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locker_monsterSorry for the knitting diary, but I want to keep track of my progress on my scarf. Assuming, of course, I can keep it updated.
Went to a yarn store today. Well, went to two. The first one had a smaller selection, but I bought a new set of knitting needles there. I was working with 14 inch metal ones for all of the my practice stuff, but my sister said I needed a better pair, so ended up with some wooden circular needles.
They're actually pretty cool. The two needles are attached by a cable, so if you let go of one, you don't drop everything. I'm told the circular ones are good for larger projects like blankets since the weight of knitting rests on the cable, making it easier to hold and knit. All I know is, I don't have to prop the needles against my thigh while I'm doing a stitch. I can also see why knitters like wooden needles. With the metal ones, the yarn could slip off the end easily, but wooden needles have a bit more texture, so you get some friction there. The weird thing is, it's easier to push down your stitches on wooden needles, or so it seems so to me. Whatever the case may be, all I know is that I'm having an easier time knitting.
Second yarn store had a larger selection and I chose a superwash pure merino wool, so it's super soft.
The yarn I used for practice was really rough; I swear it was like twine. I'm going to wear this scarf with my femme!Eleven coat for the spring time, so I went with a purple yarn to complement the coat. Actually, the yarn isn't straight purple. There are some subtle colour changes that the photo doesn't do justice. Oh, and the name of the yarn is "Purple Mystery".
And apparently they make yarn out of possum. Not the actual possum, obviously, but their fur. I'm just wondering how they shear the possum. Aren't they kind of small?
I also had an encounter with a wool winder. So you could just use your skein of wool as is, but the yarn would tangle, so that's why they're always wrapped up in balls. How do they wind wool? Well, with one of these weird things. It reminded me of an umbrella and centrifuge. You stretch out the skein of yarn, stick that around the umbrella bit, and then you insert one end of the yarn on the centrifuge part. That's the bit you wind by turning a handle and I guess the wobbly motion of the spinning creates the perfect ball of yarn. It is actually very handy, a ball of yarn, especially if you pull the other end of the yarn from the centre of the ball. No rolling away or awkward unraveling. I wonder who came up with the wool winder. A friend of my sister's jokingly suggested it was the husband of a knitter who was tired of holding the yarn around his hands while is wife wound the ball.
I'm finding that the appeal of knitting, besides creating cool things with your own hands from scratch, is that it kind of feeds in to my OCD. Patterns repeat themselves in order to create ribbing or designs and whatnot, so you have to carefully count out your stitches and remember where you are in the sequence. Plus, it's kind of soothing just to zone out and knit. I finally figured out how to knit and not be bored. I put on an episode of a TV show that I've already seen and just half pay attention to that. It's surprisingly effective.
Anyway, the actual progress part of this diary:
Total length (at the time of this posting): 4 inches
Bonus photo!
Went to a yarn store today. Well, went to two. The first one had a smaller selection, but I bought a new set of knitting needles there. I was working with 14 inch metal ones for all of the my practice stuff, but my sister said I needed a better pair, so ended up with some wooden circular needles.
They're actually pretty cool. The two needles are attached by a cable, so if you let go of one, you don't drop everything. I'm told the circular ones are good for larger projects like blankets since the weight of knitting rests on the cable, making it easier to hold and knit. All I know is, I don't have to prop the needles against my thigh while I'm doing a stitch. I can also see why knitters like wooden needles. With the metal ones, the yarn could slip off the end easily, but wooden needles have a bit more texture, so you get some friction there. The weird thing is, it's easier to push down your stitches on wooden needles, or so it seems so to me. Whatever the case may be, all I know is that I'm having an easier time knitting.
Second yarn store had a larger selection and I chose a superwash pure merino wool, so it's super soft.
The yarn I used for practice was really rough; I swear it was like twine. I'm going to wear this scarf with my femme!Eleven coat for the spring time, so I went with a purple yarn to complement the coat. Actually, the yarn isn't straight purple. There are some subtle colour changes that the photo doesn't do justice. Oh, and the name of the yarn is "Purple Mystery".
And apparently they make yarn out of possum. Not the actual possum, obviously, but their fur. I'm just wondering how they shear the possum. Aren't they kind of small?
I also had an encounter with a wool winder. So you could just use your skein of wool as is, but the yarn would tangle, so that's why they're always wrapped up in balls. How do they wind wool? Well, with one of these weird things. It reminded me of an umbrella and centrifuge. You stretch out the skein of yarn, stick that around the umbrella bit, and then you insert one end of the yarn on the centrifuge part. That's the bit you wind by turning a handle and I guess the wobbly motion of the spinning creates the perfect ball of yarn. It is actually very handy, a ball of yarn, especially if you pull the other end of the yarn from the centre of the ball. No rolling away or awkward unraveling. I wonder who came up with the wool winder. A friend of my sister's jokingly suggested it was the husband of a knitter who was tired of holding the yarn around his hands while is wife wound the ball.
I'm finding that the appeal of knitting, besides creating cool things with your own hands from scratch, is that it kind of feeds in to my OCD. Patterns repeat themselves in order to create ribbing or designs and whatnot, so you have to carefully count out your stitches and remember where you are in the sequence. Plus, it's kind of soothing just to zone out and knit. I finally figured out how to knit and not be bored. I put on an episode of a TV show that I've already seen and just half pay attention to that. It's surprisingly effective.
Anyway, the actual progress part of this diary:
Total length (at the time of this posting): 4 inches
Bonus photo!
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no subject
Date: 2015-02-08 04:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-02-08 04:21 am (UTC)The wool is awesome. A little pricey, but you want something that will last, not fall apart after one season.
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Date: 2015-02-08 04:31 am (UTC)I used to do that all the time! A lot of the patterns I did were repetitive enough I could do them even with new TV, which worked out well because neither TV nor knitting seemed to hold my attention by themselves, but they made a great combination. :)
no subject
Date: 2015-02-08 04:48 am (UTC)I knit while listening to music, too, but somehow I work better with a TV episode. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's the dialogue; it's like white noise.
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Date: 2015-02-09 06:20 am (UTC)I'm guessing this is fur from the type of possums native to Australia and invasive in New Zealand, not the opossums we have in North America. If it's from New Zealand possums, they are indeed smallish, but they're killed before shearing (due to being extremely destructive invasive pests) so at least they wouldn't be moving around during the process.
no subject
Date: 2015-02-10 01:59 am (UTC)