Legal Needles

Bloglovin

2013-03-17T20:50:00.002-04:00

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

As I am researching replacements for Google Reader, I came across Bloglovin and am claiming this blog over there. Otherwise nothing to see here.

Progress

2012-06-17T15:31:00.002-04:00

Well, over the past few months, I have been focusing most of my non-knitting time on my podcast, and less time over here on my regular blog. Part of me feels that if I talk about something here, that means it'll be redundant to talk about it again on the podcast and vice versa. The other part of me told that part to shush! and here I am.

On last week's episode, I laid out several mini-deadlines within a few of my WIPs to keep myself on track. As of today, it's looking good so far!

Dark & Stormy sweater:

Knit with Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage (Short Skeins - 190 yds/skein instead of 200) in the Night Bloom colorway
US 7 needle

Short Term Goals: Finish bottom ribbing by this weekend. Finish sleeves by end of June. Finish the rest of the sweater (collar/button band) by June 15th
Long Term Goal: Finish sweater by June 15th
Reality: Just finished binding off the ribbing before sitting down to the computer.

I may switch the sleeves and the collar order. The pattern calls for working on the collar/button band next and the sleeves last. Initially, I was going to do the sleeves next since I knew those would be the challenge for me since they are the more boring parts. However, after thinking about it, I am going to do the button band/collar first to see how much yarn I have left. Reading through others' project pages on Ravelry, the button band and collar eat up a lot of yarn since they are so wide. I still have plenty of yarn left, but I also want to have longer sleeves, so this way I'll be able to just divide the remaining yarn left and knit the sleeves from what is left.

Granny square blanket: (surprise for Carlos - good thing he's occupied with the Portugal/Netherlands game of the UEFA Championship and not looking at the computer so I can post the photo)
Crocheted with Knit Picks Wool of the Andes
G/4.00 crochet hook

Short Term Goal: At least 12 squares per week. I was at 130 as of last Sunday
Long Term Goal: Finish squares by end of August
Long Term Goal: Finish seaming by September 25th
Reality: Completed 10 squares this week and the afternoon is still young - 140 complete, 112 more to go.

(and why, yes, that is an original NES hooked up to the TV)

Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Deadline knitting/crocheting and I do not normally play well together. That seems to be a general theme over the last several years. Taking smaller bites appears to be working so far. Let's see how long that lasts! Happy knitting!

(Belated) Congrats to Ravelry for 2,000,000!!

2012-03-10T19:19:00.000-05:00

I am a week and a half late with this post, but just wanted to say a huge CONGRATULATIONS to Jess & Casey for reaching TWO MILLION Ravelers on February 29th. To celebrate, many of us made special Ravatars to appear on the front page starting the minute that the two-millionth Raveler signed up. You can pick out your own Ravatar by the bright pink border and the order shuffles with each refresh of the page.

I'm not going to lie - I refreshed a few times to get this screen shot of mine:

I used a photo from last year's Connecticut Sheep & Wool festival and jazzed it up using the Picnick option in Flickr (how is it that Picnick is going away in April?!?!)

Alternatively, you can click on the link further down on the front page and Casey has the Ravatars sorted by the order that the users joined Ravelry - this only includes the people whose Ravatars have the 2million file name, not every member. I first joined Ravelry during the early days in May 2007 right before graduating from law school (post here). Back then the site was still in beta and they were only sending out a invites in small groups at a time to manage the traffic. It took about a week from the time I signed up until I received my invitation, which was fairly quickly because shortly after that it the word spread like wildfire and the list was a few weeks long to get an invite. To think that just under 5 years later there are 2+ million of us out there (as of the time of this post, there are 2,023,634 people signed up).

Here's to the next 2,000,000 and beyond!!

I Podcast!

2012-03-01T20:28:00.000-05:00

Popping in to say that I uploaded the pilot episode of the Commuter Knitter podcast to libsyn last night and woke up to find it was also accepted to iTunes - so exciting!

You can find the direct feed for the podcast here

I also started a blog just for the podcast show notes at: commuterknitter.blogspot.com

And you can follow me on Twitter at CommuterKnitter

Enjoy!!

