My blogging break is hopefully going to be coming to an end in the coming weeks/months. I'm going to try and move this here blog over to TypePad and then retire it and leave it up there. I'd like to start a new blog about more than just knitting. I seem to have my hands in everything these days!

So I hope you will join me!

Stay tuned!

Well, let's see... I did make this potholder from Amy Butler's book. I gave it to my mom. Apologies for the poor photo quality. Click 'em to make 'em bigger.

  

I also made some machine appliqued t-shirts for my nephew's first birthday.

  

And I crocheted myself a dishrag (no picture of that - it's a green single-crocheted square - nothing glamorous). Add a touch of knitting here and there and that's about it! Not much to show for almost three full months! Why? Two words. Home Improvement. We got our house re-sided, had our hot water heater bust, had a pipe under the house bust and on and on. We are currently renovating our bathroom and have been for weeks now. (Our ONLY bathroom by the way. While we re-tiled the tub and shower we were having to shower at a friend's house or the gym. That's a real kick in the pants.)

I'm also still working on getting my studio finished. That sorta came to a halt when we started the bathroom because everything that needed to come out of the bathroom was put in the studio. And we painted our bedroom at the same time so lots of stuff from there was put in the studio, too! It's almost cleaned out again with the exception of the new bathroom vanity waiting to be installed.

So I've been kinda bummed because I haven't been able to do much crafty stuff and when I have had time to sit and chill for a bit I sometimes just want to veg out in front of the TV or computer (so many blogs to catch up with!). But I feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I've picked out a wall color for the studio finally. It always takes me SO long to pick out paint colors. Is anyone else like that? I feel like it's a big commitment and I need to find the perfect color. It's like I have the color I want in my mind but when you stick me in front of the paint chips at the store I freeze up and get so confused!

Anyway, I do have something exciting to share that has happened since we last spoke. I got a new car! I've wanted one of these for years and years and years.

It's a 2008 Subaru Outback. A car from the future! We're still in 2007! Anyway, we've barely had it a month and we've already used it to carry a new hot water heater, a complete patio dining set, a bathroom vanity and, believe it or not, a love seat and ottoman. It has definitely earned its keep! I am amazed at how much room it has inside (which may come in handy if the house implodes and we are forced to live in it).

So anyway, apologies for the lack of activity here lately. I just feel like I don't have anything to blog about if I'm not knitting or crafting something!

So I may not pop in here very much for the rest of the summer. Geoff and I are putting our nose to the grindstone to finish a list of home improvement projects so that we can relax during the fall. So you may not hear from me until September. Hopefully I'll pop in before then, even if just for a brief "hiya!" I do miss my virtual friends.

Until then, please kick your feet up, lounge by a pool somewhere and have a mojito for me. Someone has to!

I hope everyone had a wonderful April. Ours has been hectic (as usual) but we've been accomplishing a ton around the house.

I've been playing with my new sewing machine and I love it! I've played with most of the decorative stitches and am amazed at what it can do. I have big plans for it!

Many of you expressed an interest in hearing my thoughts about the machine (a Kenmore 19606) so here is what I think so far:

First of all, I do not consider myself to be a proficient "sewer" (that being "one who sews" and not "a conduit for carrying off sewage"). My mother can turn any fabric into a gorgeous gown or perfect skirt. She tried teaching me a few times but it just never took. But recently my interest in it has been re-kindled and I am realizing that sewing doesn't always have to be about clothing and complicated patterns! I also place some of my past distaste for sewing on my actual sewing machine. I think I spent about $150 on it about 6 years ago and always seemed to have trouble with it from the beginning (I could never remember how to load that damn bobbin!) so it became more of a heavy dust-collector than anything else.

So when the sewing bug bit me in the last several months, I started looking for a sewing machine that I could grow with (and the fact that it does a lot of the hard stuff for me is a bonus, too).

I knew I wanted a machine that included a ton of neat decorative stitches to use in crafty ways. But the price of those machines was way out of my price range! That's when I happened upon reviews of the Kenmore 19606. Every review I read was a positive one and I found out that it is actually made by Janome so it's a really well-made machine.

So the first (and obvious) great thing about it is the amount of decorative stitches. There are definitely some I will use more than others (when will I need to stitch an alligator or penguin? who knows - but they will be there when I do). And you can create your own stitch patterns and store up to 5 in the machine's memory. And I love the fact that it has a stitch locking button. The stitch locking button is great because if I press it while doing a straight stitch it will end the stitch immediately and do a few locking stitches so that the stitches are secured. And if I press it while stitching decorative stitches it will finish the stitch pattern/motif it is working on and then lock the stitches in place at the end which really gives it a professional look.

This leads me to my next favorite thing about it, the start/stop button. This sewing machine gives you the option of using the foot pedal or the start/stop button to do your sewing. I think I've used the foot pedal maybe once. The start/stop button is just awesome. I thought I would feel like I wasn't in control if I used the start/stop button instead of the foot pedal but I haven't found that to be the case. I actually feel like I have MORE control (especially with the speed). I should also mention that if you have the foot pedal plugged in, the start/stop button will not work. It's one or the other.

Buttonholes! There are seven fully automatic buttonholes for me to choose from! And when I say automatic, I mean it! It does it all! You place the button that you will be using in the button hole foot and it will make a button hole to fit that particular button! Magic! I have found though that if I want the buttonholes to look professional, I need to go over them twice and the instructions actually encourage you to do that. So when it has finished the buttonhole all I have to do is press the start/stop button again and it will know that I want it to go over that buttonhole again. It's a very smart little machine.

Drop in Bobbin! Love love love this. I could never seem to get the bobbin right in my old machine and it was just so cumbersome to put it in and get it out. This drop-in bobbin system is SO EASY (even a caveman could do it). Idiot-proof. And I need that!

It comes with nine presser feet, some of which I have no clue about. The great thing is that I don't really have to know what they do. The machine tells me which foot to use according to the stitch I've selected. Although I do wish it had a button foot (for putting on buttons themselves and not for making buttonholes). I've sewed a couple of buttons onto some pants and it wasn't a huge problem but the presser foot they have you use makes it difficult to see the holes in the button to line them up correctly. And I see that Kenmore makes a button foot for "vertical" sewing machines but mine is a "horizontal" one. Could it work on my machine? I don't really understand the difference between feet for "vertical" or "horizontal" machines. Still learning!

Yikes, this is getting long! I guess I love my new sewing machine, eh?

All of the things that I had problems with in my old machine (figuring out tension, loading bobbins, etc) are all pretty much idiot-proof on this one. So if you're new to sewing and are able to spend a little more for your first machine, I recommend one like this that does a lot of the "thinking" for you. Of course, I want to eventually understand everything about what it does and why but for now I am content to let it tell ME what to do.

I have lots of projects planned for my new machine (many coming from some new books I have that I'll share with you in my next post). Unfortunately, I don't know when I'll be able to actually start any of those projects because all of our house projects have sucked up any disposable income lately and fabric, like yarn, costs money (why is that?!).

And on the knitting front, not to worry! I am not giving up my knitting! In fact, I'll be teaching the Entrelac class at my LYS next week using my scarf pattern found in the side bar. Maybe THAT money can go towards some fun things like fabric and yarn and not boring things like new toilet seats and mulch.

Have a wonderful May Day, everyone!

Gosh time is flying by so fast. A day turns into a week turns into a month! All in the blink of an eye!

I hope that everyone is enjoying the start of spring! I'm loving the temperatures. I definitely have spring fever. It's hard to concentrate at work when the view out of my office window is this!

This is, by far, my favorite time of the year. I feel so energized as things start to bloom and the temperatures rise. And I was a happy happy girl when DST started three weeks early.

