2KnitLitChicks: Mother (Barb) and daughter (Tracie) team who [...]]]> I love love listening to podcasts while I craft or drive.  It is like my own on-demand knit night whenever I want.  These are the podcasts I listen to regularly and each one has something different to offer. They are listed below in  alphabetical order

2KnitLitChicks: Mother (Barb) and daughter (Tracie) team who talk about knitting and books. Their book reviews are just as interesting as their knitting.

Brass needles: hosted by Miss Kalendar who also reviews Sci-Fi.  It is sometimes like knitting from outerspace.

Electric Sheep: The knitter behind it is Hoxton Handmade and she is a hilarious, british and has a thing for beards

Knit Knit Cafe: Mother (Abby)  and son (Ben) team, yes her son.  It is almost like joining them in their living room while they knit and talk about it.  It is a lot of fun.

Knitmoregirl Mother (Gigi) and daughter (Jasmine) are another hilarious duo.  I almost want them to adopt me.  Sewing and spinning are also on their agenda so it is a lot of fun.

The Savvy Girls Sisters (Melanie and Deborah) are very savvy.  Melanie hates knitting but loves gerbils so we forgive her and Deborah loves knitting and forced Melanie to podcast with her.  Originally from Canada but they usually blog from around the world.

SubwayKnits: Maria is the voice behind SubwayKnits. She is a teacher from New York and her podcast is another wonderful one to listen to.

These aren’t all the podcasts I listen to, just the top ones.  Just go to iTunes and search for the topics you like in the podcasts you will not be disapointed.  All of these podcasts aslo have awesome ravelry groups so be sure to check them out too.

I am quite pleased with how it turned out and the recipient likes it too . Now to write a pattern and grade it. Is anyone interested in test knitting, just let me know in the [...]]]> Oh yeah I finished it.

I am quite pleased with how it turned out and the recipient likes it too .
Now to write a pattern and grade it. Is anyone interested in test knitting, just let me know in the comments.

It had been a while since [...]]]> … is usually the hardest thing.  After the 3rd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog week and managing to blog 7 days in a row, I felt totally all blogged out.  Then I caught a cold.  But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been idle.  I crocheted a bag.

It had been a while since I crocheted anything and it was a lot of fun. I remember when I first started playing with yarn. The finger yarns and smaller hooks scared me. I was slow and not very consistent in my stitching. It felt satisfying making the a medium sized bag with sport weight yarn and a 3mm hook.

And feeling quite inspired, I picked up the leftover yarn from the princess peplums cardi, the bag and the Oatmeal Kina and just made a hat.

It is called the Hexacket Hat.  It is a bucket hat with a hexagon

I am writing up the pattern for the hat at the moment.  It is taking longer than it should because I am writing it up for any gauge, any yarn, any hook size so you can just pick up what you have and work with it and make it for any size head.  Isn’t that cool?  Yes of course it is cool for the person doing the crocheting not the person doing the writing and trying to make it easy to decipher.

Oh well.

And then because I am so sick and haven’t been moving so much I started knitting something else.

It has grown considerably.  But it is not done yet.  Fingering weight yarn, size 3 US needles.  Slow and stockinette.  Just what I needed.  Have you ever noticed how sock yarn/fingering weight yarn is so amazing for children’s clothing?  It is light and colorful and a single skein or two max make an awesome piece.

Come back again soon and check it out.

Note: This was scheduled for last night but for some reason it didn’t work.

I think this was probably the easiest challenge.  I also can not believe I am still here and that I made it thru the week.  So, here [...]]]> This is part of the third annual Knitting and Crochet Blogging Week

Note: This was scheduled for last night but for some reason it didn’t work.

I think this was probably the easiest challenge.  I also can not believe I am still here and that I made it thru the week.  So, here goes nothing.

I don’t believe in balance.  I can crochet and I can knit.  I believe I am quite competent in both.  Competence is a relative word so let me tell you my definition.  It means I can crochet or knit whatever I want to.  I can read charts and I can read written patterns.  I am stubborn enough to figure out the things that I don’t get at the first try.

I don’t believe in balance because I love both.  And each craft has its strengths and its uses.  The real star of both crafts is the yarn.

