It's Time to Make A Change

30 is fast approaching and its time to make a few changes... I have a new blog address at Wordpress AND a new blog name!

New Site Name is The Lint Knitter

New site address is
http://knitlint.wordpress.com/

I have made the move for a variety of reasons. Better templates, better organization and user interface, but primarily because I was tired of not being able to contact the wonderful people who are leaving comments on my site but blogger keeps saying "noreply-comment" when it comes to the e-mail address.

I hope this goes better on Wordpress and I can actually respond to your comments. For the few readers I have don't forget to update your bloglines or other feeds for my new address. Hope to see you over there soon

http://knitlint.wordpress.com/

I Needed A Present

You know when you get into that mood where you need SOMETHING to make you happy, whether it be food, drink, or....I don't know....yarn? Well, I was doing pretty good, and still in based on the rules of the YFC and KFYS rules, however, I caved on the purchase of yarn. Now before you judge, listen to the circumstances.

On Wednesday, I went to Destash.com to do my daily review of what everyone is selling and I spot 2 skeins of Socks that Rocks for $12.00 including shipping. what WHAT!! I struggled with myself for about 5 minutes trying to convince myself out of it. Needless to say I caved and sent the e-mail to request the purchase. I waited all day, beating myself up for being so weak and then I got the e-mail....that said she sold it to someone else. I was both relieved and depressed about losing this wonderful deal.

However, fate had something else in store for me.

My Valentine's day was a little depressing. This is probably one of the few times I think about being single and it is only compounded by the fact that everyone is so lovey dovey and getting presents. PRESENTS!! Well, I wanted a present too, but was still on this nasty yarn diet so I suffered through the feeling until I got to my knit group.

One of our normal meeting places, Banana Berry, was closing and I specifically turned down an invitation to be the third wheel on my Sister's Valentine's dinner to be with my friends at knit group. My reward was that the owner, in a very CALM voice told me that all yarn in the store was $5.00. $5.00? I didn't believe her. I kept repeating it and looking around as if it was a cruel joke. I picked up yarn and looked at her, "$5.00?" I asked. She mouthed "5.00". I picked up another, "5.00?" Once again she said "5.00!". When another knit group member arrived I told her about the deal with the same reaction "5.00!!!"

So needless to say I used my Get out of jail free card for KFYS and my free day for YFC. To buy these goodies:

2 skeins Cherry Tree Hill to hopefully make the chevron scarf for the Scarfalong
and some of this:

7 balls ofRoyal Bamboo in a wonderful buttery yellow to make this



That was after 3 hours of mulling and shopping so that I didn't add to much to my stash. Technically, I was the picture of restraint. Here was the damage for one of my other knit group members which proves it could have been much much worse.


This is only one of 5 piles. MAN, I wish I was her!

Distraction Plan#1: Hey Look What I Got!

No real WIP Weekend Update this weekend as the knitting was not that exciting. I finished the two sides of the Doctor's Bag after getting my shipment from WEBS and I am now reknitting the bottom. Should be seeming next week. The apricot sweater is progressing nicely as well.

What I will distract you with are my new purchases. Now this has been over the course of a few weeks I just neglected to blog about them. So here they are:

Weekend Knitting I have wanted for a while and got for 40% off at Michaels, The Interweave magazine which I have to make the Half Dollar Sweater, and the Fast Quilts for Fat Quarters Book because I am taking a quilting class so I might as well start the hoarding and collecting early.

The highlights of my recent purchases were the Phildar Magazines which I got for 40% off and were received really quickly after placing the order. Items I plan to knit are:

I also got Finishing Techniques for Hand Knitters which I think is an excellent resource. I have other finishing books but each one has their own unique perspective on things. I figure if I get two or three new ideas from it, it is worth being in my collection. This one has a section on lining jackets, zippers and taking care of garments. Yeah you can get this on the internet or from a variety of other finishing books but I like the presentation in this one.

Confession time...I have very little news to share on knitting because I have been doing this:

Amy Butler Clutch from In Stitches

My excuse is that I started my 16 week beginning sewing class this weekend. I temporarily have to bug for sewing. I think it may go back into hibernation come Monday but for now, I hope to finish this bag this weekend.

Destructive Behavior

Ok...I don't know what is wrong with me but I REALLY need it to stop. I have been the moodiest B*@%$ the past few days. I have waken up tired for more than 4 days despite my attempts at getting more sleep. I even varied the amount of sleep - some days 7, some days 8+ - to try and get rid of it, but still I am irritated and restless while still being tired. Which has resulted in major complaining at work - at least for me since I normally only complain to a select few, but this past week has been just general outward bitchiness with no holds barred - mental temper tantrums, and emotional eating. I just polished off a Western Bacon Cheeseburger with Crisscross fries. Normally I would have shunned this 1000+ calorie, God know how many fact grams, pig out but today despite my slight nausea, I am content.