FO Friday

2012-02-10T10:32:00.001-05:00

I have an eloquent post all written out that I composed during lunch earlier this week, but I've been to tired/distracted/busy at night to type it up and post it. Yes, when I say "written out" I mean by hand. With pen and paper. Shocking, I know. Sure I probably could have done as I'm doing now and posted it using the app, but I had all sorts of links and snazzy stuff in that post that it would have lost it's pizazz if I did it here.

So instead, as to not prolong my blog-absence, I present to you a not-so-great phone picture of the husband's finished pair of socks. Details to come.

Happy Friday everyone and happy knitting!!

Oh yarn! Come out, come out wherever you are!

2012-01-22T09:00:00.000-05:00

Stash: noun
1. Hiding place
2. Something stored or hidden away
Courtesy of merriam-webster.com

One of my favorite threads over on Ravelry is the Flash Your Stash thread on the Main 6. I am in awe over everyone's stashes - small and large, fancy and plain. On my to-do list at the beginning of the year was to get out all my stash for a photo-shoot. In December, I was very diligent about photographing the skeins and cataloguing them in my Rav-stash page. However, I did not take a family portrait of my kiddies. So, one Saturday while the husband was at work, I got it all out of its various hiding places... bins, bags, nooks & crannies. And I came to one conclusion... I need a bigger bed:

This is only about 95% of the stash. And in some places it is a few skeins deep. Along the headboard and the right edge are my kits and yarn purchased in bulk. Clockwise from top right corner: kitchen cotton, Palette fingering weight, sock yarn (lower right corner), worsted and DK (lower left corner), sport weight, back to worsted, and then in the top left corner is the acrylic.

I think I've come a far way from my baby stash of 5 years ago:

Where does this yarn live when it's not lounging on our bed? Well, I store the acrylic, bulk yarns, and kits in the spare bedroom in a tall bookshelf I bought several months ago. Originally it was for the entire stash. However over the past few months I have added to the stash quite a bit and needed more space. The husband agreed that I could put another shelf unit in the living room as long as it didn't overflow and look icky. In this unit, I store my higher quality yarns and the yarns I am using nowadays - Cascade, sock yarn, Palette, Malabrigo, and Madelinetosh to name a few.

Living Room Stash. Top shelf: Sock yarns in the side baskets; notions, needles & tools in sunflower box; Clockwise from top left corner: Palette; sock yarn; Madelinetosh (2); various worsted; Cascade 220 & Malabrigo; various worsted; Cascade 220 sport superwash. The center block contains some of my favorite books.

[As an aside - that pink tool bag you see in the photo? It was a Christmas gift from the husband. I spotted it one day a few months back while we were walking through Sears. C took note and surprised me with it under the tree on Christmas morning. I should note that we usually both know what we're getting for Christmas because we shop together, so this really was a surprise that he remembered :-)]

I do not have a recent photo of the spare-room stash. Mostly because that room is forever a WIP and has piles of clothes and such to be donated to Goodwill. I'm also re-organizing all my scrapbooking supplies now that I have space on the tall bookshelf.

And with that, I would like to amend the dictionary definition of stash from something hidden away to: collection of beloved items to be treasured and given a proper home.

Happy Knitting everyone!

It's Me! Mario!!

2012-01-21T09:50:00.002-05:00

Alert the authorities - Jen posted two days in a row! It's going to snow! Oh wait, it is already snowing. A perfect setting for some crafting. The husband is at work, so I figured it'd be a good time to dig out his hibernating Mario Blanket to get it back into the rotation. It's a surprise and I have the chart written out in code on graph paper so he couldn't figure it out. I've only worked on the little seaming I've done when he's not around or when he's in the other room playing video games. Here's my progress so far:

Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Worsted in Wonderland Heather, Red, Chestnut, Daffodil, Oyster Heather.
G/6 4.25mm Crochet Hook

Ideally, I'd like to finish by his birthday in May. I'll need lots of time to seam the 252 squares together, so I figure I should have the squares done by mid-April at the latest. That gives me 12 weeks to crochet 123 more squares. Totally do-able (so I say now...)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Finally Friday

2012-01-20T09:12:00.001-05:00

I know I've been cheating with the blog lately in only posting pictures, and when I opened the Blogger app on my phone my intention was to do just that. What could possibly be taking away from my blogging time, you ask? Well there's that pesky thing called work. Hey - someone has to bring home the Benjamins to have money for yarn so that I have something with which to knit. And then there's actual knitting so that I have something about which to blog. Oh and then my new flavor-of-the-moment: Jetpack Joyride. Just a silly game on the iPhone. But such fun and so addictive!

