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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2 more stitch tutorials up, plus other stuff

March 12, 2013 by 15 Comments

I’m pleased to introduce two more stitch tutorials!  Please welcome the cluster stitch and the pineapple stitch to the crochet tutorial family!

cluster stitch

cluster stitch

pineapple stitch

pineapple stitch

I hope you like them!  If you have any questions feel free to ask!  Now on to the other stuff…

I took a trip to my local yarn shop today, seeing as how it’s been a really long time since I’ve been and I always love buying yarn (who doesn’t?).  After perusing their usual wares for some time, I realized that I was finding all of their usual prices to be really high.  I suppose it’s because my most recent yarn purchases have been such good online deals that I’m finding the store’s prices so exorbitant.  I’ve always preferred buying from the LYS because I want to support the local business and I really like feeling the yarn before I buy it, and the only reason I started buying online is because the LYS has a rather limited and unchanging selection.  So now I’m thinking that I’m probably going to take most of my business to the Internet because there’s more yarny variety and it’s so much cheaper, but I can’t help feeling a twinge of guilt, abandoning the LYS like that.

What do you prefer?  Do you have a nice yarn store near you that you prefer, or do you purchase your necessities online?  Perhaps a combination of both?  I’m interested to see how many people in the current day and age buy online versus in-store.

Thanks for stopping by!

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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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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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knitting the second cowl

October 9, 2012 by 5 Comments

Remember how I’m making two cowls for my mom (one for her, one for a friend)?  I’m using this pattern from Ravelry to make it but I’m doing it in thinner yarn and adapting the pattern a bit.  She wants something thinner — more like a necklace.  Well, here’s how far I am on #2:

This one’s going much slower, and it’s not just because I’ve already done one and the novelty has worn off.  That’s not it at all, really — this one I’m making with a thinner yarn but the same needles.  The first cowl was sock weight, and this yarn is about half that size.  It will be much more lacy, which I think will look equally cool, but it’s taking longer because I’m not used to working with such lightweight yarn.  It keeps sliding through my hands so my tension is wonky and I have to keep adjusting to keep it right.

As you can see, my knitting is resting on my laptop, which is in turn resting on the arm of the couch.  My boyfriend is often taking up the TV with his video gaming (which is fine), so I usually sit here on the couch, using my computer to watch movies/TV or listen to audiobooks with my headphones on.  When a pattern is difficult for me, I’ll postpone those things in favor of turning all my attention towards my knitting, but for stuff like this cowl, which is an easy pattern, I like to listen to things.

Do you do things while you knit?  If so, what?  I need some new ideas — I’ve practically memorized all of my audiobooks and movies (lines and musical scores).

Thanks for stopping by, hope you visit again soon!

 

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