I could not think of a title...

Making progress on my Clapotis. I just wish that I had more time to knit so that I can finish this and start on my Christmas gifts! I was reading one of the message boards that I subscribe to and someone had posted a link to YouTube called The Last Knit. It is hilarious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6ZjMWLqJvM

And I want to thank my mom for sending me my Notre Dame Fighting Irish mouse pad. I know that she is an Irish fan deep down inside. And I have to mention that she has adopted a new hobby, she is making earings. They are really fantastic. Mom, send more silver!

Where art thou knitting?

It has been a few days since I have posted anything, but that is for good reason. I have not completed very much knitting. I am still working on my Clapotis and have dropped the 3rd stitch so far. But it has become dreadfully obvious that I am going to have to buy more yarn to finish this project. Especially since I want to make it longer than the pattern calls for. So I am visiting eBay sometime this week.
I have also stumbled across a pattern when I was surfing through knitting blogs that I want to start knitting, the Lady Eleanor Stole. So I will be searching for the best price on Noro Silk Garden #34 and #88. I decided to use two colorways because this will make the wrap more versatile. From what I have read, I am going to need about 9-10 balls of the Noro yarn, I have 3 balls of Silk Garden #34 already, so I can start the pattern, I just have to make sure that I get the rest to finish.

So the title this posting must be explained. Sunday's are usually my Stitch N' Bitch gathering that I have NEVER missed since I have started going, but this Sunday I was to miss my knitting. My DBF scored 2 tickets to the Sunday matinee of Romeo and Juliette at Opera San Jose. I was first of all shocked that he got the tickets and then was even more shocked that he wanted to go and miss a fairly large amount of Sunday NFL on the tube. But at this point I was not going to ask questions, just go with it. All of this might have been spurred by my question that I posed to him a couple of weeks ago. I asked him to name a romantic thing that he has done for me. I did have to clarify that taking out the garbage was not romantic but a necessity, so he had to think again. When he could not really answer me properly I think he got the point. So off to the Opera! I have never been to the Opera, he thought that he over heard me say that I wanted to the opera, but in actuality I said that I wanted to go to see a play. Play, Opera, same thing in his eyes. But I am not complaining at all, I am quiet impressed that he was willing to give up part of his Sunday football for a little culture with me. It was very enjoyable and we both had a great time. He even said that he would like to go and see another! Madame Butterfly is on my list. After the opera we went to our favorite sushi place and ate until we could eat no more. Shiro Maguro, yummy!!

So roll back one day to Saturday...
NOTRE DAME WINS!!! It was a fabulous come back. They should have never gotten into the position of having to come back, but it was still a fantastic come back!! Cheer Cheer for ol Notre Dame!
Go Blue and Gold!!
I am still looking for the right yarn to start my Notre Dame scarf. Please let me know if any of you have any suggestions.

Needles, Needles and More Needles...

I do believe that I need to sign up for EA (Ebay Anonymous.) My set of Clover bamboo circular needles came in the mail today. I got a set of six sizes 9, 10, 10.5, 11, 13 and 15 all 16". They were a really great price, practically got them all for what you would pay for just 2 of them in a retail store. Now I guess I need to learn how to make hats now! I am finding more and more that I only want to use my circular needles. I have every size straight needles, but am using them less and less. I still have some other circular needle sizes to get obviously, but these came in a set and were a fantastic price, couldn't pass them up.

On another note...
My other passion besides knitting, Notre Dame Football. Yes, my boys did horrible. It hurt to watch. But they will recover and play fantastic against Michigan State this Saturday. I severely got heckled at work Monday over the loss, but remember, He who laughs lasts, laughs best. This reminds me, I must find my gold and blue yarn to knit my ND scarf!!

Mail Call !!