So what has happened in the last month? Unfortunately not much crafty stuff. I'm still purging the junk in my life (don't worry, Geoff is still here... for now...) and organizing what's staying. Then I had about a week where pretty much nothing got done because I was having major stomach pain. Two doctor visits and an upper GI series later and... my esophagus likes to spasm. That's the diagnosis. The doc says I need to be careful when eating raw veggies and meat and to make sure to chew it up good or else I could piss off my esophagus and it will punish me with spasms and lots of pain. Nice. Except she only said the word "esophagus" like once. She kept referring to it as my "food tube." Um, thanks. I'm a medical librarian. Don't insult my intelligence. Anyway, that magic purple pill Nexium is making it all better.

Enough about my "food tube." I need some help with my organizational skills (or lack thereof). You see, I subscribe to a lot of magazines (maybe I'll go into which ones in a future post). I'm addicted to magazines! Of course, with all of those magazines comes a lot of torn out recipes and cool ideas/projects. My question is what to do with all of those? Do you know of a great way to organize magazine clippings? Especially recipes... oh, the recipes. I mean, they are useless to me in a pile somewhere because I don't know what I have! What works best? File folders? Binders? Scanning them into the computer? HELP!

Anyway, on to more exciting things... I bought some yarn that had been calling out to me every time I stepped into my new LYS. It was cheap so I said "why not?" Of course, now I don't know what to make with it! I have two skeins (656 yards) of this:

It's Ironstone Warehouse's Flake Cotton and I can't find very much about it online. Has anyone used it before? Any suggestions on what I should make with it?

OK!

I've saved the best for last!

Are you ready for it?

Meet my new best friend...

It's a Kenmore 19606 sewing machine. This baby has 765 stitch functions! Wahoo! It also has a start/stop button so you don't need to use the foot pedal. It'll even thread the eye of the needle for me! I looked online reading review after review and people seemed really happy with this machine and it seemed to give more bang for the buck. Then I started stalking Sears and asking sales associates about upcoming sales. They had a big one this past weekend and I pounced. I've only had it a couple of days so I haven't had a chance to put it through the paces but hopefully I'll get to play very soon.

An aside: I wish you could smell my house right now. I had some bananas that were going bad so I made some of my favorite banana-nut bread and the yummy smell is filling up my house! It's so hard to wait for it to cool!

Ok, that's all for now. I don't want to turn this into a "super-sized" post (although it may be too late). So I'll leave you with the promise that you will hear from me again soon! I promise to not let April get misplaced like March did. I'm keeping an good eye on it...

Thankyouthankyouthankyou for all of the wonderful birthday wishes! I can't believe I've been 30 years old for almost three weeks! I'm loving it! I can already tell that I'm going to love my thirties. Lots of plans! Lots to accomplish!

The birthday itself was unbelievable. Geoff surprised me with a wonderful dinner followed by dessert at a favorite sweet spot where 12 of my friends joined us! What a surprise! The evening ended with a night at one of our favorite places to stay. With my thirties starting like that, how could I not love them?!

As for my absence from this blog, I'm still working on decluttering my life. And it's going well! Slow, but well! It takes a lot of money to get organized! Baskets and boxes and shelves! Oh my!

I can probably count on one hand the number of days that I've knit the past few weeks. My noticable absence from my Stitch 'n Bitch has everyone wondering if I've forgotten how to knit! I haven't! I guess all of my "creative energy" is being diverted to the house right now! I need a creative space for myself and after seeing this, this and this how can I not be inspired!

I've also been reading more and I never realized how much I've missed it. Knitting kind of sucked up my reading time. Right now I'm reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and I just love it. If you have not read this book, you need to! I don't want to put it down!

I really need to catch up on my blog reading. Of course the other day I accidentally cleared out ALL of the new posts in my knittng folder on Bloglines (we're talking over 1,000 entries). I hate when that happens! It was a total "control-z" moment.

I hope everyone had a great February! March has definitely come in like a lion with the storms we had last night. I hope that you and yours are safe!

Have a great weekend!

My mind... cluttered.

My life... cluttered.

I haven't done much knitting in 2007. It's not that I haven't wanted to. It's just that there are other things that I've wanted to do more. Namely... de-cluttering.

You see, there is a lot I want to accomplish in 2007. That, coupled with the fact that I'm turning 30 in two weeks, has lit a fire under my bum. I want to conquer the clutter that seems to consume my everyday.

Conquering the clutter in my house will be the easiest to tackle. Our home is very small. It's the price we pay for living in the city (one we are willing to pay because of the life that city-living gives us). Right now I'm quickly filling boxes with things to give to charity and then I will take on the organization of the things that will stay.

My hope is that the de-cluttering of my home will lead to a de-cluttering of my mind. It seems that my creative mind has been in overdrive lately and I have so many projects that want to come to life! Yes, a few of them require knitting, but most of them do not - sewing, crochet, jewelry design...

The knitting (and crochet) I can pretty much do anywhere. But the sewing, jewelry design, etc require a work space. A studio of sorts. Not an easy thing to find in a small house. Our spare bedroom has been a "dumping ground" for things we have no other place for. I think a lot of people have a room like that in their homes. But we really can't afford to have a room like that in this house. We need to use every square foot (and use it efficiently)! We have been very creative in the usage of space in the rest of the house. Large objects do not come into this house unless they have multiple uses. Our "coffee table" in the living room is actually two ottomans pushed together. Two ottomans that serve as a coffee table, extra storage and even extra seating when we need it. This is how we must live!

It's time we work our "small space magic" in our spare bedroom so that I can get that longed-for space where my creative juices can flow.

Of course, all of this house and mind de-cluttering should lead to the de-cluttering of my life! I feel like I'm spending so much of my free time navigating through all of the clutter (both physical and mental). This leaves little time to actually be productive!

So why am I telling you all of this? Well, for one thing, I've been feeling guilty about the lack of knitting on this knitting blog (I still need to take a picture of my Pomatomus socks). Also, I guess I just wanted to let you all know why this blog may become silent for a week (maybe two?) at a time. I'm really trying to spend my "free time" working on my de-cluttering goal.

Speaking of goals, I did say in my last post that I wanted to tell you my goals for 2007. Well, the obvious one I just spoke paragraphs about, but here are a few smaller ones:

1) run more. Right now I'm only running about 8 miles a week and am wanting to get to 20+ miles a week. I've never run a 5k so I'm going to run my first one on St. Patrick's Day!

2) blog more. Heh heh... that may not be able to happen in the immediate future due to my de-cluttering but once I'm de-cluttered I anticipate lots of time for blogging (and lots to blog about)!

3) give this blog a facelift. I am growing weary of the design of my blog. I don't like the dark colors anymore and want to make my tiny spot on the internet a little more light and airy.

I want to end with a HUGE thank you to everyone who has visited this little blog over the past year. I try and reply to all of the comments that you leave, but sometimes life happens and I'm lucky to even get a shower. I'm looking forward to spending 2007 with you!

What are your goals this year?

Yarn was purchased (though not by me because I was trying to be good!) and there was even some knitting accomplished between the yarn petting! Thanks, Lara, for allowing us to be your first customers! The youngest member of Stitch 'n Bitch Columbia was also in attendance but she slept through all of the excitement (I'm sure she was dreaming of yarn).

This is my friend Liz's little girl. Just 5 weeks old! Liz tells me that she screams and cries but the times that I've seen her she's either sleeping, eating or cooing. I think Liz is lying about all that bad stuff. She's a perfect angel!

Geoff and I had a great time in Asheville last weekend. We went back to what has become our favorite bed and breakfast, The Lion and the Rose. One of my favorite things about this place is this little guy...

Meet Cedric! Isn't he the cutest?! And he has a funny underbite that makes it look like he's smiling all the time. I love hanging out with him downstairs while I knit.

