Mondays...wait it's Tuesday

Today is Monday...no, it's Tuesday. Holiday gets everything all messed up. Sure feels like Monday - suffering from insufficient sleep last night - caffine too late in the day I guess - makes for a bad Monday  Tuesday.
Anyway, three day weekend is always a great thing. It was a weekend of yarn. Bought two lots of yarn on ebay - woot! And my fantastic sister called and said she picked me up some wool yarn! I'm about to be in yarn heaven!
Haven't restarted the sweater - it's been set aside after I counted stitches lord only knows how many times and came up with a different number every time. Damn stitches moving around like that on me. Isn't counting a kindergarten skill that I should solidly have down by now? Yep, but it looks like I don't.
So, I started crocheting a bag from CrochetToday! May/June 2010 issue. Came out pretty cute. I'm changing the handles and putting a liner in it and doing it in a sort of dusty blue color. I'll post pictures when I have completed it.
I made a carrot cake this weekend and just to toot my own horn - it was fabulous!
Jamie worked on getting some sealer stuff on the roof in the evenings when it finally cooled down a bit and is almost half-way done. I did a bit of spring cleaning and cannot stop going into the newly organized hall closet just because it makes me happy. I love organization.
Alrighty, I'm just rambling now so I'm out and will post completed bag pictures shortly.

Discoveries

I have not knitted in a couple of days. :( Took the sweater to work to frog the messed up part and upon getting home and taking the dogs out, checking the chickens, and starting to tackle the idea of dinner I discovered I had left it... in the corner of my office... All alone for the night...In town...20 minutes from home. I felt so alone and sad. No knitting. PLUS summer volleyball old-lady league started up the next day and that eats up knitting time cause it's an all evening event. So guarenteed two days no knitting.
So, I dug through my patterns in an attempt to find a simple crochet project to start on to get me through the evening when I discovered I had stuffed my crochet hooks in the bag I took to work. I was seriously screwed. No luck on crocheting without hooks.
So I went through everything and wrote down what was in my stash and tried to organize things a bit.

Discovered that I had not received CrochetToday! magazine I suscribed to through magazines.com and that I seriously need to organize my printed patterns. Emailed on the subscription, all good in the hood as of today. Going to send me a back issue and all that jazz - 2-3 weeks arrival. Magazines.com - good customer service, so far.

Discovered that my ebay account is boinked. Back in 07 it was hacked by some a-hole and I guess I never fixed it. I think I'm going to start a new ebay account. Calling ebay does not sound like fun at all. Downside to this idea - mypoints account. Going to do more research on that one.

Discovered some ebay yarn that's calling my name. Which is how I discovered my account was jacked up. Yarn Paradise - out of Turkey - good prices - pay out the behind for shipping.

Discovered and explored the local shop You're So Crafty to check out yarn selection - eh. I'm not old enough to appreciate varigated deep/bright colored yarns I guess. I just really cannot make them into anything in my head that doesn't look like grandma sweater. Or that fabulous dress/tunic thingy I posted about. :)

Discovered I have sort of a preconceived resentment for acrylic - I need to get over it, seriously, cause well, it's an expensive resentment. And I know that acrylics have come a long way...I just am not a fan of the texture of them as you work with them. The craft store did have an acrylic blend with nylon that felt pretty good. Maybe I'll pick up a couple of those and see how it works out. Maybe I'll be converted.

Discovered yesterday that our hens decided to use the laying boxes finally (they've been laying in a corner of one of the pen sections for quite sometime). Did a little dance on that one! Hopefully they'll keep it up - makes my life a little easier.

Discovered in the sunlight that my attempt to cover my pastey white legs in preparation for said summer season old-lady volleyball league was splotchy and felt like everyone was pointing and saying 'Look at that girl's spray tan!' Need to get out in the real sun with some non-jean clothing and attempt to take the edge off my pastey legs. Not fun cause we hit 100 yesterday finally. And the humidity is outa control already.

That wraps up this weeks' discoveries. Have a great one!

Happy Thursday!

