Knitting Bag!

I'm so excited! I finally have my knitting bag! I've been wanting one forever and today I finally have it. After the reunion today, Mom and I found this neat little store that had all kinds of things in it. There were two rows of bags of all sizes. This was the one that really caught my eyes. I know I know, me and my bags right? :D (I have this, obsession I suppose, with getting pretty bags I like.)



And the most important thing about a knitting bag: pockets. The size is right for most of my projects. But the only thing that has been holding me back from using a bag I already have as my knitting back is that I need it to be the right size and have good pockets. The ones on this bag are deep and half of them are inside where there is no worry of losing anything.



Now the only thing left is to set it up for use. Deciding where everything will go and how might take some times before I'm completely happy. But the best part about this is that now I can grab it and go when I'm leaving the house. No more "Okay.. which one do I take and will it fit in my purse or do I have to carry it in my hands?"

New yarn!

Yesterday, I got more yarn to add to my small stash of new yarn I'd ordered from Knit Picks. I think my new yarn total comes to around $60. That's the most yarn I've ever bought in a short amount of time. Good news is that it should last me for awhile. And no more new yarn until I get a job. I really do need to jump back into looking for a job..


A lot of it is actually Lily cotton yarn. Mostly for dishcloths a couple other random projects.

Whats currently on my needles

This past week has been really busy with company coming and going almost all week. So I haven't really been knitting much. There have been a couple things I kept meaning to blog about but I never seemed to get around to it. I've really been slacking off in my blogging lately. My livejournal has updates for the last three days but none of them are finished yet.

Remember how I said I wanted to use up my Red Heart yarn? I think I figured out the best way. Instead of doing small knitting projects like scarves and hats, I decided to crochet myself an afghan. It will also teach me how to do granny squares, something Mom tried to teach me a long time ago and I just wasn't ready. xD She already gave me a quick run through, plus I have a link to two pretty good videos showing the same thing. Speaking of videos, I found one that taught me how to do cabling. <3 Now I can make myself a pair of nice fingerless gloves with cables on them. I have yet to make myself fingerless gloves because I've been scared of cables. Not anymore!

I don't have pictures of anything yet but I'm working on a pair of easy cabled fingerless gloves found on Knitty and an afghan that I'd like to get done before the 21st of June (Litha). It'll probably end up being just a throw for anyone when they get chilly or need something to sleep under. When I get better yarn, I'll make seasonal alter cloths for my alter. I also need to figure out how I'm going to knit a few snake bags for Dad for his birthday. We're going to line them otherwise the snakes would probably get out of small holes but thats something he can really use. I'll make a couple for me too so we don't have to keep using pillowcases for my snake.

I'm also going to try to at least get a Slytherin scarf made before the sixth Harry Potter movie comes out in July. I'm making it smaller so I can stand to wear it in July. Plus I'm not one for huge scarves. I'm not 100% sure I'll use up all the skeins with the scarf, but even most of them would be great, since I got the scarf colors in Red Heart yarn. xD Now that I know where my local LYS is, I can go there for any more of my yarn needs, especially once I get my license and have my own car.

Using up yarn stash

I've decided to work on projects that aren't really for any one in particular at the moment so I can use up part of my yarn stash. My yarn stash is mostly made up of two different kinds of yarn - Red Heart and Caron Simply Soft. I like the Caron yarn a lot better than the Red Heart so I've decided to use it up in projects that aren't that important to me. I think I gave about half of it back to Mom (since she was the one who gave it to me anyway) and kept most of the blues and blacks for myself. After all, they are the colors I prefer working with.

Does anyone have any pattern suggestions on things I could do to use up the yarn? Right now I'm working on a 2x2 ribbed scarf and I have a couple other scarf ideas. I don't only want to do scarves though. They just go pretty quick and can use up a lot of yarn. But I know I'll get bored of scarves after awhile so any suggestions would be wonderful.

I might get a picture up of the scarf I'm currently working later today but we'll have to see.

Bedford LYS

After some online searching a few days ago, I found that there is a LYS in Bedford, VA which is not even a full hour from me. So Mom took me to it yesterday and if I had called, I would have known they were closed. >_<;; But I didn't. Still, we're going to go sometime next week and I'm really excited. I've only ever been in one LYS and that was before I knew about all the different kinds of yarn and stuff. Now that I'm learning more about it, I'm quite excited!

Why is it so impossible?

Why is it so literally impossible to knit with bamboo needles? The tension is hard as hell, even when I casted on over both needles and pulled the second out to have a loose cast on. The cable is thicker than what I'm used to by 2x or more. I tried every way I can think of to get them to work and they just won't. If I was doing something that needed all 29" they might work. But doing magic loop on these needles is impossible. And they're the only circulars I don't have with something except my two US size 6 16"s.And I was hoping to use magic loop instead of having to use 2 circulars.

Oh how I need to get a bigger needle supply...

Interchangeable Needles

As I was looking at what kind of hat I could make myself that was pretty easy, I found a pattern that needed size 13s. And I use circulars for most things. When I went to knitpicks to see how much a pair would be, I found the only way to get a pair of size 13 16” circulars was to use interchangeable needles. I’ve actually thought about the idea of getting interchangeable needles for awhile now. I just don’t have the money to do it and while the ones I have are what I need, don’t see too much of a need for them. Once I have the money, I’ll probably get the kit of them found here.

Until then, the next time Mom says she wants to get me some supplies, I’ll probably pick out a cord and needle size. I told her that when she wants to get me something relating to knitting, to just give me a price limit because its so much easier going on knitpicks and finding exactly what I want than going into a store in the hopes they’ll have what I want. Plus, I love knitpicks needles way more.

Yay!!!

I'm really excited~ A few days ago Mom found another craft store in town called AC Moore. They have lots of Lily Sugar 'n Cream like Ben Franklin does in Richmond so that makes her happy, plus its less than it is anywhere else.

What makes me happy is that they have a bunch of the yarn Ben Franklin has in Richmond (or the one we had a chance to go to on the 15th when we were there last) and its close by so that makes me happy. Plus~ They have 16" circulars! I got US size 2 16" and US size 3 29" thinking that for socks, magic loop should work on 29"s. I also got something I've been wanting for awhile: a cable needle. Now there's nothing stopping me from learning cabling once I finish my friend's scarf and my brother's hat.

The final thing I got makes my really really excited~ xD Its the Spring 2009 issue of Interweave Knits. I first heard about it from turvid's blog. She's a knitter who I really admire some of the things she comes up with and how much she gets done in a short amount of time. She's also been knitting a long so I'm sure I'll get better and faster as I continue knitting. Practice makes perfect, right?

Need more needles

Srsly. I need more knitting needles and some days its driving me nuts to have as big of a supply as I want. Someone please give me a couple hundred dollars to splurge on knitting. That would make me *so* happy. Right now my focus is on circulars because I ♥ them. My supply is as follows:

2 16" size 6 metal
2 16" size 8 metal (just ordered, should be here in a week)
1 29" size 8 bamboo
1 29" size 8 plastic
1 32" size 8 metal

Not much of a variety, now is there? With the stores around here not carrying much, I really don't have much I have access to. The plastics were given to me by Mom who's friend didn't want them.

As you can tell, I'm mostly using 6s and 8s right now but I think I'm going to be brave (6 is the smallest I've used although I have size 4 straights) and get a size smaller than 6 next time I go to a store where I have a bunch of needle options. That'll probably be the 4th since its my nephew's party that day.