Rebate money = new yarn and projects! January 21, 2009

Yesterday I received my rebate card from Verizon.  They always get me on the fine print when I go to order a new phone!  The story in a nutshell is basically my lovely Chocolate phone I got the last time we were up for an upgrade somehow found its way into a drunken bath and died.  In its stead I bought a used phone off of Ebay which slowly worked its way to the junkyard (not my fault).  So this year I was overjoyed when I discovered that I could get a brand new phone with a huge discounted price!  Yay for me!  I can’t exactly say I’m a tech junkie, but if I can get a LG Dare for $30, I’m doing it!  Here’s where the fine print comes into play.  It’s $30 after a $50 mail-in rebate.  Doh!  But I sucked it up and bought the phone and have had it for a couple of months without any mishaps.  Yesterday I actually received my rebate card (it’s really cool; they put it on a Visa cash card).

I spent all day yesterday and most of my evening last night contemplating what I wanted to do with my new $50.  Should I splurge on one big item that I’d never in a million years buy?  No matter how many websites I checked and rechecked, I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to part my money with for.  I should have known all along that it would end like this.  Why did I bother to fight it?

I searched through Ravelry and tried making my search as detailed as possible without ending up with the same 2 results (or none at all).  It isn’t that I’m *that* picky; it’s that I like something simple and not too short or super long.  Okay, maybe I am that picky.  Either way it took me over 300 pages of looking to find the one.  From Stitch Diva Studios I paid for the Silken Scabbard sweater pattern.  It’s gorgeous!!!!  From there I picked yarn from KnitPicks (of course!) and bought some new needles!

With this sweater it’ll be my first chance working with interchangeable circular needles.  I know that fundamentally it won’t be different, but I’m kind of excited because now I won’t have to buy the full thing anymore; I can hopefully just buy the tips!  The pattern suggested using Elegance yarn, but I fell absolutely in love with Storm from the Merino Style Yarn.  Isn’t it beautiful?!

Needless to say with the help of a DQ pitstop last night and my splurge at KnitPicks, I now have to figure out what to do with the leftover 30 cents on my card 🙂

Socks for my dad are going great.  After a marathon weekend of knitting the first sock, my hand was feeling crampy so I took off a day or two from it.  Last night I knit a few rounds but was distracted and today I tried to pick it up again until my mom called.  Hopefully tonight I’ll get more done and then on Friday I hope to finish!

My uncle contacted me to let me know that he still wants me to knit a hat for him and he’s just working on buying the yarn.  We picked a nice blend of merino wool and qiviut and I can’t wait to see how that works out when it comes!  It looks like my plate will be full for awhile; my schedule looks like this:

1. finish socks for dad

2. start on purse(s) for Etsy

3. knit hat for uncle (if yarn is here) or

4. knit sweater for me

Not only that, but I want to look into baby rompers for my aunt who is pregnant!  They are going to have a July baby (just like mine!) and I think that some cool clothes are in order.  Literally!

I love my hobby October 29, 2008

I love how relaxing it is to sit down in the afternoon, turn on some tunes (or podcasts) and slip into the ease and joy of knitting.  Hearing my needles softly clicking together as I deftly maneuver my needle through each stitch and pull the yarn through is musical.  But what I love most about knitting, is once you reach the point where your project is beginning to look like what you are knitting.  I admit that a lot of times I’ll only be a few repeats into my pattern and think “Wow, this looks ugly and nothing at all like the picture”.  But persevere I must and after a few more repeats, it finally looks just like the picture.

I’m a little more than halfway done with my Global Warming sweater.  Yesterday I knit up to where the sleeves will be added.  One thing I noticed is that the pattern calls for the yarn to be doubled up.  Which obviously I didn’t.  I remember thinking about it and then wondering if doubling the yarn would make it too thick and therefore too warm.  If it’s too warm, I won’t wear it.  I get warm pretty easily and plan to wear this s/s sweater with a long sleeve tee under it.  So with where I’m at and with how much I have to left to go, I know that I won’t be using all 11 skeins of yarn my husband bought me.  In fact, I’ve only used 2 so far and am just dipping into my 3rd.

What I’m thinking is that after I’m done with this sweater, I will see how many skeins I have left and either knit a duplicate sweater for someone (they’d have to fit into a xs/s) or knit the gorgeous tube top in the “Fitted Knits” book.  Lastly, I was thinking of knitting up a sweet sweater for my little cousin Fiona, whose birthday is in December.  So many decisions.  🙂

Hopefully I’ll finish my sweater tonight and will be able to take pictures of both of my sweaters tomorrow.

