Adventures in yarn craft

I finished the first of my b/f's socks and thankfully, I got started on the next one right away. I don't want to fall into the '2nd sock syndrome' by putting off the second one and never get back to it. I just got the toe done and I'm hoping to get the majority of the foot part done before shutting down for the night. The biggest project that I have yet to do is still dogging me... the MAM afghan for his Mom. I know that each strip won't take me long... each one takes a couple hours at the most and I really want to get the socks done first so I can go all out on the afghan. And I still have one more handwarmer for my g/f.... after that, I can go back to making my own socks... again. Too, I'm wondering if my b/f's Dad wants a pair of socks.... I haven't made him anything, mostly because I don't know what would be useful to him. Too, I'm thinking about going back to Color Studio and getting more of that Gems Opal in that beautiful lavender colo...

I will never consider myself a 'yarn snob' at all but I am discovering how nice natural fibers are, even in blends. I'm making my b/f a pair of socks from 100% merino wool and I really like how it's working up. They're just plain socks, not cables, no fancy stitch patterns but the way it looks is so... nice (although I misfigured the length of the foot and have to rip out the heel and redo it...). I just can't understand why some people automatically stick their noses up at all synthetic yarns. To me, that's a blessing to have yarn that I can use that can be washed and dried in a machine. Yeah, I know... they make super wash wools but still, synthetics have their place. Although I was sorely tempted to get some non super wash wool when I was at the yarn store, I reasoned that I'd probably forget to hand wash them and end up ruining socks from yarn that was over $20 a hank... not a good thing. So, I'll stick with yarn that can be washed in a machine.....

I'm officially addicted to toe up socks. I'm so pleased with the pair that I made that I have plans for more. In fact, in a round about way, my b/f asked me for socks for Christmas (through a mutual friend and she told me, guessing that he wanted them from me since I knit....). This takes me to my trip to the yarn store. I've never been to this particular one. I'm not good when it comes to going someplace for the first time so I was on the anxious side but I made it. It was Rivers Color Studio and I had a really positive experience there. Of course, I went looking for nice, reasonably priced sock yarn. I can't say that the prices were great (better on line) but too, the ladies that work there were friendly and helpful. I had hoped to find Wildfoote sock yarn but they had a variety of other sock yarns. I ended up getting Opal in white for the b/f since he had said that he would only wear white socks and some 'One Your Toes' sock yarn (DK weight). I've n...

It's nice to have a friend that you can talk to about most anything but even better when you're helping her learn how to knit!!! She already crochets so that made it easier to explain how to handle the yarn. Of course, I directed her to knittinghelp.com for the videos. I' m happy to say that she's catching on very fast. She only started a few days ago and she's already purling like a pro. Her stitches are so nice and even... I'm a little jealous but I'm thrilled that she's having such an easy time learning. I told her that when/if my b/f gets me the Harmony Interchangeable set that I would send her most of my circular needles since I won't be needing them. Believe me, I know how much money you can sink into circular needles!! Figuring that you can spend about $6 a piece on cheap ones and you need probably 6-8 pairs... that adds up in a hurry. I want to save her all that muss and fuss of looking for all that. Plus, I'll probably send her most of...

Yep, I caught it.... At the big yarn sale this week at Michael's, I got a ton of Sassy Stripes (Moda Dea) and I just finished up my first toe up sock early early this morning. It's not perfect... I know I made a lot of mistakes and it looks funny but it's my first real sock with a real heel!!! *happy dance* The toe on the second one looks different and I know what I did wrong (or right?) but I'm not going back and redoing it. I really want these done so I can wear them when I go to visit my best friend on Tuesday/Wednesday (depending on when I can actually get out of here...). I've started on the foot portion and hopefully, I'll have some uninterrupted knitting time tonight where I don't have to go out for anything other than a quick trip to Walmart to get a sleeping bag (long story...). I do have to say that I'm not thrilled with the 'non softness' of acrylic sock yarn. Now... I want the real deal to work with. My friend told me that he found a ...

