2013

Here is a quick list of everything I got done in the year of 2013

Crochet: 2
~Blanket:
~~~Star Blanket
~Hat
~~~Bridgette Beret

Knit: 12
 ~Blanket:

~~~OpArt
~Hats:
~~~Fisherman's Wool Cap

~~~2x2 Spiral Baby Hat

~~~Curly Twirly Hat

~~~That Hat

~Socks:

~~~HiyaHiya Blossom Lace Socks

~~~Jaywalker Socks

~Scarves:

~~~Sashay
~~~Multi-Directional Holiday Scarf
~~~Brioche Scarf
~~~Simple Neck Scarf
~~~Wibbly Wobbly Cable Scarf

Sewing: 1
 ~Hats:
~~~Animal Hood/Hat

Other's Work: 6
~Crochet:
~~~Huggable Monsters: 6




So excited!

So I went to knitting last night thinking it was going to be a regular night.  I was wrong.  Tom has returned!  He was part of that group before I was, but had to stop coming.  He had perfectly good reasons; he was stuck at work, he was out of town...those kinds of things.  It has been a few years since he was able to come!  I'm so glad he did.  I know some people might be afraid that they have become an outsider to the group after so long.  I'm pretty sure he didn't feel that way, especially since everyone who knew him gave him a hug the minute we spotted him.

Now back to the other part of the blog.  This is the day in year past (I know the expression is 'years past' but this blog isn't that old) I spent this day frantically finishing things.  It's my very last chance to get things done to count for this year.
I'm not sure I'm going to be doing that this time.  I have a plan to have a nice relaxing lunch, do some stuff around the house.  Though after saying that, there is no guarantee that at some point today I won't have a part of my brain realize that this really is the last day of this year.  The last day before things will count for next year.  The last chance to make it look like I wasn't slacking all this year.

Here are some more things I did get finished though.

I've started calling this "That Hat" since it popped in my head.  A few people have been really interested in the pattern and stitch pattern.  If I ever did release it as a pattern I thought it would be really cool to hear someone say:

Person 1: "What are you knitting?"

Person 2: "Oh, just That Hat"

Why, yes, I am easily amused.  Why do you ask?

Here is a closer look at the stitch pattern.  It is a 16 row repeat.  I thought of it after a Mon knit-night a while ago.  I saw someone working on a really cool hat pattern.  I watched her and tried to see what she was doing.  I thought I had it down.  I got home and realized that I only had a vague idea of what she was doing.  I made a swatch with all the combinations she might have been using.  I liked all of them.

This is a cute beret.  That is also my lunch in the background.  I'm odd, I love hummus on my salad.

Here is a top view.  It is a fast crochet, even though parts seem like they take forever.  I had started one of these in orange as a sample for work.  It started showing progress so quickly.

I had to do a bit of digging, but the pattern is Bridgette Beret.  This picture shows the color a bit better.

Where I work has some sort of deal with Lion Brand so that we get free supplies for the 101 classes and get to use their patterns.  Odds are that if I mention a pattern that I'm making a sample of for work but can't find the pattern, it is somewhere on the Lion Brand page.

 

I've also been house-sitting a bird.  "His" name is Mercedes (they aren't sure if it is a boy or girl) and loves to make noise.  I was awoken today by a mini concert.  I'm pretty sure he was going through all the songs and sounds he knows.  I even got to hear a wolf whistle and "pretty birdy".  I got a video the other day of him singing all pretty like.

 

(I've not done this before, I hope it works)

 Something new I just learn is that if you play a sound clip of him singing, he will try to sing back to "himself" from the other room.  Too cute.  Silly Twiddle-bird.

Other people

 The post I made a few weeks ago got me thinking.  There are lots of people out there (tons and tons really) who also make things for charity.  Most of them don't have a blog or anything else to post their creations on, but that doesn't make them any less awesome.  One of the newer people to come to charity knit-day had made a few huggable monsters.  She is unable to come this month, so she passed them on to my Mom (since it's not reliable if I can make it or not) to pass on.

Since I had a chance, I figure I would share them with you.  They are ridiculously cute.

Here is a small gallery showing of Jennifer's work:

It's cold outside!

So on the way home from New Jersey it started to snow.  We were stopped on the I-78 for almost 2 hours while they "cindered the road".  Some people were there for about two and a half hours.  It was too dark to knit, so that made it a lot less fun.  It only took about nine hours to make a 5 hour trip.
Then the next morning I woke-up to this:
 

Everything had a nice layer of ice on it.  Luckily my car had also been snowed on, so it was pretty easy to get it cleared so I could head to work.

