Archives for posts with tag: BMFA

Goodbye Summer. Hello Fall.

September 27, 2012 //
10

And then it happened: Fall.  I can smell it lingering in the cold morning air, I can hear it as leaves crunch beneath my feet, and my fingers can feel it at night, their desire to knit intensified by the sudden coming of fall.  Where did this summer go?  It seems that I have been busy these last few weeks of summer (as evidenced by my lack of blogging), so allow me to “summer”ize (haha, I crack myself up) the past month in a photo heavy post:

There was a 3-day backpacking trip to the Goat Rocks Wilderness with R.

I had never gone backpacking before this and didn’t know what to expect.  Honestly I was secretly worried that I would fail miserably at it.  I mean, how was I going to survive three days without ice cream?  Ok, I wasn’t really thinking that… all the time.

There were no goats, but we did see a couple of coyotes running through the meadow below us.  The wildflowers were out in full force and were absolutely amazing.  I kind of regret not having anything but my phone to take pictures with, but on a trip like this you have to make room for the essentials.

The essentials: whiskey and knitting (more on those socks later) because you have to reward yourself at the end of the day somehow.

Three days, 30 miles, and about 5000 ft of cumulative elevation gain later, I found myself in a burger joint.  And I ate the best damn burger I’ve ever had in my life.  Then my stomach hurt for the entire drive home….

Yarn Over »

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Categories Freshy Knits!, Life, Worldly Travels

Stash. Stash. Knit.

August 22, 2012 //
9

I have a problem.  I make unnecessary yarn purchases (but really they’re necessary…at least this is what a fiber addict in denial would say).  My eyes are bigger than my knitting hands.  For every three skeins of yarn that I purchase, I probably knit one.  Even so, the purchasing and the collecting and the stashing just keeps happening accidentally.  I blame working part time in a yarn store, staring at yarn all day, “fluffing” the yarn, doing research (ie. flipping through new pattern books).  It can make a knitter crazy!!  Crazy I tell you.  Don’t even get me started on the enabling coworkers who agree that you must purchase that skein of yarn.  You simply must.

A couple weekends ago, I went down to the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Barn Sale and came home with not one, not two, let’s skip right past three, because I came home with four skeins of yarn.  Granted two were on sale, but sheesh.  I don’t even know if I like knitting socks yet.  Why do I feel so compelled to buy sock yarn?!

Then there was that day that I came home from work with THREE skeins of Madelintosh Sock so I can make Color Affection.  It’s not something I’m proud of.

So I did what any sane and responsible person with a problem does: I banned myself from buying any more yarn until I can knit through 75% of my current stock.  Then I headed to the nearest fabric store and came home with this:

If being wrong means that I can’t have a stash, hell, I don’t want to be right.

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Categories Freshy Knits!, Sew Not Knitting

FO: aCute Angle Cowl

July 26, 2012 //
20

This is a story.  A story about the generosity of knitters….and how procrastination pays off.

About a month ago, I found myself attending a knitting retreat for the first time ever.  I was excited to meet people who, like myself, really love yarn.  I don’t usually participate in big group knit-a-longs and I don’t spend a lot of time on ravelry forums chatting with strangers, but when I signed up for the retreat, I did.  I wanted to meet and talk to the people that I would be interacting with for three whole days and I wanted to really get involved.  So when Steven suggested that we all do a KAL with Blue Moon Fiber Arts yarn, I jumped on the opportunity.  And when I say I “jumped”, what I really mean is that after initially agreeing, I then proceeded to procrastinate with said purchase of yarn and pattern.  Because, procrastination really is the only thing that I do well….consistently.

A few days before I was all set to leave for the retreat, I order the yarn and pattern.  Of course, my yarn showed up on my doorstep the day after I left.  So there I was, at the Gourmet Retreat, yarn-less for the KAL.  We were all gathered together in the sun room, introducing ourselves whilst happily knitting away on our own projects (many were casting on for the KAL, I shamefully worked on some other lame project that I’ve probably frogged since).  The woman sitting next to me, Tamara, was working on her cowl and I mentioned that my yarn didn’t arrive in time.  Of course I left out the part where I procrastinated, because I wanted to make a good impression and whatever.  She just looks at me and without a second’s pause says, “Well, I have an extra skein.  I’ll go get it for you right now.”  She got up so swiftly that I didn’t even have time to register what had happened.  Did a complete stranger really offer to give me her skein of yarn?  Just like that?  What kind of weird alternate universe have I stepped into?  Did I really get rewarded with a free skein of 100% silk yarn because I procrastinated?!  Well, I guess that’s one way to instill bad habits.

