Ravelerrific

It's safe to say that my knitting has reached a much higher level than it was pre-grad school. In college I knit a handful of things - blankets for both my nephews (which, if I looked at them now, I'm pretty sure I'd probably shake my head in shame), a pair of mittens, some scarves, a couple head things. And then after graduation I started in on big blankets. Just a couple that first year, and like 18 since then. (Slight exaggeration. But I think at least 7 or 8 since I started graduate school. Two more on needles as we speak.) Not to mention many more hats, scarves, now some fingerless mittens, some headbands, etc. I guess I haven't really expanded that much, but I'm a lot more into it now. More knowledgeable (although, still very much not knowledgeable). Exploring new territory of better needles and yarn beyond my go-to acrylic Caron Simply Soft. Exciting stuff.

Helping me along in all this is my extremely invaluable resource, Ravelry.com. I love that place. Not only do they have patterns galore (free and non-free), each pattern has a section for comments, places it was mentioned in discussions on the discussion board, yarn suggestions (shows you what yarns people have used to do each particular pattern), people's finished projects, etc. It's awesome. And they have a section for yarn, where you can look up various yarns and get details about it, as well as people's comments, and projects that people have used to make with each yarn. And their discussion boards are great, and it's just all-around fabulous. Of course, sometimes it makes it hard because there's just SO MANY PATTERNS and there are SO MANY COMMENTS and everyone has their own opinion about things (particularly when it comes to things like yarn - I've been using that more lately, since I know next to nothing about any real yarns, so I want to see what's soft, what's not, etc, but then with a lot of yarns you get half the people saying they thought it was soft, half saying it wasn't, some saying they had this or that problem with it, others saying they had no problems with it). But in general, it's very helpful.

And tonight? Oh, tonight. It's so wonderful. See, knitters are weird, and when we see knitted things in movies we watch, we think "Hey, I wonder if I could make that!" And often, someone can, and makes a pattern for it. Like, there are lots of threads about all the knitted stuff in the new Harry Potter movie, and people have either found similar patterns or tried to figure it out themselves. So, tonight I was watching Elf. Near the end, when Jovie shows up near Central Park and starts to sing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" (which, man, I wish they had sung more than one song over and over. I understand the choice of that song at that point, but I'm not a huge fan to begin with, and it's minutes upon minutes of it. Oh well). She's got this super cute hat on, which I've never really noticed before, but man I sort of want it. (I tried to find a picture on Google to put here, with no luck.) So I hopped onto Ravelry, did a search in the discussion boards to see if anyone's talked about it before, and lo and behold, I found a few threads from last year - and two patterns people had created to make a hat similar to hers! So, I'm pretty super stocked about that. Of course, I have no idea how it'd look on me...but I think I'll try it anyway. Well, maybe after Christmas. I HAVE SO MUCH TO KNIT FOR CHRISTMAS. I'm never going to get it all done. But that's ok. Some things might be late. Oh well.

The important thing to remember here is...yay knitting!

Up the wazooooooo

I haven't posted much, I know, but I've been knitting lots! In the last month or so, I've made and sent: a baby blanket and two baby hats (not sure how well they fit, but hopefully they're at least appreciated); a super-awesome afghan that I was tempted to keep for myself, made extra long for my extra tall brother's birthday; a cable hat and scarf set for my sister's birthday (which I hope turned out ok; I used a kind of yarn I've never used before, so I don't know how well it'll hold up), plus a calorimetry for her too; and I finished an infinity scarf for a friend that I had on the needles for something like a month, and isn't that big, but because of the way it's done each row is realllllly long and for some reason I get bored more easily with really long rows, so it ended up taking me longer than it should have (a month for that, while I got my brother's 7+' x 5' afghan, or thereabouts, done in just a couple of weeks); and I also finally finished off this green scarf I had started a year and a half ago, and got pretty close to finished and I have no idea why I didn't finish. But now it's done. Oh, and I finished that other scarf I had a few pictures of on here, where I couldn't decide if I should do the blue or the green backing. And now I currently have a hat on the needles (which took backseat to my sister's gifts for a little while), and I think three different scarfs I'm doing for no one in particular. Oh, one is for someone in particular. And then a shawl/scarf thing I've wanted to make for a long time now, and finally got yarn for. For myself. :-)

I have pictures of all or most of these, and maybe I'll update this with them one of these days.

