ravelry bundles question

August 18, 2015 by 11 Comments

First, if you’re not on Ravelry, you should be!  It’s my favorite source for free and paid patterns alike, and you can filter your searches for super specific results (as well as a bunch more awesome features).

To the point, though, they’ve added another way to organize your favorites.  It’s called “bundles,” and it looks like this:

image

Looks kind of like Pinterest boards, don’t you think?

My question, however, is this:  What kind of bundles do you make?  As you can see I’ve got a bunch of tags already for organizational purposes, so I don’t know what bundles to make that wouldn’t be superfluous, but I really want to use them because they look so nice!

Do you alrady have bundles, and if so, what do you call them?

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what’s on the bookshelf? books with knitting & crochet

July 18, 2015 by 7 Comments

My mini-series of posts about crafting books is coming to a close.  My knitting books and my crocheting books are great, but I have a couple  left to share that actually have both in them (& more).

Hannah's Crafty Books

 

First up is a book called Freeform Style, and just by the name you can probably tell it’s very whimsical.

Freeform Style

 

I have not made anything from it yet, but some of the ideas and techniques are cool and can be applied to other items.  Who else kinda thinks the hat looks like octopus tentacles?  I really like the wrap she’s wearing, though, so that might be a nice pattern to make!  Here’s another example:

Freeform Style example

I do like the idea of using both knitting and crochet in the same piece.

This next one though, while it has knitting, crochet, and embroidery patterns, doesn’t really mix them together like that.  This is more of a traditional book that, while older, is a great resource.  It’s the Better Homes and Gardens Complete Book of Knitting Crochet & Embroidery.  My ex’s mom gave this to me and I’m really glad I still have it:

Knitting Crochet & Embroidery

 

It has samples of various techniques for all of these specific crafts, and it even has specific methods such as aran knitting:

Knitting Crochet & Embroidery example

Another specific method it demonstrates is filet crochet:

Knitting Crochet & Embroidery example

 

And then of course it has full patterns, too.  I really want to make this hat (I tried back when I first got it but was still too new to crochet to understand the slightly older way of writing patterns):

Knitting Crochet & Embroidery example

 

Well, that concludes my bookshelf tour (well, my knitting and crochet book section, at least)!  Hope you enjoyed it.  Thanks for stopping by, see you soon!

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

yaaaaaaaaaarn!

September 29, 2012 by 5 Comments

I’m so excited — I’ve got some new goods!  Usually I’d post new yarn on my crochet page but I know ahead of time that this is for knitting.  My parents got me this yarn for my birthday!

Those first two pictures are of two kinds of sock yarn.  I’m going to make two of this cowl, one for my mom, and one for one of her friends.  The pattern calls for chunky yarn and bigger needles, but I’m going to use this sock yarn and some smaller needles to make more of a necklace type thing (that’s what she wanted).  We’ll see how it goes.

This lovely multi-hued blue fingering weight yarn is for this shawl.  Can’t wait for that one!

And I’m not sure what this will be for, actually.  It’s enough to make a hat.  It’s the softest yarn I’ve ever felt — it’s Royal Alpaca — and it is gorgeous!  The picture doesn’t do it justice.  It’s actually more of a neon yellow-green…

So that’s my new mini-stash, and I can’t wait to get started!  But that’s not all the new stuff: my parents also got me something not related to yarn.  The new Fame perfume by Lady Gaga.  You may be thinking “ew, perfume by celebrities is always really gross,” and normally I agree, but this stuff is great!  My parents liked it, my boyfriend likes it, and I love it!

That’s still not all, though.  I also got this for my birthday:

It’s the KnitPicks Sunstruck Interchangeable Needle Set, which includes needles sizes 4-11 (including 10.5), two each of cables 24″ and 32″, vinyl needle case and vinyl cable pouch, end caps, and cable keys.  I also got two 40″ cables, some cable connectors, and some size tags.  I’m so excited.

You can imagine how incredibly happy I am with all these awesome new knitting things.  I can’t wait to get started, but for tonight I might just stare at it all, grinning goofily.  Although honestly, while I’m really happy, I also feel guilty for having so much new knitting stuff when my boyfriend and I are struggling so much, even though it is for my birthday.  His birthday last month was terrible — I didn’t have the money to do what I wanted to do for him and he didn’t get any presents.  I tried to make up for it later when I did have some money but it still wasn’t enough.  I’m really grateful for everything I have, and I want to make my boyfriend as happy as I am by being the best girlfriend I can be.

Well, that’s all for today.  You can of course look for posts soon of my progress with those projects.

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