The Crooked Knitter

Yeah Baby!

2012-02-06T16:30:00.000-05:00

NY Football Champs Project Bag by crookedknits on Etsy:

'via Blog this'

Random Picture Sunday

2012-01-29T08:00:00.000-05:00

Cable Wristers

FO Friday: Bluerose Socks

2012-01-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

I feel like I stared these socks forever ago but they really only took me a couple months to make.

I fell in love with Knitty's Blackrose Socks and set this yarn aside for them as soon as I bought it. Unfortunately, I didn't realize the pattern was written cuff down. I. Hate. Cuff. Down.

Now that I've finally figured out how to make socks that fit me great, I really refuse to do them any other way if I can help it. Toe up socks with a gusset, slightly increasing over the ball of my foot and decreasing extra after the heel turn. I was lazy with these ones and figured I'd just work the chart rows 8 to 1 instead of 1 to 8 and see how it came out. It does not come out the same. But I'm ok with that.

Someday I'll have to knit them again, either working the chart in the right direction but from the toe up, or rewriting it to work out backwards. I feel like I'll be doing a lot of that in the future.

I also knit these with the purl bottoms, just like my Open Hands Socks. Two pairs done and I don't need to do a third to understand two things: 1- I don't like working on these socks when they have the purl bottom. It makes me hate them the whole way through, even after I've turned the heel. 2- The purl bottoms don't feel any different than a regular knit sock.

Conclusion: It's not worth the hassle. It was worth a shot though.

Pattern: Blackrose Socks

Project Page: Bluerose Socks

Yarn: Sanguine Gryphon Little Traveller

Needles: US 0

Mods: Many! Worked toe-up with a heel gusset, following the chart rows backwards from written directions. Sole of the sock worked in reverse stockinette stitch.

Stash Enhancements

2012-01-26T08:00:00.000-05:00

I've gotten quite a bit of yarn in the past few weeks. Plus the Vogue Stash. Here's the other purchases or acquisitions I've had recently:

Mulberry Fibers Twisted Sock purchased during Thanksgiving weekend sales

The Fibre Company Acadia in Granite

Acadia in Lupine

They're for the Stephen West Groove KAL next month!

PepperPants Fiberworks Silky Cashmerino in Peace Offering

Christmas present from Julia :o)

Madelinetosh Tosh DK in Tart

To make Norie hat

String Theory Caper Sock in Black Cherry

Though they make amazing socks, this will be the 17th Street Gloves

Shop Update

2012-01-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

So I'm finally slowly updating my Etsy shop again. So far I've added some items for the Chinese New Year:

A kimono inspired project bag

Year of the Dragon stitch markers

There's also some Swarovski bead stitch markers:

Under the Tuscan Sun stitch markers

Let it Snow stitch markers

I plan to add to the shop slowly, even though I have tons of stock made for it. I like to spread the updates out a bit.

I went on a jewelry kick right around Christmas, resulting in a lot of stitch markers and jewelry. I wish it wasn't so cold so I could get out to the screen house and stitch up more projects bags. I have some NY Giants fabric to make Julia a project bag and, well, it's kinda perfect timing for that big football game everyone but me cares about. Maybe I'll luck out and we'll have a warm Saturday, the only day I'll be home this week. Or we might just get snow again and I'll have to play with my snowflake stitch markers :o)

Happy knitting!

The Village Knitter Anniversary Party!

2012-01-24T08:00:00.000-05:00

January 15th was the 2 year anniversary of Ann and Kathleen buying The Village Knitter from the original owner. While that coincided with me living in Brooklyn and only being there on the rare occasion, I saw the changes in the shop almost immediately. The yarn selection, um, improved. The Thursday night crowd grew. The hours were so much more convenient too! (This might also be because I was no longer working 13 days straight with 1 day off...the day the store wasn't open of course).

Of course, if there's a party I must bake! Kyle (who hounded me to make sure to give him credit for helping bake) is still talking about vegan horchata cupcakes Nicole made when we lived in Brooklyn. I of course had to ask her what they were since I didn't remember them quite so well. This was our conversation:

Me: I have to bake cupcakes tomorrow. Kyle put in a request FWD: Make those cinnamon bun thingys Nicole made lol
Nicole: Hahaha
Nicole: They were horchata cupcakes that I veganized
Nicole: Just make snicker doodle cupcakes
Nicole: That was TWO years ago!

I think she forgets how fixated boys can be when it comes to food. He seriously still talks about the things Nicole baked. Two years ago.

So I googled some recipes and found one I liked. Kyle and I whipped it up on Friday for Saturday's party.

The recipe I used is here from Brown Eyed Baker. It was great! The only problem was the supermarket didn't have cake flour. In walks Joy of Baking with the Ingredient Substitution list. This was very very handy and I will be bookmarking for future use.

When I got to the point of making the frosting, I read the direction. I'm supposed to boil ingredients to 230 degrees?? I do not have a candy thermometer and really wasn't in the mood for anything so precise. Some more googling brought me to Recipe Girl. She had a snickerdoodle cupcake recipe as well (actually might be the same one) but also had a very simple cinnamon cream cheese frosting. Together, they were perfect :o)

Here's to another great 2 (and more) years!

Surprise in my journal

2012-01-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

I have a collection of cute notebooks and journals from when I was in high school. Back then, the only way I had to deal with my teenage angst was through creative writing, and I much prefered to write in pretty journals. When my mom found this out, she'd buy up every journal she saw. She has a tendency to do these kinds of things, such as this past Christmas when she bought me about 7 sheep themed toys or stuffed animals. I'm 26 and I got a sheep pillow pet and beanie baby for Christmas. Or a couple years ago when I happened to mention I like houndstooth and she bought me a bag, scarf, gloves, shirt, skirt and coat all covered in the print.

I've been using these notebooks lately to write patterns in as I'm working on them. I needed a new one and grabbed a random one off the shelf. This is what I saw on the first page.

Apparently a few years ago when I was obsessed with writing, my younger cousins decided to add their own writing to my book. Some of these cousins have now graduated high school and some are just turning into their own teen years. I love finding these cute hidden memories around :o)

Random Picture Sunday

2012-01-22T08:00:00.000-05:00

Lars' Tosh Merino Light Collection

FO Friday: Cherry Legume, plus a Review

2012-01-20T08:00:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week you saw this photo:

And I bet you were wondering what my hat was, right??

Of course you were.

Well it's Legume, by Jen Lucas (um, first time I'm typing your name that way Jen!). Jen is working on putting out an eBook, one pattern at a time. Legume is the first pattern of the set. Released on January 1st, I whipped right through this thing. Granted, I had bought the yarn well ahead of time. As soon as Jen listed the pattern on Ravelry, I was planning away. We had just gotten the recommended yarn in at the shop so I figured I'd go with that one.

I love my hat though. I wore it almost all of Vogue Knitting Live weekend. It kept my head nice and toasty in the randomly cold NYC weekend (weather has been spring-like, and then of course for Vogue it decided to be a little brutal).

Project page: Cherry Legume
Yarn: Madelinetosh Chunky
Needles: Knit Picks Harmony US 7, Knitter's Pride Cubics US 8
Mods: None

As expected, I love this yarn. Madelinetosh does amazing colors always. BUT don't expect this yarn to genuinely be a chunky weight. When is a Madelinetosh yarn ever the weight it claims to be??

For the first time, I used the Cubics needles. Knitter's Pride and Knit Picks use the same overseas company (Knit Pro...seriously, what's with all the K.P. companies) to create their wooden interchangeable needle tips. Therefore, they are interchangeable in and of themselves. And since I can't find my Harmony size 8s and the shop recently started carrying Cubics interchangeable, I couldn't resist finally trying them out. I really didn't notice any difference in using these as compared to using the typical circular shaped needle. I've heard that these needles can help with gauge problems. As a loose knitter, I'm always having to go down a size needle than recommended. I did that with this project and this hat came out very tight on my head. Not uncomfortably tight, but just tight enough that I can't wear it when my hair is curly without looking like a clown. This could be because the entire hat is essentially made up of 1x1 ribbing.

I love that I can get these needles easily and locally. I hate that if I break a needle, I have to wait a while for Knit Picks to ship. The only thing I don't like about these needles is that they don't go smaller than a US 6...yet.

Vogue Projects and a word on Volunteering

2012-01-19T08:00:00.000-05:00

Here's a peak at the projects I was working on this weekend:

Cable Slouch Hat

Cashmere Bias

Socks in Progress

These socks are actually on hold now. I'm using them to teach two at a time magic loop socks at the Village Knitter, but part two of the class isn't for a couple weeks. I did almost all of that at Vogue this weekend though.

Volunteering at Vogue

I have to say what an excellent experience I had working at Vogue. All of the staff was as nice as can be, and of course the "thank you" gifts are much appreciated :o). I love that wearing that shirt made me feel less awkward talking to the kniteratti. I loved meeting all the other great volunteers, even if we didn't catch each other's names. I highly suggest doing it, and I hope to do it again next year! I think that if I were to take classes, I'd have to limit my commitment though. Even though it was only 3 shifts for me, I was utterly exhausted and really don't think I could have enjoyed myself if there was more on my plate. I would have worked Monday too, which would have been easier since the Marketplace was closed. Even though I felt overwhelmed at times, I can only imagine what the women who organized the event went through. Beth, Carol, Erin, Christina, and all the other people running around all day making sure the event went smoothly did an amazing job and not once did I see them lose their patience with anyone. They truly created an unbelievable event for all to enjoy. Thank you guys so much!

Back From Vogue: Stash Enhancements!

2012-01-18T08:00:00.000-05:00

And now for the fun stuff!! Aka, the stuff I spent all my money on.

Well, I didn't actually spend my money on this one. This was a gift from Vogue for volunteering. And right after I got it, I went to have it signed.

Kaffe Fassett's autograph

Kaffe Fassett signed it first. I love that he put the year under his name. He was still chatting with someone else at the table when...

K-Brandon Mably's autograph

...he turned the page and started to write his name again! Luckily, Brandon Mably is a quick thinker and turned Kaffe's "K" into a "B" for his own name. I love that my book is so unique now! I also love that each of the guys wrote their own intro for the book, and therefore had their own place to sign it. I don't know if they planned it that way, but I like it!

Stashed here

This stuff was super soft. It's Leicester Longwool from Solitude Wool. I was very excited to find two of the same color/fiber so that I could make something a little larger and still do a 3 ply yarn with it. I was debating between and a blue, but I've already spun something blue and decided for something different. There was also a grey with bits of green- perfect Slytherin colors! But I didn't like the feel of the fiber so I passed it up.

Solitude Wool is a small duo- two women who each own their own separate farms in Virginia, but combine their efforts to create wonderful rovings and yarns.

Stashed here

I also bought this from them. I was so drawn to these natural colors twisted together. I really wanted to make a cowl with this. I changed my mind later- it will become a hat and another yarn I bought that is close in color but softer will become a cowl to go with it.

Explore their website...cuteness will ensue! I love seeing all the animals in the pictures, especially those little baby lambs. I tried hard to only buy from smaller companies or very unique items.

Stashed here

This is what I'll be making my cowl out of. 100% Llama and 100% from Long Island! Yay for the locals! I've seen LI Livestock Company at various events in my area, but did not recognize owner Tabbethia because she's usually wearing a jumpsuit, hair tied back, shaving some hairy animal. She was so sweet and talked to me for a bit. I just love this company so much! I told her I'm going to move to her farm. So far that's 2 fiber animal farms I've invited myself to live on locally. Eventually I'll get my animals :o)

Anyway, this yarn is made up of fibers from Lily, Pumpkin and Nala, all llamas on Tabbethia's farm. She shears them all herself and actually travels up and down the east coast to do shearings for other farms. I really can't wait to knit this one up. I have a feeling it won't be in my stash for too long.

