Sorting is Open!

Sorting opened today for the next term in the HPKCHC.  This term, for some reason, I felt inspired to write a poem to the Sorting Hat.  I wanted to save it somewhere, but had trouble figuring out exactly where.  So, as a way to save the poem I wrote, I am putting it in this blog post.

Oh Sir Hat you always bring
Joy to all seasons, Fall, Winter, Spring
The students all wait eagerly
To hear your song of unity

Two terms I have played, this will be my third
Each term I've cherished your every word.
Crafting became more fun when I found the House Cup
My faith in my abilities has gone up and up!

Classes in the castle are so much fun
I only wish I could do every one!
Someday I will manage to craft all the things,
Until then, I'll just be content hear the Hat sing.

Back Again After a Break

 I haven't been around in a while.  I have had a whole lot of not much going on, with the exception of having carpal tunnel surgery on November 2, 2011.

These were taken the same day I had surgery.  I recovered very well, and the scar is already barely showing.  If my hands get cold it will stand out, or if I happen to bang it on something (which still hurts) it will show brighter red than the rest of my hand.

I am already well back into my knitting and other crafts, and am enjoying the lack of pain/numbness that used to go along with these activities!!

Some Sock Stuff

Lately I've been on a big sock kick, due to a fun KAL on Ravelry.  I have made almost three pairs of socks in the past two months (the fourth pair is about 2/3 complete).  It's a lot of fun, but I think I need to take a break from socks and work on some other things (this from the girl who recently bought enough yarn to make three new pairs of socks....).  Thankfully this is the last month of this KAL, because my drive to do socks and very little else has definitely been motivated by the prizes possible (and the couple I have won) during this KAL.
Socks by their very nature are difficult for me to knit due to my Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.  I've been thinking that I need to mix it up a bit - work something small, work something large, work something medium sized - and through all of that mixing it up, possibly chip away at my ever-growing pile of UFOs - including crafty things that are not knitted!  I have several scrapbooks that need updating/completion/started, two quilts (one needs the top finished, the other just needs to be quilted and bound), and multiple patch/repair jobs lined up for my sewing machine.

Anyway, here are a few pictures to show what I've been doing lately:

Lace and Cables Socks

Bavarian Cables Socks - in progress

Ribbed Ribbons Socks

Wizard quilt block

Dragon quilt block #1

Dragon quilt block #2

Dragon quilt block #3

Dragon quilt block #4

SaraBella Mittens

I participated in NaKniMitMo this month.  NaKniMitMo is (inter)National Knitting Mittens Month.  I have had a wonderful time and learned a new knitting technique - cables!  This was also my first pair of mittens, but I wouldn't exactly call making mittens a technique.  It's just nice to know that I can do it.  The pattern I chose is called "Bella's Mittens" and was inspired by the mittens worn by the character Bella in the movie Twilight.  I named my personal pair "SaraBella Mittens" and I love how they came out.  These have been what I call a "free project" because I did not need to buy anything to make them.  The yarn was a Christmas gift, I already had the needles, and the pattern was free.  I love free projects!

Here is a picture of my mittens in progress:

Part Four is finally done!

Slowly but surely, I'm getting Concerto finished.  The rest of the group is finishing up part seven, but I've only just finished part four. I've been having trouble knitting recently - my Carpal Tunnel is acting up and I've honestly not been feeling much like knitting.  I think I may be spreading myself a tad thin, knit-wise, and after this KAL is over (and I finish my Nightsongs), I will wait a while before joining another big KAL.

Work could have something to do with it.  I recently changed positions at work and my new job, while interesting and a wonderful change of pace, is very exhausting and when I get home, I'm wiped out.

I recently started photo blogging again, my 365 blog is once again up & running.  It is linked to this blog through my profile, and new posts are automatically shared on Facebook.  I was thinking of doing NaNoWriMo this year, but with as drained as I've been feeling lately, I think I'm going to skip it and do it next year instead.

Concerto

I'm working on a KAL for a stole. The name of the stole is Concerto. The designer is working on another, larger, item that will be called Symphony. The joy of the KAL is that everyone participating is getting the pattern one section at a time. The first section had a lot of little daisies all over it:

Before even starting, I knit up this test swatch for practice. I also tried my hand at blocking, which is why it is pinned.
For acrylic yarn (which this is), blocking is very tricky. A process called "killing" is used. I was not a big fan of how the yarn looked after I killed it, so I'm not sure whether I'm going to attempt blocking of the finished project. I did like how the yarn felt, just not the look of it. I may choose to kill only the edges, to keep them from rolling.

