Celebrations, Part 5: Knitiversary (and contest winner)

So as to not keep you in suspense, the winner of the birthday contest is...can I have the envelope please?

No Country For Old Men!

What? Oh, sorry...wrong envelope. The winner is...

Caroline!

The fates were in her favor, 'cause as it turns out, she has the same birthday as me! Caroline, I've emailed you for your color choice for the Malabrigo. Congrats!

On to another celebration, I'm observing my knitiversary this month. Now, I don't have a specific day or anything, but it's now been 2 years since I started knitting--just not 24 consecutive months. Here's the story:

It was December 2004, and I was shopping for Christmas gifts at the Barnes & Nobles. There was a woman there knitting a nice scarf with very novel-looking yarn that I had never seen before. And for some reason, I was drawn to it. Something in my mind clicked, and I suddenly decided I wanted to learn how to knit. I guess my brain was just primed for it and got the stimulus it needed. A few days later, I went to a Michael's and picked out what I thought was a neat yarn. I brought it home, googled some stuff on the internet, and stumbled across knittinghelp.com.

Well, I sat there for over an hour and couldn't figure out what was what, even though I was just trying to do garter stitch. Turns out, I chose an eyelash yarn for my first project. Brilliant. I did finally end up with something that looked kinda like a scarf, and I even wore it out in public, but it did not last. There were so many dropped stitches and inadvertent yarn-overs on that thing that it became kind of a mess. I don't have the original anymore, but I do still have a smaller version of it that I made for my daughter with the leftovers. This was my second attempt, so it came out better and is still intact.


After that, I went to a *real* yarn store and they helped me pick out some yarn for the Frida poncho from Knitty (which I can't find the link to, for some reason). It was basically a big rectangle, and I never did sew it up as a poncho, but I was enthralled by the leaf motif and still keep it as a decorative thingey on one of my chairs.


I was definitely hooked! For the next 9 months, I did a slew of projects. I wish I had thought to photograph them all. There was felting and lace and sweaters and a couple of things I made up myself. I loved it!

But then, I got pregnant. And while I thought that I would be spending that time making utterly cute and tiny things, the reality is that I couldn't stand to knit at all. It made me so nauseous to knit! During my first pregnancy, I had had a strong aversion to the smell of seaweed in Japanese cooking, which I normally love. This time around, it was an aversion to knitting and all things associated with it. Weird, huh? The feeling was so strong that even after my delivery, I had no interest in anything fiber-related. Not for almost a year and a half.

And then one day, in December again, it was cold and I longed for a scarf. And so I made one. And just like that, I was back. In honor of this 2-year knitiversary, I am going to make a contribution to Ravelry. I think they are great!

Thanks for putting up with the walk down memory lane. Let's fast forward to the present, and I'll show you my WIP's.

The body for Athos is all knit up, as is the neckband trim. I have blocked them and need to sew on the trim and then pick up stitches to make that cool medallion. I have not yet knitted the sleeves, though, because I was going to use the sleeves from the Porthos design. Well, it seems there is a mistake, and the printed directions for both sets of sleeves are the same, even though they are clearly different in the picture. I posted about this on the Norah Gaughan forum on Ravelry, which Norah herself frequents, and I am waiting to hear back.


And finally, here is Mirabella. I really am so impressed by all the detailing in this pattern. The back is all done and I'm going to block it and make sure everything is on track before I knit the rest.

Progress

I finished the Cropped Duster! I really wanted to get some wear out of this before the cold weather completely disappears, so I was glad to be done. More pictures and details are in the Gallery if you are interested.



In other good news, I was able to get the Fifi pattern! I contacted Kristeen through Ravelry and I was able to buy the pattern from her online. Hooray! Now that I have the pdf, I'll be swatching for it in the next day or two. I've also been swatching that Blue Skys Alpacas Dyed Cotton for the Mirabella cardigan, and I think it will work! So all in all, things are looking good.

