It is now the end of a nice, relaxing day. Much time was spent working on Sitcom Chic, and hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to complete the body to the point of beginning the sleeves. Worked a bit on my Opal socks as well, but am really quite obsessed with Sitcom Chic right now. Also did some shopping today, bought a new pair of navy pants, and splurged on a new pair of Naot shoes:

Naot is my absolute favourite brand of shoes. I think this is my fourth pair, and they are all sooo comfortable. Not the cheapest, but good quality that lasts.
Off to knit a few more rows on the Opal socks, then off to bed!

posted by Brenda 10:12 PM

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The Friday Five (a day late!)

1. How many houses/apartments have you lived in throughout your life? 
15

2. Which was your favorite and why?  I don't know that I have a favourite!  Maybe for sentimental reasons, the one I spent the majority of my growing up years in.

3. Do you find moving house more exciting or stressful? Why?  Completely stressful! I like everything to be in order, and there is just no way that can happen when in the middle of a move.

4. What's more important, location or price?  Location, location, location!!!!

5. What features does your dream house have (pool, spa bath, big yard, etc.)? 
Bay windows, big kitchen with lots of storage space, a nice craft room with lots of organized cupboards, level entry, bedroom with a walk-in closet.  A pool would be nice too!

posted by Brenda 10:50 AM

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Needle Review

I finished the first sock yesterday (except for grafting the toes) of the Opal socks knit with my new Pony Pearl DPNs. As promised, what follows is my review of the Pony Pearls. I use size 2.0 mm (0 US) for my socks. I had tried the Brittany in this size, but didn't care for them as the small needle warps too much. I knew that I loved the Swallow Cassein needles, but the smallest size they come in is 2.75 mm. So I thought I'd try the Pony Pearls. The ones I am using are only 15 cm (6 inches), and I must say I really like the short length. Also, the material is nice, they don't feel cold in your hands like the metal ones do. As well, they don't have a pointy end like the metal ones (from which I often end up with sore fingertips). The round ends do make it difficult to do the decreases, and by the time I got to the toes decreases, I'd switched to metal needles. All things considered though, I'm not sorry I purchased these needles, and will be continuing to use them, unless Swallow Cassein, which I prefer overall, makes smaller sizes.

posted by Brenda 7:20 AM

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A recent thread on the socknitters list this week has been regarding how members learned to knit. Very interesting topic. Seems as if a lot of people learned as children, while others learned once their own babies started to arrive. As for me, I honestly can’t remember who first taught me to knit. I know that an elementary school teacher taught me to crochet, and assumedly, somewhere around the same time, someone must have taught me to knit. As I write this, I’m thinking that I might have learned at Brownies. At any rate, my initial knitting instruction was not a success. I recall simply transferring the stitches from one needle to the other, without really knitting anything. It was during my last year of university that I finally had some success with knitting. My roommate taught me to knit continental style. This made much more sense to me, as I found the motion to be much more similar to crocheting. Over the years, I’ve made myself a number of simple sweaters. Since going online in December 1998, I became more consumed with crocheting, sparked by joining a number of crochet lists. I told myself that I liked crochet better than knitting, as there was no danger of dropping stitches! Then, beginning in November 2002, I crocheted two full size afghans and two baby ghans in a two month period. Yuck, I was now officially sick of crocheting! Someone on a crochet group was getting into sock knitting. This sounded interesting, and would be a nice break from crocheting. Since then, I’ve done very little crocheting, and have been knitting pretty much exclusively. I still consider myself a beginner to novice knitter. I would really like to improve my knitting skills, and would particularly like to try cables and fairisle.

The picture below is the last sweater I made before my recent return to knitting. No idea where the pattern is from now, or the yarn used (except I remember buying it at Kmart). I particularly enjoyed making the raglan sleeves, and would really like to do another raglan sweater at some point. Unfortunately, I think I’ve only worn this sweater once, as it is a little too warm for the mild west coast climate.

posted by Brenda 11:46 AM

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