I always forget about this place. It's hard enough keeping up a regular blog, let alone a specialty one. I guess because it's hard to separate knitting from the rest of my life, since knitting is such a big part of my life (weird as that may sound). But I want to make more of an effort at least to record things here, projects I've made and such, just to have it.
Right now I'm working on: a scarf, two blankets, and a cardigan. Blankets are for some of the MANY people I know who've gotten married this year. There are a lot of them, and I've been trying to knit blankets for all of them. I could do something easier and quicker, like placemats or towels, but I really love knitting blankets. I love having blankets, too, so I sort of just assume everyone does. Even if it gets stuck in a closet somewhere and never sees the light of day, it'll be there for that day when they need an extra bit of warmth. I still treasure the first package I ever got in college - an afghan my grandmother made for me. I actually don't know if it was knit or crocheted - I think she crocheted a lot more than she knit, but it sort of looks like knit stitches. It's hard to tell though. In any case, I love it. I really wish I had been more into knitting while she was alive. I didn't start until my sophomore year in college, I think, and even then it wasn't nearly to the degree I knit now. She died when I was a senior, and I probably only saw her a couple of times in person in the interim, so I never really got a chance to bond with her over that. But that's the way life goes, I guess. At least I can keep it going, though I can't glean pearls of crafting wisdom from her.
Well that went off on an unexpected tangent. But that's ok. You know, I'm just so very very thankful that I have knitting. Throughout my life there have been lots of things that I pick up, enjoy for a little while, and then let go of for no good reason. (Violining comes to mind. I really regret not keeping up with that.) But knitting has weaved itself around my heart (ha, get it?), and I don't think it's ever leaving. And thank God for that. It's funny - I don't really appreciate how good at it I am (please understand I'm saying this in a modest way, because I know there's still so much about knitting I don't know) until I get around other people who knit occasionally. For me, I just taught myself to knit and I was off and running, and I've never really struggled with it or had many mishaps or difficulties. So I can make some really pretty things. I mean, I still don't know how to do much with multiple colors, and I certainly have not yet gotten up the courage - or desire, really - to start designing my own patterns, but I have yet to meet a pattern that I can't pretty easily figure out. It just really works for me. It works well with the way my mind thinks. I take it for granted sometimes, and expect that everyone should be able to pick it up that easily, so it's no big deal what I can do. (Really, it's all just a matter of following the instructions.) But then I get together with other people who knit as a hobby, and they're often surprised by what I can do.
Ok, that probably all just sounded incredibly prideful and braggy. It's not how I mean it. Anyone who knows me knows how much I dislike admitting that I'm good at anything. It's not about me, though, it's all God. He really gave me this gift of being able to create beautiful things with my hands. Practical things. Warm, cozy things. Oh, how excited I am for fall, winter, colder weather! Snuggling in around bunches of blankets, wrapping myself in mounds of scarves, throwing a deliciously warm hat over my head. Knitters love winter weather. I am no exception. I may have been known to knit blankets during a ridiculously hot DC summer, but knitting in winter is just so perfect. And it may seem silly to associate God with knitting, but I know that I couldn't do it without him having given me the skills to do it, the mind to easily adapt to knitting lingo and patterns and symbols, the heart to embrace it more and more every day - and to want to spread that love to everyone else!
Boy oh boy, am I ever and always thankful for this craft.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Poor, neglected blog
I haven't written in this thing in almost a year. A YEAR! Just what do I think I was doing? (Oh, maybe studying for comps, then taking comps, then finishing up my master's degree, then moving home...after that, no excuses, buddy.) One thing's for sure - I was doing a lot of knitting. In that time, I finally acquired myself a set of nice interchangeable needles, and lo, it was love. I've knit several blankets. Some shawls. Hats. Mittens. Scarves. Etc. My yarn stash has reached epic proportions (especially with a recently-acquired box or two of enough yarn to make several blankets I have planned) (one of which I've already possibly scrapped, but am using the yarn for a different blanket, with some sadness, though, because it was originally going to be a pattern I've been really wanting to do for over a year now). I have a yarn swift and a real nostepinne, both of which are vast improvements over my previous method of "loop the yarn around my knees and use part of an old wrapping paper cardboard tube". Though I'd be lying if I said I immediately, or even as yet, got rid of that old wrapping paper card board tube. It was quite good to me there for awhile. And that tube itself was an improvement over my previous method of wrapping the yarn around three or four of my bigger-sized double pointed needles (which was, in its own time, an improvement over using several pens held together).
Ah, growth.