Oh holy cow

So, I came across this blog called YouKnitWhat?? that was all about horrendous knitted things. The author abandoned it some time ago, so I don't feel so bad copying the idea for this post. Plus, this was WAY to good to pass up and I had to do it...cause what is going on here??



Seriously, I have nothing more to contribute except holy cow.

On a real life note - got the f**up sweater frogged to a re-starting point. Still slightly irriated at myself for not measuring.

Update...

Holy crap shoot me now. So apparently this pattern is written for super skinny armed people....who the heck has that small of arms??
Going to have to unravel the bodice portion of this thing, look closer at the pattern, measure myself and figure out what the stitches need to be to fit my super huge arms....yea.
I guess this is how knitters learn.
Other than that, the length is great and the circumference is quite nice.
Well, I'll be posting in about a week after all the above steps have been completed and I'm back where I was today.
Super irritated.
Have a great week.

What the hell was I thinking??!

The extent of my knitting experience has been:

• a scarf
• a patchwork/multi stitch pillow cover that I did not so much make into a pillow cover
• A blanket with five different knit/purl stitches
• a basket
• man sock project

So, what the hell was I thinking when I thought "Oh, yeah, I can do this cute little sweater thing and it'll be  great..." . Ugh...WTF.
The things wrong with this stupid project:

• The lace portion is a little off...I'm slightly tighter stitched through the yarn over than the yarn over, slip stitch, k2tog.
• It should really specify if you are supposed to slip stitch knit or purl wise because I guess I mixed the two after youtubing and discovering that I didn't do it the way the person doing the video did..and decided on some of the stitches to do it however it was that i wasn't doing it before.
• Patterns should also specify how they want you to dec 1 stitch because well, if I was advanced enought to have my own preference I wouldn't listen to what you said but if (like I am) I am not and decided to gain new skills, this little tid bit would help me remember how I decreased two rows ago.
• Who writes the information for shaping shoulders/doing a neckline. EVERYTHING OUT THERE IS VERY VAGUE.
• so I just did it...and then read that I was supposed to be binding off in the WS row not the RS row. So one shoulder is WS and the other is RS.
• I don't really care about aforementioned mistakes....because what was I thinking. We'll be lucky if I can wear this thing in public.
• Jamie says it's fine and he cannot tell what I am talking about....

I don't have a picture to share at the moment because I was slightly frustrated last night. Starting on the front shaping tonight, we'll see how it goes. I have no doubt that any non-knitter is going to think it's great...but me...slightly irritated that it is not perfect...and what if a knitter sees it and is like...wow you should just stop trying...cause you suck. Plus, I already put it in my projects in ravelry and well, I'm going to have to put a finished photo as some point....scary.
Also, new knitting vocab from one of the knitting blogs I'm following: steek. Which from the context clues is the fabic needed to join buttons/zippers for a cardigan style piece. Interesting.
Lumosity - a brain website - that's the best description I can come up with - anyway the free portion has some of the braingames and I do believe I am completely addicted to the word bubbles...love it.
Oh and I attempted to make peach cobbler this weekend with some fresh peaches a co-worker brought in. Won't do that again either. Damn non-descriptive instructions....should put things in there like bottom goo moves do not pile heavy ass paste/bread concoction and attempt to spread on top of gooying bottom portion unless you want peach cake. You should evenly dump paste on top of goo.
I'm out. Stupid Mondays.