I have tons more projects on the docket for the next couple of months. At least two requests for fingerless gloves, which I really need to get around to. Two blankets I want to do for Christmas gifts. I think two more hats I want to do for Christmas gifts too. A few little Christmas things. I feel like there's more, too...but I guess that's more than enough. I need to get yarn for the blankets, but I think I have yarn for everything else. Maybe not the hats; I have to see what colors the recipients want. But it's cool. OH. And this isn't necessarily Christmas-related, but there are a few babies that will be born in the first few months of the new year, so I need to think about fun baby gifts I can do for them. I do have plenty of baby yarn. I love baby yarn. Such a weakness of mine.

I'm so glad I'm a knitter.

So many patterns, so little time...

I spent a couple of hours tonight looking through a discussion thread in a forum on Ravelry about obscure/little-known patterns people had found or had done. It's like 122 pages long, and was started over two years ago, so there's a lot of stuff in there. I didn't look through the whole thing, but even with what I have gone through, I found so many things I want to knit. Man. There are some super cute patterns out there, people! And I have to make this: there's a pattern I found called a John Muir Scarf. I sort of love John Muir. It's basically because of him that we have national parks. (Well, him and some other people, of course.) So, I'm definitely going to have to do that.

My problem is I finish things I've been working on, and then don't know where to go next because what if I pick something wrong for someone, they don't like the particular pattern or something? Well. I think I decided that I'm going to start just knitting patterns that I want to knit. And maybe I'll just have a stash of things, and try to guess what any particular person might like, or just let them pick something out themselves.

Or I won't. Who knows.

I do know this: if I ever have kids, I'm probably going to knit them those weird/awkward/embarrassing things people knit for kids and make them wear because they're kids, and what do they know? Like...super-cute reindeer hats. Or snowman hats. Thankfully I haven't gotten into sweaters yet, so I won't be knitting awkward sweaters a la Mrs. Weasley.

Speaking of, there's a website with tons of awesome Harry-Potter related knitting patterns. I doubt I'll ever do any in actuality, but they're fun to think about! (And according to that site, 39 days until HP 7.1 comes out!)

Gosh. I love knitting. I so want to be better at it. Very much.

Can't I keep it?

You might have guessed that I'm knitting an afghan. One of the, oh, four projects I currently have going.

I'm actually almost done this afghan, which is good, because it needs to be done. I've worked on it so much, as fast as I can. It's great, because the pattern is super easy - knit 8, purl 8, knit 8, etc, across the row, then purl 8, knit 8, purl 8 across the next. Every ten rows, switch it around. Lovely. It's wonderful and mindless and thus I can do it while sitting in a lecture (only once, and only when I had first started it - it's much too big to cart around now!), or while watching a movie, or, my favorite, while reading - as long as I have a good setup for whatever I'm reading so I don't have to hold it open. Knitting still takes two hands. Haven't yet figured out a way around that...

Point is, though, this thing is large. And after only a few weeks. I'll finish it tonight.

In the meantime, I'm sitting in my windowseat, with my window slightly open despite the fact that it's only mid-50s. Delicious, but a little chilly too. (I could just close the window, but fresh air is so nice. And I like the reminder that it's finally fall.) And therein lies the beauty of knitting...I get to use the afghan while I work on it! And man. This is one super awesome afghan. I want to keep it. I hope the recipient likes it (hopefully he/she will, since he/she did request it at one point, but I'm not entirely sure that the request is still valid...), but if not, I'll gladly take it back for myself! Mmm. It's so lovely.

I'll stop tooting my own horn now. (Not that there's much I can take credit for, really. I'm just following a pattern. An easy pattern at that. But still. It's awesome.)

Yarn addiction: I has it.

