Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes (turn and face the strain)

HELLO!

So I have been having a whirlwind of changes happen in my life over the last couple of months! You can always tell when life is overwhelming me, as my Blog becomes neglected! So here is the quick and dirty version of what has happened over the last few months.

I don't think I have mentioned much about this in my Blog, but I was laid off from my job this summer. I won't go into a ton of detail, but I had been in my last company for over 12 years, and it was quite a surprise. They gave us about two months notice at the job and then I was out of work about two months before I started my new job. So that was all very stressful on about 14 levels. My new job is fabulous and I am REALLY happy there, but it's a huge change for me. I went from retail to a hardcore business environment. Change to how I dress (no more jeans!), and my commute (half the distance!) and my parking (what do you mean I have to PAY to park?!?!), and I could go on and on here. But now here I am, in my new job, in a company that I REALLY love, with wonderful wonderful people. Very happy on that front and so pleased to be finishing out 2014 in a job that I  love and with potential for me to grow in.

I also decided to take a break from school. I was actually in classes up until a couple weeks ago, and I finally decided I was just to overwhelmed and I wanted to take a break, focus on getting up to speed in my new job, and then reevaluate what I want to do with my education. So I withdrew from my HTML class a couple of weeks back, and am just focusing on my job at this time. It is strange to not be focused on my studies! I had been in some form of school for the last 2 years - so it's just like hearing the silence after a storm. Strange!

So! In terms of crafty stuff, I have been getting some knitting done. Most of what I have completed since I last wrote has been for Pine Ridge. I found a group on Ravelry called "For the Children of Pine Ridge" and I have been working on hats, scarves and mittens for a school on the reservation.

Here is what I sent over the last month or so:

My First box included 7 knit hats and 4 crocheted scarves.I am not overly skilled at the crochet yet, so this was a good way to practice and do some good as well. The hats I made using 3 different patterns I found on Ravelry.

1. Erich's A&F Knockoff Hat by Eboni A. Johnson

These knit quick on size 15 needles and the yarn was Lion Brand Hometown USA that I had floating around. My notes on these can be found HERE if you want more detail. They were fast and fun - and this pattern is a staple for me. Works on almost everyone and it's fast and easy.

2. Basic Hat / Radiant Hat by Lion Brand Yarn

 An easy pattern and free from Lion Brand. Used Hometown USA again and size 15 needles again. My notes on this hat can be found HERE if you want more detail.

3.The Vermonter by Abi Gregorio

Same yarn as the other hats, but we switched it up and went with size 11 needles on these babies and I opted to skip the pompom's. My more detailed notes can once again be found HERE if you need more info.

The next box I sent out had three scarves, a pair of mittens, and a bunch of stuff my mom contributed.

The scarves I made were crochet stash busting once again:

 And the mittens were made following one of my favorite patterns:

Warmest Mittens by Kris Percival.  

 

 

These were knit with Farmhouse Yarns Andy's Merino that I had had in my stash for years. If you want more details on how I made these, head HERE once again. (I always try and take good notes for my Ravelry Project pages!)

So that is what I have been getting done on the knitting front. I am going to work on getting blogging back into my life as I really missed it! Hope this finds any and all readers out there in good health. 

 

Happy crafting people!

Knitting in all seasons (3KCBWDAY4)

For Knitting and Crochet Blog Week the question of the day was:

How does your local seasonal weather affect your craft?

I live in the Minnesota here in the United States. This past winter was really (unusually) warm, but the winter before we had eight months with snow on the ground. I spent a lot of time driving (and living) in this mess. So I guess it's not surprising that I knit A LOT of hats and winter wear.

Not just for me either. I have knit a few sweaters for my dog Emma. I have knit some goodies for my hubby and family. And I try to give a bunch to charity. There are lots of organizations and shelters that distribute goods to the homeless or needy in the winter. And many of our yarn shops will do hat, scarf and mitten drives in the winter. Love that.

I wear many of my hats and scarves and enjoy picking out my knit "look" for the day. I also find that my unfortunate habit of buying one or two skeins of yarn (rather than a sweater amount) lends itself to hat and mitten knitting. Really - there are only so many things you can do with 100 yards of yarn.

Looking through my Ravelry page with an eye toward seasons - I realize I have many pictures with thick wool hats or scarves being proudly modeled in the dead of summer. I love these pictures. Lots of bright happy flowers with my thick woolen creations. Something warm to hold on to when winter comes and there is so little warmth and light.

Color me anything! (3KCBWDAY1)

Today is the kick off of the Third Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week and this will be my first year participating! What that means is that for the next 7 days I will be posting on a set topic that is posted over on Eskimimi's wonderful blog.

Today's Topic:

Colour LoversColour is one of our greatest expressions of ourselves when we choose to knit or crochet, so how do you choose what colours you buy and crochet or knit with. Have a look through your stash and see if there is a predominance of one colour. Do the same with your finished projects - do they match? Do you love a rainbow of bright hues, or more subdued tones. How much attention do you pay to the original colour that a garment is knit in when you see a pattern? Tell readers about your love or confusion over colour.

