Thursday, January 28, 2010

Of finished objects and ideas

So late tuesday night and early wednesday morning I finished the Thinking of You scarf, sewed in the ends and blocked it overnight. I think it turned out splendidly and the recipient was so ecstatic and thanking me. I'm glad that she liked it.






I'm still working on the book, slowly but surely. The project I'm working on right now is slowish.

I think I had a sign from whatever today. Next month would be 2 years with the company I work for, and I have spilled and hurt myself more in the past month then I have in the other about 2 years. I think it's a sign to move on to a different job, what do you think?

Monday, January 25, 2010

Lots of dye and stuff to do

So this is my last week of freedom before I have to go back to school next week. It's going to be a really busy semester for me, 14 units, working, and keeping that all in balance.


This is 6 pounds of undyed yarn, 4 will be dyed by me for a special project I am involved in, I'm not going to say what that is but all I know it's going to be pretty epic. I was going to dye tonight, but alas I don't have enough vinegar. Wednesday will be the day I think, I'll get vinegar and the weather should be better.

Knitting wise the Thinking of You scarf is almost to the chart, I so don't like making scarves at all. But this one is really well deserved by the recipient. The book projects I havent' touched for a while, I need some inspiration for me to get them going again.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Of hospital visits and fraud charges

So yesterday was not a good day. I woke up at around 1:30pm, I have difficulties getting tired and falling asleep. So I had work at 5pm-close, which my Jamba closes at 8 and we have to get out of there by 9pm. So I get there, it's slow, we have new info for us upper level employees, and things are running smoothly until around 7pm. I was filling a large plastic container with hot water (we use the container for our drain baskets) and I put bleach in after. Well the bleach went in the water, and some bounced into my right eye, I wasn't even close to the container. My eye began to burn and turn red. I immediately went to the front, grabbed some paper towels and got the moisture coming out of my eye. Then I had to flush my eye with water for 5 minutes, which was so not enjoyable. Then I thought oh crap I have to fill out paperwork. Being the assistant manager, if an employee gets hurt I fill out their paperwork for workers comp but I had to fill out my own paperwork. So I filled it out, called a hospital, and called the other upper levels to see if they would help out. The 2 that were available couldn't come in, and the manager was in class so I couldn't reach her. So i closed, drove myself to one hospital and they were jam packed. Then i had to go to kaiser hospital, all without a GPS cause my car was fixed and I took it out when they were fixing it. So I had to rely on a map and my own brain to get me there, which I did. They got me situated in the waiting room, took temperature, pulse, blood pressure, and asked a few questions. I was admitted after about 30-45 minutes of waiting. They checked the pH of my eyes, checked for burns, did a vision test, and flushed it out with saline solution. Then I filled out some of their paperwork and then went home.



Then to make things worse, I checked my checking account online and it turns out I'm being charged multiple overdraft charges when I have the money. I called today and they said it was from website I have no idea what it is, I've never heard of it. So another fraud charge, I canceled my card which is my 4th with this credit union. Yippe.

Knitting wise the mitten patterns are in the test knitting stage, so that's always good. The projects for the book are doing well, the one I'm working on is just slow.

Hopefully today will get better.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Car repairs and storms and knitting oh my

Well I had to get up at 8am this morning to bring my car into the repair shop to get the steering rack and pinion replace because mine were leaking. So right now I'm carless and stuck at home because of the weather. It's been very grey, wet, windy, thunder and lightningy here for the past like day or two.

On a health related note, I am always exhausted. When I wake up from a full nights rest I'm exhausted. I am only up because of caffeine, monsters, coffee, etc. I don't know why this is, but I'm hoping it will just fade in a while.

Knitting related news, I'm working on patterns from the book (obviously) I'm just procrastinating because I don't want to figure out how to do some of the shaping. I know that's lazy but it's going to take a bit of thinking to get these right. I'm also working on the Thinking of You scarf for my previous boss. She had to break up with her boyfriend, who she found out was cheating on her, on her birthday this year. So I decided this scarf would be appropriate for her and make her feel better. Otherwise I'm not really knitting too much these days, I'm still coming out of my slump, but this book might help. I just hope I can find someone to publish it. I'll make sure to post pics as I have them.

