Resolution time

I've have one resolution for 2011: knit for myself.

Except for the socks I made for myself in November, I have absolutely no knitted garments for myself. Darling daughter, on the other hand, has an extensive knitted garment collection. I finished her latest sweater, a baby surprise jacket, an hour before the new year arrived.

I've found knitting for yourself is harder than knitting for others. For whatever reason, I'm not all that anxious to knit. I think it has to do with the fact that my choices are overwhelming. Should I start on the sweater that I've been dying to start? Or should I wait in case I lose more weight? Last night I decided on socks. Hand knitted socks feel divine on my feet. I've been craving to make myself another pair.

As well as the socks, I've got a pair of slippers on my needles and a shawl. I may start on a sweater. I may find that I'm more inspired when I buy more yarn.

How to score free books (and get them delivered to your door)

I've been meaning to blog about how I scored free knitting books. Free in every sense of the word.

I've been on a knitting book buying spree for the last month. While I have established a firm rule for myself that I don't buy books, knitting books have become the exception as they are classed as reference material.

So after using a gift card given to me buy a friend and supplementing my order with own money to buy books earlier this month, I came to the conclusion I could score free books if I wanted to.

However, free isn't exactly free. You've got to have an Air Miles Card to do this. So if you have sold your soul, so to speak, and tell retailers what you buy through the use of points cards you can reap the benefits. I cashed in some of my points and got a Chapter's gift card delivered to my door. Since it seems cheaper to buy books online from Chapter's, I disposed my gift card into my online account, selected the books I wanted to buy and took advantage of Chapter's cheap shipping rates (free shipping on orders $25 or more). Voila, I've got two Vogue Knitting books that I have been coveting for the last month.

So if you find yourself lacking in the book department this holiday season or if Santa has failed to deliver, you too can score free books.

An update

I've been neglecting my blog. It is gathering dust. To my blog, my sincerest apologies. But I have been busy. Very busy, so I thought I'd write a short update.

House: The reason I've been so busy is that working on my house. More specifically, I'm trying to get it ready for sale. The last couple of weeks have involved major decluttering, finding contractors to do some minor work, working with a realtor, and getting advice from a stager. Although we started looking for a new house, we've put that task off until we get this house ready for sale. Who knew it would be so much work?

Work: I've got a freelance writing job (maybe). It has been more than a year since I've written professionally, so I've been working hard when it comes to dotting the i's and crossing the t's.

Knitting: I'm a knitting machine. I'm taking my knitting everywhere, including on the road. Last weekend I was in knitting heaven: a total of two knitting meetups. I've got projects I need to get done before I start 2011, the year of selfish projects.

Running: Still running. But inside. My friend and coach, C, refuses to run in the summer because of heat. I've decided to refuse to run outside in the winter due to cold. I'm a chicken. I don't wanna. So I won't. Even though the treadmill is boring as old heck, it has become a good friend.

Christmas: I'm out of the loop this year when it comes to Christmas. Since we've been busy with the house, I just don't have the inclination to get in the Christmas spirit. I want to move my couch out before I put up the Christmas tree. It remains to be seen if that happens in the very near future.

Knitting overdrive, part two

A month ago, I wrote a post about how I was in full knitting overdrive. As such, I have made a dent in my queue, only to replace finished projects with new projects.

The sweater I was test knitting is basically done. At this point I have to sew on the buttons and block it. Darling daughter's playground sweater is also complete. I didn't bother blocking it (but I will) and she has already wore it once. The market bag is done. The socks, featured above, are on the homestretch. I have successfully turned the heel and now I'm heading towards the toes. Yipee.

When I get busy like this, I have no qualms in taking my knitting with me to my Friday morning playgroup. While darling daughter goes from station to station, I trail behind with my knitting, trying to complete a couple of rows as sometimes every row counts. The kids look at my strangely as I try to balance a ball or two of yarn while walking and knitting, but a knitter gotta do what a knitter has to do, and that is knit.

So my queue, to date, is:

* Finish a cupcake hat for a friend. It has to be done tomorrow.
* Make darling daughter a helmet hat. Yes, you heard correctly, a helmet hat. It is for her snowsuit.
* Make darling daughter a pair of socks for Christmas.
* Make a friend's daughter a hat.
* Make a friend a hat
* And likely try to make the French press felted slippers before December. I need to keep my toes toasty warm this winter during playgroups.
* Squeeze in some dishcloth knitting. You can't have enough dishcloths.

Obviously, it remains to be seen if this list gets completed. I'm hoping for the best, but expecting my queue to get longer.

Knitting overdrive

I'm in knitting overdrive and I better get going because despite the fact I've got one project done, I've got several more in the queue.

