Yarn Panda

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I’ve just gotten the position as the Forth Worth Knitting Examiner with Examiner.com!

I’m getting paid to write about knitting. How awesome is that?!

I’ll primarily be posting knitting news that’s relevant to the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, but I’m sure there is something there for everyone, whether you live in DFW or not.

Since my commission is based on traffic flow, I would really, really appreciate it if you could visit my Examiner page from time (or even subscribe…) and share content on Facebook or retweet on Twitter as you find things you’d like to share. I’d also love comments on how I’m doing and what you’d like to see featured (especially if you’re in the DFW area).

If you’re interested in becoming the knitting examiner for your area, please let me know so I can refer you (you can aslo apply directly, but I’d appreciate it if you mentioned “Alice McElwee” as you referral).

So that’s kept me busy the past couple of days, along with some hefty writing goals.

I’ve been knitting small projects, but I haven’t taken any pictures yet. Kind of hard to do so when your mother has commandeered your camera. However, I did finish my sweater for April’s Sweater a Month Challenge! It’s entirely too big for my niece, but hey, she’ll grow into it eventually!

That’s all I have for now..I just wanted to share the news of being a knitting examiner!

I’m on schedule with the sweater! It’s half-way through April and I’m half-way through with my sweater.

I’m finished with the first section, which is great…cause the first section is knit flat, and purling 222 sts is not fun. I’m at the band in the middle. After that it’s knitting in the round until the end and then the sleeves.

Sunday I’m hosting Crafty Day in my apartment, so I’ll get a good chunk done then. I work tomorrow morning and have plans tomorrow afternoon, so I doubt I’ll get much knitting in tomorrow.

My ultimate goal is to try to be finished with the sweater by next week. Yea, that’s right. Next week. Since it’s all just knitting now, I think that’s a possible goal. I have no tests next week that I need to study for. I do have a paper to work on, but one afternoon dedicated to that and it’ll be finished.

Proof of progress:

You can totally see how it's a sweater!

See where the sleeve will go?

Detail shot. ^_^

People. Seriously.

Do you see what is being knitted there?

A. Freaking. Sweater.

Something knitted that my niece will wear everyday until she grows out of it. Every day.

Maybe not everyday, but she’ll wear it a lot. I’ll take her out and about just to parade her around town in a lovely sweater that her aunt knitted. ^_^

I had to step out to JoAnn’s to buy a stitch holder for the sleeves. I only had one and the extra needle I was using as a stitch holder for the other side was making it difficult to knit.

I came home with two stitch holders, a pair of needles (on sale! 30% off) and four skeins of yarn…

..I had a 50% off coupon.

..I want to try to knit Clapotis for my mom for Mother’s Day.

Gorgeous deep reds...

A week or so ago I entered Orchid Lane Designs’s (formerly Knit In Pajamas) knitting book giveaway….and I won! My newest knitting book came in the mail today!

Yay for winning knitting giveaways!

Hopefully tonight (after the movies…husband is taking me to go see Kick Ass) I can flip through it and add more patterns to my Ravelry queue….

Little by little our new apartment is slowly becoming our newlywed nest.

Earlier today, my dad came over and fixed the dryer so all evening I’ve been attacking the massive amounts of laundry that has accumulated….since the wedding. Doing laundry in my own home and not having to drag it across the street to the laundromat (or Mom’s..) is definitely one of life’s little pleasures.

While the clothes have been washing/drying, I’ve been enjoying some quiet time in the crafty room. I’ve watched about half of Julie & Julia while knitting on my very first sweater.

I asked FB and Twitter what the best options would be for a knitter who has never knit a sweater and the masses seemed to agree that knitting a top-down sweater was best/easiest for a novice sweater knitter. And after pouring through page after page on Ravelry trying to find the perfect first sweater (and asking the Twitter knitters for pattern suggestions on sweaters that look best on busty babes), I decided that I would start smaller.

Since one of my goals for April is to complete some WIPs, I thought knitting a child’s sweater would be faster to knit than an adult-sized one. It also allows me to destash some of the acrylic I have. I happen to think acrylic or acrylic blends are best for kiddie things since they’ll need frequent washing.

(BTW, thanks Allyson, for reminding me that there’s no shame in having a lot of acrylic yarn!)

