Boob Tube

The adjustments I made to the layout went really well. I suppose I've been so deterred by Murphy's Law that sometimes it feels I'm bound to screw something up. Almost especially things relating to computers, including but not limited to the internet, the computer itself, the monitor, mouse, keys, space bar and anything else that could possibly pop up and/or blow up.

Let's start crossing off parts of my topic list. I want to skip to YouTube because that's pretty easy to talk about. I have pictures set up and ready for two of the other topics but I don't have a large amount of time. I'd like to take my time when I tackle the rest of the topics.

I was bloghopping, (reading but not replying, clicking on links and otherwise admiring other knitters blogs) when I found this video about snobby knitters. I found it amusing. It's a bit long and sometimes the audio cuts out or is very low, but otherwise pretty funny.

The second video I've had posted on my MySpace page for sometime now. It's a cute cartoon of a knitter who has to knit.

This next video you may or may not be able to see. I have a profile at MySpace, and this was a feature video on the main page of MySpace. You may have to be a member to see this, and if that's the case I apologize. I may be able to save it to Photobucket and re-upload it. It's a fake documentary about a guy who tries to live with sheep. I am not politically correct, and therefore if you find yourself more likely to consider yourself politically correct, this may not be something you want to watch.

Sheep Man The Movie -Trailer

Add to My Profile | More Videos

I found a video on drop spindle basics. I find this very intresting because one day I'd like to spin my own yarn (via drop spindle and spinning wheel). I consider this more a knitting blog than all about wools and yarn but I use wool and yarn, so hey - Why not? It's nearly 8 minutes long, in case you were wondering. She also has a website that you can visit here!

The last video I found I actually can't embed into the site like the other two videos. Here is the link to Knit Witch. She demonstrates a variety of things. I have linked you to watch a video titled, "Turning A Heel With Short Row Decreasing" in my own personal ambition to get as much information about sock knitting. She has made quite a few videos which you can scroll through on the right hand side of the video. I wish I had these videos when I first started knitting! She also has a lovely website.

Okay, that's all I got for today, one topic down, four to go:)! At least, for now anyway.

Changes and Hugs

I'm going to redo the overall look of my blogger. I love green, but I feel it's too blah and overwhelming. I would also like it if my NJ Knitter button popped out of the background, among other things.

My plan is over the next week to find a background I like and change. Which probably means my text and link colors are going to have to change. I'm sure something else will go wrong, so whatever that could be, insert-it-here. Meanwhile, I made a list of all the things to talk about.

Topics to be discussed:

-March 22nd NYC trip
-Yarn stores in Southwest Florida
-Spinning wheel
-Yarn (of course!)
-YouTube

I would also like to mention that I have been making an effort to do two things: Work on my sweater and update more often on blogger. It's difficult to find things to talk about, but I think I've got a hefty amount of subject from the tiny list I just made. There isn't that much movement happening on the sweater, it was updated to a fresh new ziplock bag, and thats about it. I will probably take pictures once I'm up to the arms, until then it will just look longer and.. nothing more than that. I am also trying to take more pictures and post them and upload them because I know I love looking at pictures of what people have knit (or yarn or anything). In an effort not to bore myself to tears (and others!) I'm trying to incorporate more pictures.

For those of you with less-than-lightning-fast internet, I apologize.

Developments

I've been checking Sheila's blog, waiting to see how she's been doing. Every so often I click on one of the links she has, because they are different than mine. I like to see what other people like to read.

I clicked on the Yarn Harlot's link, and I like her. I like how she writes, what she knits. She reminds me of one of my mom's sister's (my aunts). They range between 34 and 40, there are only two of them, and I could very easily be considered either of their daughters. I look more like them than my own mother. Funny how genetics work.

But I digress. I don't think I even own a book by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, but I find her hysterical. After I read an entry titled, "Ironic" and she mentioned something about Pre-Boarding, which meant I had to know what she's talking about - I don't like being left out of the loop. In this blog, titled "Represent" I read, and almost wet my pants when the Harlot herself said she would be in New York City. Doing a book signing or talking at the Fashion Institute of Technology where 749 other knitters are (probably) going to be present and its a Thursday evening, and it's in March.

I was so excited when I read this, I practically already have arrangements made to go. There are talks of a yarn crawl and just being so close to to the city (I'm about two hours away depending on what mode of transportation you take) I can't miss this. It would be an amazing feat to see all these knitters, people just like me, gathering to listen to another knitter.

Now, I won't lie, I don't own a book by her, but the idea of gather that many knitters in one area - and then! inviting the press! I don't want to be interview or on tv or anything, it would just be fantastic to be among that many other knitters - at once!

