MsKnitaholic's InfiKnit Adventures

2004-12-20T14:41:00.000-05:00

Holy jeez. It's been almost two months since I posted. Could be that I lack interesting knitting information? Yes, it could. I've spent the last two months working on fun fur scarves. I can't even begin to tell you how SICK of these things I am. I did get a cool gift from my coworker, Niamh. She bought me a book on the history of Aran Sweaters and there are patterns in them. I think it will be a while before I attempt an Aran Sweater. Good god, maybe when I get shipped off to Ireland for work I'll just take a trip over to one of the English speaking Aran Islands and buy one until my knitting skills get better.

Oh and cause I lack actual knitting content, I'll post a pic of my new puppy. We got her this weekend at an excellent breeder in Vermont. She's 7 weeks old and her name is Bree.

2004-11-02T19:37:00.000-05:00

If you haven't and your polls haven't closed yet.. get out there and do your civic duty!

2004-10-31T23:05:00.000-05:00

I decided to make the site all nice and pretty.

I also made a stamping blog this weekend. There isn't anything there yet, but bookmark it and tell your friends and neighbors! Here it is!

I am hoping to get some stamping content on there soon, but we'll see. Work has been pretty crazy and I've hardly knitted. I had a stamping workshop last week and have another one this week. I am hoping that the parties will start to pick up cause the extra money can then fund my knitting addiction.. er, hobby!

Happy Halloween!

2004-10-20T18:26:00.000-04:00

Which flock do you follow?

this quiz was made by alanna

2004-10-14T16:04:00.000-04:00

You appear to be a Knitting Purist.
You are an accomplished knitter producing beautiful
pieces with a classic feel. You sometimes
lament losing half of your local yarn shop to
garish novelty yarns. Perhaps you consider fun
fur scarves the bane of knitting society and
prefer to steer new knitters towards the wool
and cotton blends. Some might call you a bit of
an elitist but you know that you've been doing
this craft long enough to respect the history
behind it and honor it with beautiful piece
that can last a lifetime.

What Kind of Knitter Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Does this make me a yarn snob?

2004-09-30T20:20:00.000-04:00

Here are some pics of the two latest bags to be felted. I still have a booga and a matching ipod cozy that needs to be done as well. I've been a knitting machine lately!

Here is my Sophie:

Here is my own creation:

I'm still working with the second one to perfect the pattern. I think it's a cute bag though. Here is a pic of both of them together.

Like the Ikea bags inside? ;)

2004-09-20T10:33:00.000-04:00

I finished my second baby blanket this weekend. This one is for Jeff & Jenn. I used the dishcloth pattern and expanded it. I'm also planning on winding ribbon through the eyelet holes. I think it will look really cute and girly (yes, they're having a girl)!

Pictures to come after it's done drying.

I picked up some really cool apple green tweed cascade this weekend, that is for another gift. For a really cool someone that sent me some Kerry/Edwards stickers!

I want to knit another bag, but I want something different. I'm still waiting for my other two bags to come back from felting. I have to outsource my felting to Autumngrrl cause my front loader washer doesn't seem to felt well.. or maybe it's me. Ya never know!

2004-09-03T21:28:00.000-04:00

My first attempt at a button.

I know it's not great, but it's a start.

2004-09-02T21:43:00.000-04:00

Sophie (Pre-felting)

Pound of Love Baby Blanket for Kristen

Itty Bitty Hat. See it on my newel post?

2004-09-01T23:08:00.000-04:00

I finished my sophie!!! Blogger, please don't eat this post!

Pics to come later!

2004-08-27T15:18:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I posted. Well, not really. It's only been a couple minutes, but I accidentally hit the back button and totally lost my post. Believe me, I went backwards and forwards and.. GONE!

I've been a busy busy bee. The end of summer is always really busy for some reason. We're having new doors installed in the next couple of weeks, so home improvement stuff is starting to ramp up. Fall is usually a good time for it.

I need to take pics of new items that I've finished, like the baby blanket and dishcloths and some of my works in progress. I am working on another baby blanket, some more dishcloths as gifts and my Sophie. Yes, I'm trying this again.

Last week, Corine let me borrow her size 3 needles so I could make a baby hat to go with my sister in law's baby blanket. Well, I finished the hat. I think this hat would fit a squirrel, not any newborn baby I've ever seen! I might try the hat again, but with bigger needles since the 3's were too small.

My candle party is this weekend - who's coming? =)

2004-08-11T19:07:00.000-04:00

I ripped out the baby blanket I've been making and decided to start all over again knitting properly. It's looking nice. I'm almost back to the same place before I started all over.

