NerdWithYarn

Fun with yarn!  Where I knit and crochet more hats than any sane person would every need!

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Sock!

Pattern: Arrowhead Socks

Yarn: Princess Bubblegum Sparkly Sock Yarn (from GamerCrafting)

This yarn is amaaaazing, you should check it out!

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Look at me playing hardcore yarn chicken

Pattern is Grown Leaves Cowl

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So a friend just taught me combined knitting, and I don't think my life will ever be the same. It's so much faster! And more comfortable! And I'm super geeked about it! :-)

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Socks!

Pattern is My Cup of Tea.  I adore it, these socks are glorious :-) 

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I made fingerless gloves!  Am I cool now?

Also, this is what it happens when I can't keep my tension even between the first glove and the second...but they look even when worn, so it's not too bad :-) 

 Pattern is BonBons by Susanna IC on Ravelry

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Man...I've neglected this blog...

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NaKniCroMo Day 20

Day 20: Favorite tip or trick?  Honestly, I don’t think I have one...I haven’t been doing it long enough, I suppose.  I love making slip knots, it’s super satisfying (I do it in a somewhat unconventional way, I think?  I use my needle or hook to wrap the yarn).  That’s not really a tip or trick though...I tried, lol.

[nerdwithyarn]

NaKniCroMo Day 19

More yarn?  Or less?

My heart says more.  My wallet and storage say less.

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NaKniCroMo Days 14-18 Catchup!

I apologize for the lack of pictures...combination of technical difficulties, not actually having access to some of my finished things, and the fact that my house is currently having most of the floors redone and is therefore in shambles.  

Day 14: Progress!  Most of my progress has been gifted to my mother before I remembered to take pictures...I’ve finished a hat and a pair of socks though!  :-)  I’m also currently working on these socks and am almost done with the first one :-)  I have missed a couple days of getting my goal of 10 rows, but I’ve done waaaaay more than the 180 rows I’d have if I’d just been doing 10 a day.  So overall I’m pretty happy with my progress :-)

Day 15: Dream craft storage/setup?  I’m not sure...haven’t honestly thought about it too much.  Maybe that’s weird?  Ultimately, probably I want a combination office/craft room.  I have a few craft hobbies (I also do kumihimo, watercolor and geometric ink drawings, and am a HUGE fountain pen nerd) so I’d want them all sort of consolidated in one room, I think.  I’m also a writer, so I’d want a computer and ample desk space for that, too.  Dang. now I’m thinking about it... :-) 

Day 16: Dream project?  Again, not really sure...I want to make all the things, lol.  I want to make a sweater, but haven’t decided on a pattern.  Someday I want to make the One Ring Scarf (Ravelry pattern here).  I also have this half-formed pattern for a Dr. Suess themed scoodie.  It’s a really long story, I want to make it for my mother :-) 

Day 17: Dream tools?  Shockingly, I again don’t really know...I honestly haven’t been knitting long enough to form strong preferences, although I’m quite attached to the tools I have because they were my great-grandmothers.  I do have a strong preference for Boye crochet hooks over Bates though.  I’ve never worked with high quality yarn though, so I’d kind of like to try that at some point... :-) 

Day 18: Technique you want to master?  Yet again, I don’t have a strong opinion on this...I’m reasonably proficient at cabling and colorwork, and have done a bit of double knitting.  So maybe I’d like to get better at double knitting?  I do want to get comfortable cabling without a needle, at least for simpler projects.  So I suppose those things :-)

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Day 12 - share your stash!  This isn’t a great picture, as my stash is currently taking up as little space as possible due to a massive flooring project in my house...A decent amount of this is yarn I inherited from my great-grandmother, another good-sized chunk is made up of my Christmas and birthday yarn, and some of it is just yarn I couldn’t resist on my own... :-)

Day 13 - favorite tool of the trade?  I can’t pick just one thing...but this is the box of tools that my great-grandmother used, and I inherited a couple months ago.  I love it more than I can properly articulate.  

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NaKniCroMo Day 11!

Day 11: Listen or do anything while crafting?

Yes!  I usually don’t watch tv.  If I’m just listening, I usually opt for “epic music” (trailer music, basically).  I usually watch lets plays, or streams on twitch.  I’m a fan of Rooster Teeth, and really like knitting to Ryan Haywood’s streams.  Not sure what that says about me, lol.  I’ll occasionally binge watch a tv show while crafting, too, but that usually only lasts a few days at a time.  Then I’m back to my usual :-) 

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NaKniCroMo Day 10

What’s your crafting fuel?

...I’m not sure?  I mean, there isn’t a certain food or anything that I like with crafting.  I do it for a variety of reasons, though.  It’s just super enjoyable for me.  It’s therapeutic mentally for me, and the physical sensations of knitting especially are just super comforting.  Plus it’s addictive, lol.  Sort of like leveling up in a video game, except instead of “one more quest” it’s “one more row” or “one more step.”  Also then I have cool stuff when I’m done with a project :-)  

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NaKniCroMo Days 8 and 9

Days 8 and 9 are not very exciting answers for me, lol.  

Day 8: Share your crafting spot - I would, but I don’t really have a dedicated one...I often work at my desk, but a good 50% of the time I do it elsewhere.

Day 9: When do you craft?  Whenever I have time... :-)  Usually after work. I like doing it while watching people play video games, lol.  My current favorite is curling up on the couch and watching my brother play the new Zelda, but I also really enjoy having a nice long session while watching streams on twitch.

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NaKniCroMo Day 7 - Update!

So I guess it’s update time!  Even if I am late...

My goal was “10 rows a day” regardless of project.  I have way past met that goal so far, and I’m having a blast :-)  I hadn’t done any knitting at all today, realized I needed to do 10 rows, thought “it’s a worsted weight sock heel flap, 10 rows will be super fast,” and then proceeded to accidentally knit for three hours...whoops.  

