I recently had the opportunity to become an ecstatic knitter.
Way back in May of 2008 I happened across a large selection of Berroco Chinchilla yarn in several corresponding colors. Some months I got a long US 13 circular needle and eventually cast on a project named the Autumn Blanket. Also known as the Wavey Throw and often called 'oh, yeah, I had forgotten you'.
After three long years of knitting and storing and then knitting some more, I finally finished it! In fact, it was January 9th that the cast off occurred. I had started taking the blanket to work (as it has been very slow lately) and after a few days of nearly eight hour shifts I made it through the last few skeins.
I have not taken any new pictures of it and it really needs a gentle washing, but that can wait. It waited this long just to be off the needles, it can wait a bit more before it is really presentable.
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In other news, I have some projects I will be posting the patterns to soon. There will be a cabled scarf pattern and a knapsack. Of course they will be entered in Ravelry as well, for easy downloading of PDFs.
See, I still make plans for the blog. I just am slow about getting them going.....
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Next week the local Knitting Meetup group is having a Spin In meeting. I will be taking my lovely travel wheel and attending. This will be fun as I haven't really played with my spinning wheel in a while. I got a bit discouraged by the speed/thickness issue. I have enough fiber that the willingness to be daring should be present, and yet I am treating it as if it were a special skien of yarn that I don't want to touch until I know what I am doing.
Spinning does not really work that way. I know I must practice or I will not get anywhere with it. So this next meetup will be the perfect chance for me to do just that!
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I am down to one UFO right now, which is the shawl. The weather has started to show signs of warming up, which means lace knitting will be where I will be focusing again. Of course, the fact that I have been knitting two other projects that are using worsted and super-bulky yarns respectively will also help. I think I will have the shawl wrapped up before mid-summer!
After that I can start a whole new set of long term projects.... or I can try to keep my knitting to more manageable arrangements. We shall see, we shall see.
Showing posts with label Meetup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meetup. Show all posts
Monday, February 21, 2011
Monday, May 11, 2009
A missing weekend
I went to Maryland Sheep and Wool.
It was my first fiber fest and I had a blast.
As soon as the morning rain stopped (right after we caved in to get the umbrella out of the car) out came the camera!
Pictures of baby sheep, baby bunnies and baby goats were snapped. Pics of the crowded Ravelry Meetup were taken. I even snapped a few of the sheep dog event and my friend Michelle who was on the trip with me.
I would love to share them with you, I really would.
Unfortunately, the only pics that are on the card are the ones of my friend Michelle.
I know I took pictures. I remember fidgeting with the flash and the exposure when trying to get some nice shots of the lambs behind the big (really crowded) tent that had so many different fibers, books, yarns and a register in the back of the tent.
Strong is the memory of fighting against poor lighting to take pics of the baby French Angora rabbits that I did not buy even when my friend taunted me.
I took the picture to prove how good a roommate I was by not buying them.
No such photo exists.
Nothing of the fest exist except my memories and my fibers (which I shall post about in a different post).
It is sooooo not fair.
It was my first fiber fest and I had a blast.
As soon as the morning rain stopped (right after we caved in to get the umbrella out of the car) out came the camera!
Pictures of baby sheep, baby bunnies and baby goats were snapped. Pics of the crowded Ravelry Meetup were taken. I even snapped a few of the sheep dog event and my friend Michelle who was on the trip with me.
I would love to share them with you, I really would.
Unfortunately, the only pics that are on the card are the ones of my friend Michelle.
I know I took pictures. I remember fidgeting with the flash and the exposure when trying to get some nice shots of the lambs behind the big (really crowded) tent that had so many different fibers, books, yarns and a register in the back of the tent.
Strong is the memory of fighting against poor lighting to take pics of the baby French Angora rabbits that I did not buy even when my friend taunted me.
I took the picture to prove how good a roommate I was by not buying them.
No such photo exists.
Nothing of the fest exist except my memories and my fibers (which I shall post about in a different post).
