autumn

There are few things that bring me more joy than fall. I love watching the leaves change and then drift to the ground like snowflakes. I love the chilly weather and being able to wear scarves and hats and coats. And knitting during the fall? The most satisfying thing EVER.

Unfortunately, along with fall comes school, and along with school comes copious amounts of homework and little time to knit. However, I try to do the best with what little time I have.

Recently, I've been working on a cowl for a Christmas present for someone (to be determined) and I really love it. It has a simple lace pattern, and the yarn (Tweedle Dee by Moda Dea) is awesome. So soft and chunky and just all around lovely. I'm still not exactly sure how it will turn out or if any of my friends would even like it, but it's just really relaxing and soothing to work on.

I hope to finish up my granny square scarf soon (it has been far too long. the thing needs to be done) and I'm considering going back and finishing my hufflepuff sock that I started two summers ago. But I also have Christmas presents to think about, and my time limits. So, who knows? I just know that I'll still be knitting!!

<3jenny

double you tea eff.

Don't get me wrong, I love knitting fellowship. A lot. Possible more than is healthy. I am an awesomeknitter, for goodness' sake. The Yarnettes group has never dissapointed me with insightful conversation or good company. However, today was a slight dissapointment. If any of you are reading this, I love you all, and thank you for accepting me into your group. I appreciate all of your wisdom and humor.

But I do not enjoyed being called "little girl." At all. So please, avoid that phrase.

Honestly. I wouldn't even mind being called "girl." (Though, admittedly, that is slightly harsh.) But last time I checked I am not "little." I may be short, but that is something that cannot be helped. According to my doctor, I have stopped growing. I am not six. I am sixteen, and while that is younger than most people who are assosciated with knitting, that does not make me any less of a citizen than you. It doesn't give you permission to talk to me like I am a lesser being. I may be slightly more naive, and have more years to live in front of me, but I am a human as well, I am over the age of ten, and I am not "little."

Please, never ever call me "little girl" again.

kthxbai.

yarnettes ftw.

Today was the meeting for the knitting group I go to when there's no school. And, as it's summer, there's no school, so I got to go. There were a lot of people there today, a pretty big crowd, and it was so fun. I don't talk much, just because it's so interesting to sit and listen to what everyone else has to say. They talk about everything - how to smuggle needles passed the TSA, yarn (of course), and basically anything you can think of. And, honestly, it totally jam packed my brain with knitting. Later, when I was talking to my mom I kept substituting words like "librarian" with "knitter."

I love knitting.

<3jenny

fiveawesomeknitters!

It's been a while since I've blogged, but as it's summer, I thought I'd try to get back into this kind of thing. I also have a lot of time to knit (and thus a lot of things to talk about) and also started an exciting project this week.

My latest project is a baby hat for my good friend Christina, who's due in August. I'm using the Cozy Cuddles pattern by Ruth Maddock from Issue 37 of Simply Knitting Magazine, and it's very well written and easy to follow. They color code the different sizes, which prevents stitch confusion. It's really fun to knit, and it's turning out really nicely. My stitches are pretty even so far, and adding the earflaps was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I'm excited to finish it, because then I can start Rosemary Wait's Harry Potter Hufflepuff House Bag (which will be awesome!) I have to have that finished by (hopefully) the second week of July, so I'm trying to be quick but efficient.

AND, the exciting project that I've started is called fiveawesomeknitters. It's a video blog project along the vein of Brotherhood 2.0 and fiveawesomegirls. For those of you who are completely lost, the idea is that there are five of us, and we are each assigned a day of the week. On our day (I am Monday, for example) we make a video blog in which we talk about knitting, our lives, etc., and get to know each other. Then, we post it to YouTube. This week is the first week, and so far it's been incredible!! I couldn't ask to be in a collab channel with better people - they are all so clever and talented and awesome. Sometimes I feel slightly inadequate in the midst of their awesome!! So basically, KNITTING kNERDFIGHTERS FTW!!!

Tube Scarves Eat Yarn

I am so excited to give my music notes scarf to my teacher with the, "105 Reasons Ms. Bowers CANNOT Leave Next Year," list, but I did not know what I was getting myself into when I decided to make it in the round.