Stashed here

This is a 100% llama roving. I've never spun llama. At all. So this will be a new experience. It's from a llama named Ernie. He's very soft!

I love the various colors in the roving. It should create an interesting yarn when it's done.

Like it needs any introduction :o)

Woot!

What Would Madame Defarge Knit? Edited by Heather Ordover

This isn't exactly your typical knitting book. There are no pictures of a finished product in here. None. Zero. There are simple hand drawings, such as the one on the cover. Because of Ravelry and to keep costs down, Heather opted to not include pictures. You can see the patterns here though. Instead, space is reserved for each designer to write about the project, the story that it is derived from, and their inspiration. I started to read it Saturday evening but was too tired to take any of it in. I'll definitely have to read through this one!

It says "Toujours en Tricot!" which GoogleTranslate "still knitting."

This is the fiber I bought for Julia since she 1- loaned me her unlimited MetroCard and train ticket, and 2- missed Vogue to go on vacation with her boyfriend. It's colorway is "Alcohol". I had to buy it for her when I saw that name. Her story about vacation told me I chose well :o)

Stashed here

This was a fiber for me. Both this and Julia's Alcohol were purchased from Creatively Dyed Yarn. Such pretty colors :o)

Oh and did I mention it's a merino/silk/cashmere blend? My hands were in love <3

Stashed here

So I have a confession to make. I only bought SweetGeorgia Yarns' Tough Love Sock because I wanted the bag that comes with a Knitty City purchase. BUT that does not mean I didn't want the yarn already :o)

Maria of the Subway Knits podcast raves about this yarn, and Julia recently used it for a pair of socks. Both have lots of good things to say about it so I've wanted to try it for a while.

I fell in love with this colorway. Apparently Dino approved. He interrupted my photography session to lick my yarn. Yes, I said lick.

See that tongue?!? On my yarn!

Oh Knitty City bag, how I love thee! I got one of these bags during this past fall's NYC Yarn Crawl. I love to use it for my lunch, but I have a tendency to spill my coffee on it. When it's in the laundry (which could, um, take a while sometimes), I have nothing but regular plastic shopping bags to use. So I felt I needed another one. And bought me some yarn so I could get another awesome lunch bag.

Is he not the cutest thing ever? I got this little guy from the Mother Bear group. I first heard about Mother Bear from Dr. Gemma on the CogKnitive Podcast. I have yet to make one though. Actually, I have to purchase the pattern too. I was very happy to see they had a booth at the Marketplace and stopped by to check out some of the pictures and bears they had displayed. They were selling kits to make bears for $20. But the kit really had stuff I didn't need- acryllic-ish yarn and needles. I have needles and lord knows I have plenty of yarn. But I still wanted to contribute, to make sure their time at Vogue was worth it. So I saw these little bears hanging on a display. One of the girls working the booth made them all, using the Mother Bear pattern and sock yarn (instead of worsted, which is used to make the regular bears). I really love this idea. You can buy them here if you want one too! Money from the sales goes towards shipping the bears over to Africa. I didn't even hesitate to fork over $20 for him. Obviously he's something I could make myself and cheaper, but the point of this booth was to raise money for the charity.

I don't know if I've ever mentioned that my friend Megan from college went to Uganda for a year to work at an orphanage. Many of the kids there had HIV or were orphaned because of AIDS. After all of her stories from her trip, I have felt a more personal connection to the children in Africa affected by this disease. I really want to help and urge all of you to help as well. Hell, I'd even knit these little guys to sell as future fundraisers for them.

Megan and one of her kiddies

Ok the PSA is over and now back to the yarn! I had to get some of the yak yarn from Bijou Bison Ranch. I've never used yak before. I really wanted one that had bamboo in it, but this one was $5 cheaper and I had to let my budget make some decisions for me. I persuaded myself with that "limited edition" on the label and the fact that it has camel in it too! I think it's going to grow up to be a shawl someday. Maybe a Stephen West shawl...something simple and not lacey.

Lion Brand was giving out free bags! They make a great bag. I use one (bigger than this one, if you can believe it) for some yarn storage...mostly my Cascade 220 stash. Not sure what this one will be used for just yet.

And there it is...the sum total of my stash. I threw my volunteer badge in there. If I'd done my laundry yet, I'd have put my t-shirt in too, but like I said earlier, that can take a while.

Back from Vogue: 2012 Edition! (Part 2)

2012-01-17T08:00:00.000-05:00

This post is lots of pictures. I'll keep it down to as few words as possible!

Scene: Andrea's apartment

Sunday, 5:30 - We get up. No, seriously.

6:30 - We leave. Eventually the subway comes.

7:20 - We get out of the subway. Want to go to Starbucks but the line is HUGE!

7:30 - Our shift starts. I'm alone on the 5th floor and Andrea's working the 4th. We're door monitors today.

7:50 - All of the teachers for this floor are ready to go: Shiri Mor, Rosemary Drysdale, Martin Storey, and Sarah Hatton.

7:51 - Nicky Epstein comes wandering down the hall. She can't find her classroom. She's a little frazzled and I show her how to get to her class. Rosemary Drysdale is laughing, saying "She's always like that. She always does this!"

8:00 - 11:00 - I eavesdrop on Rosemary's class. She's the only one who leaves the door open. I knit my Socks in Progress. I sit on the floor since I gave my chair to one of the students. I can hear someone taking a bath in the room right behind me. Then someone takes a shower. Weiiiird. Andrea gets a partner so she make a Starbucks run for us. Oh thank goodness for coffee. The Starbucks inside the hotel is terrible. Both our drink suck. I drink it anyway. Also, I love Rosemary Drysdale.

11:30 - Done with my last shift!

Fun Buttons

Recycled Sari Yarn

More buttons

Everyone Shopping

Gorgeous Shawl pins from Creative Designs Unlimited

Decadent Fibers

Tess Designer Yarns

Whimsical Little Knits 3 samples

Whimsical. Little. Knits. 3!

Samples from the book

Sneak Peak at Saturday Treat

Vogue Mannequins

Covered in Noro

Bijou Basin Ranch

Vogue Desings

Bijou Basin yarns

Me with Ysolda! Squeee!

Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably signing books at the Vogue boothh

Knitty City's booth...always packed

Josh Bennett signing

Graffiti Grannys

Abigail Doan's artwork

Coaster by Alyssa Ettinger

Yarn Bombing by Suzanne Tidwell

Mochimochi Land

Vickie Howell checking out Norah Gaughan's books

Gorgeous Dresses by Julia Ramsey

Rania Hassan's Artwork

Beginner's Lounge

LI Livestock Company!

Lion Brand Yarn Tasting

Melanie Falick moderates "When Knitting Becomes a Career" Panel

How am I going to get all this on the subway??

Check back tomorrow to see everything that followed me home!

Back from Vogue: 2012 Edition! (Part 1)

2012-01-16T08:00:00.000-05:00

Oh man! That's the summary of the weekend. It was exhausting and fun! I would do it all over again, except maybe plan ahead a bit more :o)

My little Berroco table

Friday night after the Yarn Tasting, I had dinner with Vicky. I met Vicky working at our station and she's pretty local to me (Connecticut) so meeting up again won't be too hard for us. We went to Astro's Diner, just a block from the hotel. Julia and I ate there last year after our day at the Marketplace. By the time I got out of the subway, I had to RUN to catch my train. I got there with 2 minutes to spare, not even knowing the train schedule ahead of time. I did luck out on that front this weekend- just jumped on the subway and caught whatever train was coming next on my line. I didn't have to wait more than a half hour, but most of the time it was just a couple minutes.

Wollmeise....oooooooooo

Saturday. Oh Saturday. What a day. I didn't get home Friday night until about midnight. Which means I didn't get to bed until almost 1. And then I got up at 8. Rushed to get ready, pack for the night and get to the train station with 5 minutes to spare. And then my train was delayed because of a "police investigation." That stunk. I still made it to my shift on time, but didn't wind up having time to wander the marketplace before hand.

I look so tired here...barely awake!

Saturday's shift was hectic. I sat at the Marketplace doors- directing traffic, checking for badges and wristbands, and telling everyone where booths/classes/bathroom were located. I did get a great view of everyone going in and out of the market though and saw some great knits.

SHARPIE!

While I was sitting there, Ysolda smiled at me on her way in...squeeeeee! Josh Bennett frantically searched for a Sharpie for his book signing (apparently wherever he was supposed to be only had a red pen). Franklin Habit said my name but was talking to someone else and I got really confused for a moment (I didn't know it was him until after). Nicky Epstein left a badge for a friend (she's so cute!). Sarah Hatton wandered in and out a couple times. Vickie Howell, Iris Schreier, Lily Chin and Shiri Mor passed by also.

Around 1:50, I spotted Ysolda again, this time rushing through the crowd to get to her class. After dodging the people swarming the exit, the got stuck behind people on the escalator. And didn't make a fuss. She literally just stopped and waited her turn. I swear, she seems like the nicest person ever.

I saw a bunch of people I know while sitting at the table, both from Village Knitter and the Brooklyn Fiber Arts Guild. It was so fun seeing people. A lot of people didn't recognize me at first glance most of the weekend. It was really windy Friday so I figured my safest bet was to straighten my normally crazy curly hair. I rarely do this because, well, it takes effort :o) and I like my hair curly. But I didn't want to look a mess if caught in any pictures so the flat iron made a rare appearance.

After my shift was over, I had my turn rushing off- to my Debbie Bliss lecture "Design to Flatter Your Body Type." I have to say, I was very disappointed with this and very glad I didn't pay for it (free with my volunteer commitment). I felt like all I kept hearing was "this is my yarn...this is my pattern..." She was super nice and I could tell she liked to make people feel good about their bodies by having them try on her pieces and see how they fit all different women. But I was expecting more of "this is how you can design to flatter your body." It was more "this is why this pattern flatters many women." She did make a Star Wars reference though :o) I did get a bit of knitting done on my Cashmere Bias shawl.

Cashmere...yummm :o)

After the lecture, I wandered the market with my friend Andrea. We were so exhausted though we didn't really take anything in. I did buy What Would Madame Defarge Knit? and meet/have a fan girl moment/speak with Heather Ordover of the CraftLit Podcast. I've been catching up on her podcast since April, starting with the first episode and working my way to the current. So far I'm only up to 160-ish.

We were so exhausted that we didn't even stay until the end of the market- Andrea, Rachel and I walked a couple blocks to Chipotle for dinner. We all felt so tired, run-down and had killer headaches. When Andrea and I got to her apartment, we hung out for a little bit and then went to bed. At 9:30. On a Saturday.

It was necessary though because we got up at 5:30 on Sunday. But come back tomorrow for Sunday's events and to see everything I bought :o)

Vogue Market Preview

2012-01-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

Last night was the Market Preview for VOGUEknitting LIVE! Let me just say I was exhausted! I worked the Yarn Tasting, placing myself at the Berroco table. I thought it was the best spot for me since we carry a couple of the yarns at Village Knitter and I was actually familiar with them. (The other yarns on display were Rowan and Schulana, as well as Blue Sky Alpacas/Spud and Chloe and Zealana (?) from New Zealand...those last two though had people from the company working the tables).

I had a lot of fun chatting with shoppers and wandering vendors. Lily Chin stopped by my table after I told her to squeeze my yarn. She was intrigued with Berroco Flicker because it was so springy (it has a chain/cable construction), more springy than she is used to from this kind of yarn. She said "I'll have to talk to Norah about this," and then walked away. Norah. As in Norah Gaughan. Did Lily Chin really just name drop to me? LOVE IT!

