A month of Hockey Inspired Knitting

From October 1 to November 9, I've documented each game -- the result is posted below. =D

(I'm so proud, but more of the fact that I was able to make a panorama picture; the knitting is easy enough...)

Hockey Inspired Knitting (part two...)

Well folks, the first week of hockey is over and I've knit a game so far. (Thankfully, recaps tell me who scored and when, just in case I miss anything.)

Already, I feel like I'm squishing the games too much, so I'm adding extra rows in for all of the following games. (First game will be 'shorter' than all of the following ones, but overall, I think it'll be alright.  This is for me, after all.) And I'm changing up how I knit the "WS" rows during the games.  Pictures will be up when I remember to take/post them... (So, hopefully, soon. I just have to actually REMEMBER to take them...)


Edited to add: FIRST PICTURE!!!  Game 1 vs The Washington Capitals

The Thick Red Stripe towards the top shows that WE WON.

Not a great picture, maybe, but it's a start. We'll see how this progresses as the games continue on!!

Happy hockey season!

Hockey Inspired Knitting

Last night was the NHL Opening night and the Blackhawks Banner Raising ceremony.

Normally, I'll knit during hockey, to keep things interesting and to keep me from biting my nails down to their beds (sometimes this doesn't work so well...).  As I was knitting last night, I realized that this shawl that I'm working on has absolutely nothing to do with hockey. At all.  It's pretty, and I enjoy working on it, but perhaps I could come up with something else to do during hockey games...

And then it hit me.

A hockey shawl.  Similar in style to this: http://400squareftliving.blogspot.com/2013/01/knitting-my-year-in-temperatures-scarf.html but based somehow on the games that I watch instead of the weather. So I texted my good friend Tasha to get her friend Angelique's email, since she is working on a shawl similar to the one I linked to - I figured she'd have some great ideas.

AND SHE DID.

-- 1 -- Go through the league and pick a dominant color for each team. I know lots of teams have multiple colors but if it's possible to do one color per team, that would be ideal. If not, then figure out two colors for each team.
-- 2 -- Figure out a base/neutral color that is NOT among your team colors. Maybe this can be white, black or grey. Maybe it needs to be fuschia or purple
-- 3 -- For each game, knit one row in each team's color(s); home team gets "top" billing.
-- 4 -- Knit mainly in your base color for each game, but knit X number of stitches in a team's color(s) when they score. Again, if hockey scores are like soccer scores, this would be fairly boring. However, if hockey games are higher scoring, this could be fun, plus it's an interesting record of a game--i.e., when your team scores right off the bat or when mad points are scored in the final period
-- 5 -- At the end of the game, knit 2 rows in the winner's color(s).

It's brilliant.* I'll knit a row of each color at the beginning of the game, first a row for the home team, then one for the visitors, and then knit between five and ten stitches for every minute of the period in the neutral color (white), with goals portrayed as five stitches knit in the color of the team who scored.   I'll end each period with five stitches of a second neutral color (gray).  This will allow for extra time to be accounted for!  If I have shutouts, they'll be marked by shots made vs missed (five stitches in the color if you make it, five in white if you miss it.) Winners will have two rows of their color to end the game.

So, now comes the hard part.  COLORS.  White will be the 'neutral' color - for ice. (My brother's idea.)

• Western Conference
• Central - 29 games this season
• Chicago Blackhawks - Red, Black, White
• Winnipeg Jets - Red, Blue, Gray
• Colorado Avalanche - Maroon, Blue, White
• Dallas Stars - Green, White, Yellow
• Minnesota Wild - Green, White, Red, Yellow
• Nashville Predators - Navy, Gold, White
• St. Louis Blues - Blue, Yellow, White
• Pacific - 21 games this season
• Edmonton Oilers - Navy, Orange, White
• Anaheim Ducks - Black, Beige, Orange
• Calgary Flames - Red, Yellow, White
• Los Angeles Kings - Black, Purple, White
• Phoenix Coyotes - Maroon, White
• San Jose Sharks - Black, Teal, White
• Vancouver Canucks - Blue, White, Green

(Gosh, this is going to be harder than I thought...)

• Eastern Conference
• Atlantic - 16 games this season
• Toronto Maple Leafs - Blue, White
• Montreal Canadiens - Red, White, Blue
• Boston Bruins - Black, Gold
• Buffalo Sabres - Black, Blue, White, Gold
• Detroit Red Wings - Red, White
• Florida Panthers - Red, Black, White
• Ottawa Senators - Red, White, Gold
• Tampa Bay Lightning - Blue, White
• Metropolitan - 16 games this season
• Washington Captials - Red, White Blue
• Carolina Hurricanes - Red, Black
• Columbus Blue Jackets - Blue, Red, White
• New Jersey Devils - Red, Black
• New York Islanders - Blue, Orange, White
• New York Rangers - White, Red, Blue
• Philadelphia Flyers - Orange, Black, White
• Pittsburgh Penguins - Black, Gold, White

Sadly, my brother pointed out to me that this means that I'll have to work with thirty different colors of yarn.  So I might just do a "Hawks vs ..." color scheme.  White still is neutral. Hawks are red. Opposing team is Black if in the Central division, Green if in the Metropolitan, Yellow if in the Atlantic, and Navy if in the Pacific. Second neutral color would be gray.

