Uncooperative Knitting

Ahhhhh!!!

I've been working on what was supposed to be a fast, simple, easy-peasy topper for those super comfy strapless sundresses, since I don't "do" strapless. I have this vision of a knitted vest that covers my shoulders and doesn't ride up in the front. Most importantly, it looks stylish. But so far I haven't had much luck.

 I have this Twinkle cardigan (Ravelry link) nearly finished, but it just isn't working for me. To be perfectly honest, I think I need something that works a little better with ummm.... let's just say "top heaviness". This pattern is nice and I think it's cute, but due to the A-line look of it doesn't work for my shape. (I think that's the right name for it... it's fuller at the bottom then the top) I need something more fitted. So I'm about to frog the whole thing, again. The poor yarn has been through so much!

I think I'm going to try another Stefanie Japel design, because they're awesome, and she has nice clear instructions on how to modify the designs to fit your body. So I"m off to scour Ravelry and my books again. Hopefully I'll get this thing done before summer is over and I don't need it anymore. *sigh*

OR....

I could get on the ball and finish my earrings from earlier as well as my project for this week's color challenge. Naaah.The deadline to submit is midnight and it's only 4 p.m. now, I have 8 hours left, after all. haha

Coming soon... a tutorial!

I apologize in advance, this post is coming out a little random. Hopefully the pictures will make up for it... or maybe you'll think I'm funny? Anyway...

I think this Memorial Day weekend might have been the first one during which I haven't knitted. Not once! I didn't even bring knitting on our camping trip. In the past I've considered it a personal challenge to complete an entire project over the "Camping weekends". Once I made a poncho, once a self-designed short-sleeved summer sweater. I've made other stuff as well, but those are the ones I remember.

Anyway. Tonight I finished a little summery project - a red, white, and blue bracelet. This was my first time using colored wire. Not the greatest pic, but I wanted  needed to write, so it will have to do. I think the blue wire would look better with purple or green beads, but then it wouldn't have been patriotic. :)

Also...

Would you like to learn how to make a pair of these? Do you know how to knit? Well, then you can do it! Much as I would like to tell you that knitting with wire is incredibly difficult and time consuming and your fingers will bleed (Because then you'd be more impressed with my pretties) It's just not true. OK so my fingers do ache after a while, but they do that after knitting with fiber (yarn) too.

When my husband looked at me like I was nuts as I was taking a picture, knitting a stitch or two and taking another, I told hime I was going to make a tutorial for these earrings. He said, "But then everyone will just make their own instead of buying yours!" Aren't you glad I didn't listen? (You are, right? You DO want to know how to make these pretty little earrings for yourself, don't you???? )

My goal is to have the tutorial up by the end of the week. First I have to finish the second earring, then take some more pics and edit them. Stay tuned!

Oh, and one more thing. One of the talented artists in the oft-mentioned CCC Facebook group has cancer, and the group is having an auction for her, because chemo isn't cheap. Also, it's a way to show her our love and support. It sounds like there will be many wonderful objects to bid on, and I'm thrilled to be offering a bracelet as well as the earrings I'm currently working on. So I guess I'd better get on that, because the entries are due tomorrow. Yikes!

:)

Randomness

I wasn't sure what to write today, and I love the random list posts that other, cooler,  blogs do, so I decided to take a break from wrestling with html and have my own random post.

1. I've been knitting for 5 1/2 years, a Knitter for 5. The difference between the two is I designed my own sweater, making me a Knitter. It will never be published and has some flaws, but it's all my design.

2. I'm fluent in the knit language, with the exception of socks. The needles are too tiny and my hands ache for days after using small needles. Also wedding ring lace, for the same reason. (Called that because the finished lace is thin enough to be pulled through a wedding ring. The supermodel of the knitting world.)

3. HTML is crazy. All those >,@, ^, and gibberish. Computer geeks everywhere, I bow to your superior intelligence.

4. I've spent all day so far (Well, the moments where both kids were happy) trying to figure out HTML so I can add some cool stuff to my blog. Like additional pages and links to my patterns.

5. Blogger rocks. It has all sorts of templates ready to go so for the most part all I have to do is click an option to add it. If I had had to code everything myself there would be no blog.

6. Despite Blogger's templates, I still have to mess with the html to do what I want. It's not going well. Maybe I can hire bribe knit in exchnage for programming?

7. I'm not crazy about wool. *Gasp!* I know that this is practically heresy in the knitting world, but I'm clumsy and have two small mobile messes (aka kids) so washability is paramount.

8. Odd numbers bug me. (Told you this was random!)

9. I'm funnier in my head.

10. Because I couldn't end with 9 random things. (See #8)