I just finished this one tonight so opted to post pics of it. I used Caron Simply Soft Paints, in the Oceania colorway. I opted to make it longer than the pattern called for, and did the last edging row all the way around rather than just across the bottom as written.

This is a “freeform” crochet project I started with the yarn I ripped out of my knitted Adult Surprise Jacket. Freeform means there is no written pattern, I simply crochet it as I go.  So there is (and will BE no) pattern to share.

I have a lone couch cushion I use to lean on when I sit on my bed that is falling apart, held together currently with duct tape, which I loathe as the duct tape sticks to the pillow, the mattress, etc. when I use it.  As we live in a tiny studio apartment, my bed is my work table, my computer desk, my dinner table, my TV easy chair, etc.

I used foundation single crochet to “start” the orange area right above the variegated area in the very top of the photo, then crocheted an oval “racetrack” until the orange (Red Heart Super Saver in Carrot) until that bit of the yarn ran out, then grabbed the variegated (Marrakesh, which has a bit of the Carrot as one of its’ colors), and now am working with Carrot again until I reach the bottom of the cushion (also = the bottom of this photograph)

I decided I didn’t like how long the jacket was getting. It gets long and gets wider around as you work back and forth across the right front, the bottom and then the left front.  Fortunately, I was able to put the two fronts and the bottom back on circular knitting needles before it “frogged” itself without my permission.  “Frog” is an inside knitting/crochet “joke” meaning to “rip it, rip it, rip it…”  It is funny ONLY when it happens to someone else, as is the case with most humor LOL

Plus the one error I committed on the original was in having the increase/decrease “flipped” on the collar corner on the right side so that chain “loops” were showing on the right side whereas they were hidden on the left side (as I believe they were intended to be, hidden). I ripped past that point so I can fix that.

It was getting too long in proportion to being wide enough, so I ripped it back to remove most of the length.

I will work back and forth across the left side, and back and forth across the right side until it is wide enough, and THEN work back and forth across the bottom until it is at the proper length. Evidently, my body “type” is not what the designer (the late Elizabeth Zimmermann) had in mind. Oh well. LOL

The next post will show what I am CROCHETING (yes, CROCHETING LOL) with the yarn I ripped out of it.

This is the only “real” error I don’t like in the Adult Surprise Jacket I’ve made thus far, but I’m not ripping out all those rows. On the left side, the collar “line” is a proper seam. On the right side, it has come out as almost a crochet “chain” stitch. I will simply embroider the left side so it looks the same as the “boo boo” and call it a “design innovation” LOL

Couldn’t get Flickr to “talk to” WordPress, so hopefully this works now.   Yes, it finally does.  Had to do some clicking around, but finally got Flickr to recognize WordPress again.  I had updated Flickr by purchasing a version of their photo editing “interface”, Picnik, then suddenly, it wouldn’t recognize WordPress.  I had to re set my WordPress password because it had been too long for me to remember what it was.  Technology, nothing you can do about it…  Even working for the county you better know as Silicon Valley has its’ “issues” with technology.

Forget about technology.  Its’ irritating anyway.

Now you can see my current progress on the Adult Surprise Jacket, three 40″ circular needles can barely hold it all (why the newest “writeup” suggests three 24″ will do it I HAVE NO IDEA, she must have made a very small version.  Plus, I don’t know what she’d think of me using (gulp) cheapo Red Heart off the shelf from Michaels.  The colors appealed to me at the time.  What else am I going to do with FIVE Michaels gift cards for Christmas???)

I like the pattern, it forced me to THINK.  It is not so much a knitting pattern, but a formula.  The original designer, the late Elizabeth Zimmermann (or EZ, as she is better known to knitters) daughter, Meg Swanson, has taken on the task of continuing her mother’s knitting legacy, at http://www.schoolhousepress.com.  There is the baby surprise jacket (BSJ) Meg advises you to do first, to get the idea down, then you can make the adult version (the ASJ).

A supervisor at the county agency I work for asked why I knit/crochet, I told her, “So I don’t punch holes in walls”.  And its’ the truth.  Many of my co workers are still alive because I knit/crochet.  Otherwise, I would have killed them outright before now I’m sure.  Lotsa hot tempers.  Lotsa hard heads.  Lotsa tin horned dictators with delusions of grandeur.  But, I digress:)

I have enough of both colors left over to knit/crochet a cushion cover, it is from an old couch that I never “consented” to being present in my apartment, it came from my boyfriend’s brother’s backyard.  Ick.  But we have no room for a proper headboard for our bed.  I finally managed to “banish” that couch, all that remains is this one cushion, reupholstered once, but disintegrating yet again.  So the couch cushion is my sole source of back support.  In our (tiny and ancient) studio apartment, the bed is my office, my dinner table, my computer workstation, my arts and crafts table, my photography display area, and the one place I’m reluctant to leave at the crack of dawn just so I can rejoin the aforementioned hot heads, hard heads, etc.

