we are knitters abruzzo sweater kit: progress (& life update)!

October 28, 2017 by 10 Comments

Hello everyone!  It’s been a long time.  My apologies for dropping off the face of the earth!

Although I haven’t been doing as much knitting and crocheting as I would like, I have managed to finish both the front and the back of the Abruzzo Sweater by We Are Knitters (check out my last post for more details).  The back piece is slightly longer and was a little harder to keep in frame on my small white background, but I got a decent photo of the front!

we are knitters abruzzo sweater front

I really like the simplicity of the pattern and how you don’t have to worry about shoulder shaping.

Now I just need to kick it into high gear and get those sleeves done!  It’s starting to cool off here (finally) and I wanna wear this soon!  It’ll be my first [complete] knitted sweater!

we are knitters abruzzo sweater front

The color is more accurate in the first photo.  Sometimes in closeups my iPad decides to severely change the temperature of photos, so much so that it’s hard to correct the photos afterward.  Can’t wait to show you the rest when I’m done!

As I also mentioned in a previous post, I started a new job in August.  I work at a psychiatric hospital now as a “human services coordinator” (basically a counselor who also makes sure that the treatment team is functioning properly and doing its job).  I really like it so far, even though it can get a bit intense!

There have been some more life changes as well.  A family member passed away since I last wrote, and I might be moving across town within the next few months (we’ll see).  My car became quite unreliable so I have a new (to me) one, which is great, and my puppy is now a significantly larger dog who doesn’t like to hold still for pictures:

I’ve been doing quite a bit of drawing lately, too, which is something I used to do all the time.  In kindergarten I used to say I wanted to be an artist when I grew up, but I never pursued it in school.

This is a character from an anime TV series.  I wish I could claim credit for the whole thing but I did use a picture on the Internet as a reference.

And if you made it all the way to this point in the post, you get a heads up to something neat coming up soon: a giveaway!  I won’t say too much now but stay tuned, it’ll be in about a week (probably my next post)!

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knitting and a puppy!

November 27, 2016 by 2 Comments

Zero finally has a little brother and I’m super excited!

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They look like they could actually be related, don’t they?  But he’s actually a half beagle, half pit mix that we found at a no-kill shelter thanks to my boss, who brought in a girl from the litter to work on Monday and told me that there were still boys left.  He’s 12 weeks now, and his name is Roll (keeping with the Megaman theme Chris started with Zero).  It’s hard to get a picture of him awake because he’s in constant motion, but here’s my best shot:

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Only thing is, he’s not housebroken yet, so that’s been frustrating.  He’s starting to figure it out though & he makes up for it with cuteness and cuddles.  He even helps me with knitting (although he’s already mangled one of my wooden cable needles that I foolishly had just sitting on the daybed beside me):

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As seen in the photo, I finally got started on the bulky weight version of the cowl I’m writing up a pattern for.  Really I just have to finish this one, block it, & take photos for the downloadable version that will be available… well… whenever I get it done.

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The yarn is The Meri Wool from We Are Knitters and it is SO soft.  Can’t wait to wear it!  And I didn’t know how much yarn I’d need for the cowl so I’m going to have a fair amount of leftovers for other toasty items!  Maybe I’ll make a set — I don’t usually do that.

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I’m loving all the colors, and I don’t think it takes away from the texture at all.  The colorway is called Sprinkle Fantasy, I believe.  Mmmm… makes me want ice cream with sprinkles.  Only it’s too cold for that right now.  Boo.  But I’m actually happy that I’m finally getting to wear some of the new items I’ve made since last winter.  My fave to wear so far is my Arlequin Shawl — the yarn just makes it.

OK, I’m done for the night, gotta get back to knitting!  Thanks for stopping by, see you soon!

 

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Paulie the hibernating cardigan

September 19, 2014 by 8 Comments

I haven’t touched my Paulie cardigan in over a year. Here’s where I was in early 2013:

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The going was slow, as anyone who has tried to make a larger object with thin yarn knows, and a bit monotonous — knit a row, purl a row, knit a row, purl a row, etc. — but my desire for a sweater that I have knitted myself is still there, especially as we’re beginning to get into slightly cooler weather. So the Paulie cardigan was again picked up, and in just a couple of weeks I’ve gotten a good bit farther:

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The edges are curly but it should fit once it’s straightened out and the button band is added. I feel like once the body of the sweater is done, the rest will be a breeze; the sleeves should progress a lot faster since the rows will be so much shorter. Exciting!

In other news, I’ve been doing a bit of wedding planning. While overwhelming with all of the things I need to do, I have lots of support from both of our families. We’re working on securing the dates and locations for everything and have already got ideas for everything else.

Also, our dog Zero has been doing really well except for the night last week when we had a very loud and long thunderstorm (we usually get gentle rain that doesn’t last very long). She would not leave my lap and was shaking, poor thing.

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She’s back to her normal healthy and happy self and loves cuddles:

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Work has been going pretty well — I’ve made a good friend and am getting my work done on time. There’s a bit of burnout due to how busy we are, but I make sure to take a day off every once in a while to recharge.

That’s really about it for now — thanks for stopping by! I’ll try to continue diligently working on both the Paulie cardigan and also my garter stitch striped blanket. I’ve been looking for some things to crochet, too! Well, see you later!

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row counter ring and a summer update

July 1, 2014 by 8 Comments

Have you seen the beautiful row counter rings handmade by Kristan MacIntyre?  I ordered one and received it in the mail yesterday:

row counter ring

How cool is that?  It’s made from sterling silver and can be made in your specific size.  Mine is the stamped version in size 5 but you can get the numbers hand engraved and you can also get rubies added.

