Make socks not war

I had to get on the knitting t-shirt bandwagon and design something. I took a picture of my husband's one finished sock, the yarn, some needles, and put it on some funky wrapping paper. I then took it to photoshop, stylized it and added some text. I put the finished product on a bumper sticker and some t-shirts at my cafepress site. If you're interested, go to www.cafepress.com/karmaandkismet

knitting some positive energy into the universe.

I really do believe in random acts of kindness and sending positive energy out into the universe. We can all be an angel to somebody by using our talents and our passion to do things for others. I do knit and crochet things for the people I know and love, but there's also something really great about making something for somebody you don't know and that you most likely will never meet. A few years ago I contributed some socks for the Bosnian orphans through the socknittters.com website. There was something neat about knowing that somewhere across the globe some child was wearing those socks. I found a charitable organization that I thought was cool and I'm putting the web address here for anybody who wants to check it out. Its an organization where some Buddhist monks distribute donated items to the people of Mongolia. Check it out.


http://www.fireprojects.org/dulaan.htm

knitting for peace one sock at a time

My friend Amy and I have engaged in our own little project (operation fuzzy toes) for a dear friend of ours. You can check out the particulars at www.finerskeinsinlife.blogspot.com . I know that often times I'll see a sock pattern I really like and am anxious to try out. I may or may not enjoy knitting the sock and I may or may not make another sock to go with it (second sock syndrome). Even if I didn't get a big thrill out of knitting the sock, I usually do try to make myself knit the second sock and find the pair a happy home. I had an idea for this type of scenerio which would benefit at least three people. Pair up two people (friends, strangers....) who want to knit the same sock. Have them check their gauge and then each of them knit the sock. The completed pair could then go to a lucky recipient such as one of the soldiers, orphans in Russia, old people in nursing homes, the list goes on. You then have two knitters making a sock of interest without having to worry about if they are actually going to complete a second sock to go with it and you have somebody who could really use the love and positive energy that is infused in making a pair of socks wearing a pair of hand knit socks. You could also get two knitters who don't know each other working together to infuse a little positive energy into the world and a great way to make a new knitting friend! I told my friend Amy that I would try to come up with some charities that need socks and try to come up with a way to hook up sock knitters with patterns and a parter-in-yarn and see if we can spread a little love into the world. If anybody has any ideas on how to get this off the ground, let me know!!
Namaste

faggoted rib baby hat

No, I'm not cussing about the rib (although I did cuss at it when I had to adapt it to knitting in the round and subsequently had to frog it a few times.) After seeing my hat that I made for one of the preemies at the hospital, my stepdaughter requested a newborn hat for her teacher who is pregnant. She said that the baby shower is on Friday which gave me just a few days to come up with something. I found the faggoted rib design in one of my knitting stitch books. I had to frog the darn thing a few times, but was bound and determined for it not to get the best of me. I finished the decreases this morning. I worked yesterday and it was off the chain. Then I stayed over to work on the statistics for another 3 hours so I'm pretty brain dead today. I still have to weave in all the loose ends, but perhaps I can do that this evening or tomorrow. Right now, its off to Moe's for a joey bag of donuts. Perhaps it will revive my brain so I can get to working on operation fuzzy toes (see the blog for finerskeinsinlife.blogspot.com for more info) I best get to moving or they will think I have taken ill and file a missing persons report on me.

cats are people/people are cats

This is my friend Victoria who was nice enough to model the cat-collar-turned-people-collar for me (as long as I promised to make her one of her very own). Its amazing that this collar that was meant for my beloved TingTing has turned into a choker that looks good on everybody! Its like the jeans in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. The jeans fit all of the girls and looked great on all of them. This former cat collar looks cute on all who wear it. Who'd of thunk it?

pure blasphemy!!!!

I went to JoAnn's today to get yet another clicker (I do believe I own more clickers than tape measurers) and some other assorted things. I ended up in a conversation with one of the employees there. I was telling her about a pattern I liked that I was planning on trying to modify (I have to modify everything. I don't think I have ever knitted something exactly like a pattern called for.) a pattern and knit it. She was telling me about knitting machines. She was raving at how wonderful they are and how you can make a whole sweater in one evening. I have to admit that that sounds like a nifty idea, but I enjoy the process of two needles in my hands, the gentle rhythm of the needles flowing over and around the yarn, the stitch by stitch magic of bringing a piece to fruition. You would lose the whole yin yang of knitting by handing over your yarn to some machine. I admit that having a whole sweater done in one evening sounds like a really cool thing, but that's why I make baby hats and baby socks. I have my smaller projects to handle my immediate gratification fix and my bigger projects (sweaters and the like) for long term projects. Besides, with every stitch I make, there is an essence of myself that goes into the project as a whole. I like to think I infuse positive energy in everything I make, but even at the times where I've had to frog something five times just to get "inside the stitch" there's something satisfying and magical about finally getting the pattern right and becoming one with it to the point that you can sometimes just knit it without looking at the pattern. You know what comes next by the stitch before it and the stitch underneath it. You develop a relationship with the yarn.
Anyway. Even though a sweater in an evening sounds like a really cool thing, this yarn whisperer is staying a handknitting kind of girl for now. Besides, if I were actually able to turn things out that fast, I'd have to buy more yarn than I already do and I don't know if my husband could stand that much yarn taking over our lives.