Anyway, for your viewing pleasure, I give you my project of the week: socks for Carlos. Or I should say, the foot of one sock for Carlos.

Hoping to finish the cuff tonight and start the second one this weekend. We're supposed to get snow (finally!!) tomorrow, so it will be a good stay-in-and-knit kind of day. This sock is toe-up with a twisted stitch rib that I've mashed together from a few different places. I'll link to the inspirations when I'm back home and on the computer (haven't figured out how to do it on the app yet)

Silent Saturday - Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T21:17:00.001-05:00

Silent Saturday: Merry Christmas From Santa & Mrs Claus!

2011-12-24T20:15:00.001-05:00

Look Ma - no hands!

2011-12-23T11:29:00.001-05:00

... Well not exactly. More like no wires! So remember in my last post where I said it had been awhile since I last wrote here? Well, it had been so long that in the interim Goggle put out this nifty app where I can blog right from my iPhone. How exciting!?!

OK, OK, maybe not that exciting for those of you who keep up with this stuff. But it's exciting for me. Often times on lunch I'll have an idea to blog about, write it down on scratch paper, but fail to post it because I either run out of steam at the end of the day, or just forget by the time I get home.

Ooh, I can even post a photo of my Tiny Elf stopping by the LYS in our village before he was finished.

Look at all the cobwebs!

2011-12-10T10:25:00.001-05:00

So next week will be my 5-year Blog-iversary. Having said that, it has been well over a year since my last blog post. I thought to myself, "Self, maybe it's time to take down the blog. You are stretched thin enough with this social media stuff and spend most of your "knitting" online time over at Ravelry." However, my more sentimental self decided that, no, I would just restart the blog. I have a lot of knitting goals in 2012 and keeping up with the blog may keep me on track. (Have I said that before? Well, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again).

There's also the business of whether I should catch everyone up with what I've been doing for the last 14 months or so since my last post. Chances are there aren't very many people who even read this, so I decided that I'll just start fresh with what I'm working on now and we'll go from there.

I have quite a few projects OTN, but have put quite a few of them aside to work on for the 12 in 2012 KAL over on Ravelry. The goal of this group is to finish 12 projects over the course of the year using stash yarn. You can also complete any WIPs that have been sitting for awhile and not touched during the last month of the year. The leader of the group follows the pirate way of looking at The Code in that they are really just guidelines. But I do like to follow the rules, so I am not actively working on these right now. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock. This is a double-knit scarf that is a self-design inspired by the wonderful world of The Big Bang Theory. I charted out the sections and am using the double-knitting technique to create a reversible scarf. I started a DK project back in 2010 for the Ravelympics, but could never really find my stride managing the 2 colors and knitting both sides at once. Then I took a DK class at Stitches East back in October with the lovely Melissa Leapman. I had an AHA moment during the class and it finally clicked in my head and my hands figured it out! So instead of finishing the other scarf that had been hibernating forever, why not start something totally new? This is knit in the Knit Picks Palette Fingering weight which I find really great for colorwork.

My "Once Upon a Time..." Cambridge shawl is a copycat version of the shawl the Duchess of Cambridge was seen wearing at the grocery store last spring. When a "muggle" sees a fashionable item that she wants, she normally just googles to find the item to buy. When a knitter sees a fashionable item that she wants, she seeks out a pattern to replicate it herself, or she designs a pattern herself. Well, a whole slew of knitters jumped on the bandwagon and there was a Kate Shawl KAL with many designers coming up with their own versions and a group of 1500+ knitters casting on the various designs. While I did not officially join the knit-along because I knew I wouldn't finish by the 9/15 deadline for the contest, I did enjoy watching everyone else's projects. For my shawl, I chose the Cambridge design by Carol Sunday to knit in Cascade Heritage sock yarn. And what would a princess shawl be without a little sparkle, so I added beads for a bit of pizazz.