So Berroco should totally hire me after the amount of work I did for them last night. Carol, our supervisor, couldn't believe how much I knew about the yarn. I did explain to her that I sell it and teach it (ahem, Lacey scarf) so I have to know it. Also, I have a crush on Flicker. So soft...and sparkly :o)

Other Kniteratti seen:
Nicky Epstein (as cute as ever)
Shiri Mor
Patty Lyons (ok so she's really a normal person, but I still love her)
Zontee from YarnCraft Podcast
and I might have seen Maria from Subway Knits Podcast wandering past

Of course, my computer has decided it's not going to read my memory card so no pictures to share yet. Check back after the weekend though!

VOGUEknitting LIVE! Sneak Peek...

2012-01-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

Here's a couple photos I snapped last night during the volunteer orientation.

I'm so excited for this weekend, except it's already been a crazy week! Long days with lots to do, but it'll be fun. It's going to be rough having 2 days in a row of subbing, rushing to the train station, and then going straight to the Hilton. Last night I got really bad motion sickness coming home on the subway and train. Not typical for me, but I think lack of food/stressing about getting there on time really got to me. I already warned Beth, the coordinator, I'll probably be a bit late for my Friday shift because of the train.

Here's my schedule for the weekend:
Friday- Yarn Tasting 5-8
Saturday- Marketplace Doors 12-3, Debbie Bliss Lecture 3-4
Sunday- Door Monitoring 7:30-11:30

If you see me come say hi! I look forward to meeting lots of great crafters, spending money (eek), and having a blast this weekend! I'll take as many pictures as I can and give a recap next week :o)

See you at Vogue!

2012-01-12T08:00:00.000-05:00

I completely forgot to mention that I'll be volunteering at Vogue Knitting Live! this weekend! Are you going?? Feel free to say hi to me if you see me! I'll post a picture of me in my volunteering shirt if I get a chance. Tomorrow is going to be a crazy day for me...I'll be heading into the city straight from subbing for my first volunteer shift.

Friday's shift has me at the Yarn Tasting. I think this sounds like a fun one. I'll find out more about my jobs tonight at orientation though.

Saturday midday I'll be monitoring the Marketplace entrance. Guess this means I'll be checking everyone's tickets/tags?

Saturday night Andrea, from Brooklyn Fiber Arts Guild, has wonderfully offered for me to stay with her in the city. This is good because we both have a 7:30 AM shift Sunday morning doing door monitoring for classes. I'm so glad I won't have to be taking a 4 AM train just to get to my volunteering session on time. In my off hours, I'll be wandering around the marketplace, checking out book signings, and maybe even going to the Rav meetup dinner. We'll see how tired I am though after my work shifts.

I'm also taking a Debbie Bliss lecture. Volunteers get either a free lecture or $25 off a class. I went the free route and opted for the lecture. Though I highly recommend the Debbie Stoller lecture! That was the guinea pig group I did in Brooklyn when she was going on her book tour for Stitch 'n Bitch Superstar Knitting.

Hopefully I'll be recovered enough to write up a review next week! Right now, I have to figure out what knitting projects to bring with me :o)

The Village Knitter Holiday Party

2012-01-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

I never posted pictures of our party! Here's some of all the fun we had that night :o)

My eggnog cake, inspired by 55 Christmas Balls to Knit: Colorful Festive Ornaments--Tree Decorations, Centerpieces, Wreaths, Window Dressings. Cake recipe from Sandra Lee here.

Of course I had to balance the Christmas with the Hanukkah :o)

Lars was in a holiday mood again this year and spread some cheer with a destash Grab Bag, including stealing! (You can find Holly and Lars blogging, reviewing and designing over at suburbanknits.com)

Jess wrapped her group grab bag gift super well. Poor Karen had to unwrap and open several boxes before finding her gift certificate to The Village Knitter!

Yet another baby blanket

2012-01-10T08:00:00.000-05:00

So here it is. The almost finished blanket I'm making for my soon-to-be new cousin.

We're big Mets fans in this family, especially my family in Florida. They go to a bunch of Spring Training games each year, so baby Vinny will be all set and ready to go this March/April!

Dino thinks it's his blanket

I used a cotton-wool blend since it doesn't get that chilly in Florida and especially since he'll be an almost spring baby. This blanket doesn't seem to be coming out as big as I was hoping so he probably will only be able to use it for a year or two. I didn't gauge at all so I guess I get was I deserve :o)

Why does blogger insist on rotating random pictures sometimes???

I was so not looking forward to dealing with this! I spent all day Saturday weaving in ends. But it wasn't just weaving I had to do. I did a lot of pulling stitches. Since the wool content is minimal in this yarn, I had a hard time keeping the stitch tension at the color changes consistent. I had to go through almost every stitch inside the orange circle and tighten it all up. Then I did the weaving. It took me literally all day to get (I think) all the ends woven in.

Again with the random rotating pictures!

Looks like I missed some and I purposefully didn't weave a couple in yet. I didn't cut the ends down all the way yet...not until after it's blocked. I want to rough this up a bit and make sure the ends don't undo themselves.

On the knitting front, I have a couple more rows of stockinette stitch before the 20 row seed stitch border. I might actually pick up stitches on either end to make the blanket longer. Or I can stop having OCD and just let it be. But it's really bothering me that the blanket is wider than it will be long. Must. Stop. Obsessing.

Details:
Ravelry Page
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece
Needles: US 7
Pattern: My own, unpublished as of now

Longest project ever is FINISHED!

2012-01-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

We found out at the end of summer that my cousin is pregnant. I've been procrastinating knitting a blanket for her because, well, she's not due until February. And Christmas was coming. And I've been promising my brother a Ninja Turtle pillow for months. And she's not due until February.

It's January now. So that baby can be here is just a few weeks. That's not a lot of time. Luckily, I finished all my Christmas gifts, as seen in the last post. I also finished that damn pillow. Let's dwell there for a moment.

BFF turtle pillows

I know I've mentioned the turtle pillow before. On the right is the pillow my grandmother crocheted for Andrew almost 20 years ago when we were kids. So many problems, I don't know where to start. You may notice that the darker green doesn't necessarily match. As in, she used 2 different dark green acrylic yarns to crochet him. One was definitely thicker than the other. If you were able to look closely, the turtle's head is stuffed with not only fiber fill, but also random yarn scraps. Not green ones, but probably every other color you can imagine. Now, I'm economical/eco-friendly in the same way, except I stuff my hexipuffs with yarn scraps. Not a pillow/doll that's made almost entirely of loose double crochet stitches. Another problem- his shell should be on his back, not his stomach. I think I find that one the funniest!

Of course, this guy shows the wear of almost 20 years of lovin from my brother. His face embroidery is almost all gone and his arms are barely holding on these days. Which is why Andrew wanted me to make a new one for him. This way he can keep the one Grandma made and destroy the one I make.

I tried to match Grandma's turtle as best possible, while making my own improvements. For one thing, my turtle is almost entirely done in single crochet. And his shell is in the right spot :o). But I tried to shape the head to look like the actual Ninja Turtle and I crocheted the limbs, head, shell and belly together with that green panel (Grandma sewed her pieces together....I'm too lazy for that). I tried to make the arms and legs muscular and "realistic" shaped*.

I took a ton of notes and wrote down every stitch I made. Maybe eventually I'll write it up but I really need a break from this guy. He's been in the works for about a year now and I just don't want to look at him again for quite a while. Unless I'm in my brother's room to watch = 3 with him.

As for that baby blanket, it's almost done. Hopefully it'll be in the mail by the end of this week.

*How realistic can it be when it's modeled after a cartoon ninja turtle??

Hope You Had a Happy Merry

2011-12-26T11:12:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had/is having a happy, merry holiday season. I finished almost all of my holiday presents on time. I'm lounging now in my new Christmas sheep pjs so here's a quick look at what's been keeping me away from the blog:

Working at the shop, Santa and Mrs. Claus needed a little help finding the insurance guy who is in our building. I geeked out a bit when they cut through the shop to escape the rain :o)

I somehow finished the Umaro blanket. This was my stepfather's Christmas gift. He loved it.

The Brooklyn Fiber Arts Guild had an author panel for 60 More Quick Knits and I was surprised to see Lily Chin was part of the panel. I loved these ladies...they were great!

I promised everyone I wouldn't go as crazy for the shop's holiday party as I did for Halloween. So I baked eggnog cake and cupcakes, iced with eggnog frosting. The cake was modeled after the Christmas Balls class we had earlier in the month.

Mom got me sheepy pjs for Christmas. Sheep seemed to be the theme of her gifts for me this year. I'll torture you with that another time though.

Halloween Wrap Up: The Ones That Didn't Make It

2011-11-06T08:52:00.000-05:00

Only 361 days until Halloween!

This is the last Halloween post, I swear. And it's reserved for the tutorials that I just didn't get to...this year.

Photo from creativitymypassion.blogspot.com

First, the Hula Hoop Spider Web. Ugh! So sad this one didn't work out. It would've been a good use for the hula hoop I never use. For mine, I wanted to cover my pink and blue hula hoop with black electrical tape since it's removeable and then use some old black acrylic yarn for the web. Unfortunately, every store I went to had assorted electrical tape colors, except black. Seriously! I couldn't find it anywhere. Time ran out and I just never made the web. Next year!

Photo from rachelraymag.com

This one was one of my favorites! This was the pillowcase tutorial I mentioned a couple days ago that I also wanted to make but didn't have a stock of pillowcases for. It would have been great for the chairs at the shop. If I find pillowcases at garage sales (meaning, if I actually go to any garage sales this summer), I'll make them for next year.

Halloween Wrap Up: The Party!

2011-11-05T08:43:00.000-04:00

362 days until Halloween!

Not much to say here. Other than we had a great time, as usual!

Candy corn martinis and a Christmas Ball!

Halloween Wrap Up: The Costume(s)

2011-11-04T08:38:00.000-04:00

Only 363 days until Halloween!

So my first costume. Yes, I said first. I had two for this year. One was the cute decent one. The other was the more, um, revealing one.

But the first one. I wore this one to the shop's party and on Halloween. I found yet another tutorial I just had to make this year. Yes, the girl in the tutorial is about 8 years old. Yes, it's made out of a pillowcase. Yes, I thought I could squeeze myself into this same costume.

Photo from sugarbeecrafts.com

And I did. But it was tight. My butt and hips are a little too big for it, but it was fun to wear anyway.

For my costume, I bought white pillowcases at Target. I might have to take the designer's advice and scour some garage sale next summer for pillowcases so I can make a different tutorial (to be seen another day).

For the bottom border I used some fabric I loved at Joann's. I used the same fabric for the straps.

The eyes and mouth were made out of the wrong side of Dad's jeans. He had me cut some black pants into shorts for him this summer and I saved the denim. Good thing cause it came in handy when I realized I had no black fabric for my costume! The wrong side was a bit darker than the right side so I reversed it. Otherwise I would have used a Sharpie to draw it all on.

Another eye option from sugarbeecrafts.com

I wore my tunic with some leggings and a black sweater- way too cold this year for sleeveless. I also made some Halloween legwarmers. Mom had bough me some toe socks that I couldn't stand to wear anymore (passed that phase in high school...) so I cut the toes off, serged the edges and wore them as legwarmers :o)

The final product! Sorry for the crappy cell phone picture. Must find a new place to take self-photos...

As for the second costume, well, it never happened. If you haven't heard, New York was hit with SNOW that Halloween Saturday. Seriously. It never snows in downstate NY until after Halloween. Upstate is a different story, but down here no no no. I was sooooo not putting on a mildly skimpy outfit and taking the train to a bar that night. And I'm very happy with that decision. Kyle and I went to his friend's house to watch the UFC fights instead. Read- Steph knit all night in a room full of macho guys (and a macho girl who's awesome though). Gotta say though, they're a great group of guys. And they like my baking. They were the recipients of the shop's leftovers from the Halloween party.