So here I am, wanting to write about knitting, because it's one of the greatest things in my life (well, to an extent, and with some caveats). But I do love it, and I have a greater appreciation for it with each new stitch I learn, each new project I start - and hopefully finish.
Right now, I'm working on that previously-mentioned unplanned blanket. Here's the story: I was knitting a blanket for a friend of mine who got married last year. What can I say, I really am thankful there's a year-long rule for getting people wedding presents. I started it in November, but that was around the time I was also working on a present that was going to be a definite Christmas present (I had the idea of giving this wedding present by Christmas, but it's hard to knit two blankets simultaneously for one event when you can't knit multiple hours a day and still be a functioning human). Thus, the definite Christmas present took priority, and thus here we are, almost in February, and the other blanket isn't yet finished. Last weekend I was looking to be done with it. I felt it was pretty well long enough, and so all I had to do was finish the rows of pattern repeat, and then to the bind-off - which is a different method than I've ever done, since this whole blanket has an i-cord edging around it as you go. But all of a sudden, I couldn't stand how narrow it was. It's fine for, say, a twin bed, and I personally am in love with it, but if I'm going to make it that long, shouldn't I make it wide enough for a bigger bed? These are the thoughts that began to plague me. Of course, it'd be fine for a couch afghan, which is really what I typically intend these things to be. (It takes a lot of yarn to make a blanket wide enough and long enough for a non-twin bed.) But it just didn't feel good enough to me. I am my own harshest critic, always, but I want these things to be loved.
So, despite the fact that I had purchased this yarn earlier in the year with the express purpose of being for this particular friend, I started wavering. And then I dug into the stash of yarn I just bought for other blankets for other friends, and started up a new blanket. And now here I am, a week later, ten inches done on the new one, and the other one still waiting to be finished. I had a brilliant idea of another friend who I think would enjoy and appreciate the not-wide-enough blanket, and I'm loving the new mostly-simple pattern I've got going on this blanket, but now I'll have to figure out something else for the friend who was intended to get the yarn I'm now using...we shall see...
But the new pattern! So, the pattern I was going to use with this yarn was a complicated one, with lots of cables and different stitches going on. I anticipated it taking awhile. And I do still want to do it one of these days. On my desk at work sometime the second week of January, a book showed up (with a card). 400 Knitting Stitches. It's one of the best things I've gotten, partially because it was so utterly unexpected. (Apparently receiving gifts is one of my love languages.) Immediately I began looking through it, and wanted to try All The Patterns. And I still do. But I found a fairly simple one, that's easy to turn into an afghan, and I adapted it slightly, added an edging around it, and here I am, still enjoying it. But it was an interesting start - I had the basic of the pattern repeat, but I had to make it work for the 256 stitches I cast on. Not that it's hard to do, since you just take the number of stitches they tell you to use per repeat, and multiply so it's wide enough for what you want. And then add stitches for the edging. I actually did a swatch this time! I never do that, but I wanted to make sure there weren't any kinks in the pattern before I knit 64 inches and several rows of it only to discover some problem. (The worst part about afghans, for me, is casting on all those stitches. I only want to have to do it once, so no room for miscounting or error!)
Well, as luck would have it, I didn't adapt quite correctly. On the very first row. (Which, after having done the bottom edge, meant I had already knit eight rows.) I am a perfectionist. I don't let myself make mistakes. If I notice a mistake in my knitting, I do what I can to take it out, much to my own detriment sometimes. Occasionally I'll let it slide if it's not too egregious, but usually, I can't stand it. So when I realized I hadn't done the first row right (which I didn't notice until I started the third), I had a few options: take out two rows of knitting (meaning over 500 stitches), which is never an appealing thing to do; let it slide and accept that it would just look wonky at the bottom of the blanket - also not too thrilled by that one; or continue with the third row, dropping the offensive stitches when I got to those ones so I could fix them as I went. I chose option three. It meant it took me a long time to get that third row done, but I managed to fix it so it looked fairly normal. I'm still pretty new at this "dropping stitches when you get to them" business rather than just ripping back and re-doing them, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. Of course, I then noticed several rows later that there was one I had missed, but by that point it would have been just too much work to drop down that many rows and manage to stay within the pattern. So, this blanket has an imperfection. An obvious one, if you're looking for it.
That's the good thing about knitting for non-knitters, though - usually they're not looking for it.
Anyway. That was a really long post with lots of writing and utterly lacking in pictures. Terrible re-start to my knitting blog. I'll try to do better next time (which hopefully will be sometime sooner than a year away...)
