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Text of the page (random words):
ething new is going to throw me off all over again case in point i ve gotten the first toe done i am seeing the cool striping that i expected and i love them they are turning out much more zebra than kitty though the only spot of pooling so far is clearly a zebra eye i like that the curled up edge makes a little ear too squint a bit if you can t see it or just love me for my crazy what really has me curious about this pooling spot is that there is no corresponding white pool or any other pool the opposite side is all stripes ralph askew is my new subway project and since i am so fascinated with this yarn these are going to work up super quick i m still riding on the high of my first finished christmas present and i m starting to wonder if i should make her wait for these it would be torture for both of us but then i d have 2 christmas presents done that could be enough to inspire a hand made christmas random lesson for the day zebras are black with white stripes i learned this on kilimanjaro safaris at disney s animal kingdom so it must be true according to our safari guide we know they are black because their nose is black there are some other more scientific explanations supporting the black animal with white stripes claim but i like this one so i m sticking with it the more you know posted by amanda d allen at 11 32 am 0 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels gift knitting socks wip monday april 14 2014 adventures in blocking acrylic if you learn anything about me from this post please let it be that i m not very adversarial when it comes to knitting i have my opinions and preferences but i don t really participated in the heated debates about how things should be done knitting brings me joy and i believe that other people should knit in whatever ways bring them joy as a cheap knitter i often encounter and slowly back away from debates about yarn and fiber while i wouldn t consider myself part of the anti acrylic camp i don t generally knit with it and i find the texture rough i wouldn t buy it without a very special purpose but i also wouldn t throw away a bag full if it fell in my lap this claim has been put to the test because my charity knitting group gives us yarn for our projects that s right free yarn for all the knitting i could dream of doing as long as i m willing to give my fos to charity it is all 100 acrylic yarn it also appears to all be worsted i am not about to complain it is the most amazing set up i have ever encountered now i find myself working with acrylic yarn on almost a daily basis has it changed my opinion at all not really i limit my time working with the charity projects because they start to feel rough on my fingers though all of my other projects feel like butter sliding through my hands so it is free yarn and it helps my appreciate my expensive yarn more it is delightful on so many levels i recently finished my first charity project and fell right into a subargument of the pro and anti acrylic debate can you block acrylic after reading articles and watching videos from both sides i ve reached an initial opinion and i m using my charity projects to test it first let me hash out the argument as i understand it anti you cannot wet block acrylic i tried this with some of my very first learning to knit projects and i can confirm that soaking a project and laying it out to dry will not do you much good it also won t do you much harm pro steam wet blocking is not the only type of blocking and you should choose a method appropriate to your project and fiber in the case of acrylic that s steam blocking anti that s not blocking it s melting the hot steam is melting the plastic based fiber into submission and by definition ruining the yarn pro it works and it works better than wet blocking because you don t have to re block every time you wash you fo this last argument is the one that sold me i generally believe that blocking makes projects look better and i do it with everything except my toys though i ve had some toy pieces that made me consider it i am not a perfectionist when it comes to my knitting i m often fudging fixes rather than correcting mistakes but i do want my final piece to look its best i have a clothing steamer that we keep out and use on almost a daily basis so there really was no hassle to trying i finished seaming and sewing in ends on my dream catcher and it looked a little sad i wrapped it up in an icord boarder and it still had a wonkyness to it that i couldn t shake as you can see the squares didn t want to be square and the boarder was curling under in some places and curling out in others it is not what i wanted to present to the group as my very first project since this was an experiment i let myself be a bit lazy i didn t pin this or measure out perfect squares i just threw a beach towel on my table and laid the blanket down on top rs down per all the instructions i ve seen online i went at it with my steamer pretty haphazardly i tugged here and patted there and really avoided overly committing or stressing myself i m happy to report that even with my poor attempt it calmed down nicely here it is drying it was a little damp so i left it for a bit and it held its shape wonderfully i m certain with a measuring tape and a right angle i could have made perfect squares and straight lines i only blocked the one side i ve seen some tutorials on crochet blankets recommend doing both sides but knitting tutorials say only the back i think the reason is that one side is all that would be necessary for something like this and if you are working very textured i could see the benefit of only blocking the back and not flattening the front my initial conclusions it works and it is worth it my blanket now has the pretty finished look that a blocked fo should have i didn t wash it to test if the blocking was permanent i suspect that both the pro and anti acrylics are right here and it is a case of slight melting my yarn didn t get shiny there were no plastic drippy balls like if i took an open flame to it and it certainly didn t make the texture rough or unpleasant i don t plan on this yarn being anything other than this blanket so if i ve just convinced it of the same so be it my next blanket has a hint of laciness to it so we ll see if blocking can help open up a project hubby has taken some fo pictures of this project with his fancy camera so hopefully i ll be sharing those soon posted by amanda d allen at 10 00 am 0 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels blanket blocking charity knitting friday april 11 2014 fo friday christmas cowl you read that right i finished my first christmas present and i am not scheduled to finish another one for the rest of the year i have spent years believing that socks were my favorite traveling project but i might be changing my preference to cowls a few weeks ago i headed to san francisco for a work trip i had packed some sock yarn and dpns what i didn t do was empty the project bag first and it still had my spare ball of yarn and needles from my follow your arrow shawl i sat down on the plane and found myself casting on that bright christmas red i knit right through the flight it was a busy trip full of conference sessions and sightseeing so i didn t knit much while i was away but as my plane landed back home i had 7 stitches