Knit-Nerd-Rant

As an obligation for all bloggers, it would seem, it's time to apologize for going so long without an update. This one takes the cake, however. 3 years is an awfully long time to leave folks hanging! In my defense, beyond a demanding work schedule, there's been a lot going on. In summary: Boyfriend became very sick in about 2015 and that took over both of our lives 2016 my mother died from an aggressive stomach cancer Broke up with boyfriend because I couldn't sustain that relationship with so little support Started dating again and met an amazing man who is fabulously supportive Bought a house out in the burbs with said amazing man Got married to this amazing man to be referred to here now as the husband And in slightly less life-altering news, got my first commission knitting job So, it's safe to say that there's been a lot going on that has distracted me from my little crafting and nerding out blog. Life is still plenty stressful with working an ...

Image credit: http://sciencefiction.com/2015/10/15/nycc-2015-interview-clever-girl-jurassic-world/ [Spoiler alert - but seriously, it's out on disc by now] I finally got around to watching Jurassic World this past weekend - something I had been meaning to do for ages.  I grew up with the earlier Jurassic Park movies and adored them.  I was the little girl who could name a surprising number of dinosaurs, and inhaled any books that I could find about these incredible creatures. So, for the imaginative dinosaurs, I loved the movie.  It's completely over the top and ridiculous and once again tries to remind the audience that humans cannot and should not play god, nor should they think that they can possibly control it. The thing that rankled me was the portrayal of Claire - the woman who looks like she walked out of a midtown Manhattan boutique, with impossibly smooth hair for a tropical climate and who wears a pair of towering spike heels for the entire film....

I promise that I am not dead! The first part of this year has flown by in a whirlwind of traveling, hiking, seeing friends, working too much, and generally being a wee bit over scheduled. This cowl is NOT an easy pattern, it has some tricks to it, but I am so happy with the result. I found some yummy merino wool from Mountain Meadows which really inspired me, mostly because it is so lovely and soft that I wanted to make it into something that would be near my face. The Oyster stitch I found from 101 Stitches to Knit (Erika Knight, ed), but it was clearly written for something being worked flat. But with some adjustments, I was able to figure out how to translate it into something that can be worked in the round. There is a set pattern for the rows and a small trick to adjust the steps where the oyster is split across the stitch marker. Basically, you'll knit the last 2 stitches of the previous row, transfer those 2  stitches back to the left needle, then work them into the oyster a...

Hello all! I promise I haven't forgotten this blog, or making patterns for others to enjoy.  Part of the delay has been my being too busy, and part of it is that my now 7.5 year old laptop is really starting to show its age. So, the most recent one is designed because I needed to use this absolutely scrumptious yarn I found at Scrap DC's Labor Day weekend sale.  It's called Peru Chunky Luxury (out of production now). It's 70% Merino, 20% alpaca, and 10% silk, and entirely yummy.  The only problem is that all I had was a 73 yard (50 gram) skein, and this needed to be used for something worn near the face because of reasons. That or it would be kept as a pet. I also found at Scrap DC an unlabeled single twist wool yarn that is probably some sort of merino/lambswool and is lovely and soft as well, and a nice contrasting color.  All together, I knew it wasn't going to be able to create anything large. So, after finding some patterns online for similar short sc...

So, with the process of learning to live with out gluten and dairy, I've also ruled out oats and soy. The fun of learning what an unpredictable body likes and doesn't like... So, one thing I found recently was a recipe for a pickled cabbage salad . Now, this gal loves cabbage, and especially pickled cabbage. I will eat it on so many things, and the idea of eating it as a salad by itself - I was drooling. When it came time to give it a try, I decided to make it a little differently.  I've been eating a lot of southeast Asian food lately (a new Laotian restaurant opened up and I am in love), so I felt like giving the salad a bit more of an Asian-style punch.  I didn't try a bite until it had at least a day to rest in the brine, and holy moly, it is one of the best things I've ever made.  It's spicy, sweet, savory, crunchy, and chilled.  No cooking, just a fair bit of chopping and peeling. Ingredients: Cabbage salad: 1 large head of cabbage chopped i...