I've come to discover that there are some patterns that I never get tired of making. One is the Handmade Hat that I posted about a few entries ago. I can't stop making these!! LOL I've made 3 so far and I've got 2 more on the needles. Another pattern that I'm learning to love is the Caribbean Scarf I'm using this to make an afghan for my best friend's Mom. I've always been a big fan of motif/strip patterns and even though this is a scarf pattern, it lends itself quite well to making an afghan. I know that there's an afghan with the same stitch pattern as the scarf... but I dread huge numbers of stitches on my needles and I wanted it to look a certain way so doing strips is working well for this. I'm using Simply Soft in most of the rose like shades they have (well, all that I could find in the stores...). I'm adding in sage and dark sage to make it look like a rose garden. I had to go out and buy size 11 needles because, for the life of me, I...

I've been trying (unsuccessfully at that..) to bust some of my stash but the yarn at Jo Ann's calls to me so badly... I've recently discovered the joys of Moda Dea Washable Wool.... sadly it's out of budget for me to make anything huge (like a sweater) so I've been buying a couple balls here, couple balls there for hats, scarves and whatnot, just so I can use it for things that I can... use LOL I just got done doing a 'first sweep' through my stash to pick out yarn to send to my g/f in Indiana. She's yarn deprived and I have plenty so... So far, I'm trying to give her a lot of colorful yarn that will add to her limited color range that she has now. She told me that she has blue, green and tan so I'm trying to give her reds, purples (a lot of purple as it's her favorite color...), in addition to some nice variegateds. While I was at Jo Ann's yesterday, I did get her a couple of Caron One Pounders in light and dark purple, just for her in a...

I guess life or whatever passes for my life got the better of me. I have been busy knitting/crocheting up a relative storm lately. I finally finished a top down raglan sweater!!! Yay me!! Overall, I'm fairly happy with how it fits except that the neckline got all stretched out and stayed that way, even after washing. Lesson learned... go next size down for neckline... and use smaller needles for neckline... In spite of the fact that I've been buying yarn lately, I've also been trying to use up the older parts of my stash (and, I'll probably end up sending at least some of it to my g/f in Indiana since she's short on yarn and I have so much...). I've been making hats like they're going out of style. I've made 3 so far (one for my b/f, who seems to really like that I went to the trouble of making it in the Bengals team colors). It's a really simple pattern that I found on Craftster (someone was asking a question about the pattern and I became inspired...

The past few days, I haven't felt up to doing anything.. shawls laying unworked on... The only thing that I feel up to doing lately is afghan squares (knitted plain stockinette). I would have gone garter but the knitted shawls that I'm doing are in garter so I'm tired of that. I'm trying to use up all the bulky yarn that I have (Bernat Softee Chunky and Shetland Chunky) for this (other than the charcoal Shetland Chunky... that's set aside for a Seraphina shawl). I think I'm gonna go back to bed for a while...

I read my last entry and it's hard to believe that only a month and a half ago, it was snowing like a biotch!! Now, it's in the 70s/80s and humid.... I really need to get back to the desert.... I'm still 'shawling'. So far, I've made 5 Seraphina shawls. One, I gave to my b/f for his Mom for Mother's Day, one I still have to send out to my one g/f and the other 3, I'll probably keep. I've been trying to find a cheap cotton/acrylic blend in the craft stores but so far, all I could really find in a blend was Bernat Denim Style. It was okay to work with but it tangled so easily that I had to unwind the skein into a ball... first time I've EVER had to do that with any yarn, at least starting the skein out. With bigger skeins like the one pounders, near the end, I find that I have to stop and wind the rest into a ball so I don't have to stop every few stitches to untangle the yarn. I'm still working on knitted shawls, just simple garter stitch....

For the longest time, I let my hooks get lonely while exploring my newfound love of knitting. Well, lately, my hooks have been getting more use than my needles. I'm a far better 'hooker' than I am a knitter... I want to do some serious stash busting and knitting just takes too long for that. I've gone back to making shawls and afghans/lapghans. I'm in 2 CALs on Crafster, one for the Seraphina shawl (gotta love that pattern!) and the rectangular granny afghan. I've made one rect. granny before, for my b/f (who loves it and uses it daily when the weather's chilly...). This time around, I'm trying to use up all my Wool Ease that I didn't use up for other things. I probably have close to 20 skeins in various colors (mostly mushroom and blue mist). I had a huge 16 ounce skein of turquoise 'pound of love' yarn that I hadn't thought to do anything with so I used that for the Seraphina shawl. I really like how it's turning out... kind of lacy...

