Hi, I just got your email. I can't think of why my emails aren't getting through, how frustrating! Here is my answer to your original email.

My favorite books include:
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arther Golden (I could be wrong about his name)
She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb
I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb (LOVE that book)
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey (this is tied for top favorite w/ Angela's Ashes & I Know This Much Is True)

Nope, I don't have pierced ears. I had a few piercings in my ears years and years ago, but I kept forgetting to keep studs in so the holes closed up. :) I love your signature quotes by the way!

Labels: swap

Once upon a time, I made a sock using Cookie A.’s Monkey pattern. It was supposed to be for me, but it ended up fitting my four year old daughter. Today, I did the opposite.

Whilst browsing the selection on the 50% off shelf at my LYS, I found Mountain Colors handpainted yarn - a $30 value - for 50% off. It was in very cute feminine colors and I had to have it for my daughter. There was only one skein, so I chose a small project - the Anthropologie-Inspired Capelet - and attempted to make it in a child’s size.

I just finished the capelet and tried it on my four year old. She looks very cute in it, but really, it fits me better. I thought she would be at least a teenager before we started fighting over clothes, but It Has Begun.

Anyway, the yarn is beautiful and I loved this quick & easy project. I didn’t have DPNs or a circular needle in the right size, so I did a crochet bind-off and then added a triple crochet border around the arms. I still have yarn leftover...I might make a little headband or kerchief for Faustina. It's so pretty and I can't believe I snagged it for 50% off!!! Days later I found a post on Ravelry from someone who had just paid $32, and I spent $14.50.

Here are some pictures:






I had actually gone to the yarn store to buy yarn for Catherine. I decided to make her Easter dress, too, using the same pattern that I'm using for Faustina. My mom came with me to help me choose colors, and also fabric for the girls' skirts. I found some pretty light blue yarn for Catherine. It will look very cute against her blue eyes, pink cheeks, and sandy blonde hair.

We went to the fabric store afterwards and found some extremely cute fabric for both girls. I'll have to post pictures later...I don't think I can wait until the fabric has been transformed into skirts. :) Faustina's fabric has varying shades of pink in teeny delicate swirls, with a little bit of gold detail. Catherine's fabric has light blue circles and swirls on a white background. They are going to look so adorable. Hopefully I'll have them finished in time.

Labels: FO, knit, LYS, photos

There isn't a local yarn store here in town, so I visited my local-ish yarn store: Frog Eye Fiber Emporium in Winchester. To make a long story short, I am in love. To get to the shop, you have to drive down a long narrow road, passing fields full of sheep and cows. The shop itself is attached to a house and the building is extremely cute.

Before I walked into the building, I knew exactly what I wanted: one skein of variegated sock yarn. When I walked in, I was greeted immediately by the woman working there, who had been chatting with a customer. Both of them were decked out in hand-knit garments, right down to the socks. After I'd been browsing through the shelves and shelves of yarn, the other customer commented that there is so much to take in. I told her that I'd known just what I wanted to buy until I'd walked into the store. The other customer looked at me knowingly and said, "Ahhh, you must be a real knitter, then."

I don't know if you've read The Velveteen Rabbit, but I felt like the rabbit when the garden fairy finally made him real. Is that dorky? Nevermind, I know it's dorky, but I don't care. I went to the LYS and the yarn fairy turned me into a real knitter.

I did eventually choose some sock yarn. First I went for brightly-colored self-striping yarn with a lot of red and bright blue. I was on my way to the check-out when I realized I don't own a single thing that would match those socks; most of my shirts are in shades of green or brown. I looked at the sock yarn once more and was taken in by some beautiful variegated green yarn.



While I'd been drooling over this yarn, the employee had gotten a phone call. While I waited for her to finish, I looked at the 50% off rack and found some beautiful handpainted yarn in shades of pink. It reminded me of Faustina, who, like many four year old girls, is in love with the color pink. I considered buying it but couldn't think of anything to make with one skein of this yarn. Then, I was suddenly struck by the idea of making a spring-y shawl or sweater for Faustina, but I didn't have a pattern. Once the employee was finished on the phone she helped me find a pattern, then we scoured the shelves for the perfect yarn. I finally selected a soft cotton yarn in a very pretty shade of pink. It didn't photograph well here, but here is my progress on her sweater so far:



I have decided to make an Easter outfit for Faustina, using this sleeveless sweater as the top half. I'm going to sew a flow-y skirt for the bottom - you know, because I'm so good at sewing, and I definitely don't have a hundred billion other things projects to finish.

Speaking of my other projects, here is a shot of my Garter Stitch Cardigan, just to give you an idea of the colors I'm using.

Labels: knit, LYS, photos, WIP, yarn

Today I added Progress Bars to the right sidebar and when I looked at it for the first time, I realized why I am always feeling a bit overwhelmed. It is because I have eighty billion projects going on at the same time. Methinks it's time to put some of them into hibernation.