Celebrations, Part 4: Birthday (and Contest)

Yes, it's my birthday! I treated myself to a bunch of new yarns over the last couple of weeks. The Calmer is from a Ravelry destash and the rest are from a recent sale at my LYS. Let's look at some yarn porn, shall we?

This is Berroco Linen Jeans. As you can see, I've already knitted 1 skein's worth on Athos from the new Norah Gaughan book. So far, it's very nice and drapey!



Next up is some Rowan Calmer, in the discontinued Tangerine color. I intend to make Fifi with this, and I was actually all set to swatch for it. I had somehow thought that I could download the pdf of the pattern but was really bummed that I couldn't. So I'll have to wait till I find a site or local store that carries these patterns. Darn!



I love the color of this Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton. I am really hoping that the swatch will work out for the Mirabella cardigan from the new IK.



This is some Tahki mercerized cotton. I was thinking about this for the Emerald Seas top from Knitty or for the Drop-Stitch Lace Tank from Fitted Knits, but I need to swatch it and see if I like it for either.



I realized after I finished making all those scarves for Christmas that I actually have very few scarves of my own. So I bought myself some yellow Malabrigo to make a Shifting Sands scarf and some variegated purple Manos Silk Blend for a My So Called Scarf.



Ahhh, I love it! Okay, now, it wouldn't be right to bask in all this fiber goodness by myself. So I decided I'd have a little contest. It's easy. All you have to do is guess the time of day that I was born. Remember to indicate AM or PM and make sure I have some way to contact you, either through your blog or email. The contest will run through next Saturday, February 23. The prize? The person who comes closest to guessing the actual time wins 2 skeins of Malabrigo in her choice of color. Enjoy!

Celebrations, Part 3: Love

My husband is a great guy in many ways, but since this is a knitting blog, I'm just going to concentrate on the knitting stuff:

1. He (mostly) turns a blind eye to my yarn stash
   
2. He knows the difference between knitting and purling
   
3. He wrote a little program for me on my Mac that quickly calculates gauge conversions and increases/decreases
   
4. He watches the kids for me weekly so I can go to a Sit 'n Knit
   
5. He often says things like, "Why don't you take a break and go knit?"
   
6. And most recently, he got me this
   
   while shopping at Gander Mountain for one of those multifunctional gizmo tool things. I thought that it was so sweet that he'd think of me and my knitting even in the midst of all the testosterone products and the creepy taxidermy. What is it? It's a light that you wear on your head. He got it so that I can comfortably knit at night when we have long car trips. Isn't that sweet? I confess that I did cringe at the camo pattern, but he quipped, "And see? It'll be inconspicuous because it's camouflaged!" Ha, ha, ha! Yup, he's a keeper!

So Happy Valentine's Day if you are celebrating with a special someone. And if not, well, we can all celebrate our shared love of knitting, right? Speaking of which, let me show you some progress pics of the Cropped Duster. All I need to do is to make some ribbing for the bottom edge, and then seam the second sleeve and set it in.


I love it, except that the bottom edge flares out, as you can see


I'm going to compensate for that by reblocking and by being judicious about how I pick up stitches for the bottom ribbing. There's a chance I might be able to finish this this weekend, but we'll see.

Celebrations, Part 2: Happy New Year!

Yeah, I know that that other New Year is long gone. But I was busy and sick at the time, and there wasn't much time for reflection. So I'm going to take advantage of the Lunar New Year on Feb 7 to do the typical new year reassessments. We are celebrating in style, and look, I even decorated the tree...



I had a great mentor a few years ago who was a big believer in finding the right balance in your life by being honest about what your values were and then aligning your goals and decisions to reflect that. This keeps you from feeling pulled in too many directions--so that you don't feel overwhelmed and guilty about all the things you think you should be doing, or not doing, and so that you can confidently say "yes" only to the things that matter, and "no" to everything else. This philosophy has worked well for me, and I try to step back from time to time and ask myself whether I need to make any adjustments. I don't know that I've really purposely applied the practice to knitting, but I figured I'd try setting up some decisions for the next 6 months. That carries me through the summer, and if I like this process, I'll keep going with it.

