I met up with the Meetup.com Chicago Knitting Crew last night, and I must say I think that knitters must just be awesome people. This group was everybit as friendly as the Stitch n'Bitch crew I meet up with every Tuesday, and they had wine & cheese-its to boot!
So I met a bunch of people: Michelle (who offered useful job advice), Lynn (and later her husband Dan?), Dee Dee, Susan (the organizer), Roland (former Jaime student and token male knitter;) ), Sarah, Nikki (and her sparkling tank top), Shawn, Abby, Sam (the helpful and way cool Nina salesperson) and a whole host of other people whose names currently escape me.
Unfortunately their next event is an afternoon picnic that I won't be able to attend, but I look forward to "meeting up" with them again!
Nina was nice enough to offer the group a 15% discount during the event, so I scored some black Cascade 220 ($7/skein + 15% off) to start the Tubey Sweater from the Winter Knitty. I'm normally not too into stripes, or multiple colors, but I'm fairly excited about this one, and the colors I've picked out look great together.
It's funny that I picked colors fairly similar to the one's in the pattern, but I really was just looking at some scraps of the yarn I have and thought how nice a few of them looked together and then decided to use them for this pattern. It was much later that I saw the color picture again (my directions were printed b&w) and realized their similarities.
The colors:
Black--Cascade 220 (worsted)
Burgandy--Ebay Purchase/worsted merino wool
Dark Blue/Green--Cascade 220(worsted)
Light Lavender--Cascade 220(worsted)
Grass Green--Knit Picks Elegance (DK weight Alpaca/Silk blend)
Visit my Non-Knitting blog here
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Friday, April 21, 2006
I thought it would never happen to me!
I have been fairly resolute in my belief that I would never be sucked into two things in knitting...First, knitting socks--my reason for this is that I don't like my socks to be colorful, so it would simply be wasteful of me to spend time on something I would never enjoy. Second is the toothpick and dental floss lace knitting that I am certain is the cause of many a crowsfoot and adoption of reading glasses, as well as pointy old lady fingers and hysterical crying fits.
Well...I'm gettin' old...and aparently brave. I'm now knitting a lace-weight scarf in Knit Pick's Alpaca Cloud. I bought the yarn a long time ago, thinking I would strand it with other yarns in making things. It has patiently waited in my stash for a project to participate in since last fall and since I never ran across that project I was pretty much chalking it up as another ball of stitch markers and lifelines.
Flash to a few weeks ago when the Spring Interweave Knits magazine came out. I flipped through it, admiring several of the projects, but not especially in love with any of them. I noticed a lace scarf that I commented to a friend on, saying that you couldn't really see the pattern very well in the pictures they had posted.
A week or two went by, and on Easter Sunday I found myself stranded in Evanston with no plans for a few more hours, so I went to hang out at Barnes & Noble. I picked up the magazine again and flipped through it. I stopped short on the page with the Trellis scarf, and remembered a post on Flickr with a picture of a Trellis scarf that I had admired...then I realized that the pattern called for one ball of Knit Pick's Alpaca Cloud. The same Alpaca Cloud that I had six balls of slumbering away in my stash. It called for size 5 needles, which I have, and wasn't nearly as intimidating as some of the size 0's I had seen before. Now I'm not one to often use the EXACT same yarn as the pattern calls for, but what was this? Fate? Coincidence? a seven dollar magazine to use up only one four dollar ball of yarn? ...yup, it was Perfect!
So I bought the magazine (and a collection of stories and poems by Poe) and headed off for the evening.
On Tuesday morning I cast on with my new project, and by 6:30PM I knew I was going to be late to Stich n'Bitch because I had been too caught up in my knitting!
I'm still too chart dependant to work in most places with distractions and talking, and am so focused that I notice myself short on breath by the end of a row (59 stitches is too long to hold your breath for). But I must admit I find the results fascinating and addictive. I love that it just looks like a jumble until you stretch it out. I love that I've been able to fix mistakes without crying. I love the little lifelines and the fact that I can fit my entire project in a sandwich baggie.
I'm a lace knitter.
Unstretched
...
Well...I'm gettin' old...and aparently brave. I'm now knitting a lace-weight scarf in Knit Pick's Alpaca Cloud. I bought the yarn a long time ago, thinking I would strand it with other yarns in making things. It has patiently waited in my stash for a project to participate in since last fall and since I never ran across that project I was pretty much chalking it up as another ball of stitch markers and lifelines.
Flash to a few weeks ago when the Spring Interweave Knits magazine came out. I flipped through it, admiring several of the projects, but not especially in love with any of them. I noticed a lace scarf that I commented to a friend on, saying that you couldn't really see the pattern very well in the pictures they had posted.