There is actually a crocheted version (offered by Annie’s Attic, designed by Australian designer Jenny King).  It calls for Noro Yarn, which makes me giggle a little, it is expensive, scratchy yarn, not yarn I would choose for a baby sweater.  Once I get the “gist” of it, I will attempt to do an adult sized version. (no, you aren’t getting a pattern for it; you will have to buy Jenny’s version and figure it out, all by yourself…)

I am finally in the “home stretch”, picking up the stitches all around.  It has three 40″ circular needles in it, one on each front, and one along the bottom.  One error I know is here, I messed up the collar area increases/decreases on the right side, the stitches show.  But I’m not pulling out all those stitches to fix it.

This post I had to put the photo in manually, because Flickr is not “speaking” to WordPress at the moment and at the time, I didn’t have time before I left for work to figure it out.

It is not sewn together yet. I had to lay it out to see where the pattern was going. Next step is to “work even” across the bottom until it is long enough. The buttonband (plackets?) stitches are held on cords. The two sides of the collar area are held on stitch holders.  Until you put more circular needles into the stitches and allow the pattern to “stretch out” to its more natural shape, it is difficult to understand exactly where it is going.

Copied in part from my local union chapter’s website:

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SAN JOSE, Calif. – Nearly 3,000 Santa Clara County workers took part in a vote Monday 6.21.11 and delivered a clear and strong message to county leaders: They will not accept anything less than a fair contract.

The daylong vote took place at a half-a-dozen work places from Gilroy to the County Government Center where supervisors meet. An overwhelming majority – 97 percent – voted to reject the county’s proposal and directed the union negotiating team to continue contract talks with the county. Members also directed SEIU Local 521 to seek a strike sanction from the Central Labor Council.

I have a couple Facebook friends, we also share membership in some Yahoo Groups communities, I used to also be a member of their “real” monthly group meeting.  I made the major error of posting to our common Yahoo Group (what I thought) was a simple and reasonable request on behalf of a local friend who was interested in attending the next monthly meeting.  Next thing I know, the (well, that oft mentioned biological waste material) “hits the fan”.

On one “side” of this issue I was told, “well, you should have consulted the group leaders prior to posting that request” (OK, mea culpa, I can agree with that, in hindsight, it would have avoided the entire debacle.

On another “side” of this issue, I got a private email from the member who most strenuously disagreed with my request, giving me details of how horrid their life had been, etc., the sheer tone of the email made me delete it instantly, lest I accidentally disclose anything that would compromise their privacy to anyone else, plus, to be quite frank, it alarmed me); I neither required, nor wanted that level of personal disclosure from someone I barely knew.   Plus, they never comment on my posts or respond to my emails.

On yet another “side” of this issue, another member, who I am pretty sure by now is also mad at me, hasn’t ever bothered to respond to any of my replies to their post in other Yahoo groups we share, or ANYTHING.

On yet ANOTHER side of this issue, the friend on whose behalf I made the request is majorly annoyed with this group, and confronted them at a local event (quite by accident, neither knew the other was in attendance to the same event), and essentially, they opted to confront the group members openly about the hostility they “generated” towards me initiating the request.  THEY claim the group member they confronted accused ME of being a troublemaker.  It is hard to know who is telling “more of” the truth here, as both have fairly confrontational personalities to begin with.  I kind of feel I wish I’d never joined the group AND never met the friend I tried to bring to the group.  (someone have a box big enough for me to crawl into please???)

Now on a similar tangent, I have at least one family member, who in all other respects I am close to, but have decided based on what’s been NOT said and NOT done (and some things that HAVE been said and HAVE been done) that they are angry with me and have been for several years.  They would rather suffer the various medical and mental anguish one suffers when “swallowing” anger rather than confronting me and “getting it out of their system”.

I would just assume they say what they need to say, even if it hurts my feelings, so that they can be healthy again and me not be left “wondering” what the *&^% is going on with them exactly.   That is what love is, isn’t it?  Being willing even to be hurt if it will help make someone you care about feel better.  Their spouse is not helping things, they have a way of “expressing themselves” that doesn’t come across well, let me keep it at that.

In short, I value HONESTY above anything else in a friendship, a family relationship, work relationship, or “other” relationship.  If I can’t receive that, it ain’t much of a friendship, a family relationship, or anything else kind of relationship.  Even if that honesty hurts sometimes.  I know all the people involved above will probably recognize themselves and send me angry emails, I don’t care.

My union is having us vote to either strike or not strike, my boss has a skin cancer issue he is dealing with, I’ve been an epileptic for two years (doctors have no clue why), and the floor I work on is in turmoil due to contract negotiations, so if anyone is pissed at ME, go ahead, make my day…  do you feel lucky, punk?