Mile marker 1

Progressing quite nicely. This is the first measurement marker when I start the top portion lace fagoting pattern. And yes, I am providing a link to the definition of that word because I actually looked it up, don't hate.
Took the store-bought marker off..screw that shit. I don't know if my stitches are too tight but I don't like the way it stretches that particular stitch. I just line up with the yarn end at the bottom from casting on cause that's the beginning. Duh. Probably going to have to use bits of yarn for markers as this project progresses so I don't get that stretching going on cause it'll show.
I'm on the math part - got it figured out (I think math is waaaay scarier in theory than in practice). Not too bad...it's probably good for me to do a bit of math without a calculator every now and again. Gets the brain juices going.
Exploration of Ravelry still going on - someone randomly left me a nice message about my Man Socks project. How nice! I like nice people. They make me happy. Shout out to that random nice person in Rhode Island! Getting warm fuzzies from Ravelry.
Reading Sumari Knitter's blogs on the knit along project which is a sweater and it is very insightful. Haven't so much read any of the 'knitting greats' and not so up to speed on what ESP or certain methodologies are - research topics!
WARNING: jumping on soap box!
So, I've been flipping through searches on knitting blogs and came across some dumbass saying knitters are on the rise as a kick against mainstream fashion. I am not fed up with mainstream fashion...I do not give a shit. My response to crazy mainstream fashion is to not buy the crap that I don't like - not knit my own shit. I am not knitting in some crazyass response to mainstream fashion. Knitting my own items is actually quite expensive and very time consumming if you want to use quality yarn.
Fact of the matter, I started crocheting in response to a rise in the number of days in a week that I couldn't sleep. Yes folks, that's right, I couldn't sleep. I started crocheting in the evenings and bam! could sleep at night. Weird? Indeed. Knitting was a natural progression due to the commonality of yarn.
Okie, dokie, off the soap box.
Have a great Wednesday!

Tuesday

Random thought of the day: I love homemade bread. If you're like me and don't really have the time to make homemade bread the old fashion way - buy a bread machine, they're great and you get fantastic bread. You will never buy another loaf of bread. Ever.
This weekend was a win - great-niece's bday was fantastic! Cleaned out the barn. And worked through another ball of yarn on the sweater project!
What I learned this weekend on my little sweater project: do not attempt to work in yarn ends. Crochet fabric will absorb the worked in ends without much of an impact. Knitting...well, not so much. Got to unravel and practice my favorite thing of picking up stitches to rework the beginning section of that ball of yarn. Not a good idea, don't do it!
Didn't get to work on it much last night - feeling a bit under-the-weather and couldn't keep the attention span to work on it. Sucks.
I did look at ravelry again. I had joined when I created my Etsy account earlier last year, but I was sort of overwhelmed by Etsy and ravelry all at once. That's a lot of information to process for a newbie. So, I updated some of my information and linked it to this blog.
While looking at Ravelry, discovered that the craft store downtown, You're so Crafty, has yarn! And at some point in time had a Monday night knitting group...I am tempted to check that out...if they still do it.
Well, that's it for me! Have a great week everybody!

List of want-to projects...so I don't forget.

Running Tally of the Project to complete this year

• Hat and slippers for my brother-in-law - top of the list because he got shafted at Christmas
• R2-D2 crochet for my sister
• socks - for lots of people: me, kat, a make-up pair for my sister, and I'm throwing around making enough pairs for our 'annual west texas meeting' group. Shhh... they dont know.
• A scarf for my DPS friend - he requested this before last christmas and I never got around to it.
• Bags...because I love them and who doesn't love them.
• Christmas presents for family.
• Found this super cute little dress for my great-niece too.
• Helmet liner for the brother-in-law

*Additions 6/17

• Baby blanket, booties, beanie, and hand mittens for Denise and Brian who are expecting.
• I really would like to make something for baby Luke - he may be my inspiration for a baby sweater/jacket.
• And more of the godmother homemade gifts for both Kye and Drake - I must put those beanies in the mail - that is my goal for this weekend! I saw a super cute kids sleeping bag that these boys would love and could grow into.

I'll try to update this list as I go...mainly so I do not forget!

Pictures as Promised

Socks Completed!

And the beginnings of the sweater/top project - on circular needles!

Update on this guy - the night before last I came home and started knitting. I knitted until I went to bed (Jamie made dinner because he tolerates my obsession). That's five hours of knitting and an entire ball of yarn knitted into the beginnings of this project. It's the previous magnetic pull left-overs...and my compulsive tendencies. Needless to say - my hand muscles were a bit tight yesterday...yes, that's correct...I was sore from knitting. :) It's coming right along!
We are going to have good weather this weekend and a birthday gathering for my great-niece's 1st b-day so I might not get a whole heck of a lot done. We'll see!

