Crazy Knitting Girls

A page of use(less)(ful) information about how to know if people want to gouge your eyes out with your sharp pointy needles, because you are knitting in their presence. THE HORROR!!!!! So I’ll name the place, and give you a few pointers about my experience. Bronach, feel free to add your stuff . . .
At school:

good signs:

*your teacher eyes your knitting admirably

*a direct quote from your teacher is “Knitting? I used to knit . . .” or even, “I always wanted to knit, but . . . I never learned”

*They seem interested in what you are knitting

*They have a page-a-day-calender on their desk of “365 knitting patterns”

*They have previously had a knitting friend of yours in their class and they say, “Oh look, another knitter!”

*They point out your knitting to other teachers (okay, so maybe that happened with a lunch lady, not a teacher, but still . . . )

etc. . .

Be sure to check the page for more updates.

*sighs* Well, my lace is slowly coming along. I’m just really afraid to block it, cuz i think that it is going to suck, especially since I’m on the pattern repeat of dropped stitches. I can’t knit it too much, though I need to knit on it more because I have only, like, five inches. If that. It is driving me insane. If only I were Bronach, and could memorize the pattern. That’s what’s driving me crazy. I keep having to look at the pattern. AAAAACK. And stitch counting is also really getting on my nerves. People, unless you are mentally stable, don’t knit lace!!

Like the Sock Knitter’s Diaries, I started these on alpaca12 and will continue them here. Go me.

Lace Knitter’s Diary February 24, 2007

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So. I’m still plodding along, though slowly dying in the process. I have done 2 and 1/2 pattern repeats now. I’m proud of that, though, this third pattern repeat is the pattern of dropped stitches, and I refuse to tink, so it’s really ruining the whole thing. Which sucks. It’s not very long, either, because I’m still trying to memorize the pattern, and I keep having to look at it. Also, I’m obsessed with counting stitches. And that is the cause of insane stitch zones. And then I can’t knit for the next two days. :-. *sighs*

Lace Knitter’s Diary February 14, 2007

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Over the weekend, I started a lacey shawl, thanks to Bronach, who’s main objective seems to be to make me go insane. The reason why I hate it so much is that it is my own design (my first big lace project, and she made me design it myself!!) She said, why don’t we both try to finish one by the end of the school year? So I duitifully took the yarn STRING from her and began to plot out a leafy chart. Ergh. That night, I spent over an hour just trying to cast on enough stitches. Now, I did half of the chart too soon, so the thing got botched in the first repeat. I’m going to have one line of lace twice, AND I’m missing one line. Now, I keep ending up with extra stitches, somehow.  The worst part is, I havent’ even repeated the whole chart once. Also, stupid me, I don’t have a border. If you people out there don’t stop me, I will start swearing about it. *is on a brain-dead lace high*

So. I was doing this on alpaca12, and will start it here. Here are all the previous sock knitter’s diaries.

Sock Knitter’s Diary – YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! February 24, 2007

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I FOUND MY ORIGINAL SOCK!!!!!! POWER TO THE SOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOW I CAN KNIT THAT PAIR AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE I’ll give a stick of gum for the first person who can guess where it was. *hangs head in shame*

Sock Knitter’s Diary

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Well, I pulled the plug yesterday. I pulled out my Regia sock. BUT IT WAS WORTH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was sucking greatly; my join was messed up, I had made a huge error in the writing of my pattern, and my mini-cables died. So now, I’m making a toe-up Regia sock. I think I have a join issue.

Sock Knitter’s Diary February 14, 2007

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So. I still can’t find my beautiful blue sock, and that SUCKS. However, thanks to Bronach I now own some regia , only mine is white. (I had some trouble navigating that site, I’ll tell you, because it was in German) With the Regia, I am knitting some cabled socks of my own invention. My join sucks, but I don’t really care all that much. So. . . How are your socks

Sock Knitter’s Diary January 28, 2007

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I STILL CAN’T FIND IT. I WILL DIE WITH THE SAME SOCK ON MY NEEDLES FOREVER!!!!!

