favorite stuff & online shopping

March 31, 2013 by 12 Comments

For both crocheting and knitting, I have come to regard some particular items as special favorites.  I want to share with you in case you may be looking for something similar!  I’ll start off with basic tools:

toolsMy lavender lotion bar is AMAZING in both smell and feel.  Check out the Lavishea website!  I mean, you need to take care of your hands that do so much work to make such lovely things!  Also, my Westcott sewing scissors that were given to me by my mom are the best — they’ve stayed sharp since I started crocheting all those years ago and the handles are nice and comfy.  The Cath Kidston tape measure I’ve shown you before, I know, but it bears looking at it again because it’s so darn cute!  Can’t get it on the US website though — you have to go to England!

susan bates hooksThese are my favorite metal hooks, and ironically they were gifted me by my horrible ex’s mother.  They’re old Susan Bates hooks, I believe (although they don’t actually have a brand name on them), sizes H-8 (5mm) and J-10 (6mm).  I use the H hook for everything possible.  Now I actually have some hook sets that my great grandmother owned, and those of course are my real favorites, but I don’t use those much because I’m scared of losing them.  There’s a regular set and a tiny steel hook set, and they mean a lot to me.

brittany hooksThese Brittany wooden hooks are my favorite wooden ones because of the actual hook shape and the fancy ends!  Pictured are D-3 (3.25mm) and J-10 (6mm).  I haven’t found these in the States either, and I only recently found them available online at Deramores.  I think I’ll be getting more of these soon!

newhook1This older, square, discolored picture shows a lovely antique hook made of bone.  It’s size E-4 (3.5mm).  Small but gorgeous!

knitting toolsThese are my favorite knitting tools — Brittany knitting needles and cable needles are available in the US, and I love these cable needles.  This is also the only pretty handmade stitch marker I’ve got, so I love it!

straightsEven though I don’t use straight needles too much since I’ve got a lovely circular set that does the job, I do love these cute ChiaoGoo ones!  Yes, they’re bamboo, but they’ve held up pretty well so far.  I don’t even like cats that much (I mean they’re great, but they make me sneeze) but these are so cute!

I got a couple of extras, like extra cables, ID tags, and cable joins.And of course my favorite circular knitting needles are my KnitPicks Sunstruck interchangeable needles!  These are the same as the KnitPro Harmony needles, for those of you in Europe.  These are awesome because, as I’ve said many times before, they have such nice sharp points and they don’t split on me like the bamboo circulars do.

And as far as DPNs, I just ordered the KnitPicks Sunstruck 6″ DPN Set — I know already that they’ll be my favorite!  I know I’m short on cash and I should probably have waited for these, but these will be worth it.  I’m going to use them for some Christmas ornaments that I’m going to give as Christmas gifts this year!  Of course that means I also bought the Christmas book by Arne & Carlos from KnitPicks as well, so I can get started.  (After my dad bought me the Easter Knits book by them, I’ve been astounded that I hadn’t heard of them before and I’m really excited about their stuff!)  I still need the yarn for the Christmas ornaments, but it will be cheap yarn, and overall it will save us A LOT of money on gifts this year!  I’ll just have to wait a bit longer on the yarn…

In my KnitPicks order I also tossed in two balls of Dishie Multi Yarn in Cottage (25849), just because it’s absolutely gorgeous and cheerful and it’ll make some great washcloths or dishcloths that I can also use as gifts!  It’s not the softest cotton but that’s why it’s designed for things that get wet all the time and take a lot of wear.  Here’s the colorway:

I spent a good bit, but at least I qualified for free shipping… It was a bit of an impulse buy…  I’m sorry, Mom.  😦  As hard as it is to believe, I actually am getting better… Ugh, now I feel all guilty!  I really do shop smart, though — the DPN set saves money when compared to buying them all separately, and getting the book from a US distributor saved me money there, too!  And the yarn’s not really expensive, either.  Look at me, trying to justify my shopping.  I guess I should have just waited until I had more money to spend, even though they’re all great buys.  *sigh*

Anyway, I feel like I’m starting to ramble, so I’ll sign off for now.  I know I said I’d hold off on the posts but I’ve still got 7 more topics to post about, not counting any projects I’m working on.  Thanks for stopping by!  I’m sure I’ll break down and post again within the next few days, so check back soon!

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back to the yarn: Easter eggs

March 26, 2013 by 15 Comments

I tried the pattern for the Easter eggs in this book:

easterknitsbookAnd I’ve got a lot to share about it!  Firstly, I made 2 of them with more leftover Stylecraft Special DK and some 6in. 3.25mm DPNs that I had lying around (they’re not KnitPicks, but they were OK).  So I wanted to start out with an egg that consists of only 2 colors, not being too confident in my abilities.  Here’s the picture in the book of it:

heneggIt’s got hens going around it!  How cute!  Not being too comfortable with DPNs, I was nervous with this ungainly looking beginning:

henegg1Even at this point, I was thinking the whole thing might just be a recipe for disaster:

henegg2It started to look pretty good, though, and even the back looked pretty decent:

henegg3And here’s the finished egg:

henegg5I think it turned out great!  A little bigger than I expected, but super-cute.  I had a problem, though, with the increases at the beginning.  Here’s how the book says to do increases:

easterincreasesHave you ever seen that before?  It turned out to be really difficult for me, and very frustrating, so I started using a crochet hook to get into that stitch and pull a loop through.  For my second egg, therefore, I decided to use M1L and M1R increases instead, and it looked almost exactly the same.  Here’s the book’s example of the second egg I made:

fabergeeggAnd here’s how that one went:

fabergeegg2I like it a lot, although perhaps I should have picked more contrasting colors than the pink and blue/green.  Here are the two eggs together:

eggsThe second one is a little smaller, and I’m not sure if it’s because I’m getting tighter with my DPN skills or if I pulled the yarns too tight when changing colors.  In any case, I love both of them!

