Baby it's...cold outside?

Well! My sweater body has been casted on. And I'm already 28 rows into the knitting of it too! The button area's turned out to be a lot easier to knit solid orange than I had anticipated. Making the actual button HOLES is a bit of a challenge. But only because you use two extra small balls of yarn. So on the gray stripes, I have about a million balls of yarn floating around. Which means knots. Lot's of knots. It'll be worth it though! As long as you don't get too lazy, and you just suck it up and untangle the yarn every other row, the knots are manageable. Ahhhh!

What dreams are made of.

What are dreams made of?  What is a dream?

On a separate note, my second sweater sleeve is almost done!! 5 more rounds, and I'll be there! I'm so excited. Then I can start the body! I'm trying to figure out how to work it so that the strips up the middle, with button holes on one side, and the buttons on the other, will be solid orange all the way up, where as the body will be orange and gray stripes, just like the sleeves. At times I wonder if all of the work put into the thought process is really worth it? I have decided that it must be. When you compare figuring out how to do that, to, say, PRICING something that you have knitted, or will knit, it's a no brainer!  Pricing things is by FAR the hardest thing. At one end, you rip yourself off, and at the other end you rip the buyer off! Or you rip no one off because you have it priced so high no one will buy it...Or it's always possible that it's just ugly, and there's no demand for it too. Anyways, there's so much thought that you have to put into it that at times, it just gives me a headache. I end up giving up for the day. Or couple of days...maybe even the week...Of course I always come back to it. Isn't it everyones dream to just find that one thing that they really succeed at?

Thrift Store Finds

Okay. Went to the thrift store today. They had sweaters!! It was all half off too, so they were only like a dollar each. All cotton. Just waiting to be taken apart for more yarn! Now I can't decide. Do I take those out, or do I knit more on my sweater? I'm onto sleeve number two...I'm finding that knitting sweater sleeves is a lot like knitting socks. The first one is nothing. Quite enjoyable. But the second one is boring. It's hard to keep at it. I haven't knitted at all yet today. Every time I go to grab it, I find something else to do so I can put off that dreaded second sleeve...I'm not a repetitive knitter...I just want to get right to the body of the sweater now! I want it to be done! I can't wait! Ahhhh the suspense/pressure/excitement/everything of knitting!

Thrift Store Finds

Okay. Went to the thrift store today. They had sweaters!! It was all half off too, so they were only like a dollar each. All cotton. Just waiting to be taken apart for more yarn! Now I can't decide. Do I take those out, or do I knit more on my sweater? I'm onto sleeve number two...I'm finding that knitting sweater sleeves is a lot like knitting socks. The first one is nothing. Quite enjoyable. But the second one is boring. It's hard to keep at it. I haven't knitted at all yet today. Every time I go to grab it, I find something else to do so I can put off that dreaded second sleeve...I'm not a repetitive knitter...I just want to get right to the body of the sweater now! I want it to be done! I can't wait! Ahhhh the suspense/pressure/excitement/everything of knitting!

Can I scream now?

Okay. My first attempt at a sweater could be going better than it is now.
Even using double strands of the yarn from the sweaters, it's still not quite enough, so I had to bump the needle size down one. I had assumed that I then just had to make a size bigger of the pattern and it would be right.
I was wrong.
I need a small. The sleeve size medium was inches too short. So I made the large sleeve. IT IS STILL AN INCH TOO SHORT! So. What am I doing? Just knitting for an extra inch...Now I worry that the body will be too short too. So. I shall knit that in the size large, and add a couple of rows between each button hole. I've never done button holes.
With all of these modifications, I'm beginning to worry that they will really show, and this sweater will look stupid. Or that I'll run out of yarn...which would be a problem, considering I don't have more of those same sweaters for more yarn. Oh well. It shall all work it's self out I'm sure...

Hippos and Sweaters!

This is late.
But...
I FINISHED MY HIPPO!!!!!!!!!!
You wanna see him?!

So there he is. Isn't he just amazing!? I felt so accomplished! 

Sweaters. 

