Is this weird?

So I have recently discovered that thinking about knitting actually relaxes. When I started knitting I was tight knitter and had to try very hard to loosen up. I've gotten better about tight knitting, but only because I have to make myself relax when I knit. If I don't I'll never be able to move my yarn on the needles.

The other night I was feeling stressed from the day and couldn't fall asleep. In my head I started knitting. Visualized the needles and some yarn and how I would be knitting it. Since it's ingrained in me to make myself relax while knitting, I fell a sleep shortly after! It's not thinking about what I want to make or what I currently have, it's actually putting the needle into the loop, wrapping the yarn, dropping the stitch off, etc. etc.

Amazing. So now I think about knitting when I need to relax.....Strange huh?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Hope you all have a safe and happy holiday with lots and lots of your favorite foods.

Hooray For Me Dilemma

So, as you may know, I am making these Hooray For Me Gloves. I am absolutely in love with the gloves and the yarn I'm using. I'm not even upset that I mistakenly cast on too many stitches. I just need to remember to do the same thing to the other glove. Here is my current progress....


The problem? I am debating if I should make these full gloves or leave them as the fingerless type. As I said I fell in love with the fingerless type, but now that winter's on its way I really need a pair of gloves. Sure I could go out and buy a cheap $4 pair from Walmart and be perfectly happy, but I'm so close to a pair that fit me well and are very cool looking.

My glove issues are that I have small hands, but long fingers. So there are very few fashion gloves that fit properly. I think it would be awesome to have gloves that actually fit me. I'm just worried that if I make them full gloves that I won't like them as much. But without fingers I can't really use them anywhere but indoors.

What's a girl to do? Comments? Suggestions?

Love/Hate Relationship

So, I had someone ask, why I disliked this yarn:


First, the specs:
Yarn: Jo-Ann Sensations Bellezza Collection - Stellina Yarn
Colorway: Purple (left), Fuchsia (right)
Fiber: 54% wool, 36% acrylic, 10% nylon

Overall, I don't think it's a terrible yarn. It was just annoying enough to me that I don't know if I want to use the rest that I have. The biggest problem was the yarn would bunch up. It did it really badly on the ball I had wound (another Fuchsia skein). I'm guessing it's due to the fact that is slightly wavy and there is a nylon string through it. I constantly had to push the bunched yarn down so that I could knit with it. When I was finished with socks, I just cut below the bunched part to get rid of it. Also, I didn't like how the yarn looked in stockinette, but it did look really good purl-side.

Here's another yarn I dislike knitting with, but like the look of.


Again the Specs:
Yarn: Lion Brand Micro Spun
Colorway: Turquoise
Fiber: 100% microfiber acrylic

This yarn has FANTASTIC color. Absolutely love the color. It also feels amazingly softer, but it's crap to knit with. It splits like crazy. It also looks terrible in garter stitch. I was going to make this 'do rag using garter, but I had to switch to stockinette. I do have to say it looks awesome in stockinette. I plan on adding a crochet edging and some ties at some point.

How about an absolute love relationship?


I love love love this yarn. Specs:
Yarn: Jitterbug
Colorway: Gauguin
Fiber: Superwash Marino

This yarn is beautiful in the hank. I let the nice ladies at the LYS wind it for me, so it doesn't look quite as nice. It's soft and has so many great colors in it. The blue green was what caught my eye, but it just makes me happy that it has all the others too.

What am I making out of it? Hooray For Me Gloves! I love this yarn and pattern together. This is really the first project that I can't wait to see the finished project. The others were gifts and the shawl was, nice, but not the best. These are great. So here are some pictures of what I have so far.

Cold Weather Goodness

It's been a while since I've posted here! I guess life has been pretty boring. I did finish those pesky pedicure socks that have taken me FOREVER, more on those later!

First, this weekend, my husband and I traveled up to Northeast PA to visit his folks. His Grandma is getting married and since we can't go to the wedding (it's on Wednesday and the hubby has no vacation time), we thought we'd meet the future husband and go up over the weekend. The weather was nice and cold and I got to use my brand new wool jacket. Sweet!

Anywho, here are the highlights:

This is our nephew, Thomas, he's the newest member (just over 3 months old) and a cutie...


Here is our niece, Emma, with Thomas. She is 4 and he is about to meltdown....


Here we see my husband try to make a new WoW convert (World of Warcraft for those who don't know someone totally obsessed with the game). She's probably a little young for this particular game, but she has the makings of a computer geek if we have anything to say about it....


As always it's good to see the in-laws. Even though the house is always too hot for me, I just need to learn to bring shorts and T-shirts. Either that, or lose this extra pudge I have and then maybe I'll be cooler.

I took a side trip to see my folks (they live only about an hour from the in-laws), we went to lunch and did a little shopping. I was feeling particularly stressed Saturday morning, so seeing them Sunday helped to calm me down. It's just one of those things. Though seeing them meant I had to have the pedicure socks for my sister finished!

Here they are!









Ok, ok, you got me, it's not they. Unfortunately, I was out of my mind when I added the buttons to indicate which way was up. I was getting ready to take the pictures when I discovered I had sewn one button on the wrong side. So I quick took the picture of one and quickly changed the button, then went off to lunch.

These things have been forever in the making, hopefully, my sis will get some use out of them. My only complaint about the pattern is that I'm not too keen on the heel, but that's easily changed, I just need to find one I like. The yarn on the other hand, sucks. I don't like it. I have some to make these socks for myself, but I don't know if I can make myself do it. Maybe I'll try it with bamboo needles, will that make it better?

Snowboarding

So this year, I want to go snowboarding. I didn't end up going at all last year. Only problem is, that I really suck at it. That and I don't have a snowboard. I have boots and pants and jacket and gloves, but no board. So, kind of difficult to snowboard, without a snowboard.

I've done a little research online about snowboards. I'm still not sure what to get.

Only problem with snowboarding is that pretty much everyone I know is already expert at their sport (snowboarding or skiing). Which kind of sucks because then I have to practice on my own. I also learn pretty slowly so it might take a while to get used to it.

Someone suggested this board....


It's a little pricey but boy is it pretty. It's a woman's board, but not girlie like most I've seen. Me likey. The person I spoke with suggested a couple. So we'll see how things go.

Cute as a....lion?

Tell me that this isn't one of the cutest things you've ever seen?! The little lion there is Lucas and the lady to his left is his mom, Yedda. I hope that some day, when I have kids, I can make things that look as awesome as that (referring to the costume, but the kid's adorable too). Yes, "make", she made him the outfit! And did all the typical mommy stuff. Definitely a cool mom.