First off, I've been making these hats (pictured above) since the end of August. I sold several to raise funds for the CIBC Run for the Cure. Selling these hats, along with a bake sale and a garage sale, I managed to raise $270 for the run. I'm very proud of this achievement as I didn't ask friends or family members for a cent, not even dear husband. Times are tough. Besides, it was a bit of a personal challenge for me to see if I could raise the minimum $150 goal through other fundraising initiatives.

I call these my ugly pretty hats because although I do like them, there is a just a hint of tackiness to them. According to my husband, the term “ugly pretty” is a compliment in his seaside hometown, so that’s what I’ve decided to call them. (Ugly pretty shouldn’t be confused with pretty ugly because pretty ugly is certainly not a compliment by any means).

So when I thought I was finished my last ugly pretty hat, I got an order on Saturday to make three pumpkin hats by the end of this week. I am pleased to say the hats are done, but my work isn't done.

So here is in my queue:

* Socks for me. I signed up for a selfish stash-a-long. The premise is to make something for yourself out of your stash. I'm making socks. The last time I made socks was when I was in high school. I made them out of purple acyclic yarn and they were way too big (for the simple fact you don't make socks out of worsted acyclic yarn unless they are Christmas socks). Plus, I don't think I've ever knitted a garment for myself. Lucky for me, deadline is November 30, so I do have time.

* Test knitting a sweater. It is super cute, but it is a very cable-y sweater. I have yet to cast on, but I will soon. Just have to finish printing off the cable charts. I tried doing that last week, but the printer ran out of ink.

* Knitting a market bag for part of a prize pack for my online moms group. It's started, but not done. Now I just have to find where I stashed it. . .

* Darling daughter's preschool shirt. I had initially wanted to make her a back-to-school shirt to mark her first day for preschool. However, I learned at orientation that the kids do a lot of painting and it isn't advisable to send them in nice clothes. It will become her playgroup shirt. I'm halfway done, but I haven't touched it in over a week.

* Hats and mittens for darling daughter. I want to make matching hat and mittens to go with her new fall coat. It shouldn't take long, but I need to find the time.

So as you can see, I'm busy knitting up a storm these days. It has been pretty busy. I hope to finish most of these projects by the end of October. But we shall see as my queue always has a way of growing, not shrinking.

There is a reason why toddlers shouldn't wear white

Darling daughter was wearing this exact outfit when it happened: the soft cotton halter top lovingly hand knitted by me and white tights. It took two weeks for me to finish that halter top. After I was done I wanted to complete my vision of what the outfit must look like with white tights. After searching one day and coming up with nothing, I went back to searching the following day. That search party took me across the city and into an east end mall where I luckily spotted the last pair of white tights at a Children's Place store. And the clothing gods had blessed me as they were a size 24 months. Sweet!

Yesterday, we visited my grandmother. My grandmother taught me how to knit when I was nine. As my grandmother and a fellow knitter, I knew she'd appreciate my work. Darling daughter looked so cute in it. But a couple of hours later, I saw a dark spot on the bottom of her tights. I had my fingers crossed that it was black piece of fluff, but I knew my luck had likely come to the end of the road in the toddlers-wearing-white department.

I won't get into the gross details, but lets just say I had to deal with a blueberry poop explosion. I wasn't impressed that day of all days when she is wearing white tights that she'd just let it go. I swear that my kid and stains attract each other. Doesn't matter what she is wearing, what she is doing or where she is, in all likelihood she'll stain her clothes. I should start buying shares in OxyClean.

Determined to keep the tights white and stain-free, I quickly went to work with the materials on hand. Soap did nothing, so I was forced to get out a bit of bleach. Once we got home, I sprayed them (well, more like doused them) with OxyClean. Right now, I'm hoping for the best.

The moral of the story is that no matter how hard you try or hope, white tights will likely not stay white for long.

The Grrlfriend Market Bag: a great way to lift spirits of others as well as your own

My love affair with cotton yarn continues as I've been busy knitting up a storm with the stuff. In the last week, I've finished three waffle dishcloths and two Grrlfriend Market Bags. If you aren't familiar with the Grrlfriend Market Bag, I suggest you check it out on Ravelry if you are a member. The bag is knitted in one piece, starting with the square bottom (I even got the hang of magic looping the bottom) and then the lace body. It is really quite simple and easy to make.

The bag is designed by Laura Spradlin of Sugar Bunny Boulevard and there is a lovely story behind the creation of the bag. Six months before designing this pattern, Laura became the recipient of a sweater, given to her by a friend. The sweater belonged to the friend's ex-husband. She hoped Laura could recycle the sweater into something else.

Laura inspiration for the bag's design came from a random act of knitting challenge issued by a blogger, asking her readers to knit something for another person who needed a lift in their life. She soon remembered she had the sweater in her possession. Soon the yarn was unraveled, dyed and the bag was created. It was soon presented in its new form to her Laura's friend who gave her the sweater. In her pattern, Laura writes about the bag, "We help to lighten each other's load. We strive to share the burdens of life and aid in the purging whatever might be weighing each other down by replacing it with something that lifts us up."

