Free Knitting Needle Size Conversion Chart Printable

I like to think that more people are bridging that international gap through G+ hangouts, Ravelry, Sykpe, etc.

Maybe it's just me and my online social circle, I don't know. There are a few folks that I absolutely love to "hangout" with that are not in the US, and this poses a problem when it comes to questions like, "Oh, that's a beautiful pattern, what size needle does it use?"

And then I say whatever US size it takes... and they don't know what the heck I'm talking about because they're on metric. I scoured the internet for a few minutes and found several needle conversion charts, but none of them were pretty, and they all had ads on the pages. I like my work/play space to be pretty, so I made up my own chart and thought that maybe someone else would like to have one handy for all their international knit together needs.

This is my first time offering a free printable, so hopefully I don't screw this up:

Knitting Needle Size Conversion Chart

If you have any issues downloading or printing the chart, please let me know and I will get them fixed ASAP

Belated Fiber Friday: Phoenix Fyre

I forgot to make my post yesterday, because the day before my husband brought home a new (to me) desk. Unfortunately, it was all black and I really dislike black furniture, because it makes me depressed and at least for me, gives off that "college dorm" vibe. I've had more than my fair share of the black furniture, because hey, we need furniture, and it's cheap, readily available, and did I mention cheap?

The caveat to that amazing cheapness is that when you move around as much as we do, you're usually having to replace it. It's cheap in quality as well as price.

Anyway. This desk is probably not quite as cheap as the too-many-to-count book cases we've had to replace, but our neighbor is moving to Korea for duty, and his family cannot go with him, so they needed to unload some furniture. LOVE when that happens. :) We got it for a great price, and happened to have a mostly full quart of paint in one of my favorite colors (currently) to decorate with. A quick coat of paint in a dry brush technique... and by quick I mean it took me 6 hours total to get the whole thing painted, not including dry time between some pieces that needed two coats due to the paint beading up.

My new desk!!

So this is what I was doing most of the day yesterday. We got it moved into the house and I had just enough time to relax for about 30 minutes before getting ready to head out for dinner with some new friends, and their adorable, spiky haired three months old daughter. Obviously, it's not most of my stuff put back on it, but you can totally play "what's she working on?" and "spot the kitty."

The real reason you're here, is because of the new yarn. I am progressing into making some smaller dye lot colorways because it's fun. And why put a dye lot indicator on my label if I'm not going to use it?

Phoenix Fyre

Image courtesy of tigerworldent.com

Phoenix Fyre is made in the Puck base, and can be found in the shop here.

Fiber Friday: A Pink/Purple/White Fingering Weight Skein of Gorgeous Yarn: Cheshire

Right now, I can't promise a new colorway every week, but I am Really excited about this one, with a capital R. I kept going back and forth on this one. Do I keep it? Do I see if it sells for X amount of time and then keep it?

In the end, I am trying my best to provide great colorways for you, so that I can buy more yarn from the mill, and make more gorgeous colorways. I worked really hard yesterday on this site and re-arranging furniture in our house to make more room for the ever expanding studio area, so I'm going to keep this short, as I totally rocked it out and earned a fun day.

You can find this skein and others by clicking the link "To the shop!" in the navigation menu.

Meet Cheshire. A pinky purpley mauvey with a hint of brown skein in Puck. While I think Cheshire would be great for some sock, I think he'd make an even better simple shawl to show off his colors. We all know Chesh is a bit of a show off. ;)

Colorway: Cheshire
Weight: Fingering
Yards: 438
Material: 75% Superwash Merino Wool / 25% Nylon
Dye lot: None
Available: 1

Time to put Zeke out to pasture: Getting a new sewing machine and website updates

I have been working diligently since last Thursday on getting things moved from Etsy to here, just to have to move from here over to my very own dot com in about a month or so. My brain is mush!!

I have added a shop page (you can find it in the navigation menu up yonder) and in that page, you'll be directed somewhere else based on the yarn weight and fiber type that you're looking for. Then you get to see all the pretty yarn. We had a very nice photo shoot the other evening, and they're ready to show you their best top model photos. Not all of them are entered in yet, as it's still a work in progress of it's own.