It is the building block of both. It comes in balls, skeins and sometimes in a knotted mess. But when you untangle it and put a hook or a pair of needles to it, you can make something beautiful and useful. I think we sometimes forget that in the past knitting or crocheting was a necessity not a hobby. Something that people did to make clothing or things they needed. They did not think about which they liked more, they thought whether they needed socks or a sweater to get through a cold winter. They made utilitarian items, granted some items were made beautifully and were meant to be handed down from one generation to the next. But they did not have the luxury to go to a store and get what they wanted.

I love crochet for its speed and the ability to make sturdy fabric. I love knitting for its pretty lacy and lovely garments.

I am bicraftual and I am happy about it.

This is one topic that I think will be easier to blog about.  I already know the things I want to learn or improve.  I like to jump in and start learning when I want to learn something new, then I [...]]]> This is part of the third annual Knitting and Crochet Blogging Week

This is one topic that I think will be easier to blog about.  I already know the things I want to learn or improve.  I like to jump in and start learning when I want to learn something new, then I will keep at it until I feel comfortable enough to let it sit for a while, while I go learn something else.  ًWhen I wanted to learn crochet, I just bought a hook, yarn and went head first.

Do you want to see proof?

These were the first two amigurumi toys I made.  Scary right?  Oh and the photography? HORRENDOUS.  But I am not ashamed of my lack of skills when I first started.  Every stitch, every picture I took were just another step to where I am right now.

After a lot of crocheting, I felt antsy and wanted to knit.  The first time was so miserable that I put it down for a few months.  The more I learned about yarn, tension, fabric, drape and all of the these things the easier it was to pick up the knitting.

General things I have learned:

• Buy the best tools and materials you can afford.
• Different sized needle/hook changes how the fabric behaves.
• Blocking really does change everything.
• Practice really does make perfect.
• If you don’t like it while you are making it, chances are you won’t really like it when you are done.
• If you find a mistake, it is generally better to go back and fix it, because it does haunt you later.
• There is nothing wrong with frogging.
• If you can’t do it the way they say you should do it, find another way to do it.

Specific skills I am glad I learned:

• Sock knitting.  I was terrified of socks, it was probably the combination of small needles and thinner yarn.
• Short rows.  They have loads of uses.
• Different cast on methods like the long tail and Estonian cast on.
• Different cast off methods.  Everything has its use.
• Continental knitting.  I started knitting English method because I couldn’t handle using two hands at the same time.  Once I had the moves figured out I switched to continental, it really is easier for people who already know crochet.  I tension my yarn the same way I do when I crochet.
• Lace knitting.  I was also terrified of lace knitting because it was so hard to fix mistakes.  Until I learned how to use waste yarn to create a lifeline.
• Reading my knitting.  Oh that was probably the biggest milestone of all.  Being able to put down my knitting then come back and look at it and know how many rows I had knit or where I was in a pattern made the world of difference.
• Grading garments.  This is a recently acquired skill.  After knitting the Princess Peplums pattern I knew I really wanted to write the pattern and release it but was terrified of having to grade it.  I procrastinated in every way and then I sat down and butted head with my spreadsheet until it came out.  It is still being tested and I have no illusions about the fact that mistakes will show up but at least I know now that I can do it.
• Chart reading.  That also changed my life.  I am better with diagrams with charts than words that go on and on and on.  Crochet charts are different from knitting charts but the idea is the same.

Skills on my To Learn List:

• Colorwork.  I can do both intarsia and stranded knitting but I am not super good at them.
• Spinning.  I have been eyeing Turkish spindles for a while and I know that it is inevitable
• Better photography.  That one doesn’t need a lot of explanation.
• Tunisian and Tapestry crochet.
• Better blogging.
• Better Designing

I am happy that I am doing all that learning publicly and watching others blog, podcast and videocast about their progress too.  Just look at any blog and compare what they could do when they started and what they can do now.  It is always amazing to see the transformations.

These challenges keep getting harder.

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Hello, I am Uncoordinated Blanket.  I don’t know why she calls me that.  I don’t think I like it, I wish she called me something cool like Serenity or something Zen like that.  I know I am [...]]]> This is part of the third annual Knitting and Crochet Blogging Week

These challenges keep getting harder.

