Jersey Knits

Update

2010-06-08T23:46:00.003-04:00

I graduated from college a few weeks ago. Student teaching was rough and fun and took a lot out of me but I did it, I graduated and now I'm working on getting a full time teaching position.

More on knitting soon. I haven't knit since January thanks to student teaching and I usually crank out all my good stuff over the summer. Like fingerless mittens:) Considering I ruined a pair of mittens this winter, I need to make up for them.

well, i kind of suck

2010-02-15T21:47:00.002-05:00

I kind of suck because I haven't posted in forever but I have good excuse! I have bonded with, and became best friends with my Min Pin, Lou. I am finishing undergraduate school, I gradate in May! I am currently student teaching, which is a teaching internship type thing and that is very time consuming.

I haven't done much knitting at all and I suppose its a good thing that nobody reads this because I neverrrrrrrrrrr update.

UGH!

2009-12-11T21:33:00.000-05:00

Classes ended well, I student teach next semester. I've been working on a cute caplet for the past month only to bind off and realize I screwed up really bad. I'm grumpy. Its sooooo small or I have awful gauge knitting type thing so I'm about thirty seconds from ripping it out and starting over except that I knit slow as dirt and I have to work this weekend.

UGH!
- Jersey

In Love with my Other Boyfriend

2009-12-08T19:24:00.002-05:00

Finals are tomorrow which means I'll have a TON more time to knit. I can't wait. Seriously, I can't wait. I start student teaching at the end of January and then I graduate with a BS in MAY.

I can't wait.

In the mean time, I have another boyfriend. His name is Lou.

We went a wild adventure today and he is exhausted. I took advantage and took pictures because he doesn't pose well for pictures usually.

He's a miniature pincher aka MinPin and he's my new bestfriend/my other boyfriend.

He has sweaters because he is 12lbs and I am worried he will freeze to death. I have not yet knit for him, but I will soon. It has to be superwash because he pees on his sweaters a lot.

That is it for now, I'll have knitting content soon!

Jersey

Rhinebeck 2009 (picture heavy)

2009-10-27T17:01:00.004-04:00

here goes nothing!
I was so excited to get to rhinebeck:

That's my excited face. I'm wearing the earrings I got from last year!

that is apple crisp. its delicious. it doesn't look it, but it smelled and tasted delicoius. we each had like 4 cups of apple cider too.

Now onto the yarn I bought. I bought ALL bulky, ALL handspun or hand dyed. I can get machine spun any day but its rare I get to buy from local farms that card/dye/spin their own stuff, so I did it as frequently as possible. I think I was completely successful in ALL of my purchases but I didn't look into each purchase super carefully.

I got roving! and a drop spindle. This is from the Sheep Shed at Mountain View Farm

Its so beautiful!

This is from the Hudson Valley Sheep and Wool Company. I bought four skeins for a cardigan/sweater type thing.

I got this for Boyfriend, two skiens. It has a bit of green in it too that did not photograph well.

I got this little bundle from This and That Farm

I got this from a woman who uses sea water and the sun to dye her yarn. She's from Maine but her company slips my mind right now and I'm being a lazy pain the butt.

This is from Kid Hollow Farm. I love their stuff, I wish I could have afforded more.

I bought two bags of roving from these fine people:

This is Scotia, a dark blue color.

And pink!

I have quite a bit of knitting ahead of me, including a scarf for Boyfriend, knitting for myself and here is an ALMOST completed ear flap hat:

Its a red/orangey mess that I LOVE! I'm making this for Boyfriend's sister who absolutely does not read this so I am not worried about ruining any surprises. It's knit with some wool that was handspun that I traded from Ravelry.

Ok, I am pooped from uploading. I got a pro account for Flickr, I feel like a new woman! Enjoy and keep knitting!

Jersey!

Today was

2009-10-17T22:03:00.000-04:00

amazing.

I had a really lovely time with Boyfriend, doing silly things like petting sheep and buying yarn, a DROP SPINDLE!!!!!!!!!!! and roving(!!!!!)!!!!!ELEVENTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll have pictures up Monday :)!

I traded some yarn

2009-10-15T23:11:00.002-04:00

And got quite a bit of beautiful yarn from different people! Here is some handspun that I'm turning into an earflap hat for Christmas:

I got some Borroco chunky:

And this: I forget what it is, but I love it.

I forget what this is too but I love it. I'm going to make the
Anthropologie caplet with it. Super super super pretty.

And this. This is the latest addition to our family. My sister moved in with us and brought her little dog Lou.

He's adorable and felt like posing for me. Haven't been able to get a cute pic of him anywhere since.

He's 12 pounds so I will have to knit him some sweaters because it gets chilly and he get cold.

Rhinebeck in a day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited, I can't wait! I'm charging up my digital camera battery as we speak! TONS AND TONS of pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!

jersey

One more week!

2009-10-12T01:14:00.001-04:00

One week until the New York Sheep & Wool Festival!!!!! I'll have an actual post, complete with pictures, up soon :) I promise!

NJ Sheep & Wool

2009-09-12T08:40:00.001-04:00

I wish I could say that I'm going to the NJ sheep & wool festival today, but I am not :( I am instead, working :( In other news I finally started a yoga mat bag in cotton, and realized how much I hate cotton.

That is all :)

Autism Walk

2009-09-04T10:13:00.003-04:00

October 3rd I'm participating in an Autism walk in Long Branch, NJ. Please help me raise my goal of $250 which would benefit research as well as children across the United States. If you could please donate I would really appreciate it!

Autism Walk (link to my site)

I also have some more information from the site, which may or may not be interesting or useful:

Please join me in my fight to make a difference in the lives of the more than 1 million Americans living with autism today.

I am participating in Walk Now for Autism to help find a cure for autism. Autism is the second most common developmental disorder in the United States affecting one in every 150 children born today. Despite some promising discoveries, the cause of autism is unknown and a cure does not exist. Research is crucial. Every 20 minutes another child is diagnosed with autism. Not only must we find ways to improve the quality of life for children and adults with autism, but we also must find a cure, and soon.

Walk Now for Autism is our chance to make a difference in the fight against autism by raising money for autism research and heightening public awareness. Please join me in my fight as I raise money to help fund essential research. You can donate to Walk Now for Autism and/or join my team online using the links at the bottom of this page. Donations can also be mailed to Autism Speaks using the donation form located on my page or send me a check made out to Autism Speaks.

Thank you for taking an important step in the fight against autism.

Donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.
Autism Speaks 501 (C)(3) Tax Id #: 20-2329938

Matching gift program: Many companies provide their employees with matching gifts. Please consult your employer on its matching gift guidelines and attach matching gift forms accordingly.

Nice new hats, and the day before the Fall semester

2009-08-23T13:15:00.000-04:00

I knit quite a bit this summer, mainly hats, and I finally got around to getting some pictures taken. I liked this yarn soooooooo much! It's so soft and light, this hat is going to be mega super warm, on top of fluffy and beautiful. For my first baby cable hat, it hid some of my stupid mistakes, which I decided weren't so bad that I finished the hat rather than ripping out completely. I think you can tell I made mistakes if you study it, and I don't know that many knitters so I'm not worried about somebody pointing out a messed up cable :)

I found some adorable buttons at a local fabric shop that has an entire department dedicated to buttons. I was cranking out hats and not .. finishing them, so I sat down the other day and did that. I weaved in the ends to the Egg hat & got the buttons on their. They're cute, I like the hat so I might knit another one, but in a different color or something, and with different buttons (clearly!).

I love a good earflap hat. I have an adorable pink and white one. This isn't finished because I think I'm going to add little tassels or something to the Ear Flaps. I worked hard on this hat to get the colors to be really pretty, visually interesting and of course, throw some little baby purls in there. I love how they look like hearts. You have to ignore the picture, I was kind of sweaty !

The crown is alittle wacky, but I don't mind/care. I have another ear flap hat, the flaps are kind of stiff which I like.

I'm happy, and since its for me I suppose that is all that matters. :)

I've been going shopping for school clothes since I start school.. TOMORROW. UGH. And I'm going to be completing my 90 hours this semester which means more time in the classroom, and next semester I'll be student teaching. The problem I'm having is that while I can get pants in my size, and hemmed (I am so short) I am having a real problem finding nice, cute sweaters. I'm perpetually cold, so sweaters are a must. The previous experience I've had in schools is that they vary ALOT. I may be cold in one room, and sweaty in another, which makes a sweater or shrug a must. I have a few cute ones, but I've decided that I am going to try and crank out a shrug or two before the actual observation period starts.

I've picked out a few that I think are cute, and that if knit in a neutral type color I could probably wear with several outfits (which is what I'm going for). I am selling/trading some of my stash right now on Ravelry, so I'm excited about that, it means I can afford some yarn for the shrug(s)[check out my queue] and I traded for a nice handspun that I'm going to make a hat for Boyfriend's sister for Christmas.

I'm also really interested in this. It's a kit from KnitPicks that instructs you on all these adorable little ornaments. I can't believe I'm thinking about Christmas in August, but I am, for several reasons. I just switched jobs over the past few weeks, from one restaurant to another and I struggled all summer to do much of anything because I made very little money. I'm hoping to save up and go to: The NJ Sheep & Wool Festival, The NY Sheep and Wool Festival, Greenwich Village for Halloween (which means making my own costume) and again to NYC to see the Christmas tree, and a few trips in between for good measure, and excellent Cantonese pan fried noodles :)

I have quite a bit planned. Here's to the start of a good semester, my last one on campus full time, my (ALMOST!) last one as an undergraduate !

Happy Knitting! Jersey

Finished another!

2009-08-17T00:26:00.003-04:00

I finished another project, this time, an ear flap hat with some color work. I think technically its called stranding, but I also knit up some purl stitches so it looks like i have alternating hearts around the hat. I'll have pictures up later this week.

:)!

Two Finished Projects!

2009-08-05T13:00:00.002-04:00

I finished the Robin's Egg Hat . I just need to find a nice button and weave in my ends. Here are some finished object pictures, yay!!

I originally knit the Meathead hat, using this yarn but decided that I wasn't a fan of the pattern, so I frogged it and knit this instead.

I like this yarn a lot [Plymouth Yarn Trabajos Del Peru], its a very beautiful alternative to Manos del Uruguay. It's a little different, its got a thick/thin slubbness to it. I'm definitely getting more Boyfriend's 17 year old sister asked for an earflap hat for Christmas so I think I'll be using this.

I decided to make a cowl out of the same yarn, because, you know, I could. I'm trying to grow my hair out to donate it, and sometimes scarves are annoying because they hold my hair down, but they also keep my neck warm. The idea behind a cowl is pretty interesting I think, because it keeps your neck warm without really messing up your hair, so I knit the Wonky which was featured in the latest issue of Knitty as a surprise.

It's a simple, quick, beautiful pattern that really showcased the yarn I used. As you can, or can't see, the yarn had a pattern type of effect. It didn't pool like it did when I knit the Meathead hat (although I know that could have been remedied). It very naturally seemed to fall in place, which makes me happy because its one less thing for me to think about.

I love how it looks with my hair down, its nice and warm and kind of rolls under my chin in a nice way which is NOT! itchy!

In other news, I've been working on another hat, with another beautiful yarn. I bought it at Knitty City in NYC when I went to visit the Natural History Musuem. I'm making the Dean Street Hat, chunky version I love it! It's beautiful, doesn't require a cable needle and knits up really fast. I messed up so I had to frog it and reknit it but I'm loving every single second of it. I can't wait to get more of this yarn. I think I'll definitely be using it to make another cowl.

It knits up so quickly!

And heres a pretty picture of the yarn. It's a beautiful eggplant color. I'll have all of these pictures up on my Flikr account, and on my project page.

I've gotten quite a bit of knitting done this summer in anticipation of the winter. Here in Jersey we've gotten so much rain, I've been told that the winter will probably be mild, which makes me kind of sad. I recently frogged two projects from the very very very start of my knitting career that I am planning to work into another pair of Smittens and maybe a cowl or hat.

That's it for today:)
Jersey!

I haz an ideaz

2009-07-24T09:10:00.002-04:00

I was uploading some picture somewhere, I can't remember where, and they got "rejected" because they were too large. So I busted out some free software[paint.net] I had been introduced to through an education class, reduced the size of the picture, and re-uploaded, no problems.

Then I thought, "HEY! Why don't you do this with your knitting pictures! You always have such a redonkulous time trying to get them up, and a good size and blahblahblah." I started to get everything set up, I laid a towel down, I got things I wanted to take pictures of, and then I tried to turn my camera on.

My camera was not invited to the party, and now I'm sitting here waiting for the battery to charge a bit before I try my new idea out.

I frogged the Meathead hat, I decided that the idea is cute, but not on my head, and I've been working on the Egghead hat. I rushed the decreases and thought my head could fit, and it can't - so I SUCCESSFULLY! got some waste yarn and yanked out until I got to the offending row. Could not believe I did it, with only one minor issue, I missed a stitch, but picked it up as I went and have since knit two, "everythings ok with this hat now" rows, and an duly impressed with myself. I just need to knit alittle longer, and then patiently decrease and I'll be ok.

Last Thursday I had plans with a friend to play tennis. There was a 70% chance of rain, so we decided to go to the American Museum of Natural History and had a blast! We practically spent the entire day in that museum wandering around, and then I dragged him to Knitty City, a closeby yarn store. I bought some really beautiful purple alpaca which I plan to make into a nice hat, and maybe if I have enough left over, into a cowl type thing, like:this or maybe this.

I have a strange tendency to find patterns that don't really work for the type of yarn I plan to use....

And! check out our summer string bean crop :)

General, Random Update!

2009-07-10T17:18:00.003-04:00

I've been busy for doing nothing. I attended two barbeque's, drank several drinks, saw 311 up close and personal, saw No Doubt less personally, saw the Blueclaws frogged a hat, started a new hat, started reading ASL textbooks again, visited Florida, got a sinus infection, bought non vegetarian vitamin C (WTF!?) and read World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide.

I'm using the yarn I frogged from the failed attempt at the Meathead hat, to try and knit the Robin's Egg Blue Hat. So far, so good, although I have on idea how the flap is going to look once finished because the pattern asks you to bind off 12 stitches in the apparent middle of the hat, so I'll totally roll with this pattern because its really very simple and nice to knit.

I'm going to see the proposal tonight with my sister, boyfriend & Granny.

That's pretty much it. I'll post pictures soon. I wish I could figure out how to post pictures with in a post without them being gigantic or cut off or something else wrong with them.

happy knitting!

I love chunky yarn

2009-07-01T14:59:00.002-04:00

I kind of came to a conclusion that I really, really love chunky yarns. They knit up quick, they are typically very beautiful and they are great for hats/scarves and other general things like that, which I love to knit.

Just thought I'd mention that:)

Knitting in General

2009-06-17T16:08:00.002-04:00

I put knitting aside after the total abomination of my Meathead Hat & The green version of Thorpe to read World War Z. It's excellent, an "oral history of the zombie apocalypse". Usually I'm not that into science fiction, or really much of any pleasure reading when school isn't in session - but this book had me totally loving it.

That's it. I'm flying to Florida for a few days to visit my dad, so maybe knitting will make it down with me, but probably not. I've been baking a lot lately, lots of biscotti because its been such a chilly, cold summer that having the oven on is no big deal.

happy knitting:)

Meathead Hat

2009-06-12T01:10:00.000-04:00

About a week ago I drove a half hour up north from me to visit my friends. Very close to their house is a yarn shop, so we drove right over. The first time we went, the store was closed due to the owner having a family emergency, and the second time I bought two skeins from Plymouth Yarn called Trabajos Del Peru, which is a beautiful yarn. I love it, it reminds me of Manos but it has the most perfect flow of thick to thin, combined with not so subtle changes in color.