It is sooooo not fair.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Recent incidents
In an interesting development my stash has radically changed in size.
See, there is this woman who had a storage unit. In this storage unit she had yarn. Lots and lots of yarn. This was too much for her. So she invited the local Yarn for Breakfast group over to 'adopt' some yarn.
For myself, I was not sure I would be getting a chance to participate, but with the help of my friend I was one of the first ones there.
I think you see where this is going, no?
The arrangement was for members to go over in shifts, to prevent overrunning her house. Three vehicles were on the first shift, four ladies in our truck, two in a car and a single person in another car. Our truck arrived before the other vehicles.
It is theorized that our vehicle contained a greater quantity of yearning and anticipation (due to the quantity of knitters in the vehicle) pulling us toward our destination which allowed us to leave the coffee shop last yet arrive first.
And arrive we did. Cheerfully and politely we knocked and where granted admission into a strangers house to paw at her yarn.
And yarn there was. There were boxes of yarn. Boxes and boxes of yarn. Not small cute boxes, but rather large plastic tubs and moving boxes STUFFED with yarn. There were cones on top of the table. There were boxes on top of furniture. There was yet another room with even more and larger boxes. It was awe inspiring, but the crux was what was in the boxes.
For inside the boxes were neatly organized bags and bags of yarns. Some where of a set, a grouping of matching yarn producer and color. Other bags contained the makings of nice afghan kits. Sometimes there were several bags of the same yarn. Sometimes there were bags of balled/or wound yarn and another bag of the same yarn as it was when it was shipped to her.
Often we had to stop and ask her, "What type of yarn is this?" She was happy to answer, "handspun from Washington" or "handpainted yarn from Tibet" or "that was a colorway designed for me, would you like to see the jacket I made from it?"
Of of the things I ended up scoring was a full bag of six wound skeins of matching yarn for a future sweater. She picked the yarn for me based on what I was describing for my sweater and based on my eyes.
Several times cried, "I am done! No more!" (I have witnesses who heard me say it.) Three times this statement was met with further accumulation of yarn into my arms. Eventually, and with great effort, I made it to and out of the front door. Myself and another lady from our carpool staggered out into the sunlight, joyful and afraid. (Part of that fear was that we may have gone a bit overboard, part of that fear was that perhaps we might have missed something) With great willpower we stayed outside, trying to catch our breath, until the other two people from our vehicle made it out.
Then we collected our new yarns and hightailed it to the truck before the others would waiver as we had been doing.
We were not too soon as the others started making it out side and hustling to their car. I found out later, when we regrouped at the coffee shop and tagged the next group yarn hunters to go, those ladies who were last out of the door were asked a few times if they were coming back for more yarn. The lady who needed to be free of a good portion of her stash was very adamant that they needed to take more yarn or come back for another round.
I fear that even after the last car left (including those that did go back for a second run) there was probably still yarn left. I just hope that we made a good enough dent on her stash.
In the meantime I had a new concern.
As I have mentioned before, my roommmate and another friend of mine have taken to muttering words like "yarn addiction" and "intervention" in my general direction. This can be a bit distressing and as I looked at my pile of adopted fibers, I was most worried about my roommate finding out. Worried enough that before I left the coffee shop, I cast on for his second sock.
Luck was with me when I finally returned home. My roommate was gone and I was able to move the yarn into my room without him witnessing it. Eventually he did show up and went straight to the kitchen to start making our lunches for the week (he cooks, I clean, it works). I waited until he was quite busy chopping onions to let him know that I had spent the morning with my knitting group.
I guess I might have sounded a bit guilty as he responded, "And?"
"Nothing. And nothing. I just thought you should know."
He brushed this off and I quickly departed back to my room having made my disclaimer and feeling like I had won.
Later, we were talking about my computer and the silly habit it has of going into standby mode. He offered to fix it. I said that it could wait.
He was standing between me and my room. He was closer to my door than I was and there was no way for me to get around him to block access.
