Do You Have A Knitting Addiction?

1. Do you lose time from work due to knitting? I don't have payingjob so nope.

2. Is knitting making your home life unhappy? Nope. Just me and my cat. Actually, thinking about it, my cat does get mad when I don't let her play with the skeins and she wants to. So sometimes yes. My landlady knits so my landlady and I get along fine. SHe understands about the quirks of a knitter.

3. Is knitting affecting your reputation? I guess it is. My staff wonder if I'm ok if I'm seen without my knitting.

4. Have you gotten into financial difficulties as a result of knitting? Not that I can tell.

5. Does your knitting make you careless of your family's welfare? Nope.

6. Has your ambition decreased since knitting? No. My ambition has increased.

7. Do you crave knitting at a definite time daily? At night.

8. Do you want to knit the next morning? If I'm near finishing a project or particular part.

9. Does knitting cause you to have difficulty in sleeping? Yep, it can at times. I've even had strange dreams about my knitting, or yarn.

10. Has your efficiency decreased since knitting? Sometimes yes.

11. Do you knit to escape from worries or trouble? Heck yeah.

12. Do you knit alone? Yep, and with others.

13. Have you ever had a complete loss of memory as a result of knitting? Yep, and lost chuncks of time.

14. Has your physician ever treated you for knitting? Nope, but she has almost been needed to be treated because of my knitting. :P

15. Do you knit to build up your self-confidence? Sometimes

16. Have you ever been to a hospital or institution on account of knitting? Nope, not yet.

So – how about you? Got a knitting addiction

Yay, I'm participating in my first exchange. It's International Scarf Exchange. I'm so excited.

Intro

So this is the new home of my knitting journal. Posts tend to come in spurts. will be moving the entries I have made in a journal on another site over to here over the next few days along with pictures.

I started knitting in October of last year. It took me a little while to get the hang of it, but once I did I was off and going. Actually it was my mom and Aunt that got me straightened out and going.

Just to keep from any confusion people that will probably be mentioned a lot are listed. Actually there will be others, but these are the ones that I confuse people with (except dad).
Dad -- My father who has been there for me throuh a lot.
Mom -- Actually my step mom, but I call her Mom. She is like one to me.
Aunt Shelly & Uncle Herbie -- My mom's sister & brother in law
Egg Donor -- the woman who gave birth to me. Dad's ex-wife. I don't give her any maternal credit and have not talked to her in 3 years.
Jon & Pam -- my landlord and lady. They treat me like family.
Mandy, Julie, Jonny, Sydney, & Sam -- Jon & Pam's kids. I call them my sister's & brother.
Nick, Ally, Kirsten, Carlie, Madison -- Jon & Pam's grandkids. I call them my nieces & nephew.

Yay!

Yay!I finished The slipper socks I started a week ago yesterday. Originally I was going to make just 1 pair, but now I'm up to 4 pairs. Go figure.

1 down 1 to go

I finished my first slipper sock. It took me what 5 days. I now have to do the other one. Learned a couple things in in and did a couple things I've never done before. Oh and someone is eyeing them and might want to buy them when they are done. I have a request from a friend for a pair for christmas. I was planning on making a pair for myself.Also my aunt's scarf is done for christmas. So that's 1 embrace done. 3 more to go.

Mental Note

If you are trying to teach knitting to someone that doesn't speak English and that's all you speak you're in for a rough time. On Mondays I'm teaching knitting. Last week was the first week, but noone showed up. So this was the first week of me teaching. There's also stampin and drawing being taught. Well I had 1 student and that was more than enough for me today. I speak English and only English. I've attempted to learn Spanish, but my mind just isn't able to grasp it. Heck, if you have an accent, I can barely understand you. You're better off communicating with me by writing. That is unless you have an Irish Brogue or an English or Scottish accent. I can lso Anderstand Austrialian accents too. I think my understanding the Irish, English, and Scottish is because I grew up hearing a lot of Irish brogues. Heck I was a newborn hearing the Irish brogue and it must have stuck with me. So back to what I was saying. My one student was enough for me today. She didn't speak english. I also didn't have an interperter the whole time. If i needed help I could get someone to help me out, but let's just say I could have gone for an interpeter the whole time. I have no clue how I'm going to handle this for next week. sure hope that I can figure something out.

Cool

I sold a scarf saturday after knitting group. I told the lady 20 and she ended up giving me 25. The lady asked me about buying it. Caught me completely off guard. Guess I have to make another for my aunt now. It was her christmas gift. At least this time my aunt's will have the exact color she likes.

I haven't forgotten about here. The summer's been a bit busy. ALso I;ve gotten into a couple other crafts. Besides doing a few stained glass pieces, I've gotten into beading and fusing glass.
I settled down last night though and figured out what I'm making my family for christmas. I had the general idea of scarf, hat and shawl, but I picked out the patterns and yarns last night. It comes out to at least 5 hats, 5 scarves, 1 pair of legwarmers, 1 wine bottle cozy, and 3 shawls/wraps.. Oh and that's just to start. Once I get those done I may decide to do other things. It's just my goal to get those done in time. I started on one of the scarves today. It's from Knitty.com. The one called embrace. So far so good. I'm halfway through the first leg on the first half.

Felted Pics

Finally I have pictures of 2 of my felted finished projects.


Potholder Set (Washed 3 times)







Pair of Slippers (washed 2 times)

Felting

I’ve discovered felting. So far I’ve done a pair of slippers, a hot pad and a potholder. I’m working on a draft stopper now. Pictures will be coming once I find the camera.

