Knit Once, Purl Forever

Second Third Anniversary

In what would be the third, first-year anniversary for one of my blogs, the Knit Once, Purl Forever blog is one. I'm counting May as the anniversary month because, while I created the site in March of last year, I began posting entries in May. And, really, what's a blog without any entries?

I've been thinking about this particular entry for some time. In fact, I've been thinking about it ever since I read this entry at Savannahchik Knits. What struck me most was when Jody said she had learned  in the last year what to write to interest and help her readers.

Hmmmmmmm.

I realized then that I never really set out with an overall goal of what I wanted my blog to be and when I write, I write about whatever hits me on that given day. What do my readers want to see? What interests them? And can I deliver? Is that what this blog is about?

I don't know if this blog delivers anything of value and I'm not sure that it can deliver much with what little time I have available for blogging. I do know that when I began this blog, I had recently been bitten by the knitting bug. Suddenly, my favorite hobby, my passion de jour, was knitting and I was all about yarn and all about the current and next project. And when I looked around, there was no one with whom to share my new found interest. No one with whom I could discuss the joys of knitting because no one I know gets it. This blog was where I could talk about knitting.

It was also a place for me to keep track of my progress as a knitter. I had suddenly graduated from knitting a few hats and scarves during the winter season to knitting year round and embarking upon many knitting adventures. I've made many knitting discoveries such as my first journey into my local yarn store. I shared my first knit along and discovered the three-needle bind off. I discovered felted bags. I also experienced the occasional disappointment of a failed project or two. I've learned what not to do. And I've experimented with new knitting techniques in my journey to grow as a knitter.

So, I guess my goal or purpose for this blog is to have a place to vent about knitting and a place to track my progress as a knitter. And on those two points, this blog delivers.

I look forward to more knitting adventures as anything can happen. And I look forward to sharing it with you!

Still Alive

Just a quick entry to let you all know that I'm still alive and well. I'm just really, really busy. Carrrrrraaazzzzzzy busy. Insanely busy. And I can only blame myself. So, what am I up to?

Well, guests are due to arrive at my house any minute for the first of three (yes, I said THREE) parties we are hosting this holiday weekend. Clearly, I have lost my mind. And, clearly, much of my time this week has been spent cleaning and preparing for said parties.

Yet, somehow, I've also made a lot of progress in the knitting arena, but I just don't have the time to show or tell.  Will TRY to have something up by tomorrow.

Have a great weekend everyone. Be safe!

Popping In

Just popping in for a quick semi-update. This will be a very brief update of the boring, no photos variety.

In SP4 news, I finally received goodies from my Secret Pal 4. There will be more about this later, but let's just say the package was stuffed full of wonderful yarn that I can't wait to knit up. Her lovely homemade card stated that she hoped it was worth the wait and yes, Pal, it was worth the wait. Very much so.

For SP5 news, In case you don't know, maybe you live under a rock (along with me) or something, SP5 is gearing up. I won't be participating as I seem to participate in the even numbered secret pal programs only (2 and 4), but it is lots of fun if you're new to knitting and knitting blogging. It's a good way to "meet" other knitters and to take part in something exclusive to the knit blogging community. 

In Knit One Read Too news, I received an e-mail last week inviting me to vote for the next book we will read. I didn't vote as I didn't think it would be fair since I've decided to withdraw from this group. I haven't officially done so yet as I have been procrastinating, but I mention it here as a note to myself. It was a difficult decision to make as I LOVED participating in this group. I LOVE to read and being part of this web ring introduced me to several books I would not have read otherwise. However, I've made the decision that my limited time is best directed toward the study of work related, career advancing non-fiction. So that's the plan for now. I hope to rejoin the group later.

In Kool-Aid mania, I have to admit that my first attempt at Kool-Aid dying ended in disappointing results. I'm not happy with the resulting colors or pattern. I will try this again very soon though.

In knitting news, I haven't made much progress on the fair isle tassel bag. I have managed to make some progress on my sock project and am on the heel flap of the first sock. I guess some is the operative word here. Some progress, not a lot of progress. Oh well.

In soccer news, we traveled to our last away game this weekend. We just have the all day soccer tournament coming up in two weeks and then we get a break for a couple of months. Soccer really consumes a good chunk of our free time, but it's well worth it so see the YS play. So, I'm not complaining. Really I'm not.

I am tired though. For some reason, I've been tired a lot lately. Almost a chronic tiredness. I'm sure it will pass.

And now I'm off to watch Desperate Housewives.

Sugar on my Tongue...