Well, I've babbled enough for now. Until next time! Which I promise will be much sooner than 14 months!

Happy Halloween

2010-10-31T16:26:00.002-04:00

As a kid, I was the one who dumped out her trick-or-treat sack on the living room floor, sorted through her candy, and admired her loot as she enjoyed a chocolate or two before bed. Now, as a grown-up, I find myself doing the same thing on this Halloween afternoon, but this time with lots of yarny-loot:

The husband and I ventured up to Hartford for Stitches East 2010 this morning -- talk about a kid in a candy store (I am talking about myself, of course, not my husband). This was my first time at Stitches and I had a blast browsing through all the booths. Next year I definitely want to spend more time there and even take a class or two.

Pictured above: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock in the Briar Rose colorway from Webs; Lisa Souza sock yarn in Squash Blossom, 4 pins from Leilani Arts, 3 pins and a Norwegian thimble from The Mannings, and a small bear from Mother Bear Project.

Hope everyone has a safe & Happy Halloween!

FO Friday

2010-10-08T20:09:00.005-04:00

I finished this a couple nights ago. Tomorrow it will have a real photo shoot, but I couldn't wait to share, so please don't mind the camera phone photo.

Wordless Wednesday - less than 80 knitting days left until Christmas!

2010-10-06T21:16:00.001-04:00

October already?!

2010-10-04T18:44:00.006-04:00

It has been another busy year around here and the blog has once again taken the backseat. Do I sound like a broken record??

I have been doing quite a bit of knitting in the midst of other things going on -- and even started my own Etsy shop. My aunt was going to host a craft fair this coming weekend, so I have been knitting away on mini ornaments to sell. Unfortunately the fair has been postponed, but I have started to list the items on Etsy instead.

I am still working out the kinks, so please bear with me while I get started.

Thanks!

http://ndjen04.etsy.com

(edits because apparently 10 months away from the blog = Jen forgot how to use it...)

Happy 2010

2010-01-01T20:34:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year everyone!

I am feeling very inspired after having just watched Julie & Julia and the ideas are just spinning through my head as to a similar project I could do with my knitting. I thought about picking a knitting book out of my library and knitting every pattern in it the same way that one of the movie's protagonists, Julie, cooked all of the recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. As much fun as that sounds, I cannot decide on which book to choose.

How about a regular ol' New Year's Resolution? I know, I know. Every so often I come back and say that I will blog more often. Finish my UFO's before casting on a new project. Knit from the stash instead of buying new yarn. Organize the forever-expanding yarn stash, needle collection and library of knitting books. Knit for at least 30 minutes every day. Those are the usual stand-by resolutions for myself and many other knitters out there. Been there, done that (albeit not very successfully...)

When it comes down to it, I think that my New Year's resolution is just going to be: Enjoy my knitting. Learn new things. Not be intimidated by difficult techniques. Crochet an entire project. Knit a shawl. And finish or frog all my current projects (I can't have a resolution list without including that one...) OK, OK, so that's more than one. But they can all be summed up in two words: Have fun!!

Good luck to everyone and Happy Knitting in 2010!!

Happy 4 Year Knit-iversary to me!

2009-11-30T20:18:00.003-05:00

I was home for Thanksgiving break during my busiest semester in law school to date - fall of 2nd year. That semester I was taking 16 credits, working at an internship in the AG's office, and learning the ropes as an associate for one of the school's journals. I was desperately looking for some sort of outlet to serve as a stress reliever. Something I could do at night to unwind after classes and homework were done for the day. Mom was browsing the fabric section at WalMart and I was roaming the other aisles of the craft section. And there it was -- "I Can't Believe I'm Knitting". After thumbing through the book, grabbing a pair of size 10 needles and choosing 2 skeins of Red Heart Super Saver in a variegated blue/green colorway, I was well on my way to being a knitter. Well... almost. I hit a few bumps in the road, but eventually cast on my first project -- the basketweave men's scarf from the book. The scarf was finished just in time to give it to Carlos for Valentine's Day (this was before I knew about any sort of sweater/knitted object curse - I guess you cannot be affected by the curse if you don't know it exists!).

