I Knit, Therefore I Am

Knitting may start out as a hobby, but if often quickly becomes a compulsion. We want to knit ALL THE THINGS, ALL THE TIME. We pity the people sitting in the waiting room or on the bus who don’t have knitting in their hands. How bored they must be! We roll our eyes at the person who thinks that we can’t knit and listen to them at the same time. Instead of complaining about the long line at the bank, we rejoice at the opportunity to “get in a few rows”. I can’t speak for every knitter, but I never EVER leave the house without knitting because you never know when you’ll need it. A quick pop around the corner to the post office turns into a 15 minute wait because some little old lady is trying to ship something overseas. A car trip to run errands turns into a 20 minute knitting break when a train blocks all traffic. If you’ve ever been somewhere and thought “I wish I had my knitting!” you know to be prepared in the future. There is always some quick little project on my needles that I can shove in a pocket or in a bag and take with me as I run out of the door. I keep an emergency stash of yarn and needles at my desk at work, just in case. I’d do the same in my car, except my trunk is full of charity knitting yarn and donated needles, so I’m good there. I used to feel weird about knitting in public, but boredom soon took away any inhibitions I might have had. I’ve knit in bars, at parties, on the bus, at conferences and lectures, in line at the grocery store, in line at the bank, Target, the craft store-pretty much in any kind of line, really. I knit in between dances, I knit during the fireworks on the 4th of July. If I’m sitting or standing still, I’m either knitting or wishing I was knitting. If I’m not knitting, I’m probably fidgeting or getting into mischief. It’s best you let me knit.

It might seem obsessive, and it probably is, but it’s how things get made. Knitters are busy people. We have jobs and raise families and volunteer and do many, many other things besides knit. The next time you receive a hand-knit gift, think about all the hours it took to make it and remember that it was probably knit while watching TV, in line at the bank, in the passenger seat of the car, at any spare moment that person found to make your gift. Before you’ve even put on that new hat or scarf, it’s already had an adventure of its own while it was being made!

Meet Xenophilius

I can't remember the last sunny day we had here in snowy, rainy, snowy (it seems to alternate days) Buffalo and I was feeling the winter blues. The best way to combat that? Dye a bit of sunshine!

Introducing my newest colourway: Xenophilius

Xenophilius, and all my colourways, can be found at our Etsy shop here.

Enjoy!

Sereknitty

Non-Knitters Say the Darndest Things!

We’ve all run into them. The well-meaning but clueless non-knitter who feels they must interrupt your precious knitting time with an unwelcome comment or two. Usually it’s a simple exchange and they’re on their way, but sometimes, some days, I seem to be just bombarded with ridiculous comments and I must remind myself to “just keep knitting” and keep my mouth shut. Here are some of my “favourite” comments. I’m sure you have a few of your own.

Them: Knit two, purl two! Ha ha!
Me: *Polite smile*
What I wish I could say: No, I’m doing a k2, 4-LC, p1, yo, p2tog lace pattern repeat, thank you very much.

Them: What are you making?
Me: A sock.
Them: Just one? HA HA HA HA HA!
Me: *Polite smile*
What I wish I could say: Well, Dobby, I could knit both at the same time, but I don’t like to show off.

(Ok, really, I just don’t like doing two at a time, but that’s just my personal preference. Props to anyone who does!!)

Them: What are you making?
Me: A sock.
Them: You know you can get those at Walmart, right?
Me: Not these! *polite smile*
What I wish I could say: If you can walk into Walmart and find a pair of hand knit, hand dyed 100% merino wool fair isle knee high socks that actually fit me and weren’t made by slave labor in some 3rd world country AND cost less than $100, then perhaps, just perhaps, I’ll re-consider my personal ban on Walmart…but I doubt it.

Them: My grandmother used to crochet!
Me: Did she? That’s nice. *Polite smile*
What I wish I could say: This is KNITTING, not crochet, you silly human! Maybe if you had paid a bit more attention to your crafty grandmother, you’d know the difference! Bad grandchild!

Them: I don’t have the patience to knit!
Me: It’s actually very relaxing. *Polite smile*
What I wish I could say: The only reason I haven’t strangled anyone yet is because I’m knitting. And, because I don’t want to take the risk of breaking one of my Lantern Moon US size 1 rosewood DPNs. These babies are expensive!