He insisted it would be quick and easy to fix and turned toward my room.
"NO! Don't go in there!" I cried.
He paused, turning slowly to look at me. My roommate did not ask why, or what it was I did not want him to see or even if I had gotten more yarn. Unfortunately he is too bright for that.
"How much yarn did you bring home?"
"Um..."
He quickly opened the door and rushed into my room, where he froze. He stayed perfectly still for several moments, his eyes locked on the THREE bags of yarn piled up in my chair.
"It was free yarn," I muttered, "doesn't even count, really." But I knew I was busted.
I am hoping that having completed several projects lately has helped balance this out in his eyes, though even I know there is more new yarn that came in than there was old yarn turning into FO's.
But I am happy with my new yarn. It is totally gorgeous and I think it balances out the knitting up and giving away my Angora yarn. I have decided the fact that I was able to participate and was one of the first ones in is good yarn karma for my treasured yarn sacrifice. Totally.
See, there is this woman who had a storage unit. In this storage unit she had yarn. Lots and lots of yarn. This was too much for her. So she invited the local Yarn for Breakfast group over to 'adopt' some yarn.
For myself, I was not sure I would be getting a chance to participate, but with the help of my friend I was one of the first ones there.
I think you see where this is going, no?
The arrangement was for members to go over in shifts, to prevent overrunning her house. Three vehicles were on the first shift, four ladies in our truck, two in a car and a single person in another car. Our truck arrived before the other vehicles.
It is theorized that our vehicle contained a greater quantity of yearning and anticipation (due to the quantity of knitters in the vehicle) pulling us toward our destination which allowed us to leave the coffee shop last yet arrive first.
And arrive we did. Cheerfully and politely we knocked and where granted admission into a strangers house to paw at her yarn.
And yarn there was. There were boxes of yarn. Boxes and boxes of yarn. Not small cute boxes, but rather large plastic tubs and moving boxes STUFFED with yarn. There were cones on top of the table. There were boxes on top of furniture. There was yet another room with even more and larger boxes. It was awe inspiring, but the crux was what was in the boxes.
For inside the boxes were neatly organized bags and bags of yarns. Some where of a set, a grouping of matching yarn producer and color. Other bags contained the makings of nice afghan kits. Sometimes there were several bags of the same yarn. Sometimes there were bags of balled/or wound yarn and another bag of the same yarn as it was when it was shipped to her.
Often we had to stop and ask her, "What type of yarn is this?" She was happy to answer, "handspun from Washington" or "handpainted yarn from Tibet" or "that was a colorway designed for me, would you like to see the jacket I made from it?"
Of of the things I ended up scoring was a full bag of six wound skeins of matching yarn for a future sweater. She picked the yarn for me based on what I was describing for my sweater and based on my eyes.
Several times cried, "I am done! No more!" (I have witnesses who heard me say it.) Three times this statement was met with further accumulation of yarn into my arms. Eventually, and with great effort, I made it to and out of the front door. Myself and another lady from our carpool staggered out into the sunlight, joyful and afraid. (Part of that fear was that we may have gone a bit overboard, part of that fear was that perhaps we might have missed something) With great willpower we stayed outside, trying to catch our breath, until the other two people from our vehicle made it out.
Then we collected our new yarns and hightailed it to the truck before the others would waiver as we had been doing.
We were not too soon as the others started making it out side and hustling to their car. I found out later, when we regrouped at the coffee shop and tagged the next group yarn hunters to go, those ladies who were last out of the door were asked a few times if they were coming back for more yarn. The lady who needed to be free of a good portion of her stash was very adamant that they needed to take more yarn or come back for another round.
I fear that even after the last car left (including those that did go back for a second run) there was probably still yarn left. I just hope that we made a good enough dent on her stash.
In the meantime I had a new concern.
As I have mentioned before, my roommmate and another friend of mine have taken to muttering words like "yarn addiction" and "intervention" in my general direction. This can be a bit distressing and as I looked at my pile of adopted fibers, I was most worried about my roommate finding out. Worried enough that before I left the coffee shop, I cast on for his second sock.
