Hi my name is HP and I'm addicted to yarn!

It's offical. I'm on a yarn diet.




Last week I went here and got this






and the next day I went here and got this.


Yes, I know, I have a problem. I've never been on a yarn diet before so I'm only vowing to lay off the yarn for about 2 weeks. Pray for me yall!

Time flies when you've got gifts to knit. I always plan well in advanced but for some reason it always seems like I'm up late the night before it's due chanting to myself "just one more row". Mothers day is right around the corner and I was planning on making my Nana a wonderful shawl so that all the other church folks can oooh and ahh over it. But I've got two issues. #1 - I wanted to make it out of Mohair, but as I stated earlier, I'm on a diet and #2 - I cant find a pattern that I can make in less than two weeks. Oh well, looks like she'll be getting a pair of handmade socks. I'm thinking Pomatomus even though I haven't tried the Grumperina's Jaywalkers yet. I'll keep yall posted on the progress.

Right now, I don't have much on the needles. Just a hat to match the poncho from my previouse post and a top down raglan baby sweater made from Lion Brands One Pound. Can I just say that I really dislike this yarn. It splits like the dickens and for some reason my Denise's keep on seperating right in the middle of a row and I cannot tell you how annoying this is. I've never had this problem before so I'm blaming it all on the yarn. Well at least I didn't pay for it. The yarn was given to me as a Christmas gift and yes I always request yarn for christmas. The only good thing about the yarn is that it's so darn soft for an acrylic. That's the only reason this project hasn't landed in the NGF (never gonna finish) pile. Next post I promise to have a pic of at least one FO only because I love surfing knitting blogs with lots of pictures. Happy knitting everyone!

A Rose is a Rose, unless its a poncho!

Yeaaaaaah! I finally finished the toddler poncho that I was working on and here are the specs. (isn't it cute?)
Yarn: Caron's Simply Soft in Roseburry & Rose
Needles: Size 9

I made this pattern up as I went along. It's basically knit from the top down like a raglan sweater but instead of seperating for sleeves and such, I just kept right on knitting in the round. What gave me the most problem was the bottom border. I wanted something not so run of the mill so out came all of the stitch dictionares I own (which happens to be a lot. I learned that I'm not only addicted to yarn but I hoard knitting books like a squrrel and his nuts). So I swatched and swatched and swatched for like 3 days and nothing seemed right.

First you have to understand that I'm one of those spiritual knitters. I let the yarn talk to me and tell me what it wants to be. There have been many a times when I've tried to coax a skein into becoming something that it's not and the results were not pretty. So the only thing that fit were ruffles but I didn't like all the ruffle patterns that I saw. Something just wasn't right. So I was racking my brain trying to figure out what to do and my other half said "Honey, do you have to knit the edge, can't you just crochet it?" I could've kissed him! (and I did) Why didn't I think of that. Just crochet the darn thing and be done with it. I was trying to make something so simple out to be so complex. So I finished the border in 1 hour flat.

Then my little minchkin (he's 3) saw my Knitting Over The Edge book laying on a massive pile of other books and told me that he had found the perfect thing that I needed and pointed to the roses on the bottom of the capelet that's on the cover. I kissed him also and added the flower just for kicks. I love how it came out and I hope the little angel who receives it will adore it also.

So here are the "Knitting is a metaphore for life" lessons:

- When the complexity of something is troubling you, try applying the K.I.S.S. rule (Keep It Simple Stupid), and
-If your lacking inspiration, look to those around you.

I learn something new with every project I do (hey, that rhymes) and I can't wait to gain more experience. I've been bit by the sock bug, so most likely I'll cast on for my next pair of socks this evening. They'll be for the little man because it seems like the dryer monster mysteriously eats only one of his socks out of a pair every time I do laundry. More pics coming soon. Stay tuned!

Peace & Hair grease!

-

We must not tempt the knitting gods, for they shall mock our smugness.

