Knitting progress..

My knitting is coming along and I thought that showing you all that I could do a purl stitch was just plain boring.  To my beginner knitter eyes it looks like the garter stitch.  So, I combined my stitch efforts and decided to show off my stockinette stitch.  It's a little loose and I've done better this month with this stitch but I realized that February ends after today and I knitted up a few rows.  I have to remain steadfast in my knitting progress; including updating you, my awesome followers.

Diamonds are a girl's best friend.

 I did another test pattern using Cascades Alpaca Lace with a 5mm hook.  This was Ravelry user Simpleknits pattern.  She also had two other cowls that followed the same style but I chose to do the smaller of the three cowls.

The pattern had diamond shapes running throughout.  So cool!  My only beef was that using the bamboo needle was catching on the lace so I had to resort to my trusty plastic needles.  Ah well, maybe next time bamboo!

Delicate

Sometimes when you're using a very pretty and delicate yarn, a plastic needle just doesn't seem right to use.  Trying the bamboo hook on this yarn.

Crochet Sighting!

Seen at Babies R Us...

February for ME!

It's amazing to me that if you look at a crochet pattern or knitting pattern one sees all these letters and numbers.... 

To the untrained eye who knew that from simple letters you could get something so beautiful....

Some varied scallop stitching going on...

Why yes, I wore my handmade cowl to work today...

Yarn used was LB collection Baby Alpaca - SO SOFT!!!

Ysolda Teague

I think I'm in love.  

Her name is Ysolda Teague.  Maybe it's because she has an awesome accent and she's foreign or maybe I love her sense of style in which she claims she doesn't know what's in style she just designs what she likes.  Go ahead, sister!  Design on!  I listened to the Knitmore Girl's episode with her interview and if I had any doubts about wanting to knit, they are gone.  I remember perusing her blog about a year or so ago envying the knit patterns but I was still in my monogamous relationship with crochet and kinda stopped reading her blog.  Well folks, I'm back on it and added her to my sites that I frequent list.  Ysolda is so cool and her patterns are awesome.  I love the vintage inspiration and timeless style she evokes in her designs. 

Stash and Burn

Another podcast that I've been paying attention to is Stash and Burn.  I like listening to this one for the conversational aspect of it.  It kinda reminds me of listening to YarnCraft but less structured and organized which is sometimes good.  Its hosted by Nicole and Jenny who are from San Francisco (love that city!) and they chat about almost anything yarn related.   I enjoy their tangents and I feel like I'm a part of the conversation too. I give this podcast a thumbs up and have already started to queue up the past episodes!

Knit Picks Podcast

The other day, I decided to start my new podcast adventure with the Knit Picks podcasts.  I downloaded a few on iTunes and listened to episodes 152 and and 149.  Well, it's safe to say that I'm hooked.  I was listening about spinning, spinning wheels, roving, drop spindles and all this other terminology I'm not 100% familiar with but it managed to hold my interest.  When I started crocheting, I thought I'm never going to knit, forget that!  I'm going to stay monogamous in my fiber activity.  That didn't last very long because now I'm starting with the knitting.  Even in the back of my mind I was like okay...knitting I can do but I will never want to start spinning, forget that!   But as I type this I can see myself, a few years from now, obsessed with spinning.  I can feel it coming on already!  Unfortunately, my funds are limiting me but who knows what next year's NYS budget will bring!  In episode 149, it was nice to hear the ladies chatting about their purchases from a recent fiber festival in the Portland, Oregon area.  They were talking about their purchases and the the colors and textures and I got all sorts of excited that I can barely wait to go to another fiber festival in my area!

In summary, give Knit Picks a listen.  I really enjoyed the topics I have been listening to so far and the sound quality gets an A+ (the teacher in me had to type that!).

I'm also adding their blog to my list of sites I frequent on the right!  Check it out!

All You Need is Love

Happy Valentine's Day!

The whole kit 'n' caboodle

 
Here are the four scarf kits that I got in the mail the other day from Handmade Especially For You.  I will be knitting my first scarves with these kits.  They recommend garter stitch, so, I'm good to go! 

Included was a little change purse/notions holder with their organization's name on it. 

Packages and Positive Thinking

I received two packages today.  One with my latest knitting book purchase (sweet deal on Amazon) and the other, a box from Leslye Borden of Handmade Especially For You which is a non-profit organization that distributes scarves to abused women in the Los Angeles area.  I heard about Leslye on my favorite podcast, YarnCraft and decided to help out and make some scarves.  They send you the yarn, you knit or crochet up the scarves, send them back (along with a donation from the postage they payed to send the yarn to you) and they give your handmade goods to a woman in need.  

As of late, I am really thinking a lot about women and how they are portrayed in society.  Something happened to me at school a few weeks ago and it's really heightened my awareness of how women are being treated.  It seems like when I was growing up in the 80's and 90's, there was this movement to empower girls and encourage girls to do whatever they wanted.  It was like girls had no limits to what they could do!  Or at least I had some pretty positive role models letting me know that.  Now that I'm an adult (whatever that means) and teach in a jr. sr. high school, I see girls getting verbally abused by the boys, treated like sexual objects, and get their sense of self and confidence be taken away.  This  period is a very tumultuous time in a young person's life and I feel like something needs to be done in my school.  It makes me sad that women have come all this way but in small, rural villages it doesn't seem like they got that far.  I suppose I should do something but the politics of getting something like that started are enough to make anyone nauseous and hesitant.  The best I can do, is try to be a positive role model to my female students and encourage them to reach for the stars.

Aliens and Bunnies

My little cutie pie playing with my amigurumi.  In other news, I downloaded a few new podcasts: Knitmore Girls, Knit Picks and Stash and Burn.  I will report back in a few days.  I did a preview listen and the sound quality is pretty good on all these.  Now, let's see if they appeal to the crocheter/beginner knitter in me!

"Hand me down"

One of our family members gave us a ton of clothes for Hazel and as I was going through it, I found this little number.

A crocheted tank top with a cute scallop trim around the edges.

These stitches are tiny!  I checked the tag though... made in China.

Motif CAL

I joined another group on Ravelry which chooses a motif a week out of the awesome book:  Beyond the Square Crochet Motifs by Edie Eckman.  The first motif was #46 inspired by all the snow that practically everyone is having!  What's even cooler is that the author has joined our group and is showing her support.  It's like a mini-celebrity sighting! 

This project had me learning how to do my first picot ever!  It also became apparent to me why some crocheters are not fans of making picots.  Ha!  Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow (as long as I get a snow day along with it)!

Crochet Sighting!

Spotted last weekend in Target.  Déjà vu!

Testing 4

Made this hat for the little Hazelnut using Lion Brand Wool-Ease in gray heather and dark rose heather.  This was a test for a pattern from one of my fellow Ravelers Iflesif.