Luck was with me when I finally returned home. My roommate was gone and I was able to move the yarn into my room without him witnessing it. Eventually he did show up and went straight to the kitchen to start making our lunches for the week (he cooks, I clean, it works). I waited until he was quite busy chopping onions to let him know that I had spent the morning with my knitting group.
I guess I might have sounded a bit guilty as he responded, "And?"
"Nothing. And nothing. I just thought you should know."
He brushed this off and I quickly departed back to my room having made my disclaimer and feeling like I had won.
Later, we were talking about my computer and the silly habit it has of going into standby mode. He offered to fix it. I said that it could wait.
He was standing between me and my room. He was closer to my door than I was and there was no way for me to get around him to block access.
He insisted it would be quick and easy to fix and turned toward my room.
"NO! Don't go in there!" I cried.
He paused, turning slowly to look at me. My roommate did not ask why, or what it was I did not want him to see or even if I had gotten more yarn. Unfortunately he is too bright for that.
"How much yarn did you bring home?"
"Um..."
He quickly opened the door and rushed into my room, where he froze. He stayed perfectly still for several moments, his eyes locked on the THREE bags of yarn piled up in my chair.
"It was free yarn," I muttered, "doesn't even count, really." But I knew I was busted.
I am hoping that having completed several projects lately has helped balance this out in his eyes, though even I know there is more new yarn that came in than there was old yarn turning into FO's.
But I am happy with my new yarn. It is totally gorgeous and I think it balances out the knitting up and giving away my Angora yarn. I have decided the fact that I was able to participate and was one of the first ones in is good yarn karma for my treasured yarn sacrifice. Totally.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
The good and the bad and the really bad
Last night I was writing this post in my mind. In my fancy I thought of titling it "Good news/Bad news". The following text would crow my success on one project and lightly bemoan the errors of another. There was to be a finishing flourish holding my success as a beautiful reason to overcome the challenges that other projects may throw at you. There was going to be pictures of the "good news" project.
Unfortunately things did not work out so simply. Allow me to start again. I shall start with the good news, and rather than writing a story of triumph support us over difficulties, this story shall be a bit more of a tragedy.
It begins back in September. No, it begins earlier.
It was the end of July when I gave my roommate the opportunity to select some yarn for a requested project. It was September 13th when I cast on, using the toe-up afterthought heel steps and no real pattern. I cast on at the Yarn for Breakfast Meetup and with the help of my friends found the needed math to make the sock. The afterthought heel went well.
I did occasional fittings after I got past the heel. The comments were that the foot was a bit snug. I told him that would probably block out.
This brings us to 6:08 PM last night.
That was the time on the clock when I cast off the last stitch on the cuff. The sock was shown off to some coworkers. A text message was sent to my roommate warning him of an impending surprise. After dinner I presented him with Sock A and around 10 PM he tried it on.
This, dear reader, is where things take a bad turn.
For now, we shall pause and look toward the originally planned "bad news."
I have been knitting a simple two row sock for my friend Bill. It has gone smoothly and quickly and feels very nice. It has already shown a very distinguished coloring and is very much a man' man's scarf. I have knit almost 3 feet of it, reveling in the simplicity of making a scarf that relies on the texture and color of the fibers rather than intricate stitches to stand out.
Unfortunately, the "pattern" for the scarf was not read closely enough.
Rather than being a simple stockinette going the length of it, it is actually a 1x1 rib. The difference in this is the rolling of the fabric. Right now, the part of the scarf not close to the needles is in the form of two tubes.
I could continue the scarf. A quick purchase of fabric relaxer and studious use of steam pressing could resolve the issue. Though when the scarf is washed, the process would have to be repeated. If this was my scarf, I would be fine with that.
What I should due is frog it back and redo it in the proper ribbing. Even if only for the outside rows.
I don't think I could cheat my friend Bill by taking a short cut and leaving him extra work for the life of the scarf.
