Busy Bee!

I seem to be on a lot of hiatus' lately! The reasoning this time is because in a week from now I'm going to finally be graduating from college! I've lost my other glove so I have to wait until I find it again to take a picture for you. I'm currently working on two different super secret Xmas projects so no details until after the gifts are given.  I'll take pictures before I wrap so once they make it to their future owners you can see what I've made.  I can't say enough how much I love Caron Simply Soft yarn! It's about three dollars for 5 ounces, but it really is delightfully soft and it feels just SO good to work with and touch. You do have to be a little careful because sometimes the yarn does unwind while you're working but if you pay attention it's not a big problem.  I'm planning on learning how to do embroidery soon! I particularly like the romance of doing whitework-though I am definitely biased towards patterns rather than outlines. I'm not sure why but just outlines of random pictures doesn't look that good to me-it really needs to be filled in to look nice in my eyes.  I'm so lazy about my Ravelry account-maybe I'll get more active with it later on, after I've graduated.  I'm also hoping to learn how to quilt-it seems a pretty straightforward skill and yet there are subtle techniques I probably need to learn rather than just guessing.  That's all for right now, but I'll try to keep up a little better!

About that Summer...

I know I've been away since May, sorry about that! With the change over of my spring classes to my summer classes, a new work schedule, moving, and blazing heat-I just didn't get around to working on much involving needles! However, all that has changed now that we're getting back around to cooler weather. Back around May I had started the process of knitting the pieces to make a bag for my yarn and supplies-well I didn't really do ANYTHING on it since this month! To date, I have four pieces of the bag completed. The bottom, both sides, and the front panel. I've already cast on for the back panel, but I haven't begun the straps. Speaking of, I'm still debating how to attach them! I'll probably just use the bag I'm modeling it off of for reference when the time comes to sew all these pieces together.

But the biggest development? I've finally discovered the charm of crochet! My best friend's mother showed me how to do her version of a granny square and I've been quite literally hooked! In the past week I've gone through three skeins of yarn-one for a blanket I started for myself (as well as a practice piece to learn how) and two more as a surprise present for somebody. Crochet really does go quite fast, and once you find your rhythm you don't even notice how much you've done until you look over and the skein has deflated!

Overall I think it bodes pretty ill for my knitting needles, since knitting really does take more time, and a bit more care. If you drop your needles out of the loops for a knitting project you're in trouble, but for crochet? It's only one loop, you just pop the hook back in and keep going. I'll take pictures of the finished projects and post them up here for you to see. I'll try to be better about keeping everyone posted! Ta for now.

Another day in the life

I got some really good advice and some hands on help this past couple of weeks, and I've finally gotten the hang of crochet. I can't wait to start making things, and hopefully, eventually, making money. I needs money, yes.  I've been having a hard time thinking up blog posts lately (especially being consistent with an updating schedule!) I figure I'll get the hang of it eventually, but I do, sort of, have an excuse. I finally finished finals for this semester as of this morning! And my new larping schedule was INSANE this month as I had somewhere to go every-single-weekend. That and I was determined to learn how to play River Flows in You by Yiruma on the piano. Which I have!

On a more solemn note:

Amendment one got passed in NC, and it's an absolute travesty. This isn't about gay rights, this is about the definition of the word marriage, and who gets to define it. That, and saying that only marriage in this Christian sense counts.

Whatever your personal religious beliefs, it is NOT YOUR PLACE to force them on others, or to make them law. Saying Pagans can't perform marriage services for gays because gay marriage is illegal, is like saying Christians MUST perform marriage services for the LGBT community regardless of their personal beliefs. This amendment is a restriction of my religious freedoms.  And regardless of your beliefs about gay marriage, claiming ONLY marriage is legal is absolutely disgusting-a straight civil union is now no longer recognized. The thought of amendment one makes me feel physically sick to my stomach, and I no longer desire to live and work in NC and pay my taxes to this state.  It was a failure of our legislative process that such a bigoted, hateful, and discriminatory amendment ever came to pass-a revocation of rights should have been shredded the first time it was seen.

Don't like my opinions? Tough.

