a new app and some projects

May 10, 2013 by 4 Comments

the app

For those knitters with iPhones (and maybe other smartphones too), there is an app that takes your specific measurements, yarn, preferred design elements, and gauge and comes up with a customized raglan sweater pattern.  Here are some screenshots from my phone:

raglanify screenshots

Pretty neat, huh?  It’s a lot of information to put in, sure, but I bet it would be worth it for a perfect fitting sweater!  The app, “Raglanify,” is $0.99 in the app store, which is great for what it does, I think.

the new project

After thinking about my last post, wondering whether or not to attempt the Wonder Woman sweater (which I would alter), I decided against it.  Can’t afford the yarn right now in anything but acrylic (and I don’t want an acrylic sweater), and our CAL is coming up so I’ll be plenty busy without a sweater!  However, I do happen to have some rather patriotic themed yarn in my stash:

spaceinvadersyarnMan, it’s hard to get good  coloring in my pictures lately!  I swear that’s navy in the back, and a true red as well.  This is Berroco Vintage, a worsted wool blend that has been gracing my stash for years.  THIS is what I’d make a sweater with, but that would be expensive.  Anyway, instead of a sweater, I’m going to use this yarn to make a few hats with the space invaders pattern by Arne & Carlos that I also mentioned in my last post.  Wish me luck — they’re for some boys with large heads (literally) and since my head is small, the size will be a guesstimate.

the finished project

And speaking of Arne & Carlos, I made the first Christmas ball in the book:

ornament1*sigh*  It’s a real red, not magenta.  Cute though, right?  I plan on going through the whole book, making almost all of them (some are a little weird, like the outhouse one, but I’ll definitely be making the pig one, hehe).  These will be Christmas presents and I can’t wait to give them away!  I’m thinking of getting some cigar boxes and wrapping them in pretty contact paper, then putting 4 (maybe 6) ornaments inside.  The ornaments are a bit large, though, so I might have to think of another solution… I can’t remember exactly how large cigar boxes are.  Anyway, the ball is a bit lumpy, and I’m not sure why.  I tried to leave plenty of give in the stranding on the back to keep it from puckering, so it’s probably uneven stuffing.  Next time I’ll try smaller bits of stuffing instead of using a few big pieces.  That should help, right?

other stuff…

On another topic, I’m going to Pineville/Charlotte tomorrow to apply for jobs at a couple of malls.  I’m getting no bites for counseling positions, and I’m still refusing to apply to anything that involves doing intensive in-home work (that’s where you go to a kid’s house by yourself and try to counsel them there with their family and pets and TVs and bugs and nasty smells all around you the whole time).  Doesn’t sound fun or safe or very effective.  Tomorrow I’ll be certain to hit up Aerie, Barnes & Noble, and Sephora, amongst other stores, and maybe even a few at the fancy-pants mall where all the rich people shop.  Hmmm…  If I apply at the frozen yogurt place do you think I’ll get free yummies?  Hehe.

I’ve started reading “A Game of Thrones” again.  Last time I only got a few chapters in and all the characters got so confusing that I put down the book in frustration.  After marathoning the whole 2 1/2 seasons of the TV show in 4 days, I understand and am going back to read the book.  It’s weird knowing the ending already.  After watching the first episode on TV, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue, to be honest — it’s an HBO show and therefore full of very explicit things — but following through I found that the story is very good.  I can thank Yoona for inspiring me to give it another go… it might have been due to all those good looking guys she mentioned.  Now I’m obsessed too.

Well that’s all for today — this post is long!  Thanks for stopping by!

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my CAL yarn

May 8, 2013 by 17 Comments

My CAL yarn came in the other day!

my yarn

 

There are more skeins than this but this represents every color I purchased.  The colors are a little off in the picture as well — the hot pink at the top is actually not that “hot,” and the red doesn’t glow like that, haha.  Anyway, here’s the way I keep track of colors:

my palette

 

You can see that I marked the Pale Rose shade as the border shade, just so I don’t forget and accidentally use it for a stripe or something (I only got 1 skein of it, and 2 of all the others).  In this photo, the apricot and candyfloss colors are a little duller than they actually are in real life.  With these little tags it’s easy to keep track of how many times I’ve used each color (I put the tag to the side when I’ve used the color in the blanket so that I use every color once before using any color again).

So, participants, have you been practicing any difficult stitches?  Have you received your yarn?  I can’t wait to get started!

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finished just in time

May 7, 2013 by 22 Comments

In my last post I told you that I was making a cowl for a friend visiting from England, but that there were only 3 days in which to make it.  The deadline was met!

cowl1

Yep, I finished it in the car on the way to see her.  It’s not as thick as I would have liked but I simply ran out of time.  Good thing I used the crocheted linen stitch instead of trying to do the knit linen stitch, which would have taken much longer!

cowl5

 

Since the strips of color in the yarn weren’t very long, it looks more like a rainbow camouflage than I had hoped, but it is still very pretty and my friend loved it!

And, since she’s from England, my chef boyfriend Chris decided to do a Southern dinner for her!  We started off with mini crab cakes with jumbo lump crab meat and a dill sauce (no picture for those).  Then we had a low country boil.  Now I should explain a bit about this Southern tradition:  the low country boil is, I believe, unique to the coastal area (aka “low country”) of South Carolina and traditionally includes corn, red potatoes, some kind of sausage, and shrimp.  These ingredients are all boiled together in one pot (often outdoors over a propane burner) with bay leaves or bay seasoning of some sort, strained, and then dumped right onto the PVC coated table cloth.  Well, we did ours inside and didn’t dump everything on the table, but here’s what it looks like (after 6 servings have been taken out):

low country boil

 

It’s a messy meal because the shrimp aren’t peeled yet and you eat everything with your fingers, but it’s very, very tasty!  Chris also made some homemade butter (with some herbs I can’t remember mixed in) for the corn and potatoes.