Busy Hands

I've been working on making a pair of socks this month as part of a Knit-A-Long (KAL) on Ravelry. I'm enjoying it a lot, but my hands are not. I have Carpal Tunnel in my right hand, and it has definitely been flaring lately with all the knitting I've been doing. However, I don't feel like I can stop because I have to finish my entire pair of socks by July 31st to be eligible for the contest portion of the KAL. If it's possible to win something that I can't afford to buy - especially when I had no start-up cost for this particular project (I already had the yarn I'm using, and the needles, and I checked the book out of the library for free, so this truly feels like a freebie project) - I'm going to do everything I can to qualify.
One thing that has surprised me though - even though I have flares every night that I knit (the severity depends on how much I've knit that day), the flares are not as bad as I had expected them to be, and my hand has yet to flare while I'm knitting (which is something I've struggled with in the past). I had expected to have the opposite problem due to how much smaller the needles are than what I typically use. These are teeny tiny needles (and for the next pair I'll use smaller ones yet); I need a pretty cramped grip just to hold them, which usually leads to flaring. The only thing I can come up with is that the project is so much lighter in weight than what I'm used to that my grip isn't as tight as it usually would be to hold the project up while working it. Also with my awareness of the problem, I am forcing myself to take breaks at least once an hour. Watching a recorded program on the DVR while knitting helps - every time there is a commercial I let go of the knitting to fast-forward back to the show, giving my hands a quick break multiple times in an hour long program.

Partially finished first sock

Next month I am planning to attempt TWO pairs of socks. One pair will be for my sister Laura and will be in shades of brown (her choice - she's already purchased the yarn). The other pair will be for me and will be in either blues or greens, maybe both depending on what I can find/afford. Double the chances in the contest, but also double the amount of knitting required and double the amount of stress on my hand.

More Knitting

This afternoon, Jon and I went to a graduation ceremony for our friend Jodi (the same Jodi I mentioned in my previous post: For crying out loud, I'm KNITTING!!). Anyone who has ever attended a college graduation ceremony knows that they are boring and long, and the entire point of going is to wait for one person's name to be called so that you can cheer for them and their achievement. So, I took a small knitting project with me. It is a dishcloth, and is intended as a Christmas gift for none other than Jodi and her husband. Little does she realize that I spent most of her graduation ceremony knitting!

For crying out loud, I'm KNITTING!!

So yes, I knit in public (KIP). It happens. Lots of people do it (though not many around here, it seems). Monday night, we had a rare opportunity to go to a movie with friends. As is usual for me, I took along my smallest current work in progress (WIP). I can knit in the dark by touch if it is a simple stitch and does not require me to follow a pattern, and that is what I do at the movies. It keeps my hands moving and keeps me from eating popcorn (which I'm really not a big fan of anyway, but if it's there, I'll eat it).
Jodi (one of the people we went with, and the one who sat next to me) just did not get it. There are now commercials before the previews (how sad is that?) and once we got settled in our seats, I broke out my WIP. Jodi exclaimed, "Sara! Why are you crocheting? Are you that bored?" and before I had a chance to reply, she turned to her husband Randy and exclaimed to him that I was crocheting. I calmly corrected her, "I'm not crocheting, I'm knitting, and it does not mean I'm bored since I am fully capable of multitasking, thank you very much."
Throughout the course of the rest of the commercials and the previews, and into the movie, Jodi would occasionally lean over to me and tell me to stop crocheting. She even leaned across me to talk to my husband and tell him to make me stop. Well, since I wasn't crocheting, I had no trouble ignoring the request (though actually ignoring her was harder). I only stopped when I realized that I had picked up a stitch somewhere. I couldn't see well enough in the dark to find the mistake, so I put it away and settled in to watch the rest of the movie.
If I had thought I was truly distracting her, I would have stopped without a problem. But I know for a fact that she only noticed me knitting during the movie because she saw me doing it before the movie. And if she ever would have looked closely enough, she would have noticed that my eyes rarely left the screen, so obviously I was watching the movie. I actually was more engaged in the movie before I stopped knitting than after. She moved about and made much more noise than I did with her insistence on checking to see whether I was still knitting.

The sad thing is, what annoyed me the MOST about it is her insistence on calling it crocheting! I love to crochet, and I do it well. But I can't do it by touch and therefore would never crochet in a dark movie theatre. The first mistake on her part I will overlook, but the continued repeated mistakes still bug me.

Mystery Stole, Part Two

Here is my completed Part Two of MS4:

After finishing this and having to stop halfway across a row to take the picture (I did the same thing with part one), I was frustrated enough to purchase a 29" long circular to work this project on. Now I can spread it all out on one needle to take my pictures.

Mystery Stole, Part One

I'm working on the Mystery Stole (hereafter referred to as MS4) on Ravelry. It is a neat idea where the designer releases a brand-new pattern in stages to everyone who signs up for the group in time. MS4 is worked from the ends towards the middle and has six parts, five that are duplicated (both ends) and one center motif. The two pieces are then grafted together to make one beautiful stole. It is beaded, and the beads are an integral part of the design.

Here is my completed Part One:

{Note: I am thinking of merging my photo blog with this one. Neither gets updated as often as I'd like, and since there is usually a blogable story to go with each photo, I might as well keep them together.}