3KCBWDAY4 - A Knitter or Crocheter For All Seasons...

As spring is in the air in the northern hemisphere and those in the southern hemisphere start setting their sights for the arrival of winter, a lot of crocheters and knitters find that their crafting changes along with their wardrobe. Have a look through your finished projects and explain the seasonality of your craft to your readers. Do you make warm woollens the whole year through in preparation for the colder months, or do you live somewhere that never feels the chill and so invest your time in beautiful homewares and delicate lace items. How does your local seasonal weather affect your craft?


It actually doesn't. I'm such a slow knitter that I find myself knitting things like scarves all year round because it takes me forever to complete them! Plus at my office they tend to keep the air conditioning on very low (even in winter) so knitting things like gloves (which I haven't yet, but I will!), even in the summer time, is necessary!

3KCBWDAY4

3KCBWDAY3 - Crafting Heroes

Blog about someone in the fibre crafts who truly inspires you. There are not too many guidelines for this, it's really about introducing your readers to someone who they might not know who is an inspiration to you. It might be a family member or friend, a specific designer or writer, indie dyer or another blogger. If you are writing about a knitting designer and you have knitted some of their designs, don't forget to show them off. Remember to get permission from the owner if you wish to use another person's pictures. 


I have a couple of knitting/crochet heroes.


First off is my friend Contessa; the amount of stuff she makes just amazes me. She's part of the reason I started knitting. At first I just crocheted, but after seeing some of the stuff she knitted and hearing her talk about it made me want to try.

I think for this I'd probably go with my friend Margie - Auntie Pita, or Nursie if you're a rennie. Not only does she knit, but she can spin yarn too! Someday I shall give it a try.

Who are your fiber craft heroes?

3KCBWDAY3

WIP Wednesday the Forty Ninth...

Another week of very little progress - but this time because it was such a busy week! Friday we spent time with friends, and then on Saturday the husband and I drove out to Hemet, CA for his Great Aunt's 90th birthday! We also finally saw The Hunger Games! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! It was just as good as I was expecting! The husband was even impressed with it! (I think he was afraid it would turn out to be like Twilight or something...)

The scarf is a few rows longer - nothing really exciting to take a picture of though. The baby blanket is also a few rows longer. It's been awhile since I've posted a picture of it on here - look at how big it's gotten!

(If Connor or Murphy were to stretch out next to the blanket, they would be as long as it is)

Now that I see it laid out, I am thinking one more repeat should do it. Then it'll be a nice big square. Well... a big square with a zig zag top and bottom...

No sewing update this week. My husband pulled out the sewing stuff for me this weekend, and I went to cut out fabric only to discover that he had thrown away the patterns I had made off of the duct tape pattern. I was not a happy camper. While I could cut the fabric out based on the duct tape patterns alone, I like to make changes to the pattern - like straightening out the sides so it's more period, and extending the front point a bit because it just looks better to me that way - so it looks like I'll be tracing those out tonight or tomorrow if I'm not completely exhausted when I get home. 

I've been walking a lot more recently - once in the morning and then again in the evening - so I've been waking up when my husband leaves for work. I wanted to loose weight for my wedding, and I succeeded some, but now a close friend is getting married in HAWAII next year, and we're trying to have a baby, so I've become much more driven to shed those extra pounds. So far the extra walk seems to be helping a bit!

Check out Tami's Amis for more works in progress!

3KCBWDAY2 - Photography Challenge Day!

Today challenges you to be creative with your photography, and get yourself in with the chance to win the photography prize. Taking interesting photographs in this instance isn't about flashy cameras or a great deal of technical know-how, it's about setting up a story or scene in a photograph and capturing something imaginative. Your photograph(s) should feature something related to your craft, so that might be either a knitted or crocheted item, yarn, or one of your craft tools. One example of setting a scene would be to photograph a girl in a knitted red cape walking through the woodlands with a basket of goodies, as in the Red Riding Hood tale, or you might photograph a knitted gnome hiding among the flowers in your garden. Photo editing is permitted for competition photos. 


I don't have very many 'creative' photos of things I've knitted or crocheted. I don't even think I have anything of my finished objects being used!


But today is also National Pigs in a Blanket day, so I give you a picture of my newest skein of yarn and a pig in a blanket!

Oh, apparently I lied about not having any pictures of my finished objects in use - here's a picture of Murphy cat trying to make off with my cowl:

Check back tomorrow for more of Knitting and Crochet Blog Week! And it's WIP Wednesday too!

3KCBWDAY2

3KCBWDAY1 - Color!

“Colour is one of our greatest expressions of ourselves when we choose to knit or crochet, so how do you choose what colours you buy and crochet or knit with. Have a look through your stash and see if there is a predominance of one colour. Do the same with your finished projects – do they match? Do you love a rainbow of bright hues, or more subdued tones. How much attention do you pay to the original colour that a garment is knit in when you see a pattern? Tell readers about your love or confusion over colour.”


