Anyways, here I am despite what my brain thinks. And what have I been up to, besides the usual? Well, I’ve jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon, and that sure can eat up a lot of your time! It’s a great way to get ideas and it’s very inspirational. Still, I’ll never possibly be able to do even a fraction of the crafty things I’ve found on there, and that contributes to that “I’m not productive” and inadequate feeling.

On a somewhat less negative note, and in the knitting sphere of my world, I knit a pair of socks! They’re worsted weight and the yarn I used was crap, but they’re socks and they fit, so I’m fairly pleased. Hopefully this time next year, I’ll have a nice little sampling of socks. That would be very nice.

Worked using magic-loop, two-at-a-time, toe-up on 5.5mm circulars with a 40″ cable.

The yarn collection appears to be getting smaller and has even moved from its prime location near the door on the first floor to a tucked away corner in the basement, which tells me that they don’t consider this a staple of their store and that they might eventually do away with it all together. To be honest, the yarns they carry are very cheap, mostly acrylic and nylon and a lot of it is novelty yarn. If you’re anything like any knitter/crocheter I know, it’s hard to resist picking up a few balls here and there, especially at such bargain prices (all the yarns I have seen here have been discontinued lines).

Recently, I was in the store for something or other and had a look at the yarns. Most of the stuff I’ve learned to stay clear of, but there was some nice DK in there and I decided to pick some up. The problem I’ve found with picking up yarn without a project in mind is that I then go searching for a pattern and find that I don’t really have enough to make anything. So, a few days later, I was back at the store picking up more! Tsk, tsk.

I started working on this cute Honeycomb Stroller Blanket but found that the yarn was just not suitable. The vertical bars created by the slip stitches were pulling and causing the piece to not lie flat, and I didn’t want to work too far into it just to face what I thought was certain disappointment. So, after too much time spent looking for a pattern on Ravelry (oh, how I can spend a lot of time looking at patterns on Ravelry!), I settled on the Big Bad Baby Blanket. It’s pretty simple and straightforward. I’m not sure who it is for. Maybe my cats? But I’m happy to have something to work on.

I need to either find someone to trade/sell all the impulse yarn purchases to (a yarn bomber perhaps?) or projects to use it all up on. So that is what this is. It’s practice and guilt appeasing, and a project to keep me occupied with until I gather the courage to try socks or a sweater, both projects I long to try.

I’ve moved most of what I’ve now determined as “undesirable” yarns (at least for me) to the trade/sell section of my stash in Ravelry, in a strange attempt to help lessen the guilt. Still, there are other guilt inducing purchases – like my new Addi Click Lace interchangeable needle set! I am also waiting for my Tom Bihn bag and accessories – a purchase I fell into after watching Christa’s review videos. I had been considering one of their bags for a while now, this just pushed me over the edge, lol.

Somehow though, I feel pretty certain that I won’t feel regret over these purchases, guilt – maybe, regret – no. I’ll post a review once I get and have a chance to use the Tom Bihn bag… so excited!

On the weekend, I finally put the finishing touches on my Totally Devine neck warmer by sewing a fabric lining inside. I wanted to get this done because I heard that snow was imminent and I would likely want to wear it during this cold snap. I’m not a very good seamstress, in fact I’m probably one of the worst seamstresses ever, but I managed to sew a seam around the fabric using my sewing machine, though I would be embarrassed if anyone had a close look at it. Lets just say that my lines were not very straight. Then I whip-stitched the fabric to the neck warmer. At first, it didn’t look like it was going to fit very well and that the fabric would pucker terribly, but as I worked along I could see that things were working very nicely. In the end, it fit near perfectly! What an awesome surprise! I wore it to work the next day and it was warm and soft and satisfying.

I’m feeling scattered and listless. In the past few days, I’ve started a number of knit items and given up in frustration. Either the pattern was too hard, the yarn was not appropriate, or the project was just too big and would take me for-ev-er. One started out on DPNs, which I have never used before. I gave it a valiant effort but had to admit defeat and put the DPNs away. The other had a clever slip stitch design, but the yarn I was using didn’t have enough structure to it to make it work. The slip stitches just pulled the work and the stockinette was causing the work in between the slip stitch rows to curl. I just couldn’t see it working and after multiple starts finally gave up.

