The Slouched Tuva Hat

Obviously (by all the more frequent blog posts) I've been on a knitting kick.  More specifically, I've been on a hat knitting kick.  This project is no exception.  It's called the Slouched Tuva Hat.  I wasn't really sure what to consider it.  It's not really a beret.  It's kind of like a beanie.  Whatever it was, it looked like a nice knit and the model on the page was a child wearing this gorgeous red color.  I remembered that I had a red like that, and it just so happened to be in the right weight of yarn too.  I was going to knit up a hat for Bear.

The pattern worked up so easily.  It's just a four row repeat with some plain knitting and some yarn overs and decreases.  It gives it this pretty mesh look to it.  It's so simple I could easily work on it in the dark, while watching television, or as I have been, while doing school work with Bear.  I think it was a little shorter than the pattern recommended, and it seemed tighter than I would have wanted in my yarn, but I think a lot of that could have easily been changed by changing the yarn weight or the needles.  Of course, that doesn't matter because I was making it for a preschooler.

The best sign of a good hat is when the recipient refuses to take it off.  I'd call that an instant win on anything I knit up.  I love the way it looks, and it was a mark of pride that had to be shown off.  Bear wanted at least a million pictures in the new hat.  Now I'm getting requests for more hats, but not for Bear.  That one hat is enough because it's perfect.  Everyone else needs hats just like that.  At the very least, look at that face!  It really says it all!

I'm very much a beret and slouchy hat wearer, so it was really nice to be able to share my favorite style of hat with my mini-me.  I loved the pattern so much that the request to make them for everyone doesn't seem like a half bad one.  I've already decided it's going to be the pattern I use for the matching hats my mom, sister, and I are all getting from yarn my mom got me at the farmer's market.  We each picked out our own color.  It'll be interested to see the changes as Bear's hat was done out of Plymouth Yarns Dream Baby DK.  The yarn I'm going to be using is a lovely baby alpaca.  It's certainly going to have a lot more drape to the slouch, and it should make for some really nice warmth.

I've got to admit, this yarn wasn't something I ever thought I would use for a hat.  It's an acrylic microfiber/nylon blend, but it doesn't feel like acrylic usually does to me.  It's got this nice softness.  Plus, it's washable, which is great for a child.  I could have used superwash, but this is cheaper and I had it on hand.  If it gets lost, it's not a huge deal.  Given it's for a preschooler, getting lost is a reality I have to face.

I've noticed I'm on a hat kick lately.  It all started with the Leaving Cowl, even though I know that's not a hat.  There was something nice about an easy, quick knit and the feeling of a larger yarn and needles in my hands.  I ached less when I was working it up.  That was followed by my Lullula Beret.  Now I'm going to be making three more Slouched Tuva Hats.  I'll be honest, I was looking in my yarn stash to see what else I could dig out to turn into hats.  I seem to have some pretty good options.  I'm sure you're going to be hearing about those soon.  I forgot how much I like knitting hats and how incredibly wearable they are.  Unlike socks, I don't have to worry about my weirdly thick calves, my high instep, and my narrow feet.  Instead I can just knit it, and if it doesn't seem slouchy enough for me, add more repeats before casting off.  A simple hat is perfect travel knitting.  It's a small enough project to throw in my bag, and it works up quickly so it feels like I've really made progress, even if I only had a few minutes to work.  Best of all, it's a project I don't have to pull off my shoes to show off!

The Lullula Beret

If you've been actually reading my blog, you know I have a fondness for patterns that no one seems to knit.  If it's got under 100 projects listed on Ravelry, I want to do it.  It shouldn't come as much of a surprise when I say I've done it again.  This one I was project number 8.

Let me start with this.  I used a beautiful Malabrigo yarn for this project, Silky Merino.  It was absolutely beautiful.  The colors were a bright and happy rainbow, but there was no slap you in the face primary colors.  Instead it's a beautiful, subtle color palate that, were it a Crayola marker label, it would be called Bold.  (Let me tell you, those weren't easy to find a link to!)  The colors were absolutely stunning, which is what drew me to this yarn in the first place.  Not only do I have a thing for rainbow colors, but they were such lovely tones!

