New Year Blues

The beginning of this year is going to be extremely busy, with learning up on the accounting at work and learning to balance accounting stuff and technical editing. Also going to be busy because of wedding planning and getting everything needed together for the 4th of April. Afterwards, I hope the year slows down.

I have accomplished one thing already this year, although it's later than I had hoped. Philip's Sweater!
I'm especially proud of it and so far have received many compliments.

Another thing I did the beginning of the year was get rid of my domain and website, elvenprincess.com. I wasn't using it anymore and I just don't have time to manage that, a livejournal, a myspace, a facebook, and a blog. So I figured, I might as well cancel out of the one I had to pay for every three months. Sure I pay for my livejournal (i like my icons), but that's something I'm more likely to do something with.

But the accounting has the potential to murder me... I'm hoping it's not as bad as the last day was.

Christmas Knitting Blues

I'm so totally behind on my Christmas knitting this year. It's annoying. Then again, new responsibilities at work, wedding planning, and being generally a social bug, has put a lot of hampers in my plans. That and my determination to make Philip his first sweater (since I have the ring *read: shiney!) knocked out a huge amount of my time to pump through quickie projects that are usually the things I work on for Christmas presents. Hopefully it won't knock out the next birthday present time either, but we'll have to see.

The sweater has been put on hiatus even though it was his birthday present back on the 5th. Mainly because I goofed in a couple places and it has me frustrated. The new goal for the sweater is to be done before January 10th when I want him to wear it at SimTerra... despite my worry of the way the thing needs to be cleaned.

There is still much to be done and I think the stress is finally getting to me. I really dislike stress. :( But anyways, I have a lot of things I need to get done and not a lot of time to do it in. But the week is young and hopefully the bridesmaids dresses will finally be in and I will have at least one less thing to worry about when it comes to wedding planning.

Philip really needs to choose his mens though...

Finally took a picture

Of the veil that I've made. It still needs to be blocked and then I must brainstorm how exactly I can use it as a veil for the wedding of which I keep forgetting to set a date (i hate calling folks and i need to call the pastor and i'm nervous cause i haven't seen him in about 8 years).

That's really all I have for today.

oops.

I'm a very very bad blogger. Back when I was introduced to the world of blogging through LiveJournal (which I still have one today) I used to post all the time... multiple times a day... whether I had something to say or not. Now a days, all my blogs seem to be lacking the love. It's not like I haven't been knitting... it's that there are so many other shiny things for me to do.

I've found lovely books to read, whether it's the Dresden Files or one of my many manga or novels that I have been collecting over the past few years. I also fell in love with a new game, Mabinogi. I have enjoyed playing as "Honeko" with Philip playing "Kagaea" and playing with other friends in my guild the RPSociety. They are cool folk and I love the freeform feel of this game. I can go whatever path I feel like when it so strikes me. It's fun and pretty relaxing. The beginning of gameplay is free, but if you want special features that's when you shell out the money. I think it's worth it... so long as I have money to spend.

That has been consuming my time, as well as hanging out with friends, attempting to clean room and failing and thus gettting onto Mabinogi or lounging on the MIMIC. My apartment is abysmal in mess, and it is very overwhelming to look at and try to get started on. But I need to get started and finished. Maybe I'm going to have to put down the needles and turn off the computer to get it done. Maybe. If I can.

I finished my "Fire Brigade Cape" back around the 20th of June. I made the little flower and used a snap enclosure. It suited it's purpose extremely well, better than I had hoped. Although after the fact I found that the stitching holding the snaps in place are slowly coming undone, so I think I'm going to need to rework the enclosure before the next time I take it out on the town.

I also made some gloves in the NaturallyCaron.com Spa yarn. It breathes really well and I could hardly tell they were even on my hands during a summer afternoon. I say that is a success in what I was trying with them.


I began a new project from my birthday present "Fitted Knits". This is the "Boatneck Bluebell" sweater. It came out a lot better than originally thought and it was a pleasure to knit. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I still have the seaming of the sleeves to do left. But that can probably wait until I 1) feel like seaming or 2) it gets closer to the proper season to wear a sweater. Lets see if I actually remember the sweater exists by that time.