Then, I thought I’d just make a basic blanket with the different coloured yarns I have and thought it would be nice to add some interest by working in moss stitch. I knit about a half dozen rows and realized that a dk weight blanket worked this way was going to take a very, very long time. I’m not opposed to working on a project that takes a considerable amount of time, but I am wary of working all that time on a project I’m not sure will turn out. So I’m still searching for something to do with over 32 balls of yarn (over 4000 yards) and that is so very dangerous because I end up feeling scattered. Gloves, tops, hats… all sorts of pieces grab my attention and my ravelry favourites list grows ever larger.

I’ll come right out and admit it. I really want to try knitting socks. But… It just looks so hard. I know many new knitters feel this way, but that doesn’t really help me. I tried the magic loop the other night and no matter how tight I tried to make my join, I ended up with a considerable ladder in between the two needles and gave up in frustration. Sigh… I really need to find a project to settle into.

So far, I’ve felt somewhat calmed to find that I’m not alone, that my obsession is normal, and that I will be okay. I was seriously starting to worry! Honestly, I don’t yet feel that I need someone else to reassure me that everything yarn and needle in my life is alright, but her writing style has that effect while causing you to chuckle at yourself and other knitters and sit back and admire what you do.

In just a few short pages I’ve discovered I’m a focused, but borderline preoccupied knitter (but work and sleep seriously hamper my progress and I’ve only just begun, really). Still, I can see how my addiction is tending towards the obsessed: “The knitter spends all of her free time knitting, and the time she considers ‘free’ is expanding” (p. 15) is a statement I can really identify with.

On p. 24-25, Stephanie helps knitter’s with “Ten Tips for Identifying Your Own Kind” – imagine yelling mohair in a public place. Surely a knitter will look up from his/her activity! It’s hilarious stuff and I highly recommend you pick up a copy.

Purls of wisdom: “Knitting and yarn appeal to the senses. A project in the works smells good, feels good, looks good. Never feel bad about wanting it hanging around. Knitting is too beautfiul to be clutter. A half-finished shawl left on the coffee table isn’t a mess: It’s an objet d’art.” (p. 11)

What non-pattern knitting books have you enjoyed?

Okay, time to get back to work… :-\

I knit up another Honey Cowl this past week. It was much quicker than my last one, I guess partly because I had recently knit it and also because I was on Christmas break and chose to spend my days knitting, and that’s about all I did. It was fabulous!

Since I could not decide which one to give my friend, I took both and let her decide. She chose the burgundy cowl and seemed quite happy to get it. This made me happy! The colour isn’t right in the photos. It was a much deeper red. I didn’t lay flat and pin this one because doing so with the other one really changed how it looked. Instead, I washed and hung it to dry, and I thought the results were better.

On Sunday, I knit up this Hat for My Man, but it turns out he doesn’t really like toques. That’s okay. It was fun to knit (my first hat!), only took a few hours (5-6 maybe) and I can always donate it to a local shelter or something. I worked on 5.00 mm 16″ circulars, and everything went well until the last few rounds. After a number of decrease rounds, I obviously found that the cable was now too long and I had to stretch the knitting out in order to work the stitches. At one point, I thought the whole thing was lost as I could no longer work the needles. I eventually worked it out, with all the remaining stitches on the left needle and the cable sort of curled up. The last few rows were a little loosey-goosey but once I removed the needle from the last remaining stitches, inserted the tail yarn through them and pulled the tail, everything closed up quite nicely. If you have ANY suggestions or words of wisdom, I’d love to hear it because I’m certain I did something wrong (shorter circular?). The yarn was black, not brown as seen in the first photo.

ETA: While looking at patterns on the Internet, I came across a discussion that helped me with my question about working the crown when knitting on circulars… I should have converted to double pointed needles to finish off the hat. So much to learn!

Lastly, I’m on the hunt for a good pattern for something to make for my niece. She’s scheduled for some pretty heavy surgery (not her first) in February or March, and I thought it might be nice to make her something that could possibly brighten her time there. These fingerless Owl Mitts look like a possible candidate, but I’m not sure how to adjust for age/size. Would knitting them on smaller needles do it? Plus, she might not be able to wear them while in hospital if there are hospital things on her wrists… I’ll keep looking, but if you know of anything fairly easy but really awesome that a little girl going through scary surgery might like, send me a note. I’d love to hear about it. Thanks!

