I’ve been playing with the look of my blog banner and background over the last day or two. Of course, it HAS to be purple… 🙂 But what do you think? I thought about using a stock photo of someone’s hands knitting but my, ahem, technique is so unique to me that I had to use an image of my own hands. That’s my own Clapotis in the image, too. Hey, at least I didn’t use any generic images! Thanks for looking… hopefully I’ll have a knitting related update tomorrow.
Category: blog
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Happy New Year!
A couple of weeks ago I purchased the Knit Wit Flower Looms from Bucilla while strolling the aisles of my AC Moore store. (Boy, was I disappointed with their yarn selection, but that’s another post for another day). I remember having something like this as a kid but not really understanding how it worked or having the patience for it. Now I’m feeling a wee bit nostalgic for some of those 70s feeling things (minus the burnt orange yarn) and I am wanting to create something with flower motifs. Don’t know what yet, but I guess I’ll figure that out.
I am making progress on Miss Z’s Blanket, but not so much that it’s time to post another photo. I’ve gained maybe about 3 inches since my last post. Thank goodness for bulky yarns. I want to weave in some ends and switch the project to my new Harmony needles because the next yarn I have in mind is slippery. Also I want to weave in some ends before they become too unwieldy to manage.
Speaking of Harmony needles, I took my kit out and put all of the needles in the zipper case, and realized immediately that my kit has spaces left for size 13, 15, and 17 needles. So, of course, I ordered them. Also a couple of doohickies and some books. For some reason I have misplaced my Knit Picks needle sizer so I ordered two more, one for each needle case. I’ll probably find the lost one when I clean up around here, but I guess one can never have too many tools!
Diana Knits Again!
So a couple of weeks ago, Diana tells me that her homeroom teacher is expecting a baby. She decides she wants to use my leftover yarn from my rainbow stripey baby blanket. So I give her the yarn, and some needles, and right away, she hates it. The yarn doesn’t have a lot of give, and keeps pulling off the needles as she is trying to negotiate her first row into her too-tight cast on. The needles I had in the size she wanted to use were my Knit Picks Options, which were too slippery for the job and her novice hands, anyway. So off we went to AC Moore, and I purchased a bamboo circular needle. While we were there, I worked on her to NOT use that garish, rainbow yarn for a baby blanket for a newborn. Thankfully, she chose some TLC Baby Amore and decided to do a very simple, striped baby blanket in garter stitch. She plans to vary the width of the stripes and switch colors when she feels like it. Sounded like a plan to me, so we gathered up her yarn and home we went.
She cast on with no problem on her new size 9 needles of her very own, and she is knitting at a fairly good pace. I’ve included the photo, here:
Did I make any New Year’s resolutions that are Knitting related? Nope. The one thing I did say that I wanted to do was to try to go to bed earlier each night. This no sleeping stuff isn’t good for me. Looks like I’ve broken my resolution already! Sigh…
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The Night After Christmas…
Hi, all! I hope everyone had a great holiday. I know we did. Our kids got a much-wished-for Wii for Christmas, and much to our delight (and dismay), even our 5-year-old took to it pretty quickly. (He’s the current bowling champ in the household.) Thankfully, he still says his Thomas the Tank Engine Carnival Play Set is his favorite gift (from Grandma, of course…) though the older one LOVES the Wii. Hey, at least we’ll know where to find her.
Me? In between the Christmas card writing and the cooking and the eating and all of that other stuff, I’ve been trying to steal as many moments as I can to work on Miss Z.’s Blanket. It’s coming along, but with me being the admitted slowest knitter in the world, of course it will take longer than I ever would want it to. I decided during my last week at work during the holidays that I was going to call the project the “Many Hands, Big Heart” afghan. My logic is that since Miss Z. is a co-worker, that I would let any other co-worker who wants to, to knit on it for a stitch, or a row, or whatever suits them. Even if I only teach a person to make one stitch, their contribution still counts. I only actually work on-site two days a week these days, so coordinating the project will be interesting, but I am hoping to get lots of hands to chip in. So far, MANY people have expressed interest, and the Office Director for our department has said I can send an email to everyone in our wider group. That’s cool.
A little bird mentioned to me recently that I wrap my stitches “backwards” when I knit. I didn’t realize this as my stitches aren’t at all twisted (at least I’m consistent!) but now seeing so many other knitters work on my blanket too I can definitely see that my way of doing things is not what the majority does. In this case though I have many colors and textures going, and with the whole concept of Many Hands, I think it will be a design feature, if you will, if some of the stitches might be a bit twisted. I don’t think the recipient will notice, and if there does end up being a twisted stitch here and there, then so be it. Each one will be twisted with love.
Knitterly Gifties
Santa was very good to me! DH presented me with the long-awaited Options Harmony interchangeable needles. Now I have the whole set, except for the largest sizes of tips, which aren’t included. I’ll probably get them separately just because I am a completist, even though it is rare when I knit with anything higher than an 11. I did cheat and get myself a couple pairs of tips before Christmas, but I did wait for the whole set to come. Yay! I’m even thinking of switching out my metal Options on my current WIP to the wood ones. Haven’t decided yet on that.
My inlaws gave me the Quantaray Portable Photo Studio, which I am also considering to be a knitting related item. I love to shoot photos of my yarn related things for this blog, and frankly, I’m getting tired of shooting from the same old red kitchen chair every time. The kitchen chair has been optimal to now because I have overhead pot lights in the kitchen which are pretty good for color accuracy. So now I get to play with mini photography lights and see how I do. That is, when I get them working. Unfortunately one of the lights in my kit is loose and we could not tighten it and get it to work. I’m going to have to exchange my kit for another, which hopefully won’t be too hard to do. I can’t wait to play with it! Yay!!