Oh man. So, for my birthday I got a gift card to Michael's from one of my friends. Yes. And, thankfully, there's a Michaels a few miles away, which I had seen several weeks ago when driving with my roommate.

Gosh. I turn into such a weird person when I go peruse the yarn selection at craft stores. (Not so much at independent knitting stores, maybe because their yarn is so pricey. I mean, it's better quality, and nicer, and all that, but more expensive, so I don't tend to buy yarn at those stores. Not at this stage in the game, anyway.) I was there at Michael's, and I had never been to this one so I had to acquaint myself with the layout and where the different brands were and everything. Apparently they just recently expanded their yarn selection, but haven't quite yet gotten the actual yarn to fill in all the spots, so it was kind of sparse today. (And they didn't have the color of a particular brand that I needed to finish that afghan I'm working on.) But...oh man. Even with that, it was so hard not to walk out of there with more than I did. (And I walked out with too much as it is.) I'm such a sucker for yarn. Especially baby yarn, which was mostly what I got. I do have tentative plans for some of it, which is good. And I'll find projects for the other stuff.

I also ventured to the JoAnn's which is like two stores down from the Michael's in that shopping center. It's a small, dingy Jo-Ann's, especially compared to the one I'm used to back home, but they had the yarn that I actually needed, in the color I needed. Unfortunately, neither had good candles (I was hoping one or the other would have a pumpkin spice candle I could get, since I need one. As much as one can need a candle, anyway). But it was still lovely. And it's surprising - my yarn ventures tend to be less expensive than I expect. So that's good. I mean, I buy acrylic yarn typically, which is the cheap stuff, but whatever. It's machine washable! And I've gotten some good afghans out of Caron Simply Soft. Dude. I love that stuff. I don't know how well it holds up over time, but so far so good. And for babies, the Bernat Softee Baby is delicious. Those are pretty much my two exclusive yarn brands, depending on what I'm making. I've used various other things for various other projects, but I'm definitely a big fan of those.

I wish I had eight arms, so I could knit multiple things at once. Sigh.

(Today also made me anxious to get my new bag - which should be delivered on Wednesday, yay! The knitting I carry with me in my purse got a little tangled with my keys today. Everyone made it out unscathed, but it was a harrowing few minutes there. But the bag I'm getting will have separate knitting sacks in which to put projects to keep them separated from other stuff in the bag, and it also has a key clip so my keys will stay put. Double yay!)

Friday Night In

Scarfy

So, remember that scarf I mentioned in my last post? Since I wasn't feeling great about the multi/light green combo, and because I had two different skeins of the multi, I decided to try it with the dark blue I was thinking about. This way, I didn't have to take apart the whole green combo in case I decided I didn't like it with blue. Anyway. Irrelevant now, because it's so much better with the blue:

Dark blue on one side, light green on the other, and multi in the middle. It looks so different with the blue! I like it a lot better. Guess now I have to find another use for the green...(I have three skeins of it left over from an afghan I made last year and overestimated on. Anyone like the color? Want me to make anything with it? Suggestions?)

Catching up

I went and changed blogs on you people. (Of course, I'm not even sure anyone's bothered to read this before anyway. Haha. Oh well.) Ahhh, it's so fun though.

So. Pictures!

 Monica's afghan. Not sure how I feel about the size, but oh well. It's a pattern called Twilight from my Quick Knit Afghan book (chosen specifically because the recipient happens to be something of a fan of the Twilight series...but thankfully not a crazy fan. Haha. Not sure if I could be friends with her if she were.)

Baby hat! Mock Cables Baby Hat. I added a pom pom (my first time making one!), and I like how it turned out. I washed it after taking this picture, and it looked a little more settled after that. (And hopefully it looks better on a real baby instead of my small Dolly, the only relatively baby-sized thing I had on which to model the hat...)

Fresh Picked Baby Hat. Suuuuper cute. Quite enjoyable.

I'm not sure how well they fit a baby's head, since I'm not really knowledgeable in that area, but hopefully they'll fit ok. The purple one is quite stretchy, so it's probably pretty adaptable. But, what do I know.