Except the pattern, and I - are not getting along. And the yarn? It's pooling.

Check it out for yourself. I have no idea what to do(besides, obviously add more stitches).

meathat

2009-06-12T01:03:00.005-04:00

DSC01157
Originally uploaded by jerseyknits

wrong size.

2009-06-12T01:03:00.004-04:00

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Summertime!

2009-05-27T09:33:00.002-04:00

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with flash

~~~~~~~~~~~

hi:)

As I mentioned previously I've had the motivation of a well fed sloth, even with school getting out two weeks ago. I started a hat, then ripped it out because I didn't follow the instructions and apparently I have decided that I will be following patterns a bit closer since usually I just knit and then I'm generally unhappy with whatever I knit because I didn't follow the instructions in the first place. Get me? However, I wanted to knit badly a day or two after school got out, but instead I found ever single loose ball of yarn and wound it.

And I took pictures.

I have them uploaded at Flickr which seems to be better than how I previously used to upload pictures, so I suppose that I am going to have 8 "posts" today, 7 with pictures and one with text (this one).

But anyway, Suzanne & Nicole, you are great & I heart you! Thanks for reading, and I would love love love to knit with you Suzanne! Are we friends on Rav? Because we should be if we aren't!

Anyway I have a friend from Local University lacrosse that likes to knit so we are going to visit Yarn It which is about ten minutes away from her non-university house. We tried visiting last week, but the owner had a family emergency so we got to the yarn store only to find the store closed! It was horrible! However we are going to try again this Thursday, so hopefully I'll have more yarn to show you:) I would like to buy yarn for the entrelac hat or scarf I have on my queue on Ravelry . Thanks Nicole for clarifying the pronunciation!!!!

ok thats it for now, thanks for reading !!! :)
jersey!

DSC01064

2009-05-27T09:32:00.003-04:00

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Originally uploaded by jerseyknits

no flash

DSC01066

2009-05-27T09:32:00.001-04:00

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this is the yarn i'm making the hat from.

DSC01067

2009-05-27T09:28:00.003-04:00

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DSC01068

2009-05-27T09:28:00.001-04:00

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yarn

DSC01078

2009-05-27T09:27:00.001-04:00

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Originally uploaded by jerseyknits

yarn cakes

DSC01079

2009-05-27T09:24:00.001-04:00

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Originally uploaded by jerseyknits

ball winder

DSC01071

2009-05-27T09:21:00.001-04:00

DSC01071
Originally uploaded by jerseyknits

testing pictures

Twitter

2009-05-25T22:46:00.001-04:00

I have a Twitter! Follow me at collegeknitter ! I have no idea how to do it so ... bare with me!

The Longest Semester

2009-05-20T14:40:00.004-04:00

I have been finished with school for one full week today. I have not knit anything since January. I tried knitting during March but I got about three or four rows done before I was called back to do endless amounts of homework. This semester, was the longest, and most stressful semester I have had. Evah.

Good news is that I had some fingerless mitts to get me through the forever winter here in NJ as well as an awesome hat I knit myself about two days before the lacrosse season started. Lacrosse was good, it got old fast, I was a captain this year, this was my last year playing as well. I'm looking forward to getting back to knitting.

I did alot this semester, that was nonknitting related and I am very proud of myself. Even though I know no one reads this thing, I feel like I'm a really slow knitter, and I seem to thrive off projects that move quickly, because I can see progress ha! So what should I do about that? I want to get into sock knitting really badly, as I've knit a full pair of socks already but I don't know how that would work because I am SO SLOW.

Anyway I had plans to goto the Maryland S&W Festival but they fell through because I became extremely broke. I am still broke but I'm trying to use the yarn in my stash because I have quite a bit, and I don't have the money to buy more. I have 9million items on my queue on Ravelry and I'm trying to pick something and start knitting. That's my goal anyway. Kind of lacking (yet again!) in money to spend on classes, but I'm wondering if maybe I can pay for like, lessons on a individual basis to precisely learn how to knit socks. I've done it, I'm just not comfortable with it, ya know?

thats it - i'm going to start working on my hat or something because I have work at 5 and that means I have about an hour and a half before I need to totally peace from my room and knitting.

jersey

and how is queue pronounced? like, "quay" (rhymes with gay) or like 'que' in barbeque?

Sad Face

2009-03-23T19:22:00.002-04:00

Lots to talk about, but not alot of knitting. Love my smittens, love my hats!!! I was named a captain of Local University Lacrosse and life as ensued. I love my team but I hate their drama, overall I'm slightly angry with my coach and sometimes my teammates but I've reached the halfway part of the semester, and I am still alive.

I've been soooooooooo busy, I took a praxis prep class, I sit for that at the end of April & the semester is over in the begining of May, thank god. Taking one summer class, prepping for science & math praxis's and praying I have some energy left over to enjoy my summer.

So currently my semester is: 17 credits, lacrosse, not so much working anymore, and trying not to kill my teammates. I drink alot of tea.

Life is good. I hope to be knitting again sometime soon, and mainly things to wear in the winter, maybe a summertime garment, we will see.

love you !
jersey

...Finished Another Hat!

2009-01-08T17:03:00.004-05:00

So I finished another hat, which is awesome. The blue/red is slightly larger than the purple/green one, but I like it. I took some time off from work before I start the spring semester and I've been knitting a lot. The yarn harlot's unoriginal hat is super easy & fast because its knit in practically six hours tops. So, I'm loving it. I also posted a picture of all the yarn together, they are really beautiful, vibrant colors. I purchased it at Nangellini in Philly.

That's it. Thanks!:)
jerseyknits

Finished a Hat!

2009-01-06T08:00:00.004-05:00

I finished the yarn harlot's hat - I love it. Posted more pictures to Ravelry. For Christmas I also received the Winter Knits Kit, which is adorable and among other things, really sharp scissors(!!!) and an electric tea kettle. Love it, very happy. I've been simultaneously working on two hats, a second yarn harlot hat & a "rosta" type hat for a friend on my team. Both of which are moving slowly, however I plan to knit most of today, so maybe I'll have another hat to show for it. I have three skeins of Talinay for three separate hats. Which means I plan to knit three separate hats - the yarn name reminds me of Elane's boss on Seinfeld but I don't watch the reruns often enough to know if I'm right or not.

The boyfriend also mean to get me a ball winder, but something fell through so I bought one for myself. It's small and adorable and I wound a tiny ball of sock yarn but considering that I don't own a swift it was slightly odd - and the way the ball was originally rolled also didn't help the re-rolling process.

I'm forcing the boyfriend to take pictures of my finished Smittens because I've been using them nonstop since I cast off and I really need to get some finished pictures. They are absolutely amazing and I DEFINITELY plan to knit another pair. They would probably be best knit during the summer since they are pretty small, they won't keep you too hot or grossly warm, you know?

I start Local University next Monday which totally sucks because we have two separate week long breaks so they are starting the semester a week early which just totally absolutely sucks. I spent a lot of my break working, knitting and sleeping which I must say, was probably the best use of my time away from school.

More pictures soon!
jersey

**forgot to mention, I bought myself a new camera! Sony W120, 7 megapixels, which is up from 4 so I feel pretty awesome about that. Its super tiny and adorable and PINK! so I will hopefully have lots of new pictures to post.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah , Happy Kwanza and Merry Winter Solstice!

2008-12-25T00:16:00.004-05:00

This has been the craziest semester that I've ever had. I was finally admitted into the education department at Local University, however because I'm a transfer I was forced to redo my educational hours of observation. This was on top of a month of lacrosse, 17 credits and forced voluntarism. I was sick three different times, which I hope I'm now getting over because as if that wasn't enough my winter break is week shorter than usual because the university is giving us two, separate (not consecutive) breaks this upcoming semester.

So, no trip to see Dad in Florida which I'm upset about, but I got a hat finished tonight and! my Smittens nearly a month ago! I also purchased a new camera because I grew tired of my old camera. The batteries also crapped out during the Rhinebeck trip so I have limited pictures which bums me out. I was also in NYC for Halloween, with the boyfriend and another friend dressed as the Incredible's. We had awesome costumes!

Anyway this is a simple update because its apparently 1am on Christmas morning, but I'm taking some time off from work to knit, relax and de-stress so I have every intention of making more posts.

-jersey

Getting Ready

2008-10-18T19:44:00.002-04:00

I'm getting ready for my trip to Rhinebeck, NY. Which, if you don't already know is where the New York Sheep and Wool Festival is held! I'm so excited. We are planning to get there around 10 am, which is when the festival opens. I have two projects that I'm buying for. One of the girls that I play lacrosse with at Local University asked me to knit her an ear flap hat. I have previously used the pattern "Red Baron Flys Again" with great results. She wants it in a rainbow color scheme so my hope is to purchase some yarn for her hat. Now that I think about it I may actually buy some yarn to make myself a new hat.

Thats about it. I've been working on Smittens with no real progress. Hopefully I'll have them done soon. It's starting to get cold here. Tonight we finally got our first frost advisory!

This is it, I'll have Rhinebeck pictures up soon!

I'm frustrated.

2008-09-18T23:37:00.003-04:00

Pictures of the Smittens are up on Ravelry, but I'm not going to bother posting them on here because I don't really know how to do it correctly.

I'm frustrated. I feel like I make the same mistakes over and over in my knitting. I feel like I'm not progressing. I feel like my thumbs are all over the place in these stupid Smittens and its not their fault, its a good pattern, but I dont know, I don't know how to be a better knitter.

I want to be a teacher. In fact I wouldn't mind teaching knitting eventually. But I need to be soooo much better. I'm not satisfied with my skills.

Thoughts?

-jerseyyy

ps: local university's lacrosse team is going to be going to two tournaments in the tri-state area AND! hosting our own!

Hihihi

2008-09-09T23:56:00.003-04:00

The only reason my head isn't lost is because its attached to my shoulders. I've been so out of it with the start of the semester (three weeks strong ::gag::), a car accident, redoing my room and a semi-vacation I'm surprised I have knitting in hand. In fact! I finished a basketweave scarf (awesome!) and I am in the process of knitting what I call, Smittens. Smittens are actually the Urban Necessity Gloves by Colleen Michele Meagher and the pattern is great, easy and I'm about halfway done with my first pair and I'm sure not to be the last pair.

I decided to knit both of the glove parts first and knit the mitten caps second. I'll have pictures up I promise, the semester kind of took me by storm, and the car accident, well.. that just took me by surprise. (I was rear ended leaving my job, I serve aka waitress but not at a diner, I KNOW! you would think I would, living in New Jersey and all...)

thanks friends for reading, if you still read :)

-j-unit.

PS: I MAY HAVE TALKED THE BF INTO GOING TO RHINEBECK. (just for Sunday, I have a lacrosse tournament Saturday)

All Summer Long

2008-08-08T13:38:00.002-04:00

All summer long I've been knitting, reading, thinking about knitting and in the process of redoing my room(new paint, new bed, new shevling, more conducive all around to studying). I have a cute scarf I'm working on, I'll post pictures. I also took a class this past Wednesday where I am learning how to knit socks from *the toe up, on *two circular needles, *two at a time. The astricks are simply pointing out the things that I don't know how to do. We were taught how to use a provisional cast on which I finally got the hang of, and I can't get over what a beautiful, absolutely BEAUTIFUL, seamless, wonderful! cast on it is. We're making a baby sock, and the second/final class is on Monday so I PROMISE to post pictures because I've been a horrible knit-blogger this summer.

I also found the pattern while cleaning my room, of the Boyfriend Scarf, so I'm posting that on Ravelry right after I post this. I have also gotten into loose leaf tea with my Bodum tea press tea pot. I love, love, love, love my tea pot. The Boyfriend bought me a 1-liter tea pot, which after I used it three times, my mom broke it. So she paid for me to get another, and this time I ordered the .5-liter tea pot and let me tell you- I haven't looked back. I love the size, it makes two perfect cups (I have large mugs that I drink out of) and I PROMISE to post pictures of my wee tea pot. Its beautiful, I love it.

I've been working at a local chain restaurant that opened up and I've been so busy. Between trying to get a loan for school and working and paying off my credit card debit(which I successfully did in 4 weeks) and last night I actually got rear-ended so now I've got to call insurance companies and I'm heading to the doctor's office in a few because my neck & toosh are hurting. It's been a wild, wild, awesome and crazy summer and sadly, I start school August 25th but I will post pictures, and I may even have a new pair of socks by the end of the month.

I hope!

-jersey

Summer time, and the living's easyy

2008-05-19T14:09:00.002-04:00

This is a pictureless post, not because I haven't been knitting but because what I've been knitting is in the process of being frogged. I started socks a while ago and decided that I wanted to make this wintery socks, and use a basic sock pattern but have a long leg, one that is depicted in the books and that may start half way up my calf perhaps. So I knit diligently on my sock only to realize that I had made some seriously stupid mistakes.

It was ripped, and started over. No big deal. Well now my stupid sock has one, very large and very obstrusive ladder near where the row begins/ends. I don't know what I did or how to fix it, and I am again, not that far into the sock, so it will again be frogged. I have to get over to the knitter's review forum and look up some info about why I'm getting ladders - I should say: LADDER. Just one. And its annoying.

I have also been plagued by a weird anxiousness about my knitting abilities. I'd like to knit things that are really nice, you know? That don't scream homemade, or if they do, at least look really nice and classy. I currently don't feel like that. I suppose I have poor knitting self esteem?

In the meantime I started what I am going to call a Girlfriend Scarf, which is the equivolent of the Boyfriend Scarf I made for Boyfriend. I couldn't find my notes for Boyfriend scarf so I improvised slightly by googling [ definition ] some stitches and came out with the mistake rib, so I'm using that to knit some type of equivolent for the Girlfriend Scarf. Although the Boyfriend Scarf was much more complicated than the Girlfriend Scarf currently is, and I had such a difficult time remembering the stupid two rows that made up the entire stitch.

Anyway! That's about it, I'm taking two summer classes - which makes me very happy and I'm still waiting to hear from all of my professors for my grades, but of five classes (three of which are science-lab classes) I've got some seriously great grades and I'm just waiting to hear from chemistry. Six credits are NOTHING compared to 18.

Ok gotta run, I've got lots to do and hopefully I'll have some pictures of SOMETHING up.
-jerseyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Finals Week

2008-05-05T19:21:00.002-04:00

Finals week is the best and the worst. It's the best because I can relax after this and knit all summer and its the worst because the entire semester can be riding on this week depending on the class.

I have to take a summer class (or two) and it requires me to take out loans. Any suggestions?

Thanks. I'll be back to knitblogging [only!] soon. May 13th is my freeeeeedom day! (yes even though i have to take summer classes... they aren't as bad when you study on the beach)

-jersey

Super Duper Quickie

2008-04-14T08:59:00.003-04:00

I think I may have made it so my blogs are viewable on Ravelry but I'm not sure. Also, and this is why I'm actually blogging, two of projects that I created, start to finish all by myself have become "favorites" of other people. They have little hearts next to the picture and that makes me super duper warm and fuzzy inside.

I tried to explain it to the boyfriend, how I basically created these patterns into existing and other people LIKE THEM! He didn't get it, but I'm sure you will, Knit-Community. Things like this, where I make my own pattern out of thin air, but more importantly that other people like these random acts of my mind may be the most satisfying part of knitting. I know I like some crazy, silly things, but to know that my recipiants like what I've knit, and even OTHER PEOPLE who don't have to see me on a daily or semidaily basis and who don't care about my mental well being... (haha)

Okay I think I've killed this particular topic. But thank you, that really made my day:)

I wish school didn't rule my life

2008-04-02T21:31:00.020-04:00

But it does, and this semester, so does lacrosse. I finished my first pair of socks over spring break which was two weeks ago, and sadly I have not had the time to post. This is all I'll share for now, because while I was sick I knit a hat for my grandma, but I'll put that picture up later.

