There are piles of tutorials out there that teach you how to make your own knitting needles, but they’re all for straights and I prefer circulars or DPNs. It’s simple enough to make DPNs (sharpen dowelling on both sides, sand), but I wasn’t sure how to go about making circs. Well, now we have this: A DIY circular knitting needle tutorial!

Lord, bless the internet for it is good.

My server is really slow for some reason today, so I apologize. I’ll figure out what’s going on during lunch.

I’ve been doing a lotta knittin’, not a lotta bloggin’ lately. Tonight I’ll finally post the latest installment of Search Engine… Wednesday, and two FOs!

This is for the Amazing Lace Challenge #4: If you bound off your lace RIGHT NOW – what could it be used for?

You see, I just bound off my lace yesterday, so if I bound off what was currently on my needles… it would be used for… A GHoOOO0OOOoOOoST! OoooOOOOooo0oooooh!

Read the rest »

Lomo Sheep photography! There’s a bunch of sheep photos in the set, so go ahead and explore.

You can also check out some obsessive sheep photographers on Flickr. Via Knitters Anonymous.

I used to think that I was being very cheap. I’d put off knitting the maybe-too-luxe garments I’d love to have although I could technically afford them. I desperately wanted to knit Butterfly, but even three balls of Kid Silk Haze was a thorn in my penny-pinching paw, let alone the additional price of the magazine. I thought I was cheap.

But then I read a post by Domesticat and I realized… it’s not my wallet that wants me to stop knitting. It’s Canada. Our home and native land? More like our home and inflative land. (You like that? I liked that.)

And now I’m comparing prices all over the place.

Three skeins of KSH: $35-$45 in Domesticat-land. $55-$65 in Eve-land.

A sweater in the US: I’ve heard $60.
A sweater in Canada: At least $90.

A pair of socks in the US: A smile and some home-baked buns.
A pair of socks in Canada: Like at least seven pies.

Shipping in the US: Free or low.
Shipping to Canada: Two (2) first born. That’s especially hard because you have to convince a friend to go in on it.

How much does a pair of socks or a sweater cost for you? Where are you from?

My paper is three paragraphs away from being completely finished. Sadly, these paragraphs include the introduction, conclusion, and a really boring bit in the middle. Still, I truck on. I shall be finished tomorrow morning, at which point I will allow myself to knit the last few rows of my Spectator Grand!

Those last few rows will be in cotton. I’ve decided to disregard the instructions to knit the last few rows of the hat in ribbon, as ribbon is highly expensive and I can’t find more than nine yards in any colour. The pattern calls for 50. I’m not willing to go “the whole nine yards” (hyuk!) so I’m going to use the minimum amount of ribbon possible and use it only for trim and the hat band. Unless it’s outrageously necessary (I’ll be emailing Annie Modesitt with questions to that effect tomorrow morning), I’ll also be foregoing the outrageous twisting that multiplies the required length of hatband ribbon six-fold. I love my aunt, but I also love not paying $60 for 50 yards of polyester.

My apologies to all for putting off any significant posting again yesterday. I’ve got a paper due on Friday, and I’m scrambling to get it all done. I tried to at least put up the promised Search Engine Tuesday, but I soon realized that I had a lot to say and I wouldn’t be able to get it all down in the time I had. I’ll be putting this blog on hiatus (officially this time) until I hand in the paper on Friday.

k, this is my last post. Isn’t this neat?! Ganesh in cross-stitch!

Here’s a cool set of yarn labels from vintage yarn thifting. I love things like this!

Arf!

I was at the Metro Toronto Zoo and watching World Cup stuff all weekend, so I had no time to blog. I’ll be catching up tomorrow, so look forward to some Search Engine Tuesday and an update on my hat! (Here’s a teaser: I have 2×2+1 rows left.)