Ouch!

Sigh...there are occasions, usually during the cold winter months, that my hands ache.  It makes for difficult knitting...if any at all.  I made another hat a few days ago, & my hands started to ache.  So, I forced myself to finish it, cause it was almost done anyway, & then I took a break for a day.  Well, I tried again last night, but they were still sore.  Ick.  My husband rented a movie & I fidgeted through the whole thing cause I didn't have anything in my hands.  Figures! 

I have a pair of the "Hand-Eze" gloves which really seem to help with the pain, but this time its mostly in my fingers.  I wore the gloves the other night, & they helped somewhat.  I know its just because of the cold weather & I try to keep my hands warm, but sometimes they are just plain COLD!  It stinks, especially when the knitting drive is in full swing...sigh.  I may just have to give the ol' mitts a break for a few days...but that doesn't mean I will stop thinking or babbling about my knitting! :)

Sparky's Blanket Pictures

These are pictures of our little Yorkie cuddled in his scrap yarn blanket.  He is just so cute, I had to share these!  We've only had him since August, but I think he's ruling the household now!

The Dwindling Stash - Sort Of!

I've been thinking about the projects I've already completed with the yarns I have in my stash.  For the last few years, I've made 2 queen size scrap afghans, like the one pictured above.  You can find the pattern  here:  http://knitting.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.knitting%2Dand.com/knitting/patterns/afghans/st%5Fst.htm .  These were fun & portable, plus the squares work up very quickly.  The afghan not pictured used the smaller version of the squares & more different color combinations. 

I've also made about 200 7x9 inch blocks for Warm Up America, a charitable organization that makes & gives completed blankets to the homeless.  Then 17 hats & one pair of mittens for needy children.  I gave one hat to a little girl we met on vacation.  :)  Also, the 50+ chemo hats that have been completed.  These have a tendency to vanish sometimes, like when my daughter or a friend sees one & just HAS to have it!  So, I'm not sure how many there really were, but I've given 50+ to the cancer center! 

I've also made a little blanket for my Yorkie, Sparky.  Its a small scrap blanket using a cream colored yarn & various scraps of different colors, done in a garter stitch.  Its about 3 ft by 2 ft, so its perfect for a little guy like him!  I've also been working on the I-cord rug-thing, which will most likely be for Sparky.  I have some really small scraps saved for this.  So far, its about 1-1/2 ft by 2-1/2 ft, in an oval shape. 

Sadly, the yarn is not dissappearing as quickly as I would like.  I try to be good & not add to the stash, but I think I'm hopeless! 

Pictures Of Hats Done So Far!

The chemo hat adventures continue!  They are all the basic roll brim type hat.  I stuffed my models with plastic bags to keep them propped up, but they look sort of lumpy!  Oh well!  I've completed 10 hats so far.  I like to drop them off when I have a dozen, so only 2 more to go!  I admit, I haven't been as diligent with them as I could be.  Other interests have been consuming my time & that thing they call "life" has been interfering as well.  What I have completed has made me happy, though.  I've used up a few skeins & misc. yarn remnants. 

I do most of my knitting in front of the TV.  There hasn't been anything particularly good on lately, so not much knitting has been getting done.  Also, my poor husband slipped on the icy stairs & fell on his back.  The Dr. said he sprained his back & his elbow.  So he's all sore & achy, & whiny, so I've been letting him play his video games in the evening to make him a little happier!  He likes noisy, shooting type games, so I usually leave the room & play on the computer instead.  Fortunately, he is getting better, poor thing! :(  

I do have good intentions of completing more hats in the near future.  I just love doing these hats.  The pattern is permanently etched in my memory now, they are quick, easy, no sewing (yay!) & I can experiment with different colors & sometimes textures, too.  This is what I call fun!

More Hilarity

My other favorite knitting related story involves my sister.  My mom & my sister are more tolerant of my knitting habits, because they see the things I make.  My sister loved the clothes I made for her baby shower, she preserved them in boxes after my neice grew out of them.  They are getting better though! 

Anyhow, my sister & I took a girls only vacation to the Bahamas.  We were browsing in a clothing store & noticed the sizing was strange...not what we were used to!  We couldn't figure out what size was which, then I remembered something.  I dig in my purse & pull out my plastic knitting charts.  They have loads of helpful information on them, including European size charts!  So I was able to figure out what size we should buy.  She couldn't believe that I had that in my purse & even asked me if I carry it all the time.  "Of course" I said, "you never know where you are going to find yarn to buy, I need to be prepared"!  She shook her head & told me she couldn't believe that I carry that knitty stuff around with me like that! 

Hey, it worked, didn't it?!  Yahoo!  The end result is we were able to buy the correct sizes.  Also she gave me a new phrase (to me, at least!) "knitty stuff"!  I love that term!  Plus, it was a feeling of success...my knitting has served another unusual purpose!  Gotta love these moments of victory!

Knitter's Revenge

I come from a non-crafter family. I am a self taught knitter. My family doesn't have a keen sense of my obsession for my craft. But I have had some moments of revenge! My brother has always looked at my knitting with distain, why am I wasting my time with it? This from the man who's hobbies are comic books & karaoke!

Now I'll be the first to admit, I am lousy at directions. I'm lucky I can find my way home every day! My brother knows this...so he drives me to a wedding about 45 minutes from home, cause I didn't know where it was.  On the way home, we ran into a ton of miserable traffic, road closings & so on.  Suddenly, I knew where we were.  I started telling him, "go this way, turn there, go that way, there's the freeway".  He was amazed!  He asked me, "how did you know where we were?!", and I told him, "There is a yarn store right down the street.  See, my knitting IS good for something!".  Needless to say, I felt avenged!