I hope you enjoyed this sum up of what's been going on in my life since. I need to really get back into a blogging regularly habit because it sometimes helps me sort through my crazy thoughts that I have these days.

"It's like magic to me"

This is what a man I was sitting next to while waiting for my car's tire to be fixed (it had gotten bowed out and could cause a problem in the future if I didn't get it fixed) said in commenting about my knitting. His wife apparently crochets and he doesn't really know what the difference is, and as far as I'm concerned, I could explain it, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he would remember. But it definitely made my day.

So apparently, I know magic. My magic is knitting. And I'm so much more patient when I have my knitting on my lap.

I meant to blog so many times, but I'm a very forgetful person and I get wrapped up in a lot of things to do... projects, games, books, work, the list continues. So I am finally getting around to posting again and I will give y'all a catch up.

Stargazer
I finished my very first shirt/sweater project. It took me quite some time, but in the end I like how it turned out. I'm also quite amused about taking my own picture in my bathroom mirror and making interesting photos. Well, except for my hair, which doesn't normally behave. But that's not the focus of the picture. The focus is that I made my own shirt that actually fit me quite well. It's a little tighter on the bottom part, but that's one of the things about making ribbing. It makes things slimmer. This shirt is made from alpaca yarn and is slightly itchy against my skin. I attribute that to the fact that is now summer and such things should be put away until the fall. It's a pity though. I guess that's what usually happens you begin a project and it isn't finished until it's out of season. Oh well.

Glamour Capelet









I started a new project back in May. I started with making the capelet in the taupe color (I am using NaturallyCaron's Country for both of these). Then I got it in my mind that I must of messed up. So I pulled the cape off my needles and started the red one. I started the red one on May 28, better known as my birthday (old age of 26). I'm a lot further along than I was on the taupe cape now. THE END IS IN SIGHT! But thinking back, I don't think I actually did make a mistake on the taupe cape. I think what I will end up doing when the red cape is done is picking the taupe one back up, counting the stitches to make certain that I really didn't goof up and then finally finish that one. So I will have two glamour capelets in the end...

I really like the pattern. It's pretty easy at this moment and nice enough to do my editing job while working on it. At least the part where I'm reading the documents and looking for grammatical errors. I hope to have the red one finished by June 21st, where I will be wearing it for part of SimTerra. Most likely the beginning and then at night, because, after all, this yarn is part wool. Wool in summer? Yeah, I'm insane and want to wear my hand knits. Can you blame me?

Don't answer that.

Yosemite
I've been wanting to start the short sleeve pattern for a while and I've been holding onto the KnitPicks Comfy yarn in two colors (dark purple and red) for sometime to make two of these (yes for myself... I'm stingy when I'm not Christmas knitting). So, being my silly self, I started up the project before I finished the Glamour Capelet (a feat that my boyfriend is frustrated about... he's all about me learning to finish projects I start instead of starting and not finishing and starting new ones and the like. Now Yarn Harlot encourages this (and more yarn buying)... and I like her ideas better, but that may not be conducive to a healthy relationship... *shrugg* I will try to find a happy medium. I hope)...

I started this to get my mind off of the tornado warnings that were all over the place here in NoVA on this past Wednesday, but I put it down in lieu of the capelet when I went to roleplay on Dasaria later... When just standing around Cear, I might as well keep my hands busy when not typing or attacking wild mean animals.

Birthday Loot!
Perhaps the most exciting thing for me this past week was the accumulation of new yarn and "birthday loot". I ended up getting some yarn for my birthday directly from friends. The big balls I don't know what to do with yet, but the Jitterbug yarn I will make some simple socks with... once I find some 2.5 mm needles (hard in stores, easy online). Everything else I bought on my own, I knew what pattern I was going to use. The orange yarn on top (Cascade 220 Quatro) I am going to make a sweater from the pictured book with. I look forward to that. Hopefully by the time I finish it, needing to wear it won't be so far away. The red and purple yarn in the middle I will be making the Honeycomb vest with. Oh and don't forget the d20 knitting needles. I so want to use them once I figure out a good pattern for them.

Anyways this is my sum up of what I've been up to. Hopefully I'll try to be more regular. Depends on the traffic, which despite Obama being at Nissan pavilion, wasn't as bad as it normally is for a Nissan event in the rush hour. Part of me wonders if that was just a bunch of hype or what....