I found the pattern on Ravelry and got some suitable yarn at my LYS – Fine Merino Superwash DK from the Diamond Luxury Collection. Beautiful yarn to work with! The colour really grew on me as I worked, and I couldn’t help but think how it was perfect for our Pacific Northwest winters with their dark clouds and rainy days (ahem, months). It’s bright and cheery, but has a mustard, earthy tone to it that keeps it from being too bright and cheerful, if that’s possible…

The pattern called for 450 yards (412 metres) of yarn. I purchased three skeins which worked out to 411 yards (375 metres), but decided to make the large/full sized cowl – knowing that the finished piece would not be as wide as the pattern.

I used 5.00 mm circular needles with a 40 inch cable (tip to tip measures roughly 38 inches), and cast on 220 stitches in the cable cast on method. This was my first time knitting in the round. I have crocheted in the round, and I knew that you must make sure your cast on is not twisted when you join the cast on or else your piece will have a twist in it. The join was quite loose on my first attempt. I watched the Circular Needle video from KnittingHelp.com and things worked much better. [edit Jan. 3, 2012 - I've since started a second Honey Cowl, and this time nothing but this would work for me when joining. Maybe it was beginner's luck the last time?]

During the first skein, I felt as though I was working backwards more than I was making progress working forwards (so glad to know how to tink stitches! – tink is knit spelled backwards). It was super frustrating, mainly because I knew the problems I was having were because I wasn’t paying enough attention. I usually keep notes when I work, unless it’s a super easy pattern. These might be simply tally marks or row numbers to help keep track of things.

When I started this pattern, I saw that once the four rounds of knit border were done, there were only four rounds repeated the rest of the way and thought it was simple enough to keep track in my mind. How many times did I start a round 2 only to find it should have been a round 4?! Well, I soon started keeping track, but even then I would sometimes zone out (isn’t that one of the things I love about knitting?) and forget to write it down. As I progressed though, I found that I was becoming so familiar with the stitch work that I could figure things out with less frustration.

I found a decidedly unattractive little hole when changing the ball of yarn. So, I went searching for solutions on the Internet and landed upon a nice little video by Judy Graham on changing yarn colours. It worked perfectly and was so simple! As a new knitter, these little things are so frustrating. There’s no mention of them in the books I’ve looked at. Often, you just get “these are normal, don’t worry”, but I’m never satisfied with that. I just know that someone somewhere has come up with ways to do these things without a hole.

Towards the end, I started to think about how much yarn I had left and when I needed to switch to straight knit for the edge. I guess it happens with any project, worrying that you might run out of yarn. Well, I continued on, even though the debate continued in my head, and when I did switch I was rewarded with about 34 inches of yarn left after casting off!

It seems that finishing a project is the most stressful part of the whole process for me. You’ve put your all into it, sometimes there are tears, always there is something learned. Now you have to cast off (gulp), work in your ends (little buggers like to pop up no matter), and block the piece I’ll often put the work aside for a spell while I try to gather my thoughts and relax a little before taking these last steps. I really noticed my anxiety about finishing with this project. Things had been going relatively well; I didn’t want anything to happen now!

I wasn’t sure which cast off method to use, so I turned to the Internet. The Internet is a great resource, no doubt, but sometimes I can get really turned around by what I find. I’m a little frustrated by some of the knitting resources I’ve come across. I’d love to find a compendium of knitting written and reviewed by some knitting experts. For example, a list of all the various casting on and off methods with a brief annotation letting you know what each one is good for AND which casting on and off methods closely match each other in appearance. I found some information on this, but the matches didn’t look the same to me when I tried them. Anyways, I settled on a method that I found but didn’t have a name. I knit the first stitch through the back loop. This stitch was returned to the left needle. Then, I *knit two stitches together through the back loop, and the remaining stitch was returned to the left needle. *This was repeated to the end. It didn’t really look like the cable cast on, but by this point I was tired and a little frustrated and decided, since the stockinette edges curled over, it really didn’t matter. Only I would likely ever notice! (it is nice and flexible, like the cable cast on, so it had that in its favour).

