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Sale at my Ravelry store. Buy 2 get the third pattern free. Use coupon code JUSTBECAUSE. Hurry up because the offer is valid until May 31st only.
 I love love listening to podcasts while I craft or drive. It is like my own on-demand knit night whenever I want. These are the podcasts I listen to regularly and each one has something different to offer. They are listed below in alphabetical order
2KnitLitChicks: Mother (Barb) and daughter (Tracie) team who talk about knitting and books. Their book reviews are just as interesting as their knitting.
Brass needles: hosted by Miss Kalendar who also reviews Sci-Fi. It is sometimes like knitting from outerspace.
Electric Sheep: The knitter behind it is Hoxton Handmade and she is a hilarious, british and has a thing for beards
Knit Knit Cafe: Mother (Abby) and son (Ben) team, yes her son. It is almost like joining them in their living room while they knit and talk about it. It is a lot of fun.
Knitmoregirl Mother (Gigi) and daughter (Jasmine) are another hilarious duo. I almost want them to adopt me. Sewing and spinning are also on their agenda so it is a lot of fun.
The Savvy Girls Sisters (Melanie and Deborah) are very savvy. Melanie hates knitting but loves gerbils so we forgive her and Deborah loves knitting and forced Melanie to podcast with her. Originally from Canada but they usually blog from around the world.
SubwayKnits: Maria is the voice behind SubwayKnits. She is a teacher from New York and her podcast is another wonderful one to listen to.
These aren’t all the podcasts I listen to, just the top ones. Just go to iTunes and search for the topics you like in the podcasts you will not be disapointed. All of these podcasts aslo have awesome ravelry groups so be sure to check them out too.
This is part of the third annual Knitting and Crochet Blogging Week
Note: This was scheduled for last night but for some reason it didn’t work.
I think this was probably the easiest challenge. I also can not believe I am still here and that I made it thru the week. So, here goes nothing.
I don’t believe in balance. I can crochet and I can knit. I believe I am quite competent in both. Competence is a relative word so let me tell you my definition. It means I can crochet or knit whatever I want to. I can read charts and I can read written patterns. I am stubborn enough to figure out the things that I don’t get at the first try.
I don’t believe in balance because I love both. And each craft has its strengths and its uses. The real star of both crafts is the yarn.
It is the building block of both. It comes in balls, skeins and sometimes in a knotted mess. But when you untangle it and put a hook or a pair of needles to it, you can make something beautiful and useful. I think we sometimes forget that in the past knitting or crocheting was a necessity not a hobby. Something that people did to make clothing or things they needed. They did not think about which they liked more, they thought whether they needed socks or a sweater to get through a cold winter. They made utilitarian items, granted some items were made beautifully and were meant to be handed down from one generation to the next. But they did not have the luxury to go to a store and get what they wanted.
I love crochet for its speed and the ability to make sturdy fabric. I love knitting for its pretty lacy and lovely garments.
I am bicraftual and I am happy about it.
This is part of the third annual Knitting and Crochet Blogging Week
This is one topic that I think will be easier to blog about. I already know the things I want to learn or improve. I like to jump in and start learning when I want to learn something new, then I will keep at it until I feel comfortable enough to let it sit for a while, while I go learn something else. ًWhen I wanted to learn crochet, I just bought a hook, yarn and went head first.
Do you want to see proof?
 These were the first two amigurumi toys I made. Scary right? Oh and the photography? HORRENDOUS. But I am not ashamed of my lack of skills when I first started. Every stitch, every picture I took were just another step to where I am right now.
After a lot of crocheting, I felt antsy and wanted to knit. The first time was so miserable that I put it down for a few months. The more I learned about yarn, tension, fabric, drape and all of the these things the easier it was to pick up the knitting.
General things I have learned:
- Buy the best tools and materials you can afford.
- Different sized needle/hook changes how the fabric behaves.
- Blocking really does change everything.
- Practice really does make perfect.
- If you don’t like it while you are making it, chances are you won’t really like it when you are done.
- If you find a mistake, it is generally better to go back and fix it, because it does haunt you later.
- There is nothing wrong with frogging.
- If you can’t do it the way they say you should do it, find another way to do it.
Specific skills I am glad I learned:
- Sock knitting. I was terrified of socks, it was probably the combination of small needles and thinner yarn.
- Short rows. They have loads of uses.