A week or two went by, and on Easter Sunday I found myself stranded in Evanston with no plans for a few more hours, so I went to hang out at Barnes & Noble. I picked up the magazine again and flipped through it. I stopped short on the page with the Trellis scarf, and remembered a post on Flickr with a picture of a Trellis scarf that I had admired...then I realized that the pattern called for one ball of Knit Pick's Alpaca Cloud. The same Alpaca Cloud that I had six balls of slumbering away in my stash. It called for size 5 needles, which I have, and wasn't nearly as intimidating as some of the size 0's I had seen before. Now I'm not one to often use the EXACT same yarn as the pattern calls for, but what was this? Fate? Coincidence? a seven dollar magazine to use up only one four dollar ball of yarn? ...yup, it was Perfect!
So I bought the magazine (and a collection of stories and poems by Poe) and headed off for the evening.
On Tuesday morning I cast on with my new project, and by 6:30PM I knew I was going to be late to Stich n'Bitch because I had been too caught up in my knitting!
I'm still too chart dependant to work in most places with distractions and talking, and am so focused that I notice myself short on breath by the end of a row (59 stitches is too long to hold your breath for). But I must admit I find the results fascinating and addictive. I love that it just looks like a jumble until you stretch it out. I love that I've been able to fix mistakes without crying. I love the little lifelines and the fact that I can fit my entire project in a sandwich baggie.
I'm a lace knitter.
Unstretched
...
And through the magic of stetching (and hopefully blocking)
Monday, April 17, 2006
40 hours without my knitting!
Can you believe I survived from Saturday evening until Monday afternoon without any of my works in progress? Well, I'll tell you, a lot of planning was done, charts were drawn, and magazines were bought in order to fill in for the knitting I left at work Saturday, and I realized I need a lot more projects on my needles to prevent this in the future.
Seriously, I was THIS close to driving the 34 miles to go pick up my knitting...that's bad.
Seriously, I was THIS close to driving the 34 miles to go pick up my knitting...that's bad.
Friday, April 07, 2006
Pictures!
I took some pics with my cameraphone and uploaded them, so I thought I'd share. I've got a few of the finished skull & crossbones tote, and some of the new scarf (color is off on it, it is a pale, powder blue color in reality). Enjoy.
Close up of the Purse Stitch:
And for those that like to see the reverse side:
Close up of the Purse Stitch:
And for those that like to see the reverse side:
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Wondering about the rest of my life
Rather than have too much "other life" stuff overflowing onto my knitting blog I've started a second blog for random stuff. It can be foundhere if you're interested. (Although I should warn you that I'm starting off on a whiny note and I'm not sure where it will go from there)
Friday, March 31, 2006
Am I knitting?
Oh, yes, and I'm knitting too! The current lap project is a powder blue lacy scarf out of a cashmere/alpaca blend. And I get to be the lucky recipient for this one. It's a pattern I designed myself, especially formulated not to use too terribly much yarn (I only have 3 balls) and yet still allow the softness and beauty of the cashmere to come through. I'll post pics soon!
In other news the X & O scarf was presented to my Sweden living friend this past week and she's off talking about it to everyone and wearing it everywhere. She is urging me to publish as well, but I think that might just be for the bragging rights.
In other news the X & O scarf was presented to my Sweden living friend this past week and she's off talking about it to everyone and wearing it everywhere. She is urging me to publish as well, but I think that might just be for the bragging rights.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
"Done" as a catchall
At my company I had to get used to all the abbreviations, the expressions, and the new vocabulary when I first started. It took much longer for me however to get used to what has been described to me as "New York Style" hurry talk.
I'm a rather talkative person, and am a big believer in being precise, and usually trying to be as clear as possible often necessitates (or at least is supported by) longer sentences with more words. Because of my wordy background it made it difficult for me to feel at peace with the fact that when I sent an email to a department in our corporate office asking for multiple things and often posing (what I thought were complex)questions and I would receive a one-word response:
DONE.
Was it all done? Or just the first query? Were my questions unnecessary and need I no longer worry about the problems? Do I need to check an make sure all the changes were done?
I eventually got used to "done" and now find it funny when it pops into my mind after someone or something presents a long list of questions or some complex situation that "feel" as if they need a detailed or explainitory response.
I'm a rather talkative person, and am a big believer in being precise, and usually trying to be as clear as possible often necessitates (or at least is supported by) longer sentences with more words. Because of my wordy background it made it difficult for me to feel at peace with the fact that when I sent an email to a department in our corporate office asking for multiple things and often posing (what I thought were complex)questions and I would receive a one-word response:
DONE.
Was it all done? Or just the first query? Were my questions unnecessary and need I no longer worry about the problems? Do I need to check an make sure all the changes were done?
I eventually got used to "done" and now find it funny when it pops into my mind after someone or something presents a long list of questions or some complex situation that "feel" as if they need a detailed or explainitory response.
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