One last thing I have to think about is what projects I will want to start so when my friend and I go to the cities, I’ll know what I’m looking for.  Because I was definitely going to buy some sock yarn and then hopefully get some yarn for a specific project.  My trip is coming up quick (just a couple weeks!) and I also have to chart out our stops on a map so I don’t get lost.  One thing I’m a little nervous about is that there’s a Yarn Hop to the same stores the weekend before we are going, and I’m hoping that they don’t sell out of all the good stuff before we get there!

They call me….. October 24, 2008

…quick stitch McGraw.  Okay, not really.  But this past week my mom has been staying with me and I have to giggle at the fact that I’ve already knit a pair of mittens and flew through several rounds of my pointelle shawl while she’s c/o, crocheted, rippped out and c/o again, crocheted, ripped out, and so on and so forth at least 5 times this week.

It all started Monday when I called to remind her that she should bring some knitting/crocheting because of the ladies who come to my house and knit.  So Tuesday night she wanted to get busy reintroducing herself to a project that had been gathering dust for a little bit.  This set off the chain of events that leads us to the several afghan froggings.  But as I type, she’s busily working on Stashaholics Brain Dead Afghan except instead of the purple/raspberry colors, she’s using green tones.  I really hope that she has better luck with making this one work; I’m sure she will, but I’m no help as I don’t crochet.

What else is cool is I signed my mom up for an invitation to Ravelry and told her to head straight to Boucle’ next week and inquire as to a knitting group or some help relearning to knit.  Whether or not she does this, I’m not sure, but I hope she does.  Some of the stuff she made back when she was really into it is super amazing.  In her house there’s this huuuuuge (and it is ginormous) tan colored knit blanket.  It is super thick and miles long and amazing.  Anyhow, I know that she’d have a blast connecting with other knitters much like I have!

So my hubby’s coming home Saturday and he’s brought me a little gift from a yarn store in Seattle!  I can’t wait to see what exactly he got me and then to start knitting up my second sweater!  It’s funny that the first item you make when you’re learning to do something (use circular needles, make clothing, etc….) can make you so nervous.  Then after you’re done, you feel like you can conquer the world!  Maybe it’s just me, but I am ready to take on some more knitting challenges!

I love the internet October 16, 2008

Last night I reached the part in my pattern where it told me to follow the chart starting with round 2.  I sat there all night scratching my head and thinking ‘which pattern makes sense?’  The logical part told me that of course it meant the pattern on pg. 105, but there were 11 sts to that pattern and I couldn’t wrap my head around where 11 stitches would come into play.  I sat and looked on other blogs and referenced the errata from the author and was at a standstill.  Today I began anew and something caught my eye that didn’t catch it last night.

THANK YOU internet!  It answered my question and made me less worried that I was knitting the sweater wrong.  Now my only problem is that somehow my seed stitch tends to end up looking like ribbing.  I don’t even know how that happens as I (try I guess) am careful to do k1, p1 on the knit side and then do p1, k1 on the purl side.  Not only does that sometimes end up weird, but my two sides use different repeats of k1, p1.  The first 5 stitches are done in P1, K1, then the next set of 5 are K1, P1.  I think this explains why I sometimes end up with ribbing.  Hm.

But other than that, things are going awesome.  Yay!

Helper Kitty! October 15, 2008

My cat Teo loves to curl up in my lap while I’m knitting (or doing anything else that leaves my lap open).  Usually I can’t find a good way to photograph him without it looking crappy, but this was a good shot.

These are the socks I finished up over the weekend away. Like I’ve said before, the cable pattern itself gets kind of tricky, but the cables turn out so beautiful.

And lastly here is where I’m at after 1 skein of yarn on my sweater.  Since I took this picture, I’m 8″ into the body with two more to do before the side slit begins.  Yay!

I defy you circular needles! October 13, 2008

Okay, so I haven’t gotten over my anxiety of using circular needles from the *very* beginning, but my sweater is going along smoothly as far as knitting with circular needles.  My issues are all user related.  At the moment I’ve already put my sleeve sts onto holders and will be working on the body.  The point where I actually joined my work looks awesome and I can’t wait to see how my sweater keeps progressing!