I got a nice surprise in the mail the other day. Some gorgeous baby yarn from Emma the other day. I loved it. Must send her a proper thank you note.

I am so behind in sending things out to people. I didn't even go to SnB tonight because I've been working all kinds of crazy hours. I had a function after work last night so I ended up getting home at 10. I left the house at 7:45am and got home at 10pm. Life has been insane.

I am pondering thinking about restarting my sophie now that I know how to knit properly. I'm such a dork. Honestly. How does one make projects and knit for close to a year without knitting properly. I can't understand it.

2004-08-05T09:20:00.000-04:00

I am elated! I finally learned what the problem is with my knitting and why it is on angle. I was knitting wrong! D'oh!

Thanks to Rebecca at stitch n bitch last night. She also knits continental and was able to see where I was going wrong. I felt so happy when I finally figured it out. It was almost like I solved world hunger or something. (yes, I know it wasn't THAT GRAND of a discovery - but it felt like it) It was definitely one of those true "AH!" moments where the light bulb goes off in your head.

I went home last night and kept knitting the correct way to practice. The only question I have now is, I already started a new baby blanket for a coworker. Should I rip the entire thing out to knit it properly, or should I leave it in my funky stitch? It looks fine, you would never know there was a difference. I think it only really shows when I'm knitting in the round.

Thank heavens we have that problem solved. I need to take pics of some finished projects. I've just been so swamped at work that I haven't had time!

2004-07-21T21:09:00.000-04:00

I ripped out the sophie bag. THE ENTIRE SOPHIE BAG.

I'm starting over with the same yarn, but making a drawstring bag instead. I think the yarn is cursed, or maybe it's me.

I just don't know.. maybe I need a new hobby!

2004-07-11T22:20:00.000-04:00

I finished the baby blanket! Yay. I will take pics as soon as it's dry and it's light outside. I want to take a good pic outside. I opted not to put the hood on the blanket. It was a pain to knit it and then I dropped a stitch somewhere and to fix it, it required me to go back 74284720473285 rows and THAT just wasn't happening.

I also am almost done with my sophie. Almost done to the point of doing the kitchener stitch and then......

DISASTER! My counting or something was off. Yah, I work in financial services.. what of it? We use calculators!

Anyway, my handles weren't perfectly on the ends, so now it looks weird and I don't know if I want to rip back to the.. "bind off 29 stitches" mumbo jumbo. Gah, I hate when I'm not paying attention and I get tunnel vision. My whole aim was to finish the bag this weekend and now I made more work for myself. I knew it was too good to be true!

If anyone has any suggestions on the sophie, I would greatly appreciate them!

Listening to: Warehouse ~ Dave Matthews Band

2004-07-06T08:34:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July!
Mine was nice and relaxing. We met up with some friends for a picnic, went to see Spiderman2 (which was very good), saw tons of fireworks and yes, I got some knitting done!

I finished the main blanket portion of the pound of love. I just need to knit the hood and sew it on to be finished. I am hoping to get that done tonight before I go to bed. I will make sure to post a picture before I send it off to Phoenix, so that my sis in law, Kristen has it for when she gives birth.

We spent some time in Walmart yesterday. I needed weird things. Shampoo, a rice cooker and tablecloth. Aren't these things on everyone's shopping lists?? I thought so. The rice cooker is very cool. Had fun making some healthy brown rice with that last night. I was also eyeing the craft section there. I know most of the yarn is acrylic, but acrylic yarn is oh-so-handy for certain types of projects and I was also looking at some of the fun fur and boucle yarn for scarf xmas presents. I ended up picking up Peaches n Cream yarn (I guess it's like sugar n cream - but not) in a cool winterberry color. I don't know what I'm going to make with it yet, but probably something kitchen-y.

I guess after I finish this blanket, I'm gonna go back and finish my sophie. I did sign up for the sophie-a-long and I made the bottom and then picked up the baby blanket instead. I guess when I don't have pictures, I have a lot to say!!!

2004-06-29T19:10:00.000-04:00

I am a huge Wallace & Gromit fan and I noticed on the Wendy Knits site, that she had made a knitted Shaun the Sheep.

I went to the site where she said she bought the pattern, but their site is gone. I want this pattern! I must make SHAUN!

If anyone knows where I can purchase this pattern, I would be so grateful!