I went to two yarn shops in Asheville and (believe it or not) did not buy any yarn! The first shop I went to was Purl's and it was a nice shop but I have to gripe a bit. They had all of their yarn organized by color instead of brand. And, yes, this makes for a beautiful shop but it's just not practical! I don't know what color I want my project to be! I just know what kind of yarn I want! I want to be able to browse all of the colors of a particular yarn in one place and not have to search all over the shop to try and see what colors are available. I got tired of the hunt and walked out of there spending just $6 on a pattern for a lace stole. If I hadn't gotten so frustrated looking for yarn, I probably would have spent a lot more money there.

Then I went to Yarn Paradise and I just really love this shop. The people who work there are super nice and super helpful. So I almost felt guilty when I couldn't find any yarn that called to me. I did buy some needles but no yarn. Geoff thought I was ill. I don't think he has ever seen me come out of a yarn shop without yarn. And he witnessed this strange behavior twice in one day!

But I also went to Piece Gardens fabric shop. I could not get out of there without buying some wonderful Amy Butler fabric...

The fabric on the bottom is going to become an apron (the one from In Stitches - LOVE this book!) and the fabric at the top is going to become a tote bag for my swift so that it's easier to transport. I just need to find some coordinating fabric for each of them.

Geoff and I also found some art by an Asheville artist to dress up a very naked wall in our living room. I love all of the colors!

I still have lots to blog about - goals for 2007 and a finished pair of Pomatomus - but they will have to wait. I haven't taken a picture of the socks yet! Hopefully I can get them posted in the next few days. One of my goals for 2007 needs to be "blog more" so that I can avoid these "super-sized" posts.

I have lots of stuff to blog about (including a finished knit!) but this week has been crazy. I'll see ya on Monday! Probably with a bit of "stash enhancement" to show from Yarn Paradise. Whoopee!

Have a great weekend!

Edit: Ok! All fixed! Yay! Guess I'll have to find another solution to my spam problem. Any ideas? Would upgrading to Movable Type 3.3 help things? I should probably do that anyway, huh?

One of the things that did get finished is the Cathedral Afghan for my grandmother. She loved it! It should keep her very warm! Click the pictures to enlarge them...

Pattern: Cathedral Afghan from Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts issue
Started: November 21, 2006
Finished: December 24, 2006
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky
Needles: US 13

My Christmas was wonderful. I got some really great gifts! Geoff gifted me with lots of fun things including an iPod shuffle! Look how teeny-tiny it is!

I love it. I wanted one for my runs and did my first run with it Wednesday night. I love that it's so small and light and I can clip it anywhere!

I got some great knitting stuff too! My parents got me the Knit Picks Options needle set! Wahoo! I also got some knitting books including Knit 2 Together and Speed Knitting. I've been wanting Knit 2 Together for a while now. I love Tracey Ullman and there are some really cute patterns in the book (along with lots of great stories). Speed Knitting has some cute patterns too but the first pattern in the book is a garter-stitch scarf. Do people really need a pattern for that? Cast on x stitches, knit every row, bind off. I think every knitter learns how to make a garter stitch scarf when they learn how to knit. Don't waste my time by putting it in a pattern book. And while I seem to be on my soapbox about knitting pattern books, does anyone else get annoyed by pattern books that take up 10-20 pages with teaching people how to knit? When I learned to knit I looked for books about learning to knit. I think that by the time you are buying books for the patterns in them, you are beyond learning how to knit and purl, increase and decrease. Fill those 10-20 pages with more patterns! Ok, stepping down from my soapbox... sorry for the detour. I also got some great giftcards for iTunes, Amazon.com, Ann Taylor Loft and Starbucks.

And the holidays were made even sweeter by two of my friends having babies! My friend Liz brought Emma Caroline (recipient of the Crumpets dress) into the world on Dec. 15 and my friend Heather brought Isaac William (recipient of the Pea Pod Baby Set) into the world on Dec. 21! What wonderful Christmas presents for them!