Oh man, I loooove this blanket. Pinwheel Baby Blanket. Super easy pattern, lovely to knit, and I loved the patterns that the multi-colored yarn made throughout the blanket. Not sure how practical a round blanket is, but it's original, right? Haha. Whatever. I like it.

Dolly graciously agreed once again to model for me, just as a sort of size comparison. Even though she's quite small.

This is not something I knit. Ha. I just bought this yesterday after a trip to the local knitting store in Old Town. I'd seen it before online, and oh how I wanted it. It's a circular needle organizer!

It has tabs on which to write the different sizes, and separates them all, so I don't have to search through a tangled bunch of circulars anymore to look for the one I need! It wasn't very expensive, either, and it's definitely worth it. (I previously had all my circulars in the pocket of a small cosmetics bag, I think, and it was always frustrating to find the needle size I needed. And I pretty much only knit with circulars now, or double pointed needles, so having a good organizer is definitely a good investment.)

One of my current projects. It's a scarf, this one, and I'm trying to decide if I want to keep going or scrap it and start over. There's supposed to be more of a difference between the two different colors that are used (if you look at the original picture, it's a multi lighter blue paired with a dark blue, whereas I'm using a multi green paired with a light green that's the same as one of the greens in the multi, so it doesn't have the same effect). I'm not sure what alternate color I'd use, though, with the multi...I might try dark blue. Not sure how it'd look though. I guess I'll just think about it awhile more.

Oh my gosh I LOOOOOVE knitting. Sigh. I wish I could knit professionally. Except I'm not good enough, and I'd probably have to learn how to design my own patterns, and I'm not sure I'm creative enough for that. I'm a follower, not a leader (or creator, as the case may be). Oh well. I'm going to order a Swift bag today, and I'm so. excited for it. I hope it doesn't disappoint. That's what worries me about things I wait on and think a lot about before taking the plunge - I build them up so much in my head that they're bound to disappoint, right? Oh well. I think I've researched enough to know that it'll probably work out well. I don't normally spend that much on anything (other than, say, trips to the grocery store, or airplane tickets), but I know it'll last me awhile and it'll be a good investment. I just still can't decide whether I should have it shipped to work or to my old place of residence. My former roommate said it'd be fine if I did that, but if I ship it to work I'll get it sooner. :-) Anyway. We'll see.

Gosh. I would spend all my money on knitting stuff if I could. Yarn, needles, bags, books, tools, etc. Maybe someday. I love knitting so much. SO much. Oh well.

What kind of a knitting blog doesn't have pictures?

In an attempt to make my foray into knitting bloggery not completely wasted, I guess I'll post something again. (Apparently I've only posted six times since I started this back in July. To be fair, I suppose it was right before I went home for a couple weeks, during which time I wasn't really thinking much about knit-posting, and then since I've been back things have been crazy. But with no sign of slowing down, either, so maybe this thing will really get going in a year or so...)

I have (almost) finished three different baby items, which is exciting. Oh, wait, there was a fourth thing I finished, but I'm not sure if it's gift-able, because I may have made it too big. I don't know. It's this little baby cocoon thing, basically a sort of micro-sleeping bag. Apparently people make them for babies. I don't know. I just came across it and it looked cute (and easy), so there you go. I'm worried it's too long, though, and would be ineffective for its purpose (which, from what I can tell, is to swaddle the baby like newborns like to be swaddled, or something). I just know nothing, so it might just go in the pile of "generic baby stuff I've made and have yet to give to anyone and might give away someday". I think there are two or three blankets in that pile. And maybe a baby hat or two. And some booties, which may or may not be an appropriate size; I'm not sure.

Besides that, though, I finished a cute baby hat with ear flaps (but I still have to weave in the ends, and add the strings to both ear flaps so it can be tied). It has an owner, and at this point might just end up being a Christmas gift for this baby. (It'd be too big for him now anyway, plus there's the small matter of the fact that it's only September and certainly not cold enough to necessitate this hat.)