This yarn was a gift from Sable.  Let me tell you, she gets me the best gifts.  Given the tight budget we live on, I'm always thrilled at the gift of yarn, and this one was no disappointment.  When they said silky, they meant it!  It was so soft on the hands and so easy to knit with, despite being a single ply.  I almost never knit with a single ply, mostly because I don't like working with it.  If I have to pull something out it pills up and gets ruined to easily.  I also have a bad tendency to split it when knitting in low light, but this yarn was just beautiful.  It worked up smooth as, well, silk!

The final project, the Lullula Beret, turned out stunning.  I love the play of the colors across the beret.  The pattern was simple enough with a nice little eyelet and some basic cables.  The look was nothing short of fantastic.

Another never, I never knit with yarns that splash color like this, especially this brightly, for anything but socks.  Socks can be hidden by shoes, so I don't mind the bright colors playing off each other like that.  For anything else, I think the bright colors look, well, too much for me.  I generally stick to more muted colors.  It's more my style.

Well, the finished product on this is nothing short of beautiful, at least in my eyes.  I don't mind the playful, bright colors.  I find it very wearable.  It's not quite as slouchy as I like, but given it's made of a silk/wool blend, it should be pretty warm in the winter.  In the winter the last thing I need is a super slouchy hat that's just going to get caught up on a jacket collar or scarf.  Winter will be upon us soon and something with warmth and bright colors will definitely keep the season bright.  I'm sure I'll wear this straight through until spring!

All the Zombie Vixens!

It's been a while since I updated, so I figure it's about time I poke my nose in here and talk about my knitting.  I haven't been doing as much as I would like, so that's been frustrating, but I got seriously distracted with other things.  Of course, part of that has to do with working on the same project so exclusively.  This is why I've decided I really need to have a couple of projects on the needles.

The first news, the Zombie ViXen gloves look amazing.  The colors are perfectly fall, and as I was told, they almost have a camouflage feel to them, even though they're not that at all.  I originally picked this yarn for the worn denim feel I like of expected, but it certainly didn't turn out that way at all.  It was unexpected and I wasn't sure I liked it at first, but it's really started to grow on me.

This project was a bit frustrating at start.  I had to size the needles down because it was absolutely huge on my wrist.  After a while, though, the pattern became so intuitive that I was able to do all the way to the thumb increases without having to look at the pattern so much as once on the second glove.  That's always a good sign to me.  Unless the pattern is ever changing, it's kind of nice to be able to pluck it from my brain and run with it.  It makes me feel like I don't need to be tied down to the pattern and instead can really enjoy the process of knitting.  It becomes comfortable enough that I can knit while watching television without feeling like I have to watch something I don't have to pay much attention to or I'll get lost in my knitting.

Overall the pattern was pretty simple to follow.  I don't think it would be too challenging of a knit, and I recommended it to a friend of mine that's a pretty new knitter.  It's really not all that complicated of a pattern, but it comes out incredibly well.  It also works well with a yarn that's got a little more play to it.  I tend to prefer yarn that's simple and flat, not too much variation to it.  Single color yarns and kettle dyes allow the pattern to really shine and it doesn't seem to get lost in the splashes of color.  That means it's good for more complicated knits.  I tend to stick to simpler patterns with variegated yarns and hand painted yarns.  This pattern really worked in spite of the frequent color cycles.

I have to admit, I did modify this pattern.  The ribbing at the edge of the glove didn't seem to match across the gloves.  It's unbalanced to one side through the ribbing.  For the second hand I just reversed the ribbing so that it matched in complete reverse.  I also swapped the direction of the cross of the single cables.  I know stitches, when you're talking the medical kind, are done the same way, regardless of what side they're on, but I thought this was just a more appealing look.

And in case you thought one was enough, knowing I don't tend to knit repeat patterns terribly often, I decided I have to knit another pair.  Chesh saw them and immediately said he'd love a pair.  He said he wanted something more of a blue black color.  I already made him a pair of red fingerless gloves, so having an alternate color would really be good.  Wouldn't it figure that I had just such a ball sitting with no purpose in my yarn stash?  I pulled it out and he said it would be perfect.  Then he followed it up with saying he didn't want to take the yarn I'd bought for me.  I loved that yarn, but somehow it just felt like it was right for him.  I had no idea what I was going to knit out of it for me.

