"The Knitting Way"

I have lovely friends who know me all to well and know that if they give me yarn, books (or gift certificate to buy books) or art supplies I will be a happy girl! So I was given two lovely gifts of certificates to the bookstore...yesterday I purchased two new knitting books. One was "Scarf Style" which contains patterns for the MOST gorgeous scarves and I can see myself creating more then half of the projects.

The second book I purchased was "The Knitting Way" by Linda Skolnik (founder of Patternworks) & Janice MacDaniels. I was looking actually for "Mindful Knitting" ... I am interested in learning how to connect my internal self with my passions (knitting and art) in a meaningful way to grow as a person. The store didn't have "Mindful Knitting" so I almost put "The Knitting Way" back. I AM SO GLAD THAT I DIDN'T! This book is fantastic.

The writers are knitters, business woman and philosophers. This book is not what I expected. I am only into chapter 2 and it is one of the deepest books I have experienced. Yes there is knitting and patterns but it so much more then that...its difficult to explain. I am already finding myself thinking and examining the ideas and questions that I have read so far while I am knitting. Already I am purposely slowing my knitting down so that I can think about it, feel it and feel myself. Seems like a no brainer but if it was then what wasn't I doing it to begin with. This book is about connectedness, with oneself and others. Even if you knit this book can be used to help someone examine what they are doing as well as how and why.

I will keep reading it and post more about it. I am so amazed t hat it has hit me this way. I am an avid reader (thank you Mom for giving me a love of books) and I haven't come across a book such as this in a long long time. Thank you to the author's, I needed this.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

Projects Galore 1

Now that the gifts are out and everyone loves them (yeah!) I can now share pictures of all the things I made for the holidays. Many of the things I made I created my own pattern for or doctored a pattern from a book or obnline to make it my own.

As for the sock I made, I thought I was making my own pattern from scratch because I took things that I like from about 6 different types and put them together to create a pattern that would be simple for me to adjust for different size....HOWEVER....since make my second sock I purchase Ms. Harlot's "Knitting Rules" book and just about a week ago read the section on socks and realized that her "sock recipe" is almost exactly my "original" sock pattern. So I don't know if I should be sad because I really didn't make it up or glad that I was able to come up with a pattern all on my own that someone like the Harlot came up with.....I am decided on the later because it makes me feel good about self! hahaha!

I have realized that writting up a pattern so that it makes sense to others from my notes that I have made for myself is not as easy as I thought it would be....so I must offer an apology to all the designers out there that I have cursed out when I tried to follow a pattern and I was lost...thats what I get for sending out bad karma it came back and bit in the butt! LOL! I will be working on my patterns to write them and share here as soon as I can...in the mean time here are some pics of my projects!

Jeff's socks: These are my first ever socks...and yes the foot does sort of look a little odd...umm but well my bother-in-law has rather large feet (sorry Jeff people are going to ask)...the foot is 12" long. I am pretty proud of my first ever socks considering how big they had to be and that they were all in one color. The yarn I used was foudn in my stash...the yarn was meant for machine knitting but it was the right weight for socks...also they yarn is super soft when you feel it you would not think that its acrylic.

Deli's socks: These are my second pair. I used Wildfoot, which is lovely to work with. It is soft in your hands and knits really well. The pictures do not do the colors justice (Rhapsody). They are more jewel tone and vivd then the pictures show. I loved the way these looked and felt I almost kept them....fortunately she was with me when I purchased the yarn and had said at the time "Oh I would love to have socks made with that." sigh...had to send them to her. (joking little sister). These were fun and a challenge (in a good way) to make because of the color changes.

Ok for today this is what I will post because trying to incorporate pictures into a post is extremely difficult and annoying that I get stressed out. I wish I understood why its such a difficult thing. I am pretty tech savy and I just don't understand why this system does things in such a complicated manner when it doesn't need to be complicated. For some reason each and every time you insert a picture the new picture scrambles up the setup of everything in the post and you have to spend a lot of time re-aligning text and pictures from scratch. It also never inserts the picture at the point where you place your cursor, it puts at the very top of all the text and then creates spaces through the text in places were there were spaces before. Then when you finally think you have everything aligned and looking nice, you click preview and its still in disarray and you don't know why because everything you type in the posting window looks different from what you get in preview....then when you think preview looks right, you post it and it looks completely different from the preview. Very frustrating!!!! If anyone knows how to do this in an easier manner I would appreciate the help (please don't talk to me about html or xml code that gets me more frustrated). Ok I will stop bitching now! lol

by for now

Vikkie

Techie Knitting Tools

I was having problems last night getting the turning of a heel that I am making up on my own (sort of....will explain this at a later time), so I did several Google searches (don't ya just love Google????). I did searches for: free sock pattern generator and free knitting software. Though I found some free things for sock pattern generators but not much under free software (of course). If you simply do a search for sock pattern generators you come up a list of websites. Now the software I found was not really free (except for Demo versions or somje small organizing type tools) but they seem to be decent and affordable.