Ah, growth.
So here I am, wanting to write about knitting, because it's one of the greatest things in my life (well, to an extent, and with some caveats). But I do love it, and I have a greater appreciation for it with each new stitch I learn, each new project I start - and hopefully finish.
Right now, I'm working on that previously-mentioned unplanned blanket. Here's the story: I was knitting a blanket for a friend of mine who got married last year. What can I say, I really am thankful there's a year-long rule for getting people wedding presents. I started it in November, but that was around the time I was also working on a present that was going to be a definite Christmas present (I had the idea of giving this wedding present by Christmas, but it's hard to knit two blankets simultaneously for one event when you can't knit multiple hours a day and still be a functioning human). Thus, the definite Christmas present took priority, and thus here we are, almost in February, and the other blanket isn't yet finished. Last weekend I was looking to be done with it. I felt it was pretty well long enough, and so all I had to do was finish the rows of pattern repeat, and then to the bind-off - which is a different method than I've ever done, since this whole blanket has an i-cord edging around it as you go. But all of a sudden, I couldn't stand how narrow it was. It's fine for, say, a twin bed, and I personally am in love with it, but if I'm going to make it that long, shouldn't I make it wide enough for a bigger bed? These are the thoughts that began to plague me. Of course, it'd be fine for a couch afghan, which is really what I typically intend these things to be. (It takes a lot of yarn to make a blanket wide enough and long enough for a non-twin bed.) But it just didn't feel good enough to me. I am my own harshest critic, always, but I want these things to be loved.
So, despite the fact that I had purchased this yarn earlier in the year with the express purpose of being for this particular friend, I started wavering. And then I dug into the stash of yarn I just bought for other blankets for other friends, and started up a new blanket. And now here I am, a week later, ten inches done on the new one, and the other one still waiting to be finished. I had a brilliant idea of another friend who I think would enjoy and appreciate the not-wide-enough blanket, and I'm loving the new mostly-simple pattern I've got going on this blanket, but now I'll have to figure out something else for the friend who was intended to get the yarn I'm now using...we shall see...
But the new pattern! So, the pattern I was going to use with this yarn was a complicated one, with lots of cables and different stitches going on. I anticipated it taking awhile. And I do still want to do it one of these days. On my desk at work sometime the second week of January, a book showed up (with a card). 400 Knitting Stitches. It's one of the best things I've gotten, partially because it was so utterly unexpected. (Apparently receiving gifts is one of my love languages.) Immediately I began looking through it, and wanted to try All The Patterns. And I still do. But I found a fairly simple one, that's easy to turn into an afghan, and I adapted it slightly, added an edging around it, and here I am, still enjoying it. But it was an interesting start - I had the basic of the pattern repeat, but I had to make it work for the 256 stitches I cast on. Not that it's hard to do, since you just take the number of stitches they tell you to use per repeat, and multiply so it's wide enough for what you want. And then add stitches for the edging. I actually did a swatch this time! I never do that, but I wanted to make sure there weren't any kinks in the pattern before I knit 64 inches and several rows of it only to discover some problem. (The worst part about afghans, for me, is casting on all those stitches. I only want to have to do it once, so no room for miscounting or error!)
Well, as luck would have it, I didn't adapt quite correctly. On the very first row. (Which, after having done the bottom edge, meant I had already knit eight rows.) I am a perfectionist. I don't let myself make mistakes. If I notice a mistake in my knitting, I do what I can to take it out, much to my own detriment sometimes. Occasionally I'll let it slide if it's not too egregious, but usually, I can't stand it. So when I realized I hadn't done the first row right (which I didn't notice until I started the third), I had a few options: take out two rows of knitting (meaning over 500 stitches), which is never an appealing thing to do; let it slide and accept that it would just look wonky at the bottom of the blanket - also not too thrilled by that one; or continue with the third row, dropping the offensive stitches when I got to those ones so I could fix them as I went. I chose option three. It meant it took me a long time to get that third row done, but I managed to fix it so it looked fairly normal. I'm still pretty new at this "dropping stitches when you get to them" business rather than just ripping back and re-doing them, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. Of course, I then noticed several rows later that there was one I had missed, but by that point it would have been just too much work to drop down that many rows and manage to stay within the pattern. So, this blanket has an imperfection. An obvious one, if you're looking for it.
That's the good thing about knitting for non-knitters, though - usually they're not looking for it.
Anyway. That was a really long post with lots of writing and utterly lacking in pictures. Terrible re-start to my knitting blog. I'll try to do better next time (which hopefully will be sometime sooner than a year away...)