Just like the first pair, these are out of Happy Feet by Plymouth Yarns.  The last set of gloves I made were out of the same thing too.  I love this yarn, and I've especially loved that you could get it in a 50g skein, though it looks like they've stopped making those.  For making socks it makes more sense to offer larger sums, but the small skeins were perfect for making a pair of fingerless gloves.  I couldn't have asked for a better choice.  Now I think I'm going to have to figure out another use for the extra yarn.  Maybe I can find some patterns that are enough for a pair of socks and a pair of gloves.

The gloves are turning out absolutely great.  I've gotten everything done on them but the thumbs at this point.  They've been put into a temporary hibernation for a while because I just haven't felt like working on the thumbs all over again.  I've been yearning for another project to get started.  I'm undoubtedly going to have them finished by the next update I post.  I'm trying to keep moving on everything, keep things going and coming off the needles.  These ones are so close to done that it seems a shame to let them sit for so long.  It just means I have to get back to them soon.

The weather's also starting to get cooler, and with Chesh walking back and forth to school, I know he would appreciate having them done.  The red ones I made for him last year are getting almost daily use, and so that's a really good sign.  I'm pretty sure he'll wear these ones all the time too.  The other ones were made of a microfiber, so these being wool should be a lot warmer.  They also come up a little longer over the fingers and thumb, making them all around a warmer glove.  I'm excited to have these done for him!

In the mean time I've decided to take a little bit of a break from working on the Zombie Vixen gloves.  This time I wanted to work on socks.  I'm really upset that a few of my hand knit socks have been missing, and Sable got me this wonderful Malabrigo Sock yarn.  It's a beautiful nutty color that seemed perfect for fall.  It needed to be something that honored that color.  Also, after working with the Happy Feet, I was quite surprised at how incredibly thin this yarn was.  I checked twice to make sure it was actually sock yarn and not a lace weight, but sure enough, it's sock.

The color was what really inspired me when I picked this yarn out.  It's got such a beautiful, rich, earthy texture.  At first I thought of it as reminding me of fall with the deep reds and earthy browns, but the more I look at it, the more I think that it reminds me of chestnuts, acorns, and walnuts in the shell.  That's one of the things I always loved about fall, finding the chestnuts that had fallen from somewhere.  I was convinced they couldn't have fallen from the trees because I never saw them in any trees.

The natural choice for socks in this yarn was a little pattern called Nutkin.  Everyone seems to be making them, or at least it seems that way.  They remind me of Squirrel Nutkin from Beatrix Potter.  That made so much sense for the yarn and how it reminded me so much of nuts.

The pattern was a pleasant surprise.  The cuff is a long tail cast on that's turned under and knit into the pattern again in the most interesting of ways.  It was an unexpected challenge, though not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  I did have to go back three times to redo it in a more smooth way.  It looks amazing and I love the thickness of it.  I can't wait to see how it wears.  From there the pattern was simple enough to be easy to remember, but it's fancy enough to catch my attention.  It works well with the play of colors in the yarn.  I absolutely love the sweeping shapes each pattern creates.  It almost strikes me as leaves, but the bottom half of one leaf is the top to the next.  The heel is a simple enough short row and the toe seems pretty standard, so I think I might just knit this pair up according to the pattern.  (Yes, you may all gasp at the fact that this is my second pair of socks that I haven't modified in any way this year.)

Happy Pink Socks!

Yes, I'm knitting socks again.  These socks are made of an unknown yarn in a lovely happy pink and purple coloring.  By the color splash, they have to be some kind of handpainted yarn, which is good by me because I love it.  I bought this yarn somewhere around a year ago, and I've been hanging on to it.  I kept telling myself I hadn't found the right project yet.  I suppose I've learned my lesson on storing my yarn.  I lost the tag, and I have no idea what shop I even bought it in!

Of course, this photo does it absolutely no justice!  It's a beautiful yarn, but it looks so much less beautiful.  I love natural sunlight for photos, but when it comes to yarn, sometimes it just shines too much and the colors come out far more neon than they actually are.  That being said the yarn is definitely bright and happy.  I've been wanting to knit happy lately, so I got what I wanted.  Of course, this makes absolutely no sense against the beautiful fall colors of the season.  It would be far better suited to spring, but when you're poor, you work with what you've got.  Right now, I don't have a lot of options.

After much searching, I finally found the pattern I wanted to use.  It's called Dunharrow Socks.  There aren't many projects listed for it in Ravelry, which is really the way I most like to go with these things.  I prefer to stick to projects that haven't been knit by everyone, but sometimes they're not made popular for a reason.  In a way, I think this is one of them, though the idea of the sock truly is lovely.