- Different cast on methods like the long tail and Estonian cast on.
- Different cast off methods. Everything has its use.
- Continental knitting. I started knitting English method because I couldn’t handle using two hands at the same time. Once I had the moves figured out I switched to continental, it really is easier for people who already know crochet. I tension my yarn the same way I do when I crochet.
- Lace knitting. I was also terrified of lace knitting because it was so hard to fix mistakes. Until I learned how to use waste yarn to create a lifeline.
- Reading my knitting. Oh that was probably the biggest milestone of all. Being able to put down my knitting then come back and look at it and know how many rows I had knit or where I was in a pattern made the world of difference.
- Grading garments. This is a recently acquired skill. After knitting the Princess Peplums pattern I knew I really wanted to write the pattern and release it but was terrified of having to grade it. I procrastinated in every way and then I sat down and butted head with my spreadsheet until it came out. It is still being tested and I have no illusions about the fact that mistakes will show up but at least I know now that I can do it.
- Chart reading. That also changed my life. I am better with diagrams with charts than words that go on and on and on. Crochet charts are different from knitting charts but the idea is the same.
Skills on my To Learn List:
- Colorwork. I can do both intarsia and stranded knitting but I am not super good at them.
- Spinning. I have been eyeing Turkish spindles for a while and I know that it is inevitable
- Better photography. That one doesn’t need a lot of explanation.
- Tunisian and Tapestry crochet.
- Better blogging.
- Better Designing
I am happy that I am doing all that learning publicly and watching others blog, podcast and videocast about their progress too. Just look at any blog and compare what they could do when they started and what they can do now. It is always amazing to see the transformations.
This is part of the third annual Knitting and Crochet Blogging Week
These challenges keep getting harder.
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Hello, I am Uncoordinated Blanket. I don’t know why she calls me that. I don’t think I like it, I wish she called me something cool like Serenity or something Zen like that. I know I am not a perfect combination of colors. Nor am I knit out of a smart stitch or even something lace. I am a plain garter stitch blanket. But I come from so many different places. There yarn I am made of was used to make 3 hats, 2 cardigans, 2 baby blankets and a shawl in me. I am unique. I will never be reproduced. And that is why I am beautiful. I am made of the plainest of plain stitches. I am sturdy, I am basic and I am predictable. I can’t wait until I am done. I don’t know how big I will be, but I hope she will make me huge. I want to be a huge blanket. Babies are cute, but they grow up and they will need bigger blankets. I want to be the biggest blanket of all. I want to travel the world with them as a family. I want to be packed in their suitcases and go wherever they will go, whenever they need to go. I want to keep her little one warm because I know she knits for that little one lots of things just to wrap her with hand knit love. Oh that little one, she gave me a hug and a kiss and asked her mother to make me big so I could sit on the couch with her. I just hope she doesn’t want to make tents and blanket castles out of me.
I know she loves to knit lace and socks, and the kinds of things that challenge her. But I know why she is knitting me. She is in love with my calmness, my easiness, that the only thing she has to do is hold the needles and her hands do the work without thinking. She sits in bed listening to podcasts while she knits me. She daydreams. I know she is day dreaming when the knitting slows down into a steady pace. The stitches are no longer deliberate but are a product of muscle memory in her hands. I wonder what she is day dreaming about. I think she daydreams about going places she has never been. She is a strange lady. She is distant but she is very warm. She likes to squish my stitches and feel my texture. I think she likes it.
I can’t wait till I am finished. I want to go to the fun place they call the washing machine. From what I understand it is like an amusement park where I will come out smelling really nice. I went to beach once, but I didn’t like it. The sand kept getting into my yarn and I don’t like that it is rough and scratchy. She tried to work on me while there, but kept getting interrupted by the little one and by listening to the waves. She likes the beach. I know that about her.
Will you please tell her to hurry up, I really want to get done and I am so excited about life. Just look how much I have grown already.
This is part of the third annual Knitting and Crochet Blogging Week
When I signed up for this blogging weet I assumed that the blogging would be much easier than it is. I am not sure if the topics are deeper than I had thought or I am just having a hard time articulating my thoughts these days. Anyways. Here goes nothing.
