Because, obviously, I don't have enough yarn already.

Everything I've acquired in the past 3 days. Including the koala version of Kritter Craft Cases and some suede bottoms for felted clogs(not shown).

Cascade 220 in Italian Plum. It is a very beautiful, rich purple. My camera disagrees. I took about 20 pictures and they all look really dark. Other yarns look great, this yarn just doesn't photograph well.
Cascade 220 Tweed in a blue that is bright, but not nearly as much as the picture portrays.

Encore Chunky in a very nice gray.

Cascade 220 in Tutu Pink. (It's for my mother. She is all about the pink. I happen to think it's nauseating.)

Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Semi-Solids in Indigo

In the past 3 days, I have spent a dizzying amount of money on yarn. I figured I might as well post pictures.

Oh, knitting fates, do you really have to mess with me?

I finished knitting, sewing, and weaving in the ends for my first pair of french Press Felted Slippers in 2 afternoons. My first pair of any footwear. My first felted item.

I learned something: FELTING SUCKS.

I mean, I'm sure it's great if you know what you're doing and the yarn is cooperating and the washing machine is producing the correct temperature of water. I'm sure it's fantastic if you know what you're doing. I do not know what I'm doing. I'm doing what I've read in forty million places and what the designer and my mom and a hundred other knitters said.

Thery're too big, they're not felted enough or in the right spots, and hand felting makes me want to eat my arm.

Tomorrow I am going to set the washing machine to a high water temp, put the slippers in (while also in a zippered pillow case) and let them do as they please. I'm going to shower and eat breakfast and just let them do as they wish.

(Although, honestly, if they don't do what I want them to, I might throw a world-class hissy fit. Yeah, real mature.)

It has FINALLY stopped snowing.

I'm doing Ravelympics this year. I figured: Why not? Any excuse to force myself to finish something.

I'm going to knit Serpentina, a scarf with a pretty simple lace pattern. It's easy, so why am I doing it? BECAUSE THE PATTERNS CALLS FOR 4 SKEINS OF YARN AND THE SCARF ENDS UP BEING 40 MILLION FT. LONG.


Here's my problem. I adore long scarves, but I do not have the attention-span for them. I barely have the attention-span for a hat or a cowl, but a huge ass scarf? No way. I happen to love this scarf though, and I want it very badly, and so I'm going to force myself to knit the whole thing in 2 weeks. I'm pretty excited.

~~~

There was a freak snow storm here for the past week, and we got 2 consecutive days off from school. That's never happened, ever. (Our district is remarkably stingy about snow days.)

I watched a lot of TV. I downloaded a lot of free patterns off of Ravelry (and quite a few not-free ones). I also knit. A lot. I got a hat and a neck warmer finished and blocked, and I started 2 socks (one of which has a good portion of the leg done). That's a lot of knitting in a short period of time.

I feel so accomplished.

~~~

I'm no longer wasting my money on yarn.

I am now learning how to waste all of my money buying patterns on Ravelry.

Great. There is absolutely no hope for me.

Oh, the sheer joy of sock knitting

Remember how I was going to knit socks?

Try 1: Yarn got tangled and only way to untangle the mess was to frog what little I had.

Try 2: I finished turning the heel and picking up the stitches fromt he heel flap to realize the sock was about 2" too big. Frogged again.

Try 3: With the entire sock being too big, I failed to notice that the gauge was also way too big. Frogged. Again.

Try 4: Use smaller needles, cast on fewer stitches and when this try will inevitably fail, resist urge to eat yarn and deny ever attempting to knit socks.

~~~

I'm going on a yarn/knitting notions/knitting books diet. I'm going to use up what yarn I have and use books from the library. I have enough yarn to last for months, and I am running extremely low on cash. I'm learning that buying yarn instead of buying things like shampoo and lunch doesn't work very well.

Knitting socks is way easier than I thought it would be.

I figured out the basics of sock knitting, and then taught myself how to knit socks. I taught myself how to knit using teeny-tiny DPNS. I taught myself how to handle bamboo needles. I taught myself how to do short rows, and therefore teaching myself how to turn the heel of a sock.

Whoever spread the rumor that turning the heel is scary and hard? It isn't. It's easy and totally entertaining that as you knit it forms this pocket for your heel. It's totally cool and quick and easy and it's definitely my favorite part.

(By the way, I'm about 5 rows away fro finished the heel of my first sock ever. It's top notch, really. They're going to fit perfectly, I can tell.)

~~~

I keep going to A Good Yarn every day or 2. This is ruining my budget for things like shampoo and food. Craaaaaaaap. Must. Acquire. Self. Control. Noooooooooooow.

Socks: Episode 1

I belong to the Prescott Knitters group on Ravelry. I've chatted with the moderator and I've been wanting to go to their meet-ups on Thursdays for a while now but couldn't find the time between finals and the holidays. And then they started a Saturday meet-up at this place called Method Coffee way out on Willow Creek out by the Ford dealership.

It was great. I met the moderator, Katie, first and then maybe half an hour later Allee (Katie's friend) came in. Allee is hilarious. She's this super outspoken woman who tells all of these hilarious stories. Katie is very sweet and open and totally cool. We all talked and laughed and drank coffee for 2 hours before we all parted ways. It was nice to just sit and talk about knitting with people who love it as much as you do.

Oh, and I got talked into knitting socks. I have sock yarn, and I do like portable projects, so all I needed was some DPNs. I went to my LYS and found some bamboo ones, which I was bummed about since I usually hate bamboo needles, but these aren't so bad. I came home, knit a makeshift swatch and CO. I got thorough about a row and a half before I decided I had to rewind my ball of yarn and blah blah blah it got tangled and I had to frog what part of sock I did have and now I'm back to square one. Craaaaaaap. Oh well, I'll take what little I did learn (like that you should decide if you want to use 3 or 4 DPNs before you actually start working on your project, or that you should not use a ton of huge stitch markers because they just complicate things) and CO again tonight.



Oh, and if you're a knitter in Prescott, you should come to one of the meetings some time. They're fun. There's one Thursday nights from 5:30 to 7 at the Starbucks on Gail Gardner (by Joann and Walmart), and there's one at Method Coffee on Willow Creek on Saturdays from 1-4 (you don't have to be there the whole time, you can stay as long or as short as you want).