18 snowflakes of various shapes and sizes. I used some gift-wrap ribbon and tape to display them in the window. 

Snow? In Dublin?

Oh no! It's really coming down out there!

Close up of a cute little flake.

One of the larger flakes

All things considered, it's actually a luxury that we don't have to deal with severe winter weather while we are living in Ireland. Travel plans are easier to make, and going outside is never painful. And there is nothing to stop you from using yarn to create a white Christmas!

200 Posts!

Angry Reader:  It's Monday, no travel post!?  No?  A lousy clip show post!?  No new, exciting, and parshally prooff-read content?  What a ripoff!  Oh well, might as well read the sappy emotional schlock and get it over with!  I'd also better click on the blue link text to read the articles referenced on this page, that is, if I care to.

Cory and Sara:  What a crazy time it's been.  It seems only yesterday we were sitting in our old living room 4000 miles away and thinking of a fun and creative way to share our moving experience with friends and family.  We never thought we would be daily bloggers putting out as much content as we have.  Seeing that 200 number approaching made me scroll back through the archives for buried treasures.

I remember when we first wrote about Sara's official job offer.  We wrote that when the feelings were still pretty fresh.  The clock had started the moving countdown, and there would be no going back.

Remember my sloppy I'll Play videos?  I hope you don't, because they were (and are!) pretty sloppy from those days.  Castlevania 3 probably wasn't the best game to start with video game videos and I fought, kicked, screamed, and save-stated my way through it.  One might have thought I'd gotten better by now...

We had to undergo our Great Jettison shortly after finding out about the move.  Of all the great success stories of that series, none was quite so exciting to me as that of the exercise bike in the basement.  Maybe when we move away the verdant shores of Ireland we will continue with the Jettison series...

When we first got the confirmation of our relocation, we weren't quite ready to make the announcement fully public.  The blog was up and running but was only shared with a few people while we tested out the functionality of a blog and made arrangements to announce our move.  When all of our professional arrangements were made, we were able to make the blog public and share the news with our social networks.

In May, we were still Jettisoning, Sara graduated, and getting lean with our worldly possessions.

The arrival of June saw us pack up the rest of the house, pile into our little car, and get on the road.  Oh, were we such wild-eyed dreamers with the whole world opening up before us.

July was pretty quiet, with our internet blackout keeping us from too much recreational internet use. We did make it to Ireland, and did our best to let our families know we were still alive.

In August, we got our home internet connection at last.  We began to write about our pastimes and the differences we noticed in our new country.

September set up the current format of the blog.  Monday as travel post day and Saturday as the video game day.  We were able to catch up on our knitting, home finding, and exploring posts.

Seems a bit early to reminisce about October and November, but what the hey.  We found some cool stuff, we griped about road signs, we did some brewing, finished the road trip posts, and let's not forget the live-tweet-holiday-event of the...minute.

Thank you friends new and old for reading and commenting on our blog.  Knowing that we have people who care about us and what is happening in our lives is very comforting to us in the big city so far from our homeland.  We are having a wonderful experience and meeting great people here in Ireland, but we never take the love and friendship of our family and friends around the world for granted and for that, we are ever grateful.

So here's to another two hundred posts.  More brewing!  More knitting!  More video games!  More travel!  More proof-reading-before-posting(!!)

Love,

Cory and Sara
The Narcissistic Expats

From the Yarn Basket: Practical Goods for Our New Apartment #3

Next up on the list of much-needed knit-able household items is washcloths. We bought a few new washcloths when we first moved in, but since we do not have a dishwasher in our tiny Dublin kitchen, they weren't sufficient. We dirty our washcloths at a terrific rate, so we needed to supplement our stash. 

The challenge with a project like this is finding the right type of yarn. Wool yarn is not an option; you cannot machine-wash it, which makes it a terrible idea for something that is meant to get wet, and it's too nice to use for something that will get worn out so quickly (seriously, I would probably cry the first time it got used). Acrylic yarn is cheaper, but it isn't all that absorbent, which is a critical feature for items like this. The solution: cotton! 

My mother-in-law gifted me some I Love This Cotton! yarn in Ivory Spark (which means it has some glittery thread running through it) last Christmas. Since I had the perfect washcloth materials in the yarn basket already, I dove right in!

From the Yarn Basket: Practical Goods for Our New Apartment #2

To continue my series of posts describing all of the useful items I was able to craft for our new apartment, I present you with these lovely and simple hot pads. After all, Cory cannot bake his delicious breads or scrumptious evening meals without something to protect his fingers! 

I knitted both of these in stockinette stitch. I made the blue one first, using Hometown USA yarn leftover from the blue cowl I made on the road trip. I crocheted a border around it using some dark brown Loops & Threads Charisma yarn, including a loop in the corner for easy storage. Cory gave it a test run, and despite the yarn's bulky weight, it wasn't quite thick enough to keep the heat out completely. We still use it, but we fold it in half to increase the thickness.

In an attempt to improve the functionality, I made the next one double-sided. I also added some stripes to it to keep myself from getting too bored (stockinette stitch is not the most exciting thing in the world). The pink yarn is also Loops & Threads Charisma yarn in Think Pink. The opposite side (not shown) is solid pink, and I crocheted the sides together while adding the border. This one works a little bit better, but it still isn't perfect. Still, we have been putting both to good use, and saved ourselves a few euro in the process!

