My first completed knitting project.

[simonejester]

Yes, I used a Knifty Knitter. I make no apologies or excuses, and it's easier, and I don't know how to do round yarn work except for crochet. Anyhow, today is Chris's birthday...is this masculine enough for this to be a present? I don't have a clue what I should have gotten him but we're too broke for me to get the new kind of XBOX 360 and I'm not good at guessing which game he'd want. D:


P.S. Eurynome, this is some of the yarn you sent, and I love it! I'm making a matching scarf now and I might even be able to make a set for myself. XD

Comments

[jamapanama]

::two thumbs up::

I think it is very cute, and totally cool for a guy :)

[simonejester]

Thanks! I really appreciate it.

And he did like it so that's good. :)

[jackandahat]

Looking back over your Knitting tag - is that James C Brett Marble? Because it looks just like what I have on my lap now!

[simonejester]

Um...I know it's Marble; the James C. Brett I dunno, but it could be. That particular yarn was a gift from (LJ)eurynome1967, spoiled me rotton. XD

[jackandahat]

Yep! I love that stuff, made a tonne of scarves out of it last Christmas. (Using the one-row Yarn Harlot scarf pattern - K2, TBL, P1, repeat over multiples of 4)

[simonejester]

Um...I don't know what that means. I'm still getting the hang of purling.

[jackandahat]

Oops, sorry!

(I hope you don't think I'm being pushy - if you don't want explanations, just ignore this, and yay, shiny yarn!)

Got it from here - I love her blog.

K2 = knit two
TBL = Knit through back loop - when you go to make a knit stitch, instead of putting your needle through the front leg of the stitche, put it through the back leg, then knit as normal. This twists the stitch.
P1 = Purl

It's one of those that's a nice easy rhythm to fall into, and it's great with yarn that changes colour, you get nice stripes. It's a little slow for me because of how I change between knit and purl, but some people find it fast, depends how you knit.

[simonejester]

I don't think it's pushy at all, and I appreciate the help. Thanks. <3

[jackandahat]

Just checking - I get all "ack" when I say I can't do something and people go "But it's easy!" No... if you understand, it's easy, if you don't, it's all Greek!

But yeah - I'm fond of that yarn, I've found it washes well, it's nice and warm, and the colours are nice.

[simonejester]

I have that problem too, usually from people who don't understand why I'm such a dunce at math when it's OMG SO EASY yet they're boggled that I knew what a preposition was without having to memorize the list. :P

And with knitting and crochet--I find crochet pretty easy, and I'm finding knitting a lot more difficult. For lilalanor it's just the opposite but we keep the mutual o.O to a minimum.

It is really nice. I plan to wear the second hat I made from the marble yarn throughout the winter--I used the one-step-bigger-than-yellow Knifty Knitter loom so it's comfy even if my hair's up. (And living in a place where it snows after a lifetime of not living in a place where it snows for the longest time meant the weather dictating how I keep my hair out of my face. :P)

[jackandahat]

Yeah - and frankly, if someone is talking about struggling with something and not understanding it, and you say it's easy... you're kind of calling them an idiot! There's nothing wrong with saying something is easy for you - like the fact I knit while reading fic seems to boggle people, but it's second nature to me - but people have different backgrounds, different talents.

I tried crochet for about fifteen minutes, got bored and went back to knitting. Mostly because I'm used to "yarn go fast!" so when I have to learn and suddenly yarn go slow... not so much fun.

Heh - yeah, I have short hair now but when I had long hair it was one of those things you have to plan around. Constantly-short-haired people don't get that!

[simonejester]

I can knifty-knit while reading fic, but that's because it's easy to do by feel. But crochet...usually I have a TV show or audio podcast on for that because I have to keep my eyes on the project. Same with knitting for now, especially since I haven't quite mastered the basics yet.

I'm doing that with knitting now. I'll practice for 20 minutes or so and then go "fuck it" and crochet or yarn-and-canvas cross-stitch (another thing where I can read fic at the same time.)

Ya, I suppose not, but it's taken me so long to grow my hair back after the Navy sent me home (they cut my hair to just below the ears, bastards!) that I won't be going short again any time soon. :)

[jackandahat]

What's knifty-knitting? I'm not familiar with that. And yeah - obviously if it's complicated stuff then I have to keep looking at it, but the majority I've learned by touch, so I just load up something and keep hitting the space bar with my little finger.

It's one of those things - if something is too much like something you're already good at, it can be awkward, because your brain is going "But I can do things almost like this, why is it so hard?"

