Instagram Iphone ILOVEIT!

I got an Iphone

It's taking over my life.

I love Instagram and am starting to mess around with Hipstamatic. I got the Iphone4S and it has an 8 megapixel camera.

.

I mean, is it really necessary to take pictures of everything including my meals?

And my candleabra?

And paintings?

And whatever the heck this is?

And knitting?

And yarn?

And more yarn?

Actually, yes. Yes, I do think it's necessary.

...don't even get me started on Angry Birds...

YARN BOMBING THE LOOPS!!

Kamloops first Yarn Bombing event!

electrictree yarns is hosting Kamloops First Annual Yarn Bombing The Loops!!!

Guerilla Knitters Unite...or Untie...or Tie!

Wiki defines yarn bombing as "a type of graffiti or street art that employs colorful displays of knitted or crocheted yarn or fibre rather than paint or chalk."

Last week at Knitter's Anonymous somebody yarn bombed the parking meter in front of our store!

Yarn Bombing is a fun way to beautify the Downtown! It's slightly clandestine, so it's exciting too! The great thing about Yarn Bombing is the lack of rules, you can knit, crochet, macrame, in any shape or form you like!

We are doing this event in conjunction with the KCBIA Spring Festival The Spring Festival is from May 10-12. Our event will include fun and prizes! For the purpose of this event the area eligible for prizes is on Victoria St from 1st Ave (including the side of the street City Hall is on), to 5th Ave, as well as 3rd Ave between Victoria St and Seymour St. (where electrictree yarns is). You are more than welcome to Yarn Bomb in other areas of Kamloops, but you won't be eligible for our prizes. In order to have the greatest overall impact we suggest doing your Yarn Bombing on the evenings of May 7th, 8th, and 9th. Your Yarn Bombing has to be finished by May 10th to be eligible for a prize. In order to be entered you need give us a photo of you (and your friends!) installing your yarn piece- send it to electrictreeyarns@gmail.com or post it on our Facebook Page

Items we suggest Yarn Bombing-trees, garbage cans, lamp posts, parking meters, and other inanimate public objects. You can also Yarn Bomb patio fences, chairs, benchs, etc, but you MUST get permission from the business owners. When bombing public objects you must be careful to not cover any important parts/surfaces such as identifier numbers on parking meters, lock boxes on parking meters, electrical outlets on lamp posts, locks on garbages, etc.

For some neat ideas and inspiration check out some of these great websites! Yarnbombing.com, Wikipedia, Magda Sayek, and Yarn Doodler.

We will also be offering Yarn Bomb suitable yarns on Sale in-store! Sirdar Worsted with Wool, Diamond Luxury Superwash Aran and DK, and Estelle Frill Seeker! These yarns will be 30% off!

Get knitting! Or Crocheting! Or Knotting! Or Whatever!

KAL Carousel Notes

I love my new Carousel socks and am on my way to knitting a second pair in zauberball. The second pair I am modifying so that there is no need for an afterthought heel, it's just knit right in the spiral as you go! If it works well, I'll post on how to do it here!

I want to post about picking up the stitches for the heel and toe here because it took me a while to figure out what she wanted you to do in the pattern. It's really simple, but she doesn't actually tell you what to do, rather she points you in the direction of various tutorials and other instructions. It's really simple and I'm not sure why she didn't just tell you what to do.

If you have 60 sts to pick up for the toe or heel and you only have 30 slipped stitches to pick up from, you add the extra stitches you need by using the backwards loop cast on. The backwards loop cast on is the simplest of cast ons, if you don't already know how to do it there's a tutorial here, but really you just make a loop and stick on the needle. So you would pick up one slipped stitch and knit it, and cast on one, pick up one slipped stitch, cast on, etc. Don't do 2 backwards loop cast on stitches in a row it will make a hole.