The rest is history.

Knitting Mojo

2009-10-01T21:00:00.003-04:00

Well folks, I finished the sweater last week and I had a choice. I could finish up my many other projects OTN. Or I could start something new. As I mentioned below, I had the Central Park Hoodie blocking; however I dislike seaming so the pieces ended up back in the knitting basket for now. The (somewhat) good thing is that I did not start a new project right away. The bad news is that I hadn't picked up the needles at all until today during lunch when I started a new project. And we've reached that time of year when most projects are gifts and therefore I cannot talk about them on here (just in case!)

In other crafting news - check out these center pieces that I made on Sunday. I was inspired by the pre-made centerpieces Michael's was selling for $30+ apiece. They were having a sale on silk flowers and other crafting supplies, so I was able to make both of them for much less than the price of one of the pre-made ones. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

Happy Anniversary to Us

2009-09-27T21:52:00.003-04:00

We interrupt your regularly scheduled knitting programming for our 1st wedding anniversary. Just like a year ago, today was a rainy day here in Connecticut. Although last year the rain did let up/stop as we were entering the church and in between the ceremony and reception for photos. Today was pretty much non-stop rain. I cannot believe how fast the year has flown by.

In addition to very pretty flowers, Carlos bought me a Yarn Shoppe for our Christmas village. A few weeks ago we were in Michael's and saw it. Can't wait to set it up!!

Keeping with custom & tradition, we ate a piece of the top of our wedding cake tonight after dinner. As I mentioned in my post on the Newlywed group on Ravelry, the cake wasn't terrible. The chocolate cake part was very moist and fluffy; however the mousse center was crumbly. I had to call my parents to see what it was because neither Carlos nor I could recognize it or remember what it was supposed to be. I ate my whole piece, but Carlos only had one bite of his. He just could not stomach eating something that was a year old.

I'm BAAAAAACK in the saddle again! (sort of)

2009-09-25T08:38:00.004-04:00

I have the day off today and had every intention of updating the blog for the first time in MONTHS. But alas such plans have been (somewhat) foiled because I do not have the cord for my camera. So any pictures will either be 1. outdated or 2. from my phone. So hence the sort of...

I did a thorough photo shoot of.... drum roll please.... a FINISHED OBJECT. And not just any finished object -- a SWEATER. Yes, a whole sweater. Now, this is not the first sweater I cast on; however it is the first one that made it to completion. You will have to wait for the real photos, but for now, here she is - my February Lady Sweater:

Knit with Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Blueberry.
Size 8 needles
Started 8/28/2009, finished 9/22/2009

This was the largest lace project that I've knit and it was also my first time knitting top down with raglan increases and my first button holes. The best part -- NO SEAMING. The body is knit in one piece, with the sleeves stitches held for picking up after the body is finished. I'd imagine this is why I was able to finish so quickly (see post below re: my dislike for seaming...)

I can't tell you enough how much I LOVE this sweater. I shed my suit jacket at work on Tuesday and wore the sweater for the rest of the day. Very pleased with how it came out. Just in time for fall!

My Central Park Hoodie sat on hold while I worked on the FLS, but here she is blocking. I have a few inches left to knit on the sleeves (thank goodness I am knitting both at the same time), then time to seam the body, pick up for the button band and knit the hood. I'm toying with the idea of doing a sailor collar instead of the hoodie, but we'll see.

Very eager to get this done - will be great for these chilly days.

Needless to say, my lack of blogging has been more than made up for with quite a bit of knitting :-)

(ETA: Knitting details for the FLS)

Too many projects OTN?

