2nd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week - Day 7

My knitting and crochet time.   2KCBWDAY7

The short answer to this question is that I knit and crochet whenever and wherever I can :)  But to be more honest I do knit and crochet different things at different places and at different times.  

If I am working on a new or complicated pattern I need to work in silence with no distractions so that I can concentrate.  I also need to be relatively alert so later evening is not my optimal time for this - morning is much preferred.  I am also happy to knit or crochet while watching TV or a movie, but it needs to be a pattern that requires less concentration.  I frequently watch TV episodes I have missed online, so I usually have the earphones on and my crafting in front of me to work on.  I also love to knit or crochet to pass the time while traveling, although for this I will take along a small project that does not take up much space and that has an easy pattern to follow (or no pattern) since keeping track of what row I am on can get tricky on a bus or train or in the car.  I also am content to knit or crochet with others - a friend or a group of ladies who also like to craft.  For this I also need to have somethings that does not require intense thinking or concentration.  If the pattern is not too complex I can talk and knit at the same time (usually).

I usually have a cup or tea or a jug of water with me while crafting.  If I want a snack I will do that elsewhere and wash up before I pickup my yarn again. I don't like to mix crumbs and yarn!

Here is a project put down for a moment while we were traveling somewhere last summer:

And another one at a place on the coast where we were camping with a friend..  This picture is of my friend but I was sitting in the same type of lawnchair with the same view.  We sat out there (she reading, me crocheting) all day watching the tide coming in and going out (and chatting).

 

 

I have a trip coming up this month where I plan to take along a pair of stockinette stitch socks to work on - I have four hours on the bus followed by three hours on a train (each way) so that will give me plenty of time to knit to my hearts content - thank goodness I am not subject to motion sickness! I think I may just tackle my first pair of two at a time on two circulars on this trip - with some fun self-striping yarn :)

I also knit during meetings and that kind of thing - it's a shame in my opinion to not multitask in this way :)  I do however ask permission of the person in charge before I do this! 

2nd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week - Day 6

Something I aspire to...   2KCBWDAY6

This was the inspiration for me to learn to knit lace:

(Borrowed picture - not mine)

I have since learned to knit lace but I have not yet made this beauty!  I really do need to rectify that and make this up for myself one day (soon!!!)





I also want to learn to do stranded colorwork and make mittens (at the same time).  My goal is to learn to make something like this:

(Borrowed picture - not mine)

I have this pattern already and my goal is to make two pair of these for Christmas this year coming up (one for my sister and one for my niece).






I used to be afraid of trying something that I thought would be too difficult for me to make.  Now that I am gaining more experience I am willing to grab the yarn, needles, pattern, and start!  I have found many wonderful resources online that have helped me to make sense of patterns and have taught me just how to do a certain technique.  I am learning not to shy away from things now just because they look difficult.

A good example of this has been knitting socks.  I found a great tutorial that walked me through making my very first pair of socks and they were actually much easier than I ever imagined they would be to make!!  Now I am happy to tackle a pattern and see where I get to!  The worst that can happen is that some frogging will be involved...

2nd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week - Day 5

And now for something completely different   2KCBWDAY5 (click each picture for a larger view)

2nd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week - Day 4

Where are they now?   2KCBWDAY4

This is one topic that I will have fun with!!  In general I am very happy to think about what has happened to some of the things I have made for others (and myself). I have made several afghans for myself and the hubby loves them :) If I let him we would have a dozen afghans on the bed with us and he would be a happy, warm camper (while I would melt!)  In the winter we usually have two of the afghans I made on our bed to keep us warm (along with flannel sheets and a quilt). They certainly do come in handy during the cold winter months!  And my hubby loves and uses many or the finished products so he looks the other way when I buy yarn (most of the time)

Before wearing



These slippers were my first attempt at felting.  I am not sure what I think of felting in general, but the hubby wore them to death (and he is still wearing them!). 

After lots of wear!

