Tuesday, June 28

Becoming me.

My sister and her husband are on vacation right now. They went off to San Diego with the babe to have some rest and relaxation. I am enjoying these days to myself. I am learning who I am as a person again. It is funny how being in a relationship, (or at least the one that I was in) who you really are. My likes my wants my dreams my everything. I didn't realize how much I was turning off or ignoring for the other person. 5 Things about the person that I am...

1) I don't like to be rushed in the morning. I like to have my coffee, sit a little bit and take in the sunshine, because I really am a morning person.

2) It is okay to "project" your feelings and thoughts on your animals.

3) Baseball. I really like that game.

4) Just because I cry doesn't mean that I am over emotional... It just means that I have feelings and I am not afraid of them.

5) I am pretty sure I was using my knitting as a subconscious hint about my relationship. I have been finishing projects left and right. Not flitting from one project to the other. Not that I was doing that in my relationship, mind you, but it was me not ending a project, needing something new and fresh and fun and exhilirating. hmmm...

Okay, enough of me being deep here. I have a few yarn stores to critique and rate...

I went to the Needlers Nest awhile back and the women in there awesome. Love them. The store is at El Mirage and Bell Roads. They do carry some rather exspensive yarns but they also carry other, more afordable brands too! Being a "young" person (at least near this area - Sun City) I was treated wonderful in there. They chit chatted with me for a while. Wound the skeins for me and put in me in there database.. spend 250.00 and get 10.00 off your next purchase or something like that... Or maybe it is 20.00, I can't remember. But anyways, if you are on the West side of town or make your way over here for some reason make sure to check them out.

I also went to the Knitters Nook yesterday and wasn't too impressed. They had mostly Plymouth yarns in there. A few from other vendors but not much. I was said hello to and that was it. A woman *much older than me* came in after me and was talked up a storm to. I walked around a couple of times, was asked if I knew how to knit but was really given a chance to answer before she was showing me acrylic stuff and where the needles were and how to knit books. I told them I knew how and then she walked off. I left. I would say that if you are in desperate need of a yarn store and have to have some Plymouth Encore on a Monday then head over here. Otherwise. Bleh.

I am hoping that some of you will show up at Coffee Plantation this afternoon. Brooke, I don't care if Jack is a grumpy sourpuss or a smiling cherub come and see me! All you other ladies too! Get your buns out to 20th Street and Camelback and seeme!

Happy Knitting

Monday, June 27

Sweater completed

I finished Matt's little sweater the other day. It is a little big, but it looks really cute on him. It will fit him perfectly this winter. I am adding a new feature to my posts when I finish a project. It will be something I learned from knitting it.

1) When working intarsia, you really do need to weave the ends of the second color into the coordinating stitches. I didn't think it would show that much but boy did it ever. I ended up wasting more time by pulling out the yarn and having to re-weave it.

2) Speaking of re-weaving ends in. When you make a mistake and cut your tail or even if you leave it too short, this little idea will help you out. Place the eye of the needle through the stitch that you want to weave your end in, being careful not to pull the needle all the way out, now thread your tail through the eye and pull the needle back through the stitch like you normally would. Voila...you have your tail weaved through one stitch. Repeat this process until you are sastified, then cut off what is left. I learned this trick a few years back, it is a little longer to weave in the ends but when you need to do it, it works like a charm.

3) If there are any parts on a pattern that are confusing or you had to change. Write them down. You will save yourself hours of refiguring numbers (or even worse reknitting) to work the other side. This is also helpful if you are making more than one or want to knit it later on down the road.

I have the afternoon free tomorrow and will be in central Phoenix. I was thinking about going to the Coffee Plantation at the Biltmore Fashion park around 1:00 or 1:30 if anyone is interested. I will post this on the SNB group too!

I am off to go run errands.
Happy Knitting

Monday, June 20

must... have...contact... with...other...knitters.....

Okay, so I am not really that desperate.. I mean I have my sister knitting but she will only do it after the babe's gone to bed...(Obviously she is not that taken with it!!!!) But I really do miss fellow knitters. I was trying to meet up with some other knitters tomorrow but it seems as though it really won't fit into my schedule. I have a lunch date with Lindsay, who I haven't seen in over a month!
Well, it is not really a lunch date I am getting my underarms and my legs waxed. She needs the practice and I got the hair to practice on.

So, I am almost finished with my Rowan sweater for Matt and have decided that I hate hate hate English written patterns. I know that I have written this before in a previous post but I feel it needs repeating. I have everything knit I just can't get the stupid sleeves to look right. I don't know what the problem is.
Hopfully the net will have some answers for me.

