Episode 1 - Feels Like the First Time

Patterns
Chelsea the Chatterbox Monster
Contrast and Complement Shawl
Spectra
Crocus Sweater
Chadwick

Podcasts:
Wolfe Farms (episodes 2-32 are my favorite)
Knit Psycho
Retro Lemon
Knitabulls
Sock Bunny Knit and Fit
Just One More Row
Knitting Brooklyn - Remembering Remy

Tools:
Needle Felting Tool
Knittingsmybag Bags

On the Road With LoLo!!!

In mid-March, I went on a road trip/ yarn crawl with my girl Lois, a.k.a. Knittingsmybag, a.k.a. LoLo. If you haven't had the opportunity to shop for yarn (and fabric) with a good friend then, may I suggest, you plan to do so AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Our mission: Hit as many yarn stores as possible in 2 days between Santa Clarita and Solvang, California.

First Stop. My LYS, Creative U Studios located in Santa Clarita, California. Is it bad that they know me by name? You are right. It's a good thing. Lois was so organized. She printed and brought the patterns that she need yarn for. I, however, just flew by the seat of my skinny jeans. Lois left with a bag of happiness that included, a skein of Cascade Heritage Sock yarn AND skeins of Berrocco Vintage. I left with 1 skein of Aslan Trends Tango. Amanda, the owner, recommended that we go to Roxanne's in Carpenteria, California. Since it was on the way to Santa Barbara, where Lois had procured a very nice hotel room, then we just had to visit. Lois was happy because this was a store that I hadn't been to.

Roxanne's was as charming on the inside as it is on the outside. I think Lois and I may have touched EVERYTHING. Lois ended up with a couple of notions pouches, yarn, and retractable tape measures. I may have taken home a tape measure or 2 and fabric. Yes, fabric. I have a problem. I think now would be a great time to tell you that Lois is the ANTI-ENABLER. She kept telling me, "Is there something in here that you absolutely CAN NOT live without? If so get it. If not, put it down." I on the other hand just told her to GET IT ALL!

The Loop & Leaf  located in Santa Barbara, California was next on the GPS. It's just so quaint.

I left with 2 skeins of Shibui Sock. Lois left with Loft by Jared Flood in the most calming of colors. Our finds are destined to be Daybreaks. We both gifted ours to people and want Daybreaks for keeps. Lois liked making the pattern. It wasn't my favorite to knit but I did love the end result.

That's all for now. I am planning a new kind of journey for myself and I need to work on that today. I PINKY SWEAR to post the rest of our adventure tomorrow.

Bah Hum-bug

I can't stand Valentine's Day. Never liked it, never will. However, HalfBakedKnitWit's sent me the BEST Valentine's Day Card on Ravelry. The cool thing is that this card could be used for any occasion. Just cross out the (hated) Valentine and insert Anniversary, Baptism, Birthday, Christmas, Divorce, Retirement .. etc. 

Happy Tuesday!  I hope you find happiness, joy, and love in EVERY DAY!

there IS a season

I am a lace-less shawl lover. They make me happy. You can take your fancy “yarn-over twice” and your fussy “purl 3 together through the back loop” and your stupefying “knit through the last two stitches on the 5^th row below your work on your left side” and stick them, ugh, somewhere. Give me garter stitch! I want to “make one left” or “make one right” before or after the stitch markers – and that’s all I have to do on that row! If I want complicated, I will just work on a shawl where I carry up a color or two!

Hi. My name is Nicole. I am a wife. I am a mother. I home-school. I don’t have a maid, chef, butler, or scrubber of laundry. I do my own stunts. My day and the greater part of my brain power is dedicated to the domestics. Whatever is left over is used for knitting. I don't want to be challenged by whatever I am knitting (too much) nor do I want to be bored by it. Enter STIPE STUDY SHAWL. It is purrrrfect for my needs for this time of year. 

The other day; as I was trying to juggle helping the son with fractions, switching loads of laundry, throwing some genius concoction in the crock-pot, and mopping the cold tile floor; thoughts of summer flooded my mind. Ah summer. No kid (he goes and spends lots of time with his dad). No school work. Less Laundry. Less Housework.  Ah summer. Once my husband leaves for work, I am left in my own company. Evenings upon evenings spent in lovely alone-ness. What should I knit? I could totally knit another hemlock. That’s when I realized:

The season for knitting lace is summer.