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There’s a little notch that you can’t see in these pictures because the ring is rotated on my finger, but the notch indicates where you are, so you align your current numbers with it.  I like to keep that notch on the side of my finger so that I can see it really easily when I’m knitting/crocheting.

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Isn’t is pretty?  One of my favorite things about this ring is that it is an actual piece of jewelry, not just some brightly colored piece of plastic that you wouldn’t want to wear out in public.

Price range depends on whether you get the stamped or hand engraved version and whether or not you choose to get the rubies added.  You can head over to Kristan’s website here to view the options for yourself, and check out her other knitting related jewelry! She has some beautiful shawl pins, a really cool needle sizing pendant, and more! I’m eyeing that pendant…

So, for the summer update bit.  I’m happily enjoying this whole week off of work for the 4th of July holiday. I was getting a bit burned out at work, to tell the truth, so this was a great time for a little vacation! My boyfriend Chris is working all week, so we can’t actually go anywhere, but I don’t mind staying at home one bit. It’s great just spending time with him and the dog and doing lots of eating and sleeping and movie watching (and not much else)!

And speaking of home, I have some flowers on my front stoop now that my parents got for me:

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Aren’t they pretty?  That last one is actually a citronella plant to keep mosquitos away (after all we do live in a very humid climate and our location is right by a river). There’s actually a 4th plant, too, but it’s looking very sad. I think it got too much sun so I moved it to the shade, but it might be too late. Well, with my horrible gardening skills, I’m actually pretty pleased that only one plant is looking bad and not more!

You can see our dog Zero in the second picture there, looking across the road at our neighbors’ dog and wanting to play.  Poor Zero — I haven’t been able to walk her as much lately because it’s been so hot!  I don’t want her little paws to burn on the pavement and she starts panting so quickly, so we just go early in the morning on days I have off.  This week should be good for her!

Well, I guess that’s all for now.  I’m off to go eat dinner with my parents and my aunt, who is visiting from Arkansas.  Hopefully I’ll post a crafty update with some knitting or crocheting soon — I HAVE been working on things… a bit…  🙂  Anyway, thanks for stopping by!

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done with the move!

October 23, 2013 by 10 Comments

Well, mostly.  A couple of boxes are left to unpack, but all in all I’m very satisfied with our new house.  Zero loves it too!  Here she is sitting on the daybed with my CAL blanket:

zero2That’s her “what are you doing?” face.

zero1She loves the yard so much!  I’m so glad she’s finally happy.  We threw away a LOT of stuff so it’s nice and uncluttered and very roomy inside, as well!

Today is the first day I could post because today is our first day having Internet.  I know I’m spoiled because it was very difficult going without it!  I know I must have used a ton of data on my phone…

I was busy knitting and crocheting, too!  I started crocheting a shawl:

frogged(Yep, no sheets on the daybed at the point that was taken, and yep, I love to sit cross-legged/Indian style.)  As you can see I’m unraveling it to knit a scarf — the pattern was so hard for me to follow!  It’s cheche a la sauce and it was originally in French, so perhaps that was part of the problem.  The beginnings and ends of the rows don’t match up!  I must have been missing something but I could not figure it out, and after hours of re-working and re-working it, trying to get the edges correct, I gave up.  I think I’m giving up on that scarf, too, in favor of something that will take up all 3 balls of yarn I got for that project.

My knitting has much more to show for the effort.  I finished the Bajada scarf for my friend.  It took approximately 18 hours total of very focused knitting to complete, and because of that I don’t think I’ll be making another one (after all, I can whip up a crocheted scarf in an hour and a half).  I also had to write out the pattern row by row to keep track of everything and squinting at the small print in the booklet got old real quick.  It was worth it though:

bajada3It totals at 69 inches (175cm) long and 11.5 inches (29cm) tall at its widest point.

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bajada6As you can see, I need to purchase some blocking wires.  They’re just so expensive for little wires (at least on KnitPicks, where I got everything else for relatively cheap), and I keep meaning to just go to a hardware store and get some wires cut for me.  It just hasn’t happened yet.

bajada5I can’t wait for it to dry so that I can mail it to my friend!  I’ll be back up there in a couple of weeks for the yearly Renaissance Fair but I don’t want her to have to wait that long.  I hope she likes it!

The Northern Loop cowl has been my other knitting project.  I’ve been using KnitPicks’ Billow bulky yarn and it is so wonderful to work with!  So very soft, and what gorgeous colors they have available!  I’ll definitely be repurchasing this.  This could be dangerous…  Here’s a bit of my cowl:

northernloop2I’m loving it!  The only thing that was kinda iffy about the pattern was the provisional cast on, but I looked up a tutorial on YouTube and did it easily with a length of crochet chain:

northernloop1Not as bad as I thought it would be!  Grafting it together at the end might be difficult, but I’ll just look up another tutorial for that later.

Well, that’s all the catch-up I have that I can think of right now.  I’m still editing the site so if you see anything that looks crazy (like the site title overlapping with the menu bar or something), please let me know.  I’m unsure how it will look on tablets or really large screens, but I’m trying to learn to use rem spacing instead of pixels in my CSS coding, so hopefully it won’t be too bad.

Let me know what ya’ll have been up to while I’ve been away!  I’m trying to catch up with everyone’s news!  Thanks for stopping by!

Filed Under: crochet, knitting Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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