More Knitting Journals

I know there are loads of knitting journals out there in the internet world, but the ones I'm listing are AOL journals.  We knitting bloggers need to support each other!  Someone has to encourage our fiber addiction & what better place than a journal? 

Anyway, here is yet another great journal by an enthusiastic knitter!  Knitting and More located here:  http://journals.aol.com/knit2relax/KnittingandMore/  features knitting babble, knitting pictures and more!  She also includes great babble about her life, interests, family, & adventures.  Lots of great photos of family & interests.  Everyone loves eye candy, I know I do! 

Also, a journal that I am interested in, even though it hasn't been updated in awhile is David's Knitting & Crochet Journal located here:  http://journals.aol.com/redheartrocks/DavidsCrochetandKnittingJournal/ .  A young man who does other crafts as well, such as jewelry making.  A man who knits is a rare thing, & I want to encourage any of them to continue.  I hope he updates again soon, as I look forward to his knitting adventures. 

An update on my own knitting...the shawl still isn't blocked yet.  I need to buy some rustproof pins & just haven't done so yet.  Scarlett O'Hara said it best, "tomorrow is another day".  The only thing is, I keep saying that every day!  <grin>

Another Great Journal

Another great journal that I read is My Therapist, The Knitting Bag located here:  http://journals.aol.com/jewelsladymax/MyTherapisttheKnittingBag/ .  Another enthusiastic knitter!  This lady's journal had the honor of being one of AOL Editor Top Journal Picks.  She is currently working on chemo hats using fur-type yarns.  I hoping she will post pictures of her finished projects!  She has a great outlook on knitting & life in general.  You just have to love her view of knitting as therapy!  There is really something so soothing as knitting, the feel of the yarn in your hands, the rhythm of the needles, the creation of material from a string, the satisfaction of completion. Oh yeah!  The knitting bag is a therapist!  She's a woman after my own heart!  You go, lady!

Other Knitting Journals

Okay, talking about the hats I'm making all the time would be redundant.  Although I find it fascinating, others might find it boring & tedious.  They might not be knitters, & therefore just do not understand! 

Anyway, I thought I would mention some of the other knitting journals I've been reading.  Yesterday, Knitterbugs updated her journal.  This lady starts so many projects all at once, I'm amazed at how she keeps it all going!  One only needs to understand a true addiction to understand her motivation!  Some wonderful pictures are posted of WIP's.  The colors she chooses are scrumptious!  Just seeing the pictures of her knitting, with the lovely colors makes me want to pick up my knitting right here & now, even on the computer!  If only I could knit & type at the same time...sigh!  Check out her journal here:  http://journals.aol.com/knitterbugs/knittingblog/ 

I made a vow to myself some years ago to finish a project before starting a new one.  I would start a new project & lose interest in the old one, & it would never get finished.  I've kept to that fairly well.  I do have hats or other small project going at the same time, because the bigger projects don't travel well!  So right now, its the WIP sweater & hats...not too bad for me!

 

Hats, Hats, & More Hats!

My hat pile is growing again!  I still haven't been motivated to pick up my WIP sweater, so hats it is!  One of my biggest frustrations in trying to use up my stash is the colors.  I started a hat adding additional colors as I needed them.  It made random stripes.  It was almost finished, I was ready to begin decreasing for the top, & I decided I didn't like it.  So it was frogged to the "roll" part.  It wasn't a total loss.  I picked up from that point & made stripes again, this time they were all the same number of rows.  I've decided I like the symmetrical appearance MUCH better!

Its not using up the small leftovers, though.  The frugal (read: cheap!) side of me won't throw them away, because there is just too much there not to use them!  Now my problem is that most of my larger scrap balls are white & off-white.  I don't mind these colors, but it will get rather boring making all the hats in just those 2 main colors!  Some of my other scraps look just hideous with any other colors.  Where did these come from anyway?! 

Just in case you are wondering why I just don't buy more, I am on a self imposed yarn fast until I use up a good amount of my leftovers!  Although, at this point I may have to invest in 1 or 2 more "main" colors, just to help move things along!  <grin>

Chemo Hat Links

Here are some of my favorite chemo-hat links.  These pages include patterns for the hats, & addresses of donation centers.  You can also check with your local cancer center to see if they accept the hat donations as well. 

http://www.chemocaps.com/ 

http://www.headhuggers.org/ 

The link below has TONS of links for charitable projects.

http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/charity-links.html#usa

Happy Charity Knitting to you all! 

Another Year & Two Hats Later...

Happy New Year to all!  My new year's day was spent in front of the tube watching the Twilight Zone marathon on SciFi channel & knitting!  A veggie sort of day, but watching the TV is conducive to my knitting!  So I made two more chemo hats.  Both are regular roll brim hats, one is a helix spiral hat, so I can use up more scraps.  No, I haven't picked up my WIP sweater...but I'm thinking about it!  That's the best I can do right now! 

I like making the chemo hats cause they are quick & mindless knitting.  I usually make adult sizes & take them to the local cancer center when I have a dozen or so.  I've dropped off about 50 hats so far, I think. 

I had so much fun doing the kids hats that I may make more of those & take them to the local children's hospital.  Or there are quite a few websites that take hat donations for children, so I have a lot of choices.  Its a great feeling, keeps me busy, uses up my scrap yarn & helps folks who need them all at the same time!