Nerd Wars

For the past couple months, I've been in a competition on Ravelry, called Nerd Wars. It's tons of fun, but takes up a lot of my time. The competition basics: 3 month-long competitions with 5 projects each. You can knit, crochet, spin, or weave. While it's been challenging and time-consuming, I've discovered it is a great way to finish projects and meet new people. Here are some of the projects I've completed!

Tea Cozy for my Aunt

Baby Hat

Diamond Scarf

Jayne Cobb Hat Tea Cozy

My first ever Lace Shawl

Basket Weave Stitch Dishcloth

Waffle Stitch Scarf

The Wrong Side of the Scarf is Pretty

Ravellenic Games Update

Nothing is finished yet. And now I've run into some pretty major tendinitis pain, not unexpected, though I didn't really foresee just how much of my arm would be in pain due to knitting. I'm using the throw (?) method, which may or may not be called English. At any rate, I think going forward I'm going to have to re-train myself to use Continental because there is less movement, which would be key for me.

The Tinker Bell pattern has been kicking my ass. Not because it's hard, but because I don't understand half of it. I'm fairly certain it was translated from another language and there are quite a few places that I literally have no idea what they are asking for. I've googled and everything.

The Sticks Matter

In my attempts at knitting I have learned a very important lesson. Using the right needles is important! So important, that using the wrong needles will make the whole knitting process intensely more difficult. When you're crocheting, as long as you have the same size hook, really, you can use any hook. Some people swear by wooden or bamboo hooks, but really if it's the same size, it'll work. With knitting...not so much. (Or at least, not for me.)

For me, bamboo hooks (which I started with) stick to the yarn. A lot. My knitting was really really tight (so much that my friend commented that my needles were squeaking) and it was pretty much a painful miserable experience.

Then, I tried a friend's nickel plated needles and the loops wouldn't stay on the needle it was so slick.

So, the other day I went to an LYS (Local Yarn Store) called Yarning For You. It's nice and everyone was so helpful and nice. I picked up some Knit Picks Interchangeable Circular Needles. And I looove them. They're wood, but it's super polished wood, so it's really smooth, but not so slick the loops fall off. They're also really pretty because of the different colors.

They inspired me to start another project. When I get to a point that I'm happy, I'll share it on here. So far, (fingers crossed) it looks really good. :)