Just a little stash enhancement going on here today at the Knit Once blog:

First up, some Cascade 220 found its way home with me. I absolutely fell for this yarn, although I have no idea what I will use it for. I don't think this photo does it justice, but it's a lovely shade of green; light and dark green with flecks of gold mixed in. I couldn't leave the yarn store without it.

And next up, a little sewing kit in which to store needles, stitch markers, etc.:

And speaking of etc., what better place to store the packets of Kool-Aid?

The boys who live at the Knit Once blog will never look there. Not in a million bazillion years. Yep, I think it's a safe place.

I plan to put some of that Kool-Aid to use this weekend. And since we're on the topic of Kool-Aid, what's up with this?

What genius came up with invisible Kool-Aid? Don't they know that invisible Kool-Aid is a knitter's nemesis? Especially when that knitter is purchasing Kool-Aid for the specific purpose of dyeing yarn. I didn't know such a thing existed. And I didn't notice it until I got it home and the Youngest Son (YS) pointed it out to me. He asked if I was going to make my yarn invisible. He was actually quite intrigued by the idea, of course.

As for me, I won't be using that Invisible Kool-Aid. Invisible yarn is the last thing I need. I have a tough enough time keeping up with knitting projects I can see--I don't want to try messing with any invisible yarn.

So, all you future Kool-Aid dyers out there be on the lookout for Kool-Aid packets of the invisible variety. This has been a public service message from the Knit Once blog. Thank you. And to all a good night.

To the Market I Go!

Finally, I have those long promised photos of those long finished projects. Here is French Market bag # 1 in action:

I pretty much followed the directions. As I recall anyway. It's been a while since I finished these and I really can't remember if I made any changes from the norm. This bag accompanied me on my trip to Vegas and helped chase away the boredom of travel. I used Plymouth Galway. Not sure of the colorways.

And bag #2 looks like so in action:

I decided to make this bag bigger, but didn't want to buy more yarn so I deviated from the pattern using what I had. This bag kept me company after my eye surgery. It was nice to have something to keep my hands busy and the end result turned out fine.

The felting of each bag turned out great. In fact, I think these felted better than anything I've felted in the past. I'm not sure why that is as I didn't do anything differently.

And all together now:

Both bags before felting....

and after....

No Title Tonight

I don't have much to say tonight as I'm really tired. Just one little thing before I go:

While reading my favorite blogs today, I absolutely loved the  hand dyed yarn seen at Jen's blog, Monkeyknits.  So much so that I surfed over to KnitPicks and ordered some of the yarn you can dye yourself. And, because I can't buy just one thing when it comes to fiber (you all know about the sickness I'm sure), I also ordered some of this.

I'm hoping it will work for the camisole in the spring 2005 issue of Cast On. The key word here is hoping. I'm not yet adept at judging which yarn will work with which pattern--it's really a crap shoot for me at this point.

I've already picked up assortment of Kool-Aid. Just waiting for the yarn now. Can't wait for that, but I'm too tired for tonight. 

Gotta go. Happy knitting!

Have you noticed that "happy knitting" is a knit blogger's way of saying, "Peace out, dude!" Or is that just in my world?

Okay, I'm really gone this time. For reals.

Socks Squared

This will have to be short as this has been one ca-razz-zy day.

If you didn't guess, the mystery project is a sock*. I needed a small, simple project that I could carry along to the various soccer practices and doctors appointments scheduled for this week. And since I've recently been bitten by the sock bug that seemed to fit the bill so I cast on for my second pair of socks.

I'm sort of making one of the patterns from the Learn to Knit Socks booklet. I say sort of because I kind of altered the pattern by accident and didn't realize it until I was about two inches into the sock. I briefly considered ripping back and starting over, but I really like what I have thus far, so I decided to move forward. That and the fact that I had already ripped twice and cast on three times prior to getting this far. I like the nice lacy pattern. It was tough getting used to the pattern at first, but I'm finding that it's getting easier as I go and the lacy pattern is looking better and better.

This brings me to the sock syndrome thing. I've heard a lot about second sock syndrome, but what about Ugly Sock Syndrome™ (USS)? Is there such a condition? I'm the kind of knitter who seems to catch on to a project about halfway through, as demonstrated in my first sock project. I caught on eventually, but the results of USS is that I have two very different socks making up that pair--one very pretty, well fitting sock and one not so pretty and not so well fitting sock. 

And there's no guarantee that this won't happen again.  I'm okay with this as it's all part of the learning process. I just wonder if any of you have experienced Ugly Sock Syndrome™ and how did you deal? Bueller?

