Archive for the ‘Jibber Jabber’ Category

Happy New Year!

I have gotten some knitting done since the last post.  The beret I was going to take pictures of have gone MIA, no clue as to where that thing is hiding.

I made some snowmen for mom for Christmas, but really that was the only knitted gift I gave this Christmas.  I am still working on the February Ladies Pullover.  Hit a little snag with the stitch count, but I am determined not to get fed up and just rip the whole thing out like I normally would.  I still haven’t reached waist shaping, I am going a little further than the instructions say before the waist shaping per some helpful soldiers on Ravelry.  Once I have made some headway I will start taking pictures.

Having mental health issues and having a son with some problems too makes life pretty difficult.  I am a single mom and some mornings I just wake up and want to go back to sleep.  Lose the day.  But I get up and go through the motions for my son more than anything else…so I am so thankful for him.  I love him more than life itself  but sometimes life itself get’s way.too.overwhelming!

So when I say I’ll do something, I will get to it.  Maybe some time after I say I’ll do it, but I do need to borrow my mom’s camera to get some FO and WIP pics.  Looking at the blog reminds me I hit a snafu with my bright as hell yellow socks, so I am thinking about picking those back up so that I can try to figure out where I am and why the hell I ever stopped knitting them!  Most of my other WIP’s I have ripped out.  I have decided one big project for now, and a couple of small ones.  No ‘I have 10 projects on the needles’ anymore…it feels helpless when I try to figure out where to go, which to work on, and I didn’t like that feeling.

So, New Years resolutions?  Getting back on the weight-loss train.  I have motivation from a dear friend of mine who I am doing friendly competition with him and some of his friends for a 12 week challenge.  I plan on WASTING everyone!  Tomorrow the games begin!  My only other resolution is to get rid of a lot of the miscellaneous skeins of yarn I have.  I don’t care where I got them, how much I spent on them, or anything.  I will look at each skein, assign it a project, or get rid of it.  I have enough yarn to last me a lifetime and it just sits in rubber bins and drawers while I can’t decide what I want to do.  Down the road I will have more money, and I will make more things.  I have enough yarn to get me through 3 years of knitting the slow-poke way I’m going.  It won’t take me as long to knit a sweater when I am 3 sizes smaller, so I will keep the sweater’s worth of various yarn.  One can only have so many hats, and gloves, and scarves.  I want to start knitting some drapey shawls but that will be yarn assigned for those pieces.  I just figure it’s about the only way I can make myself sane.  It is the one type of possession I have the most of out of anything, so it’s time to slooooow down and get rid of.  I am actually looking forward to the few coming weeks when I start the slow passage through all of my yarn!

Happy New Years to you and yours, should anyone be reading this.  Hope 2012 is a good year of looking up instead of down!

J

My Friday Favorite is busted, and blathering on about DPN’s

I will continue with my Friday Favorites starting up this next Friday.

I am working on Cookie A’s BFF socks, in some freakin sunshine bright yellow KP Palette (that appears to be discontinued because it’s not on the site).  Kinda bums me because I am 6 cables into the pattern and the yarn has just broken off in my hand 3 times.  I’m not fond of having to rip back, spit splice, and then reknit.  Luckily I can’t even see where I did the spit splicing, so it could be worse.  I love this pattern though, super easy, don’t have to look at the pattern once you get the first repeat done…so it’s nice TV knitting.

I don’t know if anyone else has this problem, but my fingers are killing me.  My pointer finger has a hole in it from all the other sock knitting I have been doing (going from one to the next hasn’t given it time to heal) and am starting to get one on my thumb from the purling.  I push the needle back when I am finishing a stitch.  I taught myself to knit so I don’t really know if I knit the right way.  But is there really a right way?  The right way seems to me to be the way that is most comfortable to you, but maybe there is a less painful way to do it.  I have been doing it this way for 7 years, and my hands are so used  to it.  I have tried other ways of knitting and it is wayyyy more awkward than it was even learning to knit.  How I hold the needles, the yarn…So I guess I should just buy stock in Band-Aid and quit my complaining.

