Mutant Yarn!

Check out the mutant strand of white in my skein of "Medium Willow" Mary Maxim Starlette yarn! Weird... (cue the "Twilight Zone" music)...

Some might say email the company and get my money back or a new skein, but that's not how I roll...I just think it's hysterical!




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Swifting Around!

Show of hands...how many of you just LOVE to use a swift and ball winder?

I know I do!

When I first started knitting and crocheting, I mainly used yarn that already came in pull-skeins, a la Red Heart. As I further explored my yarn options, I came upon yarn at the LYS that one needed to wind into balls. At first, I used the back of a chair. This took ages, depending on the yardage and the yarn thickness. The only one who enjoyed this method was our kitty Franklin, who would leap up into the chair and try to play with the yarn as I was winding it. This is his modus operandi for many human activities...

Later, I began to use the swift and ball winder at our LYS. I got a quick lesson from the owner. I used other people's swifts. I thought of buying one, but figured it was too much money for something I didn't think I really needed. After all, I could always borrow someone else's...

Then, one year, I got a swift and ball winder for Christmas! I was touched by my partner's generosity, but again, didn't really see where I'd use them much. A funny thing happened, though. Now that I had my own swift and ball winder, I was free to buy WHATEVER YARN I WANTED, without having to worry about whether or not I could get it wound. A whole new world opened up to me!

Below is my latest "whirlwind" purchase...Misti Alpaca, to be used for the Knitting Pure & Simple Bulky Neckdown Pullover for Women...




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New toy!

I'm happy to report that I got a new toy for Christmas...an iPad! I'd post a picture, but I haven't figured out yet how to do that from the iPad!

If any of you knitters and crocheters out there have any App suggestions for me, I'm all ears!

Tall Cables Jacket complete!

I'm happy to report I've FINALLY finished my crocheted Tall Cables Jacket.  It's a pattern from Herrschners.  The cables were very easy to do.

You can find the pattern at Herrschner’s website:

http://www.herrschners.com/product.aspx?sku=911207&qid

The only thing that I had to do was to widen the button band and band on the other side a bit more than what the pattern specified.

Hectic Holidays

I find, every year, that this is a season of hustle and bustle—that has NOTHING to do with the usual holiday preparations people make.

Never mind the tree-trimming, wrapping, cooking, baking, etc. If you are a crafter of any kind, this is the time of year where stringent deadlines MUST be met. Knitted and crocheted items must be finished, washed, blocked, and, in some cases, shipped to other parts of the country. I have three things I’m frantically trying to complete for this year.

1) I have a baby blanket and baby sweater I made for a coworker that needs to be washed and dried. I have to find some sort of box for this, wrap it, and then find out if we are doing a shower for my coworker or if I should just give this to her.  If this is the case, I need to find out her maternity leave date—unless I want to ship the entire thing to India.

2) I have an afghan knitted in washable wool that I need to toss into the machine and PRAY that it is indeed as washable as the label claims. It’s enormous, so I have to figure out somewhere to dry it, too. Then I have to find a suitable box, bring it to the post office, and hope it’s not too much money to ship to my niece.

3) I’m also engaged in selfish crafting. I’m finishing up a crocheted jacket that I’m hoping to have ready for the holidays. I’m still struggling to get the collar and button band crocheted correctly. You can’t tell from the picture (the model has long hair that is obscuring the collar), but it appears I’m supposed to be making a shawl collar. The pattern is a little fuzzy on how to go about this, so I’m actually winging it.

Next year, I plan to start this process in JANUARY…

Seriously, I’m the authority???

I don’t know about the rest of you, but since I’ve started knitting and crocheting in public (KIP or CIP), I’ve discovered an odd thing. People start to think of you as the authority on your craft.

Now, I’m not even close to being the authority. While I love to knit and crochet and love a good challenge (my next plan is to learn Entrelac), I’m far from being an expert. I have one friend who’s capable of not only knitting two sleeves at the same time using two circular needles—she’s capable of doing this and carrying on a conversation at the same time! I have as of yet to figure out how to knit garter stitch and talk, let alone anything else. I have friends who have mastered the art of felting, lace, and still others who are complete experts at stranded knitting. I can do these things, too, but there is usually a liberal use of life-lines, swearing, and honestly, I’ve only ever felted by accident.

In spite of this, I find I constantly have people approach me about knitting, like I’m some sort of ambassador the Kingdom of Yarndom. I’ve had people come up to me at doctor’s offices, Starbucks, support groups, work—work is the funniest. One time, a manager burst into one of my work meetings, clutching a granny square afghan. She spread it out on the conference table, and asked, “Why is this CROOKED?” Just recently, one of my coworkers asked if it would be possible for me to teach her how to knit. Right now, I have her checking the needles she bought for size, so that I can bring in suitable yarn for her. One person came up to me yesterday, wanting to know how to sew knitted sweater pieces together.

In some cases, it doesn’t even matter if they’ve seen me KIP—sometimes, the people are complete strangers who just happen to have heard about me through a coworker or friend.

Now, if I could just figure out how to make money from this…

Knitting, Crocheting, and “Snowpocalypse”

Last Saturday, we in New England were all hit by Storm “Alfred.” What started out as a freak snowstorm, where we thought the worst would happen was that we’d have to shovel our way out of 8” of snow, quickly turned into a nightmare. Due to heavy snow on limbs still covered with leaves, several of our trees came down; along with enormous pine branches (we have 100-foot pine trees on our property). The entire night you could hear popping and cracking up in the trees as more and more debris rained down onto the house. About two hours into the storm, we lost our power—which means we lost our electricity, our heat, and our running water.

The next morning we ventured outside and found that our two beautiful trees in the front yard were decimated to the point where there’s hardly anything left but the trunks. The ENTIRE front yard was filled with debris. Dogwood trees came down in the backyard, and again, the entire area was covered with branches and limbs. The roof was covered, to the point where I couldn’t tell the people at CL&P whether or not our electrical wires were still attached to the house. It was the sort of fall-out that we couldn’t possibly clear out ourselves, but would need professionals ($$$).

Despite all this, we count ourselves lucky in that a) we were unhurt, and b) the house and cars were fine. We STILL don’t have power, but there is a shelter in town where we can get warm, charge up things, get coffee, etc. The seniors in town are bunking there overnight.

An odd thing happened…I didn’t want to knit or crochet. I’m not sure why this is. It might be because I usually do my yarn work with others, and that was impossible, as NO ONE had power, and certainly not the usual hangouts at which we congregate. My other favorite thing is to knit or crochet in front of the TV (out of the question), or listening to a podcast (I couldn’t waste the battery power on my Blackberry listening to podcasts). Also, everything I’m working on, except for the socks, is sort of complicated, which means I can’t work under low light, and I didn’t feel like doing the socks—too boring.

Also, I think I was (and still am) in a state of shock. At most, in the past, we’ve lost power for a day or two—not SEVEN, and we’ve never had the house and yard in the kind of shape they’re in.

I’m hoping to get back to normal yarn work next week, when (hopefully) we’ll have power and things will be (quasi) normal again.