Finished the Capelet (again)

Yep I finally finished the blasted cpaelet. It came downt to a came of race the clock. I was in my friends car sewing it together. It came off the needles shortly before 4 friday afternoon and I needed it for 6. Thing is, it was tay too long. I followed the pattern and all that jazz. I don't know what i did wrong! It was just way too long. I had to fold it in half and sew it together. It was funny. There I was, standing on the sidewalk waiting for my friend and sewing the thing together. It looked good though. I may try to do another one eventually.

pic of the capelet

Ok, i told you all about the capelet that came out too small....well here it is!
see what i mean...definitley not for an adult!!! Cool though that the homespun striped itself.

Finished the Capelet

Well, I finished the capelet I was working on for Friday's dinner. I figured out with 4 rows to go that I was doing something wrong which probably contributed to this upcoming thing. When I finished the capelet, it was too small. Not just a lottle too small, but way too small. It's probably the right size for a small child. At least I decided part way through to make a new one out of different yarn that will show the lacieness of it better. So, off to do a new one. This time it will be done right. I'm keeping the mistake to remind me and who knows, it may come in handy for something else.

Project Update

Saturday I got the Stitch'N Bitch Nation. I'm now working on the Spiderweb Caplet in there. I tried starting the Belt Du Jour, but ran into a problem as soon as it came to working with the cable so I'm going to have to wait until I can get help. I finished the black scarf. It's a little over 60". A huge thanks goes to a good friend thanks so much with the help with the fringe. Your telling me about doing a crochet chain was wonderful. I never would have though of doing that. Everyone down here that saw it said it looked like dreads. Mind you that everyone around here is an artist.

Wanna Borrow My Cat For a Couple Days?

I swear my damn cat has a death wish when it comes to me and my knitting supplies. Last week it was my crochet hooks. She chewed on one and lost another of them. She also got a yarn ball unrolled all over my apartment. I keep my knitting stuff away from her, but she still finds a way to get into them. So yesterday I go to start the socks again. Yes again. I startd them months ago, frogged them. Well I frogged part of them and the damn cat finished the job. Well, that plan got scrapped when I discovered that on that particular set of dpn's that were neeeded she brought me from a set of 4 to a set of 3. She was eating one of my patterns too. She's also into other things. I love her and wouldn't give her up. Just venting.

Retirement Dinner Scarf

Well I finally finished the scarf I was making for the retirement dinner later this month. Came out pretty cool. I mad it out of Incredible Yarn (carnival) and on Size 15 needles. I have a pic of the original version and tomorrow I'll ahve a pic of the new version. I had started it and realized that the stitches were too loose at the beginning and that I wated to add beads to it so I frogged it and started over. The pattern below is for the new version. I don't mention about the beads since that is completely optional and The beads are completely random. The only predictable thing about the beads is that there is 1 bead betweed every set of holes.

CO 10 rows 1-4: knit 5-9: stockinette (NOTE: the 1st and last stitch of the purl row i knit to keep scarf from curling) 10: K1 *yrn P2 tog* repeat to to last (4 times) K1 11- 25: stockinette 26: repeat row 10 repeat rows 11 to 26: 11 times if you have only 1 ball or until desired length if you have more. knit 4 rows Bind off on 4th row. fringe is desired

Knit Crutch Grips I made

Ok in case you don’t know (I know 1 of you do) I have a severe latex allergy. I needed to come up with a way to cover the padding and grip cover that were on the crutches that I have for my sprained ankle. Well the pattern and pics of what I came up with this afternoon are below. I used a double stranded Red Heat yarn.

Patterns GRIP COVERSize 15 needlesCO 12Approx 22 rows Stockinette stitch or long enough to go around hand gripI was binding off on purl row.Make up with wrong sides together, turn right side out, put on hand grip, put grip on crutch. I then stitched the loose edge together around each end.

PIT PADDINGSize 15 needlesCO 28Approx 25 rows in Stockinette stitch I was binding off on knit rowMaking Up: Wrap over pit padding and stitch together, tucking short ends in and sewing the long ends together

Last Night's Knitting Group

Well last night was the first knitting group over at Kokopelli. It was small with only 3 of us. Despite it's being small it was good. We all had fun and that's what counts. We decided to meet every Wednesday from 5:30 - 8:00 and the first Sunday of the month.

Shawl & Scarf News

Yippee!! I found out today that the friend I made the scarf & shawl for liked them and appreciated them very much. That made a hectic day much better. Knitting group tomorrow evening. Maybe i can finish the dishcloth or get further in the scarf I'm working on.

Coffee Shop knitting adventures

Well it was a quiet day with nothing for me to do so i decided to spend the afternoon at the coffee shop knitting. It turned out to be a day for me to teach the girl (K) working there how to knit instead of me just working on the scarf I'm making for her co-worker. It was cool though. By the end of the day she was going along on her own doing good (i think). As for the scarf I was working on, that's another story. It started out with one pattern and that just wasn't working out so i switched to another idea. Finally afoter the 5th pattern idea I am finally rolling along with it. I had planned to originally use 1 set of yarn for it and changes to another set of yarn. Well I'm now using a mix of the 2 yarn sets. What a fiasco this is turning out to be. When it's done though it'll be nice though I think (hope). Oh and the knitting froup starts at Kokopelli wednesday from 5:30 - 8 down on broadway if anyone is interested. All are invited. Feel free to share the word. I'm excited about that.