2004-06-20T20:51:00.000-04:00

I decided to take a break from knitting the stupid baby blanket this weekend. I needed a fun and quick project to kickstart my knitting momentum! (Do people actually have knitting momentum?) Sometimes when I'm working on a large project, I need to take a break because it becomes monotonous. Anyway, I made one of the dishcloths from HGTV yesterday. I made it with Sugar 'n Cream yarn in potpourri. It's going into my stash of Christmas gifts.

Yesterday, Candace and I went yarn trolling. We visited Yarns Down Under in Deep River. What a great little store. We really enjoyed it there. We also hit Country Yarns in Wallingford (eh-ok) and Needleworks in Newington. I've been to Needleworks before, but I was less enchanted with it this time around.

I went to buy yarn for the tasha bag, but I wasn't paying attention and bought Cascade 220 because I though the pattern called for 100% wool yarn (duh.. not being felted), but it really requires 100% cotton. I guess I'm going to have to figure out what to do with two extra skeins of Cascade 220 in a cool pink.. this should be hard. *eyeroll*

In unrelated to knitting news, my air conditioner died this morning. Hubby and I trucked all over the state to find a new air conditioner to our liking. We finally settled on a Samsung model from Best Buy. We got it in the house, got the old one out and proceeded to try and get this thing installed. The shutter guards were too small and when we called customer service, we received a lot of disservice.. so, I am taking Candace with me tomorrow to return the blasted thing. I swear, I must have bad consumer karma. Everytime we buy something for our house, it's missing a piece, something is broken or it just doesn't work right. I think I need a vacation!

2004-06-17T21:29:00.000-04:00

I think I would like to make this.. I'll have to put it on my ever growing list of projects in queue.

This cute little bag is the Tasha from Knitty.

When I start a new project I like to learn something new each time. This adorable bag has cabling, so I can practice what I learned from Karen, if I even remember what she showed me!!

The pattern calls for 4 skeins of Rowan Denim, but depending on how the yarn budget is, I may have to find a substitute. Unless the yarn fairy comes and delivers me 4 skeins of Rowan Denim! ;)

2004-06-16T21:48:00.000-04:00

I decided not to go to Stitch n Bitch tonight, but went to dinner with some friends and then did some knitting afterwards. It was a nice night.

I noticed on Janet's blog that there is a sophie knitalong. I am so tempted to join. I had ripped the whole thing out because I forgot about the decreases, so I started it again but my heart wasn't into it. Instead I started a baby blanket for my sister in law, Kristen. I think she's due in Dec. Not sure. Gotta check on that.

Anyway, I'm making the Pound of Love baby blanket from Lionbrand. I'm about halfway done with the blanket and then I need to make the hood. Here it is so far.

Here is also a closeup of it.

It's green because Kristen doesn't know what she's having. It doesn't look very green on the blue backdrop of my tablecloth. As soon as I'm done with this puppy, I'm going back to the sophie!

2004-06-08T19:04:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I've posted. Work has been keeping me busy!

I restarted my sophie. I have the bottom of the bag done again. I also started two new baby blankets. The first one was going to be for my future niece/nephew, but then I decided to keep it. I'm going to send my sis in law, Kristen, the Lionbrand Pound of Love blanket that I'm making right now.

I noticed a trend in my knitting. If I've taken something out because I've messed it up more then 2 times, I then put it down and start on another project. This is why I have FIVE projects currently going!

Oh and one more note. I HATE SEED STITCH! Thank you, that's all for now.

2004-05-28T21:10:00.000-04:00

Restarting my Sophie

Why is...
finishing a project
so much harder
than starting a new one?

I sat down this afternoon to restart my sophie while watching a movie. I put Under The Tuscan Sun in the DVD player and started unknotting my yarn. (It's from when I took the sophie apart - it got all knotted). Anyway, I got the yarn back into a ball and was so entranced by the movie, I couldn't knit. So, progress on my sophie is actually ZERO! *whine*

At least I get to go to the Sheep and Wool Fest in MA this weekend to fondle more wool. Those festivals are full of YARN PORN!

2004-05-28T13:05:00.000-04:00

For the last couple of weeks I have been working on my sophie bag. I think I was almost done with it when I realized.... I FORGOT THE DECREASES! I was about ten rows from the end when I realized this. HOLY JEEZ! I had to rip the whole thing out. All my hard work.. *sigh* I don't have the heart to change the percentage on the sophie to 0, so I guess I'll just leave it for now and try to catch up to where I was before.

Candace and Claudia informed me the other night that I knit on an angle. How on earth does one knit on an angle, I'll never know. But, I guess I need to figure this out so I can stop knitting on an angle.