So usually when the receptionist calls my desk due to the nature of my job, it means that an angry customer is standing there and they want to talk to me. But this day was different. When Rosie the receptionist (no, I can't even make that up) called she didn't have new of an angry customer, said that I had a package downstairs. I left my desk like a 5 year old on Christmas morning heading for the tree. My Ebay purchase had arrived, 3 skeins of Noro Silk Garden color #34. I was so excited to get that today. I just love getting things in the mail, useful things, not 15% off water softner system junk mail. I try to buy something on Ebay once a week so that I get something delivered and I have Christmas once a week even if I already know what it is and I bought it. It is still fun.
So what to do with only 3 skeins of Noro Silk Garden? I am not sure but I can't wait to knit with it. It will sit nicely with the rest of my small stash for the moment until I can find the perfect project for it.

Secret Pal

So I signed up for the Secret Pal that I had read about on someone else’s blog. I thought that it would be an exciting thing to do. So I can’t wait. It will be great fun. On the site where you sign up you had to put comments about what your interests were, I really had to think about that. Is there anything other than knitting? Hahahahahaha

Over came the IT Department

It’s a Monday!! So I have not posted for awhile and that is because for one I can’t get on to Blogger from work because our IT department has the site blocked and I can only post from the dojo (our karate school, San Jose Japan Karate-do Center) and secondly because I had no idea what to post! But now that I have read up on how to post to my blog via email, watch out! I am going to be able to post things when ever I get the notion and I get them a lot lately!

Yesterday was the Stitch n’ Bitch weekly gathering and there were several in attendance, at least the most since I started coming. I so look forward to Sundays meeting with the girls. They are so helpful to a beginner like me and they have such a great talent and I am continually inspired. I try to soak up as much knowledge as I can every Sunday. So I brought my niece’s Christmas gift there and was so upset because I though that I mad a HUGE mistake. To me it looks like the raglan armholes were completely off and that I had to frog it back to the decreases. But thanks to Janice and Mary, they shined a bit of knowledge my way and showed me that it was fine. So now I am on to making the front. And before I left last night I had to get some understanding on the pattern for the Clapotis that I am knitting. I was just about to finish Section 2 and start Section 3 (straight rows) and in rows 6 and 8 there were instructions that I was not familiar with. So Emy came to my rescue and showed me what to do. So you know that I got home at about 8pm and continued knitting until I finally DROPPED my first row on my Clapotis!! I was so excited to see how that was going to work so I stayed up until it was dropped. I wanted to keep knitting until I got to drop the second one but I just couldn’t hang on any longer. My head hit the pillow at about 12:30am. This morning I felt a sense of accomplishment, however my warm fuzzy feeling was quickly flattened when the reality of 5:30am set in and only had 5 real hours of sleep.

Ok, I am going to get some real money paying work done now. Until another notion hits…

All I want for Christmas is my Clapotis

So I am knitting the Clapotis and I still can't stop searching EBay for new yarn. I am going to have the IT department at work block that site from me because I have not been able to demonstrate any sort of restraint! So I have not completed that much on the Clapotis as you can see! And no, contrary to some popular belief in my office at work, this is NOT my new knitted G-String!!

Also like a fish takes to shiny objects, I was in the fabric store for a completely different reason and I happen to pass by and display of yarn that caught my attention. See I had an idea to knit my darling little niece a sweater. Honestly I have never knitted anything that somone would wear and it had to fit. I have just knitted blankets, scarves etc. So I thought that a kids sweater would be a good start for me. Besides, how can you not knit something for this face!
So I called Caitlin a couple of weeks ago to see what her favorite color was at the moment and she said it was purple. Last time I checked with her it was pink, but for now and I hope at least until Christmas purple is her fav color! (Mom, make sure that she loves purple still!) So I found the purple yarn for her sweater and here is what I have so far. (Crystal and Caitlin, this is all you will see of your gift until Christmas!!)