The 5 W's:
Who: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee/Yarn Harlot
What: Book signing/general talking-to
When: March 22nd
Where: Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City
Why: To show, in human bodies that knitting is a very strong market hold as well as it is not "dead" or underpopulated. Read her post, its much more detailed than I am.


There you go, the summed up version, but if you can get to the city, you should. I will be there, armed with my camera and I will most certainly have a picture-heavy post that weekend :)

I've been diligent about getting some sweater knitting time in. I'm not saying its growing by leaps and bounds, but I'm getting some done here and there in between studying. Hospital sitting is winding down, my grandma (Granny O) came home yesterday, and I Granny-sat last night. I got perhaps a collective 3 hours of sleep, but it was worth it. She's home, and feeling better and that's what matters.

-jersey!

PS: Keep Sheila in your prayers, or whatever you do.

The Sweater Post.

I've been working on my sweater. I resized pictures, and I have so much to share! First, I made an M&M and if I can figure out how to make it my profile picture, I totally plan on it.

She's got a hat! And fake Uggs! Oh goodness. The funny thing is, I tried to make her look like me - and she isn't even close. But lets talk about my sweater. Its a top down raglan, knit on size 8 Clovers which at the time I purchased all the material (LAST MARCH.) I decided to treat myself to my first pairs of wooden needles. I bought size 6 and 8 in the same length that I can't remember how long they are, and I have to tell you, I love them. The yarn is Cascade 220 and I bought 12 skeins. I should remind you, this was wayyy back when I had a job, and spare cash.

Now I'll show you some pictures interspersed with why it took me so long to get this on needles and somewhat complete.

I decided about this time last year, that I was absolutely capable of making a sweater. The entire sweater is knitting in the round, which I could do, simple ribbing and simple increases. The problem was that I was overwhelmed and I was still hooked on instant gratification. I suppose all relationships are like that at first, but I digress.

So in late March I casted on, and I knit and purled and placed markers and increased and knit and increased and knit some more. Until I realized my increases weren't consistent, and I decided to put the sweater down and come back to it in a week when I was more patient.

A week turned into a month which turned into a season or two and in late December, I frogged the entire thing. I had to sit in a car anyway, I might as well do something constructive. This time around, I've been very diligent about my increases, marker placement and counting. I watched Independence Day (with Will Smith) on TBS one and a half times while I counted my sweater stitches twice.

I also seem to be more patient, or at least I don't need instant gratification. As much..

Oh those increases! They are beautiful. I can actually say I'm proud of myself and mean it. I feel as though this sweater will get done, and as long as its not 70 in October at Rhinebeck, I plan to wear it. I'm so excited about my sweater and I am absolutely definitely going to Rhinebeck this October.

I've got about ten inches done, which is less than I had when I frogged it. But I'm pleased with my progress. It is slow, but steady.

Speaking of Rhinebeck, I am a college student. I am extremely fortunate that I don't have to work during the school year, but this presents both good and bad things. The good is that I focus much more on school which is at the top of my priority list. The bad is that I am perpetually in debt. My parents are wonderful people, and it was their idea for me to quit working - nobody wants a teacher with a poor GPA. I have decided to work two jobs this summer, in order to finance my trip to Rhinebeck. I can drive their, that's not a big deal. I haven't decided what I'm going to do about Saturday night though.

I went to Rhinebeck in 2005, when I read Knitters Review people (or maybe Clara herself) talking about it. It was a Wednesday, and the festival was Saturday. I convinced my dad, his girlfriend and my best friend to go, and off we went. We only spent Saturday, but oh my goodness, it was perhaps one of the most amazing and incredible knitting related days of my life. This past October, I really wanted to go, but Dad moved to Florida along with his girlfriend, my best friend and I had a falling out, and I had no money.

This only means now that I am more determined than ever to get to Rhinebeck this year.

Oh. I'm coming :) If I have to walk.

Happy Valentines Day

I don't know what I did or how to fix those pictures, so they are going to hang out and be ugly. I've gotten a few stitches on my sweater, it is slow coming, but coming. I hope to have pictures up soon.

The weather here wasn't quite what I had expected, but I wore a new scarf to school today. I knit a whole bunch of scarves and today I decided to wear this one, and allow my mittens not to match. I have got to look into that double circular needle method and bust out a few more mittens. Perhaps something to do this summer?

I was tentatively invited to go to Ireland sometime over the summer. The first thing I thought of was the yarn they must have. Oh the sheeps and the yarn... mmhm. Hopefully I'll have more developing news and perhaps I'll even get a chance to visit somewhere that is not the US. Assuming I go, it would be the first time I ever left the country.