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Now that's more like it
I finished a baby blanket a couple of days ago, and washed it last night. I was more or less ambivalent towards it before I washed it, but afterward? My goodness. it's nice. It's just a basic knit/purl pattern, but in such a way that one is in a pattern against the other so that they make the shapes of bears. Washing it really made the bears pop out more like they should, I think. Confused by what I mean? Here, let me show you!
Well, first, this is what I started out with:
That would be two skeins of lots of yarn. A pound each - 1020 yards. I made one into a center-pull ball (quite a beautiful one, which I have yet to be able to replicate well) because I couldn't find the end of yarn that normally pulls from the center of store-bought skeins like that. I ended up pulling out a huge chunk of yarn from the center, and just couldn't find it, and it was messy, so I just took the one on the outside and turned it into a ball. It took like two hours, though, so since I pretty easily found the inner end of the yarn on the other skein, I didn't bother balling that one. It is quite a space-saver, though!
Anyway. Here's the finished result, pre-washing:
Not too bad, I suppose. But it looks a lot more polished post-washing:
(The hat is also going to my friend who's getting this blanket. It's one of my older baby hats that I just happened to come across a couple of weeks ago. Since she's having a boy, I figured, hey, might as well give it to someone! But, like all baby items I make, I don't know if it's the right size or anything. Oh well.)
Last week, I also made my first real alpaca item, which I've worn...a lot since then. I love it.
Anyway. It's pretty basic, but it's so warm, and so so so soft. And I kind of love that it has a hint of the smell of animal. Maybe I'm just making that up, but oh well. I like it. (Of course, this coming from the girl who has been known to "crave" the smell of manure at least a few times while I've been in DC. I like farms.)
Last night, I also cast on a new project - probably my most challenging to date. It's sort of a lacy shawl. I'm using this yarn that's part bamboo blend! Pretty excited about that. (Also, ignoring the fact that I literally have at least five projects on needles right now. But, you know, different situations call for different projects! I'll be finishing at least one of them today, too, so that's good. Of course, I'll probably just turn around and start another one, but whatever. :-P )
Well. Now it's off to send a couple items to their new owners!
Well, first, this is what I started out with:
That would be two skeins of lots of yarn. A pound each - 1020 yards. I made one into a center-pull ball (quite a beautiful one, which I have yet to be able to replicate well) because I couldn't find the end of yarn that normally pulls from the center of store-bought skeins like that. I ended up pulling out a huge chunk of yarn from the center, and just couldn't find it, and it was messy, so I just took the one on the outside and turned it into a ball. It took like two hours, though, so since I pretty easily found the inner end of the yarn on the other skein, I didn't bother balling that one. It is quite a space-saver, though!
Anyway. Here's the finished result, pre-washing:
Not too bad, I suppose. But it looks a lot more polished post-washing:
(The hat is also going to my friend who's getting this blanket. It's one of my older baby hats that I just happened to come across a couple of weeks ago. Since she's having a boy, I figured, hey, might as well give it to someone! But, like all baby items I make, I don't know if it's the right size or anything. Oh well.)
Last week, I also made my first real alpaca item, which I've worn...a lot since then. I love it.
Anyway. It's pretty basic, but it's so warm, and so so so soft. And I kind of love that it has a hint of the smell of animal. Maybe I'm just making that up, but oh well. I like it. (Of course, this coming from the girl who has been known to "crave" the smell of manure at least a few times while I've been in DC. I like farms.)
Last night, I also cast on a new project - probably my most challenging to date. It's sort of a lacy shawl. I'm using this yarn that's part bamboo blend! Pretty excited about that. (Also, ignoring the fact that I literally have at least five projects on needles right now. But, you know, different situations call for different projects! I'll be finishing at least one of them today, too, so that's good. Of course, I'll probably just turn around and start another one, but whatever. :-P )
Well. Now it's off to send a couple items to their new owners!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Do-over
Well, remember that infinity scarf I mentioned the other day, the one I was knitting with Malabrigo yarn? I finished it last night, or two nights ago, and while it would have been ok to leave as-is (or, as-was, more appropriately), I decided it wouldn't do that fabulous yarn justice for me to have something I was ambivalent about. So, project was frogged, yarn was re-wound (and my goodness, how happy I am to have figured out that I can make center-pull balls with yarn I wind up! Before I was just winding it in a straight-up ball, and working with the outside yarn. Doesn't work as well that way. Center pull? I loves me a center-pull ball). Trying the scarf thing again, but with different yarn. I'll have to contemplate a bit more what I want that Malabrigo to become. I think I found something, but it'll have to wait a bit.
