Tuesday, December 31, 2013

That's a bow

In real life depth perception makes this bow much more obvious, I swear.
Me thinks I'll be having some buttons in my hair in 2014.

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Giftmas

I never got the whole Christmas knitting thing. Personally I never saw my wonky, half-woven in finished objects as giftable in general. And my mom doesn't like hand knit things, and it never gets very cold in Texas so I guess I never thought of it as an option.
Till this Christmas.
My dad apparently was out in the cold with my mom downtown and mentioned needing a masculine hat. Something black. And actually requested something from me. Which is weird because my family never shows much interest in my knitting period. Either way I was excited. However as I wound my pima cotton I had gotten on sale at Tuesday Morning I realized there really wasn't that much. I reminded myself that most hats I make never take the whole skein, so a small skein must just mean I'll actually just run out instead of having a ton extra.
Maybe herringbone might use a bit more than just purls on a cabled hat? I wanted it to be fancier than a normal hat I mean it was for my dad!
I got distracted with... other gifts however. I made two other hats before I had the needles free for his. And then of course Christmas cleaning.
I was about 3 inches in when the loose centerpull got tangled.
I also realized it may not have been enough to finish it anyway.
Deciding to wait till after Christmas when I got some larger circulars back from a friend loan, I tossed it aside and had a nice Christmas. Atleast my dad understood.

The results for not dad gifts though:
Sister hats! Not for my sisters but family friends I've known since I was 3, the pink one for the one my age and then the teal for her older sister. Their mom is a knitter so I figured if anyone was knit worthy it'd be someone who lives in New York and someone who's mom made her fingerless mitts this year.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Hand Made

I am an artist so I think I'm coming to terms with why I like knitting.

Sometimes... no, rather. OFTEN. I am told "You know you could just buy that." I think we all hear this. All us crafters.
I think sometimes I could. If I was knitting a plain pullover yeah. Hell even if I was knitting a cabled pullover yeah.
But that's why I don't make plain socks.
I make socks in my own colors.
In textures I found myself, with cables whichever way I want.
No I can't buy that. No I can't buy a sweater with, I don't know, my face on it. Or colorwork something obscene into it.

Telling a knitter that "They could just buy that" is on par with telling a portrait artist "They could just take a picture."

Besides if no one did it to begin with we wouldn't have knitting machines. And I like letting an archaic craft live on.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Losing Track of Things

December first is the first of losing my mind a bit, forgetting things from the year, while regretting not keeping a more consistent blog or journal I can keep track of. Looking through my tumblr did help though. I'm also cycling today so I'm getting a wee bit emotional at 5:40 am. Considering I just tidied up my room a bit and piled my yarn into piles.

Then again looking at it right now from my be I mostly just untangled some things listened to pony reviews and pushed a bunch of junk away from my bed. Which I made.
Before I got in it.
It's comfy ok?

Just fingering through my yarn reminded me of how messed up my brain can be, I found skeins I forgot I had. WIPs I forgot I was working on and unlogged yarn. It also caused the dreaded stash anxiety, where you feel almost overwhelmed that you haven't knit it all yet.

However what did make me feel a bit better was my group PreProcess Knitters Stashdown.
It's a group that not only stashes down but makes you track your progress by logging new yarn and logging projects that use up yardage. Instead of starting by counting your stash you just try to get into negatives. Knit more than you buy. Basically. However has the convenient aspect of looking at your whole year in a spreadsheet way instead of your project page.
And there it is in it's color coded glory. This year I learned how to make hats, my first mittens, first gloves, discovered what makes me wanna knit. And what holds me back. Which turned out to be patterns. Not a huge pattern girl, I like to do my own thing.
Also made my own sweater without a pattern, my first one.
And it fit.
However I also have added 4000 yards of yarn.
Atleast I'm well stocked.