My costume was going to be a Greek goddess. I even bought jewelry and accessories for it this year. I've had this dress for a couple years now. It was $18 on a clearance rack at Macy's and I thought it would be great for Halloween. A drapey halter top dress with a gold empire band detail could be the goddess, an angel or Marilyn Monroe (if I take the band off). I haven't used it yet! But I have a costume for next year!

And for those of you who do wear skimpy costumes on Halloween I have some advice- find a local dance supply store and purchase yourself a pair of appropriately nude colored dancer's tights. Best thing to wear for those bare legs when it's a chilly Halloween. Someone should've told those super skimpy (refraining from saying a different word) younger teen trick-or-treaters who claimed they weren't cold.

Halloween Wrap Up: The Decorations

2011-11-03T08:11:00.000-04:00

364 days until Halloween!

I stared decorating the shop well ahead of time. Most of the decorations really were just cobwebs around the shop.

The challenge is to get spooky without blocking any merchandise. Not the easiest to do in this shop!

Notions Graveyard

No cash register is safe from me!

Madeline Tosh Display

I also hung some spooky curtains on the door and windows. And my knitting witch plaque <3. I got this when I was in college at Joann's. So perfect for me :o)

Stitching Witch

Halloween Wrap Up: The Food

2011-11-02T09:19:00.000-04:00

Only 365 days until Halloween!

What's a party without some fun food? As usual, I went overboard but it was totally worth it.

This year we have to thank Betty Crocker for most of the food. I knew I wasn't going to have time to make everything from scratch, plus was being lazy in trying to avoid too much hand mixing. I already had a lot planned for the week and wasn't sure if I'd be subbing at all (I did on Tuesday!) so I played it safe and used the handy dandy boxed mixes.

First, I made cupcakes. There was a fun holiday mix that had orange sprinkles in it, and I bought the Halloween version of the Rainbow Chip frosting (my favorite). I also made chocolates to decorate with.

The chocolates were both white and black (white chocolate flavored). I had a mold already for spiderweb lollipops that had little spiders molds too. I made white webs (without the lollipop stick) and painted the spider on and made little black spiders. I used the spiders to top the cupcakes.

The new mold I bought this year was a skeleton in pieces. The display was to make brownies and "dirt" and make it look like the skeleton was coming out of the grave. No time for that so I just made a box of brownies and messily cut/broke them up and put the chocolate bones into my cauldron bowl together. I also used some limbs to decorate the cupcakes.

My last bit of food was sugar cookies. These I was disappointed in, but it wasn't Betty's fault. I decided to forego using cookie cutters* this year and found 2 new cookie pans to use. I bought the Wilson Creepy Finger Cookie Pan. I had high hopes for this pan but was disappointed. Not the pan's fault, I just have to finagle cooking times on this and I only had 2 trays to try it on. They all came out overcooked. They were also a pain to ice with confectioner's sugar+water icing. The pan was SO easy to clean though.

I also made some cookies (and a couple cupcakes) in a Wilson Silicone Mini Pumpkin Mold. I figured I'd try it out for the cookies and it wasn't too bad- I, again, just have to figure out the amount of dough to put in and how long to cook for. They got good reviews though. I tried to use this with my other silicone mold tray, but apparently Kitchen Aid and Wilson don't work together to make their trays compatible. All well. I put it on an old cookie tray to get it in and out of the oven.

And time for another tutorial! I found this one and had to make it. Instead of using cake circles, I bought some cheap festive plates (orange, brown and green) at Michael's and used mini paint cans instead of a vase. I "glued" my candy corn on with plain frosting and filled my paint cans with Reese's Pieces and Halloween Dots. I "glued" it all together with the frosting too. You bet this will make a reappearance around Thanksgiving!

*Good thing because apparently they've all be ruined in the screen house. I had bout that big box of Halloween/Autumn cookie cutters at Michael's a couple years ago. Either they got rained on (possibly during Irene) or just the summer humidity got to them. They're all rusty. I don't think they're useable anymore :o(. Must get a job and find a place to live that my stuff isn't constantly getting rained on. Or find a Sugar Daddy but I don't think Kyle would appreciate that one...

Happy New Year!

2011-11-01T09:19:00.002-04:00

Only 366 days until Halloween! Yes, I know I'm crazy. But now that it's over (and I'll hopefully have time for blogging again), here's what I've been up to the past week.

This website could be the death of me. One Pretty Thing is a site that does a little roundup of craft tutorials online. And I had a blast with a couple of the Halloween ones this year. Thank you to everyone who made tutorials- I had a blast bonding with my sewing machine and serger again.

Ann and Kathleen (wonderful Village Knitter owners) gave me permission to throw a party at the shop during our Thursday night group. So I finally had the opportunity to use some of those great tutorials.

I spent a lot of time and frustration working on my table runner. Such a simple project (except when your sewing machine is mine). Because my machine was in storage in the backyard shed for a couple years after college, it doesn't exactly function all that well these days.* It works good enough for me for now though. My frustrations though working on it really had nothing to do with the functioning of my machine. More several little things going wrong.

But first, let's talk about the runner itself. The one in the tutorial used ribbon and burlap but I was a bit limited. I got a ride from Dad to Michael's so I could get the ribbon and everything else I needed for the Halloween party, but Joann's is not exactly down the block. I figured I'd be able to find something to use at Michael's though for the burlap. Sure, it just happened to be $7 felt. I mean, it's felt. Not real wool felt. Typical craft polyester felt. But it was big enough. But it was $7. I just couldn't bring myself to spend that much on something that wasn't exactly what I wanted. The felt is thick (don't want any drinks spilling near our projects!) and it was super white- not exactly a "Halloween" color. So I didn't buy it (though it felt like I bought everything else in the store....but that's coming).

I eventually found the perfect material at Target- a shower curtain! Ok, so it was perfect because I found it for $2.17 in the clearance section. But that works for me! The shower curtain is a dark gray with lines of circles/dots that are formed with a different texture. They were helpful in keeping my sewing ::sorta:: straight. As straight as I can get it. There's a reason Crooked Knits is the title for this blog...

So the frustrations- There were 3. 1- You try pinning 9 feet of ribbon to a plastic curtain. Oy! I didn't have enough pins to pin everything at once. Not sure where all my pins went. But the pinning was just the beginning. 2- Sewing with all that length of ribbon was quite a pain. There's a lot of, um, un-straight parts and parts where my zigzag stitch starts to run away from the ribbon. But also the vinyl shower curtain puckered a lot. I wasn't anticipating that. 3- UGH I hate my bobbin. This machine has always given me bobbin troubles. The thread tangles. And then the bobbin thread breaks. All the time. Halfway through a length of ribbon I would realize it. Except it broke 3 inches in. Oy. Ann told me my needle might not be sharp enough and could be cutting it by accident. Or on purpose. I bet that machine enjoys seeing me get frustrated.

But overall I love the project! And of course it can be adapted for any holiday.

I swear I won't blather so much about the rest of my projects :o) That was the only one that gave me any problems or had much of a story to go with it. Ok maybe that's not so true. The costume story will probably be a bit long. But you'll have to wait to read about that one :o)

*My poor little Janome must've gotten some water damage in the shed. When I push the pedal, nothing happens. To make it work, one must push the pedal and hand turn the Hand Wheel (uh, duh on the name) and only then will it run. This really isn't such a big deal except when: winding a bobbin, doing a short backstitch, working in tight corners. But really, it's manageable. It's really tempting that a nice basic Singer is on sale at Costco right now. Must hold out/save for an industrial machine though. And a spinning wheel.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T18:00:00.001-04:00

No real yarn was harmed in this photoshoot! :o)

Seriously?

2011-10-20T08:28:00.000-04:00

In my frantic rush Monday to go see the Yarn Harlot (read about that adventure here), I could have sworn I packed my Grass Green hat and newly finished Mock Cable Wristers for the chilly evening. Well, when I got on my last train, they weren't in my purse.

Ok, breathe. It's going to be ok. I must have left them on the couch while I was rushing around to get out the door. No big deal.

They weren't on the couch. They weren't in the basket I keep my shawls, hats and gloves in. They weren't on the floor or the rocking chair. They weren't anywhere in the house.

:o( Sad moment.

I called Subway, Starbucks, Barnes and Noble and TD Bank. None of them had my hat. LIRR, on the other hand, makes you fill out this ridiculous form for lost items. I called them while I was filling it out and the lady said to call back after I filed it. I did. She was super sweet and helpful but said that they hadn't come in yet. She said if I didn't get a call Wednesday to call back on Thursday. Guess we'll find out today if my hat and mitts showed up. Cross your fingers for me!

How the Yarn Harlot Saved My Life

2011-10-19T08:21:00.000-04:00

*Ok, so she didn't really. But she totally could have.

Rewind to the beginning.

Monday, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee was doing a book signing for All Wound Up in Park Slope. Sweet! Julia had told me about the event but could not make it. So I had to go for the both of us!

I was pretty lazy that day and left the house in such a rush. I had to walk to the train station (still no car) which is about a half hour walk except that I had about 25 minutes before the train was due into the station. So I speed walked and actually made it there with enough time to get my ticket and take a breath. Except I was pretty sweaty and gross. All I could think was oh man please don't let me smell bad when I meet the Yarn Harlot!

I spent the train ride working on my Bluerose socks and Traveling Woman shawl. It was overall uneventful. When I got to Brooklyn I grabbed a quick bite to eat at Subway before walking towards Barnes and Noble. Yes, I decided to save the $2.25 on a subway ride and walk the half hour to the store. It worked out well though because I needed to deposit a check at the bank on the way and thought I knew where a branch was located. I was rushing though because it was quite the walk and I wanted to be sure to get to the bookstore and have time to find a seat.

Reading an excerpt

After all that rushing, I made it there with plenty of time and went straight to the customer service desk to ask where the talk was going to be. Right after the employee told me where to go, I turned around and headed to the escalators. Just then she walked in. I didn't know what to do. I just, well, froze. I whipped out my cell, pretending to look busy and then hurried off down the escalator.

I found a seat and waited. I was really shocked how few people were there at that point. The store had set up about 35 seats set up, 5 of which were facing the wrong way. Ridiculously, they were zip tied together and the store employee would not let us cut them apart** but would let us turn the entire row of chairs around. Cause you know, zip ties are so darn expensive these days...

After a while it really filled up. I mean, standing room only. I was glad to have a seat and a decent view***. When SPM took the podium, she was much different than what I was expecting. I was expecting her to be bigger. Or maybe taller. Somehow more intimidating and less down-to-earth. I guess that's just a result of seeing her big personality online. But she's actually close to my height (5'3"****) and size. She was also so much nicer than I expected. Not that I expected her to be mean or anything. But she just jumped right into talking to everyone. I guess, though, when this is your career it's more like second nature for you. I was a bit in awe.

She talked a little, then read 3 excerpts from the book, answered questions and chatted with us, and then started the book signing. I was in no rush so I sat with some other ladies for a while knitting and chatting. I don't actually want to give anything away from the book in case you're waiting to purchase it or see her in person. But we found it funny that one of her stories involved her looking something up in a medical reference book at the library and that was the section of the store we were squished into. She took a picture of the wall behind her once it was pointed out. She also took a picture of the crowd and you can see me way in the back of it on her blog post of the event.

Now, I know I've never mentioned SPM around here before. That's probably because I'm not the typical Yarn Harlot fan. When I read a blog, I like to start at the beginning. Sometimes I don't and just jump in, but I do the same with podcasts and TV shows. Which is why I'm about 3 years behind in listening to CraftLit at the moment. I've tried to go back and read SPM's blog from the beginning. And I've made it through quite a bit. But she's been blogging for a while now, and she blogs often.