Otherwise no spinning is going on, but I do have a big dyeing project coming up. The yarn is on it's way and I am just waiting to get it, dye it, and get the project going.

But the car is back, I don't have to worry about the leak anymore, now it just needs new front tires, and an alignment.

Anyone there?

Thursday, January 14, 2010

I'm back and with the ZOMBIE MAC!!!

Ok I'm going to have to explain that one, about a year and a half ago I bought a new computer for college, a MacBook Pro 15" running I believe leopard. It ran very well for a while and a couple of months ago I noticed a weird buzzing noise under the keyboard and that it was getting extremely hot. I ignored it and thought it was normal till my mom commented on it and I checked a dashboard application I had and it said my fans were running at almost 6,000rpm and the internal temperature was at 180-190 degrees f. I looked around and couldn't find anything that told me what was wrong with it, then about a month ago once I turned on my computer it would boot up with the fans running at 4,000 then 5,000rpm. I took it in and they were a little baffled. They booted it up from an external drive and it ran normally, they ran DiskWarrior and it errored out on every test and warned to back up all data asap in case of a predicted hard drive failure. They replaced the hard drive, migrated my data, updated the operating system and replaced the left fan and that did it. My hard drive was failing indeed, the left fan was making the noise and the temperature and fans were due to the hard drive with a corrupted operating system. I'm typing on it and let me tell you I missed this thing so much! If anyone else has the same issues I had I hope this helps.

Knitting, what am I knitting? I am working on a project for the book, inspired by a fellow raveler, he made a pair and I wanted to make my own, but with modifications to the pattern. No he doesn't have a patter, and is going to write one up for his pair, mine will be different, and I'll see if I can make up new ways to construct it.

The book list is as follows (it's a mens knitting book):
3 hats, 3 scarves, 4 sweaters, 3 mittens/gloves, 4 miscellaneous, and 3 vests all of varying difficulty. What are you your thoughts on this? Does this seem like too many projects? Not varied enough?

Monday, January 11, 2010

I'm not dead, life just threw a crappy year at me....

Wow things in life really do need to settle. It's been such a long time since I posted anything on the blog. Lets see if I can update everything.

Knitting wise I made the Cobblestone sweater,a pair of mittens, fingerless gloves, and socks on my sock knitting machine. It wasn't a very productive year for me, I had a lot of slumps. The sock machine is good, runs like a charm and has a brother, literally, I purchases a Brother KH-910 Computerized Knitting Machine and it's so much fun!

I haven't updated my etsy for a long time because I just haven't had time to make anything to sell, but hopefully soon.

THings that are broken still/broke last year were including my computer, my car, my phone service, my heart, and lots of other things (no nothing broken cause of fights or anything just cause I have bad luck). Which reminds me, if anyone can help me get out of my Verizon contract early without termination fees let me know, I've had the worst of luck with my cell phone. I had to send a letter into the local paper's Action line and there was no action, if you're interested this is what happened.