2009-05-05T09:01:00.002-04:00

A few days ago on Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's Never Not Knitting page-a-day calendar, the Yarn Harlot wrote a little blurb about how certain knitters do not enjoy finishing - the sewing up, weaving in ends, blocking, etc because they do not consider themselves seamstresses or laundresses. I think I fall in that category of knitters. While I really do love making the small stuffed animals, dolls, and toys. I truly do not like sewing the pieces together or working on the small details. Yes, it is the point in the process where the dolls begin to come to life and their personality shines through; however I drag my feet when it comes to that part. And that is usually the point where I decide to cast on something else.

Which leads me to the point of this post - is it possible to have too many projects OTN? Yesterday I came to the realization that I just may have too many. Too many that I can't decide what I want to knit first because I want to finish all of them and too many that there are times when none of them appeal to me at all... I have 4 dolls in progress (including the cuddly clown I started in January -- he still needs a face); my Chevron Scarf, an Irish Hiking Scarf, the corner-to-corner blanket, 3 socks (2 are the second socks, 1 is the first of the pair), Ms. Marigold sweater vest, and the Central Park Hoodie. Not to mention the many, many, many projects that I'm just itching to start for the holidays. (Let's face it - I'd better start holiday knitting soon so they'll be done in time.)

For now, the Chevron scarf is calling me, so off I go to knit.

Spring has sprung.

2009-04-14T21:21:00.007-04:00

Well, sort of. It's been a bit chilly the past few days, but the calendar does say that Spring is here. Thought I should update really quickly. I've been working on the dolls and teddy bears that I started at the beginning of the year. Take a look:

The blue dress is the "awake" side of the Topsy Turvy Doll and the pink dress is the "sleeping" side of the doll. As you can see, I still have to sew all the pieces together, weave in the ends and take care of the smaller details. Not my favorite in terms of the actual sewing and "doing", but definitely my favorite moment when making the dolls because that is where their personality starts to come through, especially when I make the face. It's usually about that point where I almost don't want to give the doll or teddy bear away because I become attached.

She's back!

2009-01-18T18:57:00.004-05:00

Whoa. I almost forgot that I even had a blog. Time sure has flown by! Well here's a brief recap of what's happened in the 6 months since I blogged last: Attended 3 weddings in August; got hitched in September; hubby and I went to Disney World for our honeymoon end of September/beginning of October; holidays flew by and now we're here in mid-January. Whew. Okay, so much more happened than that, but I figure we might as well get straight to the knitting.

Let's continue where we left off with the Christmas Stockings. On December 1 I finished my stocking just in time to be hung by the chimney with care:

During December I knit a couple hats (of which I do not have pictures) and the project about which I am most excited is the Santa doll that I FINALLY finished for my mom's birthday.

This is the Santa Claus doll from Jean Greenhowe's Christmas Special. I started knitting the doll around Thanksgiving 2007 and finished weaving in the last end 1/2 hour before heading to my parents' house for my mom's and my birthday party. I loved knitting him so much that I almost didn't want to give him away. As these dolls take shape they develop such a personality and I become attached.

New Year's Day I cast on the Cuddly Clown from Jean Greenhowe's Knitted Toys (out of print). As of yesterday, our cute little friend just needs a face (for which I have to go to the craft store to pick up some felt).

In the meantime, I've cast on the Topsy-Turvy Dolly, also from Knitted Toys. Also will be a gift.

Mid JULY?!?! Where has the time gone?

2008-07-12T14:35:00.003-04:00

Most of my time has been spent working on our house and planning our upcoming wedding. So knitting and blogging have taken a backseat to those activities for the time being. Although blogging has been pretty much in the trunk since my last post was in APRIL. At least I've picked up the needles a few times since then. In fact I started and, more importantly, finished knitting a Christmas stocking for my soon-to-be hubby:

Please excuse the awful camera phone picture, but it's the best I had on this computer. My stocking is in progress. It will have snowflakes where his has snowmen and the holly design is slightly different. I purchased these wonderful stocking patterns from Annie's Woolens. I used KnitPicks Wool of the Andes and US 6&8 circular needles. Overall I love knitting the stockings, although I must admit this is my first time doing any significant colorwork, so at first it took awhile to get used to. Now if I can only get myself motivated (or find the time) to finish mine. A lot is going on between now and Christmas -- want to get these done so I can start on my Christmas gift knitting!!