Yarn Is Life

I've moved!

2010-02-28T18:46:00.003-05:00

Greetings! I've just finished moving my blog to http://yarnislife.wordpress.com. I was able to retroactively post all the material from this site over there. I think using WordPress will be an improvement for my blogging and I hope there will be those who follow me there! I'll file this blog under FO cuz I'm all done with it. It's been a pleasure, blogspot!

Olympics and whatnot

2010-02-16T12:54:00.005-05:00

I had started a post in January and saved it as a draft, then never got back to it. It had a little bit about my crafty goals for the year. I guess it's good that I didn't publish it, because I failed on all my goals for January! Well, except for finishing my January socks(rav). I'm not disappointed, though. I'm in the middle of a very busy spring.
I took a Wilton cake decorating class. It had its complications, but I enjoyed it overall. Then my bosses at work promptly asked me to bake a cake for our department when someone got a promotion. I was extremely nervous. I ended up baking two, to have enough for everyone. Despite my inexperience I'm rather pleased with them. Everything went over very well when I brought them to work, too.
I used a pattern for "no wrap short row" socks from The Big Book of Socks for my January sock-a-month pair. I like the method, but I think I want to learn regular short rows as well. I'm still content with plain stockinette socks, which I know some people think is crazy. I'll get around to pretty patterns and whatnot, but right now I enjoy the simplicity and repetition.
I put off starting my February pair (for no reason in particular). Then I realized that the Olympics were about to start. I had been kicking around the idea of joining the Ravelympics, but never signed up. Then I read that Stephanie Pearl-McPhee was going ahead with her own Knitting Olympics and I decided that was the perfect low-key way for me to challenge myself. It will be a challenge for me to finish these socks, having skipped the first half of the month. So I cast on during the [BEAUTIFUL] opening ceremony, and have been enjoying the sock and the Games ever since.
Here are my goals for 2010:

sock a month - learn tons of techniques, use lots of great yarn.
hat a month - because I would anyway.
read bad books - I want to read a knitting murder mystery, a knitting romance, and "A Good Yarn" by Debbie Macomber.
read good books - I read the first chapter of Knitting Without Tears last month and it was seriously ROFL.
twitter - I started a quotey Twitter account for the funny/awesome quotes I read.

A few of my other goals include making the DIY sock blocker(rav), preferably before I finish my February socks(rav). I also need to finish my awesome Amazon woman(rav). Right now I also have on the needles a hat(rav) with which I'm convinced I'll use to teach myself continental style. It's slow going, but I think I can get the hang of it. In the meantime, my February socks are being knit English.
I'm trying to take it easy on the goals since I have a class this spring that I really need to focus on. But I'm so excited! So much yarn, so little time, as they say. For a few weeks I met up with a really great local yarning group but my work/school schedule changed with my class and I had to put that on hold. I look forward to meeting back up with them! My life is sorely lacking in knitting fellowship, and it was so lovely.

2009 in yarn

2010-01-01T20:13:00.024-05:00

Some highlights from this past year:

I puttered with these toe-up socks for quite awhile. I never did end up with a complete pair, but the practice did wonders for my sock knitting skills. I only learned to knit socks around the holidays last year, so as far as I'm concerned, I'm doing all right. This yarn is so lovely I'll probably frog these toe-up ones to make a pair that will actually get use.

This little penguin was a whole lot of fun. Definitely helped me get the hang of amigurumi.

Probably my biggest accomplishment of 2009: the wedding "tapestry" I made for my brother and sister-in-law. I gave it to them in a frame, which they hung in their house.

I came dreadfully close to losing this pair to second sock syndrome. This was the first project to take a hit when I went through that bummed out dry spell I had. But now that they're finished, I wear these socks all the time.

This was my favorite gift I made this Christmas. I stayed up most of Christmas Eve finishing the arms and legs.

Total hats this year: 13
Total socks: 9 (2 pairs, 1 baby pair, 1 baby single, 2 toe up singles.)

