I'd like to use a lifeline, Regis

Lifelines.  What exactly are they?  If you're on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" then they are a way of narrowing down the answer using different with help.  If you're drowning, its a flotation device thrown to you by a life guard.  But in knitting, what are they?  

Well the answer is this:  They are lengths of scrap yarn you run through the active loops on your knitting needles using a tapestry needle every 10-20 rows to give you a "safe zone" if you mess up so badly you need to rip your work in progress out, you don't mess up or drop stitches when picking them back up.  It is especially useful if you every try lace work and/or a shawl.  There is a  brand of knitting needles known as "Voldeknits", tho any brand of cheaply made cable needles can be considered "Voldeknits".  They are known for having their cables come unglued from the needles in the middle of a huge project such as shawls, in the process dropping (losing) all the stitches from the needles.  A prime example of where lifelines are useful in knitting.

This is true for any sized project, including socks.  I started a pair of socks for my Dad for Christmas.  I am still only 1" into them, because after starting the pattern did I discover either a) I can't count or b) I messed up the pattern right in the gates.  I think its B, but who's to say it wasn't A... Or both for that matter.  Regardless, I wish I would have used a lifeline after starting the ribbing.  It would have been so much easier to rip out.  I did try and add a lifeline with a tapestry needle, but when it came to ripping out, I was finding out how much I caught the yarn i was pulling out... such a pain in the patoot!

I also wish I had used a lifeline in the shawl I tried to knit, but wound up frogging a week ago so I could use the yarn for a hat instead.  I was knitting along, following the pattern when I discovered I messed the pattern up at some point, and couldn't read my knitting to figure out where it happened.  I had used a complete skein of yarn, and was half way through the shawl.  I wound up setting it down in the middle of the row and leaving it for 2+ months.  Until someone asked for a blue hat.  Thus, it is now becoming a hat.

Yes, lifelines are completely optional in knitting as it is in "WWTBAM", but they can be vital! 

Twas the week before Christmas and all through the house...

Guess it helps to actually WRITE in a blog, doesn't it.  I blame the early morning!

So, it is the Monday before Christmas.  Busy busy week!  I can't believe how fast the time has flown this month!  Knitting, cleaning, working, kids, rinse and repeat!  I have been overwhelmed with knitting recently.  Knitting some hats for Etsy, knitting Christmas gifts.  I finally had to tell my dad that the present I wanted to make him got tossed to the back burner, and he'll get it after New Years.  He seemed ok with that.  I hope LOL!  But I have 1.5 hats done for Etsy, hoping for another 1.5 before New years!  And I just need another inch or two on my mother's pair of socks!  My hands are starting to protest.

On a side note, the last two days I've had off (sat and sun) were spent cleaning, knitting, cleaning, knitting and wrapping presents. Granted, it only took about an hour to wrap them up, but I was also dividing the stocking candy stuffers into equal amounts and into cellophane bags.  That probably took the most time, because the kids are all about equality LOL!  "Mooooommmm he got more red kisses than i did!" etc, etc.  

And I've been (trying) to clean out a corner in our garage for our new freezer!  My parents bought us a freezer for a Christmas present!  Thats actually one item we were saving for this year too, so yay! So exciting!  But I never realized how much garbage type items get piled up in our garage over the course of a year.  Its amazing.  Like why in the world I was keeping my iHome box?! I don't know!  I tossed it of course.  But I uncovered a stash of shipping boxes that will be moved up into my closet for safe keeping.  And a stash of scraps from other sewing projects from years gone.  Going to sort thru those sometime after Christmas too.  Oh the items that can be made with scraps!


On other news fronts, the store I was temping for during the holiday season asked me to stay on.  Which is totally cool, but I would need to find a second job in order to get any sort of income worth living on.  Oh well.  Maybe gas station attendant? LOL!  Eventually I'll figure that one out.  Might have to go to the local yarn stores and start offering my sales assistance?... One can only hope!


