Do you guys remember when I used to knit things? Sort of? Barely? Not really? The reason you can’t remember is that I haven’t knit anything for myself in about a year. That’s a really long time for someone who used to be an avid knitter. Back in the day, I would finish one project and then start another within a matter of days.
I have a few theories for why I don’t knit as much as I used to:
– I was part of a knitting group in college and we used to meet weekly, so even if I didn’t knit at all during the week, I was still knitting for a little bit each weekend.
– Knitting can be an expensive hobby. When I was part of that knitting group in college, our supplies were subsidized, but of course I’ve been paying for everything myself for the last few years since I graduated. I live on a pretty tight budget, so sometimes I just don’t have the money to spend on anything that’s not a necessity.
– I’ve been doing a lot more reading in my downtime. Sometimes there are only a few precious hours after work and while I didn’t knit a lot in 2013, I did far exceed my reading goal!
I did complete one item last year- this cozy herringbone scarf. Also, towards the end of the year, I became a test knitter for an accessories designer here in NYC. This meant that I knit up samples from patterns that they created. Now that that gig is almost over, I’m excited to pick up knitting myself again.
There are a couple of blogs that I’ve discovered (or rediscovered) recently that have gotten me excited about knitting again. Meredith’s blog One Sheepish Girl is fun and colorful and she always finds the prettiest knits. I just found Karen’s blog, Fringe Association, and I love her “Knit the Look” series where she describes how you might recreate knits from inspiring street style pictures.
Finally we get to the picture above! I think this sweater could be my next project. I love the simple, yet colorful style and it would be the perfect thing to work on as I’m logging all of these hours watching the Olympics. I’m currently in the research phase, meaning I’m trying to decide what yarn to work with and if I want to go for a more springy or wintery color combination.
Tell me: Are you a knitter as well?
(image via)
![It's a very belated book haul! These are the four books I picked up on my trip to Australia back in May. Of course I had to check out some bookstores on my first trip to Sydney and I think I ended up visiting 9 in total (check out my stories to see the mini bookstore vlog I made)!
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It was so fun book shopping over there since majority of the covers are different from our US covers. I couldn't resist this pretty edition of PACHINKO, which I've already read. And when I picked up this copy of PEOPLE PERSON, I was so excited to see it because it wasn't out yet in the US at that time. I also bought two books that I hadn't heard of before I discovered them in the bookstore: IDOL and LOVE AND OTHER PUZZLES.
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Do you tend to prefer US or UK book covers?
[P.S. This is an old photo that includes a HarperCollins UK title, but please note that I support the HarperCollins Union.]
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[ID: A stack of the following books sits on top of white bedding in front of a white wall (from top to bottom): PACHINKO, IDOL, LOVE AND OTHER PUZZLES, PEOPLE PERSON.]
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#Pachinko #Idol #LoveAndOtherPuzzles #PeoplePerson #whattoread #beautifulbooks #bookhaul #booksandtravel #travelandbooks #bookishaesthetic #bookstacks #bookstacklove #ukbookcovers #ukbookhaul #newbooks #bookbuying #bookpurchases #coolgirlsread #readerslife #bookishcommunity #australiatrip #stackofbooks #bookwormlife #booksandbooks](https://starcrossedsmile.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)
Yea for knitters!! I love knitting and tend to have more than 2 or 3 projects going at any one time but rarely do I end up finishing all of them :-( However, that is a sweater I could sink my needles into and actually finish – I love it!
I usually only have one project going on at a time, otherwise it would be hard for me to focus! But sometimes if I’m working on a large project, but then plan to travel, I’ll start a smaller project too that’s easier to transport. I like this pattern too and I started it, but then stopped because I wasn’t loving the way it was turning out. Now I’m trying to improvise a top-down sweater, but I’m going to colorblock it like this one!
I found this pattern easy to follow until The neck. You have 5 stitches at each marker and 17 stitches at center front that equal 27, but there are 40 stitches n back?… It would help to give a stitch count!