I blocked the piece the next day, washing it first in some Revivex Wool Cleaner I luckily have for washing my multitude of wool items. I discovered and fell in love with merino a few years ago. In no time, my wardrobe was filled with deliciously warm merino items. Great for cycling since it doesn’t stink like synthetics. Even if you get caught in a rainstorm, you’re comfortable and warm, and it dries quickly, unlike cotton or synthetics.

I carefully wrung out the water from the washed cowl and rolled it inside of a towel to squeeze out as much water as I could. Already, I could see a change in the piece. Next, I set up my blocking boards (some of those interlocking mats you find in many hardware stores) on my bed with towels underneath and on top and began to pin the cowl. I’m still really unsure of the blocking process, or more correctly, if I’m doing things wright. At first, I could see that the stitch work was being pulled at an angle, and this worried me. But as I continued to work, things started to even out. I used a ruler to help make sure I was working the edges in a somewhat straight line, and I measured the piece to make sure things were equally distributed. I pulled some pins and re-pinned where necessary, and finally felt it was nearly as good as it was going to get it, plus my back was getting a little grumpy.

I closed the bedroom door, to keep curious kitties away (they chewed at my last project, to my heartbreak, thought it honestly wasn’t that bad) and tried not to worry about it too much. That night, I carefully moved the boards to the floor. I wish I had a good place to put my blocking – somewhere it could sit undisturbed, perhaps up higher so I don’t have to bend my back – but the bed and bedroom are currently the only suitable place. I was like a kid on Christmas morning when I woke up. I sprung from bed, the blocked cowl my first thought, and had a look see. It still felt a little damp, but my bedroom is quite cold. I decided to let it sit a little longer.

Unpinning the piece later, I felt a little nervous. I had read about blocking items worked in-the-round, but I couldn’t think of anything cylindrical I could use. Knowing that my folds would create a seam, I went ahead anyways. Sure enough, the stitches on these folded edges were not stretched and were therefore rather noticeable. I decided to try a light ironing to see if this would help. It helped only a little. In the end, I decided that these would just have to be part of a novice knitter’s work and hoped that the recipient would be understanding, and who knows, maybe they’ll relax a little? Anyways, if the cowl is worn how I envision, they really shouldn’t be all that noticeable.

Unblocked, the cowl measured 22.5 inches long and 8 inches wide (with edges curled). Blocked… it measured 25.5 inches long and 8 inches wide (with edges curled). So, I guess I didn’t block it very well. [ETA: I've had some time to think on this, and I had a light bulb moment where I realized finished measurements include the total circumference of the cowl - I was just measuring one half, doh!] But washing and blocking it did change the piece. Before washing, the piece felt sort of thick and kind of sturdy. After, it felt thinner, softer and, well…  drapey (which I’ve read about). Ironically, I think I liked it better before washing and blocking but admit that it looks and feels better on having been blocked. Before blocking, I could wrap the piece twice around my neck. After, I could wrap the piece three times nicely. Trying the piece on and playing with the various ways of wearing it was dangerous. I was beginning to think about not giving it away. I love it – it’s gorgeous!

So, I then took some pictures and started thinking about this blog post. It’s a long one, isn’t it? Sorry about that. I set up my camera on a self-timer and tried taking some pictures of myself wearing the cowl. They all turned out blurry. The arm’s-length pictures I took with my point and shoot turned out a little better.

I guess that’s it. Now I just need to give it to the recipient and hope for a better reaction than the last one. When I gave the Herringbone Neck Warmer to my coworker, they looked quite puzzled. I found out a few weeks later that they were re-gifting it to someone. I believe that once you give something to someone it’s theirs to do with as they wish. At least re-gifting might mean that it will go to someone who will like and use it rather than it sitting in a drawer somewhere. Still, I guess I wouldn’t have minded if they’d asked me if I wanted it back… or if they’d liked it and used it. But they didn’t ask me for it – I made it because I wanted to. It did take a bit of the wind out of my sails though…

Well, that’s enough rambling. Now… what should I knit next?