I am straight but never narrow. A rainbow friend. And always, a safe place friend.

Wow

So a quick update on my knotty little life: the bag is coming along slowly, but it's still fun. I've met loads of new people who love to crochet so I'm getting advice from them so I might enjoy it more. Nifty fact, crochet creates objects more quickly than knitting, but it uses more yarn! I didn't know that.

On a Witchy Note:I went to the Beltane Brouhaha this weekend, as hosted by the North Carolina Piedmont Church of Wicca and it was amazing. I made a lot of great friends, called the western Quarter during TWO different rituals, and was initiated. I feel renewed, and it's amazing.

Phew!

Life has been crazy lately. In some good news, I finished my gloves this Sunday, and I've started work on a bag to carry all my knitting around in so I won't have to use my silly ol' Twilight bag any more. I'll be sure to add more pictures as I go along, promise! In other news, really inspired by a friend of mine from larping, she's so good with her crochet hook! It really gets my work ethic going!

Picture Update!

School goes apace, and been crazy busy with homework and such. Here are the long promised pictures of the complete scarf:
The first is a shot of the whole scarf, note the distinctive 'wave pattern' (hence the name). The second picture is a close up of the waves themselves, and thirdly a detail shot of how the yarn moves with the pattern.



I've been using the scrap yarn to make some fingerless gloves using stockinette and waffle stitch. One is finished but the other one I ran out of yarn. I'll have to buy another skein to finish it, and only once they're finished as a pair I'll add some pictures of them as well. In the mean time, I've been using my black Red Heart Super Save to make some double ribbed gloves.

It's been a little while!

I must apologize for disappearing off of cyberspace for a little bit there! I had two tests in the same week, then spring break, followed by two more tests-not to mention work and everything else that happened all at once. In more needley news, I finished the scarf! I've taken pictures and will post them up tomorrow. I also tried to start a hexagon pattern with crochet, but got stuck on some technical terms, so that's on hold whilst I try to iron out the details. In the mean time, I'm using my left over painted yarn and trying to make some fingerless gloves using a waffle stitch pattern. It's pretty fun, but if you accidentally add one too many rows at any given spot you have to rip back for a while to fix it, which is making me cross-eyed. But it's still fun! Thank you again to everybody who's been supporting me through everything! This weekend I'll be out of town and internet range, as I'll be cavorting through the woods LARPing at Shadowmoor! See you there!

A little hooked

Started relearning how to crochet yesterday. Chain stitch? No problem! Single stitch? Moderately easy-I'm pretty sure I'm doing it right. Double stitch? Doin' fine! Getting ahead of myself and trying to make an advanced lacy hexagon from a pattern? Kind of way more difficult! It's okay though, I'll figure it out eventually, that or find someone to help me translate the instructions. The scarf is coming along marvelously, I've finished two repetitions of the pattern, and it's about 2/5ths done.
In news of a witchy persuasion, I found out the hard way to be more careful when reading almanacs! I accidentally was reading last year's calendar for March and not this year's when trying to determine the vernal equinox. Luckily, the two books I ordered off of Amazon have shipped out as of last night, and today marks the beginning of me checking my mail every day. Things are coming along swimmingly!

A few days later

So it's been a little while, I'm sorry for not updating sooner! Things have just gone pear shaped with school, and I have a large project for work I'm doing this weekend at an ungodly early hour. I've been cleaning my apartment as well, and finally managed to get my closet clean. I finished my seed stitching rectangle, and it is SO delightfully textured and bumpy! I also spent the ENTIRE weekend doing nothing but watch Charmed seasons one and two and work on my wave scarf. It's getting pretty long now, and it's final length will make it a little taller than me, so I'll post pictures once it's finished. In a somewhat witchy moment, Ostara is coming up on the 20th of March! I'm trying to come up with ways to draw runes on my hard boiled eggs that won't soak through the shell and taint the delicious eggy goodness within. Hmm, decisions.