So tonight, I got down to the business of starting a new one. Except, here it is, hours later, and I'm still trying to figure it out. I've cast on and undone and re-cast on and knit a few rows and undone again, multiple times. I can't figure out the right needles, and decided to try a different pattern. And then the pattern I decided on had me cast on what I consider an insane number of stitches, but I didn't really realize this until I had already gone a row or two. Hopefully I'm settled down now, and things will finally progress. I'm anxious to have it done, because the yarn I'm using now is an alpaca yarn. And let me tell you. Alpaca is my new favorite animal. Goodness. If you've never felt alpaca yarn, be my friend and come over and I'll let you pet it. It's delicious. So, assuming that when I join the stitches (so I can knit in the round - because boy oh boy, I have a great dislike for stitching up a project) I don't twist it, which has happened once or twice tonight as well, I should be off and running. And I should hopefully be able to get this thing done by the end of the week.
Of course, there's also still the other blanket to finish. Plus the baby one. Plus a couple scarves promised to a couple of people. (But I'm trying to stay simple on those, so they're not so time-consuming.)
And, oh yeah, did I mention, those five graduate classes I have. Right, those.
Thankfully, the worst part of any project for me is the beginning. And it's especially bad when it requires casting on 100-200 stitches, because having to redo that many is time-consuming. Casting on 15 or 20? No biggie. That's the trade-off between knitting in the round versus doing seaming afterward. Ah, well. At least once this one is going, everything I have going is pretty simple. So that's good.
Now, back to it.
So tonight, I got down to the business of starting a new one. Except, here it is, hours later, and I'm still trying to figure it out. I've cast on and undone and re-cast on and knit a few rows and undone again, multiple times. I can't figure out the right needles, and decided to try a different pattern. And then the pattern I decided on had me cast on what I consider an insane number of stitches, but I didn't really realize this until I had already gone a row or two. Hopefully I'm settled down now, and things will finally progress. I'm anxious to have it done, because the yarn I'm using now is an alpaca yarn. And let me tell you. Alpaca is my new favorite animal. Goodness. If you've never felt alpaca yarn, be my friend and come over and I'll let you pet it. It's delicious. So, assuming that when I join the stitches (so I can knit in the round - because boy oh boy, I have a great dislike for stitching up a project) I don't twist it, which has happened once or twice tonight as well, I should be off and running. And I should hopefully be able to get this thing done by the end of the week.
Of course, there's also still the other blanket to finish. Plus the baby one. Plus a couple scarves promised to a couple of people. (But I'm trying to stay simple on those, so they're not so time-consuming.)
And, oh yeah, did I mention, those five graduate classes I have. Right, those.
Thankfully, the worst part of any project for me is the beginning. And it's especially bad when it requires casting on 100-200 stitches, because having to redo that many is time-consuming. Casting on 15 or 20? No biggie. That's the trade-off between knitting in the round versus doing seaming afterward. Ah, well. At least once this one is going, everything I have going is pretty simple. So that's good.
Now, back to it.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
I take it all back
You guys, it's finished. The edge has been undone and redone. (The whole blanket was knit with size 10 needles; I ended up doing the edge row in size 15 needles. And it worked beautifully.)
It can now be packaged up and sent off to its new owners, and fulfill its blankety destiny in whatever way they see fit. It's about 64" in diameter, all told. (If I hold it up to the top of my head, the other side hits the floor, so it's even wider than 64" if it's stretched a bit.) It'd probably look better on a bed, but I have not an appropriate bed for this sort of thing. (It's a twin. And pushed up against the wall. This blanket wants a bigger bed, I think.)
I hope the recipients like it. And I hope they don't tell me if they don't. :-) All I know is, I'm quite satisfied, and feeling a lot better about life than I did last night. Sometimes it's worth it to put in several more hours of work on something that's finished but not up to standards. Anything worth doing is worth doing well, right?
Mmm. I love finished products. (Except when they're disappointing finished products...)
It can now be packaged up and sent off to its new owners, and fulfill its blankety destiny in whatever way they see fit. It's about 64" in diameter, all told. (If I hold it up to the top of my head, the other side hits the floor, so it's even wider than 64" if it's stretched a bit.) It'd probably look better on a bed, but I have not an appropriate bed for this sort of thing. (It's a twin. And pushed up against the wall. This blanket wants a bigger bed, I think.)