I wonder what’s the season for enterlac?

Consider Youself Reminded

This is a reminder to not to buy into what the "nobodies" say, do, blog, write. Place no value on meaningless definers of greatness or lack thereof. Especially Itunes reviews, blogger reviews, podcast reviews, Ravelry dislikes, Ravelry negative remarks (nothing worse than an angry, mean, knitter), lists, and plurk karma.

Lessons learned as children hold true as adults. Sticks and Stones. Words are just words. I give no weight to the harsh words of virtual nobodies. For all I know, they could be some kind of unhappy, schizophrenic, dead beat parent, animal beating, psychopathic, child hating, fun killing, drug addict, alcoholic, homicidal, (insert the worse kind of person here). Seriously. Think about it.

Here's another remider:

I laugh every day. Every single day of my life there is something to laugh about. My son, my husband (funny), my friends, my animals, my mistakes, my tears, my yarn, my knitting, my crocheting all make me laugh.  I am happy (or crazy.. you don't do know you.. LOL).  My happiness is mine. NOONE can take it from me. I own it.


This made me laugh yesterday. I laugh every time I see it. Both the Daybreak and the boy in this pic make me proud too!

2 Knits

I am making the Half Log Cabin Ombre Blanket by Purl Soho. I love it. I am using Cascade Eco Duo despite the well received advice of Amanda, owner of Creative U. I am making this for me and I deserve to be wrapped softness. My husband thinks he is going to get his grubby self in this one. I don’t think so (insert eye rolling and head bob). I am on the second panel. There are 9 total and each uses just one skein of yarn. Ah, garter stitch.I honestly love it. I could go on about it. I have, to people who look at me as if  I have truly lost it - for real.  

You wanna know what band wagon I jumped on? The SSL band wagon. That stands for Stripey-Sock-Lover. SOME knitters jump from lover, to fanatic, to stalker. I am working on Stock Socks out of Desert Vista Dyeworks in the Grade School Turkey colorway. 

                                                                    My colors.


I am going to do a garter stitch after thought heel. Yeah.

 

ProcrastiKNITor

That’s ME! Why finish it today what you can knit on tomorrow? Never mind that there are plenty of other items that are longing to see the light of day. Like…. My Two Sister’s reversible dolls that need only to have arms knit, faces embroidered and hair attached. How about the Lime-Me-A-Scarf that only needs to have maybe 5 more limes crocheted before assembly. A Daybreak Shawl that I started because I saw one knitted in a yarn store that looks so good that I had to purchase the same brand but different color yarn and start it right away. I don’t even want to talk about the Matryoshka for my MIL that I can’t seem to get the faces on quite right. Do you know that it just occurred to me that I should embroider the faces directly onto the dolls instead of making little-tiny circles and then trying to keep those flat while I embroider faces onto them? Duh!!!! Have a picked up that project post epiphany? You bet not!

My latest procrastinknit project was the Boneyard Shawl. I loved working on this so much that I may start another one in my Wolle’s  Yarn that I got for Christmas. My Boneyard shawl was knitted out of handspun Red Fish Dyeworks yarn given to me as a Christmas present by my partner in crime, Knittinwolf. I carried it around in a Knittingsmybag bag made for me by Knittingsmybag herself as a Christmas present. See, I had a theme going on. This was some happy knitting. I honestly could’ve powered through and finished this shawl 3 days ago. Ok, real talk, 2 days ago for sure. I, with my constantly distracted self, just finished that shawl last night. Finished = bound off. I am really going to soak and block it today. Really. Hopefully.

What’s next? My Laceless Shawl. She has been waiting patiently for me and I can’t ignore her anymore. I am sure that I will procastinknit the heck out of her too. She always seems to take the back seat to some prettier, easier, less involved knit – that won’t get finished quickly either.

Have I told you about the latest band-wagon that I have hopped on? I will have to tell you about that later. What kind of procrastinator would I be if I told you about it now…