I am also going to see if I can find a place for people to meet up on the west side of the valley on Mondays like near Avondale or something. Maybe in the evening or even in the mornings...

Well, I have to head out for now. Dinner is waiting and I need to find out how to do that dang sweater. Happy Knitting!

Tuesday, June 14

Cult tally - 3

I forgot yesterday to add what I have been working on! I was having a self pity moment a while back and decided that I needed yarn. You know the really good stuff that I normally wouldn't buy for myself kind of yarn! Well, I picked up some recycled silk. 2 skeins. It ended up costing me about 40 big ones but I loved knitting with it. I made myself a cute little purse with some silk lining...Awesome!

I have also been teaching people how to knit. Last week I gave my niece some refresher courses and she knit 1/2 a wash cloth before she got bored. She then asked me to teach her friend to knit. So, when they came over on Sunday I gave her a lesson. They had fun and I am going to practice knitting with them at least every other week. Last night my sister Amy said, "okay, it is time for me to learn". So I grabbed my needles and yarn again and off we went. Amy has always been a perfectionist and within an hour she had learned how to knit, purl, do a 1x1 ribbing and seed stitch! I was quite afraid of teaching her because I thought that she would have issues with learning it. She is left handed and when she taught herself to crochet she came up with a new stitch that she calls the "oopsy" stitch. I was going to try to teach her to knit continental but, she is doing awesome with the "american method". She already held her yarn in her right hand so I figured it would be easier that way. She just had to learn to get the needles comfortable. So, I am off today to find an easy pattern for her to make that is not your standard dishcloth or pouch-esque bag. She was asking this morning about when she should learn to knit socks...I told her to at least get one project done first.

I forgot about a pal's birthday so I am going to make her a purse pattern I got off Knitty.com. I am hoping I can whip it out rather quickly. My next challenege is to make a sweater to fit a beagle. I think I will try the pattern from the SNB nation book. Well, I think that wraps it up as for what has been going on... I think I have my numbers in for the knitting cult requirments for this month! How about everyone else?

Monday, June 13

Life goes on...and so do I...

So, I am still living. Thank you to everyone who has sent me a well wishes. So, here is what is going on..

I am still working.. I am wating for my duplicate license to come in so I can take a second job somewhere. I am living with my middle siste Amy, her husband Josh and their little babe Matt. You may remember those cute little pics I have posted of him before... if not look back for previous posts. So total in the house right now there are the three of us adults, Matt, my two cats, and Maggie, their 4 dogs (a beagle and 3 greyhounds) and 3 cats, and for the last two weeks we have been watching Josh's moms greyhound. So needless to say that the house is a little full but it doesn't feel like it at all.

I carpooling twice a week with my sister and the other two days I am taking her husbands truck to work. I am trying to save up money for to get a car. It is kind of frustrating but hey, I could be worse off. I have family and friends that love and support me.

So on to what this post should really be about... KNITTING!!!!!!!!!

I am been getting a little bit of knitting done. I finally finally finally finished the first part of my flapper scarf. Wonderschon! I love it. I started putting on the beads for the 2nd part of the scarf and I realized I was about a hundred beads short of what I needed. After scanning almost every bead store in the Phoenix area I was finally was able to get to the bead store near my work... they have wonky hours but lo and behold they had my beads. They are wee bit darker but they still look good. I am moving right along on this one. I forgot the pattern I was working for my lace scarf and haven't motivation to find where I messed up at.

So, while my life is not back to what used to "normal", it is becoming a new "normal" and I like that. I think that next tuesday I will be in town so if anyone wants to meet up in the central phoenix area around lunch time I can do that. I would love to knit with people again....

Happy Knitting...

Thursday, June 2

It's over.

I haven't posted in a while because life has been rather cray. In the course of a week, my life has gone from content to catastrophic. It has just been settling back down and I decided that I should let the world know where I have been.

A few weeks back Amy told me that she didn't love me anymore and that she wanted to break up. I told her okay, but I needed time to save up money to get a car and to move out. We had decided that I would leave in about 5 months. Well, that five months turned into about 10 days. We got into a riff a couple of Sundays ago and Amy told me to pack my stuff and leave. So, I did. I am pretty sure that she didn't think I was going to be gone but I left. I was tired of the fighting and the well everything.

I moved into my sister's house out in Buckeye and I am trying to get back to my normal life. Or at least what could become a normal life. I don't know how often I will be able to post but I wanted to let you all know what has been going on. The good thing about being so far away from the city is that I have my nights to myself now and I have been getting a lot of knitting done.

I wish you all the best.

happy knitting