I Finished Adam's Scarf

It is a really simple scarf, but I don't have real knitting skillz
yet and I took forever to finish it. I have posted about it previously here and here, and now it's done! (Besides the blocking.) Hallelujah. It is nice to finish something.

I will however, miss that yarn. (Urban Gypz). I love knitting and crocheting with pretty much any yarn, because it is fun to be creative with color combos and textures and the like, HOWEVER, it is extra special nice to knit a handspun yarn. Working with it is an interaction with something that is already art.

It's an adventure seeing how the colors arrange themselves. I'm waiting to see my friend Adam next weekend before I post pics of the whole scarf, but I am posting a few little macro shots of it. I could sit and stare at all the bits of this scarf for hours with it's diferent little worlds of colors, even though I'm not on psychedelics. If I was on psychedelics, I would definately want a scarf like this. Maybe I should make another one and send it to Terrence McKenna.

Immediately upon finishing I ordered 3 more hanspun yarns from Etsy: one from That Spinning Place, one from Luxe, and another from Mary Jane's Attic's contribution to Wonderland Retreat, which is an etsy shop to raise money for hospital bills incurred during the medical emergency of a fellow crafter, Allison Gordon. That shop is full of great stuff.

I don't know when I'll get the time to make something from my new yarns, since I have several projects right now that have turned into sagas. And I really want to buy MORE. I think Meshell is a bad influence.

IMAGI-KNIT

My friend Susanna and I had a great ol time perusing Imagiknit a couple of weeks ago. In fact, our heads nearly exploded. These pictures may give you somewhat of a clue as to why, but they don't tell the whole story.

Not only do they have bazillions of lovely yarns, they also have racks of knitted items on hand with notes as to what size needles they were knitted on, etc. to inspire you even further. (AND a ton of cool books and magazines!!!)

It's too much, if you already have way more ideas than you'll ever have time for to begin with, but it's too much in a way that feels REALLY GOOD.

YARN UPDATE

It has been untangled!

"Moon View From Earth" by Urban Gypz. Soon to be my friend Adam's scarf.

WIP: Baby Blanket

Don't Be Like Me

I was so excited to start knitting my beautiful Urban Gypz yarn into a scarf for my friend, I didn't wind it into a ball first. I got it super tangled, and I couldn't even find the end. Ciarra's boyfriend Nalu, being the nice guy that he is, found the end and worked on untangling it for over an hour. I have spent a couple hours on yarn-untangling today.

I'm almost done!

An Etsy Purchase, and A Scarf Made By Me

Novemaber 23rd was my friend Rita's birthday!

I gave Rita this beautiful birdy (a lavender sachet) that I purchased from Ruby-Crowned Kinglette's Etsy shop. She also has a lovely blog that I just checked out again recently and was excited to see a bunch more birdies that she has made. It's nice to see more of the flock.

I knitted this scarf for Reet too, and gave it to her when she met up with me and a few other fun folks in Tahoe. I've been working on it in really little bits since September. I actually planned to start it a bit LATER and but couldn't stop myself from knitting it sooner because the yarn was so pretty and tempting. I just love tropical sea shell colors.

Now I can start the scarf for my friend Adam with the really exciting Urban Gypz yarn! The colorway is called "Moon View From Earth". Yeah!!!

WIP: Knitted Blanket

Here are some of the squares I have been making since May, under my beloved autographed photo of Felix Silla (Cousin Itt).

They are very simple, because I'm new to knitting, and it's my second "learn to knit" project. I'm almost done making my 20 squares. It's been nice having a simple and portable project that helps me relax and relieve nervous tension just about anywhere: on a bus, in a car, watching a crappy movie,in a paper gown waiting for the doctor,waiting for photos to upload to flickr, put on musical hold for the second time when calling the bank............ I will probably keep making more squares for a while due to their therapeutic value.

I know I wrote out most of these SAME great reasons to knit in a previous post a couple months ago, but I'm still just so thrilled about it, and I can't believe I lived without it. I am much better equipped to deal with life now that I can knit.

Purple Projects!

I Passed On The Joy Of Knitting!

This happened over a week ago, but I'm really proud of myself for teaching my boyfriend's daughter Megan how to knit. His kids were visiting us in SanFrancisco and we'd been out all day doing touristy stuff. When we got back to the house and the day was winding down, her brother was playing the PSP and she was just sitting there. I was worried that she was bored so I asked her if she'd like to learn to knit, not thinking she'd actually be interested, but wouldn't you know, she was! She's a great learner: very patient, observant, and persistent, and she picked it right up! She told me, "I really like knitting. It gives me that good feeling." I can't give myself full credit for teaching her, because the next day when she'd kinda forgotten how to do it, and I was out on the town, my friend Susanna gave her a refresher. Susanna explains things better than I do. But hey, the most important thing here is that the world has another knitter! And she got back on the plane with something to do.

My favorite thing about knitting is that it makes so many mundane moments valuable. In situations when you would normally be counting the minutes until they are over, you are thankful for the time, because something beautiful is flowing from your hands. I am happy to have had any part in encouraging that skill. I hope she goes home and knits with her Grandma.

World Wide Knit In Public Day

For those of you celebrating World Wide Knit in Public Day today, I have this to say: GET A ROOM!

My First Knitting Project

I made this scarf for my boyfriend Jeff right after learning how to knit a couple months ago. I'd been looking for someone to show me how for my whole 2 week vacation to the East Coast without success, and trying to figure it out from diagrams in a book (which seemed impossible to my non-technical mind), when finally, on the plane on the way back a lady sat down in the seat next to us with yarn and knitting needles! Hallelujah, she showed me how! It took me a couple weeks and I was constantly knitting. This scarf showed me how knitting is the perfect complement to my life: knitting in the car on a long trip, knitting when I'm stuck somewhere, knitting while I'm waiting for pictures to upload on my computer, knitting when I'm watching a crappy movie, knitting as a substitute for a cigarrette break, knitting when I'm resistant to making a list (knit a row, write a couple lines, knit a row, write a couple lines), knitting in a warm living room while it's still way too cold in my sewing room....This scarf made me a knitter. I looked up knitting on myspace which brought up Foxy Knitstress, who is a really nice person with a blog: Knitstress Inc. She told me about Knitting Help which is a website with little demonstration videos to help you through the various parts of your project: basic stitches, binding off and whatnot. It's such a great thing to have a knitting teacher available at all hours, and I had no idea about it until I had already stepped out into the great wide world of THE KNITTING ADVENTURE. Knitting led me to start this blog (although it's not really about knitting. ) I learn something new just about everyday as a side effect of knitting. I love it.