"I recently started a new 2-year contract with Verizon Wireless in February of 2009. My service was functional until it hit June, that's when all of this trouble started. My service cut out for around 6 hours where my messaging wouldn't work at all, I had very low bars, and phone calls weren't working all that well. After that I have been calling Verizon Tech Support every month, maybe even everyweek. All of the problems I have been having were odd, since I had wonderful service when I was on my Mother's Family Plan. I went into a store first and they told me that it was my phone, that the internal antenna was broken and that it would need replacing. I promptly did this and I got a phone which the touch screen on it (my model was the LG Voyager VX1000) did not work at all. I took the phone in the next day and I talked to a representative, he asked if I calibrated it and I told him that I did multiple times. Then he called over the LG representative that was there that day and he took a look at it. He asked me the same thing and I explained to him that I just got the phone the day before and that I already calibrated it. He finally said (in his exact words), "Yeah it's broken." I had already told them this and they proceeded to send me a "new" voyager. In the meantime I asked for my old EnV to be activated until I got the replacement (I used this phone on my Mother's account previously). That phone also had the same issues that the other two voyagers had and so I went back into Verizon. They told me that it was my phone because it was so old, however I had already called Tech Support and updated my software. I finally negotiated a new phone, the EnV Touch as a replacement and for the trouble I was experiencing. My service was working alright after that, but a mere week later my service was acting up yet again. I had maybe 2 calls dropped my whole time with Verizon, I do not get a reliable signal anywhere, calling quality on all of my phones were terrible, I loose service randomly, when I send a text message sometimes it never sends, delays them for up to an hour, I get "send failed would you like to retry?" on a daily basis, and I also get "Cannot send, no signal. Would you like to resend in digital?" I have called probably 50 times since June, with everyone having me update my roaming, my phone software, or saying that they have no idea. Finally I got a trouble ticket opened for the signal and it came back as "the towers are perfect in your area, so it's not that." I was told by representatives in store that it's my service and I agree, for how can 4 phones (1 that worked perfectly on another account) all not work, all in succession. Then I opened one for the texting problems, they traced the text saying that once it got to the other provider that they couldn't track it anymore. However it does this with Verizon customers too and my picture messaging doesn't always work either. Finally I talked to a friend of mine and he took me to a different store, talked to the Manager at the store I was going to and has been helping me along the way. The store that I currently go to opened a 3rd trouble ticket, which was escalated to a high level. I got a call much like the first one a few days after calling in the trouble ticket, saying that they don't know yet and that they would get back to me. I called a week later and the phone representative told me she had no info on it, wanted me to try to update my roaming and told me it was my phone. I called two days later to give them more information about it and they were just dumfounded just like all of the calls I made so far. One solution that was recommended by the new store representative was to wipe my account clean and get rid of my number and give me a new number. They said that someone with the same problem came in and they did that and her service was fine. I really don't want to do this because my number is associated at a myriad of places, my job and all other locations have my number, my bank, all of my friends, my school, etc. I also had a problem with the EnV touch turning itself off randomly, when I close it from the open position, resetting settings, not wanting to turn on, etc. They sent me a "like new certified replacement" and I backed up my contacts with back up assistant. I activated the "new" phone myself and then got back up assistant on it and then proceeded to download my contacts. My online myverizon said I had none and when I tried to even access my empty contact list on the new phone it wouldn't let me, I had the wrong password and when I asked for the right one that one was incorrect as well. I turned on the old device and tried back up assistant again and it was back up assistant is not working right now. I just left the old phone powered on, about 10 minutes later it went off with multiple text messages, that were delayed 30 minutes. The "new" device should have gotten them, but never did. I activated it just like it told me to in the instructions that were sent to me. Finally on 12-1-09 I got a phone call from Verizon, I couldn't answer because I was working. I recorded the message on my digital voice recorder. They said that they checked my service area and that it's perfect and that it's my device and have a store update it's software. I did this already which did nothing.

I have been paying my bill every month since I started and for a full time student who works at Jamba Juice it can be hard sometimes. I have gotten nothing out of them besides a phone that barely works and $5 in credit once. My plan is $59.99 without taxes or surcharges. Everytime I talk to someone on the phone at Tech Support or in store I'm not treated fairly, when my older friend came with me they started to treat me better. I do not feel like a valued customer, I am treated like the unwanted jelly beans you get in the variety pack. I'm past my point of patience with them, I would like to cancel with no fees and get reimbursement for the months I paid and the service wasn't working, not full, but at least half. I want to switch over to at and t, everytime I go into a store (sometimes with another at and t customer) they treat me the exact opposite of Verizon, even though they know I have a different provider."

Anything new you should expect from me? More posts of course haha!

And I'm in the works of writting a knitting book!!!!! I'll keep everyone updated (all like 1 people who read this).

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Monday....

On another note I get my wisdom teeth, all four pulled tomorrow/today. So not looking forward to it.

Catchup


The shawl was finished December 24th 2008 at 5pm. I blocked it right before we had to go to my grandparent's house for Christmas Eve Dinner. A tradition in my family for a long time. I wrapped up the shawl in the morning when my parents were asleep and before I made this really special oatmeal.

I finished the socks when the oatmeal was baking and they were finished December 25th 2008 at 9am. I sewed in the ends and then wrapped it in some ribbon and stuck it into her stocking.

And may I introduce Robert my new old vintage sock knitting machine.

This is doing ribbing on the top of the foot, before I cleaned him up.



This is making a heel, or toe, before cleaning.




His tension adjuster, also known as the V-Cam. Basically lower the pointer and the tension is looser and up it's tighter.





This is him all nice and clean, showing the new needles and some accessories.