This, this was my big bad news. Now, compared to the really bad news, frogging a few feet of scarf is nothing. It does not even cause a slight twinge. I have a deeper pain to deal with.
Please understand. I have the calf muscles that many strong short women have. My calves are made of curves. A quick look at a top down sock pattern for men shows a wider ribbing at the top of the leg than the bottom.
I can blame my brain, claiming that I was subconsciously knitting the socks for myself. I could blame this other pattern for putting bad theory in my mind. Either way the result is the same.
I widened the ribbing as I reached the end of the sock. I wanted the sock to be comfortable. I cast off VERY loosely as that is what every cuff bind off says one should do.
When my roommate tried the sock on last night, it was snug at the foot and perfect around the ankle. Where it went up toward his knee it belled out with enough room to encompass his pants after being rucked up for the fitting.
Thus, at 10:30pm I started ripping.
I shall have to redo around half of the leg. There is, in my mind, a sore temptation to leave that sock for a while and cast on for the other one. I am a bit mad at the sock I have, though I know it is my own fault.
I have never been terribly good at picking up stitches and trying to thread the ribbing with floss has turned out to be beyond me at this time. I have considered ripping the leg all the way back to the heel. The ribbing really does start a bit earlier than it should.
So here I am, at the beginning of December with two projects a'ripping.
I am almost afraid to touch the blanket. I don't want to frog that one, please. It is too big! It would be too much! No. I shall not touch it. Not for now. First I must fix these other projects. Then, then it will be safe. Right?
Unfortunately things did not work out so simply. Allow me to start again. I shall start with the good news, and rather than writing a story of triumph support us over difficulties, this story shall be a bit more of a tragedy.
It begins back in September. No, it begins earlier.
It was the end of July when I gave my roommate the opportunity to select some yarn for a requested project. It was September 13th when I cast on, using the toe-up afterthought heel steps and no real pattern. I cast on at the Yarn for Breakfast Meetup and with the help of my friends found the needed math to make the sock. The afterthought heel went well.
I did occasional fittings after I got past the heel. The comments were that the foot was a bit snug. I told him that would probably block out.
This brings us to 6:08 PM last night.
That was the time on the clock when I cast off the last stitch on the cuff. The sock was shown off to some coworkers. A text message was sent to my roommate warning him of an impending surprise. After dinner I presented him with Sock A and around 10 PM he tried it on.
This, dear reader, is where things take a bad turn.
For now, we shall pause and look toward the originally planned "bad news."
I have been knitting a simple two row sock for my friend Bill. It has gone smoothly and quickly and feels very nice. It has already shown a very distinguished coloring and is very much a man' man's scarf. I have knit almost 3 feet of it, reveling in the simplicity of making a scarf that relies on the texture and color of the fibers rather than intricate stitches to stand out.
Unfortunately, the "pattern" for the scarf was not read closely enough.
Rather than being a simple stockinette going the length of it, it is actually a 1x1 rib. The difference in this is the rolling of the fabric. Right now, the part of the scarf not close to the needles is in the form of two tubes.
I could continue the scarf. A quick purchase of fabric relaxer and studious use of steam pressing could resolve the issue. Though when the scarf is washed, the process would have to be repeated. If this was my scarf, I would be fine with that.
What I should due is frog it back and redo it in the proper ribbing. Even if only for the outside rows.
I don't think I could cheat my friend Bill by taking a short cut and leaving him extra work for the life of the scarf.
This, this was my big bad news. Now, compared to the really bad news, frogging a few feet of scarf is nothing. It does not even cause a slight twinge. I have a deeper pain to deal with.
Please understand. I have the calf muscles that many strong short women have. My calves are made of curves. A quick look at a top down sock pattern for men shows a wider ribbing at the top of the leg than the bottom.
I can blame my brain, claiming that I was subconsciously knitting the socks for myself. I could blame this other pattern for putting bad theory in my mind. Either way the result is the same.
