Time to Knit

Topic for Day seven: 3rd April. Your knitting and crochet time...Write about your typical crafting time. When it is that you are likely to knit – alone or in more social environments?


When do I like to knit?  Whenever I can at the moment.  After I get done with work, in the carpool line, waiting at my daughter's dance studio.  Sometimes, first thing in the morning, if I get up early enough.  (But that has to be pretty mindless knitting since there is generally only a few minutes available).  In the evening, after everyone is home, watching TV, staying up much later than I should.  And, the, I'll start all over again the next day!

Knitting is a very relaxing pasttime for me.  It's also is a very good creative outlet whether I'm knitting someone else's pattern or improvising something on my own.

Well, all this blogging was a lot of fun.  Nice to journalize my knitting habits and adventures.  And nice to learn about all of  yours.

Stay tuned as I am planning a yarn give-away sometime next week.

Thank you for reading my blog!

I loves a good song with an accordian

Topic Day Five: 1st April. And now for something completely different. This is an experimental blogging day.  There are no rules of a topic to blog about but this post should look at a different way to present content on your blog.


I love a good song with an accordian. And it is about a holiday!  And it's one of my favorite songs eveh!







RIP Danny Federici ( January 23, 1950 - April 17, 2008)

Letting Go

Day Four: 31st March. Where are they now?

Today's Topic:  Whatever happened to your __________?  Write about the fate of a past knitting project. Whether it be something that you crocheted or knitted for yourself or to give to another person. An item that lives with you or something which you sent off to charity.

I will admit, I'm a bit of a control freak.  For example, I used to not be able to have my mom or my mother-in-law help me out in the kitchen. (i.e. when they stayed with me after my children were born).  I hated to walk in and find something where it didn't belong. I  never said anything; they were so nice to come down and help, but ohhhh those types of things bugged me.  I guess having children helped me in that department.  Kids definitely have a mind of their own.  And, now, I welcome the help when the moms visit and wait until they've gone home to return things to their proper place.

How does this relate to knitting, you wonder.  Well, it's taken me a while to get to the point where I'd not worry about what would happen to a gift that I knitted for someone....would they lose the socks?  Well, let me tell you...they lose the socks...both of my kiddos have lost socks that I knitted for them. It's just the way it goes.  They don't love me any less.  They don't love those socks any less (maybe they didn't completely love them to begin with...some were too small or too large or really, I'll admit, not very attractive).  Kids lose stuff.  Husbands lose stuff too,  Especially husbands who travel for business.  I can't even tell you how many  of my husbands (store-bought) socks have made it to the Land of Lost Socks.

They lose hats too...my husband left one somewhere.  hmmmm...not quite sure where.  My niece left a hat here at Christmas.  (At least I know where it is).

And, they try to take care of hand-made knits but don't always know how.  For example this sweater hung on a hanger for a while.  The straps have stretched out so much that the sweater is un-wearable.  I intend to fix it.  But I haven't quite figured out what to do...take the original straps off and start again....wash and re-block and hope the straps shrink back to their original size?  Any suggestion about what to do would be greatly appreciated.

So I don't worry about the gifts anymore.  They get lost, they get stretched out, they shrink.  Oh well.  I can always knit more.

Ahhh...The Fine Art of Yarn and Other Knitty Storage

Today's Topic: How do you keep your yarn wrangling organised?

A few months ago, someone on Twitter commented about these storage bags fron Woodland Woolworks.  At $2.50 a bag, I considered them a steal and immediately ordered 6 small and 6 large to store my stash....Love them! They fit under my bed (crazy yarn storage but what can I say?) or at least the part of the bed that isn't taken up with all of my scrapbooking and photos.  And they fit under a chair.  And I can see what I have....no opening or unzipping bags to peek inside!  It's all visible! And, did I mention, inexpensive? 

Storage Bag from WoodlandWoolworks.com

Since receiving them, I have more or less organized my stash....Malabrigo, Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Pagewood Farms, Lorna's Laces, Madeline Tosh, Quince and Company... all go in separate bags.  Some yarn is just stored by weight since I don't really have enought of a collection of a lot of brands....sock yarn in particular because there are soooooo many pretty sock yarns out there.  Note to self:  Look for Quince and Co yarn...I didn't notice it when  I was going through my yarn and planning some projects last week.

I haven't been that interested in listing my stash on Ravelry but recently I did go through my knitting books (another collection of sorts, I might add) and I updated my Ravelry Library. I also put all of the knitting books in one place so I would know where to look for them!