I used to solely use bamboo DPN’s for any small-gauge knitting I had.  I finally realized that wasn’t going to work for me when I was working on the Lacey Vogue Gloves…I bent the HELL out of those bamboo needles (the ones I didn’t break).  If I just add a piece of thread, I have Barbie-sized bows.  It’s nice that they are flexible and all, but it’s hard to pick them up and start knitting with them again bent like that.  Metal needles, forget it.  They slide right out of my work, leaving all these stitches hanging loose.  I found these plastic DPN’s at JBW.  They have something inside them, I don’t know if it’s metal to give them weight and stability or what, but I have found that these work the best for me.  The stitches don’t slide off the needles, and the needles don’t bend.  Just pointy enough to get into tight spaces (and put holes in my fingers), but not too dull. So I think I am going to stick with these for the tiny gauge projects!

I have an FO, just an easy peasy hat that was a super quick knit and is heavenly soft.  Knit in Classic Elite Premiere in white, this is the Lotus Hat.  I wished I would have done one more repeat.  I am still debating whether I want to rip out the decreases and just do one more increase – I think I would get more use out of it.  SOOOO SOFT.  I loved knitting with it.  As with any cotton, it sucked the life out of my hands moisture out of my hands, but like I said before…soft.  So soft.  A great little hat to wear this summer with a tank and jeans.  Braided hair.  Cute!

OK, this cold makes me woozy and dizzy and I have bored myself to tears with this post.  Ta ta for now!

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My knitting time.

Where do I knit?  Let me count the places.  I knit in the grocery line (and many other lines), I knit at doctors offices, knit in traffic jams…

I always have a knitting project in my purse, and have no qualms about knitting in public.  I do knit a lot at home, too.  If I am watching TV, I can’t just sit there and watch.  I always have a knitting project close by when watching a movie or TV show.  I will knit on the bus while listening to podcasts.  I knit at lunch break (when I am gainfully employed).  I have no shame.  I knit at church!  I knit on picnics!  I knit at the BEACH.

I just love knitting, love how it relaxes me, love the process and the finished piece, whatever it may be.  And when I am working it doesn’t seem like I have a whole lot of time to knit – get off of work, pick the kiddo up, go home and make dinner, help said kiddo with homework, get him bathed and in bed.  If I don’t crash on the couch while waiting for a show to come on, I am usually to bed when I put my little guy to bed because I am plum beat.  So I am taking full advantage of being unemployed and knitting as much as possible; I think there will be withdrawals when I get back to work.  I am enjoying this time while I can…

I jokingly say I knit so I don’t kill people, but it really is, besides working out, one of the few things in my life I can do to let off steam since punching walls doesn’t seem appropriate and just too painful to express my feelings.  I imagine fixing those holes would be spendy too – I would rather spend that money on YARN!

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Where are they now?

Up to this point, most of the knitting I have done HAS been for other people. My first gifted item was for my Grandma.  Her neck and chin were always cold and I used Simply Soft (because that’s so warm and all) and knitted her some variation of a ribbed scarf.

I have gifted mostly hats and gloves, and I know that the matching beanie and fingerless gloves I made for my dad for Christmas 2 years ago hasn’t been worn once.  I appreciate that he knows all the work that goes into it, but dammit, WEAR IT, DADDY!

I have made my mom several hats and scarves and she wears them all the time instead of store-bought ones.  This last winter I made her a lacey pair of fingerless mitts and she adores those.  She is of the crafty persuasion also, so she really appreciates the time and effort that goes into knitting.  She also wears the heck outta her socks that I made her, that were the first socks I ever made.  She was honored to be the recipient of them.

The one gifted item that I think was the most appreciated were the socks I made for my son.  He loves them so much and wears them constantly and loves them so much.  He takes them off, bathes, and wants to put them right back on.  It blows me away that a 6 year old would love something like that so much, but oh man, he loooooves his socks.  There are definitely more in his future.

I have made numerous hats for my brother, winter gear for my son, they all get worn a lot.  I am lucky that my knitting is appreciated by the ones that receive them.  If they weren’t, I wouldn’t do it, of course.  I think 2011 is going to be the year of me, though.  I have many plans and am knitting my 3rd pair of socks, the first pair for me!

 

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A little bit of this, a little bit of that…

First off, Ravelry is crack.  The groups are crack.  The pattern library is crack.  The End.