I cast on to knit, and as I sat there, computer on my lap as I attempted to figure out where the pattern was going before I got there, my Little Bear came up and started burying me with toys.  Apparently I needed a train track.  That would help me.  He cheerily added trains to that track.  Next thing you know I had a space shuttle landing there.  I guess these are essential tools for knitting.  It's too bad I didn't know this sooner!  I would have started including them long ago!  I guess this is what my three year old thinks of what I do.  At least he's trying to help and not destroying everything I make!

The first cast on got me thinking.  That leg was going to be insanely wide.  With a stretchy ribbing, that sock could be huge.  Plus, all of the colors were pooling, so one side had this beautiful striping, but the other was boring and dark.  I really didn't want to rip it all out and start over, but I couldn't stand the pooling.  I decided it had to go.  Since I found the socks so loose, I decided to cast on with eight fewer stitches.  I suppose I could have taken it even smaller if I wanted to, but I didn't want to get excessive.  It turns out that it's about the perfect amount.  I probably could have still hacked off eight more, but I like them the way they are now, so this is what I'm sticking with.  I figured it was a slight modification for fit.  Modifications are a good thing, right?

I'm still not fully comfortable with this whole modification thing.  I don't necessarily think a pattern needs to be knit out of the yarn it calls for, nor do I think changing things up is a problem.  I've been known to throw a short row heel on just about anything to avoid knitting a flap, but I've never really gone so far as to remove stitches and make things narrower.  This was new and intimidating territory.

In an effort to lighten the mood (read, get myself to loosen up a bit!) I decided it was time to do something a little fun.  I kept threatening Little Bear that if he didn't take care of his baby, I would put that baby to work!  He thought I was kidding, but I've been saying it for days.  I just got a wild thought to do it already and get over it!  I sat the baby down, threw my knitting in it's hands (which was much harder than it looks) and snapped a picture.  Little Bear thinks it's funny that I have a picture of his baby, slaving away to make Mama some socks.

Once the fun was over, it was time to start a serious discussion about the heel.  If you're following along (and I assume if you are, you may have just read the last post and that's it) you know I hate knitting heel flaps.  Picking up stitches is something I despise.  I will avoid a traditional heel flap at all costs.  Instead, I opt for other choices.  This often means doing math, or at the very least I have to make some adjustments.  I decided to go back to my standard fall back, now that I no longer have my other precious books.  I pulled out New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One, and away I went.  I opted to place the gussets on the side and keep the pattern going through the heel.  I only added ten stitches this time, so hopefully this will make for a better fit.  I've opted to use the reinforced heel, which means being a bit fiddly and trying to get one extra stitch slipped in there somehow.  I'll figure it out, I'm sure!

Since it was such a lovely day out, my knitting time got to be enjoyed in the fresh air today too.  I packed up the kids and went to the park.  I was sitting there enjoying the surprisingly warm air, when I noticed something funny about my knitting.  I was coordinated today!  My knitting matched my shoes!  How often does that ever happen?  I couldn't help but laugh.  Only I would be so coordinated to match the socks I was knitting to my shoes.

I'm about ready for the heel turn now.  I've learned my lesson about knitting when tired, so I'm not going to tackle these heels right away.  One day sitting on the needles isn't going to hurt anyone.  It might make me a little sad, because I can't wait to them, but my knitting will survive.

At the end of it all, I'm finding I really like this pattern more than I thought I would.  It may not look at it, but it's basic ribbing.  The ribbed portions are just adjusted one stitch to the side every other row, giving it this really funky textured look.  The pattern was so easy to memorize that I'd picked it up within a couple of rows.  I was afraid I'd find it boring, but I'm really enjoying it.  The colors are a wonderful blend for it too.  I'm thinking this may have to be my go-to pattern for sock knitting in the future.  It's simple enough to modify for the kids.  It's complex enough that they won't complain about yet another pair of plain vanilla socks.  Everybody wins with this pattern!

Hello Again! I've Made Socks!

Okay, it's time to reboot this blog!  I've got all my old knitting and crafting stuff on here, so it's worth picking up where I left off, right?  It only makes sense.