BRILLIANT.  Now, to find excessive amounts of yarn in bulk and places to store it while I undertake this amazingly ridiculous project... (Oh look... how convenient!)

SO. Thankfully, Simply Soft has no dye lot, which means I can always go back to my local Michael's and buy more when I need it.  This is a pretty brilliant idea. I'll need lots of Red, White and Black to begin with...

* After consulting with my brother, I realized that if I ever missed games, just getting the recaps from blackhawks.nhl.com wouldn't be enough. Thus, I'd have to have a certain number of stitches per minute in order to effectively capture the game.  Issues for overtime and shootouts were also addressed.

Absent coworkers plus excess yarn can make for some interesting creations...

I made this for my coworker's phone:

She's only been gone for a day, and she comes back on Monday... I'm excited to see her reaction!

It Liiiiiiives!

Wow, I'm a terrible blogger.

Quickly, though, since I *am* at work and probably shouldn't be blogging, let me just point out that I'm allowed to knit at work now, and so my projects have been going awesomely crazy. =D

Also, I'm probably the most proud about this shawl I made for my friend's wedding present: Link here!

Really, I'll try to actually post on this, since I know it's possible that some people still do care about the random stuff that I make.

Love and hugs and lots of knitted hats.  ;)

~e

Just what exactly *have* I knit?

Let's see here...

• A hat for Bank
• A hat for Devika (curses, never took a picture of that one)
• Gloves for Devika (they match the hat)
• Gloves for me (aka: Sara Darling)
• A matching hat
• A hat for me (the red/brown "driving cap" one)
• A beer cozy

This was all from September to December.  There was no knitting in December or the beginning of January (the withdrawal symptoms were harsh) due to lack of supplies/time.

Also, started about four different pairs of gloves (just for fun) and haven't finished ANY of them yet.  Probably not going to.  No worries.  =) Life is grand.  Checking airlines now to make sure I can bring my knitting on the flight back... =D  Probably can, so it's all good.

"Stand back son, I'm inventing TOAST!"

Ok, now that the Zim reference is over...

I'm actually inventing a skirt pattern.  I'm not sure if it'll work or how it'll look and I might end up completely ripping it all out and starting over later, but for now, I'm pretty danged excited.  =D


...I really hope this works...




**Edited to add: PICTURES!**

Knitted on 18" US 6 circulars

When I first started, I wasn't really sure what it was going to be...  I had this pretty handspun wool that I wanted to play with (the blue and reddish along the bottom) and also had a hand-dyed DK weight (the stripes) that I wanted to use.

Added the green because it matched the hand-dyed DK.  Then the dark blue because it was pretty and waiting to be used.

Voila!

Through the brilliance of Ravelry's help page, I give you: PROGRESS BARS!!!!

Part of me wishes I knew how to code this on my own so I could say I did it myself, but the rest of me is happy to show off my knitting/computer brilliance and let it be.  =D

Currently knitting a strap for my laptop bag, since it never had one... =D Pics will be posted when I finish it and get around to taking them...

~e

Wahoo!

My hat is finished!!!!! And I must say, it looks wonderful! =D

I made a hat!

Yes, another hat. This one is really cute, though.

And fairly easy considering I had NO idea how to make it...

So, I'm kind of awesome...

I figured out how to link the RSS feed of my Ravelry projects page to this page.  I feel so intelligent! =D Sadly, you have to be logged onto Ravelry in order for you to see it... I'll figure that bit out later, though.

Ok, time to cook and then knit more.

Tschüss.

Look Ma!

I accidentally made a beer cozy!!! =)

I say "accidentally" because I meant to make it into a cowl but after I started the pattern I realized that I couldn't possibly have enough yarn...  When I ran out, I simply crocheted the edges together (crocheting? me? what????) and voila! My beautiful beer cozy was born.

I have to say, I think that this is the only beer cozy that

a) has a matching hat and glove set:

and b) is made mostly from merino wool... =)

Nevertheless, I'm proud of it.  =)

Okie, time to run to class.... tschüss!!!

This week I made a hat and a matching pair of gloves =D

Voila!

HATS!

Yes, the socks STILL aren't done, I know, I'm a slacker.  BUT, I'm also in a foreign country, so I'm going to use that as an excuse.