Knitting Pattern Review: Mary Jane Pithy Hat

Pattern Found Here

With the Mary Jane Pithy Hat pattern, there are two separate patterns for hats that Kirsten Dunst wore in movies. I have tried both of them.

Spiderman: Mary Jane's hatI first tried this hat using Vanna's Choice, but it was very rough to my hands and then the hat fell apart after a few days of wear. Whether that has anything to do with the yarn itself or my own failure at good tying off on the top, I am not totally sure. The picture above is of the pattern using Caron's Simply Soft. The pattern worked much easier on the needles with this pattern.

This is not a pattern you can really do without paying good attention to what you're doing, because of all the yarn overs and knit/purl-two-together that you have to deal with. It's a comfortable hat to wear and I intend to make more of these in the future. Recently I began testing out a new type of yarn I found in A.C. Moore yesterday during lunch break (my shopping therapy involves books and yarn, but I don't like to admit this, no). This yarn is called NaturallyCaron.com's Country. It is an Acrlyic and Merino Wool blend that is very soft to the touch and comes in many lovely colors. I look forward to giving this a try because the more nice yarns I can find without resorting to the online buying (although so much fun), the happier I am when it comes to making presents for friends and family.

Elizabethtown Hat
So I couldn't really say no when I got a bunch of red yarn for my Kaylee knitted garments collection (stuff that is washable and okay for lots of crazy activities outdoors). So I made the "girl in the red hat" hat. Using KnitPicks Swish Superwash, it was very easy. This was also my first experience with doing cables. It was easier than I thought it would be, especially easier to not use a cable needle (I didn't use anything but my own fingers to hold the to be cabled stitch) than I had originally thought. I found this pattern very comfortable to work with and relaxing to just sit back and attempt to do other things while knitting.

Also this hat actually suited my need when I had to do a mod outside while it was drizzling. It kept my head warm and the rain didn't seem to do any damage. Good thing I used superwash wool.

Week in Review: Therapy

Yes I realize last week's week in review is slightly late, but things happened this weekend that were beyond my control. so this posting has to do with something nearly different (but it can tie into whatever I feel like at the time I'm writing this).

For me there are multiple different types of therapy and I will highlight them thus following.

Knitting Therapy
I, like many people, find knitting to be extremely relaxing. Although, when I need to relax, I usually choose my easiest project I am working on (the one that uses less brain power). There's not much more I can go into that, because words usually cannot describe how good I feel when I accomplish something like a project or get a good way done in it. Now, if only that project would be cleaning my apartment...

But I've always felt i need more knitters to talk to about advice and various knitting sort stuff. Yay for being invited to ravelry! Now... to make with the actually getting off my butt and shyness to talk to folks I don't know.

I would've had a nice week of progress when it came to my projects that I'm working on, but unfortunately I got a new baby (Wii) and some new stuffed animals to claim my two favorite hobbies (Wii and Knitting).

Gaming Therapy
Fantasy, games, and the like are a release for me. It is something I enjoy and spend a good chunk of my weekend doing. I have always found reality to be extremely boring and littered with evil responsibility and bills and the like, so reading fantasy, playing fantasy, and creating fantasy has been good times for me. This past weekend I ran a story of pirates and evil fishmen and an evil empire trying to enslave the seas. I also was in a story of transmundane things happening in the fictional city of Roanoke, North Carolina. These things are fun for me and help me relax and escape from reality for a brief moment.

Not to say that I don't live in reality. I have learned over my years that I think good gamers need to have a stronger grip on reality than anyone else because they need to recognize the separation between fantasy and reality. It's the gamers that can't do that that you hear about in the news killing themselves accidentally with a katana.

Cleaning Therapy
Believe it or not, sometimes cleaning makes me feel good. Perhaps this is because I don't do it often enough and that I feel a lot better about myself when it's done because it is one of my biggest sources of self-blame. I am lazy, I dislike having to do a lot of work to get the apartment straightened up. I am much happier with yarn thrown across the house... but that does not work for being a central location for hanging out. It doesn't work at all. So this week I am going to begin the long therapy session that is cleaning therapy. Now if I can just get past the knitting and gaming therapy to focus on that.