But the destructive behaviour doesn't stop at diabetes inducing food comas and slightly scared co-workers. Oh no, it even extends to knitting. While working on the Marnie sweater I felt this sinking feeling and it looks like this

What are those little holes at the bottom all about!!! I got gauge, I thought I tightened up everything fairly firmly but lookie there!! At the top I tried to tightenen up even more between EVERY stitch until my fingers bled, be it stockinette or that irritating Purl tbl, but still you can see those little holes where I did the purl tbl. Before you get started, yes, I did try going down to 6s but it didn't help all that much and just made me miss the gauge measurements. Errr...I have already left it to marinate for a few days with the hopes of it looking better after a few days, but no more. To the Frog pond with you Marnie!!!

We shall see if she comes back or is reincarnated as another knitting pattern. Probably more of the latter than the former.

When I am not so irritated I will post my finished Jaywalkers and show you the Doctor's Bag I started. For now, back to my glass of whine...I mean wine.

Are You Out There?

I just found out from Big Pink Cookie that this week (Jan 8-12) is National Delurking Week. Although the official end would be today, feel free to announce your presence, if anyone is out there.

Hello? Hellloooo? Just what I thought... Oh well, I tried.

It's Better to Receive...hee hee

Ok... so it is January and I still have not finished all my Christmas giving. Grr....I am really starting not to like this holiday again. Between the guilt, the stress, the sweatshop laboring, and the "tit for tat" buying sprees. I just want it to be over.

Then I get gifts as thoughtful as this and remember all the time I put into my own gifts and I know that next year will start the gift giving juices flowing again.

So my wonderful SP, who I can't respond to because the stupid blogger not giving me the e-mail address, has sent me another mailbox surprise

It's a Winter Wonderland!!!



I received my wonderful package on Tuesday this week so it was the perfect start to the year



Inside was a plethora of goodies including some crocheted snowflakes, new ornaments for my tree next year, some candy apple body powder, a wonderful homemade card, and a pattern for booties to use with the Lambs Pride snowball she sent me. She even made some pom poms to add the the booties!!

On a funny aside, SP, if you are looking for your scissors I found them in the shipping box. Umm, they are a little dull, so what exactly were you using them for? I figure they were relegated to only paper cutting or something like that. I felt a little like I was looking at modern art - appreciative but not really seeing how it went with the theme. If I am completely missing the point of the wonderful yellow handled scissors, I apologize in advance. I just thought it was very funny when I realized what might have happened :O)

Some other cool gifts I received this year were

Singer 8280 Prelude

A sewing machine of my very OWN!!! My lovely sister bought this for me. I immediately ran out and bought way too much fabric to start the stashing process, then felt guilty, then felt angry, and now plan on making purses in two weekends (too busy this weekend). But it is out and sitting on my kitchen table and welcomes me home everyday with eager anticipation.



My friend Jilly made me this crocheted necklace. It is very pretty and I believe it was loosely based on a pattern in the 2005 Interweave Crochet Magazine.


Little Miss matched Socks

These were also a hit with me. My friend bought me these socks. Can't really say they are a pair as they purposefully do not match which is the cool part. I think the idea is lost on many, but I loved them. We even went shopping at a hospital gift shop because I wanted to get more and couldn't find them anywhere while I was up in Nor. Cal.

Because it was so funny, I had to take proof of our insanity



Anyway, I hope the holidays brought you lots of joy and you are now relaxed and ready for the New Year! I hopefully will be by the end of this weekend.

Welcome to 2007 (5 days late)

Year in Review - Crafting 2006

1. Yuletide Gnome; 2. London Beanie #1; 3. Fetching Gloves; 4. First Apron; 5. Downtown Purse; 6. Snake Charmers; 7. Odessa; 8. Sunrise Circle Jacket; 8. Shedir; 9. Perdita; 10. Lady Eleanore; 11. Clapotis

2006 was a pretty short knitting year for me as the I spent the first 6 months unmotivated to knit. Finally the bug hit with during the July 4th weekend where I began knitting the Lady Eleanor Stole. After that is was an exercise in finding more and more complicated knitting projects. These were, of course, time consuming projects so this year was a reflection on quality versus quantity. Here are some of the items I finished up for 2006. I have a few more that still need to make it to there destination so I will have to add them later (more for my benefit than yours)

So taking a page from Lolly's book, here is a little questionnaire regarding my year in knitting:

• What is your absolute favorite project you've ever knit (one that fulfilled both process and product)?
• That would have to be my Sunrise Circle Jacket. This has been my pride and joy this year as it was my first sweater and fits like a dream. I have received many compliments on it

• Which of your hand knits do you wear the most often?
• Once again it would be the Sunrise Circle Jacket, hands down
  

• What was your favorite gift to knit?
• Definitely the Yuletide Gnome. I had a hard time giving that one away. He was soooo cute. I didn't think I would like him at first but now I am a little sad to have seen him go.