My prayers are with Sheila, she has surgery coming up. Leave her some love and prayers at her blog .

Hopefully I'll have some new pictures up. Or less school work :)

The Picture Post

I finally had enough time to take some pictures in between running around. I think I resized them so they will look okay once they are published, the problem I had the last time was that they looked fine during the preview, but got squished once published. I have learned my lesson, and hopefully these won't look quite so awful.

First up are the finished, but ugly mittens, hat and waffle scarf. It hasn't gotten above freezing here in NJ, so waffle scarf & I are best buddies. I think I'm also drawn to the scarf because I've got a pair of matching mittens and hats. I probably look ridiculous, but I love to match.



Here are the ugly mittens. Really, only the right one is ugly, they were both used with the same yarn, on the same needles. After the ribbing, which was done holding one strand of yarn (normal) I doubled up the strands for the palm/fingers. The right mitten's thumb is extremely ugly - I know - I haven't had the chance to rip it out and redo it. I should also mention I changed the colors on purpose.



Ah, the hat. Customary with my "knitting by the seat of my pants" I haven't weaved the ends in on the hat. I love this hat, I wear it alllllll the time. The only thing I may do is add and icord to keep it on my head. It has a habit of sliding off, its not a "tight" fitting hat.



Here is the hat and mittens underneath the waffle scarf. I couldn't get a good picture of the scarf, I'm going to throw another picture on here of the scarf alone, but I don't think it adequately shows off the beauty of the scarf. It is very possibly my favorite scarf I've knit to date. The scarf was done on size 8 straights, I forget how many stitches I cast on, but I changed knitting/purling every five stitches to start off with, and made each "square" about five rows long.
'Cause I'm visual:
xxxxxoooooxxxxxooooo
xxxxxoooooxxxxxooooo
xxxxxoooooxxxxxooooo
oooooxxxxxoooooxxxxx
oooooxxxxxoooooxxxxx

It is so pleasing to my eyes, I love it.
Here's a picture.



Its a rather long scarf, I want to say five feet long? But I could be wrong. Now I need to know... I'm measuring..



Okay - It measures at 7 inches wide, and with my best guestimation, six feet long. My physical person is 5' 1/2" tall (each half inch counts, shush), and if I hold one end with my hand, and put my arm over my head, and the other end is touching the ground.. I think its like six feet. I know, I'm so accurate it just kills me hahaha.

In other news, I GOT MY SURPRISE! Ohhhhhhh! Yeah I got it! The day after I swore I was being patient, it came in the mail and OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS, its so wonderful. I took a few quick pictures, they are not the best, but what I got, is so beautiful.



Inca Alpaca yarn, and a Lantern Moon measuring tape - oh my goodness, I almost fell over when I saw it! My camera captured the color fairly well, I noticed also that it depends on how I look at my screen, but its the most rich color of green. I love green!



A magazine! Which had a lot of cute stuff:) There was also candy, but I ate it. Thank you, Lynne! Thank you so much!! :)!

I realize the pictures may be ridiculously huge again, but I finally got them up and I don't care. I'll have to play with photo shop this week and figure out how to make them smaller. I found a cool thing online, but I forgot to book mark it. ::sigh:: Sorry about not posting sooner, I should have a better handle on time management as the semester goes on. Wooooo presents!

Jersey!


PS: I realize you can't see half of the mitten picture. I'm going to try and fix it, but right now I need to walk away from the computer before I throw it out the window. Give me a few hours...

College and knitting do not mix.

I have so much to talk about as well as pictures to share. I got buried under the first quizzes of the semester. I will have a series of posts up hopefully over the weekend with pictures. I have so much to share! Ahhh!


Jersey! ::excited::

A nonknitting-related post.

I am patiently waiting for my package. And by patient I mean I check the mailbox twice a day.... Just in case

I should get some pictures tomorrow of the mittens, hat & scarf - perhaps even in action! Here in Central NJ we're supposed to get some type of precipitation. I have a "Severe Weather Alert" on the bottom of my browser, thanks to Firefox/Mozilla. Something about showers of rain or snow.. !?

I love snow. Maybe I'll have some action pictures... or maybe I won't worry about cleaning my car off. I got a few rows done on my sweater, which I've decided will be the only thing I knit until I finish it. No excuses: GIT ER DONE! I made dinner the past two nights and success! Nobody died! Or got a horrible gastrointestinal bug of any kind! Improvement!

I showed a crocheter friend of mine the mittens today and she told me what I had suspected: one of my thumbs is funny looking. ::sigh:: I've been thinking about ripping out the thumb and redoing it, I can't bring myself to do it. Maybe in another few days I'll get sick of looking at it.