Driving Therapy
Even driving in I-66 rush hour traffic, I find the power and control I have behind the wheel to be very relaxing. One day when I was in college I got really hurt and stressed out about something or other and I just left where I was and took my car and drove a circle around Greenville, North Carolina. They had a nice way of doing that and it felt a lot better afterwards. I think I need to do that more often, although now is the day of really high gas prices, so it's not as luxurious and stress-relieving as it could be anymore.

Sleep Therapy
Simply put, you go to sleep, you feel better. That is... if you can sleep.

Talking Therapy
This does not always involve talking to other people, but a lot of it involves talking to myself like I'm talking to other people. I have been able to tell my computer screen exactly how I think about the situation at hand better than anyone else. I have also been able to do the same thing with the walls in my bathroom. It's a little silly, and it may be a sign of insanity, but I come to a lot of self-realization when I'm talking to myself.

Besides, one of the differences between girls and guys is how we cope with our problems and the "talking therapy" is a point of contention. Guys don't usually like to talk when they cope. They usually like to be left alone. Girls on the other hand like to talk about it. This has been a problem in many relationships (including mine) that I have noticed. Pushing a guy to talk about a problem is not usually advised. (hard lessons I have learned)

Fuzzy Puppy/Kitty Therapy
How can you be sad when you've got a corgi puppy licking your face. Even Chicken the sick kitty had his effect on me as well. Some of the best times I bonded with him was when I needed someone after a break-up that broke my heart.

Also connected to this therapy is "stuffy therapy". In the event that you do not have a real pet but instead have a mound of stuffed animals of which you can bury yourself under (like myself), you can snuggle up with a stuffed animal for comfort. For some reason, even at 25, I find it hard to peacefully sleep without a stuffy. It be embarrassing.

Actually seeing a Psychiatrist Therapy
I have Generalized Anxiety Syndrome according to my psychiatrist. She did listen and prescribed me Citrocal. It has helped. It doesn't relieve everything, hence all the other sorts of therapy. It also doesn't prevent new stresses to emerge. But, it's a start.

Biblical Therapy
Sometimes when I'm down and really uncertain what to do, I do turn to God to help me with what to do. Unfortunately a few times I make the mistake to ask for patience and peace, which causes me to be put in instances where I need to feel such things. Sometimes it comes with a small prayer proceeding opening a Bible to see where it leads me. I'm still confused with what He's trying to tell me, but... well, things will work out according to His plan and His own time.

Snuggleupagainst Therapy
Boyfriend snuggles. That's it.

This Week In Review: "My Phat Lewtz"

I had a splurge since I realized I had extra money due to my tax return finally coming in. I had been meaning to make this sort of purchase for some time now, and I finally did and was pleased to see they all came in within two days this week, earlier than I expected. I did purchase a few big balls of other yarn last Friday at JoAnns, but I forgot to include those in the picture of my "phat lewtz". Also not included is the one ball of yarn that I ordered on Amazon.com this week, but that I don't really expect until next week along with my two new pairs of shoes, Crocs' Alice.

I have plans for just about all of these balls of yarn. Included in the finds are as follows: Knitpicks Suri Dream, Glossamer, Shadow, and size 8 length 40" Options needles, elann.com's Pure Alpaca Fina, Just Bamboo ribbon yarn, and another thing of ribbon yarn I forgot its name already. From an earlier purchase, I have as well KnitPicks Andean Treasure, Swish Worsted, and Swish DK. Andean Treasure, Suri Dream, and Shadow all are used in a "feather and fan" pattern with Knitpicks' free patterns. Glossamer is just the handdyed version of Shadow. As I've learned recently, lace yarn is a challenge to work with... I have never used with such fine yarn before.

With each week in review, I plan to cover a few different things such as different types of yarn I am using, status on projects I am working on, and other things of relative fun (like maybe a small rant about current events or something if I feel so inclined).

Andean Treasure vs. Pure Alpaca Fina
While I was searching online for decent priced sport weight yarns to use in "secret projects", I came across elann.com's Pure Alpaca Fina (PAF). While I had already started using Andean Treasure (AT), I was excited by the many more color options that PAF offered. It also contained more yardage than AT so I figured I would give it a shot as a adequate substitute.