I also apologize for the darker pictures — I took the pictures of the eggs at 3AM, right when I finished them, so it was very dark in the house.

That’s all for today, except I want to say thanks to everyone who responded to my last post about rape culture.  It sparked some conversations on and off the Internet, and that’s really what I wanted, so thanks!  And thanks for stopping by again — I’ll be posting again soon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Easter and gifts

March 21, 2013 by 11 Comments

My dad just got back from a trip to England and Scotland, and he brought me back a couple of things I want to share with you.  First, this t-shirt:

elephanthouseThat’s the logo on the front for a cafe in Edinburgh called The Elephant House.  The back says “The Elephant House: Birthplace of Harry Potter.”  JKR started writing the first books in that cafe.  I ate there last time I was in Edinburgh (and it was delicious) but neglected to purchase a souvenir t-shirt, so my dad got me one.  I love it!  He also got me a knitting book:

easterknitsbookI’ve never been one for Easter decorations but I couldn’t help loving these patterns.  They could actually be considered decorations for any season, depending on the colors used.  I just love all the pretty balls and eggs:

easterknitseggtreeSuper cute!  Here’s a closeup of the tulip egg:

easterknitseggI want to make one so badly, but I’m afraid my knitting skills might not be quite up to it yet — tiny double point needles and changing colors combined sounds like a recipe for disaster.  I thought about adapting the charts to make some crochet eggs instead, but if you’ve ever tried crochet intarsia (changing the colors to make a pattern or picture) in the round you’ll know that everything slants a bit to the right.  A crocheted egg made to look like the tulip one above would just look like wind was bowling the tulips over.  Looks like I’ll have to beast out some knitting and at least try it.  I just need some tiny needles and yarn…  KnitPicks, here I come!

Wasn’t that sweet of my dad though, to think of me on his trip?  And he’s not the only one who’s been sweet.  I never mentioned a certain gift I received for Christmas from my friend Lauren.  She and her husband actually got me quite a few really awesome things, but I wanted to share this bowl with you:

laurensbowlLauren made it herself!  She’s been doing pottery for a few months now, I believe, and this handmade bowl she gave me is perfect for holding my crochet/knitting notions!  It’s nice because I don’t have to rummage through my pencil case looking for the needles at the bottom anymore (I wasn’t comfortable with leaving them out on the table or sofa arm, because my dog ate a sewing needle a couple of years ago and getting it out of her tummy was a horrendous and expensive experience).  The bowl is gorgeous and I’m really happy.

Big thank yous to Lauren and my Dad!  And thank YOU for stopping by my blog today!

[EDIT]: If you’re not enraged about the Steubenville rape, sentence, and media coverage, or if you haven’t heard about it at all, read this and this, please.  If these words, pictures, and videos upset you, please speak out in some way.

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up for suggestions

March 7, 2013 by 18 Comments

Hello everyone!  I’m in a bit of a lull as far as my cardigan and other projects are going, so I was wondering if there’s anything else in particular you would like to see me post.

stash1

I’ve got some scrap yarn; would you like to see more knitting tutorials or more crochet tutorials?  I’ve got tons more stitch variations and patterns up my sleeves.  Would you like me to talk about/review my favorite yarns?  Would you like to see my latest Ravelry or Pinterest favorites?  Would you like me to do a Crochet Along project?  (By the way, is it Kosher to do CALs with other people’s patterns, or should I stick to my own?  I’ve never done a CAL or KAL before.)  Would you like to get to know me more through a “day-in-the-life-of” post?  I’m open for suggestions.  What do you want to see?

Please comment with any suggestions or questions, and thanks for stopping by!

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still alive…

March 4, 2013 by 9 Comments

Sorry it’s been so long.  I’ve been super-busy and pretty stressed.  As promised, however, I do have a knitting picture for you:

paulieonHere’s my paulie cardigan so far.  The edges are rolling a bit but you get the idea.  It definitely fits and will be perfect once the band with the buttons and buttonholes is added at the end!  Please excuse the dirty mirror and my wrinkled t-shirt.  You can tell I don’t have it all together at the moment.  You can also tell I still haven’t done much work on the cardigan.

My car is fixed, $700 later (shoutout of thanks to my parents for helping a lot).  Took a week, so I’m a bit behind in internship hours now.

This weekend I went to the South Carolina Counselors Association annual conference in Hilton Head.  I was hoping to network and find a job, but not a single resume was passed out.  At least I learned a bit about how to get licensed, and because of that knowledge I’m thinking about moving to Charlotte, North Carolina (which is about 30 minutes away from my town and has higher requirements for licensure, so I’d get more supervision).

While I do like knitting a lot and have been doing a lot of it as of late, I’m still devoted to crochet.  When I come home and want to do something easy, relaxing, and quick, crochet is definitely my fave.  I just haven’t had any good ideas for projects lately, and nothing has really jumped out at me.  Honestly I love the pattern for the ripple blanket, so much I would like to do a third one (first, second), but I don’t really need more blankets and the yarn really does cost too much to make one as a gift.  Not that I don’t like making gifts — I love it — but when it comes to spending large amounts of money, time, and effort on a project I feel like most recipients wouldn’t appreciate everything that went into such a gift.  People like my parents would, but they’ve got so many crocheted items already I’m not really sure they’d want more, haha.  *sigh*  I do love making blankets…

Well, that’s all for today.  Thanks so much for stopping by!

 

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