finally, a post of FO's

I've finally gotten around to knitting a couple pairs of knucks that I saw published on knitty a while back - must be a year or so ago, now. Needless to say, the multicoloured stripped ones are a pair I knit for myself (from Patons Kroy Jaquard yarn in 'tutti frutti') and the grey ones are for DH (knit with Katia yarn in grey, and stripes made from Patons Kroy in Houndstooth). Tedious making all those fingers, but turns out well.

eco-holiday/destash yourself

I've been wanting to write an eco-knitting/crocheting themed post for a while, and I figured now's as good of a time as any. Y'know, since those gosh-darned holidays are coming up. So, here we go:

seven ways to green yourself this holiday season

(and still knit or crochet)

1. Go through your current yarn stash and knit it. If you're like me and virtually any other knitter or crocheter, you've got way too much stash as it is. With less than a month to go (eek!) now's the ideal time to reduce your stash. Knit 10 scarves. Or 10 pairs of wrist warmers. Or ten hats. Entirely out of your stash, no store bought stuff. Set a goal to have these 10 items done within 2 weeks and you'll not only alleviate your stash, but you've got 10 gifts already made for the holidays.

2. Don't buy extra needles or hooks. One (or one pair) of each size is all you need. Buying extra needles and hooks means that more new ones (all made from new materials by the way!) are going to be made. REUSE your needles. If need be, finish your WIP's in order to move on to the next project with those needles.

3. Look for eco yarn. Organic stuff. Yarn made from recycled materials. Every once in a while, your LYS will have it. Substitute that for whatever yarn your pattern calls for, if you can.

4. Minimize the yarn you need to buy by looking for the maximum amount of yardage. If you can buy 7 skeins instead of 10, that's 3 fewer yarn labels that need to be made for that project. I know that Walmart sometimes carries those 1lb bags of yarn, check those out to see if you can use that for a project.

5. Recycle packaging. All those pesky yarn labels, plastic bags, and casings that your knitting supplies come in, make sure they get in the blue box.

6. Rummage through thrift stores and garage sales. Once in a while, they'll have craft supplies. One knitter's surplus is another knitter's treasure. Also, check out what ugly sweaters can be frogged into new beautiful clothes.

7. Save your scraps. All of your partial balls of yarn can be blended together to make ecclecticly striped scarves, hats, and blankets. (Interesting tidbit: the origins of granny squares comes from using up scrap yarn to make afghans!)

There's much more beyond this, but this is a good start for now. Go through these as often as possible to make your knitting and crocheting ecological, and save some money in the process.

november's just not my month for blogging

It's obvious that my blogging skills this month are sucking, but despite my lack of "Look What I Knit!" posts, trust me I have been knitting. Much of what I've made, though, is christmas gifts, which won't be posted in my blog because the recipients of those gifts may be reading.

Ravelry has been draining much of my time. I've finally got it all figured out, and have been adding to my notebook like mad. I've also started 2 groups - one is Read Knit Cook (which is a monthly read-knit/crochet-cook-along group) and the other is a Sweater A Month Club, which ambitionally anticipates not only having a sweater knit within a month, but my personal goal is to make 12 sweaters within 1 calender year, as of January. (Good Luck!)

So, I'm also dying to see my copy of that Anticraft book I was published in (check out my sidebar) - as a perk of being one of the contributors, I get a free copy of the book! As it turns out, according to theanticraft's blog, some have received notice from the publishing company that their copy is on the way, and hopefully soon, mine will be too!

And, last but not least, my kitchen renovations will be coming to an end, officially, this coming weekend. Everything's patched up, and many of my inlaws are coming over tomorrow to help us paint not only the kitchen but our living room too, since now it's pretty much all one big room! (Thanks to that wall being torn down!)

I <3 free stuff, especially when it comes to knitting!

In case you haven't discovered this on your own or via ravelry, this survey from Bernat takes up only a few minutes of your time, and you receive a pdf file in return of one of their pattern books. You get the choice of one of three. Part 1 of the survey is for the knitting patterns, part 2 is for the crochet patterns.

anticraft's contest-o-rama

I think that this may be an interesting way to use up some of my free time - always like entering contests where the prize is more craft supplies! (Can't have too much of that!)

yay! mittens! chocolate!

Linda's mitten swap package came in the mail to me today!

As you can see, not only did I get an absolutely funky pair of mittens, but an excellent care package to go along with it!

Thanks, Linda! :) It's a great package!