Sock Knitter’s Diary January 25, 2007

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Well, I’m in the middle of a panic attack. I am notorious for my very messy room, but I might have to draw the line and deep clean it. For something terrible has happened. See, I made my one sock, right? That’s perfectly normal. But, well, it kinda got lost somewhere in it. So, it is missing. And I have a very limited yarn supply, and I don’t have it as a reference to see how long to make the leg, and I don’t want to run out of yarn, so . . . Yeah, I will just be stuck with something Magic Loop forever, and I’ll die. Waaah. I have to find it!

Sock Knitter’s Diary January 23, 2007

Posted by alpaca12 in Sock Knitter’s Diary. 2 comments 

January 22, 2007

So I started these at Christmas, right? I have one completely finished. It is lovely. It is a little big around my arches, but I don’t care. I made them out of a yarn that B got me from Sit & Knit I lost the ball band though. Bad Lily. The second one is still in the ribbing phase on the legs. It is over an inch now, so that is a good thing. I’ll see if I can find a digital camera to get pics of them soon.

Random observation . . . Whenever I tell ANYONE that I am knitting a sock, they say this:

“Just one?” or, “A sock?” And then I am forced to tell them either

a) You only knit them one at a time!
or b) Well, I already made one

Why are people so ignorant? Don’t they understand that a normal person doesn’t knit a pair of socks in one sitting? Seriously

Name: Catalina
Fiber Content: 70% Baby Alpaca, 30% Silk
Yardage: 218
Price per skein: $11.99
Price per yard: $0.055
Description of Yarn: I (Lily) LOVE IT!!!!!! Okay, so . . . It is very soft and nice. It doesn’t fall apart on you. Getting it wound into a ball makes you fill with joy. Fluffing the ball is a pleasure. The end product is bound to be lovely (unless your ex-puppy chews it up!!! ) I made these lovely “fetching” handwarmers out of mine. Also, it doesn’t really felt. See, I was a bad Lily, and let one of them run through the wash (ask bronach for the gory details) and it came out just a bit smaller, which was actually nice because they had been a bit baggy. So . . . Yeah. If you’re in the mood to splurge, this yarn ROCKS. w00t.
~Lily

I think Baby Silk is fab, but it’s not vegetarian (silk worms are killed to make it). There is also a cotton/alpaca and pure alpaca version of this yarn for us vegetarians!

-Bronach

Name: Patons Classic Wool Merino
Fiber Content: 100% Wool
Yardage: 223 yds
Price per Ball: $5.00
Price Per Yard: $0.02
Description of Yarn: I love this yarn for several reasons. It’s all wool, it’s pretty soft, it felts, it’s dirt cheap, and you can get it at your Craft Megamart any time. It comes in a billion colors and is a good yarn to stock up on.

-Bronach

These can also be found on the Yarn page.

Contrary to popular beleif, I am still alive and knitting. I apolgozie that I haven’t been here for a while, but my wonderful evil nondescript lace shawl has been consuming my life, along with the sock that I have been missing for years. Please understand. We’ll try to put some patterns on as well, we promise. Okay. And I hereby pledge to post at least once a week. So yeah

~Lily (even though I’m logged in @ Bronach’s house)

Ditto.

-Bronach

Once, I tried knitting Tubey. It didn’t turn out to well (The top was the right size but the bottom was HUGE) so I ripped out the bottom and was about to do the same with the top. Just for fun, I tried it on.

I like it a lot, actually. It was fun to knit and I highly recommend it. Also, I got a lot of compliments at school.

(Yes, that is my unnatural disaster room in the background. How did you guess?)

Thought I’d alert any teen knitter out to Pheonix Bess. She’s a 14 year old (as of now) knitwear designer. Though some of her stuff isn’t really my thing, you might like her.
-Bronach

Or not. Personally, I’m not really into the whole “love” thing, but whatever. To the point. I am notorious for doing things at last minute, including Valentine’s Day Cards. And obviously, I love to knit. So last night, the Knitted (Sort of) Valentine was created! We had a snow day today, so I decided to make a little tutorial. Enjoy!