A little late

Sorry I didn't get this up sooner. I took the pictures and will put them at the end of this post. I ended up caving and started on my scarf. This pattern is super fun! It's a little trippy with how the pattern makes the yarn move. A few pointers. SK2P means Slip one, Knit 2 together, then pass the slipped stitch over (as if to bind off). I'm not sure if I'm following the 'Make 2' directions perfectly, but I decided yarn overs would work alright because they're increases-and give it a pretty holey-lace pattern. These videos I found on Craftster were priceless in helping. I've had a few wee hiccups which were a bit stressful, but ripping back (a majorly necessary skill for a knitters) has saved it tidily. I'm positively loving this painted yarn, between the moving pattern and the moving colors this scarf is positively engaging and super entertaining.


The first two are the dress I finally finished, with a detail shot of the back.



The first picture is my pretty new scarf yarn, and the new needles I purchased. The yarn cost $3.27 and the needles were $4.47 both from Wal Mart.

A new Day

I'll be able to post up pictures this evening. (I promised I would!) I finished my rectangle of ribbing and it's super stretchy! It comes off the needles looking almost too skinny, but it stretches considerably. I've decided to do single seed stitch next, since making the ribbing wider is such a simple adjustment. I'm worried about double seed stitch, since the trick of using the tail of your yarn to remember which stitch your starting with will no longer work. (You do two rows of knit 1 purl 1 repeat, then two rows of purl 1 knit 1 repeat.) A handy reminder, the difference between seed stitch and ribbing is how many stitches you cast on. Odds = ribbing, evens = seed stitch. So to make sure you've done your row correctly, you should be doing the OPPOSITE stitch at the end of your row in Seed stitch, and the SAME stitch at the end for Ribbing. I'm currently debating once I've finished this little skein of purple yarn whether to move directly to the scarf I want to make out of my painted Caron Simply Soft, or if I should try to use up my Red Heart Super Saver on miscellaneous learning projects. Decisions, decisions.

Investigation in Progress

Well I'm part of the Charlotte group on Ravelry, and decided to try to drop in on some of the knitting groups. Firstly I went to the Jackson's Java meet up-supposedly Mondays from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm, but according to the Baristas there was no such meet up. So that was a bummer, and I can't figure out how to notify the group on Ravelry to have them update it. I plan on dropping in at the Hobby Lobby crochet group (knitters welcome!) next Thursday at 5:30. I didn't go today because of errands-oh well! During said errands I bought some gorgeous painted yarn by Carn Simply Soft, and my first pair of round needles! I'll post up a pictures update hopefully tomorrow. Thank you to all the people helping to support me in my crafting!!

TRIUMPH!

The dress is finally finished! I started it on November 19th, and I finished it last night, the 21st of February. I'll be very sure to post a picture of it as soon as I have some time, I'm drowning in schoolwork lately. In news of a more yarny nature, I've had to start and restart this ribbing stitched rectangle a bunch of times. It's a little tricky before you get the hang of it. A few tips for my newbie friends out there, for ribbing you need an ODD number of stitches. You alternate knit and purl stitches, and when you turn the work you swap which one you do first. I use the tail of the yarn as a guide post. When the tail is at my left hand, I start with Knit, when the tail is at my right hand I start with purl. A good way to double check you haven't gotten off rhythm is that the last stitch of the row should be the same as the first. Remember to pass your yarn BETWEEN your needles to get it to the front/back as necessary.

Huzzah!

I finally managed to finish hemming my dress-so, so much fabric. I also finished my stockinette square (couldn't recall if I'd written about that). It's SO CURLY! It's practically a scroll. I decided to start work for my next square by using a single thickness ribbing (knit 1 purl 1, repeat, turn, purl 1 knit 1 repeat, so forth). And alsoooo, I have the pictures-finally-of the goodies I purchased the other day!

Progress Report!

Well found out the interesting way that knit 1 purl 2 repeat, on every row just ends up a mess. I used this to help me! In the interests of going in order I used the Stockinette stitch instead-and oh my goodness, when people says it curls they're not kidding! This curls a *lot*! It'll be a bit trickier than Garter stitch to measure. It does have a 'right' side and a 'wrong' side. Only one side has the 'stockinette' stitching look, the other looks like a smaller/tighter garter stitch. In other news, my dress is almost done! All that's left is some hand sewing-the most daunting of which is the hem. Goodness there's a very large amount of hemming that I need to do.