I seem to go with either jewel tones or bright colors. I blame my time working at the local ren faire with a group that portrays a period bawdy house for this - see, to separate ourselves from the rest of the re-enactors we would wear bright colors that often coordinated and clashed at the same time. I've noticed over the years that it's carried itself over to other parts of my life - especially my knitting and crochet. See?

I wish I had more to say, but at the moment I'm too exhausted to think straight... so, check back tomorrow for another update!

3KCBWDAY1

Meatlocker Monday: Damian Lewis...

The first time I saw Damian Lewis was in PBS's Master Piece Theater's rendition of The Forsyte Saga. Damian played Soames, and I instantly took a strong disliking of him. The guy had the emotions of a fly (which is to say none at all) and at one point in the series he rapes his wife. Can you blame me for hating him?

And then I saw Damian Lewis in Life - where he played the main character, a former detective who was accused of killing another cop and is sent to jail for life, where he starts reading about the philosophy of Zen. 12 years later the DNA evidence reveals that he was innocent all along, he gets released and ends up going back to LAPD as a detective even though he was given a pretty substantial settlement for being wrongfully imprisoned. Talk about a change! His character was charming, funny, and even though he was trying to be a better guy about loosing his wife, his friends, and 12 years of his life, he still did random crap like pulling over his ex-wife's current husband for minor traffic violations just because he can.

I think that was when I fell in love with him as an actor, because, damn, what a change to go from the most despicable person ever to someone like that!

So, ladies and gentlemen, I give you Damian Lewis!

WIP Wednesday the Forty Eighth...

I have actually made a little progress this week: the scarf is nearing it's fourth color repeat, and I was able to knock out two more rows on the baby blanket. I don't have a sewing update because we were more focused on cleaning the apartment this weekend, and pulling stuff out of the Harry Potter room seemed contradictory to that task. However, my husband is awesome and offered to get my sewing gear out of the closet for me since he gets home before I do - so, barring any unforseen complications, I may a sewing update next week!

Check Out Tami's Amis for more Work In Progress fun!

Material Monday

I ordered some new yarn this weekend: Stroll Tonal sock weight in Nevermore from Knit Picks.

I also ordered some size 2 DPNs. I've never used DPNs before, so this ought to be interesting...

WIP Wednesday the Forty Sixth...

I haven't made much progress on any of my projects this week. My husband got himself a new job (woot!) but that means he's had to adjust to a new schedule that is earlier than what he was used to and a completely new atmosphere. As a result he's had a really tough time the past couple of days, and he got sick on top of that, so I've been more concerned with making sure he's okay than knitting or sewing. He's doing much better now; the illness has passed and he had a nice chat with his bosses, though I still want to smack one of them upside the head.

I haven't done any sewing like I planned. The sewing machine and other stuff is still tucked away in the Harry Potter Closet. We are planning our spring cleaning this weekend though so maybe I'll finally be able to pull it out.

There hasn't been any progress on the baby blanket either since we weren't at home very much this weekend due to the holiday.

However, I did manage to get a couple of rows done on the scarf today though. And I had an epiphany which changes things in one of my stories, plus I had another idea for yet another story.

Hopefully your weeks have been more productive than mine!

Check out Tami's Amis for more Works in Progress!

WIP Wednesday the Forty Fifth...

I've started on what you could call the third color repeat of the scarf. I think I have one, maybe two more, before the scarf is done.

I'm not even done with this project and I am already plotting my next knitting project. I was going to make a Ravenclaw scarf for myself, but the powers that be at work have decided to turn the air conditioning on full blast recently so I spend a lot of time sitting on my hands to prevent then from freezing solid! I think a pair of fingerless gloves are in order!

The baby blanket is still progressing slowly but surely. I am determined to have this done by the kiddo's first birthday. I've learned a lesson from this baby blanket: the next time a pattern says baby blanket size is only so many stitches - follow the pattern! Don't think to yourself, oh, I'll make it a bit bigger because that seems too small. Well, by the time I'm done with this blanket, it'll be a decent sized blanket and will probably last till the kiddo is a teenager. 

I also have not started cutting out the fabric for my new bodice yet. I meant to. I really really did. Unfortunately I had to work on Saturday, so by the time I got home I was too exhausted to want to even look at my sewing stuff. I did cut out the pattern on Sunday (with the 'help' of the cats) but I didn't get around to cutting out the fabric. 

Today I decided I would definitely cut out the fabric and start piecing things together. Then I realized that my sewing stuff is in the Harry Potter closet we have (yes, our apartment came with a 'room' under the stairs!) and there was a bunch of stuff blocking the door. 

(this is a fraction of the stuff sitting in the corner)

I moved the stuff aside and found that the closet was just as packed as I remembered - except now there's a couple of boxes full of comic books and God knows what else in front of my sewing stuff. 

(Ugh.)

I think I'll go through it tomorrow when the Husband is home to distract the cats. 

Check out Tami's Amis for more Works In Progress!

Insert Creative Meatlocker Title here..

The man of the week is Joel Edgerton of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, King Arthur, and Warrior fame: