Randomness

Well hello blog. Its been a while. I'm sticking to my story and blaming it on Instagram. I still knit, I still craft, I still take pictures of it all and I still want to share it with the online community. Like I've said before, it seems Instagram is filling that need. I don't even put my projects up on Ravelry with any regularity any more. Shhhhhhhh! I know, CRAZY!!

My whole desire to blog came about years ago as a way of documenting swap packages that I had made and received on Craftster. I can't tell you the last time I went on Craftster. I can't tell you the last time I was involved in a swap. Then the blogging more or less became a desire to document my crafting - a journal if you will. I keep telling the girls that when I'm gone (a long time from now hopefully) and the things that I've made for them are used up and worn out then at least they will always have this record to look back on. My digital footprint left for all my ancestors to see what an enterprising person their great great granny was. I still feel that way, and I still resolve to keep blogging even if I only have 9 followers.

So in that vein, here is what I've been up to the past month.

I knit a headband. The pattern is from Mel Clark's book Knitting Everyday Finery and I love it! This promises to be my most utilized knitwear to date. I wear it a lot because my hair is in a mess a lot. Its alpaca and silk and so far not too hot (mind you, we had snow yesterday, so everything is relative)



I blocked some finished projects. The stripey socks you'll recognize. The others are a cute little baby vest destined for some baby girl. The pattern is Milo and so versatile. Totally worth the few bucks that it cost. I love the little heart cable and I'll definitely be making this little pattern again. The orange beret is called "Meret". I did this as a KAL with some of the ladies on Instagram. Its made from my handspun. Its rather large on me but would likely fit my larger headed offspring no problem. I will likely gift this to her at some point.



I bought yarn! And OHMYGOD!!! Its all Socks that Rock. It is so beautiful!! All I want to do it look at it. Now thats wrong I know. I feel like buying a shadow box and framing them. I'm not sure what I'll make but right now I'm just enjoying the gorgeous colours. I think I may have fell down a rabbit hole when I joined that socks that rock club. I don't really want to knit with any other yarn. This could become dangerous.



I fixed a miss crossed cable on my Hope Springs Eternal socks from my Socks that Rock Club. I thought I could live with it, but 10 rows later it was still bugging me. I dropped those 6 or so stitches back and fixed it all - no problem. Pretty pleased with myself there.



And I finished spinning this beautiful yarn. This was spun from Rolags that I purchased from Blue Mountain Handcrafts on etsy. My first time spinning rolags and I really liked it.



Well thats my randomness for today. Hope all is well in your crafting world!

Blogging difficulties

I seem to have reached a point in my blogging life, where I have stalled out. I'm pretty certain that I know the reason for this. Instagram!

I've gotten in to Instagram big time. It seems to fill that need to document things that blogging was doing - but faster and with more instant feedback from viewers/readers. I'm sitting here realizing that I have several projects that I haven't blogged about and I'm noticing that I haven't even downloaded the photos to my computer. Its because I'm uploading to Ravelry directly from my iphone and I'm posting the photos to instagram as well. Its sort of like microblogging.

In any case, I do pledge to try to be better. To blog more often and to take more and better pictures. So, in that light I present to you my latest two finished projects. This tiny beret is from Hannah Fettig's book Mabel's Closet. I mentioned it in the previous blog post about the little cardigan - which, by the way is finished, I just haven't sewn on the buttons yet. Good thing the recipient is itty bitty and will be able to grow into it. I'll likely have gotten around to finishing it by the time she is big enough to wear it. I think this little striped beret will look very cute with it.

And here is a pair of mitts that I knit for Amy. The patters is from November Knits. I really like this book a lot. There are a lot of patterns in this book that I would like to knit. These mittens were challenging for me. I've never been very good a knitting mittens twisted stitches. Also, I'm pretty certain there is errata in the charts for the cable cross overs for the back of the mitten. I had to make up my own thing in order to get them to cross and look like they did in the photo. The sad thing is, I didn't figure it out until I was on the second mitten. Oh well. I think you would have to look very closely to see the mistake. Amy likes them and thats all that matters right?