The yarn I chose is from Prairie Yarns (Cascade 220) and is a gorgeous dark green, like a deep green.  It has been lovely to work with and the needles, I must admit, were kind of annoying to use at first, but now that I’ve been working with them for hours on end, they’re great!  They are bamboo needles which felt slippery at first, but now I’ve gotten used to them (and am further along in my work) to where I don’t even notice that.  Later today I’ll try and remember to take pictures of my WIP plus photos to showcase my socks that I finished this weekend!

I am not allowed October 12, 2008

…..to go into a yarn store unsupervised ever again.  Yesterday we did a surprise trip to the in-laws.  Since we were going, I wanted to pick up some yarn and circular needles so I could start knitting a simple crewneck sweater.  At Barnes & Noble last night I didn’t find a single knitting book that caught my interest (okay, didn’t catch my interest at $25+).  So I decided to just buy yarn and a needle and have a go at it.  Fate decided that wasn’t to be so today.  😦

I ended up choosing this gorgeous green yarn (I really wanted the buttercup yellow, but had a few reservations about me wearing that particular color) and picked up a pair of size 7 needles.  The ladies asked if I had a pattern and I said no.  They seemed shocked and said “Oh, well you will need a pattern, it will help you determine what you need!”  I was too nice to say “No thank you, I’m just going to hammer it out on my own” and ended up spending $70 on a book, my yarn and size 10 needles.  Not only that, but my son and husband spent a wonderful hour hanging out in the car while I did so.

Despite my mega spending there, I love all the sweaters in the book.  So it wasn’t a complete waste.  I picked a sweater that is labeled as medium difficulty and am excited to c/o for it.  🙂  My hubby told me that he is going to accompany me the next time I go in so I’m not gone for hours on end.  Plus, he said that when I go to Mpls, I’m going to need $1000 to dedicate to my yarn addiction.  I told him in rebuttal that at least I buy yarn that I plan on using, not just to have pretty yarn.

Gathering inspiration from Victoria’s Secret October 9, 2008

I got the ‘Winter Casual’ catalogue from VS today and I am in LOVE with the sweaters.  Luckily for me, being a knitter, that means I can sit here and say “Hey, instead of paying $100 for that, I could *knit it* for half the price!”  But then again, being still a relatively new knitter, I can also say “Hey, that means I need to learn to knit with circular needles and work with constructing my own sweater!”  As you can see, I have lots of inner dialogue to work with 🙂

So far I really like this crewneck sweater that has 3 buttons on the left shoulder.  It looks really comfy and so sweet.  And while it doesn’t seem terribly sensible, I think the Crochet Turtleneck on the back is just adorable.  Although instead of wearing a sexy Ipex bra under it, I’m sure a long sleeved t would be warmer.  I’m also beginning to think that I will invest in some turtleneck sweaters.  They are warm and look super cozy in the pictures.

As you may or may not know, I picked up a Vogue Knitting book from the library and started writing down notes on how to put together a sweater of my own creation.  I’ve already started on some preliminary things, but am thinking I might look for a program to install on my computer.  If there’s an easier way to do the math, I’m totally taking it.  But the book has some good insights on what works best for certain types of sweaters (like how to do armhole shaping, shoulder shaping, etc.) and I don’t think I could get that from a program.

Now that it’s cooler outside, I want to start getting into the sweater making business so I can stay warm at home!

Oooooh! August 19, 2008

I’ve decided that this is my next big project.  My husband helped me pick out a color yarn (Dublin) at KnitPicks and I’m just dying to get started.  Buuut, it may still be a little bit.  Mostly because I want to check out the two yarn stores when we go visit our parents and see if they have anything I’ll probably fall in love with even more.  So that’s that and I’m off to work on something that’s sitting in my bag!

Bday sweater! August 15, 2008

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Originally uploaded by scribblerdahl

I’m surprised it didn’t take much tears to complete this sweater! It was fairly easy (although picking up stitches is a pain) and everything measured the same length. So I call it a raving success! Before it was completely finished I had Jax try on what I had knitted to test for size and it fitted pretty well.

Right now it’s pinned to a towel and sitting on top of the washing machine waiting to dry. Next week I’ll be sending off a care package to the Cities including this sweater for Carter who turned 2 yesterday and then socks and a hat for Fiona just for giggles.

Now that this is finished I’m hoping to get more work done on my pointelle shawl! Plus now that I know I can knit it, I’m sure there are a few more in the works!