A Bitter Knitter

At the end of 2017, I finished my 200th project.  It was part of a small handful of projects I crammed in for gifts at the end of the year even though I swear every year that I will not do Christmas gift knitting.  In my defense of breaking my no-deadline-gift knitting, item no.200 was for my mom, who expressed a need for a hat.  And, before I show you the picture, let me tell you that it is really hard to get a picture of the back of one's own head, but I wanted a picture that showed off the back and I need to get a picture really quickly before I gifted it.  So, with that in mind, here is my 200th knitted item : I've been knitting for just over 8 years now, which means I'm averaging 25 projects a year.  This average is totally skewed because of 2013 in which I managed to complete 48 projects.   I made a whole bunch of beaded bracelets... maybe I should make more of those this year... 2013 was also the year in which I hit the 100 project mark....

So . . . how many times have I come back to this blog and said, "Oops, I guess it's been a while?"  Well, however many it has been (don't tell me), add one more.  On the upside, it's been less than a year since my last post. I got a new power cord for my old laptop (the left side of the screen is cracked and black, but 80% of the screen still works, so it's still mostly usable) and may actually blog again now that I'm on it.  It is SO MUCH EASIER, in my opinion, to blog from a computer than from a cell phone. One of the reasons for fewer blog posts is because there has been less knitting.  I completed only 14 projects in 2017.  (Only one of those was for myself, and I posted about that as my only posts last year. More selfish knitting!!!) The first project I made last year was this: She's a tooth fairy !  Jo had her first wiggly teeth last year in February (she was five) so I made a little tooth fairy.  Her apron is a pocket.  She's bas...

Brought back my love of knitting, that is. I am quite satisfied: I love the little sheep! All total, they took less than a week, which makes me happy, too. I'm back in my knitting groove and have worked some on Jo's new hat and a project I'm fixing for a friend since finishing these on Saturday. Of course, I'm also stash diving today to see what other new, quick project I might cast on for me. (I'm not a monogamous knitter, y'all, in case you couldn't tell.) Pattern again is Greenway Sheep  which is free on Ravelry. I used Inner Yarn Zen Superwash fingering.  I modified the pattern to use only 48 stitches and I added a thumb gusset because I am a thumb gusset type person.

Hello (echo, echo, echo...)! I'm not sure if anyone is still following my blog since it's been over two years since I last posted, and if you want two posts you have to go three years back. There are two things in my life that have led to blog silence: 1) small child. Jo is now 5! 2) smart phone. I blogged when I sat at the computer. I do much less  computer sitting since I a) graduated from college, and b) got a smart phone and I don't like composing blogs on my phone. I can't format in the same ways and I don't like that. But here I am, blogging on my phone. Another observation that I have made about myself is actually the thought seed for this blog post. Yesterday I was looking at my current WIPs (that's Works in Progress, Muggles) and I was feeling twitchy. I didn't WANT to work on the monster Jo wanted to give Daddy for Christmas, or the hat I started for Jo, or that project I am fixing for a friend, or that languishing sample knit, or those so...

At the end of last year, I knit up a handful of little random things for my toddler. First is a big mouth monster: The pattern is Rebecca Danger's Pocket-Sized Phone Friend , but I knit it out of bulky weight yarn held double on size 10 needles.  He's big enough to hold all sorts of odds and ends that my toddler picks up. Second is a pair of slipper socks: I improvised the pattern based on gauge and the size of her foot.  She, of course, promptly outgrew them. Third, a hat with rabbit ears. She got a Christmas book called,  "Shall I Knit You a Hat?"  about a little rabbit whose mother knits him a hat to keep his ears warm because a big snow is coming.  It has a pattern in the back that I heavily modified to create the above hat.

In the past couple of months, several of my friends have had babies.  Naturally, I knit. One friend decided not to find out if she was having a boy or a girl.  May I just mention at this moment how inconvenient  this is for a knitter?  Ahem.  I'll stop there.  I'm sure I'll mention the subject again some other time. Anyway, for this friend, I pulled out some "gender neutral baby barf" yarn from my stash and knit up a hat and booties.  Then I waited until the baby was born and added the relevant coloured buttons: I ended up affixing the pink ones for her baby girl: And for a couple of other friends who were both having girls, I knit up an apple hat: and a pair of purple booties: The bootie pattern is Natalie Larson's Bitty Booties , which I modify so as to not need a provisional cast on. The square hat is Carol Ullmann's Square Baby  with pompoms instead of tassels.  The apple hat is Iryna Boehland's Lil' Apple Hat , ...

Once upon a time, while I was wandering around Ravelry , I came across the wonderful pattern that is Megan Wood's Vincent Cuff .  The Vincent Cuff is a wide beaded bracelet designed to remind one of Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night knit on lace weight yarn with size 0000 needles.  When I saw it, I immediately thought of two people - my Doctor Who loving friend Pammie and my Starry Night loving mother.  So I ordered some deep blue lace weight yarn and some itsy bitsy pointy needles and picked up beads at the craft store.  And then created a labor of love. 1.  For the first one, I didn't have access to a color printer as mine having died after some toddler who shall not be named fed it cheddar.  Printers don't eat cheddar.  It kills them.  Poor printer - death by cheddar.  I copied each row with colored pencils onto grid paper. 2. The beads then had to be strung one at a time in the right order.  (For the record, the best bead needle is...

Early in 2013, one of my friends posted a notice on Facebook announcing a Pay-it-Forward.  The way it works is that she had signed up to receive something from one of her friends and in return would knit five things for other people who signed up, if those five people would agree to make five things for the people who signed up for them and so on.  I signed up to receive something from my friend and posted a notice on my Facebook wall asking for people who wanted to receive something from me and in return make five gifts for others.  One of the people who signed up was my husband's best friend, which caught me a bit by surprise as I don't know him very well.  As soon as he signed up, I went to my default knitting gift for guys: a hat.  Husband did some recon and came back with "black."  Oh, yippee.  (Sarcasm.)  Black is boring, and I had to do something  to make it more interesting or I would die with boredom before the hat was done. Enter...