I purchased a lovely big ball of Noro Hitsuji #7 (green, blue, olive) at my local LYS in mid-November with this project in mind. After a few false starts (this seems to happen with virtually every project), I finally found what I hope is the correct needle size and number of cast on stitches. I was a little frustrated with the yarn at first, as it was twisting up and knotting, but this has become less of an issue as I’ve progressed. It still curls up, but it’s just not bothering me as much. I’m loving the colours of the yarn. I read somewhere  that some people don’t like this yarn because of the unevenness, but I think it’s working really well with the herringbone stitches, giving a nice depth and texture to the piece.

I found the pattern through Ravelry. The designer provided a very handy video showing how to work the two rows used in the pattern. It was quickly memorized after watching the video, and I’ve been happily working away. It’s working up quite quickly, and if I keep up the pace, I should be finished today or tomorrow!

I’m making this as a thank you for a friend and coworker who has been very helpful during a  difficult time. I hope it turns out and he likes it.

So my niece’s birthday is coming up, and I think, “I’ll just whip up a scarf, hat and mittens set for her” (phht, yeah right!). I don’t have a lot of time, but I feel certain that I can come up with something. I head to the local mega-craft store (not my favourite, but I don’t want to use expensive, hard to care for yarn for a ten year old) and look for suitable, um, yarn. I’m not a yarn snob, but I do prefer the natural stuff over synthetic. Still, I find it’s all nice to work with, in my limited experience. Anyways, I pick out my yarn from the extremely sparse selection (I mean it looks huge, but it’s really not – only one or two colour selections of any given yarn, and really kind of ugly colours too) and head home. I start knitting from the pattern, but since I couldn’t get the exact yarn as the pattern used, I’m finding the k1, p1 isn’t looking that great, so I switch to k2, p2. Mistake? (stick to the pattern stupid!)

It’s looking all right, so I push on. It required changing yarn/colour every 12 rows. I’ve not knitted anything with yarn changes, but I think, “how hard can it be?” Whenever I bump up against something that seems to present a problem for me I consult the Internet (Ravelry, knittinghelp.com, etc.) and find especially useful the online videos (again, knittinghelps.com, but especially KnitWitch). I know from crochet that it’s a good idea to work in your ends as you go rather than leaving them all to the very end of the project. I’ve never done this, however, mainly because I’m fearful that I might want (need) to go back and do something over and weaving in ends seems so, well, finished.

So, last night, I decided the scarf was long enough for a ten year old girl and cast off. Well, wait. First I cast off with larger needles using the only cast off method I knew, thinking it would make for a nice flexible edge, and I hated it. So I went back and cast off with the same sized needles as I knit the scarf. Turns out it wasn’t the size of the needles I didn’t like… So I go back AGAIN and start thinking, “if there are different ways of casting on, there must be different (matching?) ways to cast off?” I find some interesting information on the Internet and decide to try the Elizabeth Zimmerman cast off method described on the Purl Bee website. It takes a few tries to get it, and it works okay, but it doesn’t really look like my cast on (which was a cable cast on, by the way). Well, I decide it’s finished. I just can’t give it another go. I’m getting tired of this thing!

So now I need to deal with all those ends… and, instead of doing a little reading and research first, I jump right in, assuming I know what I’m doing. I’ve read in various books and online sources about weaving in ends, so I think, “what else is there to know?” Besides, I’ve got a little experience weaving in ends with crochet work, and I figure it’s got to be pretty similar.

I have nice long ends (4-6″) that I thread with my tapestry needle and begin to work along the purls. Since this scarf is cabled, I have a little difficulty because the purl section is so small, but I soon figure out that if I pass the yarn through the scarf, I can continue weaving the end along the purls on the other side. Some work, some don’t. I’m getting increasingly frustrated.

I weave in at least 3-4″ of each end and pull at the piece to make sure the thread is laying naturally (not tight) before I cut… but those pesky little cut ends just love to pop up. I’m almost in tears. I’m swearing off knitting. “That’s it! This is the end of my short-lived knitting career.” (this is literally my fourth project) I mean seriously, all that work and all the various ways of working and this is the best technique they’ve come up with for finishing your beautiful hand knit piece? You’re joking, right?

