Sixth time's the charm

I am working on my oldest daughter's mystery shawl right now. It's my first lace shawl, and I kept making the mistake of trying to knit lace while little kids were running in and out of my bedroom. It's very easy to mess up a lace pattern! One little bit of distraction, and my place is lost and the wrong stitches knitted.

This is the sixth time I've started this pattern. So far, it's going well. I'm only knitting when I have a reasonable chance of not being interrupted. And when I do get interrupted, I go back and check my work to make sure I'm on the correct part of the pattern. I just hope that I can finally get this shawl knitted. Spring is going to be here eventually, and I know my daughter will love having something pretty to keep her warm in the mornings.

I visited another local yarn shop yesterday. They had a huge selection of sock yarns, and I bought a couple of skeins of bright variegated sock yarn to make some spring socks for myself. As much as I enjoy shopping at the local stores, I still prefer to shop online as much as possible. I know that there are a lot of other stay-at-home moms who are supplementing their income by dyeing and selling yarn on the internet, and I want to support them as much as I can.

Last night, I dreamed about buying beads for a knitted lace shawl that I was making. I think I'm getting a little too obsessed here, but I'm having too much fun to care. :)

Starlight Mystery Shawl #1

I've finished my creative designing for this mystery, and now I just need to create the chart and figure out exactly how many stitches will need to be cast onto the needles to start the shawl.

It is going to be really pretty, I think. I can't wait to start knitting it!

Tonight is a quilt guild meeting that I need to attend, if only for a few minutes. I don't have anything finished for show and tell, and I have too much to do at home to stay for the whole program, but I did promise one of my customers that I would be there tonight. I'll drop in to see her, then I'll head home.

It's been a long day already. While I was in my loft, trying to finish a customer's quilt, my two little girls stole a loaf of bread from the kitchen. My loft is directly above their bedroom, but they were sneaky and didn't slam the door when they returned from their caper. I grew suspicious when I heard giggling and discussions about making a cake. I walked into their room to see most of a large loaf of bread broken into tiny pieces and crumbs all over the bedroom floor. Thankfully, they didn't add water to their "cake!" It took me much too long to get that mess cleaned up as it was. Water and bread crumbs would have been a horrendous mess.

Tonight will be a good night for a relaxing bath and some knitting time. I need some peace and quiet.

Coming Soon

I am in the process of creating my own line of mystery shawl and mystery sock patterns. While I love creating what other people design, I figure that it's time for me to branch out on my own.

After all, I learned to knit when I was 11 years old, years before I learned how to crochet or quilt. It's time to put that experience to the test.

Once I get established as a designer, I plan on creating patterns for baby afghans, too. I might even add coordinating hats and booties at some point, if all goes well. I'm having an unbelievable amount of fun using my knitting pattern creation software. Now all I need to do is take my creations from paper to yarn.

I enjoy creating mystery patterns for quilting, too, but those are harder to do. Just about anything that I could create has already been done, and all I can do at this point is to come up with different color combinations and/or fairly unique combinations of blocks. Knitting seems a little more open to interpretation, as well as much more portable.

It's time for a new challenge. This is going to be fun!

Socks

I'm not doing well in the sock department. I was making good progress on my pink socks (using two circular needles to knit both at once), but my extremely curious two-year-old daughter decided to try knitting when I was in another room. By the time I discovered what she was doing, my pink socks were off the needles and in a tangled mess on the floor.

No, I didn't punish her. First of all, she's too cute, and secondly, she was just trying to help.

As of right now, I have no socks in progress. If I'm going to have any hope of finishing something for the Ravelympics, I had better get back to work. Socks should be fairly easy to knit, if I could just keep working on them for more than a few minutes at a time. The constant interruptions are bothering me quite a bit, but I know that they are only temporary. Before I know it, the kids won't be interrupting me anymore, and I'll miss having them around.

Today will be a busy day, with furniture rearranging and housecleaning on the agenda. And quilting. And college homework. And whatever else needs to be done before the new week begins tomorrow. I'm tired already.

However, my husband has a hockey game tonight, so I will be able to knit completely uninterrupted after the kids go to bed this evening. I'm looking forward to that!

Not feeling the Magic Loop love

I started my two green socks using the Magic Loop method last night.

The cable kept getting in the way of my yarn, so I removed one of the socks and concentrated on knitting just one sock using the method. I officially gave up on Magic Loop when I pulled one of my needles right out of all of the stitches I had just knitted.

Yes, the two circular needle method is more expensive, since I'll need to buy two needles in each size for the socks and mittens and gloves I plan to make, but I find that it's easier and less complicated than Magic Loop. Of course, that's just my opinion, and personally, I'm glad that there are so many sock-making methods out there. Everyone can find just what they need. :)

With that said, I also spent last night starting my first lace shawl over again. I keep getting halfway through the first clue, only to mess up on the lacework. This time, I am definitely going to create a "lifeline" through my stitching, just before the lacework begins. If I mess up, I won't have to start all over again. Maybe I'll make some progress on it pretty soon.

I need to get something (anything) finished for the Ravelympics this week. Finding time to knit or crochet is not very easy, though, but my husband is supportive, and that helps.

Ravelympics

I just recently learned about Ravelry, and I have to admit that I am completely hooked on it now. I wish quilters had something like this. Sure, we have a lot of different forums that we can join, but we really don't have a single website that allows us to post pictures of all of our work in one place. I wish I was better at web design, because I would love to create something like that just for quilters.

Anyway, Ravelry is sponsoring the Ravelympics this month. For the duration of the Winter Olympic Games, we can challenge ourselves to start and finish projects, just for the fun of it. I'm working on several projects for this, including three WIPs (works in progress). The WIPs have their own category, separate from the all of the new projects started during the Games.

Unfortunately, I don't get to count the mystery shawl I started late last month, despite the fact that I had to rip out all of my work and start over AGAIN today. From now on, I am not going to knit lace while the rest of my family is running in and out of my room. The interruptions are making my knitting life difficult, to say the least.

I love my family, despite the interruptions, but I really do want to get this shawl finished someday.

Last night, I learned that I can work on my favorite crocheted afghan pattern with my eyes closed. I was very tired, but I wanted to get something accomplished, even if it was just a few clusters on that afghan. This particular pattern is the first one I used for a large afghan, and I've made four afghans out of it so far. The one I'm working on will be my fifth one, as well as the largest afghan I've ever made. I can't wait to finish it.

I'm about to splurge on some beautiful pink lace yarn for a beaded shawl. The person who dyed the yarn is raising funds for her Susan G. Komen 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk, and since breast cancer claimed Mom's life, I want to help this woman reach her goals. Besides, Mom loved pastel pink, and she would have adored this ultra-feminine shawl.

My husband is surprised that I haven't been buying a lot of quilting fabric lately. It's hard to justify spending money on fabric when I'm spending so much on yarn. I need to get some projects finished, so I don't feel so guilty. :)

Let the Games Begin!

We stayed up late and watched the Opening Ceremony for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games tonight.

Beautiful ceremony!

Over on Ravelry, the Ravelympics kicked off tonight, too. I plan to enter a few events, just for the fun of it.

For now, it's time for bed. :)

A Blog for Yarn Enthusiasts

I said I wasn't going to change my username on Ravelry and other knitting/crocheting communities. And I honestly didn't expect to do so.

But quilting and knitting aren't terribly complementary, and I figured that now would be a good time to change to a new nickname.

So here I am. Starlight Knitting. I like the sound of it. I'm an amateur astronomer, as well as someone who loves to stay up late at night to work on my hobbies, so this name suits me on a personal level.

I'll be adding more posts here soon. Thank you for stopping by!