When they came in the mail on Wednesday, I was very excited and opened it up and began introducing myself to it I realized, and did comparison with it. They are both "sport weight" according to their two different sites, but from what I noticed, PAF is thinner than AT. To my estimation it looked more like a fingering weight yarn (it was thicker than the lace weight yarn I also got in the mail, which made me happier). I guess I should pay a bit more attention when studying for substitutes for patterns online. I still have yet to really understand, nor develop the patience, to work with "gauges", or even understand fully that it says 50g, so maybe even though it has more yarn yardage, it may be thinner than the other ball. Oh well. I'm still planning on using it for a pattern that calls for AT in the future, I just have to figure out if I need to change needles or increase the width of the pattern. Those two things shouldn't be too difficult.

HP PoA Scarf
I have been working on the second try with the scarf since sometime in February or January (don't remember), but it has been considered a back-burner or "easy" project. I usually work on it when I feel like it or I am multitasking (watching subbed anime, reading over papers for editing). This scarf uses KnitPicks' Swish Worsted yarn, which is some of the softest yarn I had worked with up to that point (it still is by far one of the softest yarns I've ever used). I like the way this scarf is coming through. As of the time I took this picture I had just gotten to the 11th set of the yellow-red-yellow stripe pattern. The pattern itself calls for 14 of them and one final big block set and then finishing off with tassling. I am looking forward to finally getting to that part, cause I got tired of the first scarf before I got around to it. Actually it was more like I got tired of using LionsBrand Vanna's Choice because it was irritating my fingers, so I finished that one up fast to do this one.

But I never feel quite happy if I only have one (or just two) projects going on. So when I got new yarn in this past week, I started a few new projects, two of which I will detail here.

Stargazer
This will be what I will consider my "first sweater" although it really is more of a "warm-weather" sweater. I'm hoping to have this done enough to be a project I work on at SimTerra (as this and the above scarf are what I call "Kaylee wear"). No idea how it will get there, because I lost a few stitches today in a "packing incident". I will probably fix it later when I get around to working on it.

The pattern itself looks like a short sleeve kimono, and it even has a silky looking band just under the bust to mimic a small obi. I purchased some bamboo ribbon yarn to suit that effect, because I don't really like the idea of spending the time to make my own ribbon yarn. Bah, that's far too much effort. Since the PAF was smaller width than I thought it would be, I'm hoping the particular size I chose to make this with is just fine. Next time I try this pattern I may splurge and get the yarn it calls for and I already have another ribbon yarn around here to put with that one. I'll probably do a pattern review at some point for that and then I will provide the link.

Suri Dream Throw
This is the only feather and fan pattern that I can even show here because the others are... well, *Xellos pose* that's a secret. And I haven't really started it, I've just begun planning it. I intend to use the yarn that the pattern calls for, KnitPicks' Suri Dream. It claims to be a bulky weight, but looking at it closer, I really don't totally buy that. I am also intending on whipping out what I call "the big red and black tribble" (also known as a pound of gradient yarn I got at Jo Ann's) and blending that with the Suri Dream to add an interesting textured effect. I hope in the end I will have enough of that to go along with 10 balls of the Suri Dream, but we will have to see. I probably should do some measurement planning before I get all invested in the beginning.

Here highlights what I've been up to this past week, I hope to have next week's review up sooner than this one, but I get so easily distracted when boyfriend playing fascinating game (Mount and Blade) on my computer or Arkham Horror at Jeff and Mona's. Or even... I get too distracted by my many projects I'm working on to remember to actually write about it. I hope to get better about that, but no real promises... this week at work has the potential to be hell.

Although the knowledge of getting nice packages delivered is still warm fuzzies. I also have a story to work on so I can torture people this coming Saturday.

Coming Soon: Pattern Review: Mary Jane and Elizabethtown hats

Knitting Pattern Review: Prisoner of Azkaban Scarf

pattern found here

This scarf is knitted in the round using either size 7, size 8, or size 9. For the first few weeks I enjoyed the simpleness of the scarf, finding it to be relaxing and easy to multi-task with. I intend to make many more of this kind.

