Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Finally some knitting pictrures!


I know! You'd think I forgot about posting knitting pics. Nope, and here's proof. This is a picture my hubby, BJ, took of me while I was knitting my Olympic Poncho one night last week. I love it! So cozy feeling (and, of course, it involves needles and yarn and a fire and cushions and...well, you get the point).

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Question: Knitting Challenge?

Hi again. As I was seaming up my poncho I realized that I am having a hard time figuring out what seams are appropriate for what stitches, designs, etc. and am challenged by the prospect of making a seam that looks flawless and professional. (For the poncho I am attempting the Invisible Weaving technique for Shoulder Seams. Ack! I really don't care for seams.) As I was thinking of this I began wondering what the rest of you are challenged by, whether also by seams (join me, my sisters & brothers) or by other things such as colorwork, sizing, etc. So, I present to you the following question: What at this present time is most challenging to you in this wonderful world of knitting? If you want to answer a second question, what have you never tried in knitting because you are intimidated by it? (If enough answers are the same I'll create a tally bar and post it at the side so we can watch the results as the answers come in.)

Finished Knitting Olympics Project?! No way!

Well, I'm back! The wedding was beautiful and the bride and groom will be on their way to their honeymoon tomorrow. Today is gift-opening day. I think it's a great idea that our society helps out newly married couples by buying them necessary items for their household that most would not normally be able to buy up front due to the finances of just starting out. I know it helped my husband and me greatly to receive the gifts we did. I still think of the gift-giver gratefully whenever I use an item that we received as a wedding gift (aren't those Kitchenaid mixers nice?!).
Anyway, on to knitting. I did NOT finish my Cream Colored Cable Poncho for my aunt before the torch was extinguished. (My excuse is the wedding.) I finished both front and back but have yet to seam them together and add collar, cuffs and fringe. I should probably get to that now. My husband and I have a dinner tonight with her and I'd like to have it done by then (secondary deadline!).
I'll try to post more later on tonight. Until then, happy knitting. Did you finish your project by the extinguishing of the flame? I'd love to hear what you made!

Friday, February 24, 2006

Impending Nuptials

Good morning. I am up this morning at the relatively ungodly hour of 5:30 am. There is much to do in preparation for my friend Julie' s wedding. I have tableclothes to pick up, gifts to buy and wrap, decorations to make, lots and lots and lots...and lots of coffee to drink. Her wedding is Saturday so I will be staying the night with her tonight to be available in case she needs a bit of support during the night. She was there for me on my wedding night when I wasn't nervous at all until 3am when I started crying uncontrollably and exclaiming about how I couldn't have a decent wedding since I hadn't been able to sleep yet and look at the time and I'll only have 3 hours of sleep before my wedding and so on and so forth. With that in mind, I go to help my friend. In light of her impending nuptials the following post will be a thought on marriage.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Tidbits

I am going to start posting a thought of the day, word of the day, and verse of the day. This may be a bit ambitious but we'll see. If I find anything suitable tonight I'll post it a little later. Otherwise, you may have to wait until tomorrow. I am a bit harried by the pace I need to adopt tonight to finish my Knitting Olympics poncho in time. I am about 3/4 of the way done and I should be more around 7/8 done by now. Oh well. Sometimes Olympic athletes have to push themselves to the limits, right? I guess tonight will be one of those nights for me. I'll let you know tomorrow if I landed with good form or if my face got it good. Of course, with the shape my face has been in lately it might be helpful to fall on it once or twice. Detract from the pores, you know...
My husband just walked in and walked back out after poking and prodding me a bit (he gets his daily ration of exercise and entertainment out of this kind of behaviour). On the way out I noticed he pants falling off his butt. While in writing this may not be attractive it actually signifies something he is very happy about - losing weight. Not that he was obscene anyway but you know how those male egos can be: a few extra pounds and they can't think straight (shhh...don't tell him I said that...he doesn't think he has any vanity about him. If that were true, though, I think he wouldn't wear cologne or a clean shirt to go have coffee with the guys.)
Back to knitting relevant material. I was thinking about selling a few items I make from my blog. I don't know if that's against the rules of blogging so if you happen to know the answer feel free to let me know. I made my husband a Komi hat with an intricate colorwork pattern and he really likes it. It is very soft, being made from DK Cashsoft from Alice, LYS owner of Tangles Knitting Studio in Lake Oswego (you should travel far and wide to get to this shop - very warm and welcoming and the yarn selection is great!), and is very warm being double thickness. I think I'll just stick it out there as an idea for now and once I find my camera cord I will post a pic so you can let me know what you think about its sell-worthiness.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Coming Along!

