Friday, September 25, 2009

A Bloggish Milestone

Happy 1000 hits, blog! While I'm sure that 501 of those hits are from me, it still pleases me to know that 499 spambots visit the page occasionally. Thanks, spambots!

~*~

When I write in my personal blog, I tend to "dump": aka I write about everything that's on my brain. I don't compartmentalize or break it up at all. Since the blog is private and about my life, and since life happens just about every day, I figure I won't exactly run out of things to write about. But in a crafting blog, I have to resist the urge to dump. I am seriously like a five-year-old returned from kindergarten: "I want to tell you about this, and this, and then this happened and lookit me!" And that, I think, just isn't fun to read. I don't know about you, but I've started getting annoyed with long news articles -- just get to the point! If I have to scroll, forget about it! (You haven't had to scroll yet, have you? Thanks for sticking around.) Hence, I try to break things up so I have more to blog about in smaller portions. However, often this leads to me forgetting what I was going to post, since I also have the attention span of a five-year-old fresh from kindergarten. And then I don't blog, 'cause I don't have anything to blog about. It's a vicious cycle.

Anyway, the point of all this is that I finished my NSS #3 yesterday because I went to the yarn store and managed some social interaction and yet also managed to knit enough that I was able to finish when I got home. I went to the yarn store (are you seeing the logical break for new blog entry here?) because of one of my work colleagues. She's a lovely woman who has been nothing but incredibly nice and patient and helpful to me and, miracle of miracles, she thinks I'm a good knitter and wants me to make her a hat. (Blessed lady obviously doesn't knit.)

(You've had to scroll by now. You still with me? [And have I mentioned that I adore parentheses? And apparently brackets. What comes after brackets?])

ANYWAY, we went to the yarn store yesterday, and she petted, and, because she is a lady of supreme taste, she picked some Araucania Azapa in malted cocoa, and that stuff is not particularly inexpensive, and I'm kind of geeking out because this is really nice soft yarn and it's got merino and alpaca and silk and and and -- I'm five. Seriously.

I'd sent her some hat patterns and she chose a nice easy one but it was in worsted weight and Araucania is not exactly worsted, I have some fudging to do. I think it's going to involve math. Crap!

Did I mention she wants one for her daughter too?

(If I write it down, maybe I'll remember to blog about my Christmas list in the yarn store. I'll title that one "How I Managed To Stretch One Day Into Three Blog Posts".)

Thursday, September 24, 2009

NSS #3

nss3_2

I do so love my Noro Striped Scarves.

Pattern: Noro Striped Scarf as popularized by Jared Flood of BrooklynTweed.
Yarn: Noro Kureyon, 2 skeins each of color 149 & color 211.
Needles: Boye interchangeable set, size US 7.
Timeline: 7.10.09-9.24.09
Modifications: I used Noro Kureyon instead of Silk Garden. I also only alternated two colorways, not three. (Actually, I've done this in all my NSSs. [That's a lot of s-es.])


Opinion: Well, I've made three! I continue to love the pattern. The neutral colorways were a big shift for me, because I love bright colors, but I'm glad I chose them because they're very classy and the scarf could easily go on a number of people. I'm sure I'll make more.

Random thoughts: I have no idea who this scarf is for! I bought the yarn and started it without thinking "this is for me" or "this is for so-and-so". I just had to make it. I wove in the ends today after I finished it. I have a scarf that is months and months old that I haven't woven the ends in yet! All I need to do is wash and block a little, but this scarf is effectively done.

nss3_1

Maybe I will just keep it for myself. :)

(Oh, and I'm totally getting better at taking pictures of myself in my bathroom.)

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Ravelry Dork

So here's a total dork moment for you: the picture of my earflap hat is being displayed on the pattern's Rav page!

For those of you not in the know, Ravelry has pages for designers, yarns, and patterns, often with user-submitted pictures for the latter two. It's a neat way to see a pattern right off the bat in a couple of different types and colors.

Granted, this isn't the first time one of my pics has been used on a project page. I made a Basic Diamonds (Ravelry link) dishcloth from Leisure Arts #3824 Kitchen Bright Dishcloths & that pic is still being featured. (And I'm quite proud of it!) But there's something about that hat -- it was tough, and I loved that yarn to pieces, and ... well, it's not a dishcloth.

Sure, it's not exactly a superstar pattern, but I'll take it while I can get it.

(Rav link to the Earflap Hat Pattern Generator from The Knitting Fiend.)