I've also finished a car seat cover thing, which is really cute and I like and I hope is ok. It's got a hole built into it so that the seat belt can go through it, and it can keep the baby covered with the seat belt on. I also have to weave in the ends of that one. (It's amazing how many projects I finish in a timely matter, only to leave that last little step for weeks and weeks. And weeks. I just hate doing that part, and I don't really know why, since it takes all of like five minutes.)

Another baby item I finished recently is a round pinwheel blanket. Oh I love it. (Same story with this one - have to weave in the ends. Fail.) I don't like how thin it is, but it's really cute, so I'll forgive it for that. It was super easy to do, and the yarn I used is a variegated yarn so it makes a cool effect throughout that works well with the spiraliness of the pattern. I like it.

And I just realized why I haven't posted more on here: I want to take pictures and have links to the stuff I do,  but I haven't taken many pictures of my more recent knitting. And why haven't I? Because I haven't quite finished them enough to take the final picture. It's all a vicious cycle, no? Ah well. One of these days I'll finish them up and take pictures and put them on here.

Up next on the docket: a blanket I've been working on for far too long (I think I started sometime in February, but then put down for several months until June or July when I started working on it again), which is just about done. It has a repeating pattern of eight rows, and I wanted to squeeze out one more pattern repeat before getting to the final twelve rows that are just knit stitch across for the edging, but I don't think I have enough yarn for that. So I'm going to have to take out the four rows of the pattern repeat I've done, and then knit the last twelve. And once that's done, I have another afghan I need to do; I have a few scarves and smaller items I've been working on; and there are these oh-so-cute baby hats I really want to try. Oh man I'm excited for that.

I get all sorts of knitting-related things in my email these days, from various knitting magazines, stores, yarn brands, etc. Last week, one of them was from a particular brand of yarn, announcing their upcoming "crochet-along" that they're starting Sept. 22. I guess they did a knit-along last year, so now it's crochet's turn. Every week, they give out one clue - a pattern for a square, and you're supposed to knit some number of that square. By the end, you sew up all the squares, and voila, you've got an afghan. They don't show you what the finished product will look like until the end, though. They tell you how much yarn you'll need, and how many colors. I really, really wanted to try it. I don't know how to crochet, but they say that they start with beginner stitches, and then by the end it's more advanced stitches, so you can learn as you go if you don't know crochet that well. (Same with the knit afghan they did, I guess.) I did manage to talk myself out of it, though, because a) I don't know that this is the best time for me to be trying to teach myself how to crochet, because I might devote too much time to it, or I might get super frustrated with it and hate everything around me, or who knows. b) I shouldn't be spending $40-50 on yarn for an afghan just to do it, not right now anyway. c) well, I guess that's it mostly. I just decided it's probably smarter to let it go for now. Plus, the knit-along patterns are still on their site, so I assume the crochet will be too, so someday I can always go back and do it if I decide I want to.

Anyway. Completely uninteresting, I know. I just really wish I knew how to crochet. I don't know why the teaching myself to knit worked out so much better than teaching myself to crochet. People say crocheting is easier, but it seems more complicated to me. (But then, when people see knitting patterns I'm doing, they say it looks complicated or like another language, and it makes complete sense to me. It's all just a matter of learning the language, I guess, and I'm sure I'd be able to pick it up if ever I gave it a really good go.)

Someday. Maybe I'll be able to take an intro to crochet class next year. Who knows.

What I do know is this: I wish I could devote a majority of my time to knitting, rather than having it as a hobby that I use to procrastinate my homework. I wish I didn't have to sneak in rows here and there, or feel guilty every time I pick up a needle. Alas, such is life right now. Tis temporary, though, as are most things.

Hello, hit-and-run blogger!

Man, I make this thing and I'm all excited about it and then I go nowhere with it. Oh well. My excuse is that I was in Colorado. And...I knitted there, but not much. But dude! Baby things! Soooo fun! I made two baby items while I was home (well, finished one last night), and am now working on a third. I do have two people that these are actually meant for, but I think I could easily go overboard and do just a ton of baby stuff right now. Especially since, for the project I started and finished back in CO, I definitely didn't even use a whole skein, and I bought four for it because I had neglected to check how much I needed. Luckily it's an awesome color.