No, seriously…I have joined so many “…-alongs” that I can’t keep track of.  They are great ways to destash, but I am going to have to figure out a way to reign it in and make it more manageable.  I joined a sock knit-along group, but absolutely hate hate hate the pattern they are doing, so I am intentionally skipping out on that one this month.  I also joined a mystery hat knit-along group, not to mention the stashdown groups, and the ones for completely UFO’s.  Oi.  I figure I will crank the hat out in a couple days, get rid of some bits of yarn I have laying around, and I as soon as I finished the kiddo’s socks, I cast on for a pair of my own.  This will be MY first pair for ME.  The yarn is..eh.  The pattern I think is better suited for other yarn, but I want to use this yarn and it’s so highly variegated I don’t know that any pattern would really suit it.  So I will just do this pair with this pattern, and tell you more about that the further I get.

I have recently acquired 3 sweaters worth of yarn.  I didn’t think that I had any other sweater’s worth, but turns out I have probably another 5 sweater’s worth, 6 or 7 if you include all that pretty blue merino I bought for the munchkin that he can’t wear.  Here is my dilemma though.  I have always been a chunky monkey, yes.  But I have been losing weight like it’s going out of style, and kind of want to get at a better place for my body before I start knitting myself clothing.  By the time I finish up a sweater for myself, it wouldn’t fit.  And I will NOT just make sweaters in a smaller size, hoping my body is going to stay the same as it is proportion-wise, just get tinier.  So I read, and dream, and keep drooling over some of this yarn that I can’t wait to use.  I am itching to use it, but refuse to on the grounds that I’m a single mom, that money does NOT grow on trees now matter how much I wish it, and that I will be really happy if I wait to use some of this yarn after I lose weight.  So socks, scarves, cowls, hats, toys…looks like those are all in my knitting future for the time being.  I am hoping that cotton fleece will work for munchkin, since 2 of the 3 colors I have really would look so good on him, and give me something substantial to work on.

So that’s where I am.  Oh, and if you have been telling yourself you are going to go the gym, or you are going to go take a walk tomorrow, or whatever your excuse is…stop making it and JUST DO IT.  I feel so much better.  The weight coming off isn’t even a factor right now.  It’s the energy, the taking better care of myself in other ways that just comes automatically, and the kiddo coming up and climbing in my lap laugh giggling hysterically because my thighs hurt.  I love it all and just really feel so much better overall. So if you aren’t gonna do it for yourself, do it for your kids.  They deserve it.

Hi ho, hi ho, to JBW I go.

I swear, that place is the devil for me.  I can spend hours in there easy, just petting yarn.  I bought enough yarn to make Arielle and it is dreamy and I can’t wait.  Except the thing is that I have to.  Just having a baby, my mom has been making some nice comfy dresses and tops for me to wear while I heal from my C-Section and had me measure my hips and bust yesterday.  DEPRESSING.  And too big for the largest size.  So I could knit it on larger needles or adjust the pattern using percentages, but I have decided that will be my one treat for myself when I have lost some weight.  I have already lost 10 lbs. and it has been just 2 weeks, so I can’t wait to see what I can do when I actually get the OK from the doc to start exercising.  I love love love that top but think I will love it even more when I have a better figure for it.

I have a couple of other things on the needles, I am currently knitting Askel for my son.  I am about 8  inches into the body.  I am knitting that in a 100% superwash merino in a great royal blue.  I am omitting the stripes because I want it to be a little more versatile.  Little man is so excited about it and I am LOVING the neverending stockinette.  I know that drives some people batty but I can knit in the dark, at the movies, wherever and I don’t have to think and it’s so damn soothing.

I am also working on my FIRST shawl using Noro Kureyon Sock for the FIRST time.  I just started it tonight.  I bought the Noro today at JBW…it was on sale and I figured it was now or never that I would be able to see what the hype with Noro is.  It is scratchy as hell, which reading I had already expected it, so I didn’t want socks.  I figured a shawl would be good, so I am knitting Multnomah because I love the way Noro stripes with that pattern.  I am pretty excited about it.

I started a couple of other things but they are things I am really going to wait on.  I ripped out what I had already started for both other projects because they are more form fitting so once again, I want to be able to wear them and feel good so I am waiting.  I have been listening like crazy to the Stash and Burn podcast, and they were talking about Space Girl, and I have some gray Cotton Fleece that will look great with it, I think I am going to do it in a short sleeve to layer.  I figure that is something that can still work even if it is a little bigger.  Damn cute sweater.  So after I finish my son’s sweater, I am going to cast on for Space Girl.

