Thursday, December 31, 2009

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!

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

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??

Saturday, December 26, 2009

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?

Saturday, December 19, 2009

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!!!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

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 :(

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

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!!!