Anyhoo, it is time for me to take off for work! Yay early AMs!  I am one of the few that work there that enjoy early morning shifts.  Everyone thinks i'm crazy, maybe I am, but the peace and quiet is so enjoyable!


If I dont make it on here prior to Sunday:


Feliz Navidad!  Merry Christmas!  Mele Kalikimaka! Aloha!

The Busiest Time of the Year!

It never fails.  Every year, the last month is the busiest time of the year.  Working long hours, cleaning the house, running errands, buying presents, everything is crammed into short hours of the day, as darkness falls at 3:30pm.  This month is busy busy busy.  Making gifts, making hats, making dice bags, making dinner, making time for family....

I am jealous of the people who seem so relaxed during this month.  Have they no family to suck all the hours out of the day?  Yesterday I felt guilty for sitting down for 2 hours to watch a movie.  So I attempted to cast on for a hat to make, and in the half dark I had to restart 3 or 4 times.  My bad, I know better.  I really do.  I just wanted to watch one movie with hubby and best friend.  I was able to get a good start on it today, while at niece's b-day party.  It was a swimming party, and well, I just hate bathing suits.  Means I have to shave places i don't want to shave.  So I opted to sit and knit.  But when we got home, it was nap time for the whole family except me.  So here I sit, every light in the house turned off while they all sleep on the couches.  I am so jealous, but if I go to sleep now, I'll be up all night.  And tomorrow starts the 4 am shifts.  Fun yet not at the same time.  They want us to be done with the truck shipments by the time the store opens at 8.  But if we finish by about 9, then I will have 2 extra hours to knit while waiting for T to get out of school, which works for me.

And here I feel like I've been ignoring my blog.  I know, its been a while, but such is life.  Well, to remedy the situation here I am blogging!

This week I've decided to try IndigoDragonfly's yarn.  They are a Canadian dyeing "company" who sell their items via their blog on Wordpress.  They are very... how you say... creative with the naming of their yarn.  They take a lot of inspiration from some very popular tv shows and movies and create colorways with them.  They make several kinds of yarn.  My favorite weight for the last while being sock yarn.  They have all sorts of blends using wool.  The standard merino wool/nylon blend, theres a blend of one with cashmere, as well as the straight up merino superwash yarn.  Superwash is wonderful if you are giving gifts to a person who may or may not want to (or know how) to hand wash a knitted item.  But they also have worsted weight yarn, lace weight yarns, and DK (double knit) weight.  I've heard them raved about on Ravelry a lot, so I decided it was time for me to try some.  Well, eventually.  After Christmas some time.

Speaking of Christmas I'm so excited!  I know at least 2 of my presents!  My mother talked with me about buying the family a chest freezer!  Something I've been bugging my husband about for almost a year now.  I want one so we can buy meat when its on sale and store it, as well as all the goodies from my garden, and my brother's garden.  I will have to clean out the corner of the garage, but who cares!  A freezer!  Whoopee!  The second one is my husband was sweet, saw me oogling a nice digital camera when we went Christmas shopping with his yearly bonus money (Thank goodness for bonus money!)  He bought that for me so now I will have a nice camera to a) take family pictures with and b) better pictures for my Etsy account.  I am so excited to play with it.  And the fact it was on uber sale makes it even better.  It has something like a 15x's zoom on it.  Something ridiculously wonderful I'm sure.

So this blog post is a bit more up beat than my last.  Its amazing what a decent Christmas bonus will do for an attitude.  That and the fact that the kids will now not be quite so disappointed with lack of boxes under the tree.  Just this year there is nothing BIG under the tree.  Like when T was 2, he had a whole wooden track set under there.  But this year will have to do with character jammies, movies, and a few posters of his favorite characters/movies.  Same for K, minus the jammies.  She has 100 sets already, I think she has enough, but she's getting a robe, movies, under garments (*cry* she cant be this big yet!) and posters.  Oh how they grow!  As well as they are each getting a hand knit item.  Such as socks or a hat.  Which reminds me, I should be getting back to knitting.  Happy crafting, and happy holidays everyone!