These are socks that I FINALLY finished, using yarn that Shelia sent me. Its opal and its great. (I'm not sure how these pictures are going to load, bare with me)

Ok, so preview the pictures look great - awesome. I also included two pictures of my boyfriend modeling the scarf I finished over Christmas break for him, it was a very belated Christmas present (he didn't actually recieve it until Jan 17th) but I showed him the work in progress. He claims to really like it alot, and wore it several times around me, and not around me saying that he got a handful of comments.

I also told him that if we broke up for any reason, I get the scarf no matter what the circumstances, just in case he decided things were getting too serious, too fast. Although he did ASK for the scarf. Can't be too careful.

And! I also just added pictures of a hat I designed myself! and knit during the week I was [very] sick. I made it for my grandma and I did the decreases on three "sides" which gives it a Hershey's Kiss look. I like it. Granny likes it too. I used Lion Brand something or other, I don't know where the label is at, but I casted on three times and tried to knit something up that would block the wind (so I knit several sizes down from what the yarn called for) and randomly guessed the amount of cast on stitches. She also asked for the brim to be ribbed so that if her ears got cold she could pull the hat down over her ears. Hence, the design. Maybe not something I'd like for myself, but she's happy with the product and that's all I can ask for.

*I HOPE these pictures look as good in the preview as they do when I post. You can also visit my flickr page too, I didn't post ALL of the pictures there, just some in case I royally screwed up the picture posting here. Just search for Jerseyknits on Flickr as well as Ravelry.

thanks!
jerseyknits

Not a Good Update

2008-02-01T17:29:00.001-05:00

There is something about the way the school semester starts and sucks the life force out of you. I haven't even thought about knitting, let alone actually knit a stitch. I'm currently working on a hat for my grandma. It's taken me three times to get the right about of stitches for her head. I think the third time should be good. I'm knitting a few needles down so that it'll be nice and wind-resistant. It's a thicker yarn, I think something acrylic and fluffy.

Sadly, I have been sick, and so the knitting will come out in between breaks from homework.

This isn't a real update, I'm sorry but both lacrosse and school seem to get at me with a vengeance.

Hope all is well!

Anniversary

2008-01-22T23:04:00.000-05:00

I know I was supposed to have posted this on the actual anniversary of my blog which was Friday, the 18th. But true to form that is my life, I am late and I apologize. My first day of classes and practice started today and I suppose I just got prematurely excited about it. So far, so good. The following is what I had written to be posted on the 15th, so please excuse the delay.

Today is the one year anniversary of my foray into knit blogging. What a year! I knit, I cried, and I ripped back quite a few things. I learned how to use DPN's, made mittens and socks (things I really wanted to do) and never finished a sweater. I knit for a boyfriend and for myself.

I figured out what blog rings are, and joined a few. I also figured out how to post pictures and make them look decent. I found neat knitting videos and traveled to NYC to see the Yarn Harlot speak and sign books. I won yarn from another knit blog, and even got presents from people I never met! (Thank you Sheila!)

I knit an ear flap hat, bought yarn from various locations throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida. I dyed yarn and rekindled love with old knits. I found old knits that I plan to turn into new knits. The past year has been a wonderful learning experience, and I'm glad I shared it with you. Or attempted to.

I hope that later this year, I'll have the ability to have a give-away, but right now, I don't have the resources.

Thank you for sharing the past year with me while I knitblog!

Winter Break Knit-A-Thon

2008-01-15T18:54:00.000-05:00

I have been a knitting machine. The break between semesters is such a genuine relief that I couldn't help but knit myself silly. I knit a scarf for my boyfriend for Christmas, but I didn't get it finished prior to exchanging, so I just showed him what I had finished. He said he liked it, and the yarn was soft but the real and true reaction was cemented when I gave it to him. I finished it on New Years Eve but due to being on vacation visiting my Dad in Florida, the boyfriend didn't get the scarf until Jan 10th, when I arrived home.

Meanwhile, I promised to show you a picture of my Class Sock which was knit from Sensational Knitted Socks.

While on vacation, I also knit my very own sock! Using the Opal that Sheila sent me(its so so so beautiful and a dream to work with) I knit anklet socks. Instead of knitting a long ribbed tube for tube-type socks, I worked about two inches of ribbing and then transitioned into the heel flap and other sock parts. There are obvious mistakes, but considering its my first, actually intended for wearing sock, I'm so pleased.

I'm not sure if the pictures are clear enough for you to see the mistakes, I suppose that is the upside of having a 4.1 megapixel camera :) It's been alittle slow on the second sock, but that's only because I've been home, running all kinds of errands and getting things ready for the begining of the lacrosse season, and the spring semester.

I also took some pictures of presents I got, for no good reason other than because my camera still had battery life and I have resolved this year to post more pictures on my blogs because I know I love seeing pictures on other people's blogs. Here is my attempt:)

I received a tea press and a small turkey ornament. I collect turkeys, and I've resolved that I want to drink whole leaf tea.

I love turkeys.

For my birthday wayyy back in November, I got a smaller, knitting sized version of my LL Bean boat & tote bag which I use to carry school books, beach accessories, overnight clothes, lunch.... you name it, I use the larger, dark green bag for it. Now I have a lime green, smaller, knitting bag, with matching long handles! I love green. It was a lovely present from my boyfriend for my 22nd birthday.

A shot at what I usually have inside:)

For Christmas my boyfriend got me a brand new case for my iPod. Both the screen and the wheel are covered, which is what I originally wanted, but couldn't find. I had a different case, but it wasn't what I wanted. My iPod turned 2 this past November. (I don't know why the one picture is tilted..)

My favorite baking type cookbook, my winter time reading and another great sock book posed with yarn I got from my boyfriend's mom for Christmas.

After I realized that they were going to be too bulky, I pulled the needles out. I'm going to rip this hat and reknit the fingerless gloves with this yarn. The only thing I can say about the yarn in the hat, is that it is wool and the purple yarn smelt like FruitLoops when I first bought it. The hat had both purple and grey yarns held together.

(I don't know why the picture is on its side.)

And finally:

It snowed today, so I took a few pictures of my backyard.

I wrote in the snow, but I don't know if you can tell.

I'm not sure why some of my pictures are tinier than others, so I hope this posts correctly.

My camera batteries have been completely recharged, so hopefully I'll get some nice modeling shots of the boyfriend in his Christmas scarf.

Thanks for checking in! This Friday is my 1 year anniversary of knitblogging, check back for a year in review!

Happy New Year!

2007-12-30T11:38:00.001-05:00

Last night, I finally finished the super surprise knitted Christmas present for the boyfriend. Problem is, I am on vacation, and I haven't really figured out how to link up camera for pictures, as I've been wearing it despite the beautiful 80 degree Florida weather.

I'm visiting my Dad and I had the best Christmas since before my parents got divorced. It took them a year to get divorced, starting and ending a few weeks before Christmas during my junior-senior years in highschool (about 2002-2003). Since 2002, my Christmases have been crappy, running back and forth between parents, being overall sad and/or depressed and hating Christmas. This year was slightly different from years past, I flew down to Florida before Christmas (usually I wait and fly after) and the boyfriend and his family are practically my second family, and they love Christmas.

Perhaps it was spending all that time with the boyfriend and his family, or maybe it was spending Christmas Eve and Day with my Dad (we are really close, considering the 1300 miles) who I haven't seen since August, or maybe removing myself from the Christian faith enough for me to get through a Christmas without crying, pouting, being sad, depressed or overall miserable and actually enjoying the holiday, the way I used to.

Or maybe I'm just older and its easier to move on as I get older and the painful memories aren't as close as they used to be.

Anyway, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and have a very happy New Year. Don't drink and drive, and don't let your friends, family or strangers do it either. Stay safe and keep knitting:) I hope to have the Boyfriend Scarf up on Ravelry and here on KnitBlog, but we'll see how soon that is.

Next project: Knucks! from Knitty:)

Happy New Year!
Jersey

Ravelry & Flickr

2007-12-11T15:35:00.001-05:00

I'm on Ravelry and Flickr.

Find me as Jerseyknits!

November Knits, Foliage and Pictures

2007-12-11T13:37:00.000-05:00

The month of November was a very hectic, with school, lacrosse and even with knitting. Despite my lack of blogging, I have, literally, a month of pictures.

The first day of November was really bright, and this is what was outside my bedroom window:

I decided to Kool-Aid dye some mystery yarn that I inherited when my grandmother passed away. I have no idea what its made out of, but after dying I have a better idea.

I used a portable tray (we use for eating in front of the TV with), turned it upside down and made a silly, but functional skein. (I don't have a swift... or ball winder....)

It looks like spagetti.

I wish I was joking when I tell you that I thought this KoolAid would be blue. It wasn't. It was red.

If the yarn was 100% animal fiber (more likely 100% wool), the yarn would have been much darker red. Since the yarn is so light, it made me conclude that the yarn is probably acrylic. This bums me out considerably because I am never going to get rid of all the acrylic yarn I seem to have.

Moving on.

Here are two pictures of the tree in my front yard on Thanksgiving Day. It was nearly 60 degrees on Thanksgiving.

I turned 22 on the 26th (Monday after Thanksgiving). I didn't do much because usually I celebrate all weekend. My sister was up from Florida and we went bowling with my boyfriend.

And I finally(!!!) got my photoshoot. My boyfriend took the pictures, which means they aren't exactly how I want them, as I would prefer to photograph someone else so I get the shots I want. But considering, he did a good job. He also modeled some mittens for me, too. If you see tufts of dark hair.. well.. its mine. It was 30 degrees when we had this photoshoot.

Manos Del Uruguay in the "My So Called Scarf" pattern. Knit in Feb or March of this year. Also included are mittens, knit from Knitting Pretty.(page 59, Warmest Mittens) Yarn is from Green Mountain Spinnery in Champlain Blue and Forget Me Not (greyish). It was purchased in Jim Thorpe, PA where the yarn owner literally sniffed the skiens of the yarn I was about to purchase. This freaked my boyfriend out, but it still has a beautiful sheepy smell. I have aloooot left over which I started to make a scarf out of and decided that's a horrible idea for such lovely wool. Infact, its 100% New England Wool. I may make fingerless mittens with the left over instead. I haven't made a decision yet. I LOVE this wool. It's alittle rough but I L-O-V-E it.

Same as above.

Ugly Scarf, which is a k2p2 pattern, very unoriginal, on size 15 needles. It is mystery yarn. I purchased it very early in my knitting career from Ebay and it came to me on a cone, from which I simply knit from. I was young.. and silly. Turns out to be my most used scarf, and the ugliest:)
Also shown is a slightly not finished Ear Flap Hat. Pattern can be found here: Ski Hat with Ear Flaps and the yarn is the beautiful Baby Alpaca Grande by Plymouth Yarn in the Color 100 and unidentified. Although it seems to be pink and white. It is slightly too long, and I haven't done anything as far as keeping the ear flaps down. I'm not a good finisher. I purchased the yarn last Christmas in Florida.

Ugly scarf and Alpaca Ear Flap Hat

These are the mittens I was telling you about. If you look closely at the mitten with the thumb pointing the in downward direction, you can see the hole at the base of the thumb. No one has let me live that hole down. Also pictured, ugly scarf and ear flap hat.

Ugly scarf is nearly 6 feet in length. I absolutely love wrapping it around 800 times. Despite its sheer ugliness, its my favorite scarf.

NJ at sunset (430pm).

Boyfriend modeled mittens:

I knit mittens in January when my Granny was having triple bypass surgery. They were the ugliest mittens and when my sister finally annouced she would be visiting from Florida, I ripped the mittens out, and reknit them using the Warmest Mittens pattern in Knitting Pretty. The only thing about these mittens(as well as the other pair) is that the tip of the mitten looks more like a nipple than the top of a mitten. I ....am learning from my mistakes. I knit them a bit bigger because my sister has larger hands than I do. This is also why my boyfriend is modeling them, and why they don't fit him.

He had to reclaim his masculinity.

The stripes don't match because I kept getting entranced by using DPNs. I forgot to change colors...

These are two scarves I have knit previously, and I really just wanted to show off. My plan for the light green one was to try and give it away to anyone who said they liked it. Nobody said anything, so I still have it.

I designed this scarf. I can't remember what yarn is it, and I call it Exercise In Cables scarf. It's skinny, great to wear under a regular scarf & jacket, although I know if you look closely enough, I messed up on the cables. I think the cable I zoomed in on is a good example of a good cable, but who knows. Its k4p4 c3f p4k4. Make sense?

The light green scarf is a wavey scarf. I think I got the pattern from a book from the library. Its pretty simple, CO 20, knit two rows, decrease until you have 10 stitches, knit 2 rows, increase until you have 20 stitches again. Keep all increased and decreased at the begining and ends of each row. Very easy and it was a good way for me to grasp the concept of increasing & decreasing. I also really like this scarf, too. Acrylic, but soft, regardless.

As if that wasn't enough to tell you about, I have some new LYS stories. I found a "yarn" store on slightly local main road. I drive to it while looking for a different store (which I don't think exists because I have yet to find a sign or the building) and it's a big waste of time, it looks like its more involved with needlepoint than with yarn and knitting/crocheting. At least, that's what I took from looking in the window (it wasn't open). Meanwhile, I was contacted by the owner of ANOTHER LYS (although not so local) who found my blog. The owner of this LYS (try and follow this) was college roommates with my ex boyfriend's brother's girlfriend, but I think they broke up, so my ex boyfriend's brother's ex girlfriend. Small world, huh? Well I found her on Myspace as well and I have to drive up and see the store and meet the owner as well.

In the very latest of news, I have finals this week as well as next week, and I completed the class sock from Sensational Knitted Socks. I also aquired over my awesome birthday weekend (aka thanksgiving weekend) Knitting Socks from the Getting Started Series. I've been reading and dreaming and thinking all about socks lately. I usually visit my dad (in Florida) over winter break, so the problem always arises with what projects to bring with me. I have decided to bring the Opal that Sheila sent me. I brought sweater last year, and to be honest, I put the shoulders on their own circular needles(as called for) and I really don't think I got gauge. I haven't tried it on, although I really want to.

I'll have pictures in the next post.
That's it for now! Sorry about the lack in updates!
Jersey

Finals Week

2007-12-03T09:12:00.000-05:00

College is great for cramming a ton of work into the week or two before finals. Finals in and of themselves are a pain in the ass to prepare for, and that is why I have not yet updated. Good news is that I have PLENTY of pictures (I finally got my photoshoot) and stories and more pictures.

I just have to sift through all my homework for my camera and my USB cable. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

More later
- Jersey

Quick Mitten Story

2007-11-15T23:09:00.000-05:00

My cousin made his confirmation today. He is officially a confirmed Roman Catholic. Afterwards, the family gathered at a restaurant and had dinner. It was very lengthy and I am the oldest of my cousins. Of the 7 of us (one of which is my sister who is 20) one is a boy, and we range in ages from myself (almost 22), my sister is 20, boy cousin is almost 14, his sister recently turned 10, girl cousin almost 8, girl cousin, almost 5, girl cousin 4.

I say almost __ years old because our birthdays (the exception is my sister) are between Oct 27 and Dec 3rd. Six of us are born within six weeks of each other. Boy cousin and I are one day and 8 years apart. Fun facts ;)

So, this is where I'm going with this story, outside of cousins, our parents are present at dinner, as well as our grandmother and her sister (our great aunt). Girl Cousin, who is almost 8 years old, somehow notices that my freshly finished mittens fell out of my peacoat pockets, and onto the restaurant floor. Of course, almost-8-year-olds are very in tune to what is on he floor of a somewhat crowed restaurant.