And, you know, I know so many people who have gotten married in the last year, and who will be getting married in the coming year, this stuff's bound to come in handy!

Baby yarn equals awesome. The end.

Slacking already

Look at this, less than a month in and already I'm failing at this blog. Thankfully, I'm currently suffering from insomnia, so it's the perfect time to update! The good news is I haven't been slacking on my knitting. I finished that afghan I was working on last Monday, and have been making progress on the other one. Although I'm now realizing I'm going to need more yarn for it, because I'm using a smaller sized needle than the original pattern calls for, so it's taking more yarn to do. I think. I don't know. I'm not sure how this one is going to turn out, really. I don't know how well any of them actually turn out, to be honest. Out of all the afghans I've knitted in the last year (six or seven?), I've only really been happy with one of them. Ah, well, live and learn I guess. Although obviously I haven't really learned. Whatever.

I'm also working on another shawl (for me, yes), with the brown yarn I bought at the yarn store a few weeks ago. I've pretty much exclusively worked with Caron Simply Soft, which is acrylic (aka, not as nice, although I do still like it plus: cheap!), but this yarn is part cotton and part something else, and whatever, it's soooo silky and soft to knit with. Very not what I'm used to. It's also a thinner yarn. But I'm really enjoying knitting with it, although it's more slippery too so I have to be a bit more careful. Hopefully the shawl will turn out nicely.

I just started a hat for my little brother. He wanted navy blue with a couple of red stripes in it, so I got to try this new (to me) way of color changing. I love it. It's so easy! And looks a lot nicer than other methods I've used. I've typically tried to avoid color changing in the past because I hadn't really figured out how to do it so it looks nice, but I think this method might change that. I'm planning on getting a chunk of this Christmas afghan I started sometime last year done while I'm home, since I left it home intending to work on it this summer (because, you know, I was supposed to be home all summer). It requires frequent switching between colors, so I'll try out this method with that too. Not sure if it'll work the same, though, because this method seems more suited to changing within a row, or, in my current case, in a knit-in-the-round project. But I'll try it and see how it goes.

I almost had a panic attack (not really) the other night, trying to figure out what knitting I would be bringing home with me. I don't want to bring home the afghan I'm currently working on, especially since I think I need to buy more yarn (I'm not sure what that has to do with anything, but I just don't want to bring it home. Maybe if it were for someone back home and I could leave it there, but if I were to finish it while I was home, I'd still have to bring it back with me, and that's just annoying). I do have another afghan currently slated to be done sooner than later, and I could start that, but then I'd have to bring all the yarn for it home with me, and who knows if I would finish it while I'm there (I might - the afghan I just finished only took me a week and a half - but you never know), so then I'd have to bring everything back with me. So I'll probably just bring some needles, since I do have yarn at home that I might want to use for something small, plus I have lots of baby yarn at home and people I know are starting to have babies, and the shawl, since it's small and I doubt I'll have it finished by then, and the hat if it's not done. But I can probably get it done before then. It just feels weird, though, not to have something concrete to work on. I might have to figure out something smallish to do so I can work on it on the plane. But then, like I said, I have that Christmas afghan at home to work on. I'll probably focus on that. It'd be fun to have it done by December. No idea who I might give it to, but I guess I have time to figure that out.

Also, I really, really, really want these. Except I wish it included a 16" cable too, as I find myself using that size somewhat regularly. And they don't have the option even to buy a 16" cable by itself as an extra, so that's kind of annoying. I'd have to buy them individually...except, I don't need to because I have a set of 16" bamboo circular needles. So never mind. I do need to buy a new size 8 16" needle, though, as I overused mine and it broke a little bit. Anyway. I still really want that set. But maybe I should start with just one needle, just to try out that kind of needle, which I've never used before. Maybe I'll buy the size 8 16" circular needle in that line, and then test it out. Yes. Good plan, Susie. Why thank you.

