Inspiration:
Current Knitalongs:
2005-01-22 : 9:35 p.m.
a beginning faq
why make a knlog?
the answer is pretty simple. humans love to make lists of their accomplisments. a blog is just an expanded version of that, so what better to blog than knitting. since i'm a beginner, its more to keep track of my own projects than advise others but others can read it for encouragement, i guess.
where'd you get the cool graphics?
all the images are made from pictures i took of my own knitting supplies. the top banner is my sad yarn stash. the menu is obviously needles and the background is a snippet of a declining yarn ball. i used photoshop elements to crop them and used the artistic cutout filter. then i adjusted the brightness to an extremely high amount so you could see the text which i added after. it was just luck to get the colors matching (maybe they don't on everyone's screen but they do on mine).
Why do you only capitalize proper nouns?
i've been blogging like this for years! the thing is, a period followed by two spaces is an equivalent sentence marker to a capital letter, you just don't need both. sometimes i don't even capitalize proper nouns. nobody has ever complained but maybe nobody reads these things.
who are you?
i am currently a college student at Iowa State University hoping to graduate with a degree in Zoology in summer. i'm originally from Iowa. my ancestors are a mix of english/irish, czech, dutch, and german (i think thats all!) so i have all the great immigrant survival genes! beside my new love of knitting, i'm fond of sewing, baking, cooking, reading, origami, and all things musical. i'm sure i shall mention other creative moments from time to time. in my student apartment, i keep 3 fish (1 betta: ligan, 2 dwarf gouramis: flotsam & jetsam), but at my parent's house resides an iguana and a multitude of gerbils. (knit iguana leash?)
how did you start knitting?
my friend kate was always talking about knitting which i thought was cool but i really didn't have the intention to learn it. then my parents started getting diynetwork and i watched some episodes of knitty gritty with vickie howell. i thought it looked really hard because they have to go quickly in the show. mom bought me a children's knitting machine for christmas and it came with two shades of sparkly eyelash yarn. i made two really long legwarmers/tube scarves. when i tried to use any other yarn, it would just mess up and i got really frustrated. mom figured she might as well just teach me how to knit. so thats what happened.
what have you knit so far?
first project was a garter stitch scarf in red heart brand camoflauge and black stripes with black fringe. i knit it on size 15 so it was pretty ...bouncy. i gave it to my loving boyfriend christopher who doesn't really wear it even though it has been freezing.
second completed project was supposed to be a beer cozy. i got some caron brand simply soft brites in yellow and purple (minn vikings colors... sorta) and attempted to use double pointed needles for the first time, yikes. i don't really like them yet. anyways, it came out too short for the guys' liking so i didn't even weave in the ends, but with my small hands i can wear it as like a bracelet. i wore it during the playoff game as 'vikings flair'. the goal is to make some more that actually fit the beer bottle!
that's all you've done?
hey, i'm a student! right now i'm working on a moda dea free poncho pattern. it calls for Aerie style yarn ih baby blue but the local store that i had access to had the pattern but not the yarn so i replaced it with Lion Brand Jiffy in country green. its basically the color of the back of this page but darker since i cranked up the brightness on that image. its acrylic yarn that looks like mohair. its got a definate fuzzy look to it but i don't think its equivalent to the Aerie at all since that is a microfiber chenille type yarn. the poncho is probably a bit stiffer than the one on the pattern sheet because of this. basically its just got k2,p2 ribbing along the bottom and the rest is worked in a tube of stockinette stitch with decreases every so many. i really like knitting on circular needles though.
do you have a yarn stash?
have you ever watched one of those crafting shows on diy network or some other channel where the person thats being featured goes down into the basement and they have like a wall of yarn in every color? those people scare me. maybe if i bought yarn at an outlet or something... anyways, i do have a little bit of stuff. i have the previously mentioned purple and yellow skeins of caron soft brites. red heart: 1 black, 1 white, 1 1/2 camoflauge. i think i have two more of the lion brand jiffy but since the poncho is unfinished i will have to see how much is left. i also have two skeins of caron jewel box tigereye which is multistrand chenille of sorts. i am going to try to make some sort of collar or necklace out of it since it is tiger stripey and soft. i am also going to try to make the vegan fox from knitty.com. i am going to try yarn replacement again and use patons classic wool marino in chesnut brown, 2 balls moda dea zing (beautiful stuff) in chestnut, and 2 balls lion brand fun fur in copper. its not the best color match so if it comes out funky i'll just say its a punk fox.
thats all for now. more to come when i've made progress.