So, I head back to the Internet in the hopes of finding some magic technique for weaving your ends in and not having the cut end pop up. I find more of the same, follow the thread along the purls, and some other methods that don’t seem appropriate for my synthetic yarn (splicing, etc.)… then I hit on what seems too good to be true. KnitWitch has great videos – they’ve helped me a lot. I especially like how she keeps them short and simple. No extra words to describe the process. She just shows you what you need to see and that’s that. So, her video for weaving in ends on ribbing looks great. I give it a try. It’s definitely faster. It’s virtually invisible. It’s no more bulky than the way I was working before, perhaps even less so. I’m happier than a knitter in a yarn store, when… suddenly… I see it… the cut ends are still popping out! Arghhhhhh! I’m pulling out my hair. I’m almost crying. I GIVE UP!!!

So, here it is. I hate it, and I’m not sure about my future as a knitter. I’m not giving it to my niece, because I think it’s awful.

Disclaimer: I’ve had a rotten week and probably can’t see things very clearly. I know I’ll probably keep at it… maybe I’ll just stick to one colour for now…

We live in a somewhat small place and seem to have a lot of stuff, so organizing things is pretty helpful. There was a corner of our computer/craft/do-it-all room that was begging to become my new yarn area. It had an old computer table that was covered in my jewellery making supplies and other things we didn’t know what to do with. As the idea bloomed in my mind, I decided that some sort of shelving to store my stash was a good option. Of course I consulted Google, check it out, if you can’t stand it! (Drool)

In the end, I chose this lovely stackable shelving unit with cloth storage boxes. It can fit a pretty good amount of yarn and knitting/crochet related things, and despite my sometimes over-exuberant yarn shopping, there’s still room for more!

Also early on in my yarn obsession, I began to look at ways to wind my hanks of yarn. I looked at ball winders, but for various reasons, I decided to go with a nostepinne (The word “nostepinne“, sometimes spelled “nostepinde”, apparently originates from Scandinavian words meaning “nest stick.” It is literally a stick that helps you make little “nests” or balls of yarn.). I think I was drawn to the old-fashioned, hands-on feel of this. At the same time, I also purchased a hand-made yarn swift which made everything easier! Winding the yarn with the nostepinne wasn’t hard to do, and I got the hang of it quite quickly, but it was time consuming, and let’s face it, that’s time I could be knitting! The other thing I noticed was that after winding a ball, my wrists were a little sore and would shake a little, I guess from being tense for a prolonged period of time.

I also used this little device for holding onto balls while crocheting/knitting. It’s for jewellery work (a bead spinner, I believe it’s called), but handily, it works really great for holding balls of yarn and it spins as you work the yarn. Here it looks a little like a yarn topiary.

For the past year, I’ve subscribed to two yarn clubs. They’re great because every month or so you get a nice little surprise hank of yarn in the mail. On a recent trip to a remote cabin (no power, no Internet… heaven!), I brought my crochet and some yarn hanks with me to help fill the dark nights. I wound something like four hanks of yarn… it took hours (and it didn’t help that I forgot to pack the dowels for the yarn swift, so I was using the back of a chair). After this, I really started to think an investment in a ball winder wasn’t such a bad idea… and it arrived today!

I just wound my first ball with it and it took a fraction of the time it would take me to do it with the nostepinne. The first bit of the hank was slow going, as the yarn was a little tangled upon itself, but once a few wraps had gone by, things really got moving. Now I can wind my yarn when I please, in no time at all! (Your local LYS can probably do this for you or let you use their setup if you ask). I’ve also discovered recently that it’s just as easy to wind by hand, just be sure you leave your thumb in the hole for the centre pull, but I digress…

I’ll probably still use the nostepinne to wind up smaller amounts or left-over amounts of yarn. Something that won’t take very long (or just use my fingers). Unfortunately, when not in use the swift and yarn winder will have to be put safely away somewhere, otherwise my cat will most likely chew on them. He does that. I really wish he wouldn’t. But I still love him to bits despite this flaw.

Here’s a picture to compare my ball winding skills. Can you guess which one is from the ball winder and which one is from the nostepinne?

Now, if I could just figure out what to do with all the small bits of yarn that for some inexplicable reason I’ve been holding onto. In the back of my mind, I’ve been thinking I’d put it out for the birds in the spring. I’ve heard they’ll use it for nesting material.