Naturally, she thrusts the mitten into my face, it is not shiny nor does it have buttons, so it is not interesting. I should mention, I all but kept my cellphone in my bra to keep it away from my dear, adorable cousins. As the mitten is thrust into my face, my grandmother yells across the table about how she wants to look at my mittens. I hand her the mitten and my grandma, her sister and my aunt start talking about the mittens. Granny tries them on, yells at her sister (she is nearly deaf) about how proud she is of me and my mittens and I knit them and the whole nine yards.....

When she hands them back to me, she points out that I have a hole in each mitten. (I had issues with the thumb, I'll point it out in other pictures) I reply that I never said they were perfect mittens.

She is not a knitter, although I asked if she wanted to learn. She said people who are 79 don't want to learn new things. I don't mind her criticism of my knits. Granny will say what everyone else is thinking, and I appreciate that. If she thinks my mittens are ugly, she'll tell me they are ugly.

That's all I had to say. The story didn't quite come out the way I wanted it to, but you get the idea. It made me laugh when she handed them back to me. I may or may not have my strongly desired photo shoot this weekend, because I have to write a paper for American Literature. I would also like to mention that I am a science major, and although English and other classes make me a better, more rounded out person, I would much prefer to take an additional physics class, than American Lit.

There. I said it.
knit on! - jersey

Ah yes, FO's.

2007-11-13T23:06:00.000-05:00

* Originally I had posted this blog on Nov. 12th, but my awesome picture shrinking skills were less than stellar. I took the blog down, recropped the pictures so that they would be smaller, and better viewed on the blog and I will eventually repost this blog. Thanks! Jersey

Yes, it is November of 2007 and I can actually say I suddenly have quite a few FO's (finished objects) and let me tell you, saying that out loud, IS WONDERFUL! A far cry from my mittens in January, [and getting the jist of how to post pictures....] I have since completed a pair of mittens, an earflap hat and from Knitty, Calorimetry which I just tell my non-knitting friends it's some type of a large headband that I've been wearing to lacrosse.

I should also mention that I've gotten a TON of compliments on my version of Calorimetry. Seriously, a ton. Including lacrosse teammates, my aunt, boyfriend, boyfriend's mom and a stranger or two.

I feel proud. I don't have finished pictures yet, but I will soon. I have to somehow sell taking pictures of me bundled up in mittens/hat and random scarf is fun to my boyfriend. I know. Goodluck.

I used the yarn from my Jim Thorpe, PA trip for the mittens.

Until I have the perfect photoshoot, here are some pictures to hold you over. I included my awesome pumpkin carving skills and a series of half finished mitten pictures.

The cutest dog ever.

My awesomely carved pumpkin.

Pumpkins are healthy.

Non-lit shot of everyones carved pumpkins. (L to R: Boyfriend's sister's pumpkin, mine, boyfriend's)

Lit shot of pumpkins. Same order as earlier.

Painted pumpkins watching the Giant's win. (L to R: Boyfriend's, Boyfriend's mom's, Boyfriend's sister)

The following are mitten shots:

* I originally had a few more mitten shots, but I got so frustrated with Photobucket that I only uploaded a few. I'll have more later.

I have soo much more to share, and with a WONDERFUL four day weekend that is my favorite holiday coming up soon (cough-thanksgiving-cough) I promise to have another update. I do, I promise. I've been a bad knitter/blogger.

Finally, also in italics, I have to also mention I've decided to make up a "What to Buy a Knitter for her Birthday" blog, which should be posted soon, as well as a photoshoot with (hopefully) bunches of pictures of past and present knits. I feel like I woke up to quite a few winter hand knits. Some of them are ugly, some of them are wonderful, but I feel like I am slowly developing quite a collection. Perhaps I'll even have a model .... I'd love to take the pictures myself, but there is only so much a mirror can do. We'll see. Thanks for checking in with me, I'm sorry I haven't been blogging more often. I hope you are all doing well & enjoying the colder weather. I know it took forever for New Jersey to finally get colder. Even today, it was almost 60 degrees at 2pm!

Thanks for checking in! I have plenty of upkeep to do, I joined two different New Jersey related blog rings and I have some general cleaning up of links and dates, etc.

Ok, bed time and I'm really done with my wacky updates. * All updates in italics were done Nov 13th, in case you were wondering... :)

Happy Knitting! - Jersey

Movieland.

2007-10-18T08:57:00.000-04:00

I have been having a particularly difficult time signing up for classes next semester. Saturday morning, still in the dark, (530 am) we are leaving to drive to New York to play some other lacrosse teams. I will be working on some reading for class, as well as my ear flap hat. I have ribbed about 6 or 7 rows since I casted on for the front and back, with the ear flaps on as well. I like it very much. I've seen how ribbing looks compared to other types of brims, and I prefer ribbed.

I hope to have a large amount of the hat done when I get home from an all day lacrosse tournament. I hope to also have enough sanity and energy to take pictures and post them. I am very upset with myself for only posting once a month the past few months and I vow to change that.

I vow.

Local U Lacrosse had games this past Sunday. We seriously owned. After this weekend we get a week or two off and then we train without sticks. This means weights, cardio, all the not-so-fun stuff. For myself I will probably have very little time off because I have strained or sprained my left quad. Occasionally the athletic trainer hooks me up to a machine that "stimulates" the part of the muscle that is injured. It is called stim and essentially looks like those things you put on someones chest if you are trying to measure their heart rate. In my case, it gets put on my leg and I get shocked. It's not a horrible shock, but it can feel unpleasant and takes some getting used to.

I've been feeling alittle goofy lately. I will explain why. I learned to knit back in Feb of 2005. I learned to knit because I no longer had lacrosse. Lacrosse is my love. I moved to Miami to attend college, I came home because I was sick, and at that time I attended Local Community College. I learned to knit because I had nothing else to do. I learned to knit to cope with doctors appointments, MRIs and bloodwork.

Local University and my high school lacrosse coach cooked up a nice plan to start a lacrosse team. What I didn't know is that when I went to watch a game in April, I would be invited to Local University's Open House the following Sunday. At that time, my former high school lacrosse coach would [basically] make me fill out an application and within the following six weeks, I would have financial aid, and a potential position on the lacrosse team.

I feel like I am living in a movie. I feel extremely fortunate to be enrolled at Local University but to also play lacrosse? This must be movieland, and that is why the post is titled as such. Now, I have the ability to play lacrosse and knit and I certainly plan to. One day, I will not be able to play lacrosse, but I will be knitting.

I don't know if I ever explained that, and I don't know if anyone cares.

:) -jersey

Hello October!

2007-10-10T19:53:00.001-04:00

I can't believe another month has gone by. I had a long weekend and I decided to blog, and then I got sidetracked and I had a slightly bad day so I decided to have a photoshoot for one and rock out to some Sufjan Stevens.

Here's where I've been.

Here's what I've been knitting.

The beach pictures are from Belmar, NJ. It's popular amongst those who come from North Jersey and New York. Huge for college kids. I never quite understood that, but we happened to go there when they had things set up on the beach and people swimming on surf boards and other.. fun, beachy type things. Reminded me of California and that's a strange feeling in Jersey.

The beach chairs are mine and the Boyfriend's. Mine has the flowers. We spent a great deal of time in those chairs chatting like old ladies.

I have had my eye on the Calorimetry pattern for such a longgg time. I finally decided to cast on for it two weekends ago. I knit it on needles that were too big and doubled the yarn. I don't know why exactly, but I frogged the entire thing after I showed my mom and her boyfriend and we had a good laugh. This past weekend I casted on and knit from Thursday to Saturday night. I sewed the button on and I was done. I love it. I've been trying to wear it as often and with anything. I think I could probably go down a needle size or two and make it a wee bit tighter on my noggin. The yarn is 50% cashmere, 50% merino from the SchoolHouse store in NYC. I tried Google-ing it but I can't find a website. I know it was in NYC, and it is sooo soft and warm. I've also thought about blocking it, perhaps the shrinkage will help it fit better.

That will be next weeks project:) Since then, I busted out some of those beautiful bamboo DPNs that I got off eBay and casted on for two sets of ear flaps. Only after I knit them, while watching Bones and House, Tuesday night haha, I realized I made the increases wrong. So I gotta pull them apart and redo them. That won't be hard. The yarn is beautiful baby alpaca I bought in Naples, Florida. I've got it in that light dusty pink, a darker red and a creamy white. I haven't figured out what exactly I'm doing with it, perhaps striping, maybe not, but it will grow up to be an earflap hat. Specifically, Ski Hat with Ear Flaps (aka The Red Baron Flies Again). I've been dying to knit an ear flap hat, and this pattern doesn't seem that difficult at all.

In other news, the baby blanket is coming along very, very slowly. I'm thinking of just letting it sit and getting some smaller items knit. Maybe a pair of mittens? I hope to have a pair of game socks knit for Local University Lacrosse. I think I mentioned I'm playing lacrosse at Local University, and we have our first games this Sunday. We're playing 4 30-minute running clock games which isn't that bad. I've been practing a lot lately and it felt so nice to have merino/cashmere and needles in my hands instead of a lacrosse stick. I play with a wooden stick but even then, it's so nice to have nice fuzzy yarn in my hands instead.

October 20th we're traveling up north to play other teams and then we're done until the end of January. I plan to bring some knitting with me that weekend for the ride. The bad part of lacrosse is that I don't think I'll be attending the New York Sheep and Wool Festival this year. Saturday I have lacrosse almost four hours away and I thought about driving up on Sunday. I don't think it's going to happen though. Hopefully next year. :(

I hope to have more updates, the semester took me by surprise and it took some time to get used to a new school. This week marks the 7th week of school, which is almost exactly half way through the semester. I only have one more transfer seminar class (for students who have transferred) and I'm done with that class! I'm so glad, it felt like such a waste of time.

Sorry about the disappearing act, I hope to be updating more. Especially now that the cold weather has FINALLY come to New Jersey!

-Jersey

PS: I am on Ravelry but I haven't done more than admire other (capital K) Knitters. I feel as though I am still a (lower case k) knitter, and I'm slightly intimidated as to post anything. Also the time constraint has had me like a rattlesnake lately.

PPS: Sufjan Stevens is a one man band type guy, he sings all kinds of songs and todays rock out song is called, Super Sexy Woman. He makes me laugh and sigh and get the sniffles. He's one of the stranger artists on my iPod. Highly recommend him.

Not completely, if at all, knitting related.

2007-09-05T22:22:00.000-04:00

I swear, I meant to update during the past month. I can't believe I actually went a complete month (again!) with no update. Well I've got a picture-less updated, followed by a picture update to come sometime over the weekend. I swear. Local University started August 27th, and I am aware that some parts of the country start school earlier than that, but in this neck of the woods, that's early.

The worst part might be that I spent most of the week before fulfilling various orientations. Some for transfer students, others for student-athletes. It made my summer seem squished and over before I was ready for it to be over. Perhaps the worst of the worst part of this entire event is that it was cloudy and some type of precipitationy, like rain or mist or something in between. Very depressing weather.

Good news! After my first week in school, I spent the beautiful, three day weekend on my local beach. Soaking up sun, and getting myself burnt on one half of my face(because I turned most of the day to talk to my boyfriend. Bad move.). I brought my knitting with me, but in the past two or three weeks - I've lost track of the days - I only knit during orientation, pretty much trying to pass time and get the nervous tension out of my system. It kind of helped. People are slowly identifying me as the knitting athlete.

I haven't brought my knitting to school yet, as I've had a great deal of running around and homework to do, things are settling into a nice rhythm and I hope to get this baby blanket done, very soon. The baby was born in August, and no, I don't know what date. I haven't even had the time to visit the baby, but I've seen pictures and he's adorable and healthy and keeping his older sister up at night. I feel horrible saying this because even though it's my mom's boyfriend's sister, we're pretty close. (Think: step aunt if my mom & boyfriend were married, its easier that way.)

I don't think I have half the blanket done, and I really want to get it done and move onto other projects. I have sooooo many projects I want to work on besides this blanket and I have to tell you that I'm tired of knitting it. These feelings kind of make me angry because I would love to knit this blanket but it feels like every time I spent a few minutes on it, I loose rows. I think I may start designating 20 or 30 minutes a day to working on it and perhaps that kind of... stick-to-it-ness may get the blanket done.

I hope.

I have pictures for my post later in the week. I got presents! Anyway, if anyone still reads, thank you very much. I appreciate it and hopefully now that I'm back to a regular, school schedule I'll be posting as often as I did last semester/this past spring.

-Jersey!

Slow and pokey.

2007-08-04T23:28:00.000-04:00

I have to tell you, I was surprised to notice that I haven't blogged in a month. Where did the time go? I know I meant to blog, not that I have anything completed to show, but I did think a great deal about knitting over the past month. I didnt have a lot of time during the past month to knit, but considering [now, it's August] that we are eight months into 2007, I don't have a FO to show. Eight months and not a single FO?

So it got me thinking, I think I knit fast. I watch people turn out FO's all the time, but I work night and day on a sock and I didn't have to frog it at all and I'm not even close to done! I must be slow. A slow and pokey knitter. Perhaps, I may not feel the need to finish things. I don't have deadlines or anything. I just knit for pleasure, for fun. My boyfriend's mom recently commented [by recent I mean Memorial Day] that she has never seen me finish anything I started. She is accurate. I have a sweater that's been on hold since April, socks that I haven't officially frogged yet, a baby blanket and squares that I said I was going to send to Kansas. That didn't work out. So, I thought to myself, what's my problem? Why can't I finish anything? Do I have finishers anxiety?

Who knows. Maybe since I'm technically off from school, my brain decided it didn't want to knit either. Speaking of school, this is what I've been up to over the past month.

I've been taking a pre calculus class at Local University so I won't have to be in school as long. Next summer I've got quite a few classes lined up to take. I've also been running back and forth to Local University to sign different forms and turn others in. I'm going to be playing lacrosse there so I've been working out and on a special diet. It really consists of eating things that are good for me and not eating things that are bad for me. Its simple. Egg whites and whole wheat toast with Smart balance butter? yes Chocolate cake? no. I also gave up my morning cup of coffee so that I took about a week to get used to. Headaches are no fun.

I went to a wedding last weekend. I was the boyfriend's date, his cousin was getting married. Beautiful wedding on a local beach and even more beautiful reception, if there is such a thing.

I've been going to my local beach and I must report I have a nice warm glow :) I think Monday may be the next beach expedition. I usually end up throwing and catching with the boyfriend and whoever else is along. I use my lacrosse stick and they use an extra stick I have or they bring baseball gloves with them. Then we play in the water, dry off, relax and do it all over again. I brought the latest project, a baby blanket with me, but I only got about three rows done.

I also rearranged my room. Originally my living arrangements were supposed to be temporary. They are not quite as temporary as I initially thought, so I rearranged things to be more suitable for myself. I didn't take any pictures of my room because it isn't completely done but it is close :)

During the process of moving my room around I needed to hang up a mirror and cork board. I pulled out my handy dandy tool kit..

My mom and her boyfriend have their own house tool kit but I couldn't resist using mine. How often do you get to use a pink hammer?

This is what I've been up to in picture form:

School book are in the LL Bean or Lands End canvas bag (can't remember who I purchased it from), knitting is on the floor, working out materials are to the right of the bag and a recently purchased Basic Cooking that I found last night during at outing at Barnes and Noble with Mom. I read about half of it before I realized it was an excellent book for $9 (+ tax) and that I hadn't even glanced at the knitting section.

Closeups of the baby blanket.

I bought the yarn at a slightly-out-of-the-way-yarn shop that's going out of business. I'm not sure what type of yarn it is, but I know its machine washable. I'll post tomorrow with that info. I pulled the pattern from a Debbie Bliss book that I had to return to the library [arrest me, I photocopied the pattern from the book] so I'm not entirely sure what that book is called... Could this post be a bit more half assed? I suppose it could, if I was like any other 21 year old at the Jersey Shore I'd be walking down the boardwalk to the next bar.... ahhh yes, see where I'm going?

