Happy New Years!!!!

Happy New Year's Everyone!!  I have so much to be grateful for this year!! I'm so glad I learned to knit this year and I hope 2010 is going to be a great year and I continue to learn more and more and knit more and more. It took a long time for me to find a hobby that I actually enjoy and can do but it was worth the wait!! 
So, I pray everyone has a blessed New Year, filled with lots of knitting needles, patterns, fibers and sense of self accomplishment! As always, knit to live, knit to love, and knit to finish!

I'd rather be knitting.......

It's after Christmas now, and I think everyone liked what I made them for Christmas. I lost the cowl that I made for my sister in law though, and she teased me about leaving her out....lol
I'm still working on my BSJ but since it looks like Christmas threw up all over my house so we are mainly cleaning today :(  My DD is helping me bless her heart and she is doing a great job but I'd still rather be knitting.......
I'm thinking about restarting Journey to the Center of a Sock again. I need some nice, warm house socks to keep my ever frigid feet cold. My DH enjoys warming them up for me when I stick them on his at night under the covers :)
What are your knitting goals and projects to be for the New Year??

Round 2 for Stage 2

I'm happily at Stage 2 again after frogging my first BSJ. I really screwed up the k3, M1 on row 11 and then began really struggling with a multitude of dropped stitches after my work slipped off the needles. I'm thinking that I might try 2-3 rows of stranded colorwork in between yarn color changes. What do ya'll think?

EZ's BSJ Stage 2

This is Elizabeth Zimmermann's Baby Surprise Jacket at the end of Stage 2. At this point you are still decreasing at two different points by sl 1, k2tog and psso.  The new skill I have learned during this stage is how to pick up a dropped stitch in garter stitch, which was a very frustrating thing to do.  After watching this video on YouTube several times, I managed to fix one of the dropped stitches. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fnaY63h1yM)
I had another jacked up stitch several rows down and after the problems I had with the dropped stitch, I went down to my LYS and Shelley helped me fix it. I am happy to say that I am back in knitting business and hoping to get this finished by Christmas!!!

Elizabeth Zimmermann's Baby Surprise Jacket Stage 1

This is Stage 1 of the Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann (1968). This pattern is available from Schoolhouse Press (http://www.schoolhousepress.com/) and both Knitpicks and Ravelry have KAL's in progress for those of us interesting in knitting this piece. I am making this for my 10 mo. old nephew Joey for Christmas.

 It looks smaller than everyone else's in Knitpicks KAL at the end of stage 1 as far as the length of stitches worked but I'm assuming it because the yarn is DK weight. After frogging 3 times, and learning how to truly do "slip one, k2tog, psso" I had to do a little victory dance!! I can't decide which color to do next though. What do ya'll think?

BTW, sorry for the crappy picture, but my digital camera got dropped in a glass of coke a few weeks ago and finally kicked the bucket after I made this picture :(

5 days until Graduation and tons more time to knit!!

I can't believe I'm taking my last final exams on Monday!!!!! It's been a long 4 years to get a 2 year degree but looking back, I can't believe its over. I never dreamed in a million years that I would ever have the opportunity to get a college education, much less graduate at 32 years old. Besides the birth of my children and my wedding day, graduation day is going to be the happiest day of my life. I'm really looking forward to being gainfully employed again so I can support my knitting habit and being able to take lots of knitting classes at Loopville. Without Knitpicks and my buddies there helping me learn to knit, I know I wouldn't be graduating. Knitting definately soothes my stressed out nerves and kept me focused on school and look at me now!!! Thank you KP buddies!!!

Journey to the Center of A Sock "Houston we have a Problem!!"

This is sort of a double post as it could go in the Sock KAL and the Learn to knit KAL on KnitPicks, but since it's more a question on ML, decided to post it here for advice. This is my first official experience with both socks and ML. I keep adding stitches and somehow I've managed to mess up the 2 x 2 ribbing. Can anyone help me figure out what I am doing wrong? Thanks so much and Happy Thanksgiving!!

Journey to the Center of a Sock Pt. 5

Kelley gives a great explanation of a gusset. Until learning to knit socks, I'd never heard of a gusset...lol
I am really enjoying using the magic loop method and have decided that I love working with circulars and I don't know if I will ever use a SP needle again!