Tamara asked for nothing in return.  We spent three glorious days together cooking, knitting, and dyeing.  I got to know her pretty well during this time, and I have to say, she is without a doubt, a most generous and kind person.  She didn’t even scold me for procrastinating.

I was able to participate in the KAL and finish knitting my cowl before the end of the retreat all because of the selflessness of a wonderful knitter.  So, this FO post is a shout out to you, Tamara.  Thanks for making my first knitting retreat a memorable one!

Why am I posting this FO a month after I finished knitting the cowl?  Didn’t you guys learn anything?  I’m a procrastinator, and honestly, Tamara really shouldn’t have rewarded me for my bad behavior.  But I’m sure glad she did!

Pattern Details

Pattern: aCute Angle by Samantha Roshak
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Luscious Silk in My Blue Heaven
Needles: US7 [4.5mm] circular
Modifications: Absolutely none
Recommend: Absolutely yes!
Notes: Silky smooth yarn, fun simple lace pattern that’s easy to remember…what’s not to like?
 

See what other (and most likely, non-procrastinating) knitters have made at Tami’s blog.

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Categories Freshy Knits!

Knitting Sweaters in the Summer

July 25, 2012 //
18

I can do this because I live in the Pacific Northwest and Summer doesn’t exist here.  Now that I said this, it’s not going to rain for the next month.  And because I said that it will.  And now it won’t.  Will.  I’m going to stop now.

In any case, I’ll knit a sweater any time of the year, especially if I’m knitting with MadelineTosh.  MmmmadelineTosh.  Have you encountered the Tosh yet?  If not, you really oughta.  The only thing you’ll regret is not buying more.  Yup, that’s exactly the line that I feed myself whenever I purchase it.  “Are you sure you only want 3 skeins?  It would be great to have that extra one just in case….”  I’m so smart.  There’s another line that I feed myself whenever I make bad decisions.

I actually started this sweater…um…well, so long ago in fact that I forgot when I started it.  Maybe a year ago?  But, from the beginning, I never liked the fit.  So I did what I do best when encountered with situations like this: I found a new project and put this one in the ignore pile.  But, as chance would have it, this weekend, I really wanted to play with some Tosh again.   So I bit the bullet, ripped it out and forgot to take pictures of my yarn ramen (sorry guys, I know how much you love those photos).  In case you didn’t know this, I want to tell you something important about frogging.  Always, always, wash your frogged yarn before reusing it again.  You want to smooth out and relax your yarn back to it’s original form, otherwise your knitting is going to by fugly and your tension uneven. You do have to wait for your yarn to dry completely, but trust me, it’s worth it.  Kind of like swatching.  It’s worth it, even if you hate doing it.  That being said, I did re-swatch with larger needles and found my gauge to be perfect!  Don’t you love when that happens?  I’m thinking this will be done by the end of the week.  That kind of unwaivering reassurance reminds me of something.  What was that?

And of course, what’s a knitter’s life without another one or two projects on the needles?  Here’s a couple of things that I’m also working on now:

A test knit shawl for Holly at SillyLittleLady.  Keep your eye out on her blog for news on this pattern!

This yarn is from Blue Moon Fiber Arts.  It’s Socks That Rock in Grasshopper.  I love this color so much that one day I’ll marry it.  I’m making up some toe-up socks as I go.  I wanted to incorporate that same slipped cable stitch (as seen on the sweater above) on the side of this sock.  We’ll see how it turns out, but I won’t be surprised if I end up frogging this and using an established and respectable sock pattern.

What are you working on this summer’s day?  Do you like to knit in the summer even if it’s hot outside or do you have another crafty activity that you enjoy?  See what other people are up to over at Tami’s blog.

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Categories Freshy Knits!
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