He's a great machine, when he wants to be haha. He is around 100-130 years old and still works.

I'll probably be making socks to order soon.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

I FINISHED IT!!!!!!!! It took me about a week to knit through charts 2 through 6 but I did it! I came home from working at Jamba Juice, knit the freaking 6 last rows and bound off. I finished at 5pm and then had to block it. While it was soaking I showered, sine I did have to go to my grandparents house for christmas eve dinner. There was a gift exchange and my uncle, who gave me 15 lbs of romney cheep for my birthday, he gave me a 3 day pass to stitches west and some money! I'm excited.

The picture of the shawl isn't the greatest, but this is it blocking. I don't have a blocking board so I had to improvise with an old thick blanket and blocking wires and pins. I'll put up a better picture after it's unwrapped tomorrow morning. And my mom has no idea that she is getting it either. She's been hinting about wanting one and so I decided the Mystic Ice would be perfect for her.



The pair of socks only needs 3 more repeats to get to the toe and then toe and sew that bad boy up. I can't really knit that while I'm sitting here with my mom, while we enjoy the fire. I guess I'll just have to knit them in a little while. Probably tonight when I'm supposed to be sleeping. Or tomorrow morning when I am cooking the "traditional" baked oatmeal. Oh well.

I have decided that I don't like lace shawls, love the look, but don't like making them.

I am now again on a fair isle kick, and I want to make a beret. And fair isle sweater, and ..... you get the picture.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

"IT" stage 4

If you have read the Yarn Harlot's The Secret Life of a Knitter then you will know what that means. If not let me break that down for you. I was going to make a few things for my mom this year for Christmas.

Stage one is when I plan for what to make this year. I wanted to make a few things for my mom only since I already made stuff for my cousins the year before and there wasn't anyone else I could think of that would like hand knitted items. Well there is one, but that wasn't until about a month ago.

Stage two I started buying yarn and patterns. Planning what to do. I decided when I saw the Mystic Ice shawl was available for a little knit along I decided to go for it. I also wanted to make a sweater for her, I found a great pattern she loved. Though I didn't have enough money for the yarn and I couldn't find a yarn that I liked (that and was warm/machine washable). I think I know of some now though. I blame my boss at Green Planet Yarn, there are so many great things there, but I digress.

I cast on for the shawl right when chart one came out. I knit it in less then a week and I thought that this would be easy and I could finish it in time. So then I put it down for a little bit.

Stage 3 is when I started to panic a little. I cast on for a pair of socks for myself and knit one of them in about 4 days of reading and knitting at the same time. I loved them so much, the pattern was perfect for reading. The shawl lamented while college winded down, which I had to study too. Then I thought oh crap, chart 4 (then 5) are out now, I want this done by when? (insert appropriate swearing here %^&(*&(*%& %&^(&*&&@^%(@&#(*%^&*#()$&Q%&*!*$%*^@(*&*%^@()_*&^&$*^&#@)^*).

I am in stage 4 which is when I am figuring out how many rows I need to complete daily to get back on track, even though I have no idea how many rows are on the last chart that is being released TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I ignore my chores and cleaning. I take away as much sleep as I can without needing energy drinks (trust me I really don't want to be spending money on that). Now my dad knows about the shawl and the socks. He is now understanding that I am nuts. Oh the socks, attempt number 5. One sock is done and I am on the foot of the other. I should get those done quickly. They are really simple. But the %^*#()&$@*() SHAWL!!!!! Grrrrr

Its pretty eh?




The first is the first four charts and the next is of the actual shawl. Only half of it, but it's pretty. The green is a life line, this is the second I've used on this shawl. I know I'm nuts, but tis the season.

I will now knit the billion stitches on the needles now.

If you don't hear from me I might be recovering

Monday, December 15, 2008

I AM SOOOO DONE..

With this semester of college! Some of it was a lot harder then anticipated, others was a snore.

Ok, I didn't really explain the moth thing. I was cleaning my room one day, which it needs a little spritz again. And I grabbed three pairs of my hand knit socks. I decided that I would clean them and then I would have toasty feet for the cold winter (well California coldish) that lay ahead for me. After I washed them I found holes. This is one sock, if you are knitting, drinking anything non alcoholic, or anything that involves your hands, stop. Take a drink of something strong (if you are of age) and then look. Ok? This is what happened to my toe up STR sock.