Well, it’s getting late here so I better sign off for now and get ready for bed. Hope everyone is recovering well from much celebrating (or if not from celebrating, from doing something else fun on your day off!) Me? I gotta go back to work tomorrow. Drat.
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Change of Plans and Prayers for Z.
Ok, I’ve said to more than one person recently that I would probably never knit another afghan. Now, watch how fast I am going to eat my words! I’ve mentioned in a recent post that I am knitting with a heavy heart lately. Now I can say why, at least some, and then the afghan will make some sense.
I have this friend. A co-worker, actually, and I don’t think she knows that I adore her as much as I do. This fall she surprised us with the happy news that she was expecting her third child. Soon after though she began complaining of a pain in her side that would not stop. (She was due at Christmas, so by telling us in the early fall she was already quite far along.) It was difficult to do too many tests, because of course, she was very pregnant and they didn’t want to hurt the baby. However, soon the doctors began to suspect the possibility of colon cancer. They wouldn’t know, of course, until after the baby’s birth, but the situation began to take on some urgency.
The baby was born after Thanksgiving, about 5 weeks early, and had to spend some time in the NICU at the hospital, but is fine now and at home. About two weeks later mom had surgery and the diagnosis was unfortunately confirmed. She will recuperate for about 8 weeks or so and then begin treatment for cancer.
I did have all sorts of plans to make tons of things for her new baby, and had even bought mountains of yarn and had started knitting on a baby hat for the baby. As it turns out I made a yucky mistake with the hat and need to start over anyway (my color changes look awful, and I forgot to do the jogless jog, AND I made a mistake on the decreases at the top so have to rip those out anyway). So I need to rip that hat back to before the first color change and start over. While I’m at it, I might as well make the next biggest size, too… so baby won’t outgrow it too soon.
But anyway, the problem with knitting for Baby, (though I can’t wait to do it someday soon) is that every time I did knit for the baby I would think of mom and start crying. So instead I decided to pour my efforts into knitting for mom. And what did I decide on? A snuggly throw, knit on very LARGE needles so hopefully it will go lots faster this time. I am already having some doubts, but I’m determined to do this for my Miss Z.
I don’t do browns, and of course, browns are what makes Miss Z feel happy. So I went online to Knit Picks, and buy boatloads of brown yarn in different colors and textures. Clockwise from the top, in the 12:00 position:
Wool of the Andes Bulky Hand Dyed, colorway, Redwood Forest; Suri Dream Hand Dyed, colorway, Falling Leaves; Suri Dream, colorway, Sandstone; Wool of the Andes Bulky, colorway, Taupe; Andean Silk, colorway, Cinnamon; Quarry, colorway, Dakota Mahogany; (center) Andean Silk, colorway, Chocolate.I bought two balls of each color, except for the Andean Silk, for which I bought 6 balls of each color, as it will be my dominant two colors with the others in between. I’ve doubled the Andean Silk for a really soft, bulky feel and am doing a simple ripple pattern from Jan Eaton’s book, 200 Ripple Stitches
. I’m liking it so far but am finding the Suri Dream to be a bit fussy to work with. Hopefully I’ll survive. It’s for a good cause. And it’s on size 11 needles, too… so hopefully won’t take me a year like the last blanket did.
With holidays fast approaching, I’m not sure I’ll be able to post much again before the new year. Thanks for reading, and if I don’t get to it before, I’d like to wish everyone now a joyous holiday time and Peace for 2008. Also, if you’re a praying person, please flip a few skyward for my Miss Z. She’s got three kids who need her very, very much. Thanks for reading.
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Must. Make. Mittens.
Ok, I know I said in the last post that I was going to write more about the baby blankie I made. But the truth is, there isn’t much more I can say! It was presented this evening on the occasion of the recipient’s baptism, which was a wonderful celebration in song. I was so happy to be able to give it to them. But now, alas, I am ready to move on.
So I actually stewed for a couple of days wondering what I will make now, if you can believe it, especially since I already have lots of things in my project queue. I even cast on for a scarf based on my Fancy Cabled Braided Scarf, only using an extra repeat in the width and really big needles for a looser gauge. What was I thinking? It’s about the last thing I need right now to work on a scarf that could take months to complete (I like them REALLY long).
What I really want to do is learn to make mittens. I have been practically devouring mitten patterns for the last couple of months and have even purchased a few. I have decided that I need to make Tina Whitmore’s Mosaic Mittens from KnitWhits.com. I don’t have five colors of yarn to use, but I think I will use three colors and alternate one contrast color with another over a gray background. I have a bunch of skeins of Lamb’s Pride Worsted in several of my favorite colors, and I think I am going to tackle color work AND mittens at the same time. (I think I can, I think I can, I think I can…) Heck, I really don’t think it will be so bad.
The pattern is written for DPNs but I am going to use magic loop and just place markers where the DPs should be. The pattern is charted but easy to follow, so I don’t think I’ll screw up too bad there. The decreases at the top scare me a little but I will figure that out, too. Tina’s patterns seem pretty clear. I own a bunch of them and have read many of them through, but this will be the first time I actually make any.
Wish me luck! I think I’m going to go to bed now before I turn into a pumpkin (for a change!). I’ll be seeing mittens in my dreams…
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Just gotta say…
It’s done.
Off to bed… story tomorrow. Diana went to bed with her pajamas on inside out and backwards. She’s hoping for a snow day. Secretly? Me too. Don’t tell her I said that.