What It's All About

I will be posting to this blog once a week on Thursdays, so be sure to check back by then for my latest knitting insights and other adventures.

My knitting and crochet have been all over the place recently! My hat addiction really flares ups and I had a flare this past week. I finished another Little Sister Hat made from a sport weight yarn at a 50% off sale at Hobby Lobby. Here it is!

 

 I popped in to pick up a size H crochet hook, because for as many G's as I find at thrift stores, I've never been able to find one H. I came upon a nice surprise: a brand called Yarnology has began making hooks that favor fancier online or LYS ones! So I got a couple size H hooks; one in wood, one in plastic, and an aluminum one with a wooden grip. I realize you get what you pay for and so I'm sure the nicer brands might serve a hooker better and last longer, but I've been curious of wooden crochet hooks since I first saw Lantern Moon's Rosewood hooks. So I jumped on the opportunity to try out a knock off for a quarter of the price. This is what it looks like:

It's is finished but some spots along the wood are rough, like they were missed, and the wood is clearly not rosewood or all the same wood but probably bits of different processed trees. All the same, it is really attractive and the aesthetic of the prettiness in my hand as I crocheted the latest Little Sister hat is the only reason I finished that thing so fast!





Here is a close up of the detailing at the tip. It's also nice to have the size printed on the hook.

I have only ever used aluminum hooks and my review of a wooden crochet hook is two thumbs up! Of course the yarn makes all the difference and making that lacy hat with sport weight yarn was a really good way to try it out.






I started another Little Sister hat which I have since frogged because I really needed a size H crochet hook for the yarn I was using, thus the Hobby Lobby trip. I plan on trying out the plastic size H hook when I start that up again.

I am so close to the end of my Treasured Heirloom Baby Blanket! The hats were quite a distraction but thankfully I was able to work on it significantly at the latest meeting of my local knitting group. The long, garter stitch rows make it easy to knit and catch up with people at the same time. This past week, someone announced the idea to do a knitting trip to an alpaca farm in the area which sells its processed alpaca yarns in house along with several of the LYS favorites. It's called Northwood Farms and I am totally stoked about going to check it out! I have the friendliest knitting group ever, by the way, and I feel so lucky to have them in my life. :-) They were one of the first groups of people I met after moving to the Upstate of South Carolina from the Piedmont in North Carolina six months ago and it was a great first impression of the area. One can never be lonely when they share such a passion.

One sad moment occurred this week, on the day of my knitting group meet up. In the evening, but well before bedtime, with plenty of knitting time still left in the day, my hands and wrists really began to burn. I contracted carpal tunnel syndrome a couple of years ago from over exerting my hands and wrists during an intensive session of weeding at the greenhouse I used to work at. I had no idea the opening and closing of my hands for hours on end along with the tiny sharp motions required to pull out unwanted plants could lead to so much pain!
Ever since, it has crept up when I do monotonous projects...or play video games.^_^ It often occurs when I am doing both so I can't tell which one it is to blame exactly. I am a sucker for RPGs as a worshiper of all things Zelda and have been seduced by the interactiveness of Skyrim. The load screen times are a pain but leave enough time to get several stitches done on a project.
My wrists were hurting yet again and so I took a pain reliever and made up a hot water bottle and placed it over my wrists while I caught a comedy show on Netflix. That really did the trick! However, the recovery and relaxation level was cranked up a notch when Mr. Pickens came over and curled up on top of the hot water bottle. It was so cute and very conveniently pressed the warmness further into my hands and I wondered if he remembered moments like this from when he was a kitten:

This is him and his sister (whom we were able to find a really good home for!) not long after I found them. I placed a hot water bottle with them (later replaced with a heating pad) as they were too young to maintain their own body heat. The heating pad is wrapped in the towel in this picture.

That's all for this week and I hope to catch you next time!

The Discovery

Hello again! I want to share my knitting history and the love of my life right now.

When I was 16, my grandmother taught me and several of my cousins to knit one weekend. I wish it was more of a romantic memory, but truth be told, it only gets romantic as I get older. As it is in my mind, I remember holding 14" straight size 8 needles (still in my possession) and making row after row of knit stitches and it just clicked, I was a natural. But it was sort of boring. What kept me going was one of my cousins' proposal that we have a knitting contest along with my healthy dose of competitiveness. Brilliantly, I bought some beautiful yellow yarn (later known to be fingering weight, ahh knitting naivete how I don't miss you) and made a 16" garter stitch... thing. My cousin won the knitting battle and I lost interest. My one set of knitting needles were kept safe in a tupperware drawer set along with fabric scraps and a potholder-loop loom with hundreds of fabric loops.