In the summer of 2013, I participated in something on Ravelry called an "MKAL" - a "Mystery Knit A-Long."  The designer of the pattern creates a schedule and releases parts of the pattern one at a time.  When you join, you don't know what the finished product will end up being.  In this case, the pattern was "Ohh Summer" by Elena Nodel and I knew it was a cardigan and I measured my toddler so I'd know what size to knit.  I was told what weight of yarn to use, what size needles to use, and how much yarn I would need.  And that was about it.  At the end of the MKAL, I had this: Here it is, modeled on my wiggly toddler: This is modified from what is written in the pattern in that I used the same lace pattern from the sleeves on the body of the cardigan instead of the much bigger lace holes the designer wrote for the body.  I also knit the body a little longer than the pattern called for. The only problem is that she doesn't really wea...

Some several months ago, back when it was summer, I realized I needed a bag.  Not just any bag, but a bag to carry sand toys.  I have a toddler who likes playing in the sand and needed a way to schlep her buckets and shovels from point A to point B.  While at a charming LYS near my parents, I spotted some fantastic cotton.   I snatched up three skeins of it and one of a solid blue that coordinated with it.  Then I wandered through the pattern database on Ravelry until I found a market bag pattern I liked. The resulting bag is big enough for a couple buckets, shovels, and a beach towel, as well as the occasional bottle of bubbles.  Plus I love the detail of the knotted strap - one of the other Ravellers who made the bag added that and I thought it was darling.  The pattern is the Grrlfriend Market Bag by Laura Spradlin .

2013 was the year of the beaded bracelet.  There's a pattern that I like that I'd made once before so beaded bracelets became my standard gift pattern this year.  Really, it takes more time to string the beads and seam it at the end than it does to do the knitting. I knit it in orange: Red on black: Aqua (x2): "Moonstone" on grey (x2): Blue: Pink (x2): And I've got beads for at least a couple more... I may be developing a bead addiction.  Sometimes I used toggle clasps, like the one pictured above, but then I found magnetic clasps and switched to those.  One of the aqua bracelets got a bead clasp (which is pictured above) because the recipient is allergic to nickel, so the bead is plastic. My toddler really loves these and I think I may modify the pattern and make one or two in her size.  (She loves bling.) Until my next drive by blog post!

It's amazing how much importance we give to the magic date that is the first of the year and the mystical event of trading a calendar with one number on it for a calendar with a number one greater... In the year 2013, I knit 6822.6 yards.  This is more than any previous year by over 900 yards.  Having knit 6822.6 yards is also significant because I bought 6530 yards, which means I just about broke even on the amount of yarn I knit vs. the amount of yarn I bought, even managing to stash down just a smidge.  I have been working this past year on decreasing the size of my yarn stash.  Presently my stash is just over 40,000 yards.  At my current rate of knitting, this means I have a stash that could last me a couple of years...  My goal in 2014 is to actually stash DOWN and buy less yarn than I knit, rather than just breaking even.  Don't get me wrong.  I love  yarn.  But I have finite space and finite yarn budget, plus I have all sorts ...

Happy Belated Christmas!  It's time for another quick Drive By Blogging post.  Today's project is this one: For my birthday, I received Rebecca Danger's "50 Yards of Fun" book.  The "Basic Bowling Pin Body" reminded me of a snowman, so when I signed up for a swap on Ravelry, I decided to make one.  I did lengthen the body so that he would be taller and then I used some scrap yarn to make a hat and scarf. (He really needed a pompom hat. It was just too perfect.)  Then I used pipe cleaners for his arms and nose.  When he was done, I wrapped him up with a mug and some other swap goodies and sent him to New York.  (He fits in better in New York than he does in California anyway.)  In return I got a monster ornament of my own and a fantastic mug. In other brief news, my toddler has turned two.  She is a great little chatterbox and lives with passion and zeal.  She enjoys all things movement, including her slide, balance bike, and...

Today's drive by blog post features a project that took me over two years to make.  While I blame a good portion of that gap on having a baby, it also was one of the fiddliest projects I've done.   The pattern is " Aster Vest " by Cassie Castillo and I fell in love with it when I saw it because of the beautiful lace and the medallion in the back: Aster I swatched for two weeks and tried two different yarns... I ended up using NaturallyCaron.com Spa (now discontinued).  The yarn was excruciatingly splitty (splity?) but ended up blocking beautifully. Before: After: You really do block the living daylights out of this pattern.  Here's what the fronts looked like before: And after: I changed the back from what was written. I thought it was too narrow and would have required stretching the stockinette more than what would have been attractive in order to meet the pattern measurements. Then I had to assemble.  I'm actually rather pleased wit...

Hello, again!  Here comes another quick blog post.  Earlier this year, I decided to knit a baby doll for my toddler.  She has the doll I made her for her birthday  but I wanted one that was smaller.  Upon searching Ravelry , I came across the Rainbow Babies  pattern by Jean Greenhowe (free pattern). It's written to be knit flat but was easy to tweak to knit in the round.  The end result was: Jo's Baby She's about seven or eight inches tall and she coordinates with the doll (pardon the late night bad flash picture): Then I knit another for her cousin's birthday.  My niece didn't appreciate my nephew using her dolls, so I made him one of his own: Cousin My nephew has sandy blond hair and blue eyes, so his doll is made to look like him.  When he opened his gift and saw the doll, he said "no!" and threw it on the floor. My sister tried to play with the doll to get him interested in it, but he wanted nothing to do with it. ...