Friday, October 31, 2008

Star Jackets for Everyone!

One of my latest projects, a star jacket that I found in a older Noro book. Unfortunately the some of the yarn stated in the pattern was long discontinued so I substituted Lamb's Pride for the grey portions, and the stars are Noro Kureyon. Well, shortly after buying the Lamb's Pride color Silver Sliver I found out that it had been discontinued!! I was short 4 balls and no one in the area had any left. There seems to be something saying "Hey Lady....don't make this jacket!!", cause I couldn't be this lucky could I? After searching the Internet and running into other brick walls, I found a shop called Yarns By Design in Neenah, WI. Barb at the shop went out of her way to find me the right color. She even ordered the right color from a different shop and is going to ship it to me. It's people like Barb that remind me that there are wonderful people in the world, no matter how many horrible stories you hear on the news. Now, feeling much better about making this jacket. I had already had some apprehension to being with, being that this was the first larger project with fair aisle that I had done. It's actually not as bad as I had thought. With each passing project that comes out great I find myself with the inspiration to work on more projects with harder stitches or more color. The best part of knitting, the inspiration that comes with the passing time. If each aspect of our life had this much inspiration we might find ourselves enjoying life so much more, rather than focusing on things like the economic downfall and war across the water. Who needs a therapist when you have knitting?

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

The Magic Loop

After much debate I have started working on the magic loop socks that so many have talked about....but have been afraid to try. Is it hard? At first yes! While I have never tried the two needle method and went straight from double pointed to one continuous loop it was awkward to say the least. But once you get a couple rounds under your belt the rest is easy sailing. Granted....I have not finished them yet so my opinion might change slightly before I am done but I will have to say that seeing the two socks created at one time gives you a bit more determination to get them done. Working one sock at a time in the past, I have found that it will usually be at least 6 months before I do the other and create the pair. Doing the same thing that you just completed makes most cringe when as a knitter we are people that look forward to getting the project done and moving on to bigger and better things. Time will only tell how it goes but in the mean time...the magic loop continues.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Congratulations!

I would like to congratulate my mom, Linda Lou, on having the courage to pick up a knitting and crochet needles again! She even went to the knitting group in Bend with little knowledge of knitting and during the meeting picked it up again and was on her way to making a beautiful scarf. I hope she keeps it up cause I think she would continue to be great at it! She has also started crocheting again, which she just decided was more her thing. She finished her first purple scarf and it's beautiful.
Good job mom!

The Redmond Stitch n' B*tchers Have Arrived!


After much consideration, and some pushing by a few people, I decided to start a knitting group in my home town. While I love the group in the next town over....I keep finding it so hard to get over there while still trying to live my life of school and work. The ever rising costs of gas and the patience needed to get through traffic was enough to make it final. Now I am the only group member at this very moment but granted I have only started this 3 days ago on meetup.com and just put an announcement on craigslist.com last night. I do hope this works out because I would really like to knit along with others so much more than I am able to at this very moment but time is just not allowing it. We will see what happens. And if it doesn't work out?? I guess I can just always keep knitting along with myself and Tigger (the cat) who seems to enjoy sitting by me while I knit away on my many projects.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Missing the Butterflies

The cold has started to come and with each passing night I begin to see my beautiful flowers wilt. With the wilting flowers the butterflies that I enjoyed watching so much begin to dissappear, flying away to their winter homes hopefully somewhere warm. Waking up early in the morning to get ready to get to school only to find snow on the ground showed that I need to knit that much faster. The four sweaters that are all in the midst of being half way finished must be done soon I tell myself, cause if they aren't I'll just continue to put them off till the next winter. It's amazing how it sneaks up on you. It seemed like just yesterday that we were sitting on the deck on a humid summer night looking up at the brightly lit stars that illuminated the sky, hoping to see just one suddenly bolt across the deep midnight sky. Then I am suddenly sitting in a classroom, starting the school year once again. And now it's almost time for pumpkins and ghosts with little people running from door to door in hopes for mounds of candy. It's time to knit to stay warm and all I can think about it butterflies. Before we know it....there will be butterflies and we will be dreaming of snowflakes and sweaters.