Jump forward to age 21. I am in collage and living with friends and we are enjoying this rise in popularity of the knit stocking hat. I am rocking one of my mom's old hats (who was quite a fashionista in her day!) and the hat is cool enough that my boyfriend at the time donned it from time to time as well and it is not holding up too well with the constant use. DING! I remember that I have this skill to make more of these!

I pay Mom a visit, brushed the loops away from my knitting needles, bought up some worsted weight, light blue yarn and found a free knitting pattern on the internet. This was in the days pre-Ravelry and try as I might, I can not find that website to this day. The hat was knit flat and then seamed, and the website was pro, but my comprehending of its advice was poor. Buying the right gauge yarn for size 8 US needles was really luck, because I still had no clue about gauge. So probably needless to say, I did not knit a gauge swatch.

My simple stockinette hat came out two sizes too big and since it was a gift for the beau, I was nervous about handing it over. Thankfully, he was a stand-up guy and accepted this monstrosity lovingly, never showing signs of disdain. The XL Blue Hat made debuts at themed costumed parties where good vibes and good drinks made it seem like a good idea and the experience of my first actual knitted object was a good one. I did not think to take a picture of it and am unaware of its fate, but it certainly served its purpose in life.

Next came ugly scarves and more ugly hats until an alpaca farmer selling skeins at a farmers' market in Floyd, VA struck up a conversation when my knitting naivete gawked at her $15.00 skeins of alpaca (what a deal!). At one point she leaned in close and whispered, "Have you heard of Ravelry.com?" I leaned in as well and replied, "No. What's is all about?" She wrote it down on the back of a business card, nodded knowingly, and we parted ways.

Ravelry is brilliant!

I am 27 now and have been knitting incessantly for 6 years now. I have acquired much MUCH more yarn which I will post some photos of the stash soon. For now, here is one from a year ago after I couldn't resist buying a 16" x 42" tupperware container packed with yarn discovered at a Goodwill for $14.00. And when I say packed, I'm talking this thing was package taped shut to keep from bursting open.

Ball bands are missing, there's a significant amount of Red Heart, but the quality blends I got for a steal. There was a shawl's worth of baby alpaca (or small tank top's worth, I haven't decided which to do yet ^_^), a half used skein of alpaca lace weight yarn, 3 balls of lace weight linen yarn, and 4 super bulky wool blends which I've used to make a few hats from. The rest is mostly worsted and DK weight acrylics which I have made into Christmas ornaments and journal covers.


My knitting really took off after this purchase and the discovery of set of needles sizes 0-10 1/2 US in a Salvation Army near Knoxville, TN not long afterwards. The rest of my knitting history is forthcoming and I hope you enjoyed that little personal tale. :)

WIPs:

I am still working on the Treasured Heirloom Baby Blanket.

I am still enjoying it so much that I have managed to remain monogamous. It has also helped that I have been fulfilling errands related to setting up things at work such as insurance, health appointments, and bank accounts.

FOs:

Recent FOs include some hats I've crocheted for coworkers' children.

The Little Sister hat.

A Scallop Hat.

And I added a crocheted flower to this Simple Knit Hat from a while back. The flower is the chrysanthemum pattern with wide crocheted leaves.

I mentioned the love of my life, and while I love knitting and my partner L, a new love has entered in the form of a kitten which I found in our garden shortly after moving in to our new house.

Meet Mr. Pickens and his tale is forthcoming as well! For now I am going to watch an episode of Fibre Town and pick up the needles until time to head off to work! Ciao!!

Hello

I am here to blog. I am going to blog primarily about knitting. I was perusing the ole net and found that there is just a million of these knitting blogs. So I am adding another.

I love, truly L-O-V-E, the knitting community and have received so much from it in the way of advice about fair-isle and advice about happiness, that I want to give something back. I will unfurl what there is to know about your's truly and this passion for knitting that I have and hope to learn about you, my friendly blog reader. Please do share when you are moved to do so. :)

I do hope to make an audio podcast soon but the technicalities of this is taking longer than I anticipated. For now I will share WIPs, FOs, and what's next and sprinkle in some non-knitting related thoughts and ideas I've had in the meantime.

On my needles:

Treasured Heirloom Baby Blanket

I have just finished a daunting round of hats; some were holiday gift knitting and others were commissioned projects by coworkers at my brand spanking new place of employment. :D <yay for income!) More on that later.
This blanket has been a relief for my knitting brain nook after all those hats. My brain was in a place I wasn't even aware it was in until I started the blanket. It is very relieved to not have to worry about a complicated arrangement of decreases or increases and is enjoying the monotonous rows (remember those things!) of knit and occasional purl. I was very happy knitting hats but I am glad to have discovered this phenomenon within myself.

Nothing else is getting any attention from me at the moment but you can check out my Ravelry page to see some past projects if you're interested.

This post is really a HeLLO there! I'll see you again soon!