Well, This is Different

For the last, oh, I’d say, 12 years? 13 years?  I’ve been intrigued with tattoos.  At one point, I was trying to compile images of tattoos that had a story behind them.  That got a little sticky.  Some of those tattoos had real BIG stories behind them that I couldn’t deal with.  The last one had to do with infidelity and the all the emotions around that situation.  That’s when I put that little project to sleep.  Maybe I should have spelled out some parameters first, but that didn’t seem to fit with the spirit of the project, which, never yielded one picture!  I think people used me as a priest, or counselor.

On July 6, I decided to make my own story.  With a blog called “Nittin’ Ninja” (yes, I went with the phonetic spelling because the proper spelling was already taken) having a skein and some knitting needles inked on my shoulder was probably no big surprise.  Maybe that I did it would be a surprise to some, but there you are.  I’m also seriously looking into opening a yarn store here in my little town of Colfax, population 1,800.  Why I haven’t gone ahead full bore is because a yarn and accessories shop just wouldn’t make it.  I know.  I’m trying to come up with something else that would fit in the little space I already have picked out that would kinda go with yarn.  I’ve heard coffee, which has received the most thumbs up, and baked goods and sweets, the runners-up.  If it actually gets off the ground still waits to be seen, because my husband is not backing me on this, and he’s the one who has income.  I don’t.  So once I land on a viable business model, I have to find someone(s) to fund me.  Any grant writers out there?  What better way to document this temporary turmoil than to get a permanent tattoo?

If anyone can think of a service or commodity that would dovetail nicely with knitting and crocheting, PLEASE feel free to remark in the comments.  I’m open to anything good.

See you in the funny pages!

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A Little Too Much

Hi, there, dear reader.  Glad you could drop by after my long absence.  It’s been awhile, I know, so let the excuses begin!

The last several weeks I have been caught up in spring.  This season makes me feel light-hearted and yet, ready to take on the world.  Out in the garden everyday, buying flowers, potting soil, and seeds, spring cleaning, clearing out the fountain and raking away the tons of pine needles that threaten to take over my roses, and in general, just being outdoors; enjoying the sun after months of a typical gloomy Californian winter.  Granted, in just a very short while, I will be posting about summer’s relentless, grinding heat and moaning for autumn; however, in the meantime, I will bask in this mindset and weather.

I finally finished the flame stitch bag and gave it a strengthening liner to turn it from a bag to a purse.  I didn’t do the pom-poms because I am really tough on my purses.  They’d need to be taken off after a week!  For the handles, I purchased some at Joann Crafts and Fabrics.  Attaching the handles did turn out to be problematic, but I went with it anyway!

I was supposed to get the $2.99 rings only. $65 later….eeesh!

With the temperatures climbing higher on the thermometer, all the fresh, new growth has attracted deer, especially to the aforementioned roses.  I’ve babied those bushes because they have to be; the pine trees block all but about 5 hours of sun, even on the summer solstice, so I’m always sure to prune them, nourish them, ensure they’re disease-free.  Anyone who has had a serious interest in roses knows how hard this can be.  With the drought conditions we’ve been having, my roses have become a food mainstay for the hungry deer.  To combat this, I’ve been using Must Garden natural deer repellent.  During the winter, it didn’t work so well.  The deer were starving.  So my poor babies were beat up. I didn’t think they would make it this year.  But lo, and behold, they’re blooming.  Not a whole bunch, but it’s a start.

Colors are Malabrigo Ravelry Red and Spun Right Round Newsprint

And now that we’re finished with my easy purse, I’ve moved on to another Malabrigo project.  I know, I know.  I love that yarn and it was on sale.  At least, today’s purchase was on sale….But I digress.  I’ve been working on a pattern for a sweater that I bought on Ravelry, Zweig, and I can’t wait to finish it.  I’m realistically shooting for November, when I’ll need it!  I intend to do some more planned pooling on a new brand of yarn – I will report the results!  I’ve also got some more fan art to do.  Never thought I’d be that kind of a fan at my age!  LOL  Life’s too short not to do the things you want when you can.

See you in the funny pages!

From Rug to Table Runner; OR, I Didn’t Buy Enough Paracord

Sometimes I remember things or objects from my youth that have literally been forgotten for decades.  One of those bits of flotsam and jetsam that recently floated across my consciousness was the rag rug from my childhood we had on our living room floor.  The colors were drab and muted, very utilitarian in nature; however, put on the old wood floor, it really fit.  Around 1975, my mother decided she’d had it with her young daughters cleaning the floor by using Pledge and creating a dangerous, slick surface for her stockinged feet – don’t do it! – and she had the standard gold shag carpet installed.  Goodbye wood, goodbye rug.

Flash forward 41 years, and here I am, wanting to make a rug similar to the one from my childhood.  This transmogrified into wanting to make an outdoor rug for our new deck; a rug that wouldn’t require washing and was durable.  I’d read somewhere that it was possible to use paracord for certain crocheted objects and the said material could be purchased at a craft store.  Without further thought or research, I did just that.

I purchased 120 yards (really?) and a more ergonomically friendly size “N” crochet hook.  With only a vague notion as to how I should proceed, I powered through it.  I’ve done enough crocheting through the years to improvise, even though I’m not a big fan of it.  As you can see, the yardage fell far short of the imagined rug, but at least it made it outside.  It’s sturdy, a bit rough on the hands, but it will last quite a long time out in the elements.  My family was so impressed by this little place mat that now they want me to make a bigger one.