• Which of your hand knits are gathering dust your closet?
• I am sad to say my Lady Eleanor has not seen the light of day since she was knit. I pull her out every once in a while to see if I can figure out how to wear her properly, but inevitably she finds her way back to the closet.

• Which of your hand knits have you gotten rid of?
• Ahh...the never finished Kyoto Sweater, which would have looked like a sac on me, was frogged to make way for the Green Mimosa. Hopefully the Mimosa will survive the dreaded hiatus state cause this yarn has been reincarnated too may times already.

• If you've knit socks, what is your favorite pattern?
• Well, I started my first sock this year so by default it would be the Jaywalker sock pattern

• What have you learned about your craft in 2006?
• That I shouldn't be too afraid of the unknown technique as they can all be figured out if I don't think TOO hard about it. They normally go bad when I start second guessing myself.

• What events/sites have you particularly enjoyed in the blogosphere in 2006?
• I am not much of a knitalong person, more of a finish and show along type, but I have to say I have enjoyed watching the Knitting Olympics, Sock Wars and Socktoberfest

• What would you like to make in 2007?
• Wow this question isn't a hard one, just a really long one. I have a full list of things I would like to make in 2007 that reflect a wide world of new techniques for me. Here are my current top picks for 2007:
  

Small Town

No I cannot forget where it is that I come from
I cannot forget the people who love me
Yeah, I can be myself here in this small town
And people let me be just what I want to be

- John Mellencamp

Last week I had some family business that took me to Indiana. This is the kind of family business that comes with an notorious early morning phone call and hastily made travel plans. Although these times are never what you want, they often bring you gifts that you would never have expected or thought to wish for.

My gifts were meeting a family that I had never met, both related and unrelated to me. I met a quilter who participates in quilted postcard swaps and is designing her own quilt pattern. I experienced the freezing weather of a small town (never above 25F, and reaching as low as 11F before we left), and the culture that goes along with it.

While there I took some pictures to remember my small town visit and the wonderful family that I will always remember and hope to visit again.

Things I am Thankful for in 2006

• I am thankful for my friend V who let me spend this gluttonous holiday with her and her family. The food was excellent and she prepared it using my first sewing project - the apron. Here are some "America's Next Top Model" shots for you.

No, she does not normally practice ballet while cooking.
The camera makes people do crazy things

• I am thankful for all the food that we were blessed to have on this day. I was especially thankful that V's mother cooked greens which is a very southern, african american food that just rings in the holidays for me. She made a good pot of collards and candied yams to go with it. MAN!! I am hungry again just thinking about it.

I could only get one set of models to look at a time


Look at all that great food and that wasn't even half of it!

• I am thankful for all my family and friends that presumably forgave the fact that I was so late in calling them for the customary well wishing on this holiday of thanks. I am so bad at this that I have to call my brother today, the day AFTER Thanksgiving because my cell phone ran out...or at least that is the excuse and I am sticking with it!
  

• I am also thankful for yet another year of good health - minus the two months of bronchitus that I am still not over - and the great things that I have accommoplished both in life and craft :O)

• Last but not least I am thankful for all you who read and comment so often in my blog. It is amazing that you can build such a community nowadays without ever meeting those you begin to know and love as cyber family and friends.

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and look forward to reading about all your holiday treats.

Giving Thanks the Knitter's way

Today I am giving thanks for all the things, including those things knitterly. Since the last time we spoke I...

Finished my snake skin (a.k.a. Mermaid gloves). I will have to give more detail and better pictures when I have time, a photographer other than self-timer, and adequate sunlight. In the meantime here is one:

I also started my first socks, which is the every popular Jaywalkers. I got some Vesper Sock Yarn in Knit and Tonic last week so I was so eager to start. Here is a picture of my sock in the Denver airport

since this picture I worked another 4.5" into the pattern, ripped it out because it was way too big (I am using the extended pattern sized because my feet are so big) and have reknit about 2" into the pattern again. My heart bled when I had to rip but this yarn was too expensive not to.

And here is a picture of the snow capped mountains in Denver. They are beautiful, but I do not like the cold.

Which brings me to the subject of how freaking cold it is here in Tampa, Florida where I will be spending my Thanksgiving. It was 55 degrees when I got here! It seems as though the cold snap happened the morning of my arrival. I guess I wished too hard for the weather to not be hot and humid. Instead I have been bundled up for 3 days now.