I hope the recipients like it. And I hope they don't tell me if they don't. :-) All I know is, I'm quite satisfied, and feeling a lot better about life than I did last night. Sometimes it's worth it to put in several more hours of work on something that's finished but not up to standards. Anything worth doing is worth doing well, right?
Mmm. I love finished products. (Except when they're disappointing finished products...)
Friday, January 28, 2011
Setback.
Today has not been a very good day in general, and in knitting.
I'm currently working on my first-ever Malabrigo project (a delightful and delicious yarn I'm so excited to try, and the color I bought a few months ago - and yes, am just now getting around to using - is called Azalea. Hello, perfect?). I realized today that I really wish I had used a size or two larger needles for it. I like squishy things, and with the needles I'm using, it's not turning out so squishy. But I'm so close to being done (and really, it's not a big project and I just started it a few days ago) that I'm just going to finish it, but not cut the yarn or tie the end off, and see how I feel about it. If I like it, great, if not, I'll just have to start all over. No biggie. But still. Kinda disappointing.
Then tonight, I finished up a scarf I started (back in December, when I got way over-ambitious about Christmas projects) for my nephew, and realized both that it looks shabby thanks to the number of times I went back and forth between colors, and that I seem to have tightened my gauge halfway through so it's not exactly even as it should be. Which wouldn't be noticeable except for the fact that I decided to switch colors every 15 rows. So, I'm rather bummed about that. He's almost 6, so I doubt he'd really care or notice, but I care and notice. Still have to figure out what I'm going to do about that one.
And last Saturday, I worked hours and hours and stayed up late to finish this blanket project I've had going since November (which also was meant to be a Christmas gift). First of all, I'm not entirely sure that I even like it now that it's done (except now that it's washed and soft, I love the yarn - I always love the after-wash result when I make blankets and things out of Caron Simply Soft. Acrylic it might be, but it sure lives up to its name). It's a circle. Who wants a circle blanket? Sigh. Plus, the worst part is that, as usual for me, the edge (which is all bind-off, obviously, since it's a circle done from the inside out) is too tight. I should have used bigger needles, or something, been more careful about it, but by the time I got to that point I had already been working on it several hours longer than I had originally planned (but I decided to add four extra rows - which isn't a small thing when the rows have almost 600 stitches each), and I just wanted to be DONE. So I did it quickly, and not loosely like I should have, and it kind of curls in. I was hoping it'd relax a bit with the wash, and it did some, but not enough for my liking. So, ridiculous though this is (especially since I was hoping to get it in the mail tomorrow), I'm undoing the edge. All 576 stitches of it. Gah. And then I'll redo it in a larger needle, and hopefully that'll help it a lot. If not, it just wasn't meant to be great, and hopefully the recipients will at least appreciate the gesture.
And people wonder why I don't think I'm very good at knitting. It's because I'm not. Duh.
Back to the never-ending blanket. Sigh.
I'm currently working on my first-ever Malabrigo project (a delightful and delicious yarn I'm so excited to try, and the color I bought a few months ago - and yes, am just now getting around to using - is called Azalea. Hello, perfect?). I realized today that I really wish I had used a size or two larger needles for it. I like squishy things, and with the needles I'm using, it's not turning out so squishy. But I'm so close to being done (and really, it's not a big project and I just started it a few days ago) that I'm just going to finish it, but not cut the yarn or tie the end off, and see how I feel about it. If I like it, great, if not, I'll just have to start all over. No biggie. But still. Kinda disappointing.
Then tonight, I finished up a scarf I started (back in December, when I got way over-ambitious about Christmas projects) for my nephew, and realized both that it looks shabby thanks to the number of times I went back and forth between colors, and that I seem to have tightened my gauge halfway through so it's not exactly even as it should be. Which wouldn't be noticeable except for the fact that I decided to switch colors every 15 rows. So, I'm rather bummed about that. He's almost 6, so I doubt he'd really care or notice, but I care and notice. Still have to figure out what I'm going to do about that one.