In total, the sweater made three bags. Laura has been kind enough to share this bag with the world by making the pattern free. All she asks that bags made from this pattern never be sold for profit or as part of a kit.

I'll be making more of these bags, in hot pink. (Details on my hot pink knitting projects will be discussed in a future post). I love these bags. This bag is specifically for darling daughter's sand toys. I could have made it in brown, but I love the colour of this green variegated yarn. It reminds me of my early childhood. It reminds me of the green roof of my grandparent's log house, the green work uniforms my grandfather religiously wore, the green cushions at my grandparent's summer trailer, their green shag carpet (hey, it was the 70s) and the green leafy trees that once shaded my childhood home.

Happy knitting! I hope you enjoy this wonderful market bag pattern as much as I do and that you are able not only to lift the spirits of a friend, but your own through the knitting of one of these bags.

Mindless (but functional) knitting

This week has been kind of hellish. But thankfully, it is over. Throughout it all, I've tried to keep my hands busy with knitting. I feel good when I keep my hands busy. I'm now to the point that if I don't have a big knitting project going on, I almost feel a bit lost. But this week I needed a break from any heavy duty knitting projects. I needed something light and easy because that's all my brain can handle this week.

Since it is now watermelon season and darling daughter loves watermelon, I'm running out of bibs. I can't keep enough clean. This bib pattern is super easy. I got it from a mom acquaintance, who got the pattern from a 365 day knitting calendar she was given as a gift. I've made darling daughter several bibs from this pattern. Like I said, it is super easy pattern. It is so easy that I can remember it from memory. Plus, it is easy on the brain.

In less than a week, I've made three bibs and a dishcloth. Super easy. My kind of summertime knitting.

The magic of magic looping

This post is for all the knitters out there who hate using and fiddling with double pointed needles. If you haven't already ditched those darn needles for magic looping, you should. My friend K got me onto magic looping. She had mentioned it to me and her tip came in quite handy when I was making a sweater. For whatever reason, I couldn't get the sleeves right with the double pointed needles I was working with. It looked like there was a run down each side of the sleeve. After a quick magic loop tutorial on knittinghelp.com, I got those sleeves done. And I was hooked.

Basically when it comes to magic looping you are knitting small diameter knitting projects on a long cable needle. When you get the hang of it, the technique is is quite ingenious as well as simple. It looks a bit complicated at first, but once you get the hang of it, it is quite addictive. I've magic looped two longie legs at the same time. I've magic looped sleeves. I've magic looped the legs, arms and body of a sock monkey. Right now, I'm magic looping a small baby hat. It is much easier than using double pointed needles. The other day I had to add more length onto a sweater. Instead of using the cable needles I used to knit the body of the sweater, I had my long cable needles handy (same size as the smaller needles I had used) and started magic looping.

Although I still occasionally have to use double pointed needles, my dpn usage has been cut down significantly directly because of magic looping. My new knitting motto is when in doubt, magic loop. You can never go wrong when you magic loop.

Reviving my Swiffer mop

Since purchasing my Dyson, which sucks up everything, including toddler socks, my poor Swiffer has been relegated to the back of the broom closet. Why buy Swiffer cloths when I can simply plug in my Dyson and vacuum the dust bunnies to my heart's content?

Last week I was browsing through the blogs I follow. One blogger mentioned she had knitted Swiffer cloths. Swiffer cloths?!? You can knit them?!? Holy crap! Why didn't I think of that? I immediately logged into Ravelry and voila! Swiffer cloth and dry dust mop cover cover patterns suddenly popped onto my screen. And best yet, most were free patterns.

One of the reasons I wasn't using my Swiffer was because I had run out of disposable cloths to use. Although the cloths are great, I hate using them because they end up in the garbage. Why spend money on something you are going to throw out anyway? Since I've got a bin filled with cotton yarn (so addicted to the colours) I found a ball and quickly knitted this pattern. I made this cover in less than a day. It is super easy and it would be a great pattern for those who are learning to knit. The only thing I would change is making the pockets a bit deeper by half an inch. Also, they work perfectly. Once you are done, then can be thrown into the laundry to be washed. So, hello Swiffer mop and goodbye to Swiffer cloths.

Falling in love with Ravelry

This week I finally updated my Ravelry account. Ravelry is a free online resource site and database for knitters and crocheters. I've been a member of Ravelry since February 2009. But until this week, I wasn't a big fan. While my friend and fellow knitter, K, speaks highly of the site, for whatever reason, I couldn't be bothered.