I found that LionsBrand Vanna's Choice, after a long period of time, grew too uncomfortable to work with, and perhaps even too big of a weight (even though it "claims" to be worsted weight) to make this pattern with (especially on size 9). The scarf ended up being too big for me in the width sense.

Now I'm also working on the second one already for this scarf using KnitPicks Swish Superwash yarn and size 7 needles (don't have a pic for it online yet, but I will definitely post it up in a following blog when I do). That particular yarn is perhaps the best yarn I have worked with at that point and it and Caron's Simply Soft yarn are probably going to be my "warm stuff" (scarves and hats) yarn for some time to come.

This pattern is fairly easy to deal with, you just need to keep an eye for the row counting and make certain your color changes are good. I have yet to actually do the tassels for the ends of the scarf yet, but it looks simple enough to me.

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In the future I think I'm going to try to have a weekly "work in progress" post. At present I think I will time it for Friday evening to Saturday morning that I would do that.

I Am Picky About My Yarn

I could say I have as of late become "persnickety" about my yarn choices, or what is otherwise known as a "yarn snob". I've become very picky about which yarns I want to use or even buy lately.

This has come about after discovering that a yarn I thought I would like that I got at Michael's, LionsBrand Vanna's Choice, was actually not what I liked... it was itchy to work with and made my head itch when I wore the hat I made with it. I also found that I prefered Wool Ease Chunky as opposed to regular Wool Ease for the same reason, it was less scratchy.

I have discovered that there are very few 100% acrylic yarns that I even like anymore, pretty much limiting to Caron's Simply Soft. There are probably others that I may like, but I'm not totally fond of Red Heart for certain.

I make my choice based more on comfort with knitting. If it makes me itch, then I really don't want anything to do with it. I don't really care if it pills a little. It has to be comfortable to knit with, because if it isn't, it won't be comfortable to wear.

I have some patterns I have tried out and am ready to review soon, hopefully once I get around to getting the pictures online, I will post them up here.

Knitting Pattern Review: Knucks

The first in my knitting posts, I am exploring how I wish to contribute to the realm of knitting blogs or for that matter, blog about my own work with knitting. I am going to probably post up a good bit of my work, to start out review a pattern I have tried and periodically post up other items I have made with that pattern.

The first in the series is a pattern I discovered through Facebook's Stitchbook application (I have actually found a good amount of patterns I like this way, and the first three patterns I review including this one was found through this means).

Knucks
pattern found here

I first had been trying to make fingerless gloves from a pattern in

the book " Naughty Needles". I wanted to make a pair of these gloves for Philip, but the gloves were far too feminine and they actually didn't really work out the way that the pattern said. So when I found this particular pattern, I was excited because there was an actual "male sized" pattern that I could use to make him some gloves. So I tried it out. I got some sport weight merino wool from Nature's Yarns in Fairfax near my work and borrowed mom's and got my own size 4 double pointed needles (DPNs). They took a bit of time, like it always does with a new pattern and they worked out great. He loved them! These were a part of a bunch of things I put together for his Christmas present. He usually wears his Harley Davidson Leather fingerless gloves, but these I made were more for warmth than for heavy lifting like the others. This is fine by me.

When I bought the yarn for Philip's gloves, I also purchased some cotton-wool mix DK weight yarn in a light teal color thinking of making the Naughty Needle's gloves for Joyce for her birthday, but after trying it out, they didn't turn out the way I wanted so I changed my mind and made her a set of these gloves as well. This was the first time I made a female pair (although as of now I have only made one set of these gloves for a guy). I had to redo it once after accidentally making the pointer finger too big and therefore throwing off the entire glove (and this was the second glove), but through trial and error, they were finished.

I enjoyed working this pattern so much, I made two sets of gloves for myself. I played around with colors for one of them, trying out the idea of having the fingers different colors. For the red and yellow gloves I used KnitPicks Swish DK (Superwash Merino Wool) in Hollyberry and Pale Lemon.


Because I enjoy this pattern so much, I intend to use it again in the future. I will post up pictures of new ones when I do finish them. It's pretty simple for a beginner knitter. I consider myself fairly beginner with hands in a select few intermediate stuff. This was just simple stockinette in the round with k1, pl ribbing for the cuffs. I also recommend Knitpicks's Swish DK. It's extremely soft and comfortable to use and very warm to wear.