And last Saturday, I worked hours and hours and stayed up late to finish this blanket project I've had going since November (which also was meant to be a Christmas gift). First of all, I'm not entirely sure that I even like it now that it's done (except now that it's washed and soft, I love the yarn - I always love the after-wash result when I make blankets and things out of Caron Simply Soft. Acrylic it might be, but it sure lives up to its name). It's a circle. Who wants a circle blanket? Sigh. Plus, the worst part is that, as usual for me, the edge (which is all bind-off, obviously, since it's a circle done from the inside out) is too tight. I should have used bigger needles, or something, been more careful about it, but by the time I got to that point I had already been working on it several hours longer than I had originally planned (but I decided to add four extra rows - which isn't a small thing when the rows have almost 600 stitches each), and I just wanted to be DONE. So I did it quickly, and not loosely like I should have, and it kind of curls in. I was hoping it'd relax a bit with the wash, and it did some, but not enough for my liking. So, ridiculous though this is (especially since I was hoping to get it in the mail tomorrow), I'm undoing the edge. All 576 stitches of it. Gah. And then I'll redo it in a larger needle, and hopefully that'll help it a lot. If not, it just wasn't meant to be great, and hopefully the recipients will at least appreciate the gesture.
And people wonder why I don't think I'm very good at knitting. It's because I'm not. Duh.
Back to the never-ending blanket. Sigh.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Lackadaisical
My knitting + blogging has been a pretty failed endeavor thus far. Oh well.
Knitting goals for this year (and maybe next year, depending on how things go). Learn entrelac. Learn fair isle. Learn intarsia and other kinds of colorwork. Learn brioche. Of course, by "this year" I really mean "starting in May" because I just can't commit myself (or give myself the temptation) to learn something new like that. Unless the opportunity presents itself.
For example, tonight I was looking over notes from one of my classes from spring semester last year. I have been much better about this in my second year, but often in my first year I would write random notes to myself interspersed with class notes when I was getting particularly bored or just had to write something down so it'd get out of my brain and I could go back to concentrating. Anyway, at one point (from a class in February, I believe), I saw a note that said something about how excited I was that I had just tried cabling for the first time, and had finally learned how to knit in the round and how to knit on double pointed needles. And it's hard to believe, but yes, I've only had those skills for less than a year now. I believe it was the week off during Snowpocalypse that encouraged this. I also believe that the first hat I ever knit, a couple of baby hats aside, was during Snowpocalypse. Plus, there's only so many blankets a girl can knit before she wants to try her hand at other things. But the point is, for the first 4-5 years of my knitting life, all I made were blankets and scarves. And until 2009, it was two baby blankets, just a few scarves, and two and a half ish regular blankets. I mean, really, I don't know what I did with myself knitting-wise for so long! But then, I guess I didn't have a lot of what I do now. I knew basically no one who knit (aside from the influence of two of my college friends who were the impetus for me teaching myself in the first place), and didn't know the vast knitting resources that were online. 2009 really started it, and I got that afghan-making book and some large needles to go along with it, and thus started my obsession with afghans, and I did some baby booties and a hat...hm...how did I make a baby hat before learning how to knit in the round? Must have seamed it up the side, I guess...hm. Or I learned knitting in the round earlier than I thought. Except I know I didn't have double pointed needles when I made those baby hats...well, in any case, I avoid seaming now whenever possible.
Point is, I've knit more things in the last two years than I did the four-ish years I could before. And it's been so fantastic. Knitting has been one of my saving graces these last two years. Graduate school has been good for something! Haha. And it's fun because there are awesome knitting sites to go to, and I now notice knitting in movies and things (30 Rock mentioned knitting in one of its episodes in the fall, which was really funny, and tonight on the Office there was a woman knitting! Very briefly, but it was there. And another show I watch has had a character knit a couple of times), and I get distracted by pretty knit things in movies and in real life (at the March for Life on Monday, there were lots of hats I wanted to knit. I just kept seeing cute hat after cute hat. Not really the point of the day, but fun nonetheless).
I just love knitting. The more I do it, the more I want to do it, and be good at it. I've had a number of things in my life that I did for a little while, but wasn't disciplined enough to get really good at. Violin comes to mind (which is still a regret I harbor). Being a good graduate student is another...haha. But knitting? Oh, I just want to keep learning, and keep getting better, and ensconce myself in this world of yarn and needles and lovely gifts and projects. I want to work at this. I want to understand it better. I want it not to be just some thing I do once in awhile, half-assedly. I want to be good at it. I don't want to make disappointing projects. I have, many times, but I would like that to decrease exponentially. I want to be happy with what I make, and I want the people I make things for to be happy, too. And not just "Oh, I like it because you made it." Genuinely happy, and appreciative. That's what I want. I hope I can make that happen. I'm encouraged by the progress I've made in the last year. I want to keep going, though. When I'm settled somewhere, I want to start getting involved with a knitting group, somewhere I can go and learn from other people for once. There's only so much a person can do alone (although, I've managed to teach myself quite a bit thanks to the wonder of youtube and awesome people who want to help others get better at this lovely craft). It'd be nice to have a group, though. Much as I am an introvert.
