The Knitting Martyr

I have VANQUISHED!!!!!

2008-07-07T22:15:00.000-07:00

Well I know I have not updated in almost 2 months. Bad blogger no yarn. I have finally finished that damn hat!!! I took me nearly 5 months and 4 froggings but I was not going to let it beat me and I didn't, I beat that hat like a egg waiting to be an omelet. It felt soo good I had to dance around naked with the hat on my head. I was going to post pictures of that eventful moment but decided that since I don't write horror stories that may be wrong. Instead I give you just a plain picture of my finished project that I have dubbed "Hell hath no hat"

WOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!

So far so good

2008-05-16T15:26:00.000-07:00

Well I know I have been away for a while...life happens. My mother and father renews their vows and I was in charge of most of the wedding preparations. I made her dress, constructed the ceremony and after the 2 weeks she spent with my family I was tired. I did not have a lot of knitting time while she was here. But I am now back at it.

I actually have almost finished the Koolhaas hat. Amazingly enough it has righted itself, and aside from a smallish area looks perfect. I figure I will just say it is a design element. LOL

I am very happy that I decided to just push through and do it. I refuse to be a quitter.

Well it happened

2008-04-17T20:28:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday I died..ahem I mean I dyed. I went over to a friends house and she taught me the ins and outs of hand dyeing yarn. It was so much fun and my yard came out so nice...pics to follow.

I used Kool-Aid to dye my yarn and I know that there are a few people who do not think that is really dyeing but I don't care I had so much fun and like I said it came out great.

As an aside, I have learned how to spin (yes I went to the darkside) and I LOVE IT. I am thinking of getting a wheel.

Keep on Truckin...

2008-04-12T12:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not updating in a bit. My back and hip have gone out and I have not done much knitting. I am sure it is to no ones surprise that I am still working on Koolhaas although I have renamed it "Hat that won't look right but I don't care" I am going to wear it anyway with pride once it is done.

Once I finally finish it I will post pics for all to see

So it continues

2008-02-09T19:33:00.000-08:00

I recast on Koolhaas after a day or so of cooling off from our previous encounter. It is going well but somehow I thing I messed it up again. I have decided though this time that if I have oh well I will just say it is a design element. LOL

In other news my nine year old daughter has taken up knitting. She is knitting a scarf for her daddy. I am very proud of her and plan on posting pictures of her and her progress.

Oh yes and before I forget a fellow knitter and friend of mine has taught me how to spin my own yarn. Though I don't think I will become obsessed with it I really do enjoy doing it and plan on keeping it up. In fact another knitter has offered to teach me how to dye my own yarn. I guess I need to put in a order to knit picks again soon.

Always Knitting (and now not alone)

~KM

You won't even believe it

2008-02-03T22:52:00.000-08:00

I actually have 2 projects on needles. Well at least I did. I am still working on the Binary for Craig. My step daughter had her birthday last week and I will be seeing in in a couple weeks and decided to make her a Koolhaas. I cast it on a few days ago and since my mother ruined the SuperBowl for me by telling me who won I decided to knit while the guys watched it. I was almost done with the first repeat when I realized that at some point I actually somehow reversed the pattern. Like any good knitter I tried to carefully pull it out one stitch at a time till I got to the place where I made the mistake. You know what happened. Everything went wrong. The stitches started going wherever they wanted to and I had to frog it. Just as I was getting a good rhythm with it too. Since I will see her soon I need to cast it back on and try again. Yay me! I am pretty upsert about it actually. But I think that it is compounded with the fact that my SuperBowl experience was shot to hell.

So I guess I am not just a one project knitter any more

~KM

Jealousy Run Ammok

2008-01-08T02:17:00.000-08:00

I am a multi-tasker by nature. I can manage at least 5 different things at once. When it comes to knitting however, I become a giant Uni-tasker. I here my fellow knitters talk about the myriad of projects the currently have on their needles. There I sit listening intently knitting the only project I have on the needles and turning green. When I reveal that I am a one project knitter I am met with quite a few how do you do thats, and even more don't you get boreds. Truth is I think I like the sense of accomplishment that comes with binding off that last stitch. I start to crave it from the moment I cast something on. As the project grows so does my craving for the end. I become almost manic when I find I am within a few rows of my bliss..the end of the project. I am always eager to finish so I can start the next item I want to make. In part I think that having only one WIP gives me the incentive to finish that project. I think that if I were to have more than one thing at a time I would not feel compelled to finish anything. Who knows how much longer it would take to get things done if that were the case. Yet I am still green with envy at those who can and do have many WIP's. Every week I see a rotation of garments, shawls, bags, blankets and the like. Still I sit there with my one project. I know eventually I will join the ranks of knitters with multiple WIP's and I only have one thing to say about that...

Heaven help us, after that nothing will ever get done

Always Knitting...One thing at a time

~KM

One sock to ruin them all

2007-12-30T12:56:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-25T19:02:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-24T02:50:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-11-03T02:56:00.001-07:00

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?

2007-10-28T11:18:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-23T15:27:00.000-07:00

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....