I hope you all had a great holiday! And I wish everyone a WONDERFUL 2007!

Well, this time it's happening to me. Maybe it's the holidays? Who knows. All I know is that there are too many things vying for my attention right now and I feel like nothing is getting finished because I'm always getting sidetracked!

My knitting time has suffered the most I think. I don't think I've even picked up the Aran Tree Skirt in over a week! Why are there only 24 hours in a day?! Can't someone change that?

And it just seems like my "to do" list is getting longer and longer as Christmas approaches. So I apologize for the lack of posts and the (obvious) lack of knitting.

Maybe I can distract you from this knitting void by pointing you to the new issue of Knitty! Have you seen it? There are 26 patterns in this issue! 26! With so many patterns, there is something for everyone. And I've picked out my favorites already...

Tiffany - these mittens are just gorgeous
Monkey - another great sock pattern from the designer of Pomatomus
Venezia - these napkin rings would make wonderful gifts!
Starsky Jr. - this pattern is destined for my niece... someday...
Sheldon - this one is by far my favorite! So cute! I think my nephew must have one. Also, don't forget to check out the Sheldon the Turtle Blog. So many cute Sheldons!

And check out the redesign of their archive page! You can now browse by issue or type of pattern or even search the archives! As a web librarian, these new ways of navigating the archives make me very happy. Knitty makes me happy.

So go forth and knit! Somebody has to!

And I did not get nearly enough knitting done over the holiday weekend. Very disappointing. I'm still working on the Aran Tree Skirt and right now I'm just hoping to have it finished by Christmas. There really isn't any reason to kill myself over the next week or so. I'm halfway done with it so here's a progress shot... click to make it bigger...

I'm not doing much gift-knitting this Christmas. Just one special gift on my list. My grandmother turned 95 this month and I mentioned to Geoff that I wished I had knit her something for her birthday and he asked if I could eek something out for Christmas so I looked for the perfect pattern and found it. I'm knitting her this afghan...

It's the Cathedral Afghan from the Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts special issue. It's knit with bulky yarn on size 13 needles so it really flies and I should have no problem finishing it for Christmas. I'm using Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky in color Pewter. I'll try and get a progress shot this weekend.

One knit that I'm feeling SO guilty about is that blanket for my nephew. I blew through half of it in no time and then... nothing. I think I know why. You see, the animals are knit using intarsia and it's knit with cotton yarn. It's so hard to make cotton yarn look neat and clean in colorwork! The stitches even looked wonky in the pictures in the book. The wonkiness of it all and the fact that doing the colorwork pretty much requires me to line the blanket have made me dread picking it up to finish it. I'm the worst aunt ever! And every time I see my nephew he is using the blanket I made for my other nephew. He needs his own blanket! So I think I'm going to rip out the blanket down to the point where the animals begin and then reknit it without the animals. I know the animals are sooooo cute but I think they just look sloppy in a cotton yarn and I don't like sloppy. So it will just be a color block blanket and this will avoid my having to line it. Joy! Now I just need to make myself frog almost half of what I've done already... grrrrrrrr...

Well, better run! I've got Stitch 'n Bitch tonight! Wahoo! I promise to not let another week go by without posting! Have a great Friday everyone!

I also wanted to let everyone know about a correction I made to the Entrelac Scarf pattern found in my sidebar. Thanks to Caitlyn for pointing out that I left out a ssk on the first triangle of the final tier of triangles. Sorry guys! But if you download the pattern again you'll get the corrected version.

I'm still plugging away at the tree skirt! I think I have a plan to get it finished in the next two weeks. Geoff and I went ahead a got an artificial tree this year (with pre-strung lights, thank you thank you thank you! String lights was the worst part of tree-decorating!) so I think we can wait to put it up until the first week of Dec. And hopefully I'll have a finished tree skirt to go under it. I promise to try and take some pics of it in the next couple of days. I know how boring these pictureless posts can be!

Thanks again to everyone for your advice!