I'm also working on a very pretty shawl, and though I started it out to list for sale, I'm falling in love with it the more I work on it, and holy crap! It's actually being made from my very own hand dyed yarn. Puck will be pleased, as it falls under his "line."

I'm not normally this productive. (Hey, what I've been doing may not look like much, but I promise, mushy brain is mushy like over cooked oatmeal.) I'm bribing myself, and finding that it's working out pretty nicely. I want to do two things; 1: I want to play good ol' Caesar 3 - I really can't get enough of this game. It's so zen when you're playing on the city construction kit...or as I like to call it 'Piss Off, Caesar' mode. 2: we refinanced our car, and in the process got some money back from our previous lender, and my wonderful, loving, amazeballs hubby took me to the store to get a new sewing machine....and I want to touch it!

I unpacked it, and put it on my sewing spot and haven't messed with it at all. I've been such a good girl! I told myself that when I made decent progress on updating the shop portion of the site, I would be allowed to play with my new machine... well, I'm allowing myself to learn what all these new doohickeys do. My first machine is fifteen years old,  and you wouldn't think that a lot would change in sewing in fifteen years, but oh boy...this thing has functions that I can't even begin to fathom what they do.

I know I'm not the only one that names my...how do I say this without sounding dirty....oh heck, we'll just stick with machines. My computer's name is Jet, because he's all black and dark gray. My first sewing machine I named Zeke, and I'm not really sure why. But Zeke will be going to my son, since now we've got two machines that work, even though Zeke isn't in the best shape of his life.

Now, my new machine, I'm calling her Mildred. For no other reason than when she's fifteen years old, I can say things like, "Well, Old Girl, you gave it a good try, but I think it's time you went to see The Doctor."

Here's a picture of Mildred. No, this isn't staged to show off the pretty yarn sitting next to her, that's just how it happened to be (aka: I pulled out the yarn so when making the entries for each skein, I didn't get the name wrong. Can you imagine how pissed Blue Fairy would be if I called her Cinderella?)

Do you name your sewing machine or laptop? I'd love to hear what you call him/her/them.

Yellow and Gray Hand Dyed Superwash Merino Yarn and Coat of Arms

Yesterday, I broke out the dye pot because I wanted to make for myself some butter yellow and gray yarn, because those are my favorite colors right now. I love the color play between the two. If done right, it can be gorgeous and no bumble bee like at all.

However...

I was using a dye that I haven't tested yet, and I really know better. Sometimes, my excitement to make someone that I know I will love gets the better of me. Here's how it turned out:

You can find this skein of yarn, and others by clicking the link in the header named: To the shop!

While I adore how gorgeous the gray came out, the yellow was a bit brighter than I wanted. When I showed it to my husband, he went into a Google-fu flurry and pulled up his family crest.

 I started laughing, because the colors match so perfectly!! So here it is, a new skein of yarn and it actually has a name!!

Yarn Company: Little Bit Fae
Name: Puck
Colorway: Coat of Arms
Weight: Fingering
Yards: 438
Material: 75% Superwash Merino Wool/25% Nylon
Dye lot: None

If you want to check out his family crest, or look up what yours is, I've found HeraldicJewelry.com to be pretty helpful.

WIP Wednesday

I think I may be done with the Nerd Wars. I really love the idea of doing it, but I'm not really one for creating on someone else's schedule. I don't mind being given deadlines for things I want to make, but being told what to make really kind of blows.

That said, if you have a ginormous queue that you want to make, you could probably find ways to make it work. Moreover, if you're doing an afghan or a hexipuff quilt, this would be great for that. You could do one square/hexipuff for each challenge, get points for your team, and progress on you WIP.

Yesterday, I decided to cast on a new project, instead of finishing something already on the needles. What I currently have going on isn't really inspiring me to work on it right now. I do have a few balls of yarn that I need to soak and then let dry to give them their shape again, so I may do that. That partly involves working on one of my WIsP. I knit a hat way back when I was first learning, and it didn't fit because I didn't change needles for the brim. Years later I've taken it apart, and I need to soak it so the yarn can relax.

