Friday, February 21, 2014

Supercalifrogaliciousexpialidocious!

So in the last week I've:

*written, started, and frogged the viking hat because I miscounted at my cast on (even though I counted about 8 times before I even started on my first row*
*made a set of booties for my cousin's baby, I messed up on the pattern but committed to it because it looked fine, up until I went to thread the ribbon through it only to find I had the wrong number of eyelets!
*had to redo the insignia on the baby boy hat multiple times, but it did turn out right in the end.
*only got to the 3rd row on a coffee cozy multiple times before I had to admit that even a simple lace row isn't for the park. 
*tried my hand at lace knitting with crochet thread and itsy bitsy lace needles, that took a good 10 minutes to cast on and do a row and a half. 


I have a bunch I could do, a bunch I should do, but I'm feeling a little ennui. Its just the time of year, and being emotionally under the weather. But hey, I did learn how to do bobbles.

Now I'm just going to watch Sherlock and work on a coffee cozy in rainbow yarn. 

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Stashin' the good stuff

The internets was down for us for about a week or I totally would have posted. I do have Blogger on my phone but lets be honest, there is nothing worse than typing away at the little touchscreen on a phone. Plus my phone has some sort of horrific disease that makes it impossible for it to hold a charge and do anything else for longer than an hour. I'm assuming its some sort of cellphone incontinence. Well the web is back and it turns out I totally had a post all in the draft mode and could have put it up! Better late than never? WOOHOOO

What exactly is a stash? According to Mirriam-webster it means to put (something) in a secret or hidden place or an amount of something that is stored or hidden. According to Urban Dictionary its slang for moustache. Not helping urban dictionary! 

I recall starting on this wonderful fiberlicious journey I hard of these "stashes" that knitters have. The whole concept of having a ton of extra yarn seemed like such a foreign possibility. Why would you buy that much extra? Isn't it better to buy it as you need it? As you can see, I literally never expected to have more than maybe 5 skeins at a time. I had a few that were given to me by a friend who wasn't planning on using them but I had no real plan for them and didn't really know what to do with them since I was just dipping my toes in the knitting pool. Plus I had some homespun from a few years back during my first "I SHOULD LEARN TO KNIT" phase. Its all really quite magical. 

Anyhow, not only did my mother send me home with a bag of about $100 in good quality fiber yarn and instructions to "make some awesome things for me and my coworkers by next christmas" and a promise to send me a yarn budget each month (she has 12 coworkers, wants hats and mitts for all of them plus goodies for herself), but my wonderful cousin moved to Hawaii and had to get rid of some of her stuff and I was surprised with a white kitchen trash bag full of yarn and big ol needles. 

I was in shock and a part of me wanted to put all of that yarn down and roll in it, but I resisted, instead I had to move all of my stuff upstairs since I had no space in my room for it. As I set it up on the bed it suddenly hit me that I have moved up a level as a knitter. I have a stash.


Its not much but its mine!

A look inside the mystical bag of awesome fiber

I suddenly decided I absolutely had to pop on my Ravelry and put all of my stuff in so that when I get all blergh on what to do next I can just click those buttons that say "stash yarn" and then I get an adventure chosen for me! So that means I spent the last 2 hours on line searching for pics of the yarn (I want to be thorough) and entering all of my yarn accurately. So now I know I have 35 skeins of yarn. That's 35 skeins of awesome potential just waiting to be manipulated into something awesome! This doesn't even include the 4 skeins I have sitting in my next to knit with bucket or the 5 I just bought yesterday so that I could start making my cousins mitts and hats. OR the contents of the bag because they are kind of taken. 

I know that there are plenty of knitters who have rooms full/dedicated solely to their stash, but to this little rookie, 50ish skeins sort of blows my mind! I'm overwhelmed by the potential! I love it, seriously.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

PROGRESS! Updates and such!


  1. 2 sets of Gloves and a hat for my cousin (asap, looking for the neon colors he wanted). These should be fun because I'm making them sans pattern to fit his hands! YAY FOR ADVENTURE!  This took waaay longer than expected. After having to rip back multiple times, I went on and double checked the average number of stitches cast on for men's gloves. The rest was pretty easy. Mittens aren't exactly rocket scientistery or anything. What I hate is how some things knitted really suck because they look slightly off but the minute you put them on its like "OH wow, that totally works" hopefully he likes them! I have enough left over yarn he's going to be getting a hat or two as well.