I've really missed blogging about my knitting.  Since I last posted I've made my own pattern, knit plenty of fingerless gloves, thrown together a few hats, and even knit a couple of pairs of socks.  I've taken big old gaps off of knitting too, which only makes sense.  I'm not so much a summer knitter.  It's about that time of the year when I get back into the swing of things.

So, what's on my needles?  Well, I just finished a pair of really awesome socks.  Unfortunately, I'm not in love with them.  The heel is too loose, so I'm looking into options to snug it up.  I'm probably going to rip the whole thing apart to the heel and redo that whole section.  It's better that than have a pair of socks I'm not happy with.  Sometimes I think the work is just worth it.  After all, socks are a lot of work!

As for the yarn, I absolutely adore it.  Unfortunately, it's still too scratchy for me.  I'm going to have to wear them with a pair of silk sock liners or something, because I can tolerate that kind of thing with a barrier.  It just bothers me that I'm not able to wear lovely socks like that.  I love them.  I want to wear them.  I just need to do some work on them first.  We'll see how it goes!

The pattern is a modified version of Black Rose.  I don't like knitting heel flaps, so I blended in a little bit from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One.  I took the idea of the heel gusset she used instead of a heel flap.  Unfortunately, I was dead tired when I did the math, so I ended up with a heel gusset that was far too large.  I went based on the number of stitches picked up for the heel flap in the pattern, not by the number of stitches the pattern was around.  This means my heels are baggy.  That's thankfully not the hardest fix in the world.  And, worst case scenario, I rip the whole thing out and knit them again!  I'm really not going to cry about knitting them again.  It was a lovely pattern and I loved working with it.

Overall, I found the pattern for the socks to be decently well written.  I attempted the gloves, but I had problems with the pattern, then ran out of yarn.  Her instructions were confusing, and the whole thing was far too wide for my think wrists.  It was surprising to see that her size small wasn't much smaller than the smallest size of the socks!  I wouldn't recommend her glove pattern, but I definitely love the socks.

Now my daughter wants me to knit her a pair of them too.  Who can blame her?  They're absolutely lovely.  Maybe if I knit these up again from scratch I'll make them for her.  As I said, the yarn was a bit scratchy for me.  I prefer something that's a little less rough textured, if I were to have my preferences.  We'll see how it works up in the end.  It's a lovely yarn, so I'm not sure I'd ever have the heart to part with it!

Knitting Needle Review: KA 9.5" Circular Knitting Needles

While I was at the LYS, the owner, Dawn, showed me these wonderful new knitting needles.  She was working up a pair of mittens on them.  They looked wonderful and just what I needed!  The needles were a small diameter circular needle, 9.5" as I would find out later.  The needles themselves were tiny!  I had to wonder how practical they were to use, but Dawn swore they were wonderful.  I decided to give them a try.  I picked up the KA circular needles in a size 6 and size 4 at 9.5".

I'll be honest, when I first picked up the stitches for the leg of the longies I was making, I was a bit skeptical.  They were quite fiddly to use.  I didn't know if I would get the hang of them.  Of course, Dawn had told me that they were best for more than 56 stitches and I was using decently less, only 44, but I decided to give it a go.  I wasn't sure how much of a disaster they would turn out to be, but I would get there, and I could always switch back to DPNs, right?  At first I was beginning to think I'd have to.  I had to decrease to 38 stitches before I was done!  Then I had to switch to smaller needles for ribbing!  This would be a nightmare!

Even so, I would give these needles a fair chance.  I'd knit through he whole leg, no matter what the slog, and then I'd decide once I got to the other leg.  I wanted to make a fair and accurate judgment, and I know to make up my mind after knitting only a couple inches wouldn't be fair.  Besides, these needles weren't exactly cheap!

As I worked with these needles for a while, I found that I did get used to them.  It took a while, but then I started to work with them as naturally as any other needles.  They just flowed.  Even though the diameter of the leg on the longies was smaller than suggested, I found that I stopped having problems after a while.  I was able to knit much faster than on DPNs, and without the problems like laddering.  I absolutely love that benefit, as laddering is a problem that gets on my nerves more than any other.  I found that the needles just soared!  Yes, they were still a bit fiddly at times, but I didn't have any of the struggle that I originally did.  I think I just had to get used to them.  Better still, they were the perfect needles to use for the legs on the longies.  They were just the right size and so convenient.  I'm finding I adore them!  I may not use anything else!