As far as knitting needles are concerned, I do confess that until a few weeks ago, most were piled up in a tote bag.  And, by piled up, I mean piled up!  For a while, it seemed like I would buy knitting needles every time I bought yarn at the Local Yarn Stores.  But I ordered a very nice Needle Organizer from Namaste (it no longer seems to be available or I would give a link).  I also bought a 2 inch notebook binder (the kind my kids use for school) and an assortment of pen and pencil holders that fit  inside the binder.  I used the Namaste bag for my smaller needles 0 -5, mostly DPN's, some circular needles, stitch holders, stitch markers etc.  The notebook is filled with mostly circular needles size 6 - 15.  Of course, at any time, you may see some stray sets of needles around my house.

Don't get me wrong though....there is plenty of yarn lying around my house for me to ooogle and pet.  When I get new yarn, it is immediately placed on the counter in the hallway so that I can look at it and plan what I am going to knit with it.  Sometimes, only the yarn/project that I am currently working on sits on that coveted spot in the hallway.  Sometimes, it's yarn that I've had a while that I am interested in knitting.  And, sometimes, I just pull out all of my storage bags so that I can look at all of my yarn and plan, oh, I don't know, the next 3 or 4 or 12 projects.  And, by the way, I still have 2 or 3 bags left to fill!  Hmmmm, where can I go shopping?  Half the fun of having a collection is enjoying it, right?  How do you store your yarn....share here!

Hmmm...

Today, I am going to take a look back at my so-called knitting progress over the past year.  (I wish the topic was how my stash has grown over the past year - by leaps and bounds - perhaps too much!  But that will be a blog post for another day!)

Last year at this time I was a Twitter and Ravelry newbie and I probably hadn't even thought about a blog yet.  I was just beginning to get interested in knitting again...I learned to knit from my grandmother when I was about 9 and have gone through knitting phases over the years...no previous knitting phase has been quite like this one though.  I attribute this lasting interest to Twitter and Ravelry.


@Voolenvine's Vinelle



So, about this time last year, I knitted Bella's Mittens, which were my first learn about it on Twitter and find it on Ravelry project.  Then, I knit @Voolenvine's sweater, Vinelle. 


Later came Ishbel, joined a sweater twitablong with @jbee42 and @cheekytart.  And met @knittingknoobie when I visited NYC last summer! 


Test Knit Granny Bomber Jacket
for @Sweatshopoflove










Then, I test knit a sweater with intarsia for @sweatshopoflove.

Irish Hiking Mittens Designed by Me!!

And I even designed a pair of mitts and a pair of mittens. I guess my knitting has progressed quite a bit since last year! Learned to knit lace and intarsia. I had never knit mittens before and here I was at the end of 2010 designing my own! And I am noticing that I am a bit of a binge knitter. Handbags knitted for holiday gifts in 2009 was followed up with hats for holiday gifts in 2010. Now, it's socks. Lots and lots of socks. For me, this kind of binge knitting gives me a chance to develop certain skills and see how different yarns work in similar patterns. Of course, that's not really why I binge knit...it's more like...Oh! This is fun! Let me knit another one! Hmmmm.....what's next? Any suggestions?



Knitting & Crochet Blog Week 2011 - Day One

I just found out about Knitting and Crochet Blog Week 2011.  It runs from March 28th  to April 3rd 2011 and is a week of fibre-arts related posts where many members of the knitting and crochet community worldwide blog daily together on the same subjects and topics.  Wow! Sounds like fun! The BIG question is, think I can keep up?  We'll see....

So today's topic is....A Tale of Two Yarns

My absolute favorite yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport.  Socks and Shawls knit up quickly with this yarn.  And it is soooo squishy and soft using a size 2 needle.  Colors are great and I have found it at Jimmy Beans Wool, The Loopy Ewe and Eat, Sleep, Knit...three of my favorite online yarn stores.

River Rapids Sock in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in Midway

And then what could I say about Malabrigo worsted that hasn't been said by everybody else?  Soft, soft soft to the touch.  Again, I found some at all of the three yarn stores listed above.  Sadly, most of my local yarn stores do not have much in the way of either of these yarns.  However, one local yarn store has been much better lately about stocking all the pretty yarns that I love to find online.

Brattleboro Hat in Malabrigo Worsted - Verde Esperanza