Oh...my guy has a blog now...so hereis a shameless plug for him here: "RenoGeek.com Blog"

Freedom to Knit!

Yippy! Last final completed on Monday afternoon. This has been one of the hardest semesters I have ever had. My Euclidean-NonEuclidean Geometry final ended up being 16 pages when completed and I was not able to do the final (and 7th) problem. Yes only 7 problems and it was 16 pages. Geez o' Petes!

Well one week left and all of my mail away knitted gifts are completed and sent. All the stay in the area knitted gifts are made with the exception of a couple of things for my honey. I THINK I will be able to get them done....shall see. I am so burned out from school that my mental energy is sapped.

I have until 22 January off....I have plans to do the following:
1. Learn to Dye yarn (everything I need is ready to go)
2. Try felting for the first time (patterns picked out and the yarn as well)
3. Organize and....gulp...donate yarn that I KNOW I will never use....sigh but that means that the stash will be lots smaller....but I KNOW it will be a good and right thing to do.
4. Organize my studio area in the office and try to do some drawing. My creative area in this area is a bit stunted and has been for some time. But I need it BAD! Really Bad! I miss my artwork but have not been able to do it for several reasons. Internal difficulties being at the top of the list. It is a part of me that keeps me sane and healthy but.....ahhh to complicated to explain.

Anyway need to eat and need to knit!

Knitter's Without Borders

One more weekend and I will be on break for a little bit. Thank goodness I am fried. On Wednesday I worked 12 hrs (without a break) on a single Math problem (yes the truth!)...I was about to scream...and can you believe it I was NOT able to get the problem done. For pity sake. Well after Monday I will be done for a few weeks....whew! This time next year it will all be worth it and the prize will be within my reach!. Yippy skippy...HOORAY!

Well complaining is not the point of this post...I wanted to direct attention to the Harlot's "Knitter's without borders challenge" . She is issuing a challenge to knitters to unite and reach out to those around the world who are in need. A knitter can donate the cost of just one skein of yarn that could go to helping someone who needs a meal. Please check it out...there are lives that can be saved with just a little bit of help from us.

Conspiracy!

I truely believe that school and work (definately a four letter word and not a nice one!) are conspiracies to keep me from "playing yarn" and from doing art work! I cannot wait until winter break, I am burned out. Definately the hardest semester I have had thus far. What in the world was I thinking majoring in math? (Well I was thinking that I will always be able to get a job, no matter what, which is the truth) I must have been out of my ever loving mind (which is usual but still).

Oh...I was looking for infor on Knitting type stuff and came up with a Knitter's Review from January 2006 that reviewed some new tools and yarn for the year. Nice site that gives decent information on the world of knitting, imho anyway. They have a nice article called "Tips and Tricks: Magic Ball Knitting" which gives advice on how to use up left over yarn in a way that allows you to get enough yarn for a new project with a nice affect.

I also wanted to share a "sock calculator" that I found that can help with making up your own pattern or adjust a patter to fit the yarn you want to use and the needles you want to use. Which I think is really fantastic because I like to find ways to do things my own way. LOL The calculator will give you a sock pattern for a shaped sock (contours for ankles and insteps, etc.) which for me is to fussy but I like it because it will give me a CO count for the size needles I want to use and the yarn weight I have. I like the simple sock pattern that I came up with better then something that has so many shaping reductions and increases. Too many places to mess up lol. Once I am on summer break I will post the patterns that I have come up with (doctored or original) to share. I will also post pictures of all of the things I have made for Christmas (do not want to post now because it will spoil the surprise).

Anyway have to go and do some knitting, while the honey man is out doing his own thing. LOL trying to make him a couple of things but hard to do with him around.

Yarn Addict Groups

Hi all,
It has been a weekend of yarn addict meeting. On Friday we had a little get together at Florrie's (Deluxe Yarns, in Reno). On Sunday we had a knitting class meet at the Spanish Springs Library....which due to the newspaper article was packed.....we had ALOT of new people show up. Today was the bi-monthyl addict's meet-up...hehehe...which was alot of fun. We had a pot luck and everyone brought some really yummy goodies! Met lovely new people and saw one of the most gorgeous pieces of knitting that I have ever seen. A new member brought in a gift she is making her mother that is ....well simply put... a work of art. The skill and work that has gone into her lace shawl is nothing less then awe inspiring.....I wish I had taken a picture of it. Anyway I am using any free time I have to knit for Christmas so I am back at it.
Bye for now
Vikkie