I have also started my next knitting project. It is a sweater. I'm using yarn from two other sweaters that I got at the thrift store to take out for yarn! They were both cotton, which is good, because my poor skin cannot handle acrylic. Dries it right out and causes an allergic breakout. I'm over two thirds of the way done with my first sleeve. This is getting exciting. 

Creative block!

What do you do when you have a creative brain fart? How do you inspire yourself?
I can look at knitting patterns for HOURS and never find anything that I like. At times, I wish someone would just TELL me what to make. Occasionally they do. When they order something from me. That hasn't happened in a while though, so this brain fart is really starting to bother me.
The socks I'm working on got a little too thoughtless. It wasn't taking any brain power at all...When I make socks, I prefer to have another project going at the same time. So this time, I'm stuck with nothing.
Until now! I have decided to knit myself a Hippo. This'll be my first knitted animal so we'll see how it turns out. The size 2 needles make it seem like one is knitting with toothpicks! Hopefully I don't have carpal tunnel by the end of this. Is that possible?

Blocking?

Well. Today. I had to block. I hate blocking! It's such a time consuming process. I know it's usually worth it in the end...But, wetting it, sticking in all of those MILLIONS of pins...And then you have to wait for it to dry! The finished project does grow to be a tremendously lot bigger than it was before. It really brings out the pattern. Now, the eyelet cast off thingy takes FOREVER to do. Literally. It was amazing though! It ends up looking a lot like a crocheted border. I cannot wait for my shawl/scarf-ish thing to be done so I can use it! Due to this blocking process, it shall be a few days. Is blocking really worth it?

Why do I knit?

I've been contemplating the reason behind my love for knitting. The conclusion I've come up with is; mostly, it's because I can control it. It is mine. No one can make me change it, or expect it to be something else. It's also very rewarding. You can't beat the satisfaction you get from totally completing something that YOU made. YOURSELF. It is all yours. Like a pair of socks. Your feet are warm, because you made SOCKS.
Life is full of uncontrollable things. It's  nice at times to have that one thing that is fully in your hands. It's your fault if it fails, and it's your accomplishment if you succeed. And the relaxation factor is just an added bonus!

Provisional cast-on, and chart reading!?

Sometimes, when I choose a pattern, I choose it based ONLY on the pictures. Sometimes, that's not so smart. Because then, when you go to start knitting it, you realize it's full of things you've never done before...for example, provisional cast-on and a lace chart. haha Most times, I would not choose a pattern like that, unless I knew how to do those things. But...Well, I really wanted to knit this thing. And so I decided it was time to man up! Learn some new things already!
.....
It turns out those things were amazingly easy compared to what I had originally anticipated. The cast-on was only messed up twice before it was right, and following the chart has only caused two very minor mistakes, which were caught and fixed before the row was even complete.
.....
I'm not going to lie. I am pretty much amazing. haha

Example of this mystery item?

And there it is in all of it's glory! It's knitting up a lot faster than I had thought, and I'm getting exciting about trying another thing like this!

And so it begins!

Well. That's it. I have already found something to say.
NEVER KNIT SHORTS!!!
Trust me on this. That pattern, well, to be quite blunt, sucks. Unless maybe you're a bit...larger...than I am. I am nowhere near fat enough for those things though! AND THEY'RE SMALLER THAN THEY SHOULD BE! So that just goes to show you, you get what you pay for with those free patterns. I would offer up a picture, but that's just not gonna happen today. Maybe once the crotch is sewn up. That won't be tomorrow though! I have already decided on my next project, which I'm planning to start tomorrow. I have some cotton yarn -recycled from a thrift store sweater- so I can even keep this project for myself!! Unless I find it ugly of course. My policy is, if it's ugly, give away. Most people won't tell you how truly hideous it is.

Ooops, here I go again...

Well, this is now my second blog. My previous attempt fell to the side. I just don't feel the desire to blog about things. But knitting, this is something different. I knit all of the time! How can I NOT talk about this?! So here it goes again. This shall be the ever so exciting records of my ups and downs of knitting. My accomplishments and my failures. My ideas, and my realities.