Almost there!

I have conquered the Chiffon and the sleeves are finally on my dress! Tomorrow we're going to hem it, and after a quick bit of hand sewing the dress will finally be done-precisely three months after we began! It's kind of exciting, and I'm totally stoked.

Oooo Shopping!

I finished my Purl rectangle-huzzah! My mother requested that my next one be with the ribbing stitch (I think that's what it's called), that classic knit 1 purl 2. Today we went to the store and bought some goodies as well. My first set of knitting needles are a US size 7 (4.5 mm) aluminum needle by Susan Bates. Today we purchased an 8 piece set of aluminum Crochet hooks by Boye. They're very pretty, since they are different colors. They are US D,E,F,G,H,,J,K ( 3.25, 3.5, 3.75, 4.25, 5, 5.5, 6, and 6.5 mm). We also got US 5 (3.75 mm) Boye knitting needles, and two plastic round ended needles for sewing my squares together, and weaving in my loose ends. I'm at my mother's still, but I'll post pictures of everything when I get back to my apartment tomorrow night. Since I'm here I'm going to continue work on my dress-whose picture I will post here when it's completed. The crochet hook set cost $10, and the knitting needles were $3 and the sewing needles were $2.30. I bought all of these at Michaels.

Another Day

I like to blog frequently (if you couldn't tell!) and the habit will help me to keep up with this site-but don't be surprised if there is more than one post per day, sometimes a thought comes and I just run with it. We got the ads up and running-so if you see something you like, go ahead and check it out! You'll be helping to support my yarn addiction. ^-^~ I'm only about 1 1/2" away from completing my second square, and I'm super ready to get started practicing stockinette stitch! Purl is fine, but once I realized all garter stitching starts to look the same I got bored. According to my mother, the purple yarn ball I've been using I've had for 15 years!! I remember trying to start many a 'scarf' and starting over and over again over those long years, but it just goes to show you that once yarn is in my hands it doesn't leave! I'm really glad to finally be putting all this purple yarn to use-especially since it hasn't been my favorite color in about 15 years. It's nice to have 'scrap' yarn to learn and practice on, because if I mess up, well it's not my favorite yarn and it's no problem to cut it and start again. I

I'm considering starting reviews of my favorite knitting websites, end eventually, homespun yarns available through Etsy and the like. My Ravelry queue is huge from all the projects I've found and I want to make! Good thing I've got lots of time on my hands in the next few years, you'd be surprised at how much knitting you can get done in just a spare few minutes here and there throughout your day.

A shout out to a few of my friends who are supporting me right now, thank you Kerry, Rachel, and David! Without you I'd feel a lot more boring. ^_~

A Wee Intro

I am 22 years old, a Pagan, and I've been doing needle crafts since I was old enough to hold a needle. I have a few projects currently in the works, one a leopard LatchHook hanging, and a 'Guenivere' style rennaissance/larping dress. I haven't actively been knitting in a very long time, and decided I should start from scratch. I found some instructions for a 7" by 9" rectangle to submit to 'Warm Up America' but after following the 'cast on 26 stitches' instructions, discovered that I had a mere 6" of material. Instead of donating my wee rectangle, I've decided to continue the exercise as a learning experiment, and sew my pieces together into an afghan of learning! So far I have a 6" by 8" rectangle of purple 4 weight worsted Red Heart yarn, done entirely in the knit stitch, and I'm halfway through a rectangle of the same material and size done in the purl stitch. The point of this exercise is purely practice and technique. When this rectangle is finished I'll make a rectangle in stockinette stitching! Eventually I'll have an interesting, unique piece to keep my legs warm on the couch.

I've found a ton of resource online for newbie knitters, and experienced yarn enthusiasts alike, and I'll link to a few of my favorites! See you soon!

My Ravelry
Craftster My Screen name is Sihara on Craftster
Knitty! A must have resource for needle crafters.

Kind of a Filler

Just a quick post to assure you I do exist, and I will be blogging! Just short on time at this exact moment.