April Sweater: Ice Cream Kimono

Oriental Lily by Georgie Hallam

Pattern: Oriental Lily by Georgie Hallam 
Calls for: The Wool Company UtikoMulti Colors
I’m using: Loops & Threads Impeccable in Neopolitan (which is why I’m calling this the Ice Cream Kimono)

Progress:

Yay! First Sweater!

There are 23 days for me to finish this sweater to reach my goal (if my math is correct, and I never assume it is).

As mentioned in the previous post, Ted and I have an extra bedroom in our new apartment, and said extra bedroom has been turned into my very own crafting room (with a small corner allotted to Ted and his music).

And now I have for you so some lovely pictures. Best part about the crafting room? The natural lighting is phenomenal.

Big crafting desk for: blocking! photographing WIPs/FOs! Winding yarn! Dyeing yarn! Etc!

The closet takes up a full wall, and half the closet belongs to Ted, while the other have is all mine. The closest even has these nifty built-in shelves that are perfect for stashing yarn. Kind of makes me feel like I have my very own little bitty LYS!

Sadly, this is all mostly acrylic...but that's ok. I'm knitter on a college student's budget.

And of course, here’s Ted’s little corner of the crafting room. His section of the closet is filled with more instruments and a lot of wires that all look the same to me, but he swears are all different and unique and each serves their own purpose..

Aarrgh matey!

And that’s the crafty room!

Now that it’s all set up and ready for me to craft in, I’ve decided that for my very first ever sweater, I’m going to knit the “Oriental Lily” () by Georgie Hallam. It’s a child’s sweater, so I’m knitting it for my 3yo niece. It’s top down, which is was recommended for first time sweater knitters like myself.

I’m not sure what yarn in my stash I want to use, but I do have a nice big one pound ball of Caron that would work…and also allow me to bust through the massive amounts of random acrylic I have. Cause the sooner I get rid of it, the sooner I can buy yarn for specific projects (most of my yarn was purchased the year I began knitting and thus I did not realize that one skein of any yarn was usually not enough for bigger, more ambitious projects).

I’ve also decided that stash busting is something I really need to do, so in addition to attempting to finish this sweater in the remainder of this month, I want to finish all/some/two or three of the WIPs I have lying around.

My current WIPs:

• 2 hanging kitchen towels. One black. One red. Both about 1/3 of the way completed.
• Fingerless gloves. One glove about 10 rows away from the thumb gusset. Another entire glove to go.
• Harry Potter style scarf (Ravenclaw). About 1/4 of the way completed.
• First pair of socks. One sock, past the heel turn, completed. Another entire sock to go.
• Dishcloths from Kris Knit‘s monthly dishcloth KALs. (I haven’t even finished January’s!)
• Placemats for new dining room. I haven’t started these, but I’d like to have them completed by the end of this month too..

I think I’m being a little too ambitious in my goals, but I don’t necessarily want to finish all of them in April. Let’s say by the end of the semester. Which gives me about 5-6 weeks. I think it can be done. I have all day tomorrow to do a lot of knitting and stash busting. I probably won’t get to knit much this weekend, because I work Saturday for my internship and…

..this weekend is also DFW Fiber Fest…

….and though I’m trying to stash bust…

..I’m totally buying some yarn. XD

This past weekend, husband and I moved into our new, bigger apartment.

From a measly 504sq ft ONE bedroom, ONE bathroom apartment, we moved into a deliciously sized 980sq ft TWO bedroom, TWO bathroom apartment.

OMG. The differences are a-freaking-stounding.

1.) Originally apartment kitchen had a huge pantry. Unfortunately, this pantry jutted into the kitchen itself, making it barely big enough for one person to stand in. Kitchen also had only one counter. This counter was home to the coffee pot.

New apartment kitchen has THREE counters, extra cabinets and drawers. The only downside is the pantry is skinnier, but that’s perfectly OK.

2.) Old living room was home to: couch, bookcase, ferret, my two desks, TV stand, lamp, two ottomans and two TV trays. Needless to say, it was a bit, um, cozy.

The new living room offers so much more space!

3.) Old dining room was never used for dining. It was turned into a make shift office/music studio for Ted…

The NEW dining room allows us to, gasp! DINE in it!