I widened the ribbing as I reached the end of the sock. I wanted the sock to be comfortable. I cast off VERY loosely as that is what every cuff bind off says one should do.
When my roommate tried the sock on last night, it was snug at the foot and perfect around the ankle. Where it went up toward his knee it belled out with enough room to encompass his pants after being rucked up for the fitting.
Thus, at 10:30pm I started ripping.
I shall have to redo around half of the leg. There is, in my mind, a sore temptation to leave that sock for a while and cast on for the other one. I am a bit mad at the sock I have, though I know it is my own fault.
I have never been terribly good at picking up stitches and trying to thread the ribbing with floss has turned out to be beyond me at this time. I have considered ripping the leg all the way back to the heel. The ribbing really does start a bit earlier than it should.
So here I am, at the beginning of December with two projects a'ripping.
I am almost afraid to touch the blanket. I don't want to frog that one, please. It is too big! It would be too much! No. I shall not touch it. Not for now. First I must fix these other projects. Then, then it will be safe. Right?
Saturday, November 29, 2008
New to the Stash
Well, today I went and bought more yarn.Why, you might ask?
Is it not enough that I have yarn stacked around me, in boxes, in dresser drawers and in bags in the closet?
Apparently not.
Thought to be fair, I had to go get yarn today because I needed to secure my gift for the gift swap at the Christmas party Yarn For Breakfast is having. Pictures of yarn for the swap may or may not be included in this post. Wouldn't want to give it away, now would I?
Unfortunately the store I went to was having a sale of half off on half of the store. This meant that I could buy a yarn that was normally $43 for only $21.50.
How was I to resist? I mean, we are talking 2480 yards of fingering weight (though everyone says it is lace weight) yarn for the lowest price one may ever find on such a product!
Admittedly, the sock yarn was not really needed, though the price was very nice. The silk I needed since I already have one skein. All in all, I think I did rather well at keeping my purchases to a minimum.
Edited to Add: Here's this for fate. The skein of Shibui Silk Cloud I got is the EXACT dye lot match to the one I already had! None of the skeins that I had to choose from when I was at the store were of matching dye lots and I figured I won't be able to guess which one matched the one at home. I did. I got it right. :-D
A few weeks prior, I had purchased some Allure. It was a required purchase for a specific project. The baby yarn was just to try it out and the glow in the dark yarn was really curiosity. I am not sure why I grabbed two skeins of it.
Friday, October 17, 2008
A brief update
Some how days have slipped past me again without me keeping up on the posts. Mia culpa.
There are some changes coming up soon.
First:
As of Monday Oct 20th, I will be a full time technical support representative for a cell phone company.
This is will be an evening job and during training I will be getting out at 7pm. After training I will be working until 11pm or Midnight and will have either a Saturday or Sunday every week to work.
The drawback of this is that I will not be able to attend most (or maybe any) of the Yarn for Breakfast events. There will be the two month training which will allow for me to be late to the Norfolk event, and the chance I might make one Portsmouth morning event, but that will be it. After training I shall not have the chance to visit with these fine people.
Frankly I won't have much of a life at all, but I will miss going to these events.
Second:
Once I get paid and get all caught up with my debts, I will be able to buy yarn and patterns again!
Since I won't have much of a life, I expect that I can do a bit more knitting and talking online about knitting. That is the theory at this point, so we will see how that works out. Prior experience with my other blog shows that having a life reduces blogging.
Now for a quick update.
Remember I mentioned teaching a friend how to knit? Well we finally got to spend some time together recently. She came over and we spent the day knitting, followed by a lovely dinner my roommate cooked. (He understands that knitters make him stuff and should be fed.)
While she was over she showed me the blanket she is working on. It has the dropped yarn over that is fairly popular right now. Her pattern varies, so it makes waves and bubbles. I looked at what she had done so far and asked, "Do you know how to purl?"
Why did I have to ask? Because she has been busy knitting on her own and looking techniques up online and has been doing just fine at it, or so she told me on the phone. Therefore it did not cross my mind that I might need to teach her more tricks. I had assumed that she was flying along and teaching herself.