A bunch of people have been coming in to get fabric to make rag wreaths.  I decided to give it a try and make a mini one.  Maybe someday I could make a bunch and sell them for donation money.

 

 

This is how it all looks out there this morning.  Some snow on everything.  It is still snowing out there, but it is only the tiny flakes.  I wish it were the big fat ones.  It would be awesome to get a snow-day and just stay at home and drink hot chocolate and knit all day long.

 

I never thought I was going to be one of those people...

I've read about other knitters who forgot to wash the sweater they were going to wear until the last minute so they are stuck trying to get it to dry faster. I told myself to wash the sweater last Sunday, but then I didn't. I told myself to wash it on Tuesday, but again I forgot.
I finally washed it Thursday night. I was pretty sure it was going to be dry the next morning to pack and come with us to New Jersey. Now, still very wet. I wrapped it in a towel and threw it in the car. I was fairly sure it was going to be dry this morning to wear to a wedding.
Nope, we are at the damp stage. First I attacked it with the hair drier, but that didn't let me get anything else done. Now it is on the vent.
Before anyone freaks out, I put the vent on cool.
There is about an hour before we have to leave, so fingers crossed.

I'm famous!

Okay, not technically, but my name and link to this blog is going to be in something in print!
I donated to the Kickstarter for the webcomic Worsted for Wear to get a book printed.  Everyone who donated over a certain amount got a little 'thank you' by having your name put at the end of the book.
Well, I got my digital copy a while ago but forgot to check to see if the 'thank you's were in there.  Turns out, they are!

Tada!  That's me!  Well, that's my old last initial.  I wasn't sure if I should have given them my old one or new one...oh well.  It's still me there!
Now don't get me wrong, while it is super awesome that I'm in there, there are also lots of other awesome people in there.  I think everyone should head over and get their own copy of Yarnvalanche: Worsted for Wear -volume 1 so you too can check out all the other people who either also love knitting/crochet/spinning/yarn stuff or who loves someone who does.

 

Hat is also coming along nicely.  Still no one believes that it will be a hat when it grows up.

I survived!

It wasn't as scary as I was fearing.  The 12 hour day followed by the 11 hour day sure was tough though.  I'm very, very glad I won't be doing that again anytime soon.

I'm more than half-way done with the scarf thing that will become a hat.  I like the idea of it a lot.  Though the stockinet areas are curling really badly, I hope they will block out.  As I've been knitting I've been playing around with the idea of treating the pattern as a base and doing something fun with it.  Instead of large amounts of stockinet I was thinking of adding a lace.  Since I wouldn't want the lace to look odd I had to do a bit of fiddling with it in my head.  You couldn't use a pattern with too many stiches because the gaps in the pattern, where you add or take away four stitches) are near the top and would be noticeable.  While some people might not care, this was not the look I was hoping for.
Most of the time when you are adding more ribbed areas or taking away, you are changing the stockinet area by four.  Though you wouldn't be able to just use a pattern with four stitched across without having two plain ones on the end.  So here is my idea: Use a pattern that is divisible by four stitches, but have one stockinet stich on either side.
For some reason I didn't think it was going to work for a while until I picked up the knitting and just looked at it.  It will work perfectly.  There won't be any awkward stockinet gaps and there won't be this strange band of stockinet on one side.
Here comes the hard part...picking the stich pattern.  I have looked through a bunch and also decided that a lot of them were not what I was looking for.
Here is a list of stitch patterns I have narrowed it down to:

• Elm Grain I like the idea of this one because all the exciting stuff is done on the wrong side
• Star Cluster It has the word star in it and already has the side stitches built in
• Lace Background Seems interesting
• Diagonal Scallop I was thinking of doing a *yo, k2tog* pattern at first and this reminds me of it
• Zigzag Lace 2 This one just looks like a lot of fun

The website I found all of those on is also a very good one.  I am going to have to poke around on it some more.  You can search patterns by stitch count or even use their drop sleeve Gansey sweater pattern maker!  I'm so glad that I got too lazy to look through the tons of books I have for a stitch pattern and checked the internet instead.

Also for anyone who remembered when I was talking about doing writing prompts from the book I bought, don't worry.  I didn't forget about that whole thing!  Since I was given permission to use 32-62 prompts, it got me thinking.  There are 52 weeks in a year, so why don't I do one per week?  That sounded good, then I thought, why not start it on a new year?  This whole blog thing was started on something that was done in a year.  So I hope to start those writing prompts in the (shortly) coming new year.  The fact that I can do up to 62 gives me some wiggle room incase I'm feeling extra writerly.
Now I'm off to go finish the hat.  I can't start the new fancy one until I finish this one (or it will just never get done)