Well...that's about it on the knitting front. Once I figure out my housing situation for the next year (currently somewhat in flux), I'm going to have to get a better system figured out for my yarn stash. It's so annoying the way it is, all stuffed in bags according to color, and the bags overflowing from the one large Rubbermaid thing that I have for yarn storage. No good. Although maybe it's better to keep it all hidden away for the upcoming year, what with my crazy September schedule and comps studying that will ensue in earnest come January (or sooner, if I'm ambitious, which I'm not). Man, school really cuts into knitting time. It's quite sad.

Anyway. There's my current update. Maybe I'll take some pictures of something one of these days. Knitting blogs should have pictures, right? Otherwise, what's the fun in it?

Banded

I forget if I mentioned this (since, you know, I've had oh-so-many posts so far), but I'm on a major headband kick right now. I do this a lot - I knit one thing for the first time, and then fall in love with it and want to do fifteen of them, trying different patterns. I've done this with afghans, with scarves, with hats (oh, how I love hats!), and now, headbands. I think it's that once I do one, I realize how easy it is, and there are so many cute patterns out there. The really nice thing about headbands is that they take very little time. I worked on one over the weekend I was in New Jersey (so, two weekends ago), and it was my first one, my first cabled project, and a bit more substantial, so it took me longer. But then my second one? It took me about forty minutes. That's, like, nothing. I made another one last night because I wanted a headband in a different color (over-buying yarn for all those afghans I've been doing is really coming in handy now!), and it's so quick and such an easy pattern. It's called Saving Grace. Awesome. I love it. So so so quick. (The only difference is that I don't sew the ends together. I make and add a twisty cord to each end, so that way I don't have to worry about it not fitting quite right, or stretching out too much.)

Voila.

In between those two I knitted a couple other headbands, in various patterns. It's so great. And I'm also continuing work on the afghans. Getting close to done the one (I'm about two-thirds of the way done; I just added the last two skeins tonight - it's knit holding to strands of yarn together), and then I have the second one that's partially done once I finish this one. Not sure how much I'll get done this weekend, as my not-so-baby bro is coming up tomorrow night for the weekend. But we might have lots of sitting time on Sunday as we wait for fireworks and such, so maybe I'll get to work on it more then. Either way, I don't see why I can't have it finished by next weekend at the latest. Once these two afghans are knocked out of the way, I think I have a couple of hats and things I need to get done and given away. I'll have to look at the list I wrote a looooong time ago with lined-up projects.

I'm so excited, though. While knitting one of the other headbands, I noticed that the blog with the pattern had several other free patterns as well, and my goodness. I want to try them. Suffice it to say, assuming I have the ability, I know what I'll be giving at least a few people for Christmas. Well, sort of. Accompaniment, anyway. I also found a hat that I sooo wish I could make for my nephews, but I think it might be a little bit too "pink bunny outfit Ralphie's aunt made him". I don't want to put my nephews through that. But man. It's darned cute. As are they. Perfect fit, right? Well, we'll see. I might not even have time for it after the summer's over.

Knitting. It makes me so happy. I wonder if it's possible to get a knitter's high like people can get a runner's high...I firmly believe that it is. And believing is half the battle...or...something.

What do I do with this?

I gotta admit, I hadn't really thought much beyond the "starting a blog" phase of this thing. I thought about starting one for a long time, but after that, I don't know. Oh well!

I went to a knitting store yesterday. I had nothing to do this weekend, and all I do when I'm not at work is sit at home so I figured I should do something other than that for at least a couple of hours. As I have no car I had to take the Metro, and the one I went to in Bethesda meant that I had to take the Red Line basically from one end to the other. A 40 minute trip one way, basically, plus $2.45 each way. But I got to walk a few blocks from the station to the store, and walking's always nice. Even if it is crazy hot here. I didn't really have any goals or aims for this visit, and I've only been in a non-commercial (aka JoAnn, Michael's, Hobby Lobby, etc) yarn store one other time, back home, and it was intimidating. As was this. And both were expensive. Non-commercial yarn/homemade yarn/nice yarn is expensive. My favorite stuff, Caron Simply Soft, is usually around $3 per skein, give or take (I've often managed to get it on sale, which is nice), and that's for over 300 yards of yarn. I did get myself a few balls of yarn yesterday, but I don't really know why as it was definitely more than $3 per ball and just over 100 yards per ball. Not financially wise, but I guess I figured I was there, and I've never really worked with nice, non-acrylic yarn, and maybe I can make something extra good for myself, or something. Who knows. I also got a book. I spent a LOT of time looking at the books there. Going back and forth, trying to decide if it was worth it (in reality, probably not, but I got a good one with some really awesome patterns. And it's a book specifically for gifts to give to people! So, really, it's beneficial for everyone!). You know me, I'm way indecisive, and so yeah. I was there awhile. Much longer than I needed to be. But I guess it was fun, in a way, and probably better than had I just sat at home and watched a few more episodes of Gilmore Girls, or whatever.