Socks Completed!

Okay, okay, okay, this post is way less exciting without pictures, but I have officially finished Jamie's socks. I will post pictures eventually. I did discover while working on the last bit of toe that I had made the leg part a little too long and therefore was a little short on yarn for the foot part and had to make the CC toe a bit bigger than the first sock :(. I am a perfectionist and am not happy with the outcome but felt the magnetic pull of the next project and decided to leave the second slightly different (disfigured in my opinion) sock as is. Jamie loves them anyway and what can I expect for only my second pair of socks? I did build a bit of confidence and have already started my next project - a little something for me - which is a peasant top from the Interweave Weekend Knit magazine.
Lots of information to process on this one - first time using circular needles and had to overcome the decision to cast on and knit left-handed style when I taught myself to knit - instructions/visualization for making that work on circular needles is a bit hard to come by...damn left-handedness. But I finally got it figured out and I'm five rows in! Also, this is my first sweater...ever. I did crochet a little sweater for my great-niece but nothing full-human size.
So far, I've been able to keep my creativeness in check while making knitted things from a pattern. This sweater project is making it extremely difficult to keep that urge reigned in. I just found myself jotting down little drawings of tops at work. :)
Changing/adapting knitting patterns does not come as easy to me as adapting crochet patterns. Perhaps it is the work involved in backtracking in knitting vs crochet. Crochet is very quick and easy to take apart and redo....but knitting is very, very time intensive and I am more reserved on pulling something apart and find myself getting WAY more frustrated by having to pull apart a weeks worth of stitches.
We shall see how this little project comes out. Not so excited about the instructions on this one being 'dec st 12(12, 10,...) evenly through row'....for a 220 st row....grrr on having to do math. Plus, I'm using a different yarn, so after getting through five rows and reading that line I figured I'd better do a swatch to see how this yarn is going to guage out. I guess that's what I get for jumping in and picking a project that is probably above my skill level. Oh, well, I'll figure it out!
And I've been day dreaming about linen yarns lately...it just sounds nice and cool...linen yarns....there I go again. I know it's May and still sorta like winter for most folks but in Texas...not so much - already into a super-duper drought and hitting 90 like it's nothing (plus humidity). Our outside work around the house has crawled to a halt and we try very hard to do things in the early morning or late afternoon. But linen would be nice...looking for a cheap source - ebay has some good deals from some people overseas but then you pay out the behind for shipping...we'll have to see. Haven't seen any locally, perhaps I just need to look more closely.
Well, that's the finish of my latest knitting adventure! I promise to work harder on the photo thing.

Socks

Knitting socks for Jamie has piqued my curiousity for the subject and I've been researching socks. Not really something one gives much thought to - considering most of us touch a sock everyday.
I found this very helpful website that a fellow knitter did some research on heel types and credited it (yay!): http://www.woolworks.org/sockheels.html

I knitted the first pair of socks in a simple stockinette stitch just to see if I could without pulling my hair out. To my amazement I made it through a simple heel-flap-and-gusset and completed the first pair of socks. A bit small for me, but thank goodness my sister's feet are a bit smaller than mine :).
I sought out a bit more complex pattern with some cabling and started another pair this time in man size. Also opted to pick up some sock yarn instead of using yarn from my stash. After finishing sock number one I didn't really want to give my sister the first pair of socks....sock #1 of man-sock-project made the first set look...well...fugly. Jamie said my sister would still appricate getting my very first pair of socks and that I should give them to her anyway. Which I did, and she was thankful to receive them, but I did feel a bit sheepish showing her the man-sock project.
Both patterns called for the heel-flap-and-gusset style heel, which is actually fairly simple to complete. I even opted to use a different yarn for the heel and toe in the man-sock project. Another first in my knitting experience. I cannot help but bend and edit patterns (crochet and knit) as I do them.
I will do my best to start posting pictures of my projects but for now descriptions will have to do!
Happy Knitting! -E