A couple of weeks ago, I spent hours sorting through my yarn and needle stash, trying to organize yarn, needles and patterns. In the last year, I've taken photos of most of my completed knitting patterns and posted them on Facebook. But Ravelry is the perfect place to showcase your finished projects. Not only are you showing off your wonderful creations, you are also adding them to the database, which provides valuable insight for fellow knitters about patterns and the workability of yarn. By adding your projects to the database, I think you are also adding to the general creativeness of not only the site, but for fellow knitters. I may see one pattern one way, but another knitter may see it in a different way. It is very cool to see the varying results of your favourite hat pattern. Looking at completed projects and patterns have inspired me to knit more.

Over the last two days, I've updated my projects. I've added hats and sweaters I've knitted in recently months. It is a good way to keep track of what needles I've used as well as materials.

Not that I basically broken my Facebook addiction and live in a Facebook bubble (no news feed at all since I've blocked my friend's status updates) I have the time to devote to Ravelry. While one may argue I'm replacing one addiction with another, I'm inspired by Ravelry to become a better knitter. So for those who are Ravelry, happy knitting. And those who aren't, consider becoming a member. It's free. You'll become inspired, if not a bit addicted. I promise. You can find me under the handle yarnitmomma.

The hats featured in the photo are hats I designed and knitted for a friend's twin girls.

After five months of dragging my feet, it is finally done!

I am finally done darling daughter's hoodie. It is blocked, dried and ready to go.

The making of this hoodie has been a production in itself. I first bought the yarn in mid-October. I dragged my feet in getting the yarn out of my stash (to be fair to myself, I was busy with other knitting projects), promised myself that after Christmas I'd get on it and it was about the first of March when I started it. It took about two weeks of constant knitting to get it done. However, I dragged my feet again for another two weeks when it came to grafting the hood together. I dislike kitchener stitch. I dislike it a lot. But one day last week after darling daughter had gone to bed, I sat down at the table with a table lamp beside me to give me some extra light and I went to work. Knowing I needed complete silence, I encouraged dear husband to go to the gym. Although it took several attempts involving me ripping out stitches and repeating knit purl - purl knit in my head over and over again, I finally got it done. But it took an hour and a half for me to complete this task. I finished the trim on Saturday and weaved in the ends.

So I can finally say that it is done. Not too sure how long darling daughter will be in it before she grows out of it. But hopefully it will last her for the spring and into the fall.

An eureka moment

Sometimes you can't see the forest from the trees.

For a week now, I've been cursing, moaning and whining to myself as I try to figure out a knitting pattern. I'm knitting a hat for a friend and for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to shape the top of the hat. I searched Ravelry for answers. There are more than 100 people who have knitted the hat that I'm knitting, all of whom say it is an easy hat pattern. If it was so easy, I thought as I was doing my research, then why the heck can't I figure it out? Until today, I was almost going to give up, accuse the pattern designer and those who knitted said pattern of a massive conspiracy and come up with my own shaping design.

I even called a friend, a fellow knitter, for insight. It is kind of hard to discuss knitting problems over the phone when you both haven't knitted the same pattern. So today, while I had some friends over and I was about to discuss my problem with my knitting friend, I stared at the pattern once more and the answer suddenly came to me. There was nothing wrong with the pattern. I just hadn't clued in what the pattern was telling me.

Boy, do I ever feel dumb. The answer was right there. I just was fixated on something that wasn't even an issue. Now the hat is on its way to be completed before winter. Sometimes I guess you just can't see the forest from the trees, even though the forest is staring right at you.

Reading or knitting: what is a girl to do?

I like to knit. I like to read. But I can't do both. And this is the conundrum I face at the present moment.

Lately, I've been reading a lot of books. My latest passion is Philippa Gregory's Tudor series. After reading The Other Boleyn Girl, I delved right into The Constant Princess. I've got The Boleyn Inheritance waiting for me when I'm done reading the saga surrounding Queen Katherine's life. Thank God for the Ottawa Public Library. I would go broke trying to satisfy my reading habit. Often, I'll read upstairs after darling daughter has gone to bed, turning page after page for a couple of hours, hoping to read one last chapter before retiring to bed for the night.

But now, I'm feeling the urge to knit. The days are getting shorter and cooler. Also, some half decent shows are appearing on television. And this morning I made the mistake of browsing patterns on Ravelry. I found several patterns that I absolutely love. Plus, I've got caught up on my knitting, so I'd love to make something cute for darling daughter. I love making hats for her. The only problem is she won't keep them on her head. I'm sure she'll keep a sweater on if I make her one.

But I love to read. And I love to knit. But it is impossible to do both. And I'm not too sure what I should do. I've got a stack of books beside by bed, waiting for me to open them. I also have a pile of cotton yarn that I can use to create much needed bibs for darling daughter. And when I think about it, if this is my biggest decision in my life right now then life is pretty good right now.