Anyway. Rambling. I could talk about knitting all day. It's kind of pathetic, probably, but whatever. It makes me so happy. Almost as happy as pictures of Nutmeg. :-)
Knitting. The love of my life. Hahahahaha.
Knitting goals for this year (and maybe next year, depending on how things go). Learn entrelac. Learn fair isle. Learn intarsia and other kinds of colorwork. Learn brioche. Of course, by "this year" I really mean "starting in May" because I just can't commit myself (or give myself the temptation) to learn something new like that. Unless the opportunity presents itself.
For example, tonight I was looking over notes from one of my classes from spring semester last year. I have been much better about this in my second year, but often in my first year I would write random notes to myself interspersed with class notes when I was getting particularly bored or just had to write something down so it'd get out of my brain and I could go back to concentrating. Anyway, at one point (from a class in February, I believe), I saw a note that said something about how excited I was that I had just tried cabling for the first time, and had finally learned how to knit in the round and how to knit on double pointed needles. And it's hard to believe, but yes, I've only had those skills for less than a year now. I believe it was the week off during Snowpocalypse that encouraged this. I also believe that the first hat I ever knit, a couple of baby hats aside, was during Snowpocalypse. Plus, there's only so many blankets a girl can knit before she wants to try her hand at other things. But the point is, for the first 4-5 years of my knitting life, all I made were blankets and scarves. And until 2009, it was two baby blankets, just a few scarves, and two and a half ish regular blankets. I mean, really, I don't know what I did with myself knitting-wise for so long! But then, I guess I didn't have a lot of what I do now. I knew basically no one who knit (aside from the influence of two of my college friends who were the impetus for me teaching myself in the first place), and didn't know the vast knitting resources that were online. 2009 really started it, and I got that afghan-making book and some large needles to go along with it, and thus started my obsession with afghans, and I did some baby booties and a hat...hm...how did I make a baby hat before learning how to knit in the round? Must have seamed it up the side, I guess...hm. Or I learned knitting in the round earlier than I thought. Except I know I didn't have double pointed needles when I made those baby hats...well, in any case, I avoid seaming now whenever possible.
Point is, I've knit more things in the last two years than I did the four-ish years I could before. And it's been so fantastic. Knitting has been one of my saving graces these last two years. Graduate school has been good for something! Haha. And it's fun because there are awesome knitting sites to go to, and I now notice knitting in movies and things (30 Rock mentioned knitting in one of its episodes in the fall, which was really funny, and tonight on the Office there was a woman knitting! Very briefly, but it was there. And another show I watch has had a character knit a couple of times), and I get distracted by pretty knit things in movies and in real life (at the March for Life on Monday, there were lots of hats I wanted to knit. I just kept seeing cute hat after cute hat. Not really the point of the day, but fun nonetheless).
I just love knitting. The more I do it, the more I want to do it, and be good at it. I've had a number of things in my life that I did for a little while, but wasn't disciplined enough to get really good at. Violin comes to mind (which is still a regret I harbor). Being a good graduate student is another...haha. But knitting? Oh, I just want to keep learning, and keep getting better, and ensconce myself in this world of yarn and needles and lovely gifts and projects. I want to work at this. I want to understand it better. I want it not to be just some thing I do once in awhile, half-assedly. I want to be good at it. I don't want to make disappointing projects. I have, many times, but I would like that to decrease exponentially. I want to be happy with what I make, and I want the people I make things for to be happy, too. And not just "Oh, I like it because you made it." Genuinely happy, and appreciative. That's what I want. I hope I can make that happen. I'm encouraged by the progress I've made in the last year. I want to keep going, though. When I'm settled somewhere, I want to start getting involved with a knitting group, somewhere I can go and learn from other people for once. There's only so much a person can do alone (although, I've managed to teach myself quite a bit thanks to the wonder of youtube and awesome people who want to help others get better at this lovely craft). It'd be nice to have a group, though. Much as I am an introvert.
Anyway. Rambling. I could talk about knitting all day. It's kind of pathetic, probably, but whatever. It makes me so happy. Almost as happy as pictures of Nutmeg. :-)
Knitting. The love of my life. Hahahahaha.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
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!
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!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, October 4, 2010
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.)
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.)
Saturday, October 2, 2010
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, October 1, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
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?)
Sunday, September 26, 2010
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.
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.
So. Pictures!
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!
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.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
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?
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?
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
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?")
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:
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?")
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