As part of an experiment to try and nail down the source of some ongoing fatigue issues, I am doing a trial off of gluten, oats, and dairy. Both my mother and sister have been off of gluten and dairy for years, so really I probably should have been doing this for a while. It has been helping some, but it isn't entirely clear if it is the absence of these things or the addition of more produce and whole (non-gluten) grains. I did go to a wedding over the weekend and cheated with a wedding cupcake, and have had stomach cramps that made me dream that I was shot in the gut and has been less than comfortable today. Where there have been similar mistakes, I realized that gluten makes me painfully gassy and dairy makes me constipated (sorry if TMI). So there may be something to this.  I've never really done well with diets to lose weight because results weren't fast and they just didn't matter sufficiently to me. But the threat of horrible stomach cramps is a GREAT motivator...

Following up on the last post, here's another pattern that I made up, super simple and looks great. It's super soft and stretchy, and like the last one, has no wrong side. I found 2 colors of the Caron Simply Soft that I liked together - a deep red and a charcoal grey - sorry the colors don't look properly dark enough in the photos, but such is life.  I really like the effect of the two strands together!  I learned at one point that the first thing that babies can see is contrasts and edges, so I figure this might help with some visual stimulation to get those tiny brains going. It almost looks like large strips woven together, but it's just squares of alternating sides of stockinette, with a border of garter stitch on the sides for stability. Supplies: Size 13 needles (I used a circular for convenience) Size 15 needles for bind-off 2 contrasting colors of Caron Simply Soft (I used Autumn Red #9730 and Charcoal Heather #9508 in 6 oz. skeins) Row counter ...

So my nearly-mother-in-law has been volunteering at the neonatal ICU at her local hospital and put out a request for baby blankets for the tiny ones that need help staying warm. So I went over to the local big giant box store in town (because fancy yarn shops are not willing to stoop to selling Red Heart Super Saver and other washing machine friendly acrylics) and stocked up. I wanted to be able to churn out some blankets quickly, and so this is the first of some unknown number of simple blankets that don't really have a wrong side.  I feel like it saves time to know that both sides are right sides, because we all know that nurses have nothing but free time... This has basically a frame of seed stitch and rows of alternating directions of stockinette in the contrasting colors. Here's the first one: Supplies: Size 10.5 circular knitting needles (not a short circular, but doesn't need to be enormously long) Red Heart Super Saver in any 2 contrasting colors you l...

So the belly dance has continued apace, and thanks to the recent discovery (via random Pinterest link) of a great tutorial on creating cabaret belly dance tops , I've finally gotten up the courage to create my own.  While I"m not ready for performances, I'm hoping that by the time I do get there, I'll have an awesome costume ready to go. This one features some really fun purple lame fabric found at a recent blow out sale form Bits of Thread, and the beads so far are from previous projects. I'm really excited about it! Was talking with my mother earlier and she noted that when my dad started back into his old cycling habit, he warned her that he would be enthusiastic/obsessive, and that didn't end up getting anywhere hear close to describing reality. So at least I know where I get it from! I'm also working on some simple baby blankets for the newborn ICU where the soon-to-bee mother-in-law volunteers.  So there's a lot of crafting going on up in h...

I recently started taking a belly dance class. I love it intensely. Over a decade ago, I had previously taken a couple classes taught by a friend in high school and feel head-over-heels with the style. It was fun, it looked cool, I liked the music, and it was really self-affirming. Backing up, I was an overweight kid, who surprisingly grew up to be an overweight adult. It wasn't always that way. When I was a very young kid, I was short but skinny. Sometime around 3rd grade something happened and by 4th or 5th grade, I was plump. There was no change in my constant level of activity - there were dance classed, soccer teams, softball teams, even a short lived basketball team. I loved moving and sports and generally being active, and I still do. I loved vegetables and still do. Just something happened with my internal chemistry that changed how my body managed chemical energy conversion. It was something frequently on my mind - that I was bigger than the other girls. I looked di...