This Wednesday Sept. 13, 2006 we are having the baby shower at work for one of my co-workers. So the Big Bady Baby Blanket will be given to her finally. I will have to post the photo of the blanket later. So I had some left over yarn and thought it was enough to make booties. I have never made booties so I had to search online for an easy pattern and I ran across one on Bev's Country Cottage. But appearantly I can't read or count because I made the booties a bit wrong as you can see. But I think they are a decent first attempt.
So now I have two projects OTN (on the needles) and I am about to start another with the yarn that was just sent to me that I bought off EBay. Not sure exactly what it is going to be but I just want to start knitting it because I can't wait to see what it looks like. Actully it is going to be someones Christmas gift and I just don't want them to know!

Knit you later!

Tada!!

I am done with the Big Bad Baby Blanket for my friend at work!! I finished it last night finally. Got up this morning and put it in the washer and then layed flat to dry. I am so happy that I am finally done with a fairly large project (at least for me.) Hopefully she loves it. I will post photos of the completed BBBB when I get a chance.

Ok, I have to address the reasoning behind my blog being named Twisted Stitches. No, I am not a huge Dee Snider or Twisted Sister fan for the record. I was a my second or third Stitch n' Bitch meeting and I was chatting with Emy and I mentioned that the way she does her knit stitches looks different than me. She asked me to demonstrate and of course when someone asks you to do something while they are watching like typing you do it ever so slow and wrong any way! So I showed her how I was doing the knit stitches and then she said purl and knit a few rows and let me look at them. I completed my tiny swatch and she immediately said, "You twist your stitches." Utterly confused, I said that it looks like stocking knit and she then showed me her stocking knit, and sure enough, I see the twisting! I have to justify my twisting, I learned from a book and it was not as clear as I thought apparently on how to knit. It seemed to feel ok when I was doing it twisted but I had no real frame of reference to the "correct" method. So then when I "knitted" the correct way, WOW how much faster I can go! She did explain to me that there are patterns that call for the twisted stitch and that it is not necessarily a wrong way to knit, it is just not the standard. Well I have since done away with the "wrong" way of knitting with the exception of one whole row of the BBBB. I had a brain fart 2/3 of the way in to the blanket and k tbl for an entire row!!! I did not realize it until I had completed about 5 more rows correctly. I was on a deadline and made an executive decision, it is my first blanket I was bound to make errors and I just said MOVE ON!! So there is one row that is twisted in my BBBB, I am going to tell the recipient that just like any artist puts their signature on their piece of work, the twisted row is my signature (that is my story and I am sticking to it!)

So I started a project for myself now. I have yet to knit anything for me yet, which is fine, but I want something now and I have chosen the Clapotis. I know what you are thinking, but I love it and I will not learn anything if I don't just jump right in the deep end! So I bought my yarn off Ebay at this great store Ewe-Phoria Yarns. It is a mixture of black, dark purple and some rosey browns 50% merino wool and 50% silk. I thought it was beautiful and with a yarn name like "Queen of the Night" how can it not be! It does not stripe like the yarn that Katie Gilbert used in her pattern, but I think that this will do fine! I had a hard time starting this project because I am a new knitter and have not learned increases until yesterday while I was at the Stitch n' Bitch group meeting. My newly appointed knitting mentor, she does not know it yet, Laura helped me start out and explained the pattern to me and I perfectly understand it now. So at the point I am on section 2 and the first repeat of 12. I know that when I finish this piece my family and co-workers will be asking where is their Clapotis?? My response will be "At the yarn store!" Maybe if I make them go and buy the yarn they will see that it is not cheap to knit nice things!! By boyfriend is finding out how not cheap it is too. I have another hank of yarn that I just bought on Ebay that I don't have a clue yet what to do with. I purchased it because 1. it was a good price and 2. it has my favorite color RED. I just love red and I am always looking for a good deal on red yarn. This one is 100% merino wool with red, black and grey. I bought it to learn how to make socks, but the dpn's still intimidate me so now I am not sure what it will turn into.

I have made my Christmas projects list and need to start right away if I want to complete every thing on the list. Not everyone will be getting knitting from me this year, I just can't do it all. So I am going to spread it out. Ok, have to run, I have work to be done!

Knit you later...

