One sock to ruin them all

A few months back I decided to take on my first sock project. I had knitted gloves and figured if I can do that I can do anything. I bought some yarn for my socks and decided to use the basic sck recipe from the Yarn Harlot. www.yarnharlot.ca. You can fnd the pattern in her book Knitting Rules! I don't have the book yet but this pattern was featured on Knitty Gritty and we all know how much I love that show. I print the pattern and get to work. I am doing so well. Even a lady I knit with it impressed with how soon after taking up knitting I try and conquer socks. It only took me a few days to make the first one.
I don't know if you are seeing what I am seeing, but that my friends is not a sock that would fit any kind of human I have met. In fact I think the only creature it may fit is a hobbit. How did this happen you may ask? Well I made the foot too short. I miscalculated how much yarn I would need per sock and started to run out. So I skimped on the foot part. That was a mistake.

I have not made it's match because well it is painful for me to look at. I have kept this pitiful thing I have aptly named "the one sock" just as a reminder of what can happen when good knitting goes wrong

What a difference a few hours make

After my last post I really went to town working on Binary. As you can see from the pic I am about half way done with it. I can't wait for it to be done and in the hands of Craig. I kow how much he will love it. With the addition of my new MacBook I have found that blogging and keeping up with my pictures is much easier. So expect more blogs here and more pictures as well. On top of all the progress I have made on Craig's scarf I have also joined a couple new groups on Ravelry (www.ravelry.com) I was going to start a Poly knitting group when lo and behold they already had one. Man that site rocks. Other than that there is not much news to report.

Always Knitting

~KM

UMMM What does that say

So I have been working on this for one of the hubbies. It is called Binary I got the pattern at Knitty. (www.knitty.com) It is a simple enough pattern, knit in the round (something I very much like) and the fair iske part really on consists of ones and zeros no biggie. But as my tech geek hubby is exactly that, a tech geek I am making his binary spell something out for him. It was not that hard just used a binary translator easily found on Google. The plus side of this project is that I have learn how to knit with yarn in both hands. I know it may sound dumb but I am excited about it.

In other news I will be making Koolhass. I saw it on Ravelry (www.ravelry.com) and fell in love. I am making it in purple for my Goddessdaughter's birthday next month. She is turning 11 and loves to knit herself. So she is getting the hat and a knit kit to expand her needle collection.

Our family had a nice Yule, but I will admit that I happy is is over. Some reason it is a stressful time for me.

I hope all of you out there have a wonderful holiday.

Ravelry and Me...The affair begins.

Let me just start by saying this. Friends are great at getting you turned onto new experiences.

A few weeks ago at my weekly SnB meetup I kept hearing this word I had not heard before. Ravelry. Voices chattering back and forth "Are you finally on?" " I just got my invite today." Squee! All of the ladies seemed a bit euphoric about this word. So of course I just had to ask. "What is this ravelry you speak of?" "What? You don't know what it is?" Let us explain. It is this wondrous home on the World Wide Web where us fiber artists can unite in a common goal. To create more fiber art. You can organize your stash, share you past, present and future projects with others. Add patterns you have designed. Even trade yarns with other people.
Well this is beautiful. I want in.
I want Ravelry!

So that night when I get home I relay to my spouses the beauty that is Ravelry. They both roll their eyes at me and say great hon. I sit down at my computer and proceed to type it in very carefully http://www.ravelry.com/ There it is, clean, crisp and inviting. I scan the page for what I need. How to register. Then I see the words Don't have an account? Ravelry isn't ready yet. I feel crushed and awash with despair. But through my despair there is a ray of hope I can be added to the waiting list and they are inviting new people everyday. I do it . I give them my email address and find out that I can check my status any time day or night. Like the impatient goofball I am I check right then. There are 13,000 people in front of me. Did I just read that right 13,000. Holy Shit!!
After I regain my focus I realize it has to be worth the wait.... And so I wait...and wait .... and wait some more. Every day watching the number get smaller. Annoying my husbands with updates on my number in line so often one of them offered to rub out the knitters in line in front of me (he is very sweet)
After what seemed like eons (in non psycho knitters time that equals 3 weeks) there is an email waiting for me. Frecklgirl has invited YOU to Ravelry. I can't explain the joy I felt telling my fellows knitting girls how happy I was to finally be apart of this special group. I am sure that they can't fully explain how happy they were to know I would no longer be bitching "Dammit where's my %$#@ invite at?"

All in all the experience was great I am I am having a ball with the wonder that my new love has to offer. My Screen name is knittingmartyr is case anyone wants to friend me.

So why the name you ask?

First let us start off with some pictures...

Isn't this cute? How about this

Good right?...

And then there is this...

So besides the adorable children used in these photgraphs what do they have in common?? Not one of the items shown in the pictures are for me. I make things for my children, my parents, my aunts, my friends and pretty much anyone else who asks. Now don't get me wrong the idea of knitting something for myself sounds very appealing I just never get around to it. I have scads of patterns and yarn for myself. I just never seem to get around to them. Something, or I should say someone inevitably asks me for something. A shawl, a hat, some fingerless gloves and I can't seem to resist. I keep thinking I will get to the corset or the socks I have been looking at soon enough. I have learned that soon enough never comes. So one day I was sitting around with the ladies at my local Stitch N Bitch and I was ooohing and aaahing over A Lady E shawl that a fellow SNB'er had finished when it hit me. I am a Knitting Martyr. Always for other people never for me.

Although after seeing that Lady E maybe soon enough will come after all.

I think introductions are in order

My name is Heather and I am a knitter. There I said it and boy did it feel good.

Like most of the knitters I know my obsession with fiber came on quite suddenly. A few years back a friend of mine and I decided to swap crafting techniques. She would teach me to knit and I in turn would teach her to crochet. I apparently am a better teacher than I am a student. Because after hours of dropped stitches, added stitches and a lot of cussing, I threw the needles, ball of yarn, and some of the hair that had been pulled out of my head during a screaming fit against the wall proclaiming I would never knit again.

Never came a lot sooner than I thought it would. While my best friend was pregnant with her 4th child she called me to say she had gone into labor and would I come be with her. She had decided to have a home birth and well I know all too well how long labor can last, so I decided to bring something to make the time go faster. I had been watching Knitty Gritty and for a while and was feeling envious of all of the talent that paraded across my screen. I decided to give knit another chance. I bought some needles and some yarn and took with me the pattern for Better Sweater and headed to my friends house. After 3 days of near constant knitting and no baby I came home with a sweater for my oldest daughter.

You can see how happy she is to have it. Without her right there to compare to I could not size it right. But I was proud none the less. And since I finished my first real project I felt like a knitter a REAL knitter. I wanted to knit more and more things. And so my story begins....