If you're a knitter, you've probably heard of The Sweater Curse - if you make a sweater for your boyfriend, the relationship is doomed to failure. In my case, the REAL sweater curse is that I can not make a *&#$!&@ sweater to save my life.

I have been looking for some new pattern books, and while our library doesn't have a great selection, they did have a cute book called Knitting For Baby. It's geared towards beginners, so all the patterns are simple (but still explained to death). Perfect! Despite my recent foray into yarn snobbery, I decided to buy cheap-o acrylic yarn for this project, because:

• I wanted to start RIGHT NOW! and didn't have time to wait for good yarn to be shipped to me.
  
• I do not want to handwash my baby's clothes.
  
• Along the lines of #2, I would cry a river if my little chubby baby exploded and got poop all over a lovely handknit wool outfit. The very thought makes me feel a little woozy.
  
• Acrylic is cheaper and my husband is starting to think I spend too much money on yarn. The very thought!
  

I chose a cute garter stitch sweater (easy!) that required minimal seaming (no seaming is better, but I might as well learn sometime). I recently had some trouble making a sweater for Catherine - in essence, the sweater fit her doll but wouldn't go over Catherine's head, and repeated attempts to make the same sweater ended in similar tragedy - I decided to go up not one, but two needle sizes for Augustine's baby sweater. Not only that, I decided to knit the 24-month size. Apparently, going up two needle sizes and three sweater sizes is like taking Advil and Percocet for the same pain. The sweater was hideously oversized. It would fit Augustine eventually, of course, but because I had noticed the size problem early on, I frogged it and started over. The second time around went well, except that I realized (too late, of course) that I had used the wrong needles. Crud! Frogged again. With high hopes, because, of course, the third time is a charm, I cast on AGAIN and was well into the stripe pattern, knitting merrily along and noticing with exuberance that my gauge was spot-on and this sweater would actually fit my baby!

And then, I broke THE cardinal law of knitting: DON'T LEAVE YOUR KNITTING WHERE LITTLE HANDS CAN REACH IT!!!! I don't think I need to explain how my lovely work in progress turned into a sad little pile of yarn noodles. Sigh.

Labels: knit

I never thought I would have my own knitting blog. Seriously, I didn't see this coming. But here I am, having succumbed to the overwhelming force of knitting bloggery.

When I was pregnant with my first child, I worked as a paraeducator in a public high school. I worked one-on-one with one of the students in the special education department. One day, "my" student's mom visited the classroom with yarn and crochet hooks in tow. She was there to teach one of my coworkers to crochet, and I asked her to teach me, too. She sent me home that evening with a crochet hook and a ball of acrylic yarn. My first granny square, if it could be called that, was a somewhat octagon-ish blob that I wouldn't even use as a washrag. When I brought my disaster to work the next day, my instructor told me that she hadn't taught me correctly. When she showed me again, I was able to pick up the craft right away. I got to work on a baby blanket for my future son, who was due to arrive about four months from when I learned to crochet. It took me about four months to finish the blanket, so it worked out well. :) It was just a simple project: I used blue and yellow acrylic yarn and a size G hook. It took me forever because I was still getting used to crocheting, but I got faster as time went on.

Over the next few years, I was responsible for making a lot of UFOs (unfinished objects) but I also created some nice things. I designed and crocheted a little summer outfit for my daughter, who was about 7 months old at the time. I also designed some newborn baby pants, which I promptly lost and haven't seen since. I even made a brief foray into a crocheted soaker (diaper cover) business, which didn't get far after I realized just how much work I'd have to put into dying and crocheting my own soakers on a deadline. Later that same summer, I followed a free online pattern and made a toy dog. I entered it into our county fair and won first prize - a whopping $2.50!!! I felt a little silly claiming such a small prize, but I was proud that I won first place when I had such worthy competition, including an exquisitely pieced Piglet toy.

After that, I gave up on crochet for a while. I was a little bored with it, and felt limited in what I could make. I really wanted to learn to knit, but I didn't know any knitters, nor could I find a good resource that made sense to me. It wasn't until Ravelry came along late last year until I felt compelled to break out my yarn stash and start creating again. I crocheted some toys to give to my children as Christmas gifts. I was really aching to make a sweater, but I wasn't happy with the look of the crocheted sweaters I found on Ravelry. I LOVED the way the knit sweaters looked, and I finally decided that I had to learn how to knit. I ordered a copy of Debbie Stoller's book and used that, in conjunction with KnittingHelp.com (a wonderful resource, by the way) to learn everything I needed to know. My first knit project was a fuzzy pink scarf, and I'm currently working on a sweater for my youngest daughter.

And that's my history. You will probaby never again see a post this long in my blog. :)

Here are some pictures of my FOs (finished objects):

Faustina's Doll


Scottie Dishcloth (converted from a knitting pattern)


Wavy Scarf


Max's Robot


My first knit project


Prize-Winning Puppy


Newborn pants


Extremely warm chenille blanket


Long & Skinny scarf


My second finished knit project

Labels: crochet, knit, photos