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Thursday, October 20, 2011

The love and hates of a swirl...

Now for my love hate relationship with the Swirl Starry Night Shawl, and trust me it is a love hate relation ship.






It started with finding this wonderful pattern of a swirly nature that I fell in love with.  I knew I had to make it.  It was the perfect shawl for me to make for myself.  None of the lace shawls I had looked at came even close to what I wanted to do.  They were too grandmaish, nothing I would want to wear.  But this was perfect little swirls, with enough challenge to keep me entertained.  So I got the pattern and started on my hunt for the perfect yarn to use.

I initially started with a variegated sock yarn that I spent a good hour finding in Threadbender, my local yarn shop.  But I was not happy with the results.  So I sadly set it aside, longing to find the perfect yarn so that I could knit this perfect shawl. 

This last August became inspired by Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night and decided to make the swirly shawl in it's honor.  I went to a fiber festival, on the hunt for the perfect yarn.  I found it.





So I started on the first of September with grand plans to finish it really really fast.  But there were a few hic-ups.  Casting on took time, knitting in a round and picking up stitches.





Then started my second row and I was way into October.  I need to be done with the second row and working on the third by now... but disaster struck.  I found I had dropped a stitch in one of the swirls in the first row.  I had to rip it out and some how save it.  But I managed, getting extra needles and casting on in between two swirls.  I managed to make it work.





And there I stood on the couch cushions taking a picture of my shawl and realizing I wasn't making it fit in one frame.





So I took a reference picture using my sixty inch long tape measure...





And again so that I could show how long past the end it actually was.

Then I started to knit.  I had two more rows to finish before the end of the month at least.  And in ten days I managed a few more swirls, even with a couple of cast on in the wrong spot issues.







That is my normal point with it but I am enjoying it more and more.  I also no longer need to pay as much attention to the knitting.  I have the pattern fairly memorized now.





I am also half way through the second row.  I am proud of what I am accomplishing and can not wait to show it off during the holidays.  The only thing is... what big project should I take on after this one?

Monday, October 10, 2011

Cardio-Knitting

Well been awhile hasn't it but that is some times the way it goes...

I thought I would share some experience I have had with a new thing for me. Cardio-Knitting. It is when you do your exercise and knit at the same time. I walk... I very happily walk. Not interested in much else, except maybe riding a bike and since I don't own one of those I figure I would walk. I walk about a mile and a half every other day around my block. I decided this month to add in knitting. I chose something simple enough and went at it.

I decided on wrist warmers/fingerless gloves. Simple round the needles no fancy pattern go at it type thing. I picked out a great yarn and boom went to town after casting on. 



Now what you do have to understand I am not in a high end neighborhood. I live near a Sheriff Station which is located at a jail (don't know if it is county or state) so I have a lot of cops around. I am used to it.

The first day I walked with my knitting going at it was right around the shift change. (I think.) I see a Sheriffs car drive by and I smile at them but keep moving because they don't know me, I just always smile at them when I see them. Then another one passed a minuet or so later and kinda slowed down. I smiled like I always do but again kept going, thinking yeah guys I am knitting. Then a moment or two later a third drove by and visibly slowed down as he passed me. I just at that point in time got this image of the first one driving by radioing to his buddy about this crazy woman knitting while she walked. And when the second one passed radioing say yeah I think she is but I am not sure. Then the third one coming up slowing down and say yeah guys she is knitting.

But that is not the amazing part for me. As I was Cardio-Knitting I found I wasn't noticing my legs hurting as much. So I deiced to take it along on the 5K walk I signed up for on the 8th of October. 



I loved it... I got asked about four times about my knitting and how can I do that when I walked. I simply told them it kept me distracted from my legs. I will say now however I felt the last mile and a couple of times on hills (because it is a very hilly course) that I had to stop knitting to focus on getting up the hill but that was okay.

I have some ideas for next year for fundraising... but I will see how it goes.

I also decided to make the fingerless gloves for NANOWRIMO... Should be fun... and no I did not knit all of that just from walking this last week. But I need to get them done before October 31st.



Well I guess I need to walk a little bit more.