Sunday, Sunday

ORGINAL POSTED DATED 8/27/06

So it is Sunday and Sensei (DBF) is out of town visiting with family. I decided to stay behind becuase I had the opportunity to work Saturday for 10 hours of overtime!! The decision was not hard. Also, Sundays are my Stitch n' Bitch group meetings and I CAN"T miss that!I gave my best friend the scarf I just completed for her birthday this past Thurday over lunch at this Thai resturant, Blue Mango, and she loved it (See above) . Well at the very least she is a good liar if she didn't. I am still working on the Big Bad Baby Blanket for the lady I work with, I am about half way done, see below. Maybe I will get quite a bit comepleted at today's Stitch n' Bitch meeting.Speaking of the meeting, I have 15 minutes to get there, got to go!Knit you later!

In the beginning

ORGINAL POSTED DATE 8/18/06

So I took up knitting because I need to relieve stress and it was suggested to me. Also because I had surgery and during my recovery I need to be doing something, so I bought needles, yarn and a book! The underlying reason to start this craft comes from my childhood. As a little girl my great grandmother Myrtle Larimer Davis crocheted. She was a pro with yarn and a crochet hook. All year long she would make blankets, hats, scarves, toys, etc. Then when September would come around, the family all got together for her birthday and I mean all of us! (Not exactly positive on the numbers, but it was at least 16 grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren, my grandmother would know better than me. Come on, I was young!) She would have us all line up according to age, her grandchildren, then great grandchildren (which I was apart of that group.) And one by one she would lean over and fumble through large containers of handmade projects and find just the right one for you. Every birthday that I can remember, the grandchildren and great grandchildren received the birthday gift from her. I have to admit; at the time when I was a little girl I did not fully appreciate what she had given me. I just thought, wow, another blanket from GG (Great Grandma.) But now that I am all grown up and have began to knit, I often sit and think of her and can now fully understand all the love and attention that she put into every piece that she made from the little baby booties to the large Orange and Black afghan (our school colors) she made. She had created something for us that we were able to hang on to long after she was gone from our lives. To this day our family has pieces that she had created decorating our homes. I want to carry on that type of legacy that she started for my own family. Therefore, I knit. Myrtle Davis, my great grandmother was born September 28, 1891 and passed January 22, 1988, I was 16 years old.

My beginning knitting was not that good as you can imagine. But I am always up for a challenge. I am determined to be a good knitter. I have completed about 3 scarves so far. The first scarf that I made was a pretty wine color in Lion Brand Homespun yarn. Needless to say, it was not perfect! One end the scarf was wider than the other. I just said that it was a design feature! My friend at work who is crafty herself had encouraged me to try out knitting, so she was the recipient of my first FO (Finished Object.)Since the first FO, I have completed 2 more scarves, both using Lion Brand Homespun yarn, because when and if I make a mistake it is not as obvious with that yarn. One is a skinny long Oatmeal color and the other is a wider Charcoal color. They are currently folded up and stored away for future gift giving. Not sure who is going to receive my early work, but I just hope that they will be put to good use!


I am currently working on 2 projects, which I have heard is common with knitters, to have more than one project going at a time. I am going to try to limit myself to 2 at a time because my skill level is not up to par just yet. The first is a scarf (who would have guessed?) for my best friend’s birthday. I am using Lion Suede yarn. And let me tell you, I am not sure that I will ever use that stuff again. It is turning out great but it is the hardest yarn to knit that I have found so far! The other project is a pale blue baby blanket for a girl I work with. She is expecting her little boy October 24th. As of this point, I have only completed 7 rows of the blanket. This is the largest project that I have attempted and I am not sure if I am going to make it in time for her delivery! I am using the pattern Big Bad Baby Blanket (BBBB) from the Stitch n’ Bitch book. I love the pattern; simple but great looking and I love the Stitch n’ Bitch book. I think it is a must have for new and experienced knitters! So instead of blogging, I need to be knitting. Bye for now, will update you on my progress!!