Then he made dessert: mini apple pie tarts!  But these were no ordinary tarts: the crust was puff pastry, the apple pie mixture was fresh apples, apple sauce, and bourbon, and there were two unusual additions.  A baked cheese cracker was added, along with candied bacon that Chris made his own rub for.  It was AMAZING:

bacon apple tart

 

I must say it looked better in real life — you know, I’m sure, that it’s hard to photograph food.  But it was very delicious and I was so proud of Chris!  Everyone loved all of it!

Hopefully we’ll get to see our visiting friend again before she leaves, but she’s headed to the mountains for a few days with the person she’s staying with, so we’ll see.

Well, that’s all for today.  There’s another post lined up but it can wait until later tonight/tomorrow.  Thanks for stopping by!

 

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a lovely gift

May 3, 2013 by 21 Comments

I graduated yesterday with my MEd in Clinical Counseling!  All of the students are so glad to be done.  My parents got me a nice card, a delicious dinner, and a beautiful original print, framed and ready to hang somewhere special (hopefully my office, whenever I get a job)!  My aunt, who lives in Arkansas, sent a lovely card with some money to buy myself a present, so of course I got yarn!

yarn for catherine

This beautiful lace weight yarn is by Araucania Yarns, which is made in Chile (this specific yarn is called Nuble).  It’s a single ply yarn and each hank is 50g/1.76oz and 240yds/219m.  It’s 75% merino and 25% silk, and it’s colorway #2.  I’ve never worked with silk yarn before, or this brand, for that matter, but it’s so soft and beautiful!  This yarn will [theoretically] be made into a cowl within the next 3 days for a friend visiting from England.  A bit last minute, yes, but hopefully it can be done in time.  The verdict is still out on whether to try to do the lovely linen stitch that I’ve been wanting to try or to try the crocheted version.  I’m leaning heavily towards crochet because it seems very daunting to try and knit a whole cowl with lace weight yarn in 3 days, even if I have nothing else to do!  I’m not too fast at knitting yet and my hands do get tired.  Taking care of hands, in fact, leads to my next purchase:

lotions

I know I’ve shown you the lavender version of these lovely little lotion rounds, but they smell so good that I just had to get more!  They last a long time, too, which is great, and they would make great gifts if you can stand to let them go!

All of these items were purchased today at my local yarn shop (which isn’t really local as it’s 30 minutes away, but that’s the closest one, so it counts).  It feels nice to support their business, even though these products can probably be found online for a cheaper price, and it’s nice not to have to guess on what something will feel like, and then to wait on shipping.

So you can probably guess what my evening’s going to look like: quick hooking, some hot tea, and most likely a nice Jane Austen movie.  Well, I can’t wait to get started, so I guess that’s all for today!  Thanks for stopping by!

PS:  The Bloglovin’ site that I mentioned the other day should probably be explained for those who don’t know what it is (I didn’t).  It’s a site where you can subscribe to ALL the blogs you follow, not just the ones on WordPress.  That means it’s easy to follow blogs from Blogger or anywhere (and if the blog you want to follow isn’t on the list, you can add it immediately).  All of the posts from the blogs you subscribe to will show up in one handy feed that you can peruse at your leisure, and if you’re browsing the web with Google Chrome (which I would recommend for everyone because it’s amazing), Bloglovin’ will add a little icon next to your search bar that will notify you of new blog posts in your feed.  It’s pretty handy!  They also have an app for the iPhone, but I’ve had a few issues with it so far.  Hopefully they’ll fix it soon — I’ll use it all the time!

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two new stitch tutorials!

May 1, 2013 by 1 Comment

There are two new stitch tutorials up!  First:

the mirrored chevron

chev22

This is NOT the same chevron stitch that appears in our inspirational CAL blanket.  I’ve altered it so it will lie completely flat.  Next up:

surface chains

surf6

 

I’ve seen this recently online but I first found it in an old Better Homes and Gardens book called “Complete Book of Knitting, Crochet & Embroidery.”  It’s a neat stitch that you do after you’ve worked the main fabric and would be a great addition to all sorts of projects!

As you may have guessed, both of these stitches work with our other CAL stitches, and I’m definitely going to use both!  So, to recap, here are the “fancy” stitches that will work for our CAL so far (excluding regular dc and hdc):

To reiterate, if you’re participating in the CAL it is up to you which stitches to use for your blanket — you can always replace what you don’t like with regular dcs!  I will be posting exactly what I will be doing next, however, for those of you who want more direction.  I’m honestly not sure about the woven DCs — they look so cool but to be most effective they should be done in one color, and I’m not sure that I want such a thick stripe of one color in my blanket.  You are free to use it if you like, but I think I might pass.  I will have to use it for something else though — it would make a fabulous cushion or perhaps a bag!

So, has anyone been trying out these stitches in preparation for the CAL?  Some of those stitches are tricky.  I’ve practiced lots myself, making all these tutorials!  I hope you guys are as excited as I am — I can’t wait to get started!  My yarn should be in soon.  If you’ve bought some yarn already, you can share it on the Ravelry group page in a discussion thread so we can all see and admire!

OK, I’m done for the night.  Those tutorials and this post have taken a long time!  If you try the new tutorials and find that something doesn’t make sense or I could have done something better, please let me know!

As always, thanks for stopping by!

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