From the Yarn Basket: Road Trip Project #2

This is a project I'm actually not too excited about. I whipped this cowl up in a couple of hours on the road trip as we traveled through the mid-Atlantic states. Although I like the yarn a lot (Hometown USA from Lion Brand in Washington Denim that my Mom let me swipe from her yarn basket), I wasn't feeling all that inspired. I made it by alternating three rows single crochet with one row triple crochet. 

It's not a bad little cowl, but it pales in comparison to my awesome red cowl that I love so much. I may actually tear this one apart and try something else with it. It's super bulky weight yarn, so it really has to be used for a hat or a scarf or something warm. Hmm....if anyone has any ideas, let me know (I'm looking at you Emily....).

From the Yarn Basket: Road Trip Project #1

It probably doesn't need to be said, but during the epic, 7,741 mile Farewell to America road trip, Cory and I put in some serious driving time. We primarily entertained ourselves with the complete Harry Potter series on audio, but when it was my turn to be a passenger in the car, I also passed the time by yarn-crafting up a storm. First up, I finished a longer-term project that I had begun several months previously, which is a red cowl made with some gorgeous hand-dyed red wool yarn generously bestowed upon me as a Christmas gift from my sister-in-law and her now-husband. 

I made this lovely cowl using a Ravelry pattern called the Casu Cowl. The bulk of the cowl is made in moss stitch with a small trim of a simple lace pattern. The yarn is fairly light-weight, which means that the gauge is pretty small. In English, that means that it took a long time to complete. This made it a perfect road trip project! I completed it somewhere around the New Orleans leg of the trip, where it was far too warm to actually try it on. I wore it a couple of weeks ago here in Dublin for the first time, and it was great. It might be my new favorite! 

From the Yarn Basket: Practical Goods for Our New Apartment #1

Although I have spent a great deal of time knitting and crocheting fun cowls, gloves, and hats this summer, I also stitched together some necessities for our move. When we moved into our new apartment in July, we had the usual extensive shopping list of basic items that accompanies any move. If you read this blog with any frequency, you know that Cory and I are of a frugal nature (see this, this and most recently this). That said, I'm sure you can imagine how quickly we grew weary of the money hemorrhage that occurred as we made run after expensive run to buy food, cleaning products, and other miscellanea. 

That's when I decided to put my hobby to good use and make some basic things for our new home. I needed something to occupy my time while waiting for paperwork to process anyway, and it came with some bonus smugness as I now feel completely justified in hauling a significant amount of yarn across the ocean (you can't leave behind the essentials, after all!). 

From the Yarn Basket: In Case My Nerd-osity Was Ever in Question

I took on this knitting project as a way to thank and say goodbye to my thesis advisor. As you may remember, my thesis research centered around small microinvertebrates called rotifers. They are graceful little animals that swim around in pretty much any body of water you can find. They are called rotifers, or "wheel-bearers" because they have ciliated structures on their heads that they use to sweep food into their mouths. I used them to study the evolution of sexual reproduction because some types of rotifers reproduce exclusively asexually, while other types can use sexual or asexual reproduction. That's probably enough science for a post that is supposed to be about knitting, so I'll leave it at that. the important thing is that I studied these critters for the better part of six years, and to thank my advisor for all of his help and support, I decided to make him some stuffed animal versions.

From the Yarn Basket: A Little Something for That Cold and Rainy Irish Weather

Rainy. Windy. 4º Celsius (that's right, we have to start thinking of temperatures in C or we will never know what to expect when we walk out the door). The weather we can expect on a January day in Dublin will be pretty dreary. Not so bad compared to frigid winter days in the Midwestern U.S.A., but we should still be prepared! I made these lovely and functional mittens for Cory so that he can stay warm while he is performing in the street....or hawking souvenirs at unsuspecting tourists....or whatever it is he finds to do...

Hmmm...maybe Cory can take up modeling?

From the Yarn Basket: A Useful Case to Put Hooks In

Here is a small and simple project I finished a couple of months ago. Apologies for being less than timely, but although I have a couple of projects currently in the works, I haven't finished one since Thesis Blanket. Sigh. The time for more knitting will come...I just have to pack up my house and finish my thesis revisions first.

All work and no knitting makes Sara feel weary,  but it will be time for yarn again soon!

From the Yarn Basket: Thesis Blanket

Since Cory has been very busy sharing his latest time-wasters, I thought I'd share my own. Between a job hunt, thesis writing, and selling our house, the year so far has held a notable amount of stress. Since I find nothing more soothing than the repetition and measurable progress of a yarn craft, I have spent much time the last few months with knitting needles or a crochet hook in my hand.

I am happy to report that from the fires and turmoil of graduation anxiety, I have completed my largest single project to date. I give you....Thesis Blanket:

Thesis Blanket in action: Keeping Cory comfortable while he writes a blog post

To create Thesis Blanket, I made basic granny squares with four yarn colors and used single crochet to join the squares together. Cory helped me block the color pattern, so credit goes out to him as well.

I have also completed several much smaller projects and have a couple in the works that I will share at a later date. Stay tuned!