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.

WIP Weekend Update - One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Apricot Jacket: The jacket is making lot of progress both forward and backward this week. I finished the back and one sleeve so far. I love the sleeve as I was pretty consistent with the stitches and it went pretty quickly as I was truly in tune with the pattern.

I learned a few things on this sleeve:

1. Learned a new increase as I wanted them to be a little more discrete then the M1 and Bar increases. So I executed the Lifted or Raised increase. I think it looks pretty darn good. Actually it looks so good I can't really see it so that is even better
2. I have hated the stepped bind offs that occur with just binding off stitches so I took the suggestion made on the Rebecca site for a smoother edging on shoulder shaping and this is what I got:
   

Me likey!!

However, with all the progress made on the sleeve, I made none on the back. In fact I reverted back to the ribbing! I figured I would frog to the neck since the neck shaping was all wonkey. Then I realized I did the arm hole shaping wrong, so I would have to frog back to that point. And, since I was doing all this frogging, I thought I would take it one step further as I didn't like the length of the ribbing since it was too long and accentuating the not so positive...my posterior. So I now have about 15cm of ribbing on the back instead of the finished 60cm back panel. Oh well, I am not feeling that bad about it since this was pretty darn quick for me to knit up the first time. It can only look better the second time.

Doctor's Bag: The Doctor is out this week since I am still waiting for the 2 extra skeins I needed from WEBS. I still need to frog the bottom and reknit it so I am not too excited about that. Maybe more news next week on this one.

A Legacy Ends

Today is a sad and happy day for this SP9 Participant. I am sad because this is the last gift I will receive from my thoughtful SP9 spoiler. She spent extra time personalizing each gift down to the last note. It is not often that you get treated so special by someone who does not even know you. Thank you very much Lynn.

The happy part is that I will finally get to meet my SP9 Spoiler...ummm...officially that is. See, I accidentally stumbled across her blog when I was looking at my referrals list on my blog counter. I always like to know how people stumble across my blog. I don't do it often, but every once in a while I do. It so happens that I came across her post when she was blogging about these...

They are my spoilers special scissors that she accidentally left in one of the packages she mailed off to me. You have to read the comments because they are so funny. Very Office Space like. Per her request I will be mailing them back but I have to say they made me giggle every time I looked at them

So go on over and meet a very wonderful lady at her blog. Thanks you again for making my SP9 adventure so wonderful.

WIP Weekend Update - One of These Things is Not Like the Other

This weeks knitting was extensive. This whole two project things is kinda stressful because I guess I am very obsessive about the finished product of knitting even more than the process so I am speeding like a demon to get to the end of both of these. Hopefully next week I will mellow out a bit....breathe...

Doctor's Bag: My hands hurt. This project is giving me carpal tunnel. Big needles, double stranded, heavy knitting = yuck. The I see this:

One of these things is not like the other :O(

Well, it seems that the pattern may have some errata going on and since I have seen very little blogging on this bag, it may be that I am the first to find it.

Now I am no knitting expert but umm...that base sure is big. I have gotten measurements elsewhere that matched up pretty dang close, if not exact. This one is just HUGE. The pattern for this piece says to case on 78 sts but reading further in the pattern it tells me to pick up 60 stitches to attach it to the front. Well folks, where do the other 18 sts go????!!! ERRRRR!!! Did I mention my hands hurt? AND since this is knit lengthwise I have to do the whole thing over again. To top it off, I think I am going to run out of yarn! Me sad.

Apricot Jacket: I thank all those who came before me on this one because I am completely dependent on them. I even had to print out the pictures as my tool to follow more than the pattern itself. I am now at the shoulder decreases and need a minute to decipher the Engrish. So far I like the pattern but not a lover of cotton or cotton blends cause it shows so much stitch irregularity. I hope blocking and the slight blooming of the yarn that I experienced with the swatch will help with this.

Hee hee.. you can see my piggy banks booty in this pic

Book Previews - Knit 2 Together and Knitting Nature

I have had this post waiting in the wings for some time. Bigger and better things came along since this post was written so they were blogged about and this went to the wayside. Well, today I have a lot to talk about but am obsessed with my knitting which I will talk about this weekend on the Weekend WIP Report. So without much more ado, here are some pictures from two books in my knitting collection.

Knit 2 Together - This is a great knitting book. I love so many patterns in this book that when I saw it at my SnB meeting I HAD TO HAVE IT. One pattern in particular is at the top of my list and that is the Herringbone Doctor's Bag (the red one below). That I am actually knitting right now.



Knitting Nature - This one has some interesting patterns. None are at the top of my list but I love the geometric construction of the patterns.



Denise Schmidt Quilts (no pictures) - These seems to have some fun beginner patterns that should be doable once I take my sewing class starting in two weeks. We shall see.