New found Love.

Since it's been way too cold to work on furniture in my garage this winter, knitting has become my new found love, but not without it's ups and downs, as it is in life.

This is my second knitted sweater. I found the pattern for free on the internet.

My first sweater and I are not on speaking terms right now. Why you ask?.....because it decided that it had, had enough of being blue and wanted to change colours. A.K.A I ran out of yarn. So these are my newbie mistakes and how you can avoid them.

These are all 50 gram balls, but their yardage is different on each one.

So check the pattern for yardage first! Most new patterns will tell you, some old ones don't but a great place to find all kinds of helpful things is Ravelry. They've got patterns to buy, freebies, and people will put notes with the pattern itself. Which is a great thing for someone like me starting out! And youtube will also help you along.

See this

That's your gauge. Also very important to do. You don't do it and you can end up with something way too big or way to small. Who wants to go through all the work of knitting something that won't fit.

Now what I learned knitting this little sweater.

Buttonholes! Real honest to goodness buttonholes. I'm not a fan of the yarn over type. So I took the time and learned how to make a buttonhole.

Seamless sleeves! Working from the shoulder down, in the round using two circular needles. I tried magic loop as well. It worked till the end of the sleeve when things got a little small, then I changed back to the two needle version to finish.

I also realized that I like wooden needles over metal ones, but thats just my preference.

      I can't believe I waited this long to learn how to knit, but better late then never. :)

Ahh Winter!

I love winter, but this is getting ridiculous. Its icy coldness just doesn't seem to want to end.
On my up side I've been tangled in yarn. On my down side, my skin is taking a beating. Now I'm not one to use lots of lotions and potions, I'm more of a quick face wash, and get on with the day. But this winter I've needed to combat the drying and windburn my face has been taking while out walking my dogs.
I'm also not going to put just anything on my face, so for the past 2 months, I've been trying a homemade concoction and if I could love an object, I would love this. But since thats not possible I just really, really, really like this stuff, plus its a recipe that turned into a real lotion.

 Follow this recipe exactly ( I can's emphasis this enough) and I promise you won't be disappointed. My face is thanking me for it. And if your looking where to find some of things you'll need, check out Well. They are an online pharmacy that I've been using for a few years now. Living in a small town, far from things I can only find in the city, it has been wonderful using this Canadian Company.
                                        So I'd say testing over and this one's a keeper. :)