I also found a minor errata in the pattern and did mention it to the designer but it has not been fixed. It's in the left leg. The pattern reads:

Left sock leg spiral:
You now have a small strip beginning with a point (cast-on edge). In order to create a spiral, attach the strip to the cast-on edge as follows:
See Illustration 2 at right -->

Row 1 [WS] Sl1, p10, sl1, pick up and knit 1 stitch from the right side of the cast-on edge and pass the slipped stitch over.

I made the mistake big and bold! It should read "pick up and purl 1 stitch from the right side of the cast-on edge"

Round and Round the Carousel!

Carousel Socks!I LOVE THEM!!!

knit a pair in 4 days. Granted, I modified the design so it was 11 sts on a 2.75 instead of 12 on a 2.5 so they went a lot faster, but something about this knit is crazy speedy.

I had purchased some Frabjuous Fibre with no plan for what to do with the bright colourway. Then I saw the Carousel Socks and I just knew it was meant to be.

I split the roving lengthwise into quarters and spun 2 quarters on each bobbin and plied them together. I did quarters instead of halves so that I would have a nice colour change that wasn't too long for the sock pattern.

Yes, I am totally casting on another pair today...this time in Katia Darling

Socken Sockey Sock Sock and a Sock KAL

I've had a bad case of KADD (Knitting Attention Deficit Disorder) lately. A million projects on the go, and none ever getting finished. Then Knitty came out with this:

I just about died. A million projects on the needles and these babies fall out of the sky?! In Knitty no less, so there's no financial excuses (Oh I'll knit that pattern later, it costs SIX BUCKS-for those of you that don't know Knitty, this is sarcasm, Knitty has awesome patterns and they are FREE!). There's was nothing left to do but hit the needles and get some shtuff finished!

I started these bad boys 2 and a half weeks ago.

A pattern completely of my own devisement. I did make notes as I went along, so it's possible that they will end up as an actual pattern someday.

They turned out pretty awesome. But took way too long too knit, that's not just because of the KADD, it's also because it's year end and books, payroll, etc was all due. I had 5 days where I didn't knit. If you know me personally, you know that's crazypants. I got pretty cranky for awhile there (well, more than usual anyhow...)

I still have a couple projects on the go, but I frogged 2 that just were not working, so am now down to a pair of socks and a sweater. In honour of this I have decided to start a Knit Along for those amazing Carousel socks! This way I won't feel guilty about starting them when there are other projects on the go, it's my responsibility as the host of this KAL that I knit along with all of you! (Right? RIGHT?!!)

In honour of this electrictree yarns will be having a sale on yarns appropriate for the socks. You don't have to buy our yarn to join the knit along, but we wanted something special for you. And we like doing sales. And contests. Oh! Did I mention this is a contest too!?

This pattern is designed especially for yarns with long colour changes. I have seen a few people try it out with variegated yarns and the results are not nearly as wonderful. If you are using your own yarn we strongly suggest using a long colour change yarn. You can check out the projects on Ravelry and see what appeals to you. If you need help choosing yarn from your stash, feel free to come in with some yarns and we'll be happy to help you choose.

Yarns in store that will work great for this pattern and therefore or on sale for the KAL are:

Zauberball

Zauberball Crazy

Katia Darling

and Jawoll Bambus

This discount is not a regular sale and is only for the purposes of this KAL, so if you purchase one of these yarns, let us know it's for the KAL and we'll give you 10% off your chosen yarn.

Here's how the KAL works-

We'll be starting a thread on our electrictree yarns group on Ravelry, so if you aren't already on Ravelry you should join, because it's awesome. Take the time to introduce yourself on the thread and share your project/yarn with the group. The group is there for discussion and fun, so if you find problems with pattern, parts of it you love, parts of it you hate, or any other insights-that is the perfect place to discuss it with other people knitting the pattern!

The KAL starts today and ends April 10th. The yarns mentioned above will be on sale for you until April 3rd. By purchasing one of these yarns and mentioning the discount you are committing to at least attempting to knit the Carousel socks during this time and not just padding your stash.