I found this topic overwhelming. My head swam with ideas. Should I look at my stash? Should I look at the last 6 balls of yarn I purchased in a yarn store and talk about why I was drawn to them? And then it came to me. I would look at my hat collection!

So I took my hat bin out to the deck and dumped it out and started to look at the hats that I had made (and I recently weeded this out of things I don't wear/like so this is the keeper pile!) and started to really look at what I have going on here. My first thought was "I am not afraid of color!" which I already knew so that wasn't all that revelatory. Then I started to separate a little to see what I saw.

The above two hats were made out of Knit Picks Bare yarn that I hand dyed and then knit up. Similar color range - different styles. I had more hats in this pile at one time - but for one reason or another they ended up felted into bowls. (I do that with wool hats that don't make the cut. I have wool bowls all over the place!)

And then I separated all the hats that I combined two or more colors of yarn:

• The skully hat has glow in the dark yarn and I really wanted an authentic pirate feel - so the colors kind of picked themselves on that one.
• The hat next to it I made with Lime as the body and forest green as the ribbing. I had this exact hat in the reverse as well - but I think I made it a size too small and it is now a felted bowl. (I told you I do that a lot!) And this was a stash busting decision.
• The two striped hats in the center are both stash busters as well and I knit both of them largely while away from home. I needed something really simple (which is why I knit so many hats!) that I didn't have to pay much attention to. I was able to knit and talk at a graduation party and the stripes kept me interested enough to not feel like the hat was a burden to knit.
• The orange/green/brown hat is from yarn my co-worker brought me from Scotland. It was one of my earliest color works and I still love this hat. It turned out perfect!
• And the last hat was me just loving the colors together and loving the squish of the Debbie Bliss Como yarn. Wonderful warm squish hat.

On to self striping yarn. Love it! Love the color combinations. Love the boldness. The hat above is knit with Adriafil Knitcol and the hat below is Online Linie 231. I love both of the yarns so much. (Although the Linie gets worn less as I decided to give it ear flaps and it turns out I am just not much for the ear flaps. Live and learn!)

Both of these hats were just such fun to knit as the yarn was changing constantly and I would just knit and knit wanting to see what was around the next corner.

And then you find a pattern you love that helps you REALLY bust through all those single skeins of almost no yardage yarn that you HAD to buy and had no idea what to do with them. The yarns are: Colinette Point 5 (Which is 54 yards a skein), Malabrigo Yarn Aquarella (65 yards) or Malabrigo Gruesa (65 yards). INSTANT gratification projects! And this is actually two different hat patterns. One is the Handspun Beanie by Woolie Wormhead on Ravelry and is currently unavailable while it is being tweaked. The other is The Easy Malabrigo Hat and is available for free on Ravelry. Both wonderful patterns and I admit to running to my local yarn store and buying MORE of these yarns so I could make the hats again and again.

I told myself I might gift some of these hats - but I was a big liar and had to keep them all for my greedy self. I am keeping the patterns handy though for emergency gift knitting.

Sometimes the fiber content will influence my love of the color. Alpaca - I love you so much! When a yarn appeals to your eyes and then you touch it and your hands sink into a cloud of love, you pretty much HAVE to purchase it. This hat looks really busy - but it's heaven when worn and I love it. There is nothing bad about Misti Alpaca yarn. Yes it stretches. Yeah - it's a bit spendy. But it's so warm! And knitting with it is just a pleasure. Nothing makes me happier that I am one of those slow pokes who throws her yarn when I knit quite like Misti. Fabulous!

This is Reynold's Blizzard. Sadly this yarn is now discontinued - but it's another one of those where you think of jumping onto a giant marshmallow. How can that now be awesome to knit with?!?! And for some reason I needed this bold bold pink color. I am not sure why I would look at all the yarn and say - The Pink! The color is a little overwhelming. But I had to have it.

And more Alpaca. I lean toward the blues with Alpaca (with one pink exception...). Not sure if it's how the fiber takes the dye that makes me need to own it? But when I think Alpaca - I GENERALLY think the blue family.

So my study of my hat collection was fun. I don't think it revealed a whole lot - other than that there are a lot of factors that go into the decision I make when I decide to knit something. If I am stash busting, I will compromise my color desire for a project in order to walk the path of the righteous stash buster. If I am specifically purchasing a yarn to make "Project ____" I will look at the yarn options and the finished objects on Ravelry and decide based on what I see and what color makes me REALLY want to knit it.

I love the look of a solid color but hate to knit it. (Yawn.)

I love to knit wild colors and get excited by unusual combinations. The finished object doesn't always live up to my expectations though. Like my cowl I call my "Clown Vomit Cowl". I kinda have to be in the right frame of mind to pull that one off. (read: Drunk.)

 As I put my hats away I looked down and thought how pretty my sock color was against the wood with my beat up jeans. Color inspiration is just everywhere.