Heh - I miss long hair, but taking care of it was a problem, so I keep it short.

[simonejester]

Knifty Knitter is a brand of knitting loom. See here, and watch out for the automatic audio. So far I've only done the basics there too but since I've recently bought a whole bunch of cheap yarn I'll be doing more practice stuff. So when I'm looping around the pegs or pushing the pieces down after doing the yarn-over-yarn, that's when I can look up and read. When I'm doing the yarn-over-ing, then I have to keep my eyes on the piece.

It's irritating to be so slow at knitting because I've gotten so good--well, intermediate--at crochet. Like why isn't this as easy as it looks dammit!

After having my hair taken away and then it taking months just to be able to tie it back (and before having my hair cut that short I could only have my hair not tied back if I was in bed asleep), I'm willing to put up with the upkeep. That, and I have too fat a face to be able to pull off short hair. :P

[jackandahat]

Oh! I've seen those, I didn't know what they were called. They look useful.

Yeah - I don't mean putting up with the upkeep, I mean I literally couldn't, when I'm having a high pain day brushing my hair hurts enough to end up in total meltdown. If you have two-inch long hair, that's no big deal, but if it's down to mid-back you can't not brush it, so. I really don't think I suit short hair - makes me look younger - but it's practical.

[simonejester]

Ya... "loom knitting" sounds less amateur than something like "knifty" where it's misspelled on purpose. (One of my all time biggest pet peeves, despite one of my favorite jobs having been at a grocery store called Kash n' Karry. :P)

Oh. Good point. (And oops, should'a known that.)

I kinda wish I could pull off short hair because I have thyroid issues that have me shedding all over the place. My husband gets his hair buzz-cut every few weeks because he's an army cook and they have to have hair even shorter than the rest of the army (meh to that :P), and he doesn't have to wait until his hair dries to go outside in the winter. (I very much dislike blow-dryers because I don't have the attention span to just stand there with one, and because apparently they're bad for weak-ass fine hair that can't even take a perm.)

[jackandahat]

Oh god yes - I cannot stand deliberately spelling things badly. It's wrong, dammit!

Nah - you wouldn't have known that, is one of those random useless facts about Jack. ;)

Ahh - I have the opposite issue, ultra-thick hair. So I burnt myself a few times as a kid trying to use a hair dryer, because there was too much to do. Hmm. Maybe it's time to shave your hair and buy bright purple wigs? ;) *ducks*

[simonejester]

WORD.

Okay, thanks.

Eep...I've always been jealous of people with thick hair (especially curly thick hair), but I know it comes with its own issues. :P

Eh, maybe a rich, red, curly wig. ;)

[jackandahat]

Heh, yeah - if you can keep it long and you have a spare couple of hours a day, it's brilliant. If you want to do anything active, or have low spoons... pfft. But it's like curly vs straight, everyone wants what they don't have!

[simonejester]

Very true, very true. I have straight blonde hair and I've tried perming it and dyeing it red. Fizzy's stepmom has curly red hair and is constantly bleaching and straightening it. Too bad we can't just trade. :P

[jackandahat]

Heh, yeah - my mother was in denial she had curly hair, and bleached the life out of it - literally, it was just fried dead. Whereas my grandmother, who had identical hair, just bought different combs and lived with it.

[simonejester]

My mom has straight red hair, but it's more the orange-y redhead look. I can pull that off since she does it naturally, though I prefer the richer, more obviously fake reds. :P

At this point, though, I'm happy with my blonde, and the henna I got to color my hair doesn't seem to have an expiration date so luckily that can wait. :)

[jackandahat]

I think straight hair can look great, or bleached, but this was more like her hair had done her a personal wrong and she was going to punish it. *shakes head*

Oooo, henna! Nice.

[simonejester]

Ya. I don't know why people overtreat the crap out of their hair. I wait a long time between coloring or curling, mostly because I'm poor broke, but it's also helped me avoid frying my hair in a similar way.

I like the henna. I haven't used it, but it's this good organic stuff from mehandi.net (who also makes great shampoo bars and soaps and stuff), and I got cardamon too so once I do get the color done my hair will smell spicy and not the not-as-nice smell that straight-up henna apparently has. (I did henna on my hand with my friend Sukhpreet while she was doing her own for a Sikh ritual, something about the first anniversary, she also fasted for her husband's health and her husband, who's American raised, did the same for her which I think was way cool of him and oh look I'm rambling. :P)