I have also joined the Sock Stash Knitdown 2011 in the Stash and Burn Ravelry group.  My first project is going to be the Multnomah shawl that I JUST BOUGHT SOCK YARN for, but nevermind that.  I have a pair of socks on the needles, plus a couple of babies on the way that I am going to knit this cute sock and hat set for newborns, and I have some socks I just won’t knit socks with, so that’s where that will go.

I have also decided that when I don’t have a ‘thrown in my bag brainless knitting’ I am going to grab some of my softer acrylic yarn and circs and make a shit-ton of baby hats to bring to the local hospital.  That charity project warms my heart more than any other does, and it makes me happy, so that is something I can do to help and get rid of some yarn that I won’t be using for anything else.  Lots of my other non-baby acrylic is going to go to a local nursing home.  I am over the acrylic, have been over it, just haven’t taken the time to go through the tons and tons and tons of yarn that I have.  I really need to though, because getting rid of it is going to make me feel good.  I could keep maybe 7 or 8 skeins for the baby hats, and the rest is outta here.  Just thinking about it makes me feel better and less cluttered.

So anyways, that’s it.  I have decided that I am going to get 2 more books, and the new IK (the Spring ’11 one…it’s the best one I have ever seen, I ADORE it and want it right now), and I’m done with yarn and yarn-related purchases for quite a while.  I have enough knitting to keep me busy for ages, and I just want to start getting through it!

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Life in general

My life was sort of turned upside down in June, and then even worse in October, with the finale the middle of January.  The last 6-7 months have definitely been the worst of my life.  I have had to deal with things I never thought I would have to, have had to make decisions I never thought I would need to, and have dealt with loss I never could ever fathom.

I have always related to people that say that knitting has kept them sane, has been therapeutic, etc., but I have never really truly understood that until now.  I have always said that I knit so that I don’t kill people, and it’s been something that makes people chuckle, but I feel that if I were to say that now, I might scare people because I won’t  be able to laugh when I say it.  Not that I have been close to murdering anyone, but my emotions have been so very close to the surface and I feel on the verge of losing it sometimes.  Frequently.  Postpartum depression tops it all off, and makes for one crazy gal.

I relate now more than ever to the comment that knitting has helped me stay sane.  Has helped me keep it together.  I feel like when I am pulling loop through loop that I am accomplished, productive, or it just keeps me from thinking about the things that make me super anxious or sad.  The never-ending stockinette on the sweater I am working on for my son, which would usually lead me to cast on something a bit more interesting, has been my savior.  Knit, knit, knit, round after round.  I made the biggest size I could, it will probably even last him this winter/spring and next because of the size, but that stockinette soothes me like nothing else can right now.  No medication, no prayers, no nothing.  One might say my faith is not strong enough, but right now I am taking relief and comfort where I can get it, because it seems to come so infrequently these days.

Podcasts have been helping me get through my evenings and nights, also.  When I go to bed my brain won’t stop, and it’s the only thing that keeps me from crying myself to sleep.  I fall asleep listening to the comforting voices of Jazmine, Gigi, Jackie, Nicole, Jenny, and Brenda.  Thank you, ladies, for making my nights easier and falling asleep without struggle.

If I see a little manic in this blog, that is perhaps why.  It is something else that is distracting what I inevitably have to deal with, but won’t do until I feel like I am able to.  There are a couple things that need to happen before I can even think about that happening, including some physical healing and getting my son and some issues that have come up with him straightened out.  Once that happens, I work on me.  My  mental state, and working on learning how to deal with life and the things that come up, because I know that this is not the last rough patch I will have, and not the last stumbling block that will stand in my way.  I can only be the best person I can be, and most importantly the best mother that I can be, if I can get my brain sorted out and learn to deal with things.  This year WILL be better than last year.  I WILL get my shit together, I WILL be able to deal with whatever comes my way.

If there is anyone else struggling right now, here is to the light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how far down that tunnel it might be, and for life getting a little easier for you.

Until next time,

J

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Knitting while under the influence.

I guess I didn’t stop to figure out how I am supposed to knit with the attention span of a gnat.  Percoset does that to a gal, I guess.  I did decide on a sweater, finally.  Strangely (ok, not so strangely maybe) I ended up picking something totally not on that list from my last post, but one I have been wanting to knit for quite a while.  Shalom!  Need I say more?  I am actually making it a cardigan, with either long sleeves or 3/4 length.  I am on my last of the 3 increases and twisted rib sections.  That’s when I think things will get tricky just because mindless knitting is my friend right now.  I am using the Berroco Vintage that was originally purchased for the Metro Cardigan, but it likes this project much better I think.  It is turning out beautifully!

