Slacking already

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Banded

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

Voila.

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

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

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

What do I do with this?

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

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

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

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

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

Next up: the saga of the stash.

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

Work In Progress

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

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

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

Finally did it!

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

My knitting blog.

Yay.

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

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

We'll see how it goes, I guess.