Here’s all my current projects for the month!  The scarf hasn’t seen much action...everything else is going well though :-)

And below is individual pictures of things, because I can’t help myself... :-) 

Finished twig beanie!

I’m loving this thing :-)  The band is too long for my tiny skull, lol, but it’s super squishy and it’s great.  Plus the pattern looks really cool, despite the mistakes brought on my distracted knitting...

Current hat!

I’m not following a pattern for this one.  I just did a P4 Cf1, and went with it.  The P4 ends on the first knit of the cable below it.   Also I am hardcore playing yarn chicken with this hat...

Sock!

I’ve never attempted socks before.  This is worsted weight, because A.) I figured it’d be easier to learn on a larger yarn so I could see what I was doing better , and B.) because I have no sock yarn.  I have done a lot of tinking because I have literally no idea what I’m doing, and so I’ve screwed up basically every step other than just straight knitting, lol.  But oh well.  It’s fun :-)  I used to think I’d never be a person who liked knitting socks - but now I feel like socks are going to become a go-to project, much like hats...I just started the second one last night :-)   

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NaKniCroMo Days 5 and 6

I know I said I’d be better at posting...but honestly, days 5 and 6 I don’t have much to say...

Day 5:  Crafting heroes?  My late great-grandmother did a lot of really beautiful, extremely difficult knitting and crochet, as well as needle point.  Other than that, I can’t single people out very well.  Other than pretty much every person who has ever posted pictures of their projects on the internet, lol.

Day 6:  Favorite books/designers?  Not really any...I don’t have any books, and I don’t really follow any particular designers.  

See, boring answers.  Sorry. Oh well.

[nerdwithyarn]

NaKniCroMo Day 4!

How long have you been learning your craft?

I talked about this a bit on day 3.  I started learning in high school, but then didn’t touch it for around 8 years.  Picked it up again in college.  So, I’d say all told about 2 years, but it’s been very sporadic (i.e. “I have so many gifts to make in the next week, AAAAHHHHH”).  It’s only in the last month or so that I’ve actually started properly picking it up and learning things again :-) 

I’d show you the first knitting I ever did, but I recently ripped it out because it was awful, and not very long, so I decided I could reuse the yarn. And I can’t find the first hat I crocheted, but trust me, it’s dorky, lol.  It looks like a tall, ribbed, neon green chefs hat unless you actively push it into a slouch... :-)

So, instead of my first projects, you get to see my WIPs!  I have two I’m working on...In my defense, they’re both basically the first attempt at anything like them :-) 

Binary Scarf!  

I’m using this pattern, which is most excellent :-)  It’s feeling sort of like a chore to work on, though, so I keep putting it off.  Honestly, it’s because it’s one of the things I started with my old Super Saver yarn, and I just don’t enjoy the experience as much...but I still want to get it finished :-) 

Current hat in progress!

Using this pattern. I’m almost done, I just have to do one more cycle of  the cables, and then do the decreases.  It’s got a decent number of little mistakes, because I made the good decision to make this much last night, while watching a pretty intense combat session of Polaris (it’s a role-playing game, sorta like Dungeons and Dragons, but underwater and low rolls are good).  So, even though I wasn’t playing, I was pretty distracted, lol.  Still, I’m enjoying it, and it’s good practice...I’ll see how it looks when it’s done, hopefully the mistakes aren’t too noticable.  

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NaKniCroMo, better late than never!

Well, I haven’t been active on here (largely because I didn’t have blog related to yarn and I don’t want to spam it on unrelated blogs - this has been remedied!), but I’m still doing NaKniCroMo!  Weeee!   This will serve as my “catch-up post” if you will.  Day 4 will be a separate post, since that will have me caught up.  I’ll try and be better about actually chronicling my month from here on out :-)

Day 1 - Goal!  My goal is to knit at least 10 rows every day, or crochet at least 20 rows every day.  This will indirectly help me both finish my WIPs and go through some of my stash :-)  

Day 2 - Inspiration!  So many things, lol.  Honestly, the main reason I started doing this again was that I just love the experience of it.  The tactile sensations, the meditative quality, the satisfaction of watching something grow under my fingers.  Also, looking at other peoples lovely creations always spurs me to keep going.  Currently I’m obsessed with looking at pretty socks, lol.  I have yet to make socks, but someday soon... :-) 

Day 3 - How did I learn?  It’s sort of a convoluted story.  Warning, this one will be slightly longer.My mom signed me up for a knitting/crochet class my freshman year of high school.  I enjoyed it, but didn’t really get into it too much.  Shortly thereafter, my great-grandmother attempted to teach me to knit.  Bless that woman, she had such patience, lol. I wish I had gotten into this a few years ago, when she was still with us.  Instead, I inherited her yarn stash, and this Christmas I was gifted all of her knitting/crochet supplies, which I cherish!  

But I took a break of about 8 years between when I first learned, and when I started up again.  At that point, I remembered how to crochet a chain, and that was about it, lol.  So, I turned to youtube, which is where I have learned pretty much everything.  The funny thing is, the only reason I started crocheting again (I learned to crochet before I learned to knit, which is why I knit continental) was because I have a lot of really, really long, thick hair, and I couldn’t fit it comfortably under any of my store-bought hats.  So I made a super dorky slouchy hat that’s like a foot long, but my hair fits in it, lol.  After that, I had the bug, so started crocheting things for people for gifts.  I still spend a decent amount of time on youtube, or just reading patterns to try and understand what’s going on in them... :-) 

So, yeah.  There’s my first three days.  A proper day 4 post is soon to follow.  Onwards! :-)