I think the first and last pictures capture the color very well, at least from my camera to my screen, anyway. The last picture has my manicured toes from the wedding. I figured they looked good, I could post the picture and not worry :)

I hope I have more to post later. Any ideas or comments about my laborious slow knitting would be more than welcome. At this point I'd be thankful if anyone still pokes their head around my blog. I think that I'll be more post-y during the school year again. Seems that the summer is a free-for-all on multiple levels, including but not limited to sleep, cooking, knitting, concentrating....

Pennsylvania

2007-07-02T23:59:00.000-04:00

I've been a busy girl. Thursday I spent the day in Philadelphia, which resulted in a trip to Loop . I didn't buy anything but I made the Boyfriend feel the difference between linen and silk, you know, because he's starting to knit as of late.

Friday I spent home, being sick. Well, I actually spent it at Boyfriend's house and he took care of me. We (finally) watched You Me and Dupree which was okay, and we played assorted video games. Friday my dad who usually resides in Florida was flying to a small town in the southern part of the Poconos, Jim Thorpe, to help my aunt out. I took this as an awesome opportunity to visit an old vacationing spot, and see my dad.

Jim Thorpe is a beautiful town, and I've walked up and down the streets of downtown, and I have never found this shop before:

From Broadway, I looked up into the hill and saw what I thought was a yarn shop. The Boyfriend said I must be wrong, no way, blahblahblah.

As I got closer, I realized I was right!!!!!

Boyfriend had to sit in a nicely padded chair while the yarn owner and I spoke, and she told me that, instead of getting high on glue, she gets high on sheep, and proceeds to sniff a skein from Green Mountain Spinnery. Upon close inspection, it does smell like a sheep, and better yet, it still has vegetable matter within the skein. I personally don't mind, and enjoy some vegetable matter among my yarn. I'm not sure why, except that it makes me feel close to the sheep.

I don't know if you can see the vegetable matter, but as far as my computer and camera go, the pictures are very color accurate, which makes me happy because it is beautiful yarn.

This a picture of a very large piece of coal? It is 99% carbon. It's one of the random pictures I took that doesn't have the Boyfriend in it.

On the needles, I've got a baby blanket that I don't have pictures of yet. Hopefully I'll have it done soon. That's about it.

God Bless America and have a safe and happy Fourth of July!

Knitting and Work Does Not Mix.

2007-06-23T11:17:00.000-04:00

However, the beach and knitting do mix. People tend to discredit New Jersey, which makes me sad because yes, sometimes I want to move far, far away and other days I hope I grow old and grey here.

This is the reason why I never want to leave New Jersey.

These are shots from a local park. Boyfriend is playing volleyball in the background. I was really far away because it had just finished raining, poor thing had to play in the rain. I took the pictures because of the lush greenery (which I love and is why I have no problem watching him play) and the beautiful rainbow.

The benny's on the other hand.....

They make me want to run screaming.

I will explain two things: in the summertime two things happen at the beach, Benny's invade the beaches, boardwalks, parks, anything that is slightly enjoyable, they come down and ruin. That includes all the nice roads I take to get here and there and back again. It makes driving on the weekends a chore and something only the most daring and patient should try. Don't get me started on Friday and Sunday nights. Garden State Parking Lot (usually its the Parkway)! Anyway, it has taught me to be a very nice, courteous tourist because I've seen what the not-so-nice ones are like.

The second thing I'm going to explain is the 'warming' of the Atlantic. I'm only explaining because I'm not sure if non-Atlantic Ocean goers will know what I'm talking about. Apparently, the Pacific does not do this, although they have better waves. The Gulf Stream makes it way mid July usually, up the East coast and warms the ocean water significantly. It is so pleasant opposed to the colder Atlantic water, the kind that you don't even want to stick your baby toe in.
In other news, I've got a standing beach invitation for Monday's, which is wonderful because the water has warmed up already. I also got quite a bit of sock knitting done, and if you excuse the sheer ugliness of the angles, as the sock is on MY [ugly] foot, I got quite a bit done.

If you look closely you can see a nice sized hole from my lack of skills. I was mildly sad about this, but considered it a good luck charm. If thats the only mistake I made, that's not a bad mistake at all!

At some point during this week I have made the following decision: Finish first sock, but do not start second sock. Why? I have a baby blanket to knit, I purchased the yarn from a store going out of business. It's in the cutest town, I love visiting it and I only recently learned it was even there. I plan to purchase some 50% sock yarn as soon as I get paid. I'm also considering frogging first sock so that when I find a really awesome pattern, I'll have the Opal saved and ready to go. Thoughts?

Back to my projects. I purchased yarn for a bag I wanted to knit from Interweave Knits, I have to finish my first sweater and I have to get the baby blanket done. So my first sock is going to be a lonely, single sock until I get some more pressing projects done. I don't want to claim one is more important over another, but when I say I "have" to get my sweater done, it means I want to wear it this Fall with my sweet blue flower bag. I also want to find a sock book written for DPNs (trying to translate from two circular needles to three/four DPNs is wearing me down & out) so that when all my other projects are done, I can start making myself some awesome, awesome socks. Aside from socks this winter my only other plan is to knit an earflap hat. Since I won the bamboo DPNs from ebay, this is a very do-able project and I'm excited. I need to keep my ears warm, kids.

That about does it. I can't believe its the end of June already. I have approximately ten more weeks of summer vacation, I start Local University on August 27th. This bums me out a great deal, but Local University has their own knitting club, which makes it worth while :)!

Enjoy the weekend:)!

I have to tell you....

2007-06-16T19:29:00.001-04:00

Despite not being in school, I feel like I am knitting and updating less on vacation. I don't have much to say except that I had no idea [nearly] two weeks had passed and I hadn't updated. Not only that, I have nothing to update with.

Hopefully I'll have my sock done soon. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

How I Spent My Day Off

2007-06-04T21:08:00.001-04:00

I had off from work today. So for my Granny's 79th birthday, I made key lime pie.

I should mention, crust to filling is from scratch. I am very proud of that fact. I'm also very proud of my first sock. I keep reminding myself that I have to make a second one. Hopefully this will counteract any potential "SSS" (second sock syndrome).

The above are shots of my heel flap, and later on I turned the heel. It's a sad little bump of a turn. I took pictures. It doesn't look right to me at all. I'm currently at the stage of the pattern where I pick up the gusset stitches, which has me the slightest bit concerned.

That's pretty much it. I'm going to try and pick up the gusset stitches tomorrow after work. I've been using this site, Silver's Sock Class as a substitute for Cat Bordhi's book, "Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles" when I get confused. I've obviously been using the 'One Sock on DPN's' tutorial.

Considering I did very little with my body and mainly used my hands and brain today knitting and making pie, I'm pretty tired. I would not mind any comments about the sock. Another big thank you to Shelia for making this all possible! :)

Catching Up

2007-06-02T17:41:00.000-04:00

I have a lot to cover in this post. To start off though, I was cruising YouTube when I came across this:

Speaking of "real men", the boyfriend and I are doing well,
I didn't necessarily mean to take the picture, but I figured it's comical and I'd share. This will be a picture heavy post as I have quite a bit to share with you. First and foremost, Shelia sent me a wonderful package of yarns and a book. (My ebay needles snuck in to these photo, for fun)

Of the yarn she sent me I casted on with my brand new, recently won ebay-auction bamboo double pointed needles.

I started a sock! I LOVE the Opal she sent me, its beautiful and I really enjoy knitting it. I thought I would be dismayed by such tiny needles and skinny yarn, but no! No way! It's actually very portable, as I've knit at two family BBQ's, houses, cars, you name it. I really enjoy it. I'm starting to falter as it comes time for the heel/gusset to be worked, but I also haven't had an incredible amount of time to read the book Shelia sent, as well as knit. In fact, I've been bringing knitting with me to work.

I work at a quaint, family owned bagel shop that also serves lunch. We have 'rushes' of customers every so often but for the most part the place is dead. So, I've been knitting at work. I've been knitting squares on the bias for the people in Kansas. My boss thinks it's adorable, and he thinks my knitting is a good luck charm. Every time I bring my knitting with me to work, we're busy, or at least we have a steady stream of customers.

The first square I knit is ugly. There is not other way to describe it other than that. The gauge is obviously messed up.

The second square is coming along nicely.

As I left work today, my boss saw me taking my knitting with me and he told me specifically to "bring it back tomorrow, its good luck!" As I haven't had time to knit at work at all.

Oh well. :) In other news, I dropped by the Local University I'll be attending in the Fall and handed in some paper work and my deposit. I'm really excited about this. They have a knitting club, too! People my own age! That may make me even more excited.

The Season is starting here. Benny's, Shoobie's, everybody comes to the Jersey Shore for the weekends/summer. It's a nightmare if you want to drive anywhere, and if you have to deal with these people as they typically have the worst attitudes known to man. Being a Jersey Girl myself, that only means I have a new place to knit: at the beach. That will hopefully be Monday, as long as it doesn't rain :)

Check out my links, I updated them. Please visit Mike wants to knit. He's a friend from a previous job who I knit a beer cozy for. He has yet to actually receive said cozy, but it is knit for him. Also, recently updated and another good friend of mine, EvoLumiere. EvoLumiere is run by Dan Chosich, a film student at a NJ university. He's got some new films up, as well as old ones.

That is it. I have officially updated on all things knitting related. Goodnight!

Quick Update

2007-05-25T16:12:00.000-04:00

So work has left me with very little time for knitting, but I've got the following projects going:

A square knit on the bias for the Kansas tornado victims, A sock knit on my brand new bamboo needles and Sheila's Opal yarn, [which is knitting up very beautifully], and my Very First Sweater is still sulking in its bag.

I have lots of pictures, and I think I'll have them up sometime this weekend, as I am sick and you cannot serve people bagels and coffee if you continually cough. I think I may be sick for the rest of the summer, if you catch my drift.....

Meanwhile a friend made his own knitblog, which you can visit here.

Enjoy the long weekend!

I'm a Proud Knitter

2007-05-16T16:31:00.000-04:00

I think its allergies, or perhaps the fire burning south of here that's got my nose running a marathon. I'm all congested and stuck doing loads of laundry that I neglected over the past week or two. I've been looking at my sweater, and thinking about knitting, but not actually doing much of anything. I start a job tomorrow, which means more money for yarn and knitting related things.

But the reason why I'm posting, its because while I was hand washing a skirt, I got to thinking. I started writing a poem in my head. I started off with, "I'm a proud knitter." I've had all day to sit around and think about the poem because I'm really only doing laundry and cleaning up my room, but you can't knit and do these things at the same time.

I sat down at my trusty computer, opened notebook and started writing. I think I've got close to a page of knitted related poetry, which got me thinking. Maybe, maybe, I have a problem.

Here's the first stanza (which I feel is the best stanza, and perhaps the only stanza I think I'll share with you):

I'm a proud knitter.
I am 21 and my friends make fun,
cause I'm a happy stitcher.
My dad calls me an old lady,
but I think he's crazy,
Cause I'm a proud knitter.

Hi, my name is Jersey and I'm addicted to yarn and knitting. It's very nice to meet you.

Counting My Blessings

2007-05-13T00:24:00.000-04:00

The semester is finally over. I have actually allowed myself to look at My Very First Sweater, which is happily snuggled away in a bag. I haven't touched it yet. I'm just looking right now. My brand-y new bamboo double pointed needles showed up on Friday and I swear I almost peed my pants. They are so beautiful. I haven't used them yet, I also haven't had a chance to take pictures. I participated in my local Relay for Life and I must admit, I'm still tired and woozy from dancing and being all around goofy. I had every intention of knitting chemo caps while walking, and I got about 6 rows done (on double pointed needles of course!) when I had to become the Mom of our team and make sure everyone was getting along rather than knitting.

In other absolutely fantastic news, I have the privilege of traveling to Washington D.C. at the end of the month with my mom and sister. My sister is coming up for her birthday which is itself fabulous and even more so that we're basically going to be stuck together for about 3 days straight. This means I get time well spent with my sister, who is a resident of Florida, as well as potential souvenir yarn.

And while I'm on the subject of yarn, Sheila the blogger behind Knitting by Moonlight has offered to send me sock yarn. I am so thankful and grateful it makes me teary thinking about it.

Now, as if this wasn't enough, I received some paperwork today from a local university that I was awarded a very large scholarship. As of this semester I 'graduated' from my community college and have been looking for a good four-year college/university to transfer to. Today, I found out that the university I figured I had the least chance of being accepted to, not only accepted me, but has actually made attending something I can talk about (instead of dream). There is also a possibility that I could play lacrosse at this university as well.

I played lacrosse in high school and I am equally as passionate about it as I am knitting. How absolutely fantastic would it be to knit socks in my team's colors?!?!!

Despite the stress and lack of knitting over the past few months, it really feels as though things are working out. I don't like to talk about religion, so I will keep my comments brief: I am extremely blessed and I thank God for everything I have and everything I don't. I was blog-hopping when I came across this link about families in Greensburg, Kansas. I hope to have the button up by Monday as I've decided I'll be knitting squares for them.

If you're a mom/grandma, Happy Mother's Day.

Precious Illusions

2007-05-08T22:54:00.000-04:00

I won an ebay auction for 5, 9" bamboo double pointed needles in sizes 1-11.

Now that I've said that out loud I realize exactly how many needles I'm going to be receiving and I think I may need to find a storage solution before they get here from California. The exciting part of all of this is that I'm going to try my first socks as soon as I get paid from my job. Funny thing is, I'm still job hunting.

Tomorrow is the end of the semester, thank all that is wooly and warm. I'll have pictures of the needles when they get here. I have fallen in love with double pointed needles, friends. I figure if I'm going to get a whole bunch, I prefer bamboo or wood. I own a pair of metal size 6's and I'm not that fond of them. Plus, I think I got my In The Mail Needles at a really good price, even paying shipping.

I've rediscovered Alanis Morissette. I used to love her in the late 90's, especially the Jagged Little Pill and Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie. Her more latest musical endeavors were lost on me at the time. I don't know what happened, but I love them now. I don't usually talk music on KnitBlog but when she came out with this parody it got me thinking.

A lot has been said about this video, and if you know anything about what Alanis has done in the past, this is a very "out of character" video for her. I found it interesting and I'm passing it along.

In other news, some lunatics tried to take over Fort Dix, and our governor has finally recovered from his horrendous car crash on the Garden State Parkway. Jim McGreevey, the former governor who publicly came out of the closet, to the world almost three years ago, has published a book, and very soon his ex-wife will be publishing her own book.

Sometimes I think New Jersey is about on par with California when it comes to ridiculous things making the news.

I'll have pictures next post of a whole bunch of bamboo DPNs....

Feliz Cinco De Mayo, Amigas!

2007-05-05T15:43:00.000-04:00

Not that I drink or am Mexican, but Feliz de Cinco de Mayo amigas! [I say amigas because I doubt that too many dudes are checking out my knitblog] But just in time for a great drinking holiday, I made a beer cozy on size 6 double pointed needles.

I'm so excited about this because I haven't had a "product" to show in a long time. This particular cozy took me about two hours, and I've made two more. This cozy, the first one, is made from two strands of DK weight, hand painted, super wash merino I purchased in Rhinebeck Oct 2005. I had it left over from a hat I made.