Yes, I taught her to do a knit stitch and a yarn over. Yes, she found a pattern that uses yarn overs and takes it another level by dropping the yarn over. She also had a lovely story about searching online and watching knitting videos to figure things out.
I forget now what video she watched, but I think it was only a how to cast off. She did need to cast of while in Alaska and far from my lessons.
My student did not know how to purl and there were purl rows in her blanket pattern. I asked about how she was handling that part. She tells me she has been wrapping the yarn in the other direction, as she figured that was what a purl was.
Yes, that would be two things I needed to explain and teach her about.
By the way, I want to make this one thing as a gift, but I do not understand this 'round knitting' stuff.
Very well, I happen to have a sock on the needles right now. I can explain what I am doing and show you the process. Easy enough.
Oh! Could you teach me to cable? I so want to learn to cable.
Hmmm, cables you say? Haven't successfully done one yet, but I think I can manage. Let me just go into my knitting library and pull out the 365 Patterns a Day calendar and the Knitting Answer Book. That should do it....
So I had a wonderful time and before you know it I had taught her about Eastern Crossed knitting, how to purl, how to knit backwards (it is what I do after all), showed her knitting on dpns, and handed her some yarn and needles to learn cables on. By the time dinner was served, she was comfortably doing stockinette knitting, 2x2 ribbing, a three stitch cable, Six-Stitch Spiral Cables and the Little Pearl Cable.
I even gave her a brief idea of other increases and the many decreases and how to pick up a dropped stitch, with her promise to come to me for more lessons later on.
She has my copy of One Skein Wonders and now will be reading the Knitting Answer Book to help round out her education. I do feel that these are two fundamentals to knitting. A new knitter must read the Answer Book and needs to understand the potential that is in a single skein of yarn.
WIPS:
The sock is on hold as I have been doing online work at home stuff. Thus my hands are on the keyboard more than they are on yarn.
The laundry soap bag got a few more rows on laundry day, so nothing special to report there.
The Domino case has totally stalled out do to engineering flaws.
That wraps up our post for today.
Tune in next time to learn how I deal with multiple projects that all need the same set of needles.
There are some changes coming up soon.
First:
As of Monday Oct 20th, I will be a full time technical support representative for a cell phone company.
This is will be an evening job and during training I will be getting out at 7pm. After training I will be working until 11pm or Midnight and will have either a Saturday or Sunday every week to work.
The drawback of this is that I will not be able to attend most (or maybe any) of the Yarn for Breakfast events. There will be the two month training which will allow for me to be late to the Norfolk event, and the chance I might make one Portsmouth morning event, but that will be it. After training I shall not have the chance to visit with these fine people.
Frankly I won't have much of a life at all, but I will miss going to these events.
Second:
Once I get paid and get all caught up with my debts, I will be able to buy yarn and patterns again!
Since I won't have much of a life, I expect that I can do a bit more knitting and talking online about knitting. That is the theory at this point, so we will see how that works out. Prior experience with my other blog shows that having a life reduces blogging.
Now for a quick update.
Remember I mentioned teaching a friend how to knit? Well we finally got to spend some time together recently. She came over and we spent the day knitting, followed by a lovely dinner my roommate cooked. (He understands that knitters make him stuff and should be fed.)
While she was over she showed me the blanket she is working on. It has the dropped yarn over that is fairly popular right now. Her pattern varies, so it makes waves and bubbles. I looked at what she had done so far and asked, "Do you know how to purl?"
Why did I have to ask? Because she has been busy knitting on her own and looking techniques up online and has been doing just fine at it, or so she told me on the phone. Therefore it did not cross my mind that I might need to teach her more tricks. I had assumed that she was flying along and teaching herself.
Yes, I taught her to do a knit stitch and a yarn over. Yes, she found a pattern that uses yarn overs and takes it another level by dropping the yarn over. She also had a lovely story about searching online and watching knitting videos to figure things out.