Hats, Hats, and More Hats

I was looking over my 2011 projects on Ravelry and realized how much I like hats. There are a few reasons for this. I have a terrible habit of buying one or two skeins of yarn rather than 10 which limits what you can make. I don't have the sock bug (yet) so that is not an option. And I love how portable a hat is. A simple rolled Brim hat is my go to when I want a really simple project to knit knit knit on at a family event or if I have a long car ride. So I hunted on Ravelry this Spring and found the pattern Countrywool Rolled Brim Hat by Claudia Krisniski. It's a free pattern and its easy and just perfect for what I needed. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/countrywool-rolled-brim-hat

The hat above was knit in Adriafil Knitcol: http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/adriafil-knitcol . It's a wonderful self striping yarn which gives you that wonderful Nordic look with no color work skill needed. You just knit knit knit and the pattern appears - love it.

The second and the third hat are both knit from Brown Sheep Worsted. http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/brown-sheep-lambs-pride-worsted

I knit a good length in the starting color to give the roll a single color. Then I just alternated colors every two rounds. I was able to carry the yarns along the back on these so I had very little finish work. (YAY!) I suspect I will get a lot of wear out of these this winter.

And the final one which is actually the first one I made with this pattern was knit from Dream in Color Classy yarn http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/dream-in-color-classy which I really enjoyed working with. I can see why people would love this for socks. It's just a pleasure in the hand as you knit it. The pattern used just over half the skein.

Being Neighborly

Our neighbors were expecting there first child this spring so I spent some time knitting a blanket and then a little hat to go with it for there Babe. They did not want to know the sex of the child until it was born - so I went with a generic Bee Theme to the items thinking a girl or boy could rock those out. The pattern for the baby blanket was in the Plymouth Pamphlet 636 - The Encore 8 hour baby blanket....revisited. It's an "8 hour" Pattern but I am pokey - so it took me about 24 hours knitting time. (Probably longer as I clocked myself through a pattern repeat and multiplied it out - and there is no way I kept that speed throughout the whole thing.) The pattern is not available except in the pamphlet - but here is a link to the page on Ravelry for more details on it: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/beautiful-texture-baby-blanket

I knit the hat out of the leftover yarn. There was a LOT of ends to weave in as I cut the yarn at every color change rather than carry it up. I used 40-45 yards of each color. It's REALLY hard to take good pictures of baby hats without a cute model. I should pick up a doll at the dollar store some time to use as a baby mannequin. Anywho - I used Susan B. Anderson's pattern for the hat from Itty-Bitty Hats. (Simple Baby Cap 1) I have used this pattern several times and it's well written and very easy to follow. I really like that book. Here is a link to the page on Ravelry for that hat - although again - the pattern is not available except in the book.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/simple-baby-cap-1

The baby ended up being a girl. I made the blanket and the hat in larger sizes in the hopes that this fall/winter they will get used. I was pretty pleased with myself for thinking far enough ahead to realize a baby born in May would not be wearing hats much and that I should not make cute newborn sizes. (Go me!)

On my Needles

I have just been in a hat frenzy this year! I am currently knitting my 12th hat this year. Seriously! Granted - I work in a warehouse and I freeze all winter long - so I wear A LOT of hats. Pretty much I put a hat on in October and my hair isn't spotted again until April.

So right now I am knitting my second Snappy Hat. The first one I knit over the weekend and I knit it in Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Chunky and it is SO soft and warm. I really love how it turned out even though I sort of fudged up the cables at the top of the hat and I suspect knit the cables backwards as well. I am knitting a second one now in Bernat Roving Yarn. It's really dense! And it's a total wrist breaker - although I suspect I will love the end product. It has the look of a hat that you can wear when it's REALLY bitter out. Like a January hat. Every year here in Minnesota we get a week in January that is just revoltingly cold. So cold you can't stand it. I think this hat will be awesome to wear that week. One other thing with this. I am knitting with an Addi Turbo Lace needle - and it smells like copper! ICK! I feel like I am knitting with Old Penny's! I had heard about this when Alana on Never Not Knitting did a review of these needles - and now I know it's true. These needles SMELL! I will be avoiding the lace needles in the future!

Over the weekend I also knit my Diagonal Scarf. (Really original name!) I knit that on Nashua Handknits Wooly Stripes. The yarn is really pretty - but there was a splice in the yarn and the color jogged pretty harshly - so the whole flow of the scarf is messed up there. Pretty irritating. It goes from mossy green to cranberry in the middle of a row. I think if I had planned things out better I would have cut the yarn before the color change & made a smoother transition. It was my first time working with this yarn and I think I always trust the yarn to not have breaks my first time. I don't know WHY I would think that. Silly silly girl.

My Treadmill Afghan is going well. I took a break from my treadmill over the weekend. I pretty much lived in my Pajamas and slept most of the weekend really. But I am back in action today and am looking forward. I started listening to the Sassy Pants Knitter Podcast this morning at work. I am really enjoying this one! She had me laughing out loud at work. When I got home I PM'd Sillyfru on Ravelry to thank her for a fun podcast and she wrote me back right away and friended me on Ravelry! How sweet! :)