Maybe I should make him a new pair??  Or should I learn to darn?? What do you think?? I suspect the holes are way too large to darn - plus I have none of the yarn left over...





Here is an afghan I made for a young lady named Felicia:

 There is also a wonderful story behind this afghan, how it came to be, and what it led to.  A few years ago there was a fund raising silent auction at our church to raise money to help with medical expenses for a church member.  I decided to donate a custom made afghan to the winner. I made a small swatch (about 12 inches square) with two colors using the Lion Brand 5 1/2 Hour Throw pattern.  I listed that whoever won the item in the auction would get a custom made afghan - they could chose the two colors and size and I would make the afghan for them.  A young lady (about ten or eleven years old at the time) seemed very interested in the item and kept checking to see if her bid was still in first place.  Well, with only a minute or two left on the auction someone outbid her and she lost.  She was very upset and sad by this.  I was disappointed too as I saw her reaction and felt very bad for her. I knew she also was going to be having surgery within a month or two of the auction so I went about secretly finding out her favorite colors and I made her an afghan (I also made the afghan - queen size in blue and white - for the woman who won the auction) and gave it to her to have for comfort after her surgery.  She was so pleased and loved it :)  Fast forward another year or so and she asked me if I would teach her to crochet the same pattern so she could make a baby blanket for her gymnastics instructor who was expecting.  I absolutely was pleased to teach her to crochet!  A little while later she was asking me to show her how to make an afghan in a pattern book she had bought for herself.  And her twin sister and Mom joined in for the lessons too.  So a young girl loses out on a silent auction and I would like to think that because of this she herself became a crocheter.And she tells me (and her Mom confirms this) that the afghan I made her lives on her bed and gets used all the time :)  This story always warms my heart!

2nd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week - Day 3

Tidy mind, tidy stitches   2KCBWDAY3

WARNING! Lots of photos and a long post here!!  And this has kind of turned into a "flash your stash" post!  But it will serve me well later when I want to see how much stash I have used up!

I must admit that my yarn organization system is not quite what it should be.  My yarn is "somewhat" organized.  I have yarn in several plastic tubs, stuck into several corners, tote bags, and closets. Here is a picture of all of it still mostly unorganized (this is a "before" picture of sorts):

I suspect I might need more plastic tubs, but that would involve admitting that I might have more yarn that I know what to do with... I just wish I had a room that I could devote to my crafting...  But in a two bedroom apartment that is not going to happen yet (maybe some day!)

Now that the yarn is somewhat more organized here is a rundown of what's in there (and here are the "after" or more detailed pictures).
The tubs include:
1) Mostly acrylics (Red Heart and Caron) that I will use up making some pet snuggles for the Humane Society.

2) More acrylics (mostly Caron Simply Soft) for pet snuggles or something else (I can't part with yarn that I can justify using). The yarn up front is wool that I will use up for something for myself - mittens maybe?

3) Mostly mix fibers and small numbers of skeins.  I am not sure what I will make with most of this...  Maybe scarves and mittens or some socks? This tub requires some more thought about what to do with it's innards.

4) Even more acrylics and mixed fibers... These are different weights - worsted down to fingering.

5) Mostly fingering weight and DK - socks and shawls will come from here!

6) Mostly baby yarns - I need to get some more ideas for some small skein baby-type projects to use this up.

And the rest:
7) All the yarn for Lindy and Adeline's Around the World afghan - these are in two big bags in the office closet (seven colors times 4 skeins each) This yarn will be mostly used up by August 2011 when I need to have the afghan ready to give away. It currently lives in my closet in two large bags.

8) All my suede.  What am I going to do with this??  Sometimes a good sale is a bad thing...  These are stuffed into this bag and stuffed into a closet.

9) More sock yarn is stashed in this plastic storage container.

10) These two containers include most of my current, ongoing projects...  The tote is mostly full of squares made for my Learn to Knit Afghan and also has the rest of the yarn for it in there.