So things have been crazy lately - lots of work, lots of trying to fit in some social life, I've taken up a belly dance class (after about a decade of no training), and I've been working on a new cross stitch design for my Etsy store . (Spoiler, it's going to be starring Grumpy Cat!) Another reason for the radio silence is that I have finally finished up a quilt that has been sitting in my craft closet for AGES. Years and year ago, I found some really funky faux fur fabric on sale - just about a yard and a half. I could never figure out what to do with it, but eventually settled on using it as one side of a quilt.  I found some similarly colored old t-shirts that I had planned to incorporate into some quilts, and started piecing together the patchwork. Also, a couple years ago, I had found at a yard sale an old quilt frame. I've done 2 quilts before this project, and both ended up being bears to work with once I had the patchwork layer done and was on to q...

So, this year, one of the things I did was to learn how to cross-stitch, and did I ever! I've discovered it's a lot of fun, and a great way to incorporate my love of all things nerdy.  I've already made two things - both of which I am so ridiculously proud of.  One is a Firefly quote sampler and the other is a portrait and quote from Chewbacca.  I made the patterns myself, based on the same process I have described to create intarsia patterns .  These are more difficult to document, I've discovered, but just as rewarding! As a result, I've decided to create share-able pattens and try my hand at selling them via my new Etsy store .  Right now, I've got a couple patterns for the stitch works I've already done, and interested to add more as I can.  I'll admit that I've never done anything with Etsy before, so I'm interested to see how it goes.

I've been working on trying to finish up some projects (so as not to leave so many things unfinished when the calendar turned) and found my favorite, trusty size 6 circular needle! It's one of my favorite needles and one of the earliest that I ever bought, and has been my most reliable and versatile thing in my knitting arsenal. It's part of the reason why I had been so excited to find the interchangeable set that I did, and now it's back!  It was hiding in with my scrap yarn for my beekeeper's quilt that I haven't had time for in a while. Now my circulars tree is back to full strength (particularly now that I finished my first set of 2-at-a-time socks and can put both 4s back). I hope your new year is off to such a great start.

This pattern is for a fun, festive hat made with a couple different types of yarn that create very different effects.  It's simple enough, though the changes between needle sizes and weights of yarn can be a bit of exercise for your fingers.  Depending on how Kaiser Wilhelm-y you want it to be, you can do the tassel or leave it off. So, my mother asked for a hat for Christmas and sent me the following picture as a guide for what I should make for her, but she wanted it in red: Essentially, this would mean felting using variegated yarn with an eyelash yarn around the brim that wouldn't felt and would provide a different kind of fluffy-ness. 2 difficulties with this: 1 - local yarn shop didn't have any eyelash yarn and no access to big box craft shops that would carry it, 2 - I've never intentionally felted anything and the whole process scares me more than it should scare any rational, experienced knitter. When I went to my LYS ( Looped ), I was able to find ...

Inspired by one of my new favorite writers , I want to write a brief letter to 2013. Dear 2013, Bite me. You had some good moments, like a promotion and lots of positive feedback and travel for work. However, those times when you inflicted incredible harm to the people I love were not cool. I have spent too much time in hospitals for one year during your twelve months. Too many tears. Way too many tears.  It's not for nothing that my mother said this year "if what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, we must be like Godzilla by now." I want to burn you in effigy every day leading to your end. You have become dangerously unbalanced and unhealthy. I don't want to see any other years like this again. No pathetic late night drunk calls seeking reconciliation. No sad texts or emails. Just go. And take your pain and suffering with you. Sincerely and without affection of any kind, -E KnitNerdRant Dear 2014, You look cute. I'll see you on the 1st. I'll be t...

So I had to quickly think up some gifts for some of the in-laws-to-be. We went down to visit them for Thanksgiving, and will be up with my family for Christmas this year. So we decided we would bring down everyone's Christmas gifts while we were in town. Sister-in-law-to-be and her fiance are tough to buy for, so we got them a couple gift cards.  I felt really guilty about it, since it's not the first time and it always just feels like a cop-out.  So I decided to use some scrap yarn lying around to make something to put the card in - a gift card cozy. Shout out to my friends at Hudson Trail Outfitters , regional chain in the DC area, and their promotional gift card rebate deal that gave me one to use for demonstration purposes!  It's cute, takes very little time to knit up, and makes it feel less like a cop-out to give someone a gift card.  I made 2 of them on the 2 hour flight there, so definitely very quick! I used these supplies: Scrap yar...