8 holes, yes you read that right. Please breathe I know I wigged out when I saw this. Then 2 other pairs were affected. Just one hole in the ribbing of one and my own hand dye argyle socks has a small hole.

Needless to say everything was in quarantine and still is. I am not going to let this happen again.

Happier(?) note, Christmas knitting. After last years evil little (not) knitting spell I decided that I would not knit a lot of gifts. Even though last year was a sweater and an afghan, I didn't knit with blue for 6 months after. This year I decided to knit some socks for my mom and the Mystic Ice Shawl. So behind on the shawl, probably will be a Ireallywantedtohavethisfinishedbutineedsleeptooandthisiscompliatedsothisisapromisethatitwillbefinishedsoon. The socks were a quick knit though, I'm on the leg of the second one. I knit a sock from the New Pathways for Sock Knitters and I did that while reading. Such a great sock.

Then I got suckered into knitting a Noro scarf.



This is two skeins Noro Silk Garden, color no idea. Then 3 skeins of Misky from Mirasol. It's a gorgeous 100% baby llama yarn. I love it so much.

Ok, now I have been debating for a while if I should make a beret. I want to know if you think I would look good in one?

Thursday, December 11, 2008

I had a case of schoolissuchatimesucker and mothitis

Yes it has been a while since I posted, I blame school. This semester is over soon.

That and I had a little moth scare. I got it all under control.

:)

I won't scare you with the sock with 8 holes, or my argyles with a hole.

I will post more, when I'm not holiday knitting.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

I swear I'm not dead

For all of you who might have thought I died, I didn't, I've been extremely busy lately. I go to school, work, eat a little, and sleep sometimes. Repeat everyday, and you'll see why I'm not posting as much as I did before. I haven't had a lot of time for anything really.

I have been knitting a little bit, when I can or have time. I've knit this:






it's the new Habitat Hat by Brooklyntweed, and it's a wonderful, and fast knit. I knit mine in Misky a 100% baby llama yarn. It's so soft and warm!

I've still been knitting on The vest. Yes, that evil argyle vest, which may not be a vest. I might just make it a sweater, depending on how much yarn is left over after. I have plenty of all of the colors, except the brown I don't know about yet.



That little white piece of yarn is holding one stitch, and I've modified the pattern so I'm going to steek open the neck opening.


In other news, have you heard of the Color Co-Op? Macek Designs (me) is participating, and we are going to start dyeing up the yarn for the november shipment soon. If you want to sign up, you'll just have to wait until either November, or December, check the blog . If you need more convincing, then wait until November to see all 6 of us dyers revealing to everyone our colorway based on the choosen artwork by all participating.

Also, Macek Designs is a little back logged, I just finished a yarn order for my LYS, and it's gorgeous, but I have much yarn to dye to catch up. But after I am thinking of doing some new colorways, maybe a famous writter's stories yarn club?

Also, I've given in and knit the baby surprise jacket, knit in corntastic. You can see it at Green Planet Yarn, my local LYS that I work at.




Until next time. Hopefully this fair isle knitting bug will pass, I really want to make a fair isle sweater, or sweaters in general. Maybe it's the cold weather coming up? Who knows.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Knitting Olympics and look coffee!!!

Well I gave in when I said I wasn't going to do the knitting olympics. I wasn't going to because I didn't want to start anything else, because I am running out of needle cables. But then I saw on ravelry that you can work on your WIPs so they get done, and lessen the amount of them. After I saw that I knew I was doomed, since I have like 10 WIPs (not all in ravlery, I don't need to be reminded every time I look at my projects, which right now isn't much, stupid internet).



So, I am going to be doing my Hybrid Sweater, Wing-of-Moth shawl, and my vineland socks. I figured that the places they are all in that it would be enough for me to work on. Well, maybe not. I have 2 weeks to finish a sweater that is just about done, I just started the other shoulder, and so all I have to do on that is knit the rest of the shoulder, then the collar, then cast off and sew in all of the ends.


The shawl has more then half of the first chart done, and then I think I have maybe 2 charts left, and the pattern isn't super complicated. And then the socks just need a heel each (I do my socks 2 at a time, toe up, on magic loop, well when I can) and then a leg and cast off, and weave in ends.

