Posts Tagged ‘Knitting’

These Aren’t the Batteries You’re Looking For

November 3rd, 2009 mio

The batteries in my camera died a little while ago. Of course, we had more batteries, my camera takes regular AA batteries, but the question was: where are they?

Those of you playing along at home have probably already guessed that they’re still packed! Though, in our own defence, we have finally started to unpack a bit; we’ve found all sorts of useful things, such as clothes, the power cord for the television, and the dishes. No batteries, though.

After much deep and profound brain things inside my head, I decided that we should probably just go ahead and buy some more. The blog was waiting, after all! And it’s not like there’s any such thing as “too many AA batteries”, right? Charles was going to pick some up on his way home from Union Station, where we parted ways; I was off to Hamilton.

While in Hamilton, my Mom told me that there were a couple of “under the bed” storage boxes, well, under the bed in the guest bedroom that were probably mine. I had no idea they were there. We looked inside, and low and behold:

AA batteries

The good news: Charles forgot to pick up batteries.
The bad news: these were not the batteries I was thinking of when I thought of the ones that were packed away. No idea where those are.

Other interesting things I found in the box:

A crochet page-a-day calendar
Crochet Page-a-day Calendar
… from 2007…

And a knitting book:
knitting book
… that I don’t remember buying, but clearly got it long before I really learned how to knit. Wishful thinking, or psychic vibe? I’ll leave that to the philosophers…

“What do you mean, you’ve learned how to knit??” you ask? Well, first of all, shame on you for not following me on Twitter; if you did, you’d already know about this! Secondly, I thought it was about time.

Longtime readers know that I’ve tried to learn how to knit a few times before, but with little to moderate success; but I was unhappy with how slow it was. I had heard that there were several different ways to knit, and thought that maybe if I tried a different way I’d be more successful. Off to youtube I went, determined to learn how to knit while holding the yarn in my left hand (just like how I crochet!).

Success! I knit a few uninteresting stitches, tried out DPN’s (and was doing alright until I accidentally started going the wrong way…). I tried two colours; and then cables, and then tried this:

brown knit cable on a field of green reverse-stockinette (booyah!)

That’s after only a couple of days of confident knitting. Booyah!

Er… except the sides flop over…
sides flopping over
… but I think I can fix it with crochet. :D

Posted in Knitting Tags: , , , 3 Comments »

Another keeper!

June 11th, 2009 mio

It occurs to me that I haven’t posted that 3-way Tunisian blanket in a while. It has grown quite a bit:

3 strand tunisian crochet baby blanket

It’s hard to measure because it’s so stretchy, but it’s approximately 28 inches square now. (I know, it doesn’t look very square in that picture. I was surprised too, when I folded it into a triangle and there was almost no overlap)

Here is a better picture of the stitches and colour:
3 strand tunisian crochet

It’s still not an accurate picture of the colour, though. It’s quite beautiful with its earthy tones. I guess it’s another “come see it in person… then buy it!” blanket. ^_-

Here’s a picture of the three balls of yarn I’ve been using for this:
three balls of yarn

My thought process on the colour choice went something like, “I need something to do on break at work! I need something for work! Ack! Quickly! Quickly!! Hey, here’s some yarn… but does it go together? Well, green and brown are nice together, and blue and green are pretty good… I’ll make a swatch on the subway!”

When I got on the subway I proceeded to “cast on” 76 stitches. That’s one heck of a swatch!

I’m going to have a hard time parting with this one, and I’ve already had two requests for a bigger version. I’m going to have to spend some time scouring the stores for more of this yarn… I have a sneaking suspicion they’re not making it anymore. That would be sad!

In other news, I went to Lettuce Knit for the first time yesterday (I figured it was about time, having lived in Toronto for 2.5 years now…). The store was smaller than I thought it would be (not a bad thing), it was farther away from Spadina than I imagined it would be (not bad, just surprising), and it was less expensive than I feared it would be (hooray!!).

Keep in mind that you’re reading the blog of a die-hard acrylic crocheter: I want to knit some natural fiber socks now.

Please don’t tell my hooks!

I blame the Yarn Harlot for all of this.

Posted in Afghans, yarn Tags: , , , , , , , No Comments »

We have an imposter!

February 18th, 2009 mio

Hello, my name is mio and I’m a yarnaholic. (”Hi mio!”)

Today was yarn sorting day. My friend did most of it (she likes that sort of thing, and I’d rather crochet it than sort it, despite the OCD)

Here’s a series of pictures taken part way through the process:
sorting the yarn stash

(top left: mixed [mostly Bernat Super Value]; top right: baby yarn, Patons Melody, and another mixed bin [mostly Bernat Soft Boucle] and novelty yarns; bottom left: mixed bin including some Red Heart for my never-finished first granny square blanket, unfinished projects and extra hooks and tools in the drawers, bin of Bernat Satin [the lid wouldn't close on that one!]; bottom right: knitting looms, loose yarn [mostly Patons Melody], and the in-progress purple rose afghan, still packed from the trip)

She did a wonderful job:
sorted yarn stash
(Note the “poison yarn” box. I’m allergic to the yarn in it, but that doesn’t stop me! I just put on the gloves first!)

Once it was all boxed up and she was ready to sit down and relax she came across two balls of Bernat Handicrafter cotton yarn. She remembered that she hadn’t seen any more of it in her sorting efforts. That’s when she realized the full scope of the thing: six large bins, two cardboard boxes, and a bunch of bags full of yarn, and that’s not nearly all of it! (Unless your name is Charles. Then that is totally all of it.)

In all of that sorting, we (by which I mean, she) found an imposter:
yellow practice knitting

Just ignore the practice knitting hanging out of that basket!

Posted in yarn Tags: , 2 Comments »
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