preemie-wear

This is a preemie outfit I designed for a preemie girl. The sweater turned out pretty well. The pants, however, look like they are more suited for a bow-legged preemie. I am working on a preemie outfit for a boy and revamped the pants completely. I have yet to make the sweater, but am planning on putting in a shawl collar. I really like shawl collars and am itching to design something with one. I've also designed and started a sweater for my husband and went through a "sales pitch" to get him to agree to letting me put a shawl collar on it. It is a slow work in progress since it has a few different cable patterns in it and I have to pull out like three different pages of my typed up cable patterns whenever I work on it.

preemie pants

I also like knitting "preemie-wear" for the grower/feeders at my hospital. This is a pair of preemie pants I designed. I just need to make the matching sweater for it. This is the second pair of pants I've designed. Overall, I like it better than the first pair of pants I designed, but I'm still not happy with the increases and making the gussets. I have another idea that I'll implement with the next preemie pants I make.

and now for something completely different

I couldn't resist posting a picture of my favorite kitty..... Ting Ting, especially since she looks like she is smiling in the picture. She is my yarn consultant on all my projects. I'm even nuts enough that I am crocheting her a collar with glass beads. I'll post a picture of it when I finish it for everybody's entertainment.

my, my,my, my stitch markers

(the title is to be sung to the tune of ' My Sharona' for those old enough to remember that song.
To merge my obsession of knitting with my love of beading, I decided to make some stitch markers. I even made some for my friend Amy (finerskiensinlife.blogspot.com) with angel charms on them.

knitting, crocheting, and beads, oh my!

This is a poncho I made for myself. Its a mix and match of several different yarns. I know Paton's carmen is one of them, there's also some really soft yarn I found at Walmart that I stranded with some homespun and then there's an eyelash yarn in there as well. Oh, and some Patons SWS. I guess I was feeling really bold because I added some beads at the yoke. Its part knit and part crochet. I remember starting it one Saturday when I was sick and sequestered to the bed watching The Brothers Grimm.

more of steven's hugs and kisses sock

this is a front view of the cable pattern for my husband's sock discussed in the blog to follow.

bloggin on a Tuesday afternoon

This is the side view of a sock that I'm knitting for my husband. The cable pattern is from Interweave Knits Summer issue 2006. It was originally a baby sock pattern that had the heel turn from hell. I implemented the cable design "hugs and kisses" and applied it to my own made up sock pattern with a much friendlier heel turn. It is done in royal bamboo. My husband travels out of town a lot on business and so I thought he might like to have a pair of socks to keep his feet toasty at night with a reminder of x's and o's to let him know he is loved.

more busy blog

This is a picture of a preemie baby burial gown that I designed. Often times, women come in not even expecting to deliver, let alone have a baby that doesn't make it. We do have a few gowns that were donated to us, but they are usually made from thin cotton and look more like little white cotton baggies than an actual gown. I knit this one to fit a baby that would be about 28 weeks. I was recently told by my coworker that handles all the demise paperwork and pictures that she had used it recently. I wrote the pattern down in my worn "designs by melissa" notebook. I have to tidy it up and translate my own chicken scratch. Once I do, I'll make it available for anybody who wants to knit one.

the busy blogger

For some reason, I've gotten on this wave of knitting preemie hats for the babies in the NICU where I work. This one is for a specific baby that is there now. I took care of his mom the other day and bonded with her so I came home and modified a preemie cap pattern I found online. I believe its called The Fairisle. It was knit on two needles and called for more stitches. I did it on dpns and did it with less stitches. I have to bind off the last 7 stitches and weave in the ends but after that its done. I also added more ribbing and left off some moss stitch. I used lion brand cotton ease in the taupe, blue, green, and off white colors.

the hugs video

Check out the hugs video clip. No, really. Its awesome. I cry everytime I watch it.

life, the universe, and knitting

Perhaps "the yarn yeller" would have been more appropriate, but despite the truthfulness of it, it just didn't flow and was completely lacking grace. As a quasi-hippie/new age/metaphysical kind of girl, I like to believe in the power of positive thinking. Therefore if I tell myself that I am the yarn whisperer, perhaps the day will come that as I glide my needles (Lantern Moons, of course. I may not be a yarn snob, but I have turned out to be a needle snob.) over and around my yarn, my intention for the yarn to become a beautiful finished product will flow into the yarn and the yarn will realize that I am the master and will submit to me. The yarn and I will become one and we will work together until a magnificent work of art has been created. Now, sometimes that does happen for brief moments in time. The reality of it, though, is that I mutter, yell at, and cuss at the yarn when it is being obstinate. When this occurs, my family thinks I am talking to them and I have to respond with, "No, I was talking to the yarn." So. Anyhow. Welcome to the new blog of the yarn whisperer wanna be from Peachtree City. I hope that I may be able to impart something useful from time to time and if not, I hope I can at least be entertaining.
Namaste.