I live in Kuwait. It is a hot country most of the year. It gets cold for about a month and sometimes it gets really really cold during that time. I started out crocheting amigurumi and bags when I first started so they are season irrelevant. I started in December I think. And then went on to crochet more bags and stuff for quite a while. I crocheted a wrap for my daughter that was so bad I ripped out and used the yarn for a bag. I didn’t understand gauge then and it came out so misshapen it looked quite sad on her.
I knit and crochet all year round. I just make different things and I use different materials. It is actually a great opportunity to try things you wouldn’t normally do. Summer makes me want to crochet or knit beach bags, sun hats and toys. The colder months make me want to knit shawls, cardigans and little mittens. Of course I want to knit socks all the time  but hey you can wear them all year round too. I also knit baby blankets any time of the year too. Cotton for summer babies and wool blends, acrylic or superwash (because they need to be machine washable) in the winter. 
Edited to add: The bag above is my Carry Me Away Market Bag.
This is part of the third annual Knitting and Crochet Blogging Week
I thought long and hard for this one. I was going to talk about my grandmother, or her two sisters in laws. All three amazing women who have always been inspirational in so many ways.
Crafting communities are usually most generous. The knitting and crochet communities are no exception. Every time there is a crisis anywhere in the world you will find designers donating proceeds of their patterns to aid the victims, knitters donating scarves, crocheters making baby blankets and hats. There are knitters and crocheters who knit mainly for charity donating thousands of preemie hats and blankets. It touches my heart and makes me feel that the men and women are not just donating finished objects, they are giving their most precious time and choosing to make someone else feel loved by a hand made item.
There are also many projects where the knitters or crocheters teach people how to knit or crochet for many reasons, like get over illness or learn a skill. There are also the knitters and crocheters who will dive into their stashes to donate books, hooks, needles and yarn to support these projects.
But today I wanted to talk about Vera Sanon, who is not only a wonderful designer, but is also the founder and executive director of Fanm pou Fanm (Women for Women), a non-profit organization that works with some of the poorest women in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
The project is a wonderful idea in point of view, it helps women, many of whom are illiterate and have no other means of making money, make crochet bags then sells them for them. While many people would be satisfied by just donating money or things, Vera started a project that would help these women make it out on their own. She is teaching them how to fish instead of giving them a fish.
It is not easy shipping the yarn or materials to the women because of extremely high customs so it is all carried in their luggage. Because some of the women can’t read, they need to be taught each pattern until they memorize it. It is not an easy task. But I am sure that these women have a hope of better lives if they have a skill. Crocheting 3 bags a week a woman can feed her family for a week, she can still be available to care for them. It is not an easy task but it is definitely worth it.
 Image from the Famn Pou Famn Blog
Please visit their blog or facebook page.
This is part of the third annual Knitting and Crochet Blogging Week
This was a lot harder than I had expected. I love taking pictures. I do it all day long. I take pictures of everything. All. The. Time.
But to tell a story with my pictures is harder. I don’t take pictures to tell a story, I take pictures to capture the moment. And with yarn I take pictures to showcase the depth and saturation of color, texture or just beauty.
Then there are the works in progress pictures.
These are always fun for me because they remind me of how far I am on a project or how much I still need to do. I think they also show people how much work goes into creating anything handmade.
Then of course there are the finished items. I think FO pictures can be broken down into to categories. The FO not being used kind of picture. A knitted piece just lying around.
And the action shot. This type of shot is near and dear to my heart. Because at the end of the day when I knit a cardigan or crochet a bag or even make a plain old washcloth, I want them to be used. I want my daughter to jump up and down in her cardigan and I want the friend of a baby to be swaddled with love in that blanket.
This shawl was never made for her but she claimed it from the start. She says it is too small for me and it is more of a shawlette or a scarf on me. She wears it at home like a little old granny completely unaware how inappropriate on her.
And the rainbow mittens that make the cold go away from her hands, while still giving her fingers the freedom to do what little people do best.