And ok, this internet thing is really killing me. I want to look at ravelry and talk to all of my knitting and non knitting friends on skype and all of those aim and internet sites. However, out internet is still down, and I have another maybe 3 days of having to find free wifi. And so sitting here in Orchard Valley with my laptop out, headphones in, cell phone, sunglasses, coffee and knitting out, I get many looks. But they just don't get it. And I use my phone for pictures because I don't want to bring my big camera with me, and besides I have bluetooth on both the phone and m computer, so I might as well use it.

I have to get back to my olympic knitting, but what happens if I finish all of my projects (yeah right)?

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Where the internet sucks!

The Internet is so screwed up at my house we don't know what to do. I'm in a local cafe, and thankfully they have free wifi. And so I will be here for a few days, since there really is no other option, since like I said I have no Internet. And so i sit here with my coffee and my knitting.

I was in my local yarn shop earlier, talking to the knitters I work with. They are such a great shop to visit, so warm and inviting, not to mention their yarns are to dye for!

My hybrid sweater is going very well! I finished the sleeves and they are attached to the body right now, and so now all i have to do is finish the decreasing, the saddles (I think that is what they are called) and then knit the neck and sew in the ends!



I really want to cast on these socks that I'm designing but I am being good, and being monogamous knitter, and want to get this knit up. Then I have to finish my pair of socks on the needles.

Good luck to all in the Knitting Olympics!!!

Until next time, when I have internet connection again!

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Moths!

Not real moths, you can put the pesticide down, or lavender if you're like me and don't like or can't stand strong chemicals.

No I meant this moth



This is the beginning, well about 10 repeats in the Wing-of-Moth shawl, which I have not worked on for a long time. I decided I wanted something complicated to get me distracted from things in life. It did help, though starting this a while ago, I remember it was at least 2 attempts. However, I do like the pattern, it's a beautiful pattern, and I really like how it's turning out. Those lines are life lines, and will be taken out when I'm done with the shawl. I have not needed to rip out to a life line, but I don't want to take any chances.

The Hybrid Sweater is going well, I am getting a little tired of the monotonous stockinette in the round. I want to make a sweater from Elizabeth Zimmerman, and so I will make one even if I end up in a straight jacket babbling about knitting all of those infernal stitches.

Now I want to start another project, or design another sock pattern to be available for sale in my etsy shop, once it's knit, and test knit of course. Hmmm........well back to my knitting.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

What have I done?

Bold for stuff you've done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you're not planning on doing.

Afghan
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up)

Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Knitting with banana fiber yarn
Domino/modular knitting

Shadow/illusion knitting
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn

Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Knitting with your own hand-dyed yarn

Slippers
Graffiti knitting
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable/aran stitch patterns
Lace patterns

Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit/crochet
American/English style knitting (throwing)
Continental style knitting

Knitting to make money
Buttonholes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting

Dyeing with plant colors
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cozies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on one or two circulars
Knitting with someone else's handspun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit

Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dyeing yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Knitting two socks on two circulars simultaneously
Felting/fulling
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener stitch
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads

Swatching
Long Tail CO

Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with self patterning/self striping/variegated yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items

Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/armwarmers
Intarsia

Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine

Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets

Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

Met knitterati/famous knitters

Friday, July 25, 2008

Actual content to blog about!

It's amazing that I actually have stuff to blog about, I suppose I will be blogging more, especially when I'm should be doing something else. *Undyed yarn gives me a look*

I went to visit a LYS called Purlescense, here and they are fabulous! They are the only spinning store in the area, besides the one in san francisco, which takes to long to get to. I had a question on how to spin cotton top, and so a fellow spinner there showed me how and now I love it! I also bought a sheep to shoe kit (yes they carry blue moon) and a hand dyed silk hankie.

The infernal Urban Aran Cardigan is DONE!!!!!! The button band works, and the buttons are amazing, below are some shots of it. The photographer said the one taken from the back looks really good, what do you all think of the cardigan, and the pic for that matter?



Here's a front picture. Believe me getting the fronts to the right number of stitches was a little more tricky then i thought it would be. Though the slip stitches helped for the button band pick up.




And here's the infamous back picture (which the photographer said that people would flock here to see). I don't know about that but it does look good I suppose.




