Tuesday, July 30, 2013

But she already has a coat


I've had some yarn. For a very. Very. Very. VERY, long time now.
When I was a kid I was into really crappy weaving, due to a birthday present loom for kids. Because of this I acquired several colorways of the cheapest yarn my mom could convince my 10 year old self to buy, Red Heart Super Saver.
Turns out it still exists and I was able to log this chunk into Ravelry, and find out the colorway despite the tag being lost.
I'm not really fond of variegated but I saw someone use white to disrupt it into something nice so I tried similar.
It was going to be a hat but my coworkers told me to keep going and also reminded me how I make too many hats.
So to make my terrier suffer I gave her a second sweater. That's right second. I definitely need some children in my life or I'm going to become a crazy dog woman who makes clothes for her dog. However you have to admit. It is kind of cute.










See how happy she is?

Monday, July 8, 2013

Endurance

Awhile ago my sister pulled some yarn from a Michael's clearance bin and oohed and awwed over it's colors. Her room was orange, and she adored anything with a creamsicle like scheme.

What would I even make with that?
I don't know we'll figure that out later.
Days of yarn snuggling later. 
 
No seriously, a hat, gloves, mittens.
I look bad in hats. I don't wear any of that stuff...
A scarf... anything what?
 2 hours of knitting debate later
Knit me. A pillow.
A pillow? Are you sure?
Yeah what's wrong with that?
I've never made one before but sure...
 
I cast it on after a couple days to let confirmation sink in. The request was just a plain pillow, stockinette side both sides. I estimated it could be maybe 1x1 foot. 
In and out of the UFO basket it went since June, weirdly bulky to bring into the car. Hats on circs were more favored bring-along projects. 
My wrist would hurt some days from work, and I'd try to learn Continental purl to ease the pain but would be frustrated by slow knitting and switch back to English style. 
It was mostly my movie pillow, what I'd knit while watching movies or Who, or Game of Thrones once I was done with that. 
Remind me never to knit a plain stockinette sweater or anything, because this could basically be a panel of that.
And for God's sake don't let me knit a giant plain baby blanket.
 

Sunday, July 7, 2013

A Few Yards of Mouse

All my UFOs are too agitating to just pick up and knit at the moment. A tiny bit of leftover yarn was on my desk a long with a twisty tie and DPNs. I had fluff from unplying a pom pom. Couldn't find scissors so used some wire cutters.

My sister loves mice, so I made her a tiny something.

Friday, July 5, 2013

Anxiety


 I get to visit my LYS maybe once or twice a month. It's close to home but I'm usually doing work or school. Lately I've been feeling really stressed out.
Momma, needs a trip to the yarn store. I mumbled to myself several times a day for the past week.
no I am not a mother. it's an expression.

A yarn store is a gigantic treat for me, for the past couple years of my knitting life I've only ever had one downtown and across town, if not in another city. So when one opened up nearby it took a lot to contain myself, and my wallet. 
Art stores are so much cheaper, and I'm not exactly a yarn snob. 

Therefore when I do get a chance to visit I feel obligated to buy something, even if I'm trying to save money or starve the stash. 

Feeling strsesed out lately, it sank in more when I was there. Strangely. Shopping usually relieves stress but lately it's felt more like extra clutter. Or a reminder to all the things I need to get done at home. 

Pacing around the store for over an hour I finally actually had to leave. On the way out I decided, screw it.
If any color had been attracting me in that store it had been this lovely coral, since the first day. Expensive for a recycled material yarn, and I didn't want to look like I was falling for all that "upcycling" nonsense. I wasn't trying to buy this because I was trying to be trendy and green. I wanted to buy it because I loved the color, I loved tweedy things, and I love cotton.
I thought it was worsted and planned mittens, delightedly I realized it was sport when my clerk was winding it.
I hope to see gloves from this, I've never made gloves before.

As I hoped it did soothe my anxiety a little. I think one of the reasons we feed the stash is to renew our hope. Believe in ourselves that we'll be productive and keep knitting on. Making beautiful things with beautiful fibers. 


My mother asked me later that day "So what's so special about this yarn anyway." Wasn't till she walked away I realized I didn't need to sputter anything about what it was made of. I bought a piece of mind with it, I wasn't trying to save money by knitting my own gloves. I was trying to save money on therapy and drugs for mental health.
Knitting is much cheaper in that regard.



Winter White


Made my first pom pom the other day. 
There was some Wool-ease at Michael's in the sale bin. One of those colorways where you know exactly what you wanted to make with it. I saw a friend post something with cables and diamonds in white with a pom pom and wanted to do the same.

First FO of July ended up seeming more like Christmas wear. Perhaps I'm hallucinating from the Texas heat.
I used too-small needles for it, because I didn't want to buy something I'd probably only use once.
I don't intend on using a lot of super bulky yarn in my life if you catch my drift. 
So it's thick and solid, the cables pop out quite a bit, and it used nearly the entire hank. That's fine though.
I like it that way.
 

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Of Many Hats

Today I am I knitter. I wasn't before, I was a story teller, a girl, an artist, a comicker. I never considered myself a knitter, I considered knitting to be a hobby. If anything I was a yarn hoarder.
Maybe tomorrow I won't be a knitter but today I am. 
I finished a hat a few hours ago, finished knitting it, finished tucking in some yarn, even made a pom pom for it. 
I didn't have another project and for the first time. I actually didn't know entirely what to do. 
I've heard of this phenom occur in other knitters but not for me, I used to shrug with satisfaction of an FO and move on, draw, do homework. But I felt strange inside instead. I wanted to cast on something else, or pick up a UFO I'd left at home.
No wonder knitters pack extra projects. 

as a side note, I had all intentions to do other things this day, my body just wants to knit some more though.