Inspired

I love crochet.  I love the things I can make with it, and the feeling of accomplishment when I finish a project.  Heck I love just messing with yarn and making nothing out of it, I just love having my hands busy.  I tried knitting before, and I would get some time invested and then I would drop a stitch and the gripe and moan trying to figure out a way to save the stitch.  With crochet its SO simple when you drop a stitch, you just loop it back in and do it again.  So I was extremely disappointed when I couldn't do the same with knitting.  So I threw down my nifty little knitting sticks and used the yarn I got from the knitting kit to crochet me a hat and headband and swore off knitting forever.  

 That being said recently I have been looking at knitting patterns on Ravelry, drolling over socks, scarves, and over fabric created by knitting.  Since I left my knitting sticks at the dorms I grabbed up some chopsticks and gave it a whirl.  I learned a few things from this venture,  one being  new cast on technique tons easier then the long tail cast on and secondly and probably most importantly Chopsticks don't make good knitting needles.   I did however enjoy myself so I went out and bought some more yarn, and a few knitting tools.  I am making some pretty good progress on the cowl I started yesterday.  It will be awhile before I finish it since I am not as fast as knitting as I am at crocheting.  So that is the downside but I really love the clicking of knitting needles.  Its pretty awesome, and the fabric that I am making with this yarn is so squishy and wonderful.  Which by the way I greatly recommend this yarn to anyone who loves black, blue, and purple.  It is Tweed Stripes by Lionbrand in the Caribbean color-way.  

Its also worth saying that I am truly knitting, because I am not purling or anything else.  I will eventually take the time to learn other stitchs but I figure it will be better to become competent in the knit stitch before I tackle another stitch.  

Happy New Years Eve everyone.  I hope that you finish 2010 with a blast and you start 2011 the same way.  

Health Fears

Tonight has seemed to be a night where I am constantly fearing about my health.  I have above average hearing but I have been hearing things like an odd pulsing noise, microphone feedback, and today I heard chimes.  The microphone feedback I have always heard but the pulsing and chimes are new.  This doesn't really bother me the because there are tons of things that can cause this, and it is completely possible that I can just hear different frequencies then what is normal or that I am losing some of my hearing.  However I found a lump under my chin and that has me worried.  I know that it could be numerous benign things the most likely thing being a fatty tumor since my granny has had them before.  However a part of me can't help fear that it won't be benign.  Its irrational I know, but my family does have a history of cancer, but really hardly a family today hasn't been touched in some way by it.  What has me the most riled up is there is a random red raised bump that just appeared out of nowhere on my stomach.  It kind of looks like a burn or something but it doesn't itch, and it doesn't burn.  But it just appeared there it that has me a little weired out.  Its probably nothing but I have never seen anything like it before.  Being that its late I can't just go and show my granny and expect an answer, like its a bug bite or something.    I don't like knowing what is going on and I want this bump just to disappear!  It freaks me out and makes me feel paranoid.

I guess I will stop being a hypochondriac and get some rest.  Hopefully I wont have dreams out bumps and bugs or something.

Designing a Hat

I am currently designing a Hat :).  I am pretty excited about it and I have already started several variations but I think I have it figured out now.  Hopefully I did my math right and the stitches will flow together, I am dreadfully bad at math.  I need to get started but I think I will rest a bit since I am not sure what yarn I am going to use.  I know it will need to be a finer yarn, like fingering, DK, or worsted, and I find of want to have fun with my left over super bulky yarn.

I posted up pictures of my recent big projects and updated the projects page to show some that I forget to add. Opps!  There was quite a few and there is still a few more but I have pictures of one but they are not here right now and the other is kind of an embarrassment as far as hats go, but its so comfy, so I probably won't frog it.

Wish me Luck! :D

Still a Child

In less then a month I will be turning twenty.  While some people might think that this isn't a very big year because you don't get any new rights, or benefits from it.  It is the year where nineteen because twenty and therefore ends the Teenage years.  I don't want to be twenty.  I don't want to be a grownup.  The reasons are very simple and almost embarrassing.  I am afraid, so very afraid of this age, and of growing up.  Because... I don't have my life put together or even really started.  I am in college but graduating scares me to death also, because then I will have to get a job, hopefully relating to my degree, or go on to graduate school.   I fear that after I graduate I will never have as much fun as I did in college, that all my friends will move away, and we will drift apart, unable to reconnect.