I'm so pleased with myself... I was getting frustrated with DPNs while trying to make my handwarmers (Fetchings) so I dragged out my large circs , pulled up knittinghelp.com and got going! After getting a little confused when I had to set it down a few times, I got the hang of it and I dare say... I don't think I'll go back to DPNs unless I really have to! I'll probably keep one project on DPNs just so I don't lose that skill but, I think I'm seriously hooked on the magic loop method. I'm making more progress on my slouch hat. It's really starting to look good now! Just now, I got to thinking about how I used to buy yarn. Wool Worth's (I used to go to the downtown Cleveland one...) used to sell mill ends from popular yarn manufacturers at really great prices. Yeah, it was all acrylic but I got a lot of bang for my buck. I could get a pound of yarn for about $4 and the colors were sweet. Sadly, that store closed a long time ago. Now, I'm trying ...

I was out of town for a few days... my best friend left the data cord to his camera at my house while he was here so I felt that I needed to take it back to him (his computer doesn't have a card reader on it so he really needed that cord back...). During my time away, I was going to stop at the Yarn Market in Pickerington, Ohio. In fact, we had planned on going the day after I got there (I usually stay over a couple of days as it's a 200+ mile trip one way to where he's at). But.. the morning came and I felt like crud so we stayed in my room, watched TV and played on my laptop. I'm so undecided about whether to get Denise interchangeables or go with Knit Picks Options. The one thing that I seriously like about the Options set is the pointiness of the needle tips. I guess it's sort of silly thinking about the amount of money that I'd be sinking into them as I've probably, over time, spent more than double that on other circs. I haven't really been doing t...

I didn't realize that I had so much in there! I had about 5 skeins of yarn that had no purpose being in there and projects that I had forgotten about. Now that it's a little more 'empty', it feels like there's nothing in there! Now, all I have in there is... my 'slouch' hat, the cabled scarf that I designed (it's not all that but it's looking okay...), the other slouch hat that I started and don't have the heart to frog... just yet, and finally, the Fetchings that I started. Feels good to know what I actually have now. I might not have enough yarn for the cabled scarf (it's really wide and I want it really long...) so I might go out on a yarn run tonight...

I'm so bad about starting something, losing interest and going onto something else. The entrelac scarf is still on the needles but I'm almost done with the probability scarf! *yay me* I really like how it's turning out too. Kind of oddball, like me. Now, I'm planning a slouch type hat in the same kind of 'non' pattern too to go with it. I was going to make a trip to the LYS but I figured that I'd call ahead to see if they had Denises in stock (last time I was there, she had just sold the last one...). When I called, I got hung up on! Not happy about that. I haven't tried to call back yet... probably should as I really don't like buying things like that on line. Yarn and needles are a 'hands on' kind of thing for me. Yes, I'm weird that way. I wanted to get some real sock yarn to make some real socks (not the tube socks that I made a while back...). I still want the Denise set and there's not a whole of retailers that sell them in thei...

OMG, I finally got the hang of doing entrelac! For me, it takes a while to wrap my head around a new technique but I managed it! I started on an entrelac scarf a few days ago and it's to the point where I only have to look at the pattern to do the end triangles now. I'm so proud of myself!! One of my friends wants a Calorimetry and she wants purple and grey... I looked at my local Michael's for self striping purple and grey, even purple Wool Ease but no go... So, I have some rose heather that's close to purple that I might overdye with Kool Aide if I feel froggy enough. If not, she'll have a nice rose/grey Calorimetry that she can throw in the washer and dryer. Now, I want to find a funky button for it :p Other than making progress on the entrelac scarf, I really haven't been working on too much. The last few days, my carpal tunnel was acting up, making my hands go numb/pins and needles so I laid off typing and knitting for a few days. It's better so I'm...