Tube scarves eat yarn!! I am already on my second skein of Fisherman and it's barely two feet long. And I don't know if I'll be able to endure two more feet of straight knitting. To remedy this boredom, I started winding the yarn for the baby hats and mittens into a ball yesterday, but it got a huge knot in it. Why do the knitting gods hate me so? Is this for never making a gauge swatch? Becuase I promise that I'm going to knit one for this project!! So please have mercy, O powerful knitting gods.

In other news, I am working on my first amigurumi crochet project as well!! She will be an orange elephant for my friend Nichole. So far, she is half a head and a trunk, but she's coming along nicely, and actually works up quite fast. Any suggestions for names would be much appreciated.

<3
jenny

Scarf Disease

Ravelry is truly an amazing, amazing site. I recently described it to a (non-knitter) friend that it is like "myspace for knitters." However, it is so so so so so so much better than myspace. It may just be internet love.

However, it has also led me to a sad realization about the type of things that I knit. Let's use some statistics here.

My Projects:

Knitted Toys - 6%
Hats - 13%
Scarves - 73%

73% scarves? That's more than half!! This shall not do. I need to have more variety in my knitting. This however, shall soon be remedied by the entrance of two sets of baby hats and mittens for a close friend of mine. That should help.

Right?

A Lesson Well Learned

I will never, EVER, go to the Dept. of Revenue without a knitting project ever again.

Sometimes my own stupidity amazes me.

The sad thing is I didn't take ANYTHING. Not my iPod, not a book, NOTHING.

That's two hours of my knitting life I will never get back.

On the bright side, I only missed one question on my permit test! Yup, I pwned it.

Oh! And I got my Ravelry invite today! It's amazing. I need some friends, though. Don't want to look like a Ravelry outcast! So yeah, if you read this, add me! My username is SodaSpill. Word.

<3jenny

THE Music Scarf

I honestly can't believe I'm the first person to ever have the desire to knit a scarf with music notes on it. This simply can't be possible.

Well, I suppose it can, since I looked high and low trying to find a pattern without luck. I did, however find some crochet charts and other miscellaneous things, so I finally ventured into the strange, strange world of writing one's own patterns.

Frightening, I know.

So far, it hasn't been too bad, but it did take me a while to realize that I had to knit the chart backwards for the notes to be accurate. That was slightly traumatizing, but at least I now know better for the other end when I get there. And because this was my first excursion into color work, my fabric is a little puckered in some areas, but as I once read in a very wise person's knitting book, "You are a human. Therefore, it is ok for your knitting to look like it has been done by a human."

I like that. And plus, my art hero Andy Warhol loved mistakes. He frequently embraced and incorporated them into his amazing work.

So there, I am not perfect, and neither are you.

Anyway, enough of that. Pictures!

Jumping On The Bandwagon

Since all the knitting gurus seem to have blogger blogs, I caved in to the peer pressure and got myself one as well. To be honest, I am liking my xanga much more so far, but if you have a knitting xanga no one cares. Angst.

Anywho, since this is a KNITTING blog, I should probably start talking about my knitting. At the moment, the only project I have on the needles is a fuzzy hat that I am almost finished with. If I can get my lazy self around to casting off and seaming it up, then it will be done and I will have a nice warm hat to wear. Which would indeed be fabulous. I am also looking into making a fair isle scarf with music notes on it for the instrumental music director at my school, which the extremely generous folks at the knittinghelp.com forums have been helping me out with. This would be my first project with color work, and I am excited to get started.

I have also been dabbling in the strange and cosmic world of crochet lately. I just learned not too long ago, but I have to say that so far I find it much easier, but much more boring than knitting. I am not a big fan of crochet. It seems redundant. And yes, I can hear your little chuckles out there. "Crochet is redundant?!" you are all saying, "You're a knitter for goodness' sake!" And you may be right. Perhaps it is a chemical imbalance or gene mutation, but I do not find knitting redundant at all. Each stitch is exciting to me. Straight crocheting is not very exciting. I kind of like granny squares (but they definately need a new name.) I started a scarf-hat made out of granny squares, and it is taking me forever to finish. I refuse to work on it anywhere that is not my home, because I have to do a different color on each row, and that is simply not an easily transported project. I can't wait to have the scarf-hat to wear, but 32 granny squares is a lot. And I mean, like a gigantic amount. You don't think about it when you say, "Oh! I want a scarf-hat made of 32 granny squares!" But you will later. Oh, will you think about it later.

Anywho, it is getting awfully late, and I must be off to do something that hopefully involves unconsciousness.

<3jenny
theknittingviolinist