Happy New Year!

Is anyone else having trouble with Ravelry?  I notice that there are some new features, but things such as searches, adding favorites, project progress, adding needles/store info to a project, organizing sets/tags, and my inbox are not working properly.  It's a little frustrating.  I have come to rely on Ravelry a great deal.
 ETA: It seems that i needed to clear my cache.  That is what their help/faq advised and it worked.

I didn't knit as much in 2011 as the two previous years.  I tried knitting my last semester in college for stress relief but it didn't work out past the first couple of weeks of classes.  There were many projects that i was dreaming of but didn't have the money to buy the yarn for.  Now those dreams have changed a little.

What has been an improvement of sorts is that i am now teaching knitting.  The first semester was craziness with the younger kids (who were mostly too young, so i am going to teach an Intro to Needlearts class now with more crafty objectives) and all of my classes shrank before the end of the semester.  I have high hopes for the semester starting in a couple of weeks however!

State of Knitting 2011
new projects
Sky Slippers (still incomplete)
Cloudy Giselle (for my sister using Giselle pattern again...about halfway finished)
Autumn Leaves (frogged)
Star-Crossed Slouchy Beret (frogged)
Braidy (probably soon to be frogged)

older UFOs (that i hope to return to soon)
Starfish Snood
Funky Grunge Cap
Slip-Stitch Baby Cardigan
Mom's Sampler Afghan
and the Liberty Cap

Oh, btw, i do still intend to write an update about my hammock.  I lost my camera's battery and only recently found it again (which was such a relief, let me tell you!).  I also have plans to blog more often this year.  My goal is to finish old projects and learn how to spin this year.  Here's hoping...

2009 in review

i did, quite honestly, a lot of knitting this year, and also some crocheting. It seems rather amazing to me that i finished eleven projects and began at least five more. i knitted my first sweater, my first pair of socks, and knit in Europe (most notably the airport in Germany, the hostel in Barcelona, the train to and from Rome, and the ship on the Mediterranean). This blog may not show how busy i was, but Ravelry was one of my most frequently visited sites, and i fully intend to keep knitting... and maybe crocheting, too. (:

My 2009 projects included:

Fox Coffee Beanie Reborn


Liberty Cap 1.0


Fair Ginny


Ohm Mat Bag


Chunky Cabled Cap


Ski Helmet Liner, Jr.


Boing Socks


three Hobo purses


Ski Helmet Liner

and pictures are forthcoming on Dashing Evi and the Ginny Hex Vest.



Since the new year i have already completed two more projects and started two more! So even with reduced time for knitting (this semester is intense!) i have been knitting every spare moment. i even wrote a poem about knitting last week... and am dreaming up new projects all the time.

fall approaches...

On Sunday, my family and i went to a wedding. On the way there i finally finished knitting my yoga mat bag. i still need to photograph it and dye it, but it's finally complete! This project seemed to take forever, most likely because of the small gauge (i was using size 4 dpns for crying out loud!). The youngest daughter of the bride (who is 13 and friends with my sister Katie) had the audacity to say that it looked like a sock! So, of course, i had to model it, by pulling it onto my right leg, much to their amusement (it's somewhere between the length of a knee high and a thigh high on me, in case you're wondering). Then i put it on my head and bounced off to the car feeling very rastafarian.

On the way home, the family decided to take the scenic route, which is the same loop that we took last fall to see the trees changing colors (you can see pics here). We rolled the windows down to let in the cool air, and wouldn't you know it? i forgot a ponytail holder so my hair (which is getting quite long now, it's starting to inch down my back) was completely in my face. What is there to do but put the bag on my head to keep my hair back? It was how i imagine it would feel to wear a really long snood! Would you believe that the trees are already starting to get tiny splashes of color and Hayes Creek Falls was even more beautiful than the last time we visited? i am so excited for fall, and hope it gets cooler soon (this, of course, has nothing to do with the mountain biking class i am taking twice a week in what seems like blazing heat).

Today, to fill the knitting void in my class time (World Geography is the only class i've gotten up the gumption to knit in so far this semester), i pulled out the size 8 dpns and ink blue Lamb's Pride again to start my Liberty Cap 2.0. i think that knitting the yoga bag and wearing it as a hat has actually helped me understand better the implications of designing this pattern. i don't expect the project to take me long, and fully expect that i'll be picking Tangy Giselle back up again soon, hopefully finishing it just in time for the weather to turn cool again.

p.s. i have passed 6 dead skunks on the side of the road in the past two weeks. Grandma always said that dead skunks in the low country means a cold winter. i think that this winter must be a whopper of a cold one if that's the case.

yum

Bought the Kool-Aid today, i think i got more than enough if my conversion from grams to ounces was correct. Today i ordered Crystal Palace Kid Merino in Lemon Sherbet (that's a horrible photo, but this is the yarn i hope to dye light orange for the wrap sweater) and 10 skeins of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky for the Ginny GoF cardigan. Were i going for colors as close to the movie as possible i would have used Khaki for the MC, but i chose to use Pistachio instead. For the CCs i’m using Orchid Thistle, Wild Mustard, and Rust. it was hard to pick which shades of the yellow / gold and orange to pick, but the Orchid was always my favorite shade of purple. i also ordered a skein of the Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted in Ink Blue for a Liberty Cap. i can hardly wait for the yarn to arrive!

knitting on the brain

So no sooner do i say that i don't need a digital camera because i have a cell phone than i have to update the software on my phone because it won't charge and suddenly i can't download photos from my camera any more. So i need to figure out a new way to get that photo off that i promised you last post and i really don't want to text it to my e-mail account but we'll see.

i finished my first sock last night while listening to homework and cast on to the second during lunch today. Earlier this week i ordered the Hauk yarn in color 5943 for my mittens off the internet and used my gift certificate at the local yarn store to buy more sock yarn (in oranges 145 and blues 1606) and cable needles. i am really tempted to buy some Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky for Stitch 'N Bitch's Fairly Easy Fair Isle in colors like Ginny's cardigan (from GoF i believe) as well as that lacy wrap sweater that i've been wanting to knit for forever (the trouble is that i can't find the yarn in the light orange shade i want).

i think that it's safe to say that i'm obsessing about knitting a lot this week.

Oh, i also bought some fabric paints and stencils to decorate some thrift store pillowcases that i'm turning into shopping / book bags. Next i need to buy some straps (i'm thinking about using ribbon) and the cuffs that i've been meaning to put onto my blue zipup hoodie for a while now. Oh, i'm thinking about making stitch markers too and selling some on my Etsy store, and ordering the yarn to knit a blue Liberty Cap. Hmm i'm creative lately, the trouble is finding time to follow through on my ideas.