The new project that I cast on is the Indigo top by Mishellee Zaharis Poulin. I'm having some gauge issues with it, because I want to make it in a cotton/bamboo blend, and this schtuff grows like crazy! My swatch doubled in width, but remained the same in height. I may decide to save the pattern, but choose something else that was meant to be used with cotton and already should have the growth taken into consideration.

Just to prove to you, because it is WIP Wednesday, that I am indeed working on the Meringue skirt, I have a photo of my nearly finished muslin! I can tell already that there's going to be some fit issues. I've lost some weight since I took my initial sizing measurements, and found that the mark on my sewing machine plate that I'd had marked for the seam allowance, is 1/4" too small. It might all work out, but when holding the muslin up to my waist, it feels like it's going to be too big.

Meringue Skirt muslin. My house is not this messy, just my crafting area.:)

All that I have left to do, is stitch the part that's hanging down below the scallops, adjust for fit, and then make the real thing! I feel like making the muslin took me forever, but I know that I put it down for about a week for a couple more instantly gratifying projects. It makes me wonder why I procrastinate on things that will make me happy... like new skirts!

I'm looking forward to this skirt so much, that I even took the time to pull out the fabric, scan it in, and then resize and crop it down to something easier to look at.

 Isn't it adorable?

Jimmy Bean's

This is one of the main reasons why I love buying from Jimmy Bean's Wool (dot com):

I ordered this 3 days ago, and it arrived today. I paid $4 for shipping. The only thing I have ever been disappointed about with Jimmy Bean's is finding out they're no longer going to carry anything sewing related. It's yarn from now on. Given that I knit and stuff, I am happy about this because there's more room for more yarn, but it means that my go-to place for fabric, notions, and freaking fantastic customer service now gives me a sad.

I'll still shop here, happily! But I'll have to find somewhere else to go for sewing.

Now, onto some great news. What's shown here would have cost me about $100. It cost a hair under $50, because it's all on sale. Since they're not carrying sewing things anymore, they're selling it all from 40-50% off. Great things some times come from a sad.

As a side note: I love that Colette patterns come in little booklets like that. They're totally cute!

Why Another Hobby?

I know my husband thinks it, even if he's totally amazeballs and never says it. He's always 100% supportive and very honestly just wants my happiness. But I can see it for the most brief of moments, "Another craft?"  Which for most translates to, more money on crap that will sit around the house? Not for him, which is awesome. I know he just looks at our space and wonders where it's all going to fit, and when I'll find that one thing that satisfies me and I will never need another hobby.

Well, for my husband, and anyone else who wonders why the heck I need another hobby when I already knit, crochet, spin, and dye. This is pulled straight from The Colette Sewing Handbook:

We have no shortage of choice when it comes to picking what we want to wear. With constantly rotating trends, new looks, and "must-haves" every season, the simple act of dressing yourself can often feel overwhelming. [Not exactly overwhelming as it is depressing.] We're constantly urged to try new styles, and it's true that they can be exciting and fun. But if you're anything like me, deep down, all you really want is a closet filled with your favorite things. [YES!] These are the clothes that make you happy to put on, that make you feel like yourself. Instead, many of us feel that we have a closet stuffed with clothes and nothing we want to wear.

 It goes on to say that sewing your own clothing can magnify this problem. Ha! She does not know me. I am shorter than 5 feet, and so very, very tired of nothing fitting. Petite usually means rail thin, not built with shorter measurements. I used to shop in the Junior section...and then I had kids and my hips grew. I have several pairs of jeans, but I only wear one pair. No exaggeration. One pair. Because when I go to the store, they either fit my hips and butt right where I want them, but the waist is too high and nearly in my arm pits, or the length is too long and I'm walking on the bottoms of every pair of pants that I own. Or the length is right, but they're far too tight in the thighs and cut off my circulation around the middle. I have one pair of jeans because when I first bought them, they fit in the hips, didn't sag off my butt, weren't too high, and holy crap, they were extra short! I don't walk on them!!!... and they were the only pair left in the entire store.

Clearly, I'm not alone.

I would love  to have a closet full of clothes that actually fit me. Tired of buying shirts that are lowish on normal sized women, but when I put them on, the cut is so low, a boob is hanging out and the whole gym locker room can see the color of my bra.