During my second week here, I made Bank (my travel buddy) go to Wolle Rodel with me.  Mostly because I wanted to check it out, I didn't have any real idea of buying anything.  But Bank thought that knitting was so cool "if it wasn't so effeminate I'd totally pick it up" he says.  Even though I tried convincing him that guys knit too, he wouldn't listen.  But instead commissioned a hat.  Out of Alpaca.  He bought the yarn and said "I want a hat from this."

I GOT TO WORK WITH ALPACA!!!!!  Oooohh, it's so pretty!!!!!!  I love love love love LOVE it.

So, Bank's hat was made in a week.  Here's a picture (on me, not on him yet, but I'm sure one will be coming up later)

I cast on a little too loose, so it's not quite as snug as it should be.  (And I just realized how absolutely horrible my stitches are close up... Maybe pictures are a bad idea...)  But Bank is so happy with it, so that's good.


In other news: I bought yarn ( a while ago) with the colorway "Vera" from Firefly.  "It's my very favorite gun." Yep.  That Vera.  It's Grey and Black-ish with Yellow.  I started making a hat out of it while I was here (this was before Bank's commission) and realized that it would look pretty good on me, so a "receiver" was born.  Then I realized that I'm in Germany and it's going to get cold and I forgot my coat.  Which means that I also forgot my hat, scarves and gloves.  Which means I get to knit myself a whole new set.  I thought "matching winter accessories could be fun" and headed back to Wolle Rodel to see what I could find.  I selected a yellow for some gloves and brought it back, thinking "ok, it's not exact, but it should be close."  When I compared them this morning, they were SPOT ON.
I was absolutely amazed with my color-finding talent.  =D  I'll show pictures later, when I have time... For now, I have to get to my Deutsch class.

Tschuss!

Still knitting those socks...

Left them at Bonnie's last night, though. I'll get them back from her tomorrow. =) Our "Knitting Nights" are a lot of fun =)

According to this site, I'm allowed to take my knitting on the plane as a carry-on item...

I feel like I should start something new for the occasion... =)

Suggestions?

Cool giveaway:

Found this through a friend's blog:

www.CatherinetteRings.Etsy.com

If you like that sort of thing... Personally, I think they're pretty cool =)

pictures!!!

Finally, after all this time, I have photographic updates =)

Big Big's socks:

Started on a trip to Iowa, finished on a different trip to Iowa.

Hair Tie:

Inspired by a trip to the Renaissance Faire...

Ellie's bag:

No pictures of it felted just yet...

I'll have to bother her for some of those. =)

Still knitting those socks...

I'm sure if I actually worked hard on them, I'd be able to finish them fairly quickly, considering I'm just going to continue the 2x2 ribbing until it's time to play with the heel...

But I keep getting distracted by things like hair-tie commissions and stuff... Yes. Hair-tie commissions. I "invented" a hair-tie, simple cord with a tag on one and and a loop on the other. Pretty effective when it comes to tying up the hairs... =) It even holds back my massive amount of unruly hair...

H'okay... It's too warm to knit outside (yes, I'm lazy like that) and I have a new station to play with on Pandora... I'll hopefully be getting a new net book soon which will be nice, because then I can put on a movie or something and knit wherever... as opposed to having to use the computers in the trench in the MTCC... The bad lighting down here is not conducive to knitting with dark colors... Especially with this ridiculous pattern and my choice to work from both ends of the same ball instead of two different ones...

Wow, already loving this Pandora station... Starts out with "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables, then "Angel of Music" from Phantom, and now it's playing "Belle" from Beauty and the Beast... AMAZING...

On the subject of socks.

Okie. Started the new socks on Thursday night. Got REALLY confused after the first margarita, and put them away to deal with another time. Note to self, next time you want to drink and knit, don't start on a pattern the likes of which you've never attempted before... =D Thankfully, I realized that margaritas and two socks at once was NOT the way to play the game, so I put that away... Took it out again today and figured it out. (Minus the fact that I cast on with the wrong color... ::shrug:: It could be worse, they're just not going to have a different color stripe at the top. No big deal =) So far the colors are going to be Navy Blue and Black, but I don't know if I want to make them that dark, so I might make the contrasting color a white or ... something. I'll figure it out. I'm a smart cookie, especially when it comes to figuring things out... =)

So, I went to the crack store...

...and only bought needles!!!!!

Yes, I've been calling Loopy my "crack" store, because, well, good yarn is addicting.

I was SO proud of myself, though! I walked in, went straight for the needles (which was the reason for going) and when I couldn't find the circs (they keep them in a different place, tricksey!) I went straight to the guy for help and didn't even TOUCH any of the lovely hanging yarn...

::sigh::

One day, when I'm intolerably rich, I'm going to go into Loopy and NOT feel guilty when I leave the store... =)