handknit habitat

...and the winner is...

Congratulations to Cindy Premise, the winner of the first ever Handknit Habitat blog giveaway!

Cindy, please email me at hknithab@gmail.com to claim your prizes.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day holiday!

knitting in the news: london calling!

...this just in from London: as they prepare for the Olympics, the Olympknits team is having its own finals, complete with streakers and unfortunate de-trunked divers (or perhaps you could say he was unseated, ha ha ha):

  

blog giveaway: what kind of knitter are you?

 One of my favorite yarn stores posed this question in their most recent newsletter and sketched out 5 types of knitters:

1) Can't Wait to Cast-On: Do you love almost every new pattern you see? Or maybe you have so many favorite designers that every time they publish a new design you HAVE to cast on right away? In short, you are a knitter who loves to cast on projects and often has many projects on the needles. We know these knitters well! One thing that she swears by is having enough project bags on hand at any given time.

2) The Focused Finisher: This knitter is the most disciplined knitter of them all. Known for starting projects and seeing them through to the end, this type of knitter is not only organized, but is also not one to allow herself to get too distracted by all of the tempting new patterns and yarns until they are finished with their current project.  She is always finishing project after project with admirable discipline and focus. She swears by her iPad to keep her in line.  Not only that, she has every size she needs from US 4-11 so if she has to change needles in the middle of a project, she doesn't have to stop to find them or buy another size!

 3) The Sometimes Knitter: Are you the type of knitter who only picks up the needles a few times a year, when you feel especially inspired? Are you super busy but occasionally need to make something just to keep those creative juices flowing? Or maybe you have many hobbies and knitting is just the icing on the crafty cake! In any case, this type of knitter doesn't want to be bogged down with too many knitting books or tools. She also loves to have a few go-to yarns hanging around for when the moment strikes.

4) The Newbie Knitter: Are you a new knitter? Just learning to knit and purl, or maybe you've gone a little beyond that? Well first, welcome to this fabulously fun community! We are so glad to have you! Hopefully by now you've discovered some yarns you love, or maybe even started building a queue on Ravelry. The next step is to begin building a collection of go-to items that you'll need for almost every project! 

 5) The Selfless Knitter: We all know this type of knitter. It's the knitter that the rest of us all admire for her ability to selflessly give away everything she knits! Perhaps you knit for charity or maybe you have a never-ending list of family and friends that you love to knit for. In any case, we know it can be exhausting to always be knitting for everyone but yourself, so that's why it's extra important to surround yourself with items to make the knitting process that much more enjoyable for you! 

If you've been knitting for as long as I have, you'll see yourself in each one of these portraits...in fact, I've been through a progression from "newbie", to "can't wait", through "focused," "sometimes" and "selfless." In fact, I gave away so many items I thought maybe I'd better start selling them--guess now that makes me an entrepreneurial knitter! LOL!

So what kind of knitter are YOU? Answer this question in the comments section of this blog and your name will be entered in a drawing to win a free HH hat! The winner will be announced next Sunday--good luck!

5/20/2012 update: It's getting a bit warm for hats, so the winner will also get a couple of free books: Volume 3 of Barbara Walker's stitch dictionary ("Charted Knitting Designs: A Third Treasury of Knitting Patterns") and "The Crafter's Guide to Taking Great Photos" by Heidi Adnum!

classic literature

I've been a hard-core knitter since the 80's. Back then I joined a club for enthusiasts sponsored by a company that would later become a powerhouse of the knitting world: Rowan International.  Rowan's first series of patterns used a young Kate Moss as its model--apparently this was her first gig. The issue she appears in, no. 10, is now a classic and Rowan has a copy under glass at their offices in London. I thought I had thrown mine out years ago, but after going through my pattern stash I found it (gasp!):

But my copy isn't pristine or "Antiques Roadshow" ready--it's full of notes and markings I made to knit the various sweaters, even though I never made any of them. And a page has been ripped out and re-inserted. So I guess my copy is good for my own pride of ownership, but probably not for cash, which is fine...I am proud to own a real piece of knitting history!

sunday humor for mother's day

An engineer dies and reports to the Pearly Gates. Saint Peter checks his dossier and, not seeing his name there, accidentally sends him to Hell. It doesn't take long before the engineer becomes rather dissatisfied with the level of comfort in Hell. He soon begins to design and build improvements. Shortly thereafter,  Hell has air conditioning, flush toilets and escalators. Needless to say, the engineer is a  pretty popular guy. One day, God calls Satan and says with a sneer: "So, how are things in Hell?" Satan replies: "Hey, things are going great. We've got air conditioning, flush toilets, and escalators. And there's no telling what this engineer is going to come up with next." "What!" God exclaims. "You've got an engineer?  That's a mistake --he should never have been sent to Hell.  Send him to me." "Not a chance," Satan replies: "I like having an engineer on the staff, and I'm keeping him!" God insists: "Send him back or I'll sue." Satan laughs uproariously and answers, "Yeah, right.  And where are you going to get a lawyer?"   Happy Mother's Day to my mom, Debbie, who's been married to a lawyer for 53 years!

a work in progress

A customer who purchased one of my "signature" hats liked it so much that she asked me to make her another one, but she had a specific feature she wanted me to change: she asked me to leave the top off so that she could pop her  hair through it. She is a beautiful Samoan woman with long, straight black hair that she often wears in a long braid or in a top knot and she wanted her hat to accommodate her look. That "hole in one" hat came out great, so then her husband said he wanted something similar for his dreadlocks (in black or navy of course--men always seem to prefer plain and/or dark colors). Hence, fashion meets practicality! And I have a new item to add to my line. Now I just need a catchy name for it...

getting all my ducks in a row...

The Knitting Guild recommends gathering all of your reference books together in preparation for the research required for Level 1 of the Master Knitting course:

I've got a nice collection of sweater design books so far, but I anticipate buying a few more to round out the areas that my collection is weak in (such as fair isle knitting, cables, and lace).  Nothing like having a great excuse to buy more knitting books!

pomp and circumstance

A proud dad that I met at Gallifrey 2012 has commissioned a Season 12 Dr. Who scarf for his son's graduation:

It's made from Knit Picks Brava, a soft acrylic yarn that is washable and colorfast--should be just the thing for a young man on the go!

do you ever feel like you're being watched...?

 

Yep, this sums it up perfectly! Is someone following me...?

spring is in the air!

"Be mine, you must.  Love You, I will.  Marry you, I might?" --Yoda in Love *

Well, well, well...since even 800 year-old Yoda is engaging in "conduct unbecoming" to a Jedi (with a lovely little doll I made in a toy knitting class I took last summer), it would seem that spring has truly sprung--bringing with it, not only the need for love, but also for spring cleaning and a fresh focus for Handknit Habitat! It's been six months since I started blogging (whew!) so I took a few days off to give the blog a face-lift and (I hope) a cheerier disposition. And, in the spirit of Jedi Mastery, I too have set out on a path to enlightenment via the Master Knitting correspondence course offered by the Knitting Guild of America. I will have to write reports and knit swatches and all sorts of  other wonderful things on my way from padawan to Jedi knitster. And I will be sharing much of that journey right here...so, until the next post...may the force be with you!

*quote from The Wallaroo Prints greeting cards at thewallaroo.etsy.com