Bring on the new year

2009-12-25T21:33:00.005-05:00

I ended up knitting (or crocheting, of course) something for nearly everyone in my family this year. Most things went smoothly and were finished in plenty of time. I even did two quick projects for myself (Yummy Hat and Way Opens scarf). Although, and I'm sure there are lots who have this problem, my grandma is so difficult to get gifts for. Every year, for her birthday and Christmas, I struggle trying to think of something to get her. So Monday it struck me to just make her something cute, something that had no real purpose except to be nice and lovely. So Monday I started making her a crocheted teddy bear (ravelry). Of course I could have gotten it done even by Christmas Eve, except that this week was busy, and I was running out of steam from crafting so much for the holiday. That's how I felt making all those scarves, exhausted. So I didn't go to bed Christmas Eve, I got to making the arms and legs for the bear, having finished the body and scarf before I got to my dad's. Around one in the morning my hand was hurting and I was tired, so I took a nap until 4:30, and finished the bear at 6:30. In the morning. This is exactly how I used to pull all-nighters in school: work, nap, work til deadline. I won't pretend I'm not proud of myself. And really, it's a very cute bear. I'll have pictures up on the Ravelry page soon. Best of all, I really think my grandma liked it. She seemed delighted, so I totally don't mind how much I've been yawning today.
Oh, also, my dad got me The Opinionated Knitter by EZ, which makes him a total badass.
Merry Christmas, Internet!

Holiday Progress

2009-11-30T20:03:00.004-05:00

For Thanksgiving I headed up to Buffalo, New York, from Baltimore. I was really excited at all the knitting time in the car since I wouldn't be driving. I packed a backpack full of yarn and made sure I wouldn't run out of projects. But we left at two in the afternoon on Wednesday, so it was only a few hours before it got too dark to knit. Or even read. I was pretty devastated. How could I not have seen that coming? The sun sets so early. I was really going crazy. I tried to knit in the dark but ended up making a stitch (don't ask me how). Then I tried to knit by the light of my Nintendo DS, but that got annoying. Let's just say it was a long drive.

So on the way back, I went in search of a light. I got a book light at a grocery store. It was overpriced, but seriously worth it. So here's a shoutout to the GE LED Book Light (part #17205), plus here's how to turn it into a knit light. I now keep it among my essential crafting tools, like my cable needles, scissors, and crochet hooks.

I did get plenty of knitting done, though. I'm working on Christmas presents for my family. I'd say I got somewhere between ten and twelve hours of knitting done Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I got the vast majority of a scarf done and I finished it last night. But now I have to make a matching one; different yarn, same stitch. I think they'll be nice, but it can be so boring. I'll be making two more scarves, but definitely crocheting them. I got the first scarf done in exactly seven days, I'd like to have the second done by the end of this week (we'll see). Then I need to knock out the other two asap. Plus I'm designing a hat, but that will only take one night. It took a few hours to design and make a prototype last night, so I'm fairly confident.
I'm chugging along steadily and trying not to get overwhelmed with all my own plans. I figure if I can keep it simple and just keep at it, I can get this all done. I've already got stuff for my parents totally finished, which is a relief.
Lastly, I'm taking a cake decorating class next month! I'm actually pretty excited about it. Very basic, and at the local Jo-Ann. I think it'll be great.

Surprise Christmas

2009-11-09T19:58:00.003-05:00

Ok, so I wrote in here the other day how I haven't knitted in a while because I've been really bummed lately. It's actually been almost two months since I crafted at all, but things are getting better, and last night I knit a few rows. I'd decided not terribly long ago that I wouldn't be making anything for anyone this holiday season. Until yesterday my mom tells me that her side of the family is having a homemade Christmas. UMMM...yeah. Good thing I'm on my way out of this funk, because I'm making hats for a bunch of cousins, and scarves for two. So I just went on a quick binge shopping to A. C. Moore and JoAnn. Added a handful of new stash to my Ravelry.

Yum!

2009-11-08T09:34:00.005-05:00

I just discovered the Laughing Yaffle site from an ad on Ravelry. I think that if I don't get a hank of that sock yarn RIGHT NOW, I might completely DIE. Look at "Electrify" under "bright shades." I need to save up monies, but I'm just dying to order it. I might EXPLODE.

ETA: I almost bought it when I read that she doesn't dye repeat colorways. I'd be willing to pay the £10 for the yarn,that's no big deal to me. Even the £3 to wind the hank into a ball, even though that would be free with any purchase at a LYS around here. But I simply can't deal with the £12 to ship from the UK to US. That's almost twenty bucks. I could ship something like that for less than six bucks here. Damn!

Goals

2009-11-02T18:37:00.002-05:00

I've decided my goal for next year is to make a pair of socks per month. That would be really awesome. I got the idea this morning from someone on Ravelry. I believe it's called "sock a month" or something. Very cool, anyway. But it does depend on whether I finish the aforementioned Evil Thing That Must Be Finished, or if it haunts me into spring. We'll see. I haven't knit in weeks, which really sucks, but I've been really down, so I'm not really itchin' to get the sock back out.