   I want to travel and I want to see the world but leaving my grandparents alone for a long time also scares me.  I have had nightmares about my papa dying, and the thought of it is enough to make me cry.   Plus part of me still believes in faeries, magic, in good always winning, and evil being vanquished.  I still want to believe that bad things don't happen to good people without just reasons, and fairness.  But I now better,  the truth is bad things do happen to good people for no other reason then just bad things happen, and life isn't fair.  I don't want to be jaded, I still want to believe in the magic in life, because it is magic, no matter if fairy magic exists or not.  I still want to be able to see the beauty in it,  that it seems that so many people just pass right by.  Maybe thats what I fear about becoming a grownup, all I know is that no matter if I am afraid of the coming birthday or not, it is coming this way.

 I am sure that it will bring its own magic, but I am still hesitant to give up this one.  Speaking of giving up,  I am not ready to give up this year.  It seemed to melt away way too quickly.  Its funny how when we are younger an hour seems like the longest time in the world, and a year is almost unfathomable.  Yet we we get older time seems to flit right past us.

This post turned out longer then I expected.  Happy Christmas Eve everyone!

I think I can... I think I can

That has been my mantra as I am crocheting this hat for my brother.  I am on the last row, doing a reverse single crochet and my yarn is looking a bit on the short side.  I already had to rip out this row SO CLOSE to the end because I just ran out.  I switched down to a G hook hoping it will give me a few stitches more so I can close the round.  As I was looking for my G hook I noticed something.  I have four H hooks.  Four of them, how this happened, I haven't the slightest clue because I bought a pack and I don't think there was any repeats.  They just materialized into my hook stash.  Twilight zone style,  I can see where I might have acquired one from my granny when she let me go through all that yarn in the shed, but still is it really necessary to have two of the same size hook on a craft that you can multi-task with one hook.  It isn't like knitting, I can see why people have more then one of a size there because you keep the work on the needle.  Or at least that is the way I understand it since I haven't been able to master the art of knitting yet.  Oh I have tried, but I have several things working against me. I will be knitting along pretty nicely and then I will drop a stitch and I have been unable to figure out how to pick up stitches, if there is a way.  Plus all the Newbie knitting patterns look so Newbish, I just can't really bring my self to spend all this time knitting something I could crochet fancier.  

I finally did my Christmas shopping, and I only have to go to Wal-mart to finish it off.  That should be a fun trip for tomorrow... NOT!  I got several gifts for my brother and one for my mom.  Now I just need to get one for my granny, and maybe one for my papa.  My papa has to be one of the hardest people to buy for, anything that he really wants he just goes and buys it.  Plus most of the things I can thing to give him it would be better for him to pick it out.  It also just doesn't seem right to buy him a Christmas present with the money he gave me for buying Christmas presents.  I don't want him to have to pay for his own present!  I have my granny's present already picked out.  I will get her a bath scruby brush with some nice smelling soaps and a certificate for a few bath washes, and rubs.  I think that will be a good gift and I hope that she likes it.  I think she will because I give a mean back massage.  

Christmas Projects

So I have a few Christmas crochet projects before Friday gets here.  Hopefully I can pull it off and the receivers will be thrilled with them.  I have already done one Christmas hat, and all I need to get is the button for it.  I will post pictures of it later, I am so happy with it and sort of wish I could keep it.  But it doesn't look nearly as amazing on me as the person it was intended for.  She has already tried it on because I was worried it wouldn't fit.   The one project I am nervous about is intended for my little brother.  He is at a difficult stage or at least difficult for me.  Its rather funny that although I have just come out of my teenage years I don't really know how to handle him.  But then again boys have always been difficult for me to get presents for, I just hope that the hat suits his style and looks manly enough.  I know its not going to be girly but its not turning out like I planed.  The yarn is making it look like a camouflage, and I don't know if he digs that or not.

Then I have a head band/cowl I need to design for my mom.  That shouldn't be to hard, (I hope).  I just hope everyone likes their gifts.  And I know its better to give then receive but I am looking forward to opening a few myself.  ; )

The winter solstice eclipse was pretty amazing.  So glad that I took the time to go outside and watch it.  Winter is here but spring isn't very far behind.  I love all seasons so I can't really pick a favorite.  I had an amazing night with my mom and we went and got coffee together.  I don't get to see her too often so its nice when we get to hangout.


Though its not quite time for new years resolutions.  I am going to bring it up anyways.  I want to be a better sister then I have been in the past.  My brother and I are not very close to one another.  A lot of that is my fault because when he wanted to hang out when he was younger I pushed him away because he was young and I was a teen having fun with my friends.   I guess I just want to be a cool older sister and make a good difference in his life, but I worry it might be to late for that.

Anyways I hope everyone has an amazing holiday, and gets all their crafting, and shopping done before the big day.