So please, bring on the problem of having a closet full of clothes, and I still can't decide what to wear, because I want to wear it all.

Wednesday Already?

I had a really crazy busy day yesterday, and I'm having a difficult time coming to terms with Wednesday. This is not helped at all by the fact that I was up until 10:30 last night working on a WIP that has been driving me crazy. No matter what I do, or how carefully I count my stitches and make sure that everything is good, my stitch counts were not coming out right.

Last week, I enlisted the help of a friend from Google+ hangouts, and he was having the same problem. So I felt like (then) that maybe it wasn't me. Maybe it was something with the pattern, or something with the way we were doing increases. So last night, I was working on it again, and everything was great. I had all the stitches I needed just as the pattern said, and then I got to the eyelet increase row where you are making a new stitch every third stitch. I came up 4 stitches short.

The way this pattern works is that you have 3 stitches in the center that you use to keep the shawl centered, and on each side of those 3 stitches, you have a mirrored design. So when I came up short 4 stitches, I thought well, maybe I just missed a few yarn overs (making new stitches) - so I double checked. Everything is as it should be. So I counted again - maybe I'd just miscounted. Nope. Still 4 short. The weirdest thing about it though, is that I was 3 short on one side and only 1 short on the other side. Then I vented my frustration to a different friend through Google+ hangouts, and she took a look at the pattern.

-------If you don't want to read the math, skip down-----

The math works in mathematics, but it does not work in practice. Here's an example. Before you start row 42, you have 139 stitches. Subtract 3 for your center stitches: 136. Divide by two and you have 68 stitches on either side of the markers. Then you knit 2 for the side border: 66. Add in a yarn over. (Don't count it because you are putting in a stitch where there was none.) Knit 2 again: 64. Make another stitch, again, not counting it: 64. Every third stitch is making another stitch, so you have 64 divide by 2: 32 sets of stitches with an increase between each set. 32 stitches added on one side. Then you knit your 3 center stitches, and do it again, but in reverse. Instead of knit 2 add a stitch, you're adding a stitch and then knitting 2. So another 32 stitches added on one side, which gives us the two stitches left for the border, so go ahead and add another stitch, and knit those last two. For a total of 64 stitches plus the 2 added just after/before the border: 66 added.

Your row total of 139 stitches from before you knit this row and then add your 66 new stitches: 205 -- but the pattern says I should have 207 (a difference of 2 stitches) in the size that I am making (large, because large is fluffy and comfy!). Double check the other sizes, just to see if something there gives  me a clue about these two missing stitches and it is 171; and 177 - no where close to where I need to be

And I really don't trust my math, because it is not my strong suit - because even with working it out right here on the blog, I am not getting what I actually got, which is off by 4 stitches... and I do distinctly remember (because it was just last night) having no issues working from one side to the 3 center stitches - I knit 2 and added a stitch with no problems, I ended with adding a stitch just before the 3 center stitches marker. But when I came down the other side, putting my added stitch first, and then knitting 2, I had THREE stitches left where I should have only had those 2 border stitches. My math says I should have added 66 stitches, the pattern says 68.

So assume the pattern is wrong (which is total blasphemy because pattern designers are always right, and aren't human, so they don't make mistakes). That explains why I was 1 stitch short on the first side...and then also 1 more stitch short on the other; but what about those other 2 that I was actually missing?

I promise you and I will swear it on everything that I triple checked my work and everything was done exactly according to the instruction and I did not drop a stitch anywhere.

------End math-----

She came to the same conclusion that I did: the pattern is wrong. So we researched. Other people bold, and brave enough to speak out against a wrong pattern stated they had issues. Other people assuming they did something wrong, and like me, couldn't figure it out, frogged their projects and moved on. It's not unusual to have done something wrong while knitting a pattern, so assuming the problem is you and not the pattern is pretty typical. Most people fudge it and keep going (ie, add a missing stitch or two where needed): no one ever notices. They're design features, not mistakes.