What a crock

2009-10-14T14:54:00.002-04:00

So I'd said that I could use this blogspace for things other than my yarncraft, including cooking/baking, so I thought I'd start off this tangent with a few examples of why I should never be allowed in a kitchen. Ever.
The first happened when I first moved into my current apartment over the summer. This place has a gas stove, all my other apartments have been electric, although someone told me that that's not the issue. See, every stove I've ever had, I could use the bottom drawer (some might call it a "broiler") as storage for pots and pans. (But like I said, someone told me that they used to have a gas stove that they could store things in the bottom. I'm just sayin'.) Well, the first time I went to cook some fish in this new gas stove, I set a small fire. The pots and pans in the broiler were right under the fire that heats the stove, so the plastic caught fire (I'm serious, it didn't melt, it caught fire). It smelled awful. My cat became very curious at the burning plastic aroma, so I had to throw him in my room and shut the door. The smoke alarm went off, and it doesn't STFU until the smoke is gone. Let me tell you, it is an awful, awful feeling when you turn off the stove but can still see a fire in the bottom. I didn't call 911, which is what I should have done. I called my mom, crying, and she brought two friends over to help. By the time they got there, the fire died out, but my mom called 911 anyway. As she put it, "I never realized how tiny your apartment was until three huge firemen were standing in it." Everything was fine, the fire stayed in the broiler, and all I had to do was get some new pots and pans. It was embarrassing to hear the sirens, though, knowing they were coming for me.
I think the main point of this story is that I'm terrified of my stove now. I'm usually really reluctant to use it. The first time I used it after the fire (and after having it checked by maintenance), I paced back and forth, phone in hand. But I'm getting a lot more calm about it now.
Anyway, I have an album over on my Flickr called Cookishness, where I post my wins and fails. My best, of course, was the rainbow cake. I'm getting really into cake decorating, and I'm a huge fan of Cake Wrecks. In fact, I made some oversized cupcakes Monday so that I could practice a Wreckplica for when the book tour comes to Bethesda. I'll have pictures posted of that soon. Fondant is hard to work with! I need lots of practice.
In other crafty news, I haven't been knitting or crocheting much lately. I have this thing that I need to get done, and it's a real struggle. I think I'm punishing myself by not knitting until it's done, so I might be on hiatus for a while. What's that they say...I think I can, I think I can?

It Itches

2009-09-20T09:14:00.003-04:00

Update on that Debbie Mumm Traditions yarn. I finished off the cute little cabled wristband. I really think I picked the best section of colors for it. It goes from the blue to a little purple, to the deep red. I even blocked it and not a speck of color came out, which I thought was excellent news considering all the comments on Ravelry. The next day I wore it....and it itched. I had to take it off because it was bugging me. A few hours later I put it back on and did better that time. I found that if I adjusted it just a little every once in a while. Much more tolerable, but I'm still disappointed. The yarn feels pretty soft, but it definitely wasn't ideal for being right on my skin.
And since I have this particular title, I thought I'd say a few words about the book by Franklin Habit. I read it shortly after it was released, and most of the little cartoons are funny and/or cute. They're certainly not ROFL-worthy like Stephanie Pearl-Mcphee's books, but I did enjoy the book.

Yarn Carnage Disappointment

2009-09-17T17:42:00.002-04:00

So I picked up some Debbie Mumm "Traditions" yarn last week (or the week before that) because the colorway was extraordinary and it actually felt soft. But then, of course, I come home and just about everyone on Ravelry hates it with a passion. I've used it for a couple tiny projects and I definitely agree that it's not great. It has a core, so the outer bit of the yarn moves around. The core also has a tendency to curl up like wire. Like those old pipe cleaners from elementary school, but slightly more flexible. So clearly I won't be using it for anything bigger than the cabled wrist band I've got on the needles now. Some of the Ravelry comments also said that the dye washes out a bit when it gets wet. I'm hoping it only washes out the first time and that it's not drastic, but I guess we'll see.
The main reason I wanted to try the Traditions yarn after walking past it so many times in Jo-Ann was because the colorway was beautiful like Noro, but I hate Noro. I was so surprised to actually touch Noro and find that it's scratchy as hell, especially because I've heard that so many folks love it to death. I have no use for a wool as scratchy as Noro, no matter how beautiful it is. But I guess the same goes for Traditions, no time for it if it turns out to be more trouble than it's worth.

