Knitting A Love Song

I apologize for being absent the past four months (has it really been that long?!). Part of my absence was due to being lazy (read: overworked at my job) and I’ve been meaning to update for a week or so. About a month and a half ago, I got a mysterious virus on my computer and could only fix it with the System Restore disk, resulting in losing ALL of my bookmarks, saved passwords, etc. I was so upset! I use so many different passwords that it took me much too long to remember this one, so I’ve learned that I should probably keep everything written down in a notebook, just in case!

Nevertheless, I am back! And I have a TON of UFO’s (oops) that need to become FO’s soon. What does this mean? Less time drooling over yarn and patterns on Ravelry and more time actually knitting.

Here are my UFO’s:

Josh’s Scarf

A co-worker requested that I make him a scarf. He didn’t care what color or style, so I decided on a nice dark grey and thought I would just improvise. I had started this and was in love with it, but now the more I look at it the less I like it. I’m thinking of maybe frogging the whole thing and changing to this pattern. It’s still manly enough and I think it will go by a lot faster.

Joseph’s Baby Blanket

Another co-worker of mine is about six months pregnant with a baby boy who will be named Joseph, so to celebrate I decided to make her a simple baby blanket. I’m using this pattern and it’s coming out wonderfully so far. I’ve been using Baby Bee yarn that I bought at Hobby Lobby. I figure, it will be easy to just wash and re-use, and the pattern is simple enough yet still interesting so I won’t get bored of it. This is about 5 days progress of just picking it up every once in a while.

Someday Dream-Socks

< ;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andsynthesize/2932302823/" title="1008081230 by princess tiger lily, on Flickr">

I’ve decided to just get over my fears and try kntiting other things besides big squares and rectangles. I bought this gorgeous silky soft yarn at (you guessed it!) Hobby Lobby and I’ve been drooling over it since I brought it home a month ago. I tend to walk past it and stroke it lovingly, but I definitely have to finish making these other projects first.

ETA: I’ve also been commissioned to make two scarves (House of Ravenclaw, I believe) for a co-worker and his girlfriend for $50 which is really awesome. I can definitely use that as motivation to knit quickly.

And in other news: Knitting Club is going quite well. Liz and Heidi attend regularly and we’ve now taught a few others to knit.

I’m growing quite bored of the Hobby Lobby/Walmart yarn variety (especially since I had a perfectly good LYS back home in NY) and just in time, I received some news! NEW YARN STORE ALERT! McNeedles is a new yarn shop located in Lacombe, LA on Highway 190. If you live near the area go check it out! Now I just need to save up more yarn money…hmmm.

Anyway, I’m off to knit and maybe wriggle around in the sea of yarn that is my upstairs bedroom. Goodnight y’all.

Because I promised a video refresher and because I was always too busy/sleepy/forgetful to make my own.

How To Cast On:

And How To Knit:

via youtube

I haven’t disappeared from blogging, I promise! I haven’t been knitting too much lately, but Knitting Club just had it’s first and second meeting. There were less people than originally anticipated, but I’m definitely considering having 2-3 person meetings for the beginning because I couldn’t imagine teaching more than that.

I have a lot to blog about so let’s get started:

1. In non-knitting news, I was offered a promotion at my job, and while I seriously wanted and considered it, I’m realizing it’s probably not the best choice for me at this point in my life. I promised my mother, my father, my ex-coworkers (who are more affectionately referred to as “The Ladies”), and most importantly: MYSELF, that I would start school before 2008 was over. The move was just a delay and while I’ve had almost an entire year off of school, I’m realizing more and more that I miss it and I want to go back.

2. With the Southern heat and humidity proving to be too much for me, I consider this ample opportunity to work on knitting more and more, so here is what I plan on working on:

a.
This is a baby blanket. I can’t remember where I got the pattern for it, but it’s pretty cute. Unfortunately, this was about 8 inches longer last week, until I made a fatal mistake and frogged the whole thing out of sheer frustration. It has also grown about 4 inches since this photo was taken!

I have the feeling I will be making a lot more of these since two (!!!!) coworkers of mine are pregnant.

b.
I’m planning on making two of this bag (or more!). The pattern is from Knit 2 Together by Tracey Ullman and Mel Clark. I originally thought of making one for myself in a tweedy brown, but now I’m definitely reconsidering a brighter color.

3. HAPPY KNITTING IN PUBLIC DAY!

4. Does anyone know of any quality LYS in or around Slidell, LA? Right now I am restricted to buying online and I desperately miss walking into a shop and seeing all the gorgeous yarns in front of me.

I know I had other things to say, but there goes my ADD. I can’t remember anything else I wanted to say.

Technorati Profile

While going through my morning routine of checking email, reading blogs and surfing the web until my tummy grumbles are too much to handle, I always love to stop and check out what the theme for the day on Etsy is. I love to see the color/theme coordination each day (and being an organizational geek, I’m a sucker for it). Well, today’s theme just made my day: owls

If you know me, then it’s no secret that my collection of all things owl is bordering on obsessive. Now if only my stimulus check would hurry up and get here, I could buy even more delicious yarns, needles, and owls, of course.

In knitting news, I have started a Starbucks Knitting Club. After receiving news of one of my co-workers being pregnant, I mentioned I would knit her a baby blanket and/or little booties when she found out if it was a boy or girl. When some girls heard I could knit, they wanted to learn and now we have about seven members (all baristas). I’m excited to see how it goes with our first meeting on Wednesday night! Does anyone have any tips on how to ensure this club doesn’t run out of gas before it even gets going? We’re already having a hard time getting dates planned since we are all baristas at the same store, so I am thinking of just doing two classes and eventually, picking someone else to help me teach them. It’s really cool to think that a few months ago, I had no idea how to do anything but make scarves and squares and now, I feel I’m confident enough to teach the basics to others and learn along with everyone else.

While this blog is still relatively empty, I am trying to promote it and (hopefully) a community will soon form. If you do read this, don’t be shy! Tell me who you are, what you like about knitting (or don’t like), etc. I’d love to hear from you.

Hello and welcome to Knitting A Love Song. This blog is going to be documenting my journey in life, the world of knitting, and (perhaps if I become more adventurous) crocheting, quilting, cross-stitching and other handy crafts.

First things first: Introductions. My name is Kirsten and I’m a twenty year old former New Yorker living in the strange and foreign world that is the South. Louisiana to be more specific. I live here with my boy-love of 2+ years, Gus. We have two fish and a cat and we all live in a cozy two bedroom apartment on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain.

While it was much more practical to knit scarf upon scarf in New York, I’ve accepted the challenge of learning to knit other more appropriate things for the Southern climate. I began knitting around November 2007 and in these few short months, I have learned so much! I couldn’t have imagined there was such a large community of knitters, but I am so glad I am now a part of it all. This is my contribution to the knitting world: an inside look at my journey with knitting, so more experienced knitters can remember their first experiences and new knitters can feel not-so-alone in their struggles.