I will be back with some Thanksgiving pictures tomorrow. Have a great Turkey Day.

Meet my SnB

These are the moments that make me REALLY miss being in Berkeley, Portland, Long Beach, or any other place with a semblance of culture (a.k.a. not Orange County)

In my last post I mentioned that I got a new camera. My old point and shoot was not completely dead but it was having problems with opening and closing the lens. This had been going on since July and finally I had to say enough. Especially since I will be going to Florida for the Thanksgiving holiday to visit a friend and don't always like bringing by big DSLR everywhere.

So, my new photographic baby is the Canon SD700IS. Man this things is great. I did a lot of research before I chose my camera. Now it is not the latest version, which incidentally is SD900, but it was the one that suited my particular photographic needs. The selling point for me were, the Image Stabilizer (IS), the 4xOptical zoom - since I normally zoom out as opposed to taking wide shots, and the price - about $100 buck cheaper than the other models.

Since this is a knitting blog - I already have a photography blog - I decided to stretch my new camera's wings at my SnB meeting. Along with the photos at the start of the entry, in which I used the very cool color accent feature, the ones below will show you what the camera can do and also will give you an idea of why I travel 30 minutes from my house to the Long Beach SnB instead of going 5 minutes to the one by my house. The sacrifices I make for diversity and knitting.

Our SnB Cafe Called Viento y Agua

Cafe w/o and with flash

Nubian Craftster Gets a New Look

I have moved over to Blogger BETA and with that comes its fair share of problems and new cool discoveries. Since I am very HTML deficient I have to rely on the kindness of Blogger hacks to make my site a little more presentable.

I will try and make the random Bloglines updates as minimal as possible, but since I am a newbie to this whole system I can't guarantee anything.

Knitwise - I hope to have some finished object pictures of the Lizard Skins (a.k.a Mermaid Gloves) taken from my new camera this weekend.

Material Girl

...and I am living in a material world as I am a collector. Of what you say? Of just about everything. Not to the extent that people will see newspapers piled to the ceiling when I die (it would actually be more like magazines anyway), but I do have a sizable collection of things that are either past or present hobbies/loves/future careers. I will give you a peak into the madness. Please be warned that quantities viewed in pictures are only a fraction of the true extent of the problem..I mean collection

You all know I stash yarn...I am a knitter for God's sake! I would not be able to hold my head up in blogger land without a stash bordering on S.A.B.L.E (Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy.

So I guess I also have C.A.R.E.S (Cookbooks Approaching Ridiculous Eating Standards). Here is a small glimpse of my cookbooks and magazines that I acquired during my desire to be a cook. I loved cooking but it just did not pay the bills.



P.A.L.M.S(Photography Love Accentuating Material Stashing). Here is a little of my photo magazine and book collection. PDN is such a great trade magazine. I took classes after college and continue to take classes on and off to improve my skills. I have been kicking around the idea of going back to get my Associates/Bachelors in Photography. Still thinking on that though.



So there should be no surprise that I have contracted F.A.U.N.A.S (Fabric Acquired Under New Addiction Stimulus). Since I am rapidly approaching the end of my sewing class, with only one more class to go, I thought I would show you a WIP picture of my sewing.

Look at those stitches...on a curve no less!! Given I was sewing as slow as a molasses after my debacle on the second day of class but man am I proud.

I have been web/blog surfing and finding new sewing ideas but of course this requires a machine. I hope to squash my urge for a machine by using my mom's old White Sewing Machine until I decide if this is a permanent addiction. But the true addiction is the fabric.



Such wonderful colors and patterns. There was a 30% off sale at my local craft store and I bought these beauties, along with In Stitches by Amy Butler which has seemingly easy patterns for the beginning seamstress. I should break out my badge now for my support group

"Hi my name is NubianCraftster and I have a problem. I am a chronic collector..."

Giving You The Finger

Ummm...sorry posted that on accident before it was ready so for all of you bloggers who are deeply offended by my title there is more to the story...just wait a moment while I continue to write

So here is my first finger ever...



I have made fingerless gloves before, which I now think should be called digit less gloves, but I never had to actually make fingers for them. Of course I had to pick a lace pattern to try and figure this part out. I thank goodness for craftoholics roadmap for this glove, but was still a little shy when it came to the thumb gusset and the fingers. This procrastination, I mean foresight helped me to cast on for the second glove before finishing the first. Therefore, I am soooooo close to finishing both of these I can taste it. And man do I want the glory of a FO so I can start something else. I already have visions of the Knit 2 Together Doctor's Bag or a pair of worsted weight Rapunzel socks...or maybe I should get started on some of that xmas knitting with only 46 more days to go.

Ok back to the gloves....