From Rain to Hope

Most people would find it odd that I’ve lived here in Charleston since May and don’t actually know anyone.   In fact, other than to say hi to a neighbor or two (of whom I have no idea what their names are) or speaking to the doctors or the dentist, I have said nothing more to anyone than whatever pleasantries you’d say to a stranger in passing.  How is that possible?  Well, to me it’s easy.  Since I work at home I don’t have much opportunity to interact with people and I actually like my peaceful alone time.   Not to mention I’m always weird around people so I tend not to be very social.  I’ve been thinking for a while now I should try to get to know people more and try to interact at least a little.  So in that spirit, I attended my first ever “Sit and Knit” last night.  Loops had to all but push me out the door to get me to actually go, but I went.  It was held at the new yarn shop in Summerville, the Village Knittery.  She has just opened this month.  I’d already been into the shop once before.   That’s how I knew about the “Sit and Knit” she was planning to have for Third Thursdays (which, from what I gather, is a downtown Summerville thing held once a month to promote the refurb of the area by having shops open late and special events and such).  Anyway, I enjoyed my first visit so much and thought Emily, the owner, was so nice.  In fact, the thought of her not having a super turnout for her first event was what finally got me out the door and on my way to Summerville.  I arrived a little after 5pm.  I was aiming for 4:45pm, but I took a wrong turn and got lost.  That’s what I get for going a new way and not at least jotting down directions.   The place was already filling up with knitters by the time I got there and kept a pretty steady flow of people coming in and out the whole time.  It turns out I had a really good time and met lots of nice people.  I’m actually looking forward to going back next month.  Sadly, I didn’t get any pictures to share of the event.  To make up for that, I did get a cute shot of Moxie this morning.

Moxie Sitting Pretty

In other knitting news, I finally got the yarn Moxie tangled all sorted out and finished my arm warmers:

Toast, complete and toasty warm

Pattern: Toast by Leslie Friend

Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Summer Sock

Needles: US 8

More details… here (ravelry link)

Sorry there were no modeled shots, but it’s not easy to take a good picture of your own arms.

One last picture, to make my mother jealous:

Yummy Trinidads!

Since I started knitting small diameter in the round (I have yet to knit anything large, ie a sweater, in the round.), I have had a few problems.  I started with a sock using 5 DPNs (that’s double pointed needles to my non-knitting readers).  It was going fine with that method except all those needles were annoying and no matter what I did, I still had ladders, or spaces, in my knitting where one needle ended and the next began.  I knew I’d have to learn some way to fix this or I’d never be able to make  sleeve for a sweater without having to make it flat and seam it.

Recently I tried another method for circular knitting.  It’s where you use two sets of circular needles, which are two knitting needles connected together by a thin cord.  I did ok with this method.  I think I would’ve even liked this method had it not been for my cheap needles which had cords which were way to stiff.  Here is a progress shot of my knitting by this method.

Toast on 2 circular needles

The pattern is Toast.  It’s a great, simple project and I love my first arm warmer.  Since I’ve only finished the one, I’ve just been wearing it around the house, rocking it Michael Jackson style.

Since I was unable to fix my ladder problem with this method.  I decided to knit the second using yet another style of circular knitting.  It’s called Magic Loop and you use one set of circular needles that have a longer cord.  It’s easy to do, but not as easy to explain.  So far, so good.  I think I’ve finally fixed the ladder problem and I should be finished with my second arm warmer in no time.

I’m not 100% happy though.  Today I came to a realization.  I’m doing all these methods wrong.

Does this look funny to you?

This is the inside of my arm warmer.  In the other picture I flipped my knitting right side out before taking the picture.  This picture is what it looks like while I’m knitting.  I find out today that when most people knit in the round it is NOT inside out.  All this time I just assumed inside out was how things went and when complete you just turned them right side out.   I pretty much figured out how to fix it and even did a round of this right side out, but I found the cord was all in my way and I messed up because of it so I just went back to my old way.  It works.  I suppose I should learn to do it correctly though just in case inside out will not work for something.  I suppose it serves me right for insisting on learning how to do everything myself.  Loops always tells me to ask people questions and have them show me stuff, but I always prefer to figure it out in my own way.

One more thing before I go.  I have a Print Store on deviantArt where all my photographs are for sale.  I haven’t actually sold any, but I buy small versions of everything and since my kitties are so cute, I had to buy magnets of a picture of each of them.  I finally received them earlier this week and they’re up on the fridge.

Awww! Cute Kitties!

Too Cute!!!

My chevron scarf is now complete.  I finished it last night before bedtime and took pictures today.

Chevron Scarf Complete! YAY!!!

Pattern: Chevron Scarf by Domesticat

Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sport in Natural and Maple Grove

Needles: US 5

More details… here (ravelry link)

Obligatory Scarf Roll

It was fun to knit, especially when I stopped doing the p2tog tbl.  I messed up with not paying attention to the pattern though.  While I was doing the  p2tog tbl, I was doing it at both the start and finish of the WS rows and even worse I was doing the double decrease wrong and it is obvious, but not bad enough that I would redo the first third of the scarf that I messed up.  I’m still happy with it though and so are the Lambies.

The Lambies Cuddle Up

So I’ve been hoping to get a lot of stuff done lately, but have utterly failed.  What’s keeping me from progress?  Believe it or not… heartburn.  OMG!  It’s been so bad lately.  I practically have to sit up all the way to even sleep and I still get woken up around 4 or 5am.  It seems it eases back to bearable in just enough time for me to eat a meal and then it’s back again.   Hopefully it will get better soon.

Enough complaining though.  In good news, I should complete my Chevron Scarf soon.  It’s already long enough, but I want it to be extra long so I’m still knitting on it.  I’ll post photos and more details when I’m finished.

As for the Drop-Stitch Lace Tank…

Lack of Progress

It’s just sitting there, only 5 or 10 rows longer than when I first introduced it in the last blog.  After I finish my scarf, I’ll jump back in on it though.  If you’re wondering about my scribbles on the notepad, I have to write every detail down or I will not remember what I did.  It’s sad how easily I forget.  Why in crayon?  I just couldn’t find a pen or pencil on the 3rd floor and wasn’t going to walk all the way down to the 1st floor to get one.