Fall makes me feel like baking and knitting

I love this time of year.  It makes me feel all domestic, motherly, and crafty.  I get optimistic about all the handmade gifts I will make, the breads I will bake, and the wonderful crafts I will do with my children.  The optimistic feeling is pushed aside a bit in November by the reality of life and time and my less than perfectionistic tendencies when crafting, but for now I am all ideas and dreams and plans.

One of the things this time of year signals for me, is the return to knitting.  In the summer I try to keep up with knitting a bit, but it’s when the weather starts to turn cooler that my drive to play with all the colorful yarns and pour through my books searching out patterns really kicks in.  You should see my bookshelf on Ravelry!  I can spend hours going through those pages in real life and I plan to this next week as the weather turns more fall-like.  I hope to pick out some simple, yet wonderful, items to knit for some of the people on my list.

One book that I’m looking forward to searching thoroughly is “Kristin Knits” by Kristin Nichols.  I love her use of color and her sense of design.  She inspires me to put together colors in new ways and I just love looking at the pictures in her books; the patterns are simple to follow and yet don’t look simple when completed.  I have both “Kristin Knits” and “Color by Kristin” and they are both wonderful.  I’ll post some pictures below to inspire you to check them out.  Also, check out my other favorite knitting books on the sidebar.  If I get techy enough, I’ll put a link to it on here.  Until then, just slide to the right and scroll down.

Ravelry

My new favorite knitting site is Ravelry.  I know it isn’t new, but this summer I really started using it and seeing some of the huge potential!  Look at this screen shot or my Ravelry library- it’s beautiful… and, so simple!  I love it that adding a book is as simple as clicking “add book” and typing in the name or author.  The website takes care of adding the pictures and organizing the books on the shelves.  It was very fun to add all my books and magazines, and now, I believe I can even search my books for patterns.  I haven’t found it to be completely reliable at finding every mitten pattern, for example, but it does seem to do a good job of at least pulling up some patterns from my books for me.  I need to play with it some more to make sure I can’t be doing my search better.

I also love the ability to inventory all of my knitting needles and crochet hooks on Ravelry.  That makes it so I can always look up whether I have a given needle at home, even if I’m nowhere near home.  In theory that means I will never buy duplicate needles again!  The reality, though, is that for that to happen, I actually need a program that provides the right size needle for me from my inventory when I’m in a yarn store.  You know how you get a new project when you’re out of town and you want to start right away, so you think “oh, I could probably use another set of size 6 needles anyway…”  Well, that’s how I end up with  three sets of size 6 needles- I’m not sure even Ravelry’s excellence in inventory can save me from myself on that one, but maybe seeing that I already own three pairs will make me think twice!

Anyway, besides the needle and book organization Ravelry provides, what it is really best at is providing an unbelievable collection of patterns and resources (both people and products) for the knitting and crocheting community.  I am continually amazed by everything that is on there.  I can search for a pattern for pretty much anything and find it!  So far the only pattern I have been unable to find exactly is a Philadelphia Eagles sweater for my pug…that’s pretty specific, so I’m not going to hold it against them.  However, I should say that if I put it on the Ravelry site that I wanted one, I bet someone would either point me to a pattern or create one for me!  There are thousands of knitters on there who are willing, able, and cheery helpers.  Last thing on the community… it also allows you to be “friends” with others.  What that means for me is that I can share knitting highs and lows with my sister-in-law in Ithaca, as well as with my knitter friends right here in town.  Very fun.  Ravelry is an awesome site and definitely worth the time to check out.

Sock Summit Street Jam

I’m so excited! Jason is playing in a three-on-three basketball tournament in Portland next weekend; actually his team won last year and Jason placed in the three point competition. It’s fun to go and cheer him on and see all the athletes playing outside at the Rose Garden. Most of the games are just played on small courts on the blacktop, but there’s also a full wood court set up for the championship, the three point contest, and some of the other games, so that’s pretty cool.

That’s not why I’m excited, though. This is why I’m excited; look what’s going on at the Convention Center at the same time…

I really should probably avoid any places with yarn, but how could I pass up such an opportunity?!? I’ve never gone to any kind of yarn/knitting event before, but I expect it will be wonderful! I’m just excited to see all the yarns together in one place.

Even at home, I love just looking at my yarns. So pretty! 🙂