One Great Knitter

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Write about a knitter whose work (whether because of project choice, photography, styling, scale of projects, stash, etc) you enjoy. If they have an enjoyable blog, you might find it a good opportunity to send a smile their way.

One knitter that really gets my mojo going is Norah Gaughan. I love her patterns and I have many in my queue. She is inspired by nature and currently has 453 patterns listed on Ravelry. Her latest feat is a collaboration for a book Comfort Knitting and Crochet Afghans. I just bought it and I am waiting for it to be shipped. I want to knit afghans now. Every one of them in this book!

I don't have a crocheter that I absolutely adore so its all about knitting today:(

Here are some of Norah's patterns that I hope to be knitting soon....





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In other news, I am so close to finishing Citron for Marcy. I have to ship it by Monday at the latest unless I ship it UPS. Which I will probably do anyways since the USPS is so unreliable.

I also think that I am going to try and post certain things on different days of the week. Wednesday will be current WIPs (works in progress). Friday will be FOs (finished objects). I haven't thought of the other days and I don't know if my life and knitting is interesting enough to write about every day. Two days is enough consistent blogging.

I found some novelty (gasp!) yarn at Stitches that I really like Cocoon or something. Webs carries it and it will be about $150 to knit/crochet a blanket out of it. It reminds me of a fuzzy caterpillar. I fondled it at the Universal Yarn stand at Stitches and was amazed. Its soft and can be made in a variety of ways for different effects.

I had some moles removed last Friday and I am pretty sure the one on my chest has become infected even with the use of Polysporin. I can't really access the ones on my back so I have to rely on the Mister.

The Mister has been overwhelmingly nice lately and I hope that this trend is here to stay. He will be going with me back home in a couple of weeks for my brother's graduation. I am having someone come look at my apartment and meet me on Friday afternoon to see if she wants to rent it. Hopefully she works out. I have weeded out some crazies and scammers already.

Stitches South

Sunday, April 25, 2010

I went to Stitches with a pal and met up with all of our regular knitting group. I didn't take pictures while I was there. I must say I was a little disappointed by the number of booths but I found some great yarn! I admired the yarn for quite sometime at Tess' Designer yarns. Great colors and yardage. I bought the most yarn from Webs. I discovered Berroco Vintage which I cannot wait to knit up. I also bought some Noro Yuzen that was on sale. I bought 3 skeins from Miss Babs and she is very nice. I am in love with Lisa Souza yarns. Their colors are so rich and saturated its amazing. The picture doesn't do it justice.

In other news, I am trying to get back into running shape. Its rough and I am sore everyday. It will pay off though sitting in a little bikini in Puerto Rico in a couple of months! I put an ad for a roommate up today and in like an hour I had someone respond. We are meeting on Friday and I hope she will be a good fit. I am really not ready to give up my freedom but I am not in my apartment a lot. The extra money will be really nice. I will post pictures of my yarn next time it is taking forever for them to load tonight:)

Replacement?

Friday, April 9, 2010

Its been a blah week. Nothing exciting happened yet nothing good either. I did get some knitting done and finished my Clapotis which will have pics as soon as it finishes blocking. Yay! I am so excited that I finished this FINALLY. I have lost ambition in my own knitting projects recently.

I almost feel the same way about the Mister. I just need more from him. I can't deal with the emotional turmoil any longer. . I am sad about it but have a lingering feeling that he is pursuing others. Not a good feeling to have. Unfortunately, I did try to nip this in the bud when I moved out, but alas, the phrase 'Don't call me anymore' does not work for everyone. Or the last 2 relationships I had. And those guys still call me. Blow out that candle, please. I will not date you ever again.

Maybe I just need a puppy.

Wow.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

No words can explain how I feel today. Well maybe shocked. I somehow always am getting in trouble for doing the right thing. I don't really know how to process what I got told today. I guess being efficient and asking people to help them with things is wrong? Wow. Wow. Wow. Has our society really gotten that lazy where people that actually have a work ethic are punished? I really miss working at CVS. I got to work to my heart's content and was commended and well loved. The only thing they could have fixed was the pay:)

Another thing that bothered me in the past couple of days was watching Harry Potter on Sunday on ABC Family. I think that the shows that they advertise on that channel is outrageous. Its called ABC Family and all of the shows are about teenagers getting pregnant. Again, what is wrong with society today? We have a morning-after pill especially targeted and advertised to 17 year-olds and under. I have seen my fair share of teenage pregnancies working in the pharmacy and girls as young as 12 are getting prenatal vitamins. Maybe I should move to Europe. America has become morally backwards and retarded.

I haven't done much actual knitting this week. I don't count knitting fun fur but I am still knitting that keyhole scarf. Maybe I will finish it today. A girl in one of my classes was wearing a fun fur scarf today. hehehe I can't help but think why people like those scarves so much? Is it the fact that its fuzzy? Or the fact that its called fun fur and comes in wacky colors?

My shawl designing class did start this week and I am really excited about it. Really really excited. I had to go to Decatur today and I stopped in Sheepish and bought Barbara Walker's second knitting treasury. I have been meaning to buy these and they are a wealth of stitch patterns for every knitter no matter the skill level. I am hopefully going to pick out stitch patterns to swatch up this weekend and pick the best one(s) for my first shawl pattern. For the knitter that is not so in tune with Barbara Walker check out this site. Its called the Walker Treasury Project and it is actually swatches of quite a few of her stitch patterns. These are shown in color and they have very detailed notes of the yarn used etc. in each post. The visual entries are growing quickly so soon all of the treasury stitch patterns will be on the site.