Working on my Traveling Mermaid Shawl

And the other problem? Sometimes her blog rambles a bit too much for my attention span. I admit, I scan a lot of blogs rather than reading every bit, especially when people are writing about their projects and the mods made and yadda yadda. But with her blog it's different. Maybe it's because she's a writer by profession. Trust me, I've even tried to read her books. They just don't hold my attention. But Monday night, I was eating it up! SPM needs to make audiobooks of her publications. And if I had my way, she'd be the one to be reading them aloud. Let's make it better, we'll make it a video- she had the best facial expressions while reading to us! It made it so much better. It made the stories come alive in a way that her blog and books never had for me. I mean, I know she was standing right there actually alive in front of me, but the stories were just so much more intriguing to me. Now how do I convince her on my plan?? Any ideas out there?

At the end of the night, she was super sweet and signed two books for me so that Julia could have one even though she couldn't make it. We chatted with her a bit and she did not try to rush us at all even though we lingered a bit. But eventually we left her to sign copies for the store and head upstairs to pay for our books. The girl I had been standing with checked out fast but there was a problem with the guy in front of me and it took forever. And then SPM and her friend were 2 people behind me in line. With the book. SPM was standing in line to buy her own book. Apparently she left her copy of it home and needed another for her readings. I was much amused by this.

Now, onto the saving part of the story. I checked the train schedule and realized once again, I had less than a half hour to get to the train station to make the train on time. And yes, the walk takes about a half hour. I booked it down 7th Ave towards Flatbush and then decided I could probably make faster time going down 5th Ave (it would take me closer to the station) so I cut down 4th St. And then I remembered. All the stories I've been hearing on the news and warning my Park Slope friends about. Over the past few months there have been far too many sexual assualts on women at night in that general area. Ugh of course I remember this walking down a dark not very busy street. I walked faster than I think I ever have. I reached 5th Ave and was disappointed to see it was less busy than I was expecting. But it was lit and there were people. I avoided the men on the street, especially those who fit the suspect descriptions.

Addicted to knitting? Maybe that's me...

I started walking a little more at ease, swinging my arms as I speed walked to the station. And then I remembered- I have two hardcover Yarn Harlot books in a shopping bag. Well, that could make a good weapon. Obviously I have my sharp pointy knitting needles but they're buried in my purse. But this bag. Well, it could make a good defense against an attacker. I could imagine it- someone coming to bother me and I would just turn around swinging that bag. And then when I knocked him down, I could quickly grab my knitting needles just in case.

The girls with the best name EVER! (She agreed)

Thankfully, I did not need to worry so much about it. I made it to the station just fine though very parched. But she totally could have saved me had I needed a defense.

We have the same name. You would think they would look the same in her handwriting.

Now that I'm safely at home, I'm looking forward to reading this book. Maybe now that I've seen her in person, I'll just hear her voice as I read them and my attention will stay with the stories she tells. Oh, and yes she says "aboot" and "eh" and other cute Canadian things :o)

**At least 5 people turned around and offered their scissors. I love knitters. We always come prepared.

***I had a great view when I offered the seat next to me (I was saving for a friend who couldn't show last minute) to a lady when her birdfaced baby mommy friend snottily asked can't I move down. Ugh. If SPM hadn't already speaking I would have said something but I didn't want to be rude unlike some people. Birdface had to sit next to her friend, even though she had to keep getting up to soothe her cute baby and wound up giving up her seat anyway. I hate people. Her baby was really cute though.

****and a quarter but people don't usually count that. But that was all the height I gained from 8th grade to high school. So I was very proud of it at one time. And I'll take what I can get in the height department.

Abby's Football Hat

2011-10-18T10:19:00.000-04:00

Ok so I found a picture I took to quickly show Abby's Mommy her football ~~yarmulke~~ hat.

I'm going to have to make another and go a big bigger next time, except this one was made with leftovers. Football season has just started afterall. I made her a little football toy as well, with a cat bell inside so it jingled. She won't be able to actually enjoy it for a while, but I figured I had more leftover brown yarn so why not?

I can't wait to see Abby's pictures from her photoshoot with the hat!

Oh, and without the white bands and stitching, this hat could totally be a Hershey Kiss :o)

Tempest

2011-10-17T10:10:00.000-04:00

My Tempest sweater has made several appearances on the blog so far, but now it's finally getting the attention it deserves.

A ~~couple weeks ago~~ two months ago, Village Knitter received a huge Sanguine Gryphon shipment. I love their colors so I decided to buy my first skeins of Bugga. I have plenty of sock yarn and decided my yarn was destined to be a sweater. I did a quick Ravelry search and chose Tempest (Rav link) from Knitty Spring 2008.

Lazy me decided I do NOT want to knit my sweater in pieces. After gauge-ing and measuring, I worked the numbers and rewrote the pattern to be knit in one piece. I also had to adjust the stripes because my row gauge was much different from the pattern though my stitch gauge was on par.

I was hesitant at the beginning of the sweater. I was worried my stripes wouldn't "pop" enough because of the pooling in my CC. If the green in it was clustered, some of my narrow stripes seem to disappear at parts.

Missing Stripes

The knitting was so easy. The whole sweater is knit flat in stockinette stitch. It was finished so quick! I wove in all my ends like a good girl and blocked the body to make the next steps a little easier.

When it came to the sleeves, I didn't really think ahead about this one. The pattern has the sleeves made flat from the cuff to the shoulder. This was so not going to work for me. I made too many adjustments already to just blindly follow the pattern as written here so I began to investigate. As this is my first sweater, I really had no idea what to do though I was starting to invent ideas.

I've done short rows for so many projects that they seems to be the right choice. After checking with some other knitters, they agreed and one suggested a Barbara Walker book. But that would have involved a) buying a book and b) finding that book in a store and/or c) waiting for that book to ship. No go for me. To Google I went! I of course found an article on Knitty and some notes from a blog as well. Between the two of these and many many attempts on my part, I eventually figured out how to do short row sleeves. And they came out great!

In my first attempt, I actually did a short row in the way one does a short row heel. How funny it was to put my cardi on and see a heel of a foot on my shoulder. Rippit rippit rippit. I was in such a rush to have my very first cardigan knit that I didn't pause to take pictures. I even meant to take some to write a short row heel tutorial and forgot :o( I guess that just means I need to knit another sweater and take LOTS of pictures of it along the way :o)

And the buttons! Oh the buttons....sigh. I walked into the shop one Wednesday and was so shocked to see new buttons had come! And they were a perfect match.

I did it up right once the knitting was done. After blocking, I sewed in a grosgrain ribbon button band and sewed backing buttons on with the fashion buttons. Thank you Knitmore girls for your tutorials (grosgrain ribbon and couture buttons)! Although I did know how to sew buttons already, I tried Gigi's suggestion of using a tapestry needle for spacing while sewing. I didn't like it. The needle was too slipper and kept sliding out. I went back to the usual toothpick method since the wood has more grip. Except we have the weirdest flat/squared toothpicks so it didn't give as much space as I was hoping for. They came out fine though.

Now, after about a week of wearing my sweater, I noticed massive amounts of pilling on the right side. Not on the left. Just the right. Thank you heavy organicy musliny cotton Brooklyn Industries purse. I have to make a concious effort to switch shoulders every now and then.

I'm not so surprised though because I have a pair of socks made from String Theory Caper Sock that pill a lot too. Both of Caper Sock and Bugga have a fair amount of cashmere and I've learned from listening to spinning podcasts that cashmere has a short staple length which I'm assuming would make it pill more. When I pulled off some of the pills and played with them, rubbing between my fingers, they were very soft :o). I think that proves my hypothesis*.

Other than the pilling, so far so great with this one! I love it so much, I almost bought more Bugga to make another one! Almost. Until I thought of the 22+ miles of yarn in my stash (and still not done inventorying!). But I do want to make another one a big modified (ideas: ribbing on the bottom and ends of sleeves, add a hood, and do a tutorial for the sleeves). That might have to be a present to myself after getting through some of my stash. Guess I just have to knit more :o)

*As a teacher, I should know this. But not having been in a regular classroom for a while, I couldn't remember the term. I kept typing hypotenuse and knew it wasn't right. Ugh #teacherfail

Phew

2011-10-14T20:12:00.002-04:00

I finished a shawl! But it's waiting to be blocked so no updates on it yet.

Shockingly, I've worked every day this week except Monday (which was a holiday anyway). I subbed, babysat a sick kid, and worked at the yarn shop. It was a busy week.

Today I came home to find this waiting at the door:

Apparently I graduated in August...? I mean, I applied for graduation, but the procrastinator that I am, I never really followed up on it. So when I never heard from Pace about it, I didn't really worry. Sigh, this school never ceases to surprise me. But at least it's all freakin done!

So now I have a B.S. in Ed, an M.S. in Ed, and no job. Boo economy.

Ok happy note now. No Abby pictures, but I did crochet a little football hat for her. It's too small and looks like a yarmulke on her. Her mommy swears it'll stretch and fit her but I'm not so convinced. She may have to cut it in the back, but Abby will be wearing it for a photo shoot tomorrow! Seriously, check out this lady's photography. Adorable amazingness!

Winner!

2011-10-13T08:50:00.001-04:00

Wow I always seem to forget that Wednesdays is my knitting night with my girls (when available). Which means I get home late, especially now relying on getting rides and public transportation (Dad says my car should be fixed by this weekend though!).

Balloon Animals + Chili's + Margaritas/Beers + Knitting + US = Awesome

I definitely meant to draw the number last night but didn't quite get to it. So here it is....

Comment #4 was Angie! We actually knit together on Thursday evenings Village Knitter so I guess I won't have to ship anything. Angie blogs over here if you want to check up on her and nag her to keep posting :o)

Thank you to everyone who entered! Thanks to my obsessive book buying, I have another double set of books (oh Borders, your sales were too good to say no to!) so I'll probably have another giveaway at some point. Keep an eye out.

And how can I leave you without some Abby-loving??

I stole these pictures from her Mommy's Facebook...

Coming home from her first doctor's appointment. Apparently she screamed the whole way home, but I don't believe it judging by this picture.

1 week old already! She's about half the size of the blanket and twice the size of her Minnie doll.

Last Day and a Quick Update

2011-10-11T06:07:00.003-04:00

Football hat for Abby's photoshoot

Wow I actually was called for work today! I'm going to be a gym teacher for the day. So a short and sweet update for you all.

I stopped by to visit Abby with my Mom yesterday. She's as cute as ever! My cousin told me that everyone at the hospital loved the Mickey blanket I made for her. She said they used it for the Our 365 (professional in-hospital) photos and brought her home in it :o). See more here and here.

Don't forget to leave a comment for the 100th post giveaway! I will be drawing up the random number generator sometime tomorrow so get your posts in asap!

Yup, Me Too

2011-10-07T08:00:00.000-04:00

I've got to admit that I've got the hexipuff fever. A friend happened across the Beekeeper's Quilt pattern on Ravelry and showed it to me at the beginning of knitting group a couple weeks ago. I thought it was a great pattern to use up old sock yarn scraps since the idea of doing the mitered square blankets gives me agita*- so many ends to weave in!

It wasn't until a week or so later that I realized how popular this pattern was, and the Cabbage Patch/Tickle Me Elmo frenzy that went along with it. Some of these people are a little bit nuts. So is the designer though.

the beekeeper's quilt from tinyowlknits on Vimeo.

Whoa.