Then we thought, maybe there's a newer version? There was. However... reducing the row number in order to fix a problem without adjusting stitch counts (how many have been added/how many you should have total) does not fix a problem. If your count is off early on in the pattern, and you start increasing stitches, it's going to be off the entire way through.

I will probably never knit another pattern from this designer again. If I can't trust her math, I cannot assume that her other patterns are mistake free just because she's a designer. That said, friend #2 is going through the pattern and fixing the math for me, God bless her!

In the mean time, I'm going to work on my Nerd Wars project.

Whippoorwill: pattern by Carina Spencer. Yarn: Malabrigo sock

Nerd Wars project: Four Winds. Pattern by Alasdair Post-Quinn. Yarn: Silver: Cascade 220 Superwash. Purple:  Anzula Cricket

Glow in the dark sheep stitch marker by me. Isn't he cute?!

Work in Progress Wednesday

Yesterday, my internet was down all day. It really sucked. Like, really, really sucked. I never realized how bored I get when I don't have the internet. There's NOTHING on TV during the day, I can't access my design files because I store them in the cloud, most of my patterns are stored on Dropbox and the ones that aren't I printed out right after I learned how to knit and purl, so they don't even interest or challenge me, the house is as clean as it can get with 3 cats, a dog, and wood floors, and so on.

So, the day that started out as a Work in Progress Wednesday...

...quickly turned into Finished Object Wednesday, even though I'd intended for it to be done on Friday because Alliteration.

Now that that's done, I'm back to working on Whippoorwill.

I will beat this project!! I WILL!

I've only started, ripped out, and restarted three times now. I'm actually, currently un-knitting a few rows. I don't know what the heck I'm doing, but my stitch counts are always off. If it was like one or two, fine I'll throw a couple make ones in there and keep going. But we're talking like 50-90 stitches off.

I'm employing lifelines. I shouldn't have to employ lifelines.  The majority of the pattern is:

k2, yo, k1tbl, k to last 2 sts, yo, k2
k2, yo, p to last 2 sts, yob, k2

WHAT IS SO HARD ABOUT THAT SEQUENCE THAT IS ALWAYS LEAVING MY STITCH COUNTS OFF?!

Sigh.

Part of me feels like I should be doing something for Nerd Wars, but since this is my first tourney, I have NO clue what I'm doing, so I'm going to wing it!

Edit to add: The finished object is Squish and is a free project on Ravelry. This is the second time that I made this pattern, and I did modify it some.

Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Dogs of War!

Once Upon a Time: Welcome to Storybrooke

I'm kind of a Once Upon a Time Junkie. (If you haven't seen it yet, the first two seasons are on Netflix, and the third should be making an appearance just before the fourth season airs.) Kind of might be an understatement. The spin-off wasn't really as good, in my opinion, but hey, if you want a bit of Wonderland, I'm not going to stop you.

So last night there was an impromptu hangout and I got to talk Nerdom with a couple friends, and then I remembered that over on Ravelry, Nerd Wars is currently picking teams and there is a Once Upon a Time (OUAT) team, so of course I was thrilled, and I mentioned it to the hangout and well... it's so much fun watching the nerd come out of people. I'm pretty sure I've got another OUAT teammate, and our super sciencey friend is planning on a thesis for doing a double knit scarf  (I think...could be doing a blanket too) of organized glass molecules for a thesis project (a project that will justifiably take three months to knit).

So this is my I'm super excited because I've found something to keep me occupied during the season break post. I have no idea what I'm going to do, but I know that I'm going to have tons of fun making projects that are more than just something pretty to look at. Adding sentimental value to a project tends to make it more special, and of course, makes me less willing to part with it...and to date, I've given away 95% of all of the projects I've ever made. Including my first 15-20 projects which were all dish cloths in order to get practice mechanics, and give me a sense of accomplishment.

I don't know for sure when the first project challenges will be issued, but I'm super excited to get started. Until then, I'm plugging away on an improvised cowl. I need something to help keep me warm in the mornings and evenings (wind from the ocean, sheesh!) and to get the feel of a yarn I bought a while ago, but haven't used yet.

Expect a LOT of OUAT in the future...maybe I'll even dye up some more yarn to go in the Faerie Tale Fibers series.