                
  2. OMG THE BABIES!
     Mid March 
    Baby Dollard, due in March

    Before April

    and


     for twins so I need 2 of each!




    Before June
    Baby beanie and converse booties for my bootcamp instructors impending child



    The beanie is going to be basic black but I'm going to do the
    bootcamps insignia on it in double knitting SO EXCITED. I have started making the beanie so thats a yay and I need grey and white yarn so woohoo!


    My cousin and his fiancee are having a little girl, so booties and hat!




    Before August


    one adorable sock down!
    Baby Layette for my nephew. This is just an example. I may go a different direction but I think this is super cute. I'm also making  baby socks and pretty much anything I can think of too for Nolan!






    AAAAND another cousin's wife is expecting so hat and booties!



    4. Fingerless Mitts for: Brenda, Rose, Gwendy, Bookie, and Val, pretty much due whenever. I need to find a pattern I like or make up something!

    5.Dew Drops Shawl for my mom and a Pineapple Delight Shawl for my grammy. I'm hitting a major stumbling block because no one carries size 5 80 cm circs! I don't want to just order them flat out because with shipping and handling... I feel like I should wait until I actually legit have to order something.
                                  
    6.Hats and mitts for my mom's coworkers for next xmas (12 sets, I have total artistic freedom)I was about to start this, totally enthusiastic over a cascade paint yarn she's gotten but then I realized I REALLY had to get David's mitts out.

    7. A viking hat and beard for my friends 5 year old son! Really excited for this. I've found good patterns but all are for infants or adults so I'm going to sort this myself. Yeah it could be awesome or terrible. I'm excited nevertheless!


    Huh...considering how much time I spent knitting the list isn't getting any smaller! I've made progress with those mitts being done, a baby sock, and today I made hubby a pair of super bulky slippers because his feet get so cold! I'm totally not disappointed at all. I know I'm moving forward and if you aren't always adding new things to try what is the point in a hobby?!

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Good intentions

Do you ever find that you get a ton of links and such sent to you by people and they are crochet? I swear nearly every single one that has ever been posted to my facebook wall has been a crochet pattern. Everyone of them is awesome but totally not in my skill sect. How I feel can only be expressed in picture:

Yes I know its Spock, ,don't get all panties in a twist

Then I have to step back and think, they are sending me a picture or pattern they saw that they thought was beautiful and wonderful and that I could totally do it. It's likely that they can't tell the difference between the two, heck I had trouble until I learned how very different the two look when completed. I don't fault anyone, it just makes me a little grumpy because I can't make that! I am lacking *grumblegrumblegrumble* I need to learn how to crochet. I WANT ALL THE PATTERNS!

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

KIP at Sambalatte Espresso Bar

This week while perusing The View there was an article on Artistas aka artistic baristas who fill your cup with not only a delicious brew, but they top it off with foam art! I'm reading this going "yup, they need knitting. I need to do this for them." Plus, who doesn't like the name? Sambalatte sounds like some Latin America cup of sass with a dash of dancing tossed in. To keep up with this mental theme, I wore a bright red dress :)

It was nice. Relaxing, as it should be. Nice Baristas, the coffee was good. Definite hipster atmosphere. I found a little wicker seating set on the upper level that overlooked the door. I felt like a little bird in a nest, I settled in, let the weird multi-regional music wash over me, and reached for my purse.

I'm working on some gloves for my cousin but they are a bit bulky to carry in a purse, so I snagged the half a skein of sock yarn I had left over, my number 2s and tucked them in my purse. I'd already scoped ravelry and downloaded a pattern for baby socks so that was my plan for the evening.

One thing about knitting in the round is that the very beginning is rough. Seriously, those first few rows I'm all fumbly, needles and fingers everywhere. Coupled with the fact that it was baby sized it means that there was very little happening at first. Slowly but surely, with each sip and each row something precious started to form. After a 2 hours I was all done with the gusset and such, my coffee was gone, and I had the glow of self satisfaction!