I have to confess that when I first read the today’s topic, I wanted to take a stunning picture. Something with amazing lighting and the perfect accompanying story. So I cast on and knit a little cardigan for my wooden fashion dummy. The dummy felt really naked, so I made her a skirt. Her bald head annoyed me so I crocheted a hat. All the time I thought how will all this tell a story, so I thought of using capital cities as backgrounds and make it look like the dummy was visiting the world and going to all the places I dream about going. And then I realized that I didn’t need it. The pictures I already have tell their own wonderful stories, even if no one understands them, I know their story, I know how I bought the yarn, had an idea and executed it. Looking at the dummy in her full outfit, I realize she tells a story that was not intended to be told. The story of a girl, who had dreams, who became a woman and got a totally different life and used what she had on hand to make beautiful things. Even if no one gets the story, I understand it because I have lived it. There will always be stunning photographs of amazing white sandy beaches and canyons and Tokyo at night or Paris. But only I can take pictures of a messy living room because we spent the whole day building blanket castles and having pretend tea parties with imaginary friends. Not every story is meant to be written or read by other people. Some stories are just to be lived through and enjoyed for the moment they are being created.
This is part of the third annual Knitting and Crochet Blogging Week
I have a problem with colors. I am always second guessing myself if I need to work with more than one color.
I almost always use one color, and if I don’t then it is usually a self striping or varriegated yarn, very rarely will I mix colors.
One of the reasons I am knitting the Uncoordinated blanket is to get out of my comfort zone and just add colors randomly.It appears to me that most colors can coexist peacefully in a blanket without trying to runaway or kill each other.
I looked through my flickr stream and found some read projects most of them quite recent. Red is powerful and very hard to photograph too. It is a passionate color.
1. IMG_9608, 2. IMG_9551, 3. Knitted Apple, 4. Pyramid Safari Bag
Rainbows are always a big hit in our household. Who doesn’t love rainbows? They make you feel warm and fuzzy and happy inside.
1. Rainbow hat, 2. Crazy Rainbow SOcks, 3. Rainbow Socks, 4. Pencil Sleeves
I thought I didn’t knit in green a lot but I guess there is more than a fair share of green projects under my belt.
1. Flower Burst Tote, 2. Queen of Diamonds Bag, 3. Shabak Shawl, 4. Afternoon Clutch
Pink is a common color when you have a little girl who screams peeeenk peeeenk when you ask her to pick a color. Luckily she has moved onto purple these days.
1. IMG_8590, 2. Pink poncho, 3. Pink Rosamonds, 4. Kindle Fire Cozy
Blues, of course lots of blues. I have more blue projects than any color. I love blue. Blue is calming. Blue is me. I crochet or knit in blue when I need to relax and find my peace of mind.
1. Falling Water Shawl, 2. Another Fold Me Clutch, 3. Get Well Soon Bear, 4. Marina Bag
And it also turned out I have quite a number of more than one color project. I think the reason I don’t do a lot of multi color projects is my aversion to weaving in ends. But I think I need to rethink that attitude because they do look gorgeous in the end.
1. IMG_9143, 2. Realized I have a shawl knitting addiction, 3. Untitled, 4. Not Folded Fold Me Clutch
My daughter was off all week for spring break so things were totally hectic. I try to post a couple of times a week but this week I just couldn’t so here I am.
We were out and about every morning.
We went to the beach. She made sand castles for the first time.
 We went to the zoo.
We also took Noony the doll on most of our excursions.
 There was a lot of arts and crafts.
Overall it was a good week. Exhausting but satisfying.
Are you on Instagram? I am jessyzz (with two z in the end) come on and join me, the more the merrier.
There was also a little bit of knitting.
I finished a sock.
I still can’t think of a name for the pattern, any suggestions?
I also cast on for a little red cardigan (4 times).
I worked a little on the uncoordinated blanket but probably only knit 3 rows.
And I had ordered some leather handles for a bag I had knit but still need to line and sew them in so I will probably show you next time.
I am also starting to think about sewing summer dresses for the little girl. I am thinking lots of linen dresses.
I have been pinning patterns on pinterest.
I also finished the blue socks and they are being tested.
Oh boy, am I ready for a break myself.
Happy Easter to you if you are celebrating it too.
I think I will go lie down now.
If I am boring you with my sock obsession I totally understand, but I really do love knitting them. They are portable, light and you do wear sock all year round. The time investment is nothing compared to blankets and cardigans.
But you really can’t understand why people knit socks until you knit a pair and wear them for a while.
Even just wearing them at home instead of slippers is wonderful. You choose the colors and a girly design and even if you are wearing your PJs you are wearing really pretty lace socks.
My only problem with socks is taking nice pictures of them is always a challenge.
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I love love listening to podcasts while I craft or drive. It is like my own on-demand knit night whenever I want. These are the podcasts I listen to regularly and each one has something different to offer. They are listed below in alphabetical order
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