Will I?  Yup.  But later.  My fingers got callouses from this!

120 yards – what was I thinking?

Next time, I’ll be sure to have some lanolin handy!

Heavy duty scissors!

On the outside table.

Finished. Didn’t bother trimming the ends!

 

Back to Square One…Or Is It Stitch One?

So, just when I was really jamming on my Deadhead Baby Blanket – yea, someone wanted this! – I noticed a gaping hole in my fabric about 4 rows down.  Puzzled, I tried to figure out what caused it.  Normally, we’re talking an easy fix to pick up the stitch, because after counting my stitches, I discovered I was short one; but WHERE I lost it remained a mystery.  I was stumped.  As you can see on two of these pictures, I was pretty far along.  And I also included the point that had me guessing.  If you point out where I lost it, please let me know!

I was so frustrated, I just frogged the whole thing, and we’re starting again.  I’ve decided I’m going to do a different texture, a bit more complex.  Like I need that with this!  Either way, it’ll look good when I’m done and again, Wendy better like this…!

What’s on my Needles Today

The socks are finished.  Thank you.  It’s been my experience that socks are not a small, weekend project, contrary to their size.  They take awhile, at least for me; so when I finish them, it’s a bit of a disappointment when they don’t fit they way I would like.  I try to work in a lot of negative ease, and this time, I used KnitPicks Stroll Tweed, which must have been slightly larger than the yarn I used the first time I made Vanilla Latte Socks, so I ended up with slightly larger socks.  Oh, well.  They’re still cool looking and I will be wearing them!

The fit is not as snug as I would like.

Comfy.

Eye of Partridge stitch for the heel flap. Never mind the white leg!

Now that those are finished, I need to concentrate on one of the harder projects I’ve ever started.  I say harder, because it’s not something I would normally knit.  I talked about this on my last post, the Deadhead baby blanket!  I love the girl who requested this like I would my own daughter (my daughter is sitting next to me on the couch right now – thank goodness she doesn’t follow my blog!!) or else I would have passed on it.  I am anxious to be done already and I will be following the advice of a blogger friend, Angela of Avanta Knits, and using intarsia for the color changes.  That means that I will be learning intarsia.  I believe I’ve used the method before, way back when, but it wasn’t called that, it was just block color changing.  Not hard at all (clears throat nervously).

Nice, fluffy, blanket with a simple texture.

And this has to fit on it somehow! LOL

As you can see, I have broken the picture down into stitches, but I wonder if this will be detailed enough?  It’s 6″ x 6″, and I’m using Red Heart Soft worsted weight yarn.  Thinking of putting it dead center.  How I’m going to pull that one off will be a bit of good math and a LOT of luck.  The dimensions and numbers I have used were based on the garter stitch, even though I will be using a stockinette stitch for the logo.  Yikes.  I’m going to keep my fingers crossed on this one!

Wrong, wrong, wrong!

You ever spend way too much time on the wrong project with the wrong yarn at the wrong time of year?  Welcome to the last several weeks of my crafting!  I have been fighting this thing since the beginning.

Several weeks ago I put out an impassioned request for some ideas on how to use the linen stitch.  I rattled off a list of items I didn’t want to make, which included a cowl, but as a proper linen stitch needs to be worked in the round, I was limited.  So what did I do?  I started a cowl.  No big deal.  Except I had to cast on 16 different times because I kept twisting the foundation row.  That is such a rookie mistake, that I should have taken my cue from such an inauspicious start.

I didn’t.

The yarn is Malabrigo that I’ve had tucked away in a bag in my closet for over a year, and I wanted to use it.  I even rescued a snarled skein that had previously kept me from using the yarn at all – that’s how bad I wanted to get this thing started!  As for a pattern, I was loosely basing in on Kristen Kapur’s Chickadee Cowl, but not having too much success.  The yarn combination was just wrong for me.  So now it sits, rewound and back on its shelf in the closet, awaiting a more suitable project.

Doing the Eye of Partridge stitch for the heel and loving it.

In the meantime, I figure it’s never a wrong time to work on socks!

See you in the funny pages.

 

 

The Wonderful Thing about Tiggers…

Yea…this post has nothing to do with A.A. Milne’s wonderful creations…

I’ve been having trouble with my FB page.  It appears that I can’t properly access it, because I’m still in my personal profile.  Is this happening to anyone else?  I am a huge fan of progress and improvements to my digital environment, but I sometimes the changes that are effected feel like they are done just for the sake of change.  I got enough damn change in my life without having to deal with superfluous modifications that don’t actually help!

Ok.  Rant over.  I promise.

I hope everyone had a great Easter.

For myself, my latest and greatest pattern still sits atop my yarn tray, still unfinished. Something that should have been done in 3 days max. My problem? I am sooo not in the mood to crochet! I want to knit!!! And you’re probably thinking, Grow up!  Just knit something or pick up the damned hook and finish this alleged wonderful project so you can knit!  (Umm….I hope you’re not really thinking that.)  I don’t like more than one project going because it starts feeling too chaotic, but in instances like these, my whole creative process gets in a bottle-neck because, again, I refuse to have too many thing going at once.  Oh, well.  It’ll be done, I’ll show it off, and on to the next one!

Do you have any rules about your crafting?