I have to admit, when it got to the ribbing, I had some questions in my mind.  At first the stitches seemed a bit stretched out, which I thought might get in the way of ribbing doing exactly what it was intended to do, but it seems like it won't be a problem at all.  Now that the leg is finished, I'm finding that the ribbing looks exactly as it should.

These needles are actually quite lovely.  The bamboo is excellent, but I can imagine it would be problems for anyone who doesn't like bamboo.  The needles spin freely on the cables, avoiding any problems with the needles and cables twisting.  They're really a wonderful product.  I'm finding that I quite enjoy knitting with them and will probably use them in a variety of sizes for a variety of projects.  I just can't wait to get some for socks!

For my Friends who Like Reading and Crafts

I've been listening to this lovely podcast for the past few years, CraftLit.  For those of you who might be interested, check it out!  It's produced by a wonderful mom and teacher, Heather Ordover.  I've been listening to the podcast over the past couple of years, and it's become a fast favorite.

CraftLit is a wonderful podcast that combines two of my favorite topics, crafts and classic literature.  The first half of the podcast discusses crafts, news, history, and other general topics of conversation of interest.  On the craft end, there has been everything from knitting (which there's a lot of) to quilting, sewing, and pottery.  Art and writing have been discussed.  There's been talk about kids, school, education, and health concerns.  General topics have ranged from current events to Ghandi to September 11th to television shows to history.  There's been discussions on gluten free diets, as Heather recently found out she has an allergy to gluten.  Much of it has given me a good deal to think about.

Obviously, by the name, there's a component of literature in the whole thing.  It all started out with the reading of Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice.  Since then she's covered other books such as Frankenstein and Tale of Two Cities.  I have to admit, some of these books I never would have been inspired to read myself, but through discussion, I've not only opened myself up to giving these books a chance, but I've also had a lot to think about because of it.  Before Heather dives into each chapter there's a wonderful discussion of what happened in last weeks chapters, as well as what to expect and look for in the coming chapters.  You can tell Heather's an experienced teacher by the way she opens the topic to each new chapter and her discussions in previous chapters.  It definitely helps keep interest up, but it also gives me a lot of fuel towards forming my own opinions on each book and topic.  There have been several times where Heather suggests her opinions on a topic and I find myself thinking something entirely different, or feel that I've got something to add or support to the topic.

This leads up to my own point of pride.  On episode 166 of CraftLit (Admirable Admiral), Heather read a message that I sent her on Ravelry.  (If anyone's interested, it starts at 14:49 on the audio.)  Actually, what I said there kind of ties in to the whole reason why I feel the CraftLit podcast is so incredibly valuable in a society such as our own.  With every passing generation it seems that fewer and fewer people actually read for fun.  I've found even less who enjoy learning for the sake of keeping their minds active.  I had mentioned in that message how I felt the current trend towards illiteracy related directly for a lust for knowledge.  In older times, families would sit down and discuss everything under the sun in front of their children.  These days it's all about television, sports, and school.  Learning in older times was essential for being successful, and while that still holds true today, there's less of a reason for it.  Learn your career field and that's all you'll ever need to know.  CraftLit supports a different view.  Not only is it a fun podcast that includes a bit of everything, but Heather actually encourages discussion on each topic.  She wants to know how her readers feel.  She uses their messages, e-mails, and audio clips in her podcast to open up new discussions.

This podcast has been completely refreshing.  It's like a breath of fresh air, especially with living in the area I do.  There are some wonderful, intelligent people in every neck of the woods, I'm sure, but for this area it seems the trend leads towards reading because you have to and only learning as much as necessary to get by.  Video games and television have replaced hard work and intelligent conversations at the dinner table.  Many families don't even sit down to dinner together (sadly, my own included more often than not), which is a trend that encouraged family discussions.  This podcast has done a wonderful job of opening my mind to new methods of thought, and has been quite an inspiration.  It's not all about literature either.  Without it, I doubt I would have even thought to research symptoms of gluten intolerance in children to find that I might possibly want to switch to gluten-free for my older son, see if that helps him out.  CraftLit has done a wonderful job of opening my mind and encouraging free thought and curiosity, things I had felt I was lacking in my life.  I didn't even realize how much until I'd started listening.