I've started two blankets. Yes I said two. One is for all my leftover sock yarns. The other is sock yarn that once was for a pair of now tri-color frogged argyle socks. Because it was intarsia, this left me with a lot of small balls of yarn. I was going to make some random striping socks with them, but that again meant more weaving in ends and agita. This project was the perfect solution.

As the designer says, they're very easy to keep in my purse and work on as I'm on the go. I think it's hilarious though that they're all coming out different sizes.

I did alter the pattern. Of course I did, this is me afterall. I hated the way the increases and decreases looked on my first, as written hexipuff. Same goes for the bind off edge. I changed the pattern so that my increases are done as make-1's (which is why my puffs are coming out misshapen but I'm ok with that) and I moved my increases and decreases over by one stitch so that it's worked after the first stitch and before the last stitch on each needle. If this doesn't make sense to you, you probably haven't read the actual pattern yet. I also thought the three needle bind off looked super sloppy so I'm just doing Kitchener stitch.

Comparing Bind Offs - White is from the pattern as written and Purple is my changes

Comparing Increases

Comparing Decreases

These puffs are like doing a double toe- the start of a toe-up sock is the beginning of the puff and the end of the puff is like finishing off the toe of a cuff-down sock. And seeing as how I avoid cuff-down socks as much as possible, this gives me the opportunity to memorize Kitchener stitch.

Another change- I'm using a US size 1 needle for the pattern. I know I'm a loose knitter, but really...how did she get those done on a US size 4 and not have holes of stuffing showing through? I tried a US 3 (because I always have to go down at least 1 size) and man was that a disaster.

Also, I'm being a super recylcer here. I save all of my yarn scraps. I have a glass vase that I throw them in which is also the decorative home for all of my old straight needles. Lately, it's been overflowing. So I took out a bunch of the scraps and put them in a ziploc that stays in my hexipuffs project bag. When I finish a puff, I stuff it with the yarn scraps. The only exception is the white puffs do get stuffed with the fiberfill because the yarn scraps show through too much.

*Yes, I had to look up how to spell this word.

PS Don't forget about the 100th post giveaway!

Welcome, Abby!

2011-10-06T08:30:00.000-04:00

Monday evening we got the phone call that my cousin was going into labor. More than 24 hours later, this little peanut joined our family

Abigail Nicole

I visited Abby at the hospital last night and couldn't believe how calm she was. She was watching everyone (as much as a newborn can) and observing. She barely cried and only when the nurse took all her clothes off to run a couple tests.

Feeding time with Mommy

The first time I held her, I had just sat down when I felt her fart. She peeked out through one little eye as if to ask "Did anyone notice that?" Yup, she's definitely part of my family. After that, she was very awake for the rest of the time we were there.

Mickey ears!

I made her a little Mickey ears hat which barely fit on her head. I couldn't get it to stay on, or for the ears to stay up. I guess I'll have to make a bigger one really quick!

I also made her this blanket over the summer, which Mommy received at her baby shower in August.

Can you tell a couple letters are missing underneath??

Mommy loves Mickey Mouse, but couldn't find Mickey bedding for a girl's room (only Minnie or Disney princesses). So I worked out a colorwork chart and knit this blankie up. I'm planning on making another in boy colors just because I want to size up the Mickey head. I can't wait for a picture of Abby with it!

And now for the cuteness pictures that I just can't resist sharing.

Apparently she's already a Jets fan

Tiny wrinkled feet

Holding Daddy's hand

Ok, that's enough cuteness for now. Don't forget to enter the 100th post giveaway!

100th POST!

2011-10-05T10:05:00.001-04:00

It's here! The 100th post on the blog and it comes with...

A Giveaway!

To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment (including some sort of contact information) on this posting by midnight Eastern time Tuesday, October 11th.

A winner will be chosen by a random number generator and announced in a future post (probably that Wednesday).

What will you win? Well...

First, we have a brand new copy of Stitch 'n Bitch Superstar Knitting: Go Beyond the Basics.

I'm also including a project bag,

a set of stitch markers,

and of course some lovely yarn!

Trekking Hand Art in Grenada

Good luck to everyone entering! I'll be using a random number generator to pick a winner. All you have to do is leave a comment here to enter. It couldn't be any easier!

****Pictures will be here soon! I took a picture of the items this morning on my camera, not realizing the computer at work doesn't have an SD card slot so I can't download them right now. But I really wanted to get this post out today so here it is, naked until this evening or tomorrow morning. I didn't take the pictures earlier because of this wee one dropping in late last night:

But more on her soon :o)

This contest is closed. See who won here!

Longest Socks EVER

2011-10-04T08:00:00.000-04:00

They are finally finished! I actually finished these a bit ago but haven't blogged them yet. I started the Sodera KAL back in March. Rebel that I am decided to make them thigh highs. And they're done!

They got super annoying to work on because they were so long. I actually had to tie them in a roll so that they were more manageable.

Toe to cuff they measure exactly 36 inches. That was a lot of knitting!

I used some Sanguine Gryphon for these- from the knee down it's Little Traveler and above it's Eidos. Village Knitter was out of the colorway in Little Traveler by the time I decided I wanted to go extra high but the Eidos was the same color and weight so I dove right in.

PS Today is post #99! 100th post giveaway coming soon! You know, after I get around to taking pictures of the prizes :o)

NYC Yarn Crawl!

2011-10-03T08:00:00.000-04:00

This past weekend was the NYC Yarn Crawl and what a great time it was! We went in on Saturday to hit as many shops as possible.

This year there were 13 shops participating. Our goal was 9. We opted out of doing the Upper East Side shops (String and Annie & Co.) because they closed too early and Seaport Yarns because it threw a wrench into travel plans. Also, I haven't heard good things about Seaport and String. We weren't crazy about School Products so we omitted them too, but I would recommend going at least once because they have some unusual fibers there.

There's also lots of giveaways associated with the Yarn Crawl. Not only do the individual shops have their own specials for the weekend, various companies contribute products for prizes too. There's a scavenger hunt (have to find the "Keep Calm Carry Yarn" bag at each store), a raffle at each store for a basket of goodies, and a contest on the website for an extra basket and other goodies.

It was quite the long day though but here's my rundown:

Waiting for the Train

It was a nice cool morning so I got to wear my Tempest for the first time! I'll be doing a write-up of that one shortly. My train was at 9:55 and was surprising pretty packed. I met up with Julia when we switched trains to head to Brooklyn first.

Once we got there, a stop at Starbucks was a necessity. Even though I had coffee before leaving, I still felt sleepy. We walked and chatted down Atlantic Avenue to our first stop:

I didn't make any purchases at Knit-A-Way (and forgot to take a picture of the store). I've been here 2 prior times, once in 2007 and once this past February. I found this shop my first visit in the back of Stitch 'n Bitch. Oh the wonders that book has been to me. It was also the second LYS I ever visited.

Anyway, this store is average. They have a lot of yarn and notions, but carry still carry some of the "Big Box" brands. They do have a little of everything- Cascade, MadTosh, Karabella, Lion Brand, Misti Alpaca. I've heard from others that they don't like the feel of this store- they feel like they're being watched and/or followed by employees. I did not get that feeling this time, but I think in general it's hard to avoid that feeling. Most shops are pretty small and the employee on duty is going to keep an eye on you because they'll pretty much be able to see you from wherever you are. This store is pretty big though there are signs around the store warning you that you're under surveillance cameras.

After Knit-A-Way we walked down to Smith Street to hit up one of my favorite shops. Oh, how I love me some LaCasita loving!

Julia peeking in the store window

This place was busy when we were there. Lots of customers plus a class going on. But that seems to be typical of the shop- there's always something going on there.

Free hard cider to start my day!

My pal Nancy from Getting Purly with It was there showing off her designs for Jade Sapphire, including two new patterns that aren't released yet!

The famous chin has a face to go with it today

Nancy's two new patterns are Elegant Lola (the aqua, yellow, brown gloves on the left) and Irene (the beige on the right and the brown one one the mannequin hand). Right now they are making their official debut in London and a sneak peak here in Brooklyn.

My purchase. Julia got the Irene pattern

I also bought some freakin awesome stitch markers! I know I can make my own but these were too...cute might not be the right word.

Ok so mine are kinda low key, but there were some crazy ones- brass knuckles, various knives, guillotines, and the like. They're pretty awesome. The designer's website doesn't list them though and I can't find anything on etsy for it either.

Always a great window at the shop

"Does a bear knit in the woods?"

Once we were finally done here, we walked some more to Union St and over the BQE to Brooklyn General.

I've been here once before and, like then, I wasn't that impressed. The employees were super nice and helpful, but the yarn selection isn't that inspiring to me. They do have some beautiful fabrics though.

So many signs- a tribute to the store's history

I did walk away though with some amazing fiber! 80% merino, 20% silk. Such a dream to feel! I thought this was an appropriate purchase since I was trying to avoid buying any more yarn.

Julia gave me the idea to buy a natural color so I could dye it later. She did the same, but she bought even softer yarn than I did.

Before heading into the city, we stopped on Court St at World Pie for a slice of pizza. Grungy looking hole in the wall place from the outside but the pizza was fantastic!

We jumped on the train and headed to our next stop. First, I got us lost because we started walking downtown instead of uptown. I tried to find a landmark building to get my bearings but by the time I saw 1 World Trade Center we'd already walked about 5 blocks the wrong direction. No biggie though because we ran into a friend waiting in her car for her daughter. She was not yarn crawling though but it was nice to see someone unexpectedly.

We finally made our way to Loopy Mango (my gosh it was about 5 steps from a different subway exit. Ugh). I forgot to grab a business card and take a picture of this shop. This has to be the weirdest shop I've been to yet. The front end of the shop is basically a hipster boutique. The actual yarn shop portion was a small room in the back of the store. While I don't think this is a shop I'd go back to, it was cool to see some of the interesting things they had there. There was some very unusual yarns but my favorite part had to be the absolutely giant knitting needles and tapestry crochet hooks:

They were about a yard in length and probably about size 35ish? Maybe larger.

I did make a small purchase there. This yarn is perfectly named:

It's a rayon and wool mixture and sooooooooooooo soft. I can see a wonderful baby blanket being made out of it, but I only bought one skein. I actually want to make a little clutch out of it but haven't found a pattern to go with it just yet.

Upon leaving, I made Julia walk up Wooster St. so I could walk past Wooster Street Social Club (the tattoo parlor seen in NY Ink- Ami is such a hottie).

Just around the corner from Loopy, we popped into Purl SoHo.

This was my first visit to Purl, though I've driven past before on trips upstate. I've always heard how beautiful and overpriced the store was. And boy, were both of those true!

The store really is a knockout when it comes to appearance. Even in the chaos of the Yarn Crawl it was immaculately organized. Everything is in a gorgeous rainbow order sort of effect, just like their magazine advertisements (see here and here). It was hard though to find specific yarn- there's no shelf labels or even the ball bands showing in the store. That made looking at yarn a little overwhelming.

So I decided to look at fabric instead. Holy shit! Was all I could think looking at the prices. Fat quarter bundles were labeled $30-$40, fabrics were $20-ish per yard. Seriously? I hope there's diamonds hiding in there somewhere for those kinds of prices. I mean, New York City has countless fabric stores. I'm not sure what makes those fabrics have those prices. I walked away disgusted.

And then I found the roving. Amazing, expensive roving.

This one came home with me. 50% baby camel, 50% merino top. I can't wait to spin it.

I still shudder thinking about the $40 it cost me though!

One thing I did find interesting was some small mini skeins of Koigu. I think their purpose was for embroidery but it made me think of hexipuffs :o)

Everyone who made a purchase during the yarn crawl got to draw a raffle for a store prize. I pulled out a ticket for a project bag stuffed with a couple goodies.