Aside from all this space we are finding ourselves with, we have this awesome extra bedroom that we’ve turned into an office for the two of us. Half of the room is for Ted and all his music stuffs (two trombones, three guitars, a keyboard, a euphonium and a set of bagpipes)…the other half…

…is my CRAFTY area. All my yarn is stored in the closet — and sadly it’s filled with mostly acrylic from when I first began collecting yarn. I really need to stash bust..BAD…so I can buy the ‘finer’ yarns in life. lol

My best friend, Jen, has donated her old dining room table to be my crafting table. Right now I just have a cylinder full of needles on it and my swift. Pretty soon it’ll be home to a sewing machine too. (Ted’s mom has promised me one).

As soon as all the boxes are put away and the apartment is looking orderly, I’ll post pictures (especially of the crafty room).
Meanwhile, did you here about the totally-awesome-giveaway Knit In Pajamas is hosting? Possibility for TWO winners! How great is that?!

Yep, so there you have it. By mid April I should be back to dying yarn and keeping up with the esty shop. Next weekend is DFW Fiber Fest, and though I’m not taking any classes, I *am* going to make an appearance at the vendor fair….

Out of 18 comments on the blog, and the extras I gave away to the fans of the Yarn Panda FB page (that’s right..if you were a fan, you got an extra entry for commenting on the wall — you may want to be a fan for future giveaways…), Random.ORG has spoken.

Congratulations to Debra!

Debra is a FB fan, too!

Are you a fan?

Well, that’s a sweet wrap up to National Craft Month!

I’ve had so much fun with these giveaways! It’s safe to say that there will definitely be more giveaways in the future.

Apologies for not posting the winner yesterday. I moved into a bigger apartment with my husband (heehees!) and the cable/internet guy did not come until today, so I was sans internet.  I’ve also been sans knitting, which is dreadful, but acceptable, since this new apartment has a second bedroom that is being converted into…

*drumroll*

A CRAFTY ROOM!

Yes, folks, this  panda is getting her very own craft room. Granted, a small corner of this room will be allotted to the husband’s desk and music stuffs. But. The entire closet is mine for yarn stashing. I’ll post pictures as soon as it’s all set up and pretty. I’m so excited for this! Once the room is all set up (which is my goal for tomorrow), I’ll be able to get back to knitting and dying yarn, so do make sure you either watch the blog or the etsy store because new yarns and goodies are coming soon!

I’m also excited because it’s a brand new month and things are finally starting to settle down in my way-too-busy life. As you may know, Allyson over at The Sweatshop of Love has been hosting a sweater challenge. She’s challenging knitters to knit a sweater each month for the entire year. Up until now, I’ve been unable to participate, but I’m going to pick out a sweater pattern this weekend and begin on Monday.

So I want to know (cause I’ve never knit a sweater before), what is a good beginner sweater pattern that can be worn in spring (keeping in mind that I live in Texas–which is bipolar when it comes to weather)?

It’s a bit later than I would have liked, but that’s OK! A giveaway is a giveaway, right?

As promised, here is the third and final giveaway celebrating National Craft Month.

mmm. yummy yarn!

We have one skein of Bernat’s Sox in Wooded Denim; this skein is enough for one pair of socks! Also included are two skeins of Deborah Norville’s Serenity Sock Weight in Thyme. That’s another pair of socks, folks.

This giveaway gives you two pairs of socks!! Of course, if you’re like me and don’t knit socks, it’s just another excuse to hit the Ravelry pattern bank.

To enter, just leave a comment*. That’s it. Just comment. Contest entry closes Wed., March 31 at 12:00am CST. Winner will be announced April 1st.

This giveaway not enough for you? Head on over to these great bloggers and enter their knitting giveaways!

The Knitting Knoobie is giving away a knitting book, Stripe and Knit with Style, as well as a skein of Tofutsies!

The Knitting Like Crazy blog is offering hand-painted yarn — and the winner chooses the colors!

Over at The Landlocked Sailor, there is a giveaway for a knitting book,  Learn to Knit by Sue Whiting. Great for beginners and intermediate knitters!

What a great way to wrap up National Craft Month! Giveaways galore!

And by the way, if you’re not subscribed to any of those blogs listed above, you should be. Those are some great, funny knitters!

*contest open to US residents only.