Woohoo! At least I'm making progress on this, right?! Now I just need to get some pics and quotes posted and I'll be close to satisfied with it!

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Fair Isle Socks link

Check out this link to Purly Whites. These are a pair of beautifully knitted Fair Isle socks from the book Folk Knitting in Estonia by Nancy Bush. I think I'm going to need to buy that book!


I found a pair of socks that are so beautiful! The design is great and the knitting is superb. Sandra from Germany knits these socks which are from Alice Starmore's Celtic Collection. They have an intricate cable design running up the back of the heel and cuff and are a deep green color. Browse around Sandra's site. She has a sweater on there from the same book of patterns which is just gorgeous (and a bunch of very cute llamas and alpacas). I am inspired to buy Starmore's book and try out some of her patterns. I went to her website, Virtual Yarns, and browsed around. Her designs are beautiful but a little more than I can afford right now. I looked at ebay and Amazon for some of her books and they were all upward of $100, some more than $1000. My sister-in-law said that she posted a request on the internet (not sure where) with the book she wanted and the amount she was willing to pay for it and had to wait a few months but finally got a reply and paid around $50 for the book. I might have to try that. Until then, I'll be admiring other knitters' wonderful expressions of these patterns.

Monday, February 20, 2006

One of these days I will actually get pictures up of the poncho, socks, purse, hat, etc that I am working on. I just got my sister knitting over this weekend! She started a purse and a hat and she appears to be enjoying it (of course, I can't imagine anyone NOT enjoying knitting...) which of course makes me happy.
We had such a great weekend! My husband was gone at a bachelor party for our friends getting married this weekend so my sis and I decided to have our own fun! We watched movies, knitted, read blogs, ate yummy food, created inside jokes over a certain Andre that appeared in concert one evening on our TV and just had a generally good time laughing our heads off. My abs actually hurt from our laughing before bed. Such good times.
I'll post again soon with pictures of my progress and a cute pic my husband took of me knitting with our fire going in the background. Perfect Olympics pose for such a star athlete! ;-)

Friday, February 17, 2006

A night of fun

Yay, my sister is spending the night with me tonight. She is going to give me a pedicure and manicure and we will do word puzzles, watch movies and I'll probably knit :-) My sister, Melody, is cute and fun! She is standing next to me here while I am typing this and wondering at the fact that I am blogging! Woo! The wonders never cease.

Hi! It's taking me a while to get this blog going considering the amount of time the Olympics are consuming. I am almost half way through and am on-schedule to finish on time. The front of the poncho is a few rows away from completion and then I only have the duplicate back, cuffs and collar to finish. Woohoo! Such fun, such challenge! As soon as I get home I'll have my husband take a pic of it and I'll post it for all to see. Yay, my first picture. (Notice I don't even have a picture of myself up...of course, that's because I don't want to scare away all of my visitors...wait, I don't have any yet! :-) All in due time... Well, off to work again. Soon I'll be home and stitching away with the bitter cold outside and the cozy warm inside...cup of hot cocoa nearby...log in the fireplace...husband watching TV in the rocking chair with Knuckles (our beautiful, full-of-attitude cat) curled up on his lap...watching the Olympics. Yay for the wonders of domestic life!

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

My love of knitting

Knitting holds such power in its fibrous grasp. The person who gets tangled will likely never be loosed. Why do I find knitting so beautiful? I love creating something wonderful that did not previously exist. I love knowing that I can make both beautiful and practical things for those I love and that it is actually a skill to be able to do this. I love knowing that by knitting I am connecting with women (and men, children, cats) who have from ancient times performed this out of necessity and/or desire. Something that has persisted so long will not likely disappear anytime soon. As I can pass on knowledge of life so also can I pass on this skill and the heirlooms that can appear because of it. On a less serious note, my husband and cat also love my knitting. My husband gets all sorts of goodies and my cat gets to try to mess those goodies up as they're innocently begining their lives on my needles. For all these reasons and more, I love knitting.