It has a sample of Soak wool wash, a Spud & Chloe baby sweater pattern, and the Family Tree Afghan pattern from My Grandmother's Knitting. I actually wasn't overly impressed with some of the patterns in that book, but the afghan pattern was one that I did like. It's a good alternative to knitting/crocheting squares for an afghan and it'll be a good way to use up scrap yarn.

Outside the shop the fluffy white clouds had been replaced by darker grey ones. It was a bit more chilly which meant a good time to put my cardigan on again :o)

After Purl, we needed another caffeine fix. Neither of us is sure which of our addictions is worse- caffeine or fiber. It's a tough call. So off to Starbucks we went again. While Julia hit up the bathrooms, I sat and knit on my Moor Shawl (another KAL is going on at Knittng Like Crazy to keep us busy while Jen is busy getting married next weekend!).

Julia snapped this while I relaxed a bit.

Finally re-caffeinated, we took a 20 minute walk over to Downtown Yarns.

This shop is tiny. Despite that, it has so much character and the employees were so sweet and, well, quirky. The yarn selection here was pretty typical but they did have some really cute bags and zip-pouches.

Pretty parasol in the shop window

Fiber curtains!

I did leave the shop with some yarn. I've heard people talk about Jitterbug so I figured I'd try some out. I really love the color of this one.

And with any purchase, we received a coupon for 10% off our next visit!

By this point we were running about an hour or so behind my tentative schedule. Because of this, we debated our next stop. The two next shops were scheduled to close at 6 and the last at 7, except it was already about 5:15.

We took a chance and headed uptown to stop at Knitty City. When we reached the 72nd St stop, it was already 5:55. We decided to try anyway since we might be able to see the scavenger hunt bag from the window (a long shot). When we got there, the front lights of the shop were off but the door was unlocked and there were customers. We wandered a little but Julia had just been there a couple days earlier and I've been there before too. I did wind up buying some Koigu because no matter how hard I tried, I could not make a 50 gram ball of this watermelon yarn into a pair of anklets. I was just a smidge short each time.

I even got a fancy bag with my purchase!

We figured by the time we left that The Yarn Company was definitely closed. And even if they weren't, we still wanted to make it to Yarntopia.

We walked out the door to realize it was raining pretty hard. We ran to the subway. I do not like running. Oh, the things we do for yarn.

Yarntopia was fantastic! They had some great yarns and a very friendly staff.

The window's dessert assortment

I left with some Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca Silk for Mom's as-yet-to-be-determined Christmas project. I love this yarn though

Griffindor socks sighting on the train ride home!

Well, it was another great event this year! I sent in my scavenger hunt entries and have all my raffle tickets just waiting for the winners to be drawn!

We were exhausted by the end of it! My feet hurt so bad. I haven't worn sneakers since April or May so that was quite the adjustment. I did wear my Open Hands socks and was very satisfied with the purl bottoms. I'm trying them again on another pair of socks with a more tightly spun sock yarn.

Keep your fingers crossed that I win one of the prizes now! Although I think that camel/merino roving was an awesome prize, even if I did have to pay for it.

Open Hands Socks

2011-09-30T08:39:00.000-04:00

Forever and ever ago, I heard an interview of Barbara Walker by the Knitmore Girls on their podcast and she mentioned that she always worked the bottom of her socks in purl stitches (purls on the right side, knit fabric on the inside of the sock). I was intrigued and recently decided to try this out.

I used some leftover Stroll from my Geometry Shawl and a simple stitch pattern out of Vogue Knitting Stitchionary Volume Five: Lace Knitting. And attempted to do what Barbara does...

I really hated knitting these socks. At first I thought it was because of the needles. I started on a pair of KnitPicks metal size 0s and the join was terrible. Absolutely the worst. But then I switched to my Chiaogoo's and I still hated working on them.

I definitely hated having to do all the purling. It was no fun. But I really didn't like the stitch pattern much either. Now I knew it wasn't the best choice for this yarn, but I just wanted something simple so it wasn't a plain stockinette sock. But the pattern really wasn't memorize-able and that I think was the real problem for me.

I would definitely try this again. It really was pretty cushy under my feet. But I wouldn't do the WHOLE half of the sock in purls. I'd do at least a couple knits on either end of the needle.

I even did the heel in purl but the gusset in knits.

I'll keep you updated on how they hold up!

Sigh. Oh Dad

2011-09-29T08:00:00.000-04:00

These would be my Addi lace size 0 needles. As in the ones I generally use for all my socks. After my Dad stepped on them.

Now, I have broken many a circular wood needle by leaving my bed and then stepping on them on my bed. My bed is large and usually in a small room so I tend to stand on it before settling on a spot to sit. Walking across my bed and stepping on a needle is also not unheard of.

In my current room, there's about 3 square feet of floor space with no furniture on it. At least if you don't count the pile of dirty laundry and flip flops that occasionally takes up residence there. It's hard to fit an apartment's worth of furniture into a small bedroom. I allowed Dad to put an air conditioner in my room but to get to it, yes, you have to walk across my bed. Usually I'm the only one who turns that one on but Dad was very warm that day and decided he was going to do it since I wasn't home.

And my poor needles suffered because of it. Of course I had a bunch of stuff on my bed, which has a day job serving as my work space. Luckily he didn't step on anything breakable though he claimed he stepped on my "cell phone" (really it was my iPod).

I actually tried to knit with my needles like this. It wasn't working out so well. They're pretty malleable though so I was able to bend them pretty straight again.

My 100th post is coming up soon, also very close to the blogiversary. Keep an eye out for a giveaway :o)

"Make Something for Me"

2011-09-28T11:10:00.002-04:00

I knew I'd seen this article recently and wanted to share it in today's post but couldn't remember if I'd shared on Facebook or Twitter. I searched through my pages and couldn't find it. Maybe because I shared it on Brooklyn Fiber Arts Guild's Facebook page. Der.

Anyways, go read this!

How much?

2011-09-28T08:00:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I told you all about the local craft fair I went to this weekend. I have a short story to tell that happened early in the day.

My grandparents like to sit by the band through the fair. I was sitting with my grandmother and showing off my freshly finished shawl knit out of my handspun. Oh, and I spent the whole summer designing this shawl.* She loved it and was so impressed. She's awesome like that (though crazy in many other ways).

Not too long after, another old lady comes over to talk to her and Grandma jumps at the opportunity to show off my shawl. The lady must be crazy because she told me I should make and sell them at the fair. Here's how our conversation went:

Me: I'd never get what it's worth though.
Her: So what? At least get your materials cost back!
Me: ::sitting there dumbfounded::

Really? I should sell this shawl that I just spent the whole summer spinning the yarn on a drop spindle, designing, working math, swatching and then finally knitting and blocking for the $16 I spent on the fiber? Seriously?

Obviously I wouldn't be spinning the yarn for everything I make. And I could pad the price a bit for profit. But by how much? How much would someone actually spend on a shawl or handknit socks?

Sure, I can make what I spent on materials back. But that would never remotely cover the time I spent making that piece. How much do I, as an artisan, deserve to be paid for my work? Hourly, I think at least $15 an hour, probably more. But stop for a moment and think about how many hours it takes to knit a shawl or socks or even a hat. A hat knit at a bulky size takes at least 2 hours or so. I knit a shop sample at Village Knitter- fingerless gloves, super easy pattern- and even that took me my entire day. So should I spend my entire day knitting a pair of gloves only to sell them for $15-$20? I don't think that's worth it.

While at the craft fair, I ran into a friend from my knitting group and I told her about this too. She felt that our generation is seeing a trend of moving back to handmade and handcrafted goods while our grandparents (and maybe even parents) generation who came out of the Great Depression have a different mindset. I can see her point- we are the creators of websites like Etsy and probably do most of the shopping on those sites. Whereas my Mom will go to the dollar store and think she's found gold.**

I'm cheap. I admit it. But I'm willing to spend my money on quality and handmade. When I know to who my money will be going to (as opposed to sweat shops and bootleggers in other countries), I'm much more willing to spend.

How about a cute baby picture to lighten the mood?

She's such a cutie :o)

*I'm not sharing it here yet because I'm hoping to submit to Knitty first. It needs lots of writing, editing and test knitting before I can submit it for the Spring issue so that'll be a while.

**Don't get me wrong. I love Dollar Tree. Great place to find classroom supplies! To buy a scarf, not so much.

Washington Square Park Lightsaber Battle - YouTube

2011-09-27T15:05:00.000-04:00

Washington Square Park Lightsaber Battle - YouTube: ""

'via Blog this'

Where's the Craft?

2011-09-27T08:00:00.000-04:00

Growing up, one of my favorite parts of fall are the local craft fairs. I haven't been able to go to them as much the past few years, but this past weekend I did make it to the one in West Islip, the town I went to high school in.

Being temporarily without a car, my brother dropped me off around the corner and I walked over. At about 11am, traffic was already crazy outside the library and cops were directing traffic and helping people cross the busy streets.

Apparently the rest of my family was coming later on so I walked the entire fair in about a half hour, not making any stops. I just wanted to get an idea of what and who were there, as well as what the quality of the items for sale.

Unfortunately as of late, our craft fairs in the area have been going downhill. I've noticed more commercial products up for sale while the number of actual handmade goods decreasing. I've even seen the cheap crap my former boss would buy in Chinatown in the city to sell at our card store showing up at booths.

There were several quality booths though! And I figured I'd give them all a shoutout here.

My first purchase was a T shirt for my stepfather's birthday gift. He's a big fisherman and when I saw this during my first lap around, I knew I had to buy one for him.

For those who don't know (probably everyone for that matter), Long Island is shaped like a fish, hence the theme of the T shirts. The tail of the Mako on the shirt is actually what the east end of Long Island looks like.

View Larger Map

You can find these shirts at fishtheisland.com.

My next stop was 4 Daughters Creations. One of my goals for the day was to find jewelry to wear to Kyle's best friend's wedding in 2 weeks. Unfortunately, this booth did not have what I was looking for. But their stuff was amazing and they were super sweet. They tried to find something for me and even offered to do custom work. I took their card because there were some pieces I really wanted but just don't have the money for right now.

My next purchase was ...well I'm really not sure. At first glance I thought it was a jam stand but they really had a lot more. I don't know if you would categorize what I got as "jam" but it's called Apple Butter. It's like mushy apple pie. I tasted it and didn't need any more encouragement to buy. It was really good. Like amazingly good. Kyle was skeptical when I told him about it but one smell of the jar and he changed his mind.

Even better? The woman who makes this has a son who was severely injured at the age of 4 and now is confined to a wheel chair. No, that's not the better part. All of the money from the sales goes to support him. It's called Jars 4 Justin but the website seems to have disappeared.

Up next, I purchased some essential oils. Mainly I wanted lavender to spritz on my yarn to keep the moths away. But I also found a mixture of oils that is supposed to keep bugs away (think summertime bug spray all natural style) and also an oil in a scent for someone else. Birthday and Christmas are coming!

These oils come from Pam's Common Scents.

After my whole day of searching for a statement necklace, I finally found one at one of the last aisles of the fair. Pinache is a collection of pins and necklace pendants created by a retired art teacher. While they look like heavy metal pieces, the base of each piece is actually a lightweight ceramic painted with several metallic shades to look like metal. The accessories then placed on this ceramic base are various finds from estate sales and old costume jewelry. I love the craft of it! Arlene even had a sign on her booth that said something along the lines of "Be Unique! Buy Handmade!" Gotta love that.

A couple years ago I purchased a couple products from Panthyr Moon and was glad to see she was still in business. This year I purchased some soap from her booth. Jennifer is super sweet and enthusiastic about her products. This soap is the spiced apple scent. I'll be using it just after Halloween (I have some Candy Corn soap waiting to be used for October).