Materials
Extremely Sharp Scissors
Clear tape
A store bought, mostly plain card (no pictures or saying on the inside)
One ball of super-bulky ribbon yarn, I used Dynasty Yarns Osaka in Bright Multi colorway
Size US 15/10.0 mm needles

1. With sz 15 needles and yarn, CO 6 stitches. Work in St stitch (K one row, P one row) for 6 rows. BO. You should now have a square-ish shaped thing about three inches across. If it’s not exactly three inches, that’s okay.

2. Now take the Extremely Sharp Scissors and find a spot in the center of the front of the card. Cut out a heart shape roughly 2 1/2 by 2 1/2 inches across or smaller. Save the heart shape you cut out. Later, you will need it.

3. Open the card, and tape the knitted swatch over the heart-shaped hole so the knit side shows through the front of the card.

4.Place it over the bottom of the card to from a sort of mini-border. You can fasten it with tape on the back and inside of the card.
(My card said “Thank you” on it at first, so I taped it over that.)

5. Put a loop of tape on the back of the cut-out heart, and stick it in the middle of the page where the message would usually go.

6. Write in card.

7. Give card to someone, perferably a knitter. Happy Valentine’s Day!

These are places I love to knit (and I assume Lily does as well):

5. While walking around new, touristy, and slightly boring places. – Tip: Simple knits are good. Striping is a no-no. You don’t want to experience the rather awkward feeling you get when you realize one of the six balls of your you’ve been holding in your satchel is actually trailing two block behind you and across a street.
4. At sleepovers. Everyone else is lying around, talking and fiddling with the zippers on their sleeping bags. But you… you are prepared with your trust sticks and string! No boring zipper fiddling for you.
3. While reading. This is good if your book can lay still without you having to hold it down with your elbow.
2. On the bus or on car trips. It’s fun. But don’t knit something lacy. The bus will inevitably bounch, hurling your stitches from the needles.
1. In class, during lectures of presentations. If you can knit without looking and still talk to people, see if your teacher will let you knit in class. It can turn a boring lecture into a boring lecture with knitting. Way better.

~Bronach

Some of Lily’s personal favorite places:

1. In the car. I’m assuming that we’ve all been on long, boring car rides. I’m going on one this weekend, so if anyone there sees a deranged looking female with a hideous tangle of lace on her needles and loose threads hanging everywhere, that’s me. However, the car is ideal, especially if you’re like my mother, and reading in the car makes you sick. Unless you have a zillion pieces of crap around you, which I normally do, the car is a perfect place. You have basically two + hours to work on anything. Just be sure to take your coat off, or else when you drop a stitch, you’ll be too puffy to pick it up.

2. On walks outings. Bronach and I love to walk to the local farmer’s market. When it’s warm enough to have your fingers unhindered by fingerless gloves. Knitted fingerless gloves, that is. Donned with knitting, we venture out into the world of normal people, who like to stare in astonishment as we knit even the dumbest colorful acrylic squares. The downisde is that you have to sit and stop knitting in order to drink your chai latte.

3. In class. Okay, I’m bragging a bit, but I have even mastered knitting in the hallway. Which is hard to do with the huge pile of crap that I cary around. It is only knitting (and reading books in French) that saves me from the evil of my Spanish Teacher. I have found that most of my teachers don’t care if I knit or not. Generally, you can tell. If a teacher looks at you and says, “Wow. Knitting. I could never get the hang of that!” Then you know that you are okay. If they kinda just don’t mention it, then that is also okay. If they give you the”Stare” then you might want to go back to the Garter Stich scarf that you could hide under your desk and pretend you weren’t working on instead of staring more at your lace pattern that the teacher can’t read. The thing is, I think, that they are jeleous that your complex-but-sucky pattern-that-they-can’t-read then them. Yeah. Or, you could always ask.

4. On vacation. All I have to say about this is that I’m going to Indianapolis over the weekend, and I sure as heck plan to bring at least two things to work on!!!

5. At Bronach’s house. No, seriously, if it weren’t for her, I probably wouldn’t still be knitting. She is so devoted that she always inspires me to get going on something fun. I don’t like to be in her presence without a project. Also, she is such a great knitter, that she always inspires me to do more than I would normally. Thank you.

~Lily