Almost

2009-09-05T21:05:00.007-04:00

Originally uploaded by Junemrc

Here's the story: I started a sock on the way to Rams Head On Stage in Annapolis and a few rows in I literally gasped, "I have a sock and I'm going to meet someone famous!" I was thinking of this Yarn Harlot post, not realizing it relates only to meeting politicians. My mom and I were headed to a Dar Williams concert, where we were going to meet aforementioned Dar Williams, because my mom knows someone close to her. My mom made me take the sock to the concert with me, but I was barely an inch into the cuff, so I refused to do the geektastic thing and have Dar take a picture with it. It barely resembled a sock. Although, I did have my GoKnit bag on my wrist when I got a picture with her, but it was cut out. Heh. Oh well. She's not a politician anyway. I still got to see an absolutely fantastic show, and meet a total sweetheart of a folk superstar.

We interupt this craftblog to bring you a PSA

2009-09-03T07:51:00.002-04:00

Just say nyerhe! to nuffbaiting. Commentroversy is exhausting.

The whole thing is madness (post and comments), but I'll be the first to say: I named my orange marmie Julius because I loves me some kitten smoothies.

Sneaking Up

2009-08-27T21:30:00.004-04:00

I have a crazy busy weekend ahead of me and I'm definitely not ready for it, but luckily there should be a good bit of knitting time. Tomorrow I'm going to a concert with my mom but between work and leaving I'll have time to pop into Spinster for one of those GoKnit bags. Not that I'll be knitting at the concert, of course. So after a late night rocking out (I use that phrase loosely), my mom and I are leaving early Saturday morning for a family thing, so lots of knitting for me in the car. Right now I'm a row and a half away from finishing the beanie I started yesterday. And I would just like to say, I think I have a record-low as far as WIPs right now. I have a few hibernating and the toe-up sock collection to figure out, but I'm pretty pleased with my project management right now.

Stash Management

2009-08-26T14:14:00.009-04:00

I really do want to make something of this blog. It's been in limbo for so long. I'm not a particularly prolific crafter, or writer for that matter, so I frequently question having this. But part of why I abandoned it was because when I was younger I had, like, three or four separate blogs, none of which I updated much. I've since grown wiser and less self-absorbed, and I've deleted most of them.
So it comes down to this: I want to blog meaningfully about my crafting, because it's so meaningful to me. I post on Flickr and Ravelry. I keep up with a few choice crafting blogs, and what I admire about them is that they're not always only about their crafts, but cooking, and the rest of the authors' lives too. So many I should try to branch out in that way. I want to make something of this tiny space on Teh Internets.
So, I'll start now.
My knitting life has become infinitely sexier since I learned to make socks. I just finished my first matching pair the other day, and then I made matching baby socks with the leftover. I'd started with toe-up, and I'm fascinated by the Turkish cast on, but I think I like cuff-down better. That's how I did the pair I just finished, and the baby socks. But man do I have messed up gauge. No matter what, as I progress through a project, especially by the leg of the second sock, my gauge gets tighter. I even abandoned a pair in progress for a while and the second still managed to be smaller than it should have been. I don't know what the deal is. I am, however, going to be switching my needles from size 1 to 0 (except for cast on and first few rows) because I read in a Stephanie Pearl-Mcphee book that socks are more sturdy the tighter they are. I think she said they'd last longer? I'm not sure, I should find the passage again to understand fully.
Today I was trying to clean out my stash and get rid of the leftovers of bad yarn. Don't ask me why I kept a few ounces each when I'd used up most of it and didn't like the yarn. So I finally just tossed them in the trash. I finished up a plant sling for my petunias, I'm mostly pleased with it. I really just threw it together so I don't have great expectations for its longevity. I had convinced myself that I need to finish some projects before starting a new one. What I want to start is another pair of socks, in Patons Kroy FX. I picked it up on a great sale last week, I'm betting it will knit up to a beautiful pair. A big part of me, however, is leaning toward crocheting something. I don't crochet much anymore, and it was my first love. I should find something exciting and challenging.

I love Ravelry

2008-08-22T10:40:00.003-04:00

I deleted almost all the posts on this blog, but I'm not deleting the whole thing.
I plan on publishing the few patterns I've designed on here and adding them to ravelry. That will make me feel special. I don't have many and I'm sure there are tons like the ones I've come up with, but still. We'll see.

reckoning

2008-06-20T10:49:00.003-04:00

I'm trying to decide if I want to keep this blog.
I don't update very often, as you can see. I don't think I have many readers at all, certainly no regulars because there's never anything new for them to read.
I've been getting better at posting photos on my Flickr. I've been knitting and crocheting a lot lately, it's been great. Once the semester ended, I got a lot of things done! Finished up some UFOs, started and *finished* some things. But I just don't think a blog is appropriate for my crafting style. I'm thinking of maybe getting a Ravelry account and showing off my work there.
So I guess we'll see how long this blog sticks around. I'll probably end up deleting it soon.