2 posts tagged “yarn”

well, i've been severely lacking in my efforts to crank out my hand knitted projects for the upcoming holiday season. yes, i realize it's already november! and i just barely finished a project today. a couple of posts ago,i mentioned that mantra for the day was "knit two, purl two" and i am happy to report that that is the project i finally finished today. it is for my little boyfriend (that's what he tells me...that he's my boyfriend) but he's actually the soon-to-be-4-years-old son of some friends of mine. his two favorite colors are...orange and green. and the minute i combined the two colors, the only thing i could think of was "peas and carrots" and so i have dubbed it the peas and carrots scarf.

this came as a result of a day devoted mainly to knitting in a mad effort to create as many gifts as possible. i'm sure i'm being overambitious, but at this point, i refuse to be pessimistic about this venture. i had minimal distractions (food, nap, and a quick trip to michael's) and so in light of the completed peas and carrots scarf, i have begun not one, not two, not three, but four, yes FOUR new projects.  and i already had one on the needles with the holidays in mind, which brings the project tally to 5.

the one on the needles, as mentioned in a previous post, utilizes a very pretty Silk Garden yarn by Noro. i hope the recipient will love it, as this color mix yarn contains many colors that this particular friend of mine likes. done in a simple garter stitch on size 10.5 needles, it is currently my most worrisome project as the yarn has a tendency to tear.

the new projects started today all use Lion Brand Jiffy yarn - from a previous shopping trip to Joann when they had the yarn on sale. as the Jiffy is a slightly bulkier weight than worsted weight yarn, it is easy to see progress, especially if done on big needles.

project #1 - "salem" pastel mix scarf - this is a very, very simple scarf, and as i write this i want to say that i'm already at 1/3 of the length that i want it to be. i'm using size 17 needles, and only 16 stitches across in a garter stitch, it really is a fast knit.

project #2 & #3 - the "basketweave" scarves - i'm using the same basketweave pattern to create these two scarves. i'm knitting #2 in a beautiful "wine" color on size 11 needles, and #3 is being knitted in a really pretty "violet" on size 13 needles. at this point, the two different size needles are only showing a slight difference in the knitted fabric, but i'm sure as time and length wear on on these scarves, i'll see a bigger difference.

project #4 - "grass green" 2 x2 rib scarf - i must confess to having a bit of a love affair with this particular 2 x 2 rib knit. i've already done several scarves in my short knitting career in this stitch - the only variance being the number of stitches used. i also did not intend to start this project today. on my trip to michael's today, i found that they were having a sale on the Lion Brand Jiffy yarn and so the "grass green" color was an impulse purchase. i have been wanting to knit a scarf for a particular friend as she lives in an area that sees snow regularly - and one of her favorite colors is green. she prefers earthy tones. and i know she'll get good use out of it. heck, i get good use out of my scarves - but maybe that's because i am scarf obsessed in southern california. even if i'm wearing short sleeves i have a scarf in case my neck gets cold. lol.

and since there are still a couple of quality knitting hours to be had before i go to bed, i'm off.

that seems to be the mantra going over and over in my head.

i realize now, that i probably should have started some of my xmas knitting projects a lot sooner than i already have, but hindsight is 20/20, what can you do? i am just rolling with it and hoping that i can crank out what i would like to by the time gift giving rolls around. this year has been a roller coaster with ups and downs (a *lot* of downs) and sometimes the motivation isn't always there.

so far...i have begun work on 2 projects that will be given away as xmas gifts. one one (the "knit two, purl two" project), i figure i'm about 1/3 done on it. i made a little more progress on it just before coming to the computer to blog about it.  for the other project, i started it with this beautiful yarn by Noro that i had only bought 2 balls of. yesterday, i went back to the yarn shop i got it at, hoping that they would at least have the same color if not the same dye lot, but lo and behold! luck was with me as not only did the shop have the same color, but the same dye lot as the 2 balls i already had. so i purchased 3 more, completely satisfied that i would now have enough to finish the project.

i told myself that i would not start any more projects for xmas until at least one of the two was completed, and i'm anxious to get back to them. a couple of weeks back, i saw that one of my favorite yarns by Lion, the Jiffy, was on sale at Joann. it had been at least a few months since i had been to any Joann...regardless of which shop i'd been to, the yarn selection (for the yarns i like, anyway) has always been less than spectacular.  so i went to Joann, and i had to re-learn the layout of the whole store as they had completely renovated the interior, along with the layout. on my first pass through the yarns, i didn't see that yarn at all, and was about to get angry that why would they not have any of the yarn that they advertised on sale?! and wandered through other sections to get a feel for where everything was.  then i came back to the yarns and paid more attention, and found the Jiffy yarns! i bought out what they had of the pearl grey and violet, and bought some burgundy, and also one ball each of a pretty girly pastel mix and a heather blue. that night, i got home and pulled out a small notebook to make notes of the various projects, and now i can't find the notebook! go figure. it'll turn up soon enough, i'm sure.

to stray away from the knitting, i now realize i need a new digital camera. a few years ago, i purchased the Sony Cybershot and was happy with it, but on a recent outing to Disneyland with some friends, i realized that something was off. at first i thought it was the LCD, but the more my friends and i played around with it, the more we figured something was wrong either internally or in the lens. so i've been shopping around for a new digital camera. while i love the cybershot, i think my next camera will be the Panasonic Lumix.

Lumix

it boasts of a Leica lens and 7.2 mega-pixels. that's better than what i had on the cybershot. i need to get it soon....before the holidays roll in...