I really need to start exercising soon. And finish cleaning my house. And knit more. I am not doing a good job of any of this laying in bed and eating thin mints and watching reruns of Kell on Earth. By the way, I love her and a combination of her and Anna Wintour is the person I strive to be. Bitchy and fashionable. Tres chic.

Pictures next time:)

Life.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Its been a horribly long week, yesterday was by far the worse. Its actually the first St. Patrick's Day I spent by myself. I wish I could have been in Savannah enjoying the parade and vodka at 10 AM. St. Pat's has always been a favorite holiday of mine and I met Mister on St. Pat's two years ago. Not that it says much since he is not speaking to me right now. I might have someone interested in moving in, not sure yet.

The worst thing happened to me yesterday... I was buying shoes at DSW and I gave the associate my telephone number to look up my rewards card and I paid and I left. The next thing I know my phone is ringing. I thought it could be the girl interested in renting with me, so I answered. No. It was, in fact, a creepy ass 50+ year old that was standing behind me in line that apparently had a intent on memorizing my number. He then proceeded to ask me on a date. I told him he was a creep and hung up. And I blocked that number. I will be sending an email to their corporate office letting them know what happened and maybe they will change their procedure to type your own number in on the credit card terminal like many other companies. I am highly appalled and frankly disgusted.

In knitting news, I have gotten absolutely none done this week. I hope to knit some tonight. I did sign up for Stephanie Japel's Design your own Shawl class online found here. I am pretty excited about it:) Maybe I will have some pictures of finished items in a day or so!

Confusion is rampant!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Ah, waiting for loan money... Its not fun waiting but I can't wait until I don't have to worry about my money all of the time. I am also looking for a roommate. It has its positives and negatives. On the positive side, I will have $500 or so in extra money to save and to do things with. On the negative side, I probably cannot walk around in my skivvies anymore. I am thinking positively that I will find the right person quickly. I was cleaning earlier this afternoon and came across some hand knits I have forgotten about. Some socks, a couple of scarves and a shrug I don't know what I knit it for. Its really heinous and will be frogged.

I did dinner and a movie with the Mister last night at his mom's. We ate turkey tacos and had a strawberry and peach shortcake for dessert along with chocolates from his mom's recent excursion to Switzerland. I highly recommend turkey tacos and going to visit the Swiss. Beef is not the healthiest for you and the Swiss keep their country spotless and beautiful.



The Mister and I caught up with last week's American Idol as well. Three of the contestants that went home this past week and should have made it through---it just shows how retarded America's concept of talent is. I mean look at America's Got Talent, that show is a circus and a joke. Katelyn Epperly did a wonderful job covering 'The Scientist' by Coldplay the week before last. She wasn't my pick to win but I sure liked her maybe because her hair was awesomely curly. I really am not a die-hard Idol fan, blame the Mister:) Things really aren't much better with him either, he is moody and communicating less. I feel like I am stuck between a rock and a hard place right now. Hopefully something will improve soon. I did find him a template for his budding business that was exactly what he was looking for. After searching through 100 odd pages of Joomla templates, I am now being given the task of figuring out how to utilize it. I am a really caring person to do all of this for very little of anything in return.

Knitting is still plodding along. I started a fun fur scarf last night and I have such disdain for that yarn. It better make me a little extra money. I wouldn't get caught actually wearing one of those novelty scarves, but I sure will try and capitalize on them! I am almost finished another soaker this time in Eco +. I am going to add a modifier to size it better but I am not going to use an I-cord drawstring. The people that knit those for these are crazy! I hope to finish one sleeve of my FLS before I meet with the girls tomorrow at the coffee shop. And I need to write a paper before Tuesday...

UGH and some rays of sunshine!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

My feeling about today is pretty low. I felt better and even got a bit of knitting done on my Clapotis that is taking me way too long to finish among other projects. I will be tight on money this month so that adds extra stress and burden. I did get a letter about my student loans today which will be processed as soon as I mail back my letter. That makes me happy:)

On the knitting front, I just started the second skein on my Clapotis. I am using only 2 skeins and knitting with Noro Kureyon Sock on US 8's. I raveled my other details here. I also started Mona's Jacket from the current issue of Interweave Knits. Its knit up in super bulky and I am using Cascade Bollicine. The yarn is great although I do snag the hose-like layer holding all that roving together occasionally. Its not a spring or summer knit but I am dying to stashbust as much as possible. I am through to the separation of the sleeves and maybe will have a picture of that tomorrow.

I still am prodding along on my February Lady sweater and I am disappointed that I couldn't get it finished for Ravelympics. I mean, some people knit Norwegian sweaters complete with colorwork and steeks. Sigh. I guess its just the monogamous knitting that got to me and I haven't actually worked on it for about 5 days.

I am still loving that Vanilla pattern I mentioned yesterday and I will be purchasing a cottage license to sell that pattern tomorrow. Kelly, the designer, has been very pleasant to message back and forth on Ravelry.



This is what I made yesterday in a variegated worsted with specs here. And I will finish one in Eco + tonight! I am sure it would be cuter if I actually had a baby's rump to feature it on. Maybe I can ask to borrow a babe for a couple of pictures next time I see them. I must remember to tote one around just in case;)

I am also stashbusting a ton of yarn which I hope to have all of it up for sale on Etsy here and its also listed on Ravelry here.

I have a new goal with parameters. In order to make money, I need to complete and post at least 2 items a day. This will limit my personal knitting to 1 day a week which will be Sunday since I meet up with my girls and on Wednesdays...wish me luck!