I forget now what video she watched, but I think it was only a how to cast off. She did need to cast of while in Alaska and far from my lessons.
My student did not know how to purl and there were purl rows in her blanket pattern. I asked about how she was handling that part. She tells me she has been wrapping the yarn in the other direction, as she figured that was what a purl was.
Yes, that would be two things I needed to explain and teach her about.
By the way, I want to make this one thing as a gift, but I do not understand this 'round knitting' stuff.
Very well, I happen to have a sock on the needles right now. I can explain what I am doing and show you the process. Easy enough.
Oh! Could you teach me to cable? I so want to learn to cable.
Hmmm, cables you say? Haven't successfully done one yet, but I think I can manage. Let me just go into my knitting library and pull out the 365 Patterns a Day calendar and the Knitting Answer Book. That should do it....
So I had a wonderful time and before you know it I had taught her about Eastern Crossed knitting, how to purl, how to knit backwards (it is what I do after all), showed her knitting on dpns, and handed her some yarn and needles to learn cables on. By the time dinner was served, she was comfortably doing stockinette knitting, 2x2 ribbing, a three stitch cable, Six-Stitch Spiral Cables and the Little Pearl Cable.
I even gave her a brief idea of other increases and the many decreases and how to pick up a dropped stitch, with her promise to come to me for more lessons later on.
She has my copy of One Skein Wonders and now will be reading the Knitting Answer Book to help round out her education. I do feel that these are two fundamentals to knitting. A new knitter must read the Answer Book and needs to understand the potential that is in a single skein of yarn.
WIPS:
The sock is on hold as I have been doing online work at home stuff. Thus my hands are on the keyboard more than they are on yarn.
The laundry soap bag got a few more rows on laundry day, so nothing special to report there.
The Domino case has totally stalled out do to engineering flaws.
That wraps up our post for today.
Tune in next time to learn how I deal with multiple projects that all need the same set of needles.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
My how busy I have been
I just got back from Yarn for Breakfast, a local knitting Meetup. This particular event usually is held in Portsmouth, but due to an Arts Festival, it was moved to my neighborhood. Go me! '-)
We chatted and knitted from 9 am until around noon when people started packing up and wandering off.
In the past 24 hours I have completed three projects.
Last night I cast off on a personal designed Wine Bottle Gift Bag. I will finish drawing up the pattern and will be posting it for free here.
This morning I finished the first panel of my easy lace curtains, which is based on the the Jan's Sensational Scarf pattern in the book One Skein Wonders, by Judith Durant. When I actually finish the whole thing and get the pieces blocked and sewn together I will do a write up on it.
I also finished a kids shawl for a friends little girl this morning. I want to add little bows as a finishing touch, but I have to find the things first. A full write up and pics will be upcoming.
So, three projects completed in a very short time. And all in time for Mother's Day.
Mad skillz are here! '-)
Currently my needles are empty.
In an hour or so that will change as I have a friend coming over to take me yarn shopping. She wants to pick up yarn for me to knit her a stuffed nautilus.
We chatted and knitted from 9 am until around noon when people started packing up and wandering off.
In the past 24 hours I have completed three projects.
Last night I cast off on a personal designed Wine Bottle Gift Bag. I will finish drawing up the pattern and will be posting it for free here.
This morning I finished the first panel of my easy lace curtains, which is based on the the Jan's Sensational Scarf pattern in the book One Skein Wonders, by Judith Durant. When I actually finish the whole thing and get the pieces blocked and sewn together I will do a write up on it.
I also finished a kids shawl for a friends little girl this morning. I want to add little bows as a finishing touch, but I have to find the things first. A full write up and pics will be upcoming.
So, three projects completed in a very short time. And all in time for Mother's Day.
Mad skillz are here! '-)
Currently my needles are empty.
In an hour or so that will change as I have a friend coming over to take me yarn shopping. She wants to pick up yarn for me to knit her a stuffed nautilus.
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