If you have any curiosity of your own, please, check out CraftLit.  I know it's hard to find time in a day to sit down and focus on something, but podcasts are wonderful for road trips, commutes, or even just something to listen to while doing housework.  Of course, if you're a crafter, you know how nice it is to work with something to listen to!  Each of the episodes are a bit lengthy (most run about an hour), but I find it's easy to find a good point to break if I don't have time to sit down and listen to the whole thing.  And just remember, if your hands are too busy to pick up a book, at least you can turn one on.

Thank you, Heather, for providing such a wonderful podcast!

Stitch Marker Review: Knit Picks Locking Stitch Markers

I bought these stitch makers at the LYS.  I needed new stitch markers.  The locking ones I had keep coming unlocked and I've lost them a couple of times, not a good thing for trying to keep them on a project.  It was clearly time for something new, so I picked these up on a whim.  They couldn't possibly be worse than the ones I had, right?  And if they were, at least it was a cheap little purchase, so it won't be a huge investment.

Before I go any further, I love locking stitch markers.  They serve so many purposes, from counting rows or pattern repeats to being used as regular stitch markers.  I can unhook them and slip them off the needle if I choose to, even if I'm nowhere near their spot in the row.  Then there's the benefits of marking decreases, increases, mistakes, or anything else I may want to easily find in my knitting.  I just love the convenience of being able to do what I want with them, when I want to.  It's just one of those little things I have where I want to be able to have one tool do as many things as possible.

The Knit Picks locking stitch markers have met my expectations thus far.  They come in two shades of purple in each pack, which I like because I can use color to mark beginning of round or whatever.  The flat round back of the locking portion would be great for adding letters for the Cat Bordhi patterns, or for numbers.  I don't know how well Sharpie would stay on there, since it can wear off of some plastics over time, but the potential is there.  Unfortunately, they don't come in a wider variety of colors, and if you have some inherent hatred of purple for some reason, there's no other option.  For me, I like purple, so that worked out rather well.  I just wish there were more colors.

After a decent bit of use, I've noticed a few things about these stitch markers that may be a problem for some knitters.  After the stitch markers have been closed for a while, they're not open as wide after unlocking them.  This may cause problems if you need them to be loose to easily hook onto stitches.  However, with just a little bit of effort they can be opened enough for easy use.  Another concern is the stress marks I've noticed on some of the darker colored stitch markers at the bend in the plastic on the loop away from the lock.  If you don't know what I mean, that's a discoloration in the plastic where it becomes lighter than the rest of the plastic, usually from being bent.  That's usually a sign of a weak point in the plastic, where it's more likely to break.  I haven't had any break yet, and it only has appeared in a couple of the set of twenty thus far.  I'm not too worried about it, but it does make me wonder about the longevity of these pieces.  Of course, any time you work with plastic, that's going to be a concern, especially anything rigid enough to do the job these stitch markers are doing.

The little convenient storage bag is exactly what Knit Picks markets it to be.  It's small, easy to use, and fits the markers flawlessly.  It's a thin, flat plastic case that easily fits into my knitting notions bag, and is so easy to carry around wherever I may have need to take it.   The plastic seems sturdy enough to hold up over time, which is a necessity for me.  However, my one complaint is a lack of a proper means to keep it shut.  The top flap slides under a little plastic strap.  While that's enough for most people, I know how things go in my knitting bag.  I am impressed as it hasn't opened on me to dump my stitch markers everywhere yet.  I would prefer some kind of snap closure or something, but with such an inexpensive purchase, I'm sure that's out of the budget.  Knit Picks is famed for affordable, so I can imagine that was a deciding factor, keeping their product as affordable as possible.  It may just mean I need to make or find a little baggy for them that snaps shut should I start having problems.  That can wait as everything has been fine thus far.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with these stitch markers.  They're serving me well.  Given the project I'm working on requires eighteen of them, I don't feel so bad about not using the flashy stitch markers I've gotten from swap partners and friends.  These are simple, inexpensive, and do the job I need them to do.  While other stitch markers may be prettier, these serve their function, so who can really ask for more?  Will I buy them again?  Definitely!  Should I find I need some more, or some break or get lost, as undoubtedly happens, I would look into replacing them with the same product.  Better still, I can buy these stitch markers from the LYS, which means I can support them at the same time as buying a product I like!  Now if only they'd offer their yarn the same way!  Nothing beats instant gratification!