When I decided that I was going to make a pair of socks I was determined not to fall prey to the second sock syndrome. I had already made up my mind that I would knit a second sock no matter what. I've made a couple (yes only two, so what?) of socks in the past and the poor, lonely, mismatched things have been sitting in my knitting cast away bag for the longest. So there was no way I was not going to make two perfectly matched socks! So I scanned my stash and waited for one of them to yell out "Oh, please pick me! I would make a wonderful pair of socks! I promise not to split at every other stitch or pill. I'll be good.!". Well, that moment happened when I gazed upon my Kool-Aid dyed yarn. Who knows when I dyed this yarn, but I knew it had a purpose so I just knew this yarn would be perfect. So I knit the first sock, and as you can see from my previouse post, it turned out lovely. Better than can be expected. When I showed one of my knitting buddies my sock, she said "Oh that's beautiful, but are you sure you have enough yarn?" Enough yarn? What is she talking about? Of course I have enough yarn, I mean the yarn told me that it wanted to be a sock, so of course there must be enough yarn. Denial is not just a river in Africa because as I cast on for my second sock, I had to keep repeating in my head you have enough yarn, you have enough yarn, you have enough yarn... To make a long story short, I didn't have enough yarn. Yeah I know, I was hurt too. But I couldn't let that stop me. It was no easy feet (pun intended) to get more yarn because I only have one skein left of the wool that I dyed and I have no idea what flavors of Kool-Aid I used to dye it and how many yards I used for each color and at what concentration, well you get the point. So what was I to do? I had no other choice but to use some of the same yarn I had dyed in a different color. When I dyed this wool, I didn't like how it came out so that ball was put waaaaay in the back of my yarn cases so I didn't have to look at it. So I begrudgingly pulled it out and finished off the other sock. I'm not that upset because the socks are for me and I've been know to wear two different socks, but I'm pretty proud of the fact that I made two almost matching socks!

Say Click

As promised, here are the pictures of my WIP's.
First of all...This is ME!
Sorry guys, I was extremely close when I took this pic. You can't see it, but I really am cheesin big time.



And, here is the Kool-Aid sock I'm working on. Don't you just love the colors! Hmmmm, I think I'll call the color combination, Mambo Swirl (even though it's not really a swirl, more like big blobs of color.

Here's the Poncho I'm workin on. It doesn't really look like anything right now, but I know how it's supposed to look, and that's all that matters.

and this actually isn't the hat that I'm working on, but this is what it will look like once it's done.

And yes ladies, He's Taken!

And since I'm in the mood, and I missed the whole 'Flash your Stash' campaign last week, and [insert any exuse to show off my stash], here's some quick yarn porn for ya. And to think, this is only about a half of my total collection. Am I supposed to feal guilty? Hmmm. Anyhoo, I must not have felt guilty enough, because I just got this from a yarn sale here in NYC on Monday. For some reason, I seem to be in a sock mood right now (my knitting sistahs know what I mean). So I had no choice but to get more sock yarn, I mean I only had about 2 three ounce balls to work with. I had no choice!

Now if you'll exuse me, I've got some knitting to do.

Peace & Hair Grease!

Newbie on the block

What a shame, a whole month and no post! Do you know what the problem is? The problem is that I hardly have time to update my blog because I'm busy reading all the other great knitting blogs out there. I loooove looking at cool new stuff to knit. My goal is to someday design something cool that be like my moniker or signature. Yes, I want to be right up there with Clapotis (: I'm not great at expressing myself, but hopefully, through this blog,I'll be able to learn.

And now for my favorite subject in the whole entire world...(drumroll please) KNITTING (YEEEAAAH). Here's a list of my current projects (picture to follow in following post)

-A top down knit poncho for a 2 year old. I'm using Carons Simply Soft in Rasberry and Light Rose. This is a pattern I'm trying to design, so we'll see how it turns out.

- I'm working on a pair of socks from some wool that I dyed with koolaid. I'm using Wendy's toe-up sock pattern from her blog.

-I'm also making my friend a hat from a crochet pattern that I made up while I was on the train one day. I made myself one in green and I can't wait to make a bunch more for the spring!

I try to keep my WIP down to 4 or 5 but sometimes it does get out of hand. Now, its time to break out the old Kodak.

Peace and Hairgrease!