And then, here is the Elisabeth ZImmerman Hybrid Sweater in progress. Which is made in Brown Sheep Lambs Pride Worsted.




Is anyone interested in learning how to spin cotton or spin in general? Let me know, I might just make a video hehe.

Till next time, when the cotton isn't pulling me into spin hehe.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

When Sleep is over-rated

I haven't blogged in a long time, and there is really really good reason for this. ............or is there a reason more then being lazy? No, I had to finish High School, get good grades, pass my American Citizens Knowledge Test (which I promptly forgot a lot of things), graduate, and let my brain reform after turning into a pile of goo, which was stored in a bottle on my self. It's back in my head and now I am back and ready to blog.

I have had a lot of new projects, finished objects and lots of new yarn.

I finished my plain STR socks, in colorway.....no idea since I lost the ball band. Maybe that's what I'll call the ones I don't know, NISILTBB!!!! Anyways, they are pretty, comfy and I can't wait for the cold weather again.

I also finished my Urban Aran Cardigan, well the knitting portion. I originally wanted to do the zippered version that Brooklyn Tweed did. However, the sewing machine we have is quite old and set in it's ways. I didn't want to sew in a zipper on a sweater knit in bulky yarn on size 10 needles. So to thwart me it made a tangle and mess, which I promptly swore at and ripped the mess apart, and got everything back in order.

After this I decided to knit a button band, after I already knit the collar with shaping, which Elizabeth Zimmerman would be proud of, (I have been on a EZ fix lately but more of that later). So now all i need is 7, yes that's right 7 buttons.

In Macek Designs news, business is now picking up quite a bit. I have now, count them, 4 distributers of my yarn, my etsy shop , The Knitting Room in San Jose , Wool Girl and finally Green Planet Yarns . Which btw is an amazing store, great people, great yarn, and they rock. I am currently on a waiting list for dying, which is strange cause that rarely happens, only if I'm super busy, lots of orders, or I have a huge one to complete, or a combination of the three.

After watching EZ's DVDs I just had to make something she designed. I knew I wanted a sweater but wasn't sure, so I decided on the Hybrid Sweater knit in Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted on size 8s. So far it's going well and the math is correct, I hope. I have never knit with this yarn before but I like it, and it's strange since normally I don't like single ply yarns.

Spinning wise, my wheel hasn't seen much action but will be, especially with what I'm spinning up for my LYS.

Sorry about the long post, just wanted to catch up whoever reads this, (or it could be the expresso, my guess is that is more likely). And there will be pics following.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Socks, Sock yarn, and cutting hats!

Originally I was going to show pictures of these two pairs of gorgeous socks I'm knitting, but I'm being lazy and not taking pictures of them. I didn't want to pull out all of the equipment I use to take pictures for just 2 pictures. I'll post pictures of them when I have more things to photograph.


I am spinning sock yarn for my etsy store. Not like I don't have enough stuff to do. This is some roving I bought recently at Stitches West, and this was just a test spin. There is a little more color then the picture shows. It's really nice stuff, 384 yards total of 100% wool, in a heavy fingering weight. Available here if you're interested http://www.macekdesigns.etsy.com. I'm hoping to finish up this large dyed order, so I can dye some more sock yarn for the site. *fingers crossed*

I also knitted the Half-Pipe Hat from the book Son of Stitch and Bitch. I knit it with 2 strands of Hill Country Yarns Merino 280 held together. It knit up pretty quickly, but I knit it to the patterns recommended length. Unfortunately, it didn't go far enough over my head. It came to just above my ears, and I was kinda pissed at this thing. So I decided I needed to add some length to this thing. I threaded my darning needle with some contrasting wool, and put in 2 life lines, and cut the hat. Yes you read that right cut the hat. I then picked up the stitches on the bottom portion of the hat, and knit until there was 2.5" of plain stockinette stitch, then kitchenered the top and bottom together. Sounds scary, but after steeking my sweater, nothing is scary. If you want me to show you how to add length to a already finished knit item, let me know.

My wheel is now being worked, I'm finishing up the 4 out of 16 ounces of CMF roving for them. It's really pretty, a dream to spin, and the dye job is just wonderful.

Hopefully I will have pictures of the hat (when I can get up the nerve to take a pic of me with it on), the two socks, and a new sock pattern that I will be working on shortly.

Till next time.