I have been having a hard time finding time to knit, but I took a half a day from work today and I was planning on going outside to plant flowers, but it is raining a monsoon here.. Sounds like a good time to knit if you ask me. :)

2004-05-25T10:09:00.000-04:00

Who is going to this?
It looks like Candace and I are going to be making a trip up this weekend to hit this festival and the Paradise City Arts Festival in Northampton.

Good thing I get paid on Friday!

2004-05-24T22:44:00.000-04:00

I finished my booga bag some time back and I never got a chance to post the pics after the SEVENTH time I felted it. I am not the Felting Queen, that's for sure. I had to send it over to Candace to felt it some more. I don't know if it's because I have a front loader washer or what, but man.. this thing didn't want to cooperate.

Anyway, here it is. I used Noro Kureyon and I can't remember the color right now. When my brain comes back, I'll update it.

I am currently working on the Sophie bag, which is coming out nicely. I'll have to post pics of that when I'm done. It's slow going on these projects. With the warmer weather here I'm spending more time working on the house and yard than on knitting. I don't know what is wrong with me!!! Housework over knitting.. Sacrilege!

2004-05-13T20:55:00.000-04:00

I have been playing with the layout of my journal for the past two days. I think I have it close to where I want it now.

We went to Stitch n Bitch last night and on the way Candace gave me the cutest stitch markers that she made all by herself. How cute are these???

They are currently wrapped around my sophie bag. It's been slow going with that bag. Not because it's difficult to knit, but because the amount of time I have to knit seems to be dwindling. Tonight I got home, made dinner, mowed the lawn, cleaned the outside and then messed around with my blog for the 80th time and it's almost 9.

I really like going to SnB on Wednesdays. I feel like last night went well. Some nights I'm not so sure. I told Candace that I think I'm too chatty for them. But honestly, if I wanted to knit in silence I would just stay home. I like going out and meeting/chatting with other people. I hope that the weirdness starts to dissipate at some point.

Oh and a big special thank you to Karen for the free yarn. I have some of that evil Homespun I could donate to someone...

2004-05-10T23:01:00.000-04:00

I changed my layout, amidst much difficulty. I'm still fighting with the sidebar and it's a good thing I saved all my previous source code. I even lost all my comments.

Progress.. feh.

2004-05-03T19:00:00.000-04:00

On Saturday I started making the small pouch in the picture from a Fiber Trends pattern.

I am using the wool I got from the Sheep and Wool festival two weeks ago. I think the wool is too chunky for this pattern. I'm having so many problems with it. It's so thick that you can't even see that I made eyelets. If it looks like that now, what will happen when I felt it?

I have already taken this out about 4 times. I guess this is where the bitch part of stitch n bitch comes into play. First it was the wrong needles, I picked up an extra stitch and then it's too thick. I think I need to put this project away before I start killing people over it.

2004-05-01T23:25:00.000-04:00

Candace and I made our weekly pilgrimage for yarn porn again. This time we checked out Needleworks in Newington. What a great little store. I oohed and aahed over much yarn. If anyone is looking for Noro Kureyon, they have TONS. Which is comical because when I was in The Wool Connection last week, they were totally out. I think it might be due to the fact that the Wool Connection makes kits with a lot of their more popular yarns. Candace actually made her booga bag with Lion Brand Landscapes yarn. I love the way her bag looks and the yarn is a bit thicker than the Kureyon. It also felted nicely. So, you definitely don't have to buy the exact yarn they suggest in the pattern.

My loot today consisted of some Cascadia yarn to make my sophie bag, some Ice Palace chunky yarn to make a different bag (not sure how many of these bags I need), some 10.5 16" addi Turbo needles and the 365 Day Stitch Calendar. I know a couple of people highly recommended this calendar.

My currently project is a small pouch. I will take pics after I'm done. Tonight I've learned many new things. How to increase, knit two together, make an eyelet and yarn over. That's a lot for my poor little head in one day. Now I'm ready to drop from sheer exhaustion.

Yarn porn makes me tired.

2004-04-29T11:04:00.000-04:00

On Saturday Candace and I went to the CT Sheep and Wool Festival. You wouldn't think that a sheep and wool festival would be fun, but we definitely had a blast. We saw people spinning using wheels and drop spinners. I decided to be daring and buy a drop spin (I hope I have the terminology right. Then I bought some merino/mohair blend in all different colors

My only problem now is that I haven't gotten this spinning thing down yet. I definitely didn't need another hobby, THAT'S for sure!