frustrated before the project starts

January 31, 2013 by 3 Comments

Yep, I’m talking about the sweater I’m wanting to make.  I finally got the 3.00 mm and 3.25 mm circular interchangeable needles in, all the way from Europe:

knitproneedles

 

When they came in yesterday, I set about immediately making the gauge swatches for my sweater, and what do I find out?  I need bigger needles than these, and I’ve had the bigger sizes the whole time.  I can’t believe that I went through all the trouble to find these and spent money on them, only to find that they don’t work.  The pattern calls for the 3.00 mm needles (or even smaller ones, which I couldn’t find at all), but I’m gonna have to give the gauge swatch another try with bigger needles.  Perhaps I should have tried the bigger needles before ordering the smaller ones, but how was I supposed to know that my gauge would be way off?  Anyway, here are my two unsuccessful gauge swatches:

pauliefirstswatches

 

Luckily for me, I have the KnitPro app on my iPhone, which tells me exactly what I need to do.  In addition to the gauge calculators (in both metric and inches), the app also has a yarn substitution calculator, a needle/hook size chart, as well as a ton of information on ease, yarn weight, and fiber content.  Definitely worth the small price for the app.  You can read more about this app on The Sweaty Knitter‘s blog.  This is what it looked like when I entered in my gauge swatch information (for the 3.00 mm needles, using the size small bust circumference measurement):

yarnpro1

 

And this is what it told me:

yarnpro2

 

Pretty sweet, huh?  And yes, I washed and dried the swatches before measuring them, just to be safe (I don’t think they changed at all).  So I’ll make another gauge swatch with bigger needles and see if that helps.  If I have to go up too many needle sizes I may just use one of the smaller ones and just make the pattern for a size medium sweater instead of size small.

In any case, I have some more swatching and measuring  and calculating to do before I can actually get started.  I’m off to go do that.

Thanks for stopping by!

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the rest of my life

January 29, 2013 by 15 Comments

I really wanted to share some non-crafty things with you that are going on in my life right now.  I hope that’s OK — I’ll be back to crafting in my next post, I promise.

Firstly, I graduate with my masters in clinical counseling this May!  Hooray!  I’m excited to finally be done with school, since I’ve been at it for 5/6 of my life, and I’m excited about “being a grown-up.”  Of course on the flip side, I’m terrified — I don’t feel prepared to counsel anybody, I’m worried about passing my exit and licence exams, I’m worried about finding a job ASAP so that there’s no break between school and a job (I can’t afford to sit around doing nothing when I’ll have loans to start paying off), and I’m worried about going into more debt.  Once I graduate, to get licensed I still have to be supervised for 15oo hours, I believe, and I’ll have to pay someone to supervise me.  So even though I’ll have a job, I’ll be paying off loans and paying whoever is my supervisor.  Can you tell I’m worried?  It runs in the family.

I’ve got some good things going on, too: I’m making a journal for my “loss, grief, and crisis counseling” class!

journal

We have to really reflect on our experiences with loss/grief/crisis, and I’m enjoying it so far.  I’m making it a sort of art journal (hence the markers in the picture) and really putting thought and time into what I write, and it’s helping me realize a lot about myself and how I deal (or haven’t dealt) with grief/loss/crisis.  Of course we’re using what we’re learning in class to help us look at our experiences, so it puts a new light on things.  Have you ever had such a journal, or have you had a similar experience?

And surprise surprise, I’m exercising!  It’s totally unexpected for me — I’ve traditionally been the soft, unfit, unmotivated, and unhealthy type, but Chris and our friend Jamie have convinced me to give it a try.  Jamie studied wing chun (a close-range Chinese martial art) in China for about 2 years, and he’s teaching Chris and me.  He’s a good teacher and is very patient, which is good because Chris and I aren’t very coordinated or athletic.  I want to get to the point where I can easily defend myself against a larger and stronger opponent (our school parking lots are creepy and lots of bad things happen there).  I’m also doing it for the physical benefits of losing a little weight, gaining some muscle, and strengthening my heart.  We have equipment for practicing kicks and punches, and Jamie got us these:

wraps

We need wrist wraps for repeated punching while our wrists are pretty weak.  So yeah, it’s pretty complicated and difficult and painful (my whole body is sore today and I’ve got bruises on my arms), but it’s really fun too, and I think it will definitely be worth all the time, effort, and physical discomfort.  If you have ever tried wing chun or martial arts in general, feel free to let the advice/stories flow!

As far as yarncrafts go, my socks are still in the works and the needles for my sweater haven’t arrived yet, so there’s nothing to really post about at this time.  Hopefully soon!

Thanks for stopping by, and I appreciate you taking the time to read about what’s going on for me.  I’ll be back to crocheting/knitting next time!

 

 

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really?

January 26, 2013 by 12 Comments

I can’t believe it’s been a whole week since I posted last — it doesn’t feel like it at all.  I guess it’s time for an update!

