Project 365 1/3/09

This picture is kind of a cop-out. All it is is a slightly blurred (lighting was bad, and I don't have a tripod) photo of my physics homework and some of the knitting I've done today. On the left is my basic sock with a short row heel using Yarn Zombie DK weight yarn in the colorway Highway 9, which I looooooooooooooooove, and a teeny tiny sweater called Cheers made in a random sample of yarn from a dyer, but I don't recall which one. Technically it's supposed to be a Christmas ornament, but I don't celebrate Christmas, so it's just a tiny sweater. It'd be neat if I could find a way to use them as swatches. It'd be wayyyy more fun than knitting rectangles every time I wanted to figure out gauge...not that I ever knit a whole swatch (except when I'm making an actual sweater).

The Knitting Olympics

So...Knitting Olympics...I can't decide what to knit! I could, of course, try to knock out a pair of socks, but I could also do my first sweater. I want to do a CPH, so it's worsted weight, and I might be cutting out a cable or two that I don't like...but a whole sweater? Suggestions, anyone? Send your pattern ideas!

I'm not sleeping yet, so it still counts as the 23rd.

Yarn, no matter how inexpensive single skeins may seem, is not cheap stuff. Yarn is eating my money, and my dear, enabling friends are not helping at all. I just ordered $70 worth of stuff from Knit Picks (some gift yarn, yarn for a shrug, and a bunch of needles I need) and am about to spend another 70 on Peace Fleece. Oh, and my parents aren't helping me pay for prom, so I'm going to need to go on a massive yarn diet after this.

I've decided to "give" myself $2 to spend on yarn for every 15 minutes I spend doing some sort of exercise so that I don't turn into a giant lump this summer. As of this morning, I have $4 to spend, and it's all going toward the Peace Fleece. I'll have to find a way to keep track of this on the blog or something.

Anyway, prom is this weekend, and I am determined to have at least one photo that includes me knitting something...any suggestions for something that might fit into my too-small clutch? I tried fitting a sock, but that didn't work out too well. The actual sock fit in just fine, but the yarn took up too much space. Suggestions, anyone?

I am a bad blogger.

I think about things to blog...then I don't blog them. Remember those yarn shop reviews...ehhh...yeah, maybe when I go back to revisit some schools.

So anyway, a LOT of stuff has happened lately. Last Saturday I started work at Knitting on the Lamb.

I love it. I love it. I love it.

I feel incredibly lucky to have a job doing something I love while my friends are off scooping ice cream or stacking cheesy romance novels with Fabio on the cover (and hiding my stuff while I look through the knitting books...clearly they don't have enough work to do). The people there are also exceptionally cool...and I get to arrange the sock yarn....and there's Schaefer Anne!!!!! I'll be going back on the 24th because I took some time off for APs, so if any of my local knitting buddies would like to drop by, I'd be happy to see you.

Hmm, what else?

Well, Pam at Yarny Goodness approached me asking me to sell my handpainted yarn and stitch markers in her shop, which I will be doing soon! You'll still be able to find my stuff on etsy, and my stitch markers will be available at Knitting on the Lamb. This is very, very exciting. It also means that I may be able to skip getting a second summer job and spend my extra days dyeing yarn and making stitch markers. I'm pretty thrilled.

As for my knitting: I recently finished my mom's first Mothers Day sock, and she's okay with getting the second one a little bit late, so I put that off for a bit in order to cast on my Snicket Socks (oh, go look them up yourself). I also received my yarn from Party 300 in the Teens Knit & Crochet group on Ravelry. Jeanie dyed a beautiful skein of yarn just for me! Her work is beautiful, and I recommend you check it out. Here's the skein she sent me:


The colorway is called Embers II. The photo really doesn't do it justice. It is gorgeous in real life. I'm going to use it for a pair of Bellatrix socks as soon as I get through another substantial chunk of my Jaywalkers (just finished the gusset). I can't wait!

Well, it's 2:08 am, and I have to be up by 10 or so tomorrow to try to get some work done before the Sheep to Shawl Festival (yay!). More on that after I go...maybe...you never know with me, do you?

Hmm...yeah...g'night.

So I made some stuff!

My new Jacquard acid dyes and base yarn came on Friday, and I made STUFF!

Here's a handpainted merino/silk blend that I dyed for a trade on Ravelry. The photo doesn't really do it justice. The colors are much brighter. It's called Flutterbies & Cuppycakes, all springy and just a bit too happy. I can't wait to send it and get my bright red Schaefer Anne (yay!) in return!

I also dyed up some fiber.


I was going to sell this one, but I love it too much! <3 style="text-align: left;">I call this one "Great Balls of Fire!" It's 3.5 oz of very soft superwash wool, and it is available in my etsy shop for $11.

As for what's on the needles, I just cast on my mom's mother's day present. She's getting some pretty simple socks in Louet Gems Sport Weight (crabapple and cream). I'm doing them on size 4 needles (3s for the ribbing) because she wanted house socks. I'm using my new Knit Picks Harmony DPNs, and I'm very happy with them. I usually don't like wooden needles, but these are sharp and pretty slippery, just the way I like. They're also really light, which feels very good when knitting for long periods of time. The 8 inch length is also very convenient, so these might replace some of my metal straights in the future.

So I haven't been here in a while, and I'm not really here now...

Well HELLO, apparently nonexistent readers (anyone there?)! I haven't posted much lately because, well, high school is a busy place, and my teachers can't seem to understand that knitting is more important than their homework. I did, however, manage to get through a few inches of my first Jaywalker (pretend there's a link here) and plan on finishing the toe tonight before I pack for college visits starting tomorrow.