Value: Joy
Goal: To really enjoy all the new projects I start (and to let them go if I don't)
Decision: There are only so many hours in a day, and only so many of them can be spent knitting! So even though there are oodles of cute designs out there, I have to accept that I can't possible knit each one. To keep things in perspective, I am using my Ravelry queue/favs/comments in a different way than I think most people do. If I see someone's project or pattern that is appealing and that I appreciate, I leave a comment. I only put things as a "fav" if I could see myself knitting them or drawing inspiration from them in a significant way. The queue is reserved for things that I have the materials for and it's only a matter of time before I cast on. I used to keep a queue on Kaboodle, but it got huge. I know it's a matter of semantics, but listing all those things on the queue is adding to the long list of things that I'm frantically trying to knit through, knowing I'd never succeed. On the other hand, it feels better to me to have a very short queue but a long list of "favs," which are delightful, pre-selected sources of inspiration.

Value: Creativity
Goal: To create a unique knitted item
Decision: I will either "wing" another design or else heavily modify an existing pattern to make something that is just my own.

Value: Tenacity
Goal: To make progress on my languishing UFO's, the Ruffled Jacket and Pam
Decision: It's probably not realistic to commit to finishing these, especially since they are both pretty warm, and I know they'll get distasteful to me as the weather itself gets warmer. However, I will spend an hour a week on either the Ruffled Cardigan or Pam. I want to at least get the gears turning on those again.

Value: Competence
Goal: To be a more skilled knitter
Decision: When I first started knitting, I selected projects that would teach me something new. That was easy to do when you start out knowing nothing, but I haven't pushed myself in the same way lately. For the next six months, I'd like to work on my finishing techniques. I'm going to scope out a good book, tutorial, or class, and apply what I learn to my projects.

Value: Aspirations
Goal: To knit an aspirational item
Decision: I will pick one pattern that I really love but that I would ordinarily think would take up too much time. I'll focus on ultimately having the lovely item and I won't let myself be turned off by the prospect of not having an FO for awhile. One candidate project is the Auburn Camp Shirt at 31 sts and 41 rows = 4" in wide seeded rib.

Value: Generosity
Goal: To knit at least one gift item even though Christmas is way, way, way off
Decision: I think I'll knit one of Craftyalien's incredibly cute critters for my cousin, who loves that stuff!

I think that covers it. Now, because red is supposed to be a lucky color for the new year, let me share with you my latest project:


This is a cropped version of the ubiquitous Tilted Duster. I'm following eyeloveit's clever mods to create a look-alike of this fabulous cropped cardi.

Celebrations, Part 1: Blogging is Fun

I have a lot of things to celebrate this month, so I thought I'd do a little series. My one-year blogiversary passed by (in December), but I missed it. I wanted to say thank you to those of you who stop by and read a little. I have never been able to figure out how to personally respond to comments on Blogger, but I appreciate all your sweet comments and helpful suggestions. I also wanted to say thank you to all of you who keep up a blog. I love going through and reading others' posts. I get inspired, learn things, nod my head a lot, laugh some, and on occasion, cry a little. I've gotten to know some very smart, creative, and gosh-darn nice people.

Many thanks to Lekkercraft for this award.


It made my day! Now it's my turn to pick 10 other blogs that make my day when I read them. This is very tough, because as I said, I read a lot of blogs and enjoy it. Here are some of the ones I frequent the most (um, I might have chosen 11 instead of 10).

A Mingled Yarn
Confessions of a Sociopathic Knitter
Knit Creations of a Curious Mind
Little Sesame Knits
Octopus Knits
Six One Seven
Skein Cocaine
Stitch Bitch
Superstarra-ville
Susie Cupcakes
Twisted Knitter

Here are the rules: Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times.