Welcome to the yet unfinished blog of Yarn Snob. My aim with this site is to keep track of the many crochet, knit and felt projects I'm working on as well as the occasional cross stitch, greeting card, and piece of jewelery.
August 9th 2008
During the 4th of July mini vacation I took in beautiful Benicia on the San Fransisco Bay I brought 2 new projects along for the ride. I've wanted to make Lion Brand's "Light 'n' Lively Tank" in Cotton Ease since I happened upon it in their online catalog (sorry, you have to become a member of their website in order to see their patterns)
http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/60485.html?noImages= and I saw that to be the perfect time to pick up my hook for it. I had quite an ordeal setting the measurements to the pattern correctly because why would my body make it easy on me for once? My bust seemed to fit the dimensions under large and my torso appeared to measure a medium, simple enough, right? Since I was messing with the pattern to begin with I thought that I may as well fit the entire garment to me, and after a lot of measuring and math I found the perfect fit. Exception was taken to the bust triangles, but I didn't mind if they were small enough to show just a little skin and at the very worst I'd wear a top underneath. I had the complicated parts of the pattern down and all that was left was to hook shells around and around until it was the right length for me. The project has since gotten a little big to stay in my purse with me so I haven't been working on it constantly. I picked it up again this week and tried it on and oh the horror on my face when I saw that it is now a good 2 inches too big! It's wonderful to say that I have in fact lost 2 inches in the past month but it's almost heartbreaking to have to frog my way back to the beginning.
June 30th 2008
I've been meaning to write in the past 3 months since my last entry, really, but I just haven't had much to write about since I've slacked off in the stitching department, and the only thing I have been working on is top secret. Well now I have plenty to say because I'm getting back on track!
I learned that the amazing portable mesh and springy wire laundry baskets are not condusive to a good yarn environment. Despite the times I have re-rolled every ball of yarn in there it's as if all the yarn has a little tangling party when I'm not looking. I decided to dump my shoes out of my plastic under-bed shoe box for my stash in hopes that the flat nature of the box will prevent the devestating aftermath of those parties and I officially began destashing last night! My progress has been slow because of the amount of untangling I have to do but I'm getting much better about throwing away junky yarn that I can't make anything in the quantities I have (that is, anything but an unnecessary, scratchy scarf). Through untangling I got a visual of the hours upon hours of hard work ahead of me in the form of unfinished projects! I need to start a stitch binge where I knit and crochet every single moment my hands are free like when I arrive to work 10 minutes early or when I'm walking down the street! That way I won't feel guilty about the new projects I'm beginning. More on those later!
March 25th 2008
I pick up yarn from all sorts of places, craft stores and speciality stores mostly, but people have also been known to give me boxes of 30 year old yarn in just the most putrid shades of green and orange known to man (which is saying a lot because those are two of my favorite colors), but each skein of stiff, barely workable yarn is gold to me. Mind you, I would never make a whole project with it, but when I look at the coarse yarn I see my fingers burning from practising a complex pattern to make sure I get it right and understand the directions before I use my good yarn or working up a pattern for something I have in my head or even to bring out and teach my friends how to crochet with a spare hook on the spot.
When I'm aiming to buy yarn, sometimes I have a specific project in mind like when I decided I needed to make Cheryl an ivory throw. I researched patterns online and when I went into the store all I had to do was purchase the yarn. There are times when I only have an idea of what I want to do, like for Christmas I decided that I should make scarves for Tim & Sindie for their mountain trips, but I didn't decide on the pattern or yarn until I saw the yarn that jumped out at me and screamed "I'M PERFECT FOR TIM" then told me in a more civil manner "Cables are a good idea and I will show them off well, but you need to do the killer saxon braid". Of course it's very easy to buy yarn in the store without previous thought either through finding a yarn that's just perfect for a stitch/pattern that you wanted to try and it's on sale or just because the yarn makes you drool at how gorgeous it looks and feels and you just have to buy it now regardless of whether or not you can do anything with it (or if you can afford to buy enough $20 skeins to make anything worthwhile), because at the very least you can always handle one more scarf.
Needless to say, I've managed to build a pretty encompassing (and tangled) yarn collection and like any yarn snob's nightmare, I'm afraid I have to de-stash.
March 8th 2008
Yesterday I went to the Pomona Quilt, Craft & Sewing festival, saw some amazing talent and came home inspired. I wanted to get myself a punch needle kit, some roving for needle felting and more paper crafting supplies, but I ended up buying two pairs of lovely handmade earrings and a cutesy cross stitch patern that I really like, but doesn't match anything else in my house.
I'm currently working on a gift that will take some time, so no photos or descriptions as of yet.
February 11th 2008
After forcing myself to speed crochet and knit presents for a few months straight, I had temporarily lost interest in yarn crafts for about a month. Late January/early February I had determined that I will inspire myself to get crafting again. When I was first introduced to
felting I decided that it was something I needed to master, so I bought supplies to felt two more bags. The problem with felting is that the shrinkage isn't the same lengthwise as it is width wise, and the proportions of shrinkage differ per yarn and per hook (or needle). So, needless to say, the finished piece doesn't match the picture I have in my head when I'm shuffling though the shelves at the store. With a few fix-it's I completed the first bag:
The second will have to wait until I separate some yarn, as only part of it will work with what I have in mind:
I bought the winter issue of knitscene with hopes of learning how to knit an actual sweater, and my bi-monthly Crochet! magazine had arrived with a few cute tops that I decided to make. So I checked prices of yarn online and remembered why I've never made myself a sweater before... they all ranged from $50-$90 in yarn alone! I did, however, find one knitted sweater pattern that will cost me a mere $35 in yarn from one of my favorite websites
www.knitpicks.com that I plan on making for myself soon, that is, if I can finish it before this Los Angeles weather warms up too much!
November 7th 2007
48 days until Christmas and counting: I only have 4 projects underway of the 11 that I plan on gifting and of course I haven't touched the outstanding gifts since I bought materials for this year's gifts (my apologies to Dad & Cheryl). I am hopeful that I'll only need to spend a couple hours per project for about half of my list; as for the rest, let's hope the pace of my knitting and cross-stitching improves!
October 5th 2007 With the holidays around the corner most of my craft energy is being spent making presents despite the fact that I told myself that I wouldn't be making any until I finish my outstanding gifts (HA HA) and in order to keep them surprises I'm probably not going to be posting much.