I'm done with my first pair of socks!!! They came in handy today when I was out shoveling out from under a few feet of snow today too. My feet were the only part of me that wasn't cold LOL Now, I want a good pair of real fingerless gloves... not the shortcut kind that's just a knitted rectangle folded over... I'm using the Progressive Gloves pattern and so far, even though I'm still on the cuff (I'm adjusting it for ribbing), I"m hoping to have them done by the end of the week. Since I finished the socks (yeah, just tube socks but hey, they're socks!!), knitting on DPNs isn't as intimidating for me. I can go faster than I did when I started out and that pleases me to no end. The good thing is that I don't get bored with doing that so... I think I'll be making more socks and gloves. I'm using Wool Ease for the gloves too, the denim blue. I used Blue Mist for the socks. I have a lot of Wool Ease so I guess I'll use that up (thank God I...

I'm so proud of myself for getting that done! I started on the second one the other day but while I was working on it today, I dropped a stitch and couldn't pick it up (it was near the join) so I frogged it and I'm starting over. I"m really hoping that the second one will go faster... I decided to get a set of Denise interchangeable needles. I'm tired of dealing with kinky, curly circular cords that will not behave. Lately, I've been using my circs for just about everything (except the probability scarf which is on my cheap but really kewl Red Heart acrylic needles). I would go for the Knit Picks Options set but... knitting and crafting, for me, is a personal and immediate type of thing... I like to see, touch, feel and even smell what I'm buying before I actually lay down money for it. I'm going to 'Yarn Knit By Sue' for my needles and maybe some really good superwash wool. The one time that I was there, the owner (Sue) was really nice to me an...

Yesterday was my 44th birthday... not exactly something to celebrate. As badly as I wanted to ignore the day, all my on line friends posted numerous birthday wishes to me :( I"m grateful that they thought enough to remember me but... I'd just rather forget it... Onward... I started a 'probability' scarf the other day, using Jo Ann's Sensations Tesoro yarn... I have to say, this is the nicest yarn that I've had the pleasure to use so far. It's soft, stretchy and has great stitch definition. If you're wondering what a probability scarf is, I was inspired by this pullover The whole concept of using probability to govern a pattern appeals to me so I gave it a try. So far, it looks... unique but I really like it. I just wish that I would have made it a little wider but I guess I can make the next one wider (I only did 40 stitches on size 9 needles). Probably after blocking, it'll look better... I was trying to make the not so straight scarf but I gave ...

Gotta love patterns... You start out copying a few free patterns, bookmarking them and sooner than you think, they seem to breed O_o I looked in my crochet/knitting folder and I couldn't get over just how many patterns I have now. Most, I haven't even thought about since I saved them. To date, I've only bought crochet patterns (before I found the wealth of info on the net...). It seems like what I want to make changes as fast as the wind blows. One day, I'm obsessed with making a sweater (top down raglan) and the next day, I want to make wool socks. So far, though, I've carried through on a few small projects so I feel like I'm entitled to this ADD-like behavior. Actually, it's really hard not to see a great pattern and not want to make it. At this moment, I cleared some of my needles of projects that just weren't getting done. Really though, at the moment, I"m fairly obsessed with making a cowl/tube scarf that I'm happy with. I made one with Be...

The temp is currently 8 degrees. I should be freezing but hot flashes save the day again! I've never really had a 'craft' blog before so I'm proceeding cautiously. I'm a long time crocheter but only learned to knit a few months ago. I'm trying to extend my skills but it's slow going. So far, I've made some baby hats (knitted flat) and a tube scarf that turned out way huge so I just use that in the house when my neck gets cold. Current WIP are tube socks, a poncho that never seems to get to the top of my pile, a tube scarf done in Jo Ann Sensations Dolcetto wool/cotton blend (hard to work with but it's sooo soft), one lone regular scarf that also hardly ever gets attention and a tube scarf that I'm making out of Bernat Softee Chunky (dark blue). I frogged most of my other WIP due to the fact that most of my best circular needles were being taken up on projects that I really had no interest in finishing. I'm interested in trying Jo Ann's...