Them: That’s pretty. Will you make me one?
Me: No, but I’ll teach you to make your own. *Polite smile*
What I wish I could say: You have no idea the time, money and energy that goes into making a hand knit item, do you? If I actually totaled up the cost of the yarn and my hourly salary and sent you a bill, you’d faint. I didn’t start knitting to make money!

And then, my favourite one of all:

Them: *Some sort of ridiculous mime that they think resembles a person knitting but mostly makes them look like they’re doing the chicken dance, very poorly.*

Honestly, I never know how to respond to that!

New Colourways!

It's been ages since we blogged AND since we've updated the etsy shop, but I'm finally adding some new colourways! The first one is another Harry Potter themed colourway. I call her Cho, and she's an idea I've had in my head for a while now:

I want to try different ways to dye this colourway in the future, so I'm sure the next batch will be a bit different. But I love how she turned out!

I'm going to be updating Etsy with more yarns and goodies soon, so keep an eye out!!

One of the reasons we haven't updated in ages is because we've had a busy summer/fall. We've had a craft show a month for the last three months, which has kept us both busy knitting and dyeing and it's been hard to update stock when we keep having to resupply it. Not that I'm complaining. It's been fun!

And, as always, we've been busy knitting away. We did the Hungry Bees pattern as our Socktober Knit-a-long, and mine turned out very fun

(The other foot was in an ankle wrap. Just imagine there are two feet!)

I also knit a cute little cabled cardigan

And I'm working on test knitting a pair of socks for a friend. They're very cabled and use Austrian twisted stitches. They're so pretty! I'm using MadelineTosh Tosh Merino Lite in the Sugar Plum colourway.

I hope to read the heel flap tonight! There are cables down the back of the heel, which I've never done before. I love doing new knitting things.

That's what's been keeping me busy. What about you?

Single Skein September!

We survived our first vendor table at the Lancaster Farmer's Market last Saturday. It was an interesting and informative experience. Check out our display:

I had fun designing labels for everything. Now that we've gotten our feet wet, we have submitted an application to have a table at the WNY Fiber Festival (formerly the Knox Farm Fiber Festival). That will be on the 24th of this month at Emery Park in South Wales. I encourage everyone to attend and support this festival so that we can keep it going for years go to come. And of course, if you do go, stop by and say hi to us!

In other news: It's Single Skein September, so I'm trying to get through at least ONE single skein. Of course I'm knitting socks! And, I'm trying to finish up my Jaywalkers that I've been working on since forever. I'm on the ribbing at the top of the second sock, and then its just the afterthought heel and all done! I'm also spinning some sock yarn that I hope to have done this month so I can knit it into a pair of Rapunzel Stockings.

October will be SOCKTOBER and our knitting group be doing a Knit-a-Long of Hungry Bees by Emma Grundy Haigh:

Want to join us? If you don't have yarn, I'll be dyeing some up honey coloured yarn soon, and I've got a nice golden wheat colour now in the shop that I think would look great as Hungry Bees: Scrimgeour

I still haven't updated my stash for August yet, but that will be happening soon. I have to get to 15,000 before Rhinebeck so I'll be a knitting fool the next month and a half!

Happy Knitting, keep those needles a-clicking!

Sereknitty

I made a couple stitch markers today

Why? Because Lolo and I will be at the Lancaster Market this Saturday from 7-1 selling hand dyed and hand spun yarn, knitted and handmade gift items AND...stitch markers!! If you're free, stop by and say hi (and maybe buy something?)

We will be joined by Jenn of 716knit, whose self striping yarns are so bright and awesome.

Hope to see you there!!!

Sereknitty

I DID IT!!!

I finished the shawl!!!!

Isn't it beautiful? Don't you love it? The pattern is now available. It's called Dancing Birds of Paradise and you can find it here.

In other news, I knit 2570 yards in July! Pretty amazing, huh? Well, not all of it was knitting, I did give some yarn away, but still, in coldsheeping, destashing counts. So far I've used up 11,562 yards, bringing my stash down to 27,370 yards. I think I can make my goal of hitting 15,000 yards before Rhinebeck in October!!

All in all, good news. We are both knitting/dyeing/crafting furiously to prepare for the craft table on the 27th, so clear your schedule to come visit us at the Lancaster Farmer's Market between 7 and 1. We'll have hand dyed and hand spun yarns along with knitted and hand made gift items. There will be something for everybody and hopefully it'll be lots of fun!