The recipient is a the local beer pong champion among my friends, and he is very excited about his cozy. Since this one is a little wild, I've decided that I'm going to make a more "manly" version and cross stitch his initials on it. He's thrilled, which makes me thrilled because the last time I knit for anyone, I wanted to crawl into a cave and die.

Get a designated driver if you plan to enjoy some margaritas today :)

I Know What Your Thinking

2007-05-01T22:56:00.000-04:00

"She's lost her mind."

Well not yet, entirely. But guess what I decided I was going to learn! Yes! Double pointed needles! I called my LYS (I wish I could convey to you the extreme pleasure I have in saying I HAVE A LOCAL YARN SHOP - that doesn't suck.) and asked about a sock knitting class they have, asked some general, noob questions, but the big one:

Can I take the class if I've never used DPNs before?

She didn't sound thrilled about it. At all. So I decided that since I plan to take the class at some point over the summer, I am going to walk in with at least some DPN experience. I basically knit a tube which was similar to what is shown at knittinghelp.com. I showed my mom, the boyfriend, my mom's boyfriend - no one was impressed. I got "what are you making out of that?"

ugh.

So here, here are the pictures fellow knitters. I am so extremely proud of myself. I didn't think it could be done. But during the last week of the semester, I did it. I knit on DPNs.

Pictures:

I'm not saying I knit the most beautiful thing ever, but I've never knit on DPNs before and I really just need to talk about it with people who are in the know.

Thank you, and goodnight.

My Brain is Oozing Out My Ears.

2007-04-29T21:05:00.000-04:00

I was pretty bummed that I didn't have pictures of anything, so I took some today. Its a strip of dark green acrylic, the last picture shows the color the best. I haven't even thought about My very First Potato Bag-Sweater because my brain is very much overloaded with the respiratory, digestive, urinary and reproductive systems of the body at the moment, aside from educational psychology, and, whatever other classes I'm taking.

I swear, while I was making dinner tonight, I felt my brain ooze out my ears.

Enjoy the pictures.

Pictureless

2007-04-29T12:00:00.000-04:00

I knit a wee bit this weekend. I got the hang of the Farrow Rib and the Mistake rib, which are very beautiful. On the job front, I have one potential job lined up and perhaps a second one, but I'll know more later in the week.

How about a little math:
Jobs x yarn money / time = more yarn.

Jobs multiplied by yarn money divided by time STILL equals more yarn. I suppose I can always knit on my days off. While laying on the beach. Watching the boyfriend play volleyball.

That really doesn't sound that bad anymore :)
-jersey

Festivals

2007-04-26T09:11:00.000-04:00

Oh just when I thought I had my summer planned, I get an email from Knitter's Review with the subject of the review this week centering on 2007 fiber festivals. Now, I am definately not complaining other than my sheer lack of money to travel to all of the places on the East Coast (I've decided that upon winning the lottery and/or retiring, this is what I plan on doing). Here's the link if you don't get it emailed to you.

So here I am, sitting at my computer with roughly two weeks left to a hectic semester thinking about how I wish I could pull off the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I know a few people who live in Maryland, who probably have empty couches I could sleep on... except the very next Monday I'm staring down three tests in two days - sadly I need to look at text books instead of sheep. Most of the other festivals are far enough away that I haven't been daydreaming about them although I really can't wait until I'm out of school and have the resources to start going on some serious sheep-related road trips.

What I didn't know, and why I decided to post today, was that The Great Garden State has its own festival! About an hour in traveling time, and about a month before the much anticipated NYS Sheep & Wool Festival I think it would be completely doable. As in, I shouldn't have a problem getting there and back and perhaps even checking out one of those spinning workshops.

Do you think festivals would have a problem with video cameras?

As always, I am a slave to the textbooks. At least for another two weeks. Very little knitting has been occurring and I can feel the stress oozing out of my head. I've been working on a strip of knitting for Warm Up America! . I've been trying to incorporate unusual stitches or things I don't normally knit. This requires me to actually look up different stitches and I haven't had the time to do that. Well now that I mentioned it, I'm going to look it up now.

Okay, that's about it. Check out the Enormous List of Festivals, it's very vast and huge.

-Jersey

PS: Thank you Springtime for finally coming to visit us :)!

"Giving Back"

2007-04-18T17:52:00.000-04:00

Some recent developments in my personal life, generally relating to school issues, have reared their evil, academic head and make me want to sit in the corner and cry. Thus just about any work on My First Sack of A Sweater is being put on hold until things calm down and I have some type of sanity. In the meantime I've been working for a 7 x 63 inch piece of fabric for Warm Up America! Something about the NYC trip has made me feel like I don't give back enough to the community, so I've decided on this. Its a simple project, it won't stress me anymore than it already has, but also leaves me with every few pictures to post.

I wonder sometimes if I should find a college where I can major in knitting and call it a day. The problem with a bachelors in knitting is that I have no idea what I'd do with it. Getting a degree in Education actually means I can grow up to be a teacher.

Perhaps a knitting teacher on the side? I think I've decided to save up for the Craft Yarn Council's knitting instruction program. I wanted to do it last year but I thought I lacked the experience, this year I lacked the lettuce.

That's all for now. Maybe pictures later this week.

Dilemma

2007-04-17T00:11:00.000-04:00

Let's say a boy asks you to learn how to knit. You teach him and he's happy with the new skill he learned. He can knit and purl. His knit stitches are classically too tight and his purl stitches are consistent.

What happens when you date that boy? And he asks you for a scarf, or an overly huge blanket? What if he offers to help you knit a huge blanket? Does the evil myth still mean the relationship is over? What if I bought him really nice yarn and he knit the scarf himself?

This is turning into quite a dilemma. Thoughts?

A Most Interesting Arrangement.

2007-04-14T10:24:00.000-04:00

A friend asked me to teach them how to knit. At first, I was skeptical because I had been asked before and I knew that particular person had zero interest in actually learning. But the new friend, really wanted to learn. So I brought my free size 8's from the NYC/Yarn Harlot gathering, nice purple wool, (when I first acquired it, it smelt like fruit loops, the cereal.) and a few other things. I showed - get this - him how to long tail cast on, how to knit and purl and I handed him the needles. I have to tell you, I was extremely impressed with him. Naturally his knit stitches were much tighter than his purl, but we knit for about two hours, and I had him knitting and purling entire rows. The stitches were even and albeit tight, but even and consistent. Much more than I could have said for my first few rows.

I immediately thought of the Yarn Harlot's story of her encounter with a male knitter, how people oohed and awed over his garter stitch scarf, but nobody said a word about her extremely intricate shawl.

His end of the arrangement is to teach me how to inline skate. He taught me last night, and said I did really well. After that we ate dinner and headed over to Barnes & Noble where I parked my ass in front of the knitting section, and came away with two books:

The Secret Life of a Knitter, by the Yarn Harlot and Spin to Knit by Shannon Okey.

I haven't had the time to look or even afford the Spin to Knit book, so when I saw it last night I grabbed it. The Yarn Harlot book was a bit of an impulse buy but I wanted it, because I'm secretly developing a major girl-crush on her.

I knit in Barnes & Noble but the guy-friend wasn't up to knitting in public and I wasn't about to force him. Perhaps later today I'll have him knit some more, it depends if our schedules mesh or not.

I'm going to try and work on my sweater but I'm just slightly nervous about counting and having a potato sack as a sweater. A really nice, green woolen, semi-expensive potato sack.

Potato Sack

2007-04-11T20:49:00.000-04:00

Oh.

Oh no. Oh don't let it be so.

I'm worried that my sweater is going to fit more like a potato sack than a sweater. The little voices in the back of my head that tell me not to do drugs are telling me my sweater is really huge. Usually, these little voices, are excellent.

Today, they suck.

I keep telling myself when I put the arms on stitch holders, it'll look just fine, don't worry, keep counting stitches......

POTATO SACK!

Has anyone else had slightly paranoid delusions about their own sweaters?

Two Years

2007-04-08T22:06:00.000-04:00

Two years ago I sat in my grandmothers kitchen in between [Easter] dinner and dessert working on one of my first knitted objects. It was supposed to be a bookmark. At one point my mom looked over and asked me if I was knitting a penis holder.

My face turned red and I was so embarrassed I ripped it out by the end of the day. But I was knitting along and I was really proud I had something to show for my efforts. Today I counted my sweater stitches. I have two more rows before the arms go on a stitch holder or random left over circular needles. I also made a key lime pie, which is probably my favorite type of pie. I made the crust from scratch, I even found ceramic pie weights at a store that's closing near me and only one part of my crust looked kind of crappy. I'm really proud of my crust. This is the third pie I've ever made, crust & all. I've made key lime filling and just stuck it in a store bought graham cracker crust.

In extreme delayed response to Nikki (her blog is Knitensity) I actually left FIT while the Harlot was on stage taking questions. I was hungry and grumpy and my boobs are simply too small for anything to be written on. I wanted to ask, but I think I'd need some implants so Stephanie could actually put a letter or two on my boobs.

I apologize Nikki, but a pair of A's would not have done the trick. I also take no offense to your reference of my very tiny rack ;)

Hope you had a good Easter, or a good Sunday. I'll have a more yarn and knitting related post later in the week.

...I hope.

I Bought the Book

2007-04-02T10:12:00.000-04:00

I realized my beach reading was dwindling, and instead of reading about things like how to put on makeup and what's "in" fashion and who had nose jobs, I broke down and bought the latest Yarn Harlot book. Funny thing is I never read it on the beach, I read it instead of working on my sweater or while I sat in the lenai (Florida's term for a screened in porch on the back of the house) just, hanging out waiting for dinner. I read it before bed and while eating breakfast.

I finished it this morning, and I really, truely enjoyed it. I didn't think I'd like it, but I started reading it in Barnes and Noble and I made my way through quite a few pages, I decided its probably time to find a cashier and find the rest of my party.

I think I've also come to realize that I need to learn to accept that the people in my area of general residence are among people who can fondly look back at 1985 because they had a great haircut and unlike my family, not because my snarky ass was born.

I've got four and a half rows left to go before I put the shoulders/arms on hold. I've been thinking that maybe I should put the shoulders/arms on currently not-in-use circular needles. I also haven't been to visit my Dad's local yarn shop, although I may do that today or tomorrow. The problem with visiting is that I'll want to buy more yarn, and after the Burnt Orange Cotton Skien mishap, I'm not sure that I really want or need anymore yarn. At least until I chisle away a few of my upcoming projects. A few of those are: cotton bag from (page 84?) Interweave Knits, ear flap hat and mittens, dog sweater, baby blanket, additional KoolAid dyed earflap hat, mitten and MAYBE scarf, entrelac scarf, mittens... perhaps another sweater.

Ok - off to the waterpark. Hope the weather is just as nice where you are!

Disclaimer: Firefox/Mozilla corrects my spelling as I type away. My dad does not have Firefox/Mozilla web browser, but continues to use Internet Explorer, which I will never understand....

The Obligatory Post-NYC Visit Blog

2007-03-28T20:57:00.000-04:00

This is an extremely picture heavy post. I apologize to those of you who have anything less than cable internet.

New York City Public Library. I was walking by and I realized I had no "city" pictures. I think this was the first time I took pictures all day, actually and this was pushing 1PM.

I walked down to FIT for the tour, because I was running early (anyone who knows me knows thats a miracle in and of itself) I walked around the FIT musuem, I don't understand fashion at all. We walked down a few steps, a hallway and I saw the following two things, which I have to share with you.

It's as if they made it just for me! (joke!)

I wish my classrooms had this sign.

Then I saw this wall. The Wall of Spools.

Who knew grey had so many different shades? We saw antique knitting machines, that made shirts and socks. There is more technicalness to this than I'm saying but I was very warm and slightly bored. I know, I shouldn't have been bored, but I'd be lying if I said I was super interested. I think if I had felt a little better I would have been more interested.

The first two are pictures of the machine, the third is what it produces. A circular, shirt like product. Very cool. I was impressed. The fourth picture is a closeup. Kind of blurry but I thought I would include it.

Antique sock machine.

If they had been cut, it wouldn't look like bright red sausage.

Some students were using these machines, by now I was ready to pass out from being so warm, so I took a picture of a picture of the actual machine. It's automatic and really cool to watch being used.

I got myself a bottle of watery goodness and preboarded. I waited. and just a few quick moments before the Craft Yarn Council lady got up to speak, I took these pictures. They are to my right, (I was sitting on the far left) to the back (I was six rows from the front row, directly behind Stephanie's family) and one aimed toward the center.

I noticed a few seats empty and I was slightly disappointed. Stephanie was phenomenal and I have been calling my friends muggles completely! by accident. She spoke about her stash, which got me to thinking about mine. So I took some pictures of the yarn I purchased, and my stash. I realized its a REAL stash when I have no idea where a skien of burnt orange cotton came from.

Bottom right in the picture. It's sitting happily among its friends.

I [USUALLY] love the bags they give you when you purchase yarn. I don't knowwhy, but I do.

I realized when I got home that it looked like I was carrying pornography around. Not yarn. Or perhaps my mind has drifted into the abyss of the streets and highways...

My purchases:

That's everyone together. This bottom picture could be my favorite that I've ever personally taken. It reminds me of yarn spaghetti. I think its just an awesome picture. I'm sure I'm the only one who thinks that, but thats just fine with me.

Above is Tahki Cotton Classic that I plan to use for a bag featured in the latest issue of Interweave Knits. I bought it at the Yarn Connection. The Yarn Connection is the provider of the yarn-porn bag.

Below is 50% Cashmere & 50% Merino which I couldn't pass up when I saw the colors. I'm also not on a yarn diet so I figured I could splurge. It was a hand spun I believe, and I bought it from School Products which was HUGE. They had such an amazing amount of yarn. I wouldn't mind taking another trip up there to visit them again. I even got a really good lunch out if it :)!

We were given balls of Paton's SWS. I knit my square for Warm Up American and decided I'd make another square. It's really beautiful yarn.
We were also given pins and I took a picture of all the other stuff I used/needed to navigate my day because I felt the need to continue to take pictures.

Well, that was my trip. I have to finish packing, as I'm spending my spring break in Florida. Dad has already promised me a trip to HIS local yarn store. I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Spring Cleaning

2007-03-25T19:35:00.000-04:00

I have pictures of Thursday, as well as a whole lot to say on the matter. Thursday was fabulous. Today I cleaned my room, because it needed cleaning and I formally addressed my stash. I figured I didn't have a real stash because I was aware of each and every story behind the yarn. Where I bought it, when I bought it, why I bought it.

I saw a skein of burnt orange cotton yarn that I have no idea where it came from. Where I bought it, or who I was or was not with when I bought it. I don't remember anything about this yarn.

I made two purchases in NYC which I will gladly share with you. I took some sweet pictures today, I'm pretty proud of myself. I mistakenly showed my mom how much I paid for a skein, and she gave me the type of crazed look as if I just told her I was pregnant with triplets after a weekend-long hotel stay with a heroin addict.

I will share with you shortly, I promise. I've got a big test tomorrow so I need to study :( Early Thursday morning I leave for a week in Florida. I haven't decided if I'll be blogging while I'm there. I promise to take pictures of beaches though. I'm so excited for a good, relaxing vacation.

Feeling Like A Kid on Christmas Eve

2007-03-21T17:48:00.000-04:00

I hit the gym with a friend of mine today after classes. We used to play soccer together when we were in highschool, and now we both attend the same college. I started telling her about the Yarn Harlot, etc. She doesn't get it, but I appreciate her because she tries to understand how excited I am.

I've been trying to figure out what I should bring with me, to keep myself busy. I am rarely bored. I usually always find something to keep myself busy with and sometimes just looking out the window is enough to keep me entertained. I was thinking about bringing my sweater with me, but I was worried I might drop stitches. I mentioned this to my friend and she had no idea what I meant, so I had to explain what it means to "drop" stitches.