Which do you prefer SP's or DP's?

~~~~Knitpicks is having a sale on needles right now, with Harmony needles being 10% off! Check it out!~~~~

We Interrupt Our Regular Scheduled Blog Posting........

This past Tuesday, my father in law was diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer w/ mets to his ribs, chest wall and lymph nodes. All of the sudden, socks have taken the backburner and I'm frantically searching the internet for a man's chemo cap. He starts chemo this Friday, Nov. 13th and radiation on Monday, Nov. 16th. I am open to any pattern suggestions you may have and appreciate any and all prayers!

These are the pictures of the knitting supplies I was recently blessed with! The circular needles appear to be antique. Check out the huge point protector!

Journey to the Center of a Sock Pt. 4

This video is very interesting as Kelley explains the heel turn and the slip, slip,knit (ssk). Kelley does a great job and I'm really looking forward to completing my first pair of socks! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCpI2CL2vuo

Journey to the Center of a Sock Step #3

I'm so sorry for the lack of posts in the last 2 wks! We've had a bad bout with bronchitis over the last 2 wks and I've barely been out of bed, much less knitting. I need to get back to knitting my Christmas present! So far, I knit 3 hats, 1 scarf, 1 cowl and I have 3 hats and a baby blanket left to do. Anyway, Step 3 in Kelley's video series is included here. Please feel free to post a picture of your WIP Socks to share! As always, knit to love, knit to live, but as always knit to finish!

Journey to the Center of a Sock Pt. 2

http://community.knitpicks.com/video/kelleys-sock-class-casting-on-1In this video, Kelly Petkun gives some wonderful tips and tricks for magic loop. I'm really glad she is so specific too because even in my first attempt I still screwed it up.....lol. F.R.O.G. is still a 4 letter word!
As soon as I am feeling better and remember to buy batteries, I will post the pics of my knitting "jackpot".
Feel free to post pics of the sock yarn you have chosen for your own journey to the center of a sock!

Journey into the Center of a Sock Step #1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtU53jldXMM&feature=player_embedded

Assuming you have your supplies, this first video will get you started! Turn in tomorrow for the next video!

Little Knitting Nibbles

Not much knitting going on this week. I've tried 12 times to start the lace shawl and all 12 times have to frog it. I still have a couple more hats to make for christmas and since I can't figure out how to knit lace, I've got to figure out something else to make my mom for christmas!!


I recently had a huge box of knitting and crochet needles given to me, some in the original packaging!! The circular needles look extremely old, like maybe circa 1950's. I will post a picture soon. I'm trying to figure out how I can find out the production dates and if they are worth any money. I may be sitting on a landmine!!


Knitpicks is now on YouTube, so I would highly suggest checking it out and subscribing. I've been watching alot of videos, especially the Magic Loop method and the anatomy of a sock. The following is a couple of great tutorials:
http://community.knitpicks.com/notes/Knitting_in_the_Round and http://community.knitpicks.com/notes/Socks_-_Heels_and_Toes_Glossary
and several sock knitting videos here:
http://community.knitpicks.com/profiles/blogs/know-anyone-who-wants-to-learn
Kelley Petkun of Knitpicks is great at teaching us "Knewbies".
That's about it for tonight!
As always, knit for love, knit for life, but always knit to finish!

Little Knitting Knibbles

The last 2 weeks have flew by in a blur! We have all had the stomach flu and I am just now getting over !
I ordered the Lace Sampler for the Chinook Shawl from http://www.knitpicks.com/ and got started on it, plus I started knitting some new skull caps that I plan on giving as Christmas presents. Let me be the first to tell you that LACE is not as easy as it sounds or looks! I've researched http://www.knitpicks.com/, http://www.ravelry.com/ and http://www.youtube.com/ for all the information I can find on knitting lace and I am slowly picking in up. I'm on row 4 now! I also had my first "look down her nose at me" experience this week when I was asking questions. I hope in my blogging I never make anyone feel like that!!
I'm posting a pic of the finished shawl along with the blog post. Feel free to leave your comments! What are you working on?
Knit to love, Knit to live, but always Knit to finish!!

F.O. Dishcloth

If you look very carefully, you might be able to see that this is a palm tree. I'm sure its not the pattern, but me. I am having difficulty with my tension so I've been watching videos on youtube to try to improve. This was my first experience with a pattern and after I got into the swing of working line by line it was ok. I've been on a yarn spending spree this week and I spent over $80 but the good thing is that everything I ordered is for Xmas presents. I hope I have better luck with this next project!

Randomness

My dishcloth didn't turn out so well, in fact, I knitted so tight I couldn't even bind off! I'm in a knitty funk right now so I've been watching knitting videos on youtube and came across this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVRfVEONxJQ. It starts off slow but the last 2 minutes are awesome!
Hope everyone has a great week!

WIPS - Interrupted

I have casted on the dishclothes from KrisKnits this week, but I'm learning some valuable things this week:

• College interferes with my knitting. I had to postpone an exam this week because of my knitting....lol
• Reading from a pattern isn't as easy as I thought it would be, but still doable
• FROG is a new potty word!!

I'm having difficulty keeping my place and am having to go back and count stitches alot. Are there any easy ways to keep track of where I am in the pattern??

FO - Turn a Square Hat

I finished this project last night and all that's left is to block. I am very satisfied with the outcome and I also learned to ssk. SSK was somewhat difficult at first but got easier as I worked on. The first 5 rows are 2x2 ribbing, but with the darkness of the yarn it's sort of hard to tell.Hopefully I can hold out until Xmas to give my nephew his new hat!

Next, I'm casting on the Beach dishclothes from KrisKnits on www. ravelry.com!

New WIP - Turn a Square Cap

This is the other WIP that I have. I have had to learn 2x2 ribbing (k2, p2) and increasing (M1) for this project. Check out http://www.youtube.com/ for tutorial videos for this skills or http://www.knittingtipsbyjudy.com/ For the pattern, you can go to http://www.ravelry.com/, username pootersgirl and it's in my WIP and it is a free pdf download. I'm still using the Addi Turbo circular needles and I absolutely love them! I have a couple of dishcloths patterns that I will be casting on in the next couple of days so check back for updates!

F.O - Easy Peasy Hat

I finished this hat last night and it is really cute!

WIP - Easy Peasy Hat

Today was quite a busy day! I did get several rows completed today on my WIP and posted a pic and the brim is already beginning to roll up like the pattern says. My son, Hunter turned 7 today so we were really busy having his party tonight! I can't believe he is 7!!!

WIP

I decided to bite the bullet and casted on my first hat a couple of days ago. Since then, I've had to frog this WIP several times and I have learned a valuable lesson! It is extremely important to lay your needle flat after casting on and make sure all the stitches are going the same direction! I realized this after getting mine twisted several times. Once I got this accomplished today, I am making some serious headway! I must say that I LOVE these Addi Turbo circular needles! To check out the pattern go to http://www.knitpicks.com/patterns/Easy_Peasy_Hat_Pattern__D50694220.html

KnewbieKnits

I am as new to knitting as I am to blogging!