A Bitter Knitter

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 .

In 2013, I participated in a group on Ravelry that does something called "Travelling Monsters."  Everyone who wants to participate knits a small monster or other critter designed by Rebecca Danger , the author of the Big Book of Knitted Monsters .  The group moderator sets up the shipping circle and then they're off!  Person A always ships to Person B, who always ships to Person C, and so on.  Monsters ship twice a month so each monster visits for two weeks.  While monsters visit, they go on adventures with your family and get their picture taken and everyone in the group shares the adventures of their current visiting monster on the message board.  My 2013 travelling monster was Minti. Minti was knit using the pattern " Cecil the Computer Monster ".  She is small enough to fit in a pocket: And was much loved by my toddler, who at the time called the monsters "babies."  Over the course of the travelling monsters, she stopped callin...

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 ...