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Hello, I am Uncoordinated Blanket.  I don’t know why she calls me that.  I don’t think I like it, I wish she called me something cool like Serenity or something Zen like that.  I know I am not a perfect combination of colors.  Nor am I knit out of a smart stitch or even something lace.  I am a plain garter stitch blanket.  But I come from so many different places.  There yarn I am made of was used to make 3 hats, 2 cardigans, 2 baby blankets and a shawl in me.  I am unique.  I will never be reproduced.  And that is why I am beautiful.  I am made of the plainest of plain stitches.  I am sturdy, I am basic and I am predictable.  I can’t wait until I am done.  I don’t know how big I will be, but I hope she will make me huge.  I want to be a huge blanket.  Babies are cute, but they grow up and they will need bigger blankets.  I want to be the biggest blanket of all.  I want to travel the world with them as a family.  I want to be packed in their suitcases and go wherever they will go, whenever they need to go.  I want to keep her little one warm because I know she knits for that little one lots of things just to wrap her with hand knit love.  Oh that little one, she gave me a hug and a kiss and asked her mother to make me big so I could sit on the couch with her.  I just hope she doesn’t want to make tents and blanket castles out of me.

I know she loves to knit lace and socks, and the kinds of things that challenge her. But I know why she is knitting me. She is in love with my calmness, my easiness, that the only thing she has to do is hold the needles and her hands do the work without thinking. She sits in bed listening to podcasts while she knits me. She daydreams. I know she is day dreaming when the knitting slows down into a steady pace. The stitches are no longer deliberate but are a product of muscle memory in her hands. I wonder what she is day dreaming about. I think she daydreams about going places she has never been. She is a strange lady. She is distant but she is very warm. She likes to squish my stitches and feel my texture. I think she likes it.

I can’t wait till I am finished. I want to go to the fun place they call the washing machine. From what I understand it is like an amusement park where I will come out smelling really nice. I went to beach once, but I didn’t like it. The sand kept getting into my yarn and I don’t like that it is rough and scratchy. She tried to work on me while there, but kept getting interrupted by the little one and by listening to the waves. She likes the beach. I know that about her.

Will you please tell her to hurry up, I really want to get done and I am so excited about life. Just look how much I have grown already.

I thought long and hard for this one.  I was going to talk about my grandmother, or her two sisters in laws.  All three amazing women who have always been inspirational in so many ways.

Crafting communities are usually most generous.  The [...]]]> This is part of the third annual Knitting and Crochet Blogging Week

I thought long and hard for this one.  I was going to talk about my grandmother, or her two sisters in laws.  All three amazing women who have always been inspirational in so many ways.

Crafting communities are usually most generous.  The knitting and crochet communities are no exception.  Every time there is a crisis anywhere in the world you will find designers donating proceeds of their patterns to aid the victims, knitters donating scarves, crocheters making baby blankets and hats.  There are knitters and crocheters who knit mainly for charity donating thousands of preemie hats and blankets.  It touches my heart and makes me feel that the men and women are not just donating finished objects, they are giving their most precious time and choosing to make someone else feel loved by a hand made item.

There are also many projects where the knitters or crocheters teach people how to knit or crochet for many reasons, like get over illness or learn a skill.  There are also the knitters and crocheters who will dive into their stashes to donate books, hooks, needles and yarn to support these projects.

But today I wanted to talk about Vera Sanon, who is not only a wonderful designer, but is also the founder and executive director of Fanm pou Fanm (Women for Women), a non-profit organization that works with some of the poorest women in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

The project is a wonderful idea in point of view, it helps women, many of whom are illiterate and have no other means of making money, make crochet bags then sells them for them.  While many people would be satisfied by just donating money or things, Vera started a project that would help these women make it out on their own.  She is teaching them how to fish instead of giving them a fish.

It is not easy shipping the yarn or materials to the women because of extremely high customs so it is all carried in their luggage.  Because some of the women can’t read, they need to be taught each pattern until they memorize it.  It is not an easy task.  But I am sure that these women have a hope of better lives if they have a skill.  Crocheting 3 bags a week a woman can feed her family for a week, she can still be available to care for them. It is not an easy task but it is definitely worth it.

Image from the Famn Pou Famn Blog

Please visit their blog or facebook page.