Firstly, I got my yarn in for the sweater I’m going to make:

sweateryarn

It’s the Silver and Raspberry fingering weight Stylecraft Special acrylic yarn, and it is so soft!  I’m so glad I got this because it was very affordable, it’s deliciously soft, it won’t be too hot, and I can wash it!  I don’t usually make gauge swatches and I really shouldn’t need to with this yarn, but since it’s my first sweater I want to make sure everything is as perfect as possible, so I’m gonna swatch the yarn and wash it before I start.

So now all I’m waiting for to start the sweater is the knitting needle tips that I ordered.  They should be here soon, I think, but there was no tracking number in my receipt so I’m not sure where it is exactly.

I also ordered some blocking mats and T-pins from knitpicks.com, and they’ve arrived, but I don’t guess those are really worth pictures.  Can you believe I’ve been crocheting/knitting for years and I’ve never blocked anything?  Hehehe.

I’ve also been working on those knitted socks, but I don’t want to show you yet — I’m saving any pictures for the ‘ta-da’ moment.  I just have a couple more inches to go and then the ribbed cuffs, so it shouldn’t be long.

Thanks for stopping by!  Hopefully when you come back next I’ll have some socks to show you and maybe the beginnings of a sweater!

 

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in the meantime…

January 19, 2013 by 4 Comments

My packages with all my sweater necessities might not all get here for another two weeks or so, so I needed something to start on now.  I have some super-soft worsted acrylic yarn that’s been chillin’ in a drawer forever, and I wanted to try something new, so…

socksI’m making two-at-a-time toe-up socks with a Fleegle heel!  If I complete these, it will be my first pair of knitted socks!

I got this method from the videos Kathryn Rubidoux is using.  Click here for the Youtube playlist, consisting of 18 explanatory videos.  You don’t even need to purchase the pattern on her website — just use size 7 or 8 needles (whichever you need for the gauge, which I believe she said is 4″).  I’m disregarding the gauge but changing the pattern accordingly, so it should be fine.

I’m really pumped about these — I hope they’re comfortable!  When I crocheted socks they made my feet hurt almost instantly, so I’m hoping these will feel better.

Well that’s all for tonight, thanks for stopping by!

 

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project planning & its difficulties: switching needle brands

January 17, 2013 by 14 Comments

In the last post I told you about my desire to knit my first sweater, and you’ve encouraged me to try it!  Getting the materials, though, has turned out to be quite a problem.

You might remember that I got this lovely Options Sunstruck Wood Interchangeable Needle Set by KnitPicks recently.  I love it, but KnitPicks doesn’t make interchangeable needles any smaller than US4 (3.5mm), and I need a US2.5 (3.00mm).  I don’t want to buy any more fixed circulars — they don’t make sense when you can combine your interchangeables endlessly — so I had to hunt down something that would do.

Knitter’s Pride and KnitPro have the size I need, AND I’ve read that they both share a manufacturer with KnitPicks and are therefore interchangeable with each other!  Knitter’s Pride, however, only has 3.00mm needles in some sort of metal, and I don’t like metal needles.  The solution is KnitPro’s Symphonie needles, which are exactly the same as KnitPicks Harmony needles but come in smaller sizes!  The next problem is that nobody sells KnitPro in the US, so I turned to ebay!  There’s a seller that has what I need, and to me it’s worth the price of $14 (counting shipping and handling).  Now I’m just deciding whether I want to get the regular length needles, which are 5 inches long, or the shorter needles, which are 3.5 inches long.  The short ones might be more versatile in the future (i.e. with short cables), but would they be too short to hold comfortably?  [***EDIT: I got the longer needles, and I got them in 3.00mm and 3.25mm, just in case I need to adjust for gauge.  Once S&H was added it was about $30.***]

To summarize, if you live in the US and need smaller needles for your KnitPicks wood interchangeables, search for KnitPro on ebay and get some from an international seller.  I hope that’s useful to someone — it took me forever to figure all of this out!  That’s like 3 problems solved!  Bam!

Now, for the yarn.  I’m going for the Stylecraft Special 4 Ply (I’d need about $16 worth of this acrylic yarn).  It’s cheap, which sorta makes up for the cost of the needles, and acrylic will be plenty warm for South Carolina.  Here are the colors I’m leaning towards:

Parchment for the main color

Pale Rose for the accent color

or maybe Raspberry for the accent color

[***EDIT: I got Silver and Raspberry!***]

I also chose this yarn because I think I may have a bit of a wool allergy.  It’s making me a little upset.  When I was in Dublin I wore a lovely new 100% alpaca chartreuse crocheted hat and another knitted hat made of 40% wool, and they both made my skin itchy where they touched my forehead.  It wasn’t an immediate thing, but after wearing them for about 4 hours I had to take them off.  Then again, I wore a sweater today with a little bit of wool and it was fine…  Hmmm…

It just wouldn’t surprise me if I was allergic — I’m allergic to EVERYTHING.  My allergist did that test where he pricks your back with different allergy-causing substances, and the only thing I wasn’t allergic to was cockroaches.  Aside from being upset that I was allergic to so many things, I was a little pissed that my doctor put cockroach juice under my skin without telling me first.

Anyway, if you’ve read this far I thank you for your time.  Sorry the post was so long — I just had a lot to talk about today.  Hope you come back soon!

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