Well, once I got home I went back to knitting, of course. And watching more Gilmore Girls and stuff once the soccer game finished. (I'm no soccer fan, but it was the US, and the World Cup, and just the last few minutes of overtime, so why not.) Last week I knitted something like four headbands. I love headbands. They're super cute, even though I'm not quite decided whether or not they look good on me. But they also take like an hour to do, and not much yarn, so it's like win-win-win. Which is better than win-win. I guess they were good interim projects to get me really back into knitting like a fiend, because I have stuff I've promised for people that I need to make good on. I bought a boxfull of yarn from Joann back in March or something, or February, or sometime a long time ago, and the yarn was all for projects I had to do. And then things happened, and I did some of them, and then I didn't do most of them and I didn't do much knitting at all because of pesky things like deciding I had to be more serious about schoolwork and junk. And now here we are, almost July, really hot weather, perfect time to start knitting in earnest again, eh? Well. When I was still working on projects, I started on an afghan I should have had done back in January or February, if I were better. I stopped about maybe a fifth of the way through, because of school and stuff, and I had been doing afghan after afghan after afghan and I think I got a little sick of them. But I picked it up again this past week and am now about a third done, maybe a little less. And then I started another one that I want to have done by the time I go home (in 18 days!). I started it on Friday. And here's where I am now:

Ok, so it doesn't look like it, but I'm almost a third done. Or, I'd better be, because I've already used up two of the six skeins I bought for it. (I'm sure it is. And if not, I can always buy one more if I need to.) I really like the color, by the way. Especially when put next to the color of the other afghan I'm working on:

So anyway, afghans it is right now. These ones are good, too, because they're not too involved, and they're pretty quick knits (obviously, considering I basically did a third of an entire afghan in one night). Both of them are out of the Big Book of Quick Knit Afghans I bought last summer. (I've gotten a lot of use out of that thing. I think I've made at least four or five from it, and have these two I'm working on. Oh, and another one that is going to be a Christmas afghan at some point. I was supposed to work on it this summer, so I left it at home when I came back after Christmas. A lot of things I had planned for this summer didn't pan out...) Well. I'll be sure to post pictures when I'm done. I think they'll look good together; too bad they're going to completely different homes.

Next up: the saga of the stash.

(It's not really a saga so much as a "Man wouldn't it be nice if this were organized?")

Work In Progress

I'm hoping this weekend to get something substantial on here, maybe pictures with links to patterns of recent projects, or something along those lines. But for now, ...I don't know what to do.

Well. If you want for me to knit you something at some point in the future, let me know and I'll give you the username and password to a Ravelry account I set up for just such a purpose. :-) I hate picking out patterns for people when they ask me to make them something generic (ie, a hat. A scarf. An afghan). So this way they can browse a bunch of patterns and find something they like, or even a few they like and then if something they want is out of my range of capabilities, there'll be a backup.

And there it is. By the way, Ravelry is awesome. The end.

Finally did it!

I've been talking about starting a knitting blog for months now, and finally, I did it. So. Here it is.

My knitting blog.

Yay.

(Summer's an odd time to be knitting, don't you think? It is SO. HOT. But that doesn't stop an addict, does it?)

Well, I guess I'll be posting pictures and such here, patterns I start (and maybe those that I finish!), things about yarn, who knows.

We'll see how it goes, I guess.