Where does the time go?

Wow.  It’s September.  Has it really been since January that I last blogged anything?  Shameful.    I see that my intent was to blog about my journey through the master knitter program, so that explains my absence.  I’ve done nothing with the master knitter program since January.  Hmmmm….

I have been busy though.  I’ve been knitting a lot.  Not all of it gets posted on my rav page, but I always have several projects on the needles.  Here is one that I am particularly proud of–my Wrap Me Up.  A friend convinced me to enter it in our local county fair and it won a blue ribbon and best of show!  I was shocked!

I recall that doing those master knitter swatches was convincing me that I couldn’t knit.  Maybe I’m not that bad after all.  Now that fall is upon us and there are fewer distractions, I should pick it up again.

Finally, a direction!

Welcome to the continuing saga of a knitter’s journey to becoming a master knitter….

HA!  Truly, that is what I’m going to be writing a lot about, but I hope it’s more entertaining than the melodramatic opening above.    How about this….

Hi, my name is Amy and I am a knitter.  It’s been about five minutes since I made my last purl stitch…

Knitting is addictive so that opening is rather accurate.  I’ve never been addicted to anything before, but I really think I am hooked on knitting (or can one only be “hooked” on crochet?).  I’ll be sitting in my office at work and my fingers will literally twitch with desire to pick up and do just one row…just to get me through ’til lunch.  It’s pathetic, really, isn’t it?  Especially now.

Why now, you ask?  (Okay, so perhaps you didn’t ask, but I’m on a roll here…)  It’s especially pathetic now because I’m knitting swatches.  Just swatches.  Oftentimes the same swatch, over and over and over.  You see, I’ve gotten it into my head to become a Master Knitter.  So I’ve plunked down my money for the Level I packet and now I am faced with the daunting task of 16 swatches and a hat.

I didn’t think it was going to be so daunting when I decided to do this.  I’ve been knitting for quite some time and I’ve completed some pretty cool things.  I have done cables and lace, for heaven’s sake!  As it turns out, what I haven’t done is tried to knit a simple 2×2 rib in light-colored worsted weight wool.  In case you’ve not done this yourself, light-colored worsted weight wool shows EVERY UNEVEN STITCH.  I mean, wow.  I really can’t knit.  At all.  Huh.

Okay, enough self-loathing.  There is most definitely a positive here.  I am learning!  A lot.  I’ve cracked open my knitting reference books and read them (gasp!).  And the On the Way to the Masters articles in Cast-On magazine (from the Knitting Guild Association, who is responsible for making master knitters) are truly fabulous.  I’ve already studied up on tension problems, increases, and choosing the right yarn, and I’m only on the first swatch!

Hmmmm, maybe this is really what the Master Knitter program is all about…..  Stay tuned!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

…everywhere except in my house!  My son just set up the tree so I need to decorate it.  I’m not sure where the time went…what happened to November?  I probably say this every year–and my hubby likes to point out that fact–but the holidays always seem to sneak up on me.

This year they were even more sneaky because we have had a very mild autumn.  Last year we were knee deep in snow by early November, but we just got our first real snowfall here a couple days ago.  I’m okay with that, but it caused me to lose track of time.

I’ve been doing Christmas knitting (another reason to panic that it’s coming up quickly!).  Sadly, I’ve been “knitting-challenged” lately.  I finished a couple of pairs of flip-flop socks for my nieces with very little problem, but every project I’ve tackled since then has been one disaster after another.  I’m a decent knitter–really–so why all the issues?  I’ve become very proficient at tinking.  I’ll admit that this is a handy skill to have ONCE IN A WHILE!  However, it seems I’m doing more tinking than knitting, and that’s not a good thing.  For example, I’ve ripped back these cute bulky-knit fairisle mittens more times than I can count.  For that reason, I’ve resigned myself to making simple mittens with perhaps some easy post-knitting embellishments instead.  So far, so good…I completed one mitten in a couple hours and didn’t tink once!  I’ll haul out the camera to prove it later today! 

Off to decorate the tree now!

Hello world!

Oh my.  What have I gotten myself into?  I’ve toyed with the idea of blogging for some time now, but just never took the time to figure out how to get started.  Well, it would appear that the best way to get started is to blindly sign up.  We’ll see where this leads.  I’m not promising anything.

Now to figure out how to work this thing…..