Speaking of college visits, I'm lucky enough to have a dad who understands...no...gets nervous about, maybe...my love for all things yarny and knows that saying no to yarn makes for one very disagreeable teenager, so he said we could, if time allows, go on a mini yarn crawl near Princeton and UPenn! Findings will be reported here!

Also, I get my SAT scores back tomorrow, so I'll be buying the yarn and dye to start my own line of handpainted sock yarn probably as soon as I find out (if I met my goal, it'll be a reward; if I didn't, I'll buy it to make myself feel better). I'm thinking of doing an artist series that translates the work of some of my favorite artists (mostly of the 20th century) into socks. Yay!...Well, I think so, at least. The yarn will be available on my etsy shop (link that-a-way) unless I find somewhere better to sell it. I really do need to sell it...I seem to be spending all of my money on yarn...better hope for that summer job at the LYS...

Anyway, I'm not really here. I WILL finish the toe of the Jaywalker, pack, and find a good project to work on in the car tomorrow by...oh, I don't know, 2am?

Good night faithful yet apparently invisible readers. :)

I won't be getting any Knitwars points for this.

No pictures today, so no Knitwars points for me. Hmmf.

Well, the last few days have been pretty uneventful in terms of knitting because I've been spending a lot of time in the hospital with my mom (who's fine now) and my grandpa (who's doing alright for now) . I did do some work on Shedir and will hopefully get around to posting some pictures soon. I hope I'll be able to finish it sometime before my friend's next birthday because it is the SLOWEST HAT EVER.

You meet interesting people when you knit in a hospital. One woman asked me whether what I was doing was knitting or crochet. This didn't come as a surprise to me, as I've heard many stories of this, though I've never been asked about it myself. What did surprise me was that the woman who asked me then said that she loved to knit. Another woman I spoke to had never seen a circular needle before, even though she had knit several sweaters. Are circular needles really that new? I guess, being a younger knitter, I take such things for granted. Some people I spoke to were impressed with the idea of DPNs, too, tough I'm sure they've been around for a long time. To be completely honest, I don't really want to think of a time when circular knitting wasn't an option...eeegh.

On a lighter note, I'll be starting the entrelac socks from Interweave Knits Spring 2007 in the not-too-distant future because a wonderful family friend (who also knits) offered (well, no...she kind of insisted, but I'm not complaining) to buy the sock yarn of my choice as a birthday present. My birthday is in May, but she said that's okay. At the moment I'm stuck between Louet Gems and Shibui Sock. Knitters are the nicest people in the whole entire world...for the most part...I've met some that aren't so nice, but they're definitely in the minority.

Well, I think it's time for me to have some ice cream and start getting ready for bed. If you read this, let me know what you think. I'm very new to this whole knitblogging thing.

Thank you, and have a nice day. :)

Bandwagon, Hive Mind, etc.

So why a knitblog? Why just one more knitblog when there are so many perfectly good ones out there?

This is why:

Sure it's kind of creepy that I found one skein of ridiculously expensive sock yarn so gooooorgeous that inspired me to make a knitblog...but...but...but...yarnpr0nz!?!

No, that doesn't work for you?

Errr, well, it's pretty. It also made yesterday, which could have been a really bad day, a whole lot better. I won't bore you with the story of my whole day, but I will say that I took 4.5 hours worth of SAT, found out my mom was in the hospital for a minor surgery, and got in a pretty bad fight (verbal, I assure you, I'm far too weak and spazzy for any other type). After all that, my dad bought me girl scout cookies (mmm) and took me to the LYS, which was probably a bad idea on his part because I was mad, and he was paying. I bought two skeins of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino to make Shedir from the Knitty breast cancer awareness mini issue for my best friend's birthday, four skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Sport Weight in navy for Henry (also) from Knitty, one skein of Reynold's Andean Alpaca Regal in the Cranberry colorway for a hat, and, of course, that Schaefer Anne, which I may use for a pair of Pomotomus...Pomotomi...something like that, which also comes from Knitty.

I should probably let you know about some of my WIPs, but that would take a while because I am definitely a process knitter. Check out my Ravelry page (link is that-a-way >>>) if you'd like to see some of my past and current projects.

So I guess a more in depth "About Me" than the one you'll see to your right is in order. My name is Molly. I am a young but very avid knitter who especially enjoys KIP-ing around high school and confusing those who don't know that knitting is actually very cool. It's possible that I'm really as big a dork as they think I am...in fact, I'm pretty sure I am. My mom likes to tell people the story of the time she walked into my room without knocking and found me abruptly turning off the monitor. Your average high schooler might be buying drugs or looking at pornography, but no, not I. My vice? Excessive stash, perhaps. Knitting when I'm supposed to be doing other things? Too many "Just one more row!"-s? I believe that was the time she realized I was an addict.

Now, I've only been knitting for about a year and a half, but when I start doing something, I get really, really into it. I'm almost entirely self-taught through various internet sources, so I was able to learn as quickly as I wanted. After about a three days, I bound off my first scarf (turquoise acrylic, some garter stitch, a bit of ribbing, and about six inches long) taught myself to cable, and made a belt...which I never finished because it's 80% acrylic. That's when I realized I was a fiber snob. Ever since then it's really been downhill. My stash has grown to fit a shelf and two drawers (not to mention the 10+ WIPs...), which is a lot when your stuff is confined to a room and a half or so, and I knit all the time and everywhere. Add this to an AP-heavy high school workload, and I don't get much sleep, so if my rambling is incoherent at times, that's why.

I think that's enough for now. I'll post...when I feel like it! Yeah, that sounds good. Questions, comments, concerns, etc.: leave a comment! Just don't ask if you can lick my Schaefer Anne. It is mine and all mine and no one else can lick it. :D