A sixth scarf.... and a little OOPS!

I made this scarf in two days, basically. It could be made in 2-3 hours, really. It's the same pattern I used for the green and gold scarves, but I made this wider. I told the friend I made this for that it reminded me of a muppet. Good thing she loves Cookie Monster! You can't tell in this camera phone pic, but it's blue.

In other news, as I was binding off this scarf I quickly noticed that I had bound off too early. I had three stitches left and no yarn to bind it off, let along to finish. Yikes! Usually I have a little too much left. SO I put the yarn to the side and tried to think of how I could fix it. The solution actually took a while for me to come up with, which is embarassing. Basically I frogged two-three rows and then put it back on the needles. It got a little twisted, which was easy to fix, and then I was able to bind it off correctly. Shew! Crisis averted and scarf number six is now in the books!

Keep on knittin'!

Oops - another one!

I forgot to post this pic of my friend Olga's scarf. The cell phone doesn't do it justice - very pretty yarn. I hope she likes it :). This is actually a wine colored scarf - hard to tell from this. Various shading, though, as you can tell. It's a cute pattern. It didn't pick it up well in the photo, unfortunately.

Scarf five.... finito!

I finished the scarf for my friend Colleen. I hope she likes it. I originally had some fancy black yarn, but it shed too much I knew she'd be unhappy. I think the silver will look great with her black coat. Crossing my fingers that she likes it...

Aw, Knots!

I guess this happens to every knitter sooner rather than later. Their first experience with knots in the skein. I hadn't experienced it until I bought some yarn for a scarf I'm making for my friend for her birthday. The yarn is Patons Shetland Chunky. It's a wool/acrylic blend. It's not scratchy, and I absolutely love knitting with it. I don't love, however, that the first skein I knitted from was a tangled/knotted mess. It had both ends in the center. Usually there is one on the outside and in the center. What a pain! I spent almost as much time trying to untangle the yarn and then make a ball as I did actually knitting that skein!

One of the ladies in the knitting group at work told me she always knits from the outside. For some reason I thought, "how messy!", but she's totally right. From now on I will pull the yarn from the outside and hopefully avoid the knots. I can't be bothered with knots - there's tons of knitting to do!

I'm finally almost done with this scarf. I'm knitting from the back for the first time, so when I have to tink it's taking me a while to find out how to tink that stitch. I've accidentally twisted or dropped and have had to go back a full row to fix it. I'm not used to how the stitch looks - knits and purls, on the other hand, are easy. But I really love the pattern and think with this yarn it looks great. I hope my friend likes it. It's the scarf I like the look of the most so far...and it will be my fifth scarf! Wow! I actually finished five things. Who'd a thunk it? Six if you count the dish cloth (which I barely do). I still have four scarves and two hats to go before Christmas, i think. And with the weather cooling down this weekend I really wanted to start on an afghan. Lots to do!

Keep on knittin'!

Knitting prezzies and enjoyable lunches

Now that I have this new hobby it makes it pretty easy for my hubby/friends/parents come present giving occasion. Sweet! I got a great needle holder from one of my friends for my birthday, and a great Vogue knitting book from another friend. I love them both so much! They both make me smile when I look a them. My hubby got me a gift certificate at a knitting shop in Manhattan that I need to go use at some point, too! Sweet. Fancy yarns.

My coworker/knitting buddy Elizabeth gave me a present out of the blue. Let me give a little background first. We both were going to what I called the 'lower end' yarn/fabric place to check it out. As soon as we walked in, I was a goner! Love that yarn. Great stuff to choose from and so much cheaper than the little shops. Elizabeth was laughing at me as I kept asking her, "How much do you think it would take to make a scarf in this yarn? What about a hat and scarf?". At one point she asked me how much I had in my basket. I just looked at her and blinked. I had no idea. I was in the zone, baby!

Fast forward to last week when Elizabeth told me she had something for me. She stopped by my cube to give me something I'll carry around with me from now on. It's is a tri-fold laminated sheet that includes various garments and how much yarn is needed to make it. It's awesome! Thanks again, Elizabeth!

Getting presents out of the blue is great. The only thing better is when they're related to knitting.

Keep on knittin'!

Yarn, Yarn, Yarn

When I first joined ravelry I noticed people talking about their 'stash'. My coworker told me about hers (and she has one in the office as well as her home!). I got the fever, and immediately placed an order for some cotton, and some other yarns I thought looked cute online. The good news was I had started creating my very own stash. The bad news was I really didn't buy enough of each kind to make anything more than maybe a hat or baby booties or the like...and I don't know how to make hats or baby booties.

I just hadn't learned how to tell how much yarn it was going to take to make something that I actually wanted to makie. And I'm still learning that one. Very slowly.

I'm an impatient person. No doubt about it. I want to know how to do all the stitches now! Shouldn't the yarn come with some sort of magic that guides you while you're working with it? Wouldn't that be awesome? I get for now I'll just have to be content with knitting, perling, and fondling the yarn.

Keep on knittin'!