* If you notice the errant fiber hanging from the top of the sock it's because I had to chase down a wild and crazy cat and retrieve my cool, new project from his sharp, pointy teeth. He was quite disappointed that he didn't get to play with the big blue ball.  I was not so sympathetic, but I still love him anyway.

New Projects and Lose Ends

Well, my Sunday, also known as 'my fun-day, my I don't have to-run day' to quote The Bangles, is almost over. I'm always bummed to see a weekend near its end, but it seems a little worse tonight. Some of it could be the fact that I have many appointments scheduled for the upcoming week and the rest of it is probably the fact that I really had a relaxing weekend.

One in which I accomplished much knitting. I was able to make great progress on the Tassle bag. This is the Tassle Bag from Folk Bags by Vicki Square. As you may know, I have a thing for felted bags and this bag in particular is especially appealing to me being the process knitter that I am. I'm not sure that I will actually use this bag; however, I have a friend who loves any combination of pink and red so I know I can find a good home for it.

It just looked as though it would be fun to knit and it is. And now I understand why the pattern calls for both Intarsia and Fair Isle. The red color is carried through via Fair Isle while the pink "flames" are done in Intarsia.

The bag is knit from the top down, so here it is upside down after completing one chart cycle:

I still have two pattern repeats to go!!! This takes much longer than I anticipated. And I know that I need to improve my skills with each technique, but what better first project than a felted bag?  Here's a closeup of the pattern right side up:

And here are all the lose ends of the flip side:

As you can see, there will be a whole lot of weaving going on before I can felt this baby.

As for new projects, I decided to start yet another new project because I have several appointments schedule this week which means I will have some extra knitting time (in public). I don't know about you guys, but Fair Isle projects are too complicated for me to step out of the house with. I need an easy project that I can easily pack up and take on the road with me. I found just the project, but I have to save something for tomorrow so stop back for news on this.

See you later!

File This Under Frustrated

What a freakin' frustrating day! If I could color that exclamation point red for emphasis, I would. Frus-trat-ing. And the fact that today is Friday the 13th has not gone unnoticed.

In work frustrations: nothing went right today. Absolutely nothing. And, of course, I had a rather critical issue to tackle. I came up with an elaborate solution to the problem and preliminary testing seemed to indicate that it was the appropriate resolution. However, half the day slipped away only to find that my fancy schmancy solution was not going to work.

Finally after much frustration and longing to bang my head on my desk, I attempted a simple solution. It was one of those "I wonder if this will work" solutions. It will. And it did. So much for half the day. Nothing like pissing it away on one project.

In Typepad frustrations: I've been having issues with lost entries. It used to occur one in a while; however, it now occurs frequently, almost every other time I post. On Sunday, I brainstormed a solution to this rather annoying problem:  I would create "template entries" for the week and save them in draft form. Thinking myself on top of my game, I even listed potential topics for some of the entries. I thought this would speed my typing time along and alleviate the white screen = blank mind problem I'm prone to because I'm a morning person who must play a night owl on my blog.

The plan was working like clockwork until I noticed that the clockwork was the problem. Apparently, when you save a draft in typepad it captures the date and when you publish you entry, it uses the original date even if you actually publish your entry later.

So every entry I posted, before I made this discovery last night, is posted for Sunday. So much for getting ahead. (I realize the simple solution would be to change the default setting to "draft" but I'm too stubborn for that.)

No knitting news today. Too much wine with dinner. Because wine is the cure for frustration, you know.

It Takes Two

It takes two socks to complete a pair and, by George, I have me my first pair of hand knitted socks.

I just love these socks. I used Koigu in colorway ? (I'll have to add this later) and I love this yarn. To me, it's not as soft as Lorna's Laces, but I love the colors and striping.

They're not perfect, of course, as this was my first time out of the gate with socks. I found that I made an error on the first sock. I didn't turn the heel. At all. I followed the directions from the heel flap and skipped right to the gusset, totally missing the whole turning of the heel thing. Oooops.

Oh well, the first sock fits okay.  The second sock fits great. I can't wait to cast on for the next pair. But first, I have two sweaters in the basket that need finished.

And I was a little bad tonight.... I began a new project!!! (More about this tomorrow.) A somewhat challenging  project. Challenging for me anyway. I'm a dozen rows in and the pattern has already used four different knitting techniques. Tomorrow I try Intarsia and Fair Isle as the pattern calls for both.

My question to you is what's the difference between Intarsia and Fair Isle? I thought they were the same thing, but the SnB book has descriptions for each and doesn't explain the difference or when you would use one over the other. They both seem the same to me. Even the instructions seem basically the same--unless I'm just too tired tonight to grasp the difference. Can anyone explain the difference? Is it the same thing?