My last stop was a booth I passed by a bunch of times throughout the day and didn't really consider stopping at. It was small, with only 1 table and the product was soap. After my third lap through the fair (this time was with my late arriving aunt and cousin), I stopped by since I had nothing else to do while waiting for my aunt to finish her browsing. I love buying fancy soaps so I figured I'd grab another one. Of course I have to smell them all first though. I made the mistake of smelling a couple that had a mint scent to them (Chocolate Mint, Spearmint Eucalyptus and there was another one- either way...I hate mint, they were so not for me but you'd like them if you like mint). I decided on Lavender Oatmeal (notice that I love lavender??) and also bought an Orange Creamsicle for a friend.

I'm very excited about this soap, but it's pretty like I won't be using it until December or so. I actually took a butcher knife and cut it in half because the bar is so large.

I had a surprise though. Bilal, the soap master, recognized me! Apparently we graduated high school together but never actually knew each other. I felt really bad because usually I recognize everyone and no one ever remembers me. But he was super nice! And apparently Fire Island Soap Co has free shipping to anywhere in the US. That's a pretty awesome deal if you ask me. I'm pretty sure I'll be saying goodbye to Dove and buying my soap from these guys from now on.

I'm all about the buying local and handmade so feel free to share with me some of the placed you like to buy from as well!

PS- Yes, I saw knitting and crochet there. Yes, it was mostly squeaky acrylic garbage. I hate to say that about something someone spent time handmaking but isn't something you're going to put that time and effort into worth better quality materials? I think so. But there was a lady near the petting zoo showing off 2 spinning wheels. Except both times I walked by she was eating. It was a gross humid muggy day out so I don't blame her for not wanting wool all over her.

Citron Again

2011-09-26T09:43:00.000-04:00

There was a time when I guess I just couldn't stop making Citrons (Rav link). Not that I dislike them now...I just haven't had the need to make another one since the spring.

I made this one over last winter. Rachel of Studio Avenue Six (Rav link) had gifted me some yarn she had test-dyed on a base yarn she decided not to use. I don't remember the actual fiber content, but it's a fingering/sock weight yarn. She gave me 4 skeins of purple shades. When I first received them I was not a sock knitter so I had the idea to make a Citron blanket, working the yarns from darkest to lightest.

I actually finished this project months ago but because it was so large, I had to wait until summer's outdoor space to block it.

I'm very glad Rachel has changed her base yarn. What she uses now is super soft amazingness. I knit Kyle's birthday socks with some of her Bellweather Sock and it was a dream to work with. I also have a skein to make myself socks and some laceweight too for a Moor Shawl. This particular base feels so similar to Trekking in my opinion. Bellweather Sock on the other hand has the softeness of Bugga, even though there's no cashmere in it. No matter how it feels though, the colors are wonderful in all of the Studio Avenue Six yarns!

Olga was very sweet in modeling the blanket/shawl for me at Knit Night a few weeks ago. Although it was hard to get it back from her once she had it around her shoulders.

I am happy to say she did eventually relinquish it. It has been on my lap almost every morning since in our chilly not-yet-autumn mornings here in NY.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....

2011-09-23T08:49:00.000-04:00

...I had a blog.

The end of April through June is always a busy time for subbing and tends to require a break from the blog. What I wasn't expecting was how much my summer nanny position was going to take out of me. It's been a while since I've worked a 9-5 (well technically I never have since the daycare I was 8-4:30 but close enough). Even though I had Friday's off, there was always so much to do those days to catch up from during the week (including going to the beach, which I certainly did not do enough this summer because of the bad weather at the end of August).

Nannying ended mid-August and in the weeks following I spent most of my days inventorying my yarn stash. I'm not done yet but I have tallied over 22 MILES of yarn hidden in my bedroom! I also found and finished some forgotten projects that I haven't photo-ed yet.

Of course I've been knitting this summer. I never stop! I've also been working on some designs but haven't touched them in a week or so. School has started up again but I haven't had any subbing. I have been keeping myself busy though on Wednesdays... I've started working at my favorite LYS Village Knitter. I'm having so much fun teaching new knitters, crocheters and just hanging out with the customers. My first lesson was teaching 2 young girls to crochet. They happened to be the daughter and niece of one of my favorite high school teachers. Awesome and awkward at the same time. One of them was lefty though so that was quite interesting.

Here's a sneak peak at what you'll see next time...

Book Review: Entrelac

2011-04-06T16:52:00.000-04:00

Whenever a designer comes to the Brooklyn Fiber Arts Guild, I try to purchase the book they are promoting. Sometimes I purchase it at the event or othertimes I'll get it ahead of time. This month I am very glad I purchased this one ahead of time. I've been having such a great time learning to knit entrelac...it was so easy with this book.

So what's the book you ask? It's Entrelac: The Essential Guide to Interlace Knitting by Rosemary Drysdale. This book is everything a knitter could ask for in an instructional book. It's 3-in-1! First, of course, is the learn to knit entrelac section. The many many photographs and very simple instructions made this a quick learning experience for me.

Next section- Why, it's a stitch dictionary! Now that I know how entrelac is accomplished, I can experiement with the many different stitches Rosemary includes in the book. They give you a chance to take it just a step further and they create some interesting textures.

The last section of course has patterns. And these aren't just the typical unflattering entrelac sweaters or dishcloths. Oooohhh no!

There's this amazing grey/black/white vest that I'm dying to make as soon as possible (you know, after all those other UFOs are finished).

There are a couple of patterns that I don't like in here though. The socks. They just....well, Rachel from the Guild said it best- no one should knit entrelac socks unless they want to have cankles. Yea, I'm going to have to agree here. I do like the

Then there's the Edwardian Coat. I actually really like the pattern, just not the choice of yarn. I like the striping on the sleeves and at the waist, but I don't like the way the entrelac squares stripe. It's just too much for me.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book! With flying colors!!! Here a peak at the entrelac I've been working on/learning with since I got the book:

There will be a post on this project at some point in the future...it's made with some very special yarn :o)

Another entrelac project I'm planning? A leftover sock yarn baby blanket. Since you'll have lots of ends to weave in either way (as long as you're using different colors at least), might as well use up those odds and ends! First I have to knit more socks so I have more leftover yarn!

Want to purchase the book? Here's a direct Amazon link:

Etsy Shop Opening this Week!

2011-04-04T20:11:00.000-04:00

So I'm finally buckling down and opening my Etsy shop. I started developing it forever ago but really have not had the time to actually make anything to sell. I've made stitch markers and just never photographed them. Last week I started making some project bags.

It's been pretty cloudy here lately so my pictures are not exactly what I would have wanted, but they show the product well and the colors are pretty close.

For the shop, I'm going to offer products here first with a discount before listing them in the shop. The following items will be listed in the shop on Friday, but if you purchase them by Thursday here- free shipping! And who doesn't love free shipping? :o)

First, the project bags:

Kimono Flowers Project Bag

Pink Bunny Project Bag

And now for the stitch markers

Blue Gems Entwined Stitch Markers

Green Gems Entwined Stitch Markers

Jade Dragons Stitch Markers

Pink Crystal Heart Stitch Markers

Purple Gems Entwined Stitch Markers

To save everyone some viewing time since pictures take quite a while to load on webpages, all of the items are listed in detail on the Products Page of the blog. There are lots of photos of each of the items. To see more information, pictures, prices, or to purchase anything, please visit the Products Page on the blog. Items for sale are first come, first serve.

And remember, the donation incentives for Kayleigh's Krew will be going on until April 30th!

Kayleigh's Krew - Donation Incentives

2011-04-02T16:25:00.001-04:00

Donation incentives are here! I'm starting small and as more donations come through, I'll add more prizes.

Here's how it's going to work. For every dollar donated, you will have one entry. Basically, if you donate $10, you have 10 entries.

I'm starting with one prize as of right now. More are waiting though for when more people donate! Right now I'm offering up these two items I've made as one prize together.

First, this project bag. The bag has a deep blue background with a teal print of paisley. I love paisley :o).

The bag measures about 13 inches wide by 16 inches tall (13 1/2 inches from bottom to drawstring). In the photos, the bag is holding my Sodera Socks 2 at a time on a 60 inch needle (that's 100 grams of Little Traveler yarn) plus instructions, pens, small notions holder, and a small hand lotion bottle. There's still plenty of room left too!

The second half of this prize is these matching blue stitch markers. This set contains 3 small markers and 1 large heart shaped marker. These kinds of sets are great for working in the round- the one different marker shows the start of your round while the others are great for marking increase/decrease locations or side "seams".

These stitch markers will fit up to a size US 10 (6mm) comfortably and a US 10 1/2 (6.5mm) snuggly.

The Drawing
Kayleigh's Krew will be walking for March for Babies on Sunday, May 1. Officially, the last day to donate is April 30th. If donations are allowed to go through on May 1st I will still accept them. I just don't want to say May 1st just in case donations close the day before the walk. Don't wait until last minute! Donate as soon as you can. The more donations we receive, the more prizes I will add!

After the walk, I will be using the Random Number Generator from Random.org to pick a number. If you'd like to see what numbers your donations are (and check out your competition!), check out the GoogleDoc.

If enough is raised to meet my goal, I will definitely be raising it! My goal right now is $100 but I'm really hoping to raise more than that, with everyone's help of course!

To make your donation, please visit my personal fundraising page. To read a little about Kayleigh, visit the Kayleigh's Krew homepage. When you donate, make sure you do it though my fundraising page so you cna be entered into the donation incentive drawing. If you donate through the team's page, it will not show up on my page and I will not be able to enter you into the drawing. Make sure you leave an email address in your message so that I can contact you if you are a winner! And don't forget: all the money from the sales of the Kayleigh Preemie Hat will also be donated to March for Babies through our team!

Kayleigh's Krew - Donations? Prizes?

2011-03-28T08:16:00.000-04:00

After posting about Kayleigh's Krew and my March of Dimes efforts, I was thinking of ways to increase donations. I know times are tough (remember that part where I'm a sub and only work when needed?) and that people are not necessarily as able to just give for the joy of giving. So I'm thinking of doing some donation incentives.

I was brainstorming yesterday while I was knitting and came up with some ideas. Here's what I've got so far:

project bags- I've been working on these so I can get my etsy shop opened asap
stitch markers I've made
needles I have doubles of
yarn...who doesn't love this??
maybe a knitting book from my stash

I'm also thinking of making some jewelry, and whoring myself out as a knitter/crocheter. I want to include things not just for fiber arts so that any non-fiber-a-holics family and friends can join in the giveaways.

Where I'm stuck is how to determine the winners. I can do a random number generator or each dollar is one entry (to encourage bigger donations). Any ideas? Especially from anyone who's done giveaways on their blogs before! I want to have this hashed out by the end of the week so I can post, publicize and get some donations!

If there's anything you'd like to donate as a prize, that works for me too :o)

Kayleigh's Krew

2011-03-27T16:56:00.000-04:00

If you've been reading for a while, you may remember this post where I told everyone about Kayleigh, my friend's daughter who was born 14 weeks premature. I'm very happy to say that Kayleigh and her mommy are doing very well these days.

A couple days ago Chelsea (mommy) invited me to join her March of Dimes team "Kayleigh's Krew." Um, no brainer! She's already almost halfway to her goal of $500 and I just set up my team page this morning. I'm working to raise at least $100 for Kayleigh's Krew. The money received from the Kayleigh Preemie Hat pattern sales will also be donated towards our goals.

I know times are tough for many, but any donation you are able to make would be much appreciated. Little Kayleigh would likely not be here today had the money raised every year by March of Dimes not been there to help preemies. Chelsea, Kayleigh, and all their family and friends are already so grateful for what others have donated to this organization.