I suspect this is about as organized as I am going to get. Oh well, I know where things are and they will eventually get used up. I just need to resist the sales of yarns I do not truly love nor have a clear idea of what I can use it for!!  The only thing not photographed is a small bag of cotton that I plan to give away to someone who makes dishclothes for our church.

If you are still reading this, this blog topic made me drag out all my yarn. I took everything out of the containers they were in and photographed everything.  Now I have a nice record of my stash busting progress over the next while :)

2nd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week - Day 2

 Skill + 1UP   2KCBWDAY2

WOW my skills have grown by leaps and bounds over the last year and my knitting addictions have grown exponentially as a result!  A little more than a year ago I would have rated myself a beginner knitter and in the past year or so I have greatly increased my skills and enjoyment of knitting. Unfortunately I have spent less time crocheting.

In a nutshell the skills I have learned over the last year include lace and socks.

I have learned to knit lace shawls!  I have not yet conquered using lace weight yarn (except for the scarf that is partially complete and hibernating since I find the lace weight trickier to work with!)  Here are two examples of shawls I made in 2010:

 

I have also learned to knit socks! This was something that was on my New Years Resolution list made January 1st 2010 and one of the few resolutions I actually kept!! 

In knitting socks I have learned and tried several techniques.  These include: top-down socks, toe-up socks, double point needles (both four and five dpns), magic loop two at a time top-down (not my favorite technique...), two circulars (I think this is my favorite way to make socks!!) both top-down and toe-up, but only one socks at a time (so far).  I have discovered that I prefer using two circulars to make socks, that I am indifferent (so far) to whether I make socks top-down or toe-up, and that I am truly addicted to knitting socks!!  Since I cast on my first pair August 10th 2010 (and finished those October 25th 2010 - I picked up speed a lot since then) I have completed 11 pair of socks and cast on number 12!!  As you can tell - addicted big time!!  Rather than posting lots of sock pictures here is a link to my RAV page with all my socks.  Here is a picture of my very first socks:

2nd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week - Day 1

A Tale of Two Yarns   2KCBWDAY1

Favorite yarn...  You mean I need to pick just ONE??!?  That will be tough to do.  I have many yarns in my stash that I dearly love.  Many I have not yet crochet or knit with yet so I can't give an opinion on how much I love (or maybe didn't love) working with the yarn.  So I narrowed it down to something that I loved in the skein, something I loved knitting with, and something that feels wonderful now that it is all done!

One yarn that I bought a while back and finally found something to make with is this:

It is Plymouth Yarn Baby Alpaca DK Paint and it is such a soft lovely yarn! I bought it at Webs last summer. I made it into a pair of socks that I can wear around the house.  They might be OK in a pair of runners (haven't tried that yet) but I doubt they would fit comfortably into other shoes. It was a dream to knit with and feels so incredibly soft!  Here are the socks that this yarn became:

Least favorite yarn...  This would have to be the yarns that fall into the "fun fur" category! It's not a single yarn but a category of yarn... I once bought a BUNCH on a Black Friday sale for something like 50 cents a skein and then I couldn't figure out what to do with it...  I actually went back to AC Moore to buy more while it was still on sale...  Here is what some of that batch looked like (a nice fuzzy variety):

I wasn't knitting much at that time (still a pre-beginner) so crochet was my option.  Unfortunately I found this stuff impossible to work with...  Finally after researching what others had done with this, I tried using a second strand of yarn along with it and made myself a giant fuzzy afghan (after of course going out and buying even more of the stuff because now I needed to have enough to finish the afghan!).  The afghan is actually nice, warm, and fuzzy AND fits a double size bed.  Perhaps not the most pleasant crafting experience making the thing, but the end result is not too horrible (well, that is open to debate, but I kind of like it although I would NEVER make another one!) 

One day I may learn (maybe, but don't hold your breath) that I do not need to buy all the yarn I can get my hands on just because it is on a good sale!