Saturday, February 27, 2010

A New Face Cloth, and Giving Up On Some Goals

I am on a bit of a cotton kick lately. I think this could be an understatement. I hadn't really knit much other than dishcloths for a while, due to some requests for them, and enjoying the switch from knitting scarves and such. I started a new one yesterday, and I am going to work on it later today. It's different, once again, from what I have made in the past because it is striped. Sure, it's nothing fancy, but I love stripes. Light blue and yellow, 35 stitches, on size 6 needles. It's doubled in size now, and looking pretty nice. I am taking a short break from working on it to work on the purple hat I have commissioned.
In other, unrelated news, I have temporarily given up on my mission 101. My goals were mostly long term ones, or had too many parts or something else that was just keeping me unmotivated. I will restart with a brand new list ASAP. Many of the goals will carry over, but
I am going to make sure I have goals that are more easily completed. I am going to continue with some of my knitting related goals (knit myself a blanket, use all of my cotton yarn, organize my whole stash) but give up some others (not buy yarn for 6 months, put my entire stash on Ravelry, knit 101 scarves/neck warmers).
Hopefully everything goes well with starting the new goal.
Perhaps I will start on the first day of Spring?

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Accidental Ribbing, and Face Cloth Progress

There is a good reason why I often do garter stitch. Or stockinette stitch as an alternative. That good reason?
See in the picture?
See how there is the ribbing on the right, near the needle? Well, it's not supposed to look like that, not even close. This is what happens when I try to multi-task. Normally, I can read blogs and knit, no problem, but when I get into reading patterns on other blogs, that's when I run into trouble. Some have suggested I just knit, instead of doing two things at once, but that's impossible for me. I get bored that way. I need to find a happy medium.
To fix this, I had to rip back about 6 rows, and I'm almost caught back up. There was an other small mistake just before this big one, so I fixed that at the same time.
The cloth is almost 6 inches long, and 9 inches wide. I'd like to make it a square. I should have about 14 rows to go, if my math is right. I'm going to have at least a third of a skein left, so I'll need to figure out what to do with that. I want to start making striped cloths, but I'm not sure which colours to pair up. I'll have to work on that soon.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

New face cloth in the works!

I made this cloth AGES ago. I photographed it in April of 2008. It is sitting on the coffee table just to the right of my laptop as inspiration for my current knitting project. I use this cloth to clean up spills in my living room, which seem seem to happen all to often. Whether it be food or drink related, or spills from the watering can while watering my plants, it's an almost daily occurrence. Regardless, it does a wonderful job.
I am using a skein of Bernat Handicrafter in the "Celadon" colour (a really nice pale green) to make a nearly identical cloth. This one, however, is destined to be a face cloth. Yes, something with which to wash ones face, or other parts of the body. It's wonderful in the way that one side is nubby and scrubby, and the other is fairly smooth. I am hoping this translates to a light exfoliation side, and then a non exfoliation side. It's being knit on size 6 needles, 41 43 stitches. I think the next time I will go down to 39, or maybe even 37 stitches. It's a very quick knit, being only k1p1, and knitting rows, alternating. I am hoping to get several of these done for Made In Windsor fairly quickly. I think they will each use up one of the small Handicrafter skeins, but I won't be sure until I reach the end of this one. As soon as I find my pink skein of Bernat Cotton Tots, I will be making one of these for myself.
I have been quite productive lately. I finished a hat the other day (still need to blog about that!) and started on an other. I want to get 5 more things to the store by the next time I go there.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

An other custom knitted item, and more cotton yarn.

I have the cloths all done for my aunt. Two tan, three yellow/orange and one blue/green are what I ended up with. I hope she is happy with the colour choices. If not, I can always make more for her.
I had my backpack in my department at work today. It's way too big to put in our tiny locker, and I feel safer with it near me. I was getting something out of it, and took out a hat I made a while ago that I was planning on frogging. It's a really nice purple Homespun yarn, but I used the HUGE Knifty Knitter loom, and it's really way too big. One of the girls at work really liked the colour, so I offered to sell her the remake as soon as I have it finished. I will start working on it as soon as the hat I have on the right sized loom is done. We work together on Wednesday, so it would be great to have it done for then.
 I bought some new to me yarn the other day. Three bags of Bernat Handicrafter, bought at Value Village for $3.99 a bag. They're all the smallest skeins of this type of yarn. Not sure how many I have, but I will photograph them in a few days (I'm at my parents right now)
I am progressing on getting a lot of my yarn used up. It's going slowly, but I am definitely starting to notice a decline in selection for my yarn bombs, and for pairing with other yarns for hats and scarves. The thought of eliminating large parts of my stash is completely mind boggling. I am so used to having a ton of yarn at my fingertips, it's going to be quite a change.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Is anyone interested in Google AdWords?

I recently received a $100 gift from Google to use in AdWords. I have no real need for it, and I would be willing to pass it onto anyone who would like it for the best offer I get. It drops down to a value of $75 on March 5th, so I would like to pass it on before then.
If you would like to buy it, please make an offer here. I will send you the coupon code via email.

A Brand New Layout!

Hello ladies and gentlemen! I would like to pull all of you out of your RSS readers to check out the new layout! There will be a few more changes happening slowly over the next couple weeks, but nothing will disrupt your experience here.
I am hoping to change the layout here to better match my other blogs, and my home page. If you are having any issues seeing anything on here, please leave a comment on this post.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

More ordered dishcloths!

I was at my parents house the other day before work, knitting a dishcloth, as I usually do while waiting for things. My aunt came over and saw what I was knitting, and asked if I had any with me she could buy from me. I had just brought in all the cloths I'd finished into Made In Windsor, so I offered to knit her others. She had no requests for colours, and I should just pick which ones to use. I think I may just make a bunch, all in different colours so she can choose.
I really enjoy knitting dishcloths. I will never get rich knitting them, because of the time involved compared to the price I sell them for. They are very relaxing, and very meditative. I can completely zone out while knitting them, which allows me to do other things.
I have three cloths done now, and I hope to finish an other one today while working at Made In Windsor.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

A New Cowl, and New Yarn

I meant to post this yesterday, I really did. But my body had other suggestions. I was incredibly sick, and had no motivation to do anything but snuggle under blankets and sleep. And also whine to whoever was listening about how terrible I felt. I am feeling marginally better today. Enough to write a blog post and possibly even get changed out of my pyjamas before noon.
I bought a cone of yarn the other day at Value Village. It's a wonderful bright blue, textured, and quite thin. I plan on using it held double or triple. Which is what I am doing in my newest project.
Two strands of white worsted weight, and the fun blue yarn, on 8mm needles for a cowl. Fifty six stitches, k2p2 rib. The little red piece of yarn is my marker for the beginning of the round. I started this two days ago, and it's going quite well.
I have decided to continue knitting winter items throughout the warmer months, or for as long as I can stand them, to have stock ready for next year. I will, of course, knit other things, but I think one scarf every other week will be a good start for the winter craft shows, and Made In Windsor stock, next year. Sure, I'll probably look crazy knitting a scarf in July, but it will reduce my work load next year. And hopefully cause less stress, as well.
I now plan on laying down for a while. No need to over exert myself!