left to cast off in the cab i finished those up sewed in my ends and had a fo before i got home it was a delightful project simple that didn t need the pattern after the first repeat and complicated enough that it kept me away when jet lag should have knocked me out i now i ll pack this away with a few christmas presents that i ve already bought and wait for december to return honestly don t think i m so organized that i have started christmas shopping already these are presents that arrived too late or were discovered to be duplicates with other friends gifts posted by amanda d allen at 10 00 am 0 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels cowl gift knitting lace wednesday april 9 2014 wip wednesday treasured heirloom blanket last time i talked about this blanket i didn t share much other that a photo we had friends visiting and they were far more fun than my laptop since then i ve continued to make progress in fact i ve passed the halfway point and have started the decreases this is the project that i had queued up and planned before i was anywhere near finishing the first charity blanket and it has been everything i hoped for mostly mindless comfort knitting that will work up quickly for the charity group sadly though i think this is my last day taking it on the subway it has just become too bulky and doesn t fit in my bag anymore it is going to make great tv knitting at home now i just have to decide what to take on my commute posted by amanda d allen at 9 05 pm 0 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels blanket charity knitting wednesday april 2 2014 wip wednesday jeanie continues i am dedicating this wip wednesday to math i started jeanie in september of 2010 and since starting up knitting again it has been competing with my brother s blanket for the project that will never end it is a great pattern with enough going on that i don t get bored i have a happy little cheat sheet that keeps me on track but doesn t require that i reference the pattern or charts anymore and i am very excited about the finished wrap for some reason it just doesn t seem like it is getting any bigger i can work and work and work on it and i swear it should be somewhere between 8 to 12 feet long by now oddly though it is only 40 inches my goal is 66 inches to help me get through it i am going to try to rephrase my goals let s work some math magic and maybe one of them will be more manageable 1 26 inches well this one is obvious 2 3 balls of yarn that s all i ve got so it has to work the first ball knit up about 23 inches so in 6 more inches i ll be starting number 3 then i ll only have 20 inches left 3 8 and a half more pattern repeats one full repeat is about 3 inches so this is a bit more digestible of a goal 4 34 more cable rows this isn t completely accurate because some cables twist more than others but it makes sense to me because i really recognize the full cable rows 5 17 more dropped stitches really this is the fun part these are the rows i m really looking forward to so why not count them posted by amanda d allen at 5 00 pm 0 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels knitting wip friday march 28 2014 fo friday follow your arrow a month ago i shared my follow your arrow shawl as soon as i cast it off and proceeded to whine about blocking it it is odd to think it but this mystery lace knit along is just the project that i needed to get back into knitting while i love lace it isn t my favorite and usually registers in my mind as a lot of work ysolda teague is an incredible designer but we seem to have different tastes so i ve never immediately fallen in love with her patterns so why after nearly two years of ignoring my knitting was this the project that brought me back to my hobby part of it was the structure and schedule of the clues and the excitement of all the bloggers and other knitters i follow most of if however was due to one amazing friend katy has been the best enabler a woman can ask for she has brought me amazing yarns from across the country sent me gorgeous pattern suggestions and kept my family wrapped up in wool while i was neglecting my craft the stars aligned so that i had a new job a new routine and time that could clearly be dedicated to knitting katy in her usually loving and excited persistence suggested that i join in for the kal and convinced me to get hooked i picked my needles back up for this project and haven t put them down again i owe a lot of rediscovered joy to her and appropriately this shawl is now hers i love you katy thanks for enabling posted by amanda d allen at 8 41 pm 1 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels knitting lace shawl wednesday march 26 2014 wip wednesday another charity blanket since i was having yarn issues with the other charity blanket i decided to cast on a second and stay productive this is the queued pattern that i mentioned before and is knitting up delightfully quick just a quick post to share today we have company in town so i m off to enjoy my time with them posted by amanda d allen at 7 33 pm 0 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest friday march 14 2014 tabletop day ideas needed tabletop day 2014 is almost here saturday april 5th is just around the corner and i still don t have a great tabletop day plan we are certainly going to have company and play games that night but during the day i d love to do something extra special and include the girls they aren t avid board game players yet at nearly two years old they haven t quite grasped the concept of taking turns or not tasting meeples so i m looking for your ideas to get the brainstorming started here are some ideas that i ve had roll play this one is a simple and quick idea the girls already own their first dice game we will practice taking turns learn more about colors and daddy will probably have to balk like a chicken the girls are really starting to get good with this game but it still is only about a 20 minute activity and since we play most weekends it doesn t feel particularly special i want to do something a little extra to make the day stand out a new game there are lots of toddler games and it might be something special to just get a new one and play that for a while i really wish we could get it from our local game store though a trip to the local game store seems like an outing worthy of tabletop day but they don t really specialize in games our speed a trip to kmart or target doesn t hold the same magic for me there is one game that i think our local store might have that could do the trick giant cthulhu dice if you ve played cthulhu dice you already know what a simple and fun game it is if you haven t you are holding on to far too much of your sanity and should give losing your marbles a try we could take a trip to the store to pick up a huge die and maybe go to the park and find some parents and other kids for a pick up game if we wanted to play really risky we could use goldfish to track our sanity and just assume that any toddler instigated rolls or sanity theft is due to their possession by the elder gods off the tabletop speaking of the park i ve been trying to think of a game that we could easily transfer from table top to the park for big physical playing the best i ve come up with so far is doing something similar to candy land and using our roll play to dictate moves we could use sidewalk chalk to make squa...