Tomorrow, I won't have to explain why I'm worried about dropping my sweater stitches. (How AWESOME is that?)

I'm so excited. Mildly tired right now, but really excited. Ok enough blogging, I need to pack and get all my stuff in order.

I have a big test Monday so I'm not sure that I'll get to post pictures or blog much this weekend. As soon as I have a moment I promise to tell you all about it. :D !

Itinerary - Jersey Style

2007-03-19T10:48:00.000-04:00

There's been an update and a general itinerary for the Big Day (Thursday March 22nd). I realize I'm a bit of a link whore, so here's the website for the Evite. Consequently if you click for the intinerary you can see.. well, a lot.

I'm kind of disappointed about the lack of yarn shopping. I'll be frank, I'm splitting up from the group after the Today show. I want to do things if a different order, and I want to visit as many yarn shops as I can. It's that simple. The other thing is that it seems like food costs are going to be high and I'm not rollin' in lettuce folks. I would rather spend as little as I can on food, and more on yarn.

Subsequently, (I'm on a big word kick this morning)I've got a working itinerary for anyone who doesn't have a sock, or would prefer a different route. (I should also mention my itinerary isn't color coded, so I'm at a disadvantage. If you check out Some Bunny & It's a Purl Man's itinerary, its pretty kick ass.)

This is an extremely flexible schedule. It could take fifteen minutes to eat and walk to the Museum of Art and Design after the Today Show, it could take an hour. Same regard for lunch. The only thing I am concerned with is not being late for the book signing/tour. I think an hour is a good amount of time to allot.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

early morning hours ~~ travel to NYC
7am - 9am ~~ Today Show
9am - 10 # ~~ Breakfast / Walk to Museum of Art and Design
10am - % ~~ Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting at Museum of A&D
Noon ~~ Lunch.
1Pm -5pm ~~ Yarn shops
5pm-6pm ~~ Traveling to the Fashion Institute of Technology
6pm - 9pm ~~ Representin' with the Harlot
9pm - whenever ~~ Maybe dinner? Traveling home?

# However long it takes to eat and walk.

% I would say it fair to give the Museum two hours. If it takes 1 hour, we'll work from there. If it takes more.. again, this is a flexible schedule.

* Yarn shops

There are a trillion threads talking about different yarn shops to visit. I am going to be sportin' a Metro Card (the $7 fun day one) and somehow figure out how to use the subway - it will probably be the fastest and cheapest mode of transportation. Did I mention easy? I think I have an idea of how to use the subway. Considering these yarn stores aren't right next to each other, we can walk or subway it. The Metro Card pays for itself after three rides (each ride is $2 in case you'd rather pay each time). There are shops in Manhattan as well as Brooklyn, its up to those who want to come along with me.

The Coffeeshop has a thread going about different places to visit. The Harlot herself has this link posted under Yarn Crawls on her Represent page.

I think those are pretty good ways to go, as well as a tour guide on the Represent page has mentioned a few shops I'd like to go to. I'd like to visit as many shops as I can, but I don't want to say, we have exactly 45 minutes in each store! Or be overly adherent to an itinerary. I think the trip could lose its fun.

Send me a message via Knitty's Coffeeshop**,this here blog (comments are enabled, knock yourself out) or email me, the link is on the top left portion of the page. jerseyknitsATyahooDOTcom Change bolded items to @ and .

This is also assuming anyone wants a different schedule than what has been listed. Let me know.

**JerseyKnits

I am a wee bit off kilter.

2007-03-18T17:19:00.000-04:00

I had, perhaps, one of the most aggravating weekends a person could have. Hence the off kilter-ness. When I had down time I read a lot about Kool Aid dying. When my grandmother passed away, almost two years ago, she left me yarn. We (my dad and I) had no idea my grandmother (Nan) still had works in progress (WIPs). I naturally was the heir to the left over yarn and I have made a hat/scarf/mitten set. Waffle Scarf and Ugly Mittens are made from left over Nan yarn.

Nan also left behind about 10 skeins of a 'natural' looking yarn. I don't know what its made out of, and it looked old and kind of creepy. It was in a bag, and it got left outside in the garage. But I've got an idea now. I'm going to dye it. Thanks to the Kool Aid tutorials I found, I plan to dye it as soon as I have a free minute and know my mom has no idea of finding out how I used her stove.

I found some seriously amazing websites that have completely made me feel at ease with the process. My search started and Eunny Jang's website, See Eunny Knit where she details how to made self striping yarn. Her yarn was already pink when she started. She lists some links at the bottom of her web-torial. Knitty also has a web-torial in which Kristi Porter describe the process and uses glass cups(? that is what it looks like to me) and she makes a series of "samples". As if that wasn't enough, I found a color card which I personally thought was pretty neat.

The final site I found sealed the deal. I mean it spoke to me in such a way that I knew I could do it. I had been on the fence about the entire thing, but this website made me say, "When is mom going to be out of town so I won't have to worry about hurrying to finish dying?"

Let me tell you - not soon enough. This web-turial, brought to us by Streets and Yo, is just fabulous. The end result seriously just made me drool. There isn't a before, but I don't mind that much. The end yarn is so beautiful and delicious. How do you not want to run out into the garage and grab all that crappy looking, gross yarn and buy more Kool Aid packets than a cult end-of-the-world party?

I know the garage is a bad place for the yarn, but it honestly is the grossest yarn I've ever seen. I get itchy and buggy when I see it and I kind of want to run away flailing my arms like.. Kermit the Frog.

I'm making my own, handmade sign for the Today Show. I think it's great that It's a Purl Man is making a sign, but I want in on the action. I want to be on TV, too. So I've got a few ideas for a sign, any one else have ideas? I don't have a cool prize, but we could stand next to each other holding it. Maybe we'll get on tv... oooooh :)

Ok. Dinnertime.

Local Yarn Stores

2007-03-16T09:22:00.000-04:00

I gotta talk about something else. The magnitude of March 22nd is getting to me. Back to my topics.. I created a list of topics I wanted to talk about because I was trying to update more often. Then I got sidetracked. Here's the list:

Topics to be discussed:
-March 22nd NYC trip
-Yarn stores in Southwest Florida
-Spinning wheel
-Yarn (of course!)
-YouTube

I talked about NYC (more times that I'd like to admit), YouTube annnd today I think I'll talk about Southwest Florida yarn shops. Speaking of yarn shops! Oh I'm so happy about this - a new yarn store opened up in Toms River. I stopped in yesterday with my friend about fifteen minutes before they closed. My other "Local" yarn store is in Red Bank and the people there were never very nice to me. There is another shop in Belmar, but I haven't been to it yet. So a new shop opened up, and its not super close to me, but I'd gladly drive there if the owner is going to be nice to me. I think I get treated strangely because I'm young. Perhaps.

As I spoke of in previous posts, my Dad lives in Florida. This means I have a cheap place to stay (and eat, tan and goof off) during my breaks from college. In between the fall and spring semesters I spent about three weeks in Southwest Florida. I love it there, its very nice, cozy, a second home if you will. It's nice to spend an extended period of time there because I tend not to see my dad for stretches of time. That kind of sucks, because we're pretty close, but we did what we needed to. In about two weeks, I'm hopping on a plane and spending my spring break there. (I CAN'T WAIT) In December/January I trolled around looking for yarn stores. Thanks to the Yarn Store Map I found two stores in somewhat close proximity to Dad's house and I took a drive. In a convertible. In January. In 80 degree weather.

(Are you jealous yet? I should mention that its currently about 34 degrees [Fahrenheit] and yesterday it was nearly 75 degrees)

I took a nice drive down to the southern part of Naples, where I found Knitting with Nancy. They were very nice and I bought yarn after I circled the store about four times. I just looked and touched and drooled every so often.

I want to make an ear flap hat, but I haven't had the time.

That's the bag. I kept it. I like bags. Don't ask....

Here are some pictures of the yarn. The obvious "red" color is not quite that red. I couldn't seem to get the color no matter how many pictures I took. So I gave up.

It is soooooooo soft. 100% baby alpaca, about 110 yards. The label says Plymouth Yarn - Baby Alpaca Grande Luxury Indiecita Brand. It's soooo very soft. I love it. I really can't wait to use it, but I've been so backed up with The Super First Sweater Extravaganza lately. I finished counting last night. I counted everything about 8 times so I knew I had the right numbers.

Progress is slow, but steady and I can't wait to finish it so I can move onto 23,094,098 other projects I want to make. At least two of which I spotted in Interweave Knits.

Stupid weather. I'm out of it today. I've got some homework and hopefully some knitting to get done today.

Ole!

My Little Heartstrings Can't Take it Anymore!

2007-03-14T19:41:00.000-04:00

After this post, I think I'm going to watch Bones and work on my sweater. Today wasn't hectic and nothing bad happened, but there is only so much joy and excitement my little heart strings can take.

This is a link to an Evite page that I found coasting around on the Knitty Coffeeshop forum that [I had NO idea even existed, and I'm pretty pissed about my late arrival] I came across in my endevours to hunt down a yarn crawl.

I am a morning person. I eat breakfast. I watch the Today show WHILE eating breakfast. I have got to tell you, I always look at those people with the signs and they're smiley and happy and I always wondered if given the opportunity to hold a sign on [NATIONAL] television, if I'd do it.

The answer, my dear friends, is yes. If given the opportunity - I have to run it by my friend first, this means an extra night in his apartment - yes I would gladly get my spicy little ass up extra earlier to stand in a semi circle around journalists and publicly declare my love for knitting.

I'm going to have to remind my Dad to watch the show. 8 times. I swear. Assuming they talk to us, and assuming I can be short in front of all the tall people. This means I have to wear something really cute. Just... in case.

Then the group is going to eat (excellent idea) and then collectively head down to the Museum of Art and Design and take a peak at the Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting show. I am FLOORED. I can't begin to explain to you how fucking excited I am.

I'm so excited I'm cursing, look what you've done to me! (AHHHHHH) After that it sounds as if they may shop, at yarn stores (I hope) and I'm sure other assorted places.

Senor Padre - ala my Dad, was telling me about this guy who sells coffee from a truck because he was pissed off at Starbucks. He parks his truck IN FRONT of Starbucks in NYC and sells cheap, good coffee.

Link me, cupcake. Mud Coffee I personally enjoy a good vendetta. A good reason to do something. I enjoy the reason this guy waged a small war against a huge, global company. I appreciate him and I want to buy some of his coffee. My mission is to find a truck, and get some coffee.

My Dad was actually in NJ for the past few days - he resides permanently in Southwest Florida. We had breakfast before he left to get on the plane and I tried, desperately to explain to him who Stephanie Pearl-McPhee and Elizabeth Zimmerman are. When he didn't get it, I told him to walk into HIS local yarn shop (he has one closer to him in FLORIDA than I do in NEW JERSEY!) and ask the owner to give him some background information.

I'm looking forward to my visit, and eventually finishing my Topic List - which covers two of the yarn stores in his general radius. What a brat, he doesn't know how lucky he is...

::grovel::

It's Definate.

2007-03-12T11:36:00.001-04:00

I was trying not to get my hopes up. About the Harlot on tour in NYC thing. I really was. But I secured the lettuce (also known as cashmoney - or chedda, depending what atrocious MTV fake-ality show you watch..) over the weekend and I will be in NYC March 22nd.

Let the excitementness explode. I am so thrilled that it may burst out of me, and therefore I needed to create a new word. So THERE Webster's. I also have secured a launching pad from which my little excursion will help ...launch me. Technically, I could drive or train it home. No big deal. Except my guestimation is that I will be completely exhausted and although driving or training is possible, I'd rather not.

The fantastic thing about spending the night in a north Jersey apartment is that mid morning Friday, I am tentatively planning a trip to Modern Yarn which is in Montclair. I've been there before, and I am the proud owner of a iKnit shirt.

Excuse me for a second while I bask in my awesomeness, because I had the shirt before it was cool, and it was officially cool in the Winter 06/07 issue of Vogue Knitting's Knit 1 magazine.

(basking....)

(still basking....)

(almost done)

Yeap, okay I'm over myself.

I've been thinking about being a total whackadoodle, what do they call them? Those slutty chicks who follow rock stars around the country. Perhaps it used to be done quite a few years ago. Before I was born. Which was slightly more than 20 years ago..

GROUPIES!

That's what they're called! Yes! So I was thinking about being a groupie minus the traveling part but I'm missing a key element to being a groupie. Are you ready for this?

BOOBS.

Really big boobs. They are (in my opinion) the quintessential thing to being a whackadoodle groupie. And poor Stephanie, would be the rock start in my creepy fantasy. I have to tell you, thanks to Sheila (Knitting By Moonlight)I'm hooked. I'm double pointed needled. I really truly enjoy the Harlot. If I remember long enough I'm going to throw one of her buttons on my site. I am, honestly, so impressed with her writing and her adventures. But I digress.

I have tiny boobs. They're visible enough to discern me from a boy. From the back I've got nice girl hair, so you'd know I'm not a boy. I don't know if boy's have asses like mine, either. Still digressing.. Boobs are tiny. Can't be a good whackadoodle-boob-signing-groupie with size A's. Even in a push up bra. Assuming I owned one. They're tiny.
I guess it depends what I wear, if its easily pull-down-able. The jury is still out, but I think they're leaning towards an acquittal.

I mean with the media supposed to be there... and a Sharpie marker? What would the muggles think? (What do the muggles think when a blonde bimbo with double DD's get her stuff signed by [insert creepy male author here] ? )

NYC, here I come!

Interweave Knits and Knit 1

2007-03-10T20:32:00.000-05:00

I picked up copies of the latest Interweave Knits and Knit 1 magazine. I enjoy Knit 1 because it feels like its geared more towards me than other magazines. Naturally I scanned through Interweave while in Barnes and Noble and I found a lot of super cute things I would actually consider knitting. I usually find magazines or books to be kind of disappointing because for every cute, potential project there are 8 ugly things. I also tend to knit by the ass cushions on my seat because I kind of dislike patterns. Perhaps its an authority thing, who knows. Perhaps I had a bad experience with a mitten pattern and I think all patterns are like that.

The latest issues of both magazines kind of make me want to sit down, read a pattern and knit from it. None of this crazy seat-of-my-pants knitting.

I haven't made much progress on My Very First Sweater. I think my increases are off so I've been counting and recounting and counting some more. I hope to start knitting again this week, considering its about half way through the semester and I'm getting annihilated with midterms and other such things.

I know I'm about a month late in acquiring the magazines, but better late than never.

In a non-knitter note, I'm glad to see Ms Barba was kicked off Idol. Kind of angry about Sundance and the other guy. Seems all the preteens are running up high text messaging bills this month....

The New York City post

2007-03-09T17:19:00.000-05:00

I got sick this week which is why I never got around to blogging. I really wanted to. I thought a lot about it, but homework comes first.. when I wasn't doing homework I perfected being a lump on the couch. I'm still sick but I've been DYING to talk about this trip AND (like that wasn't enough) my finances are still way way WAY up in the air so who really knows.

Soooooo I have a PayPal account if you want to donate to the Poor College Student/Knitter Fund. Yeap. I threw that out there. Just in case that guy from Georgia wants to throw me a few.. million.

Nope?

A girl can dream:)

I decided that I wasn't going to simply see the Harlot herself. I was going to be slightly touristy because if you haven't already heard, The Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting is on display at the Museum of Art and Design. Go, click on the link, and bask in the wonder that is fiber related. It astounds me what people come up with. Little tiny gloves? Holy crap that's fantastic!

As if that wasn't enough museum for one day, just a hop skip and jump away is the Museum of Modern Art, which is always just fantastic. I don't think I've ever been there, you know, afraid of the city and all.

For lunch, yes I have lunch plans picked out, Chipotle is perhaps the BEST taco/burrito/Mexican I have EVER had. A long time ago I took a flight to Los Angeles and was introduced to the bundle of joy burrito. As a snack for the five hour flight home I had one of their burritos, made just the way I liked it and it was amazing. I couldn't wait to eat it and I am drooling thinking about it's burrito-y goodness. The past few times I've been in the city I've stopped at a store to eat.