I don’t know why I am bound and determined to not just knit this as the pattern states, and modify it heavily, but these are modifications that have already been used, so hopefully it will work out as I have it in my head.

Ig  haven’t hardly been doing any knitting.  Just a few rows here and there til my eyes are crossing and I pass out mid-stitch.  I will get some pictures when I get home, which will hopefully be tomorrow!

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Indecisiveness is killing me!

I have  sweaters worth of Cotton Fleece that I can use.  I have some other various yarns that could make me a vest or short sleeve pullover or cardy or something.  I am going to have surgery and will be off my feet for a couple weeks at least and I want to bring this knitting with me to the hospital and get going on something substantial since I will have the TIME.  I have spent about 6 hours total going through Ravelry, flip flopping back and forth, trying to decide if the Cotton Fleece is going to work for this sweater, or that sweater (my main concern is it stretching and pulling because of the cotton in it…it’s weight is it’s own enemy).  There are so many beautiful patterns out there, I just can’t decide.  I have (I think) narrowed it down to:

Ditto

Oblique

Sundrop Cropped Cardigan (a non-cropped version)

This version of the Tree Jacket (which I happen to have that same yarn, colorway for)

Primrose Path (love the assymetrical goodness in this, I just don’t know if I have a good yarn for it)

Olivette (if I could figure out how to knit this in worsted it would probably be my pick)

Cece

Eastlake

Ogunquit

Badia

Dunedin Vest (love, LOVE, LOVE this – I am not sure I have the rght kind of yarn in my stash though)

Diamonique

Vine Lace Vest

Damned Twist Collective does not make my choices either.  They have so many pretty designs and it took me forever just to decide on the few that I did from there.  Then you have the IDP’s from KnitPicks, and the patterns from Webs…grrr.  It’s different when I am at home and can just dig through my books, mags, and yarn…but I think the reason I am SO indecisive is because what I bring I have to work on, or not knit at all, which will drive me nutty.  Granted it would probably be 2-3 days tops I’m there, but I knit every day.  I’m not much of a TV watcher and I think watching judge shows all day would make me crazy!

Right now Olivette and Sundrop Cardigan are at the top of my list, with Sundrop winning because I have SEVERAL yarns I know I have enough of to knit it.  Who knows.  In 2 minutes I might change my mind, so I will just stop now.

My brother’s friend that got the Vogue gloves received them today and LOVES them.  What a relief.  She actually lives in Central California, but is leaving tomorrow on vacation to New York (which I didn’t even know about!) and so the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

That’s about it, really.  I have been listening to podcasts like crazy and just trying to stay off my feet.  I have a pair of socks I am working on but I haven’t knitted on them in 2 days because I haven’t been feeling so hot.  I will probably work on them some tonight (just a plain 2×2 rib, on the heel flap of sock #1) and probably get at least the first sock done before I go in the hospital.

That’s about it.  I babbled about all the sweaters I want to knit yesterday, I feel like that is all this post is about.  It’s all the knitting I have been doing the last couple days though!  Drooling in indecisiveness!

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I have been in bed for 3 hours and can’t sleep!

OK, that was my bitch.  I am done.

I am trying to start-up a new non-knitting related site and holy crap.  I tried to go with a new webhost, and I am kicking myself in the ass for it.  I have been futzing around with the thing for 2 hours and I would like to think of myself as pretty computer savvy, but holy crap this thing is giving me a headache.  I can’t even upload FOLDERS to the damn site…files, yes, folders with 200+ files, not so much.  I am sure part of the prob is that I am tired, emotionally wrecked right now, and tomorrow is a busy day.  Argh.

In happy news…I am still working on the Jaywalkers and am to the heel flap now.  I can’t believe how quick it’s going on those small, small needles.  I suppose having to wait an hour for a glucose tolerance test would help get it done, but I am excited to get it done.  The pooling has now turned into actual a thick stripe following the pattern, so that makes me excited.  We will see if it adjusts itself again after the heel flap.  I am so enjoying this knit.

That’s about it.  I am going to TRY to crash.  We shall see!

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