On April 10th we will do a random drawing of all the people who have completed the project and they will receive a skein of electrictree yarns ephemeral as a tribute to their awesomeness!

If you don't want to join Ravelry, but still want to join the Knit Along, that's OK too, just stop in the store by April 10th and show us your finished socks and we'll enter you in the draw!

On your marks, Get Set, SOCK!!!

Oh Edward!

I finally got started on my Opposite Pole Sweater. I order the yarn a long time ago and it's been sitting here at the store taunting me. I printed the pattern and left it lying on the counter so I would see it constantly as a reminder of what was to come. I forced myself to finish several UFO's (UnFinished Objects), because the number of WIP's (Works in Progress) was getting marginally ridiculous (one of the dangers of being a yarn store owner...). So I finished many things and started and finished many more-Christmas presents mostly. About 5 days ago I cast on the back and started knitting along merrily-a total lie, I had to cast on multiple times and rip back a bunch because while there are no errors in the pattern, it's a little convoluted at times.

It's not really a complicated pattern-although it's definitely not easy, but it does take some concentration. OK, lots of concentration through certain parts of it. Like the part where you are knitting 2 separate charts while knitting garter stitch wedges while attaching it to the back piece.

I really like the construction and I was checking out Joji Locatelli's other designs, I think I like them all! They're fresh and interesting but totally knittable!

So, because I apparently only finished simple projects-all I have left are projects that require a certain amount of concentration that is nearly impossible to give in public, or when Wee Patrick is feeling particularly feisty.

I grabbed Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn by Carol Sulcoski with the best intentions, I figured I would knit the socks that Barb Brown contributed to the book since they are fantastic socks, Barb is a cool person, and I have seen the actual sock from the book...on Barb's feet...in the store...

But then I saw these.

As Stephanie Meyer so ineptly put it-I fell hopelessly, and irrevocably in love.

I LOVE handpainted and hand dyed yarns, but I am really particular about what patterns I use them for. Variegated yarns just don't translate into every pattern well. I have learned that just because you love the yarn, the colour and the pattern, doesn't mean that by combining them you will end up with an attractive pattern. If I am knitting something out of my head-like a quick scarf, cowl, hat, etc-and I choose to use a variegated yarn, invariably I choose moss stitch because it breaks up the colours in a pleasing manner. So imagine a whole book of such yarny knitterly genius!

I'll put Barb Brown's Rib Fantastic Socks on the back burner and hope that she forgives me for being so fickle.

And yes, those are Signature Needle Arts DPN's. Mumsy gave them to me for Christmas!

Dividing by Zero

Ever seen one of those demotivational posters about dividing by zero?

Yeah, that's what my knitting world is like right now. Like I said in the last blog post, I am knitting the Hitchiker. Don't get me wrong, I am still enjoying this scarf, even if it is 400yds of garter stitch on 3mm needles (Wait! Maybe THAT'S why it's called the hitchiker scarf, it's like the trilogy that never ends...). I was merrily knitting along thinking that I must be past halfway through this lovely ball of knitting when I committed a major knitting faux pas. I pulled out the scale, weighed the yarn and just about flipped my lid when I saw I had 62 grams left. Which meant I was nowhere near the halfway point. Now, I think weighing yarn is a useful tool. It's great when you are knitting a project that requires 2 of something and you are trying to figure out if you have enough-like socks, mittens, or sweater (weighing the yarn to make sure you have enough for 2 sleeves...). But weighing the yarn just because you can't handle not knowing how much more knitting you have? That is a horrible abyss that no knitter should fall into.

That's not even the worst part. I continued knitting my little project for a while-it's hard to tell how long because people come into the store and I have to stop knitting sometimes, but I figured I had maybe another hour of knitting.

I weighed the ball again.


Seriously, either I am in a time paradox or I have the yarn ball of infinity matter.