By now, and far away from my original destination, I should be heading to see The Harlot in her mightiest. I've been told I can buy a book at the signing which is nice, probably what's expected of me. I haven't decided if I'm going to ask the Harlot to sign my boobs. The event, held at the Fashion Institute of Technology will be about 750 knitters representin' our fiber and needles. The media might show up, no real word on that yet and there may also be a Yarn Crawl, again, no real word on that.

Then I'm going home.

But I wanted to leave you with a really happy link. Even if you can't get into the city on a Thursday night, you can always hug. Free Hugs Campaign I'm SERIOUSLY considering making a shirt of my own (you know.. finances....). I probably wouldn't stand on the corner of any street in NYC without a friend to keep an eyeball on me. I'm a tiny person.

But the general idea is you should hug people. Hugs are FANTASTIC! and everyone can use one even if they don't think they need one. Hugs are free so everyone can afford one or a million. Hugs warm the soul.

That's my NYC post. Local knitters are meeting, I've decided to go even though I know I'll be the only person who hasn't gone through menopause. That's the only thing I find is slightly isolating about being a young knitter. The young part.

KNIT! STITCH! BITCH! Be a Bad ASS! have a goooooooood weekend:)!

The Pre-NYC post

2007-03-06T18:50:00.000-05:00

This a hold-me-over post until I have enough time to sit down and tell you about my plans for the end of the month, in the city that never sleeps. I used to be afraid of the city, for no real reason. I suppose as a child the city (I'm speaking about New York) it was a really big place to get kidnapped. We visited every so often, as I barely live two hours away. I also happen to live about two hours away from Philadelphia, which I liked much more than the city. Here in New Jersey that's what we call it, proximity, blah blah blah. I always found Philly to be more welcoming although I believe the crime is worse in Philly than NYC but I digress.

Only recently have I seemed to quell my fear of the city. I have a friend who travels there often to do work, and I tagged along with him on a trip or two. I fell in love. When you sit down and think about it, Manhattan has everything. Chipotle, yarn stores, a thousand different other restaurants, colleges, museums.. It is alot of living packed, sardine style, onto an island. I believe I've only ever visited Manhattan, so I can't speak about the other boroughs.

That said, I sat down and tried to think of all the stuff I could possibly want to do, and want to see and still make it in time for The Harlot's general talking to. I've got quite a few things up my sleeves and we will see if, well, first of all if I go. Secondly if I can get all my things done and thirdly, yarn.

On an Idol note.... fellow Jersey girl Antonella Barba is giving us a bad name. A really bad name. That's all I'm going to say.

-jerseyy!

Boob Tube

2007-02-27T16:51:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-24T16:58:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-22T12:29:00.000-05:00

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.

2007-02-19T22:52:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-14T22:26:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-11T11:11:00.000-05:00

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.

2007-02-08T14:34:00.000-05:00

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.

2007-02-01T22:00:00.000-05:00

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.

Hospital, mittens and comments; OH MY!

2007-01-28T10:43:00.000-05:00

I don't know what it is exactly about hospitals that both comfort me, and freak me out at the same time. The mere thought of walking into a hospital makes me feel itchy and scratchy. Once I'm there, its a very different feeling. It's not warm fuzzies or anything but my itchies go away, and it's like visiting a friend in an apartment with lots of house guests. Or maybe I've just had some interesting experiences in hospitals. At this point, I really don't know.

The great thing about this round of hospital sitting is that I knit. I busted out almost an entire mitten in about four hours. Friday, after a perilous trip to the vet, I dog sat. So while the pooch was resting from being poked and prodded I watched The View and Law and Order reruns and finished my second mitten. Yes, I actually finished a pair of mittens in slightly over a day. I couldn't believe it. I started them Thursday and finished by 3pm on Friday. Unbelievable. But hey – I told Granny that I'd have mittens to show her after her surgery. What surprises me is that I actually do. I did them on one circular US 8 needle, and with an increase here, and a stitch holder there, I busted out mittens that only needed the thumb to be seamed.

This – ladies and gentlemen and people – this is profound! I have a love affair of things knit in one piece. The idea of it being stronger because its one solid piece of fabric just tickles me pink and probably makes me weirder than I ever thought I could be. I can't believe I just said “tickles me pink”. Moving on; almost every mitten pattern I've seen you need to use dpn's OR straight needles with seaming. And let me tell you, I avoid seaming like its bird flu and e.coli mashed together. I made them so they're each a little different, and once the ribbing of the cuff ends, I held two pieces of yarn together to make them extra warm.

Needless to say, I've gotten a lot of compliments on my knitting over the past week. When you hospital sit, there are only so many hours of General Hospital and Geraldo: At Large you can watch until you just want to claw your own eyes out for the sheer fun of it. It's also helpful because you aren't really thinking as much about why you're in the hospital to begin with. In my case, I was more worried about the thumb and the decreases... But now, with the 9 degree weather slowly warming up to the mid-twenties, I only have one project to concern myself with. No more hats, or scarves, no more quick projects oh no, I'm in the marathon of knitting.

....Except I'm like that guy from the Mastercard commercials who gets a snack and sees a movie instead of running.

In other news, I won a contest! I know, I couldn't believe it either. I woke up Saturday morning to an email that said I won. I had to read it about four times before I replied. I'm still in shock. While poking around I found an image resizer which I plan to use as soon as I have time to take pictures of Matching Mittens, finished Waffle Scarf and Hat.

For the record: I am definitely not afraid of DPN's. It's partially a “I'm too broke to buy them” / “It's hard to teach yourself how to use DPN's.” So right now, I'm content with circular needles and I absolutely plan to learn how to use them, because I want to knit socks. It just may take another few years to sit down with someone and bust out my first pair of socks. I also want to be a better knitter, even if I learn how to use them and I hate DPN's, I want to say I know how to do it – you know?

Thank you for the comments, I appreciate them :) Thank you Lynne for the contest, and the prize. I also stuck my email address on the blog because I noticed someone couldn't post comments. Thank you, thank you, thank you! :)

Waffle Scarf and Matching Mittens, plus pictures!

2007-01-25T08:57:00.000-05:00

I've been working on mittens. It's been a little difficult for a few reasons, I've been running around lately and I haven't yet mastered knitting and driving at the same time. Some day, kids. I have decided to measure my hand and see how many stitches per inch I get and be mathmatical about my mittens. I did that, and the cuff was too large. I suppose I have small hands, and tiny wrists, so I told the math to stick it, and I casted on and decided to fly off the seat of my pants.

This has caused its own problems, because I haven't learned to use DPN's yet, and to get a circumference that small, you need DPN's. I'm using a Susan Bates very tiny US 8 circular needle because, quite frankly, I'm a gangsta. It took a little shuffling, but I got the cuff out, and the stitches kinda-sorta relaxed so the stitches don't look that amazing. Personally, I don't care. These mittens are going to keep my hands warm, assuming that I finish them that is.. and they are allowed to be ugly. I took some pictures, and I also included pictures of the scarf from the hat/scarf/mitten combo. I haven't gotten any pictures of finished Waffle Scarf, or finished pictures of Matching Hat, both of which are done.

I've been visiting my grandma, and every time I walk into her room at the hospital she tells me how cute I look in the hat/scarf combo. I never bothered to darn in the ends, I think I cut them way to short so they stick out here and there. She's always telling me I have something on my forehead. Last night she reminded me again, and after I tell her how lazy I am/I'm a gangsta, she says to me, "Well it's your own style. At least we'll always know who's hat it is." She is the semi-lucky recipient of a Manos del Uruguay hat that I knit after I saw a hat I wanted at the Gap. I say semi-lucky because she was being transported from one hospital to another and otherwise she wouldn't have gotten a hat. Okay, I'm not a jerk, I was going to knit her a hat in a creme or off-white color like she asked me. I just.. haven't gotten around to it. Stop judging me and look at pictures..

^Oh, I know you're loving my knees. What's even better is that this picture is so huge its almost like I'm really there.

^ Whoooaaa! You're getting a show today! There's part of my foot!

^I didn't know what else to do with my hand. I like my cuffs extra long. I'm going to get kicked off blogger aren't I?

^I know its a little blurry but that's cause I'm always on the move to get more yarn. Ok the real reason is that I'm right handed trying to take a picture with my left hand. Notice: right hand is in the pictures.

Hope you like them! Also! I just want to say that I'm extremely thankful that Get Stitchy decided to add me to their blog roll. It really made me happy. <3 Thank you.

Resolutions and other Thoughts.

2007-01-23T15:53:00.001-05:00

I love me some resolutions. I used to make resolutions and I don't know what would happen, I'd forget or go back on what I thought was a good resolution.. I suppose it doesn't matter. I have determined that if I reevaluate what I'm “resolved” to doing, every so often, I'll end up doing it. For instance, I'm trying to reform my eating habits. I've heard if you change them while you are young you'll keep up these habits as you grow older. So about a year and a half ago, I decided I would no longer add table salt to my food. Knowing what I know about the human body [I know things you could probably Google and find, but I'm in college for it instead ;) ] you need a certain amount of salt to perform normal, metabolic functions. That is why I didn't cut out all salts from my diet, because they are important. I digress.

I managed to completely stop using salt in about two weeks, and I was really proud of myself. Every so often I slip and use salt, but we're talking like once every few months, and that's okay.

About a year ago I decided to give up using sugar. I mean like sugar in my coffee or sugar added to anything although; I can only think of adding sugar to my coffee. I started using Splenda. Two packets turned into four and I realized: Sugar is harder to kick than salt. So I switched back to sugar, and I'm still work on weaning it out of my coffee. One day.

I've got a few knitting resolutions for 2007, and a few that may take a few extra years.. hey, lets be reasonable, not ridiculous. (The closer to the top of the list, the greatest the ability to get done this year, unless I hit the lottery.)

1.Finish Green Cascade Sweater (also known as First Sweater Ever)
2.Learn to use DPNs
3.Learn to spin, via spindle
4.Knit with my hand spun yarn.
5.Knit socks.
6.Learn to spin, via wheel.

That should keep me busy. I know its almost the end of January but I've been on vacation, and thats my excuse for posting my resolutions so late in the month. I was on vacation, getting tan. That is my amazing excuse.

I like the picture of this yarn. It looks delicious.

What kind of knitting needles are you?

You are interchangeable.Fun, free, and into everything, you've got every eventuality covered and every opportunity just has to be taken. Every fiber is wonderful, and every day is a new beginning. You are good at so many things, it's amazing, but you can easily lose your place and forget to show up. They have row counters for people like you!
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That is about it for today. I'm traveling into NYC this weekend, and the high is 19 degrees. I am going to try and whip up some mittens, and maybe finally post some pictures by the end of the week.

Jersey Out!

Indecisiveness.

2007-01-20T13:33:00.000-05:00

I start school on Monday. Yesterday, (friday) I went to purchase books I'll need for class. There's this freshly planted tree, he got planted in like September maybe, but he's still new to me. And he's a little tree too, struggling against the random winter we've had here in NJ. I forget where on the vastness that is the internet, but I saw a blog about a woman who knit a sweater for a tree at work. I am seriously considering knitting a skinny little sweater for this tree. I'm wondering exactly how much trouble I could get into, and if it would be worth it. You know, it only got cold this week, and by the time I'm done it'll be 60 and then the tree will be overheated and sweaty.. I don't know.

I've also decided that I'm pretty sure I want to felt a hat. I knit a bunch of hats, and for the most part they fit, but this one hat.. its purple and grey wool yarn held together and its just way too big for my head. So i was thinking, I could rip it all out and knit it again (maybe..) and then it might fit, or I could just felt it, and hope it fits :) I haven't made a decision yet, but I've never felted anything and this is a 100% wool hat... Hmmm.. I have to do alittle research, its a 2x2 or 4x4 ribbing and I don't know how that would look felted. We shall see.

I have not really touched green sweater yet. I mean, I worked on it while I was on vacation, but now with school approaching.. I've been cleaning my room, and running other errands – my grandma has been in the hospital so I've been feeding her dog.. I was looking at him today, he's a wee little dog, and I thought to myself: I should knit him a sweater. But he's really old and I'm also wondering if I'll be able to finish it before he dies. He's got a bunch of store bought dog sweaters but maybe I'll heist one and knit him a fluffy warm one for his old dog ass.

I don't hate the dog, or anything, but he's very bossy. I suppose brain damage and old age will do that to you, but I don't appreciate it. Especially when I've got the food, and he's making me clean up poop.

I've also got this magical idea about knitting a hat with earflaps WITHOUT using dpn's – partially because I haven't had the time to learn how to use them, and partially because I don't have the money to buy them and a quarter that I have a real love of circular needles. I was thinking I could knit up the ear flaps from the bottom up, and put them on waste yarn while I knit the second one. Then get both flaps on circular needle and cast on stitches for my head, and they would be attached within the first knit row. I have NEVER heard of a pattern like that, and I have no idea if it would work, but I might try. It would be like casting on stitches in the middle of a row, except.. not really. I know the technique is used in some sweaters.

I guess I'm just thinking out loud today, but I really need more hats and more hats that fit me. Maybe my knitting is off or my head is shaped funny -? I don't know. I need hats to cover my ears though, not just my head.

The search continues for the perfect hat pattern.. Plus my yarn is really soft and fluffy and beautiful. It needs to transform into a perfect warm fluffy hat. Ok, I'm off to the hospital.

-Jersey

The First Post

2007-01-18T20:45:00.000-05:00

Hi! Welcome to Jersey Knits! I used to mash knitting and my personal life into a myspace page, but decided that I want to have a knitting-only blog. A place where I can connect with other knitters and officially join the knitting community.

I learned to knit two years ago, thanks to my best friends mother. She's a great person, and she was very patient with me, and my rows of awkward and "held-to-tightly" purled stitches. It all started with a fluff scarf, and one dreary night in March asking if I'd like to learn. The rest is kni-story.

I am a natural yarn person. I like things that are not man made, like wool, alpaca and merino. I do own my fair share of acrylic yarn as well, but I prefer yarns that are soft. I am the proud mom of a spinning wheel, that would have ended up in a garbage dump. It's a little beat up but thanks to my best friends dad (married to the woman who taught me to knit) I only have a few more things to tweak before it will be ready to spin with. I did not receive paperwork with my wheel, but this is the closest picture I can find.

I'm new to blogger, so forgive me if things are slightly awkward. I hope to get the kinks out and learn how to utilize it.

I am a 21 year old college student, hopefully in the near and not so distant future, I will be a phys ed/ health teacher. This also means that I don't get to spend as much time knitting as I wish I could. I also don't have many friends my age who like to knit, and I often get teased about my knitting. I like to knit scarves and hats and I am proudly working on my first sweater.

I guess I should explain my knitting title. Originally a New Jersey native, I moved to Florida for the first semester of my freshmen year. The school I attended was a sweet Catholic-affiliated university. I made friends with a small group of people and quickly acquired the nickname; Jersey. I thought a lot about what to name my blog, I even polled friends for ideas. I decided on Jersey Knits because I was always fond of the nickname, and my time spent in Florida was fun although tumultuous. If I hadn't come home, I would have never learned how to knit. It's also a play on words, I'm sure you're aware of the fabric.

I hope you enjoy my blog, please leave comments and your blog as well! I'm looking to make other knitting/spinning/yarn enthusiast friends, as well as friends my age! It can be lonely to knit in your early twenties.

Welcome to Jersey Knits!