Life

Why You Should Take Up Knitting in 2015

Bringing in the New Year means making resolutions. Some that we end up keeping, and some that we don’t. Knitting however, is a resolution you should make and keep this year. Here’s why.

Knitting is portable.
You know those times when you’re bored out of your mind stuck in the waiting room at your doctor’s office? Yeah. Well, you could be doing something productive instead of wasting precious time. You could be knitting a hat for your friend, or for yourself, or for your dog! It’s up to you! Don’t like football? Me neither. During the super bowl, you can both knit and eat snacks while everyone is yelling at the TV. It’s just great.

Hand-knits make great gifts.
I bet you that almost everyone likes handmade things. Almost all of my holiday gifts this year are handmade. Not only do you save money this way, but you also tend to get great responses. When someone receives a hand-knit item, they know that you put a lot of time and effort into the gift.

It’s good for your health!
Check out this article!

Knitters are the nicest.
No, but seriously. They are.

There’s a cool history behind it.
Knitting used to be a man’s trade, but eventually became something that women did in order to provide clothing for their families. Now, all kinds of people are knitting! If you’re into learning more about the history of knitting, I’d recommend reading No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting by Anne MacDonald.

It can be art/used for political protest!
There are so many cool projects that have gone on recently, including Pittsburgh’s own Knit the Bridge project! I’ve also seen yarn-bombing all over the place, and making statements about social issues as political protest.

You will never be alone.
There are yarn stores everywhere. The knitting group I belong to on facebook has 32,597 members right now. Ravelry.com has 4 million members. If you ever need help, you’re not alone.

What are your New Year’s resolutions? Let me know!
Kylen

5 Thing I’ve Learned from Working at a Yarn Store

I work at an awesome yarn store that has 6 comfy couches, lots of free coffee, snacks, and some of the best people I know. These are the things I have learned from working there.

1. Always knit a swatch to check your gauge if you are knitting a fitted garment.
If you knit an entire sweater and it doesn’t fit, you are going to be one sad knitter. (I seem to have learned this from past mistakes).

2. Blocking is a must for certain projects: especially clothing, anything with a lace pattern, ribbed hand-knits.
Sometimes I will finish a project and be really disappointed with the outcome. Perhaps a lacy hat is scrunching up a bit. So I block it, and everything is ok again.

3. You know when your parents told you that “The best way to learn is by making mistakes”? Well, I hate to say it, but they were right.
If you rely on your instructor to teach you everything, it will be harder for you to figure things out on your own later on. I learned almost everything from my Knitter’s Bible and it has molded me into someone who figures things out on her own. You won’t be a professional knitter as soon as you pick it up, so let yourself make mistakes, then fix them. You will learn so much more.

4. There are two types of knitters: type A and type B. I’m 80% type B.
Don’t get me wrong, I love to produce aesthetically pleasing hand-knits, but I do not obsess over the small mistakes. They add character anyway! However, over the years, I’ve learned that it is challenging and fun to rip things out and start over, so in that sense, I’m type A. As you become a more experienced knitter, challenging yourself becomes fun. (In case you’re not there yet, that is the moment when you start to make your way into knitting nerd status).

4b. As a type B knitter, it is very difficult to teach type A knitters.
My response when someone asks how they proceed is usually “I don’t know, why don’t you just wing it?” Type A knitters HATE this. Oops, sorry.

5. You will meet some of the best people by being part of a knitting community.
Some of my favorite people in this city are ones I have met at the yarn store. Everyone has been so welcoming and appreciative of my help while I’m working at the store. If you don’t have a regular store you go to, find one. You’ll be amazed by the kindness that this breed of humans offers.

Keep knittin’!
Kylen

Roadtrips & Wedding gifts

This past weekend I went on one of those roadtrips in which you wake up before the sun comes up and travel all day. Luckily, I wasn’t driving, so I was able to knit the entire way there. My boyfriend and I went to a wedding, and though I hate to admit this, I made the gifts at the last minute. But they turned out great I think. I had this great idea, to knit lace around a mason jar, and put a candle in it so that when it is lit, the light shines through the eyelets. Turns out I didn’t invent this, as it’s all over pinterest and ravelry. Bummer.

I also had to use different sizes of my interchangeable needles to start because I forgot to bring the right needles.

Materials:
Size 6 double pointed needles
Fingering weight yarn
Size 8 double pointed needles (or 9″ circulars)
Medium sized mason jar
Small candle

With size 6 dpns, CO 28 sts. Join in the round and knit one row.
Row 2: (k6, kfb) 4 times
Row 3: k all sts
Row 4: (k7, kfb) 4 times
**switch to size 8 needles**
Rows 5-10: k all sts
Work pattern 7 times

Pattern:
Row 1: (k1, ssk, yo, k1, yo, k2tog), repeat until end of round
Rows 2, 3, 4: k all sts

Bind of all sts, tightly.

We had such a lovely time at the wedding together, and even enjoyed the 9 hour drive home.

ENGLAND

I was fortunate enough to be my grandma’s travel buddy on a trip to England this winter, and here are some pictures of the amazing things we did.

The socks I was knitting on the plane!

Aylesbury, England.

Favorite store. 🙂

Fish & chips in a cone…what more could you want?

Covent Garden in London.

The London Eye- we rode on that!

The Eye & Big Ben.

The view from atop the London Eye.

Feelin’ like Harry Potter at Christ Church College in Oxford.

Me in Oxford!

I’m 21.

I was the last of my housemates to turn 21. But it finally happened.

After years and years of wanting a rainbow birthday cake, I finally got one. I made it myself! It was a long process but came out amazing.

I just used 2 boxes of white cake mix, and I was lucky enough to use my mom’s fancy Martha Stewart food coloring!

And here is my big girl birthday portrait!!

Hot Air Balloons!

I attended the Thurston Classic in Meadville, PA this summer, and it was awesome.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to go up in the air in one of them, but it was still cool to watch.

People from all over came to show off their balloons!

Here’s an elephant.

And at night, they lit them up!

Summer Fun

I have been slacking on the posting…shame on me.

To start off the summer I was sick, leading to the decision to get my tonsils removed. So while sick, I was crafting a lot. I cut some pants from 8th grade (almost eight years ago!!) into shorts, and added some pretty fabric on the back pockets!

I had also been working on some socks from yarn that was given to me by my boss!

Travelin’

So over my winter break, I decided to go visit my friends in NJ. After New Years, I took a train to NJ and met some pretty cool people. One women was a dermatologist, and gave me great